M. S. Loven on the Metamorphosis of an Annelide. 4.3 



On any occasion I should esteem it an honour to find that 

 my researches received the sanction of Dr. Brown's prior 

 claim ; it is to avoid the charge of plagiarism from the c prin- 

 ceps botanicorum/ or from M. Kunth, that I trouble you 

 with this explanation *. 



I am, Sir, yours obediently, 



Bath, December 21, 1842. JOHN WARREN HOWELL. 



XIII. — Observations on the Metamorphosis of an Annelide. 

 By S. LovENf. 

 [With a Plate.] 

 Amongst the articulated animals the Annelides have without 

 doubt been the least studied, notwithstanding the excellent 

 researches which have recently been published by Milne- 

 Edwards concerning them. Their development in particular 

 is still almost quite unknown to us. The observation which 

 I now present, although dismembered and imperfect, appears 

 however to indicate, that, at least in the higher divisions of 

 these animals, during their development, a metamorphosis 

 takes place, which is almost as remarkable as that of insects. 



Last August, as I was endeavouring to catch small marine 

 animals with a fine draw-net, such as Entomostraca, &c, I at 

 the same time unexpectedly obtained with these a great num- 

 ber of small lively creatures, which were so strange to me that 

 I was unable to make out to what class they belonged. Fig. 1. 

 (Plate I. B.) represents one magnified, in the form in which 

 it first appeared after capture. The natural size amounted to 

 about half a millimetre, and its structure seemed very simple. 

 The most striking thing was a disc or oval ring («), which 

 bore upon its margin a row of vibrating cilia, and had a se- 

 cond smaller one over this ; by the unceasing motion of these 

 cilia the animal moved quickly to and fro, mostly progressing 

 in an oblique direction. 



On the side of this ring, which was usually directed up- 

 wards, the body rose towards the hinder part to a somewhat 

 oblique hemisphere (b) ; the side generally opposed to it was 

 also inflated (figs. 1, 2, 3, c), yet much less, and obliquely in 

 front. On the upper side the mouth (e) appeared to be situ- 

 ated anteriorly near to the ring, the lips of which were pro- 

 vided with cilia. At the apex of this side was the anus (h), 

 a small opening surrounded by a muscular ring. The whole 

 was very transparent, and the course of the intestinal canal 



* [It was by no means our intention to question the undoubted origina- 

 lity of Mr. Howell's valuable observations, but merely to direct the atten- 

 tion of our readers to what had been done by other botanists on the same 

 subject. — Ed.] 



t Translated from the German InWiegmann'sArchiv, Part3,p.302: 1842. 



