22 BULLETIN OF THE 



in Japan. A portion of one side was damaged /rem lying against the 

 side of the cask in which the lot was kept, the brain was softened, and 

 — with the exception of short pieces of the oviducts, stomach, and intes- 

 tine — the viscera had been torn away by the fisherman ; otherwise it 

 was in a tolerable state of preservation. The dissections have been 

 made from one side, and in such a manner as to be sewed up again to 

 leave the specimen apparently intact. A preliminary description, with 

 outlines of the body and teeth, was given in the Bulletin of the Essex 

 Institute, Vol. XVI., 1884, and separate copies of the article were pub- 

 lished in January of the same year. In this paper species and genus 

 were described as new, and recognized as belonging to a new family, 

 ChlamydoselachidcB. This was followed, on the 1st of February, by an 

 article entitled " A Peculiar Selachian," also with outlines, in the weekly 

 journal "Science," in which ordinal characters were noticed, and, to dis- 

 tinguish from other Galei, the name Selachophichthyoidi was applied. 

 In each of these notices resemblance of the teeth to those of Cladodus 

 was pointed out. Science of March 7th contained the following note 

 from Professor Cope : — 



" A Carboniferous Genus of Sharks still living. — I observe that in a late num- 

 ber of Science, Mr. Garman describes a new genus of sharks from the Japanese 

 seas, under the name of Chlamydoselacbus. The figure of the teeth which he 

 gives shows the animal characterized by Mr. Garman to be a species of the 

 genua Didyniodus (Cope, Proceedings Philadelphia Academy, 1883, p. 108, 

 equal to Diplodus Agass. Poiss. fossiles, pre-occupied in recent fishes), which 

 has hitherto been supposed to be confined to the carboniferous and Permian 

 periods. The species possess two, three, or four denticles. Material in my 

 possession enables me to fix the position of this genus, which I will endeavor 

 to explain in the next (April) number of the American naturalist. Didymodus 

 becomes by this discovery the oldest living type of vertebrata." 



In the number of Science for March 21, in a note headed " The oldest 

 living Type of Vertebrata, Chlamydoselacbus," I pointed out differences 

 between this genus and Didymodus which would not admit of placing 

 them together, and again noted the resemblances to Cladodus, remark- 

 ing at the same time that, " if the new selachian was to have been placed 

 in either of the fossil genera mentioned [Hybodus, Sphenonchus, Diplo- 

 dus (Didymodus Cope) and Cladodus], it should have been Cladodus." 



Professor Gill published a letter in the same number of the journal, in 

 which, in the course of comments on Cope's note, he accepts my conclu- 

 sion that Chlamydoselacbus represents a very distinct family, and also 

 makes it a distinct suborder at least. He objects to the name I had 



