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NOTES ON THE COLLECTION OF BDELLOID AND 



OTHER ROTIFERA. 



By David Bryce. 



{Bead January 23rd, 1917.) 



Figures 1 and 2. 



Since the first discovery of Rotifera by the illustrious Anton van 

 Leeuwenhoek rather more than two hundred years ago, these 

 most interesting microscopic organisms have captured the atten- 

 tion and the admiration of generations of microscopists, who 

 have willingly devoted much labour and much midnight oil to 

 the investigation of their structure, of their habits of life, of 

 their relationships among themselves, and of their affinities with 

 other groups of the animal kingdom. They have found in them 

 a most remarkable diversity of form, allied with the most com- 

 plicated and specialised organs, an astounding variety and 

 activity of movement, an infinity of devices for the capture of 

 their food, and in every direction an intelligence as surprising 

 as it is undeniable. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain, the first English 

 naturalist who published any original observations with regard 

 to the Rotifera was Henry Baker, whose name is so familiar to 

 us all in connection with the well-known species Brachionus 

 Bakeri, so named by the celebrated 0. F. Miiller in honour of 

 our countryman. In his Emfloyment for the Microscope (1753) 

 Baker gave exceedingly quaint descriptions of the very few 

 species known to him, and these attracted great attention among 

 continental microscopists of the eighteenth century. After 

 Baker's time there does not appear to have been any original 

 work done by English observers in connection with Rotifera 

 until the middle of the nineteenth century. The only works 



JouRN. Q. M. C, Series II.— No. 80. 16 



