358 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



learnt even from his cursory reading of the book, since Dr. Benham clearly states 

 (p. 260, figs. 133 and 134) that " in all the Nereidiformia, as well as in Sabelliformia 

 and Chlorhaemidas, the prostomium bears . . . tentacles," and again (p. 334) 

 " The prostomiura carries . . . several green tentacles," etc. If, as the reviewer 

 states, Meyer (not "Mayer") was of opinion that " the tentacles of Spio may be 

 prostomial," it can be answered that Benham has re-investigated the question, and 

 is of opinion that they are peristomial. This may or may not be an advance in our 

 knowledge; it cannot be called an "error." " The modified chsets of Capitella a.Te 

 confined to the male " — as explicitly stated on p. 331. "Modified anterior chaetae 

 occur in other Polychaeta " — they are described and figured in several places (p. 315, 

 330, etc.). " Allpolycirrids are devoid of avascular system" — it therefore cannot be an 

 "error" to say (p. 253) that in " Polyciirus Jhematodes . . . the vascular system is 

 absent." "In Capitella some, not all, of the coelomic corpuscles are red" — 

 it is nowhere explicitly stated that all the coelomic corpuscles are red (p. 253), 

 though no doubt it might have been clearer had the author stated that the presence 

 of red corpuscles does not exclude the ordinary leucocytes mentioned as of universal 

 occurrence in the previous paragraph. " The siphon is found in some Eunicidse " — 

 if this is not mentioned it is an omission, not an " error." If the author does not 

 describe the longitudinal nephridial duct of Lanice — it is again not an " error," but 

 an omission, perhaps intentional. " Capitella has onepairof gonoducts " — a peculiar 

 fact among polychastes given on p. 331. "Other genera . . . more than 

 one pair" — as mentioned on p. 305. The Reviewer complains that the develop- 

 ment of the nephridia of Polygordius has not been described ; he is apparently 

 ignorant of the fact that the account we have (from Hatschek) is of very doubtful 

 accuracy, and has not been confirmed. Moreover, as mentioned by Dr. Benham in 

 the book, a detailed account of Polygordius and its development is to be found in 

 another recent popular and accessible work, and it may be added in almost every 

 text-book since Balfour's. I must confess that I feel somewhat relieved, when not 

 always confronted with the same zoological " chestnuts." 



Having levelled his false accusations at the author's head, the Reviewer has not 

 a word of praise left for the many excellent qualities of the book. Not only does he 

 appear quite to misunderstand the class of readers for which the work is intended, 

 but also to be quite incapable of appreciating the originality and usefulness of the 

 contributions. He is apparently not aware that this is the first modern attempt to 

 deal in a broad yet thorough manner with the group Polychaeta, and that it is 

 undoubtedly the best general account of them given in any single work in any 

 language. As a student of the anatomy of the polychastes, rather than dwell on a 

 few incomplete statements, I feel bound to express my gratitude for, and wonder at, 

 the immense amount of accurate and useful information the author has managed to 

 condense into the hundred pages allowed him by the editors. Hitherto the difficult 

 group Polychasta has been notoriously neglected in text-books — nowhere else can we 

 find such clear and excellent illustrated accounts of the many puzzling questions in 

 the morphology of these worms — such as those relating to the head, parapodia, 

 chastas, and gills. 



Oxford University Museum. Edwin S. Goodrich. 



[The Sabelliformia and Chlorhasmidas were, the Reviewer finds, duly included 

 with the nereidiformia in his Notes. The names must have been accidentally 

 omitted in copying out for the press, and the omission, to the Reviewer's most 

 sincere regret, passed unnoticed in the proof at a time of great stress of other work. 

 The criticism was directed to the words, p. 261 ad fin., as to the non-existence of 

 prostomial tentacles in " the other suborders." In the general description of charts 

 (pp. 26G-8),it issaid on p. 267, a^^/w., that "certain modifications" of them "presented 

 by various worms deserve mention." The worms thus singled out are Polydera and 

 Chatopterus with exceptionally strong chseta; in one segment, Capitella, and Aphrodite 

 with its iridescent bristles. As to Capitella the words run, " In Capitella those of the 

 notopodium of the eighth and ninth segments are specially modified ; they are 

 analogous to the copulatory chaeta of Oligochseta." The passage p. 331 relates to 

 the species Capitella capitala. The words as to the red corpuscles of the Capitelli- 

 formia are " the red corpuscles become coloured with haemoglobin" (p. 253), and 



