CIjc |ic(j. Cljamivs ihrcks, i.S3. 



Br SIDNEY F. HARMER, Sc.D., F.R.S., 



Fellow of King^s College, Cambridge, and Superintendent 

 of the University Museum of Zoology. 



THE last fifty years form a memorable period in the 

 history of Zoophytology in this country. It saj^s not 

 a little for the value of the work done in this department 

 of Zoology by Mr. Thomas Hincks that his name stands 

 out prominently even in a period which includes the publi- 

 cations, on similar subjects, of Allman and Busk. The 

 student of the Marine Zoology of the British Islands owes 

 a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Hincks for his well-known 

 monographs, '• A History of the British Hydroid Zoophytes '^ 

 (1868), and '' A History of the British Marine Polyzoa " 

 (1880). The former, which was published shortly before 

 the appearance of Allman's monumental treatise on the 

 Gymnoblastic Hydroids, still remains the only modern hand- 

 book which deals with British Hydroids in general ; the 

 latter has at no time had any rival. All zoologists who 

 have made collections at the sea-side must have experi- 

 enced difficulties in determining the species of even the 

 commonest marine animals. The student of British 



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