Among the large number of strange forms which the class Ccplialnj 

 « ilfcrs for the researches of the eager zoologist none has aroused more Interest than 

 the Spirula, and rightly so, because, thanks to its polythalamous and partly external 

 shell, it seems to form an important link between tin- fossil -roups ol which 

 the sole survivor, and the recent Cephalopods. Spirula has lung been known; tin 

 description by Rumphius, regarded as the first, dates back as far as 1705. But in 

 spite of this early discovery and observation and of the fact that the shell of Spirula 

 is in some places frequently found, the soft parts of the animal were insufficiently 

 known and notes upon its inner structure were few and incomplete, until Owen in 

 1879 1 and 1880- enriched science with detailed descriptions of its anatomy, ami 

 Pelseneer and Huxley, as recently as 1895, prepared a full "Report on Spirula" in 

 "The Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Challenger" '. In this last work an account 

 of the zoological history of Spirula is given moreover, so that we need not enter 

 into that here, contenting ourselves with only referring to that work. 



Three species of Spirilla dre at present recognized, but several mere names 

 have been used by various authors and applied to the shells. The distinction of the 

 species Spirula reticulata is made by Owen on a mutilated specimen captured by 

 George Bennett Esq. off Timor. The surface of the mantle in other specimens 

 being smooth, he found it in that one "pitted by small close-set angular depressions 

 which give a well-marked reticulate character to the whole surface of the true 

 mantle" '. 



Later (1861) two other individuals of this species were obtained in tin 

 lantic, locality not accurately known; they came, on the death of tin first own« 1, int" 

 the hands of Professor Giard who permitted Professor Pelseneer to dissect the larger 

 of them when preparing the Challenger-report on Spirula. But these specie 

 too were imperfect, and for this reason we have no complete figure ol the animal 



1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Mist, ser V vol. Ill pp. i -16, pis. 1 III 



- Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 352 pi. XXXII. 



- 1 Pari LXXXI. 



4 Zoology of the Voyage of II. M. S. Samarang, London 1 ,0). Mollusca p. n 



