LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LOJiTDOX. 9 



5. " The Bi'vozoa from collections made by Mr. Cyril Cross- 

 land, Part II.— Cyclostomata, Ctenostomata, and Endo- 

 procta." By A. W. Watees, F.L.S. 



The Vice-President in the Chair announced the subject for the 

 following meeting on the 20th January, 1910. 



January 20th, 1910. 

 Dr. D. H. Scott, M.A., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The Minutes of tbe General Meeting of the 16th December, 

 1909, were read and confirmed. 



Mr. Frederick James Bridgmau was admitted a Fellow. 



In accordance with the announcement from the Chair at the 

 previous Meeting, the Meeting was devoted to a discussion upon 

 the 



OEIGIN OF THE VERTEBRATES. 



Dr. W. H. Gaskell, F.R.S. (Visitor), who opened the Discussion 

 on the " Origin of Vertebrates," said : — I take it for granted that 

 we all believe in Evolution and that an upward progress can be 

 traced from the Protozoa to 3Ian. Now the formation of the 

 Metazoa from the Protozoa and the progress of the Metazoa 

 upwards signifies that the separate units composing the individual 

 have been coordinated for the well-being of that individual. Such 

 coordination has taken place in two ways : (1) a chemical method, 

 by the formation of hormones ; (2) a nervous method, by the 

 formation of a central nervous system, and it is self-evident that 

 as soon as a central nervous system is formed, such nervous 

 coordination, especially in connection with the formation of the 

 special senses of sight and smell, must become the important 

 factor in the life of the individual, and its further and further 

 development must constitute the most important factor for the 

 upward progress of the animal race. The first point I want to 

 impress upon you is that for all questions of Evolution, the central 

 nervous system rather than the alimentary canal is the most 

 important factor. 



Throughout the whole history of the attempts to find out the 

 origin of Vertebrates one point stands out clearly : whatever other 

 views have been put forward there have alwa3^s been strong 

 supporters of the view that the Vertebrates have arisen from that 

 great group of segmented Invertebrates, the Appendiculata, and 

 such supporters have not been outsiders of no account, but largely 

 the main authorities in the zoological teaching of the time, e. g., 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Leydig, Newport, Treviranus, Owen, Dohrn, 

 and numerous others, all of whom based their views on the 

 presence of the infundibulum in the Vertebrate in exactly the 



