7- rnocEEDixcs of the linnban society. 



:i|iproxiinatL'ly (1) Sponges, (2) Ilydrozoa, (3) Antliozoa, and (4) 

 Bryozoa ; and of this last tliey said, our fonrtli fumih/ contains 

 Fhistra and the other Poh/pes of which the dif/eslive canal com- 

 muuicates tvith the extemor by two distinct ojyeninf/s, and of which 

 the onjanisntion approaches that of the compound Ascidians. At 

 tlie meeting of the French Academy, when the paper was read, 

 Blaitiville stated that he was aware of this structure, and that it 

 Iiad heen also pointed out to him some years ago by Lesueur and 

 Desmarest ; so that several observers had independently come to 

 the same conclusions, within a few years of one anothei'. 



It is strange to find these divisions called families, where we 

 should say orders and classes, but nothing could be clearer than 

 that Audouin and Milne-Edwards forestalled Thompson and 

 distinctly indicated a division, for we must not forget that i'7«s<yrt 

 then ah\ays included JSIemhranipora and was sometimes used 

 where we should say Cheilostomata. It is surprising how seldom 

 zoologists of that period, working on the zoophytes, ever refer to 

 Classes or Oi'ders, and often use class as a general term instead of 

 group. Lamarck, in ' Hist. Nat. des Animaux sans Yertebres,' 

 instead of classes and orders, says divisions and sections. 



In conclusion, if Thompson meant to establish a class division, 

 then his paper is an extraordinary muddle of a communication; 

 whereas, if he wished to indicate the nature of the polypide, it is 

 consistent from beginning to end, and though forestalled in his 

 uiain points we must respect him for it. 



