262 



3. Further remarks upon Professor Pernor's historical errors. 



By P.Herbert Carpenter, D.Sc, F. U.S., F.L.S.,x\ssistaut Master at Eton College. 



eingeg. 30. März 1887. 



Professor Perrier' s reply to the questions which I have addressed 

 to him on the subject of his historical criticisms is of a singularly futile 

 character. Some questions he leaves unanswered, I hope, because he 

 means to deal with them in his forthcoming memoir. He attempts to 

 explain one of his erroneous statements by invoking a printer's error, 

 and by a quibble as to the meaning of the words «vertical<f and »trans- 

 verse«. Lastly in defence of another incorrect statement he expresses 

 his inability to understand that the term »section of a decalcified armct 

 meant that the arm was decalcified before it was cut into sections. 

 He seems to consider that these paltry excuses are sufficient to justify 

 his repeated misstatements about my father's work to which I have 

 drawn attention. Lotus consider his reply in more detail. 1) I must 

 again ask him to furnish a definite proof of the assertion which he has 

 thought fit to make respecting my motives for commencing the study 

 of the Comatulae. I have explained already, and can refer to professor 

 Semper for confirmation of my statement, that my object was to re- 

 concile his own observations on a Philippine Comatula with those of 

 my father on Antedon rosacea. My father had described the water- 

 vessel of the latter type as lying immediately above what is now known 

 as the ventral canal of the arm, while Semper (1874) found this po- 

 sition to be occupied by a cord which he called z and identified with 

 Perrier's muscular band. My father therefore suggested that this 

 might perhaps be the collapsed water vessel. Ludwig , writing in 1875, 

 found, however, as Perrier had previously done, that both muscular 

 band and water vessel are present in Antedon rosacea: and he there- 

 fore pointed out that the former could not be identical with the cord x 

 which occupied in Semper's section the same position as the water- 



tretfen, ist die factische Seite absolut eine und dieselbe und nur in der 

 polnischen, späteren, die Deutung der Thatsachen eine etwas differente. Daß die 

 Isopoden zu denPseudocoeliern (!) gehören, habe ich nirgends geschrieben 

 und Niemand ein solches Absurdum gesagt, und Herr Wassiliew, dessen 

 Zeugnis Herr Grosglik fälsclilich anführt, autorisirt mich zu erklären, daß er nie 

 von mir eine solche Meinung vernommen hat. Zieht aber Herr Grosglik allein 

 einen solchen Schluß aus meinen Beobachtungen über Oniscus (Zool. Anzeiger 

 No. 228) heraus, so ist das nur ein Beweis, daß Herrn Grosglik die ganze 

 neuere embrj^ ologische Litteratur (seit dem Jahre 1881, d. h. seit der Er- 

 scheinung der Coelomtheorie) fremd ist. 



