CORRESPONDENCE. 239 



future number of Natural Science, it seems enough to refer those interested to the 

 classical description by Dr. W. B. Carpenter {Phil. Trans., 1879), and to the second 

 of my own papers on British Fossil Crinoids (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1890). 



Townsville, Queensland, F. A. Bather. 



20 June, 1893. 



"Recapitulation" and " Earlier Inheritance." 



In reply to Mr. Buckman's remarks on pp. 138 and 139, let me beg him to be 

 more careful in future. 



I have never expressed any opinion whatever as to what views he had adopted 

 either ' ' as creeds "or otherwise, nor as to the nature of the ' ' inspiration ' ' under which 

 he has written, and I have not either on p. 198 (vol. ii.) or elsewhere denied that there 

 is " any " causal relation between ontogeny and phylogeny. P. 197 (vol. ii.) treats, as 

 there distinctly stated, not of changes in individuals but of changes " in average 

 constitution of successive generations " leading to production of new species. The 

 word "structure " was used deliberately on p. 197 (vol. ii.), and in its strictest sense. 

 I did not mean " character," I meant that complex abstract quality made up of all 

 the characters together. 



The " law of earlier inheritance" is on a par with the law of the north wind. 

 Because characters are in rare and exceptional cases {see Dd^x^Nm, "Origin," 6th edition, 

 p. 10) "inherited" earlier in the offspring than in the parent, are we to have a 

 " law " enunciated to the effect that the rare and exceptional is not rare or excep- 

 tional but universal ? The " law " of the north wind states that all winds at all 

 times and in all places blow from the north. Many authors might be quoted to 

 prove that a north wind had occasionally been observed in some places. The 

 " law " stands on as good a basis as does that of " earlier inheritance." 



I used the term " late stages of development " believing that it would be clear 

 from the context that I meant stages which, though late relatively, are passed 

 through before the adult stages are reached. 



The " contention " concerning loss of teeth and other senile changes does not 

 affect me. It is at most a matter of words, and probably everybody agrees with 

 both Mr. Buckman and myself that the words may properly be used in the way he 

 has " contended " for. 



By " acceleration of development " I mean a change in the average constitution 

 of successive generations of a species by virtue of which the descendants of to-day 

 pass more rapidly through some or all of their ontogenetic changes than did their 

 ancestors. Is another meaning for the term in use ? 



Physiologically, of course, the term is applied to the shortening of the period of 

 development by the artificial application of heat, e\.c.,e.g., inWeismann's experiments 

 upon seasonal dimorphism (" Studies in the Theory of Descent," vol. i., p. 120, 

 last paragraph). 



I regret that the Proc. Cotteswohl Nat. Soc. are not accessible to me, and I have 

 therefore not read Mr. Buckman's " Some Laws of Heredity." I hope I may }et 

 have an opportunity of doing so. 



C. Herbert Hurst. 



The Classification of Arachnids. 



In a paper on some recent memoirs on " The Classification of Arachnids," by 

 Mr. G. H. Carpenter (Natural Science, no. 16, June, 1893), i' seems to me that the 

 author has sadly neglected the work of at least one writer on the same subject ; leading 

 the unwary reader, if I am not mistaken, to conclude that many of the theories 

 mentioned in that review are novelties brought forth for the first time, within the 

 last year or two, by Mr. Pocock, whereas they are really the views published 

 twelve years ago by Professor E. Ray Lankester in a classical paper not even 

 mentioned, namely " Limulus an Arachnid" {Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., vol xxi.,i88i)_ 



Now, I venture to think that in a review of that kind, intended presumably to 

 be read by students and others not intimately acquainted with the literature of the 



