CATALOGUE 



OF THE 



AEENICOLIDAE 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CHAETOPODA, WITH 

 SPECIAL KEFERENCE TO THE POLYCHAETA AND 

 THEIR CLASSIFICATION. 



Natukalists as remote as Aristotle were acquainted with Chaeto- 

 poda and other worms, the records of which thus extend backwards 

 to the earliest works on natural history. The chief object of the 

 historical account given in the following pages is to trace the 

 principal stages in the growth of knowledge regarding the Chaeto- 

 poda, especially the Polychaeta and their classification, and to 

 indicate in the different schemes of classification proposed the 

 position of the worms which form the subject of the present 

 Catalogue. 



Aristotle recorded in his " Historia Animalium " the occurrence 

 of marine scolopeudrac,^ similar to their terrestrial congeners but 

 somewhat smaller, redder in colour, and having a larger number of 

 more slender feet. He stated that these animals are to be found in 

 the ueighboiu'hood of rocks, and that they do not occur in very deep 

 water. The animals referred to were prol)ably nereidiform worms. 

 Aristotle also mentioned helminthes or intestinal worms. Pedacius 

 Dioscorides ^ descri])ed the use in medicine oi Scolojjendra marina, 

 earthworms and leeches. 



Allusions to marine scolopendrae occur in the writings of Pliny '^ 

 and Aelianns,'' and Iho former also referretl lo TTiriitlo nnd Lvmhrlcus. 



' Lib. ii, cap. xiv, 2. ^yK^l\^^^rll'?>jnu SaXaTTicu, 



- De ]\rateria iVfedica | written probably about 60 a. n.]. Recens. 0. Sprengel, 

 Lipsiac (1829), pp. 174, 195, 708, 709. 



'• Nat. Hist., Lib. ix, cap. Ixvii, 3 [about 78 a.d.]. 



* De Natura Animal., Lab. vii, cap. xxvi [about 220 a.d.] . 



B 



