81 



ou some points. The histology of the worm is very carefully 

 treated by the author, who has had the advautage of starting 

 from the point to which Leydig's admirable memoirs on the 

 allied worm Phreoryctes, (see this Chronicle, vol. vi^ new ser., 

 p. 37), and on the nervous system of Annulosa, &c., have 

 brought our knowledge on these matters during the last few 

 years. The minute structure of the integument and of the 

 muscular system, as also of the nervous system, are shown to 

 have been misunderstood by Lankester, who merely epito- 

 mised Lockhart Clarke's observations as regards the nervous 

 system. It should be understood that Ray Lankester pro- 

 fessed in his memoir, published in this journal more than five 

 years since, to describe in the first place the oesophageal glands 

 which had not been previously well observed ; secondly, to 

 introduce to English readers and to confirm D'Udekem's and 

 Heriug's observations on the generative organs; and thirdly, 

 to give a brief sketch of the general anatomy of the other 

 structures of the worm. In this latter portion of the paper 

 there are omissions and misinterpretations, which are corrected 

 in the magnificent essay of the illustrious Swiss natiiralist. 



Embryology. — Memoire sur la Formation du Blastoderme 

 chez les Amphipodes, les Lerneens, et les Copepodes. Par M. 

 Edouard Van Benedeu et Dr. Emile Bessels (' Memoires 

 courounees de TAcad. Royale de Bruxelles,' tom. xxxiv). 2. 

 Recherches sur VEmbryogmie des Crust aces : Asellus aquations. 

 3. Ml/sis ferruginea. B}^ the same (Bulletins of the same, 

 tom. xxviii, 1869). 4. Sur la mode de formation de I'oeuf et 

 le developpement embryonnaire des Sacculines. By the same 

 (' Comptes Rendus,'' Paris, ^November, 1869). 



Dr. Edouard Van Beneden, son of the illustrious Professor 

 P. J. Van Beneden, of the University of Louvain, is engaged 

 in a most valuable series of researches on the early stages of 

 development. Last year he gained the prize of the Belgian 

 Academy for a really magnificent work on the formation of 

 the egg, and the significance of its various parts in different 

 classes of the animal kingdom. This essay, of which we have 

 had the good fortune to examine the illustrations, has not yet 

 been published, but will shortly appear. In the list above 

 are the titles of the papers which form the natural sequel of 

 Dr. Van Beneden^s elaborate investigations, and which he is 

 continually extending. 



In the first of these memoirs it is pointed out that in these 

 Crustacea the egg consists, 1st, of a germinal vesicle enclosing 

 one or more nucleoli ; and, 2ud, of a vitellus, in which two 

 distinct parts must be recognised, viz. the protoplasm of the 

 egg-cell, and what is termed the deutoplasm (nahruugsdotter 



VOL. X. NEW SER. F 



