﻿302 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Eschscholtz established in 1829, under the name of Berenicidae, for two genera circum- 

 scribed before by Peron, of which he himself never saw any representative. 



Eschscholtz himself is not very precise in his characteristics of the family Berenicidae, 

 as he only mentions that these animals are reported to have no digestive cavity, but 

 simply ramified vascular tubes, which probably absorb their food by a number of aper- 

 tures, or perhaps short suckers, in which respect he says they would resemble Rhizosto- 

 mata. The only genera known, Eudora and Berenice, were established by Peron. 

 Their disk is rather flat, but the genus Eudora is characterized by a want of marginal 

 tentacles ; Berenice, by the presence of rather long appendages of this kind. 



Brandt adds to the rather meagre characteristics of the family Berenicidae, as es- 

 tablished by Eschscholtz, that this family is probably not to stand, though he does not 

 give any reason for his opinion, nor does he mention where his new genus Staurophora 

 should be referred, in case Eschscholtz's family were broken up. However, that Stau- 

 rophora is really closely allied to the two genera of Peron, which constitute Eschscholtz's 

 family of Berenicidae, cannot be doubted for a moment, from a comparison of the figures 

 of Peron with those of Mertens published by Brandt. Such is the amount of our 

 knowledge, or rather the deficiency of our knowledge, respecting some of the most im- 

 portant details of the structure of Medusae, that we are at a loss to assign to this group 

 of jelly-fishes their proper natural position, until further investigations are made upon 

 the subject. 



There is something so repugnant to the physiologist in the thought of animals of the 

 size of Staurophora, that is to say, measuring several inches in diameter, being deprived 

 of mouth and stomach, that, of all the naturalists who have read attentively such de- 

 scriptions, there is probably not one who has been willing to regard this as really a cor- 

 rect account of these animals, who would not have considered himself peculiarly for- 

 tunate in having an opportunity of reinvestigating carefully such types, and who would 

 not, under such circumstances, make a reexamination of the alimentary canal, and a 

 search for the stomach and mouth, the first object of his investigation ; so little are 

 we prepared, and so little reason is there, on the whole, to give credence to assertions 

 which come in direct conflict with the most carefully established results in physiology. 



I have scarcely ever valued any discovery more highly than that made by my secre- 

 tary, Mr. H. Huber, of one specimen of well-characterized Staurophora, in Boston 

 harbour, in the early part of the summer of 1849. My first care was to look for the 

 central cavity, and an external opening communicating with it; and I must say, I had 

 scarcely looked, when I found both ; but I must also confess, that I do not wonder that 

 neither was discovered before. 



