PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 239 



purposely contented oiu'selves with abstracting, as far as possible in 

 tbe words of the author, the matter of this work. The Government 

 Grant Committee of the Eoyal Society are able to congratulate 

 themselves on having furnished the means for the execution of the 

 numerous plates, which to our eyes are better, as being less hard, 

 than the engravings attached to ' The Handbook for the Physiological 

 Laboratory.' It seems almost a pity — though it may be cavilling 

 about a minor matter — that so handsome a volume as that under 

 notice should be somev/hat spoiled by certain faults of idiomatic 

 style, which no one, we are sure, would more willingly have overcome 

 than the writer himself. To the same absence of careful sujiervision 

 on the part of a friend are probably due one or two obvious misprints, 

 perhaps scarcely worth mentioning. But the work adds one more to 

 the numerous causes of self-congratulation with which the English 

 scientific world rejoices over the connection of Dr. Klein with the 

 Bro^\^l Institution. 



PKOGEESS OF MICKOSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



Tlie Egg-peduncles of certain Worms. — Professor Moebius figures 

 and describes a new genus of chfetopod worms with external ovaries 

 from the eighteenth segment onwards ; they are situated below the 

 branchife, and at the boundary between the two segments. Within the 

 body-wall in the Same segments are also eggs. The worm is named 

 Leipoceras uviferum. Moebiiis has discovered that another worm 

 (^Scolecolepis cirrafa Sars) carries its eggs in pouches like a swallow's 

 nest, along the hinder segments of the body. Many Polychfetous 

 worms bear their eggs in sacs attached to the ventral surface of the 

 body (e. g. Autohjcus prolifer Miill.). One {Syllis pulUgera Krohn) 

 carries them in the shorter dorsal filaments of its feet, while in 

 Spirorhis spirillum the eggs are carried in folds of the skin, developed 

 in the peduncle of the operculum, with which it closes its tube. 



Tornaria, the young of a Worm. — It is stated in the 'American Na- 

 turalist ' for Jiily, that Mr. Alexander Agassiz has discovered that the 

 Tornaria, an immature microscopic floating animal, which he in common 

 with other naturalists had thought to be a young starfish, is really 

 a young worin. The parent is a remarkable worm, found at different 

 points on the American coast and that of Eiu'ope, burrowing in sand, 

 and described by the celebrated Italian zoologist Delle Chiaje. The 

 history of Balanoglossus as given by Agassiz " while showing great 

 analogy between the development of Echinoderms and the Nemertian 

 worms, by no means proves the identity of type of the Echinoderms 

 and Annuloids. It is undoubtedly the strongest case known which 

 could be taken to prove their identity. But when we come carefully 

 to analyze the anatomy of true Echinoderm larvfe, and compare it with 

 that of Tornaria, we find that we leave as wide a gulf as ever between 



VOL. XII. S 



