GOLDSCHMIDT's monograph of AMPHIOXIDES. 581 



Review of Dr. Richard Goldschmidt's Mono- 

 graph of Amphioxides.^ 



By 

 A. Willey, 



Hon.M.A.Caiitab., D.Sc.Lond., F.R.S. 



Among the many acquisitions of the German Expedition to 

 the Deep Sea in the S.S. '^Valdivia" (1898—1899), which 

 was organised under the direction of Professor Carl Chun, 

 not the least valuable was the relatively large series (27 

 specimens) of pelagic Acraniata belonging to the genns 

 Amphioxides, Gill. This material was entrusted to the 

 skilled hands of Dr. Richard Goldschmidt, who may be con- 

 gratulated on his important monograph, which takes its 

 place in a section of zoological literature associated with the 

 honoured names of Johannes Miiller, A. von Kolliker, de 

 Quatrefages, Kowalevsky, Hatschek, Huxley, Ray Lankester, 

 van Wijhe. 



Dr. Goldschmidt^s memoir will almost certainly tend to 

 enhance the morphological importance of Amphioxus (if it be 

 permitted still to employ this name in a cursory, non-italicized 

 sense), based as it is upon such careful observation and 

 logical deduction. It is, however, frequently necessary to 

 discount the force of logic when dealing with discussions of 

 the kind before us. 



The type species of Amphioxides was originally described 

 from a single specimen taken in the Pacific Ocean, under the 

 name Branchiostoma pelagicum by Dr. Giinther (1889) 

 in his report on the Pelagic Fishes collected during the 

 "Challenger" Expedition. Further examples from the 

 Indian Ocean have been recorded by C. Forster Cooper 



1 Richard Goldsclimidt, "Amphioxides," ' Wiss. Ergebn. der deutschen 

 Tiefsee-Expeditioii,' Bd. xii, 1905, pp. 92, ten plates and ten text-Cgures, 

 VOL. 50, PART 4. — NEW SEKIES. 42 



