236 
Smitt states that he has seen a polypide sprouting from the 
“ verm-capsule,” and he has figured the nascent bud;! and 
the weight of this positive evidence will hardly be affected 
by the bare statement that Dr. Nitsche “‘has satisfied himself” 
that it is otherwise. 
Our author would seem not to have appreciated the kind 
of evidence on which Smitt grounds his opinion, for he 
writes, “ the fact that they (the ‘ groddkapslar’) are often 
found associated together with a new bud of a polypide forces 
upon him the conviction that this new bud is the descendant 
of the brown body.” As I understand him, this is by no means 
the case ; he does not rely on an inference, but on direct obser- 
vation. The conviction has resulted from his having seen the 
bud forming on the germ-capsule. 
Dr. Nitsche supplies us with little evidence in support 
of his own view, but he finds a proof that the appearance 
of a new polypide in a lodge is in no way connected with the 
presence of a “‘ groddkapsel,” in the fact that he has observed 
(in the case of Alcyonidium hispidum), a new polypide 
budding from the endocyst “in the centre of the upper wall of 
the cell,” while the original occupant still retained its position 
and shape, and therefore before the formation of a “ grodd- 
kapsel.” Ido not for a moment question the accuracy of 
this observation; I have a great deal too much respect for 
Dr. Nitsche’s powers as a microscopist to do so. But I sub- 
mit that it isno proof whatever that new polypides do not also 
originate from the “ germ-capsule,”’ as Smitt reports. The 
base is much too narrow for the superstructure that is reared 
upon it. It would be too much to require us to believe that, 
because Nitsche has seen a new bud originating from the endo- 
cyst, Smitt must be in error when he tells that he has seen 
one originating elsewhere. 
We have, perhaps, hardly a right to expect any detailed 
evidence in a mere “ preliminary sketch of his views,” which 
is all that Nitsche’s paper professes to be, though some slight 
account of the process. by which he has reached his conclu- 
sions would have been satisfactory. But in the absence of 
it we may reasonably regret that the explicit testimony and 
laborious research of Smitt should have been summarily 
disposed of by the dictum, “‘ I have satisfied myself that the 
‘brown bodies’ (‘ groddskaplar’), being in no way endowed 
with any reproductive function, are mere remains of decaying 
polypides.” 
The Swedish naturalist, however, will no doubt speak 
for himself and make good his position. It is my principal 
1 Vide Smitt’s paper, plate v, fig. 5, 3. 
