37fi PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



the wliole gist of ray argument. He says that " Mr. Dandy's 

 observation of the extrusion of incompletely developed eggs 

 in Peripatus is not, as he appears to think, entirely new. 

 Captain Hutton was the first to observe it, in P. novce- 

 zcalandicB, and I confirmed his observation for the same 

 species in my monograph of the genus. No one knows 

 whether the eggs so extruded undergo complete development. 

 I am inclined to think that the process, which has only been 

 observed in animals in captivity, is an abnormal one, and is 

 caused by the alteration in the conditions of the animal's life. 

 We know that the New Zealand species does bring forth 

 fully developed young." 



This note somewhat misrepresents the nature of my com- 

 munication, and entirely ignores the new observations which 

 argue strongly in favour of my supposition, viz., the presence 

 of a regularly sculptured shell, and the fact that in the 

 Victorian species developing embryos have never been found 

 in the uterus. 



The fact that P. novce-zealandicE occasionally drops an 

 e^g abnormally appears to me to have little to do with the 

 case. I suppose nearly all animals are liable to such an 

 accident. It is universally admitted to be an abnormal 

 occurrence in the New Zealand species, and Captain Hutton 

 distinctly states that the eggs do not develop, which state- 

 ment is quoted by Professor Sedgwick in his Monograph. 

 Now, however, Professor Sedgwick says that " nobody 

 knows." 



I have next to deal with a criticism which demands more 

 serious consideration. On September 30th, 1891, Mr. 

 Fletcher read a note before the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales, in vrhich, to quote from the abstract of pro- 

 ceedings, " he pointed out that whatever the Victorian 

 Peripatus might be . . . Peripatus, as it occurs in 

 N.S.W., is certainly viviparous ; and in support of his state- 

 ment he exhibited a series of twenty-eight embryos, just 

 those which had come under his notice in the dissection of 

 two or three females, or had been extruded during the 

 drowning of several others, and comprising specimens old 

 enough to show the full number of developing post-oral 

 appendages up to individuals whose development is so nearly 

 complete that they must have been within a very brief period 

 indeed of birth ; short therefore of actual witness of par- 

 turition he thought the evidence adduced was conclusive." 



Professor Haswell also kindly wrote to me on the subject, 



