26 Mr. T. Davidson on Recent Terebratulae. 



tomy of Terebratula in the first chapter of my ' General Intro- 

 duction ;' but it was not to be expected that, in such delicate 

 and difficult dissections (mostly conducted upon individuals 

 that had been immersed for many months or years in some pre- 

 serving liquid not always of a suitable composition), the operator 

 should have been entirely successful on a first or even second 

 examination ; and we must therefore not feel surprised if anato- 

 mists of such acknowledged repute as Professors Owen and 

 Huxley, Mr. A. Hancock and Dr. Gratiolet have not yet entirely 

 agreed upon certain delicate questions in connexion with this 

 very difficult inquiry. In 1854, Prof. Huxley published, in 

 the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society/ some excellent contri- 

 butions to the anatomy of the Brachiopoda, which will be read 

 with much interest; and in 1856 Mr. A. Hancock undertook to 

 re-examine with all possible attention the animal of Terebratula, 

 Rhynchonella, and Lingula, from some excellent materials which 

 Prof. Huxley, Mr. Woodward, myself, and some others had been 

 able to furnish him with; and on the 14th of May, 1857, he 

 presented to the Royal Society the most remarkable and elabo- 

 rate memoir that has been hitherto produced upon the anatomy 

 of the Brachiopoda, and for which the Society awarded him the 

 well-deserved honour of the Royal medal. At the same time, 

 but perfectly independently, Dr. Gratiolet of Paris was investi- 

 gating the same subject ; arid his two admirable memoirs, " Re- 

 cherches pour servir a l'Histoire des Brachiopodes," published 

 in the ' Journal de Conchyliologie ' for October 1857 and January 

 and April 1860, are deserving of the highest praise, as well 

 as of the study of every naturalist who may take an interest in 

 this matter. It would lead me too far were I to notice the 

 many important facts discovered and elucidated by these gentle- 

 men, as well as those by Messrs. S. P. Woodward *, J. Mullerf, 

 Oscar Schmidt J, E. E. Deslongchamps §, and others ; but 

 I must not omit to mention, while upon the subject, that 

 some naturalists have been and still are devoting their attention 

 to the condition of the embryo of several living species of Tere- 

 bratula. These important and difficult investigations are being 

 carried on by Messrs. Loven and Muller, while M. Lacaze Du- 

 thiers has had the advantage of being able to examine the fry, 

 in the living state, of several Brachiopoda, and in particular of 

 the Thecidium mediterraneum. 



Unfortunately the opportunities for studying the animal in 



* A Manual of the Mollusca, 1854. 

 t Reports of the Naturforschende Freunde of Berlin. 

 % Die neuesten Untersuchungen tiber die Brachiopoden, 1854; Compa- 

 rative Anatomv, 1852; Manual of Zoology. 1854. 

 § Bulletin Soc. Phil. Paris, I860. 



