258 Dr. J. Young on the Malacostraca of Aristotle. 



both etymology and custom give avanraXw the sense of reversal 

 here required, and thus complete the meaning, if not also the 

 structure, of the sentence without changing the text. The ob- 

 jection is the less called fox*, since Meyer has already, in accept- 

 ing Palinurus vulgaris as the representative of Carabus, inferen- 

 tially admitted that Aristotle has neglected to notice the pecu- 

 liarity of the third foot-pair in that animal — a peculiarity surely 

 as striking as that whose omission, not unaccountable in a work 

 by no means aiming at miuute accuracy, has led him into this 

 specious argument. In considering the abdomen as destitute 

 of feet, Aristotle does not so much distinguish the two classes of 

 appendages (a distinction of which this would be a solitary in- 

 stance) as he is led, by their size and position, to regard them as 

 portions of the deflected somites. 



At /caplSes a! Kvcpal, resembling Carabus in the surface of 

 the body, cannot be identified as belonging to the smooth genus 

 Palcemon, especially when the pincers terminating the first two 

 foot-pairs are taken into account. Crangon vulgaris, to which 

 Cuvier refers them, is poorly supplied with asperities, though 

 the sharp terminal article of the first pair and the general cha- 

 racter of the appendages in the genus Crangon approach nearer 

 than Penceus caramote to the brief data given by Aristotle. 



We are thus brought to the conclusion that the materials 

 supplied by the text ai*e insufficient to form the basis of any 

 reliable conclusion. It is better meanwhile to rest satisfied with 

 the conclusion that probably some members of the family Cari- 

 dina are alluded to, and that Aristotle, in describing them, pro- 

 bably wrote from memory. The list of Mediterranean forms 

 belonging to this group is large. Heller enumerates eighteen 

 genera, containing thirty-nine species, most of which have a 

 wide range. Of the remaining Carides, to fxiKpov yevos, we 

 have no other information than that their small size is a perma- 

 nent condition : they are therefore not the young of any other 

 form. Cuvier' s reference of them to Cancer locusta or C. Crangon t 

 therefore, cannot be relied upon. 



Carcinus. — We come now to the Decapoda Brachyura, or, in 

 Aristotelian language, dvoppoirvyia ; for, as already said, he did 

 not recognize the operculum as the incurved post-abdomen. 

 This group is uncountable and most various. The subgroups 

 are enumerated in the order of their size ; and the groups so 

 formed have been accepted by Cuvier, Milne-Edwards, and 

 others, as natural. They have therefore recognized in Mala 

 the Maia squinado or Platy carcinus pagurus. Milne-Edwards 

 identifies Heracleotici as Thelphusa fluviatilis, on the ground of 

 their resemblance to forms seen on certain medals ; but he has 

 forgotten that the fiuviatile forms are specially mentioned in the 



