MEMOIR OF SIR J. O. DALYELL. Z xxu 



alive upwards of twenty-two, we may conceive the great care and minute 

 oew with which they were made. The various changes to which many 

 of the lower animals are subjected in their transformation from one st.-iu- 

 of existence to another have confounded the learned, who were led, in 

 not a few instances, to consider them, under these different aspects, as diffe- 

 rent species of the same genus. It was to rectify this in so far as the Scot- 

 tish waters could be made available that he laboured ; and, from accurate 

 delineation and description, to render the rarer varieties of the lower world 

 more familiar to the student conceiving that the mere anatomical dis- 

 tinctions of the scientific were not so well calculated to promote a proper 

 knowledge of animated nature as accurate delineations of the outward form. 

 The subjects experimented upon exceeded one hundred and sixty in num- 

 ber, and are classed under Echinodermata, or rough skins, Crustaceans, Pa- 

 rasites, Hydrachna, Hiritdo, Vermct, Planaria, Nais, Lumhricits, Nereit, t(c. 



A copy of the second volume of " The Powers of the Creator," as 

 well as the first, having been forwarded by MUs Dalyell to Dr Carpenter, 

 London, the gift was acknowledged by that gentleman in very compli- 

 mentary terms. From his letter, dated 5th Oct. 1853, we beg to quote 

 the following passage : " It is with peculiar satisfaction that I have 

 looked through his (Sir John's) observations on the ' Nautiline.' All that he 

 has so cautiously surmised, has been since confirmed most satisfactorily. 

 The ' Nautiline,' with its beautiful little shell, and pair of ciliated appen- 

 dages, it the young of Doris ; and almost all the naked sea-slugs allied to it 

 in general structure have similar larvae. I wish all naturalists would record 

 their actual observations as your brother did, and separate their deductions 

 as he was accustomed to do ; so that we might distinguish facts and hypo- 

 tkesfs, and be able to assign to each their due value." 



Besides these separate works, a number of papers by Sir John ap- 

 peared from time to time in the Philosophical Journal. The substance 

 of the first, giving an account of the " Hirudo muricata, or Sea Leech, 

 with a description of its ova and young," was noticed in the Journal for 

 1827. It hod been thought, remarks the editor, that up to that year the 

 ova and young of the Sea Leech had remained unknown, whereat a dis- 

 tinguished observer of this place (Sir John,) had bred the animals in jars 



