THE PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CUTTLEFISHES. 85 



hoped that the interest evoked by the exhibition of the cuttlefishes 

 41 at home " will not be allowed to exhibit the ordinary and ephemeral 

 fate of popular exhibitions, but that, on the contrary, the germs of a 

 lasting interest in scientific study may be sown by the aquarium- 

 movement at home and abroad. Not less interesting is the history 

 of their distribution in existing seas, or their life in the oceans of the 

 past as revealed by the study of their fossil remains. Their etiology 

 or evolution forming, in their case, as in that of every other group 

 of organisms, the crowning question and focus of all scientific re- 

 search is, last of all, a part of their history that teems with special 

 interest. Even if the materials for constructing the genealogy of the 

 race are still of meagre amount ; even if the pathways of cuttlefish 

 descent in time past are often obscure, and sometimes completely 

 hidden from the furthest gaze of modern biology ; even if the lines 

 of their development, as that phase of their personal history is 

 traceable from the egg to-day, are frequently puzzling and indefinite, 

 the evolution of the race according to the general principles of descent 

 is yet an unquestioned fact. It is merely the exact lines and pathways 

 of their progress in time which form matter of dispute ; the fact of 

 their evolution and progressive modification from pre-existing forms 

 is never questioned by the modern biologist. Thus, on every hand, 

 the group of the cuttlefishes may be said to be encompassed by 

 circumstances which place them in the first rank of curious and 

 in many respects abnormal forms. In this article we may endeavour 

 to obtain a general, even if in many respects a brief and cursory, 

 idea of the place in nature which these beings may be said to hold. 



The zoological position of the cuttlefishes remains, in one sense, 

 unaltered amidst the general revolution to which the classifications and 

 arrangements of past decades of zoology have been subjected. Their 

 position as the veritable aristocrats of the Molluscan sub-kingdom, or 

 that including the familiar " shellfish " as its representative, was well 

 denned by Linnaeus himself. In that position the cuttlefishes still 

 remain, although, indeed, the general constitution of the sub-kingdom 

 in question has been widely altered. In bygone days, under the 

 term "mollusc" were included such animals as the "sea-mats" or 

 Polyzoa, the " sea-squirts " or tunicates, the Brachiopods or " lamp- 

 shells ; " and the ordinary groups of shellfish proper, such as the 

 oysters, mussels, and their kin (JLamellibranchiata) \ the Gasteropods 

 or whelk and snail group ; the -Pteropods or " sea-butterflies ; " and 

 finally the cuttlefishes, or Cephalopoda as they are technically named. 

 From the Mollusca, the Polyzoa and Tunicata have been eliminated. 

 The former now assert themselves as relatives of the worms ; whilst 

 the development of the sea-squirts has plainly betokened their rela- 

 tionship to lower vertebrates. The " lampshells," whilst of generally 

 lower structure than the ordinary "shellfish" races, still retain their 



