LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



what you say on the homologies of the larva in the first 

 stage, I confess to have gone through more doubt than 

 on any other part. For some time I thought the three 

 pairs of legs corresponded with the mandibles, the inner 

 and outer maxillae, for I must still believe in there being 

 (potentially) two pairs of antennae in the earliest stage ; 

 but the description of the larva in the second stage by 

 (whose paper, by the way, is dreadfully incor- 

 rect), and the somewhat varying position of the mouth 

 in the first stage, lead me to the view I have taken. I 

 hope that whenever you have an opportunity you will 

 attend to the adhesion of the Lerneidcs. The method of 

 attachment which I have described is certainly the great 

 character of the class of Cirripedia. I thank you very 

 much for your wish for me to have the Cirripedia of the 

 expedition, but I know well how impossible it is. Your 

 information on the corals has been most useful. . . . 

 " I am most vexed at the little wooden pill-box with 

 the crustacean being lost. I put it in the parcel myself. 

 I suppose the parcel must have been opened at your Cus- 

 tom-House, and so the little box lost. I have got Balliere 

 to write to New York to inquire. I had hoped that this 

 would have turned out of some interest to you. I have 

 lately been reading the volumes for the last dozen years 

 of Silliman s Journal with great interest. What a curious 

 account is that, by Mr. Silliman, on the blind fauna of 

 the caves!* I feel extremely interested in the subject, 

 having for many years collected facts on variation, etc. 

 Would it be possible to procure one of the rats for 

 the British Museum ? I should so like my friend Mr. 

 Waterhouse, to examine the teeth and see whether it is 

 an old- or new-world form. If you could oblige the 

 naturalists on this side of the water by getting so interest- 

 ing a specimen, would you send it to me to give to Water- 

 house ? for (privately, between ourselves) it would be of 



little use to real science if once in the hands of Mr. ; 



but very likely I am asking for an impossibility ; the rats 

 may be very rare. It is not stated whether the optic 

 nerve was dissected out, which would be a curious point. 

 I read over again in the Journal several of your papers. 

 If I [had] had space I should like to have fought a 



* See the American Journal of Science, Second Series, vol. xi., p. 332 ; 

 B. Silliman, Jr., to A. Guyot. 



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