xii LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



on the embryology of a species of Earthworm, and 

 also rare and interesting specimens of Cephalopoda. 



Another great and noteworthy figure about whom 

 all zoologists are glad to learn as much as possible is 

 Kovalevsky. Metchnikoff made his acquaintance 

 at Naples in 1864, and they formed a close friendship 

 for one another. Later, in 1867, they shared the Baer 

 Prize of the Petersburg Academy for their discoveries 

 in embryology (p. 58). In 1868 Metchnikoff had a 

 dispute with Kovalevsky as to the origin of the 

 nervous system of Ascidia (p. 62), concerning which 

 he subsequently admitted that he was wrong and 

 Kovalevsky right. There is no doubt that Kovalevsky, 

 by his numerous important investigations of inverte- 

 brate embryology, and especially of that of Ascidia 

 and Amphioxus, laid the foundation of cellular 

 Embryology, and the modern study of the embryology 

 of Invertebrates. Metchnikoffs contributions were 

 also of great value and importance (pp. 51, 52, 53, 

 and pp. 72 and 73), though he has not so great a 

 triumph in animal morphology to his credit as 

 Kovalevsky's discovery of the close identities of the 

 development of organs in Ascidia and Amphioxus. 

 I had long cherished profound esteem for Kovalevsky 

 when in 1896 I met him and his daughter at Wimereux 

 with Professor Giard. He came in the autumn of 

 that year to London, but left unexpectedly owing to 

 some nervous fear of annoyance by the police. The 

 great position of Kovalevsky was deliberately ignored 

 in a German history of Zoology, 1 published just before 



1 By Prof. Hertwig of Munich. 



