Bibliographical Notices. 121 
ring upon his genera the most unhappy names. Laguncula, it 
appears, is to be considered the euphonious diminutive of Lagena !— 
his Hydractinia has little relationship either to Hydra or Actinia, 
and is most certainly not the link of connexion between them :—and 
lo! we have now a Sompocellaria,—certainly the ugliest of this ugly 
family. 
The anatomy of the Laguncula is well-described and beautifully 
illustrated, but does not present much novelty, to those who are 
familiar with the labours of Dr. Farre. We shall cull what strikes 
us as most peculiar to the author. 
The inner surface of the stomach is furnished with a semilunar 
series of cilia, by whose vibrations the food is kept in a continual 
rotatory motion. ‘There is no appearance of a liver. 
The tentacula are the principal organs of respiration: they vary 
in number—10, 11 or 12, and this variation is not the result of 
mutilation, The circle they form is less regular than that of other 
marine Bryozoa, for they are disposed in a symmetrical order, and 
give indication of the beginning of a binary disposition. Laguncula 
may therefore be considered as a link between its marine congenera 
and the freshwater Hippocrepia of Gervais. 
The purpose of a circulation is effected, but without the agency 
of special organs. A colourless transparent fluid, loaded with irre- 
gular globules of comparatively large size, fills the space between 
the intestinal canal and the skin, and lies in immediate contact with 
all the organs of the polype. It thus occupies a position like to 
that of the blood in the superior animals ; and although the liquid 
seems to be water merely, it distributes to each part of the body its 
nutritive element, and hence also fulfils the same function as the 
blood does. We cannot perceive any aperture for the admission of 
the circumfluent water into the peri-intestinal cavity, but Van Bene- 
den is assured of its existence, for he had seen an egg issue forth 
through the walls of the cell when no pressure was used to force it 
out. And yet, when these polypes were immersed for a night in 
water coloured with carmine, the peri-intestinal fluid remained 
untinctured. Lastly, this fluid has the same office in the system as 
the prostatic secretion (le liquide du sperme), for both spermatozoa 
and ova swim freely in it. [There is here surely a painful search 
after analogies, which, after all, appear to us to be of the very loosest 
kind.] 
M. Du Mortier first discovered a nervous system in polypes. Van 
Beneden has seen it in this genus. A transparent, somewhat yel- 
lowish ganglion on the top of the cesophagus, and as it were soldered 
to its parietes, may be seen in some specimens and in certain favour- 
able aspects; but Van Beneden could not detect any collar or nerves 
branching from the ganglion, while at the same time he considers 
their reality to be indisputable. The ganglion is assumed to be ner- 
vous from the sameness of its position to the brain of the Ascidia. 
We pass over the excellent description given of the muscular 
system, of the skin and cell, to notice some particulars of the repro- 
ductive organs. The polypes are hermaphrodites, there being a 
Amn. & Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xvii. 
