On the supposed Vertebrate Lower Jaw. 



441 



Of course, in making this statement, I do so with all re- 

 servation, since I know nothing of the specimen beyond what 

 has appeared in the 'Annals of Natural History' for October 

 last. 





Fig. 1. Supposed vertebrate jaw; reduced from the figure in the 'Annals,' 

 page 304. 



Fig. 2. Dactylos of the fourth pair of pereiopoda of Phrosina longispina. 



Fig. 3. Leg of ditto, with dactylos in situ, as it appears a short time pre- 

 viously to moulting. 



Fig. 4. Ditto, with fig. 1 inserted instead of the true dactylos. 



XLIX. — On the supposed Vertebrate Lower Jaw, dredged in Mud 

 at St. Helena. By Dr. Wallich, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



To the Editor's of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 

 Gentlemen, 



In the October Number of the 'Annals^ you were good 

 enough to insert my notice regarding the supposed discovery, in 

 mud dredged at St. Helena, of a minute vertebrate lower jaw. 

 That notice was more hastily penned than it should or indeed 

 would have been, had I not been desirous of exhibiting the spe- 

 cimen at the then approaching meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion. 



Although more than one distinguished naturalist coincided in 

 the opinion expressed by me as to its nature, there were others 

 who at once pronounced it to be no part of a vertebrate struc- 

 ture, but referred it, each in turn, to portions of the invertebrate 

 division very widely removed one from the other. My own im- 

 pression, entertained and expressed from the first, was that, if 

 not a vertebrate jaw, the object in question formed part of an 

 Echinoderm, this supposition being based on a faint trace of 

 reticulated texture observable under a high power at the point 

 answering to the angle of the right ramus in the lateral view. 



