458 Miscellaneous. 
admitting the possibility of the Starfishes having been drifted by 
currents, for argument’s sake, the character of the fact would be in 
no way affected. The structure and habits of the Echinoderms 
generally are too well known, however, to render such a mode of 
accounting for their presence in the position referred to possible. 
On careful dissection, I found no appreciable anatomical difference 
between these Ophiocome and the species frequenting shoal waters. 
The deposit on which they rested consists of Globigerine, so pure as 
to constitute 95 per cent. of the entire mass. Their occurrence 
where the Globigerine are to be met with both in greatest quantity 
and purity, together with the circumstance that in the stomach of 
the Ophiocome the Globigerine were detected in abundance as ali- 
mentary matter, corroborates the evidence I have obtained from other 
facts as to the normal habitat of the latter organisms being on the 
immediate surface-layer of the deeper oceanic deposits, and not in 
the substance of the superincumbent waters. At the same time it 
substantiates the truth of the Starfishes having been captured on 
their natural feeding-ground. 
I also detected, in a sounding made at 1913 fathoms, a number 
of small tubes varying in length from ;,th to 4th of an inch, and 
about a line in diameter, which, on being viewed under the microscope, 
turned out to be almost entirely built up of young Globigerina- shells 
cemented side by side, just as we find to be the case in the tubular 
cells of some of the Cephalobranchiate Annelids, where sandy or 
shell particles are employed in their formation. There can hardly 
be a doubt, therefore, that some minute creature, probably an An- 
nelid, lives down at this enormous depth, and feeds on the soft parts 
of the Foraminifera, whilst he houses himself with their calcareous 
shells. As yet, I have been unable to determine the nature of these 
creatures, but hope to be enabled to succeed on a more lengthened 
survey of the material in which they occur. 
Lastly, I would mention having met with the minute bodies termed 
*‘Coccoliths”’ by Professor Huxley. They occur in vast numbers, 
associated with larger cell-like bodies on the surface of which Coe- 
coliths are arranged at regular intervals, so as to lead to the inference 
that the latter are in reality given off from the former in some way. 
The larger cell-bodies and the Coccoliths on them are imbedded in a 
gelatinous envelope. The presence of these organisms in largest 
uantity in those deposits in which the Globigerine occur alive in 
the greatest profusion and utmost state of purity, would also seem 
indicative of their being a larval condition of the latter. 
I remain, Gentlemen, very faithfully yours, 
G, C. WaLiicH. 
Dr. Httearn’s “ Organotazis.” 
The @-priori or transcendental method in anatomy has evidently 
strong charms for some of our transatlantic brethren. In the 
‘Transactions’ of the Academy of Science of St. Louis for 1859, vol.i. 
no. 3. p. 416, there is a paper by one of the curators, Dr. Theodore 
C. Hilgard, M.D., “on Organotaxis,” in which the dreamy and 
imaginative Oken is out-Okened. One good effect of this curious 
