THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 48. DECEMBER 1851. 



XXXIV. — Zoological Notes and Observations made on board 

 H.M.S. Rattlesnake. By Thomas H. Huxley, F.R.S., As- 

 sistant Surgeon R.N. 



[With a Plate.] 

 in. Upon ThalassicoUa, a new Zoophyte. 



Ix all the seas, whether extra-tropical or tropical, through which 

 the " Rattlesnake " sailed, I found floating at the surface the 

 peculiar gelatinous bodies which are the subject of the present 

 communication. They were the most constant of all the various 

 products of the towing-net, which was rarely used without 

 obtaining some of them, and which sometimes, for days, would 

 contain hardly anjihing else. 



The extreme simplicity of structure of these creatures was 

 more puzzling to me than any amount of complexity would have 

 been. The difficulty of percei%"ing theii* relations with those 

 forms of animal life with which I was familiar, gave me rather a 

 distaste to the study of them, and, as I now perceive, has ren- 

 dered my account of their organization far less complete than I 

 could wish it. 



However, these forms seem completely to have escaped the 

 notice of voyagers, and therefore I hope to do some service by 

 directing the attention of future investigators to them, and by 

 endeavouring to show what seem to me to be their relations in 

 the scale of being. 



It may not be out of place at the same time to examine what 

 are the positive characters of those lowest classes of animal life 

 of which this is a member. 



The ThalassicoUa''^ is found in transparent, colourless, gelati- 



* 60X00-0-0, the sea ; KoKka, jelly, glue. 

 Ann. ^- Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. viii. 28 



