THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 88. APRIL 1865. 



XXVII. — On the Malacostraca of Aristotle. 

 By J. Young, M.D., F.R.S.E., Geol. Survey of Great Britain. 



Previously to last year we possessed uo estimate of the scientific 

 value of Aristotle's researches. That want has been supplied by 

 G. H. Lewes, whose masterly monograph contains not merely 

 analyses of the principal scientific treatises, but also a comparison 

 of their doctrines with those of the present day. Meyer's work 

 (Aristoteles Thierkunde, Berlin, 1855) is limited to the Aristo- 

 telian zoology and physiology. Besides minor notices in various 

 works and journals, the classes of animals as defined by Aristotle 

 have, in whole or in part, been made the subjects of special 

 treatises : thus, Aubert has discussed the Cephalopoda ; Gloger, 

 the Birds ; Miiller, some of the Fishes ; Cuvier, the Malacostraca, 

 in his 'Memoire sur les Ecrevisses connues aux Anciens' (Mem. 

 du Mus. t. ii.). Sundevall has identified the forms under the 

 classes Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, and Insecta. 



In the following paper I propose to collect the notes on the 

 anatomy and physiology of the Malacostraca contained in the 

 three principal treatises, namely the ' Historia Animalium ' and 

 the treatises ' De Partibus ' and ^ De Generatione,' and to give 

 the data upon which the determination of the forms alluded to 

 is founded. 



The Malacostraca belong to the section of the animal kingdom 

 characterized by Aristotle as bloodless. The value of the dis- 

 tinction between blood-having and bloodless animals has been 

 disputed. Lewes and Meyer concur in regarding these terms as 

 incidental characters, useful from their brevity, which saves the 

 cumbrous repetition of details. But even a popular term, so 

 used, must have a definite meaning attached to it. Now the 

 groups invariably included under Bloodless are Malakia, Mala- 

 costraca, Ostracoderma, Entoma, and a miscellaneous assemblage 



Ann, §• Mag, N, Hist, Ser. 3. Vol, xv. 16 



