166 Mr. F. J. Bell on the Genus Asterias. 



XVIII. — Note on the Species of the Linneon Gemis Asterias 

 lohi'ch are ascn'hed to Betzius. By F. Jeffrey Bell, M.A. 



By the almost universal consent of naturalists, two papers 

 written within the first fifty years of tlie Linnean zoology are 

 ascribed to one whose name, by his own services and by those 

 of his family, is one of the best known to biologists. On 

 p. 234 of the fourth voL of the ' Nya Ilandlingar' of the 

 Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Academien (1783) commences 

 a paper entitled " Anmiirkningar vid Asteriui Genus, af A. J. 

 Retzius;" and in its ten {)ages there are enumerated fifteen 

 species. That this paper is correctly ascribed to Ketzius 

 admits of no manner of doubt. 



A second paper, dealing with the same subject and entitled 

 a dissertation, appeared more than twenty years later ; this 

 paper is ordinarily ascribed to the same author as the paper 

 already spoken of, and allowed to be his. 



Is it not, however, somewJiat remarkable that a natu- 

 ralist \\'\\i) was more than sixty years of age and had 

 twenty-two years before dealt with the subject, should be 

 then producing a dissertation (though a dissertation which is 

 indeed of very considerable value, for it enumerates fifty 

 species) ? The paper in question is thus quoted by, three 

 leading authorities : — 



"And. J. Retzius dissertatio sistens species cognitas Aste- 

 riarum. Lundte, 1805, 4"*. 



" Retzius, A. J. Dissertatio sistens species cognitas Aste- 

 riarum. 1805 " f. 



" Retzius — Diss, sistens species cognitas Asteriarura. Bru- 

 zelius et Lunda', 1805, 37 pages. Bruzelius in B. H. N. J. 

 p. 560 " |. 



All these three systematic writers are obviously enough 

 referring to the same dissertation, though M. Perrier's citation 

 would be a little difficult to one who would like to see only 

 similar cases united by a conjunction, and Avho had not at 

 hand the second edition of Engelmann's ' Bibliotheca Zoo- 

 logica : ' here, on p. 351, s. v. Retzius, he will find after the 

 title, " resp. Nic. Bruzelius, Lund, 1805 (37 pag.), Bruzelius 

 in B. H. N. I. p. 560 hiernach zu streichen." 



Mliller and Troschel would seem undoubtedly to liave 

 known the work now in question at first hand ; they write 

 in their preface, " Die Abhandlung von Retzius Dissertatio 



* Miiller & Troschel, Syst. der Ast. p. ix. 



t Lymau, 111. Cat. M, C. Z. 1S65, p. 9. 



\ Perrier, liev. de Stellt^r, Paris, 1875, p. 33. 



