4 1 2 Miscellaneous. 



have done often enou^li, especially in the Sal2^cc, by diffusing parti- 

 cles of Indian ink in the water, that the current produced by these 

 cilia is also directed towards the bottom of the pit ; for all the parti- 

 cles are soon accumulated there. — Comptes Uendus, April 5, 1882, 

 p. 988. 



The Devdoimunt of Limulus. By Prof. H. N. Moseley, F.R.S. 



Prof. Moseley has published the following note on this subject, 

 with reference to Dr. Packard's paper, reprinted in the present 

 number of the ' A.nnals ' : — 



In a criticism published in the ' American Naturalist ' for A])ril 

 1882 on Prof. Pay Lankester's recent most able memoir, entitled 

 " Limidas an Arachnid," Mr. A. S. Packard, whose most important 

 researches on Lbnulns are familiar to all zoologists, and to whose 

 courtesy I am indebted for a copy of his criticism, after stating other 

 grounds which lead him to differ in opinion from Prof. Lankester 

 as to the close relationship of the king crab and the scorpion, quotes 

 in his final paragraphs extracts from published letters written by 

 my late lamented friend and shipmate, E,. von Willemoes-Suhm, 

 from on board H.M.S ' Challenger,' at the Philippine Islands and 

 Japan, in February and May 1 875, concerning certain Arthropod 

 embryos which he had had under observation at Zamboangan, and 

 which ho then supposed to be the larvfe of Lunulas rotundicauda. 

 As Yon Suhm and I worked together for more than two years daily, 

 with our microscopes within two feet of one another, wo naturally 

 discussed all that we did and observed in common, and we frequently 

 talked about these supposed Limulus embryos, and looked at them 

 together. It is as well, therefore, since the statements concerning 

 them are being made use of to assist in disproving the position as- 

 sumed by Prof. E. van Beneden, Prof. Lankester, and others as to 

 the Arachnid nature of Limuh^s, a position of the strength of which 

 I am myself persuaded, that I should state in print that, long before 

 his death, Yon Willemoes-Suhm was completely convinced that ho 

 had been misled as to the larvte, and told me tliat he felt sure they 

 were not those of Limulus at all, but belonged to a Cirriped of 

 some sort. I some time ago told my friend. Prof. E. van Beneden, 

 who inquired on the matter, that such was Von Suhm's final conclu- 

 sion ; and I also long ago told Prof. Lankester ; and this is no doubt 

 the reason why no reference to Yon Suhm's letters was made by the 

 latter in his memoir. 



It must be remembered that the only evidence in favour of Yon 

 Suhm's XaiijiUus larvae being those of Limidus lay in their general 

 appearance, which simulated to some extent that of an adult Limu- 

 lus, and in the fact that they were caught with the tow-net in 

 Zamboangan harbour, a locality at which Limulus rotundicauda 

 occurs. — Nature, April 20, 1882. 



Oxford, Api-il 15. 



