88 Mr. H. N. Moseley on Peripatus novge-zealandise. 



formed." The whole of Captain Hutton's figures are most 

 crude and imperfect. I believe that he has missed the turn- 

 ing-in of the first pair of limbs, of the claws of which the 

 jaws are the homologues, and that in {I. c. pi. xvii.) fig. 13 

 the pair of appendages marked a correspond with those marked 

 fin fig. 15 [i.e. with the jaws), and not with those marked 

 a in that figure (which become the oral papillas), 



I have no doubt at all that he has been here misled bj im- 

 perfect observation, as in the case of the generative organs. 

 I examined the embryos of P. novce-zealandiae, and observed 

 some nearly 7 millims. in length, in which the first pair of 

 appendages was not yet turned inwards. Hence I saw the 

 same condition to exist as that which occurs in the Cape 

 species. 



In some minor points I think Captain Hutton must be 

 further misled. He fails to see the dorsal heart in Peripatus^ 

 and describes as the blood-vascular system the two well- 

 known linear lateral bodies which are of doubtful function and 

 homology, and which have before been supposed to be pos- 

 sibly connected with the vascular system (Claus, ' Zoologie,' 

 p. 387), but which I considered to be mere fat-bodies. 



He further describes salivary glands. I have not seen 

 such structures in Peripatus ca/pensis^ and do not see how 

 I could have missed them in the other species, since I 

 dissected P. novce-zeaJandice with considerable care. In 

 regard to Captain Hutton's general remarks, it may be 

 noted that he does not seem to see the importance of the 

 determination of foot-jaws as existing in Peripatus, though it 

 is the presence of these structures which forms the real 

 distinction between Arthropods and Annelids. The real points 

 of interest which Captain Hutton has determined appear to me 

 to be : — 



1st. The observation of the offensive use of the viscid fluid 

 of Peripatus for catching prey and obtaining food. Were the 

 ducts otherwise placed as to their opening, we might here 

 almost find a step towards the development of the spider's 

 web ; for the ejected slime forms a web (Phil. Trans. I. c. 

 p. 760); and I believe Perip)atus to be ancestral to sj)iders 

 together with other tracheates. 



2nd. The probable shedding of the skin by Pe?'«^a#M5. What 

 points most certainly to this is the presence of the reserve 

 horny jaws and claws within the active ones. I observed, 

 however, in the case of both jaws and claws in both P. capensis 

 and P. novoe-zealandice , three sets one within the other ; and 

 Captain Hutton's figure (/. c. fig. 2) seems to indicate such a 

 condition, although he mentions only two. 



