Miscellaneous. 429 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Zoology of the ^Challenger' Expedition. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Alagazine of Natural History. 



(jenxlesien, — A notice of the "Zoology of the Challenger Expedition'' 

 appeared in your No. for March 1877, and has excited much surprise. 

 It was in the form of an extract from a letter which Mr. Alexander 

 Agassiz addressed to the Editors of ' Silliman's Journal,' dated 

 Edinburgh, Dec. 18, 1876. In this letter the scientific world is informed 

 that the ' Challenger ' collections are to be distributed for description 

 in a very extraordinary manner, and " so that the United States will 

 have their fair share of the work." In fact the Echini, Ophiurans, 

 liadiolaria, and Spmngida (almost the most important groups to 

 the zoologist and palaeontologist, and dredged up in the grand British 

 expedition at great cost) are to be handed over to distinguished 

 naturalists abroad. 



I address you on this subject at the instance of a very consider- 

 able number of Fellows of learned societies, and, by permission, in 

 the name of those gentlemen whose work in relation to those groups 

 is well known. I state unhesitatinglj' that not one English writer 

 on the Echini., Spongida, or liadiolaria has been commimicatcd 

 with by Sir Wyville Thomson, in whose hands the Government have 

 placed the direction of the results of the Expedition ; they one and 

 aU have been passed over with contemptuous neglect. For a great 

 nation to send out expensive expeditions and then to distribute the 

 results for determination and description to foreign naturalists, how- 

 ever distinguished, without considering and employing its own natu- 

 ralists, is rather characteristic of this age of depreciating criticism ; 

 but it is a proceeding which can only be tolerated upon a prepos- 

 terous application of the idea of catholicity in science and the fact of 

 the incompetence of national investigators. 



An assumed deficiency of competent naturalists in Great Britain is, 

 in fact, the only excuse for distributing the collections afterthe fashion 

 adopted by the " Director ;" for the stretching of the idea of brother- 

 hood in science, under the circumstances of the Expedition, is silly. 

 I would direct the attention of the Director (whose apparent igno- 

 rance of the work of his fellow countrymen would seem to disqualii'y 

 him for his position) to the pages of the Palaeontographical Society's 

 works, and to those of the Zoological, Geological, and Liuncau 

 Societies during the last decade. He will find that a Iloyal Medallist 

 obtained this honour for researches amongst the Protozoa ; he wiU 

 find that an English palteontologist, who has paid great attention to 

 the Echini, has ^iven a classification of their main groups which is 

 accepted everywhere ; and he will find younger observers who have 

 given plenty of evidence of their only wanting the opportunity to 

 become verj^ distinguished. There is no deficiency of competent 

 workers amongst us. 



As a perfectly independent naturalist, I protest most decidedly 



