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256 



itiii'ouT — 1884. 



Soh'tr SolecHiiiin, I'/^itniin'jljtii, Ventm, and otlicrs, iiHvc in soa-\vr,toi', 

 coloarcd by various bodies, both in solution aiid tint-Iy particulate, and 

 afterwards obtained sections ot' various regions; but in no case was tberu 

 any evidence of anytliinir baviiii^ l)een taken in. With iodine careen in 

 the sea-water, I found, however, that the colourinj^ matter penetrated, 

 but not from any ])arlicular spot, all through to a certain depth; the 

 tissues, in fact, bccanu! stained while living, a condition well known to he 

 possible with some other anilin dyes — Itismai-ck brown, for instance. 



I mado some observiitions upon the ' 'IVipfchen,' or ' ciliated pots,* which 

 occur in the c(elomic tluid of Sipitiir.itlii,'<. i iind that they present two 

 kinds of cilia — a bundle of central long cilia, and around these a circlet 

 of shorter cilia; and there niiiy bo seen groups of amoeboid corpuscles 

 apparently breaking down— degenerating, suiTonndod by these ciliated 

 pots which have their long cilia tixed into the mass and twirl themselves 

 round, lir.st one way and then the other, dragging upon the mass until 

 they drag out that portinn into which they have fixed their loTig cilia, and 

 then swim olf with it and, I am inclined to believe, digest it. I was, 

 liowevor, unable to arrive at any further conclusion as to their nature. 



1 iilso examined the " brown tubes,' the nterine pouches of /S/j;u?ic«Z«v, 

 with regard to the position of their internal orifices. This I fonnd to 

 agree with a previons unpublished observation of Professor Lankester. 

 It is a transversely elongated slit with ciliated lips lying close to the ex- 

 ternal aperture, on or upon that surfiice of the gland. 



I extracted a quantity of the green colouring matter from the annelid 

 ClKclopf ems and hvonglit it home in order to make a niicrospectroscopit; 

 examination. 



Lastly, I prepared s(>ctions. itc, of the suckers of various cephalopoda, 

 in order to obtain facts for a comparison which I am about to make 

 between these struct\ires and the tcntael(!S of Nautilus ixnnpiUus. 



IT. llciwrt oil the Orcuj^niUmh of the Tahh hij Prnfensor A. ifilnes 



MarshdJl. 



I reached Naples in the first week of April, and stayed there till tlio 

 end of the month. 1 had originally intended to occupy myself witli (/') 

 certain points in the development of tho Alcyonaria, and (b) with a further 

 study, in continuation of former researches, on the development of the 

 musc >s of the head and of the posterior cranial nerves of Elasmobranchs. 

 For the former the weather and the season of year proved unfavourable; 

 and of Elasmobranch embryos I was only able to obtain a limited 

 number. I therefore devoted the greater portion of my time to other 

 subjects, and chiefly to an expeiimental investigation of the nervous 

 system of Antedon, with the object of deciding, if possible, the points 

 of dispute between the Carpenters on tho one hand, and on the other, the 

 German morphologists headed by Lndwig. 



It is now nearly twenty years since Dr. Carpenter first suggested that 

 the axial cords were really the nerves supplying the muscles of the arms 

 of Antedon : since that time ho has steadily maintained this view, and 

 has supported it by a considerable mass of evidence, both anatomical and 

 physiological. Tho same view is held by Dr. P. H. Carpenter, who has 

 brought forward independent and very important evidence in its favour, 

 chiefly histological and morphological. 



Ludwig, on the other hand, and the majority of the Continental writers 



