a 
which runs throughew the creeping stem, and is a very 
marked feature of t 
a cylindrical tube, with firm, horny walls, inclosing 
a soft, transparent, cellular substance, from which 
branches are given off at intervals, and-enter into the 
contractile cord of each polypide. This “ axial cord” 
may no doubt be compared with the so-called nerve- 
trunk pervading the stem of other marine Polyzoa—the 
principal element of the supposed colonial nervous- 
system. Our author rightly regards the soft substance 
extending through the cord, as a sort of incompletely 
defined nervous trunk connecting all the individuals of 
the colony. 
- Of the development of Rhabdofpleura little can be said 
at present. Both Sars and Allman, indeed, have recorded 
observations made on the formation of buds; but they 
disagree in their interpretation of severalimportant points ; 
and we must wait for further information before we can 
master this portion of the history. Ere 
From the foregoing account it is evident, as stated at 
first, that in RAcbdopleura we have the polyzoan structure 
in a very rudimentary condition, and half disguised by 
features that are alien to it as it now exists; some of 
its principal elements are fully established, though in a 
simpler form than we find them elsewhere; some are 
altogether wanting ; while one important class of functions 
(the various moyements of the polypide) is provided for 
by means which have no parallel whatever amongst other 
members of the tribe, and in part by an organ, which 
survives, reduced in size and with a different office, in one 
section only, as the so-called eféstome of the fresh-water 
species. 
Sarats examination of the Shetland RAhabdopleura, 
as preserved in spirits, led him to regard the Polyzoa as 
connected with the Mollusca, through the Lamelli- 
branchiata, rather than the Brachiopods. Prof. Sars, 
relying on his son’s investigations, takes a very different 
view of their affinities. He regards the Rhabdopleura as an 
organism “ which stands as it were in the middle between 
the Hydrozoa and the Polyzoa,” and forms a transition 
from one tothe other. It is undoubtedly, he says, “like 
many other animals which at present inhabit the greater 
depths of the sea,... a very old form, which in its 
organisation has still retained several features from the 
time when the animal type that we call Polyzoa first 
developed itself from a lower type.” He considers it 
to prove that the Polyzoa “are most closely related 
to the type of the Cwlenterates, and especially to 
the class Hydrozoa,’ from which they are probably 
derived. ' 
It is my present object merely to report results, and 
‘not to offer any criticism upon them; but it may safely 
be said that the paper, a portion of which I have sum- 
marised, is one of the most interesting and important 
contributions to biological literature, that have lately 
appeared. 
‘It is right to add that the author, considering “one of 
the great universal languages” preferable to his mother- 
tongue, as the vehicle of scientific research; and as a 
graceful acknowledgment of the services rendered by 
our countrymen in recent times to zoological science, has 
courageously, and to the relief of many of his readers, 
written his memoir in English. 
THOMAS HINCKS 
Igl 
NOTES 
Ar the Midsummer Commencements, held last week in 
Trinity College, Dublin, the honorary degree of LL.D. was 
conferred by the University of Dublin on Dr. Andrews, of Bel- 
fast, and Professor Wright, of Cambridge. : 
Dr. JAMEs Murig, Professor of Anatomy in the Edinburgh 
Veterinary Cojlege, has been elected to the newly-founded 
lectureship of Animal Physiology in the Edinburgh School of 
Arts. 
ARCHAOLOGISTS will be interested, and no doubt pleased, to 
hear, that Sir John Lubbock has just bought Silbury Hill, the 
grandest tumulus in Great Britain, if not in Europe. ; 
We have a number of earthquakes to chronicle this week ; that 
in India, it will be noticed, preceded only by a day those of Italy. 
The earthquakes in Chili, on the 15th May, were of a very 
serious character. They affected Valparaiso, Santiago, Quillota, 
La Ligua, Canquenes, and Salvados. At Chillan, Concepcion, 
and Talchuano, in the south, so far as we can understand, it 
was slight. At Valparaiso, it commenced at 12.32 P.M., and 
lasted forty-two seconds, with a vertical motion, so that the 
ground danced under foot. Two churches and many buildings 
were damaged. Gas branches were wrenched from the ceilings, 
and books thrown from the shelves. In Salvados, in Central 
America, the earthquakes had ceased in May. At 
2 P.M, on the 28th June, Asseerghur Fort was visited 
by an earthquake which lasted for about three or four 
seconds, direction from north-west to south-east. On the 
morning of June 29, about five o'clock, an earthquake visited 
several parts of Italy. At Verona, Treviso, and Venice, 
though the shocks were severe, little damage was done; but at 
Feletto, north of Piane, and near Conegliano, the church fell in- 
and thirty-eight people are reported to have been killed. At 
Belluno four persons were killed and several wounded. At 
Pieve del Alpago several persons were injured. Two persons 
were killed at Torres, four at Curago, eleven at Puos, two at 
Visione, and one at Cavessago. 
WE regret to hear that difficulties have arisen in the manage- 
meit of the Brighton Aquarium, which are likely to lead to the 
resignation of Mr. Saville Kent, who lately vacated a post in the 
British Museum for that of Curator and Resident Naturalist to 
the Aquarium. Of the nature of the dispute we are not in- 
formed, but it seems unfortunate if some méans may not still be 
found by which an amicable arrangement may be arrived at he- 
tween Mr. Kent and his colleagues ‘by which his services may be 
retained to the institution. , f ; 
TuE female Octopus at the Brighton Aquarium still continues 
to guard her clusters of ova with the greatest vigilance, refresh- 
ing them"at short intervals by turning upon them a powerful 
stream by means of {her tubular funnel; no increase to the 
number deposited having taken place since last week, the usual 
complement produced may be presumed to have been excluded. 
The truncate “‘ Hecfocotylus” arm of the male, in this instance 
the third on the left side, is fast recovering its normal condition, 
a new slender filamentous process has sprung from the ruptured 
extremity, resembling, injdetail, the reproduced arm of an Op/io- 
coma or Brittle Starfish. Mr. Saville Kent is of the opinion 
that the Octopus tuberculatus of D’Orbigny will prove on closer 
investigation to be the mate of O. vulgaris; the difference in 
appearance between individuals of the same species but the 
opposite sex being most marked when once recognised ; the 
general surface of the integument in the female is comparatively 
smooth, while numerous rugosities and eleyated papillae adorn 
that of the male, more particularly in the neighbourhood of the 
head, F 
