224 
NATURE 

Affinities of the Sponges 
Mr. PARFITT seems to think that Mr. Carter has done Prof. 
Greene some injustice, because he has not referred to him as an 
original investigator of the Sponges, and he bases his opinion on 
the figures in Prof. Greene’s ‘‘ Manual of Protozoa,” urging that 
the only difference between the forms figured by Carter in 1871, 
and those by Greene in 1859, is ‘‘the want of the funnel-shaped 
mouth, which seemed to have escaped the observation of Prof. 
Greene, probably owing to want of definition in the instrument 
used in the investigations.” Allow me to point out that there is 
no pretence of originality in Prof. Greene’s useful manual, that 
the figures alluded to are acknowledged (p. 85) to be copied from 
those illustrating the papers by Williamson and Dobie, and to 
express the opinion that much further research is necessary before 
the affinities of the sponges can be regarded as satisfactorily 
settled. When that day comes there is little doubt that a good 
deal of what is now guess work will require to be completely 
sponged out. W. 
Sun-Spot 
WHILE watching the sun set over the hills to the west of 
Halifax, on the evening of July 17, my attention was called to 
an intensely black spot upon its southern ‘hemisphere, almost 
vertically below the centre of the disc, which was visible to 
the naked eye. I may add that the evening was fine, but a 
thin mist was rising from the valleys, and that it was about five 
minutes before the sun touched the horizon that the spot was first 
seen. THOMAS PERKINS 

= — = 

EDOUARD RENE CLAPAREDE 
PAS the early age of thirty-nine, one of the most skilful, 
laborious, and honoured of European zoologists has 
been lost to Science in the person of Edouard Claparéde. 
For the last three years his health has been such that his 
friends continually feared to receive the sad news which 
has at length come from Italy. In spite of a complication 
of pulmonary and cardiac disease, his indomitable spirit 
had kept the man at work to the last. Having taken up 
his residence in Italy for the benefit of his health, he pro- 
duced during the last three years of his life a series of 
memoirs, so richly illustrated, and exhibiting such astonish- 
ing industry, that one would have fancied a man in full 
health and vigour was unequal to such abundant fertility. 
He once remarked to a friend, who expressed surprise that 
aman in his precarious state of health should work so 
hard, that he felt work was the only thing which kept him 
to life, if he left off working he should die at once. 
Claparéde was a native of Switzerland, and a pupil of 
that great master of great zoologists, Johannes Miiller. 
He could write French and German equally well, and con- 
sequently some of his researches are to be found published 
in the German periodicals, others in French in the Trans- 
actions of the Academy of Geneva. His earliest pub- 
lished work of large size is the ‘Recherches sur les 
Infusoires,” which he producedin conjunction withhis friend 
Lachmann, who unhappily died before it was completed. 
Though now to a great extent superseded by the later 
researches of Stein, Zenker, Cohn, and others. working 
with more accurate instruments, this treatise is one of 
classical importance, and forms the foundation of modern 
views on the Infusoria. Not long after the publication of 
this work, Clapartde came to England, where he made | 
the acquaintance of Dr. Carpenter, and spent a portion 
of the summer in his company in the Hebrides, working | 
with the microscope, chiefly at the lower worms and 
annelids. From this expedition resulted a quarto publi- 
cation, illustrated with plates (published by the Geneva 
Academy), giving accounts of new marine worms allied 
to the earth-worms, and many valuable observations on 
the Turbellarian worms. In conjunction with Dr. Car- 
penter, he also published some observations on the curious 


Tomopteris onisciformis in the Linnean Transactions. 
Attracted by the limicolous annelids, Claparéde continued 
his observations on the forms of this group inhabiting 
the streams around Geneva; and his “ Recherches sur 
les Oligochétes,” also published by the Geneva Academy, 
furnished zoologists with a very complete account of 
many of the anatomical and systematic differentize of these 
worms, till then almost entirely neglected and misunder- 
stood. In this work the homology of the segmental organ 
with the reproductive ducts was demonstrated. The circu- 
lation of spiders, which he studied in the transparent 
young of the genus Zycosza, and the development of the 
freshwater gasteropod, Werzténa fluviatilis, also about 
this time furnished occupation for his pen and pencil ; 
and an elaborate work on the development of the Nema- 
tods, in which the important questions of the significa- 
tion of the parts of the egg are discussed, was com- 
pleted by him. In the collections of miscellaneous 
observations, always finely illustrated, which he from time 
to time published, such as “Glanures zootomiques,” “ Beo- 
bachtungen iiber wirbellosen Thiere,” &c.,” he recorded 
observations principally on the Annelids and free-living 
worms, which he made from year to year on the coasts 
of Normandy or the shores of the Mediterranean, and 
many strange forms, paradoxical marine larve, and un- 
suspected annectant genera, are briefly figured and de- 
scribed, which excite the interest of the zoologist, and 
awaken the desire to know more of them; whilst in other 
cases new modes of reproduction, new anatomical details, 
or physiological observations are related (for Claparéde was 
no narrow zoologist) of rare and little known forms. The 
great work which he took in hand after his health had 
compelled him to reside in a warm climate during winter, 
was the study of the Annelids of the Bay of Naples. 
Under this title he has left two thick quarto volumes, 
illustrated by more than fifty coloured plates, consisting 
of anatomical and enlarged coloured drawings of these 
beautiful worms. Many new and curious forms were 
added by one winter’s work to the known species of the 
Annelida; but his work is even more valuable for the 
anatomical and histological observations which are there 
recorded, and for the great critical ability displayed in 
dealing with the perplexing question of synonymy. M* 
Claparéde appears to have found especial pleasure in 
doing justice to Delle Chiaje, who preceded him in the in- 
vestigation of the fauna of the Bay of Naples ; whilst he 
does equal justice to M. de Quatrefages, whose errors ina 
recently-published ‘* Histoire des Annelées” he does not 
hesitate repeatedly in the course of his book to expose ; 
whilst dedicating the first volume of his work to that dis- 
tinguished French naturalist, and naming many new 
species in his honour. Whilst this splendid work on the 
Neapolitan Annelids was in press, M. Claparéde also gave 
to the world some very interesting studies on Acarids 
(published in German), in which many new facts are de- 
tailed, and the Darwinian theory, in the manner of Fritz 
Miiller, is shown to furnish a satisfactory explanation of 
the modification of dissimilar parts in different genera, to 
form identical organs. During the same period he also 
published in the Zeztschrift fir wiss. Zoologie a memoir 
on the histology of the earth-worm, illustrated with nine 
coloured plates, which is certainly the most minute and 
careful piece of work which he ever produced. The struc- 
ture of the nervous system and of the three “riesige 
Rohren-faden,” soon to become very celebrated in zoological 
circles, are here for the first time fully described ; and, in- 
deed, the subject had been so slightly handled before that 
the whole work abounds with new matter. M. Claparéde’s 
last published paper appeared this year in the Zeetschri/7, 
and as if to show that he did not intend to abandon him- 
self to the study of one group, consisted of observations 
on the anatomy and reproduction of some marine polyzoa, 
illustrated by three coloured plates, drawn with his accus- 
tomed facility and grace. He has, we understand, left 
[Fuly 20, 1871 “ 

