NATURE 



521 



THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1S84 



THE "CHALLENGER" REPORTS 

 Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. 

 "Challenger^' during the Years 1873-76, under the 

 Command of Capt. George S. Nares, R.N., F.R.S., and 

 Capt. Frank T. Thompson, R.N. Prepared under the 

 Superintendence of the late Sir C. Wyville Thomson, 

 Knt., F.R.S., and now of John Murray, F.R.S.E., one 

 of the Naturalists of the Expedition. Zoology, vol. viii. 

 (London : Published by Order of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment, 1S83.) 

 'I"'HE eighth volume of the Zoological Series of Reports 

 I on the Scientific Results of the Expedition of 

 H.M.S. Challenger contains three Reports. That on the 

 Copepoda is the second Report on the Entomostraca, and 

 is by Dr. G. S. Brady. That on the Calcareous Sponges 

 is by Mr. N. Poldjaeff of the University of Odessa; and 

 that on the Cirripedia is by Dr. P. P. C. Hoek. We 

 learn incidentally from a note by the editor, Mr. John 

 Murray, that the Report on the Foraminifera, by H. B. 

 Brady, F.R S., is now (December 18S3) nearly printed, 

 and that it will be issued at once as vol. i\-. 



Dr. G. S. Brady's Report on the Copepods contains de- 

 scriptions of 106 species, for 12 of which it has been neces- 

 sary to establish 11 new genera. These species were taken 

 almost entirely from surface-net gatherings made during 

 the cruise. While in some few of these gatherings no 

 Copepods were found, Mr. Murray feels certain that 

 these forms were rarely if ever absent from the tow-net 

 gatherings when these were e.xamined on board ship. It 

 seems now certain that the sea from the Equator to the 

 Poles supports everywhere a profusion of Entomostracan 

 life, chiefly of the order Copepoda. The appearance of 

 these little crustaceans on the surface would seem to 

 depend on conditions not yet well understood. Night 

 seems to call them up in larger numbers than the day, 

 but sometimes even in the day they will appear in multi- 

 tudes so vast as to colour the surface of the ocean for 

 distances of many miles. The cold waters of the Arctic 

 and Antarctic seas are even more favourable to the in- 

 crease of the Copepods than the warmer waters of the 

 tropics, and Dr. Brady notes that while individuals of 

 some one or two species seem in the polar seas to pre- 

 dominate, in the equatorial and sub-tropical area no one 

 species seems to occur in a very preponderating abun- 

 dance, but there is a far greater variety of genera and 

 species. While the range of the distribution of the Cope- 

 pods is extremely wide, still some forms, as Calanus 

 finmarchicus, seem to be characteristic of the Arctic seas, 

 while others, as Undina dariuinii and Euchceta prest- 

 andrece, occupy a like position in the tropical and warmer 

 temperate seas. 



Dr. Brady follows the sevenfold division into areas 

 adopted in his Report on the Ostracoda. The only un- 

 doubted deep-sea species found is Pontostratiotes abyssi- 

 cola, a single specimen of which was dredged in a depth 

 of 2200 fathoms. The fish parasites described are 

 remarkably few, and with one exception seem to have 

 occurred on surface-living fish. It would perhaps not be 

 safe to conclude from this that the deep-sea fish are free 

 Vol. XXIX. — No. 753 



from such parasites, but is it not possible that if such 

 forms existed they may have been torn off or destroyed 

 in the transit of the host fishes from the abyssal depths ? 

 The single species found was described in manuscript by 

 the late Dr. von Willemoes Suhm, whose description and 

 figures are given. It is called Lerna;a abysssicola, and 

 was found on a specimm of Ceratias uranoscopus, 

 Murray, which was taken at Station 89, from a depth of 

 2400 fathoms. It is a strangely attenuated and wonder- 

 fully transparent form. The thread-like cephalic region and 

 body portion together only a little exceed 13 mm. in length. 

 This most important Report is accompanied by fifty-five 

 plates, all drawn by the skilled hand of the author. 



The Report on the Calcareous Sponges, by Mr. A. 

 Polejaeff of Gratz, a graduate of the University of 

 Odessa, and a trusted pupil of Prof. F. E. Schulze, is a 

 most excellent contribution to our knowledge of this 

 highly interesting group, and entitles its author by its 

 comprehensive criticism and by its attention to practical 

 details, to a high place among modern systematic zoo- 

 logists. The author had much invaluable assistance in 

 his work, and though living in the somewhat out-of-the- 

 way, though beautifully situated capital of Styria, he had 

 the immense advantage of being able to consult the collec- 

 tion of Oscar Schmidt. It is with pleasure we fully recog- 

 nise the good use he has made of all these opportunities, 

 and we heartily congratulate him on the result. The Cal- 

 careous Sponges of the Challenger Expedition were found 

 to belong to thirty species, twenty-three of which are de- 

 scribed as new. To describe these was a comparatively 

 easy task, and to arrange them in an orderly sequence 

 was there not the splendid essay of Ernst Haeckel, 

 '' Die Kalkschwiimme " .' True ; but there was just the 

 difficulty : for the twelve years that had elapsed since the 

 appearance of this most remarkable work had added so 

 much to our knowledge of the morphology and embryology 

 of this group as to expose the extremely artificial nature 

 cf Haeckel' s system. Possibly, if the chapter of the his- 

 tory of the Calcareous Sponges had for ever closed on 

 the publication of Haeckel's monograph, the systematic 

 arrangement there adopted, however open to logical 

 attack, might for convenience' sake have stood its ground. 

 But as a natural arrangement it would have ever been 

 open to a destructive criticism. Not the least important 

 part of this Report is the free but generous criticism on 

 Haeckel's classification which will command the attention 

 of every one interested in the group of the Sponges. It 

 should also be read by all working on the details of 

 structure of the lower forms of animal life. 



It would be impossible in a general notice of this 

 Report to venture into minute details, but while referring 

 those interested in the facts to the first two dozen pages 

 of the introductory remarks, we may observe that the 

 author concludes that "the peculiarities of the canal 

 system of the sponges, the early development of their 

 mesoderm, the circumstance that it is just the mesoderm 

 which in them gives origin to the generative products, 

 and finally the absence of cnidoblasts and nervous ele- 

 ments, taken altogether, though they do not justify the 

 establishment of a new class for the Sponges, are yet 

 important enough to entitle them to occupy an indepen- 

 dent position among the Ccelenterata as a sub-class. 

 Within this class the Calcareous Sponges occupy an 



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