Miscellaneous. 219 



the species would also have been acceptable. The photographic 

 figures of the shells are inimitable ; but the same unqualified praise 

 cannot be bestowed on the three figures of animals in the first plate. 

 There are copious particulars of the geological stations and a full 

 explanation of the plates. An index nominum would also have 

 been useful. The work is a first-rate contribution to natural his- 

 tory ; and the further memoirs of this author will be equally wel- 

 come to conchologists. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



0)i the Suctociliata of M. de Mereschkowsky. By M. E. Matt pas. 



In the s Comptes Itendus ' of the meeting of 11th December 

 (p. 1232) M. de Mereschkowsky has published a note upon an 

 Infusorian, containing conclusions of too great importance to be 

 accepted without their being previously submitted to a severe ex- 

 amination. This examination is the more necessary because the 

 authority of this observer, who is well known by other important 

 memoirs on the Protozoa, may lead to the acceptance as well founded 

 of facts which are far from being correct, or from having the signi- 

 ficance that is ascribed to them by the Russian naturalist. 



And, in the first place, we find that M. de Mereschkowsky in 

 asserting that no form iirtermediate between the Ciliata and the 

 Tentaculifera had been previously indicated, seems not to have taken 

 account of the previous works. As long ago as 1867 Stein* made 

 J known a new form, baptized by him by the name of Actinobolus 



varians, which, according to his short description, would answer 

 much better to the desideratum in question than the type now pro- 

 posed by M. de Mereschkowsky. But it might be objected to the 

 authors who have been inclined to make this intermediate type of 

 Actinobolus, that Stein had given no indication of the mode of action 

 of the tentacles of this Infusorian. This being the case, it is impos- 

 sible to appreciate their true morphological value, and there is 

 nothing to guarantee that we have to do with organs perfectly homo- 

 logous with the tentacles of the Acinetaus. It is a fundamental 

 objection which we shall oppose afresh to the Infusorian of M. de 



Mereschkowsky. 



This author also affirms that all the Acinetina bear vibratile cilia 

 only during their embryonic state. But every one now-a-days 

 knows very well that certain Podophryce and all the Sphcerophryce 

 can at pleasure, during the whole of their existence, resume their 

 ciliary covering, and thus become again as free and vagabond as the 

 most "active of the Ciliata. These facts have long been well esta- 

 blished by the labours of Stein, Balbiani, Engelmann, and myself. 

 In 1876f, attaching an exaggerated importance to this return to a 

 higher form, I put forward the notion that we might make these 

 types into a separate group under the denomination of Ciliosuctoria. 

 Since then more thoroughgoing investigations have led me to quite 

 different ideas. 



* ' Der Organismus der lnfusionsthiere/ ii. p. 169, note, 

 t Archives de Zoologie experimentale, v. p. 425. 



