78 REVIEW — THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF WORMS. 



Vejdovsky and others have already worked at this branch, and it 

 was therefore, in the author's opinion, unwise to go over the same 

 ground again, when the space could be fully utilised in other ways. 



Every one must admire the patience and discrimination which 

 has enabled a busy man to wade through hundreds of papers, collate 

 and correct some thousands of synonyms, and pass a calm judgment 

 where evidence is often most conflicting. The author's frankness 

 is refreshing. He remarks that he has here corrected errors of 

 observation on his own part and that of others, and I may refer 

 to pp. 3, 1 6, 23, 25, and 30 as illustrations of the way in which this 

 has been done. Nor are we led to suppose that the present work is 

 final. Quite a long list might be drawn up setting forth the subjects 

 which still present problems for future solution. We do not know 

 all we want to know on the questions of oviposition, hybridity, the 

 use of the coelomic fluid, the meaning of the calciferous glands. 

 We have not yet discovered all the missing links which are needed 

 to make the connections between group and group or genus and 

 genus complete. 



A glance at the book before us is sufficient to show how impor- 

 tant is the bearing of the study of oligochsets on the problems of 

 evolution. The head-pore of aquatic species is wanting in adult 

 terricoles, yet it is found in the embryonic forms. A curious 

 illustration of the order which prevails among species is supplied 

 by the study of girdle-papillae in the Lumbrici. Beginning with 

 our own common Red Worm (Z. rubella s\ we find the glands 

 commencing on segment 27, then follow other species whose papillae 

 begin on 28, 29, 30, and so on respectively. Two years ago I was 

 able to supply one missing link (34) by the discovery in Ireland of 

 the Papillose Worm (Z. papillosus), and it now remains for some one 

 to complete the chain from 27 to 35 by unearthing a Lumbricus 

 whose glands {tuhercula pubertatis) extend over segments 32, $$, 



4, 35* 



It is stated on page 2 to be an invariable rule for the first body 



segment to be devoid of setae. Curiously enough I possess a single 

 specimen of an undescribed worm found in fresh water at Chelms- 

 ford which breaks this * invariable rule.' As there must be other 

 specimens in the locality, I have hesitated to publish any account of 

 so unique an oligochcet till duplicates were forthcoming. I regret to 

 say that up till the present I have been able to find no second 

 example. Perhaps the following note may help some one to dis- 

 cover further specimens. The worm — which is aquatic in habit — is 

 about four inches in length, and composed of some 250 segments, 

 the first of which, like all the rest, contained two setae only. 



Naturalist, 



