INTRODUCTION. 



The development of Peripatus capeusis was first studied 

 by Moseley,^ who stopped for a short time at the Cape in 

 November and December some years ago. His observations 

 related only to stages which were comparatively late in develop- 

 ment. Balfour, in 1882, found some younger embryos in speci- 

 mens collected by Mr. Lloyd Morgan in July and August, and 

 sent to Professor Huxley, who gave them to Balfour. He had 

 only time to make a very few observations, of which he left a 

 short record in the form of four rough drawings and a short note, 

 and a letter to Professor Kleinenberg, before starting on his last 

 expedition to Switzerland. His observations were so interest- 

 ing that they were made the subject of a short communication 

 to the Royal Society in the autumn of 1882, and they were 

 slightly extended by the editors of his last work on the 

 'Anatomy of Peripatus cape n sis,' and published with that 

 monograph in the ' Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 

 Science ' in the spring of 1883. 



The subject seemed so important that the Government 

 Grant Committee of the Royal Society granted, in the spring of 

 1883, the sum of £100 to enable me to go to the Cape for the 

 purpose of obtaining well-preserved embryos, and of studying 

 the development on fresh specimens. 



Accordingly, I went to the Cape in the summer of 1883, 

 arriving early in July, and remaining till the middle of 

 August. I obtained a large number of specimens, and brought 

 back with me over 300 alive. Some of the latter lived at 

 Cambridge till the following July. The results of my obser- 

 vations at the Cape and after my return to England have been 



' 'Phil. Trans.,' vol.164. 



