HISTORY OF RESEARCH. vii 



1829. In 1829 Holl gave a short de.scri})tion of Schlotlieini's 



'Hiindbucli der' Petre- Ovtlioceratites sevratiis ill liis own text-book, but added iiotliiiig- 



faktcu.,' vol. ii. to oiir knowledge of the structure of Graptolites. 



According to Dr. Beck and Prof. Eichwald, Prof. Nilsson of Lund published 



about this time (in the ' Transactions of the Physiographic Society ' in Lund) some 



notes on the nature of Graptolites : but accordino- to Tullbero: 

 1830-35 

 ' " {loc. cit. supxt) there is nothing written by Nilsson to that 



effect in the publications of the society. It seems fairly 

 certain, however, that Nilsson (either in a letter or in a manuscript) distinctly 

 formulated the opinion that Graptolites are polyparies belonging to the " Polypi 

 ceratoporas," or horny Polyps. 



Nilsson proposed to change Linngeus' name of GraptoUtJLtis to I'riodon. 

 But this name had already been emplo3^ed by Cuvier for a genus of fish, and 

 Nilsson therefore, in a letter to Hisingcr, dated December 27th, 1835, writes, "I 

 have named the genus of Graptolites Prionotus (like a saw), both in my annotations 

 (where a sketch of a inonogra})h on this genus is to be found) and in letters to 

 several foreigners. I regret that I gave the name wrongly through a slip of memory 

 once when visiting you in Stockholm." (He probably here refers to the generic 

 name originally j^roposed by him, namely, Priodon.) " The name Prionotus I consider 

 characteristic, and I therefore intend to retain it." This name, however, was also 

 preoccupied, and it has therefore sul)sequently fallen into disuse among graptolitho- 

 logists. 



2335 The confusion in the nomenclature of the Gra})tolites was 



Bronn, not diminished by Bronn, who in 1835, in his ' Letheea 



'Lethxa Googuostica,' Geognostica,' described a new species, and suggested a fresh 

 ^'*^^- '• generic name, Lomatoceras, instead of Nilsson's already pre- 



occupied name of Priodon. This choice was as unfortunate as that of Nilsson, for 

 the name was already in use for a special genus of insects. The species figui-ed 

 and named by Bronn is his well-known Monograjjius priodon. Bronn figured this 

 form very accurately. He grouped Lomatoceras as one of the genera of the 

 Polyparia ; but in his description he speaks of the siphon and inner chambers as if 

 the fossil were a Cephalopod. 



1837-40. '^^^^ Swedish naturalist Hisinger gave special attention to 



Jlisingei; the Graptolites of his native country, and described and 



' Lethaea Suecica, seu figured many new forms. He was originally (' Anteckningar 

 Petnficata Sueci*.' • pj^ygii^ Qch Geognosi,' p. 168) of the same opinion as 

 Wahlenberg with regard to the zoological place of the Graptolites; but in 1837 (in 

 his ' Letluea Suecica, vSupplementum ') he relinquished his earlier view of tlieir 

 alliance with the Cephalopoda, and agreed with Nilsson in referring the Graptolites 

 to the " Polypi ceratopora)." In this work he described and figured LiniuDus' 

 Urai)tolitkas scalaris, and the form identified l)y \Valik'nl)erg with Liniueus' 



