344 GENERAL SUMMARY TO 



Bruguiere in his * Histoire naturelle des vers/ published in 1789 — 1792, devotes 

 eight quarto plates to figures of recent and fossil Brachiopoda, and therein proposes his 

 excellent genus Lingula, which he figures in Plate 250 of that work. All the other species 

 on the plates are classed as Terebratula, and include forms we now distinguish by the 

 generic names of Terebratula, Terebratulina, Terebratetta, Terebrirostra, Waldheimia, 

 Megerlea, Kraussina, Rhynchonella, Spirifer, Athyris, Strophomena. Bruguiere's plates are 

 fairly good, the species figured being in most cases determinable. 



Although we are compelled to speak somewhat lightly of the larger portion 

 of work accomplished between 1606 and 1800, it is, however, just and fair 

 to state that some of these early investigators materially helped to bring the 

 subject under the special notice of the more experienced zoologists and palaeon- 

 tologists that succeeded them. A few also, as already stated, had endeavoured 

 to describe and illustrate some of the soft parts of the animal ; but it was only after the 

 animal of the recent species had been thoroughly anatomically investigated that it became 

 possible to interpret the various markings and impressions observable on the interior sur- 

 face of the valves in the extinct genera and species that were being constantly dis- 

 covered. 



Step by step, we at first slowly advanced, as it were groping our way in the dark 

 or twilight, often obliged to retrace our steps and to abandon preconceived ideas and 

 hasty conclusions, which facts and further study refused to confirm. This has many times 

 been my own lot during the forty and more years I have devoted to the careful study 

 of the class. 



Having already referred to the very important labour accomplished by the zoologist 

 and anatomist with respect to the animal of the Recent Brachiopod, we will now very 

 briefly allude to the work achieved by the palaeontologist and more especially by British 

 investigators during the present century. 1 



labelled. All Linne's different editions of his ' Systema Naturae,' with annotations by the author, are also 

 carefully preserved in the Library of the Linnsean Society, where they can be readily consulted. 



1 In 1/12 S. G. Morton, in his ' Nat. Hist, of Northamptonshire,' made reference to some species of 

 British fossil Brachiopoda. 



In 1/93 David Ure, in his ' History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride,' gave some good figures of 

 several Scottish Carboniferous Brachiopoda. 



In 1797 W. Martin, in vol. iv, p. 44, pis. iii and iv, of the 'Transactions of the Linnsean Society of 

 London,' gave very good figures of some English Carboniferous Brachiopoda. 



In 1799 J. "Walcott, in his 'Descriptions and Figures of Petrefactions near Bath,' reproduced Llwyd's 

 figures of British Jurassic Brachiopoda. 



Prof. Mosely, F.R.S., of Oxford, has kindly given me the following description of a recently invented 

 automatic section-cutting machine : — " The method of cutting sections mechanically has been invented for 

 biological work generally, and has been applied to the particular case of the Brachiopoda by Prof. 

 Caldwell, of Cambridge. The machine is similar in construction to the inclined flat section-machine in 

 ordinary use by hand, but instead of the knife being moveable it is fixed, and the object to be cut is moved 

 against it. The thickness of the section is regulated, as in the ordinary machine, by a long fine screw. 



