62 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, v 



In this design he was fortified by his old Haslar friend, 

 Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Watt Reid, who wrote : " They 

 cannot, and, I am sure, will not wish to stand in your way 

 at Whitehall." Meanwhile, the first person, naturally, he 

 had thought of consulting was his old chief, Sir John 

 Richardson, who had great weight at the Admiralty, and to 

 him he wrote the following letter before leaving Plymouth. 



To Sir John Richardson 



Oct. 31, 1850. 



I regret very much that in consequence of our being ordered 

 to be paid off at Chatham, instead of Portsmouth, as we always 

 hoped and expected, I shall be unable to submit to your inspec- 

 tion the zoological notes and drawings which I have made dur- 

 ing our cruise. They are somewhat numerous (over 180 sheets 

 of drawings), and I hope not altogether valueless, since they 

 have been made with as great care and attention as I am master 

 of — and with a microscope, such as has rarely, if ever, made a 

 voyage round the world before. A further reason for indulging 

 in this hope consists in the fact that they relate for the most 

 part to animals hitherto very little known, whether from their 

 rarity or from their perishable nature, and that they bear upon 

 many curious physiological points. 



I may thus classify and enumerate the observations I have 

 made — 



1. Upon the organs of hearing and circulation in some of the 

 transparent Crustacea, and upon the structure of certain of the 

 lower forms of Crustacea. 



2. Upon some very remarkable new forms of Annelids, and 

 especially upon the much contested genus Sagitta, which I have 

 evidence to show is neither a Mollusc nor an Epizoon, but an 

 Annelid. 



3. Upon the nervous system of certain Mollusca hitherto im- 

 perfectly described — upon what appears to me to be an urinary 

 organ in many of them — and upon the structure of Firola and 

 Atlanta, of which latter I have a pretty complete account. 



4. Upon two perfectly new (ordinally new) species of 

 Ascidians. 



5. Upon Pyrosoma and Salpa. The former has never been 

 described (I think) since Savigny's time, and he had only speci- 

 mens preserved in spirits. I have a great deal to add and alter. 



