HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT. 41 



In 1S69 a memoir was published by the author on the anatomy of the British Nemerteans 

 (communicated to the Royal Society, Edinburgh, in April, 1868), in which many facts were 

 recorded, it is believed, for the first time. 1 Their minute structure, from the skin to the pro- 

 boscis, was described, the chief varieties indicated, and observations on the development of a 

 few species appended. In this year also the outlines of a classification, founded on anatomical 

 data, were brought under the notice of the same society. 2 



Excellent researches, by Dr. Elias Metschnikoff, on the development of the Nemertean Pyli- 

 dium, from the deposition of the ovum from which the latter is evolved onwards, have recently 

 appeared. 3 His observations were made on the ova of an elongated, whitish example of the Anopla 

 at Messina, and on a species of Pylidium from Odessa ; and his paper is illustrated by finely 

 executed steel engravings. The chief details will be found under the head of the development 

 of the Anopla, and therefore need not be further alluded to at present. In his summary many 

 suggestive comparisons are drawn between the development of the Nemertean Pylidium and the 

 well-known phases in the growth of the Tapeworms. 



The veteran naturalist, Professor E. Grube, in his most interesting hrochure? recently pub- 

 lished, on the marine fauna of St. Vaast-la-Hougue, refers to certain common Nemerteans 

 found there. He observes that his boatman stated that the head of Linens marinus was luminous, 

 but this he did not personally witness. He also notices a blood-red fiat worm, Proceros 

 sanguinolentus, Qfg., with cephalic furrows. 



A few notes on the Nemerteans are appended to a paper by Professor Ehlers " On the 

 Vermes collected in the Sea of Spitzbergen ." 5 Three new species are described from spirit- 

 preparations, but this is a somewhat unsatisfactory mode of examination, unless careful accounts 

 are kept of the animals in life. 



1 ' Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb./ vol. xxv, ii, pp. 305—406, pis. iv— xiv. 

 3 c Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinb./ vol. vi, pp. 545—548. 



3 c Mem. de PAcad. Imp. des Sc. de St. Petersbourg/ vii e ser., torn, xiv, no. 8, 1869. 



4 ' Mittheilungen liber St. Vaast-la-Hougue u. s. Meeres-, besonders s. Annelidenfauna/ 



5 'Ann. Nat. Hist./ 4th ser. ; vol. viii, p. 60. Transl. from the ' Sitzungsb. der phys.-medic. Soc. zu 

 Erlangen./ June 7, 1871. 



