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Lemseopodidse ; Ohondracanthidse seem to me to differ much more, and Ascomyzontidae do 

 not show any real relationship. 



The authors quote and criticise at great length all that has heen written about this 

 family, but in their eagerness to exhaust the matter, they seem to go a little too far. They 

 give a long quotation from H. Kroyer: tMonografisk Fremstilling af Slcegten Hippolyte's 

 nordiske Arter (Kgl. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skrifter, Nat. Math. Afh. IX, 1842, p. 263— 64)« 

 in order to prove that this excellent investigator was the first to discover an animal of this 

 family, and that his specimen belonged to the genus Choniostoma. They quote the passage 

 in Danish (p. 368—69) and in a French translation; the latter is correct, except in three 

 points , of which one may be called a very free translation , whereas the others are indeed 

 important mistakes and will be mentioned presently. Kroyer states that he has found a 

 specimen of Hippolyte gibba (from Spitzbergen) , whose carapace was much swollen on both 

 sides ; however, he found no Bopyrid in it, but about a score of sub-globular, yellowish white 

 bodies of different size (from Vs'" to -nearly l 1 /2'" in diameter), which were lying free and 

 unconnected side by side. He supposes them to be eggs of an unknown parasite and adds: 

 »the smaller ones I found filled with a yolk-like, granulous substance« [»de mindre af dem 

 har jeg fundet opfyldte af en aeggeblommeagtig , grynet Masse«], which G-iard and Bonnier 

 translate as follows: »Les plus petits etaient remplis dune masse grenue ressemblant a des 

 oeufs« , but this gives a very different meaning from the word » yolk-like « , and may quite 

 well be understood, as if the globules were ovisacs containing the eggs of a Choniostoma, 

 though Kroyer's expression does not imply such an idea at all. Kroyer continues: »In the 

 larger globules, which were probably very near maturity, I have noticed a rather long 

 (6 — 7'"), thin, vermiform body. It may be, that some leech-like animal develops itself out 

 of these eggs« [»i de storste, som rimeligviis vare naerved Modenhed, har jeg iagttaget et 

 temmelig langt (6 — 7'") tyndt, ormedannet Legeme. Maaske udvikler der sig altsaa af 

 disse Mg et igleagtigt Dyr«]. Judging from the two sizes indicated by Kroyer, we might 

 suppose that the larger globules were females, the smaller ones ovisacs of a Choniostoma, 

 but it seems to me very improbable, that a naturalist like Kroyer should not have seen 

 that the small globules in reality contained eggs or larvae, instead of supposing their 

 contents to be a yolk-like, granulous substance, and his statement that he found a vermiform 

 body about 13 — 15 millim. in length in the large globules, must in my opinion do away with 

 any idea that it could be the female of a Choniostoma (comp. my description of this genus 

 later on). But then, how shall we explain that Giard and Bonnier could advance such an 

 opinion? Well, in their translation of Kroyer's description of the contents of the large 

 globules, they translate the first words: »i de sterste« [»in the larger ones«] by: »pres des 

 plus gros« which gives quite a different meaning, allowing this remarkable, vermiform body 

 to be taken for a free animal belonging to another class. Thus two faults in their trans- 

 lation of Kroyer lead them to find a similarity which does not really exist between a Cho- 

 niostoma with its ovisacs and Kroyer's description. 1 am unable to tell what the objects 



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