266 The Structure of the Annelids. 



the ancient Britons. Slaves were sacrificed at their master's 

 graves, and wives, there can be no doubt were sacrified and 

 buried with their husbands, to accompany them in the in- 

 visible world upon which they were entering. It is reason- 

 able, therefore, to infer that infants were occasionally sacrificed 

 on the death of their mothers, in the belief that they would 

 thus partake of her care in the strange^ land to which, by 

 death, she was removed. Whether from ' sacrifice, or from 

 natural causes, the mother and her infant may have died 

 together, it is only reasonable to infer from the situation in 

 which these " incense cups " are found, (either placed, on the 

 top of a heap of burnt bones or inside the sepulchral urn con- 

 taining them) and from their usually containing small calcined 

 bones, that they were receptacles for the ashes of the infant, 

 to be buried along" with those of its mother. 



D 



(To ie continued?) 



THE STRUCTURE OF THE ANNELIDS, WITH A 

 CRITICISM ON QUATREPAGES. 



By Edouaed Clapaeede. 



M. Clapaeede has kindly sent us a pamphlet on the above 

 subject.* It is taken from the introduction to a work on the 

 Annelids of the Gulf of Naples, now in the press under the 

 auspices of the Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de 

 Geneve. M. Claparede spent six months at Naples during the 

 winter of 1866-7, and found the locality extremely favourable 

 for the study of Annelids. He observes that his remarks were 

 facilitated by the recent publication of two works, one by 

 M. Ehlers, and the other by M. Quatrefages; although, in 

 addition to other defects, he found the book of the latter full 

 of typographical errors to an extent " passing imagination," 

 and likewise of false citations. Only one part of M. Elder's 

 work has appeared. It relates to certain Nereids of the Adriatic, 

 and does not correspond with the generality of its title — a 

 "Treatise on the Annelids." What M. Elder has done, M. 

 Claparede pronounces to be a "model of exactitude." 

 " L'Histoire Naturelles des Anneles," of M. Quatrefages, is a 

 treatise on the Polychastian Annelids, in which the author 

 endeavours to fulfil two purposes — a natural classification, 



* "Dela Structure des Anm'lides, note cornprenant un examen critique des 

 travaux les plus recents sur cette classe de vers. Geneve, Kamboz." 



