1889-] ArchcBology and EtJmology. I02l 
I have assumed that the ventral nerve cords of annelids are homolo- 
gous with the medullary canal, a view that is now generally accepted 
by embryologists. Balfour (Works I., 393, and Comp. Embryol., II., 
311) has suggested a more complicated relation in his hypothesis that 
the lateral nerve trunks which are known in many of the lower worms 
(^. g., nemerteans) have fused on the ventral side, in annelids on the 
dorsal side, of the body in the vermean ancestors of vertebrates. In 
favor of this ingenious surmise no evidence has since been found. 
Hubrecht denies the homology of the annelidan nerve chain and the 
vertebrate medulla ; he considers *■ that the more primitive condition 
is represented by certain nemertean worms, which, besides two main 
lateral nerves, have a small longitudinal median nerve ; the lateral 
nerves gave rise to the nerve chain of annelids by their fusion, the 
median nerve to the medulla of the ancestors of vertebrates. As no 
mtermediate forms, either adult types or embryonic stages, are known 
to represent any phase of this double metamorphosis, I cannot admit 
that Hubrecht's bold speculation invalidates what seems to me the 
well established homology between annelids and vertebrates. — Charles 
Sedgewick Minot. 
ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 
The Recent Accessions to the Museum of the Peabody 
Academy of Science of Salem, Mass.— The accessions to the 
Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science, in East India Marine 
Hall, have, from time to time, been noticed in these columns. In 
no single year since the formation of this institution have these 
accessions been so numerous or of so valuable a character. Prof Edward 
S. Morse, as is well known, was absent for several months in Japan and 
the east, for the purposes of study and forming collections, one of his 
chief objects being to obtain for our museum a characteristic and com- 
plete collection to illustrate the ethnology of Japan. 
The museum previously contained but few specimens from this 
country, although some of these few were very valuable, while China, 
India, Africa, and the South Sea Islands, were fully represented. Our 
mercantile relations with Japan were insignificant during the time of 
Salem's commercial period, the time when the East India collection 
was formed, and indeed it is only since the opening of that country to 
^'^'^"km'^' ' ^- ^- XXVII., 605-644, PI. XLII. 
