r phe present notes are based chiefly 011 material placed at ray disposal by Dr. F. A. 

 J- Potts, of Cambridge. The material in question, for the use of which I wish here to 

 express very great thanks, is on the whole excellently preserved and was collected by 

 Dr. Potts partly in the N. vV . Pacific, partly in the Firth of Clyde and on the coast of 

 S. Devonshire; in addition there is some material from the last-mentioned region and 

 from the North Séa, belonging to the Marine Biological Association of Plymouth. I 

 have also included in this study material of Praxillella gracilis var. borealis from Trieste, 

 belonging to the Swedish State Museum. — The distribution of the epidermal glands 

 has been observed in individuals stained with iodine green. 



In order to avoid repetition, I wish to state here once for all the general objections 

 I have to make against Nolte's large work »Zur Kenntnis der Maldaniden der Nord- 

 und Ost-see», published in 1912 (30). The author seems to have taken as his point 

 of departure an earlier statement of mine (24) concerning the importance of working 

 out collected material better than has generally been done. I pointed out on that occasion 

 the confusion generally prevailing in describing new species and even in establishing 

 new genera. But it was by no means my opinion that previously comparatively well- 

 known species should be once more dealt with as thoroughly as those less known or not 

 known at all. But that is how Nolte seems to have understood my remark, as lie fills 

 page after page with detailed descriptions of species which — I venture to say — have 

 previously been described quite in detail. Almost the only original points in the work 

 of Nolte are his creation of the sub-divisions Rlwdinidae and Maldanidae verae and 

 the exclusion of almost all information as to the different kinds of setae — an omission 

 that one supposes is not definitive; otherwise we find chiefly previously published dia- 

 gnoses and descriptions. 



On re-publishing diagnoses, one ought at least to make the changes and corrections 

 resulting from recent investigations, more especially one's own (ef. the strueture of the 

 proboscis in Leiocho?iini). And with regard to the descriptions another author would 

 of course have restricted himself to the publishing of fresh observations or deviations 

 from earlier statements. lf Nolte' s method were to be generally adopted, one really 

 cannot imagine any limit to scientific literature. We even find in this work such a 

 statement as that in a certain species the buccal segment lacks setae; one might equally 

 well state, like earlier writers, that the head is j oined to the rest of the body! 



