ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
509 
were probably also derived from veliger-likc forms, though no true Ceplia- 
lopod veligers are yet known. It is not difficult to understand how a 
Ceplialopod could be derived from a pro-veliger, similar to that of some 
Pteropods and Gastropods, by a special development of the foot into pre- 
hensile processes around the enlarged head. On the other hand, it 
seems impossible to derive a Cephalopod from a creeping Chiton-like 
archetype, as Lankester has suggested. 
a. Cephalopoda. 
Opistlioteutlii&ae.* — Prof. A. E. Verrill has a short notice on a 
remarkable new family of deep sea Cephalopoda, with remarks on some 
points in the morphology of the Mollusca. The genus which forms the 
type of this family was first described by Prof. Verrill, but the specimens 
were too much decayed internally to be accurately described. This 
deficiency has been recently supplied by the description of a closely 
related Japanese species, which we owe to Messrs. I. Ijima and S. Ikeda. 
In their description the Japanese authors have, Prof. Verrill says, made 
rather remarkable efforts to reconcile the position and relations of the 
parts with the theoretical, strained, and, as he believes, erroneous views 
of the orientation and homologies of the parts of Cephalopoda, advanced 
by Huxley and still held by many other authors. He gives examples 
of what he regards as very unnatural and strained interpretations, and 
thinks that the necessity to make these ought to be sufficient to show 
that the theories on which they are based are erroneous. To Prof. Verrill 
much of the interest connected with these forms lies in the fact that 
they throw much light on the question of the relation of parts in the 
Cephalopod body. Comparing his own views with those of Huxley and 
others, he urges that the more natural and correct view appears to be 
to consider the foot as a ventral appendage, and the visceral dome of a 
Gastropod as the true body, whether it be high or low, flat or round, 
or twisted, and regardless of the position of the anus. He thinks it is 
easy to prove that the body of. a Cephalopod corresponds to that of a 
Gastropod, and that the actual dorsal is the true dorsal surface, and that 
the pedal organs, arms, web. siphon are anterior and anteroventral in 
all ordinary adult forms. In the Opistlioteuthidas the relation of the 
parts is such that they stand to other Ceplialopods in the same relation 
that the Chitons stand to other Gastropods, and their peculiarities are 
quite sufficient to warrant their forming a new family group. 
Notes on Nautilus. f — Dr. A. "Willey sends from German New Guinea 
a number of interesting notes on the Nautilus. Numerous parasites 
belonging to the genus Caligus occur in the mantle chamber. They 
were present in nearly every individual examined, and were found attached 
to the gills, the internal surface of the funnel, and in other regions of the 
mantle chamber. A photograph of a Nautilus in its ordinary swimming 
attitude shows that, in swimming, the animal elevates itself to such an 
extent that the eyes are raised above the free margin of the mouth of 
the shell. Dr. Willey can emphatically confirm the statement of the 
late Prof. Moseley that it is a mistake to suppose that a Nautilus ever 
* Amer. Journ. Sci , ii. (189G) pp. 74-SO (8 figs.). 
f Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xxxix. (1896) pp. 145-53, 166- 80, 222-30 (1 fig.). 
