758 
ME, H. N. MOSELEY ON THE STEUCTTJRE AND 
about what is known or believed concerning the structure and affinities of the animal 
can be gathered. The following are the papers quoted on the subject : — 
L. Guilding, “An Account of a new Genus of Mollusca,” Zool. Journ. ii. 1826. 
M. Gervais, “ Etudes pour servir a l’histoire des Myriapodes ,” Ann. des Sc .Nat. 1837. 
E. Blanchard, “ Sur l’organisation des Vers,” Ann. des Sc. Nat. 3 ser. tom. viii. 1847. 
De Blainville, Suppl. au Diet, des Sc. Nat. t. i. 
M. de Quatrefages, “ Anat. des Hermelles,” Ann. des Sc. Nat. 3 ser. tom. x. 
E. Grube, “ Ueber den Bau des Peripatus Edwardsii ,” Muller’s Archiv, 1853. 
Grube, whose paper on the subject is the best known and most searching, came to 
the conclusion that Peripatus was hermaphrodite, probably from want of sufficient 
material, or because his specimens were not collected at a period when the reproductive 
functions were in activity. He further failed to see the tracheal system, as could hardly 
be avoided, since it becomes almost invisible when the air has been removed from the 
tracheal tubes by long soaking of the animal in spirit. Grube thus placed Peripatus 
(amongst the Bristle-worms) in a separate order, Onycophora; and he is followed 
by Claus and Schmarda and most zoologists, although the position of Peripatus has 
always been considered doubtful. Gegenbaur (Grundziige der vergleichenden Ana- 
tomie, p. 199) speaks of the placing of Peripatus amongst the worms as by no means 
certain, but adds that Peripatus certainly connects the Binged worms and Arthropods 
with Flat worms. The older writers on the subject come nearer the mark. Newport* 
says, “ De Blainville first connected Myriopoda with Annelida by means of the bristly 
genera, the Annelida Errantia ; but subsequently remarked a closer connexion between 
the two classes in the singular iuliform genus Peripatus .” 
De QuATREFAGEsf does not place Peripatus with the. worms, but in his ‘Histoire 
Nat. des Anneles ’ gives a short account of these animals in the Appendix. He dwells 
on the fact that Peripatus has feet armed with nails, to which muscles are attached, 
and not bristles lodged in a follicle. He considers that De Blainville J was near the 
mark when he formed a special class “ Malacopodes ” for Peripatus , but that M. Gervais 
was most in the right when he placed the group in affinity with the Myriopods. 
M. de Quatrefages was evidently quite right in following M. Gervais in this 
matter. The affinities of Peripatus will be discussed shortly at the close of this paper. 
De QuATREFAGEsf gives a list of four species of Peripatus , viz. P. iuliformis of Cuba 
with 33, P. d’ Edwards of Cayenne with 30, P. Blainville of Chili with 1 9, and P. brevis 
of the Cape with 14 pairs of feet. 
The specimens obtained and examined by me here cannot be of the species “ brevis 
since, instead of 14 pairs of feet, they invariably, whatever their size, have 17 pairs of 
ambulatory members besides the labial and anal papillae, and the young embryos very 
* “ Monograph of the Class Myriopoda, Order Chilopoda, with Observations on the General Arrangement of 
the Articulata, by George Newport,” Linn. Trans, vol. xix. 1843, p. 268. 
t Hist. Nat. des Anneles, Paris Libraire Encyclopedique de Eoret, 1865, t. xi. Appendice, pp. 675-6. 
X Suppl. au Diet, des Sc. Nat. t. i. 
