The Scientific Memoirs Of Thomas Henry Huxley (V. 1)

Excerpt from book: NOTES ON MEDUSAE AND POLYPES Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. vi. 1850, //. 66-7 H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Cape Y0rk, October 1849. My Dear SIR,?You will probably be interested in knowing what I have been about for the last year. I have examined (in most cases very carefully) species of the following genera of Acalephae and Polypes : PHYSOPHORID.E, Velella, Porpita, Physalia (a good many new points), Stephanomia, Athorybia, Agulina, Rhizophyra ; DiPHYD-fli, Rcsacea, Cnboides (two species), Abyla (three species), Enneagonea; Mkdvsid.e, Sinope (?), Xanthea, Geryonia, Cytceis, Cephea, Oceania, Bugainvillea, Tima, Aglaura (?), Pclagia, Willsia; POLYPES, Tnbularia, besides some genera altogether new. The two I have marked thus will interest you, as you describe them in your " Naked- eyed Medusce'.' Bugainvillea, I may mention, has its generative organ in the thickness of its outer membrane of the stomach ; Willsia develops bodies mostly resembling those in Sarsia prolifera and gemmifera, at the angle formed by the two first divisions of each of the four radial canals. The structure of the Tnbularia is also very interesting. I was for a long time astonished at what appeared to be its very wide geographical distribution, until I discovered one day that it was attached in large masses to the ship's bottom ! I have found much that was new to me in all respects, but nothing that contradicted in any important matter the results at which I arrived in the paper on the Medusce. On the other hand, I can speak much more confidently on some points advanced only with hesitation before. I believe that I shall be able to show you on our return evidence amply sufficient to prove,? 1st, that the Hydroid and Sertu- larian Polypes, the Hydrostatic and ordinary Acalephae, and the Helia...