XXIV. Observations upon the anatomy and physiology of salpa and pyrosoma

Abstract

1. The Salpæ , those strange gelatinous animals, through masses of which the voyager in the great ocean sometimes sails day after day, have been the subject of great controversy since the time of the publication of the celebrated work of Chamisso, ‘De Animalibus quibusdam è classe Vermium Linnæana.’ In this work were set forth, for the first time, the singular phenomena presented by the reproductive processes of these animals,—phenomena so strange, and so utterly unlike anything then known to occur in the whole province of zoology, that Chamisso’s admirably clear and truthful account was received with almost as much distrust as if he had announced the existence of a veritable Peter Schlemihl.