On the genus Synapta / by S.P. Woodward and Lucas Barrett ; (communicated by J.S. Gaskoin).

  • Woodward, Samuel Pickworth, 1821-1865.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the genus Synapta / by S.P. Woodward and Lucas Barrett ; (communicated by J.S. Gaskoin). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ■ JrnACiL* <C [From the Proceedings of the Zoological Si July 13, 1858.] On the Genus Synapta. By S. P. Woodward and Lucas Barrett. (Communicated by J. S. Gaskoin, Esq.) (Radiata, PI. XIV.) The marine animals allied to the Sea Cucumbers, forming the genus Synapta, possess a peculiar interest for that large class of persons who study Natural History with the microscope, because they alford the miniature Anchors, of which a hundred may be shown in the field of the “inch object-glass,” and thousands some- times exist in the space of a square inch—each elegant in form and perfectly finished, and articulated to an anchor-plate whose pattern (as well as that of the anchor itself) is characteristic of the species to which it belongs. Curiously enough, these anchors were unknown to all the earlier writers, and most of the moderns. Forskal, who had the merit of describing two species of Synapta so long ago as 1775, remarked that they “ adhered to the finger by glutinous papillae invisible to the eye.” O. F. Muller called the Northern species Holothuria in- hcerens for the same reason. And Eschscholtz, who met with several species at Tahiti and on the coast of Russian America, concluded that they ought “ to form a class apart, not having tubular feet, but adhering, by means of their sharp skin, to extraneous objects, on which account they might be called Synapta Only five years ago (in 1853) Mr. Cocks of Falmouth described two British species, and gave a magnified figure of the skin without seeing the anchors. And still more recently Mr. Gosse was unable to find them, even with the aid of a microscope +• However, they are present in all the examples that have come under our notice, and they can always be seen with a common pocket lens. Indeed the larger anchors of Synapta digitata are nearly half a line in length, and visible to the unassisted eye. Jseger says that all the anchors of his Synapta Beselii are |rd of a line in length, and can be seen without a glass. This great Synapta * Appendix to Kotzebue’s Second Voyage, 8vo, Lond. 1830, p. 338. Van der Hoeven makes Eschscholtz say the Synapta adheres “ by means of small hook- lets ; ” but this expression (der sie uberall wie Kletten anhangen) is employed in the introductory paragraph. In the special description of Synapta he only speaks of “ small roughnesses (Rauhigkeiten) invisible to the naked eye.” And he de- scribes Chiridota verrucosa as, “ corpore undique verrucis rubris adhaerentibus obsito.”—Zool. Atlas, fol. Berlin, 1829. t Aquarium, p. 243. iety of London, I V