It was obviously necessary that Professor Balfour's work—embodying as it did much important discovery—should be published without delay; and the task of preparing his material for the press was confided to us. We have printed all his notes and descriptions without alteration[566]. Explanations which appeared to be necessary, and additions to the text in cases in which he had prepared figures without writing descriptions, together with full descriptions of all the plates, have been added by us, and are distinguished by enclosure in square brackets[567].
We have to thank Miss Balfour, Professor Balfour's sister, for the important service which she has rendered by preparing a large part of the beautiful drawings with which the monograph is illustrated. Many of these had been executed by her under Professor Balfour's personal supervision; and the knowledge of his work which she then acquired has been of the greatest assistance to us in preparing the MSS. and drawings for publication.
Since his death she has spared no pains in studying the structure of Peripatus, so as to enable us to bring out the first part of the monograph in as complete a state as possible. It is due to her skill that the first really serviceable and accurate representation of the legs of any species of Peripatus available for scientific purposes are issued with the present memoir[568].
We have purposely refrained from introducing comments on the general bearing of the new and important results set forth in this memoir, and have confined ourselves to what was strictly necessary for the presentation of Mr Balfour's discoveries in a form in which they could be fully comprehended.
Mr Balfour had at his disposal numerous specimens of Peripatus novæ zealandiæ, collected for him by Professor Jeffrey Parker, of Christchurch, New Zealand; also specimens from the Cape of Good Hope collected by Mr Lloyd Morgan, and brought to England by Mr Roland Trimen in 1881; and others given to him by Mr Wood Mason, together with all the material collected by Mr Moseley during the “Challenger” voyage.
A preliminary account of the discoveries as to the embryology of Peripatus has already been communicated to the Royal Society[569]. It is intended that the present memoir shall be followed by others, comprising a complete account of all the species of the genus Peripatus.
H. M. Moseley.
A. Sedgwick.
[565] From the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, April, 1883.
[566] Excepting in an unimportant matter of change of nomenclature used with regard to the buccal cavity.
[567] The account of the external characters, generative organs, and develop ment, has been written by the editors.