medusomen.

1888 E. Haeckel in Rep. Sci. Results Voy. H.M.S. Challenger: Zool. XXVIII. 3 The new theory of the organisation of the Siphonophoræ to which I have been led by my investigations on their comparative anatomy and ontogeny may be briefly designated as the Medusome Theory.

1888 E. Haeckel in Rep. Sci. Results Voy. H.M.S. Challenger: Zool. XXVIII. 4 All organs which belong originally to one medusoid person are included in the definition of a Medusome.

1889 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4 186 Haeckel has very cleverly succeeded in giving an appearance of novelty and speciality to his ‘Medusome-theory’, as he calls it.

1892 J. A. Thomson Outl. Zool. 143 Free-swimming colonies of modified medusoid persons (medusomes).

1910 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 159/2 Haeckel..is in accordance with Balfour in regarding a Siphonophore as a medusome, that is to say, as a colony composed of medusoid persons or organs entirely.

1965 A. K. Totton Synopsis Siphonophora 8 He [sc. Haeckel] seems to mean three different things by ‘medusome’: 1. medusoid gonophores; 2. sterile medusomes, eudoxids consisting of bract and gastrozooid but without gonophores; 3. any appendages except tentacles—all derived from medusae, sometimes by repetition or dislocation of parts.

1983 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 301 195 This is a prime example of how Haeckel's ‘judgement’ in interpreting the anatomy of rhodaliid siphonophores has been coloured by his adherence to his Medusome Theory.