own shroud and dies. The people of Efeet sometimes take a number of insects and put them in one of their native pots, when they commence to work, and line the interior of the pot with their bag, by which means the people obtain large ones, which they use to put cloth in, or any light article, and which are said to be waterproof."

Dr Lowe regretted that, while the objects were of themselves of the highest interest, he was able to offer so little in the way of information respecting them. There was no doubt, however, that they were the production of lepidopterous insects, and this belief was confirmed by Mr Andrew Murray, who brought to the Society an excellent drawing of some bags extremely analogous to those exhibited, and which are known to be the production of a gregarious butterfly in Mexico, a description of which, together with an illustrative plate, will be found in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, vol. i. p. 38, published in 1836. As one of the bags from Africa was much more dense in its texture than the others, Dr Lowe was led to think that two species of insect had been employed; but Mr Logan thought both might be produced by the same butterfly or moth. Mr J. T. Syme added some remarks; and all the members joined in the hope that specimens of the insect, in any state of transformation, or however roughly preserved, might at a future time be procured by the kind agency of Mr Goldie.

II. A Series of recently-discovered Eyeless Beetles from the Caves of Carniola and Hungary were exhibited-By ANDREW MURRAY, Esq. Mr Murray exhibited a fine series of eyeless beetles from the various caverns, &c. where these curious and rare animals have been found. There were twenty-six different species shown, of which there were a number which had been only discovered and described within the last two years, the possession of which he owed to his friend Herr Dohrn of Stettin. He pointed to the two new genera-Pholeuon and Drimeotus -as being of special interest, as filling up a blank between the genera of Leptoderus and Adelops, and proving that the former of these genera truly belonged to the family of the Cholevidæ, instead of being allied to the genus Mastigus, as

was supposed by Lacordaire and other authors. Mr Murray mentioned a number of interesting facts relating to the economy and structure of these blind insects.

III. Notice of the Tenacity of Life in Buccinum coronatum.
By ALEXANDER BRYSON, Esq.

On the 6th September 1857 we reached Marseilles on our way to Naples. Having a full day to spend before the steamer sailed, we drove to the Prado la Mer to search for shells on the shores of the Mediterranean. On the sandy downs, close by the margin of the sea, we found many Helices which were new to us (Helix vermiculata, virgata), and others well known to the south of Europe. They seemed very gregarious, and we could collect them by handfulls. The shores of the Mediterranean do not afford a fertile field for the conchologist, as the tides scarcely ever vary more than three feet. We picked up a few Natice, and also a specimen of Buccinum coronatum, the tenacity of life in which is the object of this notice. We placed the Buccinum along with our Helices, and packed them all carefully in boxes, where they lay until May 1858. On opening up the packages we found the Buccinum closely adherent to one of the Helices, but thought at the time that it was dead. We threw them all into a basin of tepid water, and found shortly that most of the Helices were alive, as was also the Buccinum coronatum. We lost no time in placing it in the marine aquarium of a friend, where he seemed quite at home and lively. Unfortunately, however, in a few days he came too near a hermit crab, who soon devoured the poor Buccinum. The Helices lived in the conservatory for some months, until the cold weather killed them. As this is the first instance of which I have heard of the tenacity of life exhibited by a marine molluse, I thought it should be recorded.

While we were strolling along the shores we saw a novel method of fishing for sardines and anchovies. The fisherman wades into the water nearly to the middle, and is furnished with a large circular net, round the periphery of which is attached a series of leaden bullets. A long rope is attached. to the centre of the net, which he throws out in a very skilful manner to the full extent of his line. The resistance of the

VOL. II.

M

air and the centrifugal force causes the net to expand like a flat old-fashioned umbrella, in which shape it reaches the surface of the water. The weight of the bullets causes the descent of the circumference, and the net assumes an oval form, and the tiny fish are caught by the meshes in their attempt to escape.

Mr Bryson also took the opportunity of reading the following note he had received from his friend Dr James M Bain, R.N.:

"As an additional instance of the tenacity of life in certain species of the mollusca, I may mention that in the spring of 1857 a small Helix was picked out from amongst some dried raisins, and handed over to me by one of my family. As it had the thin, transparent, glistening film covering the aperture, it occurred to me to repeat the experiment related by Dr Baird, in reference to the Egyptian desert snail in the British Museum, and included in the examples of tenacity of life in these animals given by Mr Woodward in his Manual of the Mollusca.' The following day our shy friend made his appearance in the glass vessel, and lived with us for five months. It was occasionally supplied with a little water, and portions of green vegetables, such as cabbage and lettuce, and seemed to give a preference to the latter. It was precisely identical with specimens of Helia virgata got at Shotover Hill, near Oxford, along with our friend Dr Melville in 1847. This species is widely spread over the south of Europe, and, although having no objection to the interior, yet, like ourselves, has also a strong attachment for the neighbourhood of the sea. It is not surprising, therefore, to find it in company with Malaga raisins; but those singular exceptions to the general laws, in the marked examples of torpidity in various animals, living for indefinite periods without food, and almost without air, are surprising."

IV. Observations on British Zoophytes. By T. STRETHILL WRIGHT, M.D.

Kionistes retiformis (κίων-ἵστημι).

Polypary retiform-alimentary polyps minute, white, with single row of short tentacles-reproductive polyps columnar, thickened towards apex, without tentacles, bearing many generative capsules.

a

b

A male specimen of this zoophyte was found growing in an old shell at Granton in May 1857. The corallum consists of a close network of flattened chitonous tubes, from out of which the alimentary and reproductive polyps spring at intervals. The sperm-sacs (one of which is shown in the marginal woodcut) attached to the reproductive polyp differ from those of Hydractinia, in having the endoderm attached to the ectoderm at their distal extremities, as I have figured in the sperm-sac of Eudendrium. This zoophyte approaches the Sertulariadæ in the simple columnar form of its untentacled reproductive polyps, and forms the connecting link between the Tubulariada and Sertulariadæ. Thus we have:

Reproductive polyp of K. reteformis with single sperm-sac; a, endoderm, b, ectoderm, c, cavity containing spermatozoa.

Sperm or egg sacs attached to ordinary alimentary

polyps, as in Sperm or egg sacs attached to reproductive alimentary polyps, which differ from ordinary alimentary polyps in having fewer tentacles, as in Sperm or egg sacs attached to reproductive polyps, with rudimentary mouth and tentacles, as in Sperm or egg sacs attached to reproductive polyps,

without mouth or tentacles, as in

Clava, Coryne, &c.

Podocoryna fucicola
(Sars.)

Hydractinia.
Kionistes, Sertularia.

V. (1.) On the Vomer in Man and the Mammalia, and on the Sphenoidal Spongy Bones. By JonN CLELAND, M.D., Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh.

The remarks which I am about to make will be confined as much as possible to matters of observation. I shall resist the temptation to enter on the question of the constitution of the

vomerine segment of the skull, although it is one on which the statements to be made have an important bearing; I shall content myself with exhibiting the relations of this bone in different mammalia, and, founding upon these and on development, shall show how the vomer in man corresponds in its relations to those of other animals, and what is the nature of the sphenoidal spongy bones.

Last autumn, while disarticulating the skull of a lamb, it came prominently under my notice that the central plate of the sphenoid bone adhered without marks of separation to the presphenoid, while the lateral masses of the ethmoid and the vomer formed one other single piece. On further examination I found that in mammalian skulls the formation of one piece by the vomer and lateral masses of the ethmoid was the general rule, and their separation a rare exception. This is a circumstance so easily seen that one would think it could hardly escape the notice of any one in the habit of disarticulating mammalian skulls, yet I can find no description of it by authorities on human and comparative anatomy. It is, however, as we shall see, the most important of all the connections of the vomer, and throws some valuable light on human anatomy. With respect to the other articulations of the vomer, we shall see, that that with the central plate of the ethmoid is by no means a primary one, and that the most constant of those of its inferior margin is that with the intermaxillary bones.

In the ruminantia it is a well-developed elongated bone. Let us take that of the lamb as an example. It consists principally of two lamina united inferiorly so as to form a groove; deepest posteriorly where the laminæ are most developed, and shallowing away to a scooped extremity in front. In this groove lies the cartilaginous septum of the nose, which is continuous behind with the presphenoid bone. The posterior extremity of the vomer is bifid and slightly dilated, as it is in man, and in front of the dilatation the lines of margin begin to approach, and seem as if they would pass directly forwards; but they are almost immediately lost as fissures in two lateral expansions, which, springing from the vomerine laminæ, pass outwards to the outer and back part of the ethmoid, and are continuous with the principal arches of the