Extracts from the Minute-Booh of the Limiean Society. 767 



in many instances enable those conchologists who wish 

 to describe and draw the inhabitants of shells, to ac- 

 complish that desirable object, and probably, by se- 

 curing them in a well-stopped bottle, they might be 

 kept alive much longer, and be transported from very 

 remote parts of the globe. 



" I remain, &c. 



" John Curtis. 



" P.S. I have been informed by Mr. Lyell that 

 some shells brought from South America by Lieute- 

 nant T. Graves, were seventeen months without food, 

 and are now alive and inhabiting their native plants 

 in the conservatories of Messrs. Loddiges at Hackney. 



" But shells closed by an operculum have been 

 known to remain thus hermetically sealed in cabinets 

 for very long periods, — it has been said for forty 

 years, — and afterwards been reanimated by mois- 

 ture." 



Some live specimens of the species referred to in 

 the letter were exhibited at the Meeting. 



Dec. 6. Read a Letter addressed to the Secretary by John 

 Blackwall, Esq. F.L.S., correcting his representation, 

 in his Notice of several recent Discoveries in the Struc- 

 ture and Economy of Spiders, and Remarks on the 

 Pulvilli of Insects, respecting the mode by which in- 

 sects are supported on the sides of highly polished 

 surfaces. 



In experimenting upon the House-fly, he observed 



that individuals frequently remained fixed to the sides 



of an exhausted glass receiver after they had entire!}'' 



lost the power of locomotion, and an evident distention 



VOL. v^'T. 5 F of 



