620 "Lutribricus tubifex, fyc. 



action, accompanied by eruptive spots ; which, finally becom- 

 ing ulcerated, healed with great difficulty. The marks still 

 partially remain, and, it is likely, will continue for life. I was 

 informed that a gentleman, in bathing, accidentally set his 

 naked foot on this substance, which was attended by violent 

 sickness. These facts show that it is not an imaginary or 

 fanciful poison, but one possessed of no gentle malignity; 

 and as children, especially, are too apt to handle the rejecta- 

 menta of the sea, this cursory notice may not be altogether 

 useless. — J. Murray. May 19. 1835. 



Worms. — Ijumbricus tiibifex /3 is Muller's name for the 

 species, or variety of a species, of worm on whose habits inter- 

 esting facts have been registered in V. 387, 388., under the title 

 " Zoophytes at Bury St. Edmund's; " in V. 388., under the title 

 "Freshwater Polypus;" in V. 754, 755., under the title 

 u Blood-red Zoophytes" Mr. Bree has suggested, in V. 

 754., that " it might be worth while to give a figure of it, 

 together with its name, and a more full description." We 

 have expressed, in the same page, a concurrence in the pur- 

 pose of this suggestion, and a disposition to perform it, if 

 some correspondent would supply us with the means. Shortly 

 afterwards, a correspondent favoured us with the following 

 communication : — " These creatures are improperly termed 

 zoophytes. [This had been noted in V. 754.] As you ex- 

 pressed a wish, in your last Number [V. 754.], to be furnished 

 with a figure and some further account of this supposed zoo- 

 phyte, I send you a sketch of one from a drawing which I 

 made several years ago, accompanying a few remarks. 

 Although these creatures are common, at some seasons, in 

 shallow water on muddy bottoms, I cannot readily procure 

 specimens now, or I would send you a more highly magnified 

 figure. The animal is of a pellucid pale yellow, with a red 

 spiral or undulated line, which I consider the alimentary 

 canal, visible through its whole length. The fore part, for 

 about one third of the animal's whole length, is armed with 

 fine setae (bristles) pointing backwards. I cannot refer it to 

 any described species ; but I think it will rank with Lamarck's 

 Naiades. I once found patches of these worms in a shallow 

 pool containing 



Branchiopoda stagnate, and thousands of Cypris conchdcea, 

 and Cyclops Geqffroyn of Leach. — I collected some of all 

 these interesting creatures in a glass vessel, with the mud and 

 water of the pool, and kept them, to my great amusement, 

 many weeks. The worms acquired their natural habit as 

 soon as the mud had settled at the bottom of the glass; for 

 they kept their anterior part out of the sediment in continual 



