Litellisence and Miscellaneous Articles. 331 



"b 



was elected one of the General Secretaries, in the room of the Dean 

 of Ely (the Rev. G. Peacock), resigned. The following members 

 were cliosen to form the Committee of Recommendations : — Dr. 

 Buckland, Dr. Daubeny, Prof. Forbes, Prof. Graham, Mr. Gray, 

 Mr. Greenough, Mr. Hallam, Dr. Hodgkin, Mr. Hutton, Prof. Lloyd, 

 Mr. Lyell, Marquis of Northampton, Mr. Porter, Dr. Roget, Mr. 

 Fox Talbot, Prof. Wheatstone, Prof. Whewell, Mr. Willis, Dr. 

 Yelloly. Of the numerous communications made to the Sections, 

 three will be found in our present number, for which we are in- 

 debted to their authors, Mr. Lyell, the Rev. D. Williams, and Mr. 

 Grove. 



Tlie next Meeting of the Association will be held at Glasgow, 

 commencing on Thursday the 17th of September, 1840, the General 

 Committee to assemble on the preceding day. The following noble- 

 men and gentlemen have been chosen as officers for the next meet- 

 ing: — The Marquis of Bredalbane, President; Dr. MacFarlane, 

 Principal of Glasgow University, Lord Greenock, Sir T. M. Bris- 

 bane, Sir D. Brewster, Vice-Preside7its ; L. P. NichoU, LL.D., 

 A. Little, Esq., J. Strang, Esq., Local /Secretaries ; C. Forbes, Esq., 

 Local Treasurer. 



A full account of the proceedings of the late meeting, with ab- 

 stracts of the principal reports and communications, has appeared in 

 the Athenceum, August 31. — Sept. 21, 1839. 



ON THE MOULTING PROCESS IN THE CRAY FISH, 



We have extracted the following interesting notice from the elegant 

 and valuable work of Prof. Rymer Jones*. " The phjenomena which 

 attend the renovation of the external skeleton are so unimaginable 

 that it is really extraordinary how little is accurately known con- 

 cerning the nature of the operation. The first question which pre- 

 sents itself is, how are the limbs liberated from their confinement } 

 for, wonderful as it may appear, the joints even of the massive chelae 

 of the lobster do not separate from each other, but notwithstanding 

 the great size of some of the segments of the claw, and the slender 

 dimensions of the joints that connect the different pieces, the cast- 

 off skeleton of the limb presents exactly the same appearance as if 

 it still encased the living member. The only way of explaining the 

 circumstance, is to suppose that the individual pieces of the skeleton, 

 as well as the soft articulations connecting them, split in a longitu- 

 dinal direction, and that, after the abstraction of the limb, the fis- 

 sured parts close again with so much accuracy that even the traces 

 of the division are imperceptible. But this is not the only part of 

 the process which is calculated to excite our astonishment : the in- 

 ternal calcareous septa from which the muscles derive their origins, 

 and the tendons whereby they are inserted into the moveable por- 

 tions of the outer shell, are likewise stated to be found attached to 

 the exuviae ; even the singular dental apparatus situated in the sto- 

 mach, of which we shall speak hereafter, is cast off and re-formed I 



• " General Outline of the Animal Kingdom," Part VII. September 1839. 



