1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 227 



History). Having first briefly noticed previous descriptions and figures 

 of what was believed to be the impression of the muscular attachment 

 of the Ammonoid animal to its shell, the author pointed out the 

 form and position of the ' shell-muscles ' and of the ' annulus ' in the 

 recent Nautilus, and indicated the form of the impression of these 

 structures as seen upon an artificial internal cast of the body- 

 chamber for comparison with the fossil forms, in nearly all of which 

 any indication of the muscular attachment there may be is preserved 

 upon the natural internal cast of the body-chamber. After describ- 

 ing the character of the ' muscular scars ' in an example of Crioceras, 

 in which they were both very perfectly preserved, and the position 

 of the ' annulus ' as clearly shown in an Ammonite from the Oxford 

 Clay, Mr Crick pointed out in a series of diagrams the impression 

 of these structures in the various forms assumed by the Ammouoids, 

 viz. — Baculites, Hamitcs, Ancyloceras, Crioceras, Macrosca'pliites, 

 Scaphites, Turrilites, and Heteroceras, and several Ammonites, as well 

 in Clymenia, and in some of the Goniatites. 



The scars of the muscles are to be found in almost every 

 instance on the inner or dorsal side of the body-chamber, near to 

 the last septum, and are generally oval patches with the longer axis 

 directed either antero-posteriorly or transversely ; in spiral forms 

 like Turrilites or Heteroceras they are curved with the shell, the 

 one nearer the inner side of the coil being in either case the 

 shorter. The annulus runs from one to the other of these scars 

 round by the ventral side, not far from the septum, and in those 

 forms where the latter is much folded it dips slightly with each lobe 

 between the saddles. There is also evidence of muscular attach- 

 ment to the shell between the two big scars and on the dorsal sides, 

 so that the animal was connected with the shell all round the 

 chamber. This, Mr Crick is inclined to infer, is evidence that the 

 chambers of the whorls were filled with gas and not with water, 

 since this complete attachment would be unnecessary in the latter 

 case. 



Mr Crick's researches effectually dispose of the notion, which 

 was once held by many, that the animal was, so to speak, a tenant 

 at will of its shell, like Argonauta, and show it to have been a 

 tenant for life, like the Nautiloidea ; but further in the table of 

 affinities we cannot yet go. 



Science in Lincolnshike 



A note and comment in our February number announcing the for- 

 mation of a Lincolnshire Science Society has brought us a protest 

 from the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, which includes among its 

 officers some eminent men, some well-known naturalists, and some 



