88 NATURAL SCIENCE. February, 



of Zoology in the New School of Medicine at Edinburgh should have 

 been at the pains to prepare figures of his new species and yet publish 

 his paper without them, that he should have evidence of its affinities 

 which he is confessedly holding back, and that he should spoil the 

 interest of his completed story by first forcing it upon the student in 

 a rough unpolished sketch. It is satisfactory to learn that in both 

 sexes of the new crustacean there is a ' niching on the dorsal surface,' 

 though there is no such word as ' niching ' in Webster's Dictionary. 

 To explain the position of the parasite ' on the walls of the vas deferens ' 

 Mr. Thompson suggests the possibility ' that it entered the male 

 reproductive duct as a larval form.' Whether the adults were found 

 outside the duct or within it is nowhere explicitly stated. 



The Hinge in Bivalve Molluscs. 

 We last referred to Dr. F. Bernard's notes on the development 

 and morphology of the hinges in bivalve Mollusca in our December 

 number (vol. ix,, p. 358) ; the third instalment has now appeared 

 {Bull. Soc. Geol. France, Ser. iii., tom. xxiv., pp. 412-49 : figs.). In it 

 the Anisomyaria, or such shells as the mussel, scallop and oyster, and 

 their allies, are dealt with. In all these the prodissoconch begins 

 with a crenulated margin, as in Nucula and Area, the true teeth 

 forming later. Only in the Spondylidae, however, do these attain any 

 conspicuous development ; whilst in Ostrea they never develop at all, 

 the denticles sometimes visible in its adult shell corresponding to the 

 crenulations in the embryo. In the Mytilidae the secondary develop- 

 ment of the ligament extends backward, and swamps all trace of 

 posterior teeth, whilst the anterior ones are represented merely by irre- 

 gular thickenings, which are scarcely, if at all, functional. Dreissensia, 

 which has been placed now with the Mytilidae, and now relegated else- 

 where, shows no affinity with that group so far as the morphology of 

 its hinge is concerned ; but of this genus we are to hear more anon. 



Species Manufacture. 



We are extremely glad to see that G.Dollfus, following in the 

 wake of G. Coutagne, raises his voice [Feiiille Jennes Naturalistes, Nov., 

 1896), in protest against the wanton and pernicious multiplication of 

 so-called species indulged in by certain of his malacological brethren, 

 especially in the neighbourhood of Lyons. 



The needed reform could only come from within, and we heartily 

 welcome these signs of its advent. We gather further from the 

 article that Mr. Coutagne proposes to bring out a genuine catalogue 

 of the non-marine Mollusca of France, but we more than echo Mr. 

 DoUfus' mild protest against Mr. Coutagne's apparent intention to 

 disregard the rules of priority and to coin new names for his species. 

 It is just this assertion of the " almighty ego" that has been at the 

 bottom of all the mischief in nomenclature which it is his object in 

 part to undo, and that, if adhered to, will deprive his catalogue of 

 almost all its value. 



