154 



November 15th, 1843. 

 Regular meeting — the President in the Chair. 



Dr. Wyman, communicated through the President, a 

 paper on the anatomical structure of the genera Tebenno- 

 phorus, Binney, and Glandina, Say. 



The paper gives all the details of a minute dissection of 

 every organ, but the following are the main anatomical 

 features by which the genera are characterized. The spe- 

 cies examined were Tebennophorus Carolmensis, Bosc, and 

 Glandina gians, Say. 



Tebennophorus. On making a longitudinal section through the 

 shield, along the back, there is found between the shield and the 

 viscera, a large cavity occupying the whole extent of the dorsal 

 and lateral region. It has no communication with the respiratory 

 sac, nor does it communicate externally with the air. Its internal 

 surface is lined by a thin, smooth, delicate membrane, enveloping 

 the viscera, so as to unite them into a single mass, and from them 

 it is reflected upon the tegumentary parietes, like the peritoneum 

 of the higher animals. In the Limaces, the membrane by which 

 the viscera are invested, is attached by a loose cellular tissue to the 

 parietes, so that no similar cavity can be said to exist. In Teben- 

 nophorus, there is no cavity in the cuirass for a calcareous body, 

 as in Limax. 



The respiratory cavity presents a very remarkable variation from 

 that of the Limaces, in being attached to the viscera, and in having 

 no connection whatever with the shield. In the Limaces the shield 

 contains two cavities, one of which secretes and contains the calca- 

 reous body or rudimentary shell, and the other the organ of respi- 

 ration, the heart and kidneys. 



Glandina. In the general characters of its organization, it re- 

 sembles that of the genera Limax and Helix, but differs from them 

 in the existence of an additional pair of tentacles and a correspond- 

 ing modification of the nerves distributed to them ; — in the arrange- 

 ment of the teeth upon the tongue ; — in the complicated form of 

 the stomach, and in some other characters of less importance. With 



