706 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



liurtfulness of the poison is inversely as tlie weight of the animal, and 

 that upon them, as in higher animals, strychnine is tetanizing. 



Animal of Voluta musica.* — M. P. Fischer, having examined a 

 specimen from Guadeloupe, preserved (imj^crfectly) in alcohol, finds 

 that it differs from all the other species of this great genus, by its 

 operculum much more elongated than that of Lyria and by its multi- 

 cuspid lingual plate, and considers that it would be better to abandon 

 the name of Voluta and substitute Musica. It approaches Vespertilio, 

 Amoria, &c. (of the Volutidfe without operculum) by the greater part 

 of its exterior characters, Lyria by the existence of an operculum, and 

 Marginella by its lingual plate. It constitutes therefore a well- 

 defined group, which should remain with the Volutidie, of which it is 

 one of the most aberrant forms. 



Neomenia (Solenopus). f — The Kev. A. M. Norman says that the 

 type species has long been known to him as an inhabitant of the 

 British Seas (Shetland). The genus and species must he thinks in 

 justice bear the name (Neomenia) bestowed by Tullberg, who published 

 an accurate description, with two plates of figures of the animal and its 

 anatomy, in 1875, at a time when M. Sars had only given the MS. 

 name. 



Two Collections of Pteropoda.| — Dr. G. Pfeffer contributes an 

 account of the Pteropoda collected by the German corvette ' Gazelle,' 

 and by Herr Jagor in the Philippines ; one new genus, four new 

 species, and a well marked variety are here described for the first 

 time. More attention is paid in the descriptions to the characters of 

 the shell and of the larval shell, as seen by a hand-glass, than was 

 given to the subject by Eang and Souleyet. The paper, which is 

 purely technical and quite beyond any abstract, is illustrated by one 

 plate. 



Respiratory Apparatus of Ampullaria.§— M.' Jourdain describes 

 the results of his examination of four of these interesting Mollusca 

 from Mexico. The respiratory apparatus, which is placed as usual in 

 the pallial chamber, has the gill on one (the left) side largely 

 atrophied. Between it and the normally developed gill there is the 

 pulmonary pouch, which is formed, apparently, by a fold of the 

 mantle, and is separated by a groove from the right gill ; on the 

 floor of the chamber there are developed two sijihon-like folds, one of 

 which is large and connected with the pulmonary sac, and the other 

 small and related to the well-developed gill. The renal gland is 

 placed behind this latter structure. In describing the relations of 

 the vessels the author points out that a large number of veins ramify 

 in the walls of the pulmonary pouch, while the blood from the 

 atrophied gill returns to the pallial vessels, to pass to the proper 

 respiratory apparatus. 



* ' Joum. de Conchy.,' xix. (1879) p. 97. 

 t 'Aun. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,' iv. (1879) p. 164. 

 t ' MB. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss.' (1879) p. 230. 

 § 'Comptes Rendus,' Ixxxvlii. (1879)p. 981. 



