EAST KENT NATUIIAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 21 



East Kent Natueal Histoet Societt. 



President, the Rev. John Mitchinson, D.C.L., &e., Oxou. ; 

 Honorary Secretary, George Gulliver, F.E..S., &c. 



April 4th, 1872. — Land and freshwater shells in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dover. — Dr. C. A. Gordon, C.B., Deputy Inspector- 

 General of Army Hospitals, having taken advantage of his station 

 at Dover to examine these shells, of which he had exhibited speci- 

 mens to the meeting, communicated a formal list of them, as 

 follows : — Succinea putris, S. elegans, Zonites alliaria, Z. niti- 

 dulus. Helix aspersa, H. arbustorum, H. nemoralis, H. cantiana, 

 H. earth usiana, H. virgata, H. rufescens, H. hispida, H. rotun- 

 data, Bulimus obscurus, Planorbis complanatus, P. spirorbis 

 Lymntea stagualis, L. palustris, L. glutinosa, Ancylus fluviatilis, 

 Bythinia tentaeulata, Cyclas cornea, Cyclostoma elegans. Dr. 

 Gordon considered the term " Models of Creation," as applied 

 by the late Dr. Mantell to fossil shells, peculiarly appropriate, 

 and gave some interesting and instructive observations on the 

 poetical, popular, and historical associations connected with shells. 



Coast Museums. — On the mention of an intended museum of 

 natural science at Eastbourne, Mr. Gulliver gave an account of 

 his views concerning what should be the true object of such col- 

 lections, and of the absurd errors too commonly exemplified and 

 committed therein ; and especially as to the easy means by which 

 museums on the sea coast might be made subservient to the best 

 kind of instruction on marine botany and zoology ; and how the 

 numberless microscopes, now employed to little profit, might be 

 at once and for ever, even by unskilful persoiis, used for the 

 advantage of science and their own intellectual culture. And 

 this question has since been well ventilated in ' Land and Water,' 

 May 11,1872. 



Economy of the freshwater Polyp. — Mr. FuUagar, who has for 

 years kept in his aquarium many specimens of Hydra vulgaris 

 and H. viridis, communicated a paper on the habits and economy 

 of these creatures, illustrated by numerous drawings (since en- 

 graved in ' Science Gossip,' June, 1872). He had, by number- 

 less experiments, proved the accui-acy of Trembley's observations 

 on the rapid multiplication of hydras when artificially divided ; 

 and he had further observed on the hydras in December wliitish 

 tubercles, these containing myriads of animated particles too 

 minute for satisfactory examination by a low objective, tliough 

 under one of a tenth of an inch focus they presented all the 

 characters of spermatozoa. During their appearance the hydra 

 ceased to take food, and the seminal matter was often squirted 

 forcibly from the tubercle ; the parent hydra would then vanish, 

 probably from death and decomposition ; and in the following 

 spring some minute hydras would appear in the water, grow 

 freely, and multiply by buds. He gave good descriptions of 



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