66 REPORT—1845, 
years, it lived and throve well; and he was desirous of recording the fact of the time 
of its introduction, if at any time it should become general on our shores... He ex- 
hibited also what he considered a new dlcyonium, and proceeded to notice the immense 
myriads of Acalephida and purse-like forms which had been so abundant on the coast 
of Cornwall as to discolour the sea for miles. He spoke of the extreme sensibility 
of these animals, their luminosity and habits. There was also a notice of a new 
sponge from Cornwall. The paper was illustrated by specimens and drawings. 
— 
Notice of Additions to the Marine Fauna of Britain, discovered by Robert 
M‘Andrew, Esq. since the last Meeting of the Association. By Prof. 
E. Forsss. 
The animals described in this communication are,—Ist, a new species of Chemnitzia, 
C. rufescens, taken off Arran in from thirty to forty fathoms, and at Oban on sand in 
fifteen fathoms water. It has nine convex whorls, ribbed longitudinally and striated 
spirally ; brown, with darker bands, and white at the base. It measures ths of an 
inch in length. 2nd. The beautiful and curious Pecten pes-felis, hitherto known as 
an inhabitant of the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Mr. M‘Andrew took a small but 
well-marked living specimen in thirty fathoms in Loch Fine. 3rd. The beautiful 
coral named Turbinolia milletiana, hitherto known only as a fossil of the English and 
French miocene tertiaries. A living specimen was taken on sand in thirty fathoms 
on the coast of the Scilly Isles, and a dead one in forty-five fathoms off the Land’s 
End. The beautiful zoophyte Funicularia quadrangularis, first announced as British 
at York last year, has been again taken in the Hebrides, and well-preserved specimens 
above three feet in length were exhibited at the Section. 
A small Rissoa, apparently new, was also laid before the meeting, and is remark- 
able for having been taken in water as deep as 100 fathoms on the west coast of 
Scotland. 
On the Cilia and Ciliary Currents of the Oyster. 
By the Rev. J. B. Reavez, M.A., F.R.S. 
The author stated, that in a microscopic investigation of Infusoria, which had for 
some years occupied his attention, he had been led particularly to notice the beautiful 
contrivance by which many species, when not exerting their powers of locomotion, 
are supplied with food. When they are examined under the microscope by such an 
arrangement of transmitted light as makes the Infusoria luminous points on a per~ 
fectly dark field, it is immediately seen that the action of the cilia attached to their © J 
tentacula produces a strong current in the water, and hereby a countless number of J 
minute living organisms is brought within the influence of the cilia, and a sufficient 
supply is selected for food. Thus, with respect to Infusoria, it is a known fact, that 
the absence of the prehensile organs possessed by larger creatures is compensated by 
this delicate but efficient ciliary apparatus. It is also a fact equally well known, that 
the lips of the oyster, which surround the orifice of the alimentary canal, are, in the 
same manner, fringed with cilia; and that these cilia of the oyster, as of Infusoria, 
equally cause currents in the water. But it has never been suggested and proved by 
any naturalist that the proper office of the cilia of oysters is to bring to these acepha- 
lous mollusks that food which they have no power to follow or to seize. Such, how- 
ever, without doubt, is the case; and, accordingly, an examination of the contents of © 
the stomachs of oysters discovers to us'their infusorial food; and, after undergoing the 
process of digestion in the stomach, the siliceous shields of these Infusoria, deprived 
of their organic and carbonaceous integuments, are ejected as effete matter. Ina 
aper communicated last year to the Microscopical Society of London, on animals of 
the chalk still found in a living state in the stomachs of oysters, these Infusovia were 
described and enumerated. ‘The apparent identity existing between these recent 
living Infusoria and the fossil, makes the inquiry of considerable interest to the geolo- 
gist; for the addition of this connecting link to the chain of organized beings extends — 
a continuous line of the same organic structure from the secondary formation to the 
tertiary, and seems to preclude the supposition, that below the tertiary formation are | 
no recent species. Whether or not this conclusion be admitted, it is a fact, ascers — 
tained by pursuing this inquiry, that the oysters and other bivalves, which are innu-— 
