QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 259 
cilia by which that was covered. There were no strong 
vibratile hairs as in Claparéde’s animal, but there was a long 
posterior seta similar to those of Busch’s Alaurine. The 
pharynx was muscular, and the intestine straight; no trace 
of a nervous system occurred. On either side of the body 
was a fine water-vascular stem. This Alaurina is evidently 
not a larva, since in each segment hermaphrodite organs 
were present. The four parts are not to be considered as 
buds which will separate, but as analagous to the joints of 
the animal colonies of Cestoda, as suggested by Prof. Leuckart 
to the author. He would classify the Microstome and 
Alaurine as allied families under the Rhabdocela. 
August.— Observations on the Microscopic Shell-structure 
of Spirifer cuspidatus, Sow., and some similar forms,’ by 
F. B. Meek.—This abstract from ‘Silliman’s American 
Journal ” for May, 1866, is of considerable interest as bearing 
on the late controversy between Dr. Carpenter and Professor 
King as to the structure of Rhynchopora Geinitziana. My. 
Meek shows that the shell of Spirifer cuspidatus, both of 
American and Irish specimens, is clearly punctate, contrary 
to the decision of Dr. Carpenter. It must, however, be borne 
in mind that the statements of so practised and able an 
observer as Dr. Carpenter are not lightly to be called in 
question either by Mr. King or Mr. Meek. 
September.—‘‘ On two New Species of Freshwater Poly- 
zoa,” by Edward Parfitt. The species described and figured 
are called Plumatella lineata, and Pl. Limne. The first is 
from a pond, the second from the canal at Exeter. 
British Association Microscopical papers were not abun- 
dant at Nottingham, but we have one or two to chronicle. 
“ On the Movements of the Protoplasm of the Egg of 
Osseous Fishes,’ by Dr. Ransom, of Nottingham.—This and 
the paper the title of which is given below are, to a certain 
extent, parts of a memoir lately presented by the author to the 
Royal Society, of very great interest, and the result of very 
careful researches. The contractions exhibited by the yelk 
were shown to be independent of the action of spermato- 
zooids, and to be reactions following the entrance of water into 
thebreathing chamber ; and this not only as regards the rhyth- 
mic waves which pass over the surface of the food-yelk, but also 
the fissile contractility of the formative yelk, by virtue of 
which it cleaves into irregular and unsymmetrical masses, and 
which the author conceived only to be regulated by the 
influence of the seminal particles. The cortical layer of the 
food-yelk, or inner sac, shown to resist in a remarkable man- 
ner osmosis, is found to be the rhythmically contractile part, 
