Zoological Society. 139 



Egg-cases ovate-oblong, erect, on an expanded base, contracted 

 beneath ; surface deeply punctated, granular. 



Inhab. Arctic Ocean. 



This shell is very like Chrysodomus despectus, but differs from 

 that species in the form and surface of the egg-cases, as well as by 

 the greater convexity of the whorls, and the strength and angularity 

 of the keel on the upper whorls. 



Like the other species of the genus, the white, opake, outer coat 

 of the shell is very much inclined to separate from the inner or cen- 

 tral coat, which presents, where the outer coat is removed, a smooth 

 surface of yellowish or brown colour. 



Dr. Richardson observed several specimens of this shell in the 

 sand-hills which edge the coast, some distance from the sea. 



I have named this species Heros, as being the finest of the genus, 

 ajid in commemoration of the enterprise and heroic conduct under 

 great hardship of its discoverer. 



2. "Remarks on the Morphology of the Vertebrate 

 Skeleton. By Edward Fry. 



The objects of the present paper are, — 1st, the brief statement of 

 the probability that there are laws which govern animal form, in ad- 

 dition to the law of final causes ; and 2nd, the a priori discussion of 

 certain propositions about the vertebrate skeleton ; being an attempt 

 to illustrate the vertebrate by some invertebrate forms, and thus to 

 show their unity of plan. 



Section I. 



The existence of laws governing animal form is rendered probable 

 by the discovery of such laws as regards the forms of plants, all 

 whose parts may be referred to a leaf as the fundamental archetype, 

 as is shown not only by the correspondency in many normal condi- 

 tions, but also by the transmutations of parts, and the monstrosities 

 to which the petals, sepals, stamens, &c. are Uable. Though the 

 greater simpUcity of plants, and the more numerous monstrosities to 

 which they are Uable by nature or art, render the existence of laws 

 of the kind spoken of more readily apparent in them than in animals, 

 the nature of the proofs and of the conclusions are alike in both 

 cases. 



It may, secondly, be remarked, by way of showing a general pro- 

 bability for such a scheme, that there exist unities of structure both 

 in different animals and in different stages of development of the 

 same animal, which are independent, so far as we know, of unity of 

 end ; or, in other words, that final causes do not explain all the affi- 

 nities and resemblances which we are able to trace*. 



And again, it must be observed, that those remarkable likenesses, 

 which are observable in many or all animals, between their various 

 forms and conditions up to maturity, on the one side, and the various 



* This part of the subject has been fully illustrated by Prof. Owen in his 

 various writings. 



