218 Zoological Society. 



An excellent feature of these chapters is an outline of the history 

 of conchology, setting before us very clearly the progression of the 

 ideas of the naturalists who hare devoted themselves to the working 

 out of the systematic relations of the Mollusca. The details of a 

 system of malacology cannot be said yet to have been attained, but 

 every day fresh knowledge of molluscous animals is pouring in upon 

 us, and in a few years there will be sufficient materials accumulated 

 to enable the zoologist to attempt the construction of a natural ar- 

 rangement of them. 



A work of this kind does not admit of extract within the limits of 

 a brief notice, otherwise we could ornament our pages with many 

 passages abounding in the finest eloquence, and warmed by that 

 earnest and enthusiastic love of the beauties of creation, character- 

 istic of one who has rendered so many and various services to British 

 science. 



"We might, were we disposed to be hypercritical, indicate a few defi- 

 ciencies, and venture on a few diiferences of opinion, but we have de- 

 rived too much pleasure from the perusal of this ' Introduction to 

 Conchology ' to suggest faults or make petty corrections. The volume 

 is beautifully got up, and so far as external aspect and printing can 

 go, is as well adapted for the drawing-room as for the study. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



February 12, 1850. — W. Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



An Arrangement of Stomatellid^, including the cha- 

 racters OF A new genus, and OF SEVERAL NEW SPECIES. 



By Arthur Adams, R.N., F.L.S. etc. 

 Stomatellid^. 



Head broad, proboscidiform ; tentacles subulate, with a fimbriated 

 lobe at their mner bases ; eyes on peduncles at their outer bases ; 

 mantle with the front edge entire ; muscle of attachment crescentic, 

 open in front ; foot with a lateral membrane. Operculum rudimen- 

 tary or none. Shell imperforate, with a crescentic muscular impres- 

 sion, open in front. 



The family StomatelUdce differs from that of HaliotidcB in the 

 mantle not being fissured anteriorly, in the muscle of attachment 

 being in the form of a horseshoe round the sides and posterior part of 

 the mantle, instead of being oval and central, and in the shell not 

 being perforated. In their habits they are littoral, living on coral 

 reefs and attached to stones near the shore. Some of the genera, as 

 Gena, Stomatella and Stomatia, have considerable locomotive powers, 

 and glide, especially Ge7ia, with some degree of celerity. The latter 

 genus and Stomatia possess the faculty, common to some other kinds 

 of mollusca, of spontaneously detaching a considerable portion of the 

 hind part of the foot when disturbed or irritated. 



