EAST KENT NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 203 



periodical publications which pay but little or no attention to 

 the microscope. 



December 1th, 1871. — The meeting prevented by the snow 

 storm. 



21st. — Colonel Horsley displayed the markings of Pleurosigma 

 quadratum, under a deep object-glass with the aid of Keade's 

 prism and Webster's condenser, in order to show that the effect 

 is the same as that produced by the simpler method of illumina- 

 tion which he had shown at former meetings. Mr. Down exhi- 

 bited some deep telescopic eye-pie ses successfully adapted to the 

 microscope. Mr. Fullagar presented a preparation, mounted in 

 Canada Balsam, of the egg-shell of Locusta viridissima, showing 

 the trumpet-shaped microphyles admirably, Mr. Gulliver gave 

 an account of the big shark {Lamna cornuhica) which he had seen 

 landed at Hastings, Nov. 10, 1871 ; and after some observations on 

 the anatomy of the Selachii, and on the wanton waste of good food 

 and oil in the myriads of smaller sharks or dog-fish contemp- 

 tuously left to rot on our coasts, proceeded to a comparative 

 view, illustrated by dried specimens, of the red Corpuscles of the 

 Blood of Fishes. In the different orders of osseous fishes these 

 corpuscles do not vary much in size and form, though some are 

 of a much longer oval figure than others ; and sometimes they are 

 oat-shaped, crescentic, or even triangular or polygonal, all shapes 

 that may be well seen in the Gadidse, and that might occur 

 from alterations in the regularly oval or sub-oval discs, among 

 which are often seen some of circular figure. In the Carti- 

 laginous Fishes, as is well-known, the blood-discs are much 

 larger ; but they seldom present such changes of form, though 

 perhaps those of Myxine, long since described by Johannes 

 MiJller, might have been misshapen. In the Lampreys, though 

 the red corpuscles are circular, they conform both in size and 

 structure to the red corpuscles of other Pyrensemata ; just as 

 the red corpuscles of Camelidse, though oval in shape, agree com- 

 pletely in size and structure with the red corpuscles of other 

 Apyrenaemata. As to the blood-discs of the sharks, they are of 

 about the same size in the great Porbeagle as in the small and 

 common dog-fish, as noticed in the ' Quart. Journ. Mic. Science' 

 for January, 1872. Hewson, upwards of a century since, dis- 

 covered the large size of the blood-discs of Plagiostomi. 



January l^th, 1872. — Mr. Bell exhibited a live Chamceleon 

 vulgaris, from which some blood was then obtained and its red 

 corpuscles examined. Their mean long diameter was found to be 

 r¥?T ^^^ their short diameter 2 iVo o^ ^^ inch, measurements 

 which correspond nearly with those of the blood-discs of other 

 scaly reptiles. Mr. Gulliver dissected a fresh Smelt (Osmerus 

 eperJanus), in order to illustrate a lecture which he gave on the 

 structure of this and the other members of the Salmonidse. Of 

 the Maxillary Teeth, characteristic of the family, he showed how 

 they were often not represented, even by our best artists, in 

 many of the otherwise excellent paintings and engravings of these 



