EAST KENT NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 4<2o 



vibrating otolith are so very beautiful and easily found that it must 

 become a favorite microscopic object. Mr. Fullagar, after two 

 or three trials, by tearing asunder with needles portions near the 

 base of the creature's foot, succeeded perfectly in showing the 

 vesicle and its oscillating otolith, much to the admiration of the 

 meeting. Figures of the auditory vesicles of several molluscs are 

 given in the ' Journal of Anatomy,' vol. iv. 



Augitst 1st, 1872. — Skeleton of Lumna cornuhica. — The Hon. 

 Sec. gave a detailed account of the preparation and completion of 

 this remarkable skeleton at th.e College of Surgeons, of which full 

 reports have appeared in the ' Kentish Gazette,' August 6th, 

 ' Land and Water,' August 17th, 1872, and several other periodicals. 

 The skeleton is seven feet nine inches in length, and, owing to the 

 judicious pi'eparation, has lost only fjpur inches in drying. There 

 are no ribs. The vertebrae number 152, of which sixty belong to 

 the tail, and these last turn upwards along the superior border of 

 the caudal fin, while in some other Selachians, as Scyllium, the 

 caudal vertebrae end in a straight line with the trunk. The 

 claspers are bony, each composed of three pieces, the tei-minal piece 

 being a curious spine, as if for intromission. 



Progression of Arachnids in o]')position to gravity. — Refei'ring to 

 observations at the meeting of July 6th, the walking of Ixodes 

 on the under and polished side of glass was shown to be due 

 to the effect of atmosplieric pressure on the elastic pedal caruncles 

 of the creature, and that this is also the case with the great 

 Tiger Spider of Ceylon had been clearly proved by Dr. Davy, in 

 his ' Physiological ilesearches,' p. ,336, 8vo, Lond., 1863. 



August liith, 18/2. — Ichneumonida?. — Mr. Fullagar exhibited 

 living specimens from his vivarium of these hymenopterous insects, 

 hatched out of the chrysalis of the Red Admiral butterfly, and 

 read a paper on their habits and economy. 



Palate of the Gyprinoids. — This soft structure, so well known in 

 the Carps, has commonly been regarded as a gland analogous to the 

 pancreas. Mr. G-eorge Gulliver, having made preparations of this 

 so-called palate, by hardening it in chromic acid and then staining 

 fine sections with carmine, exhibited them under the microscope 

 at the meeting. The tissue of the part presented a large propor- 

 tion of transversely striped muscular fibres ; and the mucous surface 

 was beset by large papillre, so as to present rather the character 

 of a tactile organ than of a gland. 



Neuronaia Lampetrce. — Referring to the notices in the ' Proceed- 

 ings of the Zoological Society,' Dec. 6th, 1870, and 'Quart. Journ. 

 Mic. Science,' Jan., 1872, concerning this entozoon, preserved speci- 

 mens were shown under the microscope to be entirely devoid of the 

 spines near the mouth and on the surface of the body which charac' 

 terise the allied Neuronaia Monroii of Goodsir. When magnified, 

 Neuronaia Lamjjetrce somewhat resembles Yarrell's figures, of tlie 

 natural size, of Tristoma eoccineum, which occurs on the skin and 

 brancbisB of the sun-fish. 



Eggs and newly hatched Broods of Ixodes Dugesii and Argas 

 refiexus. — Referring to the description of these eggs at tlic meet- 



