TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 77 



Several of the above-named shells are too young for determination, others are de- 

 cidedly new. The known species not peculiar are Cassis testiculus, Cyprcea lurida, 

 spurca and moneta, Conus equinaceus, var. Kroltii, Marginella mUiacea 1 and iVia- 

 tica canrena. The Fossarus is not the Senegal shell, but the F. Cumingii. Several 

 of the above are common to the West Indies and Meditenanean. 



The author infers from these facts that the coast-line, of the ancient land of which 

 the Atlantic islands north of the line are fragments, had a ti-end indicated by the 

 distribution of the Littor'ma striata, and that the ancient connexion of the Azores 

 with the Lusitanian land on the one hand and Madeira on the other, as previously 

 maintained by him, is supported strongly by these additional data. On the other 

 band, the facts concerning St. Helena indicate, as the indigenous vegetation of that 

 island had previously done, that it had been insulated from a very ancient period, and 

 had never been connected v,'ith the continent. At the same time the marine mol- 

 lusks would seem to point to the submergence of a tract of land probably linking 

 Africa with South America, before the elevation of St. Helena. Along the sea-coast 

 of such a tract of land, the creatures common to the West Indian and Senegal seas 

 might have been diffused. _^____ 



On a New Testacean discovered during the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake. 

 By Professor E. Fokbes, F.R.S. 



Among the collections made by Mr. Macgillivray is a new genus of Gasteropodous 

 Mollusks, floaters in the manner of lanthina, but having close affinities of shell, 

 animal, and operculum with Jeffreysia. It appears to thi-ow new light on the nature 

 of Macluria and the so-called Palaeozoic Littorinse. Prof. Forbes proposes to name 

 this curious shell Macgillivraya. 



On a Sample of Blood containing Fat. By J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D. 



The author detailed an examination of a sample of serum, which was quite white 

 and opake from floating globules of a substance that was found to consist of a cry- 

 Btalliue matter, apparently cholesterin, mixed with a much larger amount of non- 

 crystallizable fat, readily saponified when boiled with alkaU. The sample was given 

 to Mr. Wrench, who exhausted 2 oz. 40 minims of the liquid by means of Eether, and 

 obtained from it 3*96 grs. of fat. The amount of fatty matter in the blood itself must 

 of course have been larger, since that portion which had become entangled in the 

 coagulated clot was not estimated. 



The blood was taken from a patient suffering from symptoms of apoplexy. He 

 recovered. The author could not find any account of fatty blood having been 

 observed in this disease. 



Observations on the Genus Sagitta. 

 By Thomas H. Huxley, F.R.S., Assistant- Surgeon B.N. 



Mr. Huxley made some observations upon the structure of the anomalous genus 

 Sagitta, which has already been more than once a subject of discussion at the Meet- 

 ings of the British Association. Mr. Huxley's statements essentially confirmed those 

 of M. Krohn ; the existence of a ciliated canal or oviduct in the outer part of the 

 ovary being the only new fact of any importance brought forward. The very wide 

 geographical distribution of Sagitta was alluded to, the animal having been found in 

 all the seas through which H.M.S. Rattlesnake passed in her circumnavigatory 

 voyage. 



In discussing the zoological relations of Sagitta, Mr. Huxley's remarks were to the 

 following effect: — Sagitta has been placed by some naturalists among the Mollusca 

 a view based upon certain apparent resemblances with the Heteropoda. These how- 

 ever are superficial ; the buccal armature of Sagitta, for instance, is a widely difl!erent 

 structure from the tongue of Firola, to which, when exserted, it may have a distant 

 resemblance ; the distinct striation of the muscular fibre, and the nature of the ner- 

 vous system, equally separate Sagitta from the Mollusca. 



There appears to be much more reason for placing this creature, as Krohn, Grube 

 and others have already done, upon the annulose side of the animal kingdom, but it 

 is very difficult to say in what division of that subkingdom it may most naturally be 



