114 REPORT 1855. 



Some Reinarks on the Fauna of the Clyde and on the Vivaria now exhibited in 

 the City Hall, Glasgoto. By the Rev. Charles P. Miles, M.D., Glasgoio. 



The author made some remarks on the distribution and habits of the invertebrate 

 animals of the Clyde, and showed specimens of the more remarkable species which 

 had been collected together in the large tanks of sea-water under his direction in the 

 City Hall for exhibition during the Meeting. He also drew attention to the various 

 forms of Zoophytes, Moilusca, Crustacea, and Echinodermata,— including Comatula 

 rosacea, Liddia fragilissima, ^ga tridens, Plumularia pinnata, &c., as among the 

 more interesting and rare. 



On the Recent Additions to our Knowledge of the Zoology of Western 

 Africa. By Andrew Murray, Edinhnrgh. 



After referring to the fact that so little was known of the natural historj^ of 

 Western Africa, he proceeded to say — I should not have thought of making any 

 communication on the subject, had it not been for a new source of information 

 which has been opened to the Scottish naturalists within the last two or three 

 years, which I have thought it might be useful to our southern friends to be made 

 aware of, as a means likely to supply much of the information we want upon at 

 least one part of the coast ; and I hope also to serve as an example which may 

 produce similar results elsewhere — I allude to the mission stations which have been 

 established at Old Calabar. It is only two or three years ago since the Rev. H. 

 Waddell, on his temporary return to this country, brought with him, besides other 

 objects of interest, a few bottles of snakes and insects. These were exhibited to the 

 Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh in December 1852; and every encouragement 

 was given by the members of that Society to Mr. Waddell to proceed in the working 

 of what promised to turn out a mine of interest. They enlisted Mr. Goldie and 

 Mr. Thomson in the pursuit ; and the consequence has been that there has already 

 been received from these gentlemen a large amount of interesting new species, — a 

 number of which have since been described and published, and others of which are 

 in course of preparation for publication. 



Mr. Murray then briefly drew attention to such additions to the natural history 

 of Western Africa as had been recently made. He said — Little has been done in 

 the Mammalia. M. Bureau de Lamalie has published in the ' Annates des Sciences 

 Naturelles ' some particulars regarding the Great Chimpanzee, or Troglodytes Go- 

 rilla, found in the river Gaboon; and in 1823 Dr. Kneeland of Boston published 

 details of the skeleton of this species. Mr. Eraser, after his return from the Niger 

 Expedition in 1843, published in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' a 

 description of a new Bat from Fernando Po, as well as a new Pouched Rat from 

 the same place. Dr. J. E. Gray described in the same ' Proceedings,' a new Manis ; 

 and in 1852 he described in the 'Annals of Natural History,' a new Wart Pig 

 (Cheiropotamus jnctus) from the Cameroon river. As to ornithology, more has 

 been done of late vears. A considerable number of new species were brought home 

 by the officers of the Niger Expedition above referred to, and were described partly 

 by Mr. Strickland and partly by Mr. Eraser. And more recently, M. Verraux has 

 described a number of species from this coast. Several of these were received from 

 Old Calabar simultaneously (or nearly so) with their publication by M. Verraux. 



A number of new fishes has been received from Old Calabar, the most interesting 

 of which is an electric fish, a Silurus, which I have described and published under 

 the name of Mulapterurns Beninensis. In addition to the information which is 

 given in my account of the fish in the ' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,' I 

 have since received some additional particulars from Mr. Thomson. He informs me 

 that its electrical properties are made use of by the natives as a remedy for their 

 sick children. The fish is put into a vessel of water, and the child made to play 

 •with it ; or the child is put into a tub of water in which several fishes are placed. 

 It is interesting to find a popular scientific remedy of our own, anticipated by the 

 unlettered savage. Mr. Thomson also mentioned an instance of the electric power 

 of this fish, which may be worth mentioning. He had a tame heron, which, having 

 been taken young, had never had the opportunity of searching for and choosing its 



