152 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
you, tlie members generally, for your regular attendance at the 
monthly meetings, and for your patient attention during business, 
which has rendered my duties as President light and easy ; and let 
me thank the retiring officers specially for the manner in which they 
have fulfilled the duties immediately under their care, and assisted me 
in my pleasant labours, during the official year which this evening 
brings to a close. 
Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society.* 
February 15th. — Microscopical Meeting. Mr. Hollis, President, 
in the chair. Mr. T. H. Hennah read a paper “ On the Palates of 
Mollusks.” 
Mr. Hennah prefaced his remarks by stating that he should regard 
the palates of mollusks as objects especially calculated to foster a true 
spirit of microscopical inquiry. They might be briefly described as 
membranes, studded more or less with teeth, found in the buccal 
cavity of univalve and shell-less mollusks. While the arrangement 
of the teeth was always symmetrical, the palates appeared to fulfil 
several functions, in some mollusks acting as a gizzard only, being 
supplemented by strong cutting mandibles, as in snails, cuttle-fish, 
&c. ; in others acting both as a rasp and as a gizzard. In some the 
provision for wear and tear was prodigious : the palates of the limpet 
and periwinkle being longer than the animals themselves ; while in 
other cases they were comparatively small and out of proportion, as 
compared with the animals. Thus the palate of the cuttle-fish was 
about the same size as that of the common snail. 
As elsewhere, in the animal kingdom, special] y-adapted contriv- 
ances were found, so also was the palate of the mollusk adapted, in its 
form, position, and arrangement, to the special habits of each species. 
In this variety, apart from its scientific interest, lay an inducement to 
go on with the examination when it was once begun. He well re- 
membered dissecting out a palate of a common snail — his first dissec- 
tion and almost his first microscopic preparation — and he could safely 
say he was grateful for the influence on his pursuits thus exercised by 
the silent tongue of this poor snail. Whelks, periwinkles, slugs, &c., 
were its successors, and though he found each had its palate covered 
with brilliant teeth, different methods of dissection were required for 
each ; and thus a foundation was laid for a knowledge of the compara- 
tive anatomy of different species of the same family. He thought 
nothing gave a sounder teaching in Natural History than the thorough 
examination of any one organ, such as the “ lingual membrane ” of 
the mollusca. The variety was very great, but yet there was a 
family likeness running through the palate of many allied species. 
Attempts had been made to base a classification of the univalve 
mollusca on the form and disposition of tlie teeth on the lingual mem- 
brane. Other characters of greater prominence had been found, how- 
ever, to be inconsistent with its complete adoption, and although of 
* Report by Mr. T. W. Wonfor. 
