410 Proceedings of (he Werncrian Society. 



and liow else they could have found their way there is not easy to con- 

 jecture, as there is a fine rose on the mouth of the pipe by which the 

 water enters. From their rapacity shewn in devouring their companions, 

 some gold fish, it is possible they may eat the greater part of their own 

 small fry. 



A communication was made by Messrs Forbes and Goodsir on the 

 Natural History and Anatomy of Thalassemia and Echiurus (published in 

 this Xo. of the Journal, p. 369). 



Mr Forbes read a paper on Kapnea, a new genus of Aetiniadce. Mr For- 

 bes constituted this genus for the reception of an actinia dredged up 

 from deep water in the Irish Sea. The genus he defined : Kapnea 

 (\«»>i, a chimney), body cylindrical) invested in part by an 8-cleft epider- 

 mis, and adhering by a broad base. Tentacula simple, retractile, very 

 short, tubercular, surrounding the mouth in three series. Species 

 Kapnea sanguinCa, Forbes. Tentacula 10 in each series; body and 

 disk scarlet; epidermis brown; hab. among Millepora in deep water, 

 Irish Sea. Mr Forbes considered the regular form of the epidermis 

 as an imperfect tube, and remarked that the clefts in this tube and 

 the number of the tentacula were multiples of four, which he considered 

 as the typical number of the Aetiniadce. 



The President laid on the table various Meteorological Registers; and 

 exhibited a fine specimen of the C'himsera Fish from Cuba : of a Hen 

 having the complete male plumage, and which laid several eggs after 

 having undergone the change; and of a large Female Duck, species un- 

 known, but allied to the eider, procured in the Edinburgh market. 



February 20.— Dr Robert Hamilton, V. P. in the Chair. Dr Traill read 

 a memoir of the life and writings of the Rev. George Low, minister of 

 Birsay, author of the Fauna Orcadensis. Various very interesting ori- 

 ginal MS. volumes, which fortunately had been obtained from various 

 sources, by the zeal and perseverance of Dr Traill, were exhibited; and 

 these enabled the author to throw much light on the scientific history 

 of the subject of the biography. 



Mr Goodsir exhibited and described a new species of Gymnorhynchus 

 (G : i„morhynehus horridus, Goodsir), from the liver «f the Sun-fish. 

 This species is characterized by an additional and separate circle of 

 large curved hooks on each of the four proboscides. Many specimens 

 were found alive and active, eight days after the death of the fish, and 

 they were all enclosed in elongated sacs or sheaths, consisting of an outer 

 cellular and an inner serous-like tunic. Mr Goodsir alluded at some 

 length to the remarkable circumstances connected with the cysts enclos- 

 ing many of the entozoa, and stated as his opinion, that, as in the pre- 

 sent instance, certain of them could hardly be considered as the result of 

 irritation. He hazarded the opinion that the internal smooth tunic mi"-ht 

 be a persistent portion of the ovum of the entozoa, — a hypothesis not 



