PRESIDE Jfl's ADDRESS. 61 



issued the following monographs will be of much service to Mala- 

 cologists, viz. : " Nuove osservazioni sopra la fauna e I'eta degli strati 

 con Posidonomya alpina nei 8ette Communi," by Sig. C. F. Parona, 

 and " La Fauna del Trias Inferiore ncl versante mcridionale delle Alpi," 

 by Sig. A. Tommasi. So, too, will the first portion of a synopsis of the 

 Tertiary Mollusea of the Venetian Alps, which the volume contains. 



In Monograph No. 24 of the United States Geological Survey, 

 Professor E. P. Whitfield has for the first time systematically 

 described the Mollusea of the Miocene of New Jersey ; and our 

 distinguished Foreign Member, Professor W. H. Dall, has written in 

 " Trans. Wagner Free Instit. of Sci. Philad. " ' a work embodying 

 a "new classification of the Pelecypoda." The whole forms an 

 introduction to the description of the Tertiary Pelecypoda of Florida, 

 and after "a brief discussion of the features of the Pelecypod 

 oi'ganization chiefly available as diagnostic characters," an enumera- 

 tion is given "of the differential characters of the orders, sub- 

 orders, supcrfamilies, and families," and "a statement of their range 

 in geological time, and an enumeration under each family of the chief 

 generic groups believed to be referable to it." 



Important communications upon the Cephalopoda, by Hyatt, and 

 Michael, have appeared, and F. Bernard has given us- the first part 

 of a most important study of the hinge of the pelecypodan shell. 

 To the consideration of these monographs, which are special, I shall 

 return ; but I cannot dismiss comment upon work on the Contiuent 

 without expressing our gratitude to Professor Karl von Zittel for the 

 198 pages which in his " Grundziige der Palseontologie " he has devoted 

 in so interesting and instructive a manner to the Mollusea. 



In our own country, the annual monograph of the Palteonto- 

 graphical Society has brought us (1) Hudleston's Part i, No 8, of the 

 " British Jurassic Gasteropoda," devoted exclusively to the Pleuro- 

 tomariidte of the Inferior Oolite; and (2) " Carhomcola, Antliracomya, 

 and Naiadites, Part ii," by Dr. Wheelton Hind, in which the Anthra- 

 coptera are monographed, — both authors being members of our 

 Society. 



The Transactions of the various Societies more or less concerned in 

 the study of the Palaeontology of the Mollusea show that the work of 

 the year has been in no respect below the average. 



The growth of Marine Biology, so intimately associated with 

 the work of our Society, has during the past year assumed a his- 

 torical phase, in the completion of the " Reports of the Scientific 

 Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. 'Challenger.'" When, 

 twenty -three years ago, that vessel set sail, the most sanguine of 

 specialists could have had little conception of what was about to be 

 achieved. The discovery of the remarkable " Septibranchiata," and the 

 capture of Pteropod forms which have enabled us to definitely 

 settle the position of these organisms in the zoological series, are 



1 Vol. iii, part 3. 



^ Bull. Soc. Geol. France, ser. Ill, torn, xiii, p. 104. 



