C 224. j 



XLVII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Feb. 9, ^ I ^HE reading was concluded of a paper " On the Ana- 

 1836 *- tomy of the Lamellibranchiate Conchiferous Animals, 

 by Robert Garner, Esq., F.L.S.," a portion of which had been read 

 at the meeting on November 24, 1835. 



Founded principally on the author's individual obsen'ations, 

 which have extended to the animals of several genera the anatomi- 

 cal structure of which is hitherto insufficiently known, this commu- 

 nication embodies also much information derived from the works of 

 Poll, Cuvier, Bojanus, Home, M. de Blaiuville, and others. It is so 

 arranged as to constitute a condensed memoir on the subject to which 

 it is devoted, comprehending a summary of all that is yet known 

 respecting it. 



After some general remarks on the high importance of a know- 

 ledge of the structure of the animals that form those shells which 

 have at all times attracted the attention of the curious, but to an 

 acquaintance with which many naturalists, until of late years, have 

 been content to limit themselves, Mr. Garner proceeds to speak of 

 the position of the animal with respect to the shell ; and thence to 

 describe the variations in the form of the animal which occasion those 

 appearances in the shell on which rest the primary subdivisions 

 made by conchologists among the Lamellibranchiate Conchifera. He 

 regards Anomia as being in some measure intermediate between this 

 order and the Brachiopoda ; and in illustration of this view describes 

 with some detail the structure of the animal of that genus. 



Mr. Garner then adverts to the mode of growth of the shells and 

 to their structure, and considers them in the variations in form 

 whicb some of them undergo in their progress from the embrj^o to 

 the adult state. He dwells also on the diversity of form assumed by 

 the several groups of Bivalves, and shows in what manner these are 

 occasioned by the form of the animal that produces the shelly cover- 

 ings ; referring to the foot especially as exercising in this respect a 

 very remarkable influence. 



The general review of the external form of the animal is succeeded 

 by an account of the several systems of which it is composed. These 

 are treated of in the following order : 1. Muscular system ; 2. Ner- 

 vous system ; 3. Digestive system ; 4. Circulating system ; 5. Respi- 

 ratory system ; 6. Excretory system ; 7. Cilia (and into this part of 

 his subject the author enters with more than usual detail) ; and, 8. 

 Reprocluctive system. Under each of these heads a rapid review is 

 taken of the principal variations that occur in the order, and the 

 illustrative examples referred to are generally numerous. 



Finally, the author devotes a section of his paper to the diseases 

 and the parasites of the animals on which he treats. 



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