269 
several contributions dealing with the language and customs of 
some interior and northern races of the Australian aborigine 
have been published. 
Comparative Anatomy is represented by papers dealing with 
the osteology, myology, and neurology of that most interesting 
marsupial, Votoryctes typhlops. 
Lastly, the papers on the chemical properties of certain 
botanical products are the outcome of careful and original re- 
search work. 
And now, if your patience be not already exhausted, I will 
refer to 
SOME RECENT ADVANCES TO OUR KNOWLEDGE 
OF NATURAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA. 
1. On A RECENT CLASSIFICATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN LAND 
MoLLusca. 
The appearance of Dr. Cox’s Monograph of Australian Land- 
shells, 1868, with its copious illustrations, brought the study of 
this department of Natural History within easy reach, and till 
recently has been a vade mecuwm to Australian workers. But of 
late years the number of species has been nearly doubled, and 
important advances have been made in their classification. The 
helix-like shells which were then known to Cox are included by 
him under one generic denomination, that of Helix, though he 
employed sectional names in accordance with Pfeiffer’s nomenclat- 
ure, which is based on the classification proposed by Albers and 
Von Martens. Up to this time the classification was based solely, 
as regards the Australian forms, on conchological characters, or 
on characters derived from the study of some special organ. But 
as far back as 1873, Von Martens (‘Critical List of the Mollusca 
of New Zealand,” p. 8) remarked that “this genus /( Helix), 
which has been formerly determined by the aspect of the shell 
only, has during late years been more narrowly circumscribed by 
the peculiarities of the masticatory and generative organs. As 
no New Zealand species has hitherto been the subject of anatom- 
ical researches, we cannot say how many, and indeed if any, of 
those which have been described as New Zealand species of 
Helix will remain in that genus as it is now understood.” During 
the years 1880-1882 Professor Hutton communicated several 
papers to the New Zealand Institute dealing with the anatomy of 
the land snails of that region, and established some new genera ; 
but later Messrs. Hedley and Suter have separately and con- 
jointly made exact and minute study of the various elements of 
the morphological characters of the Australasian helicoid snails, 
and have thereby demonstrated that they exhibit structural dif- 
