48 Quarterly Journal of Conchology, 



the side of the neck, which, like the gill-slits of a shark, he inherited 

 from a shark-like ancestor. Six months after birth the child con- 

 tinued to inherit qualities from it ancestors, viz., from those which 

 crawled on four legs ; and at a later period certain irrepi-essible ten- 

 dencies made it clear that qualities were inherited from climbing and 

 shrieking animals. Mr. Lankester then went into an elaborate de- 

 scription of certain molluscs with a view of showing that the pen (the 

 " cuttle-bone " or sepiostaire) of the cephalopod is homologous with the 

 shell of the lower moUusca. 



Professor Huxley thought that the position had been well estab- 

 lished, Mr. Lankester's attempt to reduce to one form the immense 

 variety of shells in molluscous animals was exceedingly important. 



Dr. Carpenter also said that he was almost prepared to receive the 

 conclusion at which Mr. Lankester had arrived. 



Dr. Michael Foster added his testimony to the value of Mr. 

 Lankester's observations, and said that part of the work accoinj^lished 

 was due to the establishment of the Zoological station at Naples. 



The Cambridge Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate, in their 

 eighth annual report state that among the additions which have been 

 made to the collections in the several museums, the bequest of the 

 late Mr. M'Andrew, F.R.S., of the whole of his collection of shells 

 and other specimens, deserves the first mention, as it is a gift of the 

 highest scientific value. 



Academy of Sciences, Paris, Sept. 7, 1874. — M. Fremy in 

 the chair. — On some phenomena of localisation of mineral and organic 

 substances in Mollusca, Gasteropoda, and Cephalopoda, by M. E. 

 Heckel. Specimens of Helix aspersa and Zonites algirus were fed 

 with white lead, or with acetate of lead mixed with wheat flour. An 

 accumulation of metal was found m the liver and also in the cerebral 

 ganglia. Loligo vidgaris, Sepia officinalis, and Octop)ns vulgaris were 

 fed during two months with garancine (mixed Avith meat). In no 

 case was the intei-nal shell coloured, but the cephalic cartilage and 

 all the cartilaginous portions of the skeleton of these Mollusca were 

 coloured after an experiment of three months' duration. The author 

 points out the necessity of distinguishing clearly the hard parts be- 

 longing to the skeleton from those belonging to the shell. 



In February last the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred 

 upon the distinguished conchologist, Mr. John Gwyn Jefireys, F.R.S., 

 by the University of St. Andrew's. 



Within, the past month has been announced the death of Mr. Bryce 

 McMurdo Wi'ight, well known as a collector of fossils and shells. 



