430 Miscellaneous. 



and editing, other accomplished and energetic Fellows of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society, namely T. Jeffery Parker, B.Sc, A. W. Ben- 

 nett, M.A., B.Sc, and F. Jeffrey Bell, B.A.; and the results of their 

 combined work continue to he scientifically good and of great value 

 to the Society to which they belong, and to the scientific world in 

 general. 



The original communications to the Society, upwards of forty in 

 number, contain many excellent natural-history notes and memoirs, 

 mostly illustrated, besides those in which the Microscope itself is 

 the more important subject. 



Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society. 

 New Series, vol. vii. part 2, pp. 107-218, with 7 plates. Edited 

 by J. W. Davis, F.S.A., F.G.S., &c. 8vo. Leeds, 1879. 



This latest publication of the long-established scientific Society of 

 the West Biding of Yorkshire bears witness to its vitality and the 

 intellectual activity of its Members. Mr. W. Morrison's address, 

 short as it is, is strong in sensible remarks on the ill effects that 

 " cramming " and prize-getting have on modern education, in which 

 work is not done for the work's sake, but for some material end and 

 self-aggrandizement. Local geology has many useful illustrations 

 among the papers in this Part of the Proceedings, ranging from the 

 coal-fields to the glacial phenomena of Yorkshire ; and some of the 

 papers, though treating of local facts, have philosophical bearings 

 of wide application — such, for instance, as the Rev. E. M. Cole's 

 paper on the origin and formation of the Wold Dales. For 

 Natural History we find interesting and new matter detailed by 

 Messrs. Cash and Hick in their communication on Fossil Fungi 

 (pi. vi.) from the Coal-measures ; and to the Cryptogams they refer 

 Carruthers's Traquairia, also from the Halifax coal. Mr. J. W. 

 Davis describes (without figures) some new Carboniferous fish- 

 remains as Ostracacanthus dilatatus, which he thinks has strong 

 Teleostean affinities. A summary of the geological literature 

 relating to Yorkshire which has been published in 1877-78, the 

 Minutes of Meetings (comprising a notice of Baygill Cave), the 

 Report, and some miscellaneous matter complete this useful No. 

 of the Proceedings. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Formation of the Shell in the Snails. 

 By MM. Longe and E. Mek. 



The shell of the Helices consists of two principal layers, of organic 

 and mineral nature, clothed with a cuticle which is wholly organic. 

 The first of these layers is composed, commencing exteriorly, of a 

 structure showing confused striation, of about the same thickness as 

 the cuticle, and of another thicker one formed of vertical prisms. 



