Royal Society. 2(M 



species of this fungi." One figure shows "the zones of annual 

 growth, termed the medullary rays." Again, we have an account 

 of the " Bryozoa Bowerbankia ;" with abstracts from Quekett's His- 

 torical Catalogue. Also a host of misspelt words ; and these not 

 occurring accidentally, but frequently repeated : thus, Astatia, Pluro- 

 sigma, Volvox globata, Saccina ventriculi, &c. The author has 

 also an insuperable difficulty in the distinction of the singular from 

 the plural. Thus, we have " Torufte diabetica ;" " the Entozoa 

 folliculorum is," &c. ; " Vibrio spirilla or trembling animalculte 

 appear," &c. The words animalcules and spiculce are constantly 

 used. The author's knowledge of chemistry is also extremely small, 

 for we are told that the " invaluable agent, Formic acid or Chloro- 

 form, was first discovered in, and produced from, the Formic ant ;" 

 and that the "contents of the cells of the yeast-plant resemble fat or 

 oil, a protenic substance." 



In short, the work is evidently written by one who has amused 

 himself with the examination of mounted microscopic objects, but 

 who can lay no claims to the character of a man of science, and who 

 is very ill-calculated to write a popular work. The book is just that 

 which we should have expected from one of those uneducated men, 

 highly useful in their way, who obtain their livelihood by preparing and 

 mounting microscopic objects ; but it is a discreditable production 

 from the pen of a member of the learned profession to which the 

 author belongs. The part of the publishers has been well performed, 

 and many of the woodcuts are very beautifully executed. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 

 April 6, 1854.— Thomas Graham, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



" On a peculiar Arrangement of the Sanguiferous System in 

 Terebratula and certain other Brachiopoda." By W. B. Carpenter, 

 M.D., F.R.S. 



In a memoir " On the Minute Structure of Shell," read before the 

 Royal Society January 17, 1843, (and subsequently embodied in a 

 " Report " on the same subject, prepared at the request of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, and published 

 in its Transactions for 1844,) I first announced the fact, that the 

 ' punctations ' which had been previously noticed on the exterior 

 of many Brachiopodous shells, both recent and fossil, are really the 

 orifices of tubular perforations, which pass directly through each 

 valve, from one of its surfaces to the other (fig. 1). 



Having subsequently obtained specimens of Terebratula in which 

 the soft parts of the animals had been preserved, in connection with 

 their shells, I ascertained that these passages are occupied in the 

 living state by membranous cseca, closed externally, but opening on 

 the internal surface of the shell, and filled with minute cells of a 



