Mr. T. Davidson on the Brachiopoda. 435 



minute and elaborate investigations made by M. Bosquet for 

 his fine work (now in the press) on the Brachiopoda of the Creta- 

 ceous beds of Maestricht and its vicinity, that able palseouto- 

 logist discovered that the interior of the shell in question (apart 

 from its peculiar hinge-plate) was exactly similar to Mayas, and 

 with his kind permission we have reproduced (in fig. 4) the 

 drawings kindly forwarded by the Belgian author. That the 

 genus Rhynchora should be expunged there can remain but 

 little doubt, since it was based on no valid characters, and those 

 which have been supposed to exist have proved incorrect. 



We will now revert to the principal object of this communi- 

 tion, which was intended to call attention to certain interesting 

 observations published abroad, but which appear unknown to, or 

 to have been overlooked by British naturalists. 



2. On the Claims to Priority in the discovery of the peculiar 

 function of certain Muscles in the opening and closing of the 

 Shell of Terebratula. 



Prof. Sedgwick in pages xi and xii of his Introduction (Bri- 

 tish Palaeozoic Rocks and Fossils, October 1855) still appears to 

 consider the merit of the above-mentioned discovery to be due 

 to Prof. M'Coy, since we find stated in the work quoted, " I 

 avail myself, however, of this occasion to state ivhy I believe that 

 Prof. M'Coy was the original discoverer of the peculiar muscular 

 action on a leverage supplied by what he calls the 'entering 

 valve,^ which, in the absence of the cartilage, enabled the Bra- 

 chiopoda to open their shells 'in a manner unexampled in 

 Lamellibranch Bivalves^" (p. 191). He however admits that 

 Mr. Woodward had discovered and published this remarkable 

 fact (in his Manual) a year before Prof. M'Coy's 2nd Fasci- 

 culus was out of the press, but seems to base the Professor's 

 claims on the statement of his having found it out in 1848 or '49, 

 and mentioned the circumstance to Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Morris, 

 but who nevertheless did not communicate on the subject with 

 any other person with whom I am acquainted. Knowing the 

 high value Prof. Sedgwick attaches to historical statements, and 

 his wish to see justice done to every one, I will add a few details 

 which I trust will help to clear up and terminate this subject. 

 It will not be necessary here to repeat what I published in the 

 Introduction to my work on British Fossil Brachiopoda, pp. 54 

 and 55, 1853, any further than to say that I believe it was there 

 demonstrated, that Prof. M'Coy could not claim priority on this 

 point ; but at that period I was myself unacquainted with Prof. 

 Quenstedt's still more ancient claims, which I found out shortly 

 after, while reading Dr. Gratiolet's paper entitled " Note sur les 



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