428 Miscellaneous. 



unfortunate that some of the definitions are either inadequate or 

 misleading, e. g., " Gastropoda, a class of univalve mollusks, the 

 lower surface of whose belly forms the foot," Many Gastropods 

 have no shells, and in some the foot ( Vermetus, Xenophora, Strombus, 

 &c.) cannot be said to form the lower surface of their belly. Getms 

 is termed " a subdivision of an Order." This should be family 

 The explanations given of mantle, Pulmonobranchiata, scar, sinuate, 

 suture, synonym, valve, &c. are extremely crude. A synonym is 

 said to be " a name that has the same meaning as another name " ; 

 the suture is " the furrow between the whorls of a univalve " ; 

 muscular scars are described as " depressions formed by the attach- 

 ment of the muscles holding the parts of a bivalve together." 



In the index we notice that synonyms are omitted. This, in 

 cases of such old " familiar names " as Paludina, Helix encetorum, 

 Hyalinici DrajKirnaldi, II. glabra, and Pupa umbilicata, is to be 

 regretted. 



In conclusion, whilst pointing out certain inaccuracies which mar 

 the work, we do not altogether deny its utility, for, being written 

 by an experienced field-naturalist, it contains much information 

 that will be useful to the collector. The nine original plates are 

 reproduced with slight alterations, and to them have been added 

 two others devoted to slugs and Pisidia. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Lysactinic, not Lissactinic. 



To the Editors of tlie '■Annals and Magazine of Natural History.'' 



Gentlemeii, — Dr. Gregory has called my attention to a serious and 

 misleading error on p. 14 of my ' Catalogue of British Echino- 

 derms.' In line 12 there occurs in brackets the word lissactinic ; 

 as is clear from the corresponding word desmactinic, five lines lower, 

 I meant to express in one word that condition of Echinoderm 

 organization in which the rays are free from the " calycinal plates." 

 Of course I ought to have written lysactinic. 



I am totally at a loss to explain how I came to make such an 

 egregious blunder, for it would be both an affectation and an untruth 

 to appeal to the Johnsonian excuse of "sheer ignorance, madam," 

 while the Horatian explanation of Homer's occasional sleepiness is 

 altogether inapplicable : no schoolboy — I do not mean Lord 

 Macaulay's prodigy — in the hottest, sleepiest afternoon of all the 

 summer half would ever be caught napping like this. I remember, 

 however, that in the later part of the year 1891 I had my 

 first attack of influenza, and the error was, perhaps, a sequela of 

 that mysterious and enervating afiiiction. 



F. JEFFKEr Bell. 



