MiscelUineous. 65 



It is inrlLaputublu, therefore, that Mr. JeHrc)M hii«l Htudinl my 

 writirif^s, and that the oiiitiion entertained of them Ity him in i>S«»H 

 was revoki'd in favonr of that expressed by him in I>'(i8; whilst that 

 cxiiresvSfd in IrtfJM has a^ain in its tnm Vx;en superseded hy the very 

 jKisitive eontradiction it receives in his note in ' Nature ' jmblished 

 a fortnif^ht ago I 



It is likewise desennng of special notice that Dr. Carj)enter, who 

 might be supposed to have made himself acquainted with the whole 

 past literature of the subject, should, at p. lb 1 of the official coj)y of 

 his ' Preliminary Iteport on Dredging for 1808,' have thought it 

 exjK-'dient to single out from these two most conflicting statements 

 that which was offered by Mr. Jeffreys in 1808 (see above), as evi- 

 dence that " Dr. Wallirh's just claims had not by any means com- 

 manded the universal assent of natural'isUi " — an assent to whif;h, if 

 just, as it has now been most clearly ])roved that they were and are, 

 those conclusions were long ago entitled. 



With regard to Mr. Jeffreys's division of oceanic animals into 

 "zrjophagons" and "sarcophagous," I have nothing to urge beyond 

 my avowed inability to discern any valid physiological difference be- 

 tween those that are zoophagous and those that are sarcojihagous. 

 It rests with Mr. Jeffreys to explain on what grounds he has felt 

 justified in declaring so emphatically that "rtowe" of the animals 

 " of all kinds ami sizes, everywhere ahuudant from the surface to the 

 bottom,''' observed by him in his exploration of the North Atlantic, 

 were phytophagous. 



It only remains for me to add that fi.r ^-ears I stood alone 

 in maintaining, in opposition to the opinion of P^hrenberg and his 

 followers, that all plant-life becomes extinct at depths exceeding 400 

 or 500 fathoms, and that the nutrition of the Foraminifera and some 

 .other orders of oceanic Rhizopods is effected by a special vital func- 

 tion, whereby they are enabled to eliminate, from the medium in 

 which they live, the elementary ingredients which enter into the for- 

 mation of their body- and shell-substances. The facts and reasoning 

 on which my observations were based wUl ha found in the various 

 published papers &c. already referred to. 



I remain, Gentlemen, 



Yours very faithfully, 



G. C. Wallich. 

 Kensington, 

 December 24, 1869. 



On the Specific Distinctness of Anodonta anatina. 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Mayazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — There has been, and, I believe, still is, a diversity 

 of opinion as to whether Anodonta an/itina is a distinct species or only 

 a variety oi Anodonta cyynm. I have, since I commenced the study 

 of conchologj-, inclined to the former view ; and I think I am now 

 able to bring forward evidence in favour of it which has not been 



Ann. & Mag. X. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. v. 5 



