78 Miscellaneous. 



longitudine totali ; anus intra pinnas ventrales situs ; lobus pinnae 



caudalis superior late truncatus ; colore obscure brunneus. 



From Australia. Catal. no. 239. Certainly related to Scymnus 

 and Lcemargus, but is quite distinct from ^S". bispinosus, Q. & G. 

 (Voy. Uranie, Atlas, Zool. pi. 44) and also from Somniosus brevi- 

 pinna, Less. 



The following species are described as probably new : — 



Cottus gigas, perhaps identical with C. jaok, Cuv. & Val., or a va- 

 riety of that species. From Decastre's Bay, at the mouth of the 

 Amur. Cat. no. 1395. 



Osmerus oligodon, very near O. japonicus, Brevoort (Japan. Fishes, 

 pi. 1 0), but readily distinguished by its lateral line being inter- 

 rupted as in O. eperlanus. From the same locality as the pre- 

 ceding species. — Sitzungsber. der Akad. der Wiss. zu Wien, Nov. 

 10, 1864, p. 185. 



Observations on the Structure of the Nervous System in Clepsine. 



By E. Baudelot. 



In its totality the nervous chain of Clepsine appears to be organized 

 on the same type as in the other Hirudinese. Above the mouth 

 there is a bilobed, cerebroid, inflated part, giving origin to two very 

 short connectives which closely embrace the oesophagus and unite 

 the cerebral with the suboesophageal centre ; the latter is voluminous, 

 and is followed by a series of twenty-one very distinct ganglia united 

 by double connectives, and the chain terminates in an elongated 

 nervous mass, the extremity of which corresponds with the centre of 

 the posterior sucker. 



When one of the ganglia of the median portion of the chain is 

 examined by the microscope, two sorts of elements are easily distin- 

 guished through its hyaline membrane — some fibrous, the others 

 cellular. The fibrous portion appears as a median ribbon continuous 

 with the connectives, and becomes gradually enlarged towards the 

 middle of the ganglion, acquiring at this part a fusiform or lozenge- 

 shaped appearance. At the level of the angles of this lozenge the 

 lateral nerves originate. The cellular portion of the ganglion con- 

 sists of six capsular inflations, of an ovoid form : two of these are 

 situated on the median line beneath the fibrous median ribbon, 

 through which they may be seen ; the other four occupy each one 

 of the compartments of the ganglion. 



These six capsules appear to contain only unipolar cells, the di- 

 mensions of which vary between yf^ and y4_ mill. Each of these 

 cells contains a large nucleus, of oval form, with one or more nucleoli 

 in its interior. The cells of the four exterior capsules are continuous 

 by their produced extremity with a nervous fibre ; all the fibres 

 which thus originate radiate towards the centre of the ganglion, 

 where they interlace either with the fibres from the opposite capsules 

 or with those which descend from the connectives and lateral nerves. 



The connectives appear to consist of a fibro-granular substance 



