445 



MISCELLANEOUS, 



Discovery of the Animal of the Spongiadae confirmed. 

 By H. J. Carter, F.E.S. &c. 



Mr DEAR Dr. Fraxck, 



Just a line to tell you what you will be glad to learn, viz. that I 

 have confii-med all that Prof. James-Clark, of Boston, has stated 

 about the sponge-cell, and much more too. 



It is, after all, only what was published and illustrated in the 

 * Annals ' in 1857. Indeed I am astonished now at the accuracy 

 and detail of that paper (" Ultimate Structure of SpongiUa " &c.), 

 now all confirmed by an examination of a marine calcareous sponge. 



I have not only fed the sponge with indigo, and examined all at 

 the moment, but the sponge so fed was put into spirit directly after- 

 wards, and now shows all the cells (monociliated) with the cilium 

 attached and the indigo still in the cells. 



This, I think, will break down Hackel's hypothesis, which is as 

 imaginative and incorrect as it is beautiful. 



His " Magosphaera," too, is figured in the 'Annals' (185G), and de- 

 scribed in extenso as the amoeboid cell which inhabits the mucus 

 of the cells or internodes of the Bombay great Nitella. 



But there are no people in England, if on the Continent, who 

 seem to be able to show this, if even they be cognizant of it. 



Ex oriente lax used to be the old phrase ; the light is now being 

 reflected back from America. It is fi'om there that we must expect 

 novelties now. Yours &c., 



" The Cottage," Budleigh-Salterton, H. J. Carter. 



May 22, 1871. 



On Testudo Phayrei and Seapia Falconeri. 

 By Dr. J. E. Grat, E.R.S. &e. 



Dr. J. Anderson read a communication to the Zoological Society 

 on the 2nd of May, accompanied by '•' some drawings of and notes 

 on the original specimen of Testudo Phayrei, Blyth, in the Indian 

 Museum. Having examined the skull in the British Museum upon 

 which Seapia Falconeri, Gray, has been based, and re-examined the 

 small example of Testudo Phayrei at Calcutta, Dr. Anderson had 

 come to the conclusion that Mr. Theobald's account of the history 

 was strictly accurate." 



Taught by former experience, I have consulted Dr. Anderson's 

 original paper, and find, — 1st, that the ofiicial minute above copied 

 is inaccurate in most of the statements it contains. Dr. Anderson 

 states first that the sternum shows that the animal is a Testudo, and 

 the figures only refer to this part, and consequently both Mr, Blyth 

 and Mr. Theobald were Avi'ong, according to hira, in referring it to 

 the genus Maaouria ; secondly, that Mr. Theobald has falsely de- 

 scribed the state of the specimen in the Indian Museum, in his 

 printed catalogue of that collectioQ ; and, thirdly, the almost incre- 



