394 Report of a Notice respecting 



which had been broken off and taken away with the greatest 

 care so as not to injure the skin of the animal, were reproduced." 



A long paper, upon the subject of these observations and 

 experiments, has been written by Mrs. Power, and sent by 

 her to M. Maravigno to be laid before the Genoese Society, of 

 which he is the secretary, and which was brought forward at 

 their sitting in September, 1835. Unfortunately, M. Maravigno 

 does not enter into any detail respecting the manner in which 

 Mrs. Power performed her experiments. He confines himself to 

 adding, that, in support of her observations (from which we 

 have just given an extract, in employing the words of M. 

 Maravigno), this lady has sent two Argonaut shells, showing 

 the reproduced portions, and even one of the Cephalopods, 

 which had effected the reparation, besides another shell with 

 its animal preserved in spirits of wine, and in which we see 

 clearly, continues M. Maravigno, the recent work of the Ce- 

 phalopod in repairing the broken place. 



But Mrs. Power has not confined herself to this fact; 

 she has resumed the investigation, begun by Poli, of the 

 eggs of the animal inhabiting the Argonaut. Having in her 

 possession a great number of these creatures filled with eggs, 

 she has satisfied herself that the mollusc is never, at any 

 period of its existence in the ovum, provided with a shell ; but 

 that it quits the egg entirely naked; its shell being subsequently 

 formed ; a new observation, and quite contrary, adds the secre- 

 tary of the Genoese Society, to all which the great Neapolitan 

 naturalist has written on this subject. 



Astonished at this result, M. Maravigno thought it advisable 

 to write to Mrs. Power, and declare to her his doubts as to the 

 correctness of these facts, alluding to the difficulty of micro- 

 scopic observations, and the deceptions and errors which may 

 arise in the use of this instrument. Mrs. Power, being in- 

 duced thus to repeat her observations, arrived at the same 

 results as at first ; and she added to her former paper, not 

 only a supplement, relating the facts that she had newly 

 observed, but she sent, at the same time, to the Genoese 

 Society, and also to its secretary, the eggs of the Cephalopod 

 inhabiting the Argonaut, and the young just hatched, with 

 other specimens, which were some days old, and some pro- 

 vided with shells of different ages, all of which had been 

 developed, and had attained their various stages of growth, 

 under her immediate inspection. M. Maravigno affirms, that 

 he particularly observed among the young Cephalopods which 

 had been sent to him, one in the act of coming out of the egg to 

 which it was still attached ; and that it was entirely destitute of 

 a shell. " Thus," he adds, " the facts observed by Mrs. Power 

 lead to the conclusion, not only that the inhabitant of the 



