390 Rev. R. T, Lowe on the Respiratory Organs, ^r. 



My object in these additional remarks is not at present entirely to re- 

 nounce all my former inferences; but ojily to guard other enquirers, by 

 explaining more clearly and distinctly the exact extent, to which, in the 

 present state of the matter, those conclusions may be safely and legiti- 

 mately received. 



I have been led to reconsider and thus to recapitulate this matter, 

 from some anatomical observations, made by my friend the Reverend 

 M. J. Berkeley, on the nature, or structure, of the respiratory organs in 

 Valuta denticulata, Mont. These he is inclined to consider of the same 

 nature as those of the LimncEidee, I am not in any way disposed to 

 impugn the correctness of these observations ; nor to shelter myself be- 

 hind considerations of the difficulty of obtaining by the scalpel correct 

 ideas in objects so minute and difficult of examination as these. To the 

 authour of the investigation of the anatomy of Cydostoma, in this Journal, 

 apart from all private sources of the fullest confidence in his skill and 

 ability, the most implicit dependence may be paid, in points such as 

 these; however baffling they may have proved to the researches of my- 

 self and others, conducted on the same plan. But granting the complete 

 establishment of the fact, by any means of investigation, viz. that the re- 

 spiratory organs of Vol. denticulata, Mont, are not branchial, i. e. pec- 

 tinated ; I am not therefore authorized to conclude finally, though I may 

 be led to suspect, that those of Pedipes, Truncatella and Melampus are 

 also not so. In my former paper, I have myself introduced this shell, 

 not without considerable hesitation on other grounds, into association 

 with my Melampodes, in the absence of all accurate knowledge of the 

 animal as to the point in question. I cannot therefore at present admit 

 this instance to be of sufficient weight to invalidate peremptorily all the 

 inferences in question ; though it is certainly well vvortli consideration, 

 and a most interesting discovery in itself. 



R. T. L. 



Madcrn, March 20th, 1833. 



