Botany and Zoology. 131 



species of fish bears the name of Terma iermi in the country ; and 

 moreover the effects produced by the Gym not i are, according to Pohl, 

 well known to the mulattos and negroes who often felt them, and have 

 nothing in common with what is related of the minhocao. Professor 

 Gervais, to whom I mentioned my doubts, directed my attention to the 

 description which P. L. Bischoff has given of the Lepidosiren; and 

 indeed the little we know of the minhocao agrees welt enough with 

 what is said of the rare and singular animal discovered by M. Natterer. 

 That naturalist found his Lepidosiren in some stagnant waters near 

 the Rio da Madeira and of the Amazon : the minhocao is not only said 

 to be in rivers, but also in lakes. It is, without doubt, very far from 

 the lake Feia to the two localities mentioned by the Austrian traveller; 

 but we know that the heats are excessive at Goyaz. La Serra da 

 "aranahyba e do Tocantim, which crosses this province, is one of the 

 most remarkable dividers of the gigantic water-courses of the north of 

 Brazil from those of the south ; the llio dos Piloes belongs to the 

 former, as does the Rio da Madeira. The Lepidosiren paradoxa of M. 

 Natterer has actually the form of a worm, like the minhocao. Both 

 have fins ; but it is not astonishing that they have not always been rec- 

 ognized in the minhocao, if, as in the Lepidosiren, they are in the ani- 

 mal of the Rio dos Piloes reduced to simple rudiments. " The teeth of 

 the Lepidosiren," says Bischoff, " are well-fitted for seizing and tearing 

 its prey; and to judge of them from their structure and from the mus- 

 cles of their jaw, they must move with considerable force." These 

 characters agree extremely well with those which we must of necessity 

 admit in the minhocao, since it seizes very powerfully upon large ani- 

 ^ s an( * drags them away to devour them. It is therefore probable 

 nat the minhocao is an enormous species of Lepidosiren ; and we 

 m, ght, if this conjecture were changed into certainty, join this name 

 X vr °^ ^ e m ' n hocao to designate the animal of the lake Feia and of 

 the Ki dos Piloes. Zoologists who travel over these distant countries 

 will do well to sojourn on the borders of the lake Feia, of the lake 

 j/*dre Aranda, or of the Rio dos Piloes, in order to ascertain the per- 

 fect truth — to learn precisely what the minhocao is ; or whether, not- 

 withstanding the testimony of so many persons, even of the most en- 

 "ghtened men, its existence should be, which is not very likely, reject- 

 ed as fabulous. 



4. Ear of the Limnceus stagnate, (Weigm. Archiv. ; Llostittit, 

 March 10, 1847.)— According ^observations by M. Frey, the auricular 

 v esicle is visible in the Limnreus staanalis soon after the rotary move- 



nts of the embryo have ceased and the animal has commenced to 

 ***ome coiled in "the interior of its shell. There may then be easily 

 observed in the interior part of the body, the rudiments of tentacles, 

 Jeeyes with their pigment, and the tongue with its characteristic epi- 

 thel »um ; and on each side of the base of the tongue, the auditive ve- 

 •fles may be distinguished. These vesicles are spherical, with a sim- 

 ple co *tour, and have a diameter of & to ^ of a line (French). 1 hey 

 a PF>ear at first to contain in the interior only a transparent liquid, and 

 ^en, like the eyes, without any connection with the central parts 

 f the nervous system. But soon one or two small corpuscles are 

 for **ed i a the liquid interior, whose form, size, and oscillatory move- 



