80 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
clean, while the convex valve is covered with worm-tubes, Styela grossularia, 
and Hydroids. The latter are in this connection the most important; it 
would be impossible for specimens of Sertularia and Thuiaria, four or five 
inches long, to grow, as I have found them on almost every Oyster, in the 
central.part of the left valve, if that valve were the lower in position. On 
examining Pectens I found that they resembled the Oyster in the contrast 
between the surfaces of the two valves, the upper convex one being covered 
with Balanus and other fixed animals, the lower being almost clean. It is 
generally stated that the Pecten lies on its right valve; if this statement 
rests on the evidence afforded by the condition of the surface of the valves, 
the same criterion applied to the Oyster leads to the same conclusion, that 
the right valve is the lower. I have never seen a young Oyster in the 
attached condition: Huxley states that it is the left valve which is fixed ; 
in papers on the embryology of the Oyster I have not yet been able to find 
any definite information on the point. Whether it is the right or left valve 
that becomes attached when the larva assumes the sessile condition I 
cannot therefore say of my own knowledge, but with regard to the adult 
Oyster it seems to me certain that the current belief is caused by the 
repetition of an error. My attention was first called to this point by my 
assistant, Mr. John Walker, who tells me that the opinion of the fishermen 
at Newhaven is divided on the point, some saying that the convex valve, 
others that the flat valve, is the lower.—J. T. Cunnineuam (Scottish 
Marine Station, Granton), in ‘ Nature.’ 
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
EnromoLtoaicaL Society or Lonpon. 
January 20, Anniversary Meeting. — Ropert M‘Lacuuan, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair. 
An abstract of the Treasurer’s accounts was read by Mr. H. T. Stainton, 
one of the Auditors ; and the Secretary read the report of the Council. 
The following gentlemen were then elected as the Council for 1886 :— 
President, Robert M‘Lachlan, F.R.S.; Treasurer, Edward Saunders, 
F.L.S.; Secretaries, Herbert Goss, F.L.S., and W. W. Fowler, M.A., 
F.L.S.; Librarian, Ferdinand Grut, F.L.S.; other Members of Council, 
T. R. Billups, Edward A. Fitch, F.L.S., F. Du Cane Godman, M.A., 
F.R.S., W. F. Kirby, E. B. Poulton, M.A., F.G.S., H. T. Stainton, 
F.R.S., Samuel Stevens, F.L.S., and J. Jenner Weir, F.L.S., F.Z.8. 
The President then delivered an address, and a vote of thanks to him 
was moved by Mr. Stainton, and seconded by Mr. Pascoe; and the 
President then replied. A vote or thanks to the Officers was then moved 
by Mr. Dunning, and seconded by Mr. Distant; and Messrs. Saunders, 
Fitch, Kirby, and Grut replied—H. Goss, Hon. Secretary. 
