126 REPORT—1862. 
arts of the body. In each case the sacrifice sustained is shown to be manifest. 
The remedy proposed to obviate this threefold loss is the ingrafting of elasticated 
leather into the sole of the boot or shoe, between the heel and tread, under the 
instep, whereby the foot is allowed to perform with comparative freedom its natu- 
ral movements in progression, and consequently the muscles to retain their normal 
health, strength, and usefulness. The soundness of this conclusion is confirmed 
by upwards of twenty-five years’ experience in the wear of foot-clothing thus 
made. The elastic principle is shown to be a size gud non,—mere form, however 
adapted to the foot when in repose, being inadequate to obviate the loss of mus- 
cular power when walking. In illustration of the elastic principle, two strong 
Blucher boots were exhibited, the one made on Mr. Dowie’s plan, having elasti- 
cated leather ingrafted into the sole, in contrast with the other, a rigid-soled 
“ sealed-pattern regulation boot” as now worn by the British army. 
On Pearls ; their Parasitic Origin. By Rovert Garner, F.L.S. 
The author said he had particularly examined those formed in the mantle of the 
Conway and Lancashire mussel,—not the beautiful pearls of the Alasmodon, from 
the Upper Conway at Llanrwst, but those of the salt-water mussel: however, he 
attributes the same origin to all pearls, the oxidation of a minute species of Distoma 
causing their formation, much in the same way that galls are formed in plants. 
On an Albino Variety of Crab ; with some Observations on Crustaceans, 
and on the Effect of Light. By Roserr Garner, F.L.S. 
In four species of Crustacea which were observed, a splitting of the fore-claws at 
the third joint from the extremity took place during moulting, exactly as described 
by Reaumur, the line of splitting being afterwards with difficulty perceived in the 
cast shell. This splitting always takes place in the same line—a line noticeable in 
the shell of a crustacean not about to moult, at least in those species observed, as 
the Hermit-lobster. The author has rarely failed to detect the Nereis bilineata at 
the posterior part of the spire of the shell which is occupied by the latter animal, 
and many years back forwarded it to Dr. Johnston, of Berwick, to whom it proved 
an acquisition, and who believed it to be absent or rare on the Northumberland 
coast. The little living Cancer pagurus exhibited was found in the root of a Fucus, 
and when fresh moulted, which had happened several times during the last year, 
was white except the ends of the claws. With respect to the action of light, the 
author observed that some Actiniz did not dislike it, whilst to others it was ex- 
tremely distasteful; for instance, Act. dianthus to avoid it frees itself from its at- 
tachment and swims away like a Limneeus with its base to the surface, whilst the 
common Actinia seems to like it. As an example of the effect of obscurity on a 
vegetable, the author showed a curious specimen of the Clayaria form of Polyporus 
squamosus, which sprung from a piece of oak in an obscure part of an iron-forge. 
he Nereis above-mentioned seems sensible both to light and sound. The Crus- 
tacea in which the valve-like split (if split it can be called) was observed, were 
separ the Hermit-lobster) the common and the shore crab, and the hairy Por- 
cellana. 
The Skull-sutures in connewion with the Superficies of the Brain. 
By Rozerr Garner, F.L.S,. 
If the mammalian skull may be considered as formed by the enormous develop- 
ment of the elements of several vertebre, and if the vertebral medulla in fishes 
gives indications of its being composed of separate ganglia, then analogy would 
lead us to look in the brain for separate ganglia corresponding to as many vertebrae 
as form the skull, and also to expect corresponding dispositions in other respects— 
as regards nerves and their exit, the ventricles, and the form and distribution of the 
internal grey matter—all probably to be traced. 
_ However, we now confine ourselves to those parts peculiar to the brains of the 
higher animals—the convolutions. These are not merely chance forms due to the 
errant meandering of arteries and veins; for though organs are built up by arteries, 
