March 18, 1880] 



NATURE 



473, 



stiff, non-retractile pedicels, and six round the posterior 

 end of the body. On the back two rows of papilke, and 



ifl 



& 



Fie. 10. Fig. 11 



F:c. io. — Irfa abysskola, K. and D. Dorsal surface. Fig. 

 hyaiitta, K. and D. Ventral surface. 



i.—Kolga 



two standing separate between them. Calcareous spicules 

 in the skin. 



L. abyssicola, K. and D. 

 Kol%a, K. and D. (Fig. n) (from the Norse mythology). 



Body bilateral ; oral disk furnished with ten tentacles, 

 turned towards the ventral surface. On the anterior 

 portion of the back there is a prominent collar furnished 

 with papilla?, and right in front of it two openings, a 

 genital opening and the opening of the sand canal. 

 Pedicels on both sides of the body and round the posterior 

 end. Sexes separate. No "respiratory tree." 



K. hyalina, K. and D. 



These are all abyssal forms, eight of the seventeen 

 species having been dredged from depths of more than 

 2,000 fathoms. They are very extravagant in shape — the 

 names which Dr. The'el has given them shows that their 

 appearance suggests such stuff as dreams are made on — 

 and they are of large size, some over a foot in length. 



One group is very gelatinous, and of a rich purple 

 colour ; others are gelatinous, grey, and semi-transparent ; 

 while another series, and among these the most fantastic 

 of the whole, are yellowish and have a test crustaceous 

 with a thick layer of calcareous plates, often running out 

 into strangely shaped processes. A peculiar little group 

 from the Antarctic Sea are little more than a gelatinous 

 membrane, covering an enormously distended intestine, 

 filled with diatom ooze. From the number of species 

 and individuals which came up in our scattered and in- 

 frequent hauls of the trawl, the Elasmopoda must form 

 quite a prominent feature of the abyssal fauna. 



C. Vvwille Thomson 



NOTES 

 A high and well-deserved compliment has been paid to the 

 United States Signal Service, of whose services to meteorology 

 our readers are so well aware. The German Government 



recently addressed through the German Minister at Washington, 

 a letter requesting to be exactly informed as to the processes by 

 which the Signal Service Bureau so promptly collects at the 

 War Department the meteorological reports from all parts of the 

 United State ; — an extent of territory greater than Europe — and 

 so rapidly drafts and publishes them upon the printed daily 

 weather map. These maps are issued three hours after the 

 records are read at the distant stations. When it is remembered 

 that the request comes from a government noted for its skilled 

 chartographers, and standing first in Europe, the value of the 

 compliment will be appreciated. It is understood that the 

 German Government proposes an advance in meteorological 

 work. The information sought has been minutely prepared by 

 the Chief Signal Officer, Gen. Myer, with the approval cf the 

 Secretary of War. 



The death is announced of Mr. Thomas Bell, F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., &c, of the Wakes, Selborne, Hampshire, on Satur- 

 day, at the advanced age of eighty-seven. Mr. Bell had a large 

 practice as a dentist, and his name was well known in the scien- 

 tific world. He was for a long period Professor of Zoology in 

 King's College, and his histories of " British Quadrupeds" and 

 of " British Reptiles," though published more than forty years 

 ago, are still much Esteemed. When he was over eighty-four 

 years old he brought out his edition of Gilbert White's " Natural 

 History of Selborne." Mr Bell was Corresponding Member 

 of several foreign scientific societies. About eighteen years ago 

 he gave up practice and retired to The Wakes at Selborne, 

 Gilbert White's house, which he purchased from the great-nieces 

 of the naturalist. Here he collected every memorial he could 

 find of White, and the hou-e and grounds were ever open to the 

 admirers of "The Selborne." 



The Paris Academy of Sciences has received information of 

 the death of M. Zinin, the eminent chemist, of St. Peter-burg. 

 He was the discoverer of the proiuclian of aniline colours by 

 hydro-carburets. 



The University of Konigsberg lost towards the close of last 

 month one of the oldest members of its professorial staff, in the 

 person of Dr. Ludwig Moser, Professor of Physics. Long before 

 photography had become a practical art, Dr. Moser had acquired 

 considerable reputation by his systematic and successful experi- 

 ments in this department. He was in his seventy-fifth year. 



The following epigram on Dr. Siemens's recent paper has 

 been sent us as by " a well-known scientific man." It is entit'ed 

 Electric Chlorophyll : — 



" Quis veterum vidit plantas sine sole virentes 

 Germinat en semen Siemcntis lumine claro." 



The Ancient Monuments' Bill has been read a second time in 

 the House of Lords and been referred to a Select Committee. 



Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to command that 

 the Agricultural College, Cirencester, be styled the "Royal 

 Agricultural College." 



M. Mascart, the head of the French Central Bureau of 

 Meteorology, has sent out a circular to his several rural corre 

 spondents, with forms for the purpose of collecting information 

 on a number of natural phenomena relating to animal and plant 

 life. 



It appears that the Berlin Municipal Corporation has granted 

 to Dr. W. Siemens the concession of one electrical railway 

 which will connect Wedding-Platz with Belle Alliance-Platz. The 

 rails will be supported by iron columns, which will not be an 

 obstruction for the circulation of carriages and passengers in the 

 streets. There will be no intermediate station between the two 

 termini. 



