143 
October 25, 1842. 
William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
My. Yarrell laid on the table, and called the attention of the Mem- 
bers to the seventh part of MM. Ekstrom and Sundervall’s work on 
the Fishes of Scandinavia. 
Prof. Owen exhibited a specimen of the Pearly Nautilus (Nautilus 
Pompilius), animal and shell, obtained by Capt. E. Belcher, R.N., at 
Amboina. Prof. Owen alluded to the fact of the specimen described 
by him in 1832 having been detached from the shell, which was de- 
stroyed in its capture, and to the analogies which had guided him in 
determining the position in which he had restored the soft parts to 
the shell, and figured them, zz situ, in his memoir, Objections had 
been made to this restoration by Mr. Gray* and by Dr. Grant} and 
De Blainvillet, who were led by other analogies to believe that the 
upper or outer lip of the shell must have crossed the back of the head, 
instead of crossing the opposite side or funnel, as represented by 
Mr. Owen. M. Valenciennes, who had subsequently received the soft 
parts of a Nautilus, had adopted the position assigned to them in the 
shell by Mr. Owen. 
The present example, in which the animal had been restored by 
Capt. Belcher to its shell in precisely the same position in which it 
was received by him, when recent, closely agreed with the descrip- 
tion and figure in Prof. Owen’s work§. _ The involuted spire of the 
shell is covered by the dorsal fold of the mantle, and is lodged in 
the concavity at the back of the muscular plate above the head. The 
funnel rests upon the outer wall of the large chamber containing the 
animal. 
Capt. Belcher has signified his intention to present the specimen 
to the Royal College of Surgeons, when the requisite investigations 
into other doubtful or mooted points in the organization of the Nau- 
tilus will be made. 
A paper by G. B. Sowerby, Esq., Jun., containing descriptions of 
two new species of shells belonging to the genus Strombus, was then 
read. The specimens were collected by the Society’s Corresponding 
Member, H. Cuming, Esq., in the Philippine Islands, and exhibited 
by that gentleman to the Meeting. 
SrromBus crispatus, Sow. Jun., Thes. Conch. parti. pl. 8. f. 62, 
63. Str. testd turritd, fusiformi, concentricé plicatd, spiraliter 
* Phil. Trans. 1833, p. 774. t+ Lancet, Dec. 28, 1835, pp. 506, 509. 
t Nouvelles Animales du Muséum, tom. iii. p. 7. 
§ Memoir on the Nautilus Pompilius, 4to, 1832 ; published by the Royal 
College of Surgeons. 
