March 28, 1843. 
William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
A very perfect specimen of the Brain Coral was exhibited by Capt. 
Fayrer, and various specimens from the collection presented by James 
Brooke, Esq., Corresponding Member, were also laid before the 
Meeting. 
The followimg descriptions of new Shells, from the collection of 
Captain Sir Edward Belcher, R.N., C.B., &c., by Richard Brinsley 
Hinds, Esq., Surgeon R.N., were read :— 
The great accession of species to the genus Pleurotoma, as left by 
Lamarck, renders it necessary that our views respecting it should 
receive some modification. A very prominent circumstance is, that 
the frequent repetition of previously trivial characters has elevated 
them to a situation of importance, and they are thus liable to become 
the distinctive grounds of new and characteristic groups. I com- 
menced my examination with the species collected in the Sulphur, 
being about 120 in number; and subsequently I have had the 
opportunity of extending my researches among the extensive col- 
lection assembled together by Mr. Lovell Reeve, from the cabinets 
of various conchologists, but particularly from that of Mr. Hugh 
Cuming, the whole amounting in all probability to more than three 
hundred species. It is not my intention to attempt anything like a 
monograph of the group, but as it was necessary to make an exten- 
sive revision of the subject, to place the species in my hands in their 
proper position, I trust I shall be doing a service by recording the 
views which became developed in the prosecution of the work. I 
shall, however, confine my remarks to those genera, the mention of 
which is necessary to the elucidation of my species. 
Pievrotoma, Lamarck. 
A beautiful genus, presenting the typical characters of the group 
in their intensity, and capable of being satisfactorily defined. It 
consists of shells which are elongated and fusiform, having the spire 
and canal most frequently nearly equal in length; the sinus a slit, 
usually anterior to the most prominent part of the whorl, with a 
sharp margin; aperture oval; canal straight, and almost constantly 
lengthened; outer lip thin, smooth within, usually crenulated on 
the margin, from the termination of the lesser keels ; inner lip rarely 
produced; sculpture generally transverse. ‘The species are rarely 
found beyond the tropics, and do not abound in individuals, being 
found few in number : they are nearly equally abundant in the Ame- 
rican and Asiatic Seas, but are remarkably absent from the Pacific 
Ocean. They never occur on the shores, being always obtained 
