240 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



L., Soh'7t vagina L., Dosinia hipimts Poli, Ostrea steiitttia Payr. , Mactra 

 coral Una L., Venus gallina'L., s^nd. A^atica iosephitta'RecX. \s.r. egypliana 

 Reel., all represented by fine examples. 



From Mr. J. E. Cooper : Several examples of Truncatella tnincahda 

 Dp., from Bawdsey Ferry, Suffolk, with a note that although dead the 

 specimens were quite fresh, and must have lived in the river (the Deben) ; 

 also a number oi Hydrobia 2ilviB from the same locality. 



Candidate Proposed for Membership: 



Dr. James Clark (proposed by Mr. W. Denisoa Roebuck, F.L.S., and 

 Mr. William Nelson). 



Decease of Member. 



The death of Mr. James William Davis, F.S.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 Mayor of Halifax, on July 20, 1893, was announced, and the Secretary 

 requested to convey to the family an expression of the Society's sympathy. 



Paper Read : 



A paper by Messrs. J. G. Milne and Charles Oldham, on ' The 

 Molluscan Fauna of the Bowdon District of Cheshire,' which had previously 

 been read before the Manchester Branch, was read [and will be printed in 

 a forthcoming number of the ' Journal of Conchology ']. 



Exhibits : 



The Chairman exhibited a specimen of Hyalinia nitida var. albida from 

 Clonmel, collected by Rev. A. H. Delap, and read a short note on its 

 occurrence. 



Mr. W. Denison Roebuck, F.L.S., exhibited a small specimen of Z?'wf7.r 

 cinereo-niger var. viaiira which he had taken in Roppa Plantation, Bilsdale, 

 York N.E., on the 20th August. 



Mr. Henry Crowther, F.R.M.S., then gave a micioscopical demonstra- 

 tion of points in the biology of SphiEriiun conienin, which anchors itself to 

 bits of water-weed or to the sides of the glass by means of molluscan threads 

 for a week or two at a time. In this position the incurrent and excurrent 

 siphons and the foot are extended. The extension of the foot is striking, 

 since this organ is usually an organ of locomotion. Microscopical examina- 

 tion demonstrates that the primary use of the foot in Spharhun. and probably 

 in near-allied genera, is no longer for the progression of the animal, but for 

 the procuring of food, by means of a ciliated ectoderm, which is developed 

 on the foot. The cilia of the tip are especially long, the movement being 

 incurrent, i.e., the cilia carry food and air to the gape of the shell, whence 

 they are carried by other ciliated areas over the gills and to the organs of 

 alimentation. As he trusts to embody in a paper other facts of some mala- 

 cological interest to conchologists about this mollusc, he wishes merely 

 to put on record here the fact that vye have in Splucnum a transitional stage 

 in the use of the foot, which is now primarily a feeding organ, a ciliated arm ; 

 and, secondarily, an organ of locomotion, used occasionally when the animal 

 wishes to seek fresh feeding ground. — W.D. R., Hon. Sec. 



J.C, vii., Oct. 1803. 



