434 MR. c. F JENKiN ON [May 12, 



to which Mr. Lyclekker gave the racial name cottoni. Whether the 

 name F. temminchi dommicconortom can be used for the Foochow- 

 Burma Bay Cat, or whether, as in the case of cottoni, it refers 

 merely to a colour-phase, remains to be proved. 



Mr. J. T. Cunningham, M.A., F.Z.S., read a paper entitled 

 " The Heredity of Secondary Sexual Characters in Eelation 

 to Hormones, a Contribution to the Theory of Heredity." The 

 paper contained an examination and criticism of the most 

 important recent investigations and theories on the subject by 

 evolutionists of various schools, namely, the theory which attributes 

 such characters to constitutional causes such as male katabolism. 

 Prof Karl Pearson's biometrical investigation of sexual selection 

 in man. Castle's Mendelian theory of the heredity of sex, and 

 Geoffrey Smith's views on dimorphism of males and parasitic 

 castration in Crustacea. The author maintained that all these 

 contributions were more or less inconsistent with the known facts 

 concerning the connection between the development of secondary 

 sexual characters and the functional activity of the primaiy 

 gonads. He drew attention to the recent discovery and experi- 

 mental proof on the part of physiologists that the development of 

 the characters was due to the stimulus of a chemical substance or 

 hormone pr-oduced by the testis or ovary, and passed into the 

 blood, and suggested that conversely hormones from parts of 

 the soma might affect the gametes in the gonads. In this way 

 the hypertrophy of a part of the body due to external stimvilation 

 might modifiy the corresponding determinants in the gametes so 

 as to produce some hereditary effect in succeeding generations. 

 Mr. Cunningham added that his theory was an interpretation in 

 terms of modern physiology of Darwin's theory of pangenesis. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. The Marine Fauna of Zanzibar and British East Africa, 

 from Collections made by Cyril Crossland, M.A., in 

 the Years 1901 & 1902.— The Calcareous Sponges. By 

 C. F. Jenkin *. 



[Received April 1, 1908.] 



(Text-figures 81-104.) 



The Collection, made by Mr. Cyril Crossland at Wasin and 

 Zanzibar m 1901-2, passed through several hands and was finally 

 entrusted to the writer in the autumn of 1907. 



* Communicated by Professor Aethue Dendt, D.Sc, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



