256 TWENTIETH REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. 



"In form and proportions, this species bears a very close resemblance to 

 one in the Waverly sandstone of Ohio, and also to one in the fine-grained 

 sandstone of Burlington, Iowa ; but of neither of these have I the neces- 

 sary material for satisfactory comparison. It differs from the S. sulcuspi- 

 data* of ScHNUR in the plications on the mesial fold and sinus, and the 

 widei' area of the dorsal valve ; and also in the same characters it differs 

 from the S. textus of the sandstone and argillaceous limestone near New- 

 Albany, Indiana, "t 



Note. — After the preceding pages had been some time in print in Vol. 

 iv, Palaeontology of New-York, I saw in the American Journal of Science 

 for May 1866, a notice of a paper in the proceedings of the Academy of 

 Science of Philadelphia, entitled " Observations on the Microscopic shell 

 structure of Spirifer cuspidatus, and some similar forms, by F. B. Meek." 



Thinking there might be some similarity in the results, and wishing to 

 avoid all chance of future charge of plagiarism when the volume should 

 appear, I sent the printed sheets to Prof. Dana, with a request that he 

 would note the fact of receiving them ; and in case any complaint should be 

 made hereafter, simply to state that this matter was in print at that 

 time. In order still further to guard myself against any future attack, I 

 sent the sheets to Mr. J. P. Lesley, of Philadelphia, asking him to com- 

 municate them to the Academy of Natural Science, with the explanation 

 before given, with a view to avoid all cause of future complaint. There 

 was no priority claimed, nor any expression indicating such intention. It 

 was merely publishing matter already printed in another form. The matter 

 was published in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 

 as " From the Palaeontology of New-York, vol. iv, pp. 252-257 ; unpub- 

 lished." 



Notwithstanding all my efforts to avoid an attack, there appears in the 

 Am. Journal of Science for May 1867, an article " On the punctate shell 

 structure of Syri?igothyris, by F. B. Meek," with the following foot note 

 on page 408. 



*' In a paper on certain types of Spiriferidge, publishedin the Proceedings of the 

 " American Philosophical Society for 1866, and presented to the Society in'May 

 " 1866, Mr. J. Hall presents facts confirming my observations communicated in a 

 ''paper read before the Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., in Dec. 1855, and published Feb. 

 '•' 1866, in which the presence of a punctate structure in shells of this type, and its 

 " coincidence with the internal tube of Syringothyris, were first announced. He how- 



* Spirifer suhcuspidatus, Hall, Geological Report of Iowa, p. 646, pi. 20, f. 6, is a 

 distinct species, and apparently identical with S. textus, Hall, Tenth Report on the 

 State Cabinet, p. 160 : 1857. See Nineteenth Report on the State Cabinet, for remarks on 

 this species. 



'" t The latter species, before alluded to as a punctate shell, has the fissure partially closed 

 by a septum, and this is perforated near its apex by a circular foramen, which is con- 

 tinued in a logitudinal tube behind the septum and opens into the cavity of the shell 

 below. The margins of the fissure are grooved for the reception of a pseudo-deltidium as 

 in ordinary spirifers, and this appendage is partially preserved in some of my specimens. 



