Economic Uses of Shells, and their Inhabitants. 165 



of the food of the dolphins and cachalots, as well as of the 

 albatross and larger petrels. 



My friend, Mr. R. Warington, of Apothecaries' Hall, has 

 informed me that the tsstof the genuineness of " spermaceti/' 

 as imported, is, that it is full of the undigested beaks of the 

 calamary, upon which the sperm-whale feeds. 



The undigested remains of fossil cuttle-fishes are frequently 

 noticed entombed within the ribs of the Ichthyosauri and 

 Plesiosauri of our Lias, showing that then, as at the present 

 day, to eat, and to be eaten, was the general law of nature. 



Having briefly pointed out a few instances of the manner 

 in which the mollusca subserve the good of mankind as articles 

 of food, I will now proceed to speak of the various other uses to 

 which they have been applied in medicine, commerce, the 

 arts, and manufactures. 



tihells used in Medicine. — In the Pharmaceutical Journal for 

 February, 1862, my friend, Mr. Daniel Hanbury, F.L.S., pub- 

 lished some interesting " Notes on Chinese Materia Medica," 

 from which I extract the following : — 



" Shih-keue-ming ; shells of Raliotis funebris, Reeve ; 

 Puntsaou, Fig. 969, etc. This shell is stated to occur on the 

 coasts of Fuh-kien and Kwantung. Messrs. Cuming and Lovell 

 Reeve (both since deceased), who have examined it, concur in 

 referring it to Raliotis funebris, a New Holland species figured 

 by the latter gentleman, in his beautiful Goncholugia Iconica, 

 sect. Halwtis, pi. xii., f. 38. 



" Shift-yen ; Fossil shells ; Tatarinov. Gat. Aled. Sinens., 

 p. 54; Puntsaou, Fig. 65. These fossils have been examined 

 and described by Mr. Thomas Davidson, to whose account and 

 figures, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society (June 

 loth, 1863), I refer the reader who wishes for full details. The 

 actual specimens are in the British Museum. Mr. Davidson 

 remarks that the specimens belong to eight Devonian species, 

 seven of which are common to several European localities, 

 among which may be mentioned Ferques and Nehou (France), 

 Belgium, and the Eifel, but they are not found all existing 

 together in any one of these localities. In external aspect the 

 Chinese specimens most resemble those from Ferques, where, 

 however, two of them, Gyrtis Murcldsoniana and lUiynchonella 

 Ilanburii, have not yet been discovered. 



" If to these be added two described by M. de Koninck, the 

 total number of Chinese Devonian types at present known will 

 amount to ten species, viz. : — 3 of Spirifer, 2 of Rliynchonella, 

 1 Prod a etas, 1 Crania, 1 Cornidites, 1 Spirorbis, and 1 Aulopora. 

 These fossils arc asserted to occur in the southern province of 

 Kwang-si, where coal is also met with " 



Onycha — Blatta Byzantina. — In old Pharmacopeia an article 



