404 General Notes. [April, 
ZOOLOGY. 
Tue ANATOMY OF THE Hirupinea.—Mr. A. G. Bourne (Quart. 
Journ. Mic. Sci., July, 1884) contributes the results of observa- 
tions upon ten genera of Hirudinea extending over a period of 
four years. His conclusions with regard to the vascular system 
are, that the whole of the vessels and sinuses are in continuity; 
that the lateral vessels communicate freely with one another with- 
out the intervention of any capillary system, that they possess 
branches opening into botryoidal or other capillary networks of the 
“ cutaneous ” system, and that they form nephridial capillaries and 
also capillaries upon the intestinal wall. The nephridial capillaries 
are partly collected again and carried to the capillaries of the 
cutaneous system, and partly unite to form a vessel which is con- 
nected with the perinephrostomial sinus. The dorsal sinus. is 
directly connected with the ventral sinus, and both communicate 
with: (1) The cutaneous networks; (2) the capillary network 
upon the walls of the crop; (3) the capillaries upon the intestinal 
wall and the spiral valve ; (4) the perinephrostomial sinuses. The 
botryoidal and other cutaneous capillary networks communicate 
‘with branches of the lateral vessel, and also with the extensions 
of the dorsal and ventral sinuses, of which the capillaries on the 
walls of the crop are developments. The vessels of the walls of 
the gastro-ileal tube are directly derived from branches of the 
lateral longitudinal vessels ; the ventral sinus contains the nerve 
chain, the perinephrostomial sinus contains the nephridial funnel, 
and the network of capillaries on the testicular wall potentially 
contains the testis. The lateral vessels and their branches have 
a definite muscular wall, wanting only on their smaller branches 
and capillaries, but the dorsal and ventral sinuses, and the exten- 
The writer leaves unsettled the vexed question of the relation- 
ship of the leeches to other Vermes, but appears on the whole 
more saa to approach them to the Piatyelminths than to the 
ye 
NEUMAYR’S CLASSIFICATION OF THE LAMELLIBRANCHS.— Neu- 
mayr (Sitz. k. Akad. der. Wiss. Wien, 1883) gives a new classifi- 
cation of the lamellibranchs, founded upon the hinge. The old- 
c t forms have no, or only the faintest, trace of hinge-teeth, the 
~ Shells are thin, and there is usually neither mark of muscle or of 
= pallial sinus. For these forms, supposed to have two equal 
ad ti les an 
_ aaduc nd an entire mantle-line, the order Palæconchæ 
_ 1s proposed. From these are supposed to diverge the Desmo- 
donta, without hinge-teeth or with irregular hinge-teeth, with 
i 
