Royal Physical Society. 163 



a line in breadth, from the edge of the foot. The parts immediately re- 

 ceded from each other, and the next day he found that the separated por- 

 tion had crept to a considerable distance along the glass. In two or three 

 days it had raised its divided edge from the surface to which it was at- 

 tached, and had become a curved column ; in a fortnight tentacles had 

 appeared ; and in three weeks it had become a perfect Antinia, with a 

 single row of beautiful long tentacles. From the foot of this small Ac- 

 tinia he cut two other exceedingly minute slips, which also became Ac- 

 tinias ; and from the foot of the original Actinia he also separated, at 

 various times, fourteen other slips, all of which became developed as the 

 first. The author stated that this case of gemmiparous increase was an 

 instance of the development of a perfect and very complicated organism, 

 from a minute fragment of one similar to itself, all that was essential to 

 the process being apparently the existence of a portion of each of the 

 three elemental tissues of the original, the dermal, the muscular, and the 

 mucous tissue, — the last being represented by the lining membrane of the 

 general cavity. And it appeared to be analogous to the instance of gem- 

 mation from the water-vascular system observed by the late Professor 

 Edward Forbes in Sarsia prolifera, in which animal the young medusee 

 pullulated forth from the hollow bulbs which supported the tentacles. 



4. Memorandum of Shells and a Deer's Horn found in a cutting 

 of the Forth and Clyde Junction Railway, Dumbartonshire. By 

 James M'Farlane of Balwill, Esq., W.S. (Specimens exhibited.) 

 Communicated by John Alex. Smith, M.D. 



" The locality in which the horn, shells, and fragments now on the table 

 were found, is situated in the county of Dumbarton, parish of Kilmaro- 

 nock, iu the basin of the Endrick, which flows into Loch Lomond, and at 

 a distance of nearly a mile from that river, and about four miles from the 

 nearest part of Loch Lomond, immediately adjoining the hamlet of Croft- 

 amie. They were exposed by the excavations connected with the forma- 

 tion of the Forth and Clyde Junction Railway. The ground in the 

 neighbourhood is of an undulating character, and, as will be seen by the 

 map and section exhibited, the shells were found under one of the ridges, 

 and at a depth of 21 feet from the surface. The horn was found within 

 a few yards of where the shells were lying, at a depth of IS feet. The 

 superincumbent mass consists of a stiff till about 12 feet thick containing 

 a large quantity of stones, some of a round form, apparently water-worn, 

 others angular, and many of them of a great size. Under the till is a 

 bed of blue clay about seven feet thick, and under this, and resting on the 

 freestone, or very close to it, the horn and shells were lying. The small 

 round stone was found embedded in the clay, and was the only one of the 

 kind seen. The following table may not be uninteresting as connected 

 with the above : — 



