66 



Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 

 At a meeting of the Microscopical Society held January 2Gth, 1 842, 

 Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the Chair, a paper was 

 read by Mr. John Quekett, " On the Presence in the Northern Seas 

 of Infusorial Animals analogous to those occurring in a Fossil state 

 at Richmond in America." After alluding to the great discoveries 

 of Professor Ehrenberg in this department of science, the author 

 proceeded to mention a stratum of animalcules twenty feet thick, 

 recently detected by Professor Rogers, underlying the city of Rich- 

 mond in Virginia ; it contains remarkable specimens of Navkula, 

 Actinocycli, GaUionellu, &c, but the most extraordinary form is a 

 circular disc with markings very similar to those on the engine - 

 turned back of a watch. On examining the sandy matter which had 

 been washed from some zoophytes brought home by the Northern 

 Expedition under Capt. Parry in 1822, the author has detected more 

 than six animalcules in it precisely analogous to those occurring as 

 fossils in the Richmond sand, and amongst these the circular disc 

 above described ; these last occur in the fossil state singly, very rarely 

 in pairs, and some doubts have arisen as to what they really were ; 

 but from the investigations of the author they are found to be a spe- 

 cies of bivalve, and many may be seen enclosing animal matter be- 

 tween their valves. Other bivalves fully as large as these are to be 

 seen without markings on their surfaces, and some very minute spe- 

 cimens were attached to portions of sea-weed by a small stem or 

 pedicel. The paper w r as accompanied with diagrams and with the 

 animalcules, both recent and fossil, for examination. 



Feb. 16th. — Professor Lindley, President, in the Chair. A paper 

 was read by H. H. White, Esq., of Clapham, on fossil Xanthidia. 

 After stating that these Infusoria, which are of a yellow colour and 

 found imbedded in the substance of chalk flints, formed a genus of 

 the tenth family of the class Polygastrica called Bacillaria, the 

 author then proceeded to describe twelve species, which were distin - 

 guished from each other principally by the number and form of their 

 tentacula, which project from the external investment or lorica of 

 the animal ; each species was separately described, and the author 

 concluded with some observations on the mode in which they be- 

 came silicified, and on the formation of flints generally. The paper 

 was accompanied with specimens and illustrative diagrams. 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



February 7th, 1842. — Sir Thomas Brisbane, Bart., in the Chair. 

 The concluding part of Dr. J. H. Bennet's paper on Parasitic 

 Fungi growing on living animals was read, and as portions of it 

 bear directly on natural history, we shall briefly allude to these. 

 Fungi of this description have previously been noted as occurring in 

 the stickleback and common carp, but we are not aware that any 

 particular description has yet been supplied of these fungi. Dr. 

 Bennet had an opportunity of examining them upon the gold carp, 

 Cyprinus auratus, having been persistent before death. To the eye 



