64 



Wished by affinities of language. By an Indian newspaper of March 9th, 

 I observe that, at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, on 

 14th February, 1867, Mr. Eivett Carnac brought to notice the results 

 of the examination of barrows, supposed to be Scythian, at the village of 

 J unapanee, near Nagpoor. Here pottery, spear and arrow heads, battle 

 axes, and, perhaps the most curious of all, a horse's snaffle bit, and a 

 small model in iron of a Scythian bow and arrow were found. Two 

 pieces of curved iron, with loops at either end, were no doubt stirrup 

 irons. Mr. Carnac states that similar barrows exist in other localities 

 of Central India ; and it is very satisfactory to know that the Antiqua- 

 rian Society of the Central Provinces is taking great interest in the 

 examination of these ancient remains. 



XIII. — On the Histology of the Test op the Class Palliobean- 

 c hi ata. By Peofessoe W. King, Queen's College, Galw ay. [Ab- 

 stract.] 



[Read April 22, 1867.] 



It is well known that a "canal system" characterizes many Pallio- 

 branchs — the valves being perforated obliquely, or perpendicularly, to 

 their surfaces ; and that, on dissolving the shell substance of the valves, 

 each perforation is found to enclose a membraneous or fleshy cylindrical 

 body, called a " caecal appendage." 



In the present paper the valves are shown to be covered with a cel- 

 lular (" not a structureless") epidermis. Hitherto the perforations have 

 been represented as showing themselves on the surfaces of the valves 

 through openings in this covering ; but such cannot be the case, inas- 

 much as the epidermis is absolutely imperforate and entire, like that of 

 ordinary Molluscs. 



According to previous observers, the presumed openings in the epi- 

 dermis are each " closed in" by a " membranous disc," or " discoi- 

 doidal operculum :" it so happens, however, that what have been taken 

 for bodies of the kind are the flattened extremities of the caecal appen- 

 dages (the former often broken off from the latter), lying against or ad- 

 hering to the under side of the epidermis. 



Under a hand magnifier the outer surface of the valves appear to be 

 thickly studded with minute opaque spots. Examined with an ordinary 

 microscope, each spot is resolved into a brush-like bundle, composed of 

 short crowded lines, or rather tubules, radially arranged around a va- 

 cant centre. The tubules (which belong to, and penetrate, a thin cal- 

 careous layer, situated immediately beneath the epidermis) are confined 

 to the apical portion of the perforations. 



When a fragment of terebratula shell is dissolved, the flattened ex- 

 tremity of the caecal appendages is found to be encircled with slender 

 membraneous filaments diverging outwardly. The filaments are sup- 

 posed by most observers to be u cilia," which served the purpose of 

 driving currents of water through the perforations or caecal appendages. 



