3M PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. ['^jSn Jl. mITms^^^^ 
pointed at their lower ones. Elastic ligaments bind these together at 
each end. The front or convex margin of each jaw is crenulated, the 
projections corresponding with the transverse parallel ridges usually- 
regarded as the teeth of the animal. These jaws form the two lips of 
a sac, the lateral parts of which consist of a separate tissue, which 
overlaps each jaw at its anterior margin, hooked on, as it were, to the 
crenulations, and thrown by them into permanent parallel corrugations. 
Each of these corrugated organs passes first outwards and then down- 
wards and backwards, where they are bound together by another broad 
membrane, which completes the sac posteriorly. The food enters this 
sac by a passage from the oesophagus, at its superior extremity, is 
crushed between the two jaws, and then passes out again by a similar 
orifice at its opposite or lower end to enter the stomach. Of these 
tissues the jaws are the hardest, and are capable of being dissected out, 
as Lord S. G. Osborne has succeeded in doing. The lateral corrugated 
organs have a concavo-convex form, which they appear capable of 
retaining after dissection ; they appear less dense than the jaws, but 
more so than the membranous tissues of the gizzard, to which they are 
united. The central corrugations are always the largest. 
Professor Williamson also called attention to the fact, originally 
noticed by Leeuvvenhok and afterwards confirmed by S^jallanzani and 
others, of the possibility of reviving these animals after protracted 
desiccation. He exhibited some small glass tanks of Rotiferous 
aquaria, some of which had been prepared by Lord S. G. Osborne, 
which had been dried up again and again. One of these, in a dry 
state, as it had been for five months, was moistened by the addition 
of a little water, and in five minutes tlie animals were in full activity, 
looking thin and hungry, but perfectly vigorous. The experiments 
of Lord S. G. Osborne confirm the statements of Spallanzani, that 
these Rotifers may be dried up for years without vitality being 
destroyed. Tanks for the preservation and examination of these 
objects are readily made by joining two ordinary microscopic glasses 
on three sides by means of electric cement, and then stocked by 
the introduction of a little Rotiferous dust. In such tanks they 
multiply rapidly, the occasional addition of a few drops of water to 
counteract evaporation being all that is needed for their preservation. 
The above communication was further illustrated by some beautiful 
models constructed by Lord S. G. Osborne, and kindly lent for the 
occasion. 
Microscojoical and Natural History Section. 
March 1st, 1869. J. B. Dancer, F.R.A.S., President of the Section, 
in the chair. — Mr. Sidebotham exhibited moths he had bred from some 
of the cocoons from Natal, which had been sent to the Manchester 
Chamber of Commerce. The name of one of these moths is Anajphe 
reticulata, and it is described by Mr. Walker as a new genus and species. 
The characters were then given. 
A nest of one of the mason spiders from St. Thomas was exhibited 
