ii 
From the " Bristol Daily Post" of Nov, Itli^ 1864. 
1 The thirty-first meeting of this society was held oa 
( Thursday evening last at the Philosophical Institution, and 
was attended by upwards of seventy membprs and friends, 
including severalladies. Mr. W. Sunders, P.R.S., presided. 
' Mr. Leipner, the honorary secretary, announced his readi- 
j ness to receive names for the formation of a zoological 
{ section, in accordance with the wishes of several members. 
I Mr. W. W". Stoddart exhibited a small specimen of a fresh 
water Eotomostracon, called Coeirocephalus diaphanus, 
which resembled a minute shrimp, stating that he was in 
want of more specimens for experiment, and would be much 
obliged to any member who could furnish him with some, 
j Mr. C. O. Groome exhibited a salmon-coloured mole, taken 
I near the foot of Mount Pilatus, in Switzerland, which was 
' said to become gray in summer, and which he considered to 
be a specimen of a race, and not an albino. Mr. Leipner 
mentioned having seen a cream-coloured mole taken in 
Tynddll's-park in September, 1863, and a piebald or spotted 
specimea last month in Redland. 
Mr. T. Graham Ponton then read a paper on " The Land 
and Freshwater Mollusca of the Bristol district." He stated 
j that he wished to show what bad already beea done in 
the subject, and, by indicating what remained to be done, 
to enlist the co-operation of more workers. The total 
! number of genera of British land and freshwater Mol- 
lusca being 31, comprising 110 species, it appeared th^it 
I 31 genera, including 80 species, occurred locally. The 
author exhibited specicnens of these, described many in 
detail, and indicated their usual habitats. We may notice 
a few of the more generally interesting tribes. la 
I speaking of the Helices, or snails, the author made some 
! interesting observations on the employment of snails as an 
j article of food. Among the Romans, they were considered 
a great delicacy, and in many countries they were still eaten, 
even by the higher classes; while the annual snail dinner 
of the Glassmen at Newcastle proved that they were once 
esteemed as a dainty even in Britain. Mr. Ponton also 
referred to the acuteness of the sense of smell in these ani- 
mals, and remarked that though the position ©f the olfactory 
organ was still a mystery, there was no doubt of its ex- 
istence; and after suggesting that the inferior p.urof ten- 
tacles might serve the double purpose of general sensation 
and smelling, he expressed a wish that the members would 
direct their attention to the discovery of its true situation. 
Of eight; British species of Limax, or the slug, only two 
were local. The gre.it devastation caused by the gray slug, 
L. agrestis, was easily accounted for, when it was considered 
that a single individual produced 1100 others in two years. 
The second species, a little black slug, was much used in 
soup, &c., for pulmonary complaints. Of the Planorbi.-!, all 
the British species were local, and, with one exception, 
common. 
In a short discussion which ensued, an unsuccessful 
attempt was made to find the locality of Helix Poniacea, 
reputed a Bristol shell; and Mr. Leipner pointed out how 
many more species Mr. Ponton had iudicated as occurring 
locally than were indicated in a paper recently read at the 
British Association at Bath, which paper, however, like 
many others, was most unintelligibly reported in the pub- 
lished volume of reports. 
Dr. Henry Fripp then read a very elaborate paper, 
entitled " Notes on the Glow-worm." After referring to the 
still unexplained mystery which surrounded the wonderful 
phenomena of the emission of light by many of the lowest 
forms of animal life, the great interest which it excited both 
in the popular and the scientitic mind, and the treasure of 
illustration and metaphor which the luminous insects had 
