On the Reproduction of a Aledasa. 
133 
Arts and Manufactures, 1856, 3 vols. ; Agriculture, 1856, 1 vol. — From 
the United States Patent Office. Smithsonian Report for 1857 ; Defence 
of Dr Gould by the Council of the Dudley Observatory, Albany, 1858. 
— From the Smithsonian Institution, U.S.A. Reply to Statement of the 
Trustees of the Dudley Observatory. By B. A. Gould, M.D. Albany, 
1859.— From the Author. 
Memorial to Government on behalf of the Livingstone Expedition. 
Mr Andrew Murray reported that in accordance with the resolution of 
a previous meeting, a memorial had been drawn up and forwarded to the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, praying that immediate assistance be granted 
to the exploring expedition in Africa under the command of Dr Living- 
stone ; and he was glad to state that the assistance required had since 
been granted by the Government. 
The Communications read were as follows : — = 
I. On the Reproduction of a Medusa, belonging to the genus Lizzia. By 
Professor Edward Claparede, Geneva. Communicated by Dr T. 
Strethill Wright. 
M. Claparede stated that he had captured, in September last, in Lam* 
lash Bay, a number of floating eggs. On examining these eggs he found 
in each a true medusa, with four radiating gastro vascular canals, an ^ 
eight tentacles — four short and four long, the long ones corresponding to 
the radiating canals. A careful search was rewarded by the discovery 
of the animal which had produced these eggs, a twelve tentacled medusa 
of the genus Lizzia ; the bulbs, which in the embryo gave rise to the 
longer tentacles, being in the adult each furnished with two of these ap- 
pendages. The peduncle was laden with eggs ; of these eggs some ex- 
hibited a germinal vesicle and spot, others well-developed medusae, but in 
none was the stage of segmentation of the yolk observed. The question 
was, whether the bodies in question were eggs or buds ? It was true that 
no males of this form of Lizzia were found. But the males might be 
more rare than the females, or, as Dr Strethill Wright had observed in 
one case, might have a form diiferent from that of the female. The 
structure of the bodies was that of true eggs. The canals of the medusae 
which they contained had no communication with those of the parent, 
differing in this respect from the canals of the budding medusas of 
Sarsia. The buds of Sarsia^ moreover, did not exhibit the germinal 
vesicle and spot. The author stated that the reproduction of medusae, 
without the occurrence of a fixed hydroid stage, had been observed by 
Gegenbaur and Krohn, but in these cases the embroyos had to undergo 
important alterations in form before presenting the characters of the 
parent. M. Claparede considered it possible that reproduction in Lizzia 
might also take place with the intervention of the planuloid and hydroid 
stages. 
Mr A. Murray congratulated the Society on its good fortune in having 
commenced a correspondence with so distinguished a naturalist as M. 
Claparede; and proposed that the thanks of the Society should be trans- 
mitted to him for his important communication, which was unanimously 
agreed to. 
Dr Strethill Wright considered M. Claparede's paper of the highest 
importance. Its author, it was true, had not traced the gradual develop- 
ment of the ovum into a medusa, nor had he seen the segmentation of the 
vitellus, but Dr Wright had convinced himself that in a majority of 
VOL. II. 
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