SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
431 
any important particular from coarse-grained specimens from Rowley. It 
would be easy to extend the parallelism to other classes of rocks, but I will 
now only observe that we have here another proof of the doctrine long 
taught by Lyell — the uniformity and continuity of the Laws of Nature.” 
Professor Morris’s Testimonial. — This has been at last given to the Pro- 
fessor. A meeting was called on the 14th of July, at the apartments of the 
Geological Society, Somerset House, and a very complimentary, but by no 
means too much so, testimonial and 600/. were presented to the Professor. 
We trust the Royal Society will take the lesson. 
A Fossil Hydrozoon , Palceocoryne. — The remarkable fossil on which Dr. 
P. M. Duncan, F.R.S, and Mr. H. M. Jenkins, F.G.S., have made their 
remarks in the Philosophical Transactions , 1869, was obtained from the 
lower shales of the Carboniferous Limestone series of Ayrshire and Lanark- 
shire, so rich in fossil Brachiopoda, Polyzoa, Crinoidea, and Madreporaria ; 
and was found attached to the margins of the polvzoarium of Fenestellce , and 
also in a detached and more or less fragmentary condition amongst the small 
pieces of broken Polyzoa and Crinoid stems which compose the fossiliferous 
layers of the shales. The base of Palceocoryne was expanded, giving rise to 
a short robust and cylindrical stem fluted and punctated on its surface, and 
surmounted by the body of the polypite from the upper margin of which 
radiate a single whorl of long and slender tentacles. On the upper surface 
of the body, a crateriform process, with an opening on its apex, indicates the 
position of the mouth. Its external investment appears to have been cal- 
careous, covering the whole of the hydrozoon, except at the opening for the 
mouth and the terminations of the tentacles, which had probably ciliated 
ends projecting beyond the periderm or polypary. This is an almost solitary 
instance of a hydrozoon having a hard periderm, save the recent genus 
Pimeria , discovered on the west coast of Ireland by Dr. T. Strethill Wright. 
The Zoological position of the fossil is amongst the Hydrozoa in the order 
Tubularidae, and near the Eudendridse. Two species are described and 
figured by the authors, Palceocoryne Scoticum and P. radiation. 
MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 
Bessemer’s Steady Cabin. — Mr. Henry Bessemer has recently patented 
plans for the construction of cabins in sea-going passenger ships, which shall 
be perfectly steady, however much the ship may roll ; he hopes that by this 
means sea-sickness may be prevented, and voyages imdertaken in peace and 
tranquillity. Mr. Bessemer’s plans, which have been worked out with the 
ingenuity and mechanical skill for which he is famous, only require a prac- 
tical trial to prove whether or no he has really solved the difficulty, and 
placed it in our power to remove a serious barrier to intercourse between 
nations. The cabin in these plans is circular in plan, and is hung on gimbals 
at its centre, the point of suspension in the ship being so chosen that the 
cabin as a whole shall have as little vertical motion as possible. The mode 
of suspension secures that the floor of the cabin shall remain horizontal, 
but this is not enough. In so placing the cabin that the vertical motion is 
