319 
of this remarkable type of reproduction, and enlarged on the 
physiological questions involved. 
Dr. Traquair showed a series of Eoraminiferous Shells from Dog 
Bay, Connemara. 
Dr. John Barker drew attention to a circumstance, seemingly 
generally overlooked (now exemplified by the motions of Uro- 
centrum turbo), connected with various animalcules, both rotatoria 
and infusoria. What he alluded to was their having the appear- 
ance during motion as if influenced or confined, or even moored, 
by some invisible thread or tether to foreign bodies. The ani- 
malcule spins and rotates, the while describing an arc of a circle, 
backwards and forwards, at an even distance from an apparent 
point of attachment ; nay, if the foreign body, seemingly forming 
the centre round which the animalcule hovers, be but of moderate 
volume or weight, it may be drawn along as if pulled by the sup- 
posed thread — supposed, indeed, because it must be admitted that 
it is never visible. After a little the motions of the creature may 
become more vigorous, and seemingly the cord snaps, for suddenly 
the animalcule darts off in an onward direction. This kind of 
appearance would seem sufficiently common in different forms as 
apparently to contradict the idea that it may be only a charac- 
teristic fidgetv r motion of any particular form, and even to lead 
to the idea that many minute forms actually have a power of 
spinning or paying out an immeasurably delicate cord of attach- 
ment, so delicate as to evade all means we possess of seeing it, 
and one which it can itself sever at will. 
18^7* February, 1869. 
Dr. E. Perceval Wright exhibited preparations of an Alcyonoid 
from Messina and Syracuse, which had been described some years 
ago (1842) by Philippi as Bebryce mollis. Milne-Edwards, in his 
* llistoire des Coralliaires,’ rejects both the genus and species, 
stating on the authority of Valenciennes that it was described 
from nothing more or less than the stalk of an ordinary Gorgo- 
nian, on which a colony of Sympodium coralloides had established 
itself. Kolliker, however, in his ‘ leones histiologies,’ mentions 
that he had an opportunity of examining the very specimens de- 
scribed by Philippi, and explains that the figure illustrating his 
paper in the * Archiv fur Xaturgeschicte ’ represents the polyp 
with “retracted” tentacles, whereas the description laid emphasis 
on their being non-retractile, and that from this discrepancy arose 
the want of belief in the genus. The specimens now exhibited 
were dredged in the Gulf of Messina in June of last year, and 
resembled in every respect the species figured by Philippi ; they 
were recognised as this species by Dr. J. E. Gray the moment he 
saw them. They agree, moreover, with Philippi’s description, 
omitting the word “not” before retractile, when describing the 
polyp, so that Dr. Wright thought that, without doubt, his species, 
though not compared with the original type-specimens, now 
