THE OENERAL SUBJECT. 
Ill 
Complete volumes have been published of the following Conchological 
Journals for 1872 : — Malakozoolofjische Blatter (xix. & xx.), Journal de 
Conchyliologie (xx., or xii. of ser. 3), and Nachrichtshlatt der dentschen 
malakozoologischen Gesellschaft (iv.). In the American Journal of Concho- 
logg, parts 3 and 4 of volume vii. were issued in March and May 1872, 
but no more has reached the Recorder. The Societe malacologique de Bel- 
gique have published vol. vii. of their Bidletins or Proces-verhaux for 
1872 ; but no part of its Annales nor any of the BuUeUino Malacologico 
Baliano, or of the Spanish Ilqjas Malacologicas^ appears to have been 
published in that year. 
THE GENERAL SUBJECT. 
Anatomy and Physiology . 
G. Huguenin describes the following portions of the eye of 
Heliw pomatia : — a refracting substance or lens, surrounded by a 
ring of black pigment ; ganglionic masses in the hinder part ; 
and cones on the retina formed by the terminations of the optic- 
nerve fibres. When the feeler is retracted, the lens and pigment- 
ring are directly drawn back, but the retina is pushed aside and 
follows these parts. Z. wiss. Zool. xxii. pp. 126-136, pi. 10. W. 
Flemming, criticizing this paper, states that the part considered 
by Ilugucnin to be the cushion of the retina (Retina-Polster) is 
really the front epithelium of the button of the feeler, with the 
subjacent ganglionic stratum, the mistake arisitig from the eye 
having been observed in a state of semiretraction. Ibid. pp. 
365-369, pi. 31. 
Lacaze-Hutiiiers, discussing the auditory capsules (which he 
calls otocysts) of the Gastropods, fully confirms Li^ydig’s state- 
ment that the auditory nerve always originates in the supra-ceso- 
phageal or cerebroid ganglion, the centre of all specific sensitive 
nerves, but is occasionally embodied for some distance with 
other nervous, strings, and then appears to issue from another 
ganglion. Tlic nerve itself is a hollow tube, as observed by Ad. 
Schmidt in 1857 (Z. ges. Nalurw.). The following arc the prin- 
cipal difierences in the situation of the otocysts : — 
1. Remote from the pedal ganglions in Cyclostoma elegans (as to this organ, 
the author does not entirely agree with the description given by the late E. 
Claparede in 1857), Pileopsis Inmgaxica^ Naticamonilifera^ Calyptreca sinensis ^ 
Paludina viripara^ Murex hrandaris, and Purpura lapillus. 
2. Near to, but separate from, the pedal ganglions, or anterior centre, in 
JNeritinaJluviatiliSy Patella vidgata, and Haliotis tuhercidata. 
3. Eying on the pedal ganglions in Bidlcea aperta and in the PidmonatUy of 
which the following species have been examined : — Sticcinea putris, Limax 
agrestisy Helix aspersa, Zonites [^Ilyalinai] ceUarius, Tcstacella maugeri, T. ha- 
liotidea, Jjimnoea stagnalisy 7/. auriculnriay Planorhis corneus, Ancylusjluviatilis, 
and Clausilia nigricans. 
