88 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
M. Milne Edwards communicated some observations on the respiratory 
organs of certain species of Oniscus. They present, in the structure of the 
false membranous claws of the abdomen, a remarkable modification. Each great 
transverse lamina, by which these organs terminate, presents on its inferior 
surface nine or ten linear stigmata, by means of which the air penetrates into as 
many little pulmonary pouches. These, lodged in the thickness of the appendix, 
have the form of elongated and flattened vesicles, of which the surface is through¬ 
out studded with a multitude of small tubular and branched prolongations which 
float in the nutritious fluid of the animal, and consequently constitute a form 
intermediate between the pulmonary cavities of Arachnida and the tracheae 
of insects. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF THE WEST-RIDING OF YORKSHIRE. 
The meeting of this Society, at Sheffield, took place on Thursday, June 6, in 
the Cutlers’ Hall. The attendance at the forenoon meeting was highly respect¬ 
able, and more numerous than on any former occasion. 
On the motion of the Master Cutler, seconded by the Rev. Mr. Gibson, Lord 
Howard took the chair, and briefly opened the meeting. He said, he had not had 
opportunities of attending former meetings of the Society, chiefly on account of 
the distance from this neighbourhood at which the meetings had been held. He 
was happy that the Council had come to the determination of holding their 
meetings at the different large towns of the Riding; and, considering the im¬ 
portance of Sheffield, and the rich field for examination which its mineral districts 
presented, he thought they had shown a wise discrimination in fixing upon that 
town for the commencement of their new system. He had himself paid but little 
attention to Geology, though, in common with many around him, he had some¬ 
thing like a personal interest in every thing that could throw light on the mineral 
fields, and the best mode of rendering available the treasures which Nature had 
provided beneath us. 
On the motion of Henry Hartop, Esq., seconded by T. Wilson, Esq., the 
following gentlemen were elected members of the Society :—Messrs. B. Dtxon 
(Wakefield), W. Jackson, T. Dunn, jun., B. Hounsfield, G. Hounsfield, 
Joseph Stevenson, Wm. Jeffcock, Dr. Holland, Henry Vickers, E. Vickers, 
J. Staniforth Beckett, John Aldred, W. Newbould, Neville Wood (Camp- 
sail Hall, Editor of The Naturalist ), Rev. R. Wallace (Chesterfield), T. D. 
Jeffcock, John Jeffcock, Matthew Chambers, George Chambers, Thomas 
Chambers, John Chambers, and Thomas Newton, of Thorncliffe, Henry 
Thomas, Luke Palfreyman, W. F. Fairbank, Henry Jackson, Andrew 
Foulds, and Henry Boultbee. 
T. W. Embleton, Esq., of Middleton, briefly remarked that at preseat there 
