PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
35 
Mr. Gray, in some introductory observations to a “ Notice of a New Shell/' 
pointed .out several Natural History Collections in the neighbourhood worthy 
attention. The Museum of the Natural History Society recommended itself to 
the attention of the members for the liberality with which it was opened to the 
townspeople and visitors, stating that it was in this respect a rival to the 
National Museum itself; and indeed was even more available to all classes, as it 
opened its doors on certain evenings of the week, in order that the working 
classes might be able to attend. It was also interesting for the excellent, com¬ 
plete, and almost costly manner in which it was arranged; and additionally so 
to the more scientific visitor, on account of its containing several of the original 
specimens figured by Bewick, Brown, and Miller, thus affording a means of 
determining with accuracy the synonyms of those authors, which might be done 
with the assistance of the excellent catalogue of Mr. Fox. In it was the 
Wombat sent by Bass to Bewick, and from which he took his original descrip¬ 
tion : from a misprint, this specimen was said to have more teeth that it really 
has; and, on this account, Illiger having seen a specimen of the Wombat, 
supposed this must be another genus, and has named this one in his work Amblotis 
wombaitus. The colour, too, of this specimen assisted in the mistake, for, having 
been originally kept in spirit, it had lost its original hue. He also pointed out 
the collections of Mr. Fryer, of Whitley, the Bev. Mr. Monk, of Preston, Sir 
John Trevelyan, of Wellington Hall, and of Messrs. Johnstone, Adamson, 
Alder, and Hancock, of Newcastle. Mr. Gray then described what he supposed 
to be a new species of shell, but which Mr. Sowerby and other members of the 
Association had seen and were acquainted with. He also exhibited a very 
splendid specimen of Balanus Scoticus , attached to a species of Fusus which had 
been obtained from the museum of Mr. Fryer. 
The Rev. Mr. Wailes exhibited a specimen of the rare insect Psalidognatkus 
Friendii. This was a male specimen. Mr. Charles Adamson brought one to the 
meeting, supposing it to be the same insect, but on comparing the two they were 
very different.—The Rev. F. W. Hope stated that the last insect was a female 
specimen, and that they differed so much as to be placed in different genera by 
those who had not seen the two. 
As very few papers had been sent to the section this day, Mr. Gray occupied 
the time of the meeting by explaining a theory to account for the angular marks 
found upon some shells. He supposed that the coloured lines were produced by 
glandular secretions, that the glands were seated in the mantle of the animal, and 
as they moved with the growth of the animal, deposited their colouring matter. 
These glands he supposed to be formed double, and directly after their formation 
to move in opposing diverging lines. When these lines crossed each other, the 
glands met and were destroyed ; but new glands were formed, doubling,diverging, 
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