PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
January 8, 1850. 
William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The following papers were read:— 
1. Contributions to the knowledge of the animal of 
Nautilus Pompilius. By J. Van der Hoeven. 
There are hitherto but three original figures of the animal of Nau¬ 
tilus Pompilius. The first is that of Rumphius, in his c Amboinsche 
Rariteitkamer ’ (No. xvii. at p. 62); the second that of Prof. R. 
Owen in his accomplished ‘ Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus ’ (London, 
1832, pi. 1) ; the third, drawn by Mr. Laurillard, was given by Prof. 
Valenciennes in the ‘Archives du Museum d’Hist. natur.,’ ii. 1841, 
pi. 8. 
The figure of Rumphius could only be deciphered after the disco¬ 
very of a new specimen. As Prof. Owen has observed, the animal is 
represented in that figure in an inverse position. Guided by that 
observation, it is possible to explain some parts in that enigmatical 
figure, but many obscurities still remain, and the whole gives the im¬ 
pression ot a drawing made by recollection, and after the doubtful sug¬ 
gestions of a discomposed memory. This seems still more probable, 
because the text informs us (p. 61) that the figures to which the in¬ 
dications of the description allude, have been lost. 
The animals represented by Prof. Owen and Valenciennes were de¬ 
tached from the shells before they were presented to those distin¬ 
guished cultivators of comparative anatomy and structural zoology. 
This circumstance explains some imperfections in the figures given by 
both. Prof. Owen, for instance, gives an incorrect form to that pro¬ 
duction of the mantle which covers the convex part of the shell’s cir¬ 
cumvolution projecting in the aperture, or to the part which the 
author calls “the dorsal fold” (see his pi. 1 5); the superior free 
N°. CCI. —Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 
