316 [ APRIL, 
April 19th. 
Vice-President BRIDGES in the Chair. 
A letter was read from the Secretary of the New York Lyceum of 
Natural History, dated April 12th, 1853, acknowledging the receipt of 
the Proceedings of the Academy, vol. 6, No. 7. 
Dr. Wetherill exhibited an improved apparatus for the analysis of the 
Carbonates, on the plan of Wills. 
Dr. Meigs, referring to his former communication to the Academy upon the 
structure of the uterus of the Porpoise, remarked that since that time, until 
recently, he had been unable to obtain a second specimen. On last Saturday 
he received from Capt. Bennett, of the steamer Osprey, a fine specimen, about 
six feet long, of Delphinus delphis, which he had dissected. The uterus, in 
this specimen, was not, as in the former, gravid; the cervix was more fusiform, 
but still the peculiar double arrangement, noticed in the first specimen, was well 
marked. Dr. Meigs remarked that it was an interesting question, whether the 
cervix uteri of all plunging animals is similarly formed, and referred to the 
suggestion in his former paper, of the use of the double cervix in resisting the 
pressure of the sea at great depths, which pressure upon the body and fundus 
would tend to produce abortion. 
April 26th. 
Mr. Orp, President, in the Chair. 
The Committee on Mr. Conrad’s paper, describing new species of 
Unio, reported in favor of publication in the Journal. 
The Committee on Mr. Conrad’s “‘ Monograph of the genus Fulgur,” 
reported in favor of publication in the Proceedings. . 
Monograph of the genus Fulgur. 
By T. A. Conran. 
FULGUR Montfort: 
Pyruta Lam. 
Shell pyriform ; spire short; varices none; body whorl very large; aperture 
large, oval, extended towards the base into an elongate-conic, open canal, entire 
at base: umbilicus none; epidermis deciduous; labium concave, with a single 
fold or oblique groove near the origin of the canal, and a slight caleareous depo- 
sition above; labrum simple, many of the species having elevated stria which 
do not revolve far within the shell, nor do they reach the edge of the labrum, 
but leave a smooth border; operculum horny. 
Remarks.—The strie on the interior of the labrum are given by Say and 
Montfort in the generic character of Fulgur; but Say does not allude to them in 
his description af F. pyruloides, which, I believe, never has them. This is the 
case with a few other species, agreeing in every other respect, generically, with 
the undoubted species. 
This genus is usually confounded with Melongena, Rapana and others, but 
the group is very distinct, and the animal widely different from its congeners, 
though it does not appear to have been figured or described. Living specimens 
are abundant on the coast of New Jersey, and could easily be obtained, whilst 
an anatomical description of the animal is still a desideratum. The manner 1n 
which the young are excluded in spiral series of cells, was noticed and figured 
by Lister. This peculiarity is common to F. canaliculatum and I. perversum, 
and is doubtless persistent throughout the group. 
