NEW SPECIES AND NOTES ON STRUCTURE OF MOTHS AND GENERA

Yrias Volucris, n. s.♂. Allied to Repentis, the lines having the same general course, but they are brown, not balck, and the ground color is darker. The space included by the discal rounding of the t. p. line is not so large. The reniform shows a black included streak and the black costal dots on median space are as in its ally. the angles of the t. a. line are less sharp. There is a minute apical balck mark on the margin, before which a paler shade, an approximation to the ocellate mark of Clientis. On hind wings the distinct black mesial line is wanting. Beneath the wings are paler at base and the lines very faint. Expanse 26 mil. Arizona. B. Neumoegen, Esq.

IV.—On a New Large Terebratula occurring in East Anglia

The forms which Mr. Davidson in his invaluable Monograph has included under T. ovoides, are so various that it would be possible to refer the shells figured in the plate to that species, but since T. trilineata, from the Inferior Oolite, and T. lata and T. ovoides, from drift-blocks—which I shall endeavour to show are of the very latest Jurassic horizon—are very different in many respects, I prefer to give a new name to this form, which may find its place near T. ovoides and T. simplex. The specimen drawn, Fig. 1 and la, is from the collection of Mr. Roper of Lowestoft, who obtained it, with another specimen, from a gravel-pit at Thorpe in Suffolk. It has the general simple form of T. ovoides, but is remarkable for its great size. The imperforate valve is flattened in the mesial line, whilst the perforate valve is deep and raised into a well-pronounced keel in the mesial line extending from the beak; the foramen is small. The specimen figured is longer than the other in Mr. Roper's collection, which has the shorter, squarer form of Fig. 2, resembling T. simplex. This fine Terebratula may be known as T. rex.

On the nerves of the gravid uterus

The author, while dissecting a gravid uterus of seven months, on the 8th of April, 1838, observed the trunk of a large nerve proceeding upwards from the cervix to the body of that organ along with the right uterine vein, and sending off branches to the posterior surface of the uterus; some of which accompanied the vein, and others appeared to be inserted into the peritoneum. A broad band, resembling a plexus of nerves, was seen extending across the posterior surface of the uterus, and covering the nerve about midway from the fundus to the cervix. On the left side, a large plexus of nerves was seen, surrounding the uterine veins at the place where they were about to enter the hypogastric vein. From this plexus three large trunks of nerves were seen accompanying the uterine vein, which increased in size as they ascended to the fundus uteri. From the nerve situated on the posterior surface of the vein, numerous filaments passed off towards the mesial line, as on the right side; some following the smaller veins on the posterior surface of the uterus, and others becoming intimately adherent to the peritoneum. The largest of the nerves which accompanied the uterine vein was traced as high as the part where the Fallopian tube enters the uterus; and there it divided into numerous filaments, which plunged deep into the muscular coat of the uterus along with the vein. A large fasciculated band, like a plexus of nerves, was also seen on the left side under the peritoneum, crossing the body of the uterus; and several branches, apparently nervous, proceeding from this band, were distinctly continuous with some of the smaller branches of nerves accompanying the uterine veins. The preparation of the parts was placed in the Museum of St. George’s Hospital, on the 1st of October, 1838; and several anatomists who examined it were of opinion that they were absorbents accompanying the uterine veins, and tendinous fibres spread across the posterior surface. Dr. Lee availed himself of another opportunity which presented itself, on the 18th of December of the same year, of examining a gravid uterus in the sixth month of pregnancy, which had the spermatic, hypogastric and sacral nerves remaining connected with it; and during the last ten months, he has been diligently occupied in tracing the nerves of this uterus. He believes that he has ascertained that the principal trunks of the hypogastric nerves accompany, not the arteries of the uterus, as all anatomists have represented, but the veins; that these nerves become greatly enlarged during pregnancy; and that their branches are actually incorporated, or coalesce with the branches of the four great fasciculated bands on the anterior and posterior surface of the uterus, bearing a striking resemblance to ganglionic plexuses of nerves, and sending numerous branches to the muscular coat of the uterus.

On the mammary glands of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus

The author premises a history of the different opinions that have been entertained with respect to the anatomy and economy of this singular animal, which was first described and figured by Dr. Shaw in the year 1792. The name of Ornithorhynchus, which it at present bears, was given to it by Blumenbach; and some account of the structure of the head and beak was given in the Philosophical Trans­actions by Sir Everard Home in 1800; and in a subsequent paper he states his opinion that this animal differs considerably from the true mammalia in its mode of generation, an opinion which was adopted by Professor Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who accordingly placed it, together with the Echidna, in a separate order designated by the term Monotrèmes. He afterwards formed this group into a distinct class of animals, intermediate to mammalia, birds, and reptiles. Oken and De Blainville, on the other hand, condemned this separation ; and maintained that the monotremata should be ranked among mam­malia, and as being closely allied to the marsupialia; and hazarded the conjecture that they possessed mammary glands, which they ex­pected would ere long be discovered. Professor Meckel has since described these glands as being largely developed in the female Ornithorhynchus. He considers this animal, however, in the mode of its generation, as making a still nearer approach to birds and rep­tiles, than the marsupial tribe. He was unable to inject these glands in consequence of the contracted state of the ductsarising from the action of the spirit in which the specimen was preserved, and from their being filled with a concrete matter. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in a subsequent memoir, persists in denying that these bodies possess the characters of mammary glands; but regards them as a collection, not of acini, but of caeca, having only two excretory orifices, and present­ing no trace of nipples. The author of the present memoir, having examined with great care the specimens of the female Ornithorhynchus preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, found the structure to correspond very exactly with the account given by Meckel; and, moreover, succeeded in injecting the ducts of these glands with mer­cury. He further notices the differences of development occurring in five different specimens : the size of these glands having an obvious and direct relation to that of the ovaria and uteri. The gland itself is composed of from 150 to 200 elongated subcylindrical lobes, dis­posed in an oblong flattened mass, converging to a small oval areola in the abdominal integument, situated between three and four inches from the cloaca, and about one inch from the mesial line. It is si­tuated on the interior of the panniculus carnosus, the fibres of which separate for the passage of the ducts to the areola ; the orifices of these ducts are all of equal size, and occupy an oval space five lines in length by three in breadth ; not elevated however in the slightest degree above the surrounding integument. An oily fluid may be expressed from the ducts by squeezing the gland.