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over, and, of course, internal to the muscular bands, which was spread over with a small quantity of brown grumous matter; but I saw no organs which could be supposed subservient to the office of respiration there.

The worm, having been kept in sea water unchanged for two or three days, sickened, and, by the more frequent involutions and evolutions of its oral end, evidenced its uneasiness. Being left unobserved in this state for an hour or so, I found, on my return, that it had vomited up its tentacula, its oral apparatus, its intestinal tube entire and as exhibited in our figure (c), and a large cluster of ovaries, which lay about the plate! The muscular convulsion must have been very great that thus so completely embowelled the creature; and yet life was not extinct, for the tentacula contracted themselves on being touched; and the empty skin appeared, by its motions, to have lost little of its irritability. It is true, as the poet has long since sung, that

"Nature's store

Of majesty appeareth more
In waters, than in all the rest
Of elements."

25. PHYLLINE GRO ́SSA. (fig. 67.) Hirùdo gróssa Müller, Turt. Lin. iv. 70.

Description.- Body 1

in. long, about six tenths of an inch in breadth where broadest; oblong, flat, soft, exannulose,

67

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roughish, with little granulations, and of a uniform flesh colour. On the upper side a small vessel is seen distinctly, running down the middle of the body, having a tortuous course, and terminating near the sucker; and it lies over a much larger intestine, following the same direction, and alone visible on the ventral aspect. The anterior extremity is rounded, somewhat raised above the mouth, which is placed in a sinus here, and opens chiefly on the under side; it is wide, edentulous; but, when opened, the inner surface appears flocculent, being clothed with longish papillæ, which are arranged in close longitudinal series, and cover the whole intestinal canal. This organ is nearly of uniform width and structure throughout; but the papillæ appear to be longer towards its termination, which is by a small aperture on the

Phylline grossa: a, upper side; b, under side.

back, just above the sucker. The dorsal vessel begins in a sort of swelling above the mouth; and, after it has passed beyond the middle of the body, it becomes sensibly attenuated. It is not fibrous, and, indeed, exhibits no marked structure beyond a very fine and faint reticulation of the surface when exposed under a high magnifier. The space between the intestine and margins of the body is compactly filled with myriads of oviform bodies, which seem to lie, without any particular order, in a gelatinous fluid: they are roundish, opaque, and encircled with a rim or pellicle of transparent jelly.

I have twice found this leech in specimens of Cyprina islándica dredged up in Berwick Bay. They were lurking between the cloak and branchiæ, and doubtless had sought out the site for a less harmless purpose than shelter from foes; but, so far as I could judge from external appearances, the oyster had not suffered any material injury.

On the suggestion of Lamarck, it has been here considered a species of Phylline; but it will not correspond with the character of the genus, for the large terminal disk or sucker is not armed with hooks, as Lamarck's definition expresses, but is quite smooth. Nor has the skin the slightest appearance of circular rings, or rugæ, even when contracted and hardened by spirits; and its whole anatomy is so unlike that of Annélides, and more especially of the true leeches, that it strengthens an opinion of Lamarck's, of there being a class of animals, yet unestablished, between the Annélides and the

worms.

ART. IX. On the Cause of Volcanic Action; a Reply to Professor Higgins's Review, in p. 434, 435., of Dr. Daubeny's Theory. By Dr. DAUBENY, King's Professor of Botany and Chemistry in the University of Oxford.

Sir,

IF your correspondent, Mr. Higgins, will consult the forthcoming Part of the Encyclopædia Metropolitana (namely, Part xxxix.) when it appears, I flatter myself he will find, in the course of the article on Geology, which it is to contain, an answer to most of the objections brought forward, as applicable to that theory, by which I have attempted to explain the phenomena alluded to. He will at least see discussed at considerable length the question, whether the bases of the ordinary constituents of lava are likely to be so acted upon by water, as to produce the requisite degree of heat in consequence of its presence.

With regard to the supposed impossibility of water penetrating to the depths at which these inflammable substances may be imagined to exist, and likewise to the improbability of air finding admittance to the same spots, I shall be ready to discuss the reasonableness of such a conjecture, when the facts, that volumes of steam are constantly issuing from all volcanoes, and that azotic gas, either pure or combined with hydrogen, is so generally present during all the phases of volcanic action, are shown to be referable to other causes than the presence of water and air at the spots in which volcanic action occurs.

I have, however, neither time nor inclination at present to go over the details of the argument a second time, especially as the curiosity of those of your readers who may feel an interest in the discussion may be gratified very speedily, if you will only transfer to the pages of your Magazine some few paragraphs of the article on volcanoes, which will appear in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana; and this, probably, quite as soon as any remarks with which I might at present trouble you would find their way into print.

Oxford, Sept. 17. 1834.

I am, Sir, &c.

CHARLES DAUBENY.

ART. X. Short Communications.

MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS.-Species of Animals of which Individuals with their external Covering of an anomalous Colour, permanent, have been known. It is not improbable that the registering instances of this anomalousness may avail, when the facts registered shall have become numerous, some lucid general inferences regarding it. As we entertain this opinion, we shall be happy to insert all notices of marked cases which may be sent to us; and shall feel additionally interested, as our readers, doubtless, will also, if any facts appertaining to what we may call the physiological conditions, parentage, &c., of the creatures noted on be supplied in connection.

A curious Variety of the Human Race was lately to be seen in my parish. The two parents, who were negroes, had several children of their own colour, but the one alluded to had a skin uniformly as fair as that of the European. The child's hair was white, but curly, as in the negro race; the nose and lips were European, and the iris of the eye blue. It was a healthy, fine child. These varieties, which depend on some disease or thinness of the rete mucosum, are some

times only partially affected, and are then spotted and disgusting objects. Lansdown Guilding. St. Vincent, May 1. 1830. [For a notice of three instances of unusual conditions of the exterior of the human person, see I. 286.]

The common Hare, White. - Instances of this are given in 504, 505.

The common Hare, Black. - Examples of this are registered in I. 84; VII. 505.

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The common Hare, Brown and White. See in p. 505. The common Rabbit, Black, in a wild State. See in V. 579.; VII. 505, 506. Wild rabbits, perfectly black, I have occasionally met with in the woods about Gloucester.Lansdown Guilding. St. Vincent, May 1. 1830. The common Mole of a Cream Colour. found noted in the Number for December. The common Mole of a White Colour. See p.

- Instances will be

143.

A Mole of a Silvery Ash-Grey Colour with an Orange Mark under the Lower Jaw, and a Line of the same Colour down the Belly. See in p. 143.

The Porpoise, White.-On Monday forenoon, a porpoise was shot off Millport, and brought on shore. It was pure white. (Morning Herald, Aug. 29. 1825.)

The common Ass, White, and nearly White.-See VI. 67., for interesting particulars on one "perfectly white." We add notices of two others nearly white.

About a month ago, a common English ass, the property of Mr. Watson of Green Hammerton, foaled a colt foal, which is perfectly white, with the exception of a red tinge near its tail, and another near one of its shoulders. It is a very large one, and likely to live. What is very remarkable, it is without those stripes on its shoulders which are seen on all other asses. (Tyne Mercury. Bury and Suffolk Post, June 26, 1833).

A Donkey almost wholly White. - The mention (VI. 67.) of a white donkey induces me to state that, on July 6., myself and companions observed, on Hampstead Heath, a donkey milkwhite all over, with the exception of a trifling sprinkling of light brown upon its back. Did the unusual colour of these individuals originate in disease, as is stated to have been the case of the king of Siam's

White Elephant, described and figured in the Menageries, vol. ii.?-James Fennell. Leytonstone, July 11. 1833.

Crawfurd gives, in his Embassy to Siam and Cochin-China, an account of four of the six white elephants then kept by the king of Siam, and says of them, "they showed no sign of disease, debility, or imperfection.". . . . "Two of them were

described as so vicious, that it was considered unsafe to exhibit them." These, we presume, are the two which, added to the four mentioned, constitute the six. . . . " Each of those which we saw had a separate stable, and no less than ten keepers to wait upon it," &c. . . . "In the stables of the white elephants we were shown

"Two [white] Monkeys, whose presence, the keepers insisted, preserved their royal charges [the white elephants] from sickness. These were of a perfectly pure white colour, and of the tribe of monkeys with long tails. They were in perfect health, and had been long caught; but we were advised not to play with them, as they were of a sullen and mischievous disposition. These were both taken in the forest of Pisiluk, about ten days' journey up the Menam. On enquiry, we found all the white elephants were either from the kingdom of Lao or Kamboja, and none from Siam itself, nor from the Malay countries tributary to it; which last, indeed, had never been known to afford a white elephant." In England it is believed that allowing a goat to subsist among horses promotes the health of these.

Species of Birds, of which Individuals in Plumage of a Colour anomalous to that of the Species, and permanent, have been known, See in p. 593–598.

The Stoats seen in White Fur are Individuals of a Whitefurred Variety. (V. 77. 293–295. 393. 718.)- Zoophilus states, in V. 718-722., that stoats change their colour at a certain period of the year, and become white. I am convinced that this is a mistake, and that the white is a distinct variety. I have seen them of this colour in every season of the year, on what are called the mosses, on the western coast of Lancashire; and I particularly recollect that, while resident in Worcestershire, one of these white animals seldom allowed a week to pass without showing himself in front of my house, while threading the mazes of a fence, which he entered from the nearest point of a coppice from which he always sallied. This animal would not have excited so much attention, but that he invariably pursued his course over a gate-post which stood in the fence; and this constant observance of a singular practice obtained him the honour to be distinguished as "the stoat." The common stoat abounded in the same neighbourhood; and I, with a clever terrier, captured them at all seasons, and always of the same colour. It is possible that the stoat changes colour; but, if he does, I am convinced that it is purely an occasional and rare occurrence. - Henry Berry. Bootle, near Liverpool, August 27. 1834.

The Stout in its White Garb not frequently seen near Stam

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