( 81 ) II. Description of several Marine Animals found on the South Coast of Devonshire. By George Montagu, Esq. F.L.S. Read June 18, 1805. SiNCK I last had the honour of addressmg a paper to the Liii-nean Society on the subject of marine animals, much new mat-ter has occurred in that department, and I trust the description of some of these, in addition to correct drawings, will enable tliosc who may hereafter more immediately direct their attention to that stud}', to identify without doubt the objects in question. Nothing can be in a greater state of confusion than many senera of the Mollusca order ; and even those of the Crustacea are far from being clearly defined, although their structure greatly conduces to that end, by their unalterable form and du-rability. For these the cabinets of the curious may be occa-sionally consulted ; but no museum can convey to the mind those distinguishing characters that form the divisions and spe-cific distinctions of the former; their soft and delicate bodies can only be preserved in antiseptic fluids. In spirits, it is true, the mass is preserved, but the form is usually rendered shape-less, the colours vanish, and the membranaceous appendages, which constitute the principal divisional distinctions, are either entirely lost, or so contracted and distorted, that the greater part of the subjects of Ilebninthologj/, the more simple except-ed, become a chaos of undistinguishable naatter. I'he Mollusca must be described and figured from living specimens; and those of VOL. IX. M the
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