Mr. Gosse on the Manducatory Organs of the Rotifera. 357 readers, since they have enahled him so speedily to bring out a new and improved edition. The observations which we made in our previous notice will apply equally to the present edition, for the greater portion of the work is essentially the same, the additions consisting principally of some excellent directions for collecting and preserving Coleoptera and Lepidoptera by Mr. Wollaston and the Editor, and an address by the latter " to the young entomologists at Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, and at all other schools/' In this Mr. Stainton is at great pains to point out to the young idea that the study of entomology is by no means the contemptible occupation that so many consider it, but that, on the contrary, it is not only pleasing and instructive in itself, but may also be of the greatest service in training the mind to habits of observation, and may even act as an incentive to the acqui-sition of much useful knowledge which would otherwise be regarded as desperate drudgery. We can agree most cordially with most of Mr. Stainton' s propositions, although we fear, with himself, that he has preached *' too long a sermon " to his younger readers, and we trust that his enthusiasm may meet its reward in raising up a new generation of entomologists. We are glad to see that a few pages have been devoted to notices of important new works on entomology, and hope that in future years this section of the work will receive more of the editor's attention. ,: ^'•-■'■' ■liiy^q & "io aablxo' .--' 'w*f^rfJo ^^; PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES, "f^^^"^ ,n\j, DffB ROYAL SOCIETY. >b ^m"7 • March 1, 1855. — Charles Wheatstone, Esq., V.P., in the Chaii:^^ " On the Structure, Functions, and Homology of the Manducatory Organs in the Class Rotifera." By Philip Henry Gosse, A.L.S. In this paper the author institutes an examination of the mandu-catory organs in the class Rotifera, in order to show that the various forms which they assume can all be reduced to a common type. He further proposes to inquire what are the real homologues of these organs in the other classes of animals, and what light we can gather, from their structure, on the question of the zoological rank of the Rotifera. After an investigation of the bibliography of the class from Ehren-berg to the present time, in which the vagueness and inexactitude of our knowledge of these organs is shown, the author takes up, one by one, the various phases which they assume throughout the whole class ; commencing with Brachionus, in which they appear in the highest state of development. Their form in this genus is there-fore taken as the standard of comparison. The hemispherical bulb, which is so conspicuous in B. amphiceros, lying across the breast, and containing organs which work vigorously against each other, has long been recognized as an organ of mandu cation : it has been called the gizzard ; but the author proposes to
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