Reniera ? sp. Yellow and yellow- Reniera ? sp. White.

Tribe i. Didemnida (with spicules).
Leptoclinum, Milne-Edwards. White, incrusting,? sp.

GASTEROPODA.

Siliquaria anguina.

SPICULES OF KINDS.

Drawn into the crevices and excavations of the Melobesian Nodules (? by Foraminifera or Spongida), there are several forms of deciduous sponge-spicules which in some instances. may be traced to growths on the Nodules themselves, while there are others of whose origin, so far, there is no indication; but among these are some which are so peculiar and beautiful,

that they alone might suggest a name for the sponges from which they respectively came, and these I have mounted in Canada Balsam for the guidance of anyone who hereafter may feel inclined to seek for specimens of the sponges to which they respectively belong.

Among the ninety organisms mentioned in the List there will be found twenty-four which have already been named, fourteen of doubtful nomenclature or not named, and the rest, viz., fifty-two, among which there are four genera new to science. Only those which have not been named by myself have, for the most part, the authors' names respectively entered after them.

Two of the species, viz., Polytrema mesentericum, of whose locality I am ignorant, and Samus complicatus from the Seychelles, having been described and illustrated in the detailed "Report" which will be published in the "Annals," are thus inserted in the "List;" and among the slides. (about 144), which finally, as above stated, will be handed over to the Liverpool Free Museum, will be found some which have been added from my own collection, to make that from the Gulf of Manaar more useful.

Mr. HIGGIN made the following remarks:

Captain Cawne Warren, to whom the town is indebted for the "Manaar Collection," has been an Associate of the Literary and Philosophical Society since 1868; during which time he has constantly been doing excellent work for the Liverpool Free Museum, but his last gathering from the Gulf of Manaar and Bass's Straits is much the most valuable yet brought home by him. The Bass's Straits dredgings have not yet been examined, but from the paper just read, we find that in eighty specimens of Spongida, Foraminifera, &c., from the Gulf of Manaar, no less than fifty-two are species new to science. These were found in comparatively shallow water, and Mr. Carter seems to have no doubt that from greater

T

depths in this favorable locality, better specimens of these new species, as well as more novelties, will be obtained. It is therefore greatly to be desired that Captain Cawne Warren and other of our Associates, who may have occasion to visit this interesting Gulf, will bear this in mind, and that before long we shall have dredgings from its deepest and stillest parts.

I had hoped to have had Mr. Carter's Report and the objects themselves, in time to prepare a short paper on this valuable collection; but owing to its richness in new species, the length of time required for examining, figuring, and describing so many novelties has been much greater than was anticipated, and the work has not yet been completed. Many of the specimens are of the greatest interest, and they will probably form subject-matter for a communication to the Society next session.

283

ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE

CHEMICAL

ELEMENTS, AND MENDELEEF'S PERIODIC LAW.

By J. CAMPBELL BROWN, D.Sc.

CLASSIFICATION is necessary in order to assist the mind in grasping and the memory in retaining the facts of nature; but it has in modern times a far higher use, namely, to show the analogies between individual facts and to assist in the discovery of new ones.

All early classifications of natural objects were artificial, and useless for every purpose except to facilitate recording and reference. Every one knows that the Linnæan classification of plants placed species of entirely different characters together in the same group, merely for the artificial reason that they had the same number of stamens and pistils; and it separated the nearest relations if one of them had a stamen or two more or less than the others; while more recent natural systems place in the same group those plants which are found by a comparison of all their important characters and properties to be most nearly allied.

So amongst mineral substances, we find in the Systema Nature of Linnæus :

Ambra,

Succinum,

Bitumen,
Pyrites, and
Arsenicum

classified together under the head of "Sulphura"!

The first great division of the chemical elements which has any pretension to be natural is into metals and non