286 lioyal Society : — On the Nature of the Avo may recognize the agreoineiits and dillercnces of the various forms ; he then points out the jyeiieral purjtoses of chissifieation and the prineij)les of nununchiture, the i>rinciples of eomparativo anatomy and their application to the study of extinct animals, and the general fact^s of geographical distribution. His third chapter is devoted to a brief sketch of the classification of animals, the fourth to their development and reproduction, and the fifth to certain general observations on the food and instincts of certain species, mimicry, &e. In this chapter also the author discusses the question of the nature and possible origin of species. AVe most heartily recommend this little volume as a first book of zoology, Mr. "Wilson's work, which carries the teaching much further, and is really a student's manual, is also an excellent work of its kind, Mr. "Wilson covers pretty nearly the same ground as Prof. Newton, although of course he enters into much more detail ; and we have to compliment both authors on the same characteristic of their work — • namely, the total freedom from prejudice with which they have dis-cxissed those unsettled questions wliich at present divide naturalists. PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. EOYAL SOCIETY. Februarv 4, 1S75. — Joseph Dalton Hooker, C.B., President, in the Chair. " Remarks on Professor Vtville Thomsox's Preliminary Notes on the Nature of the Sea-bottom procured by the Soundings of H.M.S. ' Challenger.' " By William B. CAKrEXTEE, M.D., LL D., F.R.S. The extreme interest of two of the questions started and partly discussed in Professor AVvville Thomson's communication will be deemed, I trust, a sufticieut reason for my offering such contribu-tions as mv own experience furnishes towards their solution. The first of these questions is, whether the Glohujenna', by the accumulation of whose shells the GIohi(/e rina-oozo. is being formed on the deep-sea bottom, Yixe and multiply on that bottom, or pass their whole lives in the superjacent water (es))ecially in its upper stratum), only subsiding 1o the bottom when dead. Having preWously held the former opinion. Prof. AVATille Thomson states that he has now been led to adopt the latter, by the results of Mr. Murray's explorations of the surface and sub-surface waters with the tow-net — which results concur with the previous observations of Midler, lliickel. Major Owen, and others, in shoeing that Glohu/enncr, in common \^■ith many other roramiiiifera, have a pelagic habitat; while the close relation which they further indicate between the surface-fauna of any particular locality and the n)aterials of the organic deposit at the bottom, appears to Prof. AVyville Thomson to warrant the conclusion that the latter is altogether derived from the former.