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The transmission and maintenance of the trypanosome strains being under my care, ample opportunities were afforded of noting the progress of the disease induced by them in experimental animals and the structural changes in te trypanosomes themselves at varying periods. But it was mainly the cultural work associated with this trypanosome that led to futher investigation of these developmental forms and thereby established the observations forming the subject of the note. On beginning the culture work, inability to recognise if certain forms met with in cultures were either developmental or degenerative phases, suggested a study of the changes which the parasite undergoes, bot in the body of the gerbil after death and in citrated blood, and the comparison of these changes with the forms found in Novy and MacNeal and Nicolle’s media. With this in view, a gerbil was inoculated with infected blood and chloroformed on the fifth day after injection. Cultures from the heart’s blood and smears from the various organs were made, all being examined at regular intervals for comparison. Light was thereby thrown on the point in question, but, in addition to this, attention was drawn to what undoubtedly looked like trypanosome forms in the red blood corpuscles in the spleen. Some of these were identical with those figured by Chagas in his paper on Schizotrypanum cruzi , which appeared at the time this work was being conducted.

This paper brings together all the species of Microphanurus from the Ethiopian and Indo-Malayan regions that I have written about during the last eight years. I have found that the fauna of neither region could be studied in isolation if a proper understanding of the taxonomic relationships and host-preferences of the genus were aimed at.The key contains all the species from the regions concerned of which the types or at least authentically named specimens are in the British Museum. Two new African species are described.For the identification of the Hemipteron, Atelocera stictica, Westwood, and for other information I am much indebted to Mr. W. E. China.

Our knowledge of this animal has hitherto been extremely limited, both with regard to its natural history, and also its internal structure. A paper by James Parsons, M. D. giving a very accurate description of a young rhinoceros, was read before the Royal Society, in June, 1743; but, as the Doctor does not attempt to describe more of it than the external figure and coverings, (which are delineated,) we may presume that he never had any opportunity of examining the internal parts : his account, however, as far as it goes, is in every respect correct ; I shall not, therefore, take up the time of this learned Society by a useless recapitulation, but proceed to describe such appearances as have not yet been noticed. The subject of the following observations was brought from the East Indies to England, where it was intended he should remain, until a favourable opportunity should offer of sending him to Vienna. During the passage from India, he appeared to enjoy a good slate of health, which continued uninterrupted, until a few days before his death ; at which time, he was attacked with difficulty of breathing, and died before he had attained his third year. In the course of this time, he had become perfectly docile and tame ; but never, by actions or otherwise, expressed the smallest regard or affection for his keeper, or for any of the people who occasionally fed him ; neither was he easily irritated, but preserved, on all occasions, the most perfect indifference and stupidity. He was fed chiefly upon hay and oats, also potatoes, and other fresh vegetables ; his consumption of which was prodigious, exceeding that of two or three working horses. It would appear, that this animal had not arrived to near its full growth : he was scarcely so high as a two year old heifer ; but the bulk of his body, by measurement, considerably exceeded the length. The horn, which is affixed to the upper lip of the adult rhinoceros, was here just beginning to sprout. The hoofs were divided into three obtuse parts: the soles of the feet were well defended, by a large mass of elastic matter, covered by a strong horn-like substance.

The peculiarities in the mode of growth of the grinding teeth of the Sus Ethiopicus have, upon a former occasion, been laid before this learned Society, and the similarity of their structure to those of the elephant explained. The wild boar has been since discovered to have similar peculiarities, although in a less degree, and taking place at a later period of the animal's life: an account of these is the subject of the present Paper.

The following observations are in some measure a conti­nuation of those upon the stomachs of ruminating animals contained in a former Paper. They are intended to show that the stomach of the whale forms a link in the gradation towards the stomachs of truly carnivorous animals. This subject was brought under my consideration by the following circumstances. While at Worthing, on the Sussex coast, in the month of August last, a Delphinus Delphis of Linnæus, or small bottle-nose whale of Mr. Hunter, was brought on shore by the fishermen alive. I immediately purchased it, with a view of enriching the Hunterian col­lection with the skeleton, and other parts of its structure.

In examining the internal structure of a Squalus maximus of Linnæus, that lately came under my observation, a description of which will be the subject of a future paper, I met with a peculiarity in the intervertebral substance of the spine not hitherto made known to the public. The fish is thirty feet six inches long, the diameter of the larger vertebrae near the head, seven inches. The intervertebral substance was cut into by Mr. Clift four days after the fish was brought on shore, and a limpid fluid rushed out with so much velocity, that it rose to the height of four feet.

The solvent glands in birds are larger and more distinct from the other parts of the digestive organs than in the class mammalia, which has enabled me to ascertain many circumstances respecting their structure, not to be determined by examining the stomachs of quadrupeds. An account of these is contained in the present paper. To make the following descriptions more clear and distinct, I shall divide the digestive organs of birds, whether they live on animal or vegetable food, into four parts. The first, is the dilatation of the oesophagus, which forms a reservoir for the food, and which is called the crop. The second, is the part into which the ducts of the solvent glands open, which, I shall call the cardiac cavity. The third, is the cavity embraced by the digastric muscle, or gizzard. The fourth, is the space between the opening of the gizzard, and beginning of the duodenum, which I shall call the pyloric cavity, although in some instances it appears scarcely to deserve that name.

My former account was taken from a Squalus Maximus caught at Hastings, in November, 1808, and the parts which I examined were brought to London my Mr. CLIFT, who went down, at my desire, to dissect them; but the weather being stormy and cold, the fish was brought no further than the beach, so that the examination was conducted under great disadvantages, and the parts brought away were in a mutilated state. The sketch of the fish made upon the spot by Mr. CLIFT is now found to be generally correct, except the omission of a small fin between the anus and tail, which had been buried by the weight of the fish in the sand.

Having had an opportunity during the Society’s late recess of collecting some specimens of the mineral productions and rocks of Scotland, I have transmitted them with a hope that other members who may have the means of so doing, will make still greater exertions in aid of this very necessary department of our museum. Such collections, however useless in an insulated state, acquire a real importance from their union, and form by their accumulation one of the leading objects of such an institution, a point of reference for authority whether geographical or mineralogical. To these specimens I have been induced to add the miscellaneous remarks which form the present paper, with a view of attaching to them more interest than would accrue from the mere mention of a naked habitat , and for the further purpose of rendering the catalogue which must accompany them, more intelligible. These remarks include such geological observations on the nature and connections of the rocks from which the specimens were detached, as occurred to me at the time, or were the result of comparison with the observations of other writers who have treated the same subjects. Where the specimens themselves are deficient in the requisite purposes of elucidation, the references to the places where they were found will enable future visitors to verify or correct them. In this view the remarks which I have hazarded are even more necessary than in that of perfecting a catalogue of hand specimens, since of many important geological facts, it

The observations contained in the preceding paper upon the organs of respiration of the lamprey and myxine, led me to doubt the propriety of classing these animals among fishes, and as their ovaria differ in many respects from those of fishes in general, I became desirous of knowing the structure of the testicles in the male, to see how far they resembled those of fishes, or in how great a degree they differed from them. That the lamprey was male and female nobody seemed to doubt, and yet with every opportunity apparently before me, I was unable to procure one male. Sir Joseph Banks supplied me very largely with lampreys and lamperns, those that were full of ova were admitted to be females, and those which appeared to have no ova were said to be males; but all of them had ovaria, although in some the ova were extremely small, requiring a magnifying glass to distinguish them, in others they had been shed, leaving the cells in which they had been contained, and the openings by which they passed out very apparent. Being accidentally at Worcester, in which city, during the season, lampreys are caught in the river Severn in great abundance, and potted to be sent all over England, I made inquiry of the person whose business it is to prepare them for being potted, what were the differences between the internal parts of the male and female; he said, the only difference was, the one had no ova, the other had, in all other respects they were alike. He had never seen a lamprey in which there was no part corresponding to what I called ovarium. This remark from a person whose whole employment during the breeding season was to take out their viscera, corresponded so entirely with my own observations, that I began to entertain the opinion that the lamprey has not distinct sexes, but is an hermaphrodite animal. This doubt of their being male and female, was started in the beginning of the breeding season, and my friend Dr. Wilson Philip of Worcester, supplied me with lampreys at regular intervals, till the ova were shed, that I might prosecute this inquiry. I found upon examination, that the two glandular bodies projecting into the belly, one on each side of the ovarium, which have been always supposed to be the kidneys, varied very much in size and appearance at the beginning and end of the season. When the ova are so small that the animal is reputed to be a male, these glandular bodies and the black substance upon which they lie appear to form one mass, and the duct upon the anterior part is thin and almost transparent, containing a fluid equally so, but in the end of May, when the ova increase in size, these glandular bodies become larger, more turgid, and have a distinct line of separation between them and the black substance behind; their structure is more developed, being evidently composed of tubuli running in a transverse direction, and the ducts leading from them are thicker in their coats and larger in size.

A few weeks residence in the island of Sky having enabled me to give a general idea of its geological structure, I shall make no apology for offering this paper, however incomplete, to the Society. Want of further opportunities may perhaps for ever prevent me from rendering it more perfect, as it may equally prevent others from visiting that island. Nor is a district of such magnitude and interest, of which the distance is so great, and the inconveniences of climate and ground so considerable, likely soon to offer, to others greater facilities than those, which enabled me to draw up this sketch. Should it prove otherwise, my object will at least, in its principal view, be fulfilled, since I shall have opened a path for others to follow, and traced an outline which some more fortunate observer will with greater ease complete. The variety of rocks which occurs in this island, as well as the theoretical difficulties in which the connection and order of many of these are still involved, and which are in some measure at least elucidated by their appearances here, render this island very interesting to the geologist. In attempting to describe them so as to give a clear topographic view of their situations, and at the same time, to trace their connections with each other, (that object which is more peculiarly an essential part of geological science,) I have experienced difficulties which other observers must also have felt, and from which I have but imperfectly

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A knowledge of the readiness with which liquids pass from the stomach into the circulation, carrying along with them the impregnation of different medicines; and the readiness with which such medicines are carried off from the circulating blood, by the action of the kidneys, led Mr. Brande and myself to an enquiry respecting the prevention of gravel and gout, upon which subject he has laid two separate papers before the Society. In these communications, the action of different substances on the contents of the stomach has been considered, and those substances most efficient in depriving them of the principal ingredient met with in stone and gout, are pointed out.

When I laid before the Society my Paper upon this subject, I was anxious to establish what appeared to me to be two important facts; one, that the infusion of the colchicum can be received into the circulation without producing any permanent mischief; the other, that it is through the medium of the circulation, its beneficial effects upon gout are produced and, therefore, the sudden relief which is experienced can be readily explained. Having attended to the effects of the eau medicinale, and of this medicine for several years in cases of gout, both in my own case, and in those of my friends, I found, invariably, that they diminished the frequency of the pulse, 10 or 20 beats in a minute, and this effect generally took place about twelve hours after the medicine was exhibited: I therefore considered this to be the criterion of the constitution being under the influence of the medicine; and when I found that the pulse was affected in the same way by the medicine received into the circulation, and in a much shorter time, I became satisfied that in both cases this arose from an effect upon the circulation, and not upon the stomach, and therefore did not farther prosecute the enquiry; since exhibiting larger doses could only confirm what is already known, namely, that the medicine is capable, when injudiciously used, of producing very violent effects. It has been suggested to me since the Paper was read, that the only mode of proving that the medicine acts through the medium of the circulation, is to show that when a sufficient quantity is received into the blood, all the violent effects are produced, that result from a large dose taken by the mouth; and as I had no object but the pursuit of truth, I lost no time in complying with this suggestion, and introduced into the circulation of a dog 160 drops of the same infusion before employed.

Fig. 1. * This figure is given for the purpose of explaining the mode in which the fibrous disposition of chlorite is effected. The crystallized arrangement which is here so visible is generally observed in those chlorite fibres which occur in transparent quartz. I have never observed it in chalcedony, yet there is little doubt that a similar disposition is equally the cause of the fibrous appearance so common in the specimens which have been figured in the former plates, the chief differences consisting in the smaller size and less perfect crystallization of the chlorite scales. Fig. 2. The crystals of chlorite magnified. Fig. 3. Although in the former plates I figured some specimens which I imagined to be confervæ, I had not then procured any example in which that regularity of structure, which is so conspicuous in some of the plants of this family, could be observed. The present figure exhibits that regularity in a striking manner. Fig. 4. This figure affords a second example of that regular ramification which botanists will immediately recognize as characterizing many of the plants of this tribe; although for the reasons already assigned in the paper, it will be fruitless to attempt to discover the species.

I laid before the Society, some experiments and observa­tions in favour of this medicine acting upon the gout through the medium of the circulation, and not by its effects directly upon the stomach and intestinal canal. The object of the present Paper is to show that the infu­sion throws down a deposit, the separation of which does not appear to diminish the specific effects upon the gout, and renders those upon the stomach and intestines milder than when the deposit is taken along with the infusion.

Pliny, Aldrovandus, Lister, Rumphius, d'Argenvile, Bruguiere, Bosc, Cuvier, and Shaw, have described a species of this genus, that is often found in the Argonauta argo (common paper-nautilus) and which they have regarded as its animal, since no other inhabitant has been observed in it. Sir Joseph Banks, and some other naturalists, have always entertained a contrary opinion, believing it to be no more than a parasitical inhabitant of the Argonaut's shell, and Rafinesque, (whose situation on the shores of the Mediterranean, has afforded him ample opportunities of studying this animal, and of observing its habits) has regarded it as a peculiar genus, allied to the Polypus of Aristotle, residing parasitically in the above mentioned shell.

Linnæus was led into an error respecting the animal that forms the shell argonauta, by the circumstance of a species of sepia having been often found in this shell. This erroneous opinion has been adopted by many naturalists upon the continent, even those conversant in comparative anatomy. Whether the argonauta is really an internal shell, which I have asserted it to be, may possibly never be determined by direct proofs, as the animal belonging to it has not been met with. The present observations are confined tot he question of the probability of its being formed by the species of sepia frequently found in it; and the materials of the present Paper, which are furnished from the specimens of natural history collected in the late expedition to the Congo, enable me to prove, in contradiction to such an opinion, that the ova of this particular species of sepia are not those of an animal of the order vermes testacea, that live in water.

My first account of the fossil bones of this most extraordinary animal attracted the notice of geologists, and collectors of extraneous fossils, and led Mr. Johnston of Bristol, and the Revd. Mr. Buckland of Oxford, to assist me with the materials in their possession, to make a farther progress in the description of its skeleton. An account of these specimens formed the substance of my second paper.

Mr dear Sir, Having met with a well defined case of a fœtus in the human ovarium, which illustrates in a very satisfactory manner the explanation contained in your paper on the corpora lutea , respecting the mode in which the ovum is sometimes retained, and the embryo formed, within the cavity of the corpus luteum , I beg leave, through you, to communicate it to the Royal Society, that it may have a place amongst your observations on that subject. To render it still more deserving of that honor, Mr. Bauer, to whom you and the public are so much indebted, has made drawings of the parts in a manner which, I may say, no one but himself could have executed.

Sometime after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles' paper on the dugong was laid before the Society, I received from him a young female of that animal, four feet six inches long, and the viscera of a male, eight feet long, preserved in spirit, with the bones dried. From these materials I have selected the most interesting facts that came under my observation, not adverted to in Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles' description, and now lay them before the Society, to render the account of this most extraordinary animal as complete as it is possible for me to do.

The Lotus of the ancients has given rise to many interesting inquiries among the learned; but, like the Pale Violet of Horace and of Virgil, and the Hyacinth of the Greek and Latin poets, we are still without any certain or accurate knowledge upon the subject. In this short Essay, which I presume to lay before the Society to which I have the honour to belong, I propose to shew from ancient authors, that plants of very different characters were known to the Greeks by the name of Lotus: but the particular object which I have in this dissertation, is to shew that the Indian plant known to the Greeks by the name of Κύαμος and Αἰγύπτις κύαμος, and to us by Nelumbium speciosum, or Cyamus nelumbo, was never called Lotus by the ancient Greeks or Egyptians; and I have been the more desirous to establish this fact, as Mons. Savigny, de l'lnstitut d'Egypte, in his learned paper in the Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, has considered it to be a Lotus of the ancients; and in all modern works which have fallen in my way, I have observed a repetition of the same error.

In the course of a series of observations on the organic remains contained in the lias in the vicinity of Bristol, my attention was particularly attracted by the numerous vertebræ of oviparous quadrupeds occuring in that formation. Of these a considerable portion obviously belonged to the Ichthyosaurus; the remaining, and larger division, presented vertebræ of forms considerably differing from each other, but which, from some general analogies, I was persuaded had all belonged to different places in the vertebral column of a single species; and I ventured even to point out those places, from a comparison with those of the crocodile to which they bore a strong general resemblance, yet at the same time combined with so many material points of difference, as to prove that the animal from which they were derived must have constituted a separate genus. At this period, I was fortunate enough to associate in my researches a colleague equally able and zealous, whose name stands at the head of this paper. The numerous important and illustrative specimens which he placed at my disposal, proved of material aid, and still more so his general acquaintance with the subject, of which I subsequently enjoyed the fullest advantage; so that the facts now submitted to the Society must be considered as the fruit of inquiries prosecuted by us in common. A skeleton of the animal in question, deficient only in the bones of the head, preserved in the well known collection of Col. Birch, (who most liberally allowed

Judging from the exertions Sir Thomas Raffles has already made in promoting the pursuits of Natural History and Comparative Anatomy, during the short time he has been in Sumatra, we may at no distant period expect to be furnished with materials sufficient to give a most satisfactory account of all the natural productions of the Island. In the interval between his account of that extraordinary animal the dugong, being read before the Society, and its being inserted in the Transactions, he has afforded fresh proofs of his exertions, and has sent me the skull, the vis­cera, and the bones of that animal; so that, in addition to the account of its internal organs illustrated by drawings, I am now enabled to give an exact representation of the ske­leton by Mr. Clift, upon the same scale as that of the ex­ternal appearance of the animal, which has a place in a former paper, which is two inches to a foot.

I beg leave to lay before the Royal Society a few obser­vations on the genus Planaria, to which I have been more immediately led, from two or three species having been already described in the Linnæan Transactions under the genus Hirudo. I shall confine my remarks in the present paper to the following species: P. cornuta , P. torva , and P. brunnea , P. lactea , intending to give, at some future period, the farther history of this singular and extensive genus.

That a free, or at least an unsaturated acid usually exists in the stomachs of animals, and is in some manner connected with the important process of digestion, seems to have been the general opinion of physiologists till the time of Spallanzani. This illustrious philosopher concluded, from his nume­rous experiments, that the gastric fluids, when in a perfectly natural state, are neither acid nor alkaline. Even Spallanzani, however, admitted that the contents of the stomach are very generally acid ; and this accords not only with my own observation, but with that, I believe, of almost every indivi­dual who has made any experiments on the subject. With respect to the nature of this acid, very various opinions have been entertained. Some of the older chemists seem to have considered it as an acid, sui generis ; by others it was supposed to be the phosphoric, the acetic, the lactic acid, &c. No less various have been the opinions respecting After I had discovered the principal fact related in this paper, I was surprized to find how nearly Scopoli had come to the same conclusion. He did not indeed come to the conclusion, as far as I can ascertain, that free muriatic acid exists in the stomach, but he advanced the opinion, that the muriatic acid, in union with ammonia, found in such abundance in the stomach of ruminating animals, is secreted by that organ itself. The only account of Scopoli’s experiments I have seen is in Johnson’s Animal Chemistry, i. 183. its origin and use ; some supposing that it is derived from the stomach itself, and is essential to the digestive process; others, that it is derived from the food, or is a result of fementation, &c. ; in short, there seems to be no physiological subject so imperfectly understood, or concerning which there has been such a variety of opinions.

In a former communication to the Geological Society I presented an outline of the features of the coast in the vicinity of Lyme Regis; but having there described the lias only in a general manner, it is my present purpose to offer a more detailed account of that formation, as I am not acquainted with any situation where its geological structure and composition, and the organic remains which it contains, can be better studied. The relative position of the cliffs referred to in the following description is represented in the section connected with my former paper upon this subject*:—And the annexed sketch (Pl. III. fig. 1.) represents the order of superposition of the inferior oolite sands, the lias formation, and the upper beds of the red marl, as they appear in the section between Down Cliff and Culverhole Point; the beds being supposed to be placed horizontally above each other, and the superincumbent chalk and green-sand removed. The uppermost beds of the lias rise from beneath the sands of the inferior oolite at Down Cliff, on the west of Bridport Harbour; where a section is afforded of about one hundred and eighty feet of sand, in which large flattened masses of limestone occur, containing Pectens, Belemnites, Terebratulae, &c. These sands are calcareo-siliceous, their colour is a ferruginous yellow, and they contain an abundance of mica in their lower parts. A bed of grey marl occurs in them about one hundred feet above the commencement of the lias. The calcareous

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For the last four years I have been engaged, with the aid of Mr. Bauer's microscopical observations, in examining the mode of generation of the fresh water muscle and oyster; illustrating the changes that occur by Mr. Bauer's drawings in the same manner as has been done with respect to the egg of the pullet, the frog, the earth worm and barnacle. But as it will require another season to complete this investigation, I am desirous of preceding it with an account of the formation of pearls; the discovery of which was made in the early parts of my enquiry into the mode of generation of the fresh water muscle. I am the more desirous of laying before the Society these, new facts respecting pearls at this moment, when the public mind is directed to the improvement of the pearl fishery, and therefore every thing respecting them will be received with greater interest than at any other time.

The neighbourhood of Swansea offers remarkable facilities for observing the habits of the burrowing marine animals. Many Spatangi, innumerable Annelides, and a variety of bivalves are found on its extensive sandy shores; considerable beds of decayed wood are inhabited by Pholas Candida; and the rocks at the western extremity of the bay abound with Lithophagi. My chief object in this paper, is to explain the mechanism by which the boring and burrowing shell fish form their habitations; but as there are facts connected with the burrowing of other marine animals which are yet but imperfectly understood, I shall first advert briefly to the latter.

My dear Sir, The researches in which I am at present engaged, having induced me to make some inquiries connected with the geological structure of the great mountain chains of our Asiatic empire, I was naturally led to examine the numerous and interesting series of Indian rocks in the Museum of the Geological Society. My attention was particularly arrested by a collection of specimens from Caribari in the small state of Cooch-behar, on the banks of the Brahm-putra river, presented by Mr. Colebrooke; and described in his very interesting paper on the Geology of the N.E. border of Bengal,—since they afford the first example of the discovery of an extinct race of Mammalia in the great extent of. Southern Asia; and at the same time furnish decisive proofs of the existence of tertiary marine deposits, perfectly identical in geological and zoological characters with those which cover so great a proportion of continental Europe and of our own island. Among the mutilated fragments of bones referable to the order of Mammalia from the tertiary deposits of the Brahm-putra, I have succeeded in discovering the remains of four distinct species: viz. 1. One species of the genus Anthracotherium of Cuvier; 2. A small species of Ruminant allied to the genus Moschus*; 3. A small species of herbivorous animal referable to the order Pachydermata, but more diminutive than any of the fossil or living species; and 4. A carnivorous animal of the genus Viverra†. 1. The Anthracotherium of Caribari, in the form

Every mineralogist is conversant with some of the facts relative to the subject of this paper. Some of the observations enumerated, are comparatively new, as the attention of naturalists has been only of late more particularly directed towards these facts. Others, which I have had an opportunity of collecting myself, I trust will not be considered uninteresting, as they tend materially to rectify certain ideas connected with the determination of the mineralogical species, the most important branch of natural-historical research.

The experiments relating to the function of digestion detailed or referred to in a paper which I lately had the honour to present to the Society, appear to throw light on the function of the ganglionic nerves, which hold a higher place in the animal economy than those either of sensation merely or voluntary power, being as essentially a vital organ as the heart or lungs, as will more fully appear, I think, from the review of facts which I now beg leave to submit to the Society. For the last fifteen years I have been engaged in an experimental inquiry relating to the laws of the vital functions; and have from time to time laid the results before the Royal Society in six papers, which the Society has done me the honour to publish. All the experiments on which the statements are founded, having been made in the presence of competent witnesses, the rule from which I never deviated, has been to repeat each experiment till no doubt respecting the result remained in the mind of any one present; and it is satis­factory to me to be enabled to state, that, although many of these experiments have been repeated by the physiologists both of this country and the continent, they have in no instance been found inaccurate. I have always abstained from troubling the Society till I had some new facts to state, which appeared to me to deserve its attention; and I have confined myself to the simple statement of the facts and the means by which they were ascertained.

I Shall attempt in this Paper to prove that the plant called Viola by the Romans, is not, according to the received opinion, our common Violet, but the flower called Iris, and well-known in our English gardens. This idea first occurred to me, when in the winter of 1825-1826 I travelled on horseback over the greater part of Sicily, and observed, that amongst the numerous wild flowers which that genial climate was already bringing forth at that season, there was no Violet to be seen, but, on the other hand, a great abundance of Iris; and I have since been informed that such is likewise the case in southern Italy. This seemed to me to render it improbable, that a plant so common should have been unnoticed by the ancient pastoral poets, and that their strains should be devoted to one apparently of foreign origin, of later introduction, and of less general growth.

We learn from this communication that the beak of this singular animal, which on a cursory examination was thought to be exactly similar to that of the Duck, and calculated for the same purposes, is in fact materially different from it; and that, so far from being the mouth of the animal, as had been imagined, it is only a part added to the mouth, and projecting beyond it. This mouth has two grinding teeth on each side, both in the upper and lower jaw; they are without fangs, and may be considered as bony protuberances. Instead of incisor teeth, the nasal and palate bones are continued forwards, so as to support the upper portion of the beak; while the two under jaws are likewise continued forwards in the shape of two thin plates of bone, forming the central part of the under portion of the beak. The tongue is very short, and when extended can be projected into the bill scarcely one quarter of its length. The organ of smell in this animal differs from that of quadrupeds in general, as well as of birds. The nostrils are nearly at the end of the beak, while the turbinated bones are situated in the skull, as in other quadrupeds; by which means there are two cavities the whole length of the beak superadded to this organ. The nerves which supply this organ are very large in proportion to the size of the animal.

An opportunity having lately offered of examining a living rhinoceros, and of dissecting it after death, Mr. Thomas availed himself of the favourable incident; and in this paper affords us all the information he could gather concerning that curious animal. Dr. James Parsons having, upwards of fifty years ago, laid before the Society some account of the external parts of a rhinoceros, a recapitulation is here given of what is contained in that paper; but on the other hand, the description of the internal parts, and of some of the organs, is the more ample, and, together with some observations on its habits, will probably prove equally satisfactory to the anatomist and the physiologist.

This singular production has hitherto been found only in a small lake in Carniola, called Sitticher See, and has never yet been met with in other large lakes of the neighbourhood, although these be known to communicate with the former by subterraneous channels. The specimens which have as yet reached either the public or private collections are so few, that all the descriptions hitherto given by Laurenti, Scopoli, Herman, Schneider, and Gmelin, have been found equally defective and erroneous, especially as to the anatomical con­struction, which, indeed, those able naturalists have scarcely had opportunities of investigating. This defect probably gave rise to a difference of opinion concerning the class to which this animal is to be annumerated; some considering it as a species arrived at its degree of perfection, while others maintain that it is the larva of some kind of lizard hitherto unknown. The principal object of this paper is to offer so circumstantial a description of the different parts of this animal as to enable physio­logists to determine the point hitherto undecided. The specimen from which this description was taken measured about thirteen inches in length, and one inch in diameter; the fore part of the head was flat and narrow, somewhat resembling the bill of a duck : the upper lip projected considerably beyond the lower one. No external traces of nostrils, ears or eyes could be discovered. Of the latter, however, some indications are thought to have been perceived on a living specimen. On each side of the occiput was an opening, like those of fishes; and over them certain branchial appendages, similar to those in tadpoles and other larvæ of amphibious animals; whence probably arose the difference of opinions concerning the nature of this animal. From the description here given, we are to infer, that the construc­tion of these parts, when carefully examined, differs materially from those as well of fishes as of tadpoles or other larvæ.

The author on a former occasion laid before the Society an account of certain peculiarities in the growth of the grinding teeth of the Sus æthiopicus, and pointed out the similarity of their structure to that of the elephant. Having since discovered that a like resemblance extends also to the dentition of the wild boar, though in a less de­gree, and at a later period of life, he is pleased to communicate to the Society, in his present paper, some further remarks on this cu­rious subject. We here learn, that in the species of the Sus, the first or temporary grinders are sixteen in number; viz. four in each side of the upper, and as many in the under jaw; that these are shed in the usual manner; and that their places are supplied by larger teeth, rising from the substance of the jaw, immediately under the old ones; that before these first teeth are shed, one of the more permanent grinders is formed in the posterior part of each jaw, which, although it be in its place with the first set, is yet to be considered as belong­ing to the second; that besides these five teeth, the rudiments of a sixth are formed in each jaw, which afterwards grows larger than the preceding ones, the jaw increasing in size, so as to make room for this as the posterior grinder; that this tooth, when perfect, is double the size of the other grinders, its masticating surface having eight fangs, so that it very much resembles two large grinding teeth in­ corporated into one; that, in time, the rudiments of a seventh appear in each jaw, but that the further progress of these could not be observed, none of the specimens the author has had opportunities of inspecting, appearing to be more than seven year old.

The author prefaces his paper by declaring that the cause of the ascent of the sap in trees appearing to him not to have been as yet satisfactorily accounted for, he resolved to enter on an experimental inquiry on the subject; and that having met with some facts of which he had found no mention in any author, he flattered himself an account of them might not be unacceptable to the Society. The first experiments were made with a view to determine whether the sap does actually, as has been thought by some, ascend along he bark. For this purpose, circular incisions were made round a number of young healthy trees, and the bark removed for the space of about half an inch, or more, of the whole circumference. This, it was found, by no means impeded the growth of the upper part of the tree; but, on the other hand, the part of the stem below the incision scarcely grew at all, and in time even seemed to wither. From the whole of this investigation it seems probable, that the current of sap which adds the annual layers of wood to the stem, so far from ascending, actually descends from the young branches and leaves through the bark. The branches and leaves which supply this fluid became hence the next objects of the inquiry.

Two specimens of this curious animal, lately brought from New South Wales, the one male and the other female, and both full grown and perfect, having been submitted to the inspection and close examination of Mr. Home, by Sir Joseph Banks, this gentle­man has availed himself of the favourable opportunity to draw up the full account of all that is hitherto known concerning its habits, of its external appearance, and internal structure now before us. The animal has hitherto been only found in the fresh-water lakes, in the interior parts of the above-mentioned country. It does not swim upon the surface of the water, but comes up occasionally to breathe. It chiefly inhabits the banks of these lakes, and is supposed to feed in the muddy places which surround them; but the particular kind of food on which it subsists is not known.

The specimen from which this description was taken, and which was exhibited to the Society at their Meeting, was brought from New South Wales. It is a male, probably arrived at its full growth. It is seventeen inches in length from the point of the bill to the ex­tremity of the tail; and its greatest circumference measures likewise about seventeen inches. Its back and sides are covered with quills, the longest of which are about two inches and a half in length. Its bill projects from the head one inch and three-fourths, tapering from its base, where it is seven-eighths of an inch in diameter to its point, where its diameter is not above three-eighths of an inch. It is tubular, convex on the upper, and flat on the lower surface. The tongue is cylindrical, very small towards the point, and eight inches long. This species has a peculiarity in its mode of managing its food, which distinguishes it from the Paradoxus. The food is first bruised by small horny prominences adhering to the tongue and palate, and then swal­lowed writh a certain quantity of sand, the stomach being sufficiently large to contain this extraneous matter, together with the food, and effectually defended from injury by a cuticular lining. Mr. Home proceeds, wflth his usual accuracy and minuteness, in his technical description, both of the external and internal parts, which he illustrates with a number of figures. Having completed this detail, he observes in general, that this species of Omithorhynchus being a nearer approach to the more perfect quadruped than the Paradoxus, and its tongue being in some respects similar to those of the Manis and Myrmecophaga, he thought it necessary to look among the different species of these genera for other parts of resemblance. The result of this comparison is, that the Ornithorhynchus is essen­tially different from all other quadrupeds, bearing in some respects a resemblance to birds, and in others to the Amphibia, so that it may be considered as an intermediate link between the classes Mammalia, Aves, and Amphibia. To the first class it no doubt approaches nearest in the instance of the Myrmecophaga; and to the birds it bears a singular affinity in the male organs of generation, as is here illustrated by comparing its penis with that of the drake.

The bones of the organ of hearing, or ossicula auditûs, in man and in the mammalia, form, Mr. Carlisle says, a series of conductors, whose office seems limited to the conveyance of sounds received through the medium of air; no parts corresponding to such bones being found in fishes. In two of the classes of animals, however, namely, birds, and the amphibia of Linnæus, there is only one ossicle of the tympanum, which is in the situation of the stapes. Mr. Carlisle then proceeds to give a minute description of the human ossicula auditûs, especially of the stapes. This description we shall pass over, that we may be the more particular in our account of the varieties observed in the last-mentioned bone in other animals.

After some general observations on the art of embalming, as it was practised by the ancient Egyptians, and on the various kinds of animals embalmed by them, Mr. Pearson proceeds to- give a particular description of the very perfect mummy of an Ibis, which forms the chief subject of the present paper. This mummy was taken out of the catacombs at Thebes, by the late Major Hayes, in the year 1802 or 1803. It was enveloped in cloth, and contained in an earthen jar, similar to those which are found at Saccara. Upon unrolling the bandage with which the mummy was covered, it was found to consist of strips of cloth, about three inches broad, which were strong and firm. The first circumvolutions of this cloth separated easily; but as the work proceeded, they were found to adhere more firmly, and at last were so closely united, that it was necessary to divide them by means of a strong knife. Each layer of cloth seemed to have been imbued with some bituminous substance in a liquid state; and the bandages were further secured by means of thread, in such a manner that the whole mass was rendered firm and coherent; when the bandage was removed, the bird appeared to be covered with the same kind of bituminous substance that had cemented the strips of cloth. As much of this substance as could be removed without injuring the bird was now carefully taken off; and after the labour of several hours, Mr. Pearson succeeded in displaying the whole bird as it had been originally deposited by the embalmer.

In the first part of this paper Mr. Home relates some further par­ticulars respecting the sea worm shell from Sumatra, of which an ac­count was, some time since, laid before this Society by Mr. Griffiths. A specimen of one of these shells, five feet long, but imperfect at both ends, was given to Mr. Home by Capt. Maxwell; and in order to remove all doubt respecting its nature, a part of it was analysed by Mr. Hatchett, who found that it was composed of carbonate of lime and an animal gelatinous substance, greater in quantity than in the Chama Gigas , but less than in the common oyster. The subsequent discovery of two boring shells and two flattened opercula, sufficiently evinced that the shell here treated of belonged to the genus Teredo; and as the internal structure and economy of Teredines are very little known, our author thought that nothing would tend more to enable us to form an adequate idea respecting this new species (which he thinks may be called Teredo gigantea ), than an accurate knowledge of the common species Teredo Navalis . With this view, by the assistance of Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Whitbey, Mr. Home obtained some pieces of wood, with live Teredines in them, from Sheerness. By means of these, and of some speci­mens in the British and the Hunterian Museums, he has been enabled, with the assistance of Mr. Clift and Mr. Brodie, to give a very cir­cumstantial description, accompanied by drawings, of the anatomy of the Teredo Navalis .

Mr. Home, having in a former paper communicated his observa­tions upon the stomachs of ruminating animals, gives the present account of that organ in the whale tribe, to show that it forms a link in the gradation towards the stomach of truly carnivorous animals. The Delphinus delphis of Linnaeus, the bottle-nosed porpoise, called by Mr. Hunter the bottle-nosed whale, having been brought ashore alive by some fishermen at Worthing, Mr. Home took the opportunity of examining the structure of its stomach, and discovered a resemblance between the second, third, and fourth cavities in the whale, and the different parts of the fourth cavity in the camel and bullock, which appeared to throw some light upon their uses, as well as upon digestion in general.

An extraordinary diversity of opinion having prevailed amongst naturalists most capable of correct observation, respecting the production and subsequent state of the bark of trees, Mr. Knight has undertaken to investigate the subject : but such are the difficulties of the subject, that, in a course of experiment which has occupied more than twenty years, he has scarcely felt himself prepared, till the present time, even to give an opinion of the manner in which the cortical substance is either generated in the ordinary course of its growth, or re-produced when that which previously existed has been taken off. Du Hamel had shown, that the bark of some species of trees is readily re-produced when the decorticated alburnum is secluded from the air. Mr. Knight has repeated these experiments on the apple, the sycamore, and some other trees, with the same result ; and has also observed, that the wych-elm, in moist and shady situa­tions, will frequently re-produce its bark when no covering whatever has been applied.

The author, having received a male wombat alive from one of the islands in Bass’s Straits, had an opportunity of observing its habits in a domesticated state, and of examining the peculiarities of its internal formation after death, particularly the mechanism of the bones and muscles of its hind legs, which have not been described either by Geoffroy, in his account of its internal form, or by Cuvier, who has described several parts of its internal structure in his Lecons d’Anatomie Comparée . The stomach of the wombat resembles closely that of the beaver, and differs so much from that of the kanguroo, and other animals of the opossum tribe, that it forms an extraordinary peculiarity. An account of the dissection of a female wombat having been received from the late Mr. Bell, Surgeon to the Colony at New South Wales, Mr. Home has inserted Mr. Bell’s description, with remarks especially on the state of the uterus, which was double, and impregnated on each side; that on the right side was as large as a pullet’s egg. The os tincæ was filled with a thick gelatinous substance. When a longitudinal incision was made into its cavity, its coats were found lined with the same jelly, in the centre of which was an embryo wrapped up in very fine membranes, that appeared to have no connexion by vessels with either the uterus or the gelatinous matter. These facts, says Mr. Home, throw considerable light on the mode of propagation of this very curious tribe of animals. They confirm, in the most satisfactory manner, the observations contained in a former paper on the kanguroo, which required further evidence, as the specimen on which the observations were made had been sent to England preserved in spirits, and the parts had become very indistinct, from being coagulated and long kept.