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440 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



November 16. 

 The President, Dr. Rtjschenberger, in the chair. 

 Twenty-seven members present. 



The following papers were presented for publication : 



" Descriptions of New Fossil Shells from the Tertiary of Califor 



nia." By R. E. C. Stearns. 



" A Descriptive Catalogue of Scalidse of theWest India Islands 



By 0. A. L. Morch. 



On Trichocephalus affinis, Dies. Dr. Chapman noticed having 

 found in the intestine of the llama the Trichocephalus affinis de- 

 scribed by Diesing as occurring in the camel, and observed that 

 it was interesting to find the same intestinal worm in animals so 

 closely related structurally, though so widely separated geogra- 

 phically. 



On the Castor Glands of the Beaver. Dr. Chapman also called 

 attention to the arrangement of the castor glands in the American 

 beaver, the lower symmetrical glands opening into the ano-pre- 

 putial passage consisting of only two glands, whereas the European 

 species in this respect exhibited three. 



November 23. 

 The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 

 Seventeen members present. 



On the Mesozoic Red Sandstone of the Atlantic States. Prof. 

 Persifor Frazer, Jr., said that the art of stratigraphy has proved 

 itself capable of most wonderful extension, and has given the 

 foundation for whatever of exactitude of statement can be claimed 

 for geology. 



It is another instance of the surprising lengths to which proba- 

 bility can be carried by inductive reasoning based on compara- 

 tively few but generally admitted premises. It is surprising to 

 read over the results of the application of this method in any 

 general outline of geology, and to note that mere relative position 

 of things can unfold to us a marvellous story of motion, and 

 evolution or successive changes, according to law. 



The more facts we know the wider is the range of this applica- 

 tion, and sometimes one very little fact well established will require 

 vast continents to be plunged in the imagination thousands of feet 



