444 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



November 30. 

 The President, Dr. Puschenberger, in the chair. 

 Thirty members present. 



On Heat and Chemical Action. Prof. Persifor Frazer, Jr., 

 stated that Prof. Hunt, in chemical and geological essays No. 

 VII , " On Some Points in Dynamical Geology," p. 77, after speak- 

 ing of his adoption of Babbage's and Herschel's hypothesis of an 

 igneous centre, adds that Kefersbein rejects this hypothesis as 

 unnecessary, and Joseph Le Conte proposes an intermediate view 

 that heat from a molten centre invading the sedimentary inter- 

 mediate layers may excite chemical activity, which in turn would 

 augment the temperature. He concludes, " it is, however, I think, 

 probable that any chemical processes which may be set up in the 

 buried sediments for their conversion into igneous rocks and vol- 

 canic products would absorb rather than generate heat." 



The mere conversion of silicates from the solid to the liquid, or, 

 if it be possible, gaseous states, is not chemical action ; and hence 

 fusion or vaporization, which undoubtedly would lower the tem- 

 perature by its great absorption of heat, cannot be referred to 

 here, and it seems at first sight rather difficult to say what form 

 of chemical action except dissociation, if that can be called such 

 would absorb heat, or upon what phenomena this statement is 

 based. 



On the supposed Carnivora of the Eocene of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. Prof. Cope remarked that animals which fulfilled the func- 

 tions of the existing Carnivora were abundant in North America 

 during the Eocene period. The Wahsatch beds of New Mexico 

 have yielded remains of more than a dozen species, which ranged 

 from the size of a weasel to that of a jaguar. Investigation into 

 tht' structure of these shows that while they differ in minor points 

 among themselves, they agree in possessing characters which dis- 

 tinguish them from the true Carnivora. I have already pointed 

 out,' that, in the genera Ambloctonus, Oxyxna, Stypolophus, and 

 Didymictis, the tibio-tarsal articulation differs from that of the 

 existing Carnivora, and suggested that these forms might prove 

 to be gigantic Insectivora. Further investigation has satisfied 

 me that they cannot be included in the order Carnivora, and their 

 systematic position proves to be of considerable interest. 



A greater or less part of the cranial chamber is preserved in 

 specimens of Oxysena forci]Kita and Stypolophus Mans. In these 



1 Systematic Catalogue of the Vertebrata of the Eocene of New Mexico, 

 L875, p. 7. 



