8 [April, 1841. 



different persons. This variation was sometimes not less than 

 three or four cubic inches ; making it desirable to use some other 

 bodies in place of the pepper seeds. Dr. Morton then tried leaden 

 shot of the size called BB., measuring of an inch in diameter ; 

 which being perfectly smooth and spherical, of uniform size, and 

 therefore not liable, like the seeds, to variations from packing, were 

 found to answer the purpose in every particular. In using the shot, 

 it is necessary to fill the skull completely, by shaking it, and by 

 pressing the shot down with the finger and the end of the funnel 

 introduced into the foramen magnum, until all the cavities and 

 sinuosities are filled. When this is accomplished, the shot being 

 transferred to the tube, will give the capacity of the cranium in 

 cubic inches, and with so much accuracy, that in six successive 

 measurements of the same skull, the results did not vary more than 

 half a cubic inch ; a degree of accuracy which has not been at- 

 tained by any former method. An experiment with the apparatus 

 was then made, in the presence of the members, which corroborated 

 the statements already made. Dr. Morton informed the Society, 

 that he was now engaged in ascertaining by these means, the ca- 

 pacity of the cranium, as indicative of the size of the brain, in the 

 different races of men, and will report the results for publication in 

 the proceedings of the Academy. 



STATED MEETING, Apkil 13. 

 Vice President Morton in the Chair. 



DONATIONS TO MUSEUM. 



A specimen of Mountain Leather, from New Brunswick, N. 

 Jersey. From Dr. L. C. Beck. 



Five specimens of Belemnites Americanus; three of Terebra- 

 tula Sayi ; seven fossil bones ; the tooth of a Crocodile ; two 

 Shark's vertebras, from the green sand formation of New 

 Egypt, in N. Jersey. From the Rev. James McFarland. 



Two splendid specimens of the Phasianus Argus, (male and 

 female,) from India. From Dr. George C. Leib. 



A branch of the Auracaria Chilensis, from Chili. From Mr. 

 J. Frampton Watson, 



