Natural History in London. 185 



glands and their teats, appear to perform, exclusively, the office of preparing 

 a nutritious fluid for the support of the young animal. {Phil. Mag. and 

 Annals of Philosophy ^ June.) 



Mat/ 24. The anniversary meeting took place, at which Edward, Lord 

 Stanley, was elected President, in the room of the late Sir J. E. Smith ; and 

 Edward Forster, J.E.Bicheno, and R. Taylor, Esqrs., respectively reelected 

 to the offices of Treasurer, Secretary, and Under-secretary. 



June 3. Read. A description of a new genus of quadrupeds named 

 Lagostomos (lagos^ a hare, stomas a mouth ; the head of the animal resem- 

 bling that of a hare) trichodactylus {thrix, hair, daktylos, a toe), belonging 

 to the order of Rongeurs Cuv., Glires Lin.\ by Joshua Brookes, Esq. 

 F.R.S.L.S. 



June 10. The Council having had an offer of the late respected president's 

 collections in natural history, consisting of the collections and library of Lin- 

 naeus and his son, and the president's own collections and library, submitted 

 to the consideration of the Society, a proposal for purchasing the same for 

 the use of the Society, for the sum of 4000/. ; and a subscription was im- 

 mediately opened for that purpose, the amount of which, up to the period 

 at which we write, is nearly 1000/. The subscription may either be in one 

 principal sum, or so much per annum. Lord Stanley, the president, put 

 down his name for 21/., and 2/. 2s. annually; and Mr. Anderson, of the 

 Chelsea botanic garden, and some other gardeners and nurserymen, greatly 

 to their honour, tor 2/. 2s. annually. We have no doubt this treasure will 

 be obtained for the Society, and it is highly fitting that it should. 



Geological Society. — April 18. A paper was read, " On the fossil re- 

 mains of two new species of Mastodon, and of other vertebrated animals, 

 found on the left bank of the Irawadi ; by William Clift, Esq. F.G.S. F.R.S., 

 conservator of the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons." 



The author having been requested to describe the fossil remains which 

 the zeal and liberality of Mr. Crawfurd have transferred from the deserts 

 of the Irawadi to the museum of the Geological Society, confines himself 

 strictly to zoological and anatomical details ; and, following the system of 

 Cuvier, commences with the 



Pachydermata proboscidifera. The only genus of this order indicated by 

 the remains is the Mastodon, and of this there are two species. Mastodon 

 latidens and Mastodon elephantoides, not only commanding attention from 

 their novelty, but from the beautiful gradation which they exhibit between 

 the mastodons already described and the elephant. On comparing the teeth 

 of Mastodon latidens with those of the mastodon of the Ohio (M. gigan- 

 teum), the denticules are found to be more numerous and less distant, and 

 the interstices less deep than in those of the latter; the teeth, in short, 

 begin to assume the appearance of those of the elephant. On advancing to 

 Mastodon elephantoides, these features of similarity are more strongly de- 

 veloped ; the many-pointed denticules are still more numerous and more 

 compressed, and the structure, were it not for the absence of crusta petrosa, 

 becomes almost that of the tooth of the elephant. In both, though the 

 teeth are formed upon the principle by which the tooth of the mastodon is 

 distinguished from that of the elephant, the crown of the tooth wears away 

 more like that of the elephant than that of the other mastodons. 



Pachydermata ordindria. In this group we have the remains of the genera 

 sus, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros. Of the first there is only a single 

 specimen, consisting of a small portion of the lower jaw, containing one 

 molar tooth, and the fragment of another ; of the second there are but 

 few fragments, nor are they sufficiently characteristic to warrant a definition 

 of the species, which must have been comparatively small ; of the third 

 there is a portion of the upper jaw, containing two molar teeth, and por- 

 tions of the lower jaw with molares, which seem to approach nearer to those 

 of the Rhinoceros of Java than to those of any other living species. 



