190 Linnaan Society, 



as e. g, basio- occipital for the basilaire, and meso-, pre- and hypo- 

 tympanic instead of the symplectique, tympanal and jugal bones of 

 Cuvier. Again, we repeat, a new epoch dawns upon the science of 

 Comparative Anatomy. For, should the views of Prof. Owen, when 

 critically analysed, receive the general assent of British and con- 

 tinental observers, it is not going too far to predict the important 

 influence they must inevitabl)'- exercise in simplifying the acquire- 

 ment by the student, not only of the osseous system of animals, 

 but of Man ; their conducing to a gradual recognition and accordant 

 naming of the primary ganglionic portions of the brain in harmony 

 with its corresponding skeletal segments, and finally, carried yet 

 further and associated with other generalizations, laying the logical 

 groundwork of a natural classification of the animal kingdom. lu 

 fine, to Prof. Owen, in his investigation of homological relations, in 

 due the rare merit of having been the first to grapple with, and carry 

 into amplitude of detail, a principle, which though only partially 

 evolved, was boldly announced as if irrefragable, by Oken ; while 

 rejected by Agassiz and discussed or enlarged upon by other writers, 

 the question has at length devolved to the cautious and inductive 

 reasoning of the worthy successor of John Hunter, for ultimate 

 extrication from its labyrinth, and thus implantation upon a true 

 philosophic basis. Before such a statement of plain historical fact, 

 the usually knotty points toucliing priority of discovery must dis- 

 solve in the mind of the candid and liberal reader, who, revering 

 Truth for her sake alone, will rest content with adjudging the crown 

 of honour to him who has struggled best in behalf of her cause. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



LINN^AN SOCIETY. 



May 24, 1846. — ^The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the 



Chair. 



This day, the Anniversary of the birth of Linnaeus, and that ap- 

 pointed by the Charter for the election of Council and Oflicers, the 

 President opened the business of the Meeting and stated the num- 

 ber of Members whom the Society had lost during the past year, of 

 some of whom the Secretary read the following notices ; — 



James Hussey Abraham, Esq., for nearly half a century the con- 

 ductor of the most flourishing seminary in the town of Sheffield, was 

 well-skilled in various branches of Natural Philosophy, especially 

 Electricity and Magnetism, and possessed a large and valuable col- 

 lection of apparatus with which he illustrated his lectures on these 

 and allied branches of science. In the course of his magnetic expe- 

 riments, the idea suggested itself to him that the minute particles of 

 steel evolved in the dry grinding of forks, needles, &c., the inhala- 

 tion of which is so deleterious to the workmen engaged in those 

 trades, might be intercepted by means of a wire-gauze mask, or 

 caught by a chaplet of magnets worn about the mouth of the ope* 



