Royal Society. 407 



Commissioner of Arracan, and from Ensign Haukeu and Mr. Howe, 

 Marine Assistant Commissioner, giving details of a curious pheno- 

 menon seen at sea off Ilyook Phyoo." Communicated by Viscount 

 Mahon, F.R.S., Pres. S.A. 



The appearance in question, seen between five and six o'clock in 

 the evening of the 2nd of December 1845, was that of a large flame 

 far out at sea, flickering several times for fifteen and twenty minutes, 

 and suddenly ceasing. It was conjectured to have been either a 

 large ship on fire, or a volcanic eruption ; but no positive data exist 

 for determining the question. 



" On the Fossil Remains of the soft parts of Foraminifera dis- 

 covered in the Chalk and Flint of the South-east of England." By 

 Gideon Algernon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. 



By subjecting small portions of calcareous rock to the action of 

 diluted hydrochloric acid, the calcareous earth and the shells it had 

 enveloped were removed ; the residue consisting of particles of 

 quartz and of green silicate of iron ; and also numerous remains of 

 the soft parts of animalcules, chiefly Xanthidia and Rotaliae. The 

 organization of the latter appears, from the observations of Ehren- 

 berg, to be very simple, and to have no relation with the Cephalo- 

 poda, as was formerly imagined. The body is enclosed within the 

 shell, which is polythalamous, and it occupies not only the outer cham- 

 ber, but also all the cells contemporaneously, and the shell is pierced 

 all over with minute pores, through which tentacula protrude; and 

 there are also several soft transparent feelers, or pseudopodia, which 

 are instruments of locomotion. When the shell is removed by acid, 

 the soft body is exposed, and is seen to extend to the innermost 

 chamber ; and there is a connecting tube occupying the place of 

 the siphuncle of the nautilus, but which is the intestinal canal ; for 

 the cells are the receptacles of the digestive sacs or stomachs, in 

 which monads, naviculse, and other minute infusoria, which the ani- 

 mal had swallowed, may sometimes be observed. In the fossil re- 

 mains, the appearance of the parts which the author supposes to be 

 the digestive organs, is that of a series of bladders or sacs, composed 

 of a tough flexible integument, and connected by a tube. These 

 organs are more or less filled with a dark substance ; those which 

 are distended are always well-defined, while the empty ones are col- 

 lapsed and disposed in folds, just as membranous pouches would 

 appear under similar conditions. The sacs regularly diminish in 

 size from the outer to the innermost cell, and vary in number from 

 fourteen to twenty-six. In some instances, small papillae are ob- 

 servable on the external surface of the integument, which are pro- 

 bably vestiges of the bases of the pseudopodia or tentacula. 



Drawings of the various specimens described by the author ac- 

 company the paper. 



" Experiments relative to Animal Temperature, showing that there 

 must be some source of animal heat besides the combustion of the 

 Carbon and the Hydrogen contained in the Food of Animals." By 

 Robert Rigg, Esq., F.R.S. 



The subject of these experiments was a labouring man in the em- 



