PROCEEDINGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 305 



scattered over the centre part of England by some vast inundation, 

 and which were found sometimes in Staffordshire, and as far as 

 Worcestershire, but which he never saw found in this neighbour- 

 hood. It was not the general opinion now, as it was twenty-five 

 years ago, when it was considered that these assertions were but 

 theories invented by gentlemen in their closets ; but they were the 

 result of sound and logical deliberation, and founded upon discove- 

 ries and experience which none could dare to contradict. From his 

 having made the discoveries he had at Rugby and Warwick, he 

 should lay claim to a memorial right upon the land, upon the same 

 grounds that the captain of a vessel planted his sovereign's standard 

 on a newly discovered island : he had shewn them his bill of fare, 

 and in twelve month's time he was certain the table of the Natural 

 History Society of Warwickshire would be richly spread. As every 

 father had a right to christen his own child, he should claim the 

 privilege of naming the strata he had discovered — kenper ; a de- 

 scription of earth which exactly corresponded with that at Wirtem- 

 berg, the bottom of the Severn, and many other places in this coun- 

 try. When these remains are first found they should be cautiously 

 handled ; they must not be extracted by a hammer, but carefully 

 cut round with a knife, and when taken home would soon become 

 hardened and secure. There was also the arm-bone of a Rhinoceros 

 found at Rugby, and he had no doubt that this was once a swampy 

 climate fitted to the species of animals which, at some remote period 

 inhabited this country. There was also extracted near this place 

 the shoulder blade of an Elephant, which, upon the highest autho- 

 rity, must have been sixteen leet high, and of course a much larger 

 species than those now found in India. In New Holland, too, where 

 only Oppossums and Kangaroos, and that species of animals were now 

 existing, had been found the remains of an Elephant of an extraor- 

 dinary size. The learned Professor made numerous other very enter- 

 taining and able observations upon the various instances of the re- 

 mains of animals which had been discovered, and which must have 

 existed before the creation of the human race. He concluded the 

 first part of his address by entreating the members of the Society to 

 continue in the progress they were making, eminently important to 

 the interests of science, not only in England, but throughout the 

 world. 



Dr. Conolly then proceeded to read the Report of the Committee, 

 which commenced by stating that the Society had its origin in a 

 smaller association, of which the object was to investigate the claims 

 of phrenology to be considered a true science of mind. The collec- 

 tion of numerous casts, the preparation of skulls of several of the 

 lower animals, and the accidental addition of some human skulls 

 discovered in digging foundations where an ancient religious house 

 was supposed to have stood, concurred, with other circumstances, to 

 suggest to that Society the advantage of widening the sphere of 

 their observations, so as to comprehend a fuller study of the struc- 

 ture, functions, and habits of various classes of animals ; and the di- 



VOL. V. NO. XVIII. 2Q 



