300 Zoological Society. 



mastodon ; but, being connected with South America at its apex, 

 and with Asia, by frozen seas, at its base, in accordance with this 

 geographical condition, it was found that the mammoth of the Old 

 World had migrated from the north, and the megatherium from the 

 south, and that both had met in middle temperate regions of that 

 continent. The fossil mammals of the newer tertiary period of Au- 

 stralia belong to the marsupial genera of Kangaroo, Phalanger, Da- 

 syurus, wombat, &c., peculiar to the same country at the present day, 

 but represented by species as big as the rhinoceros. A more remark- 

 able example of the concordance of the existing and last extinct 

 races of warm-blooded animals was afforded by the small peculiar 

 and wingless bird (^Apteryx^ of New Zealand, and the extinct gigan- 

 tic birds {Dtnornis) from the superficial deposits of the same island. 

 No remains of fossil quadrupeds have yet been found in New Zea- 

 land ; and this country possessed no marsupial or other species of 

 aboriginal quadruped when discovered by Captain Cook. From these 

 and similar facts, the Professor drew the conclusion, that the same 

 peculiar forms of mammal quadrupeds and terrestrial birds were re- 

 stricted to the same natural provinces at the later tertiary period as at 

 the present day. And as a corollary, that the same general disposition 

 of the larger bodies of land and sea then prevailed as at this time. On 

 the other hand, in carrying back the comparison of recent and ex- 

 tinct quadrupeds to the earlier tertiary period, indications were ob- 

 tained of extensive changes in the relative position of land and sea, 

 and, consequently, of climate ; and that the deeper we penetrate the 

 earth, or, in other words, the further we travel in time for the re- 

 covery of extinct mammals, the further we must travel in space to 

 find their existing analogue. The Tapir of Sumatra or South America 

 is the nearest living analogue of the eocene Lophiodon ; — and the mar- 

 supial insectivores of Australia have, of all known animals, the near- 

 est resemblance to the fossil Phascolotherium of our English oolites. 

 — Atheneeum. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Oct. 14, 1845. — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



*' On the size of the Red Corpuscles of the Blood in the Vertebrata, 

 with copious Tables of Measurements." By George Gulliver, Esq., 

 F.R.S. 



The following Tables contain a synopsis of my former observa- 

 tions, corrected when necessary and extended by many more since 

 made and now first published. They include altogether no less than 

 485 species, here systematically arranged, so as to exhibit a sum- 

 mary, and yet more complete view than any yet extant, of the size 

 of the blood- corpuscles in the different subdivisions of vertebrate 

 animals. In this respect I hope the Tables may be useful, as well 

 as for reference in connection with physiological questions now often 

 arising. I have introduced no measurement not made by myself. 

 The observations on the form and size of the corpuscles, unless other- 

 wise expressed, refer to the majority of them as existing in any por- 

 tion of the blood of the adult animal spoken of; for there may be a 

 few differing greatly from the average. In the blood-corpuscles of 



