$74 Miscellaneous, 



MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



March 18, 1846. 



A paper by the Secretary, John Quekett, Esq., *' On the intimate 

 Structure of Bone in the four great Classes of Animals, viz. Mam- 

 mals, Birds, Reptiles and Fishes, with some Remarks on the great 

 Value of the Knowledge of such Structure in classifying minute 

 Fragments of Fossil Organic Remains," was read. 



After alluding to the highly important results obtained by Prof. 

 Owen, with the aid of the microscope, in determining the affinities of 

 extinct animals by means of their teeth, the author went on to state 

 that, having for some time paid considerable attention to the struc- 

 ture of bone in the four great classes of animals, he had found cer- 

 tain characters peculiar to each great class, by which a bone of one 

 class could be distinguished from that of another. He then briefly 

 described certain characters which were present in all bones, and 

 then those which were peculiar to each class, viz. the Haversian ca- 

 nals, and the bone-cells with their little tubes (canaliculi) proceed- 

 ing from them ; and he applied the characters derived from the bone- 

 cells to the determination of the class of animals to which any mi- 

 nute fragment may have belonged ; for he had ascertained that the 

 bone-cells were smallest in birds, a little larger in mammalia, and 

 largest of all in the reptilia : the bone- cells of fishes were remark- 

 able for their being so unlike either of the three preceding classes, 

 that, having been once seen, they could not easily be mistaken. 

 The author then noticed the relative proportions of the bone- cells 

 and blood-corpuscles of the same animal, and concluded by remark- 

 ing, that however different the size of animals of the same class may 

 be, the bone-cells did not vary according to the difference in size. 

 Thus the mighty iguanodon, some scores of feet in length, had no 

 larger bone- cells than the lowliest lizard which we trampled under 

 our feet, nor the horse or the ox than the smallest of our quadru- 

 peds, the mouse. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



CHAIR or ANATOMY AT EDINBURGH. 



We are happy to hear that Mr. John Goodsir has been elected to 

 the important office of Professor of Anatomy in the University of 

 Edinburgh. The original and highly philosophical essays of that 

 gentleman have gained him an European reputation as an anatomist 

 and physiologist, whilst his services in the cause of natural history 

 have placed him in an equally high position as a biologist. His me- 

 moirs on the Amphioxus and Orthagoriscus, on the anatomy of many 

 moUusca, radiata and entozoa, and on certain vegetables parasitic 

 on animals, are familiar to the readers of the * Annals.' Anatomy 

 and natural history will equally gain by this excellent appointment. 



