1848.] 57 



Maxj 2d, 1848. 

 Vice President Morton in the Chair. 



A letter was read from the Hon. George Bancroft, dated U. S. 

 Legation, London, 14th April, 1848, stating that he had received 

 from the Hon. East India Co. a proposal to present to the Academy a 

 series of casts of India Fossils in the Company's possession, and request- 

 ing instructions on the subject. 



Dr. Dickeson communicated a paper for publication in the Journal, 

 entitled ''Microscopic examination of the development of the foetus of 

 the Succinia amphibia,^^ which was referred to Drs. Griffith, Hallowell, 

 and C. D. Meigs as a Committee. 



Dr. Morton read the following communication from E.. W. Gibbes, 

 M. D., of Charleston, S. C. 



" In June, 1845, I submitted to the Academy, an account of a non-descript fos- 

 sil from tiie Eocene of South Carolina. I expressed the opinion that it was 

 generically different from any previously published specimens, and called it 

 DoRDDoy serratus. Casts of the teeth were forwarded to Prof. Owen, by my 

 friend Dr. S. G. Morton. In the "Proceedings'' of the Academy of Feb. 1846, 

 a notice appeared that a letter had been receiTed from Prof. Owen, of London, 

 dated November 11th, 1845, in reference to the fossil genus Dorudon. He con- 

 sidered it to be the same as his genus Zeiiglodon (Basilosauhus, Harlan,) to which 

 also he referred the very extensive series of bones collected by Dr. Koch, in 

 Alabama, then on exhibition in London. 



Prof. Owen's letter was kindly forwarded to me by Dr. Morton, who wrote 

 me that he considered Prof. Owen's authority as decisive, and that I must yield 

 my genus, requesting me at the same time to prepare for the Academy's Journal, 

 then about to be resumed, a paper on the jiresent knowledge of Zecglodon. In 

 deference to such high authority, I yielded the genus, though in my reply I ex- 

 pressed the opinion that I still thought the character different. In my paper 

 published in the first number of the Journal, I described Dorudon as a second 

 species of Zeu^ludoii, giving Prof. Owen's letter, and stating the characters upon 

 which I had made its generic distinction, expressing the opinion that what I had 

 considered a very important character, " should not be set aside." 



On a visit to Charleston, in December last by Prof Agassiz, I took the op- 

 portunity of submitting the specimens (some of which he had not seen) again to 

 his critical inspection, and the result was that he adopts all tlie characters upon 

 which I had based the genus, and upon his authority I respectfully reclaim the 

 genus DoRUDON. 



The following letter he kindly sent me in relation to the specimens, as well 

 as to his discovery among my fossils of a new genus, which he names 

 Sauuocetus."* 



*See the letter referred to, at page 4, Vol. 4, No. 1 of these Proceedings. 



PROCEED. ACAD. NAT. SCI. OF PHILADELPHIA. — VOL. IV. NO. III. 9 



