276 



Mr. Alger presented a specimen of Iridescent Anthracite 

 Coal from the Lehigh mines, Pennsylvania. 



Mr. Lemuel Shaw, Jr. was elected a member of the So- 

 ciety. 



April 17, 1850. 



The President in the Chair. 



Present, twenty-eight members. 



The President exhibited a number of American Crania, 

 and pointed out resemblances between those of races quite 

 distinct from each other in geographical position. 



He compared a Mexican head of the primitive race with one 

 of a North American Indian, showing as great a similarity 

 between them as is usually seen between the crania of Indians of 

 the same tribe. A cranium of one of the second of the Mexican 

 races, the Toltec, was shown, in comparison with the crania of 

 three Mound Indians and an Inca Peruvian, to resemble them 

 all very closely, giving probability to the opinion that they were 

 all originally of the same stock; the Mound Indians by migration 

 having founded the Toltec race, and they in their turn the Incas. 

 He also exhibited one of the elongated crania of the Peruvian 

 race which preceded the Incas ; also an Aztec cranium belong- 

 ing to the race which followed the Toltecan in Mexico, remark- 

 able for its antero-posterior compression, and a deep perpendicu- 

 lar depression behind, extending up over the vertex, dividing the 

 head into two lateral lobes. A cranium of a Natchez Indian was 

 shown to resemble this last very closely, particularly in the flat- 

 tening from before backwards. 



Dr. Gould presented descriptions of the following shells 

 from the United States Exploring Expedition. 



