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parts in cats, squirrels, reptiles, &c. the extremities of the 

 embryo Murre are precisely similar at certain stages of growth. 

 He alluded to the great advantages for the study of embryology 

 enjoyed on the coast of Labrador, to which the sea birds resort 

 in immense numbers to breed in the months of June and July. 



A letter from Mr. Francis Delessert, of Paris, was read 

 by the Chairman, accompanying a historical notice of his 

 brother Benjamin Delessert, by M. Flourens, published by 

 the French Academy of Sciences. Baron Delessert was a 

 member of this Society. 



Dr. Durkee presented some fossil cetacean bones, from 

 Washington Co., Alabama, the locality whence the Hy- 

 drarchos of Dr. Koch was obtained ; this region is about 

 one hundred and fifty miles north of Mobile ; in it are 

 found in great quantities cetacean bones. 



The specimens of Dr. Durkee were vertebrae of the Zeuglodon, 

 a cetacean. This animal was supposed by Dr. Koch to be a rep- 

 tile, a marine serpent, but Dr. Wyman has exposed the fallacy of 

 this opinion, and shown that it was a warm-blooded mammal. 

 One of the vertebrce was fifteen inches long and nine in diame- 

 ter ; it was deeply impregnated with calcareous matter, and 

 weighed eighty -one pounds. Its transverse processes were very 

 distinct ; it appeared at first sight three bones, consolidated 

 together, but it consisted of only one with very thick epiphyses. 

 He compared this with vertebra? from South America, and from 

 Martha's Vineyard, and pointed out a remarkable similarity ; the 

 one from Martha's Vineyard, from a clay soil, was very light, 

 and contrasted remarkably in this respect with those impregnated 

 with lime. 



Dr. Wyman observed that the thick epiphyses noticed in this 

 specimen are peculiar to the Zeuglodon ; here they were five 

 inches in thickness, whereas in ordinary cetacea they are about 

 half an inch ; the cancelli, also, are of different sizes, in the epi- 

 physes and in the body. Koch's sea-serpent was carried to 

 Dresden, where it was described by Cams, who figured it and 

 even restored the cranium, of which then only a portion had 

 been found. Carus restored the cranium of a reptile, but this 



