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Annals and Magazine of Natural History, for August, 1852. 

 Vol. X. No. 56. London. 



Annals and Magazine of Natural History, for September, 1852. 

 Vol. X. No. 57. London. 



October 6, 1852. 

 The President in the Chair. 



A letter was read from M. Vattemare, accompanying a 

 letter of thanks from the Professors of the Museum D'His- 

 toire Naturelle, for the donation of the Shark presented to 

 that Institution by the Boston Society of Natural History. 

 The letter expressed great satisfaction at the prospect of 

 opening an exchange of objects of Natural History between 

 the two Institutions, begged to be informed what speci- 

 mens this Society would be most pleased to receive, and 

 stated that their own Collection of Fishes and Reptiles of 

 the LTnited States was quite incomplete. Among the latter 

 class, the fresh water Turtles, particularly the Emydes, were 

 most desirable to them. 



The President presented a very perfect cast of the Cra- 

 nium of Fells Smylodon, which he had recently received 

 from Paris, and gave a historical account of this extinct 

 species as known to Naturalists, with a general description 

 of its most striking anatomical features, comparing them in 

 detail with those of the Cat family, as follows : — 



First, the head is long and narrow ; the cranium is remarkably- 

 narrow through the temporal fossse, in this respect not agreeing 

 with the carnassial character of the hypothesis of Gall. The 

 teeth, like those of the Cat, are divided into four classes, incisors^ 

 canines, or cuspidati, false molars or premolars, and true molars. 

 The incisors are six in number in each jaw ; the four middle in 



