264 



oro-ans in an inverse ratio to the grade of the animal. With 

 the exception of the heart they are the first organs formed in 

 the abdominal cavity ; they appear first as a simple tube, from 

 which are formed diverticula, from without towards the vertebral 

 column, each of which becomes a uriniferous tube ; these tubes 

 are soon dilated into an infundibuliform body, in the interior of 

 which blood-vessels are formed from epithelial cells arranging 

 themselves in a linear manner, and the coalescence of their 

 walls, which communicate with the general circulation, the 

 whole constituting the Malpighian body. The receptacle of the 

 urinary secretion by the Wolffian bodies is the Allantois. What 

 Miiller calls Wolffian bodies in Amphibia, and which are gene- 

 rally called MiJller's bodies, Dr. Burnett thinks are not such, as 

 he was able to find in them none of their structural character- 

 istics, no direct vascular connection, and no Malpighian bodies ; 

 they seem to be tubes terminating in tuft-like extremities, which 

 are blind sacs. 



The form of development of the permanent or true kidney is 

 a branching out indefinitely of a primitive tube, the future 

 ureter ; the terminal portions of these branches forming direct 

 vascular connections, either by Malpighian bodies, or a delicate 

 network of blood-vessels. The mode of formation is, therefore, 

 arborescent, the ureter being the main stem, and the numerous 

 ramifications constituting the whole structure of the kidney. In 

 birds the branching tubes do not terminate on the edge of the 

 plume, (the branching of the tubes resembling the plume of a 

 feather,) but loop and return, and when near the shaft they 

 dilate into Malpighian bodies; they do not terminate by anasto- 

 moses. In the Ophidians Dr. Burnett was able to find but few 

 Malpighian bodies, the uriniferous tubes terminating usually in 

 blind extremities. The complete paper will soon be published, 

 with illustrations. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson presented some specimen's of Eupyr- 

 chroite from Lake Champlain, containing eighty-five per 

 cent, of phosphate of lime. Besides the compact Phospho- 

 rite, he also presented the Botryoidal Phosphorite, and the 

 Trap, Quartz, and flesh colored Feldspar occurring in the 

 mine at Crown Point, N. Y., and a specimen of the Phos- 



