421 



The memorial was adopted, and, on motion of Prof. 

 Parsons, committees were appointed to confer with those 

 Societies : Prof. Parsons and Dr. Gould to confer with 

 the Academy, and Messrs. Barnard and Binney with the 

 other Societies. 



Mr. T. T. Bouve announced the donation of a valuable 

 collection of the bones of Zeuglodon cetoides from C. S. 

 Hale, Esq., of Burlington, New Jersey, and read the cor- 

 respondence between the donor and himself on the sub- 

 ject. With regard to this species he made the following 

 statement : — 



In 1832, Dr. Harlan, of Philadelphia, first described a verte- 

 bra of a supposed gigantic fossil saurian, for which he established 

 the genus Basilosaurus. In 1835, Prof. Agassiz described a 

 tooth of this animal, at the University of Cambridge, England, as 

 belonging to a genus allied to the seal family, which he named 

 Phocodon. In 18-40, M. Grateloup, from the examination of a 

 fragment of the jaw containing teeth, at first uncertain whether 

 to refer it to a cetacean or a saurian, finally placed it among 

 amphibia, in a genus which he called Squalodon. In 1839, Prof. 

 Owen, satisfied that the animal was a cetacean, proposed for it 

 the name of Zeuglodon cetoides. In 1843, a great part of a 

 skeleton, found in Alabama, was described in the American Jour- 

 nal of Science. Soon after this the Hydrarchos Sillimani of Dr. 

 Koch was exhibited, in a series of bones measuring 114 feet; 

 this Prof. J. Wyman discovered to be made up of several indi- 

 viduals, and the so-called head to be composed of bones some of 

 which were not in their natural position. In 1845, Dr. R. W. 

 Gibbes described, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, some teeth which he referred to a new genus Dorudon, 

 from the shape of the teeth ; he subsequently gave up this 

 genus and referred his specimen to the Zeuglodon, making, how- 

 ever, a new species, Z. serratus ; he also ascertained the identity 

 of the genus Squalodon with Zeuglodon. He thinks that the 

 original genus Basilosaurus should be restored, with the following 

 species : B. cetoides, Owen ; B. serratus, Gibbes ; B. squalodon, 

 Grateloup. 



