46 



An extract was read from a letter, adiiressed to the Secretary by 

 Charles Telfair, Esq , Corr. Memb. Z.S., and referring to a Viver- 

 ridous animal obtained by that gentleman from Madagascar, which 

 lived for several months in his possession, and on its death was 

 transmitted in spirit to the Society. Mr. Telfair statės his belief 

 that the animal is new to science ; a belief in which Mr. Bennett 

 participated. The specimen was exhibited, and Mr. Bennett pointed 

 out, in reference to a " Description of a Viverridous Animal from 

 Niadagascar," its resemblance to the Paradoxuri in the plantigrade 

 character of its feet; the vvebbing of its toes aimost to their extre- 

 mities ; and the number and retractility of the claws, which on the 

 fore-feet are sharp and resembling those of the Cats. Its general 

 appearance also approaches that of Para(loxurus ; but the fur is 

 short, adpressed, and of uniform colour, and the tail is slender, 

 cylindrical, and equaily hairy all round, rendering it probable that 

 this organ is not subject to being curled in the raanner usual in that 

 genus, from \vhich it also differs in the possession of an anai pouch. 

 In the young individual exhibited the dentary characters could not 

 be ascertained, its teeth being only of the deciduous class. Its 

 anatomical structuie resembles, in the shortness of the intestines, 

 the size and direction of the aeciint, the disposition of the superficial 

 vessels of the kidneys, and in some other respects, that of the 

 typical Viverridce, and approaches nearly to the structure of the 

 FeiulcB. 



Mr. Bennett stated his inipression that the animal should be re- 

 garded as the type of a ne\v genus, nearly ailied to, but distinct 

 from, Paradoxnru&. He proposed for it the name of Cryptojnocta 

 Jerox. 



Some reniarks by Mr. Spooner on the post morlem appearances of 

 the Moose Den; which died suddenjy, at the Society 's Gardens, on 

 the morningof the 28th of March, were read. 



" Having been informed by the keeper that a copious ejection 

 from the slomach took place a few minutes previous to dissolution, 

 I was impresscd with the idea that a rupture of that organ had 

 taken place, or that the animal had taken some poisonoas ingredient 

 \vith its food. A carefui investigation of the alimentary canal, 

 however, did not tend to verify such opinion, as the whole of the 

 organs coniposing it bore a healthy aspect, with the exception ofa 

 few hydatids, which were found to be adherent to the peritoneal 

 tunic of the stomach. The kidneys were in a statė of chronic 

 disease, which \vas more particularly confined to their cortical sub- 

 stance. The structure of the liver was also much impaired by chronic 

 inflammation. 



" On examining the viscera of the thorax, the ravages of acute 

 disease were sufficiently apparent to account for the sudden death 

 of the animal. The heart and pericardium were liighly infiamed, as 

 were also the large vesse's proceeding to and from that organ. The 

 Liquor pericardii was morbidly augmcnted, and of a sanguineous 

 hue. The right side of the heart vvas hypertrophic, and the lungs 



