414 Proceedings of the Microscopical Society. 



neral, at the enormous rent of L.12,000 per annum. In conclusion, Mr 

 Bald feelingly regretted that justice had not hitherto been done to the 

 merits of Mr Mushet, who made the discovery of this ironstone ; for this 

 meritorious individual remains almost unknown, and certainly unacknow- 

 ledged by the iron-masters and mine-owners of Scotland. 



Proceedings of the Microscopical Society. 



The Microscopical Society of London, held their first Meeting on Wed- 

 nesday, January 29. at the Horticultural Society's Rooms, No. 21 Regent 

 Street. The meeting was attended by upwards of a hundred members 

 and visitors. 



The President, Professor Owen, announced that, since the provisional 

 meeting on the 20th of December for Ihe purpose of forming the Society, 

 the number of members had increased to one hundred and ten, and a fur- 

 ther addition of twenty-nine names was announced in the course of the 

 evening, making a total of one hundred and thirty- nine original members 

 of the Society, it having been determined, that those who joined the So- 

 ciety on or before the first night of meeting should be considered original 

 members. 



Mr Owen communicated a paper on the application of Microscopic ex- 

 minations of the structure of teeth to the determination of fossil remains. 

 After alluding to the essential service rendered by the microscope to the 

 chemist, mineralogist, and vegetable physiologist, he proceeded to ofier 

 a few examples of the utility of the microscope to the geologist, when 

 applied to the investigation of the structure of fossilized teeth. 



The first example adduced was that of the Saurocephalus, an American 

 fossil animal which had been referred to the class of reptiles. After point- 

 ing out the distinctive characters of the microscopic texture of the teeth 

 in reptiles and fishes, it was shewn that the Saurocephalus, according to 

 this test, unquestionably belonged to the latter class, and that it most 

 closely resembled Sphyrajna among recent fishes in its dental structure. 



The second instance was the Basllosaurus of Dr Harlan, which had been 

 referred to the class Reptilia ; and the double-fanged structure of its teeth 

 had, on the strengt'i of its supposed Saurian affinities, been adduced to 

 weaken the arguments advanced in favour of the mammiferous nature of 

 certain fossils from the Stonesfield oolite. Mr Owen, after describing 

 the microscopic character of the teeth of the Basilosaurus, shewed that 

 it deviated from the Saurian structure in this respect as widely as the 

 Saurocephalus, but that the modification of its dental structure resembled 

 most closely that of the cachalot and herbivorous Cetacea. Lastly, Mr 

 Owen alluded to the difierence in the views entertained by Cuvier and 

 M. de Blainville, as to the affinities of the megatherium, which was re- 

 ferred by the one to- the family of tlie Slotlis, and by the other to that of 



