On Fossil Antediluvian Remains. 161 



The simultaneous occurrence of these remains also proves, 

 that the antediluvian depositee, at least those which have been 

 deposited after the separation of the seas, cannot be distinguished 

 by any certain and positive character, from the postdiluvian 

 deposites, especially when the former belong to displaced forma- 

 tions, since the effects have been the same in the two periods, 

 these effects having depended upon the same causes ; and that 

 henceforth the fossil organised bodies of the most recent depo- 

 sites cannot be discriminated from those which have been buried 

 in the transported formations produced in the present epoch. 



This association, joined to the other phenomena which the 

 tertiary deposites present, further announces, 



1*^, That geological periods are connected, in some measure, 

 and without interruption, with the historical periods. 



2d, That the tertiary deposites produced after the retreat of 

 the seas into their respective basins, have taken place at an 

 epoch not very remote from the present, since they contain so 

 great a number of species, similar, or at least analogous, to those 

 which still occur in a living state. 



On the Structure and Mechanism of the Tongue of the Chame- 

 leon. By John Houston, Esq., Member of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons in Ireland, Conservator of the Museum, and 

 Demonstrator of Anatomy in the School of Surgery, &c. 

 With a Plate *. 



1 HAT the Chameleon possesses the power of suddenly darting 

 out its tongue in a remarkable manner, for the purpose of seiz- 

 ing the insects on which it feeds, is a fact which has been lono- 

 admitted ; but notwithstanding that so singulai- a phenomenon 

 has attracted the attention of the most distinguished anatomists, 

 it appears to me that neither the cause nor mode of elono-ation 

 in the organ, has ever yet been satisfactorily explained. 



Two of these animals having been lately presented to me, in 



• This interesting memoir was communicated to the Royal Irish Academy, 

 by Dr Brinkly, the Lord Bishop of Cloyne, and will appear in the Transac 

 tions of the Academy. Through the attention of the intelligent author, we 

 have been favoured with a copy of the memoir, and also of the beautiful plate 

 illustrative of its details. 



APRIL JUNK 1829. L 



