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British Association for the Advancement of Science. 125 
at a short distance from Kyson by the red crag. Mr. Owen, on 
seeing this tooth, was clear that it could not belong to any of the 
decidedly carnivorous or herbivorous animals, but rather to some 
one of the mixed feeders, and having compared it with the teeth 
of the various tribes of quadrupeds included in that division, from 
the shrews to the monkeys, he found it to differ essentially from 
all of them, and he finally decided that it was marsupial, and one 
of the molars of a Didelphis allied to the Virginia opossum. Mr. 
L. immediately requested Mr. Wood and Mr. Colchester to renew 
their search in the same sand at Kyson, and they soon found a 
jaw and tooth, which Mr. Owen refers to a quadrumanous animal 
of the genus Macacus. 'The sand containing these remains is 
referable to the London clay; and this is the first instance of the 
fossil remains of quadrumana having been found in a deposit of 
the Eocene period. Cuvier had previously described a Didelphis 
from the Eocene fresh-water gypsum of the Paris basin. Mr. 
Lyell remarked, that the occurrence of an Eocene Macacus proved 
_ that the class most nearly approaching to man in its organization, 
Was not limited, as some had supposed, to an era immediately 
antecedent to the creation of the human race. He also adverted 
i from nega- 
tive evidence in geology, as we do, where we infer the non-ex- — 
istence of certain classes of beings, at remote periods, from the 
mere fact of their fossil remains not having yet been found in 
ancient strata. 
r. Bowman exhibited specimens of fossil fishes from Man- 
chester, and submitted a communication upon them, from Mr. 
Binney. Scales and teeth of the sauroid fish, Megalicththys, are 
found in the low coal shales above the millstone grit in the Man- 
chester coal field, and as far up as the fresh-water limestones of 
Ardwick. Remains of Diplodus, Ctenoptychus, ——— 
and Palconiscus are found in greater abundance, though n 
extensively disseminated. Some are found in a rock soonaail 
Of the shells of a Cypris and a species of Microconchus, indica- 
ting a tranquil deposit of the bed as in a lagoon of a tropical 
climate. Some specimens are found quite close to the coal, but 
none have as yet been observed iv it. The state of preservation 
and the position in which the fishes occur, lead to the conclusion, 
that they have been suddenly destroyed by water highly chargiil 
with decayed os, cate matter. 
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