Geological Society. 289 



ralizations which will not bear investigation, and are premature, to 

 say the least of it. But this does not prevent our expressing our 

 full sense of the very high value of this, and also of both the pre- 

 ceding parts of their ' Revision of the Palseocrinoidea.' They have 

 brought order out of chaos in a truly scientific manner, for which 

 naturalists in general cannot be too gratefnl. The points on which 

 we can venture to challenge their decision with respect to the value 

 of species, genera, or families are indeed few and far between ; and 

 if we cannot say the same upon certain morphological questions, we 

 must remember that although the authors began their Crinoid work 

 merely as collectors, they have strenuously endeavoured, more than 

 any other American writers on the Pelmatozoa, to interpret the 

 structure of their fossils by the only method which can possibly give 

 any value to their conclusions, viz. a knowledge of the morphology 

 of recent Echinoderms. Their latest publication is illustrated by 

 half a dozen plates, the last four of which are filled up by diagrams 

 of various kinds ; but the first two, which have been photographed 

 from the drawings of Mr. Orestes St. John, are admirable expositions 

 of actual structure as revealed by the choicest specimens at the 

 disposal of the authors. 



We shall look with very much interest for the publication of the 

 concluding section of this most valuable work ; and we should be only 

 too well pleased to hear that it is but the precursor of a larger one to 

 be issued as one of the finely illustrated monographs of the United 

 States Geological Survey. We have heard a rumour as to the pos- 

 sibility of this, and every palaeontologist will hope that it may 

 prove to be a well-founded one. P. Herbert Carpenter. 



PEOCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



November 4, 1885.— Prof. T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F Jl.S., 



President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1, "On the Premaxillaries and Scalpriform Teeth of a large 

 Extinct Wombat {Phascohmys curvirostris, Ow.).'' By Sir Richard 

 Owen, Iv.C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The specimen described in this paper is a cast from a fossil dis- 

 covered in a late exploration of the Wellington bone-caves, and 

 sent to the author with some other casts from the same collection by 

 the authorities of the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South 

 Wales. 



The fragments in question consist of the premaxillary bones, 

 containing a pair of scalpriform incisors, 160 millim. (04 inches) 

 long, measured along the outer curve. 



The teeth and the fragments of bone in which they are implanted 

 were described in detail, and referred to the Wombat family. The 



