Meetings of the Scientific Association of Great Britain. 79 
much elongated, like apes, and these peculiarities, Mr. P. conten- 
ded, could not be produced by pressure or external force. 
The bones of this race, are found in ancient tombs in the moun- 
tains of Peru and Bolivia, and principally, in the great interalpine 
valley of Titicaca, and on the borders of the Lake of the same 
name. ‘The architecture of the tombs is beautiful, and appears to 
belong to a period not more than seven hundred or eight 
years ago. 
This race of men, appears to have preceded the present Indie 
races which bear the characters of Asiatics. 
ANATOMY AND MEDICINE. 
Chairman, Dr. ABercRomMBIE. 
Sept. 10.—Change of color in the Chameleon Mr. Murray of 
Hull, made a communication on the change of color in the Chamel- 
eon. He stated, that the agama or Mexican Chameleon and the 
polychlorus, display a change of color, or tint in the skin, and noti- 
cing some of the more striking points in the history of the chamel- 
eon, such as the biennial casting of its skin, he proceeded to state 
his opinion, that the electro-chemical action of the sun beam through 
the skin upon the blood, modified by impulse, produced the changes 
in question. He had made experimenjs, which appeared to him to 
prove, that there is a change of temperature connected with the 
change of color; the thermometer varying from 73° to 75°, when 
the ambient air was 72°. 
Effect of Ventilation on the Mortality of Infants——It appeared 
from a register kept in the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin, that during 
the seventy five years, between 1758 and 1833, relief had been af- 
forded to one hundred and twenty nine thousand poor women, that 
in 1781, every sixth child died by the ninth day, of convulsive dis- 
ease, but that now, owing to a more thorough ventilation, the mor- 
tality, in five successive years, is reduced to one in twenty. Com- 
municated by Dr. Abercrombie. 
Sept. 12.—Regulation of the Sanguineous Circulation —Dr. 
T. J. Aikin communicated the result of his enquiries into the varie- 
ties of mechanism, by which the blood may be accelerated or retard- 
ed in the arterial and venous system of the mammalia. 
1. By the angle at which the branch comes off from the trunk. 
2. The direction of the vessel. 
3. The subdivision. 
4. The formation of plexus. 
