64 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [July, 



the size of the veins thereto adapted. Add to this, that the 

 veins that go to the liver give an example of such an action in 

 the veins by secreting the gall. 



The effect thus ascribed to the vena renalis, the committee of 

 the Society, however, found to be dubious, as from the smallness 

 of the arteria renalis no conclusion can be made of their insuffi- 

 ciency to the secretion of the urine, without knowing the quantity 

 of the urine in the different animals ; as from the size of an organ 

 of secretion, it is not always possible to conclude how great a 

 quantity it can secrete ; as the secretion of the urine in man 

 and mammalia is performed by arteries ; while that of the gall 

 is performed by veins ; and, lastly, as the nature of the urine 

 and of the gall are quite contrary to one another, the latter being 

 extremely combustible, the former extremely oxygenous, it is 

 not at all likely their origin should be very much like one 

 another. 



As for the rest, the committee approved the treatise, and 

 found that the author, by the anatomicalinquiries and experiments 

 therein delivered, had partly rectified, partly enriched zoology, 

 and thus opened a wide prospect for views that perhaps might 

 be of importance to the pathology of man. 



In consequence of this declaration of the committee, the 

 Society resolved to receive the treatise delivered of Professor 

 Jacobsen among its writings. 



In a treatise sent to the Society, intelligence was given of the 

 catching of a certain sea-animal, called grind, together with an 

 addition to the natural history of the grind. 



The author, who, in 1817, undertook a botanic journey to the 

 Feroes, happened, during his stay in these islands, to witness 

 the catching of a grind ; and as, on this occasion, he took down 

 several observations relating to the natural history of this 

 animal, and instantly made a sketch of it, he was thereby 

 enabled to deliver a more complete and exact information than 

 had hitherto existed of this animal, so important for the inhabi- 

 tants of Feroe. The grind has indeed been mentioned by several 

 authors ; for instance, Debes, Saabo, and Sandt, and cannot, 

 therefore, be thought to be unknown ; but on account of the 

 incomplete and partly erroneous description we have hitherto 

 had, it has not been possible for systematic writers to give this 

 animal its proper place ; wherefore some have thought it belonged 

 to the genus delphinus, others to bakena. After having given 

 an account of the method of catching the grind used at Feroe, 

 the author, by a methodic description, as circumstantial as could 

 be obtained, and by adding a drawing, has proved that the grind 

 belongs to the genus delphinus ; and as it has not been admitted 

 into the systema naturee, he proposes to call it delphinus grinda. 

 This animal being of great importance to the inhabitants of Feroe, 

 as the wealth or poverty of these islanders in a great measure 

 depends upon the more or less successful catching of it, it ought 



