462 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. (June, 
in the chalk, the length varying from one to two feet, and the 
breadth from six to 12 inches. A tubular cavity, open always at 
one end, and often at both ends, passes in the direction of its long 
diameter. No appearances of organic structure have been detected, 
but it appears from its external figure to have been one of those 
supposed spongy bodies, which are of such frequent occurrence in 
chalk flints. 
April 5.—A communication from the Foreign Secretary was 
read, giving an account of certain aerolites that bave-recently been 
examined by M. M. Gillet de Laumont and Schreiber. From 
this examination it appears, that the well known areolite which 
fell at Stannern in Moravia, contains no metallic iron whatever ; 
but a larger proportion of alumine and of lime, than has hitherto 
been noticed in substances of this kind. On the°other hand, the 
mass weighing 190lbs., which fell near Egra in Bohemia, appears 
to be wholly composed of metallic iron. 
A paper by Robert Stevenson, Civil Engineer, entitled ‘ Obser- 
vations on the general bed of the German Ocean afd British 
Channel,’’ was then read. The object is to show that the bed of 
the German Ocean and of the British Channel is gradually, but 
very perceptibly, filling up, in consequence of which, the level of 
its water is continually rising. ‘Fhis is proved, in the opinion of 
Mr. Stevenson, from the circumstance that not only the headlands 
and exposed parts of the coast are wearing away, but yearly and 
important encroachments are making on the shores of sheltered 
bays, far within the Frith of Forth, and in other analogous situa- 
tions, which cannot be attributed to any other cause than the actual 
overflowing of the water of the Ocean. 
ae 
ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, 
Account of the Labours of the Class of Mathematical and Physical 
Sciences of the Royal Institute of France during the Year 1815. 
Puystcat Department.—By M. le Chevalier Cuvier, Perpetual 
Secretary. 
(Continued from p. 396.) 
ZOOLOGY, ANATOMY, AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
The scienges are not strangers to true erudition. If it has some- 
times happened that an attentive perusal of the ancients has excited 
philosophers to observations which have led to important truths, it 
is not uncommon, likewise, for fortunate observations of philoso- 
phers to throw an unexpected light on obscure passages in the 
ancients. Some notes of M. Cuvier on the books of Pliny relative 
to animals furnish a proof of this. Thus M. Cuvier supposes that 
the lynx of the ancients mentioned as coming from warm climates 
was not our lynx, but the caracal; and he shows that the earacal 
