52 



trary, punctures, dimples, and a poor appearance of the luminous 

 clouds, the absence of ridges, nodules, large openings, and flats, de- 

 note a spare emission of heat, and may induce us to expect severe 

 seasons. 



Pursuing this last idea, Dr. Herschel subjoins, at the end of his 

 paper, a comparative view of the best accounts that are to be met 

 with of the appearances of the sun at particular periods as far back 

 as the middle of the seventeenth century, with the state of the sea- 

 sons during the same periods. Of the latter, the best information 

 could only be gathered from the state of vegetation, particularly of 

 corn, of the price of which registers have been kept many years back : 

 and though this price be by no means an accurate criterion of the 

 quantity of corn produced, yet it is recurred to as the least objec- 

 tionable that could be obtained. The result of this review actually 

 leads to the conclusion, that the price of wheat has constantly risen 

 during the tune the sun has been without spots ; and that it has 

 always fallen when those spots began to re- appear. 



The Doctor seems aware of some fallacy in this mode of argumen- 

 tation ; but he adds some hints by which several of the objections 

 might, he thinks, be obviated. 



Observations on the Structure, and Mode of Growth, of the grinding 

 Teeth of the Wild Boar, and Animal incognitum. By Everard 

 Home, Esq. F.R.S. Read May 7, 1801. [Phil. Trans. 1801, 

 p. 319.] 



The author on a former occasion laid before the Society an account 

 of certain peculiarities in the growth of the grinding teeth of the 

 Sus sethiopicus, and pointed out the similarity of their structure to 

 that of the elephant. Having since discovered that a like resemblance 

 extends also to the dentition of the wild boar, though in a less de- 

 gree, and at a later period of life, he |is pleased to communicate to 

 the Society, in his present paper, some further remarks on this cu- 

 rious subject. 



We here learn, that in the species of the Sus, the first or tempo- 

 rary grinders are sixteen in number ; viz. four in each side of the 

 upper, and as many in the under jaw ; that these are shed in the usual 

 manner ; and that their places are supplied by larger teeth, rising 

 from the substance of the jaw, immediately under the old ones ; 

 that before these first teeth are shed, one of the more permanent 

 grinders is formed in the posterior part of each jaw, which, although 

 it be in its place with the first set, is yet to be considered as belong- 

 ing to the second ; that besides these five teeth, the rudiments of a 

 sixth are formed in each jaw, which afterwards grows larger than the 

 preceding ones, the jaw increasing in size, so as to make room for 

 this as the posterior grinder ; that this tooth, when perfect, is double 

 the size of the other grinders, its masticating surface having eight 

 fangs, so that it very much resembles two large grinding teeth in- 

 corporated into one ; that, in time, the rudiments of a seventh tooth 



