204 Association of Geologists and JVaturalists. [Nov., 



the resolution of the planetary nebulee, there is no existing proof 

 in the heavens of chaotic nebulous matter. 



The argument from celestial mechanics was considered at 

 length, and the beautiful theory of La Place briefly sketched. 

 While speaking of the separation of the rings, he remarked that 

 no ring or satelite had been seen around Neptune. 



The first difficulty in the third argument is the comets: why 

 are their orbits so different and peculiar? Is it said that they are 

 inter-stellar matter, tending to one of the suns? We may answer, 

 we have periodic comets — if they are thrown off from the sun, as 

 the comet of 1845, they will fall into it again, and there will be 

 the end of them. Could the earth have ever been a nebula ? It 

 rotates on its axis once a day; how often when it was a nebulous 

 ring? Once a year. The size of the earth, when it rotated once 

 a year, would only be twenty times its present radius, or only 

 one-third of the way to the moon; put in the lunar months, it 

 would only reach half way to the moon. When the moon was 

 thrown off, the earth rotated once in a lunar month, when it had 

 only five times its present radius; how then got the moon at its 

 present distance from the earth? 



He thought the theory totally incapable of advancing astro- 

 nomy. 



On a new species of Orang, by Prof Jeffries Wyman. 



This cannot be referred to any of the four recognized species; 

 it is not the adult of the Chirapanze; the skull is much larger; 

 and it has a crest on the top and sides, which the Chimpanze has 

 not; its face is perfectly straight, unlike the Chimpanze; the ori- 

 fice of the nostrils, instead of being a triangle with the apex up- 

 wards, has the apex downwards, and it is quadrangular. The 

 infra-orbital canal is obliterated at the posterior part of the orbit, 

 which is considered by Prof. Agassiz, a mark of degradation; the 

 nasal bones in the Chimpanze are quadrangular; in the new spe- 

 cies they are triangular, apex upwards, with a bridge on the me- 

 dian line. In man, the humerus is much longer than the ulna; 

 in the Chimpanze the humerus and ulna are nearly of the same 

 length; in the Eastern Orang the ulna is the longest; in the new 

 species, the ulna is shorter; in this respect, the last comes the 

 nearest to man; the scapula:; are also very large. 



The anterior face of the bodies of the vertebra is shorter, less 

 high, than the posterior face; so that the spine has an anterior 

 concavity, which throws the trunk forwards; the opposite is the 

 case in man, whose spinal column is convex anteriorly, throwing 

 the trunk backwards. This is a distinguishing mark between man 

 and the quadrumana; it is impossible for the monkeys to walk 



