1 66 



NATURE 



[June i6, 1892 



read :— On Delphinognathus conocephalus (Seeley) from the 

 Middle Karoo Beds, Cape Colony, preserved in the South 

 African Museum, Cape Town, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. 

 The skull described in this paper is believed by Mr. T. Bain to 

 have been collected by himself near Beaufort West. The pre- 

 servation of the specimen leaves something to be desired, but 

 notwithstanding defects the skull belongs to a most interesting 

 Anomodont, indicating a new family of fossil Reptilia. The 

 skull is fully described in the paper, and its relationships are 

 discussed. The author has already given reasons for regarding 

 .^lurosaurus felinus, Lycosaurus curvimola, and their allies, as 

 referable to a suborder Gennetotheria, which is nearly related 

 apparently to the Pelycosauria, and lies midway between the 

 typical Theriodontia and the Dicynodotitia. It is to this sub- 

 order that Ddphinognathus may be referred, though it forms a 

 family-type distinct from the Mlurosaurida:, distinguished by 

 the conical parietal with a large foramen, the anterior supra- 

 condylar notch in the squamosal bone, and other modifications 

 of the skull and teeth. — On further evidence of Endothiodon 

 bathy stoma (Owen) from Oude Kloof, in the Nieuwveldt Moun- 

 tains, Cape Colony, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. Two 

 bones found by Mr. T. Bain at Oude Kloof consist of the left 

 ramus of the mandible and what the author regards as the left 

 squamosal bone of E. hathystotiia. The small cranial fragment 

 preserved shows that the cerebral region probably conformed to 

 the type of skull seen in some of the Dicynodonts. A descrip- 

 tion of the remains is given, and the author notices that the form 

 of the articular condyle indicates a difference from Dicynodontia 

 and all other Anomodontia hitherto described ; it implies an 

 oblique forward inclination of the quadrate bone — a character 

 important in defining the suborder Endothiodontia. All the 

 characters of the dentition of the animal suggest near affinity 

 with the Theriodontia, especially the long lanceolate teeth 

 strongly serrated.— On the discovery of Mammoth and other re- 

 mains in Endsleigh Street, and on sections exposed in Endsleigh 

 Gardens, Gordon Street, Gordon Square, and Tavistock Square, 

 N.W., by Dr. Henry Hicks, P\R.S. Inthis paper the author gives 

 a description of the deposits overlying the loam in which the 

 remains of the Mammoth and other animals were found in 

 Endsleigh Street, N. W. Under about six feet of made ground 

 there was about ten feet of a yellowish-brown clay containing 

 flints and much "race." Below the clay there was about five 

 feet of sand and gravel, and under this about one foot of clayey 

 loam, in which most of the bones were embedded. This loam 

 contained many seeds, recognized by Mr. Clement Reid as 

 being those of plants usually found in marshy places or ponds, 

 and having a range at present from the Arctic Circle to the 

 South of Europe. A list of the bones found is given by Mr. E. 

 T. Newton, of the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, 

 who describes them as being those of one full-grown Mammoth, 

 of another about half-grown, of the Red Deer, the fossil Horse, 

 and of a small rodent. The author gives sections through 

 Endsleigh Street and along the southern side of Endsleigh 

 Gardens, and shows that where the bones were found there was 

 a distinct valley in the London Clay, running in a direction 

 nearly due north and south, the inclination of the valley being 

 towards the north. The London Clay reached nearest to the 

 surface towards St. Pancras Church and in Upper Woburn Place, 

 the total thickness of the overlying deposits and the made 

 ground there being only about 12 feet. Other sections, 

 given along the southern sides of Tavistock and Gordon Squares, 

 and through Gordon Street and the western side of Gordon 

 Square, show varying thicknesses of the deposits, overlying the 

 uneven floor of London Clay, of from 16 to 21 feet; the 

 greatest thickness here is found at the north-western corner 

 of Gordon Square. Seeds were also discovered in a loam near 

 the bottom of Gordon Street, at the same horizon as that con- 

 taining the mammalian remains, and some shells were found in 

 a bandof sandy clay, under a calcareous deposit, about half-way 

 down the western side of Gordon Square. The author says that 

 the deposits above the mammaliferous loam overlying the London 

 Clay in this area cannot be classed as post-Glacial river-deposits, 

 but must be considered as of Glacial origin. The animals, there- 

 fore, which evidently died on the old land-surface where their 

 remains were found, lived there early in the Glacial period. 

 The reading of this paper was followed by a discussion, in which 

 the President, Mr. Monckton, Sir Henry Howorth, and the 

 author took part. — The morphology of Stephanoceras zigzag, by 

 S, S. Buckman. 



NO. I 1 8 1 , VOL. 46] 



Entomological Society, June i. — R. McLachlan, F.R.S., 

 Treasurer, in the chair. — The Hon. Walter Rothschild sent 

 for exhibition Neptis mimctica, n.s., from Timor, mimick- 

 ing Andasena orope, one of the Euplceidse, and Cynthia 

 equicolor, n.s., a species remarkable for the similarity of the 

 two sexes, from the same locality ; also a hybrid between 

 Saturnia carpini and .S". pyri, and specimens of Callimorpha 

 dominula, var. romanovii, var. italica, and var. donna, bred by 

 a collector at Ziirich ; he further exhibited a very large and in- 

 teresting collection of Rhopalocera made by Mr. W. Dohertyin 

 Timor, Pura, Sumba, aiM other islands, during October and 

 November 1891. Colontl Swinhoe remarked that the various 

 species of Neptis were usually protected and imitated by other 

 insects, and did not themselves mimic anything, and that the 

 pattern of the Neptis in question was very common among the 

 butterflies in the Timor group. Mr. Jenner Weir, Prof. Meldola, 

 Mr. Trimen, and others continued the discussion. — M. A. 

 Wailly exhibited fertile ova of Trilocha varians, which are 

 arranged in small square cells, fastened together in large 

 numbers, and present an appearance quite different from the 

 usual type of Lepidopterous ova. — Mr. F. Merrifield exhibited 

 a series of Drcpana falcataria, half of which had been exposed 

 for a week or two, in March or April, to a temperature of about 

 77", and the other half had been allowed to emerge at the 

 natural out-door temperature. The latter insects were in all 

 cases darker than the former, all being equally healthy. Mr. 

 McLachlan, Mr, Barrett, Mr. Jenner Weir, and others took 

 part in the discussion which followed. — Mr. McLachlan called 

 attention to the reappearance in large numbers of the Diamond- 

 back Moth, Piutella crnciferarum, which was very abundant in 

 gardens near London, and expressed his opinion that the moths 

 had been bred in the country and had not immigrated. — Mr. 

 Jenner Weir, Mr. Bower, an I Prof. Meldola stated that they 

 had recently seen specimens of Colias edusa in different localities 

 near London. — The Hon. Walter Rothschild communicated a 

 paper on two new species of Pseudacrcea. 



CAMI3RIDGE. 



Philosophical Society, May 30. — Prof. G. H. Darwin, 

 President, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 made : — The hypothesis of a liquid condition of the earth's 

 interior considered in connection with Prof. Darwin's theory of 

 the genesis of the moon, by Mr. Osmond Fisher. It was con- 

 tended that a liquid condition of the earth's interior is not nega- 

 tived by the existence of a semi-diurnal ocean tide, because it 

 appears by calculation that a tide in an equatorial canal would 

 in that case be diminished by only one-fifth of what its height 

 would be upon a rigid earth. It was then recalled that all Prof. 

 Darwin's numerical results in Table IV. of his paper on the pre- 

 cession of a viscous spheroid, as for instance that the moon was 

 shed from the earth about 57 millions of years ago, depend upon 

 the assumption of a certain high value for the internal viscosity, 

 and will not hold good for a liquid interior. The total amount 

 of heat, however, which must have been generated since that 

 event, does not depend upon the viscosity, and will have been 

 the same in the case of a liquid interior. This, if applied all at 

 once, Prof. Darwin says, would raise the whole earth through 

 3000° F. if it had the specific heat of iron. Lord Kelvin holds 

 that the earth is solid, and that it solidified in a short space of 

 time, and that the matter of the interior at every depth is at the 

 temperature of solidification for the pressure there. But if heat 

 is being continually communicated to the interior, and chiefly to 

 the more central regions, it seems impossible that the state of 

 solidity supposed could be maintained. The author has shown 

 in his "Physics of the Earth's Crust " that, if the crust is as 

 thin as many geologists suppose, then there must exist convec- 

 tion currents in the interior, which prevent the crust from grow- 

 ing thick by melting off the bottom of it nearly as fast as it 

 thickens. The central heat imparted to the interior by tidal 

 action explains the maintenance of such currents. But the diffi- 

 culty arises that the heat generated has been so great that there 

 seems no obvious adequate mode of getting rid of it. The heat 

 conducted away through the crust would not have been sufficient 

 to reduce the mean temperature of the globe by more than about 

 209° F. in 100 million years from the first formation of a crust. 

 Volcanic action on an extravagant estimate would help only to 

 the extent of 4° or 5° F. ; and the work of deformation of the 

 crust would account for still less. It appears from the above 

 that, if Prof. Darwin's theory is true, the solidification of the 



