Limietin Suciely. *2{)5 



can enable us to ascertain the condition of the young when it first becomes 

 attached to the teat, and the natural process by which it is applied to that 

 part, the authour described the appearances which he had observed in 

 dissecting the mammary organs of a younger animal than any of those 

 which he had previously examined. In our notice of Mr. Morgan's former 

 communication upon this subject, we mentioned the anatomical pecu- 

 liarities which he had discovered in the immature marsupial animal, 

 consisting in an undeveloped state of the two lower teats and in a muscu- 

 lar investment of the mammary glands.* From the details of the present 

 paper it appears that in the very young cuiimal not one of the four future 

 teats are developed, as the two upper as well as the two lower nipples are 

 proved to be formed by the eversion and protrusion of follicular canals. 



April 20. — A Paper was read, On Luminous Insects, by Mr. Richard 

 Chambers, F.L.S., maintaining, on the testimony of various authorities 

 (some selected from books, and some collected from original sources by 

 the authour,) that Ignes fatui are luminous insects. This opinion is 

 supported by the fact often observed, that they appear to alight on 

 various objects, and bound over others. 



May 4. — Read, j^n Examination of M. Virey\<i Observations on 

 Aeronautic Spiders, published in the Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles, by 

 John Blackwall, Esq., F.L.S. 



May 24. — This day, being the Anniversary of the Society, the follow- 

 ing Officers and Council were elected for the ensuing year. President: 

 Edward, Lord Stanley, M.P. Vice-Presidents: A. B. Lambert, Esq., 

 F.R.S.; W. G. Maton, M.D., F.R.S.; E. Forster, Esq., F.R.S.; and 

 R.Brown, Esq., F.R.S. — Treasurer: Edward Forster, Esq., F.R.S. — 



* We are informed by Mr. Morgan, that he has found the compressing mus- 

 cle of the mamma, described in the paper to whicli we allude, not only in the 

 Kangaroo, but also in the American Opossums, and in other marsupial animals 

 received from Australia; and that his opinion respecting the use of this muscle 

 in compressing the mammas against the marsupial bones, as a means of forcing 

 nourishment into the mouth of the young, is strengthened by the observations 

 he has made, that in proportion to the extent of the mammary organs, will be 

 found the length of the marsupial bones which are placed behind them: the 

 firm point of resistance against which the glands are pressed by the contraction 

 of their muscular coverings being thus proportioned to the size of the vtinnm-i: 

 themselves. 



