214 



NA TURE 



[Jan. 1 1, 1872 



New Caledonia, and of a great deposit of tin-ore in the dislrict 

 of New England, New South Wales. The gold in New Cale- 

 donia is found in drift, and there are indications of the near 

 proximity of a quartz-reef. The tin-ore in New South Wales 

 is said to be in "pepitas, crystals, and beds of conglomerate, 

 especially in micaceous granite, more or less decomposed." 

 Mr. D. Forbes st.ated th.at in 1859 he had placed in his hands 

 some specimens of granite from the district the discovery of tin in 

 which was announced by Mr. Stephen, and that he found them 

 to be perfectly identical with the stanniferous granites of Corn- 

 wall, Spain, Portugal, Bolivia, Peru, and Malacca, which he had 

 also examined. These granites were all composed of white 

 orthoclase, felspar, colourless or black Muscovite mica and quartz. 

 He was not aware that tinstone (cassiterite or oxide of tin) 

 occurred anywhere in rock of a different character. It was 

 always accompanied by more or less native gold. Mr. Pattison 

 remarked that in many places where tin occurred it was not 

 present in sufficient quantity to be remuneratively worked. Mr. 

 D. Forbes, in answer to a question from Prof Ramsay, stated that, 

 as far as could be ascertained, the age of the stanniferous 

 granites mentioned by him must be between the end of the 

 Silurian and the early part of the Carboniferous period. Prof. 

 Ramsay would carry them down to the close of the Carboni- 

 ferous period, and would be contented to term them pre-Per- 

 mian. — " Remarks on the Greenland Meteorites." By Prof. 

 A. E. Nordenskjold, For. Corr. G.S. The author stated that 

 the masses of meteoric iron brought from Greenland by the 

 recent Swedish expedition seem to have formed the principal 

 masses of an enormous meteoric fall of miocene date, extending 

 over an area of some 200 miles. The iron appears to be free 

 from silicates. Against its eruptive origin the author urges that 

 when heated it evolves a great amount of gaseous matter, and 

 that it contains imbedded particles of sulphide of iron, the mass 

 itself being nearly free from sulphur. The masses are composed 

 of meteoric nickeliferous cast and wrought iron, or of mixtures 

 of the two ; in the last case the Widmannstretten's figures are 

 best developed. The author further noticed the various modes 

 in which the iron occurs, viz., I, as meteorites ; 2, fiUing cracks ; 

 3, as breccinjform stones cemented with oxide and silicate of iron ; 

 and 4, in grains disseminated in the basalt. Mr. Roberts pro- 

 tested against the evolution of gaseous matter being considered 

 as a proof of meteoric origin. Prof. Ramsay reiterated his pre- 

 viously-expressed opinion, that the masses of iron might be of 

 telluric origin.— " Further Remarks on the Relationship of 

 the Linudidiv {Xiplu^sura) to the Eiirvptcridit and to the 

 Trihluta." By Mr. Henry Woodward, F.G.S. In this paper 

 the author described the recent investigations made by Dr. A. S. 

 Packard, Dr. Anton Dohrn, and the Rev. Samuel Lockwood 

 upon the developmental history of the North American King- 

 crab (Limuhis rohfJu-mus), and discussed the conclusions as to 

 the alliances of the Xiplumira and Euryptcrida-, and to the 

 general classification of the Arlhrcpoda, to which the results of 

 these investigations have led Dr. Dohra and some other Conti- 

 nental naturalists. According to this view, the Xiphcsura and 

 EuiyptoidiT are more nearly related to certain Arachnida (the 

 Scorpions, &c.) than to the Crustacea; and this opinion is 

 further supported by the assertion of Dr. Dohrn, that in LUmilus 

 only one pair of organs (antennules) receives its nerves from the 

 supracesophageal ganglion, and that the nature of the underlip in 

 Lvnulus differs from that prevailing among the Crustacea. Dr. 

 Dohrn also recognises the relationship of the Merostomata to 

 theTrilobites, as shown especially by the development of Liinulus, 

 and considers that the three forms (Limnlid,r, Enryptcyidtr, and 

 Trilohila) should be combined in one group under the name of 

 Gigant.'slraia, proposed by Haeckel, and placed besides the 

 Crustacea. The author stated, on the authority of Prof. Owen, 

 that Linndus really possesses two pairs of appendages which re- 

 ceive their nerves from thesupraoesophagealganglion ; that, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Packard, the young Limulns passes through a Nauplius- 

 stage while in the egg ; that no argument could be founded 

 upon the lower lip, the condition of which varied extremely 

 in the three groups proposed to be removed from the Crustacea ; 

 and he maintained that even from the ultra-Darwinian point of 

 view taken by Dr. Dohrn, the adoption of his proposal would be 

 fatal to the application of the hypothesis of evolution to the 

 class Crustacea. Prof T. Rupert Jones remarked upon the 

 interest attaching to the study of the Crustacea, and called atten- 

 tion to the absence of any indications of convergence in our pie- 

 sent knowledge of the class. He thought that, in the present 

 day, we must nevertheless look back to some point of converg- 

 ence from which the varied forms known to us may have pro- 



ceeded by evolution. Prof. Macdonald remarked that difficulties 

 must be expected to occur in classification. He believed that 

 all Invertebrate animals were to be regarded as turned upon 

 their backs, as compared with Vertebrata. The cephalic plate 

 in Lininlits he regarded as the equivalent of the palate-bone. 

 The incisive palate was very distinct in the Crabs. The absence 

 of one pair of antenna; did not appear to be any reason for re- 

 moving Limulus from the Crustacea. Dr. Murie considered 

 that the contemplation of the multitude of young forms referred 

 to by Mr. Woodward should serve as a warning to describers of 

 species, and also as a check to generalisations as to the number 

 of species occurring in various formations. He remarked that if 

 we were at a point when the presence or absence of a single pair 

 of nerves could be taken as distinguishing class from class, these 

 classes must be regarded as very nearly allied. He thought that 

 the doctrine of evolution was being pushed further than the 

 known facts would warrant. Mr. Woodward, in replying, drew 

 attention to the diagrams of the embryo and larva of the recent 

 Li'iiiiiIhs, comparing them with Liinulus of the Coal-measures, 

 Ncolinmlits of the Silurian, and also with the larval stages of the 

 Trilobites, discovered by Barrande. He pointed out the strong 

 resemblance which the fossil forms offer to the early stages of the 

 modern King-crab, and expressed his assent to the proposal of 

 Dr. Dohrn to bring the Trilobita, if possible, nearer to the Mero- 

 stomata. If, however, the Trilobites have true walking-legs in- 

 stead of mouth-feet (gnathopodites) only, they would be more 

 closely related to the Isopoda. He showed by a tabular view of 

 the Arthropoda that the known range in time of the great classes 

 is nearly the same, and therefore aflfords no argument for combin- 

 ing the Merostomata with the Arachnida ; but on the contvaiy, 

 he considered that the Trilobita were, with the Entomostraca, 

 the earliest representatives of the class Crustacea, and could not 

 therefore be removed from that class. — The following specimens 

 were exhibited : — Specimens of Auriferous Quartz from New 

 Caledonia, and of Tin Ore from New South Wales, exhibited by 

 Mr. G. Milner Stephen ; specimen of gold from the Thames 

 Goldfield, New Zealand, exhibited by Prof. Tennant ; specimens 

 of Euiyp/aiis Sreii/iii and of Bdiiiuyns and Pristwiiliia, exhi- 

 bited by the President ; specimens of recent and fossil Crustacea, 

 exhibited by Mr. H. Woodward, in illustration of his paper. 



Zoological Society, January 2.— Mr. John Gould, F.R.S., 

 in the chair. An abstract was read from a letter received from 

 Mr. T. G. F. Riedel, of Gorontalo, Celebes, in reference to the tnie 

 locality of a rare Kingfisher, Tanysiplcva Rit-dcli, v/hich he stated 

 to be from Kordo — an island in the Bay of Geelvink, and not 

 from Celebes. — Prof Newton exhibited and made remarks on a 

 specimen of Ross' Gull {Lanis Jvosii), from the collection of the 

 late Sir William Milner, which was said to have been obtained 

 in Yorkshire. — Mr. Gould exhibited an adult specimen of the 

 same bird, from the Derby Museum, Liverpool. — Mr. P. L. 

 Sclater read a paper on the species of monkeys found in America 

 north of Panama, being supplementary to a former paper on the 

 northern limit of the Quadrumana in the New World. The 

 species of monkeys now ascertained to occur in Central America 

 from Panama to Mexico were stated to be eleven in number — 

 namely, ten belonging to the family Cebida;, and one to the 

 Hapalida;. Full particulars were given concerning the range of 

 each of these species. — Mr. Henry Adams communicated some 

 further description of new species of shells, collected by Mr. R. 

 McAndrew, in the Red Sea. A second paper by Mr. H. Adams 

 contained descriptions of fourteen new species of land and marine 

 shells from Mauritius, Mexico, Formosa. Borneo, and the New 

 Hebrides. — Mr. George Gulliver communicated a paper on the 

 (esophagus of a hornbill [Tctrus ineh-inohiitiii), being an ap- 

 pendix to a former paper by him on the taxonomic character 

 of the muscular sheath of the oesophagus of the Sauropsida, 

 read at a previous meeting of the Society. — Mr. J. Brazier com- 

 municated some observations on the distribution of certain 

 species of volutes found in the Australian seas. In a second 

 paper Mr. Brazier gave descriptions of six new species of land 

 and marine shells from the Solomon Islands, Western Polynesia, 

 and Australia. — Dr. J. C. Cox communicated descriptions of 

 some new land shells from Australia and the South Sea Islands. 



Entomological Society, January i. — Mr. Alfred R. 

 Wallace, president, in the chair. — The secretary read an extract 

 from a letter received from Mr. Gould respecting the question of 

 the li.ability of dragon-flies to the attacks of birds. Mr. Gould 

 had no doubt that the hobby and kestrel attacked the larger 

 kinds, and he had seen sparrows, &c. , preying upon the smaller 

 Agrioniiiiv. — Mr. Midler called attention to a statement by 



