294 



NATURE 



[Feb. 8, 1872 



branch from the fifth in the orbit, but this could not be found in 

 the pre^ient specimen. The three divisions of the fifth caniii 

 nerve were distinct, but the ophthalmic an i supra maxiliary le't 

 the skud by a common foram-n. The vagu' gave off liraiiche> 

 answenn;{ to the spinal accessory, and also a lirge la'eral nerve 

 which ran back along the body, giving ofif no branches untd it 

 readied tire great lateral muscles of the tail, and in thitdift'ering 

 from the corresponding nerve of fishes. The spinal nerves 

 resembled in most points those of man very closely, the brachi il 

 and crural plexuses were, however, much nmre simple, whicli 

 Prof. Humphry thinks is associated with a le-is perfect specialisa- 

 tion of the action of the limb muscles ; and below knee and 

 elbow the course of the nerve trunk-; in the fore and hind limbs 

 was almost identical. -The next paper is by Prof Flower, "On 

 the compos'tionof the Carpu> of the Dog." The os cen'ralehal 

 previously never been r cognised in Carnivora, and both Cuv.er 

 and Owen ret^arded it, in those animals in which it is present, as 

 a dismemberment of some element of the ca'pus ; Gegenbiur, 

 however, regarded it as itself a true carpal element, though never 

 able to discover the state of things in those cases in which il was 

 absent. However, in the skeleton of a dog six weeks old. Prof. 

 Flower finds that the so-called scapholunir bone consisis of 

 three distinct pieces, viz., a distinct scaphoid and lunar, and a 

 third piece evidently answering to the os centrale ; thus confirm- 

 ing the view that the latter is a true primitive carpal element. — 

 Dr. Messenger Bradley gives an account of the b ain of an idiot, 

 who dnring life could taste and hear well, and could repsa" a lew 

 words ill a parrof-like manner, bat was c mgenitally blind, and 

 never recognised any one, or, although not paralysed, made any 

 attempt at locomotion. His bones were extremely fratjile, 

 fracturing mvariiolv if hi jerked a limb against the bed. The 

 brain when rem ived weighed twenly-eight ounces : most of the 

 fissures and lobes of the cerebrum were pres.mt, but (notwith- 

 standing the small size of the hrmisphe e->) were relatively small. 

 The i^la>.d of Reil was small and vt-ry simple. The corpora 

 quadrigtmina were very small, which is inr- resting, taken in 

 connection with his blin iness. The cerebellum was relatively 

 large, the vermiform pr .ce^s was imperfect, the pyramif ani 

 short commissure en irely absent, and the left hemisphere co.i- 

 side ably lighter than the righr. The bones throighout the boiy 

 W'len examined microscopically were found permeated with oil 

 drops and granular matter, but when these were washed 

 away normal bone structure could be male out except 

 an unusually large size of the Havers an canals. — Prof. 

 Young contributis some facts in the anatomy of the sh ^uldcr 

 girdle of birds, showing that the only movement of the humerus 

 in flight which is anatomically possible, is that in a figure 

 of eight. — A short descrip'ion by Mr. Watson, of the digestive, 

 ciiculato y, and respiraiorv organs of the Indian elephant, fol ows. 

 — The action of the chlorides of platinum, iridium, and pal- 

 laaium when introduced into the blood of dogs is the subject 

 of an interesting paper by Dr. Bl.rke, of San Francisco. — Pi of 

 Turner describes the variations of nerves in the human body 

 which he has lately met with, and iheu follows a paper by Prof. 

 Strulhers on the Great Fin While, the mi >st interesting points being 

 a careful account of the muscles of the fore-limb, helping to clear 

 up some points as to the homologies of tae bones ; and the dis- 

 covery, for the first time in this species, of a bony rudiment of 

 the femur, thoagh Prof. Flower had previously noticed a cartila- 

 ginous one. — Mr. Garrod gives some observations mide on him- 

 self showing that the exposure of the nude body to a temperature 

 below 70° F. causes a rise in the internal temperature of the 

 body ; which is greater the lower the temperature of the sur- 

 rounding air down to 45°, the lowest point at which observations 

 have been made. This he attributes to a contr.iction of the 

 cutaneous vessels driving the blood inwards, and also les-ening 

 the conducting power of the skin. Exposure to a tempera ure 

 of 70° causes no rise. — A detailed description of the anatomy of 

 the Malayan Tapir, by Dr. Murie, and of the muscles and nerves 

 of the chimpanzee and anubis, by Mr, Champneys, do not 

 admit of a short abstract being given of either of them. —The 

 Report of the Progress of Physiology, by Dis. Brunton and 

 Ferrier, is very full, and contains short accounts of many matters 

 of great interest. The anatomy report is postponed. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Geological Society, January 24. — Mr. Joseph Prestwich, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The following communications 



were read:— (I) "On the Foraminifera of the Family Rotalinfe 

 (Carpenter) found in the Cretice his Formations, with Notes on 

 their Tertiary and Recent Representatives," by Prof. T. Rupert 

 Jones, and Mr. W. K, Parker, F.R..S. The authors enumerated 

 the R italina; which hive been found in the Cretaceous rocks of 

 Europe, and showed by tabular synopses the range of the species 

 and notable varieties in the different formitionsof ihe Cretaceous 

 .system. For the comparison of the Tertiary Rotalina; with those 

 of the Cretaceous period the following Tertiary formations were 

 selected : — the Kessenberg beds in the Northern Alps, the Paris 

 Tertiaries, the London Clay, the Tertiary beds of the Vienna 

 Ba^in, and the English and Antwc-p Crags The authors also 

 enumerated the recent Foraminifera of the Atlintc Ocean. The 

 authors stited thar oi Planor/m/Im several species and important 

 varieties of the compact, conical form occur throughout the Cre- 

 taceous series, and fiat those of the Nau iloid group are still 

 more abundint. The pUno-convex forms are represented 

 throughout the series by P. ( I nincataliim) tohntnhi ; but the flat 

 concentric grnvths had not yet come in. Plaiwrhuliiia •-\\.enAs 

 down to the Lias and Trias. Pulvinulina n'panda is feebly re- 

 pre-ented in the uppermost Chalk, but forms of the "Mc'iiarilii" 

 group abound throughout the series Species of the " clrjans" 

 group are peculiarly characteristic of the Gault, and some of the 

 " Schrcibersii" group are scattered throughout. These two 

 groups extend far back in the Seconlary p-riod. The typical 

 Kotali I Bcairii Ksrifyl a Cretacenis form, hut the nearly allied 

 A'. ninbUicala is comm in. Tinopjrus and Patdlina occur at 

 s-vetal stages ; Calcarina only in the Upper C talk. The above- 

 mentioned types are for the m ist part still living, but the 

 "fl«;7i-«/(7 " group of /";('<'/'««//■«(? is wanting in the Cretaceous 

 series, as also are SpirUlina and Cynbahpora, except that the 

 latter occurs in the .Vlaestricht C talk Discorbina and dilcayina 

 mike their first appearance in the uppermost Chalk. The chief dis- 

 tinction between the Cretaceous mcl the existing R italina; A'.as said 

 to consist in th ; progressively increasing number of molificatioiis. 

 ''he authors c m :lu ief hydi-prting the propriety of regarding 

 the Ailantic ooze as homologous with the Chalk. The president 

 suggested the pos-itiil ty of some of the minute Forammifera 

 being transported fossils derive 1 from earlier beds than ihose in 

 which they are now foun-l. Dr. Carpenter observed that the 

 mode of examinatiou to be adopted with Foraminifera was dif- 

 ferent in character fro n that which was applicable to higher 

 organisms. The range in variation was so great that an 

 imperfect examination of iVummulites had sufficed to make 

 .M. d'Archiac r^-duce the number of species by one half; 

 and all the speaker's subsequent studies had iinpre-.sed up in him 

 the variety in form and 111 sculpturing of sur'ace on in iividuals of 

 the same species. When out of some thiusands of sptcimens of 

 OpcrcuUna. say, a dozen pronounced forms had been selected, 

 such as by themselves seemed well marked and distinct, it might 

 turn out that after ad there was bat one species present with 

 intermediate varieties connecting all these different forms He 

 thought the same held good with Roalinre, and that there were 

 osculant forms which m git connec', not only ihe species, but 

 even the genera into which they had been subdivided. This fact 

 had an important beann:; on their genetic succession, especially 

 as ic appeared that some of the best-m irked types were due to 

 the conditions under which they lived. The temperature in 

 tropical seas dilTered in accordance with the depth so much, that 

 when 2,CKX) fathoms were reached a degree of cold was attained 

 such as was to be found in high latitudes ; and in consequence 

 the deep-sea forms in tropical latitudes assumed the divarfed 

 character of those in shallower seas and nearer the pole. He 

 suggested caution in drawing inferences from forms so subject to 

 modification, both spontaneous and due to the dtp h of the sea, 

 especially as connected with abundance of food. Prof Ramsay 

 remarket that geologists would be pleased to find Foraminifera 

 exhibiiing, like other organisms, changes in some degree con- 

 nected with the lapse of time. Tnese low forms, however, could 

 hardly afford criteria for judging of the age of geological forma- 

 tions, while at the same time such ample means were afforded by 

 the higher organisms for com ng to a conclusion. He cited, for 

 instance, the Cephalopoda, as proving how different were the 

 more important forms of marine life in Cretaceous times from 

 those of the present day. He thought that no one who had 

 thoroughly stn I ed the forms of ancient life vvou'd be led to 

 ignore the differences they presented, as a whole, from those 

 now existing. — Prof Joucs, in rcoly, observed that the ques- 

 tion of whether the Foraminifera in a given bed were 

 derived or not was to be solved partly by their condition 

 and partly by their relative proportions, but that in most 



