Fan. 9, 1873) 
twenty-five years. 
the other known relations of the parts. 
= owes | 
or.” Sid 
Dwina, of the shells of species still extant in northern seas ; of 
a Jurassic formation in large zones and fields between the Volga 
_and the Timan Hills, at the western base of the Urals, and in 
_ the north-east part of the Caspian lowland ; and of two quite dis- 
tinct coal beds in Central Russia. The writer considers that the 
work of our countcyman has been imperfectly followed up these 
He speaks in warm terms of Sir Roderick’s 
friendship for the Russians.—In a note by M. Jacobi, it is sug- 
gested to apply galvanoplastic art to the production of standards 
of length, on the principle that electrodes having the same 
dimensions and position, baths the same composition and tem- 
perature, currents the same intensity, the deposits produced in 
such circumstances ought to be very nearly equal. Details of 
such a method are fully given.—A lengthy article by Dr. Hilde- 
brand gives an outline of some 600 historical documents among 
_ the archives of the town of Revel, which throw considerable light 
on the commercial relations of Russia and Livonia in the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries,—The number contains, in addition, two 
short notes on Faye’s comet and the Fossil Cetacea of Europe. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LoNDON 
Entomological Society, Jan. 6.—Prof. Westwood, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Mr. McLachlan exhibited a collection of 
coloured figures of the transformations of twenty-one species of 
Japanese Sphingide, beautifully executed by a native artist em- 
ployed hy Mr. George Lewis, long resident in Japan. Prof. 
Westwood exhibited the net-work cocoon of a small moth from 
New Granada, attached to a leaf on which was also placed the 
body of a butterfly (one of the /esperide), strongly affected by 
fungoid growths. Mr. E. Saunders exhibited two species of 
Buprestide from the Pelew and Caroline Islands respectively, 
apparently belonging to anew genus, yet resembling, in external 
eaeaclen: two species of Chryoudema from the E. India 
Islands.—Mr. Champion exhibited two species of Coleoptera 
new to Britain—Mr. Miller called attention to a recently 
printed Government report respecting the ravages of the 
vine-scourge (P/ylloxera vastatrix). An interesting discus- 
sion took place, in the course of which Prof. Westwood 
stated that, to the best of his belief, the first notice of 
its occurrence in Europe was made by himself in a paper read 
before the Ashmolean Society of Oxford regarding its ravages 
in this country.—Dr. Sharp communicated a paper on the water- 
beetles of Japan, in which he mentioned that, although there 
were many European species occurring in the Japanese Islands, 
yet there was also a cons derable admixture of Asiatic forms,— 
Mr. Wollaston followed by a paper on the Cossonide of the 
same islands. He stated that the ordinary European types of 
that family do not prevail in Japan, but are replaced by kindred 
or representative forms. Mr. Pascoe thought that the fauna 
of Japan, like that of Madagascar or New Zealand, might be 
termed a satellite fauna, which, while having many endemic 
forms, had yet a great deal in common with the neighbouring 
continent. Mr. Bates asked that judgment upon the question be 
suspended ; although many Western European species were also 
found in Japan, the collective faunas of the two regions were 
totally different, and if they found only one fauna in common, 
the majority of the genera ought to be the same, which was 
apparently not the case. 
PHILADELPHIA 
Academy of Natural Sciences, June 11, 1872,—Pro- 
fessor Cope offered some remarks on the discoveries recently 
made by Professor Marsh as to the structure and characters 
of the Pythonomortha, based especially on material recently 
obtained by him in Kansas. As the writer had recently passed 
in review much similar material, he was much interested in Prof, 
Marsh’s conclusions. These, he said, were of importance. In 
the first place, he had ascertained that what was formerly sup- 
posed to be the inner side of the quadrate bone was the onter 
side, a conclusion Prof, Cope thought entirely consistent with 
Secondly, he had dis- 
covered the stapes, and had entirely confirmed the opinion of the 
speaker, which Prof. Marsh had apparently overlooked. This 
was stated as follows :* the quadrate ‘‘is characterised by the 
presence of an oval pit. . Its use is uncertain, but there 
is some probability that it received the extremity of an osseousor 
* Trans, Amer, Philos, Soc, 1869, p. 180. 
ee 
ROE ey 
oly 
a ee: Ree 
NATURE 
| these points are now happily supplied by Prof. 
195 
cartilaginous styloid stapes. A grooye on the under side of the 
suspensorium would accommodate such a rod, and in a position 
nearly similar to that which it occupies in many of the Ophidia,” 
It is in precisely this position that Prof. Marsh is so fortunate ag 
to have discovered it, Thirdly, Prof. Marsh believes that he 
has found the columella. I have supposed it to be wanting, from 
the absence of its usual points of attachment on the parietal and 
pterygoid bones, It remains to compare the bone found by 
Prof. Marsh with ali-and orbito-sphenoid and ethmoid ossifica- 
tions found in many saurians, Fourthly, Prof, Marsh has 
observed the parieto-quadrate arch described by the speaker, and 
makes the interesting observation that it is formed of three 
elements, the median connecting the parietal with the opisthotic, 
This piece, he says, is ‘‘apparently the squamosal;” as the 
latter bone completes the zygomatic arch, it cannot occupy a 
position in the parieto-squamosal, unless it sends a branch in that 
direction. Fifthly, he discovers the malar arch, proving it to be 
incomplete and supported by the postfrontal bone. Prof. Marsh 
also observes an ossification in the glenoid cavity of the opisthotic, 
which he regards as the pterotic (of ‘‘ Huxley,” which should be 
Parker), an identification which cannot probably be maintained, 
The connections of the pterotic, where present, are very diffe- 
rent. The bone in question is present in Edestosaurus tortor 
Cope. _Sixthly, Prof, Marsh completes almost entirely our 
knowledge of the anterior limbs, The previous descriptions of 
these members in Clidastes propython Cope, Holcodus ictericts 
Cope, and other species, had left the number of phalanges and 
their relative positions, as well as those of the carpals, uncertain ; 
arsh’s impor 
tant researches. Seventhly, he has done much for the pelyic 
arch and hind limbs. He was the first to announce the existence 
of both, and actually described the pelvis of Zdestosaurus dispar ; 
the speaker, however, first described the hind limb in Lzodow 
crassartus and L, dyspelor Cope. Prof, Marsh is in error when 
he says the ** absence of these extremities in the Pythonomorpha 
was considered satisfactorily established.” I had never stated 
that they were certainly absent, and the last time I wrote ob- 
served that this order ‘‘ possessed an anterior pair only, or with 
the posterior pair so reduced as to haye been insignificant.””* 
They appear, according to Marsh, to have been relatively small 
in some of the genera. In Ziodon dyspelor Cope, the anterior 
are the smaller, Prof, Marsh lays students under especial obli- 
gation for his determinations of the pelvic elements and the 
excellent figures of all the parts connected with the support of 
the hind limb, His figure of the fore limb is also highly impor- 
tant, as it will be difficult soon to duplicate his beautifully com- 
plete specimen. In subsequent pages there are six additional 
species described, bringing up the number from the Kansas 
Cretaceous to twenty-three, Two new genera are proposed, 
viz., Lestosaurus for those previously referred by myself to /o/- 
codus Gibbes, and Rhinosaurus for species allied or belonging 
to Liodon. As to the former, it is no doubt a well-marked 
genus, and I am willing to believe Prof. Marsh's opinion, that 
it will not include Gibbes’ Hol/codus acutidens, will turn out to be 
well-founded ; but there is, on the other hand, insufficient evi- 
dence to show that it is not Platecarpus Cope. If Liodon curvi- 
rostris be referred to it, it will very probably prove to be Pla‘e- 
carpus, as that species presents palatine teeth, much as in ?, 
tympaniticus, and the pleurodont character is not wanting 19 
some of the other species. /znosaurus includes such specic¢s as 
Liodon proriger Cope. As the name has been used two or three 
times before. it may be altered to Rhamphosaurus, but I have 
always had doubts that the conic projecting snout would dis- 
tinguish the species generically from the true Ziodon, with which 
it agrees in dentition. The type of Ziodon, L. anceps ord, is, 
however, very little known, 
Paris 
Academy of Sciences, Dec. 23, 1872.—M. Faye, president, 
in the chair. M. Mathieu presented the Comntatssance des — 
for 1874 from the Bureau des Longitudes ; Lieutenant Fleuriais’ de- 
terminetions of the meridians of Shang-hai and Pondicherry are 
adopted in this number. The president then read a papsr on 
he true position of the Bureau des Longitudes. It has been 
proposed in the National Assembly to suppress the Bureau in 
order to save its cost to the nation, the president’s paper was an 
eloquent defence of and appeal for the threatened institution, — 
M. Becquerel read a paper on the use of electro-chemical and 
electro-capillary force for the formation of amalgams and crys- 
* Hayden, Geol. Survey of Wyoming, etc., 1870 p. 385. 
