Aug. 14, 1873] 
or Council, that “the measure of Winchester should be 
NATURE 
309 
_ placed in the custody of the Clerk of the House of 
Commons, and were destroyed by the burning of the 
Houses of Parliament on October 11, 1834. The members 
of this Standards Commission had previously given their 
services as a preliminary committee, having been ap- 
_ pointed in 1838 to consider the steps to be taken for re- 
_ storing the standards, the Act of 1824 (5 Geo. IV. c. 74), 
_ under the authority of which the lost standards had been 
ied 
legalised, having directed that, in the event of their loss 
or destruction, new standards should be constructed in 
accordance with provisions contained in the Act, by re- 
ference to an invariable natural standard. 
These provisions were as follows :—In regard to the 
Standard of Weight, it was recited in § 5 of the Act, that 
a cubic inch of distilled water, weighed in air against 
brass weights, at the temperature of 62° Fahr. the 
barometer being at 30 inches, had been determined by 
scientific men to be equal to 252°458 grains, of which the 
Standard Troy pound contained 5,760; and if this 
Standard were lost or destroyed, a new Standard Troy 
pound was to be constructed, bearing the same propor- 
tion to the weight of a cubic inch of water, as the 
Standard pound bore to such cubic inch of water. 
It will thus be seen that the new unit of weight was 
declared to be dependent upon the new unit of length, it 
being based upon the capacity of the cubic inch, or the 
cube of the thirty-sixth part of the Standard yard, 
With respect to the Standard unit of length, § 3 of the 
Act recited that the Imperial Standard yard, when com- 
pared with a pendulum vibrating seconds of mean time 
in the latitude of London, in a vacuum at the level of the 
sea, had also been determined to be in the proportion of 
36 inches to 39°1393 inches, and it was provided that if 
lost or destroyed, a new Standard yard should be con- 
structed bearing the same proportion to such pendulum, 
as the Imperial Standard yard then bore to it. 
After long deliberation, the Committee made a very 
full Report, dated. December 21, 1841, and declared their 
opinion that the several elements of reduction of the 
pendulum experiments referred to in the Act of 1824, 
were doubtful or erroneous. It was evident, therefore, 
that the course prescribed by the Act would not neces- 
sarily reproduce the Standard yard. It appeared also 
that the determination of the weight of a cubic inch of 
water was still doubtful, differences being found between 
the best English, French, Austrian, Swedish and Russian 
determinations amounting to about 755 of the whole 
weight, whereas the results of the mere operation of 
weighing might be determined within yogdp05 of the 
whole weight. The Committee were fully persuaded that 
with reasonable precautions, it would always be possible 
to provide for the accurate restoration of Standards by 
means of material copies which had been compared with 
them. And they had ascertained that several measures 
existed which had been most carefully compared with the 
former Standard yard ; and several weights, which had 
been most accurately compared with the lost Standard 
pound ; and by the use of these, the values of the original 
standards could be restored without sensible error. 
They recommended that no change should be made in 
the values of the primary units of the weights and 
measures of the kingdom, or in the meaning of the 
names by which they were commonly denoted ; that the 
construction of the Standards be entrusted to a Committee 
of scientific men, under certain instructions contained 
in the Report, and by comparison with the most carefully 
selected specimens ; that the Parliamentary standard. of 
length be one yard, there appearing no sufficient reason 
for departing from the length hitherto adopted for the 
standard ; and that the Avoirdupois pound be adopted 
instead of the Troy pound as the Parliamentary standard 
of weight, the avoirdupois pound being invariably known 
and generally used, and the Troy pound being wholly 
unknown to the great mass of the British population, and 
comparatively useless. They also recommended that no 
new specific standard of capacity be established, the unit 
of capacity, the gallon, being continued to be defined by 
its containing Io lbs, weight of distilled water, as specified 
in the Act of 1824. ; 
Many other important recommendations were also made 
by the Committee in relation to the official Secondary 
Standards, and the verification and legalising of local 
Standards for the use of Inspectors of Weights and 
Measures throughout the country, and for the Colonies, 
in order to secure the requisite uniformity in commercial 
weights and measures, and their accordance with the 
scientifically constructed primary standards. 
For more effectually carrying out these recommenda- 
tions for the construction of the new Standards, the 
Standards Commission was appointed on June 20, 1843, 
and continued their labours until 1854, their definitive 
Report being dated on March 28 in that year. 
The preliminary Committee was composed of the fol- 
lowing scientific men :—G. B, Airy, Astronomer Royal, 
Chairman (now Sir G. B. Airy, K.C.B., and President of 
the Royal Society) ; F. Baily, V.P.R.S.; J. E. D. Bethune ; 
Davies Gilbert, V.P.R.S.; J. G. S. Lefevre (now Sir J. G. S, 
Lefevre, K.C.B.) ; J. W. Lubbock (afterwards Sir J. W. 
Lubbock, Bart.) ; Rev. G. Peacock, F.R.S. Dean of 
Ely and Lowdian Professor of Astronomy; Rev. R. 
Sheepshanks, F.R.S.; Sir J. F. H. Herschel, Bart. 
With the exception of Mr. Davies Gilbert, who died in 
the meantime, all these scientific men continued their 
services as members of the Commission for constructing 
the new Standards. The Marquis of Northampton, 
P.R.S., Lord Wrottesley, F.R.S., and Prof. W. H. Miller 
were also appointed members of the Commission. On 
the death of the Marquis of Northampton, the name of 
the Earl of Rosse, his successor as President of the Royal 
Society, was added. H, W. CHISHOLM 
OREODON REMAINS IN THE WOODWARD- 
IAN MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE 
N addition to the valuable collection of recent skele- 
tons lately given by Lord Walsingham to the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, he also presented a series of 
mammalian remains from the Miocene deposits of the 
Mauvaises Terres in Nebraska. These were, fortunately, 
for the most part brought to England in masses of the 
original rock, and have therefore had the great advantage 
of Mr. H. Keeping’s care and skill in developing them 
from the matrix. His long-continued labour has resulted 
in the most interesting collection of fossils referred to in 
this notice, and now deposited in the Woodwardian Mu- 
seum. Professor Hughes has entrusted me with the exa- 
mination and determination of the remains, and has 
afforded me every possible assistance. The species 
revealed, some of which may possibly require the esta- 
blishment of a new genus, at any rate appear to be new 
to science, and much larger than any hitherto described 
in America. We have thought that, pending the pre- 
paration of a complete description, your readers would be 
interested in a general account of the fossils ; and espe- 
cially it has been thought desirable that an account of the 
skull and dentition should be given in as simple a form as 
possible ; for I have not yet seen any description of the 
skull other than the complete one of Prof. Leidy. At 
any rate, fresh interest will be excited in the Oreodontidz 
now that so splendid a series of remains can be seen in 
an English Museum. : : 
A summary of our fossils may be thus given :— 
1. Alarge nearly complete skull, with lower jaw at- 
tached; the zygomatic arches being, however, almost 
destroyed. 
2, The greater portion of a large skull preserving very 
completely one zygomatic arch with posterior crest. 
