154 
NATURE 
[Fune 22, 1871 

paper the author described a fragment of the snout of a Teleo- 
saurian obtained by Mr. J. C. Mansel, F.G.S., from Kimmeridge 
Bay, and which is believed to furnish the first indication of the 
occurrence of Telosaurians at Kimmeridge. The specimen con- 
sists of about 17in. of along and slender snout, tapering slightly 
towards the apex, where the premaxillae expand suddenly and 
widely. The nostril is terminal and directed obliquely forwards ; 
the preemaxillze ascend 2°5in. above the nostril, and terminate in 
an acute point ; and each praemaxilla contains five alveoli. The 
lateral margins of the snout are slightly crenated by the alveoli 
of the teeth, of which the three front ones are smaller than the 
rest ; most of the teeth have fallen out, but a few are broken 
off, leaving the base in the sockets. Mr. Seeley thought 
it likely that Mr. Hulke would eventually be led to re- 
establish his genus ythekiodon. He remarked on_ the 
peculiar characters presented by the specimen, and referred 
especially to the coracoids, which were unlike those of Jchthyo- 
saurus, but presented a close resemblance to those of Plesio- 
saurus. He considered that there were indications of its having 
been connected with a cartilaginous sternum. The scapula 
furnished an important character in its widening, which formed 
a distinct acromion process. Mr. Seeley remarked that double- 
headed ribs occur only in animals with a four-chambered heart ; 
and that, considering this and other characters, there was no 
reason for placing /chthyosaurus lower than among the highest 
Saurians. He considered that the Teleosaurian snout differed 
from all known types. Dr. Macdonald believed that what is 
called the coracoid has nothing to do with the shoulder-girdle, 
and thought it might be a part of the palate. Mr. Manselstated, 
in answer to the President, that the fossils were obtained from 
about the middle of the Kimmeridge Clay. Mr. Etheridge 
suggested that it would be desirable to ascertain whether the 
horizon of the /chthyosaurus described was the same as that of 
the specimens from Ely. Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys inquired as to the 
food and habits of the /chthyosaurus. Mr. Hulke, in reply, 
stated that, from the presence of a stain and of numerous small 
scales, under the ribs, the food of the /Athyosaurus probably 
consisted of Squids, and small fishes. He showed that the so- 
called coracoid was clearly a part of the shoulder-girdle. 
Geologists’ Association, June 2. — Rev. T. Wiltshire, 
president, in the chair. A paper on ‘‘ Flint” was read by Mr. 
Hawkins Johnson, F.G.S. After stating the reasons which had 
induced him to pay special attention to the subject of the forma- 
tion of flint, the author described the characters and mode of 
occurrence of nodular and tabular flint and chert. The various 
combinations into which silicon enters were then recapitulated, 
and a description of sponges introduced a statement of the theory 
contended for in this paper to account for the formation of chalk 
flints. This theory is simply that s/icon replaced the caréon of 
the sarcode of the sponges of the Cretaceous seas. Flints are 
therefore merely silicified sponges. The empty shells of echino- 
derms were frequently used by sponges which in many cases 
outgrew and surrounded the shells, and these sponges afterwards 
becoming silicified we find the tests of echinoderms either wholly 
or partly embedded in chalk flints. Prof. Tennant dwelt 
upon the opinions of Dr. Bowerbank, and pointed out in 
opposition to the views of that authority that agates could 
not have derived their origin from sponges, since they 
were found in volcanic rocks. Mr. Deane, who had been 
associated with Dr. Mantell in his researches with respect 
to the origin of flints, stated that, contrary to the general 
belief that fossils were not found in any flints except 
those from the Upper Chalk, organisms had been discovered in 
flints from the Lower or Grey Chalk. Dr. Bedwell, who had 
paid great attention to this subject for a long time, denied Dr. 
Bowerbank’s assertion that a central layer of chalk is not present 
in horizontal as it is in vertical tabular flint, and he could not 
height, being produced by the silicification of sponges which 
grew on each side of a fissure in the bed of the chalk sea, as had 
been contended fur by Dr. Bowerbank and Mr. Johnson. _ Prof. 
Morris, after complimenting the author on the value of the paper 
and the knowledge of the subject which he had displayed, re- 
ferred to the investigations into the ong n of flint by the observers 
of the last century, and gave a very interesting résumé of the 
principal facts connected with the occurrence of flint in the strati- 
fied rocks. The Professor contended for the segregation of the 
silica ot the chalk around nuclei, in opposition to the theory ad- 
vocated by Mr. Johnson, which was first propounded by Dr. 
Brown of Edinburgh. The amount of diffused silica in the 


] 
Upper Chalk is much less than in the Lower Chalk, in which flints 
arerare. The tests of echinoderms are never silicified, nor are 
phosphatic animal substances, such as bone. He believed that 
the sponges of the old seas, from what we know of the sponge- 
gravel and the Upper Greensand, were chiefly silicicus, and not 
ceratose ; and that they were extremely abundant is shown by 
the fact that in the Haldon Hill Greensand masses of chert occur 
eight feet thick, which are quite full of the spiculz of sponges. 
Mr. Johnson briefly replied, but was scarcely prepared then to 
combat the observations of Professor Morris. Very fine collec- 
tions of flints showing peculiarities were exhibited by Messrs. 
Johnson, Bedwell, Evans, Leighton, Deane, and Meyer. 
Mathematical Society, June 8.—Mr. W. Spottiswoode, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair. Messrs. W. Chadwick, M.A., 
and J. Griffiths, M.A., were elected members of the society.— 
Prof. Cayley, V.P., stated results he had arrived at in his inves- 
tigation of Pliicker’s models of certain oceanic surfaces. He had 
been able to identify eight out of the fourteen models in the 
Society’s possession (presented by Dr. Hirst.) — W. Samuel 
Roberts. M.A, gave an account of his paper “ On the Motion 
of a Plane under certain Conditions.”—Prof. Henrici, V.P., ex- 
hibited cardboard models of two ellipsoids, of a hyperboloid of 
one sheet, and of an elliptic paraboloid, also stereograms of the 
models of surfaces exhibited at former meetings of the society. 
Entomological Society, June 5.—Mr. J. W. Dunning, 
F_L.S., vice-president, in the chair.—The Secretary read a 
letter from the Rev L. Jenyns, of Bath, with reference to the 
reported showers of insects or other organisms at Bath, noticed 
at the last meeting. Mr. Jenyns had examined some of these 
organisms, and found they were Zfusoria, probably Vibrio undula 
of Miiller, many of them being congregated into spherical 
masses enveloped in a gelatinous substance. They fell during a 
heavy shower of rain.—Mr. Butler exhibited specimens of Ze7- 
doptera, wpon which he and Mr. Meldola had experimented with 
a view to ascertain the action of dyes. Many species had been 
subjected to aniline dyes, and all kinds of colours produced. Mr. 
Butler also found that when the insects were immersed in a solu- 
tion of soda for the purpose of causing the dyes to be more 
readily taken, the colouring matter of the scales was completely 
discharged and collected at the bottom of the solution. Mr. 
Bicknell had subjected Govopteryx rhammi to the action of cya- 
nide of potassium, acting upon a suggestion made last meeting, 
and the yellow colour was changed to orange-red.—Mr. W. C. 
Boyd exhibited an example of Ramia crategata, captured near 
London, the apical portion of one wing of which was changed to 
brown.—Mr. Miiller exhibited the bell-shaped nest of Ag/ena 
brunnea, a spider ; also galls of an undescribed species of Phy- 
tophus on Betula.—Mr. F, Smith exhibited three rare British 
species of Hymenoptera, captured by Mr. Dale in Dorsetshire, 
consisting of Wyrmecomorphus rufescens (Proctotrupide), Ichneu- 
mon glaucopterus, and Osmia pilicornis.—Mr. Holdsworth, of 
Shanghai, communicated notes on the method practised by the 
Chinese in cultivating the silk-producing Bombyx Pernyi.—Mr. 
Butler read ‘‘ Descriptions of Five New Species of Diurnal Ze- 
pidoptera from Shanghai.”—Mr, Baly communicated ‘* Descrip- 
tions of a new genus, and of some recently-discovered species 
of Phytophaga.”—Mr. Kirby communicated ‘‘Synonymic Notes 
on Lepidoptera.” 
Statistical Society, June 20.—Mr. Hyde Clarke read a 
paper ‘On the Transmissibility of Intellectual Qualities in Eng- 
land.” As one kind of test of intellectual exertion, he took the 
statistics of the writers of books in the Biographia ; of 2,000 
authors, 750 were born in country districts, and 1,250 in town 
districts. Examining the towns and the distribution in them, 333 
were allotted to London, 73 to Edinburgh, and 53 to Dublin. 
f h | The largest numbers in the tables beyond these were found in 
admit the possibility of vertical walls of flint, sometimes of great | 
cathedral and collegiate cities. The deductions he drew were 
that intellectual activity is distributed unequally, but that it is 
more among the town or more highly educated population than 
among the rural populations. He pointed out that the larger the 
ce ncentrated educated population, the larger 1s the intelleciual 
development, and he referred to the like examples of Greece, 
Rome, and modern Europe, where the same law is to be traced, 
The great modern centres of industry in England occupy a low 
relative position in the list, and are scarcely to be noticed, but 
they are now beginning to contribute. He affirmed that the 
literary class was produced from the educated class, and not from 
the illiterate classes. While no educational effort will produce 
men of great genius, he inferred that literary attainments are in 
