662 
cavalry and infantry of your own ; otherwise, some day or other, 
either in a country intersected with woods, or in some open plain 
furrowed into deep undulations, one of the two arms in which you 
are deficient will take you in one or both flanks, and you will be 
surprised, broken, and routed. 
GEORGE ROLLESTON 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LonpDoN 
Chemical Society, April 21.—Prof. Williamson, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair. T. Patchett was electeda Fellow. Prof. 
Roscoe, F.R.S., delivered a lecture on ‘f Vanadium.” This metal 
was discovered in 1830 by Sefstrém, who also ascertained some of 
the most peculiar characters of the substance, and prepared some 
of its compounds in the pure state. Sefstrom not having leisure 
to prosecute the full examination of the new metal, handed over 
his preparations to Berzelius ; and it is to the investigations of 
the great Swede that we owe almost all our acquaintance with 
the chemistry of vanadium. He found the atomic weight of the 
metal=68°5, and wrote its oxides :--VO, VO,, VO,, and its 
chloride VCl;. Some years afterwards Rammelsberg observed 
that the mineral vanadinite, a double salt of lead vanadate and 
lead chloride, is isomorphous, with apatite and with mimetesite, 
the former containing phosphoric, the latter arsenic acid. This 
crystallographic analogy would have led to the conclusion that the 
oxide of vanadium in the vanadinite has the formula V,O,, 
agreeing with the corresponding oxides of phosphorus and 
arsenic, P,O;, and As,O;. But the unyielding facts Berzelius 
had obtained in his analysis, and according to which the oxide 
in question was represented by the formula VO,, compelled to 
regard yanadinite as an exception to the law of isomorphism. 
Prof. Roscoe, having come into the possession of a plentiful 
source of vanadium, determined to ascertain whether there really 
was such an exception, or whether Berzelius’s formula may not 
perhaps be erroneous. He soon found the latter to be the case. 
He proved that the substance supposed by Berzelius to be vana- 
dium, is not the metal, but an oxide, and that the true atomic 
weight of the metal is 51°3. Thus the VO, of Berzelius be- 
comes V,O,, corresponding to P,O,; and As,O;. The lecturer 
went on to demonstrate that the characters of the vanadates 
bear out the analogy of V,O;, with P,O, and As,O;, and 
vanadium, hitherto standing in no definite relation to other 
elements, must therefore be regarded as a member of the well- 
known Triad class of elementary substances, compristng nitro- 
gen, phosphorus, boron, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth. The 
above-mentioned source of vanadium is a by-product obtained in 
the preparation of cobalt from the copper-bearing beds of the 
lower Keuper sandstone of the Triasat Alderley Edge, in Cheshire. 
The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, 
called attention to the great service Prof. Roscoe had rendered 
chemical science by his successful investigation of vanadium, 
The President’s remarks were fully endorsed by Profs. Frank- 
land and Odling, and the meeting expressed its appreciation of 
Prof. Roscoe’s lecture by prolonged applause. Prof. Hofmann, 
from Berlin, who was present at the meeting, favoured the So- 
ciety with some observations on a compound (C H, N,), which 
he had obtained when treating sulpho-urea with silver oxide. 
The body is distinguished by its great tendency to polimerise. 
Dr. Hofmann further communicated that a compound isomeric 
with chloral (the new anesthetic) had recently been discovered 
by two Berlin chemists. It differs from the ordinary chloral by 
possessing a much higher boiling point. 
Geological Society, April 13.—Sir P. de Malpas Grey 
Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. 
Mr. S. W. North, of Castlegate, York, was elected a Fellow of 
the Society. The following communications were read :— 
1. A letter from Dr. Gerard Krefft, dated Sydney, 29th 
January, 1869, accompanying a model of the left lower incisor 
of Thylacoleo carnifex, Owen, and the original fragment from 
which the model was made. Dr. Krefft also referred to the fossil 
remains of herbivorous marsupials in the museum at Sydney, 
which included, according to him, besides a great number of 
Wombats ( Phascolomys), many wombat-like Kangaroos or 
Wallabies (Ha/maturus). He proposed to divide the Kangaroos 
into the following groups :— 
1. Macropus, dentition as in Macropus major. 
2. Halmaturus, with the premolar permanent, divided into 
two sub-groups :— 
NATURE 
| April 28, 1870 
a. True Wallabies, with the premolars long, narrow, and 
compressed, and the ramiofthe lower jaw but slightly 
anchylosed. 
6. Wombat-like Wallabies, with the premolars compact, 
rounded, and molar-like, and the rami of the lower jaw 
firmly anchylosed. 
Illustrative sketches and photographs accompanied this paper. 
Prof. Owen remarked upon the importance of the researches 
made by Dr. Krefft and Prof. Thompson. No traces of man had 
been found. The numerous remains of mammals, especially the 
herbivorous species, had doubtless been carried into the caves 
by Zhylacoleo. Prof. Busk inquired on what evidence Prof. 
Owen decided that the tooth of Z%ylacoleo was that of a 
Carnivore. Prof. Owen indicated the remarkable compression 
of the tooth and the absence of the spatulate form proper to the 
Kangaroos as characteristic of Z%ylacoleo and indicative of 
carnivorous habits. Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins stated that 7/%yacoleo 
was most closely allied to Plagiau/ax, which was probably a true 
Herbivore. He indicated the importance of the question, as if 
Thylacoleo were a Carnivore, Plagiaulax would be one also. 
Prof. Owen remarked that Plagtaulax was also a Carnivore. 
The premolars resembled the small tubercular molars of the 
Hyenas, Felidz, &c. The anterior tooth, associated with the 
small tubercular tooth, was compressed and sharp pointed. The 
low condyle forming part of the angle of the jaw, was such as 
occurs in 7hylacinuws. Dr. Dnncan remarked that it was by no 
means necessary that all carnivorous mammals should be formed 
upon the same type, and that he did not see why there should not 
be a carnivorous form of the kangaroo type. The chairman 
said that the settlement of these questions must now be post- 
poned until we obtain further materials. He mentioned the 
discovery by Dr. Krefft, in the interior of Australia, of a 
species of fish resembling Zefidogeven, and possessing singular 
affinities to some of the Devonian ie 
2. ‘*Onthe Fossil Remains of Mammals found in China.” 
By Prof. Owen, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. The specimens of 
teeth described by the author were obtained by Robert 
Swinhoe, Esq., late H. M. Consul at Formesa, chiefly by 
purchase in the apothecaries’ shops at"Shanghai. They included 
two new species of Stegodon (named 5S. s¢vensis and S, orientalis), 
a new ITyena (#7. sinensis), a new Tapir (7apirus sinensis), a 
new Rhinoceros (2. sizezsis), anda species of Kaup’s genus 
Chalicotherium (C. sizezse). The author remarked that the 
whole of these teeth presented an agreement in colour, chemical 
condition, and matrix, which led to the conclusion that all be- 
longed to the same period. But for the presence of the 
Chalicotherium, they would ‘have been referred either to the 
Upper Pliocene or the Post Pliocene period. The author did 
not consider that the occurrence of the Anoplotherioid species 
need affect the determination of the age of the fossils, especially 
as Chalicotherium departs in some respects from the type genus 
Anopoltherium, and is not known from deposits older than the 
Miocene. The Chairman called attention to the remarkable 
association of forms among the fossils described by Prof. Owen. 
Prof. Busk remarked that the materials at command seemed 
to him insufficient for the establishment of new species. He 
observed that the distinctive characters of Stegodon sinensis 
appeared to be very slight, and that the Hyena was probably 
H. spelea. The tooth of Rhinoceros might be a milk- 
molar of R. sumatranus. Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins suggested 
that, as the specimens were obtained from apothecaries, there 
was no evidence of the contemporaneity of the fossils. 
Mr. H. Woodward stated that Mr. Swinhoe had himself 
obtained a series of these fossils from a cave many miles inland, 
he believed on the course of the Yang-tse-kiang. Mr. Wood- 
ward also called attention to Mr. Hanbury’s paper on Chinese 
Materia Medica, in which many fossil teeth of mammalia are 
noticed. Prof. Owen, in reply, stated that great quantities of 
the fossils had passed through his hands, and that he had 
selected for description those which, from their minute agree- 
ment in chemical and other characters, might justly be inferred 
to be derived from caves of the same age. 
3. ‘Further discovery of the Fossil Elephants of Malta.” 
By Dr. A. A. Caruana. Communicated by Dr. A. Leith Adams, 
F.G.S. The author described a new locality in Malta in which 
the remains of elephants had been found recently—the Is- 
Shantin fissure at the entrance of Micabbiba. It was filled with 
a compact depusit of red earth containing fragments of lime- 
stone, many teeth and fragments of bones of elephants, asso- 
ciated with bones of large birds. The author found three small 
