40 2 



NA TURE 



\Feb. 24, 1 88 1 



to Otlelia crfalifolia). — On a compiled catalogue of latitude 

 stars, epoch 1880, hy H. S. Hawkins. — On the occurrence of 

 remarkable boulders in the Hawkesbur? rocks, by C. S. Willin- 

 son.' — On the Wentworth hurricane, by H. C. Russell. — Abstract 

 of the meteorological observations taken at the Sydney Observa- 

 tory, by H. C. Russell. (January to Pecember, 1879). 



American Journal of Sciince, December, 1880. — Note on the 

 zodiacal hght, by H. C. Lewis. — The early stages of renilla, 

 E. B. Wilson. — Geological relations of the limestone belts of 

 Westchester, co. New York, by S. D. Dana. — Abstract of some 

 palceontogical studi :s of the life-history of Spirifer brcvis, H, by 

 H. S. Williams. — Index to vols, xi.-xx. 



Journal of the F7-nnllin Institute, January. — Experiments 

 with the Parkins machinery of the steam yacht Anthracite, by 

 Chief- Engineer Isherwood. — The dttermination of silicon and 

 titanium in pig-iron and steel, by Dr. Drown and Mr. Shimer. 

 — An adaptation of Bessemer plant to the bai-ic process, by Mr. 

 HoUey. — The value of the study of the mechanical theory of 

 heat, by Mr. Wolff. — Blasting, by Mr. Kirk.- On the whole- 

 someness of drinking-water, by Mr. Haines. — An inquiry into 

 the laws of the beautiful in music, by Prof. Clarke. 



The last number of the fournal of the Physical and Chemica 

 Society (Russian) contains, besides minutes of meetings, papers 

 on the electrolyse of formic and mellite acids, by M. N. Bunye. 

 — On the variations of the quantity and pressure of oxygen in the 

 lungs, by Prof. Ivan Setchenoff. — On products of the decompo- 

 sition of albuminous matters, by Dr. Danilev.-ky. — On hops, by 

 M. Tchekh ; and several smaller notes on organic chemistry. — In 

 the physical part, M. Shvedoff continues his researches on hail, 

 trying to establish by various very interesting arguments the 

 cosmic origin of hail, which he considers as a variety of meteo- 

 rites. — M. Reinboth describes a new naphtha barometer which 

 has a great sensibility. — M. Van der hlith gives several new 

 mathematical formulte concerning electrodynamics. 



The Schriften der physikalisehokonomischen Gesellschaft zu 

 A'onigsberg (1879, i. and ii. ; 18S0, i.). — These parts contain 

 the follow ing papers : — On the Uredo fungus, by Dr. Caspary. — 

 On the Gastraa theory, by Prof. Kupffer. — On pisciculture, tiy 

 Dr. Seidlitz. — On some acoustical and optical experiments with 

 the telephone, by Prof. Berthold. — On the phonograph, by 

 Dr. Zenker. — On the ancestors of carnivora, by Dr. Albrecht. — 

 What is species, and what variety ? by Dr. Caspary. — On bacteria, 

 by Dr. Baumgarten. — On the observations made at the station 

 for measuring the temperature of the soil in various depths at 

 the Botanical Gardens at Kdnigsberg, by Prof. E. Dorn. — On 

 some periodical phenomena in inorganic nature, by Dr. Jentsch. 

 — On the ancestors of hoofed animals and Edentata, by Dr. 

 Albrecht. — On the rhythmical motions in the animal and in the 

 human body, by Prof. Griinhagen. — On the fauna of New 

 Zealand, by Prof. Zaddach. — On the archaeopteryx, by Prof. 

 Zaddach. — On the ancestors of rodentia, by Dr. Albrecht. 



Bulletin de V Academie Royale des Sciences {de Belgique), No. 12, 

 iSSo. — Application of the tuning-fork to study of the propagation 

 of sound and vibratory movements in liquids, by M. Montigny. — 

 On the falling stars of November 27, 1S80, observed at Brussels 

 Observatory, by M. Houzeau. — On two plesiosaurs of the lower 

 lias of Luxembourg, by M. van Beneden. — Science and the 

 imagination (lecture at public seance), by M. Stas. — Voyages 

 and metamorphoses of a drop of water, by M. Van der 

 Mensbrugghe. — Announcement of the results of prize compe- 

 titions. — Reports on memoirs, &c. 



Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, No. I, January IJ. — Singular 

 verticillate configuration (in the form of a rose) of the[Iamin£e of 

 crystallised water, by Prof. Bomlicci. — On storms, by Prof. 

 Cantoni. — A modification of the Kuhmkorft" coil, by Dr. Scarpa 

 and S. Baldo. — ^Two new species in the Mediterranean fauna, by 

 Prof. Richiardi. — Some ammonites of the middle Has, by S. 

 Canavari. — Paramagnetism and diamagnetism of liquids, by 

 Prof. Marangoni. — Experiments proving that air saturated w ith 

 moisture is an insulator as well as dry air, by the same. 



Journal de Physique, January. — Atmosj^heric absorption of 

 ultra-violet radiations, by M. Cornu. — Experimental researches 

 on the psychrometer, by M. Mace de Lepiuay. — On the division 

 of instantaneous currents, by M. Brillouin. — Electric exploraleur 

 of M. Trouve, by M. Guriel. — M. Trouve's apparatus for exa- 

 mination of deep natural or artificial cavities, by the same. — On 

 resultant sounds, by M. Nicotra. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, February 3.— Prof. Owen read a third part 

 of his description of the great extinct horned lizard of Australia 

 (Megalania prisca). The materials had been transmitted from 

 the same formation a' d locality-petrified drift-bed of King's 

 Creek, Queensland, as the subjects of Part 2, and were discovered 

 by Mr. Geo. Fred. Bennett, about thirty feet from the fossil 

 skull. They proved to be, when recomposed, the opposite 

 extremity of the animal, and consisted of an ossified sheath of 

 the tail, in annular segments supporting conical cores of horn-like 

 weapcns. Of these segments the three terminal rnes had 

 coalesced ; a fourth detached segment fitted the antepenultimate 

 ring. Each ring, save the last, supported tw o pairs of horn cores, 

 of which dimensions « ere given and drawings exhibited of the 

 natural size. From tip to tip of the dorsal pair of the antepen- 

 ultimate segment measured len inches. In this segment was 

 included 'he coi re ponding vertebra, exemplifying the caudal 

 modifications of the type of the dorsal, sacral, and other vertebrae 

 of Megalunia described in the parts communicated to the Royal 

 Society in 1858 and 1880. The author then entered into an 

 exhaustive review of analogous caudal armatures in other animals. 

 The nearest approach, in the class Reptilia, was made by the 

 small existing Australian lizard {Moloch horridus) and by the 

 Cromastix princeps, recently described by the late Arthur W. E. 

 O'Shaughnessy, of whom Prof. Owen spoke in terms of deep 

 regret and respect. 



The supports of the caudal horns or spines in the above smalt 

 lizards retained the immature condition of fibro-cartilage. Ex- 

 amples where histological development had proceeded to ossifica- 

 tion were cited from recent and fossil Reptilia. In the latter the 

 nearest approach to the caudal armature of Megalania was pre- 

 sented by the Sctlidosaurus, of the Dorsetshire lias. A still 

 nearer resemblance to the singular structures described in the 

 present paper was made by certain extinct sj-ecies of gigantic 

 armadillos, e.g. Glyptodon asper, from South American tertiaries. 



The author associated this repetition or lingering of a reptilian 

 o<;teodermal character in the mammalian class with the previously- 

 known repetition of the horny scutation of lizards in the mam- 

 malian pangolins (Manis) ; he referred to the low dental condition 

 in the numerous similar simple teeth of armadillos and the still 

 lower characters which had suggested the ordinal term " Eden- 

 tata." He cited the tenacity of life and long continuance of the 

 muscular irritability after death in the sloths ; the winter sleep 

 of bats and certain rodents, v\ ith their faculty of circulating blood 

 in the venous state ; the quills in hedgehogs and porcupines as 

 indicative of a repetition of a dermal character of an oviparous 

 class ; the anatomical modifications giving a faculty of flight, as 

 in Pterosaurians. 



The sole common organic character of, and peculiar to, such 

 members of a large and otherwise much varied group of mam- 

 mals was a cerebrum, small, not extending ui")on the cerebellum, 

 smooth or with few and simple convolutions, but with the hippo- 

 campal commissure ascending to connect the hemispheres above 

 the lateral ventricles, and so constituting the anthropotomical 

 "corpus callosum." A still lower group of mammals had no 

 such commissural development, but this common cerebral charac- 

 ter was associated with as many and great variations of inferior 

 structures as in the Lissencephala. The Lyencephala included 

 the marsupials and monotremes. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper the 

 chief objection was an averment that the author had no evidence 

 of its subjects having belonged to I\Iegalavia frisca, and that 

 they were more probably parts of some Chelonian reptile. 



To this the author replied that he had evidence both negative 

 and positive. From the year 1S57 he had received parts of the 

 skeleton of a great terrestrial reptile from localities hundreds of 

 miles apart in the provinces of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 Queensland, but not a single fragment of a carapace, plastron, 

 or other characteristic part of a Chelonian ; every large rep- 

 tilian fossil was not only " Lacertian," but of the very genus and 

 species Megalania prisca. Perhaps no part of the axial skeleton 

 was more differentiated than the occipital vertebra in a lizard 

 and a tortoise. In the latter the elements remained as distinct 

 as in a fish ; in the former as confluent as in the mammal ; this 

 at least was the case in Moloch as it is in Megalania. Finally 

 Prof. Owen pointed to the vertebra in organic connection with 

 the tail-sheath in Ihe fossils last received ; it was Lacertian, not 

 Chelonian. 



