376 Notes and Comments. 
FOSSIL REPTILIA. 
We learn from the press that at the opening lecture at the 
Brighton and Hove Natural History and Philosophical Society 
Mr. A. M. B. Anderson gave a lecture on ‘Some Remains of 
Fossil Reptilia and their State of Mineralization. Mr. 
Anderson prefaced his remarks by handing the Chairman for 
circulation a British Museum guide-book, in which were 
figures of the fossil reptiles whose remains he proposed to 
describe, and pointing to the large number of specimens placed 
before them said that, at present, he could not recognise more 
than four Orders of the Reptilia represented by them; these 
were the Crocodilia, Ichthyoperygia (sic), Sauropterygia, and 
Chelonia. Ot the first he had undoubted ilia, and other bones, 
provisionally attributed to Steneosaurus. Of the second he 
had undoubted coracoids, and many other bones of a form 
resembling Opthalmosaurus. Of the third he had hundreds 
of specimens of vertebrae, pectoral and pelvic girdles, and 
limb-bones, of forms allied to Plisoaurus (sic), Peloueustes (szc), 
Cimoliosaurus, and Plesiosaurus, all of which he exhibited 
and explained at length. Of the fourth, he had a few remains 
of a turtle, provisionally referred to Chelone hoffmanni. He 
then shewed specimens of vertebre in which the neural canal 
was open, and in some, closed by silica. From the cervical 
to the candal vertebre, many specimens were exhibited, 
some of the sacrals of very large dimensions. There were also 
long-bones split Jengthwise, in which the medullary. cavity 
was exposed, and some other bones, with doubtful traces of 
integument upon them. It was possible that other remains 
of Mosasaurus gracilis, than those recorded by Owen, would 
occur (those were vertebre from~-Lewes, and from Kemp 
Town, Brighton, found in the chalk). 
FLINT “ BONES.’ 
Finishing his descriptions of the bones, he said he had now 
arrived at the second, or subsidiary stage of his lecture, which 
was to call the attention of his audience to the startling fact 
that the whole of his collection—without exception—consisted 
of silicified .remains ; being in point of fact absolute flint ; 
some of it black and shining, some chalcedonic, some porce- 
laneous, some partly ferrous, and lastly a few unmistakably 
cherty. In some instances he had tound traces of the former 
cancellated structure of the original bone, but, usually the 
whole was silicified, whether by infiltration, or replacement 
of the calcium phospate and carbonate by colloid, or any other 
form of silica, he could not say ; but he called upon any chemi- 
cal expert present, or one known to the Society, to collaborate 
in the elucidation of this vexed problem. He then briefly gave 
the views of others upon the formation and development of 
flint. 
Naturalist, 
