101 



The collection of the British Museum contains a specimen, much 

 discoloured, of what appears to be a second species of this genus. 

 Another species is contained in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle at 

 Paris. 



A living specimen v/as exhibited of the Red Viper of the Somer- 

 setshire Downs. It had been sent from Taunton to Mr. Gray, who 

 states that he has compared it very attentively with the black and 

 with the common Viper of England, and that he cannot discover the 

 slightest difference between them except in the shade of the colour. 

 They all agree in having the upper lip shield white, with brown or 

 black edges, and in having a series more or less distinct of lozenge- 

 shaped spots. He consequently refers them all to Viper a Berus, 

 Daud. 



Mr. Gray also states that he believes the Lacerta adura, described 

 by the Rev. R. Sheppard in the seventh volume of the ' Linnean 

 Transactions', to be the male, observed during the summer, of the 

 common Lacerta vivipara, the Lacerta agilis of British authors ; the 

 several characters which were pointed out by Mr. Gray at the 

 Meeting on May 22, 1832, (Proceedings of the Committee of 

 Science, Part ii. p. 112,) being at that season so fully developed as 

 to produce the appearances noticed by Mr. Sheppard in his account 

 of his presumed species. 



The foUovidng notes were read of the dissection of a specimen of 

 Azara's Opossum, Didelphis Azara, Temm., which recently died 

 at the Society's Gardens. The general dissection was performed by 

 Mr. Martin; that of the organs of generation by Mr. Rymer Jones, 



" The animal was an adult male, measuring, exclusive of the tail, 

 1 foot 5 inches, the tail being 1 foot 4 inches in length. 



" On opening the body the situation of the viscera was as usual. 

 Their examination afforded the following details. 



" The liver was found to consist of three lobes ; one on the left, 

 of a pyramidal figure, a large central lobe, and one on the right, 

 small, irregvdar in shape, with a bifid margin. On the convex or 

 external aspect of the middle lobe, the gall-bladder showed itself, 

 filling up a circular aperture so regularly defined as to appear arti- 

 ficial ; and on turning back the liver, the gall-bladder was seen to 

 occupy a deep sulcus, incomplete or unclosed (as it were) in its 

 centre. The gaU-bladder was of a globular form, its diameter being 

 about -I- of an inch ; its duct ran in a furrow, which took its course 

 midway across the lobe on its under surface. At 2 inches from the 

 neck of the gall-bladder, this cystic duct was joined at an acute 

 angle by the hepatic ducts, the number of which corresponded with 

 that of the lobes. The ductus choledochus communis thus formed 

 continued its course for nearly 2 inches, and entered the duodenum, 

 about the same distance below the pylorus, the aperture being very 

 small and valvular. With the biliary duct, the pancreatic also en- 



B 



