300. 
ball of the vertebre, prove incontestably, that the fossil is part of a 
Saurian, appertaining to the inferior or lacertian group. 
The under surface of the vertebrae is smooth, concave in the axis 
of the spine, and convex transversely. As there are twenty-one 
costal vertebre anterior to the sacrum, including the single lumbar, 
the fossil, Mr. Owen observes, cannot be referred to the genera 
Stellio, Leiolepis, Basiliscus, Agama, Lyriocephalus, Anolis, or Cha- 
meleon, but that a comparison may be instituted between it and the 
Monitors, Iguanas, and Scinks. In conclusion, he states, that in the 
absence of the cranium, teeth, and extremities, any further approxi- 
mation of the fossil would be hazardous, and too conjectural to yield 
any good scientific result. 
May 13.—John Ruskin, Esq., of Christ Church, Oxford; W. J. 
West, Esq., of Tunbridge Wells; and Frederick Dixon, Esq., of 
Worthing, were elected Fellows of this Society. 
A memoir was commenced “ On the Classification and Distribu- 
tion of the Older or Paleozoic Rocks of the North of Germany and 
of Belgium, as compared with formations of the same age in the Bri- 
tish Isles ;” by the Rev. Prof. Sedgwick, F.G.S., and Roderick Im- 
_ pey Murchison, Esq., F.G.S. 
May 27.—William Humble, M.D., of Worthing, was elected a 
Fellow. 
The memoir “ On the Classification and Distribution of the Older 
Rocks of the North of Germany,” &c., by Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. - 
Murchison, commenced at the previous meeting, was concluded. 
In an introduction of considerable length, the authors enter on a 
historical review of the different steps by which they had been led, 
during the former year, to place nearly all the older slates of Devon- 
shire, and a considerable part of the slate rocks of Cornwall, in a 
group intermediate between the carboniferous and Silurian systems, 
and therefore coeval with the old red sandstone of Herefordshire. 
To the vast group of slate rocks, so defined, they proposed the name 
of Devonian System; and their leading object in visiting Belgium, 
the Rhenish provinces, the Hartz, &c., was to ascertain whether in 
any of those countries there was a group of strata (no matter of what 
mineralogical character) with Devonian fossils, and in a position 
intermediate between the carboniferous and Silurian systems. Should 
such a group exist on the continent, then would the Devonian sy- 
stem be established, not merely on plausible arguments derived from 
its suite of fossils, but also on the more direct evidence of natural 
sections. 
With these views the authors endeavoured (1.) to ascertain the 
natural descending order of the formations on the right bank of 
the Rhine, between the Westphalian coal-field and the chain of the 
Taunus. (2.). To ascertain the same order in Belgium, and among 
the ancient rocks on the left bank of the Rhine, north of the Hunds- 
ruck. 
