Miscellanies. 197 



Rodentia, Edentata, and herbivorous Cetacea. From the dimensions of 

 the cranium, it would appear that the Toxodon Platensis must have been 

 as large as the colossal megatherium. The next extinct fossil animal de- 

 scribed is named Macrauchenia Patagonica, vi'hich is a mammiferous 

 quadruped, referable to the order Pachydermata, but with affinities to the 

 Ruminantia, and especially to the Camelidae. This is a very beautiful 

 piece of investigation, and proves the singular address and skill of our 

 author, — for, furnished only with a few bones of the trunk and extremi- 

 ties, without a fragment of tooth or of cranium, to serve as a guide to the 

 animal's position in the zoological scale, he has been able to refer it to 

 its place in the system. — Edinh. New Phil. Jour, for April, 1838. 



24. Presentation of the WoUaston 3Iedal. — TheWollaston Medal for 

 the last year has been presented to Prof. Richard Owen by the Geolo- 

 gical Society of London, on which occasion the President, Mr. Whewell, 

 expressed himself in the following terms : 



" Mr. Owen, — I have peculiar pleasure in presenting you with this 

 medal, awarded to you by this Society, for your services to fossil zoology 

 in general, and in particular for the description of the fossil mammalia 

 collected by Mr. Darwin. I trust it will be a satisfaction to you to receive 

 this our testimony of the success with which you have cultivated that 

 great science of comparative zoology, to which you have devoted your 

 powers. I trust it will add to your satisfaction, to consider, that the sub- 

 ject which we more peculiarly wish to mark on this occasion, — the study 

 of fossil zoology, is one to which the resources of your science were ap- 

 plied, while the subject was yet new, by that great man, John Hunter, 

 whose museum and whose reputation are so worthily assigned to your 

 care. I trust also that this medal, thus awarded to you, at the outset, if 

 I may so say, of an enlarged series of investigations, will convey to you 

 the assurance, that in your progress in such researches, you carry with 

 you our strong interest in your endeavors, and our high esteem of your 

 powers and your objects ; and will convince you, that in all your suc- 

 cesses, you may reckon upon our most cordial sympathy in the pleasure 

 which your discoveries give." — Ed. New Phil. Jour. April, 1838. 



25. On the Rapidity of Motion in Railway Cars which is consistent 

 with safety. — Mr. Sang, F. R. S. E. &c. 6lc. of Edinburgh, in a late 

 number of Jameson's Journal gives as the results of his observations on 

 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, that a speed much greater than 

 the present twenty five miles per hour, may be used with safety. The 

 question is, whether with a velocity of three or four times the usual rates, 

 the engineer can preserve perfect command of the powerful locomotives 

 required. Mr. Sang remarks, that " with the velocity of twenty five 

 miles an hour, even when exposed to the current of air, there was not 



