Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 41 



The comet's observed geocentric longitude and latitude, cleared of 

 aberration and parallax, and referred to the mean equinox of January, 

 1840, were as follows : — 



M. T. Berlin. Longitude. Latitude. 



25/^49021 2° 57' 26.8" +75° 9' 42.1" 



52. 47442 28 44 0.6 +33 42 26.1 



79. 59679 35 47 34.8 +9 22 20.4 



From which he had obtained for the elements of the comet : — 



Perihelion Pass. March 13.''07523 Berlin mean time. 

 SI 236° 49' 8.0" 

 * 59 15 8.9 



n 80 14 52.8 

 log. q. 0.086798 

 Motion retrograde. 



Dr. Dunglison gave the particulars of a case, in which blood that flow- 

 ed on dissection from the arteries of the brain coagulated, fifteen hours 

 after the death of the individual. 



June 19. — The committee, consisting of Mr. Taylor,, Mr. Booth, and 

 Dr. Hays, to whom was referred a communication, entitled " Notice of 

 the Oolitic Formation in America, with descriptions of some of its Organic 

 Remains, by Isaac Lea," reported in favor of publication, which was or- 

 dered accordingly. 



In this paper Mr. Lea describes a number of fossils from New Granada 

 and Cuba, which he considers to belong properly to the forms resembling 

 those well known to exist in the Oolites (Jura formation) of Europe. In 

 a note Mr. Lea mentions, that after his paper was written, the work of 

 the distinguished geologist, Von Buch, was received by him from the au- 

 thor. In this work Von Buch describes and figures some of the fossils 

 from the same formation in New Granada, taken by Humboldt nearly 

 forty years since to Europe, which that learned traveller, in his " Essay 

 on the Superposition of Rocks," considered to belong to the Jura forma- 

 tion. Von Buch takes a different view, and places them higher up in 

 the series ; that is, in the chalk formation. After a careful perusal of 

 Von Buch's work, and a re-exaraination of the specimens, Mr. Lea still 

 holds to his previous opinion, that these forms belong properly to the 

 oolitic series, and not to the chalk. He is the more confirmed in this 

 opinion from having since been enabled to examine Captain Grant's Me- 

 moir on the Geology of Cutch, recently published in the Geological So- 

 ciety's Transactions of London, Second Series, Vol. V, Part 2 ; where 

 the forms represented have a strong alliance to those described by Mr. 

 Lea. Captain Grant states that the mineralogical character of the rock 

 " greatly resembles the English lias ; but its fossils have been found, after 



Vol. XL, No. 1.— Oct.-Dec. 1840. 6 



