214 



witli tlie face towards the Bast; and a finely wrougiit celt, or 

 liatchet to be held in the hand, and a flaked spear-head, buried 

 with the corpse. The bones were not fossilized ; but their can- 

 cellated tissues were filled with fine sand, and their age ap- 

 peared verj considerable when a comparison w^as instituted 

 with those of the skeleton of a white man, buried in the same 

 neighborhood, about a century ago. There were also obtained, 

 from that neighborhood, rubbed and farrowed hammer-heads, 

 a large and well formed pestle, other implements apparently 

 made out of Delaware pebbles, and a large quern, or mill-stone, 

 of rock brought also from a distance. A ridge, composed 

 chiefly of oyster-shells, near by, is popularly accounted for by 

 supposing it to have been formed of the refuse of the food of 

 the aborigines. Dr. H. C. Wood explained it as an out-crop 

 of a shell-bed of Eocene Tertiary age. This is the more in- 

 teresting, as the Tertiaries of New Jersey have been supposed 

 to belong exclusively to the Miocene age. 



Dr. H. C. Wood communicated to the Society some recent 

 experiments which he had made with Veratria, after which he 

 considered it proved, that purgation was connected especially 

 with the action of the pneumo-gastric nerve-system. 



The minutes of the Board of Of&cers and Members in Coun- 

 cil were read. 



Dr. Carson described the character of the Memoir upon the 

 Physiological Qualities of American Hemp, and the reasons in- 

 fluencing the Board to recommend it, not for the Magellanic, 

 but for an extra premium, in accordance with the action of the 

 Society, of date Feb. 12, 186-i ; whereupon, on the motion of 

 Mr. Fraley, it was 



Resolved, That an appropriation of one hundred dollars be made from 

 the income of the Magellanic Fund, for the payment of the said premium, 

 and that said sum be transmitted to the author of the essay, Avith a suit- 

 able certificate engrossed on parchment, of the award of said premium, 

 said certificate to be under the Seal of the Society, and to be attested by 

 the signature of the officers tliereof. 



Eesolved : Tliat said essay be published in the proceedings. (P. 226.) 

 New nominations Nos. 643 to 6-i8 were read. 



