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disposal of the hour assigned to the evening's meeting; and he 

 was also requested to favor the Institute with a continuation of 

 the same subject, at some future meeting, with s-uch further 

 details, in connection with our own local history, as he had at 

 his command. The Institute then adjourned. 



Monday, March 24, 1856. 



Evening meeting. The President, Hon. D. A. White in the 

 chair. After reading the reports, list of donations, &c. &c.. 



Dr. Henry Wheatland offered to the meeting a communica- 

 tion on the anatomical structure of the Rabbit, together with 

 an account of some of its habits, artificial rearing and breeding, 

 management, care and treatment, as follows : — 



Dr. Wheatland said, after alluding to the derivation of its 

 name, that this animal with the Guinea Pig (Cavia guianensis) 

 may be considered as the only animals of the Rodents, which 

 have been domesticated by man and numerous varieties thereby 

 produced. 



The order Glires or Rodentia is one of the most clearly de- 

 fined groups of mammals — having representatives in all parts 

 of the world — very numerous in species and usually diminutive 

 in size. These are readily distinguishable by the remarkable 

 structure of their incisor teeth, which, having a chisel-like 

 structure, are adapted to devour the hardest substances, as 

 wood, nuts, &c., upon which they usually live; their teeth 

 were minutely described, varying, particularly the molars in 

 the several genera, in structure, according to the wants of the 

 animal — thus exhibiting, that economy of nature which is man- 

 ifested in the smallest minutiae as well as in her grandest oper- 

 ations, that the form and growth of the teeth depend upon the 

 necessity and wants of the individual. 



After having mentioned several other peculiarities in the 

 anatomy of this order. Dr. W. proceeded to give a brief account 

 of the family of Leporidce, to which the rabbit belongs. This 

 is less numerous in species than other families of the order, and 



