CV1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



that fauna which is so closely connected with our own existence, 

 and has been so long studied, is constantly flowing in upon us. 

 Dr. H. A. Philippi, Professor of Natural History at the University 

 of Santiago, in Chili, for example, describes a new species of the 

 genus Thysanopus under the name T. austrdlis, which he discovered 

 on examining the stomach of a fish. He speaks of the discovery as 

 remarkable, since the species already known to him was from the 

 European seas : the editor, however, of Wiegmann's Archiv adds to 

 this remark, that Brandt had enumerated 7 species of the genus, in 

 Von Middendorf's Yoyage. In either case the wide distribution of a 

 genus comprising such minute species, eight lines in length, is a 

 fact of much interest. Of another Crustacean of the order Stoma- 

 topoda, he forms a new genus Hoplites, and gives it the specific name 

 longirostris. It was found in the Atlantic ocean, in 25° N. lat. and 

 22° 50' West long. Leucifer Zybrantsii, Ph. is a new crustacean 

 found in the same position by Captain Peter Zybrants, who com- 

 manded the ship which conveyed Dr. Philippi to Chili. Alima 

 valdiviana, and A. ctnura are two new species of a genus not 

 before traced to the American coast, and found in the harbour of 

 Valdivia. The new genus Euacanthus is also established from a 

 minute crustacean of the order Stomatopoda, and the new species 

 Megalojoa valdiviana from another three lines long. Of this latter, 

 Dr. Philippi remarks with great justice, that even though his obser- 

 vations may not prove sufficient to determine the question whether 

 Megalopa is a full-grown and perfect animal, or merely an immature 

 condition of some other genus, the existence of that form of crusta- 

 cean in the Chilian seas is not less a fact of great interest. Were I 

 to go through the 12 new Echinodermata described by Dr. Edward 

 Grube of Breslau, or follow Dr. Troschel in his analysis of the pro- 

 gress of discovery in natural history both in America and Europe, 

 I should have no difiiculty in establishing the fact that the time is 

 still far distant when it will be possible to study the system of nature 

 as one great whole, combining the extinct and the living : and so 

 this fact, far from discouraging, ought to exercise upon every natu- 

 ralist the most powerful and stimulatory influence ; for who can tell 

 what will be the ultimate result of man's researches and of man's 

 unprejudiced reasonings upon them ? 



Physical Geology. — As the physical condition of the crust of the 

 earth has been not only aifected by the action of external force, in- 

 cluding all aqueous and aerial agencies, but also by the action of 

 internal forces, it becomes important to study whatever is calculated 

 to throw light upon the processes of nature which, though unseen, 

 are too often felt to be going on under our feet. Of all our members, 

 Dr. Daubeny has most distinguished himself by his able advocacy 

 of the chemical theory of volcanos ; and although that theory may 

 not be considered sufiicient to explain all the phenomena, it is im- 

 possible to doubt that chemical action must be going on extensively 

 in the interior of the earth, and that it is of the utmost importance 

 to study the nature of that action. The paper by Dr. Daubeny on 

 the Evolution of Ammonia from Volcanos, deserves therefore especial 



