Proceedings of Learned Societies. 159 



PKOCEEDINGS OF LBAKNED SOCIETIES, 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.— December 19, 1866. 



The following communication was read : — 



On a new specimen of Telerpeton Elginense. By Professor 

 T. H. Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S., Y.P.G.S.— The specimen which was 

 described in this paper had been broken into five pieces, exhibiting 

 hollow casts of most of the bones of Telerpeton Elginense. It is the 

 property of Mr. James Grant, of Lossiemouth, and came from the 

 reptiliferous beds of that locality, along with some highly-interesting- 

 fragments of Stagonolepis and Hyperodapedon. 



In describing these remains, Professor Huxley discussed espe- 

 cially the biconcave character of the vertebra?; the mode of implan- 

 tation of the teeth, which he believed to be Acrodont, and not 

 Thecodont ; and the anomalous structure of the fifth digit of the 

 hind foot, which presents only two phalanges (a proximal and a 

 terminal), a structure which differs from that of all known Lacer- 

 tilian reptiles, whether recent or fossil. His researches had led 

 him to conclude that the animal is one of the Reptilia, and is devoid 

 of the slightest indication of affinity with the Amphibia. In all its 

 characters it is decidedly Saurian, and accords with the suborder 

 Kionocrania of the true Lacertilia ; but the author had not been able 

 to make sure that it possessed a columella. He also remarked that 

 the possession by Telerpeton Elginense of vertebrae with concave 

 articular faces does not interfere with this view, as although most 

 recent Lacertilia have concavo-convex vertebrae, biconcave vertebrae 

 much more deeply excavated than those of T. Elginense are met 

 with among the existing Geckos. 



Professor Huxley, in conclusion, drew attention to the interesting 

 fact that Telerpeton presents not a single character approximating it 

 towards the type of the Permian 1? rotor osauria, or the Triassic 

 Mhynchosaurus, and other probably Triassic African and Asiatic 

 allies of that genus, or to the Mesozoic Diriosauria; and that 

 whether the age of the deposit in which it occurs be Triassic or 

 Devonian, Telerpeton is a striking example of a 'persistent type of 

 animal organization. 



NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



Tempel's Comet and Shooting-Stabs.— Dr. Peters, of Altona, writing in 

 Astronomiscke Nackrichten, points out the close resemblance between the orbits 

 of the August and November meteors, and that of Tern pel's comet. He states 

 that further observation is necessary to show whether this cornet really belongs 

 to that system of small bodies, and remarks that it is distinguished from other 

 comets of short periods by its retrograde motion. 



Faye on the Sun's Kotation. — Comptes Rendus, No. 5, 1867, contains an 

 elaborate paper founded on Mr. Carrin^on's observations. He arrives at the 

 following conclusions : — " 1. The retardution of the rotation of the photosphere 

 from one parallel to another is proportional to the square of the sine of the lati- 

 tude. 2. The constant of the parallax of depth applicable to observations of 



