544 CJironicles of Science. [Oct., 



concluded they all belonged to one and the same period, either to 

 Upper Pliocene or Post Pliocene. Strong objections were raised as 

 to the soundness of the species by Professor Busk, especially to 

 Stegodon, Hyaena, and Rhinoceros ; it was also objected by Pro- 

 fessor Boyd Dawkins, that there was no proof of their contempo- 

 raneity. These teeth, which are extremely various, are sold by the 

 Chinese apothecaries as a very valuable medicine when pounded to 

 a powder. They are described by Mr. Daniel Hanbury in his 

 account of the Chinese Materia Medica. 



Mr. Hanbury mentions that Mr. "Waterhouse, of the British 

 Museum, has determined the following species: — Molars of the 

 lower jaw of Rhinoceros tichorhinus, tooth of Mastodon ; of Elephas 

 insignis (?) ; molars of Equus ; teeth of Hippotherium (two 

 species ?) ; teeth of sheep, stag, bear.* 



They are said to come from the provinces of Shen-si and Shan-si, 

 but the demand for them is so great that they are believed to be 

 largely imported from the East Indies, and notably from Borneo. 



Mr. Sharp's paper, " On the Oolites of Northampton," is prin- 

 cipally of importance because of the recent discovery in this district 

 of vast bands of ironstone, the economic quarrying of which has 

 yielded a characteristic fauna with a decidedly Inferior Oolite 

 facies, in beds which had been mapped as Great Oolite (" North- 

 ampton Sands") by the Geological Survey, and in which — until 

 quite recently — not a trace of a fossil remain was known to exist. 



Mr. Sharp has carefully described the district illustrating his 

 observations by numerous sections and a good sketch-map of its 

 geology, together with lists and localities of the fossils he has been 

 so successful in obtaining. As a rider to the paper, Dr. Wright 

 describes a new and very finely-preserved star-fish (Stellaster 

 Sharpii), from the ironstone of the Inferior Oolite, Northampton. 



Mr. J. W. Judd, of the Geological Survey of England and 

 Wales, has devoted much time and attention to the Neocomian 

 strata of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and their correlation with 

 those of north-western Germany and elsewhere. He now gives us 

 the result of his studies, carefully prepared and illustrated with 

 maps, sections, and tables. The Neocomian beds of Yorkshire, &c, 

 appear to be the extreme westerly development of a great mass of 

 strata of the same age stretching over a wide area in Northern 

 Europe. It is also seen that in Yorkshire and in Brunswick the 

 Neocomian series is complete, but in the intermediate districts its 

 lowest member is absent, being replaced by the fresh- water deposits 

 of the German Wealden. 



Mr. Kalph Tate supplies two papers, on the Middle Lias in 

 Ireland, and the Lower and Middle Lias in Gloucestershire. No 

 higher member of the Jurassic series is known in Ireland than the 



* 'Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society,' 1860. 



