120 PROCEEDTNGS OF THE [July, 1886. 



JULY 29th, 1886. 

 The President in the Chair. 



J^ooks Received. 



Koyal Dublin Society : Proceedings, Vol IV, Parts 7-9 ; Vol. V, 

 Parts 1 and 2 ; and 

 • Transactions, Vol. III. ( Series 2.) 



Eoyal Society, London : Proceedings, No. 243. 



Natui-forschenden Gesellschaft, Emden : Jalii'esbericht, 1884-5. 



Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amsterdam ; Vers- 

 lagen en Mededeelingen, Afd. Natui'kunde, III Reeks, Deel 1-2. 



Konmklijke Akademie Disciplinaruia Neerlandica ; Venite ad 

 Me, ad Vergilium, de Alaiico. 



De. Manigault remarked tliat tlie mammalian bone exhibited by Mr. Scble- 

 pegrell at the last meeting of the Society, proves, upon examination, to be a 

 metacarpal bone of the right fore-leg of a horse. The specimen is evidently 

 fossil, is black in color, without any pieces broken off, and was obtained from 

 the phosphate dredgings in Stono Kiver off John's Island, a few miles from 

 the City of Charleston. 



Its extreme length is 9^ inches, and, after comparison with the same bone 

 of a recent horse belonging to a skeleton in the Museum of the College of 

 Charleston, the length of which is 10^ inches, the following deduction is arrived 

 at, viz. , the Museum skeleton bemg 60 inches high at the shoulder, or, in other 

 words, 15 hands in height, allowing 4 inches to the hand, and the fossil bone 

 being about one-tenth shorter than the recent one, supposing the proportion 

 to be the same between all the other parts of the two skeletons, it would follow 

 that the fossil bone would have belonged to an animal about one-tenth less in 

 height than the recent one, and consequently about 54 inches or 13^ hands. 



The existence of bones of two different species of the fossil horse in the post 

 pleiocene of South Carohna has been recognized for many years, and Prof. Jo- 

 seph Leidy, of Philadelphia, contributed to Prof. Holmes's work on the fossils 

 of South Carolina, a description of certain teeth of the horse found on the 

 banks of the Ashley River near Charleston, which he ascribes to two species, 

 Equus f rater nus and E. complicaius. The first of these was of the size of the 

 average horse of the present, while the other was as large as the London dray 

 horse. The conclusion would, therefore, be that the bone in question, as being 

 of moderate size, belonged to Equus fraternus. 



A letter of resignation from Rev. D. Levy was read and accepted. 



