408 Proceedings of' the British Association. 



shewed that each of the other subclasses of the higher group is 

 represented among the mammalia, along with its own peculiar 

 type. He explained his reason for the four- fold division which 

 he had adopted in this subclass, pointing out the close affinity 

 which connects the Ruminantia, the Pachydermata, the Roden- 

 tia, the Edentata, and the herbivorous Marsupialia, in none of 

 which is the true canine tooth developed, and which he consi- 

 ders as forming a single group : while in another he reunites 

 those characterized by the presence of the canine tooth in its 

 proper function (as an instrument of nutrition, not merely of 

 defence), the Carnivora, and those Marsupialia which partake 

 of their character, and the Quadrumana : the Cetacea form a 

 group in themselves, and Man another. The manner in which 

 these represent the subclasses of vertebrata was exhibited by the 

 comparison of cetacea with fishes, ruminantia with reptiles, car- 

 nivora with birds, while man is the perfection and type of the 

 mammiferous conformation. Professor Agassiz then applied this 

 principle to illustrate the order and succession of the groups in 

 mammalia, by a reference to the order in which the fossilized 

 remains of the vertebrata occur in the stratified deposits,— 1st, 

 Fishes ; 2d, Reptiles ; 3d, Birds ; 4th, Mammalia. From which 

 results the following arrangement of the representative groups 

 among these last: 1st, Cetacea ; 2d, Ruminantia, &c. ; 3d, 

 Carnivora ; 4th, Man, — who thus, in a two-fold aspect, becomes 

 the culminant point of the animal creation. 



Section E.— Medical Science. 



President — Dr Pritchard. 

 Vice-President — A. Colles, M. D., and Phillip Crampton, M. D., Sur- 

 geon-General. 



Secretaries Robert Harrison, M. D., and J. Hart, M. D. 



Committee — Mr Adams. Dr M'Dowel. Dr O'Beirne. Mr Carmichael. Dr 

 Houston. Mr White. Dr Osborne. Dr Lendrick. Dr Graves. Dr 

 Stokes. Dr Collins. Dr Alison. Dr Granville. Sir A. Crichton. Pro- 

 fessor Jeftray. Dr Traill. Dr Williams. Dr Broughton. Dr Newbig- 

 ging. Dr Graham. Professor Clarke. 



Monday, \0th August, — 1. The first paper was read by Dr 

 Graves, Professor of the Institutes of Medicine, on the use of 



