150 
inE GEOLOGIST. 
tliey ouglit to liave been. It is not to be disputed that at tlie junction 
with granite and basalt, compact limestone and chalk are often converted 
into marble, as in Paradies-backeu, near Dranimen, in Korway, and near 
Belfast, in Ireland ; but, in the case of granite, the dry method of conver- 
sion cannot be any longer tenable, since the experiments of Sorby, Delesse, 
and others, have altered our conviction of its origin. Such changes, then, 
cannot be regarded as due to heat alone, and that they were assisted by 
other agencies is a conclusion arrived at also by Bischof in a different 
manner. 
In the Anniversary Address to the Geological Society, the President, 
Mr. Leonard Horner, commented on these experiments in the follov\ ing 
manner ; — " "With every respect for my friend the Professor, I think that 
I ma}' turn round upon him and say that lie has been somewhat hasty in 
considering that his experiments prove that mistakes were made by Hall 
in his descriptions of the results of his numerous experiments, all agreeing 
while obtained in so many different ways ; for the Professor states that in 
both of his experiments the gun-barrel burst (at what stage of the experi- 
ment, he does not say) and thus one of the essential conditions in Hall's 
experiments was wanting, viz. continued great pressure. I consider there- 
f jre that these experiments of Professor Pose in no degree invalidate those 
of Hall, so long considered to support, in no inconsiderable degree, the 
hypothesis of Hutton." 
Saceian Pemains in the Lowee Lias. — Some remains of Enalio- 
sauria, recently found in the shales at the top of the Phaetic series, zone 
of Ammonites planorhis (Wright), exposed near Droitwich, are of more 
than ordinary interest. One, unfortunately much distorted, skeleton of 
Ichfliyosaurus iniermedius still holds, in the space between the ribs, the 
contents of the stomach, which, however, do not present any different 
features from the example described and figured by Dr. Biickland, being 
chiefly scales of Flwlidopliorus leptoceplialus and some indeterminable 
fragments of Echinidse, probably of Cidaris EdicardsH, the spines of 
which occur very abundantly in these shales. Jaws of Ichthyosaurus 
terniirostris have also been met with in fine condition in this little-known 
locality. The specimens have been carefully collected, and are now in the 
cabinet of Pichard Smith, Esq., of Westacre, near Droitwich. 
Pish-remains in these Lower Liassic beds should be more attentively 
searched for. I have just received a letter from a noted microscopist, 
relating to the otolithic bone of Pholidophorus, which makes a fine object 
in the microscope. — Geoege E. Pobeets. 
Oeigin of Species. — At the Zoological Society, on the 28th Januaiy, 
Professor Owen read a paper on the anatomy of the Aye-Aye {Cheiromys 
Madagascariensis). The only point of interest to geological and paleon- 
tological readers was the part of the paper in which Professor Owen en- 
tered into the evidence afforded by the peculiarities of this animal on 
the question of the origin of species ; after showing the arguments in 
favour of the derivative hypothesis, and those against its mode of operation 
as propounded by Buffon, Lamarck, and Darwin, became to the conclusion 
that, whilst the general evidence on this subject was in favour of creation 
b}^ law, he was compelled to acknowledge ignorance as to the mode in w hich 
such secondary causes might have operated in the origin of Cheiromys. 
At the same time Professor Owen fully admitted that the attempts to dis- 
sipate the mystery which environed the origin of species, whether success- 
ful or not, could not but be fraught with great collateral advantages to 
zoological science. 
