39t 
Wednesday, 23d April 1862.— James M'Bain, M.D., President, 
in the Chair. 
The following gentlemen were elected members of the Society : — 
Peter Waddell, Esq., Claromont Park, Leith ; James Crichton Browne, 
M.D., Dumfries. 
Committees were appointed for special investigation during the sum- 
mer. 
The following Donations to the Library were laid on the table, and 
thanks voted to the donors : — 
1. Bibliographia Librorum Entomologicorum in America Boreali edi- 
torum. Auctore Guil. Sharswood. — From the Author. 2. Jahrbuch 
der Kaiserlich Koniglichen Geologischen Reichsanstalt 1860. XI. Jahr- 
gang, Nro. 2. April-December. Wein. — From the Imperial Geo- 
logical Society of Vienna. 3. Report of the Commissioner of Patents 
for the year 1858. Agriculture. Washington, 1859. 4. Report of 
the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1857. Agriculture. Wash- 
ington, 1858. — From United States Patent Office. 
The Communications read were the following : — 
I. Observations on the Phocidse of the Greenland Seas. By John Wal- 
lace, M.D. Edin. (Communicated by Robert Brown, Esq.) 
In this memoir, Dr Wallace described minutely the cha- 
racters of the four species of seals which form, the source of 
the fisheries in the Arctic seas, and entered at length into 
an account of their habits and history — a subject regarding 
which little or nothing is known, and that (from the remote 
and almost inaccessible regions which the animals frequent) 
in a very contradictory and confused state. He prefaced 
his observations on the species with some general remarks 
on the anatomy and physiology of the group. The length 
of the intestine, according to his measurement, varies be- 
tween fifty and sixty feet. The livers have no poisonous 
properties, as has been alleged regarding those of Nova 
Zembla and the Southern seas. (Anson.) 
In the young seals the lymphatics of the neck are subject 
to a disease, which appears to be analogous to, if not indeed 
true scrofula. 
Many theories have been adduced to account for their 
capability of remaining so long below the surface of the 
water with impunity, though that of Buffon and the physio- 
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