501 
of Edinburgh, Session 1868-09. 
animals ; after a like manner to what is seen in the venous system 
of fishes as a permanent form of structure, and yet presents itself, 
but temporarily in the history of the development, during their 
embryo state, of higher vertebrate animals. He referred to homo- 
logues in the Myxinoidei family of fishes ; to the Ophidian order of 
reptiles ; among birds , to the Aquila chrysaetos and the Casuarius 
emeu; and among mammals , to the Delphinus phoccena, the Macropus , 
the Elephas, the Stenops potto , the Simia gorilla , and the Simia 
troglodites. 
The author’s view then, morphologically, is-— 1, That struc- 
tures evolved progressively , and corresponding at given points to 
certain permanent states in the vegetable and brute creation , may uni- 
formly be traced in man at fixed periods of his embryonic and foetal 
existence ; and accordingly, — 2, that vestiges in the adult heart of 
early arrested and merely temporary structures-— such as those nar* 
rated by the author in this paper — record distinctly, in his opinion, 
the existence of definite stages of embryonic and foetal development in 
man , through which stages he invariably passes towards his perfect 
adaptation for higher functions. 
( Part Second of those observations— On the Permanence of the 
Foramen Ovale — is reserved for another paper). 
The following Gentleman was elected a Fellow of the 
Society : — 
James Dewar, Esq., Assistant to the Professor of Chemistry in the 
University of Edinburgh. 
Monday, 1st March 1869. 
Sir WILLIAM THOMSON, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
At the request of the Council, Professor Allman gave an 
account of the Anthropoid Apes, chiefly with reference to 
specimens recently acquired by the Edinburgh Museum of 
Science and Art. 
In taking cranial capacity as a ground of comparison between the 
Anthropoids and Man, he gave some measurements of skulls con- 
tained in the Museum. The capacity of the cranial cavity in the 
Gorilla skeleton belonging to the Museum is 29 cubic inches. Con- 
