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had received from Captain David Herd, of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s 
service, with the information that they had been brought by that Com- 
pany’s vessels from Barrand’s Inlet, Washington territory, North-West 
America. The captain who brought them stated that they were the back- 
bones of a gelatinous fish, shaped like a conger-eel, very common in that 
inlet, which swam about in shoals with the dog-fish; that in the living 
animal the backbones were also transparent like the rest of the animal, but 
became ossified when dried on the beach. Dr. Gray, of the British Mu- 
seum, recently described these rods as the axis of a pennatulide animal, and 
referred it to his genus Osteocellci under the name O. septentrionalis ; but 
Dr. Sclater, supposing the facts supplied him to be correct, considered the 
u rods ” to be the ossified notochords of some low organised fish, with the 
skeleton wholly cartilaginous, partially belonging to the lampreys or to the 
chinoeroid group. 
A new Asiatic Rhinoceros . — Dr. Sclater, F.R.S., read a paper on a u New 
Asiatic Rhinoceros,” with remarks on the recent species of the genus. On 
the 14th of February last, he said, the Zoological Gardens of London re- 
ceived a female two-horned rhinoceros, which had been captured near Chit- 
tagong four years previously. This animal had been referred to Rhinoceros 
Sumatrensis of Cuvier by the author and other writers, that being the only 
species of the two-horned section of rhinoceros hitherto recognised by 
naturalists. The acquisition of a female of the veritable Rhinoceros Su- 
matrensis from Malacca had enabled the author, after comparison, to conclude 
that the first-mentioned specimen belonged to a different species, which he 
proposed to call Rhinoceros lasiotis, on account of its most obvious external 
peculiarity being the long hairs which fringe the ears. The existing num- 
ber of rhinoceros certainly known he considered to be six, of which four 
belonged to the Asiatic group and two to the African group. 
Rheumatism in Whales . — Professor Struthers made a communication to 
the British Association on the sternum and pelvic bones in the right whale 
and in great fin whales, showing great variations in form, even in different 
species. He mentioned a curious circumstance in the osteology of whales, 
viz., that these animals are very liable to rheumatism. He had, he said, 
seen many examples of rheumatic ostitis in whales of different kinds. It 
had been said that animals were not subject to disease until they were 
brought into connection with man ; but the fact he had mentioned con- 
tradicted the theory. It was the more remarkable, seeing that whales were 
less liable than man to variations of temperature ; and the cold water cure 
(as a witty friend had observed) did not seem to be efficacious in the cure of 
the disease in question. The Professor made a communication also on the 
occurrence of finger-muscles in the bottle-nose whale ( Hyperodon hidens'). 
A dissection of the fin of a whale of this species (a male 20 feet in length) 
was exhibited, showing the presence of finger-muscles corresponding to 
those in man, and also (according to the Professor) the biceps muscle trans- 
ferred from the scapula to the head of the humerus. A piece of the gum 
of the lower jaw was likewise shown, in which a concealed tooth was 
sunk about half an inch below the surface. He asked what could be the use of 
teeth in such a position ? He could only infer, from the existence of such 
rudimentary structures, that the animal was descended from a species pos- 
