REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 
OF THE 
YORKSHIRE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 
Feb. 7th, 1854. 
Although on former anniversaries the Council have congra¬ 
tulated the Society on the retrospect of the preceding year, they 
have seldom, if ever, been enabled to render a more satisfactory 
account of its acquisitions than they have now the honour of 
offering to the Annual Meeting. 
In the Geological department, the Plesiosaurus, extracted 
from the Lias Cliffs, south of Whitby, by Mr. Brown Marshall, 
and liberally presented by Col. Cholmley, stands first in im¬ 
portance on the list of donations. This fine specimen includes 
the dentary portion of the lower jaw ; a chain of 88 vertebrae, 
extending nearly 18 feet in length; the pelvic, with other bones 
of the trunk more or less crushed though hut little displaced; 
the humeri and femora displaced ; and two paddles restored, 
with bones which may perhaps he admitted to belong to the 
extremities of this Plesiosaurus ; although restorations of this 
kind are in general to be discountenanced, as being seldom 
satisfactory to the comparative anatomist. 
By a curious and happy coincidence the two Plesiosauri, now 
in the Society’s possession, represent extremely opposite types 
of form, in the relation which the developement of the head and 
neck bears to the rest of the skeleton. In P. Zetlandicus 
(Phillips) the head is the most bulky and the neck probably 
the shortest of any known species; while in the Plesiosaurus 
