of Edinburgh , Session 1871-72. 
759 
did in various ways. Sometimes it dropped that letter, as when 
it changed the Latin Pater into Athir , the Latin piscis into iasg, 
plenus into lan, &c. Sometimes it changed the p into a gutteral 
c, g, or ch, as seachd for septem, feasgar for vesper. It did this 
even in borrowed words, as when the Church term Pasch for Easter 
was changed into Caisg; the Latin purpur into corcur. It was 
another peculiarity of Gaelic to omit the letter n before certain 
other consonants, so that centum became cead , quinque became coig, 
mensis, mios; infernum, ifrinn; inter, eadar. The Latin v or 
English w was generally represented in Gaelic at the beginning of 
words by f: thus vir,fear; verus, fior; vinum, fion; rates, faidh ; 
&c. The old Irish word for a widow was fedb. Two remarkable 
prefixes occurring frequently in Gaelic, do and so, correspond to 
similar prefixes du and su in Sanscrit: do and du meaning “ evil or 
difficulty,” and so and su meaning “goodness or facility.” These 
prefixes are very abundant in those two languages at the two 
extremes of the Aryan field, but though represented also in Greek, 
are scarcely or very slightly perceptible in the intermediate tongues. 
An attention to these and other changes which words undergo 
in passing into Gaelic would greatly facilitate the study of this 
remarkable tongue, which it is not creditable to Scotchmen to 
neglect as they have done. The comparative forms of the inflec¬ 
tions of words also deserve attention, and on this subject reference 
might be made to an interesting lecture on the Gaelic, by Professor 
'Geddes of Aberdeen. 
2. Some Observations on the Dentition of the Narwhal 
(.Monodon monoceros). By Professor Turner. 
The author expressed his concurrence with those anatomists who 
hold that the two tusks of the narwhal are situated in sockets 
in the superior maxillary bones, and not, as was stated by the 
Cuviers, in the premaxillae, or partly in tbe pre- and partly in the 
superior maxillae. He then proceeded to relate some further observa¬ 
tions on the dentition of the narwhal, and pointed out, both in the 
skull of a young male and in those of three well grown foetuses, 
an elongated canal on each side of the upper jaw, parallel and 
inferior to the tusk socket, which had the appearance of a socket 
