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Bell, were referred to the consideration of the Committee on the Hall, with power to act.

Dr. R. E. Rogers exhibited the capacity of the Rumkorff coil (as modified by Ritchie), for generating electricity of high tension and great volume. Dr. Rogers explained, by experiments with a small but powerful electrical machine armed with a wooden ring, in the hollow of which was concealed a solid wire ring (not alluded to by the maker or describers of the machine), how the volume of the common electrical machine can be indefinitely increased, without diminishing the tension, by simply protecting its condenser from the air, which, even in its most favourable conditions, cannot but occupy itself incessantly with. carrying off the electricity. Dr. Rogers succeeded in affording such protection to the common condenser by simply making it hollow, and facing the inside instead of the outside with a metallic surface. The same result is obtained by insulating the outside surface by means of a heavy coat of varnish. A silk gown thrown over the operator standing on an insulating stool, makes him a powerful condenser, upon this principle.

Stated Meeting, February 18, 1859.

Prof. CRESSON, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Present, thirteen members.

Letters announcing donations for the library were read from the I. R. Geol. Inst. dated Vienna, Nov. 30, 1857, Jan. 10, 1858;- the I. Soc. of Nat. of Moscow, dated June 5-17, 1858; -the R. Sax. Soc. dated Leipsig, April 28, and July 18, 1858: -the U. Hess. S. N. H. dated Giessen, Aug. 6, 1858:—the R. Dan. S. dated Copenhagen July 1, 1858:-the R. A. S. at Amsterdam, dated Dec. 10, 1857, and June 23, 1858: and the scientific commission of the Zool. Gard. of Amsterdam, dated March, 1858.

Letters were also read from the R. A. S. at Amsterdam, acknowledging the receipt of the Society's publications:-from Dr. D. Bierens de Haar, calling the favourable attention of the

Society to his published tables of definite integrals, dated Deventer, March, 1858:-from Wm. H. Miller, F. Sec. of the R. S. dated London, January 19, 1859, relative to the supply of missing numbers of the A. P. Transactions:-from E. Everett, Pres't. Trustees Boston Pub. Lib. dated Boston, Jan. 1859, announcing the presentation of Dr. Bowditch's library to the B. P. L. and requesting a continuation of exchanges.

The following donations for the Library were announced:African Repository. XXXV. 2.-From the Amer. Col. Society. Giornale... Instituto Lombardo, f. xlvii.-liv.—From the Institute. Memorie... VI; VII, ƒ. i, ii, iii. 1856, 1858.-From the same. Atti . . . . I. R. Is. Lombardo 1, f. i-v. Milan, 1858. 4to.-From

....

the same.

Bulletin... Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscow, 1857, ii-iv, 1858, i.-From the Society.

Jahrbuch ...
K. K. Geol. Reich. 1857. VIII. No. 2, 3. 8vo.-
From the Institute.

Bericht... K. Säch. Gesell. Phil. hist. C. 1856, iii, iv, 1857, i, ii,
1858 i.-Math. phys. C. 1857, ii, iii, 1858, i.— From the Society.
Hankel's elektrische untersuchungen, iii. Leipsig.—From the sume.
Hanson's theorie der sonnenfinsternisse p. 306-451.-From the same.
Jahrs. (43d) . . . Nat. Gesell. Emden, 1857. 8vo.-From the Soc.
Kleine Schriften... N. G. Emden, 1858. V. Small 8vo.-From

the same.

Bericht (6th.) . . . Oberhess. Gesell. Giessen, 1857.-From the Soc.
Obersigt. K. Danske V. Sels. For. 1857. Copen.-From the Soc.
Catalogue of books.. R. Acad. Amster. I. i, 1857.-From the Acad.
Jaarboek ... R. Acad.
Amsterdam, April, 1857-April, 1858.-

From the same.

Verslagen en Mededeelungen, Letter Kunde III. i, ii, iii, 1858;-Naturkunde VII. i, ii, iii. 8vo.-From the same.

Verhandelingen.. IV. V. VI. 1856, 1857, 1858. 4to.-From the same. Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde... K. Zool. S. Nat. Artis, vii, 1858. Boston Public Library, circular to the patrons of the Bowditch Library.

Aug. 28, 1858. (Pamphlet 13 pp.) 8vo.-From the Library. Cincinnati Y. Men's Lib. Ass. 24th An. Rep. 1858.—From the Asso. Missouri Geol. Survey, 4th Rep. of progress, 1859.—From G. C. Swallow.

California State Register, 1859, edited and presented by E. G. Langley. Franklin Institute Journal. Feb. 1859.-From the Institute.

The minutes of the last meeting of the Board and Council were read.

Pending nomination, No. 388 was read.

On motion of Mr. Foulke, the Librarian was instructed to transmit by mail to the members of the Society its proceedings, so soon as published, except in cases where requested not to do so by the parties interested.

On motion of Dr. Le Conte, the letter of resignation of Prof. Frazer was taken from the table and accepted, and the Society was adjourned.

Stated Meeting, March 4, 1859.

Present, twenty-two members.

Dr. Wood, President, in the Chair.

New members were introduced: Dr. Evans by Dr. Bridges; Judge Thompson by Mr. Fraley; Dr. Wister by Dr. Le Conte.

A letter was received from Jordan & Brother, of Philadelphia, dated February 28, 1859, enclosing and requesting attention to a letter from the heirs of Joseph Horsfield, of Bethlehem, deceased, reclaiming through their agents, Jordan & Brother, a certain manuscript volume of correspondence relating to Indian Affairs in the last Century, deposited in the library of the A. P. Society by the said Joseph Horsfield, and so described in Vol. I. Part 1, of Historical and Literary Transactions, page 4.

The following donations to the Library were announced:Ten pamphlets of Natural History and one of Chimatology, from the proceedings of different societies.—From Dr. Leidy. Monthly Notices... R. As. S. xix. iii. Jan. 14, 1857.-From the Soc. Principles of Social Science, by H. C. Carey, III.--From the Author. Reply of B. A. Gould to the Statement of the Trustees of the Dudley Observatory. Albany, 1859, (pamp. 8vo. 366 pp.)-From the Author.

First Annual Message of A. Henry, &c. Phila. 1859, (pamp. 172.) -From the Councils.

VOL. VII.-B

Journal

...

S. Arts and Inst. in Union. London, VI. 280, 284.— From the Society.

Proceedings A. N. S. Philada. 1859, i. ii. iii.—From the Acad. Amer. Jour. Sci. and Art. New Haven, March, 1859.—From the Ed.

Dr. Leidy presented the following papers, intended for the Transactions, and remarked that they gave an account of the geology, and of the remains of some extinct vertebrata of a small portion of country near the head-waters of the Missouri, in the Territory of Nebraska.

This great territory, embracing upwards of 130,000 square miles, is composed of formations of the Cretaceous and later Tertiary periods, with here and there a protrusion of Metamorphic rocks. Watered by the many western tributaries of the Missouri, almost all of these, so far as they have been explored, have yielded large numbers of species of extinct organic forms, vegetable and animal.

From the Mauvaises Terres of White River, a miocene tertiary freshwater formation, apparently a lacustrine deposit, an immense quantity of fossil bones of extinct mammals and turtles have been collected. In collections made by gentlemen of the Fur Company, by Jesuit Missionaries, by Dr. Hayden; and in others obtained under the auspices of the government, the Smithsonian Institution, and Professor James Hall, altogether forming from 6000 to 8000 lbs. of fossils, submitted to Dr. Leidy's inspection-he had detected the remains of 30 extinct mammals and 1 turtle. Of these there are 10 species of the extinct genera of ruminants, Oreodon, Agriochorus, Poebro-therium, Dorca-therium, Leptauchenia and Protomeryx; 8 species of pachyderms of the genera Hyopotamus, Elotherium, Titanotherium, Palæochoerus, Leptochorus, Hyracodon and Rhinoceros; of solipeds, a species of Anchitherium; of rodents, 4 species of the genera Chalicomys, Ischyromys, Palæolagus and Eumys; of carnivora, 7 species of the genera Hyænodon, Amphicyon, Drepanodon* and Deinictis; and the turtle forms the type of the extinct genus, Stylemys.

*The name Drepanodon, was applied by Nesti, as early as 1826, to the sabretoothed tiger, for which, subsequently, a number of other names have been employed-that of Machairodus of Kamp, being the most familiar. The author of the above remarks applied the name Drepanodon, in 1856, to an extinct reptile or fish, a tooth of which was discovered by Prof. E. Emmons, at Cape Fear, North Carolina. (See Proceedings of Acad. Nat. Sci. Vol. VIII 255.) The author would now substitute the name Lesticodus impar, Leidy, for the animal.

From a later tertiary formation than the one just indicated, and suspected to be of pleiocene age, on the Neobrara river, explored in the recent expedition of Lieut. G. K. Warren to Nebraska, Dr. Hayden, geologist to the expedition, collected a large quantity of fossil bones. These are of especial interest as indicating a fauna more nearly allied to the existing fauna of Asia and Africa than to our own. In the collection submitted to the examination of Dr. Leidy, he detected the remains of 29 mammals and 1 turtle. Of these there are 10 species of ruminants of the genera Cervus, Merycodus, Procamelus, Megalomeryx, Merycochorus and Merychyus; 3 pachyderms of the genera Rhinoceros, Mastodon and Elephas; of solipeds, 8 species of the genera Equus, Hipparion, Protohippus, Hypohippus, Parahippus and Merychippus; of rodents, 2 species of the genera Hystrix and Castor; of carnivora, 6 species of the genera Canis, Felis and Aelurodon; and the turtle appears to be a species of Stylemys.

From the green sand formation of the cretaceous period, through which courses the Missouri and its tributaries, the Grand, Moreau and Cheyenne rivers, with a part of White river, the remains of numerous species of mollusks have been obtained. From this formation it was that Maximilian, Prince of Neuwied, obtained the skull and vertebral column of Mososaurus Missouriensis, described by Dr. Goldfusz, and now preserved in the Museum of Bonn. Teeth of sharks and remains of sphyraenoid fishes have also been discovered in the same formation.

From the great lignite basin, an estuary formation of the middle tertiary period, covering many thousand square miles at the upper part of the Missouri river, Dr. Hayden obtained remains of numerous species of plants, mollusks and vertebrates. This basin, and the remains of the vertebrated animals discovered in it, form part of the material of the papers presented to the Society this evening.

The bad lands of the Judith river, a tributary to the head waters of the Missouri, with the vertebrate remains discovered by Dr. Hayden, in those lands, form the other part of the subject matter of the papers just mentioned.

The papers presented by Dr. Leidy, for the Transactions, were entitled: A Geological Sketch of the Estuary and Freshwater Deposite of the Bad Lands of the Judith, with some remarks upon the surrounding formations, by F. V. Hayden, M.D.; and On extinct Vertebrata from the Judith and Great Lignite Formations of Nebraska, by Joseph Leidy, M.D. Both papers

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