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Examined by a lens, it respired by two nostrils and by the mouth. It died at ten minutes past nine o'clock, which was one hour and twenty-nine minutes after its separation, though exposed for some time to the cold air of the street.

The tongue was apparently equal to one-third the magnitude of the head-milk white, grooved so as to embrace half the cylindrical circumference of the teat, which was pressed, as to its other half, against the vault of the palate. The mouth was a pore, which I could not distinctly discern without a lens; the cavity of the mouth spacious. The diaphragm strong.

The heart, in its pericardium, large and powerful. The liver very large. The stomach filled with milk vesicles, examined in the microscope; the intestinal convolutions distended with milk and chyle, stained yellow with bile; the bladder of urine filled with fluid.

Two lungs, each consisting of minute transparent vesicles resembling small soap bubbles.

Such is the anatomy of the young opossum of three and a half grains, destined to attain a weight of fifteen or sixteen pounds.

While lying on the watch glass, I put the smooth point of a pencil. to its stomal pore. The animal sucked at the pencil, and held on so firmly, that I could lift it partly off the glass by it.

Does this fact show that twenty-four hours earlier it could draw the delicate teat into the orifice?

The young, having the teat once in the mouth, cannot let it go; nor does it abandon it for many days. It adheres as the bitch adheres to the male organ of the dog.

I could discover no trace of an umbilicus. I sought for it with a good doublet. But it is not to be believed that a breathing, sanguiferous, digesting mammifer, can be developed independently of a pla

centa.

On Monday, March 12th, an animal being removed for dissection weighed twelve grains; it breathed thirty-two times per minute. March 18th. A young one weighed eighteen grains. The tail very prehensile.

I immersed it in a cup of alcohol to kill it for dissection. It did not die in the fluid until it had been immersed in it for sixteen minutes.

The observations show the marsupial young to have a chylopoietic, warm-blooded, oxydating, innervating, and free-willing life, being as fully endowed with all the means of an independent existence, as the young of the elephant at the teat.

If this be so, all mystery as to the nature of the life of the marsupial young is at an end.

The Committee (Right Rev. Bishop Potter, Dr. Demmè, and Dr. Bethune), to whom had been referred Prof. Tucker's paper upon Cause and Effect, read 5th March, 1847, reported, recommending that the thanks of the Society be presented to Prof. Tucker for his paper, and that he be requested to prepare a copy, to be placed in the archives of the Society: which recommendation was adopted by the Society.

Mr. Ord announced the death of Mr. Charles A. Lesueur, of Havre, on the 12th December, 1846, in the 68th year of his age: whereupon Mr. Ord was requested to prepare an obituary notice of our late member, Mr. Lesueur.

The nominations for membership were then read and discussed, and the candidates balloted for.

On motion of Dr. Patterson, the project for the amendment of the By-laws, proposed by the Committee, was postponed until the next meeting.

The business of the meeting being finished, the ballot boxes were examined, and the following gentlemen declared to have been duly elected members of this Society:

M. A. T. KUPFFER, of St. Petersburg.

M. U. J. LEVERRIER, of Paris.

Mr. J. Y. MASON, of Virginia.

Mr. RICHARD A. TILGHMAN, of Philadelphia.
Prof. Wm. PROCTER, Jr., of Philadelphia.

Stated Meeting, May 7.

Present, twenty-two members.

Dr. PATTERSON, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Letters were announced and read:

From l'Institut Royal des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts des Pays-Bas, dated Amsterdam, 25th January, 1847, announcing

the transmission of the 3d Part of Vol. XII. of their new Memoirs:—

From the Corporation of the University in Cambridge, Mass., dated Cambridge, 1st December, 1846, acknowledging the receipt of No. 35, Vol. IV. of the Proceedings of this Society: and,

From Wm. Procter, Jr. acknowledging the receipt of notice of his election to membership in the Society.

-!

The following donations were announced:

FOR THE LIBRARY.

Flora Batava, ou Figures et Descriptions de Plantes Belgiques. Par Jan Kops, et J. E. Van der Trappen. Nos. 142 to 146, inclusive. Title and Index to Vol IX. 4to.-From H. M. the King of the Netherlands.

Nieuwe Verhandelingen der Eerste Klasse van het Koninklijk-Nederlandsche Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten te Amsterdam. The 3d Part, and the completion of the XIIth Vol. 4to.-From the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. Bulletin de la Société de Géographie. Troisième Série. Tome VI. Paris, 1846. 8vo.-From the Geographical Society of Paris. Journal Asiatique, ou Recueil de Mémoires, d'Extraits et de Notices relatifs à l'Histoire, à la Philosophie, aux Langues et à la Littérature des Peuples Orientaux; et publié par la Société Asiatique. Quatrième Série. Tome VIII. No. 39. Novembre, Décembre, 1846. 8vo.-From the Asiatic Society of Paris.

Boletin de la Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais de Valencia. Año 7°. Tomo 40. Noviembre, 1846. 8vo.-From the Society.

Boston Journal of Natural History, containing Papers and Commu. nications read before the Boston Society of Natural History, and published by their direction. Vol. V. No. 3. Boston, 1847. 8vo.-From the Society.

Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Vol. III. Jan. and Feb. 1847. No. 7. 8vo.-From the Academy. Proceedings of the Providence Franklin Society. Vol. I. April, 1847. No. 2. 8vo.-From the Society.

The African Repository and Colonial Journal. Vol. XXIII. May, 1847. No. 5. 8vo.-From the American Colonization Society. The American Journal of Science and Arts. Conducted by Prof. B. VOL. IV.- 2 x

Silliman, B. Silliman, Jr., and James D. Dana. Second Series. No. 9. May, 1847. 8vo.-From the Editors.

The Medical News and Library. Vol. V. May, 1847. No. 53.— 8vo.-From Messrs. Lea & Blanchard.

Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania.

Vol.

XLIII. No. 257. Third Series. Vol XIII. May, 1847. No. 5. 8vo.-From Dr. Patterson.

Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. By Alexander H. Everett. Second Series. Boston, 1846. 12mo.-From the Author. Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de M. Libri. Belles-Lettres. 1re Partie. Paris, 1847. 8vo.-From M. Hector Bossange.

ADDITION TO THE LIBRARY BY PURCHASE.

Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Troisième Série. Tome XVIII. Décembre, 1846. 8vo.

Mr. Ord made a donation for the Cabinet of a Model of a Temporary Rudder, invented by Captain Edward Pakenham, and for which the Society instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, presented their Gold Medal. An account of this invention appears in the Transactions of the said Society, Vol. VII., 1789.

The Committee (Prof. Henry, Dr. Patterson, Mr. M'Culloh,) to whom had been referred the paper of Prof. Norton upon the Imponderable Agents of Nature, reported the following resolution, which was adopted:

Resolved, That it is inexpedient, at this time, to take action upon the Memoir of Prof. Norton, read to the Society on the 4th of December last, and that the same remain in charge of the Committee, awaiting the further communications of the author upon the same subject; subject always, however, to the author's control.

Prof. Tucker made an explanation upon the subject of the paper recently presented by him to the Society.

Prof. M'Culloh read to the Society, the following letter from Mr. Sears C. Walker:

Washington, D. C. May 3d, 1847. Dear Sir, I have just completed Elements V. of the planet Neptune, as follows:

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1° 45′ 32.90 m. eq. Jan. 1, '47. 129 51 13 .53

i = 1 45 38 .10

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Eccentricity,
Mean distance,

Epact Jan. 1, 1847,

e = 0.005052917

a = 30.145119

M 326° 2' 1".34 m. noon Greenwich

M. daily siderial motion, μ = 21.437,843
Period in Trop. years, T =

165.51330

I do not hesitate to pronounce them the most probable elements of the present disturbed orbit of Neptune, that can be deduced from a discussion of all the observations of Neptune extant to this date. These have already accumulated to 479: viz. 113 American and 366 European. All have been compared with an ephemeris which I computed from my IV. Elements of Neptune. Thirteen normal places have been thus obtained, and the corrections of Elements IV. computed from these normal places by the method of least squares. In forming the equations of condition, I carried into effect the plan sketched out in my former letter. The variations of the radius vector were made a function of the ascending powers of the intervals from a date assumed for the origin of time.

The variations of the true anomaly were derived from those of the radius vector, by means of Laplace's formulæ for mechanical quadrations, on the condition that equal areas should be described in equal times. This mode of forming the equations of condition, for the purpose of deducing an orbit from direct observation, is new, as far as I am informed. I send you the comparison of the Ephemeris from Elements V. with the thirteen normal places in geocentric longitude and latitude:

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