After a further interval of several days the substance was again analysed. I. 0.4434 grm. of the substance gave 0.464 CO, and 0.115 HO. II. 0-309 grm. of the substance gave 0.323 CO2 and 0.08 HO, Notwithstanding that between these and the last analyses the action of the chlorine had been prolonged for a considerable time, the formula shows a difference of only one equivalent of chlorine. These analyses determine with certainty the ratio of the hydrogen to the carbon in the ceroten, and leave no doubt as to the nature of the hydrocarbon. M. LEWY attempted to take the density of the vapour of paraffin from bees'-wax. He found, however, that this could not be effected, as the substance was altered, in process of conversion into vapour, with the formation of a small quantity of hydrocarbon gas; the paraffin however remaining white, and the analysis showing no variation in composition*. It has been also remarked by others that if bees'-wax be repeatedly distilled, the solid hydrocarbon disappears from the distillate. These observations point to the source of the oil in the distillation of the Chinese wax, viz. the transformation of the ceroten itself into isomeric hydrocarbons. In fact, I found, if the ceroten be distilled and redistilled in a closed tube of the form annexed, that by effecting the distillation in this manner under pressure, after about two distillations the distillate becomes liquid and the solid matter entirely disappears. The experiment after about six distillations was put an end to by the bursting of the heated end of the tube, when a large quantity of combustible vapour * Ann. de Chimie, Series III. vol. v. p. 398. was given off. The oil which had collected at the other end of the tube was a mixture of hydrocarbons of various boiling-points, from 75° C. to above 260° C. No trace of solid matter was to be seen. If from the products of decomposition we turn to the analysis of the Chinese wax itself, we find numbers which are perfectly consistent with the idea that the chemical position of this body is among the class of compound ethers, where its reactions also would lead us to place it. To purify the substance, it is to be crystallized out of naphtha and alcohol; washed with ether to remove the naphtha; boiled with water and crystallized again out of absolute alcohol, in which it is soluble, although with difficulty. Its melting-point is 82° C. I. 0.2644 grm. gave 0.798 CO, and 0.323 HO. which give in 100 parts This formula affords us a simple solution of the decompositions of this substance by saponification and by heat. In the former case, In the latter, C108 H108 04+KO, HO=C54 H53 O3, KO+C54 H56 O2 C108 H108 04C54 H54 O4+C54 H54 It is my intention shortly to offer to the Society another communication, on the nature of myricin from bees'-wax; but I will now take the opportunity of stating that I have discovered in the investigation two wax substances of the formulæ C60 H62 O2 and C92 H92 04. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. XII. Observations on some Belemnites and other Fossil Remains of Cephalopoda, discovered by Mr. REGINALD NEVILLE MANTELL, C.E. in the Oxford Clay near Trowbridge, in Wiltshire. By GIDEON ALGernon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., Vice-President of the Geological Society. Received March 2,-Read March 23, 1848. THE group of argillaceous deposits of the Oolite or Jurassic formation, termed the Oxford Clay, has yielded some of the most interesting and instructive examples of the fossil remains of Cephalopoda hitherto discovered in England. Christian-Malford, in Wiltshire, is especially celebrated for the very perfect specimens of the soft parts of certain extinct forms of this class of molluscous animals; examples having been obtained in which the body and muscular tunic or mantle, the cephalic arms with their uncinated acetabula, the capsule or external tunic of the eye-ball, the ink-bag, and the phragmocone, are preserved, and in some instances but slightly displaced from their natural relative positions and connections. The remarkable fossils described in the Memoir on the Belemnite* by Professor OWEN, were procured by the Marquess of NORTHAMPTON, Mr. CUNNINGTON, and Mr. PRATT, from this locality. A branch line from the Great Western Railway to Trowbridge in Wiltshire, now in progress, in some parts passes over, and in others cuts through, the usual series of oolitic strata of that part of England; namely, the Kimmeridge Clay, Oxford Clay, Kelloway Rock, and the Great Oolite with its subordinate beds of Cornbrash, Forest Marble, Bradford Clay, &c. My son, Mr. Reginald NevILLE MANTELL, who is engaged on this work under the eminent engineer I. K. BRUNEL, Esq., availed himself of this favourable opportunity of collecting a very extensive suite of the fossils brought to light by the various cuttings and excavations required in the construction of the railway. This collection comprises many hundred specimens of the shells and Philosophical Transactions for 1844, p. 65. + Wonders of Geology, 6th edition, p. 502. other organic remains which usually abound in this division of the Oolite formation, and among them are several unique and exquisite examples of Ammonites, Belemnites, &c. Imbedded with the animal remains were large quantities of drifted wood, and stems and branches of trees: some of these specimens are in the state of bogwood and lignite; others are transmuted into limestone, and have the original structure well-preserved. Trunks and branches of coniferous trees, from ten to twenty feet in length, and from a few inches to upwards of a foot in diameter, were abundant; a few traces of the foliage of Cycadeaceous plants, and of Araucaria, were likewise met with. The geological character of the beds of Oxford Clay exposed along this railway, is that of a fluvio-marine formation; that is, an accumulation of deep sea and littoral shells, promiscuously intermingled with the debris of terrestrial vegetables brought into the sea from distant lands by the agency of streams and rivers, and transported by marine currents into the bed of the ocean. It would be highly interesting, but irrelevant to my present purpose, to dwell on the geological phenomena presented by the sections laid bare by the operations of the engineer along this tract of ten or twelve miles. The great quantity of the shells of mollusks referable to species which dwell in the profound abyss of the ocean, collocated with those which can exist only in waters of moderate depths, and the intercalation of drifted trees and plants, formed a striking illustration of the nature of the bed of the ancient oolitic sea, strewn with the spoils of the land, and the exuviæ of the animals with which the waters of that ocean were densely inhabited*. As the Oxford Clay traversed by the Trowbridge line is a continuation of the beds that were cut through at Christian-Malford, whence all the specimens of Cephalopoda collected by Mr. Buy, the well-known fossil dealer of Chippenham, were procured, my son's attention was particularly directed to the discovery of examples that would tend to elucidate the nature of the soft parts of the animal to which the Belemnite belonged; for notwithstanding the memoir above referred to, doubts were entertained by several competent observers as to the validity of the arguments which led Professor OWEN to assign the fossil Cephalopod, termed Belemnoteuthis antiquus by the late Mr. CHANNING PEARCE, and described by him in 1842, to the same genus as the true Belemnite, and to the species named B. Owenii by Mr. Pratt. Care was therefore taken to remove, when practicable, the Belemnites, Ammonites, &c. with a large portion of the surrounding clay; and this, when hardened by drying, * My son's collection comprises very fine specimens of Ammonites Königi, A. Calloviensis, A. sublævis, · A. athleta, &c.; beautiful examples of a boat-like ammonite with a sharp keel, A. Chamusseti; a large depressed ammonite with a flat back and a single row of nodular tubercles on the wreaths; several kinds of Nautilus; numerous small shells of the genera Rostellaria, Terebra, Turritella, Trochus, &c.; Ostrea deltoidea, Gryphæa dilatata, Terebratula, &c.; bones of Ichthyosauri, Plesiosauri, Teleosauri, Cetiosauri, &c.; and a few scales and teeth of fishes. † Geological Proceedings for 1842, vol. ii. p. 593; but not referred to in Professor OWEN's memoir. was diligently examined to ascertain whether there were any remains, or traces of the imprints, of the soft and perishable parts, of the bodies of the original animals, Although these researches were not rewarded by the discovery of any good examples of the muscular tunic, arms, &c. of the Cephalopoda, whose bard and durable relics are scattered in profusion through the strata, there are in the collection my son transmitted to me, a few specimens which present characters hitherto unobserved, or at least unnoticed, by any author, and which appear to me of sufficient importance to be placed on record, as interesting additions to our knowledge of the structure of the animal of the Belemnite. In the following remarks I shall restrict myself to the description of the fossils, of which accurate figures by Mr. JOSEPH DINKEL, executed under my immediate inspection, are subjoined; and the bearing of the facts described on the still mooted question as to whether the Belemnoteuthis and the Belemnite belong to the same genus; in other words, whether the soft parts of Cephalopoda found in the Oxford Clay of Wiltshire, and figured and described by Mr. CHANNING PEARCE, Professor OWEN, and Mr. CUNNINGTON, belong to the Belemnites geologically associated with them, but with which they have never yet been found in organic connection. The late Mr. CHANNING PEARCE, whose early death every British palæontologist must deeply regret, was the first who noticed and described the muscular mantle, phragmocone, uncinated arms, &c. of certain Cephalopods found in the Oxford Clay at Christian-Malford, and which he referred to a new genus under the name of Belemnoteuthis. According to the observations of this gentleman, and of subsequent authors, the body of this Cephalopod was of an elongated form, and contained a large internal conical shell, which is chambered and siphonated at its apical or distal extremity to the extent of about one-half (?) the length of the entire cone, and terminates anteriorly, or at its basal part, in a capacious chamber or cavity, in which the ink-bag, and probably other viscera, were placed. The external surface, which is of a brown colour, generally possesses a glossy smoothness, as if produced by its immediate contact with the secreting surface of the mantle. The outer integument of this conical shell consists of a thick corneo-calcareous layer (which for convenience I will call the epidermis), investing a nacreous, iridescent substance. Two large sessile eyes have been detected, and in several specimens the cephalic arms are more or less perfectly preserved; there are likewise indications of a pair of long tentacula, superadded to the eight shorter arms, as in the existing Decapods*. The arms were furnished with acetabula or suckers, the horny hoops of which were beset with curved spines or hooks, as in the living Onychoteuthis. Traces of a pair of pallial fins have been detected by Professor OWEN, to whose memoir I would refer for minute details of structure, which are not within the scope of the present communication. * Professor OWEN, Philosophical Transactions, 1844, p. 78. |