CONTENTS. .

Boulder Mosaics in Dakota. Saacioan dl eee pe Peon I

A Study of the Dandelion. [Illustrated.]....... cial, ae plates Gc Rite eee

The Relations of Mind and Ma sg poset from "i 1159, :

Precemiber mumber).. 503s sk a eee ee et Charles Morris cs «as wee ik

Some Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. . Nicolas Pike... Pe To i

The Relation of the Pectoral Muscles of Birds to the Downie of

Pgh er A eon g è . Charles L. Edwards iea ,. 25

ae pai ‘id's some of its s Apparent Ciiis T E EROS eg eS 26

e Post-mortem Imbibition of Poi . George B. Miller Shee Site

Pons of the Foicane of eat ocatepetel. Leger (AS: Packard 060s wise «LOD

Notes on the (Ecodomas, or Leaf-cutt Ants of Tri inidad,

[Mustrated.]. stiaGdlece sa A A Cowes

The Teredo, or Shipworm. {Mustrated ] ee lee ee eR Co SARS o eee ees ae

The Flood Rock Exp oe 0 ee ew » William Hosea Ballou sw w + 137

Migration of Siouan Hea “TM salen wk ese Geib ie ade Omm Dore Ses r en eee

e Torture of the Fish-hawk. [Tllustrat wats a eee ree L LARCOHET NEE Ce SOS

A Study of Garden Letinces o oe yyy ek is Se e E. L. Sturtevant...» » 83

Aquatic Respiration in Soft-shelled Turtles: = Daoso to

the Physiology of Respiration in Verteb s.c e s oo Simon H. and Susanna hae

Er Se Se eee

T of a new Subspecies of the common Eastern Chip-

Me whi e e Sie Ae e NE G x C, Hart Merriam... + + + 239

Fih.) kareta and Tracks in the Triassic Rocks at Weekaniicen: :

N. [Iustrated.] . irre See FS Orama s e e e

Resemblances in Arts widely epii z a ier ae ok Oits T. Mason i o Ae ae

ry of Nasu x cis in Samel Locked 0 Se eae “

The Meikin of Saline. fF Maanated 3. wep tee en 6 Dilan ee ate 326 ee

The Stone Ax i in Vermont, [unstated] ¢ s a aA Geo. H. — gga Coane 3 ee

Grosse’s Classification and Structure of the Bird lice or Mallo- =o

phaga paiieeewaedF. re EA boat oe OG Mache ee ee Soe oie

Track of a Cyclone which neds over Western tadini more

than three hundred years ago... . oo e> <- oo» + «Jno. T. Campbell... a.o o © + 348

On the Mounting of Fossils. [Ilustrated.] . es ese. rahi C Müs suete D

The Limits of Organic Evolution. . - H. W. Come. ien eeo ONS

ient Rock Inscriptions in Eastern Dakota. finieseraeed) . Fe A Se ee a 7

Variation of Water in Trees and Shrubs. [Illustrated.]. . . LD. P. Penhallow . sa ee i)

Domestication of the Grizzly Bear. . re ou John Dean Caton , OP rare oa =|

On the Nature an and right of the sonalted: is Spiral Thread ” z

Tracheæ., [Illustrated]. ...... ih toad egg sts P

che Making of Man.) 27S 2 Sos a ee wheres Mer S ee

Review of a PER of Nortti Ama ‘Juvebisbeatl Pale-

_ ontology for 1885. . cee Be Marcon

Gravitation and the Sonting Birds. _Ciastrated) ee <. FE Lamar a a

Causes of riaan Rotation. shinana ee JAAT OE S

Observations ni Yonne Huomiaritis < sirsa ES o ;

Tha Whck alec of Brisg Co eek ee wee Se He ge a =

SE eee Santee [Illustrated.] . . o Geo. F. Atkinson. >. seu woo

A few Legendary Fragments from the Point Barrow Bekimi . Jaka Mardeck oo eae eee

History of Celery, [Illustrated]. ........++... -&. Lewis Sturtevant ... 599

/ The Yellow-billed Magpie aE a an r E ie de

e Phylogeny of the Camelidæ. [Illustrated.].... - iR D OMe ce pe ee OMe

Ants’ Nests and their Inhabitants cs Joke Be SW A on Oe

nts aes

Geographical and Geological Heplarations in Breall . » «John C Brauner... +. -

iv Contents.

The Wings SE POU E Sa A ies ee L pamar oP e aa 701

Aona ARS ae r aa aa e a a Ae E E E S See 757

Sve Gene Ra o oy 6k a ee 8 Sa a ERIS Fe a gk ah eae 767

ome Deities and Demons of the Navaj Se oa = DIET i eo a

pera and Chicago, or *‘ pakelia Might "Have Bes p EE ee E: W. Cok erea e 856

The Arthropod Eye. [Ulustratéd:] as es ese PAPRI ey per ee eae . 862

‘Comparative Studies upon Glaciation of N orth America, Great

z : Brna one remde o ie is Se oe Se we ere . H. Carvill ae Pea ae oe et

Some Peculiarities mA the Local ieas x the Rocky Moniales. . Theo. B. Com ea e S

The Mammary Gland of the Elephant. aa i i a reaa Spencer sare BG Spee ae O27

Is Littorina litorea ae is or me on wane ee eee W. F. Ganong pee ee ee ee

On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. ........:&. D. Cope. es Res 941

callop and its Fishery... 2... os 2a es Pare OE Ingest FERS Toot

Super-metamorphism and Vulcanism. .....-2.2 +204 eo. omstock s . 4 + «1006

Zoic Maxima, or Periods of Numerical Variation in Animals... L. P. Gratacap... + . e + 1009

The Peabody Museum’s Explorations in Ohio. . . s. es...» F. W; Putnam o sa 5 oye l 1017

An Interesting Connecting Genus of Chordata. ».....+-.&.D. Copes. es. e. + + 1027

ghee’ TABLE.

he Naturalist, 40; State Academies of Science, 41; The Academy of Original] Research, aot

e Alpha

3; i

A Government Department of Science and Public Instruction,624; Theology on Evolution, 708 ;

tration in U. S. Geological Survey Work, 709; The Method of Teaching Natural History

; The Recent Earthquake, 8€9; The U. S. Geological Survey, 870; Instruction and Tivestigaé

een 948; The Function of the American Naturalist, 1032.

RECENT N

s Two Years in the Jungle Prp 42; Goodale’ a. — a we c

Wood's: Nature’ s Teachings, a Report te Geologist of New Jersey for 1884,

Fourteenth Annual Report of the Geology a mier History viai of RA 48; Rec oe

Books and Entei ne The Ss on of —— 142; Bower and Vines’ Practical

uis ssiz,

145; Our ive Word erate 20% — Books and Pamphlets, "o Coulter’ zey ‘

Mountain Botany, 254; The gue of Lizards in the British Museum, 256; Hartman’s An- i

thropoid Apes [IIl strated > Kane’s Hand-book of European Bu geese 258; Langille s í

Our Birds rons Ry ; Our Living World, 259 ; egn s Bibliography of Protozoa,

etc., 259; R hae. poy Pa mphlets, 260; Croll’s Climate and Cosmology, 359; Leunis’

Synopsis der "Thierkunde, 361; Beddoe’s Races of Britain, a Zittel’s Handbuch der Palæ-

ct - Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds, 539 Ga Recent Books and Pamphlets,

A 539; Gilbert’s Topographic Features of Lake Shores [Illustrated], 626; Recent Books and

the

Third International Geographi a 9553 1e Morphogeny of ea the Vertebral Column in

the Amniota, 956; Die Classen u. Ordnungen des u. Bild, 956; Recent

Books Pamphlets, 957; as ppe iai See paskay and vere

Biology, 1033; Whitfield’s Brachiopoda and REDEE of New Jersey, 1034; Recent

Books and P:

Geography and Travels.—Asia: The Trigonometrical Survey of India, Mr. Hosie’s Travels

in China, Asiatic News, 50; Africa : Somaliland, The Lake Mæris, The Kassai Tributary of the

Congo, African News, 52; Asia: on Rivers of the Punjab, Soine Himalayan gean M,

Potaneri’s Journey, Äsiatic News ; America: The Clatms of France in Brazil,

News, 151; Africa: Capello and ae Journey, 153; General, 261 ; Arctic Regions aspen ; Africa :

Contents.

The Resources of Africa, Lieut. Wissman’s Expedition, African News ; 262; Asia: Sout

India, Asiatic News, 264; America: The Goajira Peninsula a,

iy bare Asiati r

ole

he uin

714; Africa: Madagascar, Algeria, ‘African Nai: As America: T ké Ta ert 718; Ocean,

719; America: ‘Asceticén News, 797; Asia: Pers Exploration on the Lena, os Turki

Tongues, Asiatic News, 797; Africa: The Congo, The Island of Diego Garcia, Africa

798; Asia: The Aralo-Caspian basin, Asiatic News

: eral, 960; America: The Zingu, American News, 960; Africa: Mozambique,

Eu : Surveys in the Pyrenees, Pu Asia : Baxi The Drying g up of Siberian Lakes,

962; America: The Ruins of Copan, etc., Am n News, 1037; Europe and Asia: Lake Le-

an, The ir, 1038; Pacific Islands : Cea” Bri ridges’ fe ae The New Zealand Earth-

Guske, 1039 ; Africa: African News, 1041.

ecology and Palwontology.—Internal Chemical and Mechanical Erosion a Factor in Continent

Geol

and Mountain Building, 53; Geo ogical Surve Bel Py Bed of the Ocean, 57;

Geologi ews, 59; The Sternum of the Dinosauria [Illustrated], 153 ; Co ions of :

on Dinocerata, 155; Discove f lamellate thoracic Feet in the Phyllocarida, 155; Geological $

Survey of Pennsylvania, 156; Geological Su f Minnesota, 156; cal News, 156;

The English Cretaceous, 266; Ox corpius, osbornei Whitfield, ; An Extinct Dog, 274;

y tebrate Fauna of the Ticholeptus 67; Scudder’s Fossil Insects, 369 Žž

The Verteb 36 er’ ; ;

Schmidt on the Origin of the Domestic Dog, 370; Geological News, 372; The Plagiaulacide of

the Puerco epoch, 451; “ List of the Geological Formations of Spitzbergen,”

Stromatoporidæ, 452; rot ly em 452; The long-spined Theromo

epoch, 544; The Report of the Congress of Ges logists, E First TREE of the Grasses,

546; Saoto News, 5 547: The Ligon Man of Pefion, Mexico, 633; On the Fossil Flora of the

5; Notes on the Variation of certain Tertiary Fossils in i

AA A beds Ssa 637; SES News, 633; Schlosser on the Phylogeny of the Un-

gulate malia, 719; Geological News, 721; Walcott on the Cambrian of North America, 800 ;

Geol Sree News, 802; The Permian in Nebraska, 881; The Recent Earthquake in the United

States, 883 ; Geological News, 884; A remarkable extinct Geyser Basin in S. W. Colora do, 963 ;

g > $ $ par x *

losser on Creodonta and Phenacodus, 965; Dollo on seiat Toria, ae Geological Ni Biss

968; Notice of Geological Investigations along th made eo ie

Pr . M. Seely and Prest. Ezra Brainard, 1o41; The Veins of South western Colorado,

1043; A giant PERAR from the Miocene of Kansas, 1044; Geological News, 1046.

Mi HES 34 and Petrography.—American Minerals, 60: Microchemical Reactions, 62 ; Crys ee

lographic News, 62; Miscellaneous, 63; Etched Figures, 158; Andesite) 160; Wildschönau a

Gabbro, 160 ; phical News, 160; Miscellaneous, 161 ; Tin, 2743 ical News, -

275; Mi ical News, 277; ooks, 277; Hussak’s ion of Rock-forming

erals,”’ 374; Petrographical News, 375; Mineralogical News, 376; Miscellaneous, 378 ; Min-

eralogical News, 453; Petro ical News, 455; Miscellaneous, 45

548; Mineralogical News, 550; P ews, 640; Mineralogical zom 642 ; Petro-

cal News, 725; Miscellaneous, 727; New Books,

logical News, 1048; Petrographical News, 1049.

_Botany.—The Asa Gray Vase, 63; Catalogue of the awe of North

Candolle Prize, 64; The Drying of Wheat, 64; The sd

value of i

tanical cultural Experiments, 65; Fertili ‘eucrium

mens of Cuscuta wanted, 67; Botanical News, 67; Can Varieties of A of esas

their Flowers [Illustrated], 162 ; Formation of Seach Yo

duction of Male and Penis Plants, 166; Pear Blizht B:

Botanical News, 166; The adventitious Tnilorescence of Ç

Cen ni i

trated], 379; Movements of Desmids, 379; | j >; Tree

Plains, 380; Botanical News, 381; ‘Carbonaceous Reserve F ‘Fodoateal in Fang 438

Contents.

low’s Studies of Evaporation of Water from Plants, 457; Ellis and Everhart’s North American

Fungi, 458; Botanical News, 459; Variations of arn virginica, 551 ; Some abnormal

[sej

[e]

, Q

Lad

Botanizing, 727; A Broader Elementary aay. 728; "Wats n’s JER gau to American

tany, XIII, 729; Botany at the Approaching Meeting of the i A. A. S., 729; ETER News,

729; The Phalloideæ or Stink-horn Fungi, 804; The Rust of the Ash Tree, 806; Twigs eon

by Telephone Wires, 806; An Instanc e of Ae LERON oF; : Botanical New WS,

for

“a

cad

A. Agricul-

tural So » 970; Botanical News, 972; The Wind and the Tree-tops, 1o51; A Hybrid Apple,

1052; Ruppia maritima in Nebraska, 1052; The Roughness of certain Uredospores, 1053 ;

hate i ETa wei ” 1053; Botanical News, 1054.

Entomology.—Recent Discovery of ge snags Insects, 68; Plateau’s Experiments on Vis-

ion in Insects, 69; e Divi _— of the Sex of Hymenoptera, 71; Entomological News, 71:

The Preparatory Stages of C iti m ote, 168; Morphology of Lepidoptera, 169 ;

Flights of Locusts at San Luis Potos ost; Mexico, 1885, Longevity of Ants, 170; Ento.

mological News, 171; Witlaczil on Psyllidze [lilustrated], A; Entomological News, 287; On

A aw Arrangement of mas Ora of toes 808 ; Luminous Organs of Mexican Cucuyo, 808 ;

ie s $ n

889, 9

of Ajax Butterfly, 976; Sai aad ites 977 ; A remarkable case of Longevity in a Longi

corn Beetle (Eburia quadrigeminata), 1

Zoology.—Living eae Dead Protoplasm, 72; Sphzrularia in America, 73; Notes on some

Eastern Iowa Snails, 75; The Batrachian PEIRIER 76; Antidote to hi UEF s “are

172; The Crustacea af the Black Sea, 172; The Molting of the Lobster, 173; side Old

173; The Intercentrum of Living Reptilia, 174; The Interce ntrum in nodon, 175; pa the

hi on (H a), 4 Q

559; Blue Color of Animals, 561; Perception of Prie and Ca k by 2 his E koi mils,

561; The Sacrum of Menopoma [Illustrated], s ; Zoological News, 562; Phys Selec

tion, 653; Mechanics of Soaring, 653; Limulus in the Pacific, 654; The ral ae degre of Fishes,

_ 654; The former Southern Limits of the White or Polar Bear pare 655; Zoological News,

659; Geographical Distribution of Pelagic Marine Animals, 732; Influence of High P

nimal Tissues, 732; Shell Formation in Bivalve Molloske, pass Mechanism of Opening of

the Shell of Mussels, 733; Abyssal Decapod Crustacea of the North Atlantic, 734: The Most

e ey a in

Southern, Salmon, |

the Pineal Gland, 736; Th e Vertebra of Sphenodon, 736; The Rattlesnake in New Eng!

736; Zoological News, 737; Hair-like ereere : Glandular Epithelium, 815 ; Organs of Piane,

815; Unusual Abundance of Aurelia aurita, 816; The Leeches of Japan, 816; Some

on ‘Bird Migrations, 817; Bambeke on wat 819; Domestication of Wild Fowl, jey

‘ear:

Contents. Vil

Zoological News, ‘Ser; Re production of the Viscera in the rt ic 894; The Leeches of

and London, 900; Human Cere ames an

the methods of studying them vowel got; Zoological News, goz; Classification of

n, 978; The

tapak; 978; Sanctions nt of Bef agar 979: The Ribs of Sphenodon (Hatteria),

Birds kill db ul., ; Zoological News, 981 ; Leptodora in

paiia 1037; Blood of a a, para pr iy Organ in Lamellibranchs, rosg; On

the class Podostomata, a group embracing the Merostomata and Trilobites, 1060 ; Oyster Culture,

1061; Echinoderm Development, 1061 ; The Brazza Exhibition at Paris, 1062 ; Zoological News,

1061,

Emébryology.—The Development of the Toad-fish, 77; The Origin of the Amnion [Illustrated],

179; The Development of Anurida maritima Guerin ier aio, n an unusual Relation

of the Notochord to the Intestine in the Chick Scare ea Professor pei on im

Development of the Opossum (Didelphys virginiana), 394; e Symmetry of the firs

mentation Furrows of the Blastodisk of Elasmobranchii be Da bag 470% r. k Dates.

ment of Patella, 563; 2. TheD evelopment of Dentalium, 565; 3. The Development of Chitonidz

he early Devel-

n 6 h t ; Emb

madillos, 667; The Meta morphosis of me American a, , Homarus americanus H. Milne-

“TheM

y ua

opment of the Mud-minnow, 823; The Development of Fundulus heteroclitus, 824; Observa-

tions on the Embryology of Spiders, 825; Why do certain Fish Ova Float? 98€; The Origin of

the Pigment cells which invest the Oil-drop in Pelagic Fish Embryos, 987; The Life-history of Eii

Thalassema, 988. aes

pee —Conditions which determine Coagulation of the Blood, 80; Special Physiology

of the Embryo, 80; Are the Muscles Dead or Alive during oo a eas 81; Glandular

sche Vaso-motor Fibers of the Chorda Tympani and Glossopharyngeal Nerves, 82; The Ex-

istence of two kinds of Sensibility toward Light, 185; The Credle in Ganglion Cells, 186;

Pasteur’s Method for the Prevention of H hobia, 186; Report oi ittee on Disinfect--

the American Publi th Association Investigations on the Respiratory

Center, 304; The action of Sulphate of Spartei n the 396; The Microbe of H

phobia, 397; The Transformation of Peptones by the Liver, and the relation of the Sugar im ‘

te — a Amg of the Food Supply, 397; Pe aa and Vaso-motor Experi- ==

; Glycogenic Function of the Liver, 473; The Delicacy of the Sai W

Sa poe n; roti on Recalcification of Human Teeth, 989. Wie

Psychology.—The Material Conditions of Memory, 83; Sir J. Lubbock on the farell of

the Dog, 188; Intelligence of Anthropoid Apes, 306; Dr. Preyer’s sere of eee 307;

Menault’s Titellignsice of Animals, ate Anthropology and Psycholo Philadel elphia

American Society for eha | Research, 401; epua s + Pech, Vol. 1 [Illps-

trated], 474; Intelligence of > Hen and Opossum, 568; The S as a Surgeon, 568; Gam-

betta’s Brain, 668 ; Memory in the Humble Bee, 669; The = areal of Birds, ae A Cu

Superstition, 744; The EE S and other Snakes, 744; Canine Reason, 827; The D i

of the Blind, 904. Fe

An meats Bac Plummets 85; Polynesia, 86; Annual Report of Progress, 86; The v

“Indian Local in American

š thropological News, 87; Some M oints in

Contribution to Californian Folk-lore, 194; Kiche Grammar,

= ; The Anthropological Society of Washington, 195; Ethnology of

+ w, 197; The Blow Tube in t ted States, 198; Physical Education

dren, 199 ; f the Bureau logy, 309; i Negroes, 312

Lacustrian Antiqui ities oE Dr. Gross, 312; Recent Articles by Dr- Tota, 313; pear

to the Gra mar of

thropologie, 404; The Races of Men, 404; P EANES ap g

the Salt River Valley, Arizona [N]ustrated], 479; The so-called Deformed

569; The Relation of Anthropology to the Science of Mind, 570; Jewish preg pe Th

Mangue 572; “ Tableau des peace 572; Aboriginal Baking Pans, 573; War-clubs —

vs. Digging-sticks, 574; The Aztec Language, 574; The Davenport — 67r; Vocabn-

Vili Contents.

of Archery, 673; Child Growth, 745; Skull of Adult with Frontal Suture, sg The

The Part:

Tas. 750; The Nicobarese, 750; Anthropological Nomenclature, 828 ; of Eskimo

: Harpoons, 82 ropology in Brazil, 83r; Manufacture ows ng t

r Natano (Hupa) and Kenuck (Klamath) Indians, 832; Californian and Polynesian Fish-hooks, 833 ;

Ancient Egyptian Classification of the of Man, 834; Anthropometry, 905; The Cephalic

nd e y Museum, 907 ; West Indian Stone Implements, 908 ; Indian Children’s

es, ; An ta ; Foe Fijian Nanga Custom, 2. ; Melanesia, 909 ; Arche-

ae Sse ological Poko 10; oF ee w Release : The Origin of Languages, 997; Aus-

tralian Medicine Men, 106 The eae Ency Sonali 1070.

ete —The Eye of Insects, 88; Grenacher’s Methods of Preparing the Arthropod Eye,

; Met of adie the Reflex in the Compound Eye of Insects, 90; Method of Isolating

li i f Insects

d], 575; S

trated}, 675; Some caves Appliances Senate 910; Revolving Automatic Microtome

[Illustrated], 1071 ; Embryograph for use with Zeiss Wiccolecpe [Illustrated], 1073.

SCIENTIFIC NEWS, 92, 205, 316, 410, 491, 578, 676, 751, 834, 916, 999, 1074.

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

The International Geological Congress, 94 ; National Academy of Sciences, 99; Academy of

Sciences of Indiana, 100; New York Academy of Sciences, 100; Society of Naturalists Eastern

iolo

U. S., 207; American Philosophical Society, 208 ; Biological Society of Washington, 2 >

Orni gist Union, 209; Linnzean Society ter, 208; New York Academy of Sci-

ences, 210; Bosto ety of Natural History, 210; Appalachian Mountain Club, 210; Indiana

f Sciences, 318; The i om of the International Con; o; olo-

gists, 319 ; New ork Academy of Sciences, 3203 Boston Society of Natural History, 320

5 i ntain Club, 320; The Cincinnati Society of Natural History, 320; Crawfordsville

: Scientific oe aa ; Biological Society of Washington, 412; New York Academy of Sciences,

42; Aar ee con rey ‘seem Academy of Sciences, 481, 580; Biological So-

, 580; w Yor k Academy of Sciences, 581; Boston Society of Natural

eae

sabe 581; Appalachian hace tain ee b, 582; t Biological Society of Washington, 678 ; Boston

Society of Natural Indian

916; ty hila

of Natural Sciences, 1000 ; aai Academy of Sciences, 1076; Biological Society of Wash

nom, 1077 ; New York Academy of Scenes, 1077 ; Boston Society of Natural History, 1077

History, 678; Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, 752; The Indiana Acad-

emy of Sciences, 755 ; American Associa gation for the Advancement of Science, 836; Philadelphia —

ny Natural Sciences American Philosophical Societ 9; Philadelphia Academy

iis

he, a

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

Vor. xx.—/ANUARY, 1886.—No. I.

BOULDER MOSAICS IN DAKOTA.

BY PROFESSOR J. E. TODD.

os eee a name seems best to express the character of certain

strange works noticed by the writer upon some of the con-

spicuous hills of Southeastern Dakota. The term mosaic, though

describing better than any other word their structure, may sug-

gest greater delicacy than they possess, but the qualifying epithet

sufficiently corrects it.

A typical example, and the first to come to the writer’s knowl-

edge, was found on the summit of Keya Kakop, or Turtle point,

three miles north of Wessington springs in Jerauld county. The

point is a high promontory-like hill standing out on the western

edge of the James River valley, above which it rises nearly 500

feet. It is the northern end of a high ridge of drift constituting

a well washed interlobular portion of the principal moraine. A

view of Turtle point and a portion of the ridge from the north-

west is shown in Fig. 1. Upon the highest portion of the point `

~is a low broad mound built of earth, perhaps fifty feet in diame-

` ter andthree or four feet high. It does not differ materially from

many that are found on the summit of bluffs along the James and-

Missouri. Its chief attraction is the gigantic figure of a turtle

upon its southern slope, as is shown in Fig. 2. This figure is

formed of boulders, four to six inches in diameter, quite closely —

and regularly set, so as to describe its outline. The head, legs

< andtailare extended. Its general appearance, position and struc-

ture are shown in Fig. 3. Visitors to the locality will also- notice

a rude human figure, sketched with similar material, on the

south-west side of the mound as shown in Fig. 2, but it is cón-

fessedly the vork of an earl owner of the | .

VOL, XX —No, I,

To ome ae

2 Boulder Mosaics in Dakota. [ January,

not informed of the fact its recency would be apparent from the

pebbles comprising it lying on the surface of the ground, while

those forming the turtle are half imbedded. That it is not of

the same origin as the turtle is further indicated by the represen-

tation of the legs and arms by single rows of stones. The locality

was first visited by the writer in 1881, and the figures were

intact when seen again in 1883. The figure is about fifteen feet

in length from tip of tail to front of head. A little pile of stones

lies a short distance in front of the head.

This work, interesting as it is, sinks into insignificance when

compared with a similar work upon Paha Wakan, or Medicine

hill, near Blunt, in Hughes county. This hill is also a high inter-

lobular portion of the principal moraine, and presents the same _

general features as Turtle point, as will be seen in a sketch of

it, from the east, in Fig. 6. It rises above the surrounding plain

about 200 feet, and nearly 400 feet above the adjoining valley of

Medicine creek. Its summit is flat and includes many acres.

Granite and limestone boulders abound in profusion. Tipi-rings,

2. e., circles of boulders which were used in holding down the

covering of the conical tents used by the Dakotas, are very abun-

dant upon the summit. A few mounds of ordinary size are scat-

tered in no apparent order. Near the north-western angle of the

summit platform is the gigantic figure represented in Fig. 4. Its

length measured roughly along its central line, following the

crooks, is 120 paces. The general form, with length, breadth

and number and shape of crooks, are as faithfully represented as __

a hasty sketch could give. The boulders composing it are from

` six to twelve inches in length, and are laid much less closely

than in the turtle. The direction of its northern half is N. 18°

. The presence of the mound at its side seems to be acci-

dental. The head is more carefully represented in Fig. 5, where

an attempt is made to express the shape, size and position of the

boulders composing it. The eyes are much more expressive than

it would at first seems possible to make them with such material.

They have literally a “sony stare.” They are formed of two oblong

- boulders nearly a foot in length. The angular head and heavy

body suggest the rattlesnake as the designer’s model, but there is

no clear representation of the rattles. Perhaps that was beyond

the artist’s inventive power. Atc, in Fig. 4, the boulders have

evidently been displaced, probably by water or frost action, as

1886. ] Boulder Mosaics in Dakota. 3

that portion is on an inclined surface. This gigantic serpent was

in good condition when seen in 1883.

An examination of similar localities over all Southeastern

Dakota has failed to discover any other similar representations of

animals. Numerous rude sketches of animals on a smaller scale

are found near Pipestone, Minn., chipped or pecked on the

smooth surface of the red quartzite. Some of the best of these

are exhibited in the Minnesota Geological Report, Vol. 1. In

these the turtle is a favorite figure, but none are as symmetrically

represented as in the one on Turtle point. No serpent is repre-

sented among them.

Similarly made figures, but quite imperfect, were noticed by

the writer on Wolf creek, south-west of Bridgewater, Dak.

But although no more animal figures have been found, a few

other similarly constructed works have been noted. Upon Indian

hill, north-west of Valley City, is a rectangular figure between

two mounds which may be natural. The sides are remarkably

straight and parallel, and the stones, which are four to twelve

inches in diameter, are quite regularly laid. The ends are

rounded a little. Its form is shown in Fig. 7. It is eighteen

paces long and three paces wide. The direction of its sides is

N. 78° E. A number of the stones composing it had been lately

displaced in 1882 when the writer visited it. The holes in which

they had lain were fresh and showed their form clearly.

Upon a high broad terrace of Crow creek, a few rods back and

east from a remarkably fine spring which is at the foot of the ter-

race, and about a mile north-west of the town of Waterbury, is

found a somewhat similar figure on a much larger scale; more-

over it is incomplete and somewhat irregular. Its outline is

shown in Fig. 8. It eastern side is ninety-two paces in length

and is directed N. 2° E. The north end is curved slightly, but

lies nearly at right angles with the left side, which is directed

N. 15° E. Ata@isan opening which may represent a gateway, - eo

as an oblique line of stones, sufficient in length to close it, is at

one end. Near it and at various other places are small circular

pits, two to four feet across. No pains was taken to locate them

accurately, as it was thought that they had no oy connection

with the lines of boulders. i

The gap at d was probably caused by some recent removal ot

the boulders for use in forming some tipi-rings not faraway. At

4 Boulder Mosaics in Dakota. (January,

6 is a circular pit with boulders on its sides and a pile of pebbles

in its bottom. Atc is a triangular pile of stones about three feet

on each side. The southern ends of the sides are not far from

the side of a ravine. A more careful examination would prob-

ably discover other interesting and perhaps more significant

relations.

According to Mr.T. H. Null, of Waterbury, who has seen it, there

is, on the S. W. 1%, S. 28, 109.66, a cross formed of two lines of

boulders. One four rods long is crossed at right angles by an-

other one and a half rods long. At the end of the first, which

would correspond to the foot of the cross, is a pile of ones

Though this completes the list of “boulder mosaics,” it may

not be out of place to speak of a somewhat related work noted

by the writer, in 1881, in Brown county a few miles north-west of

Westport. On the right bank of Elm river were two quite con-

spicuous mounds, 270 paces apart, upon two symmetrical knolls.

Beginning at the top of the north-western one, a line of bones

extended over the center of the other, and 146 paces beyond, -

where it ended in a small pile of boulders. The bones were

mostly the leg bones of buffalo set up in the ground like stakes.

That was before the land was in market. Ere this the plow of

the white man has probably removed all trace of them. A few

years more and the more enduring “ boulder mosaics ” will prob-

ably help to form the stone wall of some enterprising settler, as

careless of the sacred associations: attending them as the Turk

who builds the fragments of ancient temples into his hovel.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE I.

Fic. 1.—A sketch of Turtle point from the north-west.

«“ 2 —P]an of mound with figures upon the summit of Turtle point, near Wessing-

ton Springs, Dak.

3—Enlarged view of the turtle in Fig. 2

4.—Ground plan of the great dapin 3 on the suminit of Medicine “hill, near

Blunt, Dak. _ o

“ ¢Enlarged view of the head of the same.

“ 6,—View of Medicine hill from the east.

7.—Plan of a figure on the summit of Indian hill, near Valley City, Dak,

“ § Plan of a figure near Waterbury, Dak.

Norx.—The figures are all drawn in their correct position with reference to the

points of the compass,

£ 8

PLATE I

Boulder Mosaics in Dakota.

1886. | A Study of the Dandelion. 5

A STUDY OF THE DANDELION.

BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, M.D.

HE dandelion is a plant of northern climates, especially

found growing amidst the herbage of meadows, and as a

weed in gardens. Its common name is a corruption of dent de

leon, a word which is met with in the Welsh Dant y Llew of the

13th century. Its vernacular names in various languages have

usually reference to the peculiar indentation of the leaves, or to

some other resemblance or character of the plant. By commen-

tators it has been identified with the aphake of Theophrastus, æ

in composition signifying absence of, and pake lentils, or the

name perhaps signifying that the plant can be used as a green

before lentils appear in the spring (?); the amdudeia of Pliny may

suggest the scattering of the seed, améu/o meaning the going

backward and forward, but some commentators assign this name

to the wild endive or chicory; the edypnois of Pliny is but

doubtfully identified with our dandelion, and appears to be de-

rived from two Greek words signifying sweet breath, and may

refer to the sweet smell of the flowers. Pinzeus, 1561, calls it Dens

Leonis, Dens Caninus, caput Monachi, Rostru porcinum or Ambubeia,

the aphake of Theophrastus; by the French, Pissenlit or Dent de

Lyon ; by the Germans, Pfaffen roerlin. Pena and Lobel, 1570,

give additional names of Urinaria, German Korlkraut and Phaffen-

blat, Belgian Pappen cruyt, English Dent de Lyon. The modern

vernacular names are: English dandelion, swine's snout (Prior);

France pisseniit, dent-de-lion (Vilm.); German /owenzahn (Lenz) ;

Flanders molsalaad (Vilm.); Danish moelkebtte (Vilm.) ; Italian

tarassaco (Lenz), dente de leone, virasole dei prati (Vilm.); Span-

ish diente de leon, Amargon (Vilm.); Greek agriomaroulia (Sibth.), —

pikraphake (Fraas); Japanese fosei or usually fudsina or tsugumi

| gusee or tampopo (Pick.). -

Bauhin, in his Pinax, edition of 1623, enumerates two varieties

of dandelion, one the Dens Leonis latiore filio carried back in

his synonomy to Brunselsius, 1539 ; the other, Dens Leonis an- —

gustiore folio, carried back in like manner to Cesalpinus, ale

The first kind, he says, has a large and a medium variety, the

leaves sometimes pointed, sometimes obtuse. In the Flore Natu- —

relle et Economique, Paris, 1803, the same varieties, apparently, —

are mentioned, one with narrow leaves and the other with large —

6 A Study of the Dandelion. [January,

and rounded leaves. In Martyn’s Millers Dictionary, 1807, the

leaves of the dandelion are said to vary from pinnatifid or deeply

runcinate in a very dry situation to nearly entire in a very moist

one, generally smooth, but sometimes a little rough, and Leonto-

don palustre is described as scarcely more than a variety, as vary-

ing very much in its leaves which have few notches or are almost

entire, the plant smoother, neater, more levigated and more glau-

cous than the common dandelion. In Geneva, N. Y. on the

grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, a

large number of varieties are to be commonly noted, both in the

habit and appearance of the plant and irrespective of difference

of soil or exposure, as varieties may readily be separated whose

roots are intertwined. Some plants grow with quite erect leaves,

others with their leaves closely adpressed to the soil; some have

broad, others narrow leaves; some have runcinate leaves, others

leaves much cut and almost fringed, and yet others the leaves

nearly entire ; some have almost sessile leaves, some have smooth

leaves, others roughened leaves; some have thin, others thick

leaves; some as varieties grow to a larger size, others are always

dwarfer ; some have an open manner of growth, others a close, etc.

The use of the wild plant as a vegetable seems to have been

common from remote times, but its culture is modern. In 1836

a Mr. Corey, of Brookline, Mass., grew dandelions for the Boston

market, the seed obtained from the largest of the wild plants

(Mass. Hort. Soc. Trans., 1884, 128); in 1863 dandelions are de-

scribed among garden esculents by Burr (Field and Gard. Veg.

of America, 345), but the context not indicating any especial _

varieties ; in 1828 Fessenden (New Am. Gardener) says the wild

plant is used but never cultivated. In 1874 the seed appears for

sale in seed catalogues (Briggs Bros. Cat., 1874), perhaps earlier, _

and the various seed catalogues of 1885 offer six names, one of

which is the “ common.” In England, dandelion culture is not

mentioned in Mawe’s Gardiner, 1778, nor in Martyn’s Millers

Dictionary, 1807; the first notice I find is in the Gardeners’

Chronicle, 1846 (p. 340), where an instance of cultivation is noted,

the herbage forming “a beautiful and delicate blanched salad.”

In 1880 its culture had not become common, as this year its cul-

tivation in France, and not in England, is noted (Jenkins Jour.

R. A. S., xvi, 94). In France, Noisette, 1829 (Man. du Jard.,

1829, 356) gives cultural directions, and says the wild plant fur-

Mi etc c roy Ab. Ae RY Ay ga Sie ie euch an

1886. | A Study of the Dandelion. 7

nishes a spring pot-herb; the plant is, however, not mentioned in

L Horticulteur Francais, 1824-5, nor in Nouveau Dictionnaire du

Jardinage, 1826. Vilmorin (Bon Jardinier, 1882) states its cul-

ture in France as dating from 1868, and the firm of Vilmorin,

Andrew et Cie in 1885 offer four sorts of seed, one, the “improved

moss” as new. In Vilmorin’s Les Plantes Potageres, 1883, two

forms are figured, Pissenlit ameliore a cceur plein and Pissenlit

ameliore tres hatif. The first of these is named in Album de

Cliches, Pissenlit ameliore frise, and a fourth name or third form

is figured, the Pissenlit mousse.

1. The type of the Pissenlit mousse can be readily found

among the wild plants of the station grounds, very closely resem-

bling Vilmorin’s figure in every respect when growing on rich

soil except that the leaf divisions are scarcely as much crowded.

2. The type of the Pissenlit ameliore a cceur plein is perhaps

to be recognized in Anton Pinzus’ figure, 1561, and is certainly

to be found growing wild at the station.

3. The Pissenlit ameliore tres hatif is figured in 1616, the

resemblanoé between the two figures, the one by Dodonzus and

the other by Vilmorin, is very close. It is also to be found

growing wild on the station grounds,

The influence of rich soil and protected growth upon the dan-

delion is to give increased size and succulency to the plant, and

to thicken the branching of the leaves, in the direction of answer-

ing the description of a cwur plein ; but this influence appears to

be limited by the heredity of the plant, as the types do not react

to an equal extent. This fullness or hearting in No. 2 seems

to come from the strong tendency in plants of this type to divide

the root into a group of crowns; the leaves, also, in rich soil,

grow rather upright with the upper portion curving outwards,

giving a curled appearance to the plant, and thus justifying Vil-

morin’s alternate name “frise.” The No. 3 form is more succu-

ent in rich soil than the others, attains size distinctly earlier, is

less crowded and less upright in growth, and in some cases is

very closely adpressed to the ground. No. 1 type does not in

all cases seem to be a depauperate form, as it is found on fertile

soil along with the rest, it is usually small, but in some instances —

is of fair size and quite bunchy growth. A form with nearly

entire leaves has not yet reached culture under a distinct name;

this type is distinctly smaller than the rest, and some plants have

8 A Study of the Dandelion. [January,.

sessile and thickened leaves, other plants long petioled and spat-

ufate-like thin leaves. In all the forms some plants may be looked

for with hairy and roughened leaves.

In view of the limited extent of the present culture of the dan-

delion, and the short time since its cultivation was first attempted,

as well as to the fact that its present culture about Geneva seems

unknown, it seems unreasonable to infer that our plants are

escapes from cultivation, and much more-so when it is consid-

ered that these same described types are common elsewhere in

Western New York. If not escapes from cultivation the infer-

ence seems strongly established that our cultivated varieties did.

not originate under cultivation, but are simply selections from

wild types. If this be granted it may be legitimately questioned

whether other of our cultivated form-species in other plants are

not likewise of natural origin.

_A careful investigation into the history of the origin of our

cultivated varieties fully justifies the statement that I have as yet

secured no data which justifies the belief that form-species in cul-

ture are other than of natural origin, and I have secured much

evidence ir favor of the view that form-species are introductions

from natural variations. Before, however, such a radical belief

can receive countenance, much must be done in the herbarium

study of varieties as collected from various sources, in order that

we may have wild forms to which our cultivated types can be re-

ferred. Our so-called modern vegetables, introduced as novelties,

often seem to be such only because we are unfamiliar with what

our predecessors possessed. Thus the figure that Pinaeus gives,

_in 1561, of a lettuce answers to our stone tennis-ball variety as

closely as do the figures in our seed catalogues to the varieties

whose name they carry; the deer-tongue lettuce introduced as a

novelty in 1883 seems nearly identical with the Lactuca folio

oblongo acuto of Bauhin’s Prodromus, 1671; a large number of

our capsicums or peppers seem to be identical with the varieties

figured in Hortus Eystettensis, 1623; new types of squash fol-

lowed the appearance of the Valparaiso from Chili in the early

part of the present century, etc., etc.

Under the hypothesis that the form-species of cultivation are

_ originally from nature, we can explain the permanency of these

form-species, and their resistance to change from cross fertiliza-

tion, the tendency seeming strongly towards trueness to type, and

the purging themselves from contaminations unless restrained

1886. ] A Study of the Dandelion. d.

perhaps by human selection. Thus two form-species of maize,

when crossed, have not produced intermediates in their crop, but

the parent types without intermediates, and the continuous plant-

ing of the progeny tended toward a complete separation into the

original types. Various crossings of a like kind, made at the

Experiment station, seem confirmatory of this view, and seem to

suggest in addition that seeming sports are often the result of

atavism.

Appended are a few of the variations which are to be found in

the leaves of the dandelion, selected rather as representative than

as exceptional. A series could ‘readily have been selected show-

ing a passage from one type to another, as frequently leaves of

quite different appearance appear on the same plant.

Varieties of Dandelion leaves. `"

10 The Relations of Mind and Matter. [January,

THE RELATIONS OF MIND AND MATTER.

BY CHARLES MORRIS.

(Continued from p. 1159, December number.)

UCH space might here be given to the numerous and impor-

tant observations on hypnotic phenomena published of late

years, but we must confine ourselves to the mesmeric experiments

of the Psychic Society. These experiments were very numerous,

and were conducted with such extreme care that their evidence

in favor of direct mental communication seems incontestable.

Their results were of a more declared character than those of the

thought transfer experiments. Not only thought transfer but

mind control appeared. The active seemed to take full posses-

sion of the passive mind, and this often with a considerable dis-

tance intervening between the parties. The thoughts of the one

mind appeared to infuse themselves into the other, driving back its

own consciousness and replacing it with a pseudo-consciousness,

and this so completely that the sensations of pain, taste, &c., felt

by the operator, were also felt by the sensitive, and referred by

him to their appropriate locality in his own body. In like man-

ner the direct control of the mind of the sensitive over his body

and of his body over his mind was exercised by the operator,

and consciousness of pain in any part could be abolished at will.

Some of these phenomena, indeed, were so curious and the mode

of producing them so significant, that it certainly appeared as if

the whole body was permeated by psychic substance, and that

the mind was related to the outer world by psychic nerves in an

equivalent sense to its material nerve connection.

In these mesmeric phenomena, however, it is evident that the

channel of communication between mind and mind is not usually

an open one, or the body psychically transparent. Most persons

are more or less obtuse to the psychic sense, and only in special

cases is it freely active. And in these cases the relations of oper-

ator and sensitive are personal. No second operator can exert an

equal control over the sensitive. It is as if the psychic nerve,

like the physical nerve, became susceptible to familiar influences,

but resistant to unfamiliar ones.

Of the other phenomena adduced by this society it will suffice q

to refer to those of psychic communication at a distance, of which

they give many seemingly well authenticated instances. In one

SAAN $ 4

Pree

Pie eee eae

1886. | The Relations of Mind and Matter. II

of these the thought transfer passed as far as from Burmah to

England. In these latter instances there was, in nearly every

case, an active mental excitation in the one mind in reference to

the other. They are most usual at the moment of death, the

mind of the dying person appearing to be affected with a strong

emotional longing to communicate with the living. In many

such cases a spectral reproduction of the dying person has ap-

peared to the subject of his or her thoughts, apparently in real

form, but doubtless as an image impressed directly on the mind.

It may be that a sudden rousing of the recollection of any dis-

tant person, without its being led up to by a train of conscious

thought, might, if the effect be a strong one, seem like an actual

vision. An object seen is not led to by consciousness, and a

mental image not led to by consciousness might easily have the

force of an object seen, or of a temporary hallucination. In

many of the numerous instances given, the person whose image

was seen was in full life, yet in some perilous situation or other

condition that would be likely to arouse sudden and intense emo-

tion. And usually the recipient was the object of this emotion.

There is no evidence to show that this relation did not exist in

every instance, but simply that it was not always observed.

As to the distances to which these impressions were frequently

conveyed, or the rapidity with which they passed from mind to

mind, there is nothing surprising if the hypothesis we have given

be accepted. We know the rapidity with which light travels

through the ether, and the electric current through solid matter,

affecting objects very far removed in very minute intervals of

time. We know that the influence of gravitation is felt with no

apparent lapse of time through vast distances. The least varia-

tion in distance and weight of one body is instantly. felt by other

bodies, though they may be very distant. If there be a psychic

substance it is highly probable that the same relations may exist

between its separate masses. The ether may convey its vibra-

tions to vast distances, as it does those of matter, and produce

similar effects on distant psychic masses. If this substance is

transparent to the vibrations produced by matter, matter may be

similarly transparent to its vibrations and no check to their out-

flow be felt. We know that an electric charge, when sent “to

earth,” spreads with immense rapidity throughout the substance of

the earth. It weakens as it spreads, yet may be strong enough

I2 The Relations of Mind and Matter, [January,

at a considerable distance to act upon a sensitive electric instru-

ment. The matter of the earth may be still more transparent to

psychic radiations, and permit them to spread with the utmost

freedom and rapidity. Such impulses might touch without effect

a multitude of minds, and yet rouse one mind to consciousness

if it met there with conditions in harmony with the conditions of

the vibration. A thought is an active and peculiar motor energy. |

It carries with it, when emitted, the characteristics of its source.

If it meets anywhere a psychic condition to which these charac-

teristics are familiar, or with which they are harmonized, it might

rouse a conscious response, or call up, more or less completely,

the mental image of the emitting mind and person.

There are other phenomena which seem to indicate the exist-

ence of such a medium of psychic communication. And the in-

dications are that emotion is necessary as a preliminary to distant

and vigorous outflow of psychic energy, though not necessarily

- so in case of contiguity. In emotion the motor conditions of the

mind seem strongly exercised, as are those of matter in case of

high temperature, and in both cases there seems an energetic

outflow of vibrations. It is well known that a congregation ina

state of emotional excitement can be swayed by an emotional

speaker in a manner that utterly ignores all exercise of reason or

individual intellect. The power of all great orators over an audi-

ence has been largely of this emotional character, and audiences

are frequently fully controlled by addresses which, read in a cool

state, arouse surprise how they could have affected any person of

sense. An instance of the same character is that of the sudden

panic which has so often spread like wild fire through a whole

army, sweeping away regiments that have not felt a bullet of the

enemy. The-intense mental excitement seems to flow out in

vibratory waves, affecting all minds within its influence, and

arousing everywhere a similar excitement without regard to dif-

ference of circumstances,

History is full of instances of the same general character. And

we find in every instance that it is the ignorant, or the strongly

emotional, who are swayed by these influences, while the educated,

the cool and the reasoning minds resist them. Several instances

from the history of middle age Europe may be adduced. We

might describe the epidemics of migration, as in some of the

Crusades, of witch-craft, sorcery, lycanthrophy, ete., that have

1886. | The Relations of Mind and Matter. 13

from time to time broken out, and raged in spite of every effort at

suppression. But we have only space for some of the more par-

ticular instances. It is significant that the most remarkable of

these emotional epidemics have followed terrible pestilences,

famines, or other great national calamities. Thus the terrible

“ Black Death ” pestilence of the fourteenth century, which threw

all Europe into a condition of severe mental depression, and

roused a host of superstitious fears, was followed by extraordinary *

outbreaks of fanaticism. These were the Flagellation mania and

the Dancing epidemic. In the one, Europe was filled with throngs

of self-flogging maniacs. In the other hosts of dancing and sing-

ing convulsionists everywhere appeared, seemingly possessed by a

fury,and convulsively leaping until they sank down in utter ex-

haustion. The Tarantula epidemic of Italy was of the same gen-

eral character.

Two cases related by Zimmerman may be here senica

given. In one case a nun, in a very large French convent, began

to mew like a cat. Soon others of the nuns imitated her, and ere

long the whole of the sisterhood were diligently mewing. So

strongly did the mania possess them, that it was only broken up

by the stationing ofa company of soldiers near the convent, with

a threat to whip any one who should indulge in the peculiar vocal

exercise, Dread of the whip proveda stronger mental force than

the desire to mew, and the convent returned to its former peace

and quiet. In the other instance a nun in a German convent, of

the fifteenth century, began to bite her companions. Soon all the

nuns fell to biting one another. As the news of this spread to

other convents the biting mania broke out there also, until it

spread throughout Germany and Holland, and extended so far as

Rome. i

The emotional character of the mental operations oi a religious

sisterhood probably renders them specially susceptible to such

psychic influences. In all such cases a considerable degree of

mental excitement seems to have attended the mania. And it has

been usually confined to the lower classes, though in a case of

long continuance, like that of the Flagellants, nobles and ecclesi-

astics, with many other persons of honorable birth, became affect-

ed. In these days of science, education, and active thought gen-

erally, such extended manias have ceased to exist, though minor

examples may yet be found in ignorant communities. In

14 The Relations of Mind and Matter. [ January,

these instances there seems to be a general outflow of psychic

energy of a peculiar kind, which acts to produce accordant states

in all minds into which it flows, unless they are intellectually

active enough to resist its influence. We all know how difficult

it is, even in educated persons, to resist the psychic influence of a

strongly emotional speaker, even though the reason may resist

his arguments, and how resistance becomes lulled and conviction

produced, by the pure force of “personal magnetism.” And

knowing this we cannot wonder at the remarkable influence of

some very irrational revivalists.

The subject has here been very briefly and incompletely treat-

ed. Had we space to give in full the abundant evidence that

might be offered, and to detail the strict test conditions under

which it was often received, the fact of a direct intercourse of

mind with mind, and control of one mind by another, without

the intermedium of the senses, might be shown far more clearly.

And the indications strongly point to some such conclusion as

that here reached, that the mental powers are based in a special

psychic substance, and that masses of this substance act upon

each other through the ether in methods closely similar to those

in which masses of matter act on each other. ©

One further question of great importance here comes into

play. If psychic substance begins its existence as “ bound ether,”

ether condensed by the attractive force of atoms and molecules,

can it exist in this condensed form separate from the atoms and

‘molecules? If these continue to exist must their ethereal atmos-

pheres remain permanently bound to them? If they should in

any way be destroyed, would the ethereal atmospheres resume

their original condition of free ether? If we have dealt with

pure hypothesis so far, it may be well to follow our hypothesis to

its ultimate consequence.

That bound ether is an existing fact is becoming more and a

more generally admitted. Sir William Thomson, in a recent

paper,’ views it as a necessary condition to the phenomena of

refraction. And if it exists it seems equally necessary that the

ethereal atmosphere must be affected by the motions of its

nucleus and assume accordant motions. If so, the destruction of a

the material nucleus might leave the condensed ether as a per-

sistent atom or molecule, since it would possess the motor organ-

1 Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, January, 1885.

SAO a aS TS

C AAE re tats Oe MaRS oe tn a) re eS

a ceria Atl Le

1886. ] The Relations of Mind and Matter. 15

ization of a material atom or molecule. On the other hand, while

the atom or molecule of matter continues intact, it would seem

as if its bound ether must remain confined to it and accompany

it through all its integrations and disintegrations. Absolute

accordance in motions and the persistent vigor of attraction must

prevent any separation of the bound ether from its nucleus.

Under these conditions, therefore, there could be no separate

existence of a psychic substance.

But this is but one of the probable conditions of existence of

this substance. Bound ether may be strongly influenced by

other motor energies, which but feebly influence its material

nucleus, In this respect the phenomena of the mind lead to some

very interesting conclusions. If the physical basis of the mind

be the bound ether of the cerebral cells and molecules, it must

originally be intimately related in motion and condition to these

cells and molecules, and can have no power of separate exist-

ence, But the whole process of development of the mind is one

that tends to break up this intimate connection. The psychic

substance of the cerebrum is affected, not only by the normal

cerebral motions, but by innumerable motor conditions coming

from external substances, through the medium of the nervous `

system. These conditions but slightly and temporarily, so far as

we can judge, affect the sluggish matter of the cerebrum, but

strongly and permanently the mobile substance of the mind.

The mental substratum thus becomes affected by motor condi-

tions which have no fixed counterpart in the brain substance.

The original close motor accordance is broken; and with it the

effect of molecular attraction is weakened. Such a result would

be precisely parallel to that common in chemical action, in which

motor inharmony seems a steady opponent of the force of affin-

ity. Affinity is most vigorous when motor harmony exists. If

the motor inharmony becomes great, molecular separation takes

place. A similar rule may well hold good between the cere-

bral molecules and their bound ether. As the absorption of ex-

ternal energies by the bound ether produces motor inharmony,

the effect of the attraction is steadily weakened. The bound

ether is converted into specially organized psychic substance. In

such a case there might be a fresh condensation of ether around

the molecules, and this, in its turn, would become the recipient

of new inflowing energies. In this way a continually increasing

16 The Relations of Mind and Matter. [January,

volume of psychic substance might be formed by the addition of

new surface films, each becoming specially organized by sensory

influences, and losing its intimate relation to cerebral matter.

In such a method the bound ether of material molecules may

be converted into the psychic substance of mind. And with

every transfer of energy from matter to psychic substance, con-

sciousness may declare itself. The conditions of mental devel-

opment and mental reception of sensations, as considered in the

preceding section, are in close accordance with this idea. We

have not matter with two sides, or with duplicate physical and

mental motor relations, as considered by Mr. Bain in his Mind

and Body, but two distinct conditions of substance, originally in-

timately bound together, but becoming separate as their motor

conditions become inharmonious. In such a case the disintegra-

tion of the brain would not carry with it the disintegration

of the mental substratum. The latter has ceased to be the

bound ether of the former, and the cerebral molecules could only

carry with them their latest increment of bound ether without

affecting that which had escaped from this condition. Nor could

the energies which cause the disintegration of the brain produce

the same effect upon the psychic substance. A substance through

- which the most vigorous motor energies, such as those of light

and heat, pass without producing any permanent disturbance of

its conditions, might remain utterly unaffected by the most in-

tense disrupting energy of material agencies, and survive the

body as a concrete organism.

In fact the close connection between brain and mind seems to

depend in some measure upon the activity of the brain. This

activity appears to enhance the attractive hold of the cerebral

cells upon their psychic outgrowth. It is during the stage of

cerebral activity that external sensations are most abundantly and

intensely received. With the partial cessation of this activity

which takes place during sleep, some degree of weakening of the

bonds between mind and body seems to take place. During

deep sickness, or at the near approach of death, the bond seems

to become still weaker, and the mind, with no impairment of its

activity, seems often to be partially independent of the inactive

body. The complete cessation of cerebral activity, which comes

with death, may utterly break the bond of connection, the mole-

cules of the brain only retaining their latest increment of bound

DiE s

eee

aed by age Ng gee eg ATR eRe yes Deen ig E a E ia Wh gg NT asia Le al ee eh es teat es ce eye OE ine ee

ON Tac Sse eT ee ee Ee Ce ge Sea oe ep re eae

ae ee Aa Pier fe

a PP i

1886.] Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. 17

ether, while the organized psychic cerebrum becomes a free

organism, Whether with it is freed a closely related psychic

organism, the outcome of the whole body development, and

reproducing every detail of the body, is a question of secondary

concern. It is sufficient for our present purpose to show the con-

ceivable separate existence of a psychic cerebrum, possessing the

definite organization of the material cerebrum, and in addition all

the thought conditions of the developed mind.

If the human body, as the highest outcome of its organization

of energy in matter, is capable of producing such a self-centered

and self-existent psychic organism, a like power, though in a

lower degree, must exist in lower organic beings, and possibly in

inorganic compounds. Every concrete mass which received

external energies, without being molded by them, might have its

bound ether molded by these energies and thus converted into

psychic substance, capable of self existence when definitely sep-

arated from its nucleus. All matter may thus act as a laboratory

for the elimination of psychic substance from bound ether. The

freed mental organism might find an accordant sphere of exist-

ence thus prepared for it, and as thoroughly adapted to its pow-

ers and needs as the material earth is to ours. Nor could we

become sensible of the existence of substance in this condition,

its complete transparency to radiations of light and heat render-

ing it imperceptible to our senses and our instruments. Such

may be offered as a speculative conception of the possibility of

the existence of the mind after the dissolution of the body, ina

sphere of substance suitable to its needs and powers. It is a con-

ception towards which many partial steps have been made, but

this may be offered as the first definite hypothesis of the devel-

opment and conditions of the mind, based upon the conclusions.

of modern science.

SOME NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF THE

COMMON NEWT.

BY COL. NICOLAS PIKE.

To little reptile, our common newt or spotted eft, Diemycty-

lus miniatus viridescens (Raf.) Cope, is numerous on Long

Island from Brooklyn to Greenport, and is equally well known

all over the Eastern States. It may be caught. from March to

December, as it bears a very low temperature, and I once saw it

v 2 :

18 Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. |January,

swimming under the ice in a pond near Fort Hamilton. It is

gregarious, bears confinement well, and I have often kept it for

over a year in my aquarium.

Its food is very varied; it will take aquatic and other insects,

small tadpoles, worms, especially earthworms, and it will eat

small pieces of raw beef and fish when hungry. Though a harm-

less little reptile, it will quarrel occasionally with its companions

about food. I have seen one seize a worm twice its own length and

try to gulp it down holding it with the hands; a second would

snatch up the other end and begin swallowing it till the two met.

Then such a pulling and wriggling ensued, till the strongest or

most persistent succeeded in making the other disgorge its meal.

Sometimes it would take nearly a day before the worm vanished, the

first part having to be digested before the last could be swallowed.

In confinement they.should have only the smallest worms, as the

large ones disagree with them, and I have often had them die

after one of these gorging meals. They are very fond of the

small fresh-water bivalves so abundant in most of the ponds they

frequent. Many are swallowed whole; one I dissected had four

—shells and all—in its stomach.

When caught the little harmless creatures do not try to escape

but hang limp in the fingers. They are, however, as cunning as

all the rest of their race. I placed one on my table to examine

it, when it crawled under a sheet of paper and crouched down as

if asleep. I was called away for a few minutes, and on my return 4

found my little friend had absconded. Now it had not attempted _

to move for over an hour in my presence, but was evidently at

-once conscious of my absence. It was sometime before I found it —

on the opposite side of the room, it was so nearly the color of the —

carpet. It never does to trust to the apparent helplessness of any

animal, for what it lacks in outward means of defense it is sure to

make up in cunning.

I accidentally found out one of this animal’s most deadly ene- a

mies. I once brought home a lot of the viridescens in a box of

leaves in which I had thrown some wire-worms, thinking they

might serve as food, they were so abundant around the pond.

The next morning I found my poor little prisoners had all been —

1Sometimes they emit a faint cry, but this is generally in the breeding season. It 4

is a faint squealing sound not unlike that made by the Spelerpes ruder, but not SO —

loud, and is I believe only heard from the males,

EREE E a

ad AD I a ns hn ha he te ae Sn >.

BA en ate eet. a eee a Te ee

1836.] Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. 19

attacked by the wire-worms, pieces of flesh being eaten out of

their living bodies. One had coiled so tightly round its victim

it was paralyzed and died directly I removed it. Though so

abundant, yet large numbers when young are devoured by the

strong larvæ of the Amdlystoma punctatum ; the robust frog tad-

poles also mercilessly nip off their gills and tails, and they soon

die. These facts I have often witnessed in my aquarium.

Everyone knows these pretty olive-backed newts, yellow

underneath, the whole body and tail spotted black, and on the

sides a row of flame-colored spots encircled black, but every-

one does not know, and perhaps never saw the change that takes

place on the approach of spring, when the males assume their

brightest dress preparatory to courtship. Over the back and

tail waves a graceful spotted crest, the color underneath changes

to orange, and the inner side of the legs is deeply barred jet

black—all of which last during the breeding season and then the

crest is absorbed, the black bars and bright color fade out till the

next love time of the year calls them forth.

I believe this animal is incapable of reproduction under four

years of age, for its growth is very slow even in its natural state.

When the love-making commences there is a busy time amongst

the denizens of the ponds. The males dart about, gyrating round

their chosen mates, heading them off in their endeavors to escape,

and when they have at last won the victory they seize the females

round the lumbar region and remain thus often for hours. The

milt and ova pass simultaneously, and the operation takes some

time, but it is generally accomplished under cover of darkness.

The older females often deposit 150 to 300 eggs at a time, which

they attach to twigs in the water or long grass. The eggs are

very small at first but rapidly swell. Younger females only

from twenty to fifty eggs in a small group.

I am not aware of any one having published any account of

the hatching of the eggs of D. viridescens except Professor A. E.

Verrill, who, in the Amer. NaTuRALIST for 1870, wrote as follows :

“ The eggs of the common water newt were observed by Mr. S. J.

Smith and myself at Norway, Maine, in ’63 and ’64, attached in

round masses, two or three inches in diameter, resembling frogs’

eggs, on stems of water plants in ditches in a meadow. The eggs

were found May 5th, and reared by Mr. Smith, hatched May

17th, and by October 1st were one and a half inches long. They

20 Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. [January,

had stout bodies and broad heads, and still retained their exter-

nal gills, though they had partially acquired the colors of the

adult. The experiment was then discontinued but the specimens

all preserved.”

This only came under my notice in October, ’84, when I was

delighted to find Professor Verrill’s statement verified my own

experience, which I will now relate:

On the 6th April, ’84, a quiet cool morning, whilst sweeping

my net in a pond at Jamaica ridge, I detached some bunches of

ova from several dead branches that lay in the water. They

varied in size from two and a half to six inches in diameter, con-

taining from 25 to 150 eggs each, all enclosed in a glairy mass.

The eggs were brown above, pale beneath, each in a greenish

double envelope, but so transparent that the development was

distinctly visible.

GAGES nS

This is a most perfect arrangement for the protection of the _

ova; a space lies between the envelopes and each can be sepa-

rated in its own globe of glaire from the rest. These coverings

are tough and not easily injured, and so firmly attached to the

branch I had difficulty in loosening the whole without breaking

it up. It would take a very strong wind or current to dislodge

these carefully protected embryos.

They were all deposited on the south side of the pond where

the sun shone in between the trees, about six or eight inches _

below the surface, in very clear water. I brought them home in

a pail of water and placed them in an aquarium. I prepared for

_ them with aquatic plants and débris from the pond. I thought I

had secured the spawn of the A. punctatum, not thinking of — |

Diemyctylus, which is mostly accredited with depositing one or

two eggs separately in a folded leaf. From the appearance of the | 2

ova some must have been laid the preceding night, while others

showed a curious mass of small granulations.

In a few days a sort of break up of some of the ova took

place, if I may so express it. The embryo assumed a fish-like

appearance with a blunt head, curled up tail and a thick solid —

body. During the next fourteen days the brown body enlarged,

head was very dark, outline of eyes visible, snout broad and j

thick and if shaken the little creature displayed considerable irri-

tation by a twitching of the tail. By the 2oth the body was

elongated and curved, the flattened tail showing a fin, the verte- —

1886.] Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. 21

bral striz and branchiz with the minute claspers all were visible

with a good glass. The glairy coverings enlarged with the crea-

ture’s needs, and by the 28th some had emerged and commenced

life on their own account. On the goth May the film disappeared

from the eyes, the gills were free, and what seemed to be thin

white threads were really the. first appearance of the anterior

legs, but only by the aid of a powerful glass could the two little

claw-like fingers be seen. A dark stripe showed from nostril to

eyes and another on the head, and the whole body was covered

with fine dottings.

It is very difficult to know what is the food of these mites, at

this stage only half an inch long, It can only be the minute

monads and confervacious spores in the water. The glairy en-

velopes remained long without decomposition, intact but for the

cleft by which its occupant emerged. I am half inclined to think

the young still feed on them, for they hang round them con-

stantly; I know frog and toad tadpoles will feed greedily on

these empty shells.

The little newts would remain motionless for a long time as

if dead, but if disturbed would rush madly round. The whole of

the ova did not hatch till the middle of May, so the first out

must have been laid in March. By the 15th there was little

doubt in my mind that I had at last solved the problem of the

spawning of the Diemyctylus. The reddish gills were well ©

fringed, the eyes prominent, the front legs transparent and white

fingers free, the abdomen shewing the viscera, and the body

dotted all over. A dark stripe from snout to eyes is, I find, never

absent in the larva of this species.

On the 25th I procured a quantity of Lemna or duckweed for

my aquarium, and it spread all over the surface of the water.

My little pets delighted in it,and when the sun shone they would

_ crowd under it in every position, seeming to hang on to the slen-

der roots! They certainly throve in their leafy home, and flour.

ished So well that in a month, on the 25th of June, they were an

inch long, very active, brownish-gray in color, with a series of

whitish markings where the spots were to appear later. The

- abdomen alone was spotless. Two fingers and two knobs showed

in front, and the hind legs were out but the feet only slightly

‘Possibly the Lemna contained minute spores, or ova of insects, which Served

them as fresh food. é

22 Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt, |January,

developed. The young begin to molt in confinement about the

second month; later on, with every change, the spots which are

only blurred white markings at first, assume a more definite

shape. The adults change their skin frequently when they have

abundant food, which has the same effect on the Urodela as on

the ophidians.

Thus far all went well, but then began the great trouble always

experienced at this stage in rearing the Urodela, much greater

than that of the Anura. The latter will feed greedily on decom-

posed animal matter that the former seem to care little for, in

confinement at least. I tried every kind of aquatic plant and

small insect I could get from the ponds, but uselessly, many died

and the rest were thin as shadows but active as ever. A few sur-

vived till August and well proved their identity, when I put the

last but one in spirits to save its life! The last I kept alive till

nearly the end of the month by feeding it on little red mites that

swarm in the ponds at that season, but even it succumbed, and it

was still only one inch long when it followed its mates, never

having grown since June. I preserved a series of specimens from

the spawn upwards, and I hunted the ponds so persistently that I |

was able to supplement my own deficiencies by larve from them

in every stage, so that now it is complete in my cabinet from

spawn to a fine adult five inches long.

To show the difference in rearing these animals in confinement

and in their natural state, I will mention that on June 14th I took

some larvz from the same pond over two inches in length and

quite fat. Doubtless the great increase of size over mine was

due to abundance of suitable food, fresh air and abundant room

to swim about in. I have had ample proof that the breeding

season extends even to May, from the very small larve I have

taken even in July.

Some young taken in September were a dark olive, the tail :

nearly black and feet dark ; those of October showed a little dot-

ting on the chin; those of November had the gills absorbed,

were about two and a half inches long, and were sparsely dotted —

underneath, but fhe side spots still white. I do not think the

flame color always comes in till the second year, and the buff —

color of the abdomen shews about the same time. As the ani- —

mal nears the period when the gills completely disappear, its —

body diminishes in size, and I have taken some in the second :

2 ee

1886.] Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. 23

year on land barely two inches, tail included. The atrophy of-

the branchiz begins at the extremities and goes on very gradually

till the fimbriz are absorbed, when the rest roll up and leave two

rounded tubercles that I have still found in specimens taken in

December just before hibernation.’ As the gills are absorbed the

form of the head changes. During their growth it widens con-

siderably in front of them, but on absorption the neck becomes

narrow, and between the eyes it is broader. The fin, round back

and tail vanishes at the same time. ,

Both sexes leave the water after the mating is over for a time,

and hide, without feeding, under stones and tussocks. The young

of the second year sometimes leave the water for months to-

gether and secrete themselves in damp places. When droughts

occur and the ponds dry up I have often dug them out, all hud-

dled together, more than a foot below the surface, and where the

clayey-ground has become so parched that they are unable to

burrow they are often seen several together, dead and dried up.

This season, 1884, an exceptionally mild one, I took, ona bright

warm day early in December, quite a number of large viridescens,

both male and female, very active although there was a thin coat-

ing of ice on the pond. The former had the legs already barred

and the tails finned, while the latter were large and fat. I dis-

sected a female and found her full of good-sized ova.

Diemyctylus mineatus (Raf.) Cope (Eastern water newt).—This

little animal, formerly supposed to be distinct from the last de-

scribed, and mentioned in the latest bulletin of the Smithsonian

Institution, is now generally acknowledged to be only a color

variety of the D. viridescens. Dr. Hallowell was the first to

express his belief that the so-called distinct species were the

same. Professor Cope’ says, “the nominal D. miniatus is a state

of D. viridescens,” and that he has had it change to the latter in

confinement.

Mr. Howard A. Kelly, in an article in the Am. NATURALIST,

states, “he brought home a number of D. miniatus (Raf.) or little

red lizard or red eft, and after keeping them in a dark box filled

l These animals do not, I believe, really hibernate in the usual acceptation of “a8 :

term, thats, they do not often become dormant. In January and February, w

the ponds are frozen over, they resort to the deep holes, where they remain Lada

together, if not disturbed, till the genial sunshine again calls them forth to activity.

; ? Professor Cope has studied the Urodela perhaps as much and as carefully as any

one in this cquntry, and is therefore an undoubted authority on the subject,” —-

24 Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. (January,

with saturated moss, they changed their color from a bright ver-

milion to the olive state characteristic of the D. viridescens,” and

he kept them all winter.

I have gradually come to the conclusion that the two are iden-

tical. Some years ago I captured quite a number of red ones in

the Catskill mountains, brought them home and kept them ina

box with other salamanders, where they could resort to water if

they chose. For some days they remained hiding under the

wet moss and stones, but finally crept out at night and went into

the water. I gave them insects and worms, which they readily

devoured. In about three months they lost their bright red, and

in less than a year they were of the usual olive of the viri-

descens. —

Another fact still more decidedly bearing on the case, is, that

some two year old olive-colored viridescens taken from the ponds

and put in earth and dead, wet leaves in a tub in my garden with-

out water, in a month or so began to lose their green tint and

assume a dingy brownish hue.

It is well known that the Diemyctylus often stays away from

water for months at a time, but roams round at night in the damp

earth and grass in wet weather.

The food these animals take plays also a very important part

in their coloration and growth, just as we see in the whole animal

kingdom. In the ponds the viridescens is generally a dull olive,

almost the color of the green slime and plants covering them, in

which they hide almost unseen. On land, where they are always

in the day time, either under stones or dead wood or in the earth

they have burrowed in, they assume more the color of these ob-

jects to hide from whatever enemies they may have in their new

habitat.

Then as to food; in the water they have abundance of succu-

lent nutriment — mollusks, tadpoles, ova of reptiles and fish, _

aquatic insects and plenty of confervaceous plants on which they —

and their prey alike feed, and which doubtless assists in their col-

oration. Now as soon as they leave the water their food changes _

at once to spiders, insects, earthworms, &c., so totally different —

from the prey of the ponds, and it is most probable this is the

first cause in the change of color in the little Diemyctylus.

Locality has also considerable to do with the tints of the skin —

in these animals, as we see so prominently in snakes, especially —

eee tear

1886.] Relation of Pectoral Muscles of Birds to Power of Flight. 25

in the genus Eutznia, where difference of locality has had such

an effect on the coloration as to give rise to several species

being made out of the common garter snake.

I have procured these newts from many places in New York

and New Jersey States and different parts of Long Island, of

every shade of red up to very bright scarlet, yet within a radius

of many miles from Brooklyn, where the wridescens and its vari-

ety are both plentiful, I never find the latter other than a reddish-

brown, varying from light to very dark. Sometimes late in

December I find little brown ones with flame-colored spots, in

the ponds. These are so greatly attenuated it is possible they

have returned to the water in search of food, lacking on land, at

so late a period when all animal life which would be available for

them disappears from the surface.

A+

THE RELATION OF THE PECTORAL MUSCLES OF

BIRDS TO THE POWER OF FLIGHT.

BY CHARLES L. EDWARDS.

o all the modes of animal locomotion flight is the most rapid,

the most graceful, the most fascinating. With one important

exception this power separates the bird from the other verte-

brates and gives it preëminence in motion. Its whole structure—

the conical form of the body offering so little resistance to the

air, the hollow bones, the air-sacs and the weaving together of

the smallest barbules to form the close web of the wing—all

denote that in the air, in flight, is the bird’s life. -

While in a very general way much has been observed with

regard to the variation in the power of flight of species differing

quite widely from each other, yet there are still some unsolved

problems connected with the highest form of motion.

Before attempting the solution of any special problem there

are certain mechanical elements of flight with which we must

become familiar.

A body much heavier than air is to be propelled with great

speed through the air. The resistances are the force of gravity

and the air itself.

The perpendicular action of the. broadly expanded wings op-

poses as much as possible the force of gravity, while the narrow

26 The Relation of the Pectoral Muscles of January,

wing-line and the cleaving form of the conical body reduce as

much as possible the resistance of the air in front.

The cause of motion is the action of the wings upon the

highly elastic air producing by reaction forward movement of the

body. The source of this action is in the pectoral muscles, Its

instruments are the wings. Wonderfully indeed are the wings

adapted to their purpose. Of extreme lightness and of great

rigidity and strength, their weight is but a slight hindrance and

their leverage a vast advantage in producing motion.

Concave beneath and convex above, with underlapping feathers,

to the one side is presented a grasping surface almost impervious

to air, and to the other a lattice-work structure through which

air easily rushes, So in the depression of the wing all possible

advantage is gained from the elastic resistance of the air, and in

its elevation the least amount of force is lost.

The muscles which furnish the propelling force to the wings

are those of the breast, the pectoralis major and the pectoralis

minor. The pectoralis major is a large, triangular muscle form-

ing the principal part of the bulk of the breast. It arises from

the ribs, from the outer portion of the ventral surface of the

sternum, from the side of the keel of the sternum, from the fur-

culum and the membrane connecting the furculum with the

sternum and the coracoid. The fibers converge, the outer turn-

ing under the inner and inserted by a tendon on the greater

tuberosity of the humerus. In action this muscle depresses the

wing and thus furnishes the great motive power of flight.

The pectoralis minor is much smaller than the preceding, and

beneath it; arising from the middle portion of the sternum and _

the membrane attaching the furculum to the sternum and the

coracoid. Its fibers converging terminate in a tendon which, after

passing through the end of the coracoid, is inserted on the inner

side of the greater tuberosity of the humerus. This muscle, to-

gether with the resisting force of the air, elevates the wing after

it has been depressed.

From the structure of the wing it is apparent that the work of

this muscle is relatively small except, perhaps, in “ sailing,” as

seen in the flight of swallows, where the wings must be held —

tense and at a constant angle by this muscle. It would clearly

appear, when we consider the law of muscular development, that __

in those species which fly most of these muscles would be rela-

RoE ey

1886. } Birds to the Power of Flight. 27

tively larger than in those of less power of flight. Conversely, other

things being constant, those birds in which the pectoral muscles

form a larger percentage of the weight of the body, would have

a greater power of flight.

This being true the question naturally rises: What is the varia-

tion in the development of the pectoral muscles for the different

species of birds, and is this variation by natural families or by

individual species ?

In the solution of our problem the shape of the wing plays an

important part. The long, narrow, sharp-pointed wing is most

advantageous to continued flight, and the shorter, rounded, less-

compact form is least so. Between these two extremes there is

an indefinite shading of the one form into the other, with more

or less resulting advantage as the case may be.

The pectoral muscles may be relatively large, yet if the wing

be of impeding form, so that considerable force is lost in over-

coming the consequent disadvantage, the resulting power of

flight is much lessened.

In this paper I have taken the weight of the whole body as a

constant basis and found the percentage by weight of the pec-

toral muscles in the body. The data are derived from the dissec-

tion of 119 birds, having in all cases possible taken an average

for each species from three individuals.

There are represented seven orders, twenty-five families and

fifty-three species. It will be seen that variation is not by natural

families but by individual species. This is explained by the fact

that though certain species may have structures so allied as to

join them together in a family, yet because of their distinct habits

of life they may differ considerably in their power of flight.

List of species examined, arranged in order of — of

pectoral muscles to total weight of body :

Broad-winged hawk....... 5-98 per cent. Maryland yellow-throat....7.50 pr cent,

Buteo pennsylvanicus. Geothlypis trichas.

Seh OW iy sss. sce 6.14 |o Blaejay. 5.4 FOE Me

Scops asio. Cyanocitta cristata.

Mallard duck.,... HO 3% Sony POWs nesr a

Anas boschas.. Melospiza fasciata.

House wren 6.87 © — Mud hen or cdot; 6. scssi is 7.89 ”

Troglodytes edon. Fulica americana. ;

Catbird. 222 z 7.12 *& Brown thrush.. 8.00 ~~

Mimus carolinensis. — - 44 Harporhynchus rufus.

28. Relation of Pectoral Muscles of Birds, &c.

Loggerhead shrike

Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides.

8.04 per cent.

Gold’n-wing’d w’d

Colaptes auratus.

Red-headed woodpecker. ..8.21 per cent. Wild goose............ 10.22

elanerpes erythrocephalus.

White-throated sparrow....8.31

. Zonotrichia albicollis.

Chewinck 8.60

Pipilo erythrophthalmus.

Olive-backed.-thrush ....... 8

“cc

lylocichla ustulata swainsoni.

Cliff swallow Ji

Petrochelidon lunifrons.

Summer warbler 8.76

Dendræca estiva.

White-bellied nuthatch.. ...9.03

itta carolinensis.

Purple martin 9.19

Progne subis.

Poddy duck. kersie scans :0.34

Erismatura rubida.

Orchard oriol.. sirs... er 9.42 _

Lcterus spurius.

Baltimore oriole.......... +9.51

Icterus galbula

Blue-winged teal,..... 0029.58

; Querquedula discors.

Rose-breasted grosbeak., . . 9.66

Habia ludoviciana,

Titmouse 9.78

è Parus atricapillus.

Fox sparrow 9.87

Passerella iliaca.

Crow blackbird.......... 9.99

Quiscalus versicolor.

Belted kingfisher... e8 eee 10.03

Ceryle alcyon.

Sparrow, ...........10.03

Spizella monticola,

Blue-bird . eee Peewee sesee 10.05

Sales Hali:

From the following comparisons of the hen and the goose with

the nearest allied wild species which I have been enabled to ob-

itd

Branta canadensis.

Meadow lark

Sturnella magna.

10,24

Red-eyed vireo........

Vireosyluia olivacea.

Field sparrow . ......4+10.55

Spizella pusilla.

Scarlet tanager......... 10.65

Pyranga rubra,

Chimney swift,........10.75

ætura pelagica.

paean IEEE - 11.09

Lctopistes migratorius.

Chipping sparrow, sae II.14

Spizella socialis.

Black-throated bunting. . 11.23

uspiza americana.

Robin.

II.4I

Turdus migratorius,

American goldfinch.. ... 11.43

Astragalinus tristis.

Cow-bird , 11.50

Molothrus ater.

King-bird . 11,61

Tyrannus carolinensis.

Wood duck ... 1.91

Aix sponsa,

Wood pewee... 12.10

Contopus virens

Green-winged teal. ....12.14

ettion carolinense,

Shore lark......... sbpokgi3a

Otocoris alpestris,

Quail.............0...14.99

Ortyx virginianus.

Ruffed grouse . seccee. 15.51

Bonasa umbellus.

Mourning dove........ 16.33

carolinensis.

(January,

.09 per cent.

“ee

1886.] Geological Extinction and some of its Apparent Causes. 29

tain, the results of domestication as affecting pectoral develop-

ment is readily seen;

Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) 15.51 per cent,

Hen. A “

Wild goose (Branta canadensis) $ 10.22 w

OME a A E T a e 6.40 “

I do not claim that from this list the exact place of a bird can

be given as to its power of flight, because other elements than

the size of the pectoral muscles enter into this complex problem

so as to preclude an absolute classification on the basis of pec-

toral development, yet I think that there is a relative variation

expressed by the figures given in this list, and that when together

with this element the other elements of flight are considered we

can tell the place a bird should occupy in the scale of flight.

"2°.

GEOLOGICAL EXTINCTION AND SOME OF ITS

APPARENT CAUSES

BY A. S. PACKARD.

N his Origin of Species, Darwin says: “ The extinction of species

has been involved in the most gratuitous mystery. Some

authors have even supposed that, as the individual has a definite

length of life, so have species a definite duration. No one can

have marveled more than I have done at the extinction of spe- »

cies.” Finally, he remarks, “ Thus, as it seems to me, the man-

ner in which single species and whole groups of species become

extinct accords wells with the theory of natural selection. We

need not marvel at extinction; if we must marvel, let it be at our

Own presumption in imagining fora moment that we understand

the many complex contingencies, on which the existence of each

species depends. If we forget, for an instant, that each species

tends to increase inordinately, and that some check is always in

action, yet seldom perceived by us, the whole economy of nature

will be utterly obscured. Whenever we can precisely say why

this species is more abundant in individuals than that; why this

species and not another can be naturalized ina given country ;

then, and not till then, we may justly feel surprised why we

cannot account for the extinction of any particular species or any

group of species.”

The fact of extinction is indeed not less marvelous than that

30 Geological Extinction and | [ January,

of evolution, and one cannot in these days feel satisfied that the

solution of the problem lies in the theory of natural selection,

which accounts for the preservation of species rather than their

origin or extinction. Mr. Darwin having been the means of

bringing many naturalists to believe in the theory of descent, they

are not to lie supinely on their backs, resting securely on the

dogma of natural selection and cease from all attempts to inves-

tigate the cause of evolution, to cease building a foundation for

the working of natural selection. On the contrary the search for

the causes of the transformation of species will be carried on with

more energy, thoroughness and success. The clews which we

already have discovered will be followed up, and finally we shall,

by means of observation in the field and experiment in the labor-

atory, wrest from nature the secrets of life and its origin, and of

the phenomena of death and extinction, not only of species but of

orders.

Extinction may be both slow and rapid, the causes of each be-

ing primarily dependent on slow or rapid changes in the environ-

ment. The object of this article is to endeavor to show that the

extinction of species is intimately connected with geological

changes. It is a meagre sketch or outline of the more salient

facts and laws which appear to us to immediately bear upon this

intricate and difficult subject.

_ In Paleozoic times the climate of the globe was far more uni- —

form than now. The continents of the present day were then of —

much less extent, in fact archipelagoes rather than continents;

the land-surfaces were of moderate height, and mountain ranges _

smaller and lower. While the land masses or embryo continents —

of the eastern and western hemispheres were more or less inde- —

pendent centers of evolutionary creation, there was on the whole —

a great uniformity of plant and animal life. Species were per 2

more cosmopolitan than now.

When at the end of the Coal period the process of ~ontingel a

making and mountain-building became greatly accelerated, result-

ing in that stupendous crisis in American geological history, the _

upheaval of the Appalachian mountain system, there must have

been some degree of differentiation or setting aside of portions of : 1

the then continent into distinct areas or basins bounded by moun- 4

tains, inland seas and rivers, and some slight subdivision into

local faunas. We know that there was a distinct coal basin, or : :

a eS all =

ees eh

ess

1886. ] some of its Apparent Causes. 31

series of them, for example in Arctic America, another in North-

eastern United States, and in the Central States of the Upper Mis-

sissippi valley.

Other crises, extending over comparatively brief periods of

geological time, however long when measured by centuries, were

the elevation of the Rocky mountains, of the Wasatch, the Uin-

tah ranges, the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges; and, mean-

while, the union of the Atlantic moiety and the Pacific moiety of

our continent into a continuous land-mass. These periods of ac-

tivity, signalized by extensive volcanic outpourings and great

changes in the relative distribution of land and sea, must have

been, as palzontology shows, periods of rapid extinction as well

as of reparation or recreation. Progress in continent-making was

accompanied by progress and an onward sweep in the tide of life,

not only in animals with jointed bodies and limbs, but more espe-

cially in those with back bones and brains to correspond with their

vertebrate rank.

Until the end of the Tertiary period the earth’s climate was still

nearly uniform. There was through the Miocene a general, in-

deed most remarkable resemblance between the flora of Europe

and the United States, with that of Greenland and Spitzbergen, or

the regions now lying in the frigid zone ; this flora being in some

respects like that of Louisiana.

It was not until the Glacial epoch that the earth’s climate be-

came differentiated into tropical and frigid and temperate zones:

That great geological crisis, whether due to astronomical or geo-

logical causes, or both combined, by which over enormous tracts

of land in Northern and Central Europe, and Northeastern Amer-

ica a frigid climate, with continental glaciers, was spread—that

crisis produced results on the life of the glaciated region which we

can easily appreciate. The extinction of life over the stated areas

became widespread. The incoming of the Ice age also must

have induced extensive migrations to the southward. As the

glaciers melted, and the climate ameliorated, fresh migrations

from the south set in, and thus in the early Quaternary period,

when species were exterminated on a vast scale by causes readily

appreciable, we have set before us, in a language which every one

can translate, some of the geological causes of extinction, modi-

fication and consequent evolution of new forms.

We will begin, then, with a reference to the changes in the life

32 Geological Extinction and [January,

of the northern and southern hemispheres due to the glacial

period. They are so familiar to the general reader that they need

not detain us long.

By the end of the Tertiary period the northern regions, includ-

ing the land around the north pole, viz: Spitzbergen, Novaya-

Zemlya, Siberia, Greenland, together with Northern Europe and

Northeastern America, must have abounded in life. Forests of

trees, deciduous, evergreen and palmaceous, in their general ap-

pearance resembling those of Louisiana, spread like a mantle

over the land, bordering the vast Tertiary lakes and sheltering

herds of herbivorous mammals, such as deer, oxen, mammoths»

which were attended by packs of dogs, or by solitary secretive

cats prowling through the forest glades, waging war on the weak

and defenceless or scattered ruminants.

This rich assemblage of mammalian life, with countless species

of insects, and other invertebrate organisms, land, fresh-water

and marine, was swept away. A large proportion died outright,

perhaps a larger proportion migrated southward; a very small

per centage survived. The mammoth and mastodon lived on,

adapted themselves to the great change of climate, but just as

the ice had passed away and the climate had ameliorated, and

when the condition of life seemed more favorable, they suc-

cumbed, The Arcticgbear, fox, lemming and hare, with the white

ptarmigan and snowy owl, by adaptation to a snow-clad land sur-

vived, so to speak, the change, or rather, they are the descendants — )

of species so plastic that they became modified, and adapted to añn

Arctic life. Even man, who appeared in the old world before of

about the time of the incoming of the ice, not only followed the

retreat of the glaciers, but adopted a strange sort of existence ina

mean annual temperature of less than

32° F. Wherever the Eskimo lived he found the walrus and

seal, the modified relatives of the sea lions and sea elephants of _

other parts of the world. The profusion of Tertiary insect life

was succeeded by a scanty assemblage of Arctic butterflies, —

- Lets | 41

a -5'V"-. Waslit UIC

moths, bees and other stragglers from the temperate regions,

The forests died outright, and where Sequoia, the sweet gum;

the palm and other luxuriant semi-tropical trees flourished, now _

grow the dwarfed birch, willows and low herbs of Alpine and —

Arctic barrens. It is sufficiently manifest that the circumpolar

flora and fauna are the dwarfed, or otherwise modified descend-

1886. | some of its Apparent Causes. 33

ants of the Pliocene-Tertiary life of the same regions. Again,

peculiarities inthe distribution of plants and animals in North

America and Northern Eurasia indicate strongly that there was

an extensive migration southward down the Atlantic and Pacific

borders of the continents as the glacial cold crept over the once

populous circumpolar regions.

A second series of causes of extinction arose from the eleva-

tion or depression of extensive regions of the earth. The par-

oxysmal, elevatory process in the formation of the Cordillera of

North, and particularly South America, involved corresponding

more or less rapid changes in the flora and fauna of the Pacific

Coast regions of those continents. In South America, particu-

larly, during the Quaternary period, though there was no glacial

period north of Patagonia, the extinction of life was widespread

and marked.

As observed by Darwin and Alexander Agassiz, within historic

periods there have been paroxysmal upheavals over thousands of

square miles, if not over the whole extent of the Western Andean

plateau.

For example, in 1822, after an earthquake, the coast line of

Patagonia and Chili was suddenly elevated from two to seven feet

above the level of the ocean. In 1835 Darwin, while at Valdivia —

on the coast of Chili, experienced the earthquake which devasta-

ted Conception, and he says his “compassion for the inhabitants

was almost instantly banished, by the surprise in seeing a state of

things produced in a moment of time, which one was accustomed

to attribute to a succession of ages. In a single day, Feb. 2oth,

this earthquake shook the coast of South America over an area

600,000 square miles, and the whole coast line of Chili and Pat- —

agonia was elevated from two to ten feet above the sea level.”

Darwin in his Voyage of a Naturalist remarks: “ At the island

of S. Maria (about thirty miles distant), the elevation was greater ;

on one part, Captain Fitz Roy found beds of putrid mussel-shells `

still adhering to the rocks, ten feet above high-water mark; the

inhabitants had formerly dived at low-water spring-tides for these

shells. The*elevation of this province is particularly interesting

from its having been the theatre of several other violent earth-

quakes, and from the vast numbers of sea-shells scattered over the

land, up to a height of certainly 600 and, I believe, of 1000 feet.

At Valparaiso, as I have remarked, similar shells are found at the

VOL. XX.— NO. I, 3

34 Geological Extinction and [January,

height of 1300 feet; it is hardly possible to doubt that this great

elevation has been effected by successive small uprisings, such as

that which accompanied or caused the earthquake of this year,

and likewise by an insensibly slow rise, which is certainly in pro-

gress on some parts of this coast.” Darwin adds: “Two years

and three-quarters afterwards, Valdivia and Chiloe were again

shaken, more violently than on the 2oth [Feb. 20, 1835], and an

island in the Chonos archipelago was permanently elevated more

than eight feet.”

As observed by Mr. A. Agassiz, there are sea corals of species

still living in the Pacific ocean adjacent, attached to the surface

of interstices in the rocks at Tilibiche, Peru, at a point about

2900 feet above'the level of the sea. This locality is situated on

a ridge parallel to the coast, there being a pampa or basin be-

tween this ridge and. the coast range. This basin was probably

the bottom of an internal sea which afterwards became a salt

lake, and was eventually drained into the Pacific by the breaking

through of the mountain barriers. The extensive saline ba-

sins on the western slope of the Andes, at an elevation of over

7000 feet, may have been former ocean bottoms. In his Andes

and the Amazon, Orton says: “ President Loomis of Lewisburg

University, Pa., informs the writer that in 1853, after nearly a

day’s ride from Iquique, he came to a former sea-beach. It fur-

nished abundant specimens of Patellz and other shells, still per-

fect, and identical with others that I had that morning obtained at ,

Iquique with the living animal inhabiting them. This beach is _

elevated 2500 feet above the Pacific.” (p. 116.) Also, the pres- E

ence of a species of Amphipod Crustacean belonging to “a truly

marine family,” dredged by M. Agassiz in Lake Titicaca at a _

depth of sixty-six fathoms, indicates that this lake may be a rem ~

nant of the Pacific ocean ; though it now stands at an elevation

of 12,500 feet above the sea.

These facts tend to prove that the Andean plateau during the

Quaternary period was paroxysmally elevated into the air some _

12,000 feet. Let us now look at the possible results of such an

enormous upheaval on the plants and animals of this region. Be- 4

fore and at the time this movement began, when the land was ~

12,000 feet lower than now, the Atlantic trade winds which now

cross Brazil, impinge upon the Andes and drop their moisture on

the eastern slopes alone, then favored as well the western slopes —

s Fa n

Sap eae E EO E

Sees

1886. } some of its Apparent Causes. 35

and Pacific coast. The tropical flora and fauna now confined to

the neighborhood of Guyaquil on the coast of Peru then probably

spread over Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Chili to Patagonia. The

tropical belt in Peru ends with the chinchona forests of Loja, which

is 6768 feet above the Pacific ocean. The sugar cane grows in

Baños which is about 6500 feet high. At Riobamba, with an

elevation of 9200 feet, the climate and vegetation are temperate ;

here occur bones of the mastodon, horse, deer and Ilama—animals

which may have lived in a temperate climate. But was not their

extinction, and that of the colossal sloths, armadillos, and other

animals of the pampas largely due to a change of climate result-

ing from the elevation of the Andean plateau ?

As the land gradually rose, the atmosphere would become more

rarified and insupportable to tropical life ; the animals and plants

would either seek lower levels or undergo extinction, or in certain

cases become modified into species suited to a temperate climate.

As the plateau rose still higher, the air would become too cold

and rarified for even the mastodon and horse. Gradually an alpine

zone became established, and finally the higher peaks of the Andes,

at an elevation of 15,000 feet, became mantled with perennial snow,

and on the eastern flanks of Chimborazo, which intercepts the

moisture of the Atlantic trades, glaciers established themselves.

We thus see how, within Quaternary times, temperate and alpine

zones became established over the vast Andean plateau, originally,

perhaps at the end of the Pliocene, a plateau of the third order,

clothed with vast forests like those of Brazil and Venezuela.

In Patagonia, likewise, the elevation of the Cordillera, and the

change of level of the low lands of the eastern coast, now well-

known to have happened, are they not sufficient to account for

the extinction of the fauna of the pampas ?

The same phenomena obtained in Western North America.

Throughout the Tertiary period there was in the northern portion —

of the plateau region a secular rise of land, if not at times parox- ~

ysmal, resulting in the drainage of the plateau into the Pacific and

the formation of vast inland seas and estuaries which eventually

became fresh-water lakes.

During the Laramie epoch the Rocky mountain plateau be-

came dry land, and the elevation and drainage went on during the

Eocene. The Gulf of Mexico was much larger in the Eocene

epoch than now; afterwards the coast of Texas rose from 300

36 Geological Extinction and (January,

to 700 feet, while farther north, in Colorado and Wyoming, the

Rocky mountain plateau rose from 4000 to points 10,000 feet

above the ocean. .

The plains east of the Rocky mountains are underlaid by beds

deposited by vast inland, fresh-water lakes. In Texas these beds

dip under the Gulf of Mexico, but at the base of the Rocky moun-

tains in Colorado they are 7000 feet above the sea. They have

been tilted up. Gen. Warren and Mr. King have shown that after

the Pliocene epoch such a tilting took place. These lakes dried

up, and the marvelously abundant mammalian life which thronged

about their shores became extinct as the Quaternary period opened.

May not the extinction of life so widespread throughout the West,

particularly at the end of the Eocene, the Miocene and the Plio-

cene, have been mainly due to the great changes in the physical

geography of that vast region? We see also whya semi-tropical

climate and flora and fauna continued to exist around the Gulf of

Mexico, but ceased to live on the elevated Rocky Mountain pla-

teau, as well as the Sierra Nevada and Cascade plateaus. The

whole western portion of the continent was carried up bodily, the

lakes drained off by the Missouri, Columbia and Colorado rivers

and the air at such an elevation becoming rarified, dry and cooler,

the tropical life became either extinct or migrated southward to

warmer and lower regions. Towards the end of the Pliocene mul- _

titudes of llamas, droves of horses, mylodons, elephants and mas- —

todons, with lions, cats and dogs, flourished in Oregon, Montana,

Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico; changes of level 2

and consequently of climate were perhaps the main factors con-

cerned in their demise.

There were throughout the Tertiary most widespread and all :

pervading geological changes, culminating in the upheaval of the

two great mountain chains of the West. Horizontal Cretaceous

strata lie on the Rocky mountains at an elevation of 10,coo feet,

the sign and proof of an extensive upheaval. We know that the T

movement in South America, while gradual for the continent, was

more or less locally paroxysmal. Was it not the case also in _

North America ?

_ By the end of the Pliocene, North America assumed its present —

continen.al proportions. The Rocky mountains and Sierras shot —

their peaks into the sky to elevations of 10,000 and 1 5,000 feet

above the Pacific. These great walls shut off the moist trade winds ©

“es tars aie ye es

Sree eee

1886.] some of its Apparent Causes. 37

from the Pacific, a period of dessication set in throughout the great

basin between the Rocky mountains and Sierra Nevada, and exten-

sive rainless districts resulted, But even then there were alter-

nate wet and dry cycles throughout the early Quaternary. Great

Salt Lake, from being a vast body of fresh water, became a shal-

low brine pool; the sources of the Colorado, Columbia and their

tributaries likewise partially dried up.

Finally, the Glacial epoch came in, the glaciers invaded North-

eastern America; these on the one hand, and the great elevation

of the western plateau, seem to have been the causes which re-

moved the Pliocene fauna; which removal was, geologically speak-

ing, comparatively sudden.

Either at the end of the Pliocene or beginning of the Quater-

nary, as seen by the bones in the Port Kennedy cavern described

by Professor Cope, there was a singular mixture of what we now

regard as tropical and temperate forms living so far north as Penn-

sylvania; with the tapir, peccary, Mylodon, Megalonyx, Castor-

oides and sabre-toothed tiger, were apparently associated the deer,

bison, horse, porcupine, raccoon, dog, weasel and smaller mam-

mals. The fauna was in part extinguished by the glacial cold,

Port Kennedy being situated a little south of the edge of the great

glacier.

The result of a change of climate was a change in the nature

of the forests ; the tapir and peccary were forced to migrate south-

ward ; the colossal sloth and sabre-tooth tiger died outright; the

Castoroides, horse and mastodon lingered through the Glacial

epoch, their remains being found at the bottom of swamps, but

above the glacial and river drift; while the deer, bison, raccoon,

dog or wolf, and other forms survived with unimpaired vigor and

became adapted to a lower climate, forming the typical members

of the north temperate fauna of America. |

Farther south, in the river gravels and caves of the Middle and

Southern States, are found the bones of the great sloths, Megathe-

rium, Megalonynx and Mylodon, the American lion and bear ;

these were possibly swept out of existence by the cooler winters

of the Mississippi valley, which was free from ice, but probably had

from their proximity to the great glaciers a lower climate than in

Pliocene times.

Professor Cope remarks: “ Since the Eocene, the mammalian

fauna of the northern hemisphere has diminished in number of

Boo Geological Extinction and [ January,

species and genera. The Eocene fauna was richer than the Mio-

cene, the Miocene than the Pliocene, and the Pliocene than the

modern fauna.” There is certainly a significant parallelism be-

tween the widespread changes in the physical geography of North

America, the differentiation of climates and of faunal areas, and

the increasing extinction of life. |

The West Indies meanwhile were the scene of notable changes

in the distribution of land and sea. From being much larger,

and in some cases connected perhaps with South America, they be-

came submerged, Cope has described the fossil remains found ina

cave on the Island of Anguilla. Out of twelve species of mam-

mals, seven are extinct and several were chinchillas of large

size.

About the shores of the Mediterranean there were remarkable

changes in the relations of land and sea. The species of dwarf

and other elephants whose bones have been discovered on the Is-

land of Malta, show that within recent times that island must

have been connected with the main African continent.

In the old world, simultaneously with the mountain-building of 4

America, the Alps during the later Pliocene attained their present

proportions ; the Himalayas rose to their present heights; the

continents of Asia, with Europe, and of Africa assumed their pres-

ent outlines.

The extent and nature of the changes which took place late in i

the Pliocene in the physical geography of the globe were without __

doubt much greater than at any previous time in the history of

our planet. While the present coast lines were being established

volcanic agencies were widespread and powerful, and over what

were then regions of intense volcanic activity are to be now seen

but the dyingsembers of subterranean fires.

The long, quiet preparatory eons of the Mesozoic and early

Tertiary, were succeeded by a crisis in geological history, just as _

the comparative quiet of the Paleozoic age terminated in the —

widespread disturbances which took place at the end of the Coal _

period.

If we glance back through the geological ages we shall see _

that there were cases of the comparatively rapid extinction of

types or whole groups of animals. The more remarkable were

the extinction of the trilobites and ammonites,

PES

; bese Darwin remarks:

“The extermination of whole groups, as of ammonites toward —

1886. | some of its Apparent Causes. 39

the close of the secondary period, has been wonderfully sud-

den.”

In the same manner the trilobites as well as the Eurypterida

ceased to exist at the end of the Palæozoic age; the Silurian

graptolites disappeared with comparative suddenness ; the crinoids

and brachiopods mostly, and the dinosaurs and ornithosaurs, aS

well as pythonomorphs wholly perished during the Cretaceous

period.

The views we have presented, while opposed to ultra-uniformi-

tarian ideas, have nothing in common with the Cuvierian catas-

trophic doctrine of sudden, wholesale extinctions and re-creations.

But known facts in paleontology postulate long periods of quiet

preparation, succeeded by more or less sudden crises, or radical

changes in the physical structure of continents, resulting in catas-

trophies, both local and general, to certain faunas or groups of

animals, as well as individual species.

The biological changes were not due to climatic and geological

changes alone, but it should be borne in mind that the great

changes, slowly induced but not without striking final results, end-

ing in the addition or loss of vast areas of land, induced exténsive

migrations, the incursions of prepotent types which exterminated

the weaker. The reaction of one type of life upon another, the

results of natural selection, were apparent all through; but these

secondary factors were active both during periods of quiet and

periods of change. Here again we may quote from Darwin, the

leader, next to Lyell, of the uniformitarian school, who remarks :

“ We have every reason to believe, from the study of the Tertiary

formations, that species and groups of species gradually disappear,

one after another, first from one spot, then from another, and

finally from the world. In some few cases, however, as by the

breaking of an isthmus and the consequent irruption of a multi-

tude of new inhabitants into an adjoining sea, or by the final sub-

sidence of an island, the process of extinction may have been

rapid.”

Local extinctions due to local changes of level; the formation

of deserts, saline wastes and volcanic eruptions and vast outpour-'

ings of lava, such as took place in Oregon and Idaho during the

Tertiary, with sub-marine earthquakes causing the death of fishes

on a vast scale, these are quite subordinate factors,

In closing this meager sketch of a subject which has not re-

40 : Editors’ Table. [ January,

ceived very much attention, we have endeavored to attract notice

to what we have been accustomed to regard as the main factors in

the extinction of species and of higher groups. That there isa

limit to the age of species as well as to individuals almost goes

without saying. As there is in each individual a youth, manhood

and old age, so species and orders rise, culminate and decline, and

nations have risen, reached a maximum of development and de-

cayed. The causes, however complex, are, in the case of plants

and animals, apparently physical; they are general and pervasive

in their effects, and have been in operation since life began ; there

have been critical periods in palzontological as well as geological

history, and periods of rapid and widespread extinction as well ©

as a continual, progressive dying-out of isolated species. Such

extinction was, so to speak, a biological necessity, for otherwise

there would have been no progress, no evolution of higher types.

“OF

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE.

In entering upon the twentieth year of the publication of this

magazine, the friends of the undertaking may congratulate them-

selves on its signs of good health and strength, as seen in the

portly appearance of the later volumes. Having passed through

the perils of infancy and childhood, may we hope that in entering

upon years of maturity it will, with each volume, gain in strength ©

and character as an exponent of American natural science.

While the magazine has doubled in size, the number of depart-

ments and of assistant editors has correspondingly increased.

More space is given to reports of scientific discoveries so as to

render the magazine more useful to science-teachers, and the

working naturalist.

Our great need is, more numerous plates and cuts; to secure

this end our friends are urged to aid in enlarging our subscription

list. :

_ Our hearty thanks are due to the public for its support, and to — :

our contributors and assistant editors. Depending on their aid © :

and good will we hope to make the future volumes of the Nat-

URALIST still more deserving of public support and esteem, .

1886] _ Editors’ Table. 4!

The proposition to create an Academy of Sciences of the

State of Indiana, suggests some reflections as to the future of such

bodies in the United States. It has appeared to us desirable that

each State should have, at some future time, its academy of

sciences, but we have refrained from enlarging on the topic, since

it is plain that, as regards the greater number of States, the time

has not yet arrived. But Indiana now comes to the front, and if

she succeeds in establishing a real academy of sciences, she will

hold the place of honor in our history. There is no doubt that

among the men of her leading schools, her geological surveys,

etc., she has the material for the organization of such a body. In

most of the States there is no material out of which to make an

academy of sciences, and in none is there much material.

Of course all are agreed that merit only shall be the test of

membership in such a body; but all are not agreed as to what

the test of merit ought to be. There can, however, be but one

test, and that is the one which has been adopted in the old coun-

tries, and by our own National Academy in recent years, and that

is the test of meritorious work done. It may be that this is an im-

perfect guide to the merits of some men, but it is the best we

have, and the one open to the fewest objections. Moreover the

estimation of the merit of work done should be guided by the

attribute of quality rather than of quantity, and chiefly by the

quality of originality or novelty. There are many meritorious

compilations, but the best of them stand in the second rank o

merit. The first rank is held by thé discovery of new truths. As

the amount of truth yet to be learned far exceeds that which has

been acquired hitherto, its discovery is the business of the scien-

tific man. Since the truths that lie at the foundation of a major-

ity of phenomena are yet unknown, the work of compilation had-

better be left to those who for any cause whatever are incapable

of original research.

In the first organization of an academy of sciences, the seeds

of its future success or failure are sown. The admission of per-

sons to membership who regard science as a mere ornament, or

amusement, will vitiate its future life. Still more will the entrance

into its councils of persons who regard membership merely as a

step to personal advancement. In many portions of this country,

especially in some regions where intelligance is not wanting, the

fact of the specialization of men’s abilities is not sufficiently ad-

-—

Sangre

42 Recent Literature. (January,

- mitted. In such communities it is still believed that, intellectu-

ally speaking, “all men are born equal,” or nearly so. In such ~

places a fluent expression of interest in some form of human prog-

ress, will be regarded as identical with ability to aid in that form —

of human progress. a

Since academies of sciences in this country are not yet sus-

tained by government grants, it will be necessary to have a lay |

membership, whose annual dues will meet the necessary expenses. —

There should therefore be two degrees of association, viz., mem- |

bership and fellowship; the latter to be conferred exclusively on _

persons who have contributed important work to the progress of

science, chiefly of original research. Such fellowship becomes —

an order of merit, which serves both as a stimulus and as are-

ward for work.

The local academies of science hitherto established, generally _

possess libraries and museums. This property may become a

great evil, as, for instance, when its conservators claim equal place

in the councils of the academy with the scientific men. But it —

could be administered by a financial or property committee of ©

lay members, who should act with the fellows, when management _

of financial matters is in question.

The numbers of the American NATURALIST for 1885

were issued at the following dates: January, Dec. 30th, 1884; —

February, Jan. 19th, 1885; March, Feb. 24th; April, March ~

21st; May, April 2oth; June, May 18th; July, June 20th;

August, July 28th ; September, Aug. 15th; October, Sept. 22d; _

November, Oct. 23d; December, Nov. 25th. —

RECENT LITERATURE.

Hornapay’s Two YEARS IN THE JUNGLE!—The author spent

two years in the East Indies dividing his time between India,

Ceylon, the Malay peninsula and Borneo, collecting specimens

for Ward’s establishment. at Rochester. Wherever he went Mr.

Hornaday kept his eyes open. Of apparently a hardy, iron con-

stitution, which was not subdued by repeated attacks of the ju

gle fever, of great industry and bravery, and withal a good story-

teller, the result is one of our best books of travel in countries

Ceylon, the Malay peninsula and Bornéo. By WILLIAM T. Hornapay, with maps

and illustrations. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1885. 12mo, pp. 51%

oo, f:

PLATE II.

HAH

t i u

Hiin

EXTERIOR OF SEA DYAK LONG-HOUSE, (Sketched by the Author.)

4 N

ore

"HL ALV Te

(Drawn by F, A. Lucas, from æ specimen.)

THE JUMPING FISH.—(PERIOPHTHALMUS SCHLOSSERII.)

1886. | _ Recent Literature. 43

amese rivers, hopping about over the deep mud, feeding on the

tiny crustaceans left on the bank by the receding tide; but we

will let the author tell the story in his own way:

“ The Malays were thunderstruck when I pulled off my shoes

and told them to put me ashore. Seeing that I was really going,

Francis, like a good boy, did not hesitate to follow, and we step-

ped out of the sampan into mud and water hip deep.

“We will never know the actual depth of the mud on that

bank, but we sank into it to our knees at every step, and were

fortunate enough to stop sinking at that point. What a circus it

must have been for those who looked on! But, in for a penny in

for a pound, and bidding Francis choose the largest fish when

Possible, we went for them. There were probably a dozen in

sight, hopping spasmodically about, or lying at rest on the mud,

but when we selected the nearest large specimens and made for

them, they developed surprising energy and speed, and made

Straight for their burrows. They progressed by a series of short

but rapidly repeated jumps, accomplished by bending the hinder

ird of the body sharply around to the left, then straightening it

very suddenly, and at the same instant lifting the front half of the

ly clear of the ground by means of the arm-like pectoral fins

which act like the front flippers of a sea lion. These fins are al-

most like arms in their structure and use, the bones being of

great length, and thus giving the member great freedom of move-

its Owing to the soft and yielding nature of the mud the

: PS were short, about six inches being the distance gained each

me, Dut they were so rapid, the mud so very deep and our pro-

44 Recent Literature. [ January,

course, full of water. Although the mud was soft, it was not

sticky, and we were able to use our hands for spades very ef-

fectually. By digging a big hole two feet deep, and standing on

one’s head in the bottom of it, we were able to reach an arm down

two feet farther and seize our fish at the bottom of the burrow.

Lucky it was for us that they had no sharp and poisonous spines,

like the mud-laff which stung me in Singapore and paralyzed my

right hand for some hours.

“ My first fish was hard to get and hard to hold, but in the im-

mortal words of The Shaughraun, ‘ Begorra, ’twas worth it.’”

In hunting tigers and elephants, the most dangerous game in

- the world, Mr. Hornaday proved himself a mighty Nimrod. ‘He

naturally has much to say of the elephant, and we are surprised

to learn that in such a populous country as India the animal is

on the increase. Though at present they are rigidly protected

by law, it is evident that their number will soon increase to suc

an extent “as to render further elephant shooting positively

necessary.”

The height of the Indian elephant is, the author claims, like

that of nearly all large animals, usually recorded in exceptional

figures. “ Even the best scientific writers are apt to fall into the

habit of giving the largest measurements fairly obtainable, which

therefore brings the average animal far below the standard they

set up. I can scarcely recall an instance of having shot a mam-

mal, even out of a score of the samie species, which came up to

the measurements recorded by Jerdon in his Mammals of India,

The height of the male Elephas indicus should be recorded as

nine feet six inches, vertical measurement, at the shoulder, and

the female eight feet, for these figures represent the height of

from eight to twelve individuals to be found in every hundred; in

other words, animals which can be seen without searching

throughout the length and breadth of India.”

e height of the Indian elephant is everywhere recorded as

from ten to ten and a half feet, but the largest one ever measured ©

“was a tusker described by Mr. Corse in 1799 as belonging to

Asaph-ul-Daula, a former Vizier of Oudh, which really measured

ten feet six inches, perpendicularly at the shoulder. This animal

was merely one out of ten thousand, and it would be quite as

sensible to measure Chang and record the height of Chinamen

as being seven and a half feet, as to say that the Indian elephant

is as tall as the Vizier’s giant.” :

Our author spent a month with the Dyaks in Borneo, orang

hunting, his- trophies now adorning the National Museum at

‘Washington. His account of the two species of orang (Simia

wurmbu and satyrus) inhabiting Borneo, is detailed, and stamped

with the mark of accuracy. The nesting habits were observed

and described as follows: “I got there just in time to see the |

orang build a large nest for himself. He took up a position in a

PLATE IV.

RHAMPHOBATIS ANCYLOSTOMUS. (GiLL.)

(From a sketch by the Author.)

PLATE V.

Ver

;

ra fj

ý f A

IARUINN

E GIBBON’S MODES OF PROGRESSION.

TH , (

1-4. Swinging through the tree-tops.—b. Walking on level ground.—6. Climbing through the tree-

1886. | Recent Literature. 45

fork which was well screened by the foliage, and began to break

off small branches and pile them loosely in the crotch. There

was no attempt at weaving, nor even regularity in anything. He

reached out his long, hairy arm, snapped off the leafy branches

with a practiced hand, and laid them down with the broken ends

sticking out. He presently got on the pile with his feet, and

standing there to weight it down he turned slowly, breaking

branches all the while and laying them across the pile in front of

him, until he had built quite a large nest, When he had finished

he laid down upon it, and was so effectually screened from us

that I could not dislodge him, and after two or three shots I told

the natives they would have to cut the tree.” During’ one day’s

travel along the Upper Simujan river, Mr. Hornaday counted

thirty-six old nests and six which were regarded as new or fresh.

He thinks that an orang after building a nest sleeps in it several

nights in succession, unless he leaves its neighborhood altogether.

He never saw nor heard of any house-building by orang-utans,

though he was led to believe that some individuals may have a

habit of covering their bodies with branches for protection against

the dashing of the rain drops during a heavy storm. “ My little

pet orang,” he says, “ would invariably cover his head and body

with straw or loose clothing the moment it began to rain, even

though he was under a roof.”

Forty-three orangs were shot by Mr. Hornaday and his hun-

ters, and of these seven exceeded the maximum height as given

by Mr. Wallace, viz., four feet two inches. ‘ My tallest Simia

wurmbi or‘mias chappin, measured four feet six inches from

head to heel, and the next in size four feet five anda half inches.

Then a satyrus, or ‘mias rombi,’ measured four feet four and a

half inches, two other warméii four feet four inches, and four feet

three inches respectively, a satyrus four feet three inches, anda

wurmbiu four feet two and a half inches.”

The account of the gibbons and other animals of Borneo, its

forests and of the Dyaks are interesting—indeed there is not a

dull page in the book. Besides the general map there is an ethno-

graphic map of Borneo, showing the. distribution of the Dyak

tribes and subtribes, as classified by the author. Much ethno-

graphic material is given, with frequent illustrations. We see

little in point of fact to criticise, except where the author speaks

of nummulites as “little flat echinoderms.”

Goopate’s VEGETABLE Puysiotocy1—Early in the past year

we had the pleasure of noticing the first part of this work, which —

1S Now completed by the appearance of Part 1. The chapters in

the part before us deal successively with, Protoplasm in its rela-

! Gray’s Botanical Text-Book (Sixth Edition), Vol. 1. Physiological Botany. —

x Vegetable Physiology. By GEORGE LINCOLN GoopaLr, A.M., M.D., Professor

Y. Botany in Harvard University. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Company, New

ork and Chicago, 1885. pp. XXI. 195 to 5004-36. Illustrations 142 to 214.

46 Recent Literature. [ January,

tions to its surroundings; diffusion, osmosis and absorption of

liquids ; soils, ash constituents, and water culture ; transfer of water

through the plant; assimilation; changes of organic matter in

the plant; vegetable growth; movements ; reproduction ; the seed

and its germination ; resistance of plants to untoward influences.

The whole volume thus covers the field of the general anatomy

and physiology of plants, and especially of the flowering-plants.

In looking over the chapters one is struck with the fact that in

them much new material has been brought for the first time be-

fore the American student. There is thusa freshness about much

of the matter which adds greatly to its interest. The treatment,

part of the matter is the result of work done in German labora-

tories

A noticeable feature of the book is its wider range of subjects

than is usual in botanical works. There is much in it which we

are accustomed to consider as belonging to agriculture and agri-

cultural chemistry. This feature will commend the book to the

teachers and students in our agricultural colleges. We have

thus in chapter vii such topics as the following taken up and

discussed at some length, viz: Formation of soils; classification

of soils ; condensation of gases by soils ; temperature of soils; etc.,

etc. In chapter xvi we have discussed the following practical

topics, viz: Winter killing ; improper food ; noxious gases ; liquid

and solid poisons; mechanical injuries.

The chapters which interest us most are the tenth, eleventh and

twelfth, devoted respectively to assimilation, change of organic

matter in the plant, and vegetable growth. In the first there is

some danger of confusion from the double sense in which the

word assimilation is used, viz: 1, For the conversion of all food-

matter (in which sense it is employed in the heading to the chap-

ter and headings of the pages throughout the chapter), and 2, the

appropriation of carbon. This last is called assimilation proper

(p. 285), and a few lines further on the statement is made that “ the

term assimilation in the following pages will be made to refer to

the appropriation of carbon.” Aside from this confusion of terms,

the treatment is exceedingly satisfactory. In the eleventh chapter

the word transmutation is used in place of the usual one, metas-

tasis, or the less usual one, metabolism. This appears to us to be

a desirable improvement in the nomenclature of the subject.

The chapter on vegetable growth brings before the student the

latest results of the German investigators, and this is done in so

clear and concise a manner as to leave nothing to be desired, The

author has sifted the great mass of literature upon this subject and

siven in summary form the results, :

The illustrations throughout the volume are drawn mainly from

Be eee i

Eo ee ee a a a ee ee

2 iris poh eh

a a a i a E ET A E E ES a EE

1886.] Recent Literature. 47

the publications of Pfeffer, Sades, Darwin and others, and in many

cases have been reduced in size by the publishers so as to give

them a better appearance upon the octavo pages. The printer’s

work has been well done, and the book has an attractive appear-

ance.—Charles E. Bessey.

Woops Nature’s TEAcuHInGs.!'—Mr. Wood has written a good

many books on zoological subjects, all useful, but none of them

particularly profound or especially inspiring, but we think that

in the present case he has produced a most readable book. The

object of the writer is to show the close connection between the

actions of the different organs of animals and plants and human

inventions, and to prove that there is scarcely an invention by man

which has not its prototype in nature. The author has placed

side by side a great number of parallels of nature and art, with

terse, brief descriptions, and illustrated with a great number of

original sketches. As a result, we have just the book to put into

the hands of a boy, not only serving to interest him but to lead

him to observe the common objects of nature; and grown-up peo-

ple will also, if we mistake not, relish its pages and illustrations.

The author draws the corollary from the facts presented, “ that

as existing human inventions have been anticipated by nature, so

it will surely be found that in nature lie the prototypes of inven-

tions not yet revealed to man.”

As examples, the raft with its sail is anticipated by the Velella;

the boat by the gnat-egg boat, the floating sea-anemone, or water-

sail or pupa-skin of the mosquito; and the boatman in his boat

by the “water-boatman,” or Notonecta. Examples of paddle-

wheels are seen in those of the Ctenophores, and the movements

of the tail of the fish anticipate those of the propeller. The

arrangement of the ribs of a fish are like those of a vessel, while

the form of a ship’s anchor is outlined in the spicule of the

Synapta, and that of a grapnel in the spicules of sponges and

Echinococcus; ice-anchors and ice-hooks are anticipated by the

tusks of the walrus; an eagle’s claw presages a flesh-hook, and

the grapple-plant the ordinary drag; boat-hooks are typified in

the pushing spikes of sea worms ; Captain Boynton’s life-dress in

the float of a Portuguese man-of-war, and Janthina’s raft in a cask-

pontoon. Under the caption of war and hunting, pitfalls are

shown to be but an imitation of that of the ant-lion, and poisoned

arrows of the fangs of serpents and the stings of insects. Barbed

Spears, harpoons and arrows have multitudes of semblances in

nature, as do projectiles of all descriptions. Nets, traps, defences

of all sorts, armor of varied description, forts, scaling implements,

tunnels, as well as the houses of savages, and the porches, eaves,

windows, thatch, slates and tiles of civilized architecture, with

a Nature's Teachings. Human inventions anticipated by Nature. By Rev, J. G.

0D; with upwards of 750 engravings. Boston, Roberts Brothers. 12mo, pp- 533-

483 Recent Literature, [January,

girders, ties, buttresses, dovetailing, and varnish, all existed in na-

ture before man conceived them. So with spades, scissors, Chisels,

the plane, saw, boring, striking and grasping tools. Philos ophic

toys, fans, water-rams and paper-making—in short, many of the

arts of every-day life are the reflections of nature. The book is

full of curious facts, and set forth in a plain, simple, attractive style.

REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST OF NEW JERSEY FOR 1884.

eo. H. Cook, Director.—From this report we learn that the

geodetic survey of New Jersey is completed except in the interior

of the southern part, and that the topographical survey has com-

pleted over three-fifths of the total area. The volume includes

notices of the one forest near South Aibar. consisting of

chestnut, oak, cedar, etc., in complete preservation, and probably

buried since the ok aa of the country; of the glacial drift

and yellow sand and gravel; of the continuation of the plastic

clays, marls, etc., of the Cretaceous and Tertiary strata under the

ocean for one hundred miles; of the now celebrated columnar

trap rocks of Orange mountain ; of the Devonian, Silurian and

Archæan areas of Northern New Jersey; of the mines and min-

ing industry; artesian wells, etc., of the State.

Perhaps the most interesting result given is that the slope of

the sea bottom beyond the continental plateau is almost exactly

the same as the dip of the Cretaceous strata. The presence of

the Cretaceous beds in the marginal deposits of the ocean, as

proved by borings, seems to prove the Pre-cretaceous age of the

ocean bottom

Pk ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GEOLOGY AND NATURAL

_ Aistory Survey or Inpiana. John Collett, Director —This vol-

-ume is accompanied by a geological map giving a fair exhibit of

the surface geology of the State. The topographical and geo-

lp see of pesg Hamilton, Fayette and Union coun- |

ties, are given more in detail, and Dr. J. S. Newberry describes

the ‘drift Sepai fe the State. The volume closes with an account

= the mammalian fauna of the Post-pliocene deposits, by Profes-

r E. D. Cope and J. L. Wortman. The Artiodactyla are

Plapeonus ee ee and Cariacus dolichopsis ; the Proboscidea,

Elephas primigenius and Mastodon americanus ; while the Roden-

tia are represented by the singular Castoroides ohioensis, an animal

exceeding the capybara in size, and, spite of its name, differing

widely in character from the beaver. Megalonyx Jeffersoni repré?

sents the sloth-like edentates, and the genus Equus has left the

remains of two species, Æ. — and Æ. major, in the Pliocene

and Post-pliocene of Indiana

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETs.

Rij P. H.—Report of the expedition to Point Barrow, aaia Washington,

1885. From the author

Marray, F—Report on the specimens of oe — Bull. Mus, Comp. Zoöl.. ~

Vol. xu, No. 2., 1885. From

shade

1886. | Recent Literature. 49

Genth, F. > Sempre to mineralogy. Contrib. from the laboratory of the

Univ, Penn., xxiv. From the author.

Ward, L. F.—Moral and material ee contrasted. Ext. Trans. Anthrop. Soc.

of Washington, 1885. From author

Langille, ¥. H—Our birds in ip haunts a familiar treatise on pieds of Eastern

North America. Boston, Cassino & Co., 1884. From the a

Woodward, A. S.—On the MORRA and APAE P ae h Crocodilia,

Ext. Geol. Mag., Nov., 1885. From the author.

Wright, R. R., McMurrich, J. P., MacCallum, A. B., and McKenzie, T.—On the

skin, osteology, m yology, nervous, digestive and vas apres f Aer ee of Amiurus-

catus. Proc. Chandixn Inst., October , 1884. From the in

Ace D. S.—Note on Mr. anan s paper on The pare pier and trout.

c. U: S. Nat. Müs., 1885, 3

—Idencaon of oe species of Cycle and Thee eee described by Dr.

C. Ger nthe P. A. N. S. Phila. for 1856. Idem, 113.

—Note on iscsi nigritus. Idem, 208.

neh on Sb scientific name of the yellow perch, striped bass and other N. Am,

es. ayz:

— A list of the fishes known from the Pacific coast of tropical America, from the

Tropic of Cancer to Panama. Idem, 361.

Woje on some Linnæan names of American fishes. Idem, 394. All from the

author.

Jordan, D. S., and Gilbert, C. H. L of ppc Sofie new species of fishes

from Mazatlan, Mexico. Idem, 338. From the a

son apd 5 M.—The North American igol Brtetiotagics Americana»

ov., 1885.

——A preliminary list of the Arthrogastra of North America. From the Canadian

Entomologist, Sept., 1885. Both from the author

Becker, G. #—Geometrical form of lava cones and the elastic limit of lava. Ext.

Amer. snag of Seente, Oct., 1885.

r E eth pa of the German iiaa, (Rana esculenta var.

ridib inday. Est. P. Z. S. London, 1885.

—— Remarks on the common viper, V. berus, and on its sub-sp. V. sloanei. From

The Zodlogist, Oct., 1885.

——Remarks on a paper by Professor E. D. Cope on the reptiles of Rio Grande do

Sul, Brazil. All from the author.

Shufelat, — See age g of Seabed truei. Ext. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., —

40. rom pr

Cragin, vi Wa ae Bruner, L., and Faxon, W.—Bulletin of the Washburn

Coll bccn ory of Nat. History, Topeka, Kansas, 1885. From the editor,

Rodrigues, J. J.—Catalogo de los Géneros y Especies de los animales que se en-

en Guatemala. Mammalia. 1885. From the esene

aro. ses orearede und Galeopithecus een alte Formen. Sep.-abd. a.

a. New Jahrb. f. Min., 1885. From the author.

» T. H.—Notice of some recently-discovered effigy mounds. Science, No.

106, From the author

Pei aa, E A a factor in toch preservation. From the Dental Cosmos, a monthly

record of dental slinok, Sept., 1885. From the pe r

Baxi: G.—Einige Bemerkungen iiber ee Ossification der einigen Knocken. =

Abd. u. d. Zool. PoS No. 206. one

——Zur Morphologie us und Tarsus der Wirbelthiere. Sep.- abd. a. Eo-

Zool. Anzeiger, No. goa yrr o

Bah sree note on the origin of limbs. Am. Nat., Nov., 1885. All fs ane

Share i —Les microbes, scar Scientifique pre 1886. From

VOL. XX.—No. 1 4

50 - General Notes. [ January,

Marcou, F. and Marcou, F- B.—Mapoteca Geologica Americana. A catalogue of

geol. maps of Amer., N. and S., 1752-1881. Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 7.

Irving, R. D., and Van Hise, C. R.—On secondary enlargements of mineral frag-

ments in certain rocks. Bull. U. S. G. S., No. 8.

Clarke, F. W., and Chatard, T. M.—A report of work done in the Washington

laboratory 1883-1884. Bull. U. S. G. S., No. 9.

-Waicott, C.—On the Cambrian faunas of N. Am. Bull, U: S. Geol. Surv., No. to.

Call, R. E., and Gilbert, G. K.—On the Quaternary and recent Mollusca of the

Great basin, also a sketch of the Quaternary lakes. Bull. U. S. G. S., No. 11.

Dana E. S.—A crystallographic study of the thinolite of Lake Lahontan. Bull. U.

G: 5, Nour.

Burns, C., and Stronhal, V.—The electrical and magnetic properties of the iron

carburets. Bull. U.S. G. S5., No. 14.

‘Gannett, H.—Boundaries of the United States, of the States and Territories. Rull.

U. S. Geol. Surv., 13. All from the department.

Third annual report of the board of control of the N. Y. Agric. Experiment Sta-

tion, 1884. From the board.

fleilprin. A., and Meyer, 0.—Notes on the classification and palzontology of the

U. S. Tertiary deposits. Science, June 12, July 17, July 31, Aug. 21.

Boettger, O.— . Vv. Hrn, Dr, m

ammelten Kriechthiere, 1885. From the author.

Dollo, M. L.—W’appareil sternal de L’ Iguanodon. Ext. d.1, Rev. d. Quest. Scien.,

Oct., 1885. From the author.

James, J. F—Remarks on a supposed fossil fungus from the coal measures, Ext.

Jour. Cin. Soc. N. H., Oct., 1885. From the author.

Agassiz, A., and Whitman, C. O,--The development of osseous fishes. Mem.

Mus. Comp. Zool., Camb., Vol. xıv, No. 1, Part 1, 1885. From the authors.

Huil, E.—On the geological age of the North Atlantic ocean. Sci. Trans. Roy.

Dublin Soc., 1885. From the author.

Everhart, B. M.—Index to Ellis’ North American fungi. From the author.

Baker and Harrigan.—Catalogue of trotting stock, Great Meadow farm, 1886,

:0:——

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.!

Asia.—The Trigonometrical Survey of India—At the meeting

of the British Association, held at Aberdeen in September of this —

A the president of the geographical section, General J. T.

'alker, gave an account of thé survey of Hindostan. Survey

operations along the coast-lines began before the commencement

of the seventeenth century, and the first general map of India,

-published by D’Anville in 1752, was compiled from the charts _

of coast-lines and the itineraries of travelers, Major Rennell,

appointed surveyor of Bengal in 1764, was the father of Indian

geography. In nineteen years he surveyed 300,000 square miles,

‘and after his return to England, published a great work on Indian

geography. At the close of the last century Major Lambton

_ drew up a project for a general triangulation of Southern India.

-He commenced work by a careful triangulation of Southern

ed. W. Kobelt in Algerien und Tunisien ges-

‘ae India, but for several years no notice was taken of his import- i

_h'Fhis department is edited by W. N. LOCKINGTON, Philadelphia,

1886. ] Geography and Travels. ay

ant services to science. In 1817 the French institute elected

him a corresponding member, and after this honors and ap-

plause followed from his own countrymen. His assistant,

Captain Everest, discovered that Lacaille’s meridional arc, at the

Cape of Good Hope, was in error through the deflection of the

plumb-line at the ends of the arc, under the influence of the at-

traction of the neighboring mountains, and thus became aware of

the necessity of placing astronomical stations where this cause

would not be active. Everest introduced great improvements

into the methods of the survey, which, before Lambton’s death,

had been extended in its scope to embrace the whole of India,

and his methods were followed until the completion of the princi-

pal triangulation. Many of the forest regions of India are most

pestilential. Native troops mutinied at being taken into the God-

avery basin, for fifty years the chain of triangles passing through

it remained untouched, and its execution cost the life of the officer

in charge. The Terai, at the base of the Nepalese Himalayas,

was still more formidable, yet, owing to the refusal of the Ne-

palese government to permit Europeans to enter their territory, a

connecting chain of triangles had to be carried along its 500

miles, necessitating the clearance of some 2000 miles of line

through forest and jungle, and the construction of over 100 towers

to overlook the earth’s curvature. e mortality was greater

than in many a famous battle. In 1843 Everest was succeeded

by Waugh, who retired in 1861, and the last chain of the princi-

pal triangulation was completed in 1882.

The two longitudinal arcs first measured in India were employ-

ed by Colonel Clarke in his last investigation of the figure of the

earth, and General Walker stated his belief that they are the only

twoarcs sufficiently accurate to be thus used. These investigations

show that the equator has much less ellipticity than was formerly

believed, and that the major axis is 8° 15’ west of Greenwich,

instead of 15° 34’ east of it, as was previously supposed. The

French meter, supposed to be a ten-millionth part of the earth’s

meridional quadrant, is now known to be nearly ,isth part less

the magnitude it was intended to represent. i

Mr. Hosie’s Travels in China—At the recent meeting of the

British Association Mr. A. Hosie gave an account of three

Journeys in Southwestern China made by him since the beginning

of 1882. The first was through Southern Ssu-ch’uan and North-

ern Kweichou to its capital, Kwei-yang-Fu, westward to Yun-

nan Fu, then through Northern Yunnan and along the Nan-kuang

river to the Yang-tsze, where he took boat to Ch’ung-ch’ing,

starting-point. In 1883 he passed to Ch’éng-tu, the capital of

Ssu-ch’uan, by way of the brine and petroleum wells of Tzu-liv-»

ching, then through the country of the Lolos, then by Ning-yuan, :

in a valley famous as the habitat of the white-wax insect, to and a

through the mountainous Cain-du of Marco Polo, inhabited in

52 General Notes. (January,

great part by Mantzu tribes. Reaching the Chin-sha Chiang or

river of golden sand, he then proceeded to Ta-li Fu and Yunnan

Fu, when he descended the Yung-ning river to Lu Chou. In

1884 he went to Ho Chou, north of Ch’ung-Ch’ing, thence through

a cultivated and fertile country to Chia-ting Fu, on the right

bank of the Min and thence south on the eastern side of indepen-

dent Lolodom, to the river of Golden Sand at the town of Man-i-

ssu. Chia-ting is the great center of sericulture in Ssu-ch’uan,

and the chief insect wax-producing city in the empire. A day’s

journey from it is the famous mount O-mei, 11,000 feet high,

sacred to the worship of Buddha.

Asiatic News.—The total forest area of British India is com-

puted at 75,270 square miles, Colonel Prejevalsky has again

failed to penetrate into Tibet over the Keria mountains in conse-

quence of the strenuous opposition of the Chinese. Dr. Otto

Finsch has explored 1000 miles of the coast of Northern (Ger-

man) New Guinea, has discovered several good harbors, and has

followed a large river thirty miles into the interior. The interior

is mountainous, the plains near the sea are richly covered with

trees and bush and well watered, the soil is of the richest fertility,

and the natives are friendly. Dr. Finsch found no trace of min-

erals, and regards the reported discovery of gold on the Fly river

ss »”»

as a “ schwindel.

Arrica.—Somaliland—The October issue of the Proceedings

of the Royal Geographical Society, contains F. L. James’s account

of his journey through the Somali country to the Webbe Shebeyli.

The journey was in many respects the most successful that has

ever been made in that region, since the party succeeded in pene-

trating Ogadayn, more than half crossing the peninsula, and

returning without a contest. The return was, however, compelled

by the attempt of the Sultan of Barri to make his visitors assist

him against his rival. The greatest danger to which the travelers

were exposed, arose from Lord Granville’s telegram forbidding

the expedition to proceed, This arrived after their departure, but -

its open publication in Berbera caused the Somali to believe that

the travelers were in disfavor with the British government. Fire-

arms were new to the Somali of Ogadayn, and the rifles insured

respect. Most of the country appears to be a stony desert, but

settlements are abundant on the Webbe, which does not reach the

ocean, but loses itself a few miles from the coast. In Ogadayn

there is a subject people called Adone, with strongly-marked `

negro features. About 150 species of plants, chiefly herbs and

under-shrubs, were brought back, including a specimen of an

, apocynaceous plant which affords an arrow- poison. Sixty-one

species of birds, seven of which are new, and forty-six kinds ga l

Lepidoptera, seventeen of them new, were also brought back.

The genealogy of the Somali tribes is given. They are all said

1886. } Geology and Paleontology. 53

to be descended from two brothers, Darode and Tsak, Ogadayn

was a son of the former.

The Lake Moris —Mr. Cope Whitehouse described to the British

Association the basin of the Reian Moeris in Egypt, and spoke of

the possibility of the restoration of this historic lake. South of

the Fayoum exists a depression of several hundred square miles,

not less than 150 feet below the Mediterranean, and in the parts

visited by the writer, 175 to 180 feet deep. The area is irregular,

curving like a horn from near Behnessa to the ridge which

separates it from the Fayoum. Ruins exist in its southern part.

The level of the ruins proved that the ancient station of Ptole-

mais might have been as shown in the text and maps of Ptolemy,

_ onahorn-shaped lake about thirty-five miles long and fifteen wide.

The Kassai Tributary of the Congo—Lieut. Wissman speaks

enthusiastically of the Kassai as a magnificent fluvial artery, fre-

quently of enormous breadth, leading into the heart of the new

Congo State. The country on its banks is of wonderful fertility.

During the forty-two days occupied in the voyage from Luluaburg

to Kwamouth, the health of the expedition was excellent, the five

whites and 200 negroes all arriving in good health at Leopold-

ville on July 16th. The Sankaru and Lubilash are one river,

which turns westward, and joins the Kassai. The Kassai receives

the great Koango, and enters the main river by the Kwamouth,

after receiving the waters of Lake Leopold.

African News——The country between Blantyre and Quilli-

mane has heen described by Mr. H. E. O'Neill and Mr. D. J.

Rankin in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society.

The Portuguese authority has recently been considerably ex-

tended up the Shiré towards Lake Nyassa. The Kassai, the

great southern tributary of the Congo, instead of entering the

main stream north of the equator, joins it in 3° 13’ S. lat. Mr.

D. D. Veth, leader of a Dutch expedition into Portuguese West

Africa, died on May toth, between Benguela and Humpata.

GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY.

INTERNAL CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL EROSION A FACTOR IN

Continent AND Mountain Buitpinc.—As soon as it is affirmed

that since early Laurentian times the great continental folds and

depressions have not’ changed places, so soon it becomes neces-

Sary to explain how these great ridges and troughs have per-

sisted, as such, in spite of the amount of erosion and sedimenta-

tion which are known to have taken place and which we know to

be still going on at no small rate. Either the pre-Laurentian

equalities of surface were vastly greater than they are now, or

€, during all the ages the ocean beds have been constantly re-

ceiving sediment and sinking, while the continents have been as

_ Constantly eroded and rising. But this latter hypothesis implies

54 General Notes. [January,

that there has been and is a continuous circulation of the mate-

rial of the solid land from the continents to the ocean, and from

the ocean back to the continents again, a circulation, in some de-

gree, like what is taking place in the ocean between the equator

and the poles, that is, a bodily transfer of superficial materials one

way and a siow general under-creep of materials back.

But how is sucha system possible and how can it be maintained ?

If we assume, as appears to be required by both physical princi-

ples and geological facts, that the earth’s surface is only slightly

out of equilibrium and is constantly tending toward that state,

then any transfer of material from the continents to the ocean

would cause a subsidence of the ocean beds which, in turn, must

necessitate a setting of the deeper earth materials from beneath the

ocean beds toward the continents causing them to rise. This cir-

culation appears to be entirely possible and even probable, if not

almost certain, and this too, while granting that the earth is essen-

tially solid throughout and as rigid as glass. By this is meant, of

course, as rigid as glass would be under the internal earth pres-

sure

from the views expressed by leading physicists in regard to the

rigidity of the earth for, as I see it, there may be all the rigidity

which physicists have claimed and yet all the mobility geological

facts can demand. When cold metals are subjected to artificial

pressure, causing their molecules to flow into new positions so

that the form of the mass is greatly changed, it is not to be sup-

posed that these metals while under such pressure are to be re-

garded as true liquids, in any sense obedient to all the laws of

fluids, nor could any mere pressure, however great, convert them

into true liquids. I think it will not be maintained, even by those

who believe “pressure itself would reduce the interior of the

earth to a fluid condition,” that this fluid is such to the extent of

permitting bodies moving freely through it as fish move through

the sea; nor would they maintain that this interior fluid would

remain such with the pressure removed. It could hardly be

maintained either, that such a fluid would possess the degree of

elasticity characteristle of true fluids, but unless these are insisted

upon by geologists, physicists have all the rigidity they have

claimed.

Even if it is admitted that such a circulation is possible when con-

ditions are once favorable, unless there is some disturbing agent

continually working to destroy the equilibrium which the circu-

lation tends to establish, eventually the earth’s surface must have

existing differences of level greatly reduced. There appears no

escape from the conclusion that the density of the earth increases

as its center is approached. This being the case, a continual denu-

dation from certain regions and constant sedimentation in others

must, in due time, whatever may have been the original distribu-

It appears to me, geologists have no occasion for dissenting

1886.] Geology and Paleontology. 55

tion of density near the earth’s surface, remove all materials of

low density from the continents and place them over the sea bot-

tom, while the elevation of the denuded region would bring den-

ser materials to the surface, thus tending to restore equilibrium

with the two surfaces more nearly on the same level, unless

there is some agent operating to reduce the average specific grav-

ity of the continents.

If the earth does increase in density toward the center, this may

be due : first, to a difference of chemical composition ; or second,

to increasing pressure; or third, to these two conditions in combi-

nation. With either the first or third conditions existing, and

continued denudation with no counter agent, a leveling up would

inevitably result. With the second condition existing, unloading

in one place and loading in another of equal area, would permit of

expansion in the continental mass and cause a compression of

strata under the oceans, and might maintain the differences of level

already established ; but this view being very improbable, it re-

mains to search for some cause which may reduce the specific

gravity of the continents, and an adequate one, it seems to me, may

be found in internal chemical and mechanical erosion.

Taking Mr. T. M. Read’s estimate of chemical erosion (Am.

Jour. Sci., April, 1885), at 100 tons per square mile annually on

the average the world over, as a fair estimate of the work done

by the waters which come to the surface before emptying into the

ocean, it is plain that a vast work must be done in reducing the

average specific gravity of the continents, unless it is maintained

that the small cavities produced are closed by compression as fast

as formed. This certainly is not the case in the superficial strata,

nor can it be the case in the deeper strata where the cavities pro-

duced by solution remain filled with water.

Data are altogether too meager to allow of a quantitative treat-

ment of the question. We do not know, for example, what propor-

tion of the matter carried in solution to the sea by rivers annually

is obtained through purely superficial action. Neither do we

know what proportion of the water falling upon the continents

enters the ocean below ocean level. It is reasonable to suppose

that this amount is not small, and that the water entering the sea

below ocean level carries a higher per cent of solids than the

average river water. Now that our Government scientific work is

being consolidated, it would seem eminently fitting that these fun-

damental questions should occupy the joint attention of the U. S.

logical Servey and the Signal Service, and they are possibly

already under consideration.

This internal erosion, by excavating small cavities in the body

of the continents, would lighten them without in the same degree

lowering their surfaces, and existing differences of level would be

longer, if not permanently, maintained, because in case the denser

strata were to be thrust up into the heart of the continents, into the

56 ; General Notes. | January,

region of aqueous action, they would be attacked by the water and

their average specific gravity lowered. Now in case superficial ero-

sion were to exceed internal erosion, the result would be a lowering

of the continents ; but any lowering of the continents would reduce

the rate of mechanical erosion much faster than it would the

chemical, because very feeble springs and the mere capillary up-

draught of saturated water, would remove the solid ingredients of

the continents and place them in position to be drawn off to the

sea by currents too feeble to bear much solid material in suspen-

sibn. The specific gravity of the continents would, by this means,

be continually lowered, and the oceanic areas as continuously

loaded, and, for this reason, we might expect the continents and

oceanic basins to persist. Again, even if we suppose the same

degree of porosity to exist in the sedimentary beds under the

ocean as exists in those of the continents and the materials of the

two to have the same specific gravity, the same number of feet of

sediment under the ocean would be heavier, volume for volume, _

than the land because, if for no other reason, the beds would

be, in all probability, more fully saturated with water. Now Pro-

fessor Ferrel has shown that the attraction of continental plateaus

must be neglected in reducing both pendulum and barometric ob-

servations to sea level, and therefore they do not represent so

much material added between a given station and the earth’s cen-

ter; that is, these earth masses, although possessing longer radii,

are no heavier than equal sections in the ocean areas.

Assuming that the continents and ocean beds, with their super-

incumbent. water, are essentially in equilibrium, and taking the

average depth of the oceans as 15,000 feet and the average height

of continents, above sea level, as 1000 feet, we could obtain a

tolerably accurate estimate of the average specific gravity of the

continents if we knew the average density of the rocks below the

sea bottom, knowing, as we do, the specific gravity of 15,000 feet

of superimposed matter. The specific gravity of the earth 400

miles below the surface is estimated at 4.0478 (U. S. Coast and

Geodetic Survey, 1879), and our heaviést known rocks scarcely

run above 3. From these considerations, and from what we know

of the specific gravity of sedimentary rocks, we should not expect

the sedimentary beds of the sea bottom to have a specific gravity

much above 2.5. Assuming an average of 2.5 for the first 5000

feet below sea bottom and of 2.95 for the next 10,000 feet, then

the average specific gravity of the continental mass required to

exactly balance this would be 1.851, assuming, of course, that

a surface of uniform density under both oceans and continents is

reached at a depth of 30,000 feet below the sea level. Now con-

sidering the specific gravity to increase below 15,000 feet below

sea bottom at the rate of .05 for every 10,000 feet downward, it

would then be necessary to go to a depth of about thirteen miles

below sea level to obtain an average density sufficiently large to

a 2 š ive rece

Pe pS BEE GE ES aR Pn RN RTE E

1886. ] Geology and Faieontology. 57

balance continental masses having an average specific gravity of

2.5. Ifthe specific gravity does not increase downward as rap-

. idly as the rate assumed, as we may infer from Mr. Pierce’s table

(U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1879, p. 200), then a still

greater depth would be required to secure equilibrium. From

these considerations it would appear that the superficial continen-

tal strata must have an average specific gravity much below 2.5

and, in order that this may be so, that much material must have

been removed from within the mass.—/. H. King, River Falls,

Wis., May 12, #885.

GEOLOGICAL Survey oF Betcium—In 1878 a commission was

appointed to undertake a more exhaustive invéstigation of the

geology of Belgium than that embodied in the map of Dumont.

The topographical map serving as a basis consists of 369 sheets.

Each important group of formations is entrusted to one or more

specialists, who are each furnished with two assistants, and trace

the system completely across the country. Every actual outcrop

of rock is marked on the map, and where the rock is fossiliferous

the fossils are noted. Special attention is given to soils and su

soils, and care taken to express on the map the agricultural char-

acter of the ground. It is believed that one-third of the entire

work of the survey is now completed. By a novel system of

broad washes of subdued tints, M. Dupont, the head of the sur-

vey and Director of the Royal Museum at Brussels, contrives to

show the surface deposits, as well as the formations below, which

are shown in deeper tints; while shaded lines of the proper color

mark the margins of the stage. Professor Archibald Geikie ex-

presses in Nature his conviction of the success of the new system

of cartography.

THE BED or THE Ocean.— The Tuesday evening discourse during

the late meeting of the British Association was delivered by Mr. J.

Murray, F.R.S., of the Challenger expedition, who took for his

subject the “ Bed of the ocean, and some results of the expedi-

tion.” In commencing his lecture, Mr. Murray traced the devel-

opment of geographical knowledge from the crude conception of

the ancients down to the ‘extended knowledge of the nineteenth

century. It was not easy, he said, to estimate the relative impor-

tance of the events of one’s own time, yet, in all probability, the

historians of the reign of Victoria would point to the recent dis-

coveries in the great oceans as the most important events of the

century with respect to the acquisition of natural knowledge—as

ong the most brilliant conquests of man in his struggle with

- Rature; and doubtless they would be able to trace the effects of

these discoveries on the literature and on the philosophic concep- _

tions of our age. The last of the great outlines showing the sur- .

face features of our globe had been boldly sketched ; the founda- a

tions of a more complete and scientific physiography of theearth’s

58 General Notes. [ January,

surface had been firmly laid down. The lecturer then briefly de+

scribed the chief surface features of the globe, the action of wind and

water and ocean currents; referred to the temperature of the sur-

face of the sea, and explained that the most important, as well as

the most direct, effect of the unequal distribution of temperature

over the surfaces of the oceans and continents was an unequal dis-

tribution of atmospheric pressure, varying more or less with

season. e then proceeded: The advances during recent years

in the knowledge of one form of life inhabiting the floor of the

ocean surpassed those in any other department of oceanic investi-

gation. Thousands of new organisms had been discovered in all

seas and at all depths in the ocean, and either had been or were

now being described by specialists in all quarters of the world.

There did not seem to be any part of the ocean bed so deep, so

dark, so still, or where the pressure was so great as to have effect-

ually raised a barrier to the invasion of life in some of its many

forms. Even in the greater depths all the great divisions of the

animal kingdom were represented. As they descended into the

deeper waters, and proceeded further seaward from the borders of

the continents, species and the number of individuals became

fewer and fewer, though they often presented archaic or embry-

onic characters, till a minimum was reached in the greatest depths

furthest from continental land. Distance from continental land

was, indeed, a much more important factor in the distri-

bution of deep-sea animals than actual depth. If they neg-

lected the Protozoa and compared the results of twelve of the

Challenger's trawlings and dredgings in the central line of the

Pacific, in depths greater than 2000 fathoms, on globigerina ooze,

radiolarian ooze, and red clay, with twelve trawlings and dredgings

taken under similar conditions and depths, but on the blue and

green muds within 200 miles of the continents, they found that

the central Pacific stations yielded ninety-two specimens of ani-

mals belonging to fifty-two species, all—with two doubtful excep-

.tions—new to science, and among them thirteen new genera. On

the other hand, the stations near the continents gave over 1000

specimens, belonging to 211 species, of which 145 were new spe-

cies and sixty-six belonged to species previously known from

shallower water. Although no new types of structure had been

discovered in organisms from the deep sea, the peculiar modifica- 3

tions which animals had undergone to accommodate themselves

to abysmal conditions were sufficiently interesting and remarka-

ble. The eyes of some fish and crustaceans had become atrophied

or had disappeared altogether, while in others they had become

of exceedingly large size, or been so modified as to be scarcely

recognizable as eyes. Fins and antenne had become extraordi- .

narily elongated, and at times appeared to simulate the alcyonarians

ofthe deep sea. The higher Crustacea and some families of fish had

very few and very large eggs in the deep-sea species, while their _ i

—_

1886. | Geology and Paleontology. 59

shallow-water representatives had a very large number of very

small eggs; showing apparently that the deep-sea species had rel-

atively few enemies. Many deep-sea animals emitted, and some

had special organs for the emission of phosphorescent light,

which appeared to play a large vd/e in the economy of deep-

sea life. One of the most striking facts with respect to deep-

sea animals was their very wide distribution, the same spe-

cies being found in all the great ocean basins. After referring to

examinations of coral atolls and barren reefs, Mr. Murray said

the results of many lines of investigation seemed to show that in

the abysmał regions they had the most permanent areas of the

earth’s surface, and he was a bold man who still argued that in

Tertiary times there was a large area of continental land in the

Pacific, that there was once a Lemuria in the Indian ocean, ora

continental Atlantis in the Atlantic. It mattered little whether

the opinions which he had given as to the bearing of some of the

researches be correct or not. The great point was that there had

been a vast addition to human knowledge, and it must be a mat-

ter of satisfaction that our own country had taken so large a share

in these important investigations as to call forth the admiration of

scientific men of all countries. In the matter of deep-sea inves-

tigation, neglecting mere details, we could say that successive

governments during the past twenty years had, either from design

or by accident, undertaken a work in the highest interests of the

race, had carried it on in no mean or narrow spirit, and were likely

to carry it to a termination in a manner worthy of a great, free

and prosperous people.

GrotocicaL News.—General—The third International Con-

gress of Geologists has just been held in Berlin, 255 members be-

ing present, the majority Germans. Italy sent eighteen, Austria

sixteen, Great Britain eleven, France ten, and the United States

nine representatives. The most important work of the congress

is the preparation of a geological map of Europe. It is expecte

that next year proofs in color of many of the sheets will be ready.

The unification of geological nomenclature does not appear

likely to be realized, but the congress has agreed that the

Archzan rocks shall be divided into sections according to their

petrographical characters, without expressing any opinion as to

their relative age.

Jurassic—At the recent meeting of the French Association, M.

Cotteau stated that the Jurassic strata of France have furnished

125 species of Echini, belonging to fifty genera, two only of which,

idaris and Stomechinus, subsist at the present day. The shal-

low seas of the Jurassic epoch, full of islands and coral reefs were

favorable to the development of Echini. pep-

lished, in the Paléontologie francaise, descriptions of 209 cfinoids —

found in France. Of these eighty-nine were new to science;

M. Loriol has pub

60 General Notes. [ January,

while the Echini were most abundant in the Bajocian stage of thè

Jurassic, the crinoids attained their maximum in the Oxfordian,

After the Sequanian they suddenly diminish, and only one spe-

cies occurs in the Portlandian.

Quaternary.— At Ternefine near Maseara sr be teeth of two

species of Elephas (E. atlanticus and E. melitensis) have been

found, also Rhinocerus mauritanicus, a hippopotamus and Came-

lus thomasi. The last is of about the size of the dromedary, but

differs in the shape of the palate and jugal bones. With these

were found a horse rather larger than the zebra, some antelopes,

an ox, and a single bone of a swine. Roughly-shaped hatchets

of limestone or coarse sandstone show the presence of man, but

no remains of the domestic dog and no bones marked by the teeth

of Carnivores were found. The presence of a large number of the

cotyloid cavities of the pelvis of the elephant seem to indicate

that they were used as utensils, and the numerous canines and

incisors of the hippopotamus found were probably employed as

weapons.

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.!

AMERICAN MINERALS.—Quartz.—Vom Rath describes’ quite a

number of complicated forms on the quartz crystals: from Alex-

ander and Burke counties, N. C. The former have already been

mentioned i in these notes. Among the rare forms on the latter

are —H R 7, P, anda rough face to which the symbol oP may

be referred.

Stephanite—In the same article a stephanite crystal from Mex-

ico, containing the new form 4} P 4} is described.

Alaskaite of Konig,’ has bie, reéxamined by Th. Liweh, of

Strassburg, who declares it to be tetrahedrite. He found it to

crystallize in the hemihedral division of the regular system.

In the November number of the Naruratist, fayalite was

mentioned as having been found by Mr. J. P. Iddings i in the lith-

ophyses of the obsidian and rhyolite from the Yellowstone Park.

About the same time C. A. Tenne, of Berlin, found the same

amai black crystals in the lithophyses of obsidians from the

de aE Navajas, Mexico.. They were measured and pro-

unced t the same mineral which G. seni as early as

ay 6 had gece to be olivine.

1 Edited by W. S. BAYLEY, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, M

2 Mineralogische Mittheilungen. Zeitschrift fiir Be X, pp. 156 and

475-

3 May, 1885.

4 Ueber die alaskaite, ein neues Glied aus der Reihe der wismuthsulfosalze. Zeit-

PEF für Krystallographie, VI, p. 42.

itsthrift der deutschen geol. Gesellschaft, 1885, p. 613.

ipo der Physik. u. Chemie, 1827, Bd. x, pp. 323-332.

1886. | Mineralogy and Petrography. 61

Turquoise pseudomorphs after apatite have been discovered! in

several localities in California with the original forms so well pre-

served as to leave no doubt as to the character of the mineral

after which they are pseudomorphed. The angles between the

oo P faces gave, on the reflexion goniometer, a mean value of

59° 56’, that between OP and „P measured 89° 30’, and those

between OP and P 40° 3534’. (Kokscharon found on apatite

from Tokovaia oP AP = 40° 18’—40° 47’.) Professor H. Bucking

examined thin sections of the specimens and found the substance

to consist of an aggregate of small spherulites composed of fibers

radially arranged. ? .

Two pure tron micas from Branchville, Conn., have been added

to the mica group by Rammelsberg One of a light color gave,

on analysis:

MO A0 -- FeO, FeO: KO No HO: + oO M

44.19 32.69 4.75 3-90 8.00 .59 21 3-85 93

A dark-brown variety gave: :

SO, ALLO, Fe Oy FeO: KO. NaO:: 140 HO HM: HO,

39.94 23.43 7.65 11.87 9.64 1.13 1.18 2.64 2.43 .20

6R,’ SiO,

The composition of the first corresponds tod Fe, SiO, } ; of the

RY SiO, R, SiO

2 : :

second to} ay SO; L. In neither case was any Mg detected.

3°12 "

Their optical properties were not investigated.

Microlite—C. Hintze? has shown by optical methods that this

mineral, first described by Dunnington* from Amelia county, Va.,

crystallizes in the regular system.

In a paper read before the American Philosophical Society, F.

A. Genth® gives the results of the analyses of a number of min-

erals belonging to the sulpho-salts and allied groups. The min-

eral joséite, concerning whose composition there has been con-

siderable doubt, yielded the author :

Te Se S Bi

14.67 per cent 1.46 per cent 2.84 per cent 81.23 per cent

This composition, Genth thinks, cannot be expressed by a rational

formula unless we suppose the mineral to be a bismuth sulphide in.

which the sulphur is replaced in part by tellurium, selenium a

ismuth, giving the general formula both for joséite and the

closely related tetradymite Bi, (Te Se S Bi). An argento-bis-

*Kallait pseudomorph nach apatite aus California, G. E. Moore and V. von Zeph-

arovich. Zeitschrift für Krystallographie x, p. 240.

* Neues Jahrb. fiir Min., étc., 1885, H, p. 225.

* Zeitschrift für Krystallographie, x, p. 86. _

ee Chem. Four., 3, p. 130, May, 1851. oe

ë Contributions from the laboratory of the Univ. of Pennsylvania. No. XXIV. _

Ontributions to mineralogy, read Oct. 2, 1885. i »

62 General Notes. [ January,

muthite, from Lake City, Col., gave results corresponding to

(Ag; Pb) S, Bi, S Cosalite is a sulpho-bismuthite of the formula

2 (Pb Ag») S, Big S; from Cosala, Mexico. In the Gladiator mine,

Ouray county, Col., a compact mineral occurs in small irregular

masses. An analysis shows it to be cosalite with part of the sil-

ver replaced by Cu, having the formula 2 (Pb Ag, Cue) S, Big Sy.

Schirmerite, beegerite, tetrahedrite, sylvanite and polybasite from

Colorado, and arsenopyrite and scorodite from Alabama are the

other sulphur salts examined. Ilmenite from Carter’s mine, N.C,

topaz from Stoneham, Me., muscovite pseudomorphs after neph-

eline-from Wakefield, Conn., stilpnomefane pseudomorphs after

“an unknown tabular mineral,” from Sterling mine, near Antwerp,

N. Y., and several alteration products of the magnesian limestone

of Berks county, Pa., are also described and the results of their

analyses given.

Microcuemicat REACTIONS.—It is often possible by means of

a few simple chemical tests to determine the character of a min-

eral under the microscope without the trouble of separating and

analyzing it. The methods in most general use for this purpose

are those of Streng! for the detection of apatite and nepheline, of

Knop? for the minerals of the Hauyne group, of Boricky® for the

feldspars and of Behrens‘ for the characteristic elements of many

other minerals. These and a great many others have been de-

scribed at length in the various mineralogical magazines, but have

not, until very lately, been collected and put in shape for ready

use. Dr. Haushofer, of Munich, has recently brought together

all those methods which have stood the test of experience, an

` to these has added others of his own. The result is a compact

little book® containing minute directions for the detection of fifty’

elements by means of simple tests, most of which may be appli

to the rock section or mineral particle on the stage of the micro-

scope. The illustrations are good and the directions for working _

clearly given.

I APHIC News.— E. Rethwisch? has made a very

CRYSTA

thorough study of pyrargyrite and proustite from an historical, _

1A.Streng. Ueber die mikroskopische Unterscheid li d

tite. Tschermak’s Min. und Pet. Mitth , T ung von nepheline and apa-

2 A. Knop. Ueber eine mikrochemische reaction auf die Glieder der Hauyn- 44

familie. Neues Jahrb. der Min., etc., 1875,

SE. Boricky. Elemente einer neuen chemisch-mikroskopischen Mineral- und Ges-

teins-analyse. Archiv. ager Landes durchforsch, Béhmehs. r Bd., v Abth, —

s 564.

es Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1879, p

en Mededeelingen der K. Akad. v. Wetenschappen. Amst fdeeli

Natuurkunde, 2 Reeks, xvit Deel., pp. 27-7 ppen sterdam, 1881. A

$ op

5 roskopische Keactionen, Eine Anleitung zur Erkennung Verschiedener —

Elemente und Verbindungen unter dem Mikroskop. Vieweg und Sohn, 1885. —

.162 pp., 137 illus.

8 Neues Jahrb. für Min., etc. Beilage Band 1v, p. 40.

zur Mineral-analyse, Verslageñ

ing f

Diki

Bae

ee a ee

1886. | Botany. 63

chemical and crystallographic standpoint. His paper is particularly

interesting as a résumé of our knowledge in regard to these two

minerals. In the same way F. Sansoni proposes: to study

calcite. He begins his work with an exhaustive paper of fifty- -

six pages on the crystals from Andreasburg.' He divides these

into eight groups, according to their development, and then

studies each group separately. Tables giving the frequency with

which the 131 forms actually observed occur, and the combina-

tions in which they are found, make up a considerable part of the

article.

MIscELLANEOUS.—A chemical examination of nocerite? from

Samo-Nocera leads E. Fischer to consider it a mixed fluoride and

oxide with the composition 2 (Ca Mg) Fl, + (Ca Mg) O.——In an

article on the Thiiringian minerals, Luedecke® describes crystals

of orthite, from near Schmiedefeld, with the two new planes

5PGZand , Pj, ethers from a granitite near Brotterode with

4 PS, and tiny brown anatase crystals on small quartz crystals in

ee of a quartz porphyry from Brand, Thüringer

ald,

BOTANY.‘

Tue Asa Gray VasE.—During the meeting of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science, at Ann Arbor, in

ugust last, the presence of so many botanists, and especially

their frequent club meetings, suggested to the editors of the Bo-

tanical Gazette the possibility of some concerted action on the

part of the botanists of the country to commemorate Dr. Asa

Gray’s seventy-fifth birthday anniversary. After some informal

consultation, the matter was left in the hands of the originators

to be managed as they thought best. Accordingly, notices were

grayi, Lilium grayi

ella repens, Epigea repens. The beauty of design and finish, as

' Zeitschrift fiir Krystallographie, x, p. 545-

. > Zeitschrift für Krystallographie, X, p- 271.

Ib., X, p- 187.

- “Edited by Professor CHARLES E. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska.

64 General Notes. [ January,

well as the botanical accuracy of the work, have been much

admired. Upon the hoop of the pedestal the following legend is

engraved :

TRIO N }

Jai v

eighteenth—1885.

Asa GRAY,

In token of the universal esteem of American botanists.

The vase, accompanicd with the cards of one hundred and

eighty botanists, was presented without formality on Wednesday

morning, the 18th of November.

It is a very pleasant duty to record in the NATURALIST the con-

summation of such a fitting plan of showing the esteem in which

the name of Asa Gray is held by the botanists of America. That

the days of the genial doctor among us may be prolonged for

many years is the fervent prayer of every botanist.

CATALOGUE OF THE PLANTS oF NorTH AMERICA. — Every bot-

anist who has charge of a considerable collection of plants has

felt the need of a convenient check-list of North American plants.

The old Gray Catalogue, which was followed by the Mann Cata-

logue, both confined to the plants included in Gray’s Manual, and

later, the more extended list compiled by A. H. Curtiss, served

a good purpose. These, however, included a comparatively

small part of the species of the whole continent, and the botanist

who added Western species to his collection was left without the

means for noting his accessions. This want is now supplied (in

part, at least) by the Catalogue of the Phenogamous and Vascu-

lar Cryptogamous plants of North America (north of Mexico)

compiled by J. H. Oyster, of Paola, Kansas. It contains entries of

9867 species. The arrangement of Choripetalze and Gamopetale

conforms very nearly with that of Bentham and Hooker’s Genera

Plantarum. For some unexplained reason the arrangement of

Apetalz and the Monocotyledons is not that of the Genera Plan-

tarum, an unfortunate feature which might easily have been

avoided. The species of each genus are arranged alphabetically,

as is proper in a check-list. The proof-reading has been carelessly

done, and the printing is not of the best; yet, with all its faults,

the pamphlet is worth the price charged for it ($1.00), and will —

serve a good purpose.

Tue De Canpotie Prize.—The Physical and Natural History

Society of Geneva offers a prize of five hundred francs for the best

monograph of a genus or family of plants. The manuscript may

be written in Latin, French, German, English or Italian, and

should be sent to M. le President de la Société de Physique et

d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève, a l’Athenée, Genève, Switzerland.

—Gardner’s Chronicle. ‘

_ Tue DRYING oF WHEAT.—Experiments were made in 1384 at

` the New York Agricultural Experiment Station upon the loss of

water by wheat in drying. In the first case Clawson wheat, har-

1886, } Botany. 65

vested July 16 and threshed July 18, contained 27.02 per cent of

water, of which there were lost by evaporation the following per-

centages, viz:

July 27 loss 13.80 per cent. ; Sept. 14 loss 20.33 per cent.

ES Rs Chaiken aso? pa A M When S e356. dross

“& Jo “ 18.59 e Oe « ag “ 19.54 & e

ok 2 Cee ere TE nO T E FOE Ve ee ie pee a Se ee

wit ere ree *'30,62 * 4 O, Ie Sissies a Ty IGAS OE

TISI u 19.07 A ot -ANe ea 6024.06. oh

In the second case samples were taken from the bin on Sep-

tember 4, with the following results, viz :

Sept. 14... loss 2.77 per cent. | Oct. 5 loss 1.57 per cent,

pot PEE Se ee eee rn eee ee Bae Foe eee is Ce ee

eB. coh ag a a Now, £2 a-Si? =

In both cases the samples were exposed to the natural air of

the laboratory until October 12, after that date, to November 22,

the air was warmed by steam pipes.

The amount of water in wheat in the bin taken at different dates,

from the interior of a mass of several hundred bushels, was as

follows, viz:

September 22 11.96 per cent of water.

Oc 13 a 16 57 “ce “é s

“6 23 A62 © e “ec

November I ab eeneest Ql? sé e “

(13 I2 Ta 8y “ éc ée

Tue Srupy oF Prants IN WintTER.—The old-fashioned text-

books tell us to begin the study of plants in the spring, and the

custom still in most colleges is to confine the study to the spring

and early autumn months. Winter usually stops all work except

in the laboratories when “ pickled” specimens are dried and exam-

ined microscopically, Perhaps in a few cases the green-house

may supply unseasonable specimens for class or laboratory study ;

ut this is not the study of plants in winter that we refer to. All

our perennials have winter states which are full of interest to the

Student. The writer of this note has taken classes of young peo-

ple, who knew nothing of botany, and set them at work in mid-

winter studying the out-of-door vegetation, with nothing but their

eyes, pocket-knives, pencils and note-books in the way of appa-

ratus and helps. The structure, position and functions of buds,

the structure of twigs and branches, including wood, bark and

Pith, the structure of the fruits and seeds, of various trees and

shrubs, were taken up in succession, with constantly increasing

No text-book was used, the pupil depending upon his —

own resources entirely. By the time that spring came with its

bursting buds, its leaves and its flowers, these trained young eyes

were eager for their study. :

Tue BOTANICAL VALUE oF A ALE That

Many of the so-called agricultural experiments should have a

` VOL. XX—no, 1, ; ,

66 General Notes. [ January,

high botanical value is evident to every scientific man, but it is a

melancholy fact, which does not speak well for the accuracy of

the experimenters, that very little of their work has been of use

in scientific botany. In the experiments recorded in the third

annual report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station,

we have a notable exception to the rule. Many of the results

obtained have a high value to the physiological and pathological

botanist. Thus we find such topics as the following, viz: The

hygroscopic properties of grains; Hybrid barley; Germinations

of commercial seeds; The cross-fertilization of maize; A classifi-

cation of maize, with a description of the species and varieties

(with plates); A classification of the agricultural species of gar-

den peas; The size and distribution of roots of various plants

determined by washing away the soil; A classification of barley

and oats ; Report of the botanist upon diseases of the pear, apple,

quince, peach, tomato, oats, clematis and Canada thistle. Topics

like these, treated as these are, command the respect of scientific

men. We hope to see the time when such will be the rule, and

not as now the exception.

We hold that every agricultural experiment which has to do

with plants must be sufficiently accurate to commend itself to the

agriculture. Such an experiment which has no botanical value

cannot haye a permanent agricultural value. The demands of

scientific botany are in no wise more exacting than those of sci-

entific agriculture.

FERTILIZATION OF TEUCRIUM CANADENSE.—Of interest to Amer-

ican botanists is the proterandry of the American germander,

simulating that of T. scorodonia of Europe. The corolla here is

not bilabiate as usual in this family, but the tube is split open

above as far as the calyx and the five lobes are arranged on one

—lower—lip. In the bud the lowest or middle lobe turns up

over the stamens and style, serving as a protection to them.

This lobe is embraced by the two lobes on either side, and these

in turn by the two upper lobes, which usually form the upper

lip in the Labiate, In their first state, as in almost all flowers of

this family, the stamens are curved forwards so as to come into

more ready contact with the body of the entering insect, in this

case usually a bee. The stigma is bent forwards like the stamens,

but the stigma lobes having not yet opened, cannot be fertilized:

Later the stamens bend far backwards, and since there is n°

upper lip to check this motion they actually recurve at times.

The style in the meantime retains its position or takes a slightly _

higher position, while its stigma lobes open. The stamens

themselves may be short and these are usually of almost equal

length, or one or more of them may continue growth and

even equal the style in length. There is no regularity, how- |

: a

1386. | Botany. 67

ever, in their unequal development, but if the visits of bees

should become less frequent, this variation would offer a means

of self-fertilization, and would soon become fixed in all individ-

uals of the species. The proterandry in this species is not per-

fect. The stigmas sometimes mature, I might almost say,

precociously, and the stamens in turn often contain good

pollen when the stigma lobes open. Again, the visits of bees

seem to be less frequent in this part of the country than is usual

with cross-fertilized Labiate, so I suspect that even the casual

irregular growth of the stamens, is in some way correllated with

this fact—Aug. F. Foerste, Granville, Ohio.

SPECIMENS OF CuscuTA WANTED.—Dried or alcoholic specimens

of various species of Cuscuta are wanted by the subscriber. Any

one having good specimens in flower or fruit for sale or exchange

will confer a favor by communicating with Charles E. Bessey,

Lincoln, Neb.

BoranicaL News.—Among the topics discussed at the Inter-

national Congress of Botany and Horticulture, held at Antwerp

(Belgium), August 1 to 10, were the following, viz; The rôle of

the laboratory in modern science; Instruction in cryptogamic

botany; Instruction in vegetable pathology ; On the monograph-

ing of large genera; The rôle and organization of botanical lab-

oratories; Labeling in botanic gardens, public parks, private gar-

dens and conservatories; The progress of botany (mainly in the

schools) since the Congress of 1878; Instruction in vegetable

physiology. The papers are published in a thick pamphlet of

Over 400 pages. The September Journal of the: Linnean So-

ciety contains: Supplementary notes on Restiacez, by Dr. M.

T. Masters; Observations on continuity of protoplasm, by S. Le

- Moore; On Rosanoff’s crystals in the endosperm-cells of

Manihot glaziovii, by S. Le M. Moore; On venation and the

methods of development of foliage as protection against radiation,

y Geo. Henslow.—-E. A, Rau contributes a short list of Kan-

Sas mosses to the fourth bulletin of the Washburn College Lab-

Oratory of Natural History——Bertrand continues his paper on

Phylloglossum in late numbers of Archives Botaniques du Nord

de la France-———The thirty-eighth report of the New York State

Museum of Natural History appears much earlier than usual,

greatly to its advantage and usefulness. The report of the bot-

anist contains descriptions of many species of fungi. The New

York species of Lactarius and Pluteus are arranged and described.

Every botanist will welcome the early appearance of this report.

‘ay the vexatious delays of former years not occur again———

Limpricht’s Laubmoose (mosses), which will constitute Vol. 1v of

the new edition of Rabenhorst’s Kryptogamenfiora, is announced

by the publisher, Ed. Kummer, of Leipsig.——~Dr. Havard’s—

report on the flora of Western and Southern Texas, in the Pro-

68 General Notes. [ January,

ceedings of the U. S. National Museum, is a valuable contribu-

tion to our knowledge of the flora of the Southwest. Ina

twenty-four page pamphlet, reprinted from Studies in the Bio-

logical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. William

Trelease records his observations on several Zodgloez and related

forms. The following new species are described and figured, viz:

Bacterium candidum, B. aurantiacum, B. luteum, B. chlorinum, B.

incarnatum. A valuable feature of the work recorded is its bio-

logical character. One lays down the pamphlet with the feeling

that much work can be done upon the basis of Dr. Trelease’s

observations. This record is an incentive to further study.

r. Trelease’s inaugural address, delivered upon his accession to

the directorship of the Henry Shaw School of Botany, in St. Louis,

November 6, is an admirable presentation of the claims of botany

toa place in general education. The January Botanical Gazette

will contain a portrait and biographical sketch of Dr. Asa Gray,

together with some of the poems, congratulatory addresses, etc.,

which were sent on his birthday, November 18, 1885.

ENTOMOLOGY.

Recent Discovery oF CARBONIFEROUS InsEcTs.—A rich deposit

of Carboniferous insects has been discovered at Commentry, in

the department of Allier, France, and has been worked up by

C. Brongniart, whose work, however, has not yet been received.

From a notice of his paper in the Axtomologische Nachrichten for

November last, we learn that over 1300 specimens of insect

remains, not wings alone but also the bodies, have been preserved

to science.

While an exclusive study of the shape and venation of the wings

must necessarily have led to many errors, the discoveries at Com-

mentry show that insects which are regarded as among the most

ancient are still surprisingly like those of the present time, and

only differ in comparatively unimportant respects.

In the oldest strata, the Silurian, has been found but a single

winged insect, the still very problematical Palgoblattina douvillet

rong.; in the Devonian only the six species of insects, as to

whose relations excellent naturalists, such as S. H. Scudder and

H. Hagen, have very different views, and relative to which dis-

cussion has not yet closed. Before the present discovery only

120 specimens of Palzeozoic insects were known.

From the Carboniferous formation of Commentry Brongniart

has obtained over 1300 examples. Among them occurs the first

fossil Thysanuran, represented by forty-five specimens. It differs

from existing forms only by having a single caudal filament, and

exclusive of this is 15 to 22™™ long, and is generally similar to

Machilis; it is named Dasyleptus lucasi. Numerous representa-

tives of our recent Acridians are brought together under the

1886. ] Entomology. 69

name of Palzacridiodea, and divided into three groups with seven,

mostly new, genera.

The types-so discovered belong to the three orders of Orthop-

tera, Neuroptera, and Hemiptera, also to the Heterometabola of

Packard and of Scudder, while the Metabola are still entirely

wanting. But of the Heterometabola the Coleoptera are entirely

wanting.

Between the Orthoptera and Neuroptera is placed the new order of

Neurorthoptera, with the sub-order of Neurorthoptera in a special

sense, and the Palzodictyoptera of Goldenburg; the first of these

suborders embraces two families, the progenitors of the recent

Phasmidz, the Protophasmida, with genera containing the colossal

forms: Protophasma, Lithophasma, Titanophasma and Arche-

gogryllus, and the Stenaropterida with three genera.

To the Palzodictyoptera belong the Stenodictyoptera with the

genera Eugereon Gold., Haplophlebium Scudd., Goldenbergia

Scudd., Dictyoneura Gold., and two new genera wholly without

recent representatives; in addition, the Termes-like Hadrobrachy-

poda, with Miamia Scudd., and the new genus Leptoneura, besides

the wholly extinct Platypterida provided on the end of the abdo-

men with two filaments, which belong to the three genera, Lampro-

ptilia, Zeilleria and Spilatera.

In the Pseudoneuroptera Brongniart places the wholly extinct

family of Megasecopterida, with eight new genera whose relatives

in part bore respiratory appendages on the abdomen, a group to

which also belongs de Borre’s much-discussed Breyeria borinensis.

Also a family of Protodonata, regarded as the forerunners of the

recent Libellulide, with Protagrion n.g. Likewise, thirdly, the

mily of Homothetida Scudder; also, new families, the forerun-

ners of the recent ones, viz: the Protephemerina, Protoperlida and

Protomyrmeleonida.

Of the Hemiptera five different genera belonging to the Ho-

moptera have been found, among which belongs, in Brongniart’s

opinion, Phthanocoris occidentalis, erroneously regarded by Scudder

as a Heteropteron.

Belgium. He rejects the mosaic theory of vision proposed by

Müller, following Exner in his essay on the perception of move-

ments, and on the theory of compound eyes, presented to the

Vienna Academy in 1875.

The work of Exner, says Plateau, leads to the theoretical

deduction that insects and other Arthropods possessing com-

pound eyes do not distinguish the form of objects. Exner sup-

Poses that, in the Articulates and in many other animals, vision

Operates in a different way from that generally admitted, and

70 General Notes. [January,

consists mainly in the perception of movements. He enumerates,

in support of his thesis, a series of important facts. In man the

power of plainly distinguishing forms only belongs to the cen-

tral part of the retina, while we perceive movements very well by

the aid of the peripheral region of this sensitive layer.

Most animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates, seem but

little impressed by the form of their enemies or of their victims,

but their attention is immediately excited by the slightest dis-

placement. Hunters, fishermen and entomologists have made in

this respect numerous and demonstrative observations,

Finally, though the production of an image in the facetted eye

of the insect or the crustacean seems impossible, we can easily

conceive how the Arthropod can ascertain the existence of a

movement. Indeed, if a luminous object is placed before a com-

pound eye, it will illuminate a whole group of simple eyes or

facets; moreover the centre of this group will be clearer than the

rest. Every movement of the luminous body will displace the

center of clearness; some of the facets not illuminated will first

receive the light, and others will reénter into the shade; some

nervous terminations will be excited anew, while those which

were so formerly will cease to be.

In résumé, careful physiologists, relying on the structure of the

compound eyes of Arthropods, admit that these animals do not

see the form of objects, but only perceive colors and movements.

Their facetted eyes are not complete visual organs, but simple

organs of orientation.

Plateau then details the experiments he made to determine this

question ; and which we cannot well abstract. He calls attention

to one result of his experiments: that insects only utilize their

eyes to choose between a we luminous orifice in a dark cham-

ber, or another orifice, or group of orifices, equally white. They

are guided neither by odorous emanations, nor by differences of

color. A fact which will certainly astonish all entomologists and

likewise surprise the experimenter himself is, that bees have as

bad sight and comport themselves almost exactly as flies.

From numerous experiments on Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepi-

doptera, Odonata and Coleoptera, Plateau comes provisionally to

the following conclusions:

1. Diurnal insects have need of a quick, strong light, and can-

not direct their movements in partial obscurity. ‘

2. In diurnal insects with compound eyes, the simple eyes offer

so little utility that it is right to consider them as rudimentary

‘ensity as well as by the apparent excess of

surface. In short, they do not distinguish the form of objects, or,

if they do, distinguish them very badly.

1886. ] Zoology. 71

THE Division OF THE SEXES OF HyMENOPTERA.—We translate

in a rather clumsy way Fabre’s interesting article on this subject,

published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles (Tome xvii, Nos.

5 and 6). The entire article should be read to understand the

subject.

The Osmias, the Chalicodomas and, as the closest analogies

show, a great number of other honey-making Hymenoptera,

arrange their egg-laying in female at first and then in male cells,

when the two sexes have a different size and require unequal

quantities of nourishment. If there is an equality of size between

the two sexes, the same succession may exist, but less constantly,

This binary arrangement disappears when the place chosen for

the nest is not large enough for the entire egg-laying. Then par-

tial egg-layings occur, composed both of females and of males,

and in harmony, as to their number and distribution, with the dis-

engaged space.

To be able to give to each larva the room and the nourishment

which it needs according to whether it is male or female, the

mother decides the sex of the egg she is about to lay. Accord-

ing to the conditions of the home, often the work of another or a

natural habitation slightly or not at all modifiable, she lays at her

will either a male or a female egg. The division of the sexes is

Subject to her will.

he same prerogative belongs to the carnivorous Hymenoptera,

the sexes of which have a different shape, and therefore need one

- More, the other less food. The mother must know the sex of the

egg she is about to lay; she must dispose of the sex of this egg

so that each larva shall obtain the right amount of food.

_ Ina general way, when the sexes are of different size, every

insect which collects the living prey, which prepares or at least

chooses an abode for its offspring, must decide the sex of the egg

to satisfy without error the conditions imposed upon it.

It remains to tell how this elective determination of the sexes is

made. I do not absolutely know, I have never understood this

delicate problem but attribute it to some fortunate circumstance

which it is necessary to know or rather to watch for.

EnTomotocicaL News.—From a series of experiments by Pro-

fessor Graber, says Nature, Oct. 22, relating to the effects of odor-

ous matters on invertebrate animals, it appears probable that in

the case of many insects neither the antennz nor the palpi can

be absolutely pronounced the most sensitive organ of smell,

inasmuch as the one organ is most sensitive to some odorous

matters, and the other for others. —- Apropos of Hickson’s

account of the structure of the eyes of insects in our last number,

we may say that, in 1883, B. T. Lowne published a paper in the —

Proc. Roy. Soc. London, of which an abstract has been published

by Dr. Mack in Psyche, as follows: The author claims four forms fe

72 General Notes. [ January,

of eyes: simple ocellus, compound ocellus (larval insects), aggre-

gate (Isopoda) and compound eye. A brief description of each

is given. Discarding all previous theories of vision by compound

eyes, it is held that “ a continuous picture, a mosaic of erect mag-

nified central portions of the several subcorneal images, falls upon

the retina.” Kraepelin (Ueber die geruchsorgane der Glie-

derthiere), Osterprogram der Realschule des Johanneums, Ham-

burg, 1883, gives an historical sketch of the olfactory organs of

Arthropods, followed by a bibliographic list (59 numbers) grouped

according to the languages in which the articles were written.

He criticises the results of others, and compares them with his

own observations on several crustacea, beetles, chrysopa, Orthop-

tera, butterflies, flies and Hymenoptera (Psyche, 296). In the

Annales des Sciences Naturelles (xvir, Nos. 5 et 6) is an interesting

article by J. H. Fabre on the division of the sexes in the Hymenop-

tera; it gives the results of many- years observations on the subject

which we refer to more at length elsewhere. The Transactions

of the American Entomological Society (xu, No. 2) contain sev-

eral papers by Dr. Horn, viz: Descriptions of new North Ameri-

can Scarabaeide; Contributions to the Coleopterology of the

United States; Descriptions of new Cerambycide, with notes;

Synopsis of the Throscide of the United States; while Mr. F.

Blanchard discusses the species of Canthon and Phanzus of the

United States, adding notes on other genera; and Mr. W. H

Ashmead remarks on the cynipidous galls of Florida, giving

descriptions of new species.

ZOOLOGY.

Livinc AND Deap Protoprasm—Dr. Oscar Loew read an

important paper before the British Association on a chemical dif-

ference between living and dead protoplasm. Protoplasm, it was

found, contains certain aldehyde groups, which account for the

extreme mobility and readiness of change in living protoplasm.

These aldehyde groups can be reduced by alkaline silver solution.

Spirogyra, one of the lower algz, acts on this solution in a pecu-

liar way. Living protoplasm reduces the salt, while dead proto-

plasm does not. e specific gravity of the protoplasm of Spyro-

yra was increased, and was found to contain silver deposited in

its interior. Argyria, or the effect of nitrate of silver on the

human subject in certain diseases, was found in these alge.

Thus was shown a specific chemical difference between living and

dead protoplasm. Ordinary poisons, such as prussic acid and

strychnine, seem to have no particular effect on lower organisms,

while the poison irresistible by all protoplasm is hydroxylamyl.

Professor Burdon-Sanderson said that this investigation had more

‘importance than might at first appear, for it had arisen out of the

epoch-making paper of Pfliger. Pfliiger concluded that there

must be a chemical change in the transition from living to dead

1886. } Zoology. 73

protoplasm, and Dr. Loew took up the question as to what ex-

actly this change was. His investigations are an important step

in deciding this important question. Professor Stirling said this

gave a new test for living protoplasm. The chief thing to settle

was what exactly causes reduction of the silver.

SPHARULARIA IN AMERICA—In 1836 Léon Dufour described

(Annales des Sciences Naturelles, ser. 2, v. 7, p. 9), a peculiar ver-

miform parasite, which he found in Bombus terrestris and B. horto-

rum, to which he gave the name of Spherularia bombi, placing

his new genus among the entozoa. In noting the occurrence of

this genus of parasites in America, it may not be out of place to

give some further account of it because of its unique structure

and metamorphoses, and to enable its easy recognition.

Dufour’s description reads: “ Teres, albido-pellucida, mollis»

filiformis, haud annulata, undique spherulis vesiculæ formibus

granulata, antero posticeque obtusa subrotundata.” He adds in

the French notes which accompany the above description that

the length is 6-8 lines, that it is not very slim since it is about a

line in diameter, that it shows no distinction of head or tail, being

obtuse or rounded at both ends, and that all the surface, bot

above and below, is covered with spheroidal granulations which

are like subdiaphanous vesicles.

., Von Siebold, in 1838, wrote of this worm, and mentioned find-

ing its young in bees, and that the young differed greatly from

the supposed adult in having smooth skin, From the active

young he saw that the worm belonged to the nematoids, but in

the supposed adults, which were all females, he could discover no

Motion. He further notices that its digestive apparatus {differs

from that of all nematoids.

_ Siebold and Stannius write, “One finds neither mouth nor anus

in Spherularia bombi, and the intestinal canal is replaced by a

Series of elongated cells, adhering together, and around which the

genital organs are entwined.”

The next naturalist to investigate this curious animal was Lub-

bock, who published, in 1861, in the Natural History Review, a

paper “ On Spherularia bombi” illustrated by a plate. Lubbock

iscovered at one end of the body which Dufour had described a

Minute nematoid worm, and-wrongly thought this minute worm

P be the male in copulation with the large body which was the

emale. In describing the so-called male, he is careful to state

that he had not been able to distinguish any generative organs or

any trace of spermatozoa, and discusses the possibility of the

74 General Notes. [January,

two relatively enormous organs—the double series of secretory

cells, and the ovary.” The double series of cells he terms

the corpus adiposum, and homologizes it with the intestine

of other nematoids. Lubbock mentions briefly the prolificacy

of Sphzrularia, and the mode of development of its eggs.

He discovered that the parasite was only present in large females

of Bombus, but he was unable to trace its metamorphosis, and to

discover how the bees were infected.

In a later paper Lubbock gives a brief account of his further

studies on Spherularia. He succeeded in keeping the young

alive several weeks in water, and suggests that the young pass

from moist earth into the bees while the latter are going about in

moss and damp grass. He found half-grown females of Sphzru-

laria, but still always with the so-called male attached, and he

calls attention to the peculiar cell-structure of the so-called

females.

Schneider was led by the cell-structure of the so-called females,

and by the organic union between them and the little worm at

their end, a union at a point where the sexual opening should be,

to express the opinion that the so-called female was the evagi-

nated and full-grown ovary of the little worm to which it was

attached. Schneider’s opinion, derived from structure, awaited

proof based on observation, and this has at last been furnished by

Leuckart.

Leuckart, in a preliminary communication in the Zoologischer

Anzeiger of this year traces the evagination of the genital organs

of the female to form the appendage which was so long regarded

to be the female itself, the subsequent growth of the appendage,

and the origin and homological significance of its parts. This

worm-like body may even lose the minute female from which it

was originally an evagination even before its eggs are ripe.

Lubbock, in the paper already mentioned, and Linstow, in

his “ Compendium der Helminthologie,” enumerate the species

of Bombus in which Spherularia bombi has been found; the

former author gives their relative abundance in different species

of bees, and states that the number of Sphzrulariz usually pres-

ent in a single bee is from four to eight, but in one specimen he

obtained no less than thirty-four, the greater number of which

were full-grown. In some European species of Bombus one-half

the large females which have hibernated contain these parasites

in May and June.

Wishing to see if Sphzrularia was to be found in America, I

examined ten specimens of Bombus taken on the roth of June

last, in Cambridge, Mass. The species of Bombus were not

determined. Only two of the specimens were parasitized; in one

was a single Spheerularia, in the other were two. The Spheeru-

laria found single was 2.9 centimeters in length; each of the

other specimens was a trifle shorter. Nothing seemed to indi-

appren

1886. ] Zoology. 75

cate that the specimens found in the American bees were other

than Spherularia bombi, except that they were a trifle larger than

the size usually given for that species. Dufour states the length

of S. bombi to be from “6-8 lin.” Lubbock “ nearly one inch,”

and Leuckart “1.5 cm.” Further examination of females of

determined species of bees, at the time when they come from

their winter retreat, and more specimens are necessary to know

whether Sphzerularia is as abundant here as it is in Europe, and

whether the species is the same.— George Dimmock.

Nores oN SOME EASTERN Iowa Swaits.—During the past sea-

son I have taken several interesting species new to the vicinity of

Davenport, Ia. Among them the Gundlachia meekiana Stimp.,

a shell not before reported from the West. The specimens are

decidedly larger than Stimpson’s types, and extremely variable—

some of them agreeing exactly with the description and figures of

the G. stimsoniana Smith and Prime, and plainly indicating the

specific identity of the two forms. As Stimpson writes, the

septum in the aperture of Gundlachia seems to be formed at the

end of the first season’s growth; but numbers of these limpets

formed no plate, simply adding the second season’s growth on

the margin of former peristome, thus making a real Ancylus with

black conical cap. Lily pads seem to be their favorite station.

Each limpet eating an irregular area on the under side, but never

perforating the leaf.

_ Numerous specimens of the Fyrgula scalariformis Wolf, unno-

ticed since the publication of the original description nearly

twenty years ago, were found near the mouth of Rock river, a few

miles below Davenport. The validity of this species has recently

been questioned by Mr. R. E. Call, who refers it to Pomatiopsts

lapidaria Say! The specimens taken leave no doubt concerning

the position of these tiny snails in the genus Pyrgula—unless the

anatomy show greater divergence from that type than the shell.

Our Rock river specimens are smaller, stouter than typical fossil

scalariformis, and more compactly coiled—never exhibiting the

peripheral carina on upper whorls. The shorter forms remind one

of the common rhomboidal variety of Amculosa dissimilis Say.

ese have been distributed by the writer to correspondents

under the varietal name of P. scalariformis mississippiensis.

Observations on Mississippi river Lioplax tend to confirm

the opinion of the late Jas. Lewis, that the eastern and western

ioplaces are especially distinct. The foot in our specimens only

slightly exceeds the shell in length, while Binney’s figures (of the

eastern form) represent it nearly double the length of shell.

My measurements were taken while the animal was in rapid

pe greatest length being then attained. — Harry A.

76 General Notes. [January,

THE BATRACHIAN INTERCENTRUM.—The determination of the

homologies of the segments of the vertebral centra of the rhachi-

tomous and embolomerous batrachians is a question of impor-

tance in the history of the evolution of the three classes of land

Vertebrata, the Batrachia, the Reptilia and the Mammalia. I

the European paleontologists, especially by Fritsch in his Fauna

der Gaskohle der Permformation Bcehmens. I have reéxamined

this question, and with the aid of new material I am able to reach

further definite conclusions in the matter.

he facts which I have discovered are the following :

I. In the Pelycosauria the chevron bones form a continuum

with the intercentrum! (hypocentrum Gaudry).

itt caudal vertebrz of Eryops also (Rhachitomi), the

chevron bones form a continuum with the intercentrum.

therefore believe the intercentra of Clepsydrops and of Eryops

to be homologous parts.

ITI. In the caudal series of Cricotus? (Embolomeri) the inter-

centra are as large as the centra, and except that they form a con-

tinuum with the chevron bones, resemble them, and take part

with them in supporting the neural arch.

IV. In the dorsal region of Cricotus the neural arch loses its

articulation with the intercentrum and stands exclusively on the

centrum.* The serial homologies of the centra and intercentra

are readily traceable in this genus throughout the column.

In spite of these facts Dr. Fritsch and others regard the inter-

centrum of the Rhachitomi (hypocentrum of Gaudry) as the true

centrum. His reasons for this course are the following:

I, In the caudal region of Sparagmites and Diplovertebron the

neural arch stands on the intercentrum,’ so that it is easily mis-

taken for a centrum.

II. In the dorsal region in Chelydosaurus and Sphenosaurus,

the neural arch stands above or on the intercentrum, while the

centrum (pleurocentrum and hypocentrum pleurale) is reduced in

dimensions.

III. It thus results that the small hypocentrum pleurale resem-

bles the intercentrum of the Reptilia and certain Mammalia,

rather than the centrum, to which it truly belongs.

I am of the opinion that the homological determinations of

Gaudry and Fritsch, in this matter, are erroneous, and for the fol-

lowing reasons:

I. The neural arch being free may change its articulation from

1 Proceedings Amer. Philosoph. Soc., 1878, p. 510.

2 Loc. cit., 1880. Pal. Bulletin, No. 32, p. 1 5, Pl. nt. fig. §.

3 Loc. cit., 1878, p. 522.

*Loc. cit., 1878 522, and 1884, p. 29. Dr. Fritsch has overlooked these refer-

ences, and wrongly believes that the complete intercentra of Cricotus are confined.

to the caudal region.

5 Fauna der Gaskohle, Bd. 11, Heft 1, Pl. 50, fig. 14, 1 5-16.

1886. | Embryology oF

centrum to intercentrum and vice versa, while the chevron bones

being continua, cannot do so.

II. The neural arch actually does shift its position in Cricotus.

In the posterior part of the caudal series it is principally on

the intercentrum ; in the dorsal region it is on the centrum.

From the preceding considerations I get the following impor-

tant results :

. The principal vertebral bodies in the Sphenosaurida!

(Sphenosaurus and elydosaurus), if Fritsch’s descriptions be

correct, are intercentra and not centra.

I. It is probable that the true centra become extinct in the

batrachian descendants of this family, so that the solid vertebrae

of such Batrachia are intercentra, and not centra.

III. The characters of Cricotus on the other hand point to the

extinction or reduction of the intercentra as we find it in the

pelycosaurian Reptilia, and point to the probability of the Embolo-

meri being ancestors of the Reptilia, as I have already suggested.”

IV. The Sphenosauridz (which must also include Sparagmites)

are intermediate between the Rhachitomi and the Embolomeri, re-

sembling rather the latter in the completion of the true centrum, but

resembling the former in the incompleteness of the intercentrum.

I note here that Dr. Credner? does not understand why I should

have overlooked the discovery of the rhachitomous structure of

Archegosaurus by Von Meyer forty years ago. I think any

one who examines Von Meyer’s description and figures will find

ample reason why one should not see the rhachitomous structure

in them, without overstepping the bounds of scientific caution.

And it is evident that European naturalists did not recognize this

Structure, as they make no mention of it during those forty years,

although specimens of Archegosaurus are abundant; but rather

frequently referred Archegosaurusto the Labyrinthodontia, which

are described as having the vertebrz undivided.

I had hoped to have given before now engravings in quarto of

these important forms, but the present U. S. Geological Survey

having suspended my work, I am unable to do so.—Z&, D. Cope.

EMBRYOLOGY.‘

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOAD-FISH.—The development of

the Batrachidze is not well known, as will appear from some

the Statements in systemetic treatises. One author states that:

The young of some or all the species fasten themselves to rocks

y means of an adhesive disk, which soon disappears.”

„It is the purpose of this notice to point out that the adhesive

disk referred to above is of a wholly different nature and origin

= that found in the lump-fishes and Gobiesocidz in which such

Cope. NATURALIST. . $92. : :

TERCAN spain 18 qs 37. ey

Dende aus dem Plauenschen Grundes bei Dresden; Zeitschr.

PORRE . .» Berlin, 1885, p. 721. pas

Edited by Jonn A. Ryner, Smithsonian Insti tution, Washington, D. C.

78 General Notes. [ January,

a disk is formed by the confluence or coalescence of the pectoral

pair of fins.

The adult toad-fish burrows a cavity under one side of a sub-

merged boulder, and to the solid roof of this cavity the female

attaches her ova in a single layer. The eggs are very adhesive

and quite large, measuring about one-fifth of an inch in diameter.

Like the male cat-fish, the male toad-fish assumes charge of the

adherent brood of eggs and remains by them until they are hatch-

ed and subsequently become free.

The egg-membrane or zona radiata is very firm, and adheres to

the under surface of the stone by a discoidal area about 3"™

in diameter. The free globular pole of the egg is accordingly di-

rected downwards. The germinal disk is developed at the lower

pole and gradually spreads so as to enclose the vitellus from

below upwards. The result is that the embryo is formed upon

the lower or free pole of the egg, where it develops until it finally

ruptures the egg membrane, when it may be said to have hatched,

but, unlike all other types of fish-embryos known to me, the young

fish does not at once drop out of the egg-membrane when the latter

is ruptured. This is prevented by the adhesion of the ventral (now

upper) pole of the yolk-sack to the inside of the egg-membrane

just before the latter is ruptured. Just how this secondary adhe-

sion of the yolk-sack is effected has not been determined, but the

adhesion persists until the embryos are considerably over one-half ,

inch in length.

In the course of the development of other parts, the yolk-sack

is finally constricted horizontally round the middle below the

body of the embryo, and becomes hour-glass-shape. This is due

in part to the down growth of the mesoblastic somites on either

side of the yolk from above; as a result of this a part of the yolk

becomes intra-abdominal while a part of it remains for a time in

the lower bulb of the yolk-sack and outside of the true abdominal —

cavity. Eventually the whole of the yolk becomes intra-abdomi-

nal; this is due in part to its further absorption and the further

development of the abdominal walls of the embryo, but during

all of this time, or until yolk-absorption is completed, the embryo

remains adherent as described above. At this stage the embryo

is so far developed that it would be recognizable as belonging to

the genus Batrachus.

The pectoral and pelvic fins develop as very short folds which

are close together, the latter arising almost immediately behind

the former. In the course of further development, the pelvic

fins are suddenly translocated forwards in advance of the pectorals,

and are finally brought to lie near the constriction in the yolk-sack

and just above the lower bulbous portion of the latter. It will

therefore be obvious to any one that neither the pectoral nor pel-

vic fins have anything to do with causing the adhesion of the em-

bryos, for both of these fins arise far above the point where the

young fish is adherent. i

1886. | Embryology. l 79

The paired spinal nerves which pass to the pelvic fins are caused

to cross those passing to the pectorals, because of the sudden

translocation of the former pair of fins already alluded to.

It has also been stated by authors that Batrachus possesses no

lateral line. This isan error, for the writer found that the neuro-

mastic grooves or furrows, which remain open for a considerable

time on the heads of the larve, are continued into a lateral line

system on the sides, a condition of things which is also very evi-

dent in the adult, if the latter is carefully examined. There are

also series of efferent pores present in the adults. The lateral

neuromastic canal bifurcates in the vicinity of the shoulder-girdle

and sends a dorsal branch backward below the base of the dorsal,

and a ventral branch above the base of the anal. These two canals

run nearly parallel along either side of the body and even extend

backward upon the tail, as shown by some fine preparations of the

skin of the embyro mounted by Professor Libbey, of Princeton.

Another point of some interest is the fact that the entire brood

of young embryos upon any one stone have their heads directed

one way and toward the light, which comes in at one side of the

little retreat prepared by the adults. This is very remarkable and

seems to indicate that the direction whence the light comes has

some influence in determining the direction in which the embry-

onic axis will be formed in the blastoderm.

Which in the first place caused the egg-membrane to adhere, is not

Soluble in water,

The yolk is peculiarly homogeneous and does not readily coag-

ulate or harden in the presence of ordinary reagents, such as

chromic acid, as long as the egg-membrane is intact. There are

no oil-drops present and the ova are much heavier than their own

volume of sea-water. The number of ova found in one brood

varies considerably, but it does not seem that there are ordinarily

much over two hundred laid in one place. They are dirty-yellow

color and very firm to the touch, with a very narrow space be-

tween the vitellus and enveloping egg-membrane. :

The development of the toad-fish is peculiar, if not unique, in

Presenting a prolonged fixed stage after the period of hatching or

escape from the egg-membrane is over, during which all or nearly

all of the yolk is absorbed. The embryo is therefore finally set —

si without being encumbered by a heavy yolk, such as is met

in the embryos of the salmon. Such a provision obviously

has its advantages, especially since the young are also guarded by

80 General Notes. [ January,

may frequently find recently hatched embryos, around the affixed

pole of the yolk-sack of which shreds of the ruptured egg-mem-

brane still adhere ; during the later stages such shreds are not

usually visible. There is a decidedly heterocercal tail developed

from a special tail-fold, since there is no absolutely continuous

median fin-fold developed, as in many other forms.

Oviposition occurs about the middle of July, in the latitude of

Wood's Holl. How long it lasts has not been determined, but

judging from the condition of the roes and milt of the adults at

that time, it seems very probable that they do not spawn later.—

John A. Ryder.

PHYSIOLOGY.

CONDITIONS WHICH DETERMINE COAGULATION OF THE BLOOD.—

Herr Holzmann adds something to our knowledge of the con-

ditions of blood-clotting. His results are summed up as follows:

1. A body called fibrinogen, belonging to the class of globulins,

can be obtained from horse’s blood, and solutions of fibrinogen

neither coagulate spontaneously at ordinary temperatures nor

upon dilution with water. 2. Defibrinated blood, blood serum,

watery extract of the albuminous coagulum formed in blood

serum by the addition of alcohol, or the extract obtained from egg-

albumin coagulated in the same way, the putrescent fluids ob-

tained from cooked egg-albumin, and long-continued passage of

oxygen, all cause typical coagulation of the solution of fibrinogen

at ordinary temperatures, with the production of fibrin. 3. Fib-

rin-ferment is not peculiar to the blood, but occurs among the

decomposition products of albumin. 4. It is probable that fibrin

is the product of the oxidation of fibrinogen. 5. When a dog is

rapidly bled to death (one and a half to three hours), the last

portions of blood drawn clot quicker than the first, though the

amount of fibrin formed does not markedly vary. 6. Venous

blood clots more slowly than arterial blood; suffocation delays

coagulation. Curare, chloralhydrate, chloroform, quinine and

soda carbonate, also delay the coagulation.

SPECIAL PHYSIOLOGY OF THE Empryo.2— The last of the four

separately issued parts of this work having now appeared, it

becomes possible to speak of it asa whole. It may be said that the

author has done for the physiology of the embryo what Balfour

did for the morphology in his Hand-d00k. Some of the researches

described here are closely connected with those on new-born

children described in the author’s previous work, Die Seele des

Kindes, to which he has frequently occasion to make reference.

His most important general results are that mobility appears long

before sensibility, and that the sense-organs and the parts of the

1 This department is edited by Professor HENRY SEWALL, of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

2 By Professor W. Preyer, Leipzig, 1885. pp. xu. 644.

1886. ] Physiology. 8I

nervous system connected with them are capable of functioning

before it is at all likely that in normal embryonic life they have

any proper functions to perform. By “ mobility” is to be under-

stood more especially the power of making spontaneous or “im-

pulsive” movements. The presence of sensibility can only be

proved by the existence of what is really a kind of mobility—that

is, reflex mobility. When the appropriate reflex movements are

obtained on stimulating the sense-organs it is inferred that the

corresponding kind of sensibility is present. Reflex movements

are not only later in appearing, but can also be made to disappear

more easily than impulsive movements. The movements that indi-

cate sensibility can be suppressed (in the artificially extracted em-

bryo of the rabbit) by applying chloroform to the skin; with more

difficulty by causing chloroform to be breathed. In either case the

anzesthesia passes off very rapidly. It is supposed that the chloro-

form in the first case acts directly, in the second case, indirectly, on

the nerves of the skin; that it only secondarily affects the spinal

cord, and that it does not act at all on the brain. The movement of

ARE THE Musctes DEAD OR ALIVE DURING Capaveric RIGID-

ITY ?— Professor Brown-Sequard has demonstrated that for several

weeks after death, or as long as rigor mortis persists, the

muscles of an animal undergo slow alternate contractions and

fiongations. The movements were only perceptable when one

Or the other set of a group of antagonistic muscles was divided,

and ey eased totally when cadaveric rigidity finally passed away.

i “NO. 1, g 6

xx.—

82 _ General Notes. [January,

The movements were determined by measuring the angles

through which a limb was turned, and also by obtaining ona

rotating cylinder a graphic tracing representing the rate and ex-

tent of the muscular change. A dog was killed on October 6th,

and on the 15th one hind limb was fastened in extension and

17th, 16°; the 22d, 12°; the 25th, 21°; the 28th, 23°; the 30th,

18°; the 31st, 20°; November 4th, 23°. The rigidity still per-

sisted on November 8th when the observations were described.

These movements are absolutely independent of external con-

ditions, temperature, moisture, etc. In fact, in the same animal,

while some of the rigid muscles are elongating, others are con-

tracting and still others are at rest. Professor Brown-Sequard

comesto the startling conclusion that these movements prove that

the muscles in rigor mortis are not dead, but are still endowed with

vital powers, but, however, are in a certain chemical condition

which is antecedent and preparatory to final death.— Comptes

Rendus, T. ci, p. 926.

GLANDULAR AND VASO-MOTOR FIBERS OF THE CHORDA TYMPANI

AND GLOSSOPHARYNGEAL NERVES.— Professor Vulpian has renewed

after a new method his researches on this important and difficult

subject. Curarised dogs were operated on in such a way that the

cranial nerves could be stimulated by an induction current at their

points of origin within the skull. The nerves were usually laid

intact upon the electrodes; reflex effects failed, probably because

the appropriate nerve centers were injured in the operation.

M. Vulpian concludes that both the glandular and the vaso-dila-

tor fibers of the chorda tympani leave the medulla with the facial

but none of them come from the trigeminal nerve. It is certain,

apparently, that the chorda tympani, besides its glandular and

. vaso-dilator filaments, supplies to a large extent the anterior two-

thirds of the tongue with sensory nerves of taste.

Stimulation of the facial nerve at its origin causes an abundant

flow of saliva from the sub-maxillary gland on the same side, but

none from the parotid gland, and intense congestion of the an-

terior two-thirds of the corresponding side of the tongue. Stim-

ulation of the glossopharyngeal nerve at its foramen of exit from

the skull causes congestion in the posterior third of the tongue

on the same side and secretion from the corresponding parotid

gland. When the trigeminal nerve is excited in the same way,

no secretion is obtained, nor is there any vaso-motor change in the

mucous membrane of the tongue. ,

The geniculate ganglion is a trophic center for the chorda :

tympani, for, after intra-cranial section of the facial nerve, the

fibers of the chorda contained in the latter remain intact while

all the others degenerate. we

1886. | Psychology. 83

Though not bearing directly on the present subject, it is impor-.

tant to observe that Vulpian has succeeded in separately stimulating

near their origin both the spinal accessory and the pneumogastric

nerves. Excitement of the first named alone causes arrest of the

heart, while both are able to set up movements in the stomach

and other organs. Stimulation of the pneumogastric seemed to

have no influence upon the circulation or the secretion of the

mucous membrane of the stomach.— Comptes Rendus, T. ct, p. 851.

PSYCHOLOGY.

THe Marertat Conpitions oF Memory.—The greatest pos-

sible importance attaches to the question of the physical condi-

tions of consciousness, but the investigation of it is surrounded

with great difficulties. One of the most available points of ap-

proach is by a study of the characteristics of memory.. Memory

may be defined as tutermittent or recurrent consciousness; and it

follows that whatever produces or destroys memory is also a

cause of the appearance or disappearance of consciousness. I

refer especially to reminiscence, or the recurrent consciousness

of a previous impression, as that part of memory which gives it

its importance in this connection.

_ Memory is reasonably understood to be the result of an impres-

sion made on a physical basis of consciousness by some stimulus.

The structure of this matter is affected, so that on the recurrence

of consciousness within it, the consciousness takes the form or char-

acter of the modified structure it finds there. Important informa-

tion as to the effects of different stimuli may therefore be gained

by a consideration of their relative capacities for reproduction in

the reminiscent phase of memory. On this point the following

Propositions may be considered :

_ there are two sources of impressions which reappear as memo-

ries; those from the subject or subjective activities of the mind,

and those from objects or things external to the mind. Before

considering these, it is necessary to guard against confounding the

recollection of the occurrence of an event, with the recollection-or

reminiscence of the sensations which constituted that event. Thus

€ can remember that he reached some conclusion in a given dis-

Cussion, but may be unable to remember the conclusion itself.

€ may remember that he was angry, but be quite unable to re-

Produce the passion. He may remember that he had a toothache,

but may be unable to reproduce the suffering itself. :

ubjective stimuli are of the two classes into which all mental

ee, fall, the intelligent and the emotional. Objective stimuli be- _

Ong to the pains and pleasures of all parts of the body, and to the

gona general senses. To what extent are all these phases —

Consciousness susceptible of reproduction in the reminiscent

Part of memory? There is a kind of memory not strictly remi- —

miscent, which may be well termed, recognition. The difference

“

84 General Notes. [ January,

between reminiscence and recognition is this. In reminiscence

the peculiar form of consciousness is actually reproduced, accord-

ing to the law of associated ideas ; in recognition the recurrence

of the original stimulus is necessary to arouse memory ; other-

wise the sensation would not return to consciousness. The for-

mer is evidently the stronger and truer form of memory, and as it

answers our purpose best, and is most easily examined, I confine

my attention to it for. the present.

This much being understood, it appears to me that the follow-

ing propositions may be maintained :-

at objective impressions are less profound than subjective,

the capacity for reminiscence being the index.

II. That of the objective, those introduced by the special sen-

.ses are more profound than those introduced by the general

senses.

III. That of the former, those introduced by supposed vibra-

tions (sound, sight) are more profound than those produced by

supposed contact of matter (taste, smell).

IV. That of subjective impressions, those produced by acts of

intelligence are more readily and exactly reproduced, than are

those produced by the emotions.

These propositions might be illustrated at great length, but for

the present I content myself with the following:

II. The pleasures and pains of general sensation cannot be re-

produced by an act of memory. No one can reproduce any par-

ticular pain for instance. It is probable that pleasures and pains

which are characteristic (locality being left out of account), can be

more or less recognized on their recurrence, showing that they

make a real, but comparatively slight impression on the physical

basis ofconsciousness.

the reproduction is very imperfect; and although the reproduc-

tion of visible objects is, in most people, more distinct, it is short

of the reality of seeing. `

IV. Mnemonic reproduction of an emotion is not difficult, but

falls short of the emotion itself, even in the most pronounced

cases. Although emotions leave behind them deep impressions,

they are plainly evanescent, in some persons more so than in

others. Nevertheless a reproduced emotion is more distinctly like

the original than is a reproduced sight.

Of processes of the intelligence, those of the imagination are

` reproduced with great precision and clearness in most persons,

but not more so than processes of reason. It is only in the intel-

ligence that it is safe to say that the reproduction or reminiscence

is identical with its original. It is true that the impression may

be evanescent here also, but it is less so than in the case of am

i i il ll ll

1886. | Anthropology. 85

emotion. It is only in bad mental health that association fails to

revive completely a process of intelligence. It is a consequence of

this fact that intelligence is more cumulative in its character than

emotion, and much more so than pleasure or pain. Could we re-

produce in our consciousness sights, sounds and sensations as

truly as we do thoughts, we would be different beings from what

we are. And were they cumulative in our consciousness in the

same sense that thoughts are, we would be still more different.

Thus there seems to be a relation between the nature of stimuli

and their effects on consciousness, which may perhaps be formu-

lated as follows: The persistence of an impression on the physical

basis of consciousness is in inverse proportion to its intensity in con-

sciousness. Thus the most violent and least permanent of impres-

sions are molar, as in physical sensations. The intermediate are

those of such special senses as are supposed to be the result of ex- -

terior vibrations. The most delicate and the permanent, are those

produced by the supposed extremely rapid vibrations of living

brain-tissue. These create an accustomed channel of apparently

greater perfection of construction than do the more violent forms

of consciousness, which are therefore longer preserved, and more

readily followed by new arrivals of consciousness. The reason

for this is to be found in the probable fact, which is also supported

y other considerations, that the more violent forms of conscious-

hess destroy more tissue, while the most delicate forms destroy

less, rendering rearrangement more easy.

these considerations are of course applicable only to new stim-

uli, which are not mere repetitions of old ones, and are especially

not applicable to the secondary stimulus furnished by reminis-

cence itself, in which are to be included dreams. That the mate-

rials of thought are often only reminiscences is no objection to

the theory here presented; for the processes, and conclusions of

thought are perfectly new experiences when first performed and

attained. And the precision with which intelligent thoughts are

reproduced is a guarantee of their persistence, since each remi-

niscence acts in some degree as a new stimulus. This is true of

the simplest processes of intelligence in the lowest types of mind.

€ can derive some hints from these considerations, as to the

oe of temporary and permanent states of consciousness.—

- Cope.

ANTHROPOLOGY .'

: oe PLummets.—In the summer of 1884 Mr. H. W. Hen-

nape Spent a portion of his vacation in Southwestern California,

while there was enabled to gather some information from the

yta Barbara Indians concerning the so-called stone plummets.

hi cy have been called sinkers, plummets, sling-shots, bolas, spin-

'ng-weights, fetishes and sorcery-stones. With reference to —

"Edited by Prof. Oris T: Mason, National Museum, Washington, DC. —

86 General Notes. [ January,

these objects Mr. Henshaw says: “ The moment the stones were

shown to the Santa Barbara Indians, and without leading ques-

tions from me, I was told that they were “medicine or sorcery

stones,” used by the medicine men in making rain, in curing the

sick and in various ceremonies.” This opinion is maintained by

the writer. A very ingenious supplement to this theory is sug-

gested by Mr. John Murdoch, to the effect that objects of this

kind were primarily sinkers. and that handed down to their pres-

ent owners they would become invested with great sacredness.

Assuming this, “it would eventually follow that the groove

having no longer a special function would either disappear en-

tirely or be only slightly indicated.”

Potynesta.— The nineteenth volume of the Encyclopedia

Britannica contains an extended article by S. J. Whitmee on the

Polynesian peoples. There are three different types inhabiting

these islands belonging to the two distinct divisions, the dark

and the brown. These three types are the Papuan, the Sawaiorl

or brown Polynesians and the Tarapon or Micronesians, Mr.

Whitmee’s table given below shows his conception of the rela-

tionship of the various groups of islands to his three types:

aces. Countries where found.

Austral Australia,

: Andaman Is

Brown people: | <r { Samang, etc

Negrito-Polyne- Aru Is.

sians Western New Guinea.

Papuan Solomon Is., etc.

New Hebrides, etc.

Fiji

Indo-Pacific | | Samoa, etc.

Í Hawaii

Races of f Sawaiori -4 Cook Is.,

Society Is., etc

Men, | New Zealand.

Dark people: Malagasy Madagas

Malayo-Polyne- 4 Formosan Formosa.

sians ; Malayan { Malays of Sumatra, etc.

jra ewm

Caroline Is

Tarapon | Marshall Is,

Gilbert Is.

The history and migrations of the Sawaiori race are discussed

very thoroughly. To the names Tarapon (from Tarawa and Ponape)

and Sawaiori (from Samoa, Hawaii and Maori) objections of # —

potent character have been raised, but it is impossible.to find añ —

aboriginal word to cover the ground, and the question is purely —

one of scientific priority. i

ANNUAL REPORT OF ProGrEss.—The editor of these notes has |

for many years taken great pleasure in publishing a record daf

_ progress in anthropology for each year, with the resources at his _

= control. -= The time will soon come when this work will be done _

1886. } Anthropology. 87

systematically and at greater length, but until that time arrives

ome one must do the pioneer work. The board of regents of

the Smithsonian Institution have changed their year from the

fiscal to the calendar, making it necessary to hand in manuscript

earlier. All anthropologists are most cordially requested to send

to my address the titles of all their publications.

Tue “Inpian Locat Names,” recently published by a school-

teacher of York, Pennsylvania, Mr. Stephen A. Boyd, is a rather

extensive collection of North American local names of Indian

origin (there are but a few Central and South American names in-

serted), of which the interpretation is added or attempted. In an

appendix we find etymologies of a number of topographic names

from the Eastern hemisphere also. The undertaking is laudable,

though difficult; for the compiler should not only be a copyist of

etymologies given by others, but we expect him to be able to

judge, which one of the ten or twelve explanations of one name

is the correct one, and to do that he must have some knowledge of

the language to which the name belongs. The local names of

North America belong to more than 150 different dialects, and of

all of these he who knows enough to passa judgment on this mat-

ter, may fairly be regarded as the Pico de la Mirandola or the

Mezzofanti of American linguistics. Mr. Boyd is not a man of this

sort ; for he does not even give the name of the language from which

his copied interpretations are taken, and moreover we are often

left the choice between three or four totally diverse etymologies

of the same name. But in the preface he is candid enough to give

his scientific authorities, which form quite an extensive list—

Albert S. Gatschet.

ÅNTHROPOLOGICAL News.—In Vol. 106 of the Transactions

of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, philol.-hist. department

(Vienna, 1884), Professor Dr. Friedrich Miiller has published

the paradigms of several Koloshian (or Thlinkit) nouns and

verbs, based upon data contained in a rare publication of

the priest, J. Wenjaminow (St. Petersburg, 1846). Guided by

e principles governing the grammar of agglutinative lan-

guage in general, Professor Miiller by his publication intends

to rectify several statements made by Professor Dr. A. Pfitz-

maier upon the same linguistic subject. The Abnaki dia-

lect of the Passamaquoddy river, Maine, has been made the sub-

ject of an article read before the American Philosophical Society

of Philadelphia, on Feb. 6, 1885, by Abbie Langdon Alger. This —

article consists of a vocabulary of words, phrases and sentences, in

_all about 450 items on fifteen pages; the accentuation is indicated _ ne

by signs of length or macrons upon the vowels. The terms are —

not given after certain categories of objects, as parts of body, w .

lationships, etc., and this makes it difficult to find in the long

list any word that may be looked for. It would have been pret oe

88 General Notes. [January,

erable to arrange the terms in alphabetical order. Nearly one

hundred geographic names from the State of Minnesota have been

- traced to their origin in the Dakota language in the thirteenth

annual report of the State geologist of Minnesota, Professor N.

H. Winchell (1884, pp. 104-112, 8vo). The author of the trea-

tise, Professor A. W. Williamson, gives evidence of assiduous work

in tracing the etymologies of all these village, lake and river

names. The usual spelling of local names of Indian origin gen-

erally differs from their pronunciation by the Indians, which is

the correct one; this Indian mode of spelling has therefore been

added to each name, whenever there was necessity for it. His re-

mark, that “ most Dakotas very slightly nasalize all their vowels,”

must be, we think modified by adding the statement, that they do

not nasalize the vowels in every word of the language, but ina

large number of them. Recent numbers of the Bulletin of the

Torrey Botanical Club, New York, contains linguistic inquiries

into the origin of plant names. Thus we find disclosures upon

so-called Southern moss, Tillandsia, upon ginkgo (Salisburia adian-

tiflora), Cintractia, Savoyanne, a species of Coptis; this name is

traced by W. R. Gerard, of New York, to a term appearing in sev-

eral of the northern Algénkin dialects. All the above will be

found in the July number of 1885. In the August number Mr.

Gerard has an interesting article upon the /zdian peach, which he

states was introduced into North America both by way of Mexico

and the Atlantic seaboard. The Indian equivalents are given at the

close of the article-— Albert S. Gatschet.

MICROSCOPY .!

Tue Eve oF [nsects.—The following is a summary of some of -

the methods employed by S. J. Hickson? in the study of the eye

of Musca vomitoria :

1. For making sections of the eye, it is best to dissect away the

posterior wall of the cranium, and then expose it to the fumes of.

an osmic acid (I p. c.) solution, 40 minutes, then to wash in 60 p.

c. alcohol for a few minutes, and finally, to harden in absolute

alcohol.

2. The ribbon method of sectioning can be employed with this

species; but with most insects, owing to the hard chitinous cra-

nium, it is necessary to cut, with the knife set obliquely, so as to

get a long sweep at each stroke, and to remove the sections one

by one. i

i The best method of depigmenting, is that of exposing the

sections to nitrous fumes. e sections are fixed on the slide

with P. Mayer’s albumen fixative, the paraffine removed with tur-

pentine, the turpentine driven off by absolute alcohol, and then

1 Edited by Dr. C. O. WHITMAN, Mus. Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.

1 Quart. Journ. Mic. Sc., xxv, April, 1885, p. 243. *

1886. } Microscopy. 89

the slide inverted over a capsule containing go p. C. alcohol to

which a few drops of strong nitric acid have been added. Copious

fumes are given off, and the pigment dissolves. The action can

be arrested at any moment by washing with neutral alcohol.

4. The sections are next stained with hematoxylin or with any

other solution. The best results were obtained with hematoxylin

made after Mitchell’s' formula.

For teasing the best solution is chloral hydrate. The prepara-

tion is left in a 5 p. c. solution for twenty-four hours, and then

teased with needles and mounted in glycerine.

GRENACHER’S METHODS OF PREPARING THE ARTHROPOD EYE.’

Hardening Fluids —Chromic acid and its salts produce a coarse

granulation, and on this account must be considered objection-

able. Oxalic acid, in aqueous or alcoholic solution, as recom-

mended by M. Schultze and Steinlin, gives good results in some

cases, bad in others. Picric acid gives wholly unsatisfactory

preparations, while picro-sulphuric acid works well in many

cases. The latter fluid, cannot, however, be used with most

of the Crustacea, as here the integument contains calca-

reous salts which react with the acid to produce crystals of

gypsum and carbonic acid, both of which work injury to the soft

tissues. Merkel’s chrom-platinum solution gives excellent results

with some simple eyes (e. g. Phalangium and Acilius larvz), but is

unsatisfactory in the case of spiders and with compound eyes.

smic acid, so highly recommended by M. Schultze, while it has

some valuable qualities, is, on the whole, not very serviceable. It

preserves, to a certain extent, the character of the fresh tissues, -

but it renders the pigment less easily soluble, lessens important

differences in refrangibility (e. g. between the rhabdomeres and

the protoplasm of the cells), and besides leaves the preparation

brittle, so that good sections are not easily obtained.

he most serviceable hardening fluid for the compound eye is

alcohol (70 p. c.—90 p. c.). The hyaline rhabdomeres generally re-

main clear and transparent, but lose their color and often a part of

their refrangibility.

Bleaching—The pigment is dissolved very rapidly by caustic

potash, but this agent destroys almost equally rapidly other parts,

even to the chitinous parts. The strength first recommended by

Moleschott, 30-35 p. c., allows time for examination in detail.

e best means of bleaching is found in nitric acid, first recom-

mended for this purpose by Gottsche, Gottsche used the full —

strength, M. Schultze, 25 p. c.; Grenacher employed 20-25 p. C» —

adding a drop to the sections lying in dilute glycerine, under the ©

Cover-glass. The demonstration of nuclei by means of the ordi-

„The Science Monthly, March, 188

= organ der Arthropoden,” p. 22-25, 1879.

* Mil. Arch, 1852, p. 486. p> é P 5

go General Notes. [January,

nary dyes, after the use of nitric acid, is very difficult. This can

be accomplished, however, in the following simple way: Add

only a trace of nitric acid to the prepared section, and leave it 12-

24 hours. The pigment dissolves slowly, and is taken up by the

nuclei, and thus acts as a stain. The preparations are not beau-

tiful, but are quite clear and distinct, and can be mounted without

danger of disturbing the pigment. A similar proceeding (pig-

ment dissolved by acetic acid) has been described by Leydig.’

The following is another mixture employed by Grenacher, as

given by Carrière :

Glycerine

Alcohol (80 p. ee 2

Hydrochloric aci

pets

The preparations remain in this mixture until the pigment

changes color and becomes diffuse.

METHOD oF EXAMINING THE REFLEX IN THE CompouND EYE

oF InsEcTts.—Lowne® recommends the substitution of a reflecting

ophthalmoscope for the eye-piece of a microscope. “ By this

means a bright luminous spot may be observed as a real image

in the tube of the instrument. A quarter objective must be used,

and the mirror of the ophthalmoscope must be strongly illumi-

nated. The microscope is then focused so that a real image of

the corneal facets is seen between the objective and the eye of the

observer. By bringing the object-zlass gradually nearer to the

insect’s eye the reflex will come into view. The reflex appears

as a disk having a fiery glow, in moths, and as a bright ruby spot

in the cabbage butterfly. Sometimes six spots, surrounding a

central spot, are seen in the eye of the insect; perhaps these are

diffraction-images. A similar appearance is seen when the eye of

this insect is observed by the naked eye, except that the spots

are black. * * * The reflex seen with the micro-opthalmoscope

is green in Tipula, and bright yellow in the diurnal flies. Colore

diffraction-fringes are usually present around the central bright

spot in both these insects; but the central image is sometimes

surrounded by a perfectly black ring.”

“ The manner in which the luminous reflex scintilates is very

suggestive of an alteration in the focal plane of the dioptric struc-

tures under the control of the insect.”

The color of the reflex obtained is supposed to depend on the

color of the fluid contents of the “ spindle” (“ Rhabdom” of Gren-

acher), while the reflex itself is due to reflection from the spindles,

which, in moths, are surrounded by very close parallel tracheal

vessels, which form a very perfect reflector.

The reflex disappears very quickly even in diffused daylight,

1 Auge der Gliederthiere, p. 41.

2 Die Sehorgane der Thieré, p. 205, 1885.

3 Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. Second Ser., Zoology. Vol. 11. Part 2, p. 406-7-

Dec., 1884.

1886. | Microscopy. QI

but can be restored by keeping the insect in the dark for half an

hour. The disappearance of the reflex in the light is due to the

contraction of the pigmented iris cells.

METHOD oF ISOLATING THE DIOPTRIC LAYERS OF THE CoM-

POUND Eyvr.—Gottsche’ was the first who succeeded in isolating

the whole dioptric portion of the compound eye, so that the cor-

neal facets and the cones could be examined zz sítu. The isola-

tion of the corneal layer alone is more easily effected; this had

already been accomplished by Leeuwenhoek, Baker, Brants and

Gruel, who examined with the microscope the images produced

by the corneal facets.

Gottsche took the eye of a fly, and separated the inner wall, so

that only the cornea with the optical apparatus remained. Hold-

ing the cornea fast by one end, he next removed the red portion

of the eye, z.¢, the retinule. These break off at the inner ends

of the cones, leaving the cornea with the cones intact. The

preparation is next laid on a slide with the convex side of the

cornea down (there should be just glycerine enough beneath the

cornea to make it adhere to the slide). A cover-glass is then

placed over the preparation, with care to leave the concave upper

side filled with an air-bubble. Slight pressure on the cover-glass

will usually be found sufficient to create the air-bubble. If no

undue’ pressure has injured the cones, the preparation is now

ready for examination with the microscope. The tube of the

microscope may now be placed so that the hexagonal facets are

in focus, and then raised until the inner (upper) ends of the cones

become visible, but not sharply focused. If any object, e.g., a

Steel pen, is now held between the mirror and the preparation, a

minute inverted image of the same will be seen in each facet.

Grenacher thinks the contents of the cones (“ pseudocones”)

wouid escape by Gottsche’s method, so that the experiment would

really amount to no more than that of Leeuwenhoek, Baker, &c.

Grenacher (Das Sehorgan d. Thiere, p. 148), taking the eye

of acrepuscular or nocturnal moth that had been hardened in

cohol, cuts off a section with a sharp knife, places it on a slide

with the convex corneal surface below, and then removes the pig-

ment by a careful use of nitric acid. With this preparation he

repeats the experiment of Gottsche, and finds that the images fall

not behind nor in the ends, but near the middle of the

cones. This position of the images, at points where there are

no percipient elements, is held by Grenacher to be fatal to the —

view that they are seen by the insect. According to Lowne’s’

view, the retinula constitute a second refractive system which >

Serves to magnify and erect the images formed within the cones, —

So that the whole visual field consists of a mosaic of erect images.

, Mill. Arch., 1852, p. 488, 489.

. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., p. 389. Dec., 1884.

92 Scientific News, | January,

He places the retina behind the basilar membrane, precisely

where it was supposed to be by Gottsche.

THE SAC-LIKE NATURE OF THE Wincs oF InsEcts—Mr. G. Dim-

mock showed the two halves of a split wing of Attacus cecropia, in

which the two layers of the wing had been separated by the follow-

ing mode: The wing from a specimen that has never been dried is <

put first into seventy per cent alcohol, then into absolute alcohol,

and from the latter, after a few days’ immersion, into turpentine. ,

After remaining a day or two in turpentine, the specimen is

plunged suddenly into hot water, when the conversion of the tur-

pentine into vapor between the two layers of the wings so far

separates these layers that they can be easily parted and mounted

in the usual way as microscopical preparations on a slide.

:0:

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

—No glaciers exist in the United States but those of the Pacific

coast, as only here the atmospheric conditions are favorable, and

the ice-streams of Mt. Hood are the only ones on this coast

easily reached. Down far below the snow line, great seas of ice

push their way through valleys they have cut for themselves.

further down; and from the wedge-shaped snout of the ice giant

pours a deluge of water, while down its face rains a shower of —

sand and rocks. The water assorts the debris, soon dropping the

bowlders, carrying the coarse sand further, and bearing to the

Columbia much of the ashy sand that is filed off by the bottom

of the glacier—VPortland Oregonian.

_ — Professor W. A. Rogers, of the Harvard Observatory, has

reported to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Bos-

‘1G, Dimmock, Py: sche, May, 1884, P. 170. Z

1886, ] Scientific News. 93

ton, the results of his observations on the transmission of shock

from the Flood rock explosion.

The air-line distance between the observatory in Cambridge

and Flood rock is 190 miles, and the observations were timed as

follows: Disturbance first seen, 11.17.14; instant of maximum

disturbance, 11.18.03; disturbance ceased, 11.20,

The first vibration perceived was about a thousandth of an inch,

and recurred at intervals for nearly two minutes, the greatest

swaying of the mercury being over a space of one five-hundredth

of an inch. :

In this connection it is interesting to note that General Abbot

reported that the shock from 50,000 pounds of dynamite, exploded

in 1876 at Hallet’s Point, was transmitted through the drift for-

mation of Long Island, at the rate of 5300 feet per second for 13%

miles, Assuming the figures of the Cambridge report as correct,

and that the mine at Flood rock was exploded at 11.14, seventy-

fifth meridian time, it took the wave just 194 seconds to travel

190 miles, or at the rate of 5120 feet per second. This is very

near the rate of transmission observed by General Abbot, when

the greatly increased distance is taken into account.—Zxchange.

can the other three parts, The present part is edited by Drs. oo

Mayer and Giesbrecht. oe

— Carl von Gumppenberg, of Munich, is preparing a mono- Cla

Staph of the geometrid moths of the northern hemisphere, and

94 Proceedings of Scientific Societies, [January,

would like to receive from American entomologists copies of their

papers containing descriptions of new species of this group issued

since the publication, in 1876, of Packard’s monograph of Ameri-

can geometrids.

— The lecture course of the New York Academy of Sciences

opened on December 14th, by a lecture on the genealogy of the

Mammalia by Professor E. D. Cope. The next lecture will be

January 11th, 1886, by Professor E. S. Morse, on Prehistoric Man

in America.

— Professor Joseph Prestwich has a treatise on geology in the

Clarendon Press. He advocates non-uniformitarian views of

geology.

— Professor H. Weyenburgh died at Haarlem, July 25. He

was professor of zoology in the university of Cordova, Argentine

republic. He did a great deal for progress in his science, and of

a set of thorough-going entomologists in that country he was

chief.

: :0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

THE INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS, at Berlin, Sept.

th to Oct. 3, 1885.—The third and most important session of

the International Geological Congress, which was instituted by an

American committee of the A. A. A. S., at its Buffalo meeting in

1876, has just been held.

The first session at Paris, in 1878, was really a pour parler

which broke ground. The next session at Bologna, in 1881,

accomplished something, but was especially useful in preparing

for the work of the session just closed by deciding to produce a

geological map of Europe on a scale of ysoo000, and entrusting

its execution to one committee, while another was appointed to

devise some scheme for unifying the nomenclature and, where

possible, of fixing the limits of various congeries of beds which

had heretofore been differently understood by different geologists.

The obstacles which faced these committees will be at once under-

stood from this bare statement and will modify any hasty impres-

sion that, in fact, very little has been accomplished. |

The two committees, or a majority of members of each, met at

Foix, and at Zurich, during the four years which intervened be-

tween the Congresses of Bologna and Berlin, and the action of

the congress which has just ended was almost exclusively con-

fined to the propositions made in the printed reports of these

committees. `

Those who arrived in Berlin some days before the opening of

the congress found, at the superb Bergakademie on the Invaliden

1886. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 95

strasse, a bureau organized to examine the credentials of dele-

gates and provide each with the necessary card and receipt for the

ten marks cotisation, besides a medal in silver bearing the inscrip-

tion on one side: “ Geologorum Conventus. Mente et Malleo,”

with the conventional schlagel und eisen crossed and surrounded

by a wreath of oak. n the other side, within a similar wreath

were the words: “ Berlin, 1885.” The medal was suspended by

a white satin ribbon and worn on the lapel of the coat for identifi-

cation on excursions, etc.

A programme of the order of events may be thus condensed:

Monday, Sept. 28, at 10 A. M., meeting of the council at the Reich-

stagsgebaude; 5 P.M. social reunion of the members of the con-

gress in the’ante-chamber of this palace. Tuesday, Sept. 29, If

A. M., Opening of the congress; 2 P.M., visit to the Bergakademie

to view the collections and the objects sent to the congress” Wed-

nesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, sitting of the congress

at 2 P.M. 7 P.M. Saturday, close of the congress. Sunday, 9 A.M.

excursion to Potsdam. Then followed announcements of the

excursions to the Hartz, to Stassfurt, etc. This programme

was followed in the main, only an extra session of the congress

being intercalated. The usual course was to devote two hours to

e discussion of the committees’ reports (2 to 4 P. M.), and the

last two hours (4 to 6 P. M.) to scientific discourses of various

delegates,

The weather during the entire week was very disagreeable,

cold and rainy. On Sunday morning after the close of the con-

gress, it promised to be fair, but only to deceive the hopes of those

who took part in the Potsdam excursion. The commencement of

this trip was very beautiful, but towards the close it degenerated

into a procession of dripping and shivering people who tried to

look as if it were pleasant in order not to offend their kind hosts.

The language of the congress had been decided upon as French,

and this, no doubt, accounts for the greater share taken by the

Swiss, Belgians, and French in the debates, than by the people of

other nationalities, The Germans, for instance, who outnumbered

l other nationalities taken together several times over, had only

one representative who managed the language with fluency and

led in debate—M. Hauchecorne, the active spirit of this con-

gress. It is true that M. Neumayer retorted very effectively once

to M. Lapparent, and his excellency v. Dechen spoke frequently,

if not easily; but Dr. Beyrich, the nominal president, was en-

urely unintelligible, and M. Stur was obliged to get a dispensation

€ congress and speak in German. :

port of Proceedings—On Tuesday evening at 6 o'clock, M.

ù enevier, of Switzerland, the secretary of the committêe appointed

a pee the European map, with a few preparatory words ex-

ie that what he was about to read did not emanate from

m but from the committee, presented this report.

96 Proceedings of Scientific Societies, [ January,

The committee appointed to prepare the map was thus consti-

tuted: Beyrich and Hauchecorne (formerly the sub-committee of

direction in Berlin), Germany ; Daubrée, France ; Giordano, Italy;

e Meeller, Russia; Mojsisovics, Austro-Hungary; Topley,

Great Britain; Renevier (secretary general), Switzerland. The

committee of direction had made an arrangement with D. Reimer

o., of Berlin, according to which this firm agreed to undertake

the publication of the map at its own risk, provided the committee

would guarantee them an edition of 900 copies at 100 francs a

copy, and would advance them sums on account.

The map is to consist of forty-nine sheets—7 in breadth and 7

in height. Each of these sheets is 48 by 53° and the whole of

them together will form a chart 3.36 meters high and 3.71 meters

broad. Professor Kiepert, of Berlin, is to prepare the topo-

graphic base, using for the purpose all data at his disposition,

both published and unpublished. Great Britain, France, Spain,

Italy, Austro-Hungary, Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia, each

takes 100 copies = 800. € remaining 100 copies are to be

divided between the six smaller States, Belgium, Holland, Den-

mark, Switzerland, Portugal, and Roumania. The central com-

mittee is to receive from each national committee the maps of its

country and to make them harmoniz

The report ends with the following six resolutions, which the

committee asked the congress to pass :

I. M. Karpinski will succeed M. de Moeller (resigned), in representing Russia

on the committe

Il, The Carbonic system (or Permo-carboniferous) shall be represented on the

map by three distinct shades of gray.

III. Brown shades will be applied to the “* Devonic.”

IV. The color to represent the “SiJuric” is left to the discretion of the com-

mittee,

V. The eruptive rocks shall be represented by seven tints i ight red

to dark-brownish red. z 7 oe

VI. The determination of the other questions mentioned in the report shall be left to

the discretion of the committee.!

Proposition I was adopted without dissent.

purely as a provisional

ent adopted in order to complete the iid X

Proposition 111 was agreed to. -

£; 4

0, compri eral matters about which the commit-

a. How are the terranes to be of which the

: o! ? c. How ?

to he represented when even their age is doana, c. s10W are measures

concerni TRE

ing the affiliations of which geologists differ (Gault, Rhetien, HEJ:

-æ

1886.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 97

Proposition tv, after strong opposition from Professor Hughes

and M. Jacquot, was finally so modified as to allow the com-

mittee to adopt it provisionally for the purposes of the map with-

out prejudging abstract scientific questionsat all, and thus carried.

Propositions v and vi were carried without objection. ~

Sept. 30, 1885, at 2.30 P. M., the congress reassembled to take

action on the report of the committee on the unification of no-

menclature which was then presented by M. Dewalque.

The reading of this report, which was much longer than the

other, was taken up at p. 13, A.

The thirteen pages of the report thus skipped had been in the

main adopted at the Bologna Congress, a few minor points having

been left for future adjustment. They concerned for the most part

definitions of terms such as “ group,” which it was advised should

be applied to the division of the highest order (e. g. secondary

group, etc.); the next division should be systems (Devonian sys-

tem, etc.); the third should be series (e. g. the coal measures sertes

of the Carboniferous system) ; the fourth division should be stages

(“étages ”) (millstone grit, stage, etc.); the division of the fifth

order was decided upon for French only, “ assise” or “ couches.”

Zone” should be used for a number of beds having one or more

fossils to characterize them, but it should be inferior as an order

of classification to “ stage.” “Bank” was selected to imply a bed

(couche or assise), thicker or more coherent than those in its vi-

cinity, among which it is intercalated. These and certain conclu-

Sions as to the application of the terminations “ary,” “ic,” a d

ian”—the first for the groups, the second for the series, and

the third for*the stages—completed the linguistic portion of the

report. It is to be observed that no adjective termination to pre-

cede system was proposed.

The remainder of the report, unacted upon, concerned subjects

partly implied in the later portions.

Archean—It was decided to give to the Pre-palzozoic rocks the

name Archzan instead of Primitive, and while recognizing three

divisions to allow each geologist to distinguish them by petro-

graphic characters.

_ Silurian —On the motion of Professor Archibald Geikie, the de-

cision as to the limits of the Silurian and Devonian is left till the

meeting of the congress in London in 1888, but the committee

on the chart has liberty to divide the lower system of the Palaeozoic

group into three parts of which the names will be determin

upon later.

VOL, XX.—no,. x, 7

98 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [January,

say, the system which includes the psammites of Condroz and

the upper Old Red” [the words “the Lower Carboniferous

(Kilborkan, Marwood, Pilton)” and “or the calciferous sand-

stone Dura Den” were stricken out of the committee’s resolution

at the request of Professor A. Geikie as not representing the real

associations of these beds].

Carboniferous.—The question of associating the Permian with

the Carboniferous provoked the most interesting discussion of the

congress, Stur of Vienna, Lapparent, Blanford, and Professor New-

berry spoke in favor ofsuch union. Hughes, Topley, Nikitin, anda

great many others spoke against the association. Professor New-

berry in the course of his remarks, said that “his honored col-

league, Professor Hall, was of the opinion that the Permian did

not exist in America, and that his own studies confirmed this

view.” M. Neumayr thought “the decision of such questions

as this should not depend upon a majority vote which would

change in each country, and after each eloquent speaker (referring

to M. Lapparent’s brilliant defense of the committee’s proposition).

This view was finally taken, and the congress adopted, with about

fiteen dissenting votes, the following proposition formulated by

M. Dewalque:

“The congress not wishing to pronounce an opinion on the

scientific question will leave the classification as it is.”

_ Triassic—After much debate the three-fold division of the

Triassic was agreed to, but without giving names to the divisions.

Jurassic—The division of this system into three was adopted,

but without specifying the names of the divisions.

It was agreed that each geologist might draw the upper hori-

zon of the lias where he thought best.

Cretaceous —It was agreed that the Gault should be joined to

the Cretaceous.

Tertiary.—-The divergence of views on this subject was so great

that M. Capellini then in the chair, cut short the whole ques-

tion by asking for a vote of confidence in the committee, which

was unanimously given.

Eruptives—Finally the seven-fold division of the eruptive rocks,

in as many tints of red, was carried without opposition.

This completed the serious geological work of the congress,

and it was then agreed to meet in London in 1888. A committee

consisting of Hughes, Geikie, Blanford and Topley was appointed

to make the necessary arrangements, and the congress adjourned.

During the course of the congress addresses were given by M.

Gaudry on certain reptiles; Newberry, on a new large Devonian

fish from America; Posepuy, on the fluid condition of the earth’s

interior; Ochsenius (in German), on the origin of salt deposits;

Neumayr, on the plan for the “ nomenclator palzontologicus,”

which he is compiling (and which the congress voted to publish

under its auspices and through the agency of a special committee

consisting of MM. Gaudry, Zittel, and Neumayr); M. Nikitin

opera ees

1886. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 99

presented his map of the Middle and Southeast Russia, including

the valley of the Volga; M. Vasseur, thirteen sheets of the

map of France; and Dr. Frazer, on behalf of Mr. McGee, pre-

sented an explanation of the methods employed by the director

of the United States Geological Survey. .

The delegation which represented the United States at this

congress consisted of Professor James Hall and Professor J. S.

Newberry, members of the original committee which suggested

the congress; Professor D. Ph. H. S. Williams and Professor D.

Sc. Persifor Frazer, who were elected by the American Associa-

tion for the Advancement of Science at its Ann Arbor meeting.

Besides this, Professor Brush was elected by the committee under

the powers granted to it. Mr. J. F. Kemp (assistant to Professor

Newberry), Mr. H. B. Patton (student), and Mr. H. E. Miller

(chemist), from America, also appeared on the roll of the congress.

The last two named were not known to the secretary, who can-

not say whether or not they attended the sittings. Mr. McGee,

representing Maj. Powell and the U.S Geological Survey, arrived

after the sessions had commenced.—From Science, Oct. 30, Persi-

for Frazer, Secretary of the American Committee delegates.

[Note—A more detailed report, giving the debates in part, will

appear shortly in the Am. Fourn. of Sci. and Arts. In Science for

ec. 11, Professor Dewalque does not agree as to the action on

paragraph C.c. under the Devonian. I am sorry not to feel au-

thorized to change it. Several members of the congress think

that the action was as above stated.—P. F., Dec. 15, 1885.]

College Observatory, New lines on the spectra of certain stars, by

OT Sherman (by invitation); Certain stars observed by Plam-

steed, and supposed to have disappeared, by C. H. F. Peters ;

Remarks upon the international geographical congress at Berlin,

with a brief historical notice of the origin of the congress, by

James Hall; Notes on some points in the geology of the Mohawk

valley, by James Hall; When shall the astronomical day begin ?

y Simon Newcomb; Primordial rocks among the Waffinger val-

ley limestones near Poughkeepsie, N. Y., by William B. Dwight

(by invitation); The errors of star catalogues, by C. H. F, Peters;

reliminary report on the investigation relating to hereditary

deafness, by A. Graham Bell; The new star in the nebula of An-

_dromeda, by C. A. Young; Recent progress in economic ento-

mology, by J. A. Lintner (by invitation); Remarks on the stone

ruins of the Colorado and the Rio Grande, by J. W. Powell;

100 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [Jan., 1886.

‘The New York State herbarium, by Charles H. Peck (by invita-

tion); The formation of a polar catalogue of stars, by T. H. Saf-

ford (by invitation); A section through the southern tertiaries,

by Otto Meyer (by invitation); Remarks upon the Lamellibran-

chiate fauna of the Devonian rocks of the State of New York,

and the results of investigations made for the palzontology of the

State, by James Hall; Recent discoveries of gigantic placoderm

fishes in the Devonian rocks of Ohio, by J. S. Newberry; The

flora of the Cretaceous clays of New Jersey, by J. S. Newberry.

ACADEMY OF ScIENCES OF InDIANA.—The preliminary circular

proposing the formation of a State Academy of Science of Indi-

ana, issued by authority of the Brookville Society of Natural

History, has elicited such a general response in favor of the move-

ment that there has been issued a circular calling a meeting of all

of the people of Indiana interested, to be held in the criminal

court room (Hall of Representatives) of the Marion county

court house, at Indianapolis, Ind., on Tuesday, December 29,

1885, at 2 o'clock P.M.

In order that a proper understanding may be had of the present

state of scientific study in Indiana, it has been thought advisable

to ask from competent authority a statement of the present con-

dition of each branch of science that is being studied within the

borders of our State. The following persons have kindly con-

sented to present papers upon the several subjects mentioned.

Richard Owen, M.D., Sketch of the work accomplished for

Natural and Physical Science in Indiana; David S. Jordan, M.D.,

Icthyology ; Professor John M. Coulter, Botany ; Professor J. P.

Naylor, Physics; R. T. Brown, M. D., Geology; Professor O. P.

Jenkins, Lower Invertebrates; E. R. Quick, Mammalogy ; Pro-

fessor Robert B. Warder, Chemistry; Professor O. P. Hay, Her-

petology; Daniel Kirkwood, LL.D., Astronomy; P. S. Baker,

M.D., Entomology ; Maurice Thompson, Mineralogy; Rev. D.

R. Moore, Conchology; Sergeant Orin Parker, Meteorology ;

J. B. Conner, Statistics; A. W. Butler, Ornithology.

New York Acapemy oF Sciences, Nov. 9.—The following

paper was presented: Description of some gigantic placoderm

fishes recently discovered in the Devonian of Ohio (with illustra-

tions), by Dr. J. S. Newberry.

ov. 16.—The following paper was read: The rise and pro-

gress of invertebrate Zoology, by Dr. J. B. Holder.

Nov. 23.—The following paper was read: The preservation of

building materials by the application of paraffine, as recently used

Sper a SeS ERS with apparatus and experiments), by

Nov. 30.—The following papers were presented : On meteoric

irons (1. From Glorieta mountain, Santa Fé county, New Mexico;

2. From Jenny’s Creek, Wayne county, West Va.), by Mr. Geo. F.

Kunz; Minerals of Harlem and vicinity, by Mr. B. B. Chamberlin.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VoL. xx.— FEBRUARY, 1886.—No. 2.

THE POST-MORTEM IMBIBITION OF POISONS.

BY GEORGE B. MILLER, M.D.)

HE subject is one not only of a highly interesting character

to the scientific observer, but also an important one from its

medico-legal aspects. Perhaps the questions which very natu-

rally first arise, viz., What is its nature and what are its medico-

‘legal relations? can be best answered by the following hypo-

thetical case, which it is hoped will serve to illustrate the sub-

ject in a manner best calculated to aid in its thorough compre-

hension.

Suppose a person dies of a natural cause, and is buried in the

usual manner in conformity with the established customs of his

country, the body to all external appearances not having been

tampered with. Also, that, after the lapse of a few weeks, an indi-

vidual who had previously introduced into the body, per mouth

or rectum, a poison or poisonous solution for the purpose of ac-

cusing an innocent person of a horrible crime, should quietly

circulate a report that the deceased had been poisoned, and inti-

mate that the crime had been committed by such and such a per-

son. With what remarkable lightning rapidity does a report of

such a sensational character as this travel from one individual to

another, rarely ever finding the doors barred, the contrary being —

the tule! This report would in a short space of time reach the

tribunal of | justice, cognizance would be manifested by the

Proper authorities, who would order the body to be exhumed,

the various organs removed and given in charge of a reliable F

expert, who would subject them to a ĉhemical analysis, which

1 Inaugural thesis presented to the Faculty of the Medical Department, University -o :

of Pennsylvania, A. D., 1885.

VOL. atao, 11. A

102 The Post-Mortem Imbibition of Poisons. (February,

would reveal the presence of the suspected poison. The subject

is not of very recent date as many are led to suppose from the

meagre account given, if given at all, in some of the standard

text-books on toxicology of the present day. As far back as the

time of Orfila, when he swayed as chief of the toxicologists, was

the subject known, and indeed it appears that almost cotempora-

neous with the birth of toxicology, already an account of the

subject appeared.

In order to see in what light the subject was regarded in

former times, extracts from the writings of a few authors will be

here made, as to go over them all would involve a great amount

of unnecessary labor. How eloquent is the language of Orfila

on the subject, and in what an exceedingly small number of

words does he illustrate the whole subject (Orfila on Poisons).

He writes: “ Suppose some wretch, with the design of accusing

an innocent person of the crime of poisoning, should introduce

into the digestive canal of a dead body a poisonous solution,

which would afterwards penetrate by imbibition even to the

remotest organ from which it would be subsequently extracted

by the experts, and would lead them to the conclusion that they

were dealing with a veritable case of poisoning.” From the fol-

lowing it will be readily seen that the celebrated chemist, Sir

Robert Christison, although not in possession of any evidence of

crime having been practiced, yet was fully aware of the circum-

stances under which it might perchance be committed. Says

Christison: “ Although I have never been able to find any

authentic instance of so horrible an act of ingenuity having been

perpetrated, it must nevertheless be allowed to be quite possible.”

The realization of the greatness of the crime does not seem to

be apparent to the wretch who is meditating the commission of

it, brooding over the insults of another, and holding malice

against a fellow-man or especially (as it affords a better chance

. for the full performance of his crime), against one of his relatives,

and ravenously seeking retaliation; for if it was realized, how is

it possible that an individual, capable of the perception of right

and wrong, living in society, constituting a part thereof, mutually

dependent on and cooperative with his neighbor, could use such

means for the wicked fugtherance of his ends?

That there have existed in times past among the communities

of the civilized nations of the world, individuals who haye har-

1886.] The Fost-Mortem Imbtbition of Fotsons. 103

bored such hatred toward their fellow-men that they have not

faltered in carrying their intentions into practice, is manifested

by the defences set forth in the trials of various murder cases,

which are recorded in the annals of the. tribunals of justice, not

only of the New but also of the Old World.

That in a number of murder cases the defence has been that

the poison was designedly introduced into the dead body for the

purpose of crimination is made apparent by the narration of the

following cases: Professor John J. Reese, M.D., in his article on

the Post-Mortem Imbibition of Poisons (Transactions of the

College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1877), relates a remarkable

case of alleged arsenical poisoning, which occurred in one of the

Western States. The suspicions were exceedingly strong that

the poison was introduced after death for various reasons, The

old man having been treated in his last illness for phthisis,

his physician testifying to his having died of this disease, and to

his having presented no symptoms of arsenical poisoning before

death

The body was buried four (4) years, during which time no sus-

picion of foul play appears to have been entertained. In the

meantime, the widow again married, and the suspicion of poison-

ing was bruited about. The woman was accused of the crime,

the body was exhumed, and a chemical analysis revealed the

presence of this poison in the stomach and liver. _

The defence was that the poison was designedly introduced

into the body not very long before the disinterment, the body

ing kept in a vault. The case, singularly enough, having had a

preliminary hearing, was abandoned.

Illustrative of the same, we have an article by Dr. Victor C.

ag (physician and surgeon, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Aug.

883): “ During the past six months there has been tried in this

B a murder case, in which the question arose whether arsen-

ious oxide could diffuse after death, after it had been mixed with

water, and injected into the rectum or mouth or both.”

Since direct experiments by others, and by the author himself,

as will be seen hereafter, seem to prove that the absorption

of poisons after death does take place, it must necessarily —

me an important factor how in such cases to differentiate

eet from post-mortem poisoning. The methods are

very limited. Perhaps the most reliable as well as the most con-

104 -= The Post-Mortem Imbibition of Poisons, [| February,

clusive evidence of ante-mortem poisoning are the symptoms

manifested by the patient before death. Of little less importance

is the revealing of the presence of the poison by chemical analy-

sis in the interior of a large organ, as for instance, the liver;

since it does not appear to be likely that a poison introduced after

death could penetrate by imbibition even to the interior of so

large an organ. That Professor Reese attaches much importance

to the detection of the poison within organs will become evident

by the following extract from the article before mentioned. Says

Professor Reese; “ If the poison were found on the exterior of the

organs only, and not in their interior, after a careful research, I

should regard it as a true case of ‘ Post-Mortem Imbibition.’”

In this connection a digression may be allowable relative to the

impregnation of a dead body from arsenical soil into which it is

sometimes unfortunately placed. In those cases, where owing to

suspicions of poisoning it becomes necessary to disinter a body

for legal purposes, it is often found that the coffin in which the

remains are deposited has burst open, thus allowing the contents

to come in contact and mingle with the soil (which in some rare

instances contains arsenic). At the trial of these cases the counsel

for the defendant, hard pushed for a defence, and whose only

resource lies in a choice between “insanity ” and “arsenical

impregnation from the soil,” in some cases selects the latter.

The actions of lawyers in setting forth such groundless defences,

being cognizant of the impossibility of the transudation taking

place, a and living in the light of present scientific knowledge,

might be looked upon as of doubtful propriety. Unfortunately, in’

order to show that such a course is frequently pursued, it is only

necessary to search the actions taken by the Commonwealth in

the trial of cases of this nature, when it will be found that along

with a chemical analysis of the organs, there is made also a

chemical analysis of the soil. Indeed, this mode of action was

taken in a recent case of arsenical poisoning occurring in this

city (Philadelphia), in which the prisoner, although twice con-

victed, has not as yet been sentenced, on account of the existence

of some of the so-called “technicalities.” From the following

opinions of certain toxicologists who have made it a study, it

will be seen that it is regarded as impossible for this contamina- |

tion to take place.

Professor Reese (Proceedings of College of Physicians and

Pq ame

BES pe ener a

1886.] The Post-Mortem Imbibition of Poisons. 105

Surgeons, 1877) says: “In the few cases in which arsenic has

been discovered in cemetery soils, it has invariably existed in the

insoluble state generally in combination with either lime or

iron. Indeed, it cannot be extracted from such soils even by

boiling water, but the agency of hydrochloric acid is required to

render it soluble; consequently, it is impossible that arsenic

should be capable of transudation from the soil into a dead

body.”

This assertion is corroborated by the direct experiments of

Orfila (Acad. of Med., June 29, 1847), who showed that bodies

buried in arsenical earth for a period of three (3) months, did not

acquire any arsenical impregnation from arsenical soil. But even

admitting that it is possible for a body to become impregnated

from arsenical soil, it could be easily determined in case a body

contained arsenic, whether it derived the poison by contamination

with earth, or whether the poison was introduced into the body;

by taking two samples of earth, one from the immediate contact

with the coffin, and the other from the same strata, but in an adja-

cent portion of the cemetery, and subjecting both to a chemical

analysis; if the analysis revealed the poison in the coffin soil, and

not in the adjacent soil, then it would be evident that the soil was

contaminated by the body and not the body by the soil.

With a view of determining whether it is possible for a poison

introduced into a dead body, to penetrate through the various

organs, and be recovered by chemical analysis, a series of experi-

ments were conducted.

A small dog was killed, and into the stomach was introduced,

by means of a flexible catheter, two ounces of water containing

twenty grains of arsenious oxide. The animal was placed ina.

Pine box, buried, and at the expiration of sixty days was

exhumed. The following organs, viz., the stomach, liver, kid-

neys, lungs, heart and brain, were then removed. On the surface

of the organs were observed brownish-black spots. The organs

were found to be in a remarkable state of preservation, especially

the kidneys. The brain was only slightly broken down, but the

dura mater was intact. A bright yellow spot of the size of a small

_ Pea was observed on the urinary bladder. }

€ organs removed were placed in separate glass jars, and

then subjected to a chemical analysis. The process employed

for the recovery of the arsenic being the “Frenious and Babo” or

106 The Post-Mortem Imiibition of Poisons. (February,

the hydrochloric acid and potassium-chlorate method, with the

purification method of Otto. These are as follows: “ The organ

is cut into small pieces, and hydrochloric acid and water added.

The mass is heated to near but not quite the boiling point ona

sand bath. Potassium chlorate is added, in portions, the mass

being stirred continually. The chlorine evolved disintegrates the

organic matter. The massis stirred and heated until all the chlo-

rine is driven off, and it becomes homogeneous. The volume is

kept up by adding water. Allow to cool and transfer to a moist :

linen strainer, and strain until the filtrate is clear, restraining all

that is turbid. The residue is washed well with water. The

arsenious oxide has been oxidized by the potassium chlorate

to arsenic oxide. Reduce to arsenious oxide by adding an

excess of a solution of sulphurous acid gas, the excess of gas

being known by the odor.

The mass is evaporated to twice the volume of hydrochloric

acid used; cool and filter if necessary. Thoroughly saturate while

warm with a washed stream of sulphuretted hydrogen, which will

throw down the arsenious oxide, organic matter, sulphur and the

sulphides of other metals. Filter, wash the residue until the

washings are free from chlorine. The residue is washed with a

few c. c. of water containing ammonium hydrate. The sulphide

of arsenic will be dissolved by the ammonia water and pass

through. Evaporate to dryness in a water-bath, and add a few

drops of nitric acid to destroy the organic matter; the nitric acid

will also oxidize the sulphide of arsenic to arsenic oxide. Evapo-

rate to dryness and repeat until the mass has a yellow color. To

the dry residue add a small quantity of a solution of potassium

hydrate and powdered carbonate of soda, and evaporate again.

The potassium hydrate will combine with the arsenic oxide, form-

ing potassium arsenate. Evaporate to dryness, and add three or

four drops of concentrated sulphuric acid. Heat on naked flame

until vapors of sulphuric acid cease to arise. The sulphuric acid

will clear the organic matter. Pulverize the residue if necessary,

add 25 c. c. of water, and one drop of sulphuric acid to acidulate.

Boil and filter. The filtrate which contains arsenic oxide should

be colorless. Reduce arsenic oxide to arsenious oxide by an

excess of a solution of sulphurous acid. Concentrate until all of.

the sulphurous acid is gone, and about 20 c. c. remain.

The reagents employed in the extraction of arsenic, themselves

1886, | The Post-Mortem Imbibition of Poisons. 107

frequently contain this substance, notably those of zinc and sul-

phuric acid; hence, it becomes necessary to test all reagents to

determine that they are absolutely free from this poison. None

but “chemically pure” reagents were employed, the sulphuric

acid being found to be such after subjecting it to Marsh’s test.

On the application of Reinsch’s test to the hydrochloric acid and

copper foil, they also proved to be reliable. Summary of results

obtained by chemical analysis of the organs removed from dog con-

taining arsenic: The extracts obtained from the stomach, liver,

kidneys, lungs, heart and drazz were subjected to Reinsch’s test,

and from a// of these organs arsenic was recovered. In each case

a sublimate was obtained on the side of the reduction tube, which,

placed under the microscope, revealed the presence of arsenic by

exhibiting many beautifully formed octohedral crystals. It should

be remarked that the results obtained from the examination of

these organs were about equally striking, with the exception of

the brain, which gave somewhat less marked reactions.

On examining the literature of the subject of the “ Post-

mortem imbibition of poisons,” it will become apparent that it

has not received the amount of attention it so justly deserves.

Indeed, so far as the writer has been able to learn the only inves-

tigations pertaining to the subject are those of Drs. Victor C.

Vaughn, Kedzie and George McCracken.

Dr. Vaughn in the first of his experiments (physician and sur-

geon, Ann Arbor, Michigan, August, 1883), used a musk-rat,

injecting into the mouth and rectum by means of a syringe fifty

(50) grains of arsenious acid suspended in cold water. The rat

was buried twenty-five (25) days, and the organs subjected to a

chemical analysis, which revealed the presence of this poison in

the kidneys, liver, lungs, stomach and contents, large intestine,

small intestine, heart and brain. In his second experiment a

cadaver was used, an unweighed quantity of arsenious oxide was

introduced into the mouth and rectum, the body being then

placed in a cellar for twenty-five (25) days. The brain was broken

down, and in a semi-fluid condition, the rest of the organs firm.

Chemical analysis revealed the poison in the right and left kid- _

ney, liver, lower lobe of right lung, heart, rectum, spleen, stomach]

Dr. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural College, working inde- ae

pendently » made experiments on a cat with like results. In again a

108 The Post-Mortem Imbilition of Poisons. (February,

referring to the results of the experiments by the writer, it will be

seen that arsenic was recovered from the drazu of the animal into

which this poison had been introduced. The fact that a poison,

introduced after death, can penetrate through the various tis-

sues and saturate the great nerve centers, protected and sur-

rounded as they are by a bony casing, must be looked upon as

an astonishing as well as an interesting fact. Upon this point Dr.

Reese (Transactions of College of Physicians and Surgeons,

1877), observes: “It is scarcely conceivable that a poison intro-

duced into a body after death could penetrate by imbibition

within the cavity of the cranium and spinal cord.”

In the experiments of Dr. Vaughn, the following explanation is

offered for having found arsenic in the brain, viz., “ In injecting

the solution into the mouth, the syringe used clogged up, and on

attempting to force it free, a portion of the fluid was observed to

flow from the nostrils, some of this fluid probably adhered to the

pharynx.”

In the writer's experiments, when the dog employed was being

placed in the box,a small amount of fluid was observed to trickle

from the nostrils. Whether the presence of arsenic in the brain

was due to the foregoing accident or not is uncertain. In a

series of experiments on “ Post-Mortem Imbibition of Poisons,”

Dr. Geo. McCracken introduced the three poisons, viz., arsenic,

tartar emetic and corrosive sublimate, and subsequently recovered

them by chemical analysis from several organs. ;

Though always allowable, it is not our purpose to nenit to

draw positive deductions from the facts adduced, but rather to

allow our own results, which have been gained by a strictly scien-

tific process, fo speak for themselves, In conclusion, however, it

may be remarked that the hypothesis that arsenic through the

process of post-mortem imbibition from the alimentary canal is,

by careful chemical analysis, discoverable in the brain, receives

entire confirmation from the P researches.

Ae RESO reap eT Sg

a a

1886. } Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. 109

ASCENT OF THE VOLCANO OF POPOCATEPETL.

BY A. S. PACKARD.

HIS famous volcano, called Popocatepetl from the Aztec

popoca, smoking, and ¢epet/, mountain, was the objective point

of my journey to the Mexican plateau. The Nevada de Toluca

I had seen a few days previous from the town of Toluca, on the

Mexican National Railway. This volcano, however, is not a sim-

ple conical peak, but its snow-covered dome rises 15,156 feet

above the sea, and out of a mountain mass with four lesser eleva-

tions about it. From Toluca the crater is seen to be a very large

one, and we were told that it is 1500 feet deep with a lake at the

bottom said to be two and a half miles across.

Orizaba we were yet to see; but nothing could, we thought,

exceed in interest the distant view of Popocatepetl from the top

of our hotel in the City of Mexico, as the setting sun gilded its

snowy dome, and as it went down painted its snow fields

with roseate hues. It is the grandest mountain summit of the

valley of Anahuac. It repeats, but with emphasis, the purity of

form and massiveness of Mt. Shasta, in Northern California. Its

twin sister, the volcano of Iztacihuatl, or the “ snowy woman,”

forms a part of the same isolated range—the Cordillera of Ahu-

_ alco—and was doubtless thrown up at the same time; but it has

no central dome cleaving the sky, the mountain mass extending

as a range running nearly north and south, with three broken

irregular snow-covered summits, of which the central is the high-

est, reaching’an altitude of 4786 meters or 15,705 feet above the

sea. The height of Popocatepetl has been variously estimated.

Humboldt placed it at 5400 meters, or 17,716 feet; Guyot gives

its altitude as 17,784 feet; Humboldt’s measurement combined

with those of two later observers, is 17,853 feet, while the French

savans of the Maximilian expedition put it as high as 18,362 feet.

The height of the City of Mexico above the sea is 7482 feet, so

that we had before us an ascent of a little over 10,000 feet. This

1S nearly 2000 feet less of an ascent than that of Mt. Shasta, which s

'S 14,442 feet high, while the plain out of which the California

volcano rises is about 2000 feet above the sea. oo ee

: For two days previous to starting we were occupied in arrang-

ing for the ascent. Our party consisted of three. Mr. F A. 7

Ober, author of the interesting Travels in Mexico, who had pe

IIO Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. (February,

viously made the ascent, kindly accompanied us to the snow line

as guide, interpreter and friend. We laid in supplies of boiled

chicken, other meats, bread and tea for our night at the ranch and

the noon lunch on the summit. By the kindness of Messrs. D. S.

Spaulding & Co., I obtained a letter from General Gaspar Sanchez

Ochoa, the proprietor of the mountain, to one of his employés,

Sr. D. Mariano Mendizabal, at Amecameca, who was ordered to

send his son Rafael to guide us to the summit. The day pre-

vious to leaving the City of Mexico I telegraphed to Senior Nor-

riega, a grocer at Amecameca, for horses.and guides for a party of

four. That evening the sun sat clear on Popocatepetl, and the

weather promised to be clear and fine on the morrow.

On the morning of March togth, after an early breakfast, we

drove to the' railroad station at San Lazaro, leaving it at 8 A. M.

The sky was a little overcast, but soon the sun came out clear

and hot. We soon crossed the edge of Lake Tescuco over a

causeway, along the canals traversed by Indian dugouts, over the

shallow reedy lake, in which were men and boys naked or stripped

to the knees, wading through the water, fishing in its shallow

depths with nets for shiners or axolotls. The track then leaves

the lake and its flaggy, reedy shores and passes over a broad dry

plain, the ancient bottom of Tescuco, the western portions of

which are said, by Humboldt, to have been covered with water in

1521. Here were to be seen the mounds of that busy ant, Po-

gonomyrmex occidentalis, so familiar a sight from Montana to

New Mexico and from Kansas to Reno, Nevada.

At the first station of Equipajes we get a fine view of Popo-

catepetl and Iztacihuatl, The railroad then skirts the bor-

ders of Lake Chalco, and we see upon our right many of the

famous floating islands covered with green flags and reeds, which

had survived since the time of Cortez. At the station of Ayotla

the Indians crowd about the train offering fishes wrapped in the

leaves of the pond lily, and here we bought half a dozen large

axolotls fora centapiece. We then passed within sight of Chalco,

the oldest Indian town of the valley of Anahuac. Amecameca,

the town where we take our guides and horses, is about forty

miles by rail from Mexico and 1274 toises or 8223 feet above the

sea. Itis the highest town in Mexico; its elevation renders —

1 The two others were Professor J. W. P. Jenks, of Brown University, and Hon.

‘Titus Sheard.

1886. | Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. III

it more salubrious and cooler than Mexico, being nearly 600 feet

higher than that city, and it is somewhat frequented by invalids

from the city in hot weather. Before reaching the town, how-

ever, we pass through foothills covered with a growth of pines

and oaks, with an intermixture of maguey or century plants

under cultivation. The scenery now becomes very grand as we

skirt along the ranges—from four to six—which are parallel with

IĪztacihuatl. At 10 A. M. both volcanic peaks were enveloped in

cumulus clouds, but they rolled away from the mountain of the

“white woman,” still, however, obscuring the snow-clad dome of

Popocatepetl. The massive base of Iztacihuatl below the clouds

was seen to be studded with conical peaks, any one of which

would be a prize in Maine or New Hampshire. As the train

stops at Amecameca we pass the hill of Sacramonte, covered

with a dense growth of noble cedars and pines surrounding the

chapel on the summit, and enter the railroad hotel at eleven

o'clock for dinner, first, however, regaling ourselves with the full

and superb view of Popocatepetl and its sister volcano, whose

serene heights now clear and well-nigh cloudless, looked down

upon the town spread out over the valley at their feet.

After dinner we met our guide Rafael with his men, horses and

pack mules at the grocery store of Sefior Francisco Norriega,

where we laid in additional provisions, and punctually at one

o'clock started for our camp at the base of the peak. Our party

consisted in all of seven horsemen, with two pack mules and

three mozos or guias on foot. A guia is an assistant guide, usu-

ally an Indian servant or mozo. For the benefit of any one in-

tending to make the ascent, I. give in a foot-note’ the particulars

of our outfit of guides, servants, etc., with the prices, being a

copy of the items in Rafael’s bill.

1 4 horses at $2.00 a day

eneeeeneeee

URS at BIOO ack vie eb eneeeneenes a 12 00

PMNS RE BECO cia voce pan seaccnens chet eee bes eens 6 00

1 barley for the horses and mules.........-++++- pasbucueuse 17s

6 pieces of leather for making sandals. .....- 7st ene ee

MOO WNW re Decl os Livers t ceakee eo A ae tweed. k5

S leather thongs... csceevcs «secur t eTo nituan ni nai a aaa 50

8 yards of cloth for wrapping the feet.....-+++++++++ RO ey

eee ee... evi ee Sie

A mozo to look after the horses at $3.00 a day.....-.- visst 6 00

Rafael Mendizabal Josan 10

se eee eee eee

112 Ascent of the Volcano of Fopocatepetl. [February,

We were urged to discard our shoes and let the guias wrap

our stockinged feet in rags with a pair of rough leather sandals,

but we preferred to wear over woolen stockings our ordinary

high shoes and over the latter a pair of arctics, and found that

they answered the purpose admirably in walking over the soft

snow and yielding sand of the peak, while our feet did not suffer

from the piercing cold winds of the early morning hours. We

had provided ourselves at Mexico with a pair of native blankets

for the bivouac at the ranch. Thick gloves are also needed,

while blue-glass goggles, which most of the party bought at

Norriega’s, are absolutely indispensable. It is impossible to walk

over the snow fields of Popocatepetl in the glaring sunshine with-

out them. I carried and tried to use a pair of colored eye-

glasses, but they would slip off while walking, and proved a

source of constant annoyance until my guia changed with me, —

and considerately made the best use he could of my glasses.

The charges of the guide Rafael were fair, but we could have

dispensed with the Spanish assistant guide and the mozo to attend

the horses. The gutas, or sub-guides, were Indians, nearly of

quite full-blooded, and were strong, faithful young men. They

expected and received besides their regular pay a gratuity for

their services. Were I to make the ascent again alone, a good

mozo besides the guide would be indispensable. No one should

attempt to ascend the mountain alone without such attend-

ance, as some accident might happen on account of the altitude,

though there.is no dangerous climbing. We were gone a day

and a half from Amecameca, but of course two working days

were spent and charged in our bill, _

Our cavalcade passed through the dusty hot streets of the

town, here and there shaded by hedges of cactus or maguey and

rows of mesquite trees, the unclouded tropical sun beating upon

our heads, though a cool westerly breeze somewhat refreshed us.

Leaving the town the road passed through broad wheat and corn

fields, and in an hour's ride from the city we left the plain and

came to the edge of the foothills of the cordillera of Ahualco,

the range from which rises the two volcanoes, of which Popocate-

petl is the southernmost. —

We were now ascending, and were for several hours to ascend

the range, into the pass between the two volcanoes over the trail.

made by Cortez during his march from Puebla to the City of

Ataa

eee

1836.] Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. 113

Mexico. We met trains of pack mules and donkeys coming

from Puebla, and it added no little zest to our ride to recall the

memorable march of the Spanish conquistador from the plains of

Puebla to the then famous Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

In his Essai politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne,

Humboldt refers to this road or trail, which was first opened by

the ancient Aztec couriers from Mexico to Puebla by way of

Amecameca

The plains over which we trotted were evidently an old lake

bottom. The road now ascended between low rounded hills

which had every appearance of moraines; they were composed

of loose sand and gravel, with boulders of black basalt like that

forming the volcano, and sloped gradually down to the plain.

One very regular mound which we passed on our right, which

rose abruptly from a corn or wheat field, seemed to have

been artificial in its origin. It is Tetepetongo, “the hill of the

round stones,” and according to tradition, says Ober, was for-

merly used as a place of sacrifice. But the zone of moraine-like

hills we were now passing over contrasted strikingly with the

broad flat plains beneath us and with the ragged volcanic foothills

of Iztacihuatal far above us on our left. Though this peak was

capped with clouds, the larger part of the snowy dome of Popo-

catepetl was in full view, and from it two glacier-like streaks of

snow led down the valleys, losing themselves in the ragged lava

streams at the base of the cone. As we pass onward and upward

conical tumuli of loose débris from the mountains above confront

us, and well-marked lateral moraines extend out upon the plain

on each side of the trail. We should judge that the level at

which we saw the lowest moraines was about 9000 feet above the

sea; from that level they were observed up to or near the snow

line, the height of which above the sea, in the latitude of the

City of Mexico, Humboldt puts at 4600 meters or 15,333 eet

Je were unable to see such good clear natural sections of a

1 : :

A Lorsqu’au mois d'octobre de le l’année 1519, le corps d'armée des Espagnols et

es Tlascaltéques marchoit de Cholula a Tenochtitlan, il traversa la Cordillére

t aang, qui réunit la Sierra Nevada ou Iztacihuatl à la cime volcanique du Popo- .

‘Satepetl, Les Espagnols suivirent & peu prés le méme chemin que prend le courier

Ms Mexico pour aller a la Puebla par Mecameca, et qui se trouve tracé sur la carte de

miler de Tenochtitlan, L'armée couffrit à la fois au froid et de Vextreme impté-

des vents qui régnent constamment sur ce plateau.—Essai politique, etc., H,

114 Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. (February,

moraine as would have been desirable, but in one instance the

moraine was composed of the fine mud scrapings of the lava with

rounded boulders of basalt of all sizes up to four or five feet in

diameter, the hill being covered with wheat and smal) corn.

Moreover the hills above the moraines on each side of the valley

had apparently been molded by ice. I infer from all I saw on

the ascent that the ice must have filled the valley or pass between

Iztacihuatl and Popocatepetl, spreading out over the plateau like

a mer-de-glace and sending glaciers down to the lakes then cov-

ering the plains of Anahuac. Above the rounded hills were

rough volcanic spurs and hills which may once have overlooked

the ice streams.

It would appear, then, that the Quaternary lakes of the Mexi-

can plateau (unmistakable evidences of which I saw throughout

the country from Laredo to San Luis Potosi, and thence to the

City of Mexico, as well as along the Mexican central route

to New Mexico) were fed by the melting of glacial ice in the

high sierras. At any rate in the valley of Anahuac the volcanoes

rising above it must have been covered with glaciers which de-

scended to a point gooo feet above the sea, and about 1000

feet above the present level of the plains.

The change in vegetation as we left the plains and wound

among the moraines was an interesting feature of the ride. The

zone of cactus, nopal, mesquite, etc., of the Mexican plateau was

replaced by a belt of pines, aromatic firs and cedars; the flowers

had changed in character and become more numerous and varied

than on the dry and dusty plains ; lupines predominated, relieved

by a showy red labiate flower and yellow-flowered shrubs. Of

1 In conversation with Mr. Otto Finck, to whom I described the moraines about

Popocatepetl, he told me that what he regarded as true glacial moraines extended

down along the route of the Mexican railway as far as Peñuella, which is three miles

east of Cordova, and is 2500 feet above the sea, Cordova being 2700 feet elevation.

I had seen boulders of porphyry above the city of Orizaba, and Mr. Finck, who is

an observer of long experience in the State of Vera Cruz, having explored the

country for hundreds of miles on foot, and being a naturalist of experience, kindly

‘took me down to the bed of the river, where were boulders of different kinds of

hyry, evidently derived from the plateau above and westward. On the plains

of Jaumatlan and Chocaman, he told me, are boulders of porphyry, weighing 200 .

tons, and also glacial scratches. Mr. Finck drew for me a section of what he re

_ garded as a moraine observed at the Pass of Metlac, in which were angular blocks

of porphyry of ten or twelve kinds, with gneiss, which must have been transported

from the plateau above. Below an elevation of 2500 feet Mr. Finck had not in thë

State of Vera Cruz, or elsewhere in Mexico, observed any glacial marks.

al E

1886. } Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. 115

deciduous trees, willows abounded, but few if any oaks. Through

these forests, not very dense or continuous, pumas and wolves

were said to roam. The insect life of the plains is scanty in the

dry season, but in this zone bees and butterflies of different spe-

cies visited the flowers. The zone of pines and willows was suc-

ceeded by a belt of tall coniferous trees like a spruce with a fir-

like habit; their slender shafts two to three feet in diameter (in one

case of a tree felled with the ax, five feet) pierced the clear sky

over perhaps 125 feet. This noble tree had very broad leaves

and a deep red bark, like the red woods around the base of Mt.

Shasta. This zone of red wood was succeeded by a belt of low

short-leaved pines which grew shorter and more stunted until at

half-past four we came to banks of snow lying on the summit of

the grassy pass, the remnants of larger fields which had but lately

disappeared. The air was now cool and even chilly, the ground

was damp and often wet; here it was early spring, like our first of

April in New England, too early for flowers; scattered plants,

perhaps Alpine but quite unlike any we have seen in the Rocky

mountains, were not yet in flower, and to add to the resemblance

to a northern spring a flock of veritable robins flew among the

pines ; they were lingering on the flanks of Popocatepetl before

taking their final flight northward.

The path to the ranch now left the Puebla trail and led us

among the pines to the sheds where we were to spend the night.

The rancho was reached at 5.40, and an hour still remaining be-

fore dark, I walked to a ravine over piles of volcanic ash and lapilli

to entomologize under fallen pine logs and the bark of stumps,

finding lizards, beetles, spiders and myriopods quite unlike any

forms yet seen in the zerra templada below, but with no trace of

Alpine characters.

The ranch was a deserted shed and furnace-house for roasting

the crude sulphur formerly collected by the vo/caneros or peons

at the bottom of the crater.

Darkness gathered early about the ranch, but in the bright

moonlight the massive, marble-like dome of Popocatepetl rose

rectly above us. Our horses and mules were left to stand in

the open air while we bivouacked in the shed, in the center of

Which was a raised circular fireplace on which our guias made a

fire of sticks and logs, the smoke and sparks passing up through

a hole left in the middle of the roof. The Indians boiled their

116 Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. [ February,

coffee in their glazed earthen jars, which in the long run with-

stand the heat of the fire better than a tin coffee-pot; they made

tea for the party in other vessels of domestic manufacture; they

refreshed themselves on cold tortillas and chili, the twin compo-

nents of a Mexican meal, and then cut out their sandals for the

morning’s climb, while we dismembered a cold broiled fowl of pro-

nounced toughness and ate it with excellent native bread and tea.

To the tourists and head-guides was assigned a sort of low raised

divan or floor covered with hay, over which we spread the straw

petates or pallets, and finally a blanket, with a second blanket and

a coat over us. The gutas and muleteer lay on the mud floor,

their feet to the fire; their swarthy faces and limbs not visible in

the gloom, their white cotton garments concealed by their high-

colored serapes or blankets. They slept soundly through the

night, but not the tourists; the beds were uneven, an occasional

flea danced a jig on our hands and faces, a rain and hail storm

with a strong gale of wind rattled about the ranch; towards

morning it grew very cold and chilly ; added to this two of our

number, owing probably to the altitude, were unfortunately seized

with vomiting aad diarrhcea, so that there was little or no sleep

for the Americanos that night.

At 3.40 A. M. of the 20th I awoke the party, the guias replen-

ished the fire, prepared the coffee and tea, saddled the uneasy

horses now shivering in the cold frosty morning air, and at 5.30

we had mounted our steeds and were under way for the peak. It

was a bright, crisp, clear, cold morning, the stars still shining

brightly, while a piercing cold wind swept down the valley over

the pass. Our guides had wrapped their legs in thick layers of

cotton rags, wound their serages tightly about them, and we

found that our overcoats and gloves were but a slight protection

against the intense cold. For two hours we slowly crept up by

a zigzag trail, urging on our unwilling nags over the slope of the

mountain ; first passing through the pine woods, then descending

a barranca or ravine, through which ran a stream fed by the

snows of the peak. The trail then wound along the base of the

cone over fields of loose, deep, coarse, black, volcanic sand,

through which rose scattered jagged masses of black lava. Our

faltering horses and- not over enthusiastic guides toiled up-

ward and onward, until at 7.30 we reached La Cruz, a rock on

_ which was a wooden cross, where we were to leave our horses

rice fi erate

1886.] ` Ascent of thé Volcano of Popocatepetl. 117

and begin the ascent on foot. Here, owing to sickness induced

by the altitude, my companions were obliged to return to the

ranch. Taking Rafael and two gutas I went on.

The ascent of Popocatepetl is prosaic in the extreme. Much

to my surprise there were no rocks to clamber over, no difficult

climbing, but an interminable steeply inclined desert of deep,

coarse, yielding, volcanic sand, covered with a thin sheet of snow

—névé+making it exceedingly hard walking, to say nothing of

the effect of the great altitude upon the heart. The height of the

lower level of the snow-line Humboldt estimated at 15,300 feet.

The cone of Popocatepetl is like that of Vesuvius—only more

so. We roughly estimated the angle of the slope at 30°, but

judging by our feelings after two or three hours’ climb, it seemed

like 75°.

There is no definite trail up the mountain, and at no point on

the route can the summit or mouth of the crater be seen, so that

there is no goal in sight to draw one’s attention away from the

labor and fatigue of the ascent. Looking up hopelessly from

time to time as we stop to get breath, anxiously trusting to ob-

tain a glimpse of a rocky peak breaking through the crust, noth-

ing meets the eye but a vast snowy slope melting away far aloft

in the sky, the unsullied surface like polished marble of more than

parian purity, fading gradually away to be replaced by the ee

fathomless azure of a Mexican sky.

By eight o'clock the sun had gained more power, the exercise

warmed us, so that we no longer suffered with the cold, but the

effect of the intense sunlight upon the eyes was blinding and

painful; it would have been well-nigh opon to have made

the ascent without blue goggles.

Our small procession moved in the following order: my own

particular gxia, a young, stout, willing Indian picked out a way

over the rough snow or sand, as the case might be, the- writer

followed, planting his feet in the prints made by the Indian, and

Supporting himself with a rude, improvised alpenstock, usually

held in both hands; behind followed the supernumerary gua,

carrying the lunch Haake on his back, while Rafael brought up

the rear, with the air of one fulfilling a contract rather than enjoy-

ing the ascent. And it was hard work. I have ascended Pike's

peak three times, walked up Gray’s peak twice, have climbed the

crater of Mt. Shasta, which is over 12,000 feet high, ascended

VOL. DORE 9

118 Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. | ¥ebruary,

Vesuvius and Snowdon, and not a few peaks in the White mount-

ains, the ‘Adirondacks and Northern Maine, but the labor of the

ascent of Popocatepetl, owing to the far greater altitude and the

consequent rarity of the atmosphere, as well as the yielding sand

and the nature of the snow is peculiarly difficult.

_ To my surprise the snow lay on Popocatepetl as a thin sheet of

from a foot or. two to six or eight feet thick—deeper of course in

the ravines, but the ravines were of a mild type. The ascent is

made from the northerly and westerly side; the deepest ravine

was filled with snow passing beneath into ice, thus forming an in-

cipient glacier perhaps nearly a mile in length. Looking at it

the day previous, from the road. below, I supposed it to be a true

glacier filling the ravine, but it can scarcely be regarded as such,

whatever may have been its dimensions in early times.

The surface of the snow fields over which we walked was ex- ©

ceeding rough. The snow was, on the average, about three feet

deep, cut up by deep narrow fissures lying at various angles to

our line of march; the footing was thus very rough and uncer-

tain; the snow grew softer as the sun rose higher, and it was

impossible at times to prevent: slipping and falling down. Four

_hours.of such work to one not hardened to mountain climbing at

such an altitude, reaching nearly or, quite 18,000 feet, are no

child’s play. One advances three or four steps, and-thoroughly

exhausted sinks down upon his staff to rest and recover his breath;

his heart beats-in a wild extravagant fashion, and his breathing is

short, quick and labored. No one should attempt the ascent who

has; not a healthy heart and sound mige and is not. under. fifty. _ |

There i is danger of over-fatigue. s

At about half-past ten the summit seeming no nearer ‘ian at

the start from La Cruz, I asked Rafael how long it would take to

‘reach the top. He, thinking I might give it up, craftily replied,

a“ dos horas ;” not satisfied with this I privately asked my trusty

: guide i in front, and he said, “una hora: y

oE then a whiff « of. sulphur vapor passed by, the: draught

though nauseous. was inspiring, and gave new strength to my

- tired limbs, and at. eleven: o’clock I suddenly walked over the

~ edge of the crater and could look. part way down into the bowels

(a of Popocatepetl. We were on the- summit, could walk on level

ground along the narrow, sandy edge of the crater, without

fatigue, the heart at once resumed its normal beat and the respi-

ration became again natural.

Pre ak eae ete pe

PLATE VI.

Summit of Popocatepetl, just within the north-west

edge ¿ot gthe crater.

1886, ] Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. 119

The transition was thrilling. Here we were on the summit of

the highest mountain between Mt. St. Elias in Alaska, and Chim-

borazo in Peru! The sky was well-nigh cloudless, a few cottony

masses hung over Iztacihuatl to the north of us, partly obscuring

its peaks; the plains of Anahuac and the Puebla valley bathed in

the sunlight, and wrapped in a warm, soft haze, stretched for hun-

dreds of miles away west and east; the volcano of Malinche to

the north-east seemed like a pigmy cone; the city of Puebla

could be distinguished, but Cholula and its pyramid, which lay

nearer, were lost in the haze; we could not detect the city of

Mexico and its adjoining lakes, nor could I make out the volcano

of Orizaba, which lay to the eastward 150 miles.

But our interest centered in the crater. In comparison with

that of Vesuvius or Mt. Shasta it was, it must be confessed, tame.

Many have looked down into the crater of Vesuvius; that of Mt.

Shasta is a funnel-shaped chasm over a thousand feet in depth,

the snow fields extending from the rim to the bottom, in which

lies a frozen lake. The view into it was memorable.

Descending a few feet to a rock overhanging the chasm now

before us, we could take in the entire basin. It seemed to us to

be about 500 feet deep and from 1000 to 1500 feet across at the

mouth, but according to Gen. Ochoa’s measurements it is a thou-

sand feet deep, and the floor is 200 meters in circumference. It

1S Not an irregular chasm like that of Vesuvius, but like a vast

cauldron in shape, the steep sides visible all around, and the bot-

tom broad and somewhat flat, with no large, deep fissures visible.

n. Ochoa told Mr. Ober that there are more than sixty sol-

paras or smoking vents in the crater, one of them over fifty feet

in circumference ; he called the vents respiradores.

The northerly rim is of loose volcanic sand which has been

blown up out of the crater. Perhaps two-thirds of the rim was

of Solid lava more or less jagged and irregular, the highest por-

tion on the south-east side. Looking across from the northerly

Side one is confronted by three well-marked layers of vertically

columnar basalt marking three successive overflows, while a less

regular fourth layer indicated an additional eruption. The rock

composing the sides of the crater, the mountain itself and the

sand lying on its flanks is a tough, black basalt, slightly por-

Phyritic. 3

ear the rim of the crater on the west side is a sulphur fuma-

120 Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. [ February,

role or respirador, a fissure from which issued clouds of sulphur

fumes, At the bottom of the crater were plainly seen two large

sulphur vents or solfataras, with smaller ones from which clouds

of vapor rose perhaps to a height of over a hundred feet, but cer-

tainly not half way up to the edge or top of the peak. -Whether

these fumes can be seen from below, at the base of the mountain,

is a question. Some still claim that the mountain smokes, and

that the smoke can be seen from below, but this is doubted. The

assertion was made in the time of Cortez. Humboldt says: “Ce

volcan, que j'ai mesuré le premier, est constamment enflammé,

mais depuis plusiers siécles ow ne voit sortir de son cratère que

de la fumée et des cendres,”! It is not imposs ble that the slight

amount of sulphurous vapor which is emitt 1 from the crater

may at times increase and be visible at night by moonlight from

the plains below, or even in the daytime during certain: states of

the atmosphere. I well remember that in May, 1872,4 month

after the great eruption of Vesuvius, no smoke was seen to rise

from the crater by day, but by moonlight, at Naples, 1 could de-

tect a slight column of vapor hanging over. the summit of the

cone.

The sulphur vents were surrounded with mes of bright yel-

low sulphur.: Near where we stood were twe or three stumps of

posts which had been driven, into the volcan: . sand and gravel to

_ support a windlass or winch, by. which the volcaneros were let

down into the bottom of.the crater to gath- © the sulphur there.

It was borne in sacks on the backs of Indi. .. “down to the ranch

or sheds where we spent the night, and there ublimed in earthen

pots. The crater was not measured until -856, when General

Ochoa estimated its depth and circumference We roughly guessed

that its depth was about 500 feet, but d stances, looking down

into a mountain, are very deceptive. i appears that in the time

of Cortez a Spaniard ‘descended the crater, tied toa rope, to the

depth of from seventy, to eighty fathoms or 420 | to 480 feet? g

\ afsagt prae sur le Royaume: dela Nouvelle-Espaghe, Toni, IF; P. 338)

E ae Ow voit, a la troisiénie | et Ja quatriéme lettres de Cortez à Pempereur, que ce

général ‘apres la prise ide Mexic xico, fit. fairé d’autres te ative’ pour! ‘reconnoitre la

cime du-volcan, qui;paroissoit fixer d'autant plus son’a .ention, me les-indigénes lui

assuroient quit mw étoit permis aucune mortel de Sapprocher. de e site des mauvais

esprits. “Aprés deux essais infructeux, les Espagnols Sas tas enfin; année 1522,

à voir le cratère du Popocatepetl ; il leur parut avoir trois quarts de lieue de circon-

— ét ils trouvérent Sur les bords du précipice un peu de soufre qui ‘avoit été

PLATE VII,

A war A irr

scale AN a4 9

Within the edge of the crater, looking across to the lava beds on S. E. side, forming the highest point of the summit.

1886. | Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. 121

An hour was spent on the inside of the edge of the crater,

where we ate our lunch. The air was delightfully clear and cool.

We were wonderfully fortunate in having so clear and bright a

day, as the peak is usually covered with clouds by ten o'clock,

and for this reason we were advised to start from the ranch by»

daybreak. The summit is of small extent, the edge of the crater

is quite free from snow, but a few feet down on the outside from

the edge on the north side, the snow begins as a perpendicular

wall, three or four feet deep, like a petrified crest of a wave, as if

the snow had been melted by the breath of the crater. The fol-

lowing week on visiting Puebla, which lies due east of the mount-

ain, we observed that there was no snow on the eastern and

southern sides of the volcano, the snow fields on the northern

side being preserved from melting by their more shaded situation.

Without doubt the snow fields of Iztacihuatl, which extend along

the western side of the range, are also thin, and give rise to no

extensive glaciers.

Whether there has been an eruption of Popocatepetl in historic

times is a matter of doubt. It is possible that showers of ashes -

may have been blown out of the crater, but certainly there is no

recent stream of lava or obsidian on the mountain slopes. Hum-

boldt, however, quotes from a letter of Cortez stating that much

smoke rose from the crater, and that clouds of ashes enveloped

two men who ascended part way up the mountain.’ From this

it would seem that the volcano was rather more active three and

a half centuries ago than at present, but it is to be doubted

whether there has been an actual eruption of lava within a thou-

sand years, According to various authors there were eruptions

in 1519, 1539 and 1540,

déposé par les vapeurs. En parlant de Pétain de Tasco dont ou se servit pour for-

dre les premiers canons, Cortez rapporte, ‘qu’il ne manque point de soufri ~.

fabriquer de la poudre, parce qu’un Espagnol en a tiré d’une montagne, de’; i> le

Sort perpétuellement de la fumée, en descendant, lié à une corde, à la profon? ® r de

70 à 8o brasses?’ Il ajoute que cette manière de se procurer du soufre est tres dan-

gereuse, et que par cette raison il sera plus prudent de la faire venir de Serville” (Es-

vai etc., 11, 673). The depth of eighty brasses “or fathoms would be 480

1 However Cortez expressly says, “ That their men ascended very high, that they

saw much smoke go out, but that none of them could reach the summit of the vol-

cano, because of the enormous quantity of snow which covered it, the intensity of

ths cold and the clouds of cinders which enveloped the travelers” (Essai politique,

ete., I, 672), i :

122 Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. February,

Here in passing I may remark that Orizaba is now said to be

slightly higher than Popocatepetl, though Humboldt claimed

that the latter was 600 meters higher than any other mountain

from Mt. St. Elias to the Isthmus of Panama. Mr. A. H. Keene,

in the Encyclopedia Britannica, gives the height as 17,176 feet. I

obtained excellent views of this noble volcano at different points

along the Mexican railway to Cordova. Seen from the west the

snow fields stretched in glacier-like streaks down its slopes; at

the station of Esperanza, however, the clouds parted so that the

summit could be seen from the south, and it was observed that the

dark streaks of sand or rock extended in broken patches to the

very summit. Orizaba rather disappointed me from this point;

it is far less imposing and majestic a peak than Popocatepetl; it

is not so isolated, its great height being apparently lessened by

the high mountains of the Sierra Nigra extending from it towards

the railroad. Moreover its summit is broken up into subordinate

peaks. Farther on near where the railroad descends into the

great arranca or ravine west of the town of Orizaba, the volcano

of that name is seen to be of solid lava, furrowed by deep ravines;

while Popocatepetl is more like a vast conical heap of ashes.

Never, however, shall I forget the magnificent view of Orizaba

which I had from under the coffee trees and bananas of Cordova.

It was eleven o’clock in the morning, the clouds had lifted and

rolled away from the mountain, which rose in a magnificent con-

ical mass far above its humbler fellows of the Sierra Nigra.

From the illustrations given by Humboldt I imagine that the

finest view of this imposing peak is from the forest of Xalapa,

to the north-east. This volcano is said to have been quiet since

1566."

1 Mr. Hugo Finck of Cordova, who has explored the base of Orizaba, told me that

the crater is one and a-half miles long and a half mile wide, but that it cannot

entered. He saw Orizaba smokin ng, osaa the gases from the solfataras, and

stated that the mountain had erupted near the base, where there are small craters.

- He has'seen a glacier near the sum elage and there are aani soe slide down

and melt ponies the summit above being bare, with no D h

It bable that there are at the base of Oriz ag ern rocks, as Mr.

Finck yer me that gneiss gccurs as far up the sides of thie mountain as 13,000—14,000

feet, while higher up the mountain is composed of a e) rphy T apa the cen-

ter of the Sierra Nigra and the mountains southward betw n Esperanza and Oriza

ba, are Silurian, Devonian, and niferous strata uh: a feetid lack lim open

netordell by bluish Jurassic limestones containing fossil fishes, oysters, belemnites

and ferns. In the “bones hills three miles east of Cordova fine ammonites oc-

It seems probable from what Mr. Finck told me, and my own hasty o bserva-

tions from Mexico to Cordova all princi ormations occur from the

center of the Mexican plateau to the Sp at Vera Cruz, the plains of the latter

State being of Tertiary and Quaterna

1886. ] Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. 123

But we must reach Amecameca by dark, as in traveling

through the woods after twilight we might fall in with objection-

able company.

At twelve o’clock we began the descent, and it reminded me

strongly of the twenty minutes’ descent or run down Vesuvius.

After zigzagging down over the snow and ice, now quite yielding,

stopping frequently to rest one’s tired knee-joints, on reaching

the sand below the snow fields, my two guias each took one of

my arms and we ran down the long sandy slope arm-in-arm. We

reached La Cruz by about two o’clock, and walking on a mile or

so more down the slope, I found a horse which Mr. Ober had sent

me, in waiting. Reaching the ranch at about three, after half an

hour’s rest and refreshment, Mr. Ober and myself rode with our

guide Rafael fifteen miles to Amecameca, while our guias trotted

the whole distance on foot behind their pack mules.

Nothing is more monotonous in its flatness than a Mexican

bedstead, while the mattress is only thicker than a Mexican blan-

ket, the bed being but a little more yielding than the soft side of

a pine board, but that night—spent in a second-class Mexican

hostelry, after such a long day’s work with the, alpenstock

and in the saddle, half frozen in the morning on the mountain side

and half roasted in the hot mountain gorges and on the dusty

plains in the afternoon,—that night was given without reservation

to the worship of Morpheus. The next day at ten we reached the

site of ancient Tenochtitlan, rested in the grand plaza under the

shade of the orange and banana, by the plashing fountain, our

eyes feasting on the varied, ever-changing pictures of Indian,

Mestijo and Spanish types of Mexican life passing before us in

that famous square.

NOTES ON THE CECODOMAS, OR LEAF-CUTTING

ANTS, OF TRINIDAD.

BY C. BRENT.

N opportunity was afforded me during the winter of 1884-5

® for studying the life and habits of this most interesting spe-

cies on the Island of Trinidad, West Indies. Several species are

here distinguished ; all, however, are alike in form and habit, the

variety being produced by variation in size and color. These

Insects are extremely numerous, indeed one cannot take a walk

anywhere in the country without observing broad columns of

124 Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. (February,

seemingly animated leaves marching across the roads. Com-

plaints are heard on every hand of their ravages among the gar-

dens and plantations. Agriculture is all but hopeless in sections

infested by these pests, since although they occasionally attack

one of the forest trees, they show a decided preference for the

leaves of cultivated trees and garden plants, the cocoa, coffee and

orange being particularly subject to their destructive visits. They

seem also to develop a “penchant” for particular trees. One

orange tree in a grove of the same species is stripped again and

again, while the neighboring trees are left untouched. The

curious habit these ants possess of cutting and carrying off im-

mense quantities of leaves, has often been noted in books on

natural history, although the question is still an open one as to

the object of the custom and the disposal of the cut leaves. My

own observations on these points I shall give farther on.

The speed with which these little workers operate is indeed

marvelous. A good sized mango tree, at least as large as an

average apple tree, I saw stripped of every leaf in one night, and

greater feats than this are recorded of these “ Tourmi Ciseaux,”

as they are called by the Creoles. In the morning the naked

boughs bore only the bare midrib of the leaves with here and

there jagged portions of the parenchyma left by the circular

pieces snipped off. The ground was littered with circular pieces

of leaves about the size of a ten-cent piece, which the ants had

neglected to carry off. Old leaves and young had alike been

snipped off, but most of the pieces left were cut from the older

leaves.

During the day I discovered the formicarium to which these

ants belonged, some three or four hundred yards up the mount-

ain side. It was situated on a gently sloping incline covered

by a dense “ vastrajo,” or second-growth wood. The site of the

hill had been well chosen in a spot free from large trees, and the

smaller bushes had been removed, leaving the soil as bare as if

_ 7 the vegetation had been destroyed by a fire. The mound was of

immense size, being about forty-five feet across and about two

feet high. The soil was of a different color from that of the sur-

rounding hillside, and consisted, I found, of clayey granules

brought up by the ants from the subsoil below. No signs of ants

were visible, nor were any recently used entrances to be seen.

Several tunnels extended a short distance into the mound, but

aia ney mena onc ”

1886. ] Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. 125

they were all stopped up by soil washed into them by the delug-

ing rains that had been falling for several previous days. Cut-

ting my way through the bushes by means of that useful and

indispensable part of a forester’s outfit for tropical woods, the

“machete” or cutlass, I found, some twenty yards up the hillside,

an entrance from which led, as far as the eye could see, a wide

smooth path, worn by repeated travel some five inches deep, and

carefully cleaned of all vegetation, dead leaves and rubbish. A

few yards from the entrance a huge tree had fallen but recently

across the pathway, but the industrious insects had dug a tunnel

six inches in diameter under it in preference to climbing over it

or making a new path around it. A little farther on I met

another instance of formic ingenuity. The path led to the edge

Fic. 1.—An Cicodoma formicarium. The cleared space is forty-five feet in

diameter, ‘

of a ravine where it branched; one branch led directly across the

ravine, down the precipitous sides of which an oblique path had

been excavated at an angle of about 45°; the other branch led

up the edge of the ravine some twenty yards to a fallen tree

which spanned it. Over this the pathway led to the opposite

bank, down which it ran to join the direct path below. I subse-

quently noted that during the rainy season when the ravine held

a stream of water, the ants toiled up the hillside to their bridge,

but, as soon as the water dried up they used the nearer path

directly across the ravine. On looking around the mound I

found five other entrances to the formicarium, all at some distance

: from it, and from each of these diverged a pathway through the

Woods. Along one of these traveled a dense column of ants, those

126 Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. (February,

outward bound keeping the right hand side, while those return-

ing home traveled along the left. The incoming ants were nearly

all laden with their leafy burdens which they carried tightly

gripped between their mandibles, sometimes nearly upright, or

thrown back so as to completely hide the insect below. This

curious fashion of carrying the leaves has earned for them the

common English name of “ parasol” or “ umbrella ants.”

Along the path were several heaps of leaves, which were prob-

ably carried away by a fresh relay of workers ; often these heaps

may be noticed lying deserted along the pathways, but they are

invariably removed, sooner or later, to the nest. The leaves

Fic. 2.—Ants at work leaf-cutting.

were those of the cocoa, so I traced the column down the hill-

side some four hundred yards to the edge of a cocoa plantation,

_where I found them actively engaged in leaf-cutting. The smaller

trees were swarming with the little depredators, leaves were fall-

ing plentifully as the little sawyers snipped them out. Numbers

of ants marched up the tree and numbers marched down, very

deftly managing their awkward-looking burdens. Sometimes

they progressed sidelong down the tree, sometimes backwards,

_ according to the condition of the surface over which they walked .

In operating on a leaf the ant places herself upon the upper

1886. | Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. 127

surface near the edge, and saws a circular cut nearly all the way

round with a saw-like motion of her finely serrate mandibles. To

prevent the section falling she does not saw it all round, but

when nearly severed seizes it by the edge and by a sharp upward

jerk detaches it. Now she either marches directly off to the

nest or lets the fragment drop to the ground and begins sawing

another. Often quite a heap of pieces accumulates beneath the

busy little sawyer.

he CEcodomas are

differentiated, as in

workers, the latter be- Vf

ing of course unde- ¥

veloped females. Four {É

classes may be dis- ^

tinguished among the

workers, only two of

which take part in the

foraging expeditions.

The majority of these workers are of a pale reddish color with a

Fic. 3.—(CEcodoma of Trinidad, male.

g- 5- Fig. 6.

Fig.

Fic. 4.—Female. Fic. 5.—Worker major, or so-called soldier. Fic. 6.— Worker

minor. All natural size.

Stout body, short round unpolished head, which carries behind a

128 Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. [February,

pair of spines. The thorax is very sharply constricted 'in the

middle, the fore part, or prothorax, carrying the first pair of legs

and a pair of spines upon the dorsal surface. The hinder part, or

meso-metathorax, carries the other pairs of legs and two pairs of-

spines. The cutting instruments are a pair of long extremely

sharp-pointed mandibles finely serrated upon their inner surface,

which may be used as saws or nippers. The workers vary ex-

tremely in size; individuals are met with only three-sixteenths of

an inch in length, while others attain a length of nine-sixteenths.

These smaller (younger) ants accofpany their older sisters in

their expeditions but rarely carry leaves. They may often be

seen riding upon the burdens of their older and larger sisters as

if tired. I have observed as many as three clinging to a leaf

which was carried with apparent ease by one of the larger ants.

A number of these little ants may be observed to issue from the

mines with the old ones and loiter around the entrances as if as

yet unable to take part with the stronger ants.

Here and there among the mass of workers, perhaps forming

about one per cent of the total number, may be seen a much

larger, formidable-looking ant with enormously swollen triangu-

lar head, which takes no part in the work, but always accom-

panies the “ worker minors,” as they are called, on their expedi-

tions. I spent much time trying to find out the functions of these

large-headed ants, but failed to get any clear notions as to the

part they play in the politics of the commonwealth. They may

nearly always be seen on a bit of stick or other eminence, caress-

ing now and then the antennz of the passing ants with their own.

Talking, we may suppose, in ant language, since it is well estab-

lished that ants are, by means of their antenne, able to commu-

nicate their ideas gne to another. It appears to me that these

apparently useless ants directed in some way or other the move-

ments of their working sisters. Bates in his Naturalist on the

Amazons, came at first to the same conclusion, but afterwards

abandoned this idea for one I think not more tenable, namely,

that these ants by their superior size draw upon themselves the

attacks of ant-eating birds, &c., being thus, as he terms it, merely

“ pieces de resistance,” thus only serving to preserve the main

body of workers by a self-sacrifice of mere “ passive” resis-

tance. ;

went to the trouble to shoot several ant thrushes and Den-

a ema aa eee

1886. Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. 120

drocolaptes which feed almost entirely upon ants, to see if there

was any foundation for this theory, but found very few indeed of

the so-called “ worker majors,” although the crops were distended

with “ worker minors.” In other works on natural history they

are termed “ warriors,” but they by no means correspond to the

warrior or soldier class in the Termites, for instance. They have

no special offensive or defensive weapons, their movements are

more sluggish even than those of the smaller ants, and when the

nest is disturbed by poking it with a stick, the smaller ants only

prove pugnacious. In the battles which so often occur between

the mail-clad bandits of Trinidad forests, the savage “ Ecitons,”

or “ hunting ants ” and the “ parasol ants,” the brunt of the fight

is borne by the “worker minors” who always drive off the

marauding Ecitons.

In some CEcodomas there is a series of intermediate forms be-

tween the working minors and the working majors, and in some

species all take part in leaf-cutting. Besides these workers there

are two other classes, which never leave the mines, the worker _

nurses, to be distinguished from the working minors chiefly by

their hairy heads, and another class of very large ants, individ-

uals of which are found nearly an inch in length. This class is

represented in each formicarium by only a few individuals, which

are distinguished by their large hairy heads and the possession

of a twin ocellus placed in the middle of the forehead. These

never leave the mines, and are seen only when the formicarium is

opened.

The ant hill referred to above being a pest to the neighboring

plantations, it was determined to destroy it. Poisons were found

useless. Corrosive sublimate and potassium cyanide were mixed

with farina and deposited near the nest. These were simply

ignored; the ants would not touch them after a few had fallen

victims. A solution of arseniate of soda was next sprinkled

upon orange leaves, which were strewed upon the mound. These

were eventually cleared away, although at an immense sacrifice

of life. This points, I think, to the true ant food, since unless

the juices of the leaves as they were sawed up were swallowed,

the poison would have had no effect. This idea is strengthened

by the fact that fiery and strongly aromatic plants as well as

those with poisonous, milky juices are carefully avoided. No

Solid food is found in the crops of the insect at any time, but if

130 Notes on the Leaf-cutting Ants of Trinidad. (February,

these are examined after the insects have been engaged in leaf-

cutting, they are found full of green leaf juice. Finally we de-

stroyed the nest by drowning, the common method during the

wet season. A number of channels were dug in the hillside, all

constructed to collect the rainwater as it streamed down the hill,

and to pour it into the nest by one of the entrances. I visited

the nest during the next rain to see how the plan was working,

and was surprised to find the water pouring out of an orifice

twenty yards below the nest. After the rain I examined this

tunnel and found that it entered the nest at the lowest point, some

eight feet below the surface. I examined many formicaria subse-

quently, and invariably found this lower tunnel wherever the in-

clination permitted its construction. I have no doubt that it is

constructed as a drain, and that the ants know as much about the

advantage of thorough drainage as they have been proved to

know, by many eminent observers, of those of other sanitary

matters. On opening the mound, some three feet below the sur-

Fic. 7.—Diagrammatiec v. section of an obey te formicarium, den about

eight os Sai mound of clayey granules; B, unused. entrance; C, chambers con-

taining le AN rne corridors; Æ, esens to distant entrances; /, drain

from koa ae of mi

face was found a series of hall-like cells, some three feet in their

larger diameter, connected with each other by short smooth cor-

ridors. From the outermost of these proceeded the tunnels com-

municating with the surface by the orifices mentioned above.

Below there was a second series of somewhat smaller cells, the

lowest of which was entered by the drain just referred to.

central chambers were all washed out, but several of the lateral

chambers had escaped damage. In these were found bushels of |

leaves, several of the large cyclopean ants, many nurses, larve,

and an Amphisbena. This lizard is generally a guest of the

1886. ] The Teredo, or Shipworm. . 131

parasol ants, and repays their hospitality by feeding upon them.

The natives firmly believe that the “ serpent a deux tetes,” as they

call it, is the mother of the ants, and that they procure the leaves

for the purpose of feeding it.

The larvæ were imbedded in a soft woolly matter which proved

to be the finely masticated parenchyma of the leaves. Thus a

use was found for the leaves, although it reflects seriously upon

the supposed sagacity of the ants that they should procure so

many more than are required for the purpose. Bates states that

the leaves are also used for thatching the domes over the en-

trances to the mines, but I have not observed this practice in con-

nection with the Trinidad species. The larvæ are fed by juices

secreted by the nurses. A part of the larve emerge from the

eggs winged and ready for their nuptial flight. These are the

males and females, and the swarming occurs during the wet sea-

son. The female measures an inch in length and two inches in

expanse of wing. The wings are clear, transparent and coarsely

veined. The winged males and females emerge from the woods

in clouds during the rains of April and May. These are almost

all destroyed by the flycatchers,. jackamars, ant-thrushes, &c.,

which greedily devour them; only a tew impregnated females sur-

vive the slaughter to found new colonies and propagate their

race. The colony is sustained, I suppose, as in other species, by

the seizure and -detention of impregnated females by their own

subjects, After impregnation the female loses her wings, these

being broken off by the insect itself. There may be noticed a

natural suture at the base of the wing, doubtless that this may

be easily broken off when no longer required.

THE TEREDO, OR SHIPWORM.

BY R. E. C. STEARNS. ;

r ERE are several species of what are popularly called “ shi

worms” which are ordinarily included under the name

Teredo. Although to the common observer they have a worm-

like appearance, they are not worms, but true shell-bearing mol-

lusks, as much so as the common “ long clam,” “long-necked -

clam” or “mananose” (Mya arenaria) of the Atlantic coast of

the United States,

So much has been written in relation to the shipworms that it

132 The Teredo, or Shipworm. [February,

would be nearly impossible to write anything that would not bea

repetition or quotation. The shipworms (Teredo) were known to the

ancients, and Theophrastus, the friend and successor of Aristotle

in the lyceum at Athens, observed their operations 350 B. C.

The late Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, in his excellent volumes on the

mollusks of Great Britain, presents in a very concise and inter-

esting way what is in fact a most valuable memoir on the ship-

worm, Teredinide.

The shipworms are diva/ves, that is to say, the complete shell

is in two pieces, although one can form no idea of the Teredo

from them, as the shelly part is but an insignificant portion of the

entire animal, as you will learn from the following:

“The Teredo * * * consists of along and nearly gelat:

inous, worm-like body, without rings or segments, terminating

at one end ina pairof * * * valves that somewhat resem-

ble the two halves of a split nutshell which has had a large slice

cut off at each side, and at the other ina pair of symmetrical

shelly paddles with handles of different lengths, which close this

extremity at the will of the animal. The open part of the

bivalve shell is placed at the further end, and receives a circular

disk of a fleshy or rather muscular nature, which may be termed

the foot ; this is the broadest and widest part. Inside each valve .

is seen a curved process, like a bill-hook, that projects from the

hinge at a right angle. The shell covers and protects the mouth,

palps, liver and other delicate organs. The body tapers gradu-

ally to the outer or nearer end, where it becomes quite small and

attenuated ; it contains the gullet, intestine and gills, which form

at the outward point two cylindrical tubes, mostly of unequal

length. The larger tube takes in infusoria or similar animal-

cules, which constitute the food of the Teredo, as well as

imbibes water charged with air for the purpose of respiration and

keeping the whole fabric moist, while the smaller tube is em-

ployed in the ejection of the water which has been exhausted or

deprived of aeriferous qualities, and also serves to get rid of the

woody pulp that is excavated by the Teredo. Both tubes form

a kind of hydraulic machine. At the base of each lies one of

the paddles often termed ‘pallets.’ * * *

“When the Teredo is alarmed, or not feeding, it withdraws its

tubes into the neck of its sheath or shelly cylinder; and the pal-

lets which had been previously kept pressed against the sides,

then spring forward and close the opening so as to form an effica-

cious barrier against all foes,” etc.

1 British Conchology, Vol. 111, pp. 122-184. See also the Dictionaire Universal

d'Histoire, Vol. x11, p. 358, under the title “ Taret,’ and the Encyclopedia Bri-

ee f ;

tannica, Vol. XV, p. 353, under “ Mollusca.”

seo i re

—

ty Sa Sa

1886. ] The Teredo, or Shipworm. 133

“The whole of what I have endeavored to describe is found

only within some hard vegetable substance, either the hull of a

vessel or boat, a harbor pile, a shipping stage, a floating tree

* a beacon or buoy,” raft timbers, old spars and masts,

the planking or bracing of wharves, bridges, &c., &c., and old

hulks or wrecks. The Teredo bores into these the same asa

I, outside of one of the shells ; 2, inside ditto; 3-3, pallets ; 4-4, siphons.

rabbit or mole in the earth, making a continuous gallery or hole

quite smooth inside and cased or lined with shelly matter form-

ing the sheath or cylinder above described. This shelly wall or

lining or cylinder is so fragile that it is quite impossible to split

wood containing one and get it out or even a portion of any

Considerable size ; the blow necessary to cleave the wood shatters

VOL. Xx.—no. 11, to

134 The Teredo, or Shipworm. [February,

the shelly lining of the Teredo’s gallery or burrow into countless

_ pieces.

These burrows vary from one quarter of an inch or less to half

an inch or more in diameter.

It is only in its very earliest stages that the Teredo is a free

moving animal. At this time no one other than a practiced nat-

uralist would be likely to recognize it. “It is very minute, nearly

spherical, and covered with cilia or hair-like projections, by means

of which it swims rapidly through the water. In thirty-six hours

it assumes a new form, and speedily changes it for another, after

which it returns again to its original form, so that in a very few

hours the little creature is first spherical, then oval, then triangu-

lar, and then spherical again. In this stage of existence it pos-

sesses a foot which enables it to crawl after the manner of snails,

and also has organs of hearing and sight.”

It does not enjoy its locomotive powers for any long time but

fixes itself to some suitable object, passes through its last change,

becomes a veritable shipworm and begins its lifelong task of

boring.

The Teredo is not very particular as to the kind of timber into

which it bores, but always goes with the grain, unless it meets

with some obstacle, such as a nail or a very hard knot; and in

such a case it turns out of its track for a short distance and then

resumes its former course. As it bores its way along, it lines the

tunnel (as before stated) with a coating of shelly matter, but this

is not attached or in any way connected with the body or sub-

stance of the shipworm.

It is not believéd that the wood it perforates furnishes any -

nutriment to the animal, but that its sustenance is derived entirely

from the water which is constantly passing through its body.

The holes made in the wood at the time or just after the young

Teredos commence burrowing are quite small, the appearance of

the surface of a pile or other infested timber is usually deceptive,

affording but little evidence of the size or number of the burrows -

or the extent of the ravages within. After awhile the interior is

so completely “honeycombed” that a slight blow or bump by 4

vessel upon the outside shatters the pile, &c., and their damaging

work can be seen.

` Upon the water front of San Francisco I have known piles, of

Oregon pine and fir over a foot in diameter, rendered worthless in

1886. | The. Teredo, or Shipworm. 135

eighteen months, and have heard of even a more rapid destruc-

tion of wharf piles in the harbor of that city. In one instance

reported to me the destruction was accomplished in about six

months. In the case which came under my notice, as above, the

wood of the pile had not lost its original fresh or bright appear-

ance when it had to be removed from the wharf and a new one put

in its place. My friend, Mr. Dall, informs me of a case of the de-

struction of the supports of a small pier made of piles (probably

pine) six to eight inches in diameter in about six weeks. The

structure was at one of the small capes near the entrance to

Chesapeake bay.

As the shipworms are gregarious, and furthermore as they grow

and multiply with astonishing rapidity, their destructive work is,

as shown above, often accomplished in a very short time.

The extent of their operations and the money loss entailed

thereby, both upon private parties and business corporations en-

gaged in commercial marine enterprises and on the naval equip-

ment and appurtenances of the great maritime nations, are enor-

mous.

This has led to a great number of experiments by govern-

ments and inventors for the protection of wood work used in

Marine structures.

Jeffreys remarks that “in all probability the constitution of a

shipworm is poison-proof,” Most of the remedies proposed in the

last century were of this nature, and they signally failed.

The saturation or impregnation of the wood with creosote or

some other carbolic preparation by hydrostatic pressure, the

kyanizing of piles, and sheathing with copper, the filling of the

exposed surface with large-headed nails have all been tried. The

two last, copper sheathing and scupper nailing, Jeffreys says, —

“have been successfully used, but the former is expensive and

the crust of iron (unless they are closely driven in so as to com-

pletely cover the piles) is superficial and liable to scale off. I

have known the Teredo to bore through a pile which was sup-

posed to be protected by large broad-headed nails in the usual

way. At Christiania, in April, 1863, I found that Teredo navalis

was very destructive to the woodwork in the harbor, and to boats

lying at anchor in the fiord. The chief engineer told me that all = —

the piles had been creosoted (ten pounds to the square foot) be-

re they were driven in, but not to much purpose!”

136 The Teredo, or Shipworm. [ February,

Certain kinds of wood are less subject to their attacks than

others. The tree palmetto of the Southern States, it is said, is

never bored by the shipworm, and some of the Australian woods

have similar immunity. Dr. Mueller says of the Eucalyptus mar-

ginata (Smith): “ The Jarrah or mahogany tree of S. W. Austra-

lia, is famed for its indestructible wood, which is attacked neither

by Chelura nor Teredo nor Termites, and therefore so much

sought for jetties and other structures exposed to sea water, also

for underground work, and largely exported for railway sleepers.

Vessels built of this timber have been enabled to do without cop-

per sheathing. It is very strong, of a close grain and slightly

oily and resinous nature; it works well, takes a fine finish,

and is by shipbuilders here considered superior to either oak,

teak or indeed any other wood.” * * * The Æ. rostrata

(Schlecht), the red gum of Victoria, is another very valuable spe-

cies for the “ extraordinary endurance of thewood underground,

and for this reason highly valued for fence-posts, piles and rail-

way sleepers ; for the latter it will last a dozen years, and if well

selected much longer. It is also extensively used by shipbuilders.

* * * Next to the jarrah from S. W. Australia, this is the

best wood for resisting the attacks of seaworms and white ants.

This species reaches a hundred feet in height.”

In some of the seaports in different parts of the world there

are small crustaceans that assist the shipworms in cutting away

what wood the Teredo may leave. These little fellows resemble

the wood-louse (pill bug), and cut either way of the grain of the

ood.

In the inlets around Puget sound the destructive action of both

classes of animals may be seen, especially about the time of the

summer solstice, when the extraordinary fall of the tide exposes

the piles (of the wharves) for their entire length. A space meas-

ured up and down on the piles for a length of four or five feet,

including the portion exposed between ordinary tide marks, may

be seen which is so completely riddled that it would seem as if

the slightest loading of the deck of the wharf would result in a

tumble down of the whole.

The wood-eating crustaceans referred to belong to the groups

Limnoria and Chelura.

As an offset to the damage caused by these, from point of size

insignificant animals, it should be borne in mind, to their credit,

that by destroying old wrecks, &c., in channel ways and at the

entrance to harbors, they contribute to the safety of navigation.

It is stated also that the operations of the Teredo suggested to

Mr. Brunel his method of tunneling the Thames.

1886.] = The Flood Rock Explosion. 137

THE FLOOD ROCK EXPLOSION.

BY WILLIAM HOSEA BALLOU.

ro greatest artificial earthquake in history occurred on Sat-

urday morning, October 10,at 11 h. 14 m., standard time.

The point of disturbance was Flood rock in East river, on the

imaginary extension of Ninety-third street of New York city.

The earthquake was projected by means of 300,000 pounds of

dynamite and rackarock powder arranged in twenty-two miles of

metallic cylinders. It was entirely submarine in character, and

surface damage was prevented by a tamp of fully 10,000,000

cubic yards of salt water. Asa spectacle it was simply an Ice-

landic or Yellowstone geyser on an extended scale—a sudden

rise of water and gaseous smoke to a height of 150 feet for a

length of 400 feet and a maximum thickness of 100 feet at the

base of the column. The flying rocks and débris sketched in

illustrated newspapers are the fickle inventions of inane minds.

The column of upheaved water was so enormous that all solid

bodies were hidden from vision. The explosion was comparable

to a very good earthquake.

Inadequate observations —Seismological observations were taken

at various points, but the arrangements for so doing were inade-

quate and quite primitive. This is a statement of fact, not reflect-

ing in any manner on the observers. In the first place there

were no seismometers or seismographs in this country. In the

second place the engineer corps and scientific corps did not act in

conjunction with each other, and the latter received no telegraphic

warning of the exact moment to expect the shock. In the third

place observers were not stationed at sufficient distances from the

center of disturbance to measure the length of radii of earth

vibrations. Had there been seismographs located at Buffalo,

Montreal, Philadelphia, Washington, Portland, Me.; far out at

sea, or at intervals on a direct diameter, say 1000 miles long, the

exact length of the radii might have been determined. Further-

more, seismographs make an intelligible record with the pencil

which none of the observers secured.

Results of scientific observations —The record obtained by- the

Scientific corps, however, was exceedingly interesting and valua-

ble. There were a number of astounding as well as expected

results. . The instruments used were the seismoscope, the tele- |

138 : The Flood Rock Explosion, [ February,

scope in connection with a horizontal plane of mercury, the sun

thermometer, the thermometer, the ł ter, the pluviometer, etc.

The shock did not create as much noise as an ordinary field

piece.

The shock was felt by the feet and indicated by the seismo-

scope one-half a second before the result was visible to the eye.

The seismoscope, which is supposed to record the beginning

of the shock simply, traced an unintelligible record on the side-

real time cylinder at the Columbia College observatory.

Observers who watched horizontal planes of mercury through

telescopes naturally report different results. Professor William

Halleck, at Yonkers, N. Y., ten miles from the explosion, records

that the vibration of the mercury increased after the first fifteen

seconds up to forty seconds, then diminished for ten seconds,

ceasing entirely after fifty seconds, Professor J. K. Rees, at the

Columbia College observatory, two miles away, and Professor

Young, at Princeton, record that the duration of vibration of the

mercury was thirty seconds. Professor W. A. Rogers, at Har-

vard College observatory, 197 miles away, records that the vibra-

tions lasted there two minutes and forty-six seconds. This would

show that the earth wave divided constantly as it traveled out-

rd.

All of the instruments of the Central Park observatory left a

record very much to the amazement of Professor Daniel Draper

and other meteorologists. Why, for instance, should such a dis-

turbance in any way affect the sun thermometer and rain gauge?

The former recorded 121° in the sun, when suddenly the pen,

which was tracing its record on paper, made a straight mark

eight degrees long at right angles with the regular tracing and

with four degrees on each side of it. This would naturally show

a decrease or increase in the sun’s temperature, whereas it was

really an interruption of the sun’s record by an abnormal cause.

Professor Draper thinks that this record must be of great value

to seismologists. I think it shows that the record of a sun

thermometer, as indicated by a tracing on paper, cannot be relied

upon, since any jar is liable to affect it. The pluviometer, or rain

gauge, also gave an uncalled-for record of one-eighth of an inch.

While these records may be of value to some one who can utilize

them, to my mind they only demonstrate the fallacy of placing

any value on the record of these instruments as traced on paper.

1886.] The Flood Rock Explosion. 139

The atmospheric wave.—The vibrations of the air were exceed-

ingly slight, owing to the heavy tamp of water. The greatest

fall of the barometer was .02 of an inch. The wind being in the

west and blowing eight miles per hour, the slight atmospheric

wave was naturally carried out to sea, so that its duration and ex-

tent are lost.

The earth wave.—The velocity of the earth vibrations was one

mile in seven-tenths seconds at the outset, decreasing to one mile

434ths seconds, as far as measured. The notated diameter of the

shock was 394 miles long. Itis safe to approximate the diame-

ters (supposing that observers had been on the watch at sufficient

distances) at 800 miles. For if-the shock was sufficient to reach

the Cambridge observatory, 197 miles distant, in 194 seconds, and

shake that eternal structure as it had never been shaken before, it

ought to have doubled the distance with some perceptible effect,

giving a radius instead of a diameter of 394 miles.

Scientific value of the observations —The Flood rock explosion

cannot be called a surface disturbance because it occurred at the

sea level. Volcanic and geyser eruptions vary in altitude and

have a vibratory power downward. All of the vibratory power.

at Flood rock was upward, which makes its effect all the more

wonderful, since the farther the shock traveled the more of the

earth surface it had to lift on account of the constant rise above

sea level. Enough explosives were used to have obliterated

Manhattan island if placed on the surface, or to have leveled

Mt. Washington. The fact that 300,000 pounds of explosives

will affect a surface of 300,000 square miles does not necessarily

settle the question as to the cause of earthquakes. It does not

verify the belief that explosions of some kind cause earthquakes,

but leaves us in the dark as to the composition of such explo-

Sives. What mighty ingredients combined to lift the bowels of

Krakatoa five and ten miles in the air, and so envelope the whole

globe in a nebula of dust that the sun turned green and the sun-

Sets were framed in gorgeous hues, lighting up the night long

after the orb had disappeared? What mighty ingredients com-

bined to explode Java and overwhelm 100,000 people? What

Chemicals combine beneath the Yellowstone park and hurl the

boiling waters from Old Faithful geyser every hour, from the

Minute Man once per minute, from clusters of geysers all at

once every day at 4 P. M., from Hell’s Half-Acre once per year

` 140 Editors’ Table. [February,

or so, when this huge basin all boils up at once in one im-

mense cauldron of seething waters? Flood rock answers these

questions in part. It says that explosions of some kind do the

work; but this answer only opens the door and points to a sea

of data yet to be secured as to the nature, component parts and

modus operandi of these explosions, which differ evidently in dif-

ferent cases.

Note —The seismological, observations to determine the dura-

tion and extent of the earth and atmospheric waves were taken

on two lines running at right angles with each other. General

Henry L. Abbot, of the United States Corps of Engineers, had

charge of the observatories on an east and west line on Long

Island, with headquarters at Willet’s point. The north and south

line was in charge of Professor F. W. Clarke, of the United

States Geological Survey, Washington. He had his southern

‘station on Staten island, in charge of Professor H. M. Paul of the

United States Naval observatory. At the next station, on Ward’s

island, Professor T. C. Mendenhall, of the United States Signal

Service, and himself observed. At Yonkers Professor William

Hallock, of the United States Geological Survey, and student

Thomas Ewing, Jr., of Columbia College, occupied a station.

The most northerly observatory of the chain was at Vassar Col-

lege, in charge of Professor Maria Mitchell. Dr. Daniel Draper

took observations on a number of instruments at Central park.

The astronomers at Princeton, Harvard and Rutgers colleges also

made observations in conjunction with the others.

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE.

It is safe to say that the greatest necessity of scientific

progress in the United States to-day is schools and academies

of original research. We have colleges and universities enough

in most of the States, but there has not yet been established a

single school where knowledge is produced, which corresponds in

scope with the numerous institutions where it is taught. Perhaps

it is a general impression that there is already more knowledge

in the world than can be learned; but, if this be true, it can not

for a moment obscure the geat truth, that most of the laws of

nature remain still, more or less, unknown. It i is, or ought to be,

1886. ] Editors’ Table. 141

well known, that all the knowledge taught in the schools is the

product of original research, and that all books of any value in

libraries, excepting works of the imagination, are derived from the

same source. Hence, it appears that the absence of schools of

research is a phenomenon for which it is difficult to account.

There are some schools of this kind which cover a limited part of

the field of knowledge, such as the summer schools of biology on

the coast; and there are some museums where a limited amount of

research is conducted, as much as their financial and intellectual

resources permit. But these institutions are either so limited in

means, or so completely under the control of non-investigators,

that they are ineffective at present, or offer rto prospect of pro-

gression in the future.

If any public-spirited citizen desires to erect for himself a unique

and enduring monument, such can not be more effectively and

usefully done than by the endowment of an Academy of Original

Research. Such an institution would be a perpetual spring and

source of knowledge and truth, and a living “nucleus” in the

great organic body of society.

An institution which should cover most of the ground might be

organized on the following basis: Six departments might be

established, namely: 1, Astronomy; 2, Physics; 3, Chemistry;

4, Geology; 5, Vegetable Biology; 6, Animal Biology. For

each of these departments the annual expenses would be as

follows :

For salary of director $3,500

For salary of assistant . 1,000

For material (apparatus and specimens) 3,500

For books 500

which is, for the six departments, $51,000. Then there should

be $7,000 per annum for publications, leaving $2,000 for janitor and

other necessary expenses. The total income of $60,000 represents

an endowment of $1,000,000. Of course, the details might be

varied according to probable necessities, etc. And for a smaller

endowment, fewer departments might be created, but not without

Seriously crippling the institution. Various details, such as the

boundaries of the departments, the duties of assistants, etc., would

have to be fixed. A certain number of lectures should be given

by the directors, which should serve as an index of the charac-

teristics of the workers and their work. |

142 Recent Literature. [ February,

In the selection of the men who should act as directors of the

departments, the principal difficulty is to be encountered. The

enterprise of the American is no less marked in the struggle for

place and reputation, than in the struggle for the almighty dollar.

Qualification is little thought of by too many persons, who from

physical or mental weakness, or some other cause, desire to live

without labor. The charter of an institution of research should

embrace a provision, that the position of director should be for-

feited by that one who should not produce some original work of

merit every year or two, or during some other definite time. In

no other way could the institution be preserved from the intellec-

tual decay into which so many have fallen; and in no other way

could it be protected from patrons whose kind intentions might

include personal ‘favorites unknown to scientific research. Men

of money who desire to sustain original research will be com-

pelled to devote some inquiry as to who are the men who are

loyal to this work. The best index they can find to this class is

the record of their work already done.

The best mode of government of such an institution would be by

a senatus composed of the six directors of the departments and

an equal number of trustees of the endowment. In this way the

greatest amount of wisdom would be brought to bear on the

two questions of administration, viz: the preservation of the fund,

and the manner of its expenditure.—C.

RECENT LITERATURE.

farther, and has actually discovered at the end of the tail and on

the back of the young embryo of Pristiurus and of Scyllium

homogeneous structures (Hautknopfe) of subepiblastic origin, 0

the same substance as the horn-fibers or actinotrichia in the fin-

folds. These button-like structures are found on the back of the

embryo, in a single row, on either side of the median line and in

advance of the permanent dorsal. At the end of the tail they are

in two rows, viz., a dorsal and a ventral series. In both situations

they are metameric in position, and sections show that temporary

muscular buds are thrust outward towards these singular lateral

larval organs from the muscular segments or myotomes in the

same way as to the bundles of fibers or actinotrichia representing

rays in the median and paired fins.

These remarkable organs Mayer regards as the vestiges Or

remnants of parapodia, and therefore names them parapodoids.

1 Die unpaaren Flossen der Selachier. Mitt. Zool. Stat. zu Neapel. vi, pp. 217-

285, pl. 15-19. 1885. ;

1886. ] Recent Literature. 143

At the tip of the tail they stand in the position of the caudal neu-

ropodia and notopodia of errant annelids, but are not, as in them,

constituted of palea, bristles, etc. In the anterior dorsal region

of Scyllium, these bodies are in the position of neuropodia.

It will thus be seen that Mayer supplies a most important set

of data which lend support to the views of Dohrn as to the mean-

ing and origin of the median and paired fins, since that author has

contended that the relations of these peripheral structures to the

axis of the body are to be determined by the relations they bear

to the myotomes which send out muscular buds into the fins, and

not on the basis of the relations to the cartilaginous appendicular

skeleton or spines, as held by most other morphologists.

The table which Dr. Mayer gives to illustrate the varying rela-

tions of the same metameric elements of the median fins to the

point where the vertebral axis becomes diplospondylic are also of

great interest, not only morphologically, but also taxonomically.

or the first time in the history of the subject, in fact, we have

presented in this paper a tabulated statement of what are the

actual relations. of the metameric elements of the vertical fins to

logical methods. It is to be regretted that the author does not

give a brief summary of his results at the close of the paper

These researches, it may be remarked in conclusion, also show

that in Scyllium there is developed a posterior terminal, vermi-

form section of the embryo which corresponds to what the writer

has called an opisthure. Though it is obvious that this opisthure

is rudimentary and evanescent, as it soon becomes inconspicu-

ous. Some of the Elasmobranchii, therefore, pass through what

the writer has termed an archicercal stage.

The results reached by Dr. Mayer also afford important evi-

dence in support of the archistome theory, published by the

writer in this journal recently..—/John A. Ryder. —

_ Bower anv Vines’ Pracricat Botany.?—One of the significant

signs of the times, so far as botany is concerned, is the multipli-

cation of books which are designed to encourage the practical

Study of plants in the microscopical and physiological labora-

tories, A few years ago, such a thing as a laboratory manual for

the guidance of the botanical student was unheard of; now we

* AMERICAN NATURALIST, November, 1885, pp. 1115-1121.

* A Course of Practical Instruction in Botany. By F. O. Bower, M.A., F.LSe

Lecturer on Botany at the Normal School of Science, South Kensington; and SID-

NEY H. Vines, M.A., D.Sc., F.L.S., Fellow and Lecturer of Christ’s College, Cam-

bridge, and Reader in Botany in the University, With a preface by W. T. THis-

; .A., C.M.G., F.R.S., F.L.S., Assistant Director of the Royal

ere Kew. Part 1., Phanerogamæ-Pteridophyta. London, Macmillan & Co.,

144 Recent Literature. [ February,

have half a dozen or more, each giving valuable and needed help

to the young investigator. The latest of these manuals is the

one now before us.

The book, we are told in the preface, is the outgrowth of work

done in the Normal School of Science at South Kensington, dur-

ing several years under Mr. Dyer, and afterwards to the present

under Mr. Bower. Originating in this way, the book is not open

to the objection of impracticability which so frequently may be

brought against works of this kind, and the beginner may

take it up with confidence that he is not asked to undertake that

which for him is still impossible. A book which has grown into

being is always helpful, and this will prove no exception to the

rule.

There are in the beginning of the book a couple of introduc-

tory chapters in which are discussed briefly, and yet satisfactorily,

the making of preparations—micro-chemical reagents, the general

structure of the cell, the micro-chemistry and the micro-physics

of the cell. Altogether, fifty-three pages are given to the fore-

going topics.

In the succeeding pages are taken up first the Phanerogams

and afterwards the Pteridophytes. The sunflower (Helianthus

annuus) is taken very properly as the representative of the herba-

ceous, dicotyledonous angiosperms. This is followed by a study

of the arboreal type represented by the elm (Ulmus campestris).

The monocotyledons are principally represented by Indian corn

(Zea mais). Inthe Gymnosperms the Scotch pine (Pinus sylves-

tris) is used for study. In each case, stem, leaf, root, flower and

embryo are successively taken up and carefully studied. The

same method is followed in the Pteridophytes, where Selaginella,

Lycopodium, Aspidium and Equisetum represent the different

types of structure.

The general plan of the work is the same as that of Huxley

and Martin’s well-known book, “ Practical Instruction in Elemen-

tary Biology,” and the faults of the present work are identical, as

appear to us, with those of its forerunner, While such books

‘are very useful, and while they are doubtless doing much to stim-

ulate better work, we have long been of the opinion that alto-

gether too much help is given in them to the pupil, and that he

is not thrown often enough upon his own resources. It is true,

of course, that in the laboratories of many teachers, books of this

kind will not be used in such a way as to work to the disadvantage

of the pupil, but in many other cases—in too many cases—they

will be. In making these strictures upon the book, we would not

be understood as criticising the method of study of which it is the

outgrowth. As to that there can be but one opinion ; but unless

great care be taken by the teacher and pupil, the results originally

obtained at South Kensington without the book will not

secured with it. The book must be used as a general guide, and

1886. | Recent Literature. 145

must not be blindly followed paragraph by paragraph and page by

page. Its proper function is suggestive, and, if so used, it will

prove of great value in the botanical laboratory.

We cannot omit commending the form which the publishers

have given the book. The type, printing, paper and binding are

excellent, the flexible covers being especially commendable.—

Charles E. Bessey.

TorREY’S BIRDS IN THE BusH.’—This is a dangerous little book.

Young naturalists who have chosen paths that are not those of

song and color should avoid it, lest they also should, by its win-

some sweetness, be charmed to become ornithologists. Birds

appeal to other faculties beside those of the intellect. The musi-

cian, the poet, the painter, all find inspiration in the oscines, Per-

haps this is the reason there is so much twaddle written about

birds. Since there is an audience writers devoid of the artistic,

poetical, or musical faculties pen a series of quasi-scientific me-

anderings, and send it forth as a bird-book. But Mr. Torrey

loves bird-song and bird-beauty and tells his love in language

remarkable for force and picturesqueness. The eleven chapters

teem with the result of years of life among the birds, and the

author has a quaint way of comparing bird-life and bird-ways

with our own life and ways, without allowing the reader to forget

that it is only a bird he is talking about. No heavier blow has

been dealt the sparrow-hater than that given in the first chapter of

this book. Though by no means a sparrow-lover, Mr. Torrey

confesses that, in the space of the last seven oreight years, he has

watched upon Boston Garden and Common some thousands of

specimens, representing not far from seventy species. The author

Owns to the true aboriginal temperament—he loves to be out of

doors, but hates out-of-door employment; this is the stuff orni-

thologists should be made of, plus eyes.

Neuchatel, his correspondence with Humboldt, his nine summers

Spent in Alpine exploration—this volume will seem like a ro-

mance. To those who never saw this child of genius, the second

volume, recounting his successful life in America, the Iand of his

adoption, will be full of interest.

` Birds in the Bush. By BRADFORD TORREY. Boston, Houghton, Miffin & Co.

Fogg Agassiz—His Life and Correspondence. Edited by ELIZABETH CARY

1z. Two volumes. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1885. 12mo. $4-

146 Recent Literature. [ February,

As a youth, Agassiz was indefatigable as a collector, personally

attractive, full of high impulses, and his whole mind pervaded

with the scientific spirit. His early dreams were fully realized;

his castles in the air were actually built—he laid their foundations

and saw the superstructures materialized in richly illustrated vol-

umes and in brick and iron. The vast collections—the results of

his journeys, of his passionate appeals to State and individuals,

the unsolicited funds which flowed in as the meed of his success

in winning the confidence and sympathy of scientific and lay men

—these fill the Museum of Comparative Zoology, that monument

of a life of rare devotion to high ideals.

_ Agassiz was a genius, Winning in manner to an unusual degree,

full of ardor and enthusiasm, often reckless, but always success-

ful, with a grain of fanaticism and one-sidedness in his nature, like

a knight of old he won his proud position as one of the leading

scientific men of his age and the most influential and popular

teacher in the New World.

_ Agassiz had great powers of generalization, side by side with

those of acquisitiveness, of facts and specimens. His investiga-

tions in embryology, palzontology, as well as systematic zoology,

led him to form clear views as to the geological succession of

animals, the parallelism between the development of the individ-

ual and the group to which it belongs. His mode of looking at

nature, the whole drift of his teachings, naturally prepared the

mind for the reception of evolutionary ideas, and while his pupils

and his contemporaries advanced naturally to these philosophic

conceptions or generalizations, Agassiz,—whether owing to early

prejudice, the lack of a judicial turn of mind and analytical

powers, the modicum of combativeness and bigotry in his strong,’

intense nature, or the multiplicity of his labors and cares in the

later years of his life, which gave him little time for sustained:

thought,—failed to rise to the grand generalizations of modern

biology. He will be known in the history of science as the

strongest opponent, after Cuvier, of the theory of descent-

is, in the language of the title-page, an artistic edition of the Rev.

: G. Wood’s Natural History of the Animal Creation. It is pub-

lished by Selmar Hess, of New York, and edited for distribution

in this country by Dr. J: B. Holder. The parts before us (27 to 32)

finish the birds, discuss the reptiles and batrachians, and begin

the account of the fishes. As will be seen by the samples illus-

trating this notice, the illustrations, which are mostly taken from

Brehm’s Thierleben, are very superior to any elsewhere printed,

and give much value to the work.

The oleographs are also copies, by Mr. Prang, of those in

Brehm’s popular work. We should like to have had the remark-

able characteristics of the New Zealand Sphenodon given. As it is

PLATE VIII.

The Sphenodon of New Zealand.

PLATE‘IX.

The Gannet.

1886.] Recent Literature. 147

it is regarded simply as the type of a family of ordinary lizards,

whereas, by the best authorities, the group Rynchocephalia is

regarded as a distinct order of reptiles of very primitive structure.

RECENT Books AND PAMPHLETS.

Fiske, 3.—The idea of God. Houghton, Mitin & Co., Cambridge, 1866. From

the publishers

Thompson, D. W- —A bibliography of batten Coelenterata sz worms, romm

Cambridge University press, 1885. From the publisher:

Kane, W. F. de V.—European butterflies. fa & i a "1885. From the pub-

lishers.

Cunningham, D. 9.—Inaugural'address delivered at the opening of the new Ana-

tomical Theater, Trinity College, Dublin. 1885. From the author.

Credner, H.—Die TEAT part V, E 1885.. From the author.

Ti ras, Wm.—Obse ns on several Zoögloeæ and related forms. Studies from

he Johns Sues Biological Laboratory, 1885. From the editors.

beaks: 7. G.—On the so-called diorite ti zame Kaos Seemann etc. Ext.

uart, Jour. Geol. Soc., Nov., 1885. : m the a

Ruschenberger, W. S. W.—A aah of the ae of Me al E poem, M.D., LL.D.

Read bef. Amer. Phil. Soc., Nov. 6, 1885. From the aut

Lawrence, G. N.—Characters of two su age new gas ve bids from Yucatan.

Ext. Annals New York Acad. Sci., Vol. 18

eae eram of new species of birds of is family Columbide. The Auk, Oct.

: er ara of a new y ria of bird je the genus Engyptila, with notes on two

Yucatan birds. ` Ext n. N. Y: Acad. Sci., Vol. m1. All from the author

Becker, ag P a poe rs ka of volcanic cones e he elastic. limit of n

Ext.’ Amer, Jour. of Sci., Vol. xxx. From the auth

Cross, W., and Hillebrand, W. F, pF ap ikr to he mi nineralogy of the Rocky

` mountai i

ntains. Bulletin 20 U. S. Geol. Survey. From the author

E —A handbook to the National eres at the akkas pected is Washing-

on. From the author

7 E. S. ;— Japanese Ms and their surroundings. Ticknor & Co., 1886. From

eau

Meyner. a Psychiatry; a a treatise on diseases of the fore-brain. Trans-

e by B. Sachs, M.D. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1885. From the

publishers

Boulenger, G. A —Catalogue of the lizards in the British leagane Vols. 1 and 11.

London, 1885. From the trustees of. the British Muse

Errera, L.—Sur l'existence du glycogéne ae la levure eg bie ere. pat Comptes

Rendus des Seances de Pacad. des Scie , 1885. From the auth

— ot G.—The life of Agassiz. Ext. > Esaa Review, Hes | wes the

Pasi L et al, rzi yemy hth annual report of the curator of the Museum of

Com mparativ e Zodlogy at eiaa 1884-85. From the author.

moe pabla > genealogy and age of the ue in the Southern Old Tertiary.

utho:

se Science, Vol. XXX, 1885. From the au

comparative temperature of the Northern re Southern

1885.

ennessy, H—On t

hemispheres, Ext. Philos. Mag., Nov Stream.

———On the winters of Great Britain and Iecland as influenced by the Gulf

-_ Ext. idem. Both from the author.

Macdonald, C. C.—A sermon on the sclciion of evolution to Christianity. Read =

tie mang of the Brit. Assoc. Ady. Sci., Aberdeen, 1885, From the author. —

gra F.—Vierter Nachtrag zum prà der kicipeblogiochen —— des Bas

r Museums, 1885. From the author

148 General Notes .

pecevenrsee R.—Notes on the zodlogical position of the genus] Microchcerus Wood,

apparent ae tad with Hyopsodus Leidy. Ext. Quart, Journ. Geol. Soc.,

pa From the author

Sintzore, [.—Car niens générale de la Russie. Feville 93. Partie occiden-

tale, Kamychin, 1885. From the author

Tschernyschew, T.—Die Fauna des Untern TR am West-Abhange des van

1885. From the author.

an M. de.—Titulo de los Senores de Totonicapan, 1885. From the trans-

lator

FE J —The races of Britain. 1885. From the author.

» W.—Bronn’s Thier-reich, vı Band, v Abtheilung, 1885.

aie. paras A lecture before the Society of Ethical Culture, 1884. From

the a

Dames. aan ion of Lericulina nettingi. Sitz. d. Ge. Natur. Freunde zu Ber-

lin, 1885. From the author

Barce ena, iai and Perez, M. Estudios de Meteorologia comparada. Tomo 1.

Mexico, 1885. From the autho

True F. w EA to the history of the Commander islands. Description

* of anew Mesoplodon. Ext . U. Nat. Mus., 1885. From the author.

Duges, Atfredo, aa Biedledios de aor Mexico, 1885. From the author.

Teall, J. /.—British petrography. 1886. From the author

Netto, L.—Conference faite au en National en presence de LL. M.M. Impé-

riales , 1884. From the author

Ti a ji and Kail, F. A.—Ueber einen Krokodil-Schadel aus g Tertiarablage-

ungen von Eggenburg i in Niedercesterreich, 1885. From the authors

Diksi, G. M.— or clays. Ext, Bull. of the Chicago Acad. of POORE 1885.

rom t

Bovallius, C.—Mimonectes, a remarkable genus of etapa Hyperidea, Ext.

Proc. Roy. Ben. Upsala, 1885. From the author

Koschinsky, C.—Ein Beitrag zur —— der Biyodoentddiha der älteren Tertiar-

tinh des siidlichen og rns. Cheilostomata. 1885. From the author.

Van Ben n des Ossements fossiles des environs d’Anvers.

en, P. $—Descrip

Quatr tte partie. Cais Gene Plesiocetus. With an atlas. 1885. From

the

A T Mae regen

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS..

Asta—The Rivers of the Punjab. —An account of the rivers

of the Punjab, by Gen. R. Macagan

November issue of the Proceedings of the girs Geographical

grants from the north, and i it appears more probable that the ideas

of the people concerning the river changed when they knew it,

' This department is edited by W. N. LockINcTon, Philadelphia.

Oe eee tes:

1886.] Geography ana Travels. 149

better, and had advanced to the Jumna and the Ganges, than that

the river should have altered so greatly. Yet the disappearance

of the forests marks some diminution in the water-supply. Later

writings, about the sixth century B. C., state that the Saraswati

sinks into the earth, and gives the Ganges and Jumna at their

confluence. This is probably a fable to save the credit of a sacred

river. The Sutlej and the Indus rise on opposite sides of Mount

Kailas, at elevations of about 15,200 and 18,000 feet respectively,

and both flow north-west for a considerable distance, and then

turn to the south-west, the Indus taking the wider sweep, and

enclosing, between itself and the Sutlej, a broad tract containing

the other four rivers and their drainage basins. Much of the

upper courses of all these rivers is torrential, but the Indus runs

with a gentle and winding current through Ladak at a height of

11,000 feet, and the lovely valley of Kashmir is situated near the

sources of the Jhelum, which is even there a large river, since

several tributaries join at Islamabad, forty miles above Srinagar.

At Baramula, the Jhelum leaves Kashmir, and falls thirty-five feet

per mile for seventy-five miles, and then twenty-one feet per mile

to the Punjab plains. The earliest of the metrical histories of

Kashmir state that the valley was once a lake, and that a powerful

sage cut the gap at Baramula. It is not impossible that it was

e work of man. Seventy-five miles of the upper course of the

Beas have a fall! of 125 feet per mile. The courses of all these

rivers after reaching the plains of the Punjab are, like those of the

Mississippi and other rivers which have flood plains, subject to

much disastrous change. The rainfall of the higher portions of

the Punjab, where the rivers leave the hills, varies from thirty-four

to forty-eight inches. At fifty miles from the hills only sixteen

to twenty-four inches of rain falls, and at 100 miles, but ten to

twelve inches. Where the rivers unite, no more than six inches

of rain falls annually, and still less than this visits the desert

plain of Sind, through which the mighty Indus, after receiving

the five rivers, flows to the ocean. The five rivers unite

before reaching the Indus, and the united stream, called the

Panj-nad, or five streams, is at the junction more than twice

the width of the Indus, but much shallower. The discharge

of the Panj-nad at the low season, is estimated at 69,000 cubic

eet per second, that of the Indus at 92,000. The flood discharge

below the junction is about 380,000 cubic feet. A very large

amount of water borne down by these rivers sinks into the

ground, and forms an underground reserve of water, which even

in the rainless region round near the meeting of the five rivers is

not more than twenty-four feet below the surface. a

Himalayan Peaks——According to notes communicated by

Some

. Lieut. Col. H. C. B. Tanner to the British Association, there

are

no large glaciers on the north-east or shady side of Kinchinjinga,

nor does Mt. Everest seem to have noteworthy glaciers. 1s

VOL. XX,—no. 1r

150 General Notes. [ February,

really a snow-clad table-land 24,000 feet high. Observations of

Mt. Everest have to be taken from a distance of eighty miles, on

account of the jealousy of the Nepalese government. As it is

surrounded by peaks not greatly inferior in height, its aspect is

not imposing, and the Tibetans look upon some other peak to the

north or north-west as higher. The following table, given by Col.

Tanner, shows the height above the sea of some of the highest

Himalayan peaks, as well as the height of slope actually exposed

to view.

Height. song kane

Everest (or Gaurisankar)........... 29,000 8,000

K” SO Nite NOME) 650. 55 a vee ko) nA HAAS 28,278

Mara CPE RIT a oa os oe a a 27,800 8-9,000

Pree Pa ik EA 6 Ue 2 Hg dah 26,600 23,000

Trench: Mir (Hinga Kush)i. siosio -ja asare 25,400 17—18,000

ETACIE 5 PE AAS RRC E e 25,560 18,000

inchinjinga .. 28,160 16,000

Mont Blanc, though only 15,781 feet high, presents a face of

11,500 feet.

M. Potaneri’s Fourney—M. Potaneri has made interesting dis-

coveries in Northwest China. The broad valley of the Tchitai, a

tributary of the Hoang-ho, is thickly peopled by Salars (Turco-

mans), its upper part by Tanguts. The right bank of the Hoang-

ho itself, near San-chuan, is also peopled by Salars. They main-

tain their Turkish language, and the Mussulman religion, but

their mosques are Chinese in style, and the men wear a Chinese

dress. The women wear broad trousers, an overcoat with

sleeves, and a pointed bonnet. Above the gorge near San-chuan

(excavated in the red sandstone and conglomerates which under-

lie the Loess), is a depression seven miles long, peopled exclu-

sively by Mongolian Shirongols, who seem to belong to the same

stem as the Dalda of Lake Kuku-nor. The Chinese call both

Tu-jen. They speak Mongolian, with some Chinese words, an

_dress like Chinese, but the women wear trousers like the Salar

women. Around He-cheu they are Mussulmans, but Buddhism

and the teachings of Confucius are followed by some.

Asiatic News-——M. Ivanoff has recently described in the

Isvestia, the remains of Akhyr-tash, at the foot of the Alexander

range in Turkestan. The area covered by the remains is 20,900

_ square yards, and the stones weigh each about a ton. Some stone

-idols and a burial-ground on the Tssyk-tul are also described.

The Kampti villages on a tributary of the Irawadi, visited

by Wilcox, sixty, years ago, have again been visited by Col.

Woodthorpe. Only a very ordinary road is required to open up 4

- trade with these people from Assam. Mr. Gardner considers

Mukden, the capital of the Mongolian province of Féng- Tieng, as

one of the finest and most prosperous cities of the Chinese .

empire. The population of the province is chiefly Chinese. In

1865 it was a neutral belt, which neither Chinese nor Coreans”

TEE CSE rad ES E an See Reo le aaa rep Qe HOES Ee gM ap eae eR E

1386. ] Geography and Travels. 151

were allowed to colonize. Since 1876 hundreds of thousands of

emigrants have arrived from Shantung and Chihli, and have

broken up and cultivated land on both sides of the Great Wall

or Palisades. The site of Newchang, the port of Féeng-Tieng, was

in the seabed up to the beginning of this century. The province

of Korin contains a large community of Coreans. About

48,000 square miles, or 5% per cent of British India, has been

reserved as forests. Some are upon the plains or on the low ranges

of hills rising from them, some on the lower or middle slopes of

the Himalayas to an elevatlon of 8000 to gooo feet. A forest sur-

vey is in progress, largely in the lands of native surveyors trained

in the Forest Survey Department. A school of Indian forestry

. has been established, in which natives are trained to be conserva-

tors and rangers.

America.—The Claims of France in Brazil—M. Condreau

calls attention in a recent issue of the Revue Scientifique to the

undetermined portion of French Guiana. Upon maps the river

yapock is shown as the south-eastern boundary of French

Guiana, separating it from Brazil, while the southern boundary is

formed by the Tumac-Humac mountains. It appears, however,

that France has at, various times occupied and abandoned the ter-

ritories between the Oyapock and the Amazons, and that the

peoples of that region live actually independent of either Brazil or

France. M. Condreau states that Brazil once offered to divide this

territory, but that France claimed two-thirds. In any case,

the country in dispute is worth having, since it is not an un-

healthy marsh like Guiana itself, but an elevated healthy prairie

country tilled for colonization. The region offered to France in

1856, between the Oyapock and the Carsevesme, is as large as

three French departments ; while that claimed by France, ending

at the Tartarougal, contains twice the area.

_M. Condreau argues for the acceptance of the Brazilian propo-

sition.: Arguments about rights make it clear toa hman

that France ought to own all the country north of the Amazon as

far as the Rio Negro, and equally clear to a Brazilian that Brazil

owns to the Oyapock, Diplomacy has tried to settle the matter

for two hundred years. Most of this territory has been settled by

Brazilians, but the coast and prairies back of it are occupied only

by Indians. He proposes a Franco-Brazilian commission to settle

the matter. The first need is a good map. The seaboard is sub-

Ject to continual change, especially between the Mapa and Cabo

de Norte. During the last forty years much alluvial land -

has been made by the rivers. Of the interior country, and of the

Island of Maraca next to nothing is really known,

American News.— Lieutenant Cantwell has explored the river

Futnam to its source, 520 miles from the mouth. It rises in four

large lakes; the largest is about 153° W. long. and 67° N. lat.

152 : General Notes. [ February,

He found that there was an easy communication between Kot-

zebue sound and the Yukon. Mr. B. McLenegan, with one

sailor, ascended in a canoe the river Nortauk, which enters the

Arctic ocean at Hotham inlet, for a distance of 400 miles. Here

one of the head streams of the river issued from a small lake. No

inhabitants were met’with. The course of the Nortauk is entirely

in the Polar circle, and the lake in which it rises is the most

northerly inland point yet reached by white men in Alaska.

A rich deposit of coal of good quality has been found at Cape

Lisburne (69° 37’ N. lat.). From the observations made by

the Alert, it appears that Hudson’s bay and strait are navigable

from July to October, and that the climate of the Hudson’s bay

coast is less severe than that of Northwest Canada. Lieut.

Allen has returned to San Francisco from an exploration of. the

Copper river, which he ascended as far as the mountain range of

Alaska. e then crossed the mountains on snow-shoes, and

reached the sources of the Tennah, which he followed 800 miles

to its junction with the Takon. The latter he descended to its

mouth, a distance of 400 to 500 miles———M. Thonar has left

Buenos Ayres to complete his explorations on the Pilcomayo.

Captain L. Gray found, during his visit to the east coast 0

Greenland last summer, that the land ice was sufficiently open in

August to afford passage for a steamer. He sailed along the

coast from Shannon island to the entrance of Scoresby sound.

J. Hughes and F. Dunsmuir have returned to Juneau,

Alaska, from the headwaters of the Yukon. Good placers were

found, mostly in British territory. ‘he governments of the

gentine confederation and of Brazil have agreed to a joint

exploration of the neutral or disputed ground on the western

limit of the Brazilian province of Sta. Cateria, situated between

the Uruguay and Iguassu rivers. An old treaty between Spain

and Portugal fixed upon two rivers, the Peperi and San Antonio,

the first flowing into the Igyassu, the second southward to the

Uruguay, as the boundary; but the difficulty is to identify the

rivers so called in the treaty. Lieut. Greely, ina recent lecture

at Dundee, stated that the temperature observations taken during

his stay in Grinnell sound confirmed the expectation that it had

the lowest mean temperature known, about 4° F. below zero.

The discovery of coal at various points showed how climate had

changed. He doubted the existence of a palzocrystic sea.

floe bergs from 100 to 1000 feet thick, are, in his belief, detach-

ments of slowly moving ice-caps from a land near the pole. !

` Kane sea he visited a floe berg a third of a mile wide and a fifth

to a sixth of a mile thick, and found upon it two valleys thirty

feet deep, along which were fully 100 large stones polished and

worn smooth—proofs of the glacial and terrestrial origin of the

1886. | Geology and Paleontology. 153

AFRICA.— Capello and Ivens’ Fourney—Messrs. Capello and

Ivens reached Lisbon on Sept. 17th, after traveling 4200 geo-

graphical miles in Africa during fifteen months. From the Portu-

guese territory they proceeded towards the Cubango, as far as the

lower part of the Tucussu, where the barrenness of the region,

intersected by water-courses and marshes, forced them to turn

northwards through a district infested by the tsetse. Sixteen of

the party died of tsetse-bites, besides cattle and dogs. Sixty-two

men perished during the fifteen months. The principal results of

this journey are the rectification of the course of the Cunene, the

determination of the Quarrai and its union with the Cubango, as

well as the interesting hydrography of the Handa and the Upper

Ovampe ; the exploration of the Cubango between 15° and 17°

S. lat., and of its principal eastern affluents ; the investigation of

the basin of the Upper Zambezi to Libonta, and the upper and

middle course of the Cabompo; the discovery of the Cambai, an

eastern branch of the Upper Zambezi; the exploration of the

sources of the Lualaba and Luapula, and of the northern tributa-

ries of the Middle Zambezi; and the identification of the Loengue

with the Kafuke. The great lake Bangweolo of modern maps is

really composed of two smaller lakes, Bangweolo to the north, ©

and Bemba to the south, separated by a marshy belt. This agrees

with M. Giraud’s account.

GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY.

THE STERNUM OF THE DinosaurIA.— The discussion which

has been going on between paleontologists, as to the nature of

the sternum of the Dinosauria, and the presence or absence of

clavicles in this order, induces me to present some evidence which

bears distinctly on the question. The first point to be noticed is

the pair of bones represented in Fig. 1, which belongs to the

skeleton of Diclonius mirabilis Leidy! It is evident that these

Diclonius, I cannot give their exact relations. The positions in

which the bones were found by Dollo in the Iguanodon renders

it highly probable that they are the separate pleurosteal elements

of the sternum. The long processes will then be posterior, and

will have given attachment to ribs. Such a type of sternum is,

however, unique, and requires good evidence before admission

into our descriptions. :

Important evidence on this point is furnished by the probable

corresponding element in the Laramie dinosaurian, the Mono-

clonius crassus Cope’ This is a quadrupedal form, aboutaslarge =

1 Proceedings Academy, Philadelphia, 1883, p. 97. :

? Bulletin du Musée Royal d’Histoire Naturelle de Belgique, 1882, p. 208. a o

* Proceedings Academy, Philadelphia, 1876, October; Pal. Bulletin, No. 22, p. 8

154 General Notes. [ February,

as a Rhinocerus unicornis, with teeth approaching those of Hadro-

saurus in characters. The accompanying figure 2 represents the

element in question, one-tenth the natural size. Here the lateral

elements are united on the middle line, which projects as an

obtuse keel. The lateral processes are nearly transverse, and

are impressed at their extremities by articular surfaces. The

opposite extremity presents a facet on each side for a squamosal

articulation with a flat bone (c, Fig. 2), in which the inferior

bounding ridge projects much further than the superior one.

This articulation cannot be for any other bone than the coracoid,

and it resembles considerably the corresponding groove on the

sternum of the crocodile. The general surface of the bone is

dense, and does not resemble the imperfect ossification described

by Hulke in the bone of similar character referred by him to

Fig. 1. Fig. 2

Fic. 1, Sternum of Diclonius mirabilis Leidy ; Fic. 2, do. of Monoclonius crassus

Cope; both one-tenth natural size; c, coracoid facet. From the Laramie beds of

Dakota and Montana, .

Iguanodon? That the element in Monoclonius, represented in

Fig. 2, is the sternum, seems very probable, and, if so, the ele-

ments in Diclonius (Fig. 1) are sternum also,

The T-shaped bone figured by Hulke, if inverted, would resem-

ble the elements here referred to the sternum in Diclonius and

-Monoclonius. Mr. Hulke describes a probable articular facet

along its sides “ posterior ” (anterior) to the divergent bars, as -

suggesting an articulation with an epicoracoid. This may cor-

respond with the facet c in Diclonius and Monoclonius, which, I

suppose, received the edge of the coracoid. This justifies the

proposition of Baur,’ that this bone should be inverted, and that

the supposed clavicles of Hulke and Marsh are posterior pro-

1 Quarterly Journal Geological Society, 1885, pl. xrv.

2 Zoologischer Anzeiger, No. 205, 1885, p. 2. :

fe E E U ae E R I E SN

1886. ] Geology and Paleontology. 155

cesses of the sternum and not anterior. The evidence for this

position rests primarily, I repeat, on the position of the bones

observed by Dollo, and the character of the corresponding ele-

ment in Monoclonius.

But it may be that the bone figured by Hulke is a different

element from that figured by Dollo, as supposed by the latter.*

The proximal end of the scapula of Dizclonius mirabilis resem-

bles very much that which I have figured and described as

belonging to Hadrosaurus foulkei? excepting that it possesses a

strong tuberosity on the anterior border (spina scapule), which is

wanting in that species. It is represented as weak in the two

species of Iguanodon by Dollo, and as rather strong in the same

genus by Hulke.—Z. D. Cope.

Corrections oF NOTES on DinocerAta.—In the NATURALIST

for June, 1885, I gave a synopsis of the, genera of this suborder,

which was partly based on new information derived from

Professor Marsh’s work, then recently published. Among them

was included the supposed genus Tetheopsis, whose character

consisted in the absence of inferior canine and incisor teeth. The

discovery of species presenting such a peculiarity would not

be at all surprising in view of the reduction which the roots of

these teeth display in some of the species, and the absence of

superior incisors in all of them. The character on which the genus

was predicated is figured by Professor Marsh in the skull referred

to Tinoceras stenops Marsh, without comment in the description

which follows. I now learn on good authority that the sym-

physeal region in the specimen in question is entirely constructed

of plaster of Paris. I saw the specimen, and a rather close

examination did not reveal the line of separation between the

plaster and the bone, which it is colored to imitate, and which is

not indicated in either Professor Marsh's figures or description.

The genus Tetheopsis must then be regarded as an artifact!

I add that the basal part of a skull which I described under the

head of Uintathertum lacustre Marsh (U. S. Geological Survey,

Terrs., 111, p. 592) turns out to belong to a Palzosyops. The

skull was found in a broken. condition mingled with loose frag-

ments and teeth of the Uintatherium in such a way as to lead

to the belief that they belonged together.—Z. D. Cope.

DISCOVERY OF LAMELLATE THORACIC FEET IN THE PHYLLO-

CARIDA.—In a genus of Phyllocarida, allied to Ceratiocaris, which

is represented by a specimen from the Carboniferous beds

Mazon creek, Illinois, kindly loaned me by Mel Carr, of

Morris, Ill., there are plain indications of broad lamellate feet like

the thoracic feet of Nebalia. os

Of these limbs there are traces of four pairs. They are broad :

l Revue des Questions Scientifiques, 1885, p: 8, top.

ransactions American Philosophical Society, 1869, XIV, p. 92.

156 General Notes. [February,

and thin, slightly contracted in width near the base, and at the

distal extremity quite regularly rounded, with the free ends appar-

ently slightly folded longitudinally, the edges appearing to be.

slightly crenulated, though the folds were perhaps due to changes

after death. the feet are of nearly the same size, and are

about two-thirds as long as the carapace is high, being of nearly

the same proportionate length as in Nebalia. There are no traces

of a division into endopodites and exopodites, but we should

be inclined to regard the parts preserved as the homologues of

the exopodites of Nebalia.

This specimen, then, indicates the existence in extinct Phyllo-

carida of thin, broad, lamellate, thoracic limbs, in general appear-

ance like those existing in Nebalia, and should this view be sub-

stantiated by farther discoveries it will prove the reasonableness

of uniting Ceratiocaris and its allies with the modern Nebalia. I

had a year ago considered this form as new and gave it a MS.

name Cryptozoé problematicas, as I was in doubt as to its affinities;

but lately submitting it to Mr. C. E. Beecher, with the opinion that

it was a Ceratiocaris, he writes me that he regards it as new to sci-

ence. A description of the new genus and species, with figures,

will appear hereafter —A. S. Packard.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF PENNsSYLVANIA.—Report of Progress X

contains a geological hand-atlas of the sixty-seven counties of

Pennsylvania, and is the work of J. P. Lesley, the chief of the sur-

vey. The volume is one which ought to be in the hands of every

one interested in field geology, embodying as it does, in convenient

form, the entire results of the survey, so far as they can be carto-

graphically represented. The maps are prefaced by an explanation

of the geological structure of Pennsylvania,and a short account of

e characteristic features of each county.

GEOLOGICAL SuRVEY oF Munnesota.—Professor Winchell’s

Twelfth Annual Report commences with a summary statement of

work done. From this it appears that maps of thirty-two coun-

ties are completed, and several others in course of preparation.

A new trilobite of the genus Bathyurus is described. Professor

Winchell gives an account of experiments with cubes of New

England and Minnesota granites, and seems to prove the latter to

be the stronger. . 3

C. L. Herrick contributes a final report on the Crustacea of

Minnesota (Cladocera and Copepoda). This occupies 191 pages,

includes an account of the enemies of entomostrza, and appears

to be exhaustive. It is illustrated with numerous plates. The

volume concludes with a catalogue of the flora, by Warren

Upham. It includes 1650 species, comprising vascular crypto-

gams, but not fungi or alge.

GEOLOGICAL News.—General—A, S. Woodward (Geol. Mag.,

Nov., 1885) gives a list of the British fossil Crocodilia. One spe-

1886. ] Geology and Paleontology. 157

cies occurs in the Upper Trias, six in the Upper Lias, thirty-nine

from the other Jurassic beds, eleven from the Purbeck and

Wealden beds, three from the green sand, and six from the

ocene.

Silurian—Dr. O. Hermann (Geol. Mag. Sept., Oct., 1885)

gives an account of the organization of the Graptolithide. The

entire polypidom proceeds from a simple hollow cone called the

sicula. In the external wall of this dagger-shaped organ a single

or double solid axis is developed. Thus, until the sicula is found,

it is impossible to tell whether any given form belongs to the

monograptide or to a two-branched family. Sprouting does not

always commence at the same spot of the sicula. It is now

assumed that all graptolites provided with a sicula were not

attached bodies, the character of the termination, and its disap-

pearance in full-grown individuals, militating against attachment.

In some of the much-branched Dichograptidz a central chitinous

disc unites the basal part of the branches. It has been ascertained

by Hopkinson that in some graptolites the hydrothecze were

separated from the coenosarc by a well-marked septum, and that

the ccenosare was divided by septa into transverse joints. The

oldest graptolite, according to Brogger and Hermann, is Dictyo-

grapius teneilus; and the family Dichograptide, which includes

complicated and elegant forms of graptolites, is older than the

universal groups. This family appears in the Lower Silurian

(Waring), becoming extinguished before the Upper Silurian is

reached. The Phyllograptidze and Lasiograptidz seem to be con-

: fined to the lowest division of the Lower Silurian, the Leptograp-

tide and Dicranograptide to the Lower Silurian, while the

Diptograptidz and Retiohtes commence in the lowest Lower

Silurian, but are most developed at its upper boundary, and

extend into the Upper Silurian. The simplest family, the Mono-

graptidæ, are, according to Lapworth, strictly confined to the

Upper Silurian. The genus Dictyograptus, of which Tullberg

makes a new family (though Hermann ranges it with the Dicho-

graptidæ), maintains itself through the entire Silurian, and passes

into the Devonian.

Devonian.—Professor Williams has described (Geol. Mag.,Sept.,

1885), Prestwichia eriensis, a new Limuloid from the Devonian

of Le Bouf, Erie county, Pa.

enland. The second or Mill creek series corresponds closely

to the Dakota, and seems to represent the flora of the Cenoma-

158 General Notes. [February,

nian and Turonian divisions of Europe. The third sub-flora is

that of the Belly river at the base of the Fort Pierre group.

Though separated from the Laramie by the Pierre and Fox hill

groups, it introduces the Laramie or Dominion flora, which con-

tinues to the top of the Cretaceous, and probably into the Eocene,

and includes several species still surviving in America. Next

comes the Laramie group itself, the fossils of which are found in

Canada, chiefly in the lower and upper beds, the middle beds

being poor in plants. Sir W. Dawson concludes that no cause

for the mild temperature of the Cretaceous other than change of

elevation need be invoked.

Tertiary —According to Woodward, fifteen species of fossil

sirenians have been referred to Halitherium, while two consider-

ably larger species, both found in Italy, are placed in Felsinothe-

rium, and closely resemble Halicore in dentition. Prorastomus

isit c.i4 p.m. m.33=48. Felsinotherium has i }} m. 33.

An interesting discovery was a cast of the interior of the skull of

Eotherium egyptiacum at Mokattam, near Cairo, in 1875. The

brain of the huge Rhytina is only one-sixth of the size of that of

the manatee or dugong. The total number of extinct sirenians

enumerated by Woodward, including Chirotherium from Pied-

mont; Chronozoon from New South Wales; Crassitherium from

Belgium’; Dioplotherium and Hemicaulodon from South Carolina

and New Jersey; Pachyacanthus from near Vienna; Rhytiodus

and Trachytherium from France, and two extinct Manati, is

twenty-eight. The recent species are three of Manatus and three

of Halicore. Dr. Murie believes that the large number of fossil

species described will probably have to be reduced into two or

three genera.

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.!

proving that the shapes of etched figures were independent of the

1 Edited by W. S. BAYLEY, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

2 Quart. Jour. Sci., 1, 1816, p. 24.

3 Sitz.-Ber. der Akad., Wien, 1855, 15, p. 59.

* Poggendort’s Annalen, 124, p. 329, etc.

1886.] Mineralogy and Petrography. 159

cleavage planes, but were intimately related to the symmetry of

the crystal, and thus opened up a new method of investigating

opaque minerals. In order to study more closely the connection

between the figures produced by weathering and those produced

by etching, Blasius,! of Strassburg, subjected a number of sub-

stances in crystal form to the action of alcohol, and also placed

them in desiccators with strong sulphuric acid. As the result of

a large number of experiments, he concludes that many of the

figures produced by weathering (including etched figures) cannot

be brought into close relation with the directions of cleavage or

the curves of hardness in the substances acted upon. Moreover,

their shapes differ according to conditions, and, finally, from

a knowledge of the etched figures on a number of faces the shape

of those on others can be deduced. F. Becke? adds further to

our knowledge in an article on the etched figures of minerals of

the magnetite group. Magnetite, spinel, franklinite and linneite

were treated with sulphuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids of dif-

ferent concentrations and during periods of different lengths, and

besides with alkaline solutions. 1. On all the crystal faces, the

figures were composed essentially of the same planes of etching,

the principal planes of etching. 2. The principal planes of etch-

ing lie in a determinate zone. 3. These planes of etching offer

the greatest opposition to the action of solvents. 4. Depressions

are formed on such faces as belong to the zene of etching, eleva-

tions on those which lie far without it. 5. Cleavage planes can-

not, at the same time, be planes of etching. 6. Linnzite, when

etched with acids, deports itself like magnetite; when treated

with alkaline solutions, an entirely different plane becomes the

principal plane of etching. Consequently, it may be assumed

that “the elemental atoms in the crystal molecule maintain a

definite position with relation to one another.” In linnæite

(Co,S,), for instance, “the cobalt atoms are turned toward

the cubic faces and the sulphur atoms toward the dode-

cahedral faces,” because when treated with acid the cubic

faces are dissolved fastest, but when treated with fused potash,

the dodecahedral faces offer the least opposition to the solvent

action of this reagent. Baumhauer* makes practical use of the

method of etched figures in an investigation ofthe character of

the massive bornite from Chloride, N. M. When a polished sur-

face of this mineral is treated with nitric acid it breaks up into

several fields, each of which reflects the light differently, showing

that the massive material is made up of an irregular intergrowth

of individual crystals. At the same time the fact is brought out

twinned inclusions of chalcocite and chalcopyrite are not

ommon.

i Zeits. für Kryst. und Miner., X, p. 221.

3 Min. und Petrogr. Mitt., VII, p. 195.

Zeitschrift für Krystallographie, X, p. 447-

160 General Notes. [February,

ANDESITE.—The question of the best definition of andesite is

of plagioclase and hornblende; and Lagorio as a volcanic rock

composed of plagioclase, with the addition of augite, hornblende

or mica. Rosenbusch’ separates the mica and amphibole ande-

sites from the augite andesite. Siemiradski finds that the same

lava-stream varies in acidity, and that, though hornblende is more

n r in ve

silica, while hornblende is eitively lacking. “No indication of

the regular sequence of separation of augite, hornblende and mica

with i increasing acidity, as observed by Hague and Iddings,* can

be detected.” He suggests as the best definition of this class of

rocks the following: Neutral or acid plagioclase rocks, with at

least fifty-five per cent of SiO,, with trachytic, basaltic or phono-

litic habit, consisting of porphyritic andesine, with an iron- -rich

pyroxene, hornblende or mica in a groundmass, composed essen-

tially of an acid andesine or oligoclase, and an acid glass (mixture

of oligoclase on haere and amorphous silica) containing micro-

scopic pyroxen

The Borbhyritic hornblende of these Ecuador‘andesites is sur-

rounded by an opacitic rim and contains inclusions of the ground-

mass, which, under the microscope, are seen to consist of feldspar

and augite microlites. Moreover, it is not confined to the most

acid varieties. Consequently, the author suggests that it may

have been produced, at great depths, in a magma saturated with

superheated steam under great pressure, while the augite crystal-

lized from a dry magma under comparatively little pressure—a

theory very different from the one usually accepted.

WILDSCHÖNAU GABBRO.—[IĪn a communication on this subject,

Cathrein’® calls attention to the article of Hatch, already noticed

in these notes. He claims that the latter’s hornblende-gabbro

and amphibolite are chlorite-gabbro and chlorite-schist, and that

there are no proofs of the close relation which that author sup-

poses to exist between normal gabbro and serpentine on the one

hand and amphibolite and epidote rock on the other.

PETROGRAPHICAL NEws.—F. Becke communicates a few notes

on the rocks of the lower Austrian Waldviertel. At Marburg

there occurs a granophyre in veins. It consists of zircon in small

1 Geologische Reisenotizen aus Ecuador, B. Beil. i

. * Mikros. Phys. ot Massigen eee 1877. oi tas Sa gen Be

Andesite des Kaukasu 7:

x ions rok the cos a rocks of the Great Basin. Amer. Jour. Sci., XXVII, 1884,

. 162.

: Miner. und Petrog. Mitth., VII, p. ey

6 NATURALIST, October, 1885, p P- 992¢

7 Min. und Petrog. Mittheilungen, VII, p. 250.

1886. | Mineralogy and Petrography. 161

yellow grains, chloritized biotite, dark-green hornblende, clear

transparent orthoclase and microcline and opaque altered plagio-

‘clase in a groundmass of small brown plates of biotite and clear

orthoclase and quartz in micropegmatitic growths. Pilite-kersan-

tite from Spitz on the Donau and pyroxene-amphibolite from

Aschauer are also described. In the same article Becke reports

the result of a reinvestigation of Schrauf’s kelyphite,' the altera-

tion product of pyrope in olivine rocks. This substance, he

thinks, is a mixture of a chrome-spinel and a ‘silicate, probably

hornblende. The reaction of the olivine on the garnet he rep-

resents thus: :

Mg,Al,Si,0,. + Mg,SiO, = Al,MgO, + Mg,Si,Qj,

rope, in spinel, amphibole.

—lIn a letter to the Neues Jahrbuch, F. H. Hatch describes

hypersthene andesite from Mt. Chachani, in Peru. Inclusions

of mica-schist, marble and syenite are .mentioned® by Hussak as _

occurring in the phonolite of Oberschaffhausen. The same

writer* denies the widespread existence of cordierite in Hunga-

rian andesites, but finds it in many trachytes. Kolenko® men-

tions hornblende pseudomorphs after olivine as characteristic of a

metamorphosed olivine diabase from the north shore of Lake

Onega, in the Caucasus. The olivine substance is entirely changed

into aggregates and crystals of a non-pleochroic hornblende.

vathrein® communicates an interesting paper on the altera-

fion of garnet in the amphibolites of the Tyrolese Central

Alps. Pseudomorphs of epidote, scapolite, oligoclase, horn-

blende, saussurite and chlorite are described in detail. The scap-

olite substance is intimately mixed with epidote and plagioclase,

and the whole is surrounded by a rim of hornblende crystals. In

the change to hornblende, crystals of magnetite separate and the

excess of silica, magnesia and lime unite to form epidote.

MiscELLANEous.—lIn a discussion concerning the conduct of the

zeolites with reference to their water constituent, C. Bodewig* shows

that the loss of weight which phacolite suffers over CaCl, must be

due to loss of water of crystallization and not to loss of hygro-

scopic water. He also contests the idea of Jannasch® that every

desiccating agent abstracts a certain definite amount of water from

ese minerals and consequently some of the loss over CaCl, may

be due to loss of water of combination. The twelfth edition

1 Ueber Kelyphite. Neues Jahrb, f. Miner., etc., 1884, J, p. 21.

at Band 11, p. 73, 1885.

Neues ae f. Mineralogie, 1885, 11, p. 78.

Ibp.

5 Ib., p. go.

` Zeitschrift f. Krystallographie, X, p. 433.

: Miner. und Petrog. Mittheilungen, VII, p. 250.

$ Zeitschrift für Krystallographie, x, p. 276.

Ib., VII, p. 429. '

162 General Notes. [February,

of Naumann’s “Elemente der Mineralogie ™ has just appeared.

The work has been newly revised and brought up to date by Dr.

Ferdinand Zirkel, who has undertaken this duty since the death +

of Naumann in 1873. The new edition contains about fifty

pages and thirty-three wood-cuts, more than the eleventh (1881).

The chemical formulz used have all been recalculated and the

recent advances in the field of optical and physical mineralogy

ave been incorporated in the body of the work, so that the new

book is the most complete and satisfactory treatise on general

mineralogy published in any language. An abstract from the

forthcoming “ Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar

Years 1883 and 1884,” has just been received. It is entitled

“Precious Stones.” The author is G. F. Kuntz. The paper

treats of the production of precious stones in the United States

in 1883 and 1884 and their importation, The total value of pre-

cious stones found during 1884 was $82,975, including $800

topaz was taken out. The reports in the newspapers of remark-

able finds have all been investigated and have proven to be unre-

liable. The great “ Georgia Marvel” or “ Blue Ridge Sapphire,”

for instance, which was supposed to be a sapphire worth $50,000,

turned out to be nothing but a “piece of rolled blue bottle-

glass.” The paper is interesting as showing just how far we can

rely upon our own resources to supply us with ornamental stones.

The author also mentions several uses to which domestic material

can be applied with fine effect.

: BOTANY.’

Can VARIETIES OF Apples BE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR FLOW-

ERS.—To a botanist this may seem like a queer question, capable

only of an answer in the affirmative, but pomologists have quite

universally held to the opposite view. awa like the fol-

lowing, ewe be made from our most eminent writers of pomo-

" o a are partially classified by the size and color of the

petals, but in all the other fruits, as in apples, pears, plums, cher-

ries, etc., the flowers vary but slightly in form and color?” ~~

Another says: “ Little difference exists in the flowers.”

a te der Mineralogie. 951 ills., ipzig, )

Lipa tno, 95 7 peg Wein Eageimann

* Edited by Professor CHARLES E. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska.

1886. | Botany. 163

At a meeting of the Michigan State Pomological (now Horti-

cultural) Society, held in 1873, the writer presented a paper on

.this subject in which he accurately described quite a number of

kinds of apples by the flowers.

To the pomologist the term “ flower ” means the showy petals;

to the botanist it means calyx, corolla, stamens and pistils. These

floral characters are as constant and reliable for distinguishing

varieties as are those characters of the fruit which are usually

employed.

In apples the points of the calyx vary in breadth, size and in

other particulars. The petals vary in size and shape in different

varieties, and some in color. Not very much was made of the.

stamens, but the styles and stipe furnish excellent characters.

Dr. Hogg, of England, pointed out the value of the shape of

the calyx-tube and the position of the stamens on the inside of

the tube, but in our American apples, at any;rate, these points are

not so reliable as are those pertaining to the stipe and styles.

In 1879, at the Rochester meeting of the American Pomologi-

cal Society, I presented an illustrated paper on the classification

of apples, in which the peculiarities of the flowers formed an im-

portant part. Many flowers were examined from different trees

in various localities. Over a hundred varieties have been ex-

amined.

I have since that time frequently called the attention of my

Students to this subject, and last spring (in 1885) suggested it to

one of our graduates, Mr. W. L. Snyder. I have had some o

his drawings carefully copied for your use.

Unfortunately in these cases the petals were not drawn, but a

glance at the lobes of the calyx, and especially a close examina- -

tion and comparison of the stipes and styles will show a great

a in the length, breadth, hairiness and other points of the

es.

_ At the Boston meeting of the American Pomological Society,

in 1881, I showed that a similar difference exists in the lobes of

the calyx, the shape and size of the petals of pears, but in these

flowers pe ipt is very short or wanting. The styles vary as do

of apples.

Mr. Snyder also made some notes and drawings of the flowers

and inflorescence of some of our cultivated varieties of strawber-

Pda are quite as marked as those here shown for the

flowers of apples.

In case of apples probably 3000 or more varieties have been

cribed by the fruit alone. It is needless to say that with a

variety of soils and climates it is next to impossible to define so

many in a manner which shall be at all satisfactory. “e

A similar difficulty exists in our sorts of pears, peaches, plums,

, Strawberries, raspberries and a myriad of cultivated grains

vegetables [exactly how many I do not know.

General Notes. [February,

Fig. 5.

Fic. pie: Rea Canada.” hee 2.—" Talman Sweet.” Fic. 3.—‘ Sweet

Bough.” “Rambo.” Fig. 5.—“ Wagner.” All X 3.

1886. ] Botany. 165

A friend has just sent me 160 named lots of cultivated beans.

How are they usually described? Mainly by the time of fruiting,

size and color of pod and the peculiarities of the seeds.

e are living in a time when there is much said about the

difficulty of describing so many varieties of cultivated plants, It

seems to me the correct solution of this problem is here sug-

gested: Instead of describing lettuce and turnips and onions by

the shape of leaf and head, color and shape of root, or the color

and shape of bulb respectively, let the inflorescence and flowers

be carefully examined and a clear record made of a// the charac-

ters which prove to be most reliable. The time has come for

more careful work in this direction. The skill of a good botanist

should be joined to that of a good horticulturist.— W. F. Beal,

Agricultural College, Mich.

FORMATION OF STARCH IN THE LEAVES OF THE VinE.—Sig.

Cuboni has made a series of observations (Rivista di Viticoltura

ed Enologia Italiana, 1885) on the formation of starch in leaves

of the vine. In March and April, when the leaves are first formed,

amonth old. It depends, however, to a certain extent on the

maturity of the chlorophyll-grains.

In a leaf containing no starch at the outset, abundance was

found after an hour’s exposure to the direct action of the sun-

light ; and the maximum quantity was obtained by two hours’

Although the youngest leaves are unable to form starch, the

maximum development is not obtained by the lowest leaves on a

branch, but by those on the middlemost nodes; on a branch con-

taining sixteen leaves, by those from the seventh to the eleventh, .

the lowest showing less than half the maximum power of pro-

duction.

If an annular incision is made above and below a leaf, sepa-

rating the elements of the soft bast, the starch in the leaf is not

and transformed in the dark ; but if a similar incision is

made only below, or only above the leaf, the ordinary process is

not disturbed ;. and this is also the case if a leaf separated by an

incision on both sides has a panicle of fruit or flowers opposite it

on the same node. No starch is formed if the leaves are etio-

-a or attacked by Peronospora viticola.— Four. Royal Mic.

Society,

VOL, XX.—NO. 11, co 12

166 General Notes. [February,

THE PRopucTION OF MALE AND FEMALE P ants. — Recent

observations and experiments by Hoffman (Bot. Zeit., 1885) con-*

firm the view hitherto held by some biologists that the produc-

tion of the male organism is due to insufficient nutrition. In

Lychnis diurna and vespertina, Valeriana dioica, Mercurialis annua,

Rumex acetosella, Spinacia oleracea and Cannabis sativa dense

sowing increased the amount of male plants.

Pear BLIGHT BACTERIA AND THE HorTICULTuRISTS.—AlIthough

to the mind trained in the logic of investigation there can be no

doubt as to the cause of pear blight, there are yet some horticul-

turists who do not feel convinced. With them the facts—plain

facts—brought out by Mr. Arthur at Ann Arbor, and reproduced

in popular form in the December NATURALIST, are spoken of as

the “ Bacterian theory of pear blight,” when as a matter of fact

there was no “theory” in the presentation. As was remarked

by one of the auditors at Ann Arbor, Mr. Arthur’s paper

amounted to a demonstration, and as a demonstration it must be

accepted. One may as well attempt to controvert a demonstra-

tion in geometry as to attempt it in this case.

We have observed two principal varieties of denials, and both

illustrate the fact that the mind untrained in the methods of scien-

tific reasoning is most incredulous of demonstrations, and most

credulous of unproved assertions. (1) It is held on the one hand

that the bacteria observed are an accompaniment and not the cause

of the disease, and this in face of the fact that all of Mr. Arthur's

investigations were directed to this very point, Professor Burrill

having long ago shown the presence of bacteria beyond a doubt.

Our horticultural friends must bear in mind that Mr. Arthur's

work was not to find whether bacteria ave present in pear blight.

Of that almost any one who has access to a microscope can sat-

isfy himself with but little labor. He undertook the solution of

the very matter which is now brought up so calmly, innocently

and confidently. And he made no announcement until the dem-

onstration was reached. Let our friends read the testimony can-

didly and they will be fully satisfied upon this point.

(2) It is held by another class of disbelievers that what Pro-

fessor Burrill and Mr. Arthur have been working upon is a kin

‘of blight which is quite distinct from the real Simon-Pure blight

which works such havoc in the orchards. That is, we have here

an attempt to diagnose off-hand, out of sight and hundreds of

miles away, the disease to which two trained men gave years of

close personal study.

But science is patient, and no doubt the next work of Mr.

Arthur will be the study of cases of this so-called other kind of

blight. It will then be interesting to know what new line

defense will be set up by those who “do not believe in the bac-

terian theory of blight.” i

BotanicaL News. — Late numbers of the Botanische Zeitung

contain articles as follows: The pith rays of the Coniferæ, by A-

1886. } Botany. 167

Kleeberg; The formation and transportation of carbohydrates in

foliage leaves, by A. F. W. Schimper; Journal of the fifty-eighth

meeting of German naturalists and physicians in Strassburg.

In Flora the more important recent articles are lichenological

contributions, by Dr. J. Miller; Contributions to our knowledge

of the development and the anatomical structure of the fruit-

leaves (carpophylls) of Cupressineze and the placente of Abie-

inex, by Arno Kramer; and the continuation of H. G. Reichen-

bach’s Comoren Orchids. In Kramer’s paper, just referred to, the

conclusion is reached that the female cone of the Abietinez is a

single flower and not an inflorescence. The scale is regarded as

a placenta, and begins its development as an axillary outgrowth

from the axils of a fruit-leaf. In the Deutsche botanische Monats-

schrift Paul Richter and Dr. F. Hauck, the well-known German

algologist, announce the early appearance of the first fascicles of

a distribution of algæ under the title of “ Phycotheca Universalis.”

Each fascicle is to contain fifty numbers, and will be sold for six-

teen to eighteen marks ($3.81 to $4.29). Intending subscribers

may correspond with Ed. Kummer, the well-known Leipzig

bookseller. In the July-August number of Hedwigia Profes-

sor Oudemans describes a new species of Puccinia occurring on

Veronica anagallis in Holland, and to which he gives the name of

Puccinia veronice-anagallidis. It is to be looked for in this coun-

try—The September-October number of the same journal con-

tains a Contribution to the mycologic flora of Missouri, by Dr.

G. Winter and C. H. Demetrio. In all 350 species are enumer-

ated, many of which are described as new. Among the latter the

most interesting are Æcidium cerasti on Cerastium nutans, Diatrype

roseola on dry branches, of Quercus tinctoria, Didymospharia phylt-

logena on fallen leaves of Lirrodendron tulipifera, Spherelladesmedu `

on languishing leaves of Desmodium canescens, besides many

‘Fungi Imperfecti” of the genera Cercospora, Phyllosticta, Sep-

toria, etc——M. C. Cooke contributes to the December Grevillea

Papers on New British Fungi, Fungi of the Malayan peninsula,

Valsa vitis again, Synopsis Pyrenomycetum, and British Sphe-

ropsidez. The most important paper in the Journal of Botany

for November is F. N. Williams’ Enumeration of the species and

varieties of the genus Dianthus. In all 235 species are cata-

logued, of which nine are described as new to science. Lit.

168 General Notes. [February,

ENTOMOLOGY.

THE PREPARATORY STAGES OF CALOCAMPA CINERITIA (Grote).

—One hundred or more eggs were found at Warwick, R. I,

clustered together upon a twig of white birch, May roth, 1885.

Diameter of egg 1™™ Shaped like a depressed cone, ribbed ver-

tically and dark gray in color. They hatched in the same day

that they were found.

Larva upon emergence—Length 3"; color, light bluish-

green, sprinkled with black. Two pairs of pro-legs only. Head

ochreous yellow, large and prominent; two transverse rows of

blade tubercles in each segment, each giving rise to a single,

simple black hair or bristles. Head likewise provided with black

warts and bristles. ,

After first molt.—Passed the first molt after six days, after which

the length of the body was 7™™; uniformly cylindrical and slen-

der. Two front pairs of pro-legs rudimentary. Head less promi-

nent, and green, concolorous with the rest of the body, which is

slightly darker than before. Black tubercles disappeared. A

single transverse row of minute black bristles in each segment,

hardly visible except by the aid of the microscope. These longi-

tudinal dorsal and two lateral lines of very light green. Ventral

half of the body of a lighter shade than the dorsal.

After second molt_—Five days later,they began to pass the second

molt, after which they measured when extended upon a lea

12™™ in length. Markings same as after the first molt, but more

pronounced, dorsal portion of a darker green, and the stripes

creamy-white, 5

After third molt—After ten days, they passed the third molt.

ngth 29™%™; color, uniform yellowish-green, A pronounced

white stripe running the whole length of the body on each side,

and above this a much narrower subdorsal stripe on each side of

‘the single dorsal line. Five stripes in all. Dorsal portion of the

body sprinkled with white specks. All the pro-legs fully de-

veloped.

ment, with the opening towards the head.

After ten days more without any indication of passing another

molt, the larve underwent a very decided change. They lost

entirely their velvety look, and assumed the greasy appearance of

cut-worms, curling themselves up when disturbed, seeking retire-

1886, } Entomology. 169

ment when not feeding, and in all ways taking up the habits of

this group of noctuid larve.

Being transferred to a cage provided with earth, they at once

buried themselves, but came out at night to feed. They continued

this life for perhaps a fortnight, when they gradually left off feed-

ing. Just when pupation occurred it was impossible to tell, as the

larvee remained in the ground some time in a torpid state before

this change took place, and at this time many of them died.

The pupæ, which had been reserved for description, were

unfortunately destroyed by mice. They were of a dark shining

brown color, rather thick and blunt at the anal extremity, and

somewhat flattened at the thorax. The molts emerged from the

20th to the 30th of September, some two months or more after

pupation probably took place.—Howard L. Clark, Provi-

dence, R. L.

MORPHOLOGY OF LepipoprerA.—In the Zeitschrift für Wissen.

Žoologie for Oct. 27, N. Cholodkovsky states that it has been

found that three species of the Linnæan genus Tinea possess

only two Malpighian vessels, a most unexpected phenomenon,

and until the present time an isolated fact in insect anatomy,

unless we except certain Coccide, which have been found by

Leydig and Mark to also possess but two Malpighian tubes.

On the other hand, Cholodkovsky has found in Galleria mellon-

ella Linn. a very peculiar form of Malpighian vessel, which up to

now has been described in no other insects, and which only finds

its parallel among the Arachnida. This example is an illustration,

he says, of the utter incompleteness of our present knowledge o

insect anatomy.

In several female NMematois metallicus Pod. Cholodskovsky

found that each ovary consisted of not less than twelve, and in

one case twenty egg-tubes. The number of egg-tubes in Lepi-

doptera generally is four. There is only a single known excep-

tion to this rule. Dr. Alexander Brandt in 1876 discovered that

Psyche helix possessed on each side six egg-tubes, while Profes-

sor Ed. Brandt stated verbally that Sesia scolitformis possesses

fourteen egg-tubes.

Cholodkovsky then describes the external and internal geni- —

talia of Nematois, and, in describing the ovipositor, refers to the

much more highly organized ovipositor of the common house-

moth (Tineola biselliella).

All Lepidoptera possess two compound testes, which in the

greater number are united by a complicated set of coverings into

an unpaired organ. Since each testis consists of four seminal fol-

licles they are in every respect homologous with the egg-tubes of

the females. There is anatomically a complete and clear homology

between the female and male sexual glands of the Lepidoptera.

is fact is not without significance in the morphology of Lepi-

doptera, especially since it becomes a link connecting the Phry-

170 General Notes. [February,

ganidz with the Lepidoptera, though only from forms allied to

the Phryganidz is the phylogenetic derivation of the Lepidoptera

conceivable.

He also finds a small chitinous ring at the end of the abdomen

-of the male, which he regards as the rudiment of a tenth abdomi-

nal segment.

Cholodkovsky regards these cases of the occurrence of primi-

tive characters in Lepidoptera as instances of a periodical atavism,

or retrogression to the most primitive form of anatomical struc-

ture. In conclusion, the author with good reason finds fault with

the term “ Microlepidoptera,” thinking it artificial and absurd to

classify animals by their size alone.

Friicuts oF Locusts at San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 1885.—We

have received the following description of a flight of locusts

at San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in a letter dated June 9, 1885, from

Dr. G. Barrceta, well known as one of the most cultivated scien-

tists in Mexico:

“On the 31st May a cloud of grasshoppers came from the N. E.

and S. E. to this city, and remained about three hours, leaving

only on account of rockets, the ringing of bells and every kind of

noise. Never before in this century have locusts invaded this

land. By this mail I send a tin box with samples. Those in

white paper reached a year ago certain places of the state, 150

miles east of this city, and at the altitude of 3000 feet above the

sea. They were collected in Rioverde, aud then the cloud took

its way to the southeast. In the aforesaid box, those in blue

paper belong to the invading swarm which visited the city on

May 31st. I found no difference between them, and suppose

them to be the progeny of the swarms noticed in 1884, or, at

least, the same species,”

Unfortunately the specimens were never received, so that we

are unable to give the name of the species.— A. S. Packard.

LONGEVITY or Ants.—Not the least interesting fact which has

resulted from my observations has been the unexpected longevity

of these interesting insects. The general opinion used to be that

they lived for a single season, like wasps. Aristotle long ago

_ stated that queen-bees live for six and some even seven years.

Bevan, however, observes that “the notions of both ancients and

moderns upon the subject have been purely conjectural. Indeed,

it appears to be somewhat doubtful whether the length of life

which the former seem to have attributed to individual bees was

not meant to apply to the existence of each bee-community.”

The nests, however, which I have devised have enabled me to

throw considerable light on this question, The queen ants are SO

easily distinguished from the workers that they can be at once

identified, while, if a nest be taken in which there is no queen, we

can satisfy ourselves as to the workers ; because, though it is true

1886.] Entomology. 171

that workers do sometimes lay eggs, those eggs invariably pro-

duce male ants. Hence, in such a case, the duration of the nest

gives us the age of the workers; at least they cannot be younger,

though, of course, they may be older. In this way I have kept

workers of Lasius niger and Formica fusca for more than seven

years, But, what is more remarkable still, I have now two queens

of the latter species which I have kept ever since 1874, and

which, as they were then full-grown, must be now nearly twelve

years old. They laid fertile eggs again this year, a fact the inter-

est of which physiologists will recognize. Although a little stiff

in the joints, and less active than they once were, they are still

strong and well, and I hope I may still keep them in health for

some time to come,—.Sir John Lubbock in Contemporary Review

for Nov.

EntomotocicaL News.-—In the Proceedings of the Entomo-

logical Society of Belgium, Dec. 5., the venerable Senator M.

de Selys-Longchamps gives the outlines of a revision of the

Agrionines. The Zettschrift fiir Wissen. Zoölogie, October 27,

contains an elaborate article on the anatomy of the Mallophaga,

by F. Grosse; it gives excellent figures of the mouth parts.

Mr. L. Bruner publishes in the Bulletin of the Washburn College

laboratory of natural history a “ first contribution to a knowledge

of the Orthoptera of Kansas,” with descriptions of a number of

new species. In the same publication, Mr. F. W. Cragin

notices certain Myriopods and Arachnids of Kansas. In

the Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Mr. S. H.

Scudder describes and figures a Tertiary Orthopod; it has no dis-

tinct head. It is referred to the Thysanurans, and regarded as

the type of a suborder called Ballostoma. We would add, that

the thysanurous characters do not seem to be well marked, while

it is possible that the specimens, though numerous, had lost their

heads. In Dr. Agassiz’ report as curator of the Museum of

Comparative Zodlogy, it is stated that the museum has received

from the Peabody Academy of Science at Salem the most import-

ant collection of insects ever added to the museum. It con-

tains a large number of types described by prominent American

and European entomologists. The collection, we may add, was

brought together mainly by Professor A. S. Packard. It contains

a large proportion of Packard’s types, including those of his

monograph of geometrid moths, of which only four species are

wanting, and nine described by him from specimens belonging to

other entomologists. It also comprises types of Mr. Grote and

the late V. T. Chambers, as well as types of Zeller, Staudinger,

Foerster, Walker, etc.

172 General Notes. [February

ZOOLOGY,

ANTIDOTE TO THE ScorRPION’s Stinc.—Already an antidote has

been discovered to the sting of scorpions, which, although rarely

fatal, is extremely painful, while the poison is closely allied to that

of the venomous snakes. Mr. A. M. Markham, of the Indian Civil

Service, has written to one of the Indian papers calling attention

to the fact that the root of? Achyranthes aspera, known popularly

as chirchirra, affords almost instantaneous relief from the pain

caused by the sting of a scorpion. The plant is very common

everywhere in India, and is one of those whose clinging burrs

are such a nuisance on one’s legs when out shooting. The root,

macerated in water, is applied to the part stung, and a small quan-

tity is drunk in water. If this be done quickly, there is absolutely

no pain half an hour or so after the sting, instead of the twelve

to twenty-four hours of intense suffering which follow an untreat-

ed sting —London Standard.

THE CRUSTACEA OF THE BLack Sza.—Mr. Waldemar Czerniaw-

sky, already known for his works on the fauna of the Black sea,

has now published at Charkoff, a work on the “Crustacea deca-

poda Pontica littoralia,” accompanied by several plates, being a

very elaborate description of the Black Sea Decapods. The num-

ber of Pontic species of Decapods has been increased by twenty,

reaching thus forty-eight species, with numerous varieties, though

it will probably be greater when the depths of the Black sea have

been better explored. The results of this work are numerous and

interesting. The species offer altogether a very great variety of

o he Black sea contains the local forms of Mediterranean

varieties, while in the Celtic region are found the local forms of

other varieties. The author asserts that the metamorphosis of the

superior crabs, such as Carcinus, which presents nine different

stages, are a repetition of their genealogy, and arrives at a series of

very interesting conclusions as to the genealogy of different spe-

cies. All three species of Astacus which are found in the Ponto-

sometimes adding minor details to the description), which are in

Russian.—NVature, March 5, 1885.

1886.] | Zoölogy. 3

THE MOLTING OF THE LossterR.—During the past season I

have been able to make some observations on the mode of molt-

ing of the lobster. In Casco bay, Maine, the lobster molted

during the second and third week of July. According to the

lobster-fishermen, the creature molts but once a year, and as con-

firmatory of this the lobsters we saw were in several cases covered

with patches of polyzoans, with large barnacles, mussels, etc.,

which could not have been of the present year’s growth.

Shortly before the animal molts the parts between the segments

are much swollen, and have a livid color. Meanwhile the inner

side of the flattened basal joints (3-5) of the large claws become

soft, the lime on the crust partly disappearing, leaving an irregu-

lar oval solid portion; in this way the contents of the large hand

or claw can be drawn through the basal portion of the limb. The

first step in the ecdysis is the splitting or partial separation of

the two halves of the carapace; it may entirely separate poste-

riorly, or the two halves remain together, and the animal

withdraws its body out of the sutures between the thorax and

first abdominal segment, The integument of the legs is molted

last, and when owing to rough handling, the process is delayed,

the extremities of the legs slough off. The entire integument,

with all the appendages of the head,thorax, and the abdomen are

molted as a whole, but the abdominal legs are molted before

the thoracic ones. I have found all the parts of the crust con-

nected, and floating in the “lobster car,” even including the

lining of the proventricle or stomach, and the apodemes of the

head and thorax. After the molt the soft and flabby lobster lies

nearly motionless, occasionally, if disturbed, giving a flap wit

its “tail.” It remains inactive for nearly or quite a week, until

the new crust becomes hard.

am convinced from my observations that the deformities in

the big claws as well as other parts occur at the time of molt-

ing; as after disturbing the symmetry of the claws in our speci-

men, the deformity persisted —A. S. Packard.

Tue Orpesr Tarsus (Archegosaurus).—The Neues Jahrbuch

für Mineralogie, Jahrgang 1861, pp. 294-300, contains a paper by

Professor Quenstedt, of Tiibingen: “ Bemerkungen zum Arche-

gosaurus.” On Plate 111, connected with that article, a nearly

entire hind-foot of Archegosaurus is figured (fig. 6). The tarsals

of this foot are preserved in their original position, and it is of

very high interest ; but, strange to say, this figure of Archegosau-

rus has been entirely overlooked, and is never mentioned in any

Paper relating to the tarsus of vertebrates.

Professor Quenstedt believes that there are ten or twelve tarsal

ones preserved, The question now is, What are the homologies

of these bones ?

On the whole, the hind-foot recalls very much that of Crypto-

branchus and Menopoma. One or perhaps two bones are con-

174 General Notes. [February,

nected with the tibia; if there is only one, this must be the

tibiale. Two elements are attached to the fibula—the intermedium

and the fibulare. Four metatarsals are preserved, but it is pos-

sible that there were five. Each of the four metatarsals is sup-

ported by one tarsal bone. Between the four bones of the distal

series and those of the proximal one there are to be seen four

additional bones, The inner one I consider the tarsale,, belong-

ing to the first digit not preserved. The remaining three bones

must be considered as three central bones.

If two bones are connected with the tibia, the outer one repre-

sents the tibiale, the other one a centrale, reaching the tibia in the

same way as in Salamandrella (Wiedersheim). In this case, we

have four central bones. Between the fibulare and tarsale, there

is a large space without any bones. There is little doubt, I think,

that there existed a sixth tarsal bone in the distal series, as in

Cryptobranchus, remaining cartilaginous, and therefore not pre-

served,

Wiedersheim’ described three central bones in the tarsus of the

Axolotl; fig. 8, pl. xxx, comes nearest to the condition in Arche-

gosaurus,

There are two explanations of the morphology of the tarsus in

Archegosaurus, if there are five digits :

1. Tibiale, intermedium, fibulare; centrale,, centrale,, centrale;

tars.,, tars.o, tars.;, tars.,, tars.s, tars...

2. Tibiale, intermedium, fibulare ; centrale,, centrale,, centrales,

centrale, ; tars.,, tars.,, tars.s, tars.,, tars.s, tars.g.

Archegosaurus belongs to the Rhachitomi, the oldest batra-

chians known. The presence of certainly three, perhaps four central

bones, is a new proof for the correctness of the position given to this

group by Frofessor Cope-—Dr. G. Baur, Vale College Mus., New

Haven, Conn., Dec. 17, 1885.

THE INTERCENTRUM OF Livinc RerTILIA.—The Pelycosauria of

the Permian formations possess intercentra in the dorsal, lumbar

and sacral regions. In no living reptile have intercentra been

described, so far as I know, in that part of the column, excepting

in Sphenodon (Hatteria)? I find them also in Gecko verticillatus

Laur. (G. verus Gray). In these forms intercentra are developed

between a// vertebre.

It is probable that the same elements will be found in the

other Geckonidze and in the amphiccelian Uroplates, the only

genus of the family Uroplati

Lumbar intercentra in the Mammalia are first mentioned by

Owen’ in the mole. Meyer* finds these elements also in the pos-

1 Wiedersheim R. Ueber die Vermehrung des Os centrale im Carpus und Tarsus

des Axolotis. Morph. Jahrb., Bd. v1, 1880, pp. 581-583, pl. xxx.

3 brecht, Bull. Mus. Roy. Hist. Nat. Belgium, 1883, p.

1886. ] Zoology. 175

terior dorsals and the sacrals, and I can confirm his observations.

—Dr. G. Baur, Yale College Mus., New Haven, Conn., Dec. 19,

1885,

THE INTERCENTRUM IN SPHENODON.'—Researches into the em-

bryology of the Urodela and Anura have not yet brought to light

any traces of the rhachitomous structure; a condition of things

which is probably due to ccenogeny or falsification of the embry-

onic record—a phenomenon which is not uncommon. There can

be no doubt, however, that the entire record was presented in the

embryonic history of Permian land Vertebrata, and for a long

period subsequently, but that the rhachitomous stage has: been,

with the true centrum, lost from the batrachian line at least. The

only existing reptile which could be expected to show important

traces of the ancestral, or embolomerous stage, is Sphenodon. This

genus, as is well known, is the living representative of the order

Rhynchocephalia, the nearest order to the Theromorpha. Having

fortunately a specimen in alcohol, presented to me by Dr. Hector,

the able director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand, I

examined the caudal vertebre to determine the connections of

the chevron bones. I find these to be attached, not principally

in press.

The centra differ much from those of Cricotus in their form,

resembling in outline those of the Pelycosauria. They however

have the vertical median partial suture seen also in the Lacertilia,

as already described by Günther. The caudal vertebra are so

gradually modified as we followed them forwards, however, as to

make it probable that these halves do not represent any of the

elements of the rhachitomous column besides the true centrum.

_l add that there is probably a hypocentrum pleurale in the cer-

vical region of the rhachitomous Eryops. They become ossified

early with the posterior side of the intercentrum in front of

m.—. . Cope.

On THE Tarsus or Bats.—In the course of some recent obser-

vations made upon the tarsus of bats, I ascertained that the astrag-

alus and calcaneum were elongate, and exhibited the general

characters of these bones in mammals in which little or no weight

‘On the Batrachian Intercentrum, NATURALIST, 1866, p. 76.

*Since the above was written, Vol. 11, pt. 11, of Fritsch’s Fauna der Gaskohle has

come to hand. It contains a note on the intercentra of Sphenodon. :

176 General Notes. [February,

is borne upon the posterior extremities. Both bones were so dis-

posed that the larger end of each is directed proximally. The

general form was that of a metatarsal element, with the excep-

tion of the body or shaft, which was notably narrowed. In

y g

Rhinolophus capensis (young). Carollia.

Chilonycteris. Rhynchonycteris.

Vespertilio subulatus.

Atalapha noueboracensis.

f, fibula; z, tibia; cm, calcaneum; a, astragalus; s, scaphoid; cġ, cuboid; c#,

cuneiforms ; so, supernumerary ossicle.

Rhinolophus the calcaneum entered into the ankle joint. In the

other forms examined the calcaneum was independent of the

1836. | Lvblogy. 177

joint, In the Phyllostomide (as well as in Natalus and Rhyn-

chonycteris) the calcar of the calcaneum was placed in axial line

with that of the bone last named. In other families the calcar

was adjoined to the calcaneum at the outer side and near the

proximal end. The astragalus and calcaneum were nearly of the

same size in most forms, the calcaneum being the larger. In the

aberrant form Rhynchonycteris the astragalus was nearly twice

the length of the calcaneum. I have appended a few diagram-

matic sketches of the tarsus.

he method employed in studying the tarsus consisted in re-

moving all the soft parts of the foot, immersing in absolute alco-

hol, transferring to oil of cloves and mounting on a glass slide. A

low power of the microscope resolves all the essential structures.

—Harrison Allen.

RANGE OF THE AMERICAN Brson.—Late issues of the St. Paul

Pioneer Press report : “Reliable cowboys just arrived in Miles City,

Mont., report that at the Lower Musselshell round-up they saw a

fresh trail of about 100 buffalo on the head of the Big Porcupine

last week, and had seen twelve head a few days before. They

killed one out of the twelve. The number of wild animals on the

North Yellowstone ranges have proved not only a source of an-

noyance to herd owners, but also of great damage to these newly

stocked ranges. Round-up parties, in scouring those districts this

spring, complain of the great number of calves killed and crip-

pled by wolves and other wild animals. On Custer creek calwes

were found that suffered from torn and bitten backs, which the

boys attributed to the attacks of wildcats. Had the calves been

’ 23).

by the late T. G. Jeffreys, of the Mollusca of the Lightning

and Porcupine expeditions contains the Yanthinide, Naticide,

Neritide, Solanide, Xenophoride, Velutinide, Cancellariade,

178 General Notes. [ February,

Aporrhaide, Cerithiida, and Cerithiopsidz, seventy-five species

in all, The worm Gordius verrucosus, obtained by Mr. Johnston

on Kilimanjaro, is found also in South Africa, Ceylon and Cen-

tral America. A river-crab from Kilimanjaro is by Mr. E. J.

Miers referred, with some hesitation, to The/phusa depressa.

Batrachia and Reptilia—Mr. W. B. Spencer contributes (Quart.

Jour. Mic. Soc., 1885) some notes on the early development of

Rana temporaria, with especial reference to the fate of the blasto-

pore, and the development of the cranial nerves, which seems to

be a more ancestral process than the method of their development

in Elasmobranchs and birds. G. A. Boulenger describes (P.

Z. S., 1885, 22) a new species of frog, Rana macronemis, from

Asia Minor. Its nearest ally is R. temporaria. Lepidosternon

polystegum is a Brazilian amphisbznoid with a sharp-edged cut-

ting snout and singular scutellation of the top of the head. By

means of its snout it has been known to cut its way through the

side of a coral snake which had swallowed it.

Birds—Mr. T. H. Guillemard (Proc. Zodl. Soc. Lon. 1885),

ives a provisional list of the birds known to inhabit the Sulu

archipelago. These are sixty-five in all, including sixteen pre-

viously listed by Mr. Sharpe. If birds of wide distribution are

deducted, thirty-nine species are left, out of which thirty are

formed in the Phillipines, Professor W. Watson has’ con-

tributed to the Proc. Zool. Soc. London some interesting notes

on Peruvian birds. He has rediscovered the cliff-swallow, Fetro-

chelidon ruficollis Peale. This bird was long searched for in the

Andean valleys, and was ultimately found close to Lima. The

nest is always found on human habitations. Pstttacula andicola

of these occurs ata height of 14,000 feet; the third at 10,000;

the fourth at 11,000, and the last at 12,000. Few of the remain-

ing species reach these great elevations, but Palumbus arqua-

trix, attains 10,300 feet, and Corvultur albicollis reaches up to the

snow-line. Mr. F. E. Beddard divides the Cuculidz into Cucu-

line, with the genera Cuculus, Chrysococcyx, Cacomantis, and

World, and Geococcyx, Crotophaga aud Guira, from the New.

1886. | Embryology. 179

Mammais.—Mr. Sidebotham (Proc. Zodl. Soc. London, 1885)

gives a detailed account of the myology of the water opossum,

Chironectes variegatus. The discovery of the wild cat (Fesis

catus) in Ireland, is often reported, but investigation has always

shown that the supposed wild cat was but a feral specimen of the

domestic cat. A leopard skin in which most of the rosettes are

replaced by black spots, numerous and of small size, has been

brought from South Africa, and is the first African species which

exhibits the tendency to melanism so strongly developed in some

Asiatic individuals. Mr. O. Thomas (P. Z. S. 1885, 329), dis-

tinguishes three varieties of the echidna, viz: Æ. lawesi, aculeata

and sefosa. The only remaining recent species of the family is

Taglossa bruijni, a larger animal, found in Northwestern New

uinea new species of paca (Calogenys taczonowskt) is de-

scribed by Sulzmann, who obtained it in Western Ecuador, where

it inhabits mountains between 6000 and 10,000 feet above the sea.

Like the well-known paca, it digs a burrow with two openings.

The native name is Sacha-cui.

EMBRYOLOGY .*

_ THE ORIGIN oF THE AmNion.—The purpose of the present note

is to point out some of the mechanical conditions and causes

which have been competent, in the course of the development of

development, to bring about the formation of the amnion.

embryological writer, as far as I am aware, has ever attempted to

trace the amnion to the part in the embryos of anamniated forms

which led up to its development in the amniated ones. Balfour

said, that “it does not seem possible to derive it from any pre-

existing organ” (Comp. Embryol., 11, 256). And he says further

(op. cit., 257): “The main difficulty is the early development of

the head-fold of the amnion.” Balfour's view, that it is developed `

part passu with the outgrowth of the allantois, is utterly inade-

quate to explain the genesis of the amnion of insects or that of

Peripatus edwardsii and P. torquatus, for in them no allantois is

formed. His hypothesis also breaks down in the light of the

eae researches of Selenka on the inversion of the layers in

e a.

_ A comparison of the longitudinal, vertical, diagrammatic sec-

tions, figures A and B, of an osseous fish-egg and a mammalian

ovum respectively, will

conclusively show that

the somatopleure s, in

A, is the exact homo-

‘Edited by JoHN A. RYDER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

180 General Notes. [February,

between the yolk y and the somatopleure, leaving the coelomic

space c, which has been derived directly in the osseous fish

embryo from the cleavage cavity of the egg, We thus find that

the preexisting structure, from which the amniotic folds are

formed in the higher types, is already present in the embryos of

osseous fishes. The next important point to demonstrate is, at

what grade in the phylum of the Chordata traces of amniotic folds

first appear, and whether such rudiments of an amnion are also

found in the embryos of osseous fishes.

Glancing at 4, it will be seen that there are rudimentary amni-

otic head and tail folds developed at a and a’, and that we, there-

fore, have traces of an amnion appearing for the first time in

embryos of the grade of osseous fishes. This is not universal,

however, for it is found that in species in which the zona radiata

z does not closely invest the ovum, the embryo Æ is not

pressed down into the vitellus, so as to raise the somatopleure s

into a fold or duplicature around the ends and along the sides of

the embryo. The zona invests the ovum more or less closely in

almost all Teleosts, but in a few, Alosa, for example, it does not,

and in this species no traces of amniotic folds are ever developed,

The embryo is differently conditioned in those eggs with the

zona fitting closely around the ovum from those in which there

either in the form of a rigid outer egg-shell, zona radiata z, or

decidua reflexa dr, or even the walls of the uterine cavity

itself, supposing, of course, that a large vesicular blastoderm con-

taining yolk has been formed by epiboly.

The gap between the truly epicyemate embryo, as seen in

Alosa, and the endocyemate embryo of the Paratheria and

Eutheria is, therefore, partly bridged by the presence of a rudi-

mentary amnion, or amniotic folds in many teleostean embryos

just prior to their escape from the eggs, or where the zona is

ruptured. When this occurs the-amniotic folds vanish, as in the -

embryos of many of the Salmonide, for example, anda closed amni-

1886.] Embryology. 181

otic sack is never formed, because, in the first place, the intra-oval

period of development does not last long enough; nor,in the second

place, is it possible, owing to the comparative small size of the

yolk, and the rapid growth of the embryo, for the latter to

become bodily invaginated into the blastodermic vesicle, which is

filled with yolk. The amniotic folds can, therefore, not meet

upon the middle line of the back, and coalesce, as they do in the

higher endocyemate forms. The development of a transient

amniotic head-fold of greater width and in advance of the side

and tail folds, is also prevented by the absence of a strongly

marked cranial flexure in the embryos of Teleosts.

The mechanical effect of the gradual development of the cranial

flexure in exaggerating the development of the amniotic head-

fold in the Chordata, will be best appreciated by a glance at

diagrams 1, 11, 111, and Iv, representing respectively the brain of an

acraniate, a marsipobranch, an elasmo-

branch anda mammal. With the increase ©——————= I

in the volume and area of the cerebral

cortex, which occurs mainly on the dorsal i arate m

and lateral aspects of the anterior end of

the neurula, the acceleration of growth of Ir

the brain substance also occurs on those JE

aspects, and a downward flexure of the

floor of the brain necessarily takes place. zë

The rapid enlargement of the cephalic

end of the embryo of an endocyemate,

eutherian or paratherian form, and the rapid

or precocious development of the cranial

flexure, would naturally, in such a type, tend to cause the amni-

otic head-fold to be developed earlier and to a greater extent

than the tail-fold, as is shown in Fig. B, at a.

In the eutherian types, with inverted germinal layers, an amni-

otic head-fold of the kind developed in normal forms is never

rmed, because the cavity of the true amnion in the former is

developed by the vacuolization or the formation of a cavity or

cavities in the solid epiblastic mass, and not by invagination. In

the Tracheates possessing an amnion there is no cephalic flexure,

and the part of the amnion which is first developed in the most

Pronounced manner is often the tail-fold, due apparently to the

ingrowth of the caudal end of the embryo into an involution of

ê blastoderm, confined in a rigid egg-envelope, the involution

being thrust into the yolk. Later, with the growth and encroach-

ment of the head-end of the embryo upon the yolk, the abdomen is

again everted in some cases from its amniotic sack. In Peripatus

edwardsii, according to Von Kennel, cleavage is total, the devel-

PAON is viviparous and intra-uterine, a hollow blastula is

ormed, the embryonic area at one pole of the blastula is invagi-

nated into the latter, so that the ventral surface of the embryo is

VOL, XX.—NO. IL “7

182 General Notes. [February,

directed towards the roof of the amniotic cavity, the reverse of

the eutherian embryo. An umbilical stalk is also formed, which

springs from the dorsal surface of the embryo and passes toa

partially zonary placenta, disposed in relation to the uterine walls

in exactly the same way as that seen in the embryo of Carnivora.

If we now regard the dorsal surface of the embryo of Peripatus

edwardsti as homologous with the ventral surface of the embryos

of Carnivora, the resemblance between the modes of development

of these two types becomes still more startling. While it is

manifestly absurd to even attempt to suppose, on the strength of

these resemblances, that there could be any genetic affiliation

between the Carnivora and Malacopoda, the only way out of the

difficulty seems to be to suppose that the similar methods of

development of the two arose in response to the similar conditions

which environ the ovum during its early stages of growth.

The differences between Von Kennel and Sedgwick, as to the

modes of development of P. edwarasti and P. capensis, it seems to

me, may be readily understood and reconciled when it is consid-

ered that the first is holoblastic and endocyemate, while in the

latter the egg is meroblastic, and apparently undergoes an epicy-

emate process of development.

All the data in the foregoing paragraphs unequivocally support

the thesis that the amnion has been developed mainly by mechan-

ical means and conditions.

The rigid zona of the epicyemate teleostean embryo, as shown

in Fig. A, in which the yolk y is a positive quantity, is repre

sented by the maternal envelope dr in Fig. B, in which the yolk,

as such, is absent. The gap between the condition of A and that

of the types with apparently inverted germinal layers, so complete-

ly elucidated by Selenka, is a wide one; yet it seems easy to pass

from the primitive condition of A to that of the extremest form,

viz, the guinea-pig; if the rabbit, mole (Heape), the vole (Kup-

ffer), and the mouse and rat (Selenka), are considered as inter-

mediary steps. Socomplete or extreme has been the invagination

of the embryonic mass or area in these forms that, in the extrem-

est type, the embryo is finally developed at that side or pole of

the primitive blastula which is exactly opposite the point where

the blastodisk was originally formed, as in normal Eutheria. The

way in which this is accomplished is quite remarkable, and may

now be described, as the process is a special modification of that

by means of which the usual endocyemate condition is brought

about.

Selenka finds that there is an outer layer of cells, o/, Fig. G,

split off from the ectoblast, as first described by Rauber, in the

rabbit’s ovum, and which take no direct partin the formation of the

embryo. He also finds that upon the further growth of the

ovum, after the blastula stage is reached and the germinal area Of

disk is developed, the blastula rapidly elongates in the direc

1886. } Eminyology. 183

tion of the diameter extending from the centre of the blastodisk

to the opposite pole. By this time the blastula has become

adherent to the uterine epithelium through the intermediation of

the transitory outer layer of cells, of (Reichert’sche Deckschicht),

already mentioned, but the constituent cells of a certain portion of

this outer layer, just overlying the germinal disk, as indicafed at s,

rapidly proliferate, so as to form a lenticular or columnar thick-

ening or mass, constituting what Selenka calls the Zréger, a term

which may be anglicized by the word suspensor. This suspensor

immediately overlies and pushes the germinal area or mass in-

wards before it, down into the hollow cavity of the blastula. The

germinal area is either pressed inwards into the hollow blastula,

so that it assumes a concave form above, with a cavity between it

and the lower surface of the suspensor, as in Arvicola, or the

epiblast forms a solid mass, before which the hypoblast is pushed

inwards by the ingrowth of the suspensor, so that the blastula

assumes the form of an elongated sack, as in the ovum of the rat

or the guinea-pig.

€ process just described is somewhat similar to that of gas-

trulation, for the germinal pole of the blastula is pushed down-

ward into the sack formed by the hypoblast and outer layer, so

that the embryo is finally developed quite at the opposite pole of

the elongated blastula, as in the guinea-pig. The steps by which

the mode of development of the embryo of the latter came to be

established will be much better understood by reference to dia-

grams C, D, E, and F, representing four stages of the develop-

ment of the rat copied from Selenka! In these figures it will be

obvious to the reader that the principal result of the precocious

invagination of the embryonic area is to throw the embryo to the

Opposite pole of the egg, and to so encroach upon the cavity of

the mesenteron, the umbilical vesicle, as to almost obliterate it, as

is shown in Fig. The embryo Æ is also bent into a curve, just

the reverse of that shown in Fig. 8. The ccelomic space ¢ is also

more restricted, and the sinus terminalis s¢,in Fig. F, seems to

—S über Entwickelungsfeschichte der Thiere. Drittes Heft. Die Blätter-

im Ei der Nagethiere, 4to. Wiesbaden, Kreidel, 1884.

184 General Notes. [ February,

terminate towards the dorsal pole of the ovum instead of the ven-

tral, as in Fig. B.

In the ovum of the guinea-pig the obliteration of the umbilical

vesicle y is carried still farther than in Fig. F, because the hypo-

blastic layer “y’, next to the layer o/, is absent, and the hypoblast

lying just under the embryo is brought into immediate contact

with the layer o/, thus giving rise to the illusion that a complete

inversion of the primary embryonic layers has occurred. I say

illusion, because there has been no actual inversion of the primary

layers, for the latter have been merely shoved to the opposite

pole of the eggs into contact with the layer o/, where embryonic

development has proceeded in the normal way, being modified

only by the displacement which the germinal area has suffered in

relation to the other essential parts of the ovum. It is as if the

germinal pole of the blastodermic vesicle had become concave

instead of convex, and collapsed inwards against the inside of its

lower pole, the walls of which consist of the hypoblast of the

inferio? pole of the umbilical vesicle—mesenteron, and the

outer layer.

he difficulties which Balfour speaks of have, I hope, been

satisfactorily cleared away by what has been said above, and a

rational and connected hypothesis as to the genesis of the amnion

firmly established. I am aware that many objections may be

urged against the views here propounded, but I cannot think that

ny other view of the case will so satisfactorily reconcile and

coordinate the facts involved. To those who takea philosophical

view of such subjects, it will be obvious that the deductions here

reached give but little countenance to the idea that amniotic char-

acters can be always profitably used in taxonomy, at least, not

until the forces which have led to their development are better

understood. On the theory of the development of development,

the extreme modification of the amnion of some of the Rodentia

would cause the latter to take higher rank than the Primates,

because, as shown in Fig. F, the primary amniotic cavity becomes

divided, and a relatively large false amniotic cavity f remains just

under the suspensor s, and shut off from the true amniotic cavity

ac by the intervening serous envelope se, the coelomic space ¢, an

the somatopleural roof of ac. Such reasoning, however, is obvi-

ously not legitimate in the light of the above mechanical hypoth-

esis of the genesis of the amnion me

To briefly summarize, we find that the first traces of amniotic

folds met with in the embryos of the lower types of Chordata are

_ caused by the resistance from without offered to the growth

the embryo by a rigid zona radiata. In such types the amniotic

folds are transitory, and disappear at the time the zona is ru tured.

After a larger yolk has been acquired the embryo undergoes 4

longer period of intra-oval development, so that the period of the

persistence of the amniotic folds, produced as before, is prolon

1886. | Physiology. 185

With the increase in the size of the embryo, in these large-yolked

forms, it is finally thrust down into a saccular involution of the

blastoderm, the lips of the opening of which meet over the back

of the embryo where they coalesce, the outer limb of the duplica-

ture giving rise eventually to the serous envelope, and the inner

to the roof of the amniotic cavity. In those types which have the

primary layers apparently inverted, the rapid ingrowth of the sus-

pensor precociously invaginates the germinal area inwards before

the embryo is distinctly developed, so that it is not formed in its

usual or normal position. These extreme modifications were not

possible until after the loss of the food-yolk, after which a hollow

blastodermic vesicle still continued to develop, filled with a thin

albuminous or serous fluid instead of a dense yolk material. The

tendency of the eutherian ovum to form a large, hollow blasto-

dermic vesicle or blastula is doubtless an inheritance transmitted

from a paratherian source. The bodily invagination of the whole

embryo, and the more or less complete obliteration of the cavity

of the umbilical vesicle by the rapid growth of the enlarging

amnion, would be readily accomplished in the course of the

development of the eutherian ovum.

EXPLANATIONS OF THE REFERENCE LETTERS USED IN THE FIGURES.

or continuation of body cavity, dr decidua reflexa of uterus, Æ embryo, e epiblast,

— Fohn A. Ryder.

DECEMBER 31, 1885.

PHYSIOLOGY.

THE EXISTENCE OF TWO KINDS OF SENSIBILITY TOWARD LIGHT.

186 General Notes. [ February,

to the area outside the fovea centralis. This increase of sensi-

bility is proportionately greater toward the more refrangible rays.

This fact affects the tone of colors, and on account of it the lumi-

nosity of (the more refrangible ?) colors is increased at the expense

of their saturation. The reader may be reminded, as an interest-

ing confirmation of this view that, when alternate circles, painted

blue and red, are looked at in obscurity, the former appear lumi-

nous and the latter black. Visual purple is bleached by light and

is regenerated under the influence of the pigmentary layer of the

retina in the dark. In these facts we have an explanation of the

varied sensibility toward light of different intensities — Comptes

Rendus, 1885, p. 821.

concerning the supply of blood to nerve ganglion cells. In

his researches on the blood-vessels of the spinal cord, the author

found that the richness in capillaries was directly proportional to

the number of nerve-cells. His more special investigations of

this relation were made on the intervertebral ganglia taken from

injected animals. The nerve-cells composing these ganglia are

each inclosed in a connective-tissue capsule, lined by flattened

cells and having two tubular prolongations from it. The nerve-

cell itself is inclosed in a special sac of flattened cells and pos-

sesses two prolongations which reach out into those of the

surrounding connective-tissue capsule. Between the latter cap-

sule and the cell is a rather roomy space, and there is also a much

narrower one between the substance of the cell and its own epi-

thelial covering. The arterial blood enters by an afferent vessel

into the pericellular space and leaves it by a much narrower

efferent vessel. The blood thus surrounds the cell under pressure

and its liquid portions pass actively by osmosis into the substance

of the cell itself, in the centre of which they are received by an

empty space. This empty space is nothing else than what has so

long been regarded as the nucleus of the cell. This space belongs

to the venous system with which it is in connection by a minute

vessel having its own proper wall. A solid body, hitherto called

the nucleolus, is suspended fixed in the centre of the nuclear

cavity —Comptes Rendus, 1885, p. 826.

PasTEUR’s METHOD FOR THE PREVENTION oF HypROPHOBIA.—

In the Comptes Rendus for October, 1885, is the latest report of

Pasteur’s experiments upon the prophylaxis of hydrophobia. The

following is an outline of his procedure: When a small particle

of the spinal cord of a dog dead from rabies (moelle rabigue) is

placed under the dura mater of a rabbit the animal always falls

‘a victim to hydrophobia after a period of incubation which lasts

some fifteen days. When virus from the first rabbit is transferred

in the same way to a second and, after the period of incubation is

` 1886.] Fhystology. 187

passed, that from the second to a third rabbit and so on, the dura-

tion of the period of incubation becomes more and more reduced.

After the successive inoculation of twenty to twenty-five rabbits,

the time of incubation is reduced to some eight days, and the

incubation period remains of this length throughout a further

series of twenty to twenty-five successive inoculations; then the

time of incubation is shortened to seven days, which is maintained

with remarkable regularity throughout a new series of ninety

inoculations. Pieces of the spinal cords of these rabbits induce

hydrophobia with constant virulence. When the diseased cord

is detached from a rabbit under the strictest precautions against

contamination by impurities, and is suspended in a flask, the air

of which is kept dry by caustic potash on the bottom, its viru-

lence gradually disappears and may become wholly lost. The

virulence fails somewhat more slowly the larger the piece of

which was maintained dry. As stated above, the virulence of

each specimen diminished progressively with its exposure. Ster-

ilized bouillon was inoculated with a small portion of cord which

had been exposed for such a time that the loss of its virulence was

certain, and a small syringe full was injected under the skin of a

og. On each day following a similar operation was performed,

using, however, at each injection, spinal cord which had been

exposed for a shorter time and which possessed, therefore, pro-

gressively increasing virulence. When this procedure had been

repeated until the dog had received an injection of virus which

had been exposed to dry air only one or two days, the animal

was found to be perfectly protected against hydrophobia, and

might with impunity be inoculated with the strongest virus.

Fifty dogs were thus made resistant to the disease without a

single failure, besides which a number were successfully inocu-

lated after having been bitten by rabid animals. A child which

ad been lacerated by a mad dog two days before and whose

wounds had been cauterized with carbolic acid two hours after

€ injury, was brought to Pasteur for treatment. The method

pursued was similar to that described, and the final inoculation

was with virus more virulent than that of ordinary rabies. Three

months and three weeks after the accident the child was still

well. Pasteur explains his results by supposing that the products

formed by the vital activity of the germs of the disease are poison-

188 General Notes. [February,

PSYCHOLOGY.

Sir J. LUBBOCK ON THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE Doc.—Before a

crowded sitting of the biological section of the British Association,

Sir John Lubbock read a paper in which he gave some interesting

notes on the intelligence of the dog. The man and the dog, he

said, have lived together in more or less intimate association for

many thousands of years, and yet it must be confessed that they

know comparatively little of one another. That the dog is a loyal,

true, and affectionate friend must be gratefully admitted, but when

we come to consider the psychical nature of the animal, the limits

of our knowledge are almost immediately reached. I have else-

where suggested that this arises very much from the fact that

hitherto we have tried to teach animals rather than to learn from

them—to convey our ideas to them rather than to devise any lan-

guage or code of signals by means of which they might commu-

nicate theirs to us. The former may be more important from a

utilitarian point of view, though even this is questionable, but psy-

chologically it is far less interesting. Under these circumstances,

it occured to me whether some such system as that followed with

deaf-mutes, and especially by Dr. Howe with Laura Bridgman,

might not prove very instructive if adapted to the case of dogs.

I have tried this in a small way with a black poodle named Van. »

I took two pieces of card-board, about ten inches by three inches,

and on one of them printed in large letters the word “ food,” leav-

ing the other blank. I then placed two cards over two saucers,

and in the one under the “food” card put a little bread and milk

which Van, after having his attention called to the card, was allowed

to eat. This was repeated over and over again till he had had

enough. In about ten days he began to distinguish between the

two cards. I then put them on the floor and made him bring

them to me, which he did readily enough, When he brought the

plain card I simply threw it back, while when he brought the

“food” card I gave him a piece of bread, and in about a month

he had pretty well learned to realize the difference. I then had

some other cards printed with the words “ out,” “ tea,” “ bone,”

“ water,” spelt phonetically so as not to trouble him by our intri-

cate spelling, and a certain number also with words to which I

1886. ] Psychology. 189

dog recognize them by scent. They were all alike, and all con-

tinually handled by us. Still I did not trust to that alone, but had

a number printed for each word. When for instance, he brought

a card with “food” on it, we did not put down the same identical

card, but another bearing the same word ; when he had brought

that a third, then a fourth, and soon. For a single meal, there-

fore, eighteen or twenty cards would be used, so that he evidently

is not guided by scent. Noone who has seen him look down a

row of cards and pick up the one he wanted could, I think, doubt

that in bringing a card he feels he is making a request, and that

he can not only distinguish one card from another, but also asso-

ciate the word and the object. This is, of course, only a begin-

Still, in such a case, one ought not to wish for one result more

an another, as of course the object of all such experiments 1$

190 General Notes. [ February,

merely to elicit the truth, and our result in the present case,

though negative, is very interesting. I do not, however, regard

it as by any means conclusive, and should be glad to see it re-

peated. If the result proved to be the same, it would certainly

imply very little power of combining even extremely simple ideas.

I then endeavored to get some insight into the arithmetical condi-

tion of the dog’s mind. On this subject I have been able to find

but little in any of the standard works on the intelligence of ani-

mals. Considering, however, the very limited powers of savage

men in this respect—that no Australian language, for instance,

contains numerals even up to four, no Australian being able to

count his own fingers even on one hand—we cannot be surprised

if other animals have made but little progress. Still, it is surpris-

ing that so little attention should have been directed to this sub-

ject. Leroy, who, though he expresses the opinion that “the na-

ture of the soul of animals is unimportant,’ was an excellent

observer, mentions a case in which a man was anxious to shoot a

crow. “ To deceive this suspicious bird, the plan was hit upon of

sending two men to the wash-house, one of whom passed on,

while the other remained; but the crow counted and kept her dis-

tance. The next day three went, and again she perceived that

only two retired. In fine, it was found necessary to send five or

six men to the watch-house to put her out in her calculation.

The crow, thinking that this number of men had passed by, lost

no time in returning.” From this he inferred that crows could

count up to four. Lichtenberg mentioned a nightingale which

was said to count up to three. Every day he gave it three meal-

worms, one ata time; when it had finished one it returned for

another, but after the third it knew that the feast was over. o

not find that any of the recent works on the intelligence of ant-

mals, either Buchner, or Peitz or Romanes in either of his books,

give any additional evidence on this part of the subject. There are

however various scattered notices. There isan amusing and sug-

gestive remark in Mr. Galton’s interesting Narrative of an Explorer

in Tropical South Africa. After describing the Damara’s weak-

ness in calculations, he says: “ Once while I watched a Damara

- floundering hopelessly in a calculation on one side of me, I

observed Dinah, my spaniel, equally embarrassed on the other;

she was overlooking half a dozen of her new-born puppies,

which had been removed two or three times from her, and

her anxiety was excessive, as she tried ‘to find out if they were

all present, or if any were still missing. She kept puzzling

and running her eyes over them backwards and forwards, but

could not satisfy herself. She evidently had a vague notion O

counting, but the figure was too large for her brain. Taking the

two as they stood, dog and Damara, the comparison reflected no

great honor on the man.” But even if Dinah had been clear on

this subject, it might be said that she knew each puppy personal-

1886.] Psychology. IQI

ly, as collies are said to know sheep. The same remark applies

generally to animals and their young. Swans, for instance, are

said to know directly if one of their cygnets is missing, but it is

probable that they know each young bird individually. This ex-

planation applies with less force to the case of eggs. According to

my bird-nesting recollections, which I have refreshed by more

recent experience, ifa nest contains four eggs, one may safely be

taken; but if two are removed, the bird generally deserts. Here

then, it would seem as if we had some reason for supposing that

there is sufficient intelligence to distinguish three from four. An

interesting consideration rises with reference to the number of the

victims allotted to each cell by the solitary wasps. Ammophila

considers one large caterpillar of Noctura segetum enough; one

species of Eumenes supplies its young with five victims; another

ten, fifteen, and even up to twenty-four. The number appears to

be constant in each species. How does the insect know when

victims are still there or not. How then does she know when

she has made up the number twenty-four? Perhaps it will be

said that each species feels some mysterious and innate tendency

to provide a certain number of victims. This would under no

circumstances be any explanation, but it is not in accordance with

the facts. In the genus (Eumenes) the males are much smaller

than the females. Now, in the hive bees, humble-bees, wasps, and

other insects, where such a difference occurs, but where the young

are directly fed, it is of course obvious that the quantity can be

proportioned to the appetite of the grub. But in insects with the

habits of Eumenes and Ammophila the case is different, because

the food is stored up once for all. Now, itis evident that if a

female grub was supplied with only food enough for a male, she -

would starve to death; while ifa male grub were given enough

for a female it would have too much. No such waste, however,

occurs. In some mysterious manner the mother knows whether

the eggs will produce a male or female grub, and apportions the

quantity of food accordingly. She does not change the species

or size of her prey; but if the egg is male she supplies five, if

female ten, victims. Does she count? Certainly this seems very

like a commencement of arithmetic. At the same time it would

could count; and whether, for instance, it could realize some very

simple sum, such as that two and two make four. But when we

192 General Notes. [ February,

appear so simple. We tried our dogs by putting a piece of bread

before them and prevented them from touching it until we had

counted seven. To prevent ourselves from unintentionally giving

any indication, we used a metronome (the instrument used for

giving time when practicing the pianoforte), and to make the beats

more evident we attached a slender rod to the pendulum. It

certainly seemed as if our dogs knew when the moment of per-

mission had arrived; but their movement of taking the bread was

scarcely so definite as to place the matter beyonda doubt. More-

over, dogs are so very quick in seizing any indication given them,

even unintentionally, that, on the whole, the attempt was not sat-

isfactory to my mind. I wasthe more discouraged from continu-

ing the experiment in this manner by an account Mr. Huggins

gave me of a very intelligent dog belonging to him. A number

of cards were placed on the ground numbered respectively I, 2,

3, and so on up to 10. A question is then asked: the square

root of 9 or 16, or such a sum as 6 X 52-3. Mr. Huggins pointed

consecutively to the cards, and the dog barked when he came to

the right one. Now Mr. Huggins did not consciously give the

sign, yet so quick was the dog in seizing the slightest

indication that he was able to give the correct answer. This 0

servation seems to me of great interest in connection with the so-

called “thought reading.” No one, I suppose, will imagine that

there was in this case any “thought reading” in the sense in

which this word is used by Mr. Bishop and others. Evidently

“Kepler” seized upon the slight indication unintentionally given

by Mr. Huggins. The observation, however, shows the great

difficulty of the subject.

I have ventured to bring this question before the section,

partly because I shall be so much obliged if any lady or gentle-

man present will favor me with any suggestions, and partly in hope

of inducing others with more leisure and opportunity to carry

on similar observations, which I cannot but think must lead to

interesting results— English Mechanic.

ANTHROPOLOGY. !

Some Moor POINTS IN American Arcuy#o_ocy.—American

archzological science, though continuously gathering strength,

is, nevertheless, in a sense still far from manly development. There

are celebrated institutions guarding with jealous care objects of _

inestimable worth; preéminent among these, the American Anti-

uarian Society (to commence with the oldest), the Smithsonian

Institution, the Peabody Museum, the American Museum 0

Natural History, the Davenport Academy of Sciences, as well as

those at Cincinnati and St. Louis; there are smaller institutions

whose collections are of almost equal value to those above men-

tioned, and private museums filled with the richest material.

1 Edited by Prof. Oris T. Mason, National Museum, Washington, D. C.

1886. | Anthropology. 193

In the first place, though these institutions are presided over by

men of great ability, there is a deplorable lack of mutual under-

standing and uniformity of method among them. There should be

between those who hold in trust such vast treasures a better

scientific method, a more wholesome comity of intercourse. In

short, before we draw inferences we should know what and what

kind of material we have in hand.

In the second place, investigations have been so increasingly

fraught with grand results that some of the first efforts are likely

to be ignored or forgotten. There are some points in the history

of Squier’s and Davis’ work that have been misunderstood, and as

the venerable authors are yet living it would seem a grateful

tribute to bear them in mind. The earliest explorations of any

great importance in the tumuli of the Ohio valley were made by

Dr. Davis, who commenced a series of mound excavations while

a student in Kenyon College from 182) to 1833. The result of

this first effort was published in some of the college papers.

Subsequently, Dr. Davis removed to Chilicothe, in the Scioto

valley, celebrated for its earthworks. Here he laid out his plans

for the great work which will forever be associated with his name.

After ten years of digging, plotting, mapping, and collecting,

Dr. Davis was associated with Mr. Squier, and the fruit of their

joint labors is the first Smithsonian contribution to knowledge,

entitled “ Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.” When

detail and great results.

Recently the accuracy of the work done by Squier and Davis

has been challenged, and this brings us to another phase of the

question. Fully realizing the importance of criticism at any and —

all times, we still hold that a very important matter has been

overlooked ; it is this: The works of the mound-builders of a

particular character or grade have not been compared with works

of the same grade by their successors. If some of the best pro-

ductions of artistic’handicraft of the present Indians be compared

with objects of a similar nature taken from the mounds it is more

than doubtful if the superiority of the latter-day Indians can be

substantiated. Generally woodcuts are published in this con-

nection to show the low condition of the mound-builders’ art.

The cuts are copies of casts taken from inferior examples.

every good cabinet in the country.

194 General Notes. [ February,

Now it is not a question of argument, but one of things. It is

‘an easy matter to place things side by side, and there would be

no question whatever of the superiority of mound-builders’ work

over that of every tribe known in historic times any where near

the area occupied by them.

The pipes and other objects in hard stone should be compared

not with pipes in catlinite and soapstone, but with objects in the

same material.

The same is true of pottery. If we select from any or every

collection the best evidences of form and finish and place by the

side of them the best specimens of modern work by any tribe east

of the Mississippi river there is a hopeless falling off.

Now it is but fair to infer that the people who so skilfully

wrought in the hardest quartz, who made pottery in every way

equal to that of the Pueblos, were not in the same grade as the

tented savages whom our ancestors found upon our territory.

ut the great, complicated earthworks of the mound-builders,

so faithfully examined and reported by the old explorers, furnish

the most important evidence of their superiority to their successors.

It is true the southern Indians built mounds; but does any one

seriously compare the works of the Natchez and Muskoki tribes

with those of the mound-builders ? The Iroquois made stockades

and enclosures, and Mr. Morgan argued thence the works in Ohio

were precisely similar in function. But this opinion cannot stand.

In conclusion, we desire to emphasize the importance of that

pioneer work, so extended and so valuable to science. There

are not many examples of such unselfish devotion. More than

one hundred mounds were carefully opened, their contents gathered

and arranged, over five hundred embankments and fortifications

visited and surveyed in five States, the expense being borne

by Dr. Davis. The magnitude and completeness of all this can

only be appreciated by examination of “ Ancient Monuments,” an

of the treasures collected, now in Blackmore Museum, London.—

J. B. Holder.

AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO CALIFORNIAN FoLK-LORE, lin-

guistics and tribal topography is contained in the Bulletin of the

ex Institute of Salem, Mass. Nos. 1-3 of Vol. xvir (1885),

pp- 33, and one plate. The author, Hugo Ried, wrote a series 0

letters from San Gabriel Mission to Mr. Coronel of Los Angeles,

in 1852, concerning the Indians among whom he lived at the

mission buildings. Twelve of these letters were published by

Dr. W. J. Hoffman in the above periodical, together with copious

notes of his own and drawings of the implements described in

the letters. The subjects referred to are births, burials, food,

medicine, diseases, sports and games, myths and legends, etc., all

of which form interesting parallels to Father Boscana’s Chirig-

chinich (in Robinson's Life in California, 1846). The first letter

gives the Indian equivalents to the names of towns, harbors and

1886. ] Axthropology. 195

rancherias of the surrounding country; in letters 2, 3 and 4 are

contained vocables, paradigms and the like of the San Gabriel

language, which belongs to the Shoshondan family and has been

variously termed Kish (“houses”), Tobikhar and San Gabriel

dialect—A. S. Gatschet.

KICHE GRAMMAR:—A short abstract of a Kiché grammar in

Spanish, dated Santa Clara, Dec. 6, 1842, and composed by L

Aleman (pp. 26, 8vo), was sent by A. Blomme to the Congress

of Americanists at Copenhagen (1883). The revises came in at

so late a day that this elementary grammar could not be inserted

in the Compte-rendu of that session, but the secretary ordered it

to be struck off in a separate edition, a copy of which is before

us. Mr. Blomme has given an historical account of the manu-

script in the Compte-rendu, page 365. The grammar is written

entirely in the old-fashioned way of the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries, when every missionary was sure to find the classifica-

tions and grammatic categories of Latin in any Indian language

whatsoever. Aleman’s Kiché cases of the noun, dative, ablative,

etc., are simply postpositions connected with a noun ; the verb

coh is regarded as identical with the verb substantive, and a “ sub-

junctive” is found to occur through all the tense-forms of this

Guatemaltec language.—A. S. Gatschet.

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, founded in

1879 by Dr. J. M. Toner, Professor Otis T. Mason and Col. Gar-

rick Mallery, has just published its third volume of Transactions,

extending from Nov. 6, 1883, to May 19, 1885. Among the

papers included are the following, reported in full :

The Smithsonian anthropological collections for 1883. By Albert Niblack.

Discontinuities in nature’s method. By H. H. Bates,

Elements in modern civilization. By J. M. Gregory.

sae tan of the antiquity of man on the site of the City of Mexico. By Wm. H

olmes

How the problems of American anthropology present themselves to the English

ind . B. Tylor. -

The Eskimo of Baffin land. By Franz Boas.

Seal catching at Point Barrow. By John Murdoch.

On the probable nationality of the mound-builders. By Daniel G. Brinton.

Moral and material progress contrasted. By Lester F. Ward i

The genesis of invention. By F. A. Seely.

Sinew-backed bow of the Eskimo. By John Murdoch.

From savagery to barbarism. Address by J. W. Powell, president.

Papers by Messrs. Kengla, Dorsey, Holmes, Blodgett, Thomas,

Ward, Thompson, Gallaudet, Burnett, Reynolds, Howitt, Mindeleff,

Matthews, Henshaw, Stevenson and Gatschet are given in abstract,

but, as they will be published elsewhere in full, no mention of

their contents will be made here.

Mr. Bates draws attention to the seeming chasms in nature, such

196 General Notes. [February,

as the passage from inorganic to organic life, from invertebrate to

vertebrate, the introduction of the Mammalia, and followed the

question into anthropology, noticing such breaks as the advent of

man, and the phenomena of the inventive faculty.

Dr. Gregory discusses the phenomena of civilization from the

side of human wants

Mr. Holmes, during a visit to Mexico, had'the good fortune to

witness the making of a railroad cut and other excavations which

revealed three periods—the ancient, the Aztec and the modern.

Mr. Tylor’s delightful address has already appeared in Science.

Dr. Boas spent more than a year in Baffin land among the Es-

kimo visited by Capt. Hall and gave a sketch of the geography

and ethnology of this region

Mr. John Murdoch, for three years attached to the signal ser-

vice at Point Barrow, Alaska, described the varied uses of the

seal and the methods of capture with the retrieving harpoon, with

the una harpoon and with the net, the most ingenious plan of

Dr. Brinton’s short paper refers to the connection of the mound-

builders with the Shawnees

Professor Ward draws attention to the disharmony between

material progress, or the accumulation of the means of happiness,

and moral progress, or the ability to adapt these means to human

well-being.

Colonel Seely presented an elaborate argument to show the

¢ plication of modern methods of examining inventions to the

early inventions of our race. The term eurematics was intro-

duced for the study of the processes of invention in all human

activities.

ajor Powell’s address was an elaborate analysis of culture or

the humanities into arts, institutions, languages, opinions and in-

tellections, and the discussion of the three great culture stages,

savagery, barbarism and civilization, in relation to these forms 0

activities.

ETHNOLOGY OF Borngo.—Everybody has heard of Professor

Ward, of Rochester. Well, in 1876 he sent Mr. Wm. T. Horna-

day to the East Indies equipped as a collector. This journey

accomplished, after two years of wandering, the explorer returned

to active work in his profession. He has found leisure, however,

- to write one of the most charming books of travels in "India and

Malaysia it has been our privilege to read. In this volume, Two

Years in the Jungle, will be found excellent notes on the peoples

of India anda thorough — of the people of Borneo.

The Dyaks are thus

Kyans. All of the center and coming to ie coast along the middle of the north-

east shore.

Hill Dyaks. Uplands of north-west corner back of Sarawak.

Sea hee aks. Uplands and coast east of Hill

l Dyaks. Away from the coast in fe entire north-east region,

1886. | Anthropotogy. 197

The entire coast on the south-east and south-west side is left

undescribed.

The tribes are as follows:

KYANns. HILL DYAKS. MONGOL DYAKs.

1. Kyans proper, I. Serambo. 1. Ida’an

(Baram, Rejang.) 2. Singgei. 2. Kadydu

2. Milanaus. 3, : 3. Murut.

3. Kanowit. 4. Selenkau. 4. Bisaya.

4. Ukit. 5. Lara.

5. Bakatan 6. Bukar

6. Kiniahs 7. Engkroh

7. Skapan 8. Engrat.

8. Maloh. g. Milikin,

9. Sibaru. 10.

10, Jankang 11. Brang.

I hoa. 12, Sabungo.

12. Long Wai. 13. Sinar.

13. Long Wahoe. t Sea DYAKS.

14. Modang. 1. Seribas.

15. Tandjoeng 2, Saukarran.

16. Saghai 3. Ballow

17, Eng! aya 4. Sibu

18. Tring. 5. Batang Ayer.

19. Kahajang. 6, Lamanak

20. Orang Bukkit 7. Bugau

21. Punan. 8. Kantu

THE Eskimo oF Point Barrow.—The hyperborean peoples of

America are usually called Eskimo without reference to the lo-

cality where they are found, but there are Eskemo and Eskimo.

he classification I find it convenient to divide their habitat as fol-

ows:

I. Greenland. 7. Asiatic Eskimo.

2. Labrador and Ungava. 8. Cape Nome.

3. Baffinland, g. Norton soun

4. Mackenzie river, 10. Nunivak.

5. Point Barrow. 11. Bristol bay,

6. Kotzebue sound 12. Kadiak and the main land.

For each of these regions the National Museum has sufficient

material to illustrate the arts of the people.

chapter on the inhabitants, but the linguistics and ethnology are

_the work of Mr. John Murdoch. Ten pages are devoted to the

language of the people, Major Powell’s alphabet and Introduction

being followed closely. Twenty-six pages are occupied with a

VOL, XX—No., 11,

198 General Notes. [February,

minute description of the collections, nearly 2000 specimens gath-

ered with great care. In examining carefully this list and the

accompanying drawings he was struck both with the generic sim-

ilarities of hyperborean art and with the specific differences due

to isolation. Pottery occurs in the list; labret lancets of slate for

cutting the holes in the cheek for labrets ; amber-beads made by

the natives, and cups of fossilivory. Of the implements, whose

general form is widely diffused, Mr. Murdoch has collected a great

variety of each class, showing that among these far-off people

differentiation of structure for functional ends has been carried

to a high degree of perfection. The Natural History chapters,

also written by Mr. Murdoch must not be overlooked by the

ethnologist, inasmuch as the life history of the people is inti-

mately connected with the restricted fauna of this region.

Mr. Murdoch will publish in the near future a minute descrip-

tion of the Point Barrow Eskimo, including their arts and their

customs, so far as he was able to gather facts concerning them.

It is certainly refreshing to follow a man , who enters upon

the work of exploration after a severe training under the elder

Agassiz.—O. T. Mason.

Tue Brow TUBE IN THE UNITED States.—In all tropical coun-

tries where the cane grows the natives have become expert in the

use of the blowing tube. The Indians of the Muskoki stock liv-

to our knowledge, been published. The Shetimasha Indians,

about a hundred in all, living on a small bayou south of New

Orleans, use the single barreled blow-tube precisely like that of

the Choctaws, but they also have combinations of tubes, as We

would say, viz., five barreled, eight barreled, &c., blow-tubes. They

are made as follows: A number of tubes, in our collection rang-

ing from five to eleven, of the same length and calibre are fasten-

ed securely together like a long pan-pipe by means of splints

of split cane. The arrows are of split cane and vary at the point

from the slender needle form to a broad arrow form. The butt

end has a wad of cotton yarn 3 inches long fastened on like the

bristles of a cylindrical brush. When the hunter wishes to use

this weapon he loads his five or ten barrels and, stealing upon @

flock of birds, lets drive the whole set one after another in quick

succession. The superiority of such an arm over a single tube

1886.] Anthropology. 199

is very great and it is singular that no other savages have ever *

studied it out.

The weapons herein described were presented to the National '

Museum by the Commissioners of the State of Louisiana at the

New Orleans Exposition. At the same time many specimens of

basketry and other handiwork made with great skill were forward-

ed. These also bear witness to the superior skill of the Sheti-

mash

PuysicaL EDUCATION oF CHILDREN. — Dr. E. Pokrovski, of

Moscow, has published in Isvestia of the Society of Friends of

Natural Sciences, Anthropology, etc., xiv, fascicle 1, 2, 3,

treatise on the physical education of children among different

peoples and particularly in Russia. The contents of the treatise |

are given, not only to show the line of pee but to present

the analysis of a most interesting subject

Chapter £ Spates paid to the atten sr development of the embryo, heredity,

relations of the sexes, condition of woman, consanguine marriages, polygamy

and polyandry, marriage in asia’ porne care taken of pregnant women

am aki oples.

Chapter 11. Abortion and infan ticide; motives pone fear of monsters,

misery, etc, andio. relative to abortion aan infantic

Chapter 111. Putarition and the condition of og new born.

Chapter 1v, Care relative to the umbilical c

apter v. Dwelling of the infant in the ee of the parents.

Chapter vi. Care of the skin. t

Chapter xı. mamede (emmaillotement).

Kneading and aeai of the body of the infant.

Chapter > aupark Artificial deforma! on of the skull, — peng na a

roe i ih af e ) -m in Russians of the Kourgans, from the craniological

ians, La among other peop ee of ind Tsiganis, Fins, Esths, ag

Ehiz i Kin Poles, Jews, Lithuanians, Tcheremis, Bashkirs , Nogai , Sarts,

Ke y uks, Yakuts, Buriats, Tungu ses, Sofotes, Woguls, Samoides, Goldoi,

oriaks, Kamtchad als, Caucasians, etc.

: ods of puttin jaita in their beds, of carrying them and

Ey a ay them, depende ies- on climate, mode of dife; bearing them on the

Chines ef neck, hea ad, hip ; in ag si paniers, chests, skins, &c.; customs of the

i ‘this regar = Hottentots, American Indians, Kaniskidkies tarie, etc.,

XIX. Amusement of the child by the mother in Russia.

Chapter xx, Accustoming the child to sit and to go on all fours.

: chapter xxr, The upright position and walking.

200 General Notes. [F ebruary,

Chapter xxl. Importance of focd.

Chapter XXIII. Suckling among various peoples, ancient and modern.

Chapter xxiv. Among the Russians.

Chapter xxv. Among other peoples of Russia.

Chapter xxvi. Ethnic mutilations of children, tattoo, depilation, piercing the nose,

the ears, the lips or the cheeks; filing and removing the teeth, castration, cir-

cumcision and similar mutilations; corset, Chinese feet, high heeled boots, &c.

Chapter xxvii. Games, sports and amusements of children.

Chapter XXVIII. Treatment of the maladies of children among different peoples.

Popular child medicine in Russia, Germany, England, Switzerland, Dalmatia,

among the Kalmucks, Kirghiz, Caucasians, ancient Hindoos, Iranians, etc.

Chapter XXIX. Care relative to the corporeal development of children and the

means employed to toughen and fortify them; seclusion of children, asceticism,

horsemanship, physical and warlike training of children among savages, etc.

Chapter xxx. Role played by animals in the education of man,—cows, goats, dogs,

wolves, apes, etc.

Chapter xxxI. Physical education among the children of Russian peasants, and the

results.

Chapter XXXII. Conclusions.

MICROSCOPY.

Osmic Acip AND MERKEL’s FLUID As A MEANS OF DEVELOP-

relations and internal structure, We next endeavor to ascertain

which of the fluids appearing to satisfy the first point will leave the

preparation in the most favorable condition for sectioning; and,

finally, we have to consider the differentiating capacity of the

fluids, and the conditions under which the highest differential

effects can be obtained. This highly important quality, which

belongs, in varying degree, te all hardening and staining reagents,

serves two general purposes, one of which is purely histological,

the other strictly embryological. In the one case, the aim is to

sharpen the definition of individual elements, and to strengthen

histological distinctions; in the other, the object is to demon-

strate those subtle and imperceptible differences in the constitu-

tion of embryonic cells, which furnish the earliest premonitions of

their histological destiny. The histologist deals with the first

class of distinctions—the embryologist must deal with both. The

embryologist cannot stop with the study of structure and topo-

graphical relations, as they exist in any particular stage; he is

compelled to follow the entire developmental history of the cells,

from their most indifferent up to their most highly specialized

condition. Beginning with material more or less homogeneous

in aspect, he finds it necessary to forestall development, and seeks

to bring out distinctions that have not yet ripened into morpho-

1 Edited by Dr. C. O. WHITMAN, Mus. Comp. i

E ona babes ie Aeolian Society of Nathalie: Depart ae

1886. ] Microscopy. 201

logical definition. In short, his task is no less than that of dis-

covering, by chemical means, promorphological conditions, which

shall reveal the destination of cells before nature has given them

any definite histological stamp. The means that suffice to demon-

strate fully formed tissue elements are not always identical: with

those required in tracing their histogenetic development. As yet

we know very little about the capacity of different preservative fluids

in the very important work of developing nascent histological

distinctions. It is often at the expense of much time and patience

that reagents are found which combine the first two qualifications

we have mentioned, and the experimenter who has been so far

successful too frequently flatters himself that he has reached the

highest rung in the ladder of technical bliss, if his preparations

admit of being “sliced like cheese or cartilage.” But one re-

quires no very large amount of knowledge of the aims, and expe-

rience in the ways and means, of embryological research, in order

to understand that the investigator’s art does not culminate in

sections of cheese-like homogeneity. To be able, through serial

Sections, to lay bare each individual cell of a complicated organ-

ism is certainly a great triumph in microtomy; but such a feat

may be, as it not infrequently has been, accomplished without

leading to any important results, and simply because the methods

of preparation have not been selected with a view to secure the

needed differential effects. :

. Having defined a special aim,in the use of embryological

methods, it remains only to consider the practical side of the sub-

ject. The differential effects of most preservative fluids, when used

singly, are extremely weak, and often quite inappreciable. To be

of service, they must be strengthened or reinforced by some happy

combination of reagents, discoverable only by experiment. Dif-

ferential results are generally sought for through metallic impreg-

nations and through various methods of staining, as double

Staining, multiple staining, overstaining followed by partial decol-

Oration, etc. But I am not aware that such means alone are suf-

ficient for the special purpose under consideration. In order to

‘emonstrate differences, not of form, but of molecular constitu-

tion, the foundation for the desired effects must be laid in the pro-

cess of hardening. Staining reagents may then serve to complete

the work. :

As an example of what may be accomplished in this way, I will

give briefly my own experience with osmic acid and the so-called

Merkel s fluid, which is a mixture in equal parts of chromic acid

(% P. c) and of platinum chloride (1% p.c.). I have tested these

reagents with three different classes of eggs, and have obtained im-

portant results, some of which have already been published. In

the case of pelagic fish-eggs, with which my first experiments were

made, the method of procedure is as follows: The eggs, with a lit-

sea-water, are placed in a watch-glass; then, by the aid of a pi- :

202 Generat Notes. [ February,

ette, a quantity of osmic acid ( 14 p. c.) equal (as nearly as one can

judge) to that of the sea-water isadded. At the end of from five to

ten minutes, the eggs are washed quickly in clean water, and trans-

ferred to a chrome-platinum solution, differing from Merkel’s mix-

ture only in having a higher per cent of chromic’ acid, where they

may remain from one to three days. After this treatment, the

blastoderm may be easily freed from the yolk, and, after a thor-

ough washing in clear water for a number of hours, the prepara-

tion may be passed through the usual grades of alcohol, stained

and sectioned, or mounted in toto.. The osmic acid fixes the

natural form and structural features of the egg perfectly, and the

mixture of chromic acid and platinum chloride completes the

work of hardening, and at the same time removes much of the

brown or black color imparted by the first reagent. I have tried

various other reagents after the osmic acid, but with far less

satisfactory results. Picro-sulphuric acid, instead of arresting the

blackening process of the osmic acid, increases it. Simple

chromic acid arrests the blackening, but does not remove it (as

does Merkel’s fluid), and causes considerable contraction. Mil-

ler’s fluid, recommended by Henneguy, is equally unsatisfactory.

By this method a very marked differentiation is generally ob-

tained as early as the sixteen-cell stage, the four central cells

showing a very light brown shade, while the twelve peripheral

cells have a much deeper shade. In later stages of cleavage, the

distinction between central and marginal cells becomes still

stronger, so that it becomes possible to trace the entire history of

the origin of the so-called parablast, over which there have been

so many controversies. The very difficult question as to the

precise origin of the permanent entoderm is not settled by this

method.

The same reagents may be successfully applied to the eggs of

Clepsine ; but here the mode of procedure is somewhat different,

as regards Merkel’s fluid. This mixture, employed at its normal

strength, is allowed to work from one to two hours only. The

differential effects are here very marked, extending not only to the

different germ-layers, but even to cell-groups destined to form the

central nervous system, the nephridial organs, larval glands, etc.

None of the methods hitherto employed with these eggs has

given results at all comparable with those I have mentioned.

In the case of the frog’s eggs, I allow the osmic acid from

twenty to twenty-five minutes, then transfer directly to the

chrome-platinum solution employed with fish-eggs (twenty-four

hours). The eggs are next placed in water and freed from their

gelatinous envelopes by the aid of sharp needles and a dissecting

microscope. After washing in flowing water for at least two

hours, the eggs may be treated with alcohol and stained accord-

.,} A one per cent solution is used in place of the normal x p. c. solution.

1886. | Microscopy. 203

ing to desire. My experiments with these eggs have not yet

been carried very far, and I can only say that the material, so far

as examined, has turned out well. If the sectioning is not delayed

too long, no disagreeable effects of crumbling will be experienced.

—C. O. Whitman.

Tue Funcrion oF THE Compounp Eve.—It is held by Exner,

Carriére, and others that the compound eye does not distinguish

the forms, but only the movements of objects. The eye would

thus be merely an organ of orientation, capable of recognizing

differences in the intensity of light. Plateau! has undertaken a

series of interesting experiments designed to test the validity ot

this view. The method of experimentation was as follows:

A room five meters square is furnished with two windows,

which face the west. The windows are provided with shutters,

by means of which the room can be made dark. In each shutter

a hole is cut large enough to receive a pane of ground glass.

The vertical distance from the floor to the center of each glass is

1.75" and the horizontal distance between the centers of the two

panes is 2.30" The amount of light admitted is regulated by

large opening, but the amount of light that passes the former is

considerably less than that which passes the latter. In successive

experiments with different diurnal insects (Diptera, Hymen-

-optera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, &c.), the size of the hole in the

le diaphragm is varied, so that the amount of light is sometimes

greater, sometimes less than that of the right diaphragm.

If, under these conditions, an insect let loose at the side of the

room opposite the windows, invariably flies to the large opening,

then „we might conclude, according to Plateau, that it dis-

tinguishes the forms of objects; but if it often makes the mis-

sga of flying against the surface perforated with holes too small

ee Bes it passage, we may conclude that it does not distinguish

‘lass ut is guided by the intensity of the light. The experiments

Show that the flight is directed, in the majority of cases, towards

more intense light, and hence Plateau concludes that the

Bull. de P Acad. roy. de Belg., 3™¢ sér. t. x, No. 8, 1885. :

204 General Notes. [ February,

view before stated in regard to the function of the com-

ant purpose. This view rests on the fact that if the ocelli are

covered with opaque black varnish, the insect guides its course in

the same manner as before.

While these experiments may be said to favor the conclusion

arrived at by Plateau, they do not, in my opinion, furnish decisive

evidence. It would be quite within the range of possibilities, that

the insect distinguished perfectly well the forms of both the large

and small holes, without taking in the relation of its own size to

that of the hole through which it sought to escape. The power

to distinguish forms is not tantamount to a knowledge of relations

that could only be learned by experience and reflection.

A METHOD oF BLEACHING WiNcs oF LEPIDOPTERA TO FACILI-

TATE THE STUDY OF THEIR VENATION.—In the common method

of destroying the scales on the wings of Lepidoptera, for the pur-

pose of studying their venation, by means of caustic alkaline solu-

tions, there is danger of not arresting the action at the proper

moment, and consequently of destroying not only the portions

which it is desirable to remove, but also the scale-supporting

membrane, and even the delicate veins themselves. An applica-

tion of a modification of the chlorine bleaching process, commonly

used in cotton bleacheries, obviates the necessity of removing the

scales, and Jeaves the wing perfect.

alcohol in order to dissolve out the oily matter in them. If this

is not done the surface of the wings acts as a repellent, and will

not be moistened by an aqueous solution. When the wings have

become thoroughly soaked by the alcohol they are ready to be

removed to a solution of common bleaching powder. This bleach-

ing powder is sold by druggists as “chloride of lime,” but it is

` really a mixture of calcic hypochlorite, calcic chloride, and calcic

hydrate. Ten parts of water dissolve the first two compounds,

leaving nearly all the third suspended in the solution. The solu-

tion should be made with cold water, filtered, and kept ina tightly

corked bottle until required for use. When the wings are trans-

to this solution the bleaching commences, and in an hour

or two the wings are devoid of markings, although the veins re-

tain a light brown color. This is due to the fact that chlorine

cannot quite decolorize animal matter, or any substance contain-

ing nitrogen, as it does vegetable tissue.

After the color has sufficiently disappeared from the wings

they should be transferred to a wash composed of one part of

1G. Dimmock, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement

of Science, Detroit meeting, August, 1875.

1886.] Scientific News. 205

strong hydrochloric acid to ten parts of water. And here it may

be added that in case the bleaching does not readily commence

upon immersion in the bleaching solution, the action may be has-

tened by a previous dipping in the dilute hydrochloric acid. In

the bleaching solution a crust of calcic carbonate, formed by the

union of the calcic hydrate of the solution and the carbonic diox-

ide of the air, is deposited on the wings, and this calcic carbonate

the final wash in dilute acid will remove. As soon as the calcic

carbonate has disappeared, and all bubbling, consequent upon its

decomposition by the hydrochloric acid, has ceased, the wings

should be well soaked in pure water. They may then be secured

on cards with a mucilage of gum tragacanth ; or upon glass by

the proper transfers, through alcohol and chloroform, to Canada

balsam. ;

A solution of sodic hypochlorite, known as Zau de Labarraque

or a solution of potassic hypochlorite, known as Zau de Javelle,

when used in place of the solution of bleaching powder does not

leave a deposit of calcic carbonate on the wings and thus dispense

with the wash of dilute acid. A solution of zinc hypochlorite

acts more delicately than a solution of sodic hypochlorite, and

may be used in płace of the latter, as may also solutions of alu-

minic hypochlorite, or magnesic hypochlorite.

my k e

sVe

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

— The recent meeting of the Society of Naturalists, held at

Boston, December 29 and 30, will long be remembered with

pleasure by thosé who had the good fortune to be present. The

excellent plan of the founders of the society of limiting the

range of the papers to the discussion of methods of teaching and

research, leaves but small foothold for bores, and, indeed, the series

of papers furnished an exhilarating succession of suggestive and

easily grasped ideas. Most of the sessions were held in the

physiological lecture-room of the new Harvard Medical School

building and just adjoining the laboratory of Dr. Bowditch,

which is probably unparalleled for its wealth of ingenious and

Mective apparatus, designed and made on the spot. The courte-

sies of the Harvard members of the society very agreeably occu-

pied the hours not strictly devoted to business.

-— Professor T. J. Burrill deals, in the Botanical Gazette, p. 334,

ath two mechanical effects of cold upon trees—the radial split-

ting of wood and bark, and the separation of bark or wood layers

i a concentric way. .

oe first is explained by water freezing in plates parallel to the.

ce of an organ, and then, additions being made to the base,

206 Scientific News. [February,

crystals perpendicular to the surface will be formed. Thus the

wood contracting, and the ice expanding tangentially and longi-

tudinally (chiefly the former), radial bursting is the result. The

south side of a tree is the weakest, as more water exists there,

and ice is first formed. Direct observation shows that the speci-

fic gravity of sap is greater on the north side of a tree.

Concentric splitting is explained by minute ice-crystals form-

ing with their axes perpendicular to the wood-cylinder, thus

causing radial tension. Want of ripeness of tissue, in the sense

of the relation of water to other constituents, is the chief predis-

posing cause.

— Henry W. Beyerinck has, in the Botanische Zeitung, exam-

ined the structure of the remarkable galls produced on the inter-

nodes of the stem of Poa nemoralis by the attacks of Cecidomyia

pow, While, under normal conditions, grasses are able to pro-

duce roots only from the nodes, these galls are clothed with a

thick matting of roots produced from the pericambial layer of the

internodes. When first found these roots differ in no respect

from ordinary underground roots, being provided with a root-

cap, and a central vascular cylinder with a few pitted vessels, but

with no root-hairs. In the course of development they assume

more and more the character of aerial roots, and lose their

root-cap.

* — Count G. de Saporta enters into an elaborate reply, in the

Bulletin of the Geological Society of France (x11, p. 179), to the

theory of Nathorst that the supposed organic remains of a very

early geological period are in reality the petrified impressions of

the footprints of animals. He maintains that a minute examina-

tion of their structure entirely contradicts this view, and that even

those about which Nathorst expresses the greatest doubt may be

petrifactions of algz in half-relief.

— Dr. F. W. Goding announces for early publication Lives

of eminent economic entomologists of North America, a wor!

to consist of about 150 parts, with plates. Price, $2.00, $2.50 and

$3.00. ubscriptions to be sent to the author at Ancona,

Livingston county, Illinois.

— Mr. E. T. Cresson, of Philadelphia, the well-known hymen-

opterist, after a long interval of forced cessation from scientific

work, has returned to the study of the Hymenoptera, and is pre-

paring a synopsis of the whole order which he intends shortly to

publish.

— Dr. P. R. Uher has prepared a catalogue of the Hemiptera

Heteroptera of North America. It is published by the Brooklyn

Entomological Society, and can be had at the price of 50 cents

of Mr. John B. Smith, U. S. National Museum, Washington,

D 3

ke .

1886. | Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 207

— Professor C. E. Hamlin, assistant in charge of the Mollusca

of the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy at Cambridge, died

January 3d. He formerly held the chair of natural history at

Waterville College, Maine.

— N. Joly, a well-known French zodlogist, died October 17,

at Toulouse.

— Mr. S. H. Scudder has retired from the editorial manage-

ment of Sczence, which is now edited by Mr, N. D. C. Hodges.

:0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

Society or NATURALISTS Eastern U. S., Dec. 29-30.—This

active society numbers 130 working naturalists and geologists,

and was organized for the discussion of methods of investigation

and instruction, laboratory technique and museum administration,

and other topics of interest to investigators and teachers of natu-

ral science. Membership is restricted to those who have done

original work. The meeting was held at Boston, and was cer-

tainly not inferior in interest to those previously held.

The society chose as officers for the following year: President,

G. K. Gilbert, of Washington; vice-presidents, Professor E. D.

Cope and Dr. Harrison Allen, of Philadelphia, and Professor

George L. Goodale, of Cambridge; secretary, S. F. Clarke, of

Williams College; treasurer, Charles A. Ashburner, of Philadel-

phia; executive committee, Professor R. Ramsay Wright, of

Toronto, Dr. C. S. Minot, of Boston.

Gilbert, G. K. O

‘lorse, E. S. On s.

Bowditch, H. P. Demonstration of vaso-motor experiments.

Bowditch, H. P. Exhibition of model of t

pening address.

museum cases

, Preparations, x

Dwight, Thomas. Modern anatomical methods.

Mixter, S.J. Exhibition of injections.

se ivation of micro-organisms, x é

nati M. Methods of observing thunderstorms and discussing the results.

Demonstration of reaction time a us.

Wiiere J. W. A simplified demonstration of the reaction of saliva.

ight, R. R. Improvement on rocking microtome.

a R. R. Photography as an aid to natural history illustration. HS»

wees . = unnington’s method of making colored diagrams, with modifications.

» B. G. Exhibition of preparations illustrating certain branch and class

= ora

‘iver, Chas. A, Apparatus for

All ee J. H. A new method of

iisi boratory instruction in m

k 'gs'ey, J. S. Some photographic processes of illustration.

yatt, A. Museology. -

Crosby, W, Q Arrangement of mineralogical collections of B. S. N. H.

208 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. { February,

Davis, W. M. Geological sections illustrating rate of deposit and thickness of

formations

Whitman, C. O. Osmic acid and Merkel’s orgs in embryological research.

Farlow, W. G. Teaching biology at colle

eya W. M. On the use of models for instruction in eee”

. S. Some improvements in histological tec

Goals G. L. Exhibition of botanical a ar pR

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL Society, May 1, 1885.—Dr. H.

Allen made a communication on the tarsus of bats, etc.

May 15.—Professor H. C. Lewis presented an account of the

great trap-dyke across S. E. Pennsylvania.

June 19.—Dr. A. S. Gatschet presented a paper on the Beet-

heek Indians, with a vocabulary. Professor Cope presented a

second continuation of researches among the Batrachia of the

coal regions of Ohio; also a paper by Dr. A. C. Stokes, of New-

ton, N. Y., on some new hypotrichous Infusoria.

July 17. Professor D. Kirkwood, of Bloomington, Indiana, pre-

sented a communication on the comet of 1866 and the meteors of

November 14.

October ee F. A. Genth presented contributions from the

laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania, xx1v—contributions

to mineralogy. Dr. D. G. Brinton presented Polysynthesis and

incorporation as characteristics of American languages. Dr.

F. S. Kraus (Vienna) sent in a paper entitled Aus Bosneen en

Herzegovina. Professor E. D. Cope presented a catalogue of the

species of Batrachia and reptiles contained in a collection made at

Pebas, Upper Amazon, by Mr. Hawkwell.

Oct. 16.—Professor Cope presented for the Transactions a paper

on the species of Iguanide; and also for the Proceedings (1)a

paper on the structure and affinities of the species of fishes from

the Eocene of Wyoming Territory ; (2) a report on the coal de-

posits near Zaculatipan, Hidalgo, Mexico ; (3) an account of the

structure of the brain and auditory apparatus of a theromorphous

reptile.

Professor Houston made a statement as to the effect of the late

explosion of 285,000 pounds of dynamite at Flood Rock, Hell

Gate, N. Y., stating that in his opinion earthquakes were pro-

duced by the cooling of a heated surface.

November 20.—Dr. Brinton presented a paper on the Mangue

language.

Professor Cope sent in a 13th contribution to the herpetology

of rere America.

sor Houston sent a communication upon photography ina

miere flash during fh the storm of October 29, 1885, and ex-

hibited the negatives and photc

_ Dr. Frazer r presented a a résumé of the proceedings ofthe recent In-

t Berlin, which he had attended

asa delegate from the — Association for the Advance-

ment of Science, with other American scientists, Dr. Frazer

1886.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies, 209

exhiLited a device for printing boundary lines automatically ; also

a track chart of the North Atlantic. Dr. Frazer also drew atten-

tion to the Geological and Geographical Dictionary of Sig. Villa-

nova, of Pisa.

December 4.—Dr. Frazer presented a résumé of the geology

of York county, Pa.

Professor Cope read a paper on the physical conditions of

memory.

Brotocicay Society oF Wasuincton, Nov. 14.—Communica-

tions: Mr. Richard Rathbun, Remarks on the Wood’s Holl sta-

tion of the U. S. Fish Commission; Dr. W. S. Barnard, Specimen-

mounting case and method; Mr. John A. Ryder, A new and

practical system of raising oysters on a large scale; Mr. Fred-

erick True, On a spotted dolphin apparently identical with the

Prodelphinus doris of Gray.

Nov. 28.—Communications: Dr. Theobald Smith, A simple

device for storing cover-glass preparations illustrative of bacterial

disease; Dr. W. S. Barnard, 1. Environmental digestion; 2. Spe-

cimen mount: tube-holders, labels and stoppers; Dr. C. Hart

Merriam, The work of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in

€conomic ornithology; Mr. Charles D. Walcott, Evidence of the

loss of vital force in certain trilobites on approaching extinction ;

r. Frederick True, A new study of the American pocket rats ;

genus Dipodomys.

Dec. 26—Dr. C.Hart Merriam, Contributions to North Ameri-

can mammalogy. 1. The genus Tamias; Mr. F. H. Knowlton,

Multiplication in the Gyneecium of Datura stramonium L.; Pro-

fessor O. T. Mason, Mutilations of the human body.

American ORNITHOLOGIST Unton.—The annual meeting took

place at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York.

The session opened on Tuesday, Nov. 17, and lasted two days.

Among the members present were Messrs. J. A. Allen, R. Ridg-

way, W. Brewster, W. W. Cooke, O. Widmann, Dr. C. H. Mer-

nam, A. K, Fisher, H. A. Purdie, and E. P. Bicknell. A number

of Papers of very great interest were read, and there was much

discussion of knotty points in ornithology. One of the most in-

teresting features of the meeting was the account by Mr. Brewster

of his observations carried on at lighthouses during the season of

migration. By means of these observations the speaker had

penetrated deeper into some of the secrets in the life of the small

bight-migrating birds than any one else has yet done. His

on of what he saw was most entertaining and valuable, and

pens a new chapter in the history of our birds. The next

annual meeting will be held in W ashington, D. C.

aime Society, Lancaster, Pa., Nov. 28.—Dr. S. S. Rathvon

a highly interesting paper on the Hessian fly and allied in-

210 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [Feb., 1886.

sects. Dr. J. H. Dubbs read a paper on arrows and arrow

makers. The paper was accompanied by a letter from A. F. Ber-

lin, of Allentown, Pa., and illustrated by specimens of darts and

arrow heads in stone made by Mr. Berlin by the process described

in the letter. Dr. T. C. Porter stated that the Lancaster county

herbarium of the society needed arranging, and that the plants

should be poisoned in order to preserve them from destruction by

the museum pest. He offered to defray the expense incident

thereto, if the members would do the actual working part of the

undertaking. The doctor’s generous offer was accepted, and Pro-

fessor J. S. Stahr, C. A. Heinitsh, and Mrs Zell, were appointed a

committee to arrange and poison the specimens in the herbarium.

Dr. Porter further stated that he intends revising the list of the

flera of the county, correcting the nomenclature of the same and

adding the new plants discovered thereto, and that when com-

pleted he will place the list in the hands of the society for publi-

cation in bulletin form. In speaking of the flora of the county,

Dr. Porter stated that for rare specimens the Dillerville swamps

appeared to be a veritable coast line, as it were.

New York Acapemy oF Sciences, Dec. 7, 1885.—The Egyp-

tian origin of our alphabet, Dr Charles E. Moldenke..

an. 4.—Fungi inducing decay in timber (illustrated); Mr. P.

H. Dudley. (Specimens were exhibited of “scaly lentinus,” Zen-

tinus lepideus Fr.—the species of fungus so destructive to railway

sleepers and timber of yellow pine (Pinus australis) in this vicinity.

Boston SOCIETY oF NATURAL HISTORY, Dag 2—Mr. Frank H.

Cushing described an Indian naturalist, or e Zuñi conceptions

of animal and plant life; Mr. S. H. Scudder spoke of some recent

important discoveries among the oldest fossil insects.

Dec. 16.—W. O. Crosby, Notes on joint-structure.

Jan. 6, 1885.— Frank H. Cushing, The mythology of the

Zuñis. í

APPALACHIAN Mountain Crus, Dec. 11, 1885.— Geodetic

Observations from Moosilauke and Mansfield, Prof. E. C. Picker-

ing; The tripyramid slides of 1885, written by Rev. Alford

A. Butler, and Notes on the region east of Wild river and south

of the Androscoggin, written by Mr. A. L. Goodrich.

Oct. 14.—Professor Gaetano Lanza, An ascent of Mount Gar-

; M. V. B. Knox, Ph.D., Notes on the slide at Jefferson;

mountain; An excursion over Mounts Nancy, Anderson and

Lowell.

T ia

Mar 1.

PLATE X.

BiKsr8s0

Bah:

oat

er oF (1715) OO O O)

se es es aT 3

ae Vwi es

U i í | ARN,

jee ee

6g mpos N N piso

: mp7 wosse Sor A a oa

N N | 808 y 3yJ8 i

habita? :

ie see tones

NOL,

j UOS, £ 2

MYO

1, Winnebago ha

; 3, Arkansa habitat

Towa habitat

habitat and route after

habitat; 2,

„etc. ; 5, Omaha

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

_ Vou. xx— MARCH, 1886.—No. 3.

MIGRATIONS OF SIOUAN TRIBES."

BY REV. J. OWEN DORSEY.

“QIOUAN” is the term adopted by the Bureau of Ethnology

instead of “ Dakotan,” as the name of the linguistic family

of which the Sioux or Dakotas have been regarded as the lead-

ing nation.

The tribes whose migrations are described in this paper are the

Ponkas, Omahas, Osages, Kansas, Kwapas, owas, Otos, Missou-

tis, Winnebagos and Mandans. The other tribes of this family

are the Sioux, Assiniboins, Hidatsas, Crows and Tutelos.

Some authors speak of a series of migrations of these tribes

from the west toward the east, but the writer has not been able

to learn on what authority such statements have been made, nor

has he ever found any tradition of such eastward migrations

among the tribes that he has visited.

Whatever may be the value of Catlin’s map of the Mandan

Migrations, there can be no doubt that the Mandans belong to

the Siouan family. Their language shows unmistakable resem-

blances to the Winnebago, as well as to the Dakota, Osage, Kan-

sas, etc. The Mandan tradition, as given to Catlin, placed the

ancestors of that people east of the Mississippi river at an early

day (Catlin’s N. A. Indians, 1, 259)2

The Jesuit Relation of 1640 speaks of the Dakotas and Assini-

boins, placing them in the neighborhood of the Winnebagos.

This last nation was probably in the region of Green bay in 1614,

_ "Read before the Anthropological Society, Washington, D. C., in 1884.

2 See map 2, é

212 Migrations of Siouan Tribes. [ March,

when Champlain met eight of their men. They are also men-

tioned in 1620. In 1680 Father Membré said that they were

near the Kickapoos. In 1766 Carver found them about thirty-

five miles from Green bay.

Map 2.

50 A 50

: ey) FS

INAȚAREES a Z) PERO |

AA ÌMANDANS A b 5 AN] S

\ { EXTINOT= ‘a

RET Sg A E a

& /

el i

Key

gg.

PRIS AY Y

« 4.MIcHig4y SN

pa r2 j S

. ae

D A 5 d

N 4 Ñ

Bee

Part of Catlin’s map, showing the course of the Mandans.

About three years ago the Iowa chiefs who visited Washing-

ton at that time told the writer that their people, the Otos, Mis-

souris, Omahas and Ponkas once formed part of the Winnebago

nation. In confirmation of this note are the following statements -

(2) About the year 1848 Rev. Wm. Hamilton, missionary to the

1886. | Migrations of Siouan Tribes. 213

owas, learned that when they sung their mystic songs they used

the Winnebago language. (4) A careful study of the languages

of the Iowas, Otos and Winnebagos shows that they are very

closely related ; indeed, time may prove the necessity of including

them in one group instead of two. (c) We have the tradition

given by the Prince of Nieu Wied on p. 645 of his first volume

(German edition). (æ) Gallatin (Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., 1836,

p. 127) says that the Iowas, Otos, Missouris, Omahas and Ponkas

have a tradition that, at a distant epoch, they, together with the

Winnebagos, came from the north; that the Winnebagos stopped

on the banks of Lake Michigan while the rest, continuing their

course southerly, crossed the Mississippi river and occupied the

places in which they were found by the Europeans. (e) There is

a Statement made in Maj. Long’s account of his expedition to the

Rocky mountains, 1819 (ed. by James), of which the substance is

now given: “The parent nation originally resided somewhere

North of the great lakes. On moving southward a large body

seceded, staying on the shore of a lake; these became the Ho-

chan-ga-ra or Winnebagos. Another band separated from the

main body on reaching the Mississippi—these became the Iowas

(Pa-kho-che). At the mouth of the Missouri another band

Stopped and made a village, hence their name, “ Ne-o-ta-che ”

(Ni-u-t’a-chi), now called Missouris. The Otos (Wa-to-ta, lovers

of sexual pleasure) left the nation on the Mississippi (according

to another account they seceded from the Missouris at the mouth

of the Missouri river) and went across the country till they struck

the Missouri near the mouth of the Great Nemaha. Here they

remained a long time. Thence they went up to the Platte, and after

hunting for some time near its mouth they moved further up the

Missouri and built a village on the right bank of that river, about

fourteen miles below Council Bluffs, Ia. While they were there

a band of lowas established themselves on the bank of the river, _

nearly opposite to them and within thirty miles of the site of the

Omaha village, in 1819. The Otos subsequently removed to the ©

Platte, about twenty miles above the village occupied by them in

1819, but finding the latter situation a better one, they established

memselves there (about A. D. 1769).”

ini =, after remaining in a village on the Lower Mis-.

Vian: ong time, were rejoined by the band above mentioned,

| the scaly red to the Mississippi and prones a wiae wags

214 Migrations of Siouan Tribes. [ March,

This must refer to a late period in the history of the Iowas,

extending back, perhaps, not further than 1740 or 1750. This

will appear the more plainly after comparing the above statement

respecting the Otos with the map of the migrations of the Iowas

given as Plate xxx in Vol. 111 of Schoolcraft’s Archives of Abo-

riginal Knowledge. A copy of the map accompanies this article,

The supposition of the writer is also in accordance with what fol-

lows about the migrations of the Iowas in company with the

Omahas and Ponkas.

“ The Missouris in course of time abandoned their village at

the mouth of the Missouri, and gradually ascending the river at

length built a town on the left bank, near the mouth of Grand

river. They were found there by the French, who built a fort on

an island in the Missouri, very near them, about the beginning of

the last century. * * * The Missouris continued to dwell in

the same locality until, about twenty years since (A. D. 1798,

1799 or 1800), they were conquered and dispersed by a combina-

tion of the Saks, Foxes and some other Indians. Five or six

lodges joined the Osages, two or three took refuge with the Kan-

sas, and the chief part of the remainder amalgamated with the

tos.”

In 1673 the Otos were placed by Marquette! between 40°

and 41° N. lat., west of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, east

of the Maha (Omahas) and south-east of the Pana (Ponkas?).

The Iowas, according to the same authority, were between 40°

and 41° N. lat., north-west of the Maha and west of the Pana. .

In 1680 the Ainoves (Iowas) were east of the Mississippi and

near the Kickapoos, according to Membré (see Shea’s Discov.

and Expl. Miss. Valley, p. 150). The Otos were “one hundred

and thirty leagues from the Illinois, almost opposite the mouth of

the Miskoncing.” In 1687 the Otos were on the Osage river.

In 1700 Iberville said that the Otos and Iowas were with the

Omahas between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, about 4

hundred leagues from the Illinois. In 1721 the Iowas were east

_ of the Missouri river, above the Otos and below the Pawnees;

_ being allies and neighbors of the Dakotas. The Otos were

below the Iowas and above the Kansas, on the west side of the

Missouri (Charlevoix, Histor. Journal, p. 294).

The Ponkas told Rev. A. L. Riggs that their ancestors used tO

‘dwell east of the Mississippi. They subsequently inhabited the

1 See his autograph map in Shea’s Dj a . 8vo,

a E. age p in Shea’s Discov. and Explor. of the Miss. Valley

1886.] Migrations of Siouan Tribes. 215

country on the north side of the Missouri river, near its mouth.

The Kansas and the Osages were the first to depart; then the

Omahas and Ponkas followed the course of the Missouri towards

its head. Mr. Riggs also says that the Ponkas went to the region

of the Black hills, and were there before the Crows; but the

Ponkas told the writer that the Crows inhabited that country and

were owners of the Black hills when their ancestors arrived there,

at which time there were no Dakotas in that region. This last

statement is confirmed by the Dakota winter-counts in Dr. Cor-

busier’s collection. The writer was also told that the Ponkas

used to dwell north-east of the old Ponka reservation (which is in

Todd county, Neb.), in a land where they wore snow-shoes.

Since 1879 the writer has gained more definite information from

other Ponkas, as well as from Omahas, Osages and Kansas, and

it is now given.

Ages ago the ancestors of the Omahas, Ponkas, Osages, Kan-

sas, Kwapas, Winnebagos, Pawnee Loups (Skidi) and Rees,

dwelt east of the Mississippi. They were not all in one region,

but they were allies, and their general course was westward.

They drove other tribes before them. Five of these peoples, the

Omahas, Ponkas, Osages, Kansas and Kwapas, were then to-

gether as one nation. They were called Arkansa or Alkansa by

the Illinois tribes, and they dwelt near the Ohio river. At the

mouth of the Ohio a separation occurred. Some went down the

Mississippi, hence arose their name, “ U-ga’-qpa (Oo-ga-khpa)”

or Kwapa (Quapaw), meaning “the down-stream people.” This

Was prior to 1540, when De Soto met the Kwapas, who were

then a distinct tribe.

The rest of the Arkansas ascended the river, taking the name

of U-ma™-ha® (Omaha), “those going against the wind or

current.”

_ These names—Kwapa and Omaha—are of more recent origin

than Kansas, Osage and Ponka. We find proofs of the antiquity

of these three names in the names of gentes in these tribes.

Thus among the Ponkas there is a Ponka gens (the Ma-ka"), and

an Osage gens (the Wa-ja-je). The Omahas have a Kansas gens

(the ‘Ma™ze). The Kansas have a Ponka gens (Cedar people), am

Osage gens (Deer people), and a Kansas gens (ya"-ze, asso-

‘ated, as among the Omahas, with the winds). The Osages have

a Kansas gens (Ka"-se) and seven Osage (Wa-9a-9e) gentes, one

216 Migrations of Siouan Tribes. [ March,

of which is the Ponka (Pa"-uka). The last is associated with

the red cedar. If the true meanings of the three names have been

preserved, they can be gained only in one way—by questioning

members of the secret societies in the tribes.

The writer has been unable to find an Omaha gens, and the

only Kwapa village (not a gens) is among the Kwapas.

Joutel names four Kwapa villages—Otsote, Thoriman, Ton-

ginga and Cappa. The first village is called by other French

writers, Otsotchave, or Otsotchoue, the third, Topinga (evidently

a printer’s error), and the fourth, Kapaha. According to Shea

_ these divisions of the Arkansas are extinct, but the writer has

been able to find members of them still existing. When he was

at the Osage agency, Indian Terr., in 1883, he met three Kwapas.

From two of them he gained the following: The first village is

se gt -qpa-qti, real Kwapas (Cappa or Kapaha). The second is

U-zu’-ti-u’-hi (Otsote), which may mean village along an “su or

lowland level containing trees here and there. The third is Ti-

u-a’-d™j-ma™ (Thoriman). The name of the fourth village could

not be learned from the Kwapas; but Margry tells us that it

meant “small village” in the Kwapa dialect. The writer finds

that this would be expressed by Ta™-ma” ji’-ga, with which com-

pare Tonginga and Topinga. In July, 1687, according to J outel,

two of these villages were on the Arkansas river, and the others

were on the Mississippi. A visit to the Kwapas might furnish

the writer with their traditions, etc. Though they must have

separated from the Ponkas more than three hundred years agọ,

the dialects are still so similar that the Kwapas met by the writer

could understand him very easily when he spoke to them in

Ponka.

The Omahas and their associates followed the course of the

Mississippi till they reached the mouth of the Missouri, remain-

ing for some time near the site of fhe present city of St. Louis-

Then they ascended the Missouri to a place called Tce-diii’-g4

a’-ja-be and Ma"’da-qpa’ -yé by the Kansas, and Ma’’-ja-qpa -dhé

by the Osages. This was an extensive peninsula on the rivet

having a high mountain as a landmark) -

_ | The writer was told by an Osage that Man-jaqpadhé was at Fire Prairie , Missouri,

_ where the first treaty with the Osages was made by the United States. But ‘that place

is on a creek of the same name which empties into the Missouri river on the south,

in T. 50 N., R. 28 W., at the town of Napoleon, Jackson county, M This could

not have been the original Man-jaqpadhé. Several local names have ue duplicated

1886. | Migrations of Siouan Tribes. 217

MAP 3.

& 5 S

ay yop ssiy

Kam Lt 6

TRS

x ee

FA ese Ss >

uj Ka SS = lop

; Wiaakl N K

& a>

rE BLE x

k. ine a gee

_ Map of the country formerly occupied by the Ioway tribe of Indians, from a map

ney by Waw-non-qwe-skoon-a, an Em iray ta rave. Drawn by Ca pt. S. Eastman,

S.A. (Plate oo Vol. 111, p. 256; Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, by H. R.

Schoolcraft. No. i i nage or

may have been the same as No. 19 of Map 1.

a ee

by the ss during their wanderings, and there are traces of similar duplications

a the Osages. Besides this the Omahas and Ponkas never accompanied t

‘and Osages beyond the mouth of the Osage river, and the Kansas did not

aas a tpi for some time after the separation at the mouth of

218 Migrations of Siouan Tribes. [ March,

Here, according to the Kansas and Osages, the ancestors of the

four tribes dwelt together. In the course of time they ascended

the Missouri and established themselves at the mouth of the

Osage river. The Iowas were near them; but the Omahas say

that at that period they did not know the Otos and Missouris.

At the mouth of the Osage river the final separation occurred.

The Omahas and Ponkas crossed the Missouri, resuming their

wanderings. The Osages ascended the stream pontig their name,

and at a tributary, called by them “ Tse’-4ŭ"-ya'-qa,” they divided

into the qa-he’-3si (those who camped at the top of the mountain),

incorrectly styled Great Osages, and the U-1sén’-ta (those who

camped at the base of the mountain), popularly called Little

Osages. The Kansas ascended the Missouri on the south side

till they reached the Kansas river. A brief halt was made, and

the journey was resumed. They ascended the Missouri on the

east side till they reached the present northern boundary of the

State of Kansas. There they were attacked by the Cheyennes,

and were compelled to retrace their steps. They settled again at

the mouth of the Kansas, till the “ Big Knives” came with gifts

and induced them to go further west. Their subsequent history,

as given to the writer by two chiefs, contains an account of about

twenty villages along the Kansas river, then the settlement at

Council Grove, Kas., and finally the removal to their reservation

in Indian Terr.

Let us return to the Omahas and Ponkas. After crossing the

Missouri they were joined by the Iowas, according to Two Crows

and Joseph La Flèche, of the Omahas. They said that this addi-

tion to the party was made about the time of the separation from

the Osages and Kansas. But the Iowa tradition, as given to Mr.

Hamilton (see map of the Iowa brave) places the first village of

that tribe west of the Mississippi, on the Des Moines river. The

two Omahas just named said that their fathers followed the tribu-

_ taries of the Missouri till they reached the great Pipestone quarry

in Minnesota. Other Omahas have said that the course was UP

the Des Moines river, which would naturally bring the wanderers

_ near the quarry. The writer is inclined to believe that they

ascended the Chariton river, and when at its source they would

_ be near the Des Moines. As the Iowas were a cognate tribe, it

was reasonable for them to unite with the others. At all events’

_ the traditions agree in this: the people built earth lodges (perma

1886.] Migrations of Siouan Tribes. 219

nent villages), they farmed and hunted. the buffalo and other ani-

mals. When the game became scarce in their neighborhood,

they abandoned their villages and went north-west. On reaching

a place near the new haunts of the game, other permanent villages

were built and they were occupied for years. So they lived till

they reached the Pipestone quarry (which is not given in the

right place on the Iowa map). When they arrived at the Big

Sioux river they built a fort. At that time.the Yankton Dakotas

dwelt in a forest region of Minnesota, near the Mississippi, and

were called “ Ja"/-a-ja_ni/-ka-ci’-ga, people (dwelling) in the

woods.” By and by the Dakotas made war on the Omahas and *

their allies, defeating them and killing about a thousand warriors.

This obliged the three tribes to abandon their habitat. They fled

south-west till they reached the lake where the Omahas and Pon-

kas obtained their sacred pole. This is now called Lake Andes,

and it is at the head of Choteau creek, Dakota. There the sacred

Pipes were given, according to the Omaha and Ponka traditions,

- and the present gentes were constituted. From this place they

ascended the Missouri river till they reached White river (Ni-u’-

ga-cu’-de). There the Iowas and Omahas remained, but the

Ponkas crossed the Missouri near the mouth of the White river,

and went on to the Little Missouri river and the country near the

Black hills. They subsequently rejoined their allies and all de-

scended the Missouri on its right bank. When they reached the

mouth of the Niobrara river the final separation was made. The

Ponkas remained there. The Omahas settled on Bow creek,

Neb., which they called “ Village stream.” The Iowas advanced

to the stream on which is situated the town of Ionia, Dixon

county, Neb., hence its name, “ where the Iowas farmed.” By

and by the Omahas removed to a place near Covington, Neb.,

which is opposite Sioux City (see 24 on Map1). The remains of

this village are known as Li jafi-ga jifi-ga, and the lake near by is

en “ Dhix-u-cpa"-u-gdhe,” because of the willows along its

In the course of time the Iowas passed the Omahas again and

made a village near the place where Florence, Neb., now stands.

After that they continued southward till they reached their reser-

vation at the Nebraska and Kansas line. The Otos were first

E, by the Omahas, according to Mr. La Flèche, in compara-

tively recent times on the Platte river. uad

220 Migrations of Siouan Tribes. _ [ March,

Subsequent Migrations of the Omahas.—After leaving Ji Jafiga

jiiga (No. 24), where the lodges were made of wood, they dwelt

at Zande buja. This is south-east of Ji jafiga -jifiga, and is the

name of a stream as well as of a prominent bluff near by. This

stream empties into Omaha creek near the town of Homer, Neb.

After a great freshet the Omahas crossed Omaha creek and made

a village at or near Omadi, which was called Large village, near

Village stream (Omaha creek). See No. 25 on Map 1. This was

a favorite resort, as we shall see. Thence they removed to Bell

creek, on the west side of which ‘they made a village (No. 26).

Thence they went south to Salt creek, below Lincoln (No. 28).

Thence they returned to Large village (No. 25). When they

were there, Half-a-day, the aged historian of the tribe, was born.

This was about A. D. 1800. Thence they removed to A-ne na-

tai dha", where the people perished ina prairie fire, a hill on the

Elkhorn river (No. 30). They stayed there five years. Then

they settled on Shell creek, which they called Tacnafiguji (No.

31). After which they returned to Large village (No. 25). Leav-

ing this again, they made a‘village on the Elkhorn, near Wisner

(No. 33), about A. D. 1822-3. Half-a-day married when he was

there. About A. D. 1832-3 they returned to Large village (No.

25). Joseph La Flèche remembers having been there at that

time. About A.D. 1841 they removed to Ta”-wa" jifiga dha”, the

Small village (No. 35), at the mouth of Logan creek, where they

dwelt for two years. In 1843 they returned to Large village (No.

25), and in 1845 they made a village on the curvilinear top of a

plateau, near Bellevue (No. 37). In 1855 they removed to their

present reservation,

The Ponkas did not occupy their new country unmolested.

They had some fights with the Cheyennes and Comanches. These

foes dwelt near a great lake in a sandy region (gi-za’ -ba-he-he’)

near the head of the Elkhorn river, Neb. At this time the com-

_ batants used wooden darts instead of bows and arrows. The

writer was at the old Ponka reservation, Todd county, Neb., from

May, 1871, to Aug., 1873. During this period he often visited

€ remains of an ancient Ponka fort not more than a quarter of

a mile from his house. A rough diagram of this fort is given.

After the Iowas, and Omahas went south the Ponkas claimed

all the northern part of Nebraska, along the Missouri river, as far

: as what is now Dakota county, where began the Omaha ter-

1886, ] Migrations of Siouan Tribes. 221

The Ponkas say that they had seven “old men ” since they be-

came a separate tribe. Under the fifth “old man” they first saw

the pale-faces. They are now under the seventh “old man.”

MAP 4.

teow

E `

a * t

l. = `

x GE sk

a IN,“

ey t +. =

Si t x `

a i S

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Miss čle to the 3 : ee?

ouri River A U ka

<n 1 f= i=

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ie \ & t:

= (i |

= 1 3

Hi »

==" HE & i

A EZ ;

=] E d

=| aS

s> E

é FA

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7, = hy Ke J \ N Z.

EPEL AIN y

A e Y Sean Wi \ 5

y % Sa 4 y

Si E Ma S <a

en 2 utte Ep

x... MA and Ft R

a VAA, ox, =

s a a 4 <4 Flatvalley,

N wa yy.

: R SU

iZ a AN tiny A f ji f r y

ay SANELI Ninel fy}

> X Blup if

nad

bd Map showing the Ponka fort.

Berke Omahas, according to some men of their tribe, are now

oe their fifth “ old man.” Among the Dakotas, according to

te anthorities, an “old man” denotes a cycle of seventy years

ae >

222 Migrayons of Siouan Tribes. [ March,

or more. If the Ponkas use the term in this sense, and are cor-

rect in so doing, they may have had a tribal existence for about

490 or 500 years. This would extend back as far as A. D. 1390

or 1380. (It was told the writer in 1880.) Let us see how this

agrees with the reports of early writers taken in connection with

the period required for the migrations which have been described.

We must remember that in those days firearms were unknown,

and that therefore the destruction of game was not as rapid as it

now is; that horses could not be had, rendering locomotion very

slow ; that removals from permanent villages (such removals de-

pending on the destruction and departure of game) need not have

been at very short intervals, especially when the construction of

of such villages was a work of great labor, owing to the primi-

tive character of the tools employed, and has a religious signifi-

cance, being accompanied with sundry mystic rites, some of

which are still preserved among the Osages and Kansas.

The director of the Bureau of Ethnology found a tradition

among some of the civilized tribes in the Indian Territory, refer-

ing to the ancestors of the Kwapas, etc., which agrees with what

has been said, 2. e., that they dwelt east of the Mississippi prior to.

A. D. 1700. In 1673 Marquette had heard of the Maha (Oma-

has), Pana (Ponkas ?), Pahoutet (Iowas, Pagotce) and Otontantas

(Otos), as inhabiting the country on the right bank of the Mis-

souri river. The separation of the Iowas, Omahas and Ponkas,

and therefore all previous migrations, must have occurred before

1673. Furthermore, the separation of the Kwapas from the

others, and the taking of these correlative names, Kwapa and

Omaha, must have occurred prior to A. D. 1 540, as De Soto met

the Kwapas in that year.

Even at the present day, when horses have been available, the

Omahas have remained in a permanent village for ten years at a:

time, and have returned repeatedly to such an old village. We

have no recorded tradition of similar returns to favorite villages

in prehistoric times, yet such returns may have occurred, and if.

known would tend to increase the duration of the period between

the meeting of the white men and the time when the Indians

~ In question were east of the Mississippi river.

1886.] The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. 223

THE TORTURE OF THE FISH-HAWK.

BY I, LANCASTER.

HILE engaged in the task of explaining the mystery of the

flight of soaring birds on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico,

where many species abounded, unusual and astonishing perform-

ances were witnessed on the part of these inhabitants of the air.

The month of March revealed more of these out-of-the-way

feats than other times of the year, and as the breeding season

occurred in this month, especially on those remote keys and in-

terminable flats constituting the peninsula of Southern Florida, it

was fair to `presume that feelings growing out of the relations of

the sexes prompted the remarkable behavior.

Were it not absurd to transfer to external nature those moral

€motions generated in the mind from the primordial impressions

of pleasure and pain, one would be tempted to assert a radical

diabolism in the scheme of things on witnessing the seeming

fiendishness of some of these creatures having dominion of the

air. Nothing but a free application of the doctrine of the trans-.

mission of qualities through inheritance, coupled with variations

amounting to divergence, as the line descends, can dispose of

deliberately evil intention somewhere, or of a natural process, the

outcome of which is bad. No inference from the hooked beak

and grasping talons of the carnivorous birds gives a clue to the

origin and development of a disposition on their part to inflict

pain for the mere sake of the torture. Those structures find

their function in the legitimate life struggle, but the infliction of

needless pain, in no way connected with that conflict, seems to be

imposed from another source,

_ The distribution of land and water on the Gulf coast of Florida

is favorable to the existence of fish. The interminable flats, bare,

Or covered with a thin sheet of water at low tide, and traversed

by many winding channels, give the smaller kinds refuge from

the rapacity of the larger, and furnish breeding grounds without

The many tidal creeks, often a succession of deep holes

connected by mere rivulets, through which the tide sluggishly

and flows, also give security for the deposit of eggs and

‘Srowth of young. The gulf is also a vast caldron of warm

water, Prolific through its whole extent in monsters of the deep,

many of which, such as sharks and porpoises, penetrate the passes

224 The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. [| March,

between the keys and entering the channels of the bays play havoc

with the lesser tribes. These are devoured in great quantities,

and the killed and wounded which escape the maw of their fierce

enemy can be seen stranded on the flats at low tide.

All this teeming life goes on in a climate of surpassing loveli-

ness. Frost is a rarity; ice unknown; day succeeding day of

delightful blandness. Extreme heat is not experienced, and

storms worthy of the name very rare. The soil of the lower

peninsula is pure sand as sterile as Sahara. The vegetation is

prolific in air plants, semi-tropical bushes and stunted growths,

and a perpetual verdure is everywhere. But there is nothing in

it all that a man can live on, and hence the population is limited

to the sporadic migrations of excursionists and invalids, and a few

“crackers,” always hungry, and seeking something capable of

being devoured.

This combination of circumstances forms a splendid environ-

ment for such birds as can in any way subsist on a fish diet, and

what might be expectcd is what is found. Birds with legs long

enough to wade on the flats; those which have inherited the

expertness of a swimming-school adept and can dive with ability,

and those which can subsist on the carcases of unfortunates, have

here everything pretty much to suit them. Long lines of pelicans

can be seen on every hand, with that grandmotherly air of supreme

contentment arising from a continuously satisfactory cuisine.

Cranes of all lengths of legs and necks, stalk about, hastily gob-

bling their prey. The Carrion-eating vultures are always present

enjoying the incoming breeze by resting in it on motionless wings,

or wheeling about on the lookout for subsistence.

But the birds which particularly interest us are the fish-hawks,

also dependent, like the others, on the life found in the tepid waters.

These birds are arboreal in their habits, nesting in the tops of the

pine trees and rarely resting on the ground. They fish for the

most part in the creeks and secluded inlets, hovering over the

waters and suddenly capturing their victim by diving upon it.

_ But they sometimes come over the open waters of the bays, and

when the keys are covered with trees, over the gulf, to find their

_ food. On first acquaintance their actions seemed inexplicable. I

Ss could not account for their eccentric ways. While in the hidden

_ places of the creeks they utter no cry, and seem to be efficient

masters of the craft, but in the open they vacillate painfully-

1886. ] The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. 225

They are large, active-winged birds, never soaring, are quite

strong, and weigh about six or seven pounds. On leaving the

trees lining the shore, perhaps allured by a school of mullet in

the channel, they seem eager for action, and all alive with expec-

tation, but just before stooping on the fish would set up a fright-

ened, discordant scream, and make for the shore with a haste so

ill-advised as seriously to impede progress. Before the trees were

reached, confidence would be restored, and returning, the same

singular performance would be repeated, perhaps for three or four

times before the game was finally secured. No enemy was in

sight. The breeze would flow gently. All was serene, yet terror

would take possession of the bird and almost paralyze its efforts

by making it frantic. I soon learned the reason for this coward-

ice. Stretched at length on the deck of a boat in the early morn- .

ing in the pass of Boca Grande, one of the entrances to Charlottes

harbor, I saw a fine specimen of hawk cross overhead and pro-

ceed seaward to find a dinner. The excursion was successful

as the pass swarmed with fish coming in with the tide. A fine

one soon left its element and swung aloft into the air in the talons

of the bird, which at once began its return. But a new-comer ap-

peared upon the scene. A black creature which seemed all wings

and shaped like a flattened letter M, dropped from above and con-

fronted the hawk, which at once dropped its prey and uttered a

Scream so brimful of mortal terror that it should have excited

the sympathy of all living things within the compass of its sound.

It was not disturbed by actual contact. The two birds were not

within fifty feet of each other, but the hawk exerted itself with the

same wild energy to get to cover which I had before so often

witnessed when no black monster was in the vicinage. The in-

truder was a frigate-bird, and on looking upwards a score of them

could be seen a mile or more from the earth, floating round and

round, on motionless wings. The dropped fish was seized in the

beak of the bird long before it reached the water, and with a

Sweep of exquisite grace, on tense wings, fronting a mild breeze,

the corsair was lifted half a mile into the air, where another aston-

ishing performance was at once initiated. A bite was taken from

the body, being torn away by a wringing motion of the head

which sent the carcass whirling, while the bird masticated the

morsel in shape for swallowing. Of course the fish began to

obey the law of falling bodies, and the bird, folding its wings

226 The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. [ March,

tightly upon its body, dropped swiftly after it. The part bitten off

being disposed of, another swoop downwards was made, the fish

seized, and the upward swing repeated, and this process continued

until the entire carcass was devoured.

At the time of this visit these frigate-birds were oblivious of

man’s presence and I was so fortunate as to secure this one by a

well directed shot. It measured eleven feet in alar dimensions

and weighed eight pounds. Its feet and legs were ridiculously

small and weak, and viewed as weapons of offense and defense

could not compare with the talons of the hawk it had robbed

and terrified. Its head and beak were strong and well developed,

but by no means superior to those of the other. The terror which

inspired the hawk was still unaccounted for. In a contest for

superiority on the ground of physical strength and effectiveness

of weapons it would have been victorious. The whole case was

still enveloped in mystery.

Returning to this locality-after the absence of some weeks I

found the black outlines of the frigate-birds against the sky as

usual, and soon saw the inevitable hawk over the waters of the

pass all excitement at the prospect ofa dinner. It was the begin-

ning of March, and in that month the sea-breezes of the vicinity

are particularly delightful. It is also the breeding season of the

birds when their plumage is at its best, and they show to best ad-

vantage. Success always followed any well directed effort of a

bird to catch a fish in Boca Grande pass, and the hawk soon had

one. A black corsair at once appeared and captured the booty

as on the former occasion, while the frightened fisher fled scream-

ing towards the land. But now a change of programme took place.

Another long winged creature from the group above appeared in

front of and facing the frightened hawk which turned seaward at

once, mingling its note of terror with one of despair. Every effort

to side off towards home was frustrated by the gliding terror in-

terposing its bulk in the intended direction, until the victim

seemed to accept the inevitable and made an attempt to cross the

gulf. The tormenting enemy then seemed content, and swung

aloft among its companions. The poor fisherman, rid of the dire

_ presence, wheeled on its course for home, and its frenzied flap-

_ pings relieved of excessive tension, made very good time, when

~ On reaching the very brink of safety the black wings again ap-

_ peared and the whole distressing business was re-enacted with

PLATE XI.

The Frigate Bird.

1886, } The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. 227

increasing despair in the frightened crys This went on for more

than half an hour. Every effort at retreat was intercepted. During

all the time the hawk kept up an incessant flapping of its wings,

‘and its physical endurance was giving way under the protracted

strain. This was apparent from the changing tone of its scream,

which varied through all the gamut of despair, from unreasoning

terror, to supplicating misery. It was the Roman gladiator’s

“ Cæsar, the dying salute thee,” with the ambition left out.

The frigate-bird at length seemed impatient. It more promptly

answered the movements of the hawk, and urged compliance with

greater vigor, and finally introduced a new feature into the proceed-

ings. Swooping upwards for one hundred feet it turned head fore-

most, and plunged beneath the hawk, turning completely over as

it did so, and passing to the front vaulted upwards, and down

again in the same path, thus describing an elliptical orbit around

its victim. It swung near the hawk round the lower curve, causing

upward flight, until at length in an exhausted condition it was in-

troduced into the company of its tormenters which had been de-

scending from high levels and were now about four hundred

yards above the water. Its strength was now well nigh exhausted.

Its cry was scarcely audible, and it barely had the power of di-

recting its movements. In whichever way it went, excepting one,

a black terror confronted it. It could rise unimpeded, but found

resistance to every other course. It struggled upwards for some

four hundred yards further, until the distance was so great as to

make it difficult to keep the movements in the field of the glass,

when it gave up the task, and rapidly floundered over and over

through the air, its muscular power exhausted, and its mass sur-

rendered to the gravitating force. Down it came, the whole half-

Score of enemies circling about it, until it struck the water near

the beach in the shallows of the offing. The tide was running

out and the water on the flat not over a foot in depth.

: Supposing the play to be out I was proceeding to examine the

victim when it was evident that more was tocome. The hawk

was not dead and would at intervals raise its head from beneath

the water to breathe. It had not strength to submerge its body,

and with the vital air came a vision of the hovering terror. Down

went its head with a gurgling murmur, and those black demons a ioe

would alight upon it with their miserable puny feet and push Eoo

entirely beneath the surface.

VOL. XX,—No. 111, 6

228 The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. [March,

The vitality of the fish-hawk is something wonderful, for this

pastime went on for an hour, until at length it was completely

dead. The body floated to shallow parts in the ebbing tide and

rested stationary on the bottom, when each bird in turn alighted

upon it, folded its wings, and rested in perfect quiet for five min-

utes, when it would rise in the air and a comrade take its turn.

The appearance of these creatures, while thus employed, was that

of quietly expecting something which did not happen. I had

approached to within thirty feet of the dead hawk, but not the

least attention was given to my presence. The birds always

alighted with their heads towards the head of the carcass, and

stood out their time, without making a movement, in a slightly

crouching attitude, as if to be prepared for what would take place.

This curious performance lasted for an hour, when, moved by a

single impulse, they stretched their long pinions and went aloft,

where they could be seen in their interminable circling flight,

round and round,yand the tragedy was ended.

The sun was low in the west; the tide had ceased to flow; the

breeze had died away, and everything was tranquil. All nature

seemed to overflow with love and peace, and yet an awful scene

had filled those quiet hours. I felt myself in the grasp of some-

thing infernal. It was as if the guest of Solomon had been con-

fronted in the garden, in every avenue of escape, by awful death, —

until he had surrendered life after exhausting all the forces of his _

nature to escape his doom. An examination of the carcass re-

vealed no wounds. It wasa case of suicide entirely. But what

a dreadful motive to commit the deed,

~ Through all this tragedy the wings of the frigate-birds were

motionless, excepting when they were engaged near the water.

To rise or fall was indifferent to them. When confronting the

wks, the contrasted wing-motions of the two birds was con-

spicuous—one was beating the air rapidly, the other not at all.

Though afterwards explained, this ability to counteract air resist-

ance and weight without muscular exertion was then as great a

riddle as any other part of the work.

_I remained in that locality for a month, but witnessed no repe-

tition of this day’s tragedy. The frigate-birds occupied the air and

the hawks fished in the pass undisturbed, or if their prey was

stolen, they were allowed to escape; but on returning a year

afterwards, I witnessed an analogous scene, after waiting for w ecks

1886.] The Torture of the Fish-Hawk. 229

for the event to occur. A hawk, quite differently marked and

much larger than those usually seen, crossed from the opposite

key and struck a fish from the passing school, which was promptly

seized by the waiting frigate-bird. The hawk fled in terror, as

usual, and was confronted by another of the band and, on exam-

ing the sky, still another, three in all, was seen. After the con-

fronted hawk had turned, it seemed to lose its terror, its cry

denoting submission, a sort of querulous surrender to the inevi-

table. To my surprise, it resumed its fishing, while the rover

retired. It soon secured another from the teeming waters, for all

it had to do was to pick it up. This was captured and the scream-

ing retreat once more arrested. A simple hint was quite enough.

The slave returned to its task with many an unnoticed murmur,

until each bandit had secured a feast. The hawk then escaped

hungry, and disappeared from sight.

After witnessing this way of getting a living, a black garment

seemed lifted from nature. The method was so like that practiced

by man, as shown in history, that it quite contented me. These

frigate-birds are the banditti of the air. During a residence of

five years on that coast, I never saw one get an honest living.

They seem to be the especial favorites of nature, as the cosmical

force of gravity is placed at their disposal, which is a little like

giving them the lamp of Aladdin. Small use would it be for a

Creature required to provide its own motive power to sustain

Itself in air, and also that required to fight a battle for life, to

oppose such odds. The relation to success such combatants

would stand in would be almost infinity to one,

A familiar sight along that coast, at all seasons of the year, is

that of gulls riding on the backs and heads of pelicans and feed-

ing on the fish from their gullets. There is a good understanding

between these creatures, and I never saw them quarrel. Some-

times when fish were scarce and the small intruders wanted all, a

contest as to which could swallow.the most in the shortest time

took place, to the usual discomfiture of the little ones, who

never seemed to understand how nor why the food disappeared.

This Scheme of subsistence-supply gave the missing link needed

to acquit nature of deliberately plotting the torture of her crea-

tures. Away back in the great secondary age, when reptiles —

navigated the air on wings, the characteristics of a frigate-bird —

may have been initiated. In the life-struggle, habits of the gull

230 A Study of Garden Lettuce. [ March,

were acquired which led the creature, ż4en neither frigate-bird nor

gull, to get its food by association with some messmate more able

to procure it. Then these two forms diverged from the common

ancestor, acquiring new traits from new environments. As the

frigate-birds gained dominion of the air, they also gained domin-

ion of species of fish-hawks, which became enslaved by them.

But the hawks also diverged into other species, one or more of

which retained the terror, but not the discipline, and, when com-

manded, would not comply, through sheer ignorance of the nature

of the demand. When the birds met with a specimen of this

branched stock, they urged obedience with such vigor as to result

in the death of their unfortunate victim. Then the old ancestral

habit, which may be had outlived a thousand generations, comes

into play, and they stand on the dead body, in pure friendship,

waiting to be fed! What do they know of the mystery of death?

The only weak place is where the branching hawk forgot the duty

of fishing for its master, but not the terror of its presence. But

then fear is what prompts it to escape from an enemy and thereby

save its life, so that this emotion would properly survive the

other.

:0:

A STUDY OF GARDEN LETTUCE.

BY E. L. STURTEVANT, M.D.

ty the New York Agricultural Experiment station, in 1885,

eighty-three distinct varieties of lettuce were grown undef

nearly two hundred names. These lettuces present to the on-

looker three distinct form-species, the lanceolate-leaved, the Cos

and the cabbage. It is a pertinent inquiry as to whether these

form-species are of distinct origin or have been produced by cul-

tivation within recent times, and we hence offer a succinct ac-

count of our historical investigations.

* The lanceolate-leaved form is represented with us by one vari-

ety only, the deer’s tongue, introduced as a seedsman’s novelty in

1883. The type of this form is perhaps referred to by Pliny, lib.

XIX, c. 38, “ præterea longi et angusti intubi similis,” as this plant

_of ours has a chiccory-like appearance in some stages of its

growth. It is certainly mentioned by Bauhin? in 1621, and cred-

ited in his synonomy to Castor, 15855 ; and is figured by Bauhin?

1 Pinax, ed. of 1621.

* Prodromos, ed. of 1671,

18386. ] A Study of Garden Lettuce. 2 31

in 1671. Vilmorin,! 1883, refers to this type of lettuce under the

name Romaine asperge, Lactuca angustana Hort., and a variety L.

cracoviensis Hort. L. angustana Allionii, 1785, seems to be of

this form-species, and is recorded as found wild in Switzerland,

and Martyn’s Millers Dictionary deems the Chicoreum constanti-

nopolitanum of Parkinson, 1640, to have some affinity to it.

The Cos lettuces are distinguished by the upright growth of

the root leaves and the elongated and spatulate form of the leaf;

they are also subject to a flattening of the stalk through fascia-

tion. They were perhaps known to the ancient Romans, as wit-

ness Pliny’s’ statement: “ Diligentiores plura genera faciunt : pur-

purea crispas, Cappedocas,G . Longioris has folii, caulisque

angusti, intubi similis.” Palladius’ men-

tion of the process of blamehing can be also quoted: “ Candide

fieri putantur, si fluminis arena vel litoris frequentur spargatur in

medias, and collectis ipsz foliis alligentur.” The Cos lettuce is

the Lactuca Romana dulcior, nigriore and Scariole hortensis

folio, semine nigro of Pena and Lobel, 1 570. Bauhin in his

Pinax considers this form to be the L. foliio obscurius virentibus

nigra Plinio of Dodzenus,® the Z. nigra of Czsalpinus, 1583, and

the Z. romana of Castor Durantes, 1585. In the sixteenth cent-

ury the Cos form seems to have been less grown in Northern

Europe than in the south, for Pena and Lobel® say it is rarely

cultivated in France and Germany, more frequently in Italy, espe-

cially at Rome. It reached France in 1 537.

The class of cabbage lettuces are distinguished by the rounded

and spatulate leaf which grows less upright than the Cos. Al-

though the commentators of the sixteenth and seventeenth cent-

uries deem this class to have been known to the ancient Greeks

and Romans, and identify it with the Laconicon of Pliny and the

Tartesian or Bætica of Columella, yet I am unable to find any

certain evidence. The only word I find in Pliny which could

Suggest this class is “crispa,” which may be translated “ wrin-

kled,” and as a class the cabbage lettuces are more wrinkled or

~ 'Les Plantes Potageres.

7 Nat. Hist., lib. xIx, c. 38.

: ; De Re Rustica, Gb, ti; c. t4.

_ Stirpium Adversaria Nova, Londini, 1570, p. 90. i

Pemptades, 1621, p. 644.

® Loc. cit

" Heme. Lesve. Atim. i, p. v. : $

233 A Study of Garden Lettuce. [ March,

blistered than are the Cos. Columella was a native of Gades,

but resided principally at Rome. He? speaks of two kinds which

may belong to this class, one the Cappadocean “Tertia, que

spisso, sed puro vertice pallet,” and “quz pallido and pexo denso-

que folio viret;” the other the Tartesian or Bætica, which he

says is from his country :

“Et mæ, quam generant Tartesi litore Gades

Candida vibrato discrimine, candida thyrso est,” >

and “ quz deinde candida est and crispissimi folii, ut in provincia

Betica and finibus Gaditani municippii.” The words “ vibrato

discrimine ” and “ crispissimi folii” would imply a curled cutting

lettuce. The heading lettuces of this

known to the writers of the sixteen# seventeenth centuries.

Anton Pinaeus,? 1561, figures one which closely resembles the

stone tennis ball variety of our gardens, and Bauhin in his syn-

onymy identifies with varieties described by Tragus, 1553, Tab-

ernzmontanus 1588, Matthiolus 1586, Gerarde 1 507, etc; etc.

Whether the types of the Cos and the cabbage form-species

occur in nature, I have not the material for study to determine.

De Candolle? says “ botanists are agreed in considering the culti-

vated lettuce as a modification of the wild species called Lactuca

scariola. The latter grows in temperate and Southern Europe,

in the Canary isles, Madeira, Algeria, Abyssinia and in the tem-

perate regions of Eastern Asia. Boissier speaks of specimens

from Arabia Petrea to Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. He men-

tions a variety with crinkled‘ leaves, similar, therefore, to some of

our garden lettuces, which the traveler Hausknecht brought with

him from the mountains of Kurdistan. I have a specimen from

Siberia, found near the River Irtysch, and it is now known with

certainty that the species grows in the north of India, in Kash-

mir and in Nepal.” From this reference we might infer that the

Kurdistan form belonged to the cabbage type, as possessing dis-

tinctly wrinkled or savoy-like leaves, while the description of the

ordinary L. scariola of Europe implies the Cos type. :

I have not opportunity of access to herbariums whereby I can

hope to satisfy myself of the condition of the wild forms from

1 De Re Rustica, x, l. 183; XI, c. 35 tb. 18S

* Hist. Plants, 1561.

Origin of Cultivated Plants, 1885, p. 95.

_*The werd in the original French edition, p. 76, is crispee, which should rather

be translated wrinkled or bullate, eS

ss were, however, well

I 886.] | Aguatic Respiration in Soft-shelled Turtles. 233

various countries, but such evidence as I have here outlined

` strongly supports the hypothesis that our three form-species of

lettuce have originated from wild forms which have been brought

into culture in different regions, and hence that our three form-

species have different origin, The history of lettuce as published

affords no clue towards settling this point. Lettuces are supposed

to have been grown by the Persians some five hundred years be-

fore Christ, and to have been introduced into China between the

years 600 and goo of our era; they were mentioned by Chaucer

in England in the fourteenth century, and reached America with

Columbus.

ve td

AQUATIC RESPIRATION IN SOFT-SHELLED TUR-

TLES: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PHYSIOLOGY

OF RESPIRATION IN VERTEBRATES?

BY SIMON H. AND SUSANNA PHELPS GAGE.

e was formerly supposed that in all reptiles the respiration was

exclusively aérial at all periods of their life, and that the lungs

were the only respiratory organs. We have demonstrated, how-

ever, that in soft-shelled turtles (Amyda mutica and Aspidonectes

Spirifer) there is in addition a true aquatic respiration. This is żin-

dicated by three facts: (a) These turtles remain most of the time

in water, and voluntarily remain entirely under from two to ten

consecutive hours ; (4) while under water they fill and empty the

mouth and pharnyx, about sixteen times per minute, by move-

ments of the hyoid apparatus, the general appearance being like

the respiratory movements of a fish; (c) the mucous membrane

of the pharynx is closely beset with filanientatis processes, appéar-

ing like the villi of the small intestine of a mammal or the gill

filaments of Necturus. These processes are especially numerous

along the hyoid arches and around the glottis, and are copiously

Supplied with blood?

‘A croton paper upon the respiration of Aspidonectes was presented to the

A.A by the senior author in 1883, and printed on p. 316 of the Proceedings

(Vol. xxxi).

? So far as we know but two original observations (besides that mentioned in the :

Preceding foot-note) have been previously made upon the Trionychidze bearing nee 2

the subject of this paper : (a) In February, 1856, Dr. A. Sager called

the processes in the pharynx of Aspidonectes, and co: ces <

with the gill filaments of Necturus and the inner gills of tadpoles. o Professor L.

234 Aquatic Respiration in Soft-shelled Turtles. {[March,

But neither the time the turtles remain under water, the filling

and emptying of the mouth and pharynx, with water, nor even

the structure of the parts, proves that aquatic respiration occurs.

Final proof of this is only obtained by comparing the free gases

found in water with those found in water from the same source alter

a turtle had been submerged in it without access to air. Water

so tested showed in one case that a turtle weighing one kilogram

in ten hours removed from the water seventy-one milligrams of

free oxygen and added to it 318 milligrams of carbon dioxide,

Several other determinations were of the same conclusive char-

acter.

This indicates a respiration for the same body weight of about

one twentieth of that occurring in man.

As indicated by the figures given above, the carbon dioxide is

greatly in excess of what could be accounted for by the free

oxygen taken from the water. There are two sources from which

the extra oxygen might be derived: (a) From the so-called intra-

Agassiz, in Part 11 of the Contribution to North American Zodlogy, p. 284, sa

“ Before reading this paper [Dr. Sager’s] we had noticed these organs [processes a

the pharynx]; but after seeing this turtle [Aspidonectes] remaining under water for

full half an hour without showing the least sign of oppression, it seems plausible to

assume that these fringes may be similar to the internal gills of tadpoles, not only in

their shape but also in their function. There exists, moreover, an extensive network

of beautiful vessels spreading in elegant dendritic ramifications upon the whole

lower surface of the Trionycidze which can hardly have another function than that of

assisting in the process of breathing, as they are too numerous and too large to be

considered simply as nutritive vessels of the skin. This is the more probable as

these vessels are very superficial and are only covered by a very thin epidermis.

They are indeed as plainly visible through the e s = protects them as

the vessels of any special external breathing organ.

‘The following table shows the results of three analyses. In the first column is

the total amount of free oxygen taken from the water (ten liters) in ten hours

by a turtle weighing one kilogram. The second column contains the quantity of

tains the actual amount of carbon dioxide added to the water by the turtle, the ex-

cess of which, over the amount that could be formed from the oxygen taken from the

water, is given in the fourth column : :

k 0. | C0. | Actual CO, Excess COy

Juy Iisssses 71mg. 97 53mg. | 231 mg. 133 3-8 mg.

oe sa go 44 $ 212.7 “ 1687 “

aes soco] 39 5353 168.7 “ 15s

Ss _ The determinations were made with the greatest care and accuracy by Profes-

sors Rich and Holton in the chemical laboratory of Cornell University.

1886. ] Aquatic Respiration in Soft-shelled Turtles. 235

molecular oxygen stored up in the tissues, and (0) from the air in

the lungs. Analysis of the air taken from -the lungs after the

turtle had been wholly submerged for ten hours, showed only a

slight trace of either oxygen or carbon dioxide. So far as this

single experiment goes, we conclude that if the lungs were

moderately filled with air upon the immersion of the turtle, the

amount of oxygen that might be taken from the air in the lungs

would fully account for the excess of carbon dioxide found in the

water. That the aquatic respiration is due almost entirely to the

pharynx and but slightly to the skin, is shown: (a) By anzsthetiza-

tion, the turtle becoming anesthetized four or five times as quickly

when kept entirely submerged in ztherized water as when allowed

to come to the surface as frequently as it desired. (4) When the

turtle’s skin was completely covered with vaseline and the turtle

kept wholly submerged, the amount of oxygen removed from the

water and of carbon dioxide added thereto was nearly as great as

when the skin was unvaselined.

In some at least of the hard-shelled turtles (Chelydra and

Chrysemys) similar movements of the hyoid apparatus occur

when they are submerged, and water is seen to enter the nos-

tril and be expelled therefrom as in soft-shelled turtles.

The pharynx expands and contracts with considerable regu-

larity in all of the turtles, so far as we know, when they are in

eair. These movements appear like those of the frog, but in

the turtles they are unnecessary for filling the lungs. In frogs,

however, they are necessary for this purpose, although as shown

by Townson (1794), pharyngeal movements often occur in the

frog without any air being forced into the lungs.

As these movements are of undoubted use in respiration for

the soft-shelled turtles in water, it seems probable that they may

of use in respiration for all turtles in tHe air, that is, the mem-

brane lining the pharynx probably acts as a respiratory organ

whether the medium bathing it and containing free oxygen be

_ air or water.

These movements and their object, respiration, then seem to |

connect, physiologically at least, the turtles on the one hand with

the lower vertebrates—Amphibia and fishes—and on the other

hand with the higher forms, viz., dog and man, for Garland has — oe ;

shown that in the dog, and also in man, occur rhythmical me

Fyngeal movements which draw air into the pharynx and expel it

236 Description of a new Subspectes | March,

whenever there is a condition approaching asphyxiation. It

seems as though these pharyngeal movements reappear in the

highest forms when the want of oxygen becomes overwhelm-

ingly great, as if there were an organic memory of the means by

which, in the dim past, the want was supplied.

20:

DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SUBSPECIES OF THE

COMMON EASTERN CHIPMUNK.

BY C. HART MERRIAM, M.D.

HE common chipmunk or striped squirrel of Eastern North

America was first mentioned, so far as I have been able

to ascertain, by Sagard-Théodat in his Histoire du Canada

(“ Vol. v, p. 746”), published in 1615.. In 1743 Mark Catesby

gave an unmistakable description of it, accompanied by a recog-

nizable colored plate} He called it Sciurus striatus, which name

was adopted by Linnzeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Na-

ture, published in 1758. The specific name striatus, after en-

during the vicissitudes to which scientific nomenclature is so often

subject, was reéstablished by Baird in 1857, and has since en-

joyed undisputed recognition on this side of the Atlantic.

It is a little singular that thus far no one seems to have sus-

pected the existence of two distinct subspecies of chipmunk in

Eastern North America, particularly when it is remembered that

no less than five geographical races of the Western species have

long been recognized.

It is true that Professor Baird, nearly, thirty years ago, stated

that a chipmunk from Essex county, in Northeastern New York,

14 SCIURUS STRIATUS. The Ground Squirrel. Thisis about half the Size of an English

Squirrel, and almost of the same Colour, except that a Pair of black Lists, with a yel-

lowish white List between them, extend almost the Length of the Body on both Sides;

also a single black List runs along the Ridge of the Back. The Eyes are black and

large, the Ears rounding, the Tail long, flat, and thick set with Hairs, which are much

shorter than those of other Squirrels. These Squirrels abide in the Woods of Carolina,

Virginia, &c. Their Food is Nuts, Acorns, and such like as other Squirrels feed on.

They being brought up tame, are very familiar and active.” (Natural Hist, of Caro-

lina, ete., by Mark Catesby, Vol. 11, 1743, P. 75): l

2 For more than half a century our animal was confused with the Asiatic, but it

is not the purpose of the present paper to enter into a discussion of the complicated

synonymy of these species, already very fully elaborated by Allen. (Monographs of

North American Rodentia, 1877.) __

1886. ] of the Common Eastern Chipmunk. 237

“is considerably grayer, and the black lines of the back have no

brownish margin. In a specimen from Washington [D. C.], the

chestnut tints are darker than described above” (North American

Mammals, 1857, 294). But his material was not sufficiently

extensive to enable him to appreciate the constancy and signifi-

cance of the differences noted. |

Allen, in his most valuable paper on Geographical variation in

color in North American squirrels, said: ‘‘ The increase in in-

tensity of color from the north southward” is well illustrated

in “ Tamias striatus, representatives of which from the southern

parts of New York and Pennsylvania are much more highly

colored than are those from Northern New England and the

British Provinces” (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Xv1, 1874,4). Later,

however, the views above expressed seem to have undergone

some modification, for the same author observes: “The very

large number of specimens before me indicate that the present

Species preserves great constancy of coloration. * * * Speci-

mens from Southern localities are considerably brighter colored

than those from more Northern sections, and average a little

smaller. The difference, however, in either respect, is not very

great ” (Monographs of North American Rodentia, 1877, 784-

785).

The examination of more than two hundred specimens has

led me to differ with Mr. Allen in his last expressed views.

His remarks concerning the deepening of color southward might

have been stated more strongly, and still fall within the limits of

truth.’ In respect to size, if the body as a whole was meant, my

measurements of upwards of one hundred specimens in the flesh

do not show the Southern animal to be the smaller, and the largest

individual that has fallen under my notice came from Monticello,

Mississippi. If, however, we turn to the extremities, the case is

different, for the length of both fore and hind feet is greater in

northern than in southern specimens, as shown in the accom-

Panying tables:

eS eos eee

2 Mr. Allen’s views, as above enunciated, were based upon the examination of

upwards of one hundred and fifty specimens; still, it is but fair to state that the

Sreat majority of these specimens came from Northern localities, and were either

YPical of the Northern form or intermediate between it and the Southern. He had

æ four skins from sọ far south as Washington, D. C., and had not seen å single

individual from the Carolinas.

238 Description of a new Subspecies [March,

MEASUREMENTS OF FEET, SHOWING DECREASE IN SIZE FROM THE NORTH

i SOUTH WARD,!

Condition

Locality. Manus. Pes. when measured.

Locust Grove, New York (average of 28)...... 22.11 36.17 In the flesh.

Sing Sing, New York (average of 8).......... 21.71 34:77 o 4

Washington, D. C. (one specimen) .......... 20 34 e K

Charleston, S. C. (one specimen) 34 Skin ?

It must be remembered that the above measurements of New

York specimens are averages. The largest manus from the

Adirondack region measures 23™: the largest pes 38" The

smallest manus from the Lower Hudson measures 20"™' the

smallest pes 34.

In the summer of 1884, Dr. A. K. Fisher, at my request, sent

me several chipmunks from Sing Sing, New York, in the valley

of the Lower Hudson. On placing them alongside my own

series from the Adirondack region I was at once struck with the

marked differences between them, and was convinced that they

were subspecifically separable. This opinion was confirmed the

following year by the acquisition of an adult female from the

mountains of North Carolina, kindly presented to me by Mr.

William Brewster, who killed it in the town of Sylva, Jackson

county, North Carolina, May 30, 1885. This individual, for two

reasons, may be regarded as the type of sfriatus proper: First,

because it came from the same general region from which

Catesby’s probably came (and it will be remembered that Lin-

nacus’s diagnosis was based on Catesby’s description and figure);

and, second, because it is representative of a phase of pelage most

remote from that of the Northern animal. This skin (No. 1450

Mus. C. H. M.) is very much darker than the darkest Washing-

ton example I have seen, and the ferruginous of the rump iS

restricted in extent, and is overcast by the liberal admixture of

black-tipped hairs. There is an obscure. dark spot at the end of

the nose above, and another at the posterior angle of each eye.

The eyelids are buff, and the color of the lower lid can be traced

backward, though becoming very faint, to the lower margin of

1 The measurements here given, as well as all others which appear in this pape

were taken by myself with dividers; all were made with the utmost care, anda

large proportion were verified by duplicate measuring.

2 All measurements from skins were taken in the following manner : The feet

were dipped in hot water, and then wra with wet cotton-wool and left for

several hours until the joints became flexible, so that the toes could be straightened —

readily. oes ; i

1886.] of the Common Eastern Chipmunk. 239

the auditory meatus. There is an indistinct dark line above the

light line of the upper eyelid, and a broad, but not well defined,

dark stripe below the light under eyelid, extending from a point

anterior to the eye to a point just below the posterior base of the

ear, where it becomes lost in the grizzled rusty-brown of the sides

of the neck. Below this stripe, the side of the face is fulvous.

The crown is dark rust-brown intermixed with a large quantity of

black hairs, and the same color extends over the anterior half of

the inner surfaces of the ears, the posterior half being light ful-

vous or buff. There is a small. light spot behind the base of each

ear. The shoulders and back between the lateral stripes are very

dark grizzled iron-gray, with a sprinkling of buff or yellowish.

The dark stripes are not perfectly clear black, and their ferru-

ginous borders are not well defined. The median stripe extends

from the occiput nearly to the root of the tail. The light stripes

are dark buff intermixed with dark-tipped hairs. The sides are buffy-

fulvous well sprinkled with black-tipped hairs. The rump, hips, and

backs of the hind legs are dark rusty-brown. The upper surfaces

` Of the feet are ferruginous. The upper side of the tail is blackish,

edged’ with hoary; the under side, deep hazel (almost chestnut),

bordered with black and edged with hoary. This rich hazel of

the under tail extends continuously forward over the anal region

$ the genitals, where it terminates abruptly without shading off

into the surrounding white. The under parts, from the mouth to

the genitals, are clear buffy-white.

Through the kindness of Mr. William Brewster, Curator of

Mammals and Birds in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at

Cambridge, Mass., and of Mr. F. W. True, Curator of Mammals

in the United States National Museum, I have been enabled to

€xamine the chipmunks contained in these collections. I am

indebted also to Mr. William E. Saunders for the loan of a speci-

men from London, Ontario, Canada. These specimens, together

with my own (which in numbers exceed all the others combined),

Constitute a very complete series of the Eastern animal from the

region between Canada on the north and Washington, D. C., on

the south. a

: Comparison of representatives from the extremes of this range

brings to light the following differences: The crown in typical-

: orthern specimens varies from pale to bright rusty-fulvous, while

im typical Southern examples it is dark rust-brown. —

240 Description of a new Subspecies [ March,

The nape and the back between the median and first lateral

black stripes are clear ash-gray in the Northern animal, while in

the Southern these parts are dark iron-gray, more or less mixed

with grizzly. In specimens from the Mississippi Valley, the same

parts show a sprinkling of yellow-tipped hairs.

The light lateral stripes are white, or but faintly tinged with

buff in typical Northern specimens, while in typical striatus from

the South they are strongly washed with buff, which color often

deepens to pale fulvous posteriorly, and is further obscured by

the admixture of a number of dark-tipped hairs. The sides vary

from the palest buff (as in specimen No. 1200) or buffy fulvous in

the Northern to dark fulvous in the Southern form. Northern

specimens show a slight sprinkling of black-tipped hairs, which

increase in number from the north southward till in typical

striatus the admixture of these hairs very materially darkens the

sides of the animal. In typical Northern examples, the pale

buff of the sides fades so gradually into the white of the belly

that no sharp line can be drawn between them; while in typical

striatus, on the contrary, a very clear line of demarkation sepa- `

rates the two, the (comparatively) dark sides contrasting strongly

with the buffy-white of the under parts, even when these parts are

suffused with fulvous—which fact is due to the absence of black-

tipped hairs from the belly.

The upper side of the tail is much lighter in Northern speci-

mens than in s¢riatus proper, though the hoary edging is more

conspicuous in the Southern. This difference in appearance is

due to the fact that the black subapical portion of each hair is

much broader in the latter than in the former, and the subbasal

fulvous portion proportionately narrower. The result is that in

the Northern animal the pale fulvous zone shows through, while

in the Southern the corresponding zone is mostly concealed by

the overlying black. In typical Northern specimens the under

side of the tail is buffy or buffy-fulvous, fading in the anal region -

into the white of the belly; while in typical striatus the under

side of the tail is deep hazel, which color extends forward around

the anus to the genitals, where it ends abruptly without shading

_ off into the surrounding parts.

_ The dark spot above the tip of the nose is usually indistinct -

and sometimes wanting in Northern specimens, while as a rule it

is well marked in those from the South. The facial markings, 0%

1886, | of the Common Eastern Chipmunk. 241

the other hand, are more distinct in the Northern than in the

Southern animal. These markings, however, vary so much in

individuals in respect to clearness of definition that they may be

dismissed as unimportant in the present connection.

In brief, it may be said that the Northern animal differs from the

Southern in the clearness and lightness of its colors, the black

stripes remaining much alike in both; or, conversely, that the

Southern is characterized by an intensification of all the colors,

resulting in the darkening of the entire upper surface.

Richardson, in 1829, seems to have been first to describe the

Northern form, though he did not suspect it to differ from the

Southern. Believing that the specific name s¢riatus belonged to

the Asiatic animal, and assuming the American to be distinct, he

called the latter “Sciurus (Tamias) Lysteri. (Ray.),” but was wrong

in supposing that Ray had named it before him. Baird expressed

the matter in a nutshell when he said, “ This author [Richardson]

quotes Ray as the authority of this name, but it is, in fact, his

own—Ray only referring to the species as Sciurus a Clar. Dom.

| Lyster observatus” (North American Mammals, 1857, p. 295).

Richardson’s account of the animal he had in view admits of

no question as to its exclusive applicability to the present form,

and his plate (plate xv), though uncolored, is equally unmistak-

able. Furthermore, he distinctly states that his specimen came

from Penetanguishene, which is on the north-east arm of Lake

Huron, a region which, theoretically at least, ought to furnish

most typical examples. His description was taken from “a

recent male specimen, killed in April at Penetanguishene.” The

portion of it relating to color runs as follows:

r —The dorsal aspect of the head is covered with yellowish-brown hairs,

which are mixed with a smaller number of black ones. There is a black spot near

the tip of the nose. The eyelashes are black, the eyelids white; there is a dark-

wn streak between the eye and the ear, and a broad, yellowish-brown stripe ex-

tends from the nose, under the eye, to behind the ear, deepening in its middle to

chestnut-brown. The anterior part of the back is hoary-gray, from a mixture of

black and white hairs. The e rump, hips and exterior surfaces of the thighs are of a

bright orange-brown color, mixed with a few black hairs. A dark dorsal line com-

mences at the occiput, and reaches to within an inch of the tail. This line is

wnish at its commencement, but deepens to black posteriorly. There are also,

on each flank, two black lines. , which commence behind the shoulders, — to the

hips, and are separated by a moa broad white stripe. All these stripes are

73 or less bordered with brown. The sides, beneath the stripes, ec a mixture ©

or gray and very light brown. The fur, covering the throat, chin, belly, and inner

Surface of the extremities, is longer and thinner than that on the dorsal aspect, = os

242 Description, &c., of the Common Eastern Chipmunk. [March,

is white throughout its whole length. The fur on the aar parts of the body forms

a smooth coat, and is blackish-gray at its roots. There is no defined line of Separa-

tion betwixt the colors of the back and belly.” Salas Boreali-Americana, Rich-

ardson, 1829, pp. 182-183.)

Hence it is clear that Richardson’s name /ys¢eri must be adopted

as the subspecific name of the Northern animal.

Following are diagnoses of the two races:

TAMIAS STRIATUS TYPICUS.—Manus, 20 to 21™™ ; pes, 34 to 35™™ ; crown, rusty

brown or grizzled brown; nape and back nearly to rump iron gray, sometimes

mixed with grizzly; Ried dark ferruginous, sometimes almost chestnut; sides, rus-

set fulvous, passing into ferruginous over the hips, and mixed with a variable quan-

= of black tipped ode the fulvous (losing its black hairs and becoming paler)

metimes encroaching upon the buffy white of belly and occasionally meeting irreg-

fay along the median line below, but always leaving a well-defined line of demar-

kation between the sides and belly; light lateral stripes strongly suffused with buff

sometimes tinged with fulvous posteriorly; under surface of tail, mesially, dark

fulvous to hazel, often very deep.

Habitat. —Valley of the Lower Hudson and Long Island, New York; New Jersey;

and southward in the highlands to the Carolinas and Georgia.

TAMIAS STRIATUS LYSTERI (sub-sp. nov.).—Manus, 21.5 to 22.5mm ; pes, 36 to

37™™ ; crown, rusty fulvous, sometimes very pale; nape and back nearly to rump

clear ash gray; sides, pale buff, fading into white of belly without leaving any sharp

line of demarkation between them; light lateral stripe nearly white, at most but

faintly washed with buff; under surface of tail, mesially, pale buff to tawny buff.

en —Mountains of Pennsylvania; Adirondack region of New York; North-

n New England; Eastern Canada north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and in the

Sas north to James’s Bay, Hudson’s Bay.

/Genpied da e eens a caries which serve to

, are certain cranial

aah ties which are equally constant and distinctive. Publica-

_ tion of these differences is deferred until a better series of skulls

of the Southern form can be obtained. It may be stated here,

however, that the brain case is a little broader in typical striatus,

while the length of the molar series of teeth is greater in lystert.

PLATE XII

‘surewaa Gsy Surppard “f N ‘uaxMeyoaAA Je JUOJspuLs PUY Jes ISSEUL JO aspary

1886.] Fish Remains & Tracks in Triassic Rocks at Weehawken. 243

FISH REMAINS AND TRACKS IN THE TRIASSIC

ROCKS AT WEEHAWKEN, N. J.

BY L. P. GRATACAP.

Pe indurated and fissile shales that crop out beneath the

superimposed masses of trap rock along the western bank

of the Hudson river at Weehawken, Gottenburg and neigh-

boring localities, have been frequently explored for fish remains.

Their unequivocal position as Triassic slates, and the interesting

developments made by I. C. Russel at Boonton, N. J., some years

ago, in beds of an identical character, stimulated collectors to

hunt here for similar fossils. As far as I know there is no pub-

lished account of any success met with in the search, or indeed

an account of any kind. Estheria in compressed and almost

obliterated patches have been taken out, but the fish beds kept

discouragingly out of sight. Mr. F. Braun, of this city, has

recently revealed a large number of fish remains in the slates

referred to, and has most successfully extracted specimens of

considerable beauty. These specimens comprise almost whole

fishes and numerous instructive fragments, while a few plant

remains, tracks and rippie-marked blocks from the underlying

sandstone have given to his discovery a more comprehensive

interest,

In general the locality established by Mr. Braun is about 800

feet south of the mouth of the tunnel of the N. Y. W. S. and

Buffalo Railroad, which pierces the trap ridge known as Palisade

mountain, a long exposure of basalt limited by Professor Cook as

follows: “It may be said to start near the Highlands west of

Haverstraw, in Rockland county. The range is continuous to

Bergen point. It reappears south of the Kill von Kull on Staten

island, and finally disappears near the Fish Kills. Its total length

hn Ladentown, N. Y., to the Staten Island sound, is fifty-three

miles,”

Mr. Braun commenced his quarrying in a bed of slates directly

underlying the trap rock which rises in perpendicular walls far

above it, and found his fish and plant remains restricted to a nar-

row layer of from three to four inches in thickness, and towards

the base of the entire slate bed. An examination of the ledge,

of which this bed formed a member, showed a succession of slate,

L. XX.—NO. III 17

244 Fish Remains and Tracks in the { March,

sandstone, slate and trap. At the bottom, forming a low shelf

whose base: was buried in the alluvium, was.a slate group formed

of closely compacted laminz of slate in conformable contact with

a bed of sandstone, which at the line of union with the slate was

granular and siliceous, becoming compact and feldspathic on its

upper side, where it becomes almost fused with a second bed of

slate, the fossil layer, above which rose the trap cliff. The expo-

sure of the first slate bed had a thickness of five to six feet, the

' thickness of the sandstone was four feet, and that of the fossil

_—

- Paleoniscus latus Redfd., Weehawken, N. J.

group, as far as could be determined, eight feet, when the base oa

_ the trap was reached. The average ‘dip of the series was 17

N. W., and the strike N. N. E. Two photographs were taken,

_one of the ledge itself (Plate x11), formed of the three beds, and

_ a second at the mouth of the great tunnel, some 800 feet north of

this point, where the fossil layer of slate rock with its lines of

bedding can be seen conspicuously meeting the trap, fissured by

crevices of vertical cleavage (Plate xin). The first photograph

was rather unfortunately invaded by a local group of sitters bear-

ing no sensible relation to its particular object. The standing

nae

Sie ae

a ee ge eee

ae Si EP, one

ONES OE UR a OARS RD SRY ae

PLATE XIII.

Cont

act line betw

een inclined sl

ate bed bearing

ish r

emains

etc

„ and trap,

at W

eeh

ken, N.

1886.] Triassic Rocks at Weehawken, N. J. 245

figure at the top marks the fossil layer of slate and the location

of Mr. Braun’s find.

The fossil remains taken from the slate comprise casts and

impressions of plant-roots or root-like fragments, the lobate divis-

ions of an aquatic plant, an enigmatical nut displaying its coaly

and black nucleus, and numerous fishes in various stages of pres-

ervation, and in positions that seem to throw a light upon the

local circumstances of their entombment. Mud cracks reticulate

the slate slabs in ramifying lines, the silent witnesses to processes

along the shores of an ancient Triassic estuary, identical with

those that produce to-day the same markings upon a sun-baked

bar.

One of the best examples of the fishes in Mr. Braun’s col-

lection, now in my possession, is shown in the foregoing

sketch.

I think all the fish remains I have are identical with this one as

to genus and species, and it appears identical with Palæoniscus

latus Redfd. On a specimen, other than the one figured, the

dorsal fin shows the coarse raylets attached to the anterior spine,

and its position, although quite far back, does not correspond

to the insertion given for Catopterus. The fishes are found lat-

erally compressed and usually straight, but in some instances the

creature ‘has become doubled and turned over on itself as if en-

trapped while wriggling in its contortions to escape again to the —

water, which receding left it exposed upon a muddy flat.

Many have become macerated, and the surrounding shale is

Strewn with their scattered scales, whose disconnected marks

gradually become closer in one direction, leading the eye toa

formless cluster of scales and head-parts. Most of the specimens

Suggest that the fishes perished in numbers and were buried be-

neath later films of detritus as they lay motionless upon their sides.

The locality so lately discovered may reveal more of interest

both as regards these fish in their zoological status, the character

of their habitat and the manner of their death. I have found in

these slates lenticular masses of a pulverulent and highly car-

bonaceous material which yielded seven per cent of combustible

matter, and would doubtless have reacted for phosphoric acid.

They seem connected with the organic occupants of the rocks, —

and may have arisen through their decomposition.

In the sandstone below this slate Mr. Braun has found impres-

246 Resemblances in Arts widely separated. [March,

sions, the most striking of which are shown in the wood-cut,

suggesting tracks,

åa

o992 0? a

9 2 ens

> B 2

Tracks and markings on Triassic sandstone at Weehawken, N. J.

Ripple marks and rain fosse on other slabs help vividly vs

recall a shore upon which these ancient waters of the Triassic

basin washed, laving the forms of amphibious reptiles or pouring

over crawling Crustacea, while showers beat upon the imprinted

sands ; and on shelving and shallow bars the ripples sculptured

their counterparts in gentle furrows.

RESEMBLANCES IN ARTS WIDELY SEPARATED’

BY OTIS T. MASON.

ROM the times of the earliest travelers down to the present

y, we have narratives of the occurrence of the same inven-

tions (implements), practices, modes of speech, institutions, theo-

ries, and religious creeds and cults in regions wide apart.

The older historians and ethnologists were wont to say that

? Read before the Washington Philosophical Society, Jan. 30, 1886. —

1886.] Resemblances in Arts widely separated. 247

similarity of human actions argued consanguinity in those who

practiced them, that when the same phenomena occurred in two

places they must have had their origin from the same race.

Those who hold such theories are not all dead, as any one con-

versant with recent literature well knows. It is quite possible

also that among older thinkers there were other ways of account-

ing for such similarities as I have mentioned.

Before speaking of another explanation it is necessary first to

examine more closely the old doctrine. Admitting that all like

inventions had their origin from the same race, we have two pos-

sible ways by which each one may have been planted in different

parts of the world. An art may be so peculiar to a people that

its presence argues their presence always, in which case the art

may be said to have the same inventor and executor. An art

may originate with a race or people, some of whom may carry

the knowledge of it everywhere, or foreigners visiting that people

may learn the art and carry it home, or it may, undesignedly on

the part of any one, be diffused.

In our day of illustrated books and papers there is no telling

how far the tuition of culture may extend. In this second case

the art has the same inventor, but not necessarily the same exec-

utor or disseminator.

Which of these two causes has been active in any case seems

to me to be a matter of counting—of numbers. The same race

of people would hardly move about over the world, plant them-

Selves here and there, and forget all the occupations and customs

of fatherland excepting one or two. Mr. Tylor told the Anthropo-

logical Society of Washington that he found in the neighborhood

of Philadelphia so much old-fashionedness belonging to England

that he could almost imagine himself in the midst of an English

village of the last century. On the other hand, the occurrence

of a fac-simile of a Grecian temple, as Girard College, in Philadel-

phia, where other examples of Greek culture are difficult to be

found, is an evidence in favor of Hellenic influence, at least upon

the architect and trustees of that building. 3

The other motive to the adoption of the same means for the

Stratification of human wants or the exercise of human ingenuity,

of which previous mention was made, is the identity of those

wants and the instrumentalities of their gratification in all

branches of the human family, including both the natural apti-

248 Resemblances in Arts widely separated. [March,

tudes of man himself and the material environment out of which

come the resources of gratification. Upon the principle that like

causes produce like effects, it is nowadays argued that men will

everywhere, under the same s/ress and with the same resources,

make the same invention. We must carefully note that different

grades of civilization and different ages of the world give variable

significance to the words stress and resources. In each age and in

each grade, natural, primeval aptitudes are intensified and warped

by inheritance and tuition. Material environment is varied and

intensified by ever accumulating historical information, refinement

and science. Resemblances, therefore, by independent invention

become rarer, as the circles of national and racial influence enlarge

and cross one another.

Before attemptling to lay down rules by which like human

activities may be referred to one or another of the causes just

named, the activities themselves ought to be closely scrutinized,

in order that we may arrive at an intelligent definition of the wor

resemblance,

Aristotle enumerates four sorts of causes of actions: The

tnaterial cause, ex qua aliquid fit; the formal cause, per quam;

the efficient cause, à gud; the final cause, propter quam. With

this classification as a basis we may regard human activities and

the things associated with them from several points of view, as

one example will shew. The Indian basket-maker there is plying

her craft. She is the efficient cause of her art. Under other

social organizations it would be the men, and in higher civiliza-

tion it would be one of a small guild or trade, called the basket-

weavers’ union.

By her side are strips of grass, splints of root or osier, bundles

of cane or rattan, either dyed or in the natural color. These arè —

the material cause of her basket.

She holds in her hand a bone, or ivory, or wooden awl or

pricker; it may be also that a knife, rubbing stone and paint-

brushes are at her side. These and whatever other tools she

uses constitute the instrumental cause of her work.

In her mind are certain forms of baskets and of basket-weaving

related to her tribal art and to the structure of the vessel; others

also arise spontaneously, and the resultant of them all is the

formal cause of the work.

-She has her peculiar way of putting her work together, of sit-

1886, ] Resemblances in Arts widely separated. 249

ting, of framing, stitching, plaiting, weaving, of placing her mate-

rial into form for a fixed purpose: These constitute her manner

of action, which we may call her processional or methodical

cause. a

Finally, the foregoing causes have- been set in motion with a

view to function, to the uses. whereunto this basket is to be put—

in a word, to the final cause. Moreover, to her art belong a tech-

nical vocabulary, all sorts of lore and myths, and even social

organization and sometimes religion are influenced by it.

Now, what is true of one occupation is true of another. Each

one of them, from the lowest to the highest, involves: 1, agent ;

2, material; 3, implement; 4, form; 5, process; 6, motive or

function ; not to include others unnecessary to mention now.

Again, it must not be forgotten that the materials, implements,

forms, etc., of most activities, excepting the rudest, are the pro-

ducts of other activities, and each may have had its six elementary

Causes, giving rise to generations and genealogies of causes.

Now, let it be especially noted that in each invention or art the

resemblance may extend to only one of the six elements, or it

may include two or more. Furthermore, resemblance may mani-

fest itself only in some one generation inthe genealogy.

If we read carefully the works of those who are constantly

pointing out evidences of the migration of tribes or races, we

shall see that their attention has been fixed upon only one or two

elements of the art under scrutiny.

The complication of causes in producing a result stands in the

_ Same relation to the result that complexity of organization does

to plants and animals. Those arts that involve the fewest causes,

the shortest concatenations of causes, have the greatest chance

_ of arising independently; while those that involve the greatest

number of complicated and connected causes give the strongest

evidence of absolute identity of origin.

- Another consideration which we must not omit in this study is

the natural relation between thi ngs and their uses; between the

number of things which may perform a given function, between

the number of functions which a given thing may perform. In

human trades, languages, the organizations of society, the fine

arts, moralities, the progress of learning, creeds and cults—the »

bonds of union between the ends to bé attained and the number

of possible ways of attaining each end vary immensely in

- 250 Resemblances in Arts widely separated. [March

strength and number. Admitted that all human arts whatever

start from natural objects, endowments and relations, it follows

that in their pristine condition men took the causes of their

activity immediately from nature—flint flakes for knives ; sharp

sticks for spears and spades ; gourds and conchs for music; ejacu-

lations for words; consanguinity for social bond; animism for

theology, and dreams for revelation. These are so natural and

necessary that we need not be astonished to find men flying to

them in emergencies and inventing over and over again all the

devices and methods of the primeval world. If a stone knife

has functions peculiar to itself, if cutting is dependent on stone

knives, then the stone knife will often be invented independently.

If almost any vocal combination will recall an idea; if almost

any vocal combination may stand for innumerable objects, then

the possibilities of associating any object with a particular vocal

combination will be feebler, and similarities in language in differ-

ent localities will be more likely to arise from the same people,

either by migration or by literary influence. But words fly with

such ease and rapidity over the earth that we are in quite as great

a dilemma regarding them, whether we shall say that those who

use them are of the same blood, or whether in one case they are

evidence of tuition.

Since we are thus almost always the sport of three rival theo-

ries, I would prefer to adopt a new plan. Laying aside predilec-

tions I would adopt the inductive method. There must be a

great many resemblances in things from different times and places

about which there exists positive information.

Resemblance by independent invention being the least proba-

ble, I would scrutinize with great care such examples to ascertain

the degree of complexity in the things invented, which we are

allowed to suppose. It is my pleasure to bring before the society

two inventions about whose independence of origin there can be

no question. One is a type of basket-weaving found only at

Cape Flattery, in Washington Territory, and on the Congo. The

_ other is the throwing-stick, occurring only in Australia, Brazil

and Eskimo land. ioe

The basket weaving may be called the bird-cage type, that is,

_ a series of horizontal rods is crossed either at right angles of

diagonally by another series of vertical rods, just like the wires 1"

a bird cage, These rods are firmly lashed in place by a continu-

1886.] Resemblances in Arts widely separated. 251

ous coil of grass or splint, making a diagonal stitch in the front

and a vertical stitch in the rear. Now this process is common

enough in wattling fences, fish traps, etc., but only in these two

areas did men and women hit upon the notion that this stitch

would make the most beautiful and effective close weaving.

Wherein is the similarity in the two areas? The two forms. of

weaving stand thus: Alike in method or technique ; different in

agent (women at Cape. Flattery, men on the Congo), in form, ma-

terial and function. ;

The throwing-stick is a device for launching a dart or harpoon

too heavy for a bow or in situations where a bow would be incon-

venient. The Australians have no bows; the Eskimo uses his

throwing-stick in the kyak, where a bow would be inconvenient,

furthermore his missiles are far too heavy for a bow. Wherein

do these inventions resemble? In agent, material, form and func-

tion; but not perfectly. In form they agree only in the funda-

mental invention, a handle and a peg or hook to catch the end of

the dart or harpoon. The Australian and the Puru Puru stranded

on this, their minds never conceived that it could be altered or

improved. The Eskimo, on the other hand, has developed a

dozen species of throwing sticks, so distinct that they can be

separated by types, as follows:

The Greenland type...... Hooks on the harpoon shaft,

The Ungava type Fiddle head at the hook.

The Baffin WP we bea Broad and clumsy for bird spear.

The Anderson river type. .Exceedingly primitive, all in one piece.

The Pt. Barrow tpt: ssie Amphora-shaped

The Asiatic type......... Primeval in form

The Kotzebue type.......Razor-strap form, central index cavity.

The Cape Nome type..... Pegged on the side, rude.

The Norton sound type...Climax of detail.

The Nunivak type..... .. Finger pegs replace cavities.

The Bristol (variety) ..... A variety of Nunivah, but ruder.

The Aleut type.......... Flat and wanting in detail.

The Sitkan type ........,Elaborately carved.

These types are explained and illustrated in a paper about to

. appear in the first annual report of the National Museum. :

If any one, therefore, questioned the relationship of the peo-

ples now using this weapon, he would be allowed to compare

only that of the Asiatic Eskimo, with that of the Australians. If

he would A i the genealogies of causes which had led up to

the simpler forms in the two regions, there would be no ground

left for him to stand upon, and the case of independent invention

would be clearly made out. o

252 Editors Table. { March,

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE.

The principles which underlie the doctrine of evolution

are the unity of organization and the derivation of modern types

of beings from a primitive germ. While the theory of descent

has rehabilitated philosophy, the leading historians, such as

Greene, Freeman and others, have studied and are studying his-

tory in the inductive method, and, like the evolutional naturalist

or philosopher, or social scientist, go back to the beginning of

things historical, detecting, for example, in the early stages of

German culture the germs of our democratic system of represent-

ation and self-government.

Another set of workmen, the philologists, have long and inde-

pendently, perhaps, of any influence from naturalists, adopted the

methods of the palzontologists and discovered a primitive Aryan

prototype of certain of our more modern as well as so-called

ancient dialects; and now come the students of the world’s alpha-

bets, notably Dr. Taylor and Professor A. H. Sayce, who avow-

edly confess their inability to work out lasting results without

having recourse to modern scientific methods, particularly the

doctrine of evolution from a primitive germ.

It appears that the world’s alphabets are “all but the manifest

developments of a single germ.” That germ was the hiero-

glyphics of Egypt, the running form of which was the selected

characters of the Egyptian hieratics. These were adopted by

the Phcenicians, who carried them to Greece. The Greek alpha-

bet took its Hellenic shape by the addition of four new charac-

ters (p, z, ¢ and v), probably, Mr. Sayce claims, derived from the

Hittites. Finally a great variety of alphabets belonging to dif-

ferent ages and localities arose, and it was “not until about 400

B. C., when the local dialects began to yield to the ‘ common’

Greek of literary Athens, that the local alphabets also fell into

disuse and were superseded by the common ‘ Ionic’ alphabet of

twenty-four letters,”

Mr. Sayce farther tells us that one of the Greek alphabets, the

Euboeic, “was the source of all those which were employed in

Italy, * * * * and modern research has now demonstrated, to

use the words of Dr. Taylor, ‘ that all the Italic alphabets were

developed on Italian soil out of a single primitive type.’ ”

Using the identical words of a Darwinian botanist or zoologist,

1886. | Editors’ Table. 253

Professor Sayce goes on to remark: “In the struggle for exist-

ence, the Latin alphabet alone survived among its Italian com-

peers, and was carried, by the extension of the Roman empire,

through the length and breadth of western Europe. Most of our

modern European alphabets are its direct offspring.”

In Russia and other Slavonic countries the alphabet was of

Greek origin, as were the runes of our Norse forefathers.

Professor Sayce even claims that “ the immense majority, if not

the whole, of the alphabets used in the East are descended, like

the alphabets of the West, from the alphabet of Phoenicia. The

Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac are derived from the Phcenician, the

Syriac being supposed to have been ‘the parent of the vertically

written Mongolian and Mantchu.’”

“In fact,” concludes Professor Sayce in his article on the origin

of the alphabet in the Contemporary Review for December, 1885,

“it is difficult to find any alphabet which cannot be affiliated to

the Phoenician, widely different as the two may have become both

in the forms of the letters and in the values they bear. Inter-

mediate forms are continually being discovered, which bridge

over the enormous distances and explain the transitions that time

and space have effected. Even the Devanagari alphabet of San-

skrit, whatever disputes there may be as to its exact pedigree, is

generally allowed to be of Phcenician origin. With the exception

of the cuneiform alphabet of the ancient Persians, and possibly

One or two more which may yet lurk in obscure corners of the

world, all the alphabets of which we know are derived, ultimately,

from a single source. Utterly diverse as they are in their latest

forms, the zealous enthusiasm of palzographists and inscription-

hunters has succeeded in restoring them to their earlier shapes,

in filling up the intervals which separate them from each other,

and in showing that they are all but the manifold developments

of a single germ. The history of the alphabet, in short, like the

evan of its origin, is but an illustration of the doctrine of evo-

ution on a large and easily tested scale. ‘Scientific paleography,’

to use again the words of Dr. Taylor, ‘rests on the assumption

that no alphabetic changes are ever accidental or arbitrary, as was

formerly assumed, but are the result of evolution taking place in

accordance with fixed laws?” _

How vividly the language and methods of work employed by

a scholars recall the language and methods of the philosophic

iologists in their attempts to seek the missing links and ances-

tral forms of life which complete and unite the chain of being!

254 Recent Literature. [ March,

—— The bestiarians in Belgium have appropriately united with

the antivaccinationists in the publication of a journal entitled

The Friend of the People. In Paris and in Philadelphia the anti-

vivisection societies have modified their titles so as to state that

their object is to regulate, and not to abolish vivisection. To

such a service reasonably executed, no one should object. How-

ever our hopes of rational conduct on their part, are somewhat

abated by the addresses delivered by some of their members. It

is still asserted in Philadelphia, that no benefit to physiological

science has been derived from vivisection! In Paris a lady mem-

ber denounces the experiments made by Pasteur in the search for

the methods of attenuating animal poisons, declaring that it were

better to endure rabies than tolerate the (?) cruelties inflicted on

animals by Pasteur.

:0:

RECENT LITERATURE.

Coutter’s Rocky Mountain Borany.—This neat manual, in

its substantial binding, good paper and excellent typography,

reminds one every way of the well-known Gray’s Manual, of

which it is, in fact, designed to bea companion volume. It 1s

intended for use in the region lying between the rooth meridian

on the east and the Great basin on the west, and extending from

the northern line of New Mexico northward to the British

boundary. Its range, therefore, includes Colorado, Wyoming,

Montana, Western Dakota, Western Nebraska and Western

Kansas.

There are several features of the book which are especially

noteworthy. In it we have for the first time, so far as we are

aware, merican manual of botany with the gymnosperms

standing in proper relation to the angiosperms, The outline of

the arrangement is as follows, viz:

Series I. PH ANOGAMIA.

Class I. ANGIOSPERMA.

Class Il. GYMNOSPERMÆ.

Series II. PTERIDOPHYTA.

As indicating further the modern views held by the author, a

1 Manual of the Botany (Phanogamia and Pteridophyta) of the Rocky Mountan

Region from New Mexico to the British boundary, By JoHN M. Courter, Ph.D.,

professor of botany in Wabash College and editor of the Botanical Gazette. Ivison,

Blakeman, Taylor & Co., New York and Chicago., 1885, pp. xvi, 454, 28.

1886. | Recent Literature. l 255

remark in the preface is worth quoting, viz: “The term ‘ crypto-

am has been discarded as the correlative of phenogam, and

‘Pteridophyta’ (vascular cryptogams) is used as the name of the

second great series of plants.” It is gratifying to note these

signs of a recognition, in a systematic manual, of the doctrine of

evolution, and of the significance of the structural homologies

which are now familiar to every vegetable anatomist.

notice the continued use of an antiquated term where the leaves

of the Filicinæ are called “ fronds.” In the characters given for

the class (p. 436), as well as the ordinal ones, the leaves are called

leaves, with the word “ frond” following in parenthesis, but in

the generic and specific descriptions the old term alone is used,

except in the Rhizocarpez. We have no doubt whatever as to the

author’s real views upon these points, and rejoice that he has,

even in part, succeeded in securing a better arrangement and a

more modern nomenclature, and only regret that it was not pos-

sible to carry out in full the reform so well begun.

We find by calculations made by us that the area of the region

included in this book is but little less than that included in Gray's

Manual. It is interesting to notice that the number of Rocky

mountain plants is wonderfully near to that of the Eastern region.

Doubtless when the Western region has been as fully explored,

it will have a greater number of species than the Eastern. We

ive below the comparisons for the different groups:

ORDERS. GENERA. SPECIES.

a eh au o

Polypetale . .... 38 48 176 255 624 629

Gamopetalz..... 23 3 181 289 683 751

D leass 14 48 70 16 187

voi ledons ..... 75 105 305 614 | 1473 | 1597

oa onocotyledons.. . 13 22 104 174 347 on

IGIOSPERMS ....... 88 127 409 | 788 1820 2237

nee is ees 2. I 6 16 m

( AMEA ..... 128 I 796 1836 225)

PTERIDOPHYTA. ..| "7 er a l

e a =. 132 434 824 | 1881_| 2348

256 Recent Literature. { March,

Comparing the number of genera and species for half a dozen

orders, the following interesting results are obtained:

‘GENERA. SPECIES.

Coulter.| Gray. | Coulter.| Gray.

SPOR ONE So iis SSeS i Neco ee | 20 35 143 98

Rosaceæ 26 8 65 72

Composite 83 85 357 288

eae SEA LES a ss 10 8 19 67

Cyperaceze 8 15 108 247

Graminez.. 48 66 129 168

SO li Ie ae

As to the number of species common to the two regions, we

have space for but a few comparisons. Taking a few of the

orders as they occur at the beginning of the book, we obtain the

following results, confining our comparisons to native species only,

as in the previous cases:

NUMBER OF SPECIES.

va a

in Coulter. | In Gray. |Common to both.

St eae

RONUNCHINGEE Fc avicans Ccdswds 24

Berberidaceze S g o

Nymphæaceæ ..... a | 2 6 :

‘Papavera 2 2 a

Fumariaceæ | 5 7 I

Cruciferze | 63 46 17

Capparidaceæ | 7 I I

Violaceæ 9 17 5

Polygalaceze | 7 14 I

No better argument as to the need of this book can be made’

than that derived from this comparison, which indicates that not

more than about one-third of the Rocky Mountain species are

described in Gray’s Manual.—Charles E. Bessey.

THE CATALOGUE oF LIZARDS IN THE BRITISH MuseuM, new

edition, Vols. 1 and 11.—This important work, by Dr. G. A. Bou-

lenger, fills a desideratum in zodlogy which is of long standing.

Previous to the publication of these volumes Dr. Boulenger had

given us in the Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1884, p. 117, a SYNOP- '

sis of the families of existing Lacertilia, as understood by him.

The classifications of Duméril and Bibron and of Gray, still gen-

erally in use, are regarded as unnatural, and the osteology and

structure of the tongue as well as the presence or absence and

structure of the dermal ossifications are put forward as characters

of primary importance. In this respect Cope is largely but not

entirely followed. Twenty families of Lacertilia vera are recog-

nized, separated into three series, the first (Gecconide, Euble-

pharidz) with smooth tongue and the clavicle dilated and loop-

shaped proximally; the second without the latter character, while

ore oS NI

cease re I TE

1886. | Recent Literature. 257

the third differs from the others in the scale-covered structure of

the tongue. The Amphisbznide are regarded as a degraded

type of Teiidz, and are placed in the third subdivision, between

that family and the Lacertide. The chameleons alone form the

suborder Rhiptoglossa. The Uroplatide are discovefed to differ

from the Gecconida in the proximally simple clavicles and other

important characters ; the Scincoids of Duméril and Bibron are

scattered through several families, in accordance with the views

of Cope; the remaining Scincidz corresponding to Cope’s Scin-

cide, Sepidze and Acontiidz ; the Zonuridz comprise the genera

Zonurus, Platysaurus and Chamaesaura; while the Anguidz include

Cope’s Anguide and Gerrhonotide. He admits Cope’s family

Aniellide, regarding it as a degraded form of Anguide. A fam-

ily Gerrhosauridz is established for Gerrhosaurus, which is placed

near the Scincide; the Anelytropide are regarded a degraded

type of the Scincidæ, and the degraded genus Dibamus is, among

the scale-tongued lizards, the equivalent of the Aniellida in the

smooth-tongued series.

Of this system it may be said that it is a great advance over

any that has yet been adopted in any European country. There

are, however, a good many important characters of the skeleton

which have not been used by Dr. Boulenger, and which give

ground for a further subdivision of the order Lacertilia. The

affinities of the families cannot, in fact, be estimated without

th The, form of the prodtic bone is one of these, and the

enclosure or non-enclosure of the olfactory lobes of the brain by

the frontal bones is another. The mode of articulation of the

occipital sclerotome presents important differences. Some of these

characters divide his group second into groups of equal value

with his groups 1 and 111; and others indicate a greater difference

between the Amphisbzenians and the Teide than Dr. Boulenger

admits. The composition of the ramus mandibuli affords impor-

tant characters, so as to distinguish readily the Anolide and

Acontiidz, families not admitted by Boulenger.

This work is, however, the best we now have on the subject, and

will give a great impetus to its study.

A second preliminary paper is devoted to the geographical dis-

tribution of the Lacertilia. He notices the parallelism, first

noticed by Wagler, between the Agamidæ and Lacertide of the

old world and the Iguanide and Teiidz of the new. The Cen-

tral American fauna presents a greater variety of types than

South America, as it has representatives of every one of the

ported by the Lacertilia, which range also according to longitude

rather than latitude. ey

228. 4 Recent Literature. | March,

HartMan’s AnTHROPOID ApEs.—The author is well known asa

special student of the apes, and has given us in this book per-

haps the most authoritative and judicious work upon these crea-

tures yet published. The illustrations are in nearly every case

of value, and the facts are presented in a clear, simple style which

adds weight to the author’s views. As we see nothing to criticise,

we will draw the reader’s attention to some of the author’s state-

ments and conclusions.

The discussion on the ape-like characters of the lowest human

tribes is of much present interest. Hartman shows that among

some human races “it is impossible not to recognize a purely

external and physical approximation to the simian type.” Yet

old specimens of apes, especially the gorilla, differ more from

man than the young, and the author is strongly of the opinion

“that man cannot have descended from any of the fossil species

which have hitherto come to our notice, nor yet from any of the

species of apes now extant.” He adopts Vogt’s view “ that both

types have been produced from a common ground-form, which

is still more strongly expressed in the structure of young speci-

mens, because the age of childhood is less advanced.” Hartman

adds: “ This supposed progenitor of our face is necessarily com-

pletely hypothetical, and all the attempts hitherto made to con-

from a common ancestor. On this ground as well as from ana-

tomical considerations, we should refer man to a distinct, special

family.

= Kane’s HAND-BOOK or European Butrerriies!—A handy

little book is this for the butterfly-catcher. The introduction

gives the best localities and the distribution of species, methods

of capturé and of preservation when captured, apparatus, a full

glossary of terms, arguments on seasonal dimorphism, etc. This

is followed by fifteen plates and 149 pages of generic and specific

criptions. A well-chosen set of abbreviations is used, and the

work is thoroughly indexed-—Z.

A Hand-book of European Butterflies. By W. F. pe VisMES KANE, M.A.

M.R.I.A. London, Macmillan & Co., 1885. z

PLATE XIV.

Young male Gorilla.

"IG. I.

Fic, 2,—Same as Fig. 1, but somewhat older.

1886.] Recent Literature, 259

LANGILLE’s Our Birps AND THEIR Haunts.'—This is an out-of-

door book by an out-of-door student of birds, and bears witness

to much patient observation. The faults which an evolutionist

may find in it will endear it to all those who instead of believing

that function precedes structure, put the latter first and make it

push its own motor. It seems strange that a working naturalist

should suppose that birds are supernaturally fed, and should ask

“ when are they starving or wanting sustenance ?” as though half-

starved birds are not abundant in winter, and as though none per-

ished! The book is wordy, or as its author would probably say,

one of the most remarkable characteristics of the volume is its

extraordinary verbosity.

Everybody is quoted; Wilson, Audubon, Thoreau, Coues, Bur-

rough, Wallace, Dall, Maynard are presented in long paragraphs ;

there are bits of many a lesser light of zoology, and several “dis-

tinguished taxidermists” figure in the pages.

here is a good deal of information in the book, and moral les-

sons and quotations are quite as prominent as ornithology. The

book is handsomely printed.

Psa Birds and- their ` Haunts, a popular treatise on the birds of Eastern North

18 erica, By Rev. J. HIBBERT LANGILLE, M.A. Boston, S.. E. Cassino & Co.,

oe by Selmar Hess, New York. Complete in forty-two parts at fifty cents

Brachi y of Protozoa, Sponges, Calenterata and Worms, including lyzoay

Ean and Tunicata, for the years 1861-1883. By D’Arcy W. THOMPSON,

Cambridge University press, 1885.

VOL. XX.—No. 11, 28

260 Recent Literature. [ March,

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS,

McIntosh, W. C.—Report of the Annelida Polycheta -e by H. M. S. Chal-

lenger duriug the years 1873-76. Challenger reports, Vol. X11, 1885.

Smith, E. A.—Report on the Lamellibranchiata collected ae HM; $; Bape

Selenka, E.—Report on the era collected by H. 9p refe

Sars, G. O.—Report on the Schizopoda collected by H © challeuper. The last

three from Vols. XII of the Challenger cal ae All from J. Murray,

Challenger office

Williams, A., Jr. Minia onmia of the United Seti Calendar years 1883

and 1884. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1885. From the

lddings, F. P., and Cross, W. We despread occurrence am dies ite as an accessory

aa a of many rocks, Ext. Amer. Jour. of Science, Aug., 1885. From

the author.

Kiprijanow, ae Pes peeled tad la I11me partie “ Ueber die fossilen reptilien

Russlands.” From

ene B a alas) in eae Ext. Science, No. 146, 1885. From the

Fam SE %—Ont tline of a proposed School of ser me sa — Science. Read

belge the Phila. Soc. Sci. Ass., Phila’, 1885. Fro

Bocourt, F.—Not n Boidien nouveau, Poren du ae Ext. Bull. d,

1. Soc Tm. de e Paris, Tewi 1885. From the author

Newberry, F. S. n the geology n Botany of wi country bordering ad

Northern pace Tirad. Ext. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. 111, 1884. Fro

the author.

Barrows, W. B., Elliot, D. G., Stéineger, L., and Kingsley, F. S— The Standard

Natural History Vol. 1v. Birds, Boston , S. E. Cassino & Co., 1885. From

the Pye

CPZ E D.— Kepari on the coal deposits near ene in the State of Hidalgo,

xico. Read bef. Amer. Phil. Soc., Oct. 16, 188

rigin of man and the other viiteta, w the oati of life evolution. Rep.

from Pop. Sci. Monthly, Sept. and Oct., 1885.

——The sternum of the Dinosauria. Aiii. Nat. extra, Feb., 1885.

‘Structure of the brain and auditory apparatus of a sg omg Bee pie T the

Permian epoch. Read before the Amer. Phil. Soc., Oct. 16, 1885. All from

the author.

Baur, G. Prete. über den “ Astragalus ” und das “ Intermedium tarsi” der

Saugethiere, Sept., 1885. From the author.

—Zur male gt hon Carpus und basse der Reptilien. Sep.-Abd. a. d. Zool.

Boren .—Ueber neue Mestandteile der Hand- und Fuss-wurzel der Sauge-

dte

etc. Sonder pari a. Supplement: Het ut d. Zeit. f. Naturw., Bd. XIX,

F. xu, From the author.

Davidson, T.—On a living EFRA Rhynconella from Japan. Ext. Ann. and Mag.

Nat. Hist., Jan., 1886. From the author.

Peirce, EN, -—Function ; its evolution and influence on —— Read before

logical

NY tological Soc., Nov. 10, 1885. From the author

umas si D.—An analysis of the altruistic act, Montreal, 1885. From the

nies D G.—The names of the

encephalic arteries, Rep. N. Y. Med. Journal,

Nov. 28, 1885.. cing the auth Fa

Wood, T. F—Sketch of the Botanical work of Rev. Moses A. Curtis, Raleigh,

+: 1885. From the author,

PEA Æ. P.—Description of ihe marsupial egg of Echidna hystrix. Ext. Ann.

and Mag. Nat. Hist: Dee., 885. From the author.

Boulenger » G: 4—Remarks on aie C. W. de Vis’s nia contributions to the her-

petology of Australia. Ext. Ann - and Mag. Nat. Hist, Nov. 1885.

1886. ] Geography and Travels. 261

Boulenger, G. A.—A list of reptiles and batrachians from the Island of Nias, Ext.

idem

——Descriptions of three new species of Geckos, Ext. idem

-———Descriptions of new species of reptiles and batrachians in the British Museum.

Ext. idem. All from the author.

Abbott, H. C. D.—A chemical study of Yucca angustifolia, Ext. Proc. A, A. A. S.,

Ann Arbor meeting, 1885. From the author.

"a “oo paints des membres du bureau et des membres présents 4 Ber-

in. 1885.

Kunz, G. F—Precious stones. Dept. of the Intr., 1885. From the author.

Mather, F—Adirondack survey. Zodlogy. Adirondack fishes, with descriptions

of new species. Albany, 1886. From the author.

Peale, A. So waters, Abs. Min. Res. U. S. 1883-84. Dept. of the Inte-

From the anthors.

Fritsch, A.—Fauna der Gaskohle und der Kalksteine der Permformation Böhmens,

Bd. 2, Heft 2. Schluss der Stegocephalen. Prag, 1885. From the author,

“rye

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.'

GENERAL.—Dr. T. Fischer, in Petermann’s Mittheilungen, main-

tains that when oceanic agencies alone have formed the coasts,

it consists of a succession of arcs, in the case of steep coasts with

a short, and of flat coasts with a long radius. Where the coasts

exhibit other features, other causes, as movements of the earth’s

crust, are either more powerful or are very recent.

Arctic Recions——The Danish expedition to the east coast of

Greenland returned to Copenhagen, Oct. 2d, after an absence of

nearly three years. Besides the collection of valuable scientific

material, Lieut. Hahn has made some important geographical and

ethnographical discoveries. He wintered between latitudes 65°

and 66° and reached 66.08° N., the highest point yet visited by

uropeans on the coast. He has named the stretch of coast

explored Christian IX’s land.

The area of Store Baergefjeld, in Arctic Norway, has been rep-

resented as an immense glacier field. The observations of Chas.

\abot show that there are nearly seven secondary glaciers, hardly

Passing beyond the stage of névé, and that their total area does

not exceed six kilometers. The region is not a plateau, but to

the north a mountain mass with summits nearly 6000 feet high,

and averaging 3600 feet; and to the south a densely w

table-land cut up by cajion-like valleys. Rabot has also found that

distinct chains of mountains, reaching a height of more than

3000 feet, exist in the Kola peninsula, between the White sea and

fe IC The district is usually shown as a plain, broken

"This department is edited by W. N. LOcKINGTON, Philadelphia,

262 General Notes. [ March,

merely by lakes and low hills. Between the ranges the land is

level, and trees of good size reach 63° 50’ N. lat

AFRICA.— The Resources of Africa—A pamphlet by Dr. A.

Fischer, entitled “ Mehr Licht im dunkeln Welttetl,’ is interesting

-as giving the most unfavorable view possible of the resources of

Africa, and may be useful to those who have been too much

phant is almost exterminated along the coast over a width of 130

to 200 miles, and is no longer to be found in South Africa,

Caoutchouc in East Africa is being rapidly exterminated by the

unskillful and improvident way in which the juice is collected.

Gum copal, since competition with Australia, has so sunk in price

as not to pay unless with slave labor. Dr. Fischer takes also 4

desponding view of the agricultural capabilities of Africa. On

the whole, however, his statistics prove rather the need for settled

success in Liberia.

Lieut.Wissman’s Expedition —Lieut. Wissman’s expedition down

the Kassai throws new light on the geography of the Congo basin.

The Sankuru, or lower course of the Lubilash, unites with it by

‘two arms 830 and 1000 feet wide; a river which Lieut. Wiss-

man believes to be the Loangwe, though at its mouth it is known

as the Temba, flows in lower down; and still lower the great

Cuango and the Mfini from Lake Leopold unite their waters

with it. Below the Sankuru the Kassai is 3300 yards wide, and

yards or more, and is dotted with islands and sand banks. Its

lower portion, known as the Kwa, is narrow, not more than 45°

Lulua the native name is Savié. The natives here are Barkub

on the right bank, Bashilelé on the left. Lower down, below

- he Sankuru, reside the Badinga and Bangodi, and stiil lower the

Btakuta, who were hostile to the explorers, and are reputed canni-

bals. Still nearer the junction of the Cuango are the Baduna.

1886] Geography and Travels. 263

African News.—The native population of the Gaboon region is,

according to Dr. Lenz, being rapidly driven towards the interior

by the Fans. The Germans have annexed the country lying

behind the French possessions at Great and Little Popo, on the

Gold coast. M. G. Angelvy, a French engineer in the service

of the Sultan of Zanzibar, reports that he has discovered coal of

excellent quality on the Lujenda tributary of the Rovuma. The

great drawback is the distance from the coast, all the more to be

regretted since beds of siderite lie near. The Rovuma, though

2000 feet wide, is but a foot to a foot and a half deep. The sul-

tan intends to work the coal-beds, and to construct a road or rail-

way to Lake Nyassa. Sir John Kirk, in a letter accompanying

that of M. Angelvy, states that the coal region lies sixty miles

south of the latitude of Delgado bay, and a question of inland

frontier is therefore likely to arise between the Sultan of Zanzibar

and Portugal. At Tunis a modern French town is being built

between the native city and the lake. Land is being rapidly

brought under cultivation, taxes reduced, roads constructed, and

the country in every way improved. . Moller has proved

that the peak of St. Thomas is the highest Iand in the island of

that name, and is 2142 meters high. The November Bulletin

della Società Geographica Italiana contains a letter from De Brazza,

describing a voyage undertaken from Brazzaville to the Licona

or Ncunda. The name Congo is not known by the Apfurus and

Bateke, who speak of it as the Great river. The village of

Bonga at the mouth of the Alima is large and picturesque, it is

intersected in all directions by canals, and the houses, some

meters long, form streets. Down the wilderness of canals is

brought the large quantity of manioc grown upon the Alima, for

the supply of the natives of the Congo banks, which in this part

are unfitted for the growth of manioc. De Brazza says that it

will be half a century before the labyrinth formed by the various

channels of the Congo above Stanley pool is correctly mapped.

- For eight days, he says, “ we believed we were on another river,

and found after all that we were on the Congo.” The Apfurus and

Bayansi are the same people. H. Entz and A. Mer have, after

a careful study of the voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian, come

to the conclusion that it terminated at Fernando Po. Thymate-

nion 1s identified with the town of Mazaghan, and the promontory

of Soloé with Cape Cantin. The Lixus is by Mer identified with

the Senegal, by Entz and others with the Draa. The island of

264 General Notes. [ March,

Frenchmen, one a journalist, are prisoners with the Caliph Abdul-

lah at Omdurman. The German government has published the

annexation of the territory called Usaramo in west equatorial

Africa; and has occupied Dar-es-Salam, a port opposite to Zan-

zibar. The King of Dahomey has abolished human sacrifices

in virtue of a treaty entered into between him and the Portuguese

governor of San Principe, and a Portuguese protectorate is by the

same treaty established over the sea-coast of Dahomey.

Asta—Southern India—From some notes by Col. B. R.

Branfill, it appears that Gzat means a pass and that monsoon is

derived from the Arabic mausim, which means season. Th

south-west monsoon, which blows from May to September, is

supposed to be the great sea-breeze produced by the rarefaction

of the air in the drier parts of Asia, while the north-east mon-

soon is the ordinary trade-wind. March, April and May are the

hot season of Southern India, the north-east monsoon succeed-

ing it. The south-west monsoon parts with its moisture on the

table-land of Mysore. The north-east monsoon fills the rivers

and tanks of the drier Carnatic plain to the east of the ghats.

The ghats are not very high, and when viewed from the table-

land enclosed by them, seem rather a battlemented parapet than a

. A leading feature of the western ghats is a long easy

slope, crested with forest, leading up to a cliff overlooking the

coast-plain.. Such a cliffsummit is called a Kadure-Mukh or

horse-head. The eastern ghats have no such well-marked line of

precipices as the western. Most of the drainage of Mysore, which

undulates from two to three thousand feet above the sea, is to the

Mysore, the largest some twenty miles around. The River Cau-

very is thus utilized throughout the province. On it are situated

the former capital, Seringapatam or Srirangapatnam, which is now

deserted, and is a pestilential wilderness, and the ruins of the

more ancient capital of Talkad, now buried in sand save only the

pinnacles of the temples. In the Wainad or open country of the

western highlands, south of Coorg, gold-mining has been com-

menced, and there are many traces of ancient workings. SoS. Be

of the Wainad lies the nearly isolated plateau of the Nilgiri hills

or Blue mountains, rising on the western edge to 8000 feet or

more, while Dodabetta, a conoidal mass with steep slopes covered

with grass and woods, rises from its centerto a height of 8640 feet.

These hills are the home of the Todas. The Nilgiri hills, though

separated from the main table-land of Central India by the Moyar

ravine, form really its southern termination. South of them is the

Palghat gap, leading from Malabar to the south-central lowlands

of Coimbatore and Salem. South of the gap the mountains rise.

18386. ] Geography and Travels. 265

again as the Anamalai or Elephant hills, and farther south, the Tra-

vancore hills. These are a true mountain range, rising directly on

all sides from the lowlands, and are steepest on their eastern:

slopes. The highest measured point, Anamudi or Elephant’s brow,

is 8840 feet above the sea, and the loftiest known peak in South-

ern India. This range, called also the Southern ghats, ends at

Cape Comorin. To the east of the Anamalai hills lies the lofty

plateau of the Palani hills, in two steps, the upper 7000 feet high.

Groups of similar but minor masses of hills are met with at inter-

vals eastwards and northwards, surrounding the lowlands of

Coimbatore and Salem, perhaps once the seat of a former inland

sea. South of the Palanis is a large tract of mountainous wilder-

ness, occupied only by wild animals and wild men of the lowest

types, who go unclothed, and feed on such fruits and roots as they

can scratch up with their fingers. They can make a fire, but sel-

dom do so, and gather cardamoms, honey and other wild produce

to exchange with their more civilized neighbors for salt, grain,

and a little cloth to adorn their women. There are no harbors

worthy of the name on the usually low Malabar coast, but a chain

of lagoons affords inland communication for several hundred

miles, pe Comorin is a low rocky promontory. Once there.

was a harbor, town, and pearl market, but now nothing is left but

the temple of Kanya Kumari, the “ Virgin Maid,” still a resort

for devout Hindus, Korkai, the Kolchoi of Greek geographers,

an emporium 2000 years ago, is now three miles inland, its suc-

cessor Kayal (the lagoon), mentioned by Marco Polo, is now

deserted by the sea, and the present port of Tuticorin promises to

be in turn silted up. All the rivers of Southern India tend to

shift their mouths northwards from the action of the ocean rollers.

The Coromandel coast is marked by a line of sand-hills with

lagoons here and there on the landward side, and there seems to

be an advanced line of coast in course of formation several miles

out to sea. There is much coral in the Gulf of Manar. Besi

the changes occurring on this coast from constant causes, storm

waves have destroyed many ancient cities and ports.

A atic News—A ruined city, hitherto unknown, has been

found in Adana, Asia Minor, not far from Tarsus, near the route

from Sélef-Ké to Karaman. Sarcophagi like those of Lycia exist

almost intact. Residents of Siberia are organizing an explor-

ation to investigate for five years the ethnology and social economy:

of that vast region. Young men will be distributed over the

country for that purpose. A railway from Ekaterinburg to Kam-

ishoff is completed; and the canal between the Obi and Yenisei

Ul probably be ready for navigation at the latest in the spring

A 1887. Sibiriakoff has established a line of steamers on the

beet between Lake Baikal and the Yenisei——M. Daniloff

tee that he has found the point of bifurcation of the Oxus

the Amu Daria and the Uzboi or Unguz.—A recent French

266 General Notes. | March,

writer describes the route from Lao-Kai on the Red river of Ton-

quin, to Mengtsze in Yunnan. He is not enthusiastic about any

of the routes from Tonquin, though he thinks France has as much

chance of getting the China trade as any of her rivals. The

route from Lao-Kai to Manhao is by river, but from the head of

navigation to the plateau of Yunnan the coast is extremely diffi-

cult and mountainous.——-Commander Réveilliere has succeeded

GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY.

Tue Enctish Cretaczous.—With the Cretaceous, or rather

with that indefinite age which intervened between the close of the

Cretaceous and the dawn of the Eocene, unrepresented by any

stratified rock in England, we close the book on the evolution

of Gymnosperms for nearly all the archaic anomalous genera

which held the place of our larches, pines and spruces, cypresses

and junipers, had given way to living genera and even species.

It is a remarkable fact that the extermination of so much that

_ It appears that during the chalk formation a great wave of

depression passed across Europe, traveling from the West to the

East, permitting the ingress of the Atlantic, and forming a gulf

1886.] Geology and Paleontoiogy. 267

over what is now Central Europe, which constantly increased in

magnitude. We need not believe that this gulf was formed by

any sudden catastrophe, for there is no reason to doubt that the

sea conquered the land by the same methods and at somewhere

about the same rate that it encroaches now, and that therefore its

advance over many thousands of square miles of zerra firma would

be an exceedingly lengthened process. We cannot gauge the time

this occupied, but we know that since the appearance of man

Southampton water has been formed, and a tract between Alum

bay and Studland, some fifteen miles long and five or six miles

broad, has been swept into the sea, and several species like the

mammoth have become extinct. The rate of the encroachment

depends mainly on that of the subsidence and the original height

of the land, but what has here been effected in a subsidiary area

serves to show roughly how vast a time must have been needed

for the chalk sea to have crept from Kent to the Crimea, and

covered the enormous area of Europe over which its traces still

remain. As the land subsided and became sea, blue and green

muds were thrown down, to be succeeded in due course by the

deeper deposits of chalk ooze. It would be physically impossible

for chalk, supposing it to represent globigerina ooze,' to be

1 True chalk is a pure white limestone, composed of the remains of Foraminifera,

valves of Cytherina, excessively minute infusoria, cell prisms of In erami, sponge

mitted to be a truly oceanic deposit, o Aile nature to Jobigiian ooze, but Mr.

Wallace, supported by the late Dr. George Jeffreys, has lately put forward the view

that it Its vast extent, gl cp nature, and

while its larger organisms, mainly Echinodermata or sponges, are with some excep-

tions, such as are now met with in abyssal depths. Mr. Wallace laid some stress on the

difference in composition of fresh globigerina ooze and chalk, as shown by analysis ;

but Mr, Murray has recently stated that the percentage of carbonate of lime varies from

40 to 95 in the ooze. ison took no account of the factthat the chalk had

segregated into crystalline masses, its manganese into dendritic markings, silice-

te . .

iss

sought shallower water now in order to find an equal temperature, and | i

zu s em a ica The blue and green

thei the Challenger pass into globigerina ooze with an increased di and

k ault and greensand pass into chalk in exactly the same way.

alternative theory of Wallace, that chalk is decomposed coral mud, could not

been advanced by a geologist, as, while the chalk contains some wel erve

‘Solitary corals, not a reef-building coral has ever been met with either in or surround-

Img it, nor even in any contemporaneous deposit. are Lae

263 General Notes. [ March,

directly formed ona former land surface, and we consequently

find that it is invariably preceded by some more littoral quality

of sediment. The nearer the original centre of depression or

focus of subsidence, the older the green sands and Gaults must

necessarily be; and the farther we recede from it in any landward

ity in the fauna of each zone at any interval of distance, and it

might maintain its distinct charcteristics over the most extensive

areas, without, for all that, its contents having lived synchronous-

slightest trace of the presence of angiospermous dicotyledons.

Even the Gray Chalk and the Blackdown beds have only yielded

conifers and a Williamsonia of Jurassic type. We cannot account

for their absence by Supposing our area to have been isolated,

for in the preceding Wealden period neither its fauna or flora

ene PES

1886. | | Geology and Paleontology. 269

differed from that of Europe. But when we reach Aix-la-Chap-

elle, we find the chalk and greensand resting upon beds contain-

gams. Nor does the 1200 or 1400 feet of vertical chalk remaining

in our area at all represent the completed formation; for, as the

prolonged subsidence finally ceased and gave place to an equall

slow elevation, all the lessening zones of depth would travel back

with the receding ocean, and leave a series of zones inversely arrang-

ed tothat preservedto us. The planing action of the sea has re-

moved all this newer series, just as it has planed away a further.

mass of the width of the English channel, and is slowly but in-

- exorably cutting down to its own level all the zones that form its

shore lines. The Eocene seas from beginning to end of the period

were ceaselessly engaged in this work, and their enormous deposits

of flint shingle mark how much of the chalk had fallen a prey to

them. Nor has the chalk enjoyed any respite from the work of

destruction down to the present day, so that what now remains

isa mere fragment of what once existed. It was during the in-

terval that elapsed between the formation of the newest chalk now

left in England and the oldest Eocene that dicotyledons were

introduced, and our existing flora practically came into existence. -

All the Upper Cretaceous floras of Europe also flourished during

this interval, but we cannot say, with our imperfect record, exactly

the order in which they came in, and must be content to regard

them in a general way as far newer than they appear to be strati-

graphically. The entire American Cretaceous series should, per-

haps, also be placed somewhere in this interval, though those well

qualified to judge regard its commencement as dating from an

older period. Without this digression we could not have formed

an adequate idea of the meaning of the “ Cretaceous period” and

So realized that the so-called Cenomanian and Turanian floras

of Europe may belong to a completely different epoch to that

represented by the same horizons in Kent and Sussex, — F., S.

Gardner. r j

1 Š j i

bers viou American Ka of Natural a Hy L | No. 6, r 7 ;

270 General Notes. [ March,

nary notice: “ An American Silurian Scorpion,” under the name

_ of Paleophonus osborni. The animal is no doubt a real scorpion,

and not an Eurypterid; but as a few of the characteristics ascribed

to it by the author would seem to remove it very far from other

scorpions and especially from the Palzophonoide, to which it

appears to me to be closely related, I venture to offer a few obser-

vations on this arachnid, or rather, on Mr.Whitfield’s interpretation

of certain points in its organization. Of course I give no other

weight than that of mere suppositions to the opinions I am going

to express, being fully aware of the difficulty and perhaps

rashness of offering criticisms on the description of a rather

badly preserved fossil, without knowing the “ corpus delicti” from

actual inspection.

According to Mr. Whitfield, the abdomen (preabdomen) of his

scorpion is provided with sx long and broad ventral plates, and if

this were true, this animal would of course be so different from

the body in front of the plate in question. But to me it does not

seem necessafy to admit that Proscorpius differs in so high a

degree from other. known scorpions. I strongly suspect, that all

that is seen of the abdomen in Mr. Whitfield’s specimen (with the

exception only of the narrow border to the left, and, perhaps the

posterior part of the equally narrow right-hand border) is formed

exclusively of the dorsal plates. The whole upper side of the

abdomen is broken or cracked longitudinally; the narrower,

right-hand part, considered by Mr. Whitfield to be formed of the

inside of the ventral plates, has perhaps an appearance different

from that of the rest of the upper surface, only from having been

more strongly depressed and crushed, and the apparently slightly

greater lengths (in the antero-posterior direction) of the right

hand parts of the plates would seem to depend on the same cause.

This interpretation easily accounts for the circumstance that in

Mr. Whitfield’s specimen the articulations between ad the “ven-

tral g plates (not only between the posterior ones) are direct con-

tinuations of the articulations between the “ dorsal ” plates, which

is not the case in other, at least not in recent, scorpions, In these,

in fact, the articulations between the first two or three dorsal

plates do not correspond to or are continued by articulations Oñ

1 In Science, Vol. vir, p. 87 (July 31, 1885).

sister catia alana amma

1886. ] Geology and Paleontology. 271

the ventral side of the body; for in these and perhaps in all scor-

pions, the dorsal plates increase in length, counting from front

backward, so that the first plate is the shortest of all; whereas (at

least in recent scorpions) the first ventral plate is /onger-than the

following ones, corresponding in length and position to ‘wo or

even three (2d and 3d, or 1st—3d) dorsal plates taken together.’

If the above given interpretation is, as I believe, the right one,

the want of sfzracu/a on the plates needs no further explanation”

Mr. Whitfield thinks that, whereas modern scorpions carry the

tail (postabdomen) arched upward over the back, Proscorpius, and

also Palzeophonus, carried it inthe opposite way, or curved down-

w This would indeed be a character of fundamental impor-

tance in distinguishing the Silurian scorpions from all other

members of the group; but to me it is impossible to find any

stringent reason for adopting this strange hypothesis. In the first

place, it would seem that the animal’s gait would become exceed-

ingly difficult and awkward, if it were to walk with its tail curved

under the body ; and when it wished to kill, with the sting, the

prey which it had caught with the hands of the palpi, it would

ly be obliged to thrust the palpus with the prey between its

legs, under the body, in order to bring it within the reach of the

sting—no doubt a difficult performance for the animal. That in

the embryo of scorpions the tail is bent under the body, is of

course no reason for believing that the tail retains that position

after birth, in the earliest or Silurian species, rather than in Car-

boniferous and recent ones. As to Palzeophonus, I do not enter-

‘eophonus nuncius described and figured by Professor Lind-

trom and myself’ The basal joints of the tail of this animal are

destroyed but must have turned their upper or dorsal surface

upwards, as they have left the impression of their ventral part on

wus" a specimen of Buthus 5-striatus Hempr. et Ehr., for instance, whose abdo-

of cpreabdomen) is 2414™™ long, the length of the first ventral plate is 6™™, that

2E ñrst three dorsal plates taken together 5%4™™.

oot if the plates in question really were ventral plates, the first (or sixth, whe

Mmea behind forward) would from its position seem to correspond to the

z ween ‘ f

of int segment of the abdomen, quite as the plate between the combs is the sternite

Bo second segment.

Thorell and Lindström, on a Silurian scorpion from Scotland (K. Svenska

Vetenskaps-Akademien Handlingar, Bd. 21, No. 9). ae

272 | ~ General Notes, [ March,

the stone ; the next following joints are seen from the left side, the

two last obliquely from that side and from below. In the Scotch

alezophonus described by Mr. Peach,! which is turned upside

down, we consequently see that the basal joints of the tail turn

their ventral part upward and that the last joints are viewed

obliquely from above, As to Proscorpius the impression one

receives from the figures is, that the tail shows the dorsal surface

of at least three of the four joints still preserved, just as would be

expected. Mr. Whitfield says, however, that it shows, of the

upper or dorsal surface, but “ the inside of the ventral or lower

field’s specimen.

As the walking limbs of Proscorpius osbornei are in a very bad

state of preservation, it is no doubt difficult to decide with certainty

? Ancient air-breathers, in Nature, Vol. XXI, No. 796, p. 297. Jan. 29, 1885+

? So it appears at least on pl. 20, fig. 1, in Mr. Whitfield’s paper.

1886, ] Geology and Faleontology. 273

Paleophonus nuncius Thor. & Lindstr.1 The joint was perhaps

armed with a strong spine near the base (as is the case with the

fifth joint in Pale@ophonus nuncius); at all events, the two joints

have no resemblance to the claws of ordinary scorpions. But

besides this, there are several other reasons for doubting that Pro-

scorpius belongs to the Dionychopodes. In Palzophonus all the

joints with the exception of the last, are cylindrical or nearly so; in

other scorpions the “a is compressed and convex longitudinally

on the under side; and in this respect Proscorpius appears to

have resembled Palzophonus and not the Dionychopodes. The

tolerably well-preserved leg of the first pair of Proscorpius seems

to show that most of the joints of the legs have been compara-

tively short in this animal, and in this particular also it resembles

Paleophonus and differs trom the Dionychopodes. The “ crowd-

ing forward of the limbs and appendages” depends on the shortness

of the posterior cox, and isa characteristic that distinguishes Pro-

scorpius from the Dionychopodes, but not from Palzophonus.

(It is not probable that Proscorpius differed from other scorpions

inthe number of the joints of the legs; if we assume that in the

best preserved leg of Mr. Whitfield’s specimen the first joint or

coxa is concealed by the margin of the cephalothorax, and that the

leg is broken at the base of the last joint, it would seem to con-

sist of seven joints, quite as in all other scorpions.)

Whitfield ;

Mr. Peach’s Scotch Palæophonus, being, as Mr. Whitfield justly

remarks

the

I be

forms no

rax, re

€specially by the shape of the fingers of the mandibles, which, if

they really had such a form in the living animal, as from Mr. Whit-

field’s figures they appear to have, differ materially from those of

Palzophonus and all other known scorpions.

‘It will be seen from the foregoing lines, that I cannot find that

Proscorpius differs essentially from the hitherto known scorpions

morthet respects than in the somewhat shorter cephalothorax, and

Perhaps, in the form of the mandibles. Its systematical position

Ppears to me to be in the close vicinity of Palzophonus, and

1 A

Thorell and Lindström, loc. cit., fig. 1.

274 General Notes. { March,

especially of the Scotch scorpion referred to that genus by Mr.

Peach. An additional reason to those given above for removing

Proscorpius from the Carboniferous Eoscorpioide, and for refer-

ring this genus to the Apoxypodes, fam. Palaophonoide, may be

found in its being, geologically speaking, almost contemporary

with the Palzophoni, belonging, like these, to the Upper Silurian

formation. As the Palzophoni, and all other more recent scor-

pions, are undoubted land-animals and air-breathers, and, as no

traces of branchiz have been shown to exist in Proscorpius, there

is, I believe, no serious reason for considering that this scorpion 1s

an aquatic animal, or that “ we have here a link between the true

aquatic forms, the Eurypterus and Pterygotus, and the true air-

breathing scorpions of subsequent periods,” as Mr. Whitfield sup-

poses. Very strange, also, would it be, if the connecting link

between the gigantic Eurypterids and the scorpions should be

formed of such a little creature as Proscorpius osbornei, one of the

smallest scorpions hitherto known—especially as this diminutive

scorpion lived contemporaneously with the Eurypterids,—7. Tho-

rell, Sori, Italy.

An Extinct Doc.—The remains of an extinct type of dog, dif-

fering widely from any of the ordinary wild or domestic dogs, have

been recently described by Mr. J. A. Allen in the memoirs of the

museum of zoology at Harvard college. The bones were found in

Ely cave, Lee county, Virginia, one of the oldest of a group of cav-

erns in limestone of Cambro-Silurian age described by Professor

Shaler, of the geological survey of Kentucky. In general form the

new dog was'a short-limbed, heavy-bodied animal, resembling in its

proportions a badger rather than a dog. The skull has not been

found. Mr. Allen refers the remains to a new genus, under the

name of Fachycyon robustus.

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'

1 Edited by W. S. BAYLEY, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

* Washington, Government Printing Office, 1885. ee

>A rock with the microscopic characteristics of ordinary greisen, but conta i :

albite instead of quartz. i :

i |

1886.] Mineralogy and Petrography. 275

micas, within which is a second belt of quartz and spodumene,

Associated with the latter is the cassiterite in bunches, some weigh-

ing as much as fifty or sixty pounds, Inside of this second belt

is a third made up of greisen, in which occurs the granular va-

riety of the ore. The central portion within the third belt is

principally a coarse mixture of quartz and feldspar. The spodu-

mene crystals in the second belt are of enormous size. One of

the largest, measuring thirty-six feet in length, is without a single

aw. The area of the tin-producing region is being constantly

extended by new explorations, so that its limits cannot yet be

definitely fixed. In addition to its occurrence in the rocks the

mineral is also known to exist as “stream tin” in the water

courses leading down from the hills into the surrounding plains,

PETROGRAPHICAL News.—Feridotites—The rocks of this class

belonging to the “Cortlandt series” on the Hudson river near Peeks-

kill, N. Y., are divided by Dr. G. H. Williams! into hornblende

peridotites (Hudsonites of Cohen), and augite peridotites (picrites

of Tschermak). The former are characterized by the structure so

well seen in the case of “ Bastite” or “Schillerspath,” and called by

Pumpelly and Irving, “ luster-mottling.” In the present instance

this structure (for which the author proposes the word fozcilitic)

is due to the inclusion of olivine, or its alteration product ser-

pentine, in hornblende. This hornblende is without crystal form

and is filled with sharp little transparent crystals and opaque black

needles. These latter occur also in the olivine and are identical

with those which Judd? considers as of secondary origin. This —

view the author of the present paper combats. He thinks they

are substances extruded during crystallization as incapable o

forming a part of their host, like the silicates in metamorphosed

limestones, The hornblende peridotites pass, by the assumption

of diallage, into the augite variety. Occasionally these become

Schistose as the result of the action of great pressure. Color-

ess augite with diallage-parting, hypersthene, brown horn-

blende and well defined crystals of olivine are the most important

Constituents of this rock. Variolitic granite—The first notice

ba variolitic granite from Craftsbury, Vermont, appeared in Hitch-

k's report on the geology of Vermont? The author there de-

with considerable black mica. Scattered through this base occur

P€arance. It occurs most abundantly just south of the latter ee

mn, Recently it has been subjected to microscopical examina- se

1 American our. Sci

Ot. Jour. Pe - Science, v. XXXI, Jan., 1886, p. 26

*Vol. 11, p. 564, 186r.

, VOL. XX.—NO, u

26. a

Soc., v. XLI, Aug., 1885, p. 354- AMERICAN NATURALIST, Dec.,

276 eae General Notes.

fractive mineral; calcite in small rhombohedrons; yellow-

_ brown biotite intimately associated throughout with muscovite

and calcite; and bipyramidal prismatic crystals of a colorless min-

eral, with an extinction of g—-10° against the long axis. The

varioles are composed of a central kernel of about the same com-

position as the rock. Surrounding this is a zone sometimes of

calcite, sometimes of quartz, in which the mica occurs. Towards

its inner side the mica is arranged in concentric layers, with con-

siderable calcite or quartz between. The central portion contains

only calcite and mica. Toward the outer side the calcite dimin-

ishes in quantity and the granitic materials take its place. The

exterior portion of the variole is composed almost entirely of

_ feldspar and quartz, in which the biotite is concentrically arranged,

while the calcite occurs only in isolated grains and rhombohedra.

The calcite is regarded as an original constituent, since it is found

included in the other minerals, and the varioles are supposed to

be concretions. Porphyritic hyperite, a rock of granitic

structure, composed of plagioclase, hypersthene and diallage,

with hornblende, apatite, titanic iron and a little biotite as acces-

X sory constituents, is found at San Diego, Cal. Kroustschoff de-

S scribes? the plagioclase as occurring both in the ground-mass a

also`in porphyritic crystals. The latter are developed most

prominently in the plane of the brachypinacoid. Analysis shows

them to have the composition Ab; An, ——Herman and Rutley

have been studying the devitrification products of glass, heated

to a high temperature and allowed to cool suddenly, They

larly distributed, without reference to the cooling surfaces. In the

3 a : b ioi « s

fined circular or approximately circular boundaries, and arè

-1 Bulletin de la Société Minéralogique de France, VIII, p. 132.

; i Bulletin de la Société ioira ade. : :

__ * Proceedings of the Royal Society. v. xxxıx. No. 239, p- 87-

eS eS Se eT ee ee _ a

1886.] Mineralogy and Petrography. 277

made up of little globulites, giving rise to a structure very like

that of many of the obsidians from California and other parts of _

the West. The natural glasses in the neighborhood of the

nepheline basalt of Rossberg, near Darmstadt, are thought by

Kroustschoff! to owe their origin to the solution in the basalt of

foreign quartziferous rocks.

MINERALOGICAL News.—The asterism of Canadian phlogopite

was noticed by G. Rose,? as early as 1862. He attributed it to

the intergrowth of foreign crystals, but did not suggest what

might be their nature. Lacroix? treated some of the Templeton

mineral with hydrochloric acid and examined the residue. It was .

found to consist of little hemimorphic crystals of rutile elongated

in the direction of the vertical axis. In his examination of ba-

saltic glass from Rossberg, Kroustschoff* discovered a pyroxene

of a slightly different type from any heretofore described. The

new type is transparent and of a very light green color. The

crystals are prismatically developed, and show the forms æ% P

oP, oP and OP. Very frequently several individuals are

united by their clino-pinacoids, sometimes by their prismatic

faces. An analysis of the isolated crystals gave:

SiO, Al,O, FeO, FeO CaO MgO Na PO

49.18 2.15 4.96 §.04 = 20,30. - 13.67 1.89 0.30

——Harringtonite from Ireland has been examined microscopi- \

cally.” In polarized light it is resolved into an isotropic mass, in

which crystals belonging to two distinct species of minerals can -

be detected. One occurs in little fibrous needles, with longitudi-

nal extinction and negative refraction; the other is in little frag-

ments with broken outlines. The former have the optical prop- `

erties of mesotype, but are negative. The latter are probably

Mesotype. Since zeolites are known to have been produced by

the action of warm waters, Lacroix thinks that Harringtonite

might be looked upon as a gelatinous mass, which has caught up

dittle fragments of the minerals that were floating about inthe —

: Water in which it was formed. At any rate it can no longer be

b -considered a distinct mineral, i

, NEw Booxs.—The second edition of Rosenbusch’s “Mikroskop- `

_ Asche Physiographie der petrographisch wichtigen Mineralien,

las recently appeared. This standard’ work is so very well -

known that the mere mention of the fact of its revision is suffi- —

-Gent for the purposes of these notes. The advances in the

_ Methods of microscopical petrography, the improvements in ap- _

Bulletin de la Société Minéralogique de France. VIII, p. 62. “a ieee

- der Berliner Akad. der Wissens., 1862, p. 614; and 1869, p. 344-

P- 99- Bee

p. 96. A

sche Verlagshandlung (E. Koch), Stuttgart, 1885» _ Ae

278 General Notes.

paratus and the very large increase in the amount of literature on

_ the subject within the last twelve years made a second edition of

this indispensable book almost imperative. The new edition

contains, in addition to a large amount of new matter in the gen-

eral and special parts, a Newton’s scale of prismatic colors (to which

reference is made in describing the polarization colors of the

_ different minerals), a practically complete table of petrographical

literature and twenty-six photographic plates of mineral and roc

sections. Kalkowsky’s “ Elemente der Lithologie "1 is a little

treatise of three hundred and sixteen pages, in which the study

of rocks is treated as a branch of general geology and not as an

appendix to mineralogy. It is intended primarily as an introduc-

considerable atten-

; author places the gabbros and peridotites. ;

‘ what peculiar views expressed on certain subjects, the book will

of prove a valuable addition to the library of the lithologist, and a

== great aid to the student who wishes to study rocks from 4

. geological standpoint.

BOTANY.’

roo THE ADVENTITIOUS INFLORESCENCE OF CUSCUTA GLOMERATA

n KNOWN TO THE GERMANS.—At the Philadelphia meeting of the

- American Association for the Advancement of Science, the

writer presented a short paper, calling attention to the adventi-

tious inflorescence of Cuscuta glomerata. The fact was suppose

to be new to science, as it certainly was to the writer, and, more”

over, appeared to be to the botanists of the meeting. Additional

facts were presented to the Ann Arbor meeting of the Association,

and in the discussion the originality of the discovery was

- questioned and apparently not doubted by any one. :

_. Imagine my chagrin a few days ago (Dec. 30, 1885), whet ee

a running over the text of Dodel-Port’s Anatomisch-physiologis¢ -

_ Atlas der Botanik, I found the whole matter fully and accurately

_ described. This atlas was published from 1878 to 1883, in Es-

slingen. The study of Cuscuta glomerata was made in the Bo-

tanic Gardens of Zurich, where for ‘ten years or more it

~ come acclimatized.

page 4 of part xxx, of the text to the atlas, Dr. Dodel-Port,

~ after describing the normal branching, remarks in substance as

-l Carl Winter, Heidelberg, 1886.

3 | *Edited by ‘of

essor CHARLES É. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska.

has be-

EE ET ERN

1886.) i Botany. i 279

follows, viz: “ Besides this normal branching there is a copious

, formation of adventitious shoots. These are formed endogen-

ously upon the best nourished parts of the Cuscuta stem, and also

upon the parts which bear the haustoria, where the host-plant and

parasite are in immediate contact. The rudimentary shoot-buds

are formed beneath the cortex of the Cuscuta stem, and break

through in a manner similar to the lateral roots of vascular plants.

They develop either into inflorescences, or upon injury to the rest

of the plant, into vegetation shoots.”

These adventitious branches were also noticed, very briefly and

somewhat vaguely, by Solms-Laubach in a paper on Parasitic

Phanerogams in Pringsheim’s Jahrbuch für wissenchaftliche

Botanik, vol. v1, 1868.— Charles E. Bessey.

SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN A FUNGUS AND THE ROOTS OF FLOWERING

PLants.—In investigating the structure of the vegetative organs

of Monotropa hypopitys, M. F. Kamienski (Mem. de la Soc. Na-

tionale des Sciences Naturelles de Cherbourg) came to the con-

clusion that it is not a parasite, the most careful observation fail-

ing to detect any haustoria or other parasitic union with the root

of any host.’ On the other hand he found the root of the Mono-

tropa to be completely covered by the mycelium of fungus which

branches abundantly and forms a pseudo-parenchymatous envel-

ope, often two or three times the thickness of the epidermis, and

pe)

win he structure of this cortex is that ofa ee

; it is composed of a dense mass of hyphz, big o

r from 2 to 1o™™ usually in several layers, from which

280 General Notes. [ March, a

By this structure the formation of root-hairs by the tree is entirely

prevented, and it is through it alone that it is able to absorb nu-

triment out of the soil. It makes its appearance first on the lat-

eral roots of the young seedling, and is constantly being replaced

by fresh formations on older roots. Dr. Frank found this struc-

ture invariably on every root examined of trees belonging to the

Cupuliferze, also occasionally on Salicaceæ and Conifera, but

never on woody plants belonging to other natural orders, nor on

any herbaceous plant. It is quite independent of the nature of

the soil. He also regards the phenomenon as an example of

Dr. Woronin confirms these statements in relation to Conifere,

Salicacez, and some other trees, and thinks it probable that the

fungus, which he regards rather as truly parasitic, is a Boletus—

A, W. Bennett.

always found in the interior of the frustule, seems possible, except

that they constitute a nest of embryonal diatoms on the point of

escaping from the mother-cell. This is in accord with previous

_ observations of the author on similar round bodies seen on the

point of escaping from a Podosphenia, and with observations of

Rabenhorst and O’Meara. The fact that the diatoms in which these

bodies were observed had previously been treated with boiling

sulphuric acid with addition of potassium chloride, shows conclu-

sively that the round bodies seen to escape from living diatoms

are not Infusoria or other organisms fortuitously collected round

and demonstrates at the same time that, from the first mo-

‘ment of their existence, diatoms must be provided with a sili-

_ C€ous coating, though it may be of extreme tenuity. It would seem

from these observations that diatom may assume the function

of a sporangium, producing in its interior embryonal forms by —

which the species is reproduced, and which ultimately acquire the

_ form and approximately the size of the mother-frustule.

In connection with this subject, Mr. F. Kitton states (Jour.

_ Quekett Micros. Club) that he found on carafes of water a film

_ composed entirely of frustules of Achnanthes linearis ; but on filt-

_ ering the water, these were never found on the filter-paper, 2No

_when the filter-paper was boiled in decarbonized sulphuric acid,

Aa a a er

1886,] - ... Botany. 281

the residue showed no indication of carbonaceous remains. In the

course of a few days a film again began to appear on the filtered

water, which was found to consist entirely of the same diatoms,

A control experiment showed that none of these diatoms, though

exceedingly minute, would pass through the filter-paper em- .

k ployed, and the conclusion seems inevitable that the diatoms

y ee have passed through in the form of microspores.—A.

ennet

BOTANICAL LABORATORIES IN THE UNITED STATES.—In a most

instructive paper in the December number of the Botanical Gazette,

Mr. Arthur gives descriptions of some of the more important bo-

rh laboratories in this country. Those noticed are ie fol-

owing:

1. Harvard University. (a) The laboratory in connection with the Gardens.

(6) The laboratory M Cryptogamic mgs in the Agassiz museum, (c) The

mr ayo of ae anerogamic bot n Harvard Hall. Twenty-one compound

microscopes eet er

2: Corneil University, (a) The labaratory for rg ota and general phanerogamic

ork with eleven dissecting a NR (4) T + der aig pets laboratory and

aiersiaiy, supplied with twelve compound microscopes.

3: University of Pen ennsylvania. (a) L rune for junior work, containing an out-

A of ree microscopes. (4) Laboratory a senior work. ‘These contain

è enty r compo ound microscopes

4. Mine Univers ce Laboratory and green-houses, supplied with twenty-one com-

be a ©

5- Michigan Agricultural Prane _Laboratory and conservatory, an with

te,

8. Wa abash a (2) paghari for elementary botany, with an outfit of dis-

asn croscop @) Laboratory for advanced botany, supplied with twen enty 4

9. Perdue. ener Laboratory supplied with eee compound microscopes ;

a an equ mber of d

se 10. ira of ie a, (2) 5. rene for elementary work, supplie ed with

Opra i Seded Diop (0) Laboratory for advanced ‘work, supplied

: twenty-five co sag de crosco ER

Ir. University of Nebras Laboe ratory s upplied with twenty-five dissecting micro-

; an reat ero Coddington hand-lens: - a elementary work; and

on wenky-twi und microscopes a ioe advanced wo

: 12, 7 he hee Schoo? a of Botany. Laboratory spied with sixteen r micro-

scopes for ER work, and four

, they will prove ve very useful and instructive,

nner in Fungology.

282 General Notes. [ March,

_ BoranicaL News.—The “Laboratory number” (Dec.) of the

Botanical Gazette is one of the most valuable issued during the

past year. The special laboratory topics are, Some botanical

laboratories of the United States; Laboratory appliances ; The

~ — - laboratory at Strasburg ; Laboratory courses of instruction; Sec-

tion cutting, besides a dozen or so general notes devoted to some

_ phase of the subject. A late number of Fora contains a paper

on the infloresence of Typha, by Celakoosky. No. 141 of the

Journal of the Linnean Society contains: (1) Contributions to the

Flora of the Peruvian Andes, with remarks on the history and origin

ofthe Andean Flora, by John Ball; (2) Contributions to South-Afri-

can botany, by H. Bolus and N. E. Brown; (3) A contribution to

the study of the relative effects of different parts of the solar spec-

trum on the transpiration of plants, by George Henslow. e

‘December Torrey Bulletin contains the summary of another year’s

= Work upon the fresh-water Algz of the United States, by Francis

cag Wolle. ‘Several new species are described, viz: Ectocarpus rivu-

a laris (Florida), Cdogonium cataractum (Florida), Dictyospher-

P tum hitchcockii (N. J.), Zygnema purpurea (N. J. and Fla.), Meso-

~ carpus crassus (Fla.), Staurastrum tokopekatigense (Fla.), besides a

number of varieties. A plate of Desmids accompanies the paper.

The Gardeners’ Monthly, while not professing to be a botani-

cal journal, contains much of value and interest to the botanist.

we are doing a good service when we call attention to John

Wheidon’s botanical catalogues (58 Great Queen street, London,

iC Eng,

Journal of Botany, just closed, enumerates an unusually great

features of the past few months has been the attention given in sO

many journals to notices of Dr. Gray. The latest of these which

we have is a neat paper- reprinted from the Sun newspaper O

- Jan. 3, and entitled “Asa Gray.” It is from the hand of Professor

C. S. Sargent, and gives a summary of the life and labors of the

eminent botanist. Very like the foregoing is the paper in the

January Botanical Gazette, by Professor C. R. Barnes. In this

_ paper, however, we have more of the personal history, It is ac-

_ companied by a fine heliotype.

;

1886.] Entomology. 283

ENTOMOLOGY.

Wittaczit on PsyLLIDÆ.!—In 1883 Dr. Witlaczil published his

researches on the anatomy of the Aphides, and in 1884 on their

embryology (of which paper we gave an abstract in AMERICAN

Natura tist, Feb., 1885). He now furnishes an additional con-

tribution to the anatomy of the Phytophthira, or plant-lice, mak-

ing the small group of Psyllidze the subject of important re-

searches; his exposition of the structure of the insect brain being

of exceptional value. The species examined by him represented

the genera Psyllopsis, Rhinocola, Psylla, Homotoma, Trioza,

His methods were teasing in saline solutions, treating with dilute

acetic acid the fresh and stained animals entire and making sec-

tions in the Naples way with Jung’s microtome.

In external appearance the Psyllidz are small (about a milli-

. meter in length) differing from other families of Homoptera by

pound eye;

od, outer decussation ; oes, cesophagus ; , outer medullary layer; e,

the similarity of both sexes, which are winged and are provided

with a pair of compound eyes and three simple ocelli, and have

ten jointed antennz, the two joints next the base short and thick,

and the terminal joint bearing a pair of bristles. During life the

antennz are constantly vibrating. Figs. 1, 2 show the male,

Fig. 1. Fig. 2, 4 ae

prm, 1.*—Psyllopsis, g, dorsal view, right wings removed. Fic. 2,—The same,

teral view, wings removed. ces

a Be Anatomie der Psylliden, von Dr. Emanuel Witlaczil in Wien. Zeitschrift

Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Vol. xL11 (1885), pp. 5602658, and pl. XX-XXII.

* Explanation of refi : : lobe: an,

trence-letters in the figures.—a, anus; al, anten >j an,

abdominal nerve; at, antenna; aés, antennal swelling; c, central body of brain;

P, crop; es, eye swelling; ga ion, gz, genital hooks; in, ind-intestine 5

a. issation ; 7, limb nerve ; mzb, mushroom g.v. -o

sels; m.n, mid-intestine; 724, mid- ibbe df brain; oc, compound eye; och, ocellus; :

d b om ed , penis; 7e,

3 $.0€, Sub-cesophageal ganglion; sź, stomach; ventral nerve-cord. Ro-

man numerals di apap ERDE +. a RESA K abdominal somites.

Paes General Notes. [March,

whose abdomen is slightly compressed. The abdomen of the

female is rounded. The wings of these insects and of the winged

forms of Aphides are used chiefly as parachutes. The coxa of

the limbs coalesce with the thorax, and the tarsi are two-jointed,

bearing a pair of terminal claws. The hind-limbs are specialized

for springing. The first abdominal somite of both sexes is added

| to the metathorax to enlarge the springing-gear; the second

abdominal somite forms a short stalk for the abdomen, and the

] terminal abdominal somites are so modified as to have misled

the systematists. In the male the tenth somite seems to be in-

serted on the eighth, as the ninth has only its ventral part devel-

oped and ends the abdomen, whilst the tenth, bearing the anus

and penis, is reverted dorsad. In the female the ninth somite 1s

discernible only by its appendages, and the tenth isa roofing

dorsal plate (the upper genital dorsal plate of Low) bearing in its

center the anus fringed by wax-glands. Thus in both sexes the

is typical number of ten somites can be found.

ne The circum-anal wax-glands are in the larve of both sexes;

and wax-glands producing wax-fibrils are present on other parts.

Wax-particles sometimes cover the larvae, protecting the back

from excrementitious matter. Some larve (Psyllopsis) have

spear-shaped wax-hairs ; the larva of Trioza has a marginal row

: of leaf-like wax-plates. All the wax-hairs arise like chitinous

oe hairs from large hypodermal cells, which have vacuoles presuma-

bly filled with the secretion-fluid.

= The stigmas of the tracheal system are denticulated on each

= side, and have a self-acting closing apparatus (not as described

~ by Landois). They have a short muscle on the ventral side,

=- ~ so connected with the dorso-ventral muscles of the body that on

the contraction of these muscles the stigmatic muscle contracts

and opens the valve. This is probably for expiration. Inspira-

tion is effected by the mere elasticity of the trachea, and the

_ stigmatic valve closes by its own elasticity. The will of the in-

= sect does not control these movements. J

-The xervous-system and sense-organs are here treated relativel

to insects in general, and much new light is cast on the subjec

of the insect’s psychology. The brain of the Psyllide is rather

large, having a middle lobe and two lateral lobes, the latter send-

ing off the optic nerves (Figs. 3, 4).

; ing a central medullary system and a peripheral layer of a cortex

Pats Thus I render Vorderkopf; “ procephalic-lobes” is inaccurate, as the part is "e

_ paired; the term “ forehead ” is preoccupied.—G. M. i

1886.] i Entomology. . 285

of ganglion-cells which fails only at its posterior part. The gan-

glion-cells are polygonal or roundish, varying in size ; they have

a horny nucleus, and become stained whilst the medullary part

remains clear.

The compound eyes are well described by Viallanes (Ann. des

Sci. Naturelles, 1882) for Musca. In Psyllidz they are somewhat

simpler, having (1) at the surface numerous separate lenses of the

cornea, slightly biconvex, (2) below them a layer of crystalline

cones, often brownish, (3) next comes a dark layer of rhabdites

forming the retina; each rhabdite being a slender truncated cone,

narrowing inwards. The whole sys-

tem of rhabdites converges towards

not be clearly recognized in Psylli-

dæ. The retinal fibers pass by the

Tas

Fig. 3.

tance. The fibers passing this way toward the median brain- |

mass form an “ outer decussation” (ed). Some fibers from this

decussation go to the adjoining cortex, some to the outer part of |

‘

ig so. eek een

S EA =

i PT General Notes. i [March,

body to the anterior cortex of the brain with its abundant gan-

gilion-cells.* i

The simple eyes have biconvex lenses and rhabdites joined to

nerve fibers, which run back to the infero-posterior region of the

brain, and thence advance so as to enter the central body. The

antennal nerves run straight back to the antennal lobes (a/),

whence some fibers run forwards to the central region of the

brain.

The “central body” has been described by investigators as a

fan-shaped organ. Packard, after Newton, described it as a half-

moon-shaped body, concave backwards and separated by a net-

work of fibers from the brain, and supposed it to consist of modi-

fied,cells. In Psyllidz it is bean-shaped, consisting of granulated

matter not at all isolated from the surrounding parts of the brain,

but receiving fibers from and sending fibers to the other lobes,

and is nothing more than a central commissural system, its cell-

like elements being the cross-sections of fibrous masses.

4 he mushroom-bodies, described by authors, are found in Psyl-

lide only in a rudimentary form, being some thick masses of

ganglion-cells in the upper anterior bor-

der near the median line, whence bundles

_ of fibers run backwards. :

Taken as a whole the brain, with its

connections with procephalic ganglion-

masses, subcesophageal commissures

and ventral nerve-cord, and various lobes

in its own mass, is complex; and it !s

scarcely possible to join sections made

in different directions into a unity, SO aS

to get its real structure. As a whole

ganglion-cells. The insect-brain is, there-

í fore, a projection-centrum, the uap?

o ae _room-body being special. The most ım-

a a Paneer at oF portant nerves entering the brain (as

ae Ee from the eyes, antenne, limbs) cause

-a swelling in its medulla, where the fibers are deflected so as tO

_ change their course. ‘

= Digestive tract—The mandibles and first maxillze are developed

_ 1S, J. Hickson (in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, April, 1885) S€

the terms opticon, epiopticon and periopticon for three medullary masses belonging =

. PA > Musca; representing respectively om, es, and a tract near oc of © Fig-

Prae i

-ject is there given

*Second report U, S. Entomol, Commission, 1878-9. The literature of the sub ,

approaching most nearly to the Crambidz and Scopariade.” —

1886. | Entomology. 287

into “ retort-shaped organs,” and the second maxilla form a short

under lip which is inserted on the short prothcrax. The piercing

stylets are very long, lying in a groove of the under lip, and at

their base forming loops which are enclosed in a dermal sac. This

is the structure also in Coccide, as Dujardin and Mark shew

[and is well seen in the larval seventeen-year Cicada.—G.M.].

The cesophagus is narrow, extending as far as the abdomen,

where the stomach and beginning of the mid-intestine coalesce

with the hind-intestine (Fig. 5), the two parts winding round each

other in several turns. This coalescence is caused by the contrac-

tion of the mid-intestine. Mark shews that in Coccide the ar-

rangement is different, the end of the cesophagus and beginning

of the stomach having a small winding loop which is received

into a sac formed by the hind-intestine. This latter is also the

way in Cicadidæ. The malpighian vessels are four, short and dis-

tinct, their ends running into a suspensory ligament. They are

wanting in Aphides and Chermetide.—G. Macloskie.

Entomotocicat News.—A paper by Dr. E. Witlaczil, on the

morphology and anatomy of the bark lice (Coccidz) appears in

Zeitschrift tür Wissens., Zoologie, issued Dec. 31, 1885. i.

R. von Limbeck has investigated ( Litzungsber, K. Akad. Wissen-

schaften, Wien, 91, 1885, p. 322) the histology of the yellowish-

brown and white muscles of insects ; the former are thoracic and

belong to the wings, the latter are abdominal muscles, and largely

form those moving the hind limbs. According to Science for

Jan. 15, the city of Mexico has. for a number of months past

been afflicted with a scourge of mosquitoes, which have abounded |

SO as to cause sickness, and, it is said death, by their poisonous -

bites. The grand prize in anatomy and zodlogy of the French

Academy has been given to Dr. J. Chatin for a work, as yet un-

published, on the tactile organs of insects and Crustacea. The

Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, Dec. 2,

1885, contain an interesting life-history of a trap-door spider

(diypus piceus), by F. Enock; also an essay on the classification

of the Australian Pyralidina, by E. Meyrick. He divides the

group into thirteen families, and estimates the number of de-

scribed species throughout the world at 2500. He thinks that

the Phycidz may be regarded as a development of the Galleriadz,

the Botydide of the Scopariade, and the Hydrocampide and

Musotimidze of the Pyralidide. * * * The Tineodide (formed

or the reception of the genus Tineodes), Oxychirotide, Ptergoe

phoridæ, and Alucitidæ on relics of a once more extensive sec-

tion of the group, now reduced to a fragmentary condition, and

288 General Notes. { March,

ZOOLOGY.

THE PROATLAS, ATLAS AND AXIS OF THE CrocopiLia.—l. Pro-

atlas—In all Crocodilia there is developed an osseous piece be-

-tween the skull and the neurapophysis of fe atlas. This piece

is called * ‘kleines niedriges Bogenstiick” (Meckel?) ; “ lame. trans-

verse’ any ; “oberes Schluss-Stiick ” (Stannius’) ; aes oberer

Bogen ” (Bruch*) ; “ Spinal — oder Dachstiick ” (Brühl’) ; PERE

ral spine of the atlas P (Owen®) ; “ proatlas ” (Albrecht’) ; “ post-

occipital bones ” (Marsh8).

ruch (l. c., 1861) was the first to give the correct explanation

of this piece, he considers it as the neurapophysis of a vertebra,

| between the skull and the atlas.

oe) In 1880 Albrecht? reached the same result (I. c.).

7 Brühl and Marsh consider the elements in question as belong-

ing to the skull: Dollo® has shown in extenso that this view is

Wrong, and that the ‘“ postoccipital bones” really represent

i “ proatlas” of Albrecht, and therefore parts of the vata

: column,

iy Eudes- eee a says that it “ représente larc postérieur

de l’atlas chez Phom 3

Dollo (1. c.) has irea a list of vertebrates in which the “ pro-

atlas” has been observed; it is not necessary to repeat it.

I have to add only some few points :

1. The proatlas is developed from two different cartilages €x-

S Pri in the same way as all neurapophyses d

oe he two parts may be distinct in the young animals, an

even in adult ones? Ina nearly ripe embryo of /acare vallifro ae

I find two elongated osseous elements. Ina young Aligator

__| Meckel, J. F. System der vergleichenden Anatomie, 2 ter Theil. Abth. 1

Halle, 1824, p. 430.

A abi St ti

_ * Bruch, C. Vergleichende pand des Rheinlachses, Mainz, 1861, p. 134-

-é Brühl, C.. B. Ico es ad zootomiam illustrandam, Das Skelet der Kyocodilinen,

Ges, 1862, pp- 2-3.

6 Owen, On the mony of Vertebrates, Vol. 1, p. 65, L 1866. Atlas

ee T Albrecht, P. Ueber di oatlas, einen zwichen dem Cio tok dem

+ der amnioten Wirbelthiere ekba Wirbel, ri arah a 1880, p. 475- a

ra O. sthiere g pans acters of Am n Jurassic Dinosaurs, Part

on of Brontosaurus, Am: J..Sc., Vol. xx iag Au ug., 1883, pP- 3- ës

lei is a believed that Albrecht first chines d the true nature of these bon

‘but, as s L have ve said, Bruch already had the same idea miiy twenty years

sa Dollo, LG inquieme note sur les an de Bernissart, Bull. Musée Roy-

- Hist. Nat. Belg., bies II, 1884, pp. 129-135.

~ H Eudes-Desion mps, Mém teas sur les Téléosauricus de époque jurasst AY

du tinct es rg Calvados. Mém. Soc. Linn. Normandie, Vol. x11, Caen, I 3

peat TH Á manual of the > anatomy of vertebrated animals. Lai

1886.1 Zoölogy. 289

mississippiensis the bones are separate but not elongated as in

Jacare. Usually the two elements unite early in the embryo.

It is possible that a proatlas existed in Rhynchosaurus

Owen, a reptile very nearly allied to Sphenodon (Hatteria).

Sphenodon has rudiments of the proatlas, as shown by Albrecht;*

therefore the same bones ought to be present in Rhynchosau-

rus; this seems to be confirmed by a note by Owen? on this

rept tile.

“ A small flattened triangular plate, which adhered to the pos-

terior part of the skull, was suspected by Dr. Ward to be a tooth;

it appeared to me, from the character of the exposed surface, to

have at least equal claims to be regarded a dermal scute. In pre-

paring the mold of the cranium this part was detached and lost, a

circumstance which I have much regretted, since it prevented my

applying to it the test of a microscopical examination

In his detailed ape ue of Rhynchosaurus, eee, does not

mention this poin

I believe it oni that the small flattened TAREA plate,

“which adhered to the posterior part of the skull,” represents a

piece of the proatlas.

It is probable that the proatlas is present also in the Proto-.

rosauria, which have many characters common with Sphenodon.

Il. Atlas and Axis—The centrum of the atlas is always repre-

sented by the odontoid process of the axis, and can be separated |

easily in the Crocodilia. The piece below the centrum of the

atlas, supportin g the neural arch of that vertebra, is the Oe

pophysis, between the proatlas and the atlas

The hy papophysis between the atlas and axis is probably co-

ossified with the anterior and lower part of theaxis-centrum, asin

irds and some dinosaurs. There seems to be a great confusion

in the determination of the ribs belonging to the first vertebra

in the Crocodilia, and’even about the true nature of these verte-

bre. Koken’ says, 1882: “ Es ist erstaunlich und befremdend, _

wie sehr bei diesen sonst so conservativen Thieren die Ausbildung

der ersten Halswirbel, und zwar in wesentlichen Punkten, differirt.

Vorlaufig erscheint es unmöglich, in Art und Reihenfolge il 8

Ve eraenderungen eine Cie zu bringen.” A

his is very s indeed. We find it very much more

“ befremdend,” sasa Eoia says (p. 808), that an aligator (4. :

t, P. Note sur la présence ae rudiment de proatlas sur un exalt

de Haters, unciata Gray. Bull. Mas. Roy. Hist, Nat. Belg, T. 1t, 1583, p. 190-

; Stag R. Report Brit. Fossils, Rept. k: Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1841, p- 150. —

en, Description of an extinet lacertilian Aag (Riper aie

Omen) of which the bones and footprints characterize the upper n Red :

will, near Shrewsbury. Cambr. Philos. Soc. Trans., Vit, 1842, pP- sc

5 mene E: -Dié Reptilien der norddeutschen unteren Kreide. Z

Deutsch. Geol. Gessellsch’ Jahrg, 1 1883, p. 808. ie

AG: x pR i z f > s

wee eR m PR A s, < vA EN

Re AM 3k ae ae 3 TEE ;

290 Generat Notes. [ March, ;

darwini) and a crocodile (C. ebertsi) have no hypapophysis, follow-

ing Ludwig’s! wrong description.

All reptiles possess the hypapophysis (unteres Schluss-stiick)

of the atlas, and it is quite injudicious that Ludwig and Koken

could deny the existence of such an element in an alligator and a

crocodile from the Tertiary. i

The matter is very simple. Ludwig described the true hypa-

pophysis of A. darwini as the centrum of the atlas; the axis centrum

_ . + the odontoid process as the centrum of the axis. Ludwig says

= , that the odontoid process of the axis is wanting in C. ebertsi, but

he describes it. He makes something very remarkable out of its

separation from the axis. He did not find the hypophysis, and

therefore he says this element is wanting.

There is no doubt whatever that the atlas and axis of Alligator

darwini and Crocodilus ebertsi possessed the same structure as the

living alligators and crocodiles,

oe Koken finds similar difficulties in the articulation of the ribs

a (p. 809). “ Die zum Epistropheus gehörige Rippe ist: bet den

lebenden Crocodilinen gegabelt und gelenkt (nur mit dem Capi-

tulum) zwischen Epistropheus und Dens Epistrophei, mehr am

_ lezteren. :

“Bei Crocodilus ebertsi ist sie ganz auf den Atlas-K6rper über-

gegangen, bei Alligator darwini trägt degegen der Epistropheus

3 die Rippe, bei beiden ist sie einfach.

ee “Bei Enaliosuchus setzt sich die einfache Rippe an die Dia-

= > pophyse des Epistropheus, während die Parapophysen keine

-, Rippen stützen. ;

“ Bei Teleosaurus ist sie gegabelt und sowohl an Diapophys¢

wie Parapophyse inserirt. 7

“Bei Teleosaurus findet sich ferner ein drittes Rippenpaar,

-~ welches intervertebral zwischen Atlas-Korper und Epistropheus |

articulirt.” :

If these characters are true, we have to abandon the value oA

Siete, chee

morphology. But we hope to show that the above statements

- are wrong or incorrect.

= L In the living crocodiles the rib of the axis shows the follow-

ing conditions: :

__ In Gavialis gangeticus the capitulum of the axis-rib articulates

only with the centrum of the atlas, There is developed a rudimente

~ ary diapophysis in the neural arch of both sides. The tuberculum

_ of the axis rib does not reach that diapophysis, but is probably -

connected with it by ligament. a

= _ {nan adult Aligator mississippiensis the capitulum articulates

1 Ludwig, R. „Fossile Crocodiliden aus der Tertiaerformation des Mainzer Becken, _

__ Palaeuntographica. Suppl. mt, Lief. 4 u. 5, Cassel, 1877, pp. 13-14, P- 37-

1886. } Zoölogy: 291 :

with the atlas-center and by a very small face with the axis-center

also. There is no trace of a diapophysis. The tuberculum does

not reach either the axis or the atlas, but is connected with the

atlas by ligament.

ScHEMATIC FIGURES, SHOWING THE RELATION OF THE AXIS-RIB TO ATLAS

AND AXIS.

Teleosaur, Enaliosuchus. Gayial.

‘

Alligator, young.

bh tubercle ax, axis-centrum; d, diapophysis; /, parapophysis ; Ly capitu- ;

_Ina very young A. mississippiensis the tuberculum is pti se

and articulates with the atlas-center; the capitulum articulates

with the same bone

ag es americanus Scline d., the capitulum aiticalates

te ae atlas-center, the a ag gis touches the neue

. axis, but t there is no.face on that bone.

| Te mo 1. 20

sis Nee General Notes. | Match,

» 2. Crocodilus ebertst shows the same conditions as A. missis-

sipplensis. .

In Alligator darwini the axis-rib is connected with the atlas-

center. Ludwig, considering the atlas + axis as the axis, says

that it articulates with the axis.

3. In the Enaliosuchus-axis a diapophysis is present. Koken

believes that Enaliosuchus has a simple rib connected with this dia-

pophysis. This can not be correct; if the diapophysis is present

there must be an articulation for the tuberculum of the rib. The

tuberculum never disappears before the capitulum. I believe that

in Enaliosuchus (if it really belongs to the Crocodilia) a complete

rib was developed in the axis, the capitulum articulating with the

- well-developed diapophysis, the tuberculum with the axis-centrum

or with both the axis and atlas, or with the atlas alone. This face

will probably be found if the atlas-rib is removed.

In the Teleosaurus-axis the diapophysis and the parapophy-

sis are developed and the ribs two-headed.

Deslongchamps describes an additional rib connected with the

atlas-center, but he figures no articular surface for this rib on

the atlas. It is a morphological impossibility that a rib should

exist between the ribs of the atlas, connected with the hypa-

pophysis, and that of the aris.

At first when I saw Deslongchamps’s figures I reached the

conclusion that the axis-rib had entirely disappeared in the living

Crocodilia, and that the vi% i question represents the rib con-

nected with the atlas-center (the true atlas-rib), but since I have

ie shown that the axis-rib has not disappeared in the living Crocodilia,

Py but is shifted in front of the axis successively, I must abandon

be this view.

Koken believes that the additional “ rib” in Teleosaurus rep-

resents the tubercular part of the atlas-rib. This may be, but it

= ` iş not probable. If the atlas and axis of the Parasuchia (Belo-

a Stagonolepis) are known, we probably will get more light on

-this point. i

I give the following results: :

| All crocodiles possess ribs of the'atlas and ribs of the axis.

In the older crocodiles (Teleosaurus) the axis-rib has a well devel-

- ped capitulum and tuberculum, the latter articulating with a well-

_ devloped diapophysis. A similar condition is shown in Enaue

_ Suchus from the Lower Cretaceous.

à ; Later the diapophysis, and with it the capitulum, get rudimentary,

the axis-rib loses its articulation with the axis and is shifted to the

All crocodiles. possess a hypapophysis (unteres Schluss-stück) ,

ibe alas: 2 P :

: tail of Lichanura can hardly be igned th gory =

Pm y assigned to the one category

_ More than to the other. eee

course which has generally been adopted by authors; while the

T gone So far as to unite them, An examination of the skeleton, .

1886.] : Zoology... 293 *

This process is shown by the following diagram (relation of the

axis-rib to the atlas and axis):

Capitulum. Tuberculum. | Diapophysis. |“ Parapophys.”

g articulating with resent on the

Teleosaurus. |“ parapoph.” of |articulating with anterior and

. is. diapophysis | well developed | lower part of

(hypapophysis) axis

(hypapophysis)

on the axis or

` Enatliosuchus. atlas, or between

“ se “ them

rudimentary,

Gav. gang. articulating with} connected by | rudimentary | present on the

sa parapophysis rT ligament with atlas-center

the rudim. diap.

rudimentary, ;

ny Paka connected by present on the

_ Alig. mississ. \articulating with| ligament with wanting atlas-center,

and other croc. |“ parapophysis’’|the atlas or axis, partially on the

if present con- axis :

nected with atlas

ee G. Baur, Yale College Museum, New Haven, Conn, fan. 7,

THREE PROBLEMATICAL GENERA OF MEXICAN BOÆFORM SNAKES. |

~ Besides genera of typical Boidz known to inhabit Mexico and E

Central America, three genera have been found whose position y

been more or less uncertain. These are Charina Gray, Lich-

anura Cope, and Loxocemus Cope. All of them have been re- T

ferred by one or another author to a supposed family Erycidæ,

_ the type of which is the genus Eryx of India and Africa. This

family has, however, no further definition than the non-prehen- —

sile character of its.tail; in all other respects its members agree _

with the Boide. This prehensile character is, however, well

known to be extremely evanescent in snakes, and to have no |

&reater than generic value, and sometimes not even —

Some years ago I referred Loxocemus to the Pythonidæ, a :

two others have been kept in the Erycida, Mr.

ee, 294 General Notes. | March >

however, shows that they all differ materially from each other,

and must be referred to three separate families, viz., the Python-

idz, the Boidz and to the new family of the Charinide. The

= definitions of these families are as follows:

Supraorbital, postfrontal and coronoid bones present......--sseeeeeses Pythonide.

Postorbital and coronoid bones present; no supraorbital. .......>.....0.% oide.

Neither postfrontal, supraorbital nor coronoid bones present Charinide.

—E, D, Copi:

NOTE ON THE PROBLEM OF SoarING Birps.—In the interest-

ing paper on soaring birds, by I. Lancaster, published in Nos.

11 and 12 of the Naturatisr for 1885, the writer attributes the

power which is utilized by the bird, no doubt correctly, to the

condensation and expansion of the atmosphere, produced by the

relative motion of the bird with respect to the atmosphere.

An evaluation, if it were practicable, of the excess of the

upward, above the downward, atmospheric pressure upon the bird,

when it soars horizontally or remains stationary on fixed wings,

would show, no doubt, that such excess is exactly equal to the

weight of the bird; and the rear expansion on a vertical section

of a bird that remains stationary on fixed wing in a current of aif;

ko would be found to be exactly equal to the force exerted by the

breeze. No other explanation of the phenomenon is conceivable,

and this is substantially the explanation suggested by Mr. Lan-

-vertical descent,

_. This is obviously a misinterpretation of the phenomena ; for

-itis well known that the upward lateral force would arrest the

downward motion, so that the cause of the upward motion woul

be immediately withdrawn ; and besides, it leads to the absurd con”

“clusion that the secondary effect of gravitation, through the com

- action.

; Obviously the best the bird can do to sustain his elevation m

still air, will be, by suitable position of his wings, to effect a 5#¢

_cession of descents and ascents, thus utilizing, not only the con-

-densation produced by his descent, but also the momentum

_ acquired by his velocity. |

it es pees ge ee Fi EA p aes

ha fia eerie fier uke NU aCe = ST SS I L E

_ densation and expansion of air, may exceed that of its direct

AREN OSS Lemos Pe ee ey a

1886.] Zoology. 295

It follows, therefore, that soaring birds utilize zwo forces, viz.,

gravity and the motion of the atmosphere, and that without atmos-

pheric motion other than that produced by his descent, a soaring

bird cannot for an instant maintain, undiminished, his energy of

position —/. E. Hendricks, Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 14, 1886.

On THE Types oF TooTH-sTRUCTURE IN MAMMALIA.—The trifid

form of the lower molar of the genus Monachus and of Meso-

nyx is in reality repeated in the cusps of the molars of Ungu-

lata generally. In Sus the second upper molar cusp' sends a long

basal process forward and outward toward the canine cusp and

may be said to represent the anterior cuspule of the trifid figure

of the plan of cusp itself, while the posterior cuspule is aborted.

The bicuspid cusp exhibits a small anterior cuspule which ex-

tends directly outward to reach the base of the canine cusp. Both

the ridges formed by these cuspules are the first to become worn

in mastication. This plan of arrangement is repeated in several

extinct genera. among which may be mentioned Phenacodus and

Hyracotherium.

In Hyracotherium cuspidatum? the cuspule is placed obliquely

to the true molar cusp, precisely as in Gymnura, instead of being

continuous with the cusp. The differences between the cusp and

the oblique prolongation of the first molar cusp forward and in-

trifid figure. As may be easily supposed the direction of the

ridges is subject to much variation. In man such direction is

along a line which connects the first molar and the bicuspid

The nomenclature of eS iad

617) VAR Riv the cusps proposed by me in 1874 (Dental Cosmos, XVI,

-ar Pe- Wheelers Survey, rv, p. 267, pl. Lxv, fig. 18.

* Ibid, pl. LXV, fig. 1. oe EEF S :

m vant Mammalia of Dakota and Nebraska, p. 245, pl. xxvit, f. 13, 15-

61 ontography, P- 453. ] ` a

Journ. of Acad. of Nat. Sci., 1874.

', age : General Notes. [ March,

“interstitial” type of tooth of Ryder. They constitute in part the

intermediate (median denticules) cusps of Gaudry.? The object of

the cuspule is to support the cusp, to the base of which it is attached.

Indeed, it presents the first attempt to modify the bunodont type of

dentition toward the lophodont type. It is consistently main-

tained only when the strain of impact is of moderate amount.

Should the strain become excessive the lateral border of the tooth

: is arched inward, as first pointed out by Ryder.’ In the presence

= of these strong arches or flutings the main surfaces of attrition

no longer need the basal cusp supports and they disappear. This

change is illustrated in Paleosyops and Limnohyus.

en a tooth becomes worn and an island of dentine appears

at the summit of the cuspule it is often seen to be obliquely

-~ placed to the main cusp. This is occasionally seen in Acheno-

don and Mastodon and constantly in Hippopotamus. A key isin

this way afforded to interpret the islands of the complex tooth of

Phacocherus. Care should be taken not to be misled in applying

this method of interpretation to intricate types of tooth-structure,

such as Polymastodon and its allies, for in these genera there €x-

ist true cusps only (cuspules being entirely absent), and the third

row of islands (when such exists) being simply a linear row of

well-defined characters placed along the border of the tooth.

~ A tooth that has been for a long time subjected to the action of a

dilute acid is entirely deprived of its enamel, and permits the super-

_ ficies of the dentine to be clearly seen. It is of interest to note

that the cusps upon the dentine of a tooth thus prepared, while

corresponding in a general way to those on the free enamel surface,

E are sufficiently distinct therefrom to afford material for comparisons,

i and to suggest relationships of a different character from those

determined by the study of the entire tooth. Thus the dentine

cusps of the premolars of Sus suggest the form of the correspond-

ing teeth in Monachus and of Mesonyx. The cusps of the third

molar of Sus are strikingly like the molars of the Insectivora and

of lower molars of the genus Bathyopsis. In like manner the

: i

$3 essential features of teeth so remote as to recall the type seen in

‘ Centetes, Gymnura,* Chrysochloris, as well as in the numerous

ancestral types described by Cope from the North American

Eocene? |

_ A practical method of studying teeth with the object in view of

: : ‘Pris of Acad. of Natural Sciences, 1878, 45.

z Les Enchainements du Monde Animal, Paris, 1878, 70.

Les Cit - j

: * The arrangement seen in Sus is the same essentially as in Gymnura. The minute

_ cuspule on the crown of the first upper molar is in precisely the same position as 10

cept that it is not connected to the anterior inner cusp as, named by that author. Itis

-a little curious that the dental formula of Gymnura is the same as in Sus. nee

ee 5 Report U. S. Geo. Sur. of Territory, m1, 1884.

nal surface of an aberrant molar tooth of man presents the .

Sts eE GETAN E a ieee ea Sed E E tacks igor: ag ET cee

ir aa Y ? i

1886.] Zoology. 297

determining’ lines of descent is thus presented. The enamel

organ of generalized types it would seem furnishes groups of

characters which are probably secondary in value (since the sev-

eral parts of the organ indicate wide ranges of variation and of

great adaptivity) to! those yielded by the modulations of the

surfaces of the dentine-——Harrison Allen.

An EXTRAORDINARY Human Dentition.—A gentleman living

in Charles City, Iowa, recently exhibited to me the folfowing re-

markable dentition. To name the teeth from their forms, the

formula would be as follows: I. 8; C.4; Pm. 2; M.$%. By po-

sition the formula would read thus: I. $%; C. +; Pm. right side

2; left side, Cea) . 3. The first true molars in both jaws

have a small accessory lobe on the inner side of the anterior

inner tubercle. A brother of this gentleman has the following

dental formula: I, 4; C.4; Pm.2; M.3. A sister presents the

following: I. 3; C.4; Pm. 23; M.§. A grandmother has the

incisors 3—£. D. Cope.

ZOOLOGICAL News.—Echinodermata.—H. Ayers, who has studied

the sphzridia of Echinoids both at Cambridge and Banyuls,

asserts (Quart. Jour. Mic. Sci., Nov., 1885) that these organs have

great specialization of parts, especially of the nerve-cells, an

that, as before considered probable by Lovén, the evidence at

present is in favor of the view that they have the combined func-

tions of taste and smell. Sounds do not appear to affect the

, while the spines and pedicellaria are at

once affected, and the adjacent spines direct themselves toward

the source of sound. During the Talisman expedition fifty-four

Species of starfish were found, some from more than 4000 meters.

Thirty-five of these species are new, and afford instructive com-

binations of characters.

Mollusca—Paul Pelseneer (Quart. Jour. Mic. Sci., Oct., 1885)

describes the cephalic appendages of Clione, Clionopsis and

Pneumodermon. From this it appears that all these genera have

two pairs of tentacles, the posterior with eyes; and that Clione

and Pneumodermon are also possessed of buccal appendages, =

which in the latter genus are -provided with suckers, The tenta-

cles are probably homologous with those of ordinary gastropods.

——Professor Ray Lankester calls attention to the fact that sixty-

ae The more simple forms of teeth, such as those of the molar series of the peccary, —

Show scarcely any differences between the enamel and the dentine surfaces, and it eu

may be reasonably expected that the test contrasts will be seen in the teeth which

them. When in the position first named they re t the highest degree of special-

attained by the molars of the pria Aii pepes exhibit a tendency toward

x edea of the transverse ridge of the tapirodont type of tooth. When.

i Paypomtion last named the cuspule described above leads to the oblique crest seen

Bi Palzotheri r its allies.

208 General Notes. _ [Mareh,

five years ago Mr. Benj. Gaillou made known the fact that the

green coloring of the European oyster (O. edulis), is due to the

fact that it feeds upon a diatom, the Navicula ostrearia Gaillou.

This has been persistently ignored by the advocates of the copper

theory, possibly because of the peculiar blue-green of the gill

. lamellz, etc., of the oyster. The Navicula in question contains a

blue-green pigment. diffused through its protoplasm. This pig-

ment is absorbed by the blood of the oyster from the contents.

of its alimentary canal, and collected by certain secretive cells

which are limited to the surface of the branchie and the adoral

face of the labial tentacles.

Arthropoda—J.S. Kingsley contributes to the Quart. Jour. Mic.

Science (Oct. 1885), some notes on the embryology of Limulus.

He regards Limulus as an arachnid, but states that it takes us

back to a time when the distinctions between the Crustacea and

Arachnida were far less marked than now. He also describes the

outlet in the embryo of the brick-red glands. From an article

in the Quart. Jour. Mic. Science, by Professor A. Sedgwick, it

appears that there are two species of Peripatus, P. capensis and bal-

fourt e latter has eighteen pairs of fully developed legs, and is

of smaller size than the better known species. The male organs

of Peripatus are a couple of blind tubes, united near their ter-

mination. It does not appear that any portion can be extruded,

7 and the spermatophores seem to be deposited upon any part, even

: on the head, of the female. Yet the uterus of the female, con-

sisting of two tubes closely applied, is altvays full of embryos.

Fishes—Dr. J. Beard gives, as the result of a continued study.

of the branchial sense organs in the Ichthyopsida (Quart. Jour.

Mic. Sci., Nov. 1885), the conclusion that aż present we are

acquainted with no invertebrate nervous system which is built upon

_ the same plan as that of vertebrates.

O 2 Birds=Dr. H

- Rhea. The long-billed appearance of R. macrorhyncha is due less

1886 } Embryology. 209

broadly tipped with bright purplish-black——tThe third list of

birds collected in Ecuador by M. Stolzmann contains twelve new

species. L. Taczanowski and Count Berlepsch contribute the

article (P. Z. S., 1885), and the latter appends some general con-

siderations on the ornithology of Western Ecuador.. This fauna

now includes 468 species, besides eighty-five from Pichincha, Nan-

egal and Quito. Eastern Ecuador must be richer in birds, since

Messrs. Sclater and Salvin state that Mr. Buckley collected nearly

800 species there. It also appears that there are but few species

peculiar to Ecuador as a whole.——lIt appears from a note of

Professor Owen, that the heart of the Apteryx has characters

resembling those of Ornithorhynchus. This is especially the

case with the auriculo-ventricular valve.

EMBRYOLOGY.

THE DEVELOPMENT oF ANURIDA MARITIMA Guerin.—During

the latter part of the summer of 1883 I had good opportunities

or, See

| with transmitted light, and measure .36 of a millimeter in diame- a

J ter. They are dirty yellow in color and not white as are the eggs.

~ developed until some days after hatching, or until one or more

i ecdyses have been accomplished. The eggs of this species are

. „Edited by Joun A. RyDER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. — |

Embryological studies on Diplax, Perithemis and the thysanurous genus Iso-

: wna. Mem. Peabody Acad. Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 11, 1871, pp- 15-21, plate 3-

300 General Notes. = [March,

also over twice the diameter of those of Isotoma, which measure

only about .15 of a millimeter in diameter, so that there is more

yolk present and development is much more extremely mero-

blastic or decidedly epicyemate in character. This will be evi-

dent if Figs. 9, 10, 11 and 12 are compared with the earliest

stages of Isotoma figured by Packard in the memoir just cited.

One feature in the development of Anurida which has inter-

ested me greatly is the presence of a very rudimentary spring or

elater, e/, shown from below in Fig. 4 and from the side in Fig. 3.

This appendage, which probably represents a pair of degenerate

limbs, is produced from the anterior, inferior part of the fourth

abdominal segment, but on the ventral side of the adult no sign

of its presence is visible, as may be gathered from an examination

of Fig. 1. This organ in Anurida does not arise from the penul-

timate segment, as in Isotoma, as stated by Packard, but from the

antepenultimate or fourth abdominal segment which is in reality

the one from which the elater arises in such genera of Collem-

bola, as Lepidocyrtus, Triana, Tomocerus, etc. In the just-

hatched larval Anurida, the elater is developed to exactly the

same degree as in Triena mirabilis Tullb., according to Brook.’

The inference, therefore, is that the springless genera of Collem-

bola are degenerated forms which have descended from others

which were provided with well-developed elaters. In fact it 1$

now possible to trace the gradual degeneration of the elater

through the genera Achorutes, Xenylla, Trizna and the young

of the species under consideration here. Linking this series with

those having a more developed elater and tenaculum, and these

again with such forms as Campodea and Machilis, we réalize what

a remarkable series of differential changes the abdominal appen-

dages of the Thysanura and Collembola have undergone, starting

probably from the still less modified Symphyla, in which there is

no differentiation even between the appendages of the thorax and

abdomen.

The earliest stages were not considered, as the ova were too

on _ Opaque to be studied by transmitted light, and the earliest intima-

tion of the formation of the germ is shown in Fig. 8 at gå, the germ-

eing viewed in profile transversely or from one end. The

1-band or ventral plate forms a pronounced thickening which

= lies on one side of the vitellus, with its longest diameter coim-

ciding with the longer diameter of the egg. This germinal band

soon becomes widest anteriorly, as shown by the transverse pro-

file views of it represented by Figs. 11 and 12. From these ar

~ lateral profile view (Fig. 10) of the same stage, I have con-

__ Structed the diagrammatic representation (Fig. 9) of the germ-

band as it would be seen by a

object, extending over very nearly a semicircumference of the -

reflected light, or as an opaque

re 1 Journ, Linn, Soc. London, XVII, 1882, pp. 21-22, pl. 7, figs, 11 and 12.

PLATE XV.

Development of Anurida,

1886, | Embryology. ; 301

vitellus. In the later profile (Fig. 10) the germ-band shows the

appendages of the embryo developed as follows : the antennz az,

the mandibles wd, the maxillæ mr, the three pairs of legs, 7, 2

and 3, the collophoral segment, 1, and the following abdominal

segments up to vi. In the next stage, when it may be said that

the embryo is already beginning to lengthen, as shown in Fig. 7,

the ventral plate, with its appendages, is no longer convex when

viewed laterally in profile, but becomes strongly concave or bent

upon itself, and it then appears as if it had been shortened, the

embryonic appendages being also much crowded together at their

distal ends, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, which represent the same

stage viewed from in front and in profile. In the course of fur-

ther development the embryo increases still more in length, as

shown in Fig. 5, when it may be said that the definitive form of

the parent animal begins to be obvious. By this time the limbs

and antenne have become definitely segmented. During the

earlier stages the limbs, antennz, collophore, etc., had the form

of mere blunt, paired papilla, or of blunt, clavate, tentacle-like

paired outgrowths from the lateral surfaces of the ventral plate or

elongated germinal area,

e changes which determine the appropriation of the yolk, or

whether a dorsal organ is developed which takes part in this or

not, as held by Korotneff in the case of Gryllotalpa, are points

which have not been made out. This, as well as the manner in

which the blastoderm is formed, can only be made out by means_

of sections. ee

The eggs, as well as the adult animals, are not, readily wetted

with water or even in.dilute alcohol. I have succeeded in har- a

dening them by treating them first with weak alcohol and after- X

wards placing them in dilute chromic acid or Müller’s fluid.

The egg of this species, after the formation of the germinal

plate, is invested by an inner covering, 7, and an outer one, a as

shown in Figs. 8 and 10. By very careful manipulation under a

compressor the outer one may be ruptured, when it will be dis-

covered that the inner one is wrinkled in the most singularly

symmetrical fashion, as represented in Fig. 8. Whether this sec-

ond wrinkled covering is the serous envelope or amnion I am not

certain. It may be that it is a cuticular chitinous secretion from

the cells of the blastoderm, such as has been found by Kingsley"

to invest the embryo of Limulus while yet in the egg. Inside

the second egg-envelope, and between it and the ovum proper,

ere is a very considerable perivitelline space, 7, developed. __

Imperfect as these notes are, I publish them, first, because the

development of this form differs greatly in its external features —

from that of Isotoma, described by Packard; secondly, because >

the development of this type recapitulates very briefly the devel-

! Notes on the embryology of Limulus. Quart. Journ, Mic. Sci., Oct., 1885.

302 General Notes. [March,

opment of the elater, so characteristic of the Collembola, indi-

cating, as it seems to me, that that organ, in the genera in which

it is absent or rudimentary, has been lost through degeneration ;

and thirdly, because the egg is more decidedly meroblastic or

teleplasmic than that of Isotoma.— Forn A. Ryder.

PHYSIOLOGY:

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON DISINFECTANTS OF THE AMERICAN

Pustic HEALTH Association.—A little more than a year ago the

Public Health Association, stirred up by the prospective speedy

advent of cholera in this country, took steps to arm both practition-

ers of medicine and the public at large against not only that dis-

ease but all ailments supposed to owe their existence to “ germs.

A committee was appointed consisting of Drs, Sternberg and

Smart, of the Army, Raymond, of Brooklyn, Vaughan, of Ann

Arbor, Leeds, of New Jersey, Watkins, of New Orleans, ang

_ Rohé, of Baltimore, to investigate the efficiency of the various |

obtainable germicides and antiseptics in respect to sanitation and

preventive medicine. Probably no more competent and conscien-

tious workers than are some, if not all of the members of this

fectants are antiseptics, but not all antiseptics are disinfectants.

The work of the committee was limited to the study of the dis-

infecting properties of the substances investigated. .

e report consists partly of the descriptions of original experi-

ments, and partly of historical essays, embodying the results of

the most trustworthy investigators in this field. The general

reader would search in vain the mass of bacteria literature to find

some definite idea of the comparative value of different disinfec-

tants ; but in the work before us the confusion is reduced to 4

| Minimum, because the many different substances investigated are

considered from the same standpoint and after the same methods. _

- It means very little when one experimenter declares that chromic

acid, for example, is an antiseptic in the proportion 1 : 1000, and

another that carbolic acid has the same power when of the stre

I: 500; for the more concentrated the strength of the germ-food

solution the greater must be the concentration of the antiseptic to

=~ be efficient, and a percentage of antiseptic, that would prevent the

_ / development of germs for the space of three days, might be liv

_ down by bacteria in the course of six. |

substances readily obtainable. As this substance is a violent

i : 1T his department is edited by Professor HENRY SEWALL, of Ann Arbor, Michigan-

J t

Ea Aa Vell: satu t yi e Ln a Tir TOSE ‘

ie an un i i

1886.| Physiology. 303

poison objection has been made toits use that when thrown into

vaults it might soak through the earth and contaminate the drink-

ing water in wells or cisterns; Dr. Vaughan, however, has shown

that when solutions of mercuric chloride are filtered through

various kinds of soil, the filtrate contains no trace of mercury ;

the bichloride having probably been decomposed in the earth,

the mercury forming insoluble salts with carbonates and phos-

phates with which it has come intocontact. Its destructive action

on lead pipes presents one important objection to the domestic

organisms, The conclusions arrived at by the committee are of

so great practical importance and are so concisely stated that

they will be stated here nearly în extenso.

_ The most useful agents for the destruction of spore-containing

infectious material are: 1. Five. Complete destruction by burn-

ing. 2.-Steam under pressure. 110° C. (230° Fahr.) for ten min-

utes. 3. Botling in water for one hour. 4. Chloride of lime. 1to4

per cent solution. 5. Mercuric chloride. A solution of I : 500.

For the destruction of infectious material which owes its infecting

power to micro-organisms wot containing spores, the committee

recommends: 1. five. Complete destruction by burning. 2.

Solution of chlorinated soda. 5 to 20 per cent solution. 6. Mer-

curte ‘chloride, A solution of 1: 1000 to 1:4000. 7. Sulphur

toxide. Expose for twelve hours to an atmosphere containing at

least'4 volumes per cent of this gas, preferably in presence of mois-

ture (this requires the combustion of 3 to 4 ibs. sulphur for every

1000 cubic feet of air space). 8. Carbolic acid, 2 to 5 per cent

solution. 9. Sulphate of copper, 2 to 5 per cent solution, 10,

Chlor tde of zinc, 4 to 10 per cent solution. 2

committee would make the following recommendations

with reference to the practical application of these agents for dis-

infecting purposes :

For excreta. —(a) In the sick room: For spore-containing

Material. 1. Chloride of lime in solution, 4 per cent. 2. Mer-

curic chloride in solution, 1 : 500 (the addition of an equal quan-

pits potassium permanganate as a deodorant and to give color to _

5 Per cent. 5. Chloride of zinc in solution, 10 per cent. (4) In ee

Privy vaults; mercuric chloride in solution, 1 : 500. Chloride of

lime in powder (it is well to dilute by mixing with plaster of paris _

san a

For clothing, bedding, etc—(a) Soiled underclothing, bed linen,

CH: Ke te bas Ge

: least half an hour, 3. Immersion in solution of mercuric chloride r

304 | General Notes. [ March,

}

of strength 1: 2000 for four hours. 4. Immersion in a 2 ]

cent solution of carbolic acid for four hours. (4) Garments which

would be injured by the above treatment: 1. Exposure to dry

heat at a temperature of 110° C. (230° Fahr.) for two hours. 2.

Fumigation with sulphurous acid gas for at least twelve hours,

the clothing being freely exposed and the gas present in the dis-

infection chamber in the proportion of 4 volumes per cent. (c)

Mattresses and blankets soiled by the discharges of the sick: I.

Destruction by: fire. 2. Exposure to super-heated steam—25

' lbs. pressure—for one hour (mattresses to be freely opened). 3:

Immersion in boiling water for one hour. 4. Immersion in solu-

tion of mercuric chloride and sulphate of copper. ; ;

Furniture and articles of wood, leather and porcelain, washing,

several times repeated, with : 1. Solution of mercuric chloride f:

1000. 2. Solution of chloride of lime, 1 per cent. 3. Solution

of carbolic acid, 2 per cent.

For the person.—The hands and general surface of the body of,

attendants, of the sick and of convalescents at the time`of their

discharge from the hospital: 1. Solution of chlorinated soda 1 to

9 of water. 2. Carbolic acid, 2 per cent solution. 3. Mercuric

chloride 1: 1000; the latter recommended only for the hands

or for washing away infectious material from a limited area, not

as a bath for the entire surface of the body.

For the dead—Envelope the body in a sheet thoroughly satu-

rated with: 1. Chloride of lime in solution, 4 per cent. 2 Mer-

curic chloride in solution, 1: 500. 3. Carbolic acid in solution,

5 per cen

knowledge of the respiratory center dates from the work of Le

Gallois, in the early part of this century. He located this center

in the medulla oblongata, confining it indeed to a very limited por-

tion of the medulla in the region of the origin of the vagus nerve.

Flourens repeated Le Gallois’s experiments and localized the cen-

_ ter. toa small spot in the gray matter at the level of the calamus

_ Scriptorius which he named the “ncend vital.” Later workers

_ demonstrated that the respiratory center of the medulla is bilat-

eral. Longitudinal sections along the middle line of the medulla

do not prevent the respiratory movements from taking place. No

part of physiology seems to have been more generally accept

than the existence of this center in the medulla, though its exact

| position has always been and is still a matter of controversy. In

- 1873 Gierke made a thorough investigation of the subject, his

_ method being to make lessons of different portions of the medu

as narrowly localized as possible; and after observing the effect

of his section to harden the medulla and study the lesion by

Saal

Sees

eadhan ai

1886.] Fhysiology. 305

tory movements. Microscopic study of this region convinced

him that the spot whose destruction had.this effect was a bundle

of nerve fibers lying outside of the nucleus of the spinal accessory

nerve and below the nucleus of the posterior pyramid. This

result was of course very unsatisfactory. According to the pres-

ent conceptions of physiologists nerve centers must always con-

sist of nerve cells, and it is not conceivable that automatic stimuli

can arise in nerve fibers. ‘If investigations had rested here this

collection of fibers could only be looked upon as the efferent

fibers from a center whose location had not yet been determined.

Other physiologists have denied the existence of a respiratory

center in the medulla, altogether holding that the centers govern-

ing the respiratory movements are situated in the spinal cord.

While others have described respiratory centers in the floor of the

third ventricle, or in the corpora quadrigemina in the gray matter

surrounding the aqueduct of Sylvius. Two interesting commu-

nications on this subject. have appeared recently in the Central-

" blatt f. Med. Wiss., Nos. 27 and 34, 1885. Unfortunately these

Investigations have given different results, so that we are still left

in doubt as to the location of the medullary center, though it looks

as if the problem was very near its final solution. The first com-

munication, No. 27, is by Mislawsky. He states that Gierke’s

bundles have nothing to do with the respiratory movements.

fourth ventricle, Destruction of this centre on both sides com-

pletely stops the respiratory movements, while injury to one side

attects the respiratory movements of that side alone. The efferent —

fibers rom this center to the spinal origin of the nerves of the

respiratory muscles Jie‘ outside of Gierke’s bundle. In No. 347

-of the Centralblatt, Gierke replies to Mislawsky’s criticism. He

States positively that the group of cells described by Mislaw- —

‘Sky as the respiratory center does not exist; that the locality

‘assigned to it, is occupied entirely by the reticular formation,

and it is the scattered cells of this formation which Mislaw-

“Sky -has mistaken for a definite nerve center. The disposition —

irregular in different mammalia, and in no case was there any —

‘ction of these cells that could be differentiated from the

“Femaining cells of the formation. D

. Gierke states that his latest investigations have convinced him —

that the bundle of fibers previously described by him as the res- _

‘Prratory center contains in its whole extent a number of nerve —

t $

a General Notes. [March, —

cells, and these cells are in connection with the fibers of the bun-

dles. This discovery takes away the theoretical objections to

Gierke’s previous results, and if his work can be corroborated will

place the existence of a medullary respiratory center upon a satis- |

factory experimental basis. .

communications are preliminary to more extensive papers, 4

shortly to be published.— W. H. Howell, Johns Hopkins University.

PSYCHOLOGY.

INTELLIGENCE OF ANTHROPOID ApEs.—In his excellent work on

anthropoid apes, Professor Hartman, the Berlin zodlogist main-

tains that anthropoid apes in nature “ develop an intelligence which :

sets them high above the other mammals. They do not, how- ;

ever, display the keenness of scent and quickness of sight which

distinguish some animals of a lower order, such as canine beasts of

course to cunning, and looked anxiously about to see if he was

_ watched. It was just in these cases when he obstinately pursued

a fixed idea, that it was impossible not to recognize a deliberate

_ plan and careful calculation. If, for example, he was not allowed to ©

__. leave the room, or, again, was not allowed to come in, he would, after

; several attempts to get his own way had been baffled, apparently

_ Submit to his fate, and lie down near the door in question, W

-assumed indifference. But he soon raised his head in order to.

ascertain whether fortune was on his side, edging himself gradu-.

ally nearer and nearer, and then, looking carefully round, he

twisted himself about until he reached the threshold; then he

got up, peered cautiously round, and with one bound galloped.

| as und

_ “es assumed such large dimensions as to have its special

we XX.—No. IM. e '

1886.] Psychology. 307

opposite direction, only altering his course when he believed that

he was no longer observed. He then went straight to the room

and cupboard, opened it, and made a quick and dexterous snatch

at the sugar-box or fruit-basket, sometimes closing the cupboard

doors behind him before beginning to enjoy his plunder, or, if he

was discovered, he would escape with it, and his whole behavior

made it clear that he was conscious of transgressing into forbid-

den paths. He took a special, and what might be called a child-

ish pleasure in making a noise by beating on hollow articles, and

he seldom omitted an opportunity of drumming on casks, dishes

or tin trays, whenever he passed by them—a noisy amusement to

which he was much addicted during our homeward voyage on

board the steam-vessel, in which he was at liberty to roam about.

“ Mafuca, for a while, was pleased with the companionship of a

pretty sea-cat monkey, but she teased the creature so much that

a special refuge was set apart for it, into which she could not en-

ter. She was so scared and terrified by a heavy thunder-storm

that she seized her sleeping playfellow by the tail and dashed it to

the ground. She chased the mice which ran about the cage with

deadly fury. She was much afraid of snakes, which is not usually

the case with chimpanzees. If she was left alone any time she tried

to open the lock of her cage without having the key, and she

Once succeeded in doing so. On that occasion she stole the

key which was hanging on the wall, hid it in her axilla and crept

quietly back to the cage. With the key she easily opened the

ock, and she also knew how to use a gimlet. She would draw

off her keeper’s boots, scramble up to some place out of reach

With them, and throw them at his head when he asked for them.

She could wring out wet clothes and blow her nose with a hand-

kerchief. When her illness began, she became apathetic, and

ooked about with a vacant, unobservant stare. Just before her

death, from consumption, she put her arms round Schopf’s neck

when he came to visit her, looked at him placidly, kissed him

three times, stretched out her hand to him, and died. The last

moments of anthropoids have their tragic side.”

Dr. Prever’s Criticism or TELEPATHY.—Professor Preyer, of

Jena, well known through his researches into hypnotism, the de-

opment of the infant mind, etc., does not believe in telepathy, `

vel

ng attempts in a twenty-page article to give the readers of the

January Rundschau the reasons for his skepticism. His criticisms

“ S

i 2 large number of female members and participators shows

€ very outset that a strictly scientific spirit cannot be rc

erlying the society’s proceedings.” But since the

sc c Eo

-308 we General Notes. [ March,

quarters and a library, and since it includes among its active or

honorary members such names as Balfour Stewart, Lord Ray-

leigh, Professor Bowditch, Mr. Crookes, and Mr. A. R. Wallace,

Preyer thinks it worth while to examine their proceedings criti-

cally, so as to caution his countrymen against these useless pro-

ceedings, and prevent, if possible, the formation of a similar

society in Germany. Preyer’s analyses of a number of the 600

reported cases of telepathy are exceedingly ingenious and subtle.

Though he concedes that the possibility of thought transference _

cannot be disproved, he makes out a good case that the experi-

menters ignored sources of error which vitiate their conclusions.

Especially ingenious is his explanation of the countless ways in

which the two persons to be examined can communicate with

each other, if in the same or adjoining rooms—as by means of

different noises made in breathing through the mouth or nose, ©

movements with the foot, gnashing of the teeth, etc.; remember-

ing at the same time that individuals, owing to great nervous sus-

ceptibility or to training, are endowed with as abnormal acuteness

of the senses as are hypnotized persons. In Liverpool, for exam-

ple, two girls were examined who claimed that one could tell

what the other ate, if the latter was allowed to put her hand on

the former’s shoulder. Aside from the fact that there might have ‘

been a prearranged alphabet of signs through pressure on the

shoulder, there was the probability that one of the girls hada 64

‘very acute sense of smell. The result showed that in thirty-two

ai a erate iat. pee ree al oe I gr E Re

aree ES er We ENAT AE

ae nies Sa pea pe Nature. The Intelligence of Animals, with EM

_ anecdotes. From the French of Ernest Menault. Illustratéd. New York e

_ Scribner’s Sons, 1885, 12mo. : ee es a

1886. | _Anthropotogy. 309

and in other portions Morgan’s work on the beaver, or Romanes’

excellent book do not seem to have been known to the author

or his translator. Indeed the authors quoted are largely French,

though the recent remarkable papers and books of Favre are not

referred to. The book is not therefore to be classed with the

more critical and authoritative works of the authors which we

have named, though it is a very interesting collection of anec-

dotes which throw more or less light on the mental powers of

animals, particularly of those domesticated by man. The cuts

are attractive, but that of the “ chimpanzee at table,” carving with

a knife and fork, and filling his glass from a-bottle held zm a tight

coil of his tail, represents a creation of the studio rather than a

result of the processes of evolution zz re tails.

ANTHROPOLOGY .!

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Bureau OF ETHNOLOGY.—The third

larities. The resemblances which have been noticed in human

arts and inventions throughout the world arise, according to the

essay, in the four following ways:

Due to concausation.

Adventitious.

Due to cognation.

Due to acculturation.

Autogenous similarities {

Syngenous similarities

ple as the Mexican, is well known. This of itself would indicate —

310 General Notes. (March, -

the commonalty, we have proof at least of a very intimate rela-

tion. One thing is apparent, viz., that the Mexican symbols

could never have grown out of the Maya hieroglyphics. That

the latter might have grown out of the former is not impossible.”

Mr. Dall’s paper treats of masks, labrets and certain aboriginal

customs, with an inquiry into the bearing of their geographical

distribution. His classification of masks is as follows :

1. The cme cS breathing oa peep holes.

2. hae kette, without poy ons

j A A ohjain resembling a mask, oa not to be worn.

In an evolutionary series masks would be arranged thus:

A. For defens

fa sesepi ‘culminating i in the helm

mae awe inspiring, pee ae in shaman masks.

B. Symbolica

a. ocx

é. Ritual.

The author, after a very elaborate treatment of the subject,

illustrated by numerous figures, closes with some observations

upon the origin of labretifery and mask-wearing in America,

which apparently cles forth Major Powell’s essay on activital

similarities. Rejecting Northern Asia and the Atlantis theory,

holding as kaan improbable the theory of similar causes

acting to produce similar effects, Mr. Dall concludes that the

‘great congeries of islands, known as Polynesia and Melanesia,

offer the most plausible solution of the pro

oblem

Dr. Matthews has a short paper beautifully illustrated and per-

fect of its kind. That is to say, the author has described the

Navajo weaver so accurately and minutely that any hand-loom

weaver could read the description and produce a Navajo blanket

‘or belt. It is so refreshing to read a description of aboriginal art

by one who knows aught about it that, even at ne = of flattery,

we cannot refrain from the foregoing just enco

ere are three kinds of Navajo blankets in the ~ National Mu-

seum. The first, or oldest, is aboriginal work, from the raw, dirty,

native wool to the finished robe. This the author describes.

second is partly native and partly of raveled strouding or traders’

ets. The third is a modern invention. Germantown woo!S, ~

“not. always well dyed, are furnished to the weaver, and he exe

cutes patterns to order. These, though held at high price, are

pio in every way; the colors fade, and run if wet in the

east.

Mr. Dorsey’s paper on Omaha sociology, the longest in the vol-

ume, is also the most elaborate and the most iearned. The author

_ discusses the social system of the Omaha tribe of the great Sioux

stock in the following saath :

ns The state, its classes and corpora!

gentes minu!

3 TS arate

Gentile e including cabal cireles, sacred tents, sacred pipes, the several

described.

ip sya stem and a aeiiae laws, giving classes of. consangujnes, t? the laws x ae :

amiage.

1886.] Anthropology. 311

4. Domestic life, courtship, marriage customs, etiquette, bashfulness,. pregnancy,

children, position of women, catamenia, widows and widowers, rights of parents,

ersonal habits, politeness, meals, etc.

5. Visiting customs.

6. Industrial occupations, hunting, fishing, agriculture, food, clothing, etc.

7. Defensive and offensive warfare.

8. Games, societies, corporations, etc.

9. The government and religion.

10. Law.

Mr. Holmes’ article treats of prehistoric textile fabrics in the

United States, derived from impressions on pottery. The pro-

cess of Mr. Holmes is most ingenious. e takes a cast of the

up in the ground, as any one may see who will visit the basket

_ makers in Queen Charlotte archipelago. :

_ Group five may represent four-ply braiding, but it is just as

likely to belong to group two, although the Tlinkits understand

four-ply braiding.

e may be allowed a word as to the spread of textile industry

i M

at present among the North Americans in its relation to Mr.

Holmes’ paper. Types one and four are practiced by all Indians |

If Mr es

Athapascan, Californian, Pueblo, Apache, Navajo, Yuma

Pima tribes. Mr. Homes’ twined ware, groups two and three, is

made now by the Winnebagos east of the Rockies, and by the

Eskimo, Tlinkit, Haida and Chimsyan tribes as well as by those

of \ ashington Territory, Oregon, Northern California, and by

the Shoshonis and Pueblo tribes. It is not now known among

any of the tribes who have of late been identified with the oe

mound-builders. ; ;

The illustrated catalogues at the end of the volume are ex-

tremely useful to the student. The practice of printing a great

mass ny “A

Ameo ` General Notes. [March,

' Tue CrantA oF Necrors—Although published in 1884, C.

assavant’s Craniologische Untersuchung has just come to hand.

His results are given both in tables and in graphic charts, the

former are here combined :

16eS.

Bushmen.

Whole No. >

African crania.

Hottentots and

Congo.

RAL | ma

| |

Dolicocephals,

i ;

j ;

| Mesocephals. :

Brachycephals.

—

a| PEL I ii Ean ccmta on wu | h am | Afri,

VBNHrwFNHPRUIMNO OO OOMNWR mw w N

a ee a bn bs Nigritians,

fon)

Sl tees oe eo Exot H

: LACUSTRIAN ANTIQUITIES OF Dr. Gross.—Archzologists and —

antiquarians traveling on the European continent will be eased

There are

dred and

Where th

_ “Edited by Dr. C, O. Wittman, Mus. Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.

1886.) > Microscopy. 313

suspended the two paintings of Bachelon, “ Domestic Life of the

Lake Dwellers.” Berne also possesses a civic museum for antiqui-

ties, and other well-assorted collections of this kind may be found

tage Zurich, Neufchâtel, Geneva and Freiburg.—A. S. Gat-

schet.

RECENT ARTICLES BY Dr. Tscuupniı—We have before us a

series of recent articles composed by the Peruvian traveler, Dr.

J. J. von Tschudi, who at present employs himself in making

digests of ethnologic material previously collected. These papers

are partly of an anthropologic, partly of a topographic or linguis-

tic import. Among the latter we mention : “ Die geographischen

Namen in Peru,” eight pages, in Kettler’s Geographic Magazine;

“Remarks on Lopez’s communication on the tribe of the Calcha-

qui Indians,” in the Argentine Republic (Zeitsch. f. Ethnologie,

1885), in which v. Tschudi lays stress upon the total disparity of

the tribe spoken of with the Kechuas in their language; “ Das

ma in seinen Beziehungen zum altperuanischen Volksleben ”

(Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1885, pp. 93—109), a very instructive trea-

tise, based alike on history and on the author’s own ethnographic

and local investigation. The extensive terminology of the Indians

to designate all kinds of young, old, spotted, etc., lamas is o

peculiar interest to the linguist.—A. S. Gaschet. \

SUPPLEMENT TO THE GRAMMAR OF THE CAKCHIQUEL LANGUAGE.

—Dr. Otto Stoll, a physician of Ziirich, Switzerland, who has

lived five years among the Indians of Guatemala, has written

Some important “Supplementary remarks to the grammar of the

Cakchiquel language, edited by Dr. D. G. Brinton.” This article

was read before the American Philosophical Society of Philadel-

phia, February 6, 1885, and printed in its Proceedings. Stoll’s X

remarks form a series of rectifications and criticisms upon the

antiquated method followed by the ancient ecclesiastics in writing

up grammars of the American languages, and the frequent misappli-

Cations in their terminology. As to the name Cozumelguapan,

Stoll thinks it is of Nahuatl origin, and quotes the etymology of ee

uschmann, “ Near the rainbow water.” He may rest assured,

that only the local ending -pa, -pan is Nahuatl, and that cozumel

is a Maya word, signifying szallow.—A. S. Gatschet. ee

: MICROSCOPY.! ao

le NaTurat INJECTION (Leeches).—I have often noticed that

eeches hardened in weak chromic acid, or in any chromic solu- —

tion, are beautifully and naturally injected with their own blood. —

1e circulatory system is to be studied by means of sec-

tions, this method seems to be the simplest and most reliabl

one. Not only the larger sinuses, but the intra-epithelial capil-

314 ; General Notes. [ March,

laries, may be easily traced by this method, as was first pointed

out by E. Ray Lankester.?

METHODS oF INJECTING ANNELIDs (Maurice Jaquet).?—For an-

nelids with dark tissues like Hirudo, a light-colored (white or

yellow) injection-mass should be employed, while for transparent

animals dark colors are preferable. Chrome yellow serves asa

good coloring substance. It is easily obtained by mixing solu-

tions of bichromate of potassium and acetate of lead. A copious.

yellow precipitate is formed, which should be washed on the filter,

and then exposed to the air until nearly dry. The pigment, after

being reduced to a pulp-like state, is added to an ordinary aque-

ous solution of gelatine; and the mass is then filtered warm

through linen. If the injection-mass is to be blue, then the gela-

tine may be dissolved directly in liquid Prussian blue, and the

mass filtered througn the paper:

As a rule, annelids must be killed before they can be injected.

Chloroform and alcohol are the means commonly employed in

killing for the purpose of injection; fresh water may also be used

for some marine species. A leech, for example, is placed in

should be allowed to remain in the water from one to two days

before attempting to inject it.

The simplest and most convenient form of syringe consists of

a glass tube drawn to a fine point at one extremity, and furnished

at the other with a rubber tube. Preparatory to injecting, the

glass should be plunged in warm water for a few moments; then,

after expelling the water, it may be filled with the injection-mass

by sucking the air from the rubber tube. If the injection-mass is

_ turned into the large end of the glass, it may happen that gran-

ules are introduced which are large enough to obstruct the nar-

row passage of the small end. After inserting the cannular end

_ in the vessel, clasp both with the forceps, and then force the in-

jecting fluid, by aspiration through the rubber tube, which is

held in the mouth. When the operation is completed, place the

animal in cold water, in order to stiffen the injected mass.

Aw InjEcTION-Mass TO BE USED Corp.—3

l PS

B ( i solution) I part.

Gum arabic . eag parts,

ok The solutions are best made in hot water. The mixture of the

solutions gives a gelatinous mass that is nearly insoluble in water.

: and then pressed through linen. A thick fluid is thus obtained,

_ which, with the addition of a little more water, must again be

e 3

? Mitth, a. d. Zoöl., Station z, Neapel, vi, H. 3, p- 298, Dec. 1885.

_-*A.K. Bjelousson, Arch. f. Anat. u. Phys. (Anat. Abth.), 1885. H. 5 and 6, p 379°

The mass is broken up into small pieces and a little water added, |

Cl ew A

2 Wee

1886.] —— Mieroscopy. | 315

passed through linen. This fluid may be kept for months, and is

readily thinned to any desired consistency by the addition of

water. Before using, it should be tested with alcohol. A small

quantity is placed in a test-tube, and then a little alcohol added.

he fluid is at once changed to a solid mass of double the origi-

nal volume, and this mass is insoluble in water.

Thus the whole process consists in this: that borax and gum

arabic form together an insoluble colloid mass; by pressure

through linen, with water added, the mass passes into a fluid con-

dition which can be diluted to any extent with water ; after injec-

tion and immersion of the preparation in alcohol, it again assumes

a colloid condition in which it is insoluble in water.

The mass thus prepared may be colored with finely powdered

carmine, or with other coloring substances ; only cobalt and cad- »

mium are to be avoided.

_ This mass is especially recommended for macroscopic injec-

tions, and for the injection of lymphatic spaces. The injected

vessels do not become hard, and the mass does not escape from

ruptured points. During dissection the preparation should be

covered with alcohol.

n case it becomes desirable to dissolve the injected mass from

any part of the vessels, this can be accomplished by dropping di-

lute acetic acid upon it.

The preparation can be rendered transparent by first washing

with water, and then soaking in glycerine. Treatment with alco-

hol again restores the opacity of the preparation.

METHOD or KILLING GrEpHyrea—According to Apel! the

Ph wen v Biman, E O a AE E eee g

Osphate of potassium Soe

a OE Westen E O ck ona ce swpiv ode) tomers SE

led water... oog nts

ss. Zool., XLII, H. 3, p- 461, 1885..

ik. Anat., xxv, H. 4, p- 445, Oct., 1885-

a ooo Spientifie News. [March,

Hatrer’s MAcgRATING FLUID! (central nervous system of ma-

tine Rhipidoglossa).—

ycerine . J ES parts.

y Glacial acetic acid....,..... 58

SOR WN a hl bo awn ds cyan ox ao 04 nen twye’ 3 a0 0504 0H 20°.

This fluid causes no shrinkage, and accomplishes its work in

one-half to three-quarters of an hour.

[Ole

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

à PRINCETON, Feb. 16, 1886.

PROFESSOR E. D. Cope, EDITOR AMERICAN NATURALIST.

Dear Sir:—In the February number of the NATURALIST you

say with regard to Professor Marsh’s Zinoceras stenops, formerly

referred by you to a new genus Tetheopsis: “I now learn on

good authority that the symphyseal region in the specimen in

question is entirely constructed of plaster of Paris.” As I am

the one from whom you derived this information, I feel bound, as

a matter of simple justice, to correct the above statement, for

having just reéxamined the specimen with great care, I find that

was in error in a very important respect. It is true that the left

half of the symphyseal region (the only part visible when I first

saw the specimen) is restored in plaster, but the right half is in-

tact, and the restoration and drawing were made from that, a per-

fectly legitimate proceeding. So much I can positively state of my

: own knowledge, and I am also informed that the restoration was

a made after the time when you saw the specimen and after Profes-

= sor Marsh’s figure was published. Hoping that you will give

. this correction a conspicuous place, I remain,

a ery respectfully yours, W. B. Scott.

__ | Note on the above—I gladly give place to the above correc-

_ — tion, but must append a little additional information. I saw the

` type specimen of T. stenops before 1885, probably in 1883. It

matrix, and the left side of the skull was exposed. The- mandi-

~ ble of that side was at that time entire, as represented in Profes-

= sor Marsh’s plate. It exhibited a narrow entire alveolar edge

Ss without trace of alveoli or of weathering. What has become °

_ this left half of the symphysis we are not informed. If it was

_the osseous jaw, the genus Tetheopsis is well founded—Z. D.

an , me

=- — Among the scientific names included in the death-roll of

the past year, is that of Thomas Bland, the author of numer-

Ous papers, principally on the “Land shells of the Antillean

islands and the North American continent,” Mr. Bland’s labors

ag investigations included not only the descriptive and systema

was then half imbedded in a mass of what I supposed to be

3 : i e y

AEE ENN het ae socks Ps $

ieee a rtu e E aa ae e ae a

e a a fae

A Se NER EAN I EE cepa ype e NE SET ae

__ to be worthy of record.”

another eruption of the volcano occurred, preceded as before b

-ous

_ — Professor W. W. Bailey writes us that a few years ago there -

Was an interesting discussion in the NATURALIST upon abnormal

one of whom is especially fond of /peanuts, cracking and eating

1886.] Scientific News. 317

aspects of Molluscan life, and his discussion of phenomena, in

which these subjects were involved, is marked by judicious and

philosophic treatment. He was the coadjutor of Mr. W. G. Bin-

ney in various ways, and their names appear side by side in sev-

eral instances, particularly in the volume on the “ Land and fresh

water shells of North America,’ published by the Smith-

sonian Institution. In 1884, Mr. A. F. Gray compiled and printed

a bibliography of Mr. Bland’s papers and contributions to this de-

partment of natural history. Mr. Bland was born in Notting-

hamshire, England, October 4, 1809, and died in Brooklyn, N. Y.,

August 20th, 1885. His father was a physician and his mother

was related to Shepard, the naturalist. He received his educa-

tion at the Charter House school, London, and had Thackeray

for a classmate. Subsequently he studied and practiced law. In

1842, he went to Barbadoes and afterward to Jamaica, where he

became acquainted with Professor C. B. Adams, which led to

those investigations which gave to Mr. Bland honorable rank as ~

a scientific thinker and worker. In 1862, he came to New York,

and this country became his permanent home. He was a most

estimable gentleman, courteous and genial, and greatly beloved

by all who knew him.— 2. Æ; C. S.

— The annual meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smith-

sonian Institution was held at Washington, Jan 13. The secretary

announced that Congress had reélected Doctors MacLean, Gray

and Coppé as regents for six years, and General Meigs in place

of General Sherman, resigned. Professor Baird submitted his

report for the six months ending June 30, 1885. He also pre-

sented a financial statement showing that the receipts of tlre insti-

tution for 1885 amounted to. $67,500, and the expenditures to

$45,107, leaving a balance of $33,453. Professor Baird presented

a statement showing the necessity for a storage building for alco-

holic specimens, also fora new building for the museum, as there

are enough valuable specimens to fill a second building the size |

of the present one. re

—A telegram from Colima has been received by the Govern- —

ment, stating that on the morning of Friday, the 15th January,

loud detonations. Enormous stones were thrown to a great-

ight, and were plainly visible from the city of Colima, which is -

twenty-five miles distant. Photographs depicting the volcano at `

the moment of its greatest activity were taken by the instantane- —

or unusual food of cats. “ Now I have two kittens, both —

them ; and oth of dates, Certainly this is diet unusual enough

318 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [ March,

— A monograph on the recent Brachiopoda by the late Thomas

Davidson, LL.D., F.R.S., edited by Agnes Crane, will be issued

in three parts, with thirty quarto plates, during 1886, and will form

a separate volume of the Transactions of the Linnæan Society of

London.

— The Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia has, by the

death of the widow of the late Mr. H. N. Johnson, come into pos-

session of the entire estate as residuary legatee. It is valued at

over $50,000, and the available annual income is nearly $1500.

— Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, of Philadelphia, has been announced

as the Laureate of the Société Américaine de France for 1886, and

awarded the medal of the society for his work on the native

tongues of America.

— Dr. Walter Flight, chemist and mineralogist, and assistant

in the mineralogical department of the British Museum, died

Nov. 6, aged forty-four.

— J. J. de Tschudi, a Swiss naturalist and traveler, author of a

work on Peru translated into English, died in January, at the age

of sixty-eight. :

— Professor John Morris, who held the chair of geology in Uni-

versity college, London, died in January, aged seventy-five.

— P. Harting, the distinguished professor of zoology 10 the

_ University of Utrecht, died Dec. 7.

— Erratum —On p. 171, line 27, for Orthopod read Arthropod.

——:0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

InpranA AcApemy oF ScreNnces.—In accordance with the call

issued by the Brookville Society of Natural History, a number 0!

dianapolis, on Tues+

day, Dec. 29, 1885, at 2 o'clock p.m. J. P. D. John, P.D., of ee

ogee ike Re Reh na A Th ae Sa ee

Sip ese Sern Se i te ae is = a Se, Dee

~ They reported a constitution and by-laws which were adopted.

The name selected is Indiana Academy of Science. The objects

_ of the academy are “ scientific research and the diffusion of knowl-

SE EE Sep ET,

J. P. D. John, DePauw university, Greencastle, Rev-

"i Amos W. Butler, Brookville;

Toi ‘J Indianapolis, all of whom were elected.

Papers were read giving, as far as possible, a statement of the

and to ask the congress to meet in America at its next (after

cock was selected to apply the international scheme of colora-

Various Systems on.

1886. | Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 319

present condition of knowledge in the various branches of science,

as follows: meteorology, by W. H. Ragan; mammalogy, E. R.

Quick ; the work accomplished for natural and physical science,

Richard Owen, M.D.; papers on C. S. Rafinesque and ichthyology,

M.D. ; chemistry, Professor R. B. Warder; conchology, Rev. D.

R. Moore ; statistics, J. B. Conner; ornithology, A. W. Butler ;

geography, J. T. Scovell ; astronomy, Daniel Kirkwood, LL.D.

A committee was appointed to incorporate the academy. The

prospects for the future of the academy are very bright; the

ablest investigators and best instructors of the State have united

without exception to put this new institution on its feet. There

will be two meetings each year, one between Christmas and New

Year, the other early in the summer; the former will be held at’

Indianapolis, the latter will be held at different places throughout

the State. The next meeting will be held at Brookville, begin-

ning May 20, 1886.

THE American COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS

OF GEoLoGists—This committee met in the Windsor hotel, New

York city, on Friday, January 8th, with the president, Professor

James Hall, in the chair. There were present Dr. T. Sterry Hunt,

Professor J. S. Newberry, Professor C. H. Hitchcock, Professor

. J. Stevenson, Professor Geo. H. Cook, Mr. McGee (representing

Major Powell), and Dr. Frazer, the secretary of the Berlin dele-

gates, who was elected the secretary of the meeting, and read his

report of the proceedings of the Berlin congress. His action in

ordering 300 extras to be struck off by the printer of the journal,

and also 300 copies of the color scale to be printed in Berlin

to accompany the report, was approved.

It was decided that translations of the reports of the committee

on the map of Europe and on the uniformity of nomenclature,

together with an abstract of the English committee’s report, should

with the American committee’s report, and under the direc-

tion of Dr. Frazer, be distributed among American geologists

under conditions which seemed best. 2

A committee of five was to be appointed to take measures in

advance of the London congress to have American views prop-

miy represented ; to be prepared for discussion of certain subjects,

the London) session. : Sad

After some other minor matters were decided, Professor Hitch-

tion to an area which has been selected by Major Powell to test

-~ The meeting adjourned to meet at the call of the president.

320. Proceedings of Scientific Societies. | [March, 1886, —

< New Yorx Acapemy or Sciences, Jan. 18.—The following

paper was read: The San Juan mountains of Colorado, by Dr. R.

P. Stevens.

Jan. 25.—The Cretaceous flora of North America (with lan-

tern illustrations), by Dr. John S. Newberry.

Boston Society oF Naturat History, Jan. 20.—Professor

William M. Davis spoke about the “ Chinook wind” of the North-

west; and Mr. S. H. Scudder discussed the relationships of the

Mesozoic cockroaches.

Feb 3.—The bow and arrow unknown to Paleolithic man, by

Professor H. W. Haynes ; On the Santhals, an existing aboriginal

tribe of Northeastern Bengal, by Dr. S. Kneeland. Photographs

ee of the people and specimens of their singular native ornaments

were shown,

APPALACHIAN Mountain CLuB, Jan. 13.—The officers for the

ensuing year were elected, and the reports of the corresponding

secretary and treasurer presented. The following papers were

read: The ascent of Popocatepetl, by Professor A. S. Packard;

— The Carter-Moriah path and camp, by Mr. William G. Nowell;

- . Notes on the region east of Wild river, and south of the’ Andros-

coggin, by Mr. A. L. Goodrich.

3 ie

lows: Friday, Jan. 8, 1886, Hudson’s bay and its territories, Mr.

Wm. Hubbell Fisher;

the salamander; E. H. Marshall gave the results of a chemical

analysis of a valuable clay recently discovered in this county; H-

thomson traced the development of the cerebellum from the lowest

vertebrates to the highest; J. N. Rose gave the details of an €x-

eriment for showing the transpiration of plants.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VoL. xx.—APRIL, 1886.—No. 4.

THE ANCESTRY OF NASUA?

BY SAMUEL LOCKWOOD, PH.D.

FTER a chronicle of such achievements of Coati-Mondi and

her Cousin “Coon,” shall we not institute a serious search

) into the origin of the heroine, and so establish or set aside our

Suspicion? ‘So I should think,” says an interested reader, “ after

4% such a tidbit of revelry in the romance of science-dom or dream-

land” So, ho! a challenge to the array! Then let the contest

come! But pray, good sir, is there not in this realm of science

an imagination which conducts to light and truth, as against that

romance which leads surely to error and darkness? But what is

Scientific romancing? Is it not that unscientific conduct which, _

= asif contributing to knowledge, asserts the untenable and un- >

- ~ truthful? Sometimes the conceit is so unwarranted as to appear

o on its very face a vagary, extravagant and impossible. ey

: Science thinking is reverend and reserved—for here dash is -

impudence, nor is cheek courage. The habitual theorist finds a —

fascination in sheer novelty—of such the cautious thinker is

chary. But if the giddy and reckless are proscribed the use of

edge tools, the sober-minded is allowed the tentative hypothesis,

; The one would cut the knot, the other would untie it. The hon- _

= €st theorist is simply feeling his way. He may have a priori —

ae methods despite of Mr. Gradgrind’s much mouthing for “ facts!"

o Such modest ventures, “ assumptions,” may prove real foreca t

is! Wide significance. But such is not romancing. Nature

= “S£ seers, who have happily uttered esoteric truth which I

afterwards crystallized into accepted theory in the formulatiot

_ “From a forthcoming work by Dr. Lockwood. By Ae

Í 22 ‘

; VOL. Xx.—No. tv,

mee

322 = The Ancestry of Nasua. [April,

given it by the setting of the factors denominated “ facts.” So it

was with Germany’s great poet. But here comes a nice distinc-

tion between the condemnable and the commendable, between

romancing in science and the scientific imagination. Goethe’s

guesses were neither blunders nor vagaries. His theory of the

genesis of the flower, of the vertebrate origin of the skull, and

his forecast of the doctrine of descent, were all marvelous births,

but legitimately begotten, the offspring of pure scientific imagina-

tion. As in advance of the thought then in vogue, they seemed

prematurely brought into the light, and for a time were nurslings

of unpromising vitality.

‘But a truth thus evolved finds no similitude in the sparx struck

out by flint and steel. Nor is such truth premature, as to its

ratiocination, as would appear could we but time its gestation. I

think it is always the outcome of “ unconscious cerebration.”

The mind of the seer has been deeply thinking on generic lines.

As first expressed such a truth may be ore-like—rich, but crude—

and it may have to wait for the facts which shall serve as faggots

for the crucible.

Having in the article “ Coati-Mondi and its Cousins,” with per-

haps seeming insufficient warrant, asserted for Nasua a quadru-

manous kinship, now that the faggots have been got in plenty,

why not smelt the ore? Or, dropping metaphors, let us $° in

direct quest of Nasua’s ancestry, even its biogenesis, upon rea-

soning lines. j

_ In tracing the pedigree of some regal line, perhaps we should

reach a very ancient Norman stirp. But however ancient, it

~~ would be the Norman of civilization, not his savage progenitor O!

_ the Palxolithic age. This would be as far up the stream of the

past as we could sail. So with our Nasua, we must stop at the

origin of the Educabilia, the quasi intelligent animals, those

_ namely which have the cerebrum or frontal brain relatively large

and roofing, or overlapping thé cerebellum or small hinder brain.

S I1. First then, as to that quadrumanous alliance of Coati ; on

-what line of reasoning may the genealogy be traced? My first!

impression of this fact came to me as a conviction of the imagr

nation. Idid not then, it is so long ago, know anything of the

_ modern doctrine of “ unconscious cerebration.” I had so studied

_ the living animal as to fairly know its ways, and I came to ens

"pect, as an inheritance, the monkey strain, as the breeders would

p à L TEN ; 4

; i TA

The Ancestry of Nasua. fet,

= . say. I could see the traits but could not demonstrate them. At

a best I could but quote the great poet:

«Such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.”

; 2. That which backed up the imagination was the psychologi-

cal or mental manifestation. Here were data for comparison, in >

such well-marked lines ran the parallels of expression of the

t Nasuan and the monkey mind. The hints afforded in the com-

: plex use made of the hands and the tail—the many unmistakable

_ monkey didos, or antics, which came not of training nor of aping,

but of real generic aptitudes. These all pointed to a physical

correspondence, and looked directly to ancestral inheritance.

3. Ithink it was in 1873, the year after the appearance of my

article, that an interesting anatomical discovery was announced

i by the great academician, the successor of Cuvier, Henri Milne-

3 Edwards. He had dissected a Nasua and had discovered in the

E . limb bones of this animal structural alliances to the lemurs, or

Nate lowest monkeys. Here was, indeed, a pleasant and important

A confirmatory fact.

4 nt But to round up the proof, one more class of evidence is

i needed, the testimony of palæontology. In behalf of the extinct

‘ animals will the fossils bear witness in this matter?. The writer ~

y Was instructor in the natural sciences in the grammar school or is

X preparatory department’ of Rutgers College, when he received r

from its author a pamphlet “On the principal types of the orders

of Mammalia Educabilia,” by Professor E. D. Cope; read before `

the American Philosophical Society, April 18, 1873. My eyes — |

! caught a foot-note to one of the pages, thus: “ Dr. Lockwood, of

Rutgers College, in a recent number of the Popular Science

_ Monthly, expressed serious suspicions of the quadrumanous rela-

__ Honships of the Coati, little thinking at the time that the speci-

_ Mens to confirm his view were at that moment in the hands of 3 -

_ this world’s life-history had consisted of animals of a very low

? meee on the mammalian lines. Technically they are classed as

the Ineducabilia, In the Eocene days the creative. force was

oe on higher lines of life. Then were produced the

324 eee, The Ancestry of Nasua. [April, —

ancestors of those animals which are included in the zoological

term Educabilia, whose cerebral physiology has been already

explained. As notable genera of those days I may mention the

pseudo-bear—Notharctus of Leidy, and the cut-tooth beast—

Tomitherium of Cope. Others there were by Marsh, but their

descriptions are not in my reach. Leidy’s species, Notharctus

tenebrosus, described from very limited material, was a little ani-

mal about two-thirds the size of a raccoon. Cope’s species,

Tomitherium rostratum, founded on a much larger amount of

material, was an animal probably about the size of Cebus capu-

cinus, the prehensile-tailed monkey so common in shows. Upon

technical considerations both these animals, albeit their strange

and high-sounding scientific names, were low-grade monkeys.

They were quadrumanous animals but of a synthetic, that is,

` comprehensive type. The femur of Tomitherium was so long as

to indicate that the knee was entirely free from the body, as it is

in the whole monkey tribe of to-day, but never in any of the

r carnivores. The round head of the radius indicates a complete

; power of supination of the fore feet; that is, the ability to lift the

hand, so to speak, forward and to turn the palm upward, a faculty

of limb peculiar to monkeys and man, while the distal or lower

end of the same bone resembles closely that of Semnopithecus, 4

high-grade old-world monkey. “ We have then,” continues

Cope, whom we are epitomizing, “an animal with a long thigh

free from the body, a foot capable of complete pronation and

supination, and a form of lower jaw and teeth quite similar to

that of the lower monkeys.”

~ And in this connection what about our Coati ? Says the profes-

sor: “ A comparison with Nasua reveals no distant affinity. the

fore limb presented in Tomitherium a great similarity to that

_ Nasua.” And in both genera are some striking similarities in the

cutting teeth. “The first impression derived from the appearance

of the lower jaw, and the dentition, and from the humerus, is that

Tomitherium is an ally of Coati, the humerus being almost a fat-

__, stmile”” And is it not a striking coincidence that Professor

_ Leidy’s first impression of Notharctus was of a resemblance x

~ Procyon, the raccoon, which,as we have shown, is generic with

- Nasua.

It is evident then that Tomitherium and Nasua show some

_ alliances in structure which look to a common origin or biogene

sis, but it is a descent on different lines. From his study Ae

1886:] The Ancestry of Nasua. 325

immense amount of fossil relics from the same geological forma-

tion which yielded Tomitherium, Professor Cope has erected the

order Taxeopoda, which includes these fossil lemurine forms.

This order occupies the earliest section of the line of the Pri-

mates. First in these fossil forms come the Lemuroids at the

base of the Primate lineage. After these extinct forms appear

the true Lemuroidea, that is, the present or living Lemurs, fol-

lowed by the monkey proper, and these by the anthropoid apes.

Now, among the lemurine forms,and fairly started on the quadru-

l manal line of descent from the typical lemurine order Taxeopoda,

occurs Phenacodus, after which Tomitherium appears somewhat

farther advanced on this Primate line.

Now, on an off-line or branch from the lemurine Taxeopoda,

Starts the flesh-eating line; first the Creodonta, the “ slaughter-

teeth,” then the Carnivora proper, with the present living forms.

Cercoleptes connects Nasua to the extinct Creodonta, and

through these back to the lemurine order Taxeopoda, their 3

ancestral stock. ‘

So we have at last found the Nasuan lineage and ancestry in

the Eocene times. Phenacodus was an animal of a synthetic struc-

ture, a comprehensive type, from which flowed several ordinal

streams of life. In such a composite form, or structural make-up, `

can we not surmise the creative possibilities and purposes of the >

Divine Mind ?

It is an interesting fact that in a direct line one of Nasua’s ances-

tors still exists in the same forests of South America. The kin-

kajou, Cercoleptes caudivolvulus, reduced to one species. When

tamed it is an interesting little animal with amiable ways and

> monkey traits. The tail is prehensile in that it curls around an

: object, which with plantigrade feet give it in Germany the name.

curling-bear. Like the monkeys it will hold its food in one hand

| and break it and feed it to the mouth with the other. So then,

Sy kinkajou and Coati-Mondi come honestly by their monkey tricks, —

having a clear title by heritage. | pe

- Without turning homilist let me close by citing Ruskin and oF

One of the great ancients: “The greatest thing a human soul

‘ver does in this world is to see something.” The Hebrew bard

both sang and prayed : “ Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold

: glorious things out of thy law!’ And this biogenesis of Coati-

: Mondi, is it not one of the wonderful things—an outcome of

Divine law? ee

aso The Mechanics of Soaring. [April,

THE MECHANICS OF SOARING.

BY I. LANCASTER.

; k was foreseen that the paper on the soaring birds in the

November and December numbers of the NATURALIST of last

year would provoke adverse criticism where it dealt with expla-

nations of the movements of those creatures. The recognized

laws of the mechanical forces being formulated from data derived

from systems of which the earth is a part, makes it extremely

difficult to deal with phenomena which are independent of that

body, while still existing in its atmosphere.

3 here arises at every step taken to elucidate the matter, a

a seeming conflict with accepted laws, and however faultless the

ce reasoning, it is discredited because of that apparent antagonism. |

The word “soaring” is also a bad one to name the mechanical

actions involved, as it implies a bird. No better, however, is at

hand, and it denotes the method employed. by the bird and not

necessarily the creature itself, as it is here used.

While prosecuting the subject experiments of various kinds

were conducted to dispel the obscurity which enveloped it, as

careful observations had shown that it was completely different

from any other kind of bird flight. Of almost half a hundred

_ theories framed on postulates of bird or air, which were not true,

one at length was found to be consistent with the facts. I sud-

denly found myself in the ludicrous predicament of industriously

attempting to prove an axiom. My experiments became value-

Jess. Time and means had been wasted. There already existed

_ recognized data to make the whole case self-evident. ae

It is now more than five years since the discovery of the —

_ mechanical activities herewith detailed. During that time the

-matter has been made a study in all its bearings, so that mistaken

mechanical world as worthy of serious attention. :

~ | Tethnically, the material system of soaring is a flat surface, atf,

_ and a force. The gravitating force is not essential to it. Any

_ force, a push with the hand, horse-power, steam-power of any

other will fill the conditions. Neither is atmospheric ait essential.

The air must have the quality of great elasticity and offer con-

siderable resistance to a moving body which compresses or drives

-it out of the way, and very little to the passage of a smooth,

flat surface like a sheet of tin, edgeways in it. The force is then

oo ee be avoided, and it is herewith presented to the o

1886. ] The Mechanics of Soaring. 327

applied to the body in such a way as to move it at right angles

to the direction in which the force acts. This translation of the

body is “soaring.” It rests on two universally recognized laws.

The most important is the conservation of energy, of which it is

the most beautiful illustration to be found in mechanics. The

other is the reaction in all directions of fluids under the action of

mechanical forces.

_ The body must be so constructed as to have at least two direc-

tions of motion which are unequally resisted by the air. ,

The case will be first presented as operating in space devoid

of gravitation, where the body will have no weight, and .

afterwards the system will be introduced. into the earth’s atmos-

phere. Implications arising from the action of gravity, and the

constant tendency to introduce the earth into the soaring system,

will be avoided Í

Suppose the body to be an oblong flat surface, such as a sheet

of tin 12 x 72 inches, and that æ 4 is its transverse section, and

that the force moves from c towards d, at right angles to the sides

* of the surface.

é i č

Se Ee P eee A,

m S x

z : n ; d eo

Surface at right angles to the direc- Surface inclined to the direction of

tion of the force. the force. 2

328 The Mechanics of Soaring. [ April,

“That the value of the force is twelve pounds moving the surface

on the air with uniform velocity, which we will suppose to be five

feet per second. Under these conditions it is obvious that all the

force is employed in condensing and otherwise disturbing air, so _

that it is doing work on the air at the rate of twelve pounds each

second. It is also obvious that while uniform velocity occurs

there is a moving equilibrium between the surface acted on by the

force and the reacting air, and that any additional force, however

small, applied to the surface at any angle to its own plane would

disturb this balance, and either accelerate or retard its velocity.

If, however, the additional force be applied in its plane, lateral

motion would occur without changing the equilibrium. In the

lateral motion no air is disturbed, nor driven out of the way, nor

condensed, excepting what is caused by smooth skin, or surface

friction, and this is so very small as to elude all my attempts to find

its value. One pound applied in the plane of the surface would

doubtless drive it at the rate of 1000 feet per second. We will

an suppose, however, that one pound will drive it from 4 towards @

at the rate of thirty feet per second. As it is moving towards d

| at the rate of five feet per second, it will pass neither towards d

„nor a, but on the diagonal å e, the resulting path, the parallelo-

-gram being thirty feet long and five feet wide.

_ Note the character of the equilibrium between the surface and

air. The total force is flowing around the edges of the surface in

_ the shape of condensed and otherwise disturbed air. If the hand

were placed under the surface with an upward push, precisely as

much resistance as would be given to the hand would be taken

_ from the air, and the velocity retarded. If scales. were applied to

moving the index and precisely that much less would be working

on air, and the velocity of the surface would be again retarded.

_ If the surface met with sufficient impediment to stop its motion,

_ alt the force would be resisting the impediment and none doing

= work on air, and velocity would cease. k

_ ~ Itis evident that at uniform velocity the force has been trans-

_ ferred. It is in the air tension, and not in the surface, for to be also

there, would necessitate its creation out of nothing, There being

_ then, no force in the surface, it could not antagonize any resist-

ance offered to it, and this is in fact its condition as we have seen-

While its velocity remained uniform it. would obey any: impulse:

the surface and a pull towards c given, part of the force would benn

1886.] The Mechanics of Soaring. 3 329

derived from incident forces directed upon it, being powerless to

resist them.

So far all is evident, but the surface would not fill the condi-

tions of soaring. Its motion is not at right angles to the force,

but inclined thereto, and to accomplish the desired result its path

must be perpendicular to the force.

If we now tilt the surface on one of its long edges, 4, say for

two inches, or one in six, it would no longer follow the direction

of the force, but slant sideways towards this edge. Following

the law of the composition of forces, one-sixth of the force, or

two pounds, will now drive the surface sideways, and there being

nothing but trifling skin friction to oppose it, it will obey the im-

pulse. But if we apply a force of two pounds to the edge to

. balance this thrust, equilibrium will once more occur and the sur-

: face will move in the path of the force. Experimentally, far less

than two pounds is required for this rest, as a considerable incline

is reached before the sideways thrust is developed, the confused

air currents under the surface obscuring the movement.

Note that this abutting force is of the nature of pressure. It

is a static feature devoid of motion. It is a rest for the tilted sur-

face to lean against.

It cannot be denied that we now have a case of equilibrium once

more. With the two-pound rest a perfect balance results and the :

surface moves in the path of the force. All the force is disturbing i

air, while the surface moves with uniform velocity. Af that speed

it is unable to offer the least resistance to any further force which

may be opposed to it. At this point the answer to a single ques-

tion will be decisive. If it be in the affirmative the position is

Secure; if in the negative, my explanation of soaring is wrong, _ z

_ the birds are still in the air waiting solution. oo

_ The question is this; Will the tilted surface, supplied with the

rest of two pounds and moving with uniform velocity, obey the ae .

impulse of an external force, applied in its own plane, with equal

facility in any direction? gee

It certainly is evident that the only resistance to such a force —

_ arises from skin friction in whatever way the motion is made. — If

ou there be any other from whence comes it? It cannot come from:

the original force, for this is fully employed. It cannot come

from the two-pound rest, as this is already balanced by the side=

A of the reacting air. This does not vn pih the

ago. ‘The Mechanics of Soaring. [April,

velocity in the plane of the surface. It is two pounds at all

velocities; motion in the plane of the surface does not change the

| value of the condensations, but only their character. It makes

i them thinner but wider, the total of twelve pounds being constant

~ atall velocities; so that the two-pound abutment can only vary

with the inclination of the surface to the direction of the force.

It is obvious that a force applied to the surface in the direction of

its length, will move it either way indifferently. It can be seen

at once that the two-pound rest will not resist such a force at any

velocity whatever in these directions. Leaving unnoticed any

oblique motion neither longitudinal nor transverse, the important

point is, will a given force, say of one pound, move the surface

towards a, with the same velocity as towards 0 ?

ee It is possible that when the lateral motion is set up there might

be developed in the air disturbances, differences which woul

require an increase or diminution of velocity towards 4, to. bal-

ance the twelve pounds, and that these differences would be

-.. greater or less towards 6 than a, But this would in no way affect

a the lateral motion; Acceleration or retardation would go on

until equilibrium again occurred, so that it would bea balanced

surface which is moved. The vital point is: Does or can the

twelve pounds in any way resist the lateral motion either towards

: aorġ? It seems evident that there is no conceivable way

=, , which the lateral motion in either of these directions can be

: resisted by the twelve-pound force, under these conditions, with-

‘out at once traversing the law of the conservation of energy.

- — The only resistance to be found is the skin friction on six square

_ feet of smooth surface under a pressure of two pounds to the

Sey foot. `

= Tf this be a fact the case is proven. There is no other feature

-of it which would be denied. |

-Note the implications of the case. The lateral motion caused ;

_ by the one pound would now carry the surface to 4, while it 15

inches with that direction, so that its path is at right angles to it.

wind, or any other wind, or a dead calm, or wind vertically down- ae

| . Wards, or upwards, or at any other angle, are identical states y -

x while the force will be that of gravity. The surface now has

Weight. It isa body plus a force, and the entire matter is the

: ane that we have been BERS ed The agit: is a E

1886.] The Mechanics of Soaring. Sat 2:

is the direct result of this force. While the lateral motion is

going on at the rate of thirty feet per second, twelve pounds per

second of air disturbance “is flowing past the edge å, while but

three pounds is required to give the lateral thrust and furnish the

two-pound rest. If this edge be rounded upwards along its sev

enty-two inches of length to serve as a base for the expanding air

to act against, it will give the needed three pounds and still leave

nine pounds to go to waste by falling to the tension of the sur-

rounding air. With this substitution the soaring action is com-

plete. The force is now translating the body at right angles to

its own direction: It will be noted that a velocity towards. æ

greater than thirty feet per second will cause the surface to move

contrary to the direction of the force faster than with it. Also, if

a greater inclination be supposed, the abutting force would be

greater, and the above contrary motion augmented. A limit

would soon be reached in this direction; however. At an incline

of one to four the rest would be three pounds, at one to three,

four pounds, which latter would pass the limit of soaring, as it

would require a rear expansion of five pounds to effect lateral

motion, a utilization of five-twelfths of the entire force, which

would surpass the ability of the system.

A single further peculiarity is to be noted. Suppose the indefi-

nite body of air belonging to this system to be in motion, either

with, or against, or at any angle whatever to the direction of the ©

force. The action of the parts of the system would remain

unaffected by such motion. It is universally recognized that the Ț

translation of a system as a whole has no effect on the AE =

tion of its parts. tag

Let us now suppose the motion of the body of air containing

the system be towards the earth’s atmosphere in a direction tan- _

gential to its surface, at the rate of one hundred miles per hour;

until the air of the system and the atmosphere became identical, f

we would have a bird soaring in wind of that velocity, and this

air so far as the soaring system is concerned.

-In the earth’s atmosphere, surface and air will remain the

bird. It is an inert body translated at right angles to the gravi-

tating force, or horizontally, and solely by the action of that force.

It has constant motion in the direction of gravity but does not

lose its energy of position by getting nearer the earth. It resem-

bles zx this respect a clock moved by a weight, and placed on the

platform of an elevator which slowly ascends, While the clock

weight is a falling body having motion in the direction of gravity,

it still does not lose its energy of position by getting nearer the

_' earth, because of another motion in which it is elevated.

The surface, under the action of this force as above condi-

tioned, is a splendid atmospheric highway maker. It lays down

an endless cushion of air on which it travels with incredible

speed. It is paralleled by nothing in nature. It is gravity in the

role of a continuous motive power. It obeys implicitly the laws.

of mechanics in every paroma and gives man complete domin-

ion of the air.

When the attention is directed to soaring in the earth’s atmos-

phere, as exhibited by the birds, two delusions must be industri-

ously guarded against. One is that wind is concerned in the

phenomenon. The other is that the horizontal motion of flight

is the result of a single impulse acting in one direction.

_. When it is seen that motion is derived from gravitating force

exhibited by the quiescent bird in all cases, and that its level

flight is a compound result of two motions, one vertically down-

wards, and one slanting upwards in the plane of the wing sur-

faces, both simultaneously occurring, the subject assumes a more

explicable form.

- * Then when it is seen that no en is lifted in the upward

ae slant, | this action bearing no resemblance to a ball rolled up an

2 -inclined plane, the case will be in a fair way to be completely

_ comprehended.

In conclusion, I may be pardoned for indicating the direction

a in which criticism of this paper may be fruitful.

uN ae easy to lose oneself i in the limbo ofa vicious terminology:

2 weaken the’ case. It will merely show an improper use of w

_ Statements of fact regarding the plane inclined to the force,

and Stee in the hossbility. of equal ease of motion in

= $32 on The Mechanics of Soaring. [ April,

1886. ] The Stone Ax in Vermont. 333

any direction under the conditions given, contain the vital

elements.

As an explanation of soaring birds the facts of the transforma-

tion of gravity into air disturbance, and the results flowing there-

from as stated, are pertinent. To invalidate that explanation it

must be shown :

1. That such transformation does not take place.

2. That-no such results as those given are possible.

:0:

THE STONE AX IN VERMONT:

BY PROFESSOR GEO. H. PERKINS,

II—NoTcHED AND GROOVED AXES.

N all our collections we find a few axes which are notched or

grooved across the narrow sides. They are not common in

any portion of Vermont, nor, if we may judge from what has

been published by various writers, do they appear to be abundant

anywhere in the United States.

As was noticed in the preceding article we are able to arrange

Our specimens in such a manner that there is a very complete

series from the simplest celt, through the notched ax, to the fully

grooved ax, and it seems quite probable that the notched ax was

the second step in the development of the ax from the simply

edged pebble. The form of the notched ax is more s that of

the common celt than is that of the grooved 5

ax. In fact some of the notched axes are

nothing else than celts notched at the sides,

and they are never so large and heavy as are

Many of the grooved axes.

A type of these axes is shown in Fig. 1,

which represents a common form, about one-

half the natural size.

. Asarule these axes are not more than

four or five inches long and two or three

Wide. They are usually well shaped, neither

rude nor clumsy, and the surface is smooth

9r perhaps polished. The form of some is

mh as to eee the adze, and it seems

dertaken, was in common use among the prehistoric tribes as it

_much ‘of the use of such a tool in their accounts of these people.

» dark porphyry and is polished over the whole surface, and is, aS

ind

= It is four and a quarter inches long and two inches in greatest

width. In Fig. 2 we have quite another form of ax, and one whics

_ isnot common. It is about four inches long and two and a h

inches wide. It is made of trap, and it is noticeable that most of

__ these small axes are made of hard, compact material. I have seen

> no > specimen of the notched ax which, like some of the celts, was

near the middle as if the maker had thought of notching them

_ that a handle might be more firmly attached, and these are al

notched axes, although the notch is so very slight that I have

= thought best to include e these specimens in the present article.

Sane The Stone Ax in Vermont. [April,

performing many of the labors which we know to have been un-

has been for a long time among modern savages, and yet I do

not remember that the early writers to whom we always turn for

information respecting the customs of our predecessors, say very

It is not impossible that some of the implements which we call

celts may have done duty as spades, and that some of the ruder

“notched axes” may have been, not axes, but hoes. The

notches or grooves are always much wider than deep, although

the depth varies very greatly in different specimens, but I have

never seen it as'great as in the grooves of some of the larger

grooved axes. The notches are usually about a third of the

length below the blunt end of the ax, though in a few cases they

are near the middle, as in Fig. 2. These axes group themselves

naturally into two classes—those in which the

width greatly exceeds the thickness and in

which the surfaces are nearly or quite flat, and

those in which the breadth and thickness are

more nearly equal and in which the surfaces

are often convex. Some specimens have one

surface quite flat and the opposite convex, just

` as is often the case in the celts, and it is pos-

sible that these were used as. skin-dressers OF

HRD: and without a handle, the notches

rving as convenient places for the fingers as

the hand grasped ibe tool. -The specimen shown in Fig. 1 is of

eed are most of these implements, made with care and skill.

ed at both ends, but one or two of the latter are drawn in

os FA Specimens, and therefore less clumsy and heavy, even W

1886.] The Stone Ax in Vermont. ; 335

With very few exceptions the grooved axes found in Vermont

are larger than those we have called notched axes. They are not at

all abundant in any part of the State, and in the northern counties

they are very rare. It is quite remarkable that in some localities

where celts and other implements are especially common, grooved

axes have been very seldom found, if at all. As compared with

the Southern or Western grooved axes, our Vermont specimens

present differences which are sufficiently noticeable when one

looks over series of each, but which can not readily be made

apparent in words. Our axes are, in size, intermediate, none of

them being so small as the little “ toy ” axes found in other local-

ities, nor are any so large as many that have been found. Neither

do we find axes grooved only on three sides, but in all our speci-

mens the groove extends entirely around the ax. In the collec-

_ tion of the University of Vermont there is one specimen, which

is doubtfully of Vermont origin, in which the groove ig found only

on three sides, but in all the rest the groove is completed around

the specimen. This is somewhat remarkable, because, according

to Dr. Abbott (Primitive Industry, p. 8): “ Possibly two-thirds

of the stone axes found in New Jersey have the groove extend-

ing along the sides and across one margin ;” and the same author

speaks of “ one-half probably of the axes found in Connecticut

and northward having the groove entirely encircling the stone,”

and by inference the other half were not so. Our axes usually —

have the groove a little above the middle and parallel with the

edge. It is never very near the blunt end, as in some of the

Western Specimens, nor is it ever bordered by a raised lip. Our

average specimens are from five to seven inches long and about |

two-thirds as wide, and weigh two or three pounds, but occa-

Sionally they are larger, as is the specimen shown in Fig. 5, which |

18 one of the largest axes I have seen from this region. Some of

Our grooved axes were evidently made from cobble stones, and in

Some of these the upper end is left very much in its original con-

dition with its water-worn surface unwrought. The same form

Seems to have been copied in specimens the entire surface of which A

1S Wrought, for although these may show everywhere tool-marks, |

the form of the head is precisely that of those in which it is the

natural water-worn pebble. In general form the Vermont axes

are Noticeably wider, shorter and thinner than the typical West:

336 The Stone Ax in Vermont. [ April,

of the same length. The long, slender axes found in some of

4 the Western localities do not occur in the Champlain valley.

Our grooved axes are not often very rude but, though seldom

polished, the surface is generally well picked and smoothed. The

edge is, naturally, always polished, but the groove is not in any

specimen so completely smoothed that the pits and striæ

made by the instruments used in excavating it are obliterated,

and in most cases there is little attempt at polishing it. Even

when the rest of the surface is smoothed, the groove is not. This

is unlike what is common among stone axes from other places,

for in these we very often find the groove finely polished.

In Fig. 3 we have represented a specimen of singular form, and

in some respects unique.

The material of which this ax is made,

instead of being of trap or quartzite, or

some such hard, compact stone, is quite

peculiar in that it is of a red sandrock

common along Lake Champlain, and

which is not a very suitable material for

an ax. As shown in the figure this

specimen appears more rude and ill-fin-

ished than it was originally, for, either

from the effects of weathering or har

usage, the smooth surface which evi-

ES dently existed at first, has been flaked

Seas off in many places; giving a rude appear

oe ance.

3 _ This is one of the larger of our axes, the length being eight

inches, width across the head four and a half inches, while the gen-

eral width below the groove is four inches. The special peculiarity

: of this ax is found in the obliquity of the edge, which is not very

_ well shown in the figure. That portion of the ax below the gr oove

- is not worked to the same plane as that above, but is as if twi

i ` spirally so that a line drawn parallel to the edge would cross at 4

on large angle a similar line drawn across the head or parallel with

__the groove. Nor is this an isolated example. Ina fine large @®¥” |

in our collection, from Springfield, Mass., the same obim woo

—-1886.] The Stone Ax in Vermont. 337

the lower part is seen, and in several celts I have seen the same

form. So marked is this twist that it would seem impossible to

strike a fair blow with such an ax if it was attached to a long

handle, and this difficulty raises the question whether some of

these large grooved axes may not have been hand axes, not many

of them, perhaps, but a few. The head of the Springfield ax is

rounded carefully, and indeed the whole ax is very well made,

and when held in the hand with the ends of the fingers in the

groove, it seems most admirably adapted for use in this way. I

am aware that the groove in itself suggests a handle of some

(eed Je el i

ra aD

sjua ath? o T

oa Ne YA

ee fat Ets

IE,

A >” an ig

Atay sh

Ca iy pom pee

Were het cn t

fs 3 7

2h edt

ie ee

Fic. 4.

Fic. 5.

Sort, but, as has been noticed, in the case of these oblique axes

t ~ At least, the hand and arm of the user would surely make a much

better handle than any other. The form cannot be regarded as

accidental, I think; the specimens are too carefully and thoroughly

made to allow place for such a supposition. ae

The general character of our Vermont grooved axes is very —

well shown by Figs. 4 and 5, which represent the two classes —

_— often found. Both of them are comparatively quite flat or _

» and our grooved axes never approach a cylindrical form, ;

are always narrowly elliptical in cross-section. Scarcely any

VOL, XX.—No, ty, ae . oe

338 = The Stone Ax in Vermont. [ April,

two specimens are alike, but most of them resemble more or less

closely one or the other of the forms here figured. The specimen

shown (very much reduced in size) in Fig. 4 is a very well made

and finished ax, worked out of a syenite cobble-stone, and the

upper end apparently still retains the general form of the pebble.

It is of average size, being five inches long and three and a half

inches wide just below the groove. This specimen illustrates the

short and wide form, while the less common and longer form is

seen in Fig. 5. This ax is one of the largest specimens, and

most, if not all, of this form are large. Some of them are less

rude than that figured, which shows the effects of hard usage,”

though it probably was very well finished at first. It is made ofa

dark gray grit or hard sandrock, much like that used for making

the harder varieties of grindstones. The flat surfaces are rubbed

quite smooth, although somewhat pitted. The groove is only mod-

erately deep, but is unusually wide, and is smooth as if worn by

long usage, and as the figure shows, it runs obliquely. Both sides

are flat, one somewhat more so than the other, and the edge is

formed by beveling the surface, mainly from one side, This ax,

and the same is true of all of this form, was evidently worked out

of a mass taken from a ledge. Not only does the smoothness of

the groove show that this implement has been much used, but the

edge is chipped and broken somewhat, and the head very consid-

erably battered as if it had done hard duty asa maul. It has

been thought by some that these large axes were, some of them

at least, used to break holes in the ice in winter for fishing or to

get water, and this specimen may have served for some such

work. Very few axes so large as this have been found in this

State. The figure is somewhat more than one-third natural size.

` The length is a little over nine inches, and the width above the

groove nearly five and a half inches, while just below the groove

it is five inches. The specimen weighs four pounds, which is much

less than that of some of the Southern specimens. The inequality

of the two flat sides, which is sufficient to be quite noticeable in

this specimen, is sti!l more marked in some others, and, as in the

celts and other forms of the ax, this flattest side is always

‘smoother, sometimes very much so, than the opposite side, a fact

for which it does not seem easy to account. Ina skin-dresser OF

hand ax it is quite natural that the side which, from accident

; _ Or intention, was most nearly flat should be held down upon the

1886.] The Stone Ax in Vermont. 339

skin or whatever the surface that was being worked, and thus be-

come smooth and flat even if not made so at first, but how any-

thing of this sort could take place in a large, hafted ax we are

unable to guess, unless it was used as an adze, and this is possi-

ble. The oblique direction of the groove seen in this specimen

is worthy of notice, since it does not appear to be common in

New England specimens. Dr. Abbott (Primitive Industry, p. 8)

Says that in the valley of the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania

the majority of grooved axes have the groove oblique with refer-

ence to the edge, but that this feature is rarely met with in New

Jersey and “ probably does not occur in New England. There is

no example in the large series of New England axes in the mu-

seum at Cambridge.” Several of our Vermont axes, all I believe

from the northern part of the State, have oblique grooves.

I do not think that archzologists have given the grooved ax

sufficient credit for utility as a cutting implement. They seem

for the most part to be of the opinion that at best these axes

could be used only to cut into the bark and bruise the wood so

that a fire kindled about a tree so prepared should have greater

effect. This may very probably have been a common, perhaps

the common, method, and yet the accounts given us by the early

explorers of America seem to me to prove that trees were cut,

and cut so that they came down, with stone axes. We must

always be on our guard against rendering judgment as to the

usefulness of a stone implement if we have no other basis for our

decision than the results accomplished by it in our unskilled

hands, We all know that stone implements that would be wholly

useless in civilized hands are yet of very great efficiency in the

hands of Savages who have learned how to use them. Many of

Our stone axes do indeed seem quite unfitted for use as cutting

are tools, and they may be so, but all are not; some are made from —

very hard stone and have a smooth, regular edge which, although ©

it may not be comparable to that of a modern steel ax, is yet able

to cut soft green wood if not that which is harder. To cite in

Proof of this only a single writer, let me call attention to one oF —

: asd tements made by Champlain. The earliest edition of the

___- Writings of this explorer, which is now at hand, was published in `

~ Paris

= _ OUP purpose. In his account of a journey which he took with =

_ “Party of Algonkins in 1609, Champlain speaks several times of _

» 1830, a reprint of course of’ earlier volumes, but sufficient

340 Grosse’s Classification and Structure of the Bird-hee. April,

the stone axes as used to fell trees, and some of these were “ gros

arbres,” and the account shows that the cutting must have been

j done with somewhat of expedition. His party had iron axes as

well as stone, but our author does not compare the two, but calls

them all “meschantes.” In describing the customary method of

camping when enemies were supposed to be near, he tells us that

as soon as the Indians had chosen the place for a camp, they im-

t ‘mediately began to cut down trees to make a barricade, and he

4 says that they know so well how to do this that in less than two

hours they have so strong a defence that five hundred of their

enemies would not be able to break into it without great diffi-

culty and loss of life. Then in another passage he speaks of the

Iroquois cutting down trees for a similar purpose. Nowhere does

he speak of fire as an aid in the process. Indeed in the first case

where he tells us of so strong a barricade, he says that they make

no fire lest the smoke reveal their presence to their enemies.

From these and similar accounts it seems quite probable, to say

the least, that stone axes were used as axes for cutting timber,

= ` and with not altogether unsatisfactory results.

3 205

a GROSSE’S CLASSIFICATION AND STRUCTURE OF

aes _ THE BIRD-LICE OR MALLOPHAGA.'

Bt | ABSTRACT BY PROFESSOR G. MACLOSKIE.

HE Mallophaga, or bird-lice, are wingless insects with incom-

plete metamorphosis, mandibulate mouth-parts, two or three-

_ segmented thorax, eight to ten abdominal somites. They live on

mammals and birds, feeding on their scales, hairs and feathers.

The genera which are found on mammals never occur on birds,

lice with haustellate and others with mandibulate mouth -parts.

Nitsch (1842) carefully examined them, and Von Giebel (1874)

oo on his ‘work.

Nitsch divides them into two chief groups, Philopteride and

er Liotheidæ; the Philopteridæ have filamentous antennæ and no

> palps; the Liotheidæ have clavate four-jointed antennæ and palps.

- l Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Mallophaga, von Dr. Franz Grosse in Strassburg-

(7885).

: and vice versa. Redi first observed (1688) that there are some

The Philopteridae comprise two families: (1) Trichodectes, the

` Zeitschrift fiir wissenschattliche Zoologie, Bd. yin, Pp. 530-558, mit Taf. xvit

1886.] Grosse’s Classification and Structure of the Bird-lice. 341

only genus, characterized by three-jointed antenne and one-

clawed feet; (2) Philopteride, s¢rzcté, with five-jointed antenne

and two-clawed feet.

The Liotheide have likewise two families: (1) Gyropus, the

only genus, having one-clawed feet; and (2) Liotheide, strict,

with two-clawed feet.

Trichodectes and Gyropus occur only on mammals, the other

genera only on birds, and are classified according to the presence

or absence of appendages on the head (trabeculz) and their mo-

tility, to the sexual differentiation of antennz, their attitude, the

form of the head, the consistency of the thoracal somites and the

form of the last abdominal somites.

; PHILOPTERIDÆ, strictè.

1. Trabeculæ motile, antennæ nearly alike in both sexes. ........++--Docophorus.

2. Trabecule not motile.

a. Antennz filiform, no sexual differentiation.

(a) Hind-head rounded off, terminal somite of male rounded off. . Virmus

(¢) Hind-head abruptly angled, abdominal somites fused in the middle

Goniocotes.

6, Antennæ of male forcipate by a process from the third segment.

(a) Hind-head angled, terminal somite of female tubercle-like, of male

unded o; oniodes.

(2) Hind-head rounded off, terminal somite of male notched . . Lipeurus

LIOTHEIDÆ, strictè.

I, Mesothorax wanting, antennæ ORES concealed., x

a. Head very broad, no orbital sinùs........... Eureum.

4. Head elongated, with lateral is diced kwin ds. i

(a) With sharply marked-off clypeus and shallow orbital sinus

Lamobothrium.

(4) With only wavy head-margins, and long lateral lobes on the labrum

Physostomum.

2. Mesothorax presen 7

a. Mesothorax aR sharply marked-off, head three-sided, antennæ perse.

Trin

6. Mesothorax small , only indicated.

Bs, (2) Orbit&l hay deep, antennz mostly elongated and visible. Co/pocephalum.

oe i (4) Orbital bay very shallow or obsolete, antennz concealed.. -- Menopon.

Grosse’s researches have been largely ona Todda found on —

_ 4 pelican from Chili, closely related to Menopon and forming the a

type of a new genus and species, Tetrophthalmus chilensis. The —

male is 44% mma long, the female slightly less. He also con- —

important emendations of our knowledge of the other

_ Head. -—In Tetrophthalmus the head is somewhat constricte

is broader than long, caning! convex above, concave below, and

342 Grosse’s Classification and Structure of the Bird-lice. (April,

somewhat uniform, the occipital angles being rounded off. The

hinder limit of the clypeus

shows on each side a

notch, about a third from

the front of the head; two

dark spots are seen on

each side of the head, the

larger one near the notch,

the other behind it and

outwards. The antenne

lie concealed in a lateral

cavity of the under side

of the head (as in Læmo-

bothrium, Fig. 1 aż). Two

eyes, whose pigment is

1.\—Ventral view of head of Lemo. Seen from above, lie on

bothtiam from Gypogeranus serpentarius. X30, each side below and be-

hind the antennal cavity. Hairs are distributed over the head,

along the borders and on its ventral and dorsal surfaces. On tke

under side of the head is the funnel-shaped

mouth-opening, surrounded by the mandib-

ulate mouth-parts. Grosse describes the

mouth-parts of Mallophaga in detail, as

previous writers err greatly regarding them.

Labrum (oberlippe)—This is not, as in

other insects, inserted on the anterior bor-

der of the head, but in all Mallophaga it is

Fig. 2. Fig. 3.

Fic. 2.—Media ction through head of G: a ae y-

Labrum of Comins d dissimilis. st bo. mt Denies acne. X

1 Explanation of acta letters in the figures.—at, ennz ; ch, chitinous bar;

ds, vs, dorsal and v corres of cesophageal sala: g, glossa (ligula); r ?

5 glassy , hypop x; is, os, inner and outer side

- illa; Z,lens-shaped iisi thickening; 2, labrum (upper lip) ; md, r.md, left and

_ right mandible ; %, labial palp; m, muscle; md, mandible; m¢, mentum; mx, ist

- re e mx’, ad maxilla (labium or under lip) ; oc, eyes ; ozs, esophagus; 0%, optic

nerve; J, paraglossa ; v, retinal cells.

A. ie See ey

ret eS

år

1886.) Grosse’s Classification and Structure of the Bird-lice. 343

on the under side of the head. In all Liotheidæ it is similarly

formed (Fig. 1 ZÆ), being a thin transverse arched swelling, with

chitinous margins bearing small bristles. The labrum of the

Philopteridæ has a broad disk-like basis fixed on the under side

of the head, and is divided by some transverse furrows (Figs. 2,

3,5%). There is a broad furrow, separated from the mouth by a

| The large pointed teeth

‘cles held between the lab-

(Fis inner side of the blade has hooklets (not in Decophors)

Mee 5,6). The maxilla seem to take no part in comminu- —

plate of chitin, and farther forward a deep narrow furrow, next

the anterior boundary of the labrum. In the living animal the

labrum is constantly moving; and in Philopteridz it can adhere

to glass like a suctorial disk. The labrum can thus hold on to

hairs or feathers.

Mandibles—As a type we take the mandibles of ge

mus (Fig. 4). They have

each two strong, lon

teeth, somewhat different

in their structure

The under tooth of the

left mandible has a pro-

tuberance with curved

point and an arched sur-

face; its upper tooth has

two points, The right

mandible has two stout

teeth which fit the leftos M .@

mandible on closing. This

Serves for cutting parti-

rum and the first maxilla.

serve for removing dermal

scales, The mandibles ofthat

Fic. kan and left adii of Tetroph-

xX Fic. 5.—Head pes hd ig

the Philopteridze are long, £708 ‘eae een from below. X 60. Fic. 6—

Wo- $

trian gular and First iie of Tetrophthalmus, X 75.

wan the teeth short and thick (especially in genus Doco-

ang maxille—These are conical, and have a basal and a ter- 7 S

minal segment or blade, distinguishable in young spe ee

the food beyond aiding in its prehension. With al care

344 Grosses Classification and Structure of the Bird-lice. | April,

Grosse has never been able to find the palps of the first maxille

which Nitsch ascribes to Liotheide. Nitsch figures them in

i Trinotum conspurcatum, but this can scarcely be correct, for he

places the four-jointed papillz on the blade near its anterior bor-

der. In Tetrophthalmus the palps belong not to the first but to

the second maxilla. The same is true of Menopon pallidum, Col-

_ pocephalum zebra, a Lemobothrium from Gypogeranus serpenta-

rius, and a Trinotum from the swift, and probably is the case with

all the genera and species.

f Second maxille (unterlippe)—These are flat, fused, bounding

E the mouth posteriorly. They consist, in Liotheidæ, of two parts

The basal part (mentum,

mt) represents the coalesc-

ing stipites and squamz

St of normal first maxille,

and bears the four-jointed

labial palps. The upper

part is the ligula or glossa

(g) corresponding to the

inner blade [lacinia]. Lat-

erally on the ligula are the

paraglosse (jf), corre-

sponding to the outer

blade [galea]. A chitin-

ous band limits the glossa

where it bears the para-

glossa, as if the parts of ©

Pin: 7s: Sai makilia of Nimes: x both had coalesced.

Fic. 8.—Second maxillæ of Ze¢rophthaimus chilen- Rudow seems to, have

E Botham, rer 9—Second maxille of Læmo- mistaken the antenna for

the labial palps. Melni-

kow overlooked the labium, and erroneously compared the pro-

ducts of the cesophageal intima with the proboscis of Pediculina,

ie consequence of this false comparison referring the Mallophag@

_ to Rhynchota.

i The labium of the Philopteridæ has no palps (Fig. m It is

ly triangular, with rounded angles, and is sometimes very

small, as in the genus Kapeita; thè mentum being smaller than

j |

1886.) Grosses Classification and Structure of the Bird-lice. 345

the ligule. The ligule is emarginated in Docophorus and Lipeu-

tus. The paraglosse of Philopteridz, as in the Liotheide, are

like tactile-organs, remarkably long in species of Goniodes.

In all Liotheidz the intima of the ventral end of the oral cav-

ity forms a fold-like duplicature as in Philopteridz (hypopharynx,

Fig. 2 hy). In Lemobothrium and Tetrophthalmus this extends

forward over the labjum, and its lateral borders are strongly bent

upwards (Figs. 1, 8. /y).

For the study of the head Grosse made transverse and sagittal

sections of specimens fresh from molting and hardened in chro-

mic or picric acid.. From absolute alcohol they were placed in

chloroform and after two hours embedded in paraffine, being kept

_ for a time in melted paraffine under the air-pump. The sections

were attached to the slide by means of albumen or. oil of cloves,

Stained by alcoholic carmine-solution, treated with acidulated '

alcohol so as to show the nuclei, and then enclosed in Canada

balsam.

Thorax.—In the genera Trinotum, Colpocephalum and Tetroph-

thalmus the three thoracic somites are present, especially mani- —

fest in the young. The prothorax of Tetrophthalmus has above

a rounded swelling, and ends forwards in a bristly point on each .

Side. Within the prothorax, but visible through the transparent

dorsum, is a cross-band of chitin, as in Menopon, for the attach-

‘Ment of muscles. The mesothorax is much narrower than the

other thoracic somites. The metathorax is of trapezoidal form, ;.

and much broader and shorter than the prothorax. The borders

of these somites are strongly chitinized. There are no wings or

rudiments of wings. The foremost of the three pairs of limbs

are the shortest, and they act as foot-jaws, drawing fragments of

-food to the mouth. In the male Tetrophthalmus they are large

and also serve for holding the female. The tibia of all the limbs

of the male have their inferior end extending into a knob with

sharp processes like a “ morning star.” There are only two tar-

sal joints, the distal one being the longer and bearing two in-

curved claws, inclosing between them a soft lobe [pulvillus]. The

es on the tibia and the “ morning-star” processes of the

z male serve for holding the female, which indeed often cl

among the feathers of the host.

ot _ 40domen.—The female of Tetrophthalmus has ten ninal

= somi Mites, the terminal one soft and rounded. The male has nine,

uniting into one. The chylus-stomach is cordate at its beginning, —

346 Grosses Classification and Structure of the Bird-lice. [ April,

as the last is invaginated so as to serve as a sheath for the penis;

the hind end of the male is pointed and more chitinized, and

more darkly colored than in the female.

Digestive track—Two types of crop are found in the Mallo-

phaga. In Philopterida the crop is a lateral diverticulum of the

cesophagus; in Liotheidz it is a club-shaped symmetrical enlarge-

ment of the cesophagus. Kramer divides the intestine of Lipeu-

rus into an oral-cavity, an cesophagus, crop, chylus-stomach and

hind-intestine. The cesophagus reaches back to the abdomen,

and has a homogeneous chitinous intima. The intima of the

crop has spines, and its cells appear to secrete a fluid. The chy-

lus-stomach extends to the entrance of the malpighian tubules.

Grosse finds in the cesophagus of Tetrophthalmus, behind the

_ hypopharynx, a chitin-bar produced by thickening of the intima,

consisting of a groove-like mid-piece, and running forward and

backward into two diverging branches. The hind branches have

muscles from the occipital border of the cranium. These chitin-

ous bars are not haustellate, but support the oral intima, and in

their groove are sent along comminuted fragments of feathers,

retained by the retrorse spines and denticulations of the do

part of the intima.

Goniodes has two squamous cesophageal pieces, a dorsal and a

ventfal (Fig. 2, ds, vs). The ventral piece has posterior processes

joined by muscles with the occipital border. The dorsal piece

sends forward a muscular bundle, which bifurcates and its divi-

sions are inserted on the anterior cranial border. Two ducts

(probably salivary) run forwards through these scale-like pieces,

and has no chitinous intima. The hind-intestine has six longitu-

dinal grooves, and rectal glands with richly branching trachee

and a chitinous intima.

The mode of nutrition of Mallophaga is not fully ascertained.

Nitsch stated that they eat the epidermal products of birds and

mammals, and sometimes blood. Grosse finds that blood is

~ rarely taken, and only in cases where the bearers (birds) are 59

_ injured or diseased as to have blood among their plumage; an

Leuckart gives the same result as to Trichodectes canis of

dog. In Lemobothrium, Grosse found the intestine filled with

the limbs of its own kind, as if it ate the product of its own

gre:

1886.] Grosse’s Classification and Structure of the Bird-lice. 347

Malpighian vessels —These are four, not branched; have a

lumen and ganglion-cells (not separated from the lumen by any

membrane).

Salivary glands—There are two pairs; and exceptionally the

Philopteridas have one-celled glands as on the crop. Grosse

found one of these cells undergoing division. The salivary or-

' gans include salivary glands and salivary reservoirs. The glands

usually adjoin the crop or stomach, and have a cell-layer with

nuclei, covered externally and internally by a fine homogeneous

epithelium. Before the entrance of thin ducts into the cesopha-

gus, a gland and a salivary vessel unite into a common duct.

Sexual organs.—The male sexual organs are of the usual type

of insects, paired. testes, spermatic ducts, a seminal vesicle, ejac-

ulatory duct and penis. Nerves supply the seminal vesicle and

ejaculatory duct; and in Tetrophthalmus the terminal somite of

the abdomen is withdrawn so as to be concealed, serving as a

sheath for the penis. The female organs consist of paired ovaries

(three pairs of ovarian tubes in Liotheide, five pairs in Philop-

teridz), two oviducts uniting into one and a seminal receptacle.

The egg-case has a lid which springs open at the exit a the

young insect,

Respiratory apparatus ——There are seven pairs of EE one

in the prothorax and six abdominal. Each stigma has internally

a crown of fine hairs to protect from impurities. A pair of strong

longitudinal tracheæ send branches to the stigmata and are united

to each other by a strong cross branch in the abdomen, and

smaller ones in the he&d and thorax.

Dorsal vessel—Grosse could not succeed in making a prepara-

tion of this, but in the recently molted P animal it can be :

seen pulsating through the back. _ oo

Nervous system—This consists (in ae of two cephalic =

ganglia and three thoracic ganglia. The precesophageal ganglion —

is much larger than the subcesophageal, and they are united by

strong commisures, The last thoracal ganglion is large, and a

¿Sends back nerves to supply the abdomen. ~

Antenne.—In Liothèidæ these are four-segmented, club-shaped “oe

or knobbed, the terminal segment spherical, lying in a hollow of —

the Sub-terminal one (Fig. 1 af). In a cross-section of the ter- _

minal segment of Lzmobothrium are seen round nucleated oe oo

apparently ganglionic enlargement of nerves. The Liot

SO By a ago Ae A mh aid eK Pn td EAN aie AS E G + $ > Mirae. v Ne n A OT a ONE ae ad

toh PE Bae ; i ; “i 5 f C ARNEE

5 ; ak ‘ j F j ý ba F, į F X j “ ‘ 4 K at >

f k j $ i ~ { ; * ee

348 Track of a Cyclone which passed over [April,

have the antenne alike in both sexes, but in Philopteridz the

third segment of the antennz of the male has a lateral process,

sometimes so large as to make the antenna resemble a lobster’s

claw. Nitsch states that it is for holding the female.

Eyes—These lie on the margin of the under surface of the

head behind the antenne. Authors have hitherto ascribed a sin-

' gle pair ot eyes to all Mallophaga. But in all Philopterid genera

examined (Goniodes, Docophorus, Lipeu-

rus, Nirmus) the author found a single

pair, and in all Liotheid genera (Tetroph-

\\ thalmus, Lamobothrium, Menopon,

WA Trinotum and Colpocephalum) he found

Ii] two pairs of stemmata. If this charac-

~ ter holds good for the remaining genera

Fic. 10,—Eye of Lemoboth- it will still further separate the two chief

pa seen on cross-section of divisions of the Mallophaga.

The eyes of Mallophaga are simple,

provided with a lens-shaped thickening of the cuticle. In young

~ specimens the eye has no pigment, but in older specimens it has

| pigmented retinal cells. The eye of Lemobothrium, examined

by means of sections, has, under the chitin-thickening (Fig. 10 D),

twenty-four pigmented retinal-cells (7), clavate and nucleated with

nucleoli, merging gradually into the pigmented optic nerve (on).

Each eye is directly innervated from the precesophageal ganglion.

The hypodermal cells are interposed between the lens and the

retinal-cells, as cubic ‚cells in old specimens, but as a hyaline

-= body consisting of cylindrical cells in young or recently molted

-. specimens. There are no rhabdites in the eyes. The eyes of

= Mallophaga resembles those of Phryganea grandis, as described

3 . by Grenacher. . :

10;

_ TRACK OF A CYCLONE WHICH PASSED OVER

=~ ` WESTERN INDIANA MORE THAN THREE

HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

<8 : BY JNO. T. CAMPBELL.

: F April (1885) I was surveying in the west-central part of -o

_ M Parke county, Indiana. On the south side of Section 16, A

Township 15 north, of Range 8 west, I noticed that the tree

graves were very numerous, there being one to every square rod

rer ee oy ce ee we

Rs eS eee ae f

1886. | Western Indiana more than 300 years ago. 349

of ground. I noticed that they all indicated that the storm which

caused them was going to the north-east. When a tree is blown

down the roots hold two to five cubic yards of earth in their

grasp, which makes a corresponding pit where the tree stood ;

after the fallen tree has entirely rotted, the earth held by the roots

leaves a mound resembling an old grave, and have been very

commonly called by people here, “Indian graves.” The mound

is always on the side of the pit toward which the tree fell.

This storm track was about one thousand feet wide. I at that

time followed it nearly one mile. Just before I ceased tracing it

I found the stump of a white oak, cut down during the year 1884,

standing on top of one of the tree graves or mounds, I counted

the rings of growth and found it to have been two hundred and

ninety-seven (297) years old. That settled the fact that the storm

had passed over the ground at least three hundred and ten years

before ; for the acorn could not sprout on the mound until the — >

tree had first been blown down; and second, it could not sprout

till the fallen tree had also rotted away, and left the mound suffi-

ciently flattened for moisture to rise to its top surface.

- On the 18th of May following I was surveying in Section 29

and 30, Township 15 north, of Range 8 west (which surveyors in

the West will understand is about three miles to the south-west of

the first place mentioned). Here I also found the tree graves as

thick as the grown trees now are, and they also indicated that the

storm which blew down the trees which made these tree graves,

was going to the north-east. A moment’s reflection also showed

me that this was on the same line or track of the one first ob-

served.

After I returned home I placed a string on my county map so

as to cover these two locations, and noted carefully what points >

across the county the string touched. I noticed that by extend- |

ing the string south-westward it passed about one-half to three-

quarters of a mile to the right of Clinton, in the south end of `

_ Vermilion county, which adjoins this county on the west, the —

_ Wabash river lying between them. Clinton stands on the west —

- bank of this river. I at once remembered that when a boy in my

farly “teens” I had lived with a Dr. Kile, two and a half miles

South-west of Clinton, and in my frequent trips to town I often A

noticed the tree graves, which in my simplicity then I suppo:

to be in fact real “ Injun graves.” They were very numer sa

350 Track of a Cyclone which passed over | April,

and I supposed there had been a great battle between two hostile

tribes of Indians, and that these mounds were the graves of the

unknown braves. There were not the very faintest trace of fallen

trees in connection with these graves, so thoroughly had they

rotted away. I found by applying the string to the map that

these graves were in a line with those I had recently found in

this (Parke) county.

On the 8th of July following (1885) I was making a survey in

the north-east part of the county, in Section 29, Township 17

north, of Range 6 west. While at the dinner table I told one of

the land proprietors that I had recently got upon the track of an

ancient storm which, if it had kept on the course I had observed

should pass over the ground we were then eating our dinner on.

I asked him if he had ever noticed any trace of it. He said,

“Yes. When I was a boy and young man the ‘Indian graves’

out in that field [pointing south-eastward] were so thick that I

could jump from one to another all over that part of the farm.”

I asked what course the storm was going, and explained how he

would know by the position of the mound in relation to the pit.

He said north-east, and told me what farms it crossed, and about

where it crossed the county boundary into Montgomery county,

which was close by. This was over fifteen miles from where I

had first discovered the track, and I had not missed its location

where I am now speaking about more than seven hundred feet. ~

ae The next day I was going to another part of the county, and

had to travel south-westward several miles, and crossed the storm

track. -I saw a man in the edge of a field harvesting. I told him

g what I had discovered, and asked him if he had ever noticed it.

_ _He answered, “Yes. When- I was a boy the Indian (‘Injun ‘)

= — graves just below that sugar camp [grove of sugar maples] were

as thick as stumps in a new clearing. We boys used to count

_ them to see how many Indians had been killed in battle.” It was

_ the general belief of the children of the early settlers that these

were Indian graves, and that where they were numerous, as in

-a storm track, that there had been a battle between tribes.

~ place he pointed out was in the track I was looking after.

~ I may here remark that after the land is cleared and cultivated,

_ the plow in a very few years destroys all trace of these graves-

_ Hence my inquiries of persons who had known the country from

the days when it was an unbroken forest.

_ Solved it myself, but not entirely to my satisfaction. I have, after —

1886.] Western Indiana more than 300 years ago. 351

This storm would pass, in going north-east, about two miles to

the left of the city of Crawfordsville, Indiana, the county-seat of

Montgomery county. Though it might change its course far-

er on.

At, or very near the spot where I counted the age of the oak

which had grown on one of these tree graves, there still stands on

another mound a white oak considerably larger than the one I

counted, though it may not be an older one. I have delayed

writing this account over six months, expecting a miller to cut

this larger tree so I could count its age, but it has been neglected

so long that I have decided to write from what information I

now have.

These tree graves are, in the wild forest, as well preserved and

as distinct in outline, although more than three hundred years

old, as many that have been made by trees that have fallen within

my own recollection. If the same conditions that have so well

preserved them for that time should continue in the long future, I

see no reason why these mounds might not be preserved five

thousand, yea, ten thousand years. 3

What does the reader guess has so well preserved these little ;

mounds for so long a time? It is nothing more nor less than a

thin coating of forest leaves. The leaves act as shingles in shed-

ding the rains, so that they are not washed or worn down by the

falling rain or melting snow. The frost does not penetrate

through a good coating of leaves, and therefore they are not ex-

panded and spread out by freezing and thawing. I can see a

great difference between the mounds in the wild forest and those

On land that has been set to grass and pastured a few years. The

tramping of stock and the frequent expansions from freezing, ©

Which the grass does not prevent, flattens them perceptibly. The

grass, however, does preserve them against rain-washings. When

a belt of forest is blown down there are no trees to produce leaf

shingling till a new set are produced; but these come in great —

Sundance in ten years. It requires about fifteen to twenty years

{cota sound white oak. The time will depend on the lay of

Me log, 2 |

whether it falls across another log and lies above ground, _

or lies on or is partly bedded in the ground. a

I now offer a conundrum in connnection with this subject for —

©msoever may feel an interest in it to solve. I have partly —

352 Track of a Cyclone which passed over West. Indiana, etc. [April,

much observation, noticed that not more than one-tenth of the

surface of the present forests show any trace whatever of any

storms, recent or ancient. If storms have been as frequent and

as destructive in the past as in my day (of fifty-three years), and

the elements of preservation of the mounds have existed in the

past as now, why do I find so few storm tracks as I have men-

tioned? It would seem that in three hundred years, if storms

had always been as frequent as in our time, and in the same hap-

hazard manner, there would not be a square rod of ground that

would not show some trace of a storm.

I give my explanation for what it may be worth, but is short of

all the facts of explanation. I am able to say of the storm I have |

described, with as much confidence as if I had been-present and

seen it: First, that it occurred when the trees were in full leaf;

second, that there had been a protracted rain; third, that many of

the trees blown down were white oak; fourth, that one was a

large poplar; and fifth, that very few, if any at all were black

walnut. And for the following reasons: The great storms do not

now occur before the leaves are on. Without the resistance

against the wind offered by the leaves, it is very hard for any li

storm to uproot a green tree. If the ground is dry and hard, or

< _7 frozen, the trees will break off at or above ground. And in such

case they would leave no tree graves, which may account for the

few tracks I find. An oak leaves a deep, round pit and a plump,

; round mound. A poplar leaves a broad, shallow pit and a long,

_ slender mound, The black walnut is very rarely “blown up by

the root.” I have seen this country from an unbroken forest to |

—

_ the present time, when four-fifths of the land is cleared for the

-~ plow or pasture, and I don’t remember that I ever saw a black

walnut blown up by the root. I have seen many broken off.

| They have a very firm root, and are, when mature, a little

-doughty at the stump, but very sound from ten feet above ground

upward, : 3

_ I have seen and still know of other large trees which stand on

the graves of former fallen trees. Some of these trees are very

large, but the size of a tree is such an uncertain indication of its

age, that I can’t say with much certainty how long the mounds,

on which they stand, have existed. One thing is certain, the

= mounds are older than the trees, At the Fair ground, a mile a

= west of where I am'writing (Rockville, Indiana) are several such

Bye

1886. ] On the Mounting ot Fossils. 353

cases, and on the grounds of the now growing famous resort in

our county, “ Turkey run,” or as it is called by people away from

here, “ Bloomingdale glens,” are several such cases.

In a future article I shall show how the forest leaves have pre-

served the sides of hills and thus allowed the small streams to

cut out the bottoms of the hollows deep, steep and sharp, which

are rapidly changing since the country has been cleared and

farmed. Also how they have preserved the ancient beds of

streams along the terrace bottoms of the Wabash river and its

principal tribytaries till they are as sharply defined after the lapse

of no one can venture to guess how many thousands of years, as

they were when the last great final flood that cut out the beds

Swept over these plains,

I have said the storm here described was a cyclone. This I

infer from the way the trees had fallen. In some parts of the

track the trees were thrown in every direction, and the course of

the storm could only be determined by the general course of the

track, and not by the fall of individual trees.

The course of this storm is. N. 44° 30’ E. in this county. In

all my recollection of storms I never saw but one (in 1883) which

bore so much to the north, and that one was the most threatening

and awful in its appearance I ever saw, and did in localities much

damage. Its course was about N. 37° E., or about 7° 30’ more

north than the ancient one. The great majority of the storms I

have seen, and of those which have left plain tracks, are from a

few degrees north to a few degrees south of west.

10:

ON THE MOUNTING OF FOSSILS.

BY FRANKLIN C. HILL,

E five expeditions which have gone to the far West from

Princeton have brought in many valuable fossils—invaluable

'S perhaps the better word—chiefly remains of vertebrates.

x For the double purpose of utilizing and of preserving these

Sastres they have been mounted in a manner new in this coun-

wy; and it is believed not common abroad, though somewhat -

ced there.

The leading idea of the system is that each piece shall be set

UP in its natural position.

~ < Museum now contains nearly 400 such specimens, which _

~ years ago by Professor R. P, Whitfield, and published by me in

354 o V On the Mounting of Fossils. [April,

have attracted much attention and admiration from visitors, both

scientific and lay, and-I have been. often urged to publish some

account of my methods and results.

Although many fossil bones are whole and clean when found,

many more of them are broken and more or less clogged with

matrix. The freeing of this last and the mending of the broken

are troublesome and delicate tasks. Mallet and chisel come into

play, their sizes depending on the nature of the case. For the

heavier work ordinary stone-cutter’s tools can be used, yet itis

commonly better to make haste slowly and use needles, and no

needle is more useful than a No. 1 sharp. By wrapping the eye

end of the needle with a narrow strip of paper it can be made to

fit in the clamp of a patent sewing haft, and a chisel made, which

with a dogwood stick of from one to one and a-half inches diam-

eter and nine inches long for a mallet, is capable of doing very

delicate work, and also much which at first sight would seem to

be entirely too heavy for so light a tool.

For reaching into the deeper cavities a No. 12 knitting needle,

well set into an awl handle, is needed, while for cleaning out the

carapaces of turtles it is well to have special long handles made.

Darning needles are of convenient size but of too poora quality.

of steel.

But whatever needle is used, a good oil-stone should always be.

at hand to renew the point as often as it is blunted. By a little

practice a point can be put to a needle much better for this work

than the original one.

A good stiff tooth-brush is needed, a good lens, say Tolles’ one

inch triplet, anda hand mirror to throw light into cavities of

heavy specimens that cannot be easily turned.

ew A high workbench with vise, plyers, anvil and hammers, drills,

a flat cushion to lay specimens on while being worked, and an

assortment of wire complete the “kit” of tools, but a pot of

mucilage and a box of calcined plaster are also needed for mend-

‘ing the broken. It is best to have always a number of specimens

on hand so that the mended can be allowed to dry without delay

to the work.

_ Of the cements that we have tried at Princeton, we have give® |

up all but the one which we began with, recommended to us

the Am. Four. Pharmacy, May, 1875. It is: Starch one part

1886. ] On the Mounting of Fossils, 355

white sugar four parts, gum arabic eight parts and water q. s.,

boiled together after the manner of an apothecary. Latterly we

have added a small quantity of salicylic acid to prevent fermenta-

tion. It should be about as thick as honey, and for joints that

do not fit neatly it is well to thicken it at the moment of using |

with plaster of Paris. For filling large voids plaster enough

should be kneaded in to make a stiff putty, and it is well to work

in with it as many pieces of stone or brick as possible, both to

Save material and to lessen the shrinkage of the mass.

Although I sometimes paint the masses of plaster which show i

themselves, to destroy the unpleasant violent contrasts of color, I

always use some neutral tint entirely different from the color of

the fossil, in order that the false parts can be easily ‘distin-

guished,

With the outfit described, a smooth-grained and moderately

hard matrix and good hard bones the work is pleasant and easy.

But when the matrix is of cemented gravel, here hard as flint, there

loose sand, with soft and crumbly bones, a large stock of patience

and good temper must be laid in also.

When the bone is freed from the matrix and mended, the ques-

tion comes up as to how to keep it safely and show it to advan-

tage. Hf economy of space be important, a drawer just deep

enough to receive it is perhaps the best receptacle ; but if we wish :

to exhibit it to the public a glass case is needed. - “

To ordinary observers, and even to pretty fair anatomists, bones

on a tray or shelf say little. In a museum the inexpert visitor

must, for obvious reasons, be considered as well as the student

and professor, and experience shows that a bone in its natural ne

Position, even if alone, is easier to understand than when reversed,

Wille it séveral bones are combined sò as to form a foot, or leg, —

4 spinal column or a skull, the value of each is greatly increased. —

Following out this idea I have been led to mount every skull, or

limb, or bone, or even fragment of a bone which has character —

enough to be worth preserving, and have obtained results better _

than my hopes, | os

, A single ramus of a lower jaw lying on its side in a tray shows ee

but badly, and is liable to be thrust aside and jostled, to the great

danger of its teeth and coronoid. But hold it in its natural posi-

ton, and note its length and width. Then have a neat block of

“ome hard wood, say cherry or black walnut, cut and polished

356 Qn the Mounting of Fossils. ‘[April,

with shellac, not varnish, and selecting a wire of suitable size,

make two hooks, like Fig. 1, to fit the jaw near its

ends, set them up in the block, slip the jaw into

them and it speaks for itself, and is safe. Of course

the block must always be just so large that no part

Fiz 1 of the bone will overhang the edge, and then the

specimen will not be injured by crowding it against

_ the wall or another specimen. If larger than needed

it wastes shelf-rcom. If the specimen be large and

i ) heavy, or at all crumbly, the supports need to be

tig 2 wrapped with cloth or felt to protect it.

y Suppose wè have both rami, or the greater part

of them. Mend the breaks with the cement, and when dry bend

two stout wires as in Fig. 2, one to bind the jaws together at each

end, cement them in place and let them dry. Then set up three

wire hooks to receive these braces, as at J and c, Fig. 3, one in

front and two behind, as far apart as the jaw will allow. The use

of these hooks is so obvious that the most careless or dull stu-

dent can hardly fail to see it, which is a good thing, because if a

Skull and atlas, eight and a half inches long.

blunder be possible some persons can always be depended on to

make it, and hence come many breakages. If beside the jaw we

‘have the skull, we need two more wires, one to catch the back of

the skull at the glenoids (Fig. 3 d), and the other to support the

oe nose (a).

In this specimen the sixth wire (e) carries the atlas, as shown

in Fig. 4. When it came from Dakota it was a solid block of

_ stone with corners of the bone sticking out, and it was work

apart entirely with needle and mallet.

i ea aes à pee

f ->

2 r

e; j y

1886.] On the Mounting of Fossils. 357

Take another case (Fig. 5). Here are almost all the parts

of Hyznodon’s hind leg

and foot, with part of the

pelvis, a chaos as they lay

in a tray. But by first

glueing the tarsals together

in position and making

them a bed on a plaster

base, and then bedding each

metatarsal and phalanx in

turn, I was able to display

the foot. The tarsals were

then set free by soaking in

water. Fastening this plas-

ter base to the black walnut

pedestal by a screw-bolt, I

set up behind it a post,

eighteen inches high, into

which wires were set, as

Shown in the figure. The

small figures behind show

the wires as seen from

above “in plan.” The main

curves in æ and å hold the tibia and their ends catch the fibula.

Patella sits in the loop of c, d and e steady the head of femur,

Fic. 5.

_ while fand another wire behind the post hold the pelvic frag-

ment. Each bone is marked with the museum number of the

Specimen somewhere on its surface. z

The adjustment of these wires is a nice matter. Each bone

must have its natural position, but must be under no strain ; must

be held in its place securely, and yet be so free as to be easily

lifted out. It must stay by gravity only.

For small Specimens all that is needed to secure the wires in

Some Practice is needed to bring the wires to their pr roper

ape. No two bones are ever quite alike, and hence cachi w o

358 On-the Mounting of Fossils. [April,

must be fitted to its own place by experiment. When a new

curve is put into one end of a crooked wire the path of the other

end through space defies mathematics.

With heavy bones it is sometimes hard to make them rest in

their supports without strain, though it can be done. We have

an enormous femur of a mastodon which seems to be held up by

a post behind it, while really the whole weight is borne by a plas-

ter base in which the condyles rest, and the upper end does not

even touch the post or the guard wires. The hind leg of Lox-

olophodon is mounted on a plaster base of the computed height

UINTATHERIUM Hb.

| ae

Fic, 6.—Skull, thirty-one inches long.

of the foot, which takes so much of the weight that there is no

strain on the rod which guards the head of the tibia. ‘

` We have now five mounted skulls of the Uintatherium family,

and their mountings give a fine example of evolution. The first

one is sustained by five distinct iron rods whose flat feet are

secured by sixteen screws to a painted pedestal of white pine, the

irons weighing over eight pounds. a.

The last one, a much larger and finer specimen, is carried by

two rods screwed into the black walnut pedestal. The rearward

= rod (Fig. 7) sends off a branch from each side just below the

1886. | Recent Literature. 359

felted saddle in which the basioccipital

rests, which branches curve upwards and

press against the bases of the rear horn- Hg 7

cores, so-called, and hold all firmly in ;

place. The front iron has a small square

button on top, felted, on which the roof

of the mouth rests. These irons weigh

four pounds,

While it is of course impossible to fix

amaximum for the size of pedestals, a

minimum is a good thing to have, and I X

have fixed on 3 in. x 114 in. x I in. high.

This gives room for a good sized label

on the side, giving genus and species,

geological formation, locality and cata-

logue number.

For very small jaws, single small teeth, &c., I set up a small

cylinder of plaster on one of the smallest pedestals,

and cement the specimen to the top of it. In other

cases, as in Didelphys pygmea Scott, and the Acip-

tion jaws shown in Fig. 8, the slab of matrix is

cemented to the surface of a board hung on two Fig: 5

Pivots, so that it can be tilted to either side for ex- 3 Roars

examination. And when a new specimen shows

new features I devise a new mounting to suit them.

:0:

RECENT LITERATURE.

CROLL’S CLIMATE AND Cosmo.ocy..—In this volume of essays,

Mr. Croll reaffirms his physical theory to account for the glacial

climate in a way to command the attention of every geologist and

in a manner which will attract the interest of the lay reader. The

discussions relate to questions of the deepest interest, and the

arguments used are certainly strong ones. Mr. Croll’s peculiar

views as to the existence of glacial climates before the Quater-

nary period are restated with much fullness, though he candidly ie x

admits that most geologists are opposed to them. 4

bi € author’s theory is usually called the “eccentricity theory,” _

ut he prefers t#call it the “ physical theory.” He states thata

h state of eccentricity of the earth’s orbits will not necessarily a

* Discussions on Climate and Cosmolo, B -DF R.S. Sia

. By James CROLL, LL.D., F.R.S. N i

ork, D, Appleton & Co., 1886. ee pp. 327. $2. i i Soe

state of eccentricity, from the one hemisphere to the other. But

all this depends on ocean-currents flowing from equatorial to

polar regions, and the existence of these currents, in turn, de-

pends, to a large extent, on the contour of the continents and the

particular distribution of sea and land. Take, as one example,

the Gulf stream, a current which played so important a part in

the phenomena of the glacial epoch. A very slight change in

on a former occasion, a change in the form or contour of the

Northeast corner of the South American continent would have

deflected the great equatorial current, the feeder of the Gulf

stream, into the Southern ocean and away from the Caribbean sea.

One of the main causes of the extreme condition of things 1M

Northwestern Europe, as well as in eastern parts of America dur-

ing the glacial epoch, was a large withdrawal of the warm waters

of the Gulf stream, and this was to a great extent due, as I stated

in my first paper on the subject to the position of Cape St.

Rogue, which deflected the equatorial current into the Southern

ocean. That a geographical distribution of land and water, per-

i mitting of the existence and deflection of those heat-bearing cur-

- rentṣ is one of the main factors in my theory, is what must be —

obvious to every reader of Climate and Time.”

Dr. Croll maintains that, with the exception of those resulting

from oscillations of sea level, the general distribution of sea an

nd and other geographical conditions were the same during the

_ glacial epoch as they are at present. Thus he does not accept

Lyell’s theory of an elevation of northern lands; yet we do not

see but that this was a matter of fact. Indeed, Mr. Croll’s specu-

lations produce the impression that he is somewhat one-sided in

his treatment of these theories. His knowledge of general geol-

ogy, and especially of palzontology, is apparently slight. For as

_ regards his theory of interglacial climates in times preceding the |

vcs Quaternary, the view is opposed to the whole »mass of facts 1n

~ palzontology. The more we have read of Dr. Croll’s eccentricity

_ theory, the less necessary does it seem; the geologist had better

: 1 Philos, Mag. for August, 1864.

1886] Recent Literature. 361

rely on purely geological causes ; they may yet be proved to have

been sufficient. Dr. Croll nowhere explains why so large a por-

tion of the subpolar regions were unglaciated.

In his discussions in cosmology, Dr. Croll contends that Sir

William Thomson and others are wrong in maintaining the

“gravitation theory,” z. e., that the sun cannot have supplied the

earth with heat, even at the present rate, for more than about

15 to 20,000,000 years. He discards this theory, and freely gives

the evolutionists and geologists all the heat they want, by claim-

ing that the sun’s heat was originally derived from motion in

space; this being “ more in harmony with the principles of evolu-

tion than the gravitation theory, because it explains how the

enormous amount of energy which is being dissipated into stellar

space may have existed in the matter composing the sun untrans-

formed during bygone ages, or, in fact, for as far back as the

matter itself existed.”

On page 65, Dr. Croll, it seems to us, too hastily assumes that

the ice in the interior of Greenland is of great thickness, while

the land itself is low, “ probably not much above sea-level.” On

the contrary, as the result of recent Danish exploration, Dr. Rink

tells us, the surface of the ice in the interior is 6000 feet above

the sea, while we infer from his statements that the thickness of

the ice is not much over 2000 feet. In fact, the theoretical gla-

Cialists go to extremes ; closet speculations and field-work do not

always harmonize.

The only typographical errors we have noticed are the mention

of “Heyes” for Hayes on one occasion, while Torell is wrongly

spelt “Torrell,” in the only instance in which it is used.

Leunis’ SYNOPSIS DER THIERKUNDE.'—This is a new edition of

Leunis’ Zoology, which for so many years has been in almost

universal use in the German gymnasia and many of the universi-

The present work contains two large volumes of more than

1200 closely printed pages and 1000 cuts each. Perhaps the

_ the student analyzes flowers with Gray’s Botany. This alone

Would render the book invaluable to any one who wishes to

in the study of a new group or to determine quickly an ani-

Seas. But it contains representative species of most of our Ameri-

can genera. Professor Ludwig, whose work on Echinoderms is ©

n by all zodlogists, has revised the edition and has com-

Pletely rewritten the second volume, which treats of the inverte-

LTH; oe

Third edition, revised by Professor Lupwic, of Giessen.

r, g Recent Literature. [April,

brates. This is itself a sufficient guarantee of the scientific accu-

racy and value of the work. The analytical tables are brief and

concise, yet not more technical in language than is absolutely

“necessary and can be readily understood and followed by the

average student. But the.book is no mere analytical key to the

animal kingdom. ‘The anatomical character of each type, class

and order are briefly but clearly presented. It is a hand-book

which every teacher will find useful in his class-room and labora-

tory and which is worthy of a place by the side of Claus or Carus

and Gerstecher in every zoological library. The style is clear

ms enough, so that the book could easily be translated by any one

tolerably familiar with German. The cuts are clear, good and

well selected. The type is rather small and the paper thin, but if

large type and thick paper had been used, we should have four or

five volumes to contain what is now by a marvel of compression

crowded into two. Even more marvelous than the condensation

is the price, only thirty marks for the two volumes.—F. M. Tyler.

outcome of a great part of the leisure of fifteen years. The

method adopted was to take notes of the colors of the hair and

eyes of persons met or passed at a sufficiently small distance to

permit of observation. Those under age, those whose hair had

4: began to grizzle, and those who seemed to belong to the upper OF

migratory classes were neglected. Eyes are distinguished as

light, neutral and dark; hair as red, fair, brown, dark and black ;

ee and an index of nigrescence is adopted, forming a basis on which

~ the results of the observations are mapped so as to speak to the

ee ee ie A considerable number of head-measurements were also

- made.

-= The book is a mine of information, bristling with statistics,

facts and arguments, but unfortunately is scarcely comprehensible

save by those who know nearly as much of the history and phil-

ology of the ancient races as does the author.

ZiTTEL’s HANDBUCH DER PALZONTOLOGIE.—We have from time

_ to time drawn attention to this valuable work, which is being pub-

lished in parts. It covers the plant and animal kingdoms, and is the

_ most authoritative and recent work on the subject. Due credit }§

= given to American work and illustrations. The number last

received (Bd. 1, Abth. ii, Lief. 4) is devoted to the fossil Crustacea,

i 4 F K

1 The Races of Britain. A contribution to the anthropology of Western Europe

= By Joun Beppor, M.D., F.R.S. London, Trubner & Co., Ludgate Hill, 1885-

= we

1886. | Recent Literature. 363

including the trilobites and Merostomata. The illustrations are

abundant and in most every case well engraved. The pages given

to the Merostomata, the Phyllocarida and the lower Macrura are

full and fresh in treatment. ach order is defined; a brief gen-

eral account of the external anatomy follows, with remarks on the

opinions of different authors as to their classification. The fami-

ies and genera are defined, the leading types are figured, and then

follow tables showing the geological distribution of the species.

The author is usually critical in his mode of treatment, as seen in

his doubtful recognition of Brachypyge as a Carboniferous crab,

which, since the publication of this part, has been shown to be a

pedipalp arachnidan. We do not see why, even in the light of

Meek and Worthen’s excellent treatment, Anthrapalaemon should

be placed in the Penæidæ. Still the author’s thoroughness and

command of the literature is evident throughout the work.

Faxon’s REVISION OF THE CRAWFISH!—This is a systematic

treatise on the crawfish of the Northern hemisphere, based chiefly

on the material in the museum at Cambridge, which now pos-

Sesses all the known species from Europe and Asia, and all the

American species, with three exceptions. The richness of the

material may be realized by the fact that twenty new species of

Cambarus are described, whereas Dr. Hagen, in his well-known

memoir on the North American crawfish, described but ten un-

known to previous authors, |

The treatment of the material by the author, as may have been

€xpected, is thorough, and the illustrations, drawn by Mr. Paul

Roetter, are excellent. It is a matter of great interest to be able

to study such a group as this, scattered as it is through the

northern portions of the New and Old World. Itis to be hoped

that Our naturalists will endeavor hereafter, in making out our

American fauna, to compare it with that of Europe and particu-

larly Eastern Asia,

, GRABER’S Anrmat Mecuanics.—This forms a double volume

in a German series, entitled, Das Wissen der Gegenwart, devoted

to popular knowledge relating to science, history and literature;

each volume costing but a single mark or twenty-five cents.

te present volume is devoted to the mechanics of the ex-

-rnal organs of vertebrates and invertebrates. The author

is well known as an authority on the mechanics of motion,

a of the Arthropoda and has given us what we have found

ordinary corm works on natural history. It is abundantly — 2

> y

Memoirs of the Mus ; ision of the E

- useum of Comparative Zoölogy, x, No.4. A revision of the —

—— - By WALTER Faxon. Part 1 e sis Cambarus and Astacus. With —

Cambridge, August, 1885. 4to, pp. 186.

364 Recent Literature, [April,

external organs in general; the construction of the vertebrate

machine and the chief levers; the mechanism of the jaws; the

equipment of the jaws (teeth and beak); mechanism of the other

mouth parts (tongue, lips, trunk and muzzle, muscles of the

ear); the limbs, especially the human hand; and the limbs as

organs of locomotion. In treating of the invertebrates, the modes

of locomotion, of mastication, stinging, etc., are discussed.

FRENCH’s BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN UNITED StTaTEs.—At

length we have a handy book giving descriptions of all our Eastern

and Southern butterflies. The work appears to have been faith-

fully done, the information given is elementary, and the clear

type, simple language and excellent illustrations, with the pre-

liminary account of the transformations of butterflies in general,

the best mode of collecting, killing, preparing for the cabinet and

of rearing them, render the book an excellent manual for the

beginner. An analytical key and glossary also add to its useful-

ness

The author is indebted to Mr. W. H. Edward’s great work for

nearly all the descriptions of the early stages, and follows the

classification and nomenclature of that author.

The criticisms we have to make are slight. We would have

preferred to have the specific names, at least those not derived

from proper names, begin with a small capital, or, when lower

-case is used, in lower case type. The original engravings are

excellent. We should like to have had a larger number of spe-

cies figured. We trust this may be done in a second edition,

which we feel sure will be soon needed.

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS—Major Ben. Perley Poore is the

author of a ponderous quarto of 1392 pages, bearing the follow-

ing title: A descriptive catalogue of the Government publica-

tions of the United States, September 5, 1774, to March 4, 1881;

compiled by order of Congress; Washington: Government

print, 1885. Inasmuch as the aborigines of our country have

been the object of concern to the Government from its beginning,

there has never been a year in which valuable ethnological publi-

cations have not been issued. The titles of these may be followed

up in the volume itself chronologically, or in the index under the

word Indian the reader may find at once what he wishes. Other

ropological publications of equal importance to those named,

treating of slavery, immigration, treaties, tariff, are here point

out by title. Indeed, the whole work is an index of anthropology-

Fortunate will the student be who can secure through his senator

or representative a copy of the descriptive catalogue.

= or Sie a aay as Ta Sk AS es h > %

iiaa a aa a aaa aaa

1886. ] Geography and Travels. 365

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.!

America.— The Goajira Peninsula—F¥. A. A. Simons contrib-

utes to the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society an

account of the Goajira peninsula, to the west of the Gulf of Mara-

caybo, in the United States of Colombia. This large peninsula

appears to be tenanted only by less than 25,000 Indians, who are

divided into several castes, and have some peculiar laws. Every

‘ Indian belongs to the tribe of his mother, and, if he injures him-

self in any way, he has to pay blood-money to his mother’s rela-

tions for shedding the blood of his family, and tear-money to his

father’s relatives for the sorrow he has caused them. The south-

ern part of the peninsula is a level, grassy plain; the northern, a

country of volcanic hills, with three ranges, the highest about

2800 feet high. There are no perennial rivers on the peninsula,

So that in summer—the greater half of the year—the only water

is from wells and a few water-holes, natural or artificial. The

weapons of the Goajiras are the bow and arrow, as well as the

flint-lock and the rifle. Poisoned arrows are used to some ex-

tent. The poison is putrefied animal matter, and the arrow-head

the barbed weapon of a sting-ray, so attached to the shaft that it

t will remain buried in the wound it has made.

American News—Lieutenant H. F., Allen and Sergeants Rob-

€rtson and Ficket crossed last year from the head-waters of the

Atnah to those of the Sarranah, descended this river to the

Yukon and the latter to the sea. The Corwin brought these

travelers to San Francisco, and also took up Messrs. Garland and

fatty, two Englishmen who had crossed from the Mackenzie to

=the Yukon and descended the latter.

‘ Asta.— Col, Prejevalsky’s Fourney.—A letter from Col. Preje-

7? valsky relates to his journey from Lob-nor to Khotan. The few

People of Lob-nor are the last remnant of the natives of Lob, a

: TE ane was destroyed at the end of the fourteenth century.

bushes and herbs, all thickly covered with loess dust. The only

ngar, and then along the southern foot of the Tian-Shan.

? : a

a This department is edited by W. N. LOCKINGTON, Philadelphia.

366 General Notes. [April,

Prejevalsky reports discontent at Chinese rule among the Moham-

‘medan natives, and asserts that they long for a change of masters.

Asiatic News.—The Russians have commenced the Trans-

with the English road from Quetta, through Afghanistan. The

other branch will run north-east, crossing the Amu Daria and

running through Bokhara to Samarcand. Merv, Samarcand and

Bokhara are already connected by telegraph with St. Petersburg.

The population of British Burmah in 1883 was 3,736,771.

r. Needham and Capt. Molesworth have recently followed

the Brahmaputra the whole way from Sadiya to Rima and state

authoritatively that a river corresponding in size to the Sanpo falls

into it, and that therefore the identity of the Sanpo with the

Dijong may be considered as finally settled——The Marshall

archipelago, now under German protection, includes thirty lagoon

islands, none of which rise ten feet above the sea. Coco-paims,

pandanus and breadfruit form the vegetation, and a small lizard is

the only native quadruped. The group consists of two chains,

the eastern, or Ratack, and the western, or Ralick. In the latter

series is situated the largest island of the group, Jaluit, which

has an area of about thirty-five square miles, and contains a g00

harbor. A recent eruption in the neighborhood of Tonga has

upheaved an island of nine square miles in extent in the space of

four days. A party who visited the island in a schooner on Oc-

tober 17th, report that a submarine volcano upon the shore of the

new island was throwing up an enormous quantity of steam and

water. The island has already been named Takaogo, is sixteen

to twenty miles north-west of Henga-Hapai, and rises 200 to a

feet above the ocean surface.

Arrica—British and German Protectorates.—-The Kalahari

desert and the whole of Berlmana land were, on March 23, 1885,

proclaimed to be under British protectorate. This protectorate

includes all the territory lying east of 20° E. long., west of the

Transvaal and Orange river republics, and south of 22° S. lat.

The Boer republics of Goshon and Stellaland are embraced with-

in this area. ;

The British protectorate of the Niger districts comprises the

territories between Lagos and the right or western river-bank of

the mouth of the Rio del Rey. It also includes the territories 08

both banks of the Niger as far as its confluence with the Benue :

Lokoja, as well as the territories on both banks of the Benue, up

to and including Ibi. Ibi is about 230 miles above the confluence

of the Niger and Benue. Great Britain has agreed not to acquire

_ territory, accept protectorates, or interfere with the extension F

German influence to the eastward of a line following the ng%

aaea ae ee eet), ee

a eas ees

pe A SANE | bs

1886.] | Geology and Paleontology. 367

river bank of the Rio del Rey to its source, then striking direct

to the left river bank of the Old Calabar or Cross river, and ter-

minating after crossing that river at the Rapids in about 9° 8’ E.

long. Germany has agreed not to interfere to the west of the

above line. Both powers relinquish any existing protectorates

within the limits of the territories assigned to each, except that

Victoria, Ambas bay, will still continue a British colony. Ger-

many also engages to refrain from making acquisitions of territory

or establishing protectorates on the coast between Natal and De-

lagoa bay.

African News—M. de Brazza reached Paris November 12,

1885. He states that the whites and natives of the territories

belonging to France are on the best of terms. Natives are being

recruited to form an army.

State has commissioned several geographers to execute maps of

the entire State. Lieyt. Massari is surveying the right bank of

the Congo between the Alenia and Mobangi. M. L. de Guiral

is engaged in exploring the San Benito, about seventy miles north

of the Gabon. The river is navigable only for twenty-two miles.

There is a small lake eighty-seven miles from the coast, and three

tributaries enter the San Benito above the first falls.

Evrore.—European News—A search for the true source of the

Danube seems strange at this late date; yet M. de Wogan has

found that it does not rise, as has been stated, in the gardens of

the Prince of Firstenburg, at Donaueschingen. It is formed by

the union of two small streams; the Brig or Brigach and the

reg or Bregach. The first rises at Saint Georges, north of the

Tryberg mountain and about a mile from the source of the

Neckar, while the second rises at St. Martin, west of Tryberg

and twenty miles from Donaueschingen, where the two streams

unite.——The range called Umb-dek, in the Kolu peninsula,

about a thousand meters high, is the highest land in European’

Russia north of the Caucasus. Bosnia and Herzegovina have

€ population at the latter date was 1,330,101.

GEOLOGY AND PALZIONTOLOGY.

THE VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE TiIcHOLEPTUS Brps.—In the

Report of the U.S. Geological Survey of the Terrs., Vol. 1, p. 18-

(1885), I have given some of the characters of this horizon and

its fauna. It is intermediate in all respects between the Middle —

and Upper Miocene formiations of the West, as represented by

E rep Dy

shie John Day and Loup Fork beds. It was first èxplored in the

r At the latter locality it is seen to rest on the John Day

ds, as stated by Mr. Wortman, and as indicated by the collec-

mereased fifteen per cent in population between 1879 and 1885.

ee General Notes. [April,

tions made by him. The following species were found at the lat-

ter locality :

Protohippus, ? sp. Dicotyles condoni Marsh.

LTippotherium seversum Cope. Protolabis transmontanus Cope.

$ sinclairi Wortman. Merycochærus obliquidens Cope.

e ccidentale Leidy. Blastomeryx borealis Cope.

Anchitherium ultimum Cope.

Considerable interest attaches to the discovery of an Anchi-

therium and of a Merycochcerus at this locality, as these genera

ally the epoch to the John Day period, while Hippotherium,

Dicotyles and Protolabis are Loup Fork genera.

he Anchitherium ultimum is represented in my collection bya

nearly complete superior dentition, with palate and sides of skull

to the middle of the orbits, and top of skull to above the infra-

orbital foramen. The size is less than that of the A. prestans

Cope and A. eguiceps Cope (? A. anceps Marsh) of the John Day

bed, and the dental series has the same length as that of the A.

longicriste Cope, also of the John Day.

It is in the cranial characters that this species displays the

greatest differences from the John Day species. In the first place

there is a profound and large preorbital fossa, separated from the

orbit by a vertical bar. The preorbital ‘fossa in the John Day

species is shallow, and not abruptly defined. In the next place

e anterior border of the orbit is above the anterior border O

the last molar tooth. In this it agrees only with the large A,

prestans ; in the A. eguiceps and A. longicriste the anterior border

‘of the orbit is above the anterior part of the second superior

molar. Thirdly, the infraorbital foramen is above the middle of

the fourth premolar; it is over the posterior part of the third in

the three John Day species. Finally, the nareal notch marks the

anterior two-fifths of the diastema; it extends much further back

in the John Day species, marking either the front or middle of the

first premolar. The palate extends about as far anteriorly as 1n

- A. prestans, viz., to opposite the posterior border of the first true

premolar. :

y known spe-

, about equaling the larger individuals of

The molar teeth are, however, relatively

the anterior premolars and incisors smaller and more crows”

The last two premolars are in line, but the second premolar is sêt

ee ae

what

1886.] Geology and Paleontology. 369

outward. The symphyseal suture is short and rather deep.

Its posterior edge is below the posterior quarter of the third

premolar.

the Merychyus pariogonus Cope of the Deep River Ticholep-

tus bed, the posterior part of the ramus is more expanded, and

is perfectly rounded, while the other dimensions are considerably

smal

ler.

ll descriptions of these species are given in a paper read

before the American Philosophical Society, Feb. 19, 1886

The species of the Ticholeptus beds of Montana are the fol-

wing :

Mastodon proavus Cope. . Cyelopidius emydinus Cope.

Protohippus sejunctus Cope. Pithecistes brevifacies' Cope.

Merycocherus montanus Cope. de decedens Cope.

Merychyus zygomaticus Cope. i heterodon Cope.

i4 pariogonus Cope. Procamelus vel Protolabis, sp.

Cyclopidius simus Cope. Blastomeryx borealis Cope.

The only species common to the two lists is the Blastomeryx

borealis, a fact which indicates some important difference in the

horizons, either topographical or epochal. The Oregon speci-

mens

with

consist of teeth only, from both jaws, which are identical

those of the three crania known from Deep river. This

animal is one of the deer-antelope, with persistent horns and

deer-like dentition. Its horns are long and stout, and have a

wide

basal expansion above the posterior part of each orbit. It

is about as large as the black-tailed deer.

The Ticholeptus horizon is interesting as that in which the

genus Mastodon makes its first appearance in America. It is

how shown to be the last which contains the genus Anchither-

tum.— £, D. Cope

numerous the number of known fossil ones given. In the —

‘™yriopods American forms predominate, while among the Arach-

nida more European species are known. The tables of geologi- ` ee

the degeneracy and approaching extinction of this type, as I have remar d z ;

sis of the Oreodontide, Proceedings American Philosophical Society, _

— Ca., 1886

370 General Notes, [ April,

cal distribution of both myriopods, Arachnida and insects are of

The class of insects begin with the Palzodictyoptera, which

embrace all the Palzozoic insects, and is regarded as equal in rank

with the Heterometabola (Orthoptera, Neuroptera, Hemiptera and

Coleoptera).

The principal forms are well illustrated. As a provisional

arrangement the Palzodictyoptera, as thus limited, may serve a

temporary purpose, but the wonderful discoveries of Brongniart

at Commentry, in France, seems to us to forbid the adoption of

such a division, and to favor Brongniart’s view that many of them,

except Eugereon and possibly others, are simply Paleozoic gen-

era of existing orders of insects, č. ¢., representatives of distinct

and extinct families, rather than of lost orders. But Brongniart's

discoveries were not placed in the hands of the scientific public

until after the work before us was mostly in print. Some of the

divisions, as the Coleopteroidea, for the unknown manufacturer of

the suborder Pseudoneuroptera is inexplicable to us, now that

their structure is so well known. ;

But however one may differ from the author in matters of classi-

fication, he can not fail to note the care, labor and learning which

has been bestowed upon this excellent and most useful summary.

Oscar SCHMIDT ON THE ORIGIN OF THE DOMESTIC Dos.'—We

must now refer to the question of the origin of the domestic dog.

That the whole line of foxes has nothing to do with the dog has

long been an established fact. On the other hand Darwin en-

deavored to prove that various wild tribes of men in different

rts of the globe tamed native wolf-like animals, and that ae

crossings of these species and breeding of various kinds produc

the domestic dog of our day. This cpinion of Darwin has been ,

somewhat modified by L. H. Jeitteles, a careful authority on the

domestic animals. According to him the wolf ( Canis lupus) has

no connection with the European and west-oriental races of dog

_the connection being mainly through: the jackal and the nawt

-wolf (Canis pallipes). The races partly lead back into prehistorie

times. l

osest to the jackals we have the so-called turf-d0gy

known from the turf deposits of the lake-dwellings, and which §

probably the ancestor of our Pomeranian dogs. Allied to it we

have the terriers and turnspits. From Canis pallipes is descend

the so-called dronze-dog, which most. probably came to Europe

with human immigrants from Asia, and with it the sheep dog

bull-dog. The ancestor of a third group may perhaps be found

in the large jackal (Canis /upaster) of North Africa, to which ya

_1The Mammalia in their relation to primeval times. New York, D. Appen

Central Europe, the larger sporting dog, the poodle, cur-d ‘and —

1886.] Geology and Paleontology. 371

should also have to refer the ancient Egvptian-dog, the Oriental

sireet-dog and the wild dog of Africa.

ever, are based upon any special reasons. According to Blain-

ville’s opinion, a diluvial species of a gentle and sociable nature—

no longer existing in a wild state—must have been the primeval

form of the domestic dog; but after what has been said above,

wild forms of the Canide of the Diluvium, and herein he agrees

with what Darwin and Huxley have. stated regarding the

bi between the domestic dog and the living jackals and

wolves,

It may with certainty be maintained that the direct ancestors

of the European wolf are to be found in the Diluvial deposits.

Formerly a huge animal of the wolf species was distinguished as

the cave-qolf, without there being any distinct character to sepa-

tate the two forms. A third form of wolf (Canis suesstt, from the

In now returning to the living Canidz, several species demand

Our attention, one of which is described as Jcticyon venaticus, a

ing the countries to the north and north-east of the Altain moun-

tains, ese dogs do not possess the third molar in the lower

toe

Ti Sonne

372 General Notes. [April,

velopmėnt of new genera of beasts of prey began with dog-like

imals. ; :

Much more interesting for the purpose of our investigation

here is the Otocyon lalandii, the spoon-dog of South Africa, so

called from the peculiar formation of the skull. Its habits show

an approximation to the foxes, yet as regards dentition it does

not show this affinity, inasmuch as it possesses 4:4 molars, and

also shows the most remarkable differences in the relative size of

the single teeth. As already said, the spoon-dog is, in many

ways and as regards dentition, shaped after the fashion of the dog

type, and can thus scarcely be dragged out of this connection,

and we are compelled to look upon it asa still existing primary

form of dog. The whole paleontology of the vertebrates shows

that the many-toothedness of mammals is an inheritance from

their lower ancestors, and that any increase of the teeth within a

class has probably never taken place.

As our dogs, with their 2:2 molars, have no doubt been de-

scended from fuller-toothed animals, Otocyon must be regarded

as the still-living representative of the early type of dog, which

very small frontal depressions, it is, as Huxley says, very di í

cult not to imagine that these too must be traced to ancestors ©

the Otocyon type. From this species, therefore, we should have

to derive the two lines which diverge into the fox on the one

hand, and the wolf on the other. We are supported in this view

by the observation that the South American Cams eet

often possesses the fourth molar, and thus shows itself to

another remnant of the primary form. A fourth supernumerary

molar of this kind is not a monstrosity or pathological phenome

non, but an atavism or reversion of the same sort as the so

_called wolf's tooth in horses, which was explained as a premolar

which existed in the primary genus Anchitherium. i a

- Hence the key to the derivation of all the dog tribe is to

found in their relation to the spoon-dog.

ey GEOLOGICAL News.—Si/urian.—S. G. Williams, in a communi-

= cation to the February number of the American Fournal of Sci-

ence, states that rocks of the Lower Helderberg periód, including

all above the water-lime group, are represented in New Yor i

far west as Cayuga lake, by limestones not less than sixty-five tee!

‘thick, containing an unmistakable Lower Helderberg fauna.

Though fossils are rare in Cayuga county, fifteen species

‘the others all belong to Lower Helderberg species. 4 per

_ them are two species of Strophodonta, RAyn honella semiphica® r

— Stromatopora (most abundant of all), a Favosites and a Zap

_ rentis. | 3

have

-~ been found, two or three of which are as yet undescribed while

Ea AN eee oii KAPE S EA ae :

ee ee ey ee ee a a

their for

1886.] Geology and Paleontology. 373

Triassic—The geological age of the yellow sandstones lying

north of the city of Elgin (Scotland) has been much debated, strat-

igraphists having maintained that they belonged to the Devonian

(or rather Old Red sandstone), while palzontological evidence

is in favor of their Triassic age. The Lacertilia are represented by

Telerpeton, Hyperodapedon and an undescribed form, Crocodilia

by Stagonolepis, and Dicynodontia by the type genus. Dr. Judd

and Dr. Gordon have now procured good evidence that this rep-

tiliferous sandstone passes down into a bed of conglomerate

which rests unconformably upon the strata of the Upper Old Red

sandstone. The conclusion is that during the vast periods of the

Carboniferous and Permian, the Upper Old Red sandstone of the

Elgin area was upheaved and denuded, and the Upper Trias beds

deposited unconformably upon their eroded surface. ;

Jurassic and Cretaceous —MM. Bertrand and Kilian, who have

studied the Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of Andalusia, report

that their composition is very like that of the same beds in the

Alps. There are also many analogies between them and the cor-

responding beds of Sicily and of the Apennines, while the upper

beds resemble those met with in the Balearic islands. The brach-

lopod beds of the Middle Lias and the ammonite beds of the

l VEA are met with alike in Sicily, the Apennines and parts of

e Alps.

interesting notes upon the causes of the purity of Nile mud.

f ts mud, brought down chiefly by the Atbara and the Blue Nile

“a a country of siliceous and crystalline rocks, is, like that of

remaining in a perfect state. Professor Heim, known as one

the best authorities on glaciers, states that the motion of a

S’acier is, to a preponderating extent, the result of gravity. He

enumerates partial internal liquefaction, caused by pressure; plas-

MoT, y _ "e ice as it approaches the melting-point ; ruptures and

oe t displacements, alternating with partial regelation and sliding

and » aS Sources of glacier motion. Glaciers merely smooth _

. A slightly wear away the previously existing rough sur- —

» while streams and sub-aérial weathering have given valleys —

m. The glacier is more of a carrier and rubbish-remover _

a delver and ploughman. |

than of

374 General Notes. [April,

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'

Hussak’s “ DETERMINATION OF ROCK-FORMING MINERALS.”"—

The appearance in English of any book which treats of the

methods of the new geology, is a subject for congratulation on

the part of those who believe that the use of the microscope will

globe and to the changes which these rocks undergo under vari-

ous conditions, It is a lamentable fact that, though so much is

now being done in this field, but few good English text-books

exist. The only works relating to this subject which have

appeared in English are Zirkel’s Microscopical Petrography?

and Rutley’s Study of Rocks. Both of these treat more par-

ticularly of the classification of rocks and presuppose a know-

ledge of the elementary principles, by means of which their

mineral constituents are recognized. It is with pleasure that we

now welcome a third volume, which treats of the optical proper-

ties of minerals and the methods which are made use of in their

detection. Dr. E. G. Smith, of Beloit, Wisconsin, has very re-

- 85):

-and one (Kolben) is not translated at all. Certain sections 0

_ orthorhombic minerals are spoken of as not extinguishing “ for

_ the most part according to their axial figures” (Figurenaxen) (p.

23). More serious than these are the errors which arise from the

confusion of the optical axes with the axes of elasticity; of

biaxial minerals with those which are doubly refracting; and

finally of isotropic substances with those exhibiting parallel €x-

_ tinction. The second part is taken up with a tabular arrangement

_ of the principal minerals which enter into the composition of ‘

1 Edited by W. S. BAYLEY, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

2 Washington, 1876,

3 London, 1879.

* New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1886.

ey r + M f “y Wiha, de NE day Ne \ a ae

<img ea ae ie a ees Ss ase ee E TU Aer se a eee ean > Ways eae

PUES. Aak AEA, i ‘ p : i 5

a A A ONY : ay '

r PRA ‘ 7

? wW » .

1886.] Mineralogy and Petrography. 375

rocks. These are placed vertically in groups, according as their

cross-sections are isotropic, or show parallel or inclined extinc-

tion. These groups are again subdivided in accordance with the

crystallographic systems. Opposite the name of each mineral are

placed its chemical composition, specific gravity, characteristic

cleavages, the ordinary forms of its cross-sections, its twinning

laws, the character and strength of its double refraction, its colors

under crossed nicols, its natural color and pleochroism, its struc-

ture, the minerals with which it is generally associated, its char-

acteristic inclusions and decomposition products, and those pecu-

liarities which distinguish it from other minerals of the same

general appearance. In this part an immense amount of material

is so arranged that with very little trouble the student can turn to

the mineral whose properties he wishes to study, and find in a few

brief sentences the characteristics by which it can be distinguished

from all others. This part will prove of considerable use to all

who are beginning the study of petrography, and whom such

manuals as that of Rosenbusch would tend only to confuse and

discourage. A great service has been rendered to all those to

whom the material in Dr. Hussak’s book is inaccessible on

- account of the language in which it is written, and the translator

deserves the thanks of all those interested in petrography for

having placed within the reach of American students the elements

of a branch of geology which is just beginning to be appreciated

on this side of the Atlantic, as affording a key for the solution of

many questions which have heretofore been considered as beyond

the power of penetration. '

PeTROGRAPHICAL News.—The relations of the bastite serpentine

to the troktolite in the Belhelvie parish, in Aberdeenshire, are

studied by Bonney, and the results of his investigations pub-

lished in the Geological Magazine! The serpentine is derived

reactionary rim. The sequence of the two rocks in respect to

*S¢ Is not satisfactorily decided. In the same paper, the “ Black

Dog” roc , first mentioned by Heddle? as a mass of rock about

four y ards long and broad, which projects from the sand on the

: I ore, is described as containing fibrolite, iolite, quartz and mica.

t bears a very close resemblance to some of the cordierite gneisses —

Varia Kiich describes’ a quartz-pyroxene-andesite from

€ Cumbal in the Andes, in which the pyroxene constituent IS

Principally hypersthene, and remarks that this mineral is a much

1 oe

Me’ $ 439.

3 : agazine, V, p. I.

Neues Jahrb, fiir Min,, etc., 1886, I, pe 35-

376 General Notes. | April,

more frequent constituent of the andesites of this region than has

hitherto been supposed——Quite an addition to our knowledge

of the metamorphoric rocks has recently been made in the

- articles of Von Miklucho-Maclay! and Joseph Gotz? The former

treats of the schists found on the River Witim, in East Siberia.

of the ottrelite and andalusite, which took place contemporane-

ously with the assumption of the schistosity. Thus much addi-

regional metamorphism, called by Lossen’ dislocation metamorph-

ism, to which s

leading German petrographers.

MINERALOGICAL News.—In a late number of the Neues Jahr-

buch, Max Bauer publishes the continuation of his studies 1n

mineralogy. In this paper he describes pseudomorphs of calcite

after aragonite from Klein-Sachsenheim, in Württemberg. In all

instances of this kind heretofore described the rhombic substance

rearrangement and thus to have passed over into rhombohedral

calcite. A study of the Klein-Sachsenheimer crystals and the

mode of their occurrence shows, however, that in some cases at

least, a solution and deposition takes place.. These crystals are

- found in a drusy dolomite, which originally contained in it lens-

water, and it was from this solution that the aragonite was de-

posited on the sides of the hollows left5 At the same time,

there was a deposition of brown spar, which covered the

1 Ib., 1885, I, p. 145.

2 Ib., Beil., Bd. rv, p. rio.

3 Zeits. d. deutsch. geol. Gesellschaft, xxt, p. 324-

* Band 1, 1886, p. 62.

-~ "5 From very dilute solutions or from those containing small amounts of gyprs

_ calcium carbonate is deposited as aragonite, while from concentrated solutions =

_ those containing no foreign matter it is ited as calci sae

1886. ] Mineralogy and Petrography. 377 l

little crystals of aragonite and protected them from the dis-

solving action of fresh supplies of water. Wherever an imper-

fection in the covering allowed water to gain access to the

aragonite substance, a concentrated solution of this was formed

and the salt was redeposited as calcite. Its external form,

of course, was occasioned by the shell of brown spar, which

remained undissolved. In nearly every case studied, an internal

kernel of aragonite was surrounded by an external covering of

i Th

the schists at Ottré. Hydrous anthophyllite (from Glen Urqu- `

hart, Scotland) is nota homogeneous substance, but is composed

of fibers of actinolite, cemented together by a substance belong-

ing to the chlorite group. Hydrotephroite is a mixture in various

Proportions of at least three different substances. That which

Occurs in greatest quantity is colorless and biaxial and is probably

tephroite. The other substances are serpentine, chlorite and

various manganese minerals. The hydrotephroite is probably an

altered tephroite or some other manganese silicate. Beautiful

rhombohedral crystals of calcite are described by R. H. Solly,?

from the Tankerville mine, Shropshire, Eng. They contain only

the rhombohedral and scalenohedral faces, with the former pre-

dominating. The scalenohedral faces are bright and are cov-

ered with little quartz crystals, while the rhombohedral faces

contain no quartzes, but are dull and corroded. Until very

recently our knowledge regarding the blue “sulphato-chloride

of copper,” to which Dana in 1850 gave the name connel-

lite, has been confined to the results of the investigations of

Maskelyne? and Bertrand.* Lately, however, in consequence of

discovery of new material, the crystallography of the mineral

has been thoroughly worked up. Connellite occurs in copper

veins traversing clay slate and granite in the Camborne district,

situated at the west end of the granite boss in which most of the

Productive tin mines in England occur. The mineral is not found

massive, but only in aggregates of minute crystals, the largest

“asuring from two to four millimeters in length. In crystalliza- - a

of they are hexagonal, containing only the simple forms P, —

* 42 and œ P, in addition to those observed by Maskelyne— :

oe Rendus, CHI, 1886, p: 273. ; Ce

i Sie at Magazine, v1, May, 1885,_p- 120.

ea osophical Magazine, January, 1863.

Bulletin de la Soc. Min. de France, 1881, 1V.

a ee

ae 5

-6 Carl Habel, Berlin, 1886

E sak) eh ys E

h 378 General Notes. = [April,

Guejarite, hitherto known only from Spain, is mentioned by F.

Sandberger! as occurring at Machacamara, in Bolivia, in radial

aggregates in white quartz, associated with barite. — G. F.

Kunz announces in a paper in the American Journal of Sciencé

that the meteorite described by him at the last meeting of

the American Association as the Charleston, W. Va., meteor-

s creek, Wayne county, . Va, and not,

as before. stated, at Charleston. It is described as a me-

teoric iron, made up of crystalline blocks of plessite and kama-

cite, and belongs to the “grobe Lamellen” of Brezina. An

analysis yielded: Fe = 91.56, P = 0.13, Ni and Co (by differ-

ence) = 8.31.— i

near Marburg, and those of the Erzgebirge have been pretty

thoroughly investigated by Stadtlander, of Liineberg, and

Schalch,! of Leipzig. The former thinks that the optical anom-

alies of analcite must be the result of secondary conditions which

acted after the crystal had been formed.’ He finds also twins O

atrolite in which the twinning axis is normal to oP and the

composition face is the base———TIn a little book entitled Die

Chemische Natur der Mineralien Rammelsberg attempts a sys-

tematic arrangement of all the minerals, the analyses of which

show them to have a constant composition.

suspension and a little barium chloride in solution. On evapora

tion, little rhombic tables of barium antimony tartrate are found

around the edges of the drop. A closer examination of these

shows them to possess a monoclinic symmetry, with the forms

oP, P and % Poo best developed. A practical use of these

methods is made in an examination of the composition of rittin-

_ gerite and pyrostilpnite. The latter is found to be Ag; Sb Ss, the

es :

Ag; As S, or Ag; As (S. Se)

_ 1 Neues Jahrb. fiir Min., etc., 1886, 1, p- 89.

2 February, 1886, p. 145.

3 Neues Jahrb. fiir Min., etc., 1885, 11, p. 97-

* Ib., Beil., Bd. iy, p. 178,

5 Cf. AMERICAN NATURALIST, 1885. March, p. 296; September, p. 886.

1 1886, I, p. 49.

1886,] Botany. 379

BOTANY.!

tissue to the lateral member. The method in the Osmundas is

not so simple. In Fig. 1, A shows a cauline bundle, 4 8’, in which

an outer portion is being separated to form the bundle of a stipe,

as at C. Two lateral portions, between this and what remains,

are deflected to roots at each side of the base of the stipe which

originate at the same time, as at 77”. The divisions which re-

main in the stem unite with similarly divided parts of adjoining

gi | N

A BS cay

p 2

al o

mings of roots rr, and two larger portions which remain in the stem; £, pit;

*, cortex; B, section of stem below a fork, showing preparatory constriction; C, .

pros

: Pp

section of stipe, about an inch from the base, showing single large bundle. A,r

duced from camera sketch, magnified ten, B and C about two diameters.

bundles, so that the number in the stem remains the same. From

ne condensed character of the stem, the vascular system at any

Section appears as a series of incomplete and variously united

bundles. A. Crozier, Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 27, 1886. 3

„Movements: or Desmıps.—Herr: G. Klebs describes (Biop " v

gisches Centralblatt) four different kinds of movements in the _

esmidiez, viz: 1. A forw |

the cell touching the bottom, while the other end is more or less

_ elevated, and oscillates backwards and forwards during the move- `

ment. This is especially well seen in Closterium acerosum. 2. An

elevation in a vertical direction from the substratum ; the free end

Sone). i

OO lateral movements in this position ; then an elevation and-

ka ar motion of one end and a sinking again to an oblique or

ze These move-

z zontal position (C. diane and archerianum).

_ ‘Edited by Professor CHARLES E, Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska.

ments are none of them peculiar to particular species; several of

them are often combined in one. A free swimming on the surface,

like that of diatoms, was never observed.

The first two of these movements depend on the formation,

during the motion, of a filament of mucilage, by which the des-

mid is attached to the bottom; the gradual lengthening of this

filament, by the formation of fresh mucilage, causes the desmid to

rise. The filament is best detected by a weak solution of methyl-

violet or fuchsin, which does not kill the desmid. Cyanin also

answers, but not so well. Other pigments do not stain it, Many

species of Euastrum, Cosmarium, Staurastrum and Pleurotenium

exhibit the same phenomenon. The greatest length of filament

observed was 3™™; the most rapid motion, in Clostertum acero-

sum, 112" in 30 sec.; many species are quite motionless. Light

exercises an influence on the direction of the movement similar

to that of zodspores, but not on its rapidity. The elevation and

depression appear to be independent of the direction of gravita-

The author considers the cause of the motion to be the exuda-

tion of mucilage, which does not take place simultaneously and

uniformly over the whole surface of the desmid. This formation

of mucilage is not the result of disintegration of the cell-wall

itself; it proceeds directly from the cytoplasm and passes through

the cell-wall without the latter undergoing any change. Many

species are completely surrounded by a gelatinous envelope,

while others are comparatively free—A. W. Bennett, London.

PLEOMORPHISM OF AtGa&.—Dr. A. Hanszig publishes in the

Botanisches Centralolatt an elaborate paper which has for its object

to prove that a large number of algz hitherto referred to the

Oscil-

ia)

[e]

og,

(S)

ae together by insensible gradations. Thus we may have one and

-the sam 3a occurring in its mature form, and in its Stigonema,

Leptothrix, unicellular, Nostoc, Ulothrix, and a variety of other

ugl h i

forms. Euglena he regards also as genetically connected with

new analogy between the Schizomycetes and Schizophyce® by

the discovery of a motile organism which he names Chroomonas

_ nordstedtii, and which he regards as the swarm-cell condition of

a phycochromaceous alga, probably an Oscillaria—-A. W. Benneth

TREE GROWTH ON THE PLains—From a recent paper on “Tree

Planting on the Plains,” by Robert W. Furnas, we extract the

_ following statistics of the growth of trees, as shown by actual

380 i | General Notes. [ April,

1886. | Botany. 381

measurement of ‘trees of known ages. The measurements were

made at the uniform height of two feet above the ground.

Circum-

Common Name. Scientific Name. Years Old.| ference.

( inches.)

White Elm...... .....| Ulmus americana 15 243%

a Savoye sss e a e E E 24 36

Osage Orange...... «».| Maclura aurantiaca sisas ecce 25 26%

Soft a ETIR sie kes Acer dasycarpum 18 543%

Be E A * “ ; 18 694

Box Elder Negundo aceroides ............ 14 254

A hacen vides tas “ ra E EE TA 14 31%

Honey Locust ........ Gleditschia triacanthos.. ....,... 22 40}

A M eee ve ot ¢ s A TE TR 22 414%

Black Locust. ........| Robinia pseud-acacia .......... 24 60%

Kentucky Coffee tree .. Gymnocladus canadensis. ...... 14 25%

ON ei ik eis di Platanus occidentalis. .......... 16 434

Black Walnut. ........ Juglans nigra 22 48

se Er AA 22 50%

White Walnut .:...... Juglans cinerea. 22 49%

Shagbark Hickory sxteli Carya alba. 24 30

Ea a i aaa o] Cestation vesca, var. americana . 14 24%

a ny Ce ae Quercus macrocarpa . 22 36%

hahaa hy eee Quercus alba. 22 29

reese Ash... cic] Fraxinus americana... .<+<.. $ 22 32%

Green Ash ..... ......| Fraxinus viridis 22 x pg

Cottonwood .......... Populus monilifera .......... <a] 23 as

F Elster “ “ bv bes weber 23 9

White Poit -a Pinus strobus . 20 36

Scotch Pine ....., Ci cel Pinus sylvestris. ......... eeu 15 23 :

Austrian Pine ....,... Pinus taricis, var 15 22%

E e o a

Botanica News.—Late numbers of Annales des Sciences

Naturelles contain

actual state

_ More important A

: Pringsheim’s Jahrbücher fir Wissenschaftliche Botanik

Con

5 aa De Vries’ Plasmolytic studies on the vacuole

ege ty-eight plates. An interestin

poy ex cular respiration, by: W. Pfeffer, is j

ocust is ¢

5 tributions to a knowledge of the mechanical tissue systems of

an ;

are

imper’s Investigations upon chlorophyll bodies, Tschirch’s _

hee

382 General Notes. — [April, -

by Thomas Meehan in Proceedings of the Academy of Natural

Sciences, Philadelphia, December 1. The tree bearing these

anomalous seeds is of considerable age, and stands near German-

town, Pa. A neatly printed Catalogue of the Phanogamous

and vascular cryptogamous plants of Fitchburg [Mass.] and

vicinity is worthy of note as being “the work of students of the

Fitchburg high school.” It is said to represent “about seven

years of diligent research.” It is a very creditable production,

and indicates good work in the school. The Fourth Annual

Report of the Board of Control of the New York Agricultural

Experiment Station, for the year 1885, appears with a most

satisfactory promptness. Its contents show the continuation of

the high class of work for which this station has been distin-

guished. E. W. D. Holway, of Decorah, Iowa, has made out

a set of genus labels of the fungi for use in herbaria. There are

about 720 names, which represent, after deducting duplicates,

oa from 500 to 600 different genera. The printing is done by 1.

Patterson, of Oquawka, Ills., which is a sufficient guarantee of the

neatness of the typography.

ENTOMOLOGY.

L On THE Cinurous THYSANURA AND SYMPHYLA OF MEXICcO.—

It was my good fortune during a short visit to Mexico in

the spring of 1885, to discover the one insect which I

scarcely hoped to find, so rare are the species and individuals

in other parts of the world. This was ẸJapyx saussurit, described

and figured by Humbert in Revue et Mag. de - Zoölogie, XX,

= there, at all; though near Vienna 3apyx solifugus occurs in dry,

sandy places, where, in 1872, I had the rare pleasure of observing

it under the kind guidance of Dr. Brauer. The Cinuran charac-

_ teristic of the terra templada is a species of Machilis, which was

= common under stones at Saltillo. Bis

At Cordova, however, owing to the kindness of a Spanish gen-

__ theman, the owner of a coffee plantation, who allowed me the use

-of one of his laborers, an intelligent Indian, I found about a dozen

specimens of Fapyx saussurii, in the shaded damp coffee growth,

which my Indian turned up with his hoe from the rich, black soil

„under fallen banana trunks and loose stones. They seemed to be

comparatively common, and very active in their movements.

_ On comparing with it our northern F. sudterraneus Pack., from

= Kentucky, our species is seen to differ decidedly from the Mexi-

_ can in the much squarer head, which is broader in front; 1" the

_ broader prothorax, and especially in the longer and narro

ee A EEE EEE

wer

tenth abdominal segment. It also differs in the denticulations of

ey EE, aa A-A e + r Sa ‘i Ld =“ A i

T ESN a e kee sila ihe T y r ' ý ~

haa 4 1 ` a

pte, f y

;

1886.) Entomology. 383

the blades of the forceps (cercopoda), the largest tooth on the

inside of the left blade being situated nearer the middle. Our spe-

cies is also smaller. The number of joints to the antennæ in ¥.

subterraneus are 32; in the Mexican species 40.

Associated with the Japyx and in equal abundance was a Sco-

lopendrella, which I at first supposed to be a different and larger

species, but which, after a careful microscopical examination, I

cannot separate from S. immaculata Newport. It has the same

general appearance; and the form of the antennæ and number of

antennal joints are nearly the same; there being 40-42 joints in

the Mexican, and 35-36 in a Kentucky individual, The number

of scutes behind the head is the same (16), and their shape exactly

the same. The anal cerci are slightly longer than in United

States specimens, but the fine setae are the same in size and

arrangement. The specimens are pure white and larger (5™™)

than any I have yet seen from the United States.

Campodea mexicana, n. sp—While Scolopendrella immacu-

lata seems to be common to Europe, the United States, and

Mexico, and Campodea staphylinus Westw., likewise common to

Europe and the northern United States, we discovered at Cor-

Ova, in company with the foregoing Synaptera, a very distinct

Species of Campodea, which is apparently characteristic of the

Herra caliente or warm zone of Mexico.

It is a large species, the body 4™™ or 7™™ including the caudal

Stylets, being but little smaller than C. cvokei Pack., of Mammoth

and adjoining caves, but with much shorter caudal appendages, ©

The body is shorter, the three thoracic segments being shorter

than in C. cookei. The antennz are of the length of the body and

28-jointed ; the terminal joint is intermediate in shape between C.

Staphylinus and C. cookei, being slenderer than in C. staphyinus,

Dr.: J.-S. Kingsley has discovered a sense-organ at the end of the

interesting

not be

384 General Notes. [April,

the Kouban region. He writes to the editor of the Entomologische

Nachrichten for Jan., 1886, that he has satisfied himself that the

locust (Acrydium migratorium) is not peculiarly an inhabitant of

the plains or steppes, but that preferably and originally the lower

regions of the banks of rivers, where grow Arundo donax, Scirpus,

etc., are its birthplace, from whence it flies out and visits the

steppes. Acrydium migratorium is in his opinion purely a swamp

insect. Its eggs retain their vitality even if the region in which

they are laid has remained covered for months in the spring by

the water of the river. The larvæ in their third stage are marked

with red, because this color protects them in the swamp surround-

| ings in which they live. A group of red locust larve, sitting on

j spears of grass, give the appearance of a group of rushes bearing

red ears. The similarity is so great “ that I myself sometimes at

a distance could not distinguish whether the red spots in a swamp

were a colony of locusts or a group of rushes.”

ENTOMOLOGICAL News.—In a paper on Parnassius, a genus of

butterflies, read by Mr. H. J. Elwes at the meeting of the Zoo-

logical Society of London, held Jan. 10, the author paid special

attention to the development, functions, and structure of the horny

pouch found in the females of this genus. He also described the

habits, distribution and variations of twenty-three species which he

recognized in the genus. - The paper was supplemented by Pro-

essor Howe’s remarks on his examination of the anatomy of Far-

nassius apollo, and by Mr. Thomson’s notes on the habits of a

insects as bred in the society’s gardens in 1885. Dr. Witlaczi

in Zodlogischer Anzeiger, Jan. 18, reaffirms against H. Wedde that

the Aphides and Coccide suck their food in the same manner as

Lepidoptera and other insects. :

jewa gives the fesult of his studies in the structure and function

of the heart of insects, to which we shall call attention more fully

hereafter ——Mr. A. D. Michael has described before the Lanse

Society of London (Nov. 19), the remarkable nymphal stage W

an Oribatid (Zegeocranus cepheiformis), during which the pe

carries on its back as concentric shields the dorsal portions of

its A

-true auditory organ exists in the antennary fossa beneath the bas axe

¢ eal system is unlike the majority of that of the eg

‘differing in the branched spiral filament not taking origin directly

_ from the stigmata themselves———A number of new s aur :

_ American myriopods are described by F. Meinert in the Froces™

_ ings of the American Philosophical Society. -

1886.] . Zoology. -385

ZOOLOGY.

PHOSPHORESCENCE OF MARINE ANIMALS.— The address in Section

D, biology, of the British Association, was delivered by Professor

W. C. McIntosh, M.D., of St. Andrews, who selected for his subject,

the “Phosphorescence of marine animals.” A phenomenon so

striking as the emission of light by marine organisms could not’

fail to have attracted notice from very early times, both in the case

of navigators and those who gave their attention in a more syste-

matic manner to the study of nature. Accordingly, we find that

the literature of the subject is both varied and extensive—so much

so, indeed, that it is impossible on the present occasion to give

more than a very brief outline of its leading features: Though it

is in the warmer seas of the globe that phosphorescence is

observed in its most remarkable forms—as, for instance, the sheets

of white light caused by Noctiluca and the vividly luminous bars

of Pyrosoma—vet it is a feature which the British zodlogist need

not leave his native waters to see both in beauty and perfection.

any luminous animals occur between tide-marks, and even the

stunted seaweeds near the line of high-water everywhere sparkle

with a multitude of brilliant points. As a ship or boat passes

through the calm surface of the sea in summer and autumn, the

wavelets gleam with phosphorescent points, or are crested with

Phosphorescent points, or are crested with light; while the

observer, leaning over the stern, can watch the long trail of

luminous water behind the ship from the brightly sparkling and

Seething mass at the screw to the faint glow in the distance.

On the southern and western shores, again, every stroke of.

lower and

interest and beauty. He glanced, in the first instance, at the various

etazoa, viz., ccelenterates, echinoderms, worms, rotifers,

ii k

crustaceans, molluscoids, mollusks and fishes. In foreign seas

Agassiz describes Mnemiopsis leidyi as “ exceedingly phosphor-

escent, and when passing through shoals of these Medusa, vary-.

ing in size from a pin’s head to several inches in length, the whole

; comes so brilliantly luminous that an oar dipped in the

as Water up to the handle can plainly be seen on dark nights by the-

Ihe ci omotive rows ; and so exceedingly sensitive are they that —

k slightest shock is sufficient to make them plainly visible by - —

Fae 1e light emitted from the eight phosphorescent ambulacra.” The

: VOL. XX.—no, Iv. S

. . were”

the lif ps afi

at present no reliable data for the foundation of a theory as to

the functions of luminosity, especially in relation to food. Ne

386 General Notes. [ April,

same author mentions that Lesueuria has a very peculiar bluish

light of an exceedingly pale steel color, but very intense. Giglioli,

again, found that the beautiful riband-like Cestus shone with a

reddish-yellow light, but in Eucharis the latter was intensely

blue. In the Chetopteride the phosphorescence is remarkably

beautiful, bright flashes being emitted from the posterior feet.

Marine phosphorescence has some of its most striking examples

among the Tunicates. One of the best known instances is that of

Pyrosoma, the light from which has been so graphically described

. Péron, Professor Huxley, and other naturalists who have

had an opportunity of observing it. It proceeds in each member

of the compound organism from two small patches of cells at the

base of each inhalent tube. Phosphorescence in living fishes

appears to have been accurately observed within a comparatively

recent date, though the luminosity of dead fishes has been known

from very early times, and has been the subject of many interest-

ing experiments, such as those of Robert Boyle on dead

whitings, and Dr. Hulme on herrings. I do not mean to say

that the literature of the so-called phosphorescent fishes is scanty,

for it extends from the days of Aristotle and Pliny to modern

fishes entered by Ehrenberg in his list it is hard to say that one

is really luminous during life. In many cases it is probable that

the supposed phosphorescence of large forms, such as swordfishes

and sharks, has arisen from the presence of multitudes of minute

phosphorescent animals in the water, just as the herring causes a

gleam when it darts from the side of a ship. Professor Moseley,

for instance, observed in the Challenger that when large fishes,

porpoises, and penguins dashed through phosphorescent water it

was brilliantly lit up, and their track marked by a trail of light.

The same feature is observed in hooked fishes, and it is known

that fishermen are doubtful of success when the sea is very phos-

phorescent, for the presence of the net in the water excites the

- luminosity and scares the herring. One of the most striking

-instances of phosphorescence in living fishes is that of the lumi-

S nous shark (Squalus fulgens), found by Dr. Bennett. This is 4

small, dark-colored shark, which was captured on two OF three

occasions at the surface of the sea. It emitted without irritation

a vivid greenish luminosity as it swam about at night, and it shone

_ for some hours after death. The phosphorescence appears to 9%

due toa peculiar secretion of the skin. The eyes of the shark

more prominent than usual in such forms. A survey o

e-histories of the several phosphorescent grou

_ phosphorescent form is more generally devoured by fishes oF

animals than that which is not; and, on the other hand, the

1886. } Zoology. 387

possessor of luminosity, if otherwise palatable, does not seem to

escape capture. An examination of the stomachs of fishes makes

this clear, except, perhaps, in the case of the herring, which,

however, is chiefly a surface fish. Further, it is not evident that

such animals are luminous at all times, for it is only under stimu-

lation that many exhibit the phenomenon.

Tue Fauna oF THE ARALO-CASPIAN Basin.—There is ample

evidence that the waters here had formerly a much wider exten-

sion, but the exact time, or times, when this occurred—although

geologically recent—has yet to be determined. Dr. S. P. Wood-

ward, in his Manual of the Mollusca, says the Aralo-caspian

limestone indicates the former presence of a great inland sea—

larger than the Mediterranean—at a time previous to that of the

Mammoth and the Siberian rhinoceros. This steppe-limestone

rises to a level of 200 or 300 feet above the present level of the

aspian.

The fact of the waters of the Caspian and Aral being only

brackish, and by no means very salt, leads me to think that

the basin has not been a close one for a very long period.

General von Helmersen found well-preserved specimens of two

kinds of shells, viz., Cardium edule and Dreissena polymorpha, in

the sands of the desert of Harakum. Both these species still live

in the Caspian. And Helmersen expresses his belief that the

entire country from the Aral on to the sandy deserts of Akkum

iS an old sea-bottom (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1869, Vol. xxv,

Memoirs, p. 8). ie ;

The present surface of the Caspian is eighty-four feet below

that of the Black sea, and according to Major Wood, a rise

of 220 feet would cause the waters of the Caspian to overflow the

watershed of the Tobolsk, a tributary of the Obi.

According to the same authority, a rise of twenty-three feet in

the waters of the Black sea would cause it to overflow into the

an by the line of the Manytseh.

From these figures it appears that if the level of the Caspian

Were to rise (84 X 23) 107 feet, its waters would find their way —

Westward into the Black sea, and if the outlet in that direction

Were blocked so as to permit the surface of the Caspian to rise

220 feet, the waters would escape northward into the Tobolsk and,

down the valley of the Obi into the Arctic ocean. Now the Cas-

: <, Salmon, some of which are species that go up rivers from the sea.

388 General Notes. | April,

Arctic ocean. No doubt the waters of the Aralo-caspian basin

‘ have undergone many changes of level. Some of the mollusca

which still live there, such as the Cardium and Dreissena, appeat

th to be descendants of species found in the Congerian beds of that

region, which go back to Miocene times.— T. F; Famteson in the

Geological Magaziue, May, 1885.

appearance below the festering layer. Then, provided the lamb

does not die, the thick horny layer is thrown off like scurf, and

the epithelium below attains new wool, and replaces the old skin.

In studying the circumstances in which these sheep live, Dr. R.

v. Lendenfeld found that they were invariably exposed to being

wounded in those places, which eventually developed the disease,

blistered by standing on rocks heated by the sun after they had

been standing in water for several hours, or pricked by the spines

of the variegated thistle, and it was found by a process of arti-

ficial breeding in an aquarium that the disease is produced by an

Ameeba (A. parasitica. n. sp.), which enters the wounds and mul-

tiplies rapidly in the epithelium, causing very strong irritation.

“he organism is found between the layers of horny substance. It

©- does not differ morphologically from the well-known A. princeps

of Ehrenberg. eo:

Dr. Lendenfeld adds, “It is well known that several fungi 1

certain stages of their life appear very similar to Amcebe, and so

it is not impossible that my Amceba is in some connection with

~ them. I do not consider this probable, however, as I made no

_ observation which might lead one to suppose that the Amoeba

ever divided into a multitude of swarming spores.” — Fourn. Roy.

Micr. Soc., December, 1885.

-of the Quekett Microscopical Club, exhibited some. stri -a

_ note-paper on which were several groups of dried Philodines (4+

roseola), looking like clear red spots. These had been sent se

Pree we e ig aie aS rig R wa ai, 2 t : Hs A PORN SAR tone t p j

Wa rr pen A " A i s:

1886.] Zoölogy. 389

Dr. C. T. Hudson writes us that “nothing could be more in-

structive than these curious clusters. In the great majority of

cases, each rotifer was seen imbedded in a patch of glutinous

secretion, which was divided from the similar patches of the sur-

rounding rotifers by sharp straight lines, so as to give the whole

group the appearance of a tesselated pavement. Here and there

the Philodines were glued together by long tongues of the same

secretion; especially were the fibers of the paper projected above

the general surface, and, by spoiling the level, presented the for-

mation of a sharp bounding line. In one case, a rotifer had bored

its way into the fibers of the paper, and, unable to withdraw or

contract itself, had formed the center of a whole group of others

attached to it by radiating bands of glue. In fact, these beauti-

fully clean groups gave ocular demonstration of the truth of Mr.

Davis’ theory that the Philodines resist drought by encasing

themselves in a glutinous case of their own secreting, and the

efficiency of the protective was at once shown by putting the

strips in water, when the buried rotifers soon struggled into life.”

— Fourn. Roy. Micr. Soc., February, 1886.

PARASITE OF THE Rock Oyster.—Mr. W. A. Haskell, on

€xamining some samples of oysters which were dying in large

numbers, found that most of them, when opened, presented on the

inner surface of the shell one or more discolored blisters. In

some these were of small extent with a narrow sinuous form,

while in many instances a large part of the valve was affected.

In some cases, where the extent of the shell invaded was not

large, the oysters did not seem at all affected by it; in other cases

€ animal was found to be dead, and in a few cases the shell was

completely empty. In the interior of the blisters were found one ,

or more specimens of a very small annelid, by which the mischief

had been effected—Polydora ciliata. One specimen of a secon

Species was also obtained, P. polybranchia, n. sp., which the author

describes.— Four. Roy. Micr. Soc., December, 1885.

_SENSE-orGANs oF Coperop CrusTacea.—Dr. O. E. Imhof has

Some notes upon the antennary olfactory organs of the genera

Heterocope and Diaptomus. =

hese appear to have been discovered in Heterocope by

Gruber; in Diaptomus they exist in all the species examined,and —

have a characteristic distribution, which is the same in all the spe-

ces, and may, perhaps, serve as an additional definition of the _

_ organs of Pontella described by Claus.— Fourn. m>

390 - Generar Notes. [April,

superintendent of the Government cinchona estates at Mong-

phoo, near Darjeeling, has noticed the same thing with regard to

the allied Northern species, Micropternus phaloceps, and the pecu-

liarity probably extends also to the allied species found in Bur-

mah, Siam, &c. :

r. Gammie thinks that when an ant’s nest has been taken pos-

session of by the bird that the ants desert the nest. This is a

point on which I cannot, speak with certainty. Mr. Gammie has

taken nests of the Northern species in which, although the bird

had laid, the ants remained, and he has taken other nests where

not a single ant remained, but there is nothing to show that these

nests were not deserted before the bird took possession. I, my-

self, have taken nests of the Southern form, in which, though the

eggs were partially incubated, the ants remained, showing that

some considerable time must have elapsed since the bird took

possession. This is a point that I hope to be able to elucidate

within the next few months, when the birds will be breeding.

When Micropternus is breeding, the feathers of the head, tail

and primaries of the wings are yet covered witha viscid matter,

having a strong resinous smell, and this substance is usually rather

ye studded with dead ants (vide “ Stray Feathers,” Vol. VI, p.

145).

| Two specimens of kingfishers also to my knowledge nidificate

in ants’ nests, viz., Halycon occipitalis, confined to the Nicobar

islands, and Æ. chloris, which ranges from India as far south as

Sumatra. :

At Mergni, in South Tenasserim, I found a nest of Æ. chloris

in a hornet’s nest, and although I saw the birds repeatedly enter

the hole they had made in the hornet’s nest, the hornets did not

seem to mind it; but they resented in a very decided manner any

attempt to interfere with the nest.— Wm. Davison, Nature, March

12, 1885.

Tuer Soarinc oF Birps.—Mr. Hendricks, in the NATURALIST

for March, intimates that I misinterpret the phenomenon of soar:

ing, “for it is well known that the upward lateral force would

| arrest the downward motion, so that the cause of the upward

motion would be immediately withdrawn.”

It would seem that the “ downward motion” could only be arrested

by resisting the lateral force. On his own showing the gravity

_ of the Jody cannot do it, as this “ is descending uniformly through

tance equal to its weight” There is no air condensed nor driven

out of the way in the lateral motion, so that the only resistanc®

to the lateral force is that of -atmospheric friction on the sm

surfaces of the plane, and this is very little.

= To enable the weight to resist the lateral force it would have

_ to be created, as the original amount is fully occupied.

aan

—1886.] Zovlogy. 391

As action and reaction are equal and opposite, and normal to

the falling surface, the inclination in which that surface lies is a

neutral plane, and no amount of force acting in that plane can

increase or diminish its downward motion.

It is obvious that an incident force at any angle whatever from

any direction above the plane would increase the fall, and at any

angle or direction from below would diminish it, while in the

plane, from any direction, its motion would neither be increased

nor diminished but remain unchanged.

There would simply be a motion added to the body, in its own

wey in the direction of the impressed force and proportional

oit

I can detect no “error” arising from “a misconception of the

phenomena of resulting motion.” The body falls with uniform

Speed, constituting one of the factors of soaring. It is then

-moyed laterally on an upward incline, which is the other factor.

_ These result in the level motion of flight in obedience to the law

of all resultant motions.

Tt seems like a covert attempt on the part of Mr. Hendricks to

lodge a perpetual motion scheme with the soaring problem.

am confident that no such fallacy can be domiciled within its si

Precincts.—/, Lancaster, 335 Wabash avenue, Chicago. ae

Zootocica News.—General—The deep-water fauna of Lake

Leman, if the line between it and the littoral fauna be drawn at

irty metres, at which depth chlorophyll-forming vegetation

ey The Limneas and Chironomus larve which inhabit

the tracheæ

m. “izes and ages are found at the bottom at the same season. 2

cet Makes it probable that these larve never attain the perfect © fe

*» Dut are capable of reproduction by pedogenesis. be

oe Mammalia Carnivora. are still common in the north of —

EONA te “ Statistical Year Book” for Finland states that in

1 Mot less than 85 bears, 128 wolves, 407 lynxes, 4005 10%

TOTE

€

ese

= tion, were prepared from an embryo of the seventh day.

392 General Notes. [April,

76 gluttons, 240 otters, 143 martens, 1583 ermines and 3947 car-

nivorous birds were killed and paid for by the Government. The

losses during the same year from Carnivora were estimated at 274

horses, 846 cattle, 5246 sheep, 168 pigs, 119 goats, 1681 reindeers

and 2366 chickens,

Crustacea.—The Crustacea of the Norwegian North Atlantic

Expeditions, excluding forms previously established as belonging

‘to the Norwegian littoral fauna, have been described by G. O.

Sars. They comprise: Brachyura, 1 sp.; Anomoura, 1; Caridea,

4; Myside, 5; Cumacee, 1; Isopoda, 18; Amphipoda, 45; a

copepod, Eucheta norvegica, always found at considerable’ depths,

six cirripeds and Stylon hymenodore, a rhizocephalon attached

parasitically to the abdomen of Hymenadora glacialis, and dredged

i oms. Bythocaris leucopis and payert, true deep-sea

carideans of the North Atlantic (1110 fathoms), do not pass

through. the usual larval stages, but on quitting, the remark-

ably large embryos have the full number of appendages found in

the parent. . Hymenodora glacialis has an exopodite attached to

the outer side of the second joint of the legs, as in the schizopods.

Boreomysis scyphops, a schizopod taken by the Norwegian

North Atlantic expedition has very singular eyes. The outer

together, and are destitute of any specific ocular pigment——

Sphyrapus serratus Sars, is a singular sightless isopod which

occurs in the open sea between Norway and Iceland, at depths of

from 1163 to 1333 fathoms. It has nineteen paired appendages.

The first pair of legs springing from the posterior part of the

cephalic segment, are powerful prehensile organs. The second

pair of legs are as long as the body, flattened, and armed with

powerful spines. Five pairs of slender walking feet follow, and

are followed by five of biramous swimming feet and a pair of long

_ branched and many-jointed caudal appendage:

£ EMBRYOLOGY!

ON AN UNUSUAL RELATION OF THE NOTOCHORD TO THE INTES-

TINE IN THE CHICK.—Through the great kindness of Dr. G. Baur,

: the Peabody Museum, New Haven, Conn., I am enabled to

gure an apparently rare mode of development of the notochord

- in the embryo chick. In order to enable the reader to more

readily understand the peculiar morphological relations to each

other of the posterior ends of the nervous cord, chorda and intes-

tine in the series of sections prepared by Dr. Baur,

endeavored to tombine in one figure what seemed to me to be a

_ correct interpretation of the relations of the parts involved.

e series of sections loaned me and from which I am kindly

* 1 Edited by JoHN A, RYDER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C-

permitted to figure such portions as are of interest in this eae

1836. | Embryology. 393

sections consist of a vertical longitudinal series, which show the

structural details represented in the accompanying figure, drawn

with the aid of the camera lucida.

The most striking feature is the condition of development pre-

one, CAY., e ventral

lation to the hindermost

vou spinalis M ; vesicular cavity just above the

th ? cord N. ; In fact, int of union between the medulla spinalis and

ere iS a readily trace- chorda, and representing a dilatation of the neur-

able bridge of tissue be- enteric canal; Nc’, medullary canal; Z and /,

tween the end of CRO and posterior part of mesenteron; Zr, proctodzeum.

: Bi

the under side of WV, which x

conclusively demonstrates that these two structures were at an

earlier stage continuous, Just above this bridge of tissue there

S a cavity, Ne, which must in all probability be regarded as a |

sa le at this point. Certain sections of this series, from

etd different plane, show that the nervous cord N extended a

somewhat beyond the point where the notochord joined it, 2

gure, though there are somites developed beyond its termination.

udging from what has preceded, it is evident that a connection

wad ‘cen the central neural canal Wc’ and the developing chorda

ia Serna once existed in this embryo. The central canal Nd

which ae a traceable to the cavity Vc farther back, just below —

ian € neural tube is continuous with the chorda. It seems, —

the ch not improbable that the single point of connection between —

ieee canal, orda and nervous cord represents the atrophied neurenteric —

dowi Ta that the portion of it which joined the intestine passed

ofp ough Ch” and Ch’. Even supposing that the condition

S Rasy S observed in this particular embryo is not normal, it is

-type eee that this specimen may represent a palingenetic

ves OF avian development, comparable with such an one as has

394 General Notes. [April,

been described by Hoffmann! in Axas boschus, in which the can-

alis neurentericus is shown (pl. 111, fig. 5) to open into the intes-

tine while a canal also extends from it anteriorly into the chorda

itself. Such is essentially the arrangement in the specimen here

described, except that the chorda has been differentiated along

the entire extent of the neurenteric canal.

latter joins the primitive streak. A narrow diverticulum from

this passage is continued forwards for a short distance along the

axis of the notochord. After traversing the notochord, the pass-

age is continued into a hypoblastic diverticulum, which opens

ventrally into the future lumen of the alimentary tract.” It is

clear from the figure that this must have been the case in the

specimen here under consideration; that is, the neurenteric pass-

age about which notochordal tissue was differentiated was con-

tinued forward into the chorda, as the latter was folded off from

the hypoblast, and that from this passage in the chorda one pass-

ing downward to the intestine was given off about which noto-

chordal tissue was also differentiated.

. While it is highly probable that this embryo chick displays

an archaic development of the chorda, yet the facts are significant,

especially when viewed in the light of the interpretations of

- Ehlers as to the significance of the “ Vebendarm” in the inverte-

brates. This specimen shows that what must have been a part 0

P, the neurenteric canal during an earlier stage, 7. e., Ch’, has been

æ actually differentiated into a structure histologically identical with

- the true axial notochord Ch.

This specimen is therefore of great interest, since it demon-

trates, if we may regard it as representing a palingenetic condition

of development, that the chorda dorsalis was primitively in abso-

lute continuity with the intestine (mesenteron) posteriorly, and

that there may therefore have been primitive Chordata in which

chorda was usually developed as such, in almost absolute

continuity with the alimentary tract—/ohu A. Ryder.

PROFESSOR SELENKA ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OPossUM

- (DIDELPHYS VIRGINIANA). — The following short notice of the

recent investigations of Professor Emil Selenka, of Erlangen, on

` the development of the common opossum, although it has ap-

_ 1 Die Bildung des Mesoderms, die Anlage der Chorda dorsalis und die Entwicke-

jung ¢ Canalis neurentericus bei Vogelembryonen. aturk, Verh. der Ko

Akad. Wetensch. XXII, Amsterdam, 1833. +

a eee E

1886. ] Embryology. 395.

ed some time since in a foreign journal, seems to us of such

unusual interest that we render in English the author’s text in

full as follows:

able at that, from the zo0logical gardens of Holland and Germany

in the course of years, I resolved to attempt to rear these animals

at Erlangen.

“ More than two years since, I obtained eight young Brazilian

opossums, which promised to do well, but all of which died, one

after the other, before they were full grown. Last autumn, how-

ever, I obtained, through the kind efforts of Mr. Karl Hagenbeck,

of Hamburg, a large number of the hardy North American opos-

sum; in a warmed and well-ventilated stable, these animals,

which were well fed, survived the winter remarkably well, and all

artificial interference had to be resorted to, a description of

waich is not in place here. Nor would I anticipate the complete

“1. In each spermatoblast of the male, two spermatozoa are

rapon, which, however, remain united for a remarkably long

he mature spermatozoa, which are taken from the

~ Vagina of the female immediately after copulation, are almost all-

Such twin-cells with double flagella; only after some time do they _

vibrat; € as a consequence of the remarkably strong and rapid o

w ons of the flagella—they are literally thus torn apart. a

2. The rutting period of the female occurs at night and dur-

ri ; one i "a 4

` tralila die Entwickelung des Opossums (Didelphys virginiana). Biclog, Com

na V, No. 10, 1885, pp. 294-295.

TENS

396 General Notes. [April,

ing the morning hours and lasts only half a day. If copulation

does not take place during this period, the female may rut again

in the course of several weeks. Such females also from which

the young are prematurely removed from the pouch or marsu-

pium, allow themselves to soon again become pregnant. During

the rutting period the walls of the uterus thicken very percep-

tibly, and principally because of the enlargement of the uterine

> lymph-spaces, in which the uterine glands then appear to be sus-

pended and to float.

“3 The fertilization of the eggs always occurs five days after

copulation and at the lower end of the oviduct, where the latter

widens into the uterus. In the vermicularly bent oviducts no

spermotozoa are encountered.

“4. Gestation lasts for exactly eight days; then thirteen days

after copulation the young are transferred to the marsupium.

Development accordingly proceeds with extraordinary rapidity.

_ Only three days before birth do the amniotic folds close over the

“te The egg is intermediate in character between the mero-

>- ~ —_ yolk is never included by the umbilical vesicle (intestinal or ento-

4 _ dermal cavity)! Remnants of the yolk persist up to the third

DA day before birth. ai

T “6. The fertilized but unsegmented egg measures almost 5"

in diameter; in the course of twenty-four hours the blastodermic

vesicle measures 1™™; in thirty-six hours 1.5™™; in sixty hours

4™™ ; in seventy-two hours 8™ ; in ninety-six hours 14°" and

on the sixth day after the commencement of segmentation

much as 20™™ in diameter.

“9. The blastodermic vesicles at first lie quite free and scattered

in the uterus; on the fourth day (after the beginning of segmen-

- tation), the blastodermic vesicle over the germinal area becomes

very loosely adherent to the uterine epithelium.

“8. In the marsupium of the mother there were never more

than six young observed. But the number of embryos [found m

the uterus], is invariably much greater and varies, according to

_ the size and strength of the female, from nine to twenty-seven.

PHYSIOLOGY.' :

THE ACTION OF SULPHATE OF SPARTEINE ON THE HEART

alkaloid sparteine was discovered by Stenhouse in Spartium SC

_ parium, a species of Genista, in 1850. It is a bitter liquid, insolu-

ple in water. Treated with an excess of sulphuric acid, it forms 4

"This department is edited by Professor Henry SEWALL, of Ann Arbor, Michigan-

The ;

1886. ] Fhysiology. 397

made clinical observations with the use of this drug and, accord-

ing to his results, it is of most extraordinary value in the treat-

ment of various forms of cardiac trouble. Doses of 0.1 gramme

of the sulphate of sparteine when given to a patient produced no

disturbance of the digestive or nervous system; its effects seemed

to be limited to the heart. In fibrous cardiac degeneration a

single dose rendered the pulse-tracing normal for the period of

three or four days. In irregular rhythm of the heart-beat due to

insufficiency of the auriculo-ventricular valves or to contraction of

their orifices, the drug brings back the normal rhythm. Three

igitalis, and its tonic action is very much more prompt, pro-

nounced and lasting. 2, Asa regulator of the rhythm of heart-

beat, it stands unrivaled. 3. It causes acceleration of the pulse,

and approaches belladonna in usefulness where need of the latter

drug is indicated— Comptes Rendus, T. ci, p. 1046,

Tar Microse or Hypropuosia.—M. Fol has found in sections

of the spinal cord and brain of animals dead from rabies, a micro-

coccus which he thinks is peculiar to that disease, and probably

its etiological factor. The fresh tissue is hardened in a solution of

per, and the sections are stained with hematoxylin. The micro-

ene Een ‘spinal fluid produced characteristic hydrophobic

a Symptoms in animals which received injections of it in the brain.

: — Comptes Rendus, T. ci, p. 1276.

` Tue TRANSFORMATION OF PEPTONES BY THE LIVER, AND THE

: me ba OF THE SUGAR IN THE BLoop To THE NATURE OF THE

; As previously reported in these pages, Professor

he pect, Of Vienna, undertakes to prove that the peptones

absorbed from the ali

aati? is be correct, we must expect that some other body

te the nitrogen of the peptones must be formed at equal

2 |

later work was undertaken.

pted as likely to give results

salt which crystallizes, and dissolves readily in water. M. Sée has”

with the sugar. It was to establish this fact that Seegen’s

398 General Notes. [ April,

blood was drawn from each vessel, all albuminous matters were

precipitated with great care, and the fluid remaining was tested,

after concentration, as to its content of nitrogen. The author dis-

cusses fully various methods employed in the separation of

minute quantities of albuminous substances from complex mix-

tures. The results of these experiments indicate a very consider-

able destruction of peptone by the liver with the formation of a

corresponding amount of a nitrogenous product of the decompo-

sition.

Seegen was led to the choice of peptone in his study from the

fact that Schmidt-Miilheim had found that most of the albumi-

destruction of peptones. In respect to the formation from pep-

tones of carbohydrates by the liver, the author found that, in

experiments performed in the manner described above, not only

was the sugar content of the peptone-liver-blood increased 20-70

per cent above the liver blood without peptone, but the total

amount of carbohydrates was increased as well. The conclusion

is reached that the function of the peptones, at least in carnivor-

ous animals which are not changing in weight, is, for the most

part, to give rise to the formation of sugar in the liver.

In another article the same author discusses the influence of

ees variation and nature of the food supply on the presence of sugar

in the blood. In the hungering animal (dog), the blood of the

hepatic vein is constantly richer in sugar than that of the portal

vein, the relative amounts being nearly two to one. The forma-

jon

—

= amount of sugar in the hepatic vein cannot therefore owe 15

=~ existence directly to sugar entering the liver. $

_ The percentage of sugar in arterial blood is nearly constant in

_ the various conditions of hunger, or when the animal is fed upon

starch, dextrine or sugar; the blood from the carotid artery, how-

ever, holds a slightly greater amount of sugar during the hours

_ when sugar is being most rapidly absorbed from the alimentary

canal.

; The blood of the portal vein contains the same percentage of

_ sugar on a starch diet as in hunger, but the sugar conten

-increases when sugar is taken in the food, and to a still greater

extent when a mixture of sugar and dextrine is eaten. The blood

_ of the hepatic vein always contains a larger percentage of sugar

1886.1 Physiology. 399

than that of the portal vein, not only during hunger, but after all

manner of carbohydrate diet. The formation of sugar in the liver

has nothing to do with the sugar ingested with the food. The for-

mation of sugar by the liver persists throughout a prolonged

period of inanition, and is not increased when a large amount of

carbohydrate is fed to the animal. Seegen does not believe that

the glycogen found normally in the liver is the source of the

sugar of the hepatic vein; it probably has some special destiny,

perhaps the formation of fat. The amount of glycogen found in

the liver stands in very close relation to the amount of carbohy-

drate in the food.— Pfiiger’s Archiv., 1885, pp. 325 and 348.

PLETHYSMOGRAPHIC AND VASO-MOTOR EXPERIMENTS WITH FROGS.

—Dr. Ellis has followed Drs. Bowditch and Warren in a series of

investigations which bids fair to open the way to much that is

new and-yaluable concerning the vaso-motor mechanism. The

latter observers studied by the graphic method the variations of

volume produced in the hind leg of a curarised cat by electrical

Stimulation of the sciatic nerve. The volume of the limb was

measured by the plethysmograph, and any fluctuations in it could

o due to variation in the amount. of blood supply. The

authors found when the peripheral end of the nerve was excited

by rapidly repeated induction shocks (16-64 per sec.), there was

usually contraction of the vessels. When a slower rate was

employed (4-0.2 per sec.), there was dilatation. With a medium

rate of stimulation there followed first a narrowing and afterward

a dilatation. A latent period of 1.5 sec. preceded the constriction,

and one of 3.5 sec. the dilatation. The latter effect sometimes per-

sisted for several minutes after cessation of the stimulation, but

the former usually ceased with it.

By an exceedingly ingenious application of a test-tube ple-

thysmograph connected with v i

ours, Dr, Ellis has been able to study the vaso-motor changes

ing the varying effects of electrical stimulation upon the

blood-vess à

= greater the tendency to immediate dilatation. 2. The

eck. f induction shocks per second. ‘The greater the number of-

per second, the greater the liability to contraction, and

sOnwersely. 3. Duration of the stimulation. The longer a series —

a Measure true, namely, the weaker the stimu- — y

400 i General Notes. [April,

of weak shocks rapidly following one another is applied, the more

likely is it to cause contraction.”

The intensity of the slowly repeated shocks which produced

dilatation, was usually much greater than that of the rapid stimu-

lation which caused constriction; but when the total stimulations

to which the nerve is subjected, obtained by multiplying the inten-

sity of each shock by the number of shocks applied, are compared

in the two cases, it is found that when dilatation is obtained, the

total stimulation is much less than when constriction is caused.

These experiments indicate the existence of two separate per-

ipheral vaso-motor mechanisms, one having the function of vaso-

constriction, and the other of vaso-dilation—Zhe Journal of

Physiology, Vol. vi, p. 437.

PSYCHOLOGY.

_ANTHROPOLOGY AND PsycHotocy.—At the Aberdeen meeting of

the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr.

Alexander Bain, lord rector of Aberdeen University, read a paper

“Qn the scope of anthropology, and its relation to the science

of mind.” He endeavored to point out that the bringing together

of the six departments—named respectively man’s place in nature,

i the origin of man, the classification of races, the antiquity of man,

he language and the development of civilization—did not contribute

ee to the mutual elucidation of the several topics, but merely concen-

trated into a whole the subjects connected with the higher mys-

teries of man’s origin and destination. He next dealt at length

with a survey of the researches having in view precise measure-

ments of the bodily and mental characteristics of human beings,

and indicated lines on which research might be made so as to

also reverted to the research into the conditions and the measure

_ of memory as wholly within the means of actual experimenta

determination ; also the important intellectual function of seeing

similarity in the midst of diversity, which can be reduced to more

or less precision of estimate by suitable means. Taking along

with these results the inquiries into the faculties of the lower

_ animals, the author put special stress on the number and delicacy

=- Of their senses as the foundation of every attempt to explain the

_ — higher aptitudes. Intelligence commenced with the power of dis-

crimination, and increased as that power increased. The record

of marvelous feats of exceptional ingenuity was of very little aid

in revealing the secrets of the animal mind, In conclusion, he

urged the admission of psychology in a more avowed and sy

_ the topics of metaphysical and ethical controversy, and welcome

~ all the researches into the intellectual and emotional regions of

_ the mind, Dr. Burdon Sanderson said any one teaching physt-

_ ology would not be expected to include anthropology, and Dr.

Bi aeRO a e ie a een Lak tb Sat

a tes

a iS a: a ae Re ge ae en eee ee

Pee x

= Maton: Phiterons

~ €aten for itch.

tee - :

Edited bi Prof. Oris T. Mason, National Museum, Washington, D. C.

1886.] Anthropology. 401

Bain had shown why it was not done. That was because when

we came to the higher functions of man, called mental functions,

we had to do with perceptions which were founded upon sensa-

tion, which meant interpretations by the mind of those percep-

tions. He considered that the line at which physiologists

stopped was the line at which Dr. Bain begins—namely,

measure. He heartily agreed with’ Dr. Bain in thinking that

psychology is the subject that lies at the basis of anthropology,

and should be accepted as its foundation.

ties. The committee on thought transference has collected the re-

sults of some twelve thousand experiments conducted by a num-

T of observers, and a statistical study of these seems to show a

slight preponderance of right guesses when the conditions are

such as render thought transference possible.

A special committee has been inquiring into the subject of

faith-cure ; but without attaining anything in the way of positive

results. Some of the most frequently described cases of marvel-

ous cures were, on investigation, found to be without any suffi-

cient basis in fact. In general, the “ faith-curists” seemed to .

dread and abhor anything like a scientific investigations of their. -

claims; so that any careful study of the psychic phenomena which

attend the cure of even those nervous and illusive maladies that

_are known to be amenable to mental impressions, was out of the

question. Other standing and special committees will report at

the regular meetings of the branch.

ANTHROPOLOGY |!

Maort PHarmacopazta.—Mr. Kerry Nichols has preserved for

us in the Journal of the Anthrop. Inst. (xv, 206) the native medi- —

cines of the Maoris of New Zealand:

Harakehe (Phormium tenax), New Zealand flax, decoction of leaves and root

"ec tor Paipai, a cutaneous disease. ee

Horopito, a shrub, decoction of leaves used for paipai. ae

Huhu, a E nd in the rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), matai ( Podocarpus spi-

cata) and kahikatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides), eaten as medicine. l A

Kakitatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides), decoction of leaves used for internal com. >

scandens) decoction of roots used as sarsaparilla, young shoots

Kewatewa (Piper excelsum), leaf used for the paipai, and to heal cuts and wounds. — :

402, General Notes. [April,

Kohekohe, a powerful tonic; a weak infusion of the leaves stops the secretion of

milk,

Kohutoha, a, lichen, when dried and reduced to powder is applied to cutaneous erup-

Siiniene (Trichomanes), the leaf is used to heal ulcers.

Koromiko (Veronica su adepi an infusion of the leaves is a gts a

ne weak infusion a tonic ; Sette are applied as a poultice for u de-

oN coction of the leaves is ‘ies ble in dys ited a small ,portion of the eat if

chewed, soon produces a keen sense of h

Mamahu (Cyanthea medullaris), the bruised pith is ‘and as a poultice for sore eyes.

Miro oo erruginea), a weak infusion of the bark is taken for stomach

ache

vuku, an edible fern; a wash obtained from the root is good for sore eyes.

Ngareku, charcoal powdered fine, is used for cera diseases.

Papanuga, the infused bark is drunk for the Aakiha

ae or mistletoe, the bruised bark is eae ie the itch by rubbing it over

t in.

T Paretau (Asplenium oblequum), a large-leaved fern, the root is used for paipai.

ae Patete, the sap is used for scrofulous sores and ringworm,

a ici (Metrosideros toamentosa), an infusion of the inner bark is used for

diarrhoea,

Pukatea (Atherosperma nove zelandia), the bark is used for scrofulous sores.

feo Raorao ( Pteris appa tender shoots used for dysentery

~ Rata (Metrosideros robus 7a), infusion of bark used for dysentery.

be Rauriki, or sow-thistle, an infusion is used for stomach complaints.

Rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), an infusion used to heal running ulcers.

nh a ( Nesodaphne tawa), bark used for stomach aches and colds.

‘Ti t (Cordyline australis), an infusion of the leaves used for dysentery.

Taotao (Phyllocladus trichomanoides), leaves used for scrofulous diseases.

“da pac ruscifolia), tender shoots, when plucked at certain seasons, are taken

Tue LAPLANDERS.—In Journal of Anthrop. Inst., xv, will be

be found ppp ease from Prince Roland Bonaparte, Dr. J:

G. Garson and Prof r A. H. Keane a pectively, upon

‘and Stent visions, Their name is E in obscurity,

= the people call themselves Samé, “ Fenmen,” Finlanders. They

-would appear to be an offshoot of the ereat ‘Finno-Tartaric (Malo-

ARR family. They are brachycephalic (80° to 83° 50’), short

_in stature (five feet and less), with Beare hair, flushed complexion,

: Leen eyes, straight and regular no

_ The upland Lapp’s life is dependent on the reindeer, whose

“flesh being mostly dried is converted into jerked meat, whose

offal is boiled and eaten fresh, whose blood is congealed, pulver- |

ized and kneaded into cakes or used as soup; the milk taken fresh

or frozen in a slightly fermented state, or made into cheese for

winter store. The skin covers the tent floor, the bed and the

; the sinews make excellent cordage, and the bones, after

extraction of the marrow, are carved into many useful and | fanci-

1886. ] Anthropology. 403

ful articles.” The herds range in number from 100 to 2000 and

There are two classes of these nomads, those who remain with

their herds during the year, and those who from May to August

leave their flocks and take to fishing. The Lapp is assisted in

the care of his herd by a very intelligent race of dogs. The

sledges are of three kinds:

Kerres, in which the traveler sits as in a boat.

Lakkek, for freight, decked over.

Pulkan, sledge proper, half covered, used on important occasions.

The snow shoes are six to seven feet long and three and a halt

to four inches wide, used either in walking or when the owner is

drawn by reindeer.

Mr. Keane closes his deeply interesting paper with references

to the social life, the religion and the language of the Lapps. i

Dr. Garson gives a close anthropometric description of a family

of Lapps exhibiting in London.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN Eskimo Trises.—Dr. Rink gives a

short paper in Journal of the Anthrop. Inst. on the relationship

of the Eskimo tribes as determined by dialects. The following

table illustrates the order of thought:

‘ ABORIGINAL INLAND ESKIMO.

Principal stem, Side branch. dag

Eskimo proper. Aleutians.

eects POPE eR e

Eastern. V. Western. r

e—————,__ pea

II. Middle regions. IV, Mackenzie. _ Northern. Southern. hy

Iglulik, Repulse 1. Pt, Barrow. 6. Tschugazzes. — 1

bay, Churchill, 2. Kaviagmut. 7: Kadjagians. Ti

mee 3. Malemut. 8. Kangeugdlit. n

I. Greenlanders. II. Labradorians. 4. Unaligmut.

5: Ek ut.

g. Asiatics.

cie

Keel map to embrace the valleys of the Delaware and Susque-

inscriptions (in situ), burial places, tumuli or m

ls. The circular of the society is signed by | a

404 General Notes. (April,

Barber, John R. Baker, Henry Phillips, Jr., Francis Jordan, Jr.,

Stewart Culin, Daniel G. Brinton. Communications should be

addressed to Henry Phillips, Jr., No. 104 S. Fifth street, Philadel-

; phia. The society is to be congratulated for its energy in this

matter. The City of Brotherly Love was once headquarters of

anthropology in America.

Tue REVUE p’ANTHROPOLOGIE—The most celebrated of the

many French journals devoted to the science of man, was founded

in Paris by Paul Broca, in 1872, and continued by his pupil, Dr.

Paul Topinard, after the death of the former. A third series was

commenced -with 1886 with the coöperation of the most dis-

are tinguished representatives of the various branches of anthropo-

, ` logical science; among them Dr. Gavarret, director of the Ecole

d’Anthropologie de Paris; Dr. Mathias Duval, director of the

Laboratoire d’Anthropologie a l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes; Mar-

quis de Nadaillac; General Faidherbe, High Chancellor of the

Legion of Honor; Professor A, de Quatrefages, at the Museum

of Natural History; Dr. Hamy, of the Musée Trocadero; L.

Rousselet ; Jules Rochard ; Baron Savoy and D’Arbois de Jubain-

. ville, of the French Institute. Dr. Topenard, the director of the

ee Revue, is general secretary of the Société d’Anthropologie de

: Paris, and author of the Eléments d’Anthropologie, to which the

Académie des Sciences, awarded one of its annual prizes.

Tue Races or Men.—The latest attempt to find a rational

expression of racial differences among mankind is by Mr. James

Dallas, curator of the Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. The

author is in accord with the general tendency to see three princi-

pal groups of humanity, as follows:

ochroi, represented by the European,

Mesochroi, represented by Mongols and American Indians. .

ans.

Æthochroi, represented by Negroes and Australi

= In the Æthochroic group, Mr. Dallas would include Berbers,

_ Nubians. Even admitting that this type extended into Arabia,

there would still be an enormous gap between this and the nearest

Eastern appearance of the Æthochroic group in India. The |

= Kuhlis, Bhils, Gonds and Konds of India; Mincopies, of Anda- ;

‘man; the Negritos and Samangs of the Philippines, and the Malay

archipelago; the Papuans and other pelagian negroes; the Aus-

-tralians and Tasmanians all belong, according to the author, to

one great type.

- Although the Æthochroic group is spread over an immense

area, “the changes in physical geography requisite to bring all

+ a .

1886, | Anthropology. 405

of man. A yet greater elevation would convert the Bay ot

Bengal into dry land, join the Andamans to India, the Laccadive

and Maldive islands to Arabia, converting the Arabian sea into a

broad expanse of nearly level ground.” At the same time a

great geological barrier would be erected against the northern

movement of this type. “Thus we have an ‘area to no small

extent demonstrably cut off from the northern regions of Asia

and Europe, in which alone traces of the Aithochroic group are

to be met with, and the A:thochroic peoples were originally the

sole occupiers of this area.” Mr. Dallas relies largely upon facts

developments, one in Africa, the other in the Philippines and

Andamans, almost pure, still exist. In the other areas the stock

is much mixed.

Roughly speaking, the Leucochroic group occupies the whole

of Europe with the exception of a part of the northern portion,

and parts of Hungary and Russia. Eastward, members of this

group exist in the Caucasus, Armenia, Persia, Georgia, Circassia, ;

Afghanistan, Kashmir,and Hindustan, Kattiwarand Rajputana,and A

include the Siah Posh Kafirs of the Indian Caucasus, and remnants

in China, Tartary, Japan, Kurile island and Kamtshatka. Indeed,

Mr. Dallas looks for the origin of this type in the heart of what

is now the Mongol area, the plateau of Central Asia, believing

that they extended along the eastern coast of Asia from Kamt-

Shatka on the north to the limits of the Æthochroi on the south,

rom this central region the Leucochroic race passed westward

by the great depression, the Zungarian strait, to overrun first

Western Asia, and eventually the whole of Europe, branches - |

marmot are taken as parallels among mammals. The Aino and _ a

e Gothic races are assumed to be tolerably pure examples

of this stock. o

ae Mesochroi occupy the two Americas, the whole extent of * —

ae eastern shores of Asia from Kamtshatka to Siam, and thence —

they

then

lation was from

406 General Notes. [April,

ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—A German treatise of Ernst Kuhn

“on the origin and languages of the transgangetic nations” was

published in the Transactions of the Bavarian Royal Academy

(1883, pp. 22, 4to), and gives a lucid sketch of racial and linguis-

tic facts observed in China and Indo-China by recent investiga-

tors. Kuhn thinks that the autochthonic population of the Indo-

Chinese peninsula are the people of Annam, Kambodja and Pegu,

and that the intruders who drove them to the coast, came origi-

nally from Western China, like the Tibetans; that the monosyl-

labism of all these languages is not original, but only the result

of condensation of a former polysyllabic status; that the Tibetan

language has retained the most Arabic forms of the western

group of dialects ; that the Kambodja is not a Malayan language,

as it has beenasserted by Aymonier and Keane; that the series of

numerals proves ancient affinity of Chinese with Barma (Bur-

mese), Siamese, Lepcha and Tibetan. — The Lord’s Prayer,

translated by E. H. Man into the South Andamanese language,

has been fully commented by R. C. Temple, and edited by him

with a scientific preface and introduction on that curious aggluti-

native language, which had never been previously investigated in

a philosophic manner.

Beiträge z

r28. An

~ 7 Tae DioprTRoGRAaPH? — The dioptrograph is a mechanical

drawing apparatus adapted to drawing the outlines of macro-

scopic objects. It consists of a- pantograph (in which the tracer

is represented by a tubular diopter) supported on a square table.

_ * Edited by Dr. C. O. WHITMAN, Mus. Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass-

*¥F, Kinkelin, Humboldt, 1, Part 5. - ?

1886. ] Microscopy. 407

By shifting the position of the diopter (sight vane) on a mirror

glass plate, the eye can follow the outlines of the object placed

below the glass as they appear at the intersection of the cross-

wires contained in the diopter. The table is supported by four

Square wood frames which together bound a cubical area, as

shown in the figure. A pane of glass, fitted with a frame, repre-

sents the upper surface of the cube, while the five other sides are

open so as to admit of the frame with the plate being placed upon

any side of the cube. On the lower frame Schroeder’s stee

pincers are fitted, by means of which the object may be placed in

such a position as to be completely detached and visible from all

sides. These pincers firmly grasp the object; this is effected by

fastening a screw and by three sharp points. The axis of the

pincers has a bilateral clamping movement, which may be regu-

lated by means of a screw; then there is around bar fixed on =

two opposite sides of the lower frame, on which a vertical rota-

tion of the axis of the pean and a horizontal sliding movement =

of the object can take pla

able by means of a special screw and admitting of a horizontal

rotation of the object. The drawing-board, which is connected

with the table by means of hinges, can be folded down upon the

glass plate of the table. ee

: a ne figure the pantograph, consisting of the diopter and pen-

cii Connected by a frame-work for mechanical adjustment, is

resented in position for drawing. The drawings may be made of

the nr re Or they may be enlarged or reduced, according to-

€ Proportions required ; ‘ : i

= „ For the use of tourists a folding instrument is made.

: Ment objects are placed on three pins, which can be

408 General Notes. [ April,

- For the geometric drawing of smaller objects the following

` appliances are use

1. One object-plate, which is placed below the glass plate and

which, by means of an arm, may be moved up and down on one

side of the cube. Upon this plate a small object imbedded in

clay or any other suitable substance may be placed.

2. A tubular diopter furnished with a lens.

PRICES.

A. Folding dioptrograph of polished mahogany for tourists $70 00

B. Same as A, but not polished and without case . 55 00

C. Same as A, but not folding (like the figure here given)........ 72 50

D. Same as C, not polished 62 50

The instrument is made by Luckhardt & Alten, in Cassel,

Germany.

Orauina:'—The life-history of this very interesting parasitic

very ully nown, thanks to the investigations cited below. The

subject is one of special interest to the teacher as well as to the in-

vestigator, since it illustrates one of the simplest life-cycles known

to us, and since the mode of development and oe rises

5 ; somewhat higher than in typical unicellular Protozo

iar tat—Hind-gut of batrachians (also found in planarians

EF and, Na ideæ

ae Period of reproduction. —FEarly spring, beginning as soon as the

ae host leaves its winter quarters for the open water, and continuing

only a few hee in some species, while lasting for two to three

_ months in othe

Mode of re pletion — Longitudinal and transverse fission.

The adult polynucleated Opalina (O. caudata and O. similis have

_ generally two nuclei, and occasionally only one) splits up by suc-

cessive divisions into a large number of parts, each containing,

- according to the species, one or more nuclei. These parts encyst

< — while in the hind-gut of the host, and are then dropped with the

_ fæces into the water. The spherical cysts (.025-.03™™) remain

anged for several weeks on the bottom, and only begin their

development after being swallowed by young tadpoles and pass-

ing into the hind-gut.

Material.—The adult Opalina may be easily obtained by cutting

-out the hind-gut of a frog and pressing a little of the contents of

1Th. W. Engelmann. Ueb on Infusorien.

Morph. Ja nthe. Reming Entwickelung u. Fortpflanzung von

: Zeller. Untersuchungen über die Fortpflanzung und die Entwickelung der

si a ge Batrachiern schmarotzenden Opalinen. Zeitschr. f. wiss. - Zool., XXIX, Pr

‘Wilh. Pfitzner. Zur Kenntnis der Kerntheilung bei den Protozoen, Morph.

Jahrb., x1, H. 3, p. 454, 1885.

` Moritz Nussbaum. Ueber die Theilbarkeit ge r lebendigen Materie. Arch. f.

Mik. Anat., XXVI, pp. 487, 509 and 514, Jan., I

E ee E Sai

| i :

: roe: 1886, Muroscopy. 409

the anterior end into a drop of water ona slide. If this is done

in early spring, all the phases of fissiparism may be obtained, to-

gether with encysted stages. The best time, however, for study-

ing the process of fission is during the winter. If a frog is kept

in a warm room twenty-four hours and ‘fed well, it will be found

that fission of the Opalinz, if any are present, has advanced to the

j point T encysting, and a complete series of stages may be readily

i obtaine

Material for the study of the development is obtained from

young tadpoles (5"™ and upwards in length) collected from their

natural haunts, or better, raised from the egg and fed with Opalina

aqueus should be inclosed air-tight.

B) For the study of the caryokinetic multiplication of nuclei,

T which is the leading feature in the development of multi-nucleate

: orms, preparations may be made in the following manner:

‘a *Tess out a portion of the fæces from the anterior end of

4 e rectum on to a slide, adding a drop of water.

enS ond its edges, and the space as thin as possible in

3) By means of a brush make a border of picric acid (satu-

3 thig cover, while it is drawn away with blotting paper from the i

Aie he nag Great care should be taken not to add the water —

would Ais ey it is drawn away, as the raising of the cover ;

| tlhe to en poral hours, and must be closely watched from begin: :

dia &) Stain with Grenacher’s alum. carmine or hematoxylin, —

a ng a border of the dye around the cover, as was done with ~

ane

410 . Scientific News, [April,

picric acid; then leave in moist chamber for a few hours (hæma-

toxylin), or one or more days (alum carmine).

(6) Wash with distilled water, proceeding as in No. 4.

7) Dehydrate with absolute alcohol, taking care not to disturb

the cover, and then add a border of clove oil. The alcohol soon

- evaporates and is replaced with the clarifying medium. The

preparation is now ready for examination. If the preparation is

to be preserved permanently the clove oil should be replaced by

xylol, and then a thin solution of balsam in xylol allowed to flow

under the cover as the xylol evaporates. Asa good preparation

is often spoiled in the process of mounting, it is well to make the

examination in clove oil first.

i 10:

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

— Dr.C. V. Riley, entomologist of the Department of Agricul-

ture and honorary curator of insects in the National Museum, has

presented to the National Museum his extensive private collec-

tion of North American insects, representing the fruits of his

labors in collecting and study for over twenty-five years. His col-

lection contains over 20,000 species, represented by over 115,000

pinned specimens, and much additional material preserved in

alcohol or other methods. It is estimated by those familiar with

the collection to have a money value of at least $25,000. In addi-

tion to the actual cost of material it is hard to estimate the amount

of time and labor that such a collection represents, In acknowl-

oO.

pag

ee)

fee

~*~

—

ie}

(e)

off

[S]

re rich in Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, and the latter contains many

-rai , blown and in alcohol. As it stands, by this gift the

- entomological collections of the National Museum become ne

and ultimate function of the nucleus, as found in what may be

ae chiefly. made on the living organism. The object-glasses em-

ployed by Dr. Dallinger are high powers of most recent construc”

i the

tion, in which the apertures have been carried to highest

= -assumed to be its simplest condition in the more striking of the

-~ Septic organisms, and his microscopical observations have been —

Te ete E ET E S

"= Mr. “eee — s E address to the: Liverpool :

1886.] Scientitic News, 4II

point hitherto attained, and were made expressly for his investi-

gations by Messrs. Powell and Lealand.

— The first number of the Bulletin of the Scientific Labora-

tories of Denison University, at Granville, Ohio, edited by Pro-

fessor C. L. Herrick, contains the following articles :

TT. je the evening poea (Hesperiphona vespertina Bonap.), with Plate 1

and frontispiece, by the

Metamorphosis of shytlopod ands with Plates v-vi1t and Plate x, by the

edito

Superpose: a buds, with Plate xu, by Aug. F. Foerste, class of 87.

Limicole, or mud- ee Crustacea, with Plate rx, by the editor

Rotifers of Am a, Part 1, with descriptions of a it genus and several new spe-

cies, with Plates II-IV and Plate x X, by the ed

The ee gro oS Saa with descrip'i ions of new Feeds: with Plates xm and

XIV, u

A totibend of Serer manipula ation, Chapter 1, Lithological manipulation, ac-

companied by a con EEEN translation of Eugene Po Tables for the deter-

mination of rock-form ing minerals, by the edito

The whole forms a volume of 180 adi with fifteen plates,

and affords good evidence of the scientific zeal and energy of the

scientific corps of this institution.

— At a recent meeting of the Royal Society, Dr. Downes read

à paper on the action of sunlight on micro-organisms, in which

he called attention to the fact that the observations made by him-

self and Mr. T. Blunt, described in papers contributed to the

rere during 1877-79, had been corroborated by other investi-

gators. Dr. Downes now asserts that the hyperoxidation of pro-

living organisms are SR by protective developments of cell

wall, coloring matte Re

77)

(e)

might, under the influence of light, be entirely resolved into ©

Water and carbonic acid. he alterative ferment of cane sugar, a

representative of the diastases, is also oxidized by sunlight—

English Mechanic

— A question SS should be very much obliged to anybody for

some SS mang on the following points, regarding Menopoma,

hiuma, Necturus and Siren

L Where are these aerian common

Has anybody ever seen the eggs at larve lee Me

lege

i forms, and i n what season ?—Dr. G. Baur, Yale Col

eum, New a Conn

gical Soc i n printed in separate form, and :

He discusses the way in which the enormous

atter poured into the Atlantic is thickness are =

ies 2 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [April, 1886.

sions of the true deltas, and, therefore, what appears to be a sub-

marine prolongation of the margin of a continent may, in many

cases, be merely a sedimentary deposit washed down from the

interior.

— Dr. Alfredo Dugés writes from Guanajuato, Mexico, that on

the 5th of February there fell at that place eight inches of snow.

It made a fine appearance, covering the trees full of leaves, and

stupefiec the inhabitants, most of whom had never seen such a

phenomenon. The thermometer fell to 4° and ne

— Jan. 17, died in Strassburg, Professor E. Oscar Schmidt,

who was distinguished for his researches on turbellarian worms

and sponges, as well as several valuable general works.

— W. T. Thiselton Dyer has succeeded Sir Joseph Hooker as

director of Kew gardens.

——0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

Brotocicat Society or WasuincTon, Feb. 20.—Mr. Romyn

Hitchcock, Demonstration of the resolving power of a new 1-16

inch objective; Dr. D. E. Salmon and Dr. Th. Smith, On a new

method of producing immunity from contagious diseases ; Dr. C

V. Riley, A carnivorous butterfly larva; Mr. Lester F. Ward,

species of North American grasses,

_ > New York Acapemy oF Scrences.—l. A new electric winding

apparatus for clocks (illustrated); II. On the need of a nor

2 time-system for observatories, Professor John K. Rees.

E - March 1.—Mrs. Alice D. Le Plongeon read an address on Yu-

: catan, its ancient temples and palaces. The paper was illustrated

with numerous lantern photographs, taken by Dr. and Madame

te Le Plongeon, during twelve years of study and exploration

~ ”— among the remarkable monuments and scenery of Yucatan.

iy - Bosron Society or Narurat History, Feb. 17—Dr. W. G.

: Farlow spoke of the collection of lichens recently presented to

the society by Charles J. Sprague, Esq.,; and Mr. S. H: Scud er

discussed the best methods for arranging and classifying the

_ libraries of natural history institutions. i

a March 3.—Dr. Thomas Dwight read a paper on the significance

sco OE the internal structure of bone, illustrated by the stereoptico”

= ÅPPALACHIAN Mountain CLus, Feb. 1o.—An_ ascent of the

Matterhorn, by Melancthon M. Hurd ; The Carter-Moriah path and

camp, by W. G. Nowell; An exploration of the Pilot range, by

CAW. H. Peck. ia

- Feb, 17.—Major Jed. Hotchkiss addressed the club on Mount

: Rogers, the highest point of the Appalachians in Virginia.

4 š <

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VoL. xx.—WAY, 1886.—No. 5.

THE LIMITS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

BY H. W. CONN, PH.D.

Ee theory of evolution implies a past, a present and a future.

Since the time of Darwin the past and present of the organic —

world have been studied with the result of showing that the his-

tory has been one of evolution. Having now reached this con-

clusion, and having discovered many of the laws of advancement

in living nature, we are getting into a position where we may '

begin to study the future. It is the object of this paper to indi-

cate certain limits in development toward which the organic

world have long been tending.

The idea of evolution implies that there has been a gradual

tise in the scale of organisms from the lowest to the highest.

But when paleontologists have attempted to show this gradual

tise by a study of fossils they have had much less success than |

the theory of evolution would lead us to expect. That there has p

n a general advance from the earliest fossils in the Silurian until r

now, seems unquestionable. But instead of being the most pal-

pable result of study, this advance is so obscure as to cause sur-

Prise to all who have attempted to make it out in detail. Darwin

expressed his surprise at the lack of evidence, and the difficulties

ve increased rather than decreased since he wrote. In some

groups ther€ has been an undoubted advance; the vertebrates, for :

instance, showing this in a marked manner. In a majority of

Sroups, however, we do not find it, for while the animals have not

in any case remained absolutely stationary, the development, as a —

me has consisted chiefly in the increase and diversity of species -

and genera. It is a matter of continual surprise to naturalists to

n ONS ees. e ER

414 ; The Limits of Organic Evolution. [May,

find constantly increasing evidence of the great diversity of life

which must have existed in the Silurian era. With the advance

of our knowledge of these earliest fossiliferous rocks, new groups

are constantly being added to the already extensive fauna. Our

knowledge of these times is still very scanty, but even now we

oe know that the fauna was highly developed. All of the subking-

| doms of the animal world were represented, about five-sixths of

the orders and suborders of the present time, many families and

afew genera. Bearing in mind the necessary incompleteness of

our collections, we must conclude that this fauna contained rep-

resentatives of a large proportion of the animals now existing.

Nor were the various groups represented by these lowest types

simply. The Ccelenterata contained Hydrozoa and Actinozoa;

among echinoderms we find echinoids ; among mollusks we find

cephalopods; among Arthropoda were Tracheata in the shape of

scorpions, And while these types were not developed as highly

A as they are now, their mere existence is enough to indicate that

already a large advance in the evolution had taken place. If this

t is the case it becomes plain that evolution since that time has

been almost entirely confined to the elaboration of the groups

then existing.

Now we are not at liberty to assume an indefinite amount of

time prior to the Silurian. Of course it is impossible to say just .

how long a time elapsed between the origin of life and the Silu-

rian, but it seems hardly possible that it could have equaled the

time since then. But upon evolutionary theories the animal

kingdom must have developed during that period from the lowest

unicellular condition to the complex and diverse fauna of the

‘Silurian. When we consider, therefore, that during this time all

~ of the important groups of the animal kingdom* arose, and that

_ none have arisen since that time, it becomes quite evident that

_ evolution must have progressed with greater rapidity at that time

_ than it has since. This conclusion is no new one, for many nat-

uralists have seen the necessity of making some such assumption.

; It will, indeed, be generally acknowledged that evolution at eaf-

_ lier times was more rapid than at present.

a ‘Now it follows as a direct result of this fact that the evolution

a of organisms is approaching an end, and that it will eventually

cease. If the rapidity of evolution as a whole has been decreas

-ing since the beginning of life, it is evident that unless something

__ *[It is very doubtful whether there were any Vertebrata during the Silurian —24-]

1886.] The Limits of Organic Evolution. 415

occurs to begin the process over again, evolution must eventually

cease.

This would lead us to the conception of the animal kingdom

ds not unlimited in the extent of its development, but as having

a definite end. This may be made clearer by two comparisons.

First, consider the life of any individual. This begins with the

fertilization of the ovum. Fertilization seems to endow the ovum

with a large amount of vitality, or what has been called growth

force. This growth force causes the ovum to begin to divide and

grow with great rapidity, and the changes which take place as

the result of this invigoration, are very great during the early

part of the development. But immediately from the first the

rapidity of this growth begins to decrease. As the individual

-becomes older its rate of growth becomes less and less, the invig-

orating force gradually expending itself, until finally a condition

is reached where no further growth takes place. For some time à

now the animal remains in a state of equilibrium, but finally

begins to go down hill and dies. A better comparison still may —

be found in the life of a tree. Here also we find at the outset a.

rapid growth and advance, very early the rapidly growing stems

give rise to buds which are to become the great branches of the -

coming tree, and in a very short time the shape of the tree is

determined by the growth. All of the larger branches have

appeared, and they have already given rise to many of the smaller

Ones. But here also the rate of growth diminishes, and as the

tree becomes older and larger it grows less rapidly. Finally at a

certain size its growth practically stops. It does not of course

actually cease to grow. It is continually producing new leaves,

_ new twigs; old branches are being in some places expanded, in

others they are dying and disappearing. There is thus a constant —

-change and growth taking place in the various parts, but the

Srowth of the tree as a whole has ceased. For a long time, per- x

haps the tree may remain in this condition, but little by little the

Process of decay encroaches upon that of growth, and finally the :

tree dies, ee

. These examples are of course simple analogies, and it is a

question how far they may be regarded as applying to the animal

ingdom asa whole; but there are many facts which indicate

rey the history of the organic world as a whole is parallel to the

fe of the individual, in part at least. That the relations of ant-

= $

: : j

416 The Limits of Organic Evolution. [May,

mals in the world are to be looked upon as that expressed by a

branching tree is now perfectly demonstrated. That all of the

great branches of this tree, as well as many of the smaller ones,

had made their appearance at the time of our first record of life,

is also proved, That evolution since that time has consisted

chiefly in the elaboration of these branches by increasing their

division and the diversity of species and small groups, is becom-

ing more and more evident. That there has been a slowing up

of development in recent times is a fact which is strongly forcing

itself upon naturalists; and the conclusion has found expression

in the statements sometimes made that no new species are arising

to-day, or that the present is a period of comparative rest. The

same general principle is taught from embryology, for very early

in their history do embryos become separated into the subking-

doms to which they belong, while more and more slowly does

the separation into the smaller groups take place, All of these

facts together strongly indicate that the illustrations used above

are in part real illustrations, and that the whole animal kingdom

must be looked upon as an individual starting its history with a

vigorous growth which is gradually expending itself. Whether

or not this growth will reach a limit, and whether or not it

will eventually cease so that the animal kingdom will disappear,

it is our purpose to consider.

That the organic world is approaching a limit to its develop-

ment is a conclusion which does not depend upon any vague idea.

of growth force for its support; for a little thought upon discov-

ered laws will clearly show us that there must be a limit to

advance. The best definition which has ever been given of the

grade of structure of animals is the degree to which differentia-

- tion of organs is carried. Evolution as it tends to raise the grade

of animals is constantly increasing the amount of differentiation.

A distinction must be made, however, between differentiation

and specialization, Evolution sometimes results in retrogres-

sion, and in these cases differentiation becomes less rather than

greater. Evolution does not, therefore, always produce a gf eater

differentiation, but in all cases, even in those of retrograde

oe, development, it does produce a specialization of parts, and we

_ may rightly regard evolution in the animal kingdom as a Pro

cess of specialization. Now it is plain that this process ca” not

go on forever, A low undifferentiated unspecialized organism

1886, | The Limits of Organic Evolution. 417

has an infinite possibility in its lines of specialization. A simple

spherical mass of cells, the supposed common ancestor of the,

animal kingdom, may be modified in a very great variety of direc-

tions, each of which may give rise to a different type of animal.

This possibility lies in the fact that it is as yet yndifferentiated

and unspecialized. But just as soon as it does become modified

in any one direction the possibilities decrease. Some of the de-

scendants of this ancestor becoming vertebrates are forever pre-

cluded from becoming anything else ; others becoming mollusks

must remain mollusks forever, with all of their-descendants. And

as later descendants become further modified in any direction into _

definite types, the chance for future modification, becomes rapidly

less. It is only the absolutely undifferentiated which has infinite

possibilities, for as soon as a single step is taken in any direction

they become finite. Now it is. plain, since evolution does not

retrace its steps, that with every step in advance the possible lines

of development become less and less. All the descendants of the

vertebrate line must conform to the vertebrate type. The verte-

brate becomes separated into fish, reptile and mammal, and the

individual of each group is still further fettered in its develop-

ment by the special line which its ancestors have taken. e

descendants of the animals which have started the order of birds

can not take any new line. They can develop to perfection this

type, but there they must stop. And so on, with every advanced

. Step the possibilities of expansion are constantly decreasing.’

_ Now a continued specialization of this sort is sure to reach a

limit eventually, it must run to extremes and then stop. Devel-

opment must reach a position where further advance is no longer

possible. Let us illustrate this principle by a concrete exam-

ple. A five-toed appendage is an unspecialized form which we

may conceive as modified in many directions. It may becomea =

grasping organ or a supporting organ or a swimming organ, etc. — ; Be

In the group to which our ruminants belong this appendage has

become a supporting structure. In this same group there has :

further been a tendency to rise upon the toes, in such a manner —

- that instead of walking on the soles of the feet and palms of the

-~ hands, the animals in question walk more and more upon the

fingers and toes. When this peculiarity first began to manifes

itself, the mammals had five toes. As it became more and mo:

This idea can be found fully expressed in the writings of Professor Cope-

418 The Limits of Organic Evolution, [ May,

marked the shorter toes were little by little lifted from the ground

and became of little or no use: In successive ages we find the

shorter toes becoming smaller while the middle toe becomes

larger. This line of specialization has continued until it has

reached a limit. in the horse, which has lost all but one toe on

each foot, and walks on the extreme tip of this toe. Now it is

perfectly evident that a limit has been reached in this case. The

horse may perhaps in the future lose the rudimentary splint bones

which still remain, but he can not lose his last toe; and it is

therefore impossible to conceive any further development of the

_ horse in this direction. Now the same principle will apply to

all other lines of specialization, although we may not always

beable to see what this limit may be. Physical laws would of

themselves set limits to every line of advance, even if there be

no such limits determined by the organism itself.

It is easy to find examples which will show that such has been

the general history of groups in the past. Some have reached

eee the extreme of their development in the distant past, and have

ceased to advance or disappeared. Others seem even now to be

at the summit of their advance, and others still are yet advancing.

The line of development represented by the trilobites has com-

~ pletely exhausted itself. It rapidly approached its limits even in

5 the Silurian, and then began to dwindle away and has disappeared

= Completely. The brachiopods had also at this time reached their

_ point of highest specialization, and became a highly developed

group even at this early age. Since then they have remaine

-~ stationary as to their organization, having steadily decreased in

ats numbers, and the few that are left show no advance over the Silu-

= rian forms. The cephalopod mollusks gradually increased in

complexity during the Paleozoic, and finally a limit of the shelled

_ forms was reached in the ammonites of the Jurassic and Creta-

= ceous. The culmination was followed by extinction. Meantime

~ a second line of development began, that of the naked cephalo-

_ pods, and this has gone on advancing until the present time. The

_ decapod Crustacea represent a group which is even now near its

_ culmination. From their first appearance in the Carboniferous

there has been a tendency toward concentration of organs toward

the head. As this specialization advanced the abdomen became

‘smaller while the head region became larger. Finally in the

crabs, which appeared in the Jurassic, everything was concen-

ih eee

| Pig ev number of future subkingdoms, which would, of course, —

ee the animal kingdom an example of never-ending evolution. —

1886. The Limits of Organic Evolution. 419

trated into the head region; the abdomen being little more than

arudiment. Evidently we are here near a limit, and we may

look upon the crabs of to-day as the culmination of the special

line of development which has characterized this line of animals.

The vertebrates in general have been continually advancing

during geological times with a continued increase in specializa-

tion and in multitude of types. But even here there has been

the same story of limitation. The ganoids culminated in the

Devonian, and have advanced no farther. One great line of rep-

tiles reached its limit in the Jurassic. And so everywhere. The

study of evety group teaches that the past history has been a

gradual specialization, which approaches a limit. In many cases

in the past this limit has been reached and advance ceases; while

in others animals are still on their road toward it.

It is plain, therefore, that the evolution of the whole animal

kingdom is slowly but inevitably approaching an end. With

every advance in differentiation the possible lines of development

decrease, and since the actual lines followed are tending to run

themselves out, the whole must eventually stop.

Recognizing, then, that there must be a limit to advance, we

must next ask the question, whether after this limit is reached the

animal kingdom will become extinct ; whether, like an individual,

it will die of old age? And here we must distinguish two ques-

tions. First, is it not possible that animals which have remained

Unspecialized during all times, should give rise constantly to new

lines of development, and thus be a perpetual source of new

for ms? Second, will the present groups, after reaching their cul-

mination, become extinct or simply remain stationary ?

That there is a theoretical possibility of the origin of new ~

types cannot be denied. New types, 7. e., new lines for specializa- —

tion, can arise only from undifferentiated forms. But such undif- —

ferentiated forms still exist in great numbers. Even the most =

uNspecialized form of all, the unicellular animals, are abundant |

enough, and in all groups we are acquainted with more or less

generalized types, Theoretically, then, there is no reason why

any of these forms should not expand itself and thus form an —

¢ternal source of new world forms. So long as the unspecialized

forms do not become extinct, we cannot deny the possibility of

420 The Limits of Organic Evolution, [ May,

But all of our evidence indicates that such a future is probably

not a practical possibility, even though, as far as “we can see, it

may be a theoretical one. All biological studies point strongly

to the conclusion that instead of several points of origin the ani-

` mal kingdom has had only one. The subkingdoms have not

arisen independently from the Protozoa, but have all had a com-

mon ancestor, the gastrula, and this means that only once has

the unicellular form given rise to important lines of multicellular

descendants. Though the Ccelenterata stand very near this

primitive unspecialized form, there is no evidence that it has the

; power of further differentiation ; but on the contrary, all tends to

show that whatsoever differentiation of this simple type ever did

take place, to give rise to the subkingdoms, occurred before the

Silurian. Since palzeontology shows us that no new great types

have arisen since the Silurian, it is plain that all of the expansion

of the simple unicellular form must have taken place before the

Silurian. And coming through the later ages we find evidence

the same in its tenor. The conclusion everywhere seems to be

that when a generalized form has given rise to one or two lines of

f development, it either disappears or loses its power to originate

new forms. Every step of palæontology carrying existing groups

farther and farther back in the geological ages adds force to this

general conclusion. Every bit of evidence which indicates 4

fundamental unity of the animal kingdom testifies to the same.

Without questioning the theoretical possibility that any or all of

ae the existing more or less unspecialized forms may in the future

=. develop, we must acknowledge that the probability is against it.

= Nothing in history indicates that these groups retain power to

expand, and there is, therefore, no reason for thinking it a possi-

bility in the future, Remembering what a large number of

_. groups we are learning to trace back to the Silurian, remember-

-~ ing that development has consisted, in the later geological ages,

simply in the expansion of groups appearing long before, we

must conclude that the power of the undifferentiated forms to

expand into different lines of development disappears very early

jn their history. While then we cannot deny the possibility of

an indefinite future development from the existing generalize

types, it is certainly improbable that any new great groups wi

arise. Man, seizing upon the last undifferentiated faculty, the

intellect, is developing this to extreme, and will probably be the

last type to appear.

1886. ] The Limits of Organic Evolution. 421

The second question, concerning the probability of the various

groups becoming extinct after reaching their culmination, is not

so easy to answer. It is certainly possible to conceive of them

as remaining stationary at their culmination, neither developing

further nor becoming extinct. Undoubtedly the history of the

past shows that after any group reaches an extreme of specializa-

l tion it does not remain stationary, but begins to decrease in num-

; bers, finally to disappear. But the number of groups which have

; thus become extinct is not very great, and it is a question whether

it is justifiable to claim that they really represent a general ten-

i dency. It is certain that disturbing causes which have acted in

! the past to produce extinction will grow less and less in the

future. We can see that extinction in the past has been due to:

the inability of these extreme forms to adapt themselves to new

circumstances with sufficient readiness. Of course when all of

our present groups shall have developed themselves to extremes,

they too will be unable to adapt themselves to new conditions,

and would doubtless become extinct if they were called upon to

meet adverse circumstances. But it is an acknowledged fact that

physical changes are much less rapid now than they were for-

merly, and that they are constantly diminishing. If this is the

case the developed extremes of the future will not be called upon

to meet such changes in condition as those which have induced

extinction in the past; and they may even then be able to un-

dergo such slight modifications as will enable them to meet the

slight changes in condition. Moreover, in the past extinctions:

have very generally occurred because animals have been unable

to contend with the new and more vigorous forms which were

capable of a more rapid modification than the older ones. But

as we have seen, the number of possible new forms is constantly

decreasing, and the time must come when it is no longer possible

s new forms to arise to crowd the older ones out of existence.

With almost stationary physical conditions, and with no new

rivals, it may be that the animal kingdom is approaching a con-

; dition when, for reasons which we have seen, it cannot advance,

and when there will be nothing to cause extinction, and it will ©

. therefore remain stationary. ae

4 There is one new condition, however, which is to have a pr

~ digious influence upon the evolution of the future. The influ-

b aea ie ee

_ Ace of man on the animal kingdom cannot be computed, but it =

422 = The Limits of Organic Evolution. [May,

is probable that in many respects it will be a death blow to its

evolution. Man is rapidly causing the extinction of almost all

land animals, at least the larger ones. As the frontiers of civili-

zation are being extended further and further into the uninhabited

regions, he is driving out of existence all of the larger animals

and many of the smaller ones. We have ,only to look ahead a

comparatively short time to see the extinction of all land animals

except such as man may preserve for his own use. To what ex-

tent this may apply to other animals, to insects, marine animals,

etc., is not clear. But in the highest group of animals, the verte-

brates, it is pretty clear that man is eventually to bring about not

only the end of advance, but also the practical extermination of

all animals except such as he especially preserves.

With all of these considerations together it seems perfectly plain

that we must look upon the evolution of the animal kingdom as

definitely limited and approaching an end. The tendency of spe-

cialization to advance to extreme limits, the impossibility of the

further adaptation of these extremes to new conditions, the sig-

nificant fact that no new forms of importance have arisen during

all the later geological ages, the great influence of man in causing

extermination of all sorts of animals, all these point to the same

end. Just as evolution began in time, so it will end in time, and

we must look upon the animal kingdom as progressing toward a

limit. When this limit is reached, either there will follow a grad-

ual extinction through a diminution of vital power, or if this be

not the result, a stationary condition will ensue in which such

animals as man has left in existence will remain unmodified until

the progress of physical changes makes this world no longer

habitable.

vied

ie #

;

1886.] Ancient Rock Inscriptions in Eastern Dakota. 423

ANCIENT ROCK INSCRIPTIONS IN EASTERN

DAKOTA.

BY I. H. LEWIS.

ta the celebrated map of I. N. Nicollet, of the “ Hydrographi-

cal basin of the Upper Mississippi river,” published by the

U. S. Government in 1845, appear, for the first time, two strange

names in Eastern Dakota, not far from the sources of the Minne-

sota river. The first is Wakiyan Hurpi (or thunder’s—not light-

ning’s—nest), placed about thirteen miles north-west of the foot

of Lake Travers; and the other is Wakiyan Oye, a few miles

west of the head of the same lake. The route followed by Nicol-

let, however, did not pass by either place, so he must have put

them down from the general description of his guides, as he

makes no mention of them in his text. It is of the latter locality,

well known by its translated equivalent of “Thunder Bird’s

Track ”—on account of the incised rocks there—that this article

treats; together with another rock of like kind in the neigh-

borhood.

In the month of August, 1883, I was engaged in the survey of |

the sepulchral tumuli, forts and other earth-works of Big Stone

_ and Travers lakes, and thus being brought into the vicinity of the

rocks in

question, took the opportunity afforded of making care-

ful traci

much archeological interest. These tracings have been reduced

by pantograph to one-eighth the size of the originals, and draw-

ings thus made from them accompany this short account of the |

“track rocks.”

The first diagram shows the pictographs constituting “ Thun-

der Bird’s

Track,” as they are engraved on an irregular shaped

Tock located some six miles west and a little north of the village

of Brown’s Valley, Minnesota, and within the limits of the Sisse-

= and Wahpeton reservation of Dakota Territory. The rock

es on the summit of a hill which commands a good view of the

Ountry, though there are other hills in the vicinity which have a

ngs of the pictographs they showed, considering them of ©

altitude. It is about three and a half feet in diameter,and :

~ there:

S the first account I could find of it was in the shape ofa

424. Ancient Rock Inscriptions in Eastern Dakota. (May,

resent human hands. For convenience of reference the separate

characters are numbered on the diagram, and may be thus

described.

1 and 2. Represent hands placed in different positions.

3. Shows two hands in combination.

4. Is of a nondescript shape.

5 and 6. Are undoubtedly meant for hands, as their outlines

can be imitated in shadow on the wall by placing one’s own

hands in the proper positions.

7. Is another nondescript, though a portion of it represents a

hand.

The other rock is known as “ Thunder Bird’s Track’s Brother ”

—that is, a brother to the “track ”—and is situated about two

miles east of his elder, on the slope of a terrace bordering the

valley of the Minnesota river. As will be seen on comparison,

the diagrams illustrating the two rocks are entirely distinct from

each other in respect to the shapes of the characters, and by no

means bear out the close relationship between the localities im-

plied by the names the Indians have given them.

The inscriptions on both rocks are apparently very ancient,

and it is extremely doubtful whether the present Indians or their

immediate predecessors (the Cheyennes ?) had anything to do

with carving them.

I made inquiry as to any traditions that might be current

among the Dakota Indians on the reserve concerning these rocks,

and obtained certain mythological information now concisely

stated. ;

= Thunder Bird is said to have had his nest on a high mound,

which was composed of sticks and brush, and was situated

some ten miles north-west of the foot of Lake Travers, in the cen-

ter of a deep wide gorge. One day there was a great storm which

flooded tlie whole country. Thunder Bird, in his anger at having

been driven from his nest by the rising waters, flew away and

alighted on this rock—Wakiyan Oye—which was the only

place not covered by water, and left the impression of his feet

On subsequently looking for printed records of this rae

snort.

poem from the pen of an Indian trader of 1823, W. J. sae e

(son of the military officer after whom Fort Snelling was name

PLATE XVI.

Thunder Bird’s Tracks.

Thunder Bird’s Tracks’ Brother.

DA yl

)

v nir.

Seale 1.8.

z259

a ae se

Ancient Rock Inscriptions in Eastern Dakota,

1826. ] Variation of Water in Trees and Shrubs. 425

which appeared in Griswold’s Poets and Poetry of America

(1842), and has been reprinted in Mr. Neill’s histories. The last

stanza but one has direct reference to the rock I have here first

described, and runs thus:

“« Not long upon this mountain height

The first and worst of storms abode,

For, moving in his fearful might,

Abroad the God-begotten strode,

Afar, on yonder faint blue mound,

In the horizon’s utmost bound,

At the first stride his foot he set;

The jarring world confessed the shock.

Stranger! the track of Thunder yet

Remains upon the living rock,”

70:

VARIATION OF WATER'IN TREES AND SHRUBS.

BY D. P. PENHALLOW.

re amount of water which highly lignified plants contain,

particularly as influenced by season and condition of growth,

obviously bears a more or less important relation to physiological

processes incident to growth, and most conspicuously to those

which embrace the movement of sap. Studies relating to the

mechanical movement of sap in early spring at once suggest the

question as to how far this is correlated to greater hydration of

the tissues at the time when this movement is strongest. It was

with a view to exhibiting this relation more clearly, that deter- -

minations of moisture in a large number of woods, representing -Ț

growth of one and also of ten years, collected at different seasons,

were made in 1874.) The range of seasons was not as complete

as could have been desired, and no attempt was made to formu-

late a general law applicable to this question. With a view to —

extension of data in this direction, additional estimates were un-

ray ken in 1882, and it is the object of the present paper to com-

ine all the results thus obtained, together with such other fact

W. S. Clark. Agriculture of Massachusetts, p. 289.

426 Variation of Water in Trees and Shrubs, [May,

as have come to our notice, and see how far they indicate a gen-

eral law.

Theoretical considerations lead us to infer that if there is any

variation at all, the hydration of structure must be greatest during

the period of active growth, and least during the period of rest.

How far this is supported by the facts will appear in what

follows.

HYDRATION OF DEAD Woop.

Incidentally to the main question, specimens of dead wood,

deprived of the bark and representing an age of from four to

eight years, were collected and the moisture determined. While

the branches were dead, none of them were in an advanced state

of decay, so that the contained water could not be regarded as

that of active decomposition, but simply that which would be

readily retained in the lifeless, air-dried substance as exposed on

the tree. The results obtained from fifteen species of trees

showed an extreme variation of 6.1. per cent, the range being

from 12.9 per cent to 19.0 per cent of water. The mean hydra-

tion obtained from these determinations was 15.1 per cent. The

results appear in the following table :

HYDRATION OF DEAD WOOD.

Determined at 100° C.

Oe a ae

Species. Per cent of water.

Pe en

Acer saccharinum.... 18.8

Amelanchier canadensis . 19.0

Betula alba , 15.1

« rinteet. 15.9

“` lenta. 13.7

Carpinus americana. ...... 13.8

vast vesca ; : 14.0

_ Cydoni $. 12.9

Cornus sericea ...... 13.6

Pinus strobus, 4 11.9

Pyrus malus....... ; 12.9

Prunus sate iar cues Sa ei osii Vie ee ues 14

Quer 15.5

Fouga canadensis 22" : ie ee oa, 18.6

E a A E N A RES 13-5

OER ia ee i oh E e R PCN e pee es coed 15.1

18386, | Variation of Water in Trees and Shrubs. 427

HYDRATION OF Woop FROM LIVING TREES.

The specimens upon which the principal facts in this paper are

- based, were collected as sections of living branches, representing

on the one hand growth of two years, and on the other hand the

growth of four years. For the obvious reason that the bark

could not be properly separated from the wood with any degree

of uniformity, it was left on in every case, so that in all the deter-

minations here given the results show the combined percentage

of water in wood and bark, Obviously this gives a result which

differs materially from that which would be obtained if the wood

and bark were considered separately. Also, while care was taken

Not to collect specimens in which the dead bark was strongly

developed, thus securing as great uniformity as possible, the very

fact that the bark was present, as well as the certainty of its varia-

bility in structural character, and thus also in hydration, as col-

lected even from the same species at different seasons, rendered.

certain variations in the results unavoidable. This will doubtless

appear upon examination of specific cases, but error from this

Source is reduced to a minimum in the aggregate, so that the

mean results, in view of all the precautions taken, may doubtless

be accepted as correct.

From an examination of the following results it will appear

that, comparing the young growth with the older wood, the per-

centage of water is sometimes greater in one, sometimes greater

in the other, conforming to structural peculiarities of the species

| and the relative preponderance of more or less strongly hydrated

tissue. The mean results, however, clearly show what we might

infer upon theoretical grounds, viz., that in the youngest growth,

as also in the sap wood, the percentage of water is higher by two

- Per cent than in the older growth, where the heart wood is in

relative excess. This is found to hold true in the mean results

not only for each season but also for all seasons; in the former

case, however, the disproportion showing a variation from 0.8

Per cent to 3.3 per cent,

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429

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432 Variation of Water ae Trees and Shrubs, { May,

If we next inquire into the relation which seasons bear to the

contained water, we will observe that the percentage continually

rises from the mid-winter period until spring, and that it again

falls from the close of summer to the mid-winter period. The

extreme variations, as exhibited in our figures, show between

February and September a difference of 8.4 per cent for the

youngest growth and 7.1 per cent for that which is older.

MEAN HYDRATION OF WOODS,

Determined at 100° C,

Per cent water. || No. for average.

Months. ae

rst year. | 2d year. || rst year. | 2d year.

POUR oe sess y 43-9 37 38

March 47.2 | 44.8 59 60

PTL OR SET 48.4 7

September. 53-1 51.0 19 18

laLa PEST ET RET yee 48.3 47.2 61 58

49.0 ' 47.1 || 36.4 | 30-2

Our figures also indicate that the maximum hydration of the

tissues must occur either in September, or at some period inter-

mediate to this month and April. By graphic representation of

these results, it will become possible to determine with approxi-

mate accuracy the true period at which this maximum is reached.

The figures show that from February to April, the rate of per-

~~ centage increase is much more rapid than the rate of percentage

=- decrease from September to December, showing that the maxi-

mum must fallynearer the former than the latter period.

A properly constructed curve will show all of these relations.

By reference to the accompanying diagrams it will be seen that

= the curves for both young and old wood run nearly parallel, but

~ that they tend to approach at their greatest depression, or the

__ mid-winter period, and to more widely separate at their greatest

altitude, during the spring period. It is also seen that from mid-

-~ winter to spring, the curve rises rapidly, and reaches its greatest

_ elevation about the last of May for the young wood, that which

_is older possibly reaching its maximum a few days later. From

this time on the curve descends at a more gradual rate until De

cember, when it suddenly drops to its minimum depressio®,

_ which evidently occurs in January. _

pre eer Ee ee eae oe eee

PLATE XVII.

one ae.

A tl “sagi

55% 2 Be

Ka caer ad FS 1

a p Bean | ie |

7 à wo

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E Pr È:

PA Pree cia RS:

Ao f

45% ce _ Hyd: ation of Hood

4.0%

Cesgationiof.Gi Eer

Feb.

May.

Tuly

Sept.

Nov:

1886.] Variation of Water in Trees and Shrubs. 433

PERIODS FOR CESSATION OF GROWTH.

As upon theoretical grounds the tissues contain most water

when the growth is most active, data which will enable us to

accurately fix the limiting periods for the season’s growth, will

have an important bearing upon this question. Mr. W. E. Stone,

accepting the completion of terminal buds as marking comple-

tion of the longitudinal growth for the entire year, has obtained

the following data as establishing the limiting periods of growth

for the latitude of West Point, N. Y., 41° 23° N.:

JUNE IST.

Acer saccharinum Wang. Quercus alba L.

“ rubrum L, “ bicolor Willd.

Amelanchier canadensis Torr. & Gray. e coccinea Wang. £

Carya alba Nutt. “ rinus v- monticola Michx.

Fagus ferruginea Ait. \ Sambucus pubens Michx. /

raxinns americana L, Tilia americana L,

Hamamelis virginica L, Ulmus americana L.

Kalmia latifolia L. “« fulva Michx,

Populus tremuloides Michx.

JUNE I5TH.

Betula lenta L. Lindera benzoin Meissn.

Carpinus americana Michx. Morus rubra L.

Castanea vesca L, Ostrya virginica Willd.

Juglans nigra L. Prunus cerasus L. :

JULY IQTH.

Andromeda ligustrina Muhl. Nyssa multiflora Wang.

Alnus incana Willd, Staphylea trifolia L.

INDETERMINATE PERIOD,

Ampelopsis quinguifolia Michx, Rhus sp.— ;

Celastrus scandens S Vitis sp.—

Growth in length having ceased at these periods, the energy

of the plant then becomes directed to the lignification of o

tissues and the deposition of reserve material for growth the

following year. These changes, however, of necessity involve

a continual decrease in the contained water. The data above also

show that the majority of plants complete their longitudinal

Stowth within the first six weeks of the growing season; that

Most of these complete their growth in from three to four weeks;

an as the season advances, the number of plants still grow-

‘NS, rapidly diminishes until the middle of July, after which time

> are left but few, those being plants like the grape, which-

continue to grow until arrested by severe cold. A

Bull. Torrey Bot, Club, xit, 8, 83.

434 Domestication of the Grizely Bear. [ May,

A graphic representation of these changes in connection with

the curves of hydration, will enable us to determine the relation

of growth and seasons to hydration of tissues: This comparison

will show most conspicuously that that period at which growth

for the season is chiefly terminated, is nearly coincident with the

period of maximum tissue hydration, the former being but five or

ten days later than the latter.

From the foregoing facts the following appear to be the general

laws:

Ist, The hydration of woody plants is not constant for all sea-

sons, and depends upon conditions of growth.

2d. The hydration reaches its maximum during the latter part

of May or early June, and its minimum during the month of Jan-

‘uary.

3d. Hydration is greatest in the sap wood ; least in that which

is older.

4th. Greatest hydration is directly correlated to most active

growth of the plant; lignification and storage of starch and other

products being correlated to diminishing hydration.

These facts apply only to latitudes lying between New York

- and Boston. For other latitudes, certain modifications might be

necessary.

:0:

DOMESTICATION OF THE GRIZZLY BEAR.

BY JOHN DEAN CATON, LL.D.

E family of bears is among the most widely distributed

groups of the quadrupeds, and is represented by a number

of living species. They occupy the polar regions of the no

and the temperate and torrid regions of both hemispheres. Som

are of enormous strength and fierceness, others are diminutive

o and comparatively mild in disposition. Nearly every species has

= been held in captivity in considerable numbers, yet of their adap-

~ tability to domestication but little of real scientific value has been

~ Written, and I think I may add but little is known, for the want

= of judicious experiment and careful observation.

exhibited by street showmen, who have taught them various

r ķ . . . . > i S me

They are sometimes met with in the streets in various countries,

amusing tricks, evincing considerable intelligence and docility, =

1886,] Domestication of the Grizzly Bear. 435 7

but these are generally of the smaller and milder species, and but

little of their training or domestication has been recorded.

Those which have been exhibited in gardens or menageries, as

a general rule, are merely held in confinement, and not in domes-

tication, so that little can be learned from them of their adapta-

bility to complete subjection to human control. This can only

be learned by long-continued experiments and observations under

favorable circumstances by those whose tastes and inclinations.

fit them for the task.

My attention was called to this subject by reading the “Adven-

tures of James C. Adams,” who was a celebrated hunter of Cali-

fornia, who seems to have had a genius for capturing and domes-

ticating wild animals. Among others he fairly domesticated quite

a number of the grizzly bear (Ursus ferox Lewis and Clark) with

complete success. This is the largest and fiercest known of all the

species, and it might be expected the most intractable or unsub-

missive to human control, yet such appears not to have been the

case,

The first specimens experimented with were two cubs, over a

year old when caught, taken in Washington Territory, between

Lewis and Clark’s fork of the Columbia. They were brother and

sister; the latter was retained by Adams, and his experiments

Were principally conducted on her, which he called “ Lady Wash-

ington.” She seems to have been the more tractable and submis-

sive. The male he parted with to a friend, after he had received

but the rudiments of his education. At first they were chained

to trees near the camp-fire, and resisted all attempts at familiarity

and kindness; then severity was adopted, until they finally

submitted.

Soon after the male was parted with, and we have no account

of his subsequent career, The female was always after treated 3

with the utmost kindness, and in a few months became as tracta- n:

ble asa dog. She followed her master in his hunting excursions,

fought for him with other grizzlies, and saved him from the

greatest perils, a

She slept at his feet around the camp-fire, and took the place ;

Of a most vigilant watch-dog. He taught her to carry burdens a

with the docility of a mule, and as she grew up her great strength oe

enabled her to render him great assistance in this way- ee

Another bear of the same species he captured in the Sierras se

prd

436 Domestication of the Grizzly Bear. [May,

California, before its eyes were open, and raised it on a grayhound

- bitch in company with her own pup. This he called Ben Frank-

lin, and proved more docile even than the first. He never found

it necessary to confine in any way this specimen, but he was

allowed to roam and hunt with his foster brother, the grayhound.

They were inseparable companions, and seemed to have as much

affection for each other as if they had been of the same species,

Before he was full-grown, when his master was attacked by a

wounded grizzly, he joined in the fight with such ferocity as to

save his master’s life, and though he was severely wounded in this

contest, with careful nursing he survived, and ever after showed

as much courage in attacking his own species as if he had not

met with this severe punishment.

He seems to have had less confidence in Lady Wahia

for she was generally kept chained during the night and when on

the journey, though allowed to follow free when on the hunt.

This may be explained by the fact that she was over a year old

when captured, while the other never had any taste of wild

life. i

When she was chained up near the camp-fire in the Rocky

mountains, she was visited several nights by a large wild bear,

which her master refused to disturb, and she, in due time, bore a

cub, which grew to maturity under the tuition of her owner, and

which he called Fremont, which he says manifested considerable

intelligence and sagacity, but not equal to that of his dam or to

his favorite, Ben Franklin. It is to be regretted that exact dates

are not given from which we can determine precisely the period

of gestation, but by comparing all the dates that are given, it may

be stated provisionally that that period was nine months.

It has been stated by good authority that no instance has been

known of any member of the bear family having bred in domes-

tication, and this is the only instance where I have found such an

event recorded or heard it stated. i

Our author raised many of these animals, but generally dis-

posed of them before they reached maturity, but he gives us nO

particulars except in these two instances.

He found the black bear, when raised in camp, as readily

domesticated as the grizzly, andas fond of his society, following

- him about the camp and through the woods with fidelity and

attachment.

1886.] Domestication of the Grizzly Bear. 437

It is certainly interesting to observe how completely the savage

nature of these ferocious animals was overcome in those which

were born in a wild state, and it would be interesting to know

what modifications might be made in succeeding generations by

domestication, an experiment which could only be successfully

tried under favorable conditions, which do not exist with the

great number of animals of this genus now held in confinement.

I may remark here a wide difference in the effect of domestica-

tion upon the disposition of this animal and many others, which

in the wild state show no ferocity, but only timidity. Take the

Cervidæ, for instance, when brought up by hand; they lose all

fear of man ; they develop a wickedness and ferocity never mani-

fested in the wild state ; while the bears, so terrible when un-

tamed, show docility, constancy and affection when brought into

close familiarity with man. They seem to appreciate his kindness

and care, and repay it with attachment and devotion, while the

other class of animals, which are not ferocious by nature, seem

to be entirely unappreciative of kindness, or at least seem incapa-

ble of continued personal attachment to the hand that feeds them.

When I first read Mr. Adams’ adventures, I considered it an

interesting romance, or at least that it was largely embellished by

an ingenious imagination, but upon inquiry in San Francisco, I

met reliable persons, who had known him well, and had seen him

passing through the streets of that city, followed by a troop of

these monstrous grizzly bears unrestrained, which paid not the `

least attention to the yelping dogs and crowds of children which

closely followed them, giving the most conclusive proof of the

perfect docility of the animals. Indeed, they were so well trained

that they obeyed implicitly their master’s every word or gesture

in the midst of a crowded city, with surroundings which we might

‘Suppose would have aroused their native ferocity, if that were

Possible, After the most careful investigation I became con- _

vinced of the reliability of the narrative, and as the facts our

author gives are interesting to science, I venture to repeat them, —

regretting, however, that he did not appreciate the great value of .

his observati

ons, since he might have given us more particulars

which must have come under his observation ; but so it is that a :

vast maiority of those who have good opportunities for observ- <

ng do not know how to observe judiciously, or do not record _

r observations,

438 On the Nature and Origin of the [May,

Mr. A. S. Kent, of San Rafael, California, who for many years,

on account of his health, spent several months each year in

camp life in the mountains, principally hunting the deer, informed

me that he once purchased a couple of cubs of the grizzly bear,

which he took into camp with him. One of these proved very

docile and tractable, and seemed fond of his attention and society,

and usually slept contentedly at his feet. The other seemed pos-

sessed of a much more vicious disposition, and he was obliged

to kill it. Possibly this might have been overcome by patient

care and judicious training.

There is no doubt that different dispositions among these ani-

mals as among most other, may be met with.

Mr. Kent’s observations tend, in some degree at least, to con-

firm those of Mr. Adams.

May we not hope that some one with the necessary taste and

proper facilities will try experiments and give us the benefit of

their observations ?

A complete monograph of any one of our species of bears

_ under all conditions would be a valuable addition to our zoologi-

cal literature.

—.0:

ON THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE SO-CALLED

“SPIRAL THREAD” OF TRACHE#:.

BY A, S. PACKARD.

HILE we owe to Professor O. Biitschli the discovery of the

mode of origin and morphology of the trachee, which as

he has shewn? arise by invaginations of the ectoblast ; there being

originally a single layer of epiblastic cells concerned in the forme

tion of the trachee; we are indebted to Professor A. Weismann

ae _ for the discovery of the mode of origin of the “intima,” from the

. epiblastic layer of cells forming the primitive foundation of the

=` tracheal structure. We are also indebted to Weismann for the

discovery of the mode of origin of the terminal tracheal cells.

Weismann did not observe the earliest steps in the process

of formation of the stigma and main trunk of the trachee, which

Biitschli afterwards clearly described and figured.

Weismann, however, thus describes the mode of development

1870.

1 Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Biene, Zeit. wissen. Zoologie, XX, 51%

= *Die Entwicklung der Dipteren im Ei. Zeit, wissen, Zoologie, X111, 1863-

1886.] so-called “Spiral Thread” of Trachee. 439

of the intima; after describing the cells destined to form the peri-

toneal membrane, he says: “The lumen is filled with a clear

fluid and already shows a definite border in a slight thickening of

the cell-wall next to it.

“Very soon this thickening forms a thin structureless intima,

which passes as a delicate double line along the cells, and shows

its dependence on the cells by a sort of adherence to the rounded

sides of the cells (Taf. vu, 97 A, æ ó c). Throughout the mass,

as the intima thickens, the cells lose their independence, their

walls pressing together and coalescing, and soon the considerably

enlarged hollow cylinder of the intima is surrounded by a homo-

geneous layer of a tissue, whose origin from cells is recognized

only by the regular position of the rounded nuclei (Taf. vit, fig.

97 B).

“Then as soon as the wavy bands of the intima entirely dis-

appear and it forms a straight cylindrical tube, a fine pale cross

striation becomes noticeable (vir, 97, B, int), which forms the

Well-known ‘ spiral thread,’ a structure which, as Leydig has

shown, possesses no independence, but arises merely from a partial

thickening of the originally homogeneous intima.

“ Meyer’s idea that the spiral threads are fissures in the intima

Produced by the entrance of air is disproved by the fact that the

spiral threads are present long before the air enters. Hence the

correctness of Leydig’s view, based on the histological structure

_ Of the trachee, is confirmed by the embryological development,

and the old idea of three membranes, which both Meyer and

Milne-Edwards maintain, must be given up.”

Weismann also contends that the elastic membrane bearing the

spiral thread” is in no sense a primary membrane, not corre-

sponding histologically to a cellular membrane. On the con-

trary, the “ peritoneal membrane comprises the primary element

of the trachea; it is nowhere absent, but envelops the smallest —

branches as well as the largest trunks, only varying in thickness,

which in the embryo and the young larva of Musca stands in

relation to the thickness of the lumen.” ~

„ Lhe trachea, then, consists primarily of an epithelial layer, the

_ Peritoneal membrane” or the invaginated epiblast ; from this layer `

= intima is secreted, just as the skin or cuticle is secreted by the

“ypodermis, We may call the peritoneal membrane the ecto-

~ Wachea, the intima or inner layer derived from the

ce i

440 On the Nature and Origin of the [May,

the endotrachea; we hope to show that the so-called “ spiral

thread” is not spiral in arrangement but simply thickenings of

the endotracheal membrane, parallel to each other, not necessa-

rily continuous nor arranged in a spiral manner. For these

chitinous bands we would suggest the name żænidia (Greek, little

bands).

Our observations have been made on the larva of a species of

Datana, which was placed in alcohol, just before pupation, when

the larva was in a semi-pupal condition, and the larval skin could

be readily stripped off. At this time the ectotrachea of the larva

had undergone histolysis, nothing remaining but the molted en-

dotrachea, represented by the tænidia, which lay loosely within

the cavity of the trachea. The ectotrachea or peritoneal mem-

brane of the pupa was meanwhile in process of formation; the

nuclear origin of the tenidia was very apparent, and it was their

appearance which led me to examine the origin and mode of

development of the so-called “ spiral thread,” and to endeavor to

trace its relations to the intima (endotrachea) and peritoneal mem-

brane (ectotrachea). z

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section through a secondary tracheal

branch, showing

the origin of the

circular chitinous

bands, or tænidia.

At 7 are pieces 0

six tænidia which

have been molted;

ecir are the nuclei

forming the outer

cellular layer, the

ectotrachea or pen-

toneal membrane»

Fic. 1.—Longitudinal section of a trachea, showing i send

the origin of the teenidia or so-called spiral thread. € These nuda

long slender p!”

longations around the inside of the peritoneal membrane; these

;prolongations, as may be seen by the figure, become the tenmi.

The tænidia, being closely approximate, grow together more .

less, and a thin endotracheal membrane is thus preci

= which the tenidia are the thickened band-like portions.

__ endotracheal membrane is thus derived from the ectotrachea, 0f =

oo a LENIE

: 1886.] i so-called “Spiral Thread” of Trachee. 44i

primitive tracheal membrane, and the so-called “ spiral thread” is

formed by parallel thickenings of the nuclei composing the

secondary layer of nuclei, and which become filled with the chitin

secreted by these elongated nuclei. The middle portion of the

tenidia, immediately after the molt, is clear and transparent, with

obscure minute granules, while the nuclear base of the cell is

filled as usual with abundant granules, and contain a distinct nu-

cleolus.

The origin of the tenidia is also well shown by Fig. 2, which

is likewise a longitud-

inal section of a

+ trachea at the point

of origin of a branch.

The peritracheal

membrane or ecto-

trachea (ectr) is com-

posed of large granu-

lated nuclei; and

within are the more

t transparent endotrach-

eal cells; at 7 are

fragments of the molt-

ed tenidia. The new tænidia are in process of development at

t; at base they are seen to be granulated nuclei, with often a dis-

tinct nucleolus, and sending a long slender, transparent, pointed

Process along the inside of the trachea. These unite to form the

chitinous bands or so-called spiral threads.

The tenidia I have found to be separate, independent, solid

rings, More or less parallel and independent of each other. The

Supposed spiral arrangement I believe to be an optical illusion.

The tænidia of a main branch stop at the origin of the smaller

branches, and a new set begin at the origin of each branch. This

fact also shows conclusively that the chitinous bands are not

Spiral. Nor do the tenidia at the origin of the branch pass en-

trely around the inside of the peritoneal membrane; in the axils Gs

y are short, separate, spindle-shaped bands. -o

The tænidia are usually thin, flat, but often slightly concavo- : sf a

convex, the hollow looking towards the center of the trachea. Io

Vave been unable to find any forming incomplete hollow rings or

tubules, like the pseudotrachea of the fly’s tongue figured and a

Fic, 2. Origin of the teenidia.

EI S eS 3 C a a i a ERELT RA

x $

“ spirals of the proper tracheæ ” are ‘‘ crenulated thickenings of the intima,’

~ Strated the true nature of the pseudotrachez of the fly, His criticisms of Chuns

442 Nature and Origin of the so-called “Spiral Thread,” etc.{May,

described by Professor G. Macloskie.! It seems to me that the

function of the tenidia is like that of the cartilaginous rings of

the trachez of vertebrates, 7. e, to keep the air-passage open so

that the air may pass to the cells at the end of the trachea. All

the figures of the spiral thread hitherto published I believe to be

incorrect. In Guyon’s work on Pulex penetrans they are repre-

sented to form a loose spiral, and so they appear at first glance

under a low power in the trachez of the common flea of the cat.

But on close examination, in an excellent preparation, the so-called

spiral thread is a series of independent parailel tænidia, the spaces

between them being wider than usual. In Fig. 3, from a prepa-

Fic. 3.—Stigma and trachea of Pulex,

ration kindly presented to me by Mr. Justin Spaulding, æ repre-

sents one of the first abdominal spiracles and the trachea arising

from it; 4 the fifth; and c one of the last abdominal spiracles and

its trachea. When the trachea bends or contracts in diameter the

taenidia become less parallel, and a spiral appearance is produced.

In the last pair the tænidia are remote from each other.

In a preparation of one set of the salivary glands from the

head of the honey bee, given me by Mr. Spaulding, the common

duct is much like a trachea, having similar tenidia, and here they

are observed to be parallel, independent bands.

The sections of Datana were made for me by Professor H. C.

-Bumpus of Olivet College.

1 Thus far I find myself unable to agree with Professor G. Macloskie that =

tort

the teenidia are really tubular. In his valuable and suggestive article, “ The Struc-

ture of the Trachez of Insects (AMER. NAT., XVII, 567), I believe he has demo

views and figures I believe, in the main, to be correct, but thus far I am unable to

convince myself that the “ external fissure ” of the tenidia in the figure he copies

from Chun, whose original essay I possess, is really such ; it appears to be a new

_ tenidium in process of formation previous to molting.

1886.] . Editors Table. 443

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE.

In our issue of June of last year we referred to certain

conditions of membership of the National Academy of Sciences

in the following terms: “In the interval between the annual

meetings of 1884 and ’85 two members of a committee appointed

to investigate a question affecting one of the bureaus of which

they themselves are employees, were requested to resign from the

committee by the chief of the bureau in question. This was in

obedience to a rule that a department of the Government can

not be criticized by its subordinates. It requires no argument

to show that if this rule be carried out with reference to the

Academy of Sciences, its usefulness as an independent body is at.

anend. There is also another danger which flows directly from

the same or a similar attitude on the part of heads of bureaus,

These gentlemen by filling up the academy with their employees

can obtain practical control of its decisions. This would be im-

mensely convenient to them under various circumstances, but it

would introduce an element of corruption into the academy from

which it has been hitherto happily free, and which would deprive >

it of the respect and confidence of the country.” ;

In the case first cited the bureau’s action would indicate an

apprehension of hostile criticism, perhaps judging from the char- `-

acters of its employees who had been appointed to investigate. In

the latter case reference was made to a case where the bureau 3

concerned did not ask its employees to resign, since it evidently

did not fear any adverse report as a result of their investigation.

In this case some of the members of the committee appointed by —

the president of the academy to coGperate with the committee of

Congress in the investigation of the scientific bureaus, were em-

ployed by some of the bureaus at high salaries. There are a good

Many men who, under such circumstances,’ would be unable to

Perceive any necessity for changes in the administration of their

bureaus. o

The position of the academy in relation to these matters:

although at Present unavoidable, is, to say the least of it, unfortu-

nate. And the situation of its members is reduced to utter help-

lessness in consideration of the manner in which committees are

appointed and arè permitted to report. That is, they are appointed -

in the interval of the academy’s meetings by the president alone,

and make their reports without the supervision or criticism of the

444 Recent Literature. - [May,

academy, which only hears of them at the next meeting as a mat-

ter of history! The academy is thus made responsible for any

report that a committee of paid employees of a department may

choose to make respecting that bureau. The situation is such

“that no member of the academy can wish it to continue. The

reflections which the world can justly make on its position ought

not to be possible.

As a remedy for this fundamental evil, we propose the follow-

ing changes in the constitution of the academy :

1. Not more than one-half of the members of the National

Academy -shall be paid employees of the Government.

_ 2, The president of the academy shall be selected from those i

members who are not paid employees of the Government. | .

~ 3. Committees selected to report on the efficiency of a, Gov-

à ernment bureau, shall not embrace any employees of that bureau.

a 4. The committees shall be selected by the president and

a 5 council, which shall also approve the reports of committees be-

~ -fore they are sent to Congress.

Ye 5. The members of the council who are not such ex officio,

) shall be selected from the different classes of the academy as tol-.

ae lows: One from the anthropological class; two from the biologi-

~ ¢al; two from the physical ; and one from the applied class.

5. For convenience of reference and selection the membership

RECENT LITERATURE.

an THE ANNALS OF THE CaKcuiguets.—The Cakchiquel tribe ot

Indians forms one of the more interesting portions of the Maya

of the academy shall be divided into four classes as follows: z

Anthropology, embracing philosophy, pure mathematics and

anthropology in the limited sense; Biology, including the

biological sciences and psychology; Physics, including astron- A

omy, physics, chemistry and geology, without palæontology ; ,

and Applied science. The proportion of membership of eac

should be .15 p. c., .35 p. c., -35 p. c, and .15 :

7. In order that the members of the academy shall be more or a

less independent of Government places, they should be salaried; 1

-1000 per annum for members; $1500 for members. of :

_ council, and $5000 for the president.—C. | q

ee: | 70: )

_ south down to the Pacific. The ruins of their former center ana

z The Annals of the Cakchiquels. The original text, with a translation, notes "i

introductio DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. Philadelphia, 1885, 8vo, VI

a 34 pages.. (Forms No. 6 of the editor’s Library of Aboriginal Literature. 5

18386, ] Recent Literature. 445

ern Mexico, Honduras, etc. Many tracts of Guatemala contain

sculptures and architectural remains of these gifted tribes, attest-

Under the Spanish domination several of the more enlightened

Indians applied themselves to gathering and writing down the

legends and historic traditions of the people, moved by patriot-

ism and by the desire of preserving their national antiquities.

tribal rulers, the Xahila. This legal instrument included in its

plea the full history of the tribe and the genealogy of the Xahila

family, to make their claim more valid, and it had several mem-

bers of that family for its authors. They wrote it in Atitlan in the

course of the sixteenth century, and only the historic or first por-

tion of it is printed in the volume before us. The precious man-

uscript became the property of the late Abbé Brasseur, and with -

his collection finally passed into the hands of Mr. Alphonse L.

inart, who loaned it to Dr. Brinton for publication. Assisted

by natives the learned Abbé had made a tentative French transla-

tion of the document, and in perfecting it he was materially

aided by the then extant Spanish translations of some select por-

tons. The document is authentic and of high ethnographic

value. Let us now examine how Dr. Brinton has acquitted him-

‘Self of the task of editing, translating and commenting it.

cokhe missionary, F, de la Parra, who died in 1560, introduced

into the Cakchiquel alphabet five un-Spanish letters or signs to

represent certain “cut” sounds! of that dialect. These occur

in the Xahila manuscript; Brinton reproduces four of them,

eerie the fifth by zz. These bold, black-faced characters no- ae

oubt impart to the book an air of erudition; but Dr. Stollinhis =

£ mmatic sketch of Cakchiquel replaced them by apostrophed _

°nsonants, and Dr. Brinton might have done the same. Atany

Tate it is puzzling to see that they do not appear also ia the : :

Proper names of the English translation opposite. One of

ang

BS aes e sey bya pape stop of the voice,

Ee : 446 Recent Literature. _— [May,

_ letters, the cvatril/o, Brinton often transcribes by g, but when he

should write Bagahola he writes Bagahola (p. 67).

Cakchiquel never became a literary language in our sense of

the term, and consequently its orthography was never regulated

by anything like steady principles. In the “ Annals” the ortho-

graphy is about as unsettled as can be. Now in editing texts of

this description, the first thing to do is to adopt scientific princi-

= ples deduced from and consistent with the character of the lan-

guage; to introduce a correct, logical punctuation, to separate

the prefixed pronouns from their verbs or nouns, ¿if separable, to

make compound words conspicuous as such aż sight, and to unite

the tense and modal signs with the verb into one word. On the

lower margin the editor has to indicate all the readings of the orig-

E7 inal for which he introduces emendations, according to his system,

into the text. Of a similar proceeding Brinton has no conception

whatever, for he reproduces the most flagrant incongruenties,

which every school-boy might easily correct, in his text, Thus he

as writes: qui bi, and in other places quibi, keir names (p. 66), chu

a kahibal and chukahibal, aż the setting (p. 68), Iximche and Yxim-

a chee (name of the capital, with the old-fashioned Spanish y for

=. Š p. 166), qari instead of qa ri, and they (p. 68), and many other

Ac instances sufficient to perplex the student. Besides this, Brinton

TR as also “ doctored” the manuscript by introducing text-readings

oi. of his own, for in the introduction (p.63) he says: “ I felt myself free

_- toexercise in the printed page nearly the same freedom which I fin

in the manuscript.” He did so, undoubtedly, not only in the In-

È dian text, but also in French quotations from Brasseur, in which

- he shows himself fearfully at variance with the accepted French

o accentuation : p. 197, and still more on p. 206. On p. 206 the

term 7euvre is twice written 7euvre. Neither has the proof-read-

ing been thoroughly attended to; p. 168 we find Yaxontik, and

in the translation Yaxonkik; p. 107, Vookaok, a proper name,

which is spelt voo kaok on p. 110; p. 66, mahaniok, defore ; in the

vocabulary the same term is spelt mahanick. Bes

r all this we are not much surprised at the punctuation 0

~ the Indian text, for where there is, and ought to be, a period in the

- translation, Brinton often has a comma or nothing at all in the

text. On p. 66 paragraph third is subdivided into 1, 1, 0, where

study Brinton’s “system” of editing and, as he calls it, his “ freedom

` in the printed page,” as it does to acquire the whole of the Cak-

_ chiquel language, which cannot by any means be called a very

difficult one.

195-208. Being thus bent om cor-

he has 1, 2, 3 in the translation. It takes just as much time tO —

: otes, pp. 195 : A

recting, he nevertheless renders ixkaqahol (p. 67 and often) by aa

1886. | Recent Literature. 447

oh my children, when the correct sense is: you our children. On.

pp. 176, 177 he omits in the translation the whole sentence: fo

«bokotah chiqa el Qeche vinak ($ 145), because he could not. find

in his dictionaries the original form of the verb xbokotah. Like-

wise are omitted from the translation opposite the words rahpop `

achi Ig'ich, and the counselor lg‘tch. No gap or empty space was

left in the translation to remind the reader of an omission, as

fairness would have prompted every common-sense editor to do;

neither do Brinton’s “ Notes” give notice of any omission havin

been made consciously. Students confiding zz the translation

alone might thus get cheated out of very important facts stated

in the Indian original. It would be interesting to find out

whether Brinton made any such “ omissions ” from the original

also; in that case passages would be left out in the text as well as

in the translation.

. “n comparing the small compass of the vocabulary contained

in pp. 209-227 with the bulky text, which holds not less than

Sixty pages, our curiosity becomes aroused to some degree. For

how could the large number of terms composing the texts

become enclosed within so small limits, although there is a sepa-

rate index for proper names? Further examination easily reveals

the fact, that vuo-o, voo, five,a numeral often occurring in the

text, is mot in the vocabulary; ahauh, rwer, is there, but the verb Ae:

ło rule, of which xahauar (p. 87) is a conjugational form, is not i

there; we fail to find there: petebal, navipe, onohel, g‘anel (the

name of ‘a month) of the text; for fa the definition from is omit-

ted, though referred to in the “ Notes.” Tok is probably the same

as tak, though we get no information on this point; g‘ana (p. 68),

though translated by glorious, is not recorded. The different

botchy translation onl

ey panay

Phonetics, but 'i

has for sale.”

Contained in th

448 Recent Literature, [ May, |

help to students, undoubtedly, but of what help they will be, can

be gathered from a remark of Dr. Otto Stoll, who studied the

tongue on the spot. He states (Zur Ethnographie Guatemalas,

p. 139), that Cakchiquel possesses three tenses only, and that the

three or four others given by the Spanish missionaries do not

exist, but were “squeezed out” of the natives by the application

of Latin models. The verb lok‘ (p. 146) which supplied para-

digms to the unfortunate grammatic attempts of the Padres to

conjugate amare, to love, does not signify żo Jove at all, but fo pur-

chase. The verb to prize, to hold dear, to esteem, is not, as falsely

quoted by Brinton (p. 216), lok‘, but lok‘oj (Stoll, p. 147). Or

did the language change as much as that within the last two hun-

dred years?

à In the Introduction, p. ọ, the editor states that the three Maya

7 nations more closely related to the Cakchiquels: the Quichés, the

Tzutuhils and the Akahals “ dwelt respectively to the west, the

south and the east of the Cakchiquels.” Had he looked up the

matter in Stoll’s map and in the map of the Grammar published

by himself, he would have noticed that the Kichés lived, and

still live, upon a much larger territorial extent, north, west and

partly south of the Cakchiquels, and that the Tzutuhils are ‘en-

closed on all except the western side by Cakchiquel settlements.

a In the long list above, the mistakes and shortcomings were

quoted from a few pages of the book only, and readers may

decide for themselves how numerous the errors may be for the

other nineteen twentieths of the volume. It was edited on false

educated at German universities, should republish the chrome’

and the still wanting family record after scientific principles, add-

_ Tudest kind of malpractice. —A. S. G.

REPORT oF THE New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STA-

- Tion.’—It does not speak well for the kind of work generally done

-< upon the agricultural experiment stations of this country that

_ readers of scientific journals do not expect to find in them reviews

_ of the annually published reports. Agriculture has been curse

_ by a greater amount of very poor work under the name of exper-

1 Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the New York Agricultural

| Experiment Station for the year 1885. With the reports of the director and officers:

‘Transmitted to the Legislature January, 1886. Rochester, N. Y., E. R. Andrews,

_ printer and buokbinder, 1886.

1886. | Recent Literature. 449

imentation than any other of the great industries. Dealing as it

does with the soil, the atmosphere, plants and animals, one would

Suppose that careful and expensive experiments would invariably

be confided to men trained in one or more of the great modern

“ sciences—chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, geology, meteor-

ology. That such has, however, not been the case, is shown by

an examination of the reports which have appeared with more or

less regularity ever since the agricultural colleges and agricultu-

ral departments of the State universities were organized. With

here and there an exception, such reports have contained nothing

which were of any value to a scientific investigator in any field

whatsoever.

The report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station

for the year 1885 is noteworthy in several ways, not the least

important of which is its early appearance, the copy under review

having reached us early in February. Its contents are full of val-

uable matter covering nearly the whole field of agriculture in its

Widest sense, We can take time here for but a hasty glance at a

few of the more important topics.

The results of duplicate plantings (p. 37) are suggestive. In

the case of Indian corn differences in yields equivalent to from

two to fourteen and fifteen bushels per acre were obtained from

similar plats treated in the same way. Of similar significance

are many of the duplicate germinations of seeds (p. 54).

In the germination of seeds to determine the influence of age

(p. 58), much greater quantities were taken than is customary, the

usual number here being some hundreds, often reaching several

etait Results obtained in this way are much more satis-

actory. e same precautions enter into the temperature exper- -

ments upon germinations of Indian corn (p. 64), and in the latter

case some very useful results have already been reached. .

Of a very different nature, but still of high scientific interest,

are the following, viz , a study of maize, being an attempt at

orming a new variety (p. 73); variations [of Indian corn] from

seed (p. 74); the characteristics of wheat varieties (p. 90), being

@ Systematic classification and arrangement of many varieties;

improvement in selecting (p. 107), abit of work such as Darwin

delighted in; a description of the principal varieties of lettuce

(P. 137), a systematic classification and arrangement; observations _

on growth, character and depth of roots :

The botanist’

450 Recent Literature. ‘[May,

digestion experiments, in which artificial digestion is resorted to

in order to determine the value of feeding-stuffs.

G The whole report is one of which the board of. control may

well feel proud, and we trust that the director and his corps of

_ able assistants may be enabled to continue with increased facili- °

_ties the lines of investigation so excellently begun.— Charles E.

Essey.

SCHMIDT’S MAMMALIA IN THEIR RELATION TO PRIMEVAL TIMES."

f, —Although Dr. Schmidt, who has died since the publication of

this book, was not a special student of the mammals, he was the

author of a useful work on comparative anatomy, and well fitted

by his general studies for preparing the present interesting sketch.

The book is mainly of interest to the American student for its

discussion of the fossil mammals of the old world. It is very

As to the origin of the monkeys and apes, Schmidt suggests

. that the American group may have descended from the Insectiv-

ora, and the old world forms, with the apes, from the Pachyder-

mata, certainly a novel view. As to the origin of man from suc

a source, he thinks we are justified in postponing any such dis-

_ cussion, “as the study of anthropology can in no way boast of

having made any definite progress during the last ten years.

_ GEIKIE’S CLASS-BOOK oF Grorocy.2—This is an excellent piece

_of work, both literary and scientific. In very readable form, with

_ most excellent illustrations, paper and press-work; it is a pleas-

-` ure to turn over the pages. Everything has been done to mas

_ the book and subject attractive to the beginner. We have looked

- with most care over the early part of the volume, for in phys! 4

-geology the author is at his best. His treatment of rocks an

_ in this country; it is so clear simple and attractive. The woot

cuts being also unusually well drawn and engraved. aca

-~ Weare a little disappointed with the fourth part on historica:

1D. Appleton & Co., New York, $1.50. .

3 Class-book of Geology. By ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, LL.D., F.R.S. London,

millan & Co., 1886. 12mo, pp. 516. _ :

_ minerals is excellent, better than anything we know of published

2 e E Nin EN w 5 s

1886. ] Geology and Paleontology. 451

geology. Itis scarcely adapted for use in this country, though

valuable for reference. The illustrations are mainly of European

fossils, and the treatment is rather meager and dry compared with

the other portions of the book; the classification adopted is in

some points not fresh, and the entire treatment is not what is now

wanted. .

The Lophyton linneanum is figured as though it were a plant;

the Ceratiocaris is still referred to the phyllopod Crustacea; the

Tunicata are still retained with the brachiopods in that myste-

rious collection called “ Molluscoidea.” These, however, are

slight defects. But paleontology cannot be set forth in its truest

ight by one who has not done practical work in biology and

paleontology.

70:

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY.

THE PLAGIAULACIDÆ oF THE PuERco Epocu.— Three species

of this marsupial family have been thus far detected in the beds

of the Puerco. These are Ptilodus medievus Cope, Vol. 1m,

1885, 493; Neoplagiaulax americanus Cope, AMER. NATURALIST,

1885, p. 493. Of these the last-named species is the largest,

the lower jaws representing an animal of the probable size of

ae rat, now able to add a fourth species to this

list in a second species of Neoplagiaulax, much larger than the

- americanus, and hence the largest species of the family

- It is established on an entire inferior fourth premolar.

The length of the base of this tooth is one third greater than

that of the corresponding tooth of the N. americanus, and there

are fifteen keel-crests on the side of the crown, while there

are but seven in the N. americanus, The outline of the crown

iS of the elongate and moderately convex character of that of

the N. americanus, and thus not so elevated as in our species a

of Ptilodus. The irregularity in the outline of the base of the

Pemex, which was no doubt descended from the Plagiaulaci cide.

call the animal Neoplagiaulax molestus—E. D. Cope. ote :

l OF THE GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF SPITZBERGEN.”—

€ article with the above title, printed in the last D ber

| Bumber of the American NATURALIST from a manuscript which

Pee

452 General Notes. [ May,

eight years ago I handed to one of the editors of this journal, had

well needed a revision before its late publication. As however

no opportunity was given me to revise it, I beg to add the follow-

ing emendations, based on the late discoveries by Dr. Alfred

he Cretaceous system should be stricken out from the list,

the beds previously supposed to belong to this system being

Jurassic of a higher horizon than the “No, 1, upper beds ” at

Cape Boheman. The fossil plant determined as Sequoia reichen-

achti belongs to another genus of conifers, allied to Araucaria.

The Permian system should be added to the list, beds of this

system existing everywhere on the Ice fiord and Belsound

between the Carboniferous and Triassic beds.

In the Carboniferous system the “1, upper beds ” should be

omitted from the list; they are identical with “3, ursastuffe,

but placed on the top of “2, calcareous beds” by an inver-

longer doubtful. Nathorst has found, on Dickson bay, and £

Ray Lankester described, characteristic fossils, ¢. 27. Scaphaspis

and Cephalaspida— Josua Lindahl.

NICHOLSON on STROMATOPoRIDÆ.— H. A. Nicholson, in his

monograph of the British Stromatoporoids, frankly accepts the

views of Carter, Lindstrom, Zittel and others as to their coelen-

terate affinities, and regards them as a special group of the Hy-

drozoa, having on the one hand relationships with Hydractinia, on

the other with Millepora. The skeleton of the typical Stromato-

poræ is penetrated by numerous minute flexures, but essentially

parallel vertical tubes, not bounded by distinct walls, but enclosed

by the vermiculate fibers of the ccenosteum, precisely like the

zooidal tubes in Millepora: These tubes are traversed at intervals

by calcareous plates. A detailed comparison between Hydrac-

tonia echinata Flem., and forms of Actinostroma Nich., shows 4

remarkable similarity between the chitinous skeleton of the first

and the large calcareous coenosteum of the second. Our author

arranges the group in four families, two of which, Actinostrom'

dz and Labechiidze, are Hydractinoid, while the Stromatopor

and Idiostromide may be regarded as Milleporoid. The last

family contains genera which have a central, axial, tabulated tube

aoe proper wall, giving off lateral branches, which

ivide,

Fossıt Hiprororami.—Dr. Henry Woodward, in a review of

os _ the species of Hippopotamus, shows that at least two species (H.

identical W!

1886, ] Mineralogy and Petrography. - 453

is by Mr. Woodward (agreeing with Professor Boyd Dawkins)

considered to be identical with Æ. minutus from the caves and

fissures of Malta.

The Indian species are s¢valensis, iravaticus and namadicus from

the Siwalik hills, and pa/eindicus from the Narbadas.

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.!

MinerRALocicat. News.—The late Dr. Lasaulx, of Bonn, re-

cently examined? very thoroughly the mineral corundum with

reference to its microstructure and optical properties. The fact

that sections of this mineral cut perpendicular to the vertical axis

often show a biaxial interference figure in converged polarized

light has been known for some time. Lasaulx attempts to find

the cause of this. Sections of crystals from nine localities were

system; (2) the anomalies in optical properties are due to irregu-

larity in growth; (3) this irregularity in growth often gives rise

ferent lamellæ are twinned, optical disturbances are produced ;

finally (6) decomposition may give rise to aggregate polarization.

~— Orthoclase has been found for the first time as a druse min-

eral in leucite-tephrite.? In the cavities of this rock were found

crystals of phillipsite, calcite, orthoclase (adularia), altered pyrite

and calcite again, in a regular order of deposition. The adularia

occurred in groups covering the phillipsite and also in perimorphs

-of calcite, Crystals of the latter mineral were covered with a

druse of adularia, and showed under the microscope a rim with

aggregate polarization, as if the calcite substance were gradually

being r eplaced by adularia. In an article on gothite,* Ed. Palla

<Clares as a result of a series of measurements on crystals from

Cornwall, that the mineral is either orthorhombic with the akes o ă

‘9 :C = .9163:1:.6008, or monoclinic with £ = go? 36’ 25"" ae

and a:b:¢ = 9164: 1:.6008. If the former view is taken the

Side o É me P'a co P 38, 1 P e, P and PW must be con-

sidered as vicinal ; whereas if the mineral is considered as mond

clinic these (with the exception of the first) become o È Oe of a

ted by W. S. Bayey, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Chrift für Krystallographie, x, p. 346.

Zepharovich. Zeitschrift für Krystallographie, x, p. 601.

für Krystallographie, XI, p. 23-

454 Genera: Notes. [May,

; »— fo. Thin plates parallel to the cleavage are trans-

lucent to transparent with very weak pleochroism if any. The

positive bisectrix is probably perpendicular to the cleavage plane.

The dispersion very large, v > p, so that for red light the mineral

; is uniaxial. For green and blue light, however, the optical angle

| is about 50°. In all its optical properties it resembles rutile very

closely. In attempting to prove by means of etched figures!

-that cryolite is without doubt a monoclinic mineral, Baumhauer

has succeeded in showing that in the massive mineral two crys-

tals are so united that (1) œ P and oP of the one are parallel re-

spectively to œ P and oP of the other; or (2) o P of the first is

Bie parallel to oP of the second, and vice versa, Crystals of struv-

ite with a different habit from any heretofore described have been

found at Homburg v. d. H., and investigated by Kalkowsky.’

The planes observed were Fe OF, 2P3) 22S, af Gree

In physical properties the mineral from this locality also

differs from that found elsewhere, a:b:c = .5685 : 1: .OII3.

ae SIb., x, p. 366.

n t 1b. XI, p.29.

= $ Bulletin de la Société Minéralogique, July, 1885, p. 304.

ee et et a ee i

1886. } Mineralogy and Petrography. 455

found to contain little rhombohedra of calcite. With twenty

grams of calcium chloride rhombohedra were obtained, which

gave on measurement an angle of 105° 46’. Several experi-

ments were made, but in no case was any aragonite formed.

Hemostilbite is described by Igelström’ as a new mineral

from the iron mine of Sjoegrufvau, Grythyttan parish, Sweden.

It is of a blood-red calor by transmitted light, and is found in

a gangue of tephroite in fissures with calcite, in a bed of lime-

Stone in granulite. An optical examination by Bertrand proved

the mineral to be orthorhombic. The acute. bisectrix is negative

and is perpendicular to the easy cleavage. The optical angle is

small and the dichroism very pronounced. In hardness and gen-

eral appearance it approaches haussmannite. An analysis

yielded:

Sb,0, MnO FeO Mg(Ca)O

37.2 51.7 9.5 1.6

This composition is represented by the formula, 8MnO, Sb.O,, or

9Mn0O, Sb,O;, which is very near that of another mineral already

described under the name of manganostilbite, with which the

hemostilbite may be identical.

rocks of the Grosse and Kleine Windgalle. Among the Jurassic

schists an iron-odlite was found. This consists of'a reddish lime-

stone containing odlites composed of magnetite, both massive and

crystallized, in a groundmass of calcite and hematite, with a rim

of a green fibrous mineral which the,author thinks might be the

_ Chamosite of Bertier. The crystalline rocks are principally

ee ware positively which of these is really the case. The paper is —

| ;

ranite or a di

gneisses, hornblende rocks (including a peridotite and a porphy-

ritic rock composed of large aggregates of hornblende in a coarse-

Srained plagioclase in which is also a large amount of augite in

Smaller granular aggregates) and quartz porphyries, which are

divided into five types. As a result of the pressure to which

. Pass over into a completely schistose rock in which the

original constituents can be traced under the microscope by :

means of their alteration products. From a study of the granit-

Sa and porphyries from other localities in the same region, ©

chmidt concludes that the Windgille rock is either a facies of

Stinct rock mass, and that it is not possible to de-

lustrated by a map and five sections———Michel Lévy has-

. i gee

_ Bulletin de la Société Minéralogique, June, 1885, p. 143- i

eues Jahrb. für Mineralogie, etc., Beil. Bd., 1v, 1886, p. 388. A a

456° | General Notes. [ May, _

recently examined! a rock from the left bank of the Jamma, a

tributary of the Blue Nile. This rock consists of the remains of

orthoclase of the first generation in a groundmass of secondary

quartz with little crystals of nepheline, orthoclase and amphibole,

It is, according to Lévy, a type of rock between the tephrites and

the phonolites, In the same journal Lacroix has a note? on

the basaltic rocks of County Antrim, Ireland. These are labra-

dor basalts with a typical ophitic structure. They contain the

following minerals in the order of their crystallization : apatite,

magnetite, olivine, labradorite and pyroxene in lathe-shaped crys-

tals, palagonite, hematite, chlorite and zeolites. The zeolites are

in the cavities of the rock. A search was made for the native

iron mentioned by Andrews as occurring in these rocks, but

none was found. Four additional parts of the “ Erlauterungen

zur geologischen Specialkarte des Königreichs Sachsen ”? have

just been published. The sections described are Oschatz-Miigela

by Th. Siegert, Falkenstein by Schröder, Wurzen by Schalch and

‘Averbach-Lengenfeld by Dalmer. These authors describe the |

Eibenstock tourmaline granite, the Kirchberg granitite and the |

slates and sandstones metamorphosed by them.

MIscELLANEous.—The Denison University of Granville, Ohio,

has just issued, in its Bulletin of the Laboratories of Denison

University, a compendium of petrographical manipulation by C.

L. Herrick. The first part is a condensation of the theoretical

part of Hussak’s book, in which many of the errors of the orig-

inal have been rectified. The methods in use for the preparation

and examination of rock section are described as clearly as might

be expected in a treatise of such small size. Unfortunately a few

mistakes still remain to confuse the student who attempts to make

ioe use of this little work without the aid of an instructor to explain

~ — away his difficulties. Most of these errors, however, seem to be

[iia Ree ee

ENFER

phlet of Mr. Herrick’s will prove of great value to students

desire merely to gain some insight into the methods so gene

nade use of at present in the study of rocks.

BOTANY.‘

CARBONACEOUS RESERVE Foop-MATERIALS IN Funot.—M. i

_ Errera points out in the Comptes Rendus of the French i 3

~ emy of Sciences a close analogy in this respect between tungt —

and flowering plants. In the seeds, tubers, &c., of Phanerogam> —

rally

_ 1 Comptes Rendus, cit, No. 8, p. 451.

7Ib., 454.

_ §Cf. AMERICAN NATURALIST, April, 1886, p. 374.

_ Edited by Professor CHARLES É, Bessry, Lincoln, Nebraska.

1886,] Botany. | 457

the food-material may be stored up either in the form of starch,

inulin, &c., on the one hand, or in that of oil on the other hand.

Exactly the same difference is observable in fungi, substituting

only glycogen for starch or inulin. The great reservoirs of food-

material in fungi are the sclerotia. The sclerotia of Claviceps

purpurea contain oil, those of Coprinus niveus, Peziza sclero-

tiorum, &c., glycogen, while in other cases the food-material is

accumulated, as in some seeds, in the form of thickenings of the

cellulose-walls.

fructification is subsequently formed. This resembles closely the

phenomena which attend the germination of oily seeds like those

of Ricinus and Cucurbita. Transitory glycogen is also formed

in the germination of the spores of many fungi—A. W. Bennett.

HEnstow’s STUDIES or EVAPORATION OF WATER FROM PLANTS.

—In December, 1885, the Rev. George Henslow read a paper

before the Linnean Society entitled, “A contribution to the study

of the relative effects of different parts of the solar spectrum on

e transpiration of plants,” which is of such interest that we

reproduce its more essential parts. After reviewing the work of

other observers the author describes his method of work, which |

consisted in using glasses of different colors:

P-

Oration from the surface of the earth or pot; and all loss o

‘ ,

Weight is due to the transpiration from the exposed surface of the

Plant alone. :

3 0

be a n generally less able to effect it, even if they do not —

7 be grounds for coming to such a conclusion, as will be seen here- _

; 458 General Notes. [May,

transpiration per se (theoretically distinct from the purely physi-

cal process of evaporation, which takes place from all moist sur-

faces and bodies, dead or alive) is especially, if not solely refera-

ble to those particular bands of light which are absorbed by

chlorophyll, and that such light, being arrested, is converted into

heat, which then raises the temperature within the tissues and

causes the loss of water. The only additional fact which I have

here advanced, somewhat tentatively, is, that yellow light hasa

retarding influence upon transpiration, for the reasons given

above. That ‘life’ has a retarding influence upon evaporation as

distinct from transpiration, I think my experiments (which I hope

to continue hereafter) have distinctly proved.”

It will puzzle any one to make out a good reason for using two

terms for the process of water-loss in plants. We have it said

that “ evaporation” is the “ purely physical process,” while the

experiments show that what is called “transpiration ” is, after all,

a physical process also; and when we are told, as in the last sen-

tence above, that “ life has a retarding effect on evaporation,” the

confusion of ideas becomes somewhat embarrassing. :

use but one term, and that the more general one—evaporation?

The fact of modification or control of: evaporation is so common

a phenomenon in nature that we cannot regard it as of great

significance. Common salt or sugar added to water retards evap-

oration.

r ical index to all the species. The first fifteen centuries were pub-

hope that Series 1 will carry the work up to thirty centuries i

(ieee

Rey

aie

ead

I ales eke

een

oh >

1886, |. Botany. 459 .

The centuries before us are largely devoted to the Spheriaceze

and the so-called “imperfect fungi.” The genus Cercospora is

represented in Cent. xvi by twenty-five species, many of which

have been but recently described. Septoria is represented in

Cent. xvir by sixteen species, Spherella by eleven.

We trust that this important work, which must be largely a

labor of love, will go on to the completion of the second series,

so happily begun.

Botanica, News.—From the Transactions of the Institute of

Natural Science of Nova Scotia we have a paper on the Canadian

Species of the genus Melilotus, by Professor George Lawson.

——The eleventh annual report of the American Postal. Micro-

scopical Club contains a couple of pages of suggestive botanical

notes from the “note-books ” of the club. Superposed buds

are discussed by Aug. F. Foerste in a late number of the Bulle-

tin of laboratories of Denison University. The paper is accom-

panied by a plate. Dr. Farlow’s paper on Biological teaching

in colleges, published in the March number of the Popular Sci-

ence Monthly, will be read with interest by every teacher of the

“laboratory method” in botany——The March 3ournal of My-

cology contains descriptions of the species of Phyllosticta, Clavi-

ceps and Cordyceps, and also a sketch of the life and labors of the

tanist Schweinitz, the latter accompanied with a portrait.

The March number of Grevillea is accompanied by pp. 113 to

128 of the new edition of Cook’s Hand-book of British F ungi.

Thus far the descriptions include 456 species, all of the genus

te numbers of Hora contain an important paper,

ps t Torfmoose, by Dr. Röll of Darmstadt. The

collective species,” with their numerous varieties and forms, are

D. H. Cam

trychium te

pbell describes the development of the root in Bo-

460 — . General Notes. [ May,

ENTOMOLOGY.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MoLE CRICKET.—A. Korotneff has pub-

lished in the Zeitschrift für wissen. Zoologie, XLI, 4, 570, a well

! illustrated essay on the embryology of the mole cricket, which

as been also noticed by C. Emery in the Biologisches Central-

blatt for Jan. 15, in connection with Grassi’s observations on the

i development of the honey bee. The egg of the mole cricket

has an abundant yolk, while that of the bee has little yolk and is

small and transparent. Yet both observers have independently

arrived at the same results in four important points. It is note-

worthy that in both forms before the formation of the blastoderm

a stage was observed in which ‚the amceboid embryonal cells

seemed to possess no clear nuclei. With this result might

connected the relation briefly described by A. Sommer in the case

of a Podurid, when the ripe egg was entirely without a nucleus.

Whether there was in all these cases a genuine absence of the

: nucleus, or a diffuse nucleus form, such as Graber discovered in

ae the Protozoa, is still to be determined, and would not be without

interest in connection with the late reflections of Weismann and

. others on heredity.

? In Gryllotalpa the embryonic cells are at first scattered over

the surface of the egg; some migrating into the deeper parts of

the yolk and forming the yolk cells regarded by Korotneff as the

primary mesoderm. From the ectoderm exclusively separates

the endoderm. There first originate, under the ectoderm cells

which Korotneff denotes as mesenchym, and not till later does

the separation of the myoblasts follow along the ventral median

oe line. Later still arise from the ectoderm near the trachee other

= — groups of cells which are also to be considered as mesenchym,

o and which were also observed in Bombyx by Tichomiroff.

mbryonal membranes serosa and amnion arise as ecto-

dermal folds. After the limbs are indicated the er oat oy

: öt

(Tichomiroff observed the same number in Bombyx. ihe ™

vous system primarily shows a corresponding organization $

_ seventeen pairs of ganglia, which are reduced to thirteen by the

=~ consolidation of the three hinder head-ganglia (in the text t ey

< are erroneously called thoracic ganglia) and the three last abdom

inal ganglia. The cerebral ganglia are first separated from €a?

other and only joined to the ventral chain by slender commis”

sures. The structure called “chorda” by Nusbaum is a media

ectodermal one, which grows in between the two series of ganglia,

and has nothing at all to do with the formation of the connective

_ tissue of the nervous system. This last tissue must arise

_ the immigrating blood-cells. d

_ Especially interesting are the observations on the structure

PLATE XVIII.

aed

RENAE,

IA O7

1886, | Entomology. 461

the entoderm and digestive canal. The cells of the primary ento-

derm (the yolk cells) undergo a radial division of the yolk, the

' yolk-pyramids thus arising melting into each other centrally.

Some of the cells grow and form, under the serous membrane

which has not yet disappeared, the dorsal wall of the body, and

the dorsal plate or dorsal organ. Through the growth of the

parts forming the lateral walls of the body, the dorsal organ

gradually becomes covered, its cells sink into the yolk and seem

to break into fragments. After the ectodermal parts of the diges- |

tive canal (fore and hind intestine) have formed, amceboid cells

still migrate into the yolk, and seem to contribute to its fluidity

(verflussigung). After hatching, the whole yolk by a pumping

movement, gradually becomes, including whatever is contained in

the same, partly degenerate cells, thus pushing the so-called pri-

mary entoderm into the portion of the fore-intestine, called the

crop. The mesenteron receives no epithelial covering from the

Primary entoderm, and the epithelium of the mid-intestine,

almost everywhere between the yolk and mesoderm; the heart

becomes indicated in the form of two furrows, which draw near.

_ blood-lacuna which covers the dorsal side of the yolk and be-

comes reduced to the cavity of the heart.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES XVIII AND XIX,

LETTERING,

abc, amceboid blastodermic cells, dpm, dorsal diaphragm,

ani, antenna. en, endodermal cells.

ar, arterial sinus, ent, enteric layer.

i blastoderm cells. J, fat-body.

< blastoderm, g, ventral ganglion. -

» abdominal vesicles. H, At, heart.

Z, lacuna.

4? , cavity of the myoblast.

m; mouth,

462 | General Notes.

mě, myoblast cells. pm, todee

md, mandible. S£, ead ee ganglion.

men, mesenteron, sm, stomodzum.

mabe Ist maxilla, ig, thoracic ganglion.

mx’’, labium, or second maxilla. vm, ventral muscle,

mi, isa like portion of mesenteron. y, yolk.

N, nerve-furrow. yp, yolk-pyramids.

@, cesophagus, I, Ist pair of feet.

P, primitive groove. in os fee

pe, procerebrum. gay ie a gi

pd, primitive disk.

FIGURES.

sis I ene in = g oe ahe) nuclei are moving toward the surface.

2 have reached the surface, and show an

active een ‘eine

lastodermic alk have no nucleus, and are placed at equal ¢ distance

“

apar

atur & fie blastoderm cells now forming a continuous layer.

See g, —Cross-section of the egg | with blastodermic disk, also showing the disposi-

tion of the endodermal c

“ 6 Cross seeion of the ao disk, with the myoblast cells (mb)

alrea

is « 7.—-Cross-section through the thorax of the embryo; the body-cavity extended

A into the limbs,

| “ — 8,—Longitudinal n of the embryo; the yolk-pyramids (y) form a com-

mon inner yolk-mass (y).

Beer aa Tras ie Ame the heart; Æ, cavity of the heart; the two halves of the

5 s ses having united do pasia sagan they are still open and are

5 i isunei Dy the walls of the mesen

>a “ 10,—Cross-section of an embryo, showing the blood-lacunæ separate ed o

se back by the dorsal onpi (do); the intestinal fasciated layer pa

= bits Dainai segmented, swi the rudiments of the appendage

py Pi (ab) and nervous ganglia ( e-n,

12,-A more ln embryo, Pi on stomodzeum (sf) indicated as 4

frontal protubera

ey Tae ocak the recently hatched larva, adic the cells of ber

£ on or chyle-stomach, and the cellular layer on the front t surface

ithe pobio t(s or crop

DEVELOPMENT OF THE Honey Bee.—An abstract of Grassi’s

Aei tions appears in the Biol. I- Centralbiatt which we translate.

ee fos doa te of the honey bee is much more simple ! in some

| cts than that of the ante cricket because th

hie arrested upon the back. The ea re so a from the

ectoderm that a median ventral plate at the same time sinks in-

r and becomes overgrown by the adjoining later parts. This p

1886.] Entomology. 463

is at first one-layered, and afterwards is composed of two layers,

and then divides for the formation of the body-cavity. The pos-

terior and anterior ends of the mesoderm-plate lengthen to form

the mesoderm of the head and end of the abdomen. From these

last portions of the mesoderm arises also the definite entoderm,

viz., the epithelial covering of the mesenteron. The yolk cells

thereupon disappear ; according to Grassi the figures quoted from

Tichomiroff as well as from O. and P. Hertwig, in regard to the

proof of the origin of the endoderm in the yolk cells can also be

explained to agree with his views. The amnion and serous mem-

branes are not separated in the bee, but form a single layer of

cells. Grassi is inclined to trace the embryonal ‘membranes of

insects phylogenetically from an especially modified dermal fold,

which was inherited from the ancestors of the class; such a

duplicature, suggests Emery, might be comparable to the mantle

of many Entomostraca.

According to Grassi the cerebral ganglia arise independently

of the ventral chain, and is afterwards connected with it. The

entire nervous system and, as far as could be observed, also the

commissures arise directly from the ectoderm. The antennz are

developed from the head plate (procephalic lobes) and are situated

in front of the other appendages. A pair of cephalic appendages

Previously observed by Biitschli, which only appear for a short

time in front of the mandibles, soon disappear. Grassi considers `

them as homologous to the second antennz of Crustacea. e

found abdominal appendages only exceptionally, and not on all

the segments. The observations of Grassi on the mode of devel- ,

opment of the heart agree well with those of Korotneff on Gryl-

lotalpa ; both uphold the hypothesis of Biitschli of the origin of i

the vascular system from the residue of the segmentation-cavity, `

’. ê, the primitive body-cavity. The sexual organs originate as

two mesodermal elongated streaks in the 4th-8th abdominal

segments.

The trachez arise very early; there are ten pairs of stigma

atter found nine pairs of stigmata, but three pairs of malpighian __

tubes, „Grassi further ioner that the silk gaa and other m-

se tions or “head-canals” found by him near the mandibles —

d maxille are homologous with the trachez. fas gree

c n case an entodermal origin for the antennal glands of the

rustacea and the segmental organs (schleifenkanali) of annelids —

Proved, then the first might be the homologues of the —

464 General Notes. | [May,

head-canals of the bee-embryo, and both the tracheæ and mal-

pighian tubes be proved homologous with the nephridia of the

annelids ;

Ne From such a view Emery dissents: he thinks the relation of

these organs in Peripatus are not consistent, since in that animal

occur both nephridia and trachea, unless we suppose that the

trachez of Peripatus and of the other arthropods are not equiva-

lent. If one accepts the fact that the trachez and the malpighian

tubes have originated from diffusely distributed cutaneous glands,

then one could further suppose that their openings unite later

with the openings of the nephridia, by which means they assumed

a segmental arrangement. But, however, it is not at all neces-

sary to make the nephridia arise from the ectoderm, which would

contradict all the researches hitherto made.

Lintner’s SEconp REPORT AS STATE ENTOMOLOGIST oF NEW

à viceable to the farmers of New York. i

o The State should be more liberal in affording illustrations for

so important and useful a report, those not reproduced being

poorly drawn and engraved. This is not the fault of the ento-

mologist, and should not be under the control of the State

inters.

Eyromorocicat News.—At the meeting of the French Acad-

_emy for Jan. 25, M. J. Chatin read a note on the comparative

- morphology of the labium in Hymenoptera. In the Balio

of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences (Vol. v, 1), De. DS

Kellicott describes as new Nonagria subcarnea, and compares its

larva with that of Sphida obliquata———In the Canadian Ento-

mologist for January Mr. Herbert Osborn publishes a useful ee

liminary list of the species of mites of North America..

_ Entomologica Americana for March, D. W. Coquillet gives a ae

_ opsis, with descriptions of new species, of our species O

__ that certain seed-feeding Coleophora larva, which remain ten

_ eleven months, and sometimes even longer, in a dormant state,

bylid flies of the genus Toxophora. Miss M. Murtfeldt —

; E E a i

;

’

1886.] : Zoslogy. 465

not feeding in the spring or summer months. Mic H-B:

Moschler discusses the systematic position of the genus of zyg-

enid moths, Triprocris. At the meeting of the Washington

Entomological Society for Feb, 11, Mr. Schwarz said that among

the many forms of secondary sexual characters in the Coleop-

tera, some would likely be found to be analogous in function to

those in the Lepidoptera. He referred more particularly to the

tufts of hair in the mentum of Trogosita, and those on the ven-

tral segments of the male of Dermestes. Differences in the ves-

titure of the sexes are known to occur, e. g., Hoplia, where the

male has scales and the females only hairs; but in this case it is

hardly possible that we have to do with odoriferous organs.

ZOOLOGY.

MARKINGS or Antmats.—Eimer has advanced the view that

the markings on animals are primitively longitudinal stripes,

ontogeny of many animals. Dr. W. Haacke controverts this

view from the study of an Australian fish, Welotes scotus. The

adult fish is marked by eight longitudinal black bands; young

specimens have in addition a row of clear transverse bands, which

disappear when the fish attains to maturity.— Journ. Roy. Mier.

A 1886.

oc., February,

ceeding 100 fathoms, during the past season, by H. M.’s Indian

nine survey steamer Jnvestigator. They belong to the genera

Amathia, Ethusa, Eucephaloides (n. gen. allied to Collodes Stimp-

son) and Lyreidus, of which the last named (Z. channert) is espe-

cially interesting on account of the rudimentary condition of the

es.

These organs are unequally reduced, the cornea of the left —

being of the normal form and extent, but opaque and devoid of

all traces of facets, as in Munidopsis, Orophorhynchus, Nephrop-

and other blind forms of the deep sea, while,that of the right

Is entirely aborted, its place being only indicated by a small

Smooth spot marked out by the transparence of a lead-colored

Pigment similar to that which is seen through the integument

around the base of the left eye. This interesting brachyuran,

which 1S at once distinguished from the Japanese and American ae

‘Species by having the anterolateral margin of the carapace armed —

k n two pairs of long and slender spines, were trawled up from | ‘

ae of 285-405 fathoms.— Four. Roy. Micr. Soc, February, —

ao The INTERCENTRUM IN SPHENODON (HaATTERIA). — Professor —

a Cope, > in his important note on this point (Am. Nar., Feb., ’86) _

466 | General Notes. [May,

has shown that the intercentrum in Sphenodon is complete in

the caudals; I can add that the same condition is to be found in

the præcaudal vertebre also. This makes Professor Cope’s view

f of the Embolomeri being the batrachian type ancestral to the

-= Reptilia, still stronger.

Fritsch’ believes that he has found the representatives of the

pleurocentra in the cervicals of a young Sphenodon; the preezyga-

3 pophyses, he says, represent these elements; which are devel-

oped from a distinct point of ossification (according to Fritsch).

I examined two Sphenodons in alcohol (one about 290™™ long).

I could not find such a condition, and nobody will find it, not

even in embryos. Archegosaurus has well developed praezyga-

pophyses, deszdes the pleurocentra. In zo vertebrate are the præ-

don makes no exception. The “centrum” of the vertebra in

reptiles and mammals is formed by the pleurocentra ; and embry-

ology of the Reptilia will probably show that the centrum is de-

1886,

_ and proportion the skull approaches most closely to Z. gervais.

——Sowerby’s whale (Mesoplodon bidens) has been found upon

the coast of Yorkshire. A male specimen fifteen feet nine inches

_ long yas left stranded in shallow water at the entrance to the

Humber, Fourteen instances of the occurrence of this species

~ On various parts of the European coast and one in North America

_ (Nantucket, 1867) are enumerated (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,

Jas, 1886). |

_ __ Reptiles, etc — Mr. A. B. Macallum (Quart. Journ. Mic. Sc»

Nov., 1886), gives the following summary of the results of his

: _ 1 Fritsch, A. Fauna der Gaskohle, Bd. m1, Heft 11, Prag, 1885.

e veloped from two lateral elements.—Dr. G. Baur, March 23,

1886,] Zoology. a67

studies of the nerve terminations in the cutaneous epithelium of

the tadpole. Certain fibers, placed below the corium and known

as the fundamental plexus, give origin to fibrils which enter the

epithelium and end in comparatively large bead-like bodies be-

tween the cells, and may or may not branch, arise from a network

of fine anastomozing nerve-fibrils situated immediately below the

epithelium and forming meshes smaller than the space covered

by an epithelial cell. One,:commonly two, often three or more,

nerve-fibrils terminate in the interior of each epithelial cell near

its nucleus. The figures of Eberth are sheaths for intra-cellular

nerve-terminations. Colonel R. H. Beddome describes the

earth snakes (Uropeltidz) of India and Ceylon in a recent num-

ber of the Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist. Six species of Rhino-

phis, one of Uropeltis, nineteen of Silybura, five of Plectrurus,

one of Teretrurus (nov. gen.), three of Melanophidium, and three

of Platyplectrurus are characterized. Several species are new.

Fishes.—Nature (Feb. 4, 1886) has an interesting article by A.

Ernst upon the shoals of living and dead fishes which are cast

upon the shore of Carupano, Venezuela. The place is celebrated

for the occurrence of these shoals, which for the most part con-

sist of small fishes, and are composed of several distinct species.

he shoals are most common from May to November, during

the rainy season, but in fine weather, when there is a moderate

breeze from the sea. Sharks and other predatory fishes, as well

as whales and sea-gulls, follow the shoal. The movement of the

fishes is probably due to migration in search of food, the conforma- -

tion of the coast at Carupano is such as to favor the embayment

of the shoals at that point, and the death of the fishes is. caused by

submarine eruptions of gases. — T. J. Cunningham (Quart.

Jour. Micr. Soc.) contributes observations upon the relations of ,

the yolk to the gastrula in teleosteans and other vertebrate types.

At an average temperature of 7.5 C. whiting began to hatch on

the tenth day, haddock on the eleventh. The fertilized ova of

the cod, haddock and whiting are similar in all respects save size,

while the ovum of 7} vigla gurnardus has a single large, brownish-

on in Amphibia, Petromyzon and the ganoids is homolo gous

468 General Notes. [May,

the teleosteans. The ancestral part of the primitive streak in Sau-

ropsida represents the ancestral blastopore, while the posterior

part represents the coalesced uninflected part of the blastodermic

rim in the elasmobranchs——The fish fauna of Lake Balkhash,

according to M. Nikolsky, numbers fourteen species, viz., Perca

schrenkii, Phoxinus (two sp.), Barbus platyrostris, Schizothorax

(five sp.), Diptychus dibowskii and three species of Diplophysa.

All but one of these are new, and none are found either in the

Aralo-Caspian basin or in the system of the Obi. Five genera

are common to Lake Balkhash and the Central Asian lakes. In

all these lakes Cyprinidæ and Cobitide predominate, and two

species are common to Lob-nor and Lake Balkhash. Three spe-

cies, the two Phoxini and the perch, are the only ones which ally

the fauna of the latter lake to that of the Obi. From these facts ~

the first was separated earlier than the others.

Goode and T. H. Bean describe sixteen new species of fishes

Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Oct., 1885) obtained by the U.S. Fish

Commission mainly from deep water off.the Atlantic and Gulf

. coasts. The species include five Heterosomata (Aphoristia two,

_.. Hemirhombus one, Citharichthys one, Etropus one), two species

of Macrurus, one of Coryphznoides, one of Malococephalus, .

three of Bathgadus, one of Neobythites (nov. gen.), one of Poro-

gadus (n. g.) and two of Bathyonus, which last name is a sub-

stitute for Bathynectes Gnthr., preoccupied in Crustacea.

port on the

us Mollusca obtained during a dredging excursion in the

$ l 1 d ; ry

= Robert MacAndrew. Republished, with additions and correc-

_ tions, by Alfred Hands Cooke (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, Feb.

1886). 3

Echinoderms—M. G. Cotteau has put forth a preliminary but

important paper upon the Eocene Echini of France, containing

_ descriptions and figures of the species belonging to the genera

_ Spatangus, Maretia, Euspatangus and Hy psospatangus.— How-

ard Ayers, as a result of studies of the structure and function °

(Quart. Jour. Micr. Soc., Nov., 1885), arrives at the conclusion

that these organs possess the double function of taste and

e Ev

A ee e a

1886.) Zoölogy. 469

They are much more highly specialized than they are described

by Loven to be, and have in fact a greater specialization of parts

than can be seen in similar organs in the Medusæ. Sounds,

which affect the spines and pedicellariæ immediately, are not

noted by the sphæridia, which are first to recognize the presence

of a drop of acetic acid in the water. Mr. R. Rathbun (Proc.

U. S. Nat. Mus.) contributès a report upon the Echini collected

by the U. S. steamer A/éatross in the Gulf of Mexico from Jan-

uary to March, 1885. Thirty-one species were collected in suit-

able condition for determination. These represent seventy-eight

dredging stations in from twenty-one to 1330 fathoms, only one

species having been obtained in shore collecting. Seventeen

species were additional to those obtained in 1884, yet nine species

of that date were not found in 1885.

Worms—Dr. von Linstow (Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.) enumerates

fourteen courses of development known among Nematelminths,

according to the medium in which they develop. (1) Some gen-

pass directly into an adult form; (2) the larvæ live in the `

earth, the adults in plants; (3) the larve live in worms, and on

their death pass into the earth and become adult; (4) in Spheru-

aria bombi the adults live in the earth, and the fruitful females

forms one is aquatic, while the other inhabits the lung of __ 2

an amphibian and

animal

loche.

470. General Notes. [May,

the one ovoid, as it were, isolated in the mucus and formed of

glandular cells similar to those which enter into the structure of

the epidermis,*the other fusiform and with filaments at their ex-

tremity. The papille are joined to the body by long and slender

a peduncles, —— F. E. Beddard (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Feb.,

_ 1886) describes three species of Perichæta and one of Moniligas-

ter from Ceylon and the Philippines. The latter genus is remark-

able for the apparent absence of a clitellum and the presence of

five distinct gizzards in the cesophagus.

Protozoa.—A, C. Stokes (Aun. and Mag. Nat. Hist.) describes

several New Infusoria from American fresh waters. H. J. Car-

ter describes in the January and February numbers of the Ann.

and Mag. of Nat. Hist., thirty-five species of sponges from the

neighborhood of Port Phillip heads, South Australia.

aL EMBRYOLOGY.

ON THE SYMMETRY OF THE FIRST SEGMENTATION FuRROWS OF

‘THE Biasropisk oF ELASMOBRANCHII.—The nearly symmetrical

subdivision of the blastodisk of Teleosts by the first four seg-

mentation furrows has long been known. The details of the

es carefully elaborated by Agassiz and Whitman,’ whose conclu-

some sions are, I believe, generally accepted by embryologists. Of the

X development of the blastodisk of Elasmobranchs we know com-

paratively little, especially in relation to the relative lee and

=~ direction of the first segmentation furrows. The object of the

S present note will therefore be to describe the early segmentation

of the blastodisk of one of the latter, viz., Rata erinacea, as dis-

played by an egg removed from the oviduct and cloaca of a

_ female of that species, July 11, 1885, at Wood’s Holl, Mass. ,

Upon opening the tough horny membranous envelope in which

the ovum proper of Raia is enclosed; it is found that the egg §

somewhat pinkish in color, and is imbedded in a layer of very

- glairy “ white ” or albumen, which fills up the space between the

egg and the horny case. The pinkish egg proper is somewhat

flattened and oval in shape, and is immediately invested by a very

thin and delicate vitelline membrane. At one side of the flattened

vitellus, which measures nearly one and a quarter inches through

its longest diameter, a small circular whitish area about two mit-

_ limeters in diameter is noticeable. This is the blastodisk or get

minal area of authors, and is the point where development first

egins to manifest itself. d

= H the egg case is carefully opened, the white removed an

_ then laid into a one per cent solution of chromic acid, the blasto-

_ 1Edited by JoHN A. Ryper, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. i

___ žOn the development of some pelagic fish-eggs. Proc. Am, Acad. Arts and Sch

1886. | Embryology. 471

disk may be hardened zm sitų without distortion, and afterwards

separated from and carefully lifted off of the underlying vitellus,

together with a thin hardened flake of the latter to support it.

Such was the treatment to which the blastodisk here figured and

described was subjected. The surface view, Fig. 1, was drawn

with the camera lucida after hardening, and the section shown in

Fig. 2 was drawn from one taken at about the position of the line

ain Fig. 1. Cleavage had already advanced so far as to subdi-

vide the area of the blastodisk into fifteen sharply defined cells,

So that it may be assumed that this blastodisk has nearly com-

pleted its sixteen-celled stage of development or that the fourth

cleavage is about completed.

_A comparison of the first four cleavage planes of this blasto-

disk shows that they are formed in very nearly the same order

and relation to each other in Elasmobranchs as in Teleosts. For

example, the first plane 1, in Fig. 1, has cut through the originally

circular blastodisk and caused it to become elongated at right

angles to the direction of the first segmentation furrow exactly

as in the eggs of teleostean fishes. The second furrow, II, cuts

the first at right angles so as to further subdivide the first two

cells into four. The next cleavage is caused by two nearly par-

allel furrows, III, 111, which appear simultaneously, and further

subdivide the cells of the blas-

todisk into eight. The fourth

cleavage i

-celled stage of teleostean d

it is also evident

472 General Notes. _ [May,

velupment of the eggs of the Elasmobranchs. The subdivision

of the blastodisk into cells in both types of Ichthyes is essentially

a symmetrical one, determined by the first cleavage plane.

Whether or not the first cleavage plane of the ovum of elasmo-

branchs coincides with the median plane of the future embryo,

as supposed by Whitman, Roux, Pflüger and E. Van Beneden, it

is impossible to decide at present, but it would seem not at al

_ improbable that such might be the case.

series of sections of this blastodisk of Raia, prepared by the

aid of a Cambridge rocking microtome, which was presented to

the U. S. Fish Commission by Professor Adam Sedgwick, have

enabled me to reach some interesting conclusions in reference to

the structure of the blastoderm of the Elasmobranchii during its

one-layered condition. At this stage the four median or central

cells are not completely sundered from the underlying periblast,

P, Fig. 2, since the cleavage furrows are found to terminate ab-

-ruptly. before they have quite cut through the finely granular

plasma of the blastodisk proper, as shown in Fig. 2. In this

respect the cleavage of the blastodisk of Elasmobranchs differs

very decidedly from that of teleosts as described by Agassiz and

be a

jasi

—

iss)

-R

ice)

of nm

=, which lies a discoidal mass of coarsely granular yolk, Y. In Fig.

2 the relations of the cortical layer r, or periblast, to the vitellus

defined, as shown in Fig. 2, and the nuclei of the constituent

-= From what has preceded it does not seem at all probable that

< the z free nuclei” which are finally developed under the blasto-

1886.] Physiology. ; 473

disk of Elasmobranchs originate spontaneously. It is indeed far

more likely that they originate by a process of segmentation in

which the marginal cells of the blastodisk are involved the same

as in Teleosts. Such a view is in fact supported by fig. 15 given

in Balfour's Comparative Embryology, Vol. 11, p. 34, in which

two free nuclear spindles are shown at the edge of the deeper-

lying part of the blastodisk of Pristiurus in the morula condition,

consisting of four superimposed rows of cells. Balfour’s figure

also shows that between the lowermost cells composing the blas-

todisk and the coarsely granular vitellus there is still a consider-

able unsegmented stratum of finely granular plasma interposed.

In this lower layer of finely granular plasma alone the “ free

nuclei” are found, thus furnishing additional evidence that the

view expressed above as to the origin of such nuclei is probably

correct. In the disk of Raia examined by me, the cleavage

planes are also marked by the clear margins of adjacent cells, as

in the blastodisk of Pristiurus figured by Balfour. The blasto-

disk of Raia here figured and described measured 1.71 millime-

ters in width and 2.37 millimeters in length. Its thickness in the

center was about .6 of a millimeter, and thinned out at the mar-

Sın into a very thin layer of plasma which is obviously homolo-

gous with the cortical or periblastic layer of the teléostean egg.

ter stages of the blastodisk of Raia show it subdivided into

smaller and more irregular cellular areas; the whole disk also

again assumes much more nearly the original discoidal form

characteristic of it previous to the beginning of segmentation.

To Judge from the condition of the blastodisk here described, it

of course is to be inferred that the fertilization of the egg takes

Place while it is still in the oviduct, or possibly even before it en-

ters the latter —Yohn A. Ryder. 3

PHYSIOLOGY.

GLycocenic FUNCTION OF THE Liver.—I see that in your gen-

€ral notes on Physiology in the April number of the AMERICAN

to be excreted as urea by the kidney. In

cess of albuminoid over and above what is necessary for build- :

1 This | é é. ;

3 Am Sia artment is edited by Professor HENRY SEWALL, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. —

: - Four, Sci., Vol. xv, P- 99, 1878. i a

‘

474 General Notes. f [ May, |

ing is reduced to a condition suitable for combustion.” I do not

pretend to put my results, founded entirely on general reasoning,

on the same footing as the careful researches and experiments of

Professor Seegen, but it seems to me so explicit a statement de-

serves recognition.

gain Professor Seegen draws attention to the fact that fasting

animals still continue to make liver-sugar and that therefore this

fungtion is continuous. In the same paper I state that waste tis-

sues being albuminoid are undoubtedly eliminated in the same

way, i. e., by splitting in the liver into a carbo-hydrate which is

burned and an incombustible nitrogenous residue to be eliminated

mostly by the kidneys. The researches of Schiff? demonstrate

that waste tissue undergo some important, yea necessary, change

in the liver, but as to the nature of the change he says nothing.

If the disposal of waste is connected with sugar making, as I

affirm, this fact entirely explains the continuity of the function.

Again Professor Seegen says: “ The formation of peptones (at

least in carnivores not growing) is mostly to form sugar.” I say,

“The whole albuminoid-excess is split into sugar to be burned

for vital force and vital heat and an incombustible residue to be

otherwise eliminated, 2. e., the whole albuminoid-excess 1s utilized

as sugar.” i

As to the experiments of Professor Seegen and others soa

that with carbo-hydrate diet the sugar in the portal vein Is tess

than in hepatic vein, I confess they are wholly unintelligible ye

me. What becomes of the sugar which is absorbed in suc

large quantities? Is it not possible that it may be present a

some form which does not respond to the ordinary. tests tor

glucose ?

The final conclusion of Professor Seegen that glycogen ga

present in the liver zs not the source of liver-sugar, must be ae

lished on very firm basis before it will be accepted by physio

sts.— Joseph Le Conte.

BERKELEY, CAL., April 8, 1886.

PSYCHOLOGY.

~ Meynert’s Psycuratry,? VoL. I—This volume of 285 ag a

= largely devoted to the gross and minute anatomy of the res

_ Besides the appendix on the mechanism of expression, “Sate

short chapter on the nutrition of the brain, two-thirds of ae hi

are devoted to anatomy and one-third to the physiology ° H's

_ important organ. The work represents the results of Mom

_ reséarches up to 1884, and is of first-class value as embracing

1 Arch. des Sciences, Vol. 58, p. 203, 1877. .

2 Psychiatry, a clinical treatise on diseases of the Fore-brain. By +

~ nert, M.D., professor of nervous diseases and chief of psychiatric clini

_ Translated by B. Sachs, M.D. Vol.1. New York, G, P. Putnam s

1885. :

Theodor Mey-

B c of Vienna.

Sons. 8v0,

1886.] Psychology. 475

descriptions of a master in cerebral anatomy and physiology. The

text is accompanied by mostly excellent engravings, which are

so necessary to the comprehension of this abstruse subject. We

give some of these, Figs. 1, 2 and 3 (Nos. 9, 24 and 56 of the

book) which represent structure, and Fig. 4 (60) which illustrates

the law of muscular action under stimulus.

Meynert opens his chapter on the physiology of the brain with

the assertion (p. 138) that it is an organ of which the function

may be inferred from its structure. This inference is justified by

facts of physiology both normal and abnormal. The most im-

portant normal physiological law which is adduced in evidence,

an 1.—Convexity of the human br

etters are placed on the temporal li

à * deme bounded by the anteri

E etters S[/, and the posterior ascending

(S. :

alcus occipito-parietalis) ; Sore, occipital fissure; Sf, Sf’, longi-

— fissures in frontal and temporal lobes; Gf, designates below parallel fissure;

ore Proccipital fissure (fus gyrus fusiformis); Ca, anterior central convolutions;

u e :

indi 3 th er:

ican © the convex surface of the cuneus, and Occ $ designating the convex sur-

arch- zn pas lingualis; Gi, em, callosomarginal convolution; @rc.occ, occipital

j Z’, above ©, frontal convolutions.

has definite locations is demonstrated by three facts among rel

The first of these is the intimate relation observed to

General Notes.

[May,

476

exist between the size of the olfactory lobe and the sense of

f -yornfoauos ay Jo ooueysqns Areynpow ‘a <C, UOnewoy TeNsNLIO ,,) stroo padeys-arpurds jo rahe] əy ‘S * 13er emue əy “y

£ ( SIUOWUL NUIOD ay} JO UONVULOJ ,,) sprutvshd əğrer jo 1əÁvq ‘E ‘spraresdd pews jo aakey ‘z ‘engoməu jo z9Xvy peioysedns ‘r *x9}109

yeaqasao əy} jo addy sade, auy ayy, ‘oanssy e Suruzolpe əqoq [eyo ay} Jo uornjoauos Teutpnysuo[ pry) əy} yno} uolIeg—"e “OL

Aihen th

Si)

r y A ws ee

4% ax

o ; e

smell; the second, the close relation between the size of th i

1886.] Psychology. 477

rein lobes and the gyrus fornicatus, with which its fibers

his convolution is greatly developed in Mammalia

with strong olfactory powers, forming ‘with the external olfactory

convolution the very extensive convexity of the cornu ammonis ;

thirdly, the direct connection which exists between diseases of

the region about and within the sylvian fissure, especially the

claustrum, and disorders of the faculty of spe cech. The experi-

ments of Hitzig, Nothnagel, Ferrier and Munk receive due

attention, and their curious results are given in detail.

f Meynert s definition of the ego is interesting as proceeding

from the physiological standpoint. He sa 6): “ The sum

of these [innervation] centers constitutes the ‘ individuality,’ the

‘ego’ of abstract psychologists. I attach some importance to

sh G. 3.—Tr. ransparent longitudinal section soc a brain of a monkey.

otal en end 5. 0¢c, occipital end rtex cerebri medullary substance of the

br, brachium corporis edre iaei : rA ance “lentiformis (by mistake of the en-

olii ia . P K g pedunca

cerebelli . ore kalba’ O, inferior nas Chi, SPIRA e Pr, roan

corpus restiforme; ÆJ, funiculus posteri

rn err iciuality ’ because it is founded upon the anatomi-

“Whi Seeria of the cortex, and the simple physiological process

Big sa enters into our present discussion. Individuality implies

are m of firmest associations which under ordinary circumstances

well nigh inseparable ; the aggregate of ‘memories’ forming

a phalanx, the relation of which to conscious movements

— Tia ently with mathematical precision. This un-

VOL, Xx.—x;

478 Generar Notes. [May,

equal activity of the fore-brain, constituting individuality, varies

as regards contents and degree with each person ; it is designated

i Fic. 4.—Diagram explaining the mechanism of a conscious mov ovement of the amr

oe i F frontal cortex; Pa pai mee nda c. ai nucl. caud. ; Z. N, nucl. lenti iloni

CS AT, thalamus 96 De ws esen cepha , pons variolii; 0, med. cross-

by me olivary body; M. medulla Sati, terminating with veal

section of the cervical spinal cord; cd, cerebellum, blue lines indicate cen :

- red lines Sapien tracts, the red and blue rar in the he qa cord and fore- tract

d e central gray nuclei, black lines mark the associa ; Zal, for effect.

„the ; be rat Ag cortical center for nsus salib]; z -a

a iai caer: of the arm; 34, conducting tract of the fon inter aaa

igs E

1886. } Anthropology. 479

also as the character of each individual. It has been justly ob-

served that if the character (individuality) of a person were en-

tirely known, we would be able to predict the thoughts and deeds

of such an individual, howevér complicated they might be.”

On p. 170 it is pertinently remarked, that “ there is no ga

between conscious and reflex movements to be filled in by

instinct.”

Dr. Meynert makes the following reference to the nature and

value of our cognitions (p. 183): “ I wish to add that it is the

boldest hypothesis, shared alike by the ordinary mind and by

i scientific realism, to assume that the world is such as it appears

to the brain to be; that the latter can be likened to a mirror which

simply reflects the forms of the outer world; that the world as it

it is not to be inferred that we therefore apprehend nothing.

h r. Meynert promises to discuss the important question of

ony predisposition to mental disease in the second part of

€ work. He outlines his position on this question in the preface

k n the following language: “It is taking altogether too

imple a view of things to regard morality as one of man’s talents

as a definite psychical property which is present in some per-

Sons and lacking in others.”—C.

ANTHROPOLOGY.!

Tue

The fertile alluvial lands of the great valley of Salt river, which

densely occupied by a race presumably ut

5 1 : "i g '

Edited by Prof. Oris T, Mason, National Museum, Washington, D. Č.

480 General Notes. [May,

Amongst the relics of the past turned up by the modern

plough the aboriginal stone ax is the most conspicuous and

abundant. The numerous specimens show that but one general

form and type prevailed, and that the material in all was nearly

the same—a compact, firm, dark-green dolerite. Availing doubt-

less of the river-worn boulders nearest to the desired form, the

ancients shaped them by rubbing or grinding into axes of superior

form and finish, capable of doing good service in cutting and

hewing the soft cottonwood trees of the lowlands and even the

a mezquite of the first terrace where their homes were

uilt

The form of the ax is best described by the accompanying

figures, in side view and top view. The groove or channel for

the org or thong of rawhide for the handle is generally deep

and left somewhat rough in surface, while the rest of the ax is

ground smooth and is polished. In some specimens, however,

the groove is also smooth and polished as if by long wear. -

groove extends across the top of the ax and down the two sides,

but not across the bottom, or under edge, which is left straight

and is ground smooth, apparently for the reception of a key 0f

wedge to tighten the clasp of the thong on the stone, In many

specimens particularly in the heavy hammers or sledges, also

found here, the borders of the groove are raised in a ridge @

quarter of an inch or more above the general surface, thus giving

a broader and firmer bearing for the thong while the blade and

ead of the ax are made smaller and thinner.

_ The thickness of the axes varies considerably, as also ee

ee EN due in Pe to wear by long use and repeated grinding:

vit Sets 3 E- E aaah

i a AP

1886, | Anthropoiogy. 481

The weight seldom exceeds three pounds, and the length eight

to ten inches.

One double-bitted ax, an unusual form, is seven inches long

and one and a quarter inches thick. It is well shaped and ap-

pears to have been an effective tool. The cutting edges of all

the axes were formed with great care and are curved as in our

modern axes. They bear indisputable evidence of careful grind-

walls of the ruins of Casa Grande.— Wm. P. Blake, Phenix, Ari-

zona, March, 1886.

THE so-caLteD DEForMED Cranta2—The discovery in Cuba

of a series of crania commonly called deformed Carib skulls, is itself

an argument against this identification, for it is well known that

there never were either Caribs or practices of deformation in Cuba.

M. le Docteur Montané read before this society, at a former meet-

ing, an essay entitled, “ A Cuban Carib,” an epithet as opposed to

the opinions of the author of the present paper as, for example, a

Jamaican Aztec, a Venezuelan Quichua, a Portuguese Basque or

a Magyar Englishman

Let us establish who are the Caribs and under what circum-

stances were the crania found ?

The Caribs, according to P. Casas and other chroniclers of

America, were the inhabitants of Guadeloupe and Dominica, the

itself there and the land was occupied by France and other-

Powers, a

i Thus the Indians called at the end of the seventeenth century : :

Caribs by Breton, Du Tertre, Rochefort and Labat, and who, _

i i : oo

Read in Spanish before the Anthropological Society in Havana, Nov., oe

482 General Notes. [ May,

according to Rochefort, came from Florida (an incredible theory),

and according to other authors from South America, were not

the descendants of the first-named inhabitants of the archipelago.

The authors named above depict their Caribs with racial charac-

teristics quite different from those of the race anteriorly described

by the first conquerors. Their language, according to Breton,

had nothing in common with that familiar to Columbus and his

companions. They were, moreover, much mixed with the

negroes of Saint Vincent and Tabago, forming a race commonly

led Carib negroes.

The opinions advanced in this study are related especially to

the true and ancient Caribs of Columbus and the first chron-

iclers

The plaster cast before us was taken from one of a number

found, in 1847, in a cave near the eastern end of Cuba, by Miguel

Rodriguez Ferrer, whose explorations, writings and official meas-

ures have contributed so much to scientific studies in our island.

Two of these crania are now in Havana, where they were studied

by the learned Poey; two others were sent to Madrid, where

they were studied by MM. Graells, Vilanova and Peres Arcas;

others remained in the possession of the discoverer. The original

of this cast belonged to the University of Havana, and was de-

stroyed by fire. Fortunately Sr. Nicolas Gutierez had preserved 3

a perfect reproduction in plaster, which he presented to the Soci-

ety of Anthropology.

_ The cranial measurements of Sr. Montané although useful, and

| indeed indispensable in other craniological studies, have no !m-

E portance when we have to prove or disprove an historic fact as

i: definite as the usage attributed to the Caribs and other American

ate savages of voluntarily changing the form of the head. Cranio-

y logical measures are useful in determining the characters of a

large series or in deciding whether a given skull belongs toa

lass well known. But M. Montané does not possess the dimen-

sions of a single series of crania called deformed Carib; what 's

more he has not the measures of one such. If-such data existed

_ they would be found in the best known texts, but we search for

ae i i i i museums nor in

atlases have we a single example of a deformed Carib skull,

of St Vincent, the principal home of the Carib négroes. More-

-~ over, this skull has not been measured by any modern methods,

_ or at least Dr. Montané does not give them. | kull

On the contrary, there is at Charleston a veritable Carib s a

=o _1 Dr, Moultrie, quoted by Morton, “Physical T f American Indians,” =

- Schoolcraft, “ Archives,” py wi dee mo ET D

1886.] Anthropology. | 483

from Guadeloupe ; but, notice well, it is not flattened but, quite

the contrary, very high in the crown, a decisive proof against the

justice of the classification generally called “ deformed Carib.”

Finally, there are at Paris several other crania coming from the

Lesser Antilles called Carib, which have been measured by mod-

ern methods. But, mark well, they are not deformed; that is to

say, Dr. Montané does not possess the measurements of a single

deformed Carib cranium.

Consequently he undertakes to discover resemblances between

this and crania from Ancon, in Peru. He reports the measure-

ment of two types of these the deformed and the non-deformed.

The figures published in his work, if they prove anything, demon-

strate that the skull in question is not Carib at all but of the non-

deformed from Ancon, Peru.

On the contrary the report of M. Graells, Vilanova and Perez

Arcas, signed by a large special committee of the Museum of

Madrid relates to the two crania discovered by Sr. Ferrer.) The

authors do not hesitate to recognize the resemblance between the

two skulls before them and those generally called deformed Carib.

They declare that a complete study of the question of artificial

flattening is impossible without a numerous series of the same

orm. They close by saying that in relation to the two crania

before them, they do not believe that there had been deformation

but that the shape is natural.

Sr. Felipe Poey, who examined at Havana, about twenty years

ago, two crania found by Sr. Ferrer, believed that one of them

was perfectly natural. Sr. Rodriquez Ferrer himself did not

_ believe them to be Carib, relying mainly upon the belief that we

never had Caribs in Cuba. Indeed, they never came in their

In 1512 an abandoned vessel was discovered on the coast of

Guanimar, south side of Cuba. No trace of its crew was after-

ward found. Peter Martyr, from his library in Spain wrote that

they were devoured by anthropophagous savages.

On the contrary Las Casas says: “ This has not the slightest __

eppearance of truth. No one has been able to prove that the

veda there are any such people—have ever traveled so far

om their islands, which are Guadeloupe and Dominica, situated

and at l'Espagnole (Saint Domingo) only now and then. Those —

who speak like Peter Martyr take their fancies for’ realities! =

The Phrase, “if there are any,” applied to the Caribs would

r to the east of San Juan (Porto Rico). I believe that they te

appear a little strange from the pen of sucha great authority. —

Re i ; ee

o presented at Madrid, March 24, by Srs. Graells, Vilanova and Perez

ac < ri

Casas, Historia de las Indias. Madrid, 1875, 111, 484»

484 7 General Notes. [May, .

Casas had no faith in the charge of anthropophagy made against

the Indians by the conquefors of the new world, an accusation

which he attributed to a desire for a pretext to enslave the

savages.

Still more strange is it that neither Casas nor any other of the

earlier historians speak of the Indians called Caribs as applying

to the heads of their infants apparatus to change the form—an

ominous silence when we consider that these same writers are

full of detail, false or true, relative to these same savages. In a

word, Columbus, Chanca, Americus Vespucius, Bernal_ Diaz,

Peter Martyr, En Ciso, Ferdinand Columbus, Las Casas, Oviedo,

Gomara and many others for a century and a half after the dis-

covery are unanimously silent about the artificial deformation of

the cranium attributed in later times to the early inhabitants of

the Lesser Antilles.

If the first witnesses and chroniclers on America are mute

ve regarding deformation, they describe with great exactness the

heads of the indigenes of these islands, and the result is that the

skulls are very elevated in the crown. :

he most ancient and authoritative of these witnesses, Christo-

pher Columbus; declares that the inhabitants of the Antilles, the

Greater and the Lesser, and those of Terra Firma, resemble one

another in respect to their natural form, with wide foreheads and

heads well elevated.

There were not in the Antilles the two races as alleged, but one

uniform race without variation of physical characters. ‘This 1s $0

/ Americus Vespucius, who saw the same Indians on the gree

as well as on the coast, compares their visages with that of the

7 Tartars, who have the forehead very wide.

dians of these isles consisted in the pretended wearing long hair

_ by the Caribs and the wearing by the women of a kind of cotton

` -bands around the legs above and below the calf. ae

o Be iaz, who never lived in America, but who saw 4

Seville some hundreds of Indians sent to be sold under the unjust

: < y are 1 Hire

_ others, only they have this evil custom. In all the islands

` TF, Colon. Vida del Almirante, cap. 89. Casas. Historia, 111, 109, 113+

s ier Navigatum. 1, 35

m Chanca. Lettre au Municipe de Seville, Jan., 1494. Coll. de Navarrete, 23

ae. z

_ *Bernal Diaz. Historia de los Reyes Católicos, cap. 118.

1886. ] Anthropology. 485

is no difference either in the form or the manners of the inhabi-

tants, nor in their language. All have the face and forehead

long, the head round, with the same distance between the temples

as from the forehead to the occiput.” ;

e may affirm then, in virtue of this testimony, that the prim-

itive Caribs had no habits of deformation, and that their heads,

instead of being elongated and flattened as was supposed, were

round and elevated. :

Oviedo! was the first to start the report of the existence of vol-

untary deformation in America. In his edition of 1535 he says

that the inhabitants of St. Domingo had the forehead very wide

on account of certain manipulations, “ For at the moment of

birth they press the forehead and the occiput of children.” |

Such treatment would not effect a permanent change in the

form of the head.2 :

Gomara’ expresses himself in parallel terms in relation to Saint

Domingo, only he specifies that it was the wise women to whom

was due the shape of the head in these Indians. He adds, re-

garding the Indians of Cumaná, that the pressure made at the

moment of accouchment was effected by two bundles of cotton.

Mara was never on American soil.

Casas‘ says that in Peru it was a great privilege granted to”

certain chiefs whom they wished to honor to give to the heads of

their infants the form of those of the king and princes of the

royal family. t :

From this we conclude that the practice was neither obligatory

Central America better than did Oviedo, and though he mentions

Practices attributed to mothers or wise women, deformations of

t is ta,

by ri the operation is reversed, first the bandages and then

f o

place. But he knows only indifferently the countries of which

Oviedo. Historia general y Natural de Indias, 11, cap. 5; XLII, cap. 3.

s Topinard, Elements d’ Anthropologie generale. Pari

jomate. ‘Historia de las Indias. Madrid, 1852, 172; 206:

` Casas. A logetica Historia, cap. 34, 392.

«a Cron

_ 45; 399

ica del Perú, cap. 26, 378, 1853. Madrid. Also cap. 50, 404; also aoe o

yah ae

-l Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentario reales de los Incas, IX, cap. 85

: del Inca, IV, cap. 15; Comentarios, IV, cap. 12.

486 General Notes. | May,

he speaks, as himself avows. As to Peru proper, he mentions

the deformative process only among the Collas, saying nothing

of Cuzco, Lima and other places in the empire. Moreover this

author is one of the most credulous of his time.

Finally, Garcilaso' reports that the Indians of Manta, by

Quito, deform the heads of their children by means of two tab-

lets which they tighten more and more every day during four or

five years. He says that in Tula, or Florida, the same result was

attained by means of certain ligatures which they used nine or

ten years. But Garcilaso visited neither of these countries.

Cabeza de Vaca lived ten years in Florida, describes many cus-

toms of the Indians, but makes no mention of-deformation. As

to Quito, Garcilaso evidently copies Cieza.

It is with relation to Peru proper, where he was born and

where he lived up to his twentieth year, that Garcilaso is an

authority of the first order. He says not one word of deforma-

tion among the Collas nor of any place in the empire of the

Incas. It is improbable that he would have omitted an operation

so common and one practiced on his own head, if it had existed.

Moreover he describes what is done to infants at the moment 0

birth and during lactation. Instead of the compression of the

` head, either by the hands, or by bandages, or by tablets, the head

is left entirely uncovered and is never touched, particularly near

the Lesser Antilles, we find other savages in the same islands, -

regard to whom the voyagers of their time have repeated all t

_ Stories, false or true, that the first Spanish conquerors told con-

cerning various Indian populations.

It has been said that this absurd practice endured long ner

the conquest, and that it was forbidden by order of the Span of

government, according to others by the decisions of a council

_ Lima, according to others by a papal decree. The Marquis de

Nadaillac affirms that the council in question was held in 1545;

but M. Topinard believes that it took place in 1585, and tiaa

1752 the governor of Lima published a new edict against defor-

= mations. Now, there were no councils held in Lima in 154 6 ;

1585. The five councils held there took place in 1551; 1507,

La Florida

ee ee aS A LE eee

1886.] Anthropology. Ee

1583, 1591 and 1601. The decisions are preserved, and there

are not the slightest allusions to deformation.1

Rivero and Tschudi? visited a large number of Peruvian tombs,

examined the mummies in them, among others a foetus of seven

months old, still in the mother’s womb, many children of all

ages, and of adults, and having observed throughout the same

cranial form, without the least vestige of depression nor of de-

forming apparatus, they came to the conviction that this was the

natural form of the head.

- Robertson? examines no less minutely the platicephalic

crania of the mound-builders of the United States, supposed to

be deformed, and the analysis convinced him that the crania were

natural.

We have seen in a former citation that according to Casas the

heads of Guatemala Indians deformed in times anterior to the

discovery, had given rise by inheritance to crania spontaneously

deformed. According to-other witnesses the same thing took

place among the Omaquas of South America.* The practice

having been attributed to these savages by Ulloa, an affirmation

repeated in 1754 by Unarte, it results that this form of head is at

present perfectly natural and that “ Children come into the world

in this tribe and some others with the head dislocated.”

The same result follows concerning the three races of Peru

that exist at this moment with the same form of head that they

tmerly had, without any need of deformatory practices. In the

words of Rivero and Tschudi :> “ But there is one proof still more

conclusive against the usage of mechanical means ; it is the

actual existence of three races, in distinct although contracted

areas, where we find no trace of bandage nor of pressure exer- .

cised on the head of the new born.

It is then demonstrated there is neither historic, scientific nor

fational base for the affirmation that in Tropi i re

were countries where the head was modified in form by mechani- ©

cal means. Nature by its own forces was entirely equal to the

task of producing then and producing to-day these same forms i

in many parts of the world. a

This truth is still more evident in relation to the savages, called —

Caribs, of the Lesser Antilles ; first, because none of the earliest

chroniclers attribute to them a similar habit, and secondly, because rts

tone has found the form of head that has been attributed to

€m.— Fuan Ignacio de Armas. oe

Leyes de Indias; Solerzano, Politica Indians; Hernaez, Coleccion de Balss.

ma y ottos Documentos relativos a la Iglesia de America y Filipinàs. a :

* Rivero et Tschudi. Antiquida des Perudnas. Vienna, 1851, p. 52. ees.

ise y Les Mound Builders. Cong. Internat. d’Américanistes. Luxem- |

barg, I, 43. re

TRO. Los idiomas de la America lateria, Madrid, 106.

-vero and Tschudi, of cit,

483

[May,

An ÅLCOHOLIC DRIP FOR THE THOMA-JUNG Microtome.—As

is well known, sec-

tions of many hard-

ened specimens may

by simply fastening

them in the holder

of a microtome,

with or without

cork, pith, etc., for

support. Trial sec-

i d

kidney, and many

other hardened ani-

results. This sim-

ple method generally

demands, however,

that the object shall

be constantly fl

ed with strong alco-

hol, and the same

necessity exists al-

ays in the use of

celloidin, which we

have found to be an

without any

“Movement, a simple siphon, consisting partly, at least, of rubber

` ee by Dr. C. O. WHITMAN, Mus. Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass: _

1886. ] Microscopy. 489

tubing, upon which is placed a common screw-clamp for regula-

ting the outflow, supplies a dripper which is effective and quickly

home-made in any laboratory. For the Thoma microtome it is

also available, either by flooding the knife when this is set slant-

ing and pushed clear of the instrument, or by frequent readjust-

ments to compensate the progress of the object up the inclined

plane. Either of these expedients, however, involves objections

which are avoided by the use of the simple apparatus here figured.

onstant pressure and flow are secured by the siphon which is

obtained conveniently as in Fig. 1. The stopper of the flask or

hol € may, of course, be omitted, but in the figure it has three

a one for the siphon-tube, one for a small funnel, and one

Binat exit of the vapor when alcohol is poured in through the

ictal use with the Thoma microtome the end of the flexible

tra n-tube is attached to the object-holder in such a way as to

he it, and hence over the object, wherever it goes (Fig.

Ras This is done by means of a bent (or straight) stiff wire (a)

490 : General Notes. [May,

to the top of which is soldered a clipp or grip (4), which embraces

the end of the siphon-tube (c), as shown in the figure, and gives

adjustment by allowing the dripper to be pushed back or forth.

Instead of the wire and clip a “sleeve-holder” having a long

shank may be used, after merely straightening out and twisting

the shank. Attachment of the wire to the object-holder is

secured by the collar (æ), which is screwed down firmly upon»

the wire and gives at the same time a second and valuable adjust-

ment about a vertical axis. To carry off and save the alcohola

copper or tin trough is used, and is shown in Fig. 3. It may be

readily made by “ bending up” a thin flat piece of the metal, and

Li} ng of the

apparatus I have been constantly aided by my friend and pupil,

ere ed Proceedings of Scientific Societies, 491

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

-ne promoters of the movement are sanguine of effecting a

great change of sentiment relative to the destruction of our song-

sters and insect-destroying birds for hat decoration.

:0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

i NATIONAL ACADEMY oF SCIENCES, April 20-22, 1886.—The

ollowing are the titles of the papers read at the session:

The geologic age of the Equus fauna. By G. K. Gilbert.

The Cowles electrical furnace. By T. Sterry Hunt.

& Ne the phylogeny of the Batrachia. Ry E. D. Cope.

r the Phylogeny of the placental Mammalia. By E. D. Cope. '

; The comet of Biela. By H. A. Newton.

Areas of high barometric pressure over Europe and Asia. By Elias Loomis.

The cockroach in the past and in the present. By S. H. Scudder.

Oe the diathermancy of ebonite and obsidian, and on the production of calorescence.

by means of Screens of ebonite and obsidian. By Alfred M. Mayer. p

On the coefficient of expansion of ebonite. By Alfred M. Mayer.

On the determination of the cubical expansion of a solid by a method which does

Ma s calibration of vessels, weighings, or linear measure. By Alfred M.

ey measures of absolute radiation. By Alfred M. Mayer.

the geology of the region near Zacualtipan, Hidalgo, Mexico. By E. D. Cope.

By Edward S. Morse. z

uper-ordinal groups of fishes. By Theo. Gill s

the absolute and relative wave-length of the lines of the solar spectrum. By H.

A, Rowland. T $

o Fiatinous compound as additive molecules, W. Wolcott Gibbs.

= € of magnetism on chemical action. By ‘Ira Remsen. fea

ond and dumb of Martha’s Vineyard (continuation of research relating

_ ancestry of the deaf}. By Alexander Graham Bell. ee.

ble spectra. By S. P. Langley. os

us Metamorphic rocks of California (by invitation). By G. F. Baker. >

Coches de, a

‘a ee

biologist of our day can accept. It has become clearly apparent

are simply of degree, not at all of kind, and that both physically —

: a mentally man comes into close contact with the lower forms

pon oe life, They do not only touch, they are intimately interwoven.

‘one the basis on which he rests. It is the soil from which he

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VoL. xx.— JUNE, 1886.—No. 6.

THE MAKING OF MAN.

BY CHARLES MORRIS.

OR a period of many millions of years—how many not even

Conjecture can decide—the world of vertebrate life continued

quadrupedal, the seeming deviations therefrom being rather appa-

rent than real. Suddenly a true biped appeared. Fora period

of equal duration the mentality of animals developed with exces-

sive slowness. Suddenly a highly intellectual animal appeared.

The coming of man indicated, both physically and mentally, an

extraordinary deviation from the established course of organic

development. Both physically and mentally, evolution seems to

have taken an enormous leap, instead of proceeding by its usual

minute steps; and in the advent of the human species we have a

mmarkable problem, whose solution is as difficult as iti joe .

portant. :

It might be solved in a moment were we able to accept the eS

arguments of those who hold that man is the outcome of a dis- _ ere

tinct act of creation, and is invested with powers and qualities, >

and prepared for a destiny, in which from the beginning he has

Stood apart from all other living beings. Yet these arguments no

that the points of distinction between man and the lower animals

ey is an intricate net-work of structural relations which binds

he inextricably to the realm of lower life. This realm is not

4 aoa ted kate

494 | "The Making of Man. [June,

has sprung, and into which he is so deeply rooted that not the

hand of a god could tear him loose.

It is not our purpose here to give any of the arguments in

favor of this conclusion. They may be found fully presented

elsewhere. We design rather to endeavor to trace the line of

ascent of man from the lower animal world, and to seek to dis-

cover to what combination of highly favorable circumstances his

development is due,

Physically man does not deviate very greatly from the mam-

mals next below him. His method of locomotion is essentially

changed, but structurally he is very closely related to the higher

- apes. Yet so much are all living beings the creatures of circum-

a stance, that it seems possible, and even probable, that the remark-

able mental differentiation of man may be a necessary result of d

this comparatively slight physical differentiation. His erect atti- |

tude, with certain variations in his life-habits which directly arise

from it, bring him into new relations with surrounding nature,

and these new relations have certainly very much to do with the

new conditions which have arisen within him. A single step may

lead at times to a vast train of unexpected consequences, and

such seems to have been the case with this new step in evolution

made by man.

sal Man is the only true biped. He has but two points of support,

while all other animals are supported at four or more speciali i

: points, or else rest on the general surface of the body. In birds,

A for instance, which are usually considered bipeds, the wings are

_ organs for aérial support, and have no other function. The near

est approach to man in this respect, among existing animals, may

be found in the forms which progress by jumping, such as the

kangaroo. Yet in these the structure and function of the fore

limbs is distinctly locomotive. And such was probably the case

_ with the dinosaurian reptiles of a past geological era, despite the ;

fact that they seem to have been able to walk, to some extent, 0?

their hind limbs alone. . E

re Ri certainly remarkable that, in the whole extended period of a

= animal life, no single vertebrate form appeared, so far as we can

_ discover, before the advent of man, in which the fore limbs were :

re completely freed from duty as organs of support and became

structurally unfit for this duty. A partial freedom in this ae

would be of minor value, since the formation necessary tO loge

1886.) The Making of Man. 495

motive duty must be retained, and the development of any new

functional power would be checked. Thus in this respect man is

4 an anomaly in the kingdom of life. And to this anomalous fea-

: ture is quite probably due in very considerable measure the pecu-

liar character of his development. z

It is very evident, indeed, that the full adoption of the erect

; attitude gave man an immense motor supremacy over the lower

animals; for it completely released his fore limbs from duty as

organs of support—for the first time in the known history of ver-

4 tebrate life. They were set free to be employed in new methods

T and to develop new functional „powers, to which the grasping

ris function, which man inherits from the ape tribe, was an invaluable

aid. It is to the possession of two limbs which are freed from

any organic duty other than attack and defense, and which are

adapted to grasp weapons and tools, that man owes his enormous

advantage over the lower animals. - It opens to him possibilities

: which do not exist beneath him, All the forces of nature are at

ne his command, as soon as he can learn to control them. The first

: club or Spear he grasped, the first missile he threw, inaugurated

a new era in the history of life, and opened the way to man’s

complete mastery. And, so far as we can perceive, this important

| structural advantage preceded the development of his mental

: Superiority, and gave the cue to it. ;

In the vertebrate class below man, there exists but a single ani-

4 mal form that possesses a limb which is free from duty as an —

Ey organ of support. This is the elephant, whose nose and upper -

we lip have developed into an enormous and highly flexible trunk,

4 with delicate grasping powers. The possession of such an organ

: has undoubtedly had its share in the marked intellectual develop- _

ment of the elephant. Yet this organ is far inferior in its powers

to the hand and arm of man, while the form, the size and the Kies

its of this animal stand in the way of its gaining the full _

results which might arise from the possession of such an organ ©

™ connection with a better adapted bodily structure. Be

| As to the evolutionary processes through which man gained the `

Peculiar features of his struct „weh int ti g idence in the

Sting forms of life. In one type of life, and one alone, can w

Perceive indications of a gradual variation from the quadrupedal —

towards the bipedal structure. This is the ape type, or rather that of

the lemurs and apes in conjunction. In all other mammalian ypes

P a

496 ; The Making of Man. [June,

the aspect of the body is distinctively horizontal. Life in trees

does not necessarily produce a deviation from this horizontal -

aspect, since it is retained by all arboreal mammals except those

just mentioned. Yet it offers an opportunity for such a deviation,

and this opportunity has been improved by the lemurs and apes.

Their hands have developed a grasping power which is possessed

by no other arboreal animal, and which opens to them new motor

possibilities. They may assume a semi-erect or a fully erect

attitude, by grasping upper branches with the hands. And this

ability, in the higher apes, has led to the development of a mode

of progression on the ground which is more or less intermediate

between the quadrupedal and the bipedal modes.

This fact is of great interest, as it seems to lead us directly to-

wards the development of the bipedal habit, as attained in man.

Though such a habit may be partly attained by tree-living ani-

mals, a residence on the ground is essential to its full develop-

ment. And it is significant, in this connection, that no existing

-apes have fully given up the arboreal habit.

Of the anthropoid apes, the orang and the chimpanzee dwell

habitually in the trees. On the ground they are out of their true

element. The same is the case with all the species of the gib-

bons. All these creatures move with some difficulty om the

ground, but freely and easily in the trees. The gorilla, on the

contrary, seems to dwell more habitually on the surface. Its

great weight tends to render an arboreal life unsuitable, and its

hand is not so well adapted to climbing as that of the chimpar-

zee. Yet it has only in part given up its arboreal residence. It

ascends trees for food and, to some extent, to sleep, though there

‘is some reason to believe that the adult males sleep occasionally,

and perhaps habitually, on the ground. It seems to be in a tran

sition state between the arboreal and the surface life-habit.

Of the lower apes, the baboons make the ground their

place of residence. They have not lost their climbing powe

however, but can ascend trees with ease and rapidity. ost of

the other apes dwell wholly, or nearly so, in the trees.

1886. ]} The Making of Man. 497

gained except by a species which dwelt wholly on the ground.

And life in trees absolutely requires the use of the arms as loco-

motive organs, and prohibits that freeing of them from this duty

which exists in man. When man ascends trees he is obliged to

return to the habit of his ancestors and use his arms as organs of

progression. It seems evident, therefore, that if man descended

: from the apes his ancestral species must have been a form which

had fully given up its life in trees, and had become almost as

| awkward in climbing as man now is, ere it fairly began to change

4 from ape into man.

The adoption of a surface residence by any ape would necessi-

tate certain changes in structure. Tree-dwelling apes, when they

descend to the ground, present us frequently with an awkward

compromise between the horizontal and the vertical modes of

motion. Neither of these modes is natural to them, and to be-

come properly adapted to either some change of structure is

necessary, Many of them progress in the true quadrupedal man-

ner, and in one ground-living tribe, the baboons, the structure of

the body has suffered an accordant change. They have become

true quadrupeds.

In other cases there is an inclination towards an erect mode of

- motion. Even among the lemurs this is occasionally displayed.

Some species of these progress on the ground by jumps, the body

being semi-erect and the arms held above the head. The anthro-

poid apes all have a curious mode of progression on the ground,

intermediate between the erect and the horizontal methods. The

orang, the chimpanzee and the gorilla alike use their four limbs in

Progression, but in a manner very unlike that of ordinary quad-

Tupeds. They swing the body in a curious fashion between the

arms. It is a sort of half-jumping, half-walking motion. Rest-

ing the body on the hands, the animal swings itself between the ~

arms, and moves forward by a quick succession of such lifts and —

angs. In this movement the orang and the chimpanzee bring

their closed knuckles to the ground, but the gorilla is said to

“ep the hand open and apply the palm to the ground. The —

Outer edge rather than the sole of the foot touches the ground.

: ie _ *he whole movement is as awkward as is that of man when he-

os . = 3 pts to climb trees, and seems to indicate that there can be-

e ma Satisfactory compromise between the two life-habits. A sur- :

o eae animal must. tend to become either a quadruped or o

ppi.

ERENLER S a ee

ee =n aces, a ,

498 ` The Making of Man. — [June,

-The actual result in all these cases seems to depend largely on

the comparative length of the arms and legs. All the three spe-

cies named have shorter legs and longer arms than man, and can

thus readily lift their bodies upon their arms while in a semi-erect

` attitude. Yet they all are obliged to incline the body forward in

movement. This is less the case with the gibbons, the extreme

length of whose arms enables them to reach the ground with the

hands without bending the body. Thus the gibbons can walk on

the four limbs with the body erect.

Certain species of the gibbon can readily walk erect on their

legs alone by balancing themselves with their arms. They often

do so, and can even move tolerably fast, the body rocking from

side to side. But if urged to speed they drop their long arms to

the ground and progress in the swinging fashion, Of the other

forms there is no satisfactory evidence that the orang ever walks

erect, though it may be able to assume the erect attitude when

attacked. Mr. Savage says that the chimpanzees are sometimes

seen walking erect, the body bent forward, with the hands clasped

over the occiput to balance. But on the appearance of danger

they immediately take to all fours to fly.

The gorilla seems more inclined to walk erect, or rather in an

_ down. And it stoops less, when on all fours, than the chimpanzee,

since its arms are longer. When walking it balances its huge

body by flexing its arms upwards. Its gait is a rolling one, from

side to side. When attacked it seems to always assume the erect

` posture. In structural formation it is better fitted to the erect

attitude than is the gibbon. me

The subject here considered is of considerable importance byt

= ? that the walking gibbons or the gorilla might in time become

true bipeds if they should completely give up their arboreal

and legs, than in man. The species from which man desc

_inclined position, the body bending forward, with the head hung >

~ -its relation to the evolution of man. We observe various phases 2

of tendency towards the biped habit, and can readily pr

arms differs, but in all it is longer, as compared with the body —

z 2

: : residence, The length of the arms is an important element in ;

_ this problem. In all the species mentioned the length of the

with its longer legs and shorter arms than in the existing P. o

poid apes, could not, without the greatest difficulty, have adopte? =

their swinging mode of motion. Nor could it advantageously oe `

Bs gy eo

sate a

1886. | The Making of Man. s 499

assumed the quadrupedal habit, as in the baboon, whose four

limbs are nearly equal in length. It was forced towards the

bipedal habit by sheer necessity. On taking the ground surface

for its place of residence, it was probably obliged to walk erect

as the only movement to which its structure was well adapted.

Neither the quadrupedal nor the semi-quadrupedal movement `

would have been suited to the proportions of its limbs, and its

ancestral movement in trees may have been more vertical than is

common with apes. Its bipedal development may have begun

while it was still arboreal.

This erect posture once fully assumed and the arms thus com-

pletely freed from duty as organs of support, the animal, yet an

ape, would have had an advantage of the greatest value over its

“fellow apes, and over all other members of the animal kingdom,

Nearly all quadrupeds use their limbs to some extent in attack

and defense. Yet the necessity of resting on these limbs inter-

feres to a certain extent with this duty. In the animal in ques-

tion the duty of locomotion being confined to the hind limbs, the

fore ones were completely set free to be used as weapons. And

to this power was added that very important one of their pecu-

liar adaptation to grasping, which enabled the creature to add

greatly to its natural strength by the use of missile and’ other

Weapons, |

‘This advantage has not been confined to man and his progeni-

tors. The power of the grasping function in this direction is of-

service to many of the apes, The story of the cocoanut-flinging

monkeys does not need to be repeated. And it is equally well

known that the orang, when attacked, will break off fragments of

branches and shower them to the ground ina rage. But in all

such cases there is nothing to indicate any precision of aim.

throwing seems to be done at random. It is probable that the

are has to be educated to the proper use of missiles, and that to —

Sain this function it must be freed from other duties. es

_ There is no positive evidence that any apes use weapons except

in this manner, The story is told that the chimpanzee will wrest n

the Spear from the hunter and use it against him. But this story

needs to be verified. Also the common picture of the oran

_ Walking erect and supporting itself with a staff is entirely imag-

native, Nothing of the kind was ever seen in nature. The teeth

Seem the main dependence of these creatures for purposes of

500° - The Making of Man. [June,

defense. They will break off limbs and twigs and,make them- —

selves beds with great rapidity, but this seems the utmost limit

of their constructive powers. he

As for the animal from which man descended, it must have

quickly gone further than this in the use of artificial weapons and

in the arts of construction. Possibly its first- assumption of the

erect attitude may have been aided by the use of a staff, and if

so, this would naturally be employed as a club or a spear on

occasion. Through uses of this kind the arms would gradually

become educated to their new duties, and gain facility in im-

portant movements which were impossible while they were forced

to retain their locomotive adaptation.

This line of argument need not be carried further. It is evi-

dent that we have here the beginning of a new course of develop-

ment whose end is yet in the future. The freedom of the arms

and hands from the duty of support, their grasping power, and

the use of artificial weapons and tools, were unquestionably main

elements in the evolution of man. For under such circumstances

the employment of artificial instruments would naturally be

progressive. There would be no limitation to this progress from

the necessity of using the arms for other duties, and such struc-

tural limitation as may have originally existed must gradually

have disappeared, through increasing performance of and grow-

ing adaptation of the arms and hands to these new duties. The

| use of clubs in attack and defense, and of stone missiles for the 7

same purposes, might readily have been adopted by an ape et

constituted, and modern archzologists do not hesitate to trace all

subsequent development in the arts to just such a simple begi-

ning. Rudely chipped stones are found as early weapons of

= primitive man. Naturally shaped stone weapons undoubtedly

_ preceded them, |

= Whether one or more species attained this bipedal develop-

_ ment is a question not easily settled. It is almost certain that

_ there was one only. Yet, if so, variations in the structure of this

_ original biped must have taken place at an early date, possibly €r

_ it became a full biped and began to strongly resist the molding

- tural differences between the principal races of mankind. ;

influences of nature, if we may judge from the essential struc

e : 3 Yet highly favorable as was the structural development of o =

original man, it needs no extended consideration of the subject

1886.] The Making of Man. 501

to perceive that in this we have but one of the factors to which

he owes his supremacy. The freeing of the arms to the perform-

ance of new duties was an essential agent in any rapid mental

development. Yet it was not the only agent.. The mental devel-

opment of man began in the mental development of the apes. It is

but the completion of a process which extends much further

back than the beginning of the human era, and through which,

in one type of life, the mammalian intellect attained an excep-

tional unfoldment. Human mental progress began at the high

level attained by the anthropoid apes. To the causes of the un-

foldment of the ape intellect some attention is therefore due.

There is nothing in an arboreal residence in itself to specially

promote mentality. The squirrels and other arboreal quadrupeds

are not of a high intellectual grade. Undoubtedly the activity,

the variety of motions, and the grasping power of the monkeys

must have aided in their mental unfoldment, yet we find that

the lemurs, with the same general organization and life-habits,

are intellectually dull. For the inciting element to the develop-

ment of the ape intellect, therefore, we must look further.

Among the lower life forms the Carnivora are more intellectual

as individuals than the Herbivora. Yet as groups the latter occa-

sionally display intellectual conditions far higher than anything

attained by the solitary Carnivora. These instances of intelli-

gence are only found among the social species, and are displayed

most remarkably in the communal classes, the ants, bees and

beavers,! Yet even in these the purely plant-feeding bees fail to

display the great variety of intelligent acts of the partly. carniv-

®rous and actively belligerent ants. It would appear, therefore,

that while the activity and cunning arising from carnivorous hab-

~ aid in the development of individual intelligence, it is equally

aided by social habits, and that a combination of these two

requisites presents the most favorable condition for high progress >

in intelligence,

n fact, if we consider fully the ants, we find that these minute —

creatures, with none of the advantages in structure over their —

llows Possessed by man, have advanced politically and indus-

502 : The Making of Man, [June,

influences alone. It appears, therefore, that social combination

is a highly essential agent in intellectual development, quite as

important as, perhaps more important than, any special advan-

tages in structure and individual habits.

The solitary life of cats, spiders, &c., while aiding to develop

mentality in individuals, prevents the transmission of useful

ideas. Only instincts are transmitted. Ideas die with their

originators. On the other hand, the communal habits of ants

and bees, while highly adapted to the preservation of useful

ideas, tend to hinder individual excursions of mind and the

rapid growth of ideas. An ant community is a society of

strict specialists. The best condition for intellectual progress

would seem to be an intermediate one, in which complete

individual activity exists, yet in which social links are closely

drawn, so that ideas may be transmitted by education and obser-

vation, as well as instincts by heredity. And to the fullest utility

of this condition some degree of carnivorous habits would seem

essential. It needs no intellectuality to gather fruit from the

trees. It needs often the highest exercise of cunning to capture

animal prey, while it produces a variety of perilous and exciting

situations to which the strict vegetarian is not subjected.

Among modern apes socialism exists in various degrees.

lemurs display but little socialism. Some species of monkeys

= display it in a‘high degree, and it is a general characteristic of

the family. Mutual aid in danger is common, education is not

wanting, combination in enterprises is frequently observed, and

probably through these and the like influences, observation an

_ imitation have been developed to a degree not seen elsewhere

among the Mammalia. Yet so advantageous is social combina-

=~ tion in promoting intelligence, that the high degree of cunning

= displayed by baboons, in posting sentries while robbing fruit

_ plantations, is but a‘fuller development of a similar habit pe

sessed by several species of otherwise dull social animals. a

Among the existing anthropoid apes, however, the social habit

is greatly lacking. The orang, the chimpanzee and the gorilla

_ are more or less solitary in their habits. The orang is particularly s

So, and is never seen in groups of more than two oF three. The |

chimpanzee and the gorilla are somewhat more social, yet not :

markedly so. The groups of the gorillas appear to be poly A

mous bands, since they never possess more than one adult male,

thas? ; y i ; hen lt

Pes ee E : beret Ms

reat ae 5

_ Which has bee laar.

And with it began his still increasing control of the energies of

Possessed by the apes, with an advancing skill in the use of ate

1886,] The Making of Man. : 503

the rest of the band being composed of females and young,

There is more evidence in favor of the chimpanzees combining

in larger groups, yet this does not appear to be their usual habit,

Reade remarks that both these species, without being gregarious,

Sometimes seem to assemble in large numbers. Unfortunately

very little satisfactory information is possessed as to their habits

in a state of nature, i

These large apes are also strictly vegetarian. They lack the

incitement to intellectual development arising from carnivorous

habits. On the whole, then, their marked powers of intellect are

somewhat surprising. It is. probable, if we may judge from the

habits of the lower monkeys, that the anthropoids descended

from social species, and have in part lost their social habits. This —

is also indicated by the fact that the young of these anthropoid.

apes seem more inclined to socialism than do the adults. It is

also shown in the higher socialism of the gibbons, the existing

representatives of the primitive anthropoids.

If we seek, then, for the ancestors of man in the family of

apes, we must look for a species possessed of several essential

requisites, all of which can be found in no existing apes. These

requisites, as considered in the preceding pages, may be briefly

summarized,

The ancestor of man must have been of sufficient size and

Weight both to render continued life in the trees inconvenient and

to give the necessary strength to combat with the perils of a

Surface life. His strength, indeed, must have been sufficient,

combined with his cunning, to make him a match for the larger

animals, He must have been aggressive as well as defensive, and ae

ginally carnivorous must have become so in a degree.

Strictly herbivorous habits would have tended to check mental

development.

Second, and yet more important, was the assumption of an —

erect attitude, and of a true biped structure, with the complete —

freeing of the fore limbs from duty in locomotion. There natu-

rally followed upon this an increase of that use of missiles already

n so essential a feature in the progress of m

504 The Making of Man, [June,

To these physical conditions must be added the social one.

‘The ancestors of man could not have been solitary in their habits,

but must have been strongly social. It is possible that the soli-

tary condition of the existing great apes is a result of their strictly

vegetarian habits. An anthropoid with carnivorous tendencies and

i original social habits would tend to increase rather than to lose

these habits, through the great benefit derived from mutual aid in

conflicts with the larger animals. That man, at an early period

in the stone age, waged war with the largest animals, we have

satisfactory evidence in the results of archæological discovery.

The original human society must have been one of mutual aid,

combination in enterprises, some degree of language, or of the

use of sounds conveying warning and information, protection and

education of the young, and habits of observation and imitation.

All these exist in some tribes of monkeys. As to vocal powers,

the gibbons possess them ina high degree, though there is no

evidence to show that any existing apes have specialized sounds

to convey special information. It is to a group of the higher

apes which possessed these characteristics in an unusual degree

that we must look for the ancestors of man. If we be asked for

traces of such a group we can but point to man. The ancestral

line has vanished in that of its descendants. The existing anthro-

poid apes are but side issues in the problem.

a The development of the social condition and of the edu

_ process must have had a vigorous influence in the enlargement

of the brain. In man the dividing line between the physical and

the mental powers, as organizing agents, was finally passed. A

tribe had arisen, for the first time in the long history of anim

= life, that trusted more to its mind than to its muscles, and which

_ had begun to substitute artificial for natural tools and weapons.

_ With the attainment of this condition there was taken the first

decided step in that long line of mental progress which has pro-

_ duced the brain of man. In all preceding ages evolution had

been mainly physical, and exerted its chief influence upo? if

limbs and muscles. Now, for the first time, mental evoluto"

gained the supremacy, and development centered itself in tY

cational

-ceased to change.

_ Under these circumstances there is nothing very SU

ha,

V say

’

brain, the organ of the mind, while the body, in great measure,

rprising 19

the fact that the human brain has attained an exceptional de ae

a a, ee ee ee

Ree ee a ae FT

as eta :

1886.] Progress of N. A. Invertebrate Paleontology for 1885. 505

opment, or that its growth was strongly marked at a very early

date. How far it has increased in size over that of its non-human

ancestor, we cannot judge from comparison with the brains of

any existing apes, since these may be of a much lower grade of

development. They are probably not fair standards of compari-

son. And if the body stood almost unchanged for ages, and all

the influences of nature centered themselves upon the brain, a

considerable increase in size and some variation in structure were

inevitable consequences, and it is not easy to perceive, under the

circumstances, that there is anything extraordinary in the special

growth of the human brain. 7

In the making of man, then, we perceive the critical step that

took the animal world over the dividing line between physical

and mental evolution; and in human development we are con-

cerned, not with the maturity of an old, but with the infancy of a

new evolutionary process, which is full of far-reaching and extraor-

dinary possibilities, of which the intellectual progress yet attained

by man may be but the beginning. There may be*needed as

many millions of years for the full development of the mind as

have been consumed in the evolution of the body, and the organ

of the mind may yet attain an importance in the scheme of the

physical organism of which we have no conception.

10:

REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF NORTH AMERICAN

INVERTEBRATE PALAZZONTOLOGY FOR 1885.

BY J. B. MARCOU. hy

p year which has just passed shows a marked increase in

; the number of palæontologic articles. The tendency to pub-

lish new species without any illustrations is also diminishing, and >

those interested in the science can look with great satisfactionon —

the augmented activity of North American invertebrate palaon-

gy.

T. H. Aldrich gives “Notes on the Tertiary of Alabama and

Mississippi, with descriptions of new species,” and “ Notes on —

ertiary fossils, rare, or little known,’ in the Jour. Cincinnati

Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII, pp. 145 and 153. “ Observations

the Tertiary of Alabama” appeared in the Amer. Four. Sci, 3d

ser., Vol. xxx, p. 300. | as

H. M. Ami has a “ List of fossils from Ottawa and vicinity, |

506 Review of the Frogress of North American [June,

and “ Additional notes on the geology and palzontology of

Ottawa and vicinity,” in the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club Trans.,

Nos. 5 and 6, Vol. 11, p. 251.

Francis Bain and (Sir) J. W. Dawson have a joint paper,

“ Notes on the geology and fossil flora of Prince Edward island,”

in the Canadian Rec. Sci, Vol. 1, p. 154.

C. E. Beecher publishes a “ List of the species of fossils from

an exposure of the Utica slate and associated rocks within the

limits of the city of Albany,” in the 36th Rep. New York ai

Mus. Nat. Hist., p. 78.

W. R. Billings describes “Two new species of Crinoids,” ie

gives the “ Report of the paleontological branch ” in the Ottawa

Field Naturalists’ Club Trans., No. 6, Vol. 11, pp. 248 and 259.

. L. Britton has an article on the discovery of “Cretaceous

plants from Staten Island” in the Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. v,

N. L. Britton and Arthur Hollick have an article on “ Leaf

bearing sandstones on Staten Island, New York,” in the Trans.

N.Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. 111, p. 30.

Charles Brongniart has “ Les Insectes Fossiles des Terrains

Le Primaires, Coup d’ceil rapide sur la faune entomologique des ter-

rains paléozoiques,” in the Bulletin de la Société des Amis des

Sciences Naturelles de Rouen, 3° serie, Vingt et uniéme année,

m semestre, p. 50. This article was translated in the Geol, ee ”

new series, Dec. 3, Vol. II, p. 481.

R. E. Call writes “On the Quaternary and recent Mollusca e

the Great basin, with descriptions of new forms;” this constitutes

Bulletin 11 of the U. S. Geol. Survey.

_.P. H. Carpenter prints “Further remarks upon the morphology

‘of the Blastoidea” in the Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 5th ser., Vol.

! Xv, p. 277. This is an answer to and a criticism of Mr. G. Ham-

-bach's article entitled, “Contributions to =e anatomy of the

_ Pentremites, with descriptions of new species,” in the Trans. St

‘Louis Acad. Sci., Vol. rv, p. 145.

_ J. M. Clarke gives “ A brief outline of the geological succession

. one county, N. Y., to accompany a map,” in the Report —

logist for 1884, p. 9. In this he gives lists. of TS

SA in the different Devonian formations. Bulletin U. 5.

o raie No. 16, is “On the higher Devonian faunas

o county, New York.”

eae

SR ee ee ee RES ae ee ee re ee SY y

Waa) one Bee le ce re ae

FEE Ot r e ae ety iNet a

ree P

> eee ae ASNS

ES P Oe

f Eee

Sais j! A

TERO A ; ev

1886. } Invertebrate Paleontology for 1885. 507

E. W. Claypole has an article “On the vertical range of cer-

tain fossil species in Pennsylvania and New York” in the AMER-

ICAN NATURALIST, Vol. xIx, p. 644.

J. C. Cooper has an article “ On fossil and sub-fossil land shells. _

of the United States, with notes on living species,” published by

the California Academy of Sciences, Pp. 235-255.

W. H. Dall notices the “Miocene deposits in Florida” in

Science, Vol. v1, p. 82. He has also ‘‘ Notes on some Floridan

land and fresh-water shells, with a revision of the Auriculacea of

the Eastern United States,” in Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. vit, p.

255. In Bulletin of the U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 24, is a “ List of

marine Mollusca, comprising the Quaternary fossils and recent

forms from American localities between Cape Hatteras and Cape

Roque, including the Bermudas.” k

J. D. Dana has a note on “ Lower Silurian fossils at Canaan,

N. Y.” in Science, Vol. v1, p- 233.

N. H. Darton has a “ Preliminary notice of fossils in the Hud-

son River slates of the southern part of Orange county, N. Y.,

and elsewhere,” in the Amer. Four, Sct., 3d ser., Vol. xxx, D. 452.

G. M. Dawson, in the Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., Vol. 1, No. 6,

P. 59, has an article entitled, “ Boulder clays. On the micro-

_ Scopic structure of certain boulder clays and the organisms con-

tained in them.”

(Sir) J. W. Dawson has “On Rhizocarps in the Paleozoic

Period ;” “ Notes on Zozobn canadense s” “The Mesozoic floras

of the Rocky Mountain region of Canada ;” and “ Ancient insects

and scorpions,” in the Canadian Rec. Sei, Vol. 1, pp. 19, 58, 141 3

and 207. He has also “ A modern type of plant inthe Creta-

ceous,” and “ A Jurasso-Cretaceous flora in the Rocky mount-

ains,” in Svience, Vol, Vv, ‘pp. 514 and 531. “The Cretacéous >

floras of Canada,” in Nature, Vol. xxx, p. 32; and “Sir William

wson on the Mesozoic floras of the Rocky Mountain region of |

a,” in the American NATURALIST, Vol. xIx, p. 609, are ab-

iade and notices published in advance from the author’s essay

On the Mesozoic floras of thè Rocky Mountain region of Can-

ada,” in the Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Vol. m, Sect iv, p E

S. W. Ford has a “ Note on the age of the slaty and arenaceous

Tocks in the vicinity of Schenectady, Schenectady county, New

York,” in the Amer. Four. Sci., 3d ser., Vol. XXIX, p. D

W. FE Gurley describes some “ New Carboniferous fossils

508 Review of the Progress of North American [June,

in Bulletin No. 2 of his own series; no illustrations accompany

these descriptions.

James Hall has published a large number of papers, some of

which have appeared in limited editions in previous years, but

they have not yet been noticed in these reviews. He publishes a

“Note on the intimate relations of the Chemung group and

Waverly sandstone in Northwestern Pennsylvania and South-

western New York,” and a “ Note on the Eurypteride of the De-

vonian and Carboniferous formations of Pennsylvania, with a

supplementary note on the Sty/onurus excelsior,’ in the Proc. A.

A. A. S., Vol. xxx, Part 11, pp. 416 and 420. In the 2d Geol.

Surv. Pennsylvania, Rep. of progress PPP, p. 23, he has a “ Note

on the Eurypteridz of the Devonian and Carboniferous forma-

tions of Pennsylvania.” In the Rep. State Geologist for 1881, p.

8, there is a “ Classification of the Lamellibranchiata.” In the

Rep. State Geologist for 1882, p. 5, there is a “ Discussion upon

the manner of growth, variation of form and characters of the

genus Fenestella, and its relations to Hemitrypa, Polypora, Rete-

pora, Cryptopora, etc.” This article is continued in the Rep. State

Geologist for 1884, p. 35. Sixty-one photo-lithographed plates

accompany the Rep, State Geologist for 1882. They are published

` in advance, with their explanations, under the following heads:

“Fossil corals and Bryozoans of the Lower Helderberg group,

and fossil Bryozoans of the Upper Helderberg group,” P. 17

plates 1-xxxti1, in advance of Vol. vi, Palzontology of New

York ; “ Brachiopoda, plates and explanations,” pls. XXXIV-LXI, in

advance of Vol. 1v, Part 11, Paleontology of New York. In the

-~ Rep. State Geologist for 1883, p. 5, he gives a “ Description of the

= Bryozoans of the Hamilton group (Fenestellidz excepted).” The

-~ _ 35th Rep. New York State Mus. Nat. Hist. contains the following

papers: “ Notice of the machinery and methods of cutting spe"

mens of rocks and fossils at the New York State Mus. Nat. Hist,

p. 121; “ Preliminary notice of the lamellibranchiate shells of the

‘Upper Helderberg, Hamilton and Chemung groups, preparatory

_ for the Paleontology of New York,” Part 1, p. 2153" Descrip-

tion of fossil corals from the Niagara and Upper Helderberg

: groups,” p. 497; and “ Illustrations of the microscopic structure ia

-of Brachiopoda,” pl. xxi. The 36th Rep. New York State Mus

_ Nat. Hist., contains the following papers: “ Bryozoa (Fenestel- :

_ lidæ) of the Hamilton group,” p. 57; “On the structure of te

Oat ie re A Ae + T i ri Y ale

if Pte

3 E \ \

=e r y

1886.} Invertebrate Paleontology for 1885. 509

shell in the genus Orthis,” p. 73; “ Description of a new species

of Stylonurus from the Catskill group,” p. 76; and “ Description

of a new genus from Greenfield, Saratoga county, N. Y.,” pl. vi.

The Rep. State Geologist for 1884 contains the following papers :

“On the mode of growth and relations of the Fenestellidz,” p.

35, continued from p. 14 of the Rep. State Geologist for 1882;

“On the relations of the genera Stictopora, Ptilodictya, Acrogenia

and allied forms in the Paleozoic rocks of New York,” p. 46;

and “ Note (on some Paleozoic pectenoid shells),” p. 47.

x Angelo Heilprin has published a book entitled, “ Town Geol-

ogy: the lesson of the Philadelphia rocks. Studies of nature

along the highways and among the byways of a metropolitan

town ;” plates tv and v contain figures of the Cretaceous inverte-

brate fauna. In Science, Vol. v, p. 475, and Vol. vı, p. 83; he has

two notes on “ The classification and palzontology of the U. S.

Tertiary deposits ;” these are criticisms of Dr. Otto Meyer's

views,

: E. W. Hilgard has two papers, one in Science, Vol. VI, p. 44,

a entitled, “ The classification and palzontology of the U. S. Ter-.

| tiary deposits ;’ and the other in the Amer. Four. Sci., 3d ser.,

` Vol. xxx, p. 266, entitled, “ The old Tertiary of the Southwest ;”

~ both are criticisms of Dr. Otto Meyer’s views.

7 G. J. Hinde has a “ Description of a new species of Crinoids

: with articulating spines,” in the Annals and Magazine of Natural

History, 5th ser., Vol. XV, p. 157.

Alpheus Hyatt, in the Proc. A. A. A. S., Vol. xxxni; Part m,

PP- 490 and 492, publishes two notes, one on the “ Structure of

the siphon in the Endoceratidz,” and the other on the “ Structure

pods of the St. John group) in the Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc. New

l theory of the origin of cellular tissues.”

~ Under

and affinities of Beatricea.” He has a letter (relative to the Pter-

Brunswick, No. 1v, p. 102. In the Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist, — 3 4

Vol. XXIII, p. 45, he has published an elaborate discussion of the ==

J. F. James, in the Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. vit, p.

151, has an article on the “ Fucoids of the Cincinnati group.” la, o

the AMERICAN NATURALIST, Vol. xIx, p. 165, he has a note enti- -

Hed, “ Are there any fossil Algæ?” He has also,“ Remarks on. ——

a Supposed fossil fungus from the coal measures ;” “ Remarks on-

me markings of the rocks on the Cincinnati group, described |

the names of Ormathicuus and Walcottia ;” and “ Remarks

510 Review of the Progress of North American [June,

on the genera Lepidolites, Anomaloides, Ischadites and Recepta-

_ culites, from the Cincinnati group,” in the Jour. Cincinnati Soc.

Nat. Hist., Vol. vit, pp. 157, 160 and 163.

A. A. Julien has “A study of Aozodn canadense ; filed obser-

vations,” in the Proc. A. A. A. S., Vol. xxx, Part 11, p. 415.

G. F. Kunz has an article “On the agatized woods, and the

_ Malachite, Azurite, etc., from Arizona,” in the Trans. N. Y. Acad. —

Sci., Vol. v, p. 9.

Leo Lesquereux’s'“ Contributions to the fossil flora of the

Western Territories. Part 11. The Cretaceous and Tertiary

floras. Rep. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., F. V. Hayden, U. S. geolo-

gist in charge. 4to, Vol. vir.” Was not published till February,

1885, although it bears the imprint 1883. p

A. H. Mackay publishes an ‘article on the “ Organic siliceous

remains in the lake deposits of Nova Scotia,” in the Canadian

Rec. Sct., Vol. 1, p. 236.

Jules Marcou writes on “ The Taconic system and its position

in stratigraphic geology,” in the Proc. Amer. Acad. of Arts and

Sciences, new series, Vol. x11, p. 174.

J. B. Marcou records “ Progress of North American invertebrate

paleontology for 1884,” in the American NATURALIST, Vol. XIX,

_ p- 353. This is a brief sketch of the palzontologic work done

in the year; a more extended review of it is published in the

' Smithsonian report for 1834, No. 610, pp. 1-20, Washington,

1885. In the Proc. U. S. National Museum, Vol. vil, p. 299 z

has “ A list of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic types in the collections

of the U. S. Nat. Museum ;” and the “ Identification of certain

fossils and strata of the Great Sioux Reservation” (in “ The Lig-

nites of the Great Sioux Reservation, a report on the region bê-

- tween the Grand and Moreau rivers, Dakota,” by Bailey Willis,

Bull. U. S. Geol. Sur, No. 21, p. 11).

G. F. Matthew has “ Recent discoveries in the St. John group, *

cand “A new genus of Cambrian Pteropods,” in the ate

Rec. Sci., Vol. 1, pp. 136 and 152. In the Bull. Nat. Hist.

- : _ Alpheus Hyatt relative to the Pteropods.” In the Amer. foul.

7) Sed, 3dser., Vol. xxx, p: 72, he has a note

_ occurrence of the great Welsh Paradoxides, P. davidis, in Amer

F ee anew f

3 ie In the same volume, p: 293; he has a “ Notice of ane : i

1886.] Invertebrate Paleontology for 1885. 511

genus of Pteropods from the St. John group (Cambrian).” In

this he describes the genus Diplotheca. He has a “ Note on the

genus Stenotheca ” in the Geol. Mag., new series, Decade 111, Vol.

1I, p. 425. In the Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Vol. 11, Sec. 1v, p.

99, appear his “Illustrations of the fauna of the St. John group

continued ; and a paper on the Conocoryphea, with further re-

marks on Paradoxides,”

Charles Morris, in the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philada. for 1885,

: PP. 97 and 385, has two articles entitled, “The primary condi-

A tions of fossilization,” and “ Attack and defense as agents in ani-

mal evolution.”

Otto Meyer, in the Amer. Your. Sct., 3d ser., Vol. xxix, p. 457,

and Vol. xxx, pp. 60 and 421, has an article in three parts, enti-

tled “ The genealogy and the age of the species in the southern

old Tertiary.” The author assumes the extraordinary position

that the succession is just the contrary from what it has hitherto

been considered to be, the Vicksburg, according to him, being the

oldest and the Claiborne the most recent formation. In “ Part r.

The geological relations of the species,” he partially describes a

number of species and varieties, without any illustrations ; these

à he considers to be new. Part 11 is on “ The age of the Vicksburg

: and the Jackson beds.” Part m, “ Reply to criticisms.” The

author defends his views against the criticisms of E. W. Hilgard,

E. A. Smith and T. H. Aldrich, in the October number of the

Amer. Four. Sci. In Science, Vol. v, p. 516, and Vol. vi, p. 143,

he has two notes on Angelo Heilprin’s criticism of his work.

J. S. Newberry, in the Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. 11, p. 217,

has a “ Description of some peculiar screw-like fossils from the _

Chemung rocks.” They are also described in the Trans. N. Y.

b Acad. Sci, Vol. 1m, p. 34

H. A. Nicholson and Robert Etheridge, Jr., in the Geol. Mag.,

=» new series, Decade 11, Vol. 11, p. 529, have an article “On the © Roy

Synonymy, structure and geological distribution of Solenoptera

compacta Billings sp.”

H. A. Nicholson and A. H. Foord, in the Aun. and Mag. Nat. -

Hist, 5th ser., Vol. xvi, p. 496, have an article “On the gma

Fistulipora McCoy, with descriptions of several species.” Lo

i A. S. Packard, in the AMERICAN NATURALIST, Vol. xIx, pp. 29%,

—— 7005790 and 880, has the following articles : “ Types of Carbon- -

F iferous Xiphosurą new to North America ;” “The Syncarida, a

Be.

an if

512 Review of the Progress of North American [June,

group of Carboniferous Crustacea ;” “On the Gampsonychidæ,

an undescribed family of fossil schizopod Crustacea ;” “On the

Anthracaridæ, a family of macrurous decapod Carboniferous

Crustacea, allied to the Eryonidæ.”

B. N. Peach, in Nature, Vol. XXXI, p. 295, has “ Ancient air-

breathers ;” a general review of Paleozoic scorpions.

J. H. Perry, in the Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., Vol. XXIX, p. 157,

has a “ Note on a fossil coal plant found at the graphite deposit

in mica-schist at Worcester, Mass.”

Julius Pohlman and R. P. Whitfield, in Science, Vol. v1, p. 183,

have a note on “ An American Silurian scorpion.”

A reprint of geological reports and other papers on the geol-

ogy of the Virginias, by the late William Barton Rogers, has

been issued,

S. H. Scudder publishes “ The geological history of Myriopods

P and Arachnids. Eighth annual address of the retiring president

of the Cambridge Entomological Club,” in Psyche, Vol. 1v, Jan-

uary-March, 1885, p. 245. In the Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. Vol

Ill, p. 1, he has a “ Description of an articulate of doubtful rela-

tionship from the Tertiary beds of Florissant, Colorado.” In the

Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philada. for 1885, pp. 34 and 105, he has

“New genera and species of fossil cockroaches from the older

American rocks;” and “Notes on Mesozoic cockroaches.” , In

the American NATURALIST, Vol. x1x, p. 876, is an abstract of his

paper on the “ Relations of the Paleozoic insects.”

ee CHM, Seeley, in the Amer. Your. Sci., 3d ser., Vol. XXX, P- 355s

-describes “ A new genus of chazy sponges, Strephochetus.”

= E A. Smith, in the Amer. Four. Sci, 3d ser., Vol. XXX, p- 27%

has “ Remarks on a paper of Dr. Otto Meyer on ‘Species in me

_ southern old Tertiary.’ ”

Michigan.”

=- Paleocrinoidea. Part m1. Discussion of the. classification and

- descriptions,” in the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philada. for 1885, P:

re D. Walcott has a “ Description of the (Deer creek, Arizona)

_ C. Wachsmuth and W. H. Barris have “ Descriptions of new

C. Wachsmuth and Frank Springer issue a “ Revision of the

relations of the brachiate Crinoids, and conclusion of the genet |

-goalfield,” Senate Ex. Doc. No. 20, 48th, Congress, second SS

i sly "pe Se

i a

CRE 2

ENE ee ee | ee ae EE O,

a ee S o en Weds

ws * i ee eee yr See ee tA aaa ee Sees = = a age

oe oe

_ Oregon;

~— Contriby

lotte į

Toen Vol. 11, PP. 237 and 239, he has “ D ptior ue

T of Ammonite from the Cretaceous rocks of Fort St. Pe

1886.] Lnvertebrate Paleontology for 1883. 513

sion, Appendix 1, p. 5. He contributes the following papers to the

Amer, Jour. Sci., 3d ser., Vol. XIX, pp. 114 and 328, and in Vol.

XXX, p. 17, “ Palzontologic notes ;” “ Paleozoic notes, new genus

of Cambrian Trilobites, Mesonacis ; and “ Note on some Paleo-

zoic Pteropods.”

L. F. Ward, in the Botanical Gazette, Vol. IX, p: 169, has “The _

fossil flora of the globe.” In the Proc. A. A. A. S., Vol. XXXIII,

Part 11, pp. 493, 495 and 496, he has “ Historical view of the

fossil flora of the globe;” “ Geological view of the fossil flora of

the globe ;” and “ Botanical view of the fossil flora of the globe.”

In the AMERICAN NATURALIST, Vol. xIx, pp. 637 and 745, he has

an article on “ Evolution in the vegetable kingdom.”

C. A. White has “The application of biology to geological his-

tory, a presidential address delivered at the fifth anniversary

meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, January 24,

1885,” in the Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. 11, p. 1, In the

Amer. Four, Sci, 3d ser., Vol. XXIX, pp. 228 and 277, he has

“Notes on the Jurassic strata of North America ;” and “The

genus Pyrgulifera Meek, and its associates and congeners.” Bull.

U.S. Geol. Surv., No. 1 5, is “On the Mesozoic and Cenozoic

palzontology of California.” Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 18, is

“On marine Eocene, fresh-water Eocene and other fossil Mol-

lusca of Western North America ;” it is divided into three parts :

1. The occurrence of Cardita Planicosta Lamarck, in Westera

; I Fossil Mollusca from the John Day group in East-

em Oregon ; 111. Supplementary notes on the non-marine fossil

Mollusca of North America. Some additions and corrections for

the illustrations on p. 19 are made to the above work. Bull. U.

: Geol. Surv., No. 22, is “On new Cretaceous fossils from Cali-

rnia.” : ;

J. F. Whiteaves has a “ Report on the Invertebrata of the Lar-

amie and Cretaceous rocks of the vicihity of the Bow and Belly

rivers and a

l. and Nat Hist. Surv. Canada, A. R. C. Selwyn, director ;

tion to Canadian paleontology, Vol. 1, Part 1 In the y

- Four. Sci, 3d sér., Vol. XXIX, p. 444, he has “ Notes on the:

ible age of some of the Mesozoic rocks of the Queen Char-

slands and British Columbia.” In the Trans. Roy. Soc.

iption of a new

djacent localities in the Northwest Territory” in the

tia Gravitation and the Soaring Birds. ` [June,

on the Peace river,’ and “ Note on a decapod Crustacean from

the Upper Cretaceous of Highwood river, Alberta, N. W. T.”

R. P. Whitfield contributes to Science, Vol. vi, p. 87, “An

American Silurian scorpion.” In the Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat

Hist., October 10, 1885, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp. 181, 191 and 193, he

has the following articles: “ On a fossil scorpion from the Silu-

rian rocks of America ;” “ Notice of a new Cephalopod from the

Niagara rocks of Indiana ;” “ Notice of a very large species of

Homalonotus from the Oriskany sandstone formation.”

H. S. Williams, in the Proc. A. A. A. 5., Vol. XXXII, Part 11,

p. 422, publishes an article on “ Geographical and physical condi-

tions as modifying fossil faunas.” In the Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d ser.,

Vol. xxx, p. 45, he has a “Notice of a new limuloid Crustacean

from the Devonian.”

A. Winchell, in the Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., Vol. XXX, pp. 316

and 317, has “ Notices of N. H. Winchell on Lingula and Para-

doxides from the red quartzites of Minnesota,” and “On Coenos-

troma and Idiostroma and the comprehensive character of Stro-

matoporoids.”

N. H. Winchell describes “Fossils from the red quartzites at

Pipestone” in the Geol. and Nat. Hist. Surv. Minnesota, 13th

Ann. Rep., p. 65.

H. H. Winwood, in the Geol. Mag., new series, Decade 11,

Vol. 11, p. 240, remarks on the “ Geological age of the Rocky

‘mountains ;” in it he reports finding a Menevian fauna” betwee? —

the 116th and 117th parallels of longitude on the Canadian Pacific

railway.

B. H. Wright, in the 35th Rep. N. Y. State Mus. Nat. Hist., p.

195, contributes “ Notes on the geology of Yates county, N. Y.

:0:

GRAVITATION AND THE SCARING BIRDS.

| BY I. LANCASTER.

Be experimental philosophy, all propositions collected by 1°

_ 4 duction from phenomena are to be held either exactly oF

: approximately true until other phenomena are found by which

those propositions can be made either more accurate Or subject

to exceptions” (Newton’s Principia, Book 111).

o > The soaring birds seem to be excused from obedience to the 2

_ Jaws determining the actions of other inert bodies heavier tham

oe find ourselves in a sort of dilemma. We are obliged to con- T

_ Sider

oe kno

Le onclusion that the quantity of matter was acting, and that oy

1886. } Gravitation and the Soaring Birds, ` | 515

the air, which are abandoned to its support. Weighing more

than the air they displace, and using no muscular exertion to

sustain themselves, they still, in the sense of getting nearer to the

earth, do not fall. When we seek for a motive power which is

competent to resist the weight of the bird’s body, and neutralize

the resistance of the air to its translation, we seem baffled. Bird

and air form a material system in which no other object is in-

cluded, so that it is impossible to obtain power from the wind.

Wind is motion of the entire system as a whole, compared toa

fixed object, as an observer, and such motion does not affect the

motion of the parts. Wind from any direction, or at any velocity,

or entire calm are differences of air-conditions to an observer, but

not toa bird. We are therefore limited to the gravitating force

of the bird’s body to find the power producing the phenomena, as

it is nowhere else discoverable. But here we are confined to

certain notions derived from sticks and stones, and in fact all

other falling things, and they do not seem to help us in explain-

ing a thing which does not fall. We are likewise taught that the

direction of the gravitating force is vertically downwards, 7, e., in

a straight line from the body manifesting it to the center of the

earth. What we understand by this “ direction” is, that when —

gravity does work, when it is in the act of making anything dif-

ferent from what it was before, when it moves a thing at rest, or

Stops it when in motion, or accelerates it, or is in the act of man-

esting energy in the way which we call “ work,” that the “ direc- zo

tion” in which it does it is vertically downwards. How then can >-

this force drive a body upwards, or translate it horizontally ? :

Still further. Although we admit, when our attention is called

to it, that weight is the result of gravity acting on a quantity of —

Matter, we are apt to confound mass, and weight, and gravity into —

wog identical thing. This is inadmissible, since the doctrine of

: € correlation of forces is established, as it is entirely possible to. _ í

change every atom of gravitating force which a body manifests _

into some other form of force, in which case either the former is- ——

Separate from the quantity of matter or the latter is created. We. =

§ravity as something apart from body, and still we have no

i wledge of it excepting what we are enabled to infer about it. 5

fre it not for these inferences we would be shut up to tbe,

516 Gravitation and the Soaring Birds. [June,

ity, as a separate force, was simply non-existent, for it never man-

ifests its power but in connection with body, and the action of

the body is our rule to determine the action of the force.

It would be expected that in dealing with agencies of this kind,

the greatest care should be exercised lest we fall into errors, and

it is apparent that many of our notions in regard to gravitating

bodies have been brought up from generalizations which do not

include all the facts. The soaring birds have been omitted. To

the extent of their exclusion our ideas are subject to error. It is

imperative that they be brought under the dominion of gravity,

and that the phenomena presented by them shall have due recog-

nition in determining the characteristics of that force.

-I have shown in the pages of this magazine that these birds

_ Can be reduced to lower terms. A plane resting in air, and acte

on by a force, exhibits all their activities, and up to this time, SO

_ far as my knowledge extends, the mechanical world has failed to

= work on elastic air.

. ing propositions, which are self-evident on statement. = |

_ otherwise noted, acceleration will be supposed to have termina

2 ~ uniform motion progressing.

recognize the facts eitubited by such a body, when subjected to

1886, | _ Gravitation and the Soaring Birds. : 517

As there is no authority for the value of frictional resistance of air

on smooth surfaces, and as I have failed to measure it by any exper-

imental test at my command, on account of its extreme smallness,

the argument would be in no wise affected if it were not taken

into account for any of the velocities that we shall deal with. The

reader may therefore place upon it any value within reasonable

limits.

Let A B represent one of the edges of a plane, say one foot

Square, resting in air, and of the same weight as the atmosphere

it displaces,

1. The only actual or conceivable work the plane can be sub-

t to under the dominion of any force whatever, is either air

Pressure upon its sides, or resistance to atmospheric surface or

skin friction, parallel to itself or in its own plane.

2. From the law of fluid pressures, and the contrary and equal

aracter of action and reaction, a force operative upon the plane

B from any direction, does work in one, or both, of two ways,

z., either in it or at right angles to it.

3. Forces in the direction of c d, or in the plane in any direc-

tion, are not resolved by the plane, but work to their full value in

piers independence of each other, as they are right-angled

orces, :

jec

4. Forces from any direction, excepting in the plane and nor-

mal to it, are resolved by the plane into those two directions.

5. Any number of forces, not in the plane nor normal to it,

Operate upon it in the resultant of one force, from one direction ;

d this resultant, if not already in the plane or normal to. it, is —

resolved therein by the plane. |

_ 6. It follows that the plane can be subject to work only, (1) in

its own plane, (2) in a direction at right angles to its surfaces, (3)

in both of these directions.

Y the plane is compressing air, and as the resistance of the Pa

atmosphere to motion in this direction is very great, the velocity.

TH be Correspondingly slow. ee

€ nature of the work done by the force in the plane, is

T aming atmospheric friction on the two surfaces, which being”

very little, m ingly.

Sreat,

otion in this direction will be correspondingly:

9- A force not in the plane, nor normal to it, is resolved by the.

7. The nature of the work done by the force acting normal

518 Gravitation and the Soaring Birds, [June,

plane into those forces in the same ratio that the direction of the

force bears to those directions.

To illustrate these propositions we will suppose a force, e f, in-

clined 18° from ¢ d, to operate on the plane A B, with a value of

sixty foot pounds per second. The plane would instantly resolve

/ _ this force into twelve foot pounds in its own plane in the direction

2, and forty-eight foot pounds in the direction ¢-d, at right angles

to it, when it would be reasonable to suppose that the twelve

pounds would drive the plane against friction of air with far

greater velocity than forty-eight pounds would against air com-

pression.

If motion in the direction 2 were resisted to the point of pre-

vention, all the force, e f, would do work in the direction ¢ æ,

when the entire sixty pounds would be setting up air pressure,

and the plane would be in equilibrium in the direction I 2.

very small force, say one or two pounds, would now drive the

plane in any direction, say towards 1, with considerable velocity.

| It is obvious that the sixty pounds of air pressure would be

enough to supply the twelve pounds needed to balance the force

acting towards 2, and the one or two pounds additional needed to

drive the plane towards 1 with a velocity we will suppose of 150

feet per second. If we suppose the motion of the plane in the

direction e f to be at the rate of thirty feet per second, it will

= move in opposition to the direction of the force as fast as it does

= with its direction, and we will have the anomalous case of a force

= developing enough force in moving a body to move several such

bodies through the same space in the same time diametrically

| Opposite to its own direction !

. This seems absurd, and needs rectification to make it tolerable.

We have entirely overlooked the fact that the moment e f began

the task of working it abandoned the direction in which 1t re-

_ sided, and four-fifths of it went over 18° to c d, and one-fifth

-went over 108° to A B. The direction e f is vacated, it is without

significance. For all the influence it has on the plane it mightas

well not exist. There is zow no movement of the plane against

_ the direction of the force whatever. Vow, the forces working 0°

_air, and driving the plane towards t, are at right angles to each

other and do not resist each other. The problem is, the ger

of a force to drive a plane faster edgeways than flatways throug

ee E R EREET

PENA:

1886] . Gravitation and the Soaring Birds. 519

In going over, the one fifth that traveled -108° was wasted, 2. ¢.,

it neutralizes an equal amount of the other, so that only forty-

eight pounds, instead of sixty pounds, are available to drive the

plane edgeways; but this would be competent to produce an

enormous velocity. Had the force been originally in cd, the

entire sixty pounds would have been available.

But when we rectify the diagram so as to make ef vertical,

and add two pounds weight to the plane, so that the force em-

ployed will be gravity, all the ghosts, which we supposed laid, at

once reappear in vastly magnified proportions, The outcry now

is, that the law of falling bodies is violated, for a body in falling

can do no more work than sufficient to lift it through the same

Perpendicular height. It seems that here is a good place to

establish an €xception, and we will examine into the way in which

it may be done.

While the plane A B is level, the gravitating force is not re-

Solved by it, but acts at right angles to the surfaces, when lateral

Motion will be resisted by nothing but atmospheric friction, and a

this the one or two pounds is competent to overcome, driving the

plane to D while it is falling the thirty feet in which the sixty re

Pounds is developed. It will therefore pass to H, the resultant of

two motions. It will simply have a lateral motion of 150 feet

Sways through the air added to its fall of thirty feet. To its

Work of air compression there will be joined an additional item —

x work in Overcoming 150 feet of atmospheric friction. The i

eS att ere ts IN AT be z ES 8 en

> Bate: | Se...

By aed

ge i |

f 520' . Gravitation and the Soaring Birds. - [June,

;

force developed in the fall will be enough to supply the lateral

force and still leave fifty-eight or fifty-nine pounds to go to waste

by falling to the tension of the surrounding air. -

But this would not be “ soaring,” as the plane will soon reach

the ground, =

If we now throw the plane over on an incline of one in five, or

18°, we have an additional twelve pounds of lateral resistance to

overcome, which the sixty pounds is entirely competent to effect,

together with the one or two needed to carry the plane to ¢, and

still have forty-six or forty-seven pounds more than is wanted left

over. We now have the plane elevated as fast as it falls, so that

its resultant passage to D is the horizontal translation of flight,

and a body in falling does work enough to: not only lift it to the

same height from which it fell, but to move it against air resist-

' ance, and have a large surplus left over!

This seems impossible. But the reason of such appearance, aS

already shown, is that we are entertaining a fallacy. We are

supposing the direction of the gravitating force to still be vertical

after it has gone over eighteen and a hundred and eight degrees.

We have, as a matter of fact, changed the direction of gravity

more than we have slanted the plane. One-fifth of its total

amount has gone over 108°. The plane has taken the same lib-

erty with the great cosmical force of gravitation that it would

with any other force. It refuses to be operated upon by any

energy whatever of a mechanical kind while doing work on elastic

- fluids, excepting in the two directions mentioned, and any force

whatever, not in either of these, is instantly put there by the

plane. To say that the gravitating force is still vertical, and

has not gone over, is to increase the difficulties of the °as°

= and not to abate them. In such event the law of fluid pressures

is violated, which demands that they be at right angles to the

compressing surface. The plane would also fall vertically with-

_ out lateral motion, all of which is impossible. Some force is

-~ actuating A’ B in its own plane and normal to it. From whence

comes it? There is but one source of supply. The plane me

simply resolved gravity until its perpendicular line has beer

_ vacated, and re-located at right angles to the lateral force acting

in the plane, which lifts no weight, and resists nothing whatever

but friction. The plané, in its translation towards <, is moving

= towards é, but not towards e’. It is going contrary to the abstract

. eS pee ES E ee ee

1886. ] Causes of Forest Rotation. 521

direction of gravity, but not contrary to the direction in which

that force is now working, which alone concerns us,

The whole matter hinges on the ability of a plane to resolve

the gravitating force as it resolves other forces. In doing so it

does a very wonderful thing. It makes of gravity a continuous

motive power. It introduces a new idea into our conceptions of

things, and makes it imperative that we rectify our notions of the

gravitating force so as to admit these facts, which we have not

hitherto recognized.

It dignifies the soaring birds into the position of favored crea-

tures of nature. They inhabit a universe of their own. The

horizon of their world is not the level of the sea, but the incline

of their own wings, which they can change at will. Their gravi-

tating force is either in a straight line from their bodies towards

the center of the earth, or the moon, or the sun, or any of the

stars of heaven, indifferently, as it suits them, to sleep on the

breeze, to play at gymnastics high in air, to enact the rôle of the

highway robber, or to serenely float from zone to zone.

I have now presented the case of the soaring birds to the ex-

tent of my ability. The task could have been better done by a

Specialist in analytic mechanics, as it is in this sphere that its sig-

nificance lies. The whole matter is extremely peculiar. In con-

sequence of the throng of preconceived ideas which tend to cast

the obscurity of night over the whole case, the evidence upon

which it rests, although axiomatic throughout, is difficult to see.

“ne mechanism also seems devoid of organization, a simple plane —

is all there is of it,@na still it has the power to change the hori-

zon of the world to suit its own purposes. It would be unwise —

to suppose that a device capable of doing this was not competent -

x give to man what he has long coveted, the power to navigate

the air, A

Certainly we must entertain two standards of horizontal, one

the level of the sea, and the other the incline of the wings of the — a

Soaring birds, Pil

oo `

20.

CAUSES OF FOREST ROTATION.

att BY JOHN T. CAMPBELL. : Lees a

P a letter recently received from Dr. S. V. Clevenger, he _— io

| tioned a case coming under his own observation on the North J

-CUS railroad, in Minnesota, near Mille Lacs, where the railroad

522 | . Causes of Forest Rotation. Hune,

company cut the pine timber off of their own alternate sections

for railroad ties and other purposes. This pine forest was suc-

ceeded at once, to all appearances spontaneously, by oaks.

I have often heard North Carolinians say the same thing about

old fields in that State, when abandoned as worn-out land, that

some timber different from that which had been cut off when

clearing the land at first, would spring up spontaneously, or ap-

pear to be spontaneous.

I can speak only for my own locality, not having observed any

me other. Here (West central Indiana) we have in many localities

a prevailing species of timber, but no species that exist to the

exclusion of all others, as is often the case with pine. But of

our prevailing timber, or any other kind, sugar maple excepted,

none seem to be reproducing their kind in their immediate vicin-

ity. For reasons which will follow, I surmise that nearly all

forest trees bear and shed leaves which are unfavorable to the

sprouting and growing of their own seeds. The most notable

instance I can now think of is the red cedar, introduced into this

| vicinity from the north and north-east about forty-five years ago

i for ornamental purposes. I don’t remember at what age they

= began bearing seed, but I think as early as ten years, counting

them to have been three years old from the seed when trans-

planted here. Until certain kinds of birds bezan to eat their

seeds, they were not found growing wild in the forests. I do not

know what birds eat the seed, but evidently all do not, else they

would have been planted as soon as the pargnt trees bore seeds,

which was not the case for fully fifteen years afterward. When

these seeds pass through the craw and intestines of birds they

_ are prepared to sprout when they come in contact with the ground

of the proper degree of moisture. Nurserymen, when they

_. gather them direct from the trees, are obliged to put them through

some process of scalding before planting. The birds drop them

Ppromiscuously over the country, where they have been appearing

within the past fifteen years numerously, and only rarely before

about that time. They are a hardy tree, and bid fair to becom®

OnE of the forest trees of the future in this part of Indiana. It "

_ reasonable to presume that these seeds would be more abundan

4 dropped under and very near these parent trees than elsewhere,

_ for quite probably the birds that nest in these trees eat their see

Yet no young cedars are ever seen to sprout and grow e

1886.] Causes of Forest Rotation. : 523

The same is true (7. e., not growing their young within the radius

of their leaf-fall) of the white pine, firs and other evergreens

transported here for ornamental purposes. Some of the older

ones are twenty inches in diameter, and have borne seeds many

years,

I have long observed that the seeds of forest trees shed upon

the forest leaves, sugar maple excepted, cannot sprout. This is

very specially the case with the American poplar seeds. Yet I

often find in the woods clusters of young poplars, varying in age

from one year to sixty and seventy years. Last year I found out

how this comes about. If the seeds happen to fall on the bare

ground of the right degree of moisture, they at once take root

and grow. If about the time these seeds are falling there should

be a hog in the woods and he should have an appetite for ground

Worms, he would thrust his strong snout through the leaves into

the ground and cast u p fresh earth in a very promiscuous manner,

and every poplar (or other) seed that should happen to fall on

that fresh ground would stand a good chance of growing. I saw

young poplars just barely sprouted under the above circum-

stances, while at the same time other and brother seeds had

fallen on the leaves neat by, where they lay dead and as dry and

crisp as smoking tobacco. are

Sometimes squirrels, hares, ground squirrels (chipmunks) dig eae

through the leaves into the ground for food which they find there,

I presume, and these places give a chance for one or more seeds

to grow, and the hoofs of heavy bullocks (and in times past the

elk and buffalo) have made deep tracks through the leaves into

the ground, which would give a like chance, whilst the coating —

of leaves would prevent the growth of all the rest. The hogs were

brought here at the very earliest time of settlement, turned loose

In the woods, where they multiplied rapidly, becoming wild, fero-

cious and more dangerous to man than bears, wolves or panthers. _

= „ause of its rapid growth. Many of these are ten to twenty

: ‚aches in diameter at the butt, and have been bearing seeds for ,

PAN The seeds of this tree must find favorable growing con-

ditions as soon as they falf or they are lost, for one day’s baking

m the hot sun kills them. They must have a steady moisture —

524 ) Causes of Forest Rotation, ; [June,

with warm but not hot sunshine. The trees bore a bountiful crop

of seed last May, and of the first that matured and fell, I tried to

sprout about a dozen by placing them in good ground and water-

z ing every day for several days. But as I could not give them all

my time, they dried up between waterings and died. After these

had died, there came a threatening, blustering storm one Sunday

a evening about sundown, which shook off the remaining soft maple

seeds. They were so abundant that they gave the streets a buff color

J where they fell. The wind was followed by a light, steady rain, which

= continued several days, alternating with sunshine. This was favora-

ble to sprouting these seeds, and they came up all over the streets,

yards, and gardens as thick as weeds in a neglected field, a thing

that never happened before in the twenty-two years I have resided

in the place. Those in the street the cows ate up ; those in the gar-

dens were weeded out, and those growing elsewhere were killed

by the following summer drought. On the south end of my gar-

den, where a cellar drain terminates, the proper moisture was

` maintained through the drought, and there stands a thick cluster

of them, the only survivors, so far as I know, of the millions that

sprang up last May. After these trees are three years old they

can be successfully transplanted into any kind of soil we have

et here, and seem as hardy as any dry-ground tree ; but during their

infancy the conditions must be as before stated or they die. So

= thinkitis clear that this tree will never. be self-planting, except

- along the low, moist bottom of the streams where we find it

native.

A The hard sugar maple does plant its own seeds within the

radius of its own leaf-fall. In 1884 there developed a local rain

in the south-east quarter of this (Parke) county which continued

_ showery for several days, alternating with sunshine, just as the

~ sugar maple seeds were falling. The result was as in the case of

the soft maples last May; all the seeds sprouted. As this favor-

able condition did not happen when the other trees were shedding

their seeds, the result in that part of the county is, that the sugar

= maples are a hundred to one of all the other young trees sisi

: bined, and the deep snow and cold winter that followed, making

-a hard crust on the snow, prevented the sheep, cattle and rabbits :

: (hares) from browsing them down, though it starved thousands

‘of rabbits, as their bones found in hollow logs and trees abun-

dantly attest; but it saved the young sugar maples till they a*°

Ba Ba Se Nien iy ha eR ee aie aan 2 oils E oa

Pa ss eee

1886,] Causes of Forest Rotation. 525

now large enough to be safe from every enemy except man. If

he were out of the way for 150 years about all the present

forest trees will have lived out their time, and these young sugar

maples would be almost the only trees of the forest in the area

where a rain happened to fall with the seed. In the other thrée-

quarters of the county that state of things would not exist, for

there only the lucky seed that fell where a hog had rooted or a

bull had trodden has made a tree, and this luck was as favorable

to other seeds as to the sugar maple. These maple seeds send

rootlets right down through the coating of leaves into the ground,

and I have seen, over an area of many acres at a time, a maple

Sprout for every four inches square, or nine to the square foot,

none seeming to have missed sprouting. In replanting the ground

where the present forest has been cut away, the sugar maple

makes the least show of all the forest trees. As an infant it

seems to thrive best in the shade of older trees.

How the oak can take the place of pine where there are no

oaks in the vicinity to bear acorns, I am not sure, but it is easier

and more rational to believe that there is some natural agency for

transporting the seed of the apparently spontaneous new tree,

than to believe it to be really spontaneous, whether we understand

the transporting agency or not.

One of the most industrious and persistent seed-transporting

agencies I know of is that ubiquitous, energetic, rollicking, med-

dlesome busybody, the crow. Did you ever take a young crow

and raise it as a pet? Please do so once and you will have more

information about crows than I could give you in an entire num-

ber of the Naturatist, They become very tame, and after they

are able to fly it seems to be the delight and work of their lives ta

Pick up and carry from place to place any and every article which

'S Not too heavy for them. After a pet crow has had a little

Practice he is as expert at tricks of legerdemain as a showman.

He will steal a spool of thread, a thimble, a pair of scissors, a

Paper of pins, or what not? right before your eyes, and as he

flies away will tuck it so adroitly up under his tail feathers that __

yon Can't see it. He makes a deceptive grab as he starts to fly, __

¥ faking a few steps'as if to give himself a little momentum to

his flight, and one of these steps he will plant square on ~

ape article he intends to steal, when his claws close round it and ae

Of he goes. Perchance he will alight only a few yards distant

; : vou, Xyp, vr, :

the

ah >

p"!

526 Causes of Forest Rotation. | [June,

on the ground beside a chip, which chip, as he alights, he will so

quickly and adroitly turn over with the other foot as to cover out

of sight the article he has taken. He will then take a few steps

-about the chip with his toes all properly radiating, purposely to

show you that he does not hold the missing article in his claw.

‘Unless you are acquainted with his tricks you would concede

that he had not taken your thimble, so adroitly, is the trick per-

formed. Then he is ready for some new mischief. Off he goes

to the chicken-yard where a hen and her chicks are scratching

for bugs. He alights plump into their midst. The little chicks

scream and scamper for shelter. The old hen, with her feathers

all awry, dashes at him as if she would tear him into strings, but

just as she gets in striking distance the crow opens his mouth

| and caws loudly right into her face. She stops abruptly, hesi-

= tates and slowly backs off. Then comes the cock of the y

= likea charge of cavalry, to drive the intruder from his premises;

z but as he too gets in striking distance, the crow opens his mouth

about three inches wide and caws so loud, right into the cock's

= face, that he can be heard a quarter of a mile. The cock too

stops suddenly, and his look of surprise and amazement is most

amusing. His wrothy feathers gradually smooth down and he

hc takes a few steps cautiously backward, then whirls and runs back

__._under the rose-bush and there tells the hens how the crow acte

oo like Irving’s Knickerbocker soldiers who were sent up the Hud-

son to capture a fort, and who had nose, thumb and fingers all

wiggled at them at once over the wall by the garrison, which was

such a strange and unexpected proceeding that they hastened

=~ back to headquarters to report what had taken place.

ck I had a pet crow two years ago that cut so many tricks in his

: way that a neighbor shot him one morning. Afterward, in clean-

ing the leaves out of my eave troughs, various of our own and

- ie eens articles were found in the troughs and on the

| roo

Fhe crow in his-wild state is alt the ‘time busy at ome "A

es work as I have described. I cannot discover that he has any design

in this busy, meddlesome mischief. If there is design in mer

=- s-

_ regular pow-wow, a mass convention where they seem " a

-it is back of the crow in the Great Superintendent of pF ae

= processes. I have seen crows gather by hundreds and have“

— cuss measures and appoint officers, I haye heard their cawn i

RS a Ea ey ee ee py

tae

(ae

ee eN

a T See se eS a ee ee Ge. E E EEE

ae See ee ee eB ee Sea ae ae E S ee S

EEN T ee ee n e e ea, =

Such

bur

ens frolic on a bur oak, and in leaving it for this place, each =

“tried an acorn, as is their habit, Co

1886. ] Causes of Forest Rotation, 527

more than a mile distant. At length they get through, by finish-

ing their work or tiring of it, and disperse. As they start to fly

away many, if not all, will drop something. I have found these

to be acorns, walnuts, hickory-nuts, buckeyes, sycamore-balls,

sticks, egg-shells, pebbles, &c. As a crow leaves an oak he will

pluck an acorn which he may carry five miles and light on a

beech tree, where something else will attract his attention, when

he will drop the acorn and may be pluck a pod of beech nuts and

fly away somewhere else. ;

The squirrel is also a nut-transporting agent. The hog will

eat his nut where he finds it, but the squirrel must find some suit-

able place to eat his nut, like some fastidious boarders I have

known, who would not and could not eat if they failed to get

their own conspicuous place at table. The squirrel will select his

nut, take it in his mouth, skip along a few yards, pause a moment,

then a few more skips and pause, preferring a fence or fallen tree

to the ground for his roadway. He will sometimes carry his nut

several hundred yards, not to his home, but to some conspicuous

tall fence-stake or dead projecting limb of a tree, on which he sits

on his haunches, his tail curled over his back, and in this striking

attitude he complacently gnaws through the shell of his nut to

Set the kernel. It will sometimes happen that just as he is ready

to begin on his nut a hawk will swoop down after him, and His

Complacency is glad to drop his nut and flirt down to the under

Side of the limb for protection, This nut may fall on good

Sround and make a future great forest tree. He will be chased

by a dog, fox or hawk sometimes while on his way to his eating <<

Place, and involuntarily plant an oak, a walnut or hickory. The ed:

Partition fences across our cleared farms and stumps out in the ss

fields have many such planting of oak, walnut and hickory, far al"

from the trees that bore the nuts, which I attribute to the crow 4

or the squirrel, é

I know a place about four miles south-west of here, where a

‘Ow place in a field was too wet to be plowed, and has grown up

full of young bur oaks, but there is no parent tree anywhere — 7

near, not near enough even for high winds to carry such acorns.

acorns sprout only in wet ground. I think this grove of

Oaks is the result of a frolic of the crows, They had a pre- —

528 Observations on Young Humming-Birds. (June,

OBSERVATIONS ON YOUNG HUMMING-BIRDS.

BY H. S. GREENOUGH.

ae the month of June last, I heard through friends of

the nest of a humming-bird (7Zrochilus colubris) at Cotuit, on

Cape Cod, where I was then staying, and having long wished for

such an opportunity, I immediately decided to do what T could

towards observing the growth of the young. Unfortunately the

position of the nest made this rather difficult, for it was on a

small dead branch of a yellow pine tree, some distance from the

trunk and twelve to fourteen feet from the ground, or thereabout. 4

Of four nests’that I have seen, all in Cotuit, three were in yellow

pines and one ona silver poplar, two about twenty or twenty-five

: feet high, one nine or ten and the last as above stated ; the one

Ren on the poplar was on a small dead branch ; with regard to those

that were highest up, I do not remember whether they were on

oes dead limbs or not.

ie The young birds were first seen by me on a Saturday, the pre- f

vious Wednesday a lad, whom I sent up the tree, reported two i

eggs, as he had already done once before, so that I cannot z

when the birds were hatched, and had feared to make daily visits

at this stage lest I should frighten away the old bird. By means

of a long step-ladder, improvised for the occasion by tying t0-

gether two ordinary ladders, I was enabled to view the young

within a few inches. Though very small, they were rather larger

than I had expected them, and appeared to be already covered for

the most part, a bare

streak extending,

however, down the

middle of the back;

nee Fic. 1,—Diagrammatic sketch from memory of young 5

~ when first =n = trifle reduced; heads too small in ¢ccirostral type *

oe extending $

: below the eye, I am not sure, I feared to take the young an s -i

1886.] Observations on Young Humming-Birds, 529

closer inspection lest I should injure them or frighten off the old

bird, and I particularly wished to ascertain other points which

could only be done by leaving the nest undisturbed. The two

young lay quite still at the bottom of the nest (which was deeper

than those I have seen after the birds have left, and with sides and

edge beautifully finished) with their heads pointing the same way

and their bills somewhat upward and against the side of the nest.

The annexed diagram, from memory, will give a fair idea of their

general appearance at this time, it being borne in mind that spe-

cial attention was paid to the head and bill.

On the following Thursday I again went up to the nest, and

found the birds somewhat grown and the typical humming-bird

bill beginning to show itself. I can best describe it by saying

that it looked somewhat as if it had grown out of,or on to the

other like an extraneous thing, but was still only a fraction of an

inch long, say a quarter or trifle less. During this time the old

bird had been on the nest nearly always when I passed by, or if

aWay was very soon back. A few days later,

however, I found her absent for some time, at .

different hours of the day, and feared some acci-

dent had happened, but on watching near by I

finally saw her return and feed the young and a neen

then sit on the nest again. I now borrowed an bird’s head on Thurs-

Opera-glass and passed a good deal of time 02% "2 aes mian

Watching the feeding of the young. When first memory.

Seen the old bird perched on the edge of the nest in an erect atti-

tude, very much as a woodpecker on the trunk of a tree, and

bent down her bill close to her nest whilst feeding the young;

ter on the position was varied, sometimes sitting nearly horizon-

tal and feeding a bird on the opposite side of the nest. After

the young got a little larger she could be seen to thrust her bill

into theirs; she fed first one and then the other, apparently by re-

Surgitation from the crop, for a motion could be seen in the region-

of the throat, and after feeding one she would hold up her head

for an instant before feeding the other. In a few days she ceased

to brood the young, but fed them very frequently. I often saw her

fy to the nest, and when she had gotten near she would generally 2

_ Polse and look round before perching on its edge. On going —

away she would sometimes fly off immediately till out of sight, —

- at others would alight some twenty to forty yards off and stay for

530 Observations on Young Humming-Birds. [June,

a few minutes, and then away as before. She did not appear to

mind my presence much, if at all, though I was quite near, within

thirty feet and sometimes much less, say fifteen or seventeen, t e

almost directly under the nest. At no time did I see the male

bird come about the nest. Some ten days or thereabout after the

young were first seen, their bills began to show above the edge of

the nest, and soon after were generally plainly visible.

On the morning of the fifteenth day after the birds were first

seen, one of them was observed to flutter its wings just a little

for the first time. I now judged that the birds would soon leave,

- and accordingly passed several hours every day under the nest

SR et aes,

y K> je

h oA S

Pou we %

tg Se S

IEA

My i Dose

_ Fic. 3.—Humming-bird feeding its youre’; copied from pencil drawing —

the spot in summer of 1885.

_ The restlessness of the young increased; their heads generally

showed above the edge of the nest, they looked about and fre-

quently turned round, and every now and then one would flutter

its wings, or sometimes only spread one or both; this phase was

very interesting to observe on account of the progressive aa

shown, and that without leaving the nest at all. By the reese?

_ Wednesday the restlessness had increased very much, the bu

raising themselves somewhat and the motion of the wings bee

very rapid, producing a gauzy, halo-like appearance ee ape

birds. The following morning, Thursday, ż. ¢., the twentieth 02%

3 ~

1886.] Observations on Young Humming-Birds. sgi

I saw one of them raise himself on “ tip-toe” and, fluttering his

wings, get upon the edge of the nest and then down upon the

branch, sit there a moment, and then back into the nest in the

same way. I watched all the morning, but neither bird left the

nest, though both seemed very restless; on my return in the

afternoon only one young bird remained. I saw the old one feed

him once or twice, and noticed that she approached him from a

different direction to what I had before seen, coming downwards

from the clump of pines, on the edge of which stood the nesting

tree, instead of the open glades from which I had always before

seen her approach, I accordingly laid on my back and looked

upward, and presently saw her return and perch on a bough be- .

side another humming-bird, feed it and fly away. I now watched

the bird on the bough very carefully and soon saw it fly, and this

it did repeatedly at short intervals, sometimes down, again up, on

a level and in curves: except for the shortness of its flights, I rs

could see no difference from that of the old bird (and as it was

well grown, had I seen it casually I should not have known it for

a young one); there appeared to be the same precision of move- —

ment, facility of turning and rising, and the same humming style a

of flight, though I was not near enough to hear any sound.

Once toward the end of an unusually long flight, I thought, I

Perceived signs of fatigue, but do not feel sure of this. The sec-

ond bird continued in the nest, and was still there on Friday

morning and again in the afternoon, the other bird being in the

neighboring trees, flying perfectly, and both frequently fed by the aes

_Oldone. On Saturday morning the second bird had also left and =

all three birds, if I remember rightly, were observed in and about

the neighboring trees. I now tried to get some pots of flower-

ing plants to place near by, and determine, if possible, how soon

eey young would begin to feed themselves, but did not succeed

m obtaining any, so that I could not ascertain this point. a fe

ad frequently heard a faint chirping just before or during feed- —

ing, but do not know if made by old or young, or both, though,

se when feeding the flown bird, I once saw the old one seek him

Tog little time, he having changed his place, and heard the-

Coe a

ss ie A

Ping. I am in this case inclined to think the young bird-

: — have made the sound, and perhaps the old one also. ——

I TACE saw the old bird thrust her tongue out, and toa much

ater distance than I should have supposed. eae

esa The Mechanics of Soaring. [June,

I was unable to secure any photographs, though a friend kindly

tried to take some for me, our ladder proving too short to admit

ie of getting the camera into position for focussing ; but the rough

4 drawing made on the spot with the aid of an opera-glass may

give a better idea of the feeding position assumed by the mother .

bird than my description has done.

10;

THE MECHANICS OF SOARING.

BY PROFESSOR J. E. HENDRICKS.,

; A Mr. I. Lancaster has published, through the medium of the

American Naroratist, his very interesting and valuable

observations of soaring birds, and has, in the April number (No.

4, Vol. xx) given an explanation of the mechanics of soaring that

might lead non-technical readers astray, a brief review of the

“ Mechanics of Soaring ” may not be unprofitable to some of the

readers of the NATURALIST. ;

<< As much that Mr. Lancaster has said is in accordance with

the recognized principles of mechanics, I will not encumber

the pages of the NATURALIST with a general review of the whole

article, but will confine this paper mainly to a consideration of the

question proposed by him and which he regards as a crucial

_ test of the validity of his theory of soaring. al

In investigations concerning the operation of forces, it 1s 1M-

s portant that the distinction between continuous and momentary

ee forces be kept in view. Although all forces require time for their

operation, yet such forces as act for a short time and then eeu

to act, are called momentary forces, and the time during which

they act is not considered ; the velocity induced being constant

_ and equal to the intensity of the force divided by the mass. t

= When a force acts uniformly for a considerable portion ©

time, it is called a constant force, and the time of its action ee

_ involved in the velocity it induces, which is represented by the

__ intensity of the force multiplied by the time and divided by the

mass or weight of the body. :

_ Although we do not know what produces the ROE.

_ of gravitation, we know, as manifested on the surface* “ d

earth, it is a result of two opposing forces (a centripetal peas

~ centrifugal force) whose difference at any point on the earth

wey —— ‘ge:

of thirty feet per second. ie

1s thirty feet per second, will be 12 sin? @ lbs., and because its. .

Weight remains the same the plane will cease to be in equilibrium.

- An increase in the velocity of the descent of the plane in the —

Mto of Vsin? 6: t would restore the equilibrium and the plane —

1886.] The Mechanics of Soaring. 533

surface is indicated, by the weight of the body at that point.

Weight, therefore, or gravity, is a constant force, and difters

in no respect from any other constant force.

It is found by experiment that a current of air, having a

velocity of thirty feet per second, and meeting a stationary

plane, the projection of which, in the direction of the motion,

has a superficial area of one square foot, exerts upon the plane,

in the direction of the current, a force = 2 lbs. X sin? 0, where

0 denotes the angle which the plane makes with the direction of

the motion; and for different planes the force is approximately

Proportional to the areas of the planes, so that on a plane _

one foot wide and six feet long, as supposed by Mr. Lan-

caster, when the current is normal to the plane, the force ex-

erted upon the plane by a velocity of thirty feet per second will

be twelve pounds, This is the value of the special force assumed

by Mr. Lancaster, and whether we consider the twelve pounds

Pressure as resulting from a constant atmospheric current or

any other cause is obviously indifferent.

If then we suppose the weight of the plane to be twelve

pounds, and its descent vertical through a quiescent atmos-

Phere, while the plane surface is horizontal, the case will be that

of a falling body in a resisting medium, and when the plane shall

have acquired a velocity of thirty feet per second, we know, from

the €xperiments above referred to, that the plane will meet a con-

stant resistance of twelve pounds, and this being the weight of

the plane it will thenceforth descend with the uniform velocity

If while thus descending, in equilibrium, a momentary hori- `

zontal force, the intensity of which is equal to gravity, be im-

Pressed upon the plane, because it would impart to one pound a

velocity of thirty-two feet per second, it will therefore impart

to the plane, the weight of which is twelve pounds, a velocity _

of only tz X 32 ft, or 234 ft. per second, instead of 1000 ft. per

Second as assumed by Mr. Lancaster. s

If now the plane be tilted so as to make an angle @ with the

vertical, the vertical pressure it will encounter, when the velocity _

hee”

Sty

534 Editoxs’ Table. [June,

would descend along the “rest” with the uniform velocity of

V(sin8 on per second,

We are now prepared to answer the query proposed by

Mr. Lancaster as a crucial test of the validity of his theory, viz.,

“Will the tilted surface, supplied with the rest of two pounds and

moving with uniform velocity, obey the impulse of an external

- force applied in its own plane with equal facility in any direc-

tion ?”

The above formula for uniform velocity of descent indicates

that, for all inclinations of the plane, there is an unbalanced force

which acts downward and parallel with the face of the plane, and

therefore toward the “rest.” The tilted surface therefore will

Or horizontally, solely by the action of that force.”

nature were frequent and irresistible in the most ancient periods

not “ obey the impulse of an external force applied in its own

plane with equal facility in any direction.”

“ The implication of the case” therefore is, that if an inclined

plane is free to descend through the atmosphere, by virtue of its

weight, it will, in consequence of the atmospheric resistance, move

laterally downward unless it encounters a current of air that, be-

ing resolved by the under surface of the plane, gives a vertical

_ component which is equal to or greater than the weight of the

plane, in which case the plane will move horizontally or ascend;

or if the plane is properly shaped it may, in consequence of “ rear

expansion” of the air, remain Stationary with respect to the

It follows that all of the cbserved phenomena of soaring are in

accord with the recognized principles of mechanics, but I trust it,

-is sufficiently obvious, from the preceding discussion, that a soar-

ing bird is ot “ translated at right angles to the gravitating force,

:0:—

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE.

‘ time, and they diminished in number and importance as life

1886.] j Editors Table. 535

varied and multiplied. The conditions of the fitness essential to

survival were thus originally those of physical endurance, and as

life multiplied and inorganic nature receded in importance as a

factor, these conditions came to depend more and more continu-

ally on intellectual development or adaptation to the wants of

the most intelligent organisms. The most useful and successful

man in the Plymouth Rock colony was he of the strongest arm

and broadest shoulders, but the most useful and successful man

| of the metropolis to-day is he of the greatest business. tact and

A shrewdness and the broadest human sympathies.

When we speak of the “ survival of the fittest,” it is obvious

that we must keep before our minds a clear idea of the sense in

| which the words “ survival” and “ fittest” are used. If the con-

ditions of a certain sense of the word “survival” pass away or

indefinitely decrease in relative importance, we cannot reasonably

€xpect to apply the word in that sense as if it were invariable.

It is necessary, instead, to employ a more constant and general

signification of the word. :

If there were no universal and overwhelming convulsions of

nature after the arrival of the highest members of the scale of

` animal life at a plane of absolute intelligence, we are warranted in

2 Supposing that the most intelligent mammals, at least, were

. capable of preserving themselves from destruction and burial by

the lesser convulsions of nature that occurred from time to time.

Moreover, if we assume, for the sake of argument, that man

descended from the highest development of anthropoid apes

Whose existence in prehistoric times is known, we must admit

the occurrence of a considerable interval between the cessation

) of such convulsions of nature as were likely to bury and preserve

7 the remains of anthropoid apes and the attainment by the anthro-

the dead in a manner calculated to preserve their remains for

modern scientific inspection. ae

The longer this intermediate period is supposed to be, the ©

Steater the intellectual development which, under the laws of

volution, should take place in the course of it, The reasonable

ence is that the greater the gap between the highest known

= of anthropoid ape and the lowest known form of man, the

veoh important, relatively, must have become the social and

Moral conditions of development, while the physical conditions

poid of a sufficient degree of intelligence to suggest the burial of

-536 Recent. Literature, [June,

anthropoid apes appear therefore to require that there should be

a “missing link,” in the sense that physical evidences of inter-

calary types are unpreserved. The “ survival” of the fittest, at a

certain period in the history of life, means exactly such surviv

as would make it improbable that many remains should be pre-

served, and this survival only the fittest would, under the circum-

stances, attain. Such anthropoid apes as were capable of generating

man should have been superior to those whose remains were pre-

oe served because they had not intelligence enough to protect their

lives. The first considerable preservation of primitive man would

begin when he ventured on navigation; but his remains so pre-

served will be “ missing,” until such time as “the sea gives up

her dead.” ;

—— The committee of Congress which has been investigating

the U. S. Geological Survey has not dealt kindly with Major

Powell and his charge. There is no intrinsic reason why Congress

Should not be favorable to the Geological Survey, but there 1s

probably no department where it is less likely to tolerate go

We cannot say that the survey has been entirely free from faults

of this kind. If Major Powell is carrying any Jonahs he had bet-

ter relieve himself of them.

8 z

| aY RECENT LITERATURE.

Ni _. A Hanp-Boox or Pranr Dissection. —This long-promised

“welcomed by laboratory workers throughout the country. It Me

apparently an entirely original work, no statements being rier

at second hand, and no directions for work being given which ae

not been actually worked out by the authors. themselves. ad

finds evidence of this original work on almost every dae oe

_ this fact alone will commend the book to all teachers an mee

_ every pupil who wishes to become an investigator in structure’

| Hand-Book of Plant Dissection. By J. C. Artuur, M.Sc., botanist to OF

New York Agricultural Experiment Station: CHARLES R. BARNES, sont Sage ON

of botany in Purdue University, and JoHN M. Cou.rer, Ph.D., professor Holt

in Wabash College; editors of the Botanical Gazette, New York, Henry

Company, 1886, pp. XXII, 256, 12 mo, with two plates,

PLATE XX.

Wailuku

Maui,

oat ee, eit ia ee a eet IN Stunt

: he ¥ he E

r na - i k f k F i

1886.] Recent Literature. 5 37

The book opens with two plates, illustrating (1) gross anatomy

and (2) minute anatomy, and the methods of recording results by

means of the pencil or drawing-pen. This is followed by a

chapter on instruments, reagents, section cutting, mounting, etc.,

etc,, in which the treatment is refreshingly non-technical. There

is a suggestive absence of the usual “ microscopical” lingo, and

a plainness of statement which cannot help pleasing every reader.

to each plant, and in the treatment the gross anatomy is first

, taken up, and afterwards the minute anatomy. Preceding both,

. habitat, appearance, structure, development, etc., as will enable

the student to find the plant and undertake its study with less

difficulty.

It will be observed that the work proceeds from the simple to

the complex, and that every great branch of the vegetable king-

Com is represented by species which may be obtained easily in

in any part of the country. The authors have exercised unusual

Care, as it appears to us, in this matter, and have succeeded in

making a list of illustrative plants which even a tyro will have

little difficulty in securing wherever he may happen to be. :

We would direct the attention of those who are skeptical as to

the Possibility of beginners studying the lower forms of vegeta-

tion to the gross anatomy studies under each species. The things

which can be seen in every one of the lower plants will astonish

the old-fashioned teacher. Even in the two protophytes (Proto-

dee anatomy than the former. If the student can see little in

rotocoćcus with his unaided eyes, or with a hand-lens, it is be-

rause there is very little to be seen. The old adage, “ ashort —

to sea Soon Curried,” is appropriate here. One must not expect —

ve. as much in Protococcus as in Capsella, but one must not

_ Reglect to see the little that is to be seen. ee

: An €xcellent pronouncing and descriptive glossary, a full ae

index, complete the volume.—Charles E. Bessey. ; o

538 Recent Literature. [June,

Tue FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SUR-

vEY.—Besides the usual reports showing the progress in the sur-

vey by the different members, the body of the volume is filled

by the following memoirs: Hawaiian volcanoes, by Capt. C. E.

Dutton; Abstract of report on the mining geology of the Eu-

reka district, Nevada, by J. S. Curtis; Popular fallacies regarding

the precious metal ore deposits, by A. Williams, Jr.; A-review of

the fossil Ostreidæ of North America, by Dr. C. A. White; A

geological reconnaissance in Southern Oregon, by I. C. Russell.

Having already called attention to Dr. White’s valuable essay,

we would briefly notice Capt. Dutton’s elaborate account of the

volcanoes of the Hawaiian islands. Besides detailed descriptions,

accompanied by excellent illustrations and maps, of Kilauea an

Mauna Loa, the author also describes Mauna Kea and the old

_ extinct volcano of Kohala and the lava fields of Hualalai.

The descriptions of the mountains and lava streams and beds :

are careful and the facts presented will be important to the stu- i

dent of vulcanism. The author does not regard Kilauea as a

crater, but considers the depression in that mountain, which he,

designates a caldera, as due to the “dropping of a block of the

mountain crust which once covered a reservoir of lava, this reser-

voir being tapped and drained by eruptions occurring at muc

lower levels.” 3

Acknowledging that volcanic action and regional uplifting are

really associated phenomena, the author states that the cause 1S

mysterious, the attempted solutions not standing criticism, thoug!

suggesting that the effects are due to expansion of the earths

crust in the region involved. +

The three plates which we are allowed to reproduce from "

volume, will convey some idea of the grandeur and beauty

this volcanic region.

ee a E ee ee E E E ER AE ee E E MR

Professor F. Jeffrey Bell, and there has been a number of changes

in = To . Z E

_ sor E. von Martens, from the first the recorder of Mollusca p

: Crustacea, has been obliged to resign. His place 1s taken P

PLATE XXI.

Mauna Kea from the South

af SE eT a

wie -_ eet

ie ee Pe I Re!

wri hy etal (oy Hs ef i? PA y $

1886.] Recent Literature. 539

four younger men. The work of compiling such a record as this

is a great labor, but is a most useful task, and the results are a

great boon to those situated away from libraries. To such the

purchase of the Record is earnestly commended. It is published

by Mr, J. Van Voorst, Paternoster row, London.

THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION CHECK-LIST OF NORTH

American Birps.'—This catalogue of North American birds, as

the latest issued, is the most complete, and will be a useful work

of reference to ornithologists. The volume also contains a digest

of rules of nomenclature adopted by the American Ornithologists’

Union. There has always been a large proportion of authors of

works on birds with literary rather than scientific tastes, so that

the conclusions of an ornithologists’ union will require careful

Scrutiny on the part of the scientific investigator. The danger

from the side of letters is the subordination of the true interests

of scientific research to red tape and literary archeology. The

way to do this is to excuse authors from giving definitions to the

new words they introduce, and so to open wide the doors to ama-

teurism and its attendant confusion and redundancy. We are

glad to observe that the new code agrees with the old ones in re-

quiring that new generic names shall be defined in order to be

adopted. But a few pages later the code contradicts itself by say-

Mig that when an author describes a new species which belongs

Oa new

require definitions in all cases. Nor do we find the code clear as

ted than quadrinomial ones. The question is, however,

pre one of taste, than of any serious moment.

pees Part from these points we concur heartily in the rules of the

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

ker, R—Note on the zodlogical position of the genus Microchærus. Both

ydek,

Coo Pei os Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., 1885. All from the author. oe

a thee Annual report of the State geologist of New Jersey, 1885. From the — $

zi geal R, C.—Summary report of the operations of Geological and Natural

Dia Survey of Canada to 31st Dec., 1885. From the author. a eae

Lducation.—Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1883-84. From —

the department. : ep e Lom , ; =

L. lee York, American Ornithologists’ Union. 1886, 8vo, pp. 392- For sale by

: 3. or. city. $3. ; : s i ERE A e

oster, 35 Pine street, New York

w Clarke, J. M.—On the higher Devonian faunas of Ontario county,

; 16, I tii

: White, C. E.— - An answer to Dr. Keen’s address entitled “ ne recen

540 Recent Literature. [June,

e w F.—Annual report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883. From the depart-

Hall, da — Thirty. ighas Sanpa report on the N. Y: State Museum of Natural His-

m the dir

phe ök ad 34th, seh “6th and 37th reports of the same museu

Natural history of New York. Palzontology. Vol. v. Part 1. Camellias

ata. I. Text : or.

Baur, G.—Historische Bemerkungen. A. d. Monatssch. f. Anat. u, Histol., 1886,

The proatlas, atlas and axis of the Crocodilia.

The oldest tarsus.

——tThe intercentrum of living Repti. These three Amer. Naturalist extras, 1886.

— W. K. Parkers Bemerkungen über Archæopteryx, 1864, etc. Sp. A Abd. a.

Zool. Anzeiger, No. 216, 1886.

Die älteste Tarsus (Archæosaurus}.. From the same

——H. Professor K. Bardeleben’s Be geg jiber Centetes mada eer

Sep. Abd. a. d. E reid No. 1886.

pads zwei Centralia im Carpus von aes nodon u. d. Wirbel v. Sphenodon u,

erticillatus. From the same, No. 219, 1886. All pan ae author.

Eudes Desengchamps, E.—Notice sur Th. Davidson. Caen, 1886. From thé-

Pray 2 hak theorem of maximum dissipativity.

——A new law of Seine; Ext, Amer. Jour, of Science, Feb., 1886.

_ From the author E

Notes on oe stratigraphy of California. Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 19, 1835,

From the

Albrecht, Ueb ie ea hj und Wirbelkörpergelenke wee

dem Pipleteopheer: Atlas und Occipitale der Saugethiere. Kopenhagen, 104+

a die vier wip ep A das onnan. ete. Ext. des Comptes rendus

si ong. per. internat. d. sci. med, Both from the author. `

ee E — R of ie Cincinnati group. Ext. Jour. Cincin, Soc. Nat.

Hist., Jan., 1886. From thea

:White, C. A.—Notes on the ean ae Cenozoic paleontology of California. Be a

Bull, U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 15, 1885. -

-~—On marine Eocene, fresh-water Miocene and other fossil Mollusca

apeo =e, Bull. No. 18.

On fossils from California. Do. Bull. No. 22, 1885-

N. Y. Bull. U.

of Noth

Allfrom o

“the poliran

S. Geol. Surv., No. imd

at A., and Iddings, J. P.—On the neo amit of Cgc mte in the Gy

rocks of Washoe, Nev. Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv, No. 17. ae

Bull. U. 5. Geol. ‘Surv., 20, 1885. From the fab eo á Hoi

Willis, pee a lignites of the oe dans reservation, Bull. No. 21, U. Geol.

- Surv., A From the author,

Fritsch, K. U. im Thalgebiete der zahmen Ge i in Thüringen. ae

Das Plioca:

Abd. PR Jahrbuch d. k. reus. geol. Landesanstalt f. 7884. ae

s' Zeichnangen des kok a a. d. Nea Kaiwani, Santorin, T >

f Fom the Hehe the

froing, R. D., hnl Chander, erin, T, C —Observations mi ai junction ragan e

eastern sandstone and the Keweenaw series on Kew w paion at

Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 23, 1885. From the pieds t debts to

vivisection.” Phila., 1886, From the author.

Bare, P. a Jahresbericht für 1884. Tunicata, Vertebrata,

PLATE XXII.

oak ns

ied Pn k z

Ze ag!

SS AONA

Phi

SON

; x AHA A 7 w

Clifts on the windward coast of Hawaii.

;

1886. ] Geography and Travels. | 541

Powell, J. W.—Fifth annual report of the U. S. Geol. Surv., 1885. From the

department,

Geinitz, H. B.—Ueber Palmacites, Abd. d. Isis, 1883.

—Geognostische Excursion nach Dippoldiswalde, 30.Juli, 1885. Both from the

author

Haddon, A, C.—Preliminary report on the fauna of Dublin bay,

——Note on the blastodermic vesicle of mammals,

Note on Halcampa chrysanthellum Peach, All rep. from the Sci. Proc, Roy.

Dub, Soc., 1885,

——Recent contributions to the marine invertebrate fauna of Ireland, Reprint from

The Zodlogist, Jan., 1886, All from the author

Putnam, F. W.—On jadeite ornaments from Central America. Ext. Proc. Mass.

Hist. Soc., 1886. From the author.

10:

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.'

Asta.—Railway Projects in the Shan Country—Mr. Holt

Hallett states that the most practicable line for a railway in Indo-

China, to connect India with that country, is up the valleys of the

Meh Ping and Meh Wung, tributaries of the Meh Nam, to Kiang

` Hsen, on the Meh Kong. At Raheng this line would be joined

by another from Maulmein, at the mouth of the Salween, in

British Burmah. North of Kiang Hsen the railway would be

produced along the Meh Kong valley to Kiang Hung, fifty miles

from ‘the Chinese town of Ssumao. By taking this route the

Mass of mountains lying east of the Irawadi is avoided.

The Burmese Shan States east of the Irawadi are believed to

Contain a million to a million and a half of inhabitants ; the Sia-

mese Shan States about two and a half millions, while the Meh

Nam valley, south of the latter, has about three and a half

millions.

e Shans are described as a cultivated people, free from caste,

lous and energetic, hospitable and frank toward strangers,

eager for free trade, and of great capacity as petty traders. The

hill-tribes are a hard-working, manly people, good agriculturists

and handicraftsmen, great growers of cotton, tobacco, indigo and

tea, and extensive breeders of cattle. }

were are two races of Lua or Lawa, one of which, the “ Baw

Lua, ts acknowledged to be the aboriginal race. They are found

chiefly in the Maing Loongyee valley, and here number about ©

Nine thousan d £ Sy y , i

n~ Heri-rud Valley —Dr. Aitchison, naturalist to the Afghan

tremely fertile, producing magnificent crops of wheat, barley,

mitation Commission, states that the valley of the Heri-rud is

grapes, melons and the mulberry tree. Among the trees _

Srown are Pinus halepensis, an ash and two elms. The country ©

“pears barren and arid in winter, but in spring is covered with

ae ; i

a This department is edited by W. N. LOCKINGTON; Philadelphia.

voL, XX,—No, VI, 36

542 - _ General Notes. [June,

plants, which shoot from under-ground root-stocks, bulbs, tubers

and rhizomes. Among these are the assafcetida plant (Ferula

scorodosma), and other Ferulas, one of which yields galbanum,

and another is taller than a man on horseback. Forests of pis-

tachio are met with among sand-stone rocks. Manna is collected

from a Cotoneaster tamarisk, and a thorny pea-shrub called

taranjabin.,

The earliest spring flowers are three Merenderas, followed by

a many-colored tulip and several Eremuri (liliaceous). The golden

flowers of a Delphinium are collected for dyeing silk yellow.

More ordinary plants are two low Artemisias, two species of Ephe-

dra, and numerous Astragali. An Asclepias, which sends up an:

nual stems from an under-ground root-stock, yields a good fiber,

which is made into cloth.

Asiatic Notes—The Calcutta Englishman states that Mr. Need-

ham and Captain Molesworth followed the course of the Brahma-

putra from Sadiya to Rima, and are able to state authoritatively

that the Zayal Chu falls into it. The expedition dispatched to

the Fly river by the Geographical Society of Australasia, im

November last, has returned. Reports of the massacre of the

pa were circulated by two natives, who became panic-

stricken at a time when the steamer was surrounded by hostile

natives, who threw spears and shot arrows from the banks.——

Petroleum appears to abound in Asia. It occurs in Burmah, also

near Quetta (Hindustan), and the whole country, from the north-

Schlagintweit’s observations, and insists on Gaurisankar, “ the

' bright or white bride of Siva,” as the native name for the peak,

a while Devadunga, “the abode of Deity,” is that of the ie

_ General J. T. Walker denies that Mount Everest on identical wit

. Arrica—Mr. Kerr's Journey to Lake Nyassa-—W. Montagu

cs Kerr gives in the February issue of the Proc. Royal Geographics

_ society an account of a journey from pe Town to ita

Nyassa. The traveler passed through Gubuluwayo, the cap i

a i : he was cordial y

Geography and Travels, 543

secuted race, dwelling in towns among the fastnesses of the

i The next people visited, the Mokorikori,

resemble the Mashona. Among the Senga, the women perforate

the upper lip, placing therein a ring of ivory or wood, called the

Jaga. By constantly enlarging this, they succeed in making the

lip project two and a half inches,

ete, a flourishing Portuguese town in Livingstone’s time, is

now half ruined, for the elephant has retreated to the far interior,

and the ivory trade is small. l

After leaving Tete, Mr. Kerr was deserted by his followers

and left alone among a tribe of kidnappers of mixed Zulu and

Chopetta origin. The king has absolute power; executions are

frequent, and nameless cruelties general. It might have fared ill

with the traveler had it not been for a Portuguese hunter.

: At length Lake Nyassa was reached, at the mission station of

s Livingstonia. The station was deserted, and the Ajawas, who *

remained with the traveler, would not risk their boats on the

Shiré, After sixteen days in a deserted hut, he was rescued by M.

A Giraud, then on his way to the coast.

: „ake Nyassa is many feet lower than in 1859, and the Shiré is

diminishing in volume.

he Berbers —M. Foncin (Revue de Geographic, Fevrier, 1886)

i Se that the Berbers are the predominating race in Algeria.

i eios, Carthaginians and Romans have disappeared, and oc-

000 strong, and Berberized Arabs, about 800,000 strong. Moors, t

negroes are few and are becoming fewer, but Jews in-

: The Berbers are often nomads, and were so in the time of

y The sedentary tribes are the Kabyles of the mountains east of

: * Songer the natives of the Dahra, the Traras and Little Kabylia,

Al. Aurasians of the Aurès, the highest mountain mass of

as pew apd the Ksourians or natives of the oases of the Algerian

z Berbers uding the people of Mzab. The Tuareg are — a

| hd Congo—M. de Brazza thus summarizes the results of his -~

a on which covered a space of two years and nine

(0)

rt)

thoroughly surve d; in | raphi d hydrogr

Ne yed; important topographical and hydrograph- —

Rae has been executed on the coast of Loango; numerous ©

t es

ge the population of Berlin in 1885 as 1,316,382.

544 General Notes. [June,

lected and a large number of photographs, sketches and ethno-

graphical notes have been brought home,

Almost all the tribes along and between the Ogowé and Congo

have been brought under the influence of France, including, to

some extent, the cannibal Fahuins.

Mr. Grenfell has made another exploring voyage devoted to the

Lulongo and the Boruki, the only rivers of importance that re-

mained unexplored between the Kasai and the Lomame. e

Lulongo falls into the Congo in 18° 42’ E, long. and 0° 41’ N.

lat. Mr. Grenfell ascended it to 22° 32’ E. long. and 10’ N. lat.;

it therefore runs nearly parallel to the main stream. The Boruki

is formed by the union of three rivers, one of which, the Juapa,

was ascended as far as 23° 14’ E. long. and 1° 1’ S. lat., where it

was still an open water-way one hundred yards wide and twelve

18” S. Three rivers, flowing north and south, probably tributaries

of the Vermejo, were discovered. The natives, Chunupis, Velolas

up the Nikerie, which flows through a well-wooded but unin-

habited region, and returned down the Nikerie and up the

Corentin to Oneala. M. Thouar, according to the Brazil and

River Plate Mail, has returned successfully from his second Jour-

ney up the Pilcomayo, and has proved the river to be navigable.

Evurore.—European News.—The German Statistical eae

1880

The Dobruja has an area of about 57 í

square miles, about two-thirds of which is productive the res

marshes and sand with lakes. The official estimates place the

population at 150,000.

GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY.

Sale dabble sian eS fae

= eal

1886. ] Geology and Faleontology. 545

anterior end of the dentary, and occupying the entire alveolar

fractures. The limbs are not long enough nor the claws acute ,

enough to demonstrate arboreal habits, as in the existing

genus Basiliscus, where a similar crest exists. A ve culiar

species has been described under the name of Waosaurus claviger

lowest in position, have an expanse of 260" or ten an

a quarter inches, while the spine has about the height of

500™™ (19.75 inches), the body being 60™" long. The animal

must have presented an extraordinary appearance. Perhaps its

dorsal armature resembled the branches of shrubs then, as they

Or, more probably, the yardarms were connected by membrane

with the neural spine or mast, thus serving the animal as a sail

they are hollow, as in Ccelacanth fishes, and that the central

Naosaurus differs from Dimetrodon in the transverse processes

of the neural spines of the vertebræ. There are three species,

Which differ as follows :

Spines of verte

; bre cylin drical distally ; transverse processes replaced abo ve by

, tuberosities, / AR = s

Spines of vertebræ expanded and compressed above. microdus>

Palatine teeth large, forming a pavement..... Sie deuvceccceats WV. anicr ee

Palatine teeth much smaller and more widely spaced N. rar ;

All these species are from the Permian formation of Tex

Figures of the W. claviger will be published in the Transactions

ike American Philosophical Society.—Z. D. Cope.

1 z e ;

> Edaphosaurus microdus Cope, Proceeds, Amer. Philos. Society, 1884, P. 37+ aS

546 General Notes.’ [June,

THE REport oF THE Concress oF GEoLocists!—This publica-

tion includes a. report of the proceedings of the congress and

reports of the several committees appointed to present systems of

nomenclature and cartography by the Congress of Bologna.

These reports are highly interesting, and display, in an instructive

manner, the points of agreement and divergence between the

geologists of the different countries of Europe. The digested re-

sult will constitute, when completed, the most valuable synopsis

of the subject yet written. Unforeseen circumstances prevente

the completion of the reports of some of the American commit-

tees, and the United States Geological Survey was not ade-

` quately represented, although Mr: McGee did his best with the

means at his disposal.

The color system adopted is, as it should be, founded on that

which has long been current in all countries. The new system

proposed by the U. S. Geological Survey was not adopted, but a

letter’ from Major Powell, recommending it, was read. Some of

the details for representing details, proposed by Major Powell,

might, we think, be introduced with advantage. The important

American formations of the Laramie and Puerco must also

represented by appropriate colors. We hope that the Congress

of London will make up for these deficiencies, and add to the

good work done by the Congress of Berlin whatever may be

necessary from other portions of the earth.

The report is well printed and is, in all respects, what was to

have been expected of the distinguished secretary of the Ameri-

can Committee. 5

First APPEARANCE OF THE GrRassES.—At a meeting of

the Geologists’ Association, held at London, April 2d, J.

Starkie Gardner discussed the points bearing on the geological

_ period at which grasses first commenced to assume a preponder-

ating position in vegetation. Their value and importance at the

present day were first sketched, and it was remarked that they

` Occupy under cultivation one-third of the entire area of aie

inclusive of lakes and mountains, while, exclusive of malt an

a into this country alone. There are over 3000 species fitted to

_ competition under no matter what conditions, with the result that

a about ninety-five per tofth pl ‘ g : gi dinary meadow-

land are grasses. The conclusion arrived at was that mor

no great development of grasses until towards the close P re

-Hocene, no definite remains being associated with any O eects

_ older Eocene floras of temperate latitudes. A number of fac

1 The Work of the In dof its com-

i ' ternational Congress of Geologists of Berlin an

eag Published by the American "Cominittee kodit direction of Dr. Pee l

E he

Se E OAE E S

a ee E G

le le

ee ES ee EED

EE E ae er 5

E a a

aie ae

1886. ] Geology and Palaeontology. 547

were brought forward to show that grasses could by ng possibil-

ity have failed to become associated with the remains of other

plants in beds deposited under such conditions as those of the

Eocene had they existed in any profusion then, while further to

support this argument it was stated that the very similar Oligo-

cene and Miocene beds all over Europe are crowded with them.

Further, it was shown that the dentition of all the early Eocene

herbivorous Mammalia was adopted for crunching fruits, snapping

twigs, and grubbing of roots, rather than for browsing on such food

as grass, so that the evolution of true Graminivora, as well as the

Specialized Carnivora that prey on them, must be post-dated to

the appearance of the grass itself. The geological history of

the whole class of insects was reviewed, with the object of support-

ing the conclusion arrived at as to the post mid-Eocene date of

grass. Older remains of grass may, however, occur in the last

series of Tertiary deposits in Spitzbergen, but as yet their age has

not been accurately correlated. Finally, it was shown that the

introduction of an aggressive type in vast numbers and of differ-

ent habits to pre-existing vegetation, exerted an influence on ter-

-Testrial life altogether without parallel, and for the first time ren-

dered possible the development of a meadow and prairie vegetation

as distinct from that of marsh, scrub and forest, with all the at-

tendant forms of animal and vegetable life to which such vegeta-

tion is indispensable.

therefore, according to M. Renault, be regarded as gymnosper-

mous phanerogams. :

Secondary—R. F. Tomes (Geol. Mag., March, 1886) SRE

-two species of Madreporaria of the genera Thecocyathus an

Trococyathus, from the Upper Lias of Gloucestershire.

rhary.— R. ‘

ingen. It is closely allied to Æ. ewropeus, but the describer

eningensis, The same paleontologist has described

concludes that Britain was never otherwise than continental from

t man came into Britain after the glacial epach.

- oe of the Middle Red Crag to that of the minor glaciation, -

th i Lydekker has described the palatal half of Do

om of a large Erinaceus from the Upper Miocene of —

iy anterior portion of the cranial rostrum of Melitosaurus —

mpsoides, a crocodilian from the Miocene of Malta——

Great Britain in the Geological Magazine for February, 1886. He :

548 General Notes. | [June,

7 . Quaternary —According to Prof. J. N. Woldrich, seven or eight

A forms of domestic. dogs have existed in Europe from alluvial

times until now, while four species of diluvial dogs are known.

Existing European dogs are therefore not descended from any

species of Canidæ now living in Europe, though they may have

been crossed with the wolf, fox, or jackal. The so-called feral

dogs of Syria may be the remnant of a diluvial true wild dog,

the greyhound is said to be certainly descended from a diluvial

ancestor of the African Canis simensis, and long-eared small dogs

may be descended from a diluvial ancestor of the fennec——

Sir R. Owen has described the premaxillary and scalpriform

teeth of a large extinct wombat (Phascolomys curvirostris Ow.

from the Wellington bone caves. The animal must have been

somewhat smaller than the type of the sub-genus Phascolomys.

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'

and to the explanation of the origin of the crystalline ware

The subject of metamorphism in the Huronian rocks 1s referre

_ } Edited by W. S. BAYLEY, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. —

n Fifth annual report of the Director of the U. S. Geol. Survey. Washington"

Government Printing Office, 1885. :

1886,] Mineralogy and Petrography. 549

of a highly metamorphic aspect,” which “has been made out of

a diorite or a hornblende schist.” In some of the gneisses

Spinel, twins of zonal olivine, twinned anorthite, chromiferous

pyroxene in twinning relation with large bands of eustatite and a

little black Secondary mica. Bronzite often occurs in large

crystals, giving the rock the appearance of a porphyrite. Oph-

itic rocks from the Same region are composed of titanic iron,

labradorite and pyroxene, with a little olivine in the most basic

Varieties,

"CE. AMERICAN NATURALIST. December, 1885, p. 1215, and G. H. Williams,

Amer. Jour, Sci., October, 1884, p. 259.

The Geological Magazine, March, 1 886, p. 103.

i "Ib. October, 1884, P- 440.

*Comptes Rendus, Mars 1 5, 1886, p. 640.

*Ib., Mars 22, 1886, p. 709.

| 550 General Notes. [June,

= Mineratocicat News.—A. Lacroix! hasanarticle inthe “ Comp-

tes Rendus” on the optical properties of some minerals which are

without crystal forms. In it he affirms the discovery by Des

makes it appear orthorhombic, with a pleochroism in three shades

of brown. The plane of the optical axes is æ P x, the bisectrix

being positive and normal to this, which is the direction of easy

cleavage. Withamite, xantholite, scoulerite and chalilite are iden-

tified respectively with piedmontite, staurolite and thomsonite, of

which the latter two are but impure varieties ——Some interest-

ing manganese minerals are described by Weibull? from the

Wester-Silfberg mine in Dale Karlien, Sweden. A manganese

magnetite gave on analysis 6.27 per cent of MnO. It is un-

f crystallized and is associated with masses and grains of mangano-

. calcite. The massive variety contains 6.98 per cent of MnO an

ae the granular mineral 24.32—24.89 per cent. A careful examina-

tion of Igelstromite* (2Fe,(Mg) SiO,+Mn, (Mg) SiO,) proves it

to be orthorhombic, with the optical axes in the plane of the

base and the æ axis the negative bisectrix. Pleochroism : b

In polarized light these crystals are seen to be composed of

twinned lamella with the orthopinacoid the twinning plane.

plane of the optical axes is the plane of symmetry, and the double

refraction is negative. The pleochroism is marked, ¢ = dirty

oe brown, Bite brownish-yellow with a green tinge, i= yellow

white. Absorption, ¢>6> a. An analysis of a pure variety

gave:

SiO, FeO MnO MgO CaO AlO; #0

49.50. 30.69 8.24. 8.10 2.02 69 a

_ In the same article the author reports the result of a re-pram

tion of the Knebelite of Dannemora. This mineral jerge mee

_ columnar masses of black to blackish-gray individuals, with tet

_ cleavages, one parallel to the faces of a prism of 50° 6’, very S

fect, and the other two parallel to the brachy and macro Pl wel

_coids. A parting perpendicular to the three cleavages betas Bits

Comptes Rendus, cit, Mars 15, 1886, p. 643.

< Mincralogische und Petrographische thik ungen, vit, 1885, P- 108.

Cf. Zeitschrift f. Kryst., viir, p. 647.

*Geol. Foren. Förħand], vi, p. 504.

<- Mperlect carpels, showing that seven is evidently not the li

1886.] Botany. 551

observed. The relation of the horizontal axes is 0.467:1. The

axial plane is the base, with the æ axis the negative bisectrix.

The pleochroism is strong, a + b yellowish-gray, ¢ = grayish-

white. a>b6>c. The analysis of Knebelite would indicate

that it is a manganese olivine, with most of the optical properties

of this mineral.

BOTANY:!

VARIATIONS OF TRADESCANTIA VIRGINICA—An interesting case

‘of floral variation is under observation by the writer in the

shape of a highly aberrant form of Tradescantia Ur grea, OF

Spiderwort, also called, in quaint allusion to the ephemeral nature

of its petals, “ widow’s tears.” Said plant presents, as the result

of thirteen years’ cultivation, the curious aspect of a monocotyle-

donous plant having in bloom, at the same time, flowers of dimer-

ous, trimerous, tetramerous, pentamerous, hexamerous and hept-

amerous types -respectively, each flower having twice as many

stamens as sepals, petals or carpels of ovary. The plant bbe stir

out in 1872 and received very rich treatment, so that it gave

forth blossoms measuring two inches in diameter. In 1874 it

to differentiate in a greater degree each succeeding year, the dif-

ferentiated forms being typical plants and maturing seed capable

perpetuating and possibly increasing the differentiation. The

seed of differentiated forms gives plants having a large number of

aberrant forms, while that of normal flowers gives a few abnormal i

forms, showing that the plant is working out a plan of evolution.

The Original trimerous plant was set out in 1872; in 1874 the

7 amerous plant was evolved; in 1876 the pentamerous ; in 1879 =

the hexamerous; in 1882 the dimerous; and in 1884 the hept- =~

One case a heptamerous flower had an octamerous ovary with two

ade regarding the intensity of variation, showing that it is ver

Pronounced,

a ~ Roots of this plant and seeds from trimerous, tetramerous, —

E E a ,

Edited by Professor CHARLES E. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska. *

552 ; General Notes. [June,

hexamerous and pentamerous forms have been sent to Dr. Asa

Gray for cultivation, at his request.—G. A. Brennan, Roseland, IU.

~ SOME ABNORMAL Forms oF VAUCHERIA.—While engaged in the

study of Vaucheria with my classes in botany, some weeks since,

my attention was called to some very curious abnormal develop-

Abnormal forms of Vaucheria.

species of Vaucheria in the neighborhood of Detroit is re

inata Vauch, var. racemosa, and it was in this species that the a0

iormal growths referred to were 2

ments that seemed to me worthy of record. The commonest

1886.] Botany. 553

The ordinary form of the fertile part of the plant is shown in

Fig. 1. The sexual organs arise as buds upon a common branch,

the single antheridium being terminal and decidedly curved; the

oogonia varying in number from two in the typical form of the

species to eight or nine in some specimens of the variety. They

are arranged in a circle about the base of the antheridium (Fig.

The specimens when first collected showed no peculiarities, but

after being kept for a week or two in rather confined quarters, a

large proportion of the fertile branches developed abnormally,

owing no doubt to the unnatural conditions in which the plants

were grown.

The accompanying figures will show the more peculiar cases

observed. In all of these it will be seen that the branches that

under ordinary circumstances would develop into the sexual

organs are here variously modified.

In Fig. 2 the antheridium is replaced by a filament that is in

all respects like an ordinary vegetative filament.

n Fig. 3 the antheridium is perfect, but the oogonia are re-

placed by slender filaments.

ig. 4 one odgonium has developed, but its apex is pro-

longed into a filament like those in F ig. 3.

In Fig. 5 the antheridium is complete, but one of the lateral

buds has developed a secondary branch bearing a complete set of

Sexual organs, a perfect antheridium and four perfect oogonia.

_ Fig. 6 shows a case where in addition to the ordinary anther-

idium two others are developed with accompanying odgonia from

the lateral buds.

n Fig. 7 one of ‘the lateral buds has grown out into a filament

which bears laterally a smaller branch upon which a perfect

antheridium and oogonium and a rudiment of a second odgonium

Were formed.— Douglas H. Campbell, Detroit, April, 1886.

á Botany IN Winter—In connection with the subject of

Teaching botany in winter,” treated recently, though briefly, in

the AMERICAN Naturatist, I would like to say a few words. My

Sophomore class of over fifty members begins its second term in-

tany the last week in February. The college vacation is during =

mber, January and most of February. n a

class has had one term of botany as freshmen in the previous

“oncerning stems and buds. The first field exercise

mas the making of a careful drawing of at least three inches of

554 | General Notes. [June,

the tip of an elm and of a maple branch. The students were

given no further instruction. They are never told what to look

for. From my pile of sketches and descriptions I quote the whole

of the first one without making any selection :

“1, Drawing of maple branch with terminal and opposite lat-

eral buds. Stem thick and of a red color, covered with small

specks. Wood not so tough as elm. Buds more tender. 2.

Drawing of elm twig with a terminal bud and alternate lateral

buds. ood compact and tough. Buds appear to be better pro-

tected from weather than maple.” The drawing, if not the de-

scription, would indicate that the maple is Acer dasycarpum.

For the next field work each member of the class was requested

to make a study of the last year’s growth of a branch of each of

two kinds of Acer. What is Acer? was one of the first ques-

tions each member answered for himself. This lesson brought

out the specific peculiarities of members of the same genus

peculiarities not easily found in books within the reach of stu-

dents. One of the first duties of a teacher in natural science 1S

to keep students away from printed descriptions. They must go

to the objects and make their own descriptions. I quote again

from the first paper :

“The bark of No. 1 is of a lightish color and it is difficult to

tell a year’s growth, while that of No. 2 is of a red color and it

is very easy to recognize a year’s growth, as there is a marked

difference in the color. The coverings of the buds of No. rare

much more scaly than those of No. 2, and they are also more

me closely attached to their buds than those of No. 2 are attached

. to their buds. The internodes of the first are much shorter than

_ thoseof the second. The year’s growth of the first is shorter

os than that of the second, as it grows moré slowly.”

= Mauch better work than this is found on several papers. The

“ chance selection ” is not far below the average. The following

i its next meeting and written

answ ` ave í |

_ the last year’s growth? (2) What are the differences in the ee of

(el

tal

r two mic -

thout here fully following out the course, it may be m

1886.]

Botany. 555

after the buds and branches had been canvassed we took up the

evergreens, and as a first lesson each student made a drawing of

a branch of any pine and any spruce he might choose. This

was followed by a study of two species of Pinus, which brought

out the characteristics that pertain principally to branches and

their leaves. The study of the evergreens being disposed of, in

of course only a general way, the class took as a single field ex-

ercise the following: Make a study of a branch bearing thorns

and of another bearing prickles.

It would be a pleasure to reproduce here the descriptions on a

dozen papers, but already these notes are far longer than they

were expected to be at the outset. Here is one, however :

“No. 1 has large spines or thorns situated just above the lat-

eral buds. These thorns are branched, having small thorns very

two stems are to be of the same diameter. Make a cross-section

of each stem and draw them four times enlarged, showing all the

Parts. Make radial section lengthwise and draw as for cross-

Section,

` Each student collects his own material. A specimen paper, of

course without the drawings, is submitted : .

The linden (No, 1) has a small pith about sy inch in diame-

ter, situated at or near the center. The relative thickness of

556 : General Notes. [June,

the spring flowers come, when each student is prepared to make

an herbarium of plants collected and determined by himself. It

is doubtless true that the work in the fall term helps in the field

work herein mentioned, but there is no question that students

with no knowledge of plants can take hold of botany in the win-

ter and do excellent, interesting work—work that is at the founda-

tion of morphology and gross anatomy, the fresh material for

which is in better condition than during the growing season when

buds are forming and branches and leaves obscure the view.—

Byron D. Halsted.

ENTOMOLOGY.

A CARNIVOROUS BUTTERFLY LARVA—PLANT-LICE FEEDING HABIT

oF FENESICA TARQUINIUS.: —One of the most interesting of our

butterflies is that known as Fenesica tarquinius, a unique Lycenid

having the wings above brown-black in color with conspicuous

orange markings both on primaries and secondaries. It has @

wide geographical range, occurring very generally over North

America as also in Asia.

stating that the larva lives on several species of Crategus. tit

Scudder (Proc. Essex Inst., Vol. 111, p. 163, 1862) treats = 1

under the name of Polpommatus porsenna (Syn. List of AM:

the food-plants of the larva as Alnus, Ribesia, Vaccinium

re Viburnum. Later, in the American NATURALIST: for August,

4869, he gives the food-plants as follows: “ Probably arrow

wood, elder and hawthorn.” die

| Grote (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., 1, p. 307) first proposed t

~ generic name of Fenesica, but says nothing about its larval grees

Strecker (Butt. and Moths, etc., Diurnes, p. 103) repeats sep?

from Scudder; while Wm. H. Edwards, in his admirable lite-

tremely interesting because, so far as I can find, there 15 ae

another recorded carnivorous butterfly larva; and Mr. 3¢ a:

who has given great attention to the butterflies, writes me in à

cent letter, in reply to an inquiry on this point, that he ca ‘a

call any mention of such. Quitea number of Heterocerous -i

a hala a i eh ara ee 1886, before the Biolog!

Anatomy of the Coccidee, in Zeitschr. f. Wissen. Zoologie, Vol. XLII

impé 174 At first both the male and the female larvae posses

both » antenne and simple eyes, which are subsequently lost by

1886.] Entomology. 557-

are known to be carnivorous by exception, and not a few are so

as a rule. These are chiefly found among Pyralids, and it is not

necessary for my present purpose to refer to the cases in detail.

For some years now I have been studying the remarkable life-

habits of the Aphididz and especially of some of the gall-making

and leaf-curling species of Pemphiginz.

In the collecting of material and making of. observations, I

have been assisted by Mr. Th. Pergande, who has on a number of

occasions, since 1880, found the larva of this Fenesica associated

with various plant-lice. Among the species with which it has

been thus found associated are Pemphigus fraxinifolii Riley, which

curls the leaves of F raxinus; Schizoneura tessellata Fitch, which

The frequency with which this larva was found among these

plant-lice justified the suspicion that it feeds upon them or derives

benefit from them; yet up to 1885 the presumption was that it

benefited from the secretions of the plant-lice rather than from the

insects themselves, Last fall, however, Mr. Pergande obtained

abundant evidence that the Fenesica larva actually feeds upon the

Aphidids, and I thought it worth while to call attention to this

Positive proof of the carnivorous habits of the species. That the

different

rendered more than probable for the following reasons:

I. Attempts to feed the larva upon the leaves upon which it was

ea ie proved futile, the larva perishing rather than feed

2. The food-plants given by the authorities are such as are well

known to harbor plant-lice.

“Tas r. Scudder’s authorities, as he informs me, were picked up

re and there and one of them for alder, which he recalls, viz.,

a Mr. Eme

lice.”

4. Mr. Otto Lugger has frequently observed the larva around

at among Pemphigus imbricator on beech, but never dis-

neither of these ob ble't t itive proof of the

fact — C V. Riley servers were able to get posi p a

WITLACZIL on Cocctp#.—Dr. E. Witlaczil completes his notes _

on the plant-lice by an interesting article on the Morphology an

Sexes, the females degenerating so as to became wax-covered

1 VOL. xx 15 Fe

m0, VE. 37 AS

ty “found it more commonly on a limb among plant-

are afterwards withdrawn during the quiescent or pupal stage, to

be finally driven out again on reaching maturity. Contrary to

the usual way in Hemiptera, these males undergo complete

metamorphosis. The waxy coat of the female consists not of the

larval cuticles that were shed, but of variously crumpled and felted

wax filaments emitted by dermal glands, and enclosing the re-

mains of the cuticles. The embryological development is much

as in Aphides, but the eggs have no pseudo-vitellus.

Some notes on the Chermetidz are appended to the article, es-

pecially on Chermes abictis and on Phylloxera. He kept the galls

of Chermes, in autumn, till the parthenogenetic females escaped,

of two varieties, some yellow, others nearly black. The female

oviposited on the needles of a pine-branch in a heap. After this

operation the mother died, protecting the eggs with her shrunk

body and wings. In spring large wingless females were found on

the pine-shoots, having remained over winter. Each had thirty

to forty egg tubules, with two to four well-formed eggs; and the

eggs had a pseudo-vitellus. The eggs were laid in masses at the

base of the young pine-shoots ; the masses of eggs being covered

with wax and with the carcass of the mother. The young issuing

from these eggs moved to the axils of the needles, and together

formed the nucleus of a cone-like gall; by their sucking the needle

swells, coalescing with the gall. It is not the swelling of the

needle, but of the branch that causes the gall; and this is due to

the piercing action of the larvæ, not of the mother—G. Maclosnit.

ao think the tænidia invariably form a continuous spiral thread. “P

~- the axils of the branches we see short spindle-shaped taenidia;

”» In certain Nne

trachez of the eyes of the fly no spiral threads are developed,

ous it may be called a senidium ; when only separate rings ree

developed they may be called tenidia. I think, however, that F

have demonstrated the nuclear origin of the “ spiral thread, an

_- that the elongated filamental nuclei of the endotrachea coalesce

a to form the spiral senidium.—A. S. Packard.

- Desrructive Locusts IN Trexas.— During the past winter f

ington county, and fears were expressed of great injury,

‘Son, from the resulting locusts, Professor Riley, of the Depa?

= t a t

“

1836. ] Zoblogy. . 559

ment of Agriculture, has had the matter investigated and it appears

that the young locusts, which are now all hatched, turn out to be

one of the larger wide-spread species, viz., the differential locust

(Caloptenus diffirentiahs). This species has at times been very

abundant in Illinois and in other States but, according to its past

history, there is no danger of its ever becoming so serious a pest -

as the Rocky Mountain locust, and hence Professor Riley believes

there is no occasion for alarm

ExnTOomorocicaL News.—At a recent meeting of the London En-

i tomological Society, the venerable Professor Westwood remarked

that an insect (Macherota ensifera Burm.) in Ceylon, allied to the

| frog-hopper (Aphrophora), instead of being enclosed in a liquid —

(cuckoo-spittle), formed a case by the rapid hardening of the

liquid secreted. Dr. Geo. Marx, artist of the Agricultural De-

partment, publishes in Axtomologia Americana for May, a descrip-

tion of the male of Gasteracantha rufospinosa from Florida, with

excellent figures of the two sexes. Although 170 species of this

genius are known, the males of only two species have been

À hitherto discovered. The male differs much in shape, besides

being less than one-quarter as large as the female. In Bulletin

No. 5 of the Cal. Acad. Sciences, T. L. Casey revises the Califor-

nia species of Lithocharis and allied genera of Staphylinidæ.

The Transactions of the American Entomological Society, XII,

ZOOLOGY.

b. SELF-Division 1x Septic Monaps.—In Dr. Dallinger’s annual

4 “tess before the Royal Microscopical Society, Feb. 10, he de-

tailed the results, which are published in full in the journal of the `

oy for April. Four forms were selected for study. In each z

Of the four organisms the facts were discoverable in the develop-

e Pig of the nucleus, the origin of the flagella and the growth of

z ey. They were best seen in Tetramitus rostratus and Poly-

a uvella ; not quite so well in Dallingeria drysdal, and least

oy in Heteromita rostrata; but in all they were seen with

fficient clearness to leave no doubt. Each of these septic or-

| cally Siaa a long series of fissions with is practi-

: divided forms fuse into one, become quite still, and at length —

560 General Notes. [June,

the investing sac bursts and a countless host of germs is poured

forth. The growth of these germs into forms like the parent was

continuously watched, showing gradual enlargement and ulti-

mate, but as to time somewhat uncertain, appearance of the nu-

cleus, and the somewhat sudden appearance of the flagella or

thread-like motor organs, the latter being found in each instance

to arise in the nucleus. Very soon after the adult stage is reached

the act of self-division commences, and is kept up for hours in

succession. The delicate plexus-like structure becomes aggre-

cation of division of the body-substance. Quickly afterwards the

nucleus becomes completely cleft, and the body-substance follows

suit. Then the plexus-like condition is again diffused equally

over the whole nucleus. When the generative condition 1s ap-

proached by the last generation of a long series of dividing forms,

it is remarkable that the organism becomes amceboid, showing

such forms touch one another, they coalesce and fuse into each

other almost as though two globules of mercury had touched, until

nucleus reaches nucleus and two melt into one, and the blended

bodies become a globular sac, which ultimately emits an enor

mous number of germs. Previous to the blending it is now made

out that all traces of plexus-like structure are lost in the nucleus,

After giving similar details about several other organisms, es

Dallinger summed up thus: “One thing appears clear, the 2

cleus is the center of all the higher activities in these (oe

The germ itself appears to but an undeveloped nucleus,

accomplished. It becomes practically indisputable that the -_

Sarcode is, so to speak, a secretion, a vital product of eg y

> p7 Gas ie = S

nee it the ig originally arise; by it = act ge =, ae

BEETA y tec f We are thus

brought into close relation with the behavior of the nucleus gy

_ the simplest condition. No doubt far profounder and $u?! 5

_ changes are concurrently proceeding. We, of course, fse a

rarer to the solution of what life is. But to come any =

Zoology. , 561

utest organisms acts in detail has for me, and for most biologists,

F i nearer to a knowledge of how the most living part of the min-

' an increasing fascination.”

Brue Cotor oF AnImAts.—Professor F. Leydig says that a blue

granular pigment is rarely found in animals; in the crayfish, for

example, there are blue crystals. The blue color is more often

due to interference, owing to the presence of lamellæ, or to the

fibrils of connective tissue, as in the tapetum fibrosum of the eye

of ruminants ; the corium of the living larva of Pelobates fuscus

-is similarly blue. A dull material overlying black pigment pro-

duces blue, as in the case of blue eyes, which are due to the urea

shining through the non-pigmented iris, andin some frogs. Dark

chromatophores have a like effect, as has too the swelling of the

corium consequent on the filling of the lymph-spaces. In conclu-

sion, the author discusses the tegumentary secretions, which are of

various colors, and which can be washed away ; an example is to

be seen in the celestial blue color of the abdomen of Libellula de-

fressa and, perhaps, the “bloom” of the pupa of the Apollo but-

terfly. On the other hand,the coloring matter may be in cells of

the epidermis, as is the case with the rosy color of Tetrao uro-

gallus, and can then, of course, only be removed after the de-

struction of the tissue which contains it— Journ. Roy. Micr. Soc.,

April, 1886.

cad

gon, in the proportion of 103 to 2, liked blue and avoided ae

E ias Spinachia, like fresh-water fishes, prefers darkness in

results.—/Journ, Roy. Micr. Soc., April, 1886. 2 :

fot Sacrum or Menopoma—In a récent paper read be-

pek i the Biological Society of Washington, Mr. F. A. Lucas aoe o

fhe tion to the fact that the figure of the pelvis of Menopoma in oe

F cle Amphibia, ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, 4

Proportion of 78 to 6, and Syngnathus acus gave somewhat =

similar se: 7 Syng or

62 | General Notes. | une

iia |

must have been drawn from an abnormal specimen. The figure

and accompanying text credit Menopoma with two sacral vertebra,

but an examination of ten specimens failed to show the occurrence

of more than one. An abnormal specimen in the possession of Pro-

fessor H. A. Ward showed an intermediate condition between the

figure in the Enc. Brit. and the normal sacrum, having the right

ilium attached to one vertebra, and the left to two vertebra. Mr.

Lucas further called attention to the variation in the number of

A, specimen with two sacral vertebrz, fig. 2, article Amphibia, Encyclopedia

Britannica, 9th ed.; B, specimen normal on right side, two sacrals on saan pene

by H. L. Ward from a skeleton in the possession of H. A. Ward; C, normal spec!

men.

_ ZOOLOGICAL News.—Vermes.—M. J. Perrier announces as i

result of his studies of the Trematoda (Archives de Zook PaP

mentale, 1885) that the muscles divide at their extremities,

oe The spongy cords found in all Platyelminths W

_ _ Echinoderms. —M,. Ed. Perrier contributes to the Annales

Sciences Naturelles an account of the echinoderms colle

See ea es ee a: ee ae

18386, ] _ Embryology. 56 3

the Travailleur and Talisman. These include several Brisingide

and Stichasteridz ; species of Cribrella and Solaster ; several Pter-

asteridz, a family almost entirely confined to great depths ; many

Goniasteridz, and some Archasteride and Porcellanasteride.

Asteriade and Asterinida are almost wanting, Linckiadz entirely

so. Sixty-four species is the total, of which fifty are new.

Mollusks—The Archiv. für Naturgeschichte for 1885 (part 111)

contains remarks upon the post-embryonal development of the

Naiadz, by Fred. Schmidt.

luscan fauna of Behring’s sea (Arch. f. Naturgeschichte, 1885, part

111) A. Krause enumerates sixty-six Gastropoda, including several

new species and three Pteropods, one of which i

Mammals.—Dr. E. L. Trouessart (Ann. d. Sci. Naturelles) sup-

ports his previously-expressed views that the musk-rat of the

Antilles should be placed in the genus Hesperomys, but made the

type of the sub-genus Megalomys. The form of its teeth will

the P. aris Museum are perhaps all that is left of this curious and

interesting species. [The name Megalomys is preoccupied.—Zd,]

EMBRYOLOGY.

1. THe Devetopment or Patetta.—Dr. William Patten,” of

Boston, while working in Claus’s laboratory at Trieste, succeeded

in artificially fertilizing the ova of a species of Patella, the spe-

cite name of which is not given. The ova measured 0.12™™ in

diameter ; bluish-green in color and opaque. Acetic acid and

glycerine were used to render them transparent enough for a

Study of the general external characters. The internal changes

Were studied means of sections. The e were matured

from the first of November to the middle of January.

~Stuiee by fine pore canals. The micropyle was a wide crater-

_petting Were a number of highly refractive globules which greatly

nterfered with the observation of the fecundation an on

Parent Prolongations arising from the surface of the ovum at the —

bottom of great ;

ipa: pe

„Edited by Joun A. Ryper, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

bryology of Patella. Arbeiten aus: dem Zool. Inst. za Wien, Tom. "i a

A aa, 2, pp. 149-174, pls. 1 to V, 4885.

In a second article upon the mol-

pening in the chorion at one pole of the egg; within this

564 General Notes. [June,

size as compared with those of other types. Two polar globules

arise side by side and not one beneath the other, as in other cases,

_ As many as five distinct polar globules were extruded in abnor-

mal cases, and the extremity of one of these was enlarged into a

globular form, the same as one of the two in the case of the

normally developing egg. The polar cells finally become much

reduced in size and are easily detached from the egg.

: The ‘segmentation is slightly meroblastic and a hollow blastula

is soon formed; hatching occurs in about ten hours, when the

apical cells and the two equatorial rings of velar cells have become

ciliated. At the vegetative pole of the blastula four large, so-called

endo-mesodermal cells, forming part of the wall of the blastula, are

elongated and prolonged into the blastoccel and two of them have

their inner ends segmented off to form the primitive mesoderm ; the

other two and what remains of the two preceding ones give rise to

the endoderm or intestine, while the decreasing area on the outside

_ of the blastula embraced by the endo-mesodermal cells represents

the blastopore. The primitive pair of mesoblastic cells are bilateral

in position and render the larva bilaterally symmetrical. The

blastoporic area gradually assumed a more ventral position

and is then shoved forwards and inwards, finally disappearing

at the bottom of a deep furrow which partially closes or concr s:

i On either side of the posterior

part of the stomodæal furrow there is a swelling ; this pair

of the foot, on either

lave segmented into a row of three cells each, lying symmetri-

cally on either side of the median plane of the embryo. A glos-

s, and the

carried ventralwards and forwards leading to the formation of the

of bilaterally

+886.) ` Embryology. 365

à 2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF DENTALIUM.—M. Kowalevsky con-

= ludes that the development of Dentalium has a good deal in

common with that of the Lamellibranchs, the segmentation

resembling that of Unio as described by Rabl, and Teredo as

described by Hatschek. The segmentation is nearly regular, and

eads to the formation of a hollow blastula and an invaginate gas-

trula. The mesoderm`is derived from the inner wall of the invagi-

nated side of the blastula, and the mesodermic cells are disposed

symmetrically on either side of the median line. The shell-gland

becomes defined very early on the dorsal aspect of the embryo,

and as the blastopore travels forward, as in Patella, the area of the

shell-gland, or mantle-organ, becomes greater, so that it gradually

embraces the body of the embryo, especially over the region just

behind the foot, leading to the development of the characteristic

tubular shell. The resemblance of the larve of Dentalium to

those of the Annelids is shown to be only a very superficial one.

Three ciliary girdles encircle the anterior or cephalic pole of the

larval body. The blastopore is wide at first, and persists as such

much longer than in Patella; it is also elongated in the process

of shifting towards the ventral, anterior aspect. A radular sac

s developed on the inferior side of the cesophagus. The cepha-

OE aC CS Peo ae eS Sree Ae

is memoir, illustrated with eight well-executed plates, the

figures being drawn from actual sections, is a very important con-

bution to molluscan morphology, as nothing of equal value has

appeared since the publication of the paper on Dentalium by H.

Lacaze-Duthiers in 1857.

~This important paper by M. Kowalevsky discusses very fully

the 2 do not develop normally. The ova are enclosed by a

_ nous covering, consisting of hexagonal plates which support —

et externally, which vary in form in the various species. =

“ae four first segmentation spheres are nearly equal ; each of :

-Sse subdivide into two, giving rise to four upper and four lower =

7 e polar globules rest near the center of the area

"Etude sur PE ae ; i evsky, Ann.

aca ‘PEmbryogenie du Dentale, memoire vil, par M. A. Kowalevsky, Ann.

is T'Hist. Nat. de Marseille, Zool. Tom. 1, Seconde partie, 1882-1883. ee

. : ibryogenie du Chiton polii (Philippi) avec quelques remarques sur le Pene at

gg des autres Chitons, memoire v, par M. A. Kowalevsky, Ann. Mus: cee

i Marseille, Zool., Tom. 1, second partie, 1883. 4to, pp. 46, pls. VII- a.

566 | General Notes. . [June,

embraced by the four upper, smaller cells of the animal pole. By

division of the lower cells there arises a third layer of four inter-

mediate cells, and soon after these four others appear which are

apparently derived from the four upper ones. Thereupon six more

smaller cells are developed at the animal pole, and somewhat

later eight more such appear at the vegetative pole, so that the

embryo is now composed of thirty-six cells. At this stage the

gastrula mouth begins to develop; at first, as a slight depression,

which later becomes deeper, leading to the formation of a sym-

metrical gastrula consisting of ecto- and endoderm. The two

annuli or cycles of large cells, which represent the velum, are

now differentiated

The gastrula is next somewhat elongated, and near the blasto-

pore an endodermal cell is pushed into the blastoccel to give rise

to the mesoderm. The blastopore is soon displaced somewhat

ventralwards, and simultaneously certain ectodermal cells are

drawn inwards to form part of the wall of the cavity of the gastrula.

There are two distinct, symmetrically disposed groups of mesoder-

mal cells near the blastopore ; the largest of these cells still form

e endoderm and take part in limiting the cavity of the

gastrula. The blastopore is gradually shoved nearer to the velum,

and in connection with it is developed, an cesophagus formed 0

ectodermal cells. The mesodermal cells have multiplied, but re-

tained their bilaterally symmetrical position. eae

The cesophagus is now a spacious sac, from the posterior, 1n-

ferior wall of which a radular sac has been invaginated. Imme-

invagination, which Kowalevsky calls the pedal gland. Two

longitudinal, anteriorly conjoined thickenings of the ectoderm,

which encroach upon the mesoderm, form the rudiments of the

edal and branchial nerves. The four nerve cords are gradually

split off from the ectoderm and assume their definitive position i1

the mesoderm. The cavity in the pedal gland becomes fill

ectodermal cells support a tuft of cilia. At certain points, where

a clear vacuole. There now appear seven transverse furrows 0

_ cellular body, enclosing a hollow cavity, and posteriorly

“branchial ganglion appears as the widened ends of the

of the segmental organs, vessels and sexual organs. Ata som”

what later stage fibrils from multipolar cells are developed in the

7y e $

oe ee E A ee P aN

with a slimy secretion. At the apex of the velar area a pair of-

_ spicula: appear later, each spicule-forming ectodermal cell acquires —

1886, | Embryology. 567

cephalic ganglion. In the anterior part of the body, the mesoder-

mal cells form a gelatinous connective’ tissue between the organs.

The pedal gland is now very strongly developed; its secretion is

poured out between the ectodermal cells, a special opening for it be-

ingabsent. At the sides of the body, above the foot, a ciliated band

is present, which marks the site where the branchiz will appear.

At the level of the first dorsal fold, the eyes may be recognized.

The larva now leaves the egg envelope and swims about by

means of its velum, The calcareous spicules are still enclosed by

their mother cells, but soon break through. After the lapse of

to have become smaller than in the preceding stage; in young

Chitons (probably a year old) it is still present, but in those

somewhat larger it is absent; it is, therefore, an organ pertaining

to the embryonic period. The cuticular thickenings which lie in

the transverse dorsal furrows are the rudiments of the segmented

shell, and in each furrow, beginning at its anterior border, small

calcareous plates are formed. The eyes are heaps of pigment in

the ectoderm, with a clear nucleus in the center, lying close to

€ branchial nerves. In a fully developed young Chiton they

and cinereus, but in olivaceus somewhat before it.

Mantle nial is developed. The species investigated oY DE

rn was F zulipa Linn., var. distans Lam.

PP. 217-225, pl. II, 1885

‘H.

Wis Leslie

Studies from Biolog. Lab., Johns Hopkins University, 1

: 568 General Notes. [June,

PSYCHOLOGY.

INTELLIGENCE OF THE HEN AND Opossum,—Advices from home

inform me that an early brood of chickens with the mother hen

were taken into the cellar to protect them from the very cold

weather which prevailed. Here they did well and appeared con-

tented till a thaw and flood occurred. When the cellar was

standing deep in the water with all of the chicks perched on her

bac i

could step. She could have flown to higher objects, but this

drowned. :

This reminds me of an incident which I reported to the

-NaTuratist many years ago, which may be briefly repeated. A

boatman on the Illinois and Michigan canal observed an object

‘on a fence-post, surrounded by water, which enabled him to work

is boat up to it. There he found an opossum with severa

young ones in the pouch or pocket with which nature has provided

this animal in which to carry her young. She was nearly fam-

ished and suffered herself to be taken on board without the least

opposition and ate ravenously of the food given her. were

taken to Chicago and presented to my brother, in whose posses-

_ sion I saw them after the young ones had. attained the size of

_ small rats. They made rather pretty pets.

ge _ In both of these instances there seems to have been more of

sf reason than of instinct, if by the latter we mean that inherited

: faculty which long-repeated emergencies has taught a long an-

cestral line a mode of avoiding or escaping danger.—/. D. Caton.

Tue SwaLLow as A SuRGEON.— Dr. Walter F. Morgan, of

Leavenworth, Kan., sends to the Medical Record this curious

account of what may be called aviarian surgery, related to ae

in 1876 by the late Joseph O’Brien, Esq., of Cleveland, O.: “On

= going into his barn Mr. O’Brien discovered a swallow’s nest, and

ing a natural observer and lover of animals, he climbed to e

being smaller and

lighter covering of

1886.] Anthropology. 569

yet prepared to fully accept the axiom of the scientists, viZ.,

‘ That the intelligence of animals differs from that of man only

in degree and not in kind.”

ANTHROPOLOGY.!

Corra.—The United States National Museum has just received

from Ensign J. B. Bernadou, U.S.N., a large and intelligently se-

lected collection of ethnological objects from Corea. Among

them are several illustrated books full of water-color sketches of

Corean life. Almost the same day, Messrs. Ticknor & Co. sent

us Mr. Percival Lowell's work entitled, “ Choson, the land of the

Morning Calm,a sketch of Corea.” We rarely have the opportu-

nity of testing a book of travels, in an out-of-the-way region, by

the touchstone of things. It has been for that reason a source of

readers appear the more attractive part. But to us, we must ad-

mit, the chief charm lies in the assurance, growing on us from

Page to page, that the writer is telling the truth. The journey

to Soul from Chemulpo in a sedan-chair, and the khan heated

ests

ms to captivate royalty. The graded ways and platforms

Zens vie in the gorgeousness of their profuse attire and

p R

Edited by Prof, Oris T. Mason, National Museum, Washington, a

Ang to a verandahed throne-room, where soldiers and citi-

570 3 : General Notes. [June,

in the diversity of their hats. Above all, the affected grandeur

of royalty amid decay and national poverty, these are all subjects

which Mr. Lowell fully appreciates and describes with charming

race. :

: As to the population, Mr. Lowell says: “ Money being more

important to the Corean official oligarchy than men, the amount

of taxable property in the kingdom, represented principally by

rice fields, is much more accurately known than is the number of

its inhabitants. No census of the population is ever taken, the

number of the houses alone being counted. The estimate formed

recently by a Japanese paper is probably the nearest yet made to

the truth. This estimate gives Corea 12,009,000 inhabitants. ;

“ As for Soul, the aggregate of population, including both thecity

proper—that is, the part within the wall—and the outlying suburbs,

will probably not exceed in all 250,000 souls. The amount of

ground covered is about ten square miles. But a city in the far

east extends only in two dimensions, not, as with us, in three.

Tokio, in Japan, with about 1,200,000 inhabitants, covers eighty

square miles, ;

“The fabulously large estimated populations of Chinese cities—

as for instance, Canton—will, I think, on trustworthy census be

found to have been greatly exaggerated.”

THE RELATION OF ANTHROPOLOGY TO THE SCIENCE OF ong

In the scheme of anthropology followed by the NATURALIST, t e

science of mind follows hard upon comparative physiology. |

this journal, as it would be in an academy or scientific association,

ca the rule has been to allow only those psychical inquiries to enter

_ of all proportion to what we should be led to expect ° ape

_ The spirit of such inquiries is rather to defy explanation perro

_ promote it; they delight to nonplus and puzzle the scientific !

__vestigator, who is working his way upward by slow steps a of

higher mysteries. Before accounting for the exceptional g! the

animals— niuses of a tribe—we should be able to prove

‘average and recurring capabilities. ‘tof

_ “Tt is an error to suppose that mental qualities do not aoe

Measurement. No doubt the higher complex feelings O° z

mind are incapable of being stated with numerical precision,

1886.] oe Anthropelogy. 571

by a proper mode of approaching the subject, a very considerable

degree of accuracy is attainable.

“ As to the present position of the science of mind in the British

Association, it is nowhere. Taken in snatches, it appears in several

places; it would come in under zodlogy, which embraces all that

relates to animals; under physiology, in connection with the

nervous system and the senses; and it figures still more largely,

although in an altogether subordinate and scarcely acknowledged

fashion, in the section on anthropology. Indeed, to exclude it

rom this section would be impossible; man is nothing without

his mind.

“Now, while zoology and physiology would keep the study

of mind within narrow limits, there is no such narrowness in the

present section. In the ample bosom of anthropology, any really

valuable contribution to the science of mind should have a nat-

ural place.

“ Psychology has now a very large area of neutral [non-contro-

versial] information; it possesses materials gathered by the same

methods of rigorous observation and induction that are followed in

the other sciences. The researches of this section exemplify some -~

of these. If these researches are persisted in, they will go still

further into the heart of psychology as a science, and the true

course will be to welcome all the new experiments for determin-

reference to our sensations; the whole of the present mathematics |

of man, bodily and mental ; the still more advanced inquiries re-

lating to our intelligence ; and the nature of emotion, as illustrated

by expression, in the manner of Darwin’s famous treatise. In-

deed, if you weré to admit such a paper as that contributed by

r, Spencer to the Anthropological Institute, you would commit

yourself to a much further raid on the ground of psychology than

'S implied in such an enumeration as the foregoing.” —/. Anthrop.

NSE, tv, 380-388, 7

_ Jewist Axturry—Mr. Joseph Jacobs, who has been communi-

cating to the Anthropological Institute papers upon tke Jewish ee

“Y

572 General Notes. ; (June,

from each of the three races, the 72d Jew, reckoned from the

least able, would equal in ability the 74th Scotchman or the 76th

Englishman, and would be the superior to the 72d of either of

the other two races. Thus we arrive at last at a real comparative

estimate of Jewish ability, which we may state roughly in the fol-

owing way: The average Jew has four per cent more ability than

the average Englishman, and two per cent more than the average

‘ Scotchman,

Mendelssohn. In the second class are Auerbach, Benfey,

Borne, Cremieux; Gans, A. Geiger, Greetz, Halévy, Sir W. Her-

schell, Jacobi, Jessel, Lasker, Maimon, Marx, Meyerbeer, Neander,

ppert, Palgrave, Rachel, Ricardo, Jules Simon, Steinthal and

Lazarus, Sylvester, Steinschneider and Zunz. ‘

The reasons assigned by Mr. Jacobs for Jewish ability in cer-

tain lines are doubtless correct, and furnish a confutation of the

doctrine that only prosperity ministers to human progress.

Tue Mancue Lancuace.—Dr. Brinton read before the Ameri-

can Philosophical Society, in November last, a paper onthe a

an extinct dialect formerly spoken in Nicaragua. The chi

the whole coast, from the entrance of the Gulf of Nicoya to

Fonseca bay. Some time in the fourteenth century a large col-

ony of Aztecs descended the coast and seized the strip between

‘Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, thus splitting the Mangues in

two and driving a large part of them from their homes.

“TABLEAU pes Bacass” is the name given by Leon de Rosny

‘to a certain double plate of the Cortesian Codex. By that name

he intended to indicate that the table or plate refers to the four

- Bacabs, or gods, which were supposed to bear up the four corners

~ _ Of the earth—the gods of the cardinal points. =

= _ On this plate are the four characters supposed to be the gir

= bols of the cardinal points. As these probably occupy 0° ie

plate their proper relative positions, we have here, perhaps, fs

~ best existing data by which to determine the respective points

_ which the symbols are assigned. pN D

_ _ Entering upon the study of the plate with this object in Yi

_ I soon formed the opinion that the plate is, in fact, a

_ dar table. The discovery that the rows of day symbols, Se

dots in the outer form but a single continuous line an co

-cycle of thirteen months, or 260 days, convinces him of the co ok

ness of this opinion. Applying this discovery to the plate 44°"

Vichy =

ene

1886. | Anthropology. - 573

tion to the proper assignment of the cardinal point symbols. In

the course of this discussion, I enter at some length into the

independently by one or two of the European students, whose

Papers on these codices will shortly be published. I am now

Satisfied that I am able to explain and illustrate the use and sig-

nificance of nearly all the numerals in the Dresden and other

Maya codices. By means of this discovery, the reality of which

characters can be restored and errors in the reproductions de-

tected. This discovery shows that these calendar systems are

Than simpler than they have been supposed to be—Cyrus

homas.

bread made of acorn meal. They may be very properly termed

individua] ” pans, each of them holding enough meal to bake

a good-sized corn-cake, with brown crust all around. They are

oeni aed of lapisollaris, or of a soft schist not subject to fire- i

S. The dimensions are as follows, although the outline isa

very irregular oval -

77,160.—Length, 314 inches; width, 2% inches; height, 3 inch.

77,161.—Léngth, 34 inches; width, 31 inches; height, 134 inches.

i anth, 5 inches; width, 334 inches; ee I Me PR

2493.—Length, inches; width, inches; height 2 inches.

44 34 eight, 13¢ inches.

`. 77,164.—Length, 63% inches; width, 5 14 inches; hei

thie, the exception of 77,163, of schist, they are from Ẹ to 1

i k. š omparing A sie |

beer individual baking pans.

38 oe

+e + - General Notes. [June,

War-Ciuss vs. Diceinc-Sticks.—Toward the end of April the

secretary of the Smithsonian Institution received from Dr. Stephen

Bowers, of San Buenaventura, California, editor of the Pacific Sctence

Monthly, No. 4, Vol. 1, of that publication, containing an account of

the discovery of Indian relics in a cave in the San Mastin mountains,

Los Angeles county, California. Among the relics were four

heavy perforated stone (probably serpentine) disks, measuring

from four to five and a half inches in diameter, and still retaining

_ their handles of zoygn or bearberry-wood, which is among the

hardest in Southern California. The handles are from thirteen to

seventeen inches in length, and are cut off bluntly. To judge

from an accompanying photograph, the stones are in every way

analogous to a certain class among the many perforated stones

collected by Mr. Paul Schumacher and others in the same neigh-

borhood, and now in the archæological collection of the National

Museum.

Dr. Rau expressed ten years ago (in “Archæological Collection

of the U. S. National Museum,” p. 31), the opinion that the more

bulky of the Californian disk or cone-shaped stones served as club-

heads, and he was strengthened in his view by the fact that the

„extensive National Museum collections from the above-named

theory would be so unexpectedly verified by the finding of such

stones with their handles still inserted. Mr. Schumacher con-

sidered the stones as weights for digging-sticks, relying On :

statement of a half-breed vaguero.

linguistic students as well as among the scholarly authors ai

books on American ethnology. The harmonious, vocalic struc

ts literature

hed the

de-

of Anahuac, if not of the whole Nahuatl family. In the v and

_ulary appended, he differs in many points from Molina, ©

mg forms of the “ literary ” Aztec, is not always possible uer

out. Asan early source for dialectic study the “ Arte Mexi

will prove to be of peculiar value.—A. S. Gatschet.

Microscopy. bre

MICROSCOPY.!

STRUCTURE OF THE Human Sxin.—The following note refers to

a method of isolating the epidermis of human and other embryos

from the underlying dermis, and to the presence of a layer of

cells, not previously described, which may be observed in the

epidermis when so prepared, and which corresponds, I think, to

the epitrichium of birds. The method is also convenient for the

study of the development of hairs.

It is well known to physicians that if the foetus dies and is

retained, it is preserved for a considerable period without disinte-

gration of the tissues in the amniotic fluid. In specimens thus

Preserved it is often found that the epidermis is loosened so much

that strips can be removed without tearin g off the underlying tissues,

Ow as the amniotic fluid is little more than a salt solution, the

facts just stated naturally suggest that a salt solution preserved

from septic changes is sufficient to loosen the epidermis of the

embryo. My experiments have satisfied me that a sojourn of several

days in a 0.6 per cent solution of common salt, with 0.1 per cent

thymol added to prevent putrefaction, is a simple and satisfactory

>a grow in size; one a litttle larger is seen just to the left of -

E numbered 2, one a good deal larger is shown at 3. Sections

te that such clusters are on the under side of the epidermis and

hair; here the 44 ra O

“<i the axial portion of the papilla has formed the hair, B

While the cortical portion has formed the follicle, f; the end of the —

` Edited by Dr. C. O. WHITMAN, Mus. Comparative Zoölogy, Cambridge, Mur. :

The illustrations are borrowed from a forthcoming work on human embryology.

576 General Noies. [June,

hair is thickened, 4’, as the so-called hair bulb; the sebaceous

gland, G/, has begun to grow out from the follicular walls. In

the upper part of the follicle the hair lies quite free, hence in sev-

eral places where the hairs have been forcibly torn off the upper

part of the follicle, F, still remains, while the lower part attached

LETTS =

J tS. REN

Mays ee

See Re nea

“a os by A a, »

REET A IA , sieht

A e 2 Bese E x SIE we: Fahy Rate Xp

FANT Boats Eg, Re os ¢ z, pains rats

As EAAS and a $> ae 33 Stee =

te Ro te : h

Soniye

Eas

om at

nee

3 cre

et A

Fae at

a te

Deter?

s, Ln

Eea

sad

m Fic. 1.—Emtnyo human ates :

tothe hair is gone. In the walls of the follicle I notice granules

_ which I take to be of eleidine (cf. Ranvier’s Traité technique,

: : ss and is intended

The above description contains nothing new,

aes

1886.] ; Microscopy. 577

to serve merely as an explanation of the preparation regarded as

an object to demonstrate the development of hairs. The ae

ration also reveals the existence of an important undescri

The characters of the bodies in question are indicated by the

accompanying figure. They are irregular in size and shape;

quite granular ; in prep-

body is readily seen to

lie in a separate area

with very distinct polyg-

onal outlines, but the

area is only partly filled

y the body ; occasion-

ally there is a distinct

, exists in various mamma

578 Scientific News. : (June,

in the first instance only the external layer is sloughed off, and

that between this and the next following horny layers there is a

definite contrast.” As we have seen, the distinguished Würzburg

embryologist has expressed doubts not iustified by the facts,

there being an external layer which is extremely different from

the horny layer, and is apparently a true epitrichium. _

The human epitrichium, so far as I have observed, is. devel-

oped quite late, about the fourth or fifth month, though to be

sure an enlargement of the outermost epidermal cells may be

observed earlier than this.

Karyvoxinesis.—In the study of karyokinesis in the arthropods,

Professor J. B. Carnoy! obtained the best results with the two

following mixtures:

(1)? Chromic acid (2 p, c. or more) iio ace see 45 parts.

Osmio Seid (2 D. Cpe te 6 os eno sc eam krr reprenet

MSACIAL ROCHIC BONE... won canada yas en shan sha tes el 3

(2) Corrusive sublimate

lacial acetic acid (1 p.c.).

The object (testes) is left from six to ten minutes in one of oe

mixtures ; then washed in distilled waters and further hardened!

alcohol.

:0:

ae SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

=< —Edward Tuckerman, professor of botany in Am pad

lege, died March 15, aged sixty-nine years. He was a gra Salk

_ of Union College (1837), of Harvard College (1846), of ee pret

vard Law School (1839); studied history, philosophy and bota

herst Col-

i n

iLa Cytodiérése chez les Arthropodes, p. 211. (Extrait de la Revue « La Cellule,

‘I, 2o fas., Louvain, 1885.)

3 Modified form of Flemming’s mixture.

OV ne a Se eee ee en tee ey eee aS mee es

1886.,] Scientific News, 579

his death. Distinguished as a lichenologist, Tuckerman was one

of our most philosophical botanists, and a ripe scholar, with

literary skill of a high order, belonging to a family well known

for its literary and musical tastes. Professor Tuckerman was a

pioneer in the study of the White Mountain flora. His name as

an explorer will be ever remembered in the ravine of Mt. Wash-

ington, which bears his name. Among his principal works are

the following: “ An enumeration of North American Lichenes,”

1845; “ A synopsis of the Lichenes of New England, the other

Northern States and British America,” 1848; “ Genera Lichenum:

an arrangement of the North American Lichens,” 1872; “A

synopsis of the North American Lichens,” part1, 1882. Healso

contributed the chapter on lichenes. to the botany of Wilkes’

U. S. Exploring Expedition, and was the author of a number of

other papers and works.

—The annual report of the trustees of the American Museum

of Natural History in Central Park, New York, for 1885-86,

shows gratifying progress in the scientific development of that

institution. The expenditures for maintenance were $30,508.80,

while $6,654.16 were spent for improvements and additions to

the collections; $5,937.50, a gift of Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt, being

carried to the endowment fund. The purchases include the —

Bailey collection of birds’ nest and eggs, toward the purchase of

which Mrs, Robert L. Stewart contributed $1500.

—The celebration of the sixty-ninth year of the New York

Academy of Sciences took place on the evening of May Icth, at

Columbia College. Secretary H. L. Fairchild read an interesting ©

résumé of the society’s history. Dr. Asa Gray read his first paper

before this society. Its first president was the Hon. Samuei

L. Mitchell, who held the office seven years. He was succeeded -

by Dr. John Torrey, Major Joseph Delafield, Professor Charles

A. Joy and Dr. John S. Newberry. The history of the society

will form the subject of a forthcoming volume.

. From the report of the Zodlogical Society of so

' It appears that, as the result of special effort, $22,000 were ral

tor the present and future support of the garden. Still a large

Most remzrkable addition was a pair of hairy-nosed wombats

—An interesting feature of recent bers of the Journal of the

Royal Microscopical Society has been the publication of portraits —

“0M photographs of all the presidents of the society. The —

hs aay pee furnishes a full-page likeness of the present presi-

LR - H. Dallinger.

580 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [June,

—Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, the distinguished English natural-

ist, is to give a course of eight lectures at the Lowell Institute,

Boston, Mass., beginning in November next.

r. C. W. Peach, so well known as a zealous field naturalist

and eolicetor of fossils, oe name nates so often in Gosse’s

sea-side books, died in Mar

it Spencer ain i known for his work on pai:

nag worms, died in London in March, aged fifty-seven.

—The eminent botanist of Liegé, Professor C. J. E. Morren,

died late in February at the age of fifty-three years.

:0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

NATIONAL Acapemy oF ScrEences.—In addition to the list of

papers read at the Washington meeting the following were Pre

Si .On color contrast. By Ogden

N. Rood.

Classification = the Cambrian apon of North America (by invitation). By Chm.

D. Walco!

‘ sl bg ea a platinum by means of the electric discharge in vacuo. By A. W.

Wright.

The Stomatopoda of the “Challenger” collection. By W. K. Brooks.

Budding in the Tunicata. V oks. ‘oh

Effect of magnetization on the electrical resistance of metals, By A. W. Wight.

On a proposed expedition into the interior of Greenland during the present summer

with Disco as a base (by invitation). By R N.

_ At an evening meeting of the academy the Henry yoo

medal was for the first time awarded to Professor S. P. Langity

` for his researches on solar physics. The Watson medal, T Pi

onorarium of one hundred dollars, was given to

QO.

ie)

9 pk

ote

and conducting the Cordova observatory. At the same meetin

a biographical notice of the late Professor Arnold Guyot, P

_ pared by Professor J. D. Dana, was presented, and a similar 32 x

= late Professor John W. Draper was read by Froese

ommuni-

North

1886. ] Froceedings of Scientific Societies. — 581

Knowlton, Additions to and changes in the Flora Columbiana for

188

April 3—Communications: Dr. Frank Baker and. Mr. J. L.

Wortman, Recent investigations into the mechanism of the elbow-

joint; Mr. J. B. Smith, Some peculiar secondary sexual charac-

ters in the Deltoids, and their supposed function; Dr. C. Hart

Merriam, Contributions to North American mammalogy—Ill.

Description of a new sub-species of a gray squirrel; Dr. R. W.

Shufeldt, U. S. A., Some early and as yet unpublished drawings y

of Audubon.

Dall, 1. On the attachment of Lingula, with exhibition of `

New YORK ACADEMY OF ScreNncEs, March 15, 1886.—Recent

Progress in chemistry, by Dr. H. Carrington Bolton, of Trinity —

College, Hartford, Conn.

__ March 22.—Significance of flora to the Iroquois (with gram- *

matical notes), by Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith. Si

March 29.—Theories concerning the protective influence of —_

mitigated virus, by Mr. Lucius Pitkin. o

_ April 5.—Geological notes in Western Virginia, North Caro-

lina and Eastern Tennessee (illustrated with specimens), by Dr.

N. L. Britton. x

_ April 19.—Mineralogical notes (a, On the hardness of a Bra-

zilian diamond ; 4, A fifth mass of meteoric iron from Augusta |

county, Va; c, Asteriation in garnet), by Mr. Geo. F. Kunz oo:

Minerals of Staten Island, by Mr. B. B. Chamberlin. ie

_ April 26—On the variation of decomposition in iron pyrite s :

Its cause, and its relation to density, by Dr. Alexis A. Julien. —

ay 3.—Review of the fossil fishes of North America, with

notice of some new species, illustrated with specimens and lantern

Mews, by Dr. J. S, Newberry. os

_ Boston Soctety oF NATURAL History, March 17, 1886.—Dr.

C. C. Abbot described the habits of the white-footed mouse;

Professor Wm. Trelease read a paper on the North American

Species of Thalictrum (meadow rue); Professor W. T. Sedgw c

582 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [June, 1886.

exhibited some new and simple forms of apparatus in use in the

biological laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-

nology.

' April 7—Dr. R. R. Andrews read a paper on the development

of the teeth (illustrated by the stereopticon); Dr. S. Kneeland

showed some metallic tubes from a girdle found on an Indian

skeleton at Fall river—the so-called “Skeleton in Armor ;” and

M H. Scudder spoke of the mode of life of an ancient beetle.

April 21.—Mr. Percival Lowell read a paper on the Cm

; language; and Professor A. Hyatt showed ‘and explained Hat-

f scheck’s models of the development of a vertebrate (Amphioxus).

May 5.—The annual meeting was held on this date. Business :

Annual reports of the curator, secretary, and treasurer, on the

condition and work of the society ; report of the committee on

the Walker prize for 1886; election of officers for 1886-7. Com-

munication: Dr. G. L. Goodale read a paper upon plasmolysis.

APPALACHIAN Mountain CLuB, March 10, 1886.—Mr. J. Ray-

-ner Edmands read a paper entitled “ A day on Flume mountain

anda night in the wilderness;” Mr. S. H. Scudder made some

remarks on the progress of the State topographical survey ; Mr.

Rosewell B. Lawrence exhibited a new map of Middlesex Fells,

intended to show wood-roads and foot-paths. The following Sv

_ ject was presented for discussion : What should be done by or for

persons detained (possibly lost or injured) among woods an

«Mountains ?

= March 23.—Mr. S. H. Scudder occupied the evening with anac-

> «count of his three months’ adventures by stage, canoe and ox-cart

- with an eclipse party in the Winnepeg and Saskatchewan country

i a quarter of a century ago.

2 April 14.—A paper by Professor A. S. Pac

_ the Mexican plateau on a diligence,” was r

= Freeborn; Professor E. C. Pickering present

_, plans for a summer school in geodesy and topography.

= April 20.—A semi-social meeting was held from 7.30 to tO

- During the evening Rev. John Worcester showed fifty lant

views of scenery on the Great Range.

kard, entitled “ Over

ead

t Bs Ve

ed for discussion

PLATE XXIII.

GFAtkinson del.

A new Trap-door Spider.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VoL. xx.— ¥ULY, 1886.—No. y.

A NEW TRAP-DOOR SPIDER.

BY PROF. GEO, F. ATKINSON.

|b his excellent work on trap-door spiders Mr. Mogegridge says:

“There would doubtless be a just feeling of pride and satisfac-

tion in the heart of a naturalist, who could say that he had made

himself thoroughly acquainted with all the species of a particular

group of animals, had learned their most secret habits, and mas-

tered their several relations to the objects, animate and inanimate,

which surrounded them. But perhaps a still keener pleasure is

enjoyed by one who carries about with him some problem of the

kind but partially solved ; and who, holding in his hand the clue

While many interesting facts in the life-history and architecture _

of trap-door Spiders were observed and collated by Mr. Mog-

gridge, he very modestly says that many remain yet to be gath-

“ree In; that we are only on the threshold of discoveries of these

creatures, who have lain quietly in the earth century after century,

sufficiently ajar to permit those who love nature and her ways to

and that he will be satisfied to have been able to “hold the door -

catch oo of the wonders and beauties of the untrodden ee :

i yond.”* o

lies beyon ;

A favorable circumstance afforded me an op ity for

__~"§ Some observations on the unseen “wonders and beauties

2 parvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, Supplement, p. 180, y

ting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, p. 136. a‘

584 : A new Trap-door Spider. (July,

of the untrodden land” which is the abode of these interesting

creatures, and it is with a sense of pleasure that I note them.

Some time in the latter part of May or early part of June, 1835,

Mr. Merritt, of Pittsborough, N. C., brought to Chapel Hill two

trap-door spiders with their nests, and placed them in the care of

Professor Holmes for the University of North Carolina. The

nests with their occupants were placed in the ground for the

summer. On Nov. 12, after a careful search, Professor Holmes

=| was able to find only one, and this one with difficulty, as for some

reason it had dug through the lower end of the tube and was

hidden in the earth. Later I shall offer what seems to me may

be an explanation of this. On the morning of the same day the

spider with its trap-door nest was placed in my keeping, which

a was the first intimation I had of the presence of such an agree-

mS able neighbor.

3 At 4.30 p.m. I placed three and a-half inches of earth ina glass

hy jar five inches in diameter and seven inches deep. Two-thirds of

the surface of the soil was then covered with moss. In this the

af spider was placed, and the jar and its contents taken to er

: room, that I might, if possible, observe the operation of digging

l the tube and making the trap-door.

The results were most gratifying. Just before going to supper,

at dusk, I observed that the spider had not undertaken the work.

aes -Upon returning, at 8.30 P.M., I found the task undertaken. The

bye spider was resting in a hole about 20" deep by 22™ in diame-

ter, which she had excavated at one side of the jar. I placed the

jar upon my study table, just beneath the light of a student lamp,

so that while reading I could observe any movements made by my

companion. The spider was resting in the hole with its legs pat

tially folded, the anterior ones lying upon the edge of the exc

vation.

After I had been quiet for some time the spider began to wget

cautiously, and turning about slowly went head first into d :

oe hole, and dug from the bottom with her mandibles a eee .

_ earth about the size of a small pea. Then turning care A

` Around she placed it at the edge of the hole, where she Pu®

: it off with the aid of her palpi, at the same time wor” 4

her mandibles up and down. At first the spider seemed t! oe

__and would cease operations upon tlie slightest movement a d

_ part of myself. During the course of the evening three to

1886,] A new Trap-door Spider. 585

persons, who came to my room, had the fortune to witness the

operation of digging out the earth. The spider soon became

bold, paid no attention to movements in the room, and permitted

me to watch her very closely. Occasionally, by using both palpi

at once, the dirt was flirted suddenly from the grasp of the man- `

dibles with such force as to strike against the opposite side of the

jar. Had it not been for this obstruction the dirt must have been

thrown three or four feet.

After depositing each load on the edge of the hole, the spider

would turn around again for another load, but before picking it

up she would project the posterior pair of spinnerets about 5™™

from the abdomen and carefully knead the viscid liquid upon and _

around the freshly placed pellet of earth and over the edge fora

distance of 4 or 5™™ for the purpose of making the soil adhere

and prevent its caving in. In Plate xxii, Fig, 4, the spider is shown

in the act of removing a pellet of earth from her mandibles. In

Fig. 5 is represented the application of the viscid liquid. The

ends of the spinnerets are applied to the surface alternately, as

shown in the illustration. The legs took no part in the applica-_

tion of the viscid liquid; nor did the liquid form a thread when

the spinnerets were drawn from the surface, as I have since seen |

it when the spider was crawling about on the surface of the >

earth ; oo

3 As I am now writing, Jan. 16, 1886, 11.55 P.M., the spider is crawling bo ton

the surface of as about

the earth are loosely matted together in the path of the spider about the —

586 A new Trap-door Spider. [July,

on the under side of the partial door, she would carefully move

it up to the edge. Then placing the distal portion of the palpi

and anterior pair of legs above, while the proximal portion of

these limbs and the ends of the mandibles were on the under

side of the pellet and door, she would fit and press it in shape, as

one would mold with the hand a moist portion of earth by press-

ing it into a thin sheet. This is illustrated in Fig. 7, Plate XXIII.

Indeed it looked very much like the black bony fingers of a hand

performing the work of pressing. The greatest pressure seemed to

be brought to bear upon the rounded ends of the mandibles.

After fastening on a portion thus, the spider would take an in-

. verted position and apply viscid liquid along the edge and under

the surface of the door, as shown in Plate xxii, Fig. 6. She would

then turn about and crawl out for more material. The hole

being by the side of the jar, I could watch the operation both in

the hole and upon the cover. By one o’clock in the morning

(Nov. 13) the door was finished so that the spider could pull

down the lid, which completely closed the entrance, nicely fitting

- in around the edge and appearing as if there was no hole nor

spider, but through the glass the spider could still be seen.

At intervals during the construction of the door the spider

would pull it down to observe where the next pellet should be

placed in order to make the door fit the circular opening of the

tube. Discovering this she would turn completely around, and

not being able, with her head in the bottom of the tube, to see

the place where she intended to put the next load, she would find

; it by feeling about with her spinnerets. The viscid liquid would

then be applied and the pellet of earth fitted with extreme nicety»

Satisfied with the result of my experiment I retired. By day-

break I found that the excavation was continued after the com-

~ pletion of the trap door, the soil being deposited around the nest

to raise the surface of the earth in the jar to a level with the top

of the nest. Without close searching it was impossible to detect

_ the door.

= — The mode of making the trap door by this spider differs very

_ widely from that observed by other naturalists so far as Iian

als, construct a trap door in captivity. He made a cylindri

= hole in a flower-pot of earth. Into this the spider disappe f :

x During the night following the day of her capture she

1886.] A new Trap-door Spider. 587

thin web over the aperture; into which she wove any materials

which came to hand. The trap door at this stage resembled a

rudely constructed, horizontal, geometrical web, attached by two

or three threads to the earth at the mouth of the hole, while in

this web were caught the bits of earth, roots, moss, leaves, etc.,

which the spider had thrown into it from above. After the sec-

ond night the door appeared nearly of the normal texture and.

thickness, but in no case would it open completely, and it seemed

the spider was too much disgusted with her quarters to think it

worth while to make a perfect door.”

He also records the making of a door by a very young one of

thi

so that the door would open and shut?

The only: thing he records which seemed at all analogous to

the mode of making a trap door exhibited by the spider in my

Possession is that manifested in the enlargement of nests and trap

doors by Spiders as they grow larger, and consequently require

nests of larger dimensions, This operation was not witnessed

by him, however, but the additions to the size of the door were

Proven by measurements and observations upon nests of young

spiders at different seasons

It would seem natural to suppose that in making slight addi-

tions from time to time to the edge of the nest, the spider would

cement pellets of earth, pieces of moss, etc., to the edge instead

of first spinning a web ; unless the web is spun over the lower

side of the door and made to project just far enough to fit the en-

larged tube. In Plate xxi, Fig. 8, can be seen eight concentric

“lines of growth,” as they might be termed, of the trap door,

corresponding to the growth and needs of the spider. These I

Judge to represent the successive enlargements of the door con-

mitant with the enlarging of the tube. We can safely say that

aese additions were made by cementing the material, piece by —

Paan which forms each ring, to the edge of the door. These

lines of growth ” are not present in the door made by the adult :

fourth time :

*gularity in the cementing of the particles, which might form —

qpatvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, p, 118.

dem, P. IT9, ‘

“Idem, pp, 123, 127 and 150, and Supplement, p» 2454

S species, in which the threads, except at the hinge, were cut -

Spider in Captivity. I induced the spider to make the door the Qe

(Jan. 19, 1886) in order to observe if there was any

588 : A new T; rap-door Spider.

these lines of growth in a door made by an adult spider. There

is no Such regularity. Indeed, this last door was made of about

a dozen very large pellets of clay which, being very plastic, the

spider was able to press each pellet into a sheet of considerable

dimensions,

It is to be regretted that Mr. Moggridge did not have the

opportunity of observing the manner of enlargement of trap

doors made by the spiders which he studied, or that he did not

offer some theory as an explanation. If the particles are cemented

to the edge, it would be quite natural that the species of spider in

my possession once made its door by first spinning a web across

the mouth of the tube, and then weaving into it other material, as

in the case of N. meridionalis, and that the habit, followed through

life and successive generations, of making additions to the door

by cementing particles to the edge, finally became so fixed that

this mode of making additions to it became the permanent habit

~ — and type of construction of the trap door from the foundation!

T -The rapidity, ease and intelligence manifested in this method of

~ building up the door, piece by piece, certainly indicates a higher

development of instinctive power. A perfect and neatly fitting

and swinging door made in 1% hours!

_ When I took the spider from her nest it was necessary to

-remove nearly all of the soil from the jar and take her from the

lower end of the tube, as all efforts to attract her from the nest

failed. As the soil was very loose and the nest not long made,

the walls of the tube collapsed. In ten days the spider was

~ returned to the nest. Though the trap door was capable of being

_ used, and seemed to satisfy the spider’s idea of the * fitness of

things,” it was in a very dilapidated condition. This agrees with

` what Mr. Moggridge says of the reluctance manifested by gee

= to abandon an old nest. The examples cited by him are, B

_ adoor be pinned back during the night, a second door will be

_ made; that if the nest be covered with earth, the tube will be

oh prolonged to the surface of the superimposed earth afid a new

~ trap door will be made; and that in some cases nests become 10-

verted, when a door being made at the now uppe f

tube, the nest will have a door at each end! The conduct of my -

spider under another condition farther illustrates this fea ' a 4

Wishing to observe the habit of the spider, if possible, while a

*Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, pp, 121 and 122. es |

r end of the — l

Ce 5 a eee es eS

a PR erie ac ge ee a

_ durable tube than the loose soil in which I saw the first nest

black earth. This was wetted, and pieces of moss strewn over

ee Surface. She tried several times to take up pellets of the —

1886, ] A new Trap-door Spider. 589

door of the nest was closed, I prepared a glass test tube, 17™™ in

diameter, by placing 4°™ from the mouth a cork bottom, so that

the spider might have something on which to stand while making

the door. This, with the spider in it, I placed in the glass jar

and surrounded it with earth to darken the walls, hoping thus,

because of the firm smooth surface of the tube, she would not

line it with silk, and by lifting the tube from the soil I could ob-

Serve the position of the spider as it held down its door. The

experiment was a decided success.

This was prepared at eleven o'clock on the night of Dec. 27

'85. Pieces of moss were strewn about the tube. By morning a

perfectly fitting door, beautifully covered with moss, had been

constructed (Plate xxiv, Fig. 3). About this time many visitors

came to see the spider, and in pulling at the door to show how

persistently she would resist its being opened, the hinge became,

loosened and the door was pulled down upon her. She held on

to the door with such tenacity that I pulled it into bits in my

efforts to remove it from her grasp. It was removed Dec. 30,

85, and on the following night she built another as neatly as the

first. The hinge to this became loosened and the door moved

down about 5™™ from the mouth of the tube. Here she strength-

ened the hinge by Spinning a broad piece of silk, the width of the

hinge, from the door down on to the wall of the tube. Several

times in endeavoring to open the door I tore pieces from its edge,

and in every instance the spider repaired it. Finally, when I

Wished to remove her from the tube I was obliged to push up on ;

the cork bottom, and in this way crowd her out through the door. =

Akter this was done it was with some difficulty that she freed her

Posterior feet from the silk bag which she had constructed at the

ottom, so firmly did she hold on. a fa

I have this yet to add. Ina note I have mentioned the wan-

dering of the spider about in a jar of freshly prepared earth, Jan.

16. For three days she has been restless, and though several -

attempts have been made to dig a tube she had failed. I came to

°r satisfactorily. Wishing to have soil which would make a more

, I used a large proportion of fine plastering sand mixed with

590 A new Trap-door Spider. [July,

earth, but seemed to be disgusted with its crumbling. She then

tried to bore a hole by pushing down with her mandibles while

turning her body around. She evidently wished to hide her

head from the light, for after making a hole 2™ deep she remained

with her head at the bottom. To-day, Jan. 14, ’86, the soil in the

woods having thawed sufficiently, I prepared a jar of moist fer-

ruginous clay, very much like that of which the nest is con-

structed that came from Pittsborough. Upon this I puta fine

mat of fresh moss, covering the earth except a spot at one side

2%4™ in diameter. In this I placed the spider at noon. I then

covered it from the light. As I returned to my room after din-

ner, she was resting in a hole 3° deep which she had excavated,

and small pellets of earth were placed against the moss at the

mouth of the hole. She would not work during the day unless

I covered the jar from the light. During the evening, by lamp

light, I had the pleasure of seeing her make another door. It

required about one and a half hours, Only one piece of moss

was used, and that I let drop into the hole while she was at work.

This seemed very strange, for the tube was the only place not

covered with moss, and to save her the trouble of cutting the

moss I had strewn loosened particles about the hole. In this

case all of the earth used in the construction of the door

was taken from the bottom of the hole. The door being made

almost entirely with the clay was very conspicuous in comparison

with the surrounding moss; though the door fitted very neatly,

the tube being built up to a level with the top of the moss. This

_ time instead of making the hinge against the side of the jar 5

was made on the opposite side of the tube. Surely this persist-

ence is equal to that shown by the spider who, making her w

the thirteenth time, taught a general lesson of perseverance.

~ Iwas unable to understand how the resistance to opening tt

_ door was offered, if the spider fastened its fangs and all of its

_ claws into the under surface of the door, as Mr. Moggridge

cS states! A reference to Plate xxiv, Figs. 3 and 4, will show ee

the

_ tion of the tube from å to c was not lined with silk. The spider

evidently not admiring the cork at d for a bottom to

carried in pellets of earth and bits of moss as shown at &

: 2 * Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, pp- 95-96.

1886. } A new Trap-door Spider. 591

then spun a short bag of silk, 4 which was attached by the

mouth to the walls of the tube at c, and rested on the piece of

of cork. The mouth of the test tube was lined with silk from

the edge for about 5™™ to 7™™- The ends of the silk lining at 4

and the silk bag at c were for some distance transparent, so that

I was enabled to see the spider fairly well. As can be seen in

Fig. 4, the spider clings to the bag of silk at the bottom (or walls

of the tube) with the claws of her two posterior pair of legs, and

to the under surface of the door with her fangs and the claws of

her anterior pair of legs. By partially lifting the door I was

enabled to see the hold upon the door, and when I pushed the

spider out of the tube, as before stated, I found her feet entangled

in the bag of silk. The manner in which this spider holds down

the door is precisely the same as that described by Emerton! in

the case of Cteniza californica, except that he states the “ third

and fourth pairs of legs are pressed out against the walls of the

tube.”

The nest of this spider belongs to the simple, unbranched type

with shallow cork door. The door belonging to the nest in

which the spider was caught (Plate xxiv, Fig. 1) measures 3 to 4™™

in thickness; the edge is beveled and fits neatly in the mouth of

the tube. The door measures 25™" across near the hinge; the

tube 60" in length. The walls are badly collapsed, and the

lower edge ragged and open. It will be remembered that the

spider was found in the earth below the tube when the nest was

taken up in November. The first nest which the spider made

under my observation was left open at the bottom, and when I

the tube. The question naturally arises, Is this not left open as

is, in some cases at least with this species, as this is the only

needed on this point.

Rey 1

-o Structure and Habits of Spiders, p. 45-

attempted to take her out, finding she could not hold down the i

door, she attempted to bury herself in the soil at the bottom of

a last means of escape from enemies? I am inclined to think it-

Tesort for safety after- the door is open. Further observation is-

_ The trap door of this nest is so hung that it tends to close

itself. In Fig. 2, Plate xx1v, at æ are patches of silk that are drawn

On the stretch when the door is open. When all resistance is _

‘moved these tend to close the door. ra

_ The subject of the food of trap-door spiders is an interesting-

592 A new Trap-door Spider, > [July,

one, and much is yet to be learned of their habits in this respect.

While I had the spider out of her tube I offered her several

house-flies, holding them by one wing with the forceps near her

head. The struggles of the fly attracted her attention. - With a

quick sweep of the palpi and anterior pair of legs she would

clutch the fly and place it between her powerful mandibles,

crushing it immediately.

She held some of these about one minute, but I very much

doubt her having derived any nourishment from them. One of

the smaller species of the flies belonging to the genus Tabanus

was offered her. It seemed only to frighten her, as she could

not be made to touch it even by being angered, but would turn

and run away as if in great fear. After returning the spider to

her nest, Dec. 8, I placed in the jar two ants and a small carabid

beetle. The ants hid themselves in the earth. Dec. 14 the beetle

was still unharmed, and I concluded the spider did not come out

for food. I then lifted the trap door and placed the beetle inside.

Dec. 16 I found the broken hard parts of the beetle strewn about

_ just outside the nest. It had been killed, the soft parts eaten by

ae the spider, and the parts of the skeleton ejected from the nest.

à Jan. 17, ’86, I placed a half dozen large yellow ants in the jar.

_ As they attacked her she would catch and crush them, but I did

‘not see that she ate any of them. :

Noe Jan. 2,’86, which was almost like a summer day at Chapel

| Hill, I went into the woods for the purpose of collecting some

moss. While tearing up a large patch of this at the foot of a

tree, I discovered a hole which I thought to be the nest of a trap-

= door spider. I dug down into the tube and found at the bottom

= a spider belonging to this family. In the afternoon I fou: * sev-

_ eral nests and one more female spider. Under some stones I

_ founda male. I placed them in jars of earth containing M055.

_ One of the females escaped, the other built a nest and made x

a slanting double door which might be compared to an outside

-cellar door. Each door is made of moss cemented with silk and

hung by a semicircular hinge. These the spider will open an |

_ shut at pleasure, sometimes fastening them together wi

= of silk. In both of the nests in which I found these

there were the remains of ants. I had intended to illust i

describe farther the nests and habits of these found by myse dog

Eei

spiders

rate and

PLATE XXIV.

a NOE na

: 3

GE AKinson. ab,

A new Trap-door Spider.

1886.) Legendary Fragments from the Point Barrow Eskimos, 593

Chapel Hill, as they are lively creatures and seem to offer inter-

esting objects for study as to habit, food and architecture. But

as this article is already long, and I wish to make farther collec-

tions and study their habits more closely in captivity, I will

reserve the subject for a future time.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

PLATE XXIII.

Fic. 1.—Spider, natural size, dorsal view.

‘ — 7 “ ventral “

oo ors gde sy

"* 4—Spider in the act of unloading a pellet of earth while excavating. the tube.

a, pellet of earth,

5.—Spider applying viscid liquid to the freshly placed pellet of earth. a, spin-

nerets

6.—Spider applying viscid liquid to the edge of the partially constructed door.

a, spinnerets; 4, door; ¢, pieces of moss, :

7-—Spider in the act of fitting to edge of the door a pellet of earth, a.

8.—Trap door showing eight concentric rings which represent the successive ©

additions to the edge of the door corresponding to the enlargement of the

tube. a, hinge.

PLATE XXIV.

Fic. 1.—Natural size of nest in which the spider was caught.

“ 2.—Trap door open. a, bands of silk which tend to close the open door; 4,

claw and fang marks of spider made while holding down the door,

3-—Nest made in glass test tube. a, hinge; f, bag of silk; æd, cork bottom ;

8, pieces of moss and earth. - ;

4.—Spider in act of holding down the door while in the nest. All natural size.

ee RETIEF

A FEW LEGENDARY FRAGMENTS FROM THE

POINT BARROW ESKIMOS.

BY JOHN MURDOCH,

in what is now the territory of Alaska, there is one legend, that

- Greenland tradition (p. 237), and from this draws additional evi-

dence of the identity of the Eskimo race over this extensive

The following fragments of stories were collected by the writer

_ A description of these spiders I reserve for a future time when a fuller collection

1s made and habits more clearly observed. sae a

594 A few Legendary Fragments from [July,

and other members of the United States International Polar Ex-

pedition from the Eskimos of Roint Barrow, Alaska, which is the

extreme north-western point of the continent of North America,

_ during a stay of two years (from 1881 to 1883). The fact that

several of them show features indicating a relationship with well-

known Greenlandic stories seems to the writer to render them,

scanty as they are, worthy of publication.

Two or three of them have already been published by Lieut.

Ray, the commander of the expedition, but as they appeared in

a government publication,’ perhaps not accessible to all readers,

it will not be out of place to repeat them here.

Occupied as our party was with the manifold routine scientific

work of the station, it was exceedingly difficult to get hold of

‘ any of the traditions of the natives, though they showed no

; unwillingness, from superstitious or other reasons, to talk freely

about them. In the first place there were so many (to the Eski-

mos) more interesting things to talk about with us, that it was

a difficult to bring the conversation round to the subject in ques-

. , tion. Then-our lack of familiarity with the language was a great

hindrance to obtaining a connected and accurate version of any

story. The jargon, or kind of Zingua franca, made up of Eskimo

: roots and “ pigeon English ” grammar, which served well enough

= for every-day intercourse with the natives, enabled us, with the

ae help of expressive gestures, to get the general sense of the story,

_ but rendered it impossible to write down an Eskimo text of the

tale which could afterwards be translated. Moreover, the confu-

; sion and difficulty was still further increased by the fact that two

== Or three people generally undertook to tell the story at once. ,

In writing out the following stories I have endeavored to avoid

__ introducing ideas and expressions of my own, and to ad

5 closely as possible to the simple sense of the brief disco

-~ sentences of the narrators.

=I. How people were made. Long ago, Aselu, a dog—“ where

_ he came from I did not hear ”—was tied to a stick. He bit the

_ stick [7. e., set himself free] and went into the house, where he

had intercourse with a woman, who gave birth to men and dogs:

here as

nnected

The belief that a dog was one of their remote progenitors is a

very common one among savages. According to Egede (Green:

to Point Barrow»

inate:

2 Report of the United States International Polar Expedition

i RENE By P. H. Ray. Wa: ni 88 Š.

1886,] the Foint Barrow Eskimos. 595

land, p. 195) the Greenlanders believed that white men were the

offspring of a similar union between a woman anda dog. (The

same story is also referred to in Rink’s “ Tales,” &c., p. 471.)

i 2. Another account of the origin of human beings. In the

east, a tall tube [like a reed. The narrator to illustrate this

pointed to one of our bamboo fishing-rods] stuck up from the

ground. A man broke the tube. “ Behold, ‘many men and

women!”

i 3. The origin of reindeer and fishes. Both reindeer and fishes

were made by a mythical person of whom we got only a vague

account, though he was often mentioned. He was said to be a

little man with long tusks like a walrus, and many of the little

Eskimo figurines and masks of ivory, soapstone or wood, which

we brought home from Point Barrow, represent such a being, and

are, perhaps, meant for images of this person.

When the deer was not, this man made one out of earth. The

deer all had large teeth in the upper jaw and were “ bad ”—they

bit people. So he said to them: “Come here!” and when they

came he pulled out these teeth. Now they are “ good.”

The reindeer, of course, like the sheep and other ruminants,

; has no incisor teeth in the upper jaw, and this myth is certainly

an ingenious way of accounting for this fact, which must have

Seemed very strange, since all the other animals known to the

Eskimos are well supplied with teeth in both jaws.

on the fish were not, this man hewed a piece of wood by

€ river side with his adze. The chips fell into the water and

were fishes

ere seems to have been a similar myth in Greenland. Ac-

_-- ording to Crantz: “ They say fishes were produced by a Green-

lander

! P. 204); and Egede tells a similar story (Greenland, p. 196).

but the natives know what these phenomena are and account for

them as follows: ip

into the sky, carrying a dried sealskin and torches of tar. With

_ the to

ze rches and rattling the sealskin.

Ur,

3 taking the shavings of a tree, drawing them between his '

1 legs and casting them into the sea ” (History of Greenland, Vol.

- John Simpson, ithe surgeon of the Plover, the English diş- : ;

‘ry ship that wintered at Point Barrow thirty years before us, <

4. Thunder and lightning. It rarely thunders at Point Barrow,

Long ago a grown person and a child went up | ; :

sse they make the thunder and lightning, apparently by waving

(July,

gives a version slightly different but agreeing in the main with

596 A few Legendary Fragments from

is.

Evidently related to this is the Greenland tradition referred to

by Crantz (Vol. 1, p. 233) that the thunder is caused by “two

women stretching and flapping a dried sealskin.” Egede (p. 207)

gives the story in greater detail. The thunder and lightning are

made by two old women who live in a house in the air. They

now and then quarrel about a dried sealskin, and while they are

fighting down comes the house and breaks the lamp, so that the

fire flies about.

5. The story of the Kokpausina. Long ago there were five

very strong brothers, Kokpausina, Kokkaun, Inaluoktuo, Nimna

and Pakanigarua. (The narrators were particular to impress It

upon us that these men were not especially tall, but very stout and

strong. The strength of Kokpausina especially seems to have

become proverbial, for an Eskimo once compared the great, pow-

erful hand of an old whaleman, one of our party, to that of Kok-

pausina.) Kokpausina lived at Pernye [7. e., “the elbow,” the

summer campground in the bend of Elson bay, between Point

Barrow and the station], Kokkaun east of Point Barrow on the

seashore, Inaluoktuo inland in the south, Nimna at Dease inlet,

and Pakanigarua at Cape Smyth. Kokpausina found two little

a orphans asleep and thrust excrement up their noses [apparently

be from sheer malevolence, though we never succeeded in making

the natives understand that we wanted to know the reason of

this action.] So they went home and made a little bow and

= arrows, short enough to hide under the jacket, but strong enough

to shoot through a walrus-hide dried before the fire [and there-

_ fore nearly as hard as iron]. Then they went to Pernye and saw

= Kokpausina, with his back towards them, stooping OV¢r

they shot him in the buttocks and the arrow came out at his

- Tar bone, and he died.

His great shoulder-blade and some of his other bones are still

at Pernye. [Natives who came down from the Point Barrow i

Tage to the station once or twice told the writer that they hae

seen Kokpausina’s bones at Pernye on their way down

went so far as to bring us down a rather large human jaw mae

from the old cemetery near Pernye, saying that it was Ko!

_pausina’s.]

col-

: This story, which we heard from several narrators without any

the Point Barrow Eskimos. 597

essential variation of names or incidents, and without being able

to get more details, is the skeleton of one of the semi-mythical

traditions so common in Greenland, which may really refer to `

some actual occurrences in ancient times, but which have been

localized and adapted to suit the region in which the narrator

ives.

The death of Kokpausina bears a strong resemblance to the

`“ final catastrophe of the Greenland story of Kagsuk (see Rink’s

“ Tales,” &c., p. 431), which is said to have taken place in Green-

land, in the districts of Holsteinborg and of Sukkertoppen, and

according to Dr. Rink is perhaps a variant of an older tale only

localized in this: way. In this story the wicked Kagsuk, after

committing various deeds of violence, at last murders the sons of

two old men “clever in magic spells.” To revenge themselves

they prepare “ bows of an arm’s length,” and while others engage

Kagsuk’s attention in front they creep up behind, escaping obser-

vation by magic, and shoot him dead.

It seems hardly too bold a statement to say that if Kagsuk and

Kokpausina were real persons at all they were one and the same

man, who lived neither at Sukkertoppen nor at Pernye, but some-

Where in the common home of the prehistoric Eskimos, before

the Greenlanders started on their weary journey towards the east

and the men of Point Barrow on’ their perhaps longer journey

_ towards the setting sun. :

It is interesting to note that the five very strong and (appa-

tently) wicked brothers who appear in this story are evidently

€ same as the “band of five brothers, generally called ‘a lot of’

brothers or men ” who, according to Dr. Rink, figure in so many

of the Greenland tales as the personification of haughtiness or ee

brutality, ne

E EEE ee | ee ae ee a ges PE

: 6. A murder at Cape Smyth. Udlimau was once given as the

name of one of Kokpausina’s four brothers, but the narrator

afterwards corrected himself and said, as did other natives also,

that Udlimau was a bad man who long ago lived at Utkliavwing

(Cape Smyth) and who murdered Kumnero as he lay asleep be-

i his wife by cutting him across the bowels. The house where s

-S murder was committed was pointed out to us in the village.

kg is probably an account of an actual occurrence, as is the fol-

owing: : š : é

~ 7. The people who talked like dogs. Long ago, when there —

598 Legendary Fragments from the Point Barrow Eskimos. {Juiy,

was no iron, five families had their houses at Isitkwa (the site of

the signal station, where several mounds indicate the position of

the former village). They were called Isitkwamiun (“they who

live at Isatkwa”), and they talked like dogs. “They said “imek-

lunga, wa! wa!” (“I want a drink, bow-wow ba

The following fragment, however, for which Lieut. Ray is my

authority, and which was also related to Dr. Simpson thirty years —

before, which both these gentlemen think indicates that these

Eskimos are really acquainted with an unexplored land in the

north, is in my opinion more probably referable to the same cate-

gory as the numerous tales of the eastern Eskimo about the

mythical land of Akilinek.

8. Iglu Nuna (“ House country”). In the north isa country

where the Iglumiun live. When all men wore one labret [the

characteristic lip-stud of the western Eskimos, of which a pair is

now universally worn in the under lip, one at each corner of the

mouth, The expression means a very long time ago, as the sin-

gle labret has long been out of fashion, and a few only are pre

served as heirlooms or amulets], a man with his sledge and dogs

lost his way on the ice and traveled many days till he came toa

country he had never seen -before, where there were people who

spoke his language.

We also heard of various fabulous animals, though in many

cases the names which in Greenland are applied to animals known

only by tradition, and which therefore have grown into fabulous

monsters, are still used for the animals to which they properly

belong, as in Labrador and elsewhere, for instance, 4747? me

~ the wolf, and avwinga the lemming, while in Greenland the ama-

~ rokand avingak are semi-supernatural creatures that figure #

many of the old stories. i

_ The Greenlandic word filivfak or hiliopak, which there means

an animal with six or even ten legs, appears.at Point Barrow 3

_ atthe Mackenzie river in the form 4i/igwa as the name Hass

mammoth or fossil elephant (see also Rink, “ The ese

lects,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain,

_ November, 1885). We heard none of the fanciful myths coca

this animal which have been reported by various travelers

the shores of Bering sea, but the word was in common US® espe

cially as the name of the fossil ivory, which is very plenty

much used by the western natives for various purposes.

l 1886.]

It is interesting to note in this connection that one of the little

ivory images brought home by our party from Point Barrow rep-

resents a bear with zez legs, said to have been seen once at Point

Barrow, and evidently a blood relation of the many-legged 4iliv-

4 fak of the Greenland stories.

4 Another fabulous beast was the ugruna. “ There are none now

on the land. It has gone away, only the bones [remain].” This

name appears to be applied to an extinct species of ox or buffalo,

whose bones they sometimes see in the interior, probably along

the banks of the rivers. We procured several teeth of the

ugruna which had been worn as amulets. As in Labrador this

name is also applied satirically to the smallest mammal known to

the Eskimos, a little shrewmouse.

As elsewhere on the American continent, the Red Indian, who

in Greenland, like the wolf, has become a fabulous being, dwell-

ing in the mysterious inland country, is called by the contemptu-

ous name, “son of a zz” —Itkidling, the Ingalik or “ Ingaleet”

of Norton sound, which is plainly the same word as the erkilek

of the Greenland traditions. .

Outside of the strict field of legendary history or tradition, th

Teligious ideas and superstitious observances of these people, as

far as we had the good fortune to observe them, show a great

resemblance to those of the Greenlanders before their conversion

to Christianity. So strong is the resemblance in this and in other

respects that I feel confident that an intelligent observer who

should devote himself to the collection of the traditions of the

Eskimos of Point Barrow, as Dr. Rink has so ably done for the

eae a ee ee

ions of the Greenlanders in a recognizable shape.

202

HISTORY OF CELERY.

ing of Cultivation so as to embrace selection and the cross-fertili-

| VOL. Xx.—No. yir,

History of Celery. ` 599

Greenlanders, would find here the greater part of the older tra- |

BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, M.D. ne

r we consider cultivation as embracing only the removal of a

; Plant to fertile soil and its protection from injury from ċrowd-

_ ing, the only marked effect of the continuance upon a plant —

_ ““Fough itself and its offspring seems to be embraced in the one _

Word expansion, z. e., increase of size. If we enlarge the mean- 4

Dpr of the flowers which yield seed for. future use, the subject y -

600 History of Celery. [July,

becomes more complicated, and we find it difficult in all cases to

connect the sequence of cause and effect. One fact, however,

through careful observations, seems undoubtedly true, that by

selection alone, without the assistance of the break caused bya

cross-fertilization, changes in our plant are extremely slow, and

many generations are required to obtain and fix any change other

than increase which is sufficient to be noted by the casual eye.

In support of this view we can direct attention to the little change

that has been produced by centuries of culture in those plants

which represent but improved formis of a wild species, such as thes"

parsnip, scorzonera, salsify, etc., among roots; and we may also

call attention to the stability of type-form during centuries of

culture in the eggplant, pepper, and I may even add the pump-

ye kin. Perhaps one of the most interesting instances of increase

-of size without change of type can be seen in the watermelon.

The old herbalists figure this fruit of small size, but as is very

likely, only small varieties were commonly grown in Europe.

John Bauhin, whose history of plants was published in 1650,

many years after it was written (he died in 1613), states the

watermelon to be so large that one could scarcely embrace it with

the two hands, “quos fere ambabus manibus ambias.” Marg-

gravis, whose history of natural productions of Brazil was pub-

lished in 1648, describes the watermelon as being as large as

one’s head, “ magnitudine capitis humani.” That our present

a types of fruit were then known is evidenced in many ways but

can be given succinctly by Caspar Bauhin’s statement 1n his ;

_ Pinax, edition of 1623, that some have a green skin, others 4

skin spotted with dingy white; the flesh of some red, of othes f

white; the seeds black, red and tawny, in varieties. Ray de-

scribes the fruit as round, or globose or even elliptical. In mod-

ern times we have fruit so large that my arms cannot embrace

_ the oval, and a weight of ninety-six pounds has been ¢

probably with justice. !

In seeking for a good illustration of the stability of vE 4

` joined with a change produced by cultivation and selectio™

have taken the celery, as this vegetable seems to be of modern

A: rs to a water:

i i

1 Card.

melon, “ Magnitudo quandoque tanta, ut homo expansis ls it “AD

queat;” but then Cardanus was dealing with wonderful things! He calls a

_ guria, qua melopeponem ob it Galenus yocat, quod non distincta sit can

_ Pepon sed rotunda ut pomum.”

ee T ea ee, Ee

1769, i 28.

2 Yee

1886] History of Celery. 601

origin, and the variations from the wild plant have been appa-

rently deemed great, although really but slight, except in expan-

sion produced by freedom of growth and changes which have

slowly accumulated through selection.

The celery has originated from the Apium graveolens L., a

plant of marshy places whose habitat extends from Sweden

southward to Algeria, Egypt, Abyssinia, and in Asia even to the

Caucasus, Beloochistan and the mountains of British India} and

has been found in Fuegia,? in California’ and in New Zealand.!

It is supposed to be the se/inon of the Odyssey, the se/inon heleton

of Hippocrates, the Aleioselinon of Theophrastus and Dioscorides

and the Heloselinon of Pliny and Palladius. It does not seem to

have been cultivated, although by some commentators the word

interpreted as smallage has a wild and cultivated sort. Nor do T

find any clear statement that this smallage was used as food, for

sativus means simply planted as distinguished from growing

wild, and we may suppose that this Apium, ¿f smallage was

meant, was planted for medicinal use. Targioni-Tozzetti® says

this Apium was considered by the ancients rather as a funereal

or ill-omened plant than as an article of food, and that by early

Modern writers it is mentioned only as a medicinal plant. This

seems true, for in the books in my library I find that F uchsius,

1542, does not speak of its being cultivated, and implies a medic-

imal use alone, as did Walafridus Strabo in the ninth century ;

Tragus, 1552, likewise; Pinaeus, 1561; Pena and Lobel, 1570;

also Ruellius’ Dioscorides, 1529; Camerarius’ Epitome of Mat-

thiolus, 1586, says planted also in gardens, “ Seritur quoque in

hortis,” and Dodonaeus, in his Pemptades, 1616, speaks of the

wild plant being transferred to gardens, but distinctly says not for —

food use, According to Targioni-Tozzetti,’ Alamanni in the six-

feenth century speaks of it, but at the same time praises Alexan-

S for its sweet roots as an article of food. Bauhin’s (1623)

name, Apium palustre & Apium officinarum indicates medicinal

te, Candolle. Orig, des Pl. Cult., 71. re 3

oss, Voy. to the South seas, 11, 298. Apium antarcticum, Cook’s Voy., ed.

: Nate. Jour. Acad. Phila., n. ser., I, 183.

Forster. Pl. Esc., 6

ort Trans., 1854, 144.

7. eS

teen pee and Scaliger’s Theophrastus, ed. 1644, p. 804. Ruellius’ Dioscorides, = __

Ge '529, Pliny, Grandsagne. ed. Palladius, Gesnets Script, rei rust.

602 History of Celery. fa {July,

rather than food use, and J. Bauhin’s name, Apium vulgare in-

gratus, does not promise much satisfaction in the eating. Accord-

ing to Bretschneider' celery, probably smallage, can be identified

in the Chinese work of Kia Sz’mu, the fifth century A. D., and is

described as a cultivated plant in the Nung Cheng Ts’nan shu,

1640. We have a mention, however, of a cultivated variety in

France by Olivier de Serres in 1623 and in England the seed

was sold in 1726 for planting for the use of the plant in soups

and broths,’ and Miller‘ says, in 1722, that smallage is one of the

herbs eaten in the spring to purify the blood. The cultivated

smallage is even now grown in France under the name of Celert

a couper, differing but little from the wild form. The number of

names that are given to smallage indicate antiquity, such as

Arabic Asalis, Italian apio, German Eppich, Spanish Ferexil dagoa,

French ache’ Egypt Kerafs English smallage, etc.

7 The prevalence of a name derived from one root indicates @

Sk recent dispersion of the cultivated variety. Vilmorin’ gives the

f ` following synonyms: French Celeri, English celery, German Sel-

u leree, Flanders Selderij, Denmark Selleri, Italy Sedano, Spain apu,

i Portugal Aio, and M’Intoshê gives for the Spanish Apio hortensis.

E The first mention, of the word celery that I have observed is in

ae Walafridus Strabo’s poem entitled “ Hortulus,” where he give

a the medicinal uses of Apium, and in line 335 uses the word as

follows :

ae “ Passio tum celeri cedit devicta medele.”

y, as it

trans-

as de-

The disease then to celery yields, conquered by the remed

may be liberally construed, yet the word celeri here may be

lated quick-acting, and this suggests that our word celery W

„rived from the medicinal uses. Strabo wrote in the ninth century,

__ having been born A. D. 806 or 807, and dying in France in 849:

~ Targioni-Tozzetti® says it is certain that in the sixteenth century

celery was already begun to be grown for the table in Tuscany: A

cannot find any mention of celery in Fuchsius, 1542; Tragus, 1557?

Matthiolus Commentaries, 1558; Camerarius’ Epitome, 1558;

History of Celery. 603

Pinaeus, 1561; Pena and Lobel, 1570; Gerarde, 1597; Clusius

rar. plant., 1601; Dodonaeus, pempt., 1616; or in Bauhin’s Pinax,

: 1623. Parkinson’s Paradisus, 1629, mentions Sellery as a rarity,

and names it Apium dulce. Ray in his Historia plantarum, 1686,

says the smallage transferred to culture becomes milder and less

ungrateful, whence in Italy and France the leaves and stalks are

` esteemed as delicacies, eaten with oil and pepper. The Italians

call this variety Sceleri or Celeri. The French also use the vege-

table and the name. He adds that in English gardens the culti-

vated form often degenerates into smallage. Quintyne, who

Wrote’ prior to 1697, the year in which the third edition of his |

Complete Gardener was published, says, in France “we know

but one sort of it.” Celeri is mentioned, however, as Apium

dulce, Celeri Italorum in Hort. Reg. Par., 1665 ;? in 1778 Mawe

and Abercrombie note two sorts of celery in England, one with

the stalks hollow and the other with the stalks solid; but in

1726 Townsend? distinguished the celeries as smallage, and sel-

lery, and the latter he says should be planted “ for Winter Sallads,

because it is very hot.” Tingburg* says celery is common among

| the richer classes in Sweden, and is preserved in cellars for win-

ter use. In 1806 M’Mahon® mentions four sorts in his list of

: garden esculents for American use. It is curious that no men-

1 tion of a plant that can suggest celery occurs in Bodaeus and

ligers edition of Theophrastus, published at Amsterdam in-

1644. :

The summary of our investigation hence is, that we find no

clear evidence that smallage was grown by the ancients as a food -

= ` Plant, but that if planted at all it was for medicinal use. The —

: first mention of cultivation as a food plant that I note is by Oli- à

: vier de Serres, 1623, who calls it ache, while Parkinson speaks of

celery in 1629, and Ray indicates the cultivation as commencing :

lly and extending to France ‘and England. Targigni-Toz-

zetti states, however, as a certainty that celery was begun to be

rown in Tuscany in the sixteenth century. The hollow celery

s Stated by Mawe® to have been the original kind, and is claimed _

by Cobbett? even as late as 1821 as being the best. | :

2 704,

Sone Inst., 1719, 305.

ba. Sulin., 1764, 25.

eM ete nad F waa Kalendar.

: TAmec S Abercrombie. Gardener, 1778.

! American Gardener, y

are not cultural in their beginnings.

_ that I have previously shown to hold true for the dandelion,

_ earth up for the purpose of blanching and we should expe

gain increased weight to the leaf-stalks; a long-continued ven?

„tion of the best plants for seed-growers would gradually ae

_ in forming the solid stalked; the growing of varieties fro

604 ; History of Celery. ~ gi

The first celeries grown seem to have differed but little from

the wild plant, and the words celery and [cultivated] smallage

‘were apparently nearly synonymous at one time, as we find culti-

vated ache spoken of in 1623 in France, and at later dates Petit

celeri or celeri a couper,a vatiety with hollow stalks cultivated

even at the present time for use of the foliage in soups an

broths. Among the earlier varieties we find mention of hollow-

stalked, stalks sometimes hollow, and solid-stalked forms ; at the

present time the hollow-stalked forms have become discarded.

Vilmorin! describes thirteen sorts as distinct and worthy of cul-

ture in addition to the celeri a couper, but in all there is this to be

noted, we have but one type.

A curious circumstance is that smallage took on the appear-

ance of celery before its use was commonly recorded, if at all, as a

salad plant, as is evidenced by the drawings herewith reproduced

in reduced form. The first drawing is substantially the same as that

in Fuchsius, 1542; Tragus, 1552; Pinaeus, 1561; Tabernaemom

tanus ic., 1590, or Gerarde, 1597, and Dodonaeus, 1616, and is

taken from Matthiolus’ Commentaries, 1558; this represents the

common expression of the herbalists as to the appearance of

Apium palustre at this time. The second picture is from Came-

rarius’ Epitome of Matthiolus, 1586, and represents the form we

call celery, but hollow stalked as at first noticed. The third pic-

ture is taken from Decaisne and Naudin’s Manuel de l'amateur.

des jardins, and represents the unblanched plant of one of our

most improved varieties. These pictures suggest the same ideas

viZ.,

` that our improved strains originated from natural sources, an

e the wild smallage, transfer to fertile soil and protect from

crowding, and we should expect increase of size to the woe

m the

earliest seed would tend. toward earliness ; the occasional grow-

taining a curled-leaf form with dwarf habit, etc.

say that all our celeries in form are not changed from the orig-

History of Celery, 605°

inal except in unessential points correlated with size and selec-

Sore

~ ` N N

Cu HR

ney IN a

RANAY

SZAL N

re (Cam p it palustre (Matth. Comm., 1558, p. 362). FIG. 2.—Apium palus-

a 3 : Epit., 1586, p. 527). Fic. 3.—Celeri plein blanc (Decaisne and Naudin).

Me In quality celeries have tended to become milder, until 2

606) Eistory of Celery. [July,

now some of our varieties, such as the Boston market, are of a

very delicate taste, far different from the sort spoken favorably of

by Townsend in 1726 as very hot and very slow growing.

It is probable that some original variation in quality discovered

in the wild plant suggested cultivation, for among a people like

the Italians, with whom high aromatic taste seems popular, the

strong savor of the smallage would present little objection, if

only grateful to them; or that its use was suggested by some

popular idea of its value as a medicinal food, as seems probable.

That there is ‘great variety in wild plants in respect to flavor, we

have every reason to believe. Smallage, described by most bot-

anists as a suspicious if not dangerous plant for eating, yet in

Fuegia was found palatable and healthful by the sailors of the

exploring ships,! and in New Zealand described by Forster’ as

truly pleasant and salutary for scorbutic sailors. The use in

Italy as a medicinal food, and the introducing to garden culture,

with blanching, etc., would improve the flavor and. increase. its

use, and improvement once initiated and recognized would neces-

sarily continue, and stability of type-form would also tend to

continue, as the seeding habits of the garden plant is not favora-

-ble to cross-fertilization with the wild or allied species, it being a

biennial, and not usually seeding alongside of other species with

which crosses might occasionally occur.

We have now in celery an improved, not changed, wild p

which does not now tend to revert to the wild form, as it see

to have done at the first, and a good illustration of the fixity of

a garden form species. The present form will undoubtedly COR:

tinue unchanged for a long period, unless cross-fertilization W!

another species-variety is brought to pass. It would be of gar-

den interest to grow and cross the species-forms from different

portions of the globe with our garden varieties, as analogical

= Feasoning would suggest possibilities as yet unsuspected 1

Practice. |

lant,

med

a _ Ross, ke Cook, L c

PIRU

The Yellcw-billed Magpie. 607

THE YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE.

k BY BARTON W. EVERMANN.

URING two years spent in Ventura county, Southern Cali-

fornia, I became quite familiar with this handsome yet noisy

bird of plebeian tastes. The yellow-billed species seems to be

restricted in its range to California, throughout which State it is

locally abundant. ; i

One of the great industries of Southern California is wool-

growing; the valleys and hillsides are covered with flocks of

sheep, from a score to several thousands in number; and nearly

every cañon has its corral to which the herder and his faithful

dog drive the flocks at eventide. Here they are shut up and

guarded through the night. In the morning .they are again’

turned loose to feed upon the burr clover, alfillarilla (or “ fillareé ”),

and such other stuff as can cause only sheep and mules to thrive.

In and about these corrals are various kinds of filth—carcasses

of sheep that have died of disease or starvation, bodies of dea

lambs and the refuse of the sheep which the herder has slaugh-

q tered for his own larder, for jerked mutton and tortillas constitute

b the chief part of his meager bill-of-fare. Such a place as this is

4 à paragon of restaurants to the magpies, Here they can be found

‘in the early Morning, in the evening, and at any other time of

day when they happen to be hungry. Here they come to feed

upon the filth, keeping up an almost incessant chattering, crying

and scolding, which if translated into intelligible English would

certainly bristle with oaths and slang. For there, where the

glish sparrow has not yet found its way, the magpie represents

the “hoodlum element” in bird society. But when the English —

Sparrow invades its domain, the magpie will become, by compari- `

on, a most estimable member of the avian fauna of that region.

Almost any cañon which has a considerable sheep corral and _

Supplied with a few scattered clumps of live oaks, cottonwoods _

_ ® sycamores, is quite sure to have its colony of magpies.s And =

_ When you enter one of these cañons you are apt to know oftheir

Presence long before you come within gunshot of them, unless

““Y, as is sometimes their custom, remain quiet and hidden until

_ You are near them, when they open fire upon you with volleys of —

nn, imprecations and maledictions, which nothing but a charge _

__ of shot will stop, : : a

ETA

Duly,

608 The Yellow-billed Magpie.

Such a place as this is Wheeler cañon, a few miles down the

Santa Clara valley from Santa Paula. By former visits to this

cañon I had kept myself informed as to the progress these birds

were making in their nesting. So on April 2, 1881, Mr. Fred.

Corey and I paid the cañon a visit, believing that many “ full

sets” would be gotten. We started from home early in the

morning and drove down to the cañon, fully prepared to spend

the day. As we drove leisurely along the foot of the mountain

_ slope, numerous brown birds (Pupilo fuscus crissalis) and valley

quails (Callipepla californica) scurried from our path and hid

themselves in the sage-bush chaparral which there abounds;

and an occasional burrowing owl (Speotyto cunicularia hypogea)

would salute us with a school-boy bow as we passed. Where

the cañon opens into the valley are many large spreading live

oaks which, with their dark-green foliage and spreading form,

resemble large apple-trees. Many of them have beautifully

rounded tops, whose bases are only a few feet from the ground,

- and whose small dark-green leaves are so thickly set that it is

impossible to see among the branches except from below. Far-

ther up the cañon are a number of cottonwoods and a few wil-

lows, and still farther more oaks and several sycamores.

He who has collected only here in the East hardly knows how

rich may be the results of a day spent in such a cafion as this.

-~ Here every tree could be climbed with no great difficulty, and

anything it might contain was nearly always obtainable. When

we reached the sycamores and cottonwoods the hooded and Bal:

8 lock’s ‘orioles, happiest of all the cafion’s happy birds, flitted

among the green leaves, delighting the eye with their royal dress,

_ and the ear with their rich melody of song. And a pair of mag-

pies flew up, from the edge of a little stream where they ʻa%

come to make their morning toilet, and perched upon a cere

= wood near by. Emphasis was given to their scoldings by excite

`, Jerkings of the tail and body after the manner of the jay- Be

as we had decided to begin collecting at the upper end om

_cofion, we passed on without disturbing the riest which we plainly

_ Saw in the tree’s top. As we neared the upper end of the gt

_ a California vulture (Psendogryphus californianus) rose from ”

_ ground in front of us, where lay a dead pig upon which

feasting, and soared away to the higher mountains. I gree

no bird of more majestic flight than this great vulture of out

Western coast. While rising from the ground his movements are

anything but graceful; he starts with a few very awkward steps

and still more awkward flaps of his immense wings, but after

reaching an elevation of fifty to seventy-five feet, flapping of the

wings ceases, and as he circles above you, ascending higher and

higher on motionless wings, he proves himself king of the soar-

ing birds. But the magpie was the object of our trip, and to her’

we must return. Our time was well selected, for the nesting was

atits height. The large globular nests were seen in the tops of

anumber of trees, and most of those that we climbed to con-

tained good sets of eggs. We obtained nine sets altogether.

: Five nests were found in sycamores and contained three, six, seven,

Seven and nine eggs respectively. The full nest complement for

each of the first two sets had evidently not been reached, as the

eggs Were perfectly fresh. Incubation had scarcely begun in the

two sets of seven each; and the nine eggs of the other set showed

but slight embryonic changes.

Two sets of eight eggs each were taken from nests in live oaks,

and with these incubation had proceeded several days. One

beautiful set of eight eggs was found ina nest in the top of a

willow near the lower end of the cafion. In only two or three

of the eggs were embryonic changes visible. But one nest was.

ound in a cottonwood, the one we had “ spotted” in the morn-

ng, and but a short distance from the willow just mentioned. In

this nest we found four fresh eggs. Thus from the nine nests we

Sot sixty eggs, which we regarded as a pretty fair day’s collect-

mg. From the above facts it seems safe to conclude that the

Usual nest com

to nine eggs, and that the sycamore is the favorite tree in which

to nest in that region,

‘Part. An irregular-shaped entrance-way is left at one side, and ~

- Sthe horizontal diameter is not sufficient to permit any other —

on terial iS used in the cons

The Yellow-billed Magpie. 609 :

me or roof of the nest being somewhat thinner than the lower

: of the nest support the dome-shaped roof at a sufficient _ - ae

ht to permit the long tail of the sitting bird to extend upward,

mp sition of that member. Except in the lining, very coarse

ats truction of the nest—large twigs of © :

cottonwood being most frequently used. The nest is roughly

plement of the yellow-billed magpie is from seven _

The nest is a large globular structure very much resembling : is

3 crow’s nests placed with their faces or edges together, the

RRS:

po -GIR The Yellow-billed Magpie.

[July,

lined with finer twigs and strips of the inner bark of the cotton-

wood. A few of the nests we examined were newly made, but

the majority were old nests which had been used in previous

years. Quite a number of old deserted nests were found, partic-

ularly inf the live oaks near this mouth of the cafion, where we

found no recent nests at all. But a few years before a school-

house had been built near this grove of oaks, and the “ small

boy” proved too much for even the magpies, who retreated up

the cañon, leaving their tents behind them. |

The eggs of the yellow-bill magpie vary considerably in color

as well as in size and general shape. The description of the color

given in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, and copied by Mr. Oliver

Davie in his “ Egg Check-list of North American Birds,” is

applicable to nearly all the specimens I have seen, viz, “ The

- ground-color is a light drab, so clearly marked with fine cloud-

ings of an obscure lavender color as nearly to conceal the ground,

and to give the egg the appearance of an almost violet-brown.’

One set of four in my collection has the lavender very pro-

nounced, and in quite large spots or blotches, rather most numer-

ous about the larger end. The eggs of this set measure 1.35 X

95, 1-43 x .90, 1.29 x .90 and 1.33 x .94—the average 1.35 * 89,

being the largest of any of the sets I have seen. Another set of

= eight gives 1.18 X .85 as the smallest, 1.40 X .85 as the largest

and 1.30 X .8 as the average. The average of a set of six give?

by Mr. Davie is 1.30 X .89, and on another page he gives 1.20 X

.92, presumably the average of many sets, B.B. & R. give i

x .9O as the measurement of an egg from Monterey, Cal. Fhese

last measurements seem rather under the average of those I have

seen.

Several of the nests to which we climbed were old deserted

_ Ones, and contained no eggs. Mr. Corey, after much iy

reached one in which he was surprised to find a set of ¢gs®

_ the sparrow-hawk (Zinnunculus sparverius).

While we had been quite successful in securing many

__ of beautiful eggs, these material things alone did not oe

; the profits which the day had brought to us. During our rag he

_ing ride, besides the objects already mentioned, we had seen, ©

Jeyed and conversed about a score of other things no less es

tive. And now in the evening, as the sun sank beyond them se 4

and the highest peaks of the cafion’s walls received its last war i

good sets

represent

I E Oe EE TN ER E ee eee aR ec

ERA

ie —Potbrotherium labiatum Cope; five anterior cervical vertebre, showin

ah arent x: atum Cope; five ani E >

er jaw (Fig. 12); and thirdly, the incompleteness of the keels :

. acter and

2 PE co

1886.) The Phylogeny of the Camelide. 611

glows ere it passed beyond the Pacific, new charms were added

to the place. We saw the beautiful crested valley quails fly on

whirring wing from the mesas and the chaparral to the dense

foliage of the live oak, where their leader called to the night’s

repose; we heard the long-continued ringing note of the ground

tit (Chamea fasciata) from the thicket by the road-side ; we heard

—almost fe/7—the dismal, multitudinous barkings and howlings

of a coyote that watched us from a ridge not far away, and could

hardly believe one poor beast could carry'on such a concert; we

saw and heard and felt a hundred beauties which delight the soul

and fill it with happy memories. We enjoyed most the fish we

didn’t catch.

: 10:

THE PHYLOGENY OF THE CAMELID.

BY E. D. COPE.

a is well known, the camels form a well-distinguished division

of the Artiodactyla, or even-toed ungulates. The prominent

ures which separate them, osteologically speaking, from other

Artiodactyla are three, viz., the absence of a canal of the cervical

vertebrae which in other Mammalia encloses the vertebral artery

(Fig. 1); the presence of an incisor tooth on each side of the

feat

Fic. T

te rarterial canal; one-half natural size. Figs. /, posterior views oi

ae lettered to correspond with those represented above them. Original, from

women from White River bed of Colorado, represented in Fig. 7.

of the distal ends of the metapodial bones (Fig. 2). This char-

that of the presence of incisors, are primitive conditions a

common to all the early Mammalia. The peculiar cervical verte-

nstitute a specialization, but whether degenerative or pro-

612 The Phylogeny of the Camelide. [July,

gressive remains to be ascertained. In one respect this line ex-

hibits a high specialization, which is present at the earliest known

period of its history. This consists in the reduction of the lat-

eral (11 and v) metapodial bones, so that but two functional toes

remain (see Fig. 1, c-/). This condition has been reached by

the more typical artiodactyles after a much longer lapse of time,

for most of the extinct and recent types display lateral digits ina

well-developed or rudimentary condition; in but few of them

have they totally disappeared. In another respect the line of the

= — Camels attains a higher specialization than that of the typical

ruminants, although its beginning is that which is common to the

entire suborder. This is in the dentition. The reduction in

numbers of teeth showed by Owen to characterize the historical

succession of all Mammalia, is carried further in the molar series

of camels than in any hoofed order; for in the final term or

| genus, Eschatius (Cope), there is but one premolar left in the

| upper jaw, and that is reduced to a simple cone. The true

molars never reach the complexity of those of the other line, of

` the Bovidz or oxen, nor do they become prismatic as in that

family, but retain the short crown well distinguished from long

roots, which belongs to all the earlier Mammalia.

ae The successional reduction in the numbers of premolar torth

ko in the family of the Camelide is shown in the following table.

__. There is seen in the genera Protauchenia and Palauchenia a ten-

dency to an increase of complication of the fourth inferior pre-

molar, j

I. Premolar teeth 4, a

1847.

P-m. 1 separated by diastema - -- Procamelus Leidy

~> < IL Premolar teeth 4. ‘ ;

o Pien below wanting vee. Pliauchema s5

III. Premolar teeth 3.

’ Linn,

_ Fourth inferior premolar IRN OMISE oi ER E S SE e Sm ine

_ Fourth inferior premolar composed of two crescents, which enclose a lake ( Owen.

ve a iiaa Palash Oe ~ d

Ie Be 1 . ior tul

Fourth inferior premolar composed of two crescents, with two posterior

s ind them., otauchenia

a Y. Premolar teeth 3.

Fourth premolar below Wane er ors do eck. sc he ows ose tee eke

V. Premolar teeth 4.

Cope.

oath superior premolar consisting of a simple cone.....+e+-+*** pgs

Fourth superior premolar composed of two crescents.....+- ro ee Cope.

ete

and

_ tirely distinct (Figs. 3,7). The molar a aug tre rs

1886.] The Phylogeny of the Camelide. 613

The only genera which include existing species are Camelus

and Auchenia, the camels and llamas p D Mi

respectively, It may be remarked that

the latter genus, which is confined to the

new world, is more specialized than

Camelus, which is restricted to the old

world

Ancestral to the Camelidæ is the

genus Protolabis Cope (Fig. 10), which

agrees with Procamelus (Fig. 11), the

earliest genus of that family in most

respects, but differs decidedly in having

a full set of superior incisor teeth. In

this genus we reach the stage, in tracing

back the ancestry of the camels, which

We find represented by Oreodon in the

series of the Chevrotains (Tragulidz), or

the Gelocus in the line of the cattle and

deer. It is probable, though not certain,

that in Protolabis the metapodial bones

are combined into a cannon bone as in

the Camelide. If so it differs mate.

nally from its predecessor, the genus

Poëbrotherium, and must be regarded as

the type of a special family, the Proto-

labididze, :

The Poébrotheriidze have their general

characters like those of the Protolabi-

didæ, but th R IG, 2. — Carpus

®, but the metapodial bones are en- bone first

from New

teeth are truly selenodont, and the cres- vidual Fig. 12; a, pag b,

c i d, i erior views. riginal,

ents, as in the other families, are but 8 Rept. U. S. G. G. Tork

rooth mer., G.

four in number. The premolars are en- W. of

tirel diff 3 Wheeler.

Y erent in form from the molars

baa the last one in the upper jaw consists of but two crescents, as

in ruminants generally. ; ee

The family which should be ancestral to the Poëbrotheriidæ is

not certainly known. It should possess the foot-characters of the

: (Pines a ıl r inf >. é A Superior, molars That ia 3

er With Anad

614 = -` The Phylogeny of the Camilide.

instead of four crescents, these teeth should possess four cones or

tubercles perhaps more or less flattened. Such forms are already

nown as ancestral to some other. Ruminantia,

as for instance the genus Anthracotherium,

where the external cones are flattened on the

outer side, or Dichobune; where the cones are

not flattened’at all. In both of these genera :

there are five tubercles to the superior molars,

and the lateral (11, v) digits are present. We

possess some fragments, however, of a lost

genus from the age of the Poëbrotherium

(the White River Miocene, or Oligocene),

which very probably represents the one which

fills the interval. This has been named Stib-

arus (Cope), and it is only known from parts

of lower jaws which contain premolar teeth.

These have a great resemblance to thẹ corre-

i Gia sponding parts of an older genus of the same

tise capes and end of line, -Pantolestes, from the Wasatch forma-

wn eitoni Let tion or Lower Eocene. It might be suspected

_ Original. that, Stibarus is a member of the Panto-

lestidze but for one fact., The superior molars of Pantolestes be-

long to the primitive type which has only three tubercles or

cusps. No genus of ungulate mammals having this character is

known to pass the bounds of the Eocene series of epochs in any

country, and it is extremely improbable that Stibarus will prove

to be an exception to this rule. I have very little doubt that the

superior molars will be found to be quadritubercular, but it is :

impossible to be certain whether the tubercles are simple oF cres-

_centic. The resemblance of the premolars to those of Pantoles-

tes leaves the probabilities in favor of their being simple. In

_ case Stibarus represents a family in the wide interval between “Ta

oe Pantolestide and the Poébrotheriide.

Messrs. Scott and Osborn have described a dias ton

Bridger Eocene of Wyoming, as a probable member of n pa

known from two premaxillary and a part of one maxi

The former are slender and bear a complete set of incisor ‘his

which are followed by a large canine. It is probable that

genus oome in the camel sèries, but it cannot yet be eo

1886.] The Phylogeny of the Camelide. 615

The question of the origin of the Pantolestidz is that of the

origin of the suborder ‘Artiodactyla. This I have believed would

be found to have been from some yet undiscovered type or sub-

order of the order Amblypoda! None of the known families of

that order can have occupied this position, for although their

general organization is appropriate, their superior and inferior

molar teeth have been modified too much from the simple tritu-

bercular type on which they are built. The ancestor of Panto-

lestes was an amblypod with the tubercles of its tritubercular

Superior molars entirely simple or conical. No such form has

yet been discovered, but I have, in anticipation of such discovery,

named the suborder the Hyodonta.

= f Co igi Th iform is imperfe

> l zoryphodđon (original), e cuneïform is imp ,

Ore it i £, lunar; Cu, cuneiform; 7z, trapezium; 7v, trapezoides; My, magnum ; |

» Sncitorm,

Fig. 4. Fig. 5. ; :

_ Fic. oo anterior foot of Phenacodus primevus, one-third natural ae eE

IG, 5 i

appear in the Morphologisches Jahrbuch, takes the position that

the Artiodactyla have been directly derived from the Taxeopoda

and from the family of the Periptychidæ, thus leaving the Ambly-

Poda out of their phylogeny. In this I cannot agree with him,"

and for the following reasons: )

The evolution of the Diplarthrous, or alternate wrist-and-ankle-

ned Ungulata (Fig. 6), from the Taxeopoda, or straight-rowed

| wnst-and-ankle-boned Ungulata (Fig. 4), has been by the rotation —

: vey Toceedings Amer. Philosoph. Society, 1882, p. 447. Report U. 5. Geol. Sur-

2 TE, m, 1885, p. 382.

1e logischer Anzeiger, 1886, No. 222. oe s

. Podon, adition that the carpus of the Periptychidæ (which is unknown) is taxeo-

» as I have supposed,

j vou. XX.—nNo, vir, 4t

616 The Phylogeny of the Camelide. [July,

inwards of the second row on the first, in both the fore and hind

feet. This rotation has resulted sooner or later in the loss of the

internal digit (thumb and great toe) from both extremities. In

the history of this sliding inwards of the second row, the out-

side element of the row has always preceded in time the inside

element. The Amblypoda (Fig. 5) show this clearly. The unci-

form bone has extended inwards so as to support the second bone

of the first row (lunar) in part as well as the one which properly

rests on it (cuneiform). But the magnum has not slipped inwards so

3 as to support the scaphoid of

the first row. That continues

to be supported by its proper

successors below, the trape-

zoides and the trapezium, the

latter taking half the burthen.

This structure (Fig. 5) is ab-

solutely intermediate between

that of the Taxeopoda (Fig.

4), and that of the Diplarthra

(Fig. 6), and I imagine that

all ungulates in passing from

the taxeopodous to the diplar-

throus stages traversed the

conceivable path would have

been through a type in whi

ee ee at se rng, below. te or

Wyo a pienis ha of Wind river, the unciform did not pe ae

bg ad ind ag Report U. S. wards beyond the limits ©

cuneiform. No such type has

been found. On the other hand, I have shown that the Oreodon-

tide! have pushed the transposition of the bones of the sec

carpal row to such an extreme that the magnum has gotten €n-

tirely under the scaphoid, while the unciform supports the lunar

completely. Thus the alternating position with its useful mechan-

ical consequence has been lost to this group, the effect a

oe being exactly that seen in the Amblypoda. This may have ha

| Something to do with the extinction of the Oreodontidæ |

- * Proceedings Amer. Philos. Soc. 1884, pp- 504-9, and 1884, P. 23 (Palæontolog:

Bull., No. 39).

amblypodous. The only other

of the cervical vertebre (Fig. 1).

1886.] The Phylogeny of Camelide. 617

The following suggestions as to the origin of the three pecu-

liarities of the cameloid series, or Tylopoda as they have been

called, may be made. The imperfection of the distal metapodial

keels (Figs. 2, 3 and 7) is probably due to the £}

early development of an elastic pad of connec- į i

tive tissue beneath the proximal phalanges. It

is this pad which gives the foot of the camel its

peculiar lateral expansion, and causes its step to

be both elastic and silent. This structure has

relieved the metapodials of the concussions to

which the feet of other Ruminantia are subject,

and I have advanced this fact as the cause of the

peculiarity of the metapodials above mentioned.?

The cause of the absence of superior incisor

teeth is unknown, but has been supposed to be

complementary to the presence of horns in the

Ruminantia. None of the camel line have horns,

and the presence of the single incisor on each

side may be connected with this fact; but why

two of the incisors on each side should have

been lost under the circumstances, is not ex-

Plained. Nor has any explanation been offered

for the absence of the vertebrarterial foramina

: There have been six species of the Pantoles- y

tidæ described, all belonging to the genus Panto- y y

a The only ones of the six which are Paq. — Misi

n from parts of the skeleton, are the P. foot of Počbrotheri-

“gicaudus Cope, of the Bridger Eocene epoch, = — from

and the P, brachystomus of the Wasatch Eocene ed in Fig. 1. Orig-

(Fig. 8). Neither of these species exceeded an e a Wits

existing musk-deer in size, and both had slender Colorado,

limbs. The tarsus of the P. érachystomus is known, and it is truly

ruminant, though all the bones are distinct (Fig. 8). At the upper

end the adjacent sides of the metatarsal bones are flattened and

applied together, so that the later formation of a cannon bone by

their fusion, must have been of easy accomplishment. The dis-

: tal parts of these bones as seen in the P. longicaudus are not

closely appressed, but are quite distinct from each other. The P.

“AMERICAN NATURALIST.

618 The Phylogeny of the Camelide. [July,

etsagicus, also from the Wasatch Eocene of the Big Horn river,

is represented by a portion of a

robust lower jaw as large as that

of a fox.

But one species of Stibarus is

known, and that from jaw fragments

only in my museum and in that of

Princeton College. These fragments

appear to have belonged to an animal

of the size of a pine weasel or martin,

but the premolar teeth are very

large for the size of the jaw and

may indicate a larger animal. The

anterior ones, ? first and second,

have two roots each, and are quite

elongate in the fore and aft direc-

tion. They are separated by a very

narrow diastema from the tooth in

front of them, ?the canine. The

premolars are compressed and have

a straight median cutting edge.

Ss This edge is thrown into two lobes

PE cage Si Eeri between the anterior and ` posterior

Cone a ogg h Eo- basal ones, the anterior only being —

of W Fig. 2 Saperi Bes

molar teeth from ‘below; b; mandible, the larger. The whole tooth rese

left side ; c, do, fi 3

ee aa aCe nom ater SP „blesa rather low premolar Idh

a. d, — behind; e, from g dog, and was evidently quite

outside; /, from- insid O

from PAS U. S- Ge l. a effective as a cutter of soft sub-

Ters., Vol. ii, E. V. Hayden, stances.

Of the Poébrotheriidz there are two genera. These differ 5

follows :

_. First premolar of upper jaw elongate and with two roots....+ Potbrotherium pai

mint upper premolar short and with a simple conic root...-- Gomphothertum T

In Poëbrotherium we have two species, a larger P. l - nals

Cope, and a smaller Z, vilsoni Leidy (Fig. 9). Both are pren

of graceful and slender proportions, of about the size "i ase

a yi

a of the existing gazelles. Their heads were, however, ©

. narrowed form towards the end of the muzzle. The ag ii

these animals have been found in the White River beds

1886. ] The Phylogeny of the Camelide. 619

braska, Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. They were evidently

very abundant during Oligocene time.

The genus Gomphotherium embraces but one species, the G.

-Q oo Merai nm from Mes River Miocene of Nebrask

skull, right i e Rar If natural size; erior molar an, nat, size; c,

Saleies molars, nat. siz ax Lady, dent Pania of Nebras

sternbergi Cope, which was found by Mr. C. H. Sternberg in the

ohn Day Miocene beds of Central Oregon. Its size exceeds

that of either of the Poébrotheria, equaling that of a llama.

Ei Mi Aeren sternbergii Cope, two-fifths nat. size, from e Bess

red "pia of Oregon. Fig. a, left side; 5, inferior side; c, distal end of

m Report U. S. Geolog. Survey, F. V. Hayden

Its Sate were also slender, and in their es characters

resemble those of the genus which preceded it. The second and

digits are represented on both feet by small scale-like bones

620 The Phylogeny of the Camehde. [July,

adherent to the sides of the two median metapodials. The infe-

rior premolars in this genus are all much compressed, but differ

much in form from those of Stibarus. The first upper premolar

is a simple tooth with a subconical crown, totally different from

the long cutting crown of the corresponding tooth in Poébro-

therium. The next two premolars alone are compressed, though

the third is rather wide posteriorly. The fourth is like that of

other ruminants,

The oldest species of Protolabis, P. transmontanus Cope (Fig.

11), was obtained from the Ticholeptus beds, which overlie the

John Day beds in Central Oregon. Its skull and a few bones

Pa!

”

Fic. 11.—Protolabis transmontanus Cope, skull one-third nat. size, from Ticho-

leptus bed of Oregon. Fig. a, from left side; 4, from below. Original. z

only are known, but the former displays very complete dentition.

Its size is about that of the Virginia deer. , Its dimensions are w

strict accord with the rate of increase of size to be observed in

this series, and which it will be noticed, is maintained to the Plio-

cene epoch, when the greatest dimensions were attained. i

species of Protolabis appear in the succeeding or Loup For

epoch which exceed the P, zransmontanus in size. These are the

~ Vary in size from that of a sheep, as P. gracilis Leidy, to that =

deer, P, occidentalis Leidy, and to that of a camel, P, 70H

1886.] The Phylogeny of the Camelide. 621

Leidy. The P. occidentalis (Fig. 12) appears to occur wherever

the Loup Fork beds exist, from New Mexico north and east to

Dakota. The P. angustidens Cope, intermediate in size between

this form and the P., robustus, is not rare in Kansas and Colorado.

Six or seven species of this genus have been named, one of them

from teeth found near Richmond, Virginia. Species of the genus

probably occur in beds of corresponding age in Florida.

Pliauchenia has been found as yet only in New Mexico, in two

species not well preserved. It is not certain that any species of

Rte 12.— Procamelus occidentalis Leidy, one-third nat. size, from Loup Fork bed

New Mexico, Fig. a, skull from above; 4, do. from left side. Original, from

€port U, S, Expl. Surv. W, rooth mer., Vol. 1v, G. M. Wheeler.

the genus Auchenia (llama) has been found fossil within the United

States, though several have been described. Some or all of these

long to Holomeniscus Cope, which has only one premolar

above, while Auchenia has two. A species about as large as a

large llama has been found in the Oregon desert and named Æ.

Vilakerianus Cope. Another as large as the largest known camel

IS the H. hesternus Leidy. This fine species ranged from Oregon

through California to the valley of Mexico, where it has been

- found by Professor Castillo of the School of Mines. A still

larger Species, perhaps of this genus, the H. ca/ifornicus Leidy, must

have €xceeded in its dimensions either of the living camels. It is

Known from a few bones from California, and perhaps from Mexico.

622 The Phylogeny of the Camelide. [July,

The most specialized of all the genera of Camelidæ, Eschatius

Cope, extended its range from Oregon to the valley of Mexico-

I owe to the courtesy of my friend Dr. Mariano Barcena, formerly

director of that department of the Museo National of the City of

Mexico, the opportunity of inspecting specimens of the jaws and

teeth of this genus. It is represented by two species. The larger,

E. conidens Cope, was about as large as a camel or dromedary. It

ranged from the valley of Mexico to Oregon; specimens found

by Mr. Sternberg in the latter region not being distinguishable

from those of the Mexican origin. The second species, Æ. /ongt-

rostris, is a good deal smaller, and is only known from the same

Equus beds of Oregon which have yielded the larger one.

The succession of structure in the leading genera of the selen-

odont or tylopod part of this phylogeny may be represented as

follows : No cannon bone. Cannon bone present.

Incisor teeth present. Incisors one and two wanting.

A ee i

r $, 4

4 premolars. 3 prem’s.! 2 prem’s, 1 premt. :

Lower Miocene { Potbrotherium. :

Protolabis.

Upper Miocene Procamelus. :

Pliauchentia.

i Camelus.

_ Pliocene and recent - Auchenia.

This table shows that geological time has witnessed, in the his-

PAN tory of the Camelidæ, the consolidation of the

bak bones of the feet and a great reduction in the

numbers of the incisor and premolar teeth. ihe

embryonic history of these parts is as foliows :

In the feetal state all the Ruminantia (to which

the camels belong) have the cannon bones divided

as in Poébrotherium ; they exhibit also ince

teeth, as in that genus and Protolabis. Very

Fic. 13 —Castof young recent camels have the additional premolar

ain of Poébro- of Pliauchenia. They shed this tooth at an ped

nat. size. From period, but very rarely a camel is found in y =

i seum, the tooth persists. The anterior premolar A =

Princeton, N.J. normal Camelus is in like manner found ag :

young llama (Auchenia), but is shed long before the animal at

_ tains maturity. I may add that in some species of P rocamelus

-caducous scales of enamel and dentine in shallow cavities er

_ Sent the incisive dentition of Protolabis,

“Mn lower jaw,

1886, ] The Phylogeny of the Camelide. 623

In greater detail, the extinct American forms of this line are

distributed as follows:

Eocene. Miocene. Pliocene,

ee AER, rë A

| Wasatch, | Bridger. White he PET Pai Equus.

Pantolestes Cope ..... 5 Er

Ithygrammodon S. O., I

? Stibarus Cope.. .... ‘ I

Poébrotherium Leidy. | 2

| j

Leidy.... | 6

. | y

{

Eschatius |

Thet “ni number of genera, nine; of species, twenty-six.

The development of the brain displays the same progress that

has been shown by Lartet

and Marsh to have taken

place in other lines of

Mammalia. The accom-

development of the convolu-

tions of the hemispheres,

it is in advance of the Foé-

= brotherium vilsoni in these

respects (Figs. 13-14).

The development of the

camels in North America

presents a remarkable par-

allel to that of the horses.

The ancestors of both lines

appear together in the Wa-

“igs 14.— Procamelus genera Sacre of brain standard types in all our

Skull Perce ted i ; d

Fig. 12, one- garea o Tertiary formations; an

Ww. from Re se U S

ot tat mer r 1877, Vol. 1v, G. M. Wheeler, they must be

624 Editors’ Table. [July,

any one who wishes to distinguish readily the horizons one from

the other. The horse-forms are more numerous in all the beds,

in individuals as well as in species. Both lines died out in North

America, and of the two, the camels only have certainly held

their own in South America. The history of the succession of

horses in Europe, although not as complete as that in America,

extends over as wide a period of time. Not so with the camels.

There is no evidence of the existence of the camel line in the old

world prior to the late Miocene epoch ; and so far as the existing

evidence goes, the new world furnished the camel to the old.

Camelide only appear in South American palzontology in the

genus Auchenia, in Pliocene time, in the Pampean beds, The

best known species are Auchenia weddellii and A. intermedia of

Gervais. It is curious that M. Ameghino, in his report on the

fauna of the Miocene age found on the River Parana, which con-

tains the ancestors of so many Pliocene genera, finds none that

stand in that relation to these llamas.

:0: ——

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E, D. COPE.

Various suggestions have been made as to the permanent

organization of science at the National Capital. The necessity

for the employment of experts having been felt in various depart-

ments of the Government, commissions and offices for the con-

duct of research have grown up in them. The results have been

greatly to the advantage of the Government and of the people,

and have often represented important advances of science itself.

The efficiency of these commissions has, however, often been

impaired through their association with the various bureaus and

departments under which they are placed. This comes from their

necessary direction by non-experts and the quantity of routine

work which may be required of them. There is also necessarily

_ More or less overlapping of the similar offices in the different

departments. Many of the commissions have been from time to

_ time threatened with total extinction through the want of knowl-

_ edge of their utility by some of our legislators. Several illustra-

tions of this fact have recently occurred in Washington.

s4 superintendent of the Coast Survey has been removed,

place taken by superior clerk of the Treasury Depart™ t.

1886.] Editors’ Table. 625

A bill has been introduced into the House of Representatives by

Mr. Herbert, of Alabama, which forbids the publication of its

results by the Geological Survey, which, with other restrictions,

is almost equivalent to its abolition.

On the other hand a bill has been introduced by Mr. Reagan,

of Texas, creating a “ Department of Industries,” to be repre-

sented in the Cabinet. This bill contemplates combining in the

new department the following divisions: Agriculture, Labor and

Commerce, The division Agriculture embraces the subdivisions:

1. Agricultural products, including botany, entomology and

chemistry; 2. Animal industry; 3. Lands, including the geo-

logical survey.

As regards the intrinsic merits of this proposed new depart-

ment we have nothing to say, but we think there are better ways

of disposing of the scientific work of the Government. The

above plan omits necessarily a number of important scientific

bureaus, and does not provide for the consolidation of all the

offices which pursue a given branch of science. Thus there will

be a chemical commission in the Agricultural Department and

another in connection with the Navy, as at present, and so on.

If it can be done properly, the creation of an organization to

be called the Department or Bureau of Science and Public In-

struction, to be embraced in the present Department of the Inte-

nor, might meet the necessities of the case. Such a department

would embrace the present Naval Observatory, Nautical Almanac,

Signal Service, Coast Survey, Fish Commission, Geological Sur-

vey, Agricultural Department, Bureau of Statistics and Bureau of

Education. The diverse and heterogeneous character of the

Ove divisions might be remedied by a suitable re classification.

Each of the divisions should be under a capable expert, who

should devote his time to promoting the efficiency of the work.

nancial matters to be under direct management and control of

the head of the entire bureau.

But the essential to success of this or of any other plan for pro-

Moting science at Washington is that its offices be removed from

the field of political patronage. How this is to be done ‘is the

uestion. The Smithsonian Institution as a private corporation,

and the National Museum as under its direction, are happily re-

Moved from such contingency, and any system which would

the scientific commissions and bureaus in a position of

bal security, would be a great benefit to them, Nothing would

~ §ained in this direction by the creation of the proposed new :

department, For this reason the commission appointed by Con- -

Ses to investigate the relations of the scientific bureaus to each

other and to the Government has decided that no change of

"ganization should be made at present. a

626 ‘ Recent Literature. [July,

RECENT LITERATURE.

GILBERT’s TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF LAKE SHoreEs.—This

treatise is reprinted from the fifth annual report of the director of

the U. S. Geological Survey, and is based on the observations of

many years, particularly in Utah, around the shores of Great

Salt lake. The author states that the body of the essay was pre-

pared before he met with the writings of Elie de Beaumont and of

Cialdi. It is well illustrated with original diagrams and land-

Fic. 1.—Sheep Rock, a sea-cliff on the shore of Great Salt Lake, near the Bla

Rock bathing resort.

scape illustrations, some of which we have been permitted

use

OO SN Dee OT ot ee ea a ee

Ancient Sea-cliff in boulder clay, South Manitou Island, Lake Michigan.

PLATE XXVI.

Bird’s-eye view of Madison Valley, Montana, showing stream terraces.

Se a NT ee ea eae ee i

ATE XXVIL;

Cup Butte, «

E S

Bont

Seen

1eville shore-line,

1886.] Recent Literature. 627

that the impact of waves is not reinforced by the impact of min-

eral matter-borne by them. The detritus worn from the shore is,

of course, always at hand to be used by the waves in continu-

ance of the attack ; and to this is added other detritus carried

along the piiris

and wave-cut terrace are then described and well

illustrated ; a follow the discussion of littoral transportation,

the beach and the barrier. Under the last head the following

remarks on the part played by great floods and storms will inter-

est our readers :

“ Not only is it true that the work accomplished in a few days

d Fic, 2.—Fault scarps and shore lines at the base of the Wasatch.

radi height of the chief flood of the year is greater than

= 1S accomplished during the remainder of the year, but it

ay even be true that the effect of the maximum flood of the

of oie neration or century surpasses the combined effects

minor floods. It follows that the dimensions of the chan-

628 Recent Literature. [July,

each unit of the littoral zone, but they act way a broader zone

and they are Competent to move larger masse

Under the head of littoral deposition the iets of embankments,

spits, bars, hooks, loops, wave-built terraces, V-terraces, V-bars

and of dunes is discussed.

The third section is devoted to the distribution of wave-

wrought shore features; a fourth section to stream work and

deltas. In a fifth section ice work and shore walls on lakes are

described. After referring briefly in section six to the effects of

submergence and emergence on the phenomena under considera-

tion, attention is called in the seventh section to the discrimina-

ion of shore features, under the head of cliffs, fault scarps, ter-

races, fault terraces, etc., and ridges, the latter being contrasted

with moraines and osars. Fi ig. 2 gives a good idea of the remark-

able fault-scarps at Farmington, Utah. The ‘eighth and last sec-

tion relates to the recognition of ancient shores

e essay is upon a subiect of very general interest, every

geologist having his attention drawn to the phenomena which the

author explains. A similar work based on sea-shores would be

of still wider interest and importance, though some attention is

given to the subject i in our leading text-books on geology.

RECENT Books AND PAMPHLETS.

NSN, — .—Descriptions of three species of fossil fishes of the genera Gingly-

ostoma, ee, and Squatina. Ext. Proc. Gesell. naturforschender

Fosa. Feb., 1886. From the author

nig tk C. nf ~_ Elephant pipes. e inseribed tablets in the Museum of Davenport,

Dugés, > To p> d’une Corydalis. Ext. du Bull. d. 1. Soc. Zool. de

ran

Foote, A. E. — arabe Basalt and el Chico. ‘Naturalist’s Leisure Hour, April, 1886.

From the author.

Frazer, P_—The atk of the International Congress of Geologists and its Com-

mittees 1886,

ife

A ne jeee cation of p principle of composite photography to the identi

tion F handwriting. p. Jour. Franklin Inst., 1886. Both fro m the author.

Walling, H. F, “Topographie Seriy of States, Read bef. Boston Soc. Civil Eng»

Feb., 1886. From the

Roger, O.—Kleine enka Mittheilungen. From the author. ‘ee

enevier, E.—Resultats seieusiques a Prenas Géologique international

lin. Lausanne, 1886. be

Van ice aa po 7. —Les Cöticés FEN mers KA Bruxelles, 1885. - From

Wiechet, Fou Ve and the State. Rep. from “ The Foru

urces of trend and crustal surplusage in mountain pa

mer. Assoc, Adv. Sci., Vol. xxiv, 1885

——Ditto ditto from the Aher , Jour. Sine: All

-Thoughts on science teaching. From the Fortnightly Index, July 12, 1884. A

from the author.

Boulenger, G. A A reply ns de Batta’s Remarks on Rana temporaria. Aan.

_ and Mag. Nae Hist.,

Ext. Proc.

ee ——Description of a onal feo g Aves genus Li at ee Bo Ext. Proc. Zool. Sots

1885. Both from th

1886.] Geography. ana Travels. 629

Shufeldt, R. W.—Outlines for a museum of anatomy. Department of. the Interior,

Washington, 1885. `

— The skeleton of Geococcyx. From the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology,

London, Jan., 1886. Both from the author.

Scudder, S. H.—Nomenclator Zoölogicus. Bull. U. S. National Museum, No. 19,

Washington, 1882-1884.

— Systematische Uebersicht der fossilen Myriopoden, Arachnoiden und Insekten.

1885. Both from the author.

Lydekker, R.—Catalogue of the fossil Mammalia in the British Museum. Part 11.

Ungulata Artiodactyla. London, 188 i

ma hag occurrence of the crocodilian genus Tomistoma in theMiocene of

alta,

:0:

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.) *

Asia.—Tong-king—The April number of the Proceedings of

the Royal Geographical Society contains a map of Tong-king,

accompanied by an article upon the hill region which lies beyond

the delta of the Song-coi. The writer (Mr. I. G. Scott) states that

though the Song-coi is a noble-looking river, boats drawing over

fifteen feet cannot ascend its Cua Cam mouth to Haiphong, while

ts drawing six feet have difficulty in reaching Ha-noi. There

are four principal mouths, of which the Cua Cam is the most

Northern, but it seems probable that the Cua Dai (the most south-

ern) „will shortly be made use of for deep-sea ships. The

provinces of Kwung-yen, Lang-son, Cao-bang, Thai-nguyen and

Tuyen-kwan form the plateau region, north of the Song-coi

vrs This is a land of rounded, grassy hills, without prominent

peaks,

The delta is rapidly extending. When Ha-noi was built by the

Chinese in the eighth century, it was a sea-port, but is now a hun-

Scographically and ethnographically, Chinese. It is on the

Chinese slope and is separated from the rest of Tong-king by a

mountain belt fifty miles in width. Some remarkable

Cave-temples exist near the town. :

The Survey of Japan.—During the last five years the National

Survey of Japan has been steadily progressing under. the super-

itendence of Dr, Naumann, who has now left the task to be

carried out by the Japanese he has trained. An account of the work

soapy may be found in Nature (April 29th, 1886). The sur-

‘erous, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks was

This department is edited by W. N. LOGKINGTON, Philadelphia.

630 General Notes. {July,

proved by well-characterized fossils. Radiolarian slates, probably

older than the Carboniferous limestone, occur in almost every part

of the archipelago. The Japanese island chain is one of the finest

examples of a mountain range of unilateral structure.

Asiatic News.—The Russian Trans-Caspian railway was by the

end of last year opened as far as Ghiaurs. From this spot to

Merv the necessary earthworks were completed. From thence to

Chardjui, 118 miles from Merv, the route will be across desert. It

is proposed to prevent the access of moving sand by plantations

along the line. An ethnographical map of Asia, six and al

feet by four and a half feet, showing the localities of 136 divisions

of peoples and languages, in twenty-six tints of color and shading,

has been made by Herr Vincent von Haardt, of Vienna.—

recent issue of China Review contains an article, by Mr. C. Tay-

lor, upon the aborigines of Formosa. Mr. Taylor has resided

formation obtained from stragglers domiciled among the Paiwans.

The report of Mr. G. Schumacher, published by the Com-

mittee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, is full of interesting

details upon the Jaulan and Hauran regions. The river Yarmut

whose course marks the southern limit of the Jaulan basaltic

region, receives from the north several tributaries, which are here

for the first time correctly mapped. The Rukhad, one of these,

rises at the foot of Mt. Hermon (Jebel-esh-Sheikh). Its tribe

the Wady Seisun, falls 517 feet in 420 yards by a succession ©

cataracts. These rivers have their sources in springs, and there are

clear indications of the existence of large reservoirs of under-

ground water in the basaltic and calcareous formations.

Asiatic ĪSLANDS AND AUSTRALIA, ETC.—Barren and Narcoudam,

two volcanic islands belonging to the Andaman archipelago, ai

lying east of the main islands, have been surveyed by Capt. Ho

. day, of the Indian Survey. Barren island is circular, about ae

miles across, and its principal features are a main crater, with ax

of one and a half miles and one mile, and an inner cone

half a mile across at its base and rising 1015 feet above the nr

The inner cone bears upon its summit a small crater from whicli

steam and smoke issue. The volcano is known to have bee?

631

The

temperature is wonderfully equable, varying in a year only from

72° in September to 84° in April: ;

r. Winnecke asserts, as in 1877, that Lake Eyre is a consid-

erable depth below sea-level. The highest point along his survey

of the route of the overland telegraph was the Burt plains, 2532

feet above sea-level ; but the MacDonnell ranges, in which these

plains arẹ situated, rise several thousand feet higher. The Finke

river, the southern part of which is now being reéxplored by Mr.

Lindsay, is described as the largest and most important in Central

uStralia. : :

The population of the Sandwich islands has increased from

57,985 in 1878 to 80,578 in 1884, yet in that time the native race

| as diminished from 44,088 to 40,014. The census of 1884

«Rave 17,932 Chinese, 9377 Portuguese, 2066 Americans, 1282

British, and 1600 Germans ; the previous numbers (1878) being

4 5916, 436, 1276, 883 and 272 respectively.

i A new atlas of the Dutch East Indies has been published at

the Hague. It contains a map of the entire archipelago, four

maps of Java and Madura, giving population, roads, etc. ; maps o

Borneo, Celebes, Sumbawa, Timor, the Moluccas, etc.

OPE.— European News-—From. the observations of E. von

level dependent upon the amount of water brought down by

ube, Don, etc. The maximum, nine to seventeen centimeters

above mean water-level, is attained in May and June, and is high-

ussia is greatest. —New and more precise levelings to ascer-

tain the heights above the sea of Lakes Ladoga, Onega and Ilmen

(Russia) place them at 16, 115 and 59 feet respectively; instead

of as before believed, 59, 237 and 157 feet. The population of

Prussia (not the German Empire), according to the census of De-

cember 1, 1885, was 28,314,032. In 1880 it was 27,279,111.——

meters in height.

Chili. Not onl iculture, but manufacturing industr e

ey y agricuiture, | g dies

3 The colonists comprise members of most civilized

parts of Java to a still larger scale, and others of Banka, Billiton,

Eur

Meydell, extending over a period of eight to ten years, it appears

t the waters of the Black sea are subject to slight variations of

— AMERICA.—American News—A Swiss named Rodt has

funded a flourishing colony in Juan Fernandez, which hel a

nationalities, except Prussians, who are excluded,_—In the Jan- g

o. VOL xXx.—yo, yi,

sane highest peak in Denmark” is achill in the forest of Ky, 163

632 General Notes. [July,

“-uary issue of the Revue Geographique, M. H. Condreau gives an

account of the manners of the Uapes. Most of the tribes of the

river border have no garment whatever, but in some tribes the

men wear a “calembe” of bark, and in the villages lower down

the river the men don pantaloons and the women a chemise when

they are full-dressed. Some tribes still inter their dead in the

“maloca,” or hut, which the Tucanas immediately abandon in

order to build another. M. Thouar reports as the result of his

last journey to the rapids of the Pilcomayo, that it is possible at

any season of the year to go from the mouth of that river at

Lamboné to the mission of San Francisco de Solano, in Bolivia,

at the very foot of the Andes. The difficulties caused by ac-

cumulations of trees and the consequent formation of shallows

can, he believes, be overcome.

Arrica— African News——The missionaries sent out by the

Basel Missionary Society to the Gold coast have, since 1882, ex-

plored the Volta basin pretty thoroughly, and the geographical

results obtained have been considerable. A map of the routes is

published in the April number of the Proc. Roy. Geog. Society.

Lieutenants Kund and Tappenbeck struck southward from

Stanley pool in August last, returning to Leopoldville on Janu-

ary 27th. They crossed the Quango, also the Bolombo or

Sankuru and its affluents, and descended the Lukenje to Kwa-

mouth. It is stated that they have discovered a new river, the

Ikata, which M. Wauters believes to be the upper course of the

Mfini. The Bulletin of the Soc. Roy. de Geog. d’Anvers og

tains an interesting account of an exploration upon the Senegal,

from Futa-Djallon to Bambouc, undertaken by M. E. Noirot, who

seems everywhere to have met with a good reception, and who i

enthusiastic respecting the productions and future commerce °

the Senegal basin. e murder of the young and enterprising

French traveler, Palat, at two days’ distance from In ah, is

alleged to be due to the Senonsian fraternity. On the other hand,

French journals-are disposed to lay much of the blame upon the

French commandant, whose treatment of the adventurous aby

lieutenant was such as to make the Arabs believe him pee om

xi Sopa oe

1886.] Geology and Paleontoiogy. 633

They are scoria cones, none of them probably rising more than

1000 feet above their base. Many have breached craters, whence

floods of black basaltic lava have flowed. The almost perfect

State of preservation of the cones and the undecomposed con-

dition of the lava proves that these volcanoes must have been

active in comparatively recent times. Scarcely a year passes

without one or more earthquake shocks in Central Madagascar,

but they are never severe nor of long duration. Cardinal Mas-

saja has published at Rome a work entitled “ My ‘thirty-five mis-

sion years in Upper Ethiopia.” Numerous illustrations and a

’ good map accompany the text.

GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY.

_ THE Fossi Man oF Penon, Mexico.—On my return to this

city after a long absence, I read the observations published in the

New York Tribune concerning my account of the fossil man of

the Peñon.

It will give me great pleasure to clear up the doubt expressed by

Professor Newberry with regard to the importance of the discov-

ery of the man of the Peñon

_Professor Newberry does not believe in the importance of the

‘scovery, and argues in this manner: “The calcareous bed in

| Which the fossil remains were found must have been modern tra-

vertin; it could not have been deposited below the -waters of a

l _ lake, but probably belongs to an aérial or superficial formation,

since otherwise it would be of equal thickness and uniform on

the bottom and on the borders of the lake; if the limestone is

siliceous, it must belong to a hydrothermal deposit.”

It is above all certain that the limestone is not modern tra-

vertin, for it does not form concentric layers above the human

: remains, nor over other recent objects, as would be the case were

: it such, e bones are sealed up, so to speak, in the calcareous

: rock, without being in any way coated, and were probably depos-

ited while the rock was yet soft and under water. As the clear-

: ances and excavations at the foot of the small mountain of Pefion

have been continued, I have been able to prove the persistence of ;

l the facts indicated in my article published in the NATURALIST, z

= Published in 1884 by Professor Antonio del Castillo and by mẹ.

~ œ S new excavations have shown more clearly yet the thre —

formations of which I have spoken, ranged as follows:

At) A Superficial layer 10 centimeters thick, formed of vege-

table earth, containing lacustrine shells and fragments of modern

A = A layer of calcareo-siliceous tufa, of but slight hardness,

Min Nains of old pottery, 50 centimeters thick. o -

: (3) Siliceous limestone, very hard, in a thick bed, inclined ©

-wards the north, Here are found roots transformed into men- —

eo 634 General Notes. -

_ tor in many fissures of the Peñon rock thin veins are found compe

_ Ofcalcareous matter in some cases, of siliceous in others, Bes!

w#ite and lacustrine shells, It is in this bed that human remains,

and no others, have been found. The thickness of this bed is

not yet known, as it has only been opened toa depth of 1.2™

The bed is covered by a thin layer of a limestone richer in quartz,

a true ribbon, dividing the adjacent formations.

Not a single modern object has been found in this bed, nor in

another similar one situated to the south of the mountain, more

than a meter thick, and resting on a lacustrine and turfy formation.

Two miles northwest of Peñon there is another bed of sili-

ceous limestone at the foot of the mountain chain of Guadalupe,

and stretching over a great length, This limestone is in compo-

sition, appearance and position, identical with that of Peñon, con-

taining roots transformed into menillite, and in its upper part

fragments of old pottery. What is most important in this for-

mation zs the existence of elephant bones sealed in the hardest bed,

Like that of Peñon. These bones have been taken out on many

occasions, I have done it myself in the presence of the pro-

fessors of the National Museum. ;

The distance from this bed to that of Peñon is so inconsider-

ra . é . ee E

SO as to occupy a position different from its primitive one, ale

Peñon having for an enormous number of years been surroun

man

The hy-

ct in the

Geology and Paleontology. 635

upon the summit of the Guadalupe mountains occur masses of

shell-rock (masses lavignes) impregnated with siliceous lime-

stone, which demonstrates their contemporary origin. What hin-

ders me from believing that the existing hydrothermal springs at

the foot of the Pefion can be the origin of the formation which

surrounds the mountain is that these springs form only isolated

and insignificant deposits, which cannot spread out uniformly

like those of which Professor Newherry speaks, and which are

characteristic of geysers. The above-mentioned springs were

probably the last traces of the abundant eruptions of calcareo-

siliceous waters which formerly shot forth at the same time with

veins, or of the alteration of the basalts of the mountain. We

must, therefore, believe in the importance of the discovery of the

man of the Peñon.

No-one can be more anxious than I to base these discoveries |

Upon clear and well-determined facts, as I stated in my arti-

cle in the Naturauist. Professor Castillo and myself

have assiduously studied the Pefion formations, and with the

sincerity which scientific truth exacts we will inform the learned

World of later discoveries. If it should happen that in the rocky .

omb of the man of the Peñon the remains of his primitive

Weapons or the iron of his conqueror should be found, we shall

doubtless be the first to announce it—Mariano Barcena.

< JON THE Fossir FLORA OF THE LARAMIE SERIES OF WESTERN

Canana. — The Laramie series, formerly known as the Lignite Ter-

tiary or Lignitic group, occurs-in Canada, principally in two large

areas west of the tooth meridian and east of the Rocky moun- ©

tains, and stretching northward from the United States boundary. .

c “se areas are separated from each other by a low anticlinal of |

retaceous beds, over which the Laramie may have extended

Previously to the later denudation of the region.

Ri areas may be designated—(1) The Eastern or Souris

al ver and Wood Mountain area ; (2) the Western area, extending

“ong the eastern side of the Rocky mountains and across the

pper „Waters of the Bow, Red Deer, Battle and North Saskatche-

wan rivers,

In the southern part of the district of Alberta it has been

been _ Possible to divide the Laramie into three parts, which have

T pen respectively, in the Reports of the Geological Survey

midd] da, (1) the lower or St. Mary River division, (2) the

~ © or Willow Creek division, and (3) the upper or Porcupine

, Sa pa n oe the Royal Society of Canada, May, 1886, by

636 General Notes. : [J uly,

Hill division. Of these the lower and upper contain fossil plants,

more especially the latter, and corresponding horizons can

recognized by these in both of the great areas above referred to.

The flora of the lower division has a close alliance with that of

the Belly River group of the underlying Cretaceous, while that of

the upper division is in the main identical with that of the Fort

Union group of the. United States geologists, as described by

¢ Newberry and Lesquereux.

In the Eastern area the lower beds of the Laramie rest on the

Fox Hill group of the Cretaceous, and are in turn unconformably

overlaid in the Cypress hills by beds referred, by Professor

Cope on the evidence of mammalian remains, to the White River

, division of the Miocene Tertiary. Thus the geological horizon of

the Laramie is fixed by its stratigraphical relations as between

the Upper Cretaceous and Lower Miocene formations. The evi-

dence of fossil remains accords with this position. The Lower

È Laramie has afforded reptilian remains of Mesozoic aspect, asso-

ciated with fishes and mollusks, some of which are of Eocene

: types, according to Cope and Whiteaves, and its flora is akin to

that of the Upper Cretaceous. The Upper Laramie has afforded

a flora so modern in aspect that it has even been regarded as

Miocene, though in reality not later in age than the Eocene. The

Willow Creek or Middie Laramie division may therefore (as sug-

oY gested by the author in his memoir of last year on the Western

Cretaceous) be regarded as the transition from the Cretaceous tO

the Eocene. :

Miocene period, and these difficulties cannot as yet be shi

overcome, though they are gradually being removed. In Canada,

since the plants began to be collected and studied, there has hs

_ little doubt on the subject, and the author now, as herana

=, holds tothe correlation with the Laramie flora of the so-ca i

Miocene of Mackenzie river, Alaska, Greenland and Spitzberge >

and believes that they should be regarded as not newer

Eocene. : oE

The greater part of the paper is occupied with the dnt

_ Of the fossil plants of the formation, including those collecte h

e Eastern area by Dr. Selwyn and Dr. G. M. Dawson, a

_ €xogenous trees, all belonging to modern genera, as Platani

ar ; a

chestnut and coniferous trees of the genera Taxodium, see f

1886. ] l Geology and Paleontology. 637

much interest, more especially in reference to their geological

and geographical distribution. .

NOTES ON THE VARIATION OF CERTAIN TERTIARY Fossits IN

OVERLYING Beps.—In the Southwestern Old-tertiary there are

some high vertical exposures, which show different fossiliferous

beds vertically above each other. One of them is the file

1885, p. 71. The “ Higher Vicksburgian,” consisting mainly of

reddish sands, contains those fossils usually known as Vicks-

burgian fossils ; the bed, “ Lower Vicksburgian,” a dark grayish

marl, contains a very similar but not entirely identical and less

humerous fauna; both are separated by about thirty feet of lime-

stone. Some of the lower species are not known from the higher

bed, which, however, is at least partly owing to different methods

of collecting in both beds. The main number of species of the

lower bed occurs also in the higher one. In most of them, for

Instance, Buccinum mississippiense Conr., Sigaretus mississippiensis

Conr., Pleurotoma congesta Conr., Murex mississippiensis Conr.,

Terebra divisura Conr., Trochita trochiformis Lea, Turritella cæla-

ferences ; Cytherea sobrina Conr. from the lower bed is in gen-

eral longer than from the higher bed. Ten specimens of the

higher bed, taken without special selection, showed, if the height

to 1.33,

an average of 1.30. More striking is the relation of the two :

forms of Ficus mississippiensis Conr., which species in the lower

age and size in both varieties, the higher variety shows one more

System of revolving lines. This difference between the two varie-

hes is not very striking, but is large and constant enough to dis-

tinguish the forms of the two beds without reference to the litho-

logical contents of the shells. The following diagram represents

the plan of the origin of the revolving lines as they can be traced

along the volutions of each form:

ra NAE E E / E

. ee

ee i i ey i ty

Pee

pr ines of the form of the “Lowėr Vicksburgian ;” II, lines of the form * p

A 1 urgian,” ; $ Jag

“Higher Vicksb

r F.

638 General Notes, (July,

The conclusion to be made is that the two species changed

somewhat during the time which is represented by the bed of

limestone. `

By the Geological Survey of Alabama there has been made

out, by a series of profiles, that certain fossiliferous Tertiary beds

are successional in age, for instance, that the Woods Bluff beds

are older than that of Hatchitigbee bluff, this again is older than

the Lisbon strata, which finally are overlaid by the Claibornian.

In these consecutive beds we frequently find the same species,

sometimes without apparent change, sometimes represented by

slight variations and in some cases by strongly modified varia-

tions, This material from Alabama, which I refer to, is in the

collection of Mr. T. H. Aldrich—Ovso Meyer.

Among the samples of rocks

during the soundings of the Talisman, mostly from depths of

4000 to 5000 meters, the older metamorphic rocks are more gên-

erally represented than the eruptive series. There were seventy-

three specimens of limestones, sixteen of arkoses and nineteen of

sandstones, the latter sometimes rich in remains of biotite and

From the collections of Lieut. Giraud it appears

iia

of Lepidosteus, were collected at Yendivé, south of Tanganyi

and at Mpasa, north-west of Nyassa. These are referred by Rey-

-~ mond to the Upper Cretaceous or Lower Tertiary age.

: Paleozoic—The occurrence of glacial conditions in the Palæo-

= Zoicera was maintained by Dr. W. T. Blanford in a recent on

=~ — munication to the London Geological Society. The action

ice was evident in the Karoo formation of South Africa, ©

_ Gondwana system of India, and the coal measures and associat

beds of Eastern Australia. Mr. R. Oldham, the Rev. Were

€

: :

- ndia, and also near Herat in beds also containing Talchir mee

Geology and Faleontology. 639

marked approximately the same glacial period, which probably

occurred towards the close of the Palæozoic, and resulted in the

extinction of many of its peculiar forms. The peculiar flora of

the Newcastle beds and of the Indian Damudas proved the exist-

ence of botanical provinces in past ages.

structure of its ambulacral areas; Leiopneustes antiquus has no

fascioles ; and Brissospatangus canmonti may be known by its

very excentric anteriorly placed ambulacral summit and its short,

transverse and widely separated anterior paired ambulacra, situated

ina depression. The Brissidz appear in the Cretaceous, reach their

maximum in the Tertiary and still persist in most seas. The.

Cretaceo-Eocene limestones of the Jaulan and Hauran regions,

described by Mr. G. Schumacher, seem to have been deposited,

upraised and largely denuded, before the volcanic lavas of the

district were forced out. As this movement and denudation took

place in the Miocene epoch, the volcanic eruptions may be re-

ferred in the main to the succeeding Pliocene. The so-called

delta of the Orinoco, according to A. Ernst (Nature, Feb., 4th),

raco and many of the lagoons in the provinces of Cumana

and Maturin. The southern branch is the old river channel, but

when the land on the left bank sank gradually towards the north,

Source of the bitumen and other carbo-hydrates of the vicinity. i

a o *

Matter must have been buried with the sunken land to form the _

640 General Notes.

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY}!

o : tion of from 44°-50°, and magnetite. In the augite th

, pleochroism is a + b > c. By the action of the volcanic

Ta i reddish-yellow greenish í artzife r-

gases the basalt is almost completely changed into a qu id

ous aggregate in which are occasional grains of augite and plag

shows it to contain from fifty-six to fifty-nine per cent of silica,

while the altered variety contains as high as ninety per

_ * Edited by W. S. BavLey, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Bulletin de l’ Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 111, 2, p. 95-

Tb., Mil, 2, p. 10s.

Tib m1, 2, p. I2.

SIb., 1, 2, p. 156,

1886.] Mineralogy and Petrography. 641

Opal replaces the original constituents of the rock, ‘first replacing

the feldspar, then the augite and finally the glass base. Occasion-

ally this silica takes the form of tridymite. Near the port of

blende andesites were found. Ina yellowish glassy base, con-

taining numerous microlites of feldspar, augite and grains of mag-

netite, large porphyritic crystals of labradorite, hornblende and

biotite occur. The hornblende often possesses the two pinacoids

well developed. In some cases this mineral is surrounded bya

rim of small, colorless or very light-green augite crystals, ar-

ranged with their long axis parallel to the long axis of the horn-

Panama canal, is an augitic labradorite containing hornblende.

The porphyritic crystals of labradorite, augite and magnetite

ination. Two hundred and fifty slides of specimens collected

between the depths of 4000-5000 meters have been examined.

By far the largest number of these are of rocks of the “ old meta-

The most highly crystalline member of _the former is a

pale pink-grey pegmatite,” passing through a well-defined

graphic granite into a micropegmatite form. The less crystalline

members of the acid series are felsites -with well-developed

Spherulitic structure. Corroded quartzes, surrounded by the

the “ quartz globulaire” of Fouqué and Lévy, were observed in

a of these felsites. The more basic series is composed of à

a ases, diorites and rocks intermediate between these, witha «`

€w in which the author thinks he has found evidence of pe or

Chrustschoff has just published* an

quartz took place. These new crystals are frequently bounded ae:

"Bulletin de l’Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 111, 2, p. 156.

omits Rendus, cir, No. I4, P. 793-

= Sy Magazine, May, 1886, p. 219.

_ “Aineralogische und Petrographische Mittheilungen, vil, p. 295.

ic RADE a a Kd ae eae eee,

ik , i 4 : i pe

š J á

642 General Notes. fJuly, d

by crystal planes. They enclose glass areas which are derived

from original inclusions, and contain also fluid inclusions with

movable bubbles. Tridymite is much more rare under these con-

ditions than quartz. It is usually found lining cavities around

the periphery of glass particles or veins, and is generally free

: rom inclusions. The granitic feldspar is likewise in many cases

surrounded by a rim of “ neogenous” feldspar, which frequently

builds around the original irregular fragment a completely devel-

oped crystal. The newly-formed feldspar is much less opaque

than that from which it was derived, and contains fewer inclu- i

sions. Among those that occur are little fluid cavities contain-

ing movable bubbles. A most instructive portion of the paper 1s

that which treats of the experiments which were undertaken by |

the author to explain the origin of the secondary fluid inclusions, i

and to find the conditions under which the silica separated out in i

crystal form. Pöhlman’ has recently described biotite-gneiss,

; quartzite, olivine-kersantite and nepheline-basalt from the north-

í ern part of Paraguay. The olivine-kersantite contains, in a dark

| gray ground-mass, large crystals of biotite (meroxan), perfectly

fresh augite and flesh-colored pseudomorphs of olivine, These

pseudomorphs consist of serpentine, very pleochroic bunches of

a micaceous mineral, carbonates and iron oxides. According

to Carl Ochsenius,? the blue color of much of the Strassfurt salt 1s

not due to sulphur, but is merely an optical effect.

MINERALOGICAL News.—Emmonsite, a new mineral from neat

Tombstone, Arizona, has been described by W. F. Hillebrand.

It is of a yellowish-green color, translucent, and occurs in “ad

talline scales and patches in a brownish gangue composed of lea

angles to each other: Against one of these the extinction IS

8°-12°. Pleochroism very slight. Specific gravity about 5.

se allowing for impurities the mean of four analyses was 45

ollows :

Te Se Fe H,O

se 58.75 0.53 14.29 above 3.28

„It is most probably a hydrated ferric telluride. Twins of we

nabar“ have been found in the recently discovered ore deposits 1

_ the neighborhood of Bachmut, Ekaternioslaw, South Russi®

: The crystals are inter-penetration twins with the base the twin

ning plane and the twinning axis the vertical axis. The planes

_ 1 Neues Jahrbuch fiir Min., etc., 1886, 1, p. 244.

_ *Ib., p. 177.

__ * Proceedings Colorado Scientific Society, Vol. 11, Pt. 1, 1885, P- 1-

‘“Ischermak. Miner. u. Petrogr. Mitth., vil, p. 361. ;

Botany. : 643

on each crystal are R, 2R, and the trapezohedron 2P}, When the

tetartohedral plane is on the right edge of an upper rhombohe-

dral face the crystal is dextro-rotatory. The jeffersonite of

Franklin, as been investigated crystallographically and

chemically by Kloos, of Stuttgart." Inthe prismatic zone only

10 * œ and æ P were found. The crystals were terminated by oP,

+P, 2P 3, and 3P3. The pleochroism is strong a = honey-yel-

low, b = yellow-green, c= blue-green. Absorption ¢ > a. Sections

parallel to the clino-pinacoid gave an extinction of 17° 15’ against

the vertical axis. Specific gravity 3.352. A chemical analysis

yielded:

es, AL,0,. A O Fe, FO W0 cee

39-59 1.76 11.20 0.13 5-97 11.31 3.07 0.53

MgO CaO Na,O K,O H,O total

8.42 12.85 3.31 1.95 1.02 IOI.11

In the light of this. result the author does not feel justified in

assigning to this’ mineral any definite constitution. The small

amount of MnO would seem to indicate that the mineral under

Investigation is not a true jeffersonite. Brauns? has discovered

Brilon, Westphalia, and Neu-Sinka, in Sieben-

found and examined by the same investigator.

BOTANY.‘

FIGURES oF SOME AMERICAN CONIFERS.—Dr. M. T. Masters

read a paper entitled “ Contributions to the history of certain

eed of Conifers” before the Linnean Society, in January of

dis, Present year, in which some American species are critically

cussed. They are as follows, viz:

bies amabitis Forbes. This is accompanied with a nearly full-sized figure of the

7 a photo-engraving ofa terih tedadi. with half a dozen enlarged figures of

es faves, leaf-sections, bracts, scales and seeds.

“grandis Lindley, A large double plate showing five cones, with figures show-

lon p etails of leaf and cone structure, illustrate this species. The variety

(= Picea lowiana Gordon, Picea parsonsiana Barron, Abies lowiana

is described and figured. A second variety, pa//ida, is doubtfully sep-

thi Its leaves are ‘* of unequal length, flat, and pale in color.”

concolor Lindley. Figures of the cone, foliage, leaf-structure, bracts and

4 e this species. %

McNab )

arated,

ngelm. Full illustrations accompany the description of this

ie $ 7

a peues Jahrb. für Min., etc., 1886, 1, p. 211.

3 b., P. 252.

‘ Ear P. 250. ;

E ted by Professor Cartes E. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska.

644 ec General Notes.

on, ne ta Lindley, The typical form of this species is. illustrated by a large .

mis pre eraa the ir e and cone, = pine of the pine The va-

rie io he curs in culti The variety magnifica (= Abies mariaa

Murray) is é illust fated by a ee double ase showing cones sa foliage.

tails of the leaf and cones are given in wood-c

STRANGE PoLLEN-TUBES OF LoBELIA.—The pollen-tube as fig-

ured in the text-books and elsewhere is of nearly uniform diameter

throughout its whole length. The lower abe or that farthest

i from the grain (or spore) is usually shown with its contents

denser than elsewhere. In the style of the "Lobelia syphilitica I

find that the ordinary form of the end of the pollen-tube is as

shown at a. Occasionally the enlargement at the tip takes the

form of nearly a perfect sphere. A spade-like form met wi is

: shown at b. At c is shown a pollen-tube tip that is quite cx

tional. The end through the thickest part is fully four times”

i as ee The of he tube. A still more pci tip JS

e Eye Thee extent to which U Sa from a pire

is seen at e, which shows a portion of a pollen sf

Botany. | 645

- probably only a short distance behind the tip. The end in this

case was not found. The twisting increases the chances of a

single tube not holding together when subjected to the razor or

needles of the investigator. j

All of the parts of the illustration were drawn with a camera

lucida—a Grunow, which thus far has proved itself among the

best. The tubes c dand f hold the same positions to each

other.as they did in the conductive tissue of the style. „This was

an unusually rich spot in odd forms. The conductive tissue

seemed loose, and there was no apparent cause for any change of

direction or the formation of enlarged end.. No nucleus was ob-

served in any of the tuber-like tips. I hope to cultivate the pol-

len free from any tissue and observe the results —B. D. Halsted,

Botanical Lab, A gricul. Coll., Ames, lowa.

Books on Funci—The American student of fungi is often

sorely puzzled for want of a systematic manual to aid him in his

study and classification of the multitude of species which he

collects or might collect if he could hope to do anything with

them. The book which has been of most service is probably

Cook’s Hand-book of British F ungi, published about fifteen years

ago, but its descriptions are so imperfect and the system of classi-

fication so antiquated that from the first it has been an exasper- »

ating book to use or to put into the hands of students. Of American

books there are none. We have some local lists and a good many

Scattered papers. Dr. Farlow has given us excellent monographs

of several genera, Mr. Peck has likewise published many descrip-

tions and a number of monographs. Mr. Morgan has helped us

4 by giving us his Mycologic Flora of the Miami valley, Ohio. Ellis

a and Everhart have published monographs of a number of genera.

a Y Securing complete sets of Grevillea, the Torrey Bulletin, Bo-

tanical Gazette, Fournal of Mycology, AMERICAN NATURALIST and

Proceedings of several scientific societies, and in addition the.

reports and bulletins issued by various States and colleges, one

afford to Supply themselves with all these ? ey

Two beoks now publishing*will do much to help the ordinary

botanist and botanical student. Several years ago Dr. George

Wi iter began the publication of a new edition of the volume

Die Pilze” (fungi) of Rabenhorst’s Kryptogamen-Flora von

Deutschland, Oesterreich und der Schweiz. The first book of

“MS work was completed in 1

‘Setes, Saccharomycetes and Basidiomycetes. Ro

ao — tdance with Winter’s views, is made to include the Entomoph- e

; es : as ` eV: € ES ;

si Oomycetes. From present indications this book at least will

* Tequired fr the Ascomycetes, and a third book will be neces-

do something, but how many, aside from the specialists, can

646 © General Notes. J uly,

sary for the three remaining classes, viz., Myxomycetes, Zygomy-

cetes and Odmycetes. The great value of this work lies in the

fact that the descriptions are very full, and include accurate

measurements.

n the year 1882 P. A. Saccardo began the publication in

«Padua, Italy, of what is destined to be one of the great books of

the century, the Sylloge Fungorum, designed to contain all the

known fungi of the world. The first and second volumes are

devoted to the Pyrenomycetes, of which great group about 6000

species are described. The third volume, devoted to the Sphe-

ropsidez and Melanconiez, appeared in 1884. It contains de-

scriptions of over 4000 species. Volume Iv appeared in April of

the présent year. It is devoted to the Hyphomycetes, and de:

scribes over 3500 species. TR

The descriptions in Winter’s work are in German, those im

Saccardo’s Sylloge, in Latin. Both are full, although the treat-

is much more satisfactory in the former. Saccardo merely

compiles, and thus often admits the same plant under more than

one name, while Winter is exceedingly critical. The latter is

therefore the better guide, while the former, by his liberality ™

admitting so many descriptions, makes these available for the

critical study of students everywhere.— Charles E. Bessey.

A Pocxer Manuat or Botany.—It would puzzle any one to

make out just what the publishers of the ordinary botanical man-

uals had in mind when they decided upon their type, pape an

binding. A manual ought to be a field book. It should be port-

able, with a size and weight allowing it to be carried as the com

panion of the collector wherever he goes. Every beginner 1A

systematic botany ought to carry his manual with him, but it 1s

e +. Cöleges. the

In the “ Tourists’ edition”! of Coulter’s Botany we have co

th p hi

e 0

us ies

_ the ordinary edition. Had the binder been instructed "°, ehe

~ the pages so as to leave a much narrower margin al pipet fs

_ book would have been much improved. In order to ae :

ee 1 Coulter’s Manual of Rocky Mountain Botany. Tourists’ edition: P2

Blakeman, Taylor & Co., New York and Chicago, 1885. a

1886, } Botany. 647

matter the writer took his copy to a binder.and had: the margins

cut down, resulting in what is probably the handiest botanical

manual in the country. This improved copy is now exactly seven

and three-eighths inches long and four and seven-eighths wide,

and weighs but thirteen ounces. It slips into an ordinary pocket

with the greatest ease, and can be carried by the collector wher-

ever he goes.

ow it must be remembered that this reduced copy of the

“ Tourists’ edition” is printed from the identical plates used for

the large book, and that apparently no attempt was made by the

printer to reduce the size of page by printing closer to the zumer

margin, where at least a quarter of an inch might easily have

been saved. It is probable that with considerable care the width

of the book might be reduced to four and a half inches.

_ Until we can have something better let us have thin-paper edi-

tions of Gray’s, Coulter’s and Chapman’s manuals, printed and

bound with narrow margins a// around, and „with flexible covers

which project but little if at all beyond the pages. Then let our

publishers seriously consider the problem of giving us all this at

,& moderate cost.

When new editions of these manuals are made, the publishers

can save much space by the use of thinner leads, so as to crowd

the matter closer upon the pages. In this way not far from sev-

enty-five pages might be saved, while by the use of smaller type

here and there the saving might be easily carried to a hundred

pages. A little book of 392 pages—the Tourists’ Guide to the

Flora of the Alps—lately issued by an English firm, might well

taken as a model. Of it a recent reviewer says : “ Printed in clear

type on thin paper, and bound in red leather in pocket-book form,

it weighs less than five ounces, and is thus really suited for the

> And yet this book is sold for five shillings, that is, for

about two-fifths what is charged for Coulter’s “ Tourist h

les E. Bessey.

A Czar Hanp-Book oF Mossrs.—One of the neatest little

botanical books which has appeared for many a day is the Hand-

k of Mosses, by J. E. Bagnall, and published by the well-

dawn London firm of Swan Sonnenschein & Co. It isa thin

mo book of about one hundred pages, contains thirty-nine _

Mustrations, is bound in cloth with tastefully ornamented cover,

and sells for one English shilling. ` oe ;

The chapters treat of the following topics, viz: Appliances

and Material required for the study; development; moss habitats ;

Classification ; geographical distribution ; cultivation; uses; pre- +

gta a Specimens for the cabinet and herbarium. The chapter

pc classification treats the subject in a general way only, giving

Wi ore than the characters of the tribes. :

beck wish it were possible for American publishers to put a

of the quality, size and price of this one upon the market.

vou, XX.—nNo. vu. 43 i ‘4 i :

we,

. ¢

PORA aces Generai Notes. [J uly,

Botanica, News. — Professor Seymour’s lecture before the

Minnesota Horticultural Society, in January last, is a model of

what such a lecture should be. It deals plainly with a few com-

mon but imperfectly understood fungi of the fruit-garden, viz.,

the rusts of the raspberry and blackberry (Ca@oma nitens and

Phragmidium rubi-id@i); the “double blossom” of the black-

the flora of Missouri. It includes phanerogams and pterido-

phytes only, and yet there are enumerated 1749 species. A study

of the list shows the State to contain four well-defined botanical

regions: (1) The Mississippi and Missouri 7zver-bottoms ; (2) the

swamp region of the.south-east; (3) the Ozark region, sout of

the Missouri river; (4) the prairie region of the northern and

western portions of the State——The Botanical Club of the

meetings in August at Buffalo, and will meet with a warm recep-

tion from the botanists and citizens of Buffalo. Although the

arrangements are not yet completed, it can quite confidently be

announced that the club will be tendered a half-day excursion to

Subsequent meetings will be announced on the daily propra H

of the association. Itis hoped that the botanists will be ve

- still larger numbers this year than they were last, OF

ear before. Let every teacher of botany arrange now G

~ present at the meetings. The secretary of the club is J.

Arthur, of Geneva, N. Y. A

ae : | ENTOMOLOGY. it

-DESCRIPTION OF THE Form OF THE FEMALE IN A Lat

-(ZaRHIPIS RIVERSI HORN.) £ abet oF”

_ Q. Apterous, vermiform, nted, retractile, phosphorescent. - aeons :

; joints, exclusive of the head, twelve, Legs six, two on each of the three

_ Segments, or on those portions underneath representing the pro, ® i

sternum. Length, when extended in walking, two and a quarter inches;

Width widest part five-sixteenths of an inch, —

Head cor not well defined and when at rest hidden

beneath the anterior segment. e prominent character of the head consists of a

pair of curved hook-like mandibles like those of the male. Antennz short, straight,

s ; : å

d-like.

Labial palpi appear two-jointed. The antennæ and palpi being short, stand stiffly

—

pal

Ric!

—

Gas

ba}

Ga]

lu w llow inter:

which colors intermixed obtain upon the sides and the underparts generally.

. Spiracles upon the sides of the fourth to the eleventh segments, inclusive, and

= below the spiracles on the same segments is a double fold forming a double

ateral ridge. The other segments bear but a single fold and no spiracles.

_ The thoracic region bearing the legs exhibits indistinct sutures and folds present-

ing but a faint resemblance to analogous parts in other Coleoptera.

The legs are of the type seen in the female in some Lampyridz and are four-

's strongly setose, and the claws of all the legs are twice as long, more curved, finer

and more sharply pointed than in the fully grown insect, š

acc

luminous larva, then alluded to, is an earlier stage of the insect I

have described above

The larva fed all winter, and in March sloughed its skin

and remained motionlgss, coiled in a cell of earth for three weeks,

d kept a uniform pale-cream color without luminosity, but

gradually the center of the dorsal plates became darker, and in

the ratio of coloring so was the reappearance of phosphorescent

light ; when fully restored in strength it became very active an

thi y motionless for two days. On the morning of the

third day I found it had sloughed another skin, but this time a

Ner a covering of uniform pale brown, and the insect itself

disappeared into the earth. This last dormant stage must

650 General Notes. (July,

in the Telephoridz. The method was alike in a number of exam-

ples, the attraction of the female was perfect, and through it I

captured eleven males,

e light occurs most intense on the cross margins of the

dorsal plates, but the luminosity is also strong on all the margins

as well as along the lateral edges. Sometimes the insect appears

checkered by being banded with phosphorescence.

The eleven males attracted were not all of the form known as

Z.riversi Horn; some represent the Z. piciventris Lec. These

facts will cause some revision of the genus.

The foregoing statements can hardly be considered as a perfect

history of this peculiar insect, because there are many points not

yet worked out. :

Why the larva should be luminous, and yet have nothing to

attract, and why the adult 9 should be luminous, while the ġ 1$

not nocturnal, but roams in the sunlight, are still unanswered

questions. The habit of the male is to appear on the wing, if

temperate heat, from 9 A.M. to 4 P. M., but during the hottest

weather it does not appear until the sun is declining.

en what are the differences in the larval form of the sexes,

character that only comes into use when the habi

But it must be considered that the plumose antenne of e

K would indicate that it seeks its mate by scent.—/. J. Rivers,

RA of Cal., Berkeley, Cal.

_ mologist for 1884 contained an article on the subject of the

ern buffalo gnat (Simulium sp. or spp.) which discussed te >and

damage done to stock each year along the Lower eper

the habits of the allied species in this country and in ae

_ At that time the particular species concerned had o%

termined nor had the larvæ and pupæ been pea similar to

those of allied species, but as the species that had been stu pat

breed, as a rule, in streams that are clear, rapid and rocky, It the

Unio

has therefe

af Sere and Mr.

| 1886] Entomology. 651

and bayous which are permanent and do not dry up in midsum-

er. ey are found attached to the masses of drift-wood and

leaves which form at points and which, by impeding the streams

elow, form a more rapid current at the surface. The larve and

pupz have been absolutely connected with their respective adults,

and a careful study of the general character of the breeding

es already indicates that the increase of the pests of late

years is indirectly due to the crevasses in the levees, and that we

have here another strong argument for the preservation and care

of these last

Larvat Form or PoLYDESMUS CANADENSIS.—While at Enter-

prise, Fla., I found, April 8th, under a paimetto log a Polydesmus

of May. The larva, soon after hatching, is short and thick,

tered, large, somewhat club-shaped spines. The antenne are

four jointed. There were only three pairs of legs, and they were

appended to the first, third and. fourth segments respectively,

there being none on the second segment behind the head. Length

of the animal 1.2mm.

€ larva is essentially similar to that of the European Poly-

desmus complanatus, figured by Metschnikoff (Zeits. wissen. Zool.,

XXIV, pl. xxvı, fig. 7), but apparently has one more segment.—A.

S. Packard, l

: OCCURRENCE oF EARLY STAGES oF BLEPHAROCERA—I send you

| is Seg a small package containing specimens of larval forms

t I collected last summer at Gilboa, Schoharie county, N. Y.

e rocks ina

“~Y Were all found in the same situation, viz., on

Wwater-fall, at

_ Mode of attachment to the rocks is by a chitinous ring, armed with

longitudinal rows of hooks. The tubercle on the prothorax is

“comotion as well as of attachment. Just above the disk, at

~ Posterior extremity of the body, on the dorsal surface, there

apt opening through which, in many specimens, a tufted organ

appears, Which I do not remember to have seen in other larvæ. ee

te is

652 General Notes. [ July,

The intestine in the specimens is solidly packed with the remains

of diatoms:

Of the other specimens I send, the one marked No. 3 seems to

be the pupal form of No. 2. They were constantly associated,

and I saw no other forms near them except the black-fly larve.

The mode of attachment to the rocks is the same in both, by

sucking disks. In No. 3 the disks were on the extremities of the

abdominal segments, three on each side. In most cases in re-

moving the specimens from the rock the disks were separated,

but there is one specimen I send in which they are still in situ,

and are very distinct, and I think they are shown in some ot the

others.

were numerous empty cases on the rocks, but they seemed to be

only the abdominal disk-bearing segments, the upper or anterior

portion being carried away by the rapid flow of water as soon as

the animal deserted it —Fanny R. Hitchcock. ;

* Se insects have been identified for us by Dr. C. V. Riley—

ENTOMOLOGICAL Nores.—The Ceylon entomologists propose to

systematically observe the singular migrations of butterflies 1n

at island. Volunteers are to watch for the migration and sen

a post-card bulletin to the editor of the records, noticing data,

under difficulties it is not to be wondered at that a few speci®

: itted. The number °

: Mr. W. H. Ashmead has estes

Nas the seventh of his studies on the North American Chalci

females. He had recognized twenty-three species —

_ French Academy, J. Gazagnaire read a paper on the se

J at of the

organ of taste in Coleoptera. she

1886.) Zoölogy. 653

ZOOLOGY.

PHYSIOLOGICAL SELECTION:—At a recent meeting of the Lin-

nean Society, Mr. G. J. Romanes read a paper “ On physiologica

selection: an additional suggestion on the origin of species,”

The author contended that the theory of natural selection has

been misnamed a theory of the origin of species. It is, in truth,

atheory of the origin of adaptive structures, and, if unassisted by

any other principle, could not effect the evolution of species. The

only other principle that could here assist natural selection would

be one that might mitigate the swamping effects of intercrossing.

This may be done by geographical barriers shutting off a portion

of a species from the rest, and allowing that portion to develop

an independent course of varietal history without intercrossing

with the parent form. It may also be done by portions of species

migrating, changing habital stations, &c. But it mgy also be

done by what the author calls physiological selection, or in virtue

of a variation taking place in the reproductive system in the di-

rection of sterility (whether absolute or partial) with the parent

orm, without impairment of fertility within the varietal form.

For instance, the season of flowering or of pairing may be either

vanced or retarded in a portion of a species, when all the indi- |

viduals in that portion (or new variety) would be absolutely sterile’

towards the rest of the species, while completely fertile among

themselves, They would thus start on an independent course of

variated history —Enghsh Mechanic.

Mecuanics or Soarinc.—Professor Hendricks in the NATURA-

List for June, imports into the “ mechanics of soaring” a momen-

tary force which I do not think improves it. There is no “ mo-

mentary” force concerned with any part of the activity that I am

aware of. The birds are in the air quite early in the morning,

and continue there until nightfall, all the forces concerned in their

movements being active every instant of the time.

ne air pressures beneath the surface produced by the normal

notion are constant, and the expansion of these pressures against -

the rear curve is constant, and this expansion gives the lateral ese

motion. They are both derived from the gravitating force of the ae

mass of the bird. There is no other force operative upon the

bird in the act of soaring. ioe

f ne

654 General Notes. [July,

which is to deny the equality of the forces producing the

balance.

Bear in mind that I have carefully excluded inertia, or in other

words, mass acceleration, from the problem. The birds have the

power of flapping, or falling from higher to lower levels, to initiate

their movements. Soaring has nothing to do with acceleration.

It deals with motions of uniformity only. Hence I am justified

in holding that one or two pounds of constant pressure is compe-

tent to drive the plane edgeways 1000 feet per second against air

friction only. As frictional air resistance approaches zero, a small

force would move the plane against it with great velocity. No

weight is lifted in the upward motion, as the forces producing the

weight are already employed to their total value, as fully shown.

s the force producing the lateral motion is derived from the

gravity of the mass, I am also justified in holding that a soaring

bird is trafislated at right angles to the gravitating force, or hori-

zontally, solely by the action of that force. It will be noticed that

forces were on hand in quantity sufficient to produce the

movement.—/. Lancaster, Chicago, Til., June 5th, 1886.

LimuLus IN THE PaciFic.—My friend, Mr. H. W. Turner, of

the U. S. Geological Survey, sends me an extract from the San

the Atlantic coast. It is thought that the crab must have $

hatched from eggs brought with the lobsters which were li

ated in these waters seven or eight years ago: —S. L. [Can

have been the Japanese species >—Ep.]

’

THE SwIM-BLADDER OF FisHEs.—Charles Morris has publishes

in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, a theory 0r:

origins of lungs and swim-bladder, and an explanation o

_ homologies and the peculiarities of their relative positions.

imagines that the primitive fishes, like the sharks, wer

this organ, but that some of them, venturing on |

or shorter excursions, took in stomach and th

which procured a certain aération of the blood. es of its

_ that the air held in the throat finally produced a dite it later

_ @ sae with a narrowed opening. The tendency to Tise Yo.

in the water would ensure that this bag of air should maintain? :

ee a

= without

and for ee

oatfuls of ais

r s

-superior wall, which became later a diverticulum and | A .

1886, } Zoblogy. 655

position above the cesophagus. In those fishes which continued

to use air, as the Dipnoi, the sac became cellular and more com-

plex. Its weight would then cause it to sink below the cesopha-

gus, as we find.it in Polypterus. From this stage the lung of air-

breathers was derived. In those fishes which became most

esophagus, while the lungs are on the ventral side. He there-

fore regards the swim-bladder of Polypterus as a true lung, while

t of Lepidosteus is a swim-bladder. In support of his view

that these organs are respectively not homologous, he states that

Diodon and Tetrodon possess both swim-bladder and lungs. The

latter he recognizes in the diverticula from the lower side of the

‘esophagus, with which those fishes inflate themselves. He also

Sees a rudimental swim-bladder in diverticula ffom the superior

side of the cesophagus which occur in some animals, for instance,

in the pig. ;

THE FORMER SOUTHERN LIMITS OF THE WHITE OR POLAR

Bear.—In my remarks on the occurrence of the white bear in

ing over the accounts of the early discoverers and navigators, as

Well as Cartwright's “Journal,” I am led to materially alter my

Opinion and to supposes that the former limits of this creature

extended even possibly as far south as Casco bay, on the coast of

ine,

Whether there are any notices of or references to the white

ar in the records and sagas of the Norsemen who visited the

tian Cabot in Hakluyt’s Voyages (111, 27):

”

656 General Notes.

probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the

soil is “‘ barren” in all places, while the “stagges far greater pe

ours” may haveębeen the moose, which does not inhabit the

o kluyt). | F800,

a The next explorer of this coast was Cortereal who, in È

landed on the Newfoundland coast, at or probably near oe

_ Race. In an old Portuguese map of aboyt the year 1520 15 4

Latin inscription, thus translated by Kohl, a part 0

copy: “This country was first discovered by Gaspar

1886.] Zoology. 657

The next navigator to explore these seas was Jacques Cartier,

who arrived May roth, 1534, on the eastern coast of Newfound-

nd. To this observing seaman we owe our first accounts of

the home of the great auk or “ penguin” on the Island of Birds,

now Funk or Fogo island, on the northeastern coast of New-

foundland ; also of the Bird rocks of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

' While harboring at what is now Funk island Cartier, after

describing the great auks, tells us that he sawa white bear. In

his own language, done into quaint English by Hakluyt: “And

albeit the sayd Island be 14 leagues from the maineland, not-

withstanding beares come swimming thither to eat of the sayd

birds: and our men found'one there as great as any cow, and as

white as any swan, who in their presence leapt into the sea, and

upon Whitsun-monday (following our voyage towards the land)

: we met her by the way, swimming toward land as swiftly as we

could saile. So soone as we saw her, we pursued her with our

boats, and by maine strength tooke her, whose flesh was as goode

F to be eaten as the flesh of a calfe two yeres olde.”

From this graphic and circumstantial account we feel sure that

this was the great white or polar bear (Ursus maritimus); that it

reached its full size, was not uncommon on the mainland (John

Cabot says the land was “full” of them), and that it bred there, as

those mentioned by Parmenius in 1583 were probably young ones.

The white bear is still occasionally seen on this coast, as Rev.

Mr. Harvey ‘states :! “The seal hunters occasionally encounter

the white or polar bear on the ice off the coast, and sometimes

it has been known to land.”

Now, if in these early times of Cabot and Cartier the eastern

PU a Se a ee

of Maine

Our supposition is based on the following facts: In an ancient

map of “ New France,” by the Italian Jacomo di Gastaldi, in about

the year 1550, republished by Kohl, and which we here present

of reduced size, what we should consider as veritable white bears

are depicted as swimming in the ocean far from the coast of what

must have been Nova Scotia, and near to but west of Sable

island o

Oe PTE ee a a ee Oe ee ee NR ey Se

—,

-i

rt)

feb]

is)

Sonal

auae animals represented are bears admits of little doubt;

M he four, Geuses the lowermost one iia seal; it is drawn with- —

like Cars, while the three other figures have large, drooping ears, —

Í -t Halton and Harvey’s Newfoundland, Boston, 1883, p. 193.

‘F

r “Isola della rena.” In the map the bears are placed to -~

” those of a bear, At any rate, if the locality was put in at oe

658 General Noirs. [July,

haphazard by the map-drawer, why should white bears be also

represented, as they seem to be in the ocean off Isola de Demoni.

The figures of the black bear, as well as of the rabbit and of the

aborigines are well drawn, and it seems not unreasonable to

infer that white bears were actually seen and reported to the

south and west of Newfoundland.

That the white bear may have visited the coast of Maine, near

Portland, is further proved by the probable discovery by Mr. E.

S. Morse of a white bear’s tooth in the shell heaps of Casco bay.

Speaking of the bones of the bear found in a shell heap on

Goose island, Casco bay, Maine, the late Professor Wyman

remarked in the AMERICAN NATURALIST, I, 575, January, 1868: |

“The bones of the dear, though much less numerous, were

Phe a ee ee a

1886, } Zoölogy. 659

the last-mentioned species, as it does also in the shape of the

crown—but it must be unsafe from a single specimen of the

molar in question to attempt to identify them. The former exist-

ence of the polar bear on the coast of Maine is rendered quite

probable by the fact that the tusk of a walrus has actually been

found at Gardiner.”

That the white bear formerly was an inhabitant of Newfound-

land seems probable from the facts we have brought together, and

it is to be hoped that the antiquarians and naturalists of New-

foundland will investigate the shell heaps, should such be found,

of that island for further facts bearing on this subject.

We will now turn our attention to the former presence of the

white bear on the Labrador coast, where the settlers still call it

the “water bear.” We find only in Cartwright’s Journal refer-

ence to this creature, but this is sufficient to show that it bred on

and permanently inhabited this coast from Belle isle or Chateau

_ bay northward. A white bear was killed in 1 769 at Pitt’s harbor,

Chateau bay. There is a “ White Bear Sound ” on Cartwright’s

wich bay. In 1770 Cartwright saw the track of two large white

island, and in the following May another was observed. White

bears were also seen up the rivers leading into Sandwich bay, and

On pp. 410-11 Cartwright describes the habits of the white bear

in Labrador, stating that the young are born in March, the parent

ng forth usually one at a time, sometimes two.

While on the coast of Labrador in the summers of 1860 and

1864, we gathered what facts we could as to the occurrence of

Se! animal, publishing them in the Proceedings of the Boston.

lety of Natural History (Vol. x, 1866, 270), from which we

take the following extract :

n At Square island, a locality situated between Belle isle and

Domino harbor, two cubs were captured and taken to St. Johns, <8

Newfoundland. At Domino harbor the skin of a bear killed ~~

uring the preceding spring (1863) was obtained by one of our

”

An intelligent hunter told me that the white bear was es

Party, a

not unfrequently seen at Stag bay, near Roger’s harbor, which is’

Situated a little more than fifty miles south of Hopedale. One

Was killed there during the preceding winter (1863), and in the %

autumn their tracks were abundant. They were very shy,

tarer. The last polar bear said to have been seen in the Strait of

Belle isle

was shot fifteen years ago (1849), at the settlement of '

ard.

mon bay.— A. S. Pack

- : Zootosicat News.—General—A paper by Dr. Hans Gadow, —

-Could not be seen in the daytime. Further south they are much "es

662. ` General Notes. [July,

3-30 got rid of the second accentor. In this case poetical retri-

bution was wrought, for while one of the turned-out accentors

was placed in a white-throat’s nest, and cared for by its foster

parents, the young cuckoo was about a week afterwards found

dead at the bottom of the nest.

Mammalia—Dr. C. H. Merriam has reported to Science the dis-

covery of an Aplodontia, show’tl or mountain beaver, which he

believes to,be sufficiently distinct from the ordinary form to take

| BMBRYOLOGY.!

, THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF JuLus TERREsTRIS.’"—The eggs of

F. terrestris are oval, white and covered by a thick chitiaous

chorion ; the nucleus is embedded in a mass of protoplasm in the

center of the egg. This central mass of protoplasm is irregular

in shape, but its long axis corresponds with that of the egg. From

it anastomosing processes radiate in all directions, forming a net-

work throughout the egg, in the meshes of which the yolk-

spherules are contained. The nucleus is not a distinct vesicle,

but its position is marked by chromatin granules, and there 1s no

nucleolus.

1 Edited by Jonn A. RYDER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. _76.

» M.A. Proc. Roy. Soc, London, Vol. XL, No. 242, PP. T i

1886.) n

1886, J | Embryology. 663

With regard to the retention of the primitive union of the cells

of the ovum until this stage, nothing of the sort has been described

_ before, except by Sedgwick in Peripatus. The most important

part, it seems to me, is not the connection of cell to cell, but of

layer to layer by means of processes of the cells.

About the middle of the fourth day several of the hypoblast

cells approach the epiblast in the middle line of what will even-

7 tually be the ventral surface of the embryo. This is the begin-

= ningofa mesoblastic keel such as Balfour described for Agalena.

The epiblast cells in the ventral middle line, after altering their

shape, increase by division and take a considerable share in the

formation of the keel. The hypoblast cells below them also

increase, and on the fifth day the mesoblastic keel is complete, in

the formation of which both epiblast and hypoblast have taken

F part. The keel is still present on the sixth day, but the cells

composing it are becoming elongated in a plane parallel to its

| surface. They then spread out to form two definite splanchnic

and somatic layers of the mesoblast below the epiblast. These

two layers are connected. The keel disappears on the seventh

and. eighth days, and on the ventral surface the epiblast cells

assume a columnar form, thus giving rise to the ventral plate.

_ _ The mesoblast now becomes thicker on each side of the median

line, both layers being concerned in this thickening, where they

become indistinguishable. Outside the thickenings, that is,

farther away from the middle line, the two layers are closely

ie that of the future segments of the body. There are at first

“gat somites, corresponding with the eight segments of the

embryo when hatched. These somites are at first solid ; after-

wards a cavity appears in them.

FRR of the epiblast near one end of the ventral surface. Sho:

s ae formation of the stomodaum the proctodzeum appears as

_ “shallow somewhat wide invagination of the other end of the

_ Ventral surface.

___ the body segments now become more apparent, each being —

tly on the ninth day the stomodzeum is formed as an invagi-

664 General Notes. [July,

same time the hypoblast cells begin to form the mesenteron,

men,

On the tenth day the ventral flexure is formed by a deepening

of the transverse furrow between the seventh and eighth segments. _

As this furrow deepens and the embryo increases in size, the last

segment grows in length. At the same time the embryo curves

round toward the ventral surface, the end segment being bent

round against the head. The eighth segment is longer than the

others except the head. Even as late as the twelfth day, when

the nervous system is far developed in other parts of the body, in

the eighth segment the tissues are imperfectly differentiated, the

` nerve cords not showing any ganglia, but lying on the epiblast

and not quite separated from it. Ata later period of development

the anal segment is constricted off from the eighth, while from

the anterior part of the latter, the additional segments formed in

the course of development are derived. These additional seg-

ments are therefore intercalated between the seventh and ninth. »

Just before the appearance of the ventral flexure the embryo

develops a cuticular envelope over the whole surface of the body.

This is the so-called amnion of Newport. Just before the forma-

tion of the ventral flexure the nervous system is formed.

first traces of this consist in a thickening of the epiblast on each

side of the middle line; this is soon followed by the formation of

a shallow furrow between the thickened parts; this longitudinal

furrow corresponds with that described by Metschnikoff in

Strongylosoma.

present for each segment except the last. The posterior por-

tion of the nerve cords is completed at a considerably ene

= stage of development. The nerve cords are widely separated, bit

a are connected by a thin median portion. In later embryonic lite

ae are closely approached to one another, and almost form one

cord.

On the eleventh day the embryo has increased considerably a

size. The ventral flexure is complete, and the animal lies wit

the long end segment folded closely against the rest of the z $

the end ofthe tail being against the stomodæum. The me

system is now completely separated from the epiblast, an ha

_ epiblast has assumed the adult form. It now separates 4 seco

_ membrane like that which is formed on the tenth day. ee

_ The splanchnic layer of mesoblast covers the mesenteron, ™

2 _Stomodeum and proctodeum be hago he

_. Within the yolk, which is still present in great qual ae

_ body-cavity, there are present a number of hypoblast cells. / sys-

‘as has already been mentioned, give rise to the cir culatory <a

tem and to various muscles. They may, therefore, benata

ee ee ee ee ee E

* pig ona. Wes gers apes Ra

1886. | Embryology. | 665

sidered as mesoblastic cells which have been directly derived

from the hypoblast.

On the twelfth day the Malpighian tubes are formed as blind

outgrowths of the proctodzum, the nervous system is further

developed, and the first rudiments of the appendages begin to

appear. Late on this day the animal is hatched with only the

rudiments of its appendages.

An investigation of the development of Geophilus by Sograf*

shows that the early cleavage of the egg of Chilopods is very sim-

ilar, not only that, but even the formation of the mesoblastic bands

and ceelomic cavity is similar. Great numbers of cells also

remain in the yolk in this form until a late period and apparently

migrate outwards, and may possibly take a share in forming cer-

man-

ame

- ner in Geophilus as in Julus; and, while there is no clearly

from which the yolk-spherules disappear in the Chilopods, and

finally the lumen ofthe > appears ded by a secon

nearly homo

hypoblastic wall of the mesenteron, and in which free multipolar

cells are embedded. There occurs a dehiscence of cells into the ©

cœlom from the splanchnic mesoblast investing the mesenteron.

ese free cells represent blood cells. The process is somewhat

geneous investment of yolk which lies within the

has, on ~

666 General Notes. (July,

the same way in fishes as in Myriopods, viz., as a direct canalicu-

lar vacuolization of the yolk passing through its central longitu-

dinal diameter, the periblast would doubtless then represent the

hypoblast or what it did in very primitive fish-like forms, while

externally it would have been covered by a true splanchnopleure

which had been developed in advance of the permanent hypoblast

of the mesenteron, though the latter had been primarily derived

from the primitive hypoblast.

he eggs of the Myriapoda, it is to be remembered, represent a

very peculiar type, that is, they at first have the germinal matter

concentrated in the center, but as development proceeds the

germinal matter, after segmentation into a number of cells, is

repelled centrifugally or to the outer surface of the ovum. The

primary segmentation therefore occurs in the center of the egg

and not at one side or superficially until some progress in seg-

mentation has been made at the center of the egg. This prob-

ably characteristic mode of development seems to distinguish, in

a measure, the Myriapoda from other Arthropoda, since in no

other arthropodous form does the vitellus so constantly occupy

a superficial position and so completely invest the first segmenta-

tion cells, which are then aggregated in a cluster at the center of

place of publication of which is here cited, William A. Locy has .

very carefully worked out the development of the spider (Age-

lena), and obtained a number of new and important morpho

results. He finds that there is at first a peripheral layer,

protoplasm present, and that the nucleus of the first segmentation

is central and imbedded in plasma. This first nucleus subdivides

~ and gives rise to new nuclei, each invested by plasma. , ri

ae migrate to the periphery of the egg and appropriate the peripher

oe layer of protoplasm or “ blastema.” In this way a hollow blasto-

peared not improbable that this depression repre ts the

s egg W becomes

invaginated. Later, and about 80° from the primitive cumit

a second thickening. appears in the blastoderm ; this second thick-

_ Between the.

icker, thus lead-

somites develop from the caudal plate, and wai : The mbry?

‘the third as 1*

pea

1886. ] Embryology. 667

the preceding stage. Sections show that the cavities of the

limbs are prolongations of the cavities of the corresponding meso-

dermic somites. The nervous system at first consists of two rows

of ganglia, one to each somite; these are widely separated in the

middle line, except in the head and tail lobes, where those of

Opposite sides are fused. The stomodzum arises as an invagi-

nation between the ganglionic thickenings of the cheliceral

oe and immediately below the ventral margin of the cephalic.

ate

About the time that the ventral flexure appears, or when the

. embryo becomes folded upon itself, the proctodzum, heart, lungs,

trachea, spinning glands and muscles develop. The chelicere

and pedipalpi appear as postoral structures, but in the course of

further development they appear as preoral appendages. At an

early stage the proctodzum is enlarged by the outgrowth of its

dorsal wall ; from this diverticulum the so-called stercoral pocket

of the adult is formed. The lateral nerve cords are finally ap-

Proximated in the middle line, and the posterior or abdominal

Portion of the nervous system degenerates. The poison glands

appear as groups of enlarged cells at the bases of the chelicere.

The spinning glands develop from the ectoderm in the

region on the ventral side of the proctodzum. e lungs arise

as -infoldings from a large oval pair of masses of cells, the

nuclei of which are arranged in parallel lines. From these cells

the lamalla of the lungs are formed. The heart remains open

low for a time, communicating freely with the yolk. The

aorta, at a later period, is constricted off from the mesenteron.

At least two pairs of the provisional appendages on the abdomen

Are modified into the spinning mammillz. The remnant of the

upwardly flexed tail persists for some time as a postanal knob;

its tip represents the morphological end of the body.

€ eyes are developed as invaginations of the ectoderm (hypo-

dermis). The retinal involution becomes constricted off from the

pe csenmn entirely, and then lies just below that portion of the

ypodermis which afterwards becomes the vitreous body. In a

concave depression, on the surface of the latter, the lens arises as

à lenticular thickening of the cuticula, The mode in which the

i traverses the eye is essentially similar to the method in

raich the light reaches the percipient elements of the retina in

668 General Notes. J uly,

which is surrounded by as many zonary placentæ as there are

fœtuses, the placentæ not, however, forming perfect zones. He

finds the ungual phalanges at this period to differ entirely from

that of the adult. Instead of being long and claw-shaped, they

are wide and _ hoof-shaped, with a trilobate margin, as in the ex-

tinct genus Gyptodon. This is highly interesting as exhibiting

the law of acceleration modifying that of heredity. The sexual

characters are probably like those of the hyznas, in that the

female foetus has a clitoris so large as to give her a close resem-

blance to the male—Z. D. Cope. ;

PSYCHOLOGY.

GAMBETTA’S Brain—The Revue recently (November 21st,

1885) gave the weight of Gambetta’s brain, according to M. A.

Bloch. This weight, which was remarkably light (1160 grammes),

evidently ought to be considered as an entirely secondary element

in a proper estimate of the diverse qualities of the organ. At a

recent session of the Society of Anthropology (March 18) Pro-

fessor Mathias Duval communicated a very interesting report M

which he brought out and gave their due value to certain struc

tural details of this brain—to certain characteristic elements which

must be regarded as far outweighing the simple consideration of

the gross weight of the organ. Compared with the brains of in-

dividuals known to have been possessed of but little intelligence,

and representing types of reduction of the third frontal convolu-

3 tion, the brain of Gambetta, besides other peculiarities, shows a

type of extreme development of that convolution. This devel

a opment is such that not only are the secondary convolutions more

~- numerous and more complicated than those of ordinary brains,

But, besides this, the “ cape” is double. BS

~ This development is evidently in favor of the localization as

covered by Broca, who held that the third frontal convolution he ,

the seat of speech: M. Mathias Duval has also pointed out as

two following peculiarities, the significance of which he has m i

n able to determine. : and

(1) The right quadrilateral lobule is very complicated, “tal

_ is divided into two parts by a sulcus which starts from the E

fissure. The lower of these two parts is subdivided into pri

= secondary convolutions by the presence of a'lfissure with num

_ ous branches arranged in star-like patterns. : :

= (2) The occipital lobe is notably reduced, especially be

pear to him scientific—in the sense that it preserves, €s regu-

he frontal region, in spite of the complication of its folds, = April

arity which may be called schematic. —Revue Scientifique, °°

d, 1886, p. 444. : :

669

ground, while fifty or sixty of the workers were seen flying about

the house. From time to time one or another—probably those

Which had flown out of the entrance the day before—found the*

Opening and returned into their nest, while the remainder after °

flying about for several hours gradually disappeared, till not one

was left. As it was supposed that they had in all probability re-

tai depended upon their wonderful sense of locality,and returned >

Ither, x

A similar instance was observed with another nest, which had

been removed a distance of nearly five miles, and in which the

Same care had been exercised to capture all the individuals. In

= skillfully handling the box containing the nest and bees, in its —

E -ew location, about thirty of the workers escaped, and flew through

l *%e open window. After flying for a long time about the house, _ a

_ 4S though in search of their comrades, they likewise disappeared = z

and returned to their original nest, and again established them,

ToS: as was afterwards ascertained. ces

It was frequently observed that, when nests have been removed

a. but a Short distance, the workers during the first few days after —

cert Change, would fly swiftly in the direction of their old nest, Be

eee

_ 8nd go to their new home. It seemed evident that these ume

Creatures, through some mental process or other, thus discovered i

their changed circumstances. ee je

-In order to test further this remarkable sense of locality, the

author marked a number of individuals with oil colors, and carried

od osmos), but we do not agree with the statement that the brain

n o of

_ that of a fish

nests; but he was unable to determine whether they were individ-

_ these individuals were from last year’s brood, there was no dou

| liar as it is to elevated and mountainous regions.

and the evident acuteness of their vision. They are able to see

670 General Notes. [July,

them, enclosed in wooden cases, a distance of eight or nine miles,

when he allowed them to escape. Very many of them, though |

not all, found their way back to their nests, and as a rule reached

home sooner than the author did himself.

The author noticed that at his summer residence, where he had

kept numerous hives of these bees, the following spring many in-

dividuals appeared, and seemed to be searching for their previous

uals of the previous broods or.not. Towards the close of July,

1884, he obtained three nests of Bombus mastrucatus, a large spe-

cies only found in the mountains, and especially the higher re-

gions, and carried them to his residence in the city, where he

placed them in a window of the second story. The house was en-

closed by high buildings, with no garden attached, and yet they

returned readily and directly from their excursions to their nests.

They throve, and by the first of October had increased to con-

siderable numbers. By the middle of October they wholly disap-

peared; but in the early part of the following April, individuals

of this species were observed flying about the window, and as

soon as they found an entrance, sought the remains of their old

“nests, and took up their abode. They remained fora while, when

their nest was accidentally injured, and they left. Nothing more

was seen of them till after the author’s return from his summer

vacation, in the middle of September, when a single female of this

species made its appearance. In their inability to obtain an en-

trance through the closed window, they had evidently built a new

hest in the vicinity, and reared their broods. >

humble bee are not as slight as we have been accustomed to Dé

lieve. Here in this case, from October to April—a period of six

months—had these bees remained dormant in the ground, or hid-

den in some crevice, and, upon regaining their activity, had m

only remembered the place where they were, but had sought an

found, despite the many difficulties, their last year’s nest. That

as throughout the province the species nowhere else occurs, pee

- The foregoing is from Science, April gth, 1886 (translated from

‘the bee is simple; on the contrary it is only less complex than

an insect much further than a person can distinguish one, on

as Straight as an arrow to the minute object when it is from DiE

to thirty feet di They seem to make no mistakes, but always

1836,] Anthropology. 671

to secure the coveted prey. I have often seen these birds dart down

into the grass from those heights and seize an insect with such pre-

cision that it must have been plainly visible from where the start

was made. This would indicate that they possess a faculty of

sight, developed by ages of practice, altogether above that of the

human race, and most useful in their struggle for existence. But

the late Robert Kennicott (quoted by Baird, Brewer and Ridg-

way in their great work on the Birds of North America) states

that a pair of a wrens will capture 1000 insects per day during

the breeding season, and this fact of itself would indicate the

sharpest vision and wonderful celerity of movement—Charles

Aldrich, Webster City, lowa, Fune rst, 1886.

ANTHROPOLOGY.

THE Davenrort Acapemy has just issued Vol. 1v of its Pro-

ceedings, nearly the whole of which is occupied with anthropol-

ogy. € papers of Dr. Hoffman and Mr. Holmes have been

some months in print and have been previously noticed. An

appendix of nearly one hundred pages is by the president of the

se and entitled “ Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in

lowa

follows:

1. A defence of the separate nationality of the Mound-builders against the theory of

their identity with modern Indians

2, A de

ipe

The contents of this appendix may be tabulated as

Ethnology and the endorsement of the director of the bureau.

n argument against centralization of ethnological work in the Smithsonian In-

stitution and the Bureau of Ethnology. ;

4. A series of letters from friends of the Davenport Academy in sympathy with a

former vindication.

5. Extracts from scientific journals in relation to the same subject.

__ Whether the Mound-builders were succeeded in the Missis-

Sipp! valley by their immediate descendants, the Indians living

there when the whites made their appearance three centuries and

More ago, is an open question, though some archzologists have

declared the argument closed. Dr. Carr, Dr. Brinton, the direc-

wat ity the archeologist of the Bureau of Ethnology, and m

utnam and many other eminent archeologists hold the contrary

e museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Davenport, -

are in favor of the identity. Squier-and Davis, President |

view, maintaining that the Mound-builders exhibited traits of 2

bh tion which set them far above their modern successors on

Same soil. The appendix to the Davenport Proceedings is 2

= able summary of the arguments in favor of the higher civili-

_ tation of the Mound-builders. | It seems to us that Pay sina ei : .

: ty review of what can be said for and against this th

ed Judicial mind would be exceedingly timely.

Edited by Prof. Ors T. Mason, National Museum, Washington, D. C.

672 General Notes. [July, |

Upon the second point we can throw no additional light. The

Davenport Academy is one of the most thriving State associa-

tions for research and collection of material. In some particulars

- the museum vies even with that of the Smithsonian Institution.

There are in all this vast treasure five objects which run the

whole gamut of reputation, from that of base fraud to the high-

est credibility. President Putnam gives the history of their

acquisition as follows:

a. The discovery of two inscribed tablets in Mound 3, on Cook’s farm, near Daven-

port, by Jacob Gass, L. H. Willrodt and H. S. Stolzenau, with five other per-

sons, Jan. 10, 1877

. The discovery of another tablet, Jan. 30, 1878, in Mound 11, on Cook’s farm, by

Jacob Gass, John Hume and Charles E. Harrison.

c. The discovery, in March, 1880, of an elephant pipe in a mound on Hass’ farm,

in Louisa county, Iowa, by A. blumer, Jacob Gass and F. Hass.

; d. The obtaining of an elephant pipe by Jacob Gass from a farmer in Louisa eounty,

Iowa, who found it on his farm while planting corn.

, finders and the finds. President Putnam commits himself to

belief in the contemporaneity of man and the mastodon in Amer-

ica, invoking the testimony of Koch, Dickson, Pourtales, Dowler,

Winslow, Whitney, Cleu, Hilgard and Fontaine. This contem-

poraneity is again a subject open to discussion, and no doubt it

will receive the attention which it deserves.

The third part of President Putnam’s argument, in which the

Smithsonian Institution and the Bureau of Ethnology are held to

ht to have

ining Mr.

= Holmes of the Bureau of Ethnology. On page Iv it 1s dis-

tinctly stated that Dr. Hoffman and the Bureau of Ethnology

furnished all the illustrations for these papers without expense .

the academy. On p. 245 we are told that “the special thanks 0

the academy were tendered to Major Powell for his courtesy !

n with the

of Profes-

He also,

cie

| ag to receive all the publications of his bureau, ie z a an

irreparable loss to anthropological science if b eans this

y any ™

dan should be disestablished before Powell, Pilling,

offman, Yarrow, Boas, Murdoch shall have fini

Malley;

homas, Henshaw, Dorsey, Gatschet, Cushing, the w a

Pa .

Anthropology. 673

great work which each has undertaken, and any one of which

would be far too burdensome for any scientific association in

America to ‘carry.

VOCABULARY OF ArCHERY.—In a former number of the Natu-

RALIST Mr. John Murdoch kindly furnished us with a vocabulary

q of the harpoon. We give below a vocabulary of archery, hoping

3 that all who are in sympathy with us in establishing accurate

nomenclature for the various branches of anthropology will aid

in adopting these terms, or at least will state their objections if

they have any. No claim whatever is made to originality in |

most of the terms. Dr. John Evans, the Encyclopaedia Britan-

' nica, Professor Morse, Mr. Murdoch, Hansard and others have

: been freely consulted. The list of words given below includes

3 the bow, the arrow and the arrow-maker’s outfit. No discrimi-

nation is made between ancient and modern archery, as it is de-

signed to include the whole life- -history of this species of human

activity in the same manner that a zoologist would monograph

species of animals:

ARCHER, old French eigi Latin arcarius, from arcus, a bow, one who shoots

with a bow; whence archery, shootin ng with the bow

Snn, The Dai in releasing, revolve the iwi in the left a aguardis > |

rn on the outer side of the forearm to catch the blow of the i

issil he possible p are the hest N si

sect shaft or stele, feathering, nock, pete seizings.

ARROW CEMENT, substance used in fastening the arow-head to the shaft. A nik

bes use glue or cement in maki ing the sinew-backed os

ARROW-HEAD, the part of an arrow designed to produce a ras eS of thé, nc

aip Shue arrow-head are the tip or apex, faces, sides, base, s or ang

acets,

ARROW-STRATGHTENER, a piece of bone, wood or avy with a perforation to serve’

wrench in straightening arrow-shafts, aes 7

Bace (side), the part of the bow away from the h

CKED, a bow i is backed ria along the PIPAS are pE strips of wood, sinew

crease the elasticity. ee

rant, the strap sippa ng a quiver or sheath, being worn over one shoulder, ase

Cross the ane and under the opposite arm; generally much ornamented, ae

Bastar, the piece of ivory, &c., on some arrows attached to the true head and

: barbs on the sides. This should be raat discriminated from the

foresh which - another. fenekek altoget ee

i w-head, the portion which fits into ri shaft. gat

a Berty (inside), u the part of a bow toward the archer, usually rounded.

» an elastic weapon for sy an arrow from a string. (See self-bow, compound

bow, backed bow, grafted w.)

Bow.case a long bag of wood, pera or cloth; in Greg the bow is kept when not

Bow stave, the bow in a rough state. Bow-staves were an important item of com- ;

Bown prior to the use of gunpowder. l

k moaia the distance to which an arrow flies cee a bow

ipri Aa pute d rajes in discharging a bow. The substances used, the method ;

Bow treatm nt and of nocking are important to notice.

Py oon, the aubstanves used for bows, generally wood, but horn, antler, bone and

_ metal have been employed

674 General Notes. [July,

BowYeEr, a maker of bows.

RACER (wrist-guard), a TNR for protecting the archer’s wrist from being

galled by his bowstri

a pact Ase adh hending the bow and putting the eye of the string in the upper

aratory to shootin ng. The different methods of bracing throughout the

wor i Dira an interesting stu

BUTTS, pire banks of earth sited formerly for targets.

BUTT-SHAFT, a blunt arrow for shooting at a butt, the ancient style of target.

gee k ga il ang “oie of bone, antler, &c., used for shaping flint arrow-

r-hea

Big FEATHER, that Kitkas of an arrow which is uppermost when the bow is

oe OUND Bow, made of two or more pieces of wood, bone, horn, antler, lashed or

riveted together, :

EYE, the ay of a bowstring which passes over the upper nock in bracing.

“FACES, the broad, flattened portions of an arrow-head.

Facets, the little surfaces left by chipping out a stone arrow-head.

FEATHERING, the strips of feather at the butt of an arrow, including the method of

seizing or fastening. i

FLAKING HAMMER, called also hammer stone, a stone used for knocking off flakes

making flint arrow-heads, &c.

Pieder, an arrow-maker, akin to feche.

FOOTING, a piece of wood inserted in the shaftment of an arrow at the nock.

FORESHAFT, a piece of hard wood, bone, ivory, antler, &c., at the ie ae end of an

ke arrow to give weight and to serve for the attachment of the sss

GRAFTED Bow, a species of compound bow formed of two pieces oai toge

; the handle.

SE GRIP, the part of a bow grasped in the hand. The

: the ovrording part of swords, daggers, &c., hae it is

GUARD en shield of leather or other substance fastened to the

the left hand to prevent injury from the bowstring (see bra cer).

Horn, the end of a bow when made of horn.

Limps,’the part of a bow above and below the handle or grip. f that

er Nock; properly the noth in the horn of a bow, but Aia via to the ber wae *

part on which the string is fastened. Upper “Bs e hel ch in

ae bra flay: Lower n mp, the one on the raaa in b iig so th

_ the end of an arro

Nocxine, placing ae arrow on the string preparatory to shooting.

ae ‘Noceine-roner, that place on a bowstring where the nock of the

` > fitted, often whipped with silk.

Noose, the ae of a string which occupies the lower horn of a bow. be

_ OVER-ARROws, those shot directly over the center of the mark and and beyond

_. target.

should be applied te

ne Ti differentiated in any

arrow is to be

OVERHAND, shooting overhand is to shoot at the mark over the bow-hand, when eet.

; head of the arrow is drawn inside the bow. nocks ee

Daca of — fish-skin or other soft substance used in binding the

_ the grip o f bows. name,

PÍLE, the head - an archery arrow; any arrow-head may bear the same g

_ which we may have a one.pile, foei three-pile arrow, &c. . ie aa

Prrcuineo0t, or or pesppinetiol, a column of antler or other hard substan

between n the hammer and the core A flakes of stone.

1886, ] Microscopy. 675

RELEASE, une go the pees | in n shooting, Professor E. S. Morse characterizes

the various releas ollow

I. Primary sikik chm and first joint of forefinger pinching the arrow

ock.

A Secondary, thumb and second joint of forefinger, middle finger also on

ing.

$ IDEA thumb and three fingers on the string.

4. Mediterranean, fore and middle finger, thumb not used.

5. Mongolian, thumb on string, with or without thumb-ring.

RIBAND, te term applied to the stripes painted on arrow-shafts, generally around the

ar ment, These ribands have been called clan-marks, Owner marks, game

wa etc.

ag thumb-ring),

SELF-Bow (simple), made of a ies piece of wood or other material.

SHAFT, anc’ ciently an arrow, but s ctly the portion behind the head, and in a fore-

shafted arrow the lighter Reeth behind the fore or aft,

Suarr-cnoovEs, arte cuts along an arrow-shaft from the head backward; they

ave been calle ood. -grooves kii iebnlag reales but these names are ob«

tae as “SE ink theories.

SHAFT MENT, the part of an arrow on which the feathering is laid.

, SHANK, the part of an arrow-head corresponding to the tang of the sword-blade-

re SHORT-aRRows, those which fall short of the mark.

f SIDES, of an arrow-head, the sharpened portions between the apex and the base, also

the edges,

eo SINEW-BACKED BOW, one whose agg is age by the use of sinew along the

back, either in a cable of tw the Eskimos, ed laid on solid by

means of glue, as with ai tribes j in S Wenchi United Sta

SLEIGHT, the facility with which an archer releases his cue

STELE (stale, shaft), the wooden part of an arrow, an arrow without feather or head.

Tarcer, a disk of straw covered with canvas, on which are painted concentric rings,

used j in archery as a mark in lieu of the ancient butt

THUMB-RING, a ring worn on the thumb in archery by those peoples that use the

T Mongolian release ; aia sefin by the Pers

IP, a term applied to the sharp apex of an baie

TRajectory, the curve which an arrow describes in space, may be flat, high, &c.

HIGHT, of a bow, the nu mber of pounds required to draw a bow until the arrow

y Stand between si pai and the a ascertained by suspending the —

sts grip and draw with a spring :

TEA wrapping any yen of a bow or arrow with cord or sinew

on.

‘a.

BARROWS, 1 those shot to the right or the left of the mark.

ee 2

ee is made of clear glass with aka surfaces ; ; it is | sea o

deep to to hold a considerable quantity of fluid, while the curves ;

Mside are Such that although large sections ‘lie nearly flat, yet

"Edited by DECO. WHITMAN, Mus. Comparative Zodlogy, zee

676 : Scientific News.

when very little fluid is used it gathers into the center. The

dishes, owing to their vertical sides, are readily stacked, while

the bevel is wide enough for a label, which can be easily seen

both when the dishes are stacked and as they set upon the table

singly. They are sold at $2.50 per dozen.— Charles S. Minot.

:0:

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.!

T o

The table

d with min-

of the

kind extant. Fifteen wall cases are filled with minerals and build-

1886,] Scientific News. | 677

_ — There is some hope of having a Division of Ornithology

and Mammalogy created in the Department of Agriculture. Pro-

fessor Riley and Dr. Merriam recently appeared before the Sen-

ate sub-committee on appropriations having in charge the agricul-

tural appropriation bill, and urged an amendment to the House

bill creating such a division and appropriating $15,000 therefor.

ur readers are aware that ornithological work was begun last

year under the Division of Entomology. It was added to Riley’s

others duties against his wish, and he deserves the thanks of

ornithologists for carrying out the wishes of the Ornithological

nion in appointments made under him. He realizes that there »

is much in economic ornithology which has no bearing on ento-

mology, and if the new division is created, Professor Riley and

Dr. Merriam have arranged that the former will take charge of

that part of the work bearing on the food-habits of birds in rela-

tion to insects.

The seeming anomaly is presented, by the excessive de-

mand for furs, of the extermination of large species and the

increase of smaller ones. This is obviously due to the fact that

large animals require great space to roam over, while the smaller

large species, making them more accessible and increases the

their numbers, The grizzly and polar bears and Shetland seal are

nearly exterminated. ` Of the last named only 200 skins were

Secured last year, and the price of cloaks made from them ad-

vanced to $1200. ane

— The American causeway, or basaltic columns, at Orange,

New Jersey, is the largest yet exposed. The columns are com- ` `

Pressed into a mass 750 feet long and 100 feet high, covering

z fourteen acres. The generality stand vertically, but some lie in

+ a horizontal plane and others radiate from a common center. In- |

: rlorly they are a dark-blue color, covered with an incrustation

e pentagons predominating. Underneath is an enormous de- —

“atlas red sandstone. The columns are being quarried for

uilding blocks and micodons, i ae pee as

-= — Candidates for apprenticeships in the United States Navy

_ Must come within the following measurements : ia

Age. Weight. “Height. Chest.

14 to 15 70 Ibs. 57 inches 26 inches.

aS 96 e 86° “ c “

16 « 17 go “ 6I “ 8 “

I :

j. 38 Ico “ ie ee et

dust particles, ‘They range in shape from prisms to octagons,

Safe Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [July, 1886,

— Thos, Edwards, the Banff naturalist, so well known from

Smiles’ biography, is dead. Since the publication of Smiles’

work he has enjoyed a pension of £50 per annum, and latterly

he has been curator of Banff Museum.

— A dromedary in Central park, N. Y., gave birth, on May 17,

to a calf weighing 105 pounds. This is said to be the third birth

of the kind in the United States.

e morning glory, natural grasses and other species of

land life rapidly take the place of aquatic plants in the vast areas

of drained lands in sub-tropical Florida.

` — The Chicago Academy of Sciences has deposited its collec-

tion in commodious quarters at the Exposition building on the

lake front. i

:0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

BiotocicaL Society oF Wasuincton, May 15.— Commu

cation: Dr. C. Hart Merriam, habits of the short-tailed shrew

(Blarina).

ay 29.—Communications: Mr. John B. Smith, Ant’s nests

and their inhabitants; Dr. T. H. Bean, The trout of North Amer-

ica, with exhibition of specimens ; Mr. L. O. Howard, On some

new Chalcidide; Mr. L. F. Ward, Exhibition of a specimen of

the Palo la Cruz or Wood of the Cross.

New York Acapemy oF Sciences, May 10.—A history of the

society from its beginning to the present time, prepared by the

secretary, was presented. It comprised the following sections:

: Origin ; membership ; biographical sketches of prominent mem

=~ — bers; changes of location; the old Lyceum building; collec-

=— tions; library; publications; change of name, etc., etc. Some

pe of the old documents, books, etc., were exhibited. i

~ May 17.—The following paper was presented : Ten years Ko

gress in astronomy, Professor C. A. Young, of Princeton wO

lege. E d

__ May 24.—The subject of the sanitary influence of vegetation

-in cities and the importance of tree-planting to the health, beauty

_ and summer temperature of New York, with practical wo"

_ tions in relation thereto, was presented by Dr. Stephen S

_ and Professor D. S. Martin. d

¿ — May 31.—On rock-crystal, its cutting in Japan, Germany ats

the United States, with exhibition of crystal spheres and ot ae

_ objects of transparent quartz, including some of the largest pit

in this country, by Mr. George F. Kunz.

rF W.

early migration from Asia to America; Dr. C. S. Mino

the origin of the mesoderm.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VoL. xx.—AUGUST, 1886.—No. 8.

ANTS’ NESTS AND THEIR INHABITANTS}

BY JOHN B. SMITH.

edie nests are found everywhere ; in the woods, in the fields,

under the stone-walks of cities and in houses. Not only on

the ground, but in the trees; and not only in the trunks, but

among the leaves. They are as varied in design and general

structure as are the localities inhabited, and while some species

are content to take advantage of a simple cavity under a stone,

where they rear their young ; others build great hills full of in-

tricate galleries extending long distances into and under the

= §found. Volumes have been written on the subject, and many

4 More will be written before either the subject or the public is r

exhausted, My object this evening is not to speak of the nests ,

of the ants so much as of their inhabitants. These are, of course,

Primarily the ants themselves, and by disturbing a moderate-sized

nest of any of our larger species, the observer will become |

ily convinced that the population is not a small one. But not —

ants alone are found in these nests—there is a very distinct fauna

that lives with, and perhaps partly on, the ants, and the species of ~

which are never found elsewhere. ae

Many hundreds of specimens, principally of Coleoptera, are

a found in them, and in Europe nests have been found where ©

oc the intruders or guests exceeded in numbers the ants themselves.

The number of species known to inhabit such nests in Europe |

Teaches well into the hundreds, over a hundred species having

been found ina single nest, while in America comparatively few =

Pecies have been found. There is a reason for that too. Collec- —

"Read before the Biological Society of Washington, May 29th, 1886. :

Yok. 3X—No, vin, , "o

680 : Ants Nests and their Inhabitants, [August, ee

tors are few anyway, and scientific collectors are very scarce indeed,

Besides it requires a good deal of enthusiasm in collecting to

attack a large nest of large ants on a warm day when the inhabi-

tants are warlike and capable of inflicting decidedly painful bites,

and large colonies are always more prolific both in species and

specimens. Collecting thus becomes difficult, and the result is

that comparatively little is known of our myrmecophilous fauna.

It is too early, therefore, to undertake anything like a complete

list of species, and only a brief sketch of what an ant heap often

contains is given.

Five groups of myrmecophilous insects can be recognized.

First. Those insects captured by the ants and brought into

their nests as part of their source of food supply.

Second. Species found in the nests only in the larval state.

Third. Insects found in the imago or perfect state in the nests,

about the larva of which nothing is known. l

_ Fourth. Species often found in ants’ nests, but also occurring

elsewhere.

Fifth. True parasites on the ants, that feed upon their host or

its larva.

_ In the first group—those insects which the ants collect and

care for—the Aphides play an important part. It is well known

that the ants seek the plant-lice and lick the sweet excretions;

but it is less known, perhaps, that they also collect and rear some

= Species, providing homes for them.

= A yellow species of Lasius, occurring commonly in the

= vicinity of Washington and New York, well illustrates this

\ group. The ants make their nests under large stones and close

_ to the roots of trees or shrubs. They carefully excavate galleries

: around a root or series of roots, and then collect the winter eggs

of a species of Pemphigus in large numbers—not by hundreds ©

out by thousands—eggs that no entomologist has yet succeeded

in ing. These are carefully placed in suitable stami

_ around the cleaned root, and the Pemphigus, when hatched, fin

_ their food supply ready at hand, and in return are expected to

yield sweets to the ants. The winged form of this species leaves

the nest and provides for a continuation of the race, and the ants

are then compelled to lay in a new supply of eggs.

It would be supposed that the ants would be very careful to

> out all enemies of these, their domestic animals; but than

1886] Ants Nests and their Inhabitants. 681

is one species that gets in and remains in undisturbed. It is the

larva of a common “ lady bird,” Brachyacantha ursina. Unlike '

the larvae of Coccinellids that prey on arboreal species, this is

not brightly colored but sordid whitish-yellow. It is of the

usual form of these larve, but secretes a waxy substance that

exudes in long strings and gives the insect the appearance of

being covered with cotton or hoar frost. This secretion seems

to be much more palatable to the ants than that of the Pemphi-

gus, and they unconcernedly see the Coccinelid feasting upon the

former, apparently concluding that the flavor is improved by pass-

ing through the latter. Another larger homopterous species is

also found in nests of Formica integra, but whether this is used in

the same way as the Pemphigus is not known.

Sometimes it happens that a desired species will not live under

ground, and this compels the ants to adopt another method,

mentioned by Patton some years since. They construct roads to

the trees inhabited by the Aphids, and build galleries around the

plant-lice, effectually protecting and domesticating them.

In this category should come those species of ants which are |

enslaved by the owners of the nest. The history of that species

which captures ants of other species, reduces them to slavery and

comes so absolutely dependent upon its slaves that it perishes

from hunger if they are taken away, is well known, and offers

one of the most interesting phases of insect economy. It is only

mentioned here to complete the category, aos

The second group, containing those insects found in the nests

only in the larval state, is a peculiar one, containing insects of

several orders. One of our earliest beetles, Cetonia hirtipes, lives —

exclusively in ants’ nests in its larval state; But as imago flies :

about and feeds on the sweet sap of trees, or in fall upon ripe

— In Europe allied species of Cetonia have similar habits.

_ the other Chrysomelids and are found on leaves.

ae It is worthy of remark, perhaps, that all these Chrysomelid

larvae thus far found with ants belong to that group which con-

nies hard cases of excrementitious matter for their protection. —

~“ Would seem that the difference in habit between the e: do

682 Ants’ Nests and their Inhabitants. [August,

leaf-feeding species and the protected subterranean feeders would

_ have produced either a modification of the sack or have caused

its loss in the latter case, but there is no essential difference be-

tween those living above and those living under ground,

The odd-looking, spinous larva of Microdon, a dipterous spe-

cies which has been twice described as a mollusk, is also found

here only, while the flies themselves sport in the sunshine as do

the others of their kind. A number of other Diptera larva are

also found, many of them still undetermined. |

Even the Lepidoptera have a representative here, and the larva

of Helia americalis is found in the nests of Formica integra in

great abundance.

What purpose these larve serve in the economy of the nest,

and what they feed on, isa mystery. Why the soft, fat coleop-

_terous and dipterous larvæ are not devoured by the ants, is still

to be discovered. The present theory is, that they feed upon the

decaying or fermenting vegetable matter in the nest, and being

thus useful as scavengers, are tolerated by their hosts. The

mature insects seem to be of no use to the ants, and they make

no effort to retain them.

The third group, containing insects that are found in the ants’

nests in the perfect stage and nowhere else, is by far the most

_ humerous. It comprises species of many orders and of widely

_ divergent families, the Coleoptera being largely in the majority as

= yet. A few of these true myrmecophilous species have been

= found in all stages. Mr. Schwarz has found Euparia castanea m

the nest of Solenopsis xyloni, a small ant not one-twentieth of

the bulk of its guest, and making small hills only. The upper

portion of the hilt is sometimes packed full of the beetles, and in

_ the lower stories are found the larve. wes

- Most of the species are known in the imago state only, and it

_ has long been and is still a puzzle te entomologists where the 1m-

_ Mature states of these insects are passed. They are truly my™

‘mecophilous, being found only in ants’ nests, and usually com

fined to a particular species, 7. e., a species does not, except 1"

rare instances, inhabit the nest of more than one species of ant

n the other hand each species of ant has its own peculiar fauna _

of guests, so that it is possible with a series of guests at hand to

l precisely from what ant’s nest they were obtained. :

lese truly myrmecophilous species are again capable of sub-

a DP

Ai gale

\ x ‘

Ants’ Nests and their Inhabitants. 683

division into two groups: æ. Those species from which it is tol-

erably certain that the ants derive some benefit; and 4. Those of

which nothing at all is known.

The only benefit that is known to be derived by the ants from

any of the species is in the shape of a (probably) sweet secretion.

Prominent among these are the species of Cremastochilus, most

of them of immense size compared to that of the ants with

which they live. These insects have a glandiferous surface

at the hind angle of the thorax covered with a thin plate, and

several specimens have been observed where this plate has been

gnawed off by the ants to facilitate their getting at the secretion

of the glands. These species, as stated, are of large size, and

whole squads of ants have been observed in the task of prevent-

ing the escape of an individual that had apparently become tired

of its quarters.

This practice of the ants has been but recently discovered, and

nearly created a new species. The hind angles of the thorax are

characteristic in form, and systematists have used them to sepa-

tate the species. When the first specimen was found without any _ :

angles at all, of course it was thought that here was an entirely de

new species, and only the fortunate discovery of other specimens

in which the angles were only partially eaten off, or missing only

4 on one side, prevented a synonym or two. :

: There is an immense difficulty in the way of getting at the

| habits of these inquilines. Not only is it a difficult task in the

| first place to find them, but when the nests are disturbed every- Ys

thing is thrown out of its usual course, and ants and guests dis-

appear in the same galleries under ground, from which it is impos- _

sible to dislodge them. Artificial nests have been constructed in

Europe, and it has been observed that the ants appeared to lick

certain bristly tufts in Claviger, which have been assumed to be

Secretory organs. A number of the species in our fauna have sim-

"ar tufts and they probably serve a similar purpose. They appear —

in all parts of the body and are very variable in extent. Many spe-

cies, however, still remain about which absolutely nothing is

known, and which have no structures which may be assumed to be

Secretory. Many years ago it was observed that Claviger was

ix,

<P ae

oy 7

fa Fe

684 Ants’ Nesis and theiy Inhabitants. [August,

elevated. He observed that the ants seemed to coax the beetle

to lower its abdomen within reach, and whenever this was done

they at once pounced on these tufts of bristles which are in this

species situated at the base of the abdomen. He fed the ants

with sugar and water, and observed in one instance that a beetle

approached a feeding ant, made an antennal communication, and

that thereupon the ant turned, opened its jaws and permitted the

beetle to lick from its mouth the sweets upon which it had been

feeding. This observation requires verification, but there is

nothing improbable in it.

In the Coleoptera the great family Carabide is entirely unrep-

resented among the Myrmecophili. The Staphylinidz, on the

= contrary, have by'all odds the largest representation, with the

Poe Pselaphidæ closely following. Others of the Clavicorns follow

next in order of abundance, while of the other families only occa-

sional representatives are found. It has been observed that in

nests where many species are inquilinous the specimens are usu- i

ally abundant, while those nests containing only one or two spe-

_ cies contain also a very small number of specimens.

A number of species of other orders also occur in such nests,

but are not sufficiently well determined to admit of reference

_ here. The American ants themselves have never been worked

- up, and many of the species are still undescribed, and this adds

_ to the difficulty of listing the Myrmecophili. ;

In regard to habit these species also differ. Some are found

only in the main nest, while others are in the van with the advance Í

guard. Formica (Camponotus) pensylvanica inhabits old logs and

stumps, and builds long covered galleries from one stump oF log

to another. In these galleries Lomechusa cava, one of its inqui-

_ lines, is found in the greatest numbers.

If an ant’s nest be so disturbed that the inhabitants seek other

quarters, the inquilines also leave the spot and follow their hosts,

without which it seems they cannot exist for any length of time.

ostile as the ants are as a rule, therefore, to other insects, they

et make a large number of exceptions. Even Eciton, that fero-

ous ant whose forays Bates has so well described in his 3 Nae

alist on the Amazon,” has its inquilines. These ants build 20

manent nests but rather temporary camps which they ean a

ightest provocation, and on all their wanderings their sani

follow them like herds of cattle. This observation has been

oe as

EE Ne MS eR Re RC ee MNT Bet A eee Ra GS Cn get

ee Ae “a x E A ug yk fay pee =i

‘¢

1886] Ants’ Nests and their Inhabitants. 685

but recently made by Wm. Müller, who carefully observed an

army on one of its forays.

Some of the ants, which like many species of Formica build

over-ground or surface nests, leave their quarters at the approach

of cold weather and construct a winter nest some distance off under ~

ground, The inquilines may be found in the old nest for some

little time after the ants have left, but eventually they also leave

the nest and are supposed to follow: at any rate they disappear.

Myrmecophili may be collected at all times, but practically the

spring is the only real collecting season. In winter everything is

frozen hard and the insects are in the lower galleries and are tor-

pid, or are in the winter nest, which is indiscoverable. In sum-

mer the ants are so numerous and so vicious that it is a bold man

and a persistent one that braves their attacks long enough to

secure a good harvest. The nest must be taken up piecemeal

and dumped into a bag to be sifted through a net at the bottom ‘

with sufficiently large meshes to allow the insects to fall through. ;

Of course the collector must submit to be nipped in innumerable

and often inconvenient places by the enraged ants before he can

secure his prizes. It is amusing to watch the rage of these tiny

creatures; they run round on the cloth upon which they are

sifted, audibly gnashing their jaws, and on the approach of a fin-

ger, the forceps or anything else, they rise vertically, with wide

Open jaws and abdomen curved under the body, ready to nip at

whatever comes along. Placing stones in the vicinity of the nest

yields some species, but others seem never to leave the galleries, ©

and can only be obtained by destroying and sifting them. 2

It often happens that two or even three species of ants have

their nests under one large stone, and often, too, the Termites, or

So-called white ants, have also a colony there. These species

Seem all to live amicably together so long as they are undis-

turbed, but when the stone is turned they seem to think that the-

other species is in some way responsible, and an indiscriminate

fight follows,

| Points of assault that

galleries,

The relation of these true Myrmecophili, upon which no excre-

_ tery organs have been observed, to their hosts, offers a large and

686 Ants’ Nests and their Inhabitants. [August,

The fourth class of guests in ant-hills can be regarded only as ;

visitors. They appear to be accidental inhabitants, just as abun- :

dant elsewhere, but not at enmity with the ants and tolerated by

them.

The fifth class, or true parasites, comprises certain minute Chal-

cids belonging, like the ants themselves, to the order Hymenop- |

tera, and a peculiar Stylops, one of the most degraded Coleop- $

tera known. The latter is known only through some parasitized

specimens of ants from South America which are now in the

British Museum.

That the Chalcids are parasitic is assumed from the habit of

the others of the group. So far as I know they have never been

actually bred.

The Stylopidæ are, as a rule, parasitic upon wasps, principally

in this country, species of Polistes and the occurrence of a spe

cies upon an ant is remarkable, for it would seem that the a

would be able to discover the parasite and rid their infested friend

of his troublesome guest. l

There are a large number of other insects found in ants’ nests,

-such as Acaridæ and Poduridæ, but too little is known of their

relation to the ants to allow of their being placed in any of the

categories that I have mentioned.

The ant-hill fauna of Europe and North America, so far as the

latter is known, run tolerably parallel. Similar genera are found,

but thus far only one or two identical species. There are, how-

ever, a large number of genera found in Europe of which ber

- have as yet no representatives, and on the contrary we have

_ forms of very striking appearance which are unknown to them.

a i a a Aa a A,

species it is small, and with larger species it also increases in ne

In shape and appearance the Pselaphide offer remarkable ra

blances, and it requires a knowledge that the insects are there,

and a trained eye, to discover them. Mr. Schwarz informs pa

that on one occasion when collecting in Florida prairie lands 7

found Ti apinosoma sessile, a small dusky ant, in enormous po

s. They were everywhere, and covered all the v

Pasi ahaa tlie TES Mp elon Ratan Bar A

iy tebe GSS y bai ADe

3 fe ete an ganas

€ S ae T eee 7

: 1886] Geographical and Geological Exploration in Brazil, 687

_ The beating net seemed to contain nothing but ants. It occurred ~~

to him to examine the ants a little more closely, and then some

of them turned out to be beetles so closely resembling the ants

that they had heretofore entirely escaped the notice of collectors.

It is an Anthicid, and is still undescribed. Two species of Tem-

nopsophus were also found which resemble the same ant in a

remarkable manner, and a species of Hemiptera mimics it in a

curious way.

Ants’ nests are therefore something more than the dwelling

places of the ants themselves. They are veritable cities, of which

the ants are masters and builders, working not eight but twenty-

four hours per day, and with inhabitants of many different kinds

with very different modes of life, of feeding and of propagating,

and all live apparently in the greatest harmony.

It remains only for me to acknowledge the source of much of

my information concerning ants and their guests. Mr. E. A.

Schwarz, of the Department of Agriculture, has probably the

largest experience of any American collector in searching ant-

hills, and his collection of Myrmecophili is probably the finest.

He is as liberal with information as he is with specimens, and I

take pleasure in admitting that his information and his collection

_ have been freely drawn upon by me.

:0:

GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION

IN BRAZIL.

ne BY JOHN C. BRANNER, PH.D.

WHEN the Imperial Geological Survey of Brazil, under the

late Professor C. Fred. Hartt, was suspended, geological

Work in that empire came to a standstill. After the death of Pro-

. fessor Hartt, Professor Derby, the senior assistant on the survey,

Was, after a good deal of delay, appointed director of the geolog-

ical section in the National Museum, in charge of which the ex-

tensive collections of the survey had already been placed. ere

Professor Derby has remained in Brazil ever since, and has —

_ Succeeded in turning to good account much of the material and

_ Work of the old survey. The general government, however, has —

_ Gone but litle to encourage geological work—nothing, in fact, _

-€Xcept to retain Mr, Derby in his place in the museum, and thus =

to enable him to accomplish something.

688 Geographical and Geological Exploration in Brazil. (August, —

But this want of encouragement is not necessarily due to a

lack of appreciation of or interest in such work on the part of the

prominent statesmen of the country, but rather to the financial

condition of the empire, which is somewhat embarrassed by

various causes, prominent among which is the gradual disappear-

ance of slaves and consequently of the labor element.

Recently the province of Sao Paulo has undertaken certain

explorations within and along its own borders, which, it is to be

hoped, will add much to our geological knowledge of that part

of Brazil.

The survey that was inaugurated in that province in May of

the present year was projected by the distinguished and able

senator from Pernambuco, J. A. Correia de Oliveira, popularly `

known as Jodo Alfredo, who was president of the province of

Sao Paulo until about the gst of May. :

His original object was a study of the navigability of the Rio

_ Paranapanema, a large stream forming the boundary between

~ the province of Parana and that of Sao Paulo, and the making of

a physical and itinerary map of the province.

: The president asked Mr. Derby’s coöperation in this work.

A Mr. Derby, however, told the president that he could only under-

í take such work in connection with a geological survey. The

plan was therefore modified accordingly.

-Tt can best be given in the words of the president of the prov-

~ ince in his report to the provincial assembly. As this report

shows how far-reaching the influence of our own geological sur-

= veys has been, as well as the objects of this survey, I quote it at

~ some length. The president says:

“The plan proposed by Mr. Derby, and which I have the apes”

to commend to your attention, is essentially the same as tha

adopted by the late Professor Hartt for the work of the Imperi

Geolk at after

ma F

are the most appropriate for regions in which large

led areas aba bs explored. He contemplates

making maps upon a ‘scale of one centimeter to a kilometer,

hich will show at once the geography, topography, roads, S¢ %4

ogy and agriculture, and on which will be located cities, factori™

surface characters, railways, wagon roads, streams, mines, etc., pe

the geology, the distribution of land adapted to agriculture and

ttle raising, and that which is unproductive. :

t886.) Geographical and Geological Exploration in Brazil. 689

“The maps will be accompanied by reports describing the physi-

cal features of the province, the geological structure, the agricul-

tural and mineral resources, meteorology, hydrography, including

the study of our navigable streams and the means of improving

them, the quality of the soils and the natural conditions favorable

to industry, etc.

“This plan is perfectly practicable within a reasonable length

of time, as experience in the United States has shown, if we

count upon the rapidity with which American geographers

worked, The personnel, if limited to four professionals, will re-

quire ten years to complete the map of the whole province, the

annual expenses being limited to a score or two of contos."

“The estimate for the expenses of the first year, including the

purchase of instruments and the beginning of operations, will

not exceed fifty contos ($22,000), and it is to be presumed that

it will be advisable to reduce this amount in future years. The

results of the labors of the first year will enable the authorities

to appreciate the practicability and utility of the plan proposed,

and to judge of the convenience of continuing it either under the

same organization or upon a more extensive scale.

“It seems most urgent that we should first have information

< Bagg

ee ae OTA SF ee Ne Re Oe et Oe ce

ight upon the feasibility of connecting our railway system with

the navigable parts of the River Parana and its tributaries by way

ot the Paranapanema, a connection which was regarded by the

Visconde do Rio Branco and by Buarque de Macedo and others

as the best road to Matto Grosso. For this reason it seems best

that the work should be begun in this region and should include

the question of the navigability of the Paranapanema. Accord-

a ee ee es eee Gee te a SE.

Pee Nee ee ae

ried on in districts selected with a view to meeting public require-

ments until, by the codrdination of the work of each year the

Whole province shall have been examined.” .

The bill appropriating fifty contos ($22,000) for the work of

April ist.

had a high opinion.

ŽA conto of reis, at the prevailing rate of exchange, is $440.

this survey was passed almost unanimously by the provincial —

assembly, and Mr. Derby began the work of organization about-

: The corps, with the exception of Mr. Derby himself, is made _

up entirely of Brazilians. The engineer in charge of the geo- _

graphical work is Sñr. Theodoro Sampaio, who was at one time —

an assistant of Col. Milnor Roberts in his explorations of the —

Rio Sao Francisco, and of whose ability and fidelity Col. Roberts

Two young graduates from the Brazilian School of Mines at

STEN ENG OP A Rage a DE nC N

pe a ee ee ae g 4

concerning the southern part of the province in order to throw —

ing to this method the work of subsequent years should be car-

Wee Rie Vl Cat 8 A ity IS

aE cas oa

690 Geographical and Geological Exploration in Brazil. [August,

Ouro Preto have been selected as the geologists, Sir. Campos

and Sñr. Oliveira. Mr. Derby will remain in Rio de Janeiro and

direct the work from there.

The survey has been received with enthusiasm in the province

of Sao Paulo, and it is hoped that Mr. Derby may succeed in

keeping this enthusiasm alive.

In view of the treatment of Professor Hartt and his works by the

Brazilian Government, most scientific men may be somewhat skep-

tical as to whether the Brazilians have the patience necessary to

carry on, even for ten years, a work from which they expect results

more striking and more tangible than purely scientific ones. Much

however is to be hoped for from the intelligent Paulistas. Theirs

is the great coffee region of Brazil, the wealthiest and most en-

lightened province in the empire. The soil is fertile, the climate _

2 is remarkably fine, the people educated and the very types of

_ hospitality. There is every reason then to hope for valuable

| results from the work begun. It certainly is undertaken in the

most promising part of the Poni and is in the hands of the |

man, who, by more than ten years’ residence in that country and

by acquaintance with the people and the geology, is best fitted to

carry it to a successful issue.

POSTSCRIPT.—Since the above was written the definite instructions, given by the

~ provincial assembly regarding the work of the commission, have been received,

_ The following, quoted from these instructions, will give a further idea of what is to

be — of these explorations :

“ Besides the geodetic and geographical work, collections will be made and infor-

mation obtained, as far as possible, concerning the various branches of natural his- —

sory, a: — being poan to the — oe eonna SEBET “ oe

ficial; to the einditigns of the various k Behiches of industry i in ‘te different a a

_ the province ; to the diseases peculiar to cultivated plants and domestic animals,

gether with the means employed for abating these evils. of

__ While the commission is not supplied with the requisite personnel for meee

: this character, the chief ed — m — re Mei POTS either within or my

out the empire, sending th examination, or for

purpose in teresting to science for 2

“The collection shall be icermihie to the public, and shall form the nucleus

provincial museum.” ;

: ane field party left teas hc of ‘So. Paulo, on the ate of May, to fe

the explorations of the Rio

o Grorocicat LABORATORY INDIANA Untv., BLOC TON, IND.

1886.) Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. ` 691

CROW ROOSTS AND ROOSTING CROWS.

BY SAMUEL W. RHOADS,

BY no means the least interesting topic in the life-history of

Corvus americanus is that which relates to the roosting habits

of this familiar and persecuted bird during six months of the

year.

Throughout the breeding and rearing period which, in the

Middle States, is almost cotemporary with the spring and sum-

mer months, the crow is not a gregarious bird, differing in this

particular from its lesser kin, the blackbirds, which are eminently

gregarious throughout the year; but as autumnal changes alter

the face of nature and usher in new aspects of environment, the

flocking habit becomes universal and the scattered families unite

by common consent from the four quarters of their dispersion.

The most casual observer cannot fail to remark the phenomenal

increase in apparent number of crows in this latitude on the

approach of winter. We may not account for this by referring

it to the mere fact that flocking birds seem more numerous than

they are in reality, nor is it possible that the immense assemblage

of crows in the vicinity of Philadelphia during the winter season

1S Composed solely of birds resident in the States of Pennsylva-

nia and New Jersey. In the face of plain evidence to support

such a conclusion, ornithologists generally ignore the fact of

crow migration. ;

Undoubtedly the increase of crows at this season is largely

due to accessions from the New England and Western States

which join the thousands assembled from the interior of our mid-

dle districts. This migration, though “partial” and in some

degree influenced by the comparative severity of winters, is none

less a typical one, a necessary provision for their self-preser-_

' vation and a prime factor in the struggle of existence, even ina

_ bird whose hardihood and tenacity of life have become almost

~ Proverbial, >

Careful observation and inquiry convinces me that during win-

: ee a radial sweep of one hundred miles, described from the city

~ Philadelphia and touching the cities of New York, Harris- _

_ *urg and Baltimore, will include in the day time, in its western

_ SeMmicircle, fully two-thirds of the crows (C. americanus) inhabit- |

ue North America, and aż night an equal proportion in its eastern

692 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. [August, — K

half. The eastern area of this circle, with the exception of more

fertile portions of West and North Jersey, is as notably devoid of

them by day as it is infested by them at night. Their most ex-

tensive breeding grounds in New Jersey are well-nigh deserted

during severe weather. ;

The popular local notion that crows all “go to Jersey to roost”

and return to Pennsylvania to forage, while far from correct, has |

more truth in it than the average Jerseyman will admit. i

The pine barrens and swamps of the interior afford but scant :

subsistence in winter, though providing ample summer accommo- i

dation to thousands, while on the other hand, the cultivated and

more fertile portions of Delaware, Maryland, East Pennsylvania

and West Jersey present an abundant winter supply of food-

stuffs,

Another important factor in their choice of this district as a

winter resort can best be understood by reference to the map,

where it will be seen that nowhere on the Atlantic coast are the p

geographical conditions, both physical and climatic, more favor- í

able to a supply of animal and vegetable food than in the four :

southernmost Middle States, whose wealth of bays, rivers, creeks

_ and estuaries is unsurpassed in the United States.

_ The main object of this paper shall be to give a description of

their nightly rendezvous, or “ roosts,” at this season of yeu in

the afore-mentioned districts, adding thereto such deductions as

are presented by a study of the history of such places, together

with observations respecting the habits of crows before and after

assembling at their roosting grounds.

_It should be borne in mind by those unacquainted with the

locality described, that it not only is preéminently a good feeding

ground, but that it also furnishes, in the evergreen forests which

skirt the shores of Delaware and Chesapeake bays and oe

numberless tributaries, a no less suitable shelter wherein to pass

the night, | ti

a The literature of crow roosts is scant, modern ornitholog —

having virtually kept silence respecting this interesting phat 9

d-life,

yee

_ Wilson’s description is probably the first published one avail- —

able. It is as follows: © ere,

“The most noted crow roost with which I am acquainted,

he in his American Ornithology, “is near New Castle, 0n A

1886. ] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 693

island in the Delaware. It is there known by the name of the

Pea Patch, and is a low, flat, alluvial spot of a few acres, elevated

but little above high-water mark and covered with a thick growth

of reeds. This appears to be the grand rendezvous or head-

quarters of the greater part of the crows within forty or fifty

miles of the spot. It is entirely destitute of trees, the crows

alighting and nestling among the reeds, which by these means

are broken down and matted together.” He continues: “ The

strong attachment of the crows to this spot may be illustrated

by the following circumstance; Some years ago a sudden and

violent north-east storm came on during the night and the tide,

rising to an uncommon height, inundated the whole island. The

darkness of the night, the suddenness and violence of the storm

and the incessant torrents of rain that fell, it is supposed, so in-

timidated the crows that they did not attempt to escape and

almost all perished. Thousands of them were seen next day

floating in the river, and the wind, shifting to the north-west,

drove their dead bodies to the Jersey side, where for miles they

blackened the whole shore. This disaster, however, seems long

ago to have been repaired, for they now congregate on the Pea

Patch in as immense multitudes as ever.”

This account reférs to some period in the last decade of the

eighteenth century. In a foot-note to this we have the following, .

which appeared in a newspaper of the locality about the year 7

1800: “The farmers of Red Lion Hundred held a meeting at

the village of St. Georges, in the State of Delaware, to receive

proposals of John Deputy on a plan of banishing or destroying

Ws ot 8 ha

“Mr. Deputy proposes that for $500 he will engage to kill or-

banish the crows from their roost on the Pea Patch and giye

Security to return the money on failure.” Iam unable to find

any other account of this remarkable roost, and am tempted to

Suppose that Deputy accomplished the herculean task and outdid

the tempest and the deluge. Pea Patch was deserted long ago, —

how long it seems impossible to determine, but for the present I

— Shall defer further comment on it to a future page and return to —

the literature of roosts in general. Sh

_ Audubon relates, in his “ Biography,” a few particulars respect-

ing the roosting of both species of crow (C. ossifragus and C.

americanus), which appear as much based on Wilson’s observa- _

694. Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. [August,

tions as upon his own experience. They are as follows: “At

the same season (autumn) they (crows) retire in immense num-

bers to roost by the margins of ponds, lakes and rivers, covered

with a luxurious growth of rank weeds or cat-tails, They

may be seen proceeding to such places more than an hour before

sunset, in long, straggling lines and in silence, and are joined by

the grackles, starlings and reed-birds, while the fish-crows retire

from the very same parts to the interior of the woods, many miles

distant from any shores.”

In his “Manual” we find Nuttall quoting from Wilson’s ac-

es count, adding thereto additional information of a roost on Reedy

island, in the River Delaware.

By far the most complete and reliable account of the roosting

habit of our crow is to be found in a little work entitled “ Rambles

ofa Naturalist,” by Dr. John Godman, who at one time filled the

` chair of anatomy at Rutger’s College. ;

_ Godman resided, about the year 1825, as country physician in

Anne Arundel county, Maryland, which place afforded him ample

opportunity for observing every phase of crow life throughout

` the year. Perhaps the best introduction I can give to the crow-

the night, will be in his words : .

“ About a quarter of a mile above the house I lived in, on

Curtis’s creek, the shore was a sand-bank or bluff twenty va

thirty feet high, crowned with a dense young pine forest to m

very edge. Almost directly opposite the shore was

formed a int extending in the f f a broad sand-bar for a

| point extending in the form o ie

De d dormitory.

e trees adjacent and all the shore would be literally black

ose plumed marauders, while their increasing nr

rally or “round up” which always precedes their final bivouac for

eT A E Š TA n i

eee C AS Pp a OTA eee a eee O r

rie

“eee ai à È a

sè E o

he AX ASME P EEY, AN vee tut Mt a ae is

1886.] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 695

produced by a recital of the adventures they had encoun-

tered during the last marauding excursions. As the sun became

entirely sunk below the horizon the grand flock crossed to the

sand-bluff on the opposite side, where they generally spent a few

moments in picking up a further supply of gravel, and then

arising in dense and ample column they sought their habitual

roost in the deep entanglements of the distant pines.

t Dr. Godman, after describing some of the methods employed

a by professional crow-hunters to secure these outlawed birds be-

cause of the price set on their heads by the State of Maryland

during the years 1800 to 1804, inclusive, continues :

“ But the grand harvest of crow-heads was derived from the

invasion of their dormitories, which are well worthy a particular

description and should be visited by every one who wishes to

orm a proper idea of the number of these birds that may be

accumulated in a single district. The roost is most commonly

the densest pine thicket that can be found, generally at no great

. distance from some river, bay or other sheet of water which is +

the last to freeze, or rarely is altogether frozen. To such a roost

the crows which are, during the day time, scattered over perhaps

more than a hundred miles of circumference, wing their way every

afternoon and arrive shortly after sunset. -

“ Endless columns pour in from various quarters, and as the

arrive pitch upon their accustomed perches, crowding closely to-

gether for the benefit of the warmth and shelter afforded by the

thick foliage of the pine. The trees are literally bent by their

weight, and the ground is covered for many feet in depth by their-

dung, which by its gradual fermention must also tend to increase n

the warmth of the roost. Such roosts are known to be thus 7

Occupied for years, beyond the memory of individuals, and I

know of one or two which the oldest residents in that quarter.

= State to have been known to their grandfathers, and probably had

been resorted to by the crows during several ages previou:

There is one of great age and magnificent extent in the vicinity

of Rock creek, an arm of the Patapsco. it alee

“They are sufficiently numerous on the rivers opening into _

the Chesapeake, and are everywhere similar in their general

Bristol, Pa., and I know by observation that not less than a mil-

lion of crows sleep there nightly during the winter season, To —

Sather crow-heads from the roost a very large party was made ©

- ee uoned to the extent of surface occupied by the dor- —

“Armed with double-barreled and duck guns which threw a —

large charge of shot, the company was divided into small par- r

vou,

wae

696 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows.

ties, and these took stations selected in the day time so as to

surround the roost as nearly as possible

“ A dark night was always preferred, as the crows could not,

when alarmed, fly far, and the attack was delayed until full mid-

night. All being at their posts, the firing was commenced by

those most advantageously posted, and followed up successively

by the others as the affrighted crows sought refuge in their

vicinity. On every side the carnage then raged fiercely, and

there can scarcely be conceived a more forcible idea of the hor-

rors of a battle than such a scene afforded.

“The crows screaming with the fright and pain of wounds, the

loud, deep roar produced by the raising of their whole number

in the air, the incessant flashing and thundering of the guns and

, the shouts of their eager destroyers, all produced an effect which

can never be forgotten by any one who has witnessed it, nor can

it well be adequately comprehended by those who have not.

“ Blinded by the blaze of the powder and bewildered by the

thicker darkness that ensues, the crows rise and settle again at a

short distance without being able to withdraw from the field of

danger; and the sanguinary work is continued until the shooters

are fatigued or the approach of daylight gives the survivors 4

DO oF ESCE E ea a

“ During hard winters the crows suffer severely and perish in

considerable numbers from hunger, though they endure a won-

derful degree of abstinence without injury. Multitudes belong-

ing to the Bristol roost perished during the winter of 1828-9

= from this cause. All the water-courses were solidly frozen, and

it was distressing to observe these starvelings every morning

winging their weary way towards the shores of the sea in hopes

of food, and again to see them toiling homewards in the atter-

noon apparently scarce able to fly.” :

~ This vivid portrayal leaves nothing to be desired in a descrip-

_ tion of roosting places in Maryland at that time. Let us now

n from this glance at the past, to a consideration of the pres-

ent history of crow roosts in the Middle States.

My inquiries and correspondence regarding the Pea Patch

roost, so far, result in nothing of interest further than the bare

fact of the crows not having used that island within the memory

_of those whom I have addressed, nor have they even so a

heard of this roosting place, but all referred to Reedy islang

ing the only like resort in the locality.

Pea Patch) be now occupied by these birds or not, I cannot pe

to say, but in December, 1829, I had occasion to Observe

(August,

Nuttall, referring to the subject, writes: “Whether this root

Pe, a E eee

1886, ] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 697

their arrival on Reedy island, just above the commencement of

the bay of that river (Delaware) in vast numbers.”

One correspondent states that since the erection of Fort Dela-

ware it would be impossible for crows to finda night’s lodging on

Pea Patch. Fortifications were begun there in the year 1814,

and in 1860 the fort was greatly strengthened and became for the

first time a place of importance. Summing up these facts I am

led, in the absence of direct evidence, to believe that this noted

roost was abandoned soon after the construction of Ft. Delaware

was begun in 1814, and that the crows betook themselves to

Reedy island as the most convenient substitute.

John Deputy’s plan, whatever that was, of banishing the crows

from their favorite island may have been successful ere the place

became Ft: Delaware, but in case of his probable failure we may —

safely suppose an idle garrison of United States troops were not

slow to improve their peculiar opportunities for rifle practice and

midnight massacre on these feathered aborigines.

So far as my inquiries have gone, I find that here is an anom-

aly confined to two small islands in the River Delaware, which,

_ for years unnumbered, have been the nightly resort of crows,

| We cannot assert that Reedy island was not used for roosting

~ Purposes in the time of Wilson, but it seems probable that we

, should have heard from him regarding it had it been so fre-

quented, as the two places are but seven miles apart.

: Such islands are not confined to the waters of the Delaware ;

) why then such departure from a general rule in favor of using

bs them alone > The reeds afforded a miserable substitute for pine

~ boughs, and when they became. broken down by the numbers

accumulated upon them, we may well picture the misery of roost-

ing on a mud flat in winter with the snow a foot deep.

The utter contrast between roosting on a reedy flat wholly

void of other vegetation and subject to sudden inundation by

oy tide, and going to bed among the dense pine forests of New

2 Jersey, is evidently beyond the comprehension of a crow, and may

- well tax the imagination of an uninformed man.

Mayhap in the first decade of the seventeenth century, ere

Hudson had discovered Delaware bay, and when freshets, neap- _

tides and pale faces were not, crows may have rejoiced to get ©

foothold for a night’s rest on the peaceful shores of Pea Patch —

698 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. [August,

island and to sleep secure from the nocturnal prowlers of the

mainland pines.

To this decade we must revert for reasons which could not

agree with the advanced civilization of a later century. But

while we may account thus for the original impulse, wherefore

should there be such provincialism among a few when there was

ample chance and territory for the many to do likewise ?

Were the Pea Patch and Reedy island crows Spartans or

Helots in the corvine commonwealth? Did they transmit their

predilections from father to son, or was caste determined by the

query : “ How do-you roost, on Pea Patch island or in a tree Pe

This may seem as mere child’s prattle, yet it is worthy of |

serious conjecture, to say the least, whether sectional family traits |

are transmitted and obeyed by succeeding generations with as

blind devotion and prejudice in birds as in man himself. Indeed,

_ instances of heredity in tastes and anomalous predilections in the

brute world are frequent and indisputable facts. As to their con- y

tinuance through time until distinctive traits become gradually

_ of generic consequence, we may well defer conjecture and await

a more decisive answer in the future developments of scientific

research.

: Apropos of this question we may just here consider anothe |

_ not wholly dissimilar, relating to the subject in hand and, as will

-~ beseen, involving the general principles of migration. :

My residence is situated exactly in the track of the principal a

_ flight of crows which fly, evening and morning, to and from thor

roost, five miles distant and which is located near Merchantville,

- Camden county, New Jersey. n

=- On a windy evening the birds fly very low, as they pass over :

open fields nearly brushing the surface of the ground with their

_ wings.

ther,

On the west side of the house stretches a belt of woodland

separated therefrom by an open field which the crows always tra-

verse in their eastward course at night. This woodland is narrow,

and as they approach its western boundary each crow elevates its n

flight sufficiently to pass among the tree-tops, and then imme-

diately descends to a former level on reaching my field of pee

vation. Birds therefore advancing on the farthest side of

wood cannot be seen nor can they see the course of those BT

ing the field,

ae ae ae eres ce ce T eae

Ta oT EA Sadie” aes > Ma 5 Ben io Ae A ee ba ae eat or i S a a, saw

{f De 3 et Ar A Sj ni pA

= o” Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 699

One afternoon, it being very tempestuous, I stood by an open

window to shoot the crows as they toiled past, but finding that

effort fruitless, I sought more profitable diversion in watching

their manner of flight. They appeared in long, straggling lines

which were often separated by a distance of a quarter or half

mile, and came along in detachments, each of which, as is always

t the case in such weather, maintained the utmost silence.

Having observed that the line taken by a certain detachment

was not more than twenty feet in breadth, and that the whole com-

pany passed between certain shocks of corn, I felt curious to see

the course of the next, which as yet had not appeared above the

tree-tops. After the lapse of half a minute a solitary crow ap-

peared, closely followed by three more, and all in like manner

and with the common consent of a pack of hounds on the hot

trail, pursued the invisible course of their predecessors among

the trees, closed their pinions and stooped, as the others had

done regardless of the buffeting winds, to the self-same track

across the corn-field, and followed it. If every stone and shock

and corn-stub had been a finger-post to mark the path of com-

pany A to Merchantville, those four sable pilgrims of company B

could not have traversed “the desert and illimitable air” with more

undeviating certainty nor have hada more unerring foresightof that

Mecca of their weary hopes. Long did I watch this mysterious

phenomenon, till darkness drew the veil. In miniature, thought [,

have I seen a great and mystic phase of nature; migration ina

nutshell. Now that we have something tangible to hammer at,

let us seek the power and means to crack it and extract that ker-

nel, long coveted by man; contented no longer to assign the a

honor of cracking such to a “future generation.” A pack of

hounds, closely following the scent, presents a tangible relation —

to the mind. We can conceive of an odor that touches earth —

and of olfactory powers sufficient to trace. it thus, though we 7

Ourselves possess them not; nay further, we can comprehend the

canine ability to scent, through sole medium of the atmosphere, —

across trackless districts and great distances, and now-a-days we

should no longer hesitate to ascribe similar powers to vulturine

birds, which in addition possess a wondrous gift of vision. May

_ We deny the /atter to the crow or dispute that the former sense is

Not only of every-day use to him (though ina modified degree) _

à- , ;

700 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. [August,

but also to all birds. Not that I would infer that power of scent is

of any considerable value in the migration of birds, nor would it

be fair to assume that unaided vision is more than a prime factor

therein.

’Tis mortal to take our observations from a human standpoint

and refer all that goes beyond /#max attainment in the lower ani-

mals to “instinct.”

Research in natural science as long since paid full penalty for

_ her sins in this purgatory of original thought, and the time has

fully come for us to advance into a higher sphere, querying the

“ what” and the “ why ” in the Emersonian assurance that “ un-

doubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswer-

able.” Phrenologically considered the crow has an excessive

“bump” for locality in one corner of his wonderful memory, and

size, color (?), form and calculation cluster about his knowing eyes.

No less than Audubon long ago professed to have discovered that

a crow can count five. Have modern ornithologists done as

much ?

Be this as it may, we have in our corvine methods of flight an

important premise for the final understanding of the laws govern-

ing migration and of the so-called migratory “ instinct,” which is

nothing more or less than the highly perfected sense or union of

senses which enables migrants to traverse tracts of territory

(which the uncultured, imperfect mind of man calls illimitable)

with a precision which equals that of the wandering crow 1M

_ finding its roost, or which a man exercises on a still smaller scale

in the streets of his native town.

A North American Indian can form a far better conception of

‘migration than a Yankee could, inasmuch as the former is by all

odds the better explorer of trackless forests and boundless præ-

_ ties. Would we have a “bird’s-eye view ” of this subject? Thea

by all means let us “take wings of fancy and ascend” to a point

without the earth, though it be merely to understand how 4 place

may be so far off “as the crow flies.” yee

As yet our unfaith in aérial conquests has kept this inquiry m

onomic ornithology at a stand-still; but the spirit of Danns ig

Green is again at work; may its leaven work mightily in the

fforts of the A. O. U., through its committee on bird migration.

As yet no evidence is at hand to justify the supp sition g

e roosting place which Wilson and Godman have vaguely de-

She Pie ge Si ee a De ear TD ig cece ot ae a a a

7 1886]

The Wings of Birds. vot

scribed as situated “ near Bristol ” was in Pennsylvania. It seems

more probable that it was located either on Burlington island or

on the mainland near the site of the city of Burlington, in New

Jersey.

Twenty years ago a colony of crows roosted on Newbold’s

island in the Delaware river, four miles north-west of Burlington

island, and forty or fifty years ago another colony slept in a wood

near Florence and, being disturbed, moved to another forest near

Beverly which, within three years, has been deserted in turn for

another site.

There is much to warrant the conclusion that the great roost

described by Wilson was parent to this and many others now

Scattered over Burlington county, New Jersey.

(To be continued.)

10:

THE WINGS OF BIRDS.

BY I, LANCASTER.

Wile engaged in ascertaining the methods employed by

the soaring birds, on reaching a point where light began to

break upon the obscurity, it became evident that the flight of all

birds would be made comprehensible; that not only the day-long

translation of frigate birds in ‘circular paths high in the air, but

_ the homeward passage of pigeons and the migratory flight of

wild fowl, would emerge from the realm of fancy and range

themselves with allied phenomena on the platform of recognized _

mechanical activities,

Indeed, many specimens of active wing flight have hitherto as _ :

completely baffled the best efforts of mechanical science as has

Soaring flight. When the weight of the bird is considered as-

resistance to be overcome by muscular force, flapping is incompe-—

tent to do the work required, and in spite of such effort gravity

Would compel motion in its own direction to the surface of the

- The area of the two wings of a duck of four pounds weight, _

which is effective on the air in the down stroke is not more than e

_ two square feet. Counting one up and one down vibration as a

Single stroke, not more than three of these would be made in one

_ Second, and a liberal estimate would be an average of one foot of :

Space traveled at each stroke for the entire wing surfaces. This —

ignores loss in the upward vibration. The effective work done on

ee i A E eRe Pe Ne ge) atk eee ee pe Cle na ey ey ah Mee eta a ke a eee

ote etic Ser ea BG oe RRA Ce tey: a a Meek wets Gee er © p i% PR

Sy os R, T A NETE T ‘ity 3 fe i ip eb j

E es 4 Lee 3 x ý Pri, ¥

res, The Wings of Birds. ‘TAugust,

the air would therefore be equal to that of two square feet of

surface moving at right angles to itself at the rate of three feet

5 per second, Turning to Hutton’s tables we find that a wind of

about thirty feet per second is required to furnish a normal press-

ure of two pounds on a plane of one foot square, so that if the

wings of the duck were supposed to be rigid, and the motion a

continuous fall, uniformity would not be reached under a velocity

of thirty feet per second. If this velocity be transferred to the

wing vibration, stability of the body could only be secured by a

rapidity of stroke ten times as great as what actually occurs, But

when we add the air resistance to lateral motion of, say one hun-

dred miles an hour, measured by air passing the bird, its muscu-

lar exertion becomes still more incompetent to effect the result,

for now a portion of the energy which before was used to antago-

_ nize gravity must antagonize air resistance.

Further load is thus added to the working force, which before

ia was hopelessly incompetent to its task. No method which is

; supposed to differ from the direct motion will assist in the least.

It is velocity which is wanting, As there can be no shorter line

= between two points than a straight line, so there can be no more

: effective method than continuous motion, normal to the surface,

with no change whatever in the ‘character of the activities. A

_ continuance of the maximum is the height of effectiveness. No

_ Screw motion, or wave motion, or figure-eight motion, which e

wing may imitate, can produce results as good as the direct

motion.

But bird flight thus conceived does not exist in nature. Ast

fact, gravity is not resistance but motive power. The bird is a

_ machine doing work on air under the dominion of that force.

The work done is not the sustained bird but the quantity of a ‘4

disturbance which falls tó an equilibrium with the surrounding es

atmosphere after the passage of the moving body through Eo

Gravity is not resisted, it is resolved. The bird is constantly

moving in the direction of the normal component with a uniform

_ velocity which develops air pressure sufficient to neutralize the

mponent acting in the plane of the wings and the additional

face friction of the air. The direction of the fall is that of the

gravity of the bird’s mass, and this direction changes with the

ant of the wings, being always at right angles thereto in obe-

: to the law of fluid pressures. The fall is always away from

See Ci eee Ee S

Spe es

PIERS aos eam eae

y i EF rt A A EE rivet A LM ak

Rea eii She ete Se,

1886. ] The Wings of Birds. 703

the plane of the wings, or the bird’s horizon, so that no weight

is lifted in the lateral motion, as the body is continually descend-

ing on its own vertical. This view completely transforms the

aspect of atmospheric navigation, and brings order out of chaos.

I have hitherto spoken of the expansion of the compressed air

in the rear of the wings producing the thrust needed for the lat-

eral motion. This was done to avoid complicating the case.

The significant thing is the resolution of gravity and consequent

shifting of the vertical, and if this fact is seen the method of

utilizing the pressures presents no difficulty.

I now wish to direct attention to the structure of a bird’s wing,

The wing of a pigeon or any of the barnyard fowls may be ex-

amined, as the peculiarities I desire to point out are found in all

of the large birds. First, let us examine a feather. If we place

one on the table with the lower surface upwards and pass the

7 _hand from the quill to the tip, it will seem smooth to the touch,

+ while reverse motion meets with much roughness, which in-

creases as the pressure of the fingers becomes greater. If a

small tube be taken into the mouth and the breath blown

quite slanting towards the tip, the feather will remain smooth and

the air slip over it easily. In the reverse direction the blast will

tend to open the ribs and increase the roughness. The feather is

a little like a cat’s back ; a rub toward the rear is pleasant to all

parties, while one the other way tends to cause motion of the ani-

mal to the front. Notice also that the tip is very thin and elastic,

yielding in a graceful curve to slight pressure. The surface of

the wing is composed mainly of these feathers, having their general

i direction across, with the tips to the rear. They aré held by the

integument covering the bones of the wing, which are located on

the front edge, and while on the upper front side the curve is-

smooth and regularly rounded, beneath there is a projection

downwards of the skin, which forms a ledge reaching along the

humerus to the elbow and thence to the junction of the ulna and

_ Tadius with the bones of the wrist, being greatest at the elbow.

Tn the Soaring birds this ledge is largely developed, projecting —

Wards in the frigate birds one and one-half inches at the-

elbow, tapering to the wrist and body. This ledge, at the front —

edge of the wing, seems at first view to be an obstruction to-

flight, as it makes considerable thickness where the surface first —

‘Meets the air, but, as we shall presently see, it has an important —

704 The Wings of Birds. [August,

function to perform as a member of the organized mechanism of

flight. The curves in the plane of the wing need not be consid-

ered as they are not concerned with flight, and when the bird is

in the act of flying they are straightened out so that the wing

assumes a plane shape. The above four peculiarities we desire to

note. Firstly, that the wing is practically a thin plane. Sec-

ondly, that its rear edge is very pliable and elastic. Thirdly, that

its under surface is rough to motion from rear to front but smooth

to motion from front to rear. Fourthly, that it is supplied with

a ledge along its under surface at the front edge.

Let us now attend to a matter of simple experiment, which

demonstrates bird flight as I have presented it in the pages of

this magazine, and which connects the above-described con-

struction of a wing, which is the organ of flight, with the

mechanical forces which are operative upon it. A few cents

worth of material and the expenditure of a little time is required,

a which, coupled with a minimum of mechanical expertness, will

= suffice. The movements following changes made in the plane are

_ So prompt and emphatic that there is no mistaking them.

If we take a sheet of light, strong paper, such as goes into the

construction of fireworks, and stretch sixteen by forty inches of it

tightly on thin strips of bamboo, so as to present a plane surface on

_ one side, and fasten a four-ounce weight in the center beneath by

threads to the four corners, we will have a miniature parachute.

By putting its upper surface against the ceiling and permitting p

to fall, it will descend vertically if we have it well balanced. It is

= Obvious that the entire column of air from the ceiling to the floor

ing. Hence the zone of air under the plane, acted upon by it,

_ would be pyramid-shaped with a base sixteen by forty inches, a

_ top line twenty-four inches long and a height varying with the

ward, and there would be a steady flow or slipping of the com

pressed air along the surface in all directions from the center.

like in all directions no lateral motion would occur. If we now

take some lar: ge-grained, light sawdust and mucilage, and thinly

‘le one-half of the under surface from one of the long edges

_ velocity of the fall of the plane, with the apex pointing down-

his slipping would cause friction on the surface, which being

The Wings of Birds. 708

: to the center, the level plane will no longer fall vertically but

: move towards the edge bounding the sawdusted half. If we

i extend the paper an inch over the edge opposite the saw-

dust and snip it into the bamboo so that it will curve upwards,

: we shall find on dropping the plane that its sideways motion will

4 be augmented. If we paste a slip of paper to the front edge,

allowing it to project one and one-half inches beneath, we shall

‘ find the sideways motion to be further increased so as to be many

2 times that of the fall. If we take the plane to the housetop when

the air is calm and allow it to drop, it will describe a curve while

itis being accelerated, but on uniform motion occurring it will

slant downwards very gently and move laterally from six to eight

times as fast as it falls vertically. This experiment is very deli-

cate and the motion varies greatly, depending on the weight and

humidity of the air and the construction of the plane. The

cause of this behavior is obvious. The air in rushing along the

under side of the plane to escape, drags the rough surface with it

i to the front, slipping over the smooth part to the rear easily.

f Then as it turns the curve it expands against it, augmenting the front

, thrust. Where the air escaping toward the front meets the ledge,

a Complete stoppage occurs, and the thrust against it is quite vio-

: lent. The ledge in front of the roughened half of the surface, and

: the rear curve, all tend to throw the plane edgeways in the same

i direction while it falls. The ledge by directly stopping the mo-

= tion of the rushing air ; the rough surface by frictional resistance,

and the curve by presenting a base for the compressed air to

~ Xpand against. The force required to produce these various

results is put into the air by the descent of the plane upon it

under the impulse of the gravity of its mass. The wing of a

bird would act in the same way that the plane acts, and for the

Same reason. The elastic feather tips give the curve. The con-

Struction of the feather surfaces gives the smooth rear and rough >

front part; and the front projection of the integument covering _

the bones forms the ledge. :

it falls ? Obviously because the condensed air in contact with a:

the surface moves with far higher velocity than the fall, carrying

the plane with it. The inertia of the air resists sudden motion

So that the particles are compressed before they begin to move,

Why is it that the plane moves so much faster edgeways than — ~

[August,

and when motion at length occurs, it is sufficiently rapid to make

up for lost time. A non-elastic fluid would not present this rapid

motion on the compressing surfaces. If we increase the pendant

weight and take the plane to the lantern of a lighthouse, or

very high building, we shall find that its lateral motion will be

greater, and every addition of weight will heighten the lateral

velocity in a greater ratio than the fall. The reason is that the

plane meets with small resistance to its edgeways motion, so that

a slight increase of force in this direction moves it rapidly. But

however great this motion may be, however closely it may ap-

proach level translation, by no means could it become horizontal

as long as the plane itself was level. The entire force producing

lateral motion comes from motion in the direction of gravity

down the vertical, and horizontal translation would stop the fall,

thus cutting off the motive power. But if we slant the plane the

vertical goes over with it. Its own activity determines the direc-

tien of its vertical. It is fluid pressures we are dealing with, and

what would be level translation on our horizontal is a constant

fall from the bird’s horizontal, and a soaring bird certainly needs

: no further explanation, neither does a wild duck. Itis not heavy

= enough relatively to the size of its wings to reach a uniform

velocity of fall which would produce the thrust needed in the lat-

eral motion, and resort to flapping is compelled to aid the normal

_ component of gravity. The wing now comes down with velocity

= sufficient to give the thrust required for horizontal flight. But

_ both soaring and flapping would be impotent without the resolu-

_ tion of the direction of gravity.

_ The moment the plane is inclined it becomes necessary to

_ counteract the component of resolved gravity acting in it, op the

706 The Wings of Birds.

ous man could move his limbs at a higher speed than mint

feet per second for a short time at his utmost exertion. a

planes greatly exceed this velocity in the lateral motio®, ©

1886.] The Wings of Birds. 707

soaring birds moving at times at the rate of 150 feet per

second,

Motion of the planes, therefore, is best derived from their own

activities. This can readily be obtained in still air by using fine

shot for the weight in an oil-silk bag with a thin neck opening

into another placed lower and fastened to the corners of the plane

by separate strings. The neck should be made to allow two

pounds of shot to flow through it in about ten seconds; as the

shot reached the lower bag the plane would be slanted by draw-

ing on the longer front and shorter rear strings.

With 150 feet fall this construction will give motion under the

resolution beautifully. Nothing can exceed the graceful curva-.

ture of its movements excepting similar ones made by the soar-

ing birds. As acceleration passes into uniformity and the total

force is expended in the work on air, as the shifting balance in-

clines the plane transforming the vertical, ample force is on han

in the condensation to resist the downward slanting impulse. If

the adjustment is correct, holding the plane on the right incline,

horizontal motion will occur until it passes out of sight. More

inclination will cause upward slanting direction. If the incline

be so great as to throw too much of the resolved gravity into the

plane for the forward thrust to cope with, speed will slacken and

finally motion to the front will cease and be reversed on the down-

ward slant backwards, and the frail machine become a wreck in

an instant by violently striking the earth. I have floated these

planes from the lantern of Egmont light at the entrance of Tampa

bay, on the Gulf coast of Florida, when the air was so still that a

handful of down, from the breast of a pelican, thrown from the —

top would quietly sink along the shaft to the ground.

To one who is familiar with the soaring birds, and has made a

study of their habits, these floating planes present little that is _

-iteresting. They imperfectly imitate the birds and do nothing —

that the birds can not do better. The latter present a plane with -

automatic balance as well as a selfacting steering apparatus, and ;

are so plentiful that they can be studied at any time, But the

_ Panes serve to explain the wing admirably, and after witnessing —

< their performances with none, and either, and all of the contri-

vances for producing forward thrust, but little more need be said _

or done explanatory of their functions.

_ From the fore-leg of a reptile to this wing is doubtless a long

[August,

step. It must needs be. The reptile passes life in the midst of

solid, non-elastic resistances ; the bird lives a divided life, part of

which is under the dominion of other laws, It copes with fluid

elastic pressures when it navigates the air, and nature has trans-

formed the creature to meet the changed conditions of its exist-

ence. One pair of legs is retained to treat with forces under the

dominion of laws which operate in the reptile world in common

with man’s world, where the sea is level, and vertical forces point

to the center of the earth; where motions are deliberate, impedi-

ments plenty, clashing activities found on all sides and the area

of translation confined to two dimensions only. The other pair

are changed to suit a very different world where the sea isa

hillside, vertical lines variable, the plane of the horizon perpetually

_ changing, impediments non-existing, velocities high and the third

dimension added to the area of translation. ;

With the organ of flight understood, and the resolving power

of planes working on air under the law of fluid pressure com-

prehended, there would seem to be no further impediment to the

application of the axioms of mechanical science to the problem

_of air navigation.

708 Editor’ Table.

= F ii 2 eligi

FR eet cee fe nee wees eal

o——— .

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE.

Professor Woodrow has been finally condemned by the

verdict of the highest tribunal of the denomination (Presbyte-

rian) to which he belongs. This may cause considerable incon-

venience to the professor, but we believe that it. will do greater

harm to the body which thus commits itself to a position which

-is antagonistic to the best light of to-day. It sows a seed which

must produce unnecessary discord in a useful body of — me

-which will interfere with its power for good, unless rescinded or

disavowed. The fact of evolution is too well ascertained to a

mit such “bulls against the comet” to influence the thought e

the day, but they make the way of truth more difficult than too

_ The Rev. Dr. Deems it seems has been looking into me

ject of evolution, and writes a book the conclusion of. which 1s, —

that that doctrine is “not proven.” Some things asserted by

e evolutionists are certainly not proven, and some of thess

Editors’ Table. 709

assertions never will be; but these gentlemen have the severest

of critics among their own craftsmen. Unless Dr. Deems has

taken a thorough course in zoology and botany, and done a good

deal of species-work on sufficient material, he is hardly in a posi-

tion to offer an opinion.

; And now the Rev. Noah Porter gives way to his prejudices,

~ and thus expresses himself in his baccalaureate sermon before

~ _the Yale College graduating class:

“Those practical questions,” he says, “which threaten to

agitate and convulse society will very soon force every educated

man to ask and to answer the comprehensive inquiry: Is there or

is there not a kingdom of God slowly but surely lifting itself up

in the sight of the nations, or is it a kingdom of science, a kingdom

of fate and force, that has no promise for the poor, no comfort

for the sorrowing, no justice for the wronged, no deliverance for

the oppressed, or, at the utmost, nothing more than a blind ten-

before the disappointed vision ?”

doctrine of evolution, that he should thus confound it with mate-

lalism and atheism. If “the kingdom of God” is a kingdom of

morals, then the truths of evolution demonstrate the necessary

near approach of sucha kingdom, if not its complete establish-

ment, through the necessary growth of respect for law engendered

and good will, then evolution points to its infallible approach

through the growth by exercise of the social affections. But sup-

posing these agencies to fall short of the production of that state of

perfection involved in the idea of the kingdom of God, this doctrine

of science does not necessarily exclude the possibility of personal

. mind, But such relations must have necessary orderly limits

have such limits. 5

dency of progress toward the brilliant mirage that eternally flees

One is led to believe that President Porter is ignorant of the -

by social life. If the“ kingdom of God ” is a kingdom of love

Telations between man and a Supreme Being in the universe of

due to “the intractability of matter,” just as human relations

= — The present U. S. Geological Survey has adopted some _

3 methods which ‘will make it less acceptable to the people of the

ey than were the organizations which preceded it. The —

: Present director has introduced the new rule that illustrations of —

Scientific material will not be furnished unless such material is the _

710 | Recent Literature. [ August,

property of the Government. The objections to this rule are so

numerous that we can only give a brief review of them:

(1) It restricts the survey to use of a range of material which

is narrower than it should be. Much that is contained in private

collections, especially in the department of palzontology, is

unique, either entirely or partially, and must remain so always, or

for a long time. The author then who wishes to present a truly

scientific monograph to the survey is unable to do so; and the

student must look through the usual variety of publications in

order to get a complete report on any subject. This rule, there-

fore, destroys the chief merit of government publications, which

consists in the fact that they can be, owing to the superior pub-

lishing capacity of the Government, more compendious than the

_ publications of any private person or society. :

Were this rule impartially applied, it would greatly curtail the

` value of the government publications, but as it is only used with

reference to certain persons, its full effects are not yet apparent.

(2) The rule involves the survey in a great unnecessary €x-

of the country. It involves loss of time in the necessity which

results from the new study by persons unfamiliar with it. It in-

volves loss of time in the delay which follows the repreparation

of new material. It employs men at high salaries to do again

work which has already been done. It thus causes waste where

economy is highly important. $ :

The opposite policy was pursued by the surveys which pre-

ceded the present one. The result naturally was a much greater

= understand, but small, and immeasurably below that w

_ during previous administrations. `

——— <

RECENT LITERATURE.

_ Tue Orpen Time Series.—Our thanks are due to Mr. pore

M. Brooks for gleaning the old newspapers of Boston and PES

in order to save precious tidbits of information otherwise 1n E

ger of moth and rust. Three of the series have appe Daysof

me following titles : “ Curiosities of the Old Lottery, aee

the Spinning-wheel,” “ New England Sunday.” as a

Much aek volume does or relate strictly to the title, sm -

there is much that is merely quaint and curious, but the w

"sociology will lose a great deal of precious information >

s not carefully scrutinize these volumes. oe

PEER RO ARETE oe ane et

Recent Literature. 711

With reference to lotteries, one reads with surprise of Faneuil

Hall, Harvard College, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,

free schools, Episcopal and Congregational churches as bene-

ficiaries of the golden wheel.

The Leicester Academy lottery is thus advertised: “As the

design of this Lottery is for promoting Piety, Virtue, and such of

the liberal Arts and Sciences as may qualify the Youth to become

useful members of Society, the Managers wish for and expect the

Aid of the Gentlemen Trustees of the Academy, the REVEREND

CLERGY, and all persons who have a taste for encouraging said

Seminary of Learning.”

sources and to study their effects on human weal are of the high-

est interest to us all. Here are a few laws from the statutes of

Massachusetts :

“No one shall bea freeman, or give a vote, unless he be con-

verted, and a member in full Communion of one of the churches

allowed in this dominio i

“No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house,

cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath day. :

rA No woman shall kiss her child on the Sabbath, or fasting

“ No one shall read common prayer books, keep Christmas, or

or elsewhere, except reverently to and from meeting.

that subjects are considered separately, and it is to be hoped that

the author will continue his researches.

_ Conn’s Mopern Evorution—This work is a timely presenta-

n of the subject of evolution from the standpoint of the natu-

aa The author touches but lightly the metaphysical aspect of

ay question. The contributive facts are taken up successively,

and Well presented. The various hypotheses are then stated, and

their value discussed. This is the first work in which the Amer-

i j e i in the Wesleyan Uni-

iy am Conde Gone Se Sanan aes New

vou. XX.—No, vin, 47

The chief advantage of Mr. Brooks’ method of treatment is —

712 | Recent Literature, (August,

ican contributions to the subject are correctly represented, and in

which they receive due attention. The author gives every con-

tributor to the subject a fair showing, and avoids expressing his

which he POPE ultimately to sustain. The honesty of pur-

pose is unmista ë e cite, for instance, his doubts as to

the reality of De. inheritance of acquired characters. A fuller

acquaintance with vertebrate pe would have enabled

Professor Conn to be more certain of this fact

The leaning of the author is towards the views of the Neo-

lamarkian school, which have been especially developed in this

country since 1867-8.

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

Locy, W. A.—Observations on the woe ba sere = Fs sae nævia. Bull. Mus.

Comp. Anat. Camb., Jan., 1886. Fro -

James, J. F.—Cephalopoda of the Cincinnati group. "Eat, Jour. Cincin, Soc. N

Hist., Jan., 1886. From the auth i

Ashmead, W. A.—On the cynipidous galls of Florida, with descriptions of new spe

cies. Ext. Trans, Am. Ent. Soc., XU, 1885.

Studies on North eee Chalcidide. Ext. idem. Both from iy author. A.

Williams, H. S.—On the pA ts oe Upper Devonian. Ext. Proc. A. A.

S., Vol. XXXIV, 1886. m the

£ the

Newberry, J. S—Notes on shes r e botany of the -country bordering

Northern Pacitic railroad. Ext, Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. 111, 1884. From

the author

| Lewis, T. H.—Fffigy mounds in Iowa. Ext. Science, No. 146, 1885-

—Ancient rock inscriptions in Eastern Dakota. Ext. Am. Nat.

The Monumental Tortoise mounds of “ De-Coo-Dah.” Fxt. Am. Jour. Ar : l

All from the Mahar E ;

TO Akier e geological formation of se. Island, N. Y., with a descripti

N. Y., 1885. Fro: author

xil,

Prean, A —Feeding experiments, Pénna. gon College Agricultural Bulletins,

a ? col- ;

x mn A, & M. College. —Alabama weather service. Dec., 1885. From the

fe rakes, 7 W. Pe from the Newport Marine Laboratory. ee eli a

observations on the pier nga of Ophiopholis and Echinarachnit®-

1886, pro Alex. A E

hire SE W., Dall, W. De. sey, J. O, Holmes, W. Da Thomas, Ga 188 1282.

a cg ‘Stevenson on, J. iirented report of the Bureau of Ethnology, e

: fa the bureau

hmond, A chattels to prominent = No. 11 to Judge A. G.

From the author.

Walker, H. D.—The microscope in medical diagnosis. 1886. From — si

Becker, G. F—Cretaceous wap an a rocks of California. Ext. Am. J

ee XX, May, I 1886. From th

Rodr

alee ara on ? E Sees g i

Recent Literature. 913

Trouessart, E. Z.—Catalogue des Carnivores, vivants et fossils. Paris, 1886.

—Note sur le Rat Mosqué (Mus pilorides} des Antilles. Both from the author.

vertling, F.—Die Fauna des Samlindischen Tertiars, with atlas. 1 Theil. Ber-

lin, 1885. From the author.

Maiden, J. H—Australian Museum, N. S. W. Report of the trustees, 1884. `

Thomas, C.—Notes on certain Maya and Mexican RRT Ext. 3d Ann. Rep.

Bureau of Ethnology, 1885. From the author

ona y B. G.—Educational museums of TERE Add. Sec. Biol. A, AA. S4

——Paronymy vs. heteronymy as neuronymic principles, Pres. add, Amer, Neur.

Assoc., 1885.

——On two little-known seine fissures,

— On a seldom-described a

—Exhibition of anioi Tia ting tl t complete circumscrip-

tion of the porta in an a injected pden oer “ete. The last three from Trans,

Neurological Soc

—Do ber e cerebellum ka oblongata represent two segments or only one? Ext.

Pro A. S., 1884. All from the author

Clarke, J. v- o Devonian spores. Ext. Am. foi. Sci., April, 1885.

apy oe des Iberger Kalkes. Sep. ‘Abd. a. d. Neuen Jahrbuch f. Min., Geol.

Meet, s E iie Newland, R.—A review of the species of the genus Esox.

——A review of the yoy species of the genus Scorpzena. Both from Proc,

Phil. Aca owes +a S. Tex Meek,

Lydekker, R.—Note on some Siwalik and Narbada fossils. Ext. Records Geol.

Surv. India, Vol XV, 1882.

— Note on a third species of Merycopotamus. Ext. idem

—Siwalik Crocodilia, eee So Ophidia, and Tertiary fishes. Mem. Geol.

Surv. Ind dia. All fr m the

Fischer, » J. G.—Ueber zwei neue Bidechen er i aR Museums zu Ham-

burg. A. d. Jahr. an nstalte

Dawson; J. W.—On the Mesozoic fica okie Rocky Mountain region of Canada.

Ext. Trans, Roy. Soc. Canada, From the author.

Foerste, A. F.—The Clinton rog of Ohio. From the author. :

Hunt, 7. ae a natural system in Mineralogy with a classification of native sili-

. Ext. Tran s. Roy. Soc. a 1886. From the author.

n , P. Notice sur un crustacè des sables it de Grp: Ext. du Bull.

du Musée Royal ď’hist. nat. de Belgique, 1885. From the author

_ Clevenger, S. y. —Neurological notes. From the author.

Riviere, E— —Le gisement quaternaire de P ci Claitart

~ Découverte d'une ’age de pierre, dans le bois de Clam

Ea Com se ps ag ea de lage de pierre, .

pe Ka De opi i de Phomme dans les Alpes Maritimes. 10-11

a kapid Both from from Palicontographics, i

: hale sur les Reptiles et les Bairaciens. Miss. Sci- ;

Dereat dans PAm ue Centrale, M.

ort aed repli and ba batrachians of the Solomon islands. Ext.

F E phd nte ionen. ae l a re le A E I oe

wE I E ace tae me

714. General Notes. [August,

Smith, S. 1—The abyssal more Crustacea of the Albatross’ dredgings in the

North Atlantic. Ext. Ann and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1886.

Whateaves, J. £

anadian Peri Cetacea, fishes and marine

Invertebrata, 1886. Fro a tha uthor

Bailey, F. H. a mary phenomenal aaa 1886. From the a

Merrill, G. P.—On deposits of volcanic dust and sand in S. W. Nebras

oo ee y. ciui presidential address to Entomological Society, Wola

—— The mildews of the grape vine, an effectual remedy for Peronospora, 1886. Both

uthor

X from the a

TAR H. G— Insects oe the orange. U. S. Department of Agriculture,

1885. From the

Goode, G. B. iesp a of exhibit of fisheries and fish-culture of U.S.

A., made at the London Fisheries Exhibition, 1883.

:0:

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.’

ASIA AND THE IsLANDS.— The Hill country of Assam. —Mr.

“Needham’s excursion in the Abor hills from Sadiya, on the

Upper Assam, brought that officer into close communication with

the savage Abors, whom he credits with being truthful and cour-

ageous. The village of Membo is on a site well pe for

defensive purposes. It is well supplied with pure water, yet

Le thirds of the inhabitants have goitre. The houses are built on

ae terraces hundreds of feet above each other. They are all massive

buildings, rae to eighty feet long by twenty wide, and have å

large sheltered veranda in front. The boards of the fronts are

often three or four feet wide, and the roof is thatched with a

split stems of a thorny plant. There are no partitions meen e

privacy is not needed by a people whose women wear only

very short petticoat. Goitre was not noticed at other Abor villages.

Mr, Carles upon Korea.—The May issue of the Proc. 38A

Geol. Soc. contains Mr. W. R. Carles’ account of his recent m

_ withstanding the seclusion in which the people have liv iginal

os ome tht eine the Caucasian, entered into its or

This dept is edited sgh W. N. LocKINGTON, Philadelphia.

1886.) Geography ana Travels. 715

where the Naktong empties into the Broughton strait not far

from the port of Fusan. The rise and fall of the tide along the

eastern coast is very slight, at Gensan only two feet, while at

Chemulpo, on the west coast, there is a rise and fall of thirty-

eight feet. From Fusan westwards, and along the west coast,

there are numberless islands and mud banks, interfering greatly

with navigation. The Amnok is by far the grandest river, but

the Tai-dong, Han (on which Soul is situated), Keum and Mok-

pho are important.

The northern portions of Korea are mountainous and the

Scenery fine, but further south the mountains diminish until at

length they are but low-lying hills.

There are in Soul few houses more than ten feet high, for even

the dwellings of the better classes are low. The smallness of the

Ouses seems to be compensated by the size and variety of the

hats worn by the men. High conical hats, black or white, and

of open texture, made of split bamboo, horse-hair, or wicker work,

seem to be common, and some of these are topped with a little

bee-hive covering of oil-paper to protect them from rain.

Drains are unknown in Soul, and the foul mass of decomposing

matter lying on each side of the street is never cleaned save by a

rain-storm. e houses- are heated by a chamber below the

winter rooms, at one side of which is the repository for the fuel, at

the other a flue leading to the chimney, which is detached. At

the ends of a house are the summer rooms, raised above the

Sround on corner-stones. The dwellings are built of wooden

pillars Supporting a heavy roof of wooden beams and tiles, The

-ters are pared away so as to fit into sockets on the top of the

Pillars. The spaces between the posts are filled with masonry,

the stones of which are often tied together with millet stalks, on

account of the high price of lime. Eight feet by six feet, and five

t high, is a good room in a Korean cabin.

€ road to Wi-ju, on the Amnok, is the high road of com-

merce north of Soul, as every track west of the mountains con-

verges on it. Kai-song, Phyong-yang and -Wi-ju, on this route,

are three of the most important cities in the country after Soul.

Hill towns, or cities of refuge, guarded by priest-soldiers, are

found all over orea ; and message that the coast is clear is sent

to the capital every evening from all parts of the provinces by

means of beacons, e Laie :

__4\al-sOng was the capital of the last dynasty, has about 30,00:

People, and is the daite of ginseng cultivation. Phyong-yang,

sA the ai-dong, is the most interesting town in Korea, and

Koatifully situated. Here are the grave and the portrait of ae

Wiju (30 i t s sent by the over-

; 30,000) is the depot of all goods sent by the ove

land route to Chana Comenia HetwestiABe two adjoining =

tes, even now that the strip of neutral ground once —— ae

716 General Notes.

them has been incorporated with Manchuria, is limited to two

points, Wi-ju on the west and Kyong-heung on the east. Gensan,

at the entrance of Port Luzanef, on the east coast, has a neat

Japanese town as well as a native one.

Bears, tigers, leopards, antelopes and several kinds of deer are

raptores are plentiful; swans, geese, mallards, mandarin ducks,

teals, bustards, cranes, herons, egrets, curlew, snipe, etc., are

- abundant, and there are many woodpeckers.

traces of some other faith appear in the *rigks, half-length

figures carved in stone, with a cap different to that of Buddha.

New Guinea.—Mr. Forbes (March toth) was in camp at Sugere,

near Port Moresby, is on friendly terms with the natives, and in-

tended to cross the Owen Stanley range when the rains ce a

_ Captain Dickson reports that at Samoa haven, on the no

coast, there are about fifty Germans, who appear to be healt

= andare on good terms with the natives, which is not the case

= Finsch haven. Both these settlements are on small islands.

Captain John Strahan has re-ascended the Mai Kassa or cei Š

river about 100 hundred miles, made several excursions, to ts

interior, and discovered five smaller rivers between the Mai

_ and the Gulf of Papua. ;

-~ Asiatic News—A. Konschin maintains that the Uzbot me

_ the old bed of the classic Oxus, but the result of the f the

_ of the Aral from the Caspian sea, and of the overflow 0!

_ Aralo-sarykamish waters into the Caspian. ‘ed by

~ The Kermadec islands, which have recently been occu!

miles N. N. E. from the North island of New Zealand Suit

east of Norfolk island. The principal island is Raoul or >

miles in circumference, rugged, and without an anchorage i

_is covered with wood, and occupied only by a few white :

[August, a

_ the English Government, are a group of rocky islets ae aun

a ti

: gee eve «0 3

island (29°, 12’ S lat., 178°, fe W. long.) This is about weg

1886.] Geography and Travels, 717

M. Merk has traveled in Seistan or Sistan,a district at the

south-west angle of the Afghanistan. He reports that the Hel-

mand rose to an unusual height last spring and flooded the

Hanum through a trough leading to it from the Helmand. Forts,

tombs, villages and pleasure-houses lie in ruins along thi’ trough,

and there are traces of the great Jui-karshasp canal. At Trakun

was a fort in perfect preservation as though just abandoned.

According to tradition the inhabitants left it about three genera-

tions ago.

Arrica.— Madagascar—aAn interesting account of the geog-

raphy of Madagascar, which is claimed frankly as “une terre

Frangaise,” is given by M. Georges Richard in the Revue Scien-

tifigue of April 3d.. The little explored central mountain mass

contains several plateaux, while between the spurs which diverge

seaward, and often form a series of platforms, are fertile valleys,

watered by streams, few of which are navigable. The most con-

siderable of these are on the west side, and are the Onilahy, the

Mangoko, the Sigiboujy and the Ikiope and Betsiboke, which

unite and débouch in the bay of Bombetok. The mouths of the

nvers upon the eastern coast are almost always obstructed by

Wet season, so that they form extensive marshes—the source of

the Madagascar fever. The climate of the interior is healthy.

Algeria —The Revue Scientifique has recently published a series

of articles upon the geography of Algeria, from the pen of M. A.

LeChatelier. From these we learn that the southern frontier of

pressions called Gassi, scooped out by the winds, but none of

ese, except that of Mokhauza or Ir’har’har, traverse the entire

width of the Erg. The tribes under French rule do not in the

Sandy desert, while the tribes of the southern Sahara do not reach

~ -to its southern border. The western part of the southern border

se Pied by tribes which recognize the suzerainty of the Sultan of

Western Erg are vast plains traversed by the oued M. `

Chatelier advocates its independence under French

sast of Algeria advance beyond the northern borders of this

| Stest, and the barrier is less complete. Between the eastern and- 2 ;

The oasis of Tuat has not been annexed by France, and M. Ce.

718 | General Notes.

African News.—Dr. Fischer, whose relief expedition was at

the southern end of Victoria Nyanza in January last, states that

Mr. Mackay, the English missionary in Uganda, had received a

lette? from Emir Bey, informing him that he and Dr. Junker,

with Captain Cassati, were safe in Unyoro with King Kabarega.

_ of the tide on the sandy fore shore. He also paid great atten-

= tion to the influence of ocean currents upon the direction of the

flow of rivers in their lowest course——Mr. Last has travel

up the right bank of the Lujenda to its source. It 1s fertile pr

_ filter through the sandy mound which separates it from

me Lujenda.

America.—Zhe Gran Chaco,—Colonel Juan F. Cretz has sum

the southern.

height of the Chaco above sea level “is 984 feet. the

between 27 > 21’ and 29° os’ S. lat., and 62° o4’ and

, when the soil is sandy and impregnated with saltpetr y

e Bermejo has been explored throughout its whole length, si

1886.] Geology and Paleontology. 719

while the recent expedition explored the Pilcomayo for 350 miles

upwards. The Rio Salado, between the Bermejo and the Pilco-

mayo, seems to come from the vast marshes formed by the latter.

between 22° 30’ and 23° 30’ S. lat. The water of the Salado is

not drinkable, its banks are marshy, its breadth varies from 125

to 130 feet, and its depth averages six. On both sides are exten-

sive forests and fine pastures. The expedition explored 20,000

square miles. The Central Chaco has an area of 41,780 square

miles, and the Southern Chaco contains 60,000 square miles.

There is a great variety of useful woods. The climate is reported

to be healthy, the chucho or ague of Tacuman, Jujuy and other

tropical regions being unknown.

Ocran.—The Enterprise, Commander A. S. Barker, has run a

line of deep-sea soundings from Wellington, N. Z., to the Straits

of Magellan. At 118 W. long. the depth was but 1562 fathoms,

the depth increasing east and west of this. This rise probably

indicates a ridge from Easter island (27° o9’ S. lat., 109° 25’ W.

long.) and Dougherty or Keates island (59° 21’ S. lat., and 119°

07’ W. long.). This line of soundings runs very close to the ice-

limit. The Challenger in 1875 ran a line in about 40° S. lat., and

in the same year the German ship Gazelle executed a series of

Soundings between that of the Challenger and that of the Enter-

rise. ,

The U. S. Hydrographic Office has laid out a plan by which

the entire Pacific, north of the Chadlenger’s line, can be surveyed

y lines run at short distances apart. This will be carried out ©

from time to time by U. S. war vessels.

GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY.

SCHLOSSER ON THE PHYLOGENY OF THE UNGULATE MAMMALIA.

—We have in this memoir a comprehensive review of a subject

u Í

ee geologist and palzontologist, Professor Zittel. Be- _

3 *Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Stammesgeschichte der Hufthiere und Versuch einer

Systematik der Paar- und Unpaarhufer, Von Max Schlosser. Morphologisches

720 General Notes. (August,

To the American paleontologist the greatest value of this

memoir consists in its descriptions and inferences as to the his-

tory of the Artiodactyla. The materials for this study are more

limited in America than in Europe.

Dr. Schlosser gives full credit to work done and conclusions

reached in America. He adopts the views here proposed as to

the ancestral position of the Condylarthra; and also the theory

of the phylogenies of the teeth and feet of Mammalia proposed

by Cope. The only defect in knowledge of American literature

we observe, is the case of the report on the vertebrate palzon-

tology of Colorado, published in the Annual Report of the U.S.

Geol. Survey of the Terrs. for 1873. On this account the char-

` acters of some genera are overlooked. i

“here are some positions adopted by the author which we sus-

pect that he will modify. Thus his systematic views are different

from those which have been usually held, in that he uses phylo-

genetic series as identical with taxonomic divisions, and not, so to

family which are given (p. 33) are not true of Hyracotherium.

_ Although there can be no doubt that this genus is the ancestor

of Equus, all taxonomic precision requires that it s ould e

placed in a distinct family from that genus, and in company Wit

_ genera (e. g., Systemodon) which Dr. Schlosser places (p. 27) in

-his Tapiridæ. To illustrate this matter more precisely I e

__ the phylogeny of Equus arranged in the family phases throug

which it has, in my opinion, passed, and as I have given it:

Equus belonging to Equide

Protohippus, éte | i;

Anchitherium \ Palzotheriide

Lambdotherium “ Chalicotheriidæ

1886. ] Geology and Paleontology. 721

divisions based on their structure, e. g., Condylarthra, Ambly-

oda, “ Paar- und Unpaarhufer.” Within each of the latter he

admits bunodont and lophodont forms. It is in the Condylarthra

that he hesitated to admit the lophodont form Meniscotherium,

and is disposed to place it in the Perissodactyla on account of its

dentition; a proceeding in which we cannot agree with him. It

is considerations derived from the dentition that lead Dr. Schlos-

case with the Bovide, in which Dr. Schlosser regards the robust

form Bos as the descendant of the slender Gelocus. Such has

Probably been the history of Rhinocerus, which Dr. Schlosser

objects to deriving from Hyrachyus on account of the more

slender feet of the latter.

€re is an important discussion as to the origin of the milk

dentition (p. 109). Dr. Schlosser refers to Baume’s hypothesis

that the temporary dentition consists of those teeth which have

en thrown out of the regular series by the contraction of the

regular series. A preferable hypothesis is that of Wortman,

which regards the mammalian dentition as following a law of

Succession fundamentally that of the reptilian, the reduction con-

sisting in nothing but anteroposterior members.!

add that Elasmotherium is much more probably derived from

Ccelodonta than from Aphelops. Also that the American Elo-

therium has but two metapodial bones, like the European. Also-

t the reviewer’s illustrated articles in the AMERICAN NATURAL-

IST are mostly of later date than the Vol. 11 Report U.S. Geol, _

Survey Terrs,—Z. D. Cope. a

_, GEorocicaL News.—General—M. E. Jourdy has found spiri-

fers in the marble of the delta of Tonkin (Tonquin, Tong-king) _

_ and therefore concludes~ that this marble, which occurs both in

Tonkin and Annam, is of Carboniferous age. At Dong-Songhe _

___ *System of Dentistry, Philadelphia, 1886, a t

722 General Notes. _ [Augtist,

has collected fossils which are of triassic age; while the plants of

the coal-basin of Hone-Gay have been referred to the Rhetian

period. According to these observations the Trias is, in the in-

terior, superposed upon ‘the Carboniferous, while the coast

coal-measures of infra-Liassic age rest directly upon the carbonif-

erous limestone in one of its folds. The actual coal-beds do not

appear to extend beyond Dong-Trieu, but the strata are more

extensive, and it is not unlikely that detached portions of coal

-may be found among the hills of arkoses which rise out of the

rice-fields of the Delta. The beds of coal are thick upon the

level of the soil, very little above the sea, and near to it, but the

quality of the combustible is inferior.

Cretaceous—Paul Pelseneer (Bull. du Mus. Roy. d’ Hist. Nat.

de Belgique) describes certain remains of a macrurous crustacean

found in the green sand of Grandpré, in the Ardennes. From

_ the sum of its characters it is clearly an Astacomorph, and the

form of its rostrum (without lateral spines) places it in the genus

= Hoplopariz., The new species is named H. benedeni. Compari-

i: son of Hoploparia with Homarus and Nephrops induces M. Pel-

Sencer to consider it nearly related to the former genus. :

seventh more advanced medial horn. The tail is long and stiff,

its vertebræ encased in an osseous sheath developing tuberous

’

MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY-.'

PETROGRAPHICAL News.—In the June number of the Geologica —

agazine Professor Judd has an interesting article? in which he .

ats of the structure and origin of the little glassy balls known .

as Marekanite, from their occurrence—the great Marekanka, ans 2

khe , in Siberia. A résumé is given of the work previousty

1e on the subject and some additional observations are recore™ ~

According to Judd the internal structure of marekanite balls ia-

fers from that of Prince Rupert’s drops in that they contain vo®

tile ingredients in such quantity that when heated the entire gp

Edited by W. S. BAYLEY, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Md,

tarekanite and its Allies, p. 241,

1886.] Mineralogy and Petrography. 723

swells up until it has attained eight or ten times its original bulk,

when it assumes all the characteristics of a true pumice. Thin

sections show under the microscope a flow structure. Devitrifi-

cative products are abundant, while porphyritic crystals are of

small sizes, consisting almost entirely of hornblende, magnetite

and a brown mica. From a consideration of all the facts and a

comparison of similar occurrences of rocks in other localities, the

1 author concludes that the tension which affects large rock masses

manifests itself in the structure of the nuclei of perlitic masses.

He further observes that the parting which produces columnar

structure in rocks owes its origin to the contraction which takes

place during cooling. The secondary system of curved cracks

which gives rise to perlitic and similar structures are more prob-

ably due to the contraction which goes on as the volatile materials

which they contain are slowly separated from them. A very im-

portant contribution to the subject by regional metamorphism has

recently been made by C. R. Van Hise,! who is working with Pro-

fessor Irving on the Archæan rock of the Northwestern States. In

this article the author gives`in a very condensed form the result

of his studies on the rocks of the Penokee-Geogebic iron-

bearing series in Wisconsin and Michigan, and promises that a

full treatment of the subject will appear later in a memoir by Pro-

fessor Irving and himself. This formation extends in a general

east and west direction for a distance of eighty miles through

parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is younger than Kewee-

nawan and in its upper members differs in different localities.

The group consists principally of mica schists, black mica slates,

little clayey matter, perhaps also with a small quantity of frag-

mental mica and some feerite. * * * -The quantity of feldspar

was apparently considerably greater in rocks of the western part

l Upon the origin of the Mica Schists and Black Mica Slates of the Penokes-

Geogebic Tron-Bearing Series. Amer. Jour. Sci., XXXI, June, 1886, p. 453-

*Cf. Bulletin U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 8. a

(August,

except that the feldspar, instead of changing into chlorite, has

altered to muscovite and biotite, “ the result being the production

from a completely fragmental rock, by metas omatic changes only,

of a rock which presents every appearance of complete original

crystallization, and which would be ordinarily classed as a genuine

crystalline schist.” In order to show that there exists a regular

radation between the quartzites and mica schists, Van Hise

describes the microscopical characteristics of fine slides, begin-

ning with a muscovitic and biotitic graywacke, with enlarged

quartz grains of clastic origin, to a muscovite biotite schist, which

724 General Notes.

is apparently a typical mica-schist. A study of sixty slides shows

that this regular gradation can be clearly traced from undoubted

clastic rocks through graywackes to mica schists, which can not

readily be distinguished from the ordinary schists to which a

different origin can be attributed———The metamorphic rocks of

California have been studied by G. F. Becker,’ and some remark-

able results have been reached. Like the article of Van Hises

4 referred to above, this is also an abstract of a monograph of the

U. S. Geological Survey. It gives the results of the study of

_ metasomatic recrystallization of the sediments to holo-crystalline

feldsparic rocks carrying ferro-magnesian silicates and in the

_ formation of vast quantities of serpentine. It is also clear a

~ structural and chemical grounds that solutions rising from the

underlying shattered granite co-operated in the metamorphism.

d in part

aA part aude

alteration of the granular metamorphics. The more impo e

st izati be traced under th

of the clastic

minerals are

7. see = i 3 Ma Pa

P npe Metamorphic Rocks of California. Amer. Jour. Set- xxx, May:

1 P. 340. ;

Bens Pa tits ie 7 N A Sia > oh f : n ar

BB eae cl ee ee MORIS S een E RES eae es Pe ae a IL, IN ee ee OE ee ere ee SE POE Nee

1886,] - Mineralogy and Petrography. ~~ 7es

again built up. Several very remarkable instances of this are

described. A further development of these processes yields

rocks in which the fragmental character of their constituents can

not be detected. These form the group of the granular met-

amorphics, which are subdivded into amphibolites, metamorphic

amorphic rocks are subject to serpentinization. Grains of horn-

blende, augite, feldspar, apatite and guartz can be seen undergoing

an alteration into serpentine. To account for the peculiar features

of this widespread metamorphism the author supposes that at the

time of the disturbances the water which the sandstones and

granite contained was forced out in a heated condition. It was

nae OP, 1% Pz and occasionally P = and 6P%. a:b:c=

1:1.67:092, B=—70°. El

e€ percentages of sulphur and germanium have not yet

been accurately determined. A new variety of kobellite is

mentioned by H. F. and H. A. Keller’ from the mines of the

lian Mining Co., Leadville, Col. The unaltered mineral is of

a steel-gray color. It is fine grained, crystalline, with a metallic =

nna gives a black streak, An analysis of pure material

: ‘ S Pb Bi Ag Cu undissolved residue

: 15-23 44.08 33-27 5.66 trace . MPa

Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, xix, No. 3, p- 210.

ae Jahrb. f. Mineralogie, etc., 1886, 11, p. 67. :

Tb., p. 79.

726 General Notes. [August, | ‘

The formula corresponding to this composition is 3 (Pb, Ag) S

Bi, S3, which differs from that ‘of kobellite [3 Pb S (Bi Sb), Sli in

the absence of antimony. W. Cross has recently! adde

and garnet to the list of well-crystallized minerals found in "the

lithophyses of the rhyolite of Colorado. The occurrence of these

two minerals had been referred to before by Mr. J. A. Smith,” but

it has been left for Mr. Cross to give us a definite description of

them and their paragenesis. The outer walls of the lithophyses

as well as their concentric shells are primarily formed of sanidine

in small stout crystals, of which the transparent pne? possess a

beautiful blue color’ in the direction of the plane 4 P 3. In iso-

lated crystals in these lithophyses clear, transparent, dark- red

garnets occur. They have an average diameter of 2.5 The

a 20, usually show a striation parallel to the dodecaheail

edge. An analysis of selected material from parts of thirty

crystals yielded Mr. L. G. Eakins:

SiO, Al,O, ra FeO MnO CaO KO a0” HO

35-66 18.55 0.32 14.25 29.48 1.15 0.27 0.21 0.44

The mineral is a typical spessartite, an aluminous garnet in which

the calcium has been replaced by manganese and ferrous iron.

_ Topaz appears much less abundantly than garnet. Its crystals

are prismatic, clear and transparent, either colorless, pale-bluish

or distinctly wine-yellow. The usual forms are oot, 2 f,c

Greer es oP eS Pe oP anda Pa The largest crystals

- measure half an inch in the direction of the ba -axis ; the

of a pale-bluish tint, while the latter were most frequently oo

5 fae This difference is ue to be due to bleach ae y

contain topaz in the manner described. —— An- analysis | eek

anite pendonor after pyrite yielded Dr. E. G. Smith ?

oe By. S FeO Fe,O, CaO MgO lossin ignition

< -675 0.31 0.91 80.21 0.04 0.40 na

—Mr. S. L. Penfield describes brookite from Magnet cove,

Arkansas, with a habit differing slightly from Seh usually seen

æ w P and 2P ġ, with 14 P predominating.

merican ae of Science, xxxt, J 1886,

Report on i Development a samp ns * Reontse oi Colorado, 1881-2, P- 3

Bulletin L U S. Geol. Survey, N ,

Bull. Acad. St. Petersbourg, 4, es

Amer. sop of Science, XXXI, May, 1886, p- 376.

ae mineral: The observed forms are P 3, 4P, P, Pa,

1886. ] Botany. 727

MiscELLANEOUS.—R. Brauns proposes! the use of methylene

iodide as a means of separating the constituents of rocks. The

specific gravity of the liquid is 3.33 at the ordinary temperature,

varying from 3.3485 at 5° to 3.3045 at 25°. The author claims

for this substance advantages over the heavy solutions now in

such general use, while he recognizes at the same time the disad-

vantages of the necessity for the use of benzine in diluting

(neither alcohol nor water can be used for this purpose). e

physical properties of the substance are given in detail, and an

experiment made to test its practicability as a medium for the

separation of minerals of high specific gravity shows it to work

very satisfactorily.

BOTANY.?

prepare a

(June) of the Botanical Gazette ought to satisfy every demand of

the inquirer after the best botanizing methods. The general

methods of making specimens are treated in notes and communi-

cations from ten different botanists. How to collect certain

plants receives the attention of twenty-one specialists. The Gray

Herbarium and the National Herbarium are described with some

uable series of communications. Perhaps the one fact most

Prominently brought out, is that good specimens are made by

care and painstaking, rather than by following this or that par-

ticular method. The lesson of greatest importance to the be-

sinner taught in this herbarium number, is that he must make

good specimens. It is not enough to gather samples and dry

OSt say,

Another lesson which the young botanist will learn, is that

botanizing, to-day, is somewhat enlarged above what the fathers

knew and practiced it. Flowering plants, ferns, mosses, liver-

= Worts, lichens, fungi—big and little, seaweeds—from the sea itself

~ 4nd-from the fresh water—all these are to be looked for, gathered, _

Prepared, mounted, arranged. |

The Botanical Collectors’ Hand-book, published a few years ago-

_ by Professor W. W. Bailey, will also be found to contain much —

of value to the young collector. Many of the suggestions it con-

ns will materially shorten the work of the beginner. __

In the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, the subject of

herborizing was well treated by Lyman Hoysradt eight years

| Neues Jahrb. f. Mineralogie, etc., 1886, 11, p. 72.

_ “ited by Professor CHARLES E. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska.

VƏL. Xx.—no. vit, : 8 :

them ; the work must be well done—artistically done, one might is a

728 General Notes. [August, :

ago, and the beginner will do well to read carefully the directions

there given. .

Much of what was included in Mr. Hoysradt’s articles is to be

found, along with a good deal of additional matter, in Section Iv,

of the tenth chapter of the new edition of Gray’s Botanical Text-

book, Vol. 1. For flowering plants, the treatment here is prob-

ably the most satisfactory to be found anywhere, and no one can

-afford to omit its careful perusal.

A Broaper ELementary Borany.—In the schools and col-

leges of this country the teaching of elementary botany is still

but little improved, however much of change for the better

the higher departments may show. In fitting up our labora-

tories, providing means for studying cells and tissues, gathering

collections of all sorts of materials and specimens, from German

herbarium specimens of bacteria to trunks of great trees, we have

done well for the classes of somewhat advanced students, but

have we not in our zeal for improvement in these lines forgotten

or ignored elementary botany. The beginner finds that with all

this talk of improved methods he is still obliged to pursue the

same old tread-mill course with its endless list of bare technical-

ities and meaningless botanical jargon. Beyond his field of ele-

mentary work he sees evidence of great activity among pests

but /zs work remains almost precisely what it was a score

years ago, in spite of the fact that in this period the great science

of plants has undergone a complete transformation. Th

What should an elementary course in botany include ? s

answer to this question will vary somewhat according to the par-

g view of the vegetable kingdom.

demand

1886.] j Botany. 729

and the species of which have been well described.—Charles E.

Bessey.

Watson’s CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN Borany, x1t—This

contribution, published June 2, in the Proceedings of the American

Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. xx1, includes the following,

viz: 1. List of plants collected by Dr. Edward Palmer in South-

western Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1885. 11. Descriptions of.new

species of plants, chiefly from the Pacific States and Chihuahua.

u1. Notes upon plants collected in the Department of Yzabal,

Guatemala, February to April, 1885—1. Ranunculacez to Conna-

racee. Iv. Notes upon some palms of Guatemala. Many new

Species are described in these four papers, and in the third and

fourth we have an introduction to a little-known botanical field.

The notes upon the palms of Guatemala are particularly inter-

esting, :

BOTANY AT THE APPROACHING MEETING OF THE A. A. A. S— ©

The conditions are all favorable to an excellent meeting at Buf-

falo in August, and a large attendance of botanists is confidently

expected, It is hoped that there will be more botanists present

than at any previous meeting. Let it be remembered that there

are two organizations before which botanical papers may be read,

viz: The Biological section (F) of the Association, and the Bo-

tanical Club. Before the latter all the shorter and less important

matters should be brought, such as local lists, notes, notelets,

aboratory suggestions, etc., etc. Let only she dest papers

entered for reading before Section F. Let the effort be continued

to rescue botany from the discredit into which it had fallen. Let

the charge of superficiality in papers and discussions be made no

longer true.

Boranica, News.—Millspaugh’s American Medicinal Plants, |

published by Bærick & Tafel, of Philadelphia, has reached its

fourth fascicle, carrying the number of plants thus far figured and

described up to one hundred and twenty. The work is very well

done, and merits the success which it has evidently attained.

Paper of a good deal of value

730 _ General Notes. | August,

_ strong plea for a botany broad enough to take in the plant under

cultivation, and for a horticulture scientific enough to demand

and use the laws and facts of scientific botany.

the Yellowstone National Park, by Frank Tweedy, is a- neat pam-

phlet of seventy-eight pages, enumerating 657 species of Phane-

rogams and Pteridophytes found growing in the park. The main

list is preceded by special lists of the forest trees, alpine flora, bog

flora, flora of the hot springs and geysers, the grasses, etc——A

new edition of the London Catalogue of British Plants is noticed

by the English botanical journals. It is edited by Frederick J.

Hanbury, and is published by Bell & Son, of London—-The

editor of Grevillea (146 Junction road, London, N., England)

offers for sale a number of botanical books of some rarity, to-

ds injurious to ti

J in their

; also the notices

ctive and beneficial.

entomologist, by H.

ington, 1885. 8 vo, pp. 219.

er nee, ee ae oe

1 1886.) . Entomology. 731

The illustrations are for the most part very good, while the

7 chromo-lithographs, from sketches by Mr. F. D. Owen, are most

; excellent. The report will be most serviceable to orange-grow-

ers, and also contains many new observations of special interest

to entomologists.

STRIDULATING AND SENSE-ORGANS IN DIPLOPOD MYRIOPODA.—

r. G. C. Bourne describes several points in the anatomy of

Sphzrotherium, which have been overlooked by previous writers.

The genus differs from Glomeris in the position of the antennz

in a deep fossa. Corresponding to each of the twenty-one pairs

of legs is a pair of “tracheal plates” placed between the attach-

ments of the appendages. The first three pairs belong to as

many segments, while of the remainder, like the legs, two pairs

belong to each segment; there is also a nerve-ganglion to each

Segment. In the male there are three extra pairs of appendages, l

copulatory in function; two pairs of these bear stridulating

organs which have not been previously noticed in this genus;

besides the chitinous ridges on these appendages, there are similar

ridges on the inner surface of the large terminal tergite.

_ The tracheal system differs from that of most other Diplopods

in having very well developed branching trachee. Each tracheal

plate carries a stigma, which opens into a “tracheal sac.’ rom

this Sac two main tracheal trunks pass out, each of which breaks

up into a number of smaller branches. The author considers the

tracheal sacs homologous with those of Peripatus, from which

form these branching trachez are derived.

The antennary sense-organs are conspicuous. An error is

pointed out in the description of their histology by Bütschli, who |

mistook certain cells, in the connective tissue surrounding the

nerve bundles, for ganglion-cells. An auditory organ is presup-

Po the existence of a stridulating organ. The cavity open-

ing to the exterior by a small pore below the eyes is regarded as

such an organ; it is lined by a sensory epithelium, supplied by

the nerve-fibers from the cerebral ganglion.— Fourn. Roy. Micr.

Soc., April, 1886, :

732 General Notes. [August

O. W. Oestlund publishes, in the Fourteenth Annual Report of

the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, a list

of the Aphididæ of that State, with descriptions ofa number of

new species. The Entomological Society of Washington

have issued, in a pamphlet of thirty-two pages, the first number of

its Proceedings, which contains some interesting notes. f

ZOOLOGY.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PELAGIC MARINE ANIMALS.—

Herr C. Chur (Zool. Anzeiger, p. 35) ascribes the wide distribu-

tion of pelagic forms to four causes; they are of great geologi-

cal age, and existed long before the elevation of the continents,

while the appearance of the latter has given rise to currents

which are of great significance in distribution ; they are provided

with powerful locomotor organs; they or their germs may be-

come attached to powerful swimmers, wood, or the feet of swim-

ming birds; and lastly, they are aided by the wind, for when

floating on the water they offer a broad surface.

The author then proceeds to discuss the results of recent ob-

servations which confirm the idea just enunciated; as pror“

es-

the localization of Ccelenterata are explained b

chitinous shell of the one, and the delicacy of the tissues of the

other set of forms; at the same time, some ccelenterate spec!

are very widely distributed.

: tissues subjected to high pressures (100-400 atmospheres), and

he fi af es the tissues.

‘It is not yet certain whether this is due to water directly entering,

_ or whether it combines with the albuminoids, and, atter the re-

_ moval of the pressure, escapes and infiltrates the tissues. —/ ourn.

Roy. Micr. Soc., June, 1886.

_ Swett Formation 1N Brvatve Morrusks.—Dr. F. Müller Ls

_ scribes the mode of shell formation in Lamellibranchiata. 2

_ investigations relate chiefly to Anodonta, Unio and yae

which chipped-off edges and sections were studied. The gece-

_ cification was effected by means of dilute chromic acid; eee

_ Mine was used for staining, and celloidin was found to be the S

satisfactory imbedding material. rile

_ The general result of Dr. Miiller’s research is to cornea a

Mathusius in his account of the shell-growth by intussusceptt A

ad not by secretion. He does not, however, exclude the pos?’

Zoology. 733

bility that apposition of organic elements may occur on the inner

y surface of the shell, at those places where the shell is perma-

nently united with the body, z. e., from the muscles. The outer

margin of the shell, that is the thickened periosteum and the

inner surface next the mantle, are always soft. The calcification

both of the prismatic and mother-of-pearl layers, is due to small,

roundish, irregularly distributed bodies, which gradually increase

a in all dimensions and become prismatic by mutual pressure.

During the metamorphoses of the young mussel the shell has

a fibrillar structure; the lamellation is secondary, probably be-

ginning along with the calcification. The original fibrillar struc-

ture is associated with the development and differentiation of the

shell-muscles. The organic substance of the shell has a cellular

origin,

In their development the fibrils follow the directions of the

mantle-muscles. They assume a radial course at the ligament,

but elsewhere run parallel to the surface of the mantle, following

the direction of the muscle-fibers which run transversely round

the animal, just under the epithelium, and which, uniting with the

tooth-pad, the pallial line and the periosteum, thus exert influ-

€nce on the fibrils.

These transverse muscle-fibers aid in the opening of the shell.

Those radially disposed on the back of the animal flatten the

ligament in contracting, and thus also aid in opening, as those

also do which ascend on each side from the foot, and are at-

tached to the tooth or tooth-pad. The muscle-fibers uniting

the dorsal muscle insertions on either side, act as adductors. The

7 bundles of cross muscles on the margin of the mantles, which are

: by one end attached to the shell on the pallial line, and the other

k to the free portion of the periostæum, effect by their contraction

the apposition of the soft-shell margins, and a consequent perfect

a Closure of the shell.—/Journ. Ry. Micr. Soc., June, 1886.

valve of the shell to a firm board and connecting the other by a

silk thread with the short arm of a lever, the longer arm of which |

ce kly. A —

ton of its proper ganglion, each muscle can be studied sepa=

rately

The author sums up his conclusions as follows: “ Two classes — io

‘Rerve-fibers supply the adductor muscles—(@) motor, causing

7 34 General Notes. [August,

contraction, and (4) inhibitory, interrupting the contraction and

effecting relaxation. The motor’ nerves of each muscle spring

from the nearest ganglion; but all the inhibitory fibers originate

in the anterior ganglia. The latter pass to the anterior adductor

by the short nerve-branches which pass to it from the anterior

ganglia, They reach the posterior muscle through the connec-

tives. The posterior ganglion thus functions as motor center for

the posterior adductor; and the anterior ganglia act similarly on

the anterior adductor. The motor cells of the ganglia on either

side may be stimulated to activity, either by peripheral nerve-

fibers (of the mantle or gills) or by certain fibers of the connec-

tives. The anterior ganglia are able to produce relaxation in

either anterior or posterior adductors.”

AsyssaL DECAPOD CRUSTACEA OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC.—Pro-

fessor S. J. Smith reports in the Annals and Magazine of Natural

History (1886, 187) on the species collected by the Albatross.

found at depths below 1000 fathoms. The first question whic

arises is, which of these actually inhabited the bottom? Fifteen

' of them—that is the two Brachyura, the seven Anomura, the

_ Eryontids, Crangonids and Glyphocrangonide among the Mac-

rura—are unquestionably inhabitants of the bottom. It 1s doubt-

ful whether those that are here grouped together as Miersiide

` istic forms taken in trawling at great depths, while the structure,

= butto be free-swimming; the eight species o

-~ arein the list are undoubtedly free-swimming forms not confined

_ to the immediate region of the bottom, but their relatively small

_ eyes and well-developed ocular papillae indicate that they are

__ deep-water if not abyssal species. :

_ The author provisionally groups the species into four classes :

I. Species inhabiting the bottom or its immediate neighborbooi

_ 2. Species probably not confined to the immediate neighborho

of the bottom, but showing structural evidence of phe

abyssal depths. 3. Doubtful, but probably inhabiting abyss%

depths. 4. Species probably not inhabiting abyssal depths.

of the species are remarkable for their large $176, —

that are very small; many are large members 0

1886,] Zoölogy. 735

worthy of the most minute and careful investigation; but Mr.

Smith has not yet been able to make it. He gives, however, the

the visual elements. Sometimes the eyes are highly modified (as

in Pentacheles), and here all the species have probably been long

4 inhabitants of deep water; when the eyes are less modified, or

obsolescent, the species are much more closely allied to shallow-

water forms. Many Decapods have the eggs large in size and

small in number, but this is not true of all; when the eggs are

large, development is, as in Bythocaris leucopis, abbreviated.

Tue Mosr Sournern SALMon.—I owe to my friend, Professor

Lupton, two specimens of a black-spotted trout from a locality

far south of any which has hitherto yielded Salmonide. They

are from streams of the Sierra Madre, of Mexico, at an elevation

of between 7000 and 8000 feet, in the southern part of the State

of Chihuahua, near the boundaries of Durango and Sinaloa. The

Specimens are young, and have teeth on the basihyal bones, as in

mo purpuratus, which they otherwise resemble.—Z. D. Cope.

Tue HABITS or EvBLEPHARIS VARIEGATUS BAIRD.—This very

Pretty lizard is the only species of the Eublepharide thus far

found in the United States. Only one other species of that family

1s found in America, the Coleonyx elegans of Mexico and Central

America. I found the former rather abundantly in the rocky hills

of the first plateau northwest of San Antonio, in Texas, but did not

observe it in that region north of that point either on the Guada-

lupe or Llano. It is found in holes under stones, towards even- |

Its movements are quick but feeble, and its short legs forbid the

Speed of other lizards. Coleonyx is one of the few genera wt

Gecconidæ which have eyelids, and as these are thick, and their —

; Movement in winking is slower than in other lizards, the physiog-

_ POMY is quite peculiar. When handled, this species chirrups

_ And squeals feebly like a singing mouse. One specimen which I ~

= took was about to shed its skin, so I placed it in a jar to observe

the process, This took place in the night, for next morning it

Was so clean and its color so bright, that it looked as though

gotten up for some special occasion. As no trace of the skin

could be found, I suppose that it ate it, after the manner of the

Batrachia. In life, the colors are very elegant; the pale- a

qm GS are citron-yellow, and the brown ones bright chestnut.

The inferior surfaces and all parts of the limbs are flesh or rose

A specimen recently sent to the Smithsonian Institution licks .

736 : General Notes. (August,

the end of its nose with its tongue like a dog. Respiration is :

carried on by means of both the intercostal and hyoid muscles.— k

E. D. Cope.

THE SENSE ORGAN IN THE PINEAL GLranp.—The suggestion of s

Ahlborn and Rabl. Ruckard that the pineal gland is the remnant :

of some organ of special sense present in some primitive Verte-

brata,! has received confirmation from the studies of Von Graaf

and Spencer. The former finds a rudimental organ of sense in

‘this part of the brain of the slowworm-lizard (Anguis fragilis),

and the latter, who works in the biological laboratory of the

University of Oxford, finds a similar organ in the Sphenodon

punctatus. The organ includes a lense, and is of the invertebrate

type, 2. e., the rods are turned towards the light and not away

from it.

These observations render it probable that certain extinct re-

n lations of Sphenodon, the saurians of the family Diadectidæ (order

Theromorpha) of the Permian epoch of North America, had this

pineal sense-organ highly developed. The frontopariétal fon-

tanelle is larger than in any other reptiles, and the cast of the

surrounding regions shows various peculiarities (see Proc. Amer.

PHIL Soc., 1885, p. 236).

THE VERTEBRÆ OF SPHENODON.—In the May number of the

American NATURALIST (p. 466) Dr. G. Baur mentions that “no-

: body will find the separate part of ossification of the prezyg-

apophyses in the cervical vertebrae of Sphenodon,” the figures of |

which I gave in my work, Fauna der Gaskohle, Tab. 70.

To facilitate the understanding of my drawing, I gave the

exact dimensions of the object carefully drawn with the camera

lucida. The seven cervical vertebrae are 27™™ long, and on the

= third, fourth and fifth the ossification on the tip of the prezyg*

_ pophysis? is clearly seen. ete

= The object is in the zoological cabinet of the Boh. University

~ at Prague, and can be shown to any scientific man.

In regard to the quéstion whether that is an equivalent of the

~ pleurocentrum or not, I gave on p. 52 my opinion with caution

_ asa probable way to explain the difficult question: What de

_ become of the pleurocentrum in Sphenodon ?—Dr. Anton Fritsch,

_ Prague, Bohemia, Fune, 1886.

: as to the occurrence of this reptile at or near its northern i

of distribution. We have been told that rattlesnakes are still o¢

casionally killed in Connecticut near the Rhode Island border.

: 1See on atk the possible monoculous character of Bothriolepis canadensis»

ATURALIST, 1885, p. 291.

1886,] Zoology. "37

It is generally stated that the last rattlesnake was killed in Rhode

Island twenty years ago, but we are informed by Professor

Battey that one was killed at Tiverton, R. I., within a period of

four years, Its skin is now in the museum of the Friends’ School,

at Providence. Mr. Henry H. Buxton, a member of this school,

from Peabody, Mass., gives us the following statement regarding

| its occurrence at that locality :

“In South Peabody there is a rock called Rattlesnake rock,

: surrounded by woods in which there are a great many snakes,

including the rattlesnake. During the last year three or four

have been killed by different persons. They confine themselves

to the part of the town which is the most rocky and slightly ele-

vated. In the winter they get under this rock and go to sleep.

Lon |

ot)

bis

77)

pæ y

-t

ZOOLOGICAL News.—General—A Natural History Society

has been founded at Yokohama. At the first meeting, in April =

of the present year, Professor Milne spoke of the difference be-

tween the fauna of Yezo and that of the other Japanese islands.

In Japan they have the monkey, the sheep-faced antelope, the —

bear and the pheasant, while on the other side of the straits there |

1s neither monkey, pheasant nor antelope, and the bear is a diir

ent species.—M. H. de Varign (Revue Scientifique, April 3d,) _

details the result of experimental researches upon the muscular

contraction of invertebrates. The graphic method was employed,

and Crustacea, mollusks and echinoderms were submitted to ex- _

amination. The variations observed in the latent period, whether —

1 smooth or striated muscle, proved to be of the same kind and-

to be subject to the same influences as those of vertebrate ay

es 5

738 ? General Notes. (August,

is not the fundamental difference between smooth and striated

muscles in the invertebrates that has been attributed to the two

forms in the vertebrates. The smooth, voluntary muscles offer

every intermediate phase of duration of contraction.

Worms.—The thesis by which M. Francois obtained the de-

gree of doctor of natural sciences was entitled “ A contribution to

the knowledge of the nervous system of the Hirudinea.” The

nerves connecting the ganglia have in Branchellion a neurilemma

and three nervous cords, and there is no trace of a medullary

‘canal. The cellules of the ganglia are arranged in six follicules,

and occupy the inferior and lateral regions of each ganglion, two

ventral and four lateral. Adam Sedgwick contributes to the

February issue of the Quart. Four. Mic. Science an article upon

the development of the Cape species of Peripatus. The segmen-

tation is apparently complete, and the endoderm cells come at

first without a distinct nucleus.

_ Moliusca—The appendages of the female organ of reproduc-

tion in the gasteropods are usually distinct and placed along the

line of the oviduct, but in Doris they are united into a single

mass. This is difficult to dissect, but by taking advantage of the 3

: spawning period, M. E. Bolot has been able to identify the differ-

ent points of the gland where the eggs receive the accessory

parts necessary to their perfection. :

Fishes —S. E. Meek and R. Newland (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.

th the brain, and a distal, bladder-shaped structure, the pd i

nis | nto a structure resembling a highly- :

rganized invertebrate eye, but without a nerve. In Hatteria

ssl tel i nec- 4

i nerve is present also. The organ, deeply embedded in pee 4

ive tissue, is now useless. Iguana, Chameleo vulgaris and Lact q

eye. i

Birds—Those interested in the migrations of birds hot ’

refer to the series of articles by M. Oustalet in recent issues of a

vue Scientifique — Professor R. Collett recently communicat h

> Zodlogical Society of London an account of a hybrid wins)

onally exists between the willow grouse (Lagopus a%

1886.] Embryology. 739

and the black grouse (Tetrao tetrix). Most of the thirteen speci-

mens examined were males

Mammals—Mr. Frederick True, in a letter to Science, asserts

that he has found characters by which Lynx canadensis can be

distinguished from Z. rufus and the other Southern varieties. Ex-

amination of over sixty skulls showed that in all examples of

. canadensis the anterior condyloid foramen is zo¢ confluent with

i the foramen lacerum posterium, and that the visible portion, of

the presphenoid is flask-shaped, the convexity in front.

L. rufus, maculatus and fasciatus the two foramina are confluent

as in the cats generally, and the visible part of the presphenoid is

sagittate or linear. Mr. True, therefore, believes that there are

two species of American lynxes, and that the confluence of the

condyloid and lacerated foramina cannot in future be regarded

as a distinguishing character of the Æluroidea. Walter Heape

(Quart, Jour. Mic. Science, Feb., 1886) contributes an article

upon the development of the mole (Talpa europea), the

Ovarian ovum and the segmentation of the ovum. The

remaining portion of the inner mass, and the mesoblast, subse-

quently, from both epiblast and hypoblast layers. Thus the

division of the segmentation spheres, by Beneden, into epi- and

hypoblast spheres from the time when the two first segments

were formed, is incorrect. Dr. O. Finsch has recently described

a new species of wild pig (Sus niger) from New Guinea.

EMBRYOLOGY."

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE AMERICAN LOBSTER, Homarus

AMERICANUS H. Mitne-EpwArps. — The changes which the

young lobster undergoes during the first six or seven weeks of its _

free existence, as a pelagic organism, constitute a veritable met-

amorphosis, which is apparently accomplished in the course of six _

ecdyses, or changes of the exoskeletal investment of the body.

ese molts, or ecdyses, occur at intervals of from four to fif-

teen or more days, if the larve are well fed. At each ecdysis a

complete renewal of the exoskeleton occurs; the old cast skin =

ng quite thin and transparent up to the fifth ecdysis, and retains

the form of the body at the time of molting. The old skin is rup-

| oa along the median dorsal line of the cephalothorax and at

te point where the latter joins the abdomen; the tail is with-

drawn after the head. esos a

uch as some Arthropods undergo an ecdysis within the

“SS, the advanced eggs of the lobster have been carefully exam- _

med to determine whether a molt took place at the time of -

“Edited by JoHN A. RYDER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

740 : General Notes.

hatching. Such is not the case, since the thin distinct inner mem-

brane ruptured at the time of hatching is not a molted larval

skin, but an egg-membrane which was developed within the ovary.

This egg-membrane is invested at the time of oviposition by a

much thicker coating of a viscid substance, which is continued

into the flexible threads by which the eggs adhere together in

clusters and are suspended to the setæ which fringe the abdom-

inal appendages of the adult female. At the time of hatching the

young hang for a short time more or less firmly to this inner

membrane, grasping it with the rostral spine and telson,

The first stage.—This stage is the one which the young lobsters

present at the time of hatching. They are essentially Schizopods

during this and the succeeding three stages. During this stage

the young have no abdominal appendages, and swim about as

pelagic larve by the help of the outer rami or exopodites of the

ce six hinder cephalothoracic pairs of appendages; the endopodites

or inner rami of the six hinder cephalothoracic appendages are

: not used in locomotion during this stage, and are almost wholly

subservient to the purpose of prehension. The telson is a single,

_ very broad, somewhat triangular piece, with strong spines at either

| posterior angle. The total length of the larva at this stage is :

i eight millimeters.

: Second stage—This stage follows the preceding abruptly m

‘Upon its accomplishment the larva has increased 1.5™™ in length,

as the young lobster is now 9.5™™ long. The second to the fifth

abdominal somites have also acquired appendages.

_ Third stage —This follows the preceding, and is preceded by a

-second ecdysis about the tenth to the fifteenth day after hatching.

-The penultimate or sixth abdominal segment also acquires a pal

of biramous, lamellar appendages, which fold alongside of and 1 re-

Fraea the telson. The young animal now measures II.5 in

- Fourth stage-—This one succeeds the preceding, and is preceded

by a third ecdysis on the fourteenth to the eighteenth day a

hatching. The young lobster differs but little, except 1m s1z° an

_ the proportional strength of the successive pairs of appende

from the foregoing stage, and now measures 13™™ in length. Rees

and the preceding stage was apparently confounded by Pro ae

S. I. Smith,’ who seems to regard the two as representing bu

igle phase of development. E

Fifth stage—This phase of development of the lobster gess

abruptly into a type very closely resembling the adults,

the first and third stages.

[August,

forms the young creature at the end of about the third wee wy

: 1 The Metamorphoses of the Lobster and other Crustacea. Report of ey a plate

nission, Part 1, 1871 and 1872, pp. 522-537, pl. 1x. (Figs. 38 an4 39 © 6

Teport represent very accurately t )

1886,] Embryology. 741

heralded by the fourth ecdysis or molt. The telson now closely

resembles that of the adult, and on either side of it the broad

brown in some cases, so that the animal is no longer so trans-

Parent as during the preceding stages.

Sixth stage-—This stage is attained between five and six weeks

after hatching and, like the foregoing, is preceded by —_

The latter, unlike the previous molts, is hard and brittle, bluish

in color and retains the form attained by the animal at the end of

the preceding stage. The young lobster now measures 19™™

from the tip of the still bifid rostrum to the tip of the telson;

22" from the tips of the extended chelipeds to the end of the

abdomen. The antennz are now considerably longer than the

cephalothorax, or proportionally almost as long as those of the ~

adult ; the total length of the animal from the tips of the extended —

antenne to the end of the telson is now 29™™ One of the chela is

now also perceptibly larger than the other. The animal has not |

at, however, assumed the adult condition, as there are still no _

_ ppendages developed on the first abdominal segment. —

Seventh stage—This is also preceded by an ecdysis, and the

_ young animal now measures 22™™ in length from the tip of the

: aS the end of the telson ; 36™™ from the tip of ap ae on

aq 0 the tip of the telson. The pair of appendages on the first

dominal ring have now appeared as very short rudiments which

ee ESR 3

742 General Notes. [August,

are quite unlike those of the adult both in form and size. The

modifications of this pair of appendages, indicating the sex of the

individual, have not yet appeared, however, and are probably not

developed until after the next or seventh molt, when the young

lobster entered upon the eighth stage of its free existence. There

is a very decided inequality in the size of the two great “claws”

or “ pincers” at the end of the seventh stage. The young animal

now manifests a more strongly marked disposition to remain on

the bottom than during the preceding stage. This last-described

stage is attained in about seven weeks after hatching.

It will be seen that as to the number of stages my observations

are not in accord with those of either Smith or of Dannevig.'

The work of G. O. Sars, on the development of the European

lobster, I have not seen, but the large amount of material which

I have had the opportunity to study in a series of tanks, under

conditions admitting of very little chance of error, in the United

States Fish Commission station at Wood’s Holl, leads me to think

that with the precautions which have been taken, I have not con-

founded or subdivided any stages, as I believe an alcoholic series

which has been preserved of the stages above described will

„amply prove. With a slight rise in the temperature of the water,

-and an abundance of food, the fourth molt, or fifth stage, may be

rr in twelve days, as later expericnce shows.—/ohn A.

_ THE MONSTROSITIES OBSERVED AMONGST RECENTLY HATCHED

LoBSTERS.—At Wood’s Holl a few double monsters were hatched

out amongst the normal lobster larvae. These monstrosities were all

_ the more interesting from the fact that they proved in the most

striking manner that double monsters must be developed in the

= meroblastic egg of the lobster in much the same way as in that

-of fishes.

_ Four forms of double monsters were observed : ‘ h

_ First type—This one had no eyes ; the cephalothoraces of the

_ two embryos were completely fused together laterally and anteri-

orly, while their abdomens were separate and diverged at a wits

angle from each other. th

__ Second type—This form had a single eye anteriorly and on so

line where the cephalothoraces of the two embryos were i

together; in other respects this form resembled the preceding. $

-Third type—In this form the cephalothoraces of two eo

were fused laterally and anteriorly, and there was no median €y

as in the preceding type, but a pair of eyes, the one represo

the left eye of the left embryo, and the other the right eye °

right embryo, were developed. b

_ Fourth type —In this form the cephalothoraces of two em n

se Saltvandsfisk-

Beretning over Virksomheden ved Udklaekningsanstalten for

ages EAT

1886. | Embryology. 743

were fused together along their anterior dorsal aspects. There

were four eyes developed, two to each embryo, and two distinct

sets of mouth-parts and biramous, locomotive appendages.

In this last form the two embryos adhere together dorsally, and

€ two systems of limbs of the two nascent lobsters, which have

obviously developed from a single blastoderm, enveloping one

yolk, are directed away from each other. This relation of two

perfectly formed embryos in the same lobster egg is exactly

the reverse of that which is observed in vertebrates, For ex-

ample, two embryo fishes which had been developed from the

same blastoderm would, if primarily formed at exactly opposite

sides of the blastodermic disk, finally be found to adhere together

by their ventral aspects, so that their backs would look in oppo-

site directions. These interesting data may in part be interpreted

by the well-known fact that the neural aspect of an arthropod is

ventral, while the neural aspect of a vertebrate is dorsal. This

does not, however, afford a complete interpretation, since we find,

not only in the case of a double vertebrate, but also in that of a

similar invertebrate monster, that the median or unpaired organs

of the two are often fused. This is the case in the double

monsters of the lobster of the first, second and third types. In-

asmuch as such structures as the alimentary canals and hearts of

two such conjoined embryos are so fused, the question immedi-

ately arises, How was this accomplished? The answer seems to

be that the fusion took place coincidently with the process of

gastrulation and the subsequent gradual formation of the organs

of the two embryos. This view of the matter is further substan-

tiated by the fact that the four types described represent as many

degrees of fusion or union. The question which now arises, how-

ever, relates to the way in which these different degrees of fusion

of the two embryos were developed. 150

is may be explained, it appears to the writer, on @ rior

grounds, in the same way in which the different degrees of fusion

or concrescénce of double fish embryos were interpreted by

Rauber, and since verified by other observers. That is to say, if

two gastrule were developed at the edge of the same blastodisk,

744 General Notes. [August,

PSYCHOLOGY.

A Curious Suprrstition.—A neighbor, residing on a small

farm near me, has, on several occasions, spoken of his experience

with “hog mice.” He came to this country many years ago

from Northamptonshire, England, where he had often seen these

strange animals. They are also occasionally seen by him herein

Iowa. This mythical rodent is about the size of a barn mouse,

but its striking peculiarity, as to outward appearance, is, that it has

a head and face fashioned exactly like that of a hog. It isa very

“uncanny ” little beast. If it merely runs across the body of a

sleeping person, or of a domestic animal, such unfortunate person

or animal will be grievously afflicted with lameness or soreness

wherever the mouse sets down one of its little feet! Serious dis-

ability often comes from the touch of the “’og mouse.” In some

extreme cases the affliction is well-nigh incurable, and may even

last a life-time. ae

My old friend said that it was no hearsay matter with him. He

“had seen ’og mice both in Northamptonshire and ‘ere in Ha-

merica.” One of his colts “ was disabled by a’og mouse running

hover hit, and was a long, long time getting well.”

A striking peculiarity of the hog-faced mus, according to mA

old friend, is that it is never seen at rest, but is always “on a dea

run,” as if fleeing from pursuit. tl

I tried to reason him out of this absurd belief, but he stoutly

asserted that he had often seen these animals and witnessed the

deleterious effects of their presence; that his knowledge was

positive, and that there could be no mistake about the matter.

herefore, must be merely local. It is certainly a very sıinguk

one, and worthy of being “i 6

class.— Charles Aldrich, Webster City, Iowa, July 1, 1880.

ig Sen a a a ee,

1886.] Anthropology. 745

with a pile of that material, which he raised in the air. In this

singular condition he made the greatest possible display of him-

self in front of the copperhead, as though to intimidate him. He

maintained the inflation for two days, or until the copperhead

was removed, as if aware that a bite into a bag of wind would be

almost innocuous. The copperhead acted as though master of

the situation, but could not be persuaded to bite, though consid-

erably irritated —EZ. D. Cope.

ANTHROPOLOGY:!

Cuitp GrowTH. —It is a matter of almost daily notice that

the children about us are changing, growing, yet of the laws gov-

erning this growth, we think but little, if, indeed, we give them

any thought.

If the body develops normally it receives but little attention

and no study from mothers. To the mind we give more heed,

although even that receives but a small amount of care until the

child has advanced far on the pathway of knowledge.

There are laws governing the growth of body and mind which

go hand-in-hand, and which should be known to, and studied by,

every custodian of children, be it as parent, teacher or guardian.

No need to leave our homes, families or schools to study these

laws, for right there is the veiled Isis whose study will lead us to

igher planes, where, if we would work with half the zeal dis-

played in the merely ornamental, we could make contributions of

true -value to anthropology, as well as secure to ourselves and

children knowledge of priceless value. This mine of wealth is

our children, the beloved of our hearts, the treasures of our lives.

It is the systematic study of their growth, physical and mental,

that I hope we may undertake together.

The study of my little daughter began in 1881, shortly after

her birth, when, looking at her tiny hand with the wondering love

of a mother over her first born, I outlined the rosy palm wi

pencil and paper, adding a lock of the silky fuzz, not so much to

races of mankind into two primary divisions, according to the

Shey ee the hair, viz: The Ulotrichi with crisp and woolly hair,

until I have a journal which has much in common with the stud:

TOF anthro l y, :

Every thinker admits that in the human, as well as other ani-

-_* Edited by Prof. Oris T, Mason, National Museum, Washington, D. C.

_ wall, laying a carpenter’s square across the head and marking,

746 General Notes. | [August,

mals, are hereditary virtues as well as vices. Children with suicidal

tendencies entirely prenatal, others with thievish propensities given

and upright parents with noble souls and lofty aims. If we had

a record of ourselves, thereby affording us a knowledge of our

hereditary tendencies, could we not more intelligently meet, or

perhaps anticipate, the needs of our children, more readily coun-

teract evil propensities and recognize the good ?

We do not realize the value of this work, nor yet the great ad-

vantages we have to collect data.

Scientists have worked hard, under most trying circumstances,

to create an interest in this kind of work as well as to collect data

for statistics. Francis Galton, known the world over as a leading

anthropologist, prepared a set of cards and hired men to go about

England paying people a small sum for each child they would

allow them to weigh, measure, take age, color of hair, eyes, etc., that

he might get statistics for race characteristics. Fröbel (that mind

which saw the needs of childhood and has been such a blessed

help to mothers and children) advised mothers to keep a record

of the growth of their children. i

This record is not a difficult task, and can be best kept in the

quiet of home life. It consists of gathering and recording the

little daily incidents, surroundings, tendencies, games, pleasures,

sorrows and sicknesses of ourselves and children ; also the height,

weight, color of hair and eyes, strength of sight, hearing, also oF

semblances. The food on which the child is fed, frequency

meals, at what age did child exhibit consciousness, as notice it

prick of a pin, follow a light with its eyes; at what age did !

walk, talk, and what words did it use. Then, as the child gro of

older, to name the character of its play, amount of exercise,

memory, imagination. : “act the

The height should be taken with bare feet, standing against ™

then measuring with an ordinary tape measure. In the case 0

a an infant, lay it on the back, stand a square against head and feet,

_and measure distance between. '

_The sight is tested by reading type of different sizes at ih

distances; hearing by the distance in feet the ticking of a e

a Li heard ; knowledge of colors by.a few skeins of worste n

= Pa countries appreciate the value of these researches mo

ce more

I would

merican scien-

ia. $- =

ASEE E

Bi a r a i ee E

a IEE N IETEN E ee TEE

4 ¢

1886.] Anthropology. 747

effort in our country to collect such records, that I have been

able to find, is a circular issued in 1881 by the Education Depart-

ment of the American Social Science Association, which con-

tained a short register for the physical and mental growth of

children, requesting parents to send them a duplicate. As I could

find no circular since that of 1882, I wrote to the secretary, Mrs.

Emily Talbot, of Boston, to know if they continued the work, to

which she replied under date of January 4th, 1886: “ The Social

ience Association only pointed to the open door, hoping and

expecting that the right sort of a scientific enthusiast would some-

time enter in.”

The British Medical Association has a Collective Investigation

Committee, whose object it is to collect such data as any mother

can furnish. In France the measuring and weighing of babies is

a matter of such common practice that in shops devoted to babies’ -

Wares and wardrobes, one always finds weighing machines, which

are regarded as a necessary part of every baby’s outfit. Lothrop, |

and Lee & Shephard, of Boston, each publish books for mothers

to keep registers of their children’s growth. Dr. Elizabeth Stow

Brown, of the New York Infant Asylum, who has seventy children

under her care, is recording their development.

hat may we learn from these facts ?

First. That there is a need in the world of such information.

a a That women are best fitted to collect this valuable ma-

erial,

Third. That fathers and mothers stand ready to do the work

*ystematically, asking only a guiding hand. ]

ince the above article was read the Woman’s Anthropological

Society has decided to begin the work above described, and, in

the main, to adopt the system used by the Collective Investiga-

tion Committee of the British Medical Association, who publish

a book with the questions to be answered, giving full directions

for taking measurements, weights, testing sight and hearing. —

These books are to be kept in duplicate by the parents, and every

year the duplicate to be sent to the society to become a part of

.. 1 records, thus furnishing material of priceless value for scien-

748 General Notes. (August,

All correspondence should be addressed: The Corresponding

Secretary, Woman’s Anthropological Society, Washington, D. C.

PARTIAL LIST OF QUESTIONS. (To appear later in book form.)

Give full name. f

2. Previous health of mother whether under any especial mental or physical

stimulus, as fright or sickness) ?

ysical peculiarities (if any, as “ mother’s marks ”) ?

. Weight (naked) ?

. Color of hair ?

- At what age did the child exhibit consciousness, or pain ?

- Follow a light with its eyes ?

. Sit alone?

. Creep?

OD ON ANA w&

s e F

ma B Au

Le}

lane)

- Speak, and what did it say ?

. Character of food ?

Give average number of hours of sleep in twenty-four hours.

State diseases, if any.

. At what age did child enter school ?

. Amount and character of exercise.

— p

oP E

D m = a

OS HI A

Sports.

. Playthings.

21. Mention any marked artistic capacity.

22. State of memory, retentive or unreliable ?

— Clara Bliss Hinds.

= ` The dimensions of the cranium, here given, are expresse

inches and decimals of an inch: Circumference, 20. pe

ee longitu-

dinal arch, 14.72 ; length of frontal, 5.35 ; length of paričtal, 5.25;

-~ length of occipital, 4.12. The latitudinal index is -753, which

_would place itin the medium or mesaticephalic division. a

altitudinal index is 650, while the position of the foramen magn

E ‘

-400. :

__One of the peculiar characteristics of the skull is the presene?

of a frontal suture. This suture, as is well known,

is usually

TRE T

£ A

e EN P E EEE EET AE ES

1886. | Arthi opology. 749

the case before us it is well marked and fully developed through-

out, dividing the frontal bone into two lateral halves. The serrz

or dentations are quite abundant for the greater part of the suture,

and are particularly frequent in the upper portion. The coronal

suture in the vicinity of the anterior fontanelle remains unclosed,

permitting a slight movement of the frontal bone.

On the sagittal suture, at its junction with the coronal suture

(near the position of the anterior fontanelle), occurs a wormian

bone of quadrilateral form, .65 of an inch long, by .2 of an inch

wide. Back of this the entire sagittal suture is completely closed

and obliterated, with the exception of a slight indication of its

existence for about one-quarter of an inch at its junction with the

lambdoid suture ; a shallow wavering depression along the rest

of its former course being all that remains to mark its position.

In the lambdoid suture, which is deeply indented, five wormian

ones are present. With the exception of one of them, which is

triangular in shape, situated at the summit of the occipital bone,

by .3 of an inch. The former presents the curious feature of

two or more wormian bones within a wormian bone. Usually

wormian bones are of triangular form, which gives them the name

by which they are also called, viz: Ossa triquetra, or, triangu-

laria. In the wormian bone on the sagittal suture, the long

diameter is with the general direction of the suture; but those

bones in the lambdoid suture have the long diameter at right

angles to the direction of the suture.

ough the skull is small, it is heavy for its size; and the

structure of the bones is solid, massive and unyielding. This is

the more worthy of remark from certain indications which would

seem to point to defective or abortive ossification. The occlusion

and obliteration of the sagittal suture would appear to have found

ve ossification, the membranous intervals left in the pro-

oT of gs being filled in by these supernumerary bones, de-

rance is a decidedly pronounced feature. Some of these facts

_ Point to a similar origin.

750 General Notes. [August,

as obtained by me by computation from the length of the femur,

using Humphrey’s method, is 5 feet 314 inches.

Owing to the absence of the maxillaries, the nasal and malar

bones, and the zygomatic arches, I was prevented making several

interesting and important measurements. Me

In this connection it may be well to remark that synostosis 1s

not always productive of deformity, and that the age at which

the lesion occurs has much to do with the gravity and character

of the result—Henry Gillman, Detroit, Michigan.

THE BATEKES.—A small but exceedingly rare collection brought

to the National Museum by Mr. Tisdel, makes the paper of

Guiral doubly interesting. In Stanley’s “ Congo” will be found

a map locating this interesting people. The Batékés are an agri-

cultural people, locating their villages near water-courses, upon

fertile areas, surrounded by sandy wastes. Their crops are palms,

manioc, arachids, millet and maize. M. Guiral speaks with pa-

thetic eloquence of the discomforts of smoke and vermin in these

palm-leaf habitations.

oil and chip their front teeth. ;

e women are the farmers, and perform their work with a

simple hoe of native manufacture. For domestic animals they

have goats, chickens, pigs and dogs. The music of the Batekes

consists of a gourd rattle ; a calabash pierced with an opening 10

which to blow at the same time that the object is struck with the

| hands ; a kind of ‘fife, three-stringed guitar, castanets, a tambon

= made of hollow wood covered with goat skin, and a species O

zither formed like a bow and arrow. In the last-named instru-

ment a bow has two strings of different lengths attached to an

arrow shaft. Instead of a point the arrow has a broad disk gs

head, which the player placés against his breast. By drawing ¥

bow towards him the player has virtually four strings, which E

can tighten ad Zibitum—ZLeon Guiral, Rev. d’Ethnog., v, 135

166; also see id. iv, 160-168, and tit, 550—555.

„THE Nicoparese.—The inhabitants of the Nicobar islands coy

sist of two races, the natives of the interior, of pure descent si

certain Mongolian affinities), isolated from a remote period; ofa

ie natives of the coast, exhibiting all the characte 2

nongrel Malay race. The inland eople are known to the ted)

tribes as Shom Peir (Shom, people, and Peir, the tribe designa ere

They are fairer than the Malays and_straight-haired. "i i

yabi show an admixture of Burmese and Siamese t

ie r ie r thr ough regular traffic, the latter through wrecks che ; ie

1886, ] Scientific News. PCT

ashore, A very interesting invention for recording the number

of days, etc., is that of bending back a strip of bamboo until the

requisite number of cracks were made on the surface. The coast

people chew the betel until the teeth become coated with a thick,

hard mass, protruding from the gums so as to make it impossible

for the lips to meet.

The Shom Peir boil their food in pots or sacks made of bark

from three varieties of trees.—ZE. H. Man, J. Anthrop. Inst., xv,

428-451.

:0:—

SCIENTIFIC NEWS?

—As we have been asked for the best cement for use in making

aquaria, we extract from the English Mechanic the following re-

ceipt: “This glue is employed where the materials are exposed

to the influence of wet. It cements not only wood, but glass and

metals. It is made by dissolving, by heat, one part of pure india-

rubber in naphtha, the india-rubber being cut very small. When

hile hot, it is poured on metal plates to cool. Before using, it

Tequires to be liquefied by heat, and quickly applied with a brush,

as it soon hardens,”

—The first number of a new German fortnightly journal of :

anatomy, entitled Anatomischer Anzeiger, Centralblatt für die ge- `

sammie wissenschaftliche Anatomie, appeared June 1st, 1886. It is

edited by Professor Karl Bardeleben, of Jena, and is published by

ustav Fischer. Besides short articles and abstracts of longer

ones, it gives the titles of new papers and works on anatomy with

A alogical notes and personal news. The price for 1886 is six

—Professor H. Fol and E. Sarasin read a paper before the

French Academy of Sciences, May 3d, on the penetration of light

O deep sea-water. From their experiments, reports Nature, it.

“Ppears that layers at a depth of 300 meters are illumined every

day for the whole time that the sun remains above the horizon.

350 meters light penetrates for at least eight hours daily.

Even after Sunset the actinic rays seem to reach considerable

-A late number of the Jzvestia, of the Russian Geographics"

ety, contains a letter from M. Prjevalsky, dated Lob-na, Jan-

"y 29th, 1885, in which he announces the discovery, in the

vicinity of Has, of a new species of sheep, which he calls Ovis

neei i Lob-nor he was to spend the month of February

| =“Udying the migrations of birds.

eS ve

di Hosea BALLOU, 265 Broadway, N. Y.

752 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [August,

—Dr. C. O. Whitman, now connected with the biological labo-

ratory of Mr. E. P. Allis, Jr., is to edit an American Journal of

Animal Morphology, to be issued in two parts a year, at $6 a vol-

ume, the first number to appear in January, 1887. The pubi

are Ginn & Co., of New York, Boston and Chicago.

—Baron Mikluho-Maclay has just returned, says Nature, to

Odessa from his journey to New Guinea, which has lasted two

years. He has brought a large collection of rare fishes, lizards,

snakes, insects, etc., packed in twenty-two boxes.

—While the subject of hybridity is attracting renewed atten-

tion from biologists, it is interesting to note the communication

to the London re o Sariely of a case of hybridism between

Oris hodgsoni and O. vi

—Capt. D. H. see of Camp Wg Utah, was drowned

June 6th, in crossing the Grand river en route to a camp in

Southern Utah. He was withisiastically devoted to natural “his:

_ tory.

—Dr. W. J. Hoffman, of the Bureau of Ethnology, has received

the gold medal of the Reale Societa Didascalica Italiana, at Rome.

The Society is mainly composed of anthropologists.

:0:——

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY oF NATURAL ScIENcES, Oct. 6, 1885.—

Mr. Morris remarked that four successive ideas seem to have

ruled in the development of animal forms, viz: (1) ) soft bodies;

(2) armored bodies; (3) swift motion ; wW intelligence. It is

probable that the primitive animals were alÌ soft-bodied, with only

the tentacle, thread-cell, etc., for their weapons. The oldest

fossils are for the most part those of armored animals; but eee

on swift flight and swift pursuit were the chief methods of attac

and defence, and claws were added to teeth as ate weapons.

Still later, intelligence culminated in man. We have now 0?

an epitome of the four methods. ial

-~ Mr. Redfield accounted for the obscurity of the traces of glaci

= action in the vicinity of Mt. Desert by the theory that the Be

_ had been submerged long enough to remove the striæ from the

softer rock.

= _ Oct. 13.—Mr. J. A. Redfield described the topography. of A

Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in connection with the flora ©

those islands. The general character of the flora of thé ce

pr of the former is much like that on the summit of the divides

Corema — exist, also three species of Erica which seem to be

1886. } Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 753

Oct. 20.—A paper by W. N. Lockington called attention to

the effects of the compression of strata by superincumbent weight,

and suggested that when in a delta vegetable remains were found

below the surface of the sea, it might probably be owing to this

cause,

Mr. Meehan instanced a case in which the half of the tubers

from a pink variety of potato were white, as an example of the

spontaneous occurrence of variation.

Oct. 27.—Mr, J. A. Ryder made some remarks upon a new

theory which supposed that the original gastrula mouth became

elongated into the primitive streak, from the edges of which

muscular segments or myotomes were developed. He also called

attention to certain embryological peculiarities which evidenced

relationship between the Batrachia and the marsipobranchs.

Dr. - Wood gave the results of experiments upon the effect

of injecting gastric juice. This produced fever, and it was found

that the heat of the body was inverse to the amount of heat

pl off. Several papers upon fishes were presented for publi-

cation.

Nov. 7—Mr. Redfield stated that the handling of the wild

parsnip produced upon a relative of his the same effect as poison

ivy.

Mr. Meehan referred to cases of the poisoning of children

which seemed traceable to the wild parsnip.

n a discussion upon the change of color in leaves Mr. Meehan

remarked that trees brought to America from abroad will, for

several years, remain green till the end of the season, but eventu-

ally their high vitality will be checked, and the color will com-

mence to change in autumn.

ov. 10.—Dr. H. Allen called attention to changes in the

form of limb bones depending upon the weights they bear. The

sloth, bat and seal, different though their habits and limbs are,

shaft flattened, while the astragalus is lengthened. The direc-

tion of the condyles of the femur has constant relation to the

aeir Supported. The effects of suspension were also con-

idered

Dr, Leidy stated that Mr. Holman, while studying Amæbæ,

had observed one burst and disappear. Very small Amæbæ were

_ tion by spores as well as by division.

Mr, Willcox stated, as the result of experiment, that the seven- 2

754 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [August,

teen-year locust did not bore in a tree-trunk a separate depository

for each egg.

Nov. 24.—Dr. Kcenig announced that the diatoms found in

the blue clay bed in the railway cutting near Gray’s Ferry road

seemed to evidence the Tertiary origin of the clay. ;

Professor Heilprin called attention to an example of Conorbis

from the Oligocene of Florida. It has characters which separate

it from other forms, and as it is very large, six inches in length,

he proposed the name princeps.

Dr. G. H. Horn described a large blind wood-boring beetle

from the Colorado desert. It is two inches long and is the

largest blind beetle yet known.

Mr. T. D. Rand presented a paper entitled “ Notes on the La

Fayette Serpentine Belt.”

Dec. 3.—Mr. Meehan exhibited seeds of the honey locust of a

light-gray or whitish tint. Hybridity could not be the cause, as

there is but one species.

a Opportunity for the capture of its microscopic food.

e Few

ct that living

bles and

he little

ibed

1886.) ` Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 755

a fossil plant which seemed in some respects to resemble a cala-

mite, in others a fern.

Mr. Holstein stated that in certain cultivated portions of North-

ern Texas streams which once dried up now run during the year.

This was referred to the more even absorption of the rainfall con-

sequent on cultivation.

Jan. 19.—Dr. Leidy named Mastodon floridanus! from certain

peculiarities of a last inferior molar, and stated that ina collection

recently received from Florida were numerous bones of a rhinoc-

eros, bones apparently indicating three species of llama and an

ankle bone of a Megatherium.

Professor Heilprin called attention to fossil shells which indi-

cate the existence of Claiborne beds in San Augustin county,

Texas ; also to nummulites from Northern Florida.

Feb, 23.—Dr. Leidy described the results of caries in the tooth

of Mastodon floridanus, and also described a huge hog-like animal

from a fragment of a tusk found with the mastodon teeth.

Rominger presented for publication a paper upon Stroma-

topora and its allies, and Mr. Chas. Morris another upon the

“Phenomena of reversed vision.” ;

Tur InpranA Acapemy oF SCIENCE held its field meeting at

Brookville, May 20 and 21. ;

Thursday evening, May 20, the Academy was welcomed by

- McKee, President of the Brookville Society of Natural

History. To this Professor D. S. Jordan, president of the academy,

people.

Friday evening, May 21.—Professor D. S. Jordan gave an ad-

dress on “ Darwin,” which was discussed by Professor D. W.

, Dennis. Professor Jordan then spoke on “ How to catch fish.”

Professor Branner gave an account of some methods of collecting

Corals. Professor P, S. Baker spoke on “The progress of toxi-

cology.”

_ The next meeting of the Academy will be held in Indianapolis

in December,

‘This form has probably been already described in the NATURALIST for 1884 as a

variety of M. angustidens —Ed.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

: VoL. xx.—SEPTEMBER, 1886.—No. 9.

ak ANIMAL TRAITS.

BY I. LANCASTER.

4 es convincing myself that the Lower Florida peninsula

possessed the coveted facilities for prying into certain secrets

of the birds which I was bent on having, a local habitation to

~ “rve as headquarters was decided upon. Between the extremes

of forty and ninety degrees, temperature might be ignored, while

wind, sun and rain were to be housed against; so that a high

ceiling and a large room with a good roof, the whole being made

of rough boards and shingles, was all that even lavish expendi- =

_ ture need provide. Glass was a useless luxury; windows were —

needed in plenty, however, and full half of the entire side walls.

— devoted to them. Two battens, the top one with gudgeons

whittled on the ends, resting in an auger-hole in a block fastened

to the walls, were nailed between two parallel joists in the vertical —

a ing, when, on sawing the top and bottom across, the win- _

: dow was complete. When pushed out at the lower end like an

_ Awning, the air and light were freely admitted, while the sun, rain-

: — Wind were sufficiently excluded. A stick below, resting

- 88ainst the sill to hold out the shutter, completed what I am dis-

Posed to consider the ideal South Florida window. A tide-water —

Steck, very crooked and full of deep holes and narrow shallows, —

Was near by, the pine forests falling off as the. creek was ap-

_Proached, several acres of dense scrub growth intervening to the

Water's edge where I had located. The country in the vicinity.

Was much broken—broken for Lower Florida. There were sandy

Swells as much as twenty feet high above tide-water, and gullies _

that one could not leap across, but otherwise all was a dead level

50 far as the ground was concerned, Matted jungles of tangled

3 ns ne | ae

“NO. 1x,

4758 Animal Traits. [September,

vines and tough sinuous growths abounded, and although not

lofty were nevertheless hard to penetrate. Small prairies of a

few acres in extent were common, and ponds and saw-grass

marshes were met with frequently. In the wet season the whole

country was under water. In the dry, tide-water only was to be

found. Of the wild animals native to these precincts, opossum |

and raccoon were everywhere; wild cats of powerful physique, |

magnified specimens of the domestic cat, although very rare,

lived in the tangles and often wandered to the coast. Foxes of

such exceeding beauty of shape and grace of motion that it

seemed a crime to injure them, were met with at intervals, and

bears, as fat as butter and as lazy as they had a right to be, in

diminishing numbers, lived in the great hummocks. Rumor in-

i 4 ~ sisted that the cougar had its lair about the everglades, but in se

| extensive wanderings through as many “ bogs, fens and briars,

as ever fabled witch floundered over, I never found either the ant

: mal or its signs.

=. The United States, with that unbounded generosity so well

= known, gave to the State of Florida all “swamp lands.” Ias

general way land covered with water would be termed “ swamp,

and if the examination occurred in August the whole country

would fill this definition ; if in January but a small’ fraction of it

- would be moist, and so the inferences can proceed with a go

- deal of certainty on the fact that the State owns practically all We

land. Itis not held at a high figure; one dollar per acre, grading

: down to fifty cents with the size of the purchase, will get an 1n-

vulnerable title. The only drawback to the ownership of pr

land is, that one seems the poorer the more he has of it, still ]

purchased a small tract and felt as much like a landed proprietor

as was possible under the circumstances of the case.

Not wishing to engage in agriculture to a greater extent than _

the satisfaction of curiosity demanded, about one-quarter of an |

acre was cleared and planted with various seeds, and ieee

pathway to the house, one hundred yards distant, was cut throug:

~- The environment of the events following is now sufficiently

etailed to suit the purpose in hand. ie

About a year previous to the house-building, on first ge :

the co , a hospitable cracker had presented gees cats.

oe a

A ie ee

bo ee

n in reward for unstinted praise of his

Animal Traits. 2 759

Puss grew apace, went boating and tramping with me, and devel-

oped to perfection the arts of agility for which the Felide are

famous. It was a female, and was more than a match for any

dog she ever met. Her assault was sudden; the back of the in-

truder was reached at a single leap, and its eyes made the object-

ive of attack. Instantaneous panic ensued, and when the retreat

became assured, she as quickly sprang into the bushes and in-

i stantly hid from sight. The dog, relieved of its foe and regaining

its confidence, would often return, brim full of fury, to wreak

vengeance, when it would be met as suddenly as before, with

augmented intensity. Nothing but precipitate, howling flight

seemed to suit the requirements of the case, and victorious puss

would return with the most comically satisfied and important

air. During her boating experience she learned to fish quite

expertly. She would spring on her prey when it was near the

surface of the water with unerring aim. She did not present an

elegant appearance on reaching the shore or boat after a complete

wetting, but she always brought out the fish, having no antipathy

to the water and swimming like a duck. Alligators abounded in

the creeks which I often navigated, and to puss they were per-

plexing objects. She strongly objected to their presence, but

was undecided how to prevent it. I more than suspected that

they would be her fate, as the scaly covering of the saurian would

Prevent her claws from securing a hold wherever placed, and

should the jaws of the reptile once close upon her, her career

would end at once. But I had underrated her resources. A

rather small Specimen came familiarly near our camp, and puss —

Promenaded a log by the side of which the creature was slowly —

moving. After much preparation, which induced me to think —

the female who deliberates is lost,” she came furiously down, and. a:

3S it appeared in the rush, with both fore feet in her victim’s

‘yes. They were in an instant torn from their sockets, and we ©

_ hada blind and frenzied alligator storming over our camp and

through the bushes of the point, back and forth until it reached

‘ the water. There was a blunder somewhere, but the entire

Fesponsibility rested upon nature. In the water the saurian

=. Supreme, but on land the clumsy thing could only see

ae -

SyMnastics expressive of the utmost

[September,

760 í Animal Traits.

_.‘. When we were at length housed the kitten had fully matured,

= and the ancestral experiences registered in its nervous apparatus

were supplemented, or at least confirmed, by many of its own. It

took possession at once, explored every nook and corner, routed

the mice, and proceeded to enjoy life.

One morning as I was digging a post-hole inthe sand, a large

snake made its appearance near by in the bushes. It remained

through the day in sight, and seemed to be greatly interested in

what was going on. The next day it was on hand and remained

as before. It became more and more familiar, would approach to

__ within a few feet of my person, examine each hole as it was dug,

r and interview the spade, stuck upright into the sand, by putting its

head through the hand-hole and coiling and uncoiling about the

handle. It seemed to invite companionship, and to regard me

with intense curiosity as a unique specimen for investigation. It

was non-venomous evidently, a Watrix torquata or coluber proba-

bly, but a native said, “hits a coachwip,” and “coachwhip” it

was from that time. It finally became a tenant-at-will, had the

freedom of the house and grounds, and was an object of never-

ceasing interest. Its curiosity was simply unbounded, and -any

= hour of the day or night it was on hand to assist in whatever

; enterprise was in progress. When its acquaintance was first made —

I was interested in what puss would think of the new-comer. A

contest was expected, but to my complete surprise neither snake

‘nor cat took the least notice of each other. The cat was, how-

ever, mistress of the situation, for when coachwhip came too neat

was boxed away, gently at first, with more and more claw in

each succeeding tap until it obeyed. If the snake was hurt it at

least simulated anger very closely, making sham onsets, gather- :

itself up as if to dart suddenly on its foe, quivering its head

oscillating to and fro in a forbidding manner. It was really

inches in diameter in the thickest part, and when in Soe

seemed formidable ; but puss paid no attention to the fuss, shat-

ing her eyes and sleeping in the midst of it all.

k in the still-

ht and see the coluber’s bright eyes, a foot above

886.] ee Animal Traits. | 761

the table, peering at the luminous shade, upon which, by the way

a juggler and his snake were pictured.

Late one afternoon I answered bob-white’s whistle by slipping

cartridges of fine shot into the chambers of the gun, and pro-

ceeded to the clearing. There was found a large wild cat in pos-

Session, quietly sitting on its haunches on a sweet-potato hill.

The longitudinal stripessand grim markings behind the ears were

unmistakable, but no bars on the tail. It seemed a friendly beast,

devoid of that look of wild ferocity characteristic of its tribe in

more northern places, nevertheless had I been unarmed a foot-

race would have been in order, but knowing that the unexpected

might at any time happen, I never went about without some

weapon of defense, and had entire confidence in small shot at h

close quarters. It made no motion of retreat as I advanced, but w

slowly opened its jaws and crouched as if gathering itself fora

spring. Not desiring to injure it I backed away, only to be fol

lowed. This was not endurable, and having no wish to give it a

= the least advantage, I killed it. e

The next thing was to see what opinion the domestic cat would

have of this distant relative, for I could not entertain the notion _

that they were cousins germane within the historic period, so

arranging the carcass to appear as lifelike as possible, I induced

Puss to follow me to interview her dead congener. Alas! cat-

: glory resembles human glory, and is liable to vanish at any time.

Puss got within a few feet of the body before she saw it, and just

as I was expecting to hear her inquiring “ mew,” there came in- -

‘Stead a transformation which was indeed surprising. She suddenly °

rew to twice her natural size, her tail especially enlarged to the-

4 dimensions of an Indian war club. Her eyes seemed to be deter-

_ Mined to leave their sockets, and she bounded into the air witha

_ Scream which until that moment I never heard i from the thr:

es Ct Nes-sooner did she touch the ground than she went into”

the air again with a shriek, until the house was reached, and at the ©

= of a week was hardly herself again. She was badly scared,

her fear had no paralyzing function,

762. , ` Animal Traits. : [September,

without the least trepidation, examined it critically, crawled over

it in all directions, and went through its habitual pantomime for

all unfamiliar things.

At times fish and wild game was provided in superabundance,

and as the refuse went out of the window near the dining table, a

depot of supplies for the animals of the immediate neighborhood

was established. The scolding of opossums and raccoons was

noticed, and at intervals the sharp bark of a fox was heard in the

night hours, while every scrap of eatable stuff disappeared. Puss

had often perched herself on the window-sill while this devouring

of garbage was in progress, but seemed indifferent to what was

going on. My approach, however guarded, occasioned the

retreat of the animals, so that I could get no more than a glimpse

of them. Remembering the dazzling effect of light at night on

deer, I lowered the reservoir and burner of the lamp to the base,

and holding it by the ring above, advanced to the window with

entire success. Putting the lamp on the outside and leaning

against the sill, a full view of the animals was had not more than

six feet away. They seemed to think all was not right at first,

but soon resumed their feeding and quarreling unconcerned, A

brood of opossums, a couple of raccoons and a fox were on hand.

The latter continued Suspicious, gazing into my eyes for several

Seconds, but seemed convinced that there was no danger after the

_ examination. So long as all movement was behind the light,

_ everything was serene, but if the hand or a stick were advanced

an front, panic at once seized the crowd. But where were the

foxes’ ‘senses of smell and hearing? Were the olfactory and audi-

tory nerves demoralized, as the optic seemed to be, by the ethe-

real vibrations from the incandescent body? One would think

that at six feet distance at least the fox could smell its enemy 1”

spite of the light. This kind of lamp-light scrutiny was of never

failing interest. The animals were fresh from the hand of nature

anc on their native heath. The opossums were particularly in-

teresting; when several females with their broods were on res: ;

pere occurred a mixing of families, for the mother which had

c a bone at once shook off her progeny whil

ter discarded infants would fasten on the nearest fema

Sometimes a single mother went about with four families ©

hanging to her. When a fox appeared the encumbered

once took to the bushes, the others covering her retreat

f chil-

e she ate it e

) le, and —

ani-

with

= ens

ae Mone ee a

Animal Traits.

: wide-open mouths which, with their serried rows of teeth, seemed

_ indeed formidable. Reynard always respected this show of ivory,

as the raccoons did also. But in spite of all the precautions

taken by the mothers, a strict count of children after home. was

reached would show loss. When they were shaken off one

would be a little late in regaining a position of safety, and in the

hurry consequent on the fox’s arrival, this tardy scrambler would

prove to be the one not fitted to survive. It left no legacy to its

descendants for it never had any. The celerity with which it was

_ Snapped up and carried off was commendable; a single squeak

___ Preluding a mingling of protoplasms.

; This kind of observation went on through the rainy season to

the following November, when the waters began to subside. The

young opossums had escaped from maternal care and were their

own masters, when one night a stranger arrived. The feeding

company consisted of a huge opossum, several raccoons and a

fox, when another wild cat, younger and smaller than the one

killed, dropped from above into the center of the feeding ground,

now worn quite bare. The fox sprang from the earth, barking

with every jump, as it tore through the bushes in its frantic efforts

to escape. The, raccoons could be heard butting against the

sleepers of the house in their lumbering flight, while poor puss

went like a meteor through the opposite window, making a total

_ Wreck of the dining dishes, and did not appear at the house for :

Several days. Opossum did not run; rearing backwards toan _

Upright position, with wide-open mouth and such a disposition of —

its feet that its body seemed all claws, it held its ground with a —

snarling protest of intense anger. “The undaunted fiend what ~

T this might be, admired.” Opossum presented no vulnerable

_ Point but down its throat, and it was unwise to assult in that

_ direction. The cat got upon its feet and walked around raising

"S paw, but seeing no good place to strike. In fact no good

place existed. The defense was vertical, and the assault made

_ "om a horizontal plane was alike bad from all directions. The

east in Manceuvering for an attack got his tail within reach of

iy left hand, the right being engaged with the lamp; the tempta-

On to seize it was irresistible. Calling out “ puss I have you,”

aS a firm hold was obtained, instantaneous panic ensued, and the

fox’s method and line of flight was closely followed. Had my

asp been as vigorous as that of Tam O’Shanter’s witches, wild

“at would have been transformed into lynx then and there.

e Animal Traits. [September,

Coachwhip was an interested spectator of the whole affair, and

- when it was over and the relieved opossum had shut its mouth, I

= thought the snake had gone insane. It tore around the room

. like lightning, tied itself into innumerable knots, wove in and out

of the chair rounds, made sham charges, and ended by rushing

out of the door and taking to the bushes.

= Poor coachwhip met witha sad fate at last. One quiet day it

had discovered a mouse in the yard hidden beside a billet of wood

= ina position so insecure that it took to the grass, and the snake

lifted its head a couple of feet high to get a view of the escaping

prey. A rush of wings and mingling of shadows took place, and

Natrix went aloft in the talons of the king of birds, No time

was to be lost. Shot was wanted, but only bullets were available.

I emptied the full chamber of a Winchester rifle at the pirate, but

every shot missed. The bird made directly for its nest that I

knew of two miles away, but when the tree was reached, coach-

whip had departed this life, and had no less than three living —

tombs.

It is evident that the great doctrine of the conservation and

correlation of forces, as applied by evolution, has thrown a new-

and brilliant light upon these animal traits. They are no longer

isolated facts, having their ultimate explanation in the specific

characteristics of the creature, but legacies from ancestries reach-

3 ing through the geological epochs to the earliest fossiliferous £

rocks. The force setting up the multitudinous motions is a pro-

duct of the present time. The food digested, the air breathed, ;

the various ethereal vibrations disturbing the nerves of sensation

and all the influences which cause muscular work are active at

ie instant the work is done. The work done is done now. +9%

ces employed are generated now. The transformation of force

; But when —

an opossum and a raccoon, and her mortal fear ot E

:? Where did she learn that the well-detailed preparations ge

ult made by a serpent almost large enough to swallow e

sham before she had the least experience of it, w oie

y of one of her own family was the very maximun

, Animal Traits. — | Wg

_ of danger? Whence did she obtain the professional skill of an

expert in disabling an armor-clad alligator the first time she

tried ? ;

Where was it decided that a wild cat should gaze complacently

into the serried crater of a marsupial prepared for battle, and then

fly in terror from a harmless touch of Homo sapiens ?

_ ’Twas instinct did it! Well, “instinct is a great matter,” and

would serve for the age of William Paley, who knew nothing

about the conservation of forces, but science has, added a new

world to our possessions since then.

Think of it a moment. The ethereal undulations flowing from

the surface of the snake, opossum and raccoon which enter the —

eyes of the cat and disturb its optic nerves, assisted, it is reason-

able to suppose, by odors emanating from their bodies disturbing __

its olfactories, cause mild muscular action or none at all, while 22

the slightly different modes of motion from a wild cat’s body set y

up activities so intense as to suspend the action of other faculties

and concentrate the whole force of the animal in changing the

space relations between itself and its enemy. So violent is the |

disturbance that the sensation of hunger is suspended and several

days are passed without food. Friends are no longer recognized. _

Everything manifesting motion is held a foe. A position as far

away from the dreadful apparition as it was possible to find was

held for three days, in a constrained attitude against the roof at —

the gable, with eyes phosphorescent at night and much dilated, —

and the unnatural tension was not for a moment relaxed at any

time that she was observed. . Se

We are driven to the conclusion that long ages had passed-

during which the ancestry respectively of the wild cat and the

_ domestic cat were enemies, and that when collision occurred the

_ domestic line went to the wall. During this time the present

Markings of the wild cat and its odor were acquired, pointing

_“nmistakably to a long period of separation into species as di:

“nct as we now find them to be. For it is very certain that puss

never before saw a wild cat, nor is it very likely that her parents ever

€y are extremely rare in Florida, and nothing but lon

frequent contact could arrange so vast a force about an equi

num so delicate as to be overthrown by a mere arrangement

of very ordinary reflections of light and trifling molecular dis-

po Of an odoriferous character. 2 op n :

Sele oe

Animal Traits, [September, _

_A further matter forced itself upon my attention. Habit, from

one point of view, stands in the same relation to truth that the |

spurious mother of the great Solomon’s time did to the child of r

_ doubtful parentage. It seeks to divide it, ignoring the fact that

to separate is to destroy it.

; Familiarity with what is currently accepted had shut from me

= the vast oceans of truth that stretch illimitably on every side;

= anda sight of these wild creatures under circumstances which

= were not habitual, seemed to immeasurably enlarge the view of

the relations which human life bears to the scheme of things.

As night after night passed, I found myself unconsciously esti-

mating the similarities and differences between myself and the

weaker brethren. The first were innumerable, the last easily

counted. Of the total sum of physical and mental activities in

-~our several cases which we term “ character,” that of the weaker

_ folks may be stated at ninety-nine-hundredths ancestrally derived, »

and one-one-hundreths individually derived. Of Homo sapiens

say ninety-hundreths are ancestrally and ten-hundredths individ-

ually obtained. It really seemed that the only superiority I en-

=~ joyed over the others was.a slight power of judgment on the

-~ ancestral derivations. But this power is extremely weak.

_ One evening I had noticed a splash of rain and noise of thun-

der at intervals for some hours until a lurid glare and crash came

on the stillness with terrific effect. I never knew how it hap-

pened, but certainly when the awful racket was over I was on the

floor under the table. Coachwhip was regarding me curiously |

from the back of a chair, and puss marched up with her inevita-

ble mew. After a hearty laugh I had to admit that between my

and hers there was not one marvedi’s choice. She took to

roof, I to the floor. I recovered from the panic sooner, but

2 was more dignified. Her enemy was already dead,

ot have one, the noise made by the passage OF

ee as P

ora

Navajo Names for Flants.

NAVAJO NAMES FOR PLANTS.

BY DR. W. MATTHEWS, U.S.A.

aie plant-lore of the Navajo Indians compared with that

of white men who are not specially versed in botany, is

remarkable for its extent and accuracy. There are few species

of phenogamous plants, among the varied flora of their country,

for which they have not distinct, well-chosen names, and of whose

physical properties they have not made some observation. True

all do not possess such knowledge, and one is sometimes in dan-

ger of being deceived by the uninformed who will coin a name

for the occasion rather than confess ignorance. This knowledge

is, however, pretty well diffused, and there are many grades. of

Proficiency in it. The better informed, in widely distant parts of

the Navajo country, agree closely as to the names and properties

(of the great majority of species. My best informant was an old

woman, probably over seventy years old. My next best in-

formant was a very intelligent man of about thirty-five years of-

age. An old priest or so-called medicine-man, over sixty, who

knew the Shamanistic rites and the elaborate mythology of the

tribe perfectly, knew less of plant-lore than many others. It

Would seem that it is not the oft-quoted wise old medicine-man —

of the Indian tribe who knows the most of nature. I have heard _

from many Navajos of a wise man dwelling in the far north-west- —

rn part of the Navajo country who knew most about the vege-

table kingdom of all the Navajos. I regret that I never hadan —

°pportunity of meeting this man. He seems to be their highest _

authority in botany. z

Not only do the Navajos discriminate all the more important

Species, but they are not devoid of generalization among allied

Species. In some cases this generalization agrees with our own.

For instance, there are three species of juniper growing in the Zuni

Mountains; each has its own appropriate name, yet the generic

name for juniper (oth) appears in all. The most common kind

of sunflower bears the name of indigili; as with ourselves, this

eak čen as a type or foundation species of plants in the sub-

_ tribe Heliantheæ, and we have indigilt nilchini, strong-scented

4 Sunflower (Verbesina enceloides), and indigili nilchinitso, great

A j

‘Strong-scented sunflower (Helianthus.nuttallii). os

Of a class of plants so rank and showy as the sunflower

[September,

family, it is easy to credit this; but it is more difficult to realize

that in the obscurely flowered and unattractive Chenopodiacee

and Amaranthacez their faculties of observation have guided them

as safely. In the section of the Navajo country where I did

most of my collecting there are two species of Chenopodium so—

_ much alike that white people in general do not distinguish them

from one another but call them all “lamb’s quarter.” Thereis

still another so little like its congeners in its macroscopic charac-

ters that none, I imagine, but the scientific could trace the

_ relationship; this is the Chenopodium, or Teloxys cornutum ; when

_ burned it emits a fine aromatic odor, and in the late autumn it

changes toa rich rose-lake color which lends a beautiful tint to

_ the slopes of the Zuñi mountains. Again the relationship be-

tween the goosefoot and amaranth families is not known to the

unscientific among ourselves. That the Navajos have traced

some character in common, in these instances, is evident from the

following names :

Chenopodium Sremontii, tlotahi.

_ Chenopodium album, tiotéhi-tso, or “ great tlotaht.”

Teloxys cornutum, tsinya tlotahi, or “ tlotahi under the trees,”

from its sub-arboreal habitat.

$ _Amaranthus retrofiexus, tlotahi-hochi, or “ a tlotahi.”

_ They do not however apply the name “ofd/i to all the Cheno-

aceæ, but they evidently connect the not very similar genera

of Atriplex and Sarcobatus, the former being called togoji, refer-

ng to its spines, and the latter éogosijin, or “ black toggyi.”

hey are not» always thus happy with their classification, for

lacinata and Castilleia affinis, representing the widely sep- —

1 families Caryophillacee and Scrophulariacee are :

tahitihita, “ humming-birds’ corn,” because humming-birds _

often seen hovering over them. The Indians do not suppose L

to be the same plant, but will tell you they are different

though named alike. The term chil-epe, “ milk-plant,” is

es eens to tie eed of both Euphorbiacee ane

Navajo Names for Plants.

; occupy too devas space to recount all the facts con- —

the: eee of no which I obtained from them, =

i miine grasses and underbrush which almost hide it es sight,

_ The unpracticed eye might pass; by specimens of this plant a

hundred times without observing them. I once took some of

_ this Comandra to the man whom I have described as my second-

best informant, yet doubting whether he knew anything of such

a rare and, to me, useless plant. Without taking it into his hand

or honoring it with more than a glance, he named it. I expressed

some doubts. He replied, “I know it well. It has a blue root.”

Feeling now positive he was mistaken, I exhibited the root, which

was a distinct white. Without answering he took the specimen —

_ out of my hand, scraped the root with his thumb nail, handed it

back to me and told me to observe it fora moment. To my sur- —

prise the denuded root changed from white to a delicate cerulean

tint.

—

È!

— On another occasion I met the same Indian carrying, in the

e fold of his blanket, some specimens of Pectis angustifolia, a plant

which on the dry mesas of New Mexico does not attain a height ~

Bo of more than two or three inches, but it has a delightful odor, —

‘> like that of lemon verbena, and its infusion is used by the Nava-

a josasa carminative. Their attention has therefore been drawn _

to it. The name given for the plant was so peculiar, signifying “a — =

2 breeze blowing through a rock,” éseganilchee, that I made no delay ~

in getting an explanation from him. He-led me to the top of a —

_ desert mesa where the plant grew fresh. Here he picked up a ~

Piece of sandstone about a foot square and three inches thick, and

_ held it up to yes saying, “ Do you smell anything on =

a to my nostrils. The agreeable odor was at once distinctly

Perceptible through the rock. Some minutes later it could be

detected in all parts of the fragment ; but at first it was perceived

at a point directly opposite to the point of application. Later he

betlormed the experiment on a large stone nearly two feet thick;

the results were the same as with the smaller stone, but more

€, hence the name. It is possible similar results inci be

obtained with other odoriferous substances.

Lele are named from supposed pe virtues,

as Names for Plants.

te others from the animals which they seem to attract or furnish :

ae d for, others from fancied resemblances. The following list of —

some of the more important plants will show their different

modes of devising names: . a

Order RANUNCULACEZ.

Delphinium scaposum Greene, tha‘-di'-thee-do-tli’, “blue sacred 4

= powder.” The powdered petals are used by the Shamans as a A

sacrifice to the gods of the south. Blue is the color sacred to the X

south in Navajo rites.

Order BERBERIDACE.

Berberis fremontii Torrey and Gray, hin-li-tso\-ee-tso, “ large

yellow twigs.” Used in dyeing buckskin yellow. “Great Ain-

bitsoee,” see Berberis repens.

Berberis. repens Lindley, kin-li-tso-ce, “ yellow twigs.” The

nf woodi is yellow.

Order CRUCIFERÆ.

aioe montana Watson, a-/ij-be-i-tsol. The name refers to its

rs oppad diuretic properties.

, Arabis holböltii Hornémann, a-zay’-la-dil-tay’-hay, “ scattered,”

or “lone medicine.” The plants grow singly and ata distance »

from one another, not in beds or clusters.

j Thely podium wrightii Gray, nan-chath'-a-zay’, “ medicine for

swellings,” :

Stanleya pinnatifida Nuttall, tseh’-chosh-a-zay, “ medicine for

the rock-worm,” i. e., a glandular swelling.

Physaria newberryi Gray, cheesh-a-zay, “sneeze medicine.”

sims as a snuff in catarrh.

Veo

-Order CARYOPHYLLACEÆ.

erastium arvense Linnzus, tho-ka’-so-kath, “ it Aad in water,” a

‘it grows in moist places. o

naria aculeata, a-zay-tlo-ee, “ medicine hay.”

) Order MALNACEÆ.

latvastrum coccineum Gray, a-zay-in-kiin'-1, “ gummy OF glu- :

medicine.” Tbe infusion is a supposed remedy for ei

lees. Sendiri Day, a-zay-in-klini-tso. Tso =

ua p Navajo Names for Plants. i 771

Order LInAcEz&.

oom rigidum Pursh, /a-tha'-di-chol, “round top,” refers to

shape of capsules.

Order RHAMNACE#.

Ceanothus fendleri Gray, peen'-bi'-tha, “ deer’s food,” or “ deer’s

It is said that the deer browse on it.

Order VITACE.

Ampelopsis quinquefolia Michaux, chil-na'-tlo-i, “plant that

4 weaves,” 7. e., climbs. The name is, however, by some applied to

other vines, 7Z/a-ash- tla, “ five-leaf,” is another name. SeN

) Order ANACARDIACE®. a

Rhus aromatica Aiton, var. t#ilobata Gray, chil-chi'-nt, or’ chil- ; 4

chin', “odorous plant.” Some say the name should be pro- 3

nounced chee-/i-jin', which would mean “dark red,” also an a

an i appropriate name. Sometimes it is called 42m, “ the twig,” be-

, Cause its twigs are those most used in making baskets. The acid

! fruit is eaten.

Order LEGUMINOSÆ. o

. Sophora sericea Nuttall, de-pay-hi-chi'-di, “sheep scratch.” os a

is said that sheep paw the ground to get at the roots. This ;

is also applied to some species of Astragalus. - ; o

Lupinus brevicaulis Watson, a-zay-ba-aa’, “ female RI | GP

The name and probably the use were suggested by the peculiar

appearance of the pod. It is supposed, when eaten, to be a rem-

edy for barrenness, and to specially favor the production of female

ng.

7 di rifoium hielo Wildenow, cha’ pres r transparent

sar” Named from the appearance of the leaf.

— Hosackia nana Watson, zeeh'-bist-yah, “ lies on the ground,” so

called because procumbent. It is also a cheeshazay, or

cenh See Physaria newberryii.

alea tenuifolia Pursh, leen-tha'-tsoz, “ slender horse ¢ corn.”

P etalostemon candidus Nuttall, var. occidentalis, has-thu'-t- -Oui-s

gale,“ old man’s an ” which the dense terminal white s F ik

= wpbosed to resem

“slender,” see Xanthium. The pods are

adherent ——

Ea Pa Navajo Names for Plants. [September,

eS Acbiabhes matthewsii Watson, a-zay-ba-adi-tso. Tso signifies

« great” see Lupinus brevicaulis, ante. a j

Astragalus triflorus Gray, tha-hol-cho'-shee, “ popping leaf.” Chil-

_ dren burst the inflated pods on their foreheads. $

: Astragalus kentrophyta Gray, ma-ee-nah'-ol-chil, “ coyote bean

plant,” or “wolf bean plant.” A reputed remedy for rabies. The

name is applied also to other species of Astragalus to which sim- }

_ ilar properties are attributed.

Lathyrus polymorphus Nuttall, na-ol-il-tha'-he, “ bean-like leaf.”

Mp in Beg a

Order RoSACE.

Cercocarpus parvifolius Nuttali, tseh-es-thaz'-ee, “ heavy as a

stone.” The compact fine-grained wood, particularly that of the

root, of this species of “ mountain mahogany” has a high spe-

_ cific gravity.

Cowania mexicana Don, a-way-tsal, “baby’s bed.” The soft

shredded bark of the “ cliff-rose” is used to line the baby

fe basket. a

` Findlera rupicola, tsin-tliz'-i, “hard wood.” The wood is not &

a hard when green, but is said to become so when seasoned, and —

is then used for arrows, weaving-forks and other articles requir-

ng a hard wood.

Amelanchier alnifolia Nuttall, dit-say-di-to'-dee, “ soft cherries.” a

cherry is called ditsay, a name for which I can discover nO

satisfactory derivation. The service berry is regarded by the

avajos as a variety of the cherry, or allied to the latter.

m Foa f oe eae ae $ ae si eS gy y j : he ;

G E a ras, Shc T a a ee ee a aaa

Order SAXIFRAGACEÆ.

Tellima tenella Watson, tseh'-tha-sa-ka-dee, “ growing upright ;

Order ONAGRACEZ. oy:

m coloratum Muhlenberg, chil-a-tha'-eth-sos, “ feather-

plant.” Name refers to the plumes of the seeds showing

ugh the open pod.

3 sig a breviflora Torrey and Gray, bla te ae ' hee,

The flowers unfold after sunse

parviflora Douglas, a-zay’ pacers 4, “éold neddi

S = is supposed to allay inflammation and cure burns.

Order CACTACEÆ. eee,

ly ja-ce-na-i-o-kis! ce, Sew

“ti

1886. | Navajo Names for Plants. 773

heart,” so-called probably from the shape of this contorted cac-

tus; but they say the fruit is poisonous and makes you feel as if

your heart were twisted.

Opuntia missouriensis De Candolle, hosh-int-yay’-lee, “ broad-

thorny.”

Order LoasasE#.

Mentzelia multiflora Il-klee'-hee, “tenacious.” The leaves stick

obstinately to the clothing.

Order UMBELLIFERZ.

Cymopterus purpureus Watson, ha-zah'-lit-so, “ yellow-flavor.” It

is used as a pot-herb in seasoning mush and soup.

Order COMPOSITÆ.

Eupatorium purpureum Linnæus, kas-thaw'-bay-kaw, “ antidote

for arrow poison.” :

Eupatorium occidentalis Hooker, bil-haz-chee, “odorous in the

wind.”

} Gutierrezia euthamie Torrey and Gray, chil-dil-gez'-ee, “ fright-

J ened weed.” It is difficult to say why this name was given.

| Bigelovia graveolens Gray, kil-tso-i, “ yellow-stem.” Used to

dye wool yellow.

: Aster multiflorus Linnzeus, nath-iz'-ee-ha-naz'-ee, “ eyelashes.”

: Name Suggested by the circle of fine rays.

Thelesperma gracile Gray, wo'-tsin-t-a-zay, “tooth medicine.”

Said to be good for the teeth, but in what way I did not learn. It

'S a nervous stimulant, and its decoction is used as a beverage by

the Indians and Mexicans. The latter call it “ te de los Navajos,”

or Navajo tea.

à Xanthium strumarium Linnæus, el-than'-ee-tsee-hee, “ sticking

to one another.” An appropriate name for the well-known cockle-

ur or clotbur.

Sanvitalia aberti Gray, a-zay'-ho-tsee-hee, “ benumbing medi-

a When chewed it has a salty pungent taste, which is fol-

Ee by a sense of numbness in the mouth; said to be diapho-

etic,

3 Achillea millefolium Linn., ha-zay-il-tsay, “squirrel’s tail.”

7 Named from the shape of the leaves.

Artemesia trifida Wildenow, tho-ce-kal’, “ water bearer.” In the

dry climates where it grows it is said to collect dew more readily

_ “any other plant.

_ VOL. X.—x0, nx, 51

774 Navajo Names for Plants. [September,

Senecio douglassti De Candolle, hosh-del-tay’-hee, “cactus brush.”

The tops are used as brooms to brush the spines from cactus

fruit.

Order LoBELIACE,

Lobelia splendens Humboldt, Bonpland and Kunth, tha-hee-

thee'-hee il-tha’-hee, “ humming-bird’s wing,” which it is fancied

to resemble.

Order OLEACEZ.

Forestiera neo-mexicana Gray, ma-i-tha', “ coyote’s corn.” The

bear is said to eat the fruit of this tree as well as the coyote.

Order ASCLEPIADACE.

Asclepias verticillata Linneus, hlish’-bi-tay-il-tzos', “slender

snake-horn.” The pod has some resemblance to the horn of a

rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) I imagine some Asclepias of

stouter habit is called £/sh-ditay, or “ snake-horn.”

Asclepidora decumbens Gray, chad-il-tay, “antelope horn.”

Named from shape of pod.

The Asclepiads in general are often called chzl-a-pay', or milk

weeds,”

Order GENTIANACEZ.

Gentiana affinis Gissel, in-is'-ee-chil, “ witch plant.” Supposed

to be an antidote for witchcraft.

Frazera speciosa Douglas, peen-il-cha'-hee “ deer’s ear.” Te

large obovate downy root-leaf has much resemblance to a deer’s

ear.

Order HYDROPHYLLACEÆ.

Phacelia glandulosa Nuttall, var. neo-mexicana, a-zay' -in-chee-

hee, “angry medicine.” It is said to inflame the skin.

Phacelia integrifolia Torrey, var. palmeri Gray, a-zay/-in-chee i

hee-tso. Tso means “big” (see Phacelia glandulosa ante).

Order BorRAGINACEZ.

Lithospermum angustifolium Michaux, a-zay’ -ha-chee! -nee,“ er

body medicine.” There is a myth, accounting for the redness 0

oe the root, saying it is derived from the blood of a magician OF

~ holy one who was killed by lightning.

_ Lithospermum multiflorum Torrey, a-zay’-ha-che¢! -ni-t50,

red body medicine ” (see L. angustifolium ante).

s great

1886. | Navajo Names for Plants. 775

Order SOLANACEÆ.

Solanum tuberosum Linnzus, nim'-as, “ anything globular; a

ball.” The potato grows wild in New Mexico.

Lycium pallidum Miers, has-chay'-tha, “the food of” a demi-

god or genius named “ Has-chay,” a name derived from their

mythology. The edible fruit is sacrificed to this god.

Order OROBANCHACE®.

Aphyllon multiflorum Gray, hieh'-do-lej, “feet stuck in the

ground.” The plant at the root has somewhat the appearance of

a moccasined foot sunk partly in the earth.

Order LABIATA. /

Salvia lanceolata Wildenow, chal-tha’, “ frog’s corn.”

intervals.” The name refers to the whorls.

Order NycTaGINEz.

Abronia cycloptera Gray, in-tlish'-ce-tha, “ food or corn of” col-

Copterous insect named “hintlish.”

Order PoLYGONACE.

Eriogonum elatum Douglas, Aleh-a-zay, “earth medicine.” I

have not discovered why this name is given.

Eriogonum fasciculatum Bentham, dzs-in-dis-chee’, “red (clusters

Or tufts) scattered on a bank ;” thus it grows.

_ Friogonum microthecum Nuttall, bisindischee'-baad “ female bis-

indischee”” This species is regarded as the female of the former

(E faserculatum) because more slender.

Eriogonum racemosum Nuttall, zee-gan'-thee-hee, “ runs through

€ earth,” 7. e., the long tap-root runs.

Eriogonum jamesii Bentham, 6z/-na’-tho-i, “ with tobacco.” The

leaves are mixed with tobacco in smoking.

Order AMARANTACE#.

Amarantus blitoides Watson, nas-ka’-di, “lying on the ground,”

erring to the prostrate or decumbent stems.

Order CHENOPODIACEZ.

Eurotia lanata Moquin, 4at-so-tha’, “ jack rabbit’s corn.”

~ thorny,” which alludes to its pleasant fruit and sharp-po!n

776 Navajo Names for Plants. {September,

Order EuPHORBIACE.

Euphorbia pringlei Engelmann, kay-tsee-hal-chee’, “ red near the

feet.” The stem is red at the base.

Order SALICACEÆ.

Populus fremonti Watson, thiss. Etymology unknown. Cot-

tonwood.

Populus angustifolia James, thiss-tsoz. Slender cottonwood.

Order CUPULIFERÆ.

Quercus undulata Torrey, var. gambelli Engelmann, tseh-chel ot

chet-chel, probably “ rock plant.” This oak is most common in

rocky land, and is very hard.

Quercus undulata var. pungens Engelmann, tseh-chel-inkiist

“hard rock plant,” or “ hard oak.”

Quercus undulata var. brevifolia Engelmann, tseh-chel-ingliz"

baka. Baka means “male.” This variety is spoken of as the

male of the last because more robust and spiny.

Order LorANTHACEA,

Phoradendron juniperum Engelmann, dah-tsa’, “a basket on

high.” This parasite has some resemblance to a basket placed in

the branches of a tree.

Order CONIFERÆ.

Funiperus virgimana Linnzus, kat-nee-ay-li, “ strained juniper.

Its long pendulous branchlets (very long and slender in this

region) look like material pouring from a strainer. Kat is the

Juniperus communis Linnzus. ae

Funiperus pachyphlea Torrey, £at-dil-tah'-li, “ cracked juniper.

Its bark presents a cracked or broken surface like that of white-

oak, and very unlike that of other junipers.

Order LILIACEÆ. i

Allium palmeri Watson, tlo-chee'-nee, “ strong-smelling =

This name is generic for all onions and garlics. Cultivate

onions are called #/o-chee-nee-tso, or “ big onions.” oe

Allium cernuum Rothrock, tlo-cheen' -lit-chee', “ red onion. ;

Yucca baccata Torrey has two names, viz., hosh-kawn, “ e

leaves ; and ¢sa’-si, which seems to be a generic name, and whose

derivation I know not. ds.”

Yucca whipplei (?) Torrey, yay'-bi-tsa-si, “ Yucca of the goc

: a name derived from their mythology.

1886.] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 777

Yucca angustifolia Pursh, tsa’-si-tsoz, “ slender Yucca.”

Calochortus nuttalli Torrey, al-tsee'-nee-tha'-t, “children’s food

or corn.” Children eat the bulb.

Order GRAMINEÆ.

Sporobolus cuspidatus, bay'-ee-jo, “an instrument to comb or

brush the hair.” The Indians of the Southwest make brushes

from this grass.

Sporobolus crytandrus Gray, tloh-tsoz’-ee, “slender hay.”

Oryzopsis cuspidata Bentham, in-dit-lith'-ee, “ burnt off or burnt

free” The name refers to the persistent chaff which can only be

removed by roasting when the edible seeds are cleaned.

Bouteloua hirsuta Lagasca, Woh-nas-tas'-ce, “bending hay.”

the racemes are curved almost to a semicircle.

Poa andina Nuttall, tsin-ya-tloh’, “hay under the trees.” In

the Navajo country the habitat of this grass is usually sub-

arboreal,

Phragmites communis Linnzus, tloh-kah’, “arrow-hay.” The

culms were formerly used for arrow-shafts.

Hordeum jubatum Linnæus, ha-zay'-il-go-ee, “ runs down the

throat.” A spikelet once in the mouth is with difficulty ejected,

it tends to go further down. Itis usually necessary to pull it out

with the fingers.

In addition to the above there are many names for which no

satisfactory etymology can be found.

: :0: ——

CROW ROOSTS AND ROOSTING CROWS.

BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS.

(Continued from p. 701, August Number.)

THE nearest roost to Bristol, now existing in the State of Penn-

Sylvania, of which I am able to get account, is situate in

ontgomery county, on the farm of Alfred Moore, and near the `

Post-hamlet of Davis’ Grove. This gentleman informs me that

they (the crows) first came to his place in the winter of 1878,

rom Camp Hill, in the same county, which locality he remem-

F to have been their rendezvous for twenty-five years. The

Present roost covers about twenty acres. Careful average esti-

roia of the number of birds commonly roosting per acre show

778 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. (September,

my correspondent playfully hints of there being “ millions in it,”

we may more safely place the number of crows resorting to his

farm at night within two hundred thousand.

Were we to accept as proven that the so-called Bristol roost,

of which Godman speaks in 1830 as having contained a million

crows, was situate on the west bank of the Delaware, it might be

fair to assume that these two hundred thousand represent, at the

present day, that mighty host of ancestors. However welcome

such intelligence would be to many crow haters, it would be un-

fair to infer that the proportion of crows living at present to the

number living fifty years ago is as one to five.

The experience of older residents of the country justifies the

belief that great diminution has been made among the myriads

and probably a census would show that the crow population of

view of this, it is easy to predict that, despite the increasing pai

ning and wariness of the nineteenth century crow, he must either

totally renounce his partiality for the haunts of men, or speedily

become extinct. As this trait seems inextinguishable in the bird,

mankind should seriously determine the economic relations of

crows to men ere too late. This is fully worthy the impartial inves-

tigations of the American Ornithologists’ Union, and we may well

rejoice to see that the cause of an unjustly persecuted bird 18:0

longer left to the tender mercies of interested farmers, indiscrim!-

nate gunners, and uninformed legislators. In investigating this

subject, I am led to think that very large roosts are nowadays

less popular than formerly, or, in other words, that roosts have

increased in numbers as the crows have diminished. ;

By sad experience they have found that unlimited union F

weakness rather than strength,and have divided into smaller an

more numerous companies, each having its favorite and giare?

locality, to which every member shows inviolate attachmen

during winter. .

I am unable to discover that any roost exists in Pennsylvania,

other than the one just mentioned, on the farm of Alfred Moore.

= This is inexplicable, as the conditions of this place no De

answer the requirements of a roosting crow than EE

_ other places in the neighboring counties. It goes to prove Re

a crow must inherit an attachment to localities even unto the fas

: : ‘generation, nay, even unto death.

1886.] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 779

What bird more justly merits the blessing of long life, if we

reward him according to his way of honoring father and mother

by cleaving to the unaccountable eccentricities which seem so

out of the common order of corvine habits and customs ?

In this respect the Pea Patch and Reedy island roosts are

parallel instances.

Though my personal experience is confined to the roosts of

New Jersey, outside information supports the conclusion that

more crows pass the winter nights in that State than in all the

rest of the Union taken together, and a few months careful ex-

amination has ‘shown that in the counties of Camden and Bur-

lington nearly every tract, ten miles square, contains one of their

dormitories ; also, that in the western half of Burlington county,

which would include four such tracts, there are at least seven

localities known to the writer as being the resort of from one to

three hundred thousand crows nightly.

A more thorough canvass of the subject would undoubtedly

reveal three or four more such places yet unheard of with accu-

racy sufficient to justify a present enumeration in the roosts of

Burlington county. A list of those roosts which have come un-

der notice will be given at the end of this paper. Roosting places,

in proportion to their immunity from invasion, are used year

after year, and probably before the settlement of our middle dis-

tricts many of them were centuries old. That one in Maryland

of which Godman speaks as being so ancient that the droppings

had accumulated to the depth of several feet, and the fermenta-

tion of which he supposed sufficient to contribute to the warmth

of the roost, is unparalleled by the crow dormitories of to-day.

It seems hardly credible that such a store of guano should have

long existed among Southern agriculturists, nor can we believe

that the native pines of Maryland, indigenous to a thin, infertile

Soil, could have borne such high-grade fertilizing. For the sake

of consistency we may cut down “feet” to inches in order to

Save the trees, nor do we think it either possible or necessary

that a crow warm his bed-chamber in such a manner as our

Worthy author suggests.

So universal has been the persecution of these birds at night,

We will not be able to find among the many roosts now in use

More than half of them of ten years’ standing. This necessity for

quitting old-established resorts has taught the wary birds a les-

780 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. (September,

son, for in their struggle for self-preservation they have re-

nounced the sheltered retreats of pine forests and when forced to

seek another refuge invariably select higher ground and decidu-

ous woods, preferring to perch on the topmost twigs of bare and

leafless branches, and brave thus the rigors of a winter's night

than court destruction among the dense pines, whose darkling

shade conceals the movements of their arch enemy. The partial

migration of crows to the vicinity of Philadelphia from North and

West leaves a few individuals to winter in New England and

some of the Western States, but their numbers are, comparatively

speaking, so insignificant that their roosting places have not been

noticed by ordinary observers. I received word from William

Brewster, of Cambridge, that, while he has no personal knowl-

edge of roosts in New England, “a taxidermist in Brookline (near

Boston) told (him) years ago that there was a roost somewhere

near his house to which several hundred resorted every night

through the winter.” ;

A foot-note in Wilson’s account of Corvus americanus refers in-

cidentally to a similar place in New York State. It reads thus:

“A few years ago,” says an obliging correspondent, “I resided

on the banks of the Hudson, about seven miles from the City of

New York. Not far from the place of my residence was a pretty

thick wood or swamp, in which great numbers of crows who

used to cross the river from the opposite shore were accustomed

to roost.” Of Maryland we have already heard through Dr.

Godman. H. W. Henshaw has kindly furnished me with valuable

additional information respecting a roost near Washington, D.

C., “between the Aqueduct bridge, just above Georgetown, and

the Chain bridge, some three miles from the latter.”

In the “high, deciduous trees of Arlington cemetery” is g7

other favorite resort, and the same gentleman adds that one P?

these roosts includes about eight to ten acres of woodland, chiefly

composed of deciduous trees. We may conclude that, since

Godman’s day, Maryland crows have forsaken the pines of the

esapeake region, and, like their New Jersey brethren, €

a more stormy perch among the bare branches of deciduows

_ forests. My informant estimates the number of crows winter fe

about Washington at near forty thousand, stating that, ‘ine

opinion of many, the number is much greater, and I think I have

_ Seen statements in the newspapers running up into the hun

1886,] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 781

of thousands.” The Washington crows derive most of their

food from the immediate vicinity of the Potomac, either on shore

or from the numerous flats and bars within the river, both north

and south of the Capital as well as from the eastern branch as

far up as Bladensburg.

Thus is formed two distinct morning flights from Arlington,

the one going southward beyond Alexandria, and the other,

which attracts most notice from Washingtonians, passing over

the city toward the east branch.

This roost has been known to my correspondent since his resi-

dence in the District of Columbia (fourteen years), but in his

opinion the crows must have made many changes in their choice

ofa resting place during the late war on account of the wholesale

destruction of timber in that vicinity, and former roosting places

were probably abandoned on all sides during the period of de-

vastation,

That similar places to those already mentioned exist shore-

wise in the States of Maryland and Virginia is not yet proven,

but we may feel assured from our knowledge of the abundance

of both Species of crow in these parts, that inquiry will reveal

their existence. From what we know with certainty, facts tend

to show that as we go northward, southward or westward of our

City of Brotherly Love in the winter season, the number of crows

tapidly diminishes. The Washington roost differs from those

located further north, in the fact that the fish-crow, Corvus ossi-

Sragus, resorts thither in common with C. americanus. The pro-

Portion of fish-crows to the latter is as one to five, and although

the species do not at other times consort together, there appears

to be no attempt on the part of either kind to keep aloof from the

&eneral movements of the body-gregarious during the nightly

Gathering, but the admixture of the two species is uniform

throughout the flock and harmony is a law recognized by them

as it is among the several species of communistic black-birds. _

My friend’s experience herein differs decidedly from that of

both Audubon and Wilson.

_ The words of the former naturalist have been already quoted,"

and Wilson in his account of the fish-crow mentions particularly

that they retire to high, interior forests, whereas the commoner

Species generally roosted along water-courses among the reeds.

_ *See p. 693, August number.

~ _ seem to have a definite object—either for toilet or gastrono

782 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. (September,

Shall we infer from this that the relations existing between our

two eastern crows have so materially altered in the last eighty

years, or shall we consider that the two great pioneers of Amer-

ican ornithology were not well informed ?

Possibly the “misery” of nineteenth-century -crows “loves

company,” which eighteenth-century crows were too aristocratic

to keep.

With rare exceptions, such places as are referred to by the

afore-mentioned authors as the usual roosts of Corvus americanus

in former times are nowadays unfrequented. Is it possible that

the extensive roosts of Central New Jersey were not so used a

hundred years ago? At present the majority of roosting crows

do fly far into the interior to pass the night, though it cannot be

denied that preference is nearly always shown to the vicinity of

some water-course.

It is possible that neither Audubon or Wilson had knowledge

from personal observation of any roosting place of C. americanus

far enough south to include the winter range of C. ossifragus.

A visit to one of the numerous roosts of New Jersey would

repay any one interested in nature and reward the curiosity of the

most casual observer.

The course adopted in assembling to and departing from the

chosen spot is uniform everywhere. About an hour before sun-

set stragglers begin to appear, reconnoitering as it were to see

that the coast is clear, and returning whence they came as if to

inform the main body of the result. In the course of half an

hour the flocks begin to arrive in broken lines and detachments

from all quarters, and, if the evening be calm, their earthward

descent from a height of many hundred feet exhibits aérial poe

surpassing in daring elegance those of any other land bird with

which I am acquainted.

It is their invariable custom to descend to some spot in =

neighborhood from one-half to a quarter mile from the roost,

preliminary to assembling there for the night’s repose. This

may be either upon the adjoining fields or on woodland tracts

near by. Such preliminary gatherings, as Godman eerie

purposes—a time, also, if we may judge by their clamọf, :

= general conversation, some rejoicing, some repining 17 ee

~ Varied experience of the last twelve hours.

TIT EMR AT RESIS eS A ea oN EER Ee eae ae eS A

1886. ] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 783

The aérial evolutions of this descending multitude, coupled

with the surging clamor of those which have already settled as

successive reinforcements appear, and which at a distance greatly

resembles the far-away roar of the sea, may justly awaken emo-

tions of sublimity in the spectator. To descend almost perpen-

dicularly from a height one thousand feet above earth to the very

tree-tops and then to glide above them on half-closed wings with

a resultant momentum that is almost startling in its arrowy ve-

locity, is a favorite manceuver, and when two such playfellows

pursue each other in this headlong swoop their turnings and

twistings and doubling contortions amaze the beholder. It

reminds one of lightning in feathers, but the results are surpris-

ingly harmless, and it may better be compared toa shower of day

meteors whose “ radiant point” lies somewhere in East Pennsyl-

Vania, Until sunset this novel scene continues without interrup-

tion, whilst field and forest in the vicinity of their great dormitorie

are shrouded by the thousands which have alighted, and, were it

not for their deafening clamor, the living pall which overspreads

the scene might well suggest a land of mourning and death.

When they settle on the ground on such occasions they resemble

gulls on a sand-bar, each standing motionless with its head

toward the breeze. The whole thing seems unnecessary, as they

mostly do nothing but cry out to their companions in the air and

tumultuously applaud their hair-breadth escapes and feats of

daring, yet sitting quietly until the setting sun warns them to

make ready for the last act—“ going to bed.”

Tf we understood crow language perhaps we could now recog-

nize a distinct signal from some grand master of their assembly,

summoning all to repose. Be this as it may, a sudden impulse

now seizes the throng and the air fairly darkens as successive

Companies take wing and in silence betake themselves to the

roost, flying low as if to avoid observation. Many crows in ap-

Proaching the places of preliminary gathering necessarily fly over

roost, but not a bird enters it until the general movement

begun after sunset. The self-imposed discipline and obedience

of such an army puts to shame the strictest military code. Think

neve of a miserable, weary crow which, having winged his way

thither a distance of twenty miles, arrives about sunset at the

toost; but, the ingathering not having yet begun, witness how

= €a true soldier he flaps on to join his more punctual brethren

784 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. (September,

who have settled half a mile further off to gossip and plume

themselves before retiring.

On one occasion I observed large companies arriving in the

roost near Merchantville, at a time of full moon, for nearly an

hour after sunset. Between the intervals of arrival all would be-

come quiet in their bed-chambers, but, as a more belated com-

pany drew near, their cries were responded to by the roosting

crows in a different tone. The fliers would hurriedly ejaculate

yur, yur, yur, as a Southerner pronounces “here,” giving each

utterancea rising inflectionas if inquiring anxiously of their where-

abouts, while those in the roost answered in a falling, drawling

tone by slowly repeating their usual “caw” and lengthening it

to ca-aw, ca-aw, ca-aw, as if to assure their friends they were

resting comfortably, Above all places I ever visited, these roosts

afforded the best opportunity for study of bird language, and

furnished enough suggestions to threaten mental dyspepsia.

The monosyllabic speech of a crow is by most accounted to

be little more than a monoverbic “ caw,” but let such as thus re-

gard it visit a crow roost and attempt to classify the sounds there

produced and, if his ear be well set to music, he’ll have a long list.

Among birds so eminently gregarious, language naturally be-

comes an ever-abiding necessity.

A crow is as great a conversationalist as is the nightingale

a great singer; this one, out of the heart’s abundance, voices

his music from a pure love of harmony; that one, out of the

abundance of his wisdom, speaketh ; this is the sapphic humming

of a tune; the other, a terse, laconic sentence made up of one

word, yet calculated by its variety of modulation or of emphasis

to convey variety of idea. On every occasion of my visits to

those places the strange sounds uttered by those crows already

gathered in the dormitory were a continual surprise. Were it

possible to reproduce such sounds before a body of ornitholo-

gists, nine-tenths of them would have no thought of assigning

them to the vocabulary of any North American bird.

Fifteen years’ intimate acquaintance with C. americanus (prior

_ to visiting a roost) led me to regard him as the most monotonous

_ of linguists, but a more extended experience reveals that he en-

| _ joys an after-supper discussion with the family as much as ae

_ do. This is also his way of spending the early morning how?

eo before daybreak; and when the air is calm their greetings may

1886.] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 785

be heard a mile away half an hour before dawn, although they do

not begin to disperse till an hour later.

At intervals of half a minute, a certain crow usually relieves

the monotony of cawing by making a melodious sound which is

inimitable and somewhat resembles the noise made by a porter

bottle when skimming swiftly over an expanse of ice.

It has no kinship to cawing, but a semblance to the hollow

love-notes of Scops asio, shortened into an utterance of two syl-

lables,

Tam persuaded that not one of a thousand crows is able or

privileged to utter this sound, having often listened in their very

midst for an hour without hearing more than three individuals

making such. This either implies that one crow differeth from

another crow in natural accomplishments, or that there is a

recognition of chief speakership among them. Possibly it means

oth. Another sound is the invariable accompaniment of “ going

to bed,” and judging by its frequence it is not restricted to the

few. This, according to a note taken on the spot, is “ a strange

noise as of a person choking or being strangled to death, or like

Sound of chicken when caught” and suspended by its neck.

This terribly suggestive note is alone sufficient to keep timid and

Superstitious people away from such haunts.

In early-morning conversations on the roost we can hear the

Sreatest variety of notes. One of the most notable of these re-

sembles laughing in its hilarity of tone, and sounds something

like garrick or cla-a-a-a-arick by trilling the a’s and r’s at a high,

feminine pitch of voice. It has kinship to the familiar ejaculation

ofa strawberry woman in the city street.

Another utterance consists in prolonged clucking as of a hen:

clăüŭüŭück, or clu-ŭh-ŭh-ŭh-ŭh-ŭh-ck, or, as my field notes have it,

“it sounds like a hen trying to gargle.” Individual peculiarities

of voice arising perhaps from derangement of the vocal organs

are often amusing.

I may not soon forget that of a crow in the Merchantville roost

ch ceased not to cry at intervals of half a minute, “ oh wait,

oh wait,” in a piteous tone, laying peculiar emphasis on “ wait,”

as if upbraiding its companions for leaving it, which they were

actually doing at the time.

Whilst lying on the ground observing the actions of this noisy

Multitude I began “ cawing ” after the usual fashion of the birds

786 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. (September,

above me, reproducing, as I thought, their call-note with sufficient

exactness. Had I discharged my gun their consternation could

not have been greater, for in an instant there was a hush, followed

by a sudden uprising of thousands occupying the perches nearest

to me, and then for a minute the uproar was tremendous, every

tongue seemed upbraiding.

When order was restored I climbed a tree, and on reaching

the ordinary roosting level, repeated the experiment. Herel

found a man’s voice had no terrors, and so long as I “cawed”

they took no notice of me.

of surprise or joy or alarm.

These observations on the roosting language of crows may

receive considerable and interesting addition from a critical study

of the bird during the spring and summer seasons, for in the bei

clusion of the family circle his converse differs widely from t n

described. y way of conclusion I may further add that the

programme of dispersion from the roost in the morning to their

feeding grounds is as follows : i

After an hour’s babel (for such verily is the seeming conha

of tongues) a few crows essay to take leave, but as soon as x r

folly is observed it literally “ brings down the house, and w =

one imagines the simultaneous shout of twenty acres of crows,

one may not wonder that “ the house” is fully able to bring dows

the crows. The “few crows” resume their perches and com

parative quiet is restored. : ;

Numerous attempts are thus made with a like result "o

nearly sunrise, when detachments of 500 to 1000 successive =

take wing amid the wildest enthusiasm. These circle and pss

about in headlong swoops and elegant curves above the psi 7

and each having taken his bearings moves off in one of the parE

lines of flight that eastward, westward, to north and south €

om the common center as the spokes of a wheel. a

Ere the sun looks out upon the scene a silence almost ea dy

sive broods over field and woodland, and to one who so gage

beheld their departure, a scattered remnant of the mig z

only serves to heighten the feeling of contrasted desolation.

The appended list includes only those roosts in Penns Y aket

and New Jersey which have come before the writer's notice, dents.

by- actual observation or through the kindness of cone bé

It is given with the hope that its necessary shortcomings mar

787

g pur-

ggested it as the possible site of

in order to provoke criticism from some one

land, probably, was never used for roostin

tter.

Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows.

, yet I have su

speedily supplied by more ‘accurate information and needed cor-

Burlington is

poses by crows

rections,

who knows be

“Bristol roost,”

1886. ]

Locality, Vo. A Roe ivsting. Veg ai Peers en! Used or Deserted,

eres,

Beverly, Burlington Co., N. J 100,000 20 Chiefly Pines, some Oaks.| Deserted 2 years.

Bridgeborough, Burlington Co., N. J... .. | 2 or 300,000 ? Young Pines ? H gu

Centertown (Rancocas Forks), Burlington Co., N. J. « “ 15 or 20 Dense Pines, u g“

Florence, Burlington Co., N. J need ? ? Young Pines? E 45 «

Hainesport, “ a tee Oe 2 or 300,000 | 20 or 30 | Oak Scrub, some Pines, In use,

Medford, “ wo a, : Large No. ? Pines, ?

Tabernacle, “ My OME ee “ ? " ?

Merchantville, Camden Co., N. J. 150 to 200,000 | 15 or 20 | Oak growth 2o ft. high, In use.

Newbold’s island, Delaware river..... .cescccecs ? ? Deciduous trees. — | Deserted 20 years,

Burlington “ cp I (E) svecweasctnsss| “1,000,000” ? |Deciduous trees and reeds| « go. CU

Pea Patch “ “ aer jx ? About 30 |Reeds of several species, “ 7 «

Reedy " we OM teacesbeeseseess| 1 OF 200,000 u- S0 ` n e In use, `

Camp Hill, Montgomery Co., Pa 200,000 ? Probably Oaks, Deserted 8 years.

Davis Grove, “ “ou, “ 20 Oak growth 20 ft, high. In use.

788 Recent Literature. [September,

RECENT LITERATURE.

JAPANESE HOMES AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS.—It has long been

strenuously maintained by the NATURALIST that human arts can

and should be subjected to the same methods as genera and spe-

cies in natural history. The questions of structure and function,

evolution, ontogeny, distribution in time and space, relations as

affected by and affecting contiguous phenomena may all be put

to the products, appliances and methods of human activity.

Whenever a student of any department of man’s works has

caught the spirit of this plan of investigation, we have hailed his

work as a lasting contribution to the noblest of sciences. -

Professor Morse went to Japan as a trained naturalist ; his work

on the shell-heaps of New England prepared him for his greater

work on the shell-heaps of Japan. This accomplished, the most

natural sequel was a close study of the modern successors of the

primeval race whose sole record remains in their refuse piles.

Omitting food, clothing, all other industrial pursuits, the professor

gives us in his charming volume an insight into Japanese homes.

It were mildly putting the matter to say that the author is in love

with his subject, indeed it here and there takes the bit and runs

clean away with him. Most people like to read that kind of a work,

however, forgiving all eccentricities born of genuine enthusiasm.

If you would study the homes of any people scientifically r

must acquaint yourself with their climate, natural materials "o

progress in other matters; Japan, for instance, has the climate 0

our Middle States, abounds in bamboo, suffers from earthquakes,

is just emerging from barbarism, etc. | f

A bird’s-eye view of a Japanese city reveals a vast sea ia

roofs—the gray of the shingles and dark slate color of E

tiles, with dull reflections from their surfaces, giving a som

effect to the whole. The even expanse is broken here and nen

by fire-proof buildings (“ go-downs ”) and the temples with gre: 7

black roofs tower far above the pigmy dwellings. There are ‘at

chimneys, no steeples, no sun-obscuring canopy of smoke,

reen masses of foliage add life to the gray sea of domiciles,

$ age, is

The Japanese house is unsubstantial in appearance and A ;

There

are, consequently, no doors or windows. For. other abe

their place being supplied by sliding screens which run in grooves

in the floor and

. or of

Surroundings. By EDWARD S. MORSE, direch

nce.

Boston, Tickaor & Co., 1886, pp- 3779 307 figs.

Ree E AEE at E ES T ee SA A

wood, uncolored or

roof may be either

lightly shingled, heav-

ily tiled or thickly

thatched, and has a

moderate pitch.

ome houses have

verandahs, and all may

be entered at several

points.

The frame-work of

an ordinary Japanese

framing is held to-

gether by short strips

let into notches in the

uprights upon the

rough stone founda-

tion,

tis the roof which

ves

to Japanese

variety w

“yet in differ-

Recent Literature.

‘A

WAS

"onog, Ul MTA Y—"I ‘Ol

PSR

SERY

N SEN

2 rm

sat

Te?

EP REN

NNA SRS 5

AAN

oe eeN

onal,

Suet ag AY

CNS

og)

sora Ie

PEA

Recent Literature. [September,

790

fastened down with bamboo pins resembling attenuated shoe-

Fic. 2.—Street in Kandu Ku, Tokio.

pegs, and long narrow bamboo strips are often n

across the roof from ridge pole to eaves.

In tiling a roof the boarded roof is first roughly

ailed obliquely

and thinly

= ae

Fic. 3.—Roof with shingles partly laid.

shingled, and upon this surface is spread a thick

_ into which the tiles are firmly imbedded. There seems to 9%. h

_ Special adhesi d, and hig?

layer of mud,

adhesion of the tiles to this substratum of mu

1886. } Recent Literature. 791

gales often cause great havoc. Into the subject of tiles Professor

Morse enters most minutely.

The thatched roof is by far the most common form in Japan

outside of the cities. The slopes vary but little, but-in the design

and structure of the ridge the greatest variety of treatment is

ley ag Mies

mena Maven.

se eigen j

atsa a,

poe Pipa

a> ass can

ag wan ame

- ess a-

. a — p= A

-_-_..*

—- h *. » af

4 seer, Prem

=- s r

e-r r

| ee

Fic. 4.—Thatched roof near Tokio.

seen, For thatching, straw, grass, reeds and rushes are used,

and no special preparation is required to receive the material.

Great attention is given to the proper and symmetrical trimming

of the thatch at the eaves and at the edges of the gable.

The interior of the house is the work of the cabinet-maker.

Fic, 5.—Bundle of boards.

Great care is taken to find wood that matches in grain and color,

and this can be done only by getting material that has come from

fon same log. In the lumber yards one notices boards of uni-

lengths tied up in bundles in precisely the same position

792 Recent Literature. [September,

that the wood occupied in the trunk. As all rooms are made in

sizes corresponding to the number of mats they are to contain,

the beams, uprights, rafters, floor-boards, ceiling-boards are got

out in sizes to fit. From one end of the empire to the othera

mat is approximately six feet long and three feet wide.

The ceilings of the Japanese rooms are low, and everywhere

appear posts, supports, cross-ties, etc., exposed and decorated in

exquisite taste. The most noteworthy feature of the chief apart-

ment is a kind of bay divided into two parts, the tokonoma and

chigai-dana. The bay nearest the verandah is called the zokonoma,

in which hang one or two pictures, and on its slightly elevated

floor stands a vase or some other ornament. The chigai-dana

its ceiling, all closed by sliding screens. In the development of

these two architectural features Professor Morse dwells at length

and with much eloquence upon the advantage of the free-hand

architecture of the Japanése over the bilateral symmetry carried

to excess in house interiors among us. ;

The space between the upper end of the screens and the ceil-

ing is the ramma, and here Japanese finesse has reveled in panel,

diaper, open bamboo work, porcelain and wood-carving.

——

LEE ENES T NY

—S

—~ a

pete a e PA

G e o E

ROR Sli

Fic, 6,—Ramma of bamboo and perforated panel.

It would carry us far beyond our allotted space to pive s pee

‘ conception of the distribution of the interior for the comfort F

the family, of the verandahs, bamboo fences, gardens, rooms 0

convenience and luxury.

Some of the appurtenances are both quaint and primitive. ei

might see in almost any negro log-cabin devices made of wit :

and bark to match the accompanying apparatus for holding

will be found in almost any Japanese kitchen.

If cleanliness is next to godliness, then verily the prn

came near to being a godly race. Even the working classes, 57

_ as carpenters, masons and others, often bathe two oF t

~a day, They do not really wash in the baths, but boi

= them for awhile, and then upon a platform, with an ex

bucket of water and a towel, wash and dry themselyes.

PLATE XXVIII.

ama

g er

Sys —

—

= eae aoe

F [m E med

= Slt eet N mEn wae ees m

sy te —

x A | | ee meen al an m

' panas Sea aasa Ge La

WYN ($+ —

i ji

f ii

V I

M ||

lii === E

i - a -—+-—

d i a SUO DE

We -uur

Guest room in Hachi-ishi.

£ iii i a a

1886. ] Recent Literature. 793

Every village and town, and nearly every square in the city,

possesses public baths where for the price of a cent or two one

may find conveniences for a hot bath. Nearly every house

among the higher and middle classes

possesses the most ample arrangements

for hot baths. As a justification of the

rather rude bucket, sink and basin out-

fit for ordinary toilet, Professor Morse

adds: “It may seem odd for one to

get enthusiastic over so simple an affair

as a trough and a few honest contri-

Shape of attenuated bottles, mugs,

Soap-dishes with rattling covers, &c.,

all resting on a slab of white marble.”

_ tna Japanese house the whole floor

IS a bed, and one can fling himself

down on soft mats, in the draught or

Fic. 7.—Ji-zai.

Out of _it, up-stairs or down, and find a smooth level surface

on which to sleep. The usual form of pillow is a light, closed,

Wooden box, on the top of which is secured a small cushion

Stuffed with buckwheat hulls.

f he bed-clothes consist of lightly or heavily wadded com-

ons which may be made of cheap or costly material, and may

€ used both as mattress and cover. This form of bed entails

much less labor on chambermaids, to say the least.

An inseparable accompaniment of every Japanese home is the

794 Recent Literature. [September,

hibachi, or stove. The most usual form consists of a square

wooden box lined

the wood is a layer

of clay or plaster.

More costly forms

are made of vari-

ous materiais. This

apparatus takes the

Fic. 1o.—Common hibachi. == their praise.

It is to be hoped that Professor Morse will carry out his purpose

to supplement the present work with another on Japanese palaces.

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

Caton, J. D.—Matter and a Supreme Intelligence. Chicago, 1884. 8vo, PP. 35:

aring rocks of Lake

te E.

Superior, Ext. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., May, 1 :

—On the relation of the “ Keweenawan series” to the Eastern sandstone ia e

vicinity of Torch lake, Michigan. Ext. id., April 16, 1884.

—— Prospectus of a description and classification of the rocks

Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

—List of publications of M. E. Wadsworth, 1877-85. All from the author.

Packard, A. S.—First Lessons in Zodlogy. H. Holt & Co., New York. $

pp. 280. $1.00

of the Cordilleras-

e account of the progress in zodlogy in the year 1883. Washington,

- Reusch, Hans—Ueber den Tysnesmeteorit und drei andere in Skandinavia nieder

. gefallene Meteorsteine. Stuttgart, 1886.

Conn, H. W.—Hife-history of Thalassema, Studies from the biological

__ Johns Hopkins University, June, 1886.

_ Chamberlin T. C—The requisite and qualifying conditions of Artesian W

Fifth Amn. Rep. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1885. | From the author.

laboratory

ells. Ext-

1886. ] Recent Literature. 795

Brewster, W—Bird Migration, Memoirs Nuttall Ornithological Club, 1886. From

the author

Warrin C. B. —Gyrating bodies. An empirical mai Read before the Scien

tife. section of Vassar Inst., 1885. From the a

Dürigen Bruno, UaRrehpdiiniscke Zierfische, 1886. eae the author.

Lydekker, SE and Narbada Equidæ. Mem. Geol. Surv. ndis, Ser. X,

Vol. 11,

Vanderveer, = ee wae supply of cities and villages. Anniv, add. bef. Medical

Soc, State of N. Y., Feb. 31 pact From ahe aut

AKC

History Survey of Cada to Der. 31st, ors From the au

Weter; Max.—Studien oe Pg OM i zur Frage nse bei Ursprung

der Cetaceen. Jena : rom the a

Baur, G.—Bemerku ungen Saur dll ces Tohirin ai Sep.-abd. a. d.

Zool. Anz., 1886. From thea

Williston, S. W. —Ueber Or aN Kn tig 8 From the author.

Butler, A. W.—Obs servations on the muskrat. Ext. Proc. Amer. Asso. Adv. Sci

——A list of the birds observed in Franklin ers p 1886. Both k

he author.

Gilbert, G. K-The sufficiency of nec aronga for the deflection of streams.

Nat. Acad. Sa Vol. 111. From the

Cope, £. D.—On one a of the ste Vertebrata. Read bef. Amer.

oode, G. B.—The re ees s and fishery industries of the United States. Section 1.

> we z useful kiaat animals. Text and plates. From the U. S. Fish

ommis

The kirim nings of naturabhistory in America. Address delivered at the sixth

anniv. of the Bio ological Society of Washington, 1886. From the author,

-—Osteology of the Mammalia. 3d edition, 1885. From the author.

Riley, C. V.—Fourth pepo of the U. S. Entomological Commission, with final

report = the cotton-worm and a chapter on the boll-worm, 1885. From the

ept i

Bonney T. G — —Anniversary address ssa before the Geological Society of Lon-

don, Feb. 19, 1886, From the au

Shufeldt, R. W.—Contribution to the D osteology of the Trochilidæ, A

ei and Cypselide. Ext. Proc. Zodl. Soc. of London, 1885. Fro

Ryder, J. A.—On the seven of aig osseous fishes and of the Atlantic

xt. Proc. U. S Nat. Mus., 1885.

~ On an. unusual relation x the no tochord to the intestine in the chick. Am. —

Nat. extra, April , 1886. Both from the anthor.

Judd, J. w. Pubes ae relation of a reptiliferous sandstone of Elgin to the Upper

Old Red sa Ext y. Soc., 1885. From the author,

H.—On ae structure anid nine of the spheridia of the Echinoidea. Rep.

Quart. Jour. Micro. Sci., Nov. , 1885. From the author,

Ceinite, H. B, —Zur Dyas in Hed. 1886. From the author.

Packard, A. 5. —Discovery of the thoracic feet in a Carboniferous Phyllocaridan.

Rea ead bef Amer, Philos. Soc. Feb.

b. 5,1

Memoir of Jeffries Abed Bin aoe Read bef. the Nat. Acad. April 18,

1878. Both ote the a

MacKay, A. By (ee ea pe sponges from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Ext. Canad dian pys of Science, 1886. From the author.

Nat, ‘Sip oo ig a an and membership of the N. A. S., 1886. From

Hitchcock, 2 my he 2 Ses ann. rep. of the professor of pons oe and hygiene

mherst College, June, 1886. From the author

796 Recent Literature. [September,

oped Jas. —Indian and Colonial Exhibition. New Zealand Court catalogue and

o the geological exhibits :

Hand. tick of New Zealand, with maps and plates. 1886. Both from the

author.

Hazen, W. B.—Reply to the Second Comptroller. 1886, From the author.

forbes, S. A.—Studies on the contagious diseases of insects. Bull. Illinois State

Laboratory, Vol. 11, 1886. From the author,

Castillo, A. del, and Barcena, M.—El Hombre del Pefion. Mexico, 1885. From

the authors,

Gerstaecker, A.—Bronn’s Thierreich. Arthropoda.

man, C. K.—Bronn’s Thierreich. Reptilien.

ow, H.—Bronn’s Thierr Aves.

Richardom, C.—Rep. on S EDE al composition and paraa ern of Amer-

n cereals, U. S. Dep. of Agriculture, 1886. Fro dept.

Somat £.—Cleveland “asl et The truth about pete From the author.

Evermann, B. W.—List of birds oiro in Ventura county, Cal. From t

author.

era B. W., and og M. W.—List of brae collected in Harvey and

- counties. Kansas, 1885. From the a

Thompson, C. O.—Review = the report of the ce Ro oy. Commissioners on Tech-

nical Instruction, Bureau of Education. Circular No. 3, 1885. i

Dana, J. D.—On pore onan fossils from a limestone of the — Taconic 0

Emmons. Ext. Amer. Jour. Science, Onsen 1886. n the au i

ran ae W., et al. Saas of the Washburn Col PETE of para

tory. Report of the Washburn College Biolegient Site of Kans

a editor, ae ;

Orcott, C: R.—Notes on the sgag = sas e of San Di a as Todos San

tos bay ha GC. Poe US. N From the a

Firbringer, M.—Ueber die SREE im sae der Am

mage Schulter- und Ellbogengelenk bei Vögeln und Reptilien. Both aon

Bell, z The ak of Canada. Reprint Record of Science, Vol. 11, 1886.

: The eral resources of the Hudson’s Bay Territories. Ext, Trans. Amer.

Inst. yeere Eng., 1886. the

— Medicine-man. Reprint Canada Med. and Surg. Jour., 1886. All from

NS wh He dal -Report of the Board of Control of the New York Agri

sation Experiment station From the autho

Dollo, L.—Notes “Sepa logie sealer "1885, From the author. Sci., 1886.

Nrin, £y Pie h als oF Litchfield, Maine. Ext. Amer . Jour. Sci.,

aut

Yorkshire Philoso ical S oneal report, 188

De Castro, M. Pak say aE —Terr 5 motos Andalucia. Tn n la

Comision nombrada para su estu oaks Madri id, 1885. From Señor pe 1884-

Cortazar, D.—Discursos leidos ante la Real Andemi de Ciencias, June I,

Chemical Soetety of Washin, —Bulletin No. 1, 1884-1886. 886.

Farlow, W. G.— a peed of codfish. Bull. U. S. Fish Commission, 7

Oe From the author. 886 ares

_ Barnum, M. K. —List of the birds of Onondaga county, N. Y. 1880.

C or ang

` Dewalque, A Poudingue de Weris. “Brussels, 1885. From the a the

ie seg #. A.—Descriptive Re aha ot of the general collection of wines *

ee dney, 1885. From the author. In-

Whiteaves, F F.—Catalogue of Canain Pinnipedia, Cetacea, fishes an il aart 8

; ae exhibited by the Fishery Dept. of Canada in the os

886. From the author. Red River valley:

anton, H.—Gleanings from outcrops of Silurian strata in the Re

Mainha T BS d Siini foe, 1 1884,- From the author.

1886.] Geography and Travels. 797

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.!

AMERICA.— American News.—Col. F ontana, Governor of Chubut

(the northern part of Patagonia), has followed the River Chubut

to its sources in the Andes, about 42° S. lat., and has thence

crossed prairie and forest to the 46th parallel. He found three

passes into Chili, laid down accurately the courses of several

rivers, found the source of the Senger (an affluent of the Chubut),

verified the positions of Lakes Colne and Musters, and deter-

mined the positions of the spots at which the Senger and Chico

debouch into the lake. The June issue of the Proceedings

of the Royal Geographical Society contains a sketch of the physi-

cal geography of Brazil, by James W. Wells, accompanied by a

map showing the forest, grass, and arid regions of the country.

many interesting details about the present state of the population,

railways which, diverging from Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,

and other matters. A tolerably full account of the superficies,

soil, climate, people, commerce and industries of Venezuela, by M.

P. Druyckler, may be found in the Bulletin of the Antwerp Royal

Geographical Society, 1886, 5th fascicule. Guatemala had, on

January 1st, 1886, a population of 1,322,544, showing an increase

of 37,940 over that of the first day of 1885, or nearly three per

as per annum. The births in 1885 were 63,687, the deaths

1/47.

Asia.—Persia—Mr. J. A. Rees describes, in notes published

ast year at Madras, a journey from Kasvin to

Plains, covered with corn (grain), vineyards and orchards, while

clieves that the population of Persia is much under-estimated.

ersian notions about Francistan and Inglestan, the division of

arangistan, and of the country of the “ Ooroos” (Russia) are

er amusing.

Exploration on the Lena.—Dr. Bunge and Baron von Toll, who

are charged by the Russian Geographical Society with the ex-

hole region of the Yana with its mountains, obtaining rich

Paleontological collections, four hundred kinds of plants, and a

According to information received September 5, 1885,

1 k

This department is edited by W. Å. LOCKINGTON, Philadelphia.

798 General Notes. (September,

Dr. Bunge was preparing to visit the New Siberian Island of’

Koteling this spring.

The Turki Tongues——Mr. Morison, of Tiflis, has contributed to

the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society a summary of the dis-

tribution of the Turki languages. Turki proper is spoken by the

Turks of the Ottoman empire, in the Russian governments of

Nijni Novgorod, Kasan, Simbirsk, Viatka and Orenburg; in

Trans-Caucasia and in N. W. Persia. The Nogai branch is used

in Bessarabia, the Crimea, Cis-Caucasia, the Volga delta, North-

east Daghestan, the Terek valley, the N. W. shore of the Caspian,

Kasan, Simbirsk, Orenburg and Ufa; the Uigar branch in Yark-

hand and Chinese Tartary, the Tekke country, the Zarafshan

valley, Khiva and Kuldja; the Kirghiz from the Volga to the

confines of Manchuria, especially in S. W. Siberia; and the Yakut

in N. E. Siberia and the northern slopes of Mount Sayan. Thus

the Ugro- Altaic tongues extend over 100° of longitude and 35

of latitude, and Turki alone is the language of twenty millions of

people.

and new-comers, though the Chinese have supposed all to be abo-

rigines. The Amias, who are said to have been brought by "p

man marries, he enters his wife’s family, while among th chey

_ the reverse is the case. The Tipuns have a tradition that

_ Came from some other country.

_. _ AFRICA.— The Congo—The point at which the French ere?

~ Sions and the Congo Free State meet upon the Congo fas pay

= fixed at the intersection of the river with the parallel of 6 kof

_ the Ubangi. The line from thence to the coast has n

1886. ] Geography and Travels. 799

explored. The four commissioners ascended the Ubangi, which

seemed to start in the right direction, but found that it turned

northward. The Ubangi and Licona-Nbunga are two perfectly

distinct streams, instead of forming a common delta, as has been

before stated.

The Island of Diego Garcié.—Gilbert C. Bourne describes in

the June issue of the Proc. Royal Geographical Society the coral

atoll of Diego Garcia, belonging to the Chagos group. There

are four openings into the lagoon, one of which affords a passage

six to eight fathoms deep. The lagoon has an average depth of

eleven fathoms, and forms a good harbor. The strip of land

varies from about twenty yards to a mile in width, and is densely

covered with cocoanut palms, Scevola kenigii and Tournefortia

argentea. The interior parts of the main island have a black

peaty mould, formed by the decayed leaves of the cocoa-palms.

Here grow Guetturda speciosa, or “bois de feu;”’ and Cordia

subcordata, or “ bois malgache.” A Casuarina grows on the east

side of the island, and Hernandia pelttata and H. ovigera (bois

blanc), as well as Pisonia tnermis, also occur. The gaiac (Afzelia

byuga) forms a single group in the northeast. The staple pro-

duce is cocoanut oil, and the island is in the hands of a company

at Mauritius. The only wild animals are introduced rats ; fifteen

Species of birds occur, only one a land bird; the Mauritian gecko

(P. latydactylus mauritanicus) is common, and there is a mud tortoise

at he has seen it do so. It eats the nuts that are on the ground,

but ascends the palms for shade and protection.

African News.—Dr. Fischer has just recovered from fever con-

tracted at Kagehi, on the southern shore of Lake Victoria, Ny-

anza. He was not able to reach Unyoro through Uganda on ac-

neer of the Suez canal has informed Gen. gag Walker that (1)

the annual mean level of the Mediterranean at Port Said is the

Pacific at Panama. The trunk left at Brussels by Maurizio

Buonfanti, who claimed to have made a journey across Africa,

m the Mediterranean to the Niger and Gulf of Guinea, has

examined. The trunk contained letters, romances, come-

800 General Notes. [September,

Ba Farani slaves compelled the traveler to retreat.

ticulars of the massacre of the Italian expedition under Count

Porro are contained in a recent number of the Bolletino della

Societa Geographica de Italia. It appears that the Emir 0

Harrar has suddenly been fired with fanaticism, which prompts

him to expel all Christian traders. On April 25 he attacked

the British post of Gialdessa, took captive the Arab and Somali

garrison and the escort of the Italians, and killed all the Italians

of the expedition.

GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY.

WALCOTT ON THE CAMBRIAN OF Norra AmERIcA.—Mr. Wal-

cott has contributed to the August issue of the American 7

nal of Science an able essay upon the Cambrian system. fte

regards the Potsdam of New York and the Mississippi valley,

with Dicellocephalus, as Upper Cambrian; while the Cambrian of

Newfoundland and Braintree, Mass., with Paradoxides, he places

dle Cambrian age. Between the Silurian and the granite Poe

_ Eureka district (Nev.), the lower 1500 feet of quartzites corre-

= Sponds to the upper half of the 3000 feet of quartz! ti

~ Satch, and the Olenellus shales occur at the summit of the qua

dte. ` But between these shales and the Silurian lie over ote i i

t Aimestone with a fauna uniting the Middle Cambrian W!

1886. ] Geology and Paleontology. 801

Upper Cambrian, or Potsdam, the characteristic forms of which

occur 4500 feet above the Olenellus horizon.

On the Grand cañon of the Colorado the Tonto beds (1000

feet) carry a fauna akin to that of the Upper Cambrian of Nevada,

Texas and the Upper Mississippi valley. Beneath the Tonto lies

the Grand Cafion series, which Mr. Walcott classes, together with

the Keweenaw of Wisconsin and the Llano of Texas, as pre-

Cambrian.

The Eureka and Highland Range sections in Nevada and the

Georgia section in Vermont prove the stratigraphic position of

the Middle Cambrian. In Nevada the Middle Cambrian fauna is

from 2000 to 4000 feet below the Potsdam, and only three spe-

cles pass up into it. In the Georgia (Vt.) section one species

Genera. Species.

Upper Cambrian. 52 213

Middle ee a an 43 107

Mee a 32 76

127 396

Reappearances .... 35 3

Total fauna. 92 393

ii 3

Spongie,.... : 3

Hydrozoa Serek esra $ :

oaa a z ~

UE a a : ;

Brachiopoda R Sd 3 zi

Lamel libranchiata,..... |. s :

Gastropoda ....._ = ri

€ropoda ....... ve

Crustacea... s 28

re wail Sa 31 226

92 393

br urteen genera are common to the Lower and Middle Cam-

we fifteen to the Middle and Upper ; eleven to all three divi-

Teme genera of the Upper Cambrian, viz, Lingula, Orthis,

Ptæna, Triplesia, Bellero on, Euomphalus, Holopea, Maclu-

802 General Notes. ` [September,

rea, Metoptoma, Ophileta, Pleurotomaria, Hyolithes, Serpulites,

Amphion, Bathyurus and Ogygia, are better represented in the

Middle Cambrian. Discina, Pleurotomaria, Amphion, Bathyu-

rus and Ogygia are doubtfully referred to the Cambrian. Several

other genera pass up into the base of the Lower Silurian.

GEOLOGICAL News,—General._—M. Jelsky (Bull. d. 1. Soc. Geol.

de France. 1885, 581,) brings forward concerning the origin of

earthquakes and the lifting of mountain chains a theory to some

extent new. Postulating a liquid interior and the constant sink-

ing of the heaviest portions of the crust, which he believes to be

the ocean bottoms, he shows that the sinking cannot be perfectly

uniform, since a solid always bears much compression before it

yields, and asserts that the sudden sinking must producea plutonic

wave on the surface of the liquid interior. Under the conti-

nents cavities probably exist, caused by the lifting of the crust by

former plutonic waves which, when they sank, left a space be-

neath the crust their movement had raised. When an earthquake

is produced by sinking of the sea-bottom, it may (1) spread itself.

over a vast area if it is propagated to a broad sub-continental

cavity ; or (2) it may produce a volcanic eruption; or (3) it may

lift a portion of the neighboring continent. e presence of vol-

canoes is thus attributed to the pressure of the plutonic wave, an

this explains the frequency of volcanoes in non-continental re-

gions, or near the sea-margins, where there is no extensive cavity

below. The perpetual waste to which a continent is subjected

must finally cause its ruin; the vault becoming so thin that it

breaks at the shock of a great plutonic wave. The recoil of the

wave, aided by the weight of the broken vault, will cause the ele-

vation of a portion of the sea-bottom and the formation of a new

mountain chain, while the sea, rolling toward the sinking part,

aids the change by the transference of its weight. Professors

Romanovsky and Moushketoff have issued the first of three vol-

umes upon the geology of Turkestan. From this it appears t we

nearly the whole of the Aral basin, including the wide tracts, east

and south-east of the lake, is covered with chalk; the remaining

twentieth being occupied by crystalline unstratified rocks, meta-

morphic slates, and Paleozoic deposits, all the hills rising above

the steppes being Archzan or Palzozoic. Jurassic deposits a)

on the Baidam and Saram rivers, on the borders of the East

orn life-remains. The Eocene deposits consist for the most

art of deep-sea Nummulitic sandstones, and are covered by Oligo”

cene and Miocene, showing by their fossils a gradual shallowi0s

" me ses. The P

of tee oes ost-pliocene deposits, which extend from the

ro ee eee ee TS ee ee ea a aS

1886,] Geology and Paleontology. 803

Volga to the foot of the Tian-Shan, do not exceed one hundred

feet in thickness, and can hardly be delimitated more the Tertiary;

the fossils they contain all belong to species now living in the

Caspian and Aral. The limits of the Aral-Caspian Post-

pliocene sea are discussed.

Silurian—J. H. Panton has noted the occurrence of upwards

of fifty species of corals, brachiopods, and cephalopods, with Re-

ceptaculites, Beatricia and Stromatopora, ina rock of Silurian age

largely used in Winnipeg as a building stone. The seven expo-

Sures are described, most of them upon the level, but some ele-

vated slightly above the prairie, though all were more or less

covered with drift before quarrying was commenced. The

American Journal of Science (April, 1886) contains another

contribution to the literature of the Taconic rocks in the shape of

descriptions of Lower Silurian fossils from a limestone of the

original Taconic of Emmons. The report upon the fossils is by

S. W. Ford and W. B. Dwight, and Professor J. D. Dana concludes

from the results that these limestones of Canaan, N. Y., are of

Trenton age,

Carboniferous and Permian.—According to the researches

of M. B. Renault, the genus Bornia must be ranged with Calamo-

dendron and Arthropitus. From these genera it differs in the

hill fragmentary character of its elements, but by its relief. The

T formed by it, instead of the square flattened form of Triassic

S, -

€n found in Palæozoic rocks. Though the difference in mineral

acters between these beds and those of the upper Old Red

804 General Notes. [September,

sandstone is not very great, the stone can be distinguished by a

good observer; and the question seemed to be finally set at rest

by the discovery, in the same quarry, of Devonian rocks with

Holoptychius, overlaid by a bed of conglomerate which graduates

upward into the reptiliferous sandstone.

Jurassic—The Bulletin of the French Geological Society (April,

1885) contains a note upon the zones of the inferior oolite of the

southern border of the Paris basin. The zones are, M. de Gros-

souvre maintains, best characterized by various species of am-

monites ; lamellibranchs and gastropods having in that region too

great a vertical range.

Cretaceous.—M. Dollo has a note upon a tooth of Craspedodon

_ lonzeensis, an ornithopod dinosaurian from the Middle Senomian

of Lonzée. The tooth is furnished with large ridges on the sides

and is minutely crenellated on the front upper edge of the crown.

Three teeth are all that has yet been found of the genus, which

raises the number of ornithopodous genera to twelve.

Dollo (Ann. de la Soc. Scient. de Bruxelles) has a note upon the

presence of a median basioccipital canal and two hypopasa

canals in Plioplatecarpus marshi, a mosasaurid. These canals

are by their discoverer believed to have served for the passage of the

occipital sinus and infrajugular veins. In a skeleton of the gif

species M. Dollo has also discovered an interclavicle, a bone no

before known to exist in the Mosasauria. On the strength of this

peculiarity M. Dollo divides the Mosasaurians into Plioplate-

carpide and Mosasauride. sation

Tertiary—-M. Depenet and Rerolle conclude an examiné

, BOTANY.! 2 by

__ THE PHALLOIDE# OR STINK-HORN Funci—A gar ie lit-

_ Dr. Fischer, of the University of Berne, brings yoo Fa ce

_ €rature of this interesting group of fungi. Seventy-t r parES

are recognized, and these are distributed into eleven §

a Edited by Professor CHARLES E,' Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska. ere

= „„ Versuch einer systematischen Uebersicht über die bisher bekannten Phalloid

~ Von Dr. Ed. Fischer, Berlin, 1886.

ae ee Ai

1886. | Botany. 805

Their geographical distribution is mainly tropical and sub-tropical,

the Southern hemisphere having many more representatives than

the Northern. They are summed up as follows, viz:

oe vaca > eas: vee P A 4 [-Polynesia and New Zealand.... 4

DEO eON SOS cose pao c Stk s : 7 | North Africa 6

Past Indian’ “Archipelago and _ eed peace m or 7

Ceylon.. T OF 15 h Amenia. oaae A 2 or

SS a Rs 18 or 20 South onea and West Indies . ; 5 or 16

Their systematic arrangement may be understood from the

following catalogue

Genus I. Dicryorons.

ampanulata Nees, Fava. 2. D. brasiliensis Schl., Bra x

phates Desv. aieo Tilio Y see ), Dutch Guiana, and eds fully

rth Ameri D. speciosa Meyen, Prasat ts/ands and —

Cay 7.

osea 2 Fa. Fischer, Borneo. 6. radicata

Ed. Fischer Eagar yt ppr mple), -Zast a. and

e Pierden from North Amerie D. ta sige Ed. Fischer, 7aAité and

Australia. multicolor Berk & Bes et # duplicata Ed. gr

(Phallus duplicat Bos A North lew merulina Berk., Jav

and Austra . D. subiculata Mont., peang Africa.

ou me ss Wan ‘eid the preceding (No. 12) are ii as «doubtful

hy UL Sp amen

Sy dems PA Fischer oo impudicus L.). This commonest of

the stink-horns s througho rope, in North ae North America,

Japan, 2 4 eet Ed. ae Wan 3. Z. quadricolor Ed. Fischer,

Australia, 4. T. calyptratus Ed. Fischer, Australia. 5. 7 A Nove-hollan-

d: Fischer, Australia. roseus Ed. Fischer, Northern Africa. 7.

1. (?) canariensis Ed. Fischer, Canary Jslands. rugulosus Ed. Fischer,

Japan. 9, T, ravenelii Ed. Fischer ( Sst Pipes B. & C.), Norik

A Ed. Fischer, Austral zi, campanulatus

merica: 10. I. retusus

Fischer, South America, 12. $y rubicundus Ed. "Fischer (Phallus r Leena

Fries), North America. 1 3. T. aurantiacus Ed. Fischer, East Ind:

Genus ag Mutinus.

- M. caninus Ed. mii a Soni caninus Huds.), Europe and North

tile 2. M. bambusin scher, Fava. 3. M. ravenelii Ed, Fischer,

ore Assen! B. & r orth America. 4. M, curtisii Ed. Fischer,

Sg a. Set borneensis en. Borneo. 6. M. e) Wationi Ed.

cher, Maitre: . M. (?) curtus Ed. Eischer, Austr 8. M. (P)

- Papuasius Kalch, ei 9 M. ee Ed. Fischer, eevee

Genus IV, KALCHBRENNERA,

1, K. tuckii Berk, South Africa. 2. K. corallocephala Kalch, South Africa.

T Taa S. rubescens Gerard, North America. 2. S. ii gg gy ‘Schlecht,

ki hk America. 3. S. lorentsii Spegaz, South America. 4. S. nene

Otzsch, Mauritius. 5. S. pilidiatum Ernst, South America. 6. S. gr

= Ceylon. 7. S. australe Spegaz, "South America. 8. S. ssaa Ei

Genus vy, Clares

I. C. triscapus Ed. me Mat Indies, and doubtfully from North America.

wo braziliensis Ed. F „South America. 3. C. columnatus eee

us "So |

. VOL, xx.—no. e ; 53

806 General Notes. [September,

Genus VII. Colus. : :

1. C. kirudinosus Car & Séch., Europe and North Africa. 2. C. gardneri

Ed. Fischer, Ceylon.

Genus VIII LYsURUS. :

1. L. mokusin Fries, China. 2. L. clarazianus Müll. Arg., South America.

3. L. texensis Ellis, North America.

Genus IX. ANTHURUS,

1. A. Woodii MacOwen, South Africa. 2. A. mullerianus Kalch, srt

tralia, 3. A. (?) cruciatus Lep. & Mont., South America. 4. A. (P) are

Ed. Fischer, Tasmania.

Genus X. CALATHISCUS. ;

1. C. sepia Mont., East Indies. 2. C. puiggarii Spegaz, South America.

Genus XI. ASEROE.

M ry . lon. +. A.

1. A. junghuhnii Schlecht, Fava. 2. A. zeylanica Berk, Cey 2

rubra La Billard, Australia and Jasmania. 4. A. viridis Berk & Hook fil,

New Zealand. 5. A. lysuroides Ed. Fischer, Australia.

Tue RUST OF THE Asn TrEE.—Last year the writer called <

tention to the great abundance of rust (czdium fraxini

inus viridis). This was remarkable in the city of Lincoln, js

much so as to attract the attention of even the oe ia

This year it was expected that the parasite would be muc y 2

abundant, but to the astonishment of all, very little appeare Cor

often required a good deal of searching to find specimen tex

class illustration. Dr. Halsted, of Ames, Iowa, Bade a

actly similar condition of things in his flora, the abunda

the last year’s crop of rust being followed this year by a

dearth

What can be the explanation of this? Why should pees

be so free this year, when such myriads of spores were p

last year ?— Charles E. Bessey.

tion

Twics KILLED py TELEPHONE WiRES.—I made an one

1886, | Botany. 807

for fifty rods ahead. In many cases a branch was killed, while

another on the same tree, still nearer to the wire, was alive

I noted the following kinds of trees as the ones principally

affected, viz: White pine, white oak, red oak, white maple, rock

maple, white birch and poplar. At one point the wire passed

rough several apple trees, but I could see no traces of dead

leaves there—F, E. L. Beal, Fitchburg, Mass.

An Instance OF ĪNDIVIDUAL VARIATION.—Some three or four

years ago I noticed in the NATURALIST the variation of the

hickory trees in this vicinity as to the times of ripening their

leaves. The facts then set forth were simply that upon some

trees the leaves were ripe and withered into ashen-gray, while

upon others they remained green until killed by the hard frosts

of middle or late autumn. Others ripened all along between

these extremes,

_ This spring I noticed the same differences: in the times of put-

ting forth their leaves. Upon some trees the leaves were fully

one-third grown, while upon others, not more than a yard distant,

the buds were still dormant. It was very curious to notice the

changes from day to day, when

“ Young leaflets deepened into greenness,

And spread to the coming heat.’”?

Scarcely any two of the trees along my road of a mile and a

half into town seemed to be putting forth their leaves exactly

, ar,

(lycomyces splendens), with figures; Abies pinsapo, with figures

gatum; Disease of larch and pine seedlings, with figures. Journal

y Botany: New and noteworthy fungi; Notes on British Rubi.

Grevillea: Præcursores ad Monographia Polypororum. Botan

ische Zeitung: Ueber einige Sclerotinien und Sclerotienkrank-

. Flora: Die Stellung der Honigbehalter und

tes from Oregon (Miiller). American Monthly Microscop-

classificati

i e

se Lower California (Parry)——In a late bulletin of the Agri-

ei College of Michigan, Professor Beal publishes an inter-

Series of replies to questions about grasses———We note

808 General Notes. [September,

with pleasure the Seed Catalogue, issued by Damman & Co., of

San Giovanni a Teduccio (near Naples), Italy. Botanic gardens

can secure many desirable plants from this catalogue-——The

first number of Cooke’s British Desmids has just come to hand.

It resembles in text and plates the well-known “ British Fresh-

water Algz,” by the same author. It is to be completed in

about ‘ten parts, including all told about eighty plates, and will

cost about twelve or thirteen dollars.

ENTOMOLOGY.

A New ARRANGEMENT OF THE ORDERS OF Insects.—In pre-

paring for the press our larger “ Zoology,” also in our “ First

Lesson in Zoology,” which has just appeared from the press, we

have admitted sixteen instead of eight orders of insects heretofore

recognized by us. Below is given a very brief synopsis, pre-

pared for popular use, of this class of insects. The Pseudoneu-

roptera as the result of farther examination and reflection, are

dismembered into the Platyptera (which was characterized in the

Third Report U. S. Entomological Commission), the Odonata

with justice, by Brauer, to a distinct order. Our reasons for this

change in classification we hope to present on a future occasion.

ORDERS OF INSECTS.

1. Wingless, often with a spring...... Ue eka Thysanura : Spring-tails, ete.,

2 Fore wings minute, elytra-like Dermaptèra + Earwig.

H s net-veined; fore wings narrow; hind

‘win folded... ee, Orthopiera: Locusts, Grasshoppets:

- 4. Four net-veined wings; mouth-parts adapted eer

oor Witting. a a. p POC Platyptera : White Ants, Bird-ice.

5. Wings, net-veined, equal .. Odonata: Dragon-flies.

6. Wings net-veined, unequal..............-- Plectoptera: May ties. f

7. Mouth beak-like, but with palpi...... SADR Thysanoptera : Thrips. i

8. Mouth-parts forming a beak for sucking; no :

- palpi .. Hemiptera: Bugs. _ Fly, etc: :

9. Wings net-yeined; metamorphosis complete. Mewroplera : Lace-winged Fiy,

10. Wings long and narrow. Mecaptera: Panorpa.

11. Wings not net-veined z Trichoptera - Caddis-fly-

12. Fore wings sheathing the hinder ones....... Coleoptera: Beetles.

13. Wingless, parasitic......... Siphonaptera : Flea.

14, One pair of wings Tine: Fie

s sao y scaled,..... errs iipit : Butters i

6. Four clear wings; hinder pair small ; a tongue. Hymenoptera: Bees, :

aus ae r LA. S. Packard.

Jera Cruz, publishes in Archiv f. Mikr. Anat., xxvi, 296 (June

extended observations on several species 0! ten

Each beetle has three lamps, a pair Ot $

1886. ] Entomology. 809

dorsal lamps on the prothorax near its margin, and a large ven-

tral lamp on its abdomen. The organs are developments of the

hypodermis, are largest in the male, and the abdominal one is so

thin and transparent that we can see the ventral nerve-cord

through it. Branches of the trachea end in the luminous cells;

they are bordered by such cells, but no end-cell on the trachea

could be made out. Internal to the luminous layer is a non-

luminous layer, formed by tracheal branches and irregular cell-

Masses, specially rich in urates. Though the light is usually

nocturnal, yet if the animal is disturbed by day it will shine less

brilliantly. Even a sleeping cucuyo will show in a dark cham-

ber a mild light from the dorsal organs; the light of the abdo-

minal organ cannot then be seen, as the insect rests with its

abdomen doubled up against its sternum. If at such time we

awake it, the breathing begins, whereon the light appears in its

Splendor. There are two kinds, or rather two degrees, of lumin-

Osity, one soft, the other bright, which may be termed respec-

tively the cell-light and the tracheal-light. One may change into

the other just as the dull glare of a smith’s coals will on the

action of the bellows develop into a bright flame. In the abdo-

men the lateral parts begin earliest to shine, and retain their

luminosity the longest, because they occupy the place nearest

the lateral tracheal trunks. During flight the abdominal organ

iS In Constant activity (here differing from Lampyridz in which

the light is intermittent), In a dark room the light appears clear

green, inclining to blue; in daylight it is yellowish. The spectrum

analysis has not been satisfactorily effected; but the light

seems to produce a spectrum wanting half the blue and deficient

in the red. An extracted luminous organ will continue to give

red light for some hours (for twenty-four hours if kept in. moist

air), No light-nerves were found, and so far there was no evi-

dence of the luminosity being under control of the will. It is

Said that in Lampyridz the will and the nervous system control

the light. In Cucuyo the abdominal light at least depends only

On the respiratory center, which is in the metathoracic ganglionic

mass. The expiration only of the abdomen is active, and the in-

SPiration is the passive act of the abdominal muscles returning to

their place of rest. On every such inspiration the air brought

by the trachez causes the luminous organ to give its bright,

Steady light. It is manifest that the light depends on a process

of oxidation. All experiments, mechanical irritation, chemicals, or

mild cell-light. Buta stream of atmospheric air, and especially

810 General Notes. (September,

fused in the luminous cells; and this yellow can be fixed, Our

author holds that a substance is produced in the protoplasm of

the luminous organ, which on contact with oxygen burns and

becomes luminous. The ashes produced are rich in phosphoric

acid, from which he concludes .that there is a burning of some

phosphorous body; and thus both in aspect and in nature it cor-

responds with the light of a lucifer match—G. MJacloskie.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF DERIVED PLANT-PIGMENTS IN CERTAIN

Larv#.—In a paper in the Proc. Roy. Soc. (No. 237, 1885, p.

269), I gave an account of the way in which altered plant-pig-

ments take part in larval coloring. The evidence was chiefly

derived from an examination of the strongly-colored blood of

lik i :

tains all the pigments which have passed through the walls 0

the digestive tract, for in these larve it is probable that only a

inute quantity passes through as the result of any ne pe i

it almost certain that the processes

1886. j Entomology. SII

less likely that artificial digestion could be successfully performed

than in the case of higher animals. Nevertheless, there are cer-

tain ways in which the problem could be attacked with every

prospect of success. (1) There are many larve which eject a

green fluid from the mouth, and this fluid has the same spectrum

as that of the blood (in the instance examined). It is probable

that such a solution might be made by artificial digestion. (2)

The blood of some large larve in which the pigments passed

into the hypodermis cells might be investigated at various times

after their first meal, when more extensive fluctuations might be

witnessed.—Z, B. Poulton, Trans. Ent. Soc., London, 1886.

TuE Fruip EJECTED BY NOTODONTIAN CATERPILLARS.—This

defensive fluid, says Mr. Poulton (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1886,

157), as is well known, is ejected from a transversely placed

aperture on the ventral surface of the prothorax immediately be-

affecting litmus-paper in the most marked manner. During the

last summer he found that the fluid causes violent effervescence

when allowed to fall upon sodium bicarbonate, and has proved

y the reduction of silver nitrate) that the fluid is formic acid.

The smell is also quite characteristic, and affords an indication of

the larger Proportion of acid present in the secretion. Fle also

States that the freshly-made and moist cocoon of Dicranura

vinula is powerfully acid to test-paper. :

“In September, 1885, I found a few larve of D. furcula on wil-

low, near Visp, in Switzerland, and I examined them to see if

they also would eject a fluid when irritated. It was at once

obvious that the aperture was present in’the same position as in

D. vinula, but as the larve did not eject any fluid I applied gen-

tle pressure (for this is often necessary in the case of D. vinula).

To my reat surprise a complex form of “ gland” was instantly

everted through the aperture, consisting of six diverging pro-

cesses of a light green color, divided into two groups of three

ach. It will be very interesting to investigate the young stages

hss D. vinula in the light of this observation, for it will then be

ble and has fallen back iato the condition with which all such

Structures must have begun—a simple secretory involution dis-

812 General Notes, [ September,

charging its odoriferous or irritant contents: or whether the ar:

rangement in D. vinula is truly ancestral while that of D. furcula

represents a further advance.

“Since the above was written, I have been informed by Lord

Walsingham that a simple prothoracic gland is present in the

1886.] Entomology. 813

fuller development than C. fraxini in bearing the characters upon

such segment. The processes vary considerably in grade of de-

velopment amongst the segments, and he said he had not yet

been able to make out their precise order, but he submitted a

somewhat rough sketch of the appearance of the abdominal seg-

ments of C. a/acta as shown by a two-inch objective. The first

drawing exhibited the internal structure of the dissected portion

before the fatty tissues were removed; but little of the processes

could be made out from that point of view, and they were more

clearly to be seen from the other aspect; also a side view show-

ing the contour of the natural size. The large view of four of the

Spots presents an idea of the diversity of form in the individual

animal, and the two additional sketches show the processes dia-

grammatically. Mr. White said that the only conclusion he

could arrive at respecting them was that they were functional

organs of a special nature, and he observed that he should be

very glad if any one present could suggest an explanation of any

such function, or throw some light upon the question of their

portions of the caterpillar had been squeezed out, these organs

pose.

‘i reply to some observations from Professor Meldola, Mr.

White said he had not found any similar organs in any other

species, though he had looked well for them; and in reply to

Mr. J. Jenner Weir, who suggested that they might act as

sucker: S, he stated that the objection to that explanation was that

the skin covering them was perfectly tight. There were in some

instances pairs of minute holes which might communicate with

a atmosphere, and probably did, but otherwise air was closed

rom them. There appeared to be a motile closing of the ar-

rangement of tentacles like the clasping together of fingers, but

this could not apply to the open continuation of the serrated

edge of tentacles above this seam of the lip, which is not unlike

the labellum of some orchid.

THE DARKENING OF THE HAIRS OF THE LARVA OF ACRONYCTA

BEFORE Pupation.—During the past summer (1885), I noticed

that the long white hairs of this larva become dark, as we i

f y, before pupation, when the organism is wandering about to

nd a place in which to burrow. I then remembered that I had

Plentifully upon birch and alder in the near forest. As the larva

p lization of the incidental changes of color before pupation.

Feviously, during larval, life, the organism rests motionless in a

Swed position on the under side of the leaf, and the body is

almost completely hidden by the long white hairs, and the effect

814 General Notes. [September,

is that of a convex mass of white silk spun on to the under side of

the leaf, resembling, in fact, a cocoon, or more probably the

convex white egg-case spun by a spider. But such an appearance

becomes very much the reverse of protective as soon as the larva

moves, especially upon a dark background, and the darkening of

the larval body alone would be useless, because the hairs form

its most conspicuous feature—Z. B. Poulton, Trans. Ent. Soc.,

London, 1886.

An EVERSIBLE “ GLAND ” “In THE LARVA oF ỌORGYIA. —

“I do not know whether this structure has been previously

noticed ; it is not mentioned in the well-known text-books. The

single gland to which I refer is situated in the median dorsal line

of the seventh abdominal segment, and it is everted when the

larva rolls up on being disturbed. The larval surface close to the

lips of the aperture seems to be extremely sensitive to tactile im-

pressions.” On reading the foregoing note by Mr. E. B. Poulton

in the Transactions of the Entomological Society ot London (1886,

159), in reference to the European O. pudibunda, I at once turned

to several larva: of O. deucostigma, and found, what I had not be-

fore observed, that the two coral-red tubercles on the back of the

tubercles are only partly exserted, and the edges are usually in

motion, slightly everting and retracting.—A. S. Packard.

Enromorocicat News.—In the Transactions of the Entomolo-

gical Society of London for 1886, part 11. Mr. E. B. Poulton aes

lishes farther notes on lepidopterous larvæ and pup, induna

an account of the loss of weight in the freshly-formed pupa. Th P

loss is stated to be “ immense,” but the experiments are not oe

tended to indicate the normal loss of weight in pupæ throughou

groups,” and that Mr. Allen’s theory of the origin of srate

coloration is not sustained by an examination of even mod aid

t. “We find,” says Mr. Slater, ‘abundance of flower ae

fruit-haunting species dull and sombre in aspect; an os tly

sundance of Carnivora and refuse-devourers richly and bril -n

clad ; we find groups of species closely simular in color yet q

1886.] Zoology. 815

opposed in their diet, whilst other groups again, alike in their

food, signally differ in their coloration.” r. Horn’s elaborate

monograph of the species of Chrysobothris inhabiting the United

States, gives the result of a great deal of labor, both with the

e and pen; the plates are most excellent and rich in de-

tails,

ZOÖLOGY.

ugitive character. Doubtless they are somehow connected with

the function of secretion —G. M.

ORcans oF Fricut.—M. P. C. Amans sums up an extensive

survey of the organs of flight of the animal kingdom by distin-

gushing two principal types of the machine—the insect and the

vertebrate. In the former the principal part is formed by the

meso and metathorax ; in each segment the endosternum forms

the longitudinal axis of the floor ; the flanks are sustained by three

vertical pieces, and the upper edge by two; the roof of each seg-

ment is formed by two parts, which are concave below and with-

out. The frame-work of the wing is formed by six prima

nervures and their ramifications, which are alternately related to

the sides or the roof ; the general form of the wing is that of a

biplanar triangle, with the base centripetal and the apex centrifugal.

€ base is formed of an anterior and a posterior plane, the latter

Pieces as there are nervures. The apparatus of formation is con-

sen and may be considered as consisting of an anterior piece,

which forms a movable pivot, separated by an articular cavity

to the articulations of the anterior and subanterior nervures with

z- » .

their basal

scles.

816 General Notes, [ September,

The bat and the bird are the types of the vertebrate machine:

in them the hard pieces are internal, the motors external, and this

is the fundamental difference between the two types. The gen-

eral form of the machine and of the wing, and the distribution of

consistency to the surface, as well as the rotation of the anterior

edge, is comparable to what is seen in insects.—/ourn. Roy. Mier.

Soc., April, 1886.

UNUSUAL ABUNDANCE OF AURELIA AURITA—From the Ist of

July until the 10th, Aurelia aurita, the common large jelly-fish,

abounded in enormous numbers in Casco bay, Maine. They were

gathered into shoals, for at.least hundreds of yards in extent,

many of them in a dying condition, floating on their backs, and

causing calm areas and streaks when the surface of the bay was

elsewhere ruffled. At high water they stranded on the shore,

forming patches four or five yards wide and hundreds of yards

long, closely packed together, and often two deep. T have never

through twenty years’ observation seen this species in such great

abundance.—A. S. Packard.

ence for a terrestrial life, can support life for days in water.

into a jar of hungry leeches a puff of breath is blown, they br

~and with habits just like the European leech. In these Bees

ce the segmental organs are shown to be sense-organs,

(Of

1886.] Zoblogy. 817

author believes that from them the eyes have developed, so that

he regards them as incipient eye-spots.

Some Norges on Birp Micrations.—The City of Chicago is

perhaps not the most favorable locality for observing the phe-

re on the same area. “ Here,” thought I, “ is the favorite home

of the jays, where they can get the protection of the evergreens,

Which the native forest denies, and breed undisturbed ;” for shoot-

ing and birds-nesting are forbidden on that sacred ground.

For two weeks after my first visit the number of jays appeared

undiminished, but as soon as signs of returning warmth were more

“Pparent, I noticed a decided diminution in their ranks, till by the

first of May not more than two or three pairs were left; and in-

deed it may be questioned whether these were not new-comers

Pected before, that the jays,as well as others of our so-called

resident ” species, are, to some extent, migratory, only within nar-

rowerlimits than the great mass of birds. - It would appear that the

thic Evergreen trees and the immunity from disturbance acted as

an attraction to induce the jays to seek this place to pass the win-

ter, so that they were collected here in far greater numbers than

Would ordinarily be found on any other corresponding area. It

may be that at the approach of the breeding season they simply

that €r themselves over the adjacent country, but as the land in

Gp cee Sa,

: = Probable that they go north to the more heavily timbered

on April 17th, while visiting this cemetery and some other

Suburban fields, my attention was attracted by the great number

" Solden-winged woodpeckers or flickers, everywhere to be

p ’

That the mi

migrati g

eiT mik grations of birds take place in pulses or waves has

Mark

ignat canes cee cited above. It would head ee

ording protection etic flare the barbavity UE as a resting a

e barbarity of man and the in-

tion for

ys an recruit

arther flight north-

The buildi

. din

sin arc ma hei eh of Trade of Chicago has a ring of

: Pavements. The rin its dome, some three hundred feet above

Ae g is thirty feet in diameter, and contains

1886.} : Zoology. 819

twenty lights. They were lighted for the first time on the even-

ing of January Ist, 1886. On the night of May 8th following, a

terrific thunderstorm passed over the city between the hours of 11

P.M. and midnight. During the storm- the attention of the few

people who were on the street at that time was attracted to the

spectacle of a great number of birds hovering about this ring of

lights and dashing at them. In the morning it was discovered

that hundreds of dead birds were scattered about the foot of the

tower, and hundreds more were found upon the roof of the build-

ing. When the workmen ascended the tower to renew the car-

bons in the lights, they found many of the globes occupied by the

bodies of birds, some containing as many as eight, and many of

the carbons had been broken off by the birds. Over two hundred

bodies were picked up by one of the workmen attached to the

building, which was but a small part of those carried away by the

news-boys and others in the morning. A person who saw them

before any were taken away, estimated that more than a thousand

were killed. But even this was but a small portion of what were

seen in the air about the tower. It is to be regretted that no per-

son competent to determine the species of the birds killed on this

occasion, was present when they were first observed. I under-

stand that a few of them afterward fell into such hands, but I have

heard no report. From the testimony of those who saw them

ot appear to have been, for the most part, the smaller song-

The question arises, why was this great number of birds at-

tracted on this particular night, when, during a month previous, ,

while the migration was going on, no birds had been seen near

the lights. Tt may be that they had been driven from their course

the storm, and so brought in contact with the dazzling beacon;

or, perhaps, as birds are known to fly at great heights when mi-

Stating, the storm caused them to fly lower, and so brought them

within the fatal influence. But several other storms of nearly

equal violence had taken place in the night time within the two

months of April and May, and with no similar attendant phe-

nomena. The most reasonable conclusion, then, seems to

that the storm on the night of May 8th was coincident with a

ag ha ’ of bird-migration ; that the birds flew low to get beneath

e low-hanging clouds and avoid the violent winds of the upper

atmosphere, and so were brought into the vicinity of the lights,

i in the intense darkness of the storm, were bewildered wi

oo and either rushed to an untimely fate, or fluttered help-

ly about until the storm passed away, leaving the sky clear

So they could see to pursue their journey —F. E. L. Beal.

BaMBEKE on Herepity.—The same Buletin contains an inter-

ue paper by M. Ch. Van Bambeke, on heredity, in which the

ories of Darwin, Haeckel, Nägeli, Pflüger and others are sub-

$20 General Notes. [ September,

jected to a searching criticism. Both pangenesis and plastidul-

perigenesis are rejected as inadequate to explain all the phe-

nomena of heredity, which, it is argued, can be accounted for only

by supposing that the germ, Weismann’s Keimplasma, is in fact

continuous. It is not to be regarded as the final outcome of the

ontogenesis of each individual, but passes from parent to offspring

directly, being from the first present in an unmodified form in a

large number, possibly in all the comatic cells. The germinative

plasma persists through certain cellular series, concentrating

itself anew in the embryonic cells of the new organism. Ina word,

in the phylogenetic development of the organisms the germ,

whose true seat has now been determined, is perpetuated through-

out the whole series of successive ontogenies. The generations

succeed and efface each other, the Keimplasma alone is immortal.

—Nature, April 1, 1886.

male has shown a desire to increase his species, but his mate has

paid no attention to his advances.

A pair of Chinese mandarin ducks imported by me two years

ago, when they were a year old, have bred. From seven at

put under a hen on the last day of June I had four duckling? Pi

_ July 29th and three infertile eggs. These young birds at

_ Present writing are strong and lively. I

__ I have so far been unable to get green-winged teal, although s

_have offered prices which should tempt men who send these Dit

1886, ] _ Loblogy. 821

The eggs of the above wood-duck and the mandarin are from

two inches to two and one-eighth in length, and one and a-half

inches in depth. They vary some, and at first I thought I could

distinguish the egg of the wood-duck from the mandarin’s by its

ing more pointed, but the variation has been such that I do not

feel at all confident of this.

Next season I shall enlarge my range, and make every effort

to obtain other species, and to breed them.—Fred Mather.

ZooLocicaL News.—Mammals.—Mr. Carter, of the London

Colonial Exhibition, states that mice are among the enemies of

fogs. He was a witness to an attack made by mice upon some

frogs which infested a barn. They pursued and bit the batrach-

ians, which had sufficient strength and alacrity to escape, but

were again pursued and caught, until they were helpless from the

Severity of the bites, when the mice ate a portion of them.——

M. F. Lataste describes (Ann. d. Mus. Civ. d. St. Nat. Gen.,

1882-83) a new species of Jerboa (Dipus darricarreret) from Al-

geria. Two other species, D. egyptus and D. hirtipes, occur in

the same region,

Birds.—Sr. T. Salvadori enumerates fourteen species of Mega-

podes in Papua and the Moluccas. These constitute a majority of

the Gallinæ, the remaining forms consisting only of four Perdicidz

and Turnix melanonota. The Grallatores of the same region

humber seventy, viz: Rallide, 17; Glareolidez, 2; Hzmato-

» 2; Œdicnemidæ, 1; Charadriade, 8; Parride, 1;

Scolopacidze, 19; Ardeide, 17; Ciconiidæ, 1; Ibide, 2. Though

most of these waders are widely spread, thirteen are peculiar to

the region, or to parts only of the region, The Natatores of the

same islands are forty-one, viz: Anatide, 6; Pelecanide, 11;

region.— Sr, T. Salvadori (Ann. d. Mus. Civ. d. St. Nat. s

1884) occupies 276 pages with an account of the birds of Shoa

collected by Antinori. They include 307 species: Rapaces, 42;

Sittaces, 3; Picariæ, 52; Passeres, 130; Colombæ, ọ; Gallin-

» 53 Grallatores, 44 ; Natatores, 22. The proximity of Shoa

A Abyssinia, the bird-fauna of which has been so well explored

by Ruppell, Heuglin and others, did not give hope of many nov-

elties, yet at leasť five are new: Caprimulgus, 1; Psalido-

pocne, r; Euplectes, 1; Textor, 1; Podiceps, 1, and possibly

two or three more. A few of the species belong to the fauna of

the south of Africa, and have now first been met with north of

the Squator, while two species (Platystira albifrons, Cryptospiza

WAC ') have previously been considered peculiar to the west

ca.

Reptiles — Proteus anguineus is not, it appears from the state-

Ments of Dr. Marchesetti, confined to Carniola, but occurs also

: "o

YOL. XX.—wo. rx.

822 General Notes, [September,

in Friuli, and has been found in the Istrian peninsula, in a stream

of water running through the gallery of a lignite mine excavated

in cretaceous strata. Nature states that a very large Ascension

turtle which recently died at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition,

London, had existed without food for more than two months, and

contained 100 eggs, the retention of which was the probable

cause of death. Mr. W. A. Carter, of the fisheries section of

the same Exhibition; placed some small tortoises, 114’ long, of

what kind is not stated, along with some frogs of about the same

dimensions. The tortoises at once attacked the frogs, and bit

pieces from the legs, repeating the operation afterwards.

Fishes—D. Vinciguerra (Ann. d. Mus. Civ. d. St. Nat. Gen,

1882-83) describes the fresh-water fishes brought by the Italian

Expedition to Equatorial Africa (Shoa), two of which, one ot

Haplochilus and one of Discognathus, are new. The annals

of the Genoa Civic Museum of Natural History (1882-83) contain

an account of the ichthyological results of the cruises of the

Violante in 1877 and 1880. The total number of species taken

was 119, of which probably three, and certainly two, are new.

These are Godius vittatus Vinciguerra, taken on the north-east of

Sardinia ; Blennius nigriceps, taken near the island of Brazza, and

a doubtful Exocetus. Sr. Vinciguerra describes in the same

volume the ichthyological results of the cruise of the Corsair

around Madeira, Arnecife, Teneriffe and the Canaries. Only

six of the thirty-five species do not occur in the Mediterranean.

Crustacea —Mr. S. I. Smith (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., March)

gives an account of the Decapoda dredged by-the Albatross m

1883-85 from depths above 1000 fathoms. Of the forty-four

species twenty-one inhabit the bottom or its immediate neighbor-

they are not truly abyssal. Parapagurus pulosimanus has bee

edged at various depths from 250 to 222I fathoms, In the

shallower depths it inhabits the carcincecia of Epizoanthus pa

guriphilus, but in more abyssal localities some tenant the apne”

made by Æ. abyssorum, others naked gastropod shells, and st

others an actinian polyp, apparently Urticina consors Vet

The abyssal Decapoda are among the largest of thei f

groups. Geryon guinguidens is one of the largest brachyurans,

Lithodes agassizii measures three feet across the outstretched legs,

: i Si š

rostrata are the largest known Galatheidæ ; Sabinea princeps A

~ probably the largest Crangonid, and two Penæidæ are abo

_ foot in length. e

-Echinoderms —M,. Perrier has again attacked the so-call

1886. ] Embryology. 823

heart of echinoderms. His study of Asterias hyadesi, a new

star-fish from Cape Horn, has led him to conclusions identical

with those arrived at from the study of Comatula. The “heart” in

Comatula is but a glandular organ, the point of departure of the

reproductive organs, and there are no true vessels, only irrigation

canals in which sea-water always runs. Part of the water whic

enters by the madreporic plate of Asterias passes into the sub-

ambulacral cavities, the schizocele, and the genital cavity., Sea-

water plays the part of blood not only in echinoderms, but in all

zoophytes, which M. Perrier believes ought to form a sub. king

dom, as arranged by De Blainville.

Vol. 1x, No. I, 1885. M. Stossich (Boll. d. Soc. Adri. d. Sci.

Nat. 1885) gives an account of various species of Distomum and

allied genera found in the intestines of fishes in the neighborhood

of Trieste.

EMBRYOLOGY."

, Tae Devetopment oF THE Mup-mMrnNow.—The ova of Umbra

limi measure 1.6™™ in diameter and are laid singly upon aquatic

Plants to which they adhere for a time by means of a thin coating

of adhesive matter which invests them. The vitellus and blasto-

disk is moderately clear and yellowish in color. Just underneath

the blastodisk there is a rounded, flattened cluster of highly re-

fringent oil-drops of small size. As the blastodisk spreads these

oil-drops become more and more diffused or scattered over the

vitellus just beneath the blastoderm. :

At the time of the formation of the blastodisk, the vitellus: dis-

Plays a most active amceboid activity of its substance. TI

active that the outline of the vitellus changes very distinctly at

of a few seconds. In fact, I know of no teleostean egg

Which has been hitherto described in which such amceboid move-

ments of the vitellus are so pronounced and rapid.

! Edited by Jonny A. RYDER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D, C,

ally carried over the surface of the yolk as the blastoderm

824 General Notes. [ September,

The young mud-minnow leaves the egg on the sixth day, at

which time it measures 5™™ in length. A bilaterally symmetri-

cal net-work of blood-vessels is developed beneath the outer sac

covering the vitellus, the blood-channels being excavated in the

periblastic and cellular splanchnopleural covering of the latter.

The oil-drops soon rearrange themselves on the anterior, lateral

and ventral aspects of the vitellus, Three days after hatching the

air-bladder becomes apparent as a fusiform vesicle behind the

pectorals and above the foregut, when the young fish is viewed

as a transparent object.

Pigment is rapidly developed upon the upper and lateral aspects

of the body, and by the sixteenth day the larve have become

pretty dark in color, when observed from above.

Immediately after hatching it is observed that there is a par

projecting lobe at the end of the tail. Into this lobe the notocho

extends. This terminal lobe of the tail is much narrower than

the portion of the caudal lobe just in advance of it. As develop-

ment proceeds it also becomes longer and more cona

This terminal lobe of the tail of the larval mud-minnow 1s ee y

homologous with the opisthure of the larval Lepidosteus and ei

adult Chimera monstrosa. It is certain that it is subsequen y

absorbed, since the more advanced stages prove that the wy a

the permanent caudal fin are developed far in advance oO

opisthural lobe above described. ; :

There is a slight tendency to form an opisthural lobe in ret

of the pike, but the larva of none of the teleostean forms r e

studied approach the Rhomboganoids so closely in ree ee

manner in which the tail is developed as Umbra.—/ohin A. Ayaer-

e pres-

ence of a well-developed zona radiata, which is thickly feos

with very fine filaments, such as are found on the eggs = hast any

longirostris, but much finer. The writer is not aware ri

such filaments have hitherto been detected on the «ee enidia,

Cyprinodont. As in the cases of Belone, Exoccetus,. so as

etc., these filaments intertwine with those of adjacent eggs, alge,

to bind the latter into masses or clusters which lodge upo ‘duritg

etc., and thus suspended receive more or less measure nearly a

our

days, at a temperature ranging from 55° to 63° ie in

The oil-drops are small and numerous, and are €

. du-

the vitellus, a little to one side of the blastodisk, and r openi:

à s

: H

Se eS eee ee ee el

1886, ] Embryology. 825

OBSERVATIONS ON THE EMBRYOLOGY OF SPIDERS.—Some work

done during the past winter on the embryology of several species

of spiders at the biological laboratory of the Johns Hopkins Uni-

versity brought to light some facts of general interest.

he origin of the lung book of the spider is particularly inter-

esting, in view of the comparisons instituted between Limulus an

the arachnids. From good longitudinal sections of the spider

embryo before the disappearance of the abdominal feet, it appears

that the lung book may fairly be regarded as an involuted ap-

pendage or appendages. Before the involution of the abdominal

appendages, the epithelium covering them assumes the characters

of the epithelium of the lung book. At the same time the ap-

pendages become less conspicuous, and slight folds appear on

their anterior faces,

By the complete involution of the abdominal appendages, and

the increase in the number and distinctness of the folds on their

anterior faces, a lung book would be formed with its laminz

directed backwards. All the stages of the process of involution

were not observed, but probably in the species of spider upon

which the most complete observations were made two pairs of

abdominal feet are involuted.

hether the conversion of the abdominal feet into the lung

book is to be regarded as ar involution of certain paired append-

ages, as was suggested by Lankester on theoretical grounds, or

as a portion of the abdomen over which an appendage cor-

responding to the operculum of Limulus extends, could not be

Positively determined.

ere appears, from one series of sections, to be a swelling cor-

responding in position to the operculum of Limulus just in ad-

vance of the involuted abdominal appenda

Another point of interest in arachnid embryology is the pres-

ence of a fold in the blastoderm, surrounding the cephalic region

of the embryo. Balfour described this fold as a groove.

Pears, however, when studied by transverse and longitudinal sec-

tions to be a fold of the blastoderm. At the anterior extremity

of the fold its opposite sides unite over the median line of the

embryo, so that the brain is partially invested by an outer

1 or bag of epiblast formed by the united inner limbs of the

°PPosite sides of the fold.

, _J€ origin of this fold and the union of its opposite sides over

the middle line of the embryo correspond to the amnion of in-

Sects. The difference between the insect amnion and the spider

amnion lies in the fact that in the former the union of the oppo-

Site sides of the amniotic fold is in most cases complete through-

eloped only in the head region of the embryo and coalesce

at their anterior ends.—A. 7. Bruce, Ph.D.

826 General Notes. [September,

PHYSIOLOGY.’

Tue DELICACY OF THE SENSE OF SMELL.—The sense of smell is

probably the leading sensorial endowment in most insects, and it

oes for them what sight and hearing do for man. Its potency in

helping along intelligence is very great, since we know that men-

tally insects stand at the head of the invertebrate, as man stands

at the head of the vertebrate world. The sense of smell is prob-

some twelve square feet. The sense falls in value in the Amphi-

bia, reptiles and birds, but rises again in the Mammalia, though

not in proportion to intelligence. Its extreme acuteness In the

og, the most intelligent of animals short of Quadrumana, !s well

known. In man, the sense of smell is subordinate, and even rudi-

mentary. Olfaction adds to man’s enjoyment, preserves him from

some dangers, but does not very much extend his knowledge of

his environment. :

Yet despite the comparative insignificance of this sense in man,

its delicacy is most marvelous, and by it we can appreciate more

minute subdivisions of matter or the impact of more infinitesimal

molecular vibrations than by any other of the avenues to the

rain.

Professor Valentine has made some interesting and striking €x-

periments in proof of this. He found that a current of air con

taining 1-30,000 milligramme of bromine, or 1-500,000 ome!

gramme of sulphureted hydrogen, or 1-2,000,000 milligramme `

oil of roses could be perceived by the sense of smell. He also

determined that the amount of odoriferous air which must pasi

over the olfactory membrane in order to excite the sense of s

was from fifty to one hundred cubic centimeters (one-tenth to pee

fifth of a pint). He calculated, therefore, that the actual panto

of bromine necessary to excite a sense of smell was 1-6000 a A

gramme, of sulphureted hydrogen 1-5000 milligramme of o

roses 1-20,000 milligramme (about 1-120,000 of a grain).

Two recent experimenters, E. Fisher and F. Pentzoldt,

the cubic centimeter of chlorphenol, and 1-23,000,000,000 ae

gr e of mercaptan, these substances could be appreciated, si

it was estimated that only 1-4,600,000 milligramme of chlorp n

nol, and 1-460,000,0co milligramme of mercaptan, 1S necessary pe

excite a sensation of smell. There exists, therefore, a substan

_ which in so small a subdivision as 1-2,760,000,000 grain,

‘This department is edited by Professor Henny SEWALL, of Ann Arbor,

or not

Michig2™

A TEN EELA

1886. | Psychology. 827

quite one three-billionth of a grain, is capable of calling out a

nerve impulse. This subdivision of matter is quite beyond com-

prehension, yet the nose alone can appreciate it. The smallest

subdivision appreciable by the eye through the spectroscope is

I-1,400,000 milligramme of sodium, which is a two hundred and

fifty times coarser division of matter than the minimum of odor-

exciting mercaptan.

On account of the extraordinary power of mercaptan it is pro-

posed to put it to some practical use in testing currents of air,

ventilation, etce.— Medical Record.

PSYCHOLOGY.

CaninE ReEason.—S. N. Maxcy, of Gardiner, Maine, has a

black-and-tan dog which is very intelligent. He has all the ac-

complishments a common dog has and knows several besides.

The screen door of the house opens outward, and Dick can open

it from the outside, pulling it with his teeth. The other day he

approached the door with a bone in his mouth. He couldn't

open the door while he held the bone, and if he couldn’t have the

bone he didn’t care to open it. He looked at it a minute, then

laying the bone down near the door, pulled the door open and went

in, He then turned and pushed the door wide open, and before it

could swing to again, had grabbed up his bone and got inside.—

Exchange,

A bird dog owned in this town, though we doubt much if he

been shot over, is in the habit of making furious dashes at

the doves feeding in the streets, and of course the birds are too

quick for him. The other day he watched his opportunity in this

wise. The dog saw the doves, and also saw a team approaching ;

he waited until the team was between himself and the birds, then

€ made a tremendous rush between the wheels, and the birds

Not seeing his first leap were taken in a heap of surprise, and one

dove was nearly captured, :

eg these cases look a trifle like an exercise of the reasoning

wer,

_ Since the above was written (it was prepared for last week’s

issue) another capital story has come to our knowledge. Dr. C.

A. Packar d, of Bath, owns a setter of very fine blood, when young

` capital bird dog, but too old now to hunt. He runs with the

carriage for short drives occasionally. One day when on the road

poor “ Flash” had the misfortune to nearly tear out one of his

nails, and the doctor was obliged to use the bone forceps to re-

move the nail. Flash stood the operation “like a major,” never

wincing. Not long after this the doctor heard the well-recog-

_ ized rap of Flash on the office door for admission. It was opened

and in came Flash, accompanied by a small dog with a bad

Wound upon one leg, and Flash brought the dog up before his

828 General Notes. | September,

master. The doctor attended to the binding up of the leg and

then Flash went out with his little friend, probably seeing him

home.—Brunswick Telegraph.

[ Flash, whom we have known for years, is a well-trained Irish

setter, and is a dog of unusual docility and intelligence.— |

ANTHROPOLOGY.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE.—Quite frequently we have

drawn attention to the necessity of a consensus among anthro-

pologists as to the technical terms to be used in certain cases, and

also to the precise boundaries of these terms. At the suggestion

and request of a friend in Ohio, we revert to the subiect, and pre-

sent in the present number a short article on names, by Mr. John

Murdoch. Without pretending to legislate upon the subject, we

invite the most minute criticism, promising to use the words

below defined in the sense given, unless some one offers a suffi-

cient reason to the contrary.

harpoons fall naturally into the two following classes:

1. Toggle-harpoons, in which the head fits upon the shaft by

means of a socket, and is slung in a loop at the end of the line in

‘such manner that, when plunged into an animal, the strain ee

the line causes the head to become detached from the shaft an

to turn like a toggle across the wound underneath the skin.

2. Barbed-harpoons, in which the head fits into a socket pr

shaft, holding the animal by one or more barbs, like those oF 3

arrow. the

The head of an Eskimo harpoon is always detachable pE

shaft, and fastened securely to the line. In the first class the Hi me

is often attached temporarily to the shaft, and has fastened yes

one or more floats made of inflated seal-skins. This class r

cludes the ordinary seal, walrus and whale harpoons oi vany

sizes and used both for thrusting and darting. » of

_ The second class (comprising the so-called “ bladder arot 4

the Greenlanders and the seal and beluga darts of the woe for-

_ Eskimo, used only for darting) always has the line attache ae

manently to the shaft, which is made to serve as a float, eae st

attaching an inflated bladder to it or by making the line fast

Martingale, so that the. shaft is dragged sideways throug

=. Water. all of

= A harpoon of the first class consists of a shaft, usually ~

e _1 Edited by Prof. Oris T. MAson, National Museum, Washington, D. C. :

}

1886,] Anthropology. 829

wood, to the butt of which is sometimes fitted a sharp zce-pick of

bone, antler or preferably of walrus-ivory. To the outer end is

fitted the fore-shaft of bone or ivory, which may be simply a

_ ferule of greater or less length, of the same diameter as the shaft,

or may be expanded into a heavy pear-shaped knob, so as to give

weight to the head of a weapon intended for darting. Into a

socket in the end of the fore-shaft fits one extremity of the slen-

der loose shaft, which is short in a harpoon intended solely for

darting, long in one which is to be thrust through a hole in the

ice. This is attached to the rest of the harpoon, usually to the

fore-shaft, by the assembling line passing through holes in each

and keeping the loose shaft from being dropped and lost. On the

small seal-harpoon the assembling line is frequently long, and

knotted also to the shaft and ice-pick, so that if, the harpoon

breaks the parts are not lost.

The function of the loose shaft is to prevent the harpoon from

breaking with a lateral strain, while its play in its socket facili-

tates the unshipping of the toggle-head. Some harpoons are still

made with the fore-shaft and loose shaft in one piece, and the un-

shipping of the head is provided for by the shape of the lip-end,

__On the point of the loose shaft fits the tog gle-head, consisting

of a body of bone or ivory in the shape of a slender conoid or

hexagonal pyramid with the base beveled off so as to form a long

sharp spur, the daré of which may be split into two or more

pois, The body is usually somewhat flattened at right angles

to the plane of the barb, but in some localities it is very much

flattened in the direction of that plane, in which case it often has

à pair of lateral barbs near the apex.

In the apex of the body, usually at right angles to the barb, is

€ deep narrow blade-sht, into which fits the broad, thin, sharp

‘anceolate, or triangular blade of stone or metal. When of metal it

IS Usually secured by one or more rivets. In the middle of the base

is the deep shaft-socket, and through the middle of the body at right

angles to the barb runs the line-hole, from which, on each side,

deep longitudinal line-grooves run back to the base.

the end of the line is passed through the line-hole, brought back

and secured to the standing part (to use a nautical term) so that

the head is slung in a loop of the line. Or the line may be joined

- the ad by means of a /eader, or short line, attached as before

explained to the head and knotted or spliced at the end into a

ecket, in which case the line may be fastened or de-

tached at pleasure.

When the head is fitted upon the shaft the line is brought

nearly to the middle of the latter and either knotted securely

around it, fastened with a “ slippery hitch” or attached by means

of a small loop or ring of ivory to a little peg, the “e-hook, pro-

830 General Notes. [September,

jecting from the shaft. The last contrivance is used when the

line has a float attached to it.

Harpoons of the second class are more simple. The shaft is

never fitted with an ice-pick, but sometimes has feathering at the

butt like an arrow. The fore-shaft is usually of greater diameter

than the shaft, and its socket receives the skank of the head,

which has flat faces, sharp point and sides, and one or more uni-

lateral or pairs of bilateral barbs. It is usually made of bone or

ivory, and the /ive is fastened to it by passing the end through a

hole in the shank and tying a knot on the opposite side.

GLOSSARY OF THE HARPOON,

Sgr a a line joining the loose shaft of the harpoon to the fore-shatt, z

ing all the sections of a harpoon so that if a part is broken off it will not be

BARBED-HARPOON, a harpoon designed to hold the animal struck by one or more lat-

eral barbs on the head.

BLADE-SLIT, a ‘‘saw cut” in the front of a harpoon or spear-head into which the

blade is fitted.

Bopy, the bone or ivory portion of a toggle-head.

Bopy-Barg, the sharp spur or spurs in which the body of a toggle-head terminates.

ForE-SHAFT, the anterior end of a harpoon or spear-shaft when made ina separate

piece and of different material.

caer a Site? r for capturing aquatic es designed so as a eg the eet xd

a barbed or a toggle-head. Harpoons may be t r dar pekari a;

the 1 oi or from a ee stick, and veel a variety of rina according

form and special u

HARPOON-BLADE, a ens lanceolate or triangular blade of stone or metal forming

the cutting portion of a harpoon-head.

HARPOON-FLOAT, an inflated a or bladder separ to the harpoon, either to the

line or to the shaft, to act

HARPOON-SHAFT, the wooden portion of a sical or, more generally, the entire

portio n behind the head.

HARPOON-HEAD, the part of the apen which enters the animal and holds it by

barbs or other contrivan: 3

N-LINE, a line, one end = which is fastened to the harpoon, the ve sr

being either attached to a float or lashed to the shaft or held by the hunter. =

IcE-PICK, a “ bayonet ” usually of walrus-ivory, bone or antler, fitted to the hin

. end of a harpoon and used for chipping holes in the 2

LEADER, a short line ene to the harpoon-head ; to it the line is so attached

will,

to be removable os

LINE-GR furrows on the sides of a toggle-head extending from the pore of

tatiana into which he line or the leader fits, so as to facilitate the e

of the head into

Kpr pT a peti through a toggle-head to receive the leader on one end

Linz-noox, a peg on the e harpoon- shaft to receive a 7 or eyelet in the harpoon-

-line when the head is in place and the line draw a

_ Loosg-suart, a spindle-shaped rod of ivory or other of substance between

one Prgj hcad and the fore-shalt of a harpoon to prevent the breaking of the sha

1886. ] Anthropology. 831

by a lateral strain. It is connected with the fore-shaft or the shaft by an assem-

3 Sop is short in a darting harpoon and long in one used to strike seals

under the

MARTINGALE, a line attached by its ends to the nee brace se near the extremeties,

and fastened in the middle to the harpoon-line

RETRIEVING-HARPOON, a light ee used almost exclusively for retrieving seals

that have been shot in the ater. One end of the io is made fast to the shaft

close to the head, the caer end is held by T hun

SEAL-DART, a barbed harpoon launched from a Bereit ak The line is perma-

nently attached to the shaft which is so mounted as to serve as a float or drag.

~ anaehy a cavity in the base of a toggle-head to receive the front end of the

loose shaft.

SHANK, the part of a barbed-head which fits into the socket.

saya cavity ~ the front of a harpoon fore-shaft to receive the barbed head or

oose shaft

Townes, a device for hurling a harpoon or spear. Its essential parts are

th in w ag ch the shaft of the weapon lies and the hook or eyelet to hold

against he

Tietesta00%, a harpoon in which the head is fitted to the shaft in such a ma

ner that w paiva into the a A of the animal it turns like a toggle under eaf

skin, so a it cannot be withdr

TOGGLE E-HEAD, the of a harpoon which enters ar body of the animal, turns at

right angles and pis as a toggle in preyentin g5 cape. It consists of a yan

blade, The body is of hone or ivory made in the rae of a parre conoid or

hexagonal prism, with the base cut off obligadi so as t gee ong sharp spur

or barb, which in turn may be split into two or more poin

— Fohn Murdoch, U. S. Nat. Mus.

ANTHROPOLOGY IN Brazit.—The sixth volume of Archivo do

Museo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, dated 1885, contains the fol-

lowing papers: s

Contributions to the ethnology of the valley of the Amazons. 1. Sambaquis of the

Amazon, By Charles Frederick Hart. . I-174.

The man of the Sambaquis. By Dr. J. B. de Lacerda. pp. 175-20

New Actor ait studies upon the Botocudos, By Dr. J. op ete Peixoto, pp.

—— upon the archzology of Brazil. By Dr. Ladislau Netto. pp. 257-

This volume of archivos is a monument commemorative of the

Anthropological Exposition of Brazil, opened 29th July, 1882,

under the auspices of the National Museum, of which Dr. Ladis-

u Netto is director.

S She first part contains ethnological papers by Prof. Ch. Fred.

Hartt, many hitherto iniedited, supplemented by his pupil, Orville

wey. M. Lacerda compares the Botocudos of the Sambaquis

(Brazilian Kjokkenmédding) be the south with those of the Rio

Doce and d discovers curious affinities between the two types and

the man of Lagoa Santa. M. Peixoto concludes that no type

yet examined in Brazil presents the essential characters of a race.

Soh As that a great mixing has long been going on among

th A ienaa populations. The plastic forms of the primordial

832 General Notes. [ September,

elements, factors in the mixture, have long ago disappeared in

the general fusion.

M. Netto’s contribution occupies more than half of the volume

and is rich in material for future study.

ornamental pottery. One of the interesting and useful character-

istics of this people was the symbolical representation of the

human head, which the author of the paper regards as portraitures

of the people. Many pages of the memoir are occupied with the

description of the markings on this pottery.

mong the works of the mound-builders of the Amazon are

innumerable characteristics which recall the works of mound-

builders of the Mississippi valley as well as those of the civilized

peoples further south. Through much of M. Netto’s comparative

work we are unable to find our way, lacking the material, but

every archeologist will be delighted with his figures and descrip-

tions of stone implements. The existence of nephrite specimens

among the objects from the shell-heaps and mounds is penn

confirmation of the belief that all implements of this materia

found in America are of American origin.

MANUFACTURE oF Bows AND ARROWS AMONG THE Nee

(Hura) AND Kenucx (Kiamatu) Inprans.—The bow-makers

both these tribes are specialists, and the trade is now confined to

a very few old men. I have here seen no man under forty years

of agetthat could make a bow or an arrow, and only one old man

who could make a stone arrow-head.

To make a bow, the wood of a yew sapling two anda halft?

three inches in diameter is selected and rough hewn to shape, at

heart side inward and the back carefully smoothed to the wae x

the back of the bow. The sinew is laid ae ja pas a

green, and held in place until dry by means of a twine F

In this condition itis hung in thé ieat house until the wood as

thoroughly seasoned, when it is finished and strung, and in SO af

cases the back varnished and painted. .The most delicate pie i

the operation is to get the proper tension on the sinew bac a

If too tight the wood crimps or splinters when the bow 1s eae

and a lack of proper tension leaves the bow weak and wort three

When the bow is seasoned it has a reverse curve of about

inches, he

_ The sinew for the backing and bow-string is taken from. £

back and the hind leg’of the deer at the time of killing, an¢ í pped

for future use. When required it is soaked until pliable, -a E

Into fine and laid on by commencing at each end an

1886.] Anthropology. 833

minating at the center of the bow. The sinew is slightly twisted

and dried before it is placed on the bow.

The glue used to fix the backing is obtained by boiling the

gland of the lower jaw and the nose of the sturgeon. This is

dried in balls and preserved for use, and is prepared by simply

dipping it in warm water and rubbing it on the wood.

The arrow shafts are usually made from the wood of the wild

currant, and are worked to shape with a knife and tried by the

eye. After roughing they are allowed to season and are then

finished, Any curves are taken out with a straightener, made of

a piece of hard wood, spindle-shaped and perforated in the. mid-

e. The arrow-heads used in war and for big game are usually

CALIFORNIAN AND PoLyNestAN Fisu-Hooks.—In his work on

Prehistoric fishing in Europe and North America, Dr. Rau has

awn attention to the similarity of South,Californian and Polyne-

Sian fish-hooks of shell and bone, and he has figured a few from

uth Sea islands for the sake of comparison. In consequence

thereof he received, unasked, a short time ago, from the ethno-

logical department of the British Museum a communication to-

gether with a large plate of drawings of Polynesian fish-hooks

Preserved in the museum. Some of these are strikingly alike the

Californian specimens; not only does the curved points in these

hooks approach very closely the shank, but they also show, like

the California hooks, a barb on the outside. This analogy is the

more significant, as some ethnologists, Dr. Charles Pickering

mong them, have claimed a relationship between the Polynesians

and South Californians.

834 Scientific News. [September,

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CLASSIFICATION OF THE Races oF MAN.—

At a meeting of the London Anthropological Institute, held May

25th, Mr. R. S. Poole read a paper, reported in Mature, on the

“ Ancient Egyptian Classification of the Races of Man.” This

was defined by the famous subject of the four races in the tombs

of the kings, at Thebes (B. C. 1400—1200). The types were (1)

Egyptian, red; (2) Shemite, yellow ; (3) Libyan, white; (4) Negro,

bla By comparison with monuments of the same period and

of a somewhat earlier date, the first race, clearly an intermediate

type, was seen to comprehend the Phenicians, the Egyptians and

the people of Arabia Felix with the opposite coast. The Libyan

race included an aquiline type, with marked supraorbital ridges

and receding foreheads, as well as a straight-nosed type. These

two types inhabited the south coast of the Mediterranean and

some of the islands. The Negro race included the Negro and

Nubian types. The Hittites and Hyksos, or shepherds, were as

yet unclassed. Professor Flower remarked upon the resemblance

of the aquiline Libyan type to that of the Neanderthal crania and

the oldest European type; and saw in the Hyksos head dis-

tinctly Mongolian characters. These two points are of the highest

consequence in historical anthropology.

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.'

romise

of what may be expected hereafter of the society, in the way of

bered forty regularly enrolled members, while on some kes be

alternate

rofessor

ical dis-

De bottom of the Upper Silurian at the Delaware water a

mountainous region, fine scenery and e api

_ geology and botany mark the place as an extraordinar!

. : * Edited by Wm. Hosea BALLOU, 265 Broadway, New York.

1886.] Scientific News. 835

one for such classes. Hitherto Scranton, now a city of over

80,000 inhabitant, has devoted itself to material development,

and has succeeded. We now expect to see as marked success

of a higher order. It makes a good beginning.

— The Scientific Association of Detroit is not active. It has

donated its valuable collections to the city, which has provided

the specimens with scant but pleasant apartments in the public

library buildings. Detroit is a city of millionaires. Michigan is

a State of boundless mineral wealth, rich in industrial woods and

remarkable geological formations, and the home of ancient hiero-

glyphics and ethnological remains. That scientific apathy

should reign in Detroit where a large body of citizens have made

millions from these resources, is at least a State disgrace. De-

troit ought to support a museum devoted to the resources of the

commonwealth of which it is the metropolis, especially as it is

one of the oldest cities of America.

— The meteor which fell near Claysville, Washington county,

Pa., September 14th, was found recently by Professor J. Em-

erick, of William and Mary College. The stone was found em-

bedded at the base of a hill. It weighed about 200 tons, but was

cracked into pieces by contact with a stratum of limestone. Its

composition was chromium, nickel, aluminium, copper, magne-

Sium, tin and other metals and metalloids. It contained eighty-

seven per cent of iron in a metallic state. Its specific gravity

Was 7412. Its elevation above the earth’s surface was established

at fifty-two miles, its path nearly horizontal, its flight between

five and ten seconds, its visible path 150 miles, and its velocity

fifteen to twenty miles per second.

_— The Chicago Academy of Sciences has been presented with

the bones of an elephant supposed to be E/ephas primigenius, by

Dr. E. W, Andrews. The remains were discovered in the eastern

part of Washington Territory. Among them is one animal ot

enormous size which is quite as large as Ward’s Siberian Mam-

moth. Its tusk is ten feet in length, pelvis sixty-three inches in

length and the longest rib found 54.6 inches long. No complete

Skeleton was found

— Professor H. S. Carhart, of the Chair of Physics of the

‘orthwestern University at Evanston, has been called to the

Similar chair at Ann Arbor. Professor Carhart has now a high

ing as a physical experimentalist, both as regards America

and Germany.

— Dr. Oliver Marcy, LL.D., has issued the annual report of

the Museum of the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Ill.,

Which Shows it to be one of the very first in standing west of the

€ghenies. The donations of the year are exceedingly numer-

Ous and valuable,

836 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. (September,

— The only photograph that was taken of William B. Carpen-

ter, C.B., M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., during his 3 2e to the U.S,

when he came ‘to attend the "A. A. An Si; ures II x 17 in,

and copies can be obtained of Mr. Charles Siea IŜI Hodia

Street, Buffalo, NY

:0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE —

This body met at Buffalo, N. Y., commencing August 18th, in

the building of the municipal High School. The following

Papers were read:

Thursday, August roth.

SECTION E—GEoLocy AND GEOGRAPHY.

On the a Nt of testing building stones by absorption, freezing and fire, Alexis

A. Julie

Thickness a the glacier in N. E. Penn. John C. Bra

A remarkable extinct geyser basin in S. W. Colorado. “Theo. B. Comstock.

The Tully limestone ; its distribution, character and fossils. S. G. Williams.

Note on the Lower Helderberg rocks of Cayuga county, N. Y. S. G. Williams.

Revision of the Cayuga Lake section of the Devonian. H. G. Williams. an

Mechanical origin of the Triassic monoclinal in the Conn. valley. W. M. Davis. ;

Remarks on molluscan fossils of the New Jersey marl beds, contained in Vols. I =

I of the New Jersey pulsibalbsigy. and on their stasireselibedl relations.

P. Whitfield.

Preliminary geological map of Nebraska. L. E. Hicks.

e Permian formation in Nebraska. L, E. Hicks.

Some typical well-sections in Nebraska. L. E. Hicks.

The Lincoln salt-basin. - Hicks.

On Devonian and Carboniferous fishes. J. S. Newberry.

On the Cretaceous flora of N. America. J. S. Newberry.

On some Carboniferous wood from Ohio. E. W. Sasa

On the deep well at Akron, Ohio. E. W. Cla n New

Notes on the Arch ities ad = the highlands oe of the Hudson river i

in New York. TC CoS

Some new geologic taken E K. Gilbert. í

Roanded boulders at high altitudes along some Appalachian rivers. I. C. White

Topography of head of Chesapeake bay. - McGee.

Seer. geology of the head of Chesapeake bay. W.J.M

k. G

= Sleg the roofing slates of Granville, Washington ae New Yor

D. Wole

T. B:

Super-metamorphism ; its actuality, inducing causes and general effects.

: omstock,

Paper on geology of Florida. J. Kost.

r SECTION F—BIoLocy.

Atavism the result of cross-breeding lettuce. E. Lewis Sturtevant. W. J. Beal.

— The bulliform or hygroscopic cells of grasses and sedges compared. Coulter and J.

aoe Eee North American pines based on leaf anatomy. John M.

1886. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 837

The development of the Gymnosporangia of the United States. W, G, Farlow.

Plan for laboratory work in chemical botany. Lillie J. Martin.

A study in agricultural botany. ŒE. Lewis Sturtevant,

Biology of timber trees with special reference to the requirements of forestry. B.

E. Fernow.

Immunity from contagious diseases produced by products of bacterial multiplication.

D. E. Salmon,

SECTION H—ANTHROPOLOGY.

A query as to the sepulchral rites of the mound-builders, Edward P., Vining,

Notes upon a native Brazilian language. J. C. Branner.

The Seta elements in the graphic system of the Mayas and Mexicans, D. G.

rinton,

Wampum, W, M. Beauchamp.

Piute herbalist, Chas, P. Hart.

Eyah Shah, a sacrificial stone of the Dakotas. Horace C. Hovey.

Characteristic curves of composition. T. C. Mendenhall.

The origin and antiquity of the New York Iroquois. W. M. Beauchamp.

On gold and silver ornaments from F lorida. Geo. F. Kunz.

Gold'ornaments from the United States of Colombia. Geo. F. Kunz.

Longevity of great men. Joseph Jastrow.

oP ata of Chiriqui ; its potteries, stone and metal implements, Wolfred

_In the afternoon, at 3 o’clock, an excursion down the Niagara

river to Grand island was given by invitation of the local com-

mittee,

In the evening the Botanical Club of Buffalo received the Bo-

tanical Club of the association, at the residence of Hon. David

- Day, 69 Cottage street, at 8 o’clock.

Friday August 2oth.

SECTION E—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.

The Niagara gorge. J. Pohlman.

On the rate of recession of the Niagara falls. R. S. Woodward.

Buffalo and Chicago, or what might have been. E. W. Claypole.

The place of Niagara falls in geologic history. G. K. Gilbert.

Some new terrestrial facts bearing on the date of the close of the last glacial period.

G. F. Wright.

SecTION F—BIoLocy,

On the development of the human chorion, Chas. S. Minot,

The theory of immunity from contagious diseases. D, E, Salmon.

Tie presence and relations of the co rpus callosum in the brains of the lower verte-

Henry F. Osborn.

Pitman cerebral fissures < their relafiods did nhines; aad tiie methods of studying

Burt G. Wilder,

lampreys of Cayuga lake. S. H. Gage and Seth E. Meek.

Vaso motor nerves of the limbs. “H. P, Bowditch,

Homologies of segmentation of the ovum in vertebrates. C. S. Minot.

'nstration of an easy method of measuring reaction-times. Jos. Jastrow.

Stability of organs as dependent on phylogeny. Frank Baker.

VOL. XX.—NO, Ix. - 55

838 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [September,

SECTION H—ANTHROPOLOGY.

Ancient art in Chiriqui. John A, McNeil.

Torsion of the humerus in North American Indians. Frank Baker.

Additional observations on ancient methods of arrow release. Edw. S. Morse.

Child mind, Geo, M. Maxwell.

In the afternoon the Entomological Club made an excursion

to Ebenezer in company with the home clu

After the adjournment of the sections Mrs. Bronson C. Rum-

sey received the members of the association a a lawn party, at

her residence on Delaware avenue, from 4 to

In the evening Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, delivered a

lecture in Liedertafel hall, at 8 o’clock, on “ The Relative Weak-

ness and Strength of Nations.”

Monday, August 23d.

SECTION E—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.

The har pA —_ of the gorges cut through the trap ridge by the Conn. river, B.

Fen hae ie Pecdale, J. D.

Palzontological observations on pen Teavinke limestones of Canaan, Columbia

county, N. Y.

The criticisms of the anticlinal theory of natural gas. I. C. White.

A periodic tidal wave as a geologic agent. J. C. Branner. a

a of a new crustacean from the Clinton group of Georgia. A. W.

ogdes.

The Strophomenidæ, a palæontological study of the imitation of genera and species.

H. S. Williams.

On certain limestones of Columbia county, N. Y. I. C. Bishop

Some questions relating to the subcarboniferous conglomerates. J. C. Bra ee

A trilobite track illustrating the mode of progression of the trilobite. e

gueberg.

Hints towards a theory of vulcanism. T. B. Comstock.

Drift of the Rocky mountains. T. B. Comstock.

The Holyoke range on the Connecticut. B. K. Emerson.

SecTION F—BIoLocy.

Memoranda of a revision of the North — violets. As

A revision of the North American species of the genus Fissidens. C. R. pegs

On the variability of pathogenic organisms, as illustrated by the bacterium g

plague. Theobald Smith.

A pa of ‘hed in regard to the theory of immunity from contagious dis

: The teh: es swine plague. D. E. Salmon and Theobald Smith.

o Ons — contagious di iseases of insects. S. A. Forbes.

| 1 oseph Jastrow.

Orientation of small objects for — J. S. Kingsley.

_ Embryology of Crangon. LS Ki

Kingsle

_ The dreams of the blind and the centers oe sight. Joseph

ene Jastri and matt

> Tou Te U.s: Department of Agriculture in economic aeS

malc C. Hart Merriam.

E c

1886. | Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 839

Traveling of the larva of a species of Sarcophaga. W., L. Coffinberry.

The prototype of the Cephalopoda. Alpheus Hyatt.

SECTION H—ANTHROPOLOGY,

An Indian secret society. J. Owen Dors

Ancient fortifications in the Ohio valley. Geo. M. Maxwell.

The way bone fish-hooks were made. F. W; Put

agree limits regarding a knowledge of hie origin of languages, John

Tuesday, August 24th.

a SECTION E—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.

Notice of geological investigations along the eastern shore s Lake Champlain

: conducted by Professor H. M. See ely and President Edward Brainard, of Mid-

anes College, with descriptions of the new feast: discovered, R. P

Remarkable i ite ane on syenite. W. H. Pitt.

Veins of S. W, Colora . Comstock.

On some dynam a ret of the ice sheet. F.J. H. Merrill.

The petrified forest of Alabama. J. Dickenson,

markable occurrence of rock crystal in the U. S.

. F. Kun

Some Aa oe facts bearing on the date of the close of the last glacial period.

right.

SECTION F—Brotocy.

The homologies of the ear-bones in certain of the lower Vertebrata. E. D., Cope.

Note on the RASA style in Mya arenaria; Fanny R. Hitchcock.

Zoetic maxima. L, . Gratacap.

Osphradium in z E Henry L. Osborn.

SECTION H—ANTHROPOLOGY,

Some giva osm de a greater antiquity for the ancient Chiricaños than is generally

cede McNiel,

Some wake on the possibility of the PEATA of the human teeth. J. R.

oe of ‘be seein grandfather and serete among the Siouan tribes. J. Owen

Pinoy et on the analysis of the Mexican inscriptions and codices. Zelia

l nart.

a diversity of the mounds and earthworks of the United States. F. W. Putnam.

zori of New Zealand as compared with other members of the Polynesian

group, iiller,

ie salt kettles and pans of the mound-builders. W. McAdam

= old copper kettle of Spanish origin from a mound in Tllinois. W. McAdams.

€ testimony of some recently explored mounds. Cyrus Thomas

R ohig officers were elected for the next meeting:

ident, S. P, Langley, of Allegheny, Pa. ; vice-presidents, A.

ics

ng and engineering, Eckley B. Coxe, of Drifton, Pa.; E Geol-

geography, G. K. Gilbert, of Washington, b. C. E

» W. G. Farlow, of Cambridge, Mass.; H. Anthropology,

840 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [September, 1886.

D. G. Brinton, of Media, Pa. ; I. Economic science and statistics,

Henry E. Alvord, of Amherst, Mass.

Permanent secretary, F. W. Putnam, of Cambridge, Mass. ;

general secretary, W. H. Pettee, of Ann Arbor, Mich., assistant

general secretary, J. C. Arthur, of Geneva, N. Y.

Secretaries of the sections: A. Mathematics and astronomy,

Henry M. Paul, of Washington, D. C.; B. Physics, C. Leo Mees,

of Athens, Ohio; C. Chemistry, C. F. Mayberry, of Cleveland,

Ohio; D. Mechanical science and engineering, Geo. M. Bond, of

Hartford, Conn.; E. Geology and Geography, T. B. Comstock, of

Champaign, Ill.; F. Biology, J. Henry Comstock of Ithaca, N.

Y.; H. Anthropology, F. W. Langdon, of Cincinnati, Ohio; I.

Economic science and statistics, Wm. R. Lazenby, of Columbus,

Ohi

io. :

Treasurer, William Lilly, of Mauch Chunk, Pa. :

Meetings of the Botanical Club and the Entomological Club

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday, at the

room of the Biological Section, in the High School, and at such

other hours as announced in the daily programme. _

wo excursions were given by the local committee to er

members of the association. One to Niagara falls via New gher

Central railroad. Dinner was provided by the local committee @

the International hotel, Niagara falls. Arrangements for ren

rates were made with Mr. Alva Gluck, the proprietor of the “ In-

ternational.” New

The other excursion was to Chautauqua lake via Bara r

York and Philadelphia railroad to Maysville, from Maysville

Bemus point by steamer, where dinner was served. tee of

e number of papers presented was 263. The num nee

members in attendance was 442. The number of new me

elected was 142.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VoL. xx.—OCTOBER, 1886.—No. 10.

SOME DEITIES AND DEMONS OF THE NAVAJOS.

BY DR. W. MATTHEWS, U. S. ARMY.

r= great. dry-paintings of the Navajo priests, which I de-

scribed in a previous number of this journal (October, 1885).

. illustrate, as I then explained, the visions of the prophets. But

the prophets saw the gods in their visions, hence the paintings

contain pictures of the gods with all their hieratic belongings.

The characters which perform in the great dances conducted by

the priests, are representatives of the gods. In the ancient crea-

tion-myth of the tribe some descriptions of the gods are incident-

ally given. In the later myths, recounting the acts of the

Prophets, more exact descriptions are to be found. Itis from

such material as this—these oral traditions, these paintings, these

ceremonies, with their hundreds of songs and elaborate unchange-

able rituals, handed down from generation to generation by word

of mouth and by example only—that the student must evolve the

nature and scope of their worship.

In one of the great ceremonies, that of the Kledji Hathal, or

Gaybechy, there are, according to the circumstances, from twelve

to sixteen different supernatural characters represented. Some

of these, like the gaybaad, being a numerous race of divine ones,

are represented by many dancers—men masked, dressed and

Painted to represent gods, bearing sacred wands and talismans

and symbolizing in every act and motion something in the lives

“a their Prototypes ; living and breathing idols to whom the sup-

pliant prays and offers his sacrifices, well knowing that he ad-

with reverent prayers only his own brother or uncle

masquerading in the panoply of divinity.

VOL. XX.—NO.

842 Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. (October,

They begin their cosmogony with an already existing world.

It is a dim world; there is light, but as yet no sun, moon or

stars. It is inhabited, however, by animals or animal gods with

the gift of speech and other human attributes, and by some vague

gods, probably meteorological personifications, possessing more

of the human than the animal character. Just when mortal man

first appears on the stage it is difficult or impossible to determine.

True there is a first man and a first woman, as there seem to be

in nearly all Indian myths; but they do not appear as the pro-

genitors of the race. The time of their beginning is not told,

they are coeval with the universe, and they still live in distant

lands, but not in the nether world where dead Navajos go; in

short, they are immortal and eternal—they are gods. Perhaps

we have in them but an extension of the zoolatry of the Indian;

as the lower animals have their ancient divine prototypes, so man

must have his. With a strange suggestion of the existence of a

primeval Darwin, we find in the legend the animals assuming

more and more the human character, until the lower worlds’

which were once peopled only by flying animals are later inhab-

ited by creatures who are spoken of as men. All the beings in

the first world are able to fly away on wings from the rising

waters of the flood ; while in the third and fourth worlds they are

obliged to seek protection in the hollow of a great reed, which

grows as fast as the rising waters advance and bears the fugitives

upward out of danger.

Arrived on this, the fifth, world, men increased and multiplied ;

but soon various enemies to the human race arose, demons an

giants who devoured men, until after a while the race became

nearly or quite extinct. Then came the great hero-god Wagay-

nezgant, to whom I will refer later, and killed the demons. After

this, by special acts of creation, new men and women were made.

Possibly the first of these creations is to be regarded as the first

appearance of the true mortal Indian on the earth.

The Navajo has no faith in monogenesis, he believes in several

special creations even for his own tribe. The process by which

their rude gods made men in the old days was quite an elaborate

one, and the Navajo shaman, in relating the myth, does full jur

_ tice to all the difficulties. A full recital of all the symbolic

mummeries that the divine beings thought it necessary tO =

m in this creative act, would be at best but tedious reading.

1886.] Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. 843.

brief sketch of their toils must suffice here. They took two ears

of corn, one yellow and one white, the former was to become the

female of the new couple and the latter the male, and it is in

memory of this event, they say, that white corn is called male

corn and yellow corn is called female corn to this day among the

Navajos. The gods laid these ears on a large dish of pure tur-

quoise, and covered them with embroidered blankets of different

colors, and with sacred buckskins, 7. e., the skins of deer not

slain by weapons but pursued to exhaustion and then smothered,

They were laid with their points towards the east; but before

they were laid down they were handed round from one god to

another and each god turned them in a different direction, and

this is the reason the Navajos to-day never dwell in one locality

long, but wander from place to place.

From time to time the benevolent god Has-chay'-el-thee peeped

under the covering to see how the incubation progressed, and

when the ears of corn had assumed the shape of man, the wind-

god entered under the blankets to give them life. He went in at

the mouth and came out at the tips of the fingers. “ Do you not

believe this ?” said an old shaman to me. “ Look then at the tips

of your fingers and there you will see Wiyol Bithin, the trail of the

wind.” A double helical line is with the Navajos and other

tribes a symbol of the whirlwind, and this symbol is impressed on

the palmar aspect of the terminal joint of every human finger—

Satisfactory evidence to the Navajo philosopher that the wind-

god, when he gave the breath of life to man, made his exit

through the finger-tips. It was the gods of the white rock crys-

tal, who live in Jemez mountain, that furnished these new beings

with mind, and the goddess of the grasshoppers gave them

Voices. Then they rose, but at this moment a dark cloud de-

Scended from the heavens and covered them as a garment.

This pair became the ancestors of the 7sedyinkini, or people of

the dark cliff house, the oldest gens of the present Navajo

nation. The story tellers say that they are thus called because

the ears of corn of which they were made were taken by the

gods from certain dark cliffs. But the archzologists will be more

inclined perhaps to think that the myth refers to some remnants

of the ancient inhabitants of the cliff houses of Arizona, enslaved

Or otherwise adopted by the conquering Navajos. The myths

844 Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. (October,

the human forms are molded of moistened corn meal, while dif-

` ferent ceremonies are performed and by different gods. But

always Indian corn, in some form, is the substance used. As

this has been from time immemorial the staple food of the In-

dian, it is not without reason that his gods have chosen it as the

proper substance fer making men. All Indian flesh is largely

derived from maize.

It is a difficult task to determine which one of their gods is the

most potent. Religion with them, as with many other peoples,

reflects their own social conditions. Their government is a strict

democracy. Chiefs are at best but elders, men of temporary and

ill-defined influence, whom the youngest men in the tribe may

contradict and defy. There is no highest chief of the tribe.

Hence their gods, as their men, stand much on a level of equality.

But, as you hear the myths recited, you gain the idea that at the

present day the sun-god is the most potent, though very far from

being omnipotent. In the earlier days of the world, and in the

lower worlds, First-man and First-woman, the Coyote and the

wind-gods, and, above all, the sea-monster, appear as person-

ages of greater importance.

When the race came up from the fourth world to this, to escape

the last flood, two very popular and much beloved persons were

chosen to carry the sun and the moon, and all were deeply

grieved when they departed for their distant homes beside the

great eastern ocean. The sun-god dwells there now ina beautl-

ful house built of turquoise. The sun is a bright shield which

the god carries on his arm. The creation myth in one place =

scribes with much exactness how he comes home after his day s

work, how he hangs his shining shield on the wall, how it lights

_ up the inside of the vast edifice, how it dangles and sways 0 the

wall, going “tla, tla, tla” until at last the vibration stops and the

= noise ceases.

But, although they attribute great power to Chohanoat, the sun-

god, it is not to him that they pray the most. Itis not he who

_ takes the greatest interest in human affairs and lends his ear most

readily to human supplication. Is it because they naturally sup-

. _ pose the most active sympathy to dwell in the breast of a woman

. = ‘that they have found in a goddess their most beneficent dei

ty? It

so, but perhaps there are other reasons equally pee

vill presently appear, why Æszsánatlehi, the goddess of the |

` 1886.] Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. 845

west, is their most honored divinity. Various accounts are given

of her origin. Some versions of the myth declare that she was

found by First-man and First-woman ; others add that they found

her at the foot of a rainbow; but the version which I regard as

the most ancient and purest gives an elaborate account of a spe-

cial creation, by the gods, of two divine women, one of whom

was made of a piece of blue turquoise and the other of a piece

of white shell, precious substances highly valued among the

Navajos. The former, she of the turquoise, was Astsanat/ehi, the

latter, called her sister, was Yo/kat-estsan, or White-Shell Woman,

who figures as a less important character in the myths, This

Estsanailehi afterwards became the wife of the sun-god, who like

a true savage god is a polygamist. He has a wife in the east and

another in the west; but Astsanatlehi, the goddess of the west, is

beloved. She embodies attributes of various queens of heaven,

of various wives of the highest deities which appear in a hundred

mythologies. She has, however, none of the low jealousy and

Petty spite of her sister Juno; she reminds one more of the Scan-

dinavian Frigga. If one’s opinions of the Indian is based on the

Popular accounts of their excessive cruelty, he will marvel that

such an embodiment of benevolence can have a place in their

mythology. If his estimate of the social status of the Indian

‘woman is the one most common in current literature—for she is

usually represented as the over-worked slave of a pitiless master

—he will marvel that to a female should be assigned such a high

place among the gods. But an intimate observance of this peo-

ple demonstrates that she may fairly represent the Navajo matron

at her best,

The name Estsanatlehi signifies the woman who changes or

rejuvenates, and it is said of her that she never remains in one

State, but that she grows to be an old woman, and in the course

of time, at will, she becomes a young girl again, and so passes

on through an endless cycle of lives, changing but never dying.

In the light of this narration we see her as none other than our

Own Mother Nature, the goddess of the changing year, with its

youth of spring, its middle age of summer, its senility of autumn,

_STowing old only to become young again. The deity of fruitful

nature is, it will be admitted, fitly a goddess, and fitly also the

wife of the sun, to whase potent influence she owes her fertility.

Our Aryan forefathers never conceived a more consistent myth

846 Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. (October,

than this. But why is she the goddess of the west? Let it be

remembered that the Navajo land lies to the west of the conti-

nental divide, and slopes toward the setting sun. The Pacific, not

the Atlantic, is the reservoir from which it draws its scanty mois-

ture. From the west, not from the east, come the storm-clouds

of the summer and the soft thawing breezes of the spring. Hence

naturally this beneficent goddess, who loves her Navajo children

so well, dwells in the western ocean, and from there dispenses her

bounty. While she still lived in the Navajo land, and long before

she journeyed to the west, she was blessed with a child whose

father was the sun, at the same time her sister bore a child whose

father was a water-fall, or, as some versions make it, a rain-storm.

These boys were Nagaynezgani and Thédbadjischeni. One vet-

sion of the myth says they were both children of Zs¢sanatlehi

and the sun. They are called brothers throughout the myth;

but according to the Indian system of relationship their mothers

being sisters constitutes them brethren as well if they were chil-

dren of one mother.

These are the sacred brothers, the Dioscuri, who figure in the

myths and legends of so many races not only of this continent

but of the old world as well. Comparative mythologists usually

regard the sacred brothers as myths of night and day, of light

and darkness. Max Miiller regards this as the proper interpre-

tation of the Asvinau of India, but Mr. Talboys Wheeler, in his

History of India, says they are “apparently a personification of

light and moisture,” and this I believe to be the true explanation

of the Navajo myth, for the name Thobajischeni signifies Kins-

man of the Waters, and the portion of the myth which refers "

his paternity strengthens this theory. :

Both of the brothers receive homage as gods of battle, but

Nagaynezgani is regarded as the more potent of the two. It is

to these that men offer their sacrifices and prayers when they are

-~ about to go on the war-path. The sacrifices may be offered any n

where, but their special shrine is at Tho-yet'-li, a place at the pa

tion of two rivers in the valley of the San Juan, somewhere 1n

__what is now the Territory of Utah. Hither it is said they went

__ to dwell when their mission on’this earth was done, when my

_ had slain all the more powerful demons and left man with vast

worse enemy in the world than his own kind. Here it 1s |

ey still dwell, and here their reflection is still to be seen on the .

1886, ] Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. 847

waters of the San Juan river. This part of the myth doubtless

refers to some natural phenomenon observable at this point, but

I know not what it is, for I have never visited Zhoyetli. If the

Navajo would have special fortune in some war, he must make a

pilgrimage to the far Zoyetli and lay there the sacred cigarettes

for the gods to smoke.

Nagaynezgani is distinctly an Indian war-god, and the god of an

especially shrewd and crafty tribe even among Indians. Like

Thor he is the terror of evil spirits, but unlike Thor the evil

spirits never outwit him. He too has the thunder-bolts for weap-

ons, but he has not an unlimited supply of them. He must hus-

band them, even as the Indian husbands his well-made arrows.

His chief weapon is a great stone knife; but he depends not so

much on his weapons as on his presence of mind, his craftiness,

his Powers of dissimulation and, above all, on his “ medicine.” He

IS No coward, no vacillator, once sped on his journey he never

returns unsuccessful ; but in accomplishing his purpose he exhib-

its more the character of the cunning Ulysses than of the bold

Hercules,

It is not, however, the warriors alone who pray to him, he is

appealed to by all classes of suppliants as well, and there are

Songs in his honor in all the rituals that I have yet learned. Here

'S one of the songs taken from the great rite of the Zilyidji Hathal

or Mountain Chant. It is a literal translation. I have only chosen

such English forms and phrases as would represent, to some ex-

tent, the excellent rhythm of the original Navajo song, which is

a Monologue on the part of the god:

Iam the slayer of the alien gods,

k afar ;

From out the hole that passes through the sky,

I afar ;

My enemies assail me, but in vain,

alk

My foes of all sorts stand in fear of me,

walk afar;

I go on errands of a dangerous kind,

afar ;

Upon the highest of the mountain peaks,

* I walk afar a:

In the Navajo language all not of their own or cognate tribe

are called axa, or na, t. e., foreigners or aliens, The minor gods

°F genii are called yay or gay. Hence anagay, or alien gods, is’

848 Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. {October,

a term applied to all those supernatural beings who once de-

voured and harassed mankind. Mezga means to kill by violence,

to slay, and thus we have Nagaynezgant, Slayer of the Alien

Gods, a name which has its very close analogue in that of Jack

the Giant Killer. His mission in life was to destroy these alien

gods, which he did with a few exceptions, notable among which

were the gods of cold, hunger and old age. These creatures

pleaded so well for their lives; and demonstrated so well to the

hero that they were not unmixed evils, that they were spared to

still torment man. As a specimen of the Navajo way of reason-

ing, I will relate his adventure with Sakaz’-estsan’, the Cold-

woman :

When he returned from his adventure with Old-age, he said to

his mother, “Tell me where the Cold-woman dwells,” she did

not answer him; four times he repeated the question, when she

replied, “ You have done enough, my son. Seek to slay no more.”

But the wind-god whispered in his ear, “ She dwells on the sum-

mit of Depentsa” (the San Juan mountains). So he set forth and

traveled to the north and wandered around over the highest peaks

of the mountains until he, at length, encountered a wrinkled old 7

woman sitting nearly naked on a bed of snow. She had neither

food, fire nor shelter, her eyes streamed tears, she shivered con-

stantly and her teeth chattered so that she could scarcely talk.

He knew at once that she was Sakaz-estsan. A vast crowd of snow-

buntings flitted around her. These were the couriers whom she

was accustomed to send forth to announce the coming of storms.

They were the spies who told her what was going en in the outer

world. As he approached her he said, “ I have come ona cruel

errand. I have come to kill you that man may suffer no mors

torture from you, or die at your hands.” “You may kill me if

you will,” she chattered, “ but man will be worse off when fam

d than he is now; for when I die it will be always hot, and =

land will dry up, and the springs will cease to flow, and men Wi"

-die of heat and thirst. You will do better if you let me live.

So he lowered the arm he had raised to kill her, and reflected 4

= moment. “Grandmother, you speak the truth,” he said at late

“you shall live,’ and he returned to his mother’s dwelling with-

ets tephy: À '

His journeys in which he failed to listen to the voice of

vever, much more numerous than those in which

mercy '

her

1886. | Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. 849

lented, and, had I space to relate them, the reader would hear of

many myths with which he is already familiar in tales of our own

antiquity and in the folk-lore of modern Europeans. Many char-

acters with whom he has become acquainted in the pages of

Grimm he would meet again, but dressed in buckskin and dis-

guised in paint and feathers.

The ancestral prairie wolf, the apotheosized coyote, is an im-

portant figure in their mythology, as he is in the mythologies of

all our aborigines to whom the coyote was known, and in their

earlier fabulous ages, particularly when the Navajos dwelt in the

lower worlds, he was a potent god. Closely allied to the fox in

nature, he has so many mythic similarities to the reynard of

European folk-lore, that we can not but suspect that our own dis-

tant ancestors once worshiped the fox-god. In Arizona, as in

Europe, he always appears as a cunning, deceitful mischief-

maker. .

It was the Coyote who brought about the expulsion of the

people from the lower world. He stole the young of Ziéholtsodt,

“ie sea-monster, and the latter in revenge, or in order to rescue

the lost ones, caused the great floods which drove all up to the

Surface of this earth. It is Coyote who is responsible for the

Present irregular position of the stars. He usually had the laugh

on his side as the result of his trickeries, but he was not always

So fortunate.

Once he went out hunting with his father-in-law, and they

rested at night on the top of a rugged mountain where they lit

their camp-fire and cooked some meat for supper. As they were

lying down to sleep Coyote said to his companion, “ This hill is

called the Hill of the Burned Moccasins.” As the old man had

never heard of this extraordinary name before, he could not help

Wondering at it until the wind-god whispered in his ear, “ Change

your moccasins ;” so before he fell asleep he took the Coyote’s

Moccasins and put them under his own head, while he put his

Moccasins in place of the Coyote’s. Late in the night the Coyote

Tose softly, took the moccasins from under the old man’s head

and buried them in the hot embers. When they woke in the

‘Morning the old man pretended to look in vain for his lost moc-

casins, “ Ah!” said Coyote, “You have forgotten that this is the

Hill of the Burned Moccasins.” “ Oh! there they are under

_ Your head,” said the elder; “I thank you, my son-in-law, for

850 Some Deities and Demons of the Navajos. (October,

‘taking such good care of them.” “ Yes,” said Coyote, “I have

taken care of them for you; but the ground is so nice and soft

on this mountain I think I shall prefer to go barefoot to-day.”

Not only is the prairie-wolf a god, but nearly every animal

in the Navajo land has its own apotheosized prototype, its generic

ancestral god. All of these gods have their special place in the

mythology of this people. Many of them have to this day spe-

cial sacrifices proper to them which are prepared in the medicine-

lodge and offered according to established ritual. The Navajos

then are zoolaters; that is, in common with all the still pagan

aboriginal races of our continent, they worship the lower animals;

or perhaps it would be more proper to say they worship 200-

morphic gods. A degraded form of worship no doubt many of

my readers deem it; but it should be remembered that zoolatry

was common to all the races of antiquity, and that a marked

remnant of it is our own heritage to this day.

Besides all these gods, the Navajos have a host of local divini-

ties so numerous that I never hope to get a complete list of them,

The Navajo land is, or was, bounded by four great mountains,

Jemez on the east, San Mateo on the south, San Francisco on the

west and San Juan on the north. The resident deities of these

great peaks seem to receive more honor than any other place-gods,

but the presiding genii of other mountains, rocks and cañons are

not neglected by the devout. No people are more ingenious than

our American aborigines in framing fanciful stories of locality.

The Navajos particularly delight in this form of myth. Thar

land abounds in strange geologic formations, in rocks fancifully

sculptured by the elements, and it abounds equally in myths

accounting for these features.

Some recent writers have stated that our American Indians a$

a rule offer prayer and sacrifice only to evil spirits, believing that

time is wasted in endeavoring to gain the favor of beings wi?

are always benevolent. Among the Navajos, at least, I can sis

ture to assert that such is not the case. The gods seem to receive

= worship in proportion to their reputation for good-will toware

__ malevolence are altogether things of the past.

= men. Indeed, according to the Navajo’s mythology, the &

_ gods have nearly all been destroyed, and his worst conceptions

Pe te tion WE Devin as ene ae E eae

1886.] Causes of Forest Rotation, 851

CAUSES OF FOREST ROTATION.

BY JNO. T. CAMPBELL.

(Continued from p. 527, June number.)

ae my article on the above subject appeared in the June

Naturauist, I have received a good number of letters, both

from acquaintances and strangers, some making further inquiry

about some phases of the subject, some offering explanations differ-

ent from mine to account for forest rotation, and still others ridi-

culing my theory that seeds, especially nuts, are carried by crows,

wood-peckers and squirrels sufficient to plant such large districts

of young forest trees as suddenly spring up where forests of a dif-

ferent timber have been cut away, or such as have sprung up on

the prairies of the Wabash river second bottoms since the white

settlers have stopped the burning of the prairie grass.

I lave been struck with the number of persons who seem to

believe (as indicated by this correspondence) that when a forest is

Swept away by the axe, fire or a blight, a different kind of forest

Springs up spontaneously out of the soil. I admit’ that it has

much that appearance. Especially does it appear to be so with

weeds and grass, but the seeds of the latter are so small that it is

about impossible to keep track of them; but forest trees that

grow from nuts we may more easily observe, and if we find that

their seeds have been carried far beyond their fall from the parent

trees, and planted so as to produce trees, we may, I think, take

the Planting of weed and grass seeds for granted.

Dr. Clevenger, of Chicago, in a letter says, in speaking of the

oak following pine in Minnesota, where the latter was cut off of

the railroad sections: “ My idea was, that during hundreds of

Years the chemical constituents of the soil having been drawn

upon for the sustenance of pine, something near exhaustion had

Scum ed, or at least enfeeblement of the ground, and that a seed

which in its development required different soil constituents; or

complementary ones, would be most apt to succeed the pine.

The oak seems to be universally the terebinthinate follower in

ae Scandinavia, Scotland, England, America and elsewhere. * * *

sigh hundreds of miles along the Minnesota division of the North

tacific railroad, the alternate sections of cleared and uncleared

_ rest Presented, the year after clearing, a checker-board aspect of

Pe oak and old pine. Then why should beeches and larches

852 _ Causes of Forest Rotation. [ October,

everywhere follow the oak destruction? It seems to me the true

explanation comes in climatological changes as minor, and soil-

chemistry changes as major causes,”

I admit the puzzle the doctor produces. Perhaps neither of us

is right in accounting for forest, rotation. My theory—which I

have offered only as a suggestion or query—that perhaps most

forest seeds will not grow in the leaf-fall of the parent tree, and

that nuts are transported long distances and in great numbers by

crows, woodpeckers, squirrels, &c., while it is possible, and seems

to me probable, may not be the fact that accounts for oak follow-

ing pine in Minnesota in the manner stated. But I must be

allowed to believe a few days longer that an oak starts from an

acorn. Í

It is remarkable how often we all (and many very intelligent

and scientific persons are included) ponder, wonder and speculate

about a phenomenon, the evidence to solve which lies at our feet.

If the doctor, while on the ground, had examined a few of the

infant oaks, I think he would have found an acorn attached. And

if he had, the only unsolved question remaining would be—How

did the acorn get there? As it is, the first question to settle 1s

whether the oak came from an acorn or spontaneously from ie

ground. In my locality the acorn and the dark mold-cast whic

it leaves in the ground can be identified as late as the third year

after sprouting, e

Professor George K. Greene, of New Albany, Indiana, writes:

“If you were to visit the section of country in Harrison gaar

Indiana, called the “barrens,” you would find an area of T

thousands of acres all grown up with post oaks (Quercus e

There are citizens residing in the vicinity who came there $ E

there was no timber on the ground. Can your crows and 9q!

rels account for this ?” 2 this

I will answer this by describing the work of the crows see

vicinity about the year 1847. John Williams loaded a flat- ¥

=~ With chickens for the New Orleans market. Such a ae

= and his'probably did, carry three thousand chickens. O ae

= two thousand would be hens, as the farmers generally ki Man-

: males for their own table use. This boat in running ag no

_Warring's mill-dam sprung a leak and sunk so fast get side

kens had to be turned loose in the woods on the no

creek, and about a half mile above where it

1886. } Causes of Forest Rotation. 853

Wabash river. There the hens laid about two thousand eggs a

day for about a week, while the boat was being repaired, making

about fourteen thousand eggs laid. The crows carried these eggs

—how many I can’t say—southward across the creek and buried

them in Huxford’s field, more than a half mile distant. That was

in early spring. Soon after Huxford and his boys broke that

field for corn, and the plow turned up hundreds of eggs, and per-

haps thousands, as they were too numerous to think of counting.

When the broken ground was afterward furrowed off for planting,

’ ’ many More eggs were exposed, and after the corn came up and

= Was being plowed, hundreds more were exposed, Very probably

the plows exposed less than two-thirds of those buried, as the

plow-cut would go below the depth likely to be buried. Hux-

fords took their dinners to this field, and they cooked the eggs

thus found by the fire where they made their coffee, and the eggs

remained good till the first plowing of the corn in early May,

when they became tired of them and ceased to notice them fur-

ther. John Huxford, a wealthy farmer of this county, and one

of the boys who plowed the field, told me about finding and

using the eggs The “stoving” of Williams’ chicken boat I

myself remember, as I then lived with an uncle on Sugar creek,

d not more than three miles distant from the field.

. Might this not be a good way to preserve eggs? The field

| as dry, alluvial, rather sandy soil.

; . Suppose the eggs had been acorns, and the field had not been

| disturbed with the plow, and also suppose the rank bottom-weeds

* Since writing the above, I have seen and talked again with Mr. Huxford, and

find that I am mistaken about an immaterial fact. It was not the boat that was in-

Jared on the mill-dam, but one that was built there several years later. The farmers

brought their chickens in before the boat was ready, and turned them loose in

Cheezem’s orchard on the south side of Sugar creek. The crows carried the eggs

_ 8Cross to the north side of the creek, and buried them in the Chatsey.field (which

Was sold for taxes, and Huxford bought it). The balance of the statement is correct.

Presume I inferred the stove beat, because it occurred at the same place.

I have told this circumstances often, and have found people who manifested some

_ _Pucism, because of its rare occurrence. But I have also found several other per

who have found eggs buried in the ground, and they also say the eggs appeared

; ‘be sound when found. Hens, when not too much confined, hide their nests, and

| << crow does not ventrre into ambush to find them. It was chen rare that

i kens were crowded together but uncooped, in such numbers, and since shipments

z made by railroad it never occurs; so of course the case is a rare one. Any one

3 : 'nted with the habits, or nature of the crow, knows he is much given to varry-

MG things from place to place and burying them., —

”

854 Causes of Forest Rotation. [October,

had exercised polite forbearance and kept out of the way ; would

there not have been founded a dense oak forest ?

In the fall of 1876 and winter and spring of 1877, I was sur-

veying a line of railroad in Southern Illinois. About five miles

west of Benton, the county seat of Franklin county, the line of

survey cut across peninsulas of prairie extending into the timber,

and likewise peninsulas of timber extending into the prairie.

These are called arms of prairie and points of timber. The old

timber followed up the small streams into the prairie. The buf-

falo and deer, in past time, kept the grass eaten and tramped

down along the water-courses where they drank, thus greatly

reducing if not entirely preventing the destructive prairie fires

from consuming the young trees; hence the points of timber fol-

lowing up the streams. In the locality I am describing the tim

ber was almost exclusively white oak. After the settlers stopped

the prairie fires, these points of timber began to widen and crowd

on the prairie, and in the last forty to fifty years the young oaks

had extended out about a half mile from the old timber, and

they ranged in height from about fifty feet next to the old trees,

to the infants just emerging from the ground out at the frontier.

At that frontier I saw oaks, not over four feet high, bearing

acorns—keeping the seed right up to the front. In Indiana,

where it is unnecessary for trees to perform the parent functions

so young, I never saw a white oak less than thirty feet high bear

acorns, and not then among older oaks.

In the second or terrace-bottoms of the Wabash river, when

the whites first settled them, they found most of them to be

prairie, grown up in weeds, the prairie grass had not yet gpt pos:

session of the ground except in patches. They found also scat-

tering and stunted white oaks, black oaks (Quercus mg" a) and

jack oaks (Quercus ferruginea). The Indians had, for an T

known time, burned the prairie weeds and grass, which not a

killed the infant trees but greatly injured the old ones, especially

te on the south side, where to-day, notwithstanding seventy ye

— o protection from fires, they still show the scars, though pe

a ally healed over, and on their sawed-off stumps can be read the q

_ true history of their lives. After the prairie fires were effectually

_ stopped, a dense growth of young trees sprang up, and eee

they are fifty to seventy-feet high, vigorous and thrifty. me

r I had occasion to hunt for piling timber in a grove of

i $

sci Gl a pm pile R E EASE E eee MOE EEE E SS

1886,] Causes of Forest Rotation. 855

timber on the Walker farm, about twelve miles north of Terre

Haute. Some one had sawed down many of the trees, for some

purpose, and while waiting for a team I counted the age of the

trees by the concentric annual rings on the stumps. Notwith-

standing that their diameters varied trom six to twenty-two

inches, every one of forty I counted was sixty-four years old,

Their ages tallied with the date when the fires were suppressed.

The prevailing young trees in that grove were jack oak, though

there were a few white oaks, hickories, poplars and black walnuts

among them, and these were as tall and thrifty as the prevailing

kind. The prevailing old scattered, stunted trees of that locality

were white oak, but the young white, oaks showed no lack of

thrift and vigor in growing by the stumps of their parents.

In Ohio, on the east side of the Big Miami river and about a

half mile south of the line betweeen Hamilton and Butler coun-

tes, Old Major Cilley (a relative of the Cilley who fought a

duel with Graves, in Jackson’s time) undertook to clear ten acres

of land on the Miami hills. This was about seventy to ninety

years ago, Lam not sure as to exact date. He felled the trees

Ț Whea in full leaf, and after they were well dried, fired them and

burned everything clear. The next spring the black locusts

“Prouted as thick as weeds in a field, wherever the fire had

For some reason the ground was not plowed, and the

Soon grew to be valuable timber, as it makes the best of

and gate-posts. There were a few parent black locust trees

in the vicinity, but they were by no means the prevailing forest

tee there. Their seeds resemble an apple seed, are very hard,

and must undergo a process of scalding, scorching or very hard

freezing and then have a clear field before they will grow.

Ss See

ane ao

— Hees

fence

o Pervious to ordinary weather influences that they may lie

Soong the forest leaves many years, and when some subsequent

favorable condition transpires, as the burning of Cilley’s fallen

~ Sr, they sprout into life and make a locust forest.

Tn further consideration of Dr. Clevenger’s idea of soil exhaus-

a, 3S the cause of a change in the kind of timber, I will say

“t ta all the pine forests I ever saw, the individual pine trees

showed no more evidence of enfeebiement, as I should expect in

“se of soil exhaustion, than do the trees of the forests here,

Where all kinds grow promiscuously together. A few years would

Their Seeds being small are easily carried by the wind, and are so `

student. A consideration of some of them sometimes

856 Buffalo and Chicago, or [ October,

test this question, if somebody would plant an infant pine and

oak together near a grown oak, and the same near a grown pine.

There should be several of each plant to guard against accidents

to either kind spoiling the comparison, and then observe their

comparative progress a few years. Has anybody ever done this?

Will somebody who has an opportunity please do so?

A’

BUFFALO AND CHICAGO, OR “ WHAT MIGHT HAVE

BEEN.”

BY PROFESSOR E. W. CLAYPOLE.

Io great spectacle which Buffalo can show to the members

of the association needs no description. Met as we are,

almost within sound of the cataract, we are tempted to ask con-

cerning it many questions, to answer which would not be easy.

But to us who compose the Section of Geology, Niagara is a

study of peculiar interest. The structure and age of its rocks,

the formation of the great gorge and the various causes that have

combined to produce it, all these topics have received careful con-

sideration, and though our queries are far from being fully an-

swered, yet the partial replies already extorted from nature are

deeply interesting and strongly suggestive.

Most of these points are, however, familiar to geologists, and I

do not therefore propose to dwell upon them. They have already

claimed and will again claim our attention. But there is one

both curious and interesting, to which I wish to refer for a few

minutes.

In the study of history it is often both entertaining and eae

tive to stop in one’s regular course, and dropping the thread

the narrative of actual facts, to consider what might have been

the course of events had certain great and critical occurrences

not happened at all, or happened in a different manner OF under

different conditions. These “might have beens B

i e

though of course impossible, are not necessarily useless to th

shows US

on how slender a thread have depended most momentous t?

_ The delay of a few hours, the failure of an apparently gi

ant coincidence would in many cases, so far as we can , na :

1A paper read in abstract before the Geological section of the A. A. A. 5. # al

of history,

results. —

wy ee =

1886.)

changed the whole current of subsequent events to whatever

extent those events were dependent upon them. And in like

manner in geology, by stopping to think, not on what has hap-

pened but on what might have happened, we sometimes discover

a whole train of consequences flowing from some apparently in-

significant cause which might seemingly just as well have hap-

pened differently or have not happened at all. To one of these

geological “ might have beens” I venture to ask the attention of

interest, seeing that, as I have already said, we are met on this

classic ground in a city whose destiny—whose very existence I

may say—was determined by the possibility to which I wish to

allude.

lar hydr ographical features on the surface of our earth. A great

Part, perhaps nearly a half of all the fresh water on the planet, is

dammed up on the top of a table land between five and six hun-

dred feet above the sea. At least this is true of the four upper

) Members of the chain, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior. The

+ long irregular rim Surrounding this great inland sea varies in

height from 1500 feet above tide down to the lake level. Of

1 course in so long a water-shed there are many low places. But

AH most of these we have no concern. :

“sting geological possibilities. These are Buffalo and Chicago.

uffalo is the outlet port and Chicago is the port at the head of

lake Navigation. The relationship of these two cities to one

a other is not accidental or determined by man, it is based on

a geologica] causes over which man has had little ór no control.

a Yet a geological study of the region shows us that solid as is the

> 98 which stand the destinies of these two cities, there yet

ie been critical epochs in the development of the lake district

when a very slight difference would have been sufficient to change,

“ven to reverse their relations to one another.

é IL . |

o N

Present lowest point in the water-shed or rim of the

K sia *X.—No. x. 57

“ What Might Have Been.” 857

the section to-day, in the hope that it will not be quite without —

The Great lakes of North America are one of the most singu- :

There are, however, two of these low places that involve inter- _

ar ~t. ; : Ye 7

The channel of the Niagara river at Black rock of course

te basin. It also proves that this was the lowest point when — wit

_ flow of the Niagara river began. Any one who has been oe

va to the outlet has observed that the land on bog sidesis `

858 : Buffalo and Chicago, or [ October,

flat and raised only a feet feet above the water. Now Lake

Michigan is only ten feet above Lake Erie, and the land behind

Chicago is not more than twelve feet above Lake Michigan on

the water-shed between it and the Mississippi basin. This low

place on the river is therefore less than twenty-five feet above the

water level at Black rock. It follows then that a dam of that

height across the river at Buffalo would stop its flow and throw

the stream over the low ridge at Chicago into the Des Plaines

and the Mississippi. In like manner a cut sufficiently large

through this ridge would drain off the water and leave Niagara

dry. Chicago would then be the outlet and Buffalo would lie at

the head of lake-navigation. Such is the delicacy of the natural

' adjustment that has determined the relation of the two cities.

: We may liken the lakes to a fountain-basin having two notches in

` its rim of about the same depth. The slightest tilt may suffice

to throw all the waste water over either of these notches and

leave the other dry.

_ But a dam of the size imagined would bea task of vast mag-

nitude. This is true if regarded as a work of human engineer-

ing. But we all know that at no distant date, geologically speak-

ae ing, the whole region in question and much more of the northern

=e i part of the country was covered with a sheet of ice, and that this

= — ice moved immense quantities of earth, sand and stone from

_ place to place, depositing them far from their previous resting

spots. — Sometimes this great transporting agent dropped its load

of wreckage in long lines across the country, as may be seen 1?

~ the great terminal moraine recently traced from Long island

Chamberlin, Upham and others. In other places these moraines

even more, and in breadth from a few. yards to several miles.

one of these moraine lines across the course of the pres-

e realized. Had one of the ridges so common in

Ohio been formed at Black rock, the Niagara river me

by Chicago.

nearly to the Rocky mountains by the labor of Wright, Lewis, >

are less extensive and bulky, though equally evident. They vay

in height from ten or twenty feet to three or four hundred feet, oF

3 Now let us in imagination suppose that the retreating ice had i

t] liagara river, near the place of its outflow from Lake Enge

ped them in many other places. The possibility might

n in North-

ht not

begun to flow, and the ultimate outflow of the lakes mi ae

1886] “ What Might Have Been? 859

a III.

> But this is not the whole story. Things were not always as

‘ they now aré. If the equilibrium in the drainage of these lakes

___- iS now so delicate, there was a time when it was more delicate

still, and when no man could have determined in which direction

the outflow would ultimately go. There was a time when the -

whole northern part of the continent was covered with ice. As

the climate grew warmer this great ice-sheet drew back. Its

edge retreated northward slowly exposing the underlying ground.

_ In this way Lake Erie and adjoining country were step by step

freed from their icy covering. When the ice had melted suffi-

ciently the Niagara river began to flow. Into all the details of

its early course I cannot enter. Many of them are still uncertain.

_ Butthere came a time when the level of Lake Ontario was low-

ered sufficiently to allow the water to pass into it from Lake,

Erie. Then the Niagara river was born and the direction of the

lake drainage established. Then began the flow of the most

_ beautiful river of the continent, the St. Lawrence, with its clear

green water, seldom sullied, and its almost unvarying level both

in summer and winter.

Now there is ample evidence that in former days the level of =

the Niagara river was much higher than it now is. Professor _

Lyell in his “ Principles of Geology,” the existence on Goat

island and at various points along the river of alluvial strata con- _

taining recent shells. Terraces consisting of this material skirt

fifty feet above the water. The fineness and softness of these:

r ing water. The highest beds are nearly on a level with the sur-

face of the. lake, and they were of course at the bottom of the >

water at the time of their deposition. Hence it may be inferred — a

“uggish stream must have extended northwards along the pres-

Sat channel of the Niagara, of course before the excavation of z

Mie Sorge or the full development of the cataract. Considering

= fact we are compelled to ask where was the dam that held —

Pack the waters so that they were able to deposit sediment so far y

Hall has pointed out in his “ Geology of New York,” and Sir C, `

‘ oO deposits shew that they were laid down in still or slowly flow- 3 -

860 | Buffalo and Chicago, or [October,

above their present level. To this question only one answer

seems possible. The dam was the ridge of Queenston heights,

now forty feet above the lake-level. Here is a barrier sufficient

to confine the water till it reached the required height.

But the objection naturally rises: If the crest of the Silurian

escarpment at Lewiston is forty feet above Lake Erie, how could

the river take its course in that direction and not over w Chi-

H cago ridge fifteen feet lower ?

a Three answers are possible.

ist. The point at which the river crossed the ridge must have

been rather lower than the adjacent portions. A stream always

chooses the lowest ground. Now it is just possible that this

=` point was so much below the rest of the ridge that it was lower

than the notch at Chicago, and therefore determined the outflow

in the northeasterly direction. This, however hardly amounts to

_ a probability, and certainly deserves no more than mention.

2d. Most geologists are agreed that during , the ice age the

northern or north-eastern part of the continent was depressed

much below its present level—in some places many hundred feet

below it—and that as the ice age passed away it slowly recov- |

~ ered nearly its former elevation. The presence of recent arctic d

shells on the tops of hills, as at Mount Royal, Montreal, is decis 44

ive proof of this. I will not now discuss the cause, it does not —

concern the subject. But in view of the fact that the ridge at

Queenston is far to the east and somewhat to the north of Chi-

_ cago there is nothing improbable in the supposition that it was

lower in depression and later in reélevation. Hence at the time

_ in question it may have been so far below its present height as t°

have been actually the lower of the two, and have thus deter

- mined the outflow of the water by the ordinary laws of drainage:

. on then the river was capable of cutting it down by erosion aS —

fast as it rose by continental elevation, the channel once estab-

lished would be permanently maintained. And there is no T°3-

son | to doubt the competency of the Niagara to accompli

“3a But there -is a third and a more likely answer ar r

ow northward retreat of the ice exposed the southern an

ern portions of the country first, holding the north ie north-

t covered till a later time. Hence the conclusion is unavoil on

ta a the aha district and Central New York were

| ate “ What Might Have Been.” 861r

free and the northern or eastern outlet opened, the channel at

Mackinaw was still ice-locked and no communication was there-

fore possible from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan. The water was

thus ponded back and could not flow over the low dam at Chicago

because of the existence of a high ice-dam at Mackinaw. It was

therefore compelled to rise until it was high enough to overflow

at the next low point—the ridge of Queenston—at whatever height

that ridge may then have stood.

; IV:

_ The relationship then of Buffalo and Chicago as the outlet and

the head of lake navigation depends on a series of geological

changes whose results are so nearly in equilibrium that at certain

€pochs a trifle would have been sufficient to reverse them. As

_ with some of the lakes and streams in Northern Ohio, the break-

ing of a dam or the cutting of a ditch is enough to divert into

the Mississippi water that previously flowed into the St. Law-

rence,

a Summing up the result above obtained, we find that the Niag-

ara river would probably never have existed and that the drainage |

of the four upper lakes would have flowed past Chicago into the ~

Mississippi, SR is

(1) If the ground at Black rock had been about twenty-five —

feet higher when the river began to flow. :

(2) If the ridge behind Chicago had been lower by the same _

amount, i

- (3) If the Silurian escarpment at Queenston had been as high

=- aS itis at present. 7 T

(4) If the reélevation of the land after the ice age had been —

more rapid. ee

1 (5) If the ice-dam at Mackinaw had melted before that tothe _

: k and east of the lakes, a 3

; -In any of these cases it is probable and in some of them it is —

4 long series of consequent changes of other kinds would z

Fre tabod from the reversal of the relationship belwecn these =

‘ two cities, _ The course of the discovery and development of the —

“ountry could hardly have taken place along the same lines, and `

&reat highways of traffic and communication, especially in

862 The Arthropod Eye. [ October,

early days, would have taken different directions. But the fol- .

lowing out of these subjects is not within the province of a geo-

logical paper.

NorTeE,—Since the above paper was written I have been favored by the courtesy

of Mr. O. Guthrie, of Chicago, with a copy of the Report of the Committee on the

Drainage of Chicago, and a letter containing some further interesting details upon

the subject, From these data I learn that the low ridge be oD Chicago, mentioned

in the above paper, has a breadth of only five miles, and that a scheme is on foot for

Ady cutting a canal or a channel through it to the Des pass river in order to carry

away the sewage of the city entirely from L. Michigan, and avoid the contamination

of the water-supply, whose purity is now seriously endangered by the flow of drain-

/ age into the lake not far from the crib, during floods in the Des Plaines river.

BS. | THE ARTHROPOD EYE.

BY Jj. S. KINGSLEY, SC.D.

1 idee year 1886 has already seen several important studies

rally al altered our conception of the organ and of compound vision.

Of these studies by far the most important are those detailed

in Dr. William Patten’s “Eyes of Mollusks and Arthropods”

ee zool., Stat. Neapel, vi, pp. 542>756. pls. XXVINI-XXXII,

: e paper is far too long for complete abstract here,

= pur some of the more important points relative to the compound

eye may be useful in supplementing the statements in the manuals

of comparative anatomy. Incidentally it may be remarked that

the matter pertaining to the eyes of mollusks is equally valuable.

: Crustacea, spiders and insects is based on Grenacher’s classic “ Se-

1organ der Arthropoden ” (1879), and no one (Graber Berar

ıs ventured to criticise his results. Not so Dr. Patten. He has

shown that Grenacher is wrong in many fundamental points, aod

that his conception of these organs is in some respects so erroneous

as to be all but worthless. The writer, in passing, may remark that

> has had occasion, in studies in a somewhat different direction,

verify many of Patten’s statements, and so far as he has gone

upon the eyes of Arthropods, some of which have mate-

can confirm them. The figure of one of the elements of the

: = ~ emp illustrating this article, is drawn from his own- .

ations, but in all essential features it agrees well with simi- :

the eyes of other Crustacea given by Patten. The»

wee

The Arthropod Eye. |

863

ramifications of the distal end of the optic nerve were not seen

and have been inserted from Pat-

ten.

On the external surface of the

compound eye is the facetted

chitinous cornea, each facet of

which is regarded as a lens (2).

Immediately beneath this comes

a layer of epidermal (hypoder-

mal) cells, ¢, the existence of

which was utterly ignored by

Grenacher. These secrete the

cornea. Next in order are some

cells (retinophorze, r) which are

rather complex in their structure

and relations. There are four of

these to each facet, and they lie

exactly below the correspond-

ng epidermal cells. The nuclei

are placed in the outer ends, and

thence the protoplasm runs back-

Wards to the basal limit of the ret-

inal portion of the eye marked by

the line at in the figure. A short

distance from the surface they

contract to form a slender stalk

or style (s), and these enlarge, in

à graceful manner, to form a ped-

Xcel (9),

= y thin, and the space be-

tween the four cells which make

up one optic element, or ‘om-

atidium,’ is occupied by a trans-

Parent body, the crystalline cone

). Below the cone the retin-

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864 The Arthropod Eye. - [October,

ophore are slightly enlarged. It is, however, with regard to the

pedicel that one of Dr. Patten’s most important discoveries were

made. According to Grenacher, this part (his rhabdom) is

secreted by the surrounding pigment cells, but Dr. Patten claims

that it is in reality but the coalesced proximal ends of the four

retinophore.

Surrounding the portions of the eye already described are a

varying number of pigment cells (about sixteen in Crangon);

around the nucleus these are large, but at either extremity they

thin out into fine threads or rods which, according to Dr. Patten,

_ extend, like the retinophorz, from the epidermis to the basal

' membrane. I have not been able to trace these extensions except

: in part, and hence have omitted them in the drawing. It seems |

probable that a variation occurs in these rods with the species, f

_ though Dr, Patten (p. 637) is inclined to the contrary view. |

At the base of the ommatidium a large nerve fiber (æ) is seen

coming from the deeper portion to the base of the pedicel. Ac-

cording to Patten this divides just before reaching the basal mem- — q

brane, and gives off branches to each of the cells (pigment cells,

retinophorz) composing the optic element. And farther, branches

go to adjacent elements so that each ommatidium receives Its |

“nerve supply from four different main bundles. The arrangement

of these is very complex, and need not be described. The fiber, a

however, which penetrates the axis of the pedicel seems of more 1

importance to a conception of the phenomenon of vision, and l

-hence a word is necessary. It runs through the pedicel and é

_ fibrillae which radiate in every direction towards the outer wall.

_ These are points which seem to have escaped all previous a

servers, The writer has traced the axial fiber into the cone, bu

Tas not seen the other details.

Of the various theories and conclusions advanced by Mr. ra

ten as results of his studies, we have room to mention but three -

First, the existence of the radiating fibers in the crystalline con®

ua e compensation for lack of adjustment, for no "a

e the image produced by the lens may fall, it will fall 1

1886,] The Arthropod Eye. 865

discredit on the “ mosaic” theory of the vision of the compound

eye, a theory that already was too open to objection to be im-

plicitly accepted. Lastly, a point to be referred to again, Dr.

be regarded as evolved by a coalescence of ocelli.

A second important paper on the Arthropod eye has already

been mentioned in the pages of this magazine, but its connection

with the subject in hand will excuse its being brought up again.

5 Though several authors have mentioned facts in the development

_ ofthe arthropod eye—some, like Bobretzky, giving details of

_____importance—Mr. Locy was the first to indicate the most import-

_ ant feature in the process. In his paper entitled “ Observations

_ On the development of Agelena nevia” (Bulletin Mus. Comp,

a Zool., x11, pp. 63-103, 12 pls., 1886), he shows that in an early

= Stage the eyes appear as local thickenings of the epidermis fol-

lowed by an invagination of these thickened portions which thus

come to lie beneath the surface. The pouches thus formed, one

for each eye, are then cut off from the parent layer, and we have

now to deal with three layers. From the outer (epidermal) arises

= Was not clearly determined) while the fate of the inner layer

_ Was not traced. Locy points out that as a result of this mode of

development, one supposed difference between the eyes of artho-

pods and those of vertebrates disappears, and the rays of light

traverse the retinal elements of the one group in exactly the same

direction with regard to their origin as they do in the other.

_ Sedgwick (Quart. Jour. Micros. Sci., xxv, 1886) was the first

to point out that the eye in Peripatus was developed from an in-

a le epithelium outside the lens of the adult eye, while the inner

L wall Joins the cerebrum and gives rise to the retina. Hence, says

_ >edgwick, the eye of Peripatus is a cerebral eye.

: same genus (Entwicklungsgeschichte von Peripatus, 11 Theil.

Patten comes to the conclusion that the compound eye can not

the cuticle, cuticular lens and vitreous body of the adult; from.

the middle arises the retinal elements of the adult (exactly how.

Kennel has also studied the development of the eye in the |

9. z, z. Inst. Würzburg, viii, pp. 1-93, pls. 6, 1886), and gives

_ APP: 31-33) further details. He too recognizes the invagination,

Which becomes cut off from the parent layer, but says that its ` :

aner wall has no close connection with the rudimentary brain, >

but that ‘the nervous connection with that organ is secondary. _

Vagination. The outer wall of this sac is described as forming — a

pee

866 | | The Arthropod Eye.

This is the most important difference from Sedgwick’s very brief

account. Certainly Kennel’s figures do not support the view that

we have here to do with a ‘cerebral eye ;’ but it must be borne

in mind that he and Sedgwick are studying different species.

Next comes a preliminary communication on the development

of the ocelli of Hymenoptera, by Carriére (Zoologischer Anzei-

ger, IX, pp. 496-500, 1886). Here the optic epidermis becomes

at first two cells deep, and then these become obliquely invagi-

nated, both layers retaining their “ normal” position. The outer

layer forms the lens-generating cells, the inner the retina-form-

ing ones. The cells which are not invaginated become elon-

' gate and, together with the invaginated lens-building cells, form

the corneal lens. These cells never lose their connection with

the epidermis while those of the retina’do. The cavity of in-

vagination does not close up but is occupied by the corneal. lens.

-~ Thus runs Carriére’s account; but it is very difficult to under-

stand it, as it is not illustrated.

= Thave now a few observations of my own to record. In Cran-

gon the eyes arise from invaginated pits, and here as in the spr

der, Agelena, we have three layers to deal with. These are the

unmodified epidermal layer and the two walls of the invaginated

te pouch. The one of these latter which comes to be the more external

- I have termed the retinogen because from it arises the retinal ele-

as ‘ments; the other, from analogous reasons, is the gangliogen. So

_ far the account is closely similar to that of Locy as outlined

above. I have, however, been able to trace the development of

versely, each giving origin to five cells which also lie in a radius

f the eye. Of these the outer forms the retinophora :

ure above while the others develop into the pigment cells.

, | of the structures embraced in the bracket zg in the figure are

, all the parts of the adult eye, which in outline is as follows. The

ny x

Se ee ee ae Ay ee ee aes vir

similar ‘way the cells of the retinogen elongate and divide trans- i

of the

1886.) The Arthropod Eye. er ae | 867

pigment, connective-tissue and nerve fibers. The latter grow out

r; from the ganglion, the others are of mesoblastic origin, and force

: their way into the cavity at about the time when the cells of its

walls begin to elongate. The crystalline cone is plainly formed

by the walls of the retinophora and these same cells can also be

seen to elongate and unite to form the pedicel, thus clearly dem-

~ Onstrating the truth of Patten’s position and the error in Gren-

= acher’s conception of the rhabdom. I hope soon tq publish a

À detailed account of my results with figures which will make clear

~ all the points indicated above.

nated pit shows conclusively that this organ could not have

_ arisen from a confluence of ocelli, but must have had its origin

from the division of a simple eye in some respects like that of a

Spider. Farther, the close correspondence observable in the

development of the eye of a spider and that of a crustacean, as

outlined above, and the difference of both from that of Peripatus

I took last year (Inter-relationships of Arthropods, this journal,

XIX, pp. 560-567; and Embryology of Limulus, Quart. Jour.

cros, Sci., xxv, pp. 52 1-576) that the group Tracheata is not

a natural one, and that the spiders are far more closely related to

the Crustacea than they are to the Hexapods, with which they

are usually associated.

E does not at leást conflict with another point I suggested in

P ertpatus, in spite of its tracheæ, is not an Arthropod at all. To

Sure it arises by an invagination, but so does that of cephalo-

_ Pods and, in a modified way, those of vertebrates. We know

: j almost nothi

. but the almost perfect similarity shown between the eye of the

__ TE Peripatus as figured by Balfour and that of the syllid worm

2 ‘Autolytus as it is seen in my own preparations—a similarity ex-

tending to almost every detail—renders it a not very rash step to

Predict that invagination will be found to play a part in the devel-

‘pment of the annelid eye as well,

eget,

and the ocelli of Hexapods, go far toward sustaining the position |

_ At the same time the structure of the eye in the adult Peri-

Paper in the American NATURALIST just quoted, z. e. that —

ng of the development of the eyes of other groups, —

This development of the compound eye from a single invagi-

‘ig :

868 3 Bilttors. Table. _ [October,

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE,

Nearly every one knows that the natural process of learn-

ing nature is the reverse in its order of the system on which

nature has been built up. The primitive stages of creation are

difficult of observation, and in many cases belong to past time.

It is the completed results which first obtrude themselves on our

observation, and which attract our attention by their beauty and

other remarkable characteristics. It is the desire to possess in

its storehouses these varied objects, the wish to classify them in

some manageable form, which generally actuates the mind in its

first excursions into the field of natural history. Even when the

young naturalist has the ulterior object of seeking the origin or

modus vivendi of visible nature, he feels the necessity of becoming

acquainted with the species themselves before he can satisfactorily

_ determine their deeper or more concealed qualities. Hence the

natural order of acquisition of a knowledge of nature begins with

_ species, and some rational classification-of them, before it enters

on the ultimate elements, organic or chemical, which compose —

€

These remarks are apropos to the method of teaching the nat- ;

eS ~ ural sciences. We venture the assertion that the number of on!

_ _ dents of nature which have approached it from the side of his-

- tology, or even of organology, is small. Interest in the subject

= is progressive, beginning with the superficial, which is the most

simple, and ending with the more profound, which while simplest

from the point of view of creation, is more complex in its men- —

= tal implications. Few minds in their early stages can remen a

analysis% i

and of insects are especially adapted (with some exceptions) t9

is stage. They are concise, easily observed and clearly ge

erial is abundant. Many systems of genera are equally goo"

ose of fresh-water shells and of ferns. The eye-tests for ane

¢ the natural introduction to mineralogy. We condem®

: Editors’ Table. 869

_ without hesitation any system of education which commences, as

nature commenced, with microscopic objects, and with processes

which are as yet unclassified. The thirst for the unknown will

develop, and it should be led along by a process of satisfaction

before it is brought to that frontier line where all the resources of

knowledge and method are necessary to progress,

— The earthquake which visited the eastern part of North

- America on August 31st is one of the most remarkable in our

history, both in its extent and in its serious results to the south-

eastern portion of the country. Its occurrence naturally excites

inquiry as to the possibility of our being more frequently visited

than heretofore by this scourge. The numerous earth-trembles

destruction as has visited Charleston we must, if possible, provide.

It is well known that there are lines of abrupt change of the

geological structure of the earth’s crust, which are known as

faults. These are more or less elongated fractures, on one side

of which the strata occupy a much higher position than they do

on the other. The depressed side may not receive deposits of

Much thickness subsequent to the fracture. If in this case the

elevated Side is not removed by erosion, a range of monoclinal

_ Mountains is the result. If on the other hand deposits are laid

_ Gown on the depressed area, and the elevated tract is mowed

down by “frost and fire,” the mountain range disappears and

none but the geologist can detect the fault or fissure. ;

“he shrinkage of the earth is supposed to have been the cause

“teas elevation of many mountain ranges, which are wrinkles of

ate nearly always produced. Such abrupt changes of structure

scr at or near the sea-borders of most continents. The de-

Pressed region is occupied by the sea, and by the deposited mate-

"al which flows into it from the shore.

| It commences at the sea-coast at Staten island and

*xtends south-west near to Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington,

Ca, etc, This is a very important line in the economy of the

‘“ountry, Here the hill-country ceases and the plain of the sea-

Þegins. In many. of the States it marks the head of tide-

ommon to all countries are of little moment, but against such

Such a line of fault extends throughout the Eastern United —

Del, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Columbia S.

870 > ey Editors’ Table. [October,

water and of navigation. It is here that the most important

cities of our Atlantic States have been built. The presence of

water-power or of tide-water, or the conjunction of both, has

determined their location. Other conveniences make them desi-

rable dwelling places. Such is the equal accessibility of the fruit

and vegetable products of the plains with the grazing and dairy

products of the hills. Such the equal accessibility of sea-shore

and elevated places of summer resort. Professor Cope pointed

out this interesting geological position of our Eastern cities sev-

eral years ago.

The position has, however, the disadvantage of being on the

line of fracture of the border of the continent. This line is the

hinge on which the flatter region of the coast has in past geologi-

cal ages moved up and down. Many times this region has been

= submerged, ard as many times it has been elevated above the

~ sea-level. More than half of it in the latitude of New Jersey,

that is, a width of one hundred miles, is submerged at the present

time. Its sea-border from New Jersey to Florida has been slowly

creeping westward, since observations began to be made on our

coast. The most exact of these observations have been made by

Professor Geo. H. Cook, on the coast of New Jersey. Geologists

_ know that the present state of affairs is not a permanent one,

_ There is no reason to doubt but that the line of fracture referred

- the loss of life will be great. But it will probably be slow, we

occasional slips of one side of the old faults on the other, whic

there is no reason to suppose that our region can continue to be

lternating with periods of disturbance.

~ — It is of importance to science in this country that Oe xe 3

furnished by the Government to its scientific bureaus shou kor

continued. In the present humor of Congress there is some nse f,

charges should be disposed of, or if true shoul

ge of the persons implicated from the employ of gy

1886.] «Recent Literature. st 871

RECENT LITERATURE.

of San Francisco, are the two volumes of Hittell’s History of the

Gold State, which by their peculiarly fascinating style will not

fail to attract a large number of readers. Volume 1 compre-

cent territories, the last date referred to being the year 1822.

The more important names in the history of Pacific coast and

ditions of the discoverers, but with the missions established under

the celebrated Junipero Serra. After organizing and administer-

‘Ment of the twenty missions had rested upon a false moral prin-

ac The Californian missionaries’ work remained ne

ts, “because it looked only to the aggrandizement of a

`ystem and dominion that had long outlived their usefulness, and

y. Octavo,

majority of them scattered in all directions. The establish-. >

ea x a k

KEY of California. By Ta H. Hirrétt. Two volumes, San

neice. Y California. By EODORE H. [wo volumes, 5: z

= ae ` : ; 7 :

872 Recent Literature. [October,

did not contemplate or in any proper sense regard the progress

of true civilization” (p. 508). :

In 1787 the two Californias had become united with Sonora,

New Mexico and New Vizcaya into a “ comandancia jeneral” of

the “four internal provinces of the West;” the governors re-

moved from Loreto to Monterey. The biographic sketches pre-

sented of each of the governors from 1767 to 1820 are highly

interesting, and gives us a curious insight into Californian social

ife as it was a century ago; they were Portola, Barri, de Neve,

Fages, Romeu, Arrillaga, Borica, Arrillaga again, Arguello the

Elder, and Sola, whose rule was ended by the war of Mexican

independence.

-The three concluding sections of Vol. 1 are devoted to the

passive element in the great drama of colonial history (in which

the gente de razón seemed to be the only motors); the Indians,

their exterior, customs and manners, settlements and languages.

No classification of them after scientific (racial or linguistic)

principles was attempted, although we have had dates enough to

do this for the last ten years; but a profusion of ethnographic

details gives a graphic idea of what the Indians were in those

times. In the description of their mythology too much promi-

nence is given to Father Boscana’s report, whose tribe at San

Juan Capistrano, on the coast, formed a small portion of the

aborigines only, and is by no means typical, for the Shoshoni

race to which they pertain is an intrusive people coming from the

“Interior Basin” (Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming). Among

a the old and real Californian Indians we have to count the Yuki,

= Wintún, Maidu, Mutsun, San Antonio and Yókats tribes; on the

northern State border the Hupa, Lassic and Sayar are intruders

Meo ee R vere - d thus

i also. A historian cannot be a specialist in everything, ana ta!

we can condone such misstatements on Indians as we find in

e second volume begins with the administration of a 4

_ country under the republican Mexican governors. Their nam 4

were as follows: Arguello the Younger, Echeandia, Victor!

ms rado Micheltorena, Pio Pico again. Then follows the Amen

conquest of the country in 1846, and the pressure of sb od ES

consequent upon it. The chief actors in this new process a hie

“he _momentous results of Marshall's gold discove Ye thal -

ma, in January, 1848, did not follow immediately see a

34); it was not before March 25 that a P see.

Ero pi 5

1886.] Recent Literature. 873

newspaper made the statement that gold dust had become an

article of traffic at Sutter's fort; but on May 29 the “ Califor-

nian” had to suspend publication in that city, for all the composi-

tors and printers had run off to the new Eldorado. The Ameri-

can troops having been disbanded, most of the soldiers also went

to the gold fields, and in the absence of police, insecurity took

hold of the coast regions. The yield of the precious metal had

become so bountiful that one miner in May, 1848, once averaged

twenty-five dollars a day for sixteen days. The volume concludes

with the organization of California as a State and its adoption

into the Union by Congress; the bill was approved and signed

by President Fillmore on Sept. 9, 1850. Separate chapters deal

with the social life of that country and its physical aspects, as

geography, geology, botany and zodlo

Mr. Hittell has made conscientious use throughout of the

original documents at his disposal, and invites scrutiny by fre-

quent quotations, especially from the State archives and Junipero

Serra’s biographer, Palou. His style is as free from cumbersome-

ness as it is from dryness or obscurity; everywhere we perceive

a striving after authentic information and historic truth. It is to

be hoped that the author will in a third volume bring the history

of the State down zo our own days —A, S. Gatschet.

Packarp’s First Lessons IN Zootocy—In addition to the

two text-books on zoology which he has already written, Dr.

Packard has now prepared a third, which is intended as an ele-

mentary course for very young pupils, The “First Lessons”

ought to be used supplementary to the study of specimens, and

should not be used without them.

€ plan of the work seems to be well carried out, and the

book: will prove a valuable addition to the number of text-books

already in use,

The author has possibly over-estimated the powers of those

for whom his book is written. It ought properly to be made

= Sen more elementary than it is, to be brought to the comprehen-

_ Mon of young pupils. To adapt the book for younger scholars

€ author suggests certain omissions, which the teacher may

advantageously follow.

“ The book may well be used in combination with a well-chosen

__Spitome collection” or “ synoptic collection,” but always sub-

_ Ordinate to the study of nature herself.

a Portion of figures of those common animals which the pupil

— find daily, and an omission of the cuts of several animals

. Which Many naturalists have never seen and which the largest

Museums do not possess.

‘First Lessons in Zoölogy. Adapted for use in schools. By A. S. PACKARD. New

% H. Holt & Co., 1886. 12mo, pp: 290. $1.00. _

VOL, Xx.—no, x. 58

874 Recent Literature. [ October,

The author is over-sanguine when he says in the preface that

“no boy or girl should leave school without at least as much

knowledge of the life about us and of our relations to the animal

world as should be found in a book of this sort.”

here are several statements in the text which should be mod-

ified or changed, and one or two figures which ought to disappear

in subsequent editions.

A revision of the glossary would greatly improve the book.

The introduction of many names of large groups of animals

without any other notice, and fragmentary mentions of others,

may require explanations from the teacher if the pupil is expected

to master the book.

On the whole the “First Lessons” is one of the best text-

books of its kind with which we are familiar, and will doubtless

prove of great service in those schools where it is used

The book gives a good picture of the science of zoology:

There is a great amount of information in its pages, and the text

is clear and concise. The language is free from technicalities,

and the figures as a general thing well chosen.—/. W. F.

_ STUDIES FROM THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES OF THE OWENS

Cottece!—The biological department of the Owens College,

Manchester, England, under the able direction of Professor A.

Milnes Marshall, has just published the first volume of its “ Stu-

dies.” It contains reprints of several articles by the professor

and his students as well as some which are new. /\mong these

latter are Mr. Marshall Ward’s paper on an aquatic Myxomy"

cete found growing on the roots of hyacinths; Mr. A. Det 3

paper on the regeneration of the visceral mass in Antedon ; met

Mr. C. F. Marshall’s studies of the physiology of the nervou

~ system of the lobster.

REcENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

Amer. Asso. Adv, Sci.—Proceedings of the A. A. A. S., 34th meeting,

Arbor, Michigan, Aug., 1885. From F. W. Putnam.

Montgomery, E.—The Substantiality of Life.

—Ueber das Protoplasma einiger “ Elementar-organismen.”

——Zur lehre von der Muskelcontraktion. 1881.

——Causation and its organic conditions.

——The dependence of quality on specific energies.

e ania of the organic individual 1, 1. Extract from

a T.

held at Ann

“Mind.” Al from the

. an

Froriep, A.—Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Wirbelsiule, 1. Beobachtung

Hiihnerembryonen. Ext. Arch. f. Anat. & Phys. hor.

ho B ht 5 Sa tł t Ext. idem. Both om > i Hyp”

Albrecht, P.—Ueber die morphologische Bedeutung der Penischis Epi- u”

spadie des Menschen, 1886. Ext. Biologische Centralblatt. ie na-

: ess

——Snur la non-homologies des pneumons des vertebrés pulmonés avec la v

tatoire des poissons.

i E ts ; n ; z — pei

— - nes gt a Biological Laboratories of Owens College. Vol. 1, pp- 32%

sit arid ni ce enemas

1886, ] Recent Literature. 875

Albrecht, P.—Anatomische Schriften des Professors Paul Albrecht.

— Zur Zwischenkieferfrage. Ext. = rtsc peas a Medicin, 1885.

—Ueber die SUY aaar Bedeu harynx-divertikel, etc., etc. Sep

avs d. 14ten Cong. d. deut. Caseta Ti Chirurgie, 1885. All from the

or.

Wilder, B. G.— Anatomical technology as applied to the domestic cat. 1886.

—Address at the unveiling of the statue to Louis Agassiz. 18

oe eo eat g the view that the serrulæ (etttetel appendages) of

are accessory respiratory organs. 1885.

a paroc vipital, a newly-recognized fissural integer. Ext. Jour. Nervous and

Mental Disease, 1886. All from the

orn, G. H—A m fee >: the species P ‘Chejachtlcts inhabiting the United

States. From the

len, H.—The “ees oe joints. Ext. Trans. Inter. Medical Congress, 1876.

uthor

From one au

Cope, E. D.—The Vertebrata of the Swift Current Creek region of the Cypress

hills, Ext. Ann. Rep. Geol. and Nat. Hist. Surv. of Canada, 1885.

eo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro.—Ar do m Nacional do Rio de

chivos

em, "Vol. VI, ic From the Commissao de Redac

G. M.—Report upon the Third oe Geographic Congress and

Betis, at Venice, Italy, 1881. Washington

——Facts regarding the principal government surveys ae ‘ie world. 1885.

——Facts regarding the origin, organization, administration, functions, history and

progress of the government land and marine surveys of the United States.

» 1885.

Whitfield, R. P.—Brachiopoda ni Lamellibranchiata of the Raritan clays and

Sreensand marls of New Jersey. 1886. From Geo. H. Cook, State geologist.

Herdman, W. A. —Report upon the Tunicata.

Theel, H.—Report upon the Holothuroidea. This and the preceding from The

Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger. Zodlogy, Vol. xiv, See

Stefane auaa a cu, G. —Annuaire du Bureau Geologii de i porani 1882-83. From

irecto

RaT: J. F- The g geology of Cincinnati. Ext. Proc. Cincin. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1886.

rom t

TE .—On the R of fishes. Ext. P. A. N. S., 1885. From the

Nat. hg Sciences Aas Sos memoirs, Vol. 11, 1886. From the academy.

ière note sur les Cheloniens du thy eas i gos a) de

la Be Belgique. Ext. Bull d. Mus, Loy. Belg., 1886. From the author

Siufeldt, R R. W—Osteo eology of Comurus carolinensis.

“A Navajo skull. Both from Jour. ASE and Physiology.

~ gine and the State. From Mind in Nature, Vol. xx, Feb., 1886. All from

Woodward, a Si history of fossil crocodiles. Rep. Proc. Geologists’ Asso.,

on the palæontology of Notidanus. Ext. Geol. Mag., May, 1886. Both Sros

Cage, 3S Address to the Section of Microscopy A. A. A. S., Ann Arbor

Hotes the anatomy of Necturus. Rep. Proc, Amer. Soc. Micros. 1885.

se, S. H., and Gage, Susanna P.—A c sp orig to the physiology of respira-

T tion in n vertebrates. 1886. From jae aut

Townsend, C. H.—An account of recent Ao z the -Californian a

Ext, Proc, U, S. Nat. Mus. 1 1885.

876 General Notes. | [October,

Meyer, O.—Observation on the Tertiary and Grand Gulf of Mississippi. Ext. Am.

Jour, Science, July, 1886.

Meyer, sag ae Aldrich, T. H.—The Poe fauna of Newton and Wautubbee,

Mis t. Cincin. Soc. Nat Hist., 1886.

Rencvier, » £. L kappor sur la Marche de Musée Géologique Vaudois en 1885. From

the author

Dobson, G. E. —Note o on the mandibular dentition of the shrews. Ext. Jour. Anat.

and Phys., Vol. x

Frazer, POIS S notes on the geology of York county, Pa., 1886.

The application of composite Phioiograpby to hand-writing and especially to

signatures. 1886. Both from the author

Beyer, H. G.—A study of the structure of PPS ( Glottidia} pyramidata Stim,

(Dall). From the author

Gill, T: TAn account of the:. progress of geology in the year 1885. From the

author.

wee A ee tes on the fresh-water sponges of Nova Scotia. 1886, From

the

aa x G. piegi ~~ ag, aaa map of my Cypress hills, Wood

mountain and adjacent co A. R, C, Selw

naraek M-L. Tii of ia pc of the scales in the embryo of the

nd m

<a pane of the muscle in the embryo of the chick and man. Both

Rep. Proc. Soc. Amer. Micros., 1885. Both from the author.

soem C. 7. = ete of a new species of Aplodontia (A. mayor). Ext,

n. N. Y. Acad. Sci

iin of a Wair- born lynx. Both from the author.

eee J- B.—Annotated catalogue of the published giog of C. A. White.

1605,

OF a h

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS."

Asia.—The Aralo-Caspian basin—M. Moushketoff believes that

the Amu-daria may once have joined the Sir-daria before ente na

the basin of the Aral and Sary-kamysh lakes ; but later on ets

Amu entered the Sary-kamysh or western part of the cee’

lake, while the Sir-daria flowed into the Aral part. Gradu 3

the Amu , as appears by the orography of the region, undermin x

the Sultan-uiz-dagh hills, and finally, finding its way throug

them, entered the Aral. The Sa -kamysh, deprived of its "a A

rapidly dried up. The bed of this lake is fifty feet below tha

the pian, and covers a surface of 4400 square miles. a

Aral is now also rapidly receding. The Albughir gulf has

lake as is

appeared, the Sary-chega gulf is converted into a

the Kamyshlybash, which the Kirghis remember to have

been connected with the evaporation at As

ee W. N. Lockincton, Philadelphia.

1886.] Geography and Travels, 877

Aral basins; it has no river deposits, and Caspian shells extend

far up it. Our author classes the sandhills into dunes—river

dunes and lake dunes, formed by the combined action of wind

and water, and Jaréhans, formed by wind only, and always cres-

centic or hoof-shaped.

Asiatic News.—The curious and almost inaccessible country

of Dardistan and’ Shinoki, on the Upper Indus, peopled by

Aryans who have embraced Sunni Mahommedanism, was tra-

versed in various directions by Ahmad Ali, a sub-surveyor. His

laborious journey is described in the Annual Report of the Indian

Survey for 1883—84, but scarcely, according to the Marquis of

orne, with the prominence it deserves. Although M. Need-

Jam met wijh no rivers answering to the Sanpo in his recent

journey to Rima; so that it seems almost certain that the Sanpo

Must turn south much farther to the west, must, in fact, be the

Dihong branch of the Brahmaputra, the question is not yet set-

tled by actual exploration. The Dihong, at the highest point

reached, flows through precipitous gorges in one of the most

rugged countries of the world, peopled by fierce and independent

mountain tribes, The Indian Survey Report for 1883—’4 con-

tains a detailed account, with map, of Lake Palti or Yamdok-cho

(said to be ring-shaped with a central island), in Southern Thibet.

The agent of the survey has made a complete circuit of the lake,

and has proved that the supposed central island is a peninsula,

Separating two bays. Yamdok-cho means scorpion, and these

two bays form the claws. The lake lies on the road between

Shigatze and Lhasa, at an altitude of 13,800 feet. It is embos-

med by mountains except at its eastern extremity, where the

heights die away into a verdant plain, on which thousands of cat-

“and horses graze. Villages and monasteries are dotted around

the small bays of the shores. Explorations in the Himalayas

ve brought to light the large Lhobra river, which has been

ced to within a day’s march of the Bhotan frontier. A native

Surveyor completed the circuit of Kinchinjinga, so that the

boundary between Northeastern Nepal and Thibet can now be

Slineated Tyr. Gottsche who of behalf of the Japanese

Sovernment has traveled widely over Corea, visiting eighty of

the 350 district towns, states that granite, gneiss and crystalline

Schists are predominant in the geology of the peninsula. Here

and there they are broken by the older volcanic formations. Pal-

®0z0ic strata occur rarely, and the later sedimentary formations

That all (?). The only metal in which Corea is rich, is iron.

e fauna is extensive and interesting from the fact that palzarc-

i and sub-tropical types meet here. From a communication

“a M. Nikolsky to the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, it

“ppears that Lake Balkash is drying up, the lowering of the level

Gite to two feet in ten years. Maps of 1852 prove that since |

«t time a great reduction of surface has taken place. The

878 General Notes. [ October,

fauna of this lake does not include a single species of fish which

characterizes the Aralo-Caspian region; while there is great

resemblance between the fishes of Lake Balkash and those of

the high plateau of Central Asia. There was certainly, in recent

geological times, a connection between the rivers of the Balkash

basin and those of the Lob-nor basin.

AmeErica.—American News—NMr. Whitely has ascended Twek-

kway, a table-topped mountain in Guiana, situated about fifty

miles N.N.W. of the now celebrated Roraima on the southern

AFRICA.— Mr. Farini’s ¥ourney in the Kalahari— The J ay

number of the Proc. Roy. Geog. Society contains an wore

a recent journey in the Kalahari desert, by G. A. Farini. af

desert forms the western portion of the new British pr otectoraté

Bechuanaland, and has been but little explored. | half:

portion, immediately north of Griqua land, is occupied by

ng.

i ea a

SEIS SEE; ae

1886.] Geography and Travels. 879

will, at Kais on the course of the Molapo, mature in the dry sea-

son without irrigation. The Kattea are a nomadic tribe much

like the Bushmen, but live in huts made of sticks set in a half

circle, bent forward and covered with grass and milk-bush. The

men are nude, the women clothed in a bit of skin. The Vaalpens

are vassals of the Bechuanas, and in turn enslave the Kattea and

Bushmen, The tribes on and bordering the desert practice cir-

cumcision at the age of sixteen, sometimes with fatal conse-

quences,

huhitung has a population of several hundred Bakalahari, a

cross between Matabele and Bechuanas.

Near the Ochimbinde river, south of Lake Ngami, a thick

forest was met with. Lake Ngami is becoming shallower every

year on account (according to our traveler) of the gradual rising

of the country. Griqua land is also rising. A tribe of dwarf

Bushmen, called M’Kabbas, was found west of the lake. None

€xceeded four feet eizht, and the women were as tall as the men.

After reaching the watershed north of Lake Ngami, our traveler

turned back, taking a more westerly route, but everywhere found

e Kalahari not a barren waste but a sandy tract clothed toa

large extent with grass and with k’yong trees (a species of

Mimosa) scattered about. The red sand at Mier is very fertile.

ere are the headquarters of Dirk Vielander, a half-breed who

claims a large tract north of Koranna land. Mr. Farini reports

the discovery of a variety of giraffe with white spots instead of

tk, and much taller than the common kind.

While hunting, a huge elliptical walled enclosure of cyclopean

masonry was found in about 234° S. lat. and 21% E. long.

Basin-shaped ovals, sometimes formed out of one rock, some-

times composed of several, were regularly distributed every few

yards round the ellipse. In the middle of the enclosure was a

‘ross-shaped pavement of long narrow blocks, in the center of

which was what seemed a base for a pedestal or monument. A

broken column, with four flat fluted sides, was found, but no in-

Scriptions could be discovered.

The falls of the Orange river, before pronounced inaccessible,

fre also visited by our traveler. The river is broken up at low

Water into many streams by projecting rocks, but in flood season

Many of these join into a sheet rivaling that of Niagara. At low

water there are several smaller falls 350 feet high, and a main fall

(the Hercules) 165 feet high.

The Kalahari is a plateau 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea, with

an average summer heat of 80° during the day. The nights are

Sool. The average winter temperature is 60°. It is perfectly

M. Kerr declared that Sr. Farini must have traversed the country

at a propitious time after a

~ mated at 23

880 General Notes. [ October,

The Congo—The Rev. G. Grenfell continues to explore the

Congo tributaries in the steam launch Peace. The Itimbiri was

found to be navigable as far as the Lobi falls (23° 21’ E. long.

and 1° 50’ S. lat). The Mbura divides into two at three or four

miles from its junction with the Congo, and both branches are

barred by rapids or falls, the southern one having a cascade forty

feet high. e Lomami is a fine river with a tortuous channel

and a swift current. In August, 1885, the Lulongo was ascended

for nearly 700 miles. Its principal affluent is the Lopori, in 1°

12’ N. lat. The Juapa and Bosira form Stanley’s Black river,

which enters near the equator. The Juapa was navigated for

about three hundred miles, but hostile natives compelled the

explorers to retreat before reaching the head of navigation. The

Bosira was navigable for about two hundred miles. Mr. Grenfell

dwells upon the richness of the Upper Congo basin.

Herr Wolff, a traveler in the service of the Congo Free State,

has discovered an affluent of the Kassai likely to be of great

future importance. This was ascended by the steamer Vorwarts

in February and March to a distance of 430 leagues from its

mouth, and one of its northern affluents brought the traveler to

within a week’s march of Nyangwe. There were no cataracts,

and the stream might have been navigated still further had not

the steamer met with an accident. By this route the great north-

ern bend of the Congo, with its cataracts, can be avoided and an

easy passage traced across Africa.

African News.— According to the observations of MM. G.

Valdall and K. Knutson, the Rio del Rey, which forms the bound-

arm is connected with the old Calabar river. ;

quet, of the Péres du Saint-Esprit mission, has founded a station

upon the plateau of Amboella, in 15° 3’ S. lat. and 16° 14

long., at an altitude of 4540 feet, on the right bank of the ~*~

shilanda, a tributary flowing into the Cunene on its left bank.

M. Duparquet gives information about the Kuerahi and the

Kavundu, which flow between the Cunene and the Okavango.

The former of these two rivers, hitherto unknown to Europeans,

crosses the territory of Evare, at the extremity of which it forms

a lake.——Mr, Cope Whitehouse has, with the assistance of Herr

Stadler, an engineer in the Egyptian service, thoroughly m

veyed the Reian basin. The total area of the depression is esti-

f 280 feet

basins

et See a oe eR es ee a ee ee @ mere hc an, ae

1886, ] Geology and Paleontology. 881

Revue Scientifique an interesting account of his mission to Shoa.

His description of the country is rose-color, but the ignorance of

its inhabitants is darkly painted. The King believed that his

visitor, being an engineer, could make a sword by putting some

magic powder into the furnace along with the iron, a chief asked

him for a charm against fire; and the people generally, seeing so

many things that came from Europe, and not being acquainted with

tools or processes, believe that all Europeans have a compact

with the devil, and manufacture articles with their hands alone.

Evrope.— European News—There are, according to Professor

Heim, 1155 glaciers in the Alps. Of these, 249 exceed 7500

referred (1) to the salt-clays which covered them after their emer-

Sence from the sea; (2) to the ruminants which resorted to the

Sommier and G. Cini, in January, 1885, is interesting as the first

Made across Lapland and Finland in midwinter for purely scien-

tific purposes. The goal was reached from Mager6o, the north-

ernmost inhabited point, on foot, with comparative ease. Besides

the eider and other water fowl, the raven, crow, magpie, Arctic

ine Laps, Quans, and Northern Finns. Recent soundings

Relive Siven the following depths for the Swiss lakes: Constance,

en Uttwyl and Friedrichshafen, 255 meters; Geneva, be-

yas Rivaz and Saint-Giugolphe, 256 meters; and between

usanne and Evian, 330 meters; Lucerne, between Gerau and

en, 214 meters; Brienne, 261 meters; Thun, 217; Zug,

9; Neuchatel, 1 53; 'Wallenstadt, 151; and Zurich, 143 meters.

GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY.

wa PERMIAN IN NEBRASKA.—The question has been raised

a. ctherthere isany true Permian formationin America, b t pending

nal solution I use the term provisionally to designate a group

: Of strata found along the valley of the Blue river in Gage county,

882 General Notes. [ October,

Nebraska. This group is distinguished from the underlying coal

measures by the absence of coal and black shales, by the prevail-

ing magnesian character of its limestones, by the presence of

certain characteristic indurated marls and oolytic limestone, as

well as by the new and distinct types of animal life. The lime-

stones are buff, yellow or blue, full of geodes, large irregular cavi-

ties and chert. <

during the present year Mr. W. C. Knight obtained the same

results. The total thickness of the Permian is not less than two

hundred feet. Exact determination of the thickness can not,

however, be made until the dip has been more fully determined.

There is decided unconformity by erosion at the top of the Per-

mian. The overlying Dakota group of the Cretaceous period

occupies the hollows which were cut into the Permian during the

ong period in which Triassic and Jurassic strata were forming 1n

other parts of the continent, this region having been a land sur-

face at that time.

species is noteworthy. Of 123 species enumerated by Epir

from the coal measures along the Missouri river in Nebraska, 10

more than a dozen run up into the Permian, As the Permian is

only a subdivision of the great Carboniferous system, the pres-

ence of some common forms is to be expected.

from the

Kansas boundary line north-eastwardly to the Platte river. pee

seems to be an error, the characteristic rocks and fossils of t of

ly in the valley

1886.] Geology and Paleontology. 883

perceive that vast physical changes intervened between the depo-

sition of the latest Carboniferous and the earliest Mesozoic rocks.

The Appalachian mountains were raised up, and with them came

the greater part of the continent east of the Mississippi river and

was added to the stable dry land. A gap in the life of the earth

as tremendous as the physical change just mentioned, intervenes

between the coal measures and the Triassic. These mighty

changes in the distribution of land and water, this immense stride

forward in the life-history of the earth required a long period of

ime, as there no sedimentation, no rock-forming going on

anywhere in America during that time? It is highly probable

that there was, and the rocks then formed ought to be called Per-

mian, though they may not, in their lithological composition or

the fossils they contain, exactly agree with the Permian of Eu-

rope.—L. Æ Hicks, Univ. Nebraska.

unfit for habitation, and at least sixty persons have been killed.

e following reply of Dr. J. W. Powell, of the U. S. Geological

urvey, to a despatch of Secretary Topley of the British Asso-

ciation for the Advancement of Science, gives a general view of

“The earthquake was the most severe on record in the United

States, and affected the greatest area. Its origin was along the

line of post-Quaternary dislocation on the eastern flanks of the

Appalachians, especially where it crosses Central North Carolina.

Slight Premonitory shocks were felt in the Carolinas for severa

Ys, moderately severe shocks occurring near Charleston August

27 and 28. The principal shock, causing the great destruction in

Charleston, originated in Central North Carolina, August 31, at

9:50 P. M., 75th meridian time. Thence the shocks spread with

Sreat rapidity in all directions with a velocity varying from twen-

'Y-five to sixty-five miles a minute, over an area of 900,000 square

miles, or one-quarter of the United States, embracing twenty-

“ight States, from the Gulf of Mexico, the Great lakes and South-

vik New England, and from the Atlantic sea-board to the Central

Mississippi valley. In the Carolinas it was accompanied by land-

ms crevasses, and great destruction of property. Half of

leston is in ruins, more than forty lives lost. No sea wave

yet reported.”

There are many phenomena of disturbance in all parts of the

res which was shaken most severely. At Summerville and

oe Mile Station, near Charleston, and for a great distance along

884 General Notes. [October,

the coast, there are numerous craters from which mud and water

were discharged. Near the Coosaw mines, S. Ca., there is a

crack in the earth 200 feet long and six inches wide at the top.

n St. Helena island, off Beaufort coast, several large openings

were made and piles of mud and sand were forced up. Passen-

gers on the first through train from Charleston to Savannah since

the earthquake Thursday, say that holes in the earth resembling

wells have opened in the neighborhood of Charleston and for

miles along the coast. They vary in diameter, but average two

feet. Mica and other minerals not known in that section before,

are found around their mouths. Mud of a bluish color oozes

from fissures in the ground surrounding them, and the water

savors of soda. People living near them report that when the

water first burst forth from the ground it was steaming hot and

shot fifty feet into the air. On Pac island, near Beaufort, a fissure

in the earth, twelve feet wide and 400 feet long, still remains.

All the islands in that vicinity report similar fissures, with mu

and water issuing from them. i h

Disturbances are reported from the Black mountains of Nort

Carolina, but nothing of a reliable character has reached us from

that quarter as yet. We shall await with interest ne

from this region, and will hope that some geologist, competen

from familiarity with those mountains, may make a detailed in-

vestigation of their present condition. il

Some comments on the probable cause of the earthquake wii

be found in our editorial department.

diles, while the Liassic and Wealden crocodiles approach neare

to living forms in this respect.—Mr. A. S. Wood

_ genus can be found in beds beneath the Middle Odlite. Tee

= Imperial Academy of Sciences include extensive stu

_ Stan fossil reptiles, by W, Kiprijanow. Part 11 (1883 Jura,

_ descriptions of Thaumatosauria from the chalk and Moscow

onging to the genera Polyptychodon, Thaumatosaurus

hera ae fiver a N E E..

Bg eS

DT fbn Ny ELE EO RO oe le Ae i gle aes!

1886,] Geclogy and Paleontology. 885

Lutkesaurus. Part Iv contains various notes on Sauropterygia

and some undetermined fossils, and a description of Pekilopleuron

schmidti, a crocodilian. he gneisses and schists of the Sinaitic

peninsula, with similar rocks in Upper Egypt, are by Professor

Hull referred to the Laurentian. Newer slates and schists with

igneous rocks flank these, and are probably pre-Cambrian. The

Cambrian, Silurian, and Devonian seems to be unrepresented in

this region, the next rock in ascending order being the “ desert

sandstone ” (sandstones, conglomerates and limestones) enclosing

carboniferous fossils. Overlying these rocks, which are not ve

extensive, is the Nubian sandstone, which cannot be distinguished

from it by mineral characters, but which seem to be Cretaceous,

‘though it may be Jurassic or Triassic. Above this is the Creta-

ceous limestone, corresponding in age to the European chalk.

This constitutes the mass of the hills in Palestine. Dr.

Schweinfurth has recently announced, in the Bulletin of the

tian Institute for 1885, the discovery of stems of crinoids,

and of an Athyris allied to A. concentrica, in sandstone hitherto

regarded as Nubian sandstone. Thus the lower part of the Nu-

lan sandstone may prove to be Carboniferous.

_ Carboniferous.—Professor J. R. Jones states that in the Carbon-

iferous formation of Great Britian 170 species of Ostracoda have

The Carboniferous limestone of Southwest Scotland, especially the

Shales of the lower beds, is highly productive of Ostracoda. A

forms. The middle coal-measures have five species of Carbonia,

Beyrichia one, Philomedes one ; the lower have a Beyrichia anda

Carbonia ; the upper B. subarcuata, while the latest Carboniferous

ostracod is Leperditia inflata in the Spirorbis limestone.

Jurassic —M. Stanislas Meunier finds four genera (Tigillites,

Crossochorda, Equihenia and Eophyton) among the curious fos-

at, analogous to the Silurian bilobites, collected from the Juras-

sic beds of Equilien (Pas de Calais, France).

f Tertiary —M. L. Dollo, apropos of the remains of a tortoise

ound at Melsbrook, near Vilvorde (Belgium) some ten years

3go, reviews and mainly adopts the classification of Professor

Pe. He proposes the name Thecophora for shelled tortoises,

‘nites the cryptodire family Propleuride with the Cheloniide,

and establishes a family Eurysternide, The tortoise in ques-.

tion was taken from the “Bruxellian” (Lower Eocene) beds,

and is a cryptodire of the family Chelydride. M. Dollo names

t Pseudotrionyx delheidi-~——Mr. R. L. Lydekker, after a reéxam-

nation of the specimens from the bone-bed of the red crag in the

&86 General Notes. [ October,

British and Ipswich museums, believes that three species of

Mastodon, M. arvernensis, M. longirostris and M. borsoni are rep-

resented ; that Hyena arvernensis and H. antigua are probably

identical with Æ. striata; and that there are two forms of Sus, the

larger probably S. erymanthius or S. antiquus, the smaller S. palæ-

ocherus. The other quadrupeds are a tapir, more likely T. arven-

ensis or T. elegans than T. priscus; Hippotherium gracile, and a

Rhinoceros, probably the hornless R. izcisivus (though R. schleier-

machert probably also occurred). A species of albatross was also

represented.

Quaternary—M. A. de Lapparent (Bull. d. 1. Soc. Geol. de

France, 1885, 456) traces the origin of the yellow silicious silt of

the plateaux of the Paris basin. He points out that wherever the

edge of this bed is seen against a line of heights, veins of small

angular flints are seen, and shows that in character the mud ex-

actly resembles that left by melted snow or running rain water—

an oxidized mud which has always been in contact with the air.

Nowhere else in France does this yellow mud cover so large an

extent. It is, M. de Lapparent believes, the impalpable residue

of the ancient Tertiary deposits, and its thickness is proportionate

to that of those deposits. During the glacial period the flints,

alternately subjected to freezing and melting, crumbled to pieces.

M. de Mercey, in a subsequent note upon the same subject, shows

that the Quaternary gravels were deposited in the water syn-

chronously with the formation of the alluvium at higher levels.

When these beds are found superimposed in the terraces of the

valleys, the alluvium is not contemporaneous with the gravel it rests

upon, but with that at a lower level. M. de Mercey also main-

tains the distinctness of an atmospheric bed of glacial mud, which

was formed by the crumbling of the flints in the manner indicated

by M. de Lapparent.

BOTANY.

BOTANICAL Work oF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.—The recent meeting of the pone

tion at Buffalo showed no diminution of the interest taken a

phase of botanical science still maintains with the leaders.

following is the list of papers presented :

” A in or hygroscopic cells of grasses and sedges compared. By W. J.

These cells are modified epidermal cells which occur in g" vee

_ „Edited by Professor CHARLES E. Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska, i“

1886, ] Botany. 887

upon one or both surfaces of most grass and sedge leaves. Their

office appears to be to roll up the leaves when evaporation becomes

excessive, and thus reduce the amount of exposed surface. The

orm and position of the cells is usually characteristic of each

Species, as was well illustrated by the paper. Charts showing

enlarged sections of each leaf enabled the listener to intelligently

follow the descriptions.

2. Synopsis of North American pines based on leaf anatomy. By J. M. Coulter.

The author has made a careful and critical study of the value

of the histological character of leaves in determining the rela-

tionships of the members of this group of plants, and finds them

of more service than heretofore recognized. Those especially to

be relied upon are the resin ducts, the fibro-vascular bundles and

the hypodermal tissues. The value of each is pointed out, and a

eion of species given to accord with the results of the

study.

3. es pevelopmrentt of the Gymnosporangia of the United States. By W., G.

arlow,

The Paper embodied the results of numerous cultures carried

on in connection with work at the Harvard ryptogamic labora-

tory. The spores of the Gymnosporangia were sown upon the

leaves of several species of fruit trees, and more satisfactory

Certainty several species of this genus with as many species of

Reestelia. The investigation has given rise to some troublesome

Problems which are left for future study.

4. Plan for laboratory work in chemical botany. By Lillie J. Martin.

Miss Martin does excellent service to botany in this country

by calling attention to the advantages in studying the chemical

Constitution of plants as a department of botany. Her paper is

Particularly devoted to a consideration of the requirements of the

Student in taking up the subject, even to the matter of desk con-

veniences,

5. Memoranda of a revision of the North American violets. By Asa Gray.

he paper gives the results of a recent study of all available

Material, bringing this genus into much more satisfactory sha

6. A picvision of the North American species of the genus Fissidens. By C. R.

es,

The author has applied the same critical judgment to this

Sroup of mosses that has prevailed among our best systematists

When treating of the flowering plants, and the result is undoubt-

edly of corresponding value. The most important change is the

sorption of the genus Conomitrium.

_ besides the above a number of papers presented to the asso-

ciation were more or less botanical. A brief reference to them

Will be sufficient for the present connection.

888 General Notes. [October,

7. Certain chemical agian of plants eon eeier in relation to their morphology

and evolution, By Helen C. De S. Abb

e author maintains that in pea the relationship of

pists, their chemical constitution has important claims for con-

sideration, and illustrates the proposition e% tracing the occur-

rence of Saponin and some other substance

8. Atavism the result of cross-breeding lettuce. By E. Lewis Sturtevant.

This gave a description of several plants of lettuce grown

from si of the previous year’s — among which were

one or more clear instances of atavism

g. A study in agricultural botany. By E. Lewis Sturtevant.

The type forms of cultivated vegetables, especially of parsnip,

carrot, etc., are shown to be traceable to wild prototypes and not

to have originated by human selection. Variation under culture

has circumscribed limits.

10. Biology of pane trees with special reference to the requirements of forestry.

By B. E. Fernow.

The ah reviewed the various influences which affect the

growth of forest trees, and pointed out the factors that especially

need studying in developing the forest botany of America.

It. pony agree analysis of a Honduras plant named ‘‘Chichipate,”’ By Helen C.

12. Preliminary analysis of leaves of Juglans nigra. By Lillie J. Martin,

13. On the presence of cane sugar and allantoin in ungerminated embryo of wheat.

By C. Richardson and C. A. Crampton.

14. Tyrotoxico1 (cheese e po ison); its occurrence in milk and its products,

method of detecting it. By V. C. Vaughn,

15. Blue milk and ropy cream. By W. McMurtrie.

16. The bacterium of swine plague. By D. E. Salmon and Theobald Smith.

17. The variability of pathogenic organisms, as illustrated by the bacterium of swine

plague. By Theobald Smith.

18, The theory of immunity from contagious diseases. By D. E. Salmon.

-Ig. On some Carboniferous wood from Ohio. E. W. Claypole.

20. On the Cretaceous flora of North America. By J. S. Newberry.

Tue Boranicat CLUB OF THE A. A. A. S.—About ninety T

istered as members of the club, which is a slightly larger num

last year. The club has proved a vigorous offspring, |

and a

were held in the room i the Biological section farog the hour

d it is a fact

yet the

, with

7 its varied ies and more naitabi hour: ed by

=- _ The secretary of the club, Mr. J.C. Arthur beng oani

-~ duties Enmig to the association, Dr. N. L. Britton pipe

pointed secre pro tem. Professor J. M. Comes was C dij

Them meetings were held on Thursday, Friday, Monday

y mornings, the time being given to short

x: ‘

1886,] Entomology. . 889

notes, discussions and the interchange of information on botani-

cal subjects. We may take occasion to reproduce some of the

items of general interest in subsequent issues. |

The arrangements made by the local botanical club for the

entertainment of the club of the association were unusually com-

plete and enjoyable. On Thursday a reception was given to the

1 club at the residence of Hon. David F. Day, which proved a

| most delightful occasion. Members of the local club had taken

uch pains to bring, in addition to the hot-house plants, many

wild flowers and plants for the decoration of the rooms; and as

illustrations of local rarities.

tost of the botanists went to the falls and gorge of Niagara

on Saturday, fair weather and ample time giving opportunity for

. considerable botanizing intermixed with sight-seeing. Monday

= alternoon a special excursion, by steamer, took the botanists to

| the Canadian shore of Lake Erie and to interesting botanizing

ground,

Altogether the week was a delightful and profitable one; its

success lay not only in the fact that the meetings of the club

Were well attended, but that the several social gatherings were

equally so. While the members learned about methods and

things, they also gained a knowledge of their fellow-laborers, and

imbibed an important element to progressive work—enthusiasm,

oe The officers for the next year are Professor W. J. Beal, Agri-

F cultural College, Mich., chairman, and Mrs. E. G. Britton, New

York city, secretary. .

Boranicar News.—Among the notable botanical papers which

coe key to the genera of mosses recognized in Lesquereux and

ames’ Manual of the mosses of North America, by Charles R.

i ornia, by C-C: Parry (Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci.) ;

ee banded-spore Trichias, by Geo. A. Rex (Jour. Mycology);

oa pine, by Etta A

ENTOMOLOGY.

olfactory impressions as such are received by the Arthropoda,

have recently appeared, the following may be mentioned: Artifi-

sue ORGAN OF SMELL IN ArTHROPODS.'—The question whether =

Abstract by A, 5. Packard of a historical and critical study by Dr. K. Krepelin, ae

taldruck aus dem Osterprogramm der Realschule des Johanneums. . Hamburg, eo

0ra, by William R. Dudley (Bulletin of the Cornell University).

890 General Notes.

also whether there are specifically formed organs for the percep-

tion of this kind of sensation, has always been assumed in the

affirmative sense. The naturalists of the previous century have

recorded an abundance of observations, which have proved the

highly-developed powers of smell at least in insects and Crus-

-A

The existence of a definite sense of smell in the greater number

of Arthropoda is, as Perris says, “a fact for a longtime secured

to science, for which there is need neither of arguments nor of

proofs.” Under these circumstances, it is clear that the question

as to the seat of the sense of smell in the Arthropods has fora

long time aroused the interest of naturalists. An extensive litera-

; ture on this subject has grown up in the course of years, names

‘the first rank appearing in the history of these researches; though

: perhaps in no field of zodlogical knowledge has such an abun-

dance of acute, difficult work had so smalla following as in the

examination of the organs of sense, and we are still this day, 1

spite of the great advance in the last ten years, far from a com-

a plete solution of the question.

= oe _ Historical Sketch of our Knowledge of the Organs of Smell —iIn

‘the first half of the last century began the inquiries as to the seat

of the sense of smell in the Arthropods. Thus Réaumur, 1m his 2

- Mémoires (1, p. 283; 11, 224), expressed in different places the

- view that in the antennz was situated a special organ which

might be an organ of smell.

Be _. Ina similar way Lesser,” Roesel,? Lyonet,’ Bonnet® and others

expressed themselves. Before this Sulzer® suggested that a?

“ unknown sense” might exist in the antennz. All these natural-

ists supposed that there was a common plan in the ores

of all animals, and that they must agree with the structure

tory currents. The oldest advocate of this view app’ x

; been Reimarus ;” following him, without knowing of the bee :

_ Opinion, was Baster (1762). Finally, in the last decennial of t?

i a $ oi percept pod:

ninus, by Bensdorf; the caterpillar, by Bonnet; beetles an

y Brunelli and Lehrman; the observations of Perris, Lespés, L

ea | ser, in his «The Chordotonal en

sects,” p. 76, remarks: “ For the first time exact proof has been

ects in general become influenced by clear sound stimuli.”

Lesser : Insécten theologie, 1740, ;

3 Roesel: Insektenbelustigungen, 1746, IT, 51. :

Lyonet : Traite anatomique de la chenille, 1762, 42, 96, 195-

> 36.

Entomology. 891

= preceding century, Duméril, in two special treatises as well as in

3 his “Considérations générales,” sought to prove this theory as to

the seat of the organs of smell in the stigmata, while Schelver

thought this view to be at least “not improbable.”

Against both of these leading views as to the seat of the sense

: of smell were expressed, in the last century, different opinions.

q Thus Comparetti! thought that the sense of smell might be local-

ized in very different points of the head, in the antennal club of

Lamellicorns, in the sucking tube of Lepidoptera, in special

_ frontal holes of flies and Orthoptera, etc., while Bonsdorf con-

' Sidered the palpi as organs of smell.

d Thus were four different views, mixed together, Fi A

opening of this century; the Hamburg zodlogist, M. C. S. Lehr-

man, in three different treatises (2, 3, 4), brought together all the

hitherto known observations and arguments, treated them criti-

cally, and completed them by his own extended studies. Lehrman

adopted the opinions of Reimarus, Baster, Duméril and Schelver, |

that the stigmata presented the most convenient place for the

site of the organs of smell; but he is the first who sought to

4 ord a basis for these views by new experiments and also by

= atomical data. Regarding the antenne he was familiar with a

= Number of anatomical details which in part had already been dis-

covered before he wrote, viz, the entrance of a nerve from the

ran into each antennz,? the existence of muscles (Comparetti)

and “vessels ” (Bonsdorf) in them, etc. Cuvier followed through-

cut the lead of Lehrman, but Latreille? returned to the view of

different Journals, considered the mouth of Arthropods as l

Probable site of the sense of smell, an opinion which, before his

j ‘ime, Huber, in his experiments on bees, had thought to be cor-

_ ‘fect. In 1811 Rosenthal (5) published his discovery of an un-

doubted organ of smell at the base of the inner antennz of crabs,

and expressed his Opinion that in the fly-like animals the sense

of smell was probably localized in the folded frontal membrane

ove the base of the antennz. This last conclusion seemed so

logical to his contemporaries that even Burmeister, in his Hand-

his ead of bees, for the author himself afterwards acknowle ged

+ discovery to be erroneous. A third publication of the same

1G,

z < Peretti: De aure interna comparata, Patavii, 1769.

Scarpa: De audit ca

: k auditu et olfactu, Ticini, 1789.

uS Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés et des Insectes, 1806-1809, II, 50.

a p.’ * Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles, 1792, Il, 475-

s BUE s Principes- vA at ymi: Co ap È T y A 39- -

the Perception of smell by the antennz, while Treviranus (7, oh ;

a der Entomologie, unhesitatingly accepted it. Less ready —

i year ' by Marcel de Serres (26) returned again to the palpi, and 7

sia

tory, while Blainville,’ ten years later, again expressed anew the .

892 General Notes. i [October,

old opinion that the antennz, or at least their terminations, were

organs of smell. Up to that date there was an uncertainty as to

the seat of the organs both of smell and hearing. Fabricius (57),

indeed, had already, in 1783, thought he had found an organ of

Miller, however, was doubtful, from the fact that the nerve pass-

ing to this organ arose, not from the brain, but from the third

thoracic ganglion; but, notwithstanding, he remarks: “ Perhaps

we have not found the organ of hearing in insects because we

sought for it in the head.” This discovery was afterwards con-

siderably broadened and extended by Siebold’s work," for the

views of these naturalists on the seat of both organs had a definite :

influence, especially in Germany. At present, indeed, Miller's i

hypothesis stood in complete contradiction, so that during the

_ following decennial was presented anew the picture of opposing

` observations and opinions as to the nature of the organs of n

While Robineau-Desvoidy, at the end of the twentieth year, @

also later, in different writings (27, 34), strove energetically m

~ the olfactory nature of the antennæ, Strauss-Dürkheim held fa

-to the view that the tracheæ possessed the function under dis-

able

1, 52-87, 1844 ee

kheim + Considérations générales sur ‘Anatomie Comps T aa

boi a ‘ |

1886.] Entomology. 893

which seemed to assign the seat of the sense of smell to the an-

enne. Dugès! reported similar researches on the Scolopendre,

Sig co wp,

ennz in the male Bombycide might be similarly interpreted.

- Driesch (29) sought to give currency to the views of Bonsdorf,

Lamarck and Marcel de Serres, that the sense of smell was local-

assertion of zroskepsis'of Lehrman, z. e., of the air-test through

the antennæ, and Goureau (33) again referred the seat of the

sense of smell to the mouth. In England, Newport (45) at this

organs of touch and hearing, and the palpi as organs of smell—a

= View which, as regards the antennz, was opposed by Newman (43).

7 Thus the contention as to the use of the antennæ and the seat

of the organs of smell and hearing fluctuated from one side to

the other, and when in 1844 Küster (9), by reason of his experi-

Ments on numerous insects, again claimed that “the antenne are

the smelling organs of insects,” he argued on a scientific basis;

yet v. Siebold and Stannius (1848), in their valuable Lehrbuch

er vergleichenden Anatomie (p. 581), remarked that “organs of

smell have not yet with certainty been discovered in these

animals,”

These naturalists were more happy with the crabs, whose

organs of smell, with Rosenthal, they localized in the vesicle at

Cee

these cavities as possessing the function of hearing. ;

phe following decennial was of marked importance in the judg-

_ lent of many disputed questions. Almost contemporaneously

with Siebold and Stannius’ Lehrbuch appeared an opportune

Waich

to which

i .

and Pierret (32) thought that the great development of the ‘an- .

ized in the palpi, though Duponchel (30, 31) went back to the old `

period put forth a work in which he considered the antennz as

: thorough work on this subject was published in the following |

894 | ; General Nets. [October,

and perhaps also the palpi, may claim this sense, and finds full

confirmation of Dufour’s (37) views, and adopts as new the

physiological possibility expressed by Hill and Bonnet,” that the

antennz might be the seat of both senses—those of smell and

hearing.

As for the Crustacea, it was through Huxley,’ and still more

through Leuckart,‘ that the evidence was afforded that Rosen-

thal’s—also adopted as such by Blainville—olfactory organ at the

base of the inner antenne should be regarded as an apparatus of

hearing. Huxley therefore thought, following Farre and Robi-

- neau-Desvoidy, that the seat of the sense of smell must lie m the

organ discovered by Fabricius in the outer antenna, while Leydig,

not remain long unnoticed. In 1857 Hicks (47, 48, 49) published

complete researches on the peculiar nerve-endings which he had

found in the antennz, also in the halteres of flies and the wings

_ of all the other groups of insects and which he judged to be pi

the perception of smell. But Erichson’s and Burmeister s pori

were by Lespès, in 1858 (38), explained to be so many auditory

-vesicles with otoliths. This view was refuted by Claparède (39)

and Claus (13), without their deciding on any definite sense

be continued.

Po ZOOLOGY.’

ing crinoid, is capable of casting its visceral mass

‘slight irritation, while in 1884 it was shown b

Milnes Marshall that one species had the power to reproguvs m a

~ parts thus lost. Mr. Arthur Dendy has recently s pe ;

_ ject and suggests? that since these animals have se sae

_ power over their food supply, this ability to cast out the stomach”

1 Hill: Hamburger Magazin, XVII, 391.

2 Bonnet: Contemplation de la Nature, 111 C, 18. Nat.

3 Huxley; On the Auditory Organs in the Crustacea, Ann. and Mag. “*

tSer. Vol. vi, 1851.0 ms «tar Naturgeschichte,

* Leuckart: Ueber die Gehérwerkzeuge der Krebse, Archiv fiir Nat

3, I, 255, 304-306, 373-374. ca ele

eydig; Ueber Artemia salina und Branchipus stagnalis, Zeits. t. W-

a $5. § é > ? ; E he:

; e s sketch of our earlier knowledge of the “ peg-bearing 5 s (

sense-organs of insects) pp. 509, 558, 586, are therefore to correc

lited by J. S. Kinostry, Sc.D., Malden, Mass.

Laboratories Owens College, Vol. 1, pp. 299-312, 1999.

Zoölogy. 895

thrown off decay while the animal replaces them with new. It.,

THE LEECHES OF Japan.—Dr. Whitman, in the Proceedings of

the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Vol. xx, 1884)

adverted to the poor quality of the work done on the leeches, but

his Present paper on the leeches of Japan (Quart. Jour, Micros.

Sct, XXVI, 1886) is certainly not open to criticism as to careful-

ness and accuracy. It deals with the species of the family Hiru-

dinidæ, and is illustrated by exquisitely executed colored plates

Ee) alter drawings by a Japanese artist. Besides this it contains some

; Morphological notes and observations on habits which are inter-

+ Sting.. Dr. Whitman shows that on each segment of a leech

3 there are certain sense organs which are serially homologous with

the eyes, and which besides are somewhat similar to the latter in |

Structure, each possessing the same peculiar large clear cells.

t the function of these segmental sense organs is, remains

unsettled, but the experiments detailed go to show that they | |

lave the power of recognizing the differences between light and

darkness, and that they are not concerned with smell or taste.

: The similarity of these to the lateral line organs of fishes in thei

Karly stages is pointed out and the homology of the two sug-

—-Sested. <

MyrIAPoD Anaromy.—Mr. C. G. Bourne publishes in the Jour- ;\

nal of the Linnean Society a paper on the anatomy of Sphæro- ise

at is, there is a pair in each of the first three. pedigerous seg- Bo

Se of the body, and in the remainder there are two pairs in

Segment. Eac bee

a S Spiral-walled tracheal tubes take their origin. The author

Sts that both here and in Peripatus the opening to the tracheal

-ac should be regarded as the spiracle ahd not the opening from ae

the sac into the trachea. The paper also has some notes ona _ :

Cormano of hearing. — | ee

, 896 General Notes. [October,

scopists, at its meeting in August, devoted a day to dredging and

skimming in Chautauqua lake. The most noteworthy find was

a specimen of the beautiful little cladoceran crustacean, Leptodora

hyalina. This species was previously known in this country only

from a single somewhat mutilated specimen recorded by Sink

Smith from Lake Superior. Mr. Charles S. Fellows, however,

has taken a few specimens from a lake near Chicago. Leptodora

hyalina is the largest of its group, reaching a length of an inch.

in et ea

have separate motor and sensory roots, while in t

region the anterior nerve arising from eac g

motor and sensory, and the posterior was sensory alone; the

second thoracic ganglion is a special reflex center for the grea

claw, and that reflex actions were more marked when this gan-

glion was separated from the brain; and lastly that there is no

such marked decussation of nervous fibers in the central cord as

exists in vertebrates. This last point will repay farther study, for

bees pw coma impulses travel across the ganglia from one side to

other.

MINNESOTA.—

e State, is about

It. is, for th

ne, July and

Morvtatity oF Fish at Lake MILLE Lac,

-The above lake, lying in the east central part of th

~ twenty-two miles long and eighteen miles wide.

most part, very shallow, and consequently during Ju

August its waters are very warm. ee

< Every summer for several years past, after a strong wind ‘has |

_ been blowing on shore for a day, the beach is strewn a distance

of many miles with thousands of fine fish. Some of these are

found just expiring, others but just dead, and others far advanced

in decomposition, the latter appearing to have been floating 1 the

is a

covered with a brown slime. This in specimens 4

uld indicate they had lived some time in a diseased

weeks observations in June and July, I found

a 1886] Zoölogy. 897

among these fish the wall-eyed pike (Stizostedium vitreum) was

the most abundant, ranging in length from ten inches to two and

one-half feet.

There were, too, hundreds of perch (Perca americana), rock

bass (Ambloplites rupestris), black bass, (Micropterus salmoides),

bull heads(Ami urus) crappies (Pomoxys annularis), calico bass (P.

E sparndes) and many other specimens of a variety of white fish

k (Coregonus artedi). Also the “ling” (Lota maculosa), an occa-

i re dog-fish (Amia calva), many pike (Esox lucius), and large

suckers,

tate the fish, for in the smaller lakes in the vicinity, which are fed

by springs, the fish are comparatively free from such enemies.

-+ might say here I found no sure indication of the muskel-

lunge (Asox nobilior) inhabiting Lake Mille Lac. , The specimens

of so-called “ muskellunge” shown me by the farmers were giant

Specimens of Æ, lucius.—F. L. Washburn,

tron of which he engraved, with his pen-knife, “ J. W., 1824” and

‘tit freénear Albion, Ill. Some time during 1865 Mr. W. Hod-

: _ Son found it in the same vicinity where it had been set free forty-

_ “ne years before. He engraved the letter “W” on the carapace

_ ` 4nd again set it free. Nothing more was seen of it until August,

| 1885, when it was found by Mr. Herbert Hodson (brother to W.)

out one-half a mile from the spot where it had been set free

Parent

898 General Notes. [October,

Gares 1n Fowrs.—The fact that the disease known as gapes in

poultry is produced by a parasitic worm (Syxgamus trachealis)

which infests the trachea of the birds was settled long ago, and

for most of our recent knowledge of the worm and the disease

we are indebted to the prize essay of Pierte Megnin. According

to this author the mature worms and their eggs are coughed out

of the throat of the infested fowl and the disease is spread by its

associates picking them up along with their food or by drinking

water in which the eggs may have hatched into larvae. No sug-

gestion is allowed of any intermediate host. Mr. H. D. Walker,

in an apparently carefully prepared paper on this subject (Bulle-

tin Buffalo Society Nat. Sciences, v, pp. 49-71, 1886) details

many experiments which he has tried, and several of them point

very strongly to the conclusion that the earth-worm may, in

many cases, play a part in the distribution of the pest. The em-

bryos have been found living in the earth-worm at all seasons of

the year, and earth-worms from infested localities, when fed to

chickens, almost invariably produce the disease. Dr. Walker has

also produced the disease in robins, and claims to have found the

embryo of the lung-worm of calves (Strongylus micrurus) in the

_ earth-worm.

1886.) E es -i

The first casual supposition that he must have been a stow-a-way

brought from port, must be acknowledged, on further considera-

tion, as unsupported by fact.

The date of. sailing, April 28th, was too late to support the

probability of such an origin, all golden plovers having probably

migrated from semi-tropical California to their northern breeding

grounds ata much earlier date. Then the existence of such a

Stow-a-way on board, undiscoverd for eight days, was at best im-

probable ; for had starvation not forced an earlier discovery, the

numerous cats and dogs on board would have inevitably flushed

the bird. The condition of our visitor when discovered, and his

ultimate fate, also preclude the possibility of his having traversed

by steam power the distance from shore to mid-Pacific.

o have reached us from the southward he must have flown

Over I100 miles in the very teeth of a protracted and violent gale,

a feat we may well set aside as impossible. One source of origin

for our winged visitor alone remains: At the time of his discovery

he had certainly just finished a long and utterly exhausting flight.

Far northward on the Alaskan coast he must have been caught

by the gale through which we passed, and borne out to sea be- 3

yond hope of return, and then Swept on and on by the winds till »

the sto

steamer Higo Maru, bound from Yokohama to Hakodate, and RA

about twenty miles from the coast of Japan, the snow-covered =

coast hills of which were plainly visible, a golden plover lighted |

p. @ perfectly fresh condition on the davits. On being approached _ a

nce the comparative condition of the two individuals

goo General Notes. (October, +

NOTES ON THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS AT ANTWERP AND LON-

pon.—The Zoological Gardens at Antwerp contain at present

one great mammalian curiosity, the Anoa of Celebes, a creature

something between an ox and an antelope. The gardens are

tolerably rich in antelopes generally, also in carnivores, The

series of cassowaries is more complete than that of the London

Zoological Gardens, and there is a very full list of raptores.

The collection at Antwerp is really a fine one for the size of

the city, only one-fourth that of Philadelphia, which with diffi-

culty supports its “ Zoo.”

oth these gardens and those of London have an example of

the Lycaon, or South African hunting-dog. The great attraction

of the London Zoo is a young chimpanzee, var. tschego (Sima

calva), the first specimen of the species that has been taken alive.

When caught she was two years old, and is now more than five.

Lively, sly and full of fun, this young creature is quite a contrast

to the usual listless ape of the menageries, and the great differ-

-ence leads one to believe that idiosyncracy or ill-health, or a com-

bination of the two, are the causes of the apathy so generally

_ exhibited by man’s nearest relatives when in confinement. This

animal is as full of tricks as any of the smaller monkeys. She

will play with visitors very gently until she has gained their con-

fidence, and will then suddenly seize a hat, bonnet or other

_ removable article. She is a particularly good ratter, but expects

her keeper to assist her, calling ugh, ugh, to induce him to stop

_the rat’s escape in one direction, so that she can catch it 1m

histicated female child came from the

= See d

Bee Rn es eee | Ie

wa severe

kills many, and those who escape from their quarters for-

: containing

etaurists, rat-ka 3 and other small marsup! als,

aurists, r ngaroos, dasyures a o of

:phants, whose united bul Cees

gigantic predecessor. The London Or: a

1886.] Zoölogy. ; gol

_ father awkwardly situated and inconveniently shaped. It is

: almost a mile from the nearest railway station (Portland road, on

2 the Metropolitan or Underground railway), and is divided into

. three unequal sections by a public road and a canal, the former

= Crossed by means of a tunnel, the latter by a bridge. . The rep-

k tile house, the bears, otters, seals, canines, pheasant and other

bird paddocks, birds of prey, etc., etc., are in the largest division;

on the other side of the road are the elephants, rhinoceros,

giraffes and other large herbivores, many deer and antelopes, the

marsupials, chimpanzee, edentates and parrots, while the insect

house is beyond the Regent canal—W. N. Lockington.

Human CEREBRAL FISSURES, THEIR RELATIONS AND NAMES

AND THE METHODS OF STUDYING THEM.—In 1873 Professor Wilder

tead before the Amer. Association for the Adv. of Science a

Paper on the fissures of the Carnivora. Since that time he has

Prepared for the museum of Cornell University many human

brains, foetal as well as adult, and of several races; has examined-

nearly all the literature of the subject and published several

Papers on special points, the latest being “ On the paroccirital, a

newly recognized fissural integer” (Jour. of Nerv. and Mental

Visease, June, 1886), and communications before the recent meet-

ing of the Am. Neurol. Assoc. While far from satisfied on cer-

tain matters, since each fissure should be monographed, the con-

clusions now presented are, he believes, worthy of consideration.

The study of the human fissures should be preceded by the study

J - >

by learning certain fissures before others. The “landmarks” bc

ne continued from the presylvian fissure. The first fissures to

tudied are the ten interlobar: Sylvian, presylvian, central, cir-

_ Cuminsular, callosal, occipital, hippocampal, exoccipital, cipital F

eoccipital : PrE yy

“uture). Third, the fifteen constant, intergyral fissures, without struc- —

“rege of paper read before the A. A. A. S. at Buffalo, Aug., 1886, by Burt G.

d > 5 7, ap na 2 ; :

vian fissure, Accepting the usual division of each hemicerebrum

Mto lobes, occipital, temporal, parietal and frontal, the last may be _

: advantageously subdivided into prefrontal and postfrontal by a —

senda to be collocated in the fœtus with the lambdoidal a :

go2 | General Notes. [ October,

tural correlatives: Paracentral, paroccipit pertem poral, meditem-

`. poral, subtemporal, subfrontal, Dafa me ‘insular, supercallosal, or-

bital, precentral, supercentral (dorsal part of precentral), postcentral,

a. and Sorin Lastly the thirteen nose al, inconstan

p>-

including the sagittal (interhemicerebral ) forty-six, a larger

number than before enumerated. The names are mmononyms,

selected or formed from names in common use or already pro-

posed by some original investigator. Most of them imply either

the relation of fissures to structural correlatives or their position

relative to some main fissure. The same is the case with most of

"3 e gyral names, but a few have been correlated with the border-

g fissures ; lingual and fusiform, for example, are replaced by

ilaia and suBeallatersal. The paper was illustrated by dia-

_ grams of the mesal and lateral aspects of the hemicerebrum, and |

by lists of the fissures grouped as above. Some of the fissures

_were discussed in detail, and the paper concluded with an expres-

sion of the belief that the common idea of the usefulness of the

brains of monkeys as foundations for the study of human brain -

is erroneous, and that, contrary to the view and practice of Mey-

- nert, it is much better to examine fcetal brains at various stages

Te. a oot th.

Pee

EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXIX.

oo The figures are a but based upon a very simple, adult, mulatto b

cad 322 in the museum of Cornell Un niversity, and they probably represent an

treme Pe E — yes dence.

es are in capitals. The fissural names are in italics and common!

“placed just clos the pee bi e lines. All the names on the figures are Latin, but

- English paronyms are n the text. The abbreviations F. prs., F. sòs. an

stand respectively for se phasic n, subsylvian and basisylvian fissures. The

: is Wernicke’s fissure, or the occipitalis anterior of Schwalbe.

rain , $ a

eX-

siis News.—Crustacea.—Of the ra AEE bottom-

| ved — — oF deers enumerated by Mr. S. I.

À peo small

sieereals small black eyes, and one eyes of dou

= ue of the objections of the physicists, our,

erra and in one case na :

t Professor G. O. Sars to be accel

PRONACI S

TF Inf lecia---4

a roscope, the thoracic eyes shone

brightly, the light apparently proceeding from the bundles of

4 rods. Another specimen was treated with aqua ammonia, when

= the so-called eyes appeared as so many points of light, the rest of

= the body remaining dark.

Fe Brachiopods.—L. Joubin, in a somewhat detailed account of the

_ anatomy of Crania and Discina (Arch. Zool. Expérimentale, 11,

= IV, 1886) comes to the conclusion that the Brachiopods, though

= 4pproaching more closely to the Polyzoa than to any other group

ca, the animal kingdom, are to be regarded as “ a class absolutely -

distinct and independent.” :

Reptiles—Ata meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania it

Was stated that a black snake (Hoplocephalus curtus) four feet

three inches in length, had been found to contain 109 young.

r. Morton stated that the greatest number he had previously

nown to be taken from a similar snake was thirty-two, though

he had heard of seventy from an allied species.

Birds — Nature has, in a recent issue, given several examples — ;

-~ Of male birds caring for the eggs and young. One of these is ie

be that of a turkey cock which incubated six fowl’s eggs and hatched `

three chickens, which he treated with all the care of a hen. He

~ appears to have

Mie S

ear

te als of two days. The male bird begins to sit before all the r

: 88S are laid, the eggs laid subsequently being deposited by the,

beside her mate,

904 | General Notes. [ October,

One of the most startling of Dr. Paul Albrecht’s homologies

or rather homo-dynamies is that which he seeks to trace between

etc. It is, he says, the two hemipenes or claspers -united, and

cases of epi and hypo-spadias are atavisms. The skeleton, mus-

cles and nerves of this organ, according to Albrecht, belong to

the extremities. Dr. C. Hartlaub has (Zoclogischen Jahr-

bichern, Band 1) given the results of an investigation of the speci-

mens of manatees in various European myseums. He fully

establishes the specific difference between the African M. sene-

galensis and the American M. latirostris, and describes for the

first time the skull of the South American M. inunguis, a species

-absolutely ignored by most naturalists, but the distinctness of —

which he proves. The African manatee inhabits the west coast

of Africa from the Senegal to the Quanza, and penetrates far into

‘the interior up the larger rivers. The “water sheep” spoken of

by Schweinfurth in the Welle, and the supposed manatee found

in Lake Tchad and the Shari by Barth and others, may prove to

be another species. In America the exact boundaries between

| THE DREAMS OF THE BLIND.—A paper read before the biolog!-

eal section of the American Association for the Advancement 0

_ Science was on “ The Dreams of the Blind,” by Dr. Joseph Jas-

< trow. The object of the paper was to determine the extreme a,

-. at which a child may become blind and yet lose all memory °

-~ the visible world, so that it no longer sees in its dreams. P

-~ Almost all dreams of normal persons are sight-dreams, an $

dream is often spoken of as a vision. The blind are depri aer A

er.

1886.) Amhropology, C05

pose about 200 blind persons of both sexes were questioned at

_ the institutions for the blind in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and it

their dreams; while all whose eyesight was destroyed after the .

seventh year had quite as vivid dream-visions as seeing people.

their dreams, hearing plays the principal. part., When dreaming

of home, for instance, they will hear. their father’s voice or their

Sister singing, and perhaps will feel the familiar objects in the

m and thus know they are at home. We, in such a case,

would see it all.

ANTHROPOLOGY .!

ANTHROPOMETRY, says Francis Galton, is designed to define

the individual or the race, and to show in what way and to what

extent, he or it differs from the others. Measurements teach the

individual to know his own powers at a given time. The second

important object is to keep watch over the development during

‘Rot normally.

and up to what age the brain continues to grow in bulk, espe-

cially with a view to comparing .the educated with the unedu-

“tated classes, |

€ maximum length of the head is taken from the glabella,

T the Smooth spot above it, by means of calipers with blunt

“eeth like a comb. y

„ “e maximum width is taken with the same instrument, be-

tween the points farthest apart on the sides of the head.

_ The maximum height is the length of a line perpendicular toa

Plane Passing through the ear holes and along the lower and

_ Suter edges of the orbits.

K 5

arat

st Gs Ree A

“yj ubany, of Cambridge, England. ie

4.ustead of the tints of Broca and Chevreuil, Dr. Galton uses

disks i ;

gg the hair. The object is to secure standards that will not

. A new instrument for measuring the squeeze of the hand ha =

Edited by Prof. Oris T. Mason, National Museum, Washington, D. C. _

c €se instruments are constructed by the Scientific Instrument ; oe

of glass for the color of the eyes, and spun glass of various

906 : l General Notes. ; - [October,

been devised by Mr. H. Darwin, which avoids the disadvantage

experienced in the old dynamometer when the handles are

brought close together.

In criticising the apparatus used for testing acuteness of sight,

Dr. Brudenell Carter drew attention to the difference between

. testing the acuteness of vision and the acuteness of perception of

slight differences of the intensity of light. He contended that

nothing was an accurate test of acuteness of vision unless it called

upon the person tested to see the separateness of two or more

objects, such as spots, which were separated from each other by

intervals equal to their own diameters. :

Mr. Galton draws attention to the apparatus devised by Mr.

Cattell, an American, now assistant in Professor Wundt’s Labora-

tory, at Leipzig, for testing the color and the sound sense.—7F.

Anthrop, Inst., xvi, 2-11.

Tae CepHALic InpEx.—The two essentials to a correct system

of obtaining the rates of the length to the width of the skull are

(1) that the measures should always be taken upon exactly the

same points, and (2) that the fractional limits of the terms doli-

chocephalic, mesaticephalic, and brachycephalic should be the

same for all investigators. Now, great efforts have been made in

France and Germany to achieve these results, and Dr. Garson, 1n

England, following the instructions of the Anthropological In-

stitute, has conducted an extensive correspondence to the same |

end, and an international agreement has been reached, as fol- 4

lows: : i

1. The metric system is to be used exclusively in all linear

measurements. : :

= 2. The cephalic index to be calculated from the maximum

length and maximum breadth of the cranium; the maximum

- point of the os occipitis behind, in the mesial plane. na

mum breadth is the width across the broadest part of the a

the glabella of the os frontis in front, and the most ge 7

wherever that may be, except on the mastoid processes and the

_supramastoid ridges, measured vertically to the mesian — ne .

points of measurement lying opposite to one another in the sa

horiz plane. ty

“~

tral group Be: a

phalic and brachycephalic respectively, a

of 70 to 74.9, the latter of 80 to 84-9- — /

Se li it

i ssi

‘Anthropelogy. 907

6. The second quinary divisions—those on either side of the

= _ last two—to be termed hyper-dolichocephalic and hyper-brachy-

= — Cephalic, with the respective limits of 65 to 69.9, and 85 to 89.9.

7 7. The third quinary divisions to be called ultra-dolichocepha-

lic and ultra-brachycephalic respectively, with limits of 60 to

64.9, and 90 to 94.9.

_ 8. The quinary division of the cephalic index to be extended

in each direction as far as there are indices to classify. These

divisions may be designated by their limits, or by the number of

quinary divisions they are removed from the mesaticephalic

division, that being considered o.

ollected in a tabular form the division and nomenclature

agreed upon is as follows:

t 3.. Ultra oF, oe pl 3. 60-65 excl

3 2, Hyper-dolichocephalic 57

1, Dolichocephalic. .... naL

Aa E a S Pirae:

t. Brachycephalic........... r8obs

2. Hyper-brachy phal Petre ee eee renee eset ene rnnes oh ag lige

- 3. Ultra-brachycephali a TR

; 90-

: — F. Anthrop. Inst., xvi, 17-20.

; Tue Peasopy Museum.—The eighteenth and _ nineteenth an-

nual reports, forming numbers 5 and 6 of volume m1, have just

appeared. The greater portion of these reports refer to explora-

tions in the Little Miami valley, Ohio. With the codperation of

r. C. L. Metz, Professor Putnam has conducted a series of dig-

_ £ings which are quite as remarkable for their thoroughness as

for their Successful results. The plan has been to lay a mound,

earthwork or cemetery on the dissecting table, to remove care-

place the coverings of «

bodi | ves

908 . General Notes. [ October,

made, earth was brought from various surroundings and heaped

over all.

Dr. William F. Whitney publishes in the report a paper on

anomalies, injuries and diseases of the bones of the native races

of North America.

The anomalies are accidental and designed deformations of the

skull together with their structural consequences.

_ The injuries comprise the results of dislocation or fracture. A

just distinction is drawn between injuries made long anterior to

death and those made shortly before and after death.

Diseases are grouped under exostoses, periostitis, caries and

cicatrices. E

Dr. Metz and Professor Putnam present an elaborate mono-

graph upon the Marriott mound, No. 1, and its contents.

West INDIAN Stone ImPLEMENTS.—Mr. E. F. Im Thurm de-

scribes in the June number of Timehri (Demerara) the archæo-

logical collections of Sir Thomas Graham Briggs, from the

islands of St. Vincents, St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Lucia and Antigua.

The implements are celts, mullers, mortars, and were all found on

the surface. The author devotes considerable space to the dis- |

cussion of the function of the celts, which present some new h

forms in addition to the ordinary almond-shape so prevalent in

the Carib area.

a bright-colored flower, and letting the insect go, peasy it, suffi-

1886.] A nthropology, 4 909

(xiv, 3-13) seeks to trace out'when and by what means this in-

tercourse took place. Miss Buckland discards the theory of

similar forms arising naturally out of similar grades of culture,

and holds that like complex forms of any kind show intercourse

carried on by means little known and understood, but which is

indicated alike by language, by manners and customs, by varia-

tions of race type, by traditions, and lastly by relics widely dis-

tributed, yet evidently the work of the same people.

Tae Fijian Nanca Custom was practiced by certain tribes of

Naviti Lovu in the ceremony of initiation. The Nanga is an ob-

long, rectangular enclosure, fenced with stones set edgewise in the

ones Two partition walls divide ‘the space into thrée parts:

he Sacred Nanga, in which the kava bowl stands; the Great

Nanga, and Little Nanga. _Low places in the partition walls,

easily stepped over, afforded access from one part to another. A

= bell-roofed house or temple stands just outside of the Nanga

d tambu tambu, or Sacred Nanga. These compartments of the

A Nanga were fòr the elders, those who have attended two cere-

monies, and the probationers, respectively.. Whenever the elders

Judged that there was a sufficient number of youths ready for ad-

_. Mission, a Nanga was held. While, as a general rule, the young

men were eligible for admission at about the age of puberty, some

and clothing were accumulated for the occasion, and every part

of the Nanga swept and garnished. The heads of the novices

Were shaved with a shark’s tooth or shell, assisted by a fire-stick.

ng rolls of tapa were wound around their bodies. Four :

were Spent alternately in offerings by the novices and in feasting.

On-the fifth day the novices were taken to the sacred enclosure,

and after mysteries were performed, were declared members of

the Nanga. On the sixth morning the women enter the Nanga

and great license prevails. The ceremony of initiation closes with

a bath. No painful treatment of the novices seems to have taken

Place further than attempts to terrify them. In the Nangas took ~

_ Place also the rites of sacrifice, thank offering and circumcision,

latter being accompanied by the most horrible license and the

_ Suspension of proprietary rights.— Rev. Lorimer Fison, J. Anthrop.

Anst, xiv, rg- -30.

“

- brides, Banks‘and Torres islands, Fiji, Santa Cruz and the Reef _

; islands, and Solomon islands. The drift of Mr. Codrington’s 3

Ocea languages belong: Malayan, Polynesian, the languages of a

the islands that connect Melanesia with the Indian archipelago, —

og R 3 : |

ing the Anthropological Institute of London upon the languages — <

of Melanesia, including New Caledonia and Loyalty, New ae z

~ f

910 ; General Notes. [ October,

and Malagasy. This view is opposed to the theory that the orig-

inal Melanesian stock is distinct from that to which the Malay

-and Polynesian belong. Dr. Tylor seems to fall in with this view,

since he says: “ The Melanesian and Polynesian languages are

of one family, but the Melanesian preserves earlier and more per-

fect forms, the Polynesian being a group of much broken down

and comparatively modern dialects spread recently by emigrants.”

On the other hand Professor Keane. suggested that if Mr. Cod-

rington is correct in assuming the original unity of Malayo-

Polynesian and Melanesian speech, all our conclusions regarding

the relative value of physical and linguistic types will have to be

reconsidered. The theory of Mr. Codrington is that of the elder

Von der Gabelentz; but the younger (George) Von der Gabelentz

‘and Dr. A. B. Meyer recognize in their “ Beitrage zur Kenntniss

der Melanesischen, Mikronesischen, und Papuanischen Sprachen

elements, a Melanesian or Papuan, and a Malayo-Polynesian in

the Oceanic world.

ARCHZOLOGICAL Fraups.—The NATURALIST for some years

has strenuously and continuously warned archeological collectors

against giving factitious values to relics. It is this craze to have

more and prettier stone implements than his neighbor that leads

_ cities of Europe two years ago, are frauds. Dr. Rau ad |

he discredited the specimens when they were in Washington, but

had no proof against them save his own opinion. The case 15

= now changed, and the men who made Valentine’s objects have

_ are deposited in the National Museum,

7 Some LABORATORY APPLIANCES. —I. Water-bath apparatus fi af

ara .—The laboratory appliances for the use of students an

apparatus in use for some time past in the embryological

| uggestions to those who contemplate fitting up laboratoric®

. : are ‘many advant in having a water-bath for a2

Stead of a common tank for all the students in 4

(Leipzig, 1882), the presence of at least two organic linguistic _

actually produced a duplicate set for the Smithsonian, and they

of the Mus. Comp. Zool. at Harvard College, may

1886.) Microscopy. 2 QII

oratory. The outlay is somewhat greater at first, and the increased

consumption of gas makes the expense still more, but both are

more than counterbalanced by the advantages of having all one’s

materials close at hand, and of being free from the unavoidable

interference incident to the use of common property.

e water-bath employed is that which was introduced by

Paul Mayer! at the Naples Zodlogical Station, with slight modifi-

cations which will be described below.

The operations are more conveniently managed if the top of

the water-bath is nearly on a level with the top of the work-table.

If it is supported on a tripod standing on the table, it is too high

to be easily watched, and cuts off light from the table unneces-

sarily. It is easier as well as safer to adjust the distance between

_ the bottom of the water-bath and the gas jet by making the latter

rather than the former. movable.

These considerations have led to the adoption of the followinz

arrangement. The bath is supported (Fig. 1) on a wrought-iron

= bracket of the form indicated in Fig. 1 å, firmly screwed to the

= end“ bed-piece” of the work-table A

‘Ss

pn |

ively even with the top and end of

of the table. The bath is thus

Practically at one’s elbow without

interfering with the ordinary oper-

ations .

a The bracket is made of heavy

= iron, about 25 x 3™™, bent

intoa

‘tom which any accumulation of

Dede may be readily removed. The |

resting on the guard is se- Fic. 1.

“ured against accidental displacement by passing, at each end, a

“Opper Wire through the oven in the bath and winding it securely

_ found the bracket. ae

oS aed Sond burner is carried by a fork support which clamps to a

: tsir round iron, and may therefore be readily adjusted to any __

“*Sired distance from the bath. The rod is bent at right angles ~

TAM. NAT:, Vol, xvt, p. 785, Oct, 1882.

912 General Notes. [October,

and screwed to a cross-piece connecting the legs of the table

near the floor.. The tubing leading from the gas pipe at the wall

is not shown in the figure. The stop-cock in the gas pipe should

be within easy reach of one sitting at the table.

Lest the heat of the gas flame should char the table in the

vicinity, a sheet of zinc is tacked to the under side (not to the

upper side, as shown ‘in the figure) of the table top.

he paraffine water-bath, of which Fig. 2 gives a truthful rep-

resentation, is made of tin-lined burnished copper, is about 18™

long, 9™ broad and 8™ high, and has an oven near the bottom

for warming slides. : The oven is 1° high and 12™ long. The

single cylinder soldered to one end of the Naples bath to serve

Fie. 2.

handle, has been replaced by a strong brass wire handle w

end, When not in use the handles are turned down out 0

: : the outside

h only one opening, the “chimney,” whic

than in the Naples cus, The whole is therefore more

the sea-side or elsewhere. i ae

There are two large and four smaller copper-lined wells = p

» All but one of these are 4°™ deep, the remaining se

ie corner, is 7°" deep. The two larger wells are 6 ye h J

and receive each a copper tank, one for soft, the other er a

fine. Each is provided with a firm brass handle ss

;

18€6.] Microscopy. | 013

= tight angles, the horizontal arm being from the lip of the tank

f about 12™ long; the perpendicular arm is of about the same

a length. The nose for pouring out the paraffine is so fashioned,

| = by reentrant folds of the lip on either side of it, that it does not

necessitate a “ well” larger than the tank; the latter therefore fits

snugly in the well.

But in imbedding ordinarily small objects, it is quite unneces-

sary to remove the tank. It is much more convenient to dif the

ah out of soft copper wire of from one to two millimeters

fameter. If the wire is thicker it can be flattened where it

emerges from the tank under the glass cover. The wire, cut to

| i proper length, should have one end evenly rounded with the

thin.

. pnrt

upon a piece of soft pine or cork. The ladle once formed, the

F wire serves as a handle, and may be bent in any desired manner.

na It is very desirable that the object to be imbedded, especially if

Small, Should not be allowed to rest on the bottom of the tank,

ee ee

Sediment? and since it also is difficult to raise delicate objects

tisfactory way of removing sediment is to allcw the bath to cool very

e congealing point of the paraffine, in order to allow the impurities to

of a spirit lamp. The paraffine in immediate contact with the tank

f elean paper, which is less liable to leave lint behind a cloth’

__ These ladles, which are almost indispensable, are readily fash-

and when quite cold to remove the tank and heat it quickly all

be removed by thoroughly ribbing the inside of the tank witha `

int behind than would |

ght, rapid taps with a smooth-faced hammer until it is broad and _

the blunt, rounded, polished end of some hard object while it rests. _

Since with the greatest care there will always be more or less -

O14 General Notes.

distinguishable. If the bowl of the ladle is allowed to rest upon

the bottom of the tank, it is more liable to become contaminated

pendicular to the plane of the

spiral. If sufficient distance

is left between the coil and

the edge of the tank, the

weight of the coil will over-

balance the weight of the

obliquely placed ladle end of

- the wire, and the latter may

ie be made to occupy any

depth in the paraffine by slightly altering the angle which the

_ wire makes at the lip of the tank (Fig. 3).

as regu-

ga: the

Microscopy. 915

traversing the sides of the dish is reflected upward, and renders

the outlines of the object sufficiently distinct for most purposes

of orientation.

3. Dissecting Pans.—The most satisfactory material for the

“filling” to dissecting pans is undoubtedly bees-wax, and for

ordinary purposes it should be made black by having thoroughly

Stirred into it while melted a quantity of lamp-black. This mass,

“tun” into suitably-shaped tin pans—provided with narrow ledges

f — soldered to the inside just below the prospective surface of the

wax, to prevent its floating in the dissecting fluid—is serviceable

for a time, but is destined sooner or later to become worthless,

owing to the inevitable rusting of the pan. Fortunately there

have come into the market, within a year or two, heavy glass

dishes (they are of various proportions) with short legs at the

four corners, which are suitable in shape for dissecting pans.

€y Present the advantages of admitting more light upon the

object and of not rusting. The wax may be prevented from

floating in the dissecting fluid by pouring into the melted wax in

€ dish a sufficient quantity of shot to give the desired specific

gravity to the whole mass. Since these dishes are apparently

$ «cast in molds and are presumably not of the best quality of

glass, some care should be used to prevent breakage. This can

* be readily accomplished by floating the glass dish in a pan of

water, and gradually raising the temperature of the water to near

the boiling point. “The hot wax then poured into the glass will

hot be likely to break it. A convenient size, 25°™ by 15°%™ and

about gem deep, retails for about forty cents, and can probably

eae had from most of the glass dealers. Mr. M. G. Cochrane, of

= Sai Adams & Clark, 65 Franklin street, Boston, can supply

. oF

i oF hares

When the surface of the wax has become impaired, it may be re-

“ored either by remeltiag the whole or, more quickly, by direct-

e from a gas burner downward upon the surface,

“Dy enough can be melted to accomplish the object.

Ssecting-trays of various shapes to suit special objects may

= COR Any irregularities may be repaired by cabo

of the gas jet.—F, L. Mark, Mus. Comp. Zoöl., Cambridge.

916 Proceedings of Scientific Societies, [October,

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

— The commemoration of the Heidelberg University semi-

millenial leads the London Times to a comparison of the ages

. oi several German-speaking universities. The oldest is

e, founded in 1348; next comes Vienna, founded in 1365;

Heidelberg follows, being the senior of the universities in the

erman empire, founded in 1 386; a; Leipsic, in 1409; rei-

burg (Baden), in 1454; Greifswald, in 1456; Bale, in 1460;

Munich, in 1472; Tübingen, in 1477; , Marburg, in 1527; Kon-

igsberg, i in 1544; Jena, in 1558; Würzburg, in 1582; Giessen, in

607; Kiel, in 1663; Halle, in 1694; Breslau, in 1702; Got-

Sieh. in 1737; Erlangen, in 1743; Berlin, in 1810 Bon nn,

1818; Zürich, in 1838; Berne, in 1834; Strasburg, resstablished

in 1872, originally founded i in 1567.

>- — The honorary degree of Ph.D. has been conferred by the

University of Heidelberg, Germany, upon Alexander Graham

Bell, of Washington; Professor Edward D. Cope, of Philadel-

phia ; Professor Othniel Charles Marsh, ro New Haven; Profes-

sor Simon Newcomb, superintendent of the Nautical

Washington, and Joh n W. Powell, director of the Geo logical

Survey.

eae PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY NATURAL Sciences, March 2, 1886." | 4

Professor W. K. Brooks, of Baltimore, spoke upon the develop- a

ment of Podocoryne, The planula settles’ upon and spreads over > }

the carapace of a hermit crab. Two hundred to three hundred

_ are developed. Another form of hydra, with short “tentacles A

i Bes ed with poisonous Iasso-cells, is produced next in order. aT

hen follow the blastostyles, which neither take cht nor

ive, but are the seat of the medusa buds, w

‘ a belong, and are ultimately set free. In Podocoryne these p

are not the ultimate sexual form, but produce buds which are Set a

i . single egg bec omes a single sexual individual, | but Lars

k 3 has been EE by : a isan k embryologi, TE

ing stolon, from which other hydras are prod ed in the

s believes that alternation of generations, V grist. i

st. Hosta BALLOU, 265 Broadway, New York, |

1886.1 . Proceedings of Scientific Societies. OI7

light of these and other facts, does not arise from polymorphism,

but from the power of the larva to develop asexually.

April 10.—Professor Heilprin gave an account of his collect-

ing tour in Florida. Miocene strata were found at Rocky Bluff

on the Big Manatee river. The rocks on both sides of the

Caloosahatchie, until within fifteen miles of Lake Ochechobee,

are literally crarnmed with fossils. The bottom of the lake con-

sists of hard, clean sand. Eight or nine kinds of mollusks, two

of fishes and a few annelids and crustaceans were all the fauna

found in the lake. Vast wind-rows of dead fishes were found upon

the seashore, owing to the severity of the winter,

Mr. Potts stated that in a collection of fresh-water sponges

' from Avalon, Newfoundland, made by Mr. A. H. McKay, he had

found several new species of four or five genera. One species has

both spindle-shaped and birotulate spicules, thus uniting two

groups.

May 4.—Professor Heilprin described two human vertebræ

from Sarasota bay, Florida. The bones, imbedded in ferruginous

sandstone, had become converted into limonite. The cavity which

once contained the head could be traced, and the head was known

to have been present not many years before. The deposit was

Probably post-Pliocene, yet of great antiquity.

„Mr. A. H: Smith referred to a log of hemlock that had been

obtained, during railway excavations, at a depth of thirty feet from

Sag in black earth which had once formed the bed of the

laware,

May 11.—Professor Heilprin showed that Professor Le

i : ; å

a Conte's previous views regarding Florida were based upon an in-

_orrect reading of the published researches of the State geologist

of Alabama. a

Dr. Leidy read a communication from Dr. Gonzalez, of Du-

_ “fa mode of treatment, since all antidotes yet tried had failed. __

„Dr. Leidy read an account given by Mr. E. A. Rau, of Beth- -

ag: » Of a case of trichiniasis which resulted in the poisoning

The whole family and the death of the mother and a daughter.

ss Fe eaten was home-raised, and the animal showed no sign

Of ill health. The meat was imperfectly cooked and had been fed |

upon for a-week.

918 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. (October, 1886,

north of South Carolina. Mr. U. C. Smith reported Pholas E

truncata, another mollusk new to the locality, from Anglesea.

ee eidy exhibited fossils from the northern part of Nica- ,

ragua, consisting of remains of megatherium, elephant, mastodon,

horse, ox, toxodon and capybara. The association of animals

further illustrated the extension in North America of the South

American Quaternary fauna. The capybara jaw, more robusti

than that of the recent form, might belong to a distinct species.

It was the first time that remains of toxodon had been obtained

in North America. The teeth agreed with those of Toxodon Bur-

meistert.

June 8.—Dr. Benjamin Sharp reported that while studying

the eyes of serpents he had found that in the poisonous snakes «

the pupils were elliptical, while in the harmless species they were

circular, The only exception he was aware of was in the Ela-

pide.’

The same speaker also stated that he had found that the reason

that only the anterior face of the crystalline lens moves in the

act of accommodation to distance, lies in the fact that upon pres

sure the elongated cells of the posterior wall of the lens become

compressed in the direction of their long axis, and when

— pressure is removed these simply straighten ou

Dr. Foote described the mines of Queretaro, noted for the |

quantity and quality of the precious stones yielded by ine

=- ` Opal has been found in varying quantity over the entire area S :

a district twenty-five aE by six, In color the opals equ

best Hungarian o E

- Nassa obsoleta and Littorina saxatilis, collected at Atlantic oT i

year ago, were stated by the lady who gathered them to be

alive, yoi iy for several months they had been near a hea r

wall surfa e

os D H. ‘Alex stated that in no case could aini be properly

' said to be fused. The biceps of the cat simply overgrows

Some originally allotted to it, and takes advantage of an mages ‘

- titious surface of insertion. The pectoralis of man is comp

of a single sheet folded on itself.

” Pr C = Dolley read a paper on Salpa.

dentata, one specimen of which he succeeded in raising ten

. It was a Mi cork feet high, and probably the o

5 in

IWE P. Gibbons, of Alameda, Cal., spoke of the viviparous

is known that — non staal alit sre as

the serpents nak. the per eh “Proteroglypha have the

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

E VoL. xx—NOVEMBER, 1886.—No. 11.

_ COMPARATIVE STUDIES UPON THE GLACIATION

_ OF NORTH AMERICA, GREAT BRITAIN

| AND IRELAND)

= BY PROFESSOR H. CARVILL LEWIS.

4 ()BSERVATIONS extending over several years upon glacial

E phenomena on both sides of the Atlantic had convinced the

=- author of the essential identity of these phenomena; and the

object of this paper was to show that the glacial deposits of Great

Britain and Ireland, like those of America, may be interpreted

__ Most satisfactorily by considering them with reference to a series

z of great terminal moraines, which both define confluent lobes of

ice, and often mark the line separating the glaciated from the non-

glaciated areas. : ;

„€ paper began with a sketch of recent investigations upon

_ the glaciation of North America, with special reference to the —

Significance of the terminal moraines discovered within the last —

2 few years. The principal characters of these moraines were _

Siven, and a map was exhibited showing the extent of the gla-

_ Slated areas of North America, the course of the interlobateand

5 terminal moraines, and the direction of striation and glacial -a

Movement, It was shown that apart from the great ice-sheet of

Northeast America, an immense lobe of ice descended from

Alaska to

Vancouver's island on the western side of the Rocky a

Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains there radiated smaller local =

The mountains encircling the depression of Hudson bay

“Abstract of a paper read at the Birmingham meeting of the British Association, = a

1886. aa

*X.—no. xr, . 61

920 Comparative Studies upon the Glaciation of { November,

+ seemed to be the principal source of the glaciers which became

confluent to form the great ice-sheet. In its advance this ice-

sheet probably met and amalgamated with a number of already

existing local ‘glacial systems, and it was suggested that there

was no necessity for assuming either an extraordinary thickness

of ice at the pole or great and unequal elevations and depressions

of land.

Detailed studies made by the author in Ireland, in 1885, had

shown remarkably similar glacial phenomena.

The large ice-sheet which covered the greater part of Ireland

was composed of confluent glaciers, while distinct and local gla-

cial systems occurred in the non-glaciated area. The principal _

ice-sheet resembled that of America in having for its center a

_ great inland depression surrounded by a rim of mountains.

_ These appear to have given rise to the first glaciers, which after

uniting poured outwards in all directions. Great lobes from this | i

Tak ice-sheet flowed westward out uf the Shannon and out of Galway, 7

= Clew, Sligo and Donegal bays, northward out of Loughs Swilly f

< -and Foyle, and south-eastward out of Dundalk and Dublin bays, ~

-while to the south the ice-sheet abutted against the M ullaghareirk, _ |

_ Galty and Wicklow mountains or died out in the plains. _ i

~ Whether it stopped among the mountains or in the lowlands

its edge was approximately outlined by unusual accumulations of

drift and boulders, representing the terminal moraines. As in

- America, this outer moraine was least distinct in the lowlands,

and pn often bordered by an outer fringe of drift several miles

‘ in wid ;

ic cus of an east and west line extending from Tralee to Wex-

word i is a non-glaciated zone free from drift. Several local sys-

tems of glaciers occur in the south of Ireland, of which by fat

the most important is that radiating from the Killarney mountains,

covering an area of 2000 aS miles, ies entitled to be called

lc ice-sheet

ied by its own moraine.

> nce of any great marine submergence was

auth as had noe the eee part of

sco

Ireland 20

= 1886] ~- North America, Great Britain and Ireland. g2t

-filled

the eskers were held to be phenomena due to the melting of the

ice and the circulation of subglacial waters. The Irish ice-sheet f

seemed to have been joined at its north-eastern corner by ice

coming from Scotland across the, North channel. All the evi-

dence collected indicates that a mass of Scotch ice, reinforced by

that of Ireland and England, filled the Irish sea, overriding the

Isle of Man and Anglesey, and extending at least as far south as

‘Bray Head, south of Dublin. A map of the glaciation of Ireland

was exhibited in which the observations of the Irish geologists

and of the author were combined, in which was shown the central

sheet, the five local glacial systems, all the known striæ, and the

probable lines of movement as indicated by moraines, striae and

the transport of erratics.

The glaciation of Wales was then considered. Wales was i

shown to have supported three distinct and disconnected local |

Systems of glaciers, while at the same time its extreme northern *

border was touched by the great ice-lobe of the Irish sea. The

_ Most extensive local glaciers were those radiating from the Snow-

den and Arenig region, while another set of glaciers radiated

from the Plinlimmon district and the mountains of Cardiganshire,

nd a third system originated among the Brenockshire beacons.

a The glaciers from each of these centers transported purely local

boulders and formed well-defined terminal moraines. The north-

ern ice-lobe, bearing granite boulders from Scotland and shells

and flints from the bed of the Irish sea, invaded the northern —

coast but did not mingle with the Welsh glaciers. It smothered 2

iglesey and part of Carnarvonshire on the one side, and part of ee

with far-traveled northern erratics, is heaped up in hum- ^

Mocks and irregular ridges, and is in many places as characteris- Se

tically developed as. anywhere in America, It has none of the.

racters of a sea-beach, although often containing broken shells

alg from the Irish sea. It may be followed from the extreme

nd of

pias

a’

—

aas

l Tryfan and along the foot of the mountains east of Menai re :

Strait to Bangor, where it goes out to sea, reappearing further east

Onway and Colwyn. It turns 5outh-eastward at Denbigshire,

past St. Asaph and Halkin mountain. In Flintshire it

| 922 Comparative Studies upon the Glaciation of [November,

turns southward and is magnificently developed on the eastern

side of the mountains, at an elevation of over 1000 feet between

Minera and Llangollen, south-west of which place it enters Eng-

land. There is evidence that where the ice-sheet abutted against

Wales it was about 1350 feet in thickness. This is analogous to the

thickness of the ice-sheet in Pennsylvania, where the author had

previously shown that it was about 1000 feet in thickness at its

extreme edge and 2000 feet thick at points some eight miles back

from its edge. The transport of erratics coincides with the direc-

tion of striæ in Wales as elsewhere, and is at right angles to the

terminal moraines.

The complicated phenomena of the glaciation of England, the l

subject of a voluminous literature and discordant views, had been

of high interest to the author, and had led him to redouble his

efforts toward its solution, He had found that it was possible

‘to accurately map the glaciated areas, to separate the deposits

` made by land ice from those due to icebergs or to torrential

rivers, and to trace out a series of terminal moraines, both at the

edge of the ice-sheet and at the edge of its confluent lobes. Per-

haps the finest exhibition of a terminal moraine in England is m

the vicinity of Ellesmere, in Shropshire. A great mass of drift

several miles in width and full of erratics from Scotland and

from Wales, is here heaped into conical hills which enclose

“kettle holes” and lakes, and have all the characters of the

kettle moraines” of Wisconsin, Like the latter, the Elles-

‘mere moraine here divides two great lobes of ice, one comms

from Scotland the other from Wales. This moraine may be

- traced continuously from Ellesmere eastward through Hadeley, ,

Macclesfield, to and along the western flank of the Pennine chain,

AAS E SEN ae er

;

‘ern England. From Macclesfield the same moraine was trae

‘northward past Stockport and Staley bridge to a

thence to Skipton in Yorkshire. Northeast of Binn 2

banked against the Boulsworth hills up to a height of 1500 i

in the form of mounds and hummocks. South and east r th

or g moraine no signs of glaciation were discovered, while w

nd west of it there is every evidence of a continuous ice- i

vering land and sea alike. The strie and the ne ae

rs agree in proving a southerly and south-easterly dire?

e-movement in Lancashire and Cheshire. — E

1886] North America, Great Britain and ireland. 923

1 From Skipton northward the phenomena are more complicated.

7 A tongue of ice surmounted the watershed near Skipton and

È protruded down the valley of the Aire as far as Bingley, where

its terminal moraine is thrown across the valley like a great dam,

reminding one of similar moraine dams in several Pennsylvania

valleys. A continuous moraine was traced around this Aire

glacier. Another great glacier, much larger than this, descended

Wensleydale and reached the plain of York. The most complex

_ glacial movements in England occurred in the mountain region

about the Nine Standards, where local glaciers met and were

overpowered by the greater ice-sheet coming down from Cumber-

nd. The ice-sheet itself was here divided, one portion going

southward, the other, in company with local glaciers and laden

with the well-known boulders of the “ Shap granite,” being forced

eastward across Stainmoor forest into Durham and Yorkshire,

l finally reaching the North sea at the mouth of the Tees. The

: terminal moraine runs eastward through Kirby Ravensworth to-

ward Whitby, keeping north of the Cleveland hills, and all East-

ern England and south of Whitby appears to be non-glaciated.

On the other hand all England north of Stainmoor forest and the

fiver Tees, except the very highest points, was smothered in a

=~ Saof solid ice. a

. There is abundant evidence to prove that the ice-lobe filling

Irish sea was thicker towards its axis than at its edges,

and at the north than at its southern terminus, and that it.

Was reinforced by smaller tributary ice-streams from both

ok England and Ireland. It may be compared with the glacier of

_ the Hudson River valley in New York, each having a maximum _

thickness of something more than 3000 feet. The erosive power.

x of the ice-sheet was found to be extremely slight at its edge but

_ More powerful farther north, where its action was continued for a

nger Period. Towards its edge its function was to fill up ine-

_ Walities rather than to level them down. It was held that most

glacial lakes are due to an irregular dumping of drift rather than

. coinciding With those in America to confirm this conclusion.

MGs facts oa both aides of the Aiat indicate thar the

mits lower portion. It was also shown that a glacier in its

ance had the power of raising stones from the bottom to the -

~PP€r portion of the ice-sheet may move in a different direction

924 . Comparative Studies upon the Glaciation, ete. (November,

top of the ice, a fact due to the retardation by friction of its

lower layers. The author had observed the gradual upward pas-

sage of sand and stones in the Grindenwald glacier, and applied

the same explanation to the broken shells and flint raised from

the bed of the Irish sea to the top of Moel Tryfan, to Maccles-

field and to Dublin mountains.

The occurrence of stratified deposits in connection with un-

doubted moraines was shown to be a common’ phenomenon, and

instances of stratified moraines in Switzerland, Italy, America and

Wales were given. The stratification is due to waters derived

from the melting ice, and is not proof of submergence,

It was held that, notwithstanding a general opinion to the con-

i trary, there is no evidence in Great Britain of any marine sub-

= mergence greater than about 450 feet. It was expected that an

_. ice-sheet advancing across a sea should deposit shell Big

in its terminal moraine.

_ The broad principle was enunciated that wasecéie? in Great

Britain marine shells occur in glacial deposits at high levels, it

can be proved both by striæ and the transport of erratics that the

ice advanced on to the land from out of the sea. The shells on

: Three Rock mountain, near Dublin, and in North Wales and

Macclesfield, all from the Irish sea, the shells in Cumberland —

x transported from Solway Firth, those on the coast of Northum-

_ berland brought out of the North sea, those at Airdree, in Scot-

ia Caithness from Moray firth, were among examples adduced in

roof of this: principle. The improbability of a great subme

gence not leaving corresponding deposits in other parts of Eng- Ber

land was dwelt upon.

It was also held that there was insufficient evidence of more a

an one advance in the ice-sheet, although halts occurred in e -

retreat. The idea of successive elevations and submergence W!

¢ vances and retreats of the ice was disputed, and the son

eld that much of the supposed interglacial drift was due to su

al water from the melting i we of

> last portion of the paper discussed the distribution of

gravels and clays south of the glacial area. Much a

part of England was believed to have been aapos sl

rhe drift deposits: in this area were shown t

marine currents bovine icebergs during @ ;

or eee `S ,

/ #t

I6) Peculiarities of the Local Drift of the Rocky Mountains. 925

mergence of some 450 feet. The supposed glacial drift about

Birmingham and the concentration of boulders at Wolverhamp-

ton were regarded as due to the former agent, while the deposits

at Cromer and the distribution of Lincolnshire chalk across

Southern England was due to the latter. The supposed esker at

Hunstanton was held to be simply a sea-beach, and the London

drift deposits to be of aqueous origin. Thus the rival theories

_ Of floating icebergs and of land glaciers were both true, the one

for Middle and Southern England, the other for Scotland, Wales

and the north of England ; and the line of demarkation was fixed

by great terminal moraines,

‘ The paper closed with an acknowledgment of indebtedness to

= the many geologists of England. and Ireland who had uniformly

_ tendered most generous assistance during the above investi-

gation.

a ie

SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE LOCAL DRIFT OF

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS}

i : BY DR. THEO. B. COMSTOCK. :

: LL authorities upon the subject of the glacial deposits of the

ES Rocky Mountain region agree in describing them as local or

h restricted in extent. Somie writers dismiss the matter with

: vg remark, leaving it to be inferred that in other respects the

Char

muc

_ “e Eastern United States. Others have been more explicit and

have shown how special conditions of topography have affected

the accumulations in certain localities. In all cases where the

‘etails have been given the evidence is strong of excessive ero-

‘Sion, b "i

‘in the gulches and gorges which can be traced to such an

deposits a resemblance to alluvium which is quite striking. On

of boulders which have evidently rolled down the steep

read before the A. A. A. S., Section E, Buffalo, 1886, a

acter of the drift is quite similar to the well-known débris of

ut almost invariably the transportative effects have been

ly slight. As a natural result we meet with much vari-

n, while the diluvium of the subsequent melting period is

-S Up of homogeneous materials in each instance, but wholly. 2

local detritus. This gives to many of the unmodified morainal

ther hand, in some places (as notably near the head of Wind ; o T

= Wyoming) iceberg deposits are well simulated by the col-

1-926 Some Peculiarities of the Local Drift, etc. (November,

slopes left in side-gulches by the retreat of the diminutive glaciers.

Existing glaciers in the Wind River mountains and in the San

_ Juan mountains (S. W. Colorado), enable us to witness the actual

-~ production of some of these peculiar effects and to understand more

clearly how defragation' has played a very important part in the

rough chiseling of mountain features in the far West.

The general southward trend of the glacier-cut cafions is very

marked, although numerous side-gulches follow more or less

“transverse courses. In Northern Wyoming, at the close of the

Glacial Period, the old Tertiary lake basins were still in condition

to receive and assort the material deposited by the melting ice,

and the greater part of the drainage was easy, but in some

cases in the interior of the mountain masses to the northward,

narrow, elongated basins were ploughed out below the general

. drainage, although very few of these now exist in which an out-

let has not since been made. In the heart of the Wind River

mountains a remarkable structuré of this kind is to be seen

nearly opposite old Camp Brown, at the head of the North

fork of the Popo-agie river, near the base of Fremont’s peak.

Here two of these deep, narrow cafions run parallelwise for

several miles, with small glaciers still acting upon their shaded

sides, the drainage from one being to the Missouri tributaries,

the other feeding affluents of the Colorado drainage. In South-

A = ern Colorado somewhat similar features are apparent, but the

ree ry much com- —

The same

_ Juan features are not repeated exactly in any othe :

as my observation goes. The distinctive peculiarity lies m

-duplex character of the erosion; that is to say, there are jas

zones of glaciation vertically, the upper largely representing 7

rans portative action, the lower being eroded without re

the débris to any great extent. The imperfect drainage had ee:

tened the ice-sheet so that it could move asa unit only we

perficial portion, while the lower part acted like a slowly wor*”

down of masses of rock 3

propose this term to express the breaking igen. ing or gti ;

- of gorges, as distinguished from the ordinary abrading oF S 7.

1886.) The Mammary Gland of the Elephant. 927

ing plough, which cut deeply but not so extensively as the over-

riding mass. In the more elevated tracts, therefore, the lower

portion often lay in grooves like cu/s-de-sac, and many of these

exist to-day, connected with the main channels often by reversed

or indirect drainage. The /ower limit of exportation, which de-

fines the line of junction of the two layers, follows nearly the

contour of 11,000 feet above sea-level (varying from 10,500 feet

to 11,500 feet). The side-gulches, except where eroded by more

recent aqueous action, commonly join the main cafions on this

grade. The “timber-line” is fairly continuous with these de-

bouchures, and I am satisfied that this feature has been largely

instrumental in determining that sharp line of demarkation. Un-

doubtedly the melting of the ice in the cañons left many side-

- glaciers discharging by “ ice-falls ” over the walls for a long time

q afterwards, the vegetation growing up to this lintit, because the

land-locked cafions were for a period filled with water which

arranged more or less of soil aiong the sides of the channels.

q This fact is clearly proven by the occurrence of terraces, in such

= lacustrine material, up to a height of 1000 feet above the present

= Stream ‘beds in places. The positions of scattered boulders in

the cafions, and of those imbedded in the deposits along the

4 Walls afford further evidence of the local transportation of mate-

rial by floating masses of ice, which dropped their burdens upon

melti

2 The drift of the Rocky mountains thus possesses peculiar in-

terest, corroborating the notion of its intimate relation to the —

‘Slacial deposits of the east, and yet exhibiting a variety in detail

which may aid materially in unraveling obscure points in the his-

“ tory of other areas with weak development of the same condi-

tons, The loca! character of the effects has prevented many

from appreciating the really gigantic erosion and deposition

_ Which have taken place.

: Ae

_ THE MAMMARY GLAND OF THE ELEPHANT.

BY SPENCER TROTTER, M.D.

2 in this way gain an idea of the animal’s place in life, its relations

5 aes PN,

1c aywtend and we , Mears Se oppress eng eae i i 1

er w

tothe €nvironment and to the other beings among which it lives. z

our studies ire J pA S 8

a studying any particular animal form we are wont to refer” i

` to some other well-known type as a basis for comparison, and £

}

’ ee | f

l 928 cae The Mammary Gland of the Elephant. {November, —

the many diverse forms, we quickly note any departure on the

part of an organ from its usual form or position, and are thus led

directly to enquire into the cause or causes which brought about

the change. In those mammals whose habit it is to suckle their

young standing, namely, the Ungulata, any one who has given

the least thought to the subject is aware that their mammary

glands are situated at the posterior part of the ventral line, 2. ¢,

in the inguinal region, or groin. A striking exception to this is

seen in the elephant, where these glands are located anteriorly, in

the pectoro-axillary spaces.

The elephant holds a unique position in nature, representing

the last of a long ancestral line which attained its maximum

development in the Tertiary. Its immediate progenitor most

likely occupied the southern range, thus escaping extinction in

the drift and glacial epochs, and carrying down to present times

this highly interesting and peculiar form. With no relatives 3

extant, the elephant forms a separate and distinct order, the Pro- . d

boscidia, but curiously enough possessing characters which ally e:

it with the widely different Rodentia; it is herbivorous, and in ,

general habit and mode of life is an ungulate, in a portion of

_ which otder it was usually assigned a place in the older nomen-

_clature.

: elephant interests us, and from the fact that like all the species of

that order the female is in the habit of suckling her young in the

— standing posture we are led to ask ourselves the reason for the

striking exception in the position of the mammary glands. It

will be understood that I refer to animals which give birth as a

rule to one, or at most two offspring at a time, and which conse:

juently have the minimum number of glands, not to those which

tter” like the hog family and present a series of glands run-

ning along each side of the belly line. .

In dealing with a subject of this nature we enter one of those

‘oad fields of philosophic science whose farther boundary, if

eed it have any, lies far below our mental horizon. The rock-

yedded bone of the palæontologist, which elsewhere. bears

useful fu _ testimony, is comparatively of little value, and ory

the underlying principles of tissue meaner

1886.] i The Mammary Gland of the Eiephant. | 929

_ tnough in the present, but rendered far more so by the lapse of

time. Action and reaction between organism and environment ;

the demands of increasing functional activity upon plastic tissue,

and the effects of use and disuse, these are the fundamental prin-

ciples involved, and we can only surmise at the primitive condi-

tion of affairs from the few tangible points presented to us. By

attention to the following facts we may be able to gain a few ideas

which will possibly throw some light upon the subject. At the

anterior end of the great arterial trunk (aorta) two branches arise

(subclavian) which proceed to the fore limbs. These, in turn,

give off each a branch (internal mammary) which passes down-

-ward and backward along the anterior thoracic wall. At the pos-

= terior end of this great trunk two other branches arise (diac),

Proceeding to the hind limbs, these also giving off each an artery

(superficial epigastric) which runs forward in the abdominal wall

to anastomose with the terminal branches of the internal mam-

Mary, thus forming an arc on each side of the ventral median’

-line from neck to groin. This we will call the mammary arc.

Now it is evident that in those mammals whose glands are situ-

ated solely in the pectoral region, as in Primates, Chiroptera, ele-

_ Phant, etc., the internal mammary artery is the main supply of

the gland ; while in those in which the structure is inguinal, as in

s horse, deer, etc., the superficial epigastric is the main blood

ieder,

] a

‘Surface of the body, as in Carnivora, Suidz, etcs the entire arc

of blood- vessels comes into play as a source of supply. We-

nave every reason to believe that this latter state of affairs was

the original arrangement of the parts, as the lowest and most

Imitive condition. As specialization proceeded a reduction in

the young animal, while the rest atrophied and finally disap-

h Again, when the glands are situated in a row along the under

_ phosis and nutrition in their broadest sense; a study vague

ancient forms now extant present this same condition correlated i Oe

with plurality of young at a birth, which is also undoubtedly a `

pri i x

the number of young at a birth followed, and consequently fewer : > ;

nds were used ; those only which were the’ most convenient a

peared from want of use. Whether the prototype of the Pro- `

‘i $ idians was large or small, whether it produced a number of | as

ig at a single birth, and consequently possessed a series DE.

running along the belly, or what its habits were we cannot _

930 The Mammary Gland of the Elephant, (November,

say ; but the possibility of such a condition having existed can

no more be denied than it can be proved, and we have good rea i

sons in believing such to have been the case. We know the

rodents to be a very ancient group, and if the ancestor of the

Proboscidian was allied to them in any way it, in all probability,

presented many points of affinity in structure and habits.

aie If we take the foregoing in a hypothetical sense, supposing the

ancestral form to have given birth to a number of young at one

time, and to have possessed a corresponding number of glands,

we have yet to answer the question: Why should the elephant,

‘after specialization and reduction, present pectoral instead of in-

guinal glands ?

z The hog family, Suidæ, while not a primitive form of ungulate,

still retain many ancestral characters, among them plurality of ,

young and gland structure, and we have every reason to believe

. thatthe entire order sprang from a similarly low form; yet they

all, after specialization and reduction, present inguinal glands. :

_ There may have been many causes which will never occur w 4

us why the young Proboscidian should use the anterior pair of ar

glands ; but two of them have occurred to me as a feasible, if not.

il EEA A ER VAENE = i eo al

in our present state of knowledge, a satisfactory explanation.

_ Any one whose eye is accustomed to take in the animal form

: will have noticed that in the majority of hoofed animals the belly

line slopes upward and backward; take the horse, deer, 0%

camel, or any of the large herbivores for example. Aow

-~ reverse is true of the elephant, the belly line sloping downward

and backward, this being in part due to the large pendulous gene

__ tals in the female, and in part to the tremendous abdominal viscera vi

bagging down and occupying a rather short space lengthwise ™ i

I yp. rtion to the animal’s general build. The young elephant, bs

sucking as it does with its mouth, and possessing @ short e

comparatively immobile neck, would find it very inconvenient A

the glands were situated in the inguinal region with the massi a :

ses of the mother in the way; and this difficulty would ber

7 re increas eased as the young animal grew. As it is, the mie

=a kom the pectoral region’ thie mo SOc’

nient point, with nothing to interfere; and a pipe

ecame more and more specialized, the fewer, and finally the pi :

Spring resulting used this most convenient gland g d

of the others, which have disappeared from yE

ae i

1886.] /s Littorina litorea Introduced or Indigenous ? 931

_ use in the long lapse of time before the Proboscidian became

e such.’

7 Very different is the case with the arched, cleanly-cut inguinal

_ Space of the female ungulate, and its long, flexible-necked oft-

spring, where the mammary gland is carried so easily by the

mother, and is so accessible to the young. Here the anterior

glands are the ones that have been discarded.

These are mere speculations, for what can we do with such a

subject? Surely not discard it altogether! Far better attempt

even in the roughest way to interpret with what little light we

have from the past, and fall wide the mark in our conclusions,

than to pass unnoticed one fragment in the great history of life.

-O:

IS LITTORINA LITOREA INTRODUCED OR INDIG-

| GENOUS?

BY W. F. GANONG.

e L is now nearly thirty years since Littorina litorea (Linn.), the

; English periwinkle, was first reported from American waters,

but the question as to whéther it has been recently introduced or

2 Was an original inhabitant of our shores is still unsettled. This

mollusk, though not known by naturalists to occur upon the

= Seast of Acadia and New England previous to its discovery at

3 ifax in 1857 by John Willis, is at present very abundant from

_ the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Connecticut.

iti “Tt has been supposed by several writers that this shell (Z.

4torea) has been recently and accidentally introduced from Eu-

rope; but Dr. Dawson informs me that he collected it more than

> ry years ago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is abundant at

Halifax, and we have other specimens from Kennebunkport, Me.,

Campton Beach, N. H., and Provincetown, Mass. There is

_~@\'Y no sufficient evidence that it was not an inhabitant of our

"Ores before the advent of Europeans, but local in its habitats,

‘May have become more diffused in recent times by commerce,

mit may have been overlooked formerly by collectors.” o

-*h€ causes determining the geographical distribution of ani-

S, and any contribution to it has its value. So peculiar and rie

and plant life are a subject of the greatest importance to nat-

932 ds Littorina litorea Introduced or Indigenous? [November,

interesting are the known facts in regard to the distribution and

spread in America of the shell we are considering, that an in-

„quiry into the nature of these facts, and a search -for an explana-

tion for them becomes a matter of more than special importance,

The value of the settlement of the question as to whether Litto-

rina iitorea has been introduced in recent times or is a native of

America, is not limited to the settlement of this fact only. It has

a broader value as well, inasmuch as it has a bearing upon the

science of the distribution of animals.

It must be remembered that no species of animal or plant can,

in the strict sense of the word, be indigenous to both Europe and

America. If such were the case it would be necessary to sup-

pose that the two independent lines of descent, either from a

common near or remote ancestor, culminating in the species, had

a followed precisely identical courses of development. The latter

- would require precisely identical conditions of environment—and

such we know would not exist upon two separate continents.

_ Hence a shell which is common to two continents must in some

way have been introduced from one to another. It may be intro-

duced by the agency of man, or by purely natural and physical

causes, such as ocean currents, etc. For want of a better term

noS he word zzdigenous has been used in the present paper to apply

os to a species introduced in past time by natural ages and now

ce thoroughly established as a resident. i

e Sucha species is our so-called “ native periwinkle,” Littorina

_ pailiata (Say). It is common to Europe, Greenland and America,

_and has existed for a long time in all three countries, being found

fossil in the Post-pliocene of all of them. It will be presently

1own that this shell was probably introduced from the continent

which it originated to the other by way of Greenland and Ice-

_ land, and by strictly natural agencies. We therefore speak of

; indigenous to America, though whether its descent from its

parent species took place here or in Europe we are unable to say.

But. we hope to be able to show that Littorina litorea did not exist | i

America until introduced from Europe by man, and that SH

| 1857. He considered it to be indigenous to

for the reason thar “some of the oldest inhabit

2 1886,] ls Littorina litorea Introduced or Indigenous ? 9 33°,

have assured me that they have ‘ qften picked the periwinkle, the

}_— same as the English one,’ on the shores contiguous to Halifax

when they were only school-boys.”

The only other evidence that has been found to show that the

shell was known in Nova Scotia, previous to 1857, comes ina

private letter to the writer from Mr. E. Gilpin, of Halifax. He

_ Says: “ Historical evidence in the shape of old English settlers ,

shows it to have been known in the province as far back as 1800.”

How much reliance can be placed upon the unscientific evi-

dence of old settlers is a question ; but granting that they did

not confound it with the native form, and that they actually saw |

it previous to 1857, nothing more is proved than that the shell

‘existed in Nova Scotia some years before Willis found it. Simi.

larly it may be said of the fact that Dr: Dawson “ collected it

~ More than thirty years ago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” that it

Proves (if granted) only that thejshell was to be found there ear-

lier than any published record shows. Or it may be that, if intro-

duced, it was introduced at more than one point. ol

It is somewhat remarkable, however, that, as will be shown

farther on, no other collector found this conspicuous shell in the

— gulf until after 1870, although Dr. Dawson must have found it at

_ ast as early as 1844. We know that it increases with great

= fapidity wherever introduced. Why then, if it existed there, did

it not increase sufficiently to enable some other collector to find

es it? None of the lists of Bell, Whiteaves or Dr. Dawson him-

_ Self mention it until after 1870. It is to be regretted that we

-~ _ have not some record of Dr. Dawson’s discovery of the shell so —

far back, besides the note by Professor Verrill who doubtless

Writes from memory. AE i

o this shell be indigenous to our shores, it must have bed <<:

Confined, previous to say 1850, exclusively to the Nova Scotia

feast. That this must be so ix shown as well by other facts as |

by the many lists we have of New England and Gulf of St, Law- 2 i 6

the latter could have been present but “overlooked by collectors” - ae

altogether out of the question. It is a much larger and more =

icuous shell than the native forms, has the same habitats, ,

wherever it occurs at all occurs abundantly, e p

convenience we will consider these two to be distinct species, although they | i

934. Is Littorina litorea Introduced or Indigenous? {November,

Among the many lists of New England shells which might be

named, the following have been selected :

Gould’s “ Invertebrata of Mass.,” 1st ed. (1841), mentions Z. palliata, rudis and

tenebrosa but not Litorea.

Mighel’s list of the shells of Maine! (1843) mentions Z. palliata, rudis and tene-

sa as occurring “ in the greatest profusion,” but Z. /forea is not in the list.

Reed’s “ Catalogue of the Shells of Mass.’’? (1845) mentions the same three but not

litorea.

Russell's ‘« Retrospect of some of the Shells found in Essex county, Mass.”* (1851),

mentions the same three but not /torea.

Tuft’s “ List of Shells collected at Swampscott Lynn and vicinity” (1853) mentions

k the same three as abundant, but not /torea. }

Stimpson’s “ List of the marine Invertebrates of Grand Manan”? (1854) mentions

a L. palliata (= L. littoralis) and L. rudis, but not L. litorea.

-Tufts “Catalogue of Shells in the State cabinet [of Mass.]” (1859) mentions the

Same three but not /itorea.

Nor has it been reported until quite recently from the Gulf of

St. Lawrence. l

- - Dr. Dawson’s “ A week in Gaspé ”4 (1858) mentions Z. rudis and L. palliata, bat i

A not Z. Zitorea. If Dr. Dawson found it in the Gulf of Lawrence “ thirty y

ago,” it must have been at some other point, :

-Robert Bell’s “ List of the Mollusca of Eastern Canada’ (1859) mentions L. pal-

liata only.

J. F. Whiteaves’ “ On the marine Mollusca of Eastern Canada’’6 (1869)

: palliata (littoralis), L. rudis and L. tenebrosa, but not L. /itorea.

EAN, $ + . ; :

Although the evidence of these lists is only negative, their q

= combined force is so strong (even had we no other nie a

~ they practically prove that the shell did not exist upon the i i

England coast, and probably not in the Gulf of St. Lane

ant . / s : 1

_ previous to the middle of the present century. Since 1857 15.

A. F. Gray,

mentions

spread has been phenomenally rapid. A paper, by 4. £. 1e d

in Science News for 1879, gives many localities which it ha

come to inhabit upon the New England coast, and the bwn

facts of its spread are thus summarized by Professor Verrill:

*“ It is well known to American conchologists that this rose

mon European species has become well established upon the N¢ =

England coast within ten or twelve years, appearing first up?

: Sci.,

was

oe.

1886.) Js Littorina litorea Introduced or {Indigenous ? 935

the coast of Maine about 1868; Dr. Dawson, however, states that

he collected it on the shores of Nova Scotia at a much earlier

date. I wish at present merely to put on record some additional

data as to its recent progress along the coast. In 1873 it was

mission, and was found sparingly at Peake’s island, Casco bay.

n 1872 it was very rare at Provincetown, Mass., but in 1875 it

Was common there. In 1875 it was collected by the writer at

Barnstable, Mass., on the shores of Cape Cod bay, in large quan-

tities. In 1879 it had become exceedingly abundant at Province-

town. In 1875 our parties found two specimens only on the

Southern shores of Cape Cod, at Wood’s Holl, but in 1876 it was

found to be common there, and is now very abundant. The first

Specimen found so far westward as New Haven was obtained by

‘Professor S, I. Smith during the past winter [’79-80]. Other sol-

itary specimens have since been obtained here by E. A. Andrews

| and by J. H. Emerton. It is at present exceedingly abundant at

Newport, R E”

It is spreading into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, too, finding prob-

ably a congenial habitat in the warmer water of Northumberland

straits, which contain so many southern forms. J. F. Whiteaves

found it at Souris and Charlottetown, P. E. I., in 18732

Do not these facts afford an exceedingly strong argument that

the shell has been introduced? Its rapid increase southward

Shows that a favorable habitat was there waiting for it—a much

more favorable one than the Nova Scotia coast. The conditions

Which determine its spread were here af work a century ago, but

Was not found anywhere in New England.

As has already been pointed out, no species of animal or plant

‘an be truly indigenous to the two continents. Tt must either

ve originated in one and spread to the other, or it must have

originated at some other point and spread to both. A shell such

a we are considering, which is at present common to both con-

tinents must either have been introduced from one to the other

-Y man’s agency, or by purely natural means. If it can be shown

lat the natural means did not operate in this case, it would prove

at Man must have introduced it; and the stronger the proba-

> ity of the former, the stronger will be that of the latter.

— Winds or the agency of birds, so active in the distribution of

Plants, could hardly operate upon a shell or its young. Ocean

A Seem to be the only method of conveyance. But by no

means could either L. Ætorea or L. palliata directly cross the At-

*Report on deep-sea dredging operations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

3 62

VOL. XX.—xN0. x1.

930 Js Littorina litorea Introduced or Indigenous? {November,

lantic in such a way—they must have come, if they came by nat-

ural means at all, by way of Iceland, Greenland and Labrador.

This we find actually was the case with Z. palliata. Where it

originated the writer does not know, nor does it matter in the

present connection, but certain it is that it is now common to

England, Greenland? Labrador? Acadia and New England.

And not only does it exist in these places now, but it has fora ;

long time past, for it is found fossil in Post-pliocene deposits in |

England, in Southern Greenland? (Z. grénlandica = L. palliata)

and in Canada, though not actually in Acadia. Dawson reports

it from the Post-pliocene of Gaspé, and Lyell from Beauport*

We may hence conclude that Z. palliata is, in the sense in

which we have used the word, indigenous to America.

But as to L. Zitorea, not only does the latest and best list of

Greenland shells? make no mention of its occurrence there, nor

does Packard in a list of the shells of Labrador’ (though he men-

tions Z. palliata and L. rudis as “ abundant” and “not uncom

mon”), but no trace of it has as yet been reported from any Post-

pliocene deposits of Greenland, Labrador, Canada or New Eng-

land. It is a shell much more likely to be preserved in such de-

posits than LZ. palliata, being much larger and stouter—though

neither, from their rock-loving nature, stand as much chance of

being preserved as sand or mud-inhabiting species. All of these

facts tend to show that Z. Ztorea was not introduced from one

continent to the other either at the same time or by the same

means as L. palliata, and that if by any unknown agency what-

soever L. litorea had reached America, it must have been con-

fied to Nova Scotia alone “until the middle of the Pee

century.

Bat we have another source of information about the shells

which lived upon our coast before the advent of the Esr

In the Indian shell-heaps along the coast of Maine and Ne j

‘Brunswick, most of the edible mollusks of the coast are oe

among the heaps of clam-shells. Dr. Wyman reports” that eae

shell-heap at Crouch’s cove, Casco bay, Maine, Littorina pa

_ l Forbes and Hanley’s British Mollusca, Vol. 111.

? Manual and instructions for the Arctic expedition. London, 1876,

: *Packard,.Mem. Bost. Nat. Hist. Soc., Vol. 1.

Nat., I, 345.

l NAT., Vol. 1, No. p1, 1868,

_ 1886.) Zs Littorina litorea Introduced or 1 ndigenous ? 937

was found along with such species as Purpura lapillus, Natica

heros, Buccinum undatum, Nassa obsoleta, Nassa trivittata, etc.,

but he makes no mention of ZL. litorea. Mr. G. F. Matthew, in

his account! of investigations into an undisturbed shell-heap on

the shore of Passamaquoddy bay, New Brunswick, after men-

tioning the occurrence of several littoral species, says: “ The

tock periwinkle (Littorina rudis) is occasionally found * * *

but the common European periwinkle (Littorina Litorea), now so

common on this coast, is entirely wanting.” In a private letter

to the writer the same gentleman says: “I have seen no trace of

L. litorea in any shell-heap.” That the Indians would have col-

lected the smaller native periwinkle and other small littoral spe-

cies, and not the larger English one, were the latter present, is in-

conceivable, no matter whether the former had been collected for

food or only accidentally introduced into the shell-heaps. The

same causes should have introduced Z. /itorea if it had existed at

these places. Again the conclusion is forced upon us that if the

shell existed in America at the time of the formation of the shell-

“Heaps, it must have been confined to Nova Scotia. We have no

Published lists of shells from the Nova Scotia shell-heaps, nor

as the writer been able to find by private inquiry any satisfac-

tory account of them.

All of the facts that we have so far mentioned in connection

With this shell show that if it existed at all in America previous

0 the present century, it must have been confined to the coast of

Nova Scotia, There are other general considerations which show

tin all probability it did not exist there. One of these we

have already mentioned—the fact that it was not introduced in

same way as Z. palliata, by way of Greenland, and therefore

Was probably not naturally introduced into America at all. .

Many undoubtedly European species of both animals and

Plant could be named which, upon their artificial or accidental

troduction into this country, have driven out and well-nigh

exterminated closely-allied native species. Everywhere upon the

__ “ast of Nova Scotia as well as that of the rest of Acadia and New

land, Z. ditorea is doing precisely this, driving out the native

-~ palliata, Everywhere the native form gives way before it and

_ mes rare, just in proportion as the English form becomes

abundant, This fact of itself gives us strong a priori grounds

* Bull, N. B. Nat, Hist, Soc., IIT, 1884,

938 Ts Littorina htorea Introduced or Indigenous? (November,

for believing the shell to have been recently and accidentally in-

troduced, but it acquires additional force taken in connection

with other facts which point to the same conclusion.

But granting fora moment that the shell did exist in Nova

Scotia previous to this century—where it must have been con-

fined if it was in America at all—what an anomalous condition of

life we have. At present, as we follow its progress southward,

we find it growing more and more abundant. The writer has

very frequently noticed its distribution on the Southern New

Brunswick coast, but it there occurs in nothing like the profusion

in which he has seen it at Nahant, Mass., or Newport, R. I. In

these two places, and they are like other localities in these two

States in this respect, it literally covers the rocks, the native spe-

cies becoming comparatively rare. What is the meaning of the

fact that it becomes more abundant southward? Can it mean

anything else than that (within certain limits) as it goes south it

meets with a more and more congenial habitat? If this be so,

and we can see no other conclusion, it shows that L. /torea

thrives better in warmer water than that of the coasts of Nova

Scotia and New Brunswick, and therefore that the natural home

of the species, or the place where it originated was in warmer

water than that of Acadia. This conclusion is strengthened by

the fact of its non-occurrence in Greenland or Labrador, to both

of which places it should have been carried by the same agencies

which took Z. palliata there. The latter is certainly a mor

northern species than the former, and it may be that the condi-

_ tions of life in these two places are altogether unsuited to the

more southern Z. ditorea, in which case it could certainly not

have been carried from one continent the other by way of Green-

land. Zf then L. itorea existed upon the Nova Scotia coast a5

(in the sense in which we are using the word) an indigenous SP

cies, it was existing without spreading under comparatively un-

favorable conditions of temperature, etc., while favorable condi-

tions were waiting for it not far to the southward. Surely the

agencies which took it from one continent to the other (if gee!

rally introduced) could have carried it to the New England coas :

Is it not more natural to suppose, what so many of the facts m

dicate, that the warmer watersʻin which it thrives the gee?

_ like those of its home, and that its home is in the waters of

English coast, which we know to be so much warmer than

‘Scotia? l

1886.] Zs Littorina litorea Introduced or Indigenous ? 939

But again, what is the meaning of its wonderfully rapid spread,

and why, if it existed in Nova Scotia previous to say 1850, did it `

not begin to spread before? Its spreading as rapidly as it has,

shows that it was only waiting for the opportunity to take advan-

tage of it, but why, if it is indigenous, did it not begin to spread

Sooner? Surely the same causes which have carried it south

since 1850 were in operation before. If they were natural, such

as currents, etc., they certainly have been present substantially

unchanged for centuries. Professor Verrill suggests that it may

have existed formerly in Nova Scotia, but have “become more

diffused in recent times by commerce.” But surely there was

commerce between Nova Scotia and New England before 1868

(in which year it was first reported from Maine), and enough of

it to satisfy the most exacting demands of this theory. In all

Probability the rapid diffusion of the shell since 185 7 is ina

measure due to both of these causes, but the fact that they did

not have a like effect before, seems very strongly to show that

the shell was not in Nova Scotia for them to spread. The waters

which bathe the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia are carried by the

strong Fundy tides across to the New Brunswick and Maine

Coasts, and if currents had anything to do with carrying L. palli-

ata from one continent to Greenland and thence to the other, it

should have carried the free-swimming embryos of its ally, Z.

litorea, from the Nova Scotia to the New England coast.

But granting again for a moment that Z. /torea has existed in

Nova Scotia for an indefinitely long time as an indigenous species,

we have it existing under conditions very different from those in

Which it thrives in England, having, as has been shown, no con-

nection with the latter, and yet retaining its specific identity. It

'S possible for a species to keep its identity in widely separated

localities, where the conditions of life are not precisely the same,

only by a continuous intercourse between the different localities.

This is in all probability the case with Z palliata, for we find it

ranging freely around the North Atlantic in England, Greenland,

_“@brador, Acadia and New England, and the agencies which

_ “tried it from one land to the other have in all probability been

& 19 operation ever since. But with Z. Žtorea the case is differ-

_ ‘Snt; if it existed in Nova Scotia it must have been cut off from _

f= Communication with England, and that it should retain j

*We have found no list of the shells of Iceland.

940 Zs Littorina litorea Introduced or Indigenous? { November,

specific identity under such conditions is altogether inconceiv-

able.

We have not been able to present any direct proof that L. Jito-

rea did not exist in Nova Scotia before the present century. The

testimony of the numerous lists (by independent observers, who

could not have overlooked the shell had it been present) of shells

on the coast of New England and New Brunswick in none of

which occurs any mention of Z. /itorea, the testimony of its

absence from the Post-pliocene deposits of other parts of Canada

where L. palliata (along with which it always exists) has been

found, the testimony of the Indian shell-heaps, into which it

would certainly have been carried by the same means or for the

same purpose as was Z. palliata, all of these combined afford

almost absolute proof that the shell did not exist on the Atlantic

coast of America outside of Nova Scotia. If these same tests

could be applied directly to Nova Scotia the question would be

settled as to whether it occurred there. An early list of the

shells of that Province, or careful investigations into its Post-plio-

cene deposits and Indian shell-heaps, would practically remove

all doubt one way or the other. But the former does not exist

and the latter has not been made.

It must have existéd in Nova Scotia, if at all. But at the same

time its absence from Greenland and Labrador, where, in accord-

ance with what we know of the geographical distribution of ani-

mals, it ought to occur along with Z. palliata if it is indigenous;

the extreme improbability of its remaining in such a small area

without spreading, with causes in existence tending to carry it

from a less favorable to a more favorable habitat ; and the impos-

sibility of the species remaining isolated from the parent stock in

England for an indefinitely long time, and yet in spite of quite a

‘differently conditioned habitat remaining specifically identical with

it, all of these facts tend to show that it did not exist even i?

Nova Scotia. Is not the conclusion warranted then, that ee

rina litorea is not indigenous to America, but has been recently

_and artificially introduced from Europe ?

1886. ] On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. 941

ON LEMURINE REVERSION IN HUMAN DENTITION.

BY- Es. D. COPE,

EE ONS of the molar teeth of man, given by anato-

mists, differ in important respects. Thus F. Cuvier (Dents

des Mammifers) states that while the crown of the first superior

true molar consists of four tubercles, those of the second and

third superior true molars consist of but three tubercles. In the

American edition of “Sharpey and Quain’s Anatomy” it is stated

that the crowns of the superior true molars of man consist of

four tubercles, and the same statement is made in Allen’s late

work on human anatomy.

My observations having shown me that both of these descrip-

tions apply correctly to certain types of dentition, I determined

to examine for myself to ascertain, it possible, the extent and

value of the variations thus indicated. My interest in the subject

had been especially stimulated by the researches among the ex-

tinct Mammalia and the results which I had derived from them.

These are in brief as follows: F irst, the quadritubercular type of |

molar crown illustrated by the first superior true molar of man

belongs to the primitive form from which all the crested upper

(lophodont) molars of the hoofed placental mammals have been

derived ; and second, this quadritubercular type of molar has

itself been derived from a still earlier tritubercular crown by the

addition of a cusp at the posterior internal part of it. This tri-

tubercular molar in the upper series has given origin directly to

the superior sectorial teeth of the Creodonta and Carnivora. In

the inferior series I have shown that in known placental Mam-

Malia, at least, the primitive molar crown is quinquetubercular or

tritubercular with a posterior heel; that this form gave origin

to the inferior sectorial tooth of Carnivora by modification; and

> the quadritubercular type, corresponding to the superior quad-

titubercular crown, by a loss of the anterior inner angle and cusp.

And from the quinque and quadritubercular types of lower molar

crown the various specialized types of the ungulates have been

derived.

Considerable significance, therefore, attaches to the question as

o whether the superior true molars of Homo sapiens are quad-

"tubercular or tritubercular. The inferior molars are also either

Qadritubercular or quinquetubercular, but less significance at-

S to this modification than to that of the superior true molars-

942 On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition, (November,

This is owing to two facts, viz., the fifth tubercle is not the an-

terior inner which completes the anterior triangle of the primitive

inferior molar, but is a median posterior, such as is not uncom-

mon in Mammalia of Puerco and Eocene age; and second, be-

cause this tubercle is of quite small size and is, therefore, more

liable to variation from insignificant causes.

In the nearest allies of man, the anthropoid apes, the superior

true molars are quadritubercular, the posterior internal tubercle

of the last or third molar being usually smaller than in the other

molars in the chimpanzee. The inferior molars are quinquetu-

bercular in the human sense, the gorilla not infrequently adding

a sixth lobe on the external posterior margin of the crown. The

molars of both series are quadritubercular, with an occasional

posterior fifth in the inferior molars, in the Semnopithecide and

Cebide, excepting the genus Pithecia of the latter, where the su-

perior molars are tritubercular. The superior molars of the Ha-

palidz are tritubercular. In the Lemuridz the second and third,

and frequently the first superior true molars, are tritubercular. In

the Tarsiida the superior true molars are tritubercular through-

` out. The superior molars of the extinct lemuroids differ like

those of the recent forms. Thus in Adapis and its allies they

are quadritubercular, but in Necrolemur they are tritubercular.

In Chriacus (whose reference to the Lemuroidea is uncertain

they are tritubercular, as is the case also with Indrodon. In

Anaptomorphus they are of the true tritubercular type. This 8

the genus of Lemuroidea, which in its dental character most

nearly approaches the anthropoid apes and man, as I have ae

where! pointed out. The formula is I. $; C.1; Pm. $; M. 3:

The canines are small and there is no diastema in either jaw.

It may be readily seen in consideration of these facts that the

appearance of tritubercular superior molars in the genus Homo

constitutes a reversion to the lemurs, and not to the anthropoid

= apes or to the monkeys proper. And among lemurs the reve"

sion is most probably to that type which presents the closest f°

semblance to Homo in other parts of the dentition. The goe

_ which answers most nearly to this requirement among those #

~ present known is Anaptomorphus.

= Imwstudying the dentition of man, I have examine

_ AReport U. S. Geol. Survey Terrs. F- V. Hayden. Vol. 111, 1885, p- 245+ Pl

and Pl. xxv, fig. 10; and AMERICAN NATURALIST, 1885, P- 466, fig. 12-

d the crania

xxives

1886.] On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. 943

contained in the following five collections: those of the Academy

of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the Army Medical Mu-

seum of Washington; of the College of Physicians of Phila-

delphia ; of the University of Pennsylvania, and of my own mu-

seum. The first of these is especially valuable on account of the

negro, Egyptian and Hindoo crania it contains. My acknowledg-

ments are due to the Board of Curators, of which Professor Leidy

is chairman, for the opportunity of studying it. The collection of

the Army Medical Museum at Washington is especially import-

ant on account of the Kanakas, Esquimaux, Peruvians and North

American Indians which it possesses. I am under great obliga-

tions to its distinguished director, Dr. J. S. Billings, for the facili-

ties which he placed at my disposal. The museum of the Phila-

delphia College of Physicians contains the collection made by the

late Professor Hyrtle, of Vienna, of crania of Eastern and Medi-

terranean Europeans. In this department it is unrivaled, and I

am greatly indebted to the council of the college, and its curator

Dr. Guy Hinsdale, for the opportunity of examining it. Some

French skulls in the University of Pennsylvania were of value in

the investigation. My own collection, though small, contains a

number of Maoris, Australians, Tahitians and North American

Indians, which have proved to be of importance. Of English

and Anglo-American crania I have been able to examine but few

of what might be termed the thoroughly amalgamated race. Of

the latter there are probably many crania in the war collection of

the Army Medical Museum, but how free the race of each may

be from foreign intermixture, of course, it is impossible to know.

In Selecting such as are supposed to be “stock Americans,” those

of persons with ‘English names have been preferred, although

Many now true Americans are of German ancestry. In order to

Increase the list of this class of examinations, I have imposed on

the forbearance of my friends by frequent inspections of their

dentitions in ore aperto. ;

I suspect that the characters thus obtained will prove of im-

Portance in a zodlogical and ethnological sense. They have been

ready found to be of great fixity, and hence significance, in the

wer Mammalia. The only reason why they should be less so

MM man is that the modification in reverting to the tritubereular —

molar is a process of degeneracy, and may be hence supposed to

less regular in its action than was the opposite process of

944 On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. (November,

building up, or addition of the posterior internal cusp. Some

justification for a light estimate of its value may be found in the

following tables. But it must be remembered that it is not always

possible to determine exactly the race of the person represented

by a skull even when care in its identification has been exercised.

Emigration and war have constantly rendered races impure, and

transplantation on a large scale has in some parts of the earth

produced hybrid races. The results of a study of human crania

. are sure to be more or less vitiated by these circumstances. We

obtain averages rather than exact definitions. Nevertheless the

extremes of the series of variations are likely to be found to be

characteristic of established forms of man, and will thus justify

my belief in the value of the characters presented. To ascertain

the relation of these variations to the races is the object of the

present enquiry.

The cause of the tritubercular reversion belongs to the class of

agencies active in evolution of organic types of whose real nature

we know little. It can not be said to be due to a contraction of

the maxillary arcade, for the Esquimaux and some other peoples

which display the tritubercular dentition are not deficient in this

respect. Tritubercular molars do not require less length than the

quadritubercular, for the external width of the crown is the same

in both cases. They require less material, however, than a

quadritubercular crown, since a triangle is smaller than a square

drawn on the same base line ; however in some men of the lower

races who present the tritubercular molars, their outline is nearly

square. The hypothesis advanced! to account for the reduction

of the number and quality of human teeth observed in the higher

races, as well as for the replacement of the prognathous Jaw by

the orthognathous, is that such changes are due toʻa trans erence

of material and of growth-energy from these parts to the superior

part of the skull and its contents. The relative superiority of the

dimensions of these latter parts in the higher races is supposed af

account for the reduction of size of the jaws.

Mas | 1 f, $ Į sented by

In the followin be formu

numbers. Only the last three, or the true molars, in each jaw pei

sidered. Tubercles of reduced size are represented by fractio

it? al

7 Thus DEN indicates that each superior molar is quadrituberculat,

_ and each inferior molar quinquetubercular. This represents Ne

_ extreme of the series represented by the lowest races-

roceeds. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1871, p. 252.

1886. | On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. 945

formula E indicates that the true molars have four, three and

three tubercles respectively, and that the inferior true molars have

four each. This represents the extreme common among the

higher races. l

For clearer understanding of these characters they are ar-

ranged in the form of a table. Only the principal races are rep-

resented, and hybrids, when determinable, are omitted! The

characters of the superior molar teeth only are referred to. These

are classified under four heads, viz., first, tubercles 4—4—4;

second, tubercles 4—4—3 34 or 4—3 14—31; third, tubercles

4—3 14 —3 ; fourth, tubercles 4—3—3. As already remarked, the

extreme types of the series give the most precise indications of

race, while the intermediate conditions have a various range.

In the first table the most obvious results are, that only the

Totals ...... E RF See D

Europeans and Europeo-Americans ..... 3 a h | =

Esquimaux and Chuktchi'............. = i KA | S

i ve ed i | sf

Chinese and Japanese at | #

N. American Indians Si = = se | e

Peruvians ..,., L a Aa g | =

Negroes and Egyptians.............-.. 5 = ue | 8

Australians and Micronesians........... og a a 5 7 |

“Malays” (? Nigritos).........+. m te ge | -

pm, a

t = Be Fe eS

| | mmmn | | ia

bio loo l

Totti

44t

three lowest races present four tubercles on all the superior

molars, and that of those with tritubercular second and third

*Mulattoes, Mestizoes, Half-breed Indians, Gypsies, etc., are omitted.

946 On Lemurine Reversion iu Human Dentition. { November,

molars, Europeans and their American descendants greatly pre-

dominate. Also that of uncivilized races the Malays and Negroes

never, and Micronesians very rarely, present this type of denti-

tion, while in the Esquimaux it considerably predominates.

I now give a table of the characters of the superior molars in

the Europeans and Europeo-Americans examined. The number

is not sufficient for final conclusions; nevertheless there are some

indications of value. Some of the one hundred and nineteen

dentitions examined are referred with doubt to their respective

Europeo-Americans o a Se) a e] | g

French en _ e Ko] | oo

Germans and Scandinavians........... CTA Ga) Gz) o0 v >

ise]

Greeks awe Taliahs. 0.50000. cee cues i Hi ois A > | a

Western Asiatics E G] + |

j lag]

Majyar "m a | à

Lapps and Finns $ F

N a ae) Lae) E a

>Si il

toot Se

+ | =

races. Thus the Europeo-Americans may have been i ny

n the battle-

instances immigrants, as many such left their bones o

fields of the American Civil war, where many of the crania were

picked up. The supposed Germans are largely Austrians, 50

ae. that some of them may be more or less Slavic or Maijyar.

As results we have the following: The tritubercular de

appears in eleven out of twenty-five Slavs; in seven pee

ey re Greeks and Italians; in six out of twenty-two ii

mans and Scandinavians; in six out of eight French, and ae

out of thirty Europeo-Americans. The only great 1a

tition

1886, | On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. 947

which presents a similar high percentage of tritubercular molars

is the Esquimaux, where they occur in nineteen out of twenty-

eight dentitions. The tendency is most marked in Slavs, French

and Europeo-Americans, and is least marked in Greeks and

Italians, and in Germans. These two subraces stand in the series

between the intermediate type of the North American Indians

and the other Europeans, I have seen no English dentitions.

It is important to remember in this connection that the dis-

tinguished ethnologist and archeologist, W. Boyd Dawkins, af-

firms that the earliest inhabitants of Britain and some other parts

of Europe were Esquimaux. He refers especially to the men of

the caves, whose implements and arts he declares to be identical

with those used by the Esquimaux of the present day? As it is

evident that the lemurine or tritubercular reversion commenced

with the Esquimaux, it may be that in some instances at least its

appearance in men of Anglo-Saxon and other European races is

due to inheritance alone. But it is reasonable to suppose that in

this case, as in other evolutions, the cause which produced this

modification of the Esquimaux dentition is still active, and its

frequent appearance in the most civilized races may be due to

this cause as well. The progressive character of the French den-

tition in this respect is in broad contrast with the primitive char-

acter of that of Italians and Greeks. The characters seen in the

latter go far towards sustaining Professor Huxley’s hypothesis

that the dark Mediterranean subraces consist of a mixture of

Egyptian with the Indo-European stock. .

In conclusion it may be stated that the tritubercular superior

molars of man constitute a reversion to the dentition of the

Lemuridz of the Eocene period of the family of Anaptomorphide.

And second, that this reversion is principally seen among Esqui-

maux and the Slavic, French and American branches of the

European race.

1 Early Man in Britain, 1880, p. 233.

: _ Structure of a sea anemone may throw light on some p

948 Editors’ Table. [ November,

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E, D. COPE.

The statement is often made that teaching and original

investigation are incompatible. This is not so; further, we main-

tain that he who is engaged in advanced studies in any department

of science is far better adapted for fulfilling the functions of an

instructor, at least in a college, than he who is content to allow

others to make his discoveries for him. An instructor, to be

thoroughly qualified to instruct, should keep himself thoroughly

posted onall the recent discoveries in his province. Unless he be

an original investigator he will fail todoso. He will rest content

with the text-books and the little he can assimilate by reading

abstracts and reviews in the semi-popular scientific journals; he

will lack that enthusiasm without which no good results can be

expected from the student. The original investigator has that

enthusiasm. Without it he could not be compelled to go through

all that drudgery which is necessary to produce’ good results.

The student in coming into his presence is at once inspired to

work, and to be thorough in his work. The original investigator

is forced to keep up with the times. He must keep himself posted

as to what is going on the whole world over, in order that he may

not waste his time and energies in doing what has already been thor-

oughly performed. He goes to the bottom of his subject and his

pupils may rely upon what he says; it will be the expression of the

most recent opinion and will be authoritative so far as it lies in his

special line. It may be 'said he will be narrow, and that he will

have an exaggerated idea of the importance of the subject of his

own chosen field. To a certain extent this is true, but not so far

‘as one would at first think. All departments of any science ne)

interdependent, and he who is specially engaged in one line 1s

obliged to keep track of what is being done in the others, for he

must turn in every direction for hints and comparisons.

peculiar qualities of some substance described in the pap h

some chemical journal may give the physicist just the points is

roblem 10

~ the development or the diseases of man. The original investigator

__ is forced to explore every corner and keeps his mind stored

_ the latest discoveries, while his uninvestigating colleague _—

only what chance throws in his way. Which one, other things

eing equal, will make the better instructor?

1886. } Recent Literature. 949

RECENT LITERATURE.

Mitne’s EarTHQuakEs!.—This is a very timely work in view of

the recent earthquake at Charleston. For this reason we shall

for the use of our readers, abstract some of the leading points

relating to earthquakes and their causes, which seem generally

accepted and to accord with observed facts. While it is estimated

that several earthquakes occur daily throughout the world, refer-

ence is also made to the smaller movements called “ earth tre-

Motion is discussed theoretically, Mallets and Abbot’s results

aid given as well as the results obtained by the author in

apan,

A single shock is, as Mallet states, an impossibility. His

statement is quoted as follows: “ The almost universal succession

of phenomena recorded in earthquakes is, first a trembling, then

a severe shock, or several in quick succession, and then a trem-

bling gradually but rapidly becoming insensible.”

the results of observations on the velocity of propagation of

an earthquake it appears that in the Tokio earthquake of October

25, 1881, the disturbance must have traveled between Yokohama

and Tokio at the rate of 4300 feet per second, but from Hakodate

to Tokio at a velocity of 10,219 feet per second. Thus Milne

Concludes from his own observations and those on the Lisbon and

other earthquakes, that:

I. Different earthquakes, although they may travel across the

Same country, have very variable velocities, varying between sev-

hundreds and several thousands of feet per second.

2. The same earthquake travels more quickly across districts

se its origin than it does across districts which are far re-

s Ta The greater the intensity of the shock the greater is the

velocity,

_ Multiplied observations show that however chaotic at first sight

Earth , professor of minin

å quakes and other Earth Movements, By JOHN MILNE, professor of mining

Peal ef in the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokio, Japan, With thirty-eight

` New York, D. Appleton & Co, 1886. 12mo., pp. 363.

950 Recent Literature. | November,

Darwin tells us that in the earthquake at Concepcion, in 1835,the

walls which ranged S. W. by W. and N. E. by E. stood better

than those which ranged N. W. by N. and S. E. by S., the undu-

lations coming from the S. W. In Caraccas, “the. city of earth-

quakes,” it is said that every house has its /aga securo, or safe

side, where the inhabitants place their fragile property. This /aga

securo is the north side, and it was chosen because about two out

of every three destructive shocks traversed the city from west to

east, so that the walls in these sides of a building have been stricken

broadside on.”

of 1857.

ee: Special districts also, in an earthquake country, are free nes

_ shocks, since Milne tells us that even in a country like Japa

-~ where there are on the average at least two earthquakes

a ii E possible to choose a place - build in as free fro oe wee

imity to ravines and cafions prote a small region from the severe o

shocks of earthquakes. ee

ic disturbances in the ocean are discussed in the ae :

r the most striking examples is that of Iquiq ,

— se ov oe ee ee ee T ESTN ae a

1886.] Recent Literature. 951

Peru. The sea-wave of the Iquique earthquake of May ọ, 1877,

like many of its predecessors, was felt across the basin of the whole

Pacific, from New Zealand in the south to Japan and Kamschatka

in the north, and but for the intervention of the Eurasian and

American continents would have made itself appreciable over the

whole of our globe. At places on the South American coast it

has been stated that the height of the waves varied from twent

to eighty feet. At the Samoa islands the heights varied from six

to twelve feet. In New Zealand the sea rose and fell from three

to twenty feet. In Australia the heights to which the water oscil-

lated were similar to those observed in New Zealand. In Japan

it rose and fell from five to ten feet. In this latter country the

phenomena of sea-waves which follow a destructive earthquake

on the South American coast are so well known that old residents

ave written to the papers announcing the probability of such

occurrences having taken place some twenty-five hours previously

in South America. In this way news of great calamities has been

anticipated, details of which only arrived some weeks subse-

quently, Just as the destructive earthquakes of South America

have announced themselves, in Japan; in a like manner, the de-

Structive earthquakes of Japan have announced themselves upon

€ tide gauges of California.

Similarly, but not so frequently, disturbances shake the other

oceans of the world. For example, the great earthquake of Lisbon

Propagated waves to the coasts of America, taking on their jour-

ney nine and a half hours.

The complete set of phenomena which may accompany a vio-

lent sub-marine explosion is as follows (p. 174):

2 By the initial impulse of explosion or lifting of the ground, a

reat sea-wave” is generated, which travels shorewards with a

velocity dependent upon its size and the depth of the ocean; at

the same instant a “ sound-wave ” may be produced in the air,

which travels at a quicker rate than the “ great sea-wave.” A

third wave which is produced is an “earth-wave,” which will

reach the shore with a velocity dependent on the intensity of the

'mpulse and the elasticity of the rocks through which it is propa-

gated, This latter, which travels the fastest, may carry on its

back a small “ forced sea-wave.” On reaching the shore and

Passing inland, this “ earth-wave” will cause a slight recession of

_ S Water as the “ forced sea-wave ” slips from its back.

As these “forced sea-waves” travel they will give blows to

ships beneath which they may pass, being transmitted from the

. tom of the ocean to the bottom of the ships like sound -waves

‘0 water. At the time of small earthquakes, produced, for exam-

ple, by the explosions of small quantities of water entering vol-

canic fissures, or by the sudden condensation of steam from such

= a fissure entering the ocean, aqueous sound-waves are produced

YOU. XX.—wo. xy. é

952 Recent Literature. [ November,

which cause the rattling and vibrating jars so often noticed on

board ships.

But out of 15,000 earthquakes observed on coast lines, only 124

were accompanied by sea-waves. Out of 1098 recorded on the

west coast of South America only nineteen are said to have been

accompanied by sea-waves ; but from additional facts stated, almost

every severe earthquake on that coast has been accompanied by

considerable agitation in the neighboring sea.

“ On April 2, 1851, when many towns in Chili were destroyed, the

sea was not disturbed. At the time of the great earthquake of

New Zealand (June 23, 1855), although all the shocks came from

the sea, yet there was no flood. The small shock of February 14,

however, was accompanied by a motion in the sea.” To these

facts, taken from Fuchs’ work, our author adds the fact that the

Fig. 2.—Stud mill at Haywards, California, swung completely over.

greater number of disturbances which are felt in the northeast

of Japan, although they emanate from beneath the eos

not produce any visible sea-waves. They are, however, Su

š x 3 ir

to cause a vibratory motion on board ships situated near thet

It has been long known by physicists that the velocity with

vhich a given wave is propagated along a trough of -e x a

depth, holds a relation to the depth of the trough; hence ca gwi

tions of the average depths of the Pacific, dependent on e yar’

ity with which earthquake waves have been propagatee, aie

een made by many investigators, but Milne thinks mo

-open to criticisms in consequence of the writer having EE

~ thatthe wave originated on a coast line, when the evidence c ines

_ showed that it originated some distance out at sea. Asan d of

_ ple of such calculations we copy Milne’s account of the wa ,

n ap e

“On August p1, 1868, a sea-wave ruined many cities OF the

1886. } Recent Literature. 953

South American coast, and 25,000 lives were lost. This wave,

like all the others, traveled the length and breadth of the Pacific.

- “In Japan, at Hokodate, it was observed by Captain T. B.

Blakiston, R. A., who very kindly gave me the following account :

“On August 15, at 10.30 A.M. a series of bores or tidal-waves

commenced, and lasted until 3 p.m. In ten minutes there was a

difference in the sea level of ten feet, the water rising above high-

water and falling below low-water mark with great rapidity. The

ordinary tide is only two and a half to three feet. The disturb-

~u OT

-I

Fic. 3.—Church of St. Augustine, Manilla, Earthquakes of July 18-20. 1880.

_ ice producing these waves originated between Iquique and

Arica, in about lat, 18°28" S. at about 5 p.m., on August 13. In

Greenwich time this would be about 13 h. ọ m. 40 s., August 13.

‚e arrival of the wave at Hakodate in Greenwich time would be

954 Recent Literature. [ November,

such violence that whole settlements were destroyed. At the

Sandwich islands the sea oscillated at intervals of ten minutes for

three days.”

Comparing this wave with the one of 1877 we see that one

reached Hakodate with a velocity of 511 feet per second, whilst

the other traveled the same distance at 512 feet per second.

Other practical problems are the determination of earthquake

origins and the depth of an earthquake centrum, discussed in

Chapters x and xı. From Mallet’s calculations the greatest

(Amer. Jour. Sc., 1872) as being at least fifty miles below the

surface.

Under the head of distribution of earthquakes in space and

time, reference is made to a map which does not appear in our

Fic. 4.—Webber House, San Francisco, Oct, 21, 1868, showing the effect pio

duced on an end building. :

copy of the book. Asan example of the vast area over which >

which was

“ but in

hole

globe.” Earthquakes chiefly occur in volcanic and mo

its surface many vast depressions. Some of these saucer- >";

lows form land surfaces, as in Central Asia. The majori

these, however; are occupied by the oceans.

chiefly occur near the rim of the hollows which have the

: ogee

slopes. The majority of earthquakes probably have their org! a

_ on or near the bottom of these slopes.”

. -As to the frequency of earthquakes Kluge’s estimate of 4620

ips | the pa dad 1850 and 1857, averaging nearly

two a day, 5-

eee Re ey ee

SoS E

Tou eat ae een ean Rah neers 5 a ae Perey ey SS

1886. | Recent Literature. 955

thought by our author to be much below the truth, as there may

be perhaps ten and perhaps one hundred, it being impossible to

state the number definitely.

Milne concludes, after a lengthy discussion of the facts, that the

majority of earthquakes are due to explosive efforts at volcanic

foci. “ The greater number of these explosions take place beneath

the sea, and are probably due to the admission of water through

fissures to the heated rocks beneath. A small number of earth-

quakes originate at actual volcanoes. Some earthquakes are pro-

duced by the sudden fracture of rocky strata or the production of

faults. This may be attributable to stresses brought about by

elevatory pressure. Lastly we have earthquakes due to the col-

lapse of underground excavations.”

The work concludes with brief chapters on earth tremors, earth

pulsations and earth oscillations.

WHEELER’s REPORT UPON THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL GEO-

GRAPHICAL ConGress.—‘ Better late than never” is the adage

ical congresses are held every five years, this volume just escapes

being mistaken for a forecast of the fourth congress. Represent-

atives from twenty-nine nationalities, embracing three-fourths of

the earth’s inhabitants, were present. The question of a common

initial meridian and uniform standard time seems to have been the

Most prominent matter brought before the attention of the assem-

bled geographers and explorers, but votes were taken upon forty-

Seven questions. Among these were the exact trigonometrical

determination of the position of light-houses, the establishment of

subordinate meteorological stations to connect polar stations with

those in middle latitudes; the desirability of registering the super-

ficial temperature of the soil; the compilation of a universal pho-

netic alphabet: the representation of mountains (in elementary

atlases) by level curves; the fixation of a universal scheme of

coloration for different heights, depths, and kinds of soil, and the

Preparation of lists of the explorers of each country. The Ex-

hibition was held in seventy-four rooms in the royal palace, and

Was attended by about 150,000 visitors.

of the Government Land and Marine Surveys of the World, com-

tion, functions, history, and progress of these surveys, with lists

the general and special topographic maps published, etc. Capt.

Wheeler states that in all the older civilized countries the topo-

lic survey is the principal one, and that in all large and well

or Organized Governments it has been continuously maintained under

: Military administration. No such survey now exists in the United

956 Recent Literature. [ November,

States. The topographic and geological surveys of the various

countries are next taken up separately, commencing with Great

Britain and its colonies. In Asia only one independent country,

Japan, seems to have topographic and geologic surveys. Those

which were inaugurated by Brazil, the United States of Colombia,

Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, San Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico

were all stopped at the date of the writing ‘of the report. The

maps include one of the world, showing the areas which have been

trigonometrically surveyed, a more detailed map of the European

surveys, and another of the United States, and several sections

from the topographic maps of various European countries. he

advantages of the various methods of representing relief can be

studied by comparing the hachures illuminated by oblique light

of the Swiss atlas with those illuminated by vertical light of that

of Russia, and both with the system of curves adopted in the

Spanish survey. The section from Siegfried’s atlas of Switzerland

gives the slighter elevations in curves, the higher in hachures, and

fulfills its purpose admirably. In the maps of Saxony curves and

crayon shading are used, while in that of France five colors are

used in combination with contour lines. There is unfortunately

a lack of references to enable one unversed in all the varieties of

topographic representation to understand them. The necessity

of a consensus on the subject is evident.

THE MORPHOGENY oF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN IN THE AMNI-

ota—In this brochure of thirty pages Dr. Baur gives a historical

review of the opinions of anatomists as to the homologies of the

vertebral segments, which are most easily distinguished among

the Rhachitomous Batrachia. There have been three different

j those of von Meyer, Cope and Gaudry.

ker. Von Meyer regarded the intercentrum in Archegosaums

as an inferior vertebral arch, corresponding below, to the neura

arch above. Cope believed it to be a distinct body, intercalated

between the true centra, which he regarded as represented by the

two pleurocentra. Gaudry thought that the pleurocentra and inter-

centrum together form a centrum, and he therefore names Copes

intercentrum “ hypocentrum.” Dr. Baur shows Cope’s "E

the correct one on various grounds. Among these 1S ;

double bilateral origin of the true centrum in Vertebra, as show?

_ by Müller, Roseberg, Albrecht and Froriep. —

EN U. ORDNUNGEN DES TurEerReIcHs IN WORT es

G. Bronn; Reptilien, fortgesetzt von Dr. C.

Ueber die Morphogenieder Wirbelsaiile der Amnioten. Von Dr. BAUR. Biologische

1886, } Recent Literature. 957

partment of Reptilia is represented by a considerable amount of

matter contributed by Dr. Hoffmann. The anatomical portion of

this work is quite thorough, and forms a valuable text-book of the

subject. We cannot say as much for the systematic portion. This

has been written on the principle of inserting everything without

criticism. There has been no consideration of evidence as to a

correct representation of nature, and the least expressive models

have often been selected. No attention has been paid to questions

of synonyms; hence the same genus often appears under different

names, occasionally attributed to the wrong author. This portion

of the work should have been confided to a more competent

person.

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

Smith, S. J—Report on the orale Spes of the Albatross dredgings off the

the east coast of the U. S. A. in 1884. Washington, 1886. From the author.

Hauer, kx R. hi des K. E Narartistorischen Hofmuseums, Band 1,

2 5 Wien, 1886, From the edito

Fi ale S.A /— Bulletin of = pss a Laboratory of ap mtik Studies

on the — us diseases of i 1836. om the a

Beas Ga eee eka of the ue Part 111. The

classification pr relations of the brachiate Crinoids, etc. Phila., 1886. From

Ors,

Packard, A, S.—Zodlogy for Colleges. 5th edition. H. Holt & Co., New York,

1886. $3.00.

——Briefer Zodlogy. 3d edition, H. Holt & Co., New York, 1886. $1.4

P: Ten, W. N.—Elements of the comparative anatomy of ae pe eae from

rman of Professor R. Wiedersheim. Mac milla an & Co., 1886, From the

ated

Lyman, B. S.—A geological trip to Yesso in 1874. From the author.

anes, E A E.—Il Contrasto fra l'Amore e la Bellezza, Milano, 1886. From the

or. ”

awson, J. W.—Handbook of Zodlogy. Montreal, 1886. From the author.

Walker, J. M., Mrs.—Letters from a mother to a mother on children’s teeth. 1885.

or.

GE c. 2- “eats of the Denison Scientific Laboratories. The Evening Gros-

rphosis and morphology of certain Phyllopods; Notes on Amer-

ion Rotifers. hon the author.

Merriman, M.—Re ep. of the progress of the geodetic triangulation of Pennsylvania.

1885. From the author.

Mell, P. H. .—Rep. of the Alabama weather service, Aug. 1886. From the author,

Pilsbry, H. A— Description of a new Hydrobia. Rep. Davenport A. N. S., Vol.

v. From the author.

Parker, W. K.—On the shpe and development of the skull in the Stern

Part 11, Edentata. Part 111, Insectivora, From Philos. Trans. R.

From the author.

Errera, ae Sur Paaa du glycogene dans la levure đe biere. From the

aut

w M. —Palaontologische Notizen. Ueber der Creodonta. From the author.

Lesley, J. P.—The origin and distribution of the Delaware and Chester Kaolin de-

posits

— Report on the Cornwall iron ore mines. 1886.

PFO of the Pittsburg coal regions. All ‘from the author.

Ashburner, C. A., Hill, F. A., and Lewis, H. C—Notes on the Quaternary geology

of the Wy yoming-Lackawanna valley.

958 Recent Literature. [ November,

Ashburner, C. A.—Second rep. of prog. in the anthracite coal regions, Part II.

rt on the Wyoming valley limestone beds, Both from the author.

feilprin, A.—Fossils of the Wyoming valley limestone.

Lesquereux, L,—The vegetable origin of coal. From the author.

Jastrow, — small differences of sensation. Nat. Acad. Sci., Vol. 11. From

Sargent, F. L.—Guide to the Soga of the See gee orders of Cryptogams.

Cambridge, 1886, C. W. Sev From the publisher

Lydekker, R.—Catalogue of re fosil Mitina in the British Museum, Part 111,

1886. From the trustees . Mus.

Riley, C. V.—The mulberry ae 1886. Bull. pe 2 lies: Agric.

——Report of the entomologist. 1886. U.S. Dept. A

——Rep. on the cotton-worm and boll-worm, 1885. All pa! the author.

Smithsonian Inst,—Annual report of the board of regents, 1884

ae ce Ueber die Morphogenie der Wirbelsäule der Amnioten. From the

Hall, 2 s, and Jastrow, J—Studies of rhythm. From the authors,

mere He z —List of marine Mollusca, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 24. From the

ke. P _The present technical condition of the steel industry of the U. S.

Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 25: From the author

Howe, H. M.—Copper smelting. Bull. U. S. Geol. ‘Sou. No. 26. From the

author.

Kedzie, J. H. —Solar heat, oe and sun spots, S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago,

1886. From the publish

Comstock, T. B.—The mewa ‘en vein-structure of S. W. Colorado. Ext. Trans.

A. Min . Eng., 1886. From the author

AFE W. O.—Notes on joint structure.

—Colors of soils, Ext. P, Bost. S. N. H., 1885. From the author.

Langley, S. P.—On hi carta se wave-lengths, Ext. Amer. Jour. Sci.,

1886. From the aut

"e A saja? A z and Mey er, O. —Geological Survey of Alabama.

From O. M

Hunt, z S.— A sety ee. of mineralogy. Boston, Cassino, From the

_ author. `

Newton, H. A.—Meteorites, meteors and shooting stars. Science Supplement, Aug»

1836, From the author.

Morse, E. S. F aa and modern methods of arrow release. Ext

Boulenger, G. A. — Description of a new Gecko of the genus Nephrurus. 3

Ann. and Re N. H., 1886.

Jescription of a new iguanoid lizard. Ext. P. Z. S., 1886. ijk

m aae on specimens of Rana arvalis. Ext. P. Z. S., 1886. All from

= Latter, B- Antikritiske aoee e i eevee pe Kaempe-Dovendyr Su.

on. 1886. From Sain

oy p W- eed k of Taka " Stud. Biol. Lab. Johns Hopk. Univ

Lampert, >. at cual von Siid-Georgien, 1886. From the author.

~ James, F. F—On a recent synonym in the pakohtotogy of the Cincinnati group-

_ — The geology of nome Ext. Cin. Soc. N. H., 1886.

: e and “grog H. A.—On Pyrgulopsis, a new rissoid mollusk.

from the author.

Ext, Proc-

Vol. v. From the authors, on

J e size of metri sik od units with reference

l Dav. A. N.

ty aren

1886. } Recent Literature. 959

Evermann, B. W.—A list of the fishes of Rockville, Franklin eng Ind.

— List of fishes collected in Harvey and Conley counties, Kansa

——A list of the birds observed in Ventura county, Cal. All rm ra author.

U. S. Fish Commission—Report for 1883. Washington, 1885.

Peirce, C. N.—Function, its “ore and influence. 1886. From the author,

Evermann, B. W., and Meek, S. E.—A revision of the American Te of the

genus agi Kept: F: A E S. Phila., 1886. From the authors

P. i: te W., et al—Eighteenth and ninet nti annual reports of the re

Museum of hake 5 ee and Ethnology, 1886.. From the cura

Rohon, % k, and Zittel, K. A. v.—Ueber Conodonten, A. d. Sitz. k "i bayr.

Akad. d. ni: sere is 1886. From the author.

Marshall, ot Na “i M., and Beard, F., et al—Studies from the Biological Labora-

tories of the Chvens College. Manchester, England, 1886, From Professor

rshall.

Monks, ee trap-door spider, Ext. report Historical Soc. S. California, 1886.

uthor

From t

Potts, E i eats sponges from Newfoundland. Ext. P. A. N. S. Phila., 1886.

From the author

Leclerg, J—La fere des Merveilles. Paris, 1886. From the author.

P. elseneer, P.—Notice sur car recueillis pkg le see hes Storms dans la

' region du Tanga moer Ext. Bull. d. Mus. Roy. Be elg., 1886

Trouessart, M. la présence T Ricins dens le tuyau des iad des Oiseaux.

—Sur

xt. Com mptes Biadh, 1886. From the author.

Eigenmann, C. H—A review R ig American Gasterosteide. Ext. P. A. N. S.

Phila., 1886. From the a

Wolter ertor, ome" fossile menn insbesondere das genus Palæobatrachus.

a. d. Jahr, d urwiss. Vereins, eo — From the author.

Wis it = L Oogenetische adi: I. Die Entstehung des Eies von Colymbetes

s ‘thor Sep.-abd. a. a its. f. Wissensch. Zool., itaco, 1886. From the

er, M— Bei zur Kenntniss der Stammgeschichte der Hufthiere und bit

sich ene Systematik der Paar- und Unpaarhufer. Munchen, 1886. From th

ger P, Paw la place Po sap ca de Phomme dans la série des mammifères,

author.

con. Paul Asean zum letzten Male.” Aus d. Sitz. d. Würzburger Phys.-med.

ese

—Vogelschnahel und Saugethierlippe aus d. Fortschritte der Medicin. 1886.

——Ueber die —— sche Bedeutung von Penischisis, Epi- und Hypospadié.

——Ueber den morphologischen Werth iiberzahliger Finger und Zehen. Sep.-abd.

ad. — fur Chirurgie, 1886.

~ Ueber morpho re Sitz der Hasenscharten Kieferspalte. A. d. Bio-

logischen i Centralblatt, 1

Taaa die Vorderfiosse von Protopterus annectens. Sitz. d. k. preus Ak. d.

Issensch. All from the author.

Wty, H. W.—The economical aspect of agricultural chemistry. Address delivered

before the A. A. A. S., Buffalo, 1886.

960 General Notes. [ November,

GENERAL NOTES.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.'

GENERAL.—In a recent number of the Mittheilungen of the

Geographical Society of Vienna, Dr. Penck takes issue with the

usually accepted proportions of land and water (1 to 2.76), assert-

ing that the unknown regions around the poles are too extensive

to permit of any reasonable approach to accuracy in this respect.

M. Rambaud gives the extent and population of the French

colonies, or rather possessions. Including Tonkin and Mada-

gascar, these comprise about 1,800,000 square kilometers, and

about twenty-four and a half millions of people. In this total the

population of the French Congo possessions is not included, and

Tonkin is credited with only 12,000,000 of inhabitants. The com-

merce with these colonies was, in 1883, about 915,000,000 of francs.

Major Feilden, naturalist of the Arctic expedition of 1875-76,

has given in his adhesion to the belief that through the secular cool-

ing of our planet the poles became first fitted for the reception of

life; that in Palaeozoic times the north pole possessed a climate

at least as warm as that now experienced at the equator, and that

during the Miocene period the temperature, though gradually

cooling, supported a flora which spread southwards.

America.— The Xingu.—Petermann’s Mittheilungen (Nos. 5 and

6) contains a full account, with maps, of the German Xingu expe-

dition of 1884. The Xingu is formed by the union of three large

rivers: the Kuliseii, the Ronuro and the Batovy, the last of which

falls into the Ronuro a little above its confluence with the Kali-

seii, which may be considered the main stream. The expedition

descended the Batovy, which flows in numerous bends through a

flat country, but is intersected by many rocky strata forming

rapids. After the confluence the Xingu flows through a level

country till it reaches 10° S. lat. Here it enters granite hills and

. the great bend of the Xingu, the cataracts upon which were explored

by Prince Adalbert of Prussia in 1842-43. Within this bend the

river falls 260 feet. At its confluence with the Amazons the

Xingu is a mighty stream nearly five miles wide. The different

branches of the Xingu are inhabited by no less than eighteen dif-

_ ferent Indian tribes, though the total population does not exceed

2,000. The Suya Indians live in beehive-shaped houses with a

diameter of thirty-three feet. =

| American News—Lake Tahoe is dethroned from its position

= as the deepest lake upon the continent, Captain Dutton having

_ found a depth of 1996 feet in Crater lake, Oregon. The aver

age depth is about 1490 feet. The shores of this lake are very

lis department is edited by W. N. LOCKINGTON, Philadelphia.

| 18386. ] Geography and Travels 961

precipitous, and the same rapid descent continues below the

water, so that depths of fifteen to eighteen hundred feet are found

‘ all around the margin. It had been previously sounded by Capt.

G. M. Wheeler, U. S. Engineers ——M. Charnay has, during his

last season of exploration in Yucatan, discovered the remains of

a town called Ek Balam, or the city of the black tiger. Also,

upon an island about eight leagues north of Campeachy, he found

a Maya burial ground which had- never before been visited by a

man of science.

Arrica.—Mozambique—The Portuguese are aiding to fill up

some of the gaps upon the map of Africa. An expedition to the

gold mines of Marica, worked at a time of which no records have

reached us, has resulted not only in the formation of a new town,

Villa Gouveia, but in theexploration of the lower course of the Aru-

angua or Pungue, which proves to be navigable for a considerable

distance, as are also the Revue and Buzi, the conjoined streams

of which enter the ocean slightly to the south of the Pungue.

There appears to be a channel connecting the Pungue with the

Inhandué, the tributary of the Zambezi upon which the new town

_ A tolerably full description of the Comoro islands is contained

inthe Revue Scientifique (August 7). The religion is Moham-

medan, and the people a mixture of Arabs and Caffres, with Mad-

agascans, etc. The largest island, Great Comoro or Angazia, has

a superficies of 1100 kilometers. Moheli is the smallest but most

fertile of the group; Anjouan has the best harbor and is most fre-

quented by Europeans, and Mayotte, or Mahore, the most south-

ern and western of the archipelago, belongs to France.

Petermann’s Mittheilungen (July) contains an account of the Ger-

Man expedition of 1884-85 to Angra Pequeña, or Luderitzland.

€ immediate neighborhood of the settlement is described as a

1 ary spot where there is scarcely any living thing but snakes

_ and lizards. A short distance to the north are extensive dunes

_ Teaching a height of 500 meters. The interior does not appear to

be much better. River beds are dry even in winter. Snakes, scor-

= Plons and beetles seem to have been the most noticeable objects.

_ «tus and Gubub, east of 16° E. long. and about 26° 4o’ S. lat., are

the highest points of this part of Africa, the level falling to the

South towards Orange river. The scenery here consists entirely

barren table-mountain, between which and the ocean extends a

962 General Notes. [ November,

on the Egyptian shore of the Red sea. The material, which has

lost its more volatile components, is found at the level of the sea

upon piercing the recent coral formation of the foreshore. Col.

Ardagh believes that the source of the petroleum is in the older

limestone beneath the coral.

M. Aubry, during his visit to Shoa in 1883-84, surveyed the

source of the Hawash and its course for about 190 miles, and also

surveyed the Mugueur, a tributary of the Blue Nile.

Europr.— Surveys in the Pyrenees —Recent surveys in the Pyre-

nees, by M. Schrader, aided by the explorations of Dr. Jaubernat,

have proved the existence of a lake, the largest on the northern

slope of the Pyrenees, in a gap between two chains of peaks, which,

approached from opposite sides, had previously been supposed to

be identical. M. Schrader states that on the south and south-east

of the Aran valley are several ranges, nearly 10,000 feet high, that

are unnoted on any geographical map. The Aran valley is trib-

utary to the Garonne.

Asta.—Burmah—The August issue of the Proceedings of the

Burmah Geographical Sogiety contains an interesting account of

Burmah, the country and people, by Mr. J. A. Bryce. The topog-

raphy of the region, the physical and other characteristics of the

races which inhabit it, the productions and climate, and the present

status of the various nationalties, are discussed. Mr. Bryce fears

that the Burman, in spite of that vigor which has enabled him to

continue dominant for two thousand years, will succumb to the

more energetic Shans and Kakhyens (Singphos), now that his

empire has been put an end to by the British. The Burmese

occupy the upper part of the Irawadi delta, the upper valley of

the Sittang, a narrow space on each side of the Irawadi in Upper

Burmah, and the Moo valley, between the Irawadi and the

Kyendwin. The Talaings still form the bulk of the population

in the delta of the Irawadi and Sittang. The Talaings are smaller,

plumper, fairer and less hard-featured than the Burmese, while

the Shans are bigger and stouter than the dominant race. Mr.

Bryce puts the total population at seven and a half millions, about

half of them Burmese. `

the Drying up of Siberian Lakes. —The rapid drying up of

the lakes of the Aral-Caspian region is not limited to the

i i to it. M. Yadrintseff,

-y

—

A .

ban |

nished from twenty

1886. | Geology and Paleontology. "963

miles in length to three; and Lake Abyshkan, in the early part of

the century forty miles from north to south and seventeen from

east to west, is reduced to three small ponds, the largest scarcely

a mile and a half wide. Another lake, Tchebakly, which in 1784

was forty miles by thirty, is also now reduced to three ponds, the

largest less than two miles across.

mong the results of the New Zealand earthquake are the addi-

tion of 300 feet to the height of Mount Tarawera,and the subsidence

of the beautiful Lake Rotomahana, which is transformed into an

expanse of seething mud. Its renowned terraces are reported to

be destroyed. Large areas are covered with volcanic dust and

mud, Lake Rotomahana was the wonderland of the volcanic

belt of the North island, as it was surrounded with terraces of

silica from which issued hot springs and geysers,

The Transcaspian railway was, on the 14th day of July, opened

for traffic as far as Merv. The entire length of the line to Sam-

arcand will be 1335 versts, or 890 miles. Three hundred versts

of this is in Bokharan territory. Between Michailovsk, on the

Caspian, and Samarcand, there are in all sixty-three stations, sev-

eral of which have to be supplied with water by pipe-lines or

water-trains, while others are provided with artesian wells.

. O. Forbes has returned to New South Wales. He was

unable to ascend the Owen Stanley range, but reached a point

Sixty-five miles from Port Moresby.

GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY.

A REMARKABLE Extinct GEYSER Basin 1N S. W. COLORADO. —

In many features the Yellowstone National Park region is closely

an Juan mining region is covered by the deposits from ancient

thermal springs? At this time the peculiar donanzas of the Red

Mountain district began to receive attention, and the predictions

_ Of the writer, based upon the foregoing conclusions, were invari-

ably verified in the exploitation of the mines. But the develop-

t of the ore-bodies and much more detailed examination of

*Read before Section E., A. A. A. S., Buffalo Meeting, 1886.

: ? Notes on the geology ua mineralogy of San Juan county, Colorado, by Theo. B.

Comstock. Published in Trans. American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. x1,

PP. 165-191 (with map).

964° General Notes. [ November,

the area in question, revealed other and more interesting facts

concerning the growth of the lodes in this restricted area. It

soon became evident that the extremely peculiar topography of

the country at the head of Red creek, in Ouray county, could have

been produced only by the accumulative action of numerous enor-

mous geysers, far more effective than those to-day at work in the

Yellowstone Park, though occupying, perhaps, a less extensive

basin. Probably, however, not a little of the area over which the

hot spring deposits can be traced, may have been the seat of im-

portant geysers. In fact, there are reasons for making this state-

ment more definite, but it will be best to confine ourselves to

what can be clearly described in a few words, without considera-

tion of nice structural details.

The upper valley of Red creek is thickly studded with mounds

of varying size, but not widely different in form. All these are

more or less closely connected with the present (or compara-

tively recent) local drainage, which is also bounded at irregular

intervals by dry pits and pools of cold water quite similar to the

bowls of existing hot springs in other localities. The remarkable

characteristics of this basin are the number and the magnitude of

the mounds and the total absence of active thermal springs, not-

withstanding the existence of such in localities not far distant, as

át Ouray. The altitude of the district is from about 9500 feet to

12,000 feet, whereas few, if any, of the present hot water bowls

are known above 6500 feet, hereabouts.

The cañon of Red creek is undoubtedly not one wholly of

aqueous erosion, but the drainage has been induced in part by

seismic action, modified in an interesting manner by glacial scor-

ings and subsequent diluvial deposition. The Red Mountain

geyser area, as we may designate this tract, is now topograph-

ically restricted, as here indicated, almost wholly to the upper

portion of this interesting cañon, but it may be really separated

into three well-marked basins, which formerly fed as many sepa-

rate affluents of the main stream. Two of these are proven to be

metalliferous, while the third is almost unexplored; though giving

indications of similar character, but less promising perhaps. f

maximum intensity of the volcanic action in the rhy olytic

period, and the ore-bodies all furnish evidence of secondary re-

actions taking place in the line of a prominent fault-fissure of that

age. All along this course over a considerable breadth of terri-

tory, the remains of extinct thermal springs are (recognizably )

_ most abundant, but the geyser character is not noticeable far

_ towards the north or south of Red peak. : f

The ormations in the vein material, the aggregation id

-~ the ores into bonanzas (as at the Yankee Girl, Alaska and O

Lout mines, among others) with the very remarkable distribution

minerals in the lodes, are but a few of the intensely interesting

1886, | Geology and Paleontology. 965

details which can be there studied to the best advantage. Much

that is there revealed has already thrown new light upon the

origin and life-history of metalliferous deposits, but I cannot now

touch upon these topics.' The gigantic geyser-mounds are in

themselves of marked interest, not only from their great size and

external configurations, but also on account of their internal

structure as proven by the excavations made in some of them for

mining purposes. The American Belle, Grand Prize and other

mines were opened directly in mounds of this nature, and (as in

many other cases where only ordinary thermal springs probably

existed) caverns were invariably entered after passing through an

outer shell of considerable thickness. In nearly all of these some

connection with the surface was traceable by following the tracks

of woodchucks, which had utilized the passages as domiciles,

In the caverns, which are sometimes of large dimensions, there is

usually a deposit of sulphuretted ores, with allied minerals, with

a very considerable amount of yellow and red material resulting

from its oxidation and the production of carbonates.

_No doubt much valuable information bearing directly upon the

life-history of the geyser may yet be gathered from detailed

Studies in this district. But little real exploration underground

las yet been accomplished, and that small amount is but par-

= tially known to those who can make the best use of it for scien-

_ tific purposes. All that the writer has yet observed agrees in most

2 €ssentials with what may be seen in the extinct subterranean

Passages at Gardiner’s river, Wyoming, except that the metal-

liferous deposits and the geyseritic relics are peculiar to the Red

ountain area——Dr. Theo. B. Comstock, Champaign, Illinois.

SCHLOSSER on CREODONTA AND PHENACODUS.2—Dr. Schlosser

has attacked the problem of the Creodonta with his accus-

tomed skill, and has thrown the additional light of his exten-

šive acquaintance with mammalian anatomy on the subject.

op et Seat A eee” fe ee See

like him, of an order Bunotheria, but rather with Lydekker,

of the order Carnivora. He does not regard them as an-

Cestral to the Carnivora, but as having had a common ancestor

with that order. This common ancestor he derives from hy-

_ Pothetical Marsupialia with numerous temporary teeth. He ex-

Cludes from the Creodonta the Hyznodontide and Muiacide,

1884-86, now running (* Metallurgy of San Juan county Ores ”’); also

per previously quoted in Trans. Am. Inst. M a

Verhaltniss der Cope’schen Creodonta zu den übrigen Fleischfressern ;

isches Jahrbuch 1886, p. 287, von Dr. Max. Schlosser. — '

966 General Notes. [November,

regarding both as true Carnivora; the former on account of the

supposed scapholunar bone reported by Gervais, the latter on ac-

count of the single flesh-tooth. He restricts the Creodonta to those

forms which have two flesh-teeth, if any. From the Leptictidæ

he excludes the genera Leptictis, Mesodectes, and Ictops, placing

them in the Insectivora. He therefore changes the name Leptic-

tidæ to Proviverridæ. Schlosser does not agree to the intro-

duction to the Creodonta by Cope of the tritubercular families

usually referred to the Insectivora, viz., the Talpidæ, Chryso-

chloridide, Centetide, Mythomyidz. and Tupæidæ; but he does

not give his reasons for this view.

The following remarks may be made on the above positions of

Dr. Schlosser. The supposition that Hyzenodon possesses a

scapholunar bone has been shown by Professor Scott to be an error,

so that this form must be retained in the Creodonta, to which it is

connected by Pterodon. Specimens of Miacidz in the Princeton

Museum show that this family also possessed no scapholunar

bone. This, together with the non-trochlear astragalus which I

have described, shows that the Miacide must also be referred to

the Creodonta. These points admitted, it becomes much easier to

believe that the Carnivora are the descendents of Creodonta,

through the Miacidæ. (The supposed connection between Oxye-

nidz and Felidz I denied in my last phylogeny in the article on

Creodonta in the AMERICAN NATURALIST for 1884.) The exclu-

sion of the three genera above named from the Leptictide, (Pro-

viverridz) has little significance, until the reasons for separating

e Creodonta from the tritubercular Insectivora can be shown.

r. Schlosser’s representation of my phylogenetic views is very

inaccurate, owing to a misunderstanding of the dates of publica-

tion of my respective papers. The oldest of these is the Vol. 1m.

Report U. S. Geol. Survey Terrs., sent to press in 1879, and

not issued until February, 1885. The next in point of date are the

illustrated papers on extinct Vertebrata, issued at various times in

the AMERICAN NATURALIST. My latest phylogenetic opinions,

delivered from fuller material and more mature reflection, were

published in a paper on the “ Evolution of the Vertebrata, P ay

gressive and Retrogressive,” in the February, March and Apr! f

numbers of the American NATURALIST for 1885. In the last O

hese papers the Lemuroidea are separated from the Bunotheria

and placed in the Taxeopoda n

they are allied. This does not include the Mesodonta (P elyco-

dus), which being unguiculate, remains with the Bunotheria. In

. paper all are derived from carnivorous Marsupialia,

in accordance with the view of Hackel’s “ Schopfungsg*

schichte”

ae : . ‘Dr. Schlosser generously acknowledges, in another page, ie

: _ prior indication of the ancestry of the Phenacodus and ae

m of the horse line to his own, by Dr. J. L. Wortman in

SP a ae ae. it

Toy ge a

1886. } Geology and Paleontology. 967

Revue Scientifique, Vol. xxxi, p. 705. But these relations had

been previously pointed out by myself; that of Hyracotherium

in the Paleontology of the Report of the Survey W. of the 100th

meridian in 1877; and that of the Phenacodus in the Proceeds.

Amer. Philos. Soc., 1881, p. 178!—E. D. Cope.

Dotto on Extinct Torrotses.— The distinguished Belgian

anatomist, M. Louis Dollo, has recently published two important

Papers on extinct tortoises from the Eocene formations of Bel-

gium. The theme which gave rise to the first of these, is the de-

scription of a new genus and species of Chelydride, Pseudo-

trionyx delheidi Dollo. In preparing to do this, the author re-

Views the classification of the Testudinata in an extremely

able manner. He adopts the system of Cope in the main,

and in giving his reasons for doing so makes an important

contribution to the subject. He differs in some details from the

author of that system. Thus he separates Eurysternum from

the Chelydridz as type of a distinct family, because it possesses

a fontanelle of the plastron ; a character which the reviewer does

not regard as of family value. He also unites the Propleuride

with the Cheloniidz, but as we shall see, he reéstablishes it as a

sub-family in the second paper quoted, without apparently being

aware of the fact.

- Dollo somehow supposes that the author of the system he

adopts regards the plastron of the Testudinata as homologous

with the sternum of other Vertebrata, and also that the names he

employs for the elements of the plastron are original with him.

This is an error. The terms “ postabdominal,” etc., were introduced

by the distinguished English anatomist, W. K. Parker, and the au-

thor criticised by M. Dollo, has stated in one of his papers, on

Which I cannot at this moment place my hand, that he adopts the

views as to the homologies of the plastron, held by that authority.

But M. Dollo thinks that the names Dactylosterna, Clidosterna

and Lysosterna imply the erroneous homology with the sternum,

and should therefore be charged. He then names thesedivisions

ctyloplastra, etc. Now names ought not to be changed without

tter reasons than those offered by M. Dollo, for the well-known

Pprobrium scientie is the multitude ofnames. Those in question

Were not given under an erroneous idea, but the word “ sterna’

Was used figuratively, just as it is in many genera of the order.

As well might M. Dollo change the generic nam

x es Eury-

. Sternum, Pleurosternum, etc., into Euryplastron, Pleuroplastron,

etc. And this our author has not yet done.

_ The plates called intergular by me in Baéna appear to me to be

3 _ A0mologous with the corresponding plates in Pleurodira, although

? Also in NATURALIST for 1881

: p- 1O17. :

3 iére note sur les Cheloniens du Bruxellien de la Belgique; (Bull. Mus.

Roy, Belgique 1886, p- 75)- Premiér Note s. 1. Cheloniens Landeniens de la Bel-

que; (1. c. 1886, p. 129).

968 General Notes. { November,

M. Dollo thinks not and finds occasion for the creation of a new

name. Adocus, another Cryptodire genus, has a single one well

developed.

In his second article M. Dollo separates certain species re-

ferred by. Professor Owen to the genus Chelonia, as representa-

‘tives of another genus which he names Pachyrhynchus. It is

characterized by the underroofing of the posterior nares, and by

the great extent of the mandibular symphysis. He regards this

character as requiring the creation of a sub-family of the

Cheloniidz, the Pachyrhynchine. The present writer has,

however, described the same characters in two genera

referred by him to the Propleuridze (Euclastes and Lyto-

loma) and has referred to one of the European species (Chelone

planimentum Owen—Pachyrhynchine Dollo) as presenting this

character... M. Dollo’s genus is probably one of the American

forms, and his Pachyrhynchinz is the Propleuride Cope. i

Dollo’s family characters are, however, better than those given

by Cope.—£. D. Cope.

GEOLOGICAL News.—General.—M. Steinman recently gave to

the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences an account of his explora-

tions in the Southern Cordillera. The fossil fauna and flora are

evidences of glaciation in the Australian Alps. The author and

Dr. Lendenfeld found erratics, perched blocks, smoothed surfaces

_ and old moraines upon Mount Bogong, the highest mountain in

_ Victoria.

~ Silurian.—M. Hebert, who has for a considerable period been

_ occupied with the study of the most ancient sedimentary rocks

_.of the northwest of France, has come to the conclusion, that in

Northern Brittany and Western Normandy the vertical slates

phyllades) of Saint Lo are at the base, while upon them lie the

ransactions American Philosophical Society, 1870, pp. 146-8.

1886. ] Geology and Paleoniology. 969

almost horizontal purple conglomerates, schists and red sand-

stones. For

A. M. Seely (Amer. Jour. Sci., July) describes three

new species of sponges of the genus Strophochetus, and notes

the distribution of the genus through the Middle Chazy.——?Pro-

fessor N. S. Shaler contributes to the same issue an account of

the geology of Cobscook Bay district, Maine. The uppermost

beds of the series contain fossils which he refers to the Devonian,

possibly to the Ohio shale. Below these are beds which seem to

belong to the Niagara and Clinton horizons, while the most

numerous list of fossils seems to be of Lower Helderberg horizon.

The series is less rich in organic forms than that of the St. Law-

rence or of Central New York. The land area of this fiord region

'S principally occupied by intrusive volcanic rocks.

after which he examined the deposit of ironstone at Lenham,

England, the fossils in which were, in 1857, referred to the Plio-

——Dr. Otto Meyer contributes to the Amer. Jour. Sci., July,

1886, some observations on the Tertiary and Grand Gulf strata of

Mississippi. His conclusions are (1) that in no place can Grand

ulf strata be seen in superposition over the marine Tertiary ; (2)

that there are two places where strata undistinguishable from

Grand Gulf can be seen overlaid by marine Tertiary; (3) that the

Grand Gulf formation is,mainly not marine; (4) that a thick and

Post-tertiary.—M. A. Gaudry recently exhibited to the Paris

Academy of Sciences a reindeer's antler pierced with a large hole,

and covered with well-executed carvings. One face shows two

Seals, a fish (salmon or trout) and three twigs of plants. One of

me Seals seems to be Z. vitulina, On the other face are two eel-

like slender animal figures, three indeterminable animals (alike)

= andan insect. This fragment of the reindeer age was discovered

oy M. Poignon in the Montgaudier caves, department of Cha-

le paper upon the post-Tertiary elevation of

ap tee by the river beds, has been ar

970 General Notes. [November,

river-beds, are correlated with the features of the plateau region

to prove a great elevation which was permanent, while the drift

and river deposits of the eastern region prove subsidence after

Tertiary times.

BOTANY.! .

How SHALL BOTANY BE TAUGHT IN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES?—

Numerous factors enter into the problem, such as the size of the

class, the age and preparation of the students, the season of the

year, the length of the college term, the probability of subsequent

study, the means of illustrations which can be commanded an

many other similar considerations. All of those factors are so

different and so variously combined, that a method, which on the

whole might be the best in some particular case, might not be

good text-book is a most valuable aid. The lecture method is

necessary in very large classes, but satisfactory results are rarely

reached, even with the aid of copious means of illustration and a

fairly good work of reference in the hands of the student. Nor is

the laboratory method, pure and simple, altogether free from ob-

jection. Left largely to himself to find out important facts in re-

gard to the specimens he is given to study, the student is sure to

go astray and waste much time, a loss needless and inexcusable.

A judicious combination of the methods named would in all

probability secure the best results in a majority of cases.

Let me suppose the class to number from thirty to forty, com-

posed of young men of average attainments and ability, and that

from three to five hours per week for a year is to be given to =

subject. A desirable time for beginning the work of instruction

is at the opening of the winter term, which in most colleges 1S

soon after New Year’s. For the first term the object is to gain 4

_ general view of plants and plant-life. The basis of the instruction

_ should be lectures or talks, occupying a part of the hour, which

the teacher can vary according to the needs of the class. An ex-

cellent accompanying text-book is Bessey’s Essentials of Botany,

_ from which pages may be occasionally assigned as a lesson to be

carefully learned. Every subject taken up should be copiously

= - illustrated with specimens which the student is to see and e fal

_ ine for himself. Occasional days are to be set aside for care sel

_ reviews of subjects already studied, and from time to time oppor

y should be afforded for the examination of specimens under-

scope.

Professor CHARLES E, Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Sl Oita td eae en tos rte eae RS ry ate Aa Rinks i ig | eee oer are oe nna a EERE ESS a} AT

1886.] Botany. 971

The special advantage of this method of instruction here sug-

gested is two-fold: First, its flexibility ; and second, the opportu-

nity it affords for the effective use of the black-board. - Figures

and diagrams, drawn before the class, in which various phases of

development can be shown, are far more valuable than any text-

book figure, or previously prepared diagram. Nor should the ad-

vantage of giving out suitable topics or problems for the members

of the class to examine and report upon, be overlooked, The

skillful teacher will find no difficulty in assigning appropriate

Subjects, which will require independent observation and thought

on the part of the student.

_A term’s work of this kind should give such a comprehensive

view of plants as to make subsequent studies to the highest degree

valuable and effective.

A second term may be devoted mainly to the higher plants.

By this time the spring has so far advanced that an abundance of

mens, if thoroughly well done, is always profitable.

third term may be given to questions relating to the physi-

ology of plants. I do not know of any subject more important to

an agricultural student than this. The instruction here must be

largely in the form of lectures. Goodale’s Physiological Botany

Sa most admirable work. It is perhaps too comprehensive to be

Used as a text-book in ordinary classes, but would be serviceable

as a work of reference. Some well arranged laboratory work in

the histology of plants is very desirable as a part of the instruction

in the subject now under consideration. A special effort should

ae be made on the part of the teacher to illustrate his instruction

aS Many experiments as possible. Many of these must be

thmmenced long before they are needed for use in the class-room.

e actual experiment which the class can see, is worth a large

number of mere descriptions of experiments. Nor is it difficult to

— devise, in a fairly equipped laboratory, especially if a bec

SNe rare

'Salso available, a large number of experiments, which the student

972 General Notes. [November,

can himself conduct, make his own observation and prepare a report

of the results.

To my mind the scheme which I have here outlined rather than

described, suggests at least a desirable method of teaching botany

under the limitations named. It is capable of a great deal of

modification as circumstances demand, and in the hands of a

skillful teacher is likely to produce satisfactory results. In case

the instructions end with the year, the student has acquired

as large and useful a knowledge of plants as could reasonably be

expected; and if he is to continue his studies further, he has an

excellent foundation for thorough work in special subjects.

I think we are all agreed there is no royal road to learning;

and I am sure that to no subject is this truth more applicable than

to botany. And in conclusion I would suggest that the value of

any method of instruction may be tested, first, by the extent and

accuracy of observation which it calls forth on the part of the

student, and second, and chiefly, by the amount ‘of earnest and

thorough work which it leads him to do.— Professor A. N. Prentiss,

in American Horticulturist.

Botanica. News.—A most important paper is now in course of

publication in the Journal of the Linnean Society, beginning with

the first number of Vol. xxr. It is an “ Enumeration of all the

plants known from China proper, Formosa, Hainan, the Corea,

- the Luchu archipelago, and the island of Hong Kong, together

with their distribution and synonymy,” and will bear the title of

“ Inde i i

- tiime. In the same journal Dr. Vasey publishes a synopsis of

late number of the Gar-

dener’s Chronicle (Sept. 4) contains an excellent wood-cut of the

nut-pine of Colorado (Pinus edulis) from a drawing by Sir J. Ps

1886.] Entomology. 973

ENTOMOLOGY.

KRAEPELIN ON THE ORGANS OF SMELL IN ARTHROPODS!—

To Leydig it was first given to make a decided step in ad-

and Hemiptera, and which had only thus far been regarded as

sense-organs, Leydig first calls attention to the widely-distributed

pegs and teeth, also considering them as sense-organs. “ Olfac-

tory teeth,” occurring as pale pegs, perforated at the end, on the

Surface of the antennz of Crustacea, Myriopoda, Hymenoptera,

Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, are easily distinguished, and besides the

‘olfactory pegs” of the palpi, may be claimed as organs of smell.

‘Ne nerve-end apparatus first discovered by Hicks in the halteres

and wings, Leydig thinks should be ranked as organs of hearing.

Regarding the Crustacea, Leydig, in his latest work,* gave a

lasting explanation of the nature of the pale peg or cylinder on

the end of the antenne which he found in new groups of this

class, which was adopted by a large number of naturalists. Thus

Claus,> in his different essays, expressed the view that these Ley-

digian organs had the function “ of making sensible slight changes

” 1 bd “4

In the chemico-physical condition of the water. ndeed, in his

* Translated by A. S. Packard. Concluded from p. 894.

4 ee “ Zum feineren.Bau der Arthropoden, Miiller’s Archiv, 1855, 376-480 ;

Anatomie der Insekten, Archiv fiir Anatomie, 1859, pp. 35-89 and 149-183;

Lehrbuch der Histologie, 1857, 220. i

* Thes urring i d already been well de-

k pegs, as occurring in Asellus and Daphnidæ, had already been we

Scribed, in 1860, in his unke “ Naturgeschichte der Daphiden,” Tübingen,

1860, without, however, a discussion of the question whether they were olfactory

organs,

a hy dig: Ueber Amphipoden und Isopoden, Zeits. f. w. Zoologie, xxx, 1878,

o SH.

-> Claus + Ueber die Organization und Verwandtschaft der Copepoden, Wiirzburg,

1862, 19; Die freilebenden Copepoden, Leipzig, 1863, 55.

$ Claus: Entwicklun Organization und Systemat. Stellung der Arguliden. Zeit.

E w. Zool., 1875. tar Konatas der Organization und des feineren Baues der

Daphniden, etc. Zeits. f. w. Zool., 1876. Zur Kenntniss des Baues, und der Or-

‘Sanization der Polyphemiden. Denkschr. d. Wiener Akad. wiss. Math.

Classe, 1877, xxxvit, 245. Der Organismus der Phronimiden, Wien, 1879, 10.

aa a

974 General Notes. [November,

in the same direction do Sars, Weismann? Rougemont, Gam-

roth,’ Hoek,® Haller and others more or less decide upon the

olfactory nature of the organ of Leydig.

Jourdain (40) does not accept this opinion, and Wrzésniowski’

adopted the views of Milne-Edward and La Valette. The

“calceoli” of Amphipoda might be regarded as organs of smell.

There was still some opposition to Leydig’s opinion that in

the insects the sense of smell'is localized in the antennz (teeth

and pits),and here the work of Hensen? might be mentioned,

which in 1860 had a decided influence upon the conclusion of some

inquiries,

Thus Landois (15) denied that the antennz had the sense of

smell, and declared that the pits in the antennz of the stag beetle

were auditory organs. In like manner Paasch (16) rejected Ley-

dig’s conclusion, while he sought to again reinstate the old opin-

ion of Rosenthal as to the olfactory nature of the frontal cavity

of the Diptera. In spite of the exact observations and interesting

anatomical discoveries of Forel’ in ants, made in 1874, there ap-

peared the great work of Wolff on the olfactory organs of bees,

in which this observer, with much skill and acuteness, sought to

give a basis for the hypothesis of Kirby and Spence that the seat

of the sense of smell lay in the soft palatine skin of the labrum

within the mouth. Joseph (18), two years later, drew attention

to the stigmata as olfactory organs, referring to the olfactory gir-

dle, and Forel” sought by an occasional criticism of Wolff’s con-

clusions to prove experimentally the olfactory function of the

antenne ; but Graber,” in his much-read book on insects, defend-

ed the Wolffian “nose” in the most determined way, and denied

to the antenne their so often vindicated faculty of smell. In 1879

Berté (52) thought he had observed in the antenna of the flea a

distinct auditory organ, and Lubbock” considered the organs of

1 Sars: Histoire naturelle des Crustacés d’eau douce de Norvège, Christiania,

lina, Zeits. f. w. Zool., xxiv.

3 Rougemont : Naturgeschichte des Gammarus puteanus, Miinchen, 1875, %

* Gamroth : Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Naturgeschichte der Caprellen, Zeits. ee

Zook; xxx1, 1878. —

$ Hoek : Carcinologisches in Tydschr. d. Md. Dierk. Vereen. Deel, 1v, 102.

ë Haller : Der Leemadipodes filiformes, Zeits. f. w. Zool., XXXII, 1880, 368. i

“és momit : Vorl. Mittheilung über einige Amphipoden. Zool. Anzeigen, ,

466, 1879.

„S Hensen: Das Gehörorgan der Decapoden. Zeits. f. w. Zool. x11, 1863. Das

Gehörorgan von Locusta. Zeits. f. w. Zool. XvI, 1886. f

__ * Forel: Les Fourmis de la Suisse. Neue Denkschr. Allg. Schweiz. Gesellsch. £-

= d. ges, Naturw. XXVI, 1874. 118, 144. ee

- Tita Der Giftapparat u. d. Anal-driisen der Ameisen. Zeits. f. w. Zool. XXX.

™ Graber: ‘Die Insekten, Miinchen, 1877. 887

M Lubboc $ On some points in the anatomy of ants. Monthly Micr. Journ., 1987»

1886, ] } Entomology. 975

Forel in the antennæ of ants as a “ microscopic stethoscope.” In*

1879 Graber described a new otocyst-like sense-organ in the anten-

4 nz of flies (20) which was accompanied by a complete list of all the

conceivable forms of auditory organs in Arthropods. In this work

Graber described in Musca and other Diptera closed otocysts

with otoliths and auditory hairs, as Lespé had previously done.

ut Paul Mayer, in two essays (21, 53) refuted this view in a criti-

cism of the opinion of Berté, referring the “ otocysts with oto-

liths ” to the well-known antennal pits into which trachee might

Pass. Mayer did not decide on the function of the hairs which

extend to the bottom of the pits; while in the most recent re-

Physiological experiments and detailed anatomical investigations

Hauser sought to prove his hypothesis as Pierret, Erichson, Slater,

Point of view. Ina purely anatomical aspect, especially promi-

nent are his discovery of the singularly formed nerve-rods in the

Pits and peg-like teeth of the Hymenoptera and their develop-

ment, as well as the assertion that numerous hairs in the pits de-

scribed by Leydig, Meyer, etc., should be considered as direct

terminations of nervous fibers passing into the pits. In the pits he

: rther, with Erichson, notices a serous fluid, which may serve as

a medium for the perception of smells. Among the latest arti-

cles on this subject are those of Künckel and Gazagnaire (41)

which are entire anatomical, while the latest treatise of Graber on

the organs of hearing in insects! opposes Hick’s theory of the

olfactory function of the nerve-end apparatus in the halters, wings,

Stc., and argues for the auditory nature of these structures. Fin-

Smell is not localized, but spread over the whole body.

Coxat GLANDS IN SPIDERS AND PERHAPS Insects.— Professor

P. Bertkau reports that in a specimen of Atypus he has been able

to find a distinct efferent duct for the coxal gland; it is surround-

ed by the same fibrous plexus as the gland itself; in six other

Specimens the duct was not to be found, though the orifice was

n. This rare phenomenon may either be explained by sup-

Posing that there was an abnormal retention of an organ which is

in other cases absorbed, or, it may be suggested, that in adult

_ *Xamples the efferent duct is regenerated from time to time, in

Which case the coxal gland would not be arudimentary organ,

. but One that is intermittently functional; the constant presence

~ "he orifice is an argument in favor of the latter hypothesis. It

rer: Ueber die Chordotonalen Sinnesorgane der Insekten. Archiv. f. mi-

ATosk, Anat. XX, 506-640. XXI, 65-145, 1881, 1882.

“8gliche Rundschau. Zeitung fiir Nichtpolitiker, 1882, September (?).

976 General Notes. [ November,

*is important to note that the orifice appears on two segments, for

this indicates a repetition of the glandular organ, and is pro tanto

a support to the view of Ray Lankester, that the coxal glands of

Arachnids and of Limulus, are the homologues of the segmental

organs of Peripatus. The author suggests that the gland at the

sides of the prothorax of Avxisomorphus buprestoides, and those

found by Scudder in the Phasmide, are possibly representatives

of the same gland. In Mantis religiosa there is a coiled gland at

the hinder side of the fore leg. Fourn. Roy. Micr. Soc., Fune,

1886.

Heart oF Insects.—Miss Olga Poletajura finds that the heart

of Bombus is composed of five separate tubes, which form the

chambers of the organ, and that the most anterior of these is con-

tinued into the aorta. Each tube narrows anteriorly so as to have

the appearance of a truncated cone, while the walls become thin-

ner; posteriorly it enlarges ; the anterior end passes into the pos-

terior in front, and each anterior end is so flattened laterally as to `

form a vertical cleft ; the cardiac tubes are thus only united with

one another at two points; the free portion forms a duct (ostium)

by which the blood from the abdomen enters the heart ; the inter-

nal surface of the anterior tube, and the external surface of the

posterior form pouch-like safety-valves which regulate the move-

ment of the blood. The heart of Cimbex is formed in essentially

the same way as that of Bombus. The writer points out the dif-

ferences between the accounts now given and those of such en-

tomologists as Strauss, Newport, and Graber, and describes the

mode by which the heart appears to perform its function; con-

trary to the opinion of Strauss, the first chamber does not func-

tion alone, as the propelling agent and the ostia are not perfectly

closed, so that part of the blood does return to the abdominal

cavity — Zool. Anzeig., ix (1886), pp. 13-5.

MIGRATIONS OF THE AJAX ButTeRFLY.—During the fore part

of June, 1886, unusual numbers of the Ajax butterfly (Papilio

accessible to them in Chicago at this point are scattered lots

n June 12th a visit was made at Wood ogee

IlL, a few miles south of Chicago, where the butterflies were a

quite as plentiful, and showed the same uneasiness 1n their igh

which, however, was only tor

when its form would again be seen disappea

woods. One of these specimens, after many ae

1886.} Zo0logy. i ; 977

attempts was caught, but was badly spoiled and thrown away,

which, by mere chance, fell on the ground with its wings extend-

ed. A few minutes later it was noticed that the insects that flew

by were sensibly attracted by this dead insect, which they endeav-

ored to make known by their occasionally alighting directly

upon the dead body of their fellow.

= hus noticing the decoying effects of the insect, a number after

being chloroformed were set apart as decoys pinned upon theends

of twigs which were stuck in the ground, The effect was

quite remarkable ; hardly a single butterfly would pass the sight

without alighting among them, and-became an easy prey to the

net. In this way a large number of beautiful specimens were

taken which would otherwise have been quite difficult to capture.

—TFoseph L. Hancock.

_ ENTomotocicar Notes —At the Junemeeting of the Entomolog-

ical Society of Washington, Mr. Lugger mentioned the fact that

rounds, were this year uniformly sterile. He attributed this

phenomenon to the inclement weather during the flowering sea-

son, which prevented bees from visiting the flowers. He also

farther described the mode of fertilization of the common lady’s-

Slipper / Cypripedium acaule) by a species of Andrena. Mr.

Lugger also remarked that a few specimens of the Euro-

Pean Aphodius erraticus were first found by him in 1878

near Baltimore. Since that time the species has spread

and is now so common that it has actually replaced the

formerly common Aphodius fimetarius———Mr. J. B. Smith de-

Scribes and figures, in Entomologia Americana (No. 4), the scent-

Organs of Leucarctia acrea and Pyrrarctia isabella, which are thrust

Cut between the 7th and 8th segments of the abdomen of those

moths, Similar organs have been observed by Morrison in

Agr ous plecta and Euplexia lucipara, and Dr. Riley has observed

“vem in Aletia xylina.

ZOOLOGY.

CLASSIFICATION or SponcEs.—Professor W, J. Sollas (Scientif.

T Proc. Roy. Dublin Socy., v. 1886) thus arranges the sponges:

Class I. Plethospongiz.

ass I. Hexactinellida.

Sub-class II. Desmospongize.

Sub-class ITI, Myxospongie.

Class II. Calcispongiz.

The great majority of the sponges, as will be seen, belong to

the Desmospongize. The Myxospongiz are not regarded as a

degenerate group. Sollas resents (Zool. Anzeiger, 1886) the

_ Mputation of Heider that his peculiar gastrulas of sponges were

= Merely shriveled blastule.

978 General Notes. [ November,

New FRESH-WATER CŒLENTERATE.—Dr. Ussow describes

(Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xvi, p. 110, pl. Iv, 1886) a new

fresh-water Coelenterate from the rivers of Russia. It is a Hy-

dromedusa, but differs so from all others that it is made the type

of a new genus, Polypodium. The young stages are remarkable

in that they are passed as parasites in the eggs of the sterlet,

about one-fifth of the eggs being thus infected. This stage is

described as a cylindrical spiral twisted tube with numerous

lateral buds. This feeds upon the yolk granules which are taken

up by the ectodermal cells and are thence passed to the endoder-

mal ones. From this is developed the free stage, which is more

like a normal Hydromedusa and is provided with six, twelve or

twenty-four tentacles, but lacks an umbrella. The perfect or

sexual stage is not known. A full paper is promised soon.

Nervous SYSTEM OF THE SEA-URCHIN.—M. H. Pronho states

that if one suitably treats a portion of the integument which

covers the test of Achinus acutus with chloride of gold or citric

acid, numerous bluish lines connected by frequent anastomoses

will become apparent; the appearance forcibly recalls that figured

by Professor Loven of the peripheral nervous system of Brissop-

sis lyrifera. Examined under a power of 500, the plexus will be

found to consist of a large number of fibrils, and some of the

principal bundles will be seen passing towards the spines and

adjacent pedicellariz. The fibrils of which this plexus is formed

are identical with those of the tentacular and ambulacral nerves,

and each is continuous with the fiber from the ambulacral nerve

which emerges from one of the tentacular pores; the plexus lies

tween the external epithelium and a layer of connective tissue

which sends off a number of connective bands through the

meshes of the nervous plexus to support the epithelium. At the

detect in the plexus, but they are very numerous and easy to see

in the nerve-ring; the author does not, however, agree with

Romanes in his description of these elements. M. Pronho has

also been able to make out a nervous genital ring, which cor

the five ambulacral trunks, with the peribuccal nervous pentagon. .

— Comptes Rendus, cii ( 1886), pp. 444-6.

= Tue Crustacean CARAPAx.—There seems to be a certain fatal-

= ity connected with some scientific facts. Away back in 1834 vi

_ late Henri Milne-Edwards had a conception of the true ga gee

_ Dana still further efaborated the matter. But, notwithstanding

_ the weight of their authority, their views failed to gain Ee

cceptance and almost every text-book! to-day states that th

1886. } Zoology. 979

carapax of crabs and lobsters represents the coalesced terga of

all the cephalic and thoracic segments, and a line crossing it is

‘ pointed out as the suture dividing the head from the thorax—the

cervical suture. This view is wholly erroneous and has arisen

from an attempt to trace homologies where none exist. Dr.

Howard Ayers (Bulletin Essex Institute, Vol xvii, pp. 49-59, pls.

U-11, 1886) has recently restated the problem and the evidence

to show that the carapax is in reality to be regarded as the coal-

esced terga of the antennal and mandibulary segments, and that

the “cervical suture” merely indicates the line between them.

His presentation of the case should be conclusive. He further

shows that the parts regarded by Milne-Edwards as episterna

are in reality portions of the sternum cut off by the appearance of

false sutures,

Fe ee Seer

DEVELOPMENT OF PHyLiopops.—Claus, in the last Heft of the

sixth volume of the Arbeiten zool. Inst., Wien, gives an account,

illustrated with twelve plates, of the structure and development of

the Phyllopod genera Branchipus and Artemia, which supple-

ments his former paper published in Gottingen, 1873. He dis-

cusses the segmentation and development of the body during

metamorphosis, the segmentation of the mesoderm and the differ-

entiation of the ectodermal and mesodermal organs, the formation

of regions and the number of segments, integument, connective

tissue and fat bodies, muscles, nervous system and sense organs

(including the median and lateral eyes), the alimentary and excre-

tory organs, heart, circulation and respiration, and the sexual or-

gans, thus giving a monographic treatment of the development of

the group.

_ THE Rips or SPHENODON (Hatteria).—Cope! has shown that

in some of the Pelycosauria the capitulum of the two-headed ribs

4S attached to the intercentrum.

_, The question arose immediately: Is it not probable that the

living Sphenodon with so many characters. common to the

Permian Pelycosauria shows the same condition ?

._ The ribs of Sphenodon are described by Owen, Ginther and

| brecht, None of these authors speak about ribs connected with

_ the intercentrum (hypapophysis), but they have observed two-

headed ribs in the cervicals. :

_ Owen? says: “The fourth vertebra has a short pleurapophysis

On each side with a bifurcate proximal end articulated by a broad

tubercle to the diapophysis and by a slender neck and head to a

Cleat aaa

Cope, E. D, Description of Extinct Batrachia and Reptilia from the Permian

tons of Texas. Palzontol. Bull. No. 29, p. 518. Amer. Philos. Soc., April 5,

The Relations between the Theromorphous Reptiles and the Monotreme Mam-

nee Proc. Amer. Assoc. Advanc., Sc., Vol. xxx, Philadelphia meeting, Sep-

aber, 1884. :

Roya ope ptive Catalogue of the Osteological Series contained in the Museum of the

College of Surgeons of England. Vol. 1. London, 1853, p. 142.

980 General Notes. [ November,

rudimental parapophysis, but this is very feebly marked off from

the diapophysis. In the fifth vertebra the parapophysis and dia-

pophysis form together an oblique ridge, chiefly extended verti-

cally, and to which the expanded head of the pleurapophysis

articulates by a single surface.”

Günther! says: “In one example the pleurapophysis of the

fourth vertebra is not bifurcate, the lower branch being replaced

by a ligament, and no trace of a parapophysis can be distin-

guished.”

Albrecht? says: “ Quatrième vertébre cervicale-—Diapophyses

bien développées et séparées par une échancrure d’un rudiment

e parapophyse. Tubérosité de la cote également bien devel-

oppée et séparée aussi par une échancrure du col de la 4° cote

cervicale. La diapophyse articule avec la tubérosité de la dite cote,

tandis que le rudiment de parapophyse est réuni par un ligament

au col. Nous avons donc ici une combinaison des cas de Owen

et de Gunther.

According to all these authors the first rib appears on the

fourth vertebra. :

y own examinations made on two alcoholic specimens of

Sphenodon, show the following : ;

First vertebra (atlas). — Single headed /igamentous ribs con-

nected with the distal part of first intercentrum (between occipital

condyle and atlas). :

Second vertebra (axis). — Two-headed ligamentous ribs. Ca-

pitulum connected with distal part of second intercentrum (be-

tween atlas and axis); tuberculum connected with a small

diapophysis of the vertebra. ae

Third vertebra.—First specimen, two-headed Agamentous ribs ;

second specimen, two-headed osseous ribs. Capitulum ligamen-

tous connected with small process (parapophysis) on the posterior

lateral part of third intercentrum, tuberculum connected with dia-

pophysis.

Fifth vertebra—One-headed osseous ribs. Capitular part re

mentary and ligamentous, connected with fifth intercentrum, x

ilum well developed, attached to a short but broad diapophys i

ll the other cervical and dorsal vertebrz show the same con

tion as the fifth cervical. J the

Albrecht’ believes that the diapophysis of the fifth an

| Günther, A. Contribution to the Anatomy of Hatteria (Rhynchocephalus

Owen). Philos, Trans., Part 1, for 1867, p. I1. emplaire

__. * Albrecht, P., Note sur la présence d’un rudiment de Proatlas sur un er jé:

de eria punctata G Bull. Mus. Roy. d’Hist. Nat. Belg., Tome I, 19°3,

A eS ites.

1836. ] Zoölogy. 981

following vertebre represents a paradiapophysis and the head

of the rib a capitulo-tuberculum. I believe that the diapophysis

consists of diapophysis only, and that the head of the rib repre-

sents only the tuberculum, thecapitulum being distinct but liga-

mentous,

The living Sphenodon shows therefore in principle the same

condition of the rib-articulation as the Permian Pelycosauria.

But there are still other Sauropsida which have some of the ribs

connected with the zztercentrum. Inall Crocodilia and Dinosauria

the first rib of the atlas is attached to the intercentrum between

the occipital condyle and the atlas. The same condition can be

found in birds, where this first rib has become ligamentous, and

probably in all Sauropsida with ribs connected with the Atlas.

I do not doubt that the Ornithosauria show the same condition,

since L. v. Ammon? has shown that the cervical ribs of Rham-

Phorhynchus are like those of the crocodile.—Dr. G. Baur, Yale

College Museum, New Haven, Ci, Sept. 19, 1886.

Curtown. I suppose this is not an unusual occurrence, but as the

numbers were so great I thought possibly you would like to make

a note of it. aes

Following is the list of the birds killed by the electric light

towers: Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), red-breasted grosbeak (Go-

maphea ludoviciana), indigo bird (Cyanospiza cyanea), black and

yellow warbler (Dendreca maculosa), house-wren (Troglodytes

@don), Maryland yellow-throat (Geothlypis trichas), Acadian fly-

catcher (Empidonax acadicus), scarlet tanager (Pyranga rubra)

Cat-bird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis). olive-backed thrush (Turdus

Swainsoni)—E, A. Gastman, Decatur, Ill., Sept. 29, 1886.

Zootocicat News.—General—M. Zarondnoi (Bull. Mosc. Soc.

Nat. enumerates 184 species of birds in the Trans-Caspian fauna.

He divides the district into three sub-regions, (1) the Kara-Kum

desert, (2) the Akhal-Tekke oasis, (3) the mountains. The first

istrict has a pretty well furnished flora, spite of its immense

; *The same condition exists in the Lacertilia, Pythonomorpha, and Ophidia.

+ “Ammon L. v, Ueber das in der Sammlung des Regensburger naturwissenschaft-

chen Vereins auf bewahrte Skelett einer langschwaenzigen Flugeidechse Rhamphor-

bynchus longicaudatus, C tenzblatt d turwi haitlich. Vereinsin Re-

Sensburg, 38 Jahrgang, 1884, p. 155.

notes upon the development of the sense organs and phacellæ a

-states that the velar canals are at first unbranched. The umbre:

982 General Notes. [ November,

sandy plain and salt clays. The reptiles of this sub-region, which

extends into the Akhal-Tekke oasis, are, of lizards, two species of

Phrynocephalus, Agama sanguinolenta and Varanus scincus; a

Testudo, and the snake Waja oxiana. This oasis has a most mo-

notonous landscape, but is pretty well furnished with insects,

among them Julodis (3 sp.) several kinds of Ateuchus and Copris,

and numerous Melanosomata. Jackals, and on the banks of the

few rivers the wild cat and the Lagomys occur. The summer in

this oasis is very hot; 40 Celsius in the shade is not uncommon.

The summer molting of the birds is by our author attributed to

this great heat. The lark has parts of its body quite bare at that

season. The bulk of the birds of the oasis during the summer

belong to the Aral-Caspian fauna, but others come from the moun-

tains, following the rivers. Griffons, ravens, swifts and swallows

live in the mountains, but descend to the plain to hunt. In the

valleys of the mountains the leopard and the cheetah are rare,

Hyena striata is occasional, and El/obius talpinus, several species

of Erinaceus and Platycercomys and Hystrix hirsutirostris are

common. The dreadful Vipera eufratica is a source o continual

danger during the grape harvest of the forested upper valleys.

Frotozoa—Gruber has been studying the phenomena of conju-

gation as presented by Paramecium, and states that not only 1s

there a union of the nuclei, but that the nucleoli “come into 1n-

timate contact, copulate with each other.” He claims that the

act has not only a sexual function but it plays a part in rejuvenes-

cence, and that there is an exchange of protoplasm between the

nucleoli.

Rhizopoda.—Mr. Whitelegge enumerates twenty-four species of

Rhizopoda in New South Wales, mostly identical with those found

in Europe, America and India. The list includes Pelomyxa palus-

tris, Rhaphidiophrys elegans, Clathrulina elegans, and Biomyxa

vagans.

Cælenterates—Mr. G. H. Fowler (Quart. Jour. Mic. Soc.) de-

scribes the anatomy of two species of madrepores. M. durvilla,

has four features in common with the Alcyonaria: (1) a tendency

to absence of polyps on the ventral side of the branches ; (2) Pe

very definite orientation of the polyps; (3) the differentiation o

the mesenteries; (4) the distinct dimorphism.—Nothing has

hitherto been known of the development of the Cubomedus&-

-Haacke publishes in the Zool. Anzeiger (Ix, p. 554) some mr

onthe development of an Australian Charybdea in which he show

first is pyramidal, much like that of the Scyphostoma forms,

only later does it attain the cubical form characteristic of z

Pee e eS ae i Saa

1886, | Zoölogy. 983

adult——W. L. Sclater describes (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1886) a fifth

species of deep-sea coral of the genus Stephanotrochus. It comes

from the British seas and was dredged at a depth of 570 fathoms.

Some notes are given of its anatomy.

Vermes. —Mr. W. B. Benham (Quart. Jour. Mic. Soc.) first gives

a condensed historical review of the various works on earthworms,

and a chronological record of the discovery of new facts; then

briefly enumerates and describes all known earthworms; then

takes the various organs in order, and points out their variations,

and lastly describes some new species. Among these is Micro-

cheta rappi from South Africa, a worm three feet six inches long,

and therefore comparable with Antzus and Titanus from South

America. Another species of Microchzta from Natal follows, and

IS succeeded by Urobenus (1 sp.), Diachzta (1 sp.), and Trigaster

(I sp.) all new genera. Mr. Weldon contributes to the same

journal an account of Dinophilus gigas, found at Penzance, En-

gland. Three species of the genus were previously known.

Dinophilus is stated on the one hand to be related to the Arch-

annelids, while on the other it retains many features characteristic

of the common ancestor of these groups, in which Mr. Weldon

includes Crustacea, Mollusca and Rotifera, as well as Chztopoda

and Gephyrea. The relations of the body cavity, excretory system

and pharynx point to a Turbellarian origin. The tapeworm,

Tenta Jilrcollis, has been known as a parasite of the sticklebacks

(Gasterosteus). Dr. Leidy now reports it from specimens of Amia

North Carolina, though there is some doubt as to whether it

Was really parasitic in these fishes.——-E. A. Rau reports four cases

of trichinosis at Bethlehem, Pa., in the early part of the present

year, two of which resulted fatally. All were caused by eating

from the same infected pork. Kennel, in the last “Heft” of

Semper’s Arbeiten,” completes his account of the development

of Peripatus. He differs greatly on many points from Sedgwick’s

account of the embryology of the species of the same genus from

the Cape of Good Hope.

Arthropoda.—J. J. Quelch has announced (Nature, July 29, 1886)

t a Peripatus, apparently P. edwardsti, is found in the Deme-

Fara division of British Guiana. An example which, when not

_ Some other myriapods, the Myriapod brain is simple and ap-

= Pfoaches that of Crustacea——M. Trouessart (Comptes Rendus,

_ hy, 1866) notes the presence, within the upper part of the shaft

Ofthe feathers ofa curlew shot in the winter, of several Mallophaga

_ Of the genus Colpocephalum. The hole by which these insects

o VOL. XX —no. xz. 65

984 General Notes. [ November,

entered was placed upon the lower side of the feather, in the furrow,

about two centimeters from the upper umbilicus. e insects were

dead, and were accompanied by the empty shells of the eggs they

had laid, with a few ova which still contained embryos. hole

about five millimeters from the lower umbilicus was apparently

the outlet of the larve. The interior of the soft portion of the

feather had been devoured. It is not yet ascertained what con-

ditions determine these devourers of feathers to seek refuge within

the quill. Acaridæ, Syringophilus and other genera have before

been found within the shaft, but these seem to enter by the upper

umbilicus. Houssay has been studying the arterial system of

the scorpion (Comptes Rendus, Aug. 2, 1886, p. 354). The great-

est interest centers in his description of the sternal artery whic

ensheathes the nervous cord almost exactly as it does in Limulus,

thus affording additional evidence in favor of the view held by Van

Beneden, Lankester and Kingsley, that the king crab is closely

related to the spiders, Winckler having recently announced

that he had found a heart in the Gamasid mites, and that it could

be studied through the transparent integument of the living ani-

mal; Kramer calls attention to the fact that he announced the

same in the Archiv. für Naturgeschichte for 1876. Brady gives

a list (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1886) of all the known Entomostraca of

South Australia, and adds several new species to the number.

Beddard, in the same journal, completes his preliminary account

of the Challenger \sopoda. Frenzel thinks the “ Mittel-

darmdruse”’ (the so-called liver) of the Crustacea has the function

of a digestive gland which shows in its physiological action, great

similarity to the pancreas of the Vertebrata. ther “ fossil

myriapod ” must go, it having been discovered that “ Trichiulus

was based upon a fern.

Mollusca—M. Th. Barrois gives in his thesis before the Faculty

of Sciences of Paris an account of the foot-glands and aquiferous

pores of the lamellibranchs.. There is great variety in the byssus-

forming apparatus, but Cardium edule furnishes a good typica

example. The byssus is a glandular product, and does not con-

sist of dried or chitinized muscular fibers. C. edule has a simple

byssus of one filament, while Lima, Pinna, and Avicula have

many. In Arca the filaments are united into a mass, and Anomia

has a similar mass which is encrusted with calcareous salts, sO 45

to appear as an ossicle. M. Barrois describes the muscles of the

byssus; the cavity of the byssus, which receives the secretion ;

the glands of the cavity; the byssal canal; the groove, and se

_ glands of the groove. In some species every vestige of the byssa

_ apparatus has disappeared (Solen ensis, etc.), while other forms

_ show a partial disappearance. The mucous glands are soa

` scattered over the foot, but more often they are localized in the

_ free anterior extremity; while in Lima,Pecten, and Anomia ef

charge into a furrow. It has often been argued that the rap

1886. ] Loblogy. l 985

increase and diminution of size observable in the foot must be

caused by the presence of aquiferous pores which permit water to

i enter into the circulation, but M. Barrois has searched in vain for

such pores. M. Giard has discovered a new species of Ento-

niscus (Æ. mænadis) upon a female Carcinus mænas obtained at

f Wimereux. It was situated upon the left side of the animal, in

i the midst of the hepatic cæca. The question why the scallop,

Pecten, is so abundantly supplied with eyes has often been asked

and has never received a satisfactory answer. Dr. Benjamin

Sharp now states that these organs are really phosphorescent and

that as the production of light would be of advantage to the ani-

mal this may possibly explain their abundance. . D. Hart-

man adds new difficulties for the students of conchology by de-

scribing several more “ species” of the much-abused genus Partula -

of the South Seas. There is now not much choice between Par-

tula or Achatina and our own Unio. Heilprin reports a re-

markable instance of vitality in a marine mollusk. Specimens of

Llyanassa obsoleta lived for a year removed from salt-water, and

for several months of this time they were placed in close proximity

to a heated wall where certainly the conditions were not favorable

for them, .

Fishes—Dr. Paul Albrecht, formerly of Brussels but now of

Hamburg, notes the occurrence, in an example of Protopterus

annectens in the Konigsberg Museum, of a pectoral member (the

right), which is forked at the distal extremity. Above this di-

vided fin are two smali outer gills, while there is but one above

the left pectoral. Dr. Albrecht considers the dorsal division as

the ulna, the ventral as the radius. H. H. Giglioli sends to

Nature an account of the capture of a specimen of Mullus barda-

_ Mus which by some means had become tightly encased in a large

Reptiles —Messrs. Mitsukuri and Ishikawa (Quart. Jour. Mic.

Soc.) report as a general result of their studies of the formation of

the germinal layers in the Chelonia, that the development of

the Reptilia harmonizes completely with that of Batrachia.

i Birds.—Some remarkable birds of paradise have been recently

| described by Dr. Finsch and Dr. Meyer (Zeitsch’ Ges. Orn. 11, pp-

369-391). Among them is Faradisornis rudo/p/a-with blue wings

and blue flank-plumes. These novelties were discovered by Mr.

_ Hunstein in the Astrolabe range of New Zealand. Mr. Forbes

_ Mas since collected most of Mr. Hunstein’s species, and also a

Melithreptes and a Pseudogerygone which seem to be new.

r. Forbes’ birds of paradise, gathered in the rainy season, show

the molts and changes of plumage of these birds. M. M.

_ Charbonnel-Salle and Phisalix have studied the so-called “ milk”

986 General Notes. [ November,

with which pigeons feed their young and find that it is nota

glandular secretion (as is the material with which the Callocalia

constructs its edible nests), but is a formation of modified epithe-

lial cells. This material is produced in the cesophagus of both

the male and the female parents until about the twentieth day

after the eggs have hatched.

EMBRYOLOGY.’

WHY DO CERTAIN Fish Ova Fioat?—In a recent paper, by a

Mr. Prince (Ann. and Mag. Nat. History, 1886), his readers are

informed that the buoyancy of certain fish ova is not due to the

presence of drops of oil in the yolk as supposed by Ryder, or

words to that effect. Had my conclusions not been so summa-

rily disposed of by one whose information is clearly not very

accurate or extensive, the writer would not trouble himself to

reconsider the subject of the buoyancy of fish ova. In my Embry-

ography of Osseous Fishes (p. 118), I have stated that “ the buoy-

ancy of the cod’s egg is undoubtedly due to the diminished

specific gravity of the protoplasmic matter of the vitellus, and not

to the presence of any oils. In this respect it represents an unique

type of the buoyant ovum.” This statement, published in 1884,

but written in 1882, is essentially the same as that of Mr. Prince,

published in 1886. Comment is unnecessary.

There are several types of buoyant ova. These are: (1) Those

in which the specific gravity of the yolk is diminished, as in the

egg of the cod; (2) those in which large oil-drops in an eccen-

tric position aid in causing the eggs to float; (3) those in which

a very large oil-drop caused the ovum to float even in fresh

water.

These three categories are also, in all probability, connected by

intermediate kinds; that is, amongst forms of the second series

there are some which are buoyant in water with as low a

gravity as 1.014, while others are not buoyant in water of less

‘specific gravity than 1.025, while those in which the proportion

of oil to plasma is very great, or about as I to 7, are enh? E

water with a specific gravity of very nearly 1.000, or in that wh!

is fre.

As a rule, the buoyant ovum has the oil gathered into a "e

drop embedded in the vitellus nearly opposite the germinal a :

there seem to be few exceptions to this rule. There are also “

very few species known which have buoyant ova without eat

drop, and these are buoyant only in water of rather high Oak

- gravity. Furthermore, as a rule, fish ova which are buoyant st

not adhesive, but float about near the surface singly; the ea

noteworthy exception to this rule is presented by the great pe

oe _ egg-ribbons of Lophius.

~ ap Baited by Jonx A. RypeR, Biological Department, Univ. of Penna» Philadel-

STS ay EST,

= a

fend W

1886, ] Embryology. 987

The great majority of species of both fresh and salt water fishes,

which have heavy, subsident ova containing oil, have their eggs

provided with thick, heavy membranes, which are adherent to

each other or to foreign bodies, or to both. Furthermore, their

€gg-membranes are usually adhesive, with the oil-drops scattered

beneath the surface of the vitellus, or aggregated in a flat, dis-

coidal group beneath or alongside of the germinal disk, and not

very transparent. The whole egg is also usually more or less

colored or granular. The egg-membranes of those species which

have buoyant ova are, on the other hand, characteristically thin

and delicate, so that it is difficult, if not impossible, to make out

the presence of pore canals, while the whole egg is, as a rule, re-

markably transparent. ;

These characteristics seem to show that the buoyant ovum is a

very well-defined and specialized type, which has been developed

in the course of the struggle for existence to serve a very useful

Purpose in insuring the protection and survival of the embryo dur-

ing the hatching period.

_ There are fresh-water forms, also, which have buoyant ova, as

in the case of Macropodus venustus, in which the proportional vol-

ume of the oil-drop is greater than in any other known type. e

oil in this case when liberated at once floats at the surface, as does

e egg when entire, while the plasma of the germ and vitellus at

once sinks. This fact, it seems to me, finally and conclusively

Proves that the pelagic or buoyant habit of many fish ova is due

to the presence of oil aggregated, as a rule, at the vegetative pole

of the vitellus in the form of a single drop. The other conditions

are (1) that the egg be free and not adhesive, with a thin mem-

brane, and (2) that it be immersed in water having a greater density

n 1.014. The one notable exception to the last part of this

eneral statement, viz., Macropodus,} it seems to me, serves to

show that the presence of oil is very important, and may excep-

Bas be the sole cause of the buoyancy of the egg.—/ohn A.

er,

observing the development of the common mackerel, Scomber

|For an “pportanity to study the development of this form, I am indebted to my

hi. P. Seal. :

988 General Notes, { November,

the oil-drop could have been derived was the periblast. That

layer being hypoblastic, so far as its morphological relations are

concerned, it follows that the pigment cells which are developed

around the oil-drop in Scomber, Scomberomorus, Chetodipterus,

etc., arise from the hypoblast.—/ohn A. Ryder.

Lire History or TuatassEma—This very useful memoir

deals with a type, the phyletic history of which is very obscure.

The author concludes that Thalassema is an Annelid in which

The larva finally finds its permanent home in some cavity in @

sand-dollar shell. Here, by means of its preoral lobe, which has

now become long, flexible and muscular, and by the aid of secre-

tions from dermal glands, it arranges for itself rough chambers 10

the sand with which the shell is filled. In this chamber it re-

mains a prisoner. Here it grows to maturity, completely pet

_ from external attack. Its only means of communication with i

_ exterior is through the small oral opening of the sand-dollar she al

_ and through this it must obtain all its food and cast its sexua

| products when mature

_ The speculations of the author as to the origin of irregular seg-

1H. W. Conn, Studies from the Biolog. Lab. Johns Hopkins University, 1, No.

1836. ] Physiology. ae

mentation (on page 370 and infra) do not seem to the reviewer

to be borne out by the facts. On page 373 he says: “ The object

of food-yolk, as is well known, is to enable the young to abbre-

viate its development by having its food supplied, and being con-

sequently able to skip some of its ancestral stages.” Instead of

this being the fact, exactly the reverse is true, as has been shown

by Balfour, Cunningham and myself—/John A. Ryder.

PHYSIOLOGY.

Some Nores on RECALCIFICATION oF Human Teera.!—The

extent to which human development depends upon the proper

utilization of food is such that any fact bearing upon the success

of this process becomes of paramount importance.

Living in a section of country where diet and drink are unusu-

ally deficient in calcific elements, my attention was many years

ago called to the analogous condition of the teeth of children in

that region, which, as a rule, are characterized by a correspond-

-ing deficiency in calcific elements.

Rapid and remarkable changes also occur in the condition of

the teeth of adults—almost in direct ratio to their changes of en-

vironment in this respect. The “ baker’s bread” and other food

Products in most general use by the inhabitants of the region near

the Gulf of Mexico, and more especially by the inhabitants of

cities, are largely divested of calcific elements, while the water

used for potable purposes is almost exclusively rain water, which,

though a good solvent, contains no mineral elements.

The wonderful power of adaptation possessed by our race is

Such that people, living in this region for a number of generations,

acquire the power of appropriating, from the meager supp'y thus

furnished, the necessary elements to produce fairly good teeth ; but

the very large number of residents, not natives of this section,

whose early life and the life of their ancestors, has been spent in

regions where calcific elements were more abundant, and whose

Constitutional habit was accustomed to that abundance, are not

able to assimilate, out of this meager supply, the requisite propor-

tion of limesalts. ey,

The function of nutrition being dual in its character—removing

effete and worn-out material on the one hand, while supplying

the elements to maintain the integrity of the tissues on the other

—the calcific elements, which form the inorganic basis of tooth-

Substance, and which rendered the teeth hard and firm, are car-

ried away, while the supply to rebuild, being deficient in quantity,

the corresponding amount is not restored, the teeth in conse-

quence soon become decalcified and softened, falling an easy prey

to unfavorable conditions.

"Read before Sections F and H in joint session, Buffalo Meeting A. A. A. S.,

oe | 1886, A ek

990 General Notes. [November,

The fact of decalcification has long been recognized in the pro-

verb concerning mothers: “ For every child a tooth,” not, how-

ever, that the material of the mother’s tooth is absolutely taken

away to build up those of the child, as was once taught, but that

the increased demand for building material not being met with

increased supplies sufficient to meet the demands of both mother

and child, the teeth of the former suffer the consequences of lack

of supplies.

The rapid decalcification thus occurring, is not a breaking

down of the organiç structure, and, if the material necessary

to recalcify, is provided in a form which nature can appropriate,

this softening may be prevented, or teeth which are already soft-

ened may be rendered hard and durable. -

Observing these phenomena—this softening of teeth in persons

coming from regions where good teeth are the rule, and the re-

calcification following their return to their old homes—led me to

investigate the relations between environment and the develop-

ment of teeth.

A careful observation of these phenomena not only showed the

utter fallacy of the old dictum, that the teeth were subject to no

changes after maturity, but also showed that there must be a sys-

tem of circulation throughout the entire substance of the tooth,

making this action of the nutrient function possible during the

whole life of the tooth. ;

The fact of decalcification and recalcification, and continued

nutrient action during life, being established by long observation,

suggested the study of the best modes or methods of aiding

nature in the work of recalcification.

Any possible change from ordinary diet, was found, as 4

rule, entirely inadequate ; the natural suggestion of the direct ad-

ministration of the phosphates—the chief inorganic elements 1?

tooth substance—also proved entirely unsatisfactory, and led to

the recognition of the truth that “nature will not take the ele-

ments from any ready-made source, but must elaborate her own

pabulum.”

E Icification observed in the teeth of those visit-

ing favorable regions was zot due to the use of lime in the shape 0

phosphates, and that the difference between the nutrient elements

of these same people, whether in the mountains or in the low-

lands, lay more largely in the water they drank than in the foo

they ate, suggested the administration of aqua calcis ; and on

= was followed by results as eminently gratifying as the use of the

phosphates had proved unsatisfactory. ee

_ A new preparation of lime, in the form of a syrup of Cleef

much greater strength than the aqua calcis, and proportionate E

_ More prompt in its action and effects, has proved still more st

_ fying in its results. i

7 An extended experience of many years has proved that by ti®

1886. | Anthropology. 991

means it is not only possible to restore soft, decalcified teeth of all

ages, but to prevent their decalcification, and also to forestall de-

fective calcification of children’s teeth, and even to improve the

original type; so that we are now able to overcome not only bad

environment but even bad heredity also.

Running pasi passu with my study and observations on the in-

vestigations of the microscopical histologists, the discoveries of

McQuillen, S. P. Cutler, Carl Heitzman, Bodecker, Frank Ab-

ott, A. H. Thompson and others, have demonstrated the exist-

ence of the system of nutrition, which, reasoning æ posteriori, I

assumed and announced many years ago.

The living fibrillæ radiating through the dentinal tubuli; the

Osmotic action between cementum and dentine, and dentine and

enamel, and vice versa, the circulating currents through the areas

of living matter between the enamel rods and.prisms are, to-day,

admitted histological facts, demonstrated by the microscope.

he tooth is raised to the dignity of a living organ, with a cir-

culating system, carrying pabulum to all its parts to supply the

hunger of its needy tissues.

_ A knowledge of these facts, and of the best methods of supply-

ing material to maintain the integrity of the dental tissues, or o

restoring those whose integrity has been impaired, is destined to

ave a far more important bearing upon human welfare than any

degree of skill in operative or prosthetic oral surgery—/. œR.

Walker, D.D.S.

ANTHROPOLOGY."

FOoLK-LORE. —The study of folk-lore may now be said to have

Passed through the collector stage and to have begun to assume

e shape of a science. It was very much so with stone imple-

ments. Not many years agoa man who had a large collection of

atrow-heads and such things was called an archeologist. But

we now call by that name the men who utilize these things to

Spell out the history of human industry and invention. Folk-

lore is to human knowledge, belief, literature, what the stone age

is to the iron age. At first a folk-lorist was a man who collected

Songs, tales, legends, sayings, or who recorded the customs of

agraphic peoples ; he is now one who arranges these in order to

find their law of being.

e folk-lorists of England have been wrestling for the last

ee years with the following questions :

1. The definition, the inclusions and exclusions of the term fo/é-/ore.

2. The establishment of classific concepts for the material included. It is very easy

to say, put things together that are alike; but it is most difficult to settle upon

that characteristic of likeness which will combine our examples into what m

be called natural genera, species etc. oe with this idea of classific con-

nology.

their organic parts, their dramatis persona, their essential incid

| & The anatomy of tales, customs, ices, etc., and the invention of a glossary of

Fa » A ents.

* Edited by Prof. Oris T. MASON, National Museum, Washington, D. C.

992 General Notes. [November,

In Vol. 111 of the Folk-lore Journal (pp. 1-16), Mr. G. L.

Gomme undertakes to answer these questions. He had pre-

viously (in Vol. 11, pp. 285, 311) advocated a systematic effort of

folk-lorists in the same direction, A few definitions are given be-

low to indicate the mental drift of the gentlemen interested :

“ Folk-lore is anthropology dealing with primitive man ” (Al-

fred Nutt).

“ Folk-lore is anthropology dealing with the psychological phe-

nomena of uncivilized man (meaning unlettered as well as sav-

age), and embraces both folk-thought and folk-wont (practice) ”

(E. Sidney Hartland, Folk-l. J., 11, 340).

“ That portion of anthropology which deals with the psycho-

logical phenomena of primitive man” (C. Staniland Wake, Folk-l.

J., 1, 345).

“Folk-lore is the unwritten learning of the people. Folk-lore

is not a science, it is the thing itself. One of the chief objects of

the collection and arrangement of the facts of folk-lore is to gen-

eralize and philosophize, but the generalizations which we arrive

at will not be folk-lore ” (Henry B. Wheatley, Folk-l. J., 11, 347).

“ Folk-lore deals primarily with the survival of primitive cus-

toms and beliefs among civilized races, and is comparable with,

age races. The sanction back of folk-lore is tradition. Folk-

lore is the science which treats of the survivals of archaic beliefs

and customs in modern ages” (G. L. Gomme, 1. c. 111, 14).

“ Folk-lore, ‘ the folk’s learning, all that the folk believe or

practice on the authority of inherited tradition, and not on the

authority of written records ” (Charlotte S. Burne, Folk-I. J., 11,

individualized life, the life of the cultured classes; and the e

folk-life and of culture-life are complementary and mutually cor-

rective divisions of the same mental and moral sciences, the his-

torical sciences, namely, or mental development and of civil prog-

ress” (T. S. Stuart Glennie, Folk-l. J., 1v, 75): saa

_ We come now to the second series of questions, the subject °

classific concepts, the study of “ What should go where,” as

oe Charlotte S. Burne happily puts i

: puts it.

__ Mr. E. Sidney Hartland divides folk-lore into two doparimeti

olk- hought and folk-practice, or still better folk-wont. I like fo p

t better, for the reason that folk-lore does not so much inclu

i ;

1886.] Anhropology. 993

practice. For instance, I may tell you how an arrow-maker or

potter produces his wares, and do it so graphically that a me-

chanic may counterfeit them. But I have omitted the thousand

and one dispensables which the lowly artisan considered indis-

pensable, leaving them for the folk-lorist to glean

Folk-lore is thus divided:

I. FoLK-THovGHT.

I. Tales of all kinds, sagas (world-god, eo elf, ghost-sagas, etc.), nursery

tales, drolls, cumulative tales, apolog

2. Folk-songs; 3. Weather-lore; 4. Prolite; 5. Local and personal saws

ETS 6. Riddles; 7. Folk-speech.

II, FoLK-wonN

I. Worship, every practice designed to propitiate the powers influencing man’s

2. hak 3. Folk-leechcraft; 4. Games; 5. Folk-craft. |

Mr. Gomme gives the following scheme:

I. Traditional narratives ¢

les

(d) Place legends,

2. Traditional customs +

‘(c) Ceremonial customs,

(d) Games,

3. Superstitions and beliefs :

(a) Witchcraft

(b) Astrology.

4. folk-speech :

(a) Popular sayings,

(b) Popular nomenclature.

(d) Jingle rhymes, riddles, etc.

This is amended by Miss Charlotte S. Burne as follows:

Group 1. 7; Sgpreencten narratives :

Class a. Fol

a spate

** c, Ballads and songs.

** d, Place legends and traditions.

an 2. Superstitions, beliefs and practices;

Class a. Goblindom,

ween Astrology.

a connected: with material things.

994 General Notes. [ November,

Group 3. Traditional customs :

Class a. Local customs

c. Ceremonial customs.

d. Games.

Group 4. Folk-sayings >

Class a, Jingles, nursery rhymes, riddles, etc.

*¢ pb. Proverbs,

“ c. Old saws, rhymed and unrhymed,

d. Nick-names, place rhymes and sayings, folk-etymology.

Mr. J. S. Stuart Glennie divides the study of man’s history into

that of folk-life and of culture-life. The classification of folk-lore 1s

identical with the psychological elements of folk-life, correspond-

ing (A) with the most general facts of human consciousness : (1)

An external world, (2) other beings, (3) an ancestral world; (B)

(1) festivals, (2) ceremonies, (3) usages (religious, sexual and oy

cial). Folk-sayings may be classified as (1) recipes (magical,

medical and technical) ; (2) saws (proverbs, tests, riddles) (3), fore-

casts (omens, weather signs and auguries). Folk-poesy may i

classified as (1) stories, (2) songs (mythological, affectional an

historical), and (3) sagas.

ELEMENTS OF FOLK-LIFE AND SUBJECTS OF FOLK-LORE.

I. Folk-beliefs. II. Folk-passions, III. Folk-traditions.

THE EXPRESSIONS OF FOLK-LIFE AND RECORDS OF FOLK-LORE-

I. Folk-customs : Il. Folk-sayings - III. Folk-poesy’

(1) Religious. 1. Recipes. 1. Stories.

1, Festivals. (2) Sexual. (1) Magical. 2. Songs. ree

(3) Social. 2) Medical. / a) "o og

(1) Religious. ' 3) Technical. pe

2. Ceremonies. l fa) Sexual. 2. Saws.. (2) ergs

Social. (1) Prover! ce oy

G Religious. a Tests. (3) _

3. Usages. fe Sexual. (3) Riddles. cais

(3) Social. 3. Forecasts. 3. Sagas. ait

(1) Omens. Folk-m =

(2) Auguries. (1) y fo

(3) Weather- (2) seh

mena (3) Instru-

r men

: \

TA e ʻ lk-

_ Weare not prepared to accept Mr. Glennie’s dictum that fo!

~~ is our lore about the folk, for that would really be culture

1886. ] Anthropology. 995

lore, according to his own definition. Several of the gentlemen

have wisely started their study with the two inquiries, who are

the folk, and what is lore? Señor Alvarez remarks, “The word

folk, German volk, Latin vulgus, Italian volgo, Spanish vulgo,

signifies not the whole of humanity, but a portion of the human

race, who possess a series of common signs, and are really anony-

mous in contradistinction from that other series of men who pos-

sess a notable personality.” He would include practically all sav-

ages and the untutored herd of civilized society.

tion to all that it has added of new embraces, includes much of all

the antecedent ages, grades or epochs. e folk-lorists are, there-

fore, altogether scientific in collecting the lore of savages en masse,

the lore of barbaric and civilized peoples, so far as they are sur-

uwals of times not their own.

Practically, therefore, what do the folk-lorists wish us to col-

lect, and how shall we name and classify our material after it is

gathered? Justat this writing we are inclined to use Miss Burne’s

modification of Mr. Gomme’s scheme.

For the filing of tales the folk-lore society has adopted a scheme,

with printed headings, as follows:

1. Generic name of story (not to be filled up).

2. Specific name.

5. Incidental circumstances.

6. Where published,

7- Nature of collection, (1) Original or translation, /

t (2) If oral, state narrator’s name.

: (3) Other particulars.

8. Special points noted by the editor of the above.

(Signed)

_ ARROW RELEASE—This term applies to the actions of an archer

in discharging the arrow from a bow. To this'topic Professor E.

- Morse has given more attention than any one else, and has

published thereon a monograph in the Bulletin of the Essex In-

nal who have noted the methods of arrow release in any part of

oo world should send their information to Professor Morse, in

a ;

Asan example of diversity in these matters, Professor Morse

says: In the English practice the bow must be grasped firmly;

996 General Notes. [November, .

in the Japanese, loosely. In both cases it is held vertically, bt

in the English method the arrow rests on the left of the bow,

while in the Japanese it is placed on the right. The English

wristguard is worn on the inner and lower part of the arm ; the

Japanese need none, as they fling the bow half round at the mo-

ment of release, The English archer grasps his bow in the mid-

dle; the Japanese near its lower third. In the English method

the string is drawn with the tips of the first three fingers; in the

Japanese the string is drawn back by the bent thumb.

The methods of release characterized are as follows:

1. Primary.—The nock of the arrow is grasped between the end

of the straightened thumb and the first and second joints of the

bent forefinger. It is practiced by children universally, and by

the Ainos, Demeraras, Utes, Navajos, Chippewas, Micmacs, Pe-

nobscots.

2. Secondary—The nock of the arrow is grasped with the

straightened thumb and bent forefinger, while the ends of the sec-

ond and third fingers are brought to bear on the string to assist

in drawing. It is practiced by Zufiis, Chippewas of Wisconsin,

Ottowas.

3. Tertiary —In this release the forefinger, instead of being bent,

is nearly straight, with its tip, as well as the tips of the second

and third fingers, pressing or pulling on the string, the thumb, as

in the primary and secondary release, active in assisting in pinch-

ing the arrow and pulling it back. It is practiced by Sioux, Arapa-

hos, Cheyennes, Assiniboins, Comanches, Crows, Blackfeet, Nava-

jos, Siamese, Great Andamanese. :

4. Mediterranean—tThe string is drawn back with the tips of

the first, second and third fingers, the balls of the fingers clinging

to the string, with the terminal joints of the fingers slightly flexed.

The arrow is lightly held between the first and second fingers, the

thumb straight and inactive. Practiced by nations around the

Mediterranean by modern archers, Flemish (using first and second

finger only), Eskimos, Little Andamanese.

5. Mongolian —In this release the string is drawn by the flexed

thumb bent over the string, the end of the forefinger assisting '

holding the thumb in position. The thumb is protected by a

_ guard of some kind.. It is practiced by Manchus, Chinese, Ko

reans, Japanese, Turks, Persians.

_ The latter half of Professor Morse’s pamphlet is devoted to the

_ €xamination of ancient monuments, etc., in order to ascertain t

methods of release practiced in Assyria, Egypt, Greece and other

- states. This portion of the paper has yielded to the author re-

"sults by no means commensurate with his pains, becauie 2

ancient sculptors were not aware that their accuracy woul’.

nized thousands of years hence. |

1886. ] Anthropology. 997

"Tue Ortcin or Lancuaces—The vice-presidential address of

| the Hon. Horatio Hale before Section H of the American Asso-

ciation at Buffalo was upon the origin of languages and the an-

l tiquity of speaking man. It contains views so original and novel

that it is eminently proper to present a condensed scheme of the

i argument.

1. Among the puzzling questions in anthropology which we

are bound to notice are these two: When did linguistic stocks

: originate? When did man acquire the faculty of speech? It will

i be seen that the origin of languages and the origin of language

are two very different questions.

Mr. Hale, rejecting the old theories which rely upon time, the

dispersion of a monosyllabic parent stock, the dispersion of speech-

Jess man and the origination of languages in different centers,

avers that the origin of linguistic stocks is to be found in what

may be called the language-making instincts of very young chil-

dren. To insure the creation of a speech which shall be the par-

ent of a new linguistic stock, all that is needed is that two or

more young children should be placed by themselves in a condi-

tion where they will be entirely, or in a large degree, free from

the presence and influence of their elders, and that they should

Continue in this condition long enough to grow up, to form a

household, and to have descendants to whom they can communi-

cate their new speech. This theory is elaborated with great care

and the multiplicity of stocks in California made by a camping-

ground of the argument.

The second part of the argument is also accompanied with the

ı revival of startling doctrines, namely, that while the antiquity of

man is incalculable the speaking man is of recent origin, having

occupied this planet at most not over ten thousand years. “If

we are willing to give the name of man to a half brutish being,

incapable of speech, we must allow to this being an existence of

vast and as yet undefined duration, shared with the mammoth,

the woolly rhinoceros, and other extinct animals. But if we term

the beings of that race the precursors of man, and restrict the

name of men to the members of the speaking race that followed

them, then the first appearance of man, properly so styled, must

be dated at about six thousand or ten thousand years ago. And

this man who thus appeared was not a being of feeble powers, a

dull-witted savage. He possessed and manifested from the first

intellectual faculties—intellectual faculties of the highest order—

Such as none of his descendants have surpassed. His speech, we

_ May be sure, was not a mere mumble of disjointed. sounds ; it

_ Was a full, expressive, well-organized speech, complete in all its

| . The first men spoke because they possessed along with

* the vocal organs the cerebral faculty of speech ; “ that faculty was

| instinct of the mind, as irresistible as any other instinct.”

eS aaa

998 Scientific News. [ November,

SCIENTIFIC NEWS?

— The French Association for the Advancement of Science held

its session this year at Nancy. Thirty-two savans contributed

papers upon engineering and mathematics, forty-four upon physics

and chemistry, fifty-eight upon the natural sciences, and fifty-nine

on economics, some contributing several papers. The Revue

Scientifique (Aug. 14) prints in full the address of the president,

M. Friedel, upon the progress of chemistry and mineralogy ; that

of M. E. Collignon, secretary, upon the history of the association

during the year; that of M. A. Volland, mayor of Nancy, and that

of M. E. Galante, treasurer, upon the finances of the association.

From the first of these discourses it appears that spinel, corun-

dum, and rubies have been manufactured artificially, and that the

false rubies are not infrequent in the market. The last meeting,

held at Grenoble, received a total of 342 communications, 100 0

which were upon the natural sciences. Fourteen members were

lost by death during the year, including MM. Bouquet, Bouley,

Jamin, Robin and Dechambre. The number of associates is kept

up to three thousand eight hundred. ‘

Among the papers read in the natural history section were

those of M. Cartailhac, on sepulchres of the stone age, etc. ; of M.

Chatin, on the flora of Paris and Dauphiné; of F. Lataste, on the

tion to the prevalence of burial after decomposition of the on

parts. In the reindeer age this was usual. In Spain the body 0

interesting excursions were taken, one to a spot upon German

soil was frustrated by the ignorant fussiness of the local Ger ean

authorities. The next meeting of the association will be held a

Toulouse, that of 1888 at Oran, Algeria.

— The new Gogebic Iron range is located parallel with the

shore of Lake Superior and about forty miles distant, equi-ex

posed in Michigan and Wisconsin. There are two veins tunning

very near to each other that average 25 to 160 feet in width oe

are of unknown depth. The ore is all within the Bessemer ei

varying about five per cent at the surface but assuming an equ ity

low. ` The veins head nearly south at an angle of thirty d t

from the perpendicular. The quality averages sixty-seven Per sali

: pureh tite and is soft and crumbling. The opening of tte range

a 1 Edited by Wa. Hosea BALLOU, 265 Broadway, New York.

1886.) Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 999

has caused an unprecedented migration, 15,000 settlers having

located there during fifteen months. The range has been exposed

for nearly sixty miles, cropping out on the surface of the moun-

tains and disappearing to 250 feet below in the valleys. The

depth of the ore in the valleys is explained by its soft texture,

+ aga having swept it away, after which soil filled in and cov-

ered it.

— Messrs. J. B. Lippincott Company have in press a “ Manual

of North American Birds,” by the eminent ornithologist, Profes-

sor Robert Ridgway, curator, Department of Birds, Smithsonian

Institution, Washington, D. C. The work is to contain some 435

illustrations suitably executed, and will conform to the geograph-

ical limits, classification, numeration and nomenclature adopted by

the American Ornithological Union. We doubt not it will be one

of the most important, thorough and original contributions to the

literature of the subject which has ever appeared, and presume

that naturalists and sportsmen alike will find in it an invaluable aid.

— The output of the iron ore mines of the Lake Superior re-

gion will be about 3,000 000 tons for the season of 1886, or one-

third larger than in any other past year.

:0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL Society, Dec. 18, 1885.—Professor

Cope presented for the Transactions “A Chemical Study of Yucca

angustifolia” by Miss H. C. de S. Abbott. :

Jan. 1,-1886.—Professor Allen made a communication on the

result of experiments on electric light used in photographing ani-

mals in motion. :

Professor Cope presented a paper on the Intercentrum of the

Terrestrial Vertebrata; also another by Dr. Alfredo Dugés, ot

Guanajuato, entitled “ Sur le Rhinocheilus antonii. ;

an. 15.—Mr. Lesley read a paper on the evident Bedouin ori-

gin of the Skedi deity in the Hebrew Scriptures, commonly trans- |

lated “the Almighty.” He drew the conclusion that it bore a

manifest relationship to the deity Sed introduced into Egypt and

Palestine from Arabia.

Mr. Lesley also communicated a revision of the section of the

Le Roy (Chemung) beds in Bradford county, giving additions to

the list of its fossils, and extending it downward nearly 350 feet,

to include a rich horizon.

r. Ashburner made a communication showing the course of

the barometer during the storm of Jan. 8th. :

Dr. Persifor Frazer spoke upon the application of composite

photography to handwriting.

Dr. H. Allen exhibited an example of Ch/lamydophorus trun-

catis,

VOL, Xx—wno, XI. 66

1000 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [ November, 1886.

Feb. 5.—Professor Cope presented a paper on the structure

and affinities of Amphiuma.

A paper from Dr. Hoffman on Indian tribal names, and another,

by Professor A. S. Packard, on the discovery of thoracic feet ina

carboniferous Phyllocarida, were presented for publication.

Dr. Horn exhibited sketches and anatomical details of Chryso-

bothris.

Feb. 19.—A paper from Professor S. C. Branner, entitled “The

glaciation of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys,” was pre-

sented.

Professor Cope presented a paper on two new species of three-

toed horses from the Upper Miocene, with notes on the fauna of

the Ticholeptus beds.

March 19.—Dr. Brinton presented two papers by Dr. W. S.

Hoffman, one on the Selish language, and another on the Wait-

shumni dialect.

Dr. Horn explained the process among the Piutes of sweeten-

ing acorn meal by percolation with water, so as to render the

product edible. :

Lieut. Wyckoff made a verbal communication on the action of

heavy vegetable or fish oils in reducing heavy combing waves to

long swells.

PHILADELPHIA AcApDEMy oF Naturat Sciences, July 1,

1886.—Dr. Horn exhibited a pair of a species of beetle the

female of which had before been unknown. The female never

passed the larval condition, and had been described as the larva

of an insect of another family. It is among Coleoptera the only

known case of a fertile larval female. The female grub is two

inches long, and its segments emit a green phosphorescence along

their margins. The specimen had been sent from S. Carolina.

An allied form occurs in California.

r. Leidy described a number of parasitic worms from the

rabbit, meadow-lark, etc., etc.

r. G. A. Keenig placed on record the identification of Stro-

-meyerite from Zacatecas. The Mexicans call it “plata azul.” _ It

consists of one molecule of sulphide of silver to one of sulphide

of copper. Quartz is the usual gangue of this mineral.

Aug. 5.—Dr. Horn showed a fragment of the palm Washing-

_ tonia filifera containing a larva of a beetle (Dinapate) recently

- esc im.

= Mr. L. Woolman recorded the discovery by him of a belt of

_ Oriskany sandstone near Pennsville, Lycoming county, Pa. +. r

belt is unmarked in the surveys. “The stone was used for build

_ing, and contained Spirifer arenoides, S. arrectus and Rensellaria

C. Arthur, of Geneva, New York, presented a paper On oo

y and biology of the pear blight.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

Vor. xx—DECEMBER, 1886.—No. 12.

THE SCALLOP AND ITS FISHERY,

BY ERNEST INGERSOLL.

} Tioucs it had long previously been enjoyed by the shore-

towns in New England, the introduction of the scallop as an

edible into the New York markets is as recent as 1858 or ’59.

Now the annual product of the fishery, which is restricted in area

and subject to much variation, amounts to something like 75,000

gallons in all, worth from twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars

at first cost; and New York receives and dispenses about three-

fourths, )

The species of scallop in question is Pecten irradians, which is

common in suitable places all along our coast. Besides this there

are half a dozen other varieties, living at more or less depths, in _

the western Atlantic, one of which, the great Pecten tenuicostatus

of the coast of Maine and the Bay ot Fundy, was formerly highly `

= Valued by the people of that region, but now is too scarce to ap-

_ Pear on the tables of even “the rich” except at rare intervals,

1 The fishery and methods of preparation for market of our scal-

lops present several features of general interest, and I believe that

_ i my study of the matter, a few years ago, as an agent of the

| Census Bureau, I was able to learn some new and suggestive

= Particulars as to the habits of the mollusk.

Though Occurring in a scattered way far to the northward, it is

only between Cape Cod and New Jersey that any commercial

2 Scallop-fishery exists, save at a few points on the Southern coast,

_ 4S at Morehead City, N. C., for a small local trade. Even along

_ this limited extent the fishing is not continuous, but can be fol-

lowed with regularity only in restricted areas of Buzzard’s bay,

Mass., Narragansett bay, R. I, in Peconic bay at the eastern

_ VOL. XX—NO. XII. 67

1002 The Scallop and its Fishery. [ December,

end of Long Island, and at a few minor points on the New Jersey

coast. Long Island sound, New York bay, Sandy Hook and

much of the Jersey shore, have been so thoroughly depopulated

that any fishery for scallops there has been abandoned. Occa-

sionally a supply appears at this or that point, but uncertainly

and temporarily. I was told, for example, by the oyster-planters

on the north shore of Long Island, that scallops were tolerably

plentiful there (particularly at Northport) once in five years. Such

a statement is puzzling, and leads to a study of the habits of the

scallop in search of an explanation.

The proper home of this species (P. irradians) seems to be in

fairly deep water on a firm bottom—either sand or tough mud ;

yet in many localities grassy beds (2. e., eel-grass—Zostera) are

resorted to by it, especially when young. The general habits

and behavior of our American scallops, such as living in com-

panies or ‘“schools,” moving about and darting to the surface of

the water by a quick opening and shutting of the shells, to sink

down again along an inclined plane forward, are familiar to all

readers of natural histories, and closely similar to those of the

European “ St. Jacob’s shells.”

_ The spawn of our scallop is thrown out in early summer, and

so much of it as becomes fertilized and is able, “catches” or

“sets” on stones, sea-weeds and other firm supports, from the

sheltered tide-pools down toaconsiderable depth. By the middle

of July this “ seed ” is about as large as the head of a lead pencil,

and it does not drop from its support for two weeks or more.

The growth is so very rapid that the young scallops have attained

about half their size by the time cold weather checks their ad-

- vancement.

In November the young scallops, spawned the previous June,

will be found in great numbers all along the clean shores of .

ragansett bay from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, an

i ; i t

moving about very actively. Where eel-grass grows 10 ane

quantities, however, the young keep among it, clinging te

stalks until by their weight they bend them down to the bottom

or break them off, and are swept away with the gras

goes adrift in the fall. Should such a tenanted raft of sea-

= -drift into a bay and rest there, as frequently O

s when it

weed

where

1886. } The Scallop and its Fishery. 1003

Great numbers, however, forsake the protection of the eel-grass,

when old enough, and go “dancing” about the neighborhood

till they hit upon the right kind of bottom, when they come to

anchor, and stay there unless driven away by extraordinary

winter storms. Under such an accident ‘thousands of bushels

may sometimes be driven upon the beach, where all are pretty

sure to die by freezing. Referring to this point a Sag Harbor

man told me that if possible, when driven before a storm, they

will work to windward, and he assured me that he had seen them

swimming in schools ten feet deep. These movements are all

within narrow limits, however, for the restricted bounds of the

fishing-grounds are pretty nearly the same from year to year,

though often it is impossible to see why the scallops should not

extend their range. The young are far more active and swift

than the older mollusks. Late in the fall, however, there is re-

Ported to be a regular migration of adult scallops toward the

shore, whereupon the fishing begins; but this statement is not

well substantiated, I fear.

The size of the young scallops is little increased during the

colder months, but in the spring a new period of speedy growth

begins and maturity is said to be reached within a year. At any

rate these mollusks will produce spawn in the June following

their birth, and are ready for market the subsequent autumn.

The rapidity with which they enlarge their bulk, but more espe-

cially their fatness, or proportion of flesh to shell, is remarkable.

Thus a bushel of these mollusks will yield only about two quarts

of “meats ” in October, whereas a bushel from the same locality

at Christmas will turn out a gallon. ;

The fishermen believe that scallops never spawn but once, and

die before they reach the age of three years. Iam not at all sure

this is a fact to the extent alleged, but if so it presents a case

Where the generations follow one another so closely that there

are never two ranks or generations in condition to reproduce at

Once (except in rare individual instances), since all, or nearly all,

i : of the old ones die before the young become mature enough to

Spawn. If such a state of affairs exist, of course any catastrophe,

= Such as a destructive winter gale or the freezing over for a long

_ Period of the water wherein they lie, by killing all the tender

_ Young in a district, will exterminate the breed there, since even

ifthe older ones survive such a shock they would not live long

1004 The Scallop and its Fishery, [ December,

enough. or at any rate be unable to spawn again, and so fail to

start a new generation.

Similarly an unusual attack by natural enemies, or excessive

dredging by men, might in one season extirpate the scallops of a

whole bed or bay. To its active powers of movement and its

migratory habits, the scallop must mainly trust for preservation as

a race, and to the fortuitous drifting in of young upon rafts of

sea-weed most depleted localities chiefly look for rehabilitation.

Whatever the explanation, the supply has certainly decreased

4 along our coast during the past thirty years, even though at cer-

tain points—as in the Peconics—there seems no diminution. The

huge, smooth-shelled Pecten tenuicostatus of the North, as big as

a fruit plate, which formerly abounded on the coast of Maine, has

now become so rare as to be a prize in the cabinet of the conchol-

ogist rather than an edible commodity—a result unquestionably

due to over-greedy catching, and an effective reply to those men

who told me that they thought the more the scallop beds were

raked the more plentiful the mollusks became. Long Island

sound no longer affords profitable fishing, and the depletion there

is attributed by the local fishermen to the fact that in culling their

dredge-loads the little ones were not thrown back. The same

story belongs to New York bay and much of the New Jersey

coast. The irregularity in respect to plenitude, and also of the

size and fatness of these mollusks in the three localities—Buz-

zard’s bay, Cowesett bay (R. I.) and Long Island—where they

are still regularly taken, is steadily complained of.

' Scallops are caught by hand-dredging from small sail-boats.

The dredges are about thirty inches in width, have a scraper-blade

upon the bottom, and in favorable weather several may be thrown

over from each boat. In shoal water an iron-framed dip-net 1s

sometimes used on calm days. It is pretty hard work, and en-

tails exposure to very severe weather.

_ The only edible part of the scallop is the squarish mass of muscle

(the adductor) which holds the shells together, and this part 1s

. skillfully cut out by “ openers,” who have their houses at the land-

ing places where the dredgers take their cargoes to be sold. It

is the buyer, not the dredger, who “opens” or “cuts out” the

meat and prepares it for market. In some places men alone are

ployed in this work—at others women and girls for the most

they will earn from eighty cents to $1.25 4 day. The

1886 ] The Scallop and its Fishery. 1005

work is performed with great dexterity. The motions of an ex-

pert opener are but three after the scallop is in hand. The bivalve

is taken in the left hand, palm up, with the hinges of the scal-

lop toward the opener’s body. The knife—a simple piece of

steel ground sharp, and with one end stuck in a wooden handle

—is inserted in the opening of the shell furthest from the breast.

The upper “eye” is severed through by this movement. A flirt

at the same moment throws off the upper shell. The second mo-

tion cuts the lower fastenings of the eye to the upper shell and

takes the soft and useless rim off. The last motion pitches the

shell into one barrel and the soft and slimy rim into another,

while the eye is thrown into a basin of yellow stoneware holding

agallon. They are then poured from the basin into a large col-

lander, thoroughly washed, placed in clean boxes and shipped

to New York and Brooklyn. As little fresh water or ice is

placed in contact with the “meats” as possible, as it is thought

detrimental to their firmness and flavor. As this is altogether a

winter operation, the help of ice in transportation is not usually

needed.

There is, or ought to be, no waste in the scallop fishery. On

Long Island the refuse is taken by the farmers as manure. These

sea-faring agriculturists have always been accustomed to replen-

ish their half-exhausted lands with the scrapings of the beach

and with the menhaden and other seine-fish which could be

caught plentifully enough for the purpose in the offing—much

to the disgust of every stranger who found himself to leeward of

their fields. This demand failing, there is always sale for the

refuse to the regular fertilizer-factories scattered along the shore.

The shells are preferred above all others by the oyster-planters

as “stools” or “cultch” to spread upon their deep-water plant-

5 i i ” $

ing beds as objects upon which the oyster-spawn may “ set ” and

grow. This wise preference is due to the fragility of the scallop-

shell, permitting it to break into pieces under the strain of a

growing cluster of oysters, each one of which will be benefited

by the separation, which frees it from the crowding of its fellows

and gives it room to expand by itself into comely and valuable

rotundity, instead of remaining a strap-shaped distorted member

of a coalescent group. All their shells, therefore, can easily be

os Sold by the openers to the oystermen at from three to five cents

a bushel. ee

1006 Super-Metamorphism and Vulcanism. (December,

The scallop fishery is of small moment in the United States be-

side the production for market of oysters and clams, and the

statistics (for which I am chiefly responsible) are meager, and not

later than 1881, though I doubt whether this year’s figures would

show much difference from the status of five years ago.

Briefly summarized, these show that about 250 men (and for a

short season at New Suffolk, Long Island, about 470 women and

children, according to Fred. Mather), are engaged in either catch-

ing or preparing scallops, using boats and apparatus worth per-

haps $20,000.

The total product is from 70,000 to 75,000 gallons of the edible

part, as marketed, worth at first hand from $25,000 to $30,000.

About one-half of this comes from Peconic bay, and more than

half the remainder from Greenwich, Long Island. .

id ity tae?

SUPER-METAMORPHISM AND VULCANISM:!

_ BY THEO. B. COMSTOCK.

x it be = that metamorphism has converted Archzan sedi-

mentary strata into the crystalline condition in which those

beds now usually exist, there can be little doubt that some igne-

ous rocks have hada similar origin. We can not detect the

direct evidence of such previous condition in the thoroughly

` fused masses, but there is in many cases no real proof to the con-

trary, to say the least, Now, if these simple postulates be admit-

ted, how can we consistently deny the possibility—nay, the prob-

ability—of the occurrence of all degrees of metamorphism from

the simple baking to the melting effects? Geologists have com-

monly supposed that a well-defined zone of metamorphism has

existed over the earth involving just so much of the sub-stratum

of the crust, never passing the boundary set by the lowest mem-

ber of the Paleozoic series. This view does not comport with

the very gradual transitions observable in all other natural pro-

ducts, nor can it be reconciled with the numerous facts which go

to prove that the great geologic agents of the past are active now

as then, in kind if not in degree.

: _ Really, then, it would be marvelous if extended study of ge

3 paca history should not reveal fluctuations of the metamorphic

-~ zone, above and below the arbitrary stratigraphic boundary

ade pted in the early days of our young science.

ra iieri pn iboa before Section E, A. A. A, S., Buffalo, 1885.

Naga a eS SO see ae

1886. | Super-Metamorphism and Vulcanism. 1007

Without arguing this point further, I desire to present here

some facts which seem to indicate that true Palzozoic strata have

in one region (S. W. Colorado) become involved in the zone of

metamorphism; that is to say, super-metamorphism has oc-

curred. All along the Rocky Mountain chain to the north-

ward the Silurian beds are recognizable, although I have seen

them very much baked in portions of Northwestern Wyoming.

The same succession of strata from top to bottom of the Palzo-

zoic is discernible southward, as a rule, until we strike the great

loop of the continental divide in the San Juan mining region,

where the sedimentary formations skirt the base of the Quartzite

mountains of Hayden’s survey. Here the Carboniferous and

the underlying Devonian are well represented, and insignificant

remnants of supposed Silurian strata occur zm situ. In some cases

these last-mentioned rocks shade down gradually from the un-

modified sédiments to the completely metamorphosed layers, and

occasionally the Devonian limestone is so intimately connected

with the subjacent granite as to form a continuous block of the

two rocks welded together into one mass. Beneath the granites

is a vast formation of quartzite, and the whole section studied by

itself and in connection with the succession of strata in the

adjoining country, seems to me wholly inexplicable upon any

other theory than that of super-metamorphism, involving a con-

siderable thickness of the early Palaeozoic beds, including nearly

all of the Silurian formation.

This idea, although worked out independently by myself, was,

I find, entertained some years ago by Dr. Endlich, who passed

rapidly over a part of the region in 1874. The importance of the

fact, if such it be, of this super-metamorphism appears very evi-

dent when we come to study the history of vulcanism in Colo-

rado and Wyoming. From observations by the writer in the lat-

ter area, in 1873, there seems no doubt that very similar condi-

tions have existed in that great focus of eruption, although the

results have been there much obscured by the lava flows and less

disclosed by subsequent erosion.

Referring to the preceding remarks on super-metamorphism,

we may understand how, with a crust offering excessive resistance,

| othe igneous fusion may be longer continued than in the case of a

_ Volcanic eruption like those of the early Tertiary in the West or

the Hawaiian initial outflows, all of the andesitic type. Von

Richthofen’s series, as exemplified in the order of succession of

1008 Super-Metamorphism and Vulcanism. [December,

the lavas of the Western United Statés is, in the rough; of such

wide application that we must expect to discover more thana

mere accidental cause. The occurrence of onlyone type of lava,

as andesite, trachyte, rhyolite, or. basalt, may be readily explained

as due to the overcoming of the resistance to outflow at one or

other stage of the process of fusion. So, in certain wide areas,

it might be possible for all of Richthofen’s types to be ejected

from as many distinct orographic centers. But in Wyoming and

Colorado two great districts have the old volcanic vents so re-

lated to each other, in the several flows, that one can not avoid

the conclusion that each field ‘has been the seat of one long-con-

tinued period of activity marked by successive epochs of erup-

tion. Thirteen years of study in these regions have revealed

many facts bearing upon these questions. Having elsewhere out-

lined a plausible theory of vulcanism,! based upon these and gen-

eral information gleaned from ‘the West Indies in merely travers-

ing that region, together with the published accounts of leading

authorities, I shall not here attempt a discussion of it, but confine

myself to a simple statement of its main points.

In brief, then, it seems evident that the earliest volcanic out-

flows came out through lines of least resistance in the axes of

folds in the strata. In cases where these lines coincide with the

major folds and the lines of maximum tension, the outflow will

be andesitic or basaltic, č. e., basic. If the tension be not suffi-

cient to overcome the resistance, more acidic material will be

formed at the top of the magma, under the folds, and this may

burst forth as trachyte, or finally as rhyolite, provided that the

resistance is not sooner overcome. Basalt comes last as the deep-

seated, heavier portion of the magma, and in some cases this fol-

lows andesite without the intervening trachyte and rhyolite.

In the San Juan mining region and in the Yellowstone Park

area, the necessary conditions for the successive ejections have

been brought about by a somewhat complicated series of foldings,

-eross-foldings and faults, accompanied by an elastic crust of sili-

a ceous material. The subject is one which can be studied in these

a regions to great advantage, but we are only beginning to under-

stand how simple is the problem which nature has solved with

much variety of detail to suit changirig conditions of environment.

The Geology. and Vein-structure of Southwestern Colorado. By Theo. B. Com-

nsactions Institute of Mining Engineer-, Bethlehem meeting, Mr =

ms a og et A

1886.] Zoic Maxima, or Periods of Numerical variations, etc. 1 009

ZOIC MAXIMA, OR PERIODS OF NUMERICAL

VARIATIONS IN ANIMALS.

BY L. P. -GRATACAP,

N° feature, perhaps, in his geological and field study affords

the palzeontologist more interesting material for his specula-

tions on the conditions of the past, in its zoological bearings,

than the irregular distribution of organic remains in the fossil-

bearing rocks. Not only in the same geological horizon will he

find striking variations in the abundance in which the fossils occur,

as he passes from layer to layer of contiguous and often of the same

beds, but he soon discovers the important fact that localities are

distinguished by peculiar fossils, that a limited range circum-

Scribes the lateral as well as the vertical diffusion of a species, as

far as regards numerical concentration, and that again points or

limited areas present, in overflowing numbers, representatives of

an organism which, generally occurring throughout a wide geo-

graphical range, are at these points illustrated in crowded and

exuberant colonies.

The well-known fish beds, located by Newberry and Worthen in

the Lower Carboniferous limestone of Illinois, are examples of the

first case mentioned, the remarkable localization of forms in Wis-

consin, instanced by Chamberlain and hy him denominated as evi-

dences of “colonial tendencies,” is an example of the ‘second, as

_ also to some extent, though these are perhaps in the main in-

Stances of a different class of facts, the faunal stations of Williams

_ 80 admirably depicted in the papers on the “ Fossil Faunas of the

Upper Devonian,” while the interrupted display of the same

Species in the same line of outcrop in respect to the relative num-

bers. of specimens to be seen or their local disappearance when

the area examined has any considerable extent, corresponding to

a beach line of miles in length, illustrates the third class of facts

which we refer to, as the diminishment westward from Genesee of .

Pentamerus in the Clinton rocks of New York.

= Associated with these familiar facts is the closely related one

-Of the contrasted size of the same fossil species in different parts

_ Of the same formation, a difference of size not always explicable

On the mere assumption of favorable or unfavorable environment,

9f which perhaps the Spergen Hill fossils afford a very pertinent

=» Bulletin U.S: Geol. Surv, No, 3.

| *

IOIO Zoic Maxima, or Periods of [December,

illustration, for, as pointed out by Professor Whitfield; the dimin-

utive fossils of some molluscous species found at Spergen hill

became, at Paynter’s hill, a little over a mile west of the former

locality, much larger, while the Bellerophon and Euomphalus of

the Ellettsville, Ind., beds, greatly exceed in size the same spe-

cies from Spergen hill, and in a less striking way collectors have

become familiar with certain localities where certain fossils as-

sume an unusual or handsome size contrasting with their depau-

perate appearance elsewhere.

A great deal of instructive and careful study has been expended

in recent years, since the advance of research has made natural-

ists better acquainted with the oscillatory character of faunal

populations, upon the perplexing question of the contemporaneity

and succession of fossil faunas, and Barrande, Etheridge, Hall,

Hull and Gosselet abroad, and Williams, Walcott, Call, Clarke

and Matthews at home, have pointed out some of the details of

their results in this investigation, and have already familiarized

the scientific world with the important conception that varietal

faunas or modification of a central or controlling animal facies, or

even sharply contrasted zodlogical aggregations of species may

belong to the same epoch and be laid down in the neighborhood

of each other on the same oceanic or lake flooring.

Our intention here was not to discuss the variations of specific

forms in the fossil-bearing rocks as throwing light upon the syn-

chronous existence of different faunas, their succession, retreat,

reappearance and fusion. It is undoubted that these assumptions

explain and are indeed the chief explanations to be offered for

the varying character of near-lying fossil groups; but we wish to

urge upon the consideration of palzontologists the necessity of

allowing—as far as regards the instances of fossil distribution cited

above, viz., the greater or less prevalence at near horizons or beds

or along the horizontal extension of the same bed of the same

fauna or species—for those irregularities of production of life,

which cause in our present seas different years to become dis-

af : tinguished for a phenomenal abundance of certain forms, as

_ Others to claim a distinction for the abnormal decrease or disap-

pearance of the same forms over the same geographical area.

= Thus a given spot on a coast line, always yielding a particular

__ Species, may in one season become the abode of numbers of these

e i | Amer, Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 1, No. 3.

1886, | Numerical variations in Animals. IOft

same animals out of all proportion to its ordinary census of occu-

pation, and in another season pass, by an abrupt change or per-

haps through a series of less violent alternations, to a condition

of comparative or actual denudation of these residents. The

work of the Fish Commission has made us familiar with facts of

much wider import, when large sections of the oceanic basin

have become depopulated. This latter case appears to be catas-

trophic in its causes, but comes within the scope of our sugges-

tion as to the fluctuating fertility of a species. And the fact be-

comes sometimes apparent that in a restricted region command-

ing amore or less fixed supply of nourishment the size of the

animals will increase in the years of decreased fertility, and cor-

respondingly diminish in the seasons of enhanced productivity, a

relation not unnatural.

To what extent we may parallelize these two classes of facts,

the one dealing with the changing abundance of fossil shells or

remains, either vertically or horizontally distributed in beds of

the same age, and the other exhibiting the varying numbers, in

Separated seasons, of contemporaneous animals along our sea-

| boards, or in our fresh-water lakes, or even, so far as we can de-

termine, in the pelagic areas, is not at first, or in all cases equally

easy to determine. But it is possible to review some considera-

tions bearing upon the general question. _

The observations which may be adduced as bearing on this

question are necessarily widely scattered, and when found are for

the most part concerned with those forms of life which subserve

Some industrial or economic uses, or with those in close relation

with the former, as, for instance, the recorded irruptions of star-

fishes (Asterias forbesit) and “ drills” (Urosalpinx cinerea) in dif-

ferent years upon our oyster beds. In classifying, however, the

efficient causes which effect these variations of animal populous-

ness, without entrenching upon ground more or less speculative,

we may say that the changing abundance of animal forms in

different years or localities arises mainly from:

Ist. Opportunity for or difficulty in obtaining fecundation.

2d. Constitution, rate of growth, habits, etc., of organism.

3d. Character of habitat in relation to bottom. ;

4th. Phenomenal influences, as cataclysms, poisoned or heated

waters, storms, destruction by enemies.

I. Opportunity for or difficulty in obtaining fecundation—That

IOÏ2 Zoic Maxima, or Periods of [ December,

this has an important influence in securing a great or small

representation of the marine animals in modern seas is un-

questioned, though it is always, of course, a variable function of

the more or less rapid-and safe methods nature uses for their

multiplication. Dr. Brooks says :! “ The most critical time in the

life of the American oyster is undoubtedly the time when the

egg is discharged into the water to be fertilized, for the chance

that each egg which floats out into the ocean to shift for itself

will immediately meet with a male cell, is very slight, and it is

essential that the egg should be fertilized very quickly, for the

unfertilized egg is destroyed by the sea water in a very short

time.”

Tryon has suggested that the swimming species of Cephalo-

poda may experience some difficulty in effecting sexual union,”

and the observations of Steenstrup upon the many different ways

adopted in this group of Mollusca for fertilization, justify the in-

ference that under unfavorable circumstances individuals of the

same group may not encounter each other, and the chances for

the fruitage of the same genera be diminished in exact ratio to

the opposite plan pursued by its congeners for their fecundation.

With some of the gastropods sexual union is effected directly,

and no danger is incurred from the exigencies of the unprotected

female ovum searching for the spermatic vesicles in the water.

This establishes a safeguard which favors the multiplication of

those prosobranchiates which possess it, but in other groupe

(Trochus, Scutibranchs, Cyclobranchs) the male elements are dis-

charged into the water, and are then taken into the uterus. This

introduces a risk which must increase or lessen according to the

presence or absence of predatory fishes who devour the spat, the

favorable stillness of the water or its temperature, or chemical

condition, which if abnormal would destroy the germs.

? Bull. U. S. National Mus., No. 27, p. 210.

anual of Conchology, Vol. 1, p. 42

stun ‘Soc. Nat, Hist., Vol. XVIII, p. 284.

1386. ] Numerical variations in Animals. 1013

to maintain the most complete- generative activity, though this

very contraction of size might diminish vitality, disarrange the

seminal function and result in sterility.

The orders of Cladocera, Copepoda and Ostracoda will, in this

respect, be favorably placed in comparison with other crustacean

groups, as in these tribes fertilization of the female lasts during

her lifetime, or at least a season, and in some cases the young

females are born fertilized from the impregnated mother. Thus

favorable conditions with these groups gain a predominating in-'

fluence, as they fortify and assist an already preéxistent advan-

tageous arrangement for security of fecundation.

Amongst fishes advantage will be given to those whose spawn-

ing season is most extended, as with cod, with which, according

to the observations of Professor Sars, it extends over nine con-

secutive months, “a period éxceeding that required by any other

Species of which we have any knowledge.”! These are not only

more likely, with equal vitality, to produce a larger number of in-

dividuals, but they are absolutely favored, by the greater extension

of time, to escape variable inimical circumstances, which latter,

being limited in duration, might, if coincident with the shorter

period of other fishes, greatly impair the prospects of successful

fecundation. The longer period of the cod renders its partial or

entire escape from such disasters more probable. The spawning

season for an individual of shad, salmon, or white fish is only a

few days. But the likelihood of impregnation seems to be dimin-

ished on spawning grounds where strong currents are found, or

during storms, as imense numbers of the eggs are driven on

the shores, or are so diffused and distributed as not to meet the

milt-of the male, and as the egg of the cod quickly loses its

Vitality, great numbers perish. . Under very favorable circum-

Stances such conditions for impregnation might prevail as would

result in an enormous excess of individuals produced, whilst an

Opposite state of affairs would reduce the production to a mini-

mum. Again, an insufficient supply of males would greatly mod-

ify the results of fecundation, as the extraordinary fertility in

eggs of the female amongst fish necessitates the presence of sev-

eral males to accomplish their fertilization. Eggs of fish which

are of such a gravity as not to rise to the surface, unlike those of

the cod and mackerel, come less in contact with the destructive

R Bull. U. S. Fish Commission, Part v.

1014 | | Zoic Maxima, or Periods of [ December,

agencies of the surface, and increase their likelihood of fecunda-

tion by the longer possible period thus secured for a greater

number,

Such fish as spawn in rivers or in the later seasons, as early

summer, may be in some instances, or most, more likely to per-

petuate a greater number of offspring than their congeners whose

eggs in the ocean are exposed to greater risks of destruction or

at seasons when storms are prevalent, though this consideration

is again modified by the possible presence in either case of more

numerous enemies.

Ti. Constitution, rate of growth, habits, etc., of an organism —

It is obvious that conditions favorable for the preservation and

maturization of individuals will prevail when these conditions

harmonize with the habit and life-history of the organism, and

that the reverse will ensue when they do not, and other things

being equal we may expect those species to predominate at a

locality whose habits, life-history, etc., are either best adapted to

the conditions of that locality over its competitors, or are of such

a character as to withstand conditions which, generally unfavora-

ble to all forms of life, are met by it with better safeguards and

greater resistance,

Under unfavorable conditions the longer time in which the

young of a marine shell are free before attachment, the less

chance for a survival of a great number, and at such a time a

selection would be effected in favor of those species whose spat

most quickly came to rest, and these would subsequently become

phenomenally frequent. '

\gain, the power of an organism to endure change of temper

ature, as compared with others less able to survive variation in

this respect, obviously works in its favor, and may lead to go

apparent excess of individuals. As Semper says,’ “a small fali

-in temperature may be as injurious to one animal as a great fall

_ to another, while a third species may be wholly unaffected by

either.” Mdébius has designated animals under this regard as

_ eurythermal and stenothermal, as they are qualified to endure

, : _ reat or small variations of temperature. This will also have ”

_ important influence on size, as Möbius has shown that the sa

species of mollusk living on the coast of Greenland or in the Bal-

tic was in the former case large, in the latter dwarfed, and he at-

tae eg S 2 hry ot hd be ea ng ee

1886.] Numerical variations in Animals. 1015

tributed it to the variable temperature in the latter locality. Rate

of growth as it is rapid or slow, continuous or periodic, will affect

the numerical display of a species. Thus Pecten irradians grows

very quickly, stops in winter, beginning again when the scallops

are one year old, and on the whole this irregularity may be re-

garded as tending to diminish numbers. Power of locomotion

again assists its possessors to escape from unfavorable surround-

ings or from enemies. Swarming or migratory habits, as with

lobsters, affect the numerical proportion of the species at a given

point in certain seasons, but probably has little influence on the

fertility or abundance of individuals. Those animals, as crusta-

ceans, which cast their integuments, are exposed to accidents

during their exposed period, and should they then be subjected

to especially destructive influences would suffer great numerical

depletion.

III. Character of habitat in relation to bottom, temperature,

depth, isolation, salinity and supply of food—The overwhelming

importance of these very variable factors upon the numerical ex-

hibit of a species is most evident, and has, from many points of

view, been emphasized by naturalists. Thus the nature of the

bottom exercises a predisposing selective influence upon mollus-

cous distribution. It is well known that oysters are killed in the

mud, that the round clam affects sandy and muddy shores, the

edible muscle flourishes in a variety of positions and surround-

ings, that the Purpura loves rocky headlands, and so on indefi-

nitely, Thc temperature of the water exercises an accelerating

or retarding influence upon the growth and spawning of both

shells and crustaceans according to their nature in this respect,

and the increase or decrease of heat. In the matter of living at

different depths, animals vary extremely, and the sudden settling

of a shore or even rapid secular change would tend to destroy

the classes of shallow-water loving organisms. Isolation permits

close interbreeding, subjects the species to more uniform condi-

tions, and if it diminishes the volume of water seriously modifies

-the size, as shown with Lymnza by Semper and Hilger, while of

course it induces peculiarities of local development. Salinity

varies in sea water and enclosed areas of the ocean, and distinctly

modifies the abundance of animal life. The character of the

— Supply of food and its abundance is an obvious element of great

importance in the production of sea animals.

1010, Zoic Maxima, or Periods of Numerical, etc. { December,

LV. Phenomenal influences, as cataclysms, poisoned or heated

waters, storms, shocks, destruction by enemies —It is enough to

mention these to suggest their frequent occurrence. But the

effect of these in geological time has been, doubtless in some

case, to produce deposits of animal forms in sudden abundance,

as when a fauna by their action has almost simultaneously dis-

appeared. Thus Dr. Newberry has suggested that the fish beds

of Illinois afford evidence of a wholesale destruction of fish life,

possibly through submarine explosion, diffusion of poisoned

vapors, etc., while the phenomenal disappearance of animal life

from the Atlantic, as shown by the observations of the Fish

Commission in 1881, is a modern instance of a widely extended

‘catastrophic obliteration of animal forms.

Zoic Maxima.—lt is evident that if all the above conditions

were favorably conjoined for some reasons, in accordance with

the needs of any special organism or any group of organisms, |

that these would attain probably an unusual fertility, and that

if passing such a climax as this the succeeding years would de-

velop conditions in the same way, as strikingly unfavorable, we

would have in the marine deposits, accumulated during these

years, two contrasted beds of respectively rich and barren con-

tents connected or graded into each other by intervening beds o

diminishing productivity in shell remains. But if after a period

of phenomenal activity and success in the production of" forms

. such as instanced, a disaster, such as those we have suggested

under the fourth heading, took place, then we would have a bed

gradually reached through lower beds of increasing numer ical

strength until it crowned the series as a climacteric to be suc-

ceeded by later layers quite devoid of animal remains. _

These periods, when all the conditions are most favorable for

animal multiplication, we designate as Zoic Maxima; and as

_ they are in accordance with the requirements of the greatest

, number of specific forms we call them Pan-zoic Maxima ; he

oe they are so combined as to exert a selective influence, permitting

: __ the preponderance of one or a few species, or directly contribu-

_ ting to the propagation of this one species both in numbers an

in size, we call them Sol-zoic Maxima.

_It is certainly true and known that such Zoic Maxima, both

in their general and restricted manifestations, are known in our

ntemporaneous faunas. It is probable that the varying ge s

A fossil remains in the beds of fossil-bearing rocks are @U

1886. | The Peabody Museums Explorations in Ohio. 1017

THE PEABODY MUSEUM’S EXPLORATIONS IN

HIO

BY F. W. PUTNAM.

CAN truly say a new chapter has been added to our archzo-

logical work in the valley of the Little Miami. First, you

must know that our camp is pitched by the side of the great pile

of earth we turned over in our explorations of the group of altar

mounds on the land of Mr. Michael Turner. We have been

` working, with occasional necessary intermissions, on this and the

adjoining farm of Mr. Benjamin Marriott for the past five

years, and this is the place where we have discovered-so much of

aig within the great earthwork of which the following is a

sketch

A hill through which two danas. thirty feet deep, had been

cut, separated the hill into three parts. Around the central por-

tion a wall of earth had been raised, making a perfect circle 550

feet in diameter. In this inclosure was a large mound, and near

ita small one. These mounds proved of great interest, particu-

larly the large one, with its stone wall four feet high, surrounding

an altar of burnt clay. We found several human skeletons in the

clay outside of the stone wall and two others on the wall, with

various objects made of copper, shell and stone. The earth taken

from the ditches was used to make the graded way from the top

` of the hill to the level land below. This graded way connects

With an embankment of earth, somewhat oval in shape and 1500

feet in its greatest diameter, in which are two openings. Oppo-

_ Site the northern opening is an earth circle 300 feet in diameter,

= and in this isa small mound which we have not yet explored.

Opposite the eastern opening is a mound nine feet high. It was

-On this mound that we began our work at this place five years

ago. At the foot of the graded way is a small circle inclosing a

burial mound. North of this circle were two. other burial

= Mounds, and east of it was the great group of altar mounds,-

around each of which was a wall of stones four feet high, built

below the surrounding level of the field. These mounds con-

tained from one to seven altars, formed of clay, on which fierce

: various kinds, particularly of copper, the 60,000 pearls, sheli-

ds and other objects, also = wonderful little figures of terra

$ hiies T XH.

1018 The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. [December,

cotta representing men and women. All these objects had been

thrown into the fires upon the altars, evidently as sacrifices or

burnt offerings during an important ceremony. The thirty-seven

pits with the singular tubes or “ flues” connected with them; the

concrete layer of gravel and iron over them; the singular struc-

ture of the great mound, a hundred feet in diameter and twenty

feet high; the great pit containing the many skulls, some of

which had holes drilled in them, arranged around two skeletons

placed in ashes, all serve to show that connected with this group ,

of mounds were extensive ceremonies of the deepest import to

the people. -

These extensive earthworks, made on such an elaborate scale,

and containing evidence of the wealth of the builders as well as

of the ceremonial character of the works themselves, necessarily

lead to the conclusion that there must have been a large number

of people connected with their construction. The beautiful loca-

tion of this group of earthworks on the level second terrace

which extends for miles in the fertile valley, and is surrounded

by hills from which flow never-failing springs, indicate that in this

region there must have been a large population; yet the few

human remains which we found in the mounds within and with-

out the encircling wall are not sufficient to meet the require-

ments. Such remains were probably those of distinguished per-

sons, buried with special honors ; but where were the other dead?

i Then the many altars, or basins of burned clay, which evidently

had been used over and over again, and were, with two excep

tions, empty when the mounds were erected over them, are indi-

cations of cremation, and yet where were the burnt human re-

mains? Cremation in open fires will, necessarily, leave many

fragments of calcined bones with the ashes, unless such remains

~ are burnt over and over again, and special pains taken to reduce

all to ashes, and yet we had found, in a niche of the stone wall

~ about the large altar mound, the burnt bones and ashes of but

= One individual. If these altars were the places where cremation

took place, what then had become of the remains? These were

questions which Dr. Metz and myself often asked of each other,

and we felt confident that somewhere near by there must be 4

general burial place for the common dead, and many a hunt was

3 for surface indications. On the north and south sides of

‘urner’s barn, and west of the large circle, are two scarcely

1886. | The Peabody Museums Explorations in Ohio. IOIQ

perceptible ridges, similar to other slight irregularities here and

there over the field. Owing to the cultivating of this place for

many years and to the tramping of cattle in the barnyard, these

ridges have been more or less worn down, and a few water-worn

stones have been exposed on the surface. These were first no-

ticed by Dr. Metz about a year ago. As soon as our camp was

pitched we took a look at these water-worn stones. They were

fragments of limestone filled with fossils of the Silurian age

lying ona deposit of gravel over which, long ago, had flowed

the waters of the Little Miami. What more could these stones

have said, had they been endowed with speech, than that which

was evident to our eyes: “ We were long ago brought here by

men.” Here, then, was something more to be revealed in con-

nection with the history of these great earthworks of an ancient

race, and here we would dig a trench on the morrow. We started

Our trench sixty feet west from the wall of the circle, and well

outside of the slightly elevated portion, which, we were afterward

told by Mr. Snyder who remembers the place fifty years ago,

Was formerly much more marked, and had the appearance of a

long low mound. Digging down to the hard pan, we carried our

trench westward for about ten feet, when we came to three large

_ Water-worn stones regularly arranged, side by side, in the gravel

hard pan.

It is necessary to fully understand the character of the earth in

which we were working in order to appreciate the labors of the

ancient people at this place, and I may well add our own in

Making these researches. First, the surface consists of a few

inches of dark soil overlying from eight to ten inches of clay.

Under this clay is a layer of coarse gravel containing many peb-

bles, some of considerable size, but all colored and firmly ce-

mented by an amount of iron which, from some natural cause, is

far in excess of that in the gravel all about. This iron-cemented

§tavel forms an irregular layer of from one to four feet in depth,

: _ and under it is a loose, uncolored gravel mixed with sand which,

_ Judging from a pit near by, is certainly thirty feet in depth, and

Probably much more. It may be that this is part of the great

terminal glacial moraine which Professor Wright has been tracing

across the State of Ohio. In this iron gravel the stones we found |

_ Were imbedded. On cleaning off these stones we found that

there were others at right angles to them, and soon we made out

1020 The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio, [ December,

that we had at last discovered a grave. Would it prove to have

any connection with the people who built the earthworks and the

altar mounds? Our hopes were great, and they were soon to be

Fealized as far as one grave could tell its story. On carefully

removing the earth from the eastern end of the grave, close to

the stone, we discovered the toe bones of a human skeleton, and

after several hours of the hardest kind of trowel digging, we had

the satisfaction of exposing the skeleton lying at full length on

its back. Its skull, slightly turned to the right, rested on a flat

stone at the western end of the grave. On the left side of the

skull was a large sea-shell of the genus Busycon, from which the

central portion had been removed, a common method of making

vessels among the various peoples of America, and often found

in burial mounds and graves from the Gulf States to Michigan.

With the bones of the neck were several shell beads, also of a

common form, and as widely distributed over the country as the

Busycon Shells The arms were extended at full length along

each side, and inclosed by the bones of each hand, resting on the

hips was a spool-shaped ornament (which our explorations have

proved to be ear ornaments) made of copper, and like those

found with several of the skeletons in the mounds of this group.

We have at the museum ear ornaments of this character from

burial mounds in various parts of Ohio and west to the Missis-

sippi in Illinois, and from Central Tennessee, but I have never

found them in any of the several thousand stone graves of the

Cumberland valley which I have explored, nor have we founda

trace of them among the several thousand graves associated with

the singular ash. pits in the cemeteries which we have explored mo

the Little Miami valley, nor with the skeletons buried in the

= stone mounds nor in many of the simple burial mounds of Ohio.

They seem to be particularly associated with the remains of a

people who practiced cremation to some extent, and who built

many of the great earthworks of the Ohio valley. That it is an

ent form of ornament, made from native copper, there can be

dants or conquerors of this people in later times; and it is

atin a all the recent Tudisn graves I have opened

avail Seo that the form “i the oroare may have

uliar etr of ornament has not oreen

10 doubt, although they may have been made also by the de- —

1886. ] The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. 1021

found; and if they were ever thade by the whites and furnished

to the Indians, I have never happened to find any that showed

evidence of the fact. We have certainly found them under such

conditions in Ohio that they must have been buried with their

owners long before the discovery of America. Then again, all

we have found have been made by hammering pieces of native

copper, and not by casting the metal.

By the side of the right tibia of the skeleton in the grave wasa

Copper pin, a wooden bead covered with thin copper, a few long,

slender flakes of flint, and a fragment of some kind of an orna-

ment made of shell. These long flint knives are of the same

shape and character as the well known obsidian flakes from Mex-

ico, and we have found them, as a rule, associated with copper

far ornaments like those in this grave. They are sharp edged,

and are as good knives as the Mexican flakes. While speaking

of them in general terms as flint, they are in reality flakes struck

from several varieties of stones, many of them being of a bright

red jasper and others of chalcedony. The wooden bead covered

with copper is of the same character as others we have taken from

the burial mounds in which we have found the copper ear orna-

: Ments. Close to the right hand and hip, but two inches above

them, and covering a space a foot in diameter, were a mass of

fragments of burnt human bones, with bits of charcoal mixed

with ashes. These remains of a cremated body had been gathered

from the place where it had been burnt, brought to this grave and

Placed by the side of the body at the time it was laid in the grave.

The close contact of the remains to the finger bones of the skele-

ton, which were not disturbed, was sufficient evidence of this.

Here, then, in one grave, we had found the evidence associating

~ it with the altar mounds and the rest of the earthworks about, in-

ce dependently of the fact that the grave itself was within the earth

wall Surrounding all the other works. We had found evidentiy

the burial place of the people, and this was abundantly confirmed

Eis 3

as our work progressed.

We have now for two weeks been engaged in exploring this

_ burial place, and during this time we have discovered eighteen

graves, four large deep pits, and several holes dug in the gravel,

as well as places where there had been fires, and numerous other

interesting facts, many of which by themselves would be trivial,

but which, when they are all put together, will give a far better

1022 Lhe Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. [December,

idea of the customs and works of the people who made the great

earthworks in Ohio than it has been possible heretofore to obtain.

All other explorations in the State have been fragmentary. No

other systematic work has been attempted, and hence we have

had plenty of theories built upon partial facts. We have much

to do before the exploration is completed even of this single

group.

To give a detailed account of all we have found during

these two weeks would, I fear, draw too much on the patience,

and I shall only cali attention now to a few of the more in-

teresting points. Individuality had its exemplification in this old

cemetery, the same as it has in our modern ones, and the modifi-

cations are so great that no two of the graves thus far discovered

are alike. In one instance there were no stones about the skele-

ton; in another a carefully built wall had been made of long,

narrow, flat stones, and a regular wall, four layers high, had been

made in the same way that a mason lays bricks, but without

mortar. In some graves flat stones were placed at the bottom;

in others the skeleton was firmly imbedded in the gravel, while

in one the body had been placed on a thin layer of clay placed

over the gravel. In one grave there were two skeletons, one ex-

tended at full length on its back and the other crowded into the

grave by the side of the right leg of the first. A child was

placed ina small circular grave, the body having been so arranged

that the head and the feet were not far apart. Most of the graves

were comparatively shallow, extending from six inches to a foot

into the layer of gravel. The deeper the grave the better the con-

dition of the skeleton. One grave was dug to the depth of nearly

four feet in the gravel, and was seven feet long by four in width.

- At the bottom was a pavement of flat stones, fourty-nine in num-

ber. On these stones the body had been extended, and the grave

had been filled up with over three hundred stones, all of which

had been brought from the river bed, nearly a quarter of a mile

_ distant. Over these stones six inches of gravel had been placed,

es _around and over which other stones had been regularly arranged.

: grave and caused the skeleton to decay, only a few fragments be

ing left. The graves were not covered with large stones, a

the case with the stone graves of Tennessee, and there is but!

The free percolation of water through the stones had filled up the _

ST Tg pn OE SE Te re i

common between the two. Another class of graves "o

1886.) The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. 1023

basin-shaped, small in size, and carefully made of flat stones. In

them we found burnt human bones and ashes. In one was a pipe

carved from stone which had been burnt with the body, and in

another were fragments of a burnt copper ornament.

I must give an account of the graves which were of particular

interest.

Grave No. 5 in our notebook was six feet six inches long, two

feet nine inches wide, and one foot eight inches deep, measured

from top of the stones. It was made with care, and the stones

were carefully placed so as to form a substantial wall. The bot-

tom was completely covered by four large, flat stones, on which

the skeleton lay on its back. The skull was at the east end of

_ the grave. When the body was put in the grave the knees were

drawn up, the left hand rested on the body, and the right was laid

straight along the side. The result was that the bones of the left

hand were found in close contact with the upper ends of the tibiz,

Which had fallen down between the femora. In the bones of each

hand was a copper ear ornament like those I have mentioned.

In the corner of the grave, near the bones of the left foot, was a

large sea shell, from which the central portion had been cut away.

_ Near this was a little cup carved out of stone, two canine teeth of

a bear, each with lateral perforations, and in each tooth was the

chalky remnant of a large pearl, Close to them was a large crys-

tal of galena, and a knife made of a long flake of flint. On the

Same side of the grave, nearly opposite to the shoulder and partly

under the side stones, were eight of the copper ear ornaments in

a bunch, and under them a long bone point. We did not dis-

Cover them until we had taken out the skeleton and began to re-

Move the stones, for it is our rule always to remove everything

Placed by human hands, and to turn over every inch of dirt pre-

viously disturbed. On taking up the flat stones, which were

firmly imbedded in the gravel, and had their edges covered by the

Side stones, we found the following articles, which must have

been placed where we found them before the stones had been put

down. Under the second stone (there was nothing under the

first) near the center was a copper bead and smail thin pieces of

iron, probably meteoric, but it has not yet been anatyzed, and it

May prove to be bog iron which has formed in that place. As

we have found several ornaments made of meteoric iron on the

S of the mounds in this group, as well as two good-sized

1024 The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. [December,

pieces of an iron meteorite, I strongly suspect that this iron will

Prove to be the same. Under the third stone, were two disks or

halves of a copper ear ornament. These were several inches:

apart, and must have been so placed when the stone was put

down. Near these was a wooden bead, with a thin covering of

copper.. Under the next, or fourth stone, were several of the long

flint flakes or knives, and eight inches from the edge of the stone

was a small copper celt. These deposits, under the stones of

which the body was tobe placed, certainly suggest the offerings

of friends at the time the grave was prepared, and the various

other objects placed in the grave with the body can, with equal

reason, be looked upon as the property of the deceased, or as

friendly offerings. At all events they are important as proof that

the individuals buried here belonged to the people who built the

mounds, as these several objects are of the same character as the

many we have found on the altars, and with the few skeletons in

the burial mounds of the group.

Grave 15 of our notes was remarkable for the care with which

the walls, sixteen inches high at the head and foot, were made of

four layers of flat stones, while along the sides, in the clay above

the gravel layer, were simply a row of stones. The skeleton was

lying firmly imbedded in the gravel, extended at full length on

its back, with the skull at the west end of the grave, while the

toe bones were against the opposite stones. The skeleton thus

extended the full length of the grave, which was six feet three

inches, As with nearly all the adult skeletons, there was a cop-

-~ Perear ornament in the bones of each hand. On the breast bone

was a copper band. At the neck were two shell beads, and near

the left shoulder was a flake knife. A few inches from the left a

foot were about twenty of the long flake knives, carefully laid oe

together, as if they had been Tappi in a piece of skin or es

when placed in the grave. :

With two other skeletons we found celts made of soft coal. :

16 se were- perfectly made, with fine smooth edges aid polished i.

, in exact imitation of the ordinary stone celt or hatchet; —

aiy would have been worthless for the uses to which stone

re 24 it is li that they were ornamental or oae o

ly to one more grave, No. 18 of our notes. This

t ioe. and

mass of gravel a little over seven fee

1836, | The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. 1025

nearly three feet in width, around the edges of which were small

Stones, eight to twelve inches long. This mass stood up eight

inches from the gravel layer under the clay. Removing these

Stones and gravel, we found loose gravel filling a pit just seven

feet long and three feet four inches wide. At the depth of two

feet we came to hard undisturbed gravel, and on this was a hu-

man skeleton extended at full length on its back, with the skull

at the south-east end of the grave. The bones were firmly imbed-

ded in the gravel, and so dry that great care was necessary in re-

moving this matrix. However, after six hours of unremitted

labor with small trowel and brush, they and the several objects

associated with them were all uncovered and left in place, even

to the finger and toe bones, and a photograph was taken showing

everything in place. In each hand was one of the copper ear orna-

ments of the kind I have referred to so often. The finger bones

were so arranged as to show that these ornaments had been

clasped in the hands at the time of the burial of the body. An-

other of these ornaments was on the neck bones in contact with

the under jaw. On each side of the copper ornament was a canine

tooth of a bear, with the lateral perforations. Partly over the

bear’s tooth, on the left side, was a piece of native copper, which

had been hammered roughly into a flat, thick, irregular sheet.

This is without holes, and is probably an unfinished ornament.

Above this, and close to the skull, was a small copper cone, like

Many found on the altar of the great mound. Near the right

shoulder was a large sea shell, like the others I have mentioned.

= This skeleton, as it lay in the grave, measured five feet ten inches

_ from the top of the skull to the tip of the great toe, and the in-

_ dividual was not far from five feet four inches in height when

= living. With the exception of a portion of the sacrum, which had

entirely disappeared, this skeleton was taken out in a perfect con-

_ dition. The decay of the sacrum was owing, probably, to the

fact that a small round stone had fallen in such a way as to

__ allow water to percolate around it.

This skeleton is a good illustration of the absurdity of the

common notion that as soon as skeletons which have long been

buried are exposed to the air they fall to dust. I always have a

quiet laugh when I read notices of that kind, and you may put

all such accounts down to the inexperienced and clumsy work

_ of the person removing the skeleton. The fact is that it requires

1026 The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. [December,

great care to remove the earth from about the bones, and very

few persons will take the time to do it properly. As soon asa

bone is uncovered most persons attempt to remove it at once,

and of course it goes to pieces. Now if a skeleton is in dry earth

' or gravel, and is very dry and crumbling, the proper mode of

procedure is to uncover the bones with great care, loosening the

earth with the point of a small flat trowel and removing it from

the bones by means of a small broom, or clothes brush, then let

the moist air come in contact with the bone, or, if the air is

very dry and hot, sprinkle the bones with water and let them

absorb all they will. In this way the particles of bone swell and

interlock, and after a while the bone can be safely taken up by

avoiding force in removing it from the earth. In case the bones

are in wet clay or earth the matrix must be removed with great

care. In such cases the bones are soft and spongy and they must

be allowed to remain in place until they have dried off; but they

must not be exposed to the full heat of the sun, otherwise they

will crack and splinter as they dry. Of course instances often

occur where we find only minute fragments of a skeleton in a

grave, all the rest having passed through a chemical change and

been reduced to its earthly particles; but that every bone found

in a grave can be preserved by using proper care I know from

long experience to be the case. I may also call attention to the

fact that the state of perfection of the skeleton, outside of certain

limits, is not evidence, by itself, of the antiquity of the bones, as

the conditions of burial, as well as the character of the bones

must be taken into account.

In our exploration of this burial place we found three large

pits which were covered with gravel and stones, like the grave I

have just described. These pits had been dug through the com-

pact iron-cemented gravel below the clay, even to the depth of

five feet, and all the material taken from them had been carr ied

away. The pits were then filled with ashes and burned earth,

= and covered with several inches of gravel and stones, like a

ee. grave. The sides of the pit were not burned, so it is evident pa

the ashes were not from fires on the spot. There were seve

places uncovered by our excavations near these pits or g

_ where fires had been made on the clay or gravel, but the sent

had been removed, and hence it is probable that they had a

it in these carefully marked pits. But what had become of t!

ETS, O E S Se RE

SSA n =

1886.) An Interesting Connecting Genus of Chordata. 1027

It is to be remembered that in the great mound of the group

of altar mounds there was a layer of gravel two or three inches

thick, which we have called the concrete layer. This gravel was

cemented by a large amount of iron, and it has been a puzzle

where the iron came from. It was far too great in amount to

have been derived from the clay in the mound above, and be-

sides, the gravel of the same layer, about the edges, was loose

and light without any mixture of iron. Now this iron gravel

from the burial place is of the same character as that forming the

concrete layer in the mound, and it therefore seems probable that

these pits must have been dug for the purpose of obtaining it.

As this gravel had been used during the extensive ceremonies

which must have taken place at the time the mound was con-

structed, the very place from which it was taken seems to have

been held sacred and the pits therefore filled with burnt material,

covered over and marked in the same manner as some of the

graves. This again is further evidence of the connection of the

burial place and the ceremonies which took place there with the

altar mounds, The more we examine into the details of this

wonderful group of ancient works, the more interesting and in-

Structive they become. We have already spread before us the

outlines of a grand picture of the singular ceremonies connected

with the religious and mortuary customs of a strange people.

There are still some touches to be given before the picture is

complete, but it is more perfect than any other that has been

drawn, and as our work goes on we may yet be able to fill it out,

and finally present it as a perfect whole.— The Boston Herald.

"ry?

AN INTERESTING CONNECTING GENUS OF

CHORDATA.

BY E. D. COPE.

F is well known that the only orifice in the cranial parts of the

carapace in those so-called fishes of the Old Red sandstone,

s Pterichthys and Bothriolepis, is single and median, and is trans-

= Versely placed, so as to cover the space occupied by the orbits

_ and the interorbital region in such Vertebrata as have the eyes

_ Superior and close together. In the genus Cephalaspis, which

has been also supposed to bea fish, two orbits and an interspace

a ete about the Saari: po in the cranial buckler.

1028 -An Interesting Connecting Genus of Chordata. [December,

There is found, lying in the median orifice of Bothriolepis, a bony

valve, which is quite free all round. This has been supposed to

represent the interorbital part of the carapace, and the uncovered

parts of the orifice, at each of its extremities, have been supposed

to be the orbits. An examination of numerous specimens of

Bothriolepis canadensis Whiteaves, has lead me to oppose this lat-

ter view. I have, on the contrary, considered the entire orifice to

be probably homologous with the “ nasal pouch ” of the lampreys,

and the mouth of the Tunicata and of the invertebrates.’ This

character, together with the absence of lower jaw, would refer the

genus to the Marsipobranchii or class of lampreys, or to the Tu-

nicata. From its considerable resemblance in the carapace to the

tunicate Chelysoma, and in the lateral arms, to Appendicularia, I

referred Bothriolepis provisionally to that class.

The Cephalaspididæ are more like fishes than the Pterichthyi-

dæ, in that they have a distinct head and distinct orbits. They

have, however, no lower jaw, and thus approach, if they do not

enter, the Marsipobranchii. But they have no nasal pouch or

nostrils, as has been observed by Dr. Lankester. This character

separates them widely from either fishes or Marsipobranchii. It

also gives color to the supposition that the orbits in this family

represent the extremities of the median orifice of Bothriolepis.

A highly interesting specimen, which I owe to the kindness of

my friend, R. D. Lacoe, of Pittston, Pennsylvania, throws consid-

erable light on this subject. It consists of the cast of the cranial

| and nuchal buckler of a vertebrate allied to, but different from,

— the families above mentioned. The fact that it is derived from 4

higher geological horizon than any of them, that is, from the.

} Besides the typical specimen

buckler are in my possession-

the fact

e of Ceph-

of Bothriolepis. And this median orifice is divided into BE

al parts by a narrow longitudinal septum. The parts are wee

e The two mê-

ifices perforate the middle of the region which is occupied

1886.] An Interesting Connecting Genus of Chordata. 1029

by the plate of Bothriolepis, but differing from it in being contin-

uous anteriorly and posteriorly with the rest of the buckler.

This structure makes it probable that the median orifice of the

Pterichthyidz represents both protostome (nares) and orbits, and

that these orifices have become differentiated in later forms. The

protostome in Bothriolepis is covered by a probably movable

valve. That the organ of smell should have been differentiated

from a primitive mouth is altogether reasonable in view of the

close relationship subsisting between these senses; but that the

sense of sight should have had acommon orifice is not to be antici-

pated. The recent re-

markable discovery of a

_Tudimental eye in the pi-

heal gland of lizards does —

not throw much light on

the subject, since true

eyes coexist with it in

those animals, and the

median eyes of the Pter-

ichthyidæ had left the

_ field long before the ad-

He ` vent of Reptilia, in a phy-

~ logenetic sense. From a

. chronological point of

_ View it is not unlikely

_ that the present new ge-

: = brings such forms Fic. 1.—Mycterops ordinatus Cope. Cranial

closer. together, since and cocks buckler from above, 3% natural size.

there is little doubt but that the Pelycosauria of the Permian

Possessed large pineal eyes.

= The new genus here referred to may be named Mycterops, and

the > Single species which thus far represents it may be called Myc-

ollows :

acute spine-like

directed back-

‘suture from the cranial buckler.

The species characters are as foll

aoa “dite rounded. Cas .

1030 An Interesting Connectiug Genus of Chordata. {December,

centic, the flat or concave border inwards; the long diameter an-

teroposterior. Nares close together, each with a subquadrate

outline, and separated from the orbit by a space a little greater

than its own diameter. Their borders are slightly elevated, espe-

cailly above a shallow groove that connects the orbits behind

them. Nuchal plate twice as wide as long, its posterior outline a

little convex, its posterior external angle reached by the acute

apex of the cephalic spine. The median anterior border of the

cephalic buckler is damaged so as not to give its exact outline,

but the muzzle was probably broadly rounded. The lateral bor-

ders are nearly straight, and they diverge to near the base of the

spine. The external border of the latter is gently convex, and

turns inwards posteriorly. The surface is marked by longi-

tudinal lines of flat tubercles, or raised areas, which are separated

by narrow grooves, and have various lengths. Those on the

head are usually as wide as long, while those on the nape are

generally much longer than wide. Those near the borders are

always broken up, and those at the side and in front of the orbits

are irregularly distributed. Cephalic border and spine smooth.

The size varies. The type specimen has the head as large as a

fully-grown Amiurus catus, but parts of others indicate individ-

uals approaching double that size.

Returning to the presentation of the systematic relations of

this form, it may be observed that in spite of its resemblances

to the Pterichthyide and the Cephalaspidide, it must be dis-

tinctly separated from both families. Supposing it to possess

a ventral plastron like that of the former and Coccosteus, v;

which is probable, we must not attach too much importance |

associated with the latter. er

ers of its orbits and nares, a”

1886.] An Interesting Connecting Genus of Chordata. 1031

must be kept well apart from them on this account. The rela-

tions of all these forms to known types may be tentatively repre-

sented in the following scheme:

Class TUNICATA.,

Order ANTIARCIIA, Vent posterior; ? mouth as well as protostome present.

Fam. Bothriolepidide. Caudal region absorbed.

Fam. Prerichthyide. Caudal region present.

Class AGNATHA. ithout lower jaw or scapular arch.

subclass MONORRHINA (Marsipobranchii). A single median nareal orifice.

Order HyPERroARTI (Myxinidæ).

Order HYPEROTRETI (Petromyzontidæ).

Subclass DIPLORRHINA. Two median nareal orifices.

Fam. Mycteropide. Cephalic and ventral bucklers.

ass PIS

| i Subclass 1. HOLOCEPHALI.

se 3. SELACHII,

4. TELEOSTOMI.

Order PLAacocanorner. The structure of the fins of this order being unknown

it cannot be referred to either of the three primary divisions (Crossoptery-

gia, Chrondostei and Actinopteri) with certainty. Supposing it to belong

to the last named, it agrees best with the Isospondyli, but apparently differs

in the lack of some of the elements of the suspensorium of the lower jaw.

There is no sufficient evidence of affinity to the Nematognathi, which is

probably a modern group.

The Mycteropide then occupy a position between the Anti-

archa and Marsipobranchii (Monorrhina) on the one hand and the

_ fishes on the other. They would, with the latter, enter the

|“ cladu” Amphirhina of Heckel, if that division be regarded as

_ defined by the presence of two nareal orifices. But this disposi-

tion of them would violate truer affinities to the orders without

lower jaw and scapular arch, for which the term Agnatha

(Haeckel) may be retained. As compared with Cephalaspidide,

_- Mycterops approaches nearest to Didymaspis Lankester. The

: Mycteropide may be regarded as descendants of the Pterichthy-

didæ, and ancestors of the Placoganoidei. Since the latter occur

€arlier in geological time (Devonian) than the Mycteropida: (Car-

boniferous), we may suppose that Mycterops is a descendant of a

Silurian or Devonian type with a single median nostril, which

will be a family of Monorrhina. From this hypothetical family

the Arrhina (Cephalaspidide, etc.) and the Marsipobranchii (lam-

Phreys) may then be regarded as descendants. The former los

nares by degeneracy; the latter are degenerate in other respects.

1032 _ Recent Literature. { December,

EDITORS’ TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE.

The editors of the American NATURALIST wish to call

the attention of American students to the fact that their pages

are open for the prompt publication of summaries of the results

of original investigation, which for any reason it may be deemed

desirable to place on record before the issuance of the completed

account. Looked at merely as a means of securing priority, prê- ,

liminary communications are not over praiseworthy. The credit

of making a discovery should not be the sole end of investigation,

and an attempt to hurry into print so as to forestall some other

worker in the same line is not highly meritorious. The student

of science should have a higher aim; and happily quarrels for

priority are far less frequent than they have been in years past,

‘thus indicating that a higher end has been sought. Preliminary

communications have another value than the mere anticipation of

another. They place before others, working in the same line, an

outline of the results at the earliest possible moment, and thus

often furnish invaluable assistance. Fully as great is their value

to the student working in another line. The completed paper is

usually long and frequently prolix, so that it is a severe drain

upon the time to wade through it for the facts desired. The pre-

liminary communication, on the other hand, is usually short and

concise; it contains only the more salient facts and omits the

larger part of the speculations. In this way it becomes more

easily available for reference, while it does not withdraw from the

value of the more detailed article, From these two points of

view the preliminary communication is valuable and deserves en-

couragement.

"ry

RECENT LITERATURE.

Smitn’s “ ALBATROSS ” Crusracea!— The dredgings of the

. S. Fish Commission steamer Aıbatross are turning up a WOR-

by American

done in Eu-

-derful deep-sea fauna, and placing the work done

| recorded

Jents in this direction at least on a par with that

ee In the present paper 107 species of decapods are

as ee been taken in the collections of 1883 and 1884, an

but two are described as new in the present paper.

zit hs rb on the decapod ——- 1 aw “ A dri

Novel-

edgings

mn of 1884. artis

seas 101, 20 Plates, 1 1886.

1886. ] Recent Literature, 1033 -

ties are, however, but a slight test of the value of any contribu-

tion to science, and the present instance is no exception. The

principal feature of this paper is the extent to which it increases

our knowledge of the bathymetrical distribution of the forms

enumerated, and points out the coincidences between depth of

occurrence and points of structure. These lists record forty-

three species as coming from below the 1000 fathom line, while

twenty-two were taken from a depth greater than 2000 fathoms.

The greatest depth recorded is 2949 fathoms, and from a single

station of this depth, about 350 miles east of the mouth of the

Chesapeake the trawl brought up Acanthephyra agassizit, A. brevi-

vostris, Notostomus vescus, Hymenodora glacialis, Parapasiphaé

sulcatifrons, Hepomadus tener and Sergestes mollis. Of the per-

tinence of the first of these to these great depths some doubt is

expressed, as at another time one was caught swimming at the

Surface. All of these forms it is to be noted are macrurous,

Some of the deep-sea forms are colorless, but most are of some

bright shade of red or orange. Their eyes have undergone a

careful superficial examination. In some the black pigment, the

corneal facets and the like are much as in shallow-water forms,

€xcept that occasionally the eyes are smaller. In Munidopsis and

Pentacheles the visual elements are apparently lacking, while in

others the pigment is light colored and the visual elements are

reduced in number. In some of the deep-water shrimps there is

a curious accessory organ borne on the eye-stalks which may be

Phosphorescent in its nature. It certainly deserves careful histo-

logical examination at competent hands. In the eggs, too, a

peculiarity is noticed. Among the shallow-water decapods the

eggs are usually so small that it is a matter of some difficulty to

Cut sections of them, but in these deep-water forms they attain a

very considerable size, those of Parapasiphaé sulcatifrons having

a diameter fifteen times those of the common soft-shelled crab,

Neptunus hastatus.

We have a little fault to find with the present paper. The

first is that which is found in all of the Fish Commission publi-

Cations, but which here is not as bad as in embryological work—

=~ the use of process cuts. We notice a tendency to the creation

of new families which hardly seems to be warranted. Until we

know more of the morphology of the crustacean gill it hardly seems

advisable to make gill-structure alone the basis of forming higher

_ groups and separating widely species which are in all other re-

_ Spects closely allied.

_ SEDGWICK AND Witson’s Brotocy.'—We have several guides to

laboratory work in biology, but the great fault with all is that

_ they stick too closely to the anatomical and developmental sides

a GS SRE Ding SA a PS cE eR Ps ee fe ee ee E S T ee a:

= SG a a ag EEEE a i i ah S i och

Ct Sie eta = ñ 5 z 5 = =

| General Biology. By WILLIAM T. SEDGWICK and EDMUND B. WILSON. New

York, H. Holt & Co. pp. vi + 193. 1886.

VOL. Xx—wno. XLN. €9

1034 Recent Literature. [ December,

and almost entirely ignore the physiological aspect of animals

and plants. A student has gained a valuable fact when he has

learned the name and structure of any organ, but until he knows

its function and the method in which it is performed his knowl-

edge regarding it is incomplete. The present hand-book aims to

teach the physiological as well as the morphological side, and

thus fills a place which no other work in the English language

does. It is, we understand, but a portion of what is intended, and

this fact should be borne in mind in the following account. Still

in its present condifion it is admirably adapted for grounding.

students in biology. There are numerous exercises for the labo-

ratory, and the directions for these are excellent; they tell the

student what to do, but leave him to describe the results, thus

giving the instructor a test of the student’s progress.

The first three chapters are devoted to the phenomena of life

and the study of organic matter, then follows a chapter on the

cell, after which comes the study of special forms. Of these

there are two, the fern—Pteris, and the earth-worm ; and we

agree with the authors in regarding these two forms as well

adapted for study by the beginner as any. The book is well

illustrated, most of the cuts being original, and though made

by photo process they are usually clear and free from broken

lines. A rather careful examination of the book reveals but little

which calls for adverse criticism. On p. 123 it is stated that “all

the organs of the body are originally developed from the walls

of” the ccelom of the earth-worm, which is not true in the sense

in which it will ordinarily be understood. Again one might

criticise the use of “ ectoblast ” and “entoblast” (p. 178) for the

inner and outer germ layers. Several other terms have priority,

and it seems needless to multiply terms for each stage in the de-

velopment of the organism. To be consistent the authors should

replace the the term archenteron on p. 149 (not on 148) by me-

senteron. The proof-reading has been very well done, and the

graphical errors rare. The printer is, however, to be criti-

cised, as he has used a badly worn font of type, and broken and

battered letters are much too common. With the exception of

these few points and a few of like character we have nothing but

praise for the book. .

WHITPIELD’s BRACHIOPODA AND LAMELLIBRANCHIATA OF reer

Jersey. —This quarto volume is occupied with the Brachiopo

: and Lamellibranchiata of the Raritan clays and greensand marls.

Only three genera of Brachiopoda, Terebratula, Terebratulina and

Terebratella, occur in New Jersey, and only two species, T z

_bratula harlani and Terebratella plicata, are at all abundant. T E

plastic clays, some of the layers of which yield large numbers 9

3 Whitfield’ s rf 7 7 the Raritan clays and green-

sond mare of News J BY Re. Waira T. L: Murphy Sate printing

1886. | Recent Literature. 1035

plant remains, furnish ‘five species of lamellibranchs, three of

which are new. The lower marl beds are much richer, and from

them Mr. Whitfield describes a new Pecten, an Amusium, a

Trigonia, Gouldia, Lucina, Diceras and several other genera are

also described. To the fauna of the middle marls are added a

Modiola, a Cardita, two Crassatellze and one species each of Crio-

cardium, Petricola, Veleda, Caryatis and Periplomya are added to

the beds at the base of the upper marls, while fifteen new species

enrich that of the Eocene marls. The concluding chapter con-

tains an account of the Unionide from the clays at Fish House,

Camden county, two new species are described. There are thir-

ty-five full-page illustrations and a map.

RECENT Books AND PAMPHLETS.

Prestwich, T—On underground temperatures, etc. From the Proc. Roy. Soe. Lon-

886.

——On the agency of water in volcanic eruptions, 1886. Both from the author.

Woodward, A. S.—On the relations of the mandibular and hyoid arches in a Creta-

s shark. Ext. P. Z. S., London, 1886. From the author.

Baur, G.—Ueber das Archipterygium und die Entwickelung des Cheiropterygium

aus dem Ichthyopterygium.

— Ueber die Kanäle im Humerus der Amnioten. Both from the author.

Manigault, G. E.—The Black Whale captured in Charleston harbor Jan., 1880.

Proc. Elliott Soc. From the author.

“razer, P_—Report of the American Committee of the International Congress of

Geologi Ext. P. A. A. A. S., Aug., 1886. From the author,

Boettger, O.—Diagnoses Reptilium Novorum. Sep.-abd. a. d. Zool. Anz., No. 231,

1886,

— Zur Kenntniss der Neritinen Chinas. Ext. Jahrb. d. Deut. Malak. Gess., 1886.

Both from the author.

Marshall, W.—Ueber die Knéchernen Schadelhocker der Végel. Haarlem, 1872.

Fiom the author.

Leche, W.—Ueber einige siidbrasilianische Hesperomys-Arten. Sep.-abd. a. d.

Zool, Jahrb., 1886. From the author.

Walcott, C. D.—Classification of the Cambrian system of N, America, « Ext. Amer,

_ Jour. Sci., Aug., 1886, From the author.

Minot, C. S—Notes on histological technique. From the author.

Call, E.,'and Pilsbry, H. A.—On Pyrgulopsis, a new genus of Rissoid mollusk, with

descriptions of two new forms. From E, Call.

Call, E.—On certain Recent Quaternary and New fresh-water Mollusca, Rep.

Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci.. Vol. v, 1886. From the author,

Hennessy, H.—On the fluid state of bodies composing our planetary system. Proc.

Roy. Irish Acad., 1886. From the author.

Ryder, J. A—An exposition of the principles of a rational system of oyster-culture,

; Ext. Rep. Fish Com., 1886.

——On the development of viviparous osseous fishes and of the Atlantic salmon.

_ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1885.

= — On the development of osseous fishes. Ext. Ann. Rep. Com. Fish, and Fish- .

i eries, 1886.

— The development of the Mad-minnow; etc. -

1036 Recent Literature. [ December,

Ryder, F. A.—The development of Patella, etc.

—The early development of Julus terrestris, etc.

——tThe metamorphosis of the American lobster, etc. Amer, Nat. Extras, June,

July, August, Sept.

On the value of the fin-rays and their characteristics of development. Proc. U.

S. Nat. Mus., 1886. All from the author

We ae , H. D.— The £ RAPS ety of fowls (Somgamus aigres = earth-worm its

original host. Ext. Bull. Buff. Soc. Poe rro

Crane, Miss A.—On a eatin of he eich Atrtiy coat in “MS. by the late

Dr. T. Davidson. P. Z: S., 1886. From the a

Proc, Roy. Soc.—Obituary notice of Thomas Tdio, LL D.

Foaie, C. H.—A review pe the American Gasterosteide. Ext. Proc. P. A. N.,

S., 1886. From the auth

Bigenmann, C. H., and Fo hie ê; N W.—À Tagg ee * the fishes of Beau Blos-

creek, PERE county, Ind. Ext. idem. From the autho

Wiedward, A.—A new locality for Haplophragmium cassis, a rare Foraminifer. N.

icros, 2 1886 e

Carisivy, 4,.—Sur au bois de Renne, PR ae gravures, decouvert à Montgaudier.

tke Redux, July, 1886

—Sur l’ Age de la Faune de Hot du Léberon et de- Maragha. Ext. Bull. &

1l. Soc. Gei l., 1886.

—— Sur un nouveau genre de Reptile trouvé dans le Permien d’Autun.

EER REE entre Te et le sphénoïde chez Phomme.

ne du pied chez homm

‘tease chez l'hom

Backhouse, 7.—On a idik of eepe from the Foster bed. Ext. Quar.

Journ. Geol. Soc., 1886. From the

Pile k R.—Note on some Wy arses ae w Red Crag. Ext. Quar. Jour. Geol.

Soc., Aug., 1886.. From the author.

— eiti Mammalia. Supplement 1. Paleontolégi¢a Indica, 1886. Both from

the author.

Stowell, T. B. Ae perveni nerve in the domestic cat. Amer. Philos. Soc.,

1886. From the author

Pelsener, P.—Notice sur les aaa décapodes oo meestrichtien du Limbourg. Ext.

rown

Osborn, H. F.—The origin of the corpus callosum. 1886. fioa the author.

Morris, C—Reverse vision. Proc. P. A. N. S., 1886. From the author

gesesop i Wa ous Meek, S. E—A revision of the American species of me

genus Gerres, P. A. N. - 1886. From the author

Megy R.—Table des Matierés du Manuel de Paléontologie, traduit par L. Dollo»

: Librariè F. Savy. Paris. Tao che publish

yy Z.—Note sur les ligaments ossifiés des p S de Bernissart. Ext.

. d. Biol., Gand, 1886.

i Mf, L- -u sur les Reptiles et Batraciens recuellis, par M. Storms date A

-Region di Canpark Ext. Bull. Mus. Roy. Bel g., 1886. From the an ™

—— Premiére note es Cheloniens Landeniens ——— eee) de la Belgique-

_ Ext. Bull. Maa. zon i 1886. Both from the

Shufeldt, R. W.—On injuries of the pia in aek and aia of repair. Ext.

: Jour. Comp. Med., 1886. From the author

Wat. fon Sci.—Report for the year pone Washlitgthes, 1886. From the depart-

burn urner, C. Ars and Hil, F. ESSEE Bernice coal basin.

1886. ] Geography and Travels, 1037

Ashburner, C. A.—Borings for oil.

Lesley, J. P,—Pressure, quantity, composition and fuel value of rock. as,

Carll, J. #—Preliminary report on oil and gas. The last five, advanced copies from

the Rep LS Penna. From the survey,

Williams, A.—Mineral products of the U. S. 1885,

Dunwoody, H. H, C.—Monthly weather review, 1886. From the U., S. War Dept.

Selwyn, A. R. C.—Descriptive catalogue of a collection of the economic minerals of

Canada. Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886. From the author,

Clarke, F. W.—Work done in the division of chemistry and physics 1884-5. Bull.

U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 27

Williams, G. H.—Gabbros and the associated Hornblende rocks Bull. U. S. Geol.

Surv., No. 28. %

White,C. 4.—Presh-water Invertebrates of the N. American Jurassic. Bull. U. S.

Geol. Surv., No. 209,

Cope, Æ. D.—The Origin of the Fittest. Svo. D. Appleton & Co. From the pub-

lisher.

—:0:

GENERAL NOTES,

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.'

America.— The Ruins of Copan, etc.—A. P. Maudsley (Proc.

1038 General Notes. [ December,

Maudsley describes the ruins of a town which he believes to have

been the’ Chacujal of Cortez. Here the houses are of the same

long and narrow form but were roofed with thatch, and are of in-

ferior Construction.

American News—Up to August 27, fifty-three sheets of the

general topographical atlas of the United States have been pub-

lished. The forces of the Geological Survey are at work in Massa-

chusetts, Northern Virginia, Central Arizona, and in the gold

region around, Oreville. Two topographic parties and one

hydrographic party are, according to “Science,” at work on the

re-survey of San Francisco bay. The Coast Survey is also at

work on the transcontinental arc, with telegraphic longitude

parties at Salt lake and Ogden.

EUROPE AND Asta—Lake Leman.—From a paper read by Pro-

fessor Forel before the Association of Swiss Geographical

Societies, it appears that there are two parts in Lake Leman, one

small and shallow, the other large, deep and Alpine in its char-

acter. The two are separated by the Yvoise bank or bar, which

is really a glacial moraine, as shown by the flints dredged up.

Knowledge of the central portion of the lake is still very incom-

plete. The fragments of rock, sometimes brought up from a depth

of sixty-one metres, are covered with moss of a beautiful green—

a fact that seems to show that light penetrates to that depth. It

has been discovered that the river Rhone flows in a sub-lacustrine

_Tavine.

The Pamir-—The last issue of the Izvestia of the Russian

Geographical Society contains a map of the upper course of the

Amu-Daria between the 36th and 41st degrees of latitude, and the

66th and 76th degrees of longitude. The whole of the Pamir ap-

pears on this map according to the recent surveys and barometric

levelings of the Pamir expedition, while a number of other sur-

veys are taken into account. i

M. Krendowsky (Memoirs Kharkuff Soc. of Naturalists) de-

votes a paper to the estuaries of the Bug, Dnieper, and other

smaller ones in the neighborhood of Kherson and Odessa. He

gives the character and geological history of these estuaries,

which are now shut off from the sea by their sand-bars, and have

come mere elongated salt lakes. ;

The Geographical and Statistical Dictionary of the Russia?

Empire, commenced more than twenty years ago, is just eri

pleted. Its great value, says Nature, is in the excellent geograph”

ical descriptions of the localities treated, including not only ca

separate government of Russia, Siberia, Turkestan and the ae

casus, but of the seas that border Russia, and of their islands. 4

_ geology, fauna and flora have also received ae atento

_ there is a complete bibliography. An appendix 1S P ty

- giving iptions of pote ack as the Thian-Shan, Ferganah,

ICSi

1886. | Geography and Travels. 1039

and Transbaikalia, which were much explored during the publi-

lication of the dictionary.

PACIFIC IsLanps.— Captain Bridges’ Cruises.—Captain C. Bridges’

notes upon cruises among the Pacific islands (Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc.,

Sept.) give a good idea of the present condition of the islands

visited. Inthe southern section of the New Hebrides the tem-

perature ranges from 62° in July and August, to about 92° in

January and February. The natives of Aneiteum are devout

Christians. Among the Melanesians of these islands, communi-

ties of Polynesians preserve themselves distinct. The staple pro-

duct is copra, the dried pulp of the coco-nut, and several white

traders are engaged in procuring it. On Sandwich or Vaté, the

women shave their heads completely, while on Espiritu-Santo

they leave a ridge of hair from poll to forehead. The houses are

neat and clean; on some islands the unmarried men sleep ina

special house.

The people of the Solomon isles are good seamen. Their

canoes, except as New Britain and New Ireland are approached,

have no outriggers. The New Britain people go quite naked,

and lack the vigor of the Solomon islanders. They are the only

cannibals of the region who are not ashamed of their cannibalism.

It is not etiquette in New Britain to ask a man his name, it should

be asked of some one else. Captain Bridges mentions a curious

mode of shark-catching practiced by the Kingsmill islanders.

They tow from a canoe a large line with an open noose. Through

the centre of the noose is passed a small line with a bait on the

end. As the shark follows the bait, it is hauled in, until at last

the fish has his head in the noose, which is quickly tightened.

The people of the Ellice islands are all Episcopalian Christians,

while those of the Gibert islands are partly Christianized.

The Marshall island men are tall, the women singularly short.

The dress of the latter consists of two ornamented mats tied

around the hips so as to resemble somewhat a sleeveless and low-

necked gown. On these islands and some of the Carolines the

women tattoo the hand and fore-arm in such a way that they ap-

pear covered with open-worked mitts. The money of Yap (Car-

Olines) is in the form df disks of arragonite, like great grindstones.

They are quarried in the Pelew islands, and some pieces weigh

three tons. The people of Ni¢guor and Greenwich islands, two

low atolls of the Carolines, are almost gigantic, and are now ruled

by queens. In the Pelew islands the younger men have large

“club-houses.” Women may not enter the club-house of their

own village, but may without losing caste visit that of the next.

The constitutional government of Tonga seems to be a success.

Most of the Tongans are now fearless horsemen, though man

Can remember the time when there was not a horse in the Archi-

= pelago. The people of the Louisiades are in physique and knowl-

1040 General Notes. [ December,

edge of the arts inferior to both the light and dark races of S.

E. New Guinea. The peculiarity of macrodontism, z e., the ex-

tension of one tooth over the space usually occupied by two or

three, was noticed among the men of Rossel island. While in

the south of New Guinea the natives are in the stone age, in the

north they use shell implements.

The New Zealand Earthquake-——Dr. Hector’s preliminary re-

port upon the recent volcanic eruption in New Zealand enable

some idea to be formed of the magnitude of this convulsion of

nature. The outbreak commenced at half-past two on the morning

of June roth, byan eruption from the top of Wahanga, the northern-

most summit of the Tarawera range. This was in a few minutes fol-

lowed by a more violent outburst from the summit of Ruawahia,

the central peak of the same range, and this was shortly afterwards

followed by a terrific explosion from the south end of Tarawera

itself. For two hours vast quantities of steam, pumice-dust and

stones were poured out. A great crack or fissure was formed

along the east face of the mountain, and Mr. Percy Smith reports

that the whole east end was blown away, the débris covering the

country for many miles. Up to this time the earthquake shocks

_which occurred were not very violent, but about 4 A. M. came a

powerful earthshock, attendant on the outburst of an immense

volume of steam from the site of Rotomahana lake. By 6 A. M.

the period of active eruption had passed; but the town and

vicinity of Wairoa were smothered in the mud condensed from

the cloud of steam and solid matter thrown up from Rotomahana.

The formerly abrupt sides of Tarawera are now every where

softened by great slope deposits of material ejected from a range

of volcanic vents, seven of which were ina mild state of eruption

when visited by Dr. Hector. From the south-western extremity

of Mt. Tarawera a great fissure runs south-westward for some

seven miles. The eastern side of this has a nearly straight wall,

but the western is very irregular and is continually altered by

the falling in of its walls as they are undermined by the action

of seven powerful geysers which at irregular intervals throw up

great volumes of boiling water, stones and mud to a height of

600 to 800 feet. Lake Rotomahana has disappeared in this

chaos. The largest mud geyser occupies the site of the Pink

terrace, another that of the White terrace. At its north-

ern end this fissure commences in a great rent 2000 eet

deep, 500 wide, and 300 deep on the side of Tarawera

and the southern end is a bold semicircular escarpment. .

of material. One mud geyser, about a mile sout i iar

te is on comparatively high ground, and has built E 7

7 mound which was several hundred feet high a few: 027

eif a moond y

after the chief eruption.

a aata a aa aa a a a a a ea

18386. ] Geology and Paleontology. 1041

AFrica.— African News.—Lieut. E. Gleerup, a Swede in the ser-

vice of the Congo Free State, has recently crossed Africa from the

Congo to Zanzibar. He had been left for nearly a year without _

supplies at the remote station at the seventh cataract of the Stan-

ley falls, and finally left for Europe by the aid of funds furnished

by Tippoo Sib, the rich Arab trader. The journey to the east

coast occupied six months. Reports by the late Sir P. Scratch-

ley, British Special Commissioner to New Guinea, gives a de-

scription of the characteristics of the natives of different portions

of the coast of British New Guinea. The littoral seems to be

well inhabited, except some portions of the north-east coast. Two

tivers, the Davadava and Hadava were discovered in Milne bay,

the latter river a large one. Dr. Paulitschke writes, in the

_ Mittheilungen of the Geographical Society of Vienna, upon the

two hydrographic problems of the Somali peninsula, that of the

Upper Webi, and that of the Juba. He believes that we must

seek the source of the Webi in one of the lakes of Gurage.

GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY.

NOTICE oF GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ALONG THE EASTERN

SHORE`OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN MADE BY ProFfeEssor H. M. SEELY AND

Prest. Ezra BraInarD.—In this paper is announced the discov-

ery of quite an extensive new fauna in limestones, apparently of

the age of the Birdseye limestone of the New Yor series, near

the mouth of the Otter creek, Lake Champlain, which is of much

interest owing to the fact that only about fifteen species of fossils

have hitherto been known from the formation, The new forms

described in the paper from this one bed are fifteen in number,

comprising one Brachiopod, six Gasteropods and nine Cephalo-

One of the Gasteropods has given reasons for the estab-

lishment of a new genus, Lophospira, with Murchisonia bicincta

Hall, and M. helicteres Salter, as the types. The bed of limestone

the form of the Birdseye and Black River than with the Chazy;

the known species being principally from the Birdseye. Ortho-

cras bilineatum Hall, Maclurea affinis Billings and M. logant

Murch., Asaphus canalis Conrad, Bathyurus extans Hall, Harpes

oltawaensis Billings and /Z/ema crassicauda (Wahl.) Hall. The

1042 General Notes. [ December,

the Harpes was described originally from the Trenton. About

the specific identity of the latter there is yet some doubt.

Besides the fossils already mentioned, the paper also includes

descriptions of another new genus of gasteropod—Calaurops

(a shephed’s crook), for a form collected in a bed some twenty-

five or thirty feet below and just above the Maclurea bed, having

the form of a Euomphalus in the inner coils, but afterward be-

coming deflected in a straight line to the extent of six inches.

Also two Trilobites and a Cyrtoceras from the Birdseye of Isle La

Motti.

Since the meeting at Buffalo and during the week previous, the

author of the paper, in conjunction with the persons named in

the title of the paper, have made other collections at the same

locality, which has resulted in the discovery and determination of

several other species, the descriptions of which are nearly ready

for the press, and illustrations of them for the engraver. The

fauna of the Birdseye limestone at that locality is known now

to consist of the following group of fossils:

Genus Orthis I species, resembling O. perveta Con.

Streptorhynchus 1 “ new.

Leptæna Easa "

Triplesia ? p s

Maclurea ens affinis and logani.

Euomphalus ee: new

Helicotorna ? ro" te

Holopea 2. =

Subulites ? Pron x

Murchisonia 2 o" s

K poos gracilis Hall ?

Loephospira Eo r new.

lisospira Bias, AS “

Ecculiomphalus 1 * -

Tryblidium ? or a new genus, 3 species, new.

erophon 1 species, new.

Orthoceras =

” " bilineatum Hall.

ec I ae ?

Piloceras alg new.

Gomphoceras 2 «“ a

Cyrtoceras 2 * se

tilus 2 “ ‘é

Lituites EA SIN a

ea:

Genus Ribiera 1 species, new.

Bathyurus extans Hall.

ottawaensis Billings ?

N I species, new.

1886. } Geology and Paleontology. 1043

ble for description and illustration, of which the new ones are

shortly to appear in a Bulletin of the Am. Mus. Natural History,

with a description of the geology of the region by Professors

Seely and Brainard—R. P. Whitfield.

THE VEINS OF SOUTHWESTERN CoLoraADo—It is quite impos- `

sible to thoroughly understand the complicated vein-structure of

the San Juan region without an intimate knowledge of the geo-

logical history. The details of the stratigraphy are very interest-

ing, but we cannot stop to review them here. Suffice it to say

that the succession of the strata, aside from local features of little

importance for our present purpose, is much the same as in typi-

cal sections from the Rocky mountains through Wyoming and

Northern Colorado.

The real vein-history begins with the close of the Cretaceous

age, when the great folds took place which afterwards became the

Seat of volcanic action. I must refer to the previous papers read

at this meeting of the Association for much of what might

properly be brought into discussion here, and we may at once

proceed to a brief description of the veins and their arrange-

ment.

In the period of the andesitic outflows the country comprising

the great San Juan Central area was so situated that the lavas did

veins. The earliest appear to be those of the La Plata district,

rated from these two basins, and has been the seat of much sec-

ondary action, so that the date of its initial stages in vein-forma-

tion is difficult to determine, but with results similar to those of

the latest epoch. I am strongly of the opinion that the genesis

was but little, if any, later than that of the other two sets.

In the Central San Juan area the complexity is very great, and

yet the distribution of the veins may be brought into order in a

_ beautiful system with surprising regularity in the grouping.

__ There are six radial zones passing out from Red peak (the geyser

1 Paper read before Section E, A. A. A. S., Buffalo, 1886,

1044 | General Notes. [ December,

basin described at the Buffalo meeting in another paper) and ex-

tending as far as the confines of a depressed area which was

caused by faulting in the trachytic period. These zones are tra-

versed by central, nearly vertical veins (“parent fissures,” as I

have elsewhere styled them), bounded upon each side by veins

converging laterally and from above downwards. The mid-ribs

are free-gold bearing, and they represent three trends intersecting

near Red peak. These trends are about N. 80° E., N. 38° E.

and N. 38° W. The zones vary in width, but between each two

there is a barren belt of greater or less breadth. Beginning at

the north we have (1) the arsenical zone, characterized by miner-

als carrying high percentages of arsenic; (2) the ġismuth zone;

(3) the galena-gray copper zone; (4) the antimonial zone, practi-

cally the prolongation south-westward of the arsenical wedge;

(5) the argentiferous-galena zone, opposite the bismuth wedge, |

and ‘6) the su/phuret zone, a wide area with few veins, but these

rich and carrying true silver minerals (sulphides) largely.

The faults and the vein-filling appear to have occurred subse-

quently to the trachytic ejections but prior to the rhyolitic period.

The evidence is that the gradual elevation of the Red peak focus

caused the subsidence and faulting along the edges and across

-two of the three stated radii of the depressed area, but that the

deposition of the veins along the arsenical-antimonial trend was

later than the rhyolitic period, or in its closing stages. After this

the veins of the Red Mountain area were much modified by the

secondary action of ‘hot springs and geysers.

I have given here the mere outline of the facts, and but a small

Comstock.

A GIANT ARMADILLO FROM THE Miocene oF Kansas. The

1886.} Geology and Paleontology. 1045

is represented by osseous nuclei only, which do not articulate

with each other. The scuta belonging to the tail are distinct

from each other, and not coéssified as in Deedicurus. The species

may be named and described as follows:

Caryoderma snovianum Cope, sp. nov.—The dermal scuta may

be arranged in four classes. First, the smallest, which are sub-

quadrate in outline, and flat; one of the flat faces, probably the in-

ternal, smaller than the opposite one, and more spongy. Six of

these; the largest 15™™ in, width. Second, larger scuta, sub-

hexagonal or pentagonal, or oval, with the dense smooth exter- .

nal face rising towards and produced beyond one of the borders

of the base as a flat more or less angular cornice. This cornice

is separated from the border of the basal part of the bone bya

rabbet or open groove, Inferior surface perforated by foramina.

Edges finely rugose. Of this type there are seven scuta. Dimen-

sions of largest, length 32™", width 35". The third type resem-

bles the second, but the cornice is represented by a conical ele-

vation which does not project beyond the edge of the base, but

stands above or within it. Inferior surface more or less concave.

Size of largest, length 40™™, width 33™™; of smallest, 15™™ by

14". Four large and three small. The fourth kind of dermal

bone is an acute cone with a small convex base, more or less ob-

liquely truncated. Four of these, two large and two small.

Measurements of former, base 28™™ by 22™™, total elevation

.32™™ ; measurement of smaller kind, base 1 5 Dy Fn total

elevation 22™™,

__ ity, the surface expanding and forming a shoulder one-quarter the

length distad of it. Articular surfaces concave vertically, a little

The discovery of this form in the Loup Fork bed of Kansas is

_ Of much interest on several accounts. F irst, it is the first time

_ this group of Edentata has been discovered north of the valley of

Mexico. Secondly, as belonging to an earlier epoch than the

> P. ampean Glyptodontidæ of South America, Caryoderma stands

_ im the position of ancestor. . Thirdly, the rudimental character

1046 General Notes. { December,

of some of the segments of the carapace shows the latter to have

been undeveloped, which is further consistent with a relation

ancestral to the other armadillos. It is probably a case of persist-

ence, however, for since the Miocene beds of the Parana have

been shown by Ameghino to contain ancestral Glyptodontide,

the North American ancestors of these are to be sought in beds

earlier than the Loup Fork. The species was discovered by Mr.

Charles H. Sternberg, in Northern Kansas. It is respectfully

dedicated to Professor F. H. Snow, of the university of that State.

GEOLOGICAL News.—General—In these days of earthquake

theories that of M. De Montessus (Rev. Scient., 1886, 369) is

worthy of notice. He starts by enumerating the three chief the-

ories of the constitution of the earth: (1) A central fluid nucleus

with a more or less thick crust; (2) a central solid nucleus and a

solid crust separated by a spherical liquid ring ; (3) a solid inte-

rior with chambers filled with fluid. Postulating the correctness

of the first theory, which prevails in France and holds its own in

other countries, he then gives, as the result of calculations made

upon 4943 shocks, the statement that earthquakes are more fre-

quent when the moon is on the meridian than when it is at right

angles with it. From this he passes to the fact that were the

ocean composed of a dense fluid, like mercury, the tides would

consist of an actual transport of matter following the moons

course, May not such tides take place below the earth’s crust ?

Capt. Boulanger, in 1880, dared to doubt that the earth moved as

a whole, so that the velocity of every point is proportional to its

distance from the center. The patient study of the sun spots has

proved that there is in the sun’s matter an internal and external

circulation quite different from that which would result from a

rotation in every point proportionate to the radius, Vortex mo-

tions, according to M. Faye’s law, must be produced in fluids the

layers of which are in movement with slightly differing veloci-

ties. Add these vortex movements to the subterranean lunar

tides, and M. Montessus’ earthquake theory is outlined. :

Paleozoic—Professor Ed. Hull, Mr. Mellard Reade and others

in Britain, with Mr. Crosby in America, maintain that in Palæo-

zoic times the North Atlantic and the North American continent

in the main changed places. In the words of the first of these:

“Tf it be allowed as a general principle that the originating u

Jay in the direction towards which the sediments thicken, am

opposite to that in which the limestones are most developed, n

coħclusion is inevitable that the Atlantic was, in the main, a lan

surface in Palaeozoic times.”

. Permian.—M. Alb. Gaudry describes Haplodus baylei, a reptile

_ from the Permian beds of Telots, near Autun (France). |”

‘name is derived from Greek words which signify the close adhe- —

sion of the teeth to the maxillaries. Three other types ee

ee eS a S E

von Giimbel. Cassel

1886. | Mineralogy and Petrography. 1047

tiles, Actinodon, Protriton and Stereorachis, are now known from

these beds.

Secondary.—The central region of Tunis, according to M. Rol-

land, consists in great part of a mass of senonian beds with lime-

stones yielding inocerami and cephalopods. This mass is here

and there capped by nummulitic beds. These beds are found all

around the Mediterranean region, but those of Algiers and Tunis

are characterized by peculiar species. M. Thomas has discov-

ered beds of phosphate of lime in Tunis. In the south-west are

rich and very extensive Eocene deposits, while near Feriana there

is a small bed of Cretaceous age. In the Albian marls of Con-

_ Stantine, in Algeria, there are notable Cretaceous beds of this

minera

Quaternary. —M. Reviere, who at the meeting of the French

Assoc. Adv. Sci. at Grenoble, in 1885, gave a list of 171 shells

discovered in the grottoes of Meudon, has this year described the

fishes and birds. The few fishes found are principally those of

fresh water, which seems inexplicable among peoples living on

the shore of a sea so rich in fishes as the Mediterranean. e

vertebra of a salmon, a fish of the northern rivers, was found,

and speaks of the migrations of these Quaternary peoples.

- MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY

New Booxs.—The third part of Professor von Giimbel’s “ Ge-

ologie von Bayern’ has just been received. _Although not yet

completed, enough of the first volume has already appeared to

show that the work in its entirety will fill a long felt want.

this volume the author proposes to set forth the principles of

geology as generally accepted at the present time, devoting quite

a considerable portion of the book to the microscopical character-

istics of rocks, and to the truths which the microscope reveals, as

well as to the theories to which the use of this instrument has

given rise. That portion of the book which has already appeared

is well illustrated by nearly four hundred photo-engravings. Most

of these illustrations are taken from localities in Bavaria. The

author, however, has not hesitated to draw on any source that

would serve his purposes better than those at hand in his own

country. The result is a most satisfactory text-book of geology,

in which all the most modern methods of geological research are

described, and the results to which each leads carefully given.

The subject of metamorphism has received considerable attention

_and also the theories relating to “ petrogenesis,” or the origin of

rocks. The second volume will be devoted to a description of the

geology of Bavaria The first of a series of monographs on edu-

} Edited by Dr. W. S. BAYLEY, Madison, Wisconsin.

* Geologie von Bayern. Bd. 1, Lief, 1, 11, 111, Grundzüge der Geologie. Dr. K. W.

& , 1884-6. *

1048 General Notes. [ December,

cation has recently been published by Heath & Co., of Boston!

It is a neat little book of thirty-five pages, intended primarily to

call the attention of teachers to the rise and development of the

youngest branch of geological science, and to the methods which

are made use of in it. A very large amount of information relat-

ing to the history of petrography is embraced within the first

twenty-five pages of this little volume. The next five pages con-

tain a list of the most important works devoted to the subject and

the periodicals in which petrographical articles are published. In

the remaining pages the methods made use of in the preparation

of thin sections are described and the names of reliable dealers

in the instruments and materials used, with the cost of these,

given.

MINERALOGICAL News.—Ptilolite? is a new mineral, described by

Cross and Eakins, from Colorado. It occurs in the cavities of a

vesicular augite-andesite found as fragments in the conglomerates

of Green and Table mountains, in Jefferson county. It forms

delicate tufts and spongy masses composed of short hair-like

needles which are usually deposited upon chalcedony in the pores

of the rock. Under the microscope these needles are seen to be

colorless, transparent prisms about .oo1™™ in diameter, terminated

by a basal plane. Their extinction is parallel to the prismatic

axis. An analysis of the purified material yielded Mr. Eakins

the following result: _

50, AO, œO KO N0 Ho

70.35. 11.90 3.87 2.83 0.77 10.18

- This corresponds to the formula Ro Al,O,, 10SiO, + 5H-0. The

mineral is interesting as being the hydrated form of the most

acid anhydride known among the silicates, with the exception of

the rare mineral milarite. A pseudomorph of limonite after

pyrite? recently found in Baltimore county, Maryland, con-

tains six of the seven possible crystallographic forms of the

regular system. The forms actually observed are O, 00%, .

[=>]. [F] 202, and 30. The fact that only two planes of the

forms |. 202, and 30 are developed in each octant imparts to

the crystal an orthorhombic symmetry. The turquoise ph

Los Cerillos, New Mexico, has been studied chemically =

microscopically by Messrs. Clark and Diller,‘ of the United States

Geological Survey. It occurs imbedded in a fine-grained re

orthoclase rock with a microgranitic structure, sometimes 1?

by G. H. Williams, 1886. r

on and L. G. Eakins. Amer. Jour. Sci., XXXII, a 4 p kaii

XXXIL, Sep., 1886, p: 211.

NA Ne re Fy ee ay Se ee ee E TE

1886. | Mineralogy and Petrography. 1049

nodules, but more frequently in seams and veins. In color it

ranges from sky-blue, through greenish-blue, to dark-green,

Analyses of specimens of these three varieties yielded :

Bright blue. Greenish blue. Dark green,

9.80 19.60

H,O I : 18.49

Al,O, $ 36.88 37-88

Fe,O, 39-53 2.4 4.07

P,O; 31.96 32.86 28.63

uO 6.30 7-51 6.56

SiO, 1.15 -16 4.20

CaO ati 38

Upon comparing these results with those obtained by other in-

vestigators, the authors conclude that normal turquoise can be

represented by the formula Al, HPO, (OH). The various colors

which it possesses are probably due to the admixture of a copper

molecule 2CuO PO; 4H,O. The presence of iron salts would

tend to give a greenish tinge to the mineral. Under the micro-

scope it was seen to be composed of minute grains or short thick

fibers, weakly doubly refracting, with a high refractive index.

The extinction was parallel to the long axes of the fibers. A

consideration of the arrangement of the fibers in the veins, the

composition of the rock in which the mineral is found, and its as-

sociation with epidote, lead the authors to the supposition that it

may have been derived from apatite.’

PETROGRAPHICAL News.—The gabbros occurring near Balti-

more, and the hornblende rocks associated with them have been

made the subject of a bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey,”

The treatment of these rocks by the author is very thorough.

The paper opens with an introduction calling attention to the fact

that eruptive rocks may, under the influence of heat and press-

ure, become schistose and in their characteristics very like the

crystalline schists which have been derived by the alteration of

aqueous formations. The main portion of the work is devoted

to the tracing of hypersthene gabbro into a schistose rock, called

by the author gabbro-diorite. The massive gabbro consist essen-

tially of a fine to coarse grained mixture of bytownite, light-green

diallage and hypersthene in varying proportions. In addition

to these there are also contained in the gabbro a little yellowish-

brown hornblende, strongly pleochroic and full of minute black

rock, containing in addition to the plagioclase and hornblende a

considerable amount of epidote and some garnet, apatite, rutile,

Sphene, etc. In the case of the alteration of hypersthene the

author supposes a reaction to have taken place between this

1 Cf. AMERICAN NATU T, January, 1886, p. 61,

2 Dr. G. H. Williams, Dollan of the U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 28.

3 Cf. AMERICAN NATURALIST Notes, March, 1886, p. 275.

VOL, XX.—NO. XII, 70

1050 General Notes. [ December,

mineral and the feldspar of the rock, the latter supplying the

former with the necessary aluminum required to build up the

hornblende molecule. In addition to the two rocks mentioned,

there are in the same region olivine-bronzite-gabbros, feldspathic

peridotites and Iherzolites. In some of these rocks the feldspar

has undergone a rather unusual alteration, viz., into scolecite.

Other rocks, composed entirely of bronzite or hypersthene with

or without diallage, are mentioned and briefly described. These

olivine and pyroxenic rocks have given rise to much of the serpen-

tine so generally found in their neighborhood. In the August

number of the American Journal of Science, Mr. J. S. Diller’ has

an article on the peridotite of Elliott county, Kentucky. This

rock, according to the author, occurs in well-marked dykes cut-

ting Carboniferous sandstones and shales. A microscopic €x-

amination shows it to consist of olivine and pyrope, with a small

amount of ilmenite as primary constituents, and serpentine, dolo-

mite, magnetite and octahedrite as secondary minerals. The in-

phibole, however, the fibrous mineral in the rim is biotite. F rom

a comparison of the composition of the peridotite and the inter-

sected sandstones and shales and the discovery of both endo-

ation of the rocks collected there have established him firmly in

the belief that the granitoid and the glassy rocks are of entirely

distinct eruptions, which took place at two different periods re-

mote from each other, and that in many cases minute differences

of chemical composition have produced effects greater than m

erate differences in the depths at which the roc í :

moreover claims that a mere study of the slides and hand speci-

mens is not sufficient to overthrow his own t

sion of rocks in the vicinity of the Comstock lode. Profe

sor R. D. Irving, of the United States Geological suney e PR

article in the American Journal of Science, maintains %

iron ores and the associated jaspery schists of the Lake upe

1 Amer. Jour, Sci. XXXI, Aug., ’86, p. 122. :

2 Cf. AMERICAN NATURALIST Notes, Feb., 1886, p. 161.

ee Bulletin 6, California Academy of Sciences, p. 93-

~ #Cf, AMERICAN NATURALIST Notes, Dec., 1885, p. 1216., ior region-

_ 5 Origin of the ferruginous schists and iron ores of the Lake Superior

er. Jour. Sci., XXXIL, Oct., ’86, p. 255.

a eee

}

1886. ] Botany. 1051

rior region were derived from an original iron carbonate which

was interbedded with carbonaceous shales which were them-

selves often impregnated with the same mineral. By a process

of silicification these carbonate-bearing layers were transformed

into the various kinds of ferruginous rocks now met with in

this region. In some cases silicifying waters decomposed the

iron carbonate in place, producing tremolite or actinolite and

magnetite, which with the excess of silica remaining formed the

actinolitic schists so frequently found associated with the iron

ores. In other cases direct oxidation of the carbonate gave rise

to bodies of hematite. In still other cases during the silicifica-

tion of the rocks and the decomposition of the carbonate, the iron

was removed by leaching and deposited in other places as it be-

came oxidized. The jasper is supposed to be secondary and to

have been deposited upon the removal of the iron carbonate in

the process of silicification. The various theories which have

heretofore been put forward to account for these interbedded iron

and jasper layers are all in turn examined and pronounced in-

sufficient to explain the phenomena met with everywhere in the

study of the region.

BOTANY .!

Tue WIND AND THE TREE-TOPS.—Since 1875 the writer has

observed, in various parts of the country, 156 instances of injury

to the trunks or branches of trees by win

Of all ordinary trees the common red maple appears to suffer

most in hard winds, and the whole 156 observed cases of injury

were confined to the various species of deciduous trees, The

writer has seen hundreds of long-leaf pines in Georgia and Flor-

ida that had been blown up by the roots, but not one injured in

trunk or branch while the tree was yet standing. Also close in-

quiry in Iowa and a whole summer’s observation among the

white pines of Tennessee failed to reveal a single case in which a

tree of that species was injured by the wind. Of the 156 ob-

served instances of injury sixty-one per cent were limbs split off

at the crotch.

The crotches of a tree are its weak points. Nature recognizes

this fact and guards against the weakness by swelling out the

wood about the points of branching. Notably is this true of the

white pine. Ina large tree of this species the limbs come out in

regular whorls about two feet apart. Midway between each two

successive whorls the central axis of the tree has a minimum

size. Above and below this point of least circumference the

Sbe gradually swells out to support the successive sets of

ranches

In sixty per cent of the observed injuries the trunk divided

_ into two or more large nearly equal branches, and one of these

1 Edited by Professor CHARLES E. BEssEY, Lincoln, Nebraska,

1052 General Notes. [ December,

was the injured member. These large limbs, swaying in a hard

wind, act as great levers, and are frequently not sufficiently sup-

ported at the crotch.

The meaning of all this is that a tree of which the trunk

habitually divides into large nearly equal branches is much more

liable to be injured by the wind than one having a strong central

‘axis with many small limbs as, for example, the white pine.

Thus the accumulated effects of the wind have undoubtedly

been to develop excurrent forms of tree-top. But the question

naturally arises why pines, spruces, etc., have this form in greater

perfection than other trees. Well, in the first place deciduous

trees are usually injured by the wind only while in foliage during

the summer months; but evergreens, being always in foliage, are

practically exposed to the action of the wind for at least twice as

great a time each year as are maples, elms, etc. Then too, ac-

cording to palzontology, the cone-bearing evergreens came into

existence many thousands, perhaps millions, of years before any

tree that annually sheds its leaves. Thus the coniferous evergreens

have had a vastly longer time in which to accumulate the effects

of the wind and develop an excurrent form of top than have de-

ciduous trees.—B. F. Hoyt, Manchester, Towa.

A Hysrip ArrLe.— Recently a student brought me a “Ben

Davis” apple characteristically marked throughout a little less

than three-fourths of its surface, the remainder (a wide crimson

streak from stem to calyx) having undoubted marks of the

“Jonathan” variety. The tree from which it came is a Ben

Davis,” and a “ Jonathan” tree stands within a distance of sev-

eral rods. Upon cutting the apple it was found that the bee

the flesh of these and the corresponding calyx-segments had been

somewhat greater longitudinally and considerably less tra

versely than for the remaining carpels. Upon tasting the flesh 0

the “ Jonathan ” part of the apple it was found to differ quite per

ceptibly from that of the “ Ben Davis ” part. =.

It is probable that we have in this apple an example of the 1m-

mediate effect of the pollen upon the fruit. In this case =

“ Jonathan ” pollen affected the fruit (a) by changing thé color

the skin, (b) by causing the hybrid segments to grow longer an

narrower, thus approximating nearer to the “ Jonathan form,

and (c) by changing the taste of the flesh.— Charles E. Bessey.

= Ruppra MARITIMA L. ın Nepraska—This maritime plant oe

lately been brought to me from a pond near one of the many a

springs which occur in the vicinity of Lincoln. The species

not recorded in the catalogues of the Western State floras, ae

innesota (Upham), Iowa (Arthur), Missouri (Tracy), Kan oa

(Carruth); nor does it occur in the East, away from the gr

: 1886. ] Botany. 1053

diana (Coulter and Barnes), Cincinnati (James), Michigan

(Wheeler and Smith), Ohio (Beardslee) Buffalo (Day), Cayuga,

N. Y. (Dudley), nor even of Washington, D. C. (War It was

discovered many years ago in Oneida county, N. Y., by Paine,

who says of it: “ This plant and its companion [ Vazas major] are

new to the interior, having been known hitherto as exclusively

maritime ” (Eighteenth Ann. Rep. of the Regents of the Univ. of

Fahrenheit.”

The occurrence of this little plant in these widely separated

localities is, to say the least, very interesting. From the sea-

coast to the Oneida county, N. Y., station is fully 150 miles,

thence to the Nebraska station is 1100 miles, and from the latter

point to the National park is 700 miles. The distance from the

Nebraska station to the Gulf of Mexico is about 800 miles.—

Charles E. Bessey.

THE ROUGHNESS OF CERTAIN Urepospores.—Recently while

examining the uredospores of Puccinia coronata, a common rust

of the oat, a student in my laboratory complained of the difficulty

he had in making out the prickly (stachlig) surface of the spore-

wall. The spores had been mounted in water in the usual way,

- and it was with the utmost difficulty that any roughness of the

surface could be made out, and when made out it was so faint as

| to warrant the remark that “a character so difficult to be ob-

served and so likely to be overlooked should not be made use of

in descriptions.” The spores, in fact, appeared in most posi-

_ tions to be perfectly smooth. e suggestion was made to ex-

_ amine them mounted dry, when lo! the prickles appeared with

_ the greatest distinctness. This hint may be worth remembering

= in much of our work in botanical laboratories. — Charles È

Bessey.

ANOTHER “ TUMBLE-WEED.”—While riding through Phelps and

_ Kearney counties, in South-central Nebraska, my attention was

_ Called to great masses of some much-branched, white-woolly

plant which occupied the ditches by the side of the railway. Its

appearance was so odd and so different from anything I had ever

Seen that I could not conceive what it could be. A fortunate

Stop of the train outside the limits of a town allowed me to

Secure specimens, which upon examination proved to be Psoralea

enuifiora Pursh. The leaves had fallen and the naked branches,

in drying, had diverged still more than in life, giving to the plant

1054 General Notes, [ December,

an appearance quite different from that which it bears when grow-

ing. The mode of detachment is the usual one of the formation

of a joint at one of the lower internodes. In some cases two

such joints were observed. The break at the joint is smooth and

even, and reminds one of the separation of a leaf from its twig.

It may be well to say that the plant under consideration is

densely silky woolly in every part excepting its principal stems.

It is certainly not “ minutely hoary pubescent when young,” as

described in the manuals (Gray, Man., p. 129; Coulter, Man., p.

56). On account of the loss of leaves it is impossible to deter-

mine whether this may not be the variety odtuscloba of Watson

(Bib. Index N. A. Bot; p. 255). If so this is a much more

northerly range than this variety of the species was supposed to

possess. In all cases but one the variety is said to be a native of

Texas. Creutzfeldt collected it in “ Kansas” in 1853 (Pacific

Railroad Report, 2, p. 126), and from the date of its collection

(June) it must have been found in Eastern Kansas. Carruth,

however, does not record it in his catalogue of Kansas plants

(Trans. Kan. Academy of Sciences, Vol. v)— Charles E. Bessey.

BotanitcaL News.—The October Journal of Botany contains

a paper, by Baron F. von Mueller, on “New Vacciniacee from

New Guinea.” A new genus is described under the name Catan-

thera. It contains one species, C. /ysifetala Mueller, which ap-

pears to have affinities with Oxycoccus, though strangely it shows

relationship alwish the toClethrez and Pyrolacee. It is an epi-

phyte. In the same journal James Britten contributes an arti-

cle on “The nomenclature of some Proteacez,” in which the

question of priority of Salisbury’s names in the Proteads and

other groups of plants is discussed. He says: “I am of opinion

that there was a tacit understanding on the part of the botanical

leaders of the period, including Brown, Banks and Smith, that

Salisbury’s work and names should, as far as possible, be ignored,

not only on account of their strong antipathy to the man himsell,

but also, in Smith’s case at least, to the views of classification

which Salisbury promulgated ;” an outrageous proceeding if true,

as it appears to be. Dr. Newberry gives additional reasons, 1n

the October Torrey Bulletin, for regarding Pinus monophylla as

but a variety of P. edulis. He says: “In the Rocky mountains

all are two-leaved ; in some arid portions of Nevada the tree, >

dwarfed to half its normal size, and all the leaves are single. Mi

‘way between these districts, in Southern Utah, may be found thou-

sands of trees in which the leaves are half double, half single. ——

Dr. Gray’s Memorandum of a revision of the N. A. violets, 1n the

Botanical Gazette, indicates certain interesting changes of eh

ment and nomenclature. Viola delphinifolia Nutt. becomes ae

datifera Don.; V, cucullata Ait. var. palmata becomes y. par-

mata L., while V. cucullata Ait. is considered to be “an ak

cleaved variety of the Linnean V. palmata.” The suggestion t

1886. Entomology. 1055

V. pedatifida Don. is “ probably only a marked geographical va-

riety of that species [ V. palmata L.] with all the leaves finely dis-

sected,” is worthy of further attention. In the Mississippi val-

ley, where the three forms all grow, often quite near one another,

their relations could be well expressed by considering V. pedat-

ifera one extreme and V. cucullata the other, with V. palmata as

an intermediate form. However, it will not do to consider the

intermediate form, which is far less common than the others,

as the type of the species. It is simply an intermediate form,

and not a very constant one either. L. H. Bailey’s Preliminary

synopsis of N. A. Carices (Proc. Am. Ac. Arts and Sciences)

came to hand late in October. It contains notices of 289 species

including, in addition to the strictly North American species,

those of Mexico, Central America and Greenland,

ENTOMOLOGY.

A REMARKABLE CASE OF LONGEVITY IN A LONGICORN BEETLE

(EBURIA QUADRIGEMINATA).—On the 11th of July, 1886, I caught

at sugar, which had been placed upon apple trees for the purpose

of attracting moths, a light brown long-horned beetle, marked

with ivory yellow spots on the elytra. My attention was par-

ticularly attracted at this time to the insect on account of a pecu-

liar creaking sound which it began as soon as I picked it up. I

had no difficulty in finding that the sound was produced by the

rubbing of the posterior margin of the prothorax upon the anterior .

margin of the mesothorax. The same sound could be made after

the insect was dead, by working backward and forward its head

and prothorax. Several days after this occurrence I captured a

specimen, similar to the first, upon the clothes of a friend, but it

disappeared before I reached home. Onthe 17th of July I found

a third specimen on a tree but a few feet distant from that upon

which I discovered the first specimen; this individual was also

evidently attracted by the sugar. Five days later, July 22, 1886,

another specimen came into my posession under much more re-

_ markable circumstances. Dr. Boyd, of Dublin, Wayne county,

Ind.; called my attention as I was walking along the street, and

at once proceeded to remove two small corks with which he had

closed two openings in the door-sill of his office. He then re-

quested me to explain what had made the tunnels that evidently

extended some distance into the sill. In reply to my questions,

he stated that his attention had been called to the freshly made

Openings early in the morning; at that time the holes were much

smaller, and were ragged around the edges. These rough edges

he had smoothed with a knife so he could stop them tightly with

corks. A short time after he made the discovery mentioned, his

attention was attracted by a buzzing noise which came from one

of the tunnels. This he put an end to by pouring chloroform into

the opening, and then plugging it up with a cork. There had

1056 General Notes. [ December,

been no sound of life from the other tunnel, but he had closed it

in the same manner. Upon hearing this I removed the cork from

the tunnel where the sound had been heard, and in a moment

dragged out by its antennz a beetle, similar to those whose finding I

have already described. This beetle is Eburia quadrigeminata Say.

Mr. Thomas, in the “Sixth Report of the Illinois State En-

tomologist” describes the imago as follows: Æburia quadrigem-

enata, “ Body, entirely pale yellowish-brown; antennz hardly

more obviously hairy on the basal joints than on the others;

thorax, with two black tubercles above, rather before the middle,

placed transversely, and a short spine each side on the middle of

the length of the thorax; elytra, rather paler than thorax, each

with two double, somewhat elevated, bright-yellow, abbreviated

very short lines; the two members of the basal spot equal, the

other spot is placed on the middle, the inner member is shorter

than the exterior one; tip, two spined, the exterior spine the

longest; intermediate and posterior thighs, two spined at tip, the

inner spine rather longest.” Mr. Thomas also states that the in-

sect is from three-fourths to an inch in length, and that its larva

lives and bores in the honey locust (Gleditschia triacanthus Linn),

and from this fact it gets its name of the honey locust borer.

A closer examination of the tunnels in Dr. Boyd’s doorstep

showed that the external openings were in the middle of the

length and breadth of an ash door-sill and about four inches dis-

tant from each other. The size of the tunnels increased rapidly

within until the diameter was three or more times as great as at

the exit. They extended downward and backward respectively

three and four inches. The sill was of painted ash and it, as we

as the whole building, rested directly upon a solid brick founda-

tion. After having completed the above observations, I did not

hesitate long in coming to the conclusion that the eggs which

had produced this beetle and its fellow, that had made good its

escape, were laid in the green wood in the tree. In response to

my questions, Dr. Boyd made the statement that the building was

erected in the Spring of 1867. This would make these insects

not less than nineteen, and probably twenty or more, years old,

_ Since the timber was dry when put into the house. Upon investi-

gation I find that Professor Packard in his “ Insects Injurious te

Forest and Shade Trees,” makes no mention of this beetle, but

at he has recorded two cases of unusual longevity in beetles

which will be of interest. in this connection. In both instances

these beetles have belonged to the family Cerambycide or io

gicorns. The first mentioned case was that of a specimen 0

_ Monohammus confusor Kirby, the common longicorn pine-borer,

which Mr. A. C. Goodell, of Salem, Mass., presented to the

Peabody Academy of Science. Mr. Goodell took the insect from

a bureau that had been in the house for fifteen years and was new

when bought.

1886. } Zoology. 1057

kind, issued from this table-leaf; the first one coming out twenty

and the last one twenty-eight years after the trunk was cut

down.” The proof of the identity of these beetles is not com-

plete, but Professor Packard thinks they were Cerasphorus balte-

I find that Eburia guadrigeminata is not given in Hubbard and

Schwarz’s “ List of Coleoptera found in the Lake Superior re-

gion,” nor in the “ Contribution to a list of Celeoptera of the

Lower Peninsula of Michigan,” by the same authors. But in

Schwarz’s “List of species” of Coleoptera found in Florida,

Eburia quadrigeminata is mentioned as being “not rare on sugared

treesin June.” It is not given in LeConte’s “ List of species of

Eastern New Mexico,” but it is mentioned in his “ List of species

of Kansas and Nebraska.” In his “New species of North Amer-

ican Coleoptera,” he refers to it as “the ordinary guadrigeminata

of the Southern States and the Mississippi valley.” Thus, while

it is a common enough insect over a large territory, no other case

of its remarkable longevity seems to have been recorded. On

comparing it with the other specimens in my collection, the only

decided points of difference are the smaller size of the lateral

spines of the prothorax and the terminal spines of the elytra ; and

the longer antennz which, not exceeding the length of the body

in the other specimens, are in this one one and a-half times as

long.— Ferome M’ Neil, Indiana University, Oct. 26, 1886.

ZOOLOGY.!

LEPTODORA IN AMERICA.—It may interest those of your readers

who collect fresh-water Entomostraca to know that perhaps the

most elegant and remarkable of that interesting group, Leptodora

and Hyodon tergisus, all from the Illinois river. In our Bull. 3,

é Invertebrata ecited by J. S. KINGSLEY, Sc.D., Malden, Mass,

1058 General Notes. [ December,

published in 1880, it is reported as eaten by young Morone in-

terrupta and Micropierus pallidus, and again by Dorysoma. In

the AMERICAN NATURALIST for August, 1882, it is further report-

ed from both ends of Lake Michigan and from numerous small

lakes—one only half a mile wide and not over twenty feet deep.

In this lake, I remember, it was rather abundant. In Cedar lake,

in Northern Illinois, we took it at night with Corethra larve, but

we made our most notable haul of this species in Mendola lake,

at Madison, Winconsin, where we captured hundreds in the tow-

ing net on a bright summer day in 1885. ft may be expect-

ingly sought wherever, in permanent and rather deep water, suf-

ficient numbers of the smaller soft-bodied Entomostraca occur

to give it a fair chance for prey. It is not a swift swimmer, and

its food must be abundant.—S. A. Forbes.

BLOOD oF INVERTEBRATES.—Dr. Howell, in Johns Hopkins

“Studies,” describes the blood of the king-crab, soft-shell crab,

and a species of holothurian. In Limulus the blood is alkaline,

quickly coagulating. It contains fine albumens which coagulate at

different temperatures but which all belong to the globulin group.

They resemble but are not identical with paraglobulin. Coagula-

tion in the blood of Limulus results by the union of the corpuscles,

and the existence of a coagulative ferment has not yet been

proved. The fibrin is much like that of mammals in its solubility.

zmocyanin certainly contains copper. In Neptunus (= Calli-

nectes), the blood is alkaline but coagulates less quickly than

that of Limulus. It contains two albumens to be classed among

the globulins, and the coagulation is more complete than in the

king-crab. The fibrin is very different from that of Limulus, and

of it Dr. Howell says: “The difference seems to me to be too

wide to suppose any close relationship between the two forms,

especially as they have the same general environments ; but un-

tila series of similar observations is made on the scorpion or

some arachnid, we will not have sufficient evidence to make any

just inferences with regard to the relationship of these forms—

that is, from the standpoint here assumed.” In the holothurian,

which was identified as Thyonella gemmata, two kinds of cor-

puscles were recognized, a red, hamoglobin-bearing nucleated

was occasioned by the fusion of the white corpuscles, the red not

taking part in the formation of a coagulum except as they were

entangled in the meshes of the other. .

In another article in the same publication Dr. Howell notices

the existence of hæmoglobin in this holothurian, the second dis-

covery of this element of the blood in any echinoderm.

_ coagulates at a lower temperature (56°—-60° C.) than that of ee

_ brates, and is precipitated by a one per cent solution of ease

- acid. Foettinger’s observations on the existence of hemoglobi

1886.) Zoology. 1059

in the aquiferous system of Ophiactis (Bull. Acad. Roy. Belgique,

1, xlix, p. 402, 1880) appear to have escaped Dr. Horrell’s notice.

THE ByssAL ORGAN IN LEMELLIBRANCHS.’—The first portion of

Dr. Barrois’ article is a very full description of the byssal organs

or its remains in forms from almost every family, twenty-one in

all, and in forty-nine species of lamellibranchs. There is also

a historical résumé of the subject, description of additional glands,

and a discussion of the homologous organs in gasteropods.

In Cardium edule the organ is described in full and others are

compared with it. Its parts are: 1. “The cavity of the byssus,”

a large space in the center of the keel of the hatchet-shaped

foot. 2. “The canal of the byssus,” opening on the surface by a

. 3. “The byssus,” a hyaline thread running out from the

cavity through the canal. 4. “ Byssal glands,” glandular cells

lying below the epithelium and opening separately into the

cavity. 5. “The groove” running forward from the canal along

the margin of the foot to the anterior end. 6. “Glandular cells

of the groove” opening into it among the epithelium cells. The

epithelium is everywhere perfectly continuous and in the cavity

is thrown into numerous lamellar folds.

Various departures from the plan are described and figured;

there may be no functional byssus but the other parts may all

be present, or the groove, or the glands, or even the cavity may

be wanting, or there may be in the adult no trace of any of the

organs. In the same family or even genus wide variations may

occur. Thus Tapes virginea has no functional byssus, the cavity,

glands and lamellæ are present, while in Venus rudis and other

lateral attachment of the creature. The “cornet” of Anomia,

with its groove leading to the byssal cavity, is similar to the

muciparous gland on the anterior part of the foot of Pecten maxi- |

mus. In Unio and Anodontaa cavity in the keel of the foot is the

only remains of the byssal organ in the adult. This, doubtless

the water pore of Kollmann, Griesback and others, is lined

with continuous epithelium. It is to be regretted that lack of

material has prev@nted research into the embryonic condition of

many of the retrograde forms.

Barrois also describes as characteristic of the lamellibranchs

special muciparous glands in the anterior portion of the foot s

these in some cases line the inside of a cavity, e. g., Pecten

maximus, in other cases the organ being everted they line the

, Lille, 1885, pp. 160, pl. x.

1 Les Glandes du Pied et les Pores Aquiferes chez les Lamellibranches—Par le Dr. .

Ih. Bartol i | :

1060 General Notes. [ December,

outer surface under the epithelium of a pedunculated club-shaped

body e. g., Lucina lactea. The view that the byssus of the

lamellibranchs is homologous with the gastropod operculum is

rejected on anatomical and histological grounds, and the muci-

parous byssiparous glands are thought to correspond with the

“ Lippen-drüsen ” and “ Fusshohledriisen” of Carriere, the one

upon the fore-end of the gastropod foot, the other upon the creep-

ing surface.

The second portion of the work is a full historical and critical

review of the “water-pore” controversy. No new observations

of importance are recorded and the position maintained by the

writer is the same as already represented in this journal (see Vol.

Ill, p. 130).—Henry Leslie Osborn, Purdue Univ., Lafayette, Ind.

ON THE CLASS PODOSTOMATA, A GROUP EMBRACING THE MEROSTO-

MATA AND TRILOBITES.—In a paper read before the National Acad.

of Sciences we have endeavored, by giving the history of the

Xiphosura, Peecilopoda and Gigantostraca, to show that while

the name Xiphosura should be retained for the suborder of which

Limulus is the type, the names Pwcilupoda and Gigantostraca

have been applied in such different senses, that they can not well

be retained for the Merostomata and Trilobita taken together in

the sense we advocate. We have therefore proposed the term

Podostomata for this class of Arthropoda. It is derived from

zoc, zodds, foot; and stéua, mouth, in allusion to the feet-like or

ambulatory nature of the cephalic appendages which surround the

mouth in a manner characteristic of the group.

The class Podostomata may be defined as a group of marine

arthropods in which the cephalic (Limulus) or cephalothoracic

(trilobites) appendages are in the form of legs, z. e., ambulatory

appendages, usually ending in forceps or larger claws (chele),

which in the sole living representative of the class are arranged

in an incomplete circle around the mouth; the basal joint of each

leg is spiny, so as to aid in the retention and partial mastica-

tion of the food. No functional antennz, mandibles or maxillz.

Eyes both compound and simple. Respiration by branchia at-

tached to the abdominal appendages which are broad and lamel-

late in Merostomata, and cylindrical with narrow gills in Trilo-

bita, The brain supplying nerves to the eyes alone; the nerves

_ to the cephalic or cephalothoracic appendages originating from

an cesophageal ring; the ventral cord enshea y a ventra

arterial system more perfectly developed than in insects or scor-

pions; coxal glands highly developed; with no external opening

im the adult. The class differs from the Arachnida, among other

characters, in having no functional cheliceres (“ mandibles”) or

pedipalps (“maxillae”); in the cephalic appendages either ending

_ in larger claws or forceps, or in being simple, the terminal joint

_ not bearing a pair of minute claws or ungues like those of Arach-

1886.] Zoblogy. 1061

nida and Insecta, enabling their possessors to climb as well

as walk. Podostomata have no urinary tubes. Limulus

undergoes a slight metamorphosis, while in trilobites the adult

differs from the larva in having a greater number of thoracic

segments.

m the Crustacea the Podostomata differ in the lack of

functional antennz, and mouth-parts; in the compound eyes hav-

ing no rods or cones, in the brain innervating the eyes (compound

and simple) alone; in the shape of the head and pygidium or

abdominal shield, and in the arterial coat enveloping the central

nervous cord.

The Podostomata are divided into two orders:

Xiphosura,

I. Merostomata, with three suborders : p ARE

urypterida.

II. Trilobita.

—A. S. Packard,

Oyster CULTURE.—Dr. J. A. Ryder has a paper on this subject

in the Report of the U. S. Fish Commission, detailing the con-

struction of apparatus for the artificial culture of oysters which,

from a theoretical standpoint, certainly seems practical. His

plans have been outlined in this magazine, and hence need not

be repeated. One of the points brought out is that Lankester’s

beautifully illustrated paper on green oysters (Quart. J. M.S.

XXVI, pp. 71-94, pl. vIr, 1885) contains hardly an addition to our

knowledge of this phenomenon, besides the conferring of the

name marennin on the coloring matter absorbed. Almost every

point made was previously published by Puységur, Descaine or

Ryder from two to five years before.

ECHINODERM DEVELOPMENT.—Fewkes has some observations

on the development of Ophiopholis and Echinarachnius. He

shows that in the former genus the endoderm arises by an invag-

ination, but he cannot state the relations the blastopore bears

to either mouth or anus of the pluteus. The mesoderm arises

symmetrically either side the blastopore and apparently is of the

nature of mesenchym, though not so stated. Nothing is given

concerning the development of the mesothelial tissues. Aposto-

lides who has previously studied the development of Ophiurans

comes in for soñe apparently merited criticisms. In the sand-

dollar, Echinarachnius, the early development is much the same.

The pluteus is compared with that of Strongylocentrotus, from

which it differs in the presence of large pigmen t-spots on each

arm and the absence of “ ciliated epaulettes.” The whole of the

pluteus is absorbed in the young sand-dollar, which has a very

different appearance from the adult. = e development presents

bar slight differences from other echinod

1062 General Notes. [ December,

emidofi, are among the mammals of the region. Hypsignathus

monstrosus (the title of a very large and hideous bat); and Anom-

alurus erythronotus are also curiosities. Antelopes do not

is Bubalus equinoxialis, smaller than B. caffer, but equally re-

doubtable. Birds of prey were well represented in the collection,

from Pantodon bucholzi Peters, was among the curiosities. The

fish are greatly infested with parasites,

Among the fresh water Crustacea M. Milne-Edwards has found

five new species of Thelphusidz.

Among insects the Coleoptera, and especially the Cetoniade,

were best represented. Of the few molluscan specimens two

species of Pharaonia seem to be new. There were many new

Species and some new genera of plants; while the ethnographical -

collection contained a very large number of objects, fetishes, pot-

tery, pipes, iron and copper implements, articles in wood an |

ivory, etc. Two human skulls from Rio San Benito are remark-

ably dolichocephalic. i :

o a ZooLosicaL News.—Frotozea—Lankester reports in Nature

_ (Sept. 2) the rediscovery of Archer's Chlamydomyxa which has

1886. ] Zoblogy. 1063

toria, Australia.

Sponges.—Dr. R. von Lendenfeld described the nervous Sys-

tem of several sponges at the recent meeting of the British As-

sociation for the advancement of Science. He called attention to ,

the fact that in the sponges the most important organs are meso-

dermal (this is the case with the nerve cells) while in the Ccelen-

terates proper they are ecto- or ento-dermal. On the basis of

this he proposes to divide the ccelenterates of Claus into Ccelen-

terata-Mesodermalia or sponges and Ccelenterata-Epithelaria or

ccelenterates proper. It would seem as if these facts were an

argument in favor of the view that the ccelenterates of Claus was

not a natural. group, a view for which there are many other

reasons for adopting.

alenterates——Haddon states that his species Halcampa an-

dresi is not valid but must stand as a synonym of H. chrysan-

thellum (Peach) Dana. G. Y. Dixon gives some notes on

wardsia limida with a colored plate showing the entire

animal and some of the details. He regards Æ. harasti and E

timida as synonymous. His paper and that of. Haddon are

in Vol, v. of the Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society,

At the meeting of the British Association, Dr. von Lenden-

feld described the development of Phyllorhiza punctata of Aus-

tralia, The ephyra has eight marginal sense bodies; at the next

stage it has twenty-four, then sixteen, while the adult has only

eight. The same author further stated that Cramébessa masaica

goes up the Australian rivers at the breeding season to deposit

its young, just as does the salmon. This species has remarkably

means of the micro-spectroscope and show the existence of 2

respiratory coloring matter allied to hæmogolbin and of a bili-

verdin which is probably concerned in excretion. Concerning

the “yellow cells” the author states that the fact that they appear

to cause a suppression of those pigments which in other Actineæ

appear to discharge a respiratory function is an argument in

favor of their being regarded as symbiotic alge. Moseley’s

1064 General Notes. [ December,

actinochrome is regarded as decorative and is always confined to

the tentacles. Another pigment is found in the eye spots which

has a spectrum bearing some resemblance to that of a red pig-

ment found in the eyes of certain insects. Hickson has ob-

tained the early stages of Tubipora. It is regularly holoblastic

and there is an invaginate gastrula. He has also made some

observations on a species of Clavularia from Celebes which go to

show that this genus is closely allied to the fossil Sy1ingopora,

thus adding to the evidence that the latter is an Alcyonarian

The absence of special buds or gonophores to contain the sexual

products of Hydra is by Professor A. M. Marshall regarded

as a highly modified character due to the influence of fresh water.

In Cordylophora, the other fresh-water genus, the ova develop in

a zone of germination round the necks of the zodids, before either

the gonophore or the branch on which it will be borne is de-

veloped. Afterwards the ova migrate into the gonophore.

Evidently Cordylophora is in course of suffering a transformation

into sexual conditions like those of Hydra. The normal

Hydroida are bisexual and develop Medusz.

Echinoderms,—According to recent researches by R. Koehler,

the circulatory system of the ophiurans is much like that of the

Echinoidea, the same relations being found in the madreporic

gland, the rings around the mouth and the branches arising

from them. :

Worms—A. Giard described a new Rhabdoccele, Fecampia

erythroctphala, at the meeting of the Academy of Sciences of

Paris, September 13. It is parasitic and forms a cocoon. Atten-

tion was called to the fact that it resembles a parasite found by

Lang in the foot of the mollusk, Tethys, which will probably also

be found to form a cocoon. Professor W. C. McIntosh, in

Nature, of September 16, thinks that Phoronis and Actinotrocha

are more abundant on the British coasts than the records wo l

indicate——G, Fritsch, in the Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin

Academy (Jan. 28, 1886, p. 99), describes and figures the parasites

of the electrical cat-fish Malapterurus. The novelties are Corallo-

bothrium solidum, nov. gen. et. sp., Tenia malapteruri and a nema-

tode, Zrichosomum papillosum. Schoyen describes, in the

Christiania Forhandlingar for 1885, a new species of trematode,

Tylenchus hordei, which forms galls on the roots of grass in which

the eggs are deposited Dieffenbach, has an anatomical and

systematical paper on Oligochzte worms in the Bericht of the

Oberhessichen Gesellschaft for 1886. He describes the anatomy

of Lumbriculus variegatus and of the Tubificidæ, and has notes

upon the Naids. A new genus, Pseudolumbriculus, and two new

species, Ps. claparedianus and Pachydrilus lumosus are described.

Sluiter has a paper on the Gephyreans of the Malay el

pelago in the Tijdschrift of the Dutch East India Society, VO

886). The paper enumerates thirty species as known

1886. | Zoölogy. 1065

that region, of which thirteen are now described for the first time.

Some anatomical and histological notes are given. Bell calls

attention to the fact that in the land planarians the form of the

head is very variable and cannot be used, as is often done, as a

basis of generic division. He also states that Bipalium is sensitive

to light, and if the light be too strong the specimen is killed.

Collet describes (Proc. Zool. Socy., 1886) a new species of Echino-

rhynchus (Æ. ruber) from Rudolphi’s rorqual (Balænoptera bore-

alts). He suggests that its early stages may be passed in Æu-

phausia inermis, one of the Thysanopoda.

Turtonia and Cyanium are distinct, the latter genus possessing

Brachiopods——Miss Agnes Crane describes (Proc. Zool. Soc.,

London, 1886) a new species of brachiopod (Afretia Jraziert) from

Port Stephens, New South Wales.

Arachnida—G, Saint-Remy, at the meeting of the Paris

Academy, Sept. 20, presented the results of his studies of the

brain of the spider based upon the genera Tegenaria, Epeira and

Phalangium. The brains of these forms have the same general

plan ‘of organization as that of the scorpion, on which a report

had previously been made. Adolph Horn describes the poi-

son apparatus of twenty-one species of spiders in the Bericht of

the Oberhessichen Gesellschaft for 1886. The poison glands

consist of two elongate cylindrical ccecal sacs enveloped in con-

nective tissue and spirally arranged muscles. Their ducts termi-

nate near the tips of the mandibles. Grassi describes a new

arachnid in the Bulletin of the Italian Entomological Society

(Vol. xvir, 1886) under the name Kenenia mirabilis. He regards

it as the type of a new order, Microthelyphonida. In general

appearance the form stands nearest the thelyphonids, as the name

indicates. Grassi points out twenty-four points in which it differs

from the whip scorpions,

` _ Ascidians—Sluiter describes fourteen new species of ascidians

from Billiton island. For one of them a new genus, Styeloides,

is proposed.

Crustacea.—Professor C. L. Herrick gives (Bull. Denison Univ.)

VOL. XX.—No. XII. 7

1066 General Notes. | [ December,

an account of various stages in the development and points in the

morphology of Limnetis gouldii and Chirocephalus holmani, two

phyllopodous Crustacea. He also describes Wyocryptus setifer, a

mud-living cladocerous crustacean. Packard describes (Proc.

Philos. Soc., xx111, 380) the feet in Cryptozoe, a new genus of

fossil Phyllocaridan crustacean, allied to Nebalia. The figures are

too poor to show any detail, but the feet, according to the text,

are much like those of Nebalia. Nothing had been known of

the nature of the feet in the fossil forms before.

Vertebrates.—The “ Segmental value of the cranial nerves” is

treated of histologically and argumentatively by Professor A.

Milnes Marshall, in Vol. 1 of Studies from the. Biol. Laboratories

of Owens College. The following table expresses the results

arrived at:

Segment. | Nerve. | Visceral cleft. | sceral arch.

1. Præoral | 1. Olfactory | Olfactory |

j HI. Oculo-motor

” : | ti. Trochlear | } Lachrymal | ames

axillary.

3. Oral | v. Trigeminal | Buccal | ae

i ; Mandibular.

4. Postoral vii. Facial Spiracular or

vi. Abducent hyomandibular fa wd.

5- S | Ix. Glossopharyngeal | Ist branchial | GE ppr Taea

6 8 | x. Vagus, rst branch | 2d s rug

hee Ts 2o a ae | o a aa

8. ope | Z 3 d “6 | 4th si | a nee ee

9. s | é 4th t | 5th “6 te ee

nase S | “a e f abh ~“ a a

e A | ete e y

£ n : i an

; ~ the first volume of Studies from the Biological Labora

He does not

nerves of Sey!

I 886.] A nthropology. 1067

positive evidence. Those interested in nervous anatomy may

find an exhaustive article on the central nervous system of the

baleen whales, by G. A. Guldberg, in the Forhandlingar of the

and the lateral-line organ of the electric cat-fish in the Sitzungs-

berichte of the Berlin Academy of Science for April, 1886.

We are concerned here with the doctor or medicine man, who,

in Australia, Africa or America, relies upon his influence and

power over the spirit world to work cure or to save life. :

In our own country patient study is revealing much concerning

(better weather-makers), magicians, augurs, fortune-tellers, en-

chanters, priests, personators, diviners, etc.

Now these can readibly be divided into two classes or func-

tions, viz., those who see into, understand and reveal the spirit

world; and those who have more or less control over it, compel-

ling it to do their bidding.

€ medicine man, doctor, sorcerer, wizard, fetish man are all

of the latter class. Whatever disease and death may be, whether

merely the person or spirit of some noxious thing or an inde-

pendently existing spirit, one of the powerful charmers can in-

duce or compel it to do his bidding, either by direct command or

by some diplomatic action called ic. .

In the collection of material for a scientific investigation of

— this class of persons, I have found it convenient to adopt the fol-

lowing questions:

ft, What ste heacradt called and Sigs oial dank do way aad.

2. By what rites or initiations do they attain to the privileges of their class,

_-MEdited by Prof, Oris T. Mason, National Museum, Washino1, D. Ç.

1068 General Notes. . [ December,

3. What do they profess to do? What are they believed to be able to do? That is,

to which class above named do they claim to belong ?

. What do they actually perform? What is their mode of treatment? Do they

sing, dance, go into ecstasy, suck the wound, spit out the disease in the form of

a bone, stone, &c.? Thatis, not what they claim to do, but what do they actu-

ally? What dress, paraphernalia, implements and dramatic performances do

they rescrt to? What fees do they charge ? i

. What is the area of their operation, both in the spiritand in the mundane world ?

Some cause, others cure disease. Some have influence in one sphere, others in

other spheres of spirits. Again, some operate on the sick, others on the con-

jured, lovers, lost cattle, epilepsy, etc.

6. Folk-lore, beliefs and customs of the folk in view of the foregoing subjects of in-

quiry.

Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Howitt and others we are able to

answer some of these questions concerning the Australians. “I

have adopted,” says this author, “the term medicine men as a

convenient title for this memoir, but the term ‘doctor’ or ‘ black-

fellow doctor’ is always used in Australia for those men ina

native tribe who profess to have supernatural powers. The doc-

tors are magicians or wizards. I may roughly define doctors as

men who profess to extract from the human body foreign sub-

sfances which, according to aboriginal belief have been placed

there by the magic of other doctors, wizards or supernatural

beings, such as the Prewin of the Kurnai, or Ngarang of the

Woiworung.”

The social relations of these blackfellow doctors to the com-

munity varies from tribe to tribe. In some tribes the head man

need not be a wizard, but is either a very brave man or a man of

influence. Among the Muning tribe the gommera is both head

man and sorcerer combined. He is the éiaméian, or master of

his local group. The oldest gummera is the bambian of the other

gommeras. He must be gray bearded, speak several dialects and

“bring things out of himself.”

A vast deal of mystery surrounds the education of the doctors.

Mr. Howitt narrates at full length, pp. 49-52, the story of his own

initiation told by one of his friends. ;

As said, the doctor and wizard are associated in function.

They profess to project a quartz crystal or black stone against OF

into their victim or into their own bodies, to cause magical things

to enter a victim by burying them in his tracks, and on the other

hand to annul the power of these introjections. These same

clergy claim to know and to compel or restrain the weather

(meteoroscopy or meteorocracy), to fly through the air, to T

morphose themselves into animals, to be invisible and to ren

persons and things invisible, to talk and associate with ghosts

and familiars, to abstract a man’s fat, to discover the causes ;

ath, disease or evil fortune, and finally to produce a coger

_ effect upon a person by performing it upon a part te oe

‘something he has touched or held. ; er eae

_ There comes out in this study the very best interpretation =

1886. | Anthropology. 1069

cotgring into them. The wizard was supposed to swing the yulo

around his head and sling it at his victim.

From Mr. Howitt’s language we would suppose they really take

the fat from the dead and eat it, and that he really binds his living

victim with the yuo, or knocks him down with the brepent, sits

astride his chest, cuts open the right side below the ribs, extracts

his fat, brings the cut edges of the wound together, and bites

them to make them join so that no scar will be visible.

We will close this note with allusion to the yenjin, a song of

elopement sung by a class of wizards called Bunjil yenjin, whose

Occupation is to aid in the elopement of young couples. When

a young man wanted a girl whom he could not obtain from her

nts, he employed one of these professionals. The latter

would lie near the camp with the youth and his companions and

sing a song, the others joining in the chorus. When he thought

his spell strong enough he ceased, and the young folks, mem. con.

would take to the bush together. :

1070 General Notes. { Decemter,

THE IconoGrapuic Encycrop@p1a.—The second volume of

this publication is based on von Eye’s ‘Culturgeschichte; but has

a chapter on Prehistoric Archeology, by Professor Daniel G.

Brinton, which doubles the value of the original work. We have

no hesitation in placing this article at the head of all compendi-

ums upon this subject. The method of treatment is historical.

The introductory chapter is devoted to a sketch of the science

and the methods and problems which have for the past quarter of

a century engaged the minds of archzologists. The characteris-

tics and art productions of the European age of stone in its two

periods, the palzolithic and the neolithic; the age of bronze and

the age of iron are treated in the first fifty pages.

he prehistoric archeology of the western hemisphere is

treated under the following analysis:

I. Paleolithic period,

1. The Palzolithic period of North America.

2. The Palzolithic period of South America,

Concluding remarks on the Paleolithic period.

II. Neolithic period.

` A. Archzeology of the United States.

1. Art in stone.

5. Metals.

6. Other ancient remains.

B. Archz:ology of Mexico and Central America.

I. Art in stone.

2. Metals,

3- Pottery.

4. Bone and Shell,

5. Paper.

C. Archeology of the Andean nations.

I. Art in stone.

2. Art in bone, shell and wood.

3- Metals,

4. Pottery.

5. Other x i

D. Archæology of Southern and Eastern South America and the West Indies.

I. Art in stone. :

2. Pottery.

3. Metals, bones and shell,

al observation’ on American art.

It is marvelous to see how much Dr. Brinton has crowded into

_ such a small space. No one is expected to say everything in =

_ encyclopedic article. The only improvement we could sng

would have been to give with each paragraph a reference ae no

ost distinguished treatise on that topic. This would have donè =~

1886. | Microscopy. 1071

little more than to fill out the closing lines, and would have made

the paper little longer. It will probably be a long time before any

other author half so qualified as Dr. Brinton will try to cover the

whole ground of American archeology.

MICROSCOPY.!

Revotvinc Automatic Microtome.—The microtome repre-

= sented in the accompanying cut is the invention of Adam Pfeifer,

mechanic and instrument-maker to the Biological Laboratory of

the Johns Hopkins University.

e machine is designed to save time and labor in the prepa-

ration of series of sections, and to attain at the same time the

_ greatest uniformity in the thickness of the sections.

The mechanism is very simple. The frame (Fig. B) contains

a horizontal screw beneath the sliding carriage (C). car-

riage carries the knife (X). This carriage is moved forward by

turning of screw. Two arms of the frame support the axis tj}

of the revolving wheel (Æ), to which the imbedded object is

attached. The knife (Æ) is clamped in an upright position on

the arms rising from the sliding carriage, so that the edge of the

-knife is in the same horizontal plane with the center of the axis

(/). Thus, as the sliding carriage is moved by the screw, so the

knife is moved to or from the revolving object. The carriage

slides by means of grooves on raised tracks of the frame, and is

not directly connected with the screw, but is simply pushed by

nut (X). This arrangement makes it impossible that any slight

eccentricity of the screw should cause a jolting of the carriage.

The head of the screw is a solid wheel (M) at the end of the

frame, and has 250 ratchet-teeth on its circumference. The screw

has twenty threads to the inch (=.025™). The knife, therefore,

is moved an inch by twenty revolutions of the screw; and as

there are 250 teeth to the revolution, each tooth represents

__*__ = _*_ inch (.005™"). :

20 X 250 000

The handle (O) turns the axis (/), to which is attached the

wheel (Æ). This wheel is four inches in diameter, and to it is

fastened the clamp which holds the object to be cut. The axis

also carries a fly-wheel and an adjustable eccentric wheel (W),

which is figured apart in a corner of the illustration. This eccen-

tric moves a lever (Z), the long arm of which is connected with

the small chain (D). The chain lifts a small lever (F), which

works by means of a catch (Z) on the teeth of the screw-head,

causing the screw to revolve. The small lever is steadied and

pulled back to its place by a spiral spring (P), while another

spring-catch underneath the frame prevents the ratchet-wheel

from turning back. By properly adjusting the eccentric wheel |

7 a Edited by Dr. C. O, WHITMAN, Mus. Comparative Zodlogy, Cambridge, Mass.

1072 General Notes. . [ December,

the levers may be made to act so that the catch (/) will take any

desired number of teeth by every revolution of the object. The

knife moves only during that part of the revolution when the ob-

ject is. not in contact with the knife. The ribbon of sections

slides downward from the knife and is caught on a piece of paper

placed upon the table.

The wheel holding the object, as well as the razor, can be

moved so that almost all parts of the edge of the razor can be

used.

The frame bed of the microtome is made of iron, the screw ob

_ Steel, and all the rest is brass. Any ordinary microtome knife or

_ razor may be used, )

The machine has been in use for a year and gives the greatest —

satisfaction. It can be used with great rapidity, but so far the best —— —

results have been obtained at a rate of not over a hundred sec- i

tions to the minute. The only possible error in a revolving

of this kind is theoretical—namely, that owing to the

ic : of the object, each section is part of a hoto

1886. | Microscopy. 1073

cylinder. Butin reality, with objects of ordinary size, this error

is not apparent, and even under a high magnifying power there is

no perceptible difference between sections cut by this microtome

and those cut by ordinary slide microtomes.

EMBRYOGRAPH FOR USE WITH ZeEIss MıcroscorpeEs.—This piece

of apparatus, which is the work of Adam Pfeifer, the instrument-

h ti

f j

Wa HY “ d

ki i

maker of the Biological Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins Uni-

versity, renders the Zeiss-Oberhausen camera available for draw-

ing objects under very low magnifying powers. It consists, first,

of a collar fitted to the arm of the microscope, and furnished with

a short draw-tube, which can be placed with the objective either

above or below the arm; and second, of a vertical rod, supported

1074 Scientific News. [December,

on an arm which is clamped under the collar of the draw-tube,

and carries a second movable arm resting in a collar to support

the camera. This armis held in place by a thumb-screw, and it

may be set at any point on the vertical rod. When the Zeiss a.a.

objective is used, and the camera is lowered as much as possible,

an image magnified about three diameters is projected on to the

paper, and any amplification greater than three diameters may be

obtained by varying the height of the camera, and by the use of

the higher objectives.

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

— One of the most remarkable salt formations in the world is

located on the Isle of Petit Anse, Southwestern Louisiana, 125

miles due west from New Orleans. It is owned by the Avery

family. This singular salt deposit is sufficiently unknown to

bear the light of a more thorough investigation than it has had.

The deposit is pure crystal salt. So far as it has been traced,

there are 150 acres of unknown depth, explored 140 feet down.

The surface of the bed undulates from one foot above to six be-

low tide-level. The earth covering the salt ranges from ten to

points, tomahawk heads, paint pots, mortar and pestle and_pot-

tery of all kinds. The dip of the salt is eight degrees. There

is a deposit of pink sandstone quite decomposed, a coal forma-

tion thirteen to seventeen feet thick and seventy-two per cent

carbon, the lignite cropping out a hundred feet above the sea.

Over the salt come pink and yellow clay beds, then the sand-

stone and then the clay, each stratum trending towards the

no ere are also sulphur springs. The salt is a con-

glomerate mass of crystallizations, which in the mine look like

dark salt, but when exposed to the light are seen to be wai

By analyses the salt is 99,48; per cent pure; the remaining 35 1S

made up of sulphate and chloride of calcium. The position

of the salt shows it to be older than the coal and sandstone

mporary pre-

1862 while a

n Davis and

by a N

1836. ] Scientific News. 1075

— Dr. Isaac Lea, the distinguished conchologist of Philadel-

phia died recently at an advanced age. He was born in Phila-

delphia, and during his earlier life was engaged in business

as abookseller. His interest is science was however always great,

and he retired from business early with a competence, and devot-

ed himself to his favorite pursuit. His specialty was conchology,

and in this field his publications, on both recent and extinct forms,

are numerous and well known. He was for several years presi-

dent of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and was

an honorary member of the numerous illustrious societies, includ-

ing the most important scientific bodies of England, France, Ger-

many, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Greece, India and

Russia. He entertained 200 members of the British Association

at his Long Branch villa in 1884.

were formerly common in England. References to the belief

that these animals would cause injury to the foot of man or beast

over which they passed, may be found in Bell’s “ British Quad-

rupeds,” and White’s “ Natural History of Selborne,” where may

also be found some curious remedies for the lameness resulting.—

<a. S

— At the recent meeting of the British Association for the

Advancement of Science at Birmingham, the following appropria-

tions for biological research were made: Lymphatic system,

£25; Naples zodlogical station, £100; Plymouth biological sta-

tion, £50; Granton biological station, £75 ; Zoological Record,

#100; flora of China, £75; flora and fauna of the Cameroons,

475; Migration of birds, £30; British marine area, £5. The

number attending the meeting was about 2500.

— One will have to go far to find a more delicious bit of non-

sense than is contained in the following title of an article which

appears in one of the scientific journals: “The identification of

the British inch as the unit of measure of the Mound-builders of

‘the Ohio valley.” The publication committee must have been

napping when this article was accepted.

— Dr. Baur, of the Yale College Peabody Museum narrowly

escaped serious injury recently by the explosion of a decomposed |

ostrich egg. The sudden escape of the confined gas knocked him

_ senseless, but as the egg was wrapped in a cloth his eyes happily

escaped injury. That the doctor had to submit to a disinfection

afterwards will surprise no one.

. —The species of tree moss, Ursea barbata, grows to a consider-

able length on the south shore of Lake Superior, Specimens re-

1076 Proceedings of Scientific Societies, [December,

cently added to the collection at the Northwestern University,

Evanston, were four feet long. The moss trails from the limbs

@ la the parasitic “ Spanish moss” of the South. It is of a beau-

tiful pea-green color.

— The streams penetrating the Gogebic Iron range, near the

south shore of Lake Superior, are so black with ‘discoloration

from the ore, that fish can not live in them. This is particularly

true of the Montreal river, the northern State line between Wis-

consin and Michigan

— Professor Henry L. Osborne, of Lafayette, Indiana, has

taken the position of editor of the American Monthly Micro-

scopical Journal, during the absence of Mr. Hitchcock in Japan

We look for an improvement in the journal.

—Mr. J. A. McNiel, of Binghampton, N, Y., offers for sale

forty pieces of pottery in one-half bbl., seventy-five pieces pottery

and fifty stone implements in bbl. These are far above the aver-

age in style and desirability.

— The k. k. Naturhistorischen Hof-museum in Vienna has

begun the publication of its annals, the first and second numbers

of Vol.1 having appeared. `

— A single gill-net in use among the Apostle islands, in Lake

Superior, is three miles long and requires an entire day to empty

and set it.

— A portrait of Hermann Schlegel, of Leiden, may be found

in the Altenburg Mittheilungen for 1886. ;

z0:

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF Sciences held its autumn meet-

ing at Boston, Mass., commencing November 9. The following

papers were read:

` ` ; i by T. Sterry

The solar-Lunar spectrum, by S. P, i: A basis of epia ‘On th oak

_ November roth: | ee

__ Primitive forms of Cı phalopoda, by Alpheus Hyatt; A case of evolution in the migra-

___ tion of forms, by Alpheus ar Litnites of the limestones of Phillipsburg, Canada;

by Alpheus Hyatt; A chart the s i p ; yC. H. feiss

catalogue of stars from positions in various astronomical periodicals, by C. by

3; A catalogue of bright lines observed in the atmosphere of f i

oO. T Sherman; On the relative motions of the Pleiades group Ato E

ieasurements with the Königsberg and Yale College heliometers, by W.

i 1886]. m ww Pyoccedinge of Scientific Societies.

November 11th:

Peas Pies eae: jo the mad = Hee sey conducted by F. W.

Put Sa: am;

Dra orial photographs, by

F C. “Pi m4 $ ate ee enh Pritchard's wide She eter by C.

Young; The ctestiod a barometer exposure, e onstruction

of new tables of Satu G. V ill; On the relation of the Green Mounta

rock: aconic, by R. Pumpelly; Hard d ch ya Be in

solids, by T. Ste erry Hunt; On wind as a seed-carrierin relation ne of the most

difficult problems in geographical distribution, by Alfred Russell. Wallace. .

The sessions were held in the Institute of Technology. On.

Wednesday evening, November roth, the academy was enter-

_tained at the house of General Francis Walker, president of the

_institute.,

BIOLOGICAL Society oF WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 1886.—Com -1 A

munications: Mr. Wm. H. Seaman, Notes on Marsilia quadrifolia;

` Dr. Theo. Gill, The characteristics of tæniosomous fishes.

Nov. 13.—Communications: Dr. Filip ee of Stockholm,

Recent progress in zoology in Sweden; Mr. J. W . Chickering, Jr..

Travels in Alaska; Mr. Wm. H. Dall, Histories! notes on the de-

partment of the U. S. National Museum |

New York ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, Oct. 18, 1886.—The follow-

ing paper was read: Earthquakes: what is known and believe

=> about them by geologists, by Professor John S. Newberry.

2 Oct. 25.—The following paper was read: Notes on the geology

of Block apee ‘and Nantucket, by Mr. F. J. H. Merrill.

N —The subject of earthquakes and volcanic action

formed ee basis of a discussion, supplementary to the paper o |

Oct. 18. f

Nov. 8.—The following paper was presented: A limit to the

a Ton of atmosphere, by Dr. Henry A. Mott. |

Nov. 15.—The following paper was presented: Recent investi-

_ gations on the mitigation of pathogenic Bacteria (with illustra-

tions by the lantern and microscope), by Mr. C. E. Pellew.

-= Nov. 29.—Professor Albert R. Leeds, of the Stevens Institute

rof Tes, read his paper on the purification of water supplies,

_ announced for the 22d, and unavoidably postponed.

Boston Soctery or NATURAL H ISTORY, Oct. 6, I 886. —At the

slates forming the outer ridges.

Professor Wm. T. Sedgwick exhibited some apparatus ara

devised at the Institute of Technology for elementary tea

1078 a Proceedings of Scientific Societies. ~ [Dec., 1886.

of some facts in human physiology. There were models to show

the various proportions of water, proteids, fats, etc., in the human

body, and in the daily income and outyo. Then in bottles were

shown the relative proportions of the same constituents in milk,

butter, meal, etc.; while co illustrated the comparative food

orth o

which could hardly be excelled for nutritious qualities, while oleo-

margarine is a benefit to all mankind, the farmers excepted. The

apparatus will doubtless prove of great value in conveying to

pupils in our common schools a knowledge of just those principles

of ee which will be of the most ‘value i in after life.

. 20,—Mr. S. H. Scuddeg described the mode of life of a

fossil beat

Nov Mr. James H. Emerton described the anatomical

changes randersoan by the milkweed butterfly in its chrysalis

stage; and also spoke of the flying spiders on Boston common.

Nov. 17.—Dr. George L. Goodale reviewed recent investiga-

tions relative to the absorption of coloring matter by living vege-

table cells.

i Agassiz,

INDEX TO VOLUME XX.

Abies se, 643.

gra

a, 643

a; placenta Sh 167.

Apna S nlect,

nodon, 29

Nea a A 280.

Achorutes

Acronycta, darkening of the hairs of before pu-

pation

Afi 265. 8, 798 8, 880.

frica E 717, 71 j 87

Louis, life S aa i

Agelen na nevia, orelor eak of, 666.

Agnatha, 103r.

Agricultural experiments, botanical value of, 65.

Ajax butterfly, migrations of, 970.

Akh lash ruins

aks Į y ir

Pre ser 60.

Aldrich, C., a curious superstition, 744.

instance Sor nage a9 variation, 807,

vision of bir

Alligator erate 289, — an

ssissippiensis, 2 291;

‘Allen; rerai = the tarsus of bats, x

> types “A tooth sree

abd, the r

Alps, glaciers in, 881.

aran seg 3 bee poe Ss

aa rica, 6

878.

Amæbæ, td il i by — in, 753.

ctatum

_ Ambly: peapa prio

Americ.

ds Ornithologist Walon, 209.

Philos gage airia 203.

Amnion, origin of th

yriapi ia

Andesite, definition of, 160.

Animal forms, development of, 152.

: naiona, wig cal distribution of pelagic ma-

Aiast, tale, 75

P Ee ae am Society of Washington, 195.

porera wai T031.

peel nests rai er I » 679.

twerp, zoologi gare lens of, goo,

Toe maritima, og evelopment of, 299.

hodius erraticus

eos aeree ad 6or.

Appatnthien Mountain Club, 210, 320, 420, 582.

a — , 876.

Archzological i aids, gto.

ogy, American, -= points in, 192.

are T Yaa

embryology of

i orga f ell i 889, 73-

se smi In, 29

ioe brs

p 62 noe oof: Ae > 877.

hypus, 172.

“Allison, 6 AEE e 584.

PRA aot poas, 287.

enia, 612

areca aurita, unusual abundance of, 816,

s 63>.

‘radilina , 287.

Alps, gla aciation in, 968;

, medicine men, 1067.

Bacterium, new species, 68.

Ballostoma year

. H. ager pes rock explosion, 137.

altimore ori ole,

Batekes, 7

Bat rt RE areeni 76.

Bathyurus, 156.

Bathyopsis, = m

Bats, tarsus 175.

Baur, G., the’ intercentrum of living Reptilia,

the! oldest tarsus (Archegosaurus),

a = atlas and

reat Codi se axis of the

the ribs = Sphenodon,

Beal, F. E. L., some notes on

twigs — by telephone wires,

Beal, W. J., J ! F

hat Sag He bog ee apples be distin.

Bear,

former so Pe ral limit of pe 655.

Bee, ogy oe in the e hu mble, 669.

eae

Beetle

may tnt gas -boriag, 754.

T = eological survey of, 57.

Belted kingfisher, 28. og

Bennett ., internal s A cag formation in dia-

bine t migrations,

symbiosis between a she er

roots of flow

12!

"s Vegetable Physiology,

the kest of the ash tree , 806,

Biological Society of Washi ington, 209, 412, 580,

Biotite, 754.

Birds, 66r, 738.

of a

of Sulu islands, 178.

led by « 1, sei owers, gêr. x

male, ae foe yri or their eggs and young, 903.

of spas, Moluccas and Shoa, 8er.

vision mot, 6

__ wings o}

Bison, 177.

See a bunting, -=

Blind, dreams of, - zee, Gr.

Blowtube in the U. S., 198.

-bird, 28.

jay, 27.

saree :

im in rorm of, 753.

Borneo, 106. ~

Bornia transitionis, 803.

1080 Index to

Botanical eai oped in the U. S.,

wo monk at the A A. A. S., 886.

fee an aids to, 727.

Botan a broader e ee iomar y 28.

Watson’s “Zentatbistiouh to,

a pocket manual of, 646

at = popcoaching: meeting of the A. A.

pian shall’ be taught in agricultural col-

Bothriolepididz, 10.

Boulder at sgt in eet Ki

Brachiopo

Brachycantha u ursina, 681.

Brain, Gambetta opeka

{Tore pod, 983

TEPAT geographical and geological expe-

dition ; in Brazil, a

Brazil, anthr cia je 831.

geography np geology « of, 687.

Brazza Sgr at Pari:

B n the fe a of Trinidad,

Da borinensis, 69.

Brissos s cammonti, 639.

rush, 27.

Lamellibranchs by Barrois, 1059.

Calcite, 6

California, cafions of, 969.

Hittell’s history of, 871.

pa ci , 168

— vambrian of anno shy Walcott, 800.

y of, Orr.

Camelus, 612

Campbell, L T causes of forest rotation, 851.

, 300.

amre western fossil flora of, 635.

in Plioplatecarpus marshi, 804.

ers aon Ivens’ journey, 1

Carapax, crus! oe 978.

Cader nto ti

Caries ears of a floridanus, 753.

Carboniferous insec

a Joel pa

Se 1031.

È Gaia ipes die o í

a ee 6 ett

Vol. XX.

Claypole, E. W., Buffal d Chicago, or ‘‘ What

might have been,” 856.

e Eswallow, 28.

of the blood, conditions which deter-

Cobiche ei bay, geology of, 969.

celenterate, new w fresh-water, 978.

Color in leaves, chan ff, 753~

Comandra pallida, 768

Commerce, ancie:

Comoro islands,

Comparative studies iati f North

mer tg Great Brit tain a pii reland

Comstock, a remarkable extinct Cee

asin in S.W.Colorado, 963.

. tori dritt of Rocky mountains,

sued ermetamorphism and vul-

ipee, 100

e veins of S. W. Colorado,

Congo,

Con gors Toa of some American, 643.

Conjugation, phenomena of, 982.

Conorbis, s4

Cope, E. aioe an extraordinary human dentition,

297- i

Pela a of notes on Dinocerata,

connecting genus of Chordata, 1027.

Dollo on i ee tortoises, 967.

embryology of arm: 667.

want Armadillo

nsas, 1045.

lemurine reversion in human denti-

941.

i 1 o ay mA 61r.

Be hlosse ogeny and Phena-

apr

Schlosser on the phylogeny of the

ingulate Mam sate, 719s

Parent 8 PAE Te of memory, 83-

the batrachian intercen

pl copperhead and other snakes,

he Sabita of Eublepharis variegatus

Baird,

eo. Pias goo

o -sea,

Conifers. explorations in the Southern, 968. 7

Coscin jodusi punctulatus, 280.

Cow-bird, 28.

Crania of. peers sata

Crawfordsvle Scientific Society, otal

Creod

C 4 2.

Sen a Fe nglish, 266.

Crico!

Crinoids, ajari of stems of, 885-

ear shuh history of, 884.

Index to

n masks, 310.

Dana 5.

ey yleptus lucasii, 68.

Deca da, eyes of abyss

os 4 redged Tan s Albatross, *? $23,

Delaware, shoaling o

on tion of glass, 276

Diato E

viridescens, 17, 19.

mock, G. Bon amorioan in America, 73.

Dinichthys tors

Dreams of the blind sande:

Earthquake -al New apres i +o of, 963.

North America, 869.

PE Ee 949..

origin of, 80:

a Uaice States, 883.

Echidnophaga amb ulans, 73

Ecitons, 1

Ed ne eat the relations of the pectoral

birds to an power of flight, 25.

Elephant, pint. of, 8

Elephas indicus ba

meliten:

Rint primigenias 49» 835.

o; 73-

Baber aay ot Li Limulus, 298.

à, unsegmented ——— of, 823.

Enter: —

pithel processes glan andular,

—— hair-like

Equi, nF heb ag beds of, 885.

genes eii 172.

Aseda 612,

Eskimo, parts of harpoons of, 828,

a "of Point Barrow, 199, 593-

Etc! i erals, 158.

Ethnol. z annual report 1881-2, 309.

ee riegatus, habits of, 735.

7 136.

rostrata 136.

= , 631, 381.

u ti

Ev aae p p W., the yellow-billed magpie,

607.

Eye, arthropod, 862

apaa the function of, 203.

Fiji, nanga

Fish, t Yo Mille Lac, Minn., 896.

ova,

remains at Weehawken, N: J. 343.

hooks, Californian and Polynesian, 833-

Fishhawk, the torture of,

Fishes, Z ngeia of Italian expedition, 822.

Vol. XX, 1081

Foerste, A. F., fertilization of Teucrium cana-

dense, 66.

olk-lore, ọ9r

Forbes, S todora i p America, 1057,

ores n, Causes of, 851.

Formation of starch in vine leaves, 165

iluri

egis variation of in overlying beds,

report of the

istory E aie of ee

Pourteestie 4 annua lr

Natura

Fowl, recap or

Fowls, g Soper , 898.

Fritsch, Anion, es ta vertebræ of Sphenodon, 736.

Fundulus heteroclitus » development of, 824.

Fun err on, 645.

k-horn, 804,

Gabbro by agen gry 169,

Gage, $. P., Perang respiration in

“ite shelled aniis

Galleria - — a ra

Gambetta

pat Indikn children’ » 908.

Ga a » Littorina litorea, 931.

ngli sh Cretaceous, 266.

E. A. ie kiled by electric light tow-

Gatschet, A. ee me saci Teagan to Cal.

ifornia folk- any >

Kiche $05.

lacus’ pre Be i oF De

recent riia of Dr. Tschudi,

supple Ment to the grammar of

= Cakchiquel language,

Gecko verticillatus, fd ne

Geographi yo Congress, ‘third i international, 955.

arrangemen 97.

formati tof, 9

Eas extinction, 29.

Geologists, third in: Congress of, 59

phyrea, method of on ne,

ee i nexations,

reo oe Frage n, extinct, in Colonna, 963.

Gingko, s topographic ‘features of lake shores, 626.

ingko,

Gillman, ager skull of adult with frontal

re, 7.

Glaciers of United S tes, 92

Gland, se sense organ in the plecal, 736.

Glandular ao vaso-motor fibers of the chorda

Go cok A s

» Ameri i

Gomphitherines Gk 7”

Haelttberiade, epoca acs 158, 804.

Hadrosaurus foulkei,

Hoeven, macerating fluid, 316.

1082 Index to

Halsted, B. D., strange pollen-tubes of Lobelia,

44-

Hancock, J. L., migrations of the Ajax butterfly,

Hanno’s voya

Haplodus Hie 2 i

of soaring

Hena Mambots on, 816.

Hicks, L. E., the Permian i j Nebraska, 881.

Himalayan peaks, height of, 149.

revei Eri Ù Kapas sg ae 745-

5238 nts in Amer, arche-

ak 192.

Holmes on prehistoric textile fabrics, 311.

Holomeniscus, 612

Homarus americanus, H. Milne-Edwards, 739.

Homotoma, 283.

Hornaday’s Two ears in the jungle, 42.

Hornblende po omorphs, 161.

Howell, W. investigations on the respiratory

center,

a hes oat of Invertebrates,

Horizon, logical, et

Hudson’s ,

Hydrophobia, 93-

era, the sexes in, 72.

ioe un

MENER, 1031.

H thene-andesite, 161,

yracotheri um cuspidatum, 295.

venticolum, 616.

lite i in minclusion, 26 mr ota

c, 906.

Index, cephal

India, forest pati

trigonometrical : survey of, 50.

Indiana Academy of Sciences, 100, 318.

Indian children’s games, 908.

- forest survey, 151.

local names, 87.

nite, manufacture of bows and arrows among,

Ingersoll, the scallop fishery

Injection-mass to be used al ot 314-

13.

Insects,the eye oe. , 88, go.

is of color i in, 814.

arrangement of De sadewa 808.

Intelligence of anthropoid a

of animals, Menault’s, 308.

she dog, Sir J. Lubbock on the,

Sn eat logical congress, 94.

a p

Vol. XX.

Laboratory appliances, some, 910.

Lactuca angustiana, 231.

Lake Moer

pees ‘foot-glands and aquiferous pores

Lampyria, description of the form of a female in

a, 648

Lanser, L, animal tr: 56.

nean of soarin g,ó

the torture of ne äsh-hawk, 223.

wings of birds,

Languages, origi of, 997.

porn s Our birds ee bees ir 259»

Lea, Isaac, eriga

pen eropration on, 797.

Leontodo n palustre, 6.

] epidocyrtis, 300

I Apun in America , 896.

of bleaching wings of, 204.

oat eg of, t

Lepido: na a ii e

AAR i kyalok. 1057.

Lettuce, a study of, 230.

Leucarctia acræa, scent organs of, 977. 3

Lewis, H. Carvill, gree of North America,

Britain and Ir

reat Brita eland, 919.

Lichanura, 293-

Light, penetration of, into deep-sea water, 751.

tieashyea, a

Limulus in ae Pacific, 654.

i socom Society, 209

Littorina — is at introduced or indigenous,

is of, 739

Lobelia, strange ge polentbes, ot, 644.

Lobst

molting rs

rvous eo ae a

Lockington, W.N.,

dens at Antwe erp Je Lon

Poet t honey, seeds 0

enteen-year, —

+ lhe salope gardens of, 900.

Longevity of i 170.

psta Aa

Lumbricus Aee P 754.

a moa gar-

vente gid mixture, 315.

is ; a

Mativakic G , luminous organs of Mexican Cu-

cuyo, 808. ‘

Widlaczl on Psyllidz, 283.

Magpie, yell Ais il Bee bay T

ow-bille

iaga 7 nfeathers a a curlew, 983-

cna 662.

tie tooth structure of, 295-

ammals, 739-

spay eines of in European museums,

hes, ancient Egyptian classification of the races

eo a Peñon, 633.

Man, E. H., the] Nicobarese, 750-

ae gto. |

brain nerves,

M tng

Marshall on segmental value

Mason, O. T., a in arts widely sepa-

Gas e Eskimos of Point Barrow, 197- —

Mastodon, Bao

Mather, Fred, pra sar A of wild fowl, 820.

Matthews, W., on Navajo weaving, 310- a

o names for plants, 767,

PNS and demons of the —

Navajos, 841.

Index to

Megalonyx, 37.

jeffersoni, 49.

Megatherium, 37.

Meikong, the, 266.

hal » 818

Melanesia, peaa of, 909.

f, 83.

Meter! C. H., anew sub-species of the eastern

ae. 236.

Mes

Mesas which fell near Claysville, Pa., 835.

Age fossil man of Peñon, in, 633.

Mice, 82r.

Microchata rappi, 983.

Microchemical reactions, 62.

Microlite, 61.

Microscopy, 675

icrotome, erain ia tomatic,

Miller, G. B., the post-mortem imbibition of poi-

Minot, c S: a staining dish, 675.

Mieiiippi, “Tertiary and Grand Gulf strata of,

Mod psd Tunis, 263.

Mollusca, 66.

Mollusks, shell formation in ie. 732.

Mo e ue vitality i in a marine,

, 206.

pean ae — 153.

the pene ing of man

Mosses, See hand-hook of, Sar.

ns, lifting of, 8

an, 493-

Mou

Mullus tog a

Murdoch, J. A., a few ‘pinay fra; ts from

sgl nt EATA skimos, Ba

rts of Eskimo harpoons

eagle

$28.

Muscicapa johnstoni, 178.

aT e during cadaveric rigidity, are they dead

or i

gy Peod >

lames. mechi aof opening of the shell of,

Mr. a, 131.

Mycologic flora of Missouri, En

Myct ma = , 1028.

Myles

Myriapod an anatomy, 895. | ¢

TRN I 3T. x s

National Ei

Navajos, deities and ‘demons of, 841.

Navicula os

og soar stots g 451

Nis Gulasz, ied

Otto cpr g travels i In, 52

tee pow report of State geologist for 1884,

New York Academy of Sciences, 100, 210, 320,

Notodontian caterpillar, eggs 8rr.

Nuthatch, white-bellied, 28.

Qbolella desiderata, 969.

Hat bed of the, 57- :

Vol. XX. 1083

cinema À or leaf-cutting ants, 123.

Ost, iniferior; io

oa: Hubbard's insects affecting the, 730.

rchard oriole, 28.

reyin an eversible ¢ nell Sa ghee larva of, 814.

Orifices, defense n in l pong

Oriskany sandsto

Orizaba, kimge of sea’

Ornithosaurs

Owens College, scaieg from the arie Tek labo-

ratories of, 8

Owl, scr reech,

Oxus, the, 265.

Oyster, green 7 coloring of the, 298.

Packard, A. S., an tegen s e in the

larva of Orgyia, 814.

ascent of of Popocatepetl, 155 15

on the dostomata, 109.

et of Lore seat porecle

feet in Philo

flights of i a ate anid

fluid poe k a — of Loch-

and some

otis ts apparent canes 26.

spar odostomata, 1060,

Palzoblattina anvils, a

Pa ean tyo]

Palæophonus sae, 271.

osborni, 270.

cus latus, 245.

Trara 6. ,

Palzozoic, 638.

Palauchenia, 612

Lwin’ bri "265.

Palest =e s constituting the mass of the hills

> pectin arquatrix, 178.

Panj-nad

Pantol cies brachystomus, 618.

Trienke bam rudolphi, 985.

P vase odd s effets t

arsnip, wi — oi 4

Peak o of St. Thomas eas

blight beci bea

alg eyes of, 985.

Seer angustifolia,

muscles, relation to power of fli

Pelagie fn fish embryos, pigment cells of, 987.

e$, 275.

tus, 179, 181, 182, 983.

eripal baliouri; 208. 983

Phvlopeds, develo ment of,

Phylogeny of the the Came! TA

e liz, Schlosser,

Pi Nicolas, some pe on the life-history of”

Pilite kersantiedbigor to

Pilsbry, H. Anjrmotes on Eastern Iowa shells, 75.

Placocancide see

5 aa a bei of, 810.

1084 Index to Vol. XX.

Plants, N: arene names Pog s 767. Reason, canine, 827

of North Ameri s ao ogue of, 64. Red sea, petroleum i deposits of, 961.

production of male and female, Ea So a age, fragment of, 969.

Plat vision, 69. eptiles 38.

Platygonus — 49- Respiratory center, recent investigations on the,

Pliauchenia,

Pliocene, ra, Rhachitomi, 76.

d ts at ae and Antwerp, 969. Rhamphobates, 43-

Pliolophus aon, a Rhea ricana, 298.

Plover, protracted flight of a golden, &98. macrorhyncha, 298.

Poa nemoralis, galls on Rhinoceros mauritanicus, 60.

Poebrotherium labiatum, "ei Phinseote., 283.

Rhizopoda in x ew South bate 982.

Podocoryne, Pec scot yy 916. Rhoads, S. N., crow roosts and roosting crows,

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, 1 691 ;

Polydesmus canadensis, val ‘tee of, 651. Rivers, J. J., description of the form of the fe-

Pomatiopsis lapidaria, male in a Lampyrid, 648

a volcano of, “109. Rivers of the Punjab, HP ME

Porifera, Robin, 2

Poekie hyperite, Ro cks, OGI. of Southwestern PA

276.

of its apparent causes, 29. oe

larval form of Polydesmus can- Rocky pact — drift of, 925.

adensis, 651. Rosenbush’s Mik pische Physiographie, 297-

a new arrangement of the order Ruppia Diha ae

of insects, 808, Russia, steppes of, va

the former southern limit of the Ryder, J., developmen of th w, 823

white or polar bear, 655. abe ty of e adh, 77-

the molting of the lobster, 173. e-hise tory of Thal

the amar aay in New Eng- oyster culture, iaia

land, 7 e develo ge of Fundulus heteroc-

sense ard Lance in insects, tra litus, 82

lation of Kraepelin’s wak, the otamo i of the American

. lobster, Homarus americanus H.

Bori gi, abundance of Aurelia Moe ia 7

aurita, 81 the origin of the A

Portuguese authority, extension of, 5 the ae of the mene. ‘cells which

protectorate of Dahomey, 264. est oa br rop i c fish

Potaneri’s journey in N. W Chin mabey

Poulton, E. B., ~ darkening of ‘the b airs of the the unpaid fins of Selachiansy 142.

aged “gaa before pupa- 986.

the: distribution of derived plant- Salmon, <a s problemati ee

Pratincola aisen 78. ne cereale late, Sx tones, yellow, of Scotland, 803.

eae 5

later JA N. how nig Suak be taught in Sage ella s kata, 639.

Dia bom eriens;i y ag Savoyanne, go, 282.

Proa! e Croc —

ae oe en eae Schneck, kJ: longevi ity of turtles, 897 J ka

talus, 613, = Sig - Eles, organization of, at the “national capi

Enna atg 612, e 269, aegis Scorpion’ s aie antidote of, 172.

Proteus anguineus, 821. Sciurus striatus, 236.

Protolabis transmontanus, 620. (Tami ias). ysteri, 241. : 4

Protophasmida : om, os i

i living a and dead, 72. rchin nervous s rae o 7978: a

Va ' curoptera, 69, i Sclachians, Pac Pe a T a t42. i

a i i ecti al 7

poe Sn ene ia ron a Sensi ibility y ed tank con kindkok ate

Psyche helix, 169. Sesia scoliformis, 3 169.

Psyllidze, 283. Sheep, new species, 751- :

-= Psyllopsis, 283, 284. Shell e t rmation in bivalve mollusks, 732.

i Pterichthyidz, 1031. Sie, » pah, 755-

?P vesenice uoagali idis, 167. Siberian lake, ee up of, 962. ?

weigh ilene

j loss marin tin freshly found, 814. Eaa satyrus, per T

wurm 44, 45-

acl ae PEIN Regs Au Siouan tribes, migrations of, 211.

Skull, human, 748.

Smell, aae of the sense Ponies

sense of in insects,

ers J. B., a asks’ nests peg Tate roe

Snake:

Snakes, peor A and other, 744-

Soaring, mechantes of, 653

Ti mec! cs Of, 053.

Society of son ao, U. S., 207

Sol is xyloni, 682

Somali land, r E. L. James’ travels in, 52

; 264.

ladia, i a ag

Sparron W of Echini, aa

Index to Vol. XX.

Sphæru laria bombi; 73.

Sphenodon, tie pty of, 175.

ertebra of 736.

Sphenosaurus, 76, 7

Sph :

Spi er, new trap- aes, 584

Spi ders, —_ —- 1975

ms on the embryology of, 825.

a classification of, of, 977.

earns, R. E. C., Teredo, or shipworm, 131.

Stephasite, 6 60.

Soc: sonnet . E., protracted flight of a golden

Ea Baargcieid, rips .

lummets

Stones, precious, sa the U. S. A.,

aingel of "s of hard maple, og

on of, 7

<5 ofc

Summer warbler, 28.

Superior, Lake, output of iron ore mines of, 999.

Saarni ition, a curious, 744.

U.S. geological, 709.

Tenia eae

Tamias striatus yten, 242.

Tanager, scarlet

Tapinosoma, pkra a

d, 2

Teeth, human, mtns be PE of, 989.

Talore o cornutum, 768.

d y

na, ieshistory of, 988.

Thelphusa, depressa, 178.

Thlinkit nouns and v erbs,

Thomas’ notes on May , 309.

Thompson? s bbliceraohy of "Provezta 259.

Thott ice T pou oe osbornei, 269.

ii give ack, 28.

inea,

Tineola biselliella, 169.

Tin ae a hills, 274.

Tinoc enops, 316.

Tiss: ues, esene of high pressures on animal,

Tiense, 28.

1085

Toad-fish, development of, 77.

Todd, J. È., boulder mosaics in Dakota, 1.

Tomocerus, 300.

Tongues, Turki,

Tooth, a ina E n Mysor rex varius, 903.

of Craspedodon lonzeensis, 804.

5 Seia Sigs s sorts in the bush, 145.

t, 967

tactile railway, 963.

Triznia mirabilis

Trilobites, 38,3

Trioza, 283, 28

Trotter, S., mammary gland of elephant, 927.

Eee gga to

Turtle,

Turtles, lor seni = 897.

Twigs killed by telephone wires, 806.

Uintatherium lacustre, 155.

Usaramo, 264.

Variation, peeaire Beh

ntane coro of, 753.

Ters pirker 6 Goodale,

Tat ae segments, homologies of, 956.

Vireo, a eyed, 2

Viscera, reproduction of in feather stars, 894.

Wainad, the, 2

Walker, J. R. ` pee notes on recalcification of

human teeth, 9

Washburn, F. L , mortality of fish at Lake Mille

SE Lac, Min inn. , 896.

Wert India, ee implements of, go8.

Wheat, the drying of, 6

Whitman, È O., osmic "acid and Merkel’s eg

for developing nascent histological distinc

tions, 200.

a on Polynesia, ane

ar: 2.

Witlaczil on Coc 287.

oodpecker, golden winged, 28,

d-headed, 28.

ood’s nai s A EE

World, government land and marine surveys of,

Worms, 738.

Wren, house, 27.

Xenylla, 300.

Xingu, the, g6o.

Yellow-throat, Maryland, 27,

Zaglossa

bruijni, <a

Zonotrichia, elbicollis, 828.

Zoology, Packards’s first lessons in, $73.

The numbers of the Naturalist for 1886 were issued at the fol-

lowing dates: January, Dec. 29, 1885; February, Jan. 23, 1886;

March, Feb. 25th; April, March 23d; May, April 24th; June,’

June 1st; July, ?; August, ?; September, ?; October, Oct. 18th;

November, Nov. 23d; December, Dec