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AS S G
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE
NATURAL HISTORY.
EDITED BY
EDWARD D. COPE anp J. S. KINGSLEY.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS:
W. N. LOCKINGTON, DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.
W. S. BAYLEY, DEPARTMENT OF MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY,.
CHARLES E. BESSEY, DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY.
J. H. COMSTOCK, DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY.
W. T. SEDGWICK, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY.
JOHN A. RYDER, DEPARTMENT OF EMBRYOLOGY.
THOMAS WILSON, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY.
. C. O. WHITMAN, DEPARTMENT OF MICROSCOPY.
VOLUME XXII.
PHILADELPHIA :
LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION CO.
ee 1888.
CON TEIN Ta
On Cormorant Fishing in Japan. P. L. JOUY........ccsecescaseceueves
The Mechanical Causes of ne Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia.
(Iilustrated;) BoD Cops vi- cauia eroa aera wks eee
mages of a New Ketch of Acinetan, with Observations on na Manner
Ingestion and Reproduction. (Jllustrated.) a UTTING. 4
a atest sa into the State of the Earth’s Interior. IRA SAYLES.,.........
ome Interesting Derivations of Mineral Rk F. M. poe a 21, 128
Sea-Side Study on the nore of California. J. ah apace PRWEES. 005) 05 3
n Meteorites. (Illustrated.) Dr. Han ER e vss tvs eave ve bs peK Os
The Germ of the agai Cattle Peo, (Illustrated) Frank P. BIL- ü
a Pin bad E Kd RON SEA CDS LEMS SEEM EMERY Se 5056 SARC OPAL ESTO
me IA PRA. 4, B. BORI. eee e o Hack id ed eos 142
Intelligent Benson: GRABLE MORRIS sessie A sive ces aan es 145
rphology of the Legs of i prisar Insects. (Jilustrated.) A. J. A
ONES anos i so oe ces E MEN EDA eK. O SoM ANAS line pple eben hs
Directive Coloration on Animals. J. E. TODD.........esseeseeeeeeesees 200
Syno pe - Bag ae oa Scheme sy the Classification of cag sii
Glacial “Erosion | in N aen dsni di in High Latitudes. (Llustrated. ) J. W., te
Six Weeks sin Southern Mindanao. J. B. STEERE...............s00008: 289
Distribution and Some Characters of the ahisi. "(Illustrated.)
LETON H DRAN. preted oak AOS Kaa Ue eas 40s 86RD 64 bene S 306
Observations on Kapai Pe its ST M Govt mavs agian ) 0. P. HiT.. =
Evolution in the Plant Seep eee dbs bo evesuswspeces 322
Guatemala Forests.
Mountain i han (Iilustrated.) “CA Wut Ree Fee ees a
Notes on the Geology of Johnson bounty, nig (Illustrated.) C. L. a
slw: BR E a a A N T E REL stay bis eeNEV EONS
History of — Bibs mares LEWIS STURTEVANT . ....082..0005 420, 979
Culture and Sci TODON UTE, oo ee Vk e's a SUAS ee es 481
On oe Gross Anashitiy of Campeloma. (a) R. ELLSWORTH a
The Wild Cattle of Great Britain. (Iliustrated.) M O dia 498
The California Gray Whale. J: D. CATON. 6.056556 005 5 cesses eee sees ee 509
Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. (Illustrated.) THomas Witson.... 573
‘Dr. N. O. Holst’s Studies in Glacial Geology. JosHua LrnDAHL..... 589, 705
Description ofa N ew Prairie Meadow Mouse from Dakota and Minnesota.
(Tinstrated) O PARE MERRIAM ieoi neroa
On the Arctic Characters of the Surface Fauna of the Bip ar Fundy, and
the prg with a Theory of the Distribution of Floating Marine
s Bae we WKES
pik and the Possible ERA in Phrenology. (Illustrated. r
MVNO oie cee ie a E E ep as a a
Observations Made in the Central Phili ppines. J.B. Sveere ie 622,
Our mo -Water Alge. EDWARD E rN ee
ee esesen ee er ee eee eres eer eeeee
OHN = BELKNAP A
The Dikes of iie aina River r Highlands. ‘ustrated $ F. Ker.
Science in Crorte: O. L. Heeiok os Wits: in
m0
691
698
iv Contents.
PAGE
Description of a New Species of Field Mouse from Dakota. (Jllustrated.)
ee te i os aks Se kala exis yerccee ween see N 702
Science Teaching in the Schouls. Wm. N. RICE .........+-+++se0+++ 765, 897
Fi @ Avainat Weeds. B. D. HALSTED ... 6... 6s cece yes scesesasys
The Derivation of Domestic Polled Cattle. (Illustrated. ). R. C. AULD.. 784
History of Garden Vegetables. E. Lewis Wiha dee jf T TT N E 802
On Certain Factors of Evolution. A. S. PACKARD. .......... cece veces
Notes on the Fauna of the Islands of etando De: Noronha, (Illustrated.)
a ia a en Be as a a ok hh aa se ree
Values in np ogee of ae ae of Growth oo eer with Propo-
sitions for a New Nomenclature. ALPHEUS HYATT. ... ....-..... 872
The Poison Apparatus of the Mosauito. 4 lustrated. ) GEO. MACLOSKIE. 884
Something About Crabs. J: S. RImee.ey.. 60. 0.0. eri dee ee eae.
The Pineal Eye in Layout Vertebrates ` Qitustrated. A E. D. ve Sh ates 914
Cretaceous Floras of the Northwest Ter ies. WILLIAM DAWSON...... 953
On the Influence of prai ooo on oie pi foe Habits of Aoi.
and that * the Actions and Habits of Living Bodies, as Causes which
Modify their Organization. J. B. P. A. LAMAROK.............. 960, 1054
On os ee. Drift and Loess of a Portion of the North Central Basin of
TE 972
ee o
rr
and Ethnolo T13- Irrigation of the Arid Resin of the United
States, 821— eteat of the Appropriation for a Zoological Garden at
TURE.—Gray’s Elements of Botany 46—Karpinski’s Phy-
sike-Geographischen Verbiiltnisse des europäischen Russlands, 48—
ged am s Lake Age in Ohio, 152—Mr Lydekker’s Arrangement of the
Mesozoic Mammalia, 232— See — on the Charadriidz, 236—Daw-
son’s Geolowical History of Plan 335—Baur’s Mo rphogeny of the
Carpus and Tarsus of the Vertebrata, 435—Claus's Zoolp ogy, 487—Three
Cruises of the Blake, 516—The Seventh Volume of the Paleontology of
a
es
logy, 1096—Microscopical Physi hy of Rock-mak n
a iin 9 l Recent Books and Pampi ab, 152, 237, 337, 437
BAG, 030, 716. J1 ncn tins's ss qhukeat hen baht r e tian eaeee ere 1007
GEOGRAPHY AND Travers—Afriea : The Eastern Desert of Egypt, 58—
e Raian Moeris, 58—Physical Geography of p pideei va Po, 58—
ca “Doul s Aena Í in the Sahara, 158—Lieut. Wissmann’s Second
rney Across Africa, 158—Lake Shirwa, 241—Sete Kama, 241—
TIROA S enyan at 343—The Niger, 441—Derivation of the Name
Congo , 442—Menge’s Journey South from Kassal
negambia, 632—The
Goldfields of the A hi 08 719—Kund and Tappenbeck’s ap aniaya
to the Cameroon’, 720—Mossamedes and Benguela,721—British Basuto
Land, 825—J. Thompson’s Travels in Morocco, 826—The German
East African Possessions, 826—The French in ’ Senegambia. . Bo |
Contents. y
AGE
P.
Asia: The Trans-Caspian Oases, 59—The Caucasus, 59—Ascent of the
ney in Turkestan, 156—The Tarim District, 157—The Mountains of
Siam, 157—No rth Borneo, 239— The Zones of Tibet, i — Explorations
in Nepal and Tibet, 341—Dr. von Luschan'’s J. ourney in Asia Minor, 342
—Indo China, 440—Sia m, 440—Ku rdistan, m — The New Siberian Isl-
ands, 441—The iteiten” 441—The Provinces of Kars an mire-
chinai, 521—The Mogok Ruby Mines, 5 ag er: Bird's en hap ai
229—Suanetia, 629—The 0 lomon Islands, 631—Godwin-Austin Pea
os Lieut. Younghus band’s Journey ak Central pe 823—
The Ethnography of PAoa 1008—The Amur Valley...... . -1009
America: Submarine Valleys off the California Coast, 168—Explora-
tions on the Yukon n, 159—The Rio Doce, 340—The Cassiquiari, 341—
Maps of the Argentine Republic, 448—The Faai of Labrador, 520—
Rainfall West of me Mississippi, 521—Fernando Noronha, 721—-Be hén
her's Globe of 1523, 826—French Guiana, 827—M. Thouar’s Cosik:
sions, 1010—Nansen’s Greenland Expedition... .... os esesosonersrees 1098
Anitratia Cb bs aU bee chs Ue wUN ere werd Vhs d Cake cane ok betes Eb ee ees 443
Europe: Three Days on the Summit of Mt. Blanc, ae ee German
Population, 634—Thoroddsen’s Explorations in Icelan d, 684—A Dis-
covery in the pene Saer 634—The Faroes, 1010—The Oscillations |
or Tim Dwele Guia cs ss cae ie Norai
Geographical Nita Pie era k wien 60, 159, 242, 348, 444, 523, 722, 827, soit
GENERAL N pig nas and Palceontology—On the Theory of Glaci
Motion, 58—A Cretaceous Bird Track, 55—Th e Affinities of Miolania,
55—Geology of _ Society Islands, 56—Geo eological Survey of Arkan-
sas, 56—The Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco Epoch, 161—Schlosser on
Earthquake near Akron, Ohio, 242—Notes on the Drift North of Lake
Ontario, 344—Glyptodon from Texas, 345—Geology of South Amer-
ica, 346—Notes on the Rockford Shales, 444—Some Extinct Sclero-
derms, 446—The Phylogeny of the Horses, 448—Hayden Memorial
Geological Fund, 449—Romanovsky’s Materialen zur Geologie von
Turkestan, 635—The Geological Structure of Afghanistan, 63
e — eee) orca ekker on the per
therium, 72 inct Scleroderms, $28—-econ ote man-
ovsky’s Materialen zur Geologie von Periceatai, 830—Rütimeyer on the
Classification of Mamm ali =- and =s ti erican Types Recently in
ling of Pane oic re Bases tet ype in the Permian, 926—
Speci ossi the Rockf d Shales of Iowa, 1013—Hand.
buch der Paleontcloge of Zittel, 1018— Schlosser on are 1019
wT ei perf ctly Known Species of Brachio-
pods fr ocks of Iowa, 1100—Caves nial Cate Life,
1104 —Goniophotte in ‘the Jurassic of Colorado. So merican Fossil
Cryptogamia, 1107 Dinosaurian Reptile...............-
Geological News; General, 165, 346, 729. 835; Prim ordial, 243 ; his
ozoic, 57, 346, a Cambrian, 729; Silu rian, 165, 524, 729; Devo-
i 525
nian, 166, 243, 524, 836 ; Carboniferous, 166, 244, i 729 ; ; Permi
i ; Mesozoic, 638, ; Triassic, 245, 450 ; Jurassic, 166, 245,
450, 525, 730 ; Cretaceous, 57, be 525, 730, 836; Cenozoic, 346, 450,
Led or 836 ; Tertiary, 166, 245, 346 ; Pliocene, 451 ; Pleistocene, : 247,
+
vi Contents.
PAGE
Mineralogy and Petrography : Meteorites, 63 : New Books, 64 ; Rosen-
busch’s Massige Gesteine, 169 ; Ne w Minerals, 528, 1022 ; Morphological
and Physiological Mineralogy, 930 ; Rare Minerals, 1028 ; Petrographi-
cs News, 61, sgl 247, 847, 452, 527, 732, 887, 928, 1020, 1109: Min
ralogical News, 169, 249, 349, 452, 733 ; Crystallographic c News, 529,
735, 1024 ; acticin, 65, 350, 456, 530, 837, 931, 1025; American
Minerals, "4111; Mineral Syntheses E s sakcs Ou ae Me E E 1118
Botany.—Schroeter's Arrangement of the Ustilaginee and Uredinee,
65—Tumble Weeds Again, 66—Botanical Work in Minnesota, 66—The
tologie; 172—Botanical Work in New York, 172—Death of Asa Gra
178—Planchon’s oe of the Ampelidee, 251—Postal Regulations as
to Botanical Specimens, 25% ermination ı of the Dodder, 254—Fossil
Forests of the Vallowstona National Park oana ew Species of Uredi-
neæ, 254—The Rootstocks of Leersia and Muhlenbergia, NS ae ct
of Ice upon Trees, 352—The Collection and Study of Characeæ, 455—
The Fibre of the Panama 457—Gray’s Contributions to Ameda
Botany, 457—A New Type of Lichens, 458—The Ash of Tillandsia
usneoides, 458—The Effect on Vegetation of the Variable Rainfall of
Northwestern Mexica, 459—An Overlooked Function of Many Fruits,
531—The Flora of Palestine, 642—The Entomophthore of the United
States, 648—A Miniature Tumble Weed, 645—Underwood’s Ferns
and their Allies. 645_The Gen us Taphrina of Tulane, 73 37—The Twen-
tieth and Twenty-first Centuries = North American Fungi, 738—A]-
len’s Characee of North Amer 739—The So-called Resurrection
Plant, 1026—Pediastrum and Polyodsitinn; 1026—Plants of Rhode
soma 1026—Watson’s Contributions to North American Botany,
027—Canadian Plants, 1027—Engelmann’s Botani cal Works, 1027—
Aen Growing on Animals, ae Use of Tannin in the Plant,
1028—Ravenel’s Herbarium, 1028—A Few Notable Weeds of the Ne-
braska Plains, 1114—Ash Rust in 1888, 1117—Hough’s —
Woods, 1117—Botanical News, 67, 173, Sgr ears Arp a 582
Entomology.—The Hop-plant cm 68—On the Occurrence of Akii
Males among the Aphididæ, 70—The Tarand Cabbage Butterfly, 70
—The Systematic Position of the Mallophaga, 71—Th a A be
Growth of Galls, 177—Homologues of Arachnid Ap]
ork on North America n Lepidoptera, 178—T he Grass-eatin g Thrips à
260— rabab e Increase in Entomological Investigations, 361 —The
of Insects, 365—Progenitors of Myriapods and Insects —! -
boratory of Experimental Ento k uatic Lepidopterous
4 Orthoptera of New England, 469-—Proceedin gs of the
Entomological Society of Washington, 469—New Instances of Protec-
tive Resemblances in Spiders, —No the Tube Inhabiting
Spider Lycosa fatifera. 546—The Mental Powers of Spiders,
Entomological Club of t ., 656—The
we Reports o : w Entomolo ogical
a urnal, 751—Pr evention of Curculio Injuries to Cherries by Arsenical
rata 752—Reporto . Entomologist, A ph-
‘dos re AT tl Yo Beginners, 842—An Introduction to En-
tomol 44—Synopsis of North Ameri s
ep ers, 940—The Beekeeper’s Guide, - atypeyl-
940—Bi liography of North American Insects, 940—Color ela-
Contents.
PAG
tions Between Pup and their Surroundings, 1038—Injury to Apples
by the Plu 1036—
um Curculio, 1035—Poisoning the Plum Curculio,
Smith’s Monograph of the Sphingids of Temperate North ee
1037—On Methods = Experiments in Economic Entomology, 1128—
——o NO WOic:d< Geis enh ubikira SFR «pet iad Ti,
Hens’ Eggs, 7 74—The Relations of European and American Helicidw,
Tonaro Organs of Spiders, 75 mee Mylohyoid groove in Meso-
and t Mammalia, 75—T ean ieeconecean of Smooth
Wastelat Fibres, 76—The Faunal Relations of Fernando Noronha, 76
—Muscles of Birds, 77—A Gular Gland in the Sac ea d Ant-eater, 77
—The Mammalia of the Ma Saha Bed, 77 Functions of Invertebrate
Otocysts, 174—Parasitic Rotifers, 174—-Mediterranean Synaptide, 174
ps eddard on Earth Worms, 175— Jonjugation of the Infusoria,
lia
Type of Hydroid Sersionuint 355—Development BE Brain aran
355—Muscles of Molluscs, 3856—The derr phe of Mail-cheeked
5 Sea Urchins, 461—Life ropa of Hair “Worms, 165— The Origin
of Bananai] y Asal 462—Phosphorescent Organs in Thysan nopoda,
63—Branchial Eyes of Branchiomma, 463—Reprodretion of Lost
ee North merican Infusoria, 5883—Two sae ‘of Symbiosis, 534—
Earth Worms, 534—Recent Notes on Seaphiopus holbrookii, 585—The
Relative Weight of the Brain to the Body in Birds, 537—Aquatic Respi-
ration in the Muskrat, 539—American Nematognathi, 647—Descrip-
Meadow Mo
Black Hills om akaa ta, 934—A Probable pone of Instinct at Fault in
s, 1029—Calcareous Plates of the Star Fish, 1080—A New Earth-
cil 1030—Isopod Anatomy, 1031—The Larva of Proteus, ee
The Nest and Eggs of the Sena ie 1032—Anatomy of Birds,
The Contractile Vacuole, 1118—An En doparasite of yter iren 1118
—The Class vpn tion of the Myria poda, 1118—Blood Corpuscles in the
Lamprey, 1121—Fibres of Short a 1121—Notes on the American
Trionychide, 1121—McGee on Meadow Larks, onta Riley on English
Sparrows, 11 1
9 s Convolution in the Apes .............00088
(Zoological. News: General, 78, 651, 935 ; Petes 175, 259, 651),
935, 1124, 1126; Coelenterata, 540, 651, 746, 840, 1125 ; Spon nges, 745,
839 o RO, 176, 260,
Arthropods, 78, 176, 360; Malacopoda, 936; Arachnida, 360, i
Crustacea, 541, 652, 746, 841, 936, 1126; Myriapoda, 541; Tunicata,
127: Cephalocorda, 936 ; Fishes, 78, 361, 541, 746, 987; Batrachia
11
and Rept tilia, 78, = 5438, 748 ; Birds 80, 363, be 749, 1127; a
mals, 80, 260, 363, 544, 652, 7 0 Se Carpe re er eee Pee
Embryology. ais s Text-book of Human and See Embryol-
ogy, 179—Hay’s Observations on the Breeding Habits of Amphiuma,
367
viii
Contents.
P.
182—The Ventral pe or the Sucking Discs of the Tadpoles of
Frogs and Toads, 263—Rudiments of True Teeth in the Young of
Ornithorhynchus, 3 68 The Ectoblastic Origin of the Wolffian Duct
in Chelonia, 869—Origin of the Wolffian Duct in Lacertilia, 369—
Origin . of the Mamm æ, 870—Embryology of Insects and Arachnids,
470—Development of ey 471—The Several Functions of the
Enamel Organ in the Development of the Teeth of Marah
and on the Inheritance of Mutilations, 547—Researches upon the
Development of Comatula, 657—On the Development of the Common
Sturgeon, 659—Observations on the Development of Cephalopods, 754
—Development of th i Sea Bass, 755—On the Development of the Cal-
Seed Sight of Asterias, 755——Values in Classification of the Stages
of Gro and Decline, with Propositions for a New Nomenclature,
755 —No on the Development of Holothuria, 845—On the Primary
Segmentation of the Germ Bands of Insects, 941—Development of
Meloe, 1037— Copeveodinent of the Peripheral Nervous System of Ver-
a 11382—A ay Atlas Of TOMbryowory. < oven cece cee nset sue 11
he Vol org: of Muscle Change Durg its Contrac-
Physio —Does t
teas '310—Organization of the American Payee i a Society, 872
— Practica
efinition of a l are 373—T lace of Bacteri-
ology in Modern o otes on the ae n of Nutrient
Gelatine and Agar, 72—The American Physiological Society, 756
—Marine Biological eines 756—Physiology and Morphology,
7e71-—The Notions atid. Works i <iks conic eis eiche Capewewa re os 75
Psychology.—Evolution and Idealism, 81—Notes on Forster’s Tern, 85
—Variations in Normal Knee tobe 85—The Cope-Montgomery Dis-
cussion, 265—The Red Fox at School, 267—Canine Dissimulation, 270
—The Mo nkey as a Scientific Investigator, 474—The Relation of Will
tö the Commer VeRO of TORTS ooo vs ee ose cs orisa tes Heaton
demy of A rane ogy, 18% minal Anthropology, 184—Crim-
inal Biology, 185—Criminal Sociolo u. 185—The Late Discoveries of
Mr. ug in Arizona, 271—The Celtie. Patey of Montreal,
273—Religious Brotherhoods of Morocco, 273—Guanajuato, 274—
Washington Society of Anthropology, 374, 1136- Supushons Arrowheads,
375—National Geographic Society, 8375—Visuaire and Auditaire, 376—
ierr me Avant |’ Histoire,” 376—-Mortillet's “L'Homme,”
z
is")
5
aA
n
Lizards were Once Little Men, 477—Fraudulent Spears or Arrowheads,
555— mmingway Expedition in Arizona, 556—The Indians of
British Columbia, 560—The Geograp phy and Geology of Baffin Land,
561—The ee tilones, 562—Topinard on the Latest Steps in the Gene-
alogy o n, 660—Anthro opoo at the American Association, 847,
942—The Fifth Annual Re of the oranan of Ethnology, 1137—
Some Superstit ton s of the ahamas 1 Ne Ere 138— em eR ler De a
í
Nene, 88, 186,
Microscopy.—Gerlach’s iMedia 186—Plaster Tablets for Mount-
ing Anatomical Preparations, 276—Preparation of the Eggs of Ascaris,
277—A New Method for the Microscopical Study of the Blood, paws
Boveri’s Method of Presnitad the Eggs of Ascaris, 38 n-
sive Section Smoother, 382—Tablets for Anatomical Preparations, 389
n Fix-
ng s Kefe the The Ee, 664—A New Laboratory Incubator and
Thermostat, 664— of Amphibia, 857—Experiments Made
with Chitin deivound eT se of f Celloidin in Making Demonstration
Preparations of the Brain, 858—Dry Preparations of the Brain, 859—
AGE
551
Contents. ix
PAGE
Minot’s Automatic is te 945—The Eyes of Scorpions, 946—
Vital Infusion of Nerves with Methyl-blue, 1088—Central Termination
of the Optic Wirra D Vertebrates, 1040—Double Staining of the
Central Nervous System, 1040—The Process of rtan Sections Sim-
plified by Mixing the Staining Fluids with Turpentine, 11
Frepared for Ribbon-cutting. ..6 25 <<< is 64 - ses esa osor cnww ses hep ae ens 1148
ScrentTrFi0 News. sso rsi sesi 88, 279, 478, 566, 667, 758, 860, 949, 1047, 1143
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.—Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia, 91, 190, 570—American Society of Naturalists, 91—Bio-
logical Society of Washington, 92 92, 192, 284, 384, 480, 569, 949, 1053
estern Society of Abeta 24 93, 287, 1 1042—Indiana Acade
Science, 93, —Appalachian Mountain Club —American
osophical Society, 285—Boston Society of Watered Taen 287, 480,
570—Essex Institute, 287—National Academy of Science, 388—
national Congress of Geologists, 949— Philosophical Society of ` Wash.
ington, 569—Kent Scientific Institute, 1041—United States National
oo of asa. 1042—American Association for Advanceme
o xi
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. JANUARY, 1888. No. 258.
ON CORMORANT FISHING IN JAPAN.
BY P. L. JOUY.
N the clear mountain streams of Central Japan there is found a
peculiar fish of the family Salmonide, the Plecoglossus alti-
velis T. & S. This fish, the “ Ai” of the Japanese, is something
between a trout and a smelt in appearance, grows to a length of
twelve to fourteen inches, and is a bright silvery in color, with a
golden spot on each shoulder. It is very delicate in flavor, and is
much prized for the table. In a country celebrated for the variety
and excellence of its fish, this species holds the highest place and
commands the best price in the market. Many ingenious methods
are employed for its capture, among the most interesting of which
is the use of cormorants.
We are all familiar with the stories of cormorant fishing in China
where the fisherman has his birds trained to obey a call-note or
whistle, and where they sit around the edge of the boat, and go and
return to and from the water like a well-trained spaniel; but cor-
morant fishing in a rapid mountain stream in Japan, is quite a dif-
ferent thing from fishing in a sluggish, muddy river in China, and
I believe that the Japanese methods are quite unknown, being car-
ried on at night, and ‘in remote and out of the way places. |
Before quoting from my note-book I will preface by stating that
I made a journey, of about twenty-five miles, from Tokio to a small
river, the Banugawa, on purpose to witness this interesting and, to
me, novel sight. : ;
September 8th, 1886. We left the tea-house about eight
o’clock to keep our appointment with the cormorant fisher. It was
2 On Cormorant Fishing in Japan.
a bright moonlight night, said to be a bad night for fishing, a
cloudy or dull evening being preferred, as the fish were then not so
active. The river consisted of two branches, running very swiftly,
and each from twenty to fifty yards wide, but in flood-time it
extended over a space of 200 yards or more, running between high
bluffs. The man with his bird was waiting for us on the stony
bed of the river, with his torch of pine-fat burning brightly. The
bird (Phalacrocorax sp.) was very tame, and sat perched on a
rock close by. A cord was tied pretty tightly around the lower
part of the throat and between the shoulders, from which was
attached a piece of bamboo (having a swivel at each end), long
enough to extend beyond the bird’s wings and prevent fouling of
the cord while the bird was in the water. The man carried a bas-
ket at his side to put the fish in, and a sort of apron in front to
hold pine chips for the light. The lantern was a wire cage or bas-
ket placed on the end of a long bamboo pole. This, with the cord
attached to the bird, which gives him a range of about twenty feet,
is held in the left hand, the right being employed in guiding the
bird, replenishing the fire and taking the fish.
Everything being ready, the fisherman takes the torch in his
left hand, and clasping the cord, to which the bird is attached,
wades out into the stream, the bird following him and, after per-
forming a hasty toilet, dipping his head and neck in the water and
preening himself, begins the business of the night. The fisherman
holds the fire directly in front and above the bird’s head, so that it
can see the fish in the clear water. The bird seems to be perfectly
fearless, and as he comes up sparks of fire are constantly falling on
his head and back.
The fishing is done up-stream, the man finding it all he could
do to keep pace with the bird as the water surges up nearly to his
thighs; in fact it was hard work for us on shore to scramble along
among the rocks in the uncertain light and watch the bird at the
same time,
The bird dives, swims under water for- on or ten yards,
comes up and is down again, working very rapidly and constantly
taking fish. When the fishes are small the bird is allowed to retain
two or three in his throat at a time, but a fair-sized = is imme-
diately taken from him and put into the basket.
During a space of half an hour fifteen fishes were oe which
was pronounced a good catch considering the brightness of the
Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia. 3
night. The largest of these fishes, which were all of the same spe-
cies, were nine to ten inches in length, and having been taken
immediately from the beak of the bird were scarcely bruised. The
largest and best of. these we had the next morning for breakfast,
the others we gave to our friend, the cormorant, who was kindly
assisted by his master to get them past the curd which constricted
his throat so that he could not otherwise have swallowed.
The birds are trained especially for the work, and do not fish
in the day-time. Our bird was two years old, and was considered
a very bright and active fisher, having on good nights, fishing all
night, caught as many as 400 fishes,—300 was considered a fair
night’s work. Only calm nights are available, and the darker the
better.
THE MECHANICAL CAUSES OF THE ORIGIN OF
THE DENTITION OF THE RODENTIA.
BY E, D. COPE.
Nea phylogeny of the Rodentia as an order is now tolerably
clear. I at first suggested,' and later asserted, that this order
_ was derived by descent from the Tillodont suborder of the Buno-
theria. The Tillodont suborder had a common origin with the
Tzeniodonta, from some type of Bunotheria with unspecialized
motars and premolars, in which some of the incisor teeth had begun
to display enlarged size. A form allied to this ancestor is the genus
Esthonyx, which differs from it in but few respects. Professor
Ryder, in discussing the origin of the Rodentia,” writes as follows :
“The significance of accessory rudimentary incisors present in some
forms of true rodents, as pointing to the manner in which the evo-
lution of the rodent type of dentition took place, may be overrated ;
yet when it is borne in mind that in other groups the appearance of
diastemata between the different kinds of teeth took place gradually
and in a way which unmistakably shows the gradual steps of the
1 American Naturalist, April, 1883; Report U.S. Geol. Surv. Tertiary
Vertebrata, 1885, 814; American Naturalist, April, 1884.
* Proceed. Academy Philada., 1877, p. 317.
4 Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia.
process, we may be excused for thinking the same to have been the
case here, although without positive tangible evidence in the shape
of intermediate fossil forms that exhibit such a passage from the
ordinary type.” In 1852 I had the pleasure of discovering a genus '
(Psittacotherium Cope) which supplies the desideratum wanting
when Professor Ryder wrote. This is a genus, without diastema,
and with two effective rodent-like incisors in each ramus of the
lower jaw. Ectoganus Cope is probably similar in these respects,
but only its separate teeth have been found. Psittacotherium is,
then, a generalized type,
and is not far from, if
not.directly in, the line
of the ancestry of all
Rodentia. It belongs
“a, to the Puerco fauna,
$ which embraced so many
of the progenitors of —
later Mammalia (Fig.
1
I have called atten-
tion to the fact that the’
first inferior incisor is
FıG.1. Psittacotherium multifragum Lo e, left man- i i
dibular ramus, one-half natural size, Original: from rudimental in Calamo-
i
tyne ll seabed ae Mexico, Fig. a, external view; don, and Marsh has
shown the same thing in
Tillotherium. In both genera the second incisor is the effective
tooth. The thirdis present in Calamodon (Fig. 2). In Tillotherium
the third incisor is apparently wanting. In Psittacotherium the
first incisor tooth is present and effective, but the second is larger.
Tt is not certain whether these are first and second, or second and
third incisors. If we allow Esthonyx to decide the question, the
large second tooth is truly the second incisor, for in that genus the
first incisor is small, and the third is rudimental. With present
information, then, the inferior incisor of the Rodentia is the second
of the Mammalian series.
1 American Naturalist, Feb., Tertiary Vertebrata, 1885, p. 195.
2 I have regarded (Natu ralist, 1884, April and earlier) the Tzeniodonta
as the ancestors of the Edentata. The objection to this view is the sup-
posed absence of inferior incisors in the latter. But the middle incisors
Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia. 5
.
The peculiarities of the rodent dentition consist, as is well known,
in the great development of the incisors; the loss of all but one,
or rarely of two, of the premolars, which leaves a wide diastema ;
and the posterior position of the molar teeth, as relates to the rest
of the skull. A peculiarity which belongs to the highest types of
the order is the prismatic form of the molars, and the deep inflection
of their always transverse enamel folds, both laterally and verti-
cally. A peculiarity of the masticating apparatus, which is the
basis of distinction from the Bunotherian order, is the lack of
postglenoid process, and the consequent freedom of the lower jaw
Fig. 2. Calamodon ngs Pa Cope, lower jaw, left
ramus, one-third natural Original, from asatch
Eocene, of Wyoming. Fig. a,e ecg view ; b, super-
ior, e-d, inferior molar; ¢, exterior; d, poatenion views.
to slide backward and forward in mastication. Appropriately to
this motion the condyle of the mandible is either subglobular, or
is extended anteroposteriorly, and the glenoid cavity is a longi-
tudinal instead of a transverse groove.
he mechanical action of the development of the rodent den-
tition has been as follows: The first factor in the order of time
and importance was the increasing length of the incisor teeth.
are disappearing from the Tzeniodonta, while the supposed canines of
the lower jaw of Megalonyx and allies may be trueincisors. This is
rendered probable by the genus Diadomus of Ameghino, where the large
Canine-like teeth are found close together at the soles bd mandibuli,
like the incisors of Teeniodonta and Rodentia.
6 Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia.
Those of the lower jaw closed behind those of the upper in the
progenitors of the Rodentia (e. g., Esthonyx), as in other Mam-
malia. Increase of length of these teeth in both jaws would tend
to keep the mouth permanently open, were it not for the possi-
bility of slipping the lower jaw backwards as it closed on the
upper. This backward pressure has undoubtedly existed, and has
operated from the earliest beginning of the growth of the rodent
incisors. The process has been precisely the opposite of that
which has occurred in the Carnivora, where the pressure has been
ever forwards, owing to the development of the canines." The
va
r
at
ed
Mieco aa
~]
C
Fie. 3. Foster, skull, right si ide two-fifths natural size. Fig’
a, ar meya jvt masseter masele b, ‘fossa in side of ascending ramus; ic ome
ernal auditory meatus; d, incisors: e, foramen infraorbitale. From Hall & Wyman,
progressive lengthening of the incisors through use has been dwelt
on by Professor Ryder (l. c.). The posterior pressure on the lower
jaw, produced by its closing on the upper, has been increased
directly as the increase of the anteroposterior length vi the incisors,
especially those of the lower jaw.
The first effect of this posterior pressure will have been to slide
the condyle of the mandible posteriorly over the postglenoid pro-
cess, if any were present, as is probable, in the bunotherian ancestor
of the rodent. Continued repetition of the movement would prob-
ably push the process backwards, so as to render it ineffective as
*
1 Proceed. Amer. Assoc. Science, 1887
Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia. 7
a line of resistance, and ultimately to flatten it out, and. atrophy
it. The lower jaw would thus come to occupy that peculiarly
posterior position which it does in all rodents.
The anteroposterior (propalinal)? type of mastication becoming
necessary, an appropriate devel »pment of the muscles moving the
lower jaw, with their insertions, follows pari passu. As a result
we see that the insertion of the temporal muscle creeps forwards on
the ramus, until in the highest rodents (Cavia) it extends along
the ramus to opposite the first true molars. The office of this mus-
? Bee Naturalist, Nov., 1987, p. 991, for explanation of the different
modes of mastication. The propolinal mastication is to be distinguished
into the proal, from behind forwards (the Proboscidea, Ryder), and the
palinal from before backwards (the Rodentia, Ryder).
8 Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia.
cle is to draw the ramus backwards and upwards, a movement
which is commenced so soon as the inferior incisor strikes the apex
of the superior incisor on the posterior side. By this muscle the
inferior molars are drawn posteriorly and in close opposition to the
superior molars. Connected with this movement, probably as an
effect, we find the coronoid process of the mandible to have become
gradually reduced in size, to complete disappearance in some of the
genera, e.g., of Leporide. In these genera the groove-like insertion
of the temporal muscle develops as the coronoid process disappears.
Fig. 5. Ischyromys typus Leidy, natural size, from the White
river beds of Colorada; onpas, from the Report G, z Geol.
Surv, Terrs. a,b,c, cranium; d, mandible from above
As third and fourth effects of the posterior position of the lower
jaw, we have the development of the internal pterygoid and mas-
seter muscles and their insertions and origins. The angle of the
ramus being forced backwards, these muscles are gradually stretched
backwards at their insertions, and their contraction becomes more
antero-posterior in direction than before. The internal pterygoid
mpap specially developed, and its point of origin, the pterygoid
ossa, becomes much enlarged. The border of the angle of the
ath becomes more or less inflected. In their effect on the move-
Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia. 9
ments of the ramus they oppose that of the temporal muscle, since
they draw the ramus forwards. They are the effective muscles in
the use of the incisor teeth, that is, in the opposition of the inferior
incisors against the superior, from below and posteriorly. Hence
the great development of the internal pterygoid, and, in a less
degree, of the masseter. Both muscles tend also to close the jaws,
but at a different point in the act of mastication from that at which
the temporal acts. If we suppose the mouth to be open, the action
of the masseter and internal pterygoid muscles draws the mandible
forward and upwards until the incisors
have performed their office, or the molars
are in contact with each other or with the
food. They then relax, and the temporal
muscle continues the upward pressure, nes
but draws the ramus backwards to the Vj}
limit set by the adjacent parts, causing
the act of mastication. fae
A fifth effect of the development of |}
the incisors, and of the propalinal masti- §
cation, is seen in the positions of the molar
teeth. The indefinitely repeated strain
and pressure applied to the superior
molars from forwards and below, has
evidently caused a gradual extension of
the maxillary bone backwards, so that
the last molars occupy a position much
posterior to that which they do in other sopi Lalay natnrai oise Frome
orders of mammals. This is especially a, i aen ofsuperior incisor
the case in such forms as Bathyergus, s wont parts of inferior molars
Arvicola and Castoroides (Fig. 4), where
the last molars are below the temporal fossa, and posterior to the
orbit,
A sixth effect of the causes mentioned has been referred to by
Ryder.! This is the oblique direction of the axes of the molar
teeth. These directions are opposite in the two jaws; upwards
and forward for the lower, and downward and backwards for the
Upper. The mechanics of this change of direction from vertical
in the primitive forms (Sciuride) to oblique in the genera with
prismatic molars, is simple enough. The inferior crowns, when
1 Proceed. Acad. Philada., p. 66, Figs. 8, b and f.
10 Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia.
closely appressed to the superior, and drawn posteriorly in the
direction of the long axis of the jaw, press and strain the teeth
in the two directions mentioned. The development of the long
prismatic crowns which has proceeded under these circumstances,
has been undoubtedly affected by the pressure and strain, and the
direction we find has been the result.
The seventh effect is in the detailed structure of the teeth them-
selves. Beginning with short crowns with simple transverse crests,
(Psittacotherium and Sciuridæ, Figs. 1 and 5), we reach, through
intermediate forms, crowns with vertical lamine of enamel, which
sometimes divide the
crown entirely across
(Chinchillidæ, Caviidæ,
Castoroididæ), or appear
> only on the ends of the
crown, through the con-
prisms of which each
molar crown is composed
(Arvicola). In many
instances the crowns in-
Fie Chirox plicatus Cope, palat $
iry trom ea of Ne ras aia R emna aS oeer crease ın transverse at
best gil “ee oe Mexico. From American Natu- the expense of their lon-
gitudinal diameter (Cas-
tor, Lepus). The vertically laminated structure is evidently due to
the crowding together of transverse crests by the same pressure
which has given the crowns their oblique direction. In many
genera the lengthening of the crown has included the lengthen-
ing of the longitudinal connection between the transverse crests,
as in Arvicola, Castor and Hystricide generally. In others this
connection has not been continued, so that the crown is composed
of prisms which are separate to near the base, as in Amblyrhiza
and Saccomyide. In others, connection between the prisms has
been lost by ccenogeny, as in Chinchillidee and Caviide generally.
The latter families display also the greatest amount of crowding
(Fig. 6).
A peculiarity of the plication of rodent molars I am unable to
explain as yet on mechanical principles. In genera which are
isognathous, the inflections are of equal depth on opposite sides
of both superior and inferior molars. In anisognathous genera
Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia. 11
the inflections are more numerous and profound on opposite sides
of the molars of the respective jaws. Anisognathism in rodents
is generally, as shown by Ryder, of the type where the inferior
molars include a wider expanse than the superior, though this
Dae aaa tavensis Cope, jaws, two-thirds apie om from Puerco
a G Kos exico. Figs. a-d, lower jaw; e, upper jaw. Origin
applies in some instances more to the direction of the roots rather
than the position of the crowns. In Lepus the lower jaw is the
narrower. The two types of anisognathism may be termed hyp-
anisognathism (Lepus, Diplarthra) and epanisognathism (Caviidæ).
The following genera display these characters :—
Hypanisognathous. Tsognathous. Epanisognathous,
Le Arvicola Hystricide.
Capromys. Castor.
Caviidee.
In conclusion I will say that it is satisfactorily proven to my
mind that nearly all of the peculiarities of the Rodent dental sys-
. tem, and manner of mastication, are the mechanical consequences
of an increase in the length of the incisor teeth. And the increase
in the length of these teeth has been due to their continued use, as
believed by Ryder.
12 Origin of the Dentition of the Rodentia.
NOTE ON THE MARSUPIALIA MULTITUBERCULATA.—The struc-
ture of the dentition of this suborder is in many respects like that
of the Rodentia in the known forms. The incisors in the Plagiau-
lacidee, Chirogidee and Polymastodontide have structure and func-
tions generally similar to those of the Rodentia. The result in
the form and function of the molar dentition has been similar to
that observed in the Rodentia. The postglenoid process is prob-
ably absent in these animals; in any case the mandible, or condyle,
is rounded and is not transverse, Professor H. F. Osborn has pointed
out to me that mastication was
performed by a fore and aft
movement of the inferior mo-
lars on the superior, in Plagiau-
lacidee. This was no doubt the
case in the other families named.
The resulting structure of the
crowns is, however, different,
and needs explanation. The
molar teeth present conical
tubercles in longitudinal series,
two in the lower, and three in
the upper jaw. The two series
of the lower jaw alternate with
Fie. 9. Marsupialia erly ai eng sewed : 3
pig.. a, Otenacodon serratus Marsh, $ from the three in the upper jaw,
niscoëssus cong : s
three-halves sea dis bo size; A go aan per or molar’ moving ın the grooves between
ge, humeral condyles molar, Fig >
d, Stereognathus oiliticus S Owen 3. ft ł, from Owen: the latter, while the three
c, Tritylodon longaevus Owen 3, from Owen. + series of the upper molars
reciprocally embrace the two of the lower molars. This is
demonstrated by the mutual wear of the tubercles seen in
Ptilodus and Chirox (Fig. 7). The trituration was probably the
same in Tritylodon, but in Polymastodon the increased thickening
of the tubercles prevented their interlocking action in mastication.
In this genus the tubercles slid over each other, and truncated the
apices until in old specimens they were entirely worn away (Fig.
8 ce). In Meniscoéssus and Stereognathus we have an interesting
illustration of the effect of the action of cusps on each other when
under prolonged mutual lateral thrust. Their external sides have
been drawn out into long angles in the direction of thrust, con-
verting their transverse sections from circles to crescents. As the
thrust is in the longitudinal Multituberculata, the crescents are
PLATE I.
red Ameba, Fig.2. Unusually large individual, Figs.
12. Animal as it appears in side view.
“Fig.
©
i
E
gm
5s
Í
Sa
D
Sa
Se
i
AA
Supposed New Species of Acinetan. 13.
transverse to the axis of the jaw. In the selenodont Diplarthra,
where the thrust is transverse to the line of the jaw, the cres-
cents are longitudinal. That similar effects should accompany
similar movements in two groups of Mammalia so widely sepa-
rated as these two, is strong evidence in favor of the belief that
the two facts stand in the relation of cause and effect (Fig. 9, Figs.
b and d). `
DESCRIPTION OF A SUPPOSED NEW SPECIES OF
ACINETAN, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON ITS
MANNER OF FOOD INGESTION AND
REPRODUCTION.
BY ©. C. NUTTING.
PoDOPHRYA COMPRESSA Nutting.
[)ESCRIPTION :—Body illoricate, quadrate, wider anteriorly ;
length from two to five times the greatest width ; compressed,
about three times as wide as thick; the anterolateral corners
occupied by rounded prominences, each bearing a fascicle of many
suctorial tentacles which, when fully extended, are more than half
the length of the body, and spiral or spirally marked when
retracted ; posterior portion of body rapidly narrowing to meet
the very short thick pedicle which is furnished with a sucking
disk at its distal end; parenchyma densely and evenly granular
contractile vacuole single, anterior ; endoplast oval.
Length of body, 1-277” to 1-140”.
Habitat. Fresh water.
The above-described species has recently been numerous in a
fresh-water aquarium in the Biological Laboratory of the State
University of Iowa, where it was first noticed by Professor S.
Calvin, who kindly delegated its investigation and description to
the writer.
?
In general appearance it somewhat resembles certain species of
the genus Acineta, but the absence of any indication of a lorica
excludes it from that group, and it is hence, with some doubt,
placed in the genus Podophrya, with which it agrees in possessing
distinctly capitate, fasciculated, suctorial tentacles only. It is
14 Supposed New Species of Acinetan.
more like P. buckii than any other species heretofore described,
but differs from it in possessing a distinctly compressed instead of
cylindrical body, and in having a distinct, though short and thick
pedicle.
Whether this is a new species or not, the observations made on its
food ingestion and reproduction are, erbane, of sufficient interest
to justify publication.
Although in two instances this animal was observed to capture
ciliated Infusorians, its preference is decidedly for the Ameeba,
which are abundant in the aquarium referred to. No sooner does
an Ameeba come within reach of the long suctorial tentacles of the
Acinetan than the dish-shaped suckers fasten firmly on their prey
and draw it nearer to the body of the captor. On some occasions
the capture. and subsequent ingestion were observed to be effected
by one tentacle only, while on others many were employed in the
operation. In one instance three Amæba were held and ingested
at once (Fig. 1).
The ectosare is soon punctured, how we could not discover, and
almost immediately the body of the Amceba begins to decrease in
size, its rounded outlines disappear, and in a short time after the
capture it is reduced to a shapeless mass of flat and wrinkled
ectosare, the endosare having been completely sucked away with
the exception of the remains of diatoms and other objects too
large to be drawn through the tentacular canal. The investment
of ectosare is then discarded, and the tentacles withdrawn and
made ready for other victims.
The above observations were made with a one-fifth objective.
A one-twelfth immersion objective yielded still more interesting
and instructive results. As good fortune would have it, the
Acinetan under observation almost immediately captured two
Ameeba. One was caught at first by one tentacle only, which was
then partially retracted, when several other tentacles curved
around and grasped the prey in a close embrace, at the same time
applying their several suckers, which seemed to be pressed out flat
against the outside of the Amceba. In a few seconds the ectosare
was pierced, when suddenly a rapid stream of granular protoplasm
was seen flowing down the interior of the tentacles and into the
body of the captor. So strong was this current that the particles
flowing through the tentacles were forced in a rapid stream some
distance into the parenchyma of the Acinetan, while in the body
Supposed New Species of Acinetan. 15
of the Amceba the suction was so strong that particles were seen to
rapidly converge from all directions to the points where the suckers
were applied.
After exhausting the contents of the Ameeba, one of the tentacles
was seen to violently eject a stream of granular protoplasm. This
was twice repeated, but the last time the act followed a slight
pressure on the cover glass. On no other occasion was this ejection
observed, but the query at once arises—Are these suctorial tentacles
at times excretory in function ?
This seems hardly credible in view of Huxley’s statement,
“Solid food is not ingested through these tentacles” (Anatomy of
Invertebrated Animals, Am. Ed., p. 94), but a subsequent observation
removed this difficulty. On this latter occasion a Ciliated Infusorian
rapidly crossing the field came in contact with one or more of the
extended tentacles of the Acinetan, which immediately grasped the
victim, and held it in spite of its violent struggles. Four incisions
were made in the ectosare of the prey, and soon four rapid streams
of protoplasm were passing into the body of the captor, rapidly
exhausting the endosare of the Infusorian, although its cilia con-
tinued in motion long after the animal was reduced to a mere
fraction of its former proportions. During this process solid
colored granules were seen to pass from the body of the victim
through the tentacles and into the body of the Acinetan.
This observation was verified upon at least one other occasion.
The ingestion of solid food would seem to render an excretory
organ necessary to the Acinetan, and if this is so it seems at least
possible that the suctorial tentacles may serve the purpose.
In regard to the manner of ingestion of food by the Suctoria,
several of the leading authorities, including Maupas and
Kent, hold that there is a double current of protoplasm in the
tentacle, one of granular protoplasm passing into the body of the
Acinetan, and another of colorless sarcode passing in an opposite
direction. The writer has failed to find any evidence of the latter
current, although his purely negative testimony is of little weight.
Still the question might be pertinently asked: Why does not this
colorless stream, pouring into the body of the victim, produce a
current among the protoplasmic granules of the latter, which is
directed away from the distal extremity of the suctorial tentacle ?
A number of observations under favorable circumstances failed
to disclose the existence of any such currents, although strong
currents toward the point of incision were always distinctly seen.
16 Supposed New Species of Acinetan.
The structure of the suctorial tentacles, as described by Kent, is
that of a hollow tube traversed internally or externally by a spiral
filament or granular crest, which appears as transverse striz
when the organ is fully retracted. The writer has in vain
attempted to assure himself of the correctness of this view as
regards the species under consideration. It may be that a higher
magnification would reveal the structure above alluded to, but a
one-twelfth immersion objective’ used under favorable conditions
of light, etc., and repeated observations have shown what seems to
be merely a coiling and uncoiling of the entire tentacle, without any
indication of the large central core figured in Plate xlviii., fig. 22,
of Kent’s Manual of the Infusoria. The extension and retracting of
the tentacle appears to be effected by the uncoiling and recoiling of
the whole organ.
In working out the method of reproduction of this species, the
writer was at first entirely misled by discovering a specimen with
embryos clustered around its anterior end as represented in fig. 4.
The resemblance of this to the exogenous gemmation said to be
common in the genus Hemiophrya, at least, and figured in Plate
xlvii., fig. 8, Kents Manual of Infusoria, was so striking that
there seemed hardly a doubt as to the interpretation ; and had no
more observations been practicable, the species would have been
described as reproducing by exogenous gemmation. The question
naturally arises: May not others have been misled in a similar
way, and may not exogenous gemmation be much more rare among
the Suctoria than has been commonly supposed ?
The life history of this Acinetan discloses the following stages,
several of which merge almost insensibly into each other :
lst. The parent form suffers the loss of its suctorial tentacles,
which seem to shrivel up and gradually disappear. Fig. 3.
2d. Internal embryos of a round or oval shape make their
appearance in considerable numbers in the endosare of the animal.
Fig. 3. This process is accompanied and preceded by an
unwonted activity in the granular protoplasm of the parent.
3d. These embryos escape through the anterior portion of the
1 Since writing the above, satisfactory observations have been made
with a magnifying power of 1600 diameters, which have confirmed the
view here advanced. Indeed there seems no room for doubt so far as
the present species is concerned, whatever may be the facts in regard
to others.
State of Earth’s Interior. 17
-ectosare of the parent, but remain for some time just outside of the
latter, and apparently attached to it either by a sort of plasma or
by short stalks. Fig. 4 |
4th. The ERE develop cilia and swim away as free, ciliated
embryos. Fig.
5th. The Ea embryos become fixed to some object and
acquire a triangular shape and a few (three or four) suctorial
tentacles at each antero-lateral angle. At about this time the
single anterior contractile vacuole appears. Fig. 6.
6th. The animal now grows longer, and gradually acquires
more suctorial tentacles until the adult form is reached. The
develupment is illustrated in figs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, none of which
are hypothetical, each having been observed by the writer.
Fig. 2. represents an individual of nearly twice the ordinary
length, showing two transverse constrictions or markings of the
ectosare. In this, as in most other specimens examined, the
animal is largely obscured by various objects, which seem to
adhere to its surface as if it were covered by a viscid substance.
AN INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF EARTH’S
INTERIOR.
BY IRA SAYLEs.!
HERE seems to be a strangely broad difference between the
conclusions of the geologists and the physicists on the condi-
tion of Earth’s interior. This broad difference, therefore, invites
every thinker to think for himself, and to conclude as best he may
be able. As a thinker I enter the lists.
It is manifest, from a bare inspection of the question at issue,
that it demands both the inductive and deductive processes of
ratiocination. Inductively, the fact of heat must be established,
its extent established, and its persistence established: deduc-
tively must its maximum be reached, it effects be reached, and the
main results of these effects be reached.
1 U. S. Geological Survey.
18 State of Earth’s Interior.
The geologist observes the lines of volcanoes girdling the earth
as it is, and concludes that there must be a very extensive ocean of
molten matter beneath Earth’s crust, to say the least.
He turns his attention to the great continents with their moun-
tain ranges, high plateaus and low broad valleys, and finds a
somewhat astonishing degree of instability everywhere. Up-
heavals and submergences are everywhere in progress. From
these signs he argues, and that rightly, that there must be a trans-
lation of matter from point to point beneath the surface.
‘This, he further argues, is consistent with fluidity only. A very
legitimate conclusion surely.
He takes another line of observations. He descends into the
crust of the earth, and everywhere finds the temperature augmenting
as he descends. Though this augmentation is constant, the rate of
increment is not in all places the same. Still, however, this
universal fact of increase of heat points straight to one conclusion,
and corroborates the conclusion drawn from volcanoes, elevations
or upheavals and submergences, viz., the temperature of liquefaction
must be reached. All known rocks must become fluid.
He turns to the record Earth has kept of her past history.
There he finds that, in all geologic history, upheavals and sub-
mergences have been common everywhere. He finds volcanoes
have always existed. Moreover, he finds that great gaping rents
have lacerated Earth’s adamantine bosom, and that through these
huge rents vast streams of molten matter from the interior have
gushed out over land and into ocean, spreading devastation wherever
it flowed. |
He now discovers that this molten condition of the interior has
remained a persistent fact from the very earliest geological eras—
undetermined millions of Earth’s years—zmillions, not thousands.
Millenniums are but days in this great record. Interior heat has,
therefore, been a persistent fact, and a persistent factor in geologic
dynamics. ,
Moreover, these facts of upheaval and submergence, being
universal, declare the universal fluidity of the great Earth-heart
within. It is no circumscribed lake, as suggested by some. It is
one universal mass of excessively high temperature.
When, however, the geologist concludes that fluidity will be
reached at about the point indicated by his observed rate of
augmentation of temperature, along a descending line, his con-
State of Earth’s Interior. 19
clusion is a nonsequitur, because he fails to recognize the changed
conditions. As the line descends, pressure increases directly as the
line lengthens. Now, one class of physicists claim that the incre-
ment of pressure is persistently superior to the increment of heat
but these physicists fail to notice that, when high temperature and
high pressure are simultaneously exerted on the same rock, the
character of the rock is changed, so that it becomes a far higher
conductor of heat; and that, therefore, the incremental ratio for the
heat very far exceeds the increment of pressure. Hence fluidity is
assured ; but, this point once reached, another law comes in, viz. :
The conduction and interstitial radiation become extremely rapid
through the fluid mass, so that the temperature of the fluid is uniform
with the temperature of the entire nucleus, and therefore no further
augmentation can take place; but the ratio of pressure augmentation
does not change. So that the increasing pressure soon overtakes
the expanding power of the maximum heat, passes its limits, and
solidifies all the nucleus within this limit.
An ideal section through the Earth’s centre will, therefore, show
the following :
First, an outer solid envelope.
Second, a semifluid envelope.
Third, a fluid envelope.
Fourth, a semifiuid envelope.
Fifth, a solid nucleus, :
No. 1 results from reduced temperature alone.
No. 2 results from pressure and a temperature not quite suffi-
cient for liquefaction.
No. 3 results from a temperature sufficiently high to liquefy it
under high pressure, and is the maximum temperature.
No. 4 results from the increase of pressure so as to be just
overtaking the expansive power of the maximum temperature.
No. 5 results from a pressure so high as to overcome, completely,
the expansive power of Earth’s maximum heat.
At the centre of Earth the pressure, taking her general average,
5%, water being unity, is 7,180,593,750 lbs. to the square foot—a
pressure so enormous that no known substance could fuse beneath
it at Earth’s maximum temperature. Even hydrogen would be as
hard as diamond at this maximum temperature of the internal
nucleus.
20 State of Earth’s Interior.
In the foregoing I decline to fix the limits to any one of the five
regions of the section, and content myself with showing that they
must all find a place, and in precisely the order named, and for the
reasons named.
All the above is strictly in accordance with observed facts, and
as strictly in accordance with the laws of heat under pressure, both
acting on the same matter at the same time.
L have strictly refrained from special theories, and thereby have
avoided personalities.
SOURCES OF EARTH’S INTERNAL HEAT.
First. The source of the primary heat of this internal mass was
the arrestment of the cosmic motion of the atoms, by centralization
under the laws of gravity and rotary motion of the mass about
Earth’s axis. The free descent along the line of the axis must
have resulted in an exceedingly high motion, and this motion was
arrested at the centre, and in the growing nucleus, forming by
their union.
Second. The heat, thus evolved, initiated chemical action among
these atoms thus rushing in. These were the sources of the original
nuclear heat.
When the mass was solidified, the heat was so high that very
many of the superficial elements existed in their gaseous state only,
forming an envelope around the central heated mass.
Finally, when this central mass had so far lost its fiery energy
as to permit their descent in a liquid state, they descended in the
order of their respective heat-endurance. Now, in their turn,
they began to solidify, and form the outer crust.
Last of all, when the outer coating of this outer crust had
reached the proper temperature, the water began to condense on
the tops of all jutting peaks. Chemical action again set in as this
water reached the alkine minerals. Here was another accession of
heat.
In due time Earth became productive of living organisms.
Water began to tear down the incipient mountain ridges, carry the
debris down into the young ocean, and there form the sedimentary
rocks. The thin crust frequently bent beneath their accumulating
weight, and brought these half-formed rocks within the influence
of this internal heat. Chemical action again, to a greater or less
degree, modified them, and they were hardened into rocks.
Derivations of Mineral Names. 21
Finally, the sun burst through the primeval shroud, or swad-
dlings of the new-born Earth, and began to lend its heat, to warm
up the tender young bosom of Earth, and to fecundate her
developing powers. Ever since that beginning, the sun has not
failed for an instant, to pour in his genial warmth over some
portion of Earth’s surface. This warmth, in the form of organic
bodies, has constantly been sinking into the same surface; and,
though we take little note of it, this amounts to a vast quantity, in
geologic ages.
I believe the foregoing is a fair summary of the case I under-
took to investigate. It is only a summary.
ON SOME INTERESTING DERIVATIONS OF
MINERAL NAMES.’
BY F. M. ENDLICH.
P bestowing a name upon any hitherto unknown substance, two
factors mainly contribute to determine its character: The cir-
cumstances attending the discovery, and the facts which have
become known in relation to such substance. The basis upon
which the new name has been formed may, in a general way, afford
an indication of the scientific standard of its sponsor or of the period
during which it became known.
Probably the first thought which the sight of a new mineral, for
instance, may occasion, will refer to its geographical origin or physi-
cal appearance. ‘The second question might, appropriately, refer to
its composition ; the third, to special characteristics and to its uses.
We find, in point of fact, that a number of minerals were named by
1 As any dissertation upon a subject like the derivation of
mineral names must, of necessity, largely be a compilation, I have
refrained from making citations which would uselessly cumber the
article. I have principally utilized the publications of Theophrastus,
Dioscorides, Pliny, Agricola, Beudant, Ceesius, J. D. Dana, Domeyko,
Estner, Gessner, v. Kobell, Linnæus, Matthesius, Naumann, Pape,
Quenstedt, Wallerius, Weigand, and Werner, besides various lexico-
graphic and poetical works. The manner in which I have presented
the subject is essentially original, and a number of suggestions have
been introduced which may throw light upon some doubtful points or
furnish hints for further elaboration.—E.
i
22 Derivations of Mineral Names.
the ancients from the localities whence they were obtained, and this
practice has been imitated with pious fervor during the last half
century.
While the method of commemorating the nameof the place which
furnished the first specimens of any given species has certain advan-
tages, philological as well as mnemonic, the nomenclature may
thereby be rendered somewhat unwieldy, as Nertschinskite, Herren-
grundite, Guanajuatite, and many others can testify. Similar in
causal origin, but admixed with a certain spirit of appreciative cour-
tesy, are those names which are derived from individual patronymics.
Many scientific men, discoverers of new compounds, friends of
mineralogists and chemists, and some persons of political rather
than scientific prominence, have been immortalized by the bestowal
of their names upon sound mineral species, Convenient and grace-
ful as this mode of recognizing the services or merits of others may
be, it is open to the same objections that apply to the use of geo-
graphical names, in that the burden of carrying words like Macfar-
lanite, Schwarzembergite, Zepharovitchite, and many others, is nearly as
depressing as that imposed by the more recent terminology of
organic chemistry.
A system of forming names from some physical characteristic is,
perhaps, not more rational than the preceding ; but it produces less
bizzarre results, is apt to convey valuable hints, and tends to cause a
desirable mental association of external features with the word
designating the species. Thus, Antholite, contr. Gr. dydoc, flower,
and Ato, stone; Asbolite, der. Gr. a6 20), soot, or Xanthoconite,
contr. Gr. Savdoc, yellow, and xovec, dust, furnish a brief descrip-
tion of certain leading, immediately apparent individualities of the
minerals. Other properties, which may not be patent at first sight,
give rise to names like Graphite, der. Gr. ypagw, I write; Helio-
trope, contr. Gr. ýàoç, sun, and tpezw, I turn, the name given
by Pliny to a variegated jasper, as he found that its red blotches
and bands seemed to increase in size and brilliancy when held under
water, in the rays of the sun. !
A concise review of the most prominent physical attributes of
minerals show the following to have influenced the formation of
mineral names in a marked degree:
1“ Causa nominis, quoniam delecta in vas aque fulgorem solis acci-
dentem percussa sanguineo mutat.” Pliny, a.p. 70. Venice, 1557.
Derivations of Mineral Names. 23
Form has produced Stylotypite, contr. Gr. 6rvdoc, column, and
tuzos, form; Diagonite, der. Gr. dcaywyws, angular; and many
others.
WEIGHT is indicated by Barite, der. Gr. papuç, heavy ; Tung-
stite, contr. Sw. tung, heavy, and sten, stone; and others.
COLOR is a marked feature, duly recognized by names like
Oyanite, der. Gr. xvavoç, sky-blue; Ruby, der. L. rubeus, red;
Polychroilite, contr. Gr. zojvs, many, ypoa, color, and Adog, `
stone; and many others.
Lustre is referred to Lamprophanite, contr. Gr. Aayzcoc, shin-
ing, and gaevw, I appear; and many others. Light and touch
alone will acquaint the observer with the special properties, but
further examination will reveal others of equal importance.
STRUCTURE is alluded to by a name like Fibroferrite, contr. L.
fibra, fibre, and ferrum, iron ; and others.
FRACTURE is referred to in Scolopsite, der. Gr. 6zodo¢, a splinter;
and many others. :
CLEAVAGE is of value in specific description and identification,
as is testified to by names like Huclasite, contr. Gr. eù, well-easily,
and xiuw, I cleave; Lowoclase, contr. Gr. 2łooç, oblique, and
xiaw, I cleave; and many others.
ODOR, TASTE, ELECTRICAL, CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC, OPTICAL, and
other properties are duly utilized in the formation of distinctive
names. After the physical constitution of a substance has been
exhausted in furnishing points for discrimination, the most prolific
field to turn to is that of chemical exploration. Under the appli-
cation simply of heat, many minerals are curiously transformed.
Often the changes exhibited are highly characteristic, and can well
be utilized for taxonomic purposes. Scolecite, der. Gr. xole, a
worm, describes a mineral which exfoliates into contorted, worm-
like forms upon heating; Melanophlogite, contr. Gr. pedas, black
and gioyeotos, burned, refers to a marked change of color
under the influence of heat; Zeolite, der. Gr. Cew, I boil, designates
an important group of allied minerals which bubble and intumesce
upon fusion; Huosmite, contr. Gr. ed, well, agreeable, and 669
odor, is the name of a species which emits a pleasant odor when
heated, contrary to the general rule.
The chemical composition of a mineral is of the highest import-
ance, and valuable hints as to its nature can be conveyed by the
24 Derivations of Mineral Names.
name. Stercorite, der. L. stercus, manure; Arseniosiderite, contr.
Gr. doGevexov, arsenic, and 6:9ypos, iron, and many others, con-
vey useful information as to component parts. Every now and
then the investigator finds himself somewhat baffled by the consti-
tution of the mineral, or he obtains unforeseen results. Norden-
skidld met a case of this kind by coining the name Thaumasite, der.
Gr. avpaçw, I am surprised ; and Ekeberg by forming Automolite,
der. Gr. aòtopołoç, deserter, in allusion to the fact that his speci-
men had deserted other species to which its composition was sup-
posed to be allied. Æschynite, der. Gr. 2%6yvvy, shame, records
Berzelius’ protest against the inability of chemical science of that
day (1828) to separate zirconic and titanic oxides. Peculiarities in
chemical behaviour also find expression in the name: Tuchhydrite,
contr. Gr. tayuc, quickly, and 5dw¢, water, refers to the rapid
deliquescence of the substance upon exposure to the air.
In some instances both physical and chemical properties which
are especially noticeable, may be indicated by the name: Sideros-
chisolite, contr. Gr. Gednpo0¢, iron, 6760s, split, and Xoc, stone,
is the name of a ferric silicate with perfect cleavage ; Chaleophyllite,
contr. Gr. yadxoc, copper, and guddoy, leaf, alludes to the foliated
structure of a cupriferous mineral.
The Greek language, singularly flexible and rich in clear defini-
tions, has furnished the majority of descriptive mineral names ;
Latin has been used more sparingly. Examples are not wanting
where Greek and Latin have been combined in the same word,
although this practice is to be deprecated: Pyraurite, contr. Gr.
up, fire, and L. aurum, gold (“ molten gold ”); Cupraphrite, contr-
L. cuprum, copper, and Gr. ’agpog, foam, is a literal rendition of
the prior G. Kupferschawm. Languages of our own day have like-
wise yielded their quota to the list of mineral names: Muromontite,
contr. L. murus, wall, and mons, mountain, is the Latinized form of
G. Mauersberg, where the mineral was found ; Leucopetrite, contr.
Gr. jevxoc, white, and zerpa, cliff, translates the G. Weissenfels.
The G. Olivenerz of Werner, 1789, has become Olivenite, on
account of its color (G. Olivin), and the popular term of Carmine-
spar has evolved into Carminite.
The successful attainment of uniformity in mineralogical nomen-
clature is largely due to the rigid stand taken by Professor James
D. Dana, the eminent American mineralogist. But a few centuries
since, all matters pertaining to chemistry and mineralogy were in the
Derwations of Mineral Names. 25
hands of alchemists, apothecaries, and a few doctors of medicine.
For the production and application of meaningless names, these
gentlemen are to be commended. The principal metals were called
by the names of the “ heavenly bodies,” as Chaucer has rhymed it:
“ Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe ;
Mars iren, Mercurie quicksilver we clepe.”’
Others were endowed with terms like lupus metallorum, wolf
among metals, for antimony; diabolus metallorum, the devil
among metals, for tin ; spuma lupi, wolf’s spittle, for wolfram, ete.
On the other hand, we are indebted to the alchemists for many
chemical terms which are now indispensible—e.g., alcohol, alkali,
crucible, and many others. The influence of ancient Arabic magic
and occult science is plainly discernible in the Oriential source
whence the alchemists chose their names for various 'substances.
By so doing they removed the comprehension of their terminology
far beyond the reach of laymen, and even of many learned philolo-
gists and ecclesiastics, and added to the attractive mystery which
enveloped their labors. Linneus, about 1730 to 1740, attempted
to introduce binomial nomenclature for minerals; but the science
was not ripe for it in his day. His efforts were in the right direc-
tion, tending, as they did, towards systematic classification ; but the
means were not at his hand to use proper discrimination. The
material was too crude; the analytical knowledge too insignificant.
To-day some of his names cause a smile—e.g. (Edition Gmelin,
1773), his genus Silex contains the species Silex achates, agate, and
the subspecies Achates arenomorphos, “with drawings of constella-
tions ;” A. zoomorphos, “with drawings of animals ;” A. techno- —
morphos, “with drawings which the imagination transmutes into
works of art,” ete.
Few of the mineral names given by the alchemists have survived
in their original application, but their researches have enriched our
fund of available words. Quicksilver (mercurius vivus) has been
handed down unchanged ; but Marcasite, for instance, now desig-
nates a compound of sulphur and iron, while it was used for bis-
muth (mareasita argentea) originally. Besides the planets, mytho-
logical deities have been called upon to furnish names for the
ever-growing list of mineral compounds. Thorite perpetuates the
name of the mighty Scandinavian god, the son of all-powerful
Odin and the Earth.
26 Derivations of Mineral Names.
In addition to the features which have been touched upon above,
as affording especially noticeable suggestions for the construction of
mineral names, there are a few others of sufficient prominence to
command attention.
MODE OF OCCURRENCE is often associated with the genesis of the
substance; hence of importance. Limnite, der. Gr. deyvy, marsh,,
alludes to the origin and formation of bog-ore. Alunogen, a curious
cross between Fr. alun, alum, and Gr. yevvaw, I produce, refers to
the generation of the mineral from decomposing Pyrite.
RESEMBLANCE to other species may provoke errors of identifica-
tion, and gives rise to names like Apatite, der. Gr. dzaraw, I
deceive, on account of its resemblance to Aquamarine.
CoMPARISON with allied compounds is expressed in names like
Miargyrite, contr. Gr. peewy, less, and dpyupos, silver, whereby
the fact is indicated that this mineral carries less silver than other
closely related species.
Mimicry of natural objects is readily perceived and made the
basis for a name. Thus, Ophite, der. Gr. dgery¢, snake, is applied
to some varieties of Serpentine (snake-stone) because of snake-like
markings. Botryogen, contr. Gr. forcvs, a bunch of grapes, and
yevvaw, I produce, explains itself.
DECEPTION is recognized in minerals whose occurrence or genesis
would lead to the inference of a different composition than they
possess in reality. Sphalerite, der. Gr. @gaiepos, treacherous, was
so named because it carried very little silver, though generally
associated with argentiferous ores.
THE USEs to which a mineral may be put also furnish hints for
its name. Agalmatolite, contr. Gr. dyahua, picture, and edtoc,
stone, is the material utilized by the Chinese in carving out
numerous small objects.
A rather pathetic appeal reaches us through the name of one of
Breithaupt’s species: Monacite, der. Gr. povafw, I am alone. It is
of very rare occurrence.
Apart from the mineral names which have been formed for the
purpose of expressing a definite idea, there are some which are of
interest on account of their origin, their philological relations, or
their application ; others claim attention by virtue of the mutations
they have undergone, or by their associations.
Derivations of Mineral Names. 27
1. A few names are of obscure origin, and their etymology is
imperfect :
ZincitE.—The O. H. G. form of zincho, zinco, may, perhaps, be
perpetuated in the M. H. G. zinck (Weigand) and H. G. Zink,
Sw. zink. Zincho signifies a white spot in the eye. The origin of
the word is by no means clear, but is probably German or Indo-
German. Apparently it is related to G. Zinn. (See Stannite.)
The metal zinc seems to have been first described by Paracelsus,
about 1528. N. L. zinewm.
QUARTZ, the name of the most widely-distributed of all minerals,
suddenly appears in M. H. G. as quarz, with a plural querze
which latter it retains until the middle of the sixteenth century
N. L. quarzum (Agricola, 1546); quartzwm (Wallerius, 1747). No
older root seems to be known. G. Warze, Gewarz, warty excres-
cence, has been suggested. The form Quertz. occurs as late as 1743
(Bergwerck’s Lexicon), and Qudrtzel at that time signified a chip of
rock, or one which flew into the miner’s eye. The word probably
originated among German miners, as the mineral is one which
might readily escape special notice, unless encountered in the form
of veins. Quartz-crystals were known as Kristalle in M. H. G.
It seems possible that quartz should be related to Engl. quarry,
to L. quadrus, G. quader, Sw. quatersten, and other words pertain-
ing to the cutting of blocks of stone—eg., L. quadratarius,
stone-cutter.
M. and N. L. quartatio, separation of precious metals from other
minerals, might have been corrupted into quarts or quartz, in allu-
sion to the fact that quartz, when it forms the matrix, generally
admits of a sharp definition of “ore” or “ metal” and “ stone.”
ANTIMONY.—It is a difficult matter to trace the origin of this
word satisfactorily. We know that the classical Greeks and other
ancient nations possessed the antimonial sulphide (Stibnite), which
was extensively used for cosmetic purposes. The substance was
powdered and applied to eyelids, eyebrows, and underneath the
‘eyes, with the intention of making the latter seem larger and more
brilliant. This classical custom has survived to the present time.
By the Greeks the word Gryp, or Grife, was used to designate
the mineral employed. The word is not of Greek origin; possibly
Egyptian, probably Arabic. From this the Romans borrowed
-stibnum, which has remained the Latin name of the metallic element
to this day. Metallic antimony, though known to the ancients, was
t
28 Derivations of Mineral Names.
first described, as to its properties, by Basil Valentine, near the year
1400.
Antimony, as a word, fails to comply with the Gr. r:e in all
but the tim. That this should be sufficient to establish a connection
cannot be claimed, but it indicates that both names may well have a
common origin. It is possible that the first syllable, an, may be a
modification of the Ar. article al, in which case the reference of the
word to an Arabic origin would seem justified. An old Arabic
name for Stibnite is al-kohl (whence our alcohol) ; but as this seems
to refer to the powder, rather than to the crude mineral or metal,
there may have been another root. The Ar. al-ithmidun is regarded
as the source of antimony, the latter being a rather exaggerated
corruption of the former. Another derivation brings it from the
Ar. athimar, the name of the metal. (Const. Africanus, 1100.)
A forced derivation is obtained from Gr. dyze, against, and M.
L. monachos, monks. Basil Valentin, the monk, fed some
antimonial compound to his pigs, and they grew fat upon it. He
tried the same dose upon his cloister brethren, and they died:
hence the supposed origin of the name. It remains a coincident
that the French word for antimony introduces an i in antimoine, _
and that Fr. moine means monk.
BismMuTH.—The origin of this word is not very clear. It was
first used in Germany in the later middle ages. A common expla-
nation assigns it to O. H. G. wesemot, contr. wese, meadow, and mot,
damp ground, swamp; but, aside from the similarity of sound,
there seems to be no relation between the two words.
Another root has been claimed in the H. G. word Wiese, meadow,
as some old writers claim that the colors which the metal assumes
upon cooling after fusion are varied and beautiful as those of
flowers on a meadow (sixteenth century). The metal is white, and
often assumes iridescent colors after melting.
During the sixteenth century German writers speak of it as Bis-
mut, Bissmuth, Wyssmuth, and Wissmuth. At the same period its
Latin mame was bisemutum (Agricola, 1546). This latter may
be merely an amplification of the German term, or it may be com-
posed of the L. words bis, twice, and emuto, I change, in allusion to
the crystalline and color changes undergone upon fusion. About
1400 the word was bismuthum.
A more plausible explanation of its origin lies in the derivation
from M. H. G. wiss or wyss, white, the color of the metal. There
Derivations of Mineral Names. 29
are traces of an O. G. root mut, which refers to ground, earth, and,
in Swedish, seems to indicate ore,mine. From this root the second
syllable of the word may be derived. If the name was given by
miners—and there is every reason to suppose that it was—then it
was, in all probability, a descriptive term, denoting either appearance
or some peculiar property. The above derivation would, therefore,
determine the meaning of the word as white-ore, or some kindred
term. Sw. vismut; later, bismut. The change from w or v to
initial b is due to Latinization.
2. Besides the names of decidedly dark origin, there are some
which have changed considerably, in their journeys from nation to
nation, through the course of centuries. It is interesting to note in
these, as well as in other instances, that the words have generally
reached Scandinavia through Germany, England through France.
EMERALD is the modified form of Sansk. marakata and
samaraka. In Pers. the latter becomes zamarrad; in Ar.,
zamamth ; in Gr., papaydos and 6yapaydos, with the verb 6uapaydeu
L., lucere, to shine brightly. In all of these forms, as well
as in the L. smaragdus, the initial s-sound and the final d-sound
have been preserved.
The Gr. and L. form has persisted in the G. and Sw. Smaragd ;
in It. it is changed to esmeraldo; Sp., to esmeralda. O. Fr.
retained the prefixed e and the l, using the word esmeraulde ; sub-
sequently this was modified into emeraude. Our English name
follows the latter closely in O. Engl. emeraud and emeraulde, but
has retained the / in emerald:
oa a’; ol E “ the semes echon
Was set with emerauds one and ore.”
— Chaucer, 1340-1400,
and, later :
“ Would emulate the emeraulde-like grass.”
— Stirling, 1614.
Zuapayðoş was mentioned by Herodotos, about 450 B.c. Usu-
ally the name was applied to varieties of aquamarine, rather than to
the emerald, although the ancients were familiar with the latter.
<. . . « © 6papaydov Atov laurovrtoç tas vuxtas psyatos.””
—AHerodotos, II, 446.
30 Derivations of Mineral Names.
Pliny describes it as surpassing everything that exhibited green
color in the loveliness of its shade.
Emery, although so near emerald in sound, has a totally differ-
ent origin. Its Gr. ancestor is 6uvpes or Eyypes, der. Gr. Cuvprfer,
to polish by rubbing. Dioscorides uses 6y:p:¢.
In H. G. the word resembles the Greek phonetically—Schmirgel,
Sehmergel, or Smirgel ; Sw. smergel. In It. the L. smiris changed
to smeriglio; N. L., smeriglo (1602), smeriglius, smirillus (1610) ;
Sp., esmeril; Fr., emeril, later emeri—whence Engl. emery.
It will be observed that a number of words prefix an e in French
and Spanish. This is probably due to the use of the respective
masculine articles le and el. Thus, It. smeriglio becomes le smeril,
and subsequently esmeril or Pemeril. In Sp. the article el is pre-
fixed and the / finally eliminated. Changes of gender are of rather
frequent occurrence in the history of mineralogical. nomenclature, ,
so that French or Spanish names which show an initial e but are
now feminine may well have been masculine at some early period.
CALAMINE has often been accredited to Gr. xadapoc, L. calamus
reed (Agricola, 1540), a name which might appropriately be given
to some varieties on account of their structure. This derivation is
all the more seductive, as a genus of plants, Calamites, has the same
ancestry. The name, however, seems to be due to Gr. xadpeca, L,
cadmia, G. Galmei.
Gr. xadpeea, or xadpra, is used by Dioscorides, about A.D. 30, in.
writing of a mineral, and was supposed to have been derived from
the legendary Kaðyoç, a Pheenician, who came to Greece and first
introduced smelting there ; later by Pliny and others, in the form of
L. cadmia.' In It. it remained cadmia, but in the transition from
It. to Sp. and G. the d changed to J, as is frequently the case, and
we find Sp. calamina, Fr. calamine. Alb. Magnus uses lapis cala-
minaris (1280). G. calmei appeared in the beginning of the six-
teenth century ; not long after, the initial c of calmei was replaced
by the H. G. g, producing galmey (Cadmia Jossilis, Gessner, 1565);
later, Galmei ; Sw., gallmeja (1750). The name was rather indis-
criminately applied as “ Cadmia metallica cinerea,” in the sense of
“ein natiirlicher, grawer kobelt” (a natural grey cobalt), shows
(Gessner, 1565).
1 Namque ; ipse lapis, ex quo fit aes, cadmia vocatur.”
-2 A. Caesalpinus, Aretinus, 1602, says: ‘“‘Calaminam, seu lapidem
Calaminarem, vulgo, Giallaminam, . . . . Arabes Climian vocant.”
Derivations of Mineral Names. 31
GARNET.—From the color and size of the grains—in which
latter form garnets were first found—they were originally compared
to the seeds of the pomegranate (malum granatum), and received
the name lapis granatus therefrom (cfr. Magnus, about 1280).
L. granum, grain, is the root, although granatus, having the mean-
ing of grains or seeds, was used by Cato about 200 B.c. In G.
this has perpetuated itself as Granat, from M. H. G. to the present
time ; in It., granato ; Sp., granate ; Fr., as grénat. Transposition
of the letters forming Fr. grénat furnishes the Engl. garnet.
It is curious to note that, while the Engl. compound word pome-
granate (G. Granat-apfel) retains the original pai position of
gr, this has been changed in Engl. garnet.
ORPIMENT is a corruption of L. auripigmentum, contr. L. aurum,
gold, and pigmentum (from L. pingere, to paint), color, used by
Pliny, about A.D. 70. O. H. G. orgimint, M. H. G. orgemint,
orperment, opriment, opirment, prepared the way for H. G. Operment,
in which the r of aurum has been entirely dropped and one inserted
after the p. Sp. oropiment, It., Fr. and Engl. retain the r in
orpimento and orpiment:
‘ The first spirit quicksilver cleped is,
The second orpiment.’
—Chaucer, 1340-1400.
Zircon.—The derivation of this name is somewhat peculiar.
For many years the Island of Ceylon furnished gems and half
gems. Some of the latter were utilized to imitate their more valu-
able associates. Such were called jargon in French? Among
them were some colourless crystals, and others of yellow and reddish
shades, which turned white and clear under the application of heat.
These were especially desirable for the imitation of diamond, and
to them the name jargon finally attached itself almost exclusively.
In the middle of the last century Linnzus describes this mineral
under the name of jargon in such a manner that its identity can be
established. He states (Ed. Gmelin, 1777) that the (presumably
German) jewelers’ name for reddish jargons which turned colorless
in the fire was “ Cerkonier” (Cerkon), and that they exhibited the
fire and lustre of the poorer quality of diamonds. In 1783,
1 Linnæus mentions Fr. jargon and It. sargone, yellow diamonds—
the inferior class—whence the name may have been transferred
to the stones which counterfeited the valuable gem. ”
32 Derivations of Mineral Names.
Werner, the famous mineralogist of Freiberg, produced the name
Zirkon for this mineral. In ordinary parlance, the zircon is
known as jargon in France to-day, so that the accepted scientific
name is to be regarded as a corruption of the popular one.
Jargon, in the above acceptation, means counterfeit, wrong pre-
sentment, but the word is now more particularly used in the sense
of gibberish. The remote origin of jargon may connect it with Gr.
yapyapttw, I gargle—make a noise in the throat—and L. garrio,
chattering (whence Engl. garrulous), gossiping. In It. it has
changed to gergone and giargone (de Boot, 1636); Sp., jerga, jeri-
gonza; Fr., jargon ; O. Engl., jergon ; Engl., jargon (der. A.-Sax.
girran, chattering [?] ).
“ He was al coltish, ful of ragerie,
And full of jergon as a flecked pie.”
— Chaucer, 1340-1400.
“ Their mystic cabals and jargones.”
— Butler, 1682.
In these instances the meaning of jargon is somewhat different from
that of to-day.
(To be concluded.)
ABBREVIATIONS.
A. D., Anno Domini, in the year | M.H.G., Middle-High German, A.
of our Lord. D.1150t 0 1500 (Weigand).
a.m.o., and many others. M.L. Middle Latia gter classi-
a. 0., and others. cal period toa
Ar., bic
A. Sax., Anglo-Saxon. NLG, N ew-Latin, since A. D.
C., fore Christ. e
contr., oa aaa of, obs. obso
D., O.Engl., Old English, prior to about
der., derived fro . 1550
e. g., ee r matic: fortnaiisine O. FE, Old French. a
Engl., Engl O. G., Old German, A. D. 500 to
Fr., Peoh
G., German. 0.H.G., Old-High German, A. D.
Gr., Greek. £0. 1150 (Weigand).
Heb., Hebrew. Pers., Pers
H. G., High German. Since A. q.v., quia vide, which see.
. 1500. Sansk., Sanskri
Icel., Icelandic. Bp. Spa zai
Le, id est, that is. Sw., Swedis
Tt Italian = synonymous with.
i Latin Talasi).
Sea-Side Study on the Coast of California. 33
SEA-SIDE STUDY ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA.
BY J. WALTER FEWKES.
ITH the increased facilities for travel, the number of Eastern
naturalists who visit California to collect marine animals with
dredge and dip-net, will also increase. Those who are interested in
the marine zodlogy of the Pacific Ocean will seek advice of those
who have already studied there, as to the best place to carry on
their work with profit and with least loss of time. To such the
experiences of the author and his convictions as to a good place to
prosecute this kind of work on the California coast may not be
without interest.
A second and most important object in writing this paper isa
plea for the establishment on the Pacific coast of a marine labora-
tory, where biological research of all kinds shall be carried on.
It is a great pleasure to a marine zodlogist to pull the dredge or
drag the Miiller’s net! in waters where these implements have never
been used. It is a source of real satisfaction to study a marine
fauna in which a majority of the animals captured are new to
science, and one may be pardoned if he speaks with enthusiasm of
the results of such study.
Such places are many, and opportunities of this kind not so rare
that naturalists are obliged to enter upon long journeys to reach
them. Even upon the coast of New England where marine zodlogy
has been cultivated for many years, the work can hardly be said to
have more than begun, while great groups of marine animals have
hardly been identified. A preliminary study, however, has been
made, and, thanks to the researches of our naturalists whose names,
known to all zodlogists, it is not necessary to mention, the facies of
our New England marine fauna is known.
When, however, we turn to the western shores of North America,
to the coast of California, Oregon and Washington Territory, we
find a shore where this study is yet in the first stages of growth, for
' The net used in surface fishing. So called because so successfully
used by the great naturalist, Johannes Müller. —
34 Sea-side Study on the Coast of California.
here the dredge has been but little used, and the revelations of the
Miiller’s net are almost unknown.
The marine animals of the Atlantic have been fora long time the
continuous study of marine zodlogists. Those of the bays and seas
of Europe and of the Eastern waters of the United States have been
so sedulously investigated that it may be said that almost our whole
knowledge of animals which live upon the surtace of the ocean, is
derived from this source. The Pacific Ocean, from its remoteness
from centers of zodlogical activity or other causes, is almost wholly
unexplored, and while good beginnings have already been made,
even the facies of the surface fauna of the Eastern Pacific is practi-
cally unknown.
The coast of California, throughout its great length, offers extra-
ordinary advantages for a study of this department of marine zoöl-
ogy, and yet, with one or two exceptions, the use of the Miiller’s
net, early introduced on the Atlantic waters of the United States by
the elder Agassiz, and so successfully used for so many-years by sev-
eral naturalists, is unknown on a coast washed by the largest ocean
on the globe. The use of dredge and net has a great future in the
study of the marine fauna of California.
In the first phase of the study of the surface life of the ocean,
the work was almost wholly the result of individual enterprise,
unaided by government or university appropriations. Naturalists
visited, during their vacations, the North Sea, Nice, Villa Franca,
Naples, or Messina, accompanied by students, and in that way the
foundations of this knowledge were laid. The work which they did
has been the admiration of naturalists and their verdict forms a
part of the history of science. But in this pioneer work the older
naturalists had difficulties to contend with which one who visits the
well-appointed stations which havearisen in later years on the Med-
iterranean, knows nothingof. The places which offer the best locali-
ties for collecting were not known, practical fishermen had to be
shown the animals which were wanted and how to collect them.
In most cases the naturalist himself had to spend many hours on
the water collecting, and precious time was used for what might
have beén done by others. The naturalist was investigator and col-
lector, and his laboratory, oftentimes the room in which he lived, or
some place poorly lighted and little fitted for his work. While the
combination of collector and investigator in one and the same person * —
1 I know of no more absurd position than that of the closet naturalist
who despises the collector, or of the anatomist or histologist who belittles
Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 35
is sometimes an advantage, it is true that much work can oftentimes
really be aceomplished if these two functions are performed by
specialists. In no short time there arose in Europe, in the best
localities on the coast, permanent laboratories with all appliances for
continuous work. It was no longer necessary for the investigator
to explore the coast to find out where the best collecting grounds are,
or to make arrangements with fishermen and educate them for the
work, i
He was no longer obliged to spend months in search of some
animal whose favorite habitat and breeding place must be discov-
ered before research upon their anatomy, embryology, or histology,
could be carried on, but all these difficulties were reduced to a min-
imum. Well-endowed stations with equipments have arisen.
Continuous observations in the same place have taught when and
how certain animals can best be found; and the naturalist now
economized time and money, while by working in the established
laboratories he finds himself associated with others interested in
the same work. Mauch praise must be given to the pioneers in this
study, and the younger school of naturalists, from the vantage
ground which they occupy, are apt to overlook the difficulties which
those before them encountered.
On the Atlantic coast of the United States we have passed or are
passing into a second stage in the development of the study of
marine zoölogy. While the older American zoölogists in their
earlier days sought the shore with no help from state or college, we
now have well-equipped laboratories bringing many other advan-
tages. The contributions to science made by the U. S. Fish Com-
mission, Mr. Agassiz’? Newport Marine Laboratory, and the
Chesapeake Marine Laboratory, tell of the harvest which may come
from the second stage in the development of marine research in
America. While these stations have accomplished a great deal in
carrying on the study, much is done every year by summer schools of
natural history and by individual naturalists unconnected with any
of these stations or schools. Professors of our colleges visit the
shore with pupils, and in several instances have made extended
investigations wholly independent of public or private marine lab-
oratories. These efforts have much to recommend them, but are
the systematic zodlogist. It is, as suggested to me by a well-educated
naturalist for whom I have great respect, like the hands of the clock say-
ing to the pendulum, “ I have no need of thee.”
36 Sea-side Study on the Coast of California.
often hampered for resources, as they involve in many instances
large outlays for boats, dredges, and fishermen. Moreover, some
of the best localities for the study of marine zodlogy are visited by
these private parties.
On the Pacific coast the study of marine zodlogy has entered upon
the first phase of the development, but has not passed to the second.
No marine station has yet been founded there. The naturalist who
seeks those shores must himself discover the best place to work.
He finds no fisherman familiar with his needs, and must educate
them in the use of the dredge. In short, feels that he is veritably
a pioneer, if he has in mind the use of the net and dredge. The
delights and results of his work, however, are those which come to
the first worker in a new field.
When I had decided to visit the California coast to study its
marine fauna, the first information which I sought was where is
the best place to get the best results in the shortest time? The first
question which was asked local naturalists was, where is the best
place for the study of marine zodlogy on the coast? I received in
most cases no satisfactory answers, and perhaps I ought not to have
expected them. Prominent marine zodlogists in Europe differ in
their estimates of the value of localities on the Mediterranean as
collecting places. Many say Villa Franca, others Naples, others
Messina. On the coast of New England some of our prominent
naturalists prefer Newport, others Wood’s Holl, others Eastport.
Every one has a preference, but it is a known fact that there are
some places on our coast which no one recommends. The coast of
California, however, has been so little studied that even the satisfac-
tion of knowing the prominent places was not allowed, as I could
find almost no one who had used the dredge. The first thing nec-
essary there was a kind of te ie dest exploration to discover a good.
place for work.
It may be of advantage to others who have in mind a visit to the
Pacific coast for work similar to that which I carried on to know
the result of my experiences. I have used the dredge and Miiller’s
net at Santa Barbara, and among the neighboring islands, at Port
Harford, Santa Cruz and Monterey. I can recommend any of
these places for this kind of work; but I prefer the Bay of Mon-
terey, and think if ever a marine station is founded on the coast of
California, no better site can be chosen north of Point Conception
than on this beautiful bay. I am sanguine enough to hope that in
Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 37
time two marine stations will arise on this coast, in which case the
Bay of Monterey and either San Diego' or Santa Barbara might
well be chosen.
There are several desiderata which influences the marine zodlogist
in his choice of a working place upon any shore. The first, per-
haps the most important one, is whether the collecting is good,
whether there are many animals at the place recommended. ‘This
is an all important, but it is by no means the only question, Of
what use is it to a naturalist if he can stand on a wharf and see a
wealth of surface life float by and can get no boat to collect it?
This might seem an absurd condition on the coast of New England
where every coast hamlet has so many boats; but I have been in a
considerable village on the coast of California where one or two
large, undesirable boats were the only boat facilities of the place.
In Santa Barbara, which has the reputation of being a boating
place, you can count on your two hands the number of small boats
for rent. Several conditions have brought about this result. In
most places the wharf is built out from a beach on which the surf
is continually breaking. There is no protection for boats, and the
fondness of the New England coast people for the water is not
known. Although so many strangers come to Santa Barbara, there
are few pleasure boats and no skippers. Compare this condition
with the wharfs, for instance, at Newport or Eastport.
It is not alone necessary for the marine zodlogist that he should
have a good collecting ground and a boat, but he must be able to
reach the coast easily. If he studies animals alive his laboratory
must be on the shore, for pure water must be continually supplied,
and the live animals of the fragile nature of many marine creatures
cannot be carried for long distances without harm. It is best if his
laboratory is as near as possible to the water. The New England
fishing towns, many of which arose as fishing hamlets, lie upon the
very shore, and accommodations are easily found to satisfy the
haturalist’s wants. That is not always the case, however, in towns
Which have originated like those of California, The holy fathers
Who were the founders of Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz did not
look to the sea for a livelihood. The first settlers were not fisher-
* Unfortunately, circumstances prevented my spending any time at
San Diego in the study of surface animals or in dredging. I confess my
ignorance of its advantages, which from what I could learn from others
and my own superficial examination of the neighboring coast, must be
very great.
¢
38 Sea-side Study on the Coast of California.
men, nor was commerce at first of great importance. As a result
many of the coast towns are separated by some distance from the
wharf or landing-place. One knows how much discomfort this may
mean to a naturalist if he has trudged along over a mile from the
wharf to the nearest house he could rent for a laboratory, with a
water-bucket filled with the products of surface fishing by night,
and if twice a day he has been obliged to replenish the water by a
similar tramp. ‘Time is lost which might be employed for work,
and the naturalist cannot watch and take advantage of the ever
changing conditions of the sea and wind if his workshop is a mile
or more from his boat. The naturalist who studies ichthyology,'
and who visits the fish markets when the fishermen return from
their nets, does not feel these discomforts which the naturalist who
must collect for himself has.
A good collecting-place, boats, and ready access to the water are
three requisites in a choice of a good station for marine work.
They are the great difficulties which the pioneers in marine zodlogy
have always encountered. The naturalist who works in a well-
equipped station, with trained fishermen for collectors, knows little
of these difficulties. Until, however, a zodlogical station is founded
on the coast of California these three things, unfortunately or for-
tunately, must have great influence in his choice of a working-place.
The Eastern zodlogist, who has worked on the Atlantic, encoun-
ters several physical characteristics on the coast which are new to
him. The absence of those nooks and indentations of the coast,
pockets in which floating life is driven by the currents and winds,
is a marked feature of the coast line. Many of the harbors are
open roadsteads upon which a surf is continually breaking. While
this feature is in some respects a disadvantage, it is in others an
advantage. |
Along the coast in many places, as at Santa Barbara, a zone of
floating kelp undoubtedly prevents many floating animals from
being washed to the shore. This kelp extends for miles along the
coast, and it is only where the bottom sinks immediately to a great
1 In this article I have considered more especially the needs of the
student of the marine invertebrated animals, as the largest share of
oceanic life belongs to these groups. In many instances it will be found
that the needs of the ichthyologist are very different. They have little
to do with dredging, but the student of the embryology of marine fishes
and their younger stages will appreciate what is desired in work with
the Miiller’s net.
.
Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 39
depth near the shore that it is absent. While it may shut out
effectually many floating things from the neighborhood of the
wharf, it shelters in its fronds many others; while the root-like
attachments to the rocks harbor many interesting animals. Between
the zone of kelp and the shore was not found to be a profitable
dredging-ground. The interval appears to be filled with decaying
fragments of the kelp, and the dredge comes up filled with this
debris. Dredging in the belt of the kelp itself is impossible.
The best dredging at Santa Barbara is in the channel about four
miles outside the outer border of the kelp. The rocks in places
entangle and catch the dredge, and the bottom is, except in one or
two places, very rocky. Off Punta del Castillo, near Santa Bar-
bara, there is some good ground for dredging, but it is hard to pulj
the dredge on account of the many submarine rocks. From Santa
Barbara across the channel to the Santa Barbara Island, there are
many rocks, but the dredging is good in places. The vicinity of
Carpenteria is the best place of all about Santa Barbara for dredging,
The island of Santa Cruz,! one of the most beautiful islands of she
Santa Barbara group, offers fine surface collecting. The dredging
is difficult on account of the many submarine rocks and the depth
of the water. To one visiting the island for zodlogical study no
better anchorage can be found than a small cafion resorted to by
otter hunters near Punta Diablo. The shore collecting on the beach
at Santa Barbara is poor. At Punta del Castillo many interesting
animals were found.
Santa Barbara on the whole offers good facilities for the study of
marine zodlogy. The fauna of the shore is not rich, but it is varied,
and that of the neighboring islands is all that could be desired.
The surface fauna of the Santa Barbara channel is very rich and
dredging in it is excellent. I do not believe the shore at Santa
Barbara can compare with that to the south by Del Mar and San
Diego as a collecting place for the naturalist, but the dredging is
good and the surface collecting all that could be wished.
' Especial interest is attached to a study of this island from the curious
distribution and character of the flora as compared with that of the
main land. This island, continental to all outward appearances, has a
more peculiar flora than the Bermudas, although they are only a little
over twenty miles from the shore, while the Bermudas are five hundred.
No more interesting problems can be studied in regard to the geograph-
ical distribution of animals than the character of the life of the islands
near Santa Barbara.
40 Sea-side Study on the Coast of California.
In order to study the conformation of the coast of California be-
tween Santa Barbara and the Bay of Monterey, and to form a judg-
ment of the advantages of the several ports for natural history work,
I took one of the smaller steamers of the Pacific Navigation Com-
pany, which touches at the several landings. I did not dredge in all
these places and my judgments may be more or less hastily made.
They are thought to be of some worth.
Gaviota seems illy adapted for surface work, as I am told that a
= stiff breeze from the mountain pass almost continually ruffles the
_ ea, As we approached the wharf at about nightfall a cold boister-
» ous wind from the mountains seemed to prevent any night work
-with the net.
rh Harford seemed made on purpose for the study of marine
y - The wharf i is well situated for landing with treasures,
peser collecting ground for litoral animals.
‘oat ng animals were observed in the neighborhood of the
k little calculated for the purposes of the naturalist.
probably a multitudious marine life in the water, no point seems
adapted at present for the study without great inconveniences. It
would be impossible to get boats and fishermen on this unknown
coast. San Simeon is a dairy town and few fishermen are found
there, although there is an easy communication with San Francisco
and. other prominent ports on the Pacific, by means of the Pacific
Steamship Company.
Santa Cruz presents many conditions which render it a good place
for the marine zoölogist to work. There are many fishermen and
boats can be had at reasonable rates. It has good hotels and board-
ing-houses contiguous to the landing-places. There is a good sandy
beach and near by rocky cliffs both with characteristic life. The
Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 41
dredging is good. The neighboring town, Soquel, when there are
many fishermen, presents many facilities for the naturalist.
Collecting on the piles of the wharf is not as good as at Santa
Barbara. There is no belt of kelp forming a thick zone shutting
out the floating genera from the shore. The phosphorescence is
at times superb, but surface collecting in the afternoon was found
to be next to impossible. The beach is more sheltered than that of
Santa Barbara, but it rarely happens that the surf does not break
on the shore. Sheltered caves or natural pockets in which floating
life are caught are rare.
Taken all in all, Monterey ! is one of the best places on the coast
of California for a naturalist to station himself for a study of the
marine life of the Pacific. It may not be the best, but experience
has taught me that it is one of the best, and a visit there by a natur-
alist will be amply repaid by novelties if his object be research.
The surface fauna is rich and there is good dredging. There are
boats of all sizes and many fishermen. ‘The city lies near the shore
and one is not forced to waste time in reaching the wharf from the
hotel. The means of communication with the outside world are
easy. I find, on reference to my note book, that many of my choic-
est specimens came from this locality.
Stimpson found the bay of San Francisco nearly barren of a varied
marine life except at its entrance. This condition he ascribed to the
admixture with its water of the turbid flood of two large rivers and
the small size of the gate which admits the clear waters of the ocean.
A short and somewhat superficial examination of the resources of
the bay lead me to a somewhat similar conclusion, yet I find the
entrance to the bay one of the best places for floating animal life.
From the wharf several very interesting floating animals were
taken, and there is evidence that the marine zoölogist will find plenty
to occupy his attention within a short distance from the city. A
great advantage of San Francisco as the site for zodlogical work is
the vicinity to scientific libraries and the number of fishermen a
fishing boats which the city has.
Climatic conditions on the coast of California render certain times
of the year most advantageous for work with dredge and net. In
most parts the morning is the best time for surface collecting. A
*Camelo Bay is believed to be one of the most advantageous places for
pra sires of marine zodlogy between Point Conception and San Fran-
42 Sea-side Study on the Coast of California.
stiff breeze ordinarily arises in the afternoon and renders the collec-
tion of surface life almost impossible. Surface collecting by night,
so profitably carried on at Newport, met with considerable success
on the coast of California. The fogs which in some months hang
for many hours above the water is detrimental to this kind of work,
Calms, while of great advantage to the student of surface collec-
tions, try the patience of the naturalist engaged in dredging who has
no steam launch at his control. The best time to dredge ! with a
sailing craft was found to be about noontime, as there is less liability
to be becalmed at that time, and it is too early for the heavy winds
of the afternoon.
In my trip across the Santa Barbara Channel, the Miiller’s net
was used at intervals to get some idea of the general facies of the
surface life from this region of the Pacific. The contents of the net
was made up of representatives of all the more important surface
animals from the Narragansett Bay. These animals are of course
represented by different genera and species from those found in New
England waters, but the general character of the surface life is much
the same. As compared with the same latitudes on the Atlantic, it
did not seem as rich,”
The phosphorescence which is a direct index of the amount of
surface life in the sea is often very brilliant on the Pacific coast. I
have studied this light at various points on the Mediterranean, along
the Florida Keys, on the coast of New England and at the Bermudas
but have never seen it more striking than in the surface waters of the
Santa Barbara Channel and in the fiords of the island of Santa Cruz.
Ina canon fiord under Punta del Diablo, at about 9 o’clock in the
evening, I witnessed a phosphorescent display of this kind of most
extraordinary character. Aside from its natural beauty it was in-
dicative of an abundant harvest with the Miiller’s net. The signs
did not fail, although the light, as so often happens in surface col-
lecting, was mainly due to multitudes of one genus of animals. At
this time it was due to large numbers of a species of Copepod which
is often very abundant in the Santa Barbara Channel.
I have noticed in studies of live animals carried on at the Bermu-
das, at Tortugas and on the coast of New England, that in the
1 I refer to shallow-water dredging and to dredging with the sailing
crafts which a visitor to the coast is obliged to use.
2 The author has in preparation a paper in which the new genera and
1o ot invertebrated animals found on the coast of California in sur-
face water dredging will be described and figured.
2
*
Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 43
former localities marine animals in aquaria are very tenacious of life.
I believe this is in part due to the fact that there is a more uniform
temperature in the winter at Tortugas, or that the changes are not as
sudden in one place as in the other. At Newport, for instance, the
temperature of the water varies very greatly day by day, and pelgic
animals are very sensitive to this change. Pelagicanimals at Santa
Barbara live longer without change of water than those on the coast
of New England, and the conditions of temperature seem more like
those of Bermuda than of the coast of New England.
I was much surprised at the great range of temperature which the
common Actinian of Californiacan bear without harm. Water which
is almost lukewarm does not kill it. In pools left by the tide well-
expanded specimens live for hours in water exposed to the rays of
the sun. By the peculiar habit which they have of covering them-
selves with sand they are able to live out of the water in the warm
air for several hours.
I can think of few more difficult tasks than to determine the best
locality in New England to place a zodlogical station. Any com-
mittee which has such a task, especially if a majority of its members
are those who have never done any marine zodlogical work at
any place, has my hearty sympathy. There may be places better
adapted for this or that kind of work, better suited for the sise of
the endowment or more convenient of access, but it is a hard task
to declare which is the best place for a station. One is tempted to
say that there is no place which is bad if the naturalist means to do
work rather than discourse on how to do it.
On the Pacific coast the problem is the same as on the Atlantic.
One cannot say that this or that point is the best place to work until
he or others have tried all. Honest work at almost any place on the
Pacific as on the Atlantic marine zodlogy will bear good fruit.
The time has come when a permanent, well-endowed zodlogical
station is needed for the study of marine animals of the coast of
California. An abundant harvest in all branches of zodlogical
study awaits those whose good fortune it may be to originate and
carry on such a station.
While it is not intended in this article to belittle the contribution
to our knowledge of the animals of the coast which have already
been made, it is believed that the work already begun is but a small
part of what will result if a permanent station, directed by those
44 Editors’ Table.
who have been drilled in methods of study in marine laboratories in
Europe and America, is established."
The author has been told that a movement is now on foot to
found a marine zodlogical station in California. It is hoped that
the information is correct. It is believed that if such a laboratory
is properly conducted it will lead to most important results in the
advancement of science.
EDITORS’ TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY.
THE satire which has been everywhere for a half century leveled
at the classical names of towns in New York State, given by some
- schoolmaster who was in a position to give them, should have taught
American nomenclators of later date a lesson. Perhaps the refer-
ence to the classical dictionary has been less frequent since that
time, but the poverty of imagination of the modern American has
been none the less apparent. It is pardonable in immigrants to
name a locality in America after their birthplace in some European
country ; but when the “stock American” must search European
and classical geographies for names, he advertises two things : first,
his want of esthetic capacity ; second, if perchance he select some
euphonious name from the Greek, his want of national spirit and
character—in form at least. What can be more incongruous than
the naming of one of the canyons of Colorado the Canyon of
Lodore! But what especially moves us to make these remarks is
the fact that we are threatened, according to the daily press, with a
still more objectionable piece of Jenkinsism. The plain adjacent to
the Salt River of Arizona, where so many important archeological
1 It would be a most interesting part of my article, if space permitted,
to record the many valuable papers which have already been published
on Californian Marine Invertebrated Animals. These are mostly in
systematic zodlogy. The Molluca are well known, something is known
of the Crustacea, Echinoderms, Actinians,and Meduse. The sponges,
Bryozoa, Tumicata, Worms, Nudibranchs and one or two other groups — ;
await even systematic identification and description. The study of
larval forms of animals, of embryology, of anatomy and histology iS _ :
almost unknown as far as California marine invertebrates are concerned.
Editors’ Table. 45
remains have been recently discovered by the Hemenway Expedition,
is to be called The Plain of Tempe! Can no names be selected from
the noble vocabulary of the Pueblos, or from the Spanish-American
historian of three centuries ago, that we must once more throw away
our character in this way. Let us see. The name of the Great
Colorado River, into which the Salt River ultimately finds its way,
was the Tison—a dignified name, capable of almost any application.
The region of the Moquis was Tesayan. The region of the Puerco
River of the East was Tiguex—a word of entirely classical
form. The Rio Grande was the Cicuyé. Towns of the region
were Acuco, Tutahuaco, Chia (modern Cia), (north of which was
the Province of Quirix), and Braba, at the head of the Jemez River.
All of these are available names, of euphonious and even classical
form, appropriate to the country, and not copied from any other
region. We commend them respectfully to the gentlemen in
charge of the Hemenway Expedition.
Cannot something be done to change the north, south, east and
west places that we have in such numbers, and to prevent the crea-
tion of any new ones? Why shall we disfigure our map with a
North Dakota, for instance? Call it Mandania, or some other
original name. The Canadians have preémpted Assiniboia—so we
cannot use that. Let us have Tacoma for Washington Territory,
as has been long proposed. When Montana is divided, name one
of its parts Absaroka, after the Crow Indians—the best specimens
of the aboriginal American on the continent.
We recall two instances of changes of name in the East, with
which we emphasize our remarks. New Jersey once had a flourish-
ing town of Longacoming. The name was one of the few instances
of successful composition of English words to be found in America.
It was changed by some person of perverted sensibilities to Berlin,
and is now so called! In eastern North Carolina is a pretty village
once called by the euphonious Indian name of Nahunta. When
we last visited the place it was called Frémont, spelled with an “6.”
Comment is unnecessary. s
46 Recent Literature.
RECENT LITERATURE.
Gray’s “ ELEMENTS oF Botany.” !—This is a thorough revis-
ion of the deservedly well-known Lessons in which, for almost
a generation, American botanists have made their first acquaintance
with elementary botany. In the revision the venerable author
reverted to the title of his first book, which appeared fifty-one years
ago! Naturally, this coincidence of names suggests a comparison of
the two books.
The first Elements was a duodecimo of four hundred and twenty-
six pages, and was brought out by the house of G. & C. Carvill &
Co., of New York, in 1836, the preface bearing date of April of
that year. There is a good deal of similarity between this pioneer
and the book which now, after the lapse of half a century, bears its
name; and still there are very many differences.
In the early book the word protoplasm did not occur, for the very
good reason that Mohl had not yet coined it; nor is there any
direct reference to the thing, while in the present work protoplasm,
cells, cell-contents and cell-walls, receive sufficient attention to
give the beginner a general knowledge of what they are.
Vegetable physiology was very crudely treated in the earlier
book, the extensibility, elasticity, hygroscopicity, endosmosis and
excitability of plant tissues being gravely discussed in a way in
striking contrast with the admirable summary given in Section
XVI. of the later work.
In the first Elements “spongioles”’ were still supposed to be the
organs of absorption in roots, and there was supposed to be a
distinct ascending and descending sap in the stem. The turpen-
tine of the Conifers and the latex of various plants were considered
to be special kinds of descending sap. The movements of plants
were discussed as among the curious things, but the meaning or pur-
pose of the movements was not suspected. In describing Dionea
muscipula, it Was said of the unfortunate insect that its “ only chance
of escape consists of remaining perfectly quiet until the leaf un-
closes”! Pollination was, of course, treated in the old way: the
Barbary stamens were said to “ seldom fail to project a quantity of
pollen upon thestigma,” and it was stated that “ the relative position
of the anthers and stigmas is generally such as to favor mechanically
the application of the pollen to the latter.”
Turning to the new book, one sees what a great advance has
been made in this field—which we may call Darwinian botany—
in which such terms as close fertilization, cross-fertilization, cleis-
1 The Elements of Botany, for Beginners and for Scholars. By AS%
bg Ivison, Blakeman & Co., New York and Chicago. 1887. 8Vv0,_
m
Recent Literature. 47
togamy, anemophilous and entomophilous flowers, dichogamy, hete-
rogamy, etc., etc., occur. Not less striking is the contrast between
the new and the old in the chapters which treat of the flowerless
plants. Half a century ago the spores of the Equisetaceze were still
doubtfully discussed: the sporangia of ferns were supposed to be
transformed leaves, and the search for their stamens and pistils had
scarcely been given up. In these and the mosses—in fact, through-
out the whole of the Cryptogams—there was no hint, as yet, of
sexual organs. Compare these crude paragraphs with the concise
and lucid exposition given in the new Elements, where the same
groups of Cryptogams are discussed--but how differently! Pteri-
dophytes and Bryophytes are given modern characters and a modern
treatment. Thallphytes are briefly treated under Algæ, Lichens
and Fungi, although with the statement that “of late it has been
made most probable that a lichen consists of an alga and a fungus
eonjoined ;” and, further, that “ botanists are in the way of bringing
out new classifications of the Thallophytes, as they come to
understand their structure and relations better.”
When the earlier book was written Linnæus had been dead
but sixty years, and his system had still so strong a hold that
eighteen pages were given to an exposition of it and a discussion
of the question of supplanting it with something better; and the
Natural System stood so much in need of argument that forty-four
pages were given to it. In the new book a short paragraph is all
that remains of the discussion of the Linnean System, and less than
two pages suffice for the Natural System.
It need only be said that not only do these contrasts show us
what advances have been made in botany in half a century, but a
comparison of these two books shows, still more, the remarkable
growth and perennial youth of the master-mind who wrote them.
It is not given to many men to live to see such great changes in
the aspect of a science as has been the good fortune of Dr. Gray,
and still fewer have had the strength or ability to adapt themselves
to the new views and theories.
The new book has so much to commend in it that we are loath
to lay it down. We particularly like these sentences in the preface :
“ No effort should be made to commit technical terms to memory.
Any term used in describing a plant or explaining its structure can
be looked up when it is wanted, and that should suffice.” And this
one, on page 156: ‘ Even the beginner in botany should have some
idea of what Cryptogamous plants are, and what are the obvious
distinctions of the principal families.” We like the adoption of the
spelling, Phanerogam, and the names Pteridophyta and Bryophyta,
and the abandonment of the “superfluous” terms frond and stipe
and replacing them with leaf and petiole, in describing the structure
o ferne:—Charles E. Bessey. 7
48 Recent Literature.
Karpinskir’s “ UBERSICHT DER PHYSIKE-GEOGRAPHISCHEN
VERHÄLTNISSE DES EUROPÄISCHEN RussLanps.'—This brochure,
with its series of small maps, is a valuable addition to our know-
ledge of Russian geology. At the outset the author states the
curious fact, that even the oldest sedimentary rocks of Russia have
not been altered, clay and sand being recognizable even in Cambrian
strata, and a layer beneath the sediments of the coal formation
being in some places recognizable physically and chemically as turf.
Crystalline gneiss comes to the surface in Finland, Olonetz and
Archangel, also in Volhynia, Podolia, Cherson, ete., in the south of
Russia. Crystalline rocks are met with at a depth of 100 Russian
fathoms below St. Petersburg, and at 300 to 500 fathoms below
oscow.
The oldest sedimentary strata (Cambrian) are the plastic clays of
the St. Petersburg and Esthonian governments. Upper Silurian
sediments occur in localities distant from each other, in the govern-
„ments just named, in the south of Poland, and in three points on
the eastern limits of European Russia. There can be little doubt
that the Cambro-Silurian sea extended across the centre of Russia,
from the Baltic to the Ural. In Upper Silurian times this sea had
become much smaller, and was for the most part limited to the west
near the Baltic, with an outline in Podolia and northern Bessarabia.
Upper Silurian beds also reappear in the north. Thus at the com-
mencement of the Devonian probably almost all European Russia
was dry land, though sea spread from the Urals far over Asia.
The fauna of this eastern Lower Silurian sea strikingly resembles
that of the basin of the same age in Western Europe, though
separated from it by 200,000 square versts of Middle and Upper
Devonian strata. This later Devonian sea extended from the Arctic
Ocean to the Caspian region. Only about 150 species of inverte-
brates are as yet known from the Devonian of Russia, whilst almost
three times this number occur in Belgium. During the Carbonif-
erous period the greater part of Russia was covered by the ocean,
though the coast had advanced eastward since the Upper Devonian.
beg on sea spread westwards over Asia to the Irtish
an tal.
1 Ubersicht der Bp deni as ng ep Verhältnisse Europäischen
Russland wahrend der verflossen an geologischen Perioden. Von A.
inski, a. d. ‘‘ Beitragen s. Kennt. d. Fon Rei
: e iches. u. d. angren-
zenden Lander Asicris.’’ St. Petersburg.
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 49
separate basins. This change, commenced in the Permian, ended
by converting into dry land all European Russia except the south-
west part of ‘Poland. Duri ing the Middle Trias, Upper Trias, and
Lower Jurassic, the land surface of Russia was much as now,
except that marine beds occur in southern Poland, and Liassic beds
in the Crimea and Caucasus. In Upper Jurassic times the sea
again spread over a large part of Russia, probably commencing in
the west, as is evideneed by typical Middle Jurassic strata in that
quarter. The similarity of the fossil forms of this wide-spread
sea, which stretched from the Arctic to the Caspian, and covered
most of the Caucasus, to those of Western Europe indicates free
communication. At the end of the Jurassic period the area of this
sea became much narrowed by the advance eastward of its eastern
coast line, yet still communicated with the Jurassic waters of West-
ern Europe until the Upper Volga stage. During the Lower
Cretaceous only a narrow belt of sea divided the land of Europe
dary of this sea advanced southwards. In Miocene times the
regions around the Caspian and Black Seas formed part of the
Mediterranean and Sarmatian basins, the latter extending eastward
to or beyond the present Aral Sea. src i in Post-Pliocene times,
the Aralo-Caspian basin covered a large area northward of the
Caspian, while the ice of the Glacial Period swept downward from
the north over by far the greater part cf European Russia, almost
reaching the Aisle en basin. W
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Fairchild, H. Leroy.—History of the New York Academy of Sciences.
New York, 1887. From the author.
Ridgway, R.—A Manual of North American Birds. Philadelphia,
1887. J. B. Lippincott Co. From the author
Barrows, S. J.—Science and Immortality. Boston. G. H. Ellis. 1887.
Giles, O. (Rev.).—The True and the False Theory of Evolution. Phila-
delphia. W.H. Alden
berry, J.
and A odiaulty. A scot Trans. N. Y cad. Sci. vou I
e author.
J. S.—Food and Fiber Plants of the North American In-
owberry,
dians. Repr. Pop. Sci. Monthly. Nov. 1887. From the author.
eee. Ch.—L’ Homme avant l'Histoire. Paris, 1888. From the
or.
Forbes, S. 4.—Contribution to a Koriolan of the AE RE the
Hessian - Fly. 1887. From the author
50 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Garman, S.—On West Indian Reptiles and Batrachians in the Mus.
Comp. Zool. o eA Mass. Ext. Bull. Essex Inst. Vol. xix.
1887. From the author
Hutton, F. W.—Darwinism: A Lecture at the bawn Inst. of
Canterbury. N. Z. 1887. From the author
Hutton, F. W.—The Eruption of Mount esha ier Ext. Quart. Jour.
Geol. Soe. Mag. 1887. From the author
Abbott, F. H.—Scientific Theism. Boston, Little, Brown & Co. 1886.
Woodward, A. G.—Note on the Affinities of the so-called ‘‘ Torpedo ”’
(Cyelobatis Egerton), Dora the Cretaceous of Mt. Lebanon. Ext.
eol. Mag. Nov. 1887. From the author
- Yonge, C. M. er —The Herb of the Field. Macmillan & Co. 1887.
From the auth
Powell, E. P.—Our Seeds from God. Appleton & Co. N. Y. 1887.
Bourne, G. C.—On the Anatomy of Mussa and Euphyllia, and the
Morphology of the Sraa cd arian Skeleton. Repr. Quart. Jour.
icros. Sci. Aug. 1887. From the author
Leche, W.—Ueber einige von ee Pascha ie TERE Afrikanische
snr oma Sep. abd. a. @® Zool. Jahrbtichern. From the
author
Hunt, T. S—Elements of Primary Geology. Geol. Mag. Nov. 1887.
From the author
Oliver, = A. -Subjective oo Read before Am. Philos. Soe.
Oct. 1886. CO he au
Brinton, D. ee Ree x the Committee appointed Oct. 1887, fos
: examine into the Scientific Value of Valaptik. Presented to Am
Philos. Soc. N 887.
nee G. zon Se penicillatus. From P. Z. 8. ioan
Howes, ge oc a hitherto unrecognized Feature in the Larynx of
the Anurous Sores a, Ext. P. Z. S. London, June 7, 1887. Both
from the autho
Snow, F. H.—On ie Discovery of a Fossil Bird-track in the Dakota
forte ging Ext. Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. Vol. X. From the
aut
Bodington, Mrs. A.—Puzzlesin Paleontology. Rep. Journ. Micros. and
Nat. Science. Ballitre, Tyndall & Cox. London. From the
pubiishors
bite, e -W.—The Lake Age in Ohio. Maclachlan & Stewart.
poet aig 1887. From the author.
Note sur les eatin res à Perna et Megalodon du
M. M. Boehm, age X domne pur Te (Sarthe). Bones
AG; Gone k e France. 1887.
G. Chelot. the authors,
Eigenmann, C. H.—Notes on the specific names = age orth Amer. Fishes.
Ext. Pro. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 188
Eigenmann, C. H—Description of tga ag s retropinnis, from Pensa-
cola, Fla. Both from the author r r
Eigenmann, 0. H., ) A Review of the N. Amer. species of the genera
on, Archosargus, and Diplodus. Proc.
Hughes, Miss Eliz. G. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1887. From the authors.
— as
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 51
Jordan, D. S. Notes on a Collection of Fishes sent by Mr. C. H.
} Leslie from Charleston, S. ©. Ext.idem. From
Eigenmann, C. H. the authors.
Smith, — Rosa.—On the occurrence of a new species of Rhinoptera
( cenadce), in Todos Santoso Bay, Low. Cal. From the author.
eae R. W.—A Review of the Muscles used in the Classification of
Birds. =i Journ. Comp. Med. and Surgery. Oct. 1887. From
the author
Kep we Set Nig fibera. San Francisco. Bancroft Bros. & Co.
7. From the a
Bide G. A. eee ee of South American Frogs, of es iray
Paludicola and Hyla. Ext. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1
Boulenger, G. A.—Report on a Zoological Collection nae ee the
Officers of H. M. Ry ‘Flying Fish” at Christmas. In the Indian
Ocean. Part III. Reptiles.
Bae ee G. A.—On the Systematic Position of the genus Miolania.
wen.
Boulenger, G. A.—On a new Snake of the genus Lamprophis.
ee G. A.—Notes on Emys Blandingii. The last four from
Proc. P. Z. S. London, 1887. All from the author
Baur, ua die Abstammung der Amnioten Wirbelthiere. A.
d. Biol. Centralblatt. Oct. 1887.
Baur, G.—Nachtragliche Notiz zu meinen Bemerkungen Ueber die
[omologieen einiger Schiedelknochen der Stegocephalen und Rep-
tilien. nat. Anzeiger. 1887
na, Socio the ora ead and Origin of the Ichthyopterygia.
r. Nat. Sept. 188
phar Eo the 5p eke of Ribs. Amer. Nat. Oct. 1887.
Baur, G.—On the Phylogenetic Arrangement of the sare e Rep.
Jour. of Morphology. Sept. 1887. All from the author
Trotter, S.—The Significance ae certain Phases in the genus
Helminithophila. From The Age. * Vol. IV. Oct. 1887.
oo, Ere erbiothique RE de la Russie. 1886. From the
os U. P.\ On the Pe T Corals of the Cincinnati group.
Pro Nat. Hist. Oct. 1887. From the
James, J. F,
James, J. F.—Account of a well drilled for oil or gas at Oxford, O.
1887. Ext. apa From the autho
Muskell, W. M—On the nk a of Coccidæ, and the Fungus
O ipanrine | these Insects
Muskel, he Preah Infusoria of the Wellington Dis-
W.. M.—
trict, Both frou the author. Read before the Philosophical Society
of Wellington. N. Z. 1886.
authors
T oak y o adada sa the Carinæ upon the Se ta
C8, Mary E. T he p of
ugose g F rom the autho
Abbott, Helen e S.—Plant pnz as an Applied Science. aae. e
from m Journ. Sot a Inst. nalysis a author ad
ar aa - . from The Forum.
From tis hathor one Divorce Legislation ion fro |
52 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Riley, C. V.—Report of the Entomologist for the year 1886. Depart-
ment of Agriculture. 1887. From the Department.
s seis Annual Report of the Geol. Survey of Pen
Aien tai a y. for 1886. Part (I.) Pittsburgh Oil Region
Hill, Pi (II.)Oiland Gas Region. (III .) Anthracite
Teo. Liitu n. Region. (IV.) Miscellaneous. 1887. From
q the Commissioners of the Sur
U. S. Fish Commission. ei ty of the Commissioner for 1885, with
special reports by Tan Jordan, Piepmeyer, Smith, McDonald,
Mather, Ryder, Clark, ‘Atkins et al. From the Commission
Brendel, F.—Flora Peoriana. 1887. From the author.
Tuckerman, F.—The Tongue and Gustatory arn of ek gar
son fons Repr. Quart. Journ. Micros. Sci. 1887. From th
hor
Brook, -Relation of Yolk to Saget p in Teleostean Ova. Ext.
Prov. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinb.
Brook, G.—The formation of the seals layers in Teleostei. Ext.
Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 1887. Food of young Gadidee ; Spawn-
ing of the Pike. -n Fifth Rep. Fishery Board for Scotland.
1887. From the au
De Man, J. a Beitrage. Ext. Bd. I. Tijd. Nederl.
Dierk. Verern., 1885. Ue ver Freilebenden Nematoden. Ext.
same Bd. V. From the autho
Mitsukuri, K.—The Marine Poal Station of the University at
Mesaki. Ext. Jour. Coll. Sci i. Imp. Univ. aspen. 1887. From the
author.
a. Soe R. W.—Collection of Rires, sterna and skulls, collected by
Streets. Ext. Proc. Nat. Mus. 1887. From the auth
a R. W.—The Skull in the e Apaches. Ext. Jour. Anat. and
Phys. 1887. From the author
oe. "Roy. “Soe. iaicouwh. 1886, Serr of p os
Ext. Proc. Roy. Soc. 1885. Ovum of Eudrilus. Ext. Jour. Anat.
and Phys 1887. Ovum of Dipnoi; Anterior Abdominal Vein
Echidna; A Point in the structure of Myrmecobius; New or little-
known Earth- -worms; Aerei g ati to the Anatomy of Eart
worms, No. IV. Ext. Proc - Roy. Soe. 1884-1887. From the
uthor.
Scudder, S. H.—Co omparative patties for the families of butterflies ;
Review of Distant’s ‘* Rhopalocera Malayana Extr. Canadia
Entomologist. 1887. Apianieraent of books i the libraries of
Scientific Societies. Introduction and spread of Pieris rapæ in
—_ —_— Ext. Mem. Bost. Sovy Nat. Hist. 1887. From the
au
Weismann, A., und Ischikaira, C.—Ueber die Bildung der Richtungs
körper bei Thierischen Eiren. Ext. Ber. Naturf. Gesell. Freeburg.
1887. From the authors.
Branner, J. C.—Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Arkansas
for 1887. From the author.
Jordan, D. S—Science Sketches. Chicago. 1887. From the author.
Emmons, S. F.—Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville. Memoir
XIL ‘of the U. S. Geol. Survey. Washington, 1887. From the
Survey.
Geology and Paleontology. 53
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOLOGY AND PALZONTOLOGY.
On THE THEORY OF GLACIAL Morton.'—As glaciers deport
themselves like rivers, in that they are constantly flowing, with
greater velocity at centre than at margins, above than below, form
pools and rapids, and conform themselves to channels, Prof. Forbes
was led to propose the theory that: “ A glacier is an imperfect
fluid or viscous body which is urged down slopes of a certain in-
clination by mutual pressure of its parts.” ? He explained the veined
structure of glaciers as being due to differential movement of its
parts.
Against this view, it was urged that ice is a brittle solid, which
in the laboratory cannot be moulded as a semi-fluid, or even in na-
ture, when in passing over a change of declivity of even 44 degrees,
it becomes ruptured. Consequently, Prof. Tyndall applied Fara-
day’s “ Law of Regelation,” è that ice when broken and moistened,
re-united and could be moulded into any form by repeated crushing
and pressure, and proposed the “ Fracture and Regelation theory.”
He explained the veined structure of glaciers as being analogous to
the slaty cleavage of certain rocks—the result of transverse pres-
re
Canon Moseley‘ calculated that the resistance of ice to descent is
thirty-four times gravitation, and, therefore, fracture and gravitation
could not be maintained. He likened the motion to the creeping
of a leaden roof, owing to the expansion and contraction from change
of temperature, which expansion Dr. Croll’ modified in assuming
the transmission of heat from molecule to molecule with successive
liquefaction and solidification of the glacial waters.
Malleability, plasticity and viscosity are different degrees of the
Same property. Prof. Heim® distinguishes between these last two
semi-fluid forms. In plastic bodies, the internal cohesion is less than
Internal resistance, and, therefore, under pressure these will flow,
ut under tension they are not drawn out, but are brittle. In vis-
cous bodies, the internal cohesion is greater than internal resistance,
and, therefore, they will not only flow under pressure, but in ten-
Sion they are drawn out before rupture. He concludes that glaciers
are plastic bodies, and explains the veined structure as being due to
partial liquefaction under compression in passing through narrow
By Hoed before the Royal Society of Canada May, 1887, and before the
~ A. A. B, ely 1887. Printed from advance sheets of Trans. Roy.
y i
. Royal Societ :
5 Climate aaa ie
sH me.
andbuch der Gletscherkunde von Dr. Albert Heim, Stuttgart, 1885.
54 General Notes.
channels, as it had been discovered that ice can be melted by pres-
sure (Thomson). He attributes the motion to plastic flow under
gravity, rupture, partial regelation, and a sliding motion (which is
slight).
From observations in the Alps, and especially in Norway, my
conclusions are that the motion, in the main, is the result of gravity
on a semi-fluid body, wherein there is viscosity as well as plasticity,
as defined by Prof. Heim; the motion, of course, being greatly
modified by heat. My conclusions are based upon :—(1) The flow
of the glacier, not merely in conformity to the channel, but about
loose stones, which cause the lower surfaces of the glacier to be
grooved (see fig. 1, in my Glacier Erosion in Norway’) without any
lateral ridges being produced from the ice that filled what are now
its channels, such being moulded into the mass (this is plasticity).
(2) A tongue of ice (see fig. 3) pushing against a boulder, was bent
back without rupture on either side of the hanging plate,—the ice
on one side being in tension and on the other in compression (here
is viscosity). (3) A large rounded boulder (see fig. 2), held in the
side of a moving glacier, where the rounded ice wall rose about
thirty feet above the stone, which was being rolled along as the ice
moulded around it, had just been crushed by weight. The glacier
rore along its winding course to the snow fields, 1,500 to 2,000 feet
above the stone. Consequently the crushing weight upon the gran-
itoid boulder must have been derived from the vertical component
of the momentum of descent of the whole mass, which could be
transmitted thus only through a semi-fluid body. (4) The flow of
the upper layers of ice over the lower was seen when the glacier was
impeded by a barrier (see fig. 4).
The experiments of Herr Plaff? show that a solid body can be
pressed into ice at a temperature about freezing point as rapidly as
glaciers ordinarily move ; whilst at a temperature a little above, the
motion is greatly accelerated, but if below 0° ©, the plasticity of the
ice diminishes rapidly to almost zero. However, as shown by the
sub-glacial streams in winter, the temperature of the inferior sur-
face glacier is not below freezing point.
The effects of increased summer sunlight, as well as direct heat,
as shown by the experiments of Rev. A. Irving, in which he trans-
mitted both sunlight and heat waves through ice, is to accelerate
the movement as the former is converted into heat undulations, and
radiated against the lower part of the glacier from the adjacent
rocks, thus increasing the fluidity of the ice and flow of the glacier,
owing to increase of temperature.
The temperature of the lower surface of the glacier is also slight-
ly increased by the radiation of the internal heat of the earth, yet
1 See American Naturalist, March, 1888. S
2 Nature, Aug. 19th, 1875.
3 Q. J. @. S., Feb., 1883
Geology and Paleontology. 55°
this is very slight, as the amount radiated per annum is only enough
to melt 6.5 millimetres of ice.!
Although glaciers do not conform to all the inequalities of their’
beds, and at the ice-falls and elsewhere became fractured, and sub-
sequently re-united, whether by heat regulation or plastic flow, the
fluidity theory is the most acceptable explanation of the motion of
glaciers, even when the angle of descent is reduced to almost zero, :
and modern observations only supplement the reasons upon which -
Prof. Forbes proposed his theory more than forty years ago.—Prof.
J. W. Spencer.
A Cretaceous Brrp-Track.—Professor F. H. Snow has re-
cently, in the Trans. Kansas Acad. Sciences, described a fossil
bird-track discovered in the Dakota sandstone, in Ellsworth county,
Kansas. The impression appears to have been made by the left foot
of some bird with an elevated hind-toe just reaching the ground.
The ball of the foot is deeply impressed and the posterior toe has
made an unmistakable imprint, proving the avian character of the’
footprint. It measures two inches from anterior middle claw to
claw of posterior toe. This discovery considerably lowers the geo-
logical horizon of Kansas birds, since nearly all the material for
Marsh’s Toothed Birds was obtained from the Niobrara, the highest
group of the Cretaceous represented in Kansas. Below this lies the
Benton, followed by the Dakota, resting unconformably on the
Permo-Carboniferous rocks.
Professor sSnow continues thus: “The wonderful luxuriance of
the land vegetation of the Dakota, and its marvellous similarity to
the Dicotyledonous forest-growths of the warm-temperate climes of.
the present day, have rendered these sandstone beds a most fasci-
nating field of investigation for both Paleo-botanists and Neo-'
botanists. The finely-developed and perfectly-preserved foliage of
oaks, willows, poplars, laurels, sarsaparillas, magnolias, sassafras and
other kindred forms belonging to genera now long since extinct
have hitherto suggested a beauty of landscape whose perfection was
only marred by the apparent scarcity of animal forms. . . . .
Our bird-track supplies the missing element of graceful serial forms.
From the size of the footprint, it may be safely inferred that the
bird which left it was somewhat larger than a pigeon. It was prob-
: ly a bird with teeth,” “with habits similar to those of the modern
ern. ;
_ THE AFFINITIES oF Mroianta,—G. A. Boulenger reports (P
Z. Soc. Lond., June 23, 1887) that the ‘large Plistocene Chelonian
Miolania, which was regarded by Huxley as probably belonging to
the group Cryptodira, and closely allied to Chelydra, Macroclem-
mys and Platysternum, is, in fact, like all the recent tortoises of
f ' Elie de Beaumont, Thompson Woodward and others, give range ©
rom five to eight millimetres. University of Missouri, May Ist, 1887.
56 General Notes.
Australia, a member of the Pleurodira. Mr. Boulenger bases his
opinion upon the examination of a nearly perfect skull with the two
cervical vertebree attached. The structure of the alveolar surface
of the skull indicates an herbivorous animal ; the ungual phalanges
and the curious sheathed tail a terrestrial one. This sheathed tail,
with its opisthoccelous centra, is unique among the Pleurodira,
and points toa distinct family. The ilium shows a surface for
attachment to a sacral.
The Pleurodiran characters are—the broad pterygoids, with outer
palatal borders forming wing-like expansions ; the tympanic cavity
completely surrounded by the bony roof; the articulation of the
mandible by a condyle fitting into an articular concavity of the
quadrate, and the form of the cervical vertebree.
GEOLOGY OF THE SoLomon IsLanps.—Mr. H. B. Guppy has
recently published a work upon the Solomon Islands, divided equally
tween the volcanic and calcareous members of the group. The
volcanic islands fall into two classes—the first comparatively modern
and mainly composed of little-altered augite sandstones, andesitic
pitchstones, tuffe and agglomerates; the second, composed partly of
the above rocks, but in part of much more ancient crystalline masses,
consisting chiefly of altered dolerites, quartz-diorites and porphyies
and serpentines. 7
he coral rocks of the Solomon Islands are divided by Mr. Guppy
into: (1) True coral limestones; (2) Coral limestones which have
the composition of the coral muds or sands now forming near coral
reefs; (3) Rocks having the composition of volcanic mud and
pteropod ooze ; (4) Foraminiferal limestones; (5) Rock resembling
a consolidated deep-sea clay (red clay). The two last classes were
evidently deposited at depths of not much less than two thousand
fathoms in an ocean far from continental land ; and this is the first
proof of their existence above sea-level.
Mr. Guppy draws the following inferences: (1) That these up-
raised reef-masses, whether atoll, barrier reef or fringing reef, were
formed in a region of elevation ; (2) That such upraised reefs are of
moderate thickness, their vertical measurement not exceeding the
usual limit of the reef-coral zone; (3) That these upraised reef-
masses, in the majority of islands, rest on a partially consolidated
deposit which possesses the characters of the “ volcanic muds” that
were found, during the Challenger Expedition, to be at present
forming around volcanic islands; (4) That this deposit envelopes
anciently-submerged volcanic peats. The author says: “ I never
found one (raised reef) that exhibited a greater thickness of coral
limestone than one hundred and fifty feet, or, at the outside, two
hundred feet.”
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ARKANSAS.—From a small pamphlet
—Annual Report of the State Geologist of Arkansas for 1887—
Geology and Paleontology. 57
we learn the Survey began work June 24th, with a corps of a
director, three paid and seven volunteer assistants. The work done
the first year has been the triangulation of the immediate vicinity
of Little Rock ; the examination of localities reported to yield gold
and silver, especially in Garland and Montgomery counties; a
reconnoissance in the central part of the State; tracing the limits
of the Cretaceous in the southwestern part of the State. The bill
providing for the survey makes appropriations for its continuance
for two years.
GrEoLocicaL News.—Patmozoic.—Dr. J. V. Deichmiiller
describes two new species of the genus Etoblattina Scudder obtained
at Griigelborg, near St. Wendel (Rhenish Prussia), not far from
a spot where fish, insect and plant remains have been previously
ee They are described under the titles of E. ornatissima and
. rollei.
CRETACEOUS.—Mr. A. S. Woodward concludes, after examination
of the five series of examples in the British Museum, that Cyclobatis
oligodactylus, the so-called “ Torpedo,’ from the Cretaceous of
Mount Lebanon (Syria), is really a member of the sting-ray family
(Trygonidz). Among his reasons are: The pectoral fins are unin-
terruptedly continued to the end of the snout, and were thus, prob-
ably, confluent in front—a condition never met with among the
Torpedinide ; the pelvic arch is placed far forward; there are no
traces of median fins, and the skin is armed with spinous tubercles.
From an examination of specimens in the Cambridge and
Brighton Museums (Eng.), Mr. A. S. Woodward concludes that
the puzzling genus Ptychodus, which was by Agassiz and Owen
referred to the Cestraciontid, is doubtless a true ray, though
possibly belonging to an extinct family.
Mr. J. W. Davis (Trans. Roy. Dublin Soc., 1887) describes the
fossil fishes of the chalk of Mount Lebanon. In this important
eels yet known,—are among the Teleosteans.
58 General Notes.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. !
AFricA.—THE EASTERN DESERT oF Eaypt.—‘NotesonaSketch |
Map of Two Routes in the Eastern Desert of Egypt” is an inter-
vesting account of the scenery, ete., of a little-known part of Egypt
proper, viz., the stony desert lying between the Nile valley and the
Red Sea. The desert rises from the Nile for about a hundred miles,
where the elevation is 2,000 feet, and thence shelves more sharply ,
to the Red Sea. The Red Sea slopes are blessed with frequent rain-
storms; waterfalls, crystal pools, fern-clad grottoes, even trees,
can be found in the wadis or valleys which seam their sides, and
even the Nile slope has its picturesque ravines and tree-sprinkled
nullahs. The inhabitants of the district are the Ma’aze tribe of
Bedawin, who live in goats’-hair tents, to the north ; and the more
civilized Ababdi to the south. This Eastern Egyptian desert was
probably the scene of the first monasteries in the world. Those of |
St. Anthony and St. Paul, about nine miles apart, and situated
about seventeen miles from the coast, in latitude 29°, are still visited
by travelers.
Almost the entire traffic between Rome and India passed, two
thousand years ago, along the old trade route between Kosseir, on
the Red Sea, and Koptos (modern Kuft), on the Nile. Every five’
or six miles along the route a more or less ruined khan exists. — In
the Messiigh El Bagar are quarries, once worked by the ancient
Egyptians, and bearing inscriptions by the Persian conquerors.
Roman stations exist, one of them is Saghi or Naka’al Teir. Ibex:
are abundant, choosing for their home the wildest and most inacces-
sible mountains.
THe Ratan Moeris.—Mr. Cope Whitehouse sees in the Raian
basin the Lake Meeris of ancient geographers, and states that sur-
veys carried out under his direction by the authorization of the
Egyptian government, prove that the area can again be converted
into a storage reservoir for the surplus waters of the Nile. The
number of reclaimable acres in Lower Egypt is given at about five
millions ; and the surface of the Wadi Raian, at 20 metres above
the Mediterranean, at 346,000,000 metres, with 25,540,000 metres
of contents. Colonel Ardah states that there are no engineering
difficulties in the way of utilising this large basin.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF FERNANDO PO.—Petermann’s Mit-
teilungen contains an account of the physical geography of Fernando _
Po, by Oscar Baumann, a member of Dr. Lenz’sexpedition. Theisland
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
E Se eter a arg, Ba TN AP ty Rh ane Pattee BS
Geography and Travel. 59
is one of a volcanic group which may be regarded as the result of
an eruptive fissure extending southwest from the Cameroons moun-
tains to the island of Anno Bom, or even further, and seeming to
find in the Rumbi mountains a continuation in the heart of Africa.
The volcanic peak’ O-Wassa or Clarence Peak, 10,030 feet in
height, almost entirely covers the northern half of the island. West
and northwest this mountain is cut by deeply eroded gorges ending
in a narrow belt of flat country; to the north and northeast the
sides slope gently to a precipitous rocky coast; on the east the pre-
cipitous slopes end in a grassy plateau about 1,300 feet above the
ocean, while on the southwest there is a gradual descent to the pla-
teau of Batec, which connects O-Wassa with the southern moun-
tain system. The crater is 575 feet deep. The southern moun-
tains for the most part present an almost perpendicular front to the
sea. They form two chains and are basaltic. A volcanic mass
south of these ranges has what appear to be remains of craters.
The principal river is the Uaya or Shark. Few of the rivers rise
at a height of more than 2,000 feet.
THE Cavcasus.—Though Elbruz is still the monarch of the Cau-
causus, several peaks are now known to exceed 16,000 feet. Among
these are Tetnuld (16,700 feet), recently ascended by Mr. Douglas
Freshfield ; a peak climbed in 1886 by Mr. Dent and Mr. Donkin
(16,550 feet by their estimation); Schkara and Djanga, which Mr.
F reshfield estimates respectively at 17,200 and 16,900 feet, and the
Koshtantau, 17,096, and Dychtau, 16,925 feet, of the Russian
maps. Mr. Freshfield states that travel in this region of grand
mountain scenery is now quite safe.
ASCENT OF THE OWEN STANLEY RANGE.—Messrs. C. H. Hart-
mann and G. Hunter have succeeded in reaching the summit of the
Owen Stanley, the principal range of mountains in British New
Guinea. Twenty-seven friendly natives accompanied them in the
ascent. Some difficulty, which was peaceably overcome, was en-
countered with a tribe which guardsthe great mountain Paramagoro,
believed to be the abode of the spirits of the departed. It rained
nearly all the time the party were on the mountains. The flora was
magnificent in the extreme. It does not appear that the highest
Summits were reached.
60 ` General Notes.
DISCOVERIES IN NEW GUINEA.—T wo new rivers, named by their
discoverers the Jubilee and the Douglas, have been found and
mapped by the exploring party sent out on the Victory by Messrs.
Burns, Philp & Co. Very few natives were met with, except upon
the sea-coast, and these were not particularly hostile. The Douglas
was followed to Bowden junction, from whence the eastern tribu-
tary (Philp River) was taken until a point was reached about 100
miles up the stream and 25 from the German boundary. The Aird
River was found to be but one of the mouths of the Douglas. The
Jubilee River opens into Deception Bay, at the head of the Gulf
of Papua, about half a degree west of the mouth of the Douglas,
and trends northwestward toward the Albert Victor Range. It,
also, was followed for about 100 miles. The entire coast region
here is very swampy, with dense undergrowth, but the interior is a
hilly wooded country. Cretaceous limestone was met with on the
Philp River, while basaltic rocks occurred still higher up, and were
also met with upon the Jubilee. Both rivers have several mouths,
their deltas covering about 40 miles respectively. The natives gave
indications of Dravidian origin. Their canoes were dug-outs with
outriggers, and often large. They wore nose-pencils, and distended
the lobes of the ears.
f
|
;
l
j
GEOGRAPHICAL News.—Dr. A. Meyer, of Leipzig, who has
recently succeeded in ascending Kilimanjaro to the glacier-walled
crater-summit of Kibo, and has explored the volcanic plateau which
lies between Kibo and Kimawenzi, estimates the altitude of the —
former at 19,680 feet, instead of 18,800, as believed by Johnston,
who reached 16,000 feet.
M. Sibiriakoff has again despatched the steamer Nordenskiold to
the Yenisei via the Kara Sea. The vessel left Norway in August, —
and reached the mouth of the Petchora, where she received a cargo
of skins, corn, tallow, and mammoth tusks. The Phoenix of Leith
succeeded in entering the Yenisei itself.
From accounts received from various parts of the Arctic Seas
of the state of the weather and the ice during the past summer
it appears that the steady and continuous prevalence of easterly —
and northeasterly winds forced the ice from the regions north oF —
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla down into the seas around North- a
ern Norway, Jan Mayen, Iceland, the Faroé Islands, and the T
east coast of Grenli This is thought to account for the early —
setting in of winter experienced in England.
Dr. H. V. Jhering has ee up the Cainacuam, a river 12 —
the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul, from its delta t0
the town of S. Jose. Throughout its lower course the river win%
in sharp curves, and while the right bank is steep and woode@, —
the left is flat and covered with gravel. Higher up both banks
Oe ee CRN a a
Mineralogy and Petrography. 61
are wooded, and slope gently. Dr. Jhering’s map (Petermann’s Mit-
teilungen) shows that the Cainacuam has five mouths, while that
of the government engineer (1882) shows but three. Many valu-
able woods occur in the forests. The “campos,” or open tracts,
which are invariably higher than the forest-covered country, are
referred by Dr. Jhering to the diluvial period, while the wooded
lands are alluvial.
M. von Fetvelde, in a “Notice” upon the Congo Free State,
gives its area at 1,075,000 square miles.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY:.'
PETROGRAPHICAL NEws.—The volcanic bombs from the Lake
Laach district are divided by Hubbard? into four classes—old
crystalline and schistose bombs, sanidinite bombs, trachyte bombs,
and basalt bombs. The last three varieties are difficult to separate
from each other, but are easily distinguishable from the first class.
After discussing very briefly the various theories proposed to account
for these bodies, the author proceeds to investigate those in which
nosean occurs. He examines two hundred and sixty thin sections
of nosean-bearing bombs, and reaches the following conclusions :
(1.) The Nosean is in greater part a druse mineral. (2.) The inclus-
sion so characteristic of this mineral consist of magnetite, either fresh
or slightly altered. (3.) The little red octahedra so frequently accom-
panying the titanite of the Lake Laach bombs is closely related to
the pyrrhite of San Miguel, and has probably been derived by the
alteration of titanite. Several other points of interest in relation to
the minerals occurring in these bombs are noted. The most impor-
tant results reached, however, are those which have been mentioned.
—The elzeolite-syenite from the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
has recently been carefully examined by Fr. Graeff? The mass o
the rock is described as possessing a holocrystalline hypidiomor-
phic structure. Its principal constituents are hornblende, ortho-
clase, eleeolite, augite, and mica. The feldspar is noticeable for the
possession of a parting‘ parallel to 7 Pæ. In other cases it is
intergrown with very fine lamellz of plagioclase, thus showing stri-
ations when examined under the microscope in polarized light. The
elæolite is generally fresh, but in some instances is altered
into sodalite and analcite. The accessory minerals are titanite,
apatite, zircon, fluorite and a black garnet. The rock is interesting,
as affording another example of the predominance of hornblende
p edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, Madison, Wisconsin.
k pieh u. Petrog. Mitth., viii., 1887, p. 356.
i s Jahrb. f. Min., ete., 1887, ii. p. 222.
cf. W. Cross, Monog. xii. U. S. Geol. Survey, p. 348. Mr. Cross finds
paag in the sanidine of the Leadville rhyolites, which is parallel to
Oe
62 General Notes.
over augite in eleolite-syenites. In it are many little veins
of a finer-grained elmolite-syenite, which show very clearly
the effects of pressure, and which are remarkable for the
number of accessory minerals they contain. A second variety
of the rock, found as blocks in the Rio de Ouro, consists of
elxolite, orthoclase, egirine and mica, together with a large
number of accessory constituents. Among the latter are rinkite
and lavenite. The former’ occurs in long narrow plates,
marked by cleavage lines parallel to their longer axes, The min-
eral is slightly pleochroic in yellow tints. The plane of its optical
axes is perpendicular to the cleavage. It is readily attacked by
concentrated hydrochloric acid, with the separation of gelatinous
silica, The lavenite? occurs in highly refractive, strongly pleochroic,
honey-yellow crystals, and is closely associated with the magnesium-
iron constituents. A third variety of the Eleolite-syenite is porphy-
ritically developed. It occurs in the form of a dyke in the holoerys-
talline rock described above, and contains inclusions of a finer-grained
rock: of the same general nature-—The massive rocks of the Lead-
ville Region, according to Mr. W. Cross,? comprise quartz porphy-
ries, rhyolites, audesites, porphyrites and diorites. e porphyries
are the most interesting, in consequence of their relation to the ore
bodies. They are divided by Mr. Cross into several varieties, each
of which is carefully described. That phase known as the Lincoln
rphyry is noteworthy, as containing the rare accessory allanite.'
he sanidines of some of the rhyolites possess a peculiar satiny lus-
tre, due to fine partings parallel to 42 Pz. The cavities of these
rocks are covered with little crystals of sanidine, quartz, biotite and
topaz. In the porphyrites biotite is frequently found in tiny green
flakes, with a very strong pleochroism, and rounded grains of quartz
are sometimes surrounded by an aureole of quartz and feldspar. It
is interesting to note that in certain cases epidote is the final prod-
uct of alteration of all the minerals of the porphyrites, while in
other cases this final product is muscovite——J. F. Williams* has
recently described, in a very finely illustrated paper, the trachytes
composing Monte Amiata, in Tuscany. These trachytes by altera-
tion yield products which approach very closely to rhyolite on the
one hand, and on the other appear very like andesites. The paper
is enriched by numerous analyses of feldspar, hypersthene, and
types of trachyte.-—In a late number of the Neues Jahrbuch fur
Mineralogie, Reusch® illustrates, in a very beautiful manner, the
effects of pressure on sedimentary and massive rocks, In the case
of conglomerates, he shows how a schistose structure may be induc
which is entirely distinct from the bedding due to sedimentation.
1Cf. American Naturalist, 1884, p. 1141.
p. 850
3 Monog. U. S. Geol. Survey, xii., Washington. p. 319.
1 Cf. American Naturalist, 1885, p. 1098.
5 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete., Beil. Bd. v., 1887, p. 381.
* Ib., v., 1887, p. 52.
]
Mineralogy and Petrography. 63
METEoRITES.—J. Bosscha! describes a meteorite which fell at
Karang-Modo, on the island Java, on the 3d of October, 1883. Its
thin sections show well-crystallized chondra in addition to enstatite,
olivine, troilite, iron and glass. After describing the structure of
the meteorite in detail the author proceeds to discuss the various
theories which have been proposed to account for the origin of
these bodies. He shows the weakness of each, and immediately
suggests a new one, in which meteorites are regarded as made up of
little particles of cosmic substances, which together with the sun,
planets, ete., compose the solar system. He shows how this sub-
stance might unite and give rise to a meteorite with the brecci-
ated structure so frequently noticed, and concludes by giving sey-
eral reasons for the acceptance of his theory—A meteoric stone
which fell at Angro des Reis, in Brazil, during 1867, contains a
calcium-rich red augite as one of its constituents. It is conse-
quently richer in calcium than any meteorite heretofore described.
It belongs about midway between Rose’s eukrites and howardites.
Ludwig and Tschermak? propose to establish a new class of mete-
orites, of which this shall be the first member. They call it the
augrite class.—A lithosiderite,? found last March ina field eight and
a half miles west of Rockwood, Cumberland county, Tenn., con-
_ sists of about 16 per cent. of metallic iron and 84 per cent. of a
stony portion made up of anorthite and enstatite. The metallic
grains are evenly distributed throughout the mass, and when pol-
ished and etched show the usual figures. The stony part presents
a brecciated appearance. Through it are scattered the metallic
nodules mentioned above, and others consisting of an iron-rich
enstatite. It is unfortunate that the careful analyses of the consti-
tuent portions of this meteorite are unaccompanied by descriptions
of its thin sections.—A meteoric stone having the composition given
below is mentioned by Daubrée‘ as having fallen at Djati-Pengilon,
in Java, on the 19th of March, 1884. Its specific gravity is 3.747.
Weight, 166 kilograms. Composition :—
Fe (Ni=10.78) Troilite. Olivine. Bronzite. Chromite.
21.3 33.4 39.0 5
account of the scarcity of material a complete chemical examina-
tion was not attempted. A few tests, however, showed the presence
, Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete., Beil. Bd. v., 1887, p. 126.
Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., viii., 1887, p. 341.
x i., Nov., 1887, p. 387. J. E. Whitfield.
i Comptes Rendus, civ., 1887, p.
and 1813.
64 General Notes.
of sulphides, chlorides, olivine, a magnetic ingredient and carbona-
ceous matter.—Quite a large number of short papers recording the
results of the analyses of meteoric irons have recently appeared in
the journals. Mr. G. F. Kunz: has described the tenth meteoric
iron actually seen to fall. Its fall took place on March 27th, 1886,
at Cabin Creek, Johnson county, Ark.—The same author reports?
the analysis by Mr. Whitfield of a meteor from Scottsville, Allen
county, Ky.—A mass of meteoric iron? ploughed up three years
ago in a field in St. Croix county, Wisconsin, shows cubically
arranged Widmanstittian figures, very much like those character-
izing Meunier’s jewellite group.—The Taney county, Missouri,
meteorite and the meteoric irons from Chattooga county, Georgia,
from Eastern Tennessee, from Waldron Ridge, and from Claiborne
county, Tennessee, are briefly described by Mr. G. F. Kunz.A—A
pallasite found at Campo de Pucará, in the State of Catamarca, of
the Argentine Republic, is very similar® in aspect and mineralogi-
cal composition to the pallasite of Imilac, Atacama.
member of the solar system. The high character of the illustra-
tions, noticed in former reviews, is maintained, and the number o
references is still further increased. The entire volume, exclusive
of index, contains 1087 pages, 504 illustrations, and references to
414 topics.—Another very welcome addition to geological literature
has appeared in the concluding part of the second volume of Roth’s
“ Chemische Geologie.” ? This brochure embraces in its treatment
the crystalline schists and the sedimentary rocks. Like the earlier
' portions of the same volume, this part is especially valuable for the
copious references to articles relating to the spread and character of
these important classes of rocks—classes which have hitherto been
neglected by writers of handbooks of petrography. The lists of —
localities in which the different members of these great classes 0
rocks are found, is very full, except in the case of North America,
where it seems that many localities have been overlooked. The
book, however, is one which no geologist can well afford to be
without.
1 Amer. Jour. Sci., June, 1887, p. 494.
2 Amer. Jour. Sci., June, 1887, p. 500.
3 D. Fisher: ib., Nov., 1887, p. 381.
4 Ib., Dec., 1887, p. 467.
5 E. Coben: Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete., 1857, ii., p.45. ee
6 Geologie von Bayern., Bd. I. Lief iv. v. Grundzüge der Geologie.
Dr. K. W. von Giimbel. Kassel, 1887. Cf. American Naturalist, 1
: 1J. Roth: Allgemeine und Chemische Geologie, Bd. II. Abt. 3. _
Berlin, 1887. Cf. American Naturalist, 1885, p. 1215. 4
Botany. 65
MiscELLANEOuS.—Kroustschoff' has obtained little crystals of
biotite by heating to a high temperature a mixture composed of
basalt glass (fused basalt and acid rocks), biotite fragments, amor-
phous silica, potassium silico-fluoride and sodium and aluminium
fluoride.—By fusing tin stone with sodium carbonate and sulphur
at a low temperature, for five or six hours, Genth? finds that little
pyrite crystals are formed.—A labandine is a regularly crystallizing
manganese sulphide. It has been produced artificially by Bau-
bigny,® by heating in a sealed tube to 100° the pink precipitate
produced when hydrogen sulphide is passed through an acetic acid.
solution of manganese.—“ Precious Stones in the United States” is
the title of a very readable article, by G. F. Kunz,‘ in the Decem-
ber number of Harper’s New Monthly. Magazine. It is illustrated
by a full-page lithographic plate of the most important gems found
within the border of the United States.
BOTANY 5
SCHRŒTER’S ARRANGEMENT OF THE USTILAGINE®. — In
Cohn’s Kryptogamen-Flora von Schlesien, Schræter divides the
order Ustilagineæ into three families, as follows, viz. :—
I. Ustilaginacei, containing the genera Ustilago Pers., Sphacelo-
theca De Bary, Schizonella Schroeter, Tolyposporium Woronin.
II. Tilletiacei, with the genera Tilletia Tul., Urocystis Rabenh.,
Entyloma De Bary, Melanotenium De Bary, Tubercinia Fr.,
oassansia Cornu.
Ill. Thecaphorei, with the genera Schreeteria Winter, Theca-
phora Fingerh., Sorosporium Rudol. The genera Graphiola Poit.,
Entorrhiza C. Web., Piapalopsis J. Kuhn, and Tuberculina Sacc.
are added in an appendix as doubtful Ustilagineæ.
_ScoRarEer’s ARRANGEMENT OF THE UREDINEE.—Schreeter di-
vides the fruit-forms of the Uredinee (in Cohn’s Krytogamen-
Flora v. Schlesien) iato two classes, viz. : (1) Fore-fruits or first-
fruits (Vorfriichte)—including (a) Spermogonia, (b) Æcidia, (c)
Uredo—and (2) Last-fruits or after-fruits (Endfriichte), including
the teleutospores. The order Uredinex he divides into five groups,
as follows, viz. :—
Nee Puceiniei, including the genera Uromyces Lk., and Puccinia
ers,
„Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., ix., 1887, p. 55.
p Contributions from the Chemical Laboratory of the University of
ennsylvania, 1887, p. 5.
i Comptes Rendus, civ., May, 1887, p. 1372.
, December, 1887, p. 97.
Edited by Prof dhas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb.
66 General Notes.
II. Phragmidiei, including Trachyspora Fkl., Triphragmidium
Lk., and Phragmidium Lk.
II. Endophyllei, including the single genus Endophyllum Ley.
IV. Gymnosporangiei, with the genus Gymnosporangium Hedw.
V. Melampsorei, including Melampsora Cast., Melampsorella
Schrot., Calyptospora J. Kuhn, Coleosporium Lev., Chrysomyxa
Unger., and Cronartium Fr.
TUMBLE-WEEDS AGAIN.—The latest addition to the lengthening
list of tumble-weeds is Corispermum hyssopifolium L., which in
northern Nebraska assumes the globular form now so well known
as characteristic of the tumble-weeds, and late in the season gives
itself to the winds. Fine specimens were brought to me in Sep-
tember, 1887, by a correspondent from Long Pine, near the
iobrara River.
In this connection, it may be well to direct attention to the
account given by R. M. Christy, in his “ Notes on the Botany of
Manitoba,” which appeared in the October number of the Journal -
of Botany, of the tumbling habit of Psoralea esculenta, the “ Indian
of the prairies: “ After flowering, instead of withering
away, the plant remains standing, and by the time its seeds are ripe
it has become—flowers, stalks and all—perfectly dry, brown and
rigid. In this condition it is very light. The stem then sepa-
rates just below the ground, leaving the entire plant free, to be
blown about by the wind over the surface of the prairie, dropping
its hard, oval seeds as it goes.” Mr. Christy weighed a number of
plants and found that, while they averaged six and a half inches in
height and bore three flower-clusters each, they had an average
weight of but a trifle over thirty grains.—Charles E. Bessey.
BorantcaL WORK IN Mrynesora.—The Report on the Botan- _
ical work in Minnesota for the year 1886, which was distributed
the Ist of October, 1887, gives one a very good idea of the kind of
work which is being done by those constituting the working force
of the Geological and Natural History Survey of the State. Pro-
fessors Arthur and Bailey, with Mr. E. W. D. Holway, made an
expedition to Vermilion Lake, where they remained for some time
engaged in the critical study of the flora of the region, Other
points were visited, and collections were made. The party was
composed of experienced collectors, and the results were unusually
good. Two of the party were acute students of the fungi and other —
lower plants, while the third was equally well prepared for s
work on Glumaces and Amentace, as well as the Phanerogams :
in general.
The list of specimens collected is a remarkably good one, num- 1
bering seven hundred and sixty-two in all. These are distributed
as follows :—
Botany. 67
Phanerogams . ; š . 368| Odphytes. i , < See
Pteridophytes . ; > i 26 | Zygophytes . í ‘ . 45
Bryophytes ‘ < ‘ . 42| Protophytes . è ‘ i a8
Carpophytes . b: : . 242
The 227 Dicotyledons are represented by 90 Choripetale, 100
Gamopetale, and 37 Apetale. Of the 135 Monocotyledons, 47
are sedges, and 30 grasses. Of the Carpophytes, there are 77
Hymenomycetes, 39 Uredinex, 36 Lichens, 57 Pyrenomycetes, and
21 Helvellacee. The Zygophytes are mostly Desmids (31 species)
and Diatoms (12 species), while 19 of the Protophytes are Slime
Moulds.
The specimens upon which the entries are made are all preserved
in the Herbarium of the Survey, a precaution well worthy of
general imitation.— Charles E. Bessey.
BoranicaL News.—Dr. Farlow describes in the September
Botanical Gazette an Æcidium on R ar, to which he gives
the name of Æcidium bermudianum. Coulter and Rose continue
their useful studies of the Umbelliferse in the October and Novem-
ber numbers of the same journal. Dr. T. F. Allen appears again
in the pages of the Torrey Bulletin for October with a paper on
Characeze, accompanied by five plates. Two new Nitelle and one
Tolypella are described. The November and December numbers
of the Journal of Mycology are principally filled with Dr. J. W.
Eckfeldt and M. W. Calkins’ Lichen Flora of Florida, being a
catalogue of species, with notes, and also notices of new species.
art 3 of Professor Greene’s Pittonia contains an excellent bio-
graphical notice of the late Dr. Albert Kellogg, well known for many
years as a collector and student of the Pacific coast plants. The
editor, in an article on Echinocystis § Megarrhiza, insists strenu-
ously that the older name of Mara should be used instead of Me-
garrhiza, The Californian Manzanitas received the attention of
Dr. C. C. Parry in a paper read before the California Academy of
Sciences. They belong to the Uva-Ursi section of the genus Arc-
tostaphylos, and number twelve species in all. R. P. Bigelow’s
paper on the Structure of the Frond in Champia parvula, read
before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, now issued as
a reprint from the “ Proceedings,” is a careful study of the struc-
ture of this member of the Floridex. he Development of the
Ostrich Fern (Onoclea struthiopteris), by D. H. Campbell, being
the “Walker Prize Essay” for 1886, has been printed in the
Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History. It is accom-
panied by four good plates. The Bulletin of the Illinois State
Laboratory of Natural. History, lately issued, contains an important
contribution to our knowledge of the Erysiphee, by Professor
Burrill and F. S. Earle. The Illinois species are carefully
described, and the synonymy has received close attention. Several
68 General Notes.
changes have been made in the names of common species. ——J
Baker continues his synopsis of Tillandsiese in the November Jour-
nal of Botany, reaching No. 112, with the article to be continued.
In the December number of the same journal Otto Nordstedt
points out that a great many of the figures in Cooke’s British Der-
mids are copied from Ralfs, Archer, Brébisson, De Bary and
many other authors, in spite of the statement that “the greater part
of the figures have been drawn direct from the specimens them-
selves.” We must suppose that the artist imposed upon the author
in this case. G. Massee publishes in the December Grevillea a
revision of Polysaccum, admitting eight species, of which two, P.
pisocarpium and P. turgidum are American.
ENTOMOLOGY.
THE Hop PLANT-LOUSE, Phorodon humuli.—An important con-
tribution to our knowledge of the life of this species was made
during the year just closed, by the Entomologist of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture. ’ Professor Riley, assisted by Mr. Per-
gande, Mr. Howard, and others, very carefully traced the transfor-
mations of the species throughout one complete cycle, i.e., from the
winter eggs of one year to those of the year following.
The most interesting result of these investigations is the confir-
mation in a striking manner of the previously known fact that this
species passes the winter on plum trees
It is urged by Professor Riley that this is the only mode of hiber-
nation of the species, or at least-that it does not winter on the hop.
This is a point of the highest practical importance, and one which
must be settled before a complete plan of defence from the ravages
of this pest can be matured. Unfortunately, the evidence adduced
by Miss Ormerod in her report for 1884, and indicating that one
form of this species winters on the roots of hops, is too strong to
be set aside by anything yet advanced,
The following is a résumé of the transformations of this insect,
as determined ie Professor Riley, and published in advance of his
annual report’:
“ As soon as Pian leaves put out in spring, the first generation
of lice hatch from the winter eggs on plum. These are wingless
agamic females, giving birth to young ike themselves without the
intervention of males. The third successive generation upon plum
however, is winged, not wingless, and the first fledged individuals
1 This department is edited by Prof. J. H. Comstock, Cornell Univer
sity, Ithaca, N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice, etc.,
sho uld be sent.
2 L. O. Howard, The Cultivator and Country Gentleman, N ovember
17, 1887.
;
;
Entomology. 69
of this generation the present season were observed June 4. The
individuals of this winged generation migrated at once to the hops,
settled and began giving birth to the fourth generation, which con-
sisted, as did the second, of wingless, agamic females. The fifth,
sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh generations fol-
lowed, and were all composed, as was the first, of wingless agamic
females, bringing observations in point of time down to the last
week in August, or close to the commencement of hop-picking.
“ The last week in August the offspring of the eleventh genera-
tion (themselves the twelfth) showed rudimentary wings, and at
the same time the offspring born the previous week from the still
living females of previous generations (as far back as the fifth) also
showed plainly that they would become winged. August 26th the
first winged females were observed at Cooperstown, and August
31st at Richfield Springs, the main locality for observations. Sep-
tember 2d they had already flown in small numbers to both Dam-
son and wild plum, and had begun to deposit larvæ, which may be
called the normal thirteenth generation. From day to day the
winged lice increased in numbers until on the 13th of September
the air was literally full of them, flying from the hop fields and
settling on every variety of plum, and upon every available plum
leaf. They were found a mile distant from any hop plant, search-
ing for some plum tree on which to settle and bring forth young.
Standing in front of a plum tree and facing toward a neighbor-
ing hop yard, Mr. Pergande observed a swarm coming from the
hops and settling upon the plum. A most interesting point in
this connection is the fact that none of these winged generations
will settle and reproduce on hop. This was proven by careful
and repeated experiment. So great were the number and so com-
pletely were the plums in certain places covered, that many of these
winged females were obliged to settle upon neighboring weeds,
where they brought forth young, which, however, died after feed-
ing a few days.
“All of these winged individuals of the twelfth generation which
migrated to plum up to September 28th were agamic females.
(A few were still flying late in October.) Their young (thirteenth
generation), however, attained full growth by this date, and proved
to be all true sexual females, wingless. At this time the males
were discovered. They proved to belong to the twelfth generation,
but only to the very late and much retarded offspring of the
retarded agamic wingless eleventh. They developed late in Sep-
tember upon the fragments of hop vines still remaining in the hop
fields, and became winged the last week in September, just in time
to fly to the plum and mate with the wingless sexual females which
became full grown at this time or a little before. Immediately
after this mating the eggs n to be deposited, and by October
Tth large numbers could be found without trouble on the smaller
t and branches of plum, in and around the angles formed by
the bnds and twigs. Each female laid from one to three eggs.”
m
70 General Notes.
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF APTEROUS MALES AMONG THE ÅPHI-
pip#.—In view of the very few species of American Aphides in
which apterous males have as yet been found, it may be of interest
to call attention to the occurrence of this form in certain species
whose autumn life history I have lately been studying. In Schizo-
neura carnicola this is the only male form produced, and it
may be found abundantly during October on the leaves and twigs
of various species of Cornus, often in copulo with the oviparous
females. It also occurs in the root form of the corn-plant louse
(Aphis maidis), having been taken with the oviparous females
during October, in ant colonies, about corn roots; and in a species
of Aphis, found abundantly in certain plants of Amarantus albus,
during October. In all of these species the male is of the same
general form, being slender and flattened, with long legs and
antenne, and very active in its movements.
The only reference to the occurrence of this form in America
which has come to my notice is by Professor O. W. Oestlund, in his
List of the Aphidide of Minnesota,' in which he records finding it
in several species of Siphonophora. I presume that when our spe-
cies are more thoroughly studied it will be found to occur quite
frequently. It is to be hoped that the recent progress made in our
knowledge of the life-history of the group will stimulate a more
thorough study of these much-neglected insects.— Clarence M. Weed,
Ill, St. Laboratory of Nat. History, Champaign.
THE IMPORTED CABBAGE Burrerriy.—Mr. S. H. Scudder
has collected a large amount of data regarding the introduction
and spread of Pieris rapæ in North America. This he has very
carefully digested and published as one of the Memoirs of the Bos-
ton Society of Natural History.2 This memoir is accompanied by
a map showing the centres and annual areas of distribution of the
RETE i North America from its introduction in the East in 1860
to .
The chief points brought out by Mr. Scudder’s paper are the
following :—
(1.) The insect was first captured in this country in 1860, by Mr.
Wm. Couper, near Quebec. “ From what we know of the rapidity
with which a single pair may propagate, without hindrance from
parasites, we may conclude with almost certainty that it was intro-
duced in the early part of 1860, or, at the earliest, at the very close
of 1859.” This is a later date than is commonly assigned. (2.)
In addition to the importation by way of Quebec, the species was
introduced independently in New York in 1868, at Charleston in
1873, and at Apalachicola in 1874. These later introductions may
have been by means of coasting vessels, or by rail from the North.
1 Fourteenth Ann. Rept. St. Geol. of Minn., pp. 19-22.
sL c, Vol. iv., No. iii.
Zoology. 71
(3.) The westward spread of the species was hastened by its spread-
ing from colonies established at Indianapolis in 1874, and at Chi-
cago in 1875. (4.) The species has reached the natural limit to its
southern extension. This is shown by the fact that it can hardly
maintain itself at Apalachicola and has not pushed its way into the
peninsula of Florida beyond, hardly to, Jacksonville, although it
has for ten years been within what would elsewhere be not more
than a year’s flight away.
On THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE MaLLopHAGA.—Dr.
Packard reviews! our knowledge of the structure of the Bird-lice,
and compares them with the Pediculide and with the Psocide. He
concludes that the Mallophaga are nearest allied to the Psocide,
and are degraded members of the order to which the Psocide
belong. He divides his order Platyptera into two sub-orders :— -
NTOMOLOGICAL News.—Mr. S. H. Scudder published in the
Canadian Entomologist for November “ Comparative Tables for
the Families of Butterflies.” The characters of the families are
given at great length, and include every stage of life. Bulletin No.
3 of the State Entomologist of Illinois is a Contribution to a
Knowledge of the Life-History of the Hessian-fly, by S. A. Forbes.
A list of the entomological writings of Dr. A. S. Packard, with a
systematic and general index, prepared by Mr. Samuel Henshaw,
forms Bulletin No. 16 of the division of Entomology of the U. 8.
Department of Agriculture; 339 titles are enumerated.
ZOOLOGY.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE FRESH-WATER Rurtzopops.—During
the last season some investigation was made for Rhizopods to
a this important group of animals before my pupils in
ogy.
Gatherings, from sphagnum swamps, the ooze of springs, ponds
and sheltered coves along the Penobscot River near Orono, were
examined,
By consulting Dr. Leidy’s Rhizopods of North America the
following species were determined.
1 American Philosophical Society, September 2, 1887.
72 General Notes.
The majority of the species enumerated occur in a sphagnum
swamp on the College farm. The list represents the observations
of a single season, and will, of course, be extended by closer
research, i
References to figures and plates refer to Dr. Leidy’s Rhizopods
of North America.
ORDER PROTOPLASTA.
Widely distributed in sphagnum swamps, the ooze of springs,
ponds and sheltered coves along the Penobscot. Not plentiful in
farm. Two individuals were seen which assumed forms like Figs.
Ameba villosa, Wollich. Page 62, Pls. 1 te Rae
Several specimens of the general form of Figs. 8 and 9, Pl. 5,
were seen in the water of a spring on the College farm, associated
with other Rhizopods.
Difflugia globulosa, Du Jardin. Page 96, Pls. 15, 16.
Forms like Figs. 8 and 9, Pl. 16, are not uncommon in sphag-
num swamps about Orono.
Diflugia pyriformis, Leidy. Page 98, Pls. 10-13, ete.
Quite common in sphagnum swamps in the Penobscot Valley.
Variable in form.
Not scarce in sphagnum swamps. This form is probably only a
variety of D. lobostoma.
Hyalosphenia papilio, Leidy. Page 131, Pl. 21.
This handsome species is very common in the water of sphagnum
shown on the sides of Fig. 7, Pl. 21. The outline of variety lobata
is given in Fig. 1, which shows the extreme of constriction. Inter-
mediate forms seem to connect this with the normal form. The
color of the test and sarcode contents of the variety is the same as
in the normal form. The sarcode in all the forms observed was
encysted, and composed largely of green corpuscles. The normal
Zoology. 73
Forms like Figs. 11 and 12, Pl. 20, are not uncommon in
sphagnum swamps, associated with H. papilio and H. elegans.
Hyalosphenia elegans, Leidy. Page 140, Pl. 20.
This beautiful species does not seem to be so common as H.
papilio, but is quite plentiful.
Nebela collaris. Page 145, Pls. 22-24.
The specimens observed from one sphagnum swamp were in form
like Fig. 17, Pl. 22, but sculptured more like Fig. 14. Other
specimens like Fig. 14, with encysted sarcode, were seen.
Nebela flabellum, Leidy. Page 152, Pl. 23.
Forms like Fig. 18, Pl. 23, are not uncommon in sphagnum
waters about Orono.
Heleopera pieta, Leidy. Page 162, Pl. 2
Forms like Fig. 8, Pl. 26, are che stent in sphagnum
waters about Orono.
Arcella vulgaris, Ehrenberg. Page 170, Pls. 27, 28.
Clear individuals like Fig. 4, Pl. 27, were seen, also dark-colored
forms flattin in shape, but probably referable to a species.
Arcell discoides, Ehrenberg. Page 173
e specimens observed were like the clear individual, Fig. 29,
Pl. 28. No colored forms were seen
Centropyxis aculeata, Ehrenberg. “Page 180, Pls. 30, 31, 32.
Forms like Fig. 30, Pl. 32, with five spines, somewhat more
slender and shorter, were in a gathering from a sphagnum swamp
on College farm.
mpascus. New variety.
Forms like Figs. 2 and 3 in outline are not uncommon in sphag-
num water. The shells are brownish and membranous, and, so far
as observed, probably empty. They have the best neck of Cam-
pascus, but ‘differ very much in the emorginoli fundus from C.
cornutus. The specimens are about the same size as C. cornutus
but somewhat variable, as shown by figures. There is nothing
like it figured in Leidy’s vie pia It is probably another form
of this polymorphous spec
_ Englypha alveolata, Du J ladia. Page 207, Pl. 25.
" The Leg forms common in springs and ‘also sphagnum water
about Oron
Englypha ciliata, Ehrenberg. Page 214, Pls. 35, 36.
Spineless forms like Fig. 23, Pl. 36, found in sphagmoss in a
amarack swamp.
Ciliated forms like Fig. 20, with plates barely visible, and with
ri nuclei situated as in Fig. 4, but smaller. Sphagnum swamp,
rono
The typical forms common in springs, and also sphagnum water
about Orono.
Assulina seminulum, Ehrenberg. Page 225, Pl. 37.
Forms like Figs. 15 and 24 are found sparingly i in sphagnum
moss in Tamarack swamps about Orono.
74 General Notes.
Trinema enchelys. Page 296, Pl. 39.
Forms like Figs. 46 and 47 are very common in sphagnum
water. A form like Fig. 4, with a brown chitnoid membrane, is
quite common. In form it is somewhat like Fig. 12, but there is
nothing like it figured. It is probably referable to this species.
Our specimens were not active, and the pseudopodia not observed.
ORDER HELIOZOA.
Actinophrys sol, Ehrenberg. Page 235, Pl. 40.
Forms like Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 were observed in the water of
sphagnum swamps, and from pools along the Penobscot River
about Orono.
Acanthrocystis chatophora. Page 264, Pl. 43.
Type forms observed, though more filled with green corpuscles
than Leidy’s figures. Springs swamp, near Orono.— F. L. Harvey.
Worms 1n Hen’s-Ecaes.—Dr. Edward Linton records ( Proceed-
ings U.S. National Mus., 1887) the occurrence of Distomum ovatum
in the white of a hen’s-egg from Berlin, Wise. ‘The occurrence
of this parasite in the eggs of fowls, while not common, is not
difficult to account for. Its favorite place of lodgment in its host
is in the bursa of Fabricius. An individual may occasionally
penetrate one of the passages which communicate with the cloaca.
It is well known that such excursions are sometimes made by this
parasite into the oviduct. If it should penetrate beyond the shell-
forming glands when an ovum is in transitu, it would not be an
improbable thing if the parasite should find itself enveloped in the
glairy albumen which is being exuded there.”
In this connection we may refer those interested to a recent arti-
cle on two cases of enclosure of nematodes in hen’s-eggs which are
discussed in Dr. Pelletan’s Journal de Micographie, xi. pp. 407 et
512, 1887.
Tue RELATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN HELICI-
p#£.—Dr. Wilhelm Kobelt, at the Wiesbaden meeting uf the Con-
gress of German Naturalists, compared the recent and fossil
European Helices with those of America. He showed that while
to-day the molluscs of Europe differed greatly from that of Central
America, the miocene forms of the former country so resembl
those of the Antilles and of North America that the latter might
be regarded as descended from the former. He is even inclined to
believe in such a genetic connection, which, contrary to that of
mammals and plants, has gone from east to west, and claims that @
land-bridge between the two continents must have been north of
the Sahara, because of the absence of African types in America.
Zoology. 75
EXCRETORY ORGANS OF SpIDERS.—Some recent investigations
of Dr. J. C. C. Loman ( Tijdsk. Nederl. Dierkunde Vereen i. p. 109.
1886-7) on the so-called Malpighian tubes of spiders are of
interest. In sections of a Javanese trap-door spider he finds that
these organs differ very materially from those of the hexapods and
agree with those of the amphipods, in the fact that they are diver-
ticula of the mid rather than of the hind gut. As to the develop-
ment of these organs in the spiders almost nothing is known, the
two most recent authors on arachindan embryology—Locy and
Schimkewitsch—having nothing to offer on the subject. The
bearing of the observations of Loman tend to show that these
organs are not homologous in all the “ Trachcates,” and possibly
that the arachnids and crustaceans are more closely related than is
admitted in most text-books.
THe MYLOHYOID GRoovE IN THE Mesozoic AND RECENT
MAMMALIA.—The Mesozoic Mammalia subdivide into two series,
nerve and artery branch at this orifice, part entering the canal,
76 General Notes.
part extending along the inner surface of the ramus, as the mylo-
hyoid nerve and artery, to supply the mylohyoid and digastric
muscles, There is thus little doubt that this groove lodges this
artery or nerve in all these recent forms, as it does in man. 4°. In
all the mesozoic mammals in which the groove is present it inva-
riably extends from near the orifice of the dental canal, for a
greater or less distance, along the inner face of the ramus, some-
times descending rapidly to the lower border (Phascolotherium),
sometimes reaching the symphysis (Amblotherium). From its con-
stant relation to the dental canal and variable development I think
there is little room for doubt that this groove lodged either the
mylohyoid nerve or artery; at least there is no ground for any
other supposition. 5°. Dromotherium, from the Triassic, the old-
est of the mammals of Series B, presents an exception; I cannot
discover the orifice of the dental canal in its usual position; the
anterior border of the pterygoid fossa is not clearly defined, as in
all the Jurassic genera, but gradually closes into a long, narrowing
groove, which suddenly terminates in an orifice in the middle of
the ramus beneath the last premolariform tooth. It appears as if
the inferior dental nerve and vessel may have lodged in the groove
and entered the jaw at this anterior point. From all these data I
see no present ground for changing the designation of this groove
in the Mesozoic mammals, as employed by Owen, but strong reasons
for not attaching any great taxonomic value to its presence or
absence.— Henry F. Osborn.
THE INTER-CONNECTIONS OF SMOOTH MuscuLaR Frsres.—Dr.
N. Kultschizny states (Biol. Centralbl., 1887) that smooth-muscle
fibres are not connected together by the oft-described intercellular
cement, but by means of minute protoplasmic fibres, and that
tween the cells exist intercellular spaces. A similar view has
been held and taught for some time by some American histologists,
and these even go farther and trace in the existence of these
intercellular bridges, the evidence for evolution of all meso-dermal
tissues from an epithelium.
THE Fauna RELATIONS or FERNANDO Noronna.—At the
meeting of the Linnean Society of London, November 3, 1887
there. The cliffs are steep, but otherwise the soil is fertile; there
is an absence of sandy bays on the south side. Generally speaking;
the specific animal forms differ on the opposite sides of the maim
island. The indigenous fauna and flora seems to have been
Zoology. 77
much modified, and in some cases extirpated by human agency.
Of mammals, the cat is reported to have become feral, and rats
and mice swarm ; Cetacea occasionally frequent the coast. The land
birds comprise a species of dove, a tyrant, and a greenlet (Virio).
Sea birds are numerous, but by no means so abundant as they were
formerly when the island was first discovered. Among the reptiles
were found a species of Amphisbeena, a scink (Huprepes punctatus),
a gecko; turtles are also frequently seen in the bays. Batrachians
and fresh-water fish are entirely absent. One butterfly, a well-
known Brazilian species, was plentiful; but insects, though abun-
dant, were poor in number of species. Two species of Trochi
called for remark as having a southern distribution, the remainder
of the marine shells, and indeed most of the marine fauna and flora,
show affinities to that of the West Indies.
Muscues or Brrps.—The researches of the late A. H. Garrod in
the line of avian myology, did much to place the classification of
birds upon a firm basis, as may be seen in any recent ornithological
treatise of value. He showed that the peculiarities of certain mus-
cles could be made of value in indicating the affinities of the
different genera families, etc. Garrod’s work has recently been
presented to the American students in the shape of an illustrated
review by Dr. Shufeldt, in the Journal of Comparative Medicine
and Surgery for October, 1887. Dr. Shufeldt does not discuss the
laryngeal muscles, but he adds to the muscles employed by Garrod
the dermo-tensor patagii, as well as calling attention to the syste-
matic value of vther characters than the mere presence of Garrod’s
classificatory muscles.
A GULAR GLAND IN THE BANDED ANT-EaTER.—Mr. F. E.
Beddard calls attention (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 527. 1887)
to a remarkable glandular structure just in front of the sternum of
the banded ant-eater (Myrmecobius fasciatus) of Australia. In the
region of the gland the integument is naked and studded with the
apertures of the glands of which there are four distinct kinds:
(1) sweat glands; (2) sebaceous glands; (3) sudoriferous glands;
and (4) a large compound tubular gland. Of these, 1, 2, and 3 are
confined to the integument, but the fourth is situated in the con-
hective tissue underlying the dermis. The duct of the last has not
een found. Histologically it resembles a sweat gland, and is
divided by partitions of connective tissue.
THE MAMMALIA OF THE MaraGHa Bep.—A report on this
Subject by Dr, Kittl is published in the last number of the Annalen
of K. K. Naturhistorischen Hofmusewms, of Vienna. The species
obtained number twenty-two, of which more than half have been
Previously discovered at Pikermi, near Athens, and the others do
not indicate any wide difference of fauna. Among the peculiar
78 General Notes.
species may be mentioned the rhinoceros, Aceratherium blanfordi
Lydd , and Hippotherium richthofeni Koken. Prominent Pikermi
forms are—Macherodus leoninus R. -5 Palworeas lindermay-
eri, Helladotherium duvernoyi Gaudry ; Mastodon pentelici Wagn. ;
Palhyena hipparionum Gerv.; Hyena eximia Wagn., and Sus
erymanthius R. & W. Dr. Kittl deecribes the Carnivora in the
present paper. He finds the following new species: Macherodus
orientalis K., Meles maraghanus, and Meles polaki. The Machero-
dus is one of the smaller forms, allied to M. megantereon, but was a
formidable animal—as large as a full-sized leopard.
Maragha is in Persia. The horizon is Upper Miocene, or Mio-
pliocene.
ZOOLOGICAL NrEws.—GENERAL.—Observations on the structure
and distribution of stripe and unstriped muscle in the animal king-
dom, conducted by C. F. Marshall, go to show that the striped form
is found in the disc of meduse, but not in Actinia nor in Echino-
derms. Some Vermes show moths, as the Arthropoda and the
Arachnida possess the striped form; but the Leech and the earth-
worm are without it, and the mollusca which possess it are those
which, as Pecten, move rapidly. An intracellular network is always
present in striped muscle-fibre, and this network is developed where
rapid and frequent movements have to be performed. The contrac-
tion of the striped muscle-fibre is referred by Mr. Marshall to the
action of the longitudinal bars of the network, while he considers
the transverse fibres as passively elastic, and by their rebound as
causative of the relation of the muscle-fibre. The cardiac muscle
cells contain a network similar to that of ordinary striped muscle.
ARTHROPODA.—The development of Peripatus Nove-Zealandi¢
is described by Miss Lilian Sheldon in the Quart. Jour. Micros.
Soc., Nov., 1887. The species is viviparous; the segmentation
resembles that noted by Henking in certain Phalangide ; and the
embryo derives nutriment partly from the yolk within its body,
partly from a peripheral layer.
FisHEes.—Professor D’Arey W. Thompson states (Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., Sept., 1887) that the blood-corpucles of Myxine, instead
of being small and round, like those of Petromyzon, are large and
oval, like those of skates or dog-fish.
POLYPRION PROGNATHUS, the Hapuku of New Zealand, and one
of the most esteemed food-fishes of the Southern Hemisphere, 15,
according to Dr. A. Giinther, identical with Polyprion ’
described by Steindachner, from Juan Fernandez. It is therefore
widely distributed and antipodal to the only other species known, —
P.cernium. The latter is shown by Lowe (Fish. Madiora, p. 185)
to be a deep-sea fish, swimming near the surface when young, but
when adult living at depths of 300 fathoms or more.
Zoology. 79
In one of the numerous ichthyological papers emanating from
the Indiana University, Carl H. Eigenmann and Eliz. G. Hughes
give a review of the North American species of the genera Lago-
don, Archosargus and Diplodus. The first has one species, while
the second and third are represented in North America by four and
seven species respectively. Mr. Eigenmann also describes Ophich-
thys retropinnis, from Pensacola, Fla.
Miss Rosa Smith bases a new species of Rhinoptera upon a pair
of jaws found at Todos Santos Bay, Lower California.
BATRACHIA AND REPTILIA.—G. B. Howes (P. Z.S., June 7,1887)
points out the existence, in the larynx of some Salientia, of a struc-
ture which he believes to be homologous with the epiglottis of the
higher Amniota. These are in the form of two papil'ate folds,
constituting a forward prolongation of the laryngeal mucous mem-
rane. Posterior to these some Anura have also a pair of folds,
which Mr. Howes entitles epilaryngeal. The epiglottis is entirely
membranous, and has little if any connection with deglutition. It
seems to be purely an accessory voice organ. The Batrachian lar-
ynx, like the Reptilian, is without a distinct thyroid cartilage. The
author gives a list of the species in which the primitive epiglottis,
the paired condition of which resembles the initial stage of the
development of the organ in the human subject, was observed.
Some species of Hyla are without the folds, while they are present
in others.
The Bulletin of the Essex Institute, 1887, contains descriptions
by Mr. S. W. Garman of the Iguanide and Scincide of the West
Indies, at present in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cam-
bridge. No less than twelve species are added to the genus Anolis,
each species apparently restricted to a small cirea. The scincoid
genus Mabuia is also enriched with three new species.
Mr. Garman has also published a list of the Reptiles and Batra-
chians of Grand Cayman, an island of the Caribbean Sea, about
200 miles south of Cuba. Grand Cayman is of coral formation,
rises but little above the sea, and must have received its land ani-
mals from the neighboring islands not so very long ago. An
Anolis and a Liocephalus are described as new.
Mr. Garman has recently added to the snakes of the West Indies
Ungualia curta, Dromicus cubensis, and D. ornatus, Alsophis pul-
cher, and Trigonocephalus caribbæus. A small turtle, Cinosternum
Sp., sent to Cambridge by Professor F. Poey, seems to possess dis-
tinct specific characters.
80 General Notes.
G. A. Boulenger (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., July, 1887) describes
several new Reptiles and Batrachians in the British Museum, includ-
ing an Anniella and a Hyla coper,! from Texas; and an Eiemias
from the Guinea Coast. s
Years ago Dumeril and Bibron described an Australian
snake under the name Furina textilis. It has been omitted
from all recent lists of the reptiles of Australia, upon the sup-
position that it was based upon the common Diemenia supercil-
iosa. ecently, Mr. Froggat has rediscovered the species in the
neighborhood of Port Darwin.
MAMMALIA.—Among the few beaver colonies still existing in
Europe is that at Amlid, some distance from Christiansand, Nor-
way. Sometimes as many as a dozen animals may be seen here in
the water at one time. Their huts are built close to the shore, and
have two stories, one above and the other below the water level.
The walls are of timber, the roof of ‘twigs and mud. The beavers
have felled all the aspen-trees in the vicinity, and have begun to
attack ‘the birches. They cut down trees upwards of eighteen inches
across at the root, but do not seem to use the larger trunks. The
branches are dragged to the water-side along regular “ log-runs,”
which are cleared of interloping roots. Sentinels are posted to give.
the alarm in case of danger, when all the animals leave their dwell-
ings for the water.
A new species of Spermophilus (S. bactrianus Scully) and Ello-
bius intermedius Scully, are among the mammals collected by Cap- —
tain C. E. Yate, of the Afghan Boundary Commission.
E. P. Ramsay has recently described three new mammals
(Antechinus froggata, Perameles auratus, and Mus burtoni) from
North West Australia.
Worms.—In the fresh-water Dendrocelous planariansis an |
organ which is usually termed the uterus. Ijima rega
this as a gland for forming the egg cocoon, and the latest student
(Hallez) agrees with him. Hallez regards Ijima’s muscular
gland as a force-pump to drive the male elements. into the cloaca, —
and that possibly to expel the ova and cocoons. Its resemblance
in certain particulars to the bursa copulatrix of the Rhabdocoela 15
pointed out.
Brirps.—Dr. W. A. Haswell, of Sydney, N. S. W., recently read |
a paper before the Linnean Society on the early stages of the emu,
detailing the history of the primitive streak, mesoderm, neurenteri® —
1 The H. arenicola Cope.
Wed) > 5 sa vp E E EEES IN Ae ta
Re eee nN ee Re ee re ee pee
Psychology. 81
canal and notochord. As the embryology of no member of the
Ratite or Struthionidew has ever been studied, Dr. Haswell’s work
when published will have no little value.
PSYCHOLOGY.
EVOLUTION AND IpEALISM.—The doctrine of idealism is natu-
rally attractive to the minds that believe in mind. To feel that
mind is all in all, and is not bound to “ low material things,” is as
agreeable to the metaphysician as it is to the seeker for immortality.
Moreover, the doctrine seems to have a certain support from the
scientific side. We know that our knowledge of what are vulgarly
supposed to be the properties of matter, is not derived from a sin-
gle sense, and we readily understand that those properties would
appear to be greatly modified, were the number of our senses re-
duced or increased. Moreover, we know from experience of the
abnormal or diseased states, both of ourselves and of other men,
that the appearances of the objective world may be wonderfully
modified by changes in ourselves. The hallucinations of delirium
and other forms of mental disorder, are matter of every-day knowl-
edge ; and the illusions that may deceive even the healthy mind are
equally well known. The question between the realist and the
idealist is, what do these facts prove?
ey certainly do not prove that a universe which presents in its
parts, and therefore in its entirety, the two properties of extension
and resistance, has no existence, They certainly do prove that our
knowledge of such universe and of its parts is imperfect, It is to
remedy this imperfection, and to enlarge our knowledge that many
men spend much labor and time. And the knowledge thus acquired
and exactly systematized, is called science. The pursuit of science
postulates the existence of that which it pursues, not as states of
consciousness, but as objective realities. There are reasons for the
soundness of this view, which I propose briefly to enumerate.
If a given supposed object be in reality a purely mental state on
the part of the subject, a rational cause for the production of that
State is wanting. But letting this difficulty pass for the time, and
letting it be supposed that there is some apparent undefined cause
ye the departure of the second person, it ceases to exist for him
ut continues for the third person, and so on. In the presence of
these facts, consistency requires one of two conclusions, on the part
of the idealist; either he must deny the validity of the mental states
4
$2 General Notes.
of other men, or he must believe in the Hegelian aphorism, “ Exis-
tence and non-existence are identical.” Some idealists adopt the
one, and others the other of these two horns of the dilemma.
But the difficulty is immensely increased when we contemplate
the mental lives of the lower animals, with their varied sense organs
and media of contact with the so-called material world. We can
readily imagine the limitations under which many of them exist
through their structural deficiencies ; but we cannot so well imagine,
though we are compelled to believe in the wonderful acuteness of
the perception, and the to us incomprehensible peculiarity of sensa-
tion, produced by the various special organs of sense with which
many of them are furnished. Think of the tactile sensibility to
slight movements of the water possessed by the blindfish of the
Mammoth Cave. Think of the sense impressions of which we know
nothing conveyed by the antenne of insects. Think especially of the
“ other world than ours,” in which many of the Mammalia live, in
consequence of the high development of the olfactory sense. We
can easily perceive the result of the idealistic reasoning on the part
of the inferior animals, were they capable of it. To many of them
mankind would not exist; to others the sun would be a fiction.
Those to whom low tones are imperceptible, would deny the existence
of the only vibrations that some other species is adapted to hear.
The idealistic position which denies the existence of matter, results
from a process of cancellation of the objective universe bit by bit.
One animal after another, and one sense after another, are proven
fallible, and so the entire objective superstructure disappears. The
realist, on the other hand, adds together all the phenomena derived
from all the senses of all conscious beings, thus getting a positive
result, where the idealist gets a negative one, Which is the more
rational of the two methods? The actual result to thought is, that
we learn the insufficiency of each and every sense, but not its impo-
tency, We are instructed that our true policy is to use our senses
to the best purpose, and to add to their number, so that the defect of
our knowledge may be remedied, and our mental vision enlarge
more and more. And this is the mission of science.
But all knowledge, we are told, is relative, and that of the absolute _
reality we can learn nothing, This doctrine does not necessarily —
involve idealism, but it is necessarily held by consistent idealists.
One can believe in a material universe and still hold that we do not
know it absolutely or even truly, And as “ weareall poor creatures,
many of us are prone to repeat “ great is the doctrine” of the Rela-
tivity of Knowledge! And the scientist echoes, but in a different
spirit, great is the doctrine of the Relativity of Knowledge ; ye
great is our Ignorance! Great is our ignorance indeed, but not
“ great is Ignorance!” The scientist does not worship ignorance ; he
worships knowledge, and his occupation is to increase knowledge.
To the responsive intellect and enterprising spirit, the knowledge of
our ignorance is the stimulus to unceasing labor, To men of amore —
Er SEN INDIRE
E Sa TE ES R R
Psychology. 83
lymphatic temperament the knowledge of ignorance seems to paralyze
théir lives. But science has done much towards elucidating the
order of the universe, and will do more.
Evolution gives the coup de grace to idealism of the consistent
type. In the gradual unfolding of organic life it sees the two uni-
versal facts, subject and object, It sees them interact and influence
each other. Under the influence of active, conscious life thousands
of tons of substances are transported from place to place and meta-
morphosed in the process, Under the influence of life, from which
consciousness may or may not be absent, thousands of tons of matter
have been made into soil, rocks, and living tissue. On the other
hand, the objective environment has constrained all living things
into rigid modes, and has extinguished millions. In the midst of
all this turmoil, consciousness has picked and wound its way, ever
gaining in strength and skill, till now we behold man, Of all ani-
mals, man controls his environment most completely, He begins by
making his own heat and light ; he makes his food to grow, and his
skin is partly his own manufacture, He does this, and very much
more, with infinite pains and toil, and yet some individuals of his
species actually deny the existence of this environment, which has
compelled him to be what he is! :
It is equally competent for the materialist to deny the existence of
mind, as for the idealist to deny the existence of matter. The
materialist, beholding the imperfection of the senses, may pronounce
them to be, one by one, incompetent witnesses, and declare them to
be illusions. The mind, which is the product of these impressions,
immediate or remembered, falls with them; it is also an illusion.
But the fact is, both exist, cbject and subject, matter and mind. And
since matter cannot study mind, mind must study matter, and by so
doing grow to more absolute knowledge and greater control of its
physical basis, and therefore of itself.
It can now be seen why the study of the “problem of cognition”
has little interest to progressive science, Its result is an expression
of our ignorance in philosophical form, a proposition which the sci-
entist is not disposed to deny. But when he asks the philosopher
“what do you propose to do about it?” and gets the same old story
reiterated from the old scholastics to the latest relativist, he turns from
such blind guides to his own, and to nature’s laboratories, and goes
to work, And the theologian applauds the philosopher, and says
of the scientist in his prayers, “1 thank Thee that I am not as this
section-cutter, this bug-hunter, nor even as this bone sharp.” But
the scientist knows that he holds the key of the situation, and he lets
the philosopher and the theologian rejoice themselves, each in his
appropriate department of Swedenborg’s heaven. The field of Ideal-
ism has been well worked out, and we of this age should thank the
mighty men of the past for having done it for us. We can now go
on with an easier mind in a more profitable pursuit.
84 General Notes.
Doctor Montgomery’s last article in Number 21 of The Open
Court, states at once the strength and weakness of idealism. Its
principal weakness is that it is unable to stand alone without a good
strong realistic prop somewhere behind. Thus the Doctor says (p.
587): “The tri-dimensional, hard, colored, sounding, scented,
heated matter—fancied by Professor Cope and others to subsist out-
side consciousness, and believed by them to be directed and organized
by such consciousness—is, indeed, through and through, a fictitious
entity, consisting of nothing but a set of our own percepts illusively
projected into non-mental existence.” This looks like pure idealism,
but he lets in a “non-mental existence.” Now what is this? On
page 589 (bottom) he says: “Now the realistic assumption which
the philosophy of organization here makes, is indeed, the simplest
possible, and is in full agreement with given facts. It supposes that
there subsist in nature non-mental existents possessing the power of
specifically affecting our individual sensibility, and of manifesting
their special characteristics by means of the different conscious states
they arouse in us.” This is a little more definite, and the Doctor
even calls it by its right name, a “realistic assumption.” This is
quite to my liking, but I cannot perceive how such “ non-mental
existent” can have less than three dimensions and still exist. And
in order to prove to me that mind or consciousness has no control
over this tri-dimensional “non-mental existent,” Dr. Montgomery
must go into further particulars. He must prove to me than an
animal does not eat or drink because it feels hungry or thirsty ; does
not seek shelter on account of weather or temperature; exp í
nothing in its voice of pain, desire or pleasure; that the horse does
not run because he is whipped, or the bird build because it feels the
necessity of laying, etc., ete.
I must here protest against the misinterpretation of an expression
contained in one of my earlier articles, which was not sufficiently
guarded, it is true, to preclude such misconstruction. It is possible
to say correctly that “ mind is a property of matter, as color an
odor are properties of the rose,” without meaning to say that the
two properties are such in the same manner, as is inferred by my
critic (p. 589). My article in Number 19 of The Open Court is
sufficiently clear as to what I understand by mind as a- property of
matter, so that it is unnecessary to go into a fuller explanation.
Suffice it to say that the conscious and the unconscious properties
matter cannot be confounded by any rational thinker, and that such
confusion is entirely foreign to my thoughts. More than one-thi
of Dr. Montgomery’s article Number 5 is thus irrelevant, In the
other two-thirds I fail, as yet, to find a definite theory which shall
explain the apparent facts of designed movements of animals, dif-
ferently from that which is held both by physiological science an
by popular belief. That is, that the design in them is the direct
result of a limited control which conscious states have, or did onc
have, over the energy and the matter concerned in producing them-
—E. D. Cope, in No. 23 of The Open Court.
Me ee ee me- i) Fy
PEE A PELE NS TEE IPES LA P I NE TORNI ANETE
Psychology. 85
Notes on FORSTER’S TERN,. Sterna forsteri Nutt.—In
spending my summer vacation two years ago at Piney Point, Mary-
land, some ninety miles from Washington, I had abundant oppor-
tunity to study the movements of this beautiful bird.
Their elegant appearance, whether flying gracefully over the
water in search of their food, or floating jauntily on a drift log, or
darting swifty from place to place, makes them very attractive.
I started out one fine morning, on a collecting tramp, and the
sun, which had risen clear and bright, gave evidence of a warm,
sultry day; but the wind, shifting, scattered the clouds over the
sky, and a dull, rather cool day followed. I continued my walk to
the river; the receding tide had leit a sand bar high and dry
some twenty feet from the shore, and on this I noticed a flock of
Forster’s terns, which took flight as I approached. I fired, one
dropping dead amid the shrill cries of his companions. As the
water was very shallow I commenced to take off my shoes and
stockings in order to wade out and secure my specimen ; but, to
my astonishment, the whole flock renewed their cries vociferously
and commenced to circle around me, and from me to the dead
bird, as if they knew that I was responsible for their companion’s
misfortune.
As I commenced wading, the birds seemed to ascertain my
object, and they, with one accord, began to fly higher and enlarge
their circle, and, flying faster than the rest of the flock, the first
six or eight separated themselves in single file, and each one
while flying, with a strenuous effort, gave the dead bird a push
with its feet; each individual of the flock pushed in rapid suc-
cession, and soon would have had the specimen beyond my reach
if a friendly boat had not come along and rescued it and dis-
_ persed the flock
For a whole flock of birds to act in perfect unison and
With one impulse, to remove a bird in the quickest and most
effective manner, is certainly a wonderful performance, which
can hardly be credited to instinct (as it is scarcely to be sup
that the affection for members of a flock would be as strong for
a mate as for their young).—P. L. Jouy in Field and Forest.
Washington. Vol. IÍ., No.2. August, 1876, p. 29.
VARIATIONS or THE NORMAL KNEE-JERK.—The first and most
extensive paper in the first issue of the American Journal of Psy-
86 General Notes.
blows were struck by a hammer which struck with a known force,
appended to an accurate recording apparatus. The extent of the
jerk proved to be an index of the state of the nerves. The first
series of experiments showed that the jerk obtained upon rising in
the morning was small; that that given after breakfast was, on the
average, higher than those at subsequent hours, and that it rese after
each meal ; also, that the effect of muscular exercise was always to
largely diminish its extent. Slight mental fatigue does not seem to
affect the knee-jerk, while unusual mental fatigue produced an irri-
tability which reinforced it. Irritation of the skin, voluntary
movements, attention to unusual sounds, exciting mental work
(such as the recitation of a stirring poem), music (especially of am
emotional character), exciting dreams, all increased the extent of the
knee-jerk. Violent respiratory movements also increased it, while
a rise of temperature or a fall of the barometer diminished it, oppo-
site meteorological conditions producing opposite results. A second
series of experiments confirmed the results obtained by the first.
ARCHZOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.
THe Magic Mirror or CHINA AND JAPAN.—The magic
mirror is the common toilet mirror or kKagemi in everyday use 1n
Japan. It is a thin disk of cast bronze about eight inches in
diameter, or of various sizes, and has a short handle cast with the
piece. The plane side is amalgamated; on the back are repre-
sentations in relief of bamboos, ships, storks, trees, etc., and gen-
erally two large characters. oe
The performance of this mirror has long excited great curiosity
and interest, and there have been many ingenious conjectures as to
the reason of the strange way of its reflection. The magic is that,
when it is properly prepared and the sun’s rays caught upon 1t and
reflected on a screen, the outlines of the characters and figures on
the back show in the reflection. The figures appear lighter than
the rest of the field, and not frequently with a sharp outline.
Better results will be obtained if the mirror is slightly warmed,
laid on its back on a perfectly flat surface, and briskly polish
with acloth. Then, if the sun’s rays are caught upon it, at first
in the reflection the figures cannot be seen, but they gradually
appear and are permanent. In China its peculiarity has been long
and well known, for it was spoken of with great admiration in the
eleventh century by Tchin-Kouo, and the poet Kin-ma, celebrat
it in verse. It is probably used as one of the very numerous
agents of divination practiced there; and in passing, we note “er
a mirror, the symbol of purity, is found in every Shinto temp!
and shrine in Japan. The Chinese mirror has no handle; 1t 1$
held by cords passed through lugs at the back.
Archeology and Anthropology. 87
They are called in China theou-kowang-kien, or mirrors that are
penetrated by light, an expression which portrays a popular error.
Ju-tsin-hing, who lived between 1260 and 1341, wrote on the
subject as follows: “ Here is the cause of that phenomenon which
proves the employment separately of fine and coarse copper. If
they have produced in the founding in a mould a dragon arranged
in a circle, on the face of the mirror they engrave deeply an exactly
similar dragon. Then, with copper a little denser, they fill up the
deep cuts of the chisel, submit the mirror to the action of fire, after
which they level and dress the face and give it a light coating of
tin. en its image is reflected on the wall, it presents the clear
tints and dark tints which proves that the one is of the portions of
purer copper and the other of the coarser parts.” ! He claims to
have seen a broken mirror which was so constructed. Aside from
physical reasons, the cheapness of the kagami refutes the idea of
this extremely difficult process to make a common toilet article.
An amusing interpretation of the riddle was brought out on
questioning several Japanese. They said that magic mirrors are
caused by earthquake shocks occurring just when the metal is being
poured into the mould; the shock rearranges the particles and
alters the reflecting powers. Workmen sometimes jar the flasks to
produce the effect during the rare absence of an earth tremor in
that land of seismic disturbances. Just how much magic comes
from the great fish whose uneasy slumber causes earthquakes,
according to Japanese folk-lore, has not been found out.
However, in the course of these inquiries a fact was elicited of
some importance. All mirrors are not “magic,” and they cannot
be “made to order.” This may have some bearing on the theory or
irregular tension relative to the pattern, and is a sufficient cause.
Th
; LUnivers, vol. vi.: Chine Moderne, vol. ii. p. 637.
Science, July 2, 1886.
88 General Notes.
cause is to be found in the elasticity of the plate, making it slightly
irregular on grinding.— Walter Hough, U. S. National Museum.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NEws.—Ensign A. P. Niblack, U. S.N.,
has just returned to Washington from a three years’ voyage
enthusiastic archeologist and has done good service to that science
as the records of the Smithsonian Institution will abundantly show.
He pushes his researches among natives whenever and wherever
his duties permit. He returns loaded with ethnologic material,
which he will now have the opportunity to classify and describe.
He has perfected himself in photography, and returns with full
series of Indian villages, houses, totems, burial posts and glaciers,
which, jutting into the sea and breaking off, are caught in the act of
transforming themselves into icebergs. Lieut. Niblack’s interest
and studies have been directed to the Totem posts with which that
country is so prolific. He says that winter is the only season when
studies can be successfully made in the ethnology of Alaska.
The natives are then at their homes prepared to give or receive
pleasure or information. In the summer they are engazed some-
times far inland on the mountains and inaccessible.
Mr. E. A. Douglas, of New York, has returned to the United
States after two years’ absence in Europe. i
Mr. Douglas possessess one of the finest private Ethnographic
collections in the United States. It was stored for safe keeping
during his absence at the New York Museum, Central Park.
- Mr. Douglas has now gone to Florida, where he will continue
his studies until his return in May. His address is Saint Augustine.
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—The Middlesex Institute proposes to publish a Flora of Middle-
sex County (Mass.), giving a complete list of the Phanerogams and
VascularCryptogams. In the lower Cryptogams, lists prepared by
specialists will be given, as complete as the present state of knowl-
edge permits. The work is based upon botanical researches for
many years by members of the Institute, with this publication 1m0
view ; supplemented by a careful examination of all works bearing
upon the subject, and all public and private collections accessible.
No plants have been admitted to the list except on evidence of the
actual specimen or of competent botanists ; and all doubtful questions
with regard to identification have been referred to eminent s me
ists. The publication will be an octavo volume of more than 200
page.
Scientific News. 89
—The project of a Marine Biological Laboratory on the New
England Coast is not languishing. Several thousand dollars have
already been subscribed towards the erection of the necessary build-
ing and its equipment and maintainance. The committee on the
laboratory have arranged a course of eight lectures, the proceeds of
which are to be added to the fund. These lectures are as follows:
Jan. 18.—Professor W. H. Niles, of Massachusetts Institute of
Technology —“ Mountain Sculpture.” n. 26. j ee <
Poweil, Director of the United States Geological Survey —
“Savagery, Barbarism and Civilization.” Feb..1.—Professor H.
N. Martin, of the Johns Hopkins University—“ A Hen’s Egg.”
Feb. 8.—Professor George L. Goodale, of Harvard College—
“ Seeds.” Feb. 16.—Professor F. W. Putnam, Director of the
Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, at
‘Cambridge—* The Serpent Mound and the Ancient People of the
Ohio Valley.” Feb. 22.—Professor Alpheus Hyatt, Curator of
the Boston Socicty of Natural History —“ A practical Example of
the Evidence for Evolution.” Feb. 29.—Doctor Henry P. Bow-
ditch, Dean of the Harvard Medical School—(Subject to be
announced.) March 7.—Professor Edward S. Morse, Director of
the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem—“ Reptilian Affinities of
Mammals.” ‘The lectures will be illustrated by the stereopticon
and the tickets for the course are placed at $5.00.
—In the spring ground will be broken for another section of the
Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass. It will
a continuation of the present west wing, and will be used to
accommodate the growing needs of the botanical department. It
will contain laboratories for the study of both cryptogamic and
phenogamic botany. There will also be rooms for the exhibition of
the collections already accumulated, for which there is no adequate
accommodation. The fund for building has already been raised,
through the exertions of Prof. J. M. Goodale. A collection of
Superb glass models, representing the principle species of flowering
plants, is now being made in Germany, especially for this exhibit.
When this addition is completed and the collections arranged, it
will be surpassed by few in the world. The Museum has long out-
grown its exclusively zoological character and has for many years
contained the geological collections and some of the botanical labora-
tories have had accommodations in it for some time.
—Volume I, No. 1, of the American Journal of Psychology, G.
Stanley Hall, Ph.D., editor, has appeared. It contains 206 pages,
‘original papers, and 79 pages to reviews and digests of recent
90 General Notes.
the study of hypnotism, especially in France. The first number
contains the most extended and critical review yet published of the
whole work of the English Society for Psychical Research. Single
numbers, $1.00. Subscription to yearly volume of four numbers,
$3.00. Remittances may be addressed to the American Journal of
Psychology, Baltimore, Maryland, U. S. A.
—Prof. E. W. Claypole, of Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio, is the
author of “The Lake Age in Ohio; or, some Episodes during the
Retreat of the North American Ice-sheet;” with colored maps.
McLachlan & Stewart, Edinburgh ; Simpkin & Co., London.
—In compliance with what seems to be a wide-spread desire on the
part of the geologists of America, a few have united in an effort to
establish an American journal devoted to geology and its allied
sciences. The new publication will be called American Geologist,
and it will endeavor to promote American geology by fostering the.
interests of American geologists.
The subscription price is $3.00 per -year, and the place of issue
for the present is Minneapolis, Minn., where correspondence should
be addressed to The American Geologist. From all geologists the
editors solicit original contributions, and items of scientific news.
The editors and publishers, for the year beginning January 1,
1888, are as follows: Prof. S. Calvin, Iowa City, Iowa; Prof. E.
W. Claypole, Akron, Ohio; Dr. Persifor Frazer, Philadelphia, Pa. ;
Prof. L. E. Hicks, Lincoln, Neb.; Mr. E. O. Ulrich, Newport,
Ky.; Dr. A. Winchell, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Prof. N. H. Winchell,
Minneapolis, Minn.
—The second number of Dr. Whitman’s Journal of Morphology
will contain the following articles: Dr. ©. O. itmaa—* The
Kinetic Phenomena of the Egg during Maturation and Fecunda-
tion (Odkinesis) ;” Dr. W. B. Scott—“The Embryology of
Petromyzon ;” Dr. Henry Orr—“ A Contribution to the Em-
bryology of the Lizard ;’ Dr. H. F. Osborn—“The Foetal Mem-
branes of the Marsupials;’ George W. and Elizabeth G.
Peckham—“ Some Observations on the Mental Powers ©
Spiders.” The number will be illustrated by ten lithographic
plates.
—The Teachers’ School of Science, which the Boston Society of
Natural History is enabled to conduct by the aid of the Lowell In-
stitute, will be continued this year. Professor Wm. M. Davis will
give five lessons on the Physical Geography of the United States.
The different parts of the country will be considered, not in the
order of location, but in their natural order: (1) The mountains, a$
constituting the framework of the continent; (2) The plains and
ONS ESE SEO NG E RTS eR S ESE ae to on ae we
-
LE E O E E E KIELE EE T A E EE ee FEET IESE EOS ET EA ETAR
E TEPE,
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. > 91
plateaux flanking the mountains; (3) The rivers carrying the waste
of the land into the ocean ; (4) The lakes, temporarily interrupting
the transportation of waste to the ocean and retarding the action of
the rivers; (5) The shore-line where the land dips under the sea.
—Professor von Cienkowsky, the well-known student of the
lower animals, died October 7th, 1887, in Leipzig. e was born
October 13th, 1822, in Warsaw, and at various times held a pro-
fessor’s chair in Jaroslaw, St. Petersburg, and Odessa. At the time
of his death he was a member of the faculty of Charcow.
—Recent Deatus.—Robert Francis Logan, an entomologist,
at Spylaw, near Edinburg, July 28, 1887. Pierre Milliére,
entomologist, aged seventy-four, at Cannes, May 29, 1887.
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
ACADEMY oF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA.— May
24, 1887.—Dr. Chapman presented “ Notes on the Anatomy of
a rotifer, originally described by Hudson from specimens obtained
in Wiltshire, England. Dr. Leidy’s specimens were from a duck-
pond, sewage fed, below this city. The animal is viviparous and
Swarms inthe pond in company with Daphnia. It has a single eye
anda pair of lateral conical horns.
June 14, 1887.—Prof. H. F. Osborn presented a paper upon the
“Structure and Classification of Mesozoic Mammalia, and C. H.
Eigenmann “Notes on the Specific Names of Certain North Ameri-
can Fishes.”
June 21, 1887.—Mr. Thos. Meehan stated that Chionanthus,
though usually described as having perfect flowers, is on the borders
of dicecism, having impotent anthers with a perfect pistil on one
plant, and polliniferous anthers aud an imperfect pistil on another.
is is the rule. The male plants are the more abundant. The
male flowers seem only to be visited by the pollen-eating Thrips, and
are therefore anemophilous. |
August 9, 1887.—A letter from Miss A. Fielde, Swatow, China,
describing an aquatic larva and its case, was read. The ani is
Stated to be near Hydropsyche.
S August 16, 1887.—Prof. J. A. Ryder presented a paper upon the
Homologies and Early History of the Limbs of Vertebrates.”
AMERICAN SocreTy oF NATURALISTS.—The annual meeting
(1887) was held at New Haven, Conn., in the Lecture-Room of the
92 General Notes.
Peabody Museum, on December 27th, 28th and 29th. The follow-
ing papers were rea
Twesday— Biology. —(1) The President’s address on “ The Incon-
stant in Biology,” by Professor Harrison Allen, M. D.; (2) “ Per-
fected Wools for Detection of Color,” by Charles A. Oliver, M. D.;
(3) “Injection of the Thoracic Duct,” by Professor S. H. Gage; ;
(4) Exhibition of newly-devised Physiological Apparatus, by Pro-
fessor H. Newell Martin; (5) “ Method of Life-size Model-making
of the Larger Animals,” by Mr. James H. Emerton; (6) “A
Lecture-room Illustration of Variation under Domestication and
in Nature,” by Samuel F. Clarke; (7) “ Methods of Cutting Serial
Brain and Spinal Cord Sections,” by Professor Henry F. Osborn ;
8) “A New Automatic Microtome,” by Dr. Charles S. Minot;
ae E Fes the Preparation of Serial g nS ” by Dr. Charles S.
‘Wednesday — Science-Teaching in the Schools.” — Papers
read by Professor Alexander Winchell, of Fast cae Protests
George Macloskie, of Princeton ; Professor William North Rice, of
Wesleyan ; Professor Ramsay Wright, of Toronto.
Thursday —Geology. —(1) “ The Volcano of Kilauea,” by Profes-
sor James D. Dana; (2) A Paleontological paper, by Professor
William ‘B. Scott ‘(not read); (3) “A Simple Method of
Measuring the Thickness of Inclined Strata,” by Mr. C. D. Wal-
cott ; (4) “ Improved Machinery and Appliances for Cutting Sec-
tions of Rocks and Fossils in Any Desired Planes,” by Professor
William B. Dwight; (5) “The Educational Value of Micropetro-
graphy,” by Professor George H. Williams; (6) “Instruction in
Mineralogy and Structural Geology in the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology,” by Professor W. O. aiid (7) “ Museum-Cases
in Europe,” by Professor Edward S, M
A resolution appropriating sixty ene for the purchase of ten
o of Volume I. of the American Journal of. Morphology was
adopt
Also, a resolution identical with that which passed the American
Philosophical Society and six other scientific societies, requesting
Congress to remove the duty on scientific books and apparatus.
The Society adjourned, to meet at the same time in 1888 at the
Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Md.
President, HARRISON ALLEN; Vice Presidents, G. L. GooDALE,
H. 8. WILLIAMS, H. F. OSBORN; Secretary, S. F. CLARKE ;
Treasurer, W. T. SEDGWICK ; Executive Committee from Society
at large, Ricnarp RATHBUN and Grorcr H. WILLIAMS.
©
2
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY or WAsHINGTON.—October 22, 1887.—
Communications: L. O. Howard, An Ant-decapitating Parasite ;
Geo. Vasey, Notes on Western Grasses ; F. A. Lucas, The Bird
Rocks in 1887; A. A. Crozier, Some Botanical Terms ; C. Hart
Merriam, The Fauna of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 93.
November 5.—Communications: J. B. Smith, Some Geographi-
cal Variations of Insects; T. H. Bean, The young Forms of Some
of our Food-fishes, with illustrations; N. P. Scudder, The Period
of Gestation in the Common Mouse; H. E. Van Deman, The
Diospyros kaki in North America; T. N. Gill, Characteristics of
the Notalian Fish Faunas. '
November 19.—Communications: Marshall McDonald, Expla-
nation of Past Failures in the Culture of the Salmonide; Walter
B. Barrows, Freshet Notes on the Rio Uruguay; T. H. Bean,
Description of a new species of Thyrsites from the New England
Fishing Banks; T. W. True, Recent Works upon Whales; F. A.
Lucas, An Alcine Cemetery.
December 3, 1887.—The following communications were read :
Mr. Charles Hallock, The Great Roseau Swamp; Dr. C. A. White,
On the Rapid Disappearance of the Cast Antlers of the Cervide ;
Dr. Theobald Smith, Peptonizing Ferments Among Bacteria ;
Mr. C. D. Walcott, A Fossil Lingula Preserving the Cast of the
Peduncle; Dr. Theo. Gill, The Phylogeny of the Cetacea.
December 17, 1887.—The following communications were read :
Mr. C. L. Hopkins, Notes Relative to the Sense of Smell in Buz-
zards; Dr. Cooper Curtice, The Timber Line of Pike’s Peak;
Mr. Chas. D. Walcott, Exhibition of, and Remarks, on a Section of
a Fossil Endoceras, over Eight Feet in Length ; Dr. Leonhard Stejne-
ger. On the Extinction of the Great Northern Sea Cow ; Dr. C.
a Merriam, Description of a New Mouse from the Great
ains.
Boston Soctery or NATURAL History, December 7th, 1887.—
Professor N. S. Shaler read a paper on the origin of the divisions
between the layers ot stratified rocks. Professor G. F. Wright
spoke of the glaciation of the Pacific Coast. Professor G. L.
Goodale exhibited some new glass models recently obtained by
oa University which illustrate the structure and morphology
oi plants,
THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CON-
GRESS OF GEOLOGISTS.—This Committee met in New Haven, after
the adjournment of the Society of Naturalists, on December 29th
and 30th. Present—Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, Chairman; Dr. P.
Frazier, Secretary, and Messrs. Cook, Cope, Dana, Hitchcock,
New rry, Powell, Stevenson, Winchell and Williams. The
reports of the reporters of the different sub-committees were read
and were ordered to be printed in galley form for further emenda-
tion, where thought necessary. All the reports were ordered to
completed by April 1st, 1888. A resolution inviting the Congress
to meet in the United States in 1891 was adopted. The proposi-
tion to enlarge the Committee by the addition to it of additional
members of the United States Geological Survey was not agreed to
94 General Notes.
INDIANA ACADEMY OF ScreENcE.—The third annual meeting
of the Indiana Academy of Science was held at the Court House,
Indianapolis, December 28 and 29, 1887, with Dr. John M. Coulter
in the chair. The following papers were read:—“ The East-West
Diameter of the Silurian Island about Cincinnati,” by Professor D.
W. Dennis: Professor Dennis alluded to the fact that at Richmond,
Indiana, there was a thin bed of rock composed of broken shells of
lower diluvium age, in its character much like coquina and indicat-
ing an ancient shore line. Two similar deposits have been found
in Adams and Highland counties, Ohio, and these give the means
of measuring the east to west diameter of the Silurian island which
existed when this rock was formed. In “ Erosion in Indiana,” J. T.
Scovell maintained that at least seven hundred feet of erosion had
taken place over the whole state of Indiana. He alluded to the
ancient river channels corresponding in general to the present
courses but wider and deeper, and stated that, of the drift material in
the state, on the average five feet came from the state and fifty was
of extra-state origin. A “Geological Section of Johnson County,
Indiana,” by D. A. Owen, was an account of the strata p
through in boring various wells. D. W. Dennis stated that the
“ Transition of Orthis occidentalis unto Orthis sinuatu” was accom-
plished in 300 feet at Richmond, Indiana, illustrating his point by
numerous specimens. “Notes on Some Fossil Bones found in
Indiana,” by O. P. Hay, was the announcement of the identification
of the genus Tapirus in some bones found in a sink-hole m
Monroe county.
In zoology the papers were more numerous, but many of them
consisted of the records of additions to the fauna of the state. Such
was B. W. Evermann’s “ Fishes of Carroll County,” in which five
species new to the state were enumerated, the most noticeable being
Notropis arga Cope, “ Notes on Some Southern Indiana Fishes,’ ” by
O. P. Jenkins, and “Some rare Indiana Birds,” by Amos W.
Butler, were of a character expressed by their titles. B. W.
Evermann noticed “ the Occurrence of the Star-nosed Molein Indiana;
A. W. Butler, in his “ Notes on Indiana Reptiles and Amphibians,
added Plethodon cinereus, Hyla squirilla, and two new species 0
Entenia to be described by Professor Cope to the fauna of the
state. The “Additions to the List of Indiana Reptiles,” by O. P. Hay,
were Cinosternum pennsylvanicum Tropidonotus rigidus, and Cnemid-
ophorus sexlineatus all on the authority of Robert Ridgway. ,
In 1869 Dr. Günther enumerated 193 species of fish occurring 0”
one side or the other of the Isthmus of Panama, of which about one-
third were regarded as common to both the Alantic and Pacific
sides. D. S. Jordan, in his paper, “The Isthmus of Panama as _4
Barrier to Marine Fauna,” stated that now there were known 1370
species from the same region of which but five per cent. were com-
mon to the Caribbean and the Pacific shores. With these data the
recent connection of the two seas is not so probable as Dr. Günther $
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 95
fish figures would makeit. Ina paper on “ Blind Fishes and National
Selection,” D. S. Jordan replied to the statement in some religious
paper that “evolution would find it exceedingly difficult to account
for these forms.” In “The Origin of Genera,” the same gentleman
gave an outline of the view of Professor Cope on this subject and
mentioned some of the difficulties which were presented by fishes,
at the same time indicating the great aid which systematic zoology
had received from the same theory.
“The Origin of Arthropods,” by J. S. Kingsley, was a résumé
of recent views on the origin and lines of descent of the various
groups of arthropods. © O. P. Hay, in his “Observations on
Amphiama,” gave some interesting facts regarding this batrachian.
In Arkansas he found an Amphiama incubating her eggs under-
neath a log. She was coiled around her eggs and was very sluggish
at first. Later she was quite cross and irritable, uttering a shrill
sound like a whistle. The eggs, of which there are about a hun-
dred and fifty, form long stings, the gelatinous envelope shrinking
between the eggs so that the whole sting resembles a sting of
beads. The young which were in an advanced stage of develop-
ment were about one and three fourths inches in length with well-
developed gills, each bronchia consisting of a main stalk with three
feathered branches. The eggs themselves were about the size of a pea.
. W. Hargitt had two papers: “Curiosities of egg formation,”
and “ Notes on Scaphiopus holbrookii.” The first detailed some cases of
teratology in the eggs of hens and turkeys; the second an appearance
of the spade-foot toad at Marthas Vineyard during a heavy rain
during the past summer. A. W. Butler made some “Suggestions
concerning a law for the Protection of Birds,” stating that the
present law would not stand, and that it is impossible tọ secure
convictions under it. A committee was appointed to urge the
passage of a suitable law embodying the provisions of the New
York and Massachusetts statutes upon the next legislature.
Maurice Thompson’s “Secondary functions of the Hyoid corma in
icus and Colaptes” showed a lack of morphological and
physiological knowledge.
‘The address of the president, John M. Coulter, was delivered
Wednesday evening, and with “Evolution in the Vegetable King-
dom,” tracing the origin of the sexual element in plants, and the
radual increase of the asexual over the sexual generations.
Besides this there were six papers read on botanical subjects. Miss
Lillie J. Martin spoke of the “ Value of Organized Work in Plant
Chemistry ;” J. N. Rose mentioned the “Characters in Umbelliferee,”
which he found of most value in the classification of this group
of plants while working them up in connection with Professor
Coulter for the Synoptical Flora. The most valuable characters
were found in the fruit. Stanley Coulter spoke of the “ Histology
of the leaf of Taxodium distidium.” He found the cell walls
difficult to study on account of their thinness and the large cell
96 ‘General Notes.
spaces. He described the strengthening cell system and the resin-
ducts. The fibro vascular bundle in the centre of the leaf showed
traces of its formation by the coalescence from two primitive bundles;
whether these remained distinct at the tip the author could not say.
There are eight stomata in each leaf, six above and two below.
John M. Coulter described the peculiar structure of the “Stornata
of Tillandia usneoides.” The scales which give the Spanish moss its
pubiscent appearance are to be regarded as leaves since each bears
a stoma. Surrounding each stoma is a trichoner structure, in the
centre of which are four sensitive cells. Below these comes the
true stoma with its two sensitive guard cells. Experiments with
the plants showed that this peculiar structure was to be explained
by the epiphytic habits of Tillandia and the trichonu structure
must be regarded asa reservoir of moisture. Walter H. Evans, in
-an account of the “Lichens of Indiana,” gave an account of the
habits and structure of Lichens and the methods of collecting these
plants. He stated that he had already recognized seventy-six
species of Lichens in the state, distributed among twenty-eight genera.
J.C. Arthur detailed his investigations on the “ Life History of
the Plum-leaf Fungus.” He found that the summer spores cannot
withstand the winter but that soon after the leaves fall to the
ground there is a new formation of minute winter spores, the sub-
sequent history of which he had not found out but which he was
inclined to regard as male sex spores. No other spores were form
in winter but in spring the fungus took on a new development —
with the formation of ascospores which ripened in June. From
these the leaves were infected and a new growth of the fungus
took place. a
The last paper was “Man an Evolution—Biological proofs,” by
T. B. Ridding. The author accepted the principle of evolution —
but claimed that there must be successive additions of Divine —
power in order to account for the existing fauna and flora and for
the appearance of man. d
Committees were appointed looking towards the purchase, of |
scientific works by the State Library and to invite the American
Association for the Advancement of Science to hold a meeting %
Indianapolis in 1889. It was voted to hold the spring meeting of 1
the Academy May 9, 1888, at Wyandotte Cave. The followmg
of Greencastle. It was voted that the past presidents of the
Academy be added to the executive committee. -
VE ew aS ee ee T
Duet Se le
gy Eo
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. FEBRUARY, 1888. No. 264.
ON METEORITES.’
BY DR. HANS REUSCH.
Wt know that in the organic world, besides the larger animals
and plants, there exist immense numbers of living beings of
diminutive size, from those barely visible to the unaided eye down
to those which can only be discerned in powerful microscopes, and
of which many thousands live in a space no larger than a drop of
water. Similar is the case with the heavenly orbs revolving in the
infinite space. Besides the big luminaries, numerous swarms of
very small bodies are hurrying through the space in their different
varying orbits. To the smallest of these—the so-called meteorites
'—I here wish to call your attention. There is a circumstance
which imparts them with a special interest to us; for they some-
times fall to the earth, so that we are able to lay hold of them,
touch them with our hands, study them chemically and microscopi-
cally—in short, examine them by all the means available to us for
a scientific investigation of their nature. The meteorites thus form
a kind of connecting link between astronomy "and mineralogy—
sciences otherwise rather distant, but which in this instance are
brought to mutually throw light upon each other.
It is probable that, on an average, several meteorites reach the
earth every day, but many falls occur at night, while others drop
into the sea, are lost in deserts or in places inhabited by ignorant
people. ta going over the falls of meteorites which have come to
our knowledge, it appears that no more than four or five cases a
1 A lecture delivered at the University of Christiania, Norway.
98 On Meteorites.
year, on an average, are recorded; and in but comparatively few
instances the fallen stones are hunted up by people in order that
they may become of use to science. ‘The meteorites, therefore,
owing to their variety, rank among the most precious treasures of
the mineralogical museums. To illustrate the value generally
attached to them, it may be mentioned that after it had become
known that the meteorite found last year at Tysnæs, Western Nor-
way, had been acquired by the Christiania Museum, a mineralogist
was dispatched by the Riks-museum, in Stockholm, Sweden, the
long way across the Scandinavian Peninsula, in the hope that he
might be able to pick up some fragments.
A chief ‘object of this paper is, therefore, to call the attention of
the public to the meteorites, in order to prevent possible falls from
being passed unheeded. The attention once aroused, it may also be
possible to ferret out meteorites, the fall of which, in former times,
has been kept a secret, owing to the superstition that, reduced to
a powder, they might serve as a medicine for man and beast. In
Norway, for instance, they were known as “thorelo”—i.e., “lo,”
or wadding of Thor, or thunder—the belief being that they fell
during thunderstorms. Not all the stones which have been pre
served as “thorelo,” however, are meteorites by any means, many —
- of them being only common pebbles, pieces of pyrites, or some other _
kind of mineral. ’ -
After these preliminary remarks, I shall proceed to the special —
subject of this paper—the meteorites and their nature—to be treated ‘
of in three separate sections, viz. :— a
(1) The phenomena accompanying the fall of meteorites ; (2) a
Their mineralogical nature, and (3) Their position as celestial —
bodies. 7
The circumstances under which the fall of meteorites occur being
rather similar in most instances, we may take, for an example, a
fall of the Tysnæs meteorite. It occurred on the 20th of May, f
1886, near the farm called Midt Vaage, situated on the Island of ft
Tysnæs, south of Bergen, Norway. Between eight and nipe
o’clock in the evening the inhabitants in a wide circle of surround- : |
ing country were frightened by a loud report, which most of them —
took for a clap of thunder, the stone falling down immediately after 7
the report. I have myself examined two grown-up persons who
witnessed the meteorite coming down from the air. One was?
woman working in a potato-field. She heard a loud noise, and,
On Meteorites. 99
looking up into the sky, observed a black mass of clouds, from
which she thought she heard a cracking sound, repeated five or six
times, upon which the stone fell with a whizzing and rumbling
noise a little distance off. Dust arose from the spot where it struck
the ground. The woman walked up to where it fell and saw a hole
in the ground, but found nothing else, as the meteorite had bounded
off several yards from where it first struck. The other eye-witness
—a man who was a little further off—was just going home after
having finished his day’s work. He heard the report, and shortly
after saw the stone coming down, “like a shot bird.” No fiery
display was noticed at the place; but people who witnessed the
phenomenon from a distance of several miles (a Norwegian mile
about equals seven English miles)—as, for instance, in Bergen and
in Vossevangen—observed a fire-ball darting with great speed
across the sky and then exploding in the direction of Tysnes.
Comparing the accounts of the direction of the fire-ball by the
different observers, it appears that the meteor must have moved
nearly vertically towards the earth’s surface. That the fire-ball
escaped the notice of those on the spot may be accounted for by its
being right above their heads, as one seldom notices what occurs
right over one’s head. Their attention was first attracted by the
report ; but as this, of course, was heard a considerable time after
the explosion of the fire-ball, the fiery display had ceased long
before the thundering noise could reach them, after which some
time again elapsed before the stone fell. The man pointed out to
me the corner of the field where he was standing at the time he
heard the report; when the stone fell he had nearly reached his
house. In ascertaining the distance, he found that it took him about
one minute and ten seconds to walk from one place to the other.
Judging from the space of time which elapsed between the report
and the fall, the explosion must have taken place at a very great
height above the surface of the earth. With due regard to the
traveling speed of the sound and the probable celerity of the fall,
the height may be estimated at twenty to thirty thousand metres; but
any certainty. cannot be arrived at.
The next morning a girl living close by found a big, black
stone lying in the grass. She put it aside, but did not mind it any
further ; and people’s attention was not called to it before it was
_ rumored that a stone had been seen falling from heaven. The fol-
lowing Sunday the curious stone formed the ‘main topic of
a en a ee. ela yee wie es eS ee, ee a Oe ee at. F ii
= ‘i F ta
100 On Meteorites.
conversation among the people assembled at church. An emigrant
Norwegian, on a visit home from America and about to return to
this country, made a bargain with the poor woman on whose land
the stone was found: he was to take it away for a mere song; and
the Tysnæs meteorite came thus very near going to America. On
coming home, however, the woman became uneasy at the idea of
selling such a God-send—direct from heaven—and she returned the
money. Shortly after, the district physician, Mr. Gjestland, heard
of the stone, and, realizing its great scientific value, he at once took
it into his charge. It is owing to this gentleman’s most obliging
intervention that the stone—against a handsome remuneration, of
course—was secured for the University of Christiania. This
meteorite weighs about forty pounds. Several smaller fragments
were also found.
The phenomena mentioned above—viz. : a fire-ball rushing along
and exploding with a thunder-like report, ‘followed by the coming
down of the fragments—are those regularly observed accompanying
the fall of meteorites. In some cases the velocity of the fire-ball has
been ascertained to be sixty to seventy kilometres a second. This
tremendous velocity accounts for the fire phenomenon, as the atmos-
phere, not being able to escape before the missile, becomes conden- —
sed to an enormous degree—a great quantity of heat thus being
developed, according to the known physical laws. The meteorites,
at one time having the temperature of space through which they —
were rushing—a temperature far below the freezing point—will thus
become enormously heated on the outside when entering the earth’s
atmosphere. The pressure of the strongly-condensed atmosphere
finally exceeding a certain limit, acts as a blasting-agency, according —
to a commonly-accepted opinion, and the fire-ball explodes. The
fragments are still glowing for a while after the explosion, but, %
a rule, they have probably become cooled off when reaching
ground. Nor is the final speed very considerable, the origi
velocity of the fire-ball having been diminished by the resistance
the air. 7
When falling at full speed, the surface of the meteorites may be f
supposed to be continually melting—nay, perhaps, evaporatmg —
By the friction of the air, however, the molten substance is remov® —
almost as fast as it is formed. In this way the “ fire-tail ”—whio® _
the observers in many cases affirm having seen—may be explain a |
In the same manner the “smoke” is formed which, on several 0c f
4S hay Oe
On Meteorites. 101
sions, has been observed floating in the wake of the fire-ball, after
the latter has disappeared. Several people assert that such a smoke
was also seen accompanying the Tysnes meteorite. The fallen
Fig. 1. The Tysnes Meteorite.
stones show various signs of intense heating in the atmosphere, to
which we want to direct the attention. In some cases, when stones
have been taken up shortly after striking the ground, they have
still been warm. In one instance it has been related that the fallen
stone was at first so hot as to burn the fingers, and afterwards turned
so cold that it could not be held in the hand for that reason. This
may be regarded as very probable, when we consider that the heat-
ing in the atmosphere only lasts a few seconds, and that its action,
Consequently, must be quite superficial. Space, on the other hand,
as an exceedingly low temperature, and the freezing coldness of
the interior of the stone will therefore soon lower the temperature
of the surface.
The interior of the meteoric stones, as a rule, is gray or whitish ;
the exterior, on the contrary, is covered with a blackish crust, which,
on examination, proves to be the stony substance, having undergone
a melting process. It is difficult to tell what shape the meteorites —
have before entering our atmosphere, as we only gather bits and
fragments after the explosion. These show the effect of the com-
Pressed and intensely-heated air. The edges of the fragments,
originally sharp, have become rounded, and on the surface there
appear deepened marks, many of which look as if the stone had
102 On Meteorites.
once been soft as a dough in which the kneading-fingers had left
their impressions. The air has had a consuming effect on the stone
—much in the same way as a powerful jet of sand acts on a solid
body. Mr. Daubrée has experimentally imitated this remarkable
effect of the air. Not being able to move a solid against an. aéri-
form body with sufficient speed—as is the case with the meteorites
—he chose to proceed in the opposite way, making air strike solid
bodies with great vehemence by exploding dynamite cartridges
against an iron rail. The result of the experiment showed that the
gases, suddenly developed by the dynamite exploding, produced
hollows even in a body of such resisting-power as an iron rail, and
the form of the impressions—in this as well as in his other
experiments—corresponds exactly to those found in the meteorites.
Having now considered the phenomena accompanying the fall of
meteorites, we shall now direct our attention to their mineralogical
nature.
The meteorites may be classed in two primary groups: stone-
meteorites—to which belongs the Tysnes meteorite—and iron-
meteorites, which consist chiefly of this metal. The two principal
minerals composing the stone-meteorites are eustatite and olivine (or
chrysolite)—both of which are also found on our globe, though rather
rare—besides which these meteorites also contain grains of native
iron, as an occasional sprinkling, through the mass. Examined by
the microscope, they exhibit a structure which proves that origin-
ally and before entering the atmosphere they were formed out 0
melted masses by congelation. Fouqué and Michel Lévy have
produced, artificially, the structures mentioned by melting together
suitable substances. It thus appears that these small heavenly
bodies, in precisely the same manner as the crust of our own globe,
consist of originally molten masses, having afterwards become sol-
idified. Inthis connection, it may not be out of place to remind one > —
of the fact that the interior of the earth consists of substances heavier
than those most commonly found on the surface. The meteorite 18
also heavier than common stone; and it has been conjectured (with
several reasons to support this hypothesis) that the interior of the
earth consists of a substance similar to that composing thè —
meteorites.
On further examining the meteorites, it is found that after having
passed through the original congealing process they have undergon®
several changes on their way through space. In many cases it 1$
|
On Meteorites. 103
evident that their substance has been broken into small pieces, which
again have become cemented together—a structure seen with un-
common distinctness in the Tysnæs meteorite, as represented in the
accompanying cut (Fig. 2). Not all
the fragments are so large as to be
seen by the unaided eye; for in ex-
amining the stone by the microscope
some very small ones are also found,
mostly of a round or globular form.
This breaking up and putting
together again seems in the case of
the Tysnæs meteorite to have oc-
curred at least twice.
The large fragments seen in Fig.
2 are composed of smaller ones, it
being a case similar to a conglomerate
in which the individual roll-stones
. a FıG. 2. Braccious structure of the
consist of conglomerate. Fig Tysnæs meteorite, Drawn by the
author.
shows a portion of the Tysnæs
meteorite viewed in the microscope; while Fig. 4 represents
an isolated globule of olivine, greatly magnified. It contains
a brownish and glassy substance, in form reminding one of the cells
of plants. Similar formations, not rare in meteorites, have furnished
a fanciful scientist an excuse for obstinately asserting that they
actually are the remains of plants. It is to be regretted that such
18 not the case ; for it would undoubtedly have been interesting if
in this way we had been able to lay hand on specimens of organic
life from other globes. :
: The second group of meteorites consist of native iron—as men
tioned above—with an occasional sprinkling of grains of stony
minerals, Native iron occurs but rarely on this globe, as iron
readily enters into combination with oxygen—in other words, it
oxidizes, or rusts. In fact, it isso rare in nature, except in the
meteorites, that any lump of iron produced by man was formerly
believed to have fallen down from heaven. This was also Norden-
skiéld’s impression when, some years ago, he found quite a quantity
of native iron in Greenland. The find was at that time much talked -
of; but Steenstrup afterwards pointed out that the supposed meteor-
ites were only big lumps of iron which had weathered out of the
rock on which they were found. This rock abounded to a remark-
able degree in iron.
104 On Meteorites.
The iron of the meteorites, as a rule, contains more or less nickel
irregularly distributed through the mass. If the polished surface
of the meteoric iron be exposed to the action of some acid, there will
appear peculiar linear designs, called the “ Wiedmannstitten figures”
(after the discoverer), the
acid attacking the iron
J WAY containing nickel to a less
degree than the pure
MANNII, |
Q
z NN € metal.
AN \
AS È
E
=
AY
\
We will now direct our
attention to our third sub-
ject, and consider the
meteorites as celestial bod-
jes.
Before entering into this,
it will be necessary, how-
ever, to say a few words
in regard to shooting-stars
and comets, these being
the celestial phenomena
with which the meteor-
ites are most nearly com-
parable.
To a common observer;
who does not make a spe-
nifed 6 times. Globules composed of enstarite cial study of the heavenly
Festa meee pe o, grain of olivine vault, it looks as if the
shooting-stars move quite
irregularly—now in this direction, now in another. If, howeve?,
their courses be carefully traced on an astronomical chart, it will be
found that in most cases they radiate from certain points in the sky
—-a great many of which have already been ascertained. That the
shooting-stars come from a certain point means that they are moving
from that section of space towards the earth, the radiation being
only the effect of the perspective as they move from the distance ™
the direction of the observer. The best-known swarm of shooting-
‘stars is undoubtedly the one which appears to radiate from the
constellation of the Lion, and is passed by the earth on the 13th of
November. As on this day extremely numerous falls of stars have
been observed, with a regular interval of thirty-three years, 1t !$
On Meteorites. 105
evident that they belong to a swarm which, after a revolution of
thirty-three years around the sun, returns to the orbit of our globe.
The comets are apparently something entirely different from the
shooting-stars ; for while the latter are quite small and only appear
within the terrestrial atmosphere, the comets are bodies of immensely
greater size,comparatively speak- oh oN
ing, and moving at a very great Ncs ce we SEE NG ANA ve
‘distance from our little planet. 7 SE A 3 D w Ler
Investigation shows, however, Wee fe WEA =
that the orbits of both comets Y % | ae Maana d
and shooting-stars have the same HENG f = ach r
form, they being elongated conic } aan ben — A
sections: hence their approaching ` SA
from distant dark regions of
space—now close to the sun, now
again retiring to an immense
distance from it. In regard to 3
‘one comet, it has, furthermore,
been ascertained that it moves in
the same orbit as the swarm of
shooting-stars mentioned above. fant. ‘Magnified 13 pip ghee i the
The exact nature of the comets 7*9"
has not yet been made out with any certainty, the best-sup-
ported hypothesis being that they consist of immense quan-
tities of small solid bodies. The comets nearest to the sun, when
tn their greatest proximity to that body, are exposed to an enor-
mous heat, soon followed, as they retire, by a cooling off equally
enormous. The strong influence of the sun’s vicinity on the comets
shows itself, among thes things, in the well-known long tail, which
they project on the further side from the sun, and Bur nature and
origin of which is still rather mysterious. Neither is the true
nature of the shooting-stars fully ascertained. Many of them,
however, appear to be small solid bodies rushing through the air ;
and there are a great many intermediate forms between the common
shooting-stars and the big fire-balls which explode with a thunder-
like report and emit meteoric stones. !
a
*
‘
iy a i
di. E
Fi,
1 Mr. Sophus Tromholt, the author of the beautiful work, Under the
Rays of Aurora Borealis, has sent me the following interesting
or of a shooting-star :—
One starlight but moonless Saturday night during November or
106 On Meteorites.
In the meteorites we have, as seen, at last something palpable
which we are able to study. It will therefore be of great interest
to have their connection with the shooting-stars and comets more
definitely established. The study of the orbits of the meteorites,
however, is rendered much more difficult than that of the shooting-
stars by their comparatively much rarer and more unexpected
= occurrence, by the terrifying phenomena often accompanying them,
and by the fact that they are seldom observed by others than
ignorant people. The mode of studying the orbits of the meteor-
ites must, therefore, be different from that suited to the case of the
shooting-stars.
Having made a special study of the dates of the recorded falls of
meteorites, I have come to the conclusion that they, or at least some
of them, may be referred to certain systems like the shooting-stars,
and that in some cases periods—suggesting a connection with a
certain group of comets—may be set down with some probability.
The orbit of the earth around the sun may be considered as
divided into three hundred aad sixty-five parts, one of which is
traversed on each day of the year. That the fall of a meteorite
occurs on a certain date means, then, that the part of the earth’s
December, 1883, between eight and nine o’clock, as Mr. Lionzes, a book-
seller in Fredrikstad, Norway, was standing in his yard looking inci-
dentally up into the sky, he observed a shooting-star in the north, at æ
height of about 60°, moving in a curve and gradually increasing a little
in size. The exact length of time he is unable to state: he had turned
his eyes away, when suddenly a small, shining body fell down before
his feet, not two yards off, passing him so closely that in his fright be
sprang aside. When the meteor struck the ground sparks flew in all
directions, and a faint report was heard. This noise was also heard by
his daughter, who at the time was in the passage leading to the yard.
Shortly after— about a minute’—both father and daughter observed &
similar meteor in the same direction, which seemed to descend behind
a neighboring house.
“The gentleman mentioned is uncertain as to the exact date of the
observation ; but the choice seems to lie between the Saturdays, Novem-
ber 3d, November 23d, and December Ist; but as, according to the
meteorological observations recorded at the Fredrikstad Station, the
sky was overcast on the two former Saturdays, the fall must have taken
place on December Ist, when the weather was rather clear. He has
stated to me that the size of the shining body was comparable to that of
a walnut, and the little fragments into which it was broken when strik-
ing the ground he compared to small beads. Unfortunately, he omit
to collect them, and later search was unavailing, as the yard had beer
swept several times afterwards.”’
On Meteorites. 107
orbit designated by this date is intersected by the orbit of the
meteorite. It now often happens that the earth is struck by meteorites
on the same date during two or several consecutive years. This can
only be explained by the earth on that date passing through a swarm of
meteorites, or, rather, through a long stream taking several years
in passing—if we consider that, on an average, no more than four
falls of meteorites are recorded yearly. Thus, the earth was hit
four times by meteorites on the 13th of December, between the
years 1795 and 1813.! Since then the earth has not collided with
any meteorites on that date.
Still more remarkable than dates which, like the above, show
the meteorites to go in flocks, are others from which, with a con-
siderable degree of probability, we may infer a certain period. Thus,
the 13th of October is a date worth mentioning, as on that day falls
of meteorites occurred in 1787, 1819, 1838, 1852 and 1872. On
examining the differences between these years, they will be found
to be very nearly multiples of 6}—viz.: 5x6}, 3x6} and 2x6}.
These falls, consequently, seem to belong to the same flock, with a
period of between six and seven years. The flock must be rather
lengthened and takes a considerable time to pass, since the earth
passes it so often, as is recorded in this case. If the stream be short,
there is, of course, very little change of the earth being just in the
point in which the orbits of the earth and the meteorites cross eac
other every time the stream is passing. This would only be the
case if the period were exactly one or more whole years. As this,
of course, occurs but very seldom, it is not to be expected that the
differences between the years be exactly multiples of the periods.
It may be well to quote other similar periods of meteorites. In
February, two series of falls are particularly notable, viz. :—
February 19, 1785, at Witmess, February 19, 1796, at Tasquinha.
n 18, 1815, at Duralla. ef 18, 1824, at Irkutsk.
= 16, 1876, at Indesgherry. a 16, 1883, at Alfianella.
The possibility here suggests itself that the earth on February
19, 1785, met a flock of meteorites which, with a period of about
thirty years, reappeared in 1815. No fall is on record from the
next meeting. From the one then to follow, however—that is,
from the one to take place sixty-one years from 1815—viz., in 1876,
a fall is recorded. It will be observed that the dates are receding,
‘To these falls may be added a fifth, which occurred on the Western
Hemisphere, December 14, 1807.
108 On Meteorites.
as the first fell on the 19th; the second, on the 18th. The third
fall, if it took place, probably occurred on the 17th; while the
fourth happened on the 16th. This regular receding of the dates
may be explained without difficulty as due to the precession retro-
grading comparatively fast. The case of the three falls of the
second column may be the same, though their period must be
shorter, the difference between 1796 and 1824 being 28, and that
between 1824 and 1883 being 59.
We give below a list of other systems, in regard to which we
remark that the figures in parentheses indicate the differences
between the contiguous years :—
: f aay 9—Drake Creek 1827
shel hey cache 8—Monte Milone........ is46— (19)
six and seven eS en fens 19797 (26)
saad “ 10—Estherville 18797 (7)
Pnad 1J—Oesel
: oe } er
Period — Between ee, eh onia —( 6)
six and seven { « ecCaineties 1861 (13)
henaa t. 12—Kursk A a
| “ 14—Nash County
This latter system is perhaps a double one, as in the same year
two falls occur at an interval of a day.
( March 15—St. Étienne de Lolm and Valence per
Period—Be- | 44 Cuatro 18137
tween six t 15—Lugano 1 ae (13)
and seven “ 46—R Lat apa 1863 (37)
7 — 8
years. |‘ 14—Middlesborough..... 18817 ®
Period—About Pano oe 1818 — (23)
= 11- Bentham -1859_-¢ 6
years. a cain ( 6)
‘¢ ~83—Plan 1 753 __ (50)
‘* 4—East Norton 1803 __ (56)
“ 4—Crawford 1859
years.
ireas °° 28- Tennasil 1864_¢ 8)
nnaai lm 1872_( 8)
Period—
Eight years.
Period—About [zs Puy S ies 1725_ (28)
seven
|
L
On Meteorites. 109
J a near 5—Agen 1814 _
ee 5—Febrbellin ........ 1854 __ Se
ight years, “ 5—Dandapur 1878 Sia
: September 10—Limerick .....sssesessses. seseee 1813
Period— “ 10—Carlstadt 1822 C D
Nine years. u 9—Wessely 1831 9
In November there are several falls, suggesting periods of ten
years, viz. :—
PFERD 5—Bourbon, Vendée 1841__ (10)
— Nnlles 1851
November 11—Lowell — (10)
A 12—Trenzano 1856
November 29—Cocenza 1290
it 30 5 eG E OA 4 en (30)
Noveenbor 80—Futtehpore 1822 __ (20)
30—Myhee Caiunta 1849
ollowing series the five last observations correspond to a
period of about twelve years :—
May 19—Novgorod 1 421_ (131)
‘* 19—Schleussingen 1552_ (146)
“ 18—Walringen 1698 108)
6 17—Hampshire 3 24)
‘ 17—Perth 1830_ ( 25)
n: Wodgat css ncicinegs caterers vines osaesscieis vii ieaie a 1855
The oldest date is uncertain, 131 being one less than 11x12.
Suppose the period being only one-half as long as indicated above,
still another date might be added—viz.: May 18, 1860, on which
day a fall occurred at London.
In the following system, which has a period of about twenty-
three years, the dates are receding :—
y (23
i 4—Cirencester 1835_, H
“9 Pawlowka 1882
As a result, then, several flocks of meteorites can be pointed out,
which have a certain period, the latter being, in most cases, between
six and eight years. It is noteworthy, in this connection, that the
110 On Meteorites.
period of most of the comets, the return of which have been ob-
served, is five or six years. The study of the dates of the different
falls, therefore, not only suggests that at least a part of the meteor-
ites move in orbits round the sun, but also intimates a certain rela-
tion of some of them with a definite group of celestial bodies—viz. :
the comets of short periods. We have thus established a new link
connecting the meteorites with the comets in addition to those
already known—viz.: the strong resemblance of the fire-balls to
the shooting-stars, as well as the great velocity of several of the
former, making it probable that they move in orbits of the same
lengthened form as the comets. If called upon to define the nature
of a meteorite, briefly and somewhat boldly, I should say, with Mr.
Newton, the American: A meteorite is a bit of a comet.
Let me add a few remarks in regard to the question whether there
is anything in the structure of the meteorites which goes to confirm
the views here set forth. The orbits of the meteorites being similar
to those of the comets, the consequence would be, as mentioned
above, that during a comparatively short time, once in each period,
when near the sun, they would be exposed to an enormous heat,
succeeded by quite as enormous a cooling off in the cold parts of
space. The fragmentary (chondrite) structure, so general in the
stony meteorites, is perhaps to be explained in this way. On the
earth the annual and daily heating and cooling produces, as we all
well know, the weathering or general crumbling of the earth’s crust,
the formation of stones, gravel, sand and dust. There is a difference
in regard to the meteorites, in so far as they are not covered with
water or surrounded by an atmosphere, by which agencies the
weathering of our earth is brought about; but, on the other. hand,
the difference between the heat and the cold, owing to this very
want, and especially to the form of the orbit, must be enormously
greater on the meteorites ; for while the differences of temperature
on the earth rarely rise to 50° C., the changes which take place on
the meteorites must be estimated at 1,000° C., or more. It may
not, then, be unreasonably supposed that the fragmentary struc-
ture so common in the stony meteorites is due to the changes of
temperature they have undergone. How the fragments may have
become rounded off by being ground against each other or m
some other way, may easily be conceived, as there are plenty of
instances in regard to comets, in which movements in their mass
have been observed. Theoretically, the study of the Tysnæs mete-
On Meteorites. 111
-orite is interesting, not only for the fact that it clearly shows the
chondrite structure to be of a fragmentary nature, but especially
because it affords proof of the process having been repeated—a cir-
cumstance not at all surprising in a celestial body which, in its
wanderings through space, has repeatedly approached close to the
sun.
In addition to the above, it should also be remembered that the
gases—carbonie acid, carbonic oxide and hydrogen—which have
been successfully extracted from meteorites, are said to give the same
spectroscopical lines as the comets when approaching the sun.
The above explanation of the different peculiarities in the struc-
ture of the meteorites is advanced here, of course, chiefly to instigate
further investigation. As here propounded, it does away with all
moments which may not be reasonably admitted in regard to the
orbits of these celestial bodies, thus, for instance, making unnéces-
sary any recourse to volcanic or other processes supposed to have
taken place on distant globes once large, but long since exploded.
In support of this latter theory—viz.: that the meteorites have
originally belonged to globes of considerable dimensions—it has
been argued that the formation of so large crystals as are found in
some iron meteorites can only have taken place on a celestial body
of respectable size. The correctness of this inference may well be
doubted. It is true that on our earth—which, in this connection,
may be regarded a big globe—some minerals form large crystals
during a slow growth ; but it cannot be inferred from this fact that
large crystals cannot appear on a very small one. The mere circum-
stance that in the latter the force of gravity is practically nil makes
matters there stand quite differently from what they are on a great
celestial body. It may be supposed that as the force of gravity
plays only an insignificant part, those other forces which produce
the arrangement of the molecules in the crystals are allowed to have
their play much more freely than under other circumstances. The
smallness of the meteoric masses may perhaps also account for their —
easy crumbling and the dislocation of the fragments. The minerals
of the meteorites, which on our globe appear to belong to the com-
paratively heavy substances, may in a certain sense be said to weigh
nothing as long as they form part of a celestial body perhaps not
a yard in diameter.
Among other things, it may also be supposed that the electric —
forces called into activity by the violent changes of temperature
112 On Meteorites.
play a much greater rôle than we might be apt to imagine, judging
from the processes which take place on our earth.
Finally, I may mention that in some meteorites there is found
evidence of their having been exposed to an enormous heat after
their original formation. Several meteorites—particularly one
from Steelldal, Sweden, which I have examined myself—show traces
of an inner melting which must have taken place somewhere in
space before entering our atmosphere, and which has nothing to do
with the ignition of their surface in the latter and the molten crust
— >
———
i
bal
f
Fig. 5. The Stælldal meteorite viewed in microscope. $ Drawn
by the author.
thus produced. The appended cut (Fig. 5) shows a portion of the
Stælldal meteorite sixty-five times magnified. The black parts are
iron; the light ones are pieces of unmolten substance swimming in
a brownish glass, the chemical composition of which is like that of
the unmolten substance. It will thus be seen that in the structure
of some meteorites we have.a direct proof of their orbits being of
the same striking form as those of the comets, which alternately
approach close to the sun and then again recede far from it.
at eee eae sp ey ee Eee ee P aa
oy) ss
Germ of the Southern Caitle Plague. 113
THE GERM OF THE SOUTHERN CATTLE PLAGUE.
BY FRANK P. BILLINGS.)
17 order to prove that it is the manure of infected cattle which
lodges the germs of Southern Cattle Plague, we must first find
the germs.
Has anybody found them? To which I answer that there has,
and that the honor belongs entirely to Nebraska, as well as does
that of completely connecting the germ of swine plague with that
disease, and discovering the true nature of that pest. Detmers saw
the germ of swine plague first, but it was left to us to prove its
unquestioned connection with that disease. Our discovery of the
germ was as original as if it had never been discovered, but in no
way detracts from Dr. Detmers credit as the first discoverer.
Detmers found a germ in the Southern Cattle Plague, but it was
a large baccillus, and had no direct connection with the disease.
Salmon found another coccus in this disease, also, but it was a
double coccus, and had no relation to it. These observations will
be considered in detail in our full report. How may we know that
we have discovered the germ in any specific disease? In order to
_ Make such an assertion the following conditions must be fulfilled
in every detail :—
First.—In the tissues of animals ill with a specific disease must,
in each case examined, be found the same germ.
Second.—This germ must be cultivated, free from every other
germ, in some of the artificial media. i
Third.—It must be shown that the germ in question has patho-
genetic (disease-producing) qualities, by inoculating animals and
killing them thereby.
These three conditions have been fulfilled. The germ of South-
ern Cattle Plague has been found in the blood, the gall, the urine,
the liver, spleen and.kidneys of every diseased animal on which we
have made an autopsy. These germs haye been also cul-
1! Director of the Patho-Biological Laboratory of the State University
of Nebraska.
114 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague.
tivated in an absolutely pure form upon and in artificial media.
Gophers, or ground squirrels, have been inoculated with such culti-
vations and died from the effects, and the same germ found in their
blood and tissues, and in sections made from their organs, Culti-
vations from the same have been also made, invariably showing the
same germ as that got from the cattle.
These results, however, do not show that this was the germ of
Southern Cattle Plague. They only show that a germ was found
in the tissues of Texas fever diseased animals that had fatal disease-
producing properties.
ow, then, can we tell that it is the specific germ of the South-
ern Cattle Plague?
To be able to affirm this fact positively cattle must be inoculated,
as the ground squirrels were, with unquestionably pure cultivations,
and the Southern Cattle Plague produced in those cattle, and the
same germ found in their tissues and cultivated from them. We
have done this, and can demonstrate the entire series-of facts by cul-
tures and microscopic specimens of the tissues.!
1Above I have stated the conditions which must be fulfilled in
order to completely substantiate the discovery of a specific germ.
I wish, however, to call attention to the discovery of another patho-
genetic organism in which th diti tatp t be fulfilled
and may never be so conclusively as we are enabled to do with germs
of animal diseases. I allude to the germ of Yellow Fever, for which
I claim not only the first discovery by an American, but for the only
exact description of it. Babes saw it and partially described it, “ Les
Bacteries-Babes-Cornil,”’ 1885, as follows :—
‘ The capillaries of. the liver and kidneys contain great numbers of
jointed filaments. With a Zeiss yẹ H. I., one sees these filaments to be
made up of elliptoid-cylindrical granule united in pairs, or forming small
clusters, in which they are united by a pale intermediate substance.
The filaments are thus made up of diplococci or of very short segments,”
p. 448. In the“ Comptes Rendus,” Aug. 1887, p. 289, Lacerda attempts
to describe an organism which he says is the same as that described by
Babes, but his description is such a lamentable failure that no one would
recognize the germ from it. In pieces of liver and kidneys from a ¢as¢
of ‘‘ Undoubted Yellow Fever,” sent me by Dr. Geo. M. Sternberg, !
discovered the same organism described by Babes, and, no other being
present, and the yellow fever a specific septicemia, and this organis™
belonging to the same group, I make no hesitancy in affirming that it
is the germ of the yellow fever, even though unable to fulfill all the 2
necessary postulates of exact experimentation. On the other hand, thé
description of the germs of the Southern Cattle Plague and Swine
Plague belonging to the same group, and an accurate knowledge of a
several others belonging to this species, warrants the assertion that tbis {
Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 115
o o om 7 rs o yi @ @
es 2 3, & o oOo O
i
<=> e
TEE e > Cukpacrantsrici OF THE GERMS OF THE
SOUTHERN CATTLE PLAGUE AND THE AMERICAN SWINE
PLAGUE AND THEIR Pornts OF DIFFERENTIATION.'
These two micro-organisms are neither to. be classed with
Micrococci or Bacilli. They are not round objects like the for-
mer or rods like the latter. They belong to the intermediate
group, to which the name “ bacteria” has been given. Their longi-
tudinal dimensions are about twice that of their transverse. They
are ovoid. Their ends are rounded. If an endeavor be made to dif-
ferentiate these germs from one another by a microscopic examina-
tion we shall find it impossible. They are approximately of the
same size and shape. Fresh specimens of them both will not differ
so much in dimensions as old cultures of either will from fresh
ones, or different individuals iu the same old cultures. They are
description will answer in nearly every particular and every chief
essential. The only points where a difference may be found will be
these :—
1. The yellow-fever germ may cause gelatine to become fluid but pro-
bably not as no other of these germs does.
2. It may grow differently on potatoes and egg albumen.
In this regard attention will be called to the difference between the.
germs of the Southern Cattle Plague and Swine Plague when developed
on potatoes. Now I have still another and hitherto unknown germ of
this same group of which more will be heard later on.
On potatoes, the Swine-Plague germ grows a light gray-brown, coffee-
colored; the Cattle-Plague germ in yellow colonies becoming reddish,
this new germ pure white.
On whites of eggs, the Swine-Plague germ grows in a semi-fluid
almost pure white colony, difficult to see.
The Cattle-Plague germ develops in a delicate buff color with sharply
circumscribed walls, while the new organism grows in deep yellow
colonies with diffuse edges. However, I feel that aside from these
points, the description herein given will answer completely for the germ
of the yellow fever. Morphologically it cannot be distinguished surely
from either of them
1 With the exception of the points to which attention has been called
_ as to the germ of Yellow Fever.
116 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plaque.
about 4 the transverse diameter of a red-blood cell, in length. In
one way, however, they can be easily differentiated even by micro-
scopic examination. The swine-plague germ has a far sharper afin-
ity (its poles) for the blue and violetHinctions than that of the Southern
Cattle Plague, while the tatter pussesses a special affinity for Fuchsin,
which the former does not. Whatever the tinction used, if applied
lege artis, the ends, poles, of these micro-organisms show a great
specific affinity for the coloring material, while the middle portion of
their bodies has far less, unless the exposure is pushed to a longer
period, when this portion of the body will eventually color. The
capsule of these germs seems to be composed of the same material
as the ends, as it also colors in the same manner, thus presenting a
delicate line of colored material, connecting the two colored, coc-
coid ends, or poles.
The most practical illustration which can be given of the micro-
scopic appearance of these organisms, is to take a small white bean
and paint both of its ends and two of its sides blue or red, leaving
the middle portion unpainted. Looking down upon such a bean
would give almost an exact picture of these germs.
Like the genuine and only germ of the American Swine Plague
the micro-organism of the Southern Cattle Plague is motile in fluid
cultivating media when studied microscopically, as well as in the serum
from the blood of diseased animals. The movements of the latter
are, however, less rapid or active than those of the former organism.
In my earlier description of the micro-organism of the American
Swine Plague, I called attention to the great morphological varia-
tions which it undergoes in its full cycle of development. These
are its morpho-vegetative phenomena.
To one entirely unaccustomed to observing them, the first appear-
ance of a cultivation of these germs—more especially an old one—
would prove very puzzling. In fact, the novice would very often
conclude that his cultures had become polluted by micrococci, so
plentifully are these objects, apparently, represented. They simply
represent a vegetative, embryonic, period in the development of this
class of micro-organisms.
1For some, to me, unaccountable reason the German observers say
the germ of the German Swine-Plague isnot motile and Cornil says the
same thing. Now I positively assert the micro-organism of these two
American diseases to be motile as well as a third one which I am not yet
ready to describe.
Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 117
Hueppe has fallen into the serious error of endeavoring to clas-
sify these organisms by this vegetative morpho-condition. He
calls them “ Micrococci.” To my mind it would be equally sensi-
ble and logical to call an ovum a man, or an apple seed an apple
tree. It is far more practical for patho-biologists to stick to the
name cocci for all round objects (not spores) which have equal
diameters in their mature form and which color diffusely, and to
call these ovoid organisms bacteria, where the longitudinal diam-
eter does not more than over again exceed the transverse. As to
bacilli, spirilli, etc., there need be no dispute, so plain are their
morpho-characteristics.
The mature micro-organisms of the American Swine Plague
and Southern Cattle Plague has been described above (Fig. 1)
as resembling a white bean with the ends painted as well as its
sides, leaving the middle portion of its body unpainted, as we look
down upon it.. Now that is the picture which the eye generally
receives, but a more exact inspection of a stained covering glass
specimen will show that the above is not always the appearance
presented to the eye, even by the mature germ.
The above description depends upon the germ presenting itself to
the eye in an exact horizontal position, that is, lying straight on its
horizontal axis. If, however, it be turned a little one way or the
other on its horizontal axis, numerous specimens will be seen where
the white belt does not extend entirely across the object, as above —
described, but seems to be limited, more or less, to one side, and
more of the colored substance will be seen un the opposite side than
under general circumstances, or, perhaps better, in exact inspection
(Fig. 14). At first I mistook the appearance for the accumulation
of the uncolored substance in this way during the process of its
secretion from the colored ends, which I take to be the method by
which this non-coloring material is produced. More mature
reflection has shown me that the above explanation is partially
or wholly incorrect. It has been mentioned that that portion of
the capsule of these micro-organisms must have the same chemi-
cal composition as the pole ends, because it also colors somewhat
under the same application of the tinction. Now why does it not
show the same intensity of coloring? The only answer is: that
this capsule, being very thin, cannot take wp as much color as the more
dense pole ends; and being so thin, by the same amount of exposure,
does not show any color when the middle of the object is looked directly
118 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague.
down upon, but when the eye- strikes the sides of the object, then we
look through more material and, hence, see more color, just as when
we look at a piece of window glass or a good glass slide. If we
look directly through it, it is colorless, but if we turn it on edge
and look at it, it has a more or less green shade, according to the
quality of the glass. So according to the amount of exposure to the
tinction, when not carried so far as to color the whole body of the
germ, we have more or less visible coloring of the capsule, which
can only be seen when we look through a considerable extent of
substance, that is, on the sides of the object. Again, we may see
two or three objects united together, all presenting the normal char-
acteristics of full maturity. I have never yet seen more than three
of these germs connected together (Fig. 2). In general they either
appear singly or in pairs. In very old cultures these micro-organ-
isms become thinner, more rod-like, and color more diffusely with
the same degree of exposure to the tinction, and the white substance
is either not visible at all or very faint (Fig. 3). Again, such old
cultures are very replete in apparent micrococci, of various dimen-
sions, which might lead one into the error of thinking that his cul-
tures had become polluted. I call this last condition that of coccoid
degeneration (Fig. 3). Or, we may see unusually long objects, the
longitudinal diameter being twice or three times that of the mature
organism, and the white, or uncolored, substance occupying a cor-
responding extensive amount of space, while the dark, or colored,
ends may be somewhat larger or of the same size as those of the
mature object. This condition represents the first step in the develop-
ment of these organisms, that is, they become longer, and more of this
white substance appears (Fig. 4).
The next step in the process of vegetative development is the
_ separation of one of the pole or coccoid ends, which then becomes
free, and for a moment is exactly round like a coccus, and, as in a
hanging drop culture (to which I always add a very small amount
of an aqueous coloring solution), one will naturally see a very large
number of these coccoid objects on account of the fact that each
individual present is continually going through the same process 0:
multiplication. Here, again, one may see a condition or phenome-
non that might be misleading.
One of the coccoid ends having been separated, the other may
still remain connected with the white material, and as evidence that
the colored ends have a greater degree of specific gravity, as well
Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 119
as chemical composition, you will see, in the continual tumbling
about, and turning over and over of their objects, a white, round or
nearly so, colorless object directly under the eye, or numbers of these
objects. When the germs in such a hanging drop culture have
died from want of a sufficiency of nutrient material, you may see a
large number of these objects, which could be easily mistaken for
spores: but if we inoculate a new hanging drop culture from the
same material used to prepare the former, it will be found impos-
sible to fall into any such serious error, for it will be easily seen
that these non-colored refracting points keep continually going out
of sight, their place being taken by the coccoid non-refracting point
still attached to the other end of the white substance, and by watch-
ing one and the same organism in its continual turning over, first
one appearance and then the other will be presented to the eye
until the second coccoid end has become detached (Fig. 5).!
What becomes of the uncolored transparent middle piece?
I do not know!
It appears, however, as if it underwent an almost immediate pro-
cess of dissolution the moment it has become free from both of its
polar attachments. That this substance does not represent a spore
condition, or have any relation to spores, is to my mind entirely
beyond all question, as I have searched most diligently for spores
in old and fresh cultures, and others made at all kinds of tempera-
tures, within the biological limits of these organisms.
In my first-published description of the micro-organism of the
swine plague I gave an erroneous description of the manner in
Which the coccoid ends became freed from the white or connective
substance, This white, non-refracting, wncolorable material does not
become extended to nothing, and then break in two, leaving the coccoid
ends with a delicate, colorless flagellum, or spermatozoid tail, tempo-
rarily attached to one side, as I then said, and as Detmers described
it in 1880; but the separation of these ends is direct, and by sharp
segmentation. Were it otherwise we could not see the sporoid colorless
ends of so many of these germs when freed from their appropriate
pole ends
There are days when one cannot study them continuously at all.
The best way to study hanging drop cultures, when one desires to
spend several hours over them, is to first make some cover-glass
Pati. such a specimen will at once show that no spores are pre-
sent. i
120 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague.
specimens of the same material, or take any other slides of an
object of the same size and form, and observe such for about half an
hour, thus preparing the eye to see what you want to see in the liv-
ing developing organism. Unless this is done, some very essential
points will be surely missed, and some preventable error fallen into.
With anything less than a power of 800 diameters no one should
attempt to study these organisms, and then only when aided by the
best of Abbe condensers and oil immersion lenses.
We left our studies with the mature object proliferated into its
first distinct stage of vegetative di erentiation. We had two coc-
coid objects before us, that is, two round objects, their diameters
being the same in any direction. If colored, they color throughout,
that is, diffusely.
Were these objects to remain in this condition, they would be,
indeed, Micrococct. They do not, however. They almost imme-
diately begin to increase in a longitudinal direction, but in this con-
dition they still stain diffusely.
In my first description of the swine-plague germ, I said that the
next biological phenomenon was the appearance of a delicate white
line, separating this ovoid object into two halves. The above, while
not exactly an erroneous description, is certainly anticipated by
another phenomenon in the evolutional development of this coccoid,
- diffusely coloring object, into the mature form of any of this class
- of germs. That this white non-coloring substance is a secretion of the
two poles, or coccoid ends, of these “ belted” germs, as well as that
it has a different chemical composition, is beyond all question.
The phenomenon above spoken of, as anticipating the formation
of the segmenting white line which separates the two darker por-
tions of these organisms is: that this white substance first appears in
the centre of the body of the dense, dark ovoid object as the minutest
of white specks, which gradually increases in size and quantity, and
extends across the entire object ; the white line, being at first broader
in the middle, but gradually widening until it completely and clearly
separates the two pole (coccoid) ends, and the mature object is again
presented to our view (Fig. 6).
We have thus described the normal, or general, cycle of devel-
opment of the micro-etiological organism of the American, English
and German Swine Plagues, the American Southern Cattle Plague,
Hen Cholera, the German “ Wild-Seuche” (of deer, swine and cat-
tle) and Rabbit Septicemia, all of which diseases are caused by a
Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 121
member of this class of “ belted” germs, and should be classed as
extra-organismal, local or land septicemie. It seems to me that
the germ of Yellow Fever, as well as the disease itself, should also
come into this group.' I am sorry to say that, notwithstanding the
results claimed by Freire, I am unable to find a single exact and
detailed description of the germ with which he works, and which
should therefore be the etiological moment in the Yellow Fever, if
there is any trustworthiness in Friere’s statements.
MorPHO-BIOLOGICAL RESEMBLANCES NOT SUFFICIENT TO PRo-
NOUNCE PATHOGENETIC GERMS OR DISEASES
CAUSED BY THEM IDENTICAL.
This part of my work would be left incomplete did not I allude
to an endeavor of Hueppe’s to show that the diseases named above,
aside from the Swine and Southern Cattle Plague of this country,
are identical, that is, the German, Schweine-Seuche, Hiihne-Cholera,
Kaninchen Septikamie und Wild Seuché must all be one and the
same disease; because their germs have each and all the same form,
the same size, the same “ belted” appearance, and because they all
grow alike in bouillon, on agar agar and in gelatine.
The Germans do not say anything as to how these germs deport
themselves on potatoes. The Schiitz-Loeffle germ does grow on pota-
toes, as Professor Kitt, of Munich, assures me.
No greater or more misleading statement could be made, or per-
haps it would be better to say principle or theory enunciated.
The most complete morphological resemblances and exact mor-
pho-biological relationship in or on artificial media are not suffi-
cient grounds for any such attempt at generalization as Hueppe’s in
the case of these diseases.
To all beginners in this work, and all older hands as well, I most
emphatically assert that there is but one factor in the biology or
morphology of etiological micro-organism which can decide whether
_ two germs apparently alike are one and the same object, when de-
rived from two distinct diseases of animal life.
That factor is a physio-chemico-biological one. Both germs must
produce the same disease in both species of animals: the same chemi-
cal and pathological phenomena which ocerr in the same diseases and
eloa E eo stated by researches subsequent to the prepara-
* Colin says the same.
122 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague.
in the same species of animals under natural conditions, when healthy
animals of the given species are inoculated with artificial cultivations
of the germs in question. Our experiences here completely upset
Hueppe’s hypothesis.
The American Swine and Southern Cattle Plague should, accord
ing to Hueppe, be identical diseases with those mentioned as con-
sidered so by him in Germany, because, according to his condition,
the germs are identical, Hueppe’s entire argument is completely
nullified by the following facts :—
First.— There is no Southern Cattle Plague known in Europe.
Second.— Cattle and Swine run together in this country, and one or
the other may have respectively Swine or Cattle Plague, and yet the
other species will never become ill, even from the closest contact with
members of the other species sick with its peculiar plague. Hens can
feed on hogs dead from the swine plague, from the ground polluted
with their discharges, even picking out grain from the same, and
still remain wel¥; and the same is true of the hogs with regard to
Hen Cholera and the Southern Cattle Plague.
Hence, no matter how these germs may resemble each other, when
artificially examined, they fail in the one great factor necessary to
make the diseases produced by them identical; they do not have the
same physiological chemical attribute with regard to a given something
produced, which invariably decides the pathogenetic results produced by
a given germ. Notwithstanding the latter fact, these diseases all have
a very close relation to one another. They are all extra organismal,
local land septicemia. Each one, however, has something peculiar
about them that prevents them from being identical diseases, aside
from any action of the germ.
Each species of animal in which they occur has some unknown
constitutional idiosynerasy which renders its members susceptible to the
action of a given germ, and each of these germs has some peculiar
unknown biological idiosynerasy by which alone it infects, naturally,
but a given species of animal life.
These two factors, together, can alone decide the identical ques-
tion. What we can do artificially, by the inoculation of those ani-
mals that the disease does not occur in naturally, has no necessary
relation to the question whatever.
There are, however, other phases in the development of these
germs of a bio-morphological character. For instance, as already
said, we may see two or three individuals of the mature type united
Ph ee eee ee
Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 123
together (Fig. 2), or we may find two apparently mature organisms
enclosed in a common capsule, the two medial dark points or poles
being in such close apposition that no line of demarcation or inden-
tation of the capsule can be seen at this point, the whole outer sur-
face being smooth (Fig. 7). On the other hand, the two lateral
ends, or free poles, are separated by the normal quantity of white,
non-colorable substance.
Again, these diplo-bacteria may assume a curved or sausage shape,
which we may sometimes see intimated in the single organism, ma-
ture (Fig. 8). At other times, though not very frequently, the
germ may appear in nearly its normal form, but one pole (coccoid)
end will be semisegmented from its appositional end of the white
substance by a constriction of the same at its line of attachment
with the pole end (Fig. 9). This end will then be smaller than the
opposite pole, thus giving a sort of pear shape to the entire organ-
ism: the small pole end is soon dropped, however, and becomes
momentarily a free coccoid, and goes through the cycle of morpho-
development already described; the same occurs with the other
pole end.
This concludes my observations of the micro-morpho-biological
phases presented by these two micro-etiological organisms in the
course of their development. There may be some minor phenom-
ena that have escaped my attention, but I am very sure I have de-
scribed all the essential points.
THE SWINE PLAGUE AND SOUTHERN CATTLE PLAGUE GERMS
DIFFERENTIATE THEMSELVES VERY SHARPLY BY THEIR
APPEARANCE WHEN CULTIVATED ON POTATOES.
If we properly prepare (see text-books) and sterilize some nice,
clean potatoes, and then place them (lege artis) in a sterilized, moist,
cultivating chamber, and inoculate the cut surface of some of the
potatoes from Agar Agar, Boullion or other cultivations of the
microdrganisms of these two diseases, we shall invariably find that
they can be readily differentiated from one another in the course of
from twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the surface of the pota-
toes has been inoculated. The growth of the germs of the American
Swine Plague will invariably present a peculiar brownish-yellow to the
eye, reminding one of coffee color, especially the sion one gets in
the ordinary boarding-house and restaurant.'
1 Colin says “‘ greyish.”
124 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague.
On the other hand, the micro-etiological moment of the Southern
Cattle Plague will with equal constancy present a growth of the most
delicate straw color during the first day or so of its development, but
which soon begins to show a delicate pinkish, red-yellow, and finally
quite a decided brick-red-yellow shade, as the cultivation becomes anti-
quated ; this reddish shade begins and grows most intense at the centre
of the growth, leaving it more yellow toward its peripheries.
THE DEPORTMENT OF THE GERMS OF SWINE PLAGUE AND
SOUTHERN CATTLE PLAGUE IN BEEF-INFUSION GELATINE.
As what is known to us as beef-infusion gelatine cannot be used
in hot weather, or when the prevailing temperature is above 75°
F. (23° C.), on account of its becoming fluid, I could not use this
material until the last moment, and only prepared the first of the
season on Saturday last, October 1, and on Sunday was enabled to
inoculate tubes of this material with from pure cultivations of the
germs of Southern Cattle Plague and hog cholera. This beef-infu-
sion gelatine is an invaluable medium in the technique of bacteri-
ology, for two essential reasons: First, being transparent, one can
see what is going on on it, and, secondly, many micro-organisms
cause the solid material to become fluid, and present peculiar phe-
nomena to the eye, while others do not cause any change in it, but
may grow in a peculiar manner.
Now the hog-cholera germs belong to the latter class,as well as the
germ of the German, French and English swine plagues, which are
probably identical with hog cholera,as also those of hen cholera, and
the peculiar disease known as “ wild Seuche” in Germany,which affects
the deer tribe and cattle and hogs, and belongs to the same blood-
poisoning group as hog cholera. When we take our hog-cholera
germ,and inoculate tubes containing this beef-infusion gelatine from
the pure agar agar cultures, we shall observe that the germs do not
cause the gelatine to become fluid, and that it never becomes so, 80
far as any influence of the hog-cholera germs goes, if the culture
from which the material has been taken was a pure one, that 1%
contained no other form of micro-organismal life than the germs <4
of hog cholera.
This germ, however, has other peculiarities; it slowly spreads
1 The germ of the English Swine Plague was first discovered by a :
in 1886, in some tissues from England belonging to my then assistant, =
Dr. Bowhill, M.R.C.V.S. =
PP, a ee ee mre em mne aL AP Mats ee ya HS ey Mf
is SEI ee eee ee ee x j
Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 125
over the surface of the gelatine as a delicate cuticle, but, as these
cultures are made by puncturing the gelatine with a wire, the germs
are carried into that substance by the wire. Here we observed that
everywhere the wire has left a germ in its passage through the gel-
atine, that a small colony develops, giving to the puncture the ap-
pearance of a delicate thread with knots along its course. In the
end these colonies unite, and give the puncture a ragged-edged ap-
pearance. As the germs of the German swine plague, and rabbit-
septiceemia, and the “ wild Seuche” all do the same thing, Hueppe
asserts them to be the same organism. Hueppe has tried to claim
that all these diseases were one and the same, a mistaken view, as I
have tried to show.
I have now to chronicle the first serious error, a genuine mistake
of carelessness, from undue haste, that I can charge myself with
during my investigations of the two micro-etiological organisms
here considered.
Above it was said that on October 2d two beef-infusion gelatine
tubes were inoculated from pure cultivations of the germ of the
Southern Cattle Plague, and in the local papers the following
remarks were published :
“ Now it became interesting to see how this Southern Cattle-
Plague germ would deport itse!f in this gelatine, because it cannot
be distinguished from that of hog cholera under the microscope, or
on agar agar, or in bouillon. That it can be by its growth on
potatoes has been already noted. Hence, on Sunday, October 2d,
gelatine tubes were inoculated. You can judge of my surprise on
seeing that this Cattle-Plague germ could be at once distinguished
from those of hog cholera standing beside it. The germ of the
former had caused the gelatine to become fluid to the bottom of the
puncture in twenty-four hours, which is quite rapid work.”
The above was scarcely in the hands of the readers of the two
journals before I began to have grave doubts of the correctness of
my observations, simply because all other known germs belonging to
this “belted” group, and the cause of extra organismal septicemia,
do not cause the gelatine to become fluid.
In order that others may profit by an error which is unpardon-
able on my part, I will briefly tell how it came about. At the time
I had just twenty agar agar cultivations of the germs of the
Southern Cattle Plague, which I looked upon as pure, and which
represented the outbreak at Tekamah and Roca, my inoculated
126 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague.
steer, and material from a ground squirrel. In making the gelatine
tube, I simply inoculated from one agar agar tube on two gelatine
tubes, with no other precaution than a macroscopic comparison of the
growth with those in the other agar agar tubes. I could see no change
in the appearance of the growth of the tubes I used. J should
have made, and every one should always make a few cover-glass
specimens for the microscopic test in all such eases. (In the case of
these germs, it would be futile, however.) After the cultures in the
gelatine had become fluid, I then inoculated the entire agar cul-
tivations (twenty) upon gelatine, and carefully numbered each tube
with a corresponding number, so as to control the number.
This time I was not at all surprised where in nineteen of the beef-
infusion gelatine tubes no fluidification had taken place, the same
occurring in the one as before and from the same agar tube. It is now
February 6th, and the tubes remain exactly as they were on the 8th of
October.
Hence, the germs of the Southern Cattle Plague, like those of the
American Swine Plague, and other diseases of the same group, that
are caused by the belted oval germs do not cause fluidification of
gelatine media.
I next inoculated twenty pieces of sterilized potatoes (and for
comparison’s sake twenty others from cultivations of the Swine-
Plague germ), and here I found no change in the appearance of the
growths from those previously described. From the twenty potatoe
culture of the Southern Cattle Plague germ I again inoculated
twenty gelatine tubes. Nineteen remained solid ; one became fluid.
As the potato culture from the tubes which caused the gelatine t0
become fluid did not show any variation in the color of the gro
upon agar agar from the others, I resorted to plate cultivations a5
well as the microscope to solve the riddle. :
This one tube contained a small number of the most contempt-
ibly small micrococci, yet enough to have got me into a serious
error. They required 2,000-diameter amplification to see them
distinctly, and, as I have said, Micrococci constitute a normal mor- —
phos in the development of this class of germs, their presence
would have excited no suspicions had I subjected the original cul-
ture to a microscopic examination. Still it should be done in eve f
case, so as to keep up a good rule. a
They were separated with ease on plates. Inoculation up —
Gophers with the mixed culture gave fatal results, but no coc? —
Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 127
could be found in their blood or tissues, nor did any develop in
tubes inoculated from them. Inoculation upon Gophers and mice
with pure cultivations of the troublesome cocci gave absolutely neg-
ative results, no disturbance except a little stiffness and swelling of
the limb occurring.
The reason that the color of the agar agar, and especially pota-
to cultures of the Swine Cholera-Plague germ was not affected by
these cocci was that the former are so much larger and grow so
much faster as not to be much affected thereby on that medium ;
while in gelatine this whole group of germs finds a poor nutrient
material, and grow very slowly; on the contrary, the small cocci
grew exceedingly fast in the gelatine, and also caused its fluidifica-
tion with greater rapidity than any pathogenetic organism with
which I am acquainted, not excepting Finkler’s and the cheese
“Comma.” Second, they are almost transparent, and have no
chromogenic properties.
That they had less specific gravity than the Southern Cattle-
Plague germ could be determined by a microscopic examination of
the material at the apex of the fluidification, by tipping the tubes
gently; here the Southern Cattle Plagne organism greatly pre-
dominated. A
THE GROWTH OF THE GERMS OF SOUTHERN CATTLE PLAGUE
IN Beer-Inrusion GELATINE AS COMPARED WITH
THOSE OF THE AMERICAN SWINE PLAGUE.
While neither of these micro-organisms cause fluidification of
the beef-infusion gelatine, still there are certain minor points which
have a degree of differentiating value for each of them.
The germs of the Southern Cattle Plague have more desire for
the air than those of the Swine Plague, they are more ærobic; while
they spread slowly over the surface of the gelatine, still they do it more
rapidly than the swine-plague organism. Along the line of punc-
ture in the substance of the gelatine there is, however, no percep-
tible difference in the deportment of the two germs.
They each form individual colonies along the line, which gives to
it an irregular jagged appearance, resembling the cutting edge of a
saw.
If anything, this surface is more dentoid in the Southern Cattle
Plague cultures than the Swine Plague growths in beef-infusion
gelatine,
128 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague.
This concludes my present observations upon the development of
these etiological organisms in and on different cultivating media.
Not having a refrigerator, I have not compared their developments.
upon blood serum up to the present time.
Now these facts of some of the biological (or life) characteristics
of these two germs show that, while two germs may look alike and
grow alike, even in every particular, they may have one other
attribute which in such cases can only be relied upon to detect one
from the other.
That is their origin or, in other words, their disease-producing
action.
It needs no argument from me for the practical farmer to know
that the Southern Cattle Plague will not produce hog cholera in his.
hogs, or the latter disease the Southern Cattle Plague in his cattle.
ON SOME INTERESTING DERIVATIONS OF
MINERAL NAMES.
BY F. M. ENDLICH.
(Continued from January Number.)
3. In addition to those mineral names which have undergone
curious changes in the course of timé, there are others which show
interesting etymological relations, and yet have descended to us in
but slightly changed form.
KERMESITE is derived from the Sansk. krimi, worm; Pers.,
kirm or kirmis, scarlet; Ar., alkirmis; Sp., alkermes; G. obs.
Kermes, the “scarlet bug,” cochineal insect. Chermes, the drug-
gists’ name for the substance, reached Spain from Arabia and thence-
travelled to Italy and Germany.!
The Sansk. form krimi has been retained in our Engl. crimson.
It is also recognizable in the Lithuanian kirminis, worm. In It.,
Fr. and, later, Sp., the letter a was substituted for ¿i and e, resulting
in carminio and carmine: whence the mineral name Carminite.
1 ‘* Chermes vocant Arabes vnde nos chermesinum ; sev et vermilium
vsurparunt quidam, a vermiculis exemptis a radice pimpinelle;
coccum autem alio nomine dicitur scarlattum.”’ (Czesius, 1636.)
Derivations of Mineral Names. 129
AzuRITE.—The immediate derivation of the word is from N. L.
azurum, sky-blue. Originally it comes from the Pers. ladyuward,
or lazuward. In M. H. G. the adjective lassuvar appears, which
has survived in the H.G. under the form of Lasur and Kupferlasur,
copper-blue.
During the reign of Emperor Augustus, about 20 B.c., the
L. word azulus—Lapis Lazuli—is met with. (M. Vitr. Pollio, the
architect.) Early in the fourteenth century the N. L. asureus
occurs, the initial / having disappeared in Latin. In the recent
forms—It. azzuro, G. azur, Fr. azur, Engl. azwre—the original z
takes the place of the N. L. s; but in O. Engl. the latter can be
found :—
“a broche of gold and assure,
tn whi a aul set was like an herte.”
—Chaucer, 1340-1400.
In the sixteenth century, however, the word had assumed its present
construction :—-
- “that deckt the azure field.”
— Spenser, 1552-1599.
Lapis Lazuli owes its derivation to the same source, and, like the
G. Lasur, has retained the initial 1. “ Azurri ultramarinum materia
ex lapis lazuli” (Cesius, 1636), shows the Latinization of the It.
wo
Marcasite is derived from the Ar. markashitsa, pebble.’ The
word was introduced in the thirteenth century, and was especially
applied to minerals which showed bright, metal-like lustre (Kiese
of the Germans). It was known to Alb. Magnus (1280) under the
form of marehasita, and he characterized it asa mineral out of
which no metal could be extracted by fire. Two kinds, mainly,
were distinguished—the one yellow, shining like gold (pyrite, ete.:
“ Pyrites sine dubio Arabib. marchasita est” [ Agricola, 1546]) ; the
other, purer and more valuable, like silver (marcasita argeneta of the
alchemists, bismuth)? One characteristic of the marcasites was
1 Personal communication from the Arabic scholar, Rev. Wm. Wacker-
nagel, D.D.
*“‘Marchasitarum species multe ac diuerse sunt, . . nam alia
aurea ; alia argentea ; alia cuprea. ab igne non liquefit ; sed per se com-
buritur. ” (Leonardus, 1610.)
130 Derivations of Mineral Names.
that they nearly all contained “brimstone” (Cotgrave).! Accord-
ing to Boyle (about 1670), “ Marchasitical stones” abound in those
‘portions of the earth where the temperature is excessively high.
From various old writers, it would appear that the Arabic physician
Avicenna (about 1020) had previously used the name. A rather
fanciful derivation brings the word from the Ar. marv, kyass, idd—
whitish, glistening flint (Kobell).
4, Among the mineral names there are some which have retained
their original form with surprising regularity and have distributed
it through many languages.
JASPER descends from Heb. iashpheh, Ar. iasheb or iashef, Pers.
iashm, Gr. edoztc, L. iaspis, M. H. G. jaspis, O. Fr. diaspre, Fr,
iaspe, O. Engl. jaspe, jaspre, Engl. jasper, H. G. and Sw. jaspis.
“ His stone is jaspe.”
—Gower, about 1360.
‘ The floore of jasp and emeraud was dight.”’
—Spenser, 1552-1599.
’ laoneg is used by Plato (429 to 348 B.c.) and others after him;
L. iaspis, by Virgil and Pliny, over eighteen hundred years ago.
SAPPHIRE is derived from Heb. sappir, Ar. safir. In Gr. the `
two p’s of the Hebrew persisted, but the second was aspirated:
cangepog. M. H. G. used the word saphir ; O. Engl. saphire:—
“ Of rubies, saphires and of perles white.”
—Chaucer, 1340-1400.
In It. the word has become safiro, zafiro ; in Sp. zafir, Fr. saphir,
Sw. safir. The H. G. and Engl. versions, however, retain the two
p’s, as in the Greek. |
The It. zafiro was perpetuated in obs. G. zaffer, used to designate
blue cobalt-glass and blue colors; Engl. zaffre describes a purplish
cobalt color.
Sandexpos was used by Dionysios Periegetes about nineteen hun-
dred years ago, apparently in connection with the gem which now
carries the name. Pliny also describes “sapphires,” but evidently
not the precious stone, as he states that it glitters with marks and
specks of gold ; this would apply to Lapis Lazuli? Agricola (1546)
1 Gessner (1565) claims the following: “ Pyrites recentiores marcha-
sitam vocant, nostri corrupto nomine martistein.”
2 “ Sapphirus enim et aureis punctis collucet.”’—Pliny, Venice edition.
Derivations of Mineral Names. 131
uses the correct orthography, “sapphirus ;” as does Kentmann, in
1565.
ARSENIC.—The origin of this word is Gr. 4657», or, as the second
of two ¢’s frequently changes to a o, dgoyv=L. mas, strong, mas-
culine. By transposition the word dvy¢—=man, is formed from
app», the one p being dropped.
Homer uses dv7yo, 880 B.C., and, after him, all other writers.
In Sophocles, however (497 to 406 B.c.), we still find dooyy, in
the sense of strong; also in Aristophanes (412 B.c.).
“xruro¢g ao6ny zovtov” (noisy, powerful sea), Sophocles.
Theophrast writes d/evexov, about 300 B. c.; Galenus (A. D.,
181 to 202) employs àpøsv:xov, a poison. It is probabli that the
older forms were used to designate a variety of strong poisons, min-
eral or vegetable.
Curiously enough, the form pey», without the lengthening ter-
mination ¿xov, has survived in the G. Arsen, which signifies metal-
lic arsenic. The Latinized form of àpøsvexov or dpaevexcov, which
latter was used by Aristotle (384 to 322 B.c.), is arsenicum: whence
G. Arsenik—i.e., arsenic oxide—O. Engl. arsenik (Pettus, 1683)
and Engl. arsenic.
Dramonp.—Derived from contr. Gr. a, privativum, and dapaw,
I conquer=unconquerable. The name was originally given to hard
steel and iron, and Hesiod uses it in this sense about 750 B.c, Since
the days of Theophrast (about 300 B.c.) it has been applied to
diamond. Gr., ddapac.
The word enters Latin as adamas. “ Unde et nomen indomita
quis Greca interpretationes accepit” (Pliny). Pliny claims that
when laid upon an anvil and struck with a hammer, the adamas
will cause the latter to recoil and will remain unharmed, if, indeed,
it fail to burst either sledge or anvil: hence its name. Only by
sprinkling upon it the blood of a male goat can it be reduced to
such a condition that it will no longer withstand the heaviest blows.!
In the middle of the sixteenth century the word was Dyamant
in Germany; M. H. G., Diemant ; H. G., Demant and Diamant;
It. and Sp., diamante ; Fr., diamant; O. Engl., diamaunt ; Engl.,
diamond.
“ Haue harte as hard as diamaunt—
Stedfast and naught pliaunt.”’
— Chaucer, 1340-1400.
1“ Adamantem opum gaudium wr abe Has omni caeteri et inunctum
sanguine hircino rumpente queque.’’—Pliny, Venice edition, 1559.
132 Derivations of Mineral Names.
The original form of Gr. ddapa¢ has been retained in the Engl.
adjective adamantine=diamond-like, and in other words :—
PE Se ate - ‘three folds were brass,
Three iron, three of adamantine rock.”
— Milton, 1660.
Mace is the name of a mineral which, when broken across its
principal axis, shows a white cross or rhomboid spot enclosed within
a dark matrix. The word is derived from L. macula, spot. G.
makel, blemish ; Engl. maculate, to spot, and immaculate, are from
the same root, as is Fr. macule, spot. Macula is classical, and may
have reached the Romans from Gr. pazxedov=inclusion, mark.
Pierres de macle was applied to the mineral in 1751 by Robien.
(Dana.) The meaning of Fr. macle is “ perforated rhomb”:
whence its application to the mineral, which often shows such a
figure on cross-section.
CARBUNCLE.—Pliny uses the name carbunculus, a diminutive of
carbo=coal, in allusion to the resemblance of the gem to a glowing
coal. In G. the b has changed to an f—Karfunkel—but remains
b in Sw. Karbunkel. It is a coincidence that the G. funkeln means
glowing, scintillating. “ Curbunculi a similitudine ignium apellati.”
(Pliny.
While the Greeks had a totally different name for the mineral,
it is interesting to note that the origin of both the L. and Gr. words
refer to the same peculiarity—i.e., to some glowing light. The Gr.
name is derived from Avyvevw==[ shine brightly, I light up.
SMALTITE.— The Gothic form of smalyan, smalteis=melt, or
smelt—was smalzian in M. H. G.; then smelzan (G. schmelzen);
and these resulted in the M. L. smaltum=glass-flux. In the ninth
century M. L. smaltum was used in the sense of smelted substance=
enamel—in describing a “ crux pulcherrima gemmis et smaltis.” (Ana-
stasius.) It. smalto and G. Smalte, as well as M. L. smaltwm, were
finally applied to the blue cobalt glasses and cobalt colors, which be-
came known about the middle of the sixteenth century. Since that
time the word has retained its specific meaning. H. G. Smalte or
Schmalte, Fr. smalt, Engl. smalts, Sw. smalts, all designate the color
or substance known as cobalt-blue.
STANNITE is derived from L. stannum, originally stagnum. It
is probable that the word is of “Celtic origin; and the Irish stan,
Welsh ystaen, may be regarded as direct descendants from the old
root. Sueton and Pliny knew stannum as an alloy of tin and lead.
Derivations of Mineral Names. 133
The old form of stagnum produced It. stagno; later, stagnuolo ;
whence obs. G. Stagnol, H. G. Stanniol=tin-foil. From the same
source are Sp. estano, O. Fr. estain, Fr. etain.
In O. H. G., tin was zin; in A.-Sax., tin—possibly related to
Sansk. tshina, lead; obs. G., Zien (1743); H. G., Zinn; Sw., tenn;
D., ten; Engl., tin. The Engl. words stannary=tin-mines, and
stannous, retain the Celtic (?) root. G. Zinn and Zink probably
have a common origin, but the connection is obscure.
A derivation from A.-Sax. tynan=to shut, close, fasten, hence
solder, has been suggested for tin, but seems untenable.
5. There are a number of mineral names which derive special
interest from their application. The peculiarities ascribed to
Wolfram, Nickel and Cobalt are productions of the German miner,
whose fertile imagination saw more than mere matter-of-fact cir-
cumstances. Since the twelfth century mining has been prosecuted
in Germany ; and it can readily be imagined with what strange
creatures the superstitious workman of those early days might
people the underground domains.
WOLFRAMITE.—The word is of German origin, being a contrac-
tion of O. H. G. wolfhraban. The latter is formed by a combina-
tion of wolf, wolf, and hraban, raven. Among the ancient Germans,
in fact, until the introduction of Christianity became general,
the meeting with a wolf ora raven was considered a favorable .
omen under nearly all circumstances; and the most. emphasized
indication of coming good fortune consisted in meeting both of these
animals. In the tin-mines of Germany and Bohemia, as well as in
a number of silver-mines, the occurrence of Wolframite was an
almost infallible index of the ee of good ore: hence the appli-
cation of the name.
Wolfhraban contracts into wolfhram [ Wolffhram, as late as 1565
(Fabricius)], and, by dropping the h, into Wolfen. Wolf was for
many years a favorite baptismal name in Germany, and may be
found to this day in some families of feudal descent. Wolf is
derived from Goth. vulfs and A.-Sax. vulf, with the root of Goth.
vilwan=L. rapere, to lay hold of, to tear.
1 Wolframm and Wolffert were used as late as the last century. The
name is then explained as indicating that this mineral, when brought
together with tin-ore in the furnace, wasted the tin—ate it up as a wolf
134 Derivations of Mineral Names.
The Sansk. karawa is the root of Gr. xopaé, L. corvus, It. corvo,
Sp. cuorvo, Fr. corbeau, Engl. crow, G. Krdhe, Sw. Kraka, D.
Kraye, on the one hand, and, on the other, of A.-Sax. cravan,
O. H. G. hraban, G. Rabe, Fr. ravineux, Engl. raven.
The derivation of Wolfram from Wolf and G. Rham=cream, is
faulty. The Engl. name for G. wolfram is tungsten, der. Sw. tung-
sten, from tung, heavy, and sten, stone.
NICCOLITE, in this form of orthography, is derived from N. L.
niccolum, the metallic element, formerly nickelum (latter part of
eighteenth century). The Goth. nickr or nickl, A.-Sax. nier or nicor,
Icel. nikr (related to Icel. hnickia=to seize and carry off), was a
demon who inhabited pools of water and drew down his victims
with irresistible force until they were drowned. From the above
is derived the G. Nixe, a female water-spirit, who was not always
cruel, but sometimes gave her valuable services to unhappy lovers
and others who sought her aid. The G. masculine Mix belongs to
the same family, but was a morose, objectionable character. His
name serves to this day in Germany to drive children away from
water. From the same source we have obtained the appellation
“ Nick,” commonly used as “ Old Nick,’ now employed as a nom de
plume for the chief of the infernal regions, although the original
association of the name with water is hardly in keeping with the
orthodox conception of this warmly-located ruler.
In O. H. G. nickel signifies a small horse, especially a vicious
one; also a dwarf. The A.-Sax. nag is related to it. Locally, the
idea of a dwarf or stunted animal of any kind was modified into the
personification of a malicious, mischievous spirit. In this connec-
tion, the words Engl. nagging (from A.-Saxon) and G. necken, to
tease, were used,
The German miners frequently found ores which looked very
promising, but, upon being smelted, they produced no silver: on
the contrary, they emitted foul and noxious odors. The most natu-
ral explanation, at that time, seemed to show that wicked, envious
spirits had changed the ores, or even infested them: whereupon the
terms nickel and kobold were freely applied to such disturbing ele-
would. ‘‘ Er (wolfram) betreugt die Berglente gar sehr, weil er mit dem
Zinnstein vor dem Wasser stehet und im Schmeltzen das Zinn raubet.”
(Bergwerck’s Lexicon, 1743.) Wolfram was also used for some arsenical
ores which are objectionable in the furnace. (Mineral, Belustigungen,
1768.)
Derivations of Mineral Names. 135
ments. An association of “nickel” with the name of any other
metal expressed the old Germanic idea of a “changeling” (G. Wech-
seling, from O. H. G. wihseline), derived from the fancied changing
of children by elves and fairies. Thus, copper-nickel would be the
name of a mineral resembling copper-ore, yet containing none of
the latter metal: the meaning would be equivalent to “false
copper.”
In this way the names of nickel and kobold became attached to
certain minerals which resembled rich ores, but yielded neither sil-
ver nor copper. . To this day the word nickel is applied to persons
in certain parts of Germany when a giddy, or even vicious (gener-
ally female), character is to be described.
An ore known as Kupfernickel in Germany,. coppar-nickel in
Sweden, yielded a grey, hard metal to the Swedish mineralogist
Cronstedt, in 1754, which he named nickel. He took the name |
from the ore. Promptly discerning that the metal he had obtained
bore no relation to the first part of its name, copper, he selected the
second. Thus the word which had first been applied by the miners
was eventually attached to the metal which had caused them so
much worriment.
CoBALTITE is immediately derived from N. L. cobaltum, the
metallic element. Agricola says (1546): “ Est preterea aliud genus
ferrei quasi interdum coloris, cobaltum nostri vocant.” In O. H. G.
thë word is Kobolt, sometimes Kobalt; in the sixteenth century,
Kobeit and cobelt, or cobel; H. G., Kobalt; Sw., kobolt. It is a
descendant of the Gr. xoßałoç, L. cobalus, whereby a familiar spirit
was designated. This spirit was not necessarily vicious or ill-
natured, nor prone to do harm, but he was full of mischief and fond
of practical jokes. Aristophanes (about 406 B.C.) characterizes a
xoßałoç as a satyr, a roguish fellow, in the following of Bacchus.
The Fr. gobelin and Engl. goblin are derived from the same root.
An amusing explanation of their etymology assigns Fr. gober=
gobble, as their root and that of kobold, because nurses are apt to
tell children tales of spirits that will “ gobble” them as a punish-
ment for disobedience and other childish peccadillos. (Minshew.)
In Germany the Kobold was rather useful than otherwise, unless
he was crossed in anything.! Of a particularly industrious servant
1 Of the ‘‘ Berg-Kobelt”’ (mountain spirit) the following is said: ‘ Es
lässt sich in allerhand Figur sehen, bissweilen als ein kleines Kind,
auch wohl als ein alter Bergmann, nur muss ihnen nichts in Weg gele-
136 Derivations of Mineral Names.
it was said: “ Sie hat einen Kobold” (a kobold is with her); and it
was believed that this amiable spirit assisted her in her daily work.
The underground association with nickels, however, must have
tended to corrupt the kobold’s kindly disposition and to sharpen
his enjoyment of practical jokes, which he carried even to the point
of cruelty. He disturbed and hid the tools of the miners, interfered
with their timbering, changed their ore, and played a thousand dis-
tressing pranks. When the workmen proceeded to smelt silver
from their ores, he caused the latter to emit mal-odorous, choking
fumes in such dense masses as to injure the smelters. “ Kobelt’sche
Ertze sind wilde und strenge Ertze.” (1743.) The heavy, white
smoke spread itself upon the grass of the fields and killed the cat-
tle. At last the kobold became identified with this fuming, smok-
ing class of arsenical ores, so that Mathesius, in 1562, describes -
cobalt as a “poisonous and injurious metal.” Linneus mentions
arsenic (the source of the fumes) as Kobolt, and to this day the
“ Scherbenkobalt” of German miners is but a variety of metallic
arsenic.
The metal cobalt was not extracted from its ores until Brandt, in
- 1733, produced it in asomewhat impure state. Its blue glasses and
slags became known about the middle of the sixteenth century by
accident: a workman secretly threw a piece of the evil-minded
“kobold” into his employer’s glass-furnace with the intentiun of
causing the spirit to work dire mischief: the most beautiful blue
glass resulted.
Basanirr is derived from Gr. Sacavog=touchstone, probestone.
It is used by Pindar in this sense as early as about 490 B.c. The
word is formed from facavefw, possibly produced by contr. Gr.
Baars, foundation, bottom, and vetw, I wash, clean—conveying the
idea of “ sifting to the bottom.”
The Latinized form, basanites, was indifferently applied to black
quartz, the true probestone, and to basalt, the eruptive product. It
has been claimed that a “typographical error” on the part of some
early copyist bore the responsibility of having produced the latter
word. The transition from basanites to basaltites seems easy. Pliny
(A.D. 70) uses basaltes, a marble from Ethiopia, and speaks of the
name as having been used before his time.
get werden, so lässt es die Berg-Arbeiter auch zu frieden.” (18th Cen-
tury.)
Derivations of Mineral Names. 137
It is known to be a fact that basanites was applied to true basalt.
Agricola (1546) uses the word for an undoubted basalt; Gessner
(1565) derives it from Gr. pasavw, and applies it to true basalt ;!
Kentmann (1565) calls it “ black marble,” and uses the word in
the same way ;? Basanite is described as “black stone” by Leon-
ardus (1610), and he speaks of “ Bazanites sive Basaltem lapis ;”
Cæsius quotes it as “iron-colored” marble, in 1636; in 1743 (Berg-
werck’s Lexicon) it was regarded as a dark-grey marble (“ schwarz-
grauer Marmor”); within the last fifty years Basant and Basalt
have been used synonymously in various German publications.
This confusion of he. ss? terms may bear out the idea of an ay
“typographical error.’
CELADONITE is formed from the Fr. celadon=sea-green. The
origin of this word, in its quoted meaning, seems to be a curious
one. Gr. Kejadwy first occurs in the “ Iliad” (880 B.c.) as the
name of a river; subsequently it is repeatedly used in the same
way by Meleagros, Strabo a. o. ; Ovid incidentally applied it, in the
form of Celadon, as the names of two men, one from the mouth of
the Nile, the other from the mountains of Thessaly. The word is —
derived from Gr. xeAadoc¢=rushing noise, like that of rushing water.
In 1610 (1616?) a French novelist, D’Urfée, wrote a pastoral
romance, “ Astrée,” in which he gave the name of Celadon, bor-
rowed from Ovid, to an inexperienced, insipid lover: whence the
idea of greenness (Dana). Spanish (?), French and German all
contain the noun Celadon or Seladon=verdant lover (G. blöder
Schäfer), and the adjective=sea-green. In Engl. the latter has
been amplified to celandine. In the acceptation of verdant lover,
the word seems to have come from the Spanish rather than from
the French, but it is difficult to arrive at its meaning for any given
date. There was an ancient river Celadon in Spain, whence the
word may have been introduced into that language. Thompson
uses the name, in 1727, in “ The Seasons,” for Amelia’s lover.
Dana gives the derivation from Gr. xehadov=burning ; others
from 7¢ic<0oveov—=swallow-wort. But neither seems to apply.
AMETHYST js composed of Gr. a privativum and pedvw, I am
!“ His omnibus consideratis non immerito Misenus Babavw, vel Ba-
saltes Misenus dici potest, EIN MEISSNISCHER PROBIRSTEIN.”’
*“ Marmor nigra aig eet ine colore et duricie, hoc Bisalten
nominat Agricola; nos Basal:
138 Derivations of Mineral Names.
drunk: hence it signifies a safeguard or amulet against inebriety.
Some of the ancients claim that it prevents the latter, but Plutarch
denies it. Among its numerous wearers of the present day, some
may be able to judge of its supposed merit in this direction.
“Magorum Yanta resistere ebrietati eas promittit et nide appella-
tas.” — Pliny.
The amethyst is mentioned by Plato (400 B.c.) and Asclepiades
(280 B.c.) as a gem,
6. A few mineral names have reached us from the Anglo-Saxon
with hardly a change and without having lost their characteristic
brevity :—
Wap isa bog-ore of manganese. The word takes its origin from
A.-Sax. vaed, bunches, derived from the es vidan=to bind (in
bunches). We further have: O. H. G. wat, wetan, gawati ;
M. H. G. wat; Scandinavian vad; Sw. sald lated to G. Watte
(cotton-), batting, and to Engl. weeds.
Fuint has been referred to Gr. mèvĝoç=tile or brick, and to
Gr. z/yttevy=to strike, in allusion to striking fire ; but these deri-
vations seem very problematical. The word in A.-Sax. was flint;
M. H. G., vlins ; locally (Middle German), vlint ; O. Engl., flent;
Sw., flinta.
“ And out of flent sprang flod, that folke and bestes dron ken.”
— Langland, 1862.
French flin means polishing material, for which powdered flint
may be used. The word flent or flint may be related to the root of
flensing=to skin, to flay (Icel., flisia), as in the earliest times flint,
particularly, ae other stone implements were used for skinning
animals,
The form flint was assumed long ago :—
“ Had ben my heart of flint, it must haue melted.”
—Surrey, about 1520.
The H. G. Flinte=(shot-), gun, is the same word applied to fire-
arms since about 1640, when they were first supplied with chips of
flint or chalcedony for the purpose of ae fire and igniting the
powder.
7. Matters of historical interest are also alluded to in mineral
$
x
Aa AA G SEa aaa S a daa a ee
E ENN ASE As A SIEA
Derivations of Mineral Names. 139:
names, but, usually, refer to some scientific work rather than to
political occurrences.
TANTALITE is a name given by the Swedish mineralogist Eke-
berg toa certain mineral in 1802. He thereby expresses the difficul-
ties and tantalizing perplexities with which he was beset during the
progress of his analysis of the substance. It is named after Tan-
talos, the well-remembered mortal favorite of the Olympian deities,
who so far presumed upon his privileges as to place before them the
remains of his own son, disguised asa tempting dish. For this
sacrilege he was condemned to suffer hunger and thirst in the nether
world, though surrounded by luscious fruits, viands and liquids of
all kinds, which promptly receded from his grasp whenever he
reached for them.
Certainly, the name forcibly expresses the feelings of the baffled
chemist, while at the same time it affords a glimpse of the status of |
analytical science in 1802.
XENOTIMITE.—[In 1832 the famous French mineralogist Beu-
dant named a mineral Xenotime, apparently from contr. Gr. evoc,
a stranger, and zzy7, honor. He explained, however, that this
name was derived from contr. Gr. xevoç, empty, vain, and Teu),
honor, and added that he intended it to recall the fact that the Swed-
ish chemist and mineralogist Berzelius vainly thought to have found
in this mineral the metal Thorium, which he had named (1815) be-
fore its existence was really established (1828). The honor which
Berzelius indirectly claimed in the supposed discovery of a new
element was an empty one in this instance.!
As Dana appropriately remarks (System Mineralogy, p. 529),.
“there is a sneer at the great Swedish chemist in the name which
Should have occasioned its immediate rejection.” If the word were
correctly formed, so as to express what Beudant intended that it
should, it would have been Cenotime or Cenotimite : hence the name, .
as he writes it, fails to convey the implied meaning. Dana has
accepted the name Xenotime, as he explains, because it “may be- _
*“Conformément principes q doptés, nous luisavons
imposé un nom particulier, qui rappellera que le phosphate d’Yttria a
été pris pour oxide d’un métal nouveau auquel on avait donné le nom
de Thorium, apliqué aujour d’hui au métal découvert dans la Thorite.’’
—Traite de Mineral. 1832.
140 Derivations of Mineral Names.
regarded as referring to the fact that the crystals are small, rare, not
showy, and were long unnoticed.”
YENITE is a name given by the French scientist Le Lievre, in
1807, to a mineral found on the Island of Elba. The name was
bestowed in commemoration of the battle of Jena, October 14th,
1806, in which Bonaparte almost annihilated the Prussian army.
Apart from the fact that the name should have been formed
Jenite or Jenaite, the ungenerous spirit which prompted an intro-
duction of political feelings into scientific matters was repudiated
by Le Lievre’s own countrymen, as well as by the displeased Ger-
mans: the name I/vaite—from the L. name of Elba—given to the
mineral by Steffens in 1811, was substituted for Yenite.
The hereditary rivalry between the French and German nations
has found expression, within the last few years, in the naming of
two newly-discovered elements: Gallium was named by a patriotic
Frenchman, only to be followed by Germanium a short time after.
8. Naming minerals after localities is by no means an innovation,
as the following examples will show :—
Magnetite.—About 400 B.c. the Greek term 2edoc ‘Hpaxieca
was used by Plato to designate a mineral with magnetic power.
Pliny quotes it as Heraclion. Probably it was named after Hercu-
les (Herakles) in intimation of its strength (lapis Herculeus was
used in the sixteenth century), rather than after the town of Her-
aclea in Lydia. Pliny claims that it was named after a shepherd,
its discoverer.'
Later on, Dioscorides a. o. use the term deo¢g parys, describing
a magnetic stone supposed to have come from Magnesia, a portion
of Thessaly. JePog payvytyc, used by Dioscorides also, referred to
soapstone or talc, so far as can be determined. (Dana and Pape.)
The name reached Germany in the period of M. H. G. and took
the form of aget-stein or agt-stein. It was applied rather indiscrimi-
nately, and apparently to amber by preference. The latter attracts
small bits of paper and wool, ete., after having been subjected to
friction.
1 “Sideritin ab hoc alio nomine apellant, quidam Heracleon. Magnes —
apellatus ab inventore (autor est Nicander [about 150 B.C.])in Ida reper”
tus
est.” . . . “ Invenisse autem fertur, clavis crepidarum et baculi cus-
pide herentibus, cum armenta pasceret.”’
è
Derivations of Mineral Names. 141
The Gr. payvyg entered L, as magnes, thence passing into It.
magnete, Sp. magnetico, Fr. magnetique, M. H. G. magnes, H. G.
magnet, Sw. magnet, O. Engl. magnes, Engl. magnet.
tt On th’ other syde an hidious rock is pight
Of mightie magnes-stone.”’
— Spenser, 1552-1559.
COPPER was obtained by the ancient Greeks from the Island of
Cyprus. Homer speaks of it (880 B.C.) as yadxo¢ ; and qualifies
this term, which meant ore, bronze, metal or copper, by giving
its color as gud oc=red. Later on the same name was applied to
iron, and then the distinction yasxog Kuzpcoc=Cyprian metal, was
made, in order to avoid confusion. In L. the word aes is equiva-
lent to the Gr. yaìxoç; and the copper became known as aes Oyp-
rium. (Pliny a.o.) By the end of the third century the word aes
was dropped, and the descriptive adjective Cypriwm evolved into
the noun cuprum.
The alchemists gave copper the name and sign of Venus.
Kurpcc is an old poetical name for Venus, used by Euripides (450
B.C.) a. 0., and the Island of Cyprus was devoted to her cult.
From L. aes Cyprium and M. L. cuprum have sprung: A.-Sax.
cyper, O. H. G. Kuphar, H. G. Kupfer, O. Fr. cuyvre. Fr. cuivre,
Sp. cobre, Sw. coppar, D. koper, O. Engl. coper, Engl. copper.
“ Lyke as to a true syluer grote a false coper grote,” ete.
—Sir T. More, 1478 to 1535.
Turquols is really an adjective=turkish (from Turkey), and is
taken directly from the French. In Middle German the word was
turggis ; M. H. G., turkoys. In the middle of the sixteenth century
this changed to Tiirckis and Türkis. The Sw. is turkos. N. L.
forms are: Turcois, turcosa, turchesia ; It., turchesa, turchina ; Sp.,
turquesa ; O, Fr., turquoise; O. Engl., turques; Engl, turquois.
j
“I bequeth a ryng of gold, sette wta turques, a dyamaunt, and a
4 ruby.” 3 —Fabyan, 1512.
There are a few names, familiar to almost every one, that have
an exotic sound, foreign to that of the languages which have princi-
pally furnished the material for mineralogical nomenclature :—
i TOURMALINE—also known as Turpelin during the last century,
is derived from the Cingalese turamali.
142 A Month in Paldéwan.
Borax, a universally-known word, comes from the Ar. burag.
CorunpuM (Fr. corindon) owes its form to the Hindostan
Kurand.
Kaourn, the well-known porcelain-earth, was first mainly
-obtained from Kau-Ling, in China: whence its name.
A MONTH IN PALAWAN.
BY J. B. STEERE,.
Te island of Paláwan, or, as it is more frequently called by the
Spaniards, Paráqua, is classed as one of the Philippine group.
It runs from the northeast to the southwest, and is something over
250 miles long, while it hardly averages 20 miles in width. It
fronts the China sea on the west, and the Sulu or Mindora sea on
the east. It is distantly connected on the north and east with the
‘other Philippines—through the Cuyos with Panay, and through
the Calamines with Mindoro and Luzon ; but itis much more closely
connected on the south by Balabac and other small islands with
Borneo. It is mountainous and heavily timbered, and but thinly
inhabited, the native population being estimated by the Spaniards at
ten or twelve thousand. The native people are of at least two
races, Malays and Negritos. The southern end is chiefly inhabited
by people of Malay race, to whom the Spaniards give the name of
their hereditary African enemies, Moros or Moors. They are Ma-
hometan in religion, and this, with the presence of their priests, has
kept them more or less united, and perhaps a little in advance of the
northern tribes. The northern part is inhabited by savages of
Malay race, living in small, scattered tribes, and of Negritos—
wooly-haired black people—living in much the same state, and ap-
parently amalgamating with the Malays. The Spanish have had
some small settlements of Christian Indians from Luzon, at the
north, for some time, and for fifteen or twenty years have been
forming a convict town at Puerto Princesa, on the east coast, and
near the middle of the island. This now numbers some twelve or
fifteen hundred inhabitants, mostly criminals shipped there from
other parts of the colony. This is the capital and residence of the
Spanish governor and other officers. Within a few years the Spanish
have also formed small military settlements on the west coast.
A Month in Palawan. 143
Our party from the University of Michigan reached the island
about the first of September, 1887, in the midst of the rainy sea-
son, but as the showers. usually came in the afternoon, we were able
to do a good deal of hunting and other collecting in the forenoon,
while we spent the afternoon in skinning and preparing the collec-
tion of the morning. From lack of roads or other means of com-
munication, our work was done chiefly on the low, heavily-timbered
peninsula on which the town is built. We also did some work
across the bay, along the little river Iguahit, and about a village of
natives who called themselves Tagbaunas. The collections made
by us during the four weeks of our stay numbered about seven
hundred birds of some one hundred and twenty species; thirty
mammals of five species; thirty amphibia of three species; one
fresh-water turtle ; fifteen lizards of six species; fifteen snakes of
nine species; three hundred butterflies of thirty species; a few
small and inconspicuous beetles, scorpions, and centipedes ; ten or
twelve species of corals from the shallow waters of the bay, and a
large number of fine land and tree shells.
The island has been considered to belong to the Philippine group
zoologically as well as politically—Mr. Wallace dividing the Indo-
Malayan sub-region into three divisions: Java, Sumatra, Borneo,
and Malacca, and the Philippines. Our work would seem to show
that Palawan is much more nearly allied zoologically to Borneo than
are the other islands of the group, and probably more nearly allied
to Borneo than to the other islands. This state of things seems to
be especially shown in the mammals, in which the island is much
richer than the rest of the group. It possesses, in common with
Borneo and the other Philippines, the common gray monkey, Maca-
cus cynomolgus, a species of Tupaia, one of squirrels, a wild hog,
and one or two species of civet cats. In addition to these we found
the manis or pangolin and the binturong, both common to Borneo,
but wanting in the rest of the Philippines. We also became satis-
fied of the existence of a porcupine, Hystriz, a large round-tailed
flying squirrel, Pteromys, and of a small species of the Mustelide,
with powerful and unpleasant odor. Besides these Bornean forms |
there is probably also a species of tree-cat, Felis, and a mountain
goat in the island. These species rest on the evidence of Spaniards
and half-breeds capable of observing, and worthy of credence. In
addition to these the savages declare that there is an orang outang
in the interior. The mammals common to the rest of the Philip-
144 A Month in Paléwan.
pine group and wanting in Paláwan are also noteworthy. Deer,
present everywhere else, are said not to exist, and we saw no signs
of them. The kaguan or Galeopithecus, one of the most common
Philippine mammals, is apparently absent heres These facts seem
to show that Paliwan has received its animal population from Bor-
neo at a different time and through a different route than the rest of
the group. The intervening island of Balabac possesses the com-
mon monkey, the wild hog, a true squirrel, a porcupine, an ill-
smelling weasel ; lacks the manis of Paláwan, but has a diminutive
deer, Tragulus, common to it and Borneo.
In its birds Paléwan also shows its closer connection with Borneo.
Among Bornean forms which do not seem to have made their way
into the other Philippines, are the two beautiful genera of greenlets,
Tora and Phyllornis ; a three-toed woodpecker, Tiga ; a true pheas-
ant, Polyplectron, closely allied to the beautiful glass pheasants of
Borneo and Malacca ; and a frog-mouth (Podargus) bird, allied to
the goat-suckers, but with the mouth parts (beak) heavy and hard.
The Bornean look of our birds is quite apparent when we compare
them with birds from the other islands, and careful study will prob-
ably show many more instances than those above mentioned.
Sun-birds, kingfishers, cuckoos, and swifts were especially abund-
ant in species and individuals.
About September 20 we began to find large numbers of titlarks,
snipes, plovers, and sand-pipers, and concluded that this must be
the advance of the fall migration from the northwest. The only
arboreal species which seemed to arrive at the same time was one of
the warblers, Sylviide.
We undertook to make as careful notes of habits, height of flight,
and feeding, character of foods, etc., as was possible in our hurried
stay. Tropical species of birds seem to be much more nearly lim-
ited to specific kinds of food than those of temperate countries. A
careful examination of the stomachs of our collection showed that
some species lived entirely upon ants, others upon centipedes, others
upon some special kind of fruit, etc., ete. The three-toed wood-
pecker noted above lives exclusively on ants, and these possibly of
a single species—at least all of the same color; while a four-toed
species (Chrysocolaptes), much like the three-toed one in size and
color, lives on the common larval food of the family. One splendid
long-tailed cuckoo, with beautiful metallic-blue coloring, bare spots
of vivid crimson about the eyes, and immense light-green beak,
Intelligent Selection. 145
were exactly alike in the sexes with the exception that the male had
eyes of cherry red, while those of the female were yellow—and
this uniformly so through six or eight pairs proeured. We shall
take means for a more thorough study of the mammals of the island
than was possible during our snort stay. We have come on to the
port of Zamboanga, in the island of Mindanao, and purpose to make
a collection of the same character here.
INTELLIGENT SELECTION.
BY CHARLES MORRIS.
wat do not distinct species of animals and plants appear as a
consequence of man’s selection and preservation of varieties ?
This is a question which has been asked more often than it has been
answered, and which yet remains to some extent an open query.
Among domesticated animals—dogs, pigeons, and a few other species
in particular—the varieties produced by selection have been very
numerous and well marked, yet they still remain dogs, pigeons, etc.,
and there is no generally accepted evidence that a new species has
ever been produced by this method.!
Yet though much has been said on this question, it is by no
means exhausted. There is one important circumstance which does
not appear to have been considered, and which therefore gives war-
rant for a further review of the subject. It is not sufficiently borne
in mind that the production of, and experiments on, varieties of
animals and plants has been left almost entirely in the hands of
ordinary industry. Science has come in to examine the results, yet
has had little to do with the experiments. These have been gov-
erned almost solely by pecuniary considerations; yet it must be ad-
mitted that what may be admirably calculated to make money may
be valueless to science, and that had a long series of experiments
been conducted for scientific purposes alone, the results must have
z It is necessary to state, however, that many scientists hold that new
Species, and even genera, have been produced in domesticated animals.
The carrier pigeon, for instance, is looked upon as a well-marked and
persistent species, while variations in the dentition of dogs, of generic
value, have been observed. Changes of this character are of the kind
which it is important for scientific observers to endeavor to hereditarily
transmit, and render permanent.
146 Intelligent Selection.
been widely different from those that have appeared, and may have |
been far more significant. That distinct species could have been
thus produced is quite within the limits of probability.
We have named this process Intelligent Selection, as distinguished
from Natural Selection. Yet in reality, though the former is con-
ducted by man’s intelligence instead of by the unaided influences
of nature, there is no actual difference of principle between the
two methods of selection. The changes which proceed with inter-
minable slowness in the one case are greatly accelerated in the other ;
yet while Natural Selection is the work of nature unaided, Intelli-
gent Selection is but the work of nature aided. The influences
tending to favor and preserve variations which nature employs
occasionally and slowly, are frequently and rapidly employed by
man, and thus animals and plants exhibit wider variations under
man’s hands in years than they do under nature’s hands in centuries.
Yet the principles which control the preservation of varieties are
probably much the same in both cases, and all that man has done
has been to accelerate the process.
If, as is ordinarily believed, no new species or genera have been
produced by man, though such have abundantly appeared in nature,
a marked discrepancy would seem to exist between the action of
Intelligent and Natural Selection. But it must be borne in mind
that nature produces an extraordinary number of varieties as pre-
liminary to every new species that appears. Ordinary variations
are superficial, and of non-specific value. Variations in specifie
characters are probably of rare occurrence, and their preservation
yet rarer. Possibly they only arise as resultants of a long series
of minor variations in the same general direction. If such be the
case it is not surprising that the superficial variations with which
man has to deal seldom or never accumulate into characters of spe-
cific value—particularly in the lack of scientific direction.
Yet that species have not been produced by man is more an as-
sertion than a demonstrated fact. If we take the varieties of dogs,
for instance, such wide differences in size, form, and habits appear
that many of these varieties, if found in nature, would be at once
aecepted as well-defined species. Yet it is declared that these dis-
tinctions are but artificial, and would very quickly disappear if the
dogs were restored to nature. This assertion is ordinarily quietly
- accepted, yet it remains but an assertion. No one has ever proved
Intelligent Selection. 147
it. The fact is that while such dogs as preserve their natural
instincts and conditions with little impairment might regain their
original feral condition, those whose variation is extreme would
simply die out. They could not survive in the struggle for exist-
ence if immediately removed from the artificial conditions to which
they have been accustomed. Yet if two widely different varieties of
dogs were slowly restored to nature, being protected and fed until
they had learned the art of self-preservation without man’s care, it
is by no means improbable that they might retain their peculiar
characters of form, habit, and adaptation to particular food, and if
interbred for a considerable period might continue to interbreed.
Though there is no proof of this, there is no disproof. It is an
open problem, which can be settled only by experiment. The state-
ment that all variational differences would disappear if any of the
domesticated species were restored to feral conditions, is an unproved .
assertion, which cannot be verified without a much wider series of
scientifically-directed experiments than have yet been made. Doz-
ens of problems of this kind are settled in men’s minds. Very few
of them have been settled in fact.
It will be of interest, in this connection, to consider what has
actually been done by Intelligent Selection, and the influences which
have controlled its results. A mere glance at the subject shows us
that industrial and pecuniary considerations have almost solely been
at work. Among trees, for instance, the effort has been to select
fruits of large size, agreeable taste, and early or late maturity.
Among flower bushes, bright colors and odd shapes of petals, with
variations in the size of the flower and its number of petals, have
been the ruling considerations. Commercial value has been the
sole thought, and superficial variations only have been preserved.
A scientist would have watched for changes in the character of the
pistils and stamens of the flowers, and if such appeared, by their
- careful preservation might in time have produced undoubted new
species. Yet no extended series of experiments from this scientific
point of view has been made, so far as the present writer is aware.
Such changes may be of- comparatively rare occurrence and incon-
spicuous, yet there can be little question that they occasionally arise,
and they may be as susceptible to selective processes as any other
variations.
Among animals the purposes aimed at by trainers vary in the case
148 Intelligent Selection.
of almost every species, yet they are, as a rule, all industrial. In
the horse, for instance, the properties selected are speed, graceful-
ness of form, size, endurance, muscular strength, etc. In cattle
milk-giving properties and delicacy of flesh are sought. Sheep are
selected for fineness of wool and palatableness of meat. In swine
pork-yielding powers are the sole consideration. Among domesti-
cated birds, egg-laying powers are the main consideration in the hen,
while in all these birds delicacy of flesh is particularly considered.
Beauty of plumage and peculiarity of form are also favorite selective
properties, and particularly in the case of pigeons, which have .
yielded extraordinary diversities in this respect.
In all these experiments but two considerations have ruled : the
commercial value of the product, and its adaptation to man’s pleas-
ure. The money it will bring, and the enjoyment it will give to
man’s senses or his appetite, have been the overruling influences in
the selection of varieties of plants and animals, and if any variation
approaching specific value has been preserved, it has been through
chance rather than design. The characters sought for have been
superficial ones only, and in consequence superficial varieties mainly
have been obtained.
Had this long series of experiments in selection been conducted
by scientists, and for scientific purposes only, the results must have
been widely different. The commercial value of the product might
have been much less; the scientific value must have been
much greater. Among the innumerable variations in form and
character of animals and plants which incessantly appear, there must
be some of more essential and less superficial significance than others. _
Only the eye of a trained scientist could discriminate between these,
and by persistent selection of such variations, and neglect of all others,
there can be no doubt that the question as to whether species can be
produced by intelligent selection would have been far nearer settle-
ment than it is now.
In the case of only a few animals has the consideration in selec-
tion been other than to aid in the support or to administer to the
pleasure of man. Of the species in which wider purposes have
ruled, the principal is the dog. In this animal there has been little
tendency to subvert the natural instincts. Most of the domesticated
species have been so diligently cared for by man that they have lost
the ability to care for themselves, and the intelligence which they
Intelligent Selection. 149
possessed in their wild state has disappeared, and been replaced by
no new intelligence. There are no more stupid animals on the face
of the earth than the cattle and sheep of the farm. The hog and
the horse are less so, the former because he has preserved some
degree of feral independence, and the latter because his duties have
required some degree of intelligence.
But the dog has protected instead of being protected by man,
and has thus, except in some special varieties, retained its natural
intelligence. And its employment under man has been such as to
develop and preserve a new intelligence. The dog has been for
ages man’s companion. Its natural instincts have been retained,
while upon them have been laid new instincts of the same general
character ; and its powers of observation have been very greatly
widened and sharpened. It has been in contact with men mentally,
and its own mental powers have been developed thereby. And
finally selection, while devoted largely to peculiarities of form, has
been yet more largely devoted to peculiarities of habit—to intel-
lectual characteristics. Intelligence has been selected in dogs, and
in this alone of all domesticated species.
Of the other species on which selection for intelligence might
have been practiced, preventive circumstances have hindered. The
cats are natively as independent as the dogs. But the domestic cat
is only in a minor sense a tamed animal. In its reproductive habits
it is a wild creature. In consequence selection has been almost im-
possible, and very few varieties of cats have appeared. Such as-
exist, indeed, are probably due to natural, not to intelligent selec-
tion. The monkeys, and particularly the higher apes, would be
remarkably well adapted to selection for intelligence, but unfortu-
nately they do not breed well in captivity. The anthropoid apes
indeed, not only do not breed, but have never lived long in cap-
tivity, so that this promising field of selective experiment is practi-
cally closed. What results might arise could a fertile domestic race
of orangs or chimpanzees be produced, it is not easy to decide.
The marked intelligence and teachableness displayed by individuals,
with no hereditary powers but those derived from a wild-woods life,
is significant of remarkable developments could they be made to
breed in captivity. It would not be easy to give them new vocal
organs, and teach them to talk, but by long-continued selection their
brains might be developed in size and power until they became the
equal in intelligence of some of the lowest savage tribes of man.
150 Intelligent Selection.
Dogs are the only species which promise good results in selection
for intelligence, and it is highly desirable that experiments on them,
with this purpose in view, should be made. The desultory selection
which has been practiced has given excellent results in this direc-
tion, while many instances of high intelligence in individual dogs
have appeared. But no breeder seems to have made it his business
to make this intelligence the basis of his selective operations, though
it has been done to some extent without design, in the effort to pre-
serve high-bred varieties. It is desirable that a series of scientific
experiments with this object in view should be undertaken, the intel-
ligence of individual dogs being awakened as fully as possible, and
the same training applied to the offspring of these dogs during a
number of generations. The result could scarcely fail to be of
interest and importance.
In fact it is desirable that scientists should give some attention to
the general subject here considered—that of intelligent selection of
varieties of animals and plants for other purposes than those of com-
merce. Many results not now dreamed of might thus be attained,
and the problems of the origin of species and the limits of animal
intellect be brought nearer to solution. When such extraordinary
results have been produced by the chance methods .of selection of
superficial traits so far practiced, the adoption of scientific methods
and the selection of more significant characteristics would very
likely yield varieties of the utmost interest and value to science.
Editors’ Table. 151
EDITORS’ TABLE.
New popular scientific journals are appearing or are announced
from time to time. We have received the first number of the
American Geologist, which is published at Minneapolis. As its
title implies, its field embraces geology and all the immediately
allied and subordinate sciences. Its editorial corps embraces some
of our most able and accomplished geologists. It deserves success,
and our country is large enough to ensure this, if its people are
sufficiently interested in the subject to subscribe for it.
Another important journal is announced by a New York com-
pany, to be called Garden and Forest, which is to be a Journal of
Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry. Its editors are to be
Professors ©. S. Sargent and W. G. Farlow, of Harvard, and
Professor A. S. Packard, of Brown. This journal is designed for
a comparatively wealthy constituency, and will not be, apparently,
exclusively scientific, although its editorial corps is highly so.
So far as the publication of new scientific journals is concerned,
we cannot have too many of them if they are well backed or sus-
tained, financially. Unless this be the case, however, we regret the
loss of time and labor which they cause to their projectors and con-
tributors. Experts in science are not sufficiently numerous in this
country to enable us to spare any of them for popular work, unless
they are so compensated as to prevent any actual loss to their scien-
tific efficiency. It may be safely assumed that every really merito-
rious work of a specialist which is produced in this country will
have ten translators, even if his work reaches the American public
by way of Europe, before it is appreciated. Tt is easier to compile
than to produce.
We have had some experience of the financial aspect of the ques-
tion. The perils are many and various. The NATURALIST, although
now in its twenty-second year, has escaped shipwreck by little less
than a miracle several times. But the maxim, “ while there is life
there is hope,” has been as often verified, and the vigorous consti-
tution which comes of—modesty forbids us to say just what—has
triumphed, while many of our contemporaries have “joined the
majority ”—of popular scientific journals.
152 Recent Literature.
RECENT LITERATURE.
CLAYPOLE’S “ THE LAKE AGE IN On10.” !—The course of the
terminal moraine in Ohio is westward from the New York line to
about the middle of the State, after which it swerves south and
- southwest so as to cross into Kentucky. “The ice,” says our author,
“dammed the Ohio River above the site of Cincinnati, ” forming a
sheet of water which he names “Lake Ohio.” As the banks of
the Ohio are 400 to 500 feet high at Cincinnati, the ice must have
been thicker than this. If assumed at 500 feet, the rim of the ice
would be 365 feet above the level of Lake Erie. The entire south
of Ohio, a large portion of West Virginia, and portions of Ken-
tucky and Pennsylvania, including the site of Pittsburgh, must thus
have been under water, forming a lake some 400 miles by 200.
Professor Claypole, from the mass of the moraine, and other rea-
sons, assigns considerable time to the life of this lake before the ice-
dam gave way, at first to be repaired every winter, at last utterly.
When the glacier, in its further retreat, had crossed the water-
shed, the waters formed by its melting, unable to escape towards
the north, formed a series of smaller lakes in what are now the val-
leys of rivers flowing into Lakes Erie and Ontario. As a conse-
quence of the still farther retreat of the ice, these lakes became
confluent, the water was drained away from those that lay highest,
and carried off through the lowest water-gap, paving the way for
the formation of Lakes Erie and Ontario, which at one stage
formed a single vast sheet of w
For some time a narrow re A stretching across the St. Law-
rence valley held the waters of this great lake at a level of 700
feet above the sea
Professor Claypole traces the various steps of the ice retreat and
lake formation with much care, and illustrates his argument with
four maps. WNL
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Winchell, A. Prge ten oe or Elements of Geology. Chicago:
Griggs & Co. 1887. From the publishers
Kittl, E. Fe reas miocenen Tegel von Walbersdorf Sep-abd a.
Band I. d. n. d.k.k. naturhist-Hofnmuseums. From the author.
—Der goolonindien Bau der Umgebreng von Wien. 1887, From the
author.— Beiträge a Kenntniss der sepa Silugethiere von Mara
gha in Persien. Carnivoren. p. abd. a Ban Ha, nn.
a k.k. naturhist. T oraaa 1887. Froo thes editor
~ 1 The Lake Age i in Ohio, or Some Episodes during the Retreat of the
North American Ice-sheet. By E. W. Claypole, B.A., B.S.C. Edin-
burgh: Maclachlan & Stewart. 1887.
+
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 153
Schmalhausen, J.—Die Pflanzenreste der Artinskischen und Perm-
ischen pirate Seagate in Osten des europäischen Russlands. 1887.
From the au
Tschernyschew, Th. ge lege des mittleren und oberen Devon am
est-abhange des Urals. 1887. From the author
Nany, A.—Apéreu géologique de la partie sud-est de la gouverne-
tde Kiela. 1887.
Sion n, N.—Compte-rendu préliminaire des recherches geologiques
faites dans la partie septentrionale du gouvernement de la Tauride.
1887.
Federoff, E.—Note sur l'origine des ‘‘ schistes verts.’’ 1887.
Krasnopolsky, A.—Compte-rendu préliminaire des recherches geologi-
ques dans la partie du sud-est de la feuille 126. 1887.
Paviow, A.—Apéreu géologique de la region entre les rivières Swaga,
Barysch et Sawa dans la gouvern. de Simbirsk. 1887.
The five preceding poen are from the Bulletins du Comité geolo-
gique, St. Petersburg.
Day, D. T—Min eral MAA rces of the United States ; Calendar Year
1886. Dept. of the Interior. 1887
goro e C.—List of printed maps ot Calfornia. 1887. From the
aut
Lesley, J, P.—Annual Rep. of Geol. Surv. Penna. Part2. Oiland Gas
Region. 1887
some oag aa, ikea on the Anatomy of Echidna hystrix. Ext.
c. Nat. Sci. Phil. 1887.
TO W. H. iene and the Principles of Stock Breeding. 1884.
rom the author
ilson, E. B.—The Getta band of Lumbricus. — from the Jour-
nal of Morphology. 1887. From the author
Pohiman, J. ews beg Rep. Med. Press of Western N. Y. 1688.
From thea
Williston, N, E ioi of the North American Syrphide. Bull.
U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 31. From the author.
me ee Pateni der Siphonophoren. Jena. 1888. From the
Boen C.—Notes on the specific names of certain North Ameri-
can Fishes, Proc. Phil. Ac. Nat. Sci. 1887. From the author.
Winchell, N. H.—Fifteenth Annual komn of the eligi and Nat.
Hist. Surv. of Minnesota. 1887. From the author
pan C. S.—On the Histology of Salpa. Proc. Keak Nat. Sci. Phil.
1887. From the auth
Gegenbaur, C.—Zur Gee des Nagels.—Beitrige zur Morphol-
ogie der Zu unge.—Zur Kenntniss der Mamma-organe der Monotre-
men. - All from the author.
riep, A.—Bemerkungen zur reba nach del Wirbeltheorie des Kopf-
aoe ttes. From the author
Ee iad W. S. W.—An account of shia Institution and Progress
of the Colleae of Physicians of Philadelphia during a hundred
years. Phila. 1887. From the author.
154 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Goode, G. B.—The vasa serine and Fishery acute of the United
States. so A Geographical Rev the Fisheries
Industries and "Fishing Communities for 1880.. U. S. Comm. Fish
and Fichades
Schlosser, M. —Die Foxtel Lemurien, Chiropteren, Insectivoren, Creo-
donten und Carnivoren des europäischen Tertiars. 1 Theil. Wien.
7. From the autho
ee G. A.—An eae of the Reptiles and oe obtained
n Tenasserim by M. L. Fea. 1887. From the author
Punts A.—La Presqu’ile de Samara et les Géesalis From the
author.
Armsby, H. P.—Bulletin No. 1. Penna. State — Agricultural
Experiment Station. 1887. From the author
Andree, A.—Ein neues op a. d. Mitteloligociinen Meeresand des
hor
Mainzer-Beckens. 1887 om the aut
Forig C. ma un nouveau aes de Médusaire sii, Lipkea ruspoliana.
From the author
Soil W.—Note on Fossil Woods and other Plant Remains from the
Cretaceous and Laramie per ose of the Western Territories of
Canada. 1887. From the
Seeley, H. G.—Researches on or cis ese Organization, and Classifi-
. Cation of the fossil Reptilia. On Protorosaurus speyeri Von
ondon. 1887, Brats: the author
ee A aa of Sciences. —Memoirs of the Nat. Acad. Sciences. Vol.
- Part 2.
Bocourt, M. F. as te sur un sage. nouveau provenant de Guate-
mala, 1887. From the aut
Herrick, C. L. Big ong hc to ie oo of the Gulf of Mexico and
the South. 1887. From the author
as O.—On ts Homologies and Succession of the Teeth in the
Dasari 1887. From the author
Huth, E.—Die KI sb Sp mit PAIR a ih anger aie Hyg ihrer
Vorbreitage durch Thiere. Cassel. 1887. From the author
Davidson, T.—A Monograph of Recent Ersen poni, pes 2. ani
Linn. Soc. London. 1887. From the author
Hulke, J. k TETE Note on Polacanthus foxii. Phil. Trans.
oy. . London. 1887. From the author
Woodward, A: S.—On the veda ce Microdon badai Dixon, from the
Chalk of Sussex—a new species of Platax. Ann. and Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1887. Pror the a ai
Cotes, E. C. A Bs dea of the Moths of India. Part 1. Sphinges.
Swinhoe, C. From the author
Caed wW. S u Embryology of Lae and sg feed
bre t 1. Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London. 1887. From
sn
adri +, B. —Eocene Chelonia from the Salt Range. Mem. Geol.
urv. India, 1887. From the author
rehernphel Th. \ Carte géologique göni de la Russie d’ Europe.
Karpinsky, A ` Feuille 139. 1886. From the authors
Millspaugh, o. F.—American Medicinal Plants. Fascicle a Boericke
and Täfel. Philadelphia. 1884. From the publishers.
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 155
Thompson, E. E.—The Mammals of Manitoba. From the author.
Mills, W.—The Rhythm and Innervation of the Heart of the Sea-turtle.
1885.— Life in the Bahama Islands. Both from the author
Holmes, M. E.—The Morphology of the cardinæ upon ihe septa of
Rugose Corals. 1887. From the author
epeei pee die cetoide Natur der eraat: Sand. Abd.
nal. An 1886. From the author.
iog G. my The work of the International Congress of Geologists.
1887. From the author
wert Hee G.—Vegetable Parita and Evolution. 1887. From the
Rosai, d .—Prodranus der Algenflora von Böhmen. Prag. 1886.
From the author
Studnicka, F. S. “oda einer eb E des königreiches
Böhmen. Prag. 1887. From the author
Cam nell. D. H.—The te hgh ho of the Ostrich Fern. Mem. Bost.
c. Nat. Hist. Boston. 1887. From the author
156 General Notes.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.
present separate Mohammedan and Chinese towns can be traced.
The travelers followed the Yurangkash to its junction with the
Karakash, and then proceeded along the wider stream (the Kho-
ton) to the Tarim. After visiting the towns of Shah Yar, Kuchar,
Karashahr, and Kurla, Mr. Carey pushed on to the Lob-Nor dis-
trict. Miserable poverty seems the main characteristic of the Mus-
sulman Turki-speaking natives of the Lob district, against whom
their neighbors higher up the Tarim are much prejudiced. On
April 29, 1886, Mr. Carey started for a pass over the Altyn Tagh,
but the guide lost his way. After being compelled to burn the
riS of a tent for fuel, the less barren valley of Bokalik was
reached. After wandering in the mountains, guided only by a com-
pass and sextant, for eighty days without seeing a human being, the
party came upon several hundred armed pilgrims, and found that
they were between the Kuen-Lun and Khokosili ranges, just south
of the Angirtakshia Pass, and south of the Naichi valley, the point
aimed at. Here much difficulty was experienced in procuring food,
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
Geography and Travel. 157
as the supplies of the natives had run short. In the course of a
journey to a place called Hoiduthara in quest of barley, Mr. Carey
and his Tartar (Daspa) were the recipients of great kindness from
a young Lama, who, observing the exhausted condition of the pair,
rode to the town and ten miles back to bring them food. After 37
days the two rejoined Mr. Dalgleish with supplies.
Hajjar, the residence of the chief of the Thaichinenr Mongols,
was next reached. Our traveler characterizes the Mongols as timid
and poor, and so accustomed to being cheated by Chinese that they
cannot believe anyone will treat them fairly. Makhai, the Sai-
thang plain, and Sachu were the next points—the last a Chinese
town built of sun-dried bricks, mud, and timber. At Hami, a
Belgian and two Russians were found. At this point the travellers
turned westward, and after passing by Pichan, (the frontier post of
Kashgaria under Yakule Bey) and Turfan, made an excursion to
Urumtsi, the headquarters of the Chinese Government of Turkis-
tan. They then pushed on to the previously visited town of Kurla,
and returned to Ladakh via Kuchar, Aksu,and Yarkand.
r. Carey has thus visited almost every important place in Chi-
nese Turkistan except Kashgar, and he states that it is for the most
part purely desert, the only really good strip of country being in the
west, and composing Kashgar, Kargalik,and Yarkand. The Chi-
nese give complete religious toleration, repress crime well, and main-
tain a high prestige.
THe Tarm Disrrict.—The Tarim river had, in October, 1885,
a ope of three to five feet, and a width of about 135 yards at the
confluence of the Yarkand and Khotan. In summer the depth and
width, as stated by the natives, and proved by the state of the river-
bed, are thrice the above. It is only in summer that the Khotan-
daria flows into it. The Tarim thus seems to be navigable for
steamers from the confluence of the Yarkand and Khotan to the
Lob-Nor.
The map in a recent number of the Izvestia, embodying the
results of the fourth journey of General Przewalski (Prejevalsky)
in Central Asia, shows that the depression of the Lob Nor must
not be confounded with the Eastern Gobi, which latter is more ele-
vated, and falls by a steep terrace towards the depression of the
b-Nor. Thus the Tarim region is a depression of the high plat-
iar of ru Asia, limited on the east as well as on the north, west,
and south.
THe Mounratns or Stam.—Mr. J. McCarthy, who has for seven
years been superintendent of surveys in Spain, states that the chain
of mountains which runs on the west in an unbroken range to Sing-
apore, has peaks of 7,000 feet between Burmah and Siam, while one
peak in the Malay Peninsula reaches 8,000 feet. The eastern range,
158 General Notes.
which forms the watershed between the rivers flowing into the Chi-
nese sea and the Meinam Kong (Mekong), has peaks of 9,000 feet.
Another range, which leaves the western range near Chingmai
(Zimmé), forms the watershed between the Meinam and Meinam
Kong valleys. Famous salt wells exist in this range at the source
of the eastern branch of the Meinam.
Arrica.—M. Dours? ADVENTURES IN THE SAHARA.—M.
Douls, disguised as a Mussulman, landed from a Canary Island fish-
ing boat at a point between Cape Bojadorand the Rio de Oro. The
first Moors he met suspected him, and made him a prisoner, but by
persevering in his rôle he was finally admitted:as a brother into the
tribe, which proved to be a section of the terrible Ulad Delim, the
robbers of the Western Sahara. For five months he wandered with
them, exploring the desert of Uaran and Djuf, the great depression
of the Sahara. In March last he was at Tendaf, the great slave
market of the Northern Sahara. This oasis has greatly increased
in size since Dr. Lenz’s visit in 1880. Taking leave of the nomads
at Glimin, he proceeded across the Atlas through the country of the
Berbers of Sus to the city of Morocco. Here he was suspected and
thrown into a dungeon, but was fortunately liberated through the
representations of Sir Kirby Green, the English ambassador, who
reached the town the same evening.
AMERICA.—SUBMARINE V ALLEYS OF THE CALIFORNIAN COAST.
—Prof. Geo. Davidson (Bull. Cal. Acad. Sci.) describes the subma-
rine valleys discovered off the Pacific Coast of the United States.
Within forty or fifty miles of the shore south of Cape Mendocino the
lateau of the Pacific reaches a depth of 2,000 to 2,400 fathoms.
here is usually a marginal plateau ten miles wide to the 100 fathom
curve, beyond which the descent is sharp to 500 or 600 fathoms.
In this marginal plateau several remarkable valleys have been dis-
covered. One of these is in Monterey Bay, heading to the lowlands
at the bend of Salinas river; and another off Point Hueneme, at
Geography and Travel. 159
the eastern entrance of the Santa Barbara channel ; there are one or
two off the southern point of Carmel Bay, while the deepest one
reaches far into the bay. Near Cape Mendocino, just north of a sub-
marine ridge extending from Point Delgada to Shelter Cove, is a
deep valley which breaks through the marginal plateau and runs
sharply into the immediate coast line. The head of this valley, at
oue and one quarter miles from shore, is 100 fathoms deep ; where
it breaks through the 100 fathom line it is 400 fathoms deep. The
slopes of the sides are very steep. Midway between this and Point
Gorda is another valley 150 to 300 fathoms deep, reaching 520
fathoms where it breaks through the 100 fathom line. Another
valley between Point Gorda and Cape Mendocino is 450 fathoms
deep at a point six and one half miles southwest by south from the
cape. This valley is a wide one; with green mud at its bottom.
EXPLORATIONS ON THE YuKON.—Dr. G. M. Dawson and
party left Victoria in May last with the object of exploring
the tributaries of the Upper Yukon. He proceeded up the
Stikine River as far as Dease Lake, and when, on June 18th,
the ice broke up, went down the Dease River and into the
forks of the Dease and the Liard. Mr. McConnell here separated
from the party with the purpose of descending and surveying the
Liard and Mackenzie, and will probably winter at Fo
Simpson, on the latter river. Dr. Dawson went up the Liard and
Frances Rivers to Frances Lake, which drains into the Liard ;
then made a portage of fifty miles to the Pelly River, which they
descended to the confluence of the Pelly and Lewis; and then
ascended the Lewis, crossing the .Chileot portage to the head of
Lynn Canal.
GEOGRAPHICAL NeEws.—Mr. Cuthbertson has reached the
summit of Mount Obree, one of the culminating peaks of the Owen |
Stanley range. He makes it only 8000 feet high, instead of
10,246, as was determined by angular measurements taken by the
tlesnake expedition. He states that at 2,500 feet above the sea
he passed the point reached by Messrs. Hunter and Hartmann.
The population of New Zealand in March, 1886, exclusive of
Maoris, was 578,482, an increase of 33,549 over that of 1881.
The figures include 4,527 Chinese, only 15 of whom are women.
= Maoris number 41,969, and 2,254 half castes living with the
aoris,
M. Marche has paid a visit to Saipan, in the Marianne Toe
No trace of a volcano or volcanic rocks, such as have been reported,
was found, and Tapochas, the highest peak, was by barometrical
160 General Notes.
measurement found to be 1,345 feet high instead of 2,000, as
formerly supposed. The other hills reach 600 to 700 feet. There
is very little fresh water.
The Danish Government has decided to despatch an expedition
to Iceland this coming summer, to effect hydrographical measure-
ments. Great fiords and waterways still remain unmeasure
The “Statistique de la Superficie et de la Population des
Contrees de la Terre,’ by M.E. Lavasseur, gives the following
table of areas and populations for 1886 :—
POPULATION.
Area millionof Density of sq.
sq. kilometres. In millions. kilometre. Ratio to total,
Hhurope -i -sciis 10.0 347 34 23.4
PRE O canes 31.4 197 6 13.3
sia - 43.0 789 19 58.1
a O Biss 11.0 38 3.5 2.6
North America....... 23.4 80 3.4 5.4
South America includ-
ing Australasia..... 18.3 32 Er 2.1
` 136,1 1,483 10.9 100
Nearly two-thirds of mankind are concentrated in about eleven
millions of square kilometres, viz.: West Central and South
Europe Cr millions of inhabitants, 3.5 millions of kilometres);
the Anglo-Indian Empire (254 and 3.6); and China, Manchuria
and Japan (430 and 4).
Dr. Krause has etki at Accra on the Gold Coast absolutely
without means, having been compelled to leave his collections and
baggage behind through the opposition of the natives.
M. J. Thulet, from observations taken on the Clorinde combined
with those of Mr. Buchanan on the Challenger, has prepared a
series of longitudinal and transverse sections of the Gulf Stream.
It is like a river, and has a steeper slope towards the United States
than towards the ocean. The great St. Lawrence current, coming
from between Cape Breton Island and St. Paul, collides with the
Gulf Stream, lessens its speed, and leaves as a sort of submarine
delta the banks extending along the United States coast to the
great bank of Newfoundland. The eastern polar current skirts
Newfoundland, strikes the Gulf Stream at right angles, and since
its waters are a little lighter than those of the Gulf Stream, mixes
with them, and almost entirely arrests them. The cooled waters
spread out in a general north-easterly direction, but there is no
longer any definite current.
Geology and Paleontology. 161
e researches of General Tillo on temperature have led him
to conclude that the continents are, as a whole, 3° cent. colder than
the oceans. between the latitudes of 90° N. and 50° S. The New
Continent is 3° colder than the Old; and the Atlantic 2.6°
colder than the Pacific. The northern hemisphere contains 14 per
cent. of the cold regions, 35 per cent. of temperate, and 51 per cent. of
hot regions. Dr. Supan’s estimate, reached by a different method,
gave 15, 32 and 53 per cent. for these regions.
GEOLOGY AND PALZONTOLOGY.
THE VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE PuERCO Epocu.—I have
recently revised my material representing this fauna, and have
added eighteen species to those already known. One of these belong
to a new genus, viz.: Onychodectes, allied to Conoryctes (Creodont).
The Puerco formation lies on the Laramie in North Western
New Mexico and South Western Colorado, and is largely covered
by the Wasatch Eocene in both regions. It was discovered by
the writer in 1874, at its eastern outcrop of about 500 feet thick-
ness, and was identified by Endlich and Holmes in Colorado, in
1876, where the thickness reaches 1000 to 1200 feet. On the San
Juan river, its thickness is 700 feet, while at its western outcrop,
south of that river, its thickness is 800 or 900 feet. While the
formation possesses lithological peculiarities, no clue to its impor-
tance in geologic chronology was known until the discovery of
vertebrate remains was made in 1880, by Mr. David Baldwin.
With the evidence derived from this material the writer has been
able to interject into the series of epochs of geological time a period
which must have possessed many peculiarities, and which differed
in such important essentials from those which preceded and from
those that followed it, that an immense interval between them is
proved to have existed, such as had not been previously suspected.
The rich fauna which it contains displays characters which indicate
others yet to be discovered before connections with other epochs both
prior and subsequent can be known.
The vertebrate fauna includes up to the present date one hun-
dred and six known species. Four species of Mollusca have been
discovered, which have been determined by Dr. C. A. White, of,
the U. S. National Museum. They are Unio rectoides White;
Helix adipis White; H. nacimientensis White, and Pupa leidyi
Meek. The first named is found in the Wasatch, and the last in
the Laramie; the two other species are peculiar. Besides these;
the only other indications of organic life at that period is petrified
_ Wood of undetermined trees, which is quite abil :
162 General Notes.
The character of the vertebrate fauna is indicated by the follow-
ing table:
Be Se re reer cca 12 BUDOLUGEIE i's ors cere so secceues 52
Crocodilitiws wise Ci cides 3 SOOMIOGGONRs oobi oe sce veel 3
Testudinata ................. 5 CPODGOIND sss 05 ecan an 49
Rhynchocephalia............ 3 DRROODOGM. 5 6 vic sae oa eaen 28
CPO oso ed ease ceieee cs 7s 8 1 Quadrumana...... ........ 4
NOT isk ieee Peas Condylarthra. i.. ccris 24
Mammalia. ocassion s n 93 ly Pode. ei na
Marsupialia. a eceso oaint ona
TOME 6 seee o a 106
In 1874, the writer advanced the proposition that the ancestors
of modern placental mammalia would be found to be “ plantigrade
pentadactyle bunodonts.” This anticipation was partly realised in the
fauna of the Wasatch epoch subsequently discovered, but is complete-
ly so, in the characters of the mammalia of the Puerco epoch.
the placentals, and probably the Implacentals also, were “ plantigrade
pentodactyle bunodonts.” More than this, the placentals nearly all
present the primitive type of dendition of the maxillary series,
since the superior no less are nearly all of the tritubercular type.
But four species out of the eighty-seven placentals are quadrituber-
cular. In the inferior molars the tuberculosectorial, or quinque-
tubercular type of dertition is extensively prevalent, but not so gen-
erally so as the superior tritubercular. Thus of the eighty-seven
placentals sixty-four present the primitive type.
n its relations to other faunæ, the Puerco is totally distinct as
to species. No species comes to it from an earlier epoch, and none
continued unchanged after it. Of genera not widely distributed in
time, one of lizard-like Rhynchocephalia, Champsosaurus, comes
over from the Laramie, with a genus of tortoises Compsemys.
Another genus of tortoises, Dermatemys, probably commences at
this epoch, to continue through the Wasatch and Bridger Eocenes
to the present time, since it still exists in Mexico. Among Mam-
malia, one genus only continues later, since Didymictis is found in
the Wasatch and Wind-river formations. None other continues
after the close of the Puerco. Not only this, but the entire family
of the Periptychide ceased at that period. The same is true of
the Amblypod family Pantolambdide. One of the most im-
portant features of the fauna is, however, the presence of eleven
species of the Marsuspialia Multituberculata, a suborder which com-
menced in the Triassic age, and which terminated its existence so
far as the Northern Hemisphere is concerned, with the end. of the
Puerco epoch. This series of animals gives a Mesozoic character
to the fauna, which is not necessarily counterbalanced by the
characters of the remaining types. The placentals are in all
probability those which existed during the latter part of Mesozoic
time, and the absence of some of the forms of the Eocene increases
the weight of the impression thus produced. Thus two orders
Geology and Paleontology. 163
universally present in the Eocenes, the Perissodactyla and the
Rodentia, are wanting from the Puerco.
In conclusion it may be safely assumed that in the Puerco
fauna, we find the ancestors of the species of Eocene and of later
times. In the Tzeniodonta we get ancestors of Tillodonta and
probably of Rodentia and Edentata. In Creodonta we get the
ancestors of the Carnivora, in the family of the Miacide. In
the Condylarthra, we get the ancestors of the Diplarthra and
Amblypoda, and in the Puerco Amblypoda the ancestors of those
of the following epochs. Hence the investigation of this fauna
possesses an especial interest for the mammalogist and for the
evolutionist, as well as for the geologist proper.—E. D. Cope.
SCHLOSSER ON THE CÆNOZOIC MARSUPIALS AND Uneuicu-
LATA.'—The first part of this work contains all of the Unguicu-
lata, except the Edentata, Rodentia and Carnivora. The last-
named order will form the second part. The work is an important
one, in quarto form, and the first part is illustrated with five plates.
This supplements the American works on the same subject and
brings it up to the present time, with minor exceptions.
The present author shows throughout, his fine appreciation of the
points of structure of the vertebrate skeleton, and he makes judi-
cious use of them, from a systematic point of view, although one
observes, perhaps, a tendency to rather more minute taxonomic
division than the circumstances warrant. The work is also char-
acterized by a thorough acquaintance with the literature of the
subject. Important additions to our knowledge are made in every
department.
e can only mention here the descriptions of the little-known
genera of Von Meyer—Dimylus, Cordylodon and Oxygomphius, the
first two remarkable forms of Insectivora. To the Creodonta he
adds the new genus Pseudopterodon, which is founded on a species
of about the size of a fox (P. ganodus), allied to Pterodon.
Dr. Schlosser continues to exclude the Miacide from the Creo-
donta; but he has not been aware that Scott shows that the lum-
bar zygapophyses have the characters of the other members of that
order or sub-order. For some unaccountable reason he places Estho-
nyx in the Edentata. Numerous important additions are made to-
the Chiroptera, in the genera Vespertiliavus and Pseudorhinolophus,
ne of the most striking discoveries recorded is the fact that the
sup canine teeth of the Lemurs of the present period are
really the anterior premolars, as in the Artiodactyle genus Oreo-
* Die Affen, Lemuren, Chiropteren, Insectivoren, Marsupialier, Creo-
donten u. Carnivoren d. europäischen Tertiärs, von Max Schl
I Theil. Alfred Hélder. Wien, 1887.
' 164 : General Notes.
don. This obvious fact has, curiously, escaped the observation of
all the numerous naturalists who have studied this group.
consequence, he separates the eocene forms, which have all true
canines in the lower jaw, asa distinct sub-order—the Pseudolemur-
idx. Should this be really a sub-order, the name Mesodonta would
have been the proper one to employ ; but if a family only, then the
term Adapide is applicable—which is, indeed, used by Dr. Schlosser
in a restricted sense. Most of Dr. Schlosser’s new material is derived
from the French phosphorites.
We congratulate the author on the fact that no person can study
this subject henceforth without the aid of this memoir.
LYDEKKER’s CATALOGUE OF Fosst MAMMALIA IN THE BRIT-
isH Museum, Parr V.'—We have in this part of Dr. Lydekker’s.
Catalogue a valuable contribution to the subject of which it treats.
The light thrown on questions of affinity and taxonomic usage is
considerable, and supplements from a conservative stand-point the
opposite tendencies of Dr. Schlosser. Our own view of the case
leads us to adopt in most cases the aurea mediocritas between these
two distinguished cultivators of the science. There is one point,
however, in which we are compelled to agree with Schlosser and
not with Lydekker, and this in a question of scientific purism of
which the latter is in all other cases so able a defender. ‘This is in
the matter of requiring a description,—whether good or bad mat-
bev = as to the rule,—for a genus and other division above
es, as an essential basis for a nomenclature. Æ. g., in the “ Cat-
logue” we find the name Platychcerops used instead of Miolophus,
although no reason for the separation of the former was ever given
by its describer. Perhaps no description was given to Miolophus
either. In that case Dr. Lydekker has the right to select
whichever name he prefers, or to give a new one. One other point.
- On page 161, under the genus Nototherium Owen, we read, “ Since
this is the only known genus, its characters are the same as those
of the family.” Now, no one knows better than the author of
this e seriés of works, that this cannot be the case !
urse it is impossible for an author to keep pace with
rapid additions to knowledge made in other countries. We
only call etal here to the additional definitions of the Cre-
odonta to be found in Professor Scott’s late memoir on that order,
and refer to my own later studies, now in press, on the fauna of
the Puerco Epoch. But we object to the slight value attached
by Dr. Lydekker to the presence or absence of the scapholunar
bone in this order (p. 305). Finally, we rise to two questions
- 1Catalogue of Fossil Mammalia in the British Museum, Part V., con-
taining Tillodontia, Sirenia, Cetacea, Edentata, Marsu upialia, Monotrem-
ata, and Supplement. rede Richard Lydekker, B.A., F.G.S., ete-
London. 1887. -
Geological News. 165
of privilege. The first point is found in a foot-note on page one,
viz.: “Cope (Vert. of the Tertiaries, p. 195), who regards the out-
ermost cutting-tooth as an incisor, states that it is absent in Tillo-
therium and present in Anchippodus, and that in the former there
are seven and in the latter six cheek-teeth.” This paragraph com-
mits me to two errors of which I am not guilty. Let “ outermost
cutting-teeth ” be changed into innermost cutting-teeth, and I am
correctly quoted. As to the cheek-teeth, I state that my informa-
tion as to Tillotherium is derived from Marsh, and as to Anchip-
podus I give the number with a question. The second point I wish
to refer to is the assertion in a foot-note on page 379, that I state
“that the inflection (of the mandibular angle) is absent in European
forms” (of Peratherium). I here referred to the species called
Oxygomphius by Von Meyer, some of which are true marsupials,
but others are, according to Schlosser, Talpide. If there be an
error, it is that of Von Meyer.—£. D. Cope.
GEOLOGICAL News—GENERAL.—The “American Geologist”
sends forth its first issue in January, 1888. It announced that it is
to be a non-partisan publication, open to the properly-worded opin-
ions of all, from the most powerful to the most obscure, and “ com-
mitted to no theory whether of construction or obstruction.” Its
editors and proprietors are Profs. S. Calvin, of Iowa University; E.
W. Claypole, of Buchtel College; A. E. Hicks, of Nebraska State
University; N. H. Winchell, of Minnesota University; Dr.
Persifor Frazer, of Philadelphia; Dr. A. Winchell, of Michigan
University; and Mr. L. O. Ulrich, of the Geological Survey of
Illinois
_ Prof. Claypole utters (American Geologist) a most distinct warn-
ing to those who, merely because the wish is father to the thought,
believe the supply of natural gas to be inexhaustible. Natural
gas, oil, and salt-water are geologically connected, and, where the
strata are arched upwards, usually collect in the order named.
After a certain part of the gas has been drawn off the oil will rise,
and lastly the brine. Many. once productive oil-wells are now
7
little more than brine wells, though their age is but twenty years.
Gregorio Stefanescu, chief of the Geological Survey of
Roumania, has issued a geological atlas of that country in four-
teen colored sheets. Diluvial and alluvial strata are largely devel-
oped, but crystalline rocks occupy the northern portion bordering on
Transylvania.
SILURIAN.—Messrs. U. P. and J. F. James publish in the
Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History a revision of
166 General Notes.
the species of the Monticuliporoid corals of the Hudson River group.
They admit two genera, Monticulipora and Ceramopora, the former
with the sub-genera Dekayia, Constellaria and Fistulipora.
DeEvontan.—Prof. Calvin (American Geologist) describes Strep-
tindytes acervularie, a new species and genus of tubicolar Annelida
from strata of the Hamilton period, at Robert’s Ferry, Iowa.
CARBONIFEROUS.—Dr. G. J. Hinde, in a paper read before the
British Association at Manchester, brings evidence in support of
the organic origin of the “chert” in the carboniferous limestone
series of the British Isles. He believes that the Irish cherts at
least are derived from the accumulation of the skeletal elements
of the siliceous sponges.
Jurassic.—Prof. H. G. Seeley has shown, by superimposing a
figure of the reputed clavicle upon the bone figured by Mr. Hulke
as clavicle and interclavicle of Iguanodon (Quart Journ. Geol.
Soc., vol. xli. pl. xiv.) that the supposed sutures are fractures, and
that the supposed interclavicle has no existence, except as an ossifi- -
cation posterior to the reputed clavicles. Prof. Seeley urges the
analogy of these bones with the reputed pubes of crocodiles, and
concludes that they are pre-pelvic.
Prof. Seeley concludes, from examination of fcetal Plesiosauri
found in a phosphatized nodule of Lias, that the Plesiosaurus was
viviparous, and that the species in question, probably P. homo-
spondylus, produced many young at a birth.
Tertiary.—R. Lydekker (Geol. Mag., July, 1887) states that
all the so-called fossil Alligators of the Old World really belong to
the genus Diplocynodon, and since the crocodiles (C. palustris and
C. sivalensis) which approach nearest to this genus in the structure
of the cranium and form of the maxillo-premaxillary suture on the
palate are confined to India, it becomes interesting to know
whether the existing alligator recently described from China, may
not show signs of affinity with Diplocynodon.
Mr. Lydekker concludes that Crocodilus ehampsoides and C.
toliapicus, from the London clay, are but the young and old indi-
viduals of a single species, for which the original name of C. spen-
ceri Buckland, should be retained.
H. B. Geinitz identifies Nautilus alabamensis Morton, and N.
lingulatus von Buch with Nautilus ziczag Sowerby, and places the
form in the genus Aturia. The species is from the Tertiary of
Alabama and Mississippi.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 167
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY:!
PETROGRAPHICAL News.—As the result of a recent trip
through the southern extremity of Africa, E. Cohen? has succeeded
in giving us quite a good deal of information regarding the Palæo-
zoic formations of the Cape States. The pre-Devonian schists of
the coast region have been treated in another place.* In the pre-
sent paper the author confines himself to the various members of
the Devonian and Carboniferous systems, and other formations
overlying these. The most widespread rocks in this region are
sandstones, graywackes and conglomerates. e Karroo formation
(Triassic) Cohen divides into a lower, a middle and an upper series.
The lower series comprises fragmental rocks with an occasional in-
tercalated layer of an eruptive. The middle series is characterized
by the number of layers of eruptives intruded between those of
sedimentary rocks as well as by the number of dykes cutting across
the latter. The eruptives, with a single exception, are plagioclase
augite rocks. By far the larger proportion of these belong to the
diabase family, many of them being olivine bearing. In the latter
the peecilitic structure is frequently well marked. The diabases,
quartz diabases, proterobase and diabase porphyrites, of both the
intercalated layers and the dykes, are regarded by Cohen (as the
result of careful analyses) as mere phases of the same magma.
The single exception to the prevailing plagioclase-augite eruptives
mentioned above is in the case of a dyke-cutting olivine diabase.
The material of this bears a strong resemblance to mica syenite.
At the points where the diabase layers come in contact with the
interstratified sandstone beds the latter have been subjected to con-
siderable alteration. The unaltered rock is an ochre-yellow, fine
la sandstone, made up of quartz and colorless mica, besides a
ittle iron hydroxide and earthy material. As it approaches the
diabase it gradiially loses all traces of its bedding planes, and in it
is developed a green chloritic mineral, whose nature was not deter-
mined. Nearer to the eruptive the chloritic mineral increases in
quantity, and in addition there is a development of biotite and _
a disappearance of the earthy material, which has probably gone to
make up the biotite. In immediate contact with the diabase the
sandstone has been entirely changed to a typical black hornfels.
In it all the constituents have taken on a concretionary form.
Analyses of the unaltered sandstone and of two typical altered
phases teach that the change in the nature of the sedimentary rock
is not due to any addition of diabase material. The dyke rocks
produce but little alteration in the neighboring fragmentals. In
1 Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, Madison, Wisconsin.
s Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1887, Beil. Bd. v. p. 195.
Ib., 1874, p. 460.
? .
`
168 General Notes.
one case, howeyer, where a dyke cut sandstone, it was noticed that
biotite plates were developed parallel to the sedimentary planes of
the sandstone, while muscovite formed perpendicular to these planes.
The remainder of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the upper
members of the Karroo formation and to the Pleistocene deposits,
Another interesting paper is by K. Dalmer,’ on the quartz
trachyte of Campiglia, in Tuscany. The glassy variety of this quartz
_trachyte is a fine-grained gray rock, consisting of a glassy ground-
mass in which are porphyritic crystals of sanidine, quartz, biotite and
cordierite, with occasional crystals of plagioclase. The quartz grains
all possess a rounded outline in cross section, and are surrounded by
a zone of glass. In addition to the minerals mentioned above there
also occur in this variety prismatic crystals of some member of the
scapolite group light red garnets, apatite and zircon. In a felsitic
variety scapolite is lacking. In the neighborhood of the quartz
grains the felsitic groundmass of the rock is replaced by a zone of
glassy material. The cordierite is less fresh and it is in the glassy
variety, and in many instances is entirely replaced by pinite. In
a third variety, occurring in dykes, the groundmass is completely
crystalline. These dykes of grano-porphyritic trachyte were
regarded by Lotti’ as quart porphyries, and as apophyses of a so-
called granite mass which occurs about fifteen hundred metres
distant from them. This mass was likewise examined by Dalmer,
who, while he finds it to possess the characteristics of a granite
porphyry, believes that its present condition is due to the conditions
under which it cooled, and that the three trachytes and the granite
porphyry are all portions of the same magma, which, from the
nature of its surroundings, gave rise to rocks which from their
structure and mineralogical composition must be classified under
different heads.
Professor ©. R. Van Hise? communicates some additional‘
notes on the enlargement of hornblende and augite in frag-
mental and eruptive rocks. In the altered diabases of the Penokee-
Gogebic Iron-Bearing Series crystals of uralitized augite are seen to
have attached to them long acicular crystals of a very light green
hornblende, which extend out from the uralite even into the sur-
rounding decomposed feldspars. In other cases unaltered augite is
surrounded by an almost sinuous sheet of amphibole. In both
cases the crystallographic axes of the two minerals coincide. Dr.
G. H. Williams® describes the alteration of ilmenite into rutile, in
altered diabase from the vicinity of Quinnesec, Mich. Irregularly-
shaped pieces of ilmenite are surrounded by a network of little
prismatic crystals of rutile.
1 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete., epi ii., p. 206.
s Atti della Societa Toscana. Vol. vii.
. JO
me . .
5 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., "1887, ii. P 263.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 169
Alf. Gerhard ' calls attention to the fact that most of the rocks
described as soda-granites are really ordinary granites in which
the proportion of sodium is little greater than is usually found in
granites. The Ulfserud (Sweden) rock, however, appears really
to contain a plagioclase approaching very near to albite in com-
position.
MINERALOGICAL NEws.—Dihydro-thenardite is the name given
by Markownikow’ to a substance found ina thin colorless bed on
the shore of Lake Gori, in the Gouvernement Tiflis, Russia. In com-
position it is a sodium sulphate differing from thenardite and mira-
bilite in appearance and its content of water. An analysis
yielded 16.15 per cent. of water, corresponding to the formula
Na, SO, + 2 H,O. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system.—Laist
and Norton! report the occurrence of a new antimonide from near
Mytilene, Asia Minor. The new mineral resembles silver in color
and lustre. It is massive and brittle. Its hardness is 4.-5. and its
specific gravity 8.812. Upon analysis it yielded: Cu = 73.37
per cent., Sb = 26.86 per cent., corresponding to Cu,, Sb, (breit-
hauptite = Ni Sb, dyscrasite = Ag, Sb- Ag, Sb.)— A Barium
manganite from near Austinville, Wythe county, Virginia, accord-
ing to Mr. Walker,’ is of the following composition :
Mod: RO BO SiO, (FeO. ALO)
68.86 7.51 14.42 5.08 1,98 2.23
It is found imbedded in psilomelane and ferruginous clay in the
form of “radiating fine fibrous needles.” Its color is brownish-
black. Hardness = 1.5. Sp. Gr. = 3.27. It differs from var-
vicite (Mn, O, + H, O) and lepidophzite (Cu Mn, O + 9 H, O)
m ey E:
ROSENBUSCH’S “ MASSIGE GESTEINE.”—The second portion of
Professor Rosenbusch’s Massige Gesteine? fully sustains the good im-
pression produced by the first part. This concluding portion of
1 Ib., 1887, ii., p. 267. :
* Jour. d. russ. phys.-chem. Gesells. 1887 [I], p. 252; Ref. Ber. d.
deutsch. chem. Gesells., 1887, p. 546.
s oon aon Jour., X., Jan. 1886, p. 60.
ie
* Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete., 1888, i., p. 65.
: Amer, Jour. Sci., Jan. 1888, p. ol.
ent ikroskopische Physiographie der Massigen Gesteine, 2 Abt. Stutt-
ê American Naturalist, Feb. 1887, p. 172.
170 General Notes.
the great handbook of petrography embraces in its treatment the
effusive rocks, which are divided into the palæovolcanic and the
neovoleanic classes. Under the former are included the quartz-
porphyries, the quartz-free porphyries and keratophyres, the porphy-
rites, the augite-porphyrites and melaphyres, and the picrite-
porphyrites. We miss here the elæolite porphyrites, which have
been relegated to the questionable group of dyke rocks, and the
quartz-porphyrites, which have been merged into the porphyrite
family. The melaphyres are now members of the augite-por-
phyrite family, and the keratophyres have found a home among the
quartz-free porphyries. There are nowhere as sharp distinctions
made between rocks of different mineralogical and chemical compo-
sitions as were found in the first edition of the Mussige Gesteine.
The classification has become somewhat more complicated than the
old one, but at the same time it seems more reasonable in the light
of recent investigations. Among the neovoleanic rocks we find the
liparites and pantellerites, the trachytes and quartz-free pantellerites,
the phonolites, the dacites, the andesites, the basalts, the tephrites
and basanites, the leucite rocks, the nepheline rocks, the melilite
rocks and the limburgites and augitites. We here also miss a few
familiar groups. The augite andesites are classed with the ande-
sites. The tephrites and basanites have been united into one family.
The entire group of glassy rocks has been eliminated, and the indi-
vidual members have been included ‘among those families of the
neovoleanic rocks with which they are genetically connected. The
discovery of a triclinic potassium sodium feldspar by Férstner’ in
the sodium-rich liparites of the island Pantelleria has resulted in
the separation of the old liparite family into two subfamilies—
the liparites proper, containing sanidine, and the pantellerites
containing anorthoclase as their principal feldspathic constituents.
Each family among both the palæovolcanic and the neovoleanic
effusives is composed of numerous species or varieties, each one of
in the book be interesting.
1 Zeits. f. Kryst., 1877, i., p. 547, and 1883, viii., p. 125.
Botany. 171
BOTANY.!
THE Grass FLORA OF THE NEBRASKA PLAINS.—The plains of
Nebraska were originally covered in great part with various small
grasses to which the common name of “ Buffalo grass” was applied.
The true Buffalo grass (Buchloé dactyloides Engelm.) formerly
extended eastward to or nearly to the Missouri River, but now it
is rare east of the 100th meridian. On the curious depression near
the city of Lincoln, to which the general name of “Salt Marsh”
has been given (although it is in no sense a marsh), small patches
of Buffalo grass may still be found. It is a peculiar grass, and
when one has once noticed a patch of it, he will at once be able to
recognize it even at a distance. It invariably grows in patches, and
in each patch scarcely anything else grows. It does not intermingle
with other species but holds complete possession of the soil, forming
a dense mat which chokes out all opposition.
Northwestward, up the Elkhorn Valley, Buffalo grass does not
appear in any quantity until very nearly the 100th meridian is
reached, although much of the land is still uncultivated. Going
westward from Lincoln, small patches are to be seen in Clay county
(98th meridian), and from this point it increases as one goes up the
plain above the 2,000 ft. line. In the Loup valley, however, Buf-
falo grass is not abundant, while in the Republican it is very com-
mon, In the western portion of the State, from the Lodge Pole
Creek on the south to the White River country on the north, it is
still very abundant.
ramma (Bouteloua oligostachya Torr.) is still found throughout
the State, although it is by no means abundant in the eastern two-
thirds. It is often called Buffalo grass, and from it a short hay is
sometimes cut in the latter part of summer. Its relative, the
Muskit or Mesquite grass (Bouteloua racemosa Lag.), has a still
wider distribution, extending eastward into Iowa and Illinois, and
westward across the plains.
In the far-west, above the altitude of 3,500 feet above the level
of the sea, another of the grasses of the plains proper appears.
It resembles Buffalo grass so closely in general appearance, that it
may well bear the name of False Buffalo grass (Munroa squarrosa
Torr.), although it belongs to an entirely distinct genus.
Upon the saline and alkaline soils Salt grass (Distichlis maritima
Raf.) grows in abundance. I have seen it upon all parts of the
great Nebraska plain.
The grasses which are most noticeable in nearly all portions of
this region are the Blue Stems or, as they are sometimes called, the
Blue Joints. The great Andropogon provincialis Lam, and its
smaller relative Andropogon scoparius Michx. oceur in company
with Chrysopogon nutans Benth., the latter often called Bushy Blue
1 Edited by Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb.
172 General Notes.
Stem. Throughout all parts of the State they occur in company,
and they are common and abundant in nearly every locality. How-
ever, in the eastern part of the region they grow taller, and are
more inclined to entirely cover the ground. The first-named often
attains a height of from six to eight feet. In the western part of
the region Andropogon saccharoides Swz., a feathery topped species,
occurs along with the preceding.
n the eastern counties Wheat grass (Agropyrum glaucum R. &
8. ) appears in little patches, which are plainly noticeable on account
of their glaucous green color. As every botanist knows, this spe-
cies bears a remarkable resemblance to Quack grass (Agropyrum
repens Beauv.), but it is not as much inclined to spread by its under-
ground rootstocks as its eastern relative. As we go westward this
Wheat grass increases in abundance, and by the time we reach the
altitude of 3,000 to 5,000 feet, it is one of the most valuable of the
hay grasses, and is relied upon very largely for forage by the farm-
ers and stock growers.
Two other grasses are very common upon the plains, viz., Hato-
nia obtusata Gr. and Koeleria cristata Pers. They occur every-
where upon the drier lands, and are emphatically Prairie grasses.
With them we find very commonly Sporobolus asper Kth., a late-
growing species, which remains standing all winter long, with leaves
wrapped around its partly enclosed fruiting panicle.— Charles E.
Bessey.
Sotms-LAvuBAcH’s PAL#OPHYTOLOGIE.—A few months ago
this na aed work was brought out by Arthur Felix in Leipzig.
Its seope may be indicated by the following summary of its con-
tents: Thallophytes and Bryophytes receive 19 pages; Coniferæ, 33 ;
ycadeæ medulloseæ, 20; Cordaiteæ, 19; Ferns, 53; Lepidoden-
dreæ, 48 ; Sigillarieæ, 23: Stigmaria, 32; Calamariez, 50; Sphe-
nophyllez, 13. Fifty or more pages are devoted to smaller 'zroups,
and to the discussion of genera of doubtful affinity. Forty-nine
wood-cuts add materially to the value of the volume.
BorantcAL Work IN New York.—The reception of two
reports from the State botanist enables us to note the progress of
systematic botany in New York. The statement of the work of
the botanist for 1885, published in the Thirty-ninth Annual Report
of the New York Museum of Natural History, 1886, includes
descriptions of many new species of fungi, among which are seven
species of Agaricus, one of Russula, two of Boletus. The New
York species of the genera Pleurotus, Claudopus and Crepidotus
are fully described.
In the Bulletin of the New York State Museum of Natural His-
tory, Vol. I., No. 2, which bears date of May, 1887, Mr. Peck
describes fifty-four species of fungi, among which is an interesting
Botany. 173
Morchella (M. angusticeps), which is apparently related to M. conica
Pers. Descriptions of the New York species of the genera Pax-
illus, Cantharellus and Craterellus follow in the usual lucid style
of the author. Measurements are give (unfortunately in fractions.
of an inch), and good notes as to habits and habitats.
e New York Pyrenomycetous fungi are listed according to:
Saccardo’s nomenclature, and for convenience the former names are
given in a parallel column. The Bulletin closes with a monograph
of the New York species of Viscid Boleti. Fourteen species are
carefully described, two of which (B. subluteus and B. americanus)
are new to science. Two good plates accompany the Bulletin.—
Charles E. Bessey.
Tue Deatu or Dr. Asa Gray.—On the 30th of January, Dr.
Asa Gray, the venerable botanist, passed away, after an illness of
two months. e was born in Oneida county, N. Y., November
18, 1810, and was consequently a little more than 77 years old when
he died. Although spared to such an advanced age, with undi-
minished mental and bodily vigor, which enabled him to continue
work into his 78th year, yet all the world of science will mourn
his. death, regretting that so great and kind a master should be
taken away. A longer notice will appear later.
BoTANICAL News.—The November-December number of Hed-
wigia contains a heliotype of the lamented Georg Winter, with a
sketch of his life and labors. r. C. Sanio now assumes editorial
(= Nuphar sagittifolia Pursh.); Castalia pudica Salisb. (= Nym-
phea odorata Ait.) In other words, our Nuphars are hereafter to
174 General Notes.
be Nymphzas, and our Nympheas hitherto are hereafter to be
known as Castalias. In the January Gardener’s Monthly the
suggestion is made that certain species of Cactus may become of
value as fodder plants for domestic animals. The January
Torrey Bulletin contains Studies in Typhacez, by Thomas Morong;
New and Little-known Grasses, by F. L. Scribner, and New West-
ern Grasses, by George Vasey, besides other articles of interest.
Professor James suggests the name Anthophyta for Phanerogamia
—a very good name too. The January Botanical Gazette con-
tains a portrait of Dr. W. Pfeffer, of the Botanical Institute at
Tiibingen, with a sketch of the institute, illustrated with a plan
and views. The index to Vol. XII., which accompanies this num-
ber, is a model among indexes. Certainly no reader of the last
year’s volume of the Gazette can complain, in Carlylean phrase, of
its “ indexlessness.”
ZOOLOGY.
FUNCTIONS oF INVERTEBRATE Orocysts.—Professor Yves
Delage has been performing some experiments with a view of as-
certaining the functions of the so-called ears of invertebrates. His
results (Archives de Zool. gén. et Expérim. v. 1886) go to show
that besides auditory capacities, they possess regulative faculties.
When the octocysts were destroyed, the animal could not regulate
its movements. This he shows is not due to the injury to the
nerve, because the extirpation of the eyes did not produce disorder
in the movements. His experiments were mostly upon Crustacea
and Cephalopods:
Parasitic Rorrrers.—The marine rotifers which are parasitic
upon the curious Crustacean, Nebalia, are grouped in a amily
Seisonide and the species of these found in the Bay of Naples
have recently been studied by Dr. L. Plate. He adds to the two
genera before included (Seison and Saccobdella) a third, Paraseison,
with four new species. In these the trochal discs have been re-
duced and may be represented by a few sensory sete ; the intestine
terminates cecally in either six; the reproductive glands are at the
sides of or above the intestine ; the tail has no sucking disk, but on
the rounded extremity open the glands which serve to attach the
ectoparasite to its host. The paper may be found in vol. vii. of
the Naples Mittheilungen.
MEDITERRANEAN SYNAPTIDZ.—Dr. R. Simon contributes to
the Naples Mittheilungen (vii. p. 272, 1887) an account of the
Mediterranean Synaptide, embracing the species digitata,
Zoology. 175
inhærens and hispida. These forms live on, not in the sand, in
this not resembling our American, ©. girardi. There are some
detailed accounts of the development of the calcareous plates of
these as well as other Echinoderms. The author also describes a
new species .of Chirodota (C. venusta), the first recorded from the
Mediterranean.
BEDDARD ON EARTHWORMS.—The literature of the Lumbri-
cidæ is rapidly assuming frightful proportions, so that none but
the specialist can keep track of it. Mr. F. E. Beddard has re-
cently added much to our knowledge of these forms. In the Pro-
ceedings of the Zoological Society (p. 154, 1887), he describes as
new Thamnodrilus gulielmi from British Guiana. This genus re-
sembles Anteus by the absence of dorsal pores,in having a single
pair of spermathecæ in the seventh segment, and in position of the
nephridial opening. In Thamnodrilus, however, the clitellum is
much shorter, and the differentiation of the nephridia into three
series is another character separating them. Later in the same
volume (p. 544), he describes Cryptodrilus fletcheri (n.sp.) from
Queensland. It possesses calciferous glands and in its nephridia
it is much like Mierocheta but their orifices vary in position from
segment to segment. ‘The seminal vescicles occur in segments 9
and 12, but not in the intermediate segments. A third paper
(Jour. Anat. and Physiol. xxii, October, 1887) deals with the
structure of the ovum in Hudrilus sylvicola from British Guiana.
Here the ovary is enclosed with muscular walls, the muscles being
continuous with those of the oviduct, and its interior is divided by
trabecule into separate compartments, which are packed with ova
and germinal cells. The history of these is traced, the most notice- -
able feature being the metamorphosis of some of the germinal
cells to form an epithelial cap on one*end of the ovum, while
others degenerate and form a fibrous looking, and more or less
uid mass around the ovum. This degeneration may have nutri-
tive functions, but Mr. Beddard suggests its analogy to the liquor
folliculi of the mammalian ovary, a view which receives some sup-
port from the fact that the most nearly ripe ova are not always
found nearest the entrance to the oviduct.
ZOOLOGICAL Nores. — Prorozoa.—Mr. H. B. Brady cata-
logues the recent species of Foraminifera, occurring in Great Britain
in the December number of the Journal of the Royal Microscopical
y. The classification adopted is the same as that used in
the Reports of the Voyage of the “ Challenger.” 267 species are
enumerated, but one (Zrochammina robertsoni) being regarded as
new. The genus Haliphysema is regarded as a Foraminifera.
A. C. Stokes has recently described some more American
Dr.
Infusoria, In the American Mon. Micros. Jour. (p 141) he adds —
*
176 General Notes.
to our fauna Anthophysa stagnatilis Hexamita gyrans Chloromonas,
Balanitizoon gyrans, Gerda vernalis Rhabdostyla vernalis, R. cheeticola,
Vorticella similis, V. vernalis, V. parasita, V. conica, Epistylis tincta,
and Lagenophrys obovata. In the Annals and Magazine of Natural
History for August, 1887, he adds: Onychodromopsis flexilis (n. g.
et sp.) Tachysoma agile (n. g. et sp.) T. mirabile, T. parvistylum,
Litonotus vermicularis, Loxodis magnus, Oxytricha biforia, O.
hymenostoma, O. acuminata, O. caudata, Histrio inquietus, H.
complanatus, Euplotes variabilis, and Chilodon voraz. e last
species feeds voraciously upon diatoms, some of which were actually
. .
longer than the infusorian.
Podarcella is the name given by Girard to a stalked Rhizopod
allied to Arcella which occurs in the sea near Fécamp. The stalk
is about one and one-half times as long as the lorica.
orms.—The veteran, P. H. Gosse, describes twenty-four new
British rotifers in the December number of the Journal of the
Royal Microscopical Society. The specimens were from both fresh
and salt water.
Those interested will find a valuable article on the anatomy and
histology of the Aphroditaceæ, by Dr, E. Rhode, in the second
volume of Schneider’s Zoologische Beiträge, and one on the
anatomy and histology of Wunice, by E. Jourdan, in the second
volume (seventh series) of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles.
Jourdan thinks he has founed the terminations of the nerves in
the muscles ; does not regard the “ giant nerve fibre” of the vent
cord as nervous but rather as a supporting structure ; describes the
eye, found no glandular structures in the digestive tract, and de-
scribes the segmental organs, pedal glands, and pigment organs.
CrusTAcEA.—It is usually believed that hermit-crabs appro-
priate dead shells for their homes but Mr. Lucas, in the Transac-
tions of the Royal Society of Victoria, states that he witnessed a
hermit attack a living Fasciolaria and little by little tear it in
pieces, leaving the shell at last entirely empty. He also recalls the
fact that, at least in tropical waters, the shells occupied by hermit-
crabs have a fresh appearance, and he thinks that the crabs depend
upon living shells rather than dead ones to form their homes.
This certainly is not the case with the hermit-crabs in the colder
Atlantic,
Leichmann has settled by means of sections the existence of
two polar globules in the egg of Asellus aquaticus. His short
paper may be found in number 263 of the Zoologisches Anzeiger.
Entomology. 177
The complete account of J. Nusbaum’s investigations on the
embryology of the opossum shrimp (Mysis) may be found in
Lacaze Duthier’s Archiv. Zool. Expérim. et Générale, vol. v. An
abstract of his preliminary note was given in our pages last year
(Am. Nat. xxi. p.
ENTOMOLOGY.!
THE CAUSE OF THE GROWTH OF GaLis.—Herr M. W. Bey-
erinck has published a paper regarding the growth of the gall
produced by a saw-fly, Nematus capree, on Salix amygdalina.
This article appears to be an important supplement to the observa-
tions of Adler, published some years ago. I have not seen the
sewn paper by Beyerinck, and therefore quote from an abstract
of it.
“ The production of the gall is undoubtedly due to the matter se-
creted by the poison-gland, which is, consequently, homologous with
the poison of Hymenoptera aculeata; when the insect does not
deposit an egg in the wound which it makes, the quantity of albu-
minous matter poured out by the vesicle is always less than when
an egg is deposited ; by careful observation it is possible to assure
oneself that the size of the gall is always proportional to the size of
the wound and the quantity of albuminoid matter introduced. By
an experiment, in which the deposited egg was punctured by a fine
needle, it was shown that the gall is due to the parent and not to
the egg; but, of course, in such a case’ the gall remains small;
neither the egg nor the larva are necessary for its production, though
their presence exercises a certain influence on the regularity of the .
development. ”
“ The author has endeavored to discover whether there is any
persistent alteration in the protoplasm of the plant or not. If we
Suppose that the substance implicated in the substance of the gall is
like the protoplasm of the plant, a living body able to grow indefin-
itely, or a substance which impresses a persistent modification on the
protoplasm of the plant, we ought, if we should succeed in pushing
the development of the gall as one of its parts beyond the stage at
which it ordinarily stops, to find that the characters of the gall
remain invariably the same. If, on the other hand, the gall-form-
ing matter can not either grow itself nor form a new protoplasm
capable of reproduction, we ought, under similar circumstances, to
find the characters of the organ, whence the gall was developed,
- 1 This department is edited by Prof. J. H. Comstock, Cornell Univer-
sity, Ithaca, N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice, etc.,
should be sent.
les Néerland. Sei. Exact. et Nat., XXI. (1887), pp. 475-92.
our. Roy. Mier. Soc., 1887, p- 746 7
178 General Notes.
reappear. Experience has shown that the second is the condition
which it obtains ; a normal leaf modified by the gall-forming material
grew into a normal leaf, and a root into a root.
“ The galls of Nematus are possessed of extraordinary vitality ;
those of N. capree are found living long after the leaf is dead; N.
viminalis, which is found on Salix purpurea, exhibits really remark-
able properties ; although abandoned by their inhabitants at the
beginning of autumn and being surrounded by damp mould during
the winter, they not only remain perfectly turgescent, but some of
them are able, in the following summer, to begin a new life. Galls
cannot be inherited. The specific material secreted by Nematus
capree—and what is true of it is probably true of other forms—is
an albuminoid substance which acts as an enzymatic body.”
HOMOLOGUES OF ARACHNID APPENDAGES.'—Herr A. Lendl
has studied the development of Epeira diademata with reference to
the much-discussed problem of the homologies of the appendages.
The general conclusions of his investigations are as follows: (a)
bes first pair of appendages represent antenne ; this is suggested by
eir origin, position, motion, jointing, and innervation from the
supra-cesophageal ganglion. (b) The small tubercles under the
upper lip resemble mandibles in their origin and in the connection
of their ganglia with the cesophageal ring. They appear more like
mandibles in the embryo than in the adult. (c) The homology of
an 188 the second nd pair of u i in insects.—Jour. H Mae.
SYNOPSIS OF THE APHIDID& OF MINNESOTA.—Bulletin No. 4 of
the Geographical and Natural History Survey of Minnesota is a syn-
opsis of the Aphididee of that State, b Professor O. W. Oestlund, of
the University of Minnesota. In this synopsis there is included a
careful account of all the species of plant-life found in that State,
together with notes on their habits. Many new species are described,
and one new genus. The American species not yet found in Min-
nesota are indicated ; and there is given a “ List of North American
plants with the species of Aphides known to attack them.”
Aw UNPUBLISHED ILLUSTRATED WORK ON NORTH AMERICAN
ee —Dr. Hagen calls attention ? to “An unknown or for-
1 Math. v. Naturw. Ber. aus Ungarn, ae bad pp. 95-100.
ae ily Americana, vol. III, p. 1
*
Embryology. 179
gotten illustration of North American Sphingidee,” a copy of which was
presented to Harvard College by Mr. Wm. Calverley, of Barnegat,
N. J., in October, 1887. The work consists of twenty-seven
quarto plates of figures of Sphingide, and one of Papilio culverleyi.
Dr. Hagen gives a careful description of the work, with a table of
contents of the plates. Asa copy was also given by Mr. Calverley
to the Library of Cornell University, I am able to add a few facts
of interest.
EMBRYOLOGY?
Hertwie’s* Trext-Book or HUMAN AND VERTEBRATE EM-
BRYOLOGY.—This very valuable hand-book of vertebrate embry-
ology has just been completed by the publication of the second part,
and, to those who know German, it will be a most welcome contri-
bution to this very important subject.
Dr. Hertwig’s little treatise is published in ‘a convenient form, in
* Proc. Ent. Soc. Phila., 1864, pl. X.
* Edited by Prof. Jno. A. ta am Philadelphia.
3? Lehrbuch der Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen und de
r
Wirbelthiere. Von Dr. Oscar Hertwig. Octavo, pp. viii, 507. Gustav
Fischer, Jena, 1887-1888.
180 General Notes.
large type, and with illustrations, which leave little to be desired.
While the purpose of the work is the same as that of Kélliker’s
Grundriss, viz., for medical students, it presents certain admirable
features not met with in the just-named classical and beautiful work
of the venerable savant who holds the chair of anatomy in the Uni-
versity of Würzburg. The wonderful and accurate figures which
adorn the pages of Kölliker’s writings on embryology are no less
attractive than the luminous style in which his expositions are
couched. But in the Grundriss only two types are appealed to—
viz., the Bird and Mammal, in order to unravel the intricacies of
embryology as applied to the needs of the medical man.
With larger opportunities for study, and as the author of many
classical contributions to the embryology of the lower types as well
as through studies upon the maturation and fertilization of the egg
in various types, Dr. Hertwig approaches his subject equipped with
a range and profundity of knowledge not surpassed by any recent
writer. His studies in experimental embryology—during which
e, in association with his no less distinguished brother, Richard
Hertwig, reached results of the most startling significance in caus-
ing multiple impregnation of a single ovum by previous immersion
in dilute solutions of narcotics or anesthetics—are still fresh in the
minds of specialists. His no less interesting studies upon the
phenomena of fertilization of the egg in echinoderms entitle him to
rank amongst those pioneers of modern embryology who have given
us a basis for a rational theory of heredity, founded, not upon
abstract speculations, but upon carefully observed facts.
Through the observation of these facts by Hertwig and others it
has been possible also to enunciate the doctrine of the continuity of
germinal plasma and the laws of geotropy of the ovum; while his
Ceelom theory, published in 1881, has already borne fruit in the
admirable English treatise of Professor Haddon, which was noticed
about a year since in this journal. This cælom theory supplements
that of the now universally accepted gastrula, and makes it possible to
present the facts of embryology in such a manner as to render their
comprehension easy and significant. While the protective coverings
of ova—i.e., the primary and secondary investments of the eggs of
various types—have not been as fully discussed as they might have
been, and the existence of a third or tertiary system of deciduous
investments, derived from the segmenting oyum itself in the higher
forms, has not hgen perhaps clearly recognized, on the whole the
work commends itself as the most satisfactory manual which has
yet appeared for. those who have not the time to enter upon a special
course of study in this branch of scientific discipline.
The author has succeeded, in the compass of two hundred pages,
subdivided into thirteen chapters, in presenting in a novel and in-
teresting manner what it is essential that the young naturalist, or
medical student should know of the sexual elements; the matura-
Embryology. 181
ably give us important additional light.
he manual of Dr, Hertwig will doubtless fill a lene want ;
and it is to be hoped that it will be made accessible to the English-
reading student through a translation by some capable person. As
an aid in understanding many questions in pathology, physiology,
the structure of the brain and mechanism of the nervous system,
this little work will undoubtedly be found to be of great ogee
lightening the burden of the overtaxed medical student in his
182 General Notes.
efforts to master the intricacies of the anatomy and histology of the
adult human body.—J. A er
Mr. O. P. Hay’s OBSERVATIONS ON THE BREEDING-HABITS
or AmpHiuMA.—In the last number of this journal (page 95) an
tie E was given of how the Amphiuma coils herself
about her The description of the eggs and embryos is so
strikingly Tike ‘that of Ichthyophis glutinosus, a limbless, worm-like
salamander,—the development of which has been worked out by the
Sarasin Brothers from material collected in Ceylon,—that it is very
important to call attention to this resemblance and its probable sig-
nificance.
Within about two years Professor Cope called attention to the
fact that the structure of the skull of the Cecilians and of Amphiuma
showed that these two forms were related. It now turns out that
the females of these two types have the same habit of coiling them-
selves about their ova, which in both cases are laid in strings, with
constrictions separating them, somewhat like a string of beads, the
individul ova in both being ‘also of about the same size. This
confirmation of Professor Cope’s conclusions as to the taxonomic
relations of these two types is a very interesting instance of the way
in which embryological data may become available. It may also
be noted that in some of the Cæcilians there are three plumose or
feathered branchie arising close together, and saa pathy similar to
those described by Mr. Hay in the young of Amphiuma
It is to be hoped that that gentleman will be good enough to
somewhere publish carefully-drawn figures of a. eda! of
Amphiuma, as wellas of the embryos.—J. A. Ryder
ARCH XZOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. ! e
The Anthropological Society of Washington has renewed and
enlarged its sphere of usefulness. It has taken a new departure,
in fact three new departures. It has elected a new president; it
has become an incorporated society, and it has commenced the pub-
lication of a quarterly journal under the direction of an editorial
committee. The name is American Anthropologist, the first num-
ber appearing January, 1888. The typography is in the highest
order of the art. The article on the Chane-abal (four-language)
tribe and dialect of Chiapas, by Dr. Brinton, Professor in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, being done as to excite the admiration of
all interested in the typographic art. The contents of the first
number, in addition to the article just mentioned, are “The Law
1 This department is edited by Thomas Wilson, Smithsonian Institu-
tion, Washington, D. C.
Archeology and Anthropology. 183
of Malthus,” by Dr. Welling ; “The Development of Timekeeping
in Greece and Rome,” by F. A. Seeley; “ Anthropological Notes
on the Human Hand,” by Dr. Frank Baker. A future number
will contain an article “ From Barbarism to Civilization,” by Major
Powell, Director of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, a continuation
of his history of man from savagery to barbarism.
Among the papers read before the society, of great value, and
which we hope to see published ere long, was the prayer of a Nav-
ajo shaman, by Dr. Washington Matthews, U.S. A.; a linguistic
map of North America, by Mr. H.W. Henshaw, of the U. S. Bureau
of Ethnology, in which the author showed the existence, the con-
dition and the relationship of the various Indian languages and
dialects in all North America. The discussion of the Nephrite
ansston, by Profs. Clarke and Merrill, was also interesting and
valuable,
Success and of practical value would require the co-operation of
European anthropologists. Without it the proposed congress might
be but slightly more important than the meetings of the section of
anthropology in the Association for the Advancement of Science. If
the co-operation and promise of attendance of the anthropologists
of Europe has been secured, the success of the project is assured.
b An attempt was made to hold such a congress at Athens, Greece,
ut it failed, owing to want of co-operation combined with the un-
settled state of the country. But is not the time too short between
rate and June to correspond with the European anthropologists,
‘stant and widely scattered as are their residences? Is it possible
oe their co-operation? Possibly it has already been done?
ey will take much interest in an international anthropological
Congress in America; many of them will gladly attend if the in-
Vitation is given within sufficient time, and they will feel grieved,
than eee ® offended, at any arrangement which would leave
ou
he Centennial Celebration of the destruction of the Bastile takes
Place in the summer of next year (1889) in Paris. The Parisian
184 General Notes.
anthropologists will undoubtedly strive for the International Con-
gress to be held in their city during that time. Their claim could
be made with great show of right and would scarcely be ignored.
It would be a source of regret if these two commendable projects
should be made to interfere with, or nullify, the good that each
might do. 7
CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY.—The importance of the subject of
Criminal Anthropology has not been properly appreciated in our
country. I doubt if any branch of the social history of man can be
studied with such practical benefit to the whole people.
Laws are still passed, and courts sit in its administration, as in
olden time, the theory being to punish the criminal, not out of
revenge, but for the prevention of crime. But in this principal
object, the prevention of crime, the world has changed but little,
and it is doubtful if it has improved any. There have surely been
improvements in modern times in criminal jurisprudence, but they
have been rather in matters of detail, pleading, practice, etc, In-
dictments are more simple and direct. The disqualifications of
jurors are lessened, many matters of mere form have been brus
aside, all tending to the presentation of the truth to court and jury.
The examination of the defendant as a witness is fast becoming a
necessity. But with all this the science of criminal biology has
received but slight attention from lawyers or law-makers. This,
_ when done, must be done by anthropologists. The anthropologists
of Europe are more interested in this work than are we of the |
United States. They have taken the initiative. An international
convention met in Rome in the autumn of 1885, and devoted a
week exclusively to criminal anthropology. In France the ques-
_ tion of the recidivists presses hard upon the attention of the govern-
ment. I saw a man stood up in the dock who had been then con-
victed of crime forty-two times. The Island of New Caledonia, in
the South Pacific, serves as a prison for those who have been con-
victed of felony more than thrice. The Anthropological Society of
Paris has taken up the subject and is now studying it seriously. By
a law of France, all executed criminals, possibly only those of
Paris, are delivered to this society, and in its Musee Broca are now
to be seen all their articulated skeletons with a bit of cork ars
the void made by the guillotine in the cervical vertebra. I fee
that I can speak on this subject with more than ordinary authority.
I have practised at the bar as a lawyer with reasonable success for
twenty-five years, not so much, however, in the criminal branch.
During my six years’ consular life abroad there arose cases by
which my attention was turned to the criminal system under the
Code Napoleon. I was a member of the international congress for
the reform and codification of the law of nations, and in my studies
Archeology and Anthropology. 185
of later years I have mixed, to a great extent, the sciences of law
and anthropology, and I cannot too much exalt the investigation and
study of criminal anthropology. But it should be practical as well
as theoretical. The lawyer and legislator should be brought into
communication with the anthropologist. Their co-operative labors
would serve to elucidate the subject in a scientific as well as a prac-
tical manner, and would result in the lessening of crime and the
general improvement of the body politic. A move in the right
direction has been taken by the New York Academy of Anthro-
pology at its meeting, January 3, 1888. The subject was divided
into two sections, and the program of questions suggested for dis-
cussion was as follows:
CRIMINAL Brotoay.—1. What categories of criminals may we
distinguish ? and what are the fundamental characteristics, physical
and psychical, which they display ?
2. Is there a general bio-pathological constitution which pre-
disposes its subject to the commission of crime? how does it origin-
ate, and what form does it assume?
hat is the proper classification of human actions, based on
the affections which give rise to them? What effect does the edu-
cation of the moral nature have upon the passions, and, indirectly,
upon crime? :
- Does the number of suicides stand in inverse ratio to the
number of homicides?
5. Epilepsy and moral insanity in prisons and insane asylums. —
Malingering among the insane.
7. The utility of a museum of criminal anthropology.
8. The influence of atmospheric and economic conditions of
crime in America.
CRIMINAL Socioto¢y.—1. Should the theories of criminal an-
thropology be embodied in the revision of the penal code? and why?
2. The function of the medical expert in judicial procedure.
3. The best means for securing indemnity from crime.
4. The best means of combating relapses into crime (reci-
divism),
5. Crimes of a political character. |
6. Ought students of criminal la} to be admitted to penal es-
tablishments? and under what conditions ?
The circular making the announcement, then continues :—
of him, and this knowledge can only be gained by systematic, in-
telligent observation of his physical and mental habits, supple-
186 General Notes.
mented by an exhaustive analytical comparison of the facts observ-
, with a view to their right classification and interpretation.”
Papers on the topics were to be read by Hon. A. C. Butts and
Hon. Geo. H. Yeaman, of the New York Bar; Judge Calvin G.
Pratt, of Supreme Court, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Foster L. Backus,
of Brooklyn; Pro ae J. Reese, of University of Pennsyl-
Vian William’ J. Mann, Es sq.; E. P. Thwing, M.D.; Prof.
Moritz Benedict, of Witenes and others.
The Bar Association of the District of Columbia has proposed
an international or interstate law congress, to be held in the city
of Washington, on the 22d of May, 1888, to which shall be invited
representatives of all other bar associations, judges of courts, pros-
ecuting officers, and lawyers whose eminence in their profession en-
title them to that recognition. Ido not know whether this will
result in a permanent organization or not. But if so, I would sug-
gest and strongly urge that it should have a section devoted to
criminal anthropology ; and that anthropologic societies and con-
gresses should do the same. By this means professional lawyers
who are amateurs of anthropology, and professional anthropologists
who may-be amateur lawyers, would have opportunities for the
accomplishment of great good in their respective sciences.
MICROSCOPY .!
GERLACH’s EMBRYOSCOPE.—The embryoscope, devised by Dr.
Gerlach, supplies a great and long-felt desideratum in experimental
embryology. It is a mechanism for closing hermetically, a circular
opening, made with a trepan, in the shell of the hen’s egg; and it
serves the purpose of a window, through which the living ‘embryo
np be directly observed, and its development followed from day
to da
The instrument consists of two parts : A mounting-ring
(Aufsatzring) to be firmly cemented to the tel. 2. A key-
piece with glass front, which screws into the ring and closes it
air-tight.
In the Cut. A represents the embryoscope in perspective, and B,
in section. The metallic mounting-ring is 1} mm. thick, an
a lumen 2 cm. in diameter. The lower edge (Ar) is bevelled and
saddle-shaped so as to fit the equatorial surface of the egg, while the
upper edge is flat. From the outer surface of the ring, two
Savaro oaraid bars (Z) project in opposite directions. On its
inner surface, a little above the lower edge, is a diaphragm (Md)
* Edited by C. O. Whitman, Milwau
2 Anatom. Anzeiger, II, Nos. 18 and Hs “i887, p. 583.
Microscopy. 187
with an opening 13 mm. indiameter. Resting upon this diaphragm,
and corresponding with it in size and shape, is a second diaphragm
of thin wax-cloth (Wd), which serves as a packing-washer for the
ey-piece.
The key-piece of the embryoscope consists of a low, metallic
cylinder, closed by a disk of glass (G), which represents the window
that is to cover the artificial opening in the shell. The upper part
of the cylinder expands peripherally to form a rim with a milled
edge. This rim has two notches opposite each other, into which
fit the arms of a small wrench, by the aid of which the key-piece
can be tightly screwed down. There is also a short, narrow, verti-
cal canal (Vo) or vent, the lower end of which must open in the
middle of the key-piece ring.
The accessory apparatus required in the use of the embryoscope
consists of (1) a trepan, (2) a guide-ring for the same, (3) a metallic
Jork, and (4) the key or wrench before mentioned.
_ The above-named pieces, together with a punch to cut wax-cloth
ms, and six embryoscopes, may be obtained from Reiniger,
a
F edge of the diaphragm.
e guide-ring for the trepan has the same construction as the
188 General Notes.
key-piece, except that it has no glass disk. It serves to steady as
well as guide the trepan during the process of cutting.
The fork has two notches at the ends of its prongs, fitted to
receive the two bars of the mounting-ring. When adjusted to the
bars, the fork serves as a means of holding the embryoscope
securely, while screwing or unscrewing the key-piece. °
The wrench, the use of which has already been explained, is similar
in construction to the wrench used for mathematical instruments.
e mounting-ring is fastened to the egg by means of a cement
consisting of two parts of wax and three parts of colophonium. The
cement is hard and brittle at the ordinary room-temperature, but
becomes soft and kneadable when held in the hand for a few
moments. After warming the mounting-ring over a gas or a
spirit lamp, a roll of the softened cement is pressed into the space
which must be completely filled between the lower face of the
diaphragm and the lower edge of the ring. As soon as the ring
becomes sufficiently cool, it is pressed firmly to the equatorial
surface of the egg, and the excess of the still soft cement, which is
thus forced outward and inward beneath the ring, should be
removed before it becomes brittle, by the aid of a small, sharp-
pointed blade. In order to avoid injuring the blastoderm, which
might occur if the hot ring were fastened to the shell directly over
it, it is best to fix the ring to the side rather than the top of the egg-
After the ring has been securely fixed and the superfluous cement
‘removed, the exposed edges of the remaining cement, seen beneath
the lower edge of the ring and the inner edge of the diaphragm,
must be covered with a coat of an alcoholic solution of yellow
shellac. This may be applied with a small brush, care being taken
to cover the cement completely, and as little of the egg-shell as:
possible.
After the shellac has dried, a process which is completed in
twelve to fourteen hours in the open air and in six hours in the
incubator, the shell may be trepanned.
Antiseptic precautions are required in opening the _ An
oblong porcelain trough or glass dish is first filled with a 3%
solution of carbolic acid, and in this are placed the instru-
ments to be used in the operation: a glass rod, a medium-sized
brush, small shears, forceps, the trepan, and the guide-ring. Before
using, these instruments are dried with carbolized cotton, and after
using returned to the dish of carbolic acid.
r washing the hands in dilute sublimate or carbolic acid, &
perfectly fresh egg is painted with the three per cent, solution
carbolic acid, and then dried with carbolized cotton. The small
end of the egg-shell is then cut out with the shears, and the thick
white poured with the aid of the glass rod into a clean dish, leaving
the yolk and the thinner white in the shell. The white is to be
Microscopy. 189
used in screwing in the key-piece, and must therefore always be
prepared beforehand.
After these preparations, the egg to which the mounting-ring has
been cemented is disinfected in the manner above described, and
placed in an egg-carrier with the ring uppermost. The inside of
the ring is then brushed with carbolic acid, which is shaken out
after one or two minutes and replaced by a 4% solution
of common salt, which is also allowed to remain from one to
two minutes, and then completely removed by means of carbolized
cotton. The guide-ring is now screwed in, and the egg trepanned
from the side, in order to avoid injuring the blastoderm. The egg
is next plaeed with its opening upward, and the guide-ring removed.
When the trepan is withdrawn, the excised piece of shell often
comes with it, and sometimes the underlying shell-membrane. If
this is not the case, the two pieces must be removed separately by
the aid of the pincers. Care must, of course, be taken not to
injure the blastoderm and the zona pellucida. .
The thin white, which was left with the yolk in the shell, is
allowed to flow over the glass rod upon the exposed blastoderm
until the ring is filled, care being taken to avoid air bubbles. The
wax-cloth diaphragm is next taken from the dish of carbolic acid,
dried in blotting-paper, drawn through the thick white, and inserted
in the ring in close contact with the metallic diaphragm ; and then
the key-piece, previously washed with carbolic acid and dried with
carbolized cotton, is slowly screwed down. The superfluous white
18 thus slowly forced out through the vent (Vo), until the key-piece
reaches the diaphragm and closes the vent. Finally, when the
Strength of the hand is no longer sufficient, the egg with its embryo-
mN is placed in the metallic fork, and the wrench applied until
ka. this means it is no longer possible to turn the key-piece
er.
Th
What more complicated in the case of eggs that have already been
water, and provided with covered apartments for the reception of
the egg, the thin white, the carbolic acid, and the salt solution,
The key-piece may be removed as often as desired, provided the
_ Seve precautions are taken each time in inserting it. If the key-
- Plece is unscrewed by means of the fork and wrench, it must, of
Course, be washed in’ the warm carbolic acid, and the vent cleared
by the introduction of a wire. ,
egg must be placed in the incubator with the embryoscope
*
190 General Notes.
on one side. If it is placed upward, the respiration of the embryo
is hindered. The embryoscope can be turned up at any moment,
and kept upright for five minutes at a time without injury to the
mbryo.
With 2 little practice, the whole process of arming an egg with
the embryoscope may be completed in from six to eight minutes.
The embryoscope is well adapted for purposes of class-demon-
stration, for investigating the growth of the various parts of the
embryo, and the physiological processes during embryonic life, as
the action of the heart, movements of the body, etc. It is indis-
pensable to him who would study the effects of external agents
upon the embryos of warm-blooded animals; and must be of great
service where it is required to determine the precise stage of devel-
opment before removing the embryo from the egg. It has been
found useful in studying the formation of double embryos. Fene-
strated eggs have been successfully incubated up to the thirteenth
day, and it is probable that under favorable conditions the embryos
of such eggs would reach maturity.
On the fifth day, it is still easy to bring the embryos under the
window. On the sixth and seventh days, it is more difficult. At
this period the change in the position of the embryo, which requires
from five to ten minutes, should take place in the incubator,
After the eighth day, the embryo cannot be brought under the
window. If it be necessary to determine whether such an egg or an
older one still lives, we have only to leave the egg for several hours
in the incubator with the window directed upwards a little, after
which, by strong reflected light, one may readily see the blood
circulating through the channels of the vascular area.
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA.—Sept.
20, 1887.—Mr. G. H. Parker gave an historical sketch of investi-
gations upon the eyes of arthropods. Grenacher’s theory of the
hypodermal origin of the retina, developed by involution, has been
borne out by later studies, From a study of the nerve distribu-
tion, the speaker believed the three-layered eye to be evolved from
that with one layer. |
r. Meehan stated that in Mesembryanthemum and similar
plants, the glands of which develop in inverse proportion to the
roots, chemical analysis sometimes determines the presence of more
nitrogen than can be obtained from the soil. It was suggested that
the glands absorbed the gas from the atmosphere.
Mr. H. T. Cresson exhibited specimens of prehistoric implements
collected from beds surrounding what had probably been pile dwell-
ings on the mud flats of the Delaware, near Naaman’s Creek.
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 192
Professor Heilprin described the finding of the remains of a mas-
todon near Pemberton, N. J.
Oct. 18, 1887.—Dr. H. C. McCook gave an account of an Amer-
ican tarantula which must have been at least seven years old at
death, and stated that a queen of the fuscous ant, in the possession
of Sir J. Lubbock, died at the age of thirteen years.
Dr. Leidy described a collection of fossil bones from Archer,
Fla., and characterized Hippotherium plicatile, from teeth and ankle
bones, as a species of horse new to science,
Professor Ryder described a ring-like prolongation of the pla-
centa in embryo mice and rats, as indicating the descent of these
animals from lower types on which the placenta was zonary.
Oct. 25, 1887.—Profcssor J. A. Ryder stated his conviction that
the organ in the head of fishes, supposed by Wiedersheim to be the
homologue of the pineal gland, was really a portion of the lateral
line system, and thus derived from the skin.
Mr. Woolman described the deposits pierced by an artesian well,.
1,100 feet deep, at Atlantic City. Thirty-one species, including
three sharks and a crocodile, were the fossil harvest.
Professor Heilprin stated that Perna mawillata found in the above
well at a depth of about 300 feet, in dark clay, indicated the base-
of the miocene, while the Turritella found above indicated the
middle miocene. The speaker and his class had recently collected
Several species new to the miocene fauna of New Jersey, including
three new to science.
- Keenig described a new variety of unisilicate of manganese,
and proposed for it the name “ Bementite.”
. Leidy. stated his belief, founded on examination of numerous.
examples, that the brown hydra of North America is identical
with that of Europe; and Professor Ryder stated that the marine
parasitic infusoria of the American coast were the same as those
0. urope.
Dr. Cheston Morris described certain Dorsetshire sheep which
Seemed to be intermediate between the ordinary sheep and the goat.
Nov. 1, 1887.—Dr. H. C. McCook described the habits of For-
mica rufa, their mounds, their straight roads, ete. Atta fervens, a
Texan ant, constructs straight underground trails, sometimes for a
length of 448 feet. 7
Dr. Dolley spoke of the native cotton of Harbor Island, one of
the Bahamas. It is of a reddish buff tint, and is not attacked by
the cotton worm.
Professor Heilprin exhibited the mastodon remains found at
Pemberton, N. J,
NOV. 15; 1867. Profesor Ryder described certain improvements
1n preparing tissues for the microscope. Soaking in celloidin and
then in chloroform enabled the most fragile structures to be
manipulated,
192 General Notes.
Nov. 22, 1887.—Dr. H. C. McCook described Cyrtophora bifurca,
a new orb-weaving spider from Florida.
Dec. 6, 1887.—Mr. Meehan called attention to the prolific
growth of interaxial tubers obtained from Dioscorea eburnea, a
Chinese plant.
Dec. 13, 1887.—Mr. W. H. Dall mentioned the finding of the
ana Leucochloridum paradoxum in a Western species of
uccin
Jan. 24, 1888.—Professor W. P. Wilson stated that the appa-
ratus for catching and assimilating insect food is Sanpa more effi-
cient in Sarracenia variolaris than in C. purpu
Dr. Horn exhibited a collection of May badar comprehending
79 out of the 81 species known north of Mexico.
Professor J. A. Ryder stated that the manner of cleavage of
the yolk in the eggs of lampreys and Batrachia differs from that
which obtains in osseous fishes, birds and reptiles.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 117th Regular Meeting.
gns 17, 1887.— The following communications were presented
<0. R Hopkins, “Notes Relative to the Sense of Smell
n Buzzards;” Dr. a Curtice, “The Timber Line of Pike’s
Peak; ;” Mr. Charles . Walcott, exhibited a section of a fos-
sil Endoceras over ely. feet in length, with remarks on the same;
Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, “On the Extinction of the Great Northern
Cow;” Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “Description of a New Mouse
from the Great Plains.”
118th Regular Meeting.— Dec. 31st, 1887—The following
communications were read:—Mr. W. J. McGee, “The Over-
lapping Habitats of Sturnella magna, and S. neglecta in Iowa;”
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “Description of a new Field Mouse from
Western Dakota;” Mr, W. B. Barrows, “The Shape of the Bill
in Snail-eating Birds; uf Mr, H. Justin Roddy, “Feeding Habits
of some Young Raptores.”
: THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. MARCH, 1888. No. 255.
MORPHOLOGY OF THE LEGS OF HYMENOPTER-
OUS INSECTS."
BY PROF. A. J. COOK, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, MICHIGAN.
’
ACCORDIN G to our modern philosophy regarding the origin
and development of animal organs and organisms, we should
look at such organs as are much used in the animal economy to find
extremes in modification. Thus among mammals the teeth are
KY
@.1.
oar Paper was read before aaa Association for Advancement
ence, in August, 1887, at N. Y. meeting.
194 Morphology of the Legs of Hymenopterous Insects.
most modified and very important in systematic mammalogy. For
like reason the ornithologist looks to bill and feet in his study of
families and genera, With the laws of variation and adaptation
before us, we should expect to find modification carried to extremes
‘among Hymenopterous insects. The life functions of these insects
are so wonderful and varied that a maximum differéntation of or-
gans and structure is required for their execution. The chief tools
used by these Hymenopterons are the legs and mouth organs, and
it is to the former that I invite attention.
Let us consider the anterior or prothoracic legs of the honey-bee.
We first notice (Fig. 1) a strong and interesting modification in
the basal tarsus and tibial spur, which modification is known as
the “antenna cleaner.” At the base of the first tarsal joint and in
the angle between it and the tibia is a short, hollow semi-cylinder.
The concave surface of this cavity is smooth except at the outside
margin, where there are from seventy-eight to ninety projecting
hairs, which under the microscope remind one of the villi of the
small intestines of mammals. These teeth, like hairs, projecting as
a fringe, form a most delicate brush. The tibial spur is so modified
as to resemble a very short handled razor, the blade of which is for
a wide space facing the tarsus, a most delicate membrane, and this
blade forms a sort of lid to the cavity just described. When the
leg is straight this lid barely reaches the cavity ; but when the first
tarsus is flexed upon the tibia it serves as a cover to the cavity and
really closes it.
The peculiar structure is found in both sexes and in the abortive
females or workers of social bees, in all other bees, in all wasps so
far as I have examined, in the Mutillide, Formicide in ants, in all
the families of parasitic Hymenoptera except the Chalcids, while in
the Cynips, Cynipide, Saw flies, Tenthredinide, and horn-tails,
Uroceridee, we find it nearly or quite absent.
We find the “antenna cleaner” in all species of bees—Apide—
even in the curious species like the male of Megachile (Fig. 2),
where the whole ante-
rior leg is remarkably
modified. Inthe bumble-
bees species of the genus
Bombus we find the an-
tenna cleaner almost
Morphology of the Legs of Hymenopterous Insects, 195
exactly like that of the honey-bee, except the part which I have
termed the blade, in the modified tibial spur has its back more
extended, and the whole back of the blade and the extended point
thickly set with short spines, reminding one of the serrations on
the antenne of many beetles like the Buprestids. In the car-
penter-bees—X ylocopa—there is no variation from the type of
the Bombus except the serrated margin of the blade is still more
marked. In the female of the tailor-bees—Megachile—the ex-
tended point and serrations are both absent, and we have again the
form of this organ in the honey-bee. The number of the teeth in
the cavity however, is less, there being from forty-five to fifty. In
Osmia and Andrena (Fig. 3), the arrangement is much as in the
Xylocopa; in Nomada the serrations
are less spinous and more scattered,
while in the beautiful species of Ango-
chlora the cavity is quite shallow, the
blade of the spur narrow, and the
spines on the back and point of the
blade slim and hair like. , Fio. 3.
In the several families of wasps we find this pollen cleaner, well
developed, and in some cases quite modified from the same in bees.
In the paper-making wasps— Vespidee—it is much as in the lowest
bees—N omada and Angochlora. The cavity is more shallow than
in the honey-bee, the membranous portion of the blade is quite
narrow, and the appendages on the point of the blade are hair-like,
though those near the base remind one of saw teeth.
In sand-wasps—Bembecidee—this organ is much as seen in bees
and paper-making wasps; though the point of the blade is very
long, and the back and point both thickly set with fine hairs.
ioe In all species of mud wasps, belonging to
se the family Sphegide (Fig 4) we find an in-
teresting modification in the spur. Here the
membranous portion of the blade is nearly
Fra. 4, obsolete, while its inner margin is concave
and fringed with a toothed brush much as seen in the cavity,
though the teeth are shorter. The end of the blade is blunt, and
ts from five to eight heavy appendages, which, when magni-
fied, look like so many fingers.
196 Morphology of the Legs of Hymenopterous Insects.
In the beautiful mud wasps of the family Pompilide, this appa-
ratus is much as in the Sphegide, except that the cavity is more
shallow. The fringe on the spur is peculiarly fine and beautiful.
The spur is pointed, the point being flat and margined on both sides
with spines.
In the Mutillide this organ is specially well shown. The type
is that of the bees and Vespide, as the blade is membranous and
without the fringe. The back and both sides of the point, how-
ever, are covered with a row of spinous hairs.
In the ants—Formicide—(Fig 5) the cav-
ity is shallow and the fringe well marked in
the cavity and on the spur where it is double,
and while this brush is beautiful, it is not
widely different from the hairs on the point of the blade, and on
the remaining Tii of the basal tarsus.
In Ichneumonide (Fig.
6), and Braconide we find
this antenna cleaner, less
developed, though still
present. The cavity is
E hardly more than an in-
bjao e clined plane, the rise at
the distal end being very slight. The spur is marked by a
distinct concavity, and the fringe is present in the cavity and on
the spur, though the brush in case is made up of coarser hairs
than are found in bees or wasps.
In the species of Chrysidæ we find this apparatus more perfect
than in the Ichneumonidæ. The cavity is deeper, the spur con-
cave, and both show the comb or fringe well marked. The species
of this family are unique in that the concave spur is fringed to the
very point of the blade.
In the minute Proctotrupidæ the antenna cleaner is even less de-
veloped than in the Ichneumon flies. The cavity is almost wholly
obsolete, the spur is only slightly concave, and the hairs forming
the brush are hardly different from the other hairs of the leg. In
the Chalcid flies—Chalcididee—the cavity is wholly absent, and the
only suggestion of this apparatus is in the slightly curved spur.
The brush is also obsolete. The same is hardly less true of thegall-
Morphology of the Legs of Hymenopterous Insects. 197
flies—Cynipide. In the saw-flies—Tenthredinide—(Fig. 7), there
is no hint of the cavity on the first
tarsus; but a slight concavity of the
spur, with the membrane just visible,
still suggests the “ pollen cleaner.” In
the horn-tails—Uroceridze—the only re-
minder we have of the antenna cleaner is in the slightly curved spur.
The membranous part of the blade is wholly wanting.
In the study of this apparatus I have been very much interested
to note how persistent is its type within each family. I have care-
fully examined very numerous specimens, and I think we could,
from the study of this organ alone, arrange the species of Hymen-
optera, with very few exceptions, in their respective families. The
same is also true in many cases of genera. We shall not wonder
at this as we come to study the function of the organ and note its
great importance.
No one who has studied bees closely can doubt for a moment the
functional importance of the antenne. As touch organs, they are
most delicate and wonderful. The work of the hive bee is largely
performed in total darkness. Yet very intricate operations are
carried on with unerring exactness. This is only possible through
the aid of those very sensitive tactile organs—the antenne. There
is hardly less doubt that the antennz are the scent organs of insects.
And with Hymenopterous insects, especially of the higher families,
the sense of smell is of exceeding importance. It has been thought
also that the antennæ serve as organsof hearing. This, however, is
Probably not true. We see then that it is of the highest
importance that these organs be kept free from all dust.
But the very habits of most Hymenopterous insects, visiting,
as they do, flowers laden with pollen, as do all except the lowest
families, or digging in the mud and dust, as do many bees and
Wasps, tend to soil the antenne. And it is no more necessary for
the microscopist to brush the lenses of his objectives than for the
bee or wasp to dust its antenne.
That the function of the apparatus just described is to brush or
free from dust the antenna is easily proved by experiment. We
have only to imprison a bee or wasp on the window pane of our
room, and quietly dust its antennæ with lime or flour, when we will
See it pass an anterior leg forward, draw an antennæ through the
Fig. 7.
198 Morphology of the Legs of Hymenopterous Insects.
cleaner, after which the bee will pass the fore legs, now foul with
dust, between the brushes formed by the soft hairy inner faces of the
basal tarsi of the middle legs. This will be repeated several times,
when upon examination the antenne will be found entirely freed
from the troublesome dust. In case of the wasp, as Polistus annu-
laris, the atitenne are cleaned the same as just described except that
the leg or antenn cleaner is cleaned by passing it between the jaws
instead of between the middle legs. As we are sure of the function
of this beautiful apparatus we do not need to refer to the wonderful
correspondence in size of the cavity in each separate case, with the
antennæ of the same insect, which would be added proof if such
were needed as to its function. I will also state that I believe L
have found an antenne cleaner in some beetles, especially carabids.
In these cases the cavity and lid are both on the tibia a little dis-
tance towards the body from its farther end. 7
In the honey-bee on the outer end of the tibia, just opposite the
antenne cleaner (Fig. 1), is a small brush. This has been regarded
by some as a cleaner of the antenne cleaners; but we have seen that
the latter organs are cleaned in another way. I have never seen
these brushes used to clean the cavities, though I have observed
closely. The fact that other bees, wasps, ants, etc., have no such,
brush makes me doubt such function.
The branching, fluffy hairs which cover the upper part of the
fore leg (Fig. 1) of the worker honey-bee are like the same in other
legs of the same insect, of use in gathering the pollen. From these
hairs the pollen is combed off and transported to the pollen baskets.
Opposite the side of the basal tarsus which contains the cavity of
the antenne cleaner of the bee (Fig. 1), is a comb formed of quite
stiff hairs. This is used to free the hairy compound eyes of the
bees of dust, pollen, etc., and also to comb the pollen off the lighter
hairs. The former function may be observed by closer observation,
as the bee is seen to wipe its pollen-begrimmed eyes, much as the
common house fly is observed to rub its eyes, face and antenne.
The middle legs of bees are covered with the compound hairs to
the end of the tibia where a
s EAA prominent tibial spur (Fig. 8)
\ — SS nS is seen, but no more prominent
Tein in the honey-bee than in other
bees and in wasps. Indeed it is even larger in drones than in the
Morphology of the Legs of Hymenopterous Insects. 199
worker bees. It has been claimed that this is the lever with which
the bee pries off the pollen mass into the cell ; but the fact that these
are no more prominent than in other in-
sects where there is no such function to be
performed, and the fact that the stiff hairs
which point outward at the ends of these
and all the legs are better fitted for this
work, gives reason to question the accu-
racy of this view. On the inside of the
first tarsal joint of the middle legs (Fig. 8)
is a fine brush thickly set with hairs, _ x
which, as we have already seen, is used
to clean the antennæ cleaner, and, as I
often noticed large masses of pollen adher-
ing to this brush, I am led to the conclu-
sion that these are hands or claspers that
aid to bear the pollen to the baskets on
the posterior legs. The lower or outer,
hairs of this brush are spine-like and
doubtless aid as already suggested in push-
Ing the loads of pollen from the legs into
the cells of the comb.
Upon the first three joints of the pos-
terior legs, the coxa, trochanter and femur
(F 1g. 10) the soft, compound, polen gather-
ing hairs are well shown. In the honey
bee the tibia and first tarsus ars wonder-
fully developed. On the outside (Fig.
9) are cavities for holding the pollen.
These shallow cavities, one in each of
the joints, are bordered with course hairs,
which serve as so many stakes to aid in
holding the large pollen masses which the
- bee is Often seen carrying to the hive.
Opposite the concavity of the tarsal joint
Fra. 9.
(Fig. 10) on the inside are to be seen nine or ten rows of beautiful
4 ellow hairs, which form as many combs or brushes, which serve
© collect and transport the pollen from different parts of the bee
to the pollen baskets, If a bee is captured while collecting pollen,
200 Morphology of the Legs of Hymenopterous Insects.
these beautiful brushes will always be found with more or less pol-
Jen adhering to them. Of course the combs of one leg are used to
fill the pollen basket of the opposite legs. As before stated, this
work is in part performed by a similar but less perfect arrangement
on the corresponding portion of the middle legs.
AY, Between the
i tibia and first
tarsus of the
posterior legs
of the honey-
bee (Figs. 9
and 10) is a
very curious
joint, remind-
ing one of a
steel trap or
the jaws of an
animal, the
tibial or inner
jaw of which
is well cover-
ed with quite
pronounced teeth. This is used to grasp
the delicate wax scales from the pockets
` where they are secreted beneath the abdo-
men, and transfer them to the mouth
where they are kneaded into material suit-
able for comb.
The claws and pulvilli, which terminate
the feet of all Hymenopterous insects (Fig:
8), are specially well developed in bees,
The former have a strong tooth and are
useful not only in walking on wood and
other similar surfaces, but also in holding
‘ the bees the one to another in case of clus-
FIG. 10. tering. In such cases the uppermost
have to sustain hundreds of their fellows, and this often for hours.
` There are few better examples in the whole animal kingdom of
what may be accomplished by mere musele.
5
y
A N j
f- N th
“i i BP j; s
f. z =N WIA
A we. ae 4
f 5 f
PAA Á
ý ww, A
x N
we 4
f. `
S
o
AA
== AS ae Sil
Directive Coloration in Animals. 201
The pulvilli are situated between the claws. They are large and
glandular, and by secreting a viscid adhesive material enable a bee
to walk up a smooth surface like that of glass. We thus under-
stand why a bee fails in its attempt to walk up a moistened or
powdered glass surface. When a bee walks on wood the pulvilli
are turned back, when on glass the claws are similarly made to
change their position.
DIRECTIVE COLORATION IN ANIMALS.
BY J. E. TODD.
UCH has been written by Wallace, Darwin and others concern-
ing the protective effects of coloration in animals, and this
adaptation perhaps accounts for most of the chromatic characteristics
of animals. Darwin has also shown how many may be accounted
for by sexual selection, and Wallace has referred many of those, still
remaining unexplained, to the play of color-producing forces
uncontrolled by natural selection.
So far as the author is aware, however, there has been no distinct
enunciation of the principle sketched in the following pages. The
nearest approach to it is a remark of Darwin in regard to the rab-
bit’s white tail—that it might serve as guide to the young in follow-
ing the old ones to the burrow; and another—that the stripes of
the zebra may be of use to stragglers in recognizing their fellows at
a distance, (Vide Am. Nar., 1877.)
Wallace approves the suggestion, and, from some notes of his
recent Baltimore lectures, it may be inferred that he has carried the
Principle further. But in their published writings both these emi-
nent naturalists refer several distinct cases to other sources, which
in the following pages will be claimed as examples of what, for want
of a better name, we have styled directive coloration. And whether
the views hereinafter to be advanced prove to be entirely novel
Or not, they have, so far as here expressed, sprung entirely from the
author’s own observation and study. He regrets that both have
necessarily been so limited that he cannot multiply examples as
freely as nature has supplied them. What is here offered is only a
sketch of what might be wrought out by any one having time to
carry out the work in its details.
202 Directive Coloration in Animals.
The first observations which eventually proved the germ of this
paper were made on the plains of Dakota. During the long, mon-
otonous rides over that region, one pleasant circumstance was the
sudden rise of various birds from the nearly naked ground and their
as sudden disappearance on lighting. Ere long it was noticed that
in the process of lighting there was, very commonly, a conspicuous
flashing-out of white on wings or tail, or on both. This was noticed
in several of the sparrows, the meadow-lark, the lark-bunting, the
Carolina dove, and less prominently in the prairie-hen or grouse.
i facts were noted also of the jack-rabbit and antelope.
The question then arose, very naturally, Why is this prevalent char-
acter? Of what advantage is it? For the smaller birds, the answer
came readily. The plains are constantly scoured by hovering hawks
—therefore, protective coloration is of prime importance. If, how-
ever, they should become of a uniform gray color all over, they
would be as completely and constantly hidden from their friends as
from their foes. That would be quite disastrous, especially where
the former are fewer than the latter. To prevent such a result,
there is the following arrangement. When at rest, or about the
ordinary occupation of feeding, the gray surface only is exposed ;
the same is true also in some cases during flight; but in checking
its velocity for lighting the tail is fully spread, exhibiting the con-
spicuous colors fully, and marks the location of the leader, that the
rest may govern themselves accordingly. To escape the hawk,
should he happen to note the location, the sparrow resorts to doub-
ling on its course and skulking. When the danger has passed, the
flock, if they have followed the leader, are likely to be within call
of one another, and if they have become too much scattered, this
same automatic telegraphy must assist much in enabling the strag-
glers to find their fellows. Some species, as the meadow-lark, have
a habit of spreading the tail at almost every chirp. This would
seem to work as rationally as the rallying-call of the bugle and the
waving of a flag to call a troop together. Yet after all, in the bird
it is doubtless mainly automatic, the effort of the ery producing the
twitch of the tail, as truly as in the prairie-dog.
But this conspicuous flash tells more than the place of alight-
ing. It reveals the species at hand. These white patches form @
kind of natural heraldry among the denizens of the plains, by which
each kind is recognized by friend and foe. Its vivid white secures
Directive Coloration in Animals. 203
its utmost efficiency. It is, no doubt, often useful also at night,
whenever there is any disturbance by storm or prowling enemy.
Thus far, we have had in mind only the ordinary gray birds and
animals of the plains, upon which the directive coloration is almost
invariably white. But the principle extends farther. When the
general coloration is white or light, the directive color is black or
dark, as in the pelican, white crane, weasel, etc. In some which
may be gray in summer and white in winter, both white and black
may be found in close juxtaposition. Ina very few, black seems to
serve the purpose, even with gray plumage, as in the horned lark
and some sparrows (?). The principle may include also cases where
more brilliant tints than those of the white-black series are
employed.
Soon after our interest had been awakened in the cases already
mentioned it was our privilege to examine a large collection of skunks
which some fortunate trappers had captured. The striking white
lines on the black ground and their fantastic and very variable forms
raised again the question, Why? Our idea of directive coloration
found a new direction for its application, and it readily suggested
satisfactory answers to the query. Here were animals living con-
stantly in dusk and darkness. The conspicuous tail, as Belt re-
marked long ago, may be classed as a warning signal, and therefore
protective; but why the elaborate white lines and spots? These
are only useful at shorter distances, and, therefore, presumably to
fellow-individuals of the same species. We can readily understand
how they may clearly reveal not only the general position of the body,
but also its attitude ; and by the individual variations in the breadth
and continuity of the lines, individuals may recognize one another
at night, or in their burrows. In short, these directive mark-
ings are in this case what signal-lights or flags are to vessels and cars,
Similar reasoning accounts for the markings prevalent in the raccoon.
badger, chip-munk, and other burrowing animals. So, too, it ac-
Counts for some of the markings about the heads of the sparrows,
larks, ducks, and numerous other birds ; also, about the muzzle,
ears and throat of antelope, deer, hares and other mammals, whether
protectively colored or not. These markings are more distinct and
more frequent about the head, because of its greater expressiveness
and importance. Of course, in this general outlining of our idea we
need not attempt to classify rigidly particular markings, for some
204 : Directive Coloration in Animals.
may be useful in more than one way. For example, the ears of the
jack-rabbit may serve to notify his fellow of his presence at a dis-
tance, and when close at hand they, doubtless, are very expressive
of the bodily position and mental condition of their owner.
Looking now over the whole animal kingdom, so far as the more
comprehensive works on natural history and more careful descrip-
tions of our local faunas will allow us, we find a vast number of
spots and lines about the head, shoulders, flanks and tails of animals
belonging to all the so-called sub-kingdoms; and we find in our
theory a plausible explanation, in harmony with the workings of
natural selection.
We find some, however, which, while properly associated with the
cases already described, do not come under either of them exactly.
Hitherto we have considered where only a few individuals were con-
cerned and only in the casual relations of ordinary life. There are
cases where large numbers herd together, oftentimes moving rapidly
in crowded phalanx or disorderly mass, where each must closely
regulate his movements according to the action of his immediate
companions if he would avoid collision and injury. Not only is
this important in diurnal travels, but in the nocturnal bivouac, and
especially in a stampede at night. In this way we may explain the
stripes of the zebra, koodo, etc., and the numerous bright and ex-
tended markings on the various African antelopes. It would seem
that the greater and more ferocious carnivores of the tropics might
have an influence to intensify these features. The bright markings
of hyenas and the hunting-dogs are other conspicuous examples,
traceable to quite a different combination of circumstances.
striking marks, which we have noted under another head, may be
also helpful in the way just described. For instance, the markings
about the head and tail of wild geese and ducks and the black tips
of the wings of pelicans may assist them much in keeping their
regular order of flight ; so, also, the markings upon sparrows, which
are helpful in the ways already indicated, during their summer-life
may also be of service during their griion by helping them to
harmonize their movements. ;
It will be seen by a moment’s thought that most of the markings
helping to show the position of the body may be of pre-eminent
value during courtship, especially during thesupreme moments of col-
tion. Is would not be strange if this advantage might havea tendency
Directive Coloration in Animals. 205
to intensify certain lateral and caudal markings, or even to produce
in them sexual differences. We should naturally expect this to be
as manifest in nocturnal animals as anywhere. To this cause we
are disposed to refer the different colors of the wing-spots of night-
hawks and other Caprimulgide: In the males they are white, while
in the females they are rufous. Possibly, some of the cases which
Darwin considers the results of sexual selection transferred from
the male to the female may be referred to this influence.
Another relation may, presumably, modify ‘directive coloration
to a considerable degree, especially in animals which, though roving
the fields themselves, secrete their young. Deer, swine, lions, ete.,
may be taken as examples of this. The vivid markings upon the
young may’assist much in the care which the mother gives in the
dim light of the hiding-place and at night. This explanation does
not necessarily conflict with the more commonly received opinion
—that they are the effect of heredity, revealing the coloration of
Some remote ancestor. It suggests, rather, the further inference
that that ancestor was either gregarious and living on open plains,
or else was more solitary and prowling, skulking in dim lights.
Our theory would offer a rational explanation for its persistence in
the earlier stages of living species.
It will be noticed that we have drawn our illustrations entirély
from the mammals and birds. We would not imply that our theory
is limited to these. Insects, fishes and reptiles may afford equally
good examples,
We would remark, in concl usion, that this sketch does not attempt
to give details more than may be necessary to present our view in-
telligibly. Of course, we recognize the validity of the theory of
typical coloration consisting of those primal tints and patterns which
have been ascribed to the combined action of chemical, physical and
vital forces only ; also the theories of protective and ornamental
colorations, which have been evolved from the typical by the action
of natural and sexual selection. We do not profess to be able to
refer every tint and pattern of coloration to its predetermining con-
dition or advantage. That would be well-nigh impossible. But if
enough has been given and with sufficient discrimination to satisfy
_ Most minds, that adaptation for directive purpose is a real advan
which has been decidedly effective in determining the coloration of
mals we are content. ?
206 Directive Coloration in Animals.
A Synopsis OF DIRECTIVE COLORATION IN ANIMALS.
_ Directive coloration is that which is in any way useful to a species
by assisting in mutual recognition between individuals, or by indi-
cating, one to another, their attitude of body and probable
movements.
1. Marks and tints, promoting recognition at a distance, to guide
in straggling flight and to bring stragglers together. [A.]
2. Those indicating the attitude of the body and its probable
movement [B] in darkness of night, or in dens; [C] in close move-
ments of large numbers, by day as well as by night; [D] in inter-
course of the sexes; [E] in the care of young.
A. [a] By having the general color more or less strikingly con-
trasted with the environment.—Crows, buzzards, blue-birds, wood-
peckers, ete.
[b] When general color is inconspicuous: by having striking
colors upon parts of the body which may be hidden during rest, but
capable of display automatically either cane flight, at the moment
of stopping, or during a calling cry, viz.
Conspicuous colors about the tail : Mesa Rabbit, deer, —
prong-horn, many antelope, Rocky Mountain sheep, chamois, etc.,
etc. Outer tail-feathers conspicuous :—[ Birds] Snow-bird, meadow-
lark, many finches, robin and many thrushes, most warblers, many
vireos, night-hawk, ptarmigan, horned-lark, ete. A terminal band:
Turkey, king-bird, and many fly-catchers, turtle-dove and other
pigeons, grouse, etc. Under-coverts: Prairie-hen, coot, galinule,
many snipe, many ducks and geese, etc. Rump and upper coverts:
Hawks, flickers, and other Picarize, most geese, ete.
Conspicuous colors about lateral appendages :—In Mammals, the
ears (more frequently on the back side)—hares, deer, ete. ; in Birds,
the wings—many finches, coots, upland-plover, pelican, snow-goose,
crane, many warblers, vireos, etc.
B. [a] By striking marks about the head and neck :—[Mam-
mals] Raccoon, badger, skunk, coatis, many antelope and rodentia,
etc. [Birds] Many raptores, sparrows, fly-catchers, warblers,
anseres, etc., ete.
[b] By various spots and lines on shoulders or sides :—Skunks,
chip-munks, antelope. peccaries, chevrotains, etc.
[c] By paleness of belly and inner side of legs:—Cases too
numerous to name.
Classification of Massive Rocks, 207
C. [a] Not only by many of the markings already described, but
especially by more vivid and extensive marks upon the shoulders,
sides and flanks :—Zebra, wild asses, antelope, giraffe, hunting-dogs,
ete.
[b] By special marking of the legs and feet upon the outside :—
Zebra, antelope, ete.
D. [a] By most of the lateral and caudal markings already
mentioned.
[b] By different colors, according to sex :—Night-hawks and other
Caprimulgide.
[c] By difference in extent or shape of markings, according to
sex :— Antelope, ete.
E. By various spots and lines, appearing only in the younger
stages :—Deer, some swine, some Felide, ete.
SYNOPSIS OF ROSENBUSCH’S NEW SCHEME FOR
THE CLASSIFICATION OF MASSIVE ROCKS.
BY W. 5. BAYLEY.
ACCORDIN G to the new scheme for the classification of massive
` rocks, proposed by Professor H. Rosenbusch of Heidelberg
in the. second edition of his “ Mikroskopische Physiographie der
Massigen Gesteine,” these are divided into three great groups, (I)
intrusive rocks, (II) vein rocks, and (III) effusive rocks. The
fundamental notion underlying this classification is briefly as fol-
lows: the structure possessed by rock masses as we find them in
the earth is dependent upon two circumstances—(1) the chemical
composition of their original liquid magmas, and (2) the conditions
under which these magmas cooled. The effect of chemical compo-
sition upon the structure assumed by a rock magma in its passage
to a solid state has not been definitely ascertained. Results recently
obtained by Lagorio, however, indicate that the composition of —
the unsolidified portions of rock masses, exerts much more influence
upon the final structure of the rock than has hitherto been supposed.
The rapidity with which a rock cooled, as well as the conditions
under which this took place, have long been known to be quite
influential in determining its structure. Those rocks which cooled
208 Classification of Massive Rocks.
slowly under great pressure and at great depths, where crystalliza-
tion was gradual and undisturbed, assumed a granular aspect. —
Those which cooled quickly under low pressure became glassy.
Those which began to crystallize in the depths of the earth, and
continued their crystallization after the transference of their entire
mass to other places, took on a porphyritic habit. Since, then, the
structure of a rock indicates with some degree of certainty the
prevailing conditions under which it was formed, it affords a conve-
nient basis for the foundation of rock classification. And further,
since the conditions under which a reck is formed are directly
connected with its geological relations to surrounding rocks, the
most logical classification is that which takes primarily into consid-
eration these relations as the causes which produce the effects noted
as structure.
Rosenbusch begins, then, by separating all massive rocks into
the three great groups mentioned above. The intrusive or plutonic
rocks are those which formed at great depths (Tiefen-gesteine); the
effusive or voleanic rocks are those which flowed out upon a land
surface and there solidified (Erguss-gesteine), and finally the second
group, the vein rocks, are those which have been found only in
veins or dykes in other rocks, and which may or may not be con-
nected with the effusives.
Before discussing the classification in detail it will be necessary
to define a few terms introduced by Rosenbusch to facilitate the
description of the more prominent structures characterizing rocks,
as we find them to-day.
A rock composed akon. of i minerals is said to be
holocrystalline. When it consists entirely of an unindividualized,
structureless mass, it is known as amorphous. When it is partly
amorphous and partly crystalline, ¿.e., contains crystals in a hyaline
ground-mass, the structure is described as hypoerystalline.
An idiomorphic mineral is one whose form is determined by the
crystallizing forces acting within itself. An idiomorphic mineral
is bounded by crystal planes. An allotriomorphic mineral is one
which possesses a form due to the action of external forces, and not
to the action of intramolecular forces. An allotriomorphic mineral
is not bounded by its own crystal planes. Of two contiguous
minerals in a rock, one idiomorphically developed, and the other
allotriomorphically developed, the former is the older, compelling
Classificution of Massive Rocks. 209
the latter to assume a form which it would not do were it free to
obey the forces at work within itself, tending to bound it with
certain definite crystal planes.
A mineral is described as occurring in but one generation in a
rock when all of its individual members have separated out con-
tinuously in the same interval of the rock’s formation. When a
portion of the individuals have separated out during one interval,
and then, after other minerals have crystallized, another portion
has separated, the mineral is said to occur in two generations.
When the constituents of a rock occur in but one generation, the
rock is granular in structure. When but a small portion of these
are idiomorphically developed, the rock is Aypidiomorphically
granular. When a relatively large portion or all of the constitu-
ents are idiomorphically developed, the rock is panidiomorphic,
When none of the constituents are so developed the structure is
allotriomorphically granular.
A porphyritic rock is one which contains one or more minerals.
in more than one generation.
I. Inrrustve Rocks.
The intrusive or plutonic rocks are those which were formed at
great depths. They were intruded between other rocks which
existed before them, either as bosses or sheets, which never reached
the surface, or they are the deep-seated portions of large masses.
which may have flowed out upon the surface of the earth. They
may have been formed at any geological age, but are only found in
the oldest portions of the globe, because only in these portions has
sufficient time elapsed to allow of their exposure by erosion.
They are characterized by the possession of a hypidiomorphie
granular structure, although in certain cases, where these rocks
were intruded as flows between others, they sometimes tend to the
Panidiomorphic development.
They are divided, according to their chemical and mineralogical
Compositions, into eight families.
A. THE GRANITES.
The granites are composed essentially of quartz and an alkaline
feldspar, and one or more of the minerals of the mica, amphibole
or PyToxene groups, sometimes tourmaline, and almost universally
certain apatite, zircon and iron oxides.
210 Classification of Massive Rocks.
They are divided into three divisions, as follows :—
1. TRUE GRANITES, containing both light- (muscovite) and dark-
colored micas (biotite, etc.), including
(A) lithionite granite, in which the dark ingredient is a
lithium mica.
(B) luxullianite, in which tourmaline replaces the lithio-
nite.
2. GRANITITES, containing a biotite as its only micaceous constit-
uent, including
(A) lithionite granitite, with a lithium mica as the promi-
nent micaceous constituent.
(B) amphibole granitite, containing an amphibole in addi-
tion to biotite.
(c) augite granitite, in which an augitic mineral is present.
3. AMPHIBOLE GRANITES, containing amphibole in place of the
biotite of the granitites. |
B. THE SYENITES.
Syenite differs from granite in the entire or almost entire absence
of quartz as an essential constituent. The syenites besides contain
no primary muscovite, but do contain a greater or less amount of
plagioclase. The alkaline feldspars embrace, in addition to ortho-
clase, both albite and anorthoclase to a subordinate degree.
They are divided into :—
1. TRUE SYENITEs, or hornblende syenites, composed of orthoclase,
hornblende, and usually a little biotite.
2. Mica SYENITES, which often contain albite in addition to ortho-
clase and biotite.
3. AUGITE SYENITES, in which a monoclinic augite and orthoclase
constitute the essential components.
C. THE ELÆOLITE SYENITES.
The elæolite syenites are quartz-free combinations of orthoclase
and elæolite with one or more of the iron-bearing minerals of the
pyroxene, amphibole or mica groups. With these is almost always
associated some plagioclase and a greater or less amount of sodalite.
Their structure, though usually granular, sometimes becomes
porphyritic through the occurrence of feldspar, elæolite and soda-
lite in two generations. It is probable that this structure is con-
Classification of Massive Rocks. 211
fined to the outer edges of large masses and dyke forms of the kroc.
The various occurrences of elæolite syenite are not well enough
characterized to admit of a further classification.
D. THE DIORITES.
The diorites may be defined as rocks composed of plagioclase
and biotite or hornblende, with or without quartz. Orthoclase and
microcline sometimes accompany the plagioclase, and in certain
cases augite partly replaces the biotite or hornblende. The struc-
ture of the diorites departs somewhat from the typical structure of
the intrusive rocks in that the plagioclase and the biotite, amphi-
bole and augite are sometimes idiomorphically developed.
The diorites are divided into :—
1. Mica Drortres, in which biotite predominates over hornblende,
including
(A) mica diorite, which is quartz-free.
(B) quartz, mica diorite, which is quartz-bearing.
2. DIORITES, in which hornblende is the most prominent colored
constituent, including
(A) diorite, and
(B) quartz diorite.
3. AuerrEe DIoRITES, containing a large amount of augite,
including
(A) augite diorite, and
(B) quartz-augite diorite.
E. THE GABBROS.
The gabbros are combinations of plagioclase and a monoclinic or
an orthorhombic pyroxene, with or without olivine.
Their structure varies slightly from the typical granular struc-
ture, in that the plagioclase occurs in broad lath-shaped crystals.
They are divided, according to the nature of their pyroxenic
constituents into :—
ABBROS, which contain, as their pyroxenic constituent, dial-
lage, or a monoclinic augite with a composition
approaching that of diallage.
The gabbros include
(A) gabbro proper, which is olivine: including two
varieties :
212 Classificution of Massive Rocks.
(a 1) hornblende gabbro, in which diallage is partly
replaced by hornblende, and
(a 2) hyperite, containing a little olivine and some
orthorhombic pyroxene.
(B) Olivine gabbro, olivine-bearing.
2. Norires, which contain an orthorhombic augite as the principal
pyroxenic component.
The norites are divided, according as to whether
they contain olivine or not, into
(A) norite, and
(B) olivine norite.
F. THE DIABASES.
The diabases are composed essentially of plagioclase and augite,
with or without olivine and quartz.
They form a well-marked class among the intrusive rocks, which
differs in many respects from the other intrusives, and approaches
very near in characteristics to some of the effusives, This is due
principally to the fact that the diabases occur as dykes and intruded
layers between sedimentary beds, and thus tend to assume in some
degree the structure possessed by sheets which have cooled on the
surface under atmospheric pressure alone. They are frequently
accompanied by tufas, and they often possess amygdaloidal upper
surfaces. Since, however, the pressure under which they were
formed was much greater than that under which the volcanic rocks
were produced, and, as we may suppose, their cooling much more —
gradual, the diabases are holocrystalline and hypidiomorphic-
granular, as distinguished from the hypocrystalline and porphyritie
structures of the members of the effusive class. Nevertheless, the
tendency of the plagioclase to assume idiomorphic forms is so strong
that an approach to the porphyritic structure is noticeable in many
diabases, As among the gabbros, the first differentiation of the
diabases is dependent upon the presence or absence of olivine as an
essential constituent.
1. Drapases are olivine-free combinations of plagioclase and augite,
usually with a little hornblende and mica.
(A) diabase proper contains no quartz.
(B) quartz diabase contains quartz as a primary compo-
‘nent, including
Classification of Massive. Rocks. 213
(b 1) sahlite diabase, which contains an, idiomorphic
colorless monoclinic pyroxene (sahlite), and
(6 2) enstatite diabase, containing an orthorhombic
augite.
(C) teschenite is analcite-bearing.
2. OLIVINE D1aBasEs contain olivine as an essential constituent
in addition to plagioclase and augite.
G. THE THERALITES.
The theralites, formerly called teschenites, are intended to embrace
rocks composed of. plagioclase and nepheline, together with the
accessories angite, biotite and olivine. Rocks of this composition
are not known to exist among the intrusives, unless certain basic
rocks from Montana, lately described by Mr. Wolff, belong here.
Corresponding members of the effusive class are, however, quite
well known, and it is therefore expected that true theralites will be
found at some time in the future, even if the Montana rocks should
turn out not to belong in this family.
H. THE PERIDOTITES.
The peridotites are the most basic of the intrusive rocks. They
contain no plagioclase, but usually do contain a large amount of
olivine and a mineral of the amphibole or pyroxene families. Their
bisilicate constituent is made use of for purposes of sub-classifi-
cation.
1. Prcrrre is composed of olivine and augite.
2. ÅMPHIBOLE Prcrrre contains olivine and hornblende.
3. WEHRLITE consists of olivine and diallage.
4. HARZBURGITE is a combination of olivine and a rhombic
pyroxene. :
5. LHERZOLITE contains olivine, diallage and a rhombic pyroxene.
6. Dursrre consists of olivine and chromite.
II. Vern Rocks.
The class of vein rocks includes those which exist as independent
geological bodies only in the form of veins or dykes, although many
similar rocks occur also as facies of certain intrusive and effusive
rocks. This class is not as well defined as either the intrusive or
the effusive class, Rosenbusch personally is inclined to place them
214 Classification of Massive Rocks.
with the intrusives, but since no direct connection has been traced
between them and deeply buried rock masses, of which they may
be regarded as a part, he decides to place them in a separate group
until more knowledge of their relations has been obtained.
The structure of the vein rocks resembles in some respects that
of the intrusive rocks, and in others that of the effusives. Three
well-marked types are recognizable: the granitic, the granite-
porphyry, and the lamprophyre. Since these three types can be `
distinguished macroscopically, and are very characteristic, they are
made use of to separate the vein rocks into three groups, which are
in turn subdivided into families, according to mineralogical consti-
tution, as in the class of intrusive rocks,
II. A. THe Granitic Vern Rocks.
The structure of the granitic vein rocks differs from that of the
intrusive rocks, in that their individual constituents tend to become
idiomorphic. In most cases this tendency has gone so far as to
produce a rock, all of whose components are bounded by their own
crystal outlines. They are then panidiomorphic-granular. An
approach to the porphyritic development is sometimes the result of
a repetition of conditions which allows of the separation of some of
the constituents in two generations.
The granitic vein rocks include :—
1. APLITE, or muscovite granite, consisting of orthoclase, quartz
and muscovite.
(A) pegmatite is a coarse-grained aplite.
(B) beresite is orthoclase-poor aplite. :
II. B. THE GRANITE PORPHYRY GROUP.
The structure characteristic of this group of rocks is the holo-
crystalline-porphyritic. Their ground mass is a granular aggregate
of crystalline minerals. The predominant porphyritic crystals are
light in color, i.e., they are neither iron nor magnesia bearing. The
occurrence of iron and magnesia-bearing minerals as porphyritic
constituents is exceptional,
The group is divided into ;—
A. THE GRANITE PORPHYRIES. .
The mineralogical composition of this family is the same as that
Classification of Massive Rocks. 215
of the granites. The porphyrytic constituents are quartz, ortho-
clase, and usually one or more of the granitic minerals, biotite,
hornblende, augite or muscovite. The same minerals occur also
in the ground mass.
No attempt is made to divide the granite porphyries, although
it may be convenient to separate them into :—
1, GRANITE PORPHYRY proper, containing no muscovite, and
2, ELVAN muscovite—rich varieties.
B. THE SYENITE PORPHYRIES.
The syenite porphyries differ from the granite porphyries in
the absence of quartz from among the porphyritic crystals, In
all other respects they are similar to them. Quartz occurs in
the groundmass, and plagioclase is more common than in the
granite porphyries.
They are divided, according to their principal iron-bearing
constituent, into :— :
1. HORNBLENDE SYENITE PORPHYRY, which contains orthoclase
and hornblende as the most prominent porphyritic
constituents,
2. MICA sYENITE PORPHYRY, in which orthoclase and biotite
occur in porphyritic crystals.
3. AUGITE SYENITE PORPHYRY, in which augite is the most
important non-feldspathic porphyritically developed
component.
C. THE ELEOLITE SYENITE PORPHYRIES.
The elæolite syenite porphyries usually contain eleolite as the
Most important porphyritic constituent after orthoclase. In one
or two cases the elæolite is found only in the groundmass.
Rocks belonging to this family have not been sufficiently studied
to admit of further classification.
D. THE DIORITE PORPHYRITES.
The diorite porphyrites are not very widespread. They consist
of plagioclase, hornblende, and sometimes quartz and biotite as
Porphyritic crystals in a groundmass composed principally of
Plagioclase and quartz.
They are divided into families, in accordance with the exist-
ence or non-existence of quartz among the porphyritic crystals,
216 Classification of Massive Rocks.
D. &@ DIORITE PORPHYRITES.
1, DIORITE PORPHYRITE contains plagioclase and hornblende as
rphyritic constituents.
2. MICA DIORITE PORPHYRITE contains plagioclase and biotite in
porphyritic crystals.
D. b QUARTZ DIORITE PORPHYRITES,
1. QUARTZ DIORITE PORPHYRITE contains plagioclase, quartz and
hornblende as the porphyritic ingredients.
2. QUARTZ MICA DIORITE PORPHYRITE. In the rocks of this class
biotite takes the place of the hornblende in the
quartz diorite porphyrites.
II. E. THE LAMPROPHYRE GROUP.
The lamprophyre group differs from the granite porphyry
group of vein rocks in that the iron and magnesium-bearing
silicates, hornblende, pyroxene and biotite are the most important
constituents occurring in two generations. Their feldspar, which
may be either orthoclase or plagioclase, occurs in but one gener-
ation.
In composition they resemble the syenites and diorites of the
intrusive rocks, and are therefore divided in accordance with this
resemblance,
A. SYENITIC LAMPROPHYRES,
The syenitic lamprophyres consist of an alkaline feldspar,
biotite, hornblende and pyroxene as essential constituents.
They possess both the panidiomorphic-granular and the holo-
crystalline-porphyritic structure. The former sometimes passes
over into the hypidiomorphie-granular. |
They are subdivided according to the presence or absence of
biotite as a prominent constituent.
1. MINETTEs contain biotite as the principal iron-bearing con-
stituent, both in the granular and the porphyritie
forms.
(a) hornblende minettes contain hornblende in addition to
i iotite.
(B) augite minettes have augite besides biotite as a promi-
nent constituent,
Classification of Massive. Rocks. 217
(b 1) olivine minette is an augite minette containing
olivine.
2. VOGESITES contain hornblende or augite as the most important
colored constituent.
(A) hornblende vogesite. In this, hornblende predominates
over augite,
(B) augite vogesite possesses augite in larger quantity.
B. DIORITIC LAMPROPHYRES.
The dioritic lamprophyres differ from the syenitic lamprophyres
in containing plagioclase instead of an alkaline feldspar in addition
to biotite, amphibole and augite.
Like the syenitic varieties, these rocks are also developed with
the panidiomorphie granular and the holocrystalline porphyritic
structures, :
Their separation into two classes also depends upon the greater
or less amount of biotite in their composition.
1. Kersantitr. This rock is characterized by the possession of
large amounts of biotite.
(A) Aschaffite contains quartz and feldspar in addition
to the iron-bearing minerals in porphyritic devel-
opment.
(B) Olivine kersantite contains olivine in addition to the
essential constituents of the kersantite.
(b 1) pilite kersantite, in which the olivine’ has been
altered to pilite.
2. CAMPTONTTE contains hornblende in place of the biotite of the
‘kersantites.
(TO BE CONCLUDED.)
218 Glacial Erosion in Norway.
X.—GLACIAL EROSION IN NORWAY AND IN HIGH
LATITUDES:
BY PROFESSOR J. W. SPENCER, B.A.SC., PH.D., F.G.S.
E
URING the summer of 1886, it was my good fortune to visit
the three largest snowfields in Norway, namely, the Folge-
fond, at the head of Hardangerfjord in southern Norway, whose
area is 108 square miles; the Jostedalsfond, two degrees to the
north, beyond Sognefjord, whose area is 580 square miles, and the
largest snowfield in Europe; and the Svartisen, extending from
just inside the arctic cirele for forty-four miles northward. All of
these snowfields send down glaciers to within from 50 to 1,200 feet
of the sea. These snowfields are not basins like those in the Alps,
but are mantles covering the tops of plateaus from 3,000 to 5,000
feet or more above the tide, from which great cañons suddenly
descend to the sea, and extend themselves as fjords, from 1,000 to
4,000 feet in depth. -
Many of the Norwegian glaciers are rapidly advancing. In
their progress they do not conform to the surfaces over which they
pass, but are apt to arch over from rock to rock and point to point,
especially as they are descending the ice-falls. Thus are produced
great caverns into which the explorer can often wind his way for
long distances.
Beneath the glaciers of Fondal, Tunsbergdal, and Buardal, in
the northern, north-central, and south-central snowfields of Nor-
way, as well as under other glaciers, I observed many stones
enclosed in ice, resting upon the rocks, to whose surfaces—sometimes
1 Read before the Royal Society of Canada, May 25, 1887, and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York, Aug-
1887. Printed from advanced sheets of the Proc. Roy. Soc. of Canada.
See also “The Erosive Power of Glaciers as seen in Norway,” Geol.
Mag., London, Dec., iii., vol. iv., 1887, and “Ice Action in High Lati-
tudes,” ibid., vol. v., 1888, by Prof. J. W. Spencer, M.A., Ph.D., F.G@.8:
Glacial Erosion in Norway. 219
flat, sometimes sloping steeply—they adhered by friction, and by
the pressure of the superincumbent weight. Although held in the
ive on four sides, with a force pushing. downward, the viscosity of
TAF W
HA |
i
a .—Section of Fondalsbreeen, a, bed rock; c, cavern under glacier 5; d,loose
ne; f, groove under the ice.
the ice, or the resistance of its molecules in disengaging themselves
from each other in order to flow, was less than that of the friction
between the loose stones and the rock ; consequently the ice flowed
around and over the stones, leaving long grooves upon the under-
surfaces of the glacier. The first observation made was at Fondals-
breen (Fig. 1), where an angular stone (Fig. 1 d) whose section was
ten by eighteen inches, rested upon the sloping face of smooth rock
(a). For twenty feet below the stone, the under-surface of the
glacier was grooved (f) by the moulding of the ice about the
obstacle. This distance showed the advance of the glacier after the
stone had come in contact with the rock, for it had evidently been
Completely buried at the lower end of the groove, before the ice
had begun to flow about it. As the ice between the stone and the
tock gradually disappears, the embedded stone does not suddenly
cease to move, but drags, until enough of the surface rests upon
the rock to allow of friction between the two granitoid surfaces to
Overcome the viscosity of the ice, when the latter flows around the
obstacle. Elsewhere, an example was seen of this action, The
knife edge of a wedge-shaped piece of gneiss was pr i
beneath the ice and resting upon the rock. The front end of this
stone had moved beyond the subjacent surface, while the posterior
220 Glacial Erosion in Norway.
end was still upon it. Yet the sharpness of the edge had scarcely
been blunted.
Abundant examples were found to show that the flowing of the
ice about loose obstacles was quite the rule. Both large and small
(even an inch in length), angular and rounded masses, lying either
upon the rock, or upon morainic matter, were sufficient to channel
the bottom of an advancing glacier. No blocks of rock were seen
in the act of being turn loose from the floor or sides of the valley,
and certainly there were no loose or solid masses being picked up
by the advancing glacier.
Fie. 2.—Section of Tunsbergdalsbreen, a, bed rock; ¢, cavern under ice b, å
boulder; ee, moulding in ice of the form of d.
At Tunsbergdalsbreeen (Fig. 2), whose lower end is 1,600 feet
above the sea, a modification of the above described phenomena
was seen. A roughly rounded boulder (Fig. 2 d) of thirty inches
diameter was enclosed in the convex side of the glacier, which rose
above it from thirty to forty feet in height. It was resting upon a
surface, sloping at a high angle, and was held in place by the ice
itself. As the surface of the stone, bearing upon the rock, was
small compared with that held in the ice, it should have been
dragged along. But it was being rolled, as shown by the mould-
ing (e e) of its form in the glacier which was advancing faster than
the stone was rolling down the steep slope. The pressure upon this
stone could not have been merely that of the superincumbent ice, &
few feet thick, but also that of a powerful component of the weight
of a glacier from 1,500 to 2,000 feet high descending more or less
Glacial Erosion in Norway. 221
like a fluid. The energy upon the boulder was sufficient to crush
it into one large and two smaller masses, together with stone dust.
When seen, the three fragments had hardly begun to part company.
The abrasion of the solid rock by the fall of stones, and detached
masses of ice and stones, was illustrated at the locality just named.
The two guides and myself succeeded in detaching a large boulder
of about five tons weight, adjacent to the edge of the glacier. It
went rolling and sliding down a hundred feet or more, tearing
away great blocks of ice which held a considerable amount of
debris, and in its wake, the rock was more or less crushed or
scratched.
Fic; 3—At Tunsbe
z rgdalsbræen, d, a loose boulder, resting on rock a, in cavern ¢,
against which a tongue q, of the moving glacies b, impiges and is bent backward.
A further example of the ability of the ice to flow like a plastic
body was shown in a cavern (Fig. 3c) 400 feet higher than the
end of the glacier, where the temperature was 4°C., while that out- |
side was 13°C, Upon the debris of the floor rested a rounded
boulder (d) whose longer diameter measured thirty inches, A
tongue of ice (q), in size more than a cubic yard, was hanging from
the roof, and pressing against the stone. In place of pushing the
‘Stone along or flowing around it, the lower layer of ice above the
tongue had yielded, and was bent backward as easily and gracefully
pea had been a thin sheet of lead, instead of one of ice a foot
ick.
According to the experiments of “Herr Pfaff,’ the temperature of
1 Nature, Aug. 19, 1875.
222 ` Glacial Erosion in Norway.
ice has a great deal to do with its flow about obstacles. Below
freezing-point, the movement is scarcely more than appreciable,
while above that point, but not below, it may reach twenty-eight
inches a day, or more. The conditions arising from the tempera-
ture beneath the glaciers are more or less favorable for the move-
ment of the ice, as the lower surfaces are never entirely below
freezing-point, even in winter. Professor S. A. Sexe! found that
the water flowing from a Folgefond glacier, in February, 1861,
had a temperature of 1°R., whilst that of the air was 7°R. below
freezing-point.
The movement or flow of the ice about detached stones, rest-
ing upon rocks, has been observed by Professor Sexe beneath the
- Buarbre, and by Professor J. W. Niles beneath the Aletsch gla-
cier.? Professor Sexe illustrates the moulding of the ice about a
loose stone, which was held beneath the glacier by a projection
of the rock. My observations were upon stones, not held up by
rocky projections, but upon surfaces often sloping downward.
Although Professor Niles did not record observations showing
that there was definite movement of the stone, yet he concluded
that there was a differential movement of the ice and the block.
Whatever differential movement there is, it must be very incon-
siderable, not only upon horizontal plains, but upon inclined sur-
faces. In the former case the movement of the ice is reduced
almost to zero, as shown by the measurements of Professor Tyndall
upon the Morteracht, where the velocity of the surface, some dis-
tance from its end, was fourteen inches, whilst that of the tongue
of the glacier, as it reached the plain, was only two inches a day.”
The most important condition favorable for holding stones in ice
as graving tools is low temperature, which impedes its progress;
but this condition beneath glaciers does not generally exist. At
higher temperatures, the velocity of the glacier is not great enough
to overcome its plastic movement and to drag along detached blocks.
However, when the whole mass of ice is charged with sand and
stones, there is no doubt that polishing and scratching are effected ;
but when there are only occasional fragments in the bottom of the
ice, as is commonly the case, the erosion from the sliding ceases as
1 Om Sneebreen Folgefon, af $. A. Sexe.
2 American Journal of Science, Nov., 1878.
3 Tyndall’s Forms of Water.
Glacial Erosion in Norway. 223
soon as the resistance due to friction between the stones and the
rock equals that due to viscosity, which, as observations show, is
soon reached. Consequently, we should not expect to find great
troughs or grooves scooped out of solid rock by the actual glacier.
These I have not seen about the existing glaciers of Norway, which
are not dependent upon atmospheric and aqueous erosion and the
texture of the rock, although their surfaces may have been subse-
quently polished. Generally speaking—as seen in the valley
behind Fondalen Gaard, where the glacier is nearly free from sand,
and contains comparatively few stones, as well as at many other
places—the surfaces of the subjacent crystalline rocks, although of
the form of roches moutonnées, with angles mostly removed, are not
CaP
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, Smooth, but are as rough and as much weather-worn as similar
rocks in warmer countries where no glaciers have been. U
these surfaces, it is often difficult to discover scratches—even when
Present—for they are often so faint as to be only rendered apparent
by moistening the rock. Even the face of the hummocks are com-
monly imperfectly polished. In other places, particularly at Tuns-
bergdalbreen which contains much sand along the margin, the
rocks are highly polished, and but little scratched. One is every-
where surprised to find beneath the glaciers the great paucity of
glaciated stones, and in many terminal moraines they are scarcely,
if at all, to be found. * :
The insufficiency of glaciers to act as great erosive agents is
224 Glacial Erosion in Norway.
farther shown at Fondalen (Fig. 4), where a mass of ice thirty or
forty feet thick abuts against a somewhat steep ridge of a rock,
ten feet or less in height. In place of a stone-shod glacier sliding
up and over the barrier, the lower part of the ice appears station-
ary, or else is moving around the barrier, while the upper strata
bends ‘and flows over the lower layers of ice (along the line Ah,
Fig. 4).
When the barrier to the advance of a glacier is met with, whether
composed of hard rock, or of morainic matter, the ice, provided it
be sufficiently high, flows over upon itself, yet when the sheet is no
higher than the barrier, the lateral thrust may push it up some-
what. The best example of the consequences of such a condition is
X NV s if
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Fre. 5.—End of pty lege glacier at head of Holandsfjord, moving through a lake
Mekat morainic barrier
to be seen at Svartisen glacier (Fig. 5), at the head of Holandsfjord,
which descends to within sixty feet of the sea, where it ends in a
morainic lake of considerable size, the northern side of which is
filled with the glacier. The water of the lake rises, in part, to the
level of the ice, or over it, where the waves of the lake are depos-
iting sand upon its surface. Part of the ice is not less than twenty-
five feet thick, and most of it is probably double that thickness.
Some of the strata of ice are pushed up and rest at 5° from the
horizontal. But the interesting points are at the end of the glacier,
where it impinges against the morainic barrier. Being unable to
advance, the lateral pressure has forced up an anticlinal ridge or
rather dome in the ice, to a height of fifteen feet, along whose axis
there has been a fracture and fault. Upon this uplifted dome rests
the undisturbed sand stratified in perfect conformity to the surface,
which was formerly just below the level of the lake, As the ice
about the line of fracture melts, the sand falls over and leaves &
sand cone, of which there were CORED at the end of the
lake, and two in the centre—but the nuclei of the mounds were of
Glacial Erosion in Norway. 225 .
solid ice. By this lifting process, pockets of loose clayey sand were
thrown on top of the morainic matter, producing thus the appear-
ance of having been ploughed up
by the glacier to even several
yards beyond its termination,
which has not been the case.
Nowhere is there apparently
more ploughing action, and yet
little or none to be seen, than at
Buarbree,which is advancing rap-
idly against a high lateral mo- a
raine. There is a large ridge gM-
(Fig. 6) of stone upon a thin Sra to aoreet depoptting morsinie
snout of the glacier, just as if the the false appearance of a glacial plough.
ice were pushing under the boulders of earth. The glacier has a steep
convex margin, from twenty to forty feet high, with many blocks
and boulders upon it. These become detached, and, rolling down
upon the lower tongues of ice, build up a ridge and leave a deep
trough between it and the side of the glacier, and delay the melt-
ing of the layer of ice beneath, which is too thin to do any plough-
ing up of the moraine.
An excellent illustra-
tion of a glacier advan-
cing, withoutany plough-
ing action, over a mo-
mar Tn
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ea
inant inet f:
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fy ib |i} HAS E } raine, and at the same
elal H P- > af a time levelling it into a
le sort of ground moraine,
mosi End of Suphellebreen advancing over a he: easier
cier was moving up the slight elevation of a moraine produced by
the early summer retreat of the glacier, although again advancing
in July. The lower surfaces of the ice-tongue were furrowed by
the loose stones of the soft incoherent water-soaked moraine, into
Which one’s foot would sink when stepping upon it. The moraine
was being levelled by the constant dripping of the water from the
whole under-surface of the advancing glacier.
The glacier of Suphelle is the most remarkable of its kind, being
a gigantic glacier rémanié. From the Jostedalsfond, which, near
Zoo. Glacial Erosion in Norway.
the head of the valley of Fjerland fjord, is 3,000 to 4,000 feet
high, the clear, bluish ice falls over a precipice of dark rocks for
about 1,000 feet, and at about 1,500 or 2,000 feet above the sea
begins to re-form into a glacier extending down into and nearly
across the valley of Fjærland for a distance of somewhat less than a
mile, to a level of only 175 feet above the sea. The glacier is much
crevassed, and covered and filled with debris. In fact, it was the
most dirt-laden glacier seen—not excepting the Aar glacier in the
Alps. This material is wholly derived from the side of the moun-
tain, and is brought down by frosts, and more largely by the fall of
ice as it dashes from one frost-cra¢ked rock to another. One of
these great ice-avalanches I witnessed from the other side of the
valley, fully a mile distant. Thousands of tons must have fallen
at this time, but as the ice fell from rock to rock, it was con-
verted into what, seen at the distance, appeared to be white dust.
There are no considerable streams from the upper glacier, but from
the rapidly melting glacier below the fall the volume of water
laden with mud is large. As this glacier is not ploughing up, but
levelling down the inequalities of its bed of loose material, we
cannot suppose that the mud comes from any other than the dirt —
upon and within the ice, and that obtained by the dripping water
as it levels the terminal moraine. This is only one of the examples
everywhere to be seen showing the erroneous estimate of glacier-
erosion, when based upon the amount of mud carried down by the -
streams flowing from the glaciers; for the debris is brought upon
their surfaces by other than grinding action, and, as far as observa-
tion goes, it is not derived from beneath them, at least, to any great
extent.
Although I have seen some of the sharp angles of the rocks at
2,000 feet above the fjords along the sides of the valleys, some-
what rounded and scratched, yet the inequalities of the faces have
not been removed by erosion of any kind. At numerous places in
Norway, as well as in other countries, hammocks of rock rise abové
or out of the glaciers, as the ice flows around them at lower levels,
these channels having been deepened, not by glaciers, but by sub-
glacial streams.
Nowhere are the roches moutonnées so abundant as on the coast of
Norway. In their more perfect form, they are not extensively
developed along the coast at more than 250 feet above the sea.
Glacial Erosion in Norway. 227
higher altitudes they are best seen about glacier-falls, farther up
the valleys. But during the Pleistocene days, the coast has been
raised several hundred feet, at least. The form of the hummocks
is precisely like what may be seen in southeastern Missouri and
other States south of the line of northern drift, or are described as
occurring in Ceylon, Brazil and other tropical countries, to which
only are added the scratches. The forms of these hummocks must
be principally attributed to the atmospheric erosion of the crys-
talline rocks where the debris has been swept away by currents
or by ice. We see them more frequently swept clean upon the
coasts of either cold or warm countries than in the interior, where
the currents are only those from rain or local glaciers; for even
the Sweeping beneath the glaciers is principally effected by drip-
ping waters or streams. Professor Kjerulf, of the University of
Christiania, than whom there is no better authority, regards the
production of hummocks and their glaciation up to a height of 600
feet upon the coast of N orway, as the result of floating ice.’
The absence of transported boulders and striations upon the sur-
face of many parts of the high plateaus of Norway is doubtless, in
part, attributable to the ability of ice to flow around loose obstacles,
and the frequent want of higher ridges to furnish material by their
debris falling upon the ice to work through the mass afterwards.
The faith in glaciers, as great erosive agents, has been so severely
shaken that few geologists, who personally study those still exist-
ing, now attribute to them greater power than that of removing
soft materials, and of this power many others are sceptical, e.g., Pro-
fessor Penck,? of the University of Vienna, who has been mis-
quoted as having proved their great efficiency in eroding basins in
hard rocks. To this scepticism, it seems to me that these notes
must contribute; especially when glacial erosion is applied to the
hypothetical excavation or modification of great lake-basins, and the
transportation of the northern materials in the boulder clay over
the broad plains of America, as there were no mountains of ade-
quate height with peaks, or séracs, to supply the detritus sufficient
to furnish the tops of the glaciers with all the boreal material of
the drift, which “covers half a continent.”
ie iscourse before Meeting of Scandinavian Naturalists, Copenhagen,
* Geological Magazine, April, 1883.
228 : Glacial Erosion in Norway.
In connection with this paper, the observations of Herr Payer
and other arctic explorers are important. The snow-line of Franz
Joseph Land descends to within a thousand feet of the sea, and the
numerous glaciers discharge great quantities of icebergs as they
move down into the ocean. Payer says: “ However diligently I
look for them, I never saw unmistakable traces of grinding and
polishing of rocks by glacier-action.” 1
Lieutenant Lockwood? found in central Grinnell Land a thick
ice-cap, extending for a distance of from seventy to ninety miles,
faced by an ice-wall of from 125 to 200 feet high, irrespective of
topographical inequalities. It was free from rock debris, except in
a valley confined by mountain-walls thousands of feet high. Along
its foot there was almost an absence of morainic deposits, and even
where present these were unimportant ridges. The general absence
of rock and dirt in the arctic glaciers is a common subject of remark.
The snow line in the high latitude of central Grinnell Land is 3,800
feet above the sea, and the glaciation of the rock about the adjacent
Lake Hazen (500 feet above tide) is not recent.
In Spitzbergen, where the snow-line is much higher, striated
rocks, according to Nordenksjold, occur only below 1,000 feet.’
The same holds true for Labrador, where the scratches are confined
to the lower thousand feet, although the mountains rise to 6,000
(Bell).*
In the Antarctic regions, the officers of the “Challenger”
remarked the absence of detritus in the icebergs and southern ice,
although Wilkes and Ross saw rocks upon a few bergs. These
last are supposed to have come from valleys in the voleanic moun-
tains,
Indeed, outside of valleys, explorers in high latitudes have not
found, in the margins of such ice-caps visited, the tools capable of
great erosion. The continental area of North America presents
very much lower and less abrupt prominences than the reliefs of
Greenland, Grinnell Land, Spitzbergen or Franz Joseph Land.
Overhanging mountains seem to be necessary to supply glaciers
with tools by which alone any abrasions can be accomplished, and
1 New Lands within the Arctic Circle, 1872-74.
Three Years of Arctic Service, 1881-4, Greely.
3 See Geological Magazine, 1876.
t Dr. Robert Bell, in Hudson’s Bay Expedition of 1884.
Glacial Erosion in Norway. 229
these conditions belong only to valleys of great mountain ranges.
However, there is one condition under which glaciers, when shod
with graving tools, ought to be great eroders, viz., when their
motion is much more rapid than the flow of land ice,—which is
almost invariably less than three feet a day, under which condition,
included stones commonly adhere by friction to the subjacent rocks,
and cause the lower surfaces of the ice to be grooved. This condi-
tion of extraordinarily rapid: movement has been seen at Jacobs-
havn glacier in Greenland, where Professor Helland! found a velo-
city of from forty to sixty feet a day. In Alaska, Lieutenant
Schwatka? and Professor G. F. Wright? observed glacier move-
ments of from forty to seventy feet a day. In these cases the gla-
ciers are moving into the sea, and the new element of partial flota-
tion or sliding, which does not belong to land glaciers, is here intro-
duced. The great velocity of these glaciers is far beyond any
observed ability of ice to flow as plastic bodies; consequently, one
is led to conclude that, under partial flotation, stones may be held
firmly as graving tools by glaciers.
Hereby we are able to explain. the occurrence, in many Alpine
valleys, of a greater glaciation than we see in progress to-day, as
being due to glaciers rapidly advancing into fjords, during a period
of partial submergence.
The appeal to the greater magnitude of the glaciers, as produc-
ing effects not now seen as the result of those of the present day,
Seems to be begging the question, for the action of thicker glaciers
differs from that of thinner in amount rather than in kind; for
increased pressure, raising the temperature, increases the plasticity
of the ice, as it is seldom if ever lower than freezing point. Con-
Sequently it seems improbable that stones should be held more
firmly in glaciers of thousands of feet in thickness than in those of |
hundreds of feet. In addition, the friction between the stones held
m the ice, and the surface of the subjacent rock, is proportionally
increased by the greater weight of the glacier.
Over the vast area of action, the work of floating or sea-ice, in
some forms, is enormous. On the northern side of Hudson Strait,
i a ords of North Greenland, Quart. Jour. Geo. Soc., 1877, A. Hel-
n
z “Times” Alaska Expedition, New York, 1886, Schwatka.
The Muir Glacier, Am. Jour, of Sci., 1887. l
230 Glacial Erosion in Norway.
Dr. John Rae, who had very extensive arctic experiences, found
that snow drifting over precipices into the sea resulted in the for-
mation of bergs, sometimes a hundred feet thick, filled with the
loose rock debris of the coast, and having the form of the shore
where formed. Most of them break loose and drift away to melt
or become stranded elsewhere.
Greely describes the great momentum with which the floe-bergs
come together. By their meeting the ice is crushed, and raised up
into ridges fifty or sixty feet high.
One cannot read carefully the results of the British Arctic Expe-
dition of 1875-6 without being impressed with the erosive power
of drifting ice, moving with a velocity never acquired by glaciers.
Floe-bergs are pushed upon a shelving sea-bottom, until the ice
has risen from twenty to sixty feet, after their first stranding in
perhaps only from eight to twelve fathoms of water, although
weighing tens of thousands of tons.?
As the grounded floe-bergs are forced up the shelving sea-bot-
- toms, ridges of earth and stones are pushed up in front of them.
Floe-bergs which have been toppled over, thus showing their orig-
inal bottoms, and also masses of pushed-up coast ice are found to
be grooved and to contain angular stones with their exposed sur-
faces scratched and polished. As the movement is greater than the
velocity of glaciers flowing about obstacles, it is only natural to
expect that the enclosed stones should be held firmly as graving
tools, or be wrenched out owing to the brittleness of the ice under
such great stress.
In describing the ice action on the coast of Labrador, Professor
H. Y. Hind says the “ pan-ice” (from five to twelve feet thick) is
polishing the surfaces and sides of the rocky coast, and producing
boulder clay. He says: “ When the pans are pressed on the coast
by winds, they accommodate themselves to all the sinuosities of
the shore line, and being pushed by the unfailing arctic current,
which brings down a constant supply of floe ice, the pans rise over
all the low lying parts of the Islands, grinding and polishing
exposed shores, and rasping those that are steep-to. The pans are
shoved over the flat surfaces of the Islands, and remove with irre-
sistible force every obstacle which opposes their thrust, for the —
1 In Canadian Journal, Toronto, 1859.
2 British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, Sir George Nares.
Editors’ Table. 231
attacks are constantly renewed by the ceaseless ice stream from the
northwest, and this goes on uninterruptedly for a month or more.”’?
Similar results elsewhere have been frequently recorded, as those of
Professor Milne in Newfoundland.”
While the power of glaciers, under favorable conditions, to
abrade and scratch rock surfaces, as “sand-paper” scratches “a cab-
inet,” is not questioned ; yet these observations, in Norway and else-
where in high latitudes, all confirm the correctness of the verdict
given by many geologists—especially in Europe—who have had
the opportunity of personally studying living glaciers, that the
potency of land-glaciers to act as great eroding agents, capable of
“planing down half a continent,” or ploughing out great valleys,
or lake-basins, or even of greatly modifying them, is not only not
proved, but most strongly negatived. Even the power of glaciers
to abrade is reduced in many cases almost’ to zero.
EDITORS’ TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY.
European governments give more attention to the preservation
of their ancient and prehistoric monuments than does the United
States. This may arise, partly, from the increased interest upon
that subject among their officials and people; or, partly, from the
differences in our form of government. Whatever may be the
Cause, our government and our people, unless they improve their
present methods in this direction, will find cause for regret in —
after years, when the prehistoric monuments of our country
shall have been destroyed and their contents scattered without
a record, when it will be too late to remedy the neglect.
_ The French government has passed several laws upon this sub-
Ject. It has established a commission under the direction of
the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, charged with
the duty of the supervision of these monuments throughout the
Republic, These laws only provided for the procuration of the
title to land by gift or purchase. Some of the land-holders took
' Notes on Some Geological Features of the Northeastern Coast of
Labrador, Can. Nat. 1878.
ce and Ice Action, Newfoundland, Geol. Mag., 1876.
232 Recent Literature.
advantage of this and increased their price beyond what was fair
and reasonable, and now the French government has met them
with a decree, authorizing the State to acquire by expropriation the
land on which these monuments are situated, principally in the
Commune of Carnac, Department of Morlehan. |
Many of the monuments have already been acquired ; have been
restored to their original condition, surrounded by a fence, where
practicable, for the necessary preservation. This has been done
under the supervision of M. Felix Gaillard, archeologist of
Plouharnel.
Those to be added under the decree, above mentioned, will be
the great alignments of Menec, of Kermario and of Kerlescan ;
the great tumulus of Saint-Michel, that of Moustier, of Crucuny
and of Kerlescan. Also six Menhirs and six Dolmens.
It is believed that under the operation of this law the present
proprietors will yield, and that the State will acquire, by purchase,
all the monuments of this kind within the commune. When
these are restored and put in proper condition, this commune will
be one of the most attractive in all France, and the American
tourist, interested in prehistoric archeology, will feel it as much a
necessity to visit it as to visit Paris.—T. W.
RECENT LITERATURE. |
A Review or Mr. LYDEKKER’S ARRANGEMENT OF THE
Mesozorc MAmMaALtIA (Cat. Foss. Mamm., British Museum, Part
V., 1887).—Mr. Lydekker places all the Mesozoic mammalia
among the Marsupialia, not admitting that there is sufficient weight
in the close analogy between the dentition of the Stylodontide and
Chrysochloridz to support a reference of this family to the Insec-
tivora. The genera included under the sub-order Multituberculata
of Cope are provisionally embraced in the Diprotodontia (p. 195,)
while all the remaining forms with numerous small incisors are
placed with the Polyprotodontia. I agree with the author that the
systematic position of the Multituberculata forms, such as Plagiau-
lax, Tritylodon and Polymastodon must be left, in a measure, pro-
visional until additional material is obtained ; but at present, in my
opinion, the balance of evidence necessitates their separation from
the Diprotodonts. The most striking feature of both these groups
is the hypertrophy of a pair of incisors in each jaw; but, so far as
a close comparison of these incisors in the fossil and recent forms is
Recent Literature. 233
possible, it supports the conjecture that these teeth in the two groups
are neither homologous nor homodynamous, although bearing a
superficial analogy.!
) regards homology, in all the Quaternary and recent Dip-
rodonts it is the median incisor which is hypertrophied ; whereas,
in the Mesozoic genera—in which the mode of reduction has been
observed—the second incisor, or, rather, one of the lateral incisors
is hypertrophied. In the Bolodontide, as demonstrated by Marsh
in his observations upon Allodon, the median incisor is reduced and
the second incisor is hypertrophied. In Tritylodont there are two
incisors : the outermost is close to the maxillary suture; the hyper-
trophied incisor is close in front of this and widely separate from
its opposite fellow, indicating that if this genus is descended froma
form with three or four incisors (asa comparison with Bolodon ren-
ders probable), it is again the median incisor which has disappeared.
Ve have no further evidence bearing upon this point, so it will be
of importance to observe which of the incisors is hypertrophied in
Plagiaulax?
Plagiaulacide. Professor Marsh recently called my attention to
the wearing of the posterior face of the large upper incisor of Allo-
‘don by the tip of the lower tooth. This interference forces the jaw
wards as it ascends by a mechanism similar to that in the ro-
dents, as demonstrated by Cope’ It has effected a rapid reduction
of the other incisors, as witnessed in Tritylodon and on; a
total reduction, as witnessed in Polymastodon and Plagiaulax. In
contrast with these genera, the recent Diprotodonts present, for the
Most part, three upper incisors ; while the reduction of all, except
$° median incisors and the fore-and-aft grinding motion, is con-
to a single family, the Phascolomyide.
a 3.) The longitudinal arrangement of the conical tubercles in two
c more rows is peculiar to the Multituberculates, and, according to
ope, forms a sufficiently clear sub-ordinal distinction.’ :
The technical question of taxonomic position is, however, of minor
! In the Postseri .
s pt, p. xv., bv a slight oversight, the author refers to
with Cerium, instead of Siyticion ta having been compa Osborn
* Mr ras sochloris, (See Osborn, Proc. Phila. Acad, 1887.
two inci ydekker mentions (p. 195, footnote) that Lemoine deseribes
‘Not come a Aheloy sn in the magillary series of Plagiaulax. I have
3 is description. 3
ue oe echanical Causes of the Origin of the Dentition of the Roden-
phe pcan Naturalist, January, 1888, p; 12.
ertiary Marsupialia. American Naturalist, 1884, p. 188.
2o Recent Literature.
interest. The chief point is the question of phylogeny. In my
opinion, the Multituberculata will finally prove entirely distinct
from the Diprotodonts and representative of a phylum of genera
which reached too great a degree of specialization at the close of the-
Cretaceous to survive until the recent period. Thylacoleo was placed
as the latest representative of the Plagiaulax line by Owen, and,.
later, by Cope; but this view is not shared by Lydekker, who
places it near the Phalangistide. (Op. cit., p. 188.) `
e family arrangement is the same as that proposed by Cope
and adopted by myself,! with the addition of the Bolodontide. We
are surprised to find Microlestes placed in the latter family instead
of in the Plagiaulacide ; for the type-molars bear only a superficial
resemblance to those of Bolodon, and closely approach those o
Plagiaulaz.
The Polyprotodont genera are provisionally placed by Lydekker
in five distinct families, under the Marsupialia Polyprotodontia..
In the arrangement of these genera the author has been at a great
disadvantage in not having been able to study the types of the Yale
College collection, in which the molars are exposed upon both the
inner and outer surfaces, and thus fails to recognize the distinctive
features of the molars in many instances. But this will not explain
his separation of Amphilestes and Phascolotherium from the Tricono-
don line and their union with such diverse forms as Amphitherium,
Achyrodon and Peramus.
1.) In the Amphitheriidee (which embraces, among others, the five
genera just mentioned) we are surprised to find (p. 274) that Peras-
ax is made a synonym of Amblotherium. This is explained ina
footnote (p. 274), in which a small inner cusp is described upon the
ower molars of A. soricinwm—an interesting observation if correct,
use it is entirely opposed to the observations of Owen (Mesozoic:
Mammalia, 1871) and the writer (1886). According to the latter,
eraspalax has prominent internal cusps, separate from the internal
—a type of molar found only in the type maxilla of Peralestes. The
lower jaw of Peralestes, type of Phascolestes (Owen), is also united
with Amblotherium. This is more probable, as the outer face of
neither genus is certainly known, and the inner faces are very simi-
lar ; but if Amblotherium and Phascolestes are alike, both must be re-
1On the Bireta and Classification of the Mesozoic Mammalia. Ab-
stract, Proc. Phila. Acad., June, 1887.
2 Am. Jour. Se. and Arts, April, 1887.
Recent Literature. 235
that when the outer faces of the lower molars are known they will
also prove to be of the Stylodon type. The Amphitheriide is thus
made a miscellaneous family, to embrace genera with lower molars
—multicuspidate, tricuspidate, or differentiated into a blade and
talon.” “ The difference in the character of the lower molars is not
greater than obtaining in the Dasyuride” (p. 269).
While this may be true, it does not afford sufficient ground for
separating Phascolotherium and Amphilestes from genera with three-
lobed molars (Triconodon) and placing them with genera with two-
lobed molars (Amphitherium and Peramus). The American genus `
Dromatherium, with unpaired fangs, is also placed in this family, '
adding to its heterogeneous character.
(2.) Triconodontide, Triconodon, probably by a typographical
error, is stated to have no internal cingulum upon its molars (p-
257). The cingulum is one of the most characteristic features of
the molars, and establishes the close homology which exists between
the Triconodon, Phascolotherium, Amphilestes and Spalacotherium
molars, indicating their phylogenetic relation with many mandibular
and dental characters in common, that they formed a series of primi-
tive Carnivora. Lydekker follows Marsh® and Osborn® in making
scotherium the type of a distinct family, the (3) Spalacotheriide.
+he inward rotation of the lateral cusps characteristic of this genus
ìs begun in Phascolotherium and extended in Tinodon, affording tran-
sitions ; so that, with the resemblances of the mandible and pre-
molars, it is probable that this genus is an offshoot of the Tricono-
type. At all events, I cannot now discover family characters.
sufficient to separate it from the Triconodontide. I cannot share
the opinion (p. 292) that these molars are of the Chrysochloris type;
h are rather of a primitive tubercular, sectorial order, leading to
. sectorial triangle of the Didelphys molar. Upon page 294 we
a. Peralestes (type maxilla, Owen) also placed in this family, and
“eae A separated as a genus from S. tricuspidens. The molars
i genus, with separate external and internal cusps, are widely
np from those of Spalacotherium, the upper molars of which
mi probably be found to exactly reverse the pattern of the lower.
'S genus seems, therefore, to be identical with Peraspalax.
(+) It is in Stylodon, type of the Stylodontide, that we find the
ay omologue of the Chrysochloris molar® and a representative
qro ttue line of Insectivora. Lydekker, although in possession of
: ay s description of the lower molars of the closely allied genus
éj jo'estes, describes the lower molars of the Stylodontidæ as simply
nical (p. 290). We have positively no grounds for referring this
1 I os
» It is probable that several specimens which were referred to
Cenblotherium by Owen really balone to Stylodon—e.g., A. mustelula
Fig. 2, Owen’s Memoirs). The mandibular and premolar
Trylodonti, f this genus and Achyrodon is very similar to some of the
de. See Achynodon Names, Owen, Plate II., Fig. 7.
236 Recent Literature.
family to the Marsupialia. No Marsupial presents an analogous
dentition. Percmeles, it is true, bears a similar relation to Tupaia ;
but some stress may be laid upon the fact that the Stylodon and
Chrysochloris are the only known examples of this type of molar.
As Mr. Lydekker himself indicates by his frequent use of the
word provisional, we are certainly not in a position to reach final
conclusions in regard to the classification of the greater number of
these Mesozoic genera ; and this review of the related portion of this
valuable catalogue is intended, in large part, to suggest further in-
quiry, rather than as an expression of final opinion on my own part.
—Henry F. Osborn.
SEEBOHM ON THE CHARADRIIÐÆ.!—This is another of the
handsomely illustrated works of large folio with which the orni-
thologists of Britain from time to time delight the scientific world,
and all other lovers of nature as well. While the present publica-
tion does not pretend to be a complete descriptive monograph, diag-
nostic characters and figures of species and sub-species are given,
which are quite sufficient for the determination of the known
members, at least, of the family. The scope of the work is indi-
cated by the fact that it embraces as Charadriide the tribe Limi-
cale of many authors. Especial attention is given, as the title
indicates, to the geographical distribution of the members of the
family, with especial reference to their evolution. ;
The first chapter is occupied with the classification of birds im
general. The second is devoted to evolution in general. The
author here distinctly affirms the doctrine that Natural Selection
never originated anything, and he ranges himself on the side of
the Neolamarckian school, although he does not say so in precise
terms. In this matter he shows himself to be much more perspi-
cacious than those of his countrymen who, like Mr. Romanes,
regard this view of the subject as “transparently fallacious
{Romanes in review of Schurman in Nature, Feb., 1888). But we
take issue with Mr. Seebohm in his expression of evolution
in taxonomy. Like Schlosser, he believes that “ natural” groups
must represent phylogenetic series, and he believes these series tO
be expressed by the totality of the animals’ characters. Thus
characters of the specific grade generally in his system take pre-
cedence of those usually regarded as generic and even higher.
We have objected to this doctrine on various grounds, especially
in our essay on The Origin of Genera.? First, because generic
characters probably express more in phylogeny than specific; second,
iuse specific characters consist of an aggregate of single charac-
ters, and each has had a history independent of the others, 50 that
1 The Geographical Distribution of the Charadriide, by Henry See-
bohm. London: Henry Sothern & Co. 1887. 4to, pp. 524.
* Origin of the Fittest. D. Appleton & Co. 1887. Art. II.
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 28t-
the history of single characters, one at a time, is a history of the
whole; third, because the interruptions in the geological record
will always prevent us from making complete phylogenetic series,
and our tangible breaks will be transverse to phylogenetic lines ;
and it is on these breaks that the system will ever depend. Such a
system may be called artificial, but it is the only system with defi-
nitions that we can ever have. As a consequence of his views on
this subject, Mr. Seebohm combines species with three toes in the
same genus as those with four, and species-with an expanded bill
(Eurynorhynchus) with species without such expansion (Tringa).
e most American zoologists, Mr. Seebohm finds it necessary
to adopt sub-specific names, or the trinomial system, for protean
groups. In this way the relations of the forms are well expressed
throughout this work.
We wonder when the wealthier men of the United States will
begin to devote some of their spare time and means to the produc-
tion es works like this admirable combination of science and art..
—
. . .
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Boettger, “ir esr, zur Herpetologie und Malakazoologie Südwest
Afrikas men bd. u. d. Senck. Nat. Ges. 1886. From the author.
Obrontschew ste dis rendu Prdliminaire sur les Recherche Géolo-
ae ‘dans lé istrict Transcaspien. Bull. du Comité Géologique.
Ka Pi sok
"Bont A -Conpe-en d du Comité Géologique en 1886. Bull. du.
Michael, W.—History of Abury, Wiltshire, Eng. From the author.
» T. H—Snake and Sonerii» Mounds in Minnesota. Ext.
Science. 1887. From the author
J. W—
author. List of publications of J. W. Spencer. From the
Jor
A -hg of the American Species of Tetradontide.
Edwarda., o L. J^E oc, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1886. From the authors.
Taoa S.—The cue tune From Proc. Amer. Soc. Ps eye hical
ry earch. 1886.—Zur Kenntniss der Insektenha = Sep.-abd. a. d.
rechiv fiir mikroskop. Anatomie. B. xxviii.—Structure of the Hu u-
p, Skin. Amer. Nat. extra. June, 1886. —On the Conditions to
illed by a Theory of Life. Ext. Proc. A. A. A. S. 1883. All
from the author
TRAY, R.—A Wodan of Colors for Naturalists, and ite eeri
i a of Useful Knowledge for Ornithologists. 1886. From
Bartlett, J. R,—
—Annual Report of the Hydrographer oie A Bureau of
Navigation fo ioe y
graphie Ome ‘Be year ending June 30, 1886. From the Hydro-
Ja
‘fo J. F—Protozoa of the Cincinnati Group. Ext. Jour. Cinein:
t. Hist. 1887. From the author.
238 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Ami, H. M.—On the Occurrence of Scolithus in Rocks of the kri
Formation about tawa, Ontario. Repr. Canad. Rec. of Sci.
From the author
ue, F. W.—A New pore of =e Serea Dipodomys. Proc. U.S. Nat.
Museum, 1886. From the au
Thompson, A. H.—The Potency of N in RONTE the Masticatory
Apparatus of Animals. From the author
Baker, J. H.—The Sources of the Mississippi. Minnesota Historical
Collections. Vol. VI., Part I. 1887. From the author
Howell, T.—A Catalogue of the Known Plants of Oregon, Washington
and Idaho. 1887. From the author
— R. W.—List of Contributions t Science of R. W. Shufeldt-
7. From the author. ih. esaa of the Macrochires. The
ed 1877. From the a
Reusch, H.—Geol. Beob. ti ienen regional-metamorphosirten ce
am. Hardangenfjord in Norwegen. 1887. From the author
Wilder, B. G.—On a Decerebrized Frog. On the Medisected Alinjestedl
Head of a Hardere. Rep. Jour. Nervous and Mental Diseases.
1886. From S thor.
MeMurrich, J. P.—A Contribution to the a aad of the TERE
branch Gasteropodes 1886. From the au
Ward, L. F.—Types of the Peien Flora. a No. 37, U. 8. Geol.
Surv. 1887. eons the a
Prescott, A. B.—The tet of ieee as Disclosed in the Consti-
tution of the Alkaloids. P. A. A. S. 1887. From the author.
Ronch, G.—D’un Nouveau Mécanisme de la Respiration chez les Thal-
. asso-Cheloniens. Ext. Bull. d. 1. Soc. Zool. de France. 1886.— a
plications de la Méthode Lagao à ‘quelques points de la Physiol-
1885
Tr
‘ogie du gros intestin. Both from the author.
ies K. A.— Handbuch der r Palæontologie. I. Abtheilung ; Palæ0z00-
logie. 1887. rom the author
Deve, W. E eee Agric. PRP Station. Bull. No.25. From
eau
Eccles, E E Lprags and Digestion. Repr. N. Y. Med. Journ. 1886.
From the author
` E. D.—A Contribution to the History of the Vertebrata of the
‘ris ah North America. Proc. Amer. Philos, Soc. 1887. From
the a
Grimes, S.—Kosmonomia, the Growth of Worlds, and the Cause of
Gravina 1887. From the author
p e G. A.—On New Reptiles and Baths from North Bor-
—On a New Species of Semionatus. Both Ext. Ann. and Mag;
t. Hist. 1887.—On a New kany from the Kalahari.—Secon
Conti: to the Herpetology of the Solomon Islands.—Both from
P. Z. S., London. 1887. All from the author.
An T Theologian. Tna of Nature and Revelation. N. Y.,
885. From the author
Stev J. J.—Notes on the Lower Carboniferous ai pes along the
East East Side of the A Appalachians, in Pennsylvania and the Virginias.
Ext. Amer. Jour. From the author
Howes, G. B.—On the Skeleton and Affinities of the Paired Fins of
Ceratodus. P. Z. 8., London. 1887. From the author.
Geography and Travel. 239
Cobbe, Frances P.—TIllustrations of vives from the Works of
Physiologists. 1887. From the author
Newton, E. T.—On the Remains of Fishes a! the Keuper of Warwick
and. le se cence Ext. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1887. From the
author
Nehring, A.—Ueber eine etn eg Art vonsepder Küste Stid-Brasili-
ensis. 1887. From the
Albrecht, “rg di Fens zur aan, d, v. H. Geheimen-Medicinal-
rath Prof. Dr. Virchow gegen d. o. m. Kuttontatitoi Theorien über
pa N Penischisis Epi-un ypospadie crhobenen Beden-
887.— phol. Batrach. über das Herz, das Arterien-Venen-
Lymphge aede der Wirbelthiere. Anat. Anzeiger. 1887.
Thompson, E. H.—Ar reheæological Research in Yucatan. Proc. Antiq.
Soc. 1886. From the author.
Baur, G. he die PERRE der Amnioten kadete noe Sitz.
d. Ges für Morphologie. 8 Marz, 1887. From the author
amet F- Waat is Anatomy? Rop. N. Y. Med. Jour. 1887, From
Hay, O. P.—The Red-headed Woodpecker a Hoarder. The Auk, July,
1887.—The Amphibians and Reptiles of Indiana.—On the Manner
i repre of the Glacial Drift. Amer. Jour. Sci. 1887. All from
e author.
, A.—Ueber das Homologen der Chorda oe bei niederen
Bwana Anat. Anz. 1887. From the author
dd, E. F.—Report of the Assistant Chemist to the New — Agri-
cultural Station. Geneva, N. Y. 1887. From the author
Robinson, J. earen and Arboriculture in PRERE E 1887.
From the author
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL:
Asta, Erc.—Norru Bornro.—The account of explorations
in North Borneo, by D. D. Daly, published, with map, in the Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (January, 1888), is a
valuable addition to current knowledge of the great island, a
portion of which has recently fallen under British na The
most southerly point of British North Borneo is 3° 52” N.; the
most northerly (the northern point of Banguey Island), 7° 25’ A E
the most westerly, 115° 20’ E.; the most easterly, 119° 16’ E.
The area is computed at 31 000 square miles, the seaboard at 700
miles, and the population at 150,000. The principle land-locked
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
240 General Notes.
others, and 30 Europeans. Hardly any trouble has been experi-
enced with the natives. The British North Borneo Company was
chartered November 1, 1881. Tobacco is the principal crop yet
cultivated, and Chinese contract labor furnishes the means, for the
climate is not one in which the white man can perform hard work
in the open air. The larger half of the island belongs to the
Dutch, who are not taking steps to encourage the opening up of
their territory. The remainder consists of British North Borneo,
Sarawak, and the small independent sultanate of Brunei.
Mr. Daly (August, 1884) entered the Kinabatangan, the largest
navigable river of the territory, in a steam-launch. Malapi, about
half a degree up this river, is the depot for the edible birds’ nests-
brought from the Gomanton caves, about twelve miles farther
north. The value of the nests collected is $25,000 per annum.
The height of one of the vaults of these caves has been estimated
at 900 feet, and a steady column of Collocalias has been seen to fly
from one of the apertures for forty-five minutes. All the birds’
nests caves (there are many others) are in isolated mountains of
limestone in a country of secondary formation. The settlements
along this river and its tributary, the Lokan, which rises near
Mount Kinabalu (13,680 feet), seem to be flourishing, durians,
langsat, rambutans, mangoes, limes, oranges, lichee and pulasans
saya
fields. Higher up live the Muruts, who wear no clothes, and are
still, where not yet reached by British influence, addicted to head-
hunting. The Murut Chief Zalmiboh put his house at Mr. Daly’s
disposal. It was fifty feet square, and very clean ; but from the
rafters dangled fifty human heads and pieces of human bones.
Geography and Travel. 241
Mr. Daly was himself instrumental in making the Muruts and the
Peluans of the interior swear to be at peace with each other, and
to follow the law of the British North Borneo Company, beneath
whose flag they swore friendship.
THE Zones oF TIBET. — General S. T. Walker, after the read-
ing of Mr. Carey’s account of his travels in Central Asia, before
the Royal Geographical Society, stated that Tibet might be broadly
divided into three zones, which increase in altitude from south to
north ; a southern zone, 10,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea, con-
taining L’hasa and all the towns and villages of the settled popula-
tion; a middle zone, 12,000 to 14,500 feet high, comprising the
pasture lands of the nomad Bodpas, or pure Tibetans; and a
northern zone, 14,000 to 17,500 feet above the sea, partly occupied
at certain seasons by Turkic and Mongolian nomads, but mostly
abandoned to wild animals. It was this Chang-Tang or northern
plain that Mr. Carey had crossed in various parts during his
Journey to and from Turkestan.
Arrica.— LAKE SHIRWA. — According to the Rev. A. Heth-
erwick, there is now no communication between Lake Shirwa, or
Chirwa and the Lujenda River. It is very evident that at one time
e Shirwa covered the broad flat plain to the west of it,
was united to Lake Chinta, the present head of the Lujenda.
Gradually the waters fell, and the sandy ridge of Chezomoni
appeared. The present lake is very shallow, and grows smaller
yearly, Its area is about 350 square miles.
SETE Kama. — Sete Kama, on ihe west coast of Africa, is the
name given to the district extending from 2° 28’ to 2° 45’ south
latitude. European factories are scattered along the beach for about
three miles. All the factories have sub-stations on the Ndago lagoon,
the old mouth of which has been silted up for three years. It appears
that the land is gaining on the sea, for at Ngoné, a mile from the
shore, Mr. Walker found an old ship’s anchor. Ndago lagoon is of
great extent. The Balombo, who inhabit Sete Kama, have a week
of four days, as do also some other tribes on the west coast.
Grocrapnican News. — King Menelik of Shoa has recently
annexed Harar, not many years since a part of the Egyptian pos-
Sessions. The French ‘traveller Rimbaud has returned to the
Pa from Shoa via Harar, thus avoiding the dangerous route
hrough the Danakff country. The distance between Antotto and
es, .
rar is 310 mil
Manitoba has been reduced in area from 123,200 squ iles
23, quare mule
rn the remainder having been added to Ontario and to the
in feo! Keewatin. The population of the reduced area has risen
ve years from 62,260 to 108,640.
242 General Notes.
GEOLOGY AND PALZONTOLOGY.
Mimic EARTHQUAKE NEAR AKRON, O.—A district of coun-
try lying about five miles south of Akron, O., was on the night
between Thursday, February 9th, and Friday, February 10th, the
scene of a commotion that well simulated an earthquake on a small
scale. About nine o’clock in the evening a smart shock disturbed
the inhabitants and caused much consternation, which was intensi-
fied when between two and three the following morning a severer
one, accompanied by a loud noise, as of an explosion, awoke the
sleepers by shaking the houses and cracking the walls of some of
them. When daylight came several long clefts in the ground were
discovered, furnishing evidence of some subterranean disturbance
during the night.
Similar phenomena occurred almost in the same spot in 1882 and
1883. At that time a cleft from two hundred to three hundred feet
long was formed, which crossed a road, marking its course with a
furrow, such as that made by a plough. This crack was not more
than an inch or two in width, but was sounded with a stick to the
depth of several feet (some say fifteen or twenty). It passed under ~
a house, cracking the cellar-wall. The noise accompanying it was
likened by some of those who heard it toa cannon fired in the
cellar. The explosion of Friday morning last (February 10) was
heard by several persons in Akron, at a distance of about five miles.
The writer visited the spot last summer, at the request of a gen-
tleman who had leased several farms, with the intention of drilling
for gas. On making inquiry of one of the oldest residents, he
learned that an earlier event of the same kind took place about
twenty-five years ago, but could get no details.
The phenomena pointed, not to seismic causes, but to subterra-
nean explosions, presumably of gas. The ground is clay an
pa moraine matter, probably not less than a hundred feet m
depth. ,
Kile account differs somewhat in the details: “ After the ex-
plosion in 1882, then the fissures, some of them nearly half a mile
long, radiated to the top of a rise of ground. Mr. Thornton dug 4
hole nine (9) feet deep at the point where the fissures crossed OF
formed a centre, and at that depth found the cleft in the earth as
pronounced as it was at the surface.”
So far as it is possible to determine it, the cause of the prong
tion is due to the presence of a certain, perhaps a small, amount 0
natural gas, which, in ordinary circumstances, escapes unnoticed.
But when the ground is frozen (and all these explosions have pga
red in the winter) the gas is unable to ooze through the soil
Geology and Paleontology. 243
accumulates below the frozen crust, until its elasticity becomes suffi-
cient to burst it; hence the explosion, the shock, and the cracks in
the ground.
At the outburst in 1883 several of these cracks could be seen
radiating from a central point in a field and extending to different
distances. One of the spectators says these clefts divided the field
into half or quarter-acre pieces. Similar results followed the late
explosion. I have not seen the place since, but learn that the fis-
_< very soon closed, or were filled up in consequence of a rapid
thaw.
“One peculiar feature is that while former disturbances rent
greater fissures and were accompanied by much greater damage to
property than the recent ones, yet, so far as is known, none of the
former explosions was heard or felt in this city.”
It would be interesting to inquire if any similar events are on
record elsewhere in regions yielding natural gas. Perhaps this
note may be the means of calling out such cases if they exist.
It may at first sight appear as if so powerful explosions and
ocks must indicate natural gas in considerable quantity. But
when we reflect that the pressure in a well of small yield rapidly
rises to a high figure when the bore-hole is closed, we see that such
an inference is not safe. No other indications of gas are yet known
in the immediate neighborhood, as would probably be the case if a
supply were accessible.— EH. W. Claypole.
GEOLOGICAL NEws.—PRIMORDIAL.—It is stated that vestiges
of the primordial fauna, hitherto unknown in France, haye been
discovered by M. Bergeron in the Black mountain (la Montagne
oire) of Herault. Conocoryphe and Paradoxides are represented
by fine examples.
Devontan.—Mr. A. S. Woodward (P. Z. 8., 1887) notes the
presence of a canal-system, evidently sensory, in the shields of
Pteraspidians, He believes these to representa “ lateral-line” system.
B. Stiirtz (Palwontographiea, Band 32) describes several new
coninodernis from the middle strata of the Lower Devonian upon
r e Rhine. Ophiurella primigenia, Furcaster palæozoicus, Bun-
enbachia beneckei, and B. grandis are the new Ophiuroids and
related forms described ; the star-fishes include an Astropecten,
alastropecten and Eoluidia, a Loriolaster and a Palasteriscus.
Gas A. Penecke has contributed to the Zeitschrift der Deutschen -
th logischen Gessellschaft for 1887 an account of the fauna and
e age of some palseozoic coral reefs in the eastern Alps.
He J. Walker discusses the structure of Crinoids, with special
erence to the species found in the Solenhofer slates and the
244 General Notes.
Diceras-chalk of Kelheimer, in the 32d volume of Palwontographica.
Four plates illustrate the memoir.
CaRBONIFEROUS.—Mr. Kliver describes (Palewontographica,
Band. 32) various arthropod remains discovered in carboniferous
strata of Saarbrucken and Wettin-Libejiiner. The species include
an Ectoblattina, two species of Termes, a Dictyoneura, and an
Acridites,
Prof. Boyd Dawkins states his conviction that the sound-
ings for the proposed tunnel across the Straits of Dover will
bring to light the existence of vast beds of coal, connected, on
the one hand, with the coal measures of Belgium and the north
of France, and, on the other, with those of Wales and Somerset-
shire (England).
PERMIAN.—The second part of Dr. Anton Fritsch’s “ Fauna
der Gaskohle and der Kalksteine der Perm-formation” of Bohemia,
has been published. These strata rest upon Silurian rocks. The
coals, clays, and ironstones have a carboniferous facies, and the con-
formable limestones are believed to be true Permian. “ The palæon-
tological evidence,” says the reviewer in Nature, “is somewhat
anomalous in the views of purely British fossilists, but it s
very forcibly and in a most suggestive manner to the students of
the Gondwana formation of Hindustan.” ‘Two new species O
Dendrerpeton are described, and a family Dendrerpetonide 18
characterized.
M. Bayle has found two entire specimens of Gaudry’s
Actinodon frossardi in the Permian deposits at Telots. Gau-
dry’s descriptions were based upon fragments discovered near
Antun. Actinodon was probably a carnivorons reptile about 25
feet long, living more upon land than in the water, and formed for
gliding serpentine movements. The stage of evolution presen
by this reptile is comparable, according to M. Gaudry, to that of
the Chelydosaurus of Bohemia, the Zygosaurus of Saxony an
Russia, the Platyops of Russia, the Gondwanosaurus of Hin ustaD,
and the Trimerorhachis and Eryops of Texas. Its scales were
disposed in chevrons, its vertebre were formed of separated pieces,
and its large ribs gave attachment to ample muscles.
The internal shell of the Sepiadæ, and its relations
the Belemnites, forms the subject of an article by Dr. ™
Riefstahl in Volume 32 of the Paleontographica.
The fossil flora of the Red Sandstone and Muschelkalk of the
Geology and Paleontology. 245
neighborhood of Commern is described by Dr. Max Blackenhorn
in the 32d volume of Zittel’s Paleontographica.
Trras AND Jurassic. — The German Paleontographica
(Stuttgart, 1886) contains a gevlogical and paleontological mono-
graph of the “ Vilser” Alps, with especial reference to the Brachio-
poda. The work is illustrated with fifteen plates and a map of the
region. The strata belong to the Trias and Jura. The general
facies of the fauna, especially that of the Brachiopoda, is Mediter-
ba rather than Central European. Several new species are
escribed.
The Asterids of the White Jura of Swabia and Franconia,
with researches into the structure of the Echinodermata and the
calcareous skeleton of the Asteriadæ, form the subject of the last
memoir in Volume 32 of Paleontographica.
new Iguanodon, J. dawsonii, has been described by Mr. R.
Lydekker from the Wealden strata of the Isle of Wight.
G. C. Laube and G. Bruder describe the Ammonites of the
Bohemian chalk in Band. 38 of Paleontographica. Eleven
Mr. A. S. Woodward (P. Z. 8., 1887) refers the genus
Rhacolepis, Agassiz, to the neighborhood of the Clupeidæ, and
places it near Elops. It seems to have been one of the fore-
runners of the latter to have been developed in Jurassic
times, and to have swarmed in Cretaceous seas. The fossils are
“ommon in the Serra de Araripe, in Northern Brazil.
i Cretacrous.—Herr Car] Diener, in a contribution to the know-
edge of the Cretaceous formation of Syria (Zeit. d. Deutschen geol.,
ges. 1887) gives a table of subdivisions, placing the Lebanon chalk
ky in the Turonian and partly in the Cenomanian and the Arâja-
kstein at the bottom of the series.
Bea S. Meunier, from experiments made upon the chalk of
uval with acidulated water, arrives at the conclusion that the
enin ction of a material which was originally distributed
TERTIARY.—Mr. A. S. Woodward revises the British Eocene
246 General Notes.
species of Myliobatis in the January issue of the Ann. and Mag.
Nat. History. He distinguishes four—M. dixoni, M. striatus,
M. toliapicus, and M. labidens, new species, the last from the
Brackleshem Beds.
Mr. A. S. Woodward (P. Z. S., 1887) asserts that a fossil
representative of Chlamydoselachus, Garman, from the Pliocene
beds of Oreiano in Tuscany, was described and figured (under
another name) by Mr. R. Lawley in 1876. He suggests that this
species be named C. lawleyi. The figures will be found in “ Nuovi
Studi sopra di Peci ed albri Vertebrati fossili delle cobline Toscane,”
di Roberto Lawley, Florence, 1876.
Dr. O. Roger describes (Palwontographica, vol. 32) some teeth
of Dinotherium bavaricum H. v. Meyer, discovered in the valley
of the Zusam, a small tributary to the Danube.
M. Lemoine has discovered in the eocene beds near Rheims,
the teeth, jaws, etc., of five generic types of carnivora. Th
first of these equals Arctocyon in size, and seems analogous to
Dissacus Cope. The two molars preceding the last show a com-
mencement of the division of the anterior cusp of the tooth.
Another type approaches Proviverra; another is named Tricus-
piodon from the three cusps which in the molar teeth precede a
very small heel, and recalls the Spalacotherium of the Prexbeek
beds while another (Procynictis) has very singular molars, yet
presents analogies with Amblotherium and Peramus of Owen.
These forms tend to link the mesozoic with more recent faunas.
M. Gaudry has recently announced to the Acad. de Sciences of
Paris the discovery of a gigantic tortoise in the middle Pliocene of
Perpignan. The head, limbs, and part of the neck have been
recovered from the encasing hard rock. In size this tortoise exceeds
any living species, since the carapace is 1.20 metre long and a metre
wide. The carapace of the Aldabra tortoise ( Testudo elephantina)
scarcely reaches a length of one metre. The only other tertiary or
later fossil tortoises equalling in size the Testudo perpiniana, an
that discovered twenty years since by M. Gaudry in the miocene of
Mt. Lebanon, and a sub-fossil species (7. grandidieri) brought from
Madagascar by M. Grandidier. T. perpiniana seems to have
more affinity to Testudo irrepta and triseriata of Mauritius than to
any others, since like them it has a depressed smooth carapace,
relatively slender limbs, ete. In the great development of its
sternum, however, it approaches the Atdabra tortoise.
Mr. A. Bell (Geol. Mag., Jan., 1888) enumerates the few sp
cies of British Upper Tertiary corals known, and gives a deseription
of Sphenotrochus boytonensis Tomes, n. sp. age
The first part of Band. 32 of Zittel’s Paleontographica contains
“Contributions to the Knowledge of the Bryozoan-fauna of the
Older Tertiary of Southern Bavaria,” by Carl Koschinsky.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 247
The Tertiary plants from the valley of the River Buchtama, at
the foot of the Atlas, and described in Paleontographica
(1886-87) by J. Schmalhausen.
PListoceNE.—Carl Ochsenius has contributed two papers
upon the age of some parts of the South American Andes to the
Zeitschrift der Deut. Geol. Ges. (1877). He attributes the elevation
of the platform of Lake Titicaca to volcanic action, and assigns it
to quaternary time.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.!
PETROGRAPHICAL News.—In an article on the contact phenomena
presented by certain Scottish olivine diabases, cutting sandstones
and shales, Stecher ? gives us some new and important ideas on
the general subject of contact action. These olivine diabases are
carefully described in all their varieties. Skeleton crystals of apa-
tite, corroded augites, twinned plagioclase, dihexahedra of quartz,
and various rare minerals are noted in them. The quartz shows
anomalous action in polarized light, and is peculiar in that its hex-
agonal sections are seen under crossed nicols to consist of a kernel
of quartz substance, surrounded by a rim of calcite. In some in-
stances the olivine yields analcite by alteration. The most interest-
ing portion of the paper is that which treats of the endogenous
changes which have taken place in the dykes under the influence of
the intruded rocks. Although more acid on their edges and in the
neighborhood of sandstone inclusions, it was found that only in these
places in the dykes is there any considerable development of olivine
in perfect crystals. At a somewhat greater distance from the contact,
the olivine becomes more skeleton-like in form. In the centre of
e dykes it is absent. This is accounted for by Stecher in sup-
posing that the material of the dykes cooled quickly on its
and thus preserved in their entirety the olivine which had already
crystallized before the rock reached the surface of the earth. As
the inner portion cooled more gradually, the. magma became more
acid as it dissolved material from the sandstone and de PS
torn from its walls, and thus re-dissolved the olivine, and then
solidified under the changed conditions.—In contrast to the results
obtained by Stecher, in which the effect of contact action is seen
only in the eruptive rock, are those obtained by Greimiin his studies
of the phenomena presented by the intrusion of the Upper-Devon-
, Edited by Dr. W. S. ; niversity, Waterville, Maine.
; Min. u. Feroe MIG TE tae a iA e
Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1881, i., p. 1
248 General Notes.
ian schists by diabase, in the neighborhood of Weilburg an the
Lahn, in Hessen, Nassau. In this case the diabase itself has suf-
fered little alteration, but the schists show to a greater or less degree
the effects of metamorphic action. The unaltered schists are com-
posed of quartz, muscovite, hematite and other iron oxides, in
which are lenticular areas and beds of calcite. Where altered they
are seen to contain an isotropic groundmass in which are quartz,
mica and a chloritic mineral. In addition to these the two newly
formed minerals spinel and andalusite occur. In discussing his re-
sults, Greim concludes that the diabase supplied sodium and iron to
the schists, which then underwent the alteration which is supposed
by Rosenbusch to be characteristic of deep-seated metamorphism.
—A third excellent paper on contact phenomena is that communi-
cated by Riidemann. ‘This author has investigated the effect of the
granite occurring at Reuth, near Gefrees, in the Fichtelgebirge,
upon the clay slates, phyllites and amphibolites through which it
cuts. He carefully describes the knotty-schists (Knoten-schiefer),
the chiastolite and andalusite schists, and the hornfels resulting
from this action, and reaches some general conclusions relative to
the way in which an eruptive rock acts in the production-of what
are commonly known as contact rocks. In both phyllites and clay
slates the first result of the metamorphic action is the concentration
of certain of their constituents to form the spots (Knoten). In
this stage there is little or no other change to be detected.
The next stage is characterized by the formation of por-
phyritic crystals, chiastolite in the clay slates of Reuth and other
localities, and biotite in the case of phyllites (Garbenschiefer). In
the first case the andalusite owes its origin to the alteration of a
light green chloritic mineral (griimbelite). In the case of the
phyllites biotite replaces chlorite. In the third stage the end pro-
duct of the alteration both of clay slates and phyllites is hornfels.
This is a crystalline rock composed of quartz, biotite, muscovite
and andalusite grains. Assuming that these changes in the sedi-
mentary beds are directly connected with the presence of the large
granite mass which they surround, the author supposes the earlier
stages in the alteration to be due to the intense heating to which the
rocks were subjected at the time of their intrusion by the granite.
This is shown by the fact that in different beds different contact
minerals have been produced, while the composition of the altered
rocks corresponds to that of the corresponding unaltered beds from
which they were derived. To account for the formation of horn-
fels, and the minerals so commonly found in it, Riidemann sup-
poses the energetic action of hot waters upon the constituents of the
fragmental rocks. The paper is exceedingly well written, and con-
tains very much of interest.—In connection with the discussion of
1 Neues Jahrb. f. Min. ete., B. B. v., p. 648..
Mineralogy and Petrography. 249
contact phenomena, a late paper by Hussak,' on the origin of the
spots in altered sedimentary rocks (Knoten-and Frucht-schiefer) is
worthy of close study. Rosenbusch regards these spots as due to the
aggregation of the pigment, which was distributed evenly through-
out the fragmental rocks before their intrusion by the eruptives.
In certain cases he supposes these aggregations to pass by recrystal-
lization into chiastolite and andalusite. Ward regards them as un-
developed andalusites. Other writers have described them as pos-
sessing characteristics which indicate their close connection with
other mineral species. Hussak, upon examining the spotted schists.
from Tirpersdorf, Saxony and Hlinsko, Bohemia, found that the
darker portions of the altered schists possess properties which can
only be explained by supposing them to be the remains of altered
cordierite, in the case of the Saxon rocks, and of altered chiastolites
and andalusites in the rocks from Bohemia.
number of new forms were detected, which ad
known make a total of seventy-five thus far identified on the
pendent mineral species distinct from manganite. It is orthorhom-
bic, with an axial ratio: 1 : 10513; 1: 0.63177. Finally, he re-
Opportunity to determine its optical constants. The tiny crystals
are bounded by the planes œ P= O°
. Pæ
color is orange brown. They are weakly
P and 4 Po
pleochroic. The plane
5 Min. u. Petrog. Mitth. ix., 1887, p: 47.
250 General Notes.
of their optical axes is the basal pinacoid, and the axial angle,
measured in oil, is 85° 30’. A is the acute bisectrix. The mineral
is insoluble in hydrochloric acid. It dissolves slowly in sere,
sulphuric acid, but rapidly in a mixture of sulphuric an
hydrochloric acids. An analyses of separated materia
yielded: Tio, = 46.79%; Fe,0, = 48.64% Mgo = 4.53%.
Very beautiful rich red, transparent crystals of rhodochrosite are
described by G. F. Kunz! from the John Reed mine in Alicante,
Lake co., Colorado. Some of the crystals from this locality “ are
as pellucid as red Iceland span and show the same double refraction.”
The same author? describes some curious groups of quartz crystals
from the vicinity of the town of Pinal, Pinal CO., Arizona. Six
or more little crystals of the usual form are so arranged as to form
a hollow cylinder, with the general outline of a large quartz crystal.
e also mentions a white opaque variety of hydrophane from Colo-
rado, which is remarkable in that it can absorb more than its own
volume of water. When wet it is perfectly transparent.—Mr. R. B.
Riggs’ of the United States Geological Survey has published the
results of the analyses of a suite of tourmaline crystals from vari-
ous localities. The conclusions reached by Mr. Riggs, after an
immense amount of very careful work, are of very great interest as
establishing with a good deal of accuracy the composition of this
complicated group of minerals. The figures obtained lead the au-
thor to regard tourmaline as a simple boro-silicate with the genera
formula R, Bo, (S i O,),, which for the three types recognized by
him became :
I. Lithia tourmaline = 12 SiO, 3B,O, 4H,O. 8Ae¢,0,; 2
{NaLi),O.
II. Iron tourmaline = 12 SiO,. 3 B,O,. 4H,o. 7AE,O,. 4 Fe-O.
Na,O.
- III. Magnesia tourmaline =.12 SiO, 3B,0,. 4H,O. 5AE,O;
2% MgO. 3 Na,O
It is interesting to note that while the color of the iron and mag-
nésian varieties depends upon the amount of iron in their composi-
tions, in the case of the lithium varities, containing manganese and
iron, it depends upon the ratio between the manganese and iron
constituent, being colorless, pink or pale green when the amounts
of these are equal, red when manganese is in excess, and green Or
blue when iron is in larger quantity.
1 Amer. Jour. Sci., Dec. 1887, p. 477.
t Ib, D. 479.
3 Ib., Jan., 1888, p. 35.
Botany. 251
BOTANY .!
PLANCHON’s REVISION OF THE AMPELIDE®.—In the recently
received Part 2 of the fifth volume of De Candolle’s Monogra-
hie Phanerogamarum, J. E. Planchon makes a thorough revision
of the Ampelideæ. Such considerable changes are introduced in the
ony that it may be well to present a summary of the work
ere.
The order is restricted somewhat from the limits assigned it by
Bentham and Hooker in the Genera Plantarum, by the exclusion
of Leea with its twenty species or so. The remaining species (386)
are distributed among ten genera, instead of two, as in the Genera
Plantarum. It will be remembered that in the latter work the
authors reduced almost everything to one genus—Vitis. Planchon,
on the contrary, divides the old genera and constructs several new
ones. The following abridged conspectus of the genera will serve
to show their principal characters, and the method pursued in
differentiating them :—
Flowers polygamo-diccious; petals 5, cohering; style (short)
conical; hypogynous glands 5; berries two-celled, 2-4 seeded ;
climbing shrubs with simple, variously lobed leaves......... . Vitis.
Flowers polygamo-monecious ; petals 5 (rarely 4), spreading ;
style short-conical; disk annuliform, erect; berries two-celled,
2-4 seeded ; climbing shrubs with simple or palmate or palmately
SMG, AVE seseo a siinon aasi eea erari II. Ampelocissus.
Flowers polygamo-monecious; petals 4-5, spreading; style
short; disk annuliform; berries two-celled, 2-4 seeded; shrubs
with undivided or palmatisect leaves... III. Pterisanthes.
lowers polygamo-moneecious; petals 5, free, spreading; style
long, subulate; disk cup-like ; berries two-celled, 2—4 seeded ;
shrubs, with 5-3 foliate leaves IV. Clematicissus.
Flowers polygamo-diwcious ; petals 4, expanding; style short;
stigma 4 lobed; disk hypogynous; berries 2—4 seeded ; shrubs with
ee leaves Ce ; ftp Sire
_ ¥ lowers polygamo-moncecious; petals 5, expanding; style short;
disk 5 lobed, ‘didi to ovary ; ‘cies 2 celled, 3-4 seeded ; shrubs
a olite leaves VE —
Flowers hermaphrodite; petals 5, spreading; style subulate,
thick ; disk chaieus : a 1-2 alal ; dihin s th
digitate or palmatilobed leaves VII. 2 arthenoci .
-Flowers hermaphrodite; petals 5 (rarely 4), spreading ; style
Subulate; disk cup-like, 5 (rarely 4) lobed ; berries 1-2 celled, 1-4
seeded ; climbing shrubs with leaves from simple to pinnately com-
pound VIL Ampelopsis
Pee
THO eee e boesasssos soosse werseseeeneeees SHeereee
1 Edited by Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb.
252 General Notes.
Flowers hermaphrodite or pseudo-hermaphrodite; petals 5-7,.
thick, spreading; disk annular; berries 1-2—3—4 seeded; climbing
shrubs with trifoliate, unifoliate, undivided or palmatilobed leaves.
ars IX. Rhoicissus.
Flowers hermaphrodite ; petals 4, spreading or sometimes coher-
ing; style subulate, slender; disk cup-like; berries 1-2-3-4 seeded ;
creeping, erect or climbing shrubs with undivided, lobed or com-
pound deaves......... ii... X. Cissus.
The species of Vitis are arranged in two sections, viz., I. Euvitis
and II. Muscadinia, the former containing seven series. The dis-
position of our North American species under this arrangement is-
as follows — :
Section I. Euviris.
Series 1. Labruscee.
V. labrusca L. Fox Grape. Atlantic States.
Series 2. Labruscoideæ.
V. candicans Engelm. Mustang Grape. Texas.
_ V. caribæa D. C. South Florida.
Series 3. Æstivales.
V. œstivalis Michx. Summer Grape. Atlantic States-
and Mississippi Valley.
V. lincecumii Buckl. (=V. estivalis Michx., var. lincecu-
mii Engelm). Post Oak Grape. Texas.
Series 4. Leucobryæ.
V. californica Benth. California.
V. arizonica Engelm. Arizona.
Series 5. Cinerascentes.
V. berlandieri Planch. (= V. monticola Durand in Bull.
c. d’Acclim., ix., p. 434,— V. monticola Engelm. in
Bush. Cat.— V. estivalis A. Gray in Plante Lind-
heimerianæ). Texas and New Mexico. ‘
V. cinerea Engelm. (= Vitis estivalis Michx. var.? em-
erea Engelm. in Gray’s Manual, p. 679). Missis-
sippi Valley from Illinois southward.
V. coriacea Shuttl. (=V. caribea? in Chapman’s Flora
of the Southern States.— V. candicans in Watson s-
Bibliographical Index to N. A. Botany). South
Florida to Louisiana,
Series 6. Rupestres. .
V. rupestris Scheele. Sugar Grape. Tennessee, Mis-
souri and southwestward.
Botany. 258
Series 7. Cordifolio-Riparie.
V. cordifolia Michx. Frost Grape. New York to
Nebraska, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico.
riparia Michx. Riverside Grape. Labrador to
Florida, and West to the Rocky Mountains; This
N
Related to, and generally confused with, the preced-
ing species.
Section II. Muscap1n
Vz rotundifolia Michx. (=V. vulpina L. Gray’s
anual, p. 113). Muscadine Grape. preni
and Kentucky to Arkansas and southward.
Two other species are described, but for want of full FAFE
their places in the adopted scheme are not assigned. The
V. araneosa Leconte, from northern Georgia and Illinois.
V. monticola Buckley, from Texas is is re
by Watson (Bibl. Index N. A. Bot., p. 171) as a
variety of V. estivalis Michx.
The genus Parthenocissus includes seven species, one of which is
P. quinquefolia Planch., the well-known “ Virginia Creeper,” of the
United States, hitherto known as Ampelopsis quinquefolia Michx.
In this genus is found, also, the Japan Creeper (Ampelopsis veitchii
es “rl gardeners), hereafter to bear the name of P. tricuspidata
a
a as te se neice contains two North American
hic the
3.0. acida L. tgp xt Florida; C. incisa Desm., Florida to
Teras —Charles E.
PosraL REGULATIONS AS TO BOTANICAL SPECIMENS.—In a
or a alee rane dated Feb. llth, 1888, to Dr. Charles R. Barnes, —
the University of Wisconsin, the Third Assistant Postmaster-
“Under the recent Act o ress in n relation to permisible
n rinting and writing upon ps ara
ere may be placed upon specimens r dried plants, or on any other
254 General Notes.
natural history specimens, to be transmitted by mail, without sub-
jecting them to other than fourth-class rate of postage, labels bear-
ing the written name of the specimens, locality and date of collec-
tion, and the collector’s name—where these inscriptions are wholly
for purpose of identification or description.”
Ordinary botanical labels which had been submitted by Dr.
Barnes were accepted as permissible,
THE GERMINATION OF DoppER.—In some recent investigations
on germinating Dodder (Cuscuta gronovii) we have observed an
interesting fact in regard to the manner of separating itself from the
soil which we have not found mentioned elsewhere. When the
plant has reached something adapted to its needs as a parasite—
Forsythia viridissima in our observations—it winds about it loosely
at first, then after the manner of a tendril quickly contracts, bring-
ing its coils close to the host, that the haustoria may penetrate the
bark. This contraction pulls up the root, leaving it loosely hang-
ing by the host, sometimes half an inch above the soil, where it
withers and dries.—Henrietta E. Haaker, Botanical Lab., Mt.
Holyoke Sem., Feb. 17, 1888.
THE FossIıL FORESTS OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
—At the February meeting of the Washington Biological Society,
Professor Knowlton gave an aceount of a visit to these fossil forests,
which are located mostly in the northeastern portion of the park,
a locality rarely visited by tourists. The largest isolated trunk
seen was twenty-six feet in circumference, without the bark, and
twelve feet in height. In the edge of a cliff trunks are exposed to
a height of thirty feet. Specimens from about 300 of these trees
are now being identified. They represent about twenty species,
including the genera Pinus, Sequoia, and Taxus.
New SPECIES or Urepinex.—At the February meeting of the
Washington Biological Society a paper was read by B. T. Galloway
describing seven new western Uredinew collected by Tracy and
Evans. in 1887, and named by Tracy and Galloway. They were
Uromyces arizonica, Puccinia fragilis, Puccinia caulicola, Puccina
vertisepta, Æcidium draba, Æcidium heliotropii, and Æcidium ellisite
It is to be hoped that the authors will also publish their descrip-
tions in the Journal of Mycology, in which, in our opinion, all
descriptions of our fungi ought to appear.
BoranicaL News.—The announcement is made that Dr. Lorenzo
G. Yates, of Santa Barbara, California, with the assistance of J. G.
Baker, of Kew (England), will soon bring out a book entitled
« All Known Ferns,” which will consist of an alphabetical list
Zoology. 255
(generic and specific) of all the ferns of the world. It is not to
include descriptions, but references are to be given in every instance
to descriptions. Synonyms will be given, and the distribution of
every species will be indicated. It promises to be a very useful
book. Miss Jane H. Newell, of Cambridge, Mass., has begun
the publication, in parts, of a little work to be called “Outlines of
ns in Botany,” designed to be of use to teachers who wish to
do more than follow the old methods of botanical teaching. The
lessons outlined “are suitable for children of twelve years of age
and upwards.” Directions are given for raising seedlings, and for
making observations upon them in their growth. ‘The parts before
us are privately printed, in order to have them. tested by other
teachers before publication. They may be obtained by any teacher
who will use them experimentally, by addressing the author at 175
Brattle street, Cambridge. DeBary’s Lectures upon Bacteria,
English translation, has been received from Macmillan & Co. It
is a small work, of a sufficiently popular style to enable any well-
educated man to get a good idea of the subject. A fuller notice
will appear later. Detmer’s Pflanzenphysiologische Praktikum,,
from Gustav Fischer, of Jena, promises to be a most valuable book
in the botanical laboratory. It is an octavo of 352 pages, and is
illustrated with 131 wood-cuts. Dawson’s “ Geological History
of Plants” is an interesting volume of the International Scientific
Series, which has just appeared. The style is popular, but the
treatment is thoroughly scientific.
ZOOLOGY.
: again
J differentiating a male and female pronucleus. In the next
ge (E) the male elements of the two conjugating Protozoa are
exchanged, and the new male nucleus fuses with the original female .
1) the ex-conjugates reassume their original organization
before dividing for the first time. :
What is the meaning of all this? There is no special sexual
tion or generation. There is no acceleration of division
er conjugation. It is a period of risk, especially during the
-
256 General Notes.
inertia of reconstruction. An Oxydromus grandis had from 40,000
to 50,000 descendants while a pair were indulging in a single conju-
gation. It is a source of destruction, not of the multiplication -of
individuals.
The riddle was solved by a long series of careful observations.
In November, 1885, M. Maupas isolated a Stylonychia pustulata,
and observed its generations until March, 1886. By that time there
had been 215 fissiparous generations. But at that time the colony
gave in; the individuals had lost the powers of nutrition and repro-
duction. Individuals removed at various stages, however, had
conjugated with individuals of a different origin. The same
conjugations had been effected with members removed to other
families. This was done till the 130th generation, and till then all
the conjugations were fertile. About the 180th generation individ-
uals of the same family which had not hitherto been in contact
with one another began in despair to conjugate. The results, how-
ever, were nil ; the conjugates did not even recover from their forlorn
hope. Other cases are related. .
The result is evident. The process is essential for the species.
The life runs in developmental cycles of multiplication by division,
=- which are strictly limited. If conjugations with unrelated forms
do not then occur the life ebbs. The sexual conjugation of the
Ciliates is thus a rejuvinescence, as Biitschle and Engelmann main-
tained. It is essential as a reorganization of the nucleus. After a
` prolonged series of divisions the nucleus undergoes senile degenera-
tion. Without conjugation death would be inevitable. The death
is a natural one, which some would deny. Sexual conjugation 18
the necessary condition of their “eternal youth and immortality.”
GERMINAL Layers or Loiiao.—Mr. S. Watase has been
studying the development of Loligo pealei. He finds that, owing
to the immense amount of food yolk present, the gastrulation 18
masked, and that the mesoderm is formed before the endoderm 1s
fully outlined. He traces the origin of the ink-bag and rectum
from the proctodeal invagination, while the stomodeal inpushing
gives rise to radula sac, salivary glands, and the digestive glands
or “liver.” The endoderm is concerned only in forming a yolk
membrane, and Mr. Watase thinks it wholly disappears, taking no
part in the structure of the adult organs, the alimentary tract being
formed solely of stomodeal and proctodeal invaginations.
THE SPONGE SHRP, ALPHEUs.—Mr. F. H. Herrick con-
tributes three articles on Alpheus to No. 63 of the John Hopkins
Zoology. 257
University Circulars. He has studied five of the eight known
West Indian forms, and finds that they vary considerably in habits
ing almost impossible to separate the products of invagination
into layers, or to separate others which wander from the ectoderm
sions. _ He recognizes no less than twelve types, more than one
of which may occur on a single fish. Most of these are small _
according as they are provided with (Opostomias micripnus, Echi-
ores barbatum, Pachystomias microdon, Malacosteus indicus,
stronesthes niger) or lack a pigmented mantle (Opostomias mieri-
pnus). In no case are they provided with a reflector. The com-
258 General Notes.
mias micripnus, Echiostoma barbatum, Pachystomias microdon,
Astronesthes niger) are isolated and stand upright upon the surface,
but are still more distinguished by the lack of a reflector. In
others (Argyropelecus hemigymnus, Sternoptyx diaphana, Scopelus
benoiti) the organ is provided with a shining reflector composed of
needle-shaped or filiform elements. All of the foregoing are sunk
in the skin, but in Xenodermichthys nodulosus occur simple organs
which are provided with a pigmented mantle, and which project
beyond the general surface and in some cases become stalked. In
Halosaurus macrocheir and H. rostratus the organs are situated
upon the scales of the lateral line and have a spindle shapé.
The other main group of organs embrace irregular glands which
may be scattered (Astronesthes niger), or be found on the under
jaw (Argyropelecus hemigymnus, Sternoptyx diaphana); beneath the
operculum (Halosawrus macrocheir); on the barbels and fin-
rays (Opostomias micripnus, Malacosteus indicus); or may have
a suborbital position, in the latter instance either having (Echios-
toma barbatum, Pachystomias microdon, Malacosteus indicus, Scope-
lus benoiti) or lacking a reflector (Opostomias micripnus, Astronesthes
organs renders it probable that all are phosphorescent. Regarding
the glandular organs the evidence is less direct, but judging from
the analogy of other forms von Lendenfeld regards them as secreting
a phosphorescent mucus. In both we have to deal with various
modifications of the mucous canal system. Dr. von Lendenfeld
states that the parietal organ of Sphenodon (Hatteria) has no
homology with these organs, and that it is not, as has been sug-
gested, a phosphorescent organ.
EUTHERIA AND PrororHERtA.—In the AMERICAN NATURAL-
ist for December, 1887 (vol. xxi., p. 1103), in a notice of “Thomas
on Mammalian Dentition,” it is ‘‘ observed that the unnecessary
terms Prototheria and Eutheria, which are generally ascribed to
Professor Huxley in England, were really introduced by Professor
Gill.” |
Two quite different propositions were involved by the use of the
terms used by Professor Huxley and myself. Professor Huxley
Zoology. 259
simply substituted my names Prototheria for the Ornithodelphia or
Monotremes, and Eutheria for the Monodelphia or Placentalia,
introducing a new term—Metatheria—for the Didelphia or Mar-
supialia. I perfectly concur with the belief that in these senses
the terms are unnecessary. But far different was my use of the
terms in question, and they were the expressions of a higher gene-
ralization. Almost universally the placental. mammals had been
contrasted with the non-placental. In my “Arrangement of the
Families of Mammals” (1872), however, I combined (pp. 45, 46)
the Placentals and Marsupials in one category (I.) with the Mono-
tremes, in another (II.) fortifying the contrast by numerous ana-
tomical characters; for these two sections I proposed the names
EuTHERIA (I.) and Prororuerta (IL) in the table of
“Contents” (pp. v., vi.) of the Arrangement. Subsequently, in
“Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopedia” (vol. iii., 1877, p. 262),
in the long article “Mammals,” I adopted the terms in connection
with the definitions. It was then prevised that “the chief modifi-
cations of the class of Mammals are expressed in three types whic
have been differentiated as sub-classes, viz., Monodelphia, Didel-
phia, and Ornithodelphia; these are themselves opposable under
two categories, EUTHERIA and PROTOTHERIA.” Immediately fol-
lowing, the groups so named were defined at length. |
In the sense in which the terms Eutheria and Prototheria were
used by myself I consider them to be necessary as the ver
expressions of the generalizations formulated, but as used by Pro-
fessor Huxley the names are simple synonyms of others long before
in general use, and consequently “ unnecessary.” — Theodore Gill.
THE MULTITUBERCULATA Monorremes.—It is announced in
Nature (Feb. 16, 1888, p. 383) that Mr. E. B. Poulton has dis-
covered teeth in sections of the jaws of a young Ornithorhynchus
anatinus, made by Professor W. N. Parker. Three have been
found in the upper jaw and two in the lower (the ramus imperfect),
In the regions covered by the corneous bodies of the adult. The
anterior tooth of the maxilla is “long, narrow and simple, as com-
pared with the others.” The other teeth “were broad and large,
those of the upper jaw containing two chief cusps in the inner side
of the crown, and three or four small cusps on the outer side, while
arrangement was reversed in the lower jaw.”
18 observation is of the highest importance. The description
pen like that of the dentition of the Plagiaulacid genus Ptilodus.
renders it extremely probable that the Multituberculata are Monotre-
mata, and not Marsupialia, as has been supposed.—E. D. Cope.
ZOOLOGICAL Nores.—Prorozoa.—Dr. D. S. Kellicott describes
Q C figures five new species of American Infusoria in the Microsc
dis p. 226). They are Podophrya inclinata, P. flexilis, Carchesium
ulatum, and Opercularia humilis.
260 General Notes.
Professor Ernst Haeckel has published an abridgement of his recent
monograph of the “Challenger” Radiolaria. It appears under the
title“ Grundriss einer allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Radiolarian,”
in a quarto volume of 266 pages, illustrated with 64 of the plates
of the ‘“‘ Challenger” Report. The price is sixty marks.
EcCHINODERMS.— The brothers Sarasin call attention (Zool. Anz.,
x. 674) to the powers possessed by Linckia multifora of repairing
injuriés, and figure a specimen where an arm has budded at its
extremity a new star fish with four new rays, but state that the
madreporic body is not yet developed.
Worms.—Beddard calls attention (Zvol. Anz., No. 268) to the
so-calied prostrate glands of earth-worms, claiming that these organs
in Pericheeta an the homologue of the atrium in other earth-worms.
He also describes the reproductive organs of Monilogaster, which
differ from those of other worms and resemble those of the limico-
lous forms. He shows that Claparéde’s division of the Oligochætes
is unnatural.
Mammats.—August Fjelstrup describes (Zool. Anz., No. 269) the
histology of the skin of the black fish, Globiocephalus melas, and
incidentally states that Eschricht’s statement that the number of
hairs about the lower jaw and nasal openings and their arrangement
. may be used in identifying foetal Cetacea is erroneous, th
varying with size and development. .
ENTOMOLOGY!
Tue Grass-Eatine Turips.—Attention is called by Dr. Lint-
ner in his annual report (reviewed below) to “An Unknown Grass-
Pest.” As the insect in question is one which I have had under
observation for many years, I am able to give more definite infor-
mation regarding it than is contained in Dr. Lintner’s report. 40
fact, I feel a peculiar personal interest in the insect in question, as
it was the first species upon which I made original observations ;
and in a little work? published thirteen years ago I gave a bri
account of it. :
This grass-pest is exceedingly common and widespread. It is @
species of Thrips, which infests the stalk just above the upper
1This department is edited by Professor J. H. Comstock, Cornell |
University, Ithaca, N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice,
etc., shou sent. i
2 Notes on Entomology : A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures Deliveređ
at the Cornell University. Ithaca, 1875. (In the second edition of this
work the account cited was omitted.)
Entomology. 261
joint. The young insect pierces the stem in this place, where it is
tender, and, sucking the juice from it, causes it to shrink and all
parts above the injury to die. It appears first each season upon
June grass, and frequently, a short time after this grass has headed
out, the fields will be yellow with the dead heads of the grass.
Later, the insect spreads to timothy and the other grasses ; but it
never becomes as common upon these as upon Poa pratensis. The
Species obtains its growth within the sheath of the upper blade, at
the point indicated above. After it has acquired wings it crawls
forth from this secure retreat, and can be swept from the grass in
great numbers. As yet I have been unable to complete the life-
history of the species by determining the manner in which it passes
the winter and the mode of oviposition. Neither have I been able
to suggest any practicable method of preventing the increase of the
species. At one time I thought that the early mowing of the in-
fested grass, causing the infested stalks to dry and become unfit
food for the young Thrips, would accomplish this purpose, but,
later, I found the insects in question feeding upon leaves of grass.
In the work referred. to above the species was designated as
Limothrips poaphagus MSS., but reference was made only to the
habits of the insect. A description of the species has not yet been
published.—J. H. Comstock.
PROBABLE INCREASE IN ENTOMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS.—
Although the United States has taken a very prominent position as
regards investigations in economic entomology, the work which the
Department of Agriculture at Washington and the few State Ento-
mologists have been able to do has not at all been commensurate
with the demands of the subject. The life-history of a very large
Proportion of the insects that are of economic importance remains
unknown. And we are unable, as yet, in many cases where the
transformations of the insect are known to suggest any practicable
Means of preventing its ravages. The field for investigation has
been altogether too large to be at all thoroughly worked by the
small number of workers employed. There is now, however, a
Prospect of a change. The establishment by Congress of an agri-
cultural experiment station in each of the States in connection with
the agricultural colleges will result in a considerable addition to the
a oe investigators in economic entomology. No one of the
Sciences has a more immediate application to agriculture than ento-
Soak » and doubtless entomological exy imei Pip ie a
nent part of the work of the newly-established stations.—
J. H. Comstock. nee |
D THe Report or THE Stare Enromotoaist or N EW YORK.—
` - Lintner’s report for the year 1886 has just appeared. It forms
an Interesting volume of about seventy-five pages. It is, however,
262 General Notes.
briefer than would have been the case but for its having been unex-
pectedly called for at an unusually early date, as explained in the
letter of submittal.
The more important entomological events of the year noted by
also estimated that one-third of the onion crop was destroyed by the
onion-fly, Phorbia ceparum.
“ A new attack on wheat by a saw-fly larva” is described. | The
larva in question crawls up the stalk, cuts it off about one inch
below the head, and eats the soft green straw. One correspondent
states that early in June the ground was thickly scattered with cut-
off heads. An injury to strawberry plants, supposed to be caused
by Bembidium quadrimaculatum, is discussed, but definite conclu-
sions have not been reached. Serious injury to potato-leaves and
to the foliage of carrots and parsnips by plant-lice in Massachusetts
is noticed.
There are many other short articles on well-known insects. The
report is concluded by a list of publications and articles published
by the entomologist in various journals during the year, together
with an abstract of each. The list includes nearly fifty titles, and
is evidence of great industry on the part of Dr. Lintner.
Say’s Entromotoey.—Mr. Howard, in a paper before the Ento- _
mological Society of Washington, calls attention to a very genera
misconception regarding the Leconte Edition of Say’s works. This
edition does not include all of the entomological writings of that
author, and it is evident that the editor simply intended to bring
together the descriptive papers of Say.
Grant Leprpoprerous Larva IN AusrraLia,— The larve
of Chalepteryx collesi, a large moth which has been unusually abun-
dant during the past summer in the vicinity of Sydney, often attains
the length of seven inches and is robust in proportion. The larve
of the beautiful swift, Zelotypia stacyi, measures eight inches when
fully grown, and I have seen several Cossus larve of similar dimen-
sions.” —A. Sidney Olhff, Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S. Wa
in “ The Entomologist,” Vol. XXI., p. 19.
Iysects As Foop For Man.—“ In Australia the hairless larv®
of such insects as Zelotypia, Hepialus, Charagia, Pielus, and many
wood-boring Coleoptera—particularly Longicorns and Rynchophora
—are eaten raw or cook y the aborigines and by not a few
depraved members of the white community.—A. Sidney Ollif’,
Le.
Embryology. 263
THE Curnca-Bue IN Iowa.—A bulletin of the Iowa Agricultu-
ral College, by Professor Osborn, entitled The Chinch-Bug in Iowa,
as just been issued. It includes a summary of the habits of the
species and a discussion of some experiments in controlling this
pest.
EMBRYOLOGY.
THE “ VENTRAL Suckers” or “Suckine Disks” OF THE
TADPOLES OF DIFFERENT GENERA OF Froes AND Toaps.!—
Thiele in this very interesting paper, shows that the singular
sucker-like organs found behind the mouth and under side of the
head in the tadpoles or larve of frogs and toads differ widely in
form in different genera. They are clearly for the purpose of
enabling the young larve to attach themselves to various fixed bodies
in the water, such as weeds, the gelatinous egg-strings and masses
from which they have been hatched, ete. They are thus afforded sup-
port and prevented from sinking into the ooze to smother, and their
enemies thus also doubtless find them a less ready prey. These
disks are also shown by Thiele not to be of the nature of suctorial
the sessile “suckers ”of larval toads and frogs. But the present
writer cannot see how it is possible to homologize the sucking disk
of larval gar pikes with the adhesive organs in larval Batrachians,
use in the former the disk is in front of the mouth and in the
latter it is usually quite behind the mouth, only in one case (Hyla)
are the suckers found near the angle of the mouth, The larva of
organ of the gar-pike’s larva and that of young toads and frogs,
though it is probable that these organs in the latter are rai?
£ Ftd Ha in pperat der Batrachierlarven, von Johannes Thiele. Zeitsch.
5s. zool, xliv. pp., 67-79, pl. x. 1887.
264 General Notes.
homologous with the “ balancers ” of the larve of salamanders of
the type of Amblystoma and Triton.
Thiele further shows that inasmuch as these structures are gland-
ular with no muscular apparatus, that the terms “sucker” or
“sucking disk” are misnomers as applied to these —_ A
better term might be proposed for these structures in young ta d-
poles, and i writer would suggest that they be called pide
adhesive org
The nih of these organs differ widely in different genera of Salientia
and will afford a valuable means of identifying the larve. In
Discoglossus pictus, the adhesive organ behind the mouth is hemi-
spherical, with a V-shaped groove on its surface, the V opening
forward. In Pelobates fuscus the adhesive organ is Y-shaped with
a Y-shaped groove on its surface and the limbs of the whole organ
extending forward to embrace the angles of the mouth. In Bufo
vulgaris the organ is V-shaped, with a V-shaped .groove, and the
limbs of the V come into contact with the angles of the mouth.
In Bufo viridis the organ is cresent-shaped, not in contact with the
mouth, but a little behind it, as in Discoglossus, and with a widely
open V-shaped groove. In Rana esculenta and R. fusca there
are two distinct oval adhesive organs on either side of the median
line with traces of a V-shaped groove connecting them, and both
are behind the mouth. In Rana agilis there are two separate ad-
hesive organs, one on each side behind the mouth, and each has
a slight depression on its posterior border. In ’ Hyla arborea
there are two circular adhesive organs close to the angles of the —
mouth at either side. In Bombinator igneus there are two oval ad-
hesive organs behind the mouth, whicn are in close contact, an
later on fuse into a single organ, both having an oval depression
in the centre—J. A. R.
PSYCHOLOGY.
THE Copr-MontcomEery Discusston.— The Theism of Evolu-
tion. «The following is offered as a synopsis of the leading opinions
maintained by the writer in a series of articles furnished by him to
The Open Court during 1887, in reply.to articles written by Dr.
Edmund Bee LE:
I. PRINCIPIA.
1. In the universe there exist both mind and matter, subject and
D. The evidence for the existence of mind is found in ern
ness ; first, of ourselves, and, second, of other living beings, w ;
motions, identical with those which we make under the influence y
our own consciousness, convince us of their possession of it.
Psychology. 265
3. The evidence for the existence of matter is found in certain
modifications experienc y our consciousness, especially in the
‘sensations of extension and resistance.
. Since consciousness does not exist apart from the motion of
matter, we regard it as a property of the matter in motion, that is,
as a property of energy.
II, FACTA.
1. The gross activity of consciousness is immediately conditioned
by matter.
2. In certain of its thought-forms consciousness is not imme-
diately conditioned by matter, but only by its past experience of
matter.
_3. The forms of consciousness mentioned under (2) control the
direction of energy, and hence the use of matter.
_ 4. The proof of (3) is seen in the designed movements of animals
in which they direct a current of energy in order to produce a
result more or less exactly adapted to satisfy the conditions
“demanded by a sensation.
5. As soon as a designed movement has been fully acquired,
that is, so soon as the animal mechanism necessary for its produc-
tion has been created, it is performed without consciousness of effort,
and may be performed unconsciously, or even in a state of general
unconsciousness, Therefore designed automatic acts originated in
- consciousness,
6. Evolution of organic types is the resultant of the interaction
of subject and object, or the living organism and its environment.
7. The function of the organism in evolution is to produce vari-
-ations in its structure as an effect of its motions.
8. The function of the environment in evolution is to impress or
destroy the organism, or to restrain, permit or encourage its use;
that is, to exercise natural selection. )
9. The effect of this interaction, where the movements of the
“Organism are stimulated, is to produce specialized structures and
t out of generalized ones. Where the action of the organism
18 not stimulated, the result is to produce degenerate types. _
40, It follows that organic evolution is the result, mediate or
immediate, of consciousness ; that is, of the interaction of conscious.
nergy or its residua, the organic vital energies, in interaction with
the environment.
I. Organic energies perform chemical syntheses and analyses,
‘demonstrating the control of vital over chemical energy. :
, 12. Whereas physical and chemical energies result only in
dissipation of energy and integration of matter, the energy
otis tion produces complication of matter for the profitable
““irection and storage of energy. :
266 General Notes.
NOTE.
The only comment which I have to make on Dr. Montgomery’s
_ argument is this: that, while denying that conspicuousness can con-
trol energy (matter), he admits that matter controls consciousness.
ese two positions are logically inconsistent. the affirmative is
true of consciousness it is true of matter, and vice versa. On other
points I can agree fully with Dr. Montgomery.—E. D. Cope.
III. CONCLUSIONES.
1. The function of control and construction displayed by the
energy of evolution (bathmism) leads us to infer that this type of
energy can control its conditions sufficiently to enable it to have a
wide distribution in space and time in the universe.
Since the originating and controlling element of this special
type of energy is consciousness, it is inferred that consciousness has
existed prior to any given special inorganic type of energy.
. As the condition of consciousness is the unspecialized or
uncreated condition of energy, it is inferred that consciousness is a
property of matter in an unspecialized or generalized condition in
some respect.
4, Since protoplasm is not in all respects the most generalized
conceivable condition of matter, it is inferred that there are physi-
cal bases of consciousness other than protoplasm. ;
5. It is inferred from the preceding considerations that the exist-
ence of primitive consciousness in primitive forms of matter is not
only possible but probable, and this consciousness constitutes
primitive person or Deity.—E. D. Cope. :
Summary of the Controversy between Professor Cope and Myself.
—Professor Cope maintains that mind is the active agent in the
- organization of living beings. I maintain, on the contrary, that
the mind of living beings is itself only a product or outcome of
their organization. eee
Professor Cope’s view leads him to assume as original building-
material an entirely “ unspecialized” kind of matter, and as builder
or organizer a supreme mind or Deity inherent in such matter.
In this connection I had to point out the great dilemma of
modern philosophy ; the impossibility, namely, of conceiving any-
thing mental imparting motion or direction to anything material.
Leading thinkers, of almost every school, when seriously contem-
plating the apparent occurrence of an intercommunication between
mind and matter, have declared it scientifically impossible and phi-
losophically inconceivable. Yet, Professor Cope’s entire theory of
organization through mental agency rests on the flat assertion of its
being a self-evident proposition, that our mind moves our body.
I further pointed out that to escape from this distracting dilemma
of having on the one side a mind incapable of naturally acting
upon matter, and on the other side matter incapable of naturally -
Psychology. 267
acting upon mind—that to escape this dead-lock in the way of a
unitary or monistic conception of nature, a theory of cognition is
indispensable.
y help of such a theory we become irrefragably aware that
matter and motion are only perceptual signs within our own con-
sciousness of the presence of a non-mental existent and its activity,
which are stimulating our senses in specific ways. We can be cer-
tain that what thus effects our senses. is really non-mental in its
nature; for nothing mental has power to affect our senses and to
awaken specific percepts in us. This non-mental existent and its
activity cannot possibly, in the remotest degree, resemble their per-
ceptual representation in us; for how can anything non-menta
resemble anything mental? Therefore, they are not in themselves
what we perceptually know as matter and motion. And thus the
conception of mind moving matter becomes at once irrelevant. The
dualistic opposition of matter and mind is seen to be superficial,
and only due to inadequte conception on our part.
These truths, yielded by the theory of cognition, I have used to
explain our voluntary movements, upon which movements the
— question of the influence of our “ mind ” on our body actually
centers.
_ Our veritable being has power so to affect the sensibility of an
observer as to arouse its perceptual representation in him. This
tr arm of the observer, in all its details, forms clearly part of
18 Own consciousness; but it representatively corresponds to the
characteristics of the non-mental existent, which is stimulating his
sen
ses,
Now, it is evidently the transient activity or function of that part
of the permanent living being which we perceive as his nerve-system
that yields to him all his conscious states.
While this functional play of inner awareness is taking place in
the observed organism, the observer himself perceives nothing but
motion; motion of molecules in the nerve-system, and dependent
movements of peripheral parts of the organism, such as features
and limbs.
“Mind” or consciousness is thus a functional outcome of the
organization of living beings, and its development is found to keep
strict pace with the progressive organization of living forms.—
Edmund Montgomery.— From Open Court, Chicago, March 1, 1888.
Tue Rep Fox ar Scnoor.—Nearing Ashland, Wisconsin, one
May day, an Indian lad boarded the train with a basket, in which
were three little red foxes (Vulpes rufus), their eyes just open, a
ome as little fairies. He expected a bounty for their scalps,
actly sold one little fellow to me. Too young to know what
a ed was,—only as an inherited instinct, I determined to see how
T he would yield to kind treatment and general domestication.
268 General Notes.
Returning to my Illinois home, he was fastened by a light chain
about fifteen feet long to a pine tree near the back door. Two
small dry-goods boxes, placed one above the other, with a door in
the same end of each, served as a two-story kennel, the doors facing
the house affording ample opportunity for observation. Too young
to eat readily, we taught him to drink milk, and gradually to take
tender meat, his teeth being at this time only tiny points, weaker—
relatively, than a puppy’s of similar age. He grew rapidly, and
when feeding we held him in our laps, fondling him as a kitten,
allowing him to lap and chew our fingers freely. Our shoulder
came to be a favorite seat, and until too large, he liked a step still
higher ; later, to put his fore feet up, then repeatedly to jump from
our shoulders to the ground, as we sat upon the grass. He was
equally at home in the house where he was given ‘entire liberty.
It was now time that he and the cat, with her two kits, should eat
and drink together and from the same dish. Kitty, accustomed to
having various animals introduced into her hdéme for observation
studies, quietly accepted the inevitable. | While drinking milk, of
which there was always plenty, no jealousy for individual rights
appeared, but as the fox grew faster than the kits, and the plate of
meat sometimes seemed meager for four, he would eat as fast as
possible, snuff a little, as much as to say, “go away,”—give
another snuff, and not being heeded, would gently pick up one of
the kittens by the nape of its neck, and carrying it off a little ways,
set it down, then rush back to the dish, to find the kit there also.
This being repeated two or three times, with no satisfactory
results, as if out of patience, he would grow more decided an
inclined to hurt them a little, making them ery, but they were never
conquered. When he had had enough, and a little comparatively
meats upon his disposition and found him, after a few days on raw
diet, inclined to lap heavier, and chew our fingers harder, but we
never feared being bitten. ;
He greatly enjoyed playing with the kittens but they, being 0 —
much smaller and weaker, would tire more quickly and start off to
play by themselves. An artifice was at hand to coax them back.
Going nearly to the end of his chain, and facing the inside of the
circle, though with a keen eye to the outside, he would quietly wag
his tail back and forth in the grass. This motion was too great @
Psychology. 269
temptation for the kits who would chase it, when quick as a flash,
he would turn and grasp one, without hurting it but with such a
look of pleasure and conquest. This feat would be accomplished
frequently till all preferred rest or another pastime.
n apple tree stood near the pine, and the young fruit fell freely.
With these apples the fox would amuse himself by the hour, play-
ing ball, tossing them and running after them, or tossing them up
and catching them in his mouth, also chasing the leaves as they fell
to the ground, but he never inclined to gather any materials to
make a nest, nor to eat the sour apples.
For persons, he manifested great preferences, and the children
who came daily to play with him were no exception. From some,
he would take almost anything, especially enjoying a play with
their hair as they lay in the grass with him, or to lick their faces
and feet, from others he required due reserve, though he never
attempted to bite, but often snuffed at them, and held his mouth
slightly open, as a cat will, when some disagreeable odor is perceived.
When a stranger appeared he was manifestly “foxy,” running
away as far as he could, and was not readily coaxed by dainty
morsels, until some friend came, by whose manner he was assured..
My aged grandfather was always kind to him, though in heart he -
accused him of possible treachery. Did the fox detect this, or why
did he in turn always manifest a marked distrust inhim? Like a
dog, he recognized the foot fall of his friends at a long distance,
and would start up and wait for their approach, manifesting great
Joy on their arrival.
leaping off to one side, or concealing himself behind a bush.
hen once caught and in our arms, or returned to the house, or his.
kennel, he could not sufficiently express his joy, lapping our hand:
, taces, rolling over and over, turning summersaults, ete., ete., im
rapid succession. Never was a lost dog happier to find his home
than the fox to find his,
al At an early age he manifested a slight tendency to burrow, but
Ways in the same place, by the side of his kennel, digging it out
Sune it up again, but never, even as winter approached, did
e make a space long enough for his body, nor deep enough to:
conceal himself, rather, only a shallow trench. Was this lack of
270 General Notes.
provision for the future a direct result of domestication? In
summer he often lay in this hollow, but his favorite sleeping place,
even in mid-winter was on top of the highest box, the wind playing
generally in his long, thick and fine hair. Was this position and
his love for sitting on our shoulders or any elevated place a remnant
of some arboreal strain? At twilight and by moonlight was his
play time, turning summersaults, rolling over and over, jumping
from the second story to the first and then to the ground and back,
or entirely over his kennel, etc., etc., but though always on the
alert, we never noticed anything which indicated discontent or fear,
only as strangers came near him.
We tried to teach him various tricks, but for these he developed
whenreproved. Asheseemed to have attained his maximum in men-
tal capacity,and the object of our study had been secured, the second
winter he was passed over to the taxidermist ; but for a pear, when-
ever the earth about the pine wasstirred, the peculiar odor of the
fox was evident, though in playing with him on the grass we rarely
detected it.—Mary E. Holmes, Ph.D., Rockford, Ills. |
CANINE Disstmutation.—Mr. John F. Stafford, of Chicago,
owns an English Bull Terrier about two years old. “Shave” 1s
indulged considerably by his master, and occasionally allowed to
remain indoors if the weather is bad. :
Once Shave had a severe cold and coughed considerably, during
which time he was allowed to stay in the house.
Since his recovery when any mention is made of turning him out
of doors he-coughs vigorously, and wheezes, in fair imitation of
asthma.
The trick does not avail him now, however, but he recollects
that it did once. When put out he drops the pretence at once
dashes gaily off after neighborhood company.
Shave’s mother, it is said, used to ring an electric bell by press-
ing upon the button in the floor when she wanted to go out. There
is a chance for this to be accidental, but the family believe that it
is intentionally done. The coughing trick I witnessed once 10
Shave, and Mr. Stafford says it is often resorted to by the hypo-
crite.—S. V. Clevenger.
Archeology and Anthropology. 271
ARCHZOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE LATE DISCOVERIES oF Mr. FRANK CUSHING IN ARI-
ZONA.— Mr. Frank Cushing is well known to the people of the
United States for his discoveries and studies among the Zuni Indians.
He has added another chaplet to his wreath of fame by the discovery
of two other Indian cities, believed by him to have been the habita-
tion of the ancestors of the Zuñis. Mr. Cushing joined the tribe
of Zuñis, was adopted by. them, and finally was initiated into the
order of their priesthood. His escort of a band of Zuñi chiefs and
high priests to the States to show to them the Atlantic ocean, the sea
of the sunrise, containing the water of life, is well known. His
knowledge and information obtained through these long years of
intercourse has equipped him for further study and search, and has
enabled him to secure success where other men merely book-
learned would have failed. He is fairly entitled to the credit of
his last achievement.
he had discovered a city three miles long and at some places one
mile in width. This city was somewhat irregularly laid out, con-
by a eerncipally of large squares or blocks of houses surrounded
by a high wall, apparently for protection. The cause of the ruined
condition of the city and its desertion by the inhabitants was deter-
sgt e been an earthquake. The adobé walls were shaken
at their foundation, and fell outwards. The roof had fallen to the
Ser crushing everything which had been in the house, in one
case the cooking vessel as it sat upon the fire. This evident sud-
on, Wat ithsonian Institu-
tion, Washington h is edited by Thomas Wilson, Smi :
272 General Notes.
denness of the catastrophe was a factor in forming the belief that
there had been an earthquake. The implements of the household
and articles in every-day use have been found in many places, and
saved. Their examination will afford opportunities for studying
the every-day life, and writing the history of these prehistoric
people. Many bodies have been found crushed in the débris of
the
fallen roofs and walls. Many interments have also been dis-
covered. Some were by inhumation, and these were believed to be
priests. And herein comes the value of Mr. Cushing’s knowledge
as a Zuñi priest. These burials were usually made within the
houses themselves. The grave was dug in the earth forming the
floor, the body placed therein together with the usual articles,
receptacles for food, pottery, etc., and being filled up, the floor
would soon take its original hardness. The objects thus found
interred formed the principal evidence of the priestly character of
these dead. The pottery was decorated similar to the modern Zuñi
pottery. The same symbols were to be seen thereon. The line of
life always open at its extremities was continually present. An
referring again to the Zuñi religion, the pottery was left unbroken.
Other cemeteries or graves were found outside the walls. These
were of common people, had no traces of priestly character, were
frequently by incineration as inhumation, and the vessels accom-
panying them were always broken. No object in metal was found.
as has the first, but he finds extensive works for irrigation. Ditches
have been cut connecting it with the Salt River, some miles dis-
tant, for the conduct of water. For this reason he has named it
Las Acequias. ©
Dr. Washington Matthews, Surg. U. S. A., of the Army Medi-
cal Museum, visited Mr. Cushing at the scene of his discoveries
during the past fall. He found him much broken in health,
sadly in need. of rest. Dr. Matthews prescribed for him, relieved
him from his duties, and took him to San Diego, to recuperate. ,
The number of skeletons could scarcely be estimated, but their
state of preservation was fairly good, yet requiring care and scien-
tific handling in order to secure them, The finds in this direction
have been sufficiently large in number and importance to fe
the Museum in sending one of its assistants, Dr. Wortman, arged
with the necessary material, who will devote himself to the care
and preservation of the skeletons as they are unearthed.
Dr. Ten Kate, a distinguished archeologist of Holland, passed
through the City of Washington on his way to join Mr. Cushing-
RE
y
ae ;
Sty
TENNESSEE.
J. PARRISH STELLE.
(18889)
bN
\~
TEXAS,
J. VAN Osrranp.
(30674)
ee Ye
PENNSYLVANIA. CALIFORNIA.
W. G. HARFORD.
A. F. BERLIN.
Archeology and Anthropology. 273
He will remain there, assisting Mr. Cushing in his work during
the present winter.
The funds for the expedition are furnished by Mrs. Augustus
Hemenway, of Boston.
THE CELTIC Socrery or MONTREAL has recently published
an octavo volume of 231 pages, containing some of the papers read
before the society during the years 1884 to 1887; to judge
from their names, the office-bearers, and perhaps the other members
also, are all of Scotch descent. The publisher of the volume, called
“Transactions of the Celtic Society, ” is Mr. William Drysdale,
and among the “ office-holders ” we find also a bard, Mr. Archibald
Mackillop. The constitution states that the object of the Society
shall be the promotion of the study of the “Celtic Language and
Literature.” The society was organized in December, 1883, and
now counts 250 members, many prominent Canadian statesmen
that this revolt occurred anno 178 before Christ. The other pa
refer to more tangible facts or events of modern times, as “
settling of Glengarry,” the “Celt in the Northwest,” “ Sketch of
the aeg language,” “ Origin of Scottish Highlanders,” ete.—A. 8.
Gatschet.
RELIGIOUS BROTHERHOODS OF Morocco and the superstitions
revailin among these were made the subject of a communication
Y Ur. Henry ten Kate to the Berlin An 7 ety (session
of June 18, 1887). We find there: the superstition of the
274 General Notes.
horse-shoe, that of the protection effected by the outstretched hand,
by rags suspended on tree-limbs, the belief in miracle-working
springs and fountains, the swallowing of fire, ete.—A. 8. Gatschet.
GuanasuatTo.—The statistics of this Mexican State, which
borders on the west side on Jalisco and Zacatecas, were made the
subject of a quarto publication by Antonio Peñafiel, the director of
the statistical bureau in Mexico. The title is Cuadros sinopticos
y division territorial de la Republica Mexicana. Estado de Guana-
juato. Mexico, 1887, pp. 192, 4°. This central state has an area
of 20,276 square kilometres. The district in which the capital is
situated, lies about 2000 metres above the ocean. The State has
1,007,116 inhabitants, the capital, Guanajuato, 52,112. The
Indian languages spoken in the State are the Pame, Otomi, Chichi-
mec, Tarasco and Jarapecha, which is a Tarascan dialect.—A. 8.
Gatschet.
Lieut.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers, of the British Army, is known to
archeology as well under his former name, Col. Lane-Fox, as
under his present name. Upon the decease of an elder brother, he
took, as the next heir, the entailed family estates, and by provision
of the entail was required to change his name as above. e
family estate was at Cranborne Chase, not far from Salisbury.
Here Gen. Pitt-Rivers had ample scope to indulge his archzologic
tastes in excavations. He has profited by the occasion, and has
lately published for private distribution a magnificent quarto-
volume, entitled “ Excavations in Cranborne Chase, near Rush-
more, on the Borders of Dorset and Wiltshire.” He has contin-
ued his investigations, and read before the Anthropological Institute
at London an article in continuation thereof. His article is fol-
lowed by one of Dr. Beddoe’s, which pursues the same line 0
thought. Both are largely devoted to a calculation of the stature
of the prehistoric races, as estimated from the long bones of the
skeletons found in the tombs.
The rules adopted by the different authorities eare commented
upon in the light of experience by these two gntlemen. They
belong to the science of anthropometry, and it would increase the
length of this article beyond proper limits to give them, The
importance of anthropometry is better recognized in Europe than
it has been in the United States, which is much to our detriment.
Gen. Rivers says: “I draw the attention of anthropologists to the
important point than questions of stature enter so largely into all
racial speculations that a uniform system of estimating stature from
the long bones is a matter of most ungent necessity.” n, “I
have conformed to Dr. Topinard’s rules for the sake of uniformity,
and in this I am supported by Dr. Garson. _
(10026)
Bane:
(758)
4
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
JamMEs WEBSTER.
%
SY gringo UTAH.
- M. CLARKE. ” Dr. F. V. HAYDEN.
Archeology and Anthropology. 275. -
“ Dr. Topinard’s method, even if it should not turn out to be the
best, appears to me sufficiently reliable to serve as a generally
accepted standard.” ;
Other articles in the journal of the Anthropological Institute are
the Lower Congo; a Sociological Study, by Richard Cobden
Phillips; and The Origin and Primitive Seat of the Aryans, by
Canon Isaac Taylor.
The Smithsonian Institution has issued the following Circular
(No. 36) concerning the Department of Antiquities :—
The Smithsonian Institution desires answers to the following
questions concerning that class of American Aboriginal Stone Relics
which have been heretofore denominated “rude or unfinished
implements of the paleolithic type.”
These implements are described by Dr. C. C. Abbott in “ Prim-
itive Industry,” chap. xxxii., p. 471; by Professor F. W. Putnam
“ Remarks upon Chipped Stone Implements,” from the Bulletin of
the Essex Institute, vol. xv., 1883; by Mr. A. F. Berlin in Amer-
ican Antiquarian, vol. i., No. 1, p- 10; by Miss Frances Babbitt
in Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of
Science, vol. xxiii., Minneapolis meeting, Aug., 1883, p. 385.
uts of some of these implements are herewith given.
Question I.—How many of these rude stone implements have
you in your collection ?
UESTION IT.—Do you know of any in other museums or col-
lections ?
Question III.—Of what material are they made?
Question IV.— Where have they been found ?
1, As to locality.
2. Position, condition and associated with what objects ? :
3. Whether on or under the surface, and, if so, at what depth,
and in what kind of geological formation ?
4. wee they found in mounds, tombs or other ancient struc--
ures ?
if so, of what kind ?
6. Did their deposit seem to be accidental or intentional ?
7. Have they been described in any publication, and, if so, in.
what, and where can it be obtained ?
8. Can you forward specimens (as many as possible) to this: —
useum in exchange for publications or duplicate specimens?’
—S. P. Langley, Secretary Smithsonian Institution.
5. Were any other ancient implements found with them, and,.
276 General Notes.
MICROSCOPY .!
PLASTER TABLETS FOR MOUNTING ANATOMICAL PREPARA-
Tions.—Mr. H. Garman, of Champaign, Ill., finds tablets made of
plaster preferable to most others for mounting anatomical prepara-
tions. e following communication on this subject has been
received from Mr. Garman :—
“ My experiments with this material were made without knowl-
edge of its use for the purpose in other quarters, and I was sur-
prised to learn, upon inquiry, that the large white tablets used for
ordinary alcoholic specimens in the Museum of Comparative Zool-
ogy were of plaster, and had been cast upon glass. However, I
believe the manner of making them, and the facility with which
they can be produced, is not as generally known as it should be,
and that, as my results were reached independently, the details of
the method here given may prove of service even to those who are
accustomed to the use of plaster. I do not know that colored
uncolored plaster, satisfies most needs in the way of backgrounds.
Black ink and carmine staining fluids can be Pte | to stain the white
tablets. But the latter color is not often a desirable one, and if it
is to be used can be more economically applied by first dissolving
carmine in water with heat, then adding the plaster, finally casting
1 Edited by C. O. Whitman, Director of the Lake Laboratory, Mil-
waukee.
Microscopy. 277
upon glass. Lampblack will not, in its ordinary form, mix with
plaster. A variety of colors may be obtained by using the ‘ Flor-
entine Fresco Colors’ sold by F. W. Devoe & Co., New York.
They may be mixed with the plaster. The chrome orange, chrome
yellow, Venetian red and ivory black have been on trial in tablets
for about a week, and show no change under the alcohol.
“The use of plaster in tablets is not claimed to be new with the
writer, but this method of manipulation and coloring is the result
of independent experiment, and may therefore present some fea-
tures of interest. Tablets as above prepared have proved, in my
experience, superior to those made of wax in the matter of cost, in
the facility with which they are to be prepared, and in neatness of
appearance.”
PREPARATION OF THE Eaes OF ASCARIS MEGALOCEPHALA.—
Through the researches of M. Nussbaum,! Ed. van Beneden,? J. B.
arnoy,’ and Otto Zacharias,‘ the egg of Ascaris megalocephala of
the horse has become a classical object for the study of fecundation.
In the simple structure and enormous size of its nuclei, this egg
offers unequalled advantages for such study. But a very serious
drawback is found in the thick impervious egg-membrane, which
is capable of resisting for a long time the action of preservative
reagents. Dilute acetic or nitric acid requires at least from eight
to ten days to penetrate; and alcohol of 40 to 50 per cent., two or
three months. Development goes on undisturbed in osmic acid of
per cent.; and several days are necessary even for absolute alco-
hol to take effect.
For tracing the karyokinetic phenomena of fecundation, it is of
the utmost importance to find reagents that will kill and fix quickly,
as reliable preparations of transitory stages in nuclear metamor-
. Phosis cannot be expected with reagents that penetrate slowly,
o Zacharias *® has discovered an acid mixture which overcomes
the resitence of the egg-membrane, and fixes the egg completely
Within 25 to 30 minutes. The mixture consists of
Alcohol (90 to 100 per cent.) 80 cem.
Glacial acetic acid 20 cem.
Osmic acid (1 per cent.) 20 to 30 drops.
A little glycerine or chloroform increases the clarifying power of
the mixture,
a Archiv f. mik. Anat,, xxiii., 1884.
: Archives de Biol., iv., 1884.
: 1e top ape 1886-7,
reniv f. mik. Anat., xxx., H.1, 1887. pe
Pt Ueber Abtédting und Färbung der Eier von Ascaris megalocephala.
atomischer Anzeiger, iii., 1, p. 24, Jan., 1888. i
278 General Notes.
Van Beneden (Nouvelles Recherches sur la fécondation, ete., 1887)
has employed a stronger mixture, consisting of absolute alcohol and
acetic acid in equal parts, without the addition of osmic acid.
Preparation of Material—1. Freshly obtained! Ascaris females
are placed between two sheets of cotton, which have been moistened
a little in a 3 per cent. solution of common salt, then covered with
a bell glass, and exposed one to three hours to an incubation tem-
perature of 25°C. This procedure brings the polar globules to
development in the younger eggs, and forces the cleavage in the
older eggs.
2. After an hour’s incubation, it is well to preserve a part of the
material at disposal. The genital sacks are laid bare by a longitu-
dinal slit in the body-wall, opposite the sexual aperture; the vagina
is then cut free from the body, the alimentary tract lying between
the two sacks is carefully removed, and the ovarian portions of the
sacks are cut off, leaving the uterine portions with their contents
for preservation. The anterior ends of the uteri contain eggs in
all stages of maturation and fecundation ; the posterior ends contain
eggs already beginning to cleave. The killing and hardening pro-
cess should vary considerably for these different stages.
3. It is advisable, therefore, to cut each uterus into thirds, and
to expose the anterior third to the action of the acid mixture only
five to seven minutes, the middle third ten to fifteen minutes, and
the posterior third at least twenty-five minutes. After fixation, the
anterior and middle thirds are transferred to 30 per cent. alcohol,
and after a few hours to 50 per cent. alcohol, in which they may be
kept for a long time. Eggs in process of cleavage—found in the
posterior third—should be removed to absolute alcohol the moment
they begin to show a light brown staining. After two to three
hours they are to be transferred to 70 per cent. alcohol for preser-
vation. If the acid mixture be heated to about 24°C., the poste-
rior third of the uterus will require an exposure of only ten to fif-
teen minutes. :
4. Schneider’s acid carmine is an excellent staining agent. It 1s
prepared as follows: Glacial acetic acid is diluted with distilled
water to about 50 per cent.; then as much pulverized carmine 1s
added to the boiling acid as will dissolve. - After filtering until the
fluid becomes clear, a little rectified wood-vinegar is added (one
drop A. pyrolignosum to ten ccm. of the carmine solution) for the
purpose of strengthening the clarifying power of the mixture.
he younger stages may be left in the dye three to four hours,
the older stages eight to ten hours.
Beautiful views of the karyokinetic figures are thus obtained, but
they are not permanent. After three to four hours they begin to
lose in distinctness.
1 From the living horse, by means of arsenic pills.
Scientific News. ; 279
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—The Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society has just com-
pleted its first decade, and the last number of its tenth volume con-
tains an editorial “preface” by the editor, Mr. Frank Crisp, paying
a deserved tribute to his associate editors and especially to Profes-
sors F. Jeffrey Bell and A. W. Bennett, who for these ten years
have prepared those abstracts of the biological literature of the
world which have made the Journal indispensable to every natu-
“a who wishes to keep up with other subjects outside his speci-
alty.
—George W. Tryon, Jr. , the Conchologist, died in Philadelphia
February 6th, aged fifty years. Although not a Friend, his
ucation was gained at Friends’ school, and at an early age he
engaged in business with his father and brother. The lack of
collegiate education he amply made up in later life by private
study. His early years were devoted assiduously to his business
and to his studies, and his attention having been concentrated on
natural history, and especially on the study of shells, he withdrew
in 1867 from business in order to devote himself solely to his
favorite pursuit. A man of untiring energy and perseverance, he
500 me eminent in this domain of science. His first paper
was published in the proceedings of the Academy of Natural
Sciences for 1861, under the title “On the Mollusca of Harpers —
Ferry, Virginia.” In 1865 he established the“ American Journal
of Conchology,” of which seven annual volumes were issued. To
this, and to the proceedings of the Academy he contributed numer-
ous papers, numbering at the end of 1873 no less than sixty-four
contributions to this favorite science, all showing characteristic
accuracy of detail and patient research. In addition to these ag et
he also issued a Bibliography of American Writers on Conchology -
z 1861 ; a Monograph of the Fresh Water Univalve Mollusca of
the United States, in continuation of Haldeman’s work on the same
subject; a Synonymy of the Species of Strepomatidæ in 1865; a
Monograph of the Terrestrial Mollusca inhabiting the United
States, 1866 ; an American Marine Conchology, 1873 ; the third
Volume of the Land and Fresh Water Shells of the United States, ©
published by the Smithsonian Institution, and a Structural and —
280 General Notes.
Systematic Conchology, in two volumes, issued in 1883. The
latter is a magnificent work, profusely illustrated, but was only
preliminary to the crowning work of his life, which, unhappily, he
has been unable to finish. This was his Manual of Conchology,
Structural and Systematic, of which the first volume appeared in
1879, and of which nine volumes of the first series, on marine
shells, and three of the second, on land shells, have been issued.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most extensive system-
atic work on any branch of natural science which has yet appeared
in the United States. The collection of shells of the Philadel-
phia Academy of Natural Sciences was largely his gift to the insti-
tution, and it was one of the largest in the world. The library
Sheppard a pamphlet series of operas, which is very popular, and
essayed on several occasions original music work, including an
opera.
—Asa Gray.—Born in Sauquoit, Oneida county, N. Y., No-
vember 18, 1810. Died in Cambridge, Mass., January 30, 1888.
When a great man dies, it is fitting that his survivors should re-
count his deeds, and learn the lessons which his life and labors
teach. Born in the poverty and obscurity of a backwoods village,
far from any of the great centres of learning, there was nothing 0
promise in the future for the little tanner boy of the Mohawk Val-
ley. When he urged the unwilling horse on his tiresome round, and
wearily labored at his monotonous task of feeding the bark-mill, who
could have foretold his after greatness? What prophet could have
seen in the village school-boy, so far removed from all incentives
to the study of science, the future leader of one of the great
branches of science in America ?
Denied the advantages of a collegiate education, he completed, at
the age of twenty, the study of medicine in the Fairfield College
of Physicians and Surgeons for the Western District of New
York, and doubtless the scientific studies of the course had much
to do with making him what in his after life he always was, em-
phatically a scientific man. His botanical work began during his
study of medicine, and by the time of his graduation he had already
done something in the way of collecting and identifying the plants
of his locality. ;
The great event of the young botanist’s life was his meeting,
when twenty-one years of age, with Dr: John Torrey, then teach-
ing in New York City. Under the inspiration of Torrey, his
studies were led into those lines of work in which his life was des-
tined to be spent. In his herbarium and by his help Gray’s first
botanical contribution (viz.: “North American Graminee and :
Scientific News. 281
Cyperaceæ ”) was wrought out. In the introductory note to part
I, which bears date of February 1, 1834, acknowledgment is made
of the author’s obligations to Torrey “ for the interest he has taken
in his botanical pursuits, for the important aid he has rendered him
in the determination of doubtful species, and for the use of his
valuable library and herbarium.”
In his twenty-ninth year Dr. Gray visited Europe, and made
the acquaintance of many of the great botanists of that time,—
the elder and the younger Hooker, Bentham, Greville, Robert
Brown, Lindley, Mirbel, Decaisne, St. Hilaire, Boissier, Adrien
de Jussieu, Endlicher, Von Martius, the De Candolles, Schlechten-
dal, Kunth, Ehrenberg and many others.
ree years later he was called to the chair in Harvard Col-
lege, which he filled for thirty-one years, until relieved of the
drudgery of teaching in 1873. When sixty years old he was
elected president of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, at the meeting held in Troy, and two years later
delivered his famous address, “Sequoia and its History,” at
Dubuque.
Upon the anniversary of his seventy-fifth birthday the botanists of
the country united in a testimonial of respect and veneration to the
one on all hands acknowledged to be their leader. Last year, on his —
revisiting England and Scotland, the Universities of Oxford, Cam-
ridge and Edinburgh, honored themselves as well as him by con-
ferring upon him their highest degrees.
„The activity of his mind throughout a long life may be in- ,
dicated by the following list of the more important of his pub-
lications, with the age at which they were issued:
At 24.—North American Graminex and Cyperacee.
At 26.—Elements of Botany.
At 28.—A Flora of North America (in conjunction with Dr.
Torrey),
At 32.—The Botanical Text-Book.
At 36.—Chloris Boreali-Americana. Decade I.
At 38.—A Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States.
282 General Notes.
At 47.—The Botanical Text-Book. Fifth Edition.
At 48.—How Plants Grow.
At 49.—The Relations of the Japanese Flora to that of North
America.
At 57.—Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States.
Fifth Edition. :
At 58.—Field, Forest and Garden Botany.
At 62.—Sequoia and its History (President’s Address, A. A.
A: S
At 62.—How Plants Behave.
At 66.—The Gamopetale of the *“ Botany of California.”
At 66.—Darwiniana.
At 68.—Synoptical Flora of North America. Gamopetale after
Composite.
At 69.—Botanical Text-Book. Sixth Edition.
At 70.—The Vegetation of the Rocky Mountain Region (in con-
junction with Joseph D. Hooker).
At 74.—Synoptical Flora of North America. Caprifoliacese to
Composite. 3
At 77.—The Elements of Botany for beginners and for Schools.
— Charles E. Bessey.
—A statement by me in the December Naturalist, relative to
Mr. Harger’s participation in the authorship of the volume on the
Dinocerata, it has been claimed was unjust. Injustice to no one
was intended, nor was there any personal feeling in the matter.
My sole desire was to make it known, as no one else could, that a
very large portion of Mr. Harger’s scientific labors for the past
seventeen years has been quite unknown to the scientific world.
This is conceded by those most interested in the matter, and any
details as to the precise part of the work that he committed to
paper is immaterial. Professor Marsh insists that a portion of the
descriptive matter of the Dinocerata was written by himself, and
presents evidence which I will admit sustains his assertion. The
chapters on the brain and skull I have in my notice of Mr. Harger
conceded to him without in any way affecting the general fact. He
must and will admit that a considerable part of the work was pre-
pared by Mr. Harger without his name appearing anywhere as its
author. I have nothing to say as to whether such a course was
right or wrong. Others, with Professor Marsh, may claim that an
author has a right to hire and pay for scientific work, without its
being any one else’s affair. I do say, however, without fear of
denial, that much of the valuable scientific work published by Pro-
fessor Marsh has been due to the conscientious accuracy, soun
judgment, and general scientific scholarship of Mr. Harger. The
bibliography was almost wholly prepared by myself, but was 5°
modified that I should be loth to have its authorship imputed to
me.—S. W. Williston, Yale College, New Haven. :
Scientific News. aie 283
—The Committee on the Marine Biological Laboratory have
issued an appeal for aid in establishing the laboratory, from which
we learn that $8,000 of the desired $15,000 have already been
secured, and that it is proposed to start work before the full endow-
ment has been secured. It is hoped—first, to secure a location at
Woods Holl, Mass., where the fauna and flora are abundant and
varied; second, to build a, laboratory with two stories—the lower
story to have accommodations for teaching at least twenty-five per-
sons, the upper story to have work-places for investigators—to fur-
nish aquaria, microscopes, microtomes, glassware, etc., also a con-
stant supply of water for aquaria ; third, to have a convenient land-
ing, boats, collecting apparatus, ete. To meet the running expenses,
fees will be charged those who work at the laboratory. The labora-
tory is to have two principal objects—first, the education of com-
petent teachers of biology ; second, the furnishing of suitable facilities
for original investigation, such as are afforded students in Europe.
_ —The Boston Society of Natural History is agitating the estab-
lishment of an aquarium and zoological garden.
—Mr. Andrew Garrett, who has done so much to explore the
molluscan fauna of the South Sea Islands, died in the Society
Islands Noy. 1, 1887.
—George Robert Waterhouse, of the British Museum, died in
Putney January 21,1888. His later years were devoted to geology,
ut some years ago he published a commencement of a monograph
of the Mammalia, a very useful work, which deserved completion.
—Dr. Max Schmidt died in Berlin February 3, 1888, in hi
fifty-fourth year. He was formerly Director of the Zoological
Garden in Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, but in 1884 was called to a
Similar position in Berlin, as successor to Dr. Bodinus.
—Dr. D. S. Jordan sails in June for Europe. It is his intention
a rvored to Greece to study the fish-fauna of the Eastern Medi-
ranean.
— Professors O. P, Jenkins and B. W. Evermann have just
alaa the collections which they made during last summer at
fha mas, on the Gulf of California. They are especially rich in
€s, some twelve species being new.
—August Friedrich, Count Marschall, the author of the Nomen-
T logicus (published in 1873), died in Vienna October hi,
284 General Notes.
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY oF WAsHINGTON.—February 11, 1888.—
The following communications were read :—Dr. Theo. Gill, “ Char-
acter of the Family Elacatide;” Mr. Robt. T. Hill, “The Variations
of Exogyra ponderosa Say ;” “The Variations of Gryphca pitchert
Morton ;” Prof. C. V. Riley, “The Insectivorous Habits of the Eng-
lish Sparrow; ” Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “ A New Fox from California.”
February 25, 1888.—The followi g icati were read: Mr.
F. W. True, “ Changes in the Catalogues of North American Mam-
mals since 1879 ;” Dr. T. H. Bean, “ Distribution and Some Charac-
ters of our Salmonide;” Dr. Cooper Curtice, “Some Early Stages
in the Life History of Tenia pectinata.”
March 10, 1888.—The following communications were read :—Mr.
F. W. True, “ Changes in the Catalogue of North American Mammals
since 1877,” Part II.; Dr. Geo. Vasey, “ Foreign Trees and Shrubs
Cultivated in the District of Columbia ;” Dr. Theo. Gill, “The Classi-
fication of Cdttoidean Fishes ;” Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “ Description of
a New Species of American Skunk;” Mr. Robt. T. Hill, “ The
Southwestern Termination of the Atlantic Timber Belt.”
March 24th.—Dr. Cooper Curtice spoke of “ Tenia fimbriata, a
New Parasite of Sheep;” Mr. Charles Hallock, “ Reversion of
Domesticated Animals to a Wild State;” Capt. J. W. Collins,
“ The Work of the Schooner Grampus in Fish Culture.”
APPALACHIAN Mountain Cius.—Boston, January 3, 1888.—
Prof. David P. Todd, of Amherst College, gave a paper describing
his ascent of Friji-San, Japan, in connection with the recent eclipse
expedition. The lecture was illustrated with stereopticon views.
January 10, 1887.—Annual meeting. The report of the secre-
tary showed a total membership of 788, a gain of 15 during the year.
In 1887 there were held nine regular, six special, and one field meet-
ing. There were besides ten excursions. The following board of offi-
cers were elected: President, Augustus E. Scott; vice-president,
Rest F. Curtis; recording secretary, Roswell B, Lawrence; cor-
responding secretary, Frank W. Freeborn; treasurer, John E.
Alden; councillors—Natural history, George Dimmock ; topog-
raphy, George H. Barton; art, John Ritchie, Jr.; exploration,
Frank O. Carpenter; improvements, Frederick D. Allen; trus-
tee, for three years, Charles W. Kennard. After the result had
been announced, Miss L. S. Davis gave an account of the dedica-
tion of the monument to De Saussure, and Mr. L. L. Hubbard
made a few remarks concerning the convention at Villach, which
he attended as delegate of the club. On Saturday, January Aa ae
the club visited Pasture Hill, and on the 21st an excursion was
to Mt. Benedict.
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 285
Socrety oF Arts.—Boston, January 10, 1888.—Prof. W. T.
Sedgwick read a paper entitled “ A Biological Examination of the
Water Supply of Newton, Massachusetts,” it being a record of joint
work done on the subject by the speaker and Mr. S. R. Bartlett.
ference was found to exist between the river and basin water.
Water from the river gave as an average 261 colonies of Bacteria
in a cubic centimetre ; that from the basin, 42; from the reservoir,
when the water is pumped, 23; and that taken from the tap in
Newton, only 6. The following results bear out the opinion that
Newton’s water supply is superior. Newton water was thus found
to contain 6 micro-organisms in a cubic centimetre; Spot pond,
Malden, 10; Cochitnate, 43; Mystic, 204; Croton, N. Y., from
54 to 256. The chemical tests also justified the reputation of the
Newton water for purity.
The next paper, also read by Prof. Sedgwick, explained a “ New
Method for the Biological Examination of Air,” by Prof. Sedgwick
and Mr. G. R. Tucker. A description of the previous methods
used for this purpose was first given. In the new method the air
is drawn through a small tube containing granulated sugar, the
Sugar being then mixed in an enlargement of the same tube, with a
proper amount of gelatine to insure the growth of any germs held
by it. The apparatus for drawing always the same amount of air
through the tube is an ingenious one, and is the invention of Mr.
Tucker. It has been found by numerous experiments that the
Sugar catches all the Bacteria of the air. The apparatus is simple
in construction and working, and is designed to be used in hospital
wards and at any place where frequent examinations of the air are
desired. It was shown in working order, and a large number of
plates and tubes showing micro-organisms in various stages of de-
velopment were exhibited.
AMERICAN Purtosopuican Socrery.—May 20, 1887.—A
paper from Prof. S. S. Stevenson, entitled “Notes on the Surface
logy of Southwest Virginia,” was presented. ;
September 2, 1887.—The following communications were read :
Formation, collected b i iti 6,” |
; y the Princeton expedition of 1886 by Profs.
z B. Scott and Henry T. Osborn, Princeton, N. J. i Dr. D. G.
ca read a paper entitled “ Were the Toltecs an Historic Na-
Ye aes
x eptember 16, 1887.—A paper by Dr. A. C. Stokes, of Trenton, —
- J., on some “New Fresh-Water Infusoria was presented.”
286 General Notes.
October 7, 1887.—Prof. Cope presented a communication for the
proceedings entitled the “Classification and Phylogeny of the Artio-
dactyla.” Two communications from Mr. S. Garman, of Cambridge,
Mass., entitled “Reptiles and Batrachians cf Grand Cayman,”
and “ West Indian Reptiles in the Museum df Comparative Zool-
ogy, Cambridge, Mass.,” were read.
October 21, 1887.—Mr. P. C. Garrett read an obituary notice of
Pliny-Earle Chase, LL. D., a vice-president of the Society. A
paper on “ Octonary Numeration and its Application to a System of
Weights and Measures,” by A. B. Taylor, was presented. Prof.
Cope read a paper on the “Phylogeny and Classification of
the Artiodactyla. Dr. J. Cheston Morris spoke of the remarkable
resemblance between Devonshire sheep and goats, both ewes and
bucks had horns and, like the goat, they had more than one period
of reproduction in a year. Dr. D. G. Brinton, H. Phillips, Jr.,
and M. B. Snyder, were appointed a committee to consider the
value of Volapiik.
November 4, 1887.—Dr. Brinton read a paper on the so-called
Alaguilac language of Guatemala.
November 18, 1887.—A paper entitled “ Notes on the Ethnology
of British Columbia,” by Dr. F. Boas, was presented through the
Secretaries. Dr. Brinton read an account of “ An Ancient Human
Footprint from Nicaragua,” and in the discussion that ensued Prof.
Heilprin stated that in his belief the deposit in which it occurred
was Post-pliocene. Prof. E. J. Houston read a communi-
cation on a non-magnetizable watch invented by M. C. A.
Palliard, of Geneva, Switzerland ; and on the Gramophone, an in-
vention of Edwin Berliner, of Washington, D.C. Prof. E. F.
Smith presented a paper on “ Electrolysis of Lead Solutions.”
December 2, 1887.—Prof. D. Kirkwood, of Bloomington, Ind.,
presented a communication on “The Possible Existence of Fire-
balls and Meteorites in the Stream of Bielids.”
January 6, 1888.—The committee of Volapük presented a sup-
plementary report. Prof. P. H. Uhler, of Baltimore, read a paper
on “The Albirupian Formation and its Nearest Relatives mm
Maryland.” Profs. Lewis and Heilprin, in the discussion which
followed, differed from Prof. Uhler in their views of the age of this
formation, Prof. Lewis considering it as Silurian, Prof. Heilprin a8
Paleozoic and not Mesozoic.
Western Society or Naruratists.—A Western Society of Nat-
uralists, embracing members from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Tllinois,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri, was organized at Indian-
apolis, Dec. 29th, 1887. Its scope is like that of the American
Society of Naturalists, the constitutions of the two being almost
identical. The following officers were elected :—President, Profes-
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. aoe
sor S. A. Forbes, of Champaign, Ill.; Vice-Presidents, Professor
W. J. Beal, of Agricultural College, Mich., Pres. T. C. Chamber-
lain, of Madison, Wis., and Professor Henry L. Osborn, of Ham-
, Minn.; Secretary, Dr. J. S. Kingsley, of Bloomington, Ind. ;
Treasurer, Dr. John M. Coulter, of Crawfordsville, Ind.
voted to hold the annual meetings of the Society in October, the
organization and had no regular programme. Various members
discussed methods of biological investigation and instruction.
Dr. S. A. Forbes exhibited a number of pieces of microscopical
apparatus in use in the Illinois State University and especially `
adapted for drawing microscopic objects.
Boston Socrery or Natura History, December 21, 1887.—
The meeting was devoted exclusively to the Antiquity of Man in
America. Professor F. W. Putnam exhibited a series of paleolithic >
implements found in the gravels at Trenton, New Jersey, by Dr.
Abbott; in the gravel of the Little Miami Valley, Ohio, by Dr.
Metz, and in the glacial deposit at Little Falls, Minnesota, by Miss
Babbitt; also, for comparison, several from the gravel of the Valley
of the Somme. Dr. Charles C. Abbott gave an account of the
recent discoveries in the Trenton gravels and their bearing on the
antiquity of man in North America. Professor G. F. Wright
spoke upon the age of the Ohio gravel-beds in which the imple-
ments were found by Dr. Metz. Mr. Warren Upham read a paper
apon the erion of the ice sheet in Minnesota in its ETT to
e gravel deposits overlying the quartz implements found by Miss
Babbitt at Little Falls, inaota. 4
A discussion upon the Antiquity of man in the eastern and
central portions of America followed the reading of the papers.
January 4, 1888.—Professor W. O. Crosby discussed the Geology
of the outer islands of Boston Harbor. Mr. James H. Emerton
described the Anatomy of the Chrysalis of the Milk Weed Butterfly.
February 1, 1888.—Mr. E. O. Jordan, of the Institute of
7 wise read a paper on the beginnings of natural history in
merica.
_ February 15, 1888.—Dr. Geo. L. Goodale read a sketch of the
life and work of the late Dr. Asa Gray.
h 7, 1888.—Professor W. O. Crosby read a paper on the
geology of the Black Hills of Dakota. ak
_ March 21, 1887.—Professor F. W. Putnam described the great
Serpent-mound in Ohio, and Dr. J. W. Fewkes discussed the origin
of the present form of the Bermudas, both papers being illustrated
by the stereopticon.
Essex Instrrure, March 19, 1888.—Professor F. W. Putnam
288 General Notes.
spoke of the serpent-mound in Adams county, Ohio, which has
recently come into possession of the Peabody Museum of American
Archeology and Ethnology, at Cambridge, Mass. This mound was
first brought to general knowledge by Messrs. Squire and Davis in
1849, previous to which time it had only a local reputation. It
was then covered with forests, and has since been ploughed over a
number of times and devoted to crops. The mound is lowest at the
tail and increases in height toward the head, and varies from four
.to nine feet; in width it varies from eleven to twenty-one feet, and
its length is about fifteen hundred feet. The serpent makes four or
five convolutions, running north and south, and the tail ends in a
triple coil. In front of the mouth is an oval mound, as though the
serpent were about to swallow an egg—as the lecturer expressed it.
On each side of the neck are two other mounds—one natural, grow-
ing out of the decay of an enormous oak tree, and the other arti-
- ficial. Near the tail is another mound, built up from the white
clay bottom, over which is a heavy layer of stones—not the lime-
stone of the surface, but a sandstone brought from a creek a quarter
of a mile away. In this mound, at a depth of from two to five feet,
occur a considerable number of intrusive burials ; but in the centre,
lying at length on four inches of wood-ashes, was found the skele-
ton of a chief six feet in height, with a brain capacity greater than
that of Daniel Webster. The speaker believed the mound to have
been built in honor of this chief. The skeleton is in good condition,
and is now preserved in the Museum at Cambridge. No weapon
was found in the mound and no ornament, except one fresh-water
clam-shell.
AA
w
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
< Vou. XXII. APRIL, 1888. No. 256,
SIX WEEKS IN SOUTHERN MINDANAO.
BY J. B. STEERE.
A THREE days’ voyage from Puer to Princesa, in the island
of Paraqua, by way of Balabac and Sooloo, brought us to
the port of Zamboanga, in the southwest part of Mindanao.
The harbor is of but little value. It is partly sheltered on the
south by the low island of Santa Cruz opposite, but is open to
the storms from the southeast. There had been a heavy blow
from this direction before we arrived, and a high sea was running ;
but toward night we got our baggage into a huge dug-out, and
were paddled ashore. After some trouble with the customs’ offi-
cers over our baggage, we were finally, after dark, domiciled
in a shaky old fonda, the only hotel the place affords, a liquor and
tobacco shop and place for the sale of postage stamps and lottery
tickets below, and a lodging place above. We gota promising view
the next morning from our window intoa yard below, where a dozen
pairs of immense bivalve shells (Tridacna gigas) lay in the sun.
A careful measurement of the largest pair showed three feet and
five inches in length and two feet and five inches across the valves.
They must have weighed toward two hundred pounds each, or
four hundred pounds for a single shell. We found a single valve
made a good load for two men. The Spanish naval officers, who
seem, like other sea-faring people, to be given to telling large
_ Yarns, tell of one off the south coast of Mindanao which has long
<n noted for its great size, and that the officers of the steam
te Salamanca once planned to take it home as a present to
290 Siz Weeks in Southern Mindanao.
Queen Isabella. They steamed down the coast until they found
the shell, dropped their strongest hawser around it and put on all
steam, but after some time found that instead of raising the shell
the steamer was gradually sinking, being drawn under by the
immense weight. So they cut the hawser and left the shell in its
bed, where they declare it may yet be seen. The smaller species
are found in the mud at low tide. Their toothed valves lie gaping
apart, and must be traps ready set for any inquisitive monkey who
may pass their way. The larger ones are found in deeper water,
and there are stories of divers after pearl oysters being caught in
their immense jaws and held to their death.
Zamboanga is a town of six or eight thousand inhabitants,
nearly all Indian, but of mixed tribes, it having been a convict
colony a generation ago, formed from the various islands of the
group. The Spanish residents, twenty-five or thirty in number,
are gathered with the principal Chinese merchants, at the south
end of the town, near the old stone fort and the church. The
native town reaches down the coast to the north for a mile and a
half, but is concealed in an immense grove of the finest coco —
palms. The houses are of the ordinary Philippine type, — great
baskets of nipa palm leaves, mounted on poles, eight or ten feet
above ground. In front of a part of the native town is a village
of Moros, Mohammedan natives, who may be the original inhabi- _
tants of the place. Their houses are of the same form as those of ©
the Christians, but are poorer, and many of them built over the
water, in true Malay style. These people seem to pretty nearly
monopolize the business of boat-making and fishing for the town,
leaving the Christians to cultivate the soil.
Behind the city is a level country extending for three or four —
miles to the foot of the hills. Much of itis overflowed and planted
to rice. The hills themselves showed patches of sugar cane and
other crops, whose cultivation was crawling up their sides, but
above and beyond all was still unbroken forest.
We made daily visits to the market, and found the Moro men,
marked by their red turbans and tight-fitting drawers, busy selling
fish, while their wives were squatted on the ground with little
piles — one for a cent — of shell fish spread out before them.
Among these were several species of spider shells in abundance,
some fine cones and cowries, and great numbers of several species
-
Siz Weeks in Southern Mindanao. 291
of bivalves; among them tree oysters, with fresh pieces of man-
grove bark sticking to the valves, where they had chopped them
loose with their knives.
The woods being too far away to make general collecting easy
from the city, after two or three days’ stay we embarked in a
native outrigger boat, and after three hours of voyage were landed
on the grand beach of Ayala, a little town fifteen miles from
Zamboango to the north, where I had collected twelve years before.
There being no house fitted for our use, we occupied with ‘the
officials of the place the tribunal, a large building near the church,
and serving for jail, court-house, town-house, and lodging-place for
strangers. Coming up to the back side of the town and tribunal
were the level rice fields, now flooded with water and just planted
or being planted to rice. The woods had been cut back a good
deal in the last few years, but we found the rice fields swarming
with water birds, and concluded to stop for some weeks. The
first trip to the fields produced eight or ten species of waders, and
many more followed; sandpipes, snipes, plovers, rails and herons,
allin great variety. Many of them were no doubt migrants from
the northwest, but several were breeding, and no doubt residents.
The population of the place seemed to be hunters by instinct, and
as soon as they found that they could get grandes (the big old
Spanish copper cents which makes the small change of the islands)
for living things, we were besieged by an array of helpers, big
and little. Morning, noon and night they were at our door, with
shells, turtles, snakes, lizards, birds, and everything else they
thought might tempt the coppers out of our pockets. The boys
set snares for the birds about the flowers of the trees, and scoured
the woods and fields with their bamboo blow guns, and brought in
sun birds, forest thrushes, orioles, tailor birds, cuckoos, and even a
number of small owls caught napping in the groves of second
growth. Several old contraband guns were brought out, and with
powder and shot advanced by us, some of the older hunters brought
from the woods, back loads of great hornbills, forest pigeons and
jungle fowl, with now and then a big-footed mound-builder bird.
One little old man, skilled in woodcraft, set a large number of
Th on the ground, and made us daily visits with his game.
e most abundant ground inhabiting mammal seemed to be a —
large spotted civet cat. One day he brought three of these, and
292 | Siz Weeks in Southern Mindanao.
then a black long-tailed animal as large as a cat, and of the weasel
family. After these he brought us jungle fowl, colored like
Spanish game fowls, and a few of the large ground pigeons, with a
- bloody spot in the white breast, called by the Spanish pemhalada,
stabbed with a knife. Whenever we could find time from our
work of preparing the material purchased we made visits to the
forest, and added many species not found by the native hunters.
Two hollow trees inhabited by Galeopithecus were found and
chopped down, and from one of these eight were captured and there
were others which escaped. They were old females, and young in all
stages of growth, so that they would appear to breed the year
round. We kept several of them living for some time, and had
a chance to observe their habits. One specimen of the curious
little Tarsius was brought in. It is probably not rare here, but
from its nocturnal habits not readily found. The common
monkey, Cynomolgus, was very abundant and tame. We got two
species of squirrel, the little Sciurus philippinensis, of a dark
brown color, not larger than a mouse, but a true tree squirrel, with
large bushy tail. Besides this we found a larger red brown one,
which does not seem to be described. Besides those mammals
mentioned we got a rat and a large shrew, making nine besides the
bats. Deer and wild pigs were plenty, but we got none during our
stay. Two crocodiles six and a half feet long but apparently
adult, were brought in living, tied hand and foot, and were tied to
a post in the open space beneath the tribunal. A. large monitor,
different in species from the Paraqua ones, was abundant, as was
also a plant-eating lizard, of about the same size, four or five feet in
length, and called by the natives ibit. It is called good food, —
like the plant-eating iguanos of South America,
Among the lizards was, a flying one, Draco, abundant on the
coco trees, and differing in size and color from those observed in
Paraqua. On opening the wing membranes one could not help
noticing a likeness to a butterfly, both in shape of wings and in
the coloring of nulattix blue with red spots. This case of §
resemblance must be added to the long list of cases of protective a
coloring. This peculiar coloring may aid the lizard both m
escaping its enemies, the hawks, and in capturing its own food of
insects. One evening one of our hunters came dragging 10 ê
python over twelve feet long and as thick as a man’s arm, which he
Sia Weeks in Southern Mindanao. 293
had met and shot in the path, and three snakes were brought in of
several species, some of them venomous, Among birds we pro-
cured three species of-horn-fills, all different from those of Paraqua.
Among them the great double-crested one, over a yard in length.
These were found feeding in the wild fig trees at a height of one
hundred and fifty to two hundred feet from the ground, and it
tried all the shooting qualities of our guns to bring them down.
They made the woods ring with their harsh cries of ca-la-o, from
whence they got their native name. We found seven species of
kingfishers, among them one apparently unnamed, and the rare
spotted hombroni. We also found the species of broad-bill
Eurylaimus, supposed to be confined to Basilan. It inhabits differ-
ent heights in the two islands, and a more extended search may
prove that the fauna of the two islands does not differ as much as
has been supposed. Hawks were abundant and varied, and we
procured some nine or ten species varying in size from the great
sea eagle, closely allied to our bald headed eagle, and a fish hawk
equalling it in size, to the little black hawk with white breast,
Microhierax. It is about six inches in length, and one of the
smallest of its tribe. The rice fields and adjacent swamps produced
six species of rails and eight of herons, with a multitude of other
waders. ;
After three weeks of hard work, interrupted by a few days of
fever with two of the party, we returned to Zamboanga with a
collection of seven hundred specimens of birds, of some one hundred
and fifty species, fifty mammals, seventy-five reptiles, and a few
fish and amphibians.
After a visit to the island of Basilan we returned to Zamboanga
and went north again, this time to a little bay called El Recodo,
or La Culdera, about twelve miles from the city. We had heard
that corals were abundant here, and were not disappointed. A
gap between the hills into which the sea entered, and then a long,
low sand bar running out from one side and bending around,
formed a quiet little bay, with deep water in the centre shoaling
on every side. Two or three hundred Moros had built low, tumble-
down houses along the inner side of the sand bar and over the water,
while two or three Chinamen, who had followed them for purposes
of trade, had built homes on the inner side of the bay on the
Aquala road. After getting settled in one of these houses, we
294 Six Weeks in Southern Mindanao.
took boats and paddled over to the bay. The water was very
clear, and we could see plainly to a depth of twelve or fifteen feet.
Most of the corals seem to grow above this depth, and most of
the species here were within a few feet of the surface, and many of
them exposed for some time at each tide. The quiet waters
seemed to be especially fitted for the more delicate species of
Madrepores, Pavonias and Stylasters. Many of these would break
of their own weight on being taken from the water. Scattered
among the stems of the branching forms were a large number of
species of Fungias. Near the shore were whole reefs of most deli-
cate Madrepores and millepores, which would break by dozens at
each step as we waded over them, but the broken branches kept on
growing, attached themselves to their neighbors, and the reef
would be firmer than ever. As soon as the Moros found that we
would pay for sea stones, they showed a greater desire for grandes
than even the natives of Ayala had done, and there were soon a
dozen boats over the bay coral fishing, while the women and girls
were wading the reefs to find something that would suit our taste.
In this way we got many species which would have escaped us.
Even the chief of the village got out his boat, and diving down
into about thirty feet of water, brought up specimens of a tree-like
Oculina, with stems as thick as the wrist, and very heavy and jet
black. He complained of a headache, but on being well paid tried
it again next day. We bought and collected corals by the boat-
load and spread them upon the sand point to dry and bleach in the
sun until we had a ship-load, when we set to work to classify and
select such as we could pack. We roughly estimated the species
procured at this place ata hundred. Among the novelties was 4
curious little Fungia not larger than an old copper cent, but with
the curious faculty of readily breaking into pieces, when each
part would build itself into a disk again. Every storm would
serve to multiply them. We found the packing a much greater
job than collecting, but the villagers turned in and tore up cocoa-
nut husks, and this, with rice chaff, furnished packing material of
good quality. After two weeks of collecting, studying and pack-
ing we returned to Zamboanga and took the next steamer for the —
Central Philippines.
Classification of Massive Rocks. 295
SYNOPSIS OF ROSENBUSCH’S NEW SCHEME FOR
THE CLASSIFICATION OF MASSIVE ROCKS.
BY W. 8S. BAYLEY.
Ill. Tue Errustve Rocks.
: bo effusive or volcanic rocks are those which flowed out upon
a land surface and there solidified. For most of the intrusive
rocks there are corresponding effusive ones, as might naturally be
expected, but these latter are usually slightly more acid than the
former. ;
The characteristic structure for this group is the porphyritic.
The cooling of the effusive rocks takes place in two stages, (1) while
the rock mass is still within the depths of the earth—the intratel-
lurial period, and (2) after it has flowed out upon the surface—the
Gusive period. During the first stage certain minerals crystallize
from the magma. These are idiomorphically developed, and
become the porphyritic crystals in a ground mass which is produced
by the cooling of the residual magma after it has reached the sur-
face. As the cooling during the effusive period is comparatively
rapid, there is a tendency for the ground mass of this group of rocks
to approach the glassy condition. When, however, the cooling in
the effusive period takes place slowly enough to allow of complete
crystallization, a holocrystalline ground mass results and the rock
assumes a holocrystalline-porphyritic structure.
When the cooling is rapid the ground mass is glassy, and the rock
is said to have a vitrophyric structure. Between these two extremes
are other rocks whose ground mass is composed partly of crystalline
minerals and partly of glass. This is the hypocrystalline-porphyritic
structure,
. The ground mass of the holocrystalline-porphyritic rocks may be
80 developed as to possess either a hypidiomorphic-, a panidiomor-
phic- or an allotriomorphic-granular structure.
Since the structure of the older members of the effusive rocks
296 Classification of Massive Rocks.
presents features which are different from those presented by the
younger ones, it is convenient to separate them into an older and a
younger group. The beginning of the Tertiary age seems natu-
rally to be the line of division (in time) between the two groups.
III. A. THe PALAovoLcanic ErrustvE Rocks.
The paleovoleanic division of the effusive rocks is distinguished
macroscopically by the lithoidal or stony character of the ground
mass of its component members. |
It includes a continuous series of rocks corresponding in miner-
alogical composition to the series composing the intrusive class,
and, like this latter, is divided into families in accordance with the
nature of the principal constituent minerals,
A. THE QUARTZ—PORPHYRIES.
The quartz porphyries are the old effusive equivalents of the
granites. By far the larger portion corresponds in miner-
alogical composition to the granitites, so that no attempt has been
made to subdivide them on mineralogical grounds.
They are porphyritically developed—quartz, orthoclase, biotite,
sometimes hornblende and augite occurring in porphyritic crystals.
The difference of structure observed in their ground mass affords the
basis for their further subdivision.
1, MickoGRANITE, in which the ground mass is a very fine panidi-
omorphic- or hypidiomorphic-granular combination.
of quartz and orthoclase.
2. GRANOPHYRE, in which the ground mass is holocrystalline, but
is composed of quartz and orthoclase, developed in
such a manner as to mutually penetrate each other. —
3. FELSOPHYRE, in which the ground mass is so very fine that its
components cannot be recognized under the micro-
scope. When carefully examined it appears as an
almost isotropic substance with, however, some indi-
cations of structure.
4, VrTROPHYRE, in which the ground mass is a glass, with or with-
out microlites and devitrification products.
(A) pitchstone porphyry contains porphyritic crystals,
recognizable by the naked eye.
(B) pitchstone contains no macroscopic porphyritic-crystals.
Classification of Massive Rocks. 297
B. THE QUARTZLESS PORPHYRIES.
The quartzless porphyries are the old effusive equivalents of the
syenites. They are porphyritically developed with an alkaline feld-
spar and one or more of the iron-bearing silicates as porphyritic
crystals. Their ground mass is holocrystalline, consisting principally
of feldspar and quartz. They are subdivided into :—
1. ORTHOPHYRE, containing a monoclinic alkaline feldspar among
the porphyritic crystals.
(A) biotite-orthophyre, containing in addition porphyritic
biotite.
(B) amphibole-orthophyre, with amphibole in porphyritic
stals
crystals,
(c) augite-orthophyre, with ‘augite as the prominent por-
phyritic constituent. i
2. RHOMBIC-PORPHYRY. This rock is characterized by the rhom-
_boidal shape of its porphyritic feldspars, which
belong to the anorthoclase series.
3. KERATOPHYRES, contains a sodium-rich alkaline feldspar, and
ti | t yp pl y iti lly developed. Amo
the bisilicates a malacolitic augite is most promi-
nent. The keratophyres include :—
(A) keratophyre, in which are no porphyritic quartzes.
(B) quartz-keratophyre, in which quartz is porphyritically
developed.
C. THE PORPHYRITES.
The porphyrites correspond to the diorites of the intrusive class.
hey are characterized by the possession of plagioclase and horn-
blende, together with a dark mica or pyroxene, and sometimes
quartz, as their principal components. They are porphyritic, but
their ground mass may be either holocrystalline, felsitie or amor-
phous in character, They are divided in accordance with the nature
of the predominating iron-bearing constituent, which occurs along
with the plagioclase in porphyritic crystals, into :—,
1. MICA-PORPHYRITES, containing biotite as their principal iron-
bearing porphyritic constituent, including :—
(A) mica-porphyrite, which contains no quartz among its
porphyritic components.
298 Classification of Massive Rocks.
(B) quartz-mica-porphyrite, which contains quartz porphy-
ritically developed.
2. HoORNBLENDE-PORPHYRITES, containing hornblende as their
‘most important iron-bearing porphyritic ingredient.
According as these contain porphyritic quartz crys-
tals or not, they are divided into :—
(A) hornblende-porphyrite, quartz-free.
(B) quartz-hornblende-porphyrite, quartz-bearing.
3. ENSTATITE—PORPHYRITES, containing a rhombic pyroxene as a
prominent porphyritic component.
D. THE AUGITE-PORPHYRITES AND MELAPHYRES.
This class corresponds to the gabbros and diabases among the
intrusive rocks. Its members consist essentially of plagioclase and
augite, and sometimes olivine, idiomorphically developed in a
ground mass which may be either holocrystalline, hypocrystalline or
lassy. According as the members of this group are olivine-free
or olivine-bearing they are divided into :—
1, AUGITE-PORPHYRITES, containing no olivine. This group
embraces :—
(A) diabase-porphyrite, possessing a panidiomorphic- or
diabasic-granular groundmass of plagioclase and
augite,
(B) spilite, which is characterized by its fineness of grain
and its lack of porphyritic constituents.
(c) augite-porphyrite, having a fine-grained hypocrystalline
ground mass in which are numerous porphyritic
erystals of plagioclase and augite. Augite porphy-
rite includes :—
(e 1) labradorite-porphyrite, in which the porphyritic
feldspar is labradorite and the ground mass 1$
composed of a second generation of augite and
lath-shaped crystals of plagioclase and a very
little glassy base.
(c 2) weiselbergite, in which the ground mass is made
up of a second and sometimes a third genera-
tion of augite and slender needles of plagioclase,
arranged in flow lines in a glassy base (hyalopt-
litte structure).
Classification of Massive Rocks. . 299
z (c 3) tholeiite, in which the constituents of the ground mass
occur in but a single generation, and the structure
is hypocrystalline through the existence of a little
glass, which is aggregated in small areas between
the crystalline components (intersertal structure).
(D) augite-vitrophyrite, consisting principally of a glassy
ground mass in which are a few microlites of
plagioclase, augite and magnetite.
1, MELAPHYRES, consisting essentially of plagioclase, augite and
olivine. As in the augite porphyrite proper, three
types are distinguished :—
(A) navite, an olivine-bearing rock corresponding in struc-
ture to labrador-porphyrite.
(B) olivine-weiselbergite, with the characteristics of weisel-
ergite.
(c) olivine-tholeiite, an olivine-bearing tholeiite.
E. THE PICRITE PORPHYRITES.
The picrite porphyrites correspond to the intrusive peridotites.
They are composed of idiomorphic olivine and augite crystals in a
ground mass, which consists principally of a glassy base, which by
devitrification often becomes weakly doubly refracting.
The picrite-porphyrites are limited in their distribution. They
are characterized particularly by the lack of feldspar in porphy-
ritic crystals.
III. B. Tae Nrovoitcanic ErrustvE Rocks.
The neovyoleanie rocks occur principally as lavas, on the surface
of the earth, as intercalated layers between sedimentaries, as dykes,
voleanic necks and bosses. They are characterized by the vitreous
appearance of the feldspars.
_ They are diyided according to their mineralogical composition
into families corresponding to those of the intrusive and paleovol-
canic classes :
A. THE LIPARITES AND PANTELLERITES.
The liparites and pantellerites are composed essentially of an
alkaline feldspar and quartz in porphyritic crystals, together i
ground mass which may be either holocrystalline or glassy. i
They are separated according to the nature of their porphyritie
feldspathic constituents into liparites and pantellerites. n
300 Classification of Massive Rocks.
1. LIPARITES, in which the porphyritic alkaline feldspar is sani-
dine. These are divided into :—
(A) nevadites, containing numerous porphyritic crystals
and a ground mass whose structure forms the basis
for a further subdivision into :—
(a 1) nevadite, with a holocrystalline ground mass.
(a 2) felso-nevadite, with a felsitic ground mass.
(a 3) hyalo-nevadite, with a glassy ground mass.
(B) liparites, containing few porphyritic crystals, and these
few almost exclusively sanidine. These include :—
(6 1) liparite, with a holocrystalline ground mass.
(6 2) felso-liparite, with a felsitic ground mass,
(c) hyalo-liparite, a glass with the composition of liparite,
containing microlitic inclusions of sanidine, quartz
and the iron-bearing silicates.
2. PANTELLERITES, in which the porphyritic constituent is anor-
thoclase. 3
B. THE TRACHYTES AND QUARTZLESS PANTELLERITES.
This group is characterized by the predominance of an alkaline
feldspar among its porphyritic constituents, and its freedom from
quartz. In addition to the feldspar there is usually an iron-bearing
mineral porphyritically developed.
Their structure, like that of the other effusive rocks, varies widely,,
but always tends to the porphyritic.
This group is divided into :—
1. TRACHYTES, in which the porphyritic component is sanidine.
The trachytes are next subdivided into :—
(A)- trachyte, with a holocrystalline to hypocrystalline
ground mass.
(a 1) mica-trachyte, with sanidine and biotite as the
most prominent porphyritic constituents.
(a 2) augite-trachyte, in which augite replaces the bio-
tite of (a 1).
(B) phonolitic trachytes, differing from trachyte proper
principally in the possession of the characteristic
minerals of phonolite, viz., ægirine, acmite and
sodalite. They include :—
(b 1) sodalite-trachyte, which is rich in minerals of the
alite group.
Classification of Massive Rocks. 301
(b 2) acmite trachyte, in which the amphiboloids are
acmite, ægerine and arfvedsonite.
(c) andesitic trachytes, with a hyalopilitic ground mass
tending strongly to a glassy development.
(c 1) biotite-hypersthene-trachyte, containing biotite,
hypersthene, augite and sanidine in a glassy
ground mass,
(c 2) the Arso type, in which sanidine and augite are
the principal porphyritic minerals, and the
ground mass is hypocrystalline.
(D) hyalo-trachyte, consisting principally of glass, with the
composition of trachyte. 7
2. QUARTZLESS PANTELLERITES, have anorthoclase and iron-
earing minerals as porphyritic constituents.
C. THE PHONOLITES.
The phonolites embrace the quartz-free combinations of an alka-
line feldspar with the minerals of the nepheline and leucite groups,
and usually a monoclinic augite.
They include :—
l. PHONOLITES PROPER, containing nepheline and feldspar as the
essential porphyritic constituents, as well as the
essential components of the ground mass, which is
-holocrystalline, hypocrystalline, or glassy.
(A) trachyte-phonolite, in which sanidine predominates over
the nepheline, particularly in the ground mass.
(B) nephelinite-phonolite, in which nepheline predominates
over the feldspar. ,
(c) hyalo-phonolite or Phonolite Glass, a glass with the
composition of phonolite, containing microlites of
sanidine and augite.
2. LEUCITE-PHONOLTTES, containing leucite instead of nepheline —
among the porphyritic constituents. E
3. LEUCITOPHYRES, containing both leucite and nepheline in addi-
tion to sanidine.
D, THE DACITES.
The dacites are quartz-bearing plagioclase rocks. They contain,
also, one of the iron-bearing minerals of the biotite, amphibole or
Pyroxene groups. Rea ee
302 Classification of Massive Rocks.
Their structure varies widely in consequence of the fact that they ©
occur at considerable depths within the earth, and are moreover
very sensible to chemical alteration. They are separated, according
to their structure, into :—
(A) holocrystalline dacites, with many or few porphyritic
constituents.
(B) felsodacites, with a microfelsitic ground mass.
(c) andesitie dacites, with a hyalopilitic ground mass.
(D) vitrophyric dacites, or dacite glasses, with the compo-
sition of dacite holding porphyritic crystals of pla-
gioclase, quartz and the iron-bearing silicates.
E. THE ANDESITES.
The andesites are neovolcanic rocks, composed principally of pla-
gioclase and the iron-bearing silicates of the biotite, amphibole and
pyroxene groups, thus corresponding to thé porphyrites of the palæo-
voleanic group, and the diorites, and some of the gabbros of the
intrusive class.
They are divided, according to: the prevalence of one or the other
of the iron-bearing silicates among the porphyritic constituents,
into :—
1, Mica—ANDESITES, in which biotite predominates over the other
iron-bearing minerals. They are subdivided,
according to the structure of their ground mass,
into :—
(A) holoerystalline mica-andesites.
(B) felsodacitic mica-andesites.
(c) mica-andesites proper.
(D) trachytic mica-andesites. -
(£) vitrophyrie mica-andesites.
2. HoRNBLENDE-ANDESITES, in which hornblende predominates.
These are subdivided as are the mica andesites.
3. AUGITE-ANDESITES, in which a monocline augite is the prevail-
ing iron-bearing porphyritic constituent. Subdi-
vided like the mica-andesites.
4. HyPERSTHENE-ANDESITES, in which a rhombic instead of a
monoclinic augite is the prevailing porphyritic con-
stituent. Subdivided like the mica-andesites.
5. HyALOANDESITES, or ANDESITE GLASSES, glasses with the com-
Classification of Massive Rocks. 303
position of andesite, containing a few microlites cor-
responding to the porphyritic components of the
andesite group.
F. THE BASALTS.
The basalts are composed essentially of a plagioclase feldspar and
augite, with or without olivine. They differ from the andesites in
the predominance of augite over biotite and hornblende, and are
thus the equivalents of the diabases.
They possess a wide range of structure, from the hypidiomor-
phic-granular to the glassy.
They are separated into two great divisions, distinguished by
the presence or absence of olivine.
1, OLIVINE-FREE BASALTS, containing plagioclase and augite in a
hypocrystalline ground mass. -
2. OLIVINE BASALTS, in which olivine is an essential constituent,
in addition to plagioclase and augite. Among the
olivine basalts are included :—
(a) hypersthene basalt, with an orthorhombic augite as one
of the porphyritic constituents.
(B) quartz basalt, with corroded quartzes among the augite,
olivine and plagioclase of the first generation.
(c) hornblende basalt, with brown hornblende as a porphy-
ritic ingredient.
4. HYALOBASALTS, or BASALT GLASSES, glasses with the compo-
sition of basalt, containing microlites of augite, pla-
gioclase and olivine.
G. THE TEPHRITES AND BASANITES.
The tephrites and basanites contain as essential constituents a
basie plagioclase and nepheline or leucite, or both. The former
are olivine-free, the latter olivine-bearing.
They differ from the phonolites in the nature of their prevalent
feldspar.
Their most common structure is the holocrystalline porphyritic
1. THE TEPHRITES are the olivine-free varieties. They are subdi-
vided, like the phonolites, into :—
(A) nepheline-tephrite, in which nepheline occurs generally _
as a constituent of the ground mass, but occasionally —
also in porphyritic crystals.
304 Classification of Massive Rocks.
(B) leucite-tephrite, in which leucite replaces the nepheline
of the tephrite.
(c) leucite-nepheline-tephrite, containing both nepheline and
ucite.
2. BASANITES contain olivine as an essential constituent. The oli-
vine is ‘almost always present in porphyritic crystals.
The basanites are subdivided, like the tephrites,
into :—
(A) nepheline-basanites.
(B) leucite-basanites.
(c) leucite-nepheline-basanites.
H. THE LEUCITE ROCKS.
The leucite rocks are unique, in that they occur only in the
younger effusive series. They contain leucite instead of feldspar
as their principal component. With this is always associated
augite, and frequently biotite. The occurrence or non-occurrence
of olivine serves as a means of separating them into two
divisions :—
1, LEUCITITE contains no olivine. Its structure is panidiomor-
phic- to hypidiomorphic-granular, although it occa-
sionally becomes porphyritic through the develop-
ment of leucite and augite in two generations.
2. LEUCcITE-BASALT contains olivine. Both olivine and augite
usually occur in porphyritic crystals, leucite rarely
or never. Their structure is porphyritic.
I. THE NEPHELINE ROCKS,
Like the group of the leucite rocks, the present group, which
embraces rocks composed principally of nepheline and augite,
no equivalent among the intrusives or the palzovolcanic class.
The prevailing structure is the porphyritic with the iron-bearing
silicates and olivine, when it is present, and sometimes nepheline as
the porphyritic constituents, while the ground mass is hypoerystal-
line, and made up in large part of nepheline.
The nepheline rocks are separated into two divisions :—
1. NEPHELINITES, which contain no olivine. These are subdi-
vided, according to structure, into :—
(a) doleritic nephelinites, which are coarse hypidiomorphic
granular varieties.
Classification of Massive Rocks. 305
(B) basaltic nephelinites, usually porphyritic, with less
nepheline and more augite than the doleritic
varieties.
(c) phenolitic nephelinites, porphyritic varieties with nephe-
ine in two generations and a light-colored augite
(acmite) only in the ground mass,
(D) camptonitic nephelinites, porphyritic varieties with a
base composed principally of nepheline or a glass
with the composition of this mineral, and numerous
porphyritic crystals of augite and hornblende, some-
times in two generations.
2. NEPHELINE-BASALTS, olivine-bearing. The prevailing types
are those corresponding to the doleritic and basaltic
nephelinites.
J. THE MELILITE ROCKS.
Melilite rocks are also confined to the neovolcanic class. They
have no representatives among either of the other classes. They
consist essentially of melilite, olivine and augite.
Their normal structure is the holocrystalline porphyritic, in which
olivine, augite and biotite, and sometimes melilite, occur in two
generations, although the last-named mineral is more commonly
found only in the groundmass.
The separation of the group into two varieties :—
(A) melilite-basalts, and
(B) alnéites, rests almost entirely upon geological grounds.
The alndites, however, are much richer in augite
than the melilite basalts, and also contain more
biotite.
K. THE LIMBURGITES AND AUGITITES.
This group includes rocks composed in larger part of pyroxene,
with or without olivine. They usually contain also a little plagio-
clase and hornblende. : ;
_ Their normal structure is the hypocrystalline porphyritic, though
Sometimes they become completely amorphous through the absence `
of porphyritic constituents.
They are divided into :—
1. Loweurarres, which are olivine-bearing, and
2. ÅUGITITES, which are olivine-free.
Colby University, Waterville, Me.
306 Distribution of the Salmonide.
DISTRIBUTION AND SOME CHARACTERS
OF THE SALMONIDÆ.!
BY TARLETON H. BEAN.
iore family of Salmonidæ—embracing the white fishes, the
salmons, and the trouts—is one of the most important of the
temperate and arctic regions of the world. For the purposes of this
paper, I exclude all of Argentinine, which have very little value,
if we except the capelin, the eulachon, and the smelts. I omit,
also, the graylings (Thymallus), which are set apart by Dr. Gill
as representing a distinct family, Thymallide. The genera included
in my essay are the following: Coregonus, Stenodus, Oncorhynchus,
Salmo, and Salvelinus.
Gommon White-fish (Coregonus clupeiformis). Ecorse, Michigan, About 4 natu-
ral length.
There are about forty nominal species of white fishes (Coregonus), —
of which twelve are North American, and are readily distinguished
by good characters, Several species are found in Great Britain;
the rest are distributed over the North of Europe and Asia, scarcely
extending as far southward as 46° North latitude. The largest
1 Read before the Biological Society of Washington, Feb. 25, 1888.
Distribution of the Salmonide. 307
species exist in Russia, Siberia, Alaska, and our great lakes. The
relation between the Siberian and Alaskan forms has never been
fully worked out; but species which have been considered identi-
cal from the two sides of Behring Strait proved upon examination
to be distinct. The species of Coregonus are anadromous only in
the far North. One species, which is not represented in America—
Coregonus oxyrhynehus—leads an existence which is indifferently
marine or fresh-water. In the United States, the most southerly
species—and one of the smallest, Coregonus williamsoni—is found as
far south as the Sevier River, in Utah, in about 38° North lati-
tude, or eight degrees farther south than any species in the Old
World. Three species extend as far north as Point Barrow—lau-
rettæ, nelsoni, and richardsoni, the first and the last of these being
valuable food species. Coregonus pusillus probably reaches Point
Barrow also, as I have seen it in Hotham Inlet.
Vendace (Coregonus albul ia. About 3 natural length.
Introduced into Me albu lay. Baland Lake, Prussia. A s
The most easterly of our white fishes are labradoricus, quadrila-
teralis, and artedi, all of which are small, and the last varies so much
m the type to the eastward as to make its separation probable.
The largest species are clupeiformis and richardsoni. Clupeiformis
is the common white fish of the great lakes. It does not extend
very far into British America, and is replaced northwestward in
: ka and the arctic portion of British America by the Coregonus
richardsoni (kennicotti of late works). os
Stenodus is believed to be nearly related to Coregonus ; but its
: have not been fully studied. Its species reach a larger-
Size than is usual in Coregonus. Only two are known with cer-
308 Distribution of the Salmonide:
tainty, and these are closely similar. One of them is found in Alaska
and the other in Russia. Other species are said to ascend some
Siberian rivers from the Arctic Ocean. I have compared a speci-
men from the Volga with our Alaskan “inconnu,” and find theirsimi-
larity very striking. They agree substantially in number of fin-rays
and rows of scales; but the first appears to have several more rows
above the lateral line than the other.
Quinnat Salmon (Oncorhynchus ehouicha). Columbia River, Oregon. About $
natural length,
The genus of Pacific salmons (Oncorhynchus) which is very closely
related to Salmo, is represented by five species, all of which are more
or less black-spotted, especially while sojourning in streams. They
ascend the rivers falling into the North Pacific in Asia and North
America. The distribution in Asia is incompletely known. All
of the species have been certainly identified from Kamschatka. 0.
gorbuscha, the little humpback salmon, extends farthest north, having
been found in the Colville River in Alaska and ranging southward
only to Oregon. The dog-salmon (O. keta) has been taken in the
Kowak River, Alaska, and southward to California. The blue-
back or red fish, O. nerka, extends northward at least to the Yukon
and southward to the Columbia. Chouicha, the king or quinnat
salmon, is known from the Ventura River, in California, to the
Yukon, in Alaska. O. kisutch, the silver salmon, ranges from
Francisco, probably, to the Yukon. The most northerly species,
gorbuscha, is the smallest and least valuable. The only good char-
acter which may be depended upon for distinguishing Oncorhynchus
- from Salmo is its numerous rays in the anal fin. Í
Salmo inhabits Great Britain and the Continent of Europe; #
sends a representative into Africa; it is more or less represented 10
Distribution of the Salmonide. aa
Asia, and is well-established in North America. The Asiatic spe-
cies are, for the most part, little known. Most of the species are
non-migratory and inhabit fresh-water lakes and streams.
emenate :
length. Bon non (Oncorhynchus nerka) Wallowa Lake, Oregon, } natural
In the Eastern Continent, the southern limit of Salmo is in about37°
North latitude, A single doubtful species—S. macrostigma of Duméril,
which may be identical with the common fario—was found abundant
in the Oued-al-Abaich, forty kilometres west of the town of Collo,
in Northern Algeria. This species was founded on young specimens
having about eight parr marks. The vomerines are figured as in
two rows of about seven teeth each, just as in fario, The scales in
British Museum examples are: 27, 122, 34; pyloric cæca, 28 to
31; vertebra, 57. Their resemblance to young fario was observed
by Dr. Giinther.
Rainbow T p ;
I rout (Salmo irideus). V , Missouri. About ,4 natural length.
rr anne by UR Fish Commitee oe ERE s
en California one species, Salmo irideus, is found as far south as
e Mexican line, But the most southerly of all our species and of
oe Distribution of the Salmonide.
all the known Salmonoids of the world is mentioned by Professor
E. D. Cope, in the AMERICAN NATURALIST, August, 1886, page
735. He has young black-spotted trout obtained by Professor Lup-
ton from streams of the Sierra Madre, Mexico, at an elevation
between eight and nine thousand feet, in the southern part of Chi-
huahua, near the boundaries of Durango and Cinaloa. They have
teeth on the basihyals, and resemble, in other respects, Salom
purpuratus of the Great Basin.
Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar). Susquehanna River. About 1% natural length.
Introduced by U. S. Fish Commission,
Students of the Salmonide in Europe frequently refer all of the
numerous nominal species of Salmo to three principal forms—salar,
trutta, and fario. The first two represent the genus Salmo, charac-
terized by anadromous habits and imperfect development of the
vomerine teeth. The third is placed in the sub-genus Fario, which
has persistent, well-developed vomerines in one or two series, and,
in its habits is non-migratory. One noticeable feature about the
European species of Salmo is that they are nearly all large-scaled
seldom having more than 125 scales in a longitudinal series. The
only exception to this rule is Salmo microlepis of Hungary, which
has 135 to 140 rows of scales. North America and Asia have at
least one species of Salmo in common,—a small-scaled species,—S-
purpuratus. This is the most widely-distributed and the most vari-
able of our species. Northward, we have no certain knowledge of
it beyond Unalaska ; southward, it ranges to Mount Shasta, in Cali-
fornia. Its distribution is extended by the varieties, henshawi»
pleuriticus, and stomias, Salmo henshawi occurs in Tahoe Lake,
California, Pyramid Lake, Nevada, and in streams of the Sierra
Nevada. Salmo pleuriticus occupies the Utah Basin and the head-
waters of the Rio Grande. The trout found in Mexico may be
closely similar to this, as it seems to inhabit affluents of the Rio
Distribution of the Salmonide. 311
Grande. Salmo stomias dwells in the Upper Missouri and in the
Kansas River. It is the most easterly of all our black-spotted trout.
Salmo purpuratus has hyoid teeth, and, in all its varieties,
bears a crimson blotch on the under surface of the head, which is
characteristic of the species. It has, also, small scales, which diminish
progressively in henshawi, pleuriticus, and stomias.
Clark’s Trout (Salmo purpuratus). Sitka, Alaska. About # natural length.
The eastern limit of our species of Fario, as already stated, is
reached by the Salmo stomias. East of the Mississippi Valley no
Species of this genus are found native. The distribution of the
species of Fario would seem to indicate that they originated in Asia
or the Continent of Europe and migrated both to the eastward and
the westward. In America the eastward distribution was checked
by the plains of the middle region, which do not furnish conditions
favorable to salmon-life; and the ocean barrier on the east pre-
vented the spread of Fario into our Atlantic streams. If these
black-spotted species were better adapted for Arctic life, their range
might have been similar to that of the red-spotted charr.
Before leaving the black-spotted salmonoids, it may be well to
add something concerning the singular Huchen or Rothfisch of the
ube. The genus Hucho has very small scales, pyloric ceca very
numerous, gill-rakers short and few, vertebre sixty-eight, a forked
_ caudal, a remarkably broad maxilla, with a well-developed supple
mental bone, a pike-like skull, and peculiar dentition; the jaw
=e armed with strong teeth ; the vomerines and palatines are strong
and 1n a continuous series—the palatine portion very long; tongue
With teeth ; hyoid toothless. The range of the single known specie
appears to be very restricted. pe
The genus Cristivomer, which appears to be only a section of Sal-
312 Distribution of the Salmonide.
velinus, has two species, the lake-trout and the siscowet—namaycush
and siscowet. The lake-trout is one of the largest and most widely
Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Raquette Lake, New York. About ¥; nat-
ural length.
diffused of the Salmonide. Richardson had it from Boothia Felix,
in North latitude 70°. Turner found it very common in Labrador.
It is very abundant in lakes of New England and New York and
in the great lakes. We have obtained it recently from Henry Lake,
in Idaho. This lake empties into Snake River, a tributary of the
Columbia. We have also a head and fins of the species from Camin
Lake, in British Columbia. Richardson records it from Great Bear
Lake. Townsend and Stoney obtained specimens in the Kowak
River, a stream flowing into Hotham Inlet, Alaska.
Dolly Varden Trout (Salvelinus malma). Cook’s Inlet, Alaska. About fy natural
ength.
1
Eight species of Salvelinus are at present known in North —
America, only one of which, malma, we share with Asia. Seven
of the species occur in eastern North America, and, with one or two
exceptions, they are very closely related to the common saibling of
Distribution of the Salmonide. 313
Europe, S. alpinus. All of our species except fontinalis—the com-
mon brook trout—belong to the group having hyoid teeth. The
largest species on both sides of our continent extend far to the north-
ward: malma to the Colville River, in Alaska; stagnalis and rossi
to Boothia Felix and Greenland. As a rule, all of our red-spotted
charr with hyoid teeth have the dorsal and caudal fins without bands,
while in the common brook trout—which is usually without hyoid
teeth—these fins are always banded and mottled. The small charr
of Monadnock Lake, in New Hampshire, S. agassizi, belongs to the
group with hyoid teeth and forked tail. It has the dorsal and caudal
banded, but the body has no mottlings, such as are found in
fontinalis.
The character of the absence of hyoids in fontinalis is not to be
absolutely depended upon in classification. About ten per cent. of
the seventy-three examples obtained by Mr. L. M. Turner in Labra-
dor have hyoids feebly developed, there being in no case more than
three of these teeth present. From Castleton, New York, we have
a specimen with hyoids ; and in a brook trout from Woods Holl,
Massachusetts, three hyoid teeth exist. It would seem that these,
exceptional occurrences of hyoids are most pronounced and frequent
in the northern portion of the habitat of fontinalis, the range of which
Species is now known to extend from Labrador to North Carolina,
and, perhaps, Georgia.
Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). New Ea Market. # natural length. —
The most northerly species of Salvelinus recorded is the arcturus
S Günther, a species which is said to lack red spots. If the current
ustrations be correct, this is the least highly-ornamented of the
314 Distribution of the Salmonide.
genus. No specimens longer than twelve inches are known, and
hese are mature. They were obtained in Victoria Lake, North
latitude 82° 34’, and in fresh-water pools of Floeberg Beach (82°
28’). This species is the most northern salmonoid known.
Before leaving this subject it may not be amiss to recall the fact
that the origin of the Salmonide is obscure. No fossils of true
Salmonide are known, except one genus, which is based upon the
cranial bones only. This genus, Rhabdofario of Cope, is from
Lake Idaho, a late tertiary lake in Eastern Oregon and Western and
Southern Idaho. The following account of the Rhabdofario lacus-
tris is from Professor Cope’s paper in Proceedings American Philo-
sophical Society, 1870 :—
“ A species with a head as large as that of the Salmo salar. The
genus is nearly allied to Salmo. With no other portions of the
animal than the cranial bones, the only difference I discover is in
the form of the maxillary bones, which are sub-cylindric or rod-
like, instead of flat or laminiform, as in Salmo. At the extremity,
though flat, they are still narrow; and I do not find surface of
attachment for the supernumerary bone of Salmo. Teeth on the
maxillary and mandibular arches large, numerous; teeth on the
vomer, glossohyal, and palatine bones also well developed. Muzzle
and mandible smbegual, Maxillary . . bearing reduced teeth
near its extremity.”
The pertinence of Rhabdofario to the Salmonide is, perhaps, open
to doubt, on account of the shape of the maxilla and the probable
absence of a supplemental bone. i
Observations on Amphiuma. 315
OBSERVATIONS ON AMPHIUMA AND ITS YOUNG.
BY 0. P. HAY, MD!
PRE waters of our Southern States are inhabited by certain elon-
gated air-breathing animals, which are popularly known and
feared under the name of Congo Snakes; although they in reality
belong not among the serpents, but to the class of Amphibians. Of
these animals, naturalists have up to near the present time recog-
nized two species, and even two distinct genera, Amphiuma and
Murænopsis, the two forms being distinguished by the possession
respectively of two and three digits to each of their very feebly
developed legs. The occasional finding of specimens with two toes
on some of the feet, and three on the others, has cast doubt on the
generic value of this character, and made it quite certain that both
belong to the same genus.? As there are few or no other differences
of importance between the two supposed species, it is now thought
by some batrachologists that there is after all but a single species ;
and this is the view at present held, I believe, by Professor E. D.
Cope, the best American authority on such matters.? Amphiuma
(Mureenopsis) tridactylum is, in this case, to be regarded as merely
a variety of A. means.
Of the habits, especially the breeding habits, of the lower Amphi-
bia, in species of which North America is rich beyond all other
countries, little appears to have been discovered. Siren, Necturus,
Amphiuma and Cryptobranchus are all strictly aquatic, or nearly
80, in their manner of life. With a few remarkable exceptions, our —
Amphibia, whether affecting a terrestrial or an aquatic habitin ©
adult life, lay their eggs in the water; and the young, for a time —
-afier hatching, live in that element, and breathe by means of gills.
n cases where the young of a species have not been discovered, it
has been assumed that they possess gills, which are after ward - :
absorbed,
git lished by permission of Dr. John C. Branner, Director of the —
os Geological Survey. >? |
„poder, Proc. Phil. Acad., 1879, p. 14.
ings Amer. Philosoph. Soc. 1886, p. 526.
316 Observations on Amphiuma.
This assumption has been made in the case of Amphiuma. On
general principles, Cuvier concluded that in early life it has gills.
This was uncertain, and has been denied. Later authorities, among
them Professor Huxley, state that its gills are “caducous,” but that
this conclusion rests on any one’s observations T am not aware. Of
its other habits little seems to be known. Holbrook, in his great
work on North American Reptiles, thus speaks of the species :—
“Amphiuma means lives in muddy water or in mud. Harlan
says they have been found at Pensacola three feet or more deep in
mud of the consistency of mortar, in which they burrow like earth-
worms. They inhabit the ditches of our rice-fields, and feed on
small fish and various fresh-water shells, as Unio, etc.; beetles and
other insects have also been found in their stomachs. Sometimes,
like eels, they are found on dry land, but for what purpose they
approach it is unknown” (N. A. Herp., 1842, v., 91).
“T am unacquainted with the habits of the Amphiuma tridacty-
lum, but suppose these to he similar to those of the Amphiuma
means” (Ibid., 93).
At the close of August, 1887, I spent a few days in Little Rock,
Ark., in the employ of Dr. Branner, of the Arkansas Geological
Survey. On September 1st I visited a cypress swamp in the vicin-
ity of the city for the purpose of collecting some reptiles. During
the severe summer drought this swamp had been almost completely
dried up, and there was little chance to get anything except by
turning over pieces of fallen timber. Beneath a log of consider-
able size I found, to my surprise, a large animal coiled up, which
by its smooth glistening skin I immediately saw could not be a
snake ; but, having never before seen a living Amphiuma, it took
me some time to realize that I had before me one of these animals.
After making due preparations to prevent its escape, I gave the
animal a push with a stout stick, and then, no attempt at retreat
being made, I lifted it out of the slight depression in which it was —
lying and let it straighten itself out. Meanwhile I had observed,
lying in the midst of the coils, a mass of moist-looking matter,
nearly as large as one’s fist. Picking this up, I discovered it to be
a mass of eggs. This was put into a jar of alcohol, and imme-
diately the young within the egg could be seen writhing about, thus
showing that they were in an advanced stage of development. The
mother offered no resistance on being handled, and was put into 4
Observations on Amphiuma. 317
small school satchel and carried to the State Geologist’s office, a mile
away, with two empty fruit jars lying on her. That night she was
kept in an empty boot-box. This was some eighteen inches in
height, and from it she made efforts to escape. She would erect
herself in one corner until her head was on a level with the edge
of the box, but she could get no further. Once in falling down
she uttered a shrill sound somewhat like a whistle or the peeping of
a young chicken. A cry like that of a young duck has been attrib-
uted by some observer to the Siren, but Barton in some of his writ-
ings denies the statement that such a sound is made.
The limbs of these animals are very small. For instance, of this
one, having a length of thirty-one inches, the hinder limbs are
only three-fourths of an inch long, the anterior only one-half an
inch. Yet, when it was moving over the ground or the floor, it
was amusing to observe that its feet were put forward and drawn
back, as if they really could be of some use.
On irritating this Amphiume by pushing her with a stick she
would snap at it viciously, and on further irritation would seize it
in her jaws and, springing from the floor in the form of a spiral,
would turn rapidly round and round, thus twisting the stick in
one’s hand. Any enemy thus attacked would certainly find his
interest in the affair fully aroused.
There are two points in the structure of the adult to which I
wish to call attention; although no doubt they have already been
observed by anatomists. The first is that there isa little lobe of
skin forming the anterior boundary of the gill-opening, and another
forming the posterior border. These can be very closely applied to
each other, and seem to form a very efficient valvular apparatus, by
means of which this useless relic of its larval life may be closed up.
The other structure is connected with the mouth. The lower lip
Is formed of a fold of skin that is separated from the skin of the
throat by a deep groove that runs from the corner of the mouth to
hear the symphysis, This fold has a thin sharp edge, and is directed
downward and outward. The upper lip also has a sharp edge
Which, when the mouth is closed, widely and closely overlaps the
lower lip. This arrangement of the lips and that of the gill open-
‘ng seems to me to have relation to the burrowing habits of these
animals, and are designed to prevent the mouth and pharynx from
being filled with mud.
318 Observations on Amphiuma.
The eggs of the Amphiume are the most remarkable that I know
of as occurring among the Amphibians. The young, which now
constitute the whole contents of the eggs, are surrounded by a trans-
parent capsule about as thick as writing paper, and these capsules
are connected by a slender cord of similar substance. It is as if
the gelatinous mass surrounding the eggs of the toad should become
condensed into a solid covering and a connecting cord. How many
strings there are of these eggs I cannot determine with certainty,
on account of their being inextricably intertwined ; but, since there
are four ends visible, there are probably two strings, one for each
oviduct. For the same reason I have not been able to count the
eggs. A careful estimate makes at fewest 150 of them.
The eggs, in their present state, are nearly globular, and average
about 9 mm. in diameter. Their distance apart on the string varies
from 5 to 12 mm.; fourteen of them were counted on a piece of |
the string nine inches long. At this rate the whole mass would -
form a string about eight feet long. The connecting cord varies —
from 1.5 mm. to one-half that diameter, The eggs greatly resem-
ble a string of large beads. |
The young are coiled within the capsules in a spiral form. On
removing them and straightening them they measure about 45 mm.
in length. The color is dusky above, with indications of a darker
dorsal stripe, and on each side a similar darker band. Below, the
color is pale. The body is proportionally stouter than in the adult
and the head broader. The fore and the hind feet have each three
toes. ;
The young possess conspicuous gills; and, since they are evi-
dently near the period of hatching, it is but fair to suppose that
they would continue to retain these gills for some time after exclu-
sion. The gills are three in number on each side, and are simply
pinnate in form. The median gill is longest, measuring some 9mm.
in length. From its main axis there arise about ten delicate twigs
The other gills are somewhat shorter, and give origin to about eight
lateral twigs each. In all these filaments may be seen the blood-
Observations on Amphiuma. 319
vessels filled with the large blood-corpuscles for which Amphiuma
is noted. Three gill-slits are open, of which the two posterior
become cloged in the adult. The eyes appear to better advantage
than later in life. k
The finding of these young, nearly ready for active life, in such
an unexpected situation suggests some interesting problems. At
what period of their development are these eggs deposited? If at
an early period, the mother must incubate them for a considerable
time. If ata late period, why should they be placed in such a
situation? In either case it appears to be quite probable that they
are fertilized before they are deposited. Again, how are the eggs
in such a dry situation saved from being thoroughly desiccated ?
They are, I think, kept moist by the body of the mother as she lies
coiled around them. My remembrance of her as she lay when first
exposed is that she was much plumper than she now appears in
alcohol; and when she was laid down on the office floor every spot -
she touched was made wet. The source of this water I do not
know ; but it appears probable that it came from the numerous
glands that fill the skin, and that the mother makes nocturnal
visits to the water to lay in supplies.
Another question to be considered is this: What is to become of
the young when they are hatched? How can these feeble little
animals make their way to the water some rods away over ground
that is covered with rubbish, dry, and full of cracks? How is it
brought about that their delicate gills are not withered when
exposed to the dry air? Is it possible that, like some species of
snakes, the young crawl down the mother’s throat while she car-
ries them to the water? It has been suggested to me that just
before hatching she may carry the eggs in her mouth to the
water; but the whole mass could not be taken into the mouth,
and she could only carry them as a dog carries a large bone. It
is evident that we have several things yet to learn about the
habits of Amphiuma.
By means of dissections and microscopical sections I have made
Some observations on the structure of the young of the Amphi-
uma as they were found in the eggs above described. A thorough
study is being made of these embryos, and I hope soon to pub-
1 a paper giving details and drawings. I here note the most
salient features of the skull and shoulder girdle.
320 Observations on Amphiuma.
As might be expected of the young Amphiume, hatched in a
situation removed for some distance from the water in which it
is to pass the greater part of its life, and to which it must with
some difficulty find its way, its whole organization is in a far more
advanced stage of development than is that of those Amphibia which
are excluded directly into their yielding native element. A com-
parison of the skull of the young Amphiume with that of the lar-
val axolotl, as described by Messrs. Parker and Bettany, shows
that the former corresponds in many respects to the earlier phases of
the fifth stage of the latter. The axolotl in this stage is 1} inch
in length, but when hatched was only about one-third of an inch
long (Morphology of the Skull, p. 107).
One of the most interesting features of the skull is the deficiency
of cartilage in some regions. The otic capsule is well developed
and large. Enclosed within it are the semicircular canals and a
large otolith. The notochord runs well forward and is partially en-
sheathed with bone. The exoccipitals, also, are ossified down almost
to the notochord, and the ossification extends into the condyles. On
each side there is a narrow band of cartilage that rises up from the
hinder end of the ear-capsule toward the middle line, but it lacks
considerably of meeting its fellow. Nowhere does the cartilage
extend to the middle line above the brain, and nowhere is the brain-
cavity roofed over with bone. In the basilar region there is on each
side of the notochord a large elliptical fenestra in the cartilage, 50
that there is only a narrow band lying along each side of the noto-
chord, and a very narrow strip attached to each otic capsule. The
trabeculee are united around the extremity of the notochord, and
send back on each side a process to the otic cartilages. These tra-
beculæ enclose a very large oval pituitary space. They are narrow
and, meeting in front in the ethnoidal region, coalesce for a very
short distance. ‘There are very short decurved cornua and narrow
bands that run outward beneath the nasal sacs. From each trabe-
cula there is given off on the outside a band of cartilage that runs
forward and outward, and near its termination sends outward a
narrow strip of cartilage over the posterior end of the nasal sacs.
This process I regard as the antorbital. There is what appears to
be a small postpalatine and a small pterygoid cartilage that does
not extend back to the suspensorium. The latter is broad and 18
directed forward. There is a stapes with the facial nerve passmg
Observations on Amphiuma. 321
beneath it. Meckel’s cartilage runs forward nearly to the symphy
sis. The hyoidean arch consists of a short hypohyal and a longer-
ceratohyal. The latter has along its inner side a narrow and easily
separable splint of bone. The branchial apparatus is much as in
the adult. The first arch is partially ossified. No other ossifica-
tions than those mentioned are found in the cartilaginous cranium.
There are several membrane bones. A large parasphenoid under-
lies the pituitary space and the basilar region. In front of this, in
the roof of the mouth, are dentigerous vomers. The maxillaries
are probably not represented by actual ossifications, but two rows of
dental papills shows where they will appear. There is no palatine
or pterygoid. The premaxillaries are present and completely con-
solidated. Their nasal spine is long and they bear prominent teeth.
The side walls of the skull are ‘protected by small frontals and
larger parietals, but it is the frontal process alone of the parietal
that is present. The suspensorium is partially covered by a
squamosal,
The Meckelian cartilage appears to be ensheathed, as in the adult,
by only two bones. One of these is the dentigerous dentary, which
almost meets its platetrope at the symphysis. The other, lying
along the inner side of the mandible, extends from the posterior
extremity of Meckel’s cartilage to a point two-thirds of the distance
to the symphysis. It may be regarded as an angulo-splenial. It
no teeth, as does the splenial frequently in the urodeles.
The shoulder girdle consists of scapular, coracoidal and precora-
coidal portions, with no ossifications. These elements lack much of
meeting in the middle line of the body below. There are a hume-
Tus, radius and ulna, carpals and phalanges. The humerus alone
has a center of ossification.
The anterior vertebrae, at least, are ossified, the neural arches
having coalesced with the sheath of bone surrounding the notochord.
The upper portion of the neural arch is not yet ossified.
Only cursory observations have been made on the brain. Asa
_ whole it is far less elongated than in the adult. This shortening is
a Principally to the prosencephalic lobes, more than half of whose
ength lies alongside of the di- and metencephalon. Laterally, the
€pencephalic folds run so far forward as almost to touch the poste-
nor extremity of the cerebral hemispheres.
322 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.
EVOLUTION IN THE PLANT KINGDOM.!
BY JOHN M. COULTER.
a. I should apologize for selecting a subject that has
anything to do with so hackneyed a theme as evolution; but
you will discover that I intend neither to explain nor defend it.
In this presence neither should be necessary. The purpose is to
give an illustration of evolution from the plant kingdom, chiefly
because illustrations of this law are commonly taken from the ani-
mal kingdom, and also because the case among plants is even more
striking. One who staggers at the evolution of the horse can find
among plants such interminable intergrading that fixity of species
becomes a dream of the past, when they were arranged like puppets
that popped up in their places when called for, always looked just
alike, and were perfectly expressionless. Zoologists are fortunate
in having as their stock-in-trade forms of life in which man is
specially interested, both as an acquaintance and a kinsman.. The
public that listens with pricked-up ears and discusses endlessly
concerning the evolution of birds, mammals and man, and thus
brings a certain popularity to zoology, cares not a straw for the
wonderful structures of Gymnosperms and Lycopods, although
furnishing irresistible arguments in favor of a theory that has
revolutionized scientific thought. One sort of compensation has
been that botanists have been considered a sort of harmless folk,
while zoologists are “ infidel,” or “ progressive,” apostles of dark-
ness or of light, according to the standpoint of the speaker.
Botanical work has been no less effective and advanced in these
latter days; but it lacks that possibility of spectacular display
which would keep it in the mouth of the public. Monkeys and
men the public wants to know about, but Pteridophytes and Phan-
erogams are decidedly prosy.
It will be found, however, upon a fair examination, that Botany
1 Presidential .Address before the Indiana Academy of Science,
December 28, 1887.
Evolution in the Plant Kingdom. 328
and Zoology are so mutually dependent and helpful that one can-
not advance without the other, and the thoughts of both upon such
a great question as evolution are practically the same.
Turning aside, therefore, from the broad and much-travelled
highway which leads from the Moners to Man, we will strike into
a by-path, which extends from Protococcus to Phanerogam, and point
out a few of its most salient features. Zoologists should be inter-
ested in noting how the same ideas have been worked out in the
into great kingdoms, and all should remark the wonderful unity: of
purpose pervading the whole domain of life.
I shall make no attempt to outline a great scheme into which
every plant, however formed, shall fitly fall. If I were younger
or less acquainted with botany, I could do this; for a young botan-
ist usually begins by attempting to remodel all existing schemes of
classification, just as a young college graduate can put veteran
statesmen to shame. Botanists have no family-tree arrangement
for plants, and will not attempt the construction of one until they
know more about the life-histories of the lower groups and more
about structure in all the groups. As Dr. Farlow said, in his Vice-
Presidential address before the last meeting of the American Asso-.
ciation for the Advancement of Science: “On abstract grounds
alone, I presume that few botanists would object to the statement
that all plants have developed from simple ancestral forms which
were nearly related to some of the lower animals. But when it
comes to saying in anything like a definite way that certain exist-
ing forms have arisen from other lower existing forms or their imme-
diate allies in some past epoch, and so on, until the lowest form is
reached, botanists may well insist that imagination should not be
allowed too large a scope in supplying missing links. It is precisely.
in this point that zoologists have an advantage over botanists. The
palzontological record of lower animals is more complete than that
of lower plants, so that where the zoologist might reasonably form
an hypothesis the botanist must rely more on his imagination, until
ìn the end he finds himself in the possession of a chain composed, to a
considerable extent, of missing links. As it is, if we would con-
sider the evolution of plants, not getting much light on the pro-
gress of the lower forms from paleontology, we are _ to
trust largely to plants as we now find them, and to ask what are
the inferences we are permitted to draw from existing structures
and conditions,” : .
324 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.
Not so very long ago it was thought that at least one fact in
classification was impregnable, viz., that there were two great and
very distinct groups of plants, called Phanerogams and Crypto-
gams. These two were set off against each other as antipodal
groups, between which: there was nothing in common. Unfortu-
nately, the names given to these groups were simply an expression
of the botanical knowledge of the time. ‘ Apparent reproduction”
‘and “ hidden reproduction” may have correctly expressed the facts
with respect to these two groups once ; but they are very far from do-
ing so now. The modern botanist, with his more complete appliances
and methods, has begun to resolve the great nebulous mass of
Cryptogams, and has discovered in it distinct systems and groups.
The whole subject of Cryptogamic classification is, of necessity, —
quite inchoate. Certain groups and relationships have been dis-
tinctly defined; but among them and around them there float
numerous hazy forms that refuse to be classified. Our knowledge
is not sufficient to attempt the work with any degree of certainty,
but certain broad principles have been struck out which will serve
to guide.
It is known now that Phanerogams form but one of several. cor-
relative groups. The most useful scheme of classification at present
makes the number seven. These seven primary groups must be.
considered merely as convenient pigeon-holes i in which to distribute
our facts.
It is not my purpose to go into the details of any supposed order
of evolution of the plant kingdom, but to give some general thoughts
concerning it and to trace through the development of a single
structure. Generalization is always easier than details; for in it
one is never embarrassed by the facts.
It seems probable that the plant kingdom must have begun in
some such form as Protococcus, the common green slime found stain-
ing foundation stones, bark, etc. It surely represents the unit of
structure and of function in the vegetable kingdom. We can con-
ceive of no simpler plant-form than a single chlorophyll-bearing
cell. Some of you will recall the fact that we have unicellular
plants without chlorophyll, such as yeast and bacterial forms; as
well as forms called plants that seem to be mostly naked proto-
plasm, such as slime moulds; but the former probably represent
degraded forms, while the aniinal or plant character of the latter
*
Evolution in the Plant Kingdom. 325
remains in doubt. At any rate, they probably have a far greater
complexity than was formerly supposed. We have thus come to
consider protococcoid forms as our foundation-stones in rearing the
structure of the plant kingdom. Through all the Thallophytes
{representing the four lowest of our seven primary groups) there
run two parallel lines, the typical or normal plants, containing chlo-
rophyll; and the degraded plants, which are destitute of chloro-
phyll. This distinction is a very deep-seated one in the plant
kingdom, for chlorophyll-bearing plants alone can do normal plant
work, viz., the conversion of inorganic to organic material through
the agency of chlorophyll and sunlight. Plants without chloro-
phyll must live as parasites or saphrophytes, a degraded habit
which leads to degraded structure. The former in the first four
groups, are called Algæ, the latter Fungi. The general opinion,
brought out clearly in the address of Dr. Farlow, already referred
to, is that Fungi are degraded representatives of Algæ—relatives
in reduced circumstances, whose lazy habits of parasitism have
entailed upon them degenerate bodies. Just what Fungi have
descended from what Alge it is perhaps impossible to say. The
chances are that some of our important Fungi are degraded rep-
resentatives of algal forms which no longer exist. Specific state-
ment with regard to this relationship is little better than guess-
ing; but the general proposition seems to be fairly well
established. We have advanced, then, thus far: that of the two
parallel lines, Algæ and Fungi, which run through the four lowest
plant groups, the plant kingdom is to be considered as having
advanced in the line of the Algæ, the chlorophyll-bearing line;
while the Fungi are simply so many degraded forms, which lie
strewn along this line of general progress, like drift wood stranded
along the banks of a stream. For our purpose, then, the Fungi
are to be dismissed, their probable origin having been sufficiently
indicated. Starting, then, with protococcoid forms, advancing
along the lines of Algæ, and into the chlorophyll-bearing members
of the groups above, what notions of evolution can be obtained?
Examining our present schemes of classification it will be discov-
ered that chief stress is laid upon the methods of sexual repro-
duction. It is, as yet, the best thread upon which our facts can
se strung, and it usually expresses so thoroughly the highest effort
on the part of the plant, that as it advances from simplicity to
ae
326 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.
extreme complexity it seems but fair to consider it a good index
of relative rank. I intend to give in merest outline the develop-
ment of sexual reproduction, guarding such an attempt with the
following statements :—
1. This is taken as but a single striking line of development,
and must be understood to be accompanied by many other ‘details
in asexual reproduction and vegetative structure which bear it out
but which we have no occasion to mention. Just as in describing
the evolution of the horse the toes arè seized upon as the one among
other structures most striking and most simple of presentation.
2. There are hosts of side issues which represent departures
greater or less from this general line of advance, and which cannot
be taken into account in this general sketch. In general, they can
be all explained by the law of adaptation.
3. Even the line I propose to follow can be but imperfectly pre-
sented ; as there is not knowledge sufficient to make it as complete
as we would like it, and not time enough to present it as complete
as we know it.
Taking, therefore, this thread of sexual reproduction as a guide
through the labyrinth of plant forms, we may come to some glim-
mer of light.
Naturally, the lowest group would contain those plants in which
no sexual reproduction has been discovered. In recognition of this
position, as well as their probable position in point of time, they
have been called Protophytes, or “ first plants.” The lowly char-
acter of lacking sexual reproduction is further borne out in their
structure, for they are mostly one-celled forms. In this group
stands Protococcus as a type, a single-celled chlorophyll-bearing
plant with no discovered sexual reproduction ; and, as degenerate
representatives, the bacteria and yeasts. You will notice, however
that the definition of this group, on the basis we have adopted, is
a negative one, being not as much what we have found, as what we
have not found. It follows that this group furnishes a kind of
limbo to which all one-celled plants are consigned, in case no sexual
reproduction is found, a sort of unresolved nebulous mass, in fact, a
cloak for ignorance. It is like the man who undertook a great scheme
of classification, and made his two principal divisions “ things that I
know ” and “things that I don’t know.” The first group he could
classify reasonably well; the second he did not have to classify.
Evolution in the Plant Kingdom. 327
In this lowest chamber of Protophytes, every now and then the
garment of sexual reproduction is discovered, and its wearer invited
to take a place in some upper chamber. But the chances are that
the chamber will never be completely emptied, and that there will
always be some plants called Protophytes.
In the second group we would expect to find the beginning of
sex-reproduction in its simplest form; and to understand what the
simplest form would be, the nature of sex-reproduction must be
defined. It consists in the mingling of the contents of two cells
to form a new one. This new cell is the progeny, and develops
more or less directly into the structure of the parents.
Applying this definition to some one-celled form as Protococcus,
the simplest possible method of sex-reproduction would be for two
cells to come in contact and mutually discharge their contents into
a blended mass which becomes a new cell and presently resembles
the parents. Such is the beginning of sex-reproduction as we find
it in the second group of plants; but it will be noticed that there
is no distinction of sex. Both cells are constructed alike and act
alike ; neither is receptive, for the new cell is constructed upon neu-
tral ground. Sexuality has been attained, but not bisexuality.
For this reason, the second plant group is frequently called -the
“Unisexual Group”; or, from the fact that the cells are for a time
yoked together, they are technically called Zygophytes, or “ Yoked
Plants.” In this group, not only is sexuality begun, but bisexu-
ality is hinted at. Plant bodies now begin to consist, not of single
cells, but of cell-groups, usually arranged in a chain, forming fili-
form or thread-like plant bodies. In these filaments or chains of
cells, any cell (for they are all alike) can become a reproductive
cell and join issues with any other cell, either in the same filament .
rin another. There is no setting apart of special cells to do this
special work, for it is done equally well by all, and all are ordinary
vegetative cells. The first hint at bisexuality comes with the fact, —
that one of these conjugating cells becomes receptive, receiving the
contents of the other, and within it the spore or progeny cell is
formed.
Such is the case in the common Spirogyras, or “ frog-spittles.”
Although one cell becomes receptive, there is no difference in form
nor in contents, and it seems immaterial which becomes the receptive
one. In other forms, the development of the spore within acai
328 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.
receptive cell demands more or less change of form, thus making a
cell differing in appearance from the ordinary ones. To sum up
the general phases of this advance in the second group, or Zygo-
phytes; sexuality is attained, at first with no distinction of sex ;
then one cell becomes receptive, but differs in no respect from any
other in form or contents; and finally, the receptive cell becomes
more or less changed in form by the development of the spore.
In the third group we would expect to find bisexuality distinctly
worked out, but of the simplest kind. The simplest kind of dis-
tinct bisexuality would consist in setting apart two cells for the
special performance of this function, differing from the ordinary
cells of the plant body and from each other in form and contents.
Naturally the receptive or female cell, in which the spore is to
` develop, would be the larger, probably the largest cell produced by
the plant. Such is the average condition of sexuality in the third
group, called Odphytes, or “ egg-spore plants,” in reference to their
large spores. It is to be noticed that these male and female cells
differ in form and function only from the ordinary cells of the
plant body ; they are not favored and cared for by any sort of pro-
tection. At this point we are confronted by a phase that needs
explanation. The life-history of every plant may be consid-
ered a cycle, from the spore which produced it round to the spore
which it produces. The cycle is traveled continuously without
cessation, except at some one point, which is known as the “resting
stage.” Every plant, in the life cycle referred to, must, at some
point, pass through a resting stage, in which condition the plant
activities lie dormant, as if to gather strength for the rest of the
journey. This stage must always be a protected one, protection
which not only shuts out adverse external conditions at a time of
low vitality, but prevents response to favorable ones until after a
certain lapse of time. In the groups already considered, this resting
stage occurs at the spore phase. The protection provided is simply
a thick heavy wall about the spore itself; and in this condition the
plant exists for a time and then runs its cycle, round through parent
form to spore again. To pass through the resting stage at the spore
phase is characteristic of a low type. In the third group the
resting stage is pushed gradually forward, until the sex-spore
becomes, not a rather permanent phase, but simply one of the
transient phases, the resting stage occurring after the spore has
developed subsequent structures. ,
*
Evolution in the Plant Kingdom. 329
The next phase in the sex-reproduction, the one naturally
expected in the fourth group, is the protection of the male and
female cells or organs. Set apart heretofore in form and function,
they are not protected ; but in the fourth group this is gradually
and at length very completely provided for, as indicated by the
group name, Carpophytes, or “ plants with spore cases.” In cer-
tain members of the group—those which look towards Oöphytes—the
male and female cells are at first as naked as in Odphytes, and if
the spore passed into the resting stage the plants would belong to
that group ; but the spore, as soon as formed, proceeds to develop
other structures, and, along with the female cell in which it is con-
tained, develops a complex structure called a spore-case, and this is
the resting stage.
Summing up the advance made in the fourth group, we find
male and female cells distinct in form ; the latter finally protected ;
and the sex-spore ceasing to be the resting stage, and becoming an
evanescent phase which passes directly into a complicated structure,
which itself is the resting stage. Subsequently, from this compli-
cated structure, or “spore-case,” forms like the parent plant are
produced by means of so-called spores, not formed by sex-union,
but by ordinary cell division, and for that reason called asexual
Spores, They are simply reproductive bodies cut off from the
parent stock, and are chiefly for the dissemination of the plant,
no more a product of the sex act than the buds used in grafting or
the “slips” in transplanting ; but they are the “ spores” commonly
spoken of among cryptogams, and their name is legion. The
essential difference between sexual and asexual spores cannot be too
Strongly pointed out, for they have led to endless confusion of
ideas. Note now the relation of things in this fourth group. The
sex-spore produces the structure called the spore-case, which in turn
produces asexual spores by ordinary cell division, which in turn
reproduces the original parent. In this group, therefore, in the
effort to protect the progeny the resting stage was pushed forward,
ma that condition of things known as “ alternation of generations ”
originated. As a result, we have in a single life-cycle two plant
Phases, each producing spores, but in a very different way. One
phase bears the sex-organs and produces the sex-spore, and hence is
called “ the sex-plant ;” the other is produced by the sex-spore,
no sex-organs, produces asexual spores, and hence is called —
330 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.
“the asexual-plant.” The asexual spores produce the sex-plant
again, and so the cycle is completed. The idea of protecting the
sex-organs or their progeny, begun in the fourth group, becomes
more and more fully developed in the groups above. After the
covering to the female-cell is established there remains a neck-like
passage-way. This passage-way becomes more elongated, and
more or less guarded, until in the highest group it too is com-
pletely blocked up by loose cellular tissue, which must be pene-
trated by what is called the “ pollen-tube.”
To summarize at this point: we have an asexual group as the
lowest; then a unisexual group; then a bisexual one; bisexuality
appearing as the goal in the first three groups. In the fourth
appears the idea of protection, which gradually becomes more and
more perfected in method, until, without any sensible break in the
series, we reach completest protection in the seventh group, or
Phanerogams. Also in the fourth group, after bisexuality had
been attained, we find alternate generation, and it is in the devel-
opment of that character that we find the most striking lme of
advance from the fourth group to the seventh. Keep in mind that
the same road is also completely graded and bridged by way of
“protection,” as has been already referred to. Given, then, as our
starting-point (1) a sex-plant which carries sex-organs and produces
ə sex-spore; and (2) a resulting asexual plant which produces
asexual spores; and remembering that the two are but arcs of the
, same circle and alternately produce each other, what is the next
complication that indicates advance ?
= The next step, besides the completer protection already referred
to, is the completer setting apart of the two phases, so as to make
them in structure what they are in function, distinct plants. In
members of the fifth group, mosses for instance, we find this to be
the case. The ordinary moss-plant, which bears the sex-organs, 15,
of course, the sex-phase ; and borne upon it, though as organically
distinct as if it grew upon any other mechanical support, we find
the structure which develops from the sex-spore, the so-called
“fruit,” or spore-case. This is the asexual phase, and produces
within itself asexual spores (the only spores: meant in the ordinary
description of mosses). These spores, in turn, produce the sex-
phase, or ordinary moss-plant, and the cycle is complete. There 1$
here a distinct setting apart in function, and, as usually follows, ™
.
Evolution in the Plant Kingdom. 331
form also. To the one phase is assigned sex-reproduction ; to the
other the dissemination of the plant by asexual spores. The ordi-
nary vegetative structures, representing root, stem, and leaves in
the higher groups, are here included in the sex-phase also; so this
phase is the prominent‘one, the one ordinarily observed and spoken
of as “the plant ;” while the asexual phase is more inconspicuous,
and, being mechanically borne on the other, seems to be but a
part of it.
From this point on, the tendency is to confine the sex-phase
more and more entirely to the business of sex-reproduction, and to
transfer the vegetative structures more and more completely to the —
asexual phase. The result is, that as we advance towards the
higher groups the sex-phase becomes less and less prominent, as the
function is taken away from it which involves size and display ;
while the asexual phase, taking on the function involving display,
becomes more and more prominent, and is popularly styled “the
plant.” So that, while “the plant” in the case of mosses is the
sexual phase in the life-cycle, “the plant” in higher groups is very
probably the asexual phase, representing the so-called “ fruit” of
the moss, As the sex-phase is to be more and more confined to
Sex-reproduction, it can easily be understood how it can be reduced
more and more, until it has only the cells actually needed ; and these
cells may be reduced to two, one to represent the plant, and the
other the sex-organ growing upon it. This seems to represent the
goal set before the sex-phase, when in the sixth group the vegeta-
tive structures begin to leave it. From this point on evolution
reduces and simplifies the sex-phase, increases and makes more and
more complex the asexual phase. The sex-phase thus begins
simply in the lowest groups and ends simply in the highest, reach-
mg in the fifth probably its greatest complexity. While this is
true of the structure of the sex-phase, it is not true of the sex-
function, for the very highest possible degree of differentiation in
this regard is attained in the highest group.
In the sixth group, represented by ferns and their allies, we
find a very wide distinction between the sexual and asexual phases ;.
the latter having become very prominent and having possessed
itself of most of the vegetative structures, being the ordinary fern-
Plant, with its great display of vegetative structures and asexual
Spores, but no sex-organs. Linneus may well have examined
332 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.
the fern in vain for any evidence of sex-organs, for he only
knew of this prominent asexual phase, and in his despair con-
signed the group to “Cryptogams,” “hidden sexuality.” The
asexual spores (borne, you may remember, upon the leaf-struc-
tures of the fern) develop, of course, into the sex-phase; but
that is so small and hidden among the mold in which the
spore has fallen, that it may well escape observation. It is
simply a minute flat disk-like body, with vegetative cells and
root-like processes enough to make it able to live long enough to
accomplish its function of sex-reproduction. But it bears the sex-
organs, produces the sex-spore, and from it there arises the beau-
tiful or stately asexual plant. The reduction of the sex-phase
could go no further than this, and at the same time compel it to
make its own living from soil and air. If any more reduction be
made, the sex-phase cannot be organically separated from the
other, but must depend upon it for elaborated food.
By this means the utmost possible reduction could be reached,
and we must expect this to be the next step in advance. For
instance, the asexual spores of the fern are scattered over the soil.
From them springs the reduced sex-phase, known as the prothal-
lium, and capable of independent existence. Any further reduc-
tion, which would make it incapable of independent existence,
would necessitate that the asexual spore be not separated from the
asexual plant, but developed into the prothallium upon it so as to
receive elaborated nourishment. The reason why a prothallium
cannot be indefinitely reduced, and still retain the power of inde-
pendent existence, is not far to seek. It is on the same principle
that a small battery cannot work an indefinite amount of wire.
The formation of high-grade reproductive cells is an exhaustive
work, and it would require more than a few cells to manufacture
such an amount of highly organized substance from crude material.
Hence we reach a point, beyond which it would be a physical
impossibility to reduce the prothallium, without arranging tO
supply it with material already highly organized.
Remembering, then, that from the sixth group, represented by
ferns, higher rank is to be marked by a reduction of the sex-phase
or prothallium, which finally cannot be separated from the asexual
plant, let us note a new phase of differentiation which begins to be
prominent in the upper members of the sixth group, and continues
Evolution in the Plant Kingdom. 333:
as the highest expression of differentiation in the seventh and last.
Although vegetative organs have departed from the sex-phase,
there still remains a double function, namely, the production of
male and female cells or organs. It seems to bea law, that so long
as anything remains to be differentiated, differentiation will con-
tinue; and the separation of the sex-organs is its next possible:
expression. Instead, therefore, of having .a single prothallium
bearing both male and female organs, we find two prothallia ; one
male and the other female. This state of things is reached by one
set of organs first becoming functionless, and finally being sup- -
pressed. Remembering that these prothallia are developed from
asexual spores, it does not seem strange that this dicecism extends
presently to these spores themselves, and that we soon find what
may be styled (from the nature of their product) male and female
asexual spores. This brings us to the heterosporous arrangement,
a feature which continues to the last, and which must be considered
a high-rank character, possessed only by the higher members of
the sixth group, and by the seventh; and yet, through the very
midst of this condition of things, accompanied as it is by many
intergrading characters in all the other plant structures, the old
abyss between Cryptogams and Phanerogams was supposed to
run. To sum up the lines of advance, with which we enter the
group Phanerogams, we find male and female spores, producing
male and female prothallia, and those prothallia so much reduced
that not only do they not become separated from the asexual plant,
but are developed within the asexual spore itself. But these same
important characters are to be found among the highest Crypto-
gams, and we must conclude that any line of separation is one of
our own drawing, and has no representation in nature.
It remains to apply to the well-known parts of any flowering
plant the terminology that we bave been using in outlining the
evolution of the sex-apparatus, The asexual phase, or part of the
cycle, is “the plant” with its rich display of vegetative organs,
Consisting of root, stem, leaves, and their various modifications.
This asexual phase produces asexual spores of two kinds, called |
male and female, because they are to produce male and female
prothallia. It would be an interesting line of development
to note the gradual differentiation of the apparatus for making
these asexual spores, but that is aside from our purpose. The
334 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.
final result is, that in the flowering plant we are considering, highly
specialized sets of organs produce the two kinds of asexual spores,
which have been called pollen-grains and embryo-sacs, It seems
strange to be forced to give up pollen-grains or embryo-sacs as
sexual affairs, for in our old notion of things they represented thre
very essence of sex; but the fact remains that they are asexual
spores and simply give rise to prothallia which bear the sex-organs
and give rise to the sex-spore. i
The two prothallia which are developed from these asexual spores
- have reached the highest degree of reduction, developing within
the spores themselves. In the case of the pollen-spore two or more
cells. are developed, which may be easily seen by the use of the
proper reagents, and this small group represents the male prothal-
lium, one of the sex-phases in the life cycle. This much reduced
plant sets apart one or more of its cells to do vegetative or growth
. work, and another to be the male organ. A very vigorous growth
of this prothallium is demanded in the development of the pollen-
tube, through which the male cell discharges its contents. This
pollen-tube does not usually find an open passage-way, but one that
is blocked up with spongy tissue, called “conductive tissue,”
through which it makes way like a parasite invading the tissues of
a host plant.
In the case of the embryo-sac, the female asexual spore, the
development of the prothalliumr is still feebler, the cells representing
it not only being few in number, but free from each other,—a sort
of disorganized tissue. The cells representing the female organs
are clustered near the apex of the embryo-sac, forming what we
now call the “ egg-apparatus,” while those that probably represent
the vegetative cells of the prothallium -are clustered at the other
end of the embryo-sac, and are styled “ antipodal cells.” In pines,
representing the lowest group of flowering plants, the female pro-
thallium is a very distinct and compact tissue, bearing regulation
female organs, the so-called “corpuscula.” This but shows their
position upon the lower border line of Phanerogams. The sex-
phase in the life cycle, therefore, which in mosses stood for the
whole plant as we ordinarily recognize it, in Phanerogams has
become reduced to little clusters of cells developed within the
pollen-spore and embryo-sac, so inconspicuous that it has remained
for the modern reagents to discover their existence. The real sex-
Recent Literature. 835
spore, or oöspore of Phanerogams, is the single fertilized cell in the
embryo-sac, which at once develops into the embryo, at which
point Phanerogams pass into the resting stage, in this group called
“the seed.” The sex-spore, since the fourth group, has become
such an evanescent thing, so out of reach of common observa-
tion, that very naturally it has been the common opinioņ that the
comparatively permanent asexual spores are sex affairs. Sex-
spores are directly formed by sex-union; while pollen-grains and
embryo-sacs are never formed in any such way. Thus have I
hastily traced one of the principal threads upon which our botan-
ical facts are strung. And as one examines the subject in more of
its details, he becomes irresistibly impressed with the idea that here
is a great scheme of development, directed by laws of which we are
beginning to catch glimpses, and by which the whole fabric of a
great kingdom has been beautifully and continuously worked
out,
RECENT LITERATURE.
THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. By Sır J. WILLIAM
petos, C.M.G., LID., F.R.S., etc. International Scientific
s an unevenness of treatment corresponding to the imperfection
higa e geological record in the region to which he has devoted his
ith vegetable origin of the Laurentian graphite is defended
yi great force, and the existence of a primordi flora contempo-
taneous with Eozoon canadense is maintained. Most of the alleged —
336 Recent Literature.
plants of the Cambrian and Silurian seas are thrown out, but
Nematophyton, Protannularia, and some species of Buthotrephis
are marked as genuine. A special feature is the working out more
elaborately than in any other place of his theory of an early Rhi-
zocarpean flora culminating in the Devonian. Much space is given
to the flora of this period, so well developed in Acadian territory,
and so unimportant in other countries, and his name “ Erian” is
constantly used and specially defended. The Carboniferous flora
takes a subordinate rank, but the extended notes to that chapter
are crowded with valuable information, much of which would be
new to any but the thoroughly informed specialist. The early
Hill, is also well characterized and illustrated. The great Mio-
cene flora, which ranks next in abundance to the Carbo
is passed over nearly in silence, but some very important deduc-
tions are drawn from the little florula on Green’s Creek, central
Canada, in the Leda clay, believed by him to have been deposited
at about the time of maximum glacial refrigeration. The work
closes with a chapter on the origin and migration of plants, and
fl
ontology. A few of the more important of these may be men-
tioned here: He accepts and reiterates the Brongniartian hypo-
thesis of the greater abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmos-
phere during paleozoic time, but without denying the possibility
of the cosmical origin of portions of it, as maintained by Dr. T.
Sterry Hunt. He insists upon the substantial uniformity of the
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 337
trunks he inclines to the opinion that these will yet be found
attached, and that some forms, at least of Sigillararia, must have
n coniferous. In this connection he discredits the statements of
Goldenberg relative to the fruits of Sigillaria, but seems to be unac-
gante with the important paper of Zeiller, which has certainly
one more to settle the question than any other discovery.
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Hay, O. P.—Preliminary Catalogue of the Amphibia and Reptilia of
angisis. Ext. Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., 1887. From the
aut
DeMann, J. G.—Report on the Podophthalmous Crustacea of the
Mergui Archipelago. Parts 1-3. Ext. Jour. Linn. Soc., 1887. From
Eigenmann, C. H., ) List of the American Species of Gobiidæ and Cal- +
: lionymide. Ext. Proc. Cal. Academy. From
Eigenmann, R. 8. the authors
Day, David T.—Mineral ioiei of the United States. Calendar
Eos, 1886. U. S. Geol. Survey. Washington, 1887. From the
ey.
ison, E. B.—The Germ- Pandi of Lumbricus. Ext. Jour.: Morphol-
ogy, 1887. From the author
mus ore Jules.—Catalogue des MSTI Malacostracés recueillis dans la
th e Concarneau. Ext. Bull. Sei. Dep. Nord, x, 1887. From the
Fowler, G. Herber t.—Bericht tiber die Leistungen in der Carcinologie
wahrend der Jahi 1885 und 1886. Ext. Arch, f. Naturg. Jahrg.
orf.
From Dr. Hilgen
Nausen, Fridtj w Prge und Histologie das Nervensystem der
Myzostomen Ext. Jena. Zeitschr., xxi, 1887. From the author.
"M. PF Sere boaa on the Brain of Amphiuma.
Ext. Proc. Phil. Acad. pE ien the author. a
CaN, A A.—Les eerie de nos Animaux hie les temps geologiques.
1888. From the autho
Ton T- ei Upper Beaches and Deltas of Lake Agassiz. Bull.
l. Surv., No. 3 9, 1887.
eS. J. S- Peridotite of Elliott County, Ky. 1887. Bull. U. 8. Geol.
Whita, e. X er the Relation of the Laramie Molluscan Fauna to that
3 the Succeeding roc hecgag Eocene and Other Groups. 1886.
ull. No. 34, U. S. Geol. Surv
Physical Pro iti of the Iron Carburets, Bull. U. 8.
Barus, C., Seol, Sues s No. 35, oh cab ane of Fine Solid
, articles in’ Liquids. Bull, U. 8. Surv. .
Stroohal, y, oe All these Bulletins from the U. 8. Geological
rvey.
338 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Pagenstecher, H. A.—Bronn’s Thier-Reichs; Vierter Band Würmer.
Vermes. 2-3-4 Lieferung.
Harrower, H. D.—An Inquiry into the History and Progress of Explo-
pation’ at the Headwaters of the Mississippi since the Discovery of
pena Itasca. 1886. Ivison, Blakeman & Co. From the publisher.
Merriam, C. H.—Description of a New Foie, re Bat from the Western
886
New Mouse (Hesperomys anthonyi) ion Merio, 1887.—Descrip-
tion of a New Fox (Vulpes macrotis) from Southern California.
1888. All three from the author.
Hicks, L. E.—Irrigation in Nebraska. Bull. Agric. cin Station, Neb.
Vol. I, No. 1, Article 1. 1887. From the author
Boulenger, G. A.—An Account of the ee obtained in Burmah
by M. L. Fea, of the Genoa Civil Museum n. del. Mus. Storia.
at. Gen. 1887.—An Account of the Fishes Collected by Mr. C.
meena in Eastern Ecuador. P. Z. Soc. 1887. Both from the
author
iedientener: W. S. W.—An Account of the Institution and Progress
of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, 1887. From the kotio
Pelzeln, A.,) Typen der ornithologischen ee oe des k. k. natur-
} hist. Hofmuseums nn. des k. k. Nat. Hofmuseums.
Lorenz, L. Wien., 1887. From the authors.
cy fair Flor.—Contribuciones al conocimiento de los mamiferos
siles de los terrenos terciari sent Parana. Bol. d. 1. Acad. Nac.
enois. 1886. From the Ait
Brühf, G G. Die Culturvölkser Alt-A erikas: ore Abtheilung. Benziger
Bros., Cincinnati. From the author
Kansas deat Science. transactione ko Academy of Science.
Vol. X, 1885-86. Fro si Society.
Thurston, E.—Prelimina peni on Marine Fauna of Ram
Madras, 1887. Gov. Central Mus., Madras. 1887. Frm the pim ar
Kervilie, H. G.—Les Insectes paa Sete = cents. sem 1887,—Les
Insectes Phosphoresventa: 1881 oth from the author
ie Jos.—The Flora of the Coast aS of California. Ext. Bull.
Cal. Acad. Sci. 1887. From the author
Abbott, H. C, de = To Chemistry : o from Sorghum, 1887.
From the autho
Osborn, H. F.—On ie bia and age a a of the Mesozoic
Mammalia. Proc. Phila. Acad. N. S., 1887. From the author.
M J. P.—A ERE E to e a of the Proso-
ranch Gasteropods. St. Bi vd Lab., J. H. Univ. eB alt. Vol. III,
o. 8. 1886. From the author
Stevenson, W. G.—Criminality. 1887. From the author.
Durapsky, L.—Die heissen Quellen des Longavi. Ext. Verhand d.
perdi hen Wiss. Vereins, Santiago, Chili, 1886. From the author.
les Dee E E E.—Ftudes critiques sur " Brachiopodes Nou-
ou peu connus. 1886. From the author. a
oa A. S.—On a New Species of iin: from the Miocene
we of Malta, with a list of Fossil Berycide. Geol. Mag., 1887. From
the author.
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 339
H. C.—The sa ega Spiritual Phenomena of Spiritualism: An
oat of Two Seances. Proc. Soc. Psychical Research. May
1887. From the aatar
Vaillant, L. a quelques Riaacieis de Nossi-Bé (Madagascar). 1885.
—Mate rap shy i vis = Vhistoire AO des Archipels de
1886.—Sur les dimensions comparatives
des a riin et des ak saha un ia n Elasmobranche, |’ Alopias
vulpes. 1885.—Note complementaire sur l’anatomie de I’ Anaides
lugubris. 1885.—Remarques sur le genre Ripistes de Dujardin.
1886.—Sur la disposition du tube digestif chez les Cheloniens. 1886.
All Rab i the author, and all Ext. du Bull. d. 1. Soc. Philomathique
aris.
nosis ea y —Zweiter Beitrag zur Herpetologie Süd-west und Stid-A fri-
a: —Listen von Reptilien und Batrachiern aus Nied.
Tadi . V, d. Insel Salanga. 1887. Both fren the author, and
from Batok. Naturforsch Ges., Frankfurt a. M.
Thomas, C.—Work in oe -Exploration of the Bureau of Ethnology.
1887. From the au
Cope, E. D— areren a Mia and aer eo of Central America
and Me xico. Bull. No. 32, U.S. Nat. Mus
Dollo, L. Pr ie lca ga Ext. Ann. Soe. Sci. de Bruxelles. 1887.
From the author
Menzbier, M. -Vergleichende Osteologie der Pinguine. Moscow. 1887.
From the author
Coues, E., Neuro-m oo Rep. N. Y. Med. Record, 1887. From
“riein; L. —Phylogenerische Betrachtungen. Biol. Centralblatt,
1887. From the author
Wiedersheim, R. ur Biologie von Protopterus. Anat. Anzeiger, 1887.
From the author
Schulz, A.—Beit. z Renata dt. finzen. "Biblioteca Botanica. .d.Gesch-
lechts vertheilung b. d. Pfi — oteca Botanica. Heft 10.
Cassel. From the aut.
Duges, A Tolpis alemanii. pack 1883.—Adelophis copei, ete.
wo 1886. Ext. “La Matuvalese.’? From the author.
Ward, L. F. —Synopsis of = mi of the Laramie Group. U.S. Geol.
Surv. 1886. From the author
ong = no of Faia: translated by C. L. Herrick. From
e
eilprin, A .—Explorations on the West Coast of inna Trans. Wag-
ner Free Inst. Sci., Phila. , 1887. From the author
Kimball, J. P—Production of the Precious Metals in the United States
1886. From the author
Wachsmuth, C.,) The Haki piiia in Blastoids, Crinoids, and Cys-
: tids. Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci.,1887. From the
Springer, F, authors
` Winkler, T. ©. —Etude Ichnologique sur les aT de Se stk Cas
maux foss fossiles. Musee Teyler, Haatiem (Holland). rom
N. S.—Notes on Tı odium distichu d On the
Connection of Etha. Mabon ri d Western dihi ields y py Sr
More y. Memoirs Mus. Dollie: Zool., Cambridge. 1887. From the
or.
340 General Notes.
Schenk.—Fossile Pflanzen a.d. Albourskette, gesammett v. E. Tietze.
Biblioteca Botanica. 1887.
Dietz, S—Ueber die Entwickelung der Bliithe und Frucht v. Sparga-
nium u. ypha, Biblioteca Botanica. T. Fischer. Cassel. 1887.
From the publisher.
Wunderlich, L.—Beiträge z. vergleichenden Anatomie und Entwickel-
gsgeschichte des unteren Kehlkopfes der Vögel. Deutsch. Akad.
d. Naturforscher. 1884. From the author.
Packard, A. S.—On the Syncarida. Nat. Acad. Sci. Vol. IIT, Memoir
xv. Read April, 1885.—On the Carboniferous Xiphosurous Fauna of
North America. Nat. Acad. Sci. Vol. III, Memoir xvi. Both
from the author.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.
AMERICA.—THE Rio Doce.—The Rio Doce, Brazil, an account
of the exploration of which was recently read by Mr. W. J. Steains
before the Royal Geographical Society, appears small when com-
ed with the mighty rivers around it, yet has a length of rather
over four hundred and fifty miles. Its head-waters are several
streams rising in the Serra da Mantiqueira, the loftiest peak of
which, Itatiaiaassu, 10,040 feet, is the Dieb known elevation in
Brazil. The various streams whieh unite to form the Rio Doce
flow in a more or less northerly direction from the northern slope
of the Serra and unite into a main river which, after receiving
several tributaries, enters the ocean at about 19° 40’ south latitude.
The Serra da Mantiqueira has a general northeast direction, but the
nee E'S line of the Brazilian coast-range is continued northwar
by the Serra dos Amore, which is cut through by the Rio Doce in
its descent from the interior tabie-lands. The part of the Rio Doce
basin lying east of the last named Serra is a deadly wooded low-
land, sloping upward to a height of about nine hundred feet, and
resolving itself near the coast into a stretch of alluvial ground,
Figueira—on the banks of the Doce, though for the greater part 0
its course grand virgin forests, filled with a hundred varieties
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
Geography and Travel. 341
the choicest timber, come down to the water’s edge in a wall of
gloriously wild tropical vegetation. The valley is the home of the
Botocudo, who has not yet renounced cannibalism. Mr. Steains
does not place the number of these Indians at more than seven
thousand, yet states that they form the sole barrier to colonization.
Espiritu Santo, the province lying east of the Serra Amores, is at
present the poorest province in the empire, and the valley of the
io Doce is a great gap in the wall of civilization that has been
slowly reared along the four thousand nine hundred miles of the Bra-
zilian seaboard. There is not in Brazil a tract naturally richer
than that which lies between the Doce and the Mucury to the north
of it, yet the Indian is still in possession.
he Botocudos, so called by the Portuguese on account of the
“botoque,” or lip-ornament, which is the only clothing worn by
them, are about five feet four inches in height, broad chested and
lean limbed, and with small hands and feet. The plug of wood is
first inserted in the under lip when the Indian is three or four years
old, and is replaced by a larger until a diameter of three inches is
attained. If the lip splits the Indian ties the ends together with
bark. The “botoque” is now worn only by the older members of
the tribes. The nuts of two or three species of palm form the chief
sustenance of these primitive people, and the supply is eked out
with game and fish. Mr. Steains ascended the tributaries Tamba-
quary, San José, Pancas and Rio San Antonio.
the discussion which followed the reading of Mr. Steains’
paper, Mr. C. Mackenzie stated that the custom of wearing an orna-
ment in a slit made in the lower lip could be traced with very few
breaks from the Eskimo of the Alaskan coast to Brazil.
THE Casstqurart.—M. Chaffanjon, the well-known explorer of
the Orinoco, has carefully studied the communication between that
river and the Amazon, by means of the Cassiquiar, and comes to
the conclusion that it is of recent origin. The rapid current of the
‘actual overflow in the rain season, has produced a permanent
sagas The clay deposits on the left bank have a slope towards
mazon.
.
_ ÅSIA.—EXPLORATIONS IN NEPAL AND TIBET.—An adventurous
d aey through Nepal and Tibet has recently been taken by M.
„ 4 native explorer attached to the East Indian Survey. Dis-
guised as a physician, and provided with a stock of medicines and
articles for presents, he ascended the Dudhkosi river through hee
to Khumbujong, about eighteen miles west of Mt. Everest, the
governor refused him further , but he succeeded in “o
that functionary’s daughter-in-law a goitre, and soon after }
with her husband on a trading expedition into Tibet. The pass
342 General Notes.
over the Himalayas, called the Pangula, is about 20,000 feet
above the sea. More obstruction was met with at Deprak, the
frontier village of Tibet, but leave to advance was at length
obtained from the governor of Dingri, who exercises all civil and
military jurisdiction over a large tract of Southern Tibet. Dingri
has about 250 stone houses, and stands at an altitude of 13,360
feet. From Dingri the explorer proceeded by the Digurthanka
plain and Palguche lake (said to have no outlet) to Jonkhajong, the
most northwestern point reached. Hence he went southwards to
Kirong, followed the Tusuli river for awhile, visited Nubri and
Arughat (Nepal), and finally, via Deoghat, reached Tirbenighat, on
the British frontier on Jan. 13, 1886. Beyond Kirong, on the
Nepalese frontier, the road runs along a gallery of planks laid upon
iron bolts driven into the rock. Parts of the plain of Southern
Tibet show signs of a former larger population, and it is said that
in the last great war between the Nepalese and the Tibetans most
of the inhabitants were killed.
R. VON LuscHaAn’s JOURNEY IN Asra Minor.—At a recent
meeting of the Geographical Society of Berlin, Dr. von Luschan
spoke of his explorations in Asia Minor, undertaken chiefly with
archeological aims. Dr. Luschan accompanied Otto Bensdorf into
Lycia in 1881, and afterwards visited the tomb of Antiochus I.,
discovered by Otto Predestein in 1882. This is an immense
tumulus on the right bank of the Euphrates, between Iskenderun
and Bagdad, on the peak Nemrud Dagh (7000 feet). The
tumulus is flanked on the east and west by five gigantic figures of
gods, sixteen to twenty-three feet high. At a distance of ten days’
journey from the coast, the traveler along this route comes upon the
ancient bridge over the Boilam-Su,a single stone arch, sixty-five feet
in height and 325 in length. It was built by Septimius Severus,
arracalla and Geta, and is to-day in perfect preservation. After-
wards Dr. Luschan took part in the expedition of Count Lancko-
roviski, the object of which was the archeological exploration of
Cilicia and Pamphylia. In other later journeys Dr. von Luschan
turned his attention to the complicated ethnography of Asia Minor.
The Turco-Mongolian anatomical type is not to be found among
the so-called Turks of Asia Minor. The Mohammedans of the
peninsula belong to three types, viz.: Old-Grecian, Armenian and
Semitic. The race which gave the religion and language was
numerically too weak to influence, to any considerable extent, the
physical nature of the conquered people. The Greeks exhibit the
same three types, the true Greek predominating along the west
coast and on the islands. The Armenians are a compact an
homogeneous people, anatomically allied to the Tachkadschy or
Alleor of Lycia, the Ansarieh or Fellach of S. E. Asia Minor
Geography and Travel. 343
and N. Syria, and the Kizilbash and Tezyde of Upper Mesopo-
tamia and Kurdistan. The Turukes are genuine nomads, tradi-
tionally from the Hindu Kush. urcomans and Kurds also
occur, besides Bulgarians, Arnauts, Arabs, Gypsies, Europeans and
negroes, all of whom have immigrated in comparatively modern
times.
AFrica.—The recent journey of Bishop Parker and the Rev.
J. Blackburn from Mombasa to Mamboia, a point situated about
GEOGRAPHICAL News.—M. Thonar, who was believed to have
Shea in the Gran Chaco, has returned to Port Pacheco with
1S companions,
It now appears that Dr. Meyer did not ascend to within 2000
feet of the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The volume of water discharged every second by Lake Baikal
through the Angara reaches 121,353 cubic feet, and the vertical
onion of the river at its issue is, according to the Izvestia, 17,920
eet.
_ Gen. A. Houtum-Schindler (Proc. Roy. Geog. Boc., Feb. 1888),
gives a summary of the various barometrical and trigonometrica
` observations that have been made at the altitude of Demavend, the
Shest peak of the Elbruz Mountains (Persia), and arrives at a
result of about 19,400 feet. Although no eruption of Demayvend
18 on record, smoke, or at least steam, has been stated to have been
seen to issue from it
344 General Notes.
GEOLOGY AND PALZONTOLOGY.
NOTES ON THE DRIFT NORTH OF LAKE OnTARIO, is the title ofa
paper read by Professor J. W. Spencer before the Phil. Soc., Wash-
ington, March 3d. This short paper is a generalized description of
some of the obscure and conflicting phenomena of the drift, of which
this notice is an abstract.
mongst the deposits of the later Pleistocene period, there is a
well stratified, hardened, brown clay, charged with pebbles which
are more or less glaciated, resting upon the typical blue boulder
clay, north of Toronto. In the Canadian classification of the
Pleistocene deposits there is no place for this deposit. Indeed, all
of the stratified deposits of this region need revision in the light of
the progress that has been made in surface geology during the last
twenty years. Thus the Saugeen clay is resolvable into three series.
The relation of all the clays to the older beaches require special
study, as a part of them probably represent the deep water deposits
of the Beach epoch, while some of the later beaches rest upon such
clays. Around the head of Georgian Bay there are ridges, in the
form of moraines, similar to those about the other Great Lakes,
reaching to the height of 1300 to 1400 feet above the sea. From
the face of the Niagara Escarpment—between Georgian Bay and
Lake Ontario—there extends, for over a hundred miles, to near
Belleville, a broad zone, of from eight to twenty miles in width,
covered with drift ridges, composed of stony clay below, and fre-
quently stratified clay or sand above, having an elevation of 1100
to 1200 feet above the sea, with occasional reductions to 900 feet.
These “Oak Hills or Ridges” rise from 300 to 500 feet above the
Paleozoic country to the north. The stones in the clay are often
glaciated limestone, with only a small proportion of crystalline
ebbles or boulders. In the deposits of the ridge native copper .
been found; consequently the drift-carrying agent moved
southeastward down Georgian Bay, to the west end of the Oak
Ridge, and probably throughout its whole length, North and east
of Belleville there are many lower and fragmentary ridges, havin
a trend somewhat across that of the Oak Ridge. The glaciation o.
the region adds great difficulties to the explanation of the phenom-
ena. The striation in the Ottawa Valley, from Lake Tamiscamang
to the junction with the St. Lawrence, is to the southeastward, with
- very rare local exceptions. Of the Niagara ment, between
Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario, from 1600 down to 700 feet
above the sea, the striæ are also to the southeast; but between these
widely separated regions the surface marking of the rocks are
Geology and Paleontology. 345
obscured to the west and south by drift, and to the north and east
absent or rarely seen, although the crystalline rocks are commonly
rounded or very rarely polished, an absence that can only in part
be accounted for by subsequent atmospheric erosion. About the
St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario the striations are to the southwest
or west. Between the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay there is a
high prominence, which divided the drift-bearing currents. But
north of Lake Huron’the glaciation is very strongly marked, and
the direction is to the southwest, with very rare local variations.
All the lobes of glaciation about the lakes, from Superior to the
Ottawa Valley, radiate backward to the broad and open but low
basin of James (Hudson) Bay. The watershed between the lakes
and Hudson’s Bay during the epoch of the formation of the drift
was several hundred feet lower than now—which is about 1600
eet at present—as shown by the differential elevation of the
beaches. For this conflicting phenomena of the drift no explana-
tion was offered, but rather sought for. ‘
Some remarks upon the paper were offered by Mr. Gilbert, who
had observed the slight amount of erosion in the Ottawa Valley ;
but he thought that generalized explanations of the drift were very
‘often contratlictory when applied to special regions, and that our
knowledge of the phenomena would not at present give a satisfac-
tory explanation.
GLYPTODON FROM TEexas.—In the Proceedings of the Philo-
‘Sophical Society for 1884, p. 2, I recorded the discovery of a
Species of Glyptodon in the valley of Mexico by Professor Castillo,
Which was at the time the most northern locality at which the genus
iad been discovered. I can now announce its discovery within the
limits of the United States, in Nueces Co., Southern Texas, by my
friend, Mr. William Taylor, in the beds which have yielded
Equus crenidens Cope and E. barcenæi Cope, both species of the
valley of Mexico.
The present species is represented but by a single segment of the
"carapace, but as the sculpture of these elements is very character-
istic, and as my means of comparison are very large, since my
Pampean collection embraces a majority of the species, I venture to
‘describe it. It belongs to the group in the genus represented by
i pet te Owen, and G. oweni Nodot. It is a species of large
Size, with very thick carapace, and with the circumferential areas of
the rosette but little smaller than the central one. The former are
regularly pentagonal, the latter regularly hexagonal, and they are
— by well-defined grooves. foramina very few.
The surface of the areas is flat and in one plane. The texture of
the median area differs from those round it in being im
with numerous small, closely-placed foramen-like fosse. Its sur-
face supports no tuberosities. The circumferential areas are marked
346 General Notes.
with shallow grooves, which issue abruptly near the median
border and radiate towards, and some of them to, the circumfer-
ence, becoming shallowed externally; no tuberosities. | Diameter
of scutum, 45 mm.; of median area, 17 mm.; thickness, 15 mm,
This species is of the same type as that one found in the valley of
Mexico, but I cannot speak positively as to its identity. It may
be called Glyptodon petaliferus—E. D. Cope.
GENERAL.—<According to A. W. Stelzner, the Archean rocks,
primitive gneiss, and primitive slates compose the greater part of
the sierras which rise out of the Pampas; but granite occurs in most
of these sierras, especially in that of Achala. This granite must
certainly be pre-Silurian. The principal locality of the Silurian
rocks is in the Anti-Cordilleras. Devonian and Carboniferous rocks.
Jurassic or to the Cretaceous. Rhætic beds have been found near
Mendoza and in the Famatina Mountain, etc. Jurassic beds are
exposed in the Espinazito Mountains, and a Jurassic sea extended
from the eastern coast far into the interior. The gypsum-bearing
sandstone of the passes of Patos and Cumbre belong to the Creta-
ceous formation, as do also the red sandstone of the Province of
Tucuman and that of Jujuy.
show
inextricable confusion ; conglomerates are so compressed that the
pebbles form narrow lines; granite forms dykes in diorite, and the
whole region is a maze of conflicting strikes and dips.
Canozorc.—The ninth volume of the Bulletin of the National
Academy of Sciences of Cordoba (Argentine Republic) contains
descriptions of numerous mammalian fossils from the Tertiary strata
near the Parana. Among these are Cynonasua argentina, a form
allied to the coati, but with seven molars in the lower jaw ; a Canis,
of about the size of C. azare; a catlike animal, for which Ame-
ghini forms the genus Apera, and which appears to have been about
twice the size of the domestic cat; six species of the rodent genus
egamys,—one of them of almost gigantic size; Epiblema horri-
dula, a rodent a little larger than the viscachia ; two or three species-
Mineralogy and Petrography. 347
of the new genus Tetrastylus ; two each of Morenia and Orthomys ;
Myopotamus paranensis; Plexocherus paranensis, previously de-
scribed as a Hydrocheerus, but differing from that genus in the struc-
ture of the last molar; two forms of the new genus Cardiatherium,
etc., ete. Many already known species and genera—such as Toxo-
don, Paradoxomys, etc.—receive additional elucidation in this text.
Macrauchenia bravardi and M. rothii are separated, under the
generic name of Scalabrinitherium ; while Oxyodontherium zeballosi
is equivalent to the M. minuta of Burmeister. Promegatherium
remalsumis, a sloth-like animal, nearly as large as Megatherium
americanum ; and Pseudolestodon equalis is another huge sloth.
omaphoras concisus and Proéwphractus limpidus are among the new
loricate edentates. Remains of Cetacea are abundant in marine
which overlie the fresh-water strata.
PLEISTOCENE.—Dr. Alfredo Dugès describes ina recent num-
ber of La Naturaleza a Pleistocene fossil, which he names Platy-
gonus alemanii. The skeleton appeared to be complete, but was in
gent part destroyed during the excavation. The animal was almost
ouble the size of the modern peccary.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'*
PETROGRAP L News.—The very interesting paper by Brauno?
on the palæopicrite of Amelose, near Biedenkopf in Hessen Nassau,
contains a full description of this rock and its numerous alterative
products. The freshest type of the palæopicrite is composed of
idiomorphic olivine, augite, both idiomorphic and allotriomorphic,
irregular grains of plagioclose, picotite and magnetite. The augite
often shows the unusual alteration into biotite. The principal alter-
ation products of the rock are serpentine, siliciophite, chrysolite,
metaxite, picrolite, webskyite,’ calcite and quartz. The three sub-
stances chrysolite, metaxite and picrolite are studied in great detail,
and their optical and physical properties are described at length.
The author regards them each as a variety of serpentine, the first
consisting of slender elastic fibres, the second of coarse stiff needles,
and the third being characterized by a radiating structure.
The serpentines, amphibolites and eclogites from the neighbor-
hood of Marienbad, in Bohemia, were formerly regarded as sedi-
mentary beds which had been metamorphosed by the action of
granite, which occurs near them ina boss. Patton has recently
examined these rocks very carefully. He considers‘ them as prob-
, Edited by Dr. ; rville, Maine.
s Neu oa Joke Cue 2 Ue pt md Wate
‘ gegen Naturalist, Nov., 1887, p. 1021.
» u. Petrog. Mitth., 1887, ix., p. 89.
348 General Notes.
ably the result of the action of dynamic agencies upon eruptive
rock e serpentines are shown to be derived from a peridotite,
composed sometimes of bronzite, hornblende and olivine, and at other
times essentially of olivine and tremolite. Different specimens of
amphibolites contain zoisite, epidote, augite and tale. The most
interesting rocks discussed in the paper are the eclogites. A variety
which the author calls kelyphite-eclogite is made up of garnets and
hornblende in a groundmass consisting of amphibole and ompha-
cite, so intergrown as to imitate the granophyre structure of certain
acid rocks. The garnets are frequently surrounded by a rim of
hornblende and _ plagioclose, which, however, the author is disin-
clined to regard as a reaction rim, but is rather disposed to look
upon as a growth around the garnet as a center. Zoisite, which is
also found in these eclogites, is often seen in the thin section to be
surrounded by a rim of cloudy substance, which under high powers
is resolved into plagioclose, muscovite and a third mineral with the
specific gravity and optical properties of topaz, but in which no
fluorine could be discovered. Patton supposes it to be an unknown
mineral with the composition Al, Si O,.—The saussurite gab-
bros of the Fichtelgebirge, found in lenticular masses scattered
through serpentine layers, which are interstratified with clay
slates and phyllites, are regarded by Michael! as the result of
the alteration of a sedimentary feldspathic gabbro, although it
would seem, from his own descriptions, that he would have been
equally well justified in concluding that the saussurite gabbro lenses
are merely the less altered remains of an intercalated gabbro, whose
serpentine, or some indeterminable mineral, in other cases the new
minerals produced are serpentine and a calcium garnet.
Mr. Lawson,’ of the Geological Survey of Canada, gives an account
of the diabase dykes so prevalent in the Archean region
around Rainy Lake. These dykes have a width of from sixty to
one hundred and fifty feet. Toward their centers they are eom-
posed of plagioclose, augite and quartz, with a greater or less pro-
portion of colorless garnets. The augite appears as an aggregate of
little crystals which fill the spaces between the other constituents,
and not as one continuous crystal, as is the usual case among
es. The quartz and garnets are found only toward the centers of
the dykes, and are absent at their edges. Idiomorphic enstatite, 0?
the contrary, is a frequent constituent of material taken from the
sides of the dykes, and is absent from their centers. The features
: 2 Proceedings Gan. Enoittate Oe Meet, and American Geologist, April,
Mineralogy and Petrography. 349
of these diabases are well worthy of the further study Mr. Lawson
proposes to put upon them.—The Rev. E. Hill! mentions horn-
blende schists from the island of Sark, in which he thinks he has
found indications of a former bedding and evidences of sedimenta-
tion.—Ternier? describes very briefly the eruptive rocks of the Mt.
Mézeuc region in France, as presenting almost as great a diversity
as those of Auvergne. They consist of augite and amphibole
andesites, trachytes, phonolitic-trachytes and basalts in the order of
their sequence. The basalts are the only ones which are at all
widespread in their occurrence.
MINERALOGICAL NEws.—New analyses of several rare minerals
are communicated from the laboratory of the University of Vir-
ginia. Mr. R. C. Price? found a lump of tscheffkinite, from Nelson
county, Va., to possess the composition 2 R O. R, O,. 5(Si Ti), O,,
in which R = Ca, Be, Fe, Mg, and R, = Ce, Di, La and Fe.’”
Mr. Walker‘ obtained from genthite’ :—
Si O, Ni O, Mg O H, O Fe, O;
55.38 17.84 15.62 10.77 56
corresponding to 4 H, O + 3 [(Mg Ni) OJ. Si O, + 4 H,O, a
meerschaum (sepiolite) with its magnesium partly replaced by
nickel. The mineral occurs in thin layers in a sandstone at Web-
ster, Jackson county, N.C. It is amorphous, of a light apple-
green color, translucent and greasy. It has a hardness of 2.5 an
a specific gravity of 2.53.—Very similar to the last mentioned
mineral is a nickeliferous talc, from the same locality, in which Mr.
Bachman ê found :—
Si O, NiO, Mro -Pao <Al,0, H,O
53.91 15.91 19.39 46 2.65 6.30
—Perimorphs of pyromorphite after cerussite and galena are men-
tioned by Gonnard’ as occurring in the lead mines of the Puy-de-
ôme, France. In some cases the pyromorphite exists merely as a
thin shell enclosing a hollow space, from which the mineral for-
merly occupying it has been removed by solutions—The same
author describes a shell, composed of little rhombohedra of sider-
i f a : “esp a"
í Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., Aug., 1887, p. 322.
: Comptes Rendus, cv., 1887, p. 1141.
Amer. Chem. Jour., Jan., 1888, x., p. 38.
888, "> 44,
: an., 1888, X., p. 45.
1 Comptes Rendus, cy 1887, p 1267.
, 1887, p. 227.
350 General Notes.
baryto-celestite, accompanying the wagnerite at Werfen in Salzburg,
to consist of 84.8 per cent. of barium sulphate and 15.05 per cent.
of strontium sulphate. Like Professor Chester,' they regard the
substance as an isomorphous mixture rather than as a definite
compound.
MISCELLANEOUS.— Wollastonite is most frequently found in
nature as a newly formed mineral in metamorphic rocks. It has
also been detected as a primary constituent in eruptive rocks. Man
experimenters have succeeded in obtaining the mineral artificially
and with a aa eai refractive index. His mode of operation was
to warm a little
1 American Naturalist, 1887, p. 852.
2 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1886, i., p. 119.
3 Mineralogische und Petrographische Notizen, Bonn. p. 9.
4 Comptes Rendus, cv., 1887, p. 1265.
Botany. 351
BOTANY:.!
THE Rootstocks OF LEERSIA AND MUHLENBERGIA.’ —
Leersia virginica Willd., grows in wet, shady places, and starts
rather late in the spring. Late in autumn the parts below ground
are found to consist mainly of some slender exhausted and dea
rootstocks, from one to three or four centimetres long. The inter-
nodes of these slender exhausted rootstocks are covered for a part
of their length by sheaths of rudimentary leaves, early bearing a
very short blade.
A portion, perhaps one-third, of the nodes bear from one to four
thickened, scaly rootstocks, which contain nourishment for start-
ing young plants the next spring. In some cases one or more
scaly rootstocks appear near the apex of a similar rootstock which
survived the winter.
The surviving rootstocks are slightly flattened, one to four centi-
metres long by three to five mm. in diameter, covered with scales,
and are mostly simple, though some of them have short branches.
he scales are brown, alternating and two ranked, and on inter-
nodes which are from one to two mm. long. The bases of the
scales are thickened and abound in plant food.
Leersia oryzoides Swartz, also has rootstocks, the main axis of
which is not very unlike that of the former species, though in
autumn they are rather stouter, and most of them remain alive and
gorged with plant food for use on the approach of the succeeding
Spring. Many of the nodes bear short, pointed, solid branches,
with four to eight nodes. The scales of these buds are mere
rings or shreds, and are not filled with nourishment in autumn.
he fundamental differences, then, between the rootstocks of
these two species are as follows:
1. In winter the main rootstocks of Leersia virginica are
dead, while those of L. oryzoides are alive and abound in food.
2. The scales of the rootstocks coming from the nodes of the
main rootstocks of ZL. virginica are broad, firm, and full of plant
food, while the corresponding scales of the branches of L. oryzoides
are reduced to mere dead fragments, containing no plant food. No
good specimens of other species of Leersia were examined in ref-
erence to their rootstocks. ;
A considerable portion, if not all, the species of Muhlenbergia
put forth flowering branches. In case of M. debilis Trin., some
of the lower internodes from the surface to five or more centimetres
above frequently branch at the nodes, where there are clusters of
, Edited by Prof. Charles E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb
JA New York
Per By ore the Botanical Club of the A. A. A. S, in New >
352 General Notes.
bracts or short leaves. The specimens of this species examined
were quite erect, not geniculate, nor rooting at the nodes.
The culms of M. diffusa Schreb., M. neomexicana Vasey, are
much like those of the former species, only they are geniculate, and
root freely at the nodes.
From those which are geniculate and rooting at the nodes, it is
only a step to those which bear rootstocks on or below the surface
of the ground.
. comata Benth., produces branching rootstocks about five
mm. long by one mm. in diameter. ese are covered with thin
bracts rather loosely appressed, and from one to two mm. long.
They represent the sheaths of leaves only.
M. glomerata Trim., has rootstocks much like those of M. comata,
only the internodes are a little shorter and the appressed scales
more abruptly pointed. M. willdenovii Trin., has rootstocks which
are rather larger, with internodes still shorter (14 mm.), the
scales broad, appressed, and more abruptly pointed than either of
the previous species of Muhlenbergia.
The scales of M. mexicana Trim., are rather short, and bend
abruptly away from the rootstock. The scales of M. sylvatica (T.
and G.), are much like those of the former species. — W. J. Beal,
Agricultural College, Mich.
Errect OF Ick Upon Trees. — In the latter part of March
of the present year a heavy fall of freezing rain covered the trees
of eastern Nebraska with a coating varying from one-third to one-
half an inch in thickness. Every twig, every bud was encased in
a thick, transparent, icy envelope, whose weight bent and broke a
t number of branches from the trees. There was a notable
ifference in the behavior of the different trees under this weight
of ice. Trees with branches standing approximately at right
angles with their axes fared best, while those with more upright
the cottonwood, it was plain that those approaching the exeurrent
type of ramification suffered least. Some trees of this type were
PLATE IV.
re i =
Sa
X ~a
Gs
REE X
NN
Bek i cots ee rtions of separate Poono ok Taiki virginica Willd., to show
Pi: 4. Muntenber ow pag wt prodas oer ie about § natural size.
a 6. w enbergia diffusa Schrebe about 11%.
PE
NEEN
Zoology. 353
scarcely injured at all, while those with a more deliquescent branch-
ing suffered the loss of nearly all their branches.
Elms usually bent their branches'until supported on the ground.
Maples (Acer dasycarpum Ehrh.) acted very nearly as the Cotton-
woods did, some breaking, while others withstood the strain. No
hackberries (Celtis occidentalis L.) broke at all, their strong branches
with axillary angles of nearly 90° rendering them strong enough
to withstand the heaviest weight.
White pines (Pinus strobus L.) suffered more than the Scotch and
Austrian pines, the latter having (when young) more widely
divergent branches than the former. Red Cedars and Balsam Firs
trailed their lower branches upon the ground, while those above
hung and rested upon those below.
An attempt was made to estimate the weight borne by each tree,
and the result showed that such ice burdens are very generally over-
estimated. By melting the ice from a measured length of a twig,
it was easy to estimate the amount of water carried by the tree.
It was found that for a fine box elder, twenty-five feet in height,
and with a large rounded top fully twenty-five feet in diameter, the
total weight did not exceed three hundred pounds. The calcula-
tion was carefully revised, because the result seemed too small, but
lt was found to be correct. The effects which are so striking are
clearly due to the fact that this weight, although so small, is borne
as well by the slender twigs as by the larger branches. A weight
of a few ounces upon the end of a lon twig produces a much
oo bending than many pounds would at its base.— Charles
essey.
ZOOLOGY.
SPONGES AND CŒLENTERATES OF AUSTRALIA.—Dr. R. von
Lendenfeld has published a résumé of the facies of the Australian
Species and varieties have been described from all parts of the
‘oak and of these, no less than four hundred and fourteen have
n I . .
i
cent. of the horn-s nges of any other region may be found in
Australia ; and this is not limited by distance or any other barrier.
354 General Notes.
and says that in Australia almost all of the Tetraxonia have devel-
oped into the Tethyoid type. He does not agree with Ridley and
Dendy in their views of the origin of the horn-sponges, but regards
this group as having a polyphylitic origin. The Australian Calc-
sponge fauna is very rich, while the deep-sea Hexactinellide and
Lithistide are wanting.
His conclusions regarding the sponges are:—(1) The littoral
sponges are widely distributed, about half the species being cosmo-
politan ; (2) The most recent and most highly-developed forms
rarely occur in the colder waters, and their relative numbers is in
proportion to the coldness of the sea; (3) Newer forms follow the
older, not only when we go from the deeper to the more littoral
zones, but from the poles to the tropics; (4) The lower and older
types are more plenty in the cold than in the warmer seas, and are
especially rare in Australia; (5) There are a series of forms which
are confined to Australia, but there is only a few which are confined
to any other region; (6) All the larger genera are cosmopolitan ;
(7) The fresh-water sponges are more uniform and more widely-
distributed than are the marine sponges.
New Enetanp Mepus%.—Dr. J. W. Fewkes presents (Bulletin
Mus. Comp. Zool., xiii.) a list of the Medusze which he has studied
on the coasts of Maine and Grand Menan. The list embraces fif-
teen species and is illustrated by six plates.. A full account is given
of Nanomia cara, supplementing the account of Dr. Alexander
Agassiz, showing that these forms really possess both sexes united
in one colony, and giving an account of the embryos up to the
eight-cell stage. The rare Callinema ornata is also figured and
escribed. The most interesting form mentioned in the paper 1s a
curious parasitic hydroid, for which a new genus and species (Hy-
drichthys mirus) is established, which was found at Newport,
R. I. Attached to the side of a specimen of the fish Seriola zonata
clearly to be with the former; and the similarities of the form to
the Siphonophores are scarcely more evident than are those of any
of the Hydromeduse.
Zoology. 305
New Tyre or Hyprom DEVELOPMENT.—Dr. W. K. Brooks,
DEVELOPMENT oF BRAIN Corau.—Mr. H. V. Wilson has
studied the development of Manicina areolata (J. H. U. Circular,
No. 63). The eggs are fertilized and undergo their early develop-
ch meshed, the teeth protruding through the external wall.
bes blaaie y imar go far to demonstrating the homolo-
ween the Actinozoa and the histoma s of Aurelia,
as described by Gitte. Seyp tage óf Antelis,
356 General Notes.
Muscies oF Moxuuscs.—There are frequently described in
molluscs striated muscles, sometimes of a peculiar type. Müller
and Keferstein have described them in the heart of Cephalopods
and in the pharynx of the Cephalophora ; Blanchard, in the adduc-
tors of Pecten, and Paneth, in the fins of Pteropods and Heteropoda.
Schwalbe has described in the adductors of the lamellibranchs and
elsewhere muscles with a double oblique striation, while, before. -
him, Mettenheimer, Wagener and Margo had referred to the same
appearance as spiral striation. Lately, Fol (Comptes Rendus, Jan.
23,1888) has investigated the same subject, and concludes that true
striated muscles do not exist in any mollusc. All cases reported as
such, in reality, consist of smooth fibres, around which fine fibrils
are rolled in a spiral manner, this being the case in all the special
-instances noted above. The method employed by Paneth (glycerine
and nitric acid) produced such contraction that the spiral fibrillee
really appeared transverse. of the molluscan muscles are of the
smooth type; but these are to be grouped in two sub-divisions—
that already mentioned, and that in which the fibrille are straight.
The latter are the more abundant. Judging from their distribu-
tion, the spiral type are of value where a rapid contraction is
needed,
THE Primary Groups OF MAIL-CHEEKED FISHES. —
recent study of the structural characteristics of the mail-cheeked
fishes has led to some interesting and unexpected results. The
genus Dactylopterus, which has been almost universally closely
associated in the same family with Trigla or Peristedion, an
especially with the latter, was found to differ very widely. The
relative proportions of the spinous and soft parts of the dorsal fin,
to which so much value has been attributed by Dr. Giinther, proves
to be of comparatively slight importance. All the families recog-
nized by Dr. Günther, except that of the Heterolepidotide, are
very unnatural combinations of dissimilar groups; most of those
recognized by myself are amply justified by anatomical evidence,
but several others must be added to the list.
The genius of Cuvier, manifested in the perception of the rela-
tions of forms differing so much in superficial characteristics as do
the mail-cheeked fishes, is justified by a detailed study of the various
constituents of that group. The course of Günther and his fol-
lowers in disintegrating it, widely divorcing its constituents, an
associating its fragments with dissimilar forms, was a deci edly
retrograde step. Nevertheless, although the group is one whose
members are genetically connected, the diversities of structure are
too great to allow of their retention in one family or even super-
family. They must be distributed into four (and ultimately more)
superfamilies; those nów determined are the So the )
Cottoidea, the Trigloidea, and the Dactylopteroidea. veral forms
Zoology. 357
that have not yet been anatomically investigated represent families—
Caracanthide, Platycephalide, Agonide, and Rhamphocottidee—ex-
hibiting very peculiar characters, which must be reflected in their
skeleton, and their exact relations remain to be ascertained ; prob-
ably none belong to any of the superfamilies now established.’
The families hereinafter enumerated appear to be all well entitled
to the rank, and are characterized by various anatomical peculiarities.
The most closely allied pair, and which perhaps need future con-
firmation,are the Hexagrammide and Anoplopomide. All the fami-
lies will be diagnosed and, in part, fully described in several
memoirs Aaka for publication in the Proceedings of the United
tates National Museum, and the anatomical characteristics of the
crania will therein be illustrated. The comparative characteristics
of the major groups, or superfamilies, are made known in the fol-
lowing analytical exhibit :
'apular arch normal, the post-temporal and postero-temporal
forming part, and the latter intervening between the post-
temporal and the proscapula. Infraorbital chain with all
bones entering into tbe orbital margin and functional, only
partially extended over the cheek; with the third bone
hypertrophied and developed as a stay impinging on the
anterior wall of the preoperculum; post-temporal normally
` articulated with the epiotic and pterotic; -intermaxillines
with well-developed ascending pedicles gliding over the
front of the prosethmoid.
_ Dentigerous epipharyngeals 3.3; actinosts moderate and
inserted on posterior edges of hypercoracoid and hypocora-
iat ribs backwards borne on enlarged parapophyses.—
oidea
Dentigerous epipharyngeals 1-1; actinosts large and
aay intervening between the hypercoracoid and hypocora-
bo
- coid ; ribs sessile on the vertebræ.— Cottoidea.
B. Scapular arch abnormal, the post-temporal forming an inte-
gral part of the cranium and the postero-temporal crowded
out of place by the side of the proscapula above or at the
edge of the post-temporal. >
Myodome (muscular tube) developed and cranial cavity
open in front; prosethmoid and anteal normally con-
nected by suture. Infraorbital chain with its anterior
bones excluded from the orbit and functional as
rostrolateral, the series covering the cheeks, the third
a large buccal bone articulating with the anterior wall
pAn examinatio i onide and Rhamphocot-
that pince the a villa pi Se ase ie confirmed m cion
y are severally types of distinct superfamilies Platycepha
a
Phang amilies P7 hali d Hoplichthyidæ), Agonoidea, and
Nooo atda atycephalide an optic. J go we
Be
thyi i
i a. Ihave been unable to secure specimens of Cara-
Œ, and know nothing of their anatomy.
358 General Notes.
of the preoperculum ; post-temporal suturally connected with
the epiotic and pterotic by inferior processes, and with the
upper surface forming an integral part of the roof of the
cranium; intermaxillines with the ascending pedicles
atrophied and connected with the knob of the anteal (vomer)
by ligament.— Trigloidea.
Myodome undeveloped, the cranial cavity being closed
in front by expansions from the subtectals suturally con-
nected with corresponding expansions of the prootics and the
parasphenoid ; prosethmoid and anteal entirely disconnected,
leaving a capacious rostral chamber opening backwards
mesially into the interorbital region. Infraorbital chain,
with its second and third bones crowded out of the orbital
margin by junction of the first and fourth, and leaving a
wide interval between the suborbitals and the preopercu-
lum; the first very long and extending backwards, the
second under the fourth and the third developed as a small
special bone (pontinal) bridging the interval between the
second suborbital and the antero-inferior angle of the pre-
bo
The superfamily TRIGLOIDEA includes the families Triglide and
Peristediida.
The superfamily DACTYLOPTEROIDEA is represented only by
the family Dactylopteride. :
It is probable that the Trigloidea and Dactylopteroidea will be
hereafter segregated as representative of a peculiar suborder.— Theo.
Gill.
THE Cocoon or Proroprerus.—Professor Wiedersheim (Anat.
Anzeiger) has collected together the various notices that have been
written by J. E. Gray, A. D. Bartlett, Krauss, A. Giinther, and .
others concerning the structure of the case or “cocoon” of the
curious fish Protopterus, and describes the result of his own obser-
vations upon the subject. Krauss’s description of the membrane
surrounding the fish is substantially correct. It appears to be
designed to protect the animal from damage during its eestivation 5
Zoology. 309
but the source of the secretion composing it—whether the skin or
a special apparatus—is not yet known. The manner in which
the animal lies rolled up within its case is very singular and has
not previously been described. The head and anterior part of the
y are concealed or roofed over by the broad membrane of the
lower lobe of the tail. Our author thinks it probable that the
broad tail-fin serves the Protopterus fora purpose unheard o
before, viz., as a breathing organ. The part which covers the head
has a reddish tint, and it seems likely that it is permeable to air,
even if we suppose it is in communication with the breathing-tu
piercing the capsule.
A Grarn-Eatine Reptite.—Several lizards have been known
to eat vegetable substances, among them Uvromastix acanthinus,
umeces aldrovandi, Lacerta ocellata and Stellio vulgaris. Johann
von Fischer calls attention to the fact that Uromastiz hardwickii, a
Bengalese species in his possession, would take no animal food ; but
an examination of his excrement disclosed an abundance of starch
granules. This led him to place before him various grains—rice,
corn, etc.—which he ate with avidity. This isa new feature in
reptilian diet. He also afterward ate various insects and drank—
a fact which has not been witnessed in its relative, U. acanthinus.
The chief food of the latter, lettuce, was neglected by the species in
question, but it willingly ate straw and hay.
THE OCCURRENCE IN INDIANA OF THE STAR-NOSED MOLE
ood of streams.” West of New York and Pennsylvania, specimens
had bes taken by Dr. J. P. Kirtland at Cleveland, Ohio, and by
360 General Notes.
ZOOLOGICAL NEws.—EcuinopErMs.—The habitat of the star-
fish, Echinaster decanus Müller und Troschel, has not been known.
Lately it has been dredged of Port Jackson, Australia. ` Professor
F. Jeffrey Bell, in an account of the specimens, states that the
species is remarkable for the large size of the pore areas, in which
there are a large number of respiratory processes, and hence con-
cludes that it lives in situations where respiration under ordinary
circumstances would be difficult.
The brothers Sarasin have a note on the longitudinal muscles
and “ Stewart’s organs ” in the Echinothuride, in the Zool. Anzeiger,
No. 273. The long muscles are of use in the vermicular move-
ments of Asthenosoma. Concerning the function of “ Stewart’s
organs,” they have no opinion to offer.
Fifty species of Echinoderms, twenty-two Holothurians, thirteen
Asteroids, six Ophiuroids, and nine Echini, have been collected at
the Andaman Islands by Mr. Booley.
Worms.—Mr. F. E. Beddard continues his notes on the earth-
worms. In the Zool. Anzeiger, No. 272, he states that the “ mucous
gland” described by Perrier in Urochzta “ consists of a tube open-
ing on to the exterior by a single orifice and branching distally into
a number of tubules, each of which opens into the ccelom by a cili-
ated funnel,” these funnels being disposed irregularly, and not
metamerically.
n another note in the same number he describes briefly the sali-
vary glands and capsulogenous glands in Pericheta. The former
he regards as homologous ofthe septal glands of other Oligocheetes.
The capsulogenous glands, it is hoped, will furnish good characters
for the discrimination of the species of this difficult genus.
Dr. Frederick Tuckermann notes a specimen of Tenia saginata
of unusual size. Only a portion of the worm was obtained, but this
consisted of 711 segments, and measured 7.455 metres in length.
Comparison with other specimens led to an estimate that the whole
worm consisted of about 1060 joints, and a total length of 7.655
metres.
According to Mr. R. Moniez, the eysticercus of the Tenebrios
does not belong to Tenia nana, but, as is proved by the length and
the number of its hooks, to Tenia microstoma, a species parasitic
within the mouse. T. nana and T. murina constitute two distinct
species, and the latter develops in the intestine of the rat without
an intermediate host. .
ARACHNIDA.—Duges describes (Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1888) a -
new species of mite, Geckobia oblonga, which occurs, parasitic, upon
the lizard, Scoleporus spinosus. The species is noticeable for the
elongate organs, of problematical functions, which arise on either
side above the base of the rostrum, They have an appendicular
Zoology. 361
appearance, are united at their bases, and terminate, each, in a
toothed pincer.
FisHes.—M. L. Vaillant has recently, in a note upon the com-
parative dimensions of young and adult examples of Alopias vulpes,
remarked that the size of the young is, among fishes, influenced by
that of the parent, which commences to reproduce before its growth
is complete. A specimen of A. vulpes, taken at Cette, measured —
4.70 metres in length, and the largest of four foetuses contained
within its oviduct had a length of 14 metres. On the other hand,
a female fox-shark, 1.17 metres long, also contained foetuses.
It is not always that collectors note down the colors of the speci-
mens while still alive, and thus the small collection of fishes from
the Society Islands and Paumotu, made by Lieut. M. Trigon,
omes of value through the sketches accompanying it. M. Vail-
lant draws attention, in some prefatory remarks, to the losses incur-
red by attaching metal tags to the specimens by means of copper or
iron wire instead of by vegetable fibre. Galvanic action is set up,
and the scales and bones of the fishes, as well as the wire itself, are
destroyed or fall apart.
A recent number of the Jzvestia, of the Russian Geographical
Society, contains M. N icolsky’s sketch of the fishing on Lake Aral,
- which is a valuable contribution to the ichthyology of that lake and
of the Lower Arnu-daria.
ton of the paired fins of Ceratodus, with observations upon those of the
Elasmobranchs. His conclusions are that the characters of the
362 _ General Notes,
skeleton of the paired finsareinconstant,some of those of the praxial
parameres of the pectorals and the basal mesomere of pectorals and
pelvic fins; that a reduced metapterygrum is always present in the
pectorals, and may occasionally be traced in the ventrals; and that
the basal mesomere of the Ceratodus fin may conceivably have been
derived from the metapterygium. The structural features of both
paired fins of the Chimeroids are identical, and characterized by
the absence of a mesopterygium, and the paired fins of Plagios-
tomes and Dipnoans have probably arisen from a type of fin most
nearly represented by that of the living Chimeeroids.
Prof. T. J. Parker describes and figures, in the Proceedings of
the Zoological Society of London, the skeleton, fins, heart, brain,
etc., of Carcharodon rondeletii, from specimens taken near Dunedin,
New Zealand. A peculiarity in external form, scarcely noticed
previously, is the depression of the tail just in front of the caudal
fin, so much so that the width is more than double the height.
Prof. Parker believes that this flattening, present also in Lamna,
gives a combination of horizontal with vertical tail-fin, useful
as a means of enabling the fish to rise rapidly from great
depths. °
r. Francis Day has lately published a work on British and
Irish Salmonide. He regards the different forms of non-migra-
tory trout known as Brook trout, Lochleven trout, Crasspuill trout,
Estuary trout, Orkney trout, Cornish trout, Great Lake trout,
Gillaroo trout, and Swaledale trout, as varieties of one species,
and all the species of char as identical with Salmo salvelinus.
ReptiLes.—Mr. C. M. Woodford has recently returned from th
Solomon Islands with a collection of over two hundred reptiles,
which have been examined by Mr. G. A. Boulenger. The fact that
this large collection contained but four new forms indicates that the
reptilian fauna of these islands is pretty well known.
Mr. F. E. Beddard notes the presence of a peritoneal fold in the
genus Monitor, separating the lungs from the abdominal viscera,
and corresponding to a similar structure in the Crocodilia.
Meo G oulenger describes a Leptodactylus, three
species of Lygosoma, ops aluensis, and the Batrachia
Hyla lutea and Batrachylodes vertebralis, from a collection made
in the Solomon Islands by Mr. C. M. Woodford.
Two lizards, Varanus niloticus and Chameleon owenii, and the
snakes Naia haje and Dendraspis angusticeps, were collected by
Mr. Johnston, at a height of 2000 feet on the Cameroons Moun-
ins.
M. L. Vaillant (Bull. d.1. Soc. Philo. de Paris) has recently
described a new species of land-tortoise (Testulo yniphora) from one
of the Comoro Isles, or from an islet in their vicinity. The cara-
pace of the largest specimen is about fifteen and a half inches long,
Zoology. 363
twelve and a half inches wide, and nearly a foot in height. There
is a small nuchal plate, and the plastron terminates anteriorly in a
long, upturned tapering projection.
Brrps.—Mr. D. D. Daly, at a recent meeting of the Zoological
Society of London, gave an account of the caves in Borneo, from
which the edible birds’ nests are obtained. Of these, fifteen are
known in North Borneo. Most of these are in limestone in the
interior, but two are near the coast, and occur in sandstone strata.
Mr. H. N. Ridley found a new species of tyrant-bird in his explo-
rations of the island of Fernando Norohna. Mr. R. Bowlder Sharpe
has described it, under the name Elainea ridleyana.
Mr. R. S. Wray has found in the wing of the adult ostrich a ves-
tigial structure representing the distal phalanges of digit III
(P. Z S, 1887.)
Among the thirty-five species of birds collected by Mr. C. Wood-
ford, in the Solomon Isles, is a new crow, described by Mr. Ogilvie
Grant as Macrocorax woodfordi.
Mr. Bowdler Sharpe has described (P. Z. 8., 1887) seven new
species of birds, from a collection made by Mr. L. Wray in the
mountains of Perak, in the Malay Peninsula.
Mr. R. S. Wray contributes to ‘the Proceedings of the Zoo-
logical Society of London (1887), an important paper upon the
morphology of the wings of birds.
MamMAtia.—Dr. Dubois describes a sixth species of Anomalu-
rus, under the name A. chrysophenus, in the Bulletin Société Zoolo-
gique for January. It is most nearly allied to A. pelii of Tem-
minck, and comes from West Africa.
The collection of mammals recently made in the Solomon Islands
by Mr. Woodford, consisted chiefly of bats. Nothing was before
known of the cheiropterous fauna of these islands. The new forms
= opus gradis and Nesanyeteris woodfordi, nov. gen. et sp.
The length of the head and body of a skin of P. gradis was
325 m. m., of which the head measured seventy-four m. m.
364 General Notes.
ENTOMOLOGY.’
ON THE SYNONYMY OF THE APPLE-LEAF CREASER, ORNIX
GEMINATELLA (Packard).—Having lately had occasion to study
the Tineide infesting apple leaves in Illinois, I have been puzzled
over the proper name of a common species which inhabits a tent-
shaped mine on the under leaf-surface. Tt is the insect that Mr.
. E. Brunn has discussed? as Ornix prunivorella Chambers, but
which I believe to be the same as Packard’s Lithocolletis gemina-
tella. The agreement of my specimens of the various stages of the
insect, with the descriptions of these species as given by Packard,
ambers and Brunn, led to a careful examination of the literature
treating of the two species, the results of which I briefly summa-.
rize below. The subject is more fully discussed in a paper to be
sta ai in the Fifteenth Report of the State Entomologist of
inois.
The various stages of Lithocolletis geminatella were described and
figured by Dr. Packard in 1869.3 The description of the moth is
rather brief, but the figure is excellent. The larva is said to be of
a pale livid reddish color, with the head and cervical shield black ;
and to mine the leaves of apple and pear.
Two years later Chambers published‘ an article on the described
species of Lithocolletis, in which he surmises that geminatella does
not properly belong to this genus.
In the Canadian Entomologist for March, 1873, Mr. Chambers
published a description of Ornix prunivorella, stating that the larva
mines the leaves of the apple and wild cherry, and giving a brie
account of its habits.
In an article on the Food-plants of the Tineina, published some-
what later Mr. Chambers mentions this species as feeding on wild
cherry, but strangely enough omits it from the list of those feeding
upon apple, although in connection with the original description he
remarks that “the larva mines the leaves of apple trees.” In this
list Lithocolletis geminatella is not mentioned.
1882 Lord Walsingham published some “Notes on the
Tineidæ of North America.” This paper was the result of a study
1 This department is edited by Prof. J. H. Comstock, Cornell Univer-
sity, irapa N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice, etc.,
ould be sent.
2 Tineidæ Infesting Apple Trees at Ithaca. Sec’d Rept. Corn. U niv.,
Exp. Stat., p. 157.
._ § Guide to Study of Insects, p. 353; Plate viii., Fig. 15.
t Can. Ent., vol. iii., p. 133.
§ Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. iii., p. 133.
s Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., vol. x., p. 194.
Entomology. 365.
of several American collections of these moths, many of the speci-
mens being types of American species. On page 194, in speaking
> of certain of these specimens, he says :—
“I think these may be Ornix prunivorella Chamb., although
that author does not record that the larva of that species feeds on:
apple or pear. These specimens are not in good condition, and it
is impossible in so difficult a genus as Ornia to be quite certain to
what species they belong. i
“ They are the types of Lithocolletis geminatella Packard, accòrd-
ing to the label attached to the second specimen, but they undoubt-.
edly belong to the genus Ornix.”
From the statement just quoted, that Chambers doés not record)
the apple-feeding habits of O. prunivorella it seems evident that
Lord Walsingham had been misled by the omission in the list of
food-plants noted above.
accounted for on the supposition that Dr. Packard’s specimen was.
immature, for, as Mr, Brunn has remarked, these larve are flesh-
colored when young.
In the light of these observations I believe that I am justified in
ting these supposed species as the same, and, as Dr. Packard’s
name has riority, in calling the insect Ornix geminatella (Pack.).—
Clarence M. Weed.
that it is not ible to abstract it in a short space. It should be ~
read by all peones in the biological side of entomology that
1 Psyche, Vol. V., pp. 3-12.
366 General Notes,
have not occasion to keep track of the literature concerning the
minute organisms that cause disease. A few of the more general
oints can be stated here. Contagious disease, wherever it has
been traced to its origin, has proved to be the phenomenon of para-
sitism. This address is limited to a discussion of epidemics
caused by Fungus or Protozoan parasites. s
Of the Protozoan diseases of insects, pebrin of the silkworm is the
best known example. There has been much discussion regarding the
position of this parasite; butthere can be no longer a reasonabledoubt
of its animal nature, or of its agreement in general characters with
those forms now commonly included under the head Sporozoa, a
parasitic-subdivision of the Protozoa of which Gregarina is per-
haps the best known type. The life history of this parasite is
very simple, and may be thus briefly summariz
he minute oval spores, colorless, highly refractile, homogeneous
in appearance, 4 y long by 2 u wide, when swallowed with the
food, penetrate in some way unexplained the cuticle of the alimen-
tary canal, and, in the cells of the epithelium, open at one end an
emit their contents, each in the form of an ameeboid speck of
protoplasm. This grows to a spherical body, and, by a process of
internal segmentation common to the Sporozoa, is soon conve
into a mass of spores, each like the original. These spores every-
where undergo a like development, and load all of the tissues with
their products, slowly and gradually arresting all of the functions
of life. Their vitality is temporary — Pasteur’s experiments
showing that they will not germinate five weeks after drying out
— and the disease is consequently maintained only by virtue of its
hereditary character.
Other forms of Microsporidia have been found in at least ten
species of insects enumerated by Forbes. :
Although pebrine, and presumably other diseases of this nature,
can be conveyed to healthy insects by treating their food with the
dejections of affected individuals, the economic application of these
diseases is limited to artificial measures for developing and acceler-
ating them wherever they may be found, and to the transfer of
them from one species to another. For there is not the slightest
probability that the Sporozoa can be artificially cultivated outside
of the bodies of the animals that they infest.
The notable fungous diseases of insects are readily divisable
into two principal groups: Schizomycoses, produced by Bacteria,
and Hyphomycoses, due to Fungi that form a more or less evident
mycelium of cylindrical threads (Hyphomycetes and Pyrenomycetes).
These are roughly distinguishable in two important particulars:
(1) The bacteria invade the body from within, by way of the
alimentary canal; and the thread fungi penetrate from without
through the skin or spiracles ; (2) Death from a schizomycosis 18
followed by rapid decay, which soon reduces the tissues to a putr
Entomology. 367
fluid; while after death from a hyphomycosis the often flaccid
body hardens and mummifies without decay, usually swelling to
more than its usual size, and frequently becoming covered with a
flour-like efflorescence of spores or spore-like bodies.
These last characters distinguish the hyphomycoses from the
_pébrine, — the body mummifying in the latter, but shriveling at
the same time and never covering itself with spores, unless with
those of a common mould of post mortem development. Further,
the pébrine mummy contains only the minute oval spores of the
parasite, while that of a hyphomycosis contains either a mass of
mycelial threads or large thick-walled, spherical spores, — the
lasting spores of the Hntomophthora, or, possibly, both spores and
mycelium together,
Examples of Schizomycoses, diseases produced by bacteria, are
and fi
Jlacherie of the silkworm and foul brood of bee larvæ. Amon
the hypomycoses are muscardine a e common house-fly
fungus, a In fact, nine-tenths of the adult and
THE PROGENITORS oF Myriapops AND Insects. — Under
this title Professor B. Grassi! discusses the classification of the
Thysanura, describes several new species of Lepisma, gives an
account of the anatomy of } nd Lepismina, and discusses
the musculature of Thysanura. The last topic is. of especial
Interest at this time as bearing on the separation, proposed by
Brauer, of insects into two groups of equivalent rank, the Apterygo-
genea and the Pterygogenea, the former group containing only the
Thysannra, the latter, all other insects. Professor Grassi was
unable to discover in the musculature of Thysanura any indication
of the previous existence of wings, thus confirming Brauer’s view
that these insects were “ originally wingless,” instead of, as in the
case of wingless forms in the higher orders, being descended from
Winged ancestors.
The longest article contained in the Proceedings of the
Zoological Soci Mr. E. B.
in insects. Tt contains the tabulated results of extensive experi-
mental researches,
* Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. XIX. (1887), pp. 52-74.
368 General Notes.
EMBRYOLOGY. !
RUDIMENTS OF TRUE CALCIFIED TEETH IN THE YOUNG OF
ORNITHORHYNCHUS. *—Mr. E. B. Poulton, in a brief communication
to the Royal Society, announces the discovery of the germs of true
calcified teeth in the young of the Duck-bi?l, of 8.3 centimetres in
length. The sections had been prepared by Professor W. N. Parker
for Dr. W. K. Parker, who very generously placed them at the dis-
posal of Mr. Poulton, and also urged the latter to publish the account
of his discovery, offering, in addition, still other materials, not only
of Ornithorhynchus, but also of Echidna. Dr. Parker had laid the
sections in question aside for a time (owing to the pressure of other
work), to eventually make use of them for the purpose of studying
the skull, when Mr. Poulton borrowed the preparations for the pur-
pose of continuing his studies on epidermic structures—with the
result announced; and under the circumstances his association
with this discovery is, therefore, purely accidental ;—yet every true
naturalist will appreciate the rare generosity of spirit which Dr.
Parker has shown in allowing the independent publication of the
results.
Tooth-germs, or, rather, young not-yet-erupted teeth, were found
in both jaws; and they were found in such a position as to indicate
that they probably represent some part of the molar series in the
higher mammals, Examining the sections from the front backwards,
the first tooth appeared a little behind the anterior margin of the
epithelial elevation, which seems to represent the developing horny
plate, which, in the adult, is the functional representative of true
calcified teeth. The teeth seem to form a tolerably straight line,
extending internally to the horny plates, and passing considerably
further backwards than the latter. Owing to imperfections in this
part of some of the sections, the author could not determine the exact
number of teeth with accuracy ; but they appear to be five or six In
number on each side. The most anterior tooth-germ is different 0
character from the others, and is apparently separated from them by
an interval which is longer than in other cases. This anterior tooth
is the most developed, and its apex extends so far towards the sur-
face of the oral mucous membrane that it nearly touches the epi-
thelium. Itisa pointed cylindrical tooth, directed vertically down-
wards. The four or five posterior teeth are of uniform ree te
The structure of the enamel-cap is éntirely normal, except that
capillaries are present in the middle membrane (reticulum), intrud-
ing from without. The inner layer of long enamel-cells is very
1 Edited by Prof. Jno. A. Ryder, University of Penna., Philadelphia.
2 Proc. Royal Society. Vol. XLIII, 1888, No. 263, pp. 353-356.
Embryology. 369
distinct. No enamel is formed from them at this stage, except,
probably, in the case of the most anterior tooth. The dentine-germ
was found quite normal in appearance; the depressed, superiorly
conical pulp-mass resembles that seen in other Mammalia, and, as
in some other forms, this is to some extent embraced around the
sides and below by the in-curved lower edges of the dome-shaped
enamel organ, which, as in other forms, is superimposed upon the
pulp. Dentinal tubules and odontoblasts can be made out in the
vicinity of the apex of the pulp-mass.
ere can be little doubt that these structures are characteristic
mammalian teeth, as supposed by their discoverer. Hertwig’s
researches serve to show that mammalian teeth ‘are probably in a
more ancestral condition than any other organ by the
ancestors—and yet existing Prototheria were not known to possess
them. Their occurrence in Ornithorhynchus, therefore, supplies the
step just where it is wanted ; and the fact that they are practicall
identical with the young teeth of higher mammals is a further indi-
cation of the ancestral nature of these structures; for other higher
mammalian features represented in the Prototheria are profoundly
modified in the latter.
Mr. Poulton, in conclusion, announces his intention of tracing
the further fate of the teeth of Ornithorhynchus in later stages, for
which purpose Dr, Parker has also placed additional materials at
his disposal.
THE ECTOBLASTIC ORIGIN oF THE WoLFFIAN Duct IN CHE-
LoNIA.'—In a note with the above title, K. Mitsukuri, of Tokio,
Japan, gives a short account of his researches upon the develop-
ment of the segmental ducts of Trionyx japonica (Schleg.) and Emys
pi flotin (Gray). The author has found stages which show that the
olffian duct arises from cells proliferated from the ectoblast, just
opposite the region of the intermediate cell-mass. As described by
others in other forms, these ducts in Chelonians are found by
Mitsukuri to develop from before backwards.
ti Aa OF THE WOLFFIAN DUCT IN LacERTILIANS.—Inves-
gations upon the development of Lacerta agilis, L. lis,
and . viridis by J. von Perenyi? confirms and extends his obser-
` Vations upon the ectoblastic origin of the segmental ducts in this
and other forms. Interesting observations are also recorded by
Perenyi in the above-cited note on the development of the amnion
and allantois of Lacerta.
, Zoolog. Anzeiger, XI, 1888, No. 273, p. 111.
* Zoolog. Anzeiger, XI, 1888, No. ord a 138-141,
370 General Notes.
THE ORIGIN OF THE Mamma.'—In this note, W. Haacke
figures and describes the temporary marsupium of Echidna, and
reasserts his claim to the priority of the discovery of the oviparity
of the Monotremata. The conclusion is reached that the glands sub-
serving a mammary function in these creatures are developed from
sudoriparous glands, while in other mammals the mammary organs
have been developed from sebaceous glands. Two apparently care-
fully-drawn figures of this pouch are given, which disappears after
the single ovum is hatched. is pouch is not to be confounded
with that described by Gegenbaur and Owen as occurring in this
animal,
PHYSIOLOGY.”
DOES THE VOLUME OF A MuscLE CHANGE During ITs CON-
TRACTION ?—It has long been a disputed point whether or not the
bulk of a muscle alters during its contraction. As far back as the
middle of the seventeenth century it was the subject of investiga-
tion by Glisson, Borelli, Swammerdam and others, but their meth-
ods allowed of errors so great as to make their results nearly worth-
less. The first to observe by a fairly trustworthy method that the
volume of a muscle is slightly lessened during contraction was
Erman, about 1812.
Erman’s method consisted in placing the muscle in a cylinder
filled with water, and, during contraction of the muscle, observing
the level of the water in a narrow capillary tube connected with
e vessel. With every stimulation of the muscle Erman noted a
slight fall of the fluid in the capillary. Some time after this,
Johannes Miiller suggested that the sinking of the level observed
by Erman was caused, not by the diminution in bulk of the muscle
itself, but by the compression of the air in the spaces between the
fibres. Erman’s experiments were thereupon repeated by Marchand
and Ed. Weber who eliminated this possible source of error by
killing the animals under water. Nevertheless they still observed
a fall of the water in the capillary, precisely as Erman had done
before them. -
In more recent times Kühne has reinvestigated the question, and
employed a new method, dependent on the change in specific grav- _
ity which must result from any change in volume. By this method
Kühne reached negative conclusions, for he could observe no sink-
ing of the araometer when the muscle attached to it was thrown
into tetanus.
1 Bi 4 att, VIII, No. 1, ‘ : ;
silo, nea I perea ak
of Technology, Boston, to whom communications, books for review
etc., should be sent.
Physiology. 371
On the other hand, Valentin, by the use of the balance, observed
an increase in weight of about y4,, during tetanus.
Other observers have obtained results quite as contradictory, and
it seems almost as if every investigator came to conclusions differ-
ing from those reached by his immediate predecessors. All the
while, however, the balance of evidence has appeared to be on the
side of those who claimed that there was a slight decrease in the
volume of the contracting muscle. Most of the recent text-books
state it as probable that there is this minute diminution in volume.
ere has recently been published an important paper on the
subject by Professor J. R. Ewald,! who has repeated, as closely as
possible, the experiments of Erman, Marchand, Weber and Valen-
tin. Ewald regards Erman’s method as by far the most delicate, if
conducted in the right way and under favorable conditions. He
then suggests that Erman and ‘his successors have erred in some
critical respects in the course of their experimental work.
Ewald accordingly altered Erman’s method in the following
manner: Into a glass flask two platinum wires are melted just
above the base, so that they are diametrically opposite, and reach
some millimetres down into the vessel. On the outside they form
small hooks upon which can be hung the wires leading to an induc-
tion machine. The glass stopper of the flask is hollow and ends
in a tube which is drawn out so as to be capillary.
The animal is killed under water, and the muscle without the
nerve freed from the body. The flask, stopper and capillary tube
to sink with great swiftness, owing to the expansion of the glass.
A drop of ether evaporated on a lass anion the reverse effect
>the meniscus rapidly rises. If the strength of the current be
d so that bubbles of gas begin to be formed on the elec-
trodes, it will then be seen whether a very slight increase of vol-
ume in the interior of the flask will perceptibly change the posi-
1
Pe Md (Pfliiger’s) fiir die gesammte Physiologie (1887), Bd. xli., 8.
372 General Notes.
tion of the meniscus in the capillary. Ewald did this, and with a
duration of the current so short that the bubbles on the electrodes
became just visible, he saw the meniscus bound across the whole
field of vision. By calculations based on the bore of the capillary
and the magnifying power of the microscope, he found that a loss .
of a ten-thousandth of a cubic millimeter could not have escaped
notice.
The author used also a second method, somewhat similar to that
employed by Kiihne, and obtained the same decisive negative result.
He next repeated the experiments of Valentin, which
were based on the use of a very delicate balance. Here, too, he
states that, with proper precautions for securing the accuracy of
the apparatus, there is in no case the slightest movement of the
inter.
Ewald then gives an extended account of his repetition of the
experiments of Erman, Marchand and Weber. He suggests a very
probable source of error in the failure of those observers to fix the
stopper firmly into the vessel used in the experiments. When this
and other details were attended to, he found that he could
detect with the microscope no change in the level of the meniscus
in the capillary tube.
Ewald, then, has repeated the experiments of preceding obser-
vers, has devised several new methods of greater delicacy than any
heretofore used, and has arrived always at the same conclusion—
that in no case does a muscle change in volume during contraction.
Moreover, he has shown in addition that there exist very probable
sources of error in the methods used by those investigators who
have obtained positive results. Under such circumstances we can
ly refrain from considering the question as settled beyond rea-
sonable doubt.—E. O. Jordan (Boston).
ORGANIZATION ‘OF THE AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY
itch, of n, clerk. A constitution was adopted and a
formal meeting, the first of the American Physiological Society,
followed. Officers were chosen as follows: President, H. P. Bow-
ditch ; Secretary and Treasurer, H. N. Martin, of Baltimore. These
officers, together with Professors J. G. Curtis of New York, H. C.
Wood of Philadelphia, and H. Sewall of Ann Arbor constitute the
“Council” of the society. The constitution affirms that the society
“ is instituted to promote the advance of physiology, and to facili-
tate personal intercourse between American physiologists.” The
regular annual meetings are to be held, during the winter holidays,
Physiology. 373
at places fixed by the Council; and any resident of North America
otherwise eligible (as described beyond) may be elected an Ordinary
member. There were present, in fact, representatives from places
as far apart as Montreal, Ann Arbor, Baltimore and Boston, The
Institutions represented at the meeting included Harvard Univer-
sity, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, The University
of Pennsylvania, The University of Michigan, McGill University,
The (Columbia) College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York,
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Medical Staff of
the U. S. Navy.
The present members of the society are as follows: H. G. Beyer,
U.S. Navy; H. P. Bowditch, Harvard University ; H. C. Chap-
man, Philadelphia; R. H. Chittenden, Yale University; J. G.
Curtis, New York; J. C. Dalton, New York; H. H. Donaldson,
Baltimore; F. W. Ellis, Springfield, Mass.; G. L. Goodale, Har-
vard University ; G. Stanley Hall, Baltimore; H. H. Hare, Phil-
adelphia; W. H. Howell, Baltimore; Joseph Jastrow, Baltimore ;
W. P. Lombard, New York; H. N. Martin, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity ; T. W. Mills, Montreal; C. S. Minot, Harvard University ;
S. Weir Mitchell, Philadelphia; William Osler, Philadelphia ;
Isaac Ott, Easton, Pa.; E. T. Reichert, Philadelphia; W. T. -
wick, Boston; H. Sewall, Ann Arbor; R. Meade Smith, Philadel-
pus ; V. ©. Vaughan, Ann Arbor; J. W. Warren, Boston; Wil-
iam Welch, Baltimore ; H. C. Wood, Philadelphia.
A PRACTICAL DEFINITION oF A PHysIoLoGIsT.—[In the for-
and it is very interesting to see that the physiology of to-day has so
far advanced beyond the stage of merely “ Human Physiology”
It i ysiology
go however, that with histology, pathology ~ exper-
S
mykere whole section relating to qualifications for membership read
ollows :—
374 i General Notes.
“ Any person who has conducted and published an original
research in Physiology or Histology (including Pathology and
experimental Therapeutics and experimental research in Hygiene),
or who has promoted and encouraged Physiological research, and
who isa resident of North America, shall be eligible for elections
as an ordinary member of the Society.”
It will be observed that histologyoa subject almost purely mor-
phological, is included (doubtless frm its fundamental usefulness
to the physiologist), while nothing is said of embryology, which,
though largely physiological, has passed almost wholly into the
hands of morphologists. The name “ American,” moreover, seems
here better justified by the geographical limit adopted than is usual
in the case of such organizations.
THE PLACE or BACTERIOLOGY IN MODERN Scrence.—The
preceding paragraphs may serve to show to which hemisphere of
the great biological globe this new science belongs. -For if bacte-
riology has a place anywhere, it is surely in experimental pathology
and experimental hygiene.
Botanically speaking, bacteria are of no unusual interest on the
morphological side. They are too small and too undifferentiated to
yield great morphological harvests, at least with our present means
of study. But from the physiological side they are just now with-
out a parallel among living things, both in interest and in import-
ance. The deeds which they do, the marvellous effects which they
produce, are out of all proportion to their apparent anatomy. Some
of the steps in the progress of this new physiological science will
hereafter noted in this department, and workers are cordially
invited to send to its editor brief notes, or items of interesting news
in bacteriology.
ARCHAZOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.’
At the late meeting of the Society of Anthropology, Washington,
D. C., interesting papers were read,—one by Mr. H. M. Reynolds
on the subject of Algonquin metal-smiths. The writer treated with -
care the important question whether the Indians were acquainted
with the art of smelting copper. He argued that the working of
the copper-mines of Lake Superior was not of such high antiquity
as has been supposed, and may have been continued until compara-
tively modern Indian times. “The other paper was by Mr. Jeremiah
Curtin, on Moqui myths.
1 This department is edited by Thomas Wilson, Esq., Smithsonian In- —
stitution, Washington, D.C.
Archeology and Anthropology. 375
Colonel F. A. Seeley, of the U. S. Patent Office of Washington,
is interested in the various inventions of time-keeping, and has read
a paper before the Anthropological Society in Washington on time-
keeping in Greece and Rome. He is pursuing the subject, and
invites correspondence and assistance. He proposes to trace the
existence and development of the notion of time-keeping among
savage and barbarous races; also the history of time-keeping from
its dawn down to the middle ages.
Spurious ĪNDIAN ARROWHEADS.—An enterprising individual
in the vicinity of Orwigsburg, Pa., has recently put on the market
well-made arrowheads of curious design, against which it may be
well to warn collectors. These relics, instead of being made directly
from flakes, are genuine arrowheads rechipped, thus increasing the
depth of the notches, sometimes the base of the shaft, and usually
allowing so much of the lateral edges of the anterior portion of the
arrowhead as to make it resemble at the point a small lozenge or
diamond attached to the original base by a stem. One specimen
which had been broken across was retouched, so as to permit the
original base to remain, but presented two points, the intervening
The National Geographic Society has been organized under
excellent auspices. The Hon. Gardner C. Hub is President,
and the membership amounts to two hundred.
Its fourth meeting, held 30th ult., was a symposium of geogra-
phers, ach scientist was allowed ten minutes in favor of his spe-
ros ; % a contribution to the formation of a Sa atlas of ©
sical geography. General Greely spoke for the climatic repre-
Sentation ; Conan Bartlett, foe the den and its shore; Profes-
sor Ward, for Paleo-Botany ; Dr. Merriam, the distribution of bird-
life. Mr. Henshaw’s subject was of greater interest to anthropol-
ogy. He showed the distribution of Indian yon in North
America at the dawn of its history. He presented a map made at
the Bureau of Ethnology, the result of eleven years of labor of him- —
self and Major Powell. This map covers the entire area of North
376 General Notes.
America, showing each Indian language belonging thereto, with all
their sub-divisions, separations, and migrations—so far as possible
to be discovered at this earliest epoch. This work is as interesting
as it is important, and its authors are to be congratulated upon their
success. It is to be hoped that Major Powell will have the map
published for immediate distribution without awaiting the long
tedium of the Public Printer, whose office is now being investigated
by a committee of Congress. ;
The appointment of Mr. Justice Lamar to a seat upon the bench
of the Supreme Court n the United States marks an era in the his-
tory of our country. ery one recognizes this as true politically ;
but I speak of it anthropologieally Mr. Justice Lamar is said to
be what is called in French “visuaire”—that is, mental impressions
stands the thought best by seeing the pe page, while the “audi- .
taire” receives his best impression by hearing. In the Supreme
Court the arguments of counsel are, of course, oral; and how Mr.
ustice Lamar, with this peculiarity of mental organization, will
adapt himself to his new position remains to be seen
These differences in human mental organization are well known
to anthropologists. As some men can understand better when they
see, and others when they hear, so some can think better when spei
speak than when they write ; while others are the contrary.
ernor Corwin of Ohio, was a notable illustration. Whether in the
Senate, in the House of Re gag epii at the bar, or on the stump,
asan orator he was ead i by few and excelled by none. He
thought well and clearly when on his feet. Amid all his wit and
humor he was a most consummate lcin, and could carry on the
thread of an abstruse argument and support it by most cogent rea-
soning. But as Governor or cabinet officer, his state papers were
not above the ordinary. Taking’ a pen in his hand, his thoughts
seemed to scatter, and his writing was common lace. Addressing
the multitude, his thoughts seemed to crystallize into most beauti-
ful forms, and he spake as one inspired. e causes of these differ-
ences have never been discovered. They are suggested aş a theme
for the student—biologist or anthropologist—as instructive as they
are interesting.
“T/Homme Avant L’Historre.”—This is a new book on
subject of prehistoric man, written by M. Ch. Debierre, mir r
in Paris. The author is a professor in the faculty of medicine at
Lyons, France. M. Cartailhac, while giving it credit for muc
that is useful and interesting, criticises somewhat severely the mass
of errors which he finds therein. Thus, page 141: “There are
Archeology and Anthropology. 377
stations where the debris of human work united the two ages
(paleolithic and neolithic), and testify the passage from one to the
other.” i
nothing to prove this.”
Of the neolithic age the author says, “‘ The reindeer was disap-
pearing from the country (southern France).” He should have
said, “ had already disappeared.”
gain, “some of the dolmens of France are known under the
name of menhirs.” He should have said, “some of the megaliths,”
e
: “ The men of the neolithic age immolated without doubt human
ae to their gods,” ete. M. Cartailhac asks “ How do we know
is?
_ Again, “the similitude of the dolmens of India and Europe,
like those of Europe and America,” ete. M. Cartailhac says the
last word should be Africa, for we do not know of true dolmens in
America.
And, “it is nearly certain that the construction of dolmens was
perpetuated in England and in France until near the eighth cen-
tury of our era.” M. Cartailhac says “ this is a complete error.”
til y the country at large. He has been for many years the
lecturer on this science before the School of Anthropology in Paris.
He was the founder of the journal Materiaux pour L’ Histoire Prim-
ive et Naturelle De L’ Homme, now conducted by Cartailhac and
Chantre. In 1883 he established the journal Z Homme, which he
has carried on with credit to himself and profit to his readers. He
announces, with the close of the last year, the cessation of its publi-
cation. His assistants and coadjutors rank amongst the highest in
ate
logic, Thulié; Comparative Anatomy, Georges Hervé; Archeology
378 General Notes.
prehistoric, Philippe Salmon; Ethnography and Craniology,
Manouvrier; Sociology, Letourneau; Linguistic, Abel Hove-
lacque ; Folk-lore, Paul Sébillot; Mythology, Girard de Rialle ;
Geography medical, Bordier; Demography, Mondiére ; Philoso-
phy, André Lefévre.
The cause of cessation of the journal is not from failure of any
kind, but from greater devotion to science. These gentlemen, indi-
vidually and collectively, are the founders and organizers of the
Bibliothique des Sciences Contemporaines, of the Dictionaire des Sei-
ences Anthropologiques, and of the Bibliothique Anthropologique, and
they have decided to suspend, the journal that they may devote
their entire time to the two libraries and the dictionary.
he Prehistoric Anthropologists of the United States send their
wishes of fraternal good fellowship.
The enquiry started by the Smithsonian Institution in regard to
the existence and geographic distribution of the so-called “rude
and unfinished implements of the paleolithic type,” is one of high
importance in the study of American Prehistoric Anthropology-
Responses have been received from thirty States and Territories,
the implements already noted amount to between six and seven
thousand, and their distribution extends nearly all over the United
States. Several hundred implements have been sent to the Institu-
tion, some of which do not belong to any paleolithic age, but many
of them do. None seem to have been found in the mounds.
The implements themselves are of no merchantable value. The
Institution desires them principally for verification, to see that they
are really paleolithic implements, and not the leaf-shaped spear and
arrow heads so common; also to know their geographic distribu-
tion. It wishes to know, approximately, how many have been
found within a given district or State, if there has been anything
peculiar in their finding, position or locality, especially with refer-
ence to river gravel drift.
e present examination is tentative and does not attempt to deal
with the antiquity of this paleolithic age, but only to discover if
there was such an age in America, and, if so, whether i had
any extended existence. The attention of the average relic collector
has never been called to this sort of specimen, and they have not
usually been gathered. It will be something gained for science,
to know how these implements are distributed over the Unit
States, and especially their relationship to the glacial moraines.
Microscopy. 379
MICROSCOPY.!
A New METHOD FOR THE MicroscopicaL STUDY OF THE
Buioop.*—The methods hitherto employed in preparing the blood
for microscopical examination have aimed either at the production
of fresh or of dry preparations. Preparations of the first class are
not permanent, and those of the second class never exhibit the mor-
phological elements intact. Dr. Biondi has worked out a method
which combines the advantages, and is free from the defects, of
previous methods. The problem was to find the means of perfect
ation, preservation, imbedding, and mounting—in other words, a
method by which the blood could be treated as a solid tissue. The
method is equally useful in the study of other organic fluids, and
has been successfully employed in tracing the changes that take
place in the maturation of the spermatozoa. It may doubtless be
sity advantage in the study of Infusoria, as suggested by
iondi.
The point of chief interest in Biondi’s method is the use of agar
as an imbedding material. Agar is a vegetable gelatine, obtained
from Gracilaria lichenoides and Gigartina speciosa, and has already
been successfully employed for some time by Koch in bacteriologi-
cal investigations. Among the different sorts of agar, the colum-
nar form Saulen-Agar) is considered the best. A perfectly trans-
parent solution is required, in the preparation of which great care
must be taken. This may be accomplished in the following man-
ner: Place two parts of agar in 100 parts of distilled water, leav-
ing 1t to soften for twenty-four hours at the ordinary room temper-
ature ; then heat to boiling on the sand-bath until the agar is all
dissolved. The evaporation of the water may be checked by clos-
ing the flask with a cork provided with a long glass tube. Add
carbonate of sodium to the point of weak alkaline reaction, and
for an hour in a steam-apparatus. Pour the solution into
long, slender test-tubes, and leave from twelve to twenty-four
ours at a temperature of 50° to 60°C. The solution separates
into two layers, the upper of which is quite clear, and this layer
alone can be used for imbedding purposes. But clarification must
be carried still farther before it is fit for use. The clear put
egg added, the mixture shaken up several times in the course of
ten minutes, boiled for an hour in the steam-apparatus, and then 7
Bi D. Biondi. Neue Methode der mikroskopischen Untersuchung des
utes. Arch. f. mik. Anat., xxxi., 1, p. 103, Dec., 1887.
380 General Notes.
red. The reaction should then be tested, and, if necessary,
carbonate of sodium added until the solution is neutralized. Exact
neutralization is necessary, in view of the staining fluid to be
employed.
It is important that the mass should be kept sterile up to the
moment of using, as otherwise a large number of micro-organisms
may develop in it, and render it worthless for the finer uses. It
is advisable, therefore, to keep the mass in test-tubes, limiting the
quantity placed in each to the probable requirements of a single
imbedding operation. For a single preparation of the blood five
ccm. of the mass is sufficient. The test-tubes should be cleansed
with hydrochloric acid and then washed with distilled water. After
receiving the agar solution, the tubes are closed with cotton, and
then sterilized in the steam-apparatus for half an hour daily on
three successive days.
As the preparation of the agar mass is somewhat complicated,
much time and trouble may be saved by turning this work over to
some apothecary. König of Berlin (Dorotheenstrasse, 29) furnishes
the mass prepared as above described.
The best medium of fixation for the elements of blood is a 2 per
cent. solution of osmic acid. If a drop of blood from the frog be
examined in this medium under the microscope, it will be seen that
_ both the red and the white corpuscles are perfectly preserved in
form and structure. The red corpuscles become a little paler than
in the living condition, and are slightly browned. The corpuscles
of mammalian blood are isolated and seen to greater advantage
than in any other medium of fixation. As it is important that the
acid should be perfectly clear and free from all impurities, it is well
to filter before using.
Method of Procedure.—1. By the aid of a clean pipette, take a
little blood from the heart of a frog, and allow two drops to fall
into 5 ccm, of osmic acid (2 per cent.). Shake a little—the sooner
the better—in order to separate the elements and scatter them
through the whole body of the acid. After standing awhile, the
blood corpuscles will be found at the bottom of the tube, the deeper
layer being formed mainly of red corpuscles, which sink first by
virtue of their greater specific gravity. Exposure, one to twenty-
four hours. ‘
2. The process of fixation completed, 4 to 5 drops of the mix-
ture of blood and osmic acid are allowed to fall from a pipette
into the melted agar, which is kept fluid at a temperature of 35
to 37°C. By rotating the test-tube, the blood corpuscles are dis-
tributed through the agar, and then the whole is poured into &
aper box, as in the ordinary paraffine method of imbedding.
Within a few minutes the mass stiffens, and may be removed from
the box to 85 per cent. alcohol for hardening. In three to SIX
Microscopy. ast
days the mass is hard enough for sectioning, and may be inclosed
in elder pith and cut with the microtome.
ner sections are required than can be obtained in this way,
the agar block may be imbedded in paraffine in the following
manner : e block is to be transferred from the 85 per cent.
alcohol to bergamot oil (twenty-four hours), then direct to soft
paraffine kept at a temperature of 45°C. After one to two hours,
the imbedding process may be completed in the usual way. As
the agar is saturated with paraffine, very fine sections may be
obtained ; and these may be freed from paraffine with the usual sol-
vents, and then stained.
4. Sections may be clarified, preparatory to mounting, in bal-
sam or damar, in clove oil, origanum oil, bergamot oil, creosote,
nase Xylol alone should not be used, as it causes the sections to
curl.
Boverrs METHOD oF PREPARING THE Eces OF ASCARIS.
MEGALOCEPHALA.'—1, The egg-sacks are plunged for a few sec-
onds into boiling absolute alcohol which contains 1 per cent.
glacial acetic acid.? The eggs are thus killed instantly, and at the
same time the egg-membrane is rendered penetrable to the reagents..
The alcohol is allowed to cool gradually, and after a few hours the
eggs are transferred to pure alcohol, colored, and examined in glyc-
erine or clove oil. This method shows the achromatic spindles and
a. chromatic ‘equatorial plates, but mot a trace of protoplasmic
rs
2. The following mixture was used cold, with excellent results.
A saturated solution of picric acid is diluted with twice its volume
of water, and then 1 per cent. glacial acetic acid is added. __
e egg-sacks are left at least twenty-four hours in this mixture,
then washed in 70 per cent. alcohol, stained in Grenacher’s alco-
p. daaeodor Boveri. Zellen-Studien. Jenaisch. Zeitschr., xxi., 3 and 4,
* Van Gehuchten calls attention to the fact that acid alcohol was used
Prof. Tany long before Zacharias published his method. Carnoy
employed the following mixtures : ;
absolute alochol......... 6 vol.
tie acid
OQIOPOPOPI ein ciciscsiiny edie acne 3 vol
Chloroform renders the action of the reagent more rapids Vide, La.
Cellule, t. III., f. 1, p. 6and f. 2, p. 276. a
382 General Notes.
holic borax-carmine (twenty-four hours), transferred to 70 per cent.
alcohol plus 1 per cent. hydrochloric acid (twenty-four hours), and
finally placed in pure alcohol.
or examination, glycerine is preferred to clove oil. If the egg-
sacks are removed from alcohol to a mixture of glycerine (1 part)
and absolute alcohol (3 parts), and then allowed to stand until the
alcohol has evaporated, the eggs do not shrink. It will be found,
however, that the eggs are not all equally well preserved with the
cold mixture, owing probably to individual differences in the con-
stitution of the membranes, some being more, others less, perme-
able to the fixing reagent.
AN INEXPENSIVE SECTION-SMOOTHER.—The cut shows a device
for preventing the curling of paraffine sections, which is extremely
simple and easily made. After cutting off the head and point of
an ordinary brass pin, fix it parallel to the edge of the knife by
pressing its ends into two small pellets of beeswax. The pro
elevation is easily determined by testing on the waste paraiiine
before the object is reached. The pin can only be used with the
transverse knife. With the knife set obliquely, a piece of drawn
wire will serve the same purpose.—H. C. Bumpus.
TABLETS FOR ANATOMICAL PREPARATIONS.—Lhe following
information respecting the materials used for mounting tablets 1m
the Museum of Comparative Zoology has been furnished by Pro-
fessor E. L. Mark :—
For dry objects, various materials haye been used at different
times: (1) Glass painted on one side; (2) plaster of Paris slabs,
white or colored ; (3) pasteboard ; (4) wood, thin layers glued, with
grain running at right angles; (5) slate; (6) cement, The last
is worthless. Slate is now preferred.
Samuel Garman was the first to use the plaster tablets for alco-
holic preparations. In the Annual Report of the Curator for
1877-8, p. 25, Mr. Garman says: “It is found that by mounting
the majority of the Sauria and Batrachia on plaster tablets in jars
of alcohol their value for purposes of exhibition is greatly enhanced.
This takes considerable labor ; but once mounted, they will need no
further attention for a long period.”
Garman used these tablets in his own room as early as 1875, but
they were not introduced into the exhibition rooms until 1877.
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 383
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
UNITED STATES NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ScrEeNcEs. — The
Academy met in Washington, commencing April 17th, 1888, and
remained in session until April 20th, inclusive. The following
papers were read :—“ The Rotation of the Sun,”' J. E. Oliver ;
“ The Foundations of Chemistry”! T. Sterry Hunt; “On an Im-
proved Form of Quadrant Electrometer, with Remarks upon its
bon and its Existence in the Sun,”* H. A. Rowland ; “ The Char-
acteristics of the Orders and Sub-Orders of Fishes,” * Theo. Gill;
= The Serpent-Mound and its Surroundings,”* F. W. Putnam;
The Systematic Relations of Platypsyllus as Determined by the
Larva,”* ©, V. Riley (presented by Theo. Gill); “ On the Position
of the Nova of 1572, as Determined by Tycho Brahe,”* C. H. F.
Peters ; “Some Notes on the Laramie Groups,”* J. S. Newberry ;
‘a the Structure and Relations of Placoderm Fishes,”* J. S.
P Six new members of the Council were elected, as follows :—
Hes Brush, Langley, Pickering, Remsen, Gould, and Gen.
eigs. Four new members of the Academy were elected—Profes-
‘Read April 17. # Read April 18. * Read April 19. ‘Read April 20.
384 General Notes.
sors Michael and Michelson and Messrs. Chandler and G. B
Goode. A rule was adopted which provides that the lists of papers
of candidates for election to membership should be printed and
circulated among the members, at least sixty days before the meeting
of the Academy.
The Academy adjourned, to meet in New Haven in November
next.
BIOLOGICAL Society oF WASHINGTON, March 24th, 1888.—
The following communications were read :—Dr. Cooper Curtice,
“ Tenia fimbriata, a New Parasite of Sheep ;” Mr. Charles Hal-
lock, “‘ Reversion of Domesticated Animals to a Wild State.”
April 7th, 1888.—The following communications were read :—
Captain J. W. Collins, “The Work of the Schooner Grampus in
Fish Culture ;’ Mr. Chas. D. Walcott, “Cambrian Fossils from
Mount Stephens, Northwest Territory of Canada ;” Professor C.
V. Riley, “Some Notes from Emin Pasha’s Travels in Central
Africa ;’ Dr. Theobald Smith, “ The Destruction of Pathogenetic
+ »
Bacteria in the Animal Organism.
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. MAY, 1888. No. 2567
GUATEMALA FORESTS.
BY MILES ROCK.
: a general view over the surface of Guatemala we observe a
great difference in the character of the vegetable covering.
Little of this difference can be due to change in latitude, as the
whole Republic lies within the parallels of 13° 44’ and 17° 49’,
or extends only about 4 degreees north and south. In longitude,
it lies between 78° 8’ and 92° 10’ west of Greenwich, or extends
also 4° east and west. Roughly it is in the form of a square, of
which these dimensions of 4° are the diagonals. This country is
the northwestern one of the five Central American republics, and
covers about one-fourth of their entire area, and is about as large
as the State of Pennsylvania, 43,000 square miles, but has hardly
one-third the number of inhabitants—say one and one-third
millions.
What, then, are the causes of the plant diversity? They are,
undoubtedly, Ist, elevation above sea level; 2d, meteorological
influence of topographical features on climate; and 3d, influence of
the ancient inhabitants. The first I take to be the most important
cause. We have first the hot climate of the coasts, extending from
sea-level to altitudes of 3000 feet, and including
(a) The Pacific Coast plain, some 40 miles wide and 135
ong, covering 4500 square miles.
2 (6) The Caribbean Sea Coast plain, some 60 by 20 miles,
including the valleys of the rivers Sarstun, Dulce, Polichie, Matagua
and Zacapa, and Lake Yzabal, or Golfo Dulce, covering 3200
Square miles,
386 Guatemala Forests.
(c) The Gulf region, or part of the great plain entering north-
ward from the Sierra Madre, or Cuchumatanes Mountains to the
Gulf of Mexico, about 150 miles square, including (1) the basin
of the river Neumacinta and its four great affluents, the rivers
San Pedro, Lacantun, Chixoy and Pasion, and the narrow valleys
of their upper branches, covering some 16,000 square miles; (2)
the valleys of the Lagartero and Salegná rivers, 250 square miles;
and (3) the valley of the Cuilco River, 50 square miles, the last
three rivers being the upper affluents of the Chiapas River, all
these regions together making 24,000 square miles of tierra caliente,
or more than one-half the entire country.
Secondly: A great mountain system running nearly east and
west from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Gulf of Honduras
occupies the middle of Guatemala between the Pacific and the Gulf
plains, in a succession of axes of elevation, vaults and escarp-
ments, overlapping or arranged en echelon. In some ten places
these mountains attain elevations of 10,000 to 12,000 feet, and
elevations 8000 to 9000 feet are numerous. Between these are
the many deep erosion valleys, pre-tertiary, which, in the eastern
and northern parts of the country, are in the low, hot lands, but in
the western and southern parts are filled in with volcanic debris,
some trachyte, but mostly ashes, forming extensive and curiously
level plains, surrounded by high mountains. These ash plains are
from 5000 to 7000 feet above the sea, and form the larger part of
the temperate region, or tierra templada, and are the sites of most
of the cities and large towns, the seat of most of the population,
and mostly cleared and cultivated, now and since remote times, aS
shown by ancient remains. These plains are often traversed by
impassable barrancos, or ravines with vertical sides eroded through
the ash beds since Pliocene times, by small swift rivers, often to
depths of 300 or 400 feet.
The temperate regions, from 3000 to 9000 feet above the sea,
cover about 15,000 square miles, or one-third of the whole
surface of the Republic. |
Thirdly: We have the remaining one-tenth of the country, OF
4000 square miles, rising above 9000 feet, and in at least two
table lands, those of Ixchignan and Chémal, extensive table lands
at 11,000 and 11,500 feet, and which are traversed by ridges 1000
feet higher, and finally, there are six volcanic cones attaming —
. from 13,000 to 14,000 feet elevation.
Guatemala Forests. 387
I have one comment more to make on the face of the country to
complete the view, as the matter is usually misunderstood. The
twelve or more volcanoes of Guatemala, of which only two show
a slight activity, do not form the culminating points of its moun-
tain masses, but are seated on the southern slopes, facing the
Pacific, shooting up in beautiful symmetrical cones, with straight
slopes almost from the sea-level to the point, looming up, viewed
from the Pacific, in solitary grandeur, 3000 feet above the lofty
sierras behind them. It is one of the great and inspiring sights of
the world to thus see close together the three cones of Agua,
Fuego and Acatenango, and the Spaniards could not help but place
them on the escutcheon of Guatemala as the symbol of this beautiful
land.
Let us begin at the top of one of these towering, awe-inspiring
volcanoes, 14,000 feet above the sea, as Agna, or Tajumulco or
Tacaná, and take a general view of the vegetation on our way
down to the sea-level. On Tajumulco I spent two days and on
Tacan4 eight, to make observations. It was bitterly cold, day and
night, reaching 8° F. above zero. The piercing winds blew at
times so one could hardly stand up. Large lava stones were piled
against the tripod to keep the theodolite from falling over. Hail
storms, with terrific lightning and crashing thunder enveloped us.
Owing to rarity of air some of the people became sick and had to
be sent down. The volcano was extinct (Tajumulco), but several
acres of calcined and crumbling rock, and fissures and holes lined
with sulphur crystals and incrustations show that not many years
ago it burned. On a part of the crater rim were stuck many
_€rosses and notched sticks where the Indians come to perform
‘their ancient religious rites. On Tacaná two Chinams (priests)
came up and performed a sacrificial rite with a turkey in my
presence after I convinced them that I was from another country
and would not betray them, for such rites are forbidden. The
view extended over the coast plain and many miles over the Pacific
to an indistinguishable horizon, where sea and sky blended ; but
at sunset one could see where it came, apparently up in the sky.
Round about the crater was only sterile desolation, but on
descending one soon sees dry grasses, low weedy herbs and stunted
Pines and cedars. From 500 to 1000 feet below begin pine
forests that extend down to 9090 feet above sea-level. There are
*
388 Guatemala Forests.
also other trees and shrubs and flowers, the last mostly at the top
of precipices, the sides of waterfalls, or wherever the sun can get
to the ground.
In tropical woods there is not such a profusion of beautiful
flowers as in the colder climates; they are too meek and lowly, can
get no sun, and are choked out. I have noticed that where trees
can get no hold, as on precipices, the rocky banks of rivers, or on
narrow promontories jutting into lakes, a great variety of flowers
occur ; also in abandoned mountain meadows, where the ancient
people cleared the forests away, I have noticed ranunculi, violets,
geraniums, fuchsias, begonias, composite, lilies, hortleb y,a utilon
malvas, the wild dahlia, and a host of others.? This general shut-
ting out of the sun from the ground accounts not only for the lack
of wild flowers, but also for the striking abundance of twining and
climbing plants. On the higher volcanic slopes are many vines,
and among others a blackberry and a tomato that go straight up to
the tops of the highest trees before they branch out and spread their
leaves to the sun. The way to gather berries of both is to cut
down the trees, and when a tree falle the Indians run to where the
tree-tops land, to get the berries.
At places where large wet surfaces of lava have no covering of
soil, they are carpeted over with thick beds of mosses and ferns.
In descending the volcano Tacan4, when I first came to such an
open place without knowing its character, I began to slide with
the green carpet, and, there being no bushes to take hold of, kept
on at a dangerous pace until a fallen trunk stopped the avalanche.
The trade winds from the Caribbean Sea bring such abundance of
- moisture that all summits and slopes exposed to them are inces-
santly enveloped in mists, and the woods are dripping as with rain.
These are also the regions of heaviest rainfall during the rainy
season. Owing to this excessive moisture one finds the great tree-
fern growing at exceptional altitudes, at 9000 feet and over, above
the sea. They attain a height of twenty to thirty feet, and a diame-
ter of trunk of even one foot, and occur in greatest abundance on the
north slopes of the volcano Tacan4.
From 11,000 to 8000 feet is truly the forest region, characterized
by great variety and heavy growth. There are many hard woods, of
1 But orchids, epiphytes and other flowers, as well as ferns, mosses
and lichens whose habitat is on trees, abound universally throughout
the forests and at all elevations, but varying im speeies.
Guatemala Forests. 389
beautiful colors, as bright yellow and rosy red, that would be most
valuable for cabinet-making were they accessible, but to bring
them out would be too costly.
I have mentioned the pine already. There are at least three
species. One is the Océte, which is very rich in resin, and is
used all over the country for light. In every hut three stakes, or
a three-forked stake, is driven into the earth floor ; a flat stone, or
water-jar, is placed on top about three feet from the ground, and
on this a few finely-split sticks of Océte are kept burning, and
a child has the duty of replenishing it from time to time with
fresh sticks,
I have seen mule-loads of these split sticks on the way to city
markets, and in Guatemala city the Ocóte sticks hold their own
against the electric light. In the low country, in districts where no
Océte grows, some trunk discovered on a river bank, borne down
from the mountains by freshets, is a treasure, and supplies the inhabi-
tants with light until it disappears piecemeal. This pine grows at
all elevations in the temperate and cold climates, and is the charac-
teristic tree on the volcanoes, on the ash beds, but here mostly
cleared away except in barrancos, and in sandstone soil. There are
also some remarkable pine forests near the sea-level. We thus see
the pine growing from sea-level to the highest summits, and on the
volcanoes to over 13,000 feet high, either in exclusive forests or
mixed with other trees. There is a species of pine that is of rare
occurrence in the temperate belt. It is called the “ holy pine,” but
I have not learned the reason. Perhaps because crosses can be
easily cut from the limbs, from its regular opposite branching. Its
needles are very long, and bark smooth.
There is a curious tree belonging to the order of the Composite
that is confined to a particular elevation in a marked way. It is
rather gnarled and crooked in shape, but with trunks over a foot
in diameter, and reaching a height of thirty feet. Its leaves are
willow-shaped, nearly a foot long, glossy green above and white to-
mentose beneath, and clustered at the end of the branches. The
flowers are yellow, sunflower-like, an inch or more across, and -
arranged in large racemes. This tree is so entirely wanting at
lower levels, and so regularly makes its appearance at 10,000 feet
above the sea, that we call it “our 10,000-footer.” It hardly
extends 1000 feet in vertical range. At these elevations occurs another
390 Guatemala Forests.
curious tree looking like a gigantic laurel bush, much twisted,
gnarled and recumbent, with a smooth red bark, peeling off like
the buttonwood.
Another tree of limited range is the Pinabete, a spruce. I
have noticed it on the Pacific side, at elevations of 9000 feet.
It has given its name, Pinabete, to a range of mountains on which
it is common.
At the upper limit of the temperate belt begins the occurrence
of the cedar, or cypress, a lofty tree of large diameter, forming an
extensive forest on the table land of Serchil, east of the volcano
Zajumulco. In single trees and groups it occurs on many moun-
tains, and especially in the great steep mountain ravines. This
tree is much used by the natives in their constructions, being 80
easily worked. It is especially used for making planks. These
are made by edging a section of a trunk of proper length on oppo-
site sides until the finished plank remains. The trees are of such
diameter that a single width serves for benches, tables and doors.
A cedar, perhaps a different species, grows in the hot country,
and is used to make cayukas, or dug-out canoes, and oars. They
are light and durable, and large trunks make canoes that carry
many people or heavy loads of corn or salt, perhaps four or five
tons. They are very sea-worthy, I have safely crossed a lake in
one in a storm when the waves ran three to four feet high.
The most characteristic tree of Guatemala is one whose name or
botanical relations I have not learned. It is the tree that densely
covers all the higher summits. In the case of pines, cedars an
oaks, it is a question whether the forest is primeval, or has grown
upon ground once cleared and cultivated, but these summit forests
have clearly never been touched by man, and in the deep recesses of
these woods among mossy rocks, in dripping mists and -shut in
from the sun one can feel that he is where no human being has
ever been before. These trees have large and lofty bare trunks, in
appearance like our white oak, but the tops, from the small, glossy
green leaves and the dense spray look like the box, and we call it
the “box-tree.? Where these forests occur I have never found
any ruins, and I am sure man has never occupied that ground. On
those table lands and slopes where the forests of this tree have been
cut off, they do not appear to grow again, but are replaced by
pine, or remain clear and afford pasture for flocks of sheep, from
which the Indians derive the wool for their clothing and blankets.
Guatemala Forests. 391
These extensive pastures are close-cropped, and poor because of
two creeping herbs that carpet the ground, flat and close-pressed to
the surface. One of these is a geranium. These pastures have
existed probably for centuries, and are mostly above 9000 feet.
Below this altitude, next below these pastures, considerable wheat is
grown ; also some corn, but this does not thrive well above 8000
feet, but below that elevation it is the principal crop to the sea-
level, and is the universal and chief food of all the people.
At 8000 to 9000 feet we are also in the region of the potato.
These are small, but have such a nutty and delicious flavor that,
cooked in their jackets one can eat them like nuts, without any
accompaniment ; not even salt seems necessary. They are never
planted, but in the dry season a row of men and women begin at
the bottom of a slope and hoe the ground down-hill-ward, picking
up all the tubers that appear, and enough remain for seed for the
next crop, while at the same time the ground is made mellow for
their sprouting, all over the ground as if they had been sown-
These potatoes are packed in nets or large leaves lined with grass,
and carried on the Indian’s back to the lower country and the
cities for sale,
To make the story complete I must add oats to the list for this
region, but they are raised only to a small extent, and not at all by
Indians, and only for the horses of the hated white man.
And now we must descend lower and leave this lovely and
attractive region of bright sun and balmy breezes on one day, or
on one side of a mountain, and of driving mists and chilly winds on
the other. The conditions of life seem near perfection, no enervat-
ing heat, no insects, no malaria, seldom frost, and no snow, hail,
or other inclemency. It is a sanitarium unexcelled, and would be
a perfect resort for summer or winter, and may be when the Inter-
Continental Railway is built. On these charming alfos.and table-
lands the native races have lived for ages, slowly gaining headway
on the forests and deriving a subsistence, as do their descendants
at the present day, by the cultivation of corn chiefly, and also frijol,
or black beans, potatoes, a sweet pumpkin, and chile, or red pep-
pers. As now, they made their picturesque clothes from the cotton
of the hot lands, and the wool of the cold. But, though they
lived ina Paradise, and perhaps for that fact, they do not seem to
392 Guatemala Forests.
have lived in peace. The many languages surviving to this day in
mere fragments of tribes, in isolated patches, and often mixed,
would seem to show that many different peoples came here and.
took possession of the fruit of previous occupants, and were in
their turn subdued or driven away from their mountain fields.
Thus the cupidity and necessity of races or classes is ever making
turmoil and changing the established order. These people seem
fixed to their soil, like the very trees. Sometimes a village seems
all that remains of a race, surrounded by other languages, unintel-
ligible to it.. The languages, traditions, and racial characters of
the various tribes of Guatemala Indians area rich field for the
study of anthropologists, and is almost unknown, save what the
German, Dr. Behrendt, did in his short life, and whose manu-
scripts fortunately fell into the hands of our own accomplished
anthropologist, Dr. Brinton, of Philadelphia, who is giving the
results to the world.
As we descend below 8000 feet the oak becomes an important
element in the forests. There are several species of the scrub,
black and willow, or chestnut kinds, and none like our white or
red oaks, as far as I have seen.
As the pine characterizes the lava, ash and sandstone soils, so
the oak does the limestone and schist, as well as ash soils. The oak
forests are generally more sparse than others, and seem secondary ;
that is, have overgrown ground cleared one time by the ancient
inhabitants. On lava and ash soils, especially on rocky slopes and in
barrancos, the pine and oak are often mingled. Along the ancient
Indian roads are rows of oaks, with curiously gnarled and curved
trunks, looking very ancient. This oak often divides near the
ground into two horizontal arms, and from these several vertical
trunks rise up into low trees. There are also other common trees
along the ancient paths, an elderberry of tree-like size and form,
and a euphorbia, low and gnarled, but with trunks several
inches diameter; also cactus trees, wild cherries and box elder.
At this altitude, also at 8000 feet in the upper temperate belt, occurs
our own well-known sweet gum, the Liquidambar styraciflua L.
I have'met it only on the Pacific side, and on one mountain of
the interior, forming green groves about springs and brooks on the
mountain side, while all the other trees were brown or dull in the
dry season and in the dry belt.
Guatemala Forests. 393
From 7000 to 3000 feet elevation the country is so thickly inhab-
ited, cleared and cultivated that the forests are small and unim-
- portant, except on the Gulf slope of the mountains, where the
forests are very dense and little known. I have penetrated
through them for three years, yet can hardly say I have seen them.
One must hew a path through them with axe and cutlass, and can
see only the numberless and thickly matted and intertwined vines,
lianes and briars, ferns, bamboo-grass and knife-grass, will brush
and bother unending, and the close-standing trunks of the un-
known trees; but their flowers or foliage never. After three
years I have not yet seen the leaves of the cedar, mahogany, silk-
cotton and others whose identity I have otherwise learned.
But the reason partly is that I had duties that prevented my
making a special study of such matters. I have gone up moun-
tains where the underbrush was so densely matted that my cutter
ahead would open only a tunnel next the ground high enough for
us to crawl on hands and knees for distances of several hundred
feet at a time. Such circumstances are not favorable for observa-
tions of Nature.
At these middle altitudes fruit trees come forward ; but there are
very few wild fruits—a wild plum, a wild cherry like ours, the
large zapate and the manzanilla, are all that occur tome. The
plum is yellow, and rather sour and astringent. The wild pigs, or
peccaries, of which there are three species, are very fond of them.
The monkeys, of which there are two species (the Spider and the
Howling), live to a great extent on the zapate, whose tree is large
and lofty. The Indians are also very fond of it; and make distant
excursions into the woods to hunt for it and for wild honey.
Sometimes in the depth of the woods one comes to a large zapate
tree, with a rude ladder of poles fastened to the trunk extending
up to the top, for gathering its fruit. Some families keep secret
certain zapate and bee trees, and visit them each year. Of cultivated
fruits at these altitudes there is the Agnacate (called Palta in
Peru and Alligator Pear in the West Indies), the apple and the
peach. There are few Indian villages and hamlets that are not
rosy with peach blossoms in the season. Rose bushes, too, and gera-
niums in profusion are about their huts and fences. Apples are
not so common, and appear to be of late introduction. Coffee
comes into cultivation at 6000 feet, but thrives best at 3000 to
4000 feet. ee
394 Guatemala Forests.
And now comes to our notice the silk-cotton tree, or Ceibo, with
its great buttressed trunk and its wide-spreading branches. This
tree is very common in all the lower forests down to sea-level.
The wood is light, and often used for dug-out canoes, but they
last only two years without decaying. There is another tree, with a
beautiful straight cylindrical trunk, whose wood is so soft and
elastic that an axe almost sinks into it at one blow, and can hardly
be pulled out again. There is still another peculiar tree whose
wood is so hard that, in spite of efforts, I have never known one to
be cut down, the cutters always giving up in despair, and when it
has to be removed the Indians build a fire'around it, and keep it
up until the monarch falls.
Already before we pass below 3000 feet the sugar cane and
cotton are planted, but coffee at 6000 and cane at 4000 are on rare
occasions killed by frosts, as happened winter before last, produced
by the same cold waves that carried destructive frosts to lower
Florida and Cuba. Also now occur all the well-known tropical
fruits, — mango, orange, lime, pineapple, plantain, custard apple
and banana, and they improve downwards to sea-level.
Below 3000 feet, in the tierra caliente, we are in a torrid climate.
Everywhere, except in the dry belt, vegetation is exuberant, over-
powering. Itis a hard and expensive struggle to keep ground
open enough for cultivation, and neglected ground soon reverts to
forest. Even in inhabited parts all the unused spots of ground are
so covered that houses and fields are hidden in a general view, and
it seems a marvel where all the people live who are known to in-
habit the place. But the greater part of Guatemala below 3000
feet is now uninhabited, and covered with rampart forest, primitive
or secondary. Two ancient cities are found in this forest, and at
many other places are remains, showing that in ancient times @
dense population existed where now is forest.
These forests at sea-level have been described by others in terms
of admiration and rhapsody, as by Charles Kingsley, and I need
not undertake it. I have travelled by canoe up and down various
rivers for some 800 miles, on broad expanses with views over
desolate marshes, and in profound narrow channels hemmed in by
lofty precipices, and under a leafy archway, the branches of trees
on the two banks meeting overhead. Sometimes two, opposite
fallen trees will bar the way, and an opening has to be cut. A
Guatemala Forests. 395
peculiarity is that one cannot boat along the shores, for trees over-
hang and shoot out at all angles over the water to reach the sun
with their tops. There is a:palm-tree that has the peculiarity of
sending its trunk out horizontally from the bank, only a few feet from
the water, for some forty feet, and then turning up vertically and
spreading its crown of leaves to the sun.
There are very many species of palm. Most of them are in the
hot country, and in rich, moist hollows, or on river bottoms.
Many send up their leaves in graceful sweeps from a subterranean
stock, others rear their crowns on lofty shafts. The cocoanut palm
likes the immediate sea-shore best, the manuca, flourishes along the
great rivers. There is a peculiar palm that prefers thedry belt, abounds
on rocky hills, and extends up to 5000 feet above sea, or over.
This is highly valued, its leaves being used for weaving hats and
petates, the mats or palm cloth universally used for sleeping rugs
and for wrapping baggage and goods for transportation by mules
or on the backs of Indians. Palm-leaves are very extensively
used in hut-building, especially roofing ; also by travelling parties, -
to make temporary shelters, called Chiampas, to pass rainy nights
in the woods. But it requires the skill of the Indians to make
them waterproof. In a few minutes fifty men can erect these
chiampas, and sleep dry all night in a pouring rain.
The mahogany, of which there are two or more species, never
forms a forest, but occurs in clumps or singly among other trees, —
and the same is the case with the rubber tree, of which also there
are several species. These trees occur scatteringly through all the
forests, aggregating a great total. During a freshet I have seen
hundreds of mahogany logs dashing down the rapids of the
Mumacinta River; to be caught up and loaded on ships at its
mouth on the Gulf. Also many cedar logs came down from the
upper affluent, the Ococingo River. The rubber trees are not cut.
down, but only bled at intervals, until they succumb. The white
Sap, or rubber milk, hardens in the air to brown-black, quivering
cakes, which are carried by men, mules and canoes to the sea-coast
for shipment. The rubber-hunters penetrate the woods every-
where, and endure great privations ; they have no fixed abiding-
Place, but move from tree to tree, gathering their crop pound
* On swampy sea-shores and up the swampy rivers and on coral key
the impenetrable mangrove holds sway. _
896 Guatemala Forests.
by pound. On the contrary, the mahogany-cutters, when a place
is found with enough trees for a season’s cutting, build themselves
a village of substantial huts and keep house, bring with them into
the forest wives, children, pigs, chickens, dogs, and all their
lares and penates. They may stay one year, or many. But finally,
the woods being exhausted of suitable trees, they all depart, the
houses decay and fall, the forest regrows and resumes its sway,
and all that remains years afterwards are a few stunted
banana, orange and mango trees, smothered and hidden by the
lusty native forest. There is a large tree very frequent in the dry
plains and low hills of the hot lands called the ramon tree. Its
leaves are glossy green and leathery, of small size, and afford, with
the twigs, a most nutritious fodder for cattle and mules. When
they have it they will not touch grass. Itis sweet and mucilagi-
nous. For months my mules have depended on it. I had nothing
else tu give them.
Last of all we come to the logwood, which grows only along the
margins of sluggish rivers, lagoons and marshes and in swamps at or
near sea-level. I know of two species, brazil-wood and campeachy-
wood. The latter is the most valuable, I suppose, because the
color of its decoction more closely imitates the color of the red
wines, in whose manufacture it is so extensively used. As our
imported wines bring high prices, logwood has a corresponding
value. It sells by the pound. It is a heavy wood; a stick four
feet long needs to be only a few inches in diameter to weigh 100
pounds. On account of its peculiar habitat it is hunted by canoe,
and when cut has to be carried by canoe to some shipping-point.
It cannot float. It sinks to the bottom like a stone. During the
last 300 years thousands of tons of it have been shipped from
Belize, and by accident so many logs have sunk to the bottom
of the harbor and been lost, that now, when it is proposed to
‘dredge the harbor to improve it and fill up certain shallows in the
manner of the Potomac Flats, it is believed that the recovery of
this logwood will go far towards paying for the work.
The second cause for the diversity of plant life I gave as the
meteorological influence of topographical features on climate. As
the moisture-laden trade winds from the Caribbean Sea reach the
land, and they are deflected upwards more and more as they blow
inland, and as the mountains rise higher and higher. This ascension
Guatemala Forests. 397
rarifies the air, cools it and reduces its capacity for holding aque-
ous vapor, and results in condensation and copious rainfall. It is.
like squeezing a saturated sponge. When the culminating sum-
mits of the Cuilco Mountains, the Sierra Madre, Sierra de Chania
and Sierra de las Minas are reached, the last squeeze is given to-
the sponge and the winds cross over to the interior table lands,
dry. This causes a dry belt along the leeside of these mountains.
extending from Facaná and Cuilco in the northwest by way of
Huchuetenango, Chiantla, Rabinal and Salamá to Zacapa and
Chiquimula in the southeast. As the air descends from summits of
12,000 to 8000 feet high to the interior plains of only 7000 to 1000:
feet elevation, it expands again and takes up moisture from the-
soil, dessicating the climate further and making the dry belt a very
marked feature of the country. One writer even calls the low hot
plains of Zacapa a “ desert.” The pine is very common in this belt
at all elevations in favorable situations, and also the oak above 3000
feet. In the driest parts and ‘in rocky places the character of the
vegetation is special and peculiar. Cacti, thorny mimose, and
many kinds of thorny and prickly shrubs abound. As the air
rises again, or the higher currents reach the summits of the moun-
tains facing the Pacific, the sponge, replenished from evaporation
over the dry belt, is squeezed again, causing mists and copious.
rain, and limiting the dry belt to the south and southwest.
The Pacific slope has a moist, tropical climate of its own from:
the influence of the ocean winds, and is independent of moisture
brought from the east.
Finally, I have to mention a third great cause affecting the:
forests of Guatemala; the influence of the ancient people who
cleared nearly or quite all the ground that is cultivated or pastured)
to this day, and much more besides that has become overgrown:
again with forests. The general proposition will hold that all the
clearings of the ancient people in the dry belt, and most of them in its
semi-dry borders, have remained cleared, whether cultivated and
pastured or not, excepting grass, weeds and shrubbery scattered
and in clumps. But to this general rule there is a remarkable
exception. In favorable situations, as to moisture and depth of
soil, pine forests, with some oak, cover the ancient fields and
village sites. In such clean open pine forests, terrace walls, ruined:
structures, and whole villages are found, but all very ruined andi
ancient-looking.
398 Guatemala Forests.
A great pine tree may blow over and expose under its roots a
stratum full of potsherds and other remains. Not far off open
pine woods may border on a dense primitive forest hardly pene-
trable, the line between the two sharp and distinct, showing where
the ancient axeman stayed his hewing. Pine forests also cover the
country about the ancient city of Quirigua, on the Caribbean
Coast, and I believe cover the fields of the dense population that
must have supported a city so great as shown by its numerous and
artistic sculptured remains. The city of Zikál is also hidden and
covered up in the deep woods, with some of its walled towers yet
reaching above the great forest trees, but I do not know whether
these are pines. It appears then that many primitive angiosper-
mous forests have been replaced by pine forests through the inter-
vention of the ancients, but in the moist hot regions other angio-
spermous forests have followed the primitive ones destroyed by
In the valleys of the Salegn4 and Lagartero the heavy rains
have denuded the ancient fields of their soil, leaving a stony desert
over many square miles, and where forests can never again find a
footing. And these curious stony regions now deserted and deso-
late are stre vn everywhere with remains of former populations.
In the Petten, in the northern part of the Republic, are great
areas, bare of woods, and grass-covered, called Sabanas. These
are also ancient fields, now unused and unoccupied except at a
few small villages for raising cattle. The limestone hills and
ridges remain covered with the primeval forest, and at their bases
and also at the borders of the inhabited regions the line of division
between Sabana and forest is as sharp as when the ancient man
made his clearings.
I recognize two causes that in their combined action have pre-
vented the renewal of the forest. These Sabanas are in the mid-
dle of the lowlands between the Caribbean Coast and the moun-
tains. As the saturated winds reach the forests on the Coast, their
cooling influence causes heavy precipitation, the same as a moun-
tain. The coast rains are well-known. But as the winds go over
the interior plains without ascending, no further precipitation takes
place till they reach mountains ; hence the middle plain acquires
the character of a partially dry belt, so that for several months in
the dry season no rains occur, and the ground is parched and the
vegetation partially dries up.
+
Mountain Upthrusts. 399
Now it happens that the region cleared by the ancient inhabi-
tants has a tough clayey soil of such a nature that it bakes dry and
hard in the dry season ; grass and weeds dry up, and young trees
that would germinate in the wet season are as regularly killed in
the dry. These Sabanas show numerous ancient remains; and
these and also the pine forests deserve to be thoroughly examined
by archæologists. Much might be learned to shed light on the
studies already made on the more modern ruined cities and sculp-
tured temples of Central America.
MOUNTAIN-UPTHRUSTS.
BY CHARLES A. WHITE. !
ERTAIN of the mountain ranges of the western portion of our
national domain exhibit in a clear and striking manner the
evidence that they have originated in uplifted folds of the earth’s
crust. One of the simplest and most characteristic of these orogenic
folds is the one in which the Uinta Range of mountains originated.
Other uplifts of a similar character have occurred, but which,
having been of limited longitudinal as well as lateral extent, have
resulted in comparatively small clusters of mountains, and not in
mountain ranges proper. The Black Hills of Dakota have originated
in one of these circumscribed uplifts.
In Northwestern Colorado two uplifts occur which, so far as the
character of the displacement and of the formations involved are
concerned, are similar to those which have just been referred to ;
but they have occurred within such narrow limits, respectively, that
they have each resulted in only a single mountain. The limits of each
of these uplifts are so sharply defined, and the amount of vertical
displacement of the strata involved is so great, that I have designated
them as Upthrusts
A description of these upthrusts is the special object of this article.
But as they are structurally connected with the great Uinta fold
and with other neighboring displacements, it will be necessary to
devote a considerable part of it to their description also.
1 Published by permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological
Survey, The substance of this article will be embraced in one which is
to appear in his Ninth Annual Report.
400 Mountain Upthrusts.
The great Uinta fold has usually been described as terminating
abruptly in Northwestern Colorado. As a conspicuous fold it does
so terminate there; but continuous with its axis to the eastward
there is a long, gentle anticlinal, which reaches by a broad curve to
the foot-hills of the Park Range—a western porton of the Rocky
Mountain system. This I regard as a continuation of the Uinta fold
far beyond its reputed termination, and also, in connection with other
facts, as indicating structural relationship between the Uinta and
Park Ranges. I therefore divide the Uinta fold into two portions—
namely, the Uinta fold proper, and the inceptive portion of the
same,
The Uinta fold proper is about one hundred and fifty miles in
length, and from thirty to forty miles in width at the extreme limit
of the upturned strata at either side. Its western end is blended
with the Wasatch Range in Utah, which it meets at nearly right
angles. Its eastern terminus is about thirty miles within, and east
of, the western boundary of Colorado, and about the same distance
from the northern boundary. Its axis, except the slight southward
inclination ofits eastern end, is approximately cast and west, and
at nearly right angles with that of the Park Range.
SLE ENNY
oe
Yes
FE of
ere a BOY Fer
= D DRL RS
e i a SEO
Fig, 1.—A generalized section across the Uinta Fold.
This great fold is remarkable for its simplicity, its almost entire
freedom from lateral complications, and for the extent of its vertical
displacement. Its type of uplift is also peculiar, the sides being
abrupt and the top broadly cunvex. The accompanying generalized
section across the fold (Fig. 1) indicates its general character, and
also shows the formations which are involved in it.
Mountain Upthrusts. 401
The irregular line, SS, represents the land-surface, and the straight
line, AA, the sea-level. The dotted line at either side of B represents
the depth to which Green River has cut its cafion in traversing the
Uinta Range. ‘The dotted lines above the surface-line represent the
portions of the formations which have been eroded, and the extent
to which they would have been elevated in the fold if they had
suffered no erosion.
The dotted line, ccc, is continuous with the top of the Laramie
group. This indicates that all the formations below that line were
fully involved in the fold; while the other dotted lines which lap
upon either side represent the eroded portions of the four fresh-water
Tertiary formations, which were successively less and less involved —
in the fold as the elevation progress
The initial U. indicates the Uinta a: Cb. indicates the
Carboniferous; J. T., the Jura-Trias ; D., the Dakota Group ; Co.,
the Colorado Group ; ; F. H., the Fox Hills Group; L., the Lara-
mie Group; W., the Watch Group ; G. R., the Green Hve Group;
B., the Bridger Group, and B: P., the Brown’s Park Group.
The following table gives the names and the ascertained thickness
of the formations which are more or less involved in the fold, or
which occur in its immediate vicinity :—
Brown’s Park Group...... 1200- 1800 feet.
: Bridger Group 100- 2000 ‘
Cenozoic ...... .....,. Tertiary. | Green River Group......... 1400- 2000 *“
Wasatch Group...........000 2000- 2500 *
Laramie Group !?.........+++. 2000- 7
Fox Hills Group 1800 j
Cretaceous. Chldredo Gidin 2000 t
Mesozoic....... Dakota Group. 500
Jura-Trias 2500- 5000 “'
= ee 3000 fe
Paleozoic scossi { aah EEE AS REE i Sane is sc
Archmwan
The facts upon which the construction of the foregoing general-
ized section is based indicates that all the formations, from the Uinta
Sandstone to the Laramie Group (inclusive), were fully involved in
the great fold, and that the four fresh-water Tertiary formations are
only partially involved in it. The latter formations were respectively
deposited in large fresh-water lakes, the existence, height and limits
‘There provisionally place the whole of the Laramie Group with the
Cretaceous formations,
402 Mountain Upthrusts.
of each of which were determined by the successive changes in the
configuration of the land-surface, as elevation and degradation
progressed.
Again, although the Archean rocks are theoretically represented
in that section, they have not been brought to view in the axis of
the fold, because even the immense erosion which the uplifted strata
have suffered has not been sufficient to reach them there.! There-
fore, in estimating the amount of vertical displacement which has
taken place in the Uinta fold, I have reference only to the formations
from the Uinta Sandstone to the Laramie Group (inclusive).
Now, referring to the foregoing table, we find that the minimum
thickness of these formations aggregates twenty-three thousand eight
hundred feet. Add to this five thousand feet for the height above
the level of the sea at which the lowermost strata of the Uinta
Sandstone have been observed, and we have an aggregate of twenty-
eight thousand eight hundred feet. The evidence seems to be con-
clusive.that the elevation of the fold began immediately upon the
close of the Laramie period ; and it is confidently assumed that none
of its strata were then much if any above the level of the open sea.
Hence the conclusion that the full amount of vertical displacement
in the Uinta fold has not been less than twenty-eight thousand eight
hundred feet.
The evidence derived from a study of the great fold seems also to `
be conclusive that its elevation was continued between the close of
the Laramie period and the close of the Tertiary ; and other evi-
dence is equally conclusive that continental elevation was continued
during the same time. That is, it is assumed that the orogenic
movements which have resulted in *he production of the Uinta and
other mountain-making folds were approximately synchronous in
their origin and coeval in their duration with the epirogenic” move-
ments by which the great continental area upon which those folds
now rest was raised to its present elevation above the sea.*
1 Archsean rocks are exposed within a limited area upon the northern
side of the fold; but they were evidently a part of an uplift which was
older than the fold.
2 Etym., Hze:pos—mainland, or continent.
3 Certain epirogenic movements must necessarily have taken place to
form the barriers by which the Laramie sea was cut off from the ope?
oceans. Local unconformity among the Laramie strata which has been
observed near the top of the group in Southern Wyoming indicates that
. certain other premonitory movements took plate before the Uinta es
was well defined:
Mountain Upthrusts. 403
The inceptive portion of the Uinta fold is, of itself, by no means
a conspicuous geological feature—first, because a broad valley or
basin, which I have called Axial Basin, is formed along the greater
part of its length by the erosion of the strata which have been up-
lifted there; and second, because the uplift is comparatively slight.
A transverse section (Fig. 2) across Axial Basin shows the character
of this portion of the fold, and it also shows the formations which
are involved in it.
Fig. 2.—Transverse section across Axial Basin.
A. indicates the axis of the inceptive fold; B., the north base of
Danforth Hills and a part of that uplift ; C., Yampa River. Carb.
indicates Carboniferous strata; J. T., Jura-Trias; D., Dakota
Group ; Col., Colorado Group; F. H., Fox Hills Group ; L. Lara-
mie Group; W., Wasatch Group. The line xx indicates propor-
tionally the longer diameter of the Yampa Mountain upthrust, and
~ also its position with reference to the inceptive axis.
Horizontal scale: 4 miles to the inch.
Vertical scale: 1-12 inch to 1,000 feet.
This comparatively slight fold becomes of great importance be-
cause of its evident relation to the great Uinta fold, and especially
because of the presence upon, jts axis of the two upthrusts which
have been already referred to, the presence of each of which is marked
by an isolated mountain which rises abruptly out of Axial Basin.
These are, Junction and Yampa Mountains, which are plainly
outlying, isolated members of the Uinta Range.
The main portion of the Uinta fold terminates at its eastern end
by a dip of the uplifted strata which is quite as abrupt as that at
either side of it, and which carries them far beneath the surface of
the adjacent lowland. Going now, only two or three miles east-
ward from this eastern terminus—where we have seen the later
formations dip so suddenly from view—we come to the western
border of Junction Mountain upthrust. Here we find the same
Strata to rise again, even more suddenly than they disappeared ; and
404 Mountain Upthrusts.
we also find that the formations of Paleeozoic age—which constitute
the high mountain-peaks of the Uinta Range only a few miles away
—are here again uplifted, not only to the surface of the low land
around the mountain, but toa maximum height of nearly two thou-
sand feet above it. The strata involved in this uplift—which, be-
cause of its sharply-defined limits and of the vertical displacement
of these strata, I have called an upthrust—occupy an elongate oval
area, the extreme longer diameter of which is nearly twelve miles,
and the shorter about four miles. The direction of the longer
diameter, being in a northwestward and southeastward direction, is
obliquely transverse to the general trend of the axis of the Uinta
fold. In this respect, as well as by the peculiar character of dis-
placement of the strata involved, the isolation of this upthrust is
quite complete, although it lies so near the terminus of the main
portion of the Uinta fold and upon the axis of its inceptive portion.
So sharply have the strata been uplifted in this displacement that
they are either faulted or are nearly or quite vertical at a portion of
each side of the upthrust, and they also dip very abruptly at other
portions and around its ends. The Mesozoic formations, through
which the older ones were forced, lie all around the mountain, but
immediately adjacent to it they are largely covered from view by
the strata of the Brown’s Park Group, which lie unconformably
upon them. The disturbance which these Mesozoic formations have
suffered in that neighborhood beyond the base of the mountain is s0
slight that one cannot recognize it as having been connected with the
upthrust movement. That is, their position as marking the pres-
ence of the inceptive portion of the Uinta fold and of certain sub-
ordinate uplifts does not seem to have been changed by the localized
upthrust movement.
The Mesozoic formations,—which must have necessarily risen on
the top of the older ones within the upthrust area,—have been
removed by erosion, as has also a large part of the full thickness of
the Carboniferous strata which came up beneath them. Therefore,
only strata of Palæozoic age now enter into the structure of the
mountain proper ; while the upturned edges of the later ones, where
they have not been sharply severed by faulting, lie around its base.
Going from Junction Mountain about sixteen miles along the
axis of the inceptive fold, we pass all the way over the low lands of
Axial Basin, the surface of which is there mostly occupied by the
and the Junction, and Yampa Mountain Upthrusts.
Fra. 3.—Section showing the eastern end of the Uinta fold
Mountain Upthrusts. 405 -
Brown’s Park Group, and reach Yampa Mountain,
which rises directly upon that axis, as does Junc-
tion Mountain. Here we find that the descrip-
tion that has just been given of the Junction
Mountain upthrust will apply in all essential re-
spects to this. All around the base of Yampa
Mountain the strata of the Brown’s Park Group
cover the immediate borders of this upthrust,
even to a greater extent than they do those of
Junction Mountain upthrust; but it is readily
seen that the two mountains are essentially
identical in structure and character, and that they
have been produce ina similar manner. Yampa
upthrust, however, is smaller than the other, and
it is also much farther away from any other greatly
displaced strata. Its outline is oval, the longer
diameter, including all the strata involved,—not
much exceeding seven miles in length,—and its
shorter diameter is less than four miles. The
longer diameter is nearly at right angles with that
of Junction Mountain upthrust, and it is nearly
transverse with the inceptive portion of the Uinta
axis, upon which it rises. The relation of these
two upthrusts to each other and to the main and
inceptive portions of the Uinta fold is indicated
by the section, Fig. 3.
a, Yampa Mountain; b, Junction Mountain;
c, eastern end of the Uinta Range; d, Yampa
River, before entering Junction Mountait’s €,
Snake River; U., Uinta Sandstone; Carb.,
Carboniferous strata; J. T., Jura-Trias; D.,
Dakota Group; Col., Colorado Group; B. Ps
Brown’s Park Group.
Horizontal scale: 5 miles to the inch.
Vertical scale : 1-20 inch to 1,000 feet.
The amount of vertical displacement is about the
same in each c of these upthrusts, the extent of which
given in the foregoing table) and from the contour |
lines on the published topographic a of that
. 406 Mountain Upthrusts.
region. The contour line which cuts the top of the Uinta Sandstone in
both these mountains passes along the southern side of Axial Basin,
approximately at the base of the Laramie and the top of the Fox
Hills Group. Referring to the preceding table, we find the thick-
ness of the intervening formations to be eleven thousand eight hun-
dred feet. It is therefore plain that the amount of vertical dis-
placement in both these mountains is not less than is represented by
those figures. That is, within the narrow and sharply defined
limits that have been described, the strata of which both these
mountains are composed have been thrust up a vertical distance of
more than two miles,—which in the case of the Yampa upthrust is
nearly equal to one-third of the longer diameter of the area affected
by it.
As indicating that the amount of vertical displacement in these
upthrusts is really greater than has been mentioned, it may be stated
that the Fox Hills and Laramie strata referred to have themselves
been elevated to a considerable extent in the adjacent Danforth Hills
uplift (as shown by the section, Fig. 2). This figure will also serve
to illustrate the relation of the Yampa upthrust to the inceptive fold
and to the adjacent Danforth Hills uplift. That is, if within the
space indicated by the length of the line xx the strata should be
elevated until the base of the Carboniferous series reaches the place
of the uppermost dotted line, the vertical extent and lateral restriction
of the Yampa upthrust will be indicated. i
- It is true that the vertical displacement in the case of these two
upthrusts is much less in amount than is that of the great fold ;
but the amount of displacement is far more remarkable in the case
of the upthrusts than it is in the case of the fold, because of the very
narrow limits within which the displacements in the former case
have taken place. The narrow and sharply defined limits of these
upthrusts, and the severing of the displaced portions of the forma-
tions from the great mass of each respectively, with little or no gen-
eral disturbance of the latter beyond those limits, may be comp
to the action of a large punch on being forced by great power through
a number of thick iron plates. The comparison will be more com-
plete if we conceive that the cutting-border of such a punch had
become dulled at certain places, so that a part of the iron through
which it was being forced would drag and not be sharply severed.
Portions of the uplifted strata at the base of both these mountains
Mountain Upthrusts. 407
seem to have thus dragged during their elevation ; while other por-
tions were sharply severed, as if the displacement had really been
done by a huge punch acting from beneath, producing an ordinary
fault there.
The evidence that the orogenic and epirogenic movements which
have resulted in the present physical conditions in the Western por-
tion of our national domain were coéval with each other, seems to
be unmistakable, so far, at least, as the time-limit of each series of
movements is concerned, But, considering for the present only the
orogenic movements, it is evident that the uplifting force has been
applied along certain lines with great inequality, both as regards the
amount of force locally exerted and the duration of its application.
That is, in the region especially referred to in this article there are
indications that while the orogenic displacements now observable
there were in progress there were local arrests and accelerations of
the elevating movement, which produced a final diversity among
them that did not exist in their inception.
For example, the present structural condition of the Uinta fold
Seems to warrant the assumption that it was once, along its entire
length, in the condition in which its inceptive portion now is, except
for the presence of the upthrusts. Furthermore, that these upthrusts,
as well as the main portion of the fold, continued their upward pro-
gress, while the present inceptive portion remained as it was when
its elevation was arrested. There are other plain indications of the
arrest and acceleration of uplifting force in that region; but the
upthrusts rising upon the inceptive fold constitute the most striking
examples,
The elevating force was not only strangely concentrated in the
case of the two upthrusts, but it seems to have been applied in an
unusual manner, especially when we consider the position of the
longer axis of each with relation to that of the other, and also to
that of the Uinta fold. It has been mentioned that the longer axis
of the Junction upthrust lies in a northwest and southeast direction,
and that of the Yampa upthrust in a northeast and southwest direc-
tion. Viewing these upthrusts only in relation to the Uinta fold
proper, and regarding them as nearly or quite isolated portions of
e same, one would naturally expect to find their longer axes coin-
ciding with a line projected from the axis of the main fold, and he
would also expect to find the intervening strata along that line to
408 Geology of Johnson County.
have partaken largely in 'the upward movement: That is, in view
of the simplicity of the main portion of the Uinta fold, one might
naturally expect that the uplifting force which was applied along
its entire axis would have acted strongly and continuously, if not
uniformly. But the foregoing statements show that neither of the
upthrust axes coincide with such a line or with each other, and also
that only a comparatively slight elevation of the strata has occurred
along what I have designated as the inceptive portion of the Uinta
fold.
These upthrusts are so extraordinary in their character that one
instinctively desires to know how they were produced. I freely
admit my inability to reply to such an inquiry in a satisfactory
manner ; and for the present I will offer only the following sug-
gestion. Assuming—as the evidence seems to warrant us in doing
—that the completion of the main Uinta fold and that of the Park
Range were contemporaneous, or nearly so, they constituted ponder-
ous buttresses at either end of the strongly-curved inceptive portion
of the Uinta fold. It is not strange, therefore, that any elevating
force that may have been applied along the axis of that. inceptive
fold—which stretched across the intervening space—should have
been diversely, if not abnormally, applied. ,
NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF JOHNSON COUNTY,
IOWA.
BY CLEMENT L. WEBSTER.!
f hes superficial geology, or the study of the nature, origin, and
distribution of the loose materials, or superficial detritus
commonly denominated loess, drift, and aluvium, constitutes one of
the most interesting as well as important fields for study that fall
within the scope of investigation of the geologist. 3
The interpretation of the phenomena of the glacial period, the
cause of the advance and retreat of the ice sheets, the condition of
the climate and of the fauna and flora of the surface (now cove
by drift) during the interglacial time, the extent. and condition of
1State University, Iowa.
Z ON ATOH LOd
43) AN3 -YNNI A:
`
"A ALV'Id
Geology of Johnson County. 409
the preglacial river channels which have become obliterated,
at least in part, and the condition of things during the Champlain
period, are all subjects of the most profound interest to the
geologist.
In this paper I have endeavored to elucidate some of these phe-
nomena as observed in Iowa, and it is hoped that it may not be
without at least some value to the broad field of science.
In the hard Devonian limestone in the west bank of the Iowa
River, at Iowa City, are numerous (often large) very interesting
potholes, which have been formed by the action of running water ;
and as they shed so much light upon the condition of things at this
locality at the beginning of the Carboniferous age, a short descrip-
tion of a few of the more prominent ones here i is deemed not to be
without interest and value.
The rocks in which these potholes are formed, rises toa height of
from twenty to forty feet above the water in the Iowa River.
Pothole number one: Circular, sides smooth and symmetrical,
sloping gradually to the bottom, upper margin rounded, depth five
feet, diameter at the top two foal, and at the bottom one foot.
Pothole No. 1.
The following diagram will illustrate this description :—
One foot from this is another smaller subcircular pothole, having
a depth of two feet and a diameter at the top of one foot, and at the
410 Geology of Johnson County.
bottom of ten inches, with unsymmetrical but smooth sides; upper
margin smooth and somewhat flaring.
- About half way from the top to the bottom, cavities have been
formed in the sides by the action of the water which formed the
pothole. The upper margin of this pothole has a small channel
eut through to the east, apparently by the overflow.
Pothole number two: This is one of the largest and most inter-
esting examples to be found here. This pothole has been formed
y the union of several minor ones. Its longest diameter is from
east to west, somewhat subovate in marginal outline, sides unsym-
metrical but smooth, more or less gently sloping to the bottom,
upper margins unevenly rounded, depth seven feet, length from
east to west seven feet, and width of the eastern portion at the top
two and one-half feet, and marginal width of the western portion
four and one-half feet, contracting at the bottom to a width of two
and one-half feet. |
In the west side of this pothole, about midway from top to
bottom, large, more or less ramifying cavities, varying from three
feet to eight feet in extent, have been worn by the action of the
water which formed the pothole. The overflow to the east has cut
a channel about three feet in depth and two feeet in width. About
four feet to the right of the foregoing is a small bowl-shaped
depression, with smooth symmetrical sides, and rounded or flaring
margin. Near this is another smaller saucer-shaped depression,
having a diameter of sixteen inches, and a depth of six inches-
These are beautiful examples of how some of these potholes were
begun.
The following cut (from a photograph) will illustrate the form
and position of “these depressions in relation to the large pothole
above describe
Pothole nëmbe three: Subcircular in outline, sides somewhat
irregular, smooth, upper margin slightly flaring. For the first four
feet the sides are nearly perpendicular ; below this point the hole-
rapidly enlarges to the east, but soon contracts, and continues its
downward course in the form of a gradually-narrowing oblique
fissure, that finally unites with a rather large, more or less horizon-
tal, crevice between the beds of rock.'
1 This fissure is filled with a black, combustible, carbonaceous mud of
bituminous matter, which is usually underlayed and sometimes over~
layed by a reddish-brown clay.
Geology of Johnson County. 411
The following diagram will illustrate this description :—
Pothole number four: This is the largest and deepest of any yet
Pothole No. 3. aa, coal seam.
observed, having a depth of slightly upward of fourteen feet.
Although much of the rock in which this pothole was formed has
aa, coal seam; the lower part shaly and containing fish teeth; bb, ‘ash-colored
and greenish underclay ; ce, coarse sandstone in curved lamine,
been removed by quarrying, yet enough of the excavation itself
remains to demonstrate the fact that it was formed by the enlarge-
412 Geology of Johnson County.
ment of a deep vertical fissure. In this same rock are numerous
other minor potholes of much interest, many of them showing
unmistakable evidence of having originated in a larger or smaller
vertical fissure, their upper margins being invariably rounded, or
more or less strongly flaring, with often a larger or smaller channel
-cut through to the east by the overflow, thus demonstrating the
fact that the flow of water which formed them was from the west.
Many of these potholes are filled (and all showing evidence of
having been originally) with a hard, stiff, reddish-brown, sometimes
brownish-black, clay, similar to the underclay of coal seams. Not
only are these potholes filled by this clay, but also the numerous
vertical and horizontal fissures and spaces between the rock bed-
ding filled with the same material. This reddish-brown color,
however, is probably due to the infiltration from the, in places,
very ferruginous drift material, which immediately overlies them.
About thirty years ago, during the geological survey of Iowa by
‘James Hall, important facts (since mostly obliterated by the exten-
sive quarrying of the rock) were observed in regard to this phe-
nomena; and for the sake of greater clearness in the matter, I here
give a partial compilation of the description of it as found in the
‘survey :—?
“ In a cliff of limestone of the Hamilton Group, at Iowa City,
the following phenomena is’ observed :—
“Beneath beds of nearly horizontal limestone appears a black band
extending thirty or forty feet: this consists of black carbonaceous
mud, the upper part having the character of cannel coal, and the
lower part a slaty carbonaceous shale.
“Beneath this, and less extended, a thicker layer of greenish-
grey clay, of the character of underclay of coal seams, fills the
upper and broader part of the cavity ; while below this, and occu-
pying the deepest parts, is a coarse sandstone, which follows, in its
line of lamination, the curvature of the limestone upon which it
lies.”
This description is illustrated by the following diagram :—
“ Here we have all the phenomena attending a true coal-measure
seam of coal: the sandstone, the underclay, and the coal seam rest-
ing upon it; and to complete the analogy, the slaty portion of the
seam contains fish teeth of carboniferous character. All this 15
: Hall’s Geological Survey of Iowa, Vol. I., Part 1, pp. 129-133 and 265.
Geology of Johnson County. 413.
enclosed in limestone, which, in the State of New York, where the
series is more complete, lies at a depth of more than five thousand
feet below the coal measures.”
The result of the most critical examination and study of the:
phenomena as observed to-day, is such as to corroborate the state-.
ment then made in regard to this subject, which is as follows :—
“The coarse and fine sand were first transported, and, entering
some fissure [probably a pothole] in the rock, continued in deposi-
tion in this cavity, while a bed of similar sandstone was being
formed outside upon the bottom of the sea. This ceased, and then
came the clay, which continued in like manner, while the under
clay of an exterior coal bed was in process of deposition.
“ Lastly, the carboniferous mud, derived from the material of a
coal seam, was filtered through the fissure, filling the remaining
space, and spread out in the narrow seam beyond. There is no
mingling of the material, as if resulting from the breaking up of
a coal seam at a later and modern period.
“Every part is as distinct as in the coal measures elsewhere ;
and this only could have resulted from a participation in the cause
then operating to produce those extensive beds of sand, shale, clay,
and coal which make up the coal measures. This point is near the
northeast margin of the coal basin, and beyond the limits of any
productive coal seams; a few isolated patches of sandstone and
shale being all the remaining evidence of the extension of the
series in that vicinity.”
It is believed that the immediate valley or channel of the Iowa
River, from Coalville to Iowa City, and perhaps north from this
point, in Johnson County, represents the channel of an old Deyo-
nian stream, y
Occupying a position in the east side of the valley of the Iowa
River, where an abrupt curve is made, near Iowa City, is a patch
of soft, friable carboniferous sandstone, having a length of one-
fourth of a mile, and a breadth of one-eighth of a mile or less.
This sandstone occupies a valley of erosion in the Devonian lime-
stone, and which has a depth of between thirty and forty feet.
That this was a valley of erosion, formed by the action of flowing
water prior to the time when the sandstone was deposited, is-
obvious, as the sides of this valley are seen, after the removal of
the sandstone, to be smoothed and worn by the long-continued:
action of running water.
414 Geology of Johnson County.
The channel of the Iowa River, from Iowa City north, in this
county, has been eroded to a depth of from twenty feet to upwards
of one hundred feet into the hard Devonian limestone. As I have
before intimated, it is believed that this valley was formed, to a
great extent at least, by an old Devonian stream, and then sub-
sequently filled by the sandstone during the Carboniferous age.
The glacial drift in Johnson County, so far as it has been
observed, is everywhere covered by a profound mantle of loess, so
that it can be observed only along the borders of streams, and along
the axis of surface drainage, where the overlying formation has
been cut through, thus exposing the drift at the bottom. This
formation, so far as can be made out, attains a thickness of from
four feet to eighteen feet, and is composed of clay, sand, gravel, and
boulders. The boulders, however, are rarely observed, except at
the bottom of ravines, where they are sometimes quite numerous,
and vary in weight from ten pounds to upwards of two thousand
pounds. The drift, for the most part, shows but slight evidence of
modification or rearrangement of its materials. In some places,
however, it contains an abundance of ferruginous matter, so much
indeed as to give it, at limited localities, a deep-red color. The
gravel of this formation is made up of more or less rounded frag-
ments of Devonian limestone, derived from the subjacent strata,
smoothed and well rounded, often beautiful striated, pebbles of
granite, quartz, trap, greenstone, and others of igneous origin, which
have been derived from the north. The boulders are also of the
same material and origin with the exception of those of Sioux
quartzite, which were derived from the northwestern portion of the
State. Devonian fossils (and rarely Carboniferoud, derived from
the underlying rock, are also common. The old forest bed is also
well represented, and occupies, as is usual throughout other portions
of the State, a low horizon in the drift formation.
While digging a well on the farm of Mr. Joseph Hedger, about
five miles southeast from Iowa City, the forest bed was struck at a
depth of about twenty-eight feet. This formation was represented
by a dark-brown, slightly-combustible peat formation, which was
overlayed by, and slightly mixed with, a layer of coniferous wood
and twigs. This peat also contained abundant remains of plants,
well-preserved seeds (apparently those of grass), and abundant
remains of Coleopterous insects. This bed rests directly upon hard,
Geology of Johnson County. 415
stiff, distinctly stratified blue clay. This formation has been struck
at numerous localities at a depth of from twenty-eight feet to sixty
feet below the surface, in the central portion of this county. A usual
feature of the peat division of the forest bed of this region are the
remains of Coleopterous insects. The peat at all these localities was
evidently formed where it is now found, and are parts of one and
the same bed.
A limited deposit of similar ancient peat was also discovered in
Adair County, one hundred and seventy miles to the westward of
Iowa City, on section twenty-two, township seventy-five, range
thirty-two. This bed was found to be between two and three feet
in thickness. The drift, apparently only slightly if at all modified,
rested directly upon it, and it was underlayed by a dull, bluish-
clayey bed.
At another locality, near Davenport, fifty miles east of Iowa
City, a deposit of peat occurs almost upon the very brow of the
bluffs that border the valley of the Mississippi. This example
is one of unusual interest, in consequence of the existence there of
an extensive bed of ancient peat which is covered to th depth of
several feet beneath the prairie soil, and the discovery in the clay, -
above the peat, of the remains of a mammoth.
The following section, compiled from White’s Geological Survey
of Iowa, vol I., part i., pp. 119, 120, will show the position of the
deposit in relation to the drift :—
“No.1, The ordinary prairie soil, one foot. The prairie here
extends to the edge of the bluff, gently sloping backward toward
the north.
“ No. 2. The ‘yellow elay’ or loam, twenty feet thick, iron-
stained, frequently distinctly laminated; lamine curved, and have
their layers of sand interstratified in some places. It contains
small calcareous nodules and shells of the genera Succinea, Helicina
and Pupa.
“No, 3. Bluish-grey clay, three to five feet thick, not stratified ;
contains a few shells like those of No. 2. A tusk, several teeth,
and some other portions of Elephas primigenius (?) were found,
Just at the junction of Nos. 2 and 3. :
“ No. 4. A bed of brown peat one foot thick, which burns toler-
ably well. In some places the peat moss, Hypum aduncum, was so
well preserved as to be recognized. Quantities of re citecks aac uae
coniferous wood are distributed throughout this bed.
416 Geology of Johnson County.
“No. 5. Ancient soil, two feet thick, very dark loam, resembling
the peat, but more decomposed. Contains no shells or other fossil
remains.
“No. 6. Blue clay, very tenacious, containing sand, gravel, and
small boulders; pebbles and boulders, all water-worn, and many of
them distinctly glacier scratched. Thickness unknown.
“ The exposure was made by the excavation of the Chicago, Rock
Island and Pacific Railroad Company, previous to which there was
no appearance at the surface to indicate the presence of anything
more than the ordinary drift deposit.”
Bed No. 5 of this series is undoubtedly only a more thoroughly
decomposed and finely comminuted portion of bed No. 4. This
bed of peat, also, like that at Iowa City, contains remains of
Coleopterous insects.
While boring a well on the northeast quarter of section ten,
township eighteen, range five, in Linn County, a deposit of peat
and coniferous wood four feet.in thickness was struck at a depth of
ninety-nine feet below the surface. From this well, into which a
tight galvanized iron tubing has been forced, escapes a constant
supply of natural, combustible gas (the peat probably being the
origin of it), but whether of sufficient quantity to be of practical
value, is a question to be answered by investigation. A few miles
from this locality another well of the same character is reported.
In the northern portion of the State the peat formation is seldom,
f ever, observed as a member of the forest bed. These beds of
peat are of interglacial origin, and was coexistent with the
luxuriant forests of conifers which, in interglacial times, covered
the surface of what is now known as Jowa.! The occurrence
also of the well-preserved seeds of plants and the abund-
ant remains of insects in this formation are features of pecu-
liar interest.
A critical and somewhat extended study of the forest bed and
other superficial formations in different portions of the State,
reveals facts which seem to substantiate the theory advanced in
regard to the relative age of the peat formations. `
The topography of the surface of Johnson County is, for the
most part, peculiarly that of loess regions, being more or tess
broken and rolling, the elevations having rounded tops, and more or
1'These beds of peat were believed by Dr. White not to be of interglacial
origin. White’s Geological Survey of Iowa, vol. i., p. 121.
Geology of Johnson County. 417
less rapidly ascending sides, and rising to a height of from ten feet
to upward of sixty feet above the intervening depressions.
The valleys of the Iowa River and its tributaries are relatively
narrow and deep, and bordered by more or less steep acclivities,
and flanked at frequent intervals by deep but narrow and rapidly
ascending ravines, and these again often ramify in shallow depres-
sions which draw the water quite effectually from nearly all portions
of the upland. f
The immediate valley of the Iowa River, as I have before inti-
mated, attains an average width of one-half of a mile, and a depth
below its immediate borders of from sixty feet to upward of one
hundred and seventy-five feet. Well-defined terraces are sometimes
observed along this stream, and they have been produced by the
deepening of the valley by the action of the waters of the stream.
As has been before stated, the surface of nearly, if not quite all
of this county, is occupied by a loess formation, which effectually
conceals the underlying drift formation, except along the valley-
sides and the axis of surface drainage, where the overlying deposit
has been cut through. This deposit attains a greater thickness
along the streams than adjacent to them, and consists, for the most
part, of an exceedingly finely comminuted yellow or buff-colored
clayey earth, with an admixture of humus in favorable situations,
as in the beds of drainage depressions and in the valleys, as well as
most usually the more level surface of the upland, which gives to
it a color varying from a light-ash to a deep-black. Upon the
higher points, however, the soil usually contains comparatively
little humus, for the reason that it is swept down by the rains as
fast as it is accumulated by the decay of vegetation, and deposited
in the beds of ravines and the slight valley bottoms.
The following section, taken at the “brick-yard,” in the north-
east portion of Iowa City, gave the following result :—
_ 1. Very fine brownish “loamy” soil, containing humus—three
inches,
2. Very fine and homogeneous yellow-clayey earth—fifteen feet.
3. Very fine and homogeneous bluish-grey, clayey earth, having
more or less numerous brownish-drab streaks running through it,
and containing numerous fossils, many of which were in a crushed
condition—fiye feet. Entire thickness unknown. =
The different divisions of this section pass into each other by
418 Geology of Johnson County.
very gradual and imperceptible gradations. In a railroad cut,
about one and one-fourth miles west of Iowa City, the loess is seen
to attain a thickness of twenty-three feet and five inches.
The humus-stained division, No. 1, attains a thickness of five
inches; while the second, or yellow division, attains a thickness of
about twelve feet; and below this, the third, or blue division, which
attains a thickness of eleven feet, and rests immediately upon the
drift. This portion contains an abundance of fossils, most of which,
however, are in a better preserved condition than those of its
equivalent at the “ brick-yard.”
One mile south of Iowa City the loess is seen to attain a thick-
ness of twenty feet, and is very fine and homogeneous throughout,
being of a yellow or yellowish-buff color, with the exception of a
humus-stained layer, of a few inches in thickness at the top. The
yellow clay at this locality rests directly upon the drift, the blue
division being absent, as also fossil remains, so far as observed.
At Oxford, in the extreme western portion of the county, the
typical yellow loess is seen to have a thickness of from fifteen feet
to twenty-two feet, the blue division, however, not being present.
No fossils were observed in the loess in this region. Occupying
the same relative position to the loess, and presenting the same
general character as at other described localities, is the drift forma-
tion. At this locality, as well as several others in the county, the
loess is seen to contain more or less extensive accumulations of fine
silicious sand ; also, at two or three places, I observed small accu-
mulations, or pockets, of well-rounded and smoothed quartz and
greenstone pebbles of drift origin. This material may have been
derived from detritus ladened ice, floating from the north and
dropping its burden while this formation was in process of deposi-
tion. At numerous localities the loess contains abundant calcareous
concretions and ferruginous tubules of various dimensions, while
at other localities it is devoid of them.
At Solon, in the northeast part of the county, the loess is some-
what thinner than at the previously-described localities, but i
essentially the same, although the lower, blue, division is not
noticed, and the upper, black, humus-stained layer, is somewhat
thicker, owing to the somewhat less broken surface, and the lessened
facility with which the surface is “ washed ” by rains, thus remov-
ing much of the humus accumulated by decomposing vegetation.
Geology of Johnson County. 419
Below I give a catalogue of all the fossils yet obtained from the
loess of Johnson County ; doubtless, however, many others existed
which have not as yet been discovered.1 Those marked * do not
occur as living forms in the county at the present time :—
Zonites viridulus (Mke.).
Zonites limatulus * (Ward).
Zonites fulvus (Drap.).
Patula strigosa * (Gld.).
Patula striatella (Say).
Ferussacia subcylindrica (L.).
Pupa muscorum * (L.).
Pupa blandi * (Mone.).
Vertigo simplex * (Gld.).
Mesodon multilineata (Say).
Vallonia pulchella (Miill.).
Succinea avara (Say).
Succinea avara var vermeta,—
Succinea obliqua (Say).
Helicina occulta (Say).
Limnæa desidiosa (Say).
Pisidium—sp. (?)
Egg-shell of some small Helix.
The loess formation constitutes a prominent feature of the super-
ficial geology of Iowa, being developed to a greater or less extent
over a large portion of the State. It is believed that the material
of this formation was deposited during the Champlain period ; and
facts seem to demonstrate, moreover, that this was not only a period
of somewhat lower level in Iowa as well as other places, than the
present, but also that the amount of depression increased somewhat
to the northward, so that the streams flowing to the southward had
usually a diminished slope, with a consequently slackened flow of
the waters, and many greater or less expansions along their course,
and from these silt-ladened waters the material of the loess forma-
tion was derived.
! For this catalogue of species I am much indebted to Professor B.
Shimick, of Iowa Cit ies li
’ y. All the species listed have been personally
collected by him,
420 History of Garden Vegetables.
HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.
BY LOUIS STURTEVANT, M.D.
(Continued from page 985, Vol. XXI.)
Fennel. Feniculum vulgare Gertn.
p NEL was used by the ancient Romans, as well for its aro-
matic fruits as for its edible succulent shoots. It was also em-
ployed in Northern Europe at a remote period, as it is constantly
mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon medical receipts which date as early
at least as the eleventh century. The diffusion of the plant in
Central Europe was stimulated by Charlemagne, who enjoined its
cultivation on the imperial farms. Fennel shoots, fennel water, and
fennel seed, are all mentioned in an ancient record of Spanish agri-
culture of 961 A.D.! There are three different forms recognized,
all believed to belong to a common species, Fæniculum vulgare
Gertn., but which have received specific names by various botanists.
Bitter Fennel. F. vulgare Geertn. .
In 1863, Burr describes? a common and a dark-leaved form; in
1586, Lyte’s* Dodcens describes in like manner two varieties. This
is the common wild sort, hardy, and often spontaneous as an escape
from gardens. It is the Anethum feniculum L., 1763, and the
Feeniculum of Camerarius,‘ 1586. Sometimes, but rarely, the leaves
are used for seasoning, and the plant is chiefly grown for its seeds
which are largely used in the flavoring of liqueurs.
The common or bitter fennel is called in France Fenowil amer.,
Fenouil commun. It appears to be the common fennel or finckle of
Ray, 1886, the fænell and fyncle of Turner, 1538.
Sweet Fennel. F. officinale All.
This form is cultivated more frequently as a garden plant than
the preceding, and its seeds are also an object of commerce. AS the
plants grow old, the fruits of each succeeding season gradually
1 Pharmacographia, 1879, 308,
2 Burr. Field and Gard. Veg. of Am., 1863, 420.
3 Lyte’s Dodcens, 1586, 305,
4 Camerarius Epit., 1586, 534,
History of Garden Vegetables. 421
change in shape and diminish in size, till at the end of four or five
years they are hardly to be distinguished from those of the bitter
fennel. This curious fact was noted by Tabernemontanus in 1588,
and was systematically proven by Guibort, 1869.1! This kind has,
however, remained distinct from an early date. It is described by
Albertus Magnus? in the thirteenth century, and by Charlemagne
in the ninth. It is mentioned as a plant of the garden in nearly
all the earlier botanies. It is cultivated throughout Europe, in
Asia and in America as an aromatic garden herb.
The famous “carosella,” so extensively used in Naples, and
scarcely known in any other place, is referred by authors to F. pipe-
rium D. C., a species very near to F. officinale. The plant is used
while in the act of running to bloom; the stems, fresh and tender,
and broken and served up raw, still enclosed in the expanded leaf
stalks.* It is, perhaps, referred to by Amatus Lusitanus‘ in 1554,
when, in speaking of the finocchio (It.) he says the swollen stalk is
collected and said to be eaten, “quod caule turgescente colligitur et
esui dicatur.”
The common or sweet fennel or Roman fennel is called in France
fenouil doux, fenouil de Florence, fenouil de Malta, anis de France,
anis de Paris; in Italy, carosella. These names also seem to apply
in part to the next kind. In Turkestan, shabit.®
Finocchio. F. dulce D C.
This form is very distinct in its broad leaf-stalks, which, over-
lapping each other at the base of the stem, form a bulbous enlarge- `
ment, firm, white and sweet inside. It seems to be the Finochi or
Italian Fennel, stated by Switzer,’ in 1729, to have but recently
been introduced to English culture, and yet rare in 1765 ;° but the
first distinct mention I find is by Mawe, in 1778, under the name
of Azorian Dwarf or Finocchio. It is again described in a very
-
422 History of Garden Vegetables.
perfect form by Bryant, in 1783,! under the name of Sweet Azorian
Fennel. According to Miller’s Dictionary, 1807, it is the F. azori-
cum of Miller, 1737. Ray, in 1686, uses the name Foniculum
dulce azoricum, but his description is hardly sufficient. It is
described for American gardens in 1806.5 It does not seem to have
entered general culture except in Italy.
The type of this fennel seems to be figured by J. Bauhin in 1651,
and Chabreeus, in 1677, under the name Feeniculum rotundum flore
albo.
The Finocchio or Azorean Fennel is called in France fenouil de
Florence, fenouil sucre, fenouil de Bologna, fenouil d’ Italie; in Ger-
many, grosser susser florentiner Fenchel, grosser bologneser Fenchel,
florentiner Anis; in Holland, groote zete Bologneser grosser ven-
kel; inDenmark, dvergfennikel; in Italy, finocchio dulce. *
The general name for the Fennels is in France fenouil; in
Germany, fenchel; in Flanders and Holland, venkel; in Denmark,
fennikel; in Italy, finocchio; in Spain, hinojo;* in Arabic, rais-
niji; in Egyptian, savin or tshamar hoout; in Greece, marathron;
in Hindustani, owa;* in India, souf or so, ooa; in Japan, sen rio,
kure no vomo;? in Yemen, sekamar.®
Fennel-flower. Nigella sativa L.
The seeds, on account of their aromatic nature, are employed
as a spice in cooking, particularly in Italy and Southern France.
It is supposed to be the gith of Columella and Pliny, in the first
century ; of Palladius, in the third, and of Charlemagne, in the
ninth.” The melanthion of Columella, in the first century, seems
a descriptive name for his gif. It finds mention as cultivated in
most of the botanies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ;
is recorded by Vilmorin™ among plants of the garden, as also by
1 Bryant. Fl. Diet., 1783, 53.
2? Ray. Hist., 1686, 458.
3 McMahon. Am. Gard. Cal., 1806, 199.
t4 Vilmorin. Les PI. Pot., 209.
5 Camerarius. Epit., 1586, 534.
6 Pickering. Ch. Hist., 261.
1 Speede. Ind. Handb. of Gard., 181.
® Noisette. Man., 1860, ii., 447.
10 Fee. Notes to Grandsagne’s Pliny, xiii., 244.
u Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 374.
l
History of Garden Vegetables. 423
Burr! in 1863, and is now found in the lists of some of our
seedsmen.?
The Fennel-flower, or Roman Coriander, was called, in 1586,‘
by the Moors, vamin, sunis or sunici; in Italy, melanthio or niella ;
in Germany, schwartz Kummel or schwartz Koriander; in Spain,
neguilla or alipurie; in France, barbue poyurette or nielle.
The modern names are: in France, nigelle aromatique, cumin
noire, epicerie, gith, graine noire, nielle, quatre-epices, senonge, toute-
epice; in Germany, Schwartz-kummel, kohm; in Flanders and Hol-
land, narduszaad; in Spain, nigela aromatica, neguilla; in Italy,
nigella, commnella, melanzio domestico; in Greece, mawrokoukatheis
maurokoukki.®
In Arab, shoonez,5 habbah sondeh (i.e., black seed), kammoun asouad
(i.e., black cumin) ;7 in Bengali, mugrela;* in Burma, sa-mung-
net ;° in Ceylon, kaloodooroo ; in Egypt, hub-sindee; in Hindustani,
kalajira ; in Persia, siahdaneh ; in Sanscrit, krishna~jiraka-musavi ; ê
etc.
French Szorzonera. Picridium vulgare Desf.
This salad plant is cultivated in Italian gardens, where it is much
esteemed.* It is also used somewhat in France, and was intro-
duced into England in 1822. It is also of recent introduction into
French culture.” In the United States it is noted by Burr™ in 1863.
The young leaves are the parts used.
It is called in France picridie cultivee, cousteline, terra crepie;
Italy, caccialepre, terra crepolo.”
Garlic. Allium sativum L.
The garlic is believed to be the skorodon hemeron of Dioscorides,
the skorodon of Theophrastus and Aristoteles among the Greeks ;
1 Burr. age and Gard., Pl. of Am., 1863, 429.
? Vick’s Cat., 1884.
3 Vilmorin. ai Veg. Gard., 1885, 247,
‘t Camerarius. Epit., oper 551.
, Pickering. Ch. Hist., 1
* Birdwood. Veg. Prod. or Bomb., 3.
‘Delile. Fl. Æg., iii.
e
10 Noisette. en < 1860, i, nag
u Burr. Field and Gard. Ve
2 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Plot., 407; vie Gard., 515.
424 History of Garden Vegetables.
the allium of Pliny and Palladius among the Romans. Among the -
Egyptians it was ranked among the gods in taking an oath! On
account of its objectionable odor it was avoided in Rome,’ but it was
probably eaten by the common people as now in southern Europe.
It is mentioned in the earlier European herbals as in cultivation, and
in England, in 1551, by Turner,’ and in 1548 by Tusser.* In Peru,
Acosta® says, in 1604, that “the Indians esteem garlike above all
the rootes of Europe,” and in Mexico, even earlier, Peter Martyn,‘
in 1577, noted its presence. It was in the garden of the Choctaw
Indians, in North America, before 1775.’ It is said to have been
introduced to China 140-86 B.C., and to be found noticed in vari-
ous Chinese treatises of the fifth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries. Louriero! found it under cultivation in Cochin-
china. Two varieties are described by Vilmorin"™ in 1883, the
common and the pink; and both were in American gardens in
1863."
The garlie is called in France ail ordinaire, theriaque des paysans;
in Germany, gewohnlicher knoblauch; in Flanders, look; in Hol-
land, knoflook; in Denmark, huidlog; in Italy, aglio; in Spain,
ajo vulgar; in Portugal, alho;" in Russia, tschesnok;* in Greece,
aglithia, gelgithia, shorton,® scordon.™
n Arabic, toum,” teriac-rowstyan; in Bengali, loshoon, lushoona,
rushoon; in Ceylon, soodooloonoo ; * in China, svon ; in Cochinchina,
cay toi; in Egypt, tom;** in India, luhsun or bulbros;" in Malaya,
buvung-pootie; in Persia, seer; in Sanscrit, mahooshooda; in He-
brew, schowm, schumin.“
1 Wilkinson. Ancient Egyptians, ii., 31.
2 Unger. U.S. Pat. of Rept., 1859, 334
3 Miller’s Dict., 1807.
* McIntosh. Book of the Gard., ii., 29.
5 Acosta. Hist. of the Ind., 1604, 261. His first edition, 1590.
6 P. Martyn. Eden’s Hist. of Trav., 1577
1 Roman’s Nat. Hist. of Fla., 1775, i; 84.
8 Bretschneider. On the Study, ete., 15.
? Bretschneider. Bot. Sin., 78, 59, 83, 85.
10 Louriero. Fl. Cochinch., 201. z
u Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 2.
12 Burr. Field and Gard. Mad 1863.
18 Pickering. Ch. Hist., 145.
14 Decandolle. fie = pi Cult., 51.
15 Delile. Fl. Æg., i
1 Birdwood. Veg. Pa of Bomb., 249.
11 Şpeede Ind. Handb. of Gard., 159.
History of Garden Vegetables. 425
Gherkin. Cucumis anguria L.
This vegetable is described by Marcgrav,! in Brazil, in 1648, the
name Cucumis sylvestris Brasilee indicating an uncultivated plant.
Ten years later Piso? described it also as a wild plant of Brazil
under the name guarerva-oba or Cucumer asinius, and gives a
figure. It has also been found in the Antilles and continental
tropical and sub-tropical America, New Granada and South Flor-
ida.’ It is not mentioned as cultivated in Jamaica, by Sloane,‘ in
1696. Its fruit is mentioned as being used in soups and pickles,
apparently gathered from the wild plant, by Long, in 1774, Tit-
ford,’ in 1812, and Lunan,” in 1814. It is, however, cultivated in
French Guiana and Antiqua. Although described by Ray, in
1686 and 1794, and grown by Miller in his botanic garden in
1755, it yet does not appear as if in the vegetable gardens of
England in 1807,” although it was known in the gardens of the
United States" in 1806. In France it was under cultivation in
1824 and 1829,” but apparently was abandoned, and was reintro-
duced by Vilmorin in 1858.3
The small girkin, round prickly gherkin)! West India gherkin,
or prickly fruited gherkin is called in France concombre des anti
angurie, concombre a spines, C. d’ Amerique, C. marron, C. aih
pe bryg C. arada (erroneously); in Germany, west-indische
urke,
I do not find mention of any varieties.
Globe Cucumber. Cucumis prophetarum L.
The flesh of this cucumber is scanty and too bitter to be edible,
1 Maregrav. Hist. Bras., 1648, 44.
2 Piso. Hist. Bras., 1658, 264.
? Naudin. Am. des Se. Nat., pp. 8, p. 12.
*Sloane. Cat. Jam., 1696, 103.
*Lunan. Hort. Jam. , 1814, i., 254.
3 Cogniaux. Cucurbitaceæ in D. C. Monog., iii., 501.
°’ Ray. Hist., 1886 ; h, 1704, 333.
1 Miller’s Dict., 180
x Fessenden. New Am. ppsa 1828, 52.
Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot.,
426 History of Garden Vegetables.
says Vilmorin,' who includes it among the plants of the kitchen
garden. Burr? says the plant is sometimes eaten boiled, but it
is generally pickled in its green state, like the common cucumber,
and adds that it is not worthy of cultivation.
Good King Henry. Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus L.
The leaves are eaten as a spinage. The plant is now but
rarely cultivated. Gerarde speaks of it in 1597 as a wild plant
only, while Ray in 1686 refers to it as frequently among vege-
tables, and Bryant in 1783 says formerly cultivated in English
gardens, but of late neglected, although certainly of sufficient merit.
In 1807 Miller’s Dictionary says it is generally in gardens about
Boston, in Lincolnshire, and is there preferred to spinage. It
cannot have ever received very general culture, as it is only indi-
cated as a-wayside plant by Tragus, 1552; Lobel, 1570 and 1576;
Camerarius, 1586; Dalechampius, 1587; Matthiolus, 1598 ; Cha-
bræus, 1677, etc. Its value as an antiscorbutic finds recognition
in its names, Bonus-Henricus and tota bona.
It is called in English, Good King Henry, Fat-hen English
mercury, All Good,‘ Wild or perennial spinage,> goose foot; in
France, anserine bon-henri, bon-henry, epinard sauvage, patte d'oie
triangulaire, sarron, serron; in Germany, gemeiner Gansefuss; in
Flanders and Holland, ganzevoet ; in Italy, bono enries.®
It is recorded for American culture by Burr in 1863, and has
now become naturalized about dwellings in a few localities. I have
never observed it growing.
Gourd. Lagenaria vulgaris Ser.
See under Squash.
It is generally supposed that the Gourd is uneatable. This is
true of some varieties, but not of others. Duchesne,’ in France,
speaks of the trompette gourd as edible. In ancient Rome recipes
for cooking are given by Apicius, and Pliny’ speaks of their
1 Vilmorin. The Veg. Gard., 1885, 227.
2 Burr. Field and Gard. Veg., 1863, 179.
3 Johnson. Useful Pl. of Gt. Brit., 216.
‘Bryant. Fl. Dict., 1783, 62.
‘McIntosh. Book of the roca u., 187.
6 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 3, 9. 3
1 Duchesne. Quoted by T. Geog. Bot., 898.
8 Apicius. Lib. iii., c. 4, 7
$ Pliny. Lib. xix., c. 24,
History of Garden Vegetables. 427
being eaten, as does also Albertus Magnus,’ in the thirteenth
century. Cardanus in 1556, says the oblong gourd is edible,
and J. Bauhin, in 1651, says the same for two varieties. In India
the gourd is said to be eaten, by Drury,‘ Firminger® and others;
in China, by Smith; in Cochinchina, by Loureiro;’ in Egypt,
by Forskal ;§ in Turkey, by Walsh,’ ete.
A variety is in edible use in Japan, as I am informed by Mr.
Tamari, and of which I have seen the drawings. In Mexico, a
variety, as I am informed by Dr. Edward Palmer, is used to form
a preserve known by the name of “ angels’ hairs,” from the fibrous
nature of the interior portion which is used.
Great-headed Garlic. Alliwm ampeloprasum L.
A mild plant, common in the countries bordering on the Medi-
terranean, especially in Algeria, and believed to be the native form
of the cultivated Leek. In 1568 Camerarius™ speaks of it as cul-
tivated in gardens, but this is not confirmed as a common course by
the references in the Adversaria, 1570; in Lobel’s observations,
1576 ;*by Dalechamp, in 1587 ; “ by Clusius, 1601 ;* by Dodonzeusy
1616 ;"° these authors referring to it only as a wild plant of the
vineyards. In 1882, the Bon Jardinier says the country people of
Southern Europe eat it raw, and this is the only known use. It is,
however, included among garden esculents by Burr,” in 1863, and
by Vilmorin, in 1883. The description which has come down to
1 Albertus Magnus. De Veg., Jessen ed., 1867, 499.
? Cardanus. De Rerum Varietate, 1556. 222.
3 J. Bauhin. Hist., ii., 214, 217.
“Drury. Useful Pl. of Ind.
*Forskal. Fl. Ægypt. Arab., 167.
* Walsh. Hort. Trans., vi, 56.
10 Decandolle. Orig. des P1. Cult., 81.
n Camerarius. Hort., 1588, 131.
1? Pena and Lobel. Adv., 1570, 58.
18 Lobel. Obs., 1576, 79.
1$ Clusius. Hist., 1601, 190.
1 Dodonæus. Pempt., 1616, 690.
“Burr. Field and Gard. Veg. of Am., 1863, 124..
'8 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 3.
‘428 History of Garden Vegetables.
‘us of the ulpicum of the Romans seems to indicate this plant.
‘Columella! and Pliny? both say it is larger than the garlic; Col-
umella, that the bulb is composed of many cloves, and that it is
particularly loud-smelling. Vegetius? calls it the Beticum ulpicum
or Andulasian ulpicum. Cato* speaks of its use in veterinary
practice. Palladius® gives minute directions for its culture. If,
however, cultivated in Italy, it seems not to have extended its area,
but to have disappeared in later times, perhaps superseded by the
leek,
The great-headed garlic is called’in France ail d'orient, ail a
cheval, pourrat, pourriole; in Germany, pferde-knoblauch ; in Italy,
porrandello,
Chabreus, 1677,° gives for names: German, aberlauch, acker-
knoblauch; in France, ail pourreau; in Italy, aglioporro.
The synonymy in part is as follows :—
Scorodoprasum sive alliporrum. Adv.,
Scorodoprasum. Lob. obs., 1576, 79. Chabe. "1677, 201.
arlotan alterum. Lugd., "1587, 1
Porrum Indum. Cam. hort., 1588, ist.
Scorodoprason I. Clus. hist., 1601, 190.
Ampeloprasum primum, Dod., 1616, 690.
Scorodoprasum dictum J. B. Bay, 1688, 1121.
Allium ampeloprasum. Lin.
Great round- ree one Mill, ak 1807.
Great-headed garlic
Ground-nut. Apios tuberosa Meench,
This plant, a native of North America, and common in moist
‘thickets, is included by Vilmorin among the plants of the kitchen
garden, and worthy of trial. It is hence liable to appear at any
‘time into American culture. The edible portions are the tuberous
enlargements borne on the roots, and of the size of an egg or larger ;
these tubers are starchy, often of an agreeable flavor, and may be
-eaten like the potato.
In the colonial period the tubers of the wild plant were a
1Columella. Lib. xi., c. 3; lib. x., c. 112.
2 Pliny. Lib. xix., ©. 34.
3 Vegetius. Lib. i., c. 18.
t Cato. C. 71.
5 Palladius. Lib. xii.,
‘6 Chabræus. Ic. et ens "1677, 201.
History of Garden Vegetables. 429)
resource against starvation. Thus Parkman! records that Bien-.
court and his followers at Port Royal, in 1613, were scattered
about the woods and shores digging ground-nuts; and the Pil-
grims during their first winter were enforced to live on them.
This plant was described and figured by Cornutus? in 1635, and
is described by Clayton‘ in 1739. Although probably grown by
Cornutus at Paris prior to 1635, yet it received no further atten-
tion until again grown in 1849 and should it gain a foot-hold,
its introduction would be scored to this latter date.
J. Hammond Trumbull thinks the openauk of Hariot,® found in
Virginia in 1584, to be this plant, “a kind of root of round form,
some of the bigness of walnuts, some far greater, which are found
in moist and marish grounds, growing many together one by another
in ropes, or as though they were fastened with a string. Being
boiled or sodden, they are very good meate.” Brereton,’ in his
account of Gosnold’s voyage to New England in 1602, notes the
“great store of ground-nuts” found on all the Elizabeth Islands.
They grow “ forty together on a string, some of them as big as a
hen’s egg.” Champlain, 1605-6, observed that the Indians about
Nauset harbor probably had “force des racines qu’els cultivent,
lorsquelles ont le gout d’artichaut,” and it is to these roots that
Lescarbot® alludes, west and south of Maine, “grosses comme
naveux, tres excellentes a manger, ayans un gout retirant aux
cardes, mais plus agreable, lesquelles plantus multiplient en telle
facon que c’est merveille.”” Kalm," at a later period, 1749, states.
that it grows in the meadows along the Delaware, and the roots
eaten by the Indians. He adds that the Swedish colonists eat them
for want of bread, and that some of the English still eat them
instead of potatoes.
1 Pioneers of France, 274.
* Young. Chron, of the Pilg., 329.
*Cornutus. Canad. Plant. Hist., 1635, 200.
* Gronovius. Virg., 1762, 107.
5 Heuze. Les Pl. Alim., ii., 548.
° Heriot. Hakl. Voy., iii.
"Brereton. Purchas., 1651, iv.
° Champlain. Voy., 1632, 84.
°? Lescarbot. Hist. de la Nouv. France, 1612, 840.
E a quoted from Gray and Trumbull, Am, Jour. of 8c., May, 1877,.
n Kalm. Trav., 1770-1, ii., 96.
430 History of Garden Vegetables.
The Indian and other names that have been applied to this plant
are as follows :—
English, Ground-nuts, Winslow,! Wild Bean; French of the
western prairies, pomme de terre ;? Carolina Indians, scherzo ;* New
Jersey Indians, Aupmiss or hopniss;* Osage Indians, taue;* Sioux
Indians, modo ;*° Virginia Indians, openauk.°
Hedgehog. Onobrychis cristagalli Lamk.
This singular plant is grown in vegetable gardens as a curiosity,
on account of the peculiar shape-of the seed pods. It has no util-
ity. Its seed appears in some of our seedsmen’s lists.
The hedgehog or cockscomb sanfoin is called in France herrisson ;
in Germany, igel.’
Hop. Humulus lupulus L.
As a garden plant the hop is nearly unknown in this country.
In Belgium, however, the young shoots of the plant, just as they
emerge from the ground, are used as an asparagus, and the plant is
enumerated by Vilmorin among kitchen vegetables.” The plant is
found in a wild state throughout all Europe, and extends also to
the Caucasus, the south Caspian region, and through central and
southern Siberia to the Altai mountains, and has been introduced
into North Amierica, Brazil and Australia. As a plant for pro-
ducing hops to be used in the brewing of beer it has long been in
use. Hop gardens are mentioned as existing in France and Ger-
many in the eighth and ninth centuries. In America they are -
noted in Virginia in 1649, and were among the articles sent the
Massachusetts company in 1629." The first allusion that I find
to the hop as a kitchen herb is by Cobbett, in 1821, but the use
of the young shoots is mentioned by Pliny™ in the first century
1 Winslow. Young’s Chron. of the Pilg., 329.
2 Dept. of Agr. Rep’t, 1870, 405.
3 Heuze. Les Pl. Alim., ii., 548.
Reece Trav., 1770, ii., 96.
5 Hariot, l. e
6 repre 2% “Les Pl. Pot., 282; The Veg. Gard., 201.
7 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 282.
8 Pharmacographia, 1879, 551,
9 A Perf. Desc. of Va., 1649, 3.
10 Mass. Records, i., 24.
u Cobbett. Am. Gard., 1821.
2 Pliny. Lib. xxic., 50.
History of Garden Vegetables. 431
as collected from the wild plant, rather as a luxury than as a
food. Dodonzus,' in 1616, refers to the use of the young shoots,
as collected apparently from the hop yard, as does also Camera-
rius, in 1586, and others.
The hop is called in France houblon; in Germany, Hopfen; in
Flanders, hop; in Italy, luppolo; in Spain, lupulo, hombrecillos ;* in
Tartar, kumalak ; in Hungarian, comlo; in Sweden, humle; in Den-
mark, homle.
Horehound. Marrubium vulgare L.
This plant affords a popular domestic remedy, and seems in this
country to be an inmate of the medicinal herb garden only. In
Europe the leaves are sometimes employed as a condiment. Al-
though a plant of the old world, it has now secured naturaliza-
tion in the New World from Canada to Buenos Ayres and Chili,
excepting within the tropics.4 It is figured by Clusius, in 1601,
and finds mention by many of the botanists of that period.
Horehound is called in France marrube blanc; in Germany,
andorn; in Italy, marrubio.
Pliny® refers to the Marrubium, among medicinal plants in
high esteem, and it finds mention by Columella.” Albertus Mag-
nus,’ in the thirteenth century, also refers to its valuable remedial
properties in coughs. We may hence believe tha* as a herb of
domestic medicine it has accompanied emigrants into all the cooler
portions of the globe.
Horseradish. Cochlearia armoracia L.
This plant cannot be identified with certainty with the Armoracia
of the Romans.’ If it be the armoracia of Palladius,” which is a
wild plant transferred to the garden, it is very curious that its use
1 Dodonæus. Pempt., 1616, 609.
* Decandolle. pria Bot., 751,
° Albertus Magnus. De Veg., Jessen ed., 1867, 539.
°? Decandolle. Orig. des Pl. Cult., 27; Pharmacographia, 1879, 71.
1 Palladius. Lib. iv., c. 9; lib. xi., c. 2; lib. xii, c. 6. Palladius
flourished about 210 A. D.
432 History of Garden Vegetables.
is not mentioned by Apicius,' in his work on cookery, of the same
century. Zanonius? deems the horseradish to be the draba of
Dioscorides. It seems to be the raphanus of Albertus Magnus,’
who lived in the thirteenth century, and he speaks of the plant as
wild and domesticated, but its culture then was probably for medi-
cinal purposes alone, as indicated by him. Its culture in Italy in
1536 is implied by Ruellius* under the name armoracia, but Castor
Durante,’ in 1617, does not describe it. In Germany its culture as
a condimental plant is stated by Fuchsius,® in 1542, and by later
writers. In 1587 Dalechamp’ states its culture in Germany, but
does not mention it in France. Lyte, in 1586, mentions the wild
plant, and its uses as a condiment in England, but does not imply
culture; but in 1597 Gerarde® states that it is in gardens. It was
observed in the gardens of Aleppo by Rauwolf" in 1573-5. It
was in American gardens previous to 1806," and is now a plant of
market garden culture.
Horseradish is a plant of many names. It is called in France
raifort sauvage, cran de Bretagne, etc., etc. ; in Germany, Meerretig ;
in Flanders, kapucienen mostaard; in Holland, peperwortel; in
Denmark, peberrod ; in Italy, rafano : in Spain, taramago, vagisco ;
in Portugal, rabao de cavalho; in the north of England, in 1568,
red cole,
Hyssop. Hyssopus officinalis L.
This aromatic plant was formerly in more request than at present
Its young shoots and leaves are sometimes used as a condiment, but
it rather belongsamong medicinal herbs. In 1597 Gerarde™ fig-
1 Apicius Coelius. De Opsoniis, ete., 1709. Apicius flourished about
230 A.D.
2 Zanonius. Stirp. Hist., 1742, p. 23, t. 15.
3 Albertus Magnus. De Vog ., lib. vi., tract 2, c. 16.
* Ruellius. De Nat. Stirp., 1588, 466.
ë Castor Durante. Herb., 1617.
6 Fuchsius. De Stirp., 1542, 660.
1 Hist. Gen. Lugd., 1587, 636.
8 Lyte. Dodæœæns, 1586,
9 Gerarde. Herbal, 1597, 187.
10 Gronovius. Orient, 80.
1u McMahon. Am. Gard. Cal., poo
12 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 5
18 Pharmacographia, 1879,71. Aer Herb., 1597, 187.
14 Gerarde, Herb., 1597, 464.
Editors’ Table. 433
ures three varieties; in 1683 Worlidge’ names it among culinary
herbs in England, but says it is more valued for medicine; in
1778 Mawe? describes six varieties, and says generally cultivated
in the kitchen garden, and in 1806* McMahon includes it in hi
list of kitchen aromatics for American gardens. It is mentioned
among European garden plants by Albertus Magnus‘ in the thir-
teenth century, and in nearly all the later botanies, Ray* enumer-
ating it as also an ornamental plant, in nine varieties. As an
ornamental plant is it yet deserving of notice, but its present use
in American gardens must be very limited. It is mentioned by
Paulus Ægnita,' in the seventh century, as a medicinal plant.
Hyssop is called in France hyssope; in Germany, Jsop ;’in Flan-
ders and Holland, hijsoop; in Denmark, isop; in Italy, issopo; in
Spain, hisopo; in Arabic, zoofoe yeubus, ushnaz-daoud.$
EDITORS’ TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY.
There can be no “ privileged classes” among scientific workers.
As the exact truth is the object of their labors, personal authority
does not exist for them except in so far as the reputation of a man
for accuracy will sustain his assertions, where the evidence cannot
be obtained from the subject-matter itself. It is dangerous for a
man holding a superior place in a scientific laboratory or museum
to require subscription to his views on the part of his subordinates
apart from their conviction of their truth, since if there be error, it
is thus all the more widely advertised, and the hostile criticism is
the more general. It is dangerous for subordinates to adopt views
on the strength of authority alone, unless means of verification are
_ Syst. Hort., by J. W, Gent, 1683, 220.
Mawe. Gard., 1778.
. 434 Editors’ Table.
wanting. Nor has science anything to do with national prejudice.
There can be no English, no French, and no German schools.
Investigation makes all things even, and credit will be awarded to
priority wherever the work be done. But there is another kind of
. “ privilege” which is more insidious, and against this the real pro-
ducers in the scientific field cannot too fully protect themselves.
This is the assumption of credit for work not done, by the appli-
ances of art and other means at the command of wealth. The
scientific pretender who introduces names without definitions, or
the wealthy man who publishes pictures, and claims to have made
scientific discoveries on the strength of the work of an artist only,
may make a considerable popular reputation. The man who
in ordinary print only, claims discoveries not his own, is easily
disposed of ; but if he fortify himself with new classical expressions
or with good pictures, he produces an impression, even among men
of science, who are not familiar with the facts. This is espe-
cially true of those publishers who can employ good artists.
Such is the effect of a pretty picture on the average natu-
ralist, that one begins to question whether after all science is
not a branch of art, and the true scientists are the artists. Of
the value of good illustrations we make no question, but that
they can set aside analytical scientific descriptions is a proposition
that none but some highly “privileged” person can possibly
make, Illustrations on a large scale can be furnished but slowly
in some parts of the world, owing to their cost; and in other
cases owing to the very large amount of material to be fig-
ured. In such cases the scientific results cannot be withheld ; and
descriptions without figures will, and, if they are good, ought to
precede the illustrated works. To ignore such work is only the
part of indolence; and none but “ privileged” persons can afford
to be indolent. It has always been the way of this class to enter
in and divide the spoil; but science recognizes no proprietary
rights. Such persons and their admirers talk grandiloquently of
the disinterestedness of the true man of science, and of the sublime
indifference to all personal questions which possesses him, But we
have always noticed that these very persons resent highly any
invasion of their self-assumed privileges; and they are right, m
so far as any credit which inheres in them is not granted by
others. Scientific, like other men, must live, and their reputation
Recent Literature. 435
is the basis of their livelihood. They should then, and in the long
run will, refuse to grant especial privileges to either position or
wealth, but will expect work to be rewarded by recognition, and
will rigorously exclude pretensions based on art or mere nomencla-
ture. This they will do as necessary self-preservation, whenever ~
the tendency may be in an opposite direction.
We regret to read in our esteemed contemporary, the American
Geologist, an editorial apology for what most scientific men disap-
prove. We refer to the purchase of the scientific work of a man
and the publication of it by the purchaser as though it was his own
production. While this kind of a contract is perhaps legal, it is
disreputable to the purchaser, A man under necessity for
the means of a livelihood may make such a sale of himself
without blame; but the man who buys, cannot in this
way get a sound scientific reputation. Works of art placed
before the public in this way, have been the cause of prosecution
of a charge of false pretence against the pseudo-producer.
We refer to the Belt case in London, where busts sold as the work
of Belt were found to have been purchased by him from the real
artist. Belt was mulcted in damages by the court after a trial
which attracted much attention. But whatever the law may be,
the moral obliquity and intellectual poverty that such a transac-
tion implies on the part of the purchaser, are too plain for dispute.
RECENT LITERATURE.
Baur’s MORPHOGENY OF THE CARPUS AND TARSUS OF THE
ERTEBRATA,'— The first portion of Dr. Baur’s work npon the
above subject deals with the Batrachia, excluding the Salientia ;
e second will treat of the Sauropsida ; the 7 hird of the Mam-
malia. The orders of Batrachia accepted are the Ganocephala of
Owen ; the Rhachitomi, ype and Ste hala of Cope;
the Proteida, Urodela, and Anura, To the Gasiosepiads omer
the most ancient of four-footed vertebrates, but Archegosaurus
1 Beit nir Mo h agents des Carpus und Tarsus der Vertebraten,
Five oe Ok “Theil, Batractia: Jena, Verlag von Gustav,
436 Recent Literature.
alone furnishes data for the elucidation of the subject. Like Eryops
this genus has five digits on the fore foot. The incomplete remains
of this genus lead to the conclusion that the Ganocephala pos-
sesses more elements in both carpus and tarsus than are possessed
by any other Batrachians (Salamandrella perhaps excepted), and
that the carpus was very similar to the tarsus. To the Stegoceph-
ala belong the oldest forms of Batrachia, and in these the number
of five digits is already usual. The carpus and tarsus of Necturus
each consist of six elements in the adult ; while in Cryptobranchide
(Urodela), both in the American and Asiatic species, the carpus has
eight, and the tarsus ten elements. The author puts into tabular
form the various changes which occur in the number of the ta
and carpal bones during growth, and gives examples drawn from
all the urodelous families, characterizing each primitive element by
a letter or number, and tracing the separations and incorporations
of each with its neighbors. ‘These tarsal and carpal tables are
followed by a table of the number of the digits in various existing
and extinct Batrachia. The rudiment of a sixth digit occurs in
the Cryptobranchidz and Amblystomide.
Of the three possible modes of origin of the digitated limb
(Cheiroterygium): from the fin-form, viz., development from a
many-rayed fin; development from a few-rayed fin that has been
formed by the obsolescence of the greater part of the rays of a
many-rayed fin; and entire sprouting off from a form which had
entirely lost its finned extremities. Dr. Baur declares that neither
embryology nor palzontology are favorable to the first. All that
can be asserted with precision regarding the ancestral form of the
Stapedifera is, says our authority, that, since all save strongly mod-
ified members of this group have a single bone in the first series of
the limbs (humerus, femur), and two bones in the second series
(radius, ulna ; tibia, fibula), so the ancestral form must also have
had a single ray in the first series, and two rays in the second
series. If the two rays of the ancestral form ended each in a single
ray, the remaining three digits of the pentadactyle extremity must
have been developed by sprouting ; but if the primitive form pos-
sessed five digits, the remaining three must represent the last
remains of a many-rayed fin. As facts which seem to lend sup-
port to the sprouting theory (already advanced by Bruhl) Dr. Baur
instances: (1) the secondary division of the rays of the Ichthyop-
terygia ; (2) a case of the division of the one-rayed fin of Protop-
terus, noticed by Albrecht ; (3) the development and regeneration
of the extremities of the Urodela. When the development of the
fins of Ceratodus and Protopterus have been studied ; when that of
such extremities as normally possess two centralia has been wor
out; and when the few-toed extremities of Proteus are fully
understood, a great step will have been made towards the solution
of the problem. The treatise of Dr. Baur is the most complete
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 437
review of the subject yet written, and clears the way for future
discoveries.—E, D. ©.
CLAUSS ZooLoey.!—The new edition of the “ Lehrbuch” of
Dr. Clausis much improved over its predecessors, and it stands to-
day the best accessible text-book. The illustrations have
been increased in number (there are 792), while much new matter
has been incorporated in the pages. As in the first edition, the
taxonomy of the Vertebrates remains the poorest portion of the
work, American authors have been drawn upon, but it is notice-
able that the author does not notice the views of Brooks upon the
development of Salpa, while a serious error occurs in the text of
the Crustacea where Packard’s term Paleocarida is used for Nebalia
instead of Phyllocarida, which Packard gave to the group. Not-
withstanding Bateson’s researches, of which no mention is made,
Balanoglossus still retains a place near the Echinoderms; in fact,
the casual reader would infer from the “make up” that Dr. Claus
regarded them as members of the same order as Synapta and Chi-
rodota. The price of the volume (18 marks) is quite reasonable
in comparison with that charged for the English translation.
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Fewkes, J. W.—A New Mode of Life among Meduse. Ext. Proc. Bos-
ton Society. 1887. From the author.
Haswell, W. A.—Observations on the Early Stages in the Development
of the Emu (Dromeus nowehollandie). Ext. Proc. Lin. Soe. N. 8.
. From
Dabney, R. H.—The Causes of the French Revolution. New York.
1888. From the author.
Atkinson, G. F.—Preliminary Catalogue of the Birds of North Carolina.
Ext. Jour. Elisha Mitchell Society. 1887. From the author.
Beddard, F. E.—Note on the Systematic Position of Monitor. Ext.
Anat. Anz. 1888.—Preliminary Note on the Nephridia of Peri-
chæta. Ext. Proc. Roy. Soc’y, xliii. Both from the author.
Brook, George.—Reproduction of Lost Parts in the Lobster.—Notes on
e British Species of Zeugopterus. . Proc. no Phys. Soc’y.
dinburgh. 1887.—Note on the Epiblastie Origin of the Segmental
Duct in Fishes and Birds. Ext. Pros: Royal Soc’y. Edinburgh.
1887. Both from the author.
Plateau, Felix.—Recherches Experimentales sur la Vision chez les
oven Ext. Bull. Acad. Roy. Belgique. 1888. From the
or.
A a sh
1? Lehrb
burg’ hrbuch der Zoologie, von Dr. C. Claus. Vierte Auflage. Mar-
438 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Kunz, z F.—Gold 1 Orpamenta pon gi United States of Columbia. Rep.
1887
Amer. Anti ep and Silver Ornaments from
lounds of Florida. Re a J uly, 1857.—Precious Stones. Abs.
Mineral Resources U. SA 85.—On a Large Garne bs..
A i., May 3 188 oe the New Artificial Rubies
From Trans. N E cad. Sci., Oct., 1886 n eteorites
rom Am.
rieta Mountain, Nei Me xico. 'From Ann.of N. Y. Acad. Sci.
No. 2. 188 All from the author.
Newberry, J. S.—On the Structure and Relations of, Edestus, with @
Remi ption of a Gigantic New Species. rom the Ann. of N. Y.
Acad. Sci. No. 4. 1888. From the author
Albrecht, P—On the Character and Bolptiona of the Nervous Current
a. d. iol. Centralblatt.”’ Feb. —Noch einmal die Chorda-
Prot, Dr. Aebi ` 1886. ‘All from the author
Le Conte, Joseph.—Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought.
New York. Appleton & Co. 1888. From the publisher
Hildebrand, W.—Flora of the mawalan Islands. B. oitan & Co.
New York. From the publis
Sturtevant, E. L.—Sixth Ann. k r the Board of ee of the N.
Y. Agric. Exp. Station. For the year 1887. From the author.
Jaccard, ey —Presidential Address at the agers a pe PENE Meeting
of the Swiss Society Nat. Sci., Aug. 11th, 1885.—Suisse. Esquisse
Selous: Ext. de L’ Annuaire geologique universel. 1885.—Les
le développement de la Paléontologie en Suisse. Ext. Arch. Sci.
hys. et Nat., Dec., 1887. All from the autho
Farlow, W. G.—Memoir of Edward Lame! ult 1817-1886. Read bef.
Nat. Acad. Apr., 1887. From the author
Cotes, B. C. VATE or of the Moths of India. Part II. Bombyces.
Swinhoe, C. leutta. From the Trustees of the Indian Museum.
Dighton, W. R. Preliminary Notes on a Study of Atrypa rotindari
saa, Eaa . Washburn Coli. Lab. of Nat. Hist., Oct., 1887. From
the aut
) Prelim. cane of the Fossil Mammals from the
Scott, W. B. | White Ter Saan, in the ee S oo i,
Comparative Zoölogy. Bull. Mus. Comp
Osborn, H. F. J Cambridge, Sep., 1887. m A. Agassiz.
Trouessart, E. L. aoe des Carnivores,vivants et fossiles. Paris.
1886. From the author
Both from the au
Wilder, B. G.—The Dipnoan Brain. Remarks on Classification of Ver-
tebrata. Eg Ext. Am. Nat., 1887.—The Paroccipital Fissu preii
Rep. M ed. Re Fee Oct., 1886._-Human Cerebral Fissures, =
Relations and Names, ete. Am. Nat. Cat., Oct., 1886.—The re
pann nola Eu and Fissure in the Human Fæœtus.—Notes on
wo last from the Jour. of Nerv. and Mental Disease.
1886. All athi the author
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 439
nd Br f ome Ext. fee
Eigenmann, Rosa Smith. Sci. 1888. From the author
Baur, G.—Ueber den Ursprung dee Extremitäten der REE
From the author
Binney, W. S.—A Second Supplement to the 5th vol. of the Terrestrial
Air-Breathing Mollusks of the U. S. A., ete. Bull. Mus ere red
Zool. Vol. XIII. No.2. Ca ambridge. 1886. From A. peice
Amer. Assoc. A. S.— PF hi A. A. A. 8. New York otis
Fr om the Associati
Gilson, F, H.—Trees of Radne Mass. PartI. 1888. From the Author.
Whitman, C; O.—A Contribution to the Embryology, Life-History and
Classification of the Dicyemids. Ext. Miitheil. a.d. zool. Station
zu Neapel. 1882. From the author.
Weithofer, A. —Beitrige zur eak der Fauna von Pikermi bei
Athen. Sep-Abd. a “ Beirt. z. Palaontologie Osterreich-Ungarus.
Vol. VI. 1888. From the author,
White, C. A.—Cretaceous Invertebrate Fossils, mainly from the Prov-
gos of Tapine, Pernambuco, Para and Bahia. Ext. Archivos do
nn apin Nacional do Rio de ees Vol. VIL. 1888. From the
au
Forbes, 5. ue —Studies of the Food of Fresh-Water hee Bull. Ill.
State Lab. Nat. Hist. Vol. VII. From the author.
Woodward, A. S.—Note on an Abnormal Specimen of the Dentition of
hinoptera.—Note on the Extinct Reptilian Genera Megalania,
Owen, and Meiola ania, Owen. Both from Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.
1888. Both from the author.
Bettger, O. aye adh of the Batrachians and Reptiles hronghi from
reece and Asia Min r by E. v. Oertzen. poi itz d. K. P. Akad.
Wissenash ad ften. 1888. E ee the autho
Giard, A j Soninibations a L’Etude des ene: 1887. From the
bale Fg J tho
Eigenmann, C. H. } ana List of the American Species % AA y
Garman, > —The te and Batrachians of North jg oe Mem.
rey ey Zool. Cambridge. Vol. VIII. No. 3. 1883. From
eau
Culin, S.—The Religious Ceremonies of the Chinese in the Eastern Cities
of the - Read before the Pi pelacanis and Antiquarian Soe. of
Phila. 1887, From the pe thor
Felenger, G. A.—List of pues, and Batrachians from Cyprus. Ann.
Mag. Nat. Hist., 7.—Notes the Osteology of the
Genus Paana a aR 1887.—0n a Rare Himalayan
Toad. Idem, Dee. -, 1887.—Descriptions of New Brasilien
chians.—Idem, Mch., 1888.—On Mo olge ee ee Cope. Idem,
Jan., 1888.—New Reptiles and Batrachians fro °
Idem, Feb., 1888.—On the mrtg oe of the North penat zard
Fauna. Idem, Feb., 1888. All from the author.
Nipher, F_ E.—The Volt, the Ohm and the Am a: Rep. Jour.
Assoc. Eng. Societies, Mch., 1888. From the autho
440 General Notes.
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.:
Asta.—Inpo-Cuina.—M., de Lanessan, in a paper read before
the Commercial Geographical Society of France, gives the area of
French Indo-China at about 600,000 square kilometres. The Me-
kong, though the largest river of the peninsula, passes through a
thinly peopled and almost uncultivated region until it enters Cam-
bodia. The principal centres above this point are Luang-Praban
in the north; Nong-Kay, in the southward bend of the Mekong;
Lakhone, in the rear of the Annamite provinces of Hatinh and
Nghe-An, and largely colonised by Annamites; Bassac, in a navi-
able reach opposite to the mouth of the Se-Moum, which enters
abandoned. The Donai is the only river of the region that can
entered by large vessels, and a coral bank obstructs even this. The
Bay of Touraine, the port of the province of Quang-Nam, so
of Hue, is a safe and ample harbor; and that of Ha-Long, in the
north of Tonkin, seems to be equal to it. j
According to Mr. McCarthy, Superintendent of Surveys in Siam,
two spheres of influence, English and Siamese, are prominent In
the Malay peninsula. The inhabitants of the northern portion arè
Siamese and Chinese, then come the SamSams, a mixture of Malays
and Siamese, who are Buddhists and speak a mixed language; then
the Malays, who are Mohammedans.
There are also two very curious tribes which are supposed to be
aboriginal, called by the Malays “Orang Utann,” or wild men,
‘ Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
Geography and Travel. 441
and also known as Sakais and Samangs. The Sakai has soft black
skin and wool; the Samang has also a very black skin, but the
hair is coarse and straight, and the skin is rough. ey wear no
clothes, are clever in snaring fish and game, and use bows and
arrows as well as blow-pipes for weapons.
Kurpistay.—M. N. Binder recently described his travels in
Kurdistan before the French Geographical Society. The name
Kurdistan is given by the Turks to a collection of villages in the
mountainous district separating Persia from Turkey, between 34°
and 40° N. Latitude and 38° and 46° E. Longitude. Lakes Ur-
miah and Van are situated in the centre of immense table lands,
the former, on account of its small depth and the extreme density
of its waters, which are six times more saline than sea-water, does
not seem to have a great future before it, but the latter lake offers
many advantages. M. N. Binder traced the history of the Kurds,
and referred to the current tradition that they have French blood
in their veins. The variety of religions is the cause of infinite
variety among the tribes. The sedentary and nomadic Kurds differ
greatly in occupation and mode of life. The Subbas are a stran
sect, with a religion composed of a mixture of gnostic and Chris-
as
tian ideas.
Tae New SIBERIAN Isianps.—A recent number of Peter-
mann’s Mitteilungen contains a map of the new Siberian islands,
giving the routes of Dr. Bunge, Baron Toll, Captain de Long,
N ordenskiéld, etc. The principal islands are Ostrow Blischnij,
Kotelnoi, Faddejewskoi, and East New Siberia.
North of these lie Bennett Land and Sannikow. Remains of
the mammoth, narwhal (probably two species), horse, musk-ox,
three kinds of deer, hare and seal were found upon the island of
Liachof (Ostrow Blischnij).
: THE Hrrrires.—It is probable that the renowned Hittite city
Carchemish, is to be sought at the site of Jerablas, from which the
identical in shape and position with that worn by the Chinese.
he wearers of the pig-tail have Mongolian countenances, and it
seems probable that a Mongolian race had obtained the supremacy
in some of the Hittite cities,
e Nige b rty
mako) on July lst, and twelve days later reached Diafarabu. Below
442 General Notes.
this point the country was unexplored, forming part of the States.
of Tidiani, the chief of Macina.
Bandiagara, Tidiani’s capital, is a most important centre of the
Mohammedan religion, the town resembling a huge convent. Far-
ther down the river it became difficult to get provisions, since the
natives had all retired into the interior. On July 9th, Lake Dhe-
boë was entered, and was found to receive the river Koli-Koli,
which waters the province of Formagha. Below Lake Dheboé
the Niger takes the name of Bara Issa, and its banks are thickly
lined with populous villages. Tidiani had issued strict orders to
the Puls and Bambaras to have no communication with the French.
The waters are shallow near Timbuktu, so that the gunboat could
not proceed to the town. The djemaa or associations of merchants
have been expelled two years before, and a chief named Rhiaia had
been installed by the assistance of the Tuaregs. Knowing the per-
fidious character of the Tuaregs, the party slept on board every
night, and made no excursions into the interior. All negotiations
with the chiefs failed, and the Niger returned via the Diaka, or
western branch of the river, hitherto unexplored. A vast amount
of ethnographical and other valuable information was obtained,.
and a detailed survey of this part of the Niger’s course was
executed.
Bakongo means “a man with a lance,” and thus the river name
may be interpreted to mean “ quick as a lance.”
J. MENGES JOURNEY SOUTHWARD FROM KassaLa.—J-
Menges publishes an account (Petermann’s Mitt.) of his journey
between Kassala and the Setit. The very existence of Kassala
depends upon the commerce with the countries to the south of it.
Two caravan routes conduct sout . One of these follows
the Atbara as far as Tomat, and then crosses the steppe to Kedar .
The second goes directly from Kassala to the Setit, passing by
the imposing granite mountain of Kassala.
The people of these regions, belonging to the tribes aaa
Dabaina, and Schukpieh, dwell in the dry season on the borders 0
Geography and Travel. . 443-
the rivers or in market towns like Kedarif. The character of the
three rivers Setit, Atbara and Basalam is everywhere the same;
their flood plains are some 90 metres below the barren soil of
the plateau, and they are themselves from 120 to 300 metres wide,
and about 15 metres deep.
AUSTRALIA.—Dr. K. V. Lendenfeld (Petermann’s Mitt., 1888)
states that the influence of forests upon the climate of Australia is
the reverse of that which they are supposed to exercise in Europe.
While European trees retain much of the water among their roots,.
the plants of the Australian wastes, including the grasses, Euca-
lypti and the Spinifex, send their roots to great depths in search
of water, and appear to open their stomata only at night.
Dr. Lendenfeld asserts that during his journeys in the interior
of New South Wales he has many times travelled all day through
forests without seeing grass, The soil, for the most part consist-
ing of red loam, is flat and smooth as asphalt, and hard as stone,
forming a marked contrast to that of European forests. When it
rains in such a forest the greater part of the water runs off into the
hollows at once. As many of these water-holes have a subterra-
nean communication with the sea, no great lakes are formed. A e
greatest river in Australia, the Murray, is navigable only in winter
by flat-bottomed steamboats, In many places where squatters have
destroyed the forests the bare soil becomes clothed with so many
inds of grass as to afford subsistence for a thousand sheep where:
a hundred fed previously.
Mr. S. Brooke (Petermann’s Mitt., 1888) describes the recent
excursion of himself and his brother in Western Australia, and
Sives a map of their route. The whole region is lacking in water,
yet has numerous plants. The soil is calcareous, with a few moun-
tains and granite rocks rising from the plains. Among these is
aipa Rugged, which is about 1,980 feet high and three miles.
ong.
of the Negro, Limay and Collon-Cura and the Lake Nahuel-Huapi,
of which the Limay is the outlet. This lake is 583 metres above
the sea, and its shape is different from that originally reported.
The Argentine Republic in general may be said to consist of the
flat Pampas and of the Cordilleras, but there are also subordinate
444 : General Notes.
height, as, for example, Nevado de Famatina (6,024 metres) and
Nevada de Aconquija (5,400 m.): toward the south these Pampas
sierras diminish in height.
The province of Santa Fe (Argentine Republic), according to the
-census of June 8, 1887, now contains 220,332 inhabitants, against
187,000 in 1869. The municipality of Cérdoba, a square of 26
kilometres on each side, contained in October of the same year
66,247 souls, while in 1869 it had but 34,458. Buenos Ayres has
now a population of 424,873, and Rosaria 50,914.
GEOGRAPHICAL NeEws.—ALGERIA.—The last census (1886) of
Algeria gives a population of 3,752,196, being an increase of nearl
half a million above the population in 1881. Of this increase
24,209 are Frenchmen, and nearly 22,000 natives of other Euro-
‘pean countries. There has been an influx of more than 17,000
Moroccans into Algeria, while Mohammedan-French subjects have
‘increased from 2,842,497 to 3,264,481.
According to Mr. N. J. Dixon, the population of the various
States of Colombia is as follows: Boyaca, 483,874; Cauca, 435,-
690; Santander, 423,427; Cundinamarca, 409,602; Antioquia,
365,974; Bolivar, 300,000; Tolima, 230,821; Panama, 220,600 ;
-and Magdalena, 85,255; making a total of 2,955,243.
GEOLOGY AND PALZONTOLOGY.
Norges oN THE ROCKFORD SHALES.—The lithological and
paleontological characters of the Rockford shales of Iowa differ
-considerably at different localities.
or example, the shales which are seen at the south exposure at
Owens Grove, Cerro Gordo county, differ conspicuously, in many
respects, in their lithological and paleontological characters, from
the same beds observed at other localities! The differentiation of
the fauna at this place is strongly marked. The three species O
Pachyphyllum? which occur at Hackberry and Rockford, are here
replaced by a new species of this genus.
1 For a detailed description of the Rockford Shales, and the limestone
which immediately underlie them, reference may be made toa paper
by the author, on ‘‘Contributions to the Knowledge of the Devonian
Fauna of Iowa, with a Description of the Rockford Shales,” now in
press by the Davenport Academy of Science.
2 In a paper, now in the hands of the printer, the author has described
‘three new species of this genus.
Geology and Paleontology. 445
The species Cystiphyllum davidsonii,!| which occur here in con-
siderable numbers, also entirely replace Acervularia inequalis, of
other portions of these beds. The Stromatoporoid forms, which.
occur at other localities, are here replaced by a single, undetermined
species of this genus. Specimens belonging to the following genera
are also found here, but are not known to occur elsewhere in the
shales. Pleurotomaria, Saxonema, Syringopora, Alveolites, Gyro-
ceras, etc.
_ In connection with these, we have obtained large numbers of new,
and described, species of Lamellibranchs, which do not occur (or if
so, in small numbers) elsewhere in this formation. mee
ut the chief interest attaches to a certain very large, and undeter-
mined species of Trilobite, which occurs here, and entirely replacesall
other species of crustaceans which are known to occur at Hackberry
and Rockford. e occurrence of this species in these beds is a
matter of considerable interest, from the fact that it is the first in-
stance of the known occurrence of any of these forms in the Rock-
ford shales and indeed, in any of the Devonian rocks of northern
owa.
The great variation in the lithological and paleontological char-
acters of the shales at this place, from those observed at an exposure
one and one-fourth miles to the north, as well as those at Hackberry
and Rockford, led us at first to doubt their equivalency. But
subsequent collections showed a considerable number of typical
kford shale species (as shown by the following list), which
prove them to be equivalent to other portions of this formation,.
as observed at other localities. The following enumeration is that,
of some of the typical shale forms occurring here.
Spirifera whitneyi, Spirifera hungerfordi, Atrypa hystrix, var.
planosuleata Webster, Strophodonta reversa, Strophodonta canace,
Campophyllum nanum, Zaphrentis solida, Cystiphyllum mundulum,
and Naticopsis gigantea. Although the number of species repre-
sented is considerable, yet their occurrence in individual numbers.
are usually small.
, , oronema gigantea, n. sp.—Shell large, cylindrical, sloping rap-
idly from the blunt apex. Length of adult individual from ten to
This species more closely resembles L. robusta, of Hall (15 Re-
ts Report of New York, p. 52) than any other described species
nown tome. It differs, however, from that species in that the
1 This variety approaches more nearly the form from Alpena, Mich.,
aan to those from any other portion of the Devonian rocks of Iowa.
Vapid two specimens of this species have ever been obtained (so far as.
416 General Notes.
shell is larger, the apex more blunt, the greater obliquity of the
volutions, and in their greatest convexity being at or below the centre.
osition and locality, Rockford shales, Owens Grove (south
exposure), Cerro Gordo county, Iowa.
onema owenensis, n. sp.—Shell very large and robust, subco-
niform; spire rather rapidly ascending, apex blunt. Volutions
eight to ten or more, very oblique, strongly inflated, most prom-
inently so below the centre, rounded. Suture deeply channeled;
shell from two mm. to six mm. in thickness; aperture subovate.
Surface apparently smooth. The depth of the suture in this species
is very much greater than the suture in either the foregoing or fol-
lowing species. Height of adult specimens from fourteen to six-
teen and one-half centimetres ; diameter of body volution from four
to five centimetres. This is, we believe, the largest species of the
genus yet described. Position and locality, Rockford shales,
Owens Grove (south exposure), Towa.
oxonema crassum, n. sp.—Shell large, subconiform depressed,
rapidly broadening from the blunt apex. Volutions from five to
seven, slightly flattened or broadly rounded ; suture strongly chan-
neled below; shell very thick ; surface apparently smooth ; aperture
ovate. This species differs from L. gigantea in its more robust,
depressed form, and the less convexity and obliquity of its volutions.
Position and locality, Rockford Shales, Owens Grove (south
exposure), Iowa. Quite a large number of specimens of each of the
species described have been secured, and their specific differences
are shown to be constant and well marked.—Clement L. Webster,
Charles City, Iowa.
Some Extinct SCLERODERMS.—In 1887, in the Memorie della
Societa Italiana delle Scienze of Naples (3d series, v. 6, No. 4),
Baron Achille de Zigno has published descriptions and illustrations
of two very interesting Scleroderms from the Eocene beds of Italy.
One of these is the Protobalistum imperiale of Massalongo, the other
a previously unknown species considered to be congeneric with the
ormer and named Protobalistum Omboni; both were obtained from
the celebrated Mount Bolca beds. The most casual examination
will convince one who has had much experience with recent fishes
that the two species have little in common and belong to very dif-
ferent genera if not families. Both are, however, important for the
light they may throw on the genetic relations and former distribu-
tion of the Scleroderms, but each owes its importance to a different
reason.
The generic description of Protobalistum given by Baron de
Zigno is based on the assumption that there are certain characters
1 Duc nuovi pesci fossile della famiglia dei Balistini scopertinel tef-
reno eoceno del Veronese. (8 pp., 2 pl)
Geology and Paleontology. 447
which are common to the two forms, which does not appear to be
justified by the specimens; on the development of 4 to 6 dorsal
spines, of spinous rays to each pectoral (“ pectorales radiis duobus
spinosis”), and of 1 to 3 spines to each ventral (“ ventrales radiis
1—3 spinosis, retro-flexis’”’). Such features as the last two are so
incompatible with the structure of living Scleroderms that the sus-
picion is unavoidable that their ascription to the extinct forms is
due to some error of observation or interpretation. The principal
feature described and corroborated by the illustrations is the num-
ber of dorsal spines. The arrangement of the spines is neverthe-
less very different in the two species.
thidids ; the family name in such case would of course be Proto-
balistide.
of the back; the first spine is very strong and the others very
short; the soft dorsal is elongated, and the anal is oblong; the cau-
dal peduncle is
well as the structural characteristics (so far as known) of the
be
to that family, and that it is related to the genera Triacanthodes
and Hollardia, with which it agrees in the convex caudal fin,
oie the elongated ventral spines. (“Le ventrali sono constituite
Delle pettorali non si scorge sull ’esemplare alcuna traccia e delle
TAitralo si vede soltanto un Solá raggio pom se lungo tre centimetri
piegato all ’indientro lungo il ventre (p. 4).
448 General Notes.
name being available for the fossil, it may be named Protacanthodes
Hollardia and Triacanthodes in the oblong caudal peduncle and
enlarged caudal fin while its physiognomy rather recalls the true
Triacanthi. The occurrence of a form so closely related to the
Triacanthodes of the Japanese sea, and to the Hollardia of the
Caribbean in the eocene seas of Europe, is worthy of special note, and
this is a sufficient reason for the present communication.
The nearest extinct associate of Protacanthodes is not Protobalis-
tum but Acanthopleurus Ag. The two belong to the same family
but appear to be otherwise distantly related. The other extinct
genera of Scleroderms, Balistomorphus Gill, Acanthoderma Ag. 1843,
not Cantraine, 1835, and Bucklandium Koenig— Glyptocephalus
Ag.) are rather to be associated with the Balistids.
The exact characters and relations of all these fishes remain to be
known.— Theo. Gi
THE PHYLOGENY OF THE Horsss.'—This brochure of 71 pages,
illustrated by two excellent plates, cannot fail to instruct the student
who is unfamiliar with this subject. The authoress shows a great
degree of familiarity with the history of the facts known in this
connection and they are set forth with considerable fulness of detail.
She has been more fortunate than some of her predecessors
in avoiding record in extenso of the mythology of the subject, which
has been long since consigned to its place in the waste-basket by
American palzontologists. We allude to the Eohippus, Miohippus,
and Pliohippus, which still appear occasionally in theological works
and school-books of America and England. A considerable part
of the essay is devoted to the endeavor to prove that the genera
Palzeotherium and Hippotherium must be excluded from the line
of descent, which has continued from Protogonia puercensis through
Phenacodus, Hyracotherium, ete., to Equus. he describes and
figures with much care certain bones of the carpus and tarsus of
Anchitherium, Hippotherium, and Equus, in evidence of this posi-
tion as regards Hippotherium. We say with reference to this
question, that in discussing the phylogeny of genera, one must
confine himself to generic characters, and it is necessary to ascertain
what these are in the skeleton before we can use them properly.
There are some species of supposed Hippotherium of North Amer-
ica which approach Equus so closely in dental characters that
the descent of some species of the latter from them looks probable.
Probably the species of Equus are polyphyletic,? some coming trom
1 Etudes sur l’Histoire Palzontologique des Ongulés, II, le Developpe
ment des Equide. Par Marie Pavlow. Moscow, 1888.
2 I have expressed this opinion in an article on the Perissodactyla in
American Naturalist, 1887, p. 1076.
Geology and Paleontology. 449
Hippidium and some from Hippotherium through the intermediate
form with the molar teeth of the latter genus, and the single
metapodials of the former. This genus has not been named, and I
will now call it Hippodactylus, and give as the type Hippotherium
antelopinum of Falconer from the Sivalik formation of India.
It enters the Equide.
We find in this essay two new family names, whose introduction
we regret. One of these is the “Hyracotheriide,” which is perhaps
a misapprehension of my own Hyracotheriine. This group cannot
be separated as a family from the Lophiodontide so far as I can
see, The other family name is Pachynolophide. Pachynolophus
was based by Pomel on the P. duvali, which is an undoubted mem-
ber of the family Lophiodontide, if the figure of Pictet (Traité de
Palzontologie) is correct, and 1 believe it to be so after examination
of specimens in Paris. But Lydekker and Pavlow place in this
genus the Hyracotherium siderotilicwm Pictet, an animal which is
not only no Pachynolophus, but is not even a member of the
Lophiodontide. Supposing its digits to be 4-3, it will enter the
Menodontide, where I have AP it, making it the type of the
genus Acoéssus. How many of the species referred to Pachynolo-
phus belong to Acoéssus I do not know, but in any case neither
genus is a type of a separate family.
A further acquaintance with the American literature would have
ved some minor errors. Thus it is stated that the limbs of Pro-
tohippus have not been described. They were described by me
in 1873 (Annual Report U. S. Geolog. Survey Terr.), and were
figured by Wortman in the Revue Scientifique, 1883, p. 712, from
my blocks, The ancestral relation of Phenacodus to the Dip-
larthrous ungulate series, is ascribed to Wortman; but this view
was published by the present writer long before that gentleman.
The synonym Orotherium is ascribed to Cope instead of to Marsh.
Merychippus is not different from Protohippus.—£. D. Cope.
HAYDEN MEMORIAL GerotocicaL Funp.—Mrs. Emma W.
* Classificati |
Society, 1881, on of the Perissodactyla. Proceedings Amer. Philosophical
450 General Notes.
GroLogicaL News. — Permian, Trias, Erc. — La Mar
in his famous “ Voyage in Sardinia,” states that the Permisi
Triassic and even Liassic rocks seem to be entirely lacking in
Sardinia. True Triassic beds, however, have been found in the
southwest near Iglesias, while in the north of the island, near
Nurra, Permian and Triassic strata occur. Descriptions of these
rocks, with lists of their characteristic fossils, may be found in
Bulletin XII. (2d series, vol. 11) and Bulletin XV. (2d series,
vol. 5) of the Comitato geologico d’ Italia.
JURASSIC. — The result of the researches of M. L. Dollo into
— menace of the Iguanodontide is to prove that Iguanodon
nnot be descended from Hypsilophodon or vice versa, but that
dey are the types of two utterly distinct families
According to Dr. J. V. Deichmiiller, the sabi het of specimens
from the lithographic slates now in the Dresden Museum reaches
1680, comprising 114 genera and 193 species, and including 48
species of fishes, 53 of insects, 48 of crustacea, and 21 of cephalo-
poda. Among the insects nine forms belong to the Orthoptera,
seventeen, besides several still unidentified, to the Neuroptera, six
to the Hemiptera, and eighteen to the Coleoptera. Of the Neu-
roptera two specimens only are Neuroptera vera, while the Termi-
tina are represented by two, and the Ephemeride by one species.
The remaining pseudo-neuropterous forms, comprising more than
one-third of all the insect specimens, and nearly 95 per cent. of the
neuropterous remains, belong to the Odonata. In his “Die
Insecten aus dem _ lithographischen Schiefer im Dresdener
Museum ” (1886) Dr. Deichmiiller not only gives fuller descrip-
tions of previously known forms, but describes two new species
of Locustide, one of Notonectidee and one each of Carabide,
pay Pes, Scarabeide, Buprestidæ, Elateride, Pyrrochroide,
and Chrysomelide.
Canozoic.— M. L. Dollo, in his “ Premiére note sur les
Chéloniens oligoctnes et néogenes de La Belgique,” reviews the
numerous remains of turtles belonging to the group Athece, of
which Sphargis is the only existing representative, that has been
found in the upper tertiary deposits of Belgium. Remains oe
the “ Rupelian ” clay (middle oligocene) were described by P
Van Beneden in 1883, under the title of Sphargis rupeliensis
while others from the “ Bolderien ” were by the same S alæontologist
‘named Macrochelys scaldii. The discovery of additional material
has enabled M. Dollo to ascertain that the Sphargis rupeli
M. Van Beneden differs from the recent form by the presence of
a continuous bony ventral armor, formed of a mosaic of 8
pee. while S. coriacea has only longitudinal series 0
tubercles; by the slighter convexity of the carapace ; by the
Geology and Paleontology. 451
absence of projecting dentellated ridges upon the carapace ; by the
margin of the dorsal armor not being rolled downwards; by the
greater thickness of the carapace; by the apparent presence of
horny plates; and by a skull proportionately shorter, wider, and
with thicker bones. The cretaceous genera of the group Athece,
viz., Protostega and Protosphargis, were without a dorsal armor.
M. L. Dollo concludes that all the fossil Athece yet found in the
an
=“ a third genus near the former takes the name of Oxyodon-
erium.
M. Larrazet, as the result of his studies upon the character of
the skin among fossil rays, divides them into three types: the
first approximating to the modern Raja in form and size; the-
second, which has placoid ossifications with a broad base and small
Spine, forming the genus Dynatobatis; while the third, the dermal
ossifications of which have a long spine and small base, forms the
genus Acanthobatis.
PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE. — M. A. Villott thus classifies
the alluvial deposits of Dauphinè: (1) Those of the high plateaus,
some of which occur at a height of 700 metres above sea level, and
which may be referred to tertiary times; (2) The pre-glacial
deposits of the lower plateaus, forming the upper part of the high
terraces, and entirely belonging to the quaternary epoch ; (3) The
post-glacial alluvium of the lower terraces, formed after that great
extension of the quaternary glaciers. The erosion of the valleys is
cela principally to three different periods : (a) that which pre-
th ed the quaternary epoch, and was the result of the bursting of
© pliocene lakes — a necessary result of the last elevation of the
452 General Notes.
Alps; (b) that which occurred during the glacial period; (c) that
which is the work of the modern epoch.
Four years ago M. G. Rolland announced his belief that the
great fresh-water formations of the Sahara are much less recent
than had been hitherto believed, the greater portion of them
belonging to the pliocene instead of the quaternary age. Subse-
quent studies of these deposits have confirmed his first opinion, of
which he las now found paleontological proof by the discovery
of a number of casts of species of Helix belonging to the group of
H. tissoti and semperina, which characterize the lower pliocene of
Biskra and Constantine. M. Rolland also shows the synchronism
which exists between the different beds of the Eastern Sahara and
the corresponding fresh-water beds of the pliocene and quaternary
formations in the Atlas region.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'
PETROGRAPHICAL NeEws.—Among the rocks gathered by
Reyer? during a journey through the Sierra Nevada Mountains,
Schuster* has found the following principal types: biotite granites,
containing microcline and _pilitized biotite; saussurite-diorite and
quartz-diorite, containing orthoclase ; saussurite, pilite, and biotite
gabbros ; quartz-porphyrites, kersantites, andesites, serpentine, frag-
mental rocks, and tufas. Although the paper in which these rocks
are described consists merely of detailed descriptions of detached
rock-specimens, it nevertheless contains many points of considerable
interest. Pyrophyllite is mentioned as an alteration product 0
olivine and of plagioclase; reaction rims around augite and olivine
are pictured; intergrowths of biotite and augite, of biotite and
hornblende, and the alteration of biotite into pilite and into horn-
blende, are each described. romium mica is mentioned as occur-
ring in a magnesite concretion in serpentine ; helminth, as a constit-
uent of a diabase porphyrite, and anorthoclase, as existing 10 4 ©
hornblende porphyrite. A most interesting case of intergrowth 1s
that in which a long, tabular crystal of plagioclase penetrates dial-
lage in sucha way that its long edges are parallel to the orthopinacoid
of the augite, and its twining lamelle are parallel to the lines of
inclusions in this mineral. Indications of the effects of pressure
were seen in a large number of the sections examined.——V!-
Wadsworth‘ has recently published a report embracing preliminary
descriptions of the peridotites, gabbros, diabases, and other rocks of
1 Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, Colby University, Waterville, Me.
s Neues bes Prag etc. Beil. Bd. v., p. 451.
: ati us Nat. ist. Survey of Minnesota, Bulletin No. 2. Minne-
apolis, 1887. ;
Mineralogy and Petrography. 453
tion of its feldspar, locally passes into limburgite. Some of the
larger of the feldspar crystals in this rock show the hour-glass
structure frequently seen in augite. The rock of Pietzelstein is a
nepheline basalt. Very detailed analyses of specimens of all these
rocks are given, and each is very minutely described.——According
to Harker,‘ most of the dyke-rocks of the Island Anglesey, off the
northwest coast of Wales, are diabases and augite porphyrites.
One of these dykes cutting a caleareous shale has converted this
rock into a lydianite, in which calcite, clusters of garnet, and anal-
` American Naturalist, 1885, p. 497.
i Copper-Bearing Rocks. Monog. V., U. S. Geol. Survey.
, Neues Jahrb. f. Minn., ete. 1888. I., p. 81.
Geol. Magazine, 1887, Sept., p. 410, and Dec., p. 545.
454 General Notes.
cite crystals are developed. Other dykes from the northern portion
of the island appear to consist of hornblende and biotite picrites.
In one case newly formed, almost colorless hornblende is described
as forming a cement between crystals of original hornblende, in a
manner analogous to the quartz cement in indurated quartzites.
MINERALOGICAL NEws.—The diamonds found in the Province
of Minas Geraes, Brazil, are associated with the oxides of titanium,
martite, monazite, and xenotine. They are usually found in qua-
ternary alluvial deposits, but have their origin, according to Gor-
ceix,' in the itacolumites and mica schists which are archean. In
these rocks they occur in deposits analogous to those of topaz, ana-
tase, rutite, etc. All these minerals occupy well-defined bands in
the itacolumite, and are original in it, and are not derived from
some older rock, whose detritus supplied the material for the
itacolumite and the mica schist. This explanation of the origin
of Brazilian diamonds is quite different from that offered? in the case
of diamonds of the African and American fields. Polianite, the
anhydrous manganese dioxide, has heretofore not been found in
sufficiently well-crystallized specimens to admit of a satisfactory
determination of its crystallographic constituents. The investiga-
tions? seemed to point to an orthorhombic symmetry for it. Messrs.
Dana and Penfield‘ have recently proven it to be tetragonal and
isomorphous with cassiterite, with a:e==1:.66467. The crystals
examined are composite, being composed of several tetragonal indi-
viduals which produce a body with an orthorhombic habit. Their '
specific gravity is 4.992, and their composition as follows :—
MnO o Fe,0, SiO, H,O Insoluble.
80.81 18.16 16 36 .28 16,
revealing a very pure manganese dioxide. In the basalt from
the neighborhood of Périer (Puy de Dôme) are little veins of clayey
material® in which are imbedded crystals of augite and lozenge-
shaped flat plates of feldspar. The plates are sections parallel to
the clinopinacoid, bounded by the planes oP and Px equally
developed. They are frequently twinned with oo Poo as the composi-
tion face——Jannetaz® has analyzed uranite from the Island of
Madagascar, with this result :— :
Igelström” has discovered a manganese, rich and antimony-
P.O, NO, Fe,0, CaO Loss (water).
14.93 55.08 1.365 6.51 _ 22.08
* Amer. Jour. Sci., March 1888, p. 243.
5 Lévy: Bull. d. 1. Soc. Franç. d. Miner., X., 1887, p. 69.
6 Ib., p. 47.
1 Bull, Soe. Franç. d. Min., ix., 1887, p. 218.
Botany. 455
bearing berzellite, associated with barite, tephroite, calcite, and
hausmannite, in veins and nests in the vicinity of Sjogrufan,
Grythyttan parish, Orebro, Sweden. ‘The new mineral, to which
the name pyrrhoarsenite has been given, has a color resembling
that of crocoite. It has a hardness of 4, and is soluble in hydro-
chloric acid. It possesses the optical properties of berzellite, and a
composition as follows :—
As,0,+S8b,0; MnO CaO MgO SiO, H,O Al,0,+Fe,0,
58.06 17.96 18.68 3.58 1.02 .85 traces.
which may be represented by the formula (Ca,Mn.,Mg),(As,
Sb ),0,.
MIscELLANEOUS.—Cohen! has re-investigated the subject of the
pleochroic halos (Höfe) in the biotites of granite and gneiss, and is
thereby led to the conclusion that they are produced by the accumu-
lation of organic substances in the neighborhood of the inclusions
they surround, and are not due to the aggregation of mica mole-
cules richer in iron than those forming the, main portion of the
mineral in which the halos occur. He finds, contrary to the
experience of Lévy,’ that the halos are not affected by treatment
with hydrochloric acid, as they should be if they contain a large
proportion of iron, but that they are destroyed by heating toa
temperature considerably higher than that which is necessary to
obliterate the halos in muscovite and cordierite, in which minerals
. this phenomena is now generally believed to be due in some way to
an organic substance. Franklinite, together with its natural asso-
ciate, zincite, has been artificially produced by Gorgeu® by subject-
ng to a cherry-red heat an intimate mixture of one part of sodium
sulphate, one-half part of zinc sulphate, a quarter to a half part of
ferric sulphate, and a little manganese sulphate.‘
BOTANY."
are neglected by botanists in general, who seem to have an aversion
to all aquatic plants, mainly, it is presumed, from the fact that the
collection of aquatics is a specialty. One must go prepared with
456 : General Notes.
individuals in America up to recent years; but it is evident that
these plants abound in our waters, and that our Chara-flora is
varied and strongly characterized. Probably not one-half of the
American species have as yet been brought to light, but it is confi-
dently anticipated that a better knowledge of their structure and
classification will result in a more widespread interest in them.
ese plants, often delicate or brittle from an incrustation of
lime, are easily destroyed by waves, so that they are rarely found
on exposed shores, unless in water deep enough to be beyond the
reach of the surface movements. They flourish best in sheltered
bays and smaller ponds, especially if a tolerably uniform level of
water be maintained. Great changes of level are destructive, alike
to species that love the sun and grow in shallow water, and those
that hide away in the depths. It is rare, therefore, that Chara-
hunting is. profitable in ponds or lakes which feed canals or factories.
One prefers the land-locked sheets of water fed by springs, especially
if there be a sandy bottom. Temperature has but little influence
upon them, though the South has its distinctive species, as well as
the North. One species, at least, Chara fragilis, is universal,
found in every country and clime, in ice water at the North, and
in the hot springs of the Yellowstone, “ hot enough to cook an egg
in four minutes.”
The best condition of the plant for examination is when it has
mature fruit. The time at which this occurs is usually late sum-
mer or early fall, though a few species mature early in the spring,
and die off in summer. At the South the species are often in g
condition the year round, the old fruit holding on, even after new
shoots have started from the old nodes.
To gather Characee successfully a dredge must be used ; for
shallow water a small fine-toothed rake is preferred, but for deeper
water (one rarely finds them at a greater depth than ten feet) the
dredge and line are essential. The best dredge for all purposes 1s
the one recommended by Professor Nordstedt, made as follows : —
A disk of lead about three inches in diameter and three-fourths
of an inch thick has imbedded in its circumference a row of hooks,
about ten in number ; through the centre of this disk is passed an
iron rod, which projects about three inches below the disk and
about nine inches above; to the ring in the upper end toward
which the points of the hooks are directed a cord is attached. The
dredge weighs about two and a half pounds, and catches all sorts
of “ weeds” growing on the bottom. :
The dissection of these plants is perfectly simple. The delicate
species are placed in water until their normal form is resto (if
they have been dried), and a portion is put in a “cell” on a glass
slide and examined under a two-inch objective; sometimes, but
rarely, a higher power is needed for determining fine points, such
as the structure of the cortex.’
Should the species be incrusted with lime, a piece should be
Botany. 457
placed in a little strong vinegar till the lime is completely dissolved,
then washed in pure water and examined.
Specimens foul with mud must be cleaned in water with a
camel’s hair brush, but this is liable to detach the globules of fruit,
and is only occasionally to be resorted to. Should it be desirable
to preserve bits for future reference, they are best mounted in
glycerine-jelly, in “ cells” deep enough to avoid crushing and shal-
low enough to permit free examination (flattened brass curtain-
rings make excellent cells). When the jelly has dried at the edges,
turn on a ring of white zinc cement. — T. F. en, in “ The
2
Characee of America.
“
THE FIBRE OF THE BANAaNA.—In a report by the United
States Consul, L. J. Du Pré, at San Salvador, Central America,
the following statement possessing botanical as well as commercial
interest occurs : —
€ raw material costs only transportation to the rope-walk
Each banana tree bears in the twelve months of its existence only
to fifteen feet long, resting on the heads of the native women, are
umbrellas in the rainy season in the roofless market places and
Streets of Salvador. They are the carpets on which they sit, and
the beds on which they repose.”
Gray’s CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN Borany.— It is with
melancholy interest that we note this last incomplete contribution,
the final one of a long series, which a peared in the Proceedings of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This was presented
458 © General Notes.
by Dr. Sereno Watson, on March 14, 1888, more than a month
after the lamented author’s death, and is entitled “‘ Notes upon some
Polypetalous Genera and Orders.” Certain doubtful Rutaceæ are
discussed, among them Xanthoxylum, to which correct orthography
the author calls particular attention.
e notes on Vitaceæ, by way of review of Planchon’s “ Ampel-
ideæ,” he had scarcely commenced “when his work upon the Flora
of North America ceased.” He pointed out, however, that if we
accept Planchon’s numerous genera (see AM. Nat. for March),
we must take up Rafinesque’s name, Quinaria, instead of Partheno-
cissus for the Virginia Creeper and its relations. Dr. Gray, how-
ever, pronounced emphatically against the innovation, maintaining
that “the Ampelopsis qunquefolia Michx., remains as the proper
representative of the genus, and should preserve the name.”
Further he says: “It may still be questioned whether the mass
of Ampelides can be definitely separated from Vitis, and into how
many genera divided ; but surely Ampelopsis, with the Virginia
` 2)
Creeper as the type, must be admitted as a good genus.
A New Type or Licens. — Formerly it was supposed that
all lichens were ascomycetous, and it was quite a shock when a
few years ago the announcement was made of the discovery of
certain hymenomycetous lichens. We are now told by Massee
(Arch. Sci. Phys. and Nat., xviii.,) of a couple of genera of gastro-
mycetous lichens. Thus we have now known the following
roups of lichens: (1) Ascolichenes, (2) Hymenolichenes, and (3)
astrolichenes.
Tue ASH oF TILLANDSIA USNEOIDES.—This plant, popularly
known as the Florida long-moss, is considered as a typical epiphyte-
Reliable observers have stated that it will grow and increase, month
by month, on a support as juiceless as a telegraph wire. Its roots
are looked upon as mere hold-fasts—anchors, to prevent the plant
from falling to the earth. No absorption is supposed to take place
through those roots; thus the plant is considered to differ from
arasitic species like Phoradendron, etc. Yet it is well known that
this so-called epiphyte has a certain proportion of mineral matter
in its make-up. At the suggestion of Professor Henry Trimble, I
have made an analysis of this ash, and have found the composition
of it to be full of interest. If the roots do not absorb the joie of
the supporting trees, then this mineral matter found in the plant
must be collected from the air. It is hardly to be supposed that
the floating dust of the forests where the Tillandsia grows 18 V
abundant; and it seems almost absurd to think that all the ele-
ments found in the ash can have been collected in this way.
following are the results obtained from about 100 grammes of the
dried plant. The moss was in a green condition when receiv
Total ash, 2.95 per cent. Composition :— ;
Botany. 459
Silica 10.300 per cent.
Ferric oxide 2.100 per cent.
Alumin 2.600 per cent
Oxide of manganese 1.672 per cent.
Lime 12.700 per cent.
Magnesia : 11.351 per cent.
Potassa 12.759 per cent.
Soda... 14.856 per cent
Sulphuric acid 7.419 per cent.
Chlorine 6.947 per cent..
Carbonie acid 12.900 per cent.
Phosphorie acid + 93.034 per cent.
99.638
But one other analysis of this ash has been found by me;. that
of Avequin,' in 1835, which is recorded in the following way (in
effect, as I have not the exact language at hand) :—
Osten grammes of dry plant gave 32.35 grammes of ash, composed
Salts of potash (phosphate, sulphate, carbonate
ande ide)
: ) 11.47 gr.
Lime (partly as carbonate) 5.96 gr.
Phosphates of lime and magnesia 9.26 gr.
Silica containing a little iron and manganese...... 5.66 gr.
32.35
It will be observed that the total ash (3.235 per cent.) is nearly
the same as that obtained by me. If the iron and alumina, as well
as the manganese, in my analysis, are added to the silica, the sum
1s 16.672 per cent., which is not greatly different from the impure
silica of Avequin, 17.186 per cent. It would therefore appear that
the plant must uniformly have some such ash as that found above.
(Indeed, the ash of any one plant, as is well known does not vary
greatly.) What, then, shall we think? That the roots do absorb
the characteristic ash-constituents from the trees on which they
grow? That would seem to me more rational than to suppose
them to be absorbed from the floating matter of the air. But if
we do arrive at this conclusion, our idea of the term epiphyte must
certainly undergo a radical change—T, Chalkley Palmer.
Tue Errecr on VEGETATION OF THE VARIABLE RAIN-
FALL OF NORTHWESTERN Mexico.2—First, want of water.
Those who have travelled over the northwestern portion of Mexico
Will, I think, agree with the writer that it is a dry, barren section, and
in want of water. Rains are very uncertain, often years passing
Without a shower sufficient to cause a good growth of vegetation.
When the first white settlers made their homes in this region, over
two hundred years ago, they did so during a very dry period of
several months, during which they formed the conclusion that th
* Journal de i :
sn, Read before the Botanical section of the Biological Society of Wash-
ington, March 7, 1888,
-460 General Notes.
region was one in which it never rained. Their effort, therefore,
was to do without rain. The settlements were made near springs
or streams, both of which were few, and consequently the settle-
ments limited. During the thirty-two months previous to last
August enough rain had not fallen to produce vegetation of suffi-
‘cient length to be cut for hay. e appearance of the country
‘during the dry season is that of a waste, destitute of food for man
or beast, except in favored spots along the creeks and springs; and
if nature did not endow some of the plants with power to bloom
and mature their fruits during different periods of the year, this desert
country would be still more uninviting. The various numbers of
the Cactus family produce their showy and attractive flowers dur-
ing the dry season, these being followed by the sweet, juicy and
nutritious fruit, during the hottest part of the year, about the last
-of June.
There are some forms of the Leguminosre which also bloom and
mature fruit during the dry period when there are no leaves upon
‘them. ese plants which bloom and fruit during the dry sea-
son, though but a small portion of the whole, contrast very agree-
‘ably with the pinched, withered, and resting plants that surround
them.
What adds still more to the desert appearance of the country at
this season of the year is the character of the soil; the hills and
mountains, which are very rocky, have now put on their sombrest,
reddish brown, and not a vestige of green is observed upon their
surface.
A stranger coming into the country during the dry season would
ask the question, “ When or how often does it rain?” A nist
desiring to make a collection can only gather the plants that bloom
during the dry season, and must wait for the rain in order to com-
plete his colleetion. One serious effect of the insufficient rains 18
seen when the shrubs and annuals start into growth after a shower,
only to be killed or fail of maturity during the subsequent drought.
The second cause of the scanty vegetation of this region 15
excess of water. The violent rains and water-spouts which occa-
sionally occur are exceedingly destructive.
In 1717 there was a great rainfall, and those people who had
come to the belief that it never rained there, and had only pro-
vided themselves with the cheapest and easiest contrivances 1n
which to live, found that it did rain— for forty-six hours 4t
rained so excessively that it destroyed nearly all the food the in-
habitants had. The churches and other buildings of the mission-
aries were leveled to the ground, they being of unburnt brick,
ared for planting;
rains
prepared. |
Zoology. 46F
Not far from Guaymas is a small village, celebrated for its.
gardens. A few years ago this place was devastated by hea
rains; many houses were carried away, some gardens greatly
injured and others entirely obliterated. Where once there were
gardens is now a large area covered with rocks, gravel and sand,
resembling a dry river bed. The inhabitants point out to you
many localities once fertile, now barren in consequence of excessive-
rains. Last summer a waterspout fell in the village of Molage in
Lower California. The village is built on the brow of a range of
low rocky hills, in front of which runs a small stream used to
water the gardens upon either side. So sudden and great was the-
fall of water that before the inhabitants were aware of it the flood
was upon them and many houses swept away, the people having:
barely time to escape with their lives. After the waters had sub-
sided, the valley which had been filled with gardens and green:
fields presented a rocky waste, as barren as the adjoining hills upon
which no rain had this year fallen. While travelling in this part
of Mexico last autumn my attention was frequently called to spots
injured by the fall of waterspouts. In a country with so little-
land suitable for cultivation, the loss of however little is severely
felt by the inhabitants.
The period which is considered the rainy season lasts from July-
to December. In one place the rains may commence in one month,.
in another place some other month, and no two places, however
near, are likely to have the same amount. For example, about
uaymas last season the rainy season commenced in the middle of
August and ended about the first of October, during which four
good rains fell, while at Angel’s Bay in Lower California, the first
rains were a shower in the early part of November and another-
about the first of December. After this vegetation quickly sprang
up and into bloom, so that at the time of my visit the place looked
like spring, while at the same period the vegetation about Guaymas,.
only two hundred miles distant, had come to maturity. — Dr..
Edward Palmer.»
ZOOLOGY.
KIDNEY 1N Sra-Urcurns.—The brothers Sarasin (Zool. An-
zeger, 227) claim that the brown structure which surrounds the stone
canal of the sea urchins, and to which numberless functions have
ae n ascribed, is in reality a nephridial apparatus. In Asthenosoma
cells which resemble those of renal organs, and notably those of the
462 General Notes.
Molluses. These glandular pouches empty into the main lumen by
narrow ducts, while delicate canals, following a contorted. course,
extend to the periphery of the organ and terminate by ciliated fun-
nels in the body cavity ina manner which recalls the nephrostomes
of segmented animals. The excretory duct runs towards the aboral
surface, and beneath the stone canal forms a narrow duct, both stone
canal and ureter uniting in a common collecting vescicle which
empties through the madreporic canals. :
Lire History or Harr-Worms.—In a recent paper on the
hair worms L. Camerano discusses several points in connection with
these forms. He thinks that the same species may occur in differ-
ent hosts, the filiform condition being found only in insects. Man
may be occasionally a host for some of the laryal stages. The cycle
of the individual is as follows: The eggs, which are laid freely in
the water, hatch out larvee which swim freely and then obtain en-
trance to a host when they become encysted and undergo a meta-
morphosis. The metamorphosis results in the young, filiform larve
which grows directly into the adult, with sexual organs developed.
This lives freely in the water where copulation takes place and the
eggs are laid. Some strictures upon the account given by Camer-
ano may be found in the Zoologisches Anzeiger for 1888, p. 70.
Villot there states that some of Camerano’s species are in reality
immature forms.
THE ORIGIN OF SEGMENTAL Oreans.—M. F. E. Beddard
(Q. J. M.S., 1888) discusses the structure of the nephridia in Acan-
thodrilus and Perichæta. In each of these genera there are several
segmental organs to each segment, there being in Acanthodrilus
over a hundred apertures in a segment. The glandular part of the
system varies much from the typical condition of nephridia in other
respects. In Acanthodrilus the inner openings of the tuft-like
nephridia were not found, while the excretory ducts of the eight or
more organs in each segment were branched, each branch communi-
cating with a nephridiopore. In Perichæta the case is even more
complicated. The tubules were not observed to branch in the body
wall, but in the body cavity the nephridial system forms a con-
tinuous,network passing through the dissepiments from one seg-
ment to another, while the systems of the right and left side of the
body also communicate with each other. Internal funnels were not
found. Beddard reviews the opinions advanced by various natural-
ists as to the phylogemy of the nephridial system of the anneli
and thinks that the new facts which he adduces favor the view that
the annelid excretory system is directly traceable to that of the
Plathelminthes. He, however, differs from Lang in his theory
that he does not regard the longitudinal duct of many annelids as 1n
any way homologous with that of the Plathelminthes, but, m
the light of Wilson’s researches, as an entirely different structure.
Zoology. 463
BRANCHIAL EYES or BRANCHIOMMA.—Branchiomma is à
genus of Sabillid worms remarkable for possessing eyes on the tips
of its gills. C. Brunotte (Comptes Rendus, 1888, p. 301) has re-
cently described the structure of these, arriving at the following
conclusions. They are to be regarded as a new type of compound
eye formed of two layers, an outer dioptric and an inner sensory.
The outer surface is facetted and beneath each facet is found a small
spherical lens situated above a rounded cavity which is filled with a
large nucleated cell, and behind this is an elongated refractive body
connected with terminations of the optic nerve. This part of the
eye is without pigment.
PHOSPHORESCENT ORGANS OF THysaNopopa.—R. Vallentin
and J. T. Cunningham discuss the structure and functions of the
phosphorescent organs of Thysanopoda (Nyctiphanes) norvegica in
the February number of the Quart. Jour. Micros. Science. These
crustacea have long been known to have eye-like organs upon the
sides of the body and in the median line,—organs which were uni-
versally regarded as accessory eyes until the present decade. There
are ten of these organs, their distribution being pretty uniform in
all the genera of the family Euphauside to which Thysanopoda
belongs. All of these organs except those on the peduncles of the
eyes have the same structure. Behind the organ is bounded by a
layer of wavy lamine forming a hemispherical unperforated cup
open in front. This is compared to the reflector described by von
Lendenfeld in Fishes (vide Amer. Nat. xxii.). This reflector is
lined internally with red mesodermic pigment-cells, and their in-
terior are lined by a layer of large columnar cells, inside of which
1S a curious fibrillar structure which surrounds the inner half of the
lconvex lens, Outside the lens occur a circular cornea follow
y the ordinary epidermis and the usual cuticle. All of the cellular
give out, occasionally, short flashes of light. When touched with
the hand a flash i
Oe certain particles were luminous and remained so until dry.
produced activity of the or Careful mi ical stud
ct gans. Careful microscopica y
Sosa that in the light the inner surface of the reflector
-
464 General. Notes.
REPRODUCTION oF Lost PARTS IN THE LossTER.—Mr.
George Brook (Proc. Roy. Phys. Socy. Edinb., ix.) after a historical
résumé of the results of others, details the results of his own obser-
vations on the reproduction of lost legs and antenne in three lob-
sters which he kept in confinement. He concludes that in the
lobster at least—contrary to Reaumur—the new appendage, which
is formed beneath a thin pellicle soon after the loss, is only set free
at the time of molting. The antennal rudiment is at first conical,
then becomes coiled in a spiral, and at the first molt this is set free,
but the normal size is not reached until three or four molts. The
large claws also required a similar period, becoming as large as their
fellow. In one instance the right claw was lost when the pincer of
the left side was three inches long. At the next molt the new right
pincer was 23 inches long, while its fellow had increased to 3%
inches; at the second molt the difference between them was reduced
to 4 inch, while the third molt reduced the disparity to } inch.
The ambulatory limbs, on the contrary, regain their full size in a
single molt, an observation at variance with Chantran’s account of
the reproduction of lost parts in Astacus.
THE OssicuLA AUDITUS OF THE BATRACHIA.—The follow-
ing is an abstract of a paper read before the United States National
Academy of Sciences at its meeting in Washington on April 18th,
1888. The conclusions reached are the following:
as to the origin of the genus Siren. This is to the effect that Siren
is an animal which is descended from a land salamander, and its
immediate ancestor became aquatic again at a comparatively late
period of geological time. My opinion was at first suggested by the
condition of the branchie in very young animals, where they are
functionally abortive, and do not become respiratory organs uD
later in life, the largest animals having the best developed gills.
The characters of the stapes confirm this view, since they are those
of land salamanders, as distinguished from those of aquatic habitat.
Secondly.—There are three types of relation between the cera-
tohyal arch and the skull. In the one there is no connection be-
tween the two, as in the Pseudophidia. Secondly the connection 18
ligamentous. This is seen in Proteida, Trachystomata, and all Pseu-
dosauria except the Amblystomide and Plethodontide. The last two
1 American Naturalist, 1885, p. 1226.
Zoology. 465
families embrace the third type, in which the ceratohyal is articu-
lated by suture with the quadrate. This last type is the most spe-
cialized, since the larve of those families display the connection be-
tween the ceratohyal and the skull similar to that seen in the ty
second. Thus the Salamandride, which are superior to the Pletho-
dontidz in their osseus carpus and tarsus and opisthoccelous verte-
bre, have the hyoid connected with the skull as in the larve of the
atter.
Third.—At a stage in the history of the development of the Sa-
lientia, the relations of the stapes and of the ceratohyal to the
skull are the same asin a transitional stage of the Urodele family of
Plethodontide. Or taken Separately, the relations of the stapes are
those of Proteida, Trematodera, and larval Pseudosauria, while the
relation of the ceratohyal is as in adult Plethodontide and Amblys-
tomidæ. This is when the interstapedial cartilage connects the
stapes with the posterior face of the quadrate cartilage, and when the
ceratohyal articulates with the posterior face of the quadrate at its
distal part.
Fourth—lIt is not probable that the epistapedial forms an inte-
gral part of a primitive element representing the ossicula auditus, as
it originates independently of the interstapedial and mesostapedial.
_ Fijth—The interstapedial and mesostapedial do not at any time
ìn the history of the development of the genus Rana form any part
of the ceratohyal or Meckelian ventral arches. As the incus and
malleus of the mammalian ossicula auditus are segmented from the
proximal parts of these arches, embryology indicates that they are
not homologous with the ossicula of the Salientia. From this point
of view the latter form a special line of development, distinct from
that displayed by the Mammalia, unless the developmental reco
as been greatly falsified by cenogeny. From the embryological
standpoint it follows that the ossicula auditus of the Batrachia Sa-
lientia must be excluded from the discussion of the homologies of
the mammalian ossicula.
Sizth.—But the characters of the Ganocephala and Rhachitomi
permit the following reflections, since the latter order is the one
from which the Salientia derived their descent. The existence of
a well-developed columella auris which is unsegmented, in the for-
mer orders, apparently like that of the Lacertilia, suggest that
segmentation seen in the Salientia is a specialization of later origin.
This columella has also the position of the proximal part of the
ceratohyal in the adult frog and the larval salamander. As the
position of this element in all but the youngest tadpoles is a result
or Cenogeny, it may be inferred that the ossicula auditus of both
the Rhachitomi and the Salientia represent the separated proximal
= of that arch, and hence be truly homologous with the incus of
ae mammal. The probability that this is the case is increased by
p er of this element in the Pelycosaurian genus Clep-
sydrops' where the columella extends to the cranial wall, leaving
*See Proceed. Amer. Philosoph. Society, 1884, p. 41, Pl.
466 General Notes.
the stapes to one side. This is exactly comparable to the relation —
between the interstapedial and the stapes seen in the Sa lientia, ex-
cept that the two elements are not actually connected as in Clepsy-
drops. Paleontology then modifies the evidence from embryology,
and renders it highly probable that the columella auris, interstape-
dial and incus are homologous elements, and originated by segmen-
tation from the proximal end of a ventral cranial arch, probably the _
ceratohyal.
Seventh.—It follows, from what has preceded, that the condition
of the representatives of the ossicula aiditus in the Urodela is one
of a.
Highth.—It becomes probable, but not certain, from the position of
the spilt disc in the Rhachitomi at the proximal base of the
quadrate bone, that the epistapedial cartilage has originated asa
segmentation from the proximal extremity of the quadrate cartilage,
‘and is therefore truly homologous with the mammalian malleus.
'This-is, however, nothing more than a possibility —Z. D. Cope.
EXPLANATION OF e a gr tis LAR AND SUSPENSORIAL
MENTS OF BATRACHIA,
Fig. 1. Zrimerorhachis insignis Cope, from below; ? natural
size
Fig. 2. Zatrachys serratus Cope, corresponding part of the skull
to Fig. 1; opposite side from above; 2 natural size.
Fig. 3. ’ Cryptobranchus allegheniensis Daud.; X 2; middle part
of squamosal bone removed.
Fig. 4. Diemyctylus viridescens Raf.; X 8; squamosal bone
removed and represented at 2 a; 2 b, end of ceratohyal, showing
se with hyoquadrate ligame nt.
. Typhlonectes compressicauda D. and B.; from the Belize;
3.
Fig. 9. Amblystoma tigrinum Green, larva; X 4; squamosal
bone ater eee and represented (under side) at Sq.
4,
Fig. 12. Rana virescens Kalm, larva; X
Bh 13 ee catesbeiana Shaw ; larva more advanced than
Fig. 1
Fig. u odok — Green; X 6; squamosal bone
removed and represented at
ig. 15. Siren lacertina L. ; x 4.
Fig. 16. Rana pretiosa Bd. Gird.; 2; auricular bones
removed at a, the distal elements in section n.
Explanation of Lettering.
A. T., Annulus tympanicus; B. O., basioccipital; C. Br., S
tobranchial; C. H. ` Ceratohyal ; Q Tr, Cornu trabeculi ; 'E. ve
Epista ial ; Eth., Ethmoid; Ex. O., Exoccipital ; F. P., Fron Eo
parietal; Hm., Hyomandibular; H. Qi s Hyo idal ligament; t
PLATE VI.
Zoology. 467
St., Interstapedial; J., Jugal; Ll., Lower labial cartilage; Mk.,
Meckel’s cartilage; Mx., Maxillary; Mn., Mandible; M. S., Me-
sostapedial; O. C., Occipital condyle; P., Parietal; Par., Parasphe-
noid; Pg., Pterygoid; Pm., Premaxillary; Q., Quadrate; Q. C.,
Quadrate cartilage; S. St., Stapes; Sq., Squamosal; Sl. Superior
labial cartilage; T., Trabeculum. Cartilage, dotted ; ligament and `
membrane, lined; bone, blank.
SYSTEMATIC Posrrion oF THE Monrrors.—F. E. Beddard
(Anat. Anzeiger, 1888) points out that the Monitoride are in several
features widely separated from the other Lacertilia, and that the
same peculiarities tend to ally them to the Crocodiles. Among the
points discovered by other naturalists he mentions the arrangement
and development of the teeth, the complicated network formed by
the hepatic and cystic ducts, and the arrangement of the blood ves-
sels of the neck. The new features are: On cutting through the
abdominal wall the viscera are not at once brought into view, as
they are enveloped by a fold of the peritoneum which forms a
closed sac completely separating the abdominal viscera from the
heart and lungs. This feature is compared to a similar structure
described by all students of crocodilian anatomy. Huxley com-
pares this last with the oblique septum of the bird, but Beddard
thinks it equivalent to the septum and to the so-called omentum as
well and at the same time but an exaggeration of the structure
occurring in the Monitors. If his points are well made (that the
Monitors are not closely allied to the other Lacertilia but rather to
the Crocodilia) Beddard thinks that the ancestry of the Crocodiles
must be sought in the direction of the Monitoride.
A Cow Witn Oxe Kipney.—I lately saw butchered a healthy
cow which had but one kidney, the right one. It was double the
usual size and weight; length 11 inches, width 43 inches, weight
2tlbs., thickness 2 inches, The ureter was present on the left side.
—Henry Shimer, M.D., Mount Carroll, IU.
468 _. General Notes.
ENTOMOLOGY.
A LABORATORY OF Ex INTAL ENTOMOLOGY.— Reference
has already been made in these Notes (Ante, p. 261) to a probable
increase in entomological investigations, due to the establishment
by the United States Government ofan agricultural experiment
station in each of the States, in connection with the agricultural
colleges. The New York Station has been organized at Cornell
University. Provision has been made here for experiments in gen-
eral agriculture, chemistry, veterinary science, botany, entomology,
and horticulture. The Station Council has been very liberal in its
provisions for experiments in entomology. A separate building
for this purpose is being erected, and provision has been made for
thoroughly equipping it.
As this building is novel, both as regards its structure and the
purpose for which it is intended, a brief account of it may be of
interest. It consists of two parts—a laboratory building and a
vivary. The former is a two-story cottage, containing a laboratory
for the experimenter and his artist, a shop and laboratory for an
assistant, a room for photographic work, quarters for a janitor,
store-room and basement. The vivary is in the form of an ordinary
botanical conservatory, sixty feet in length. This is divided by a
transverse partition into two rooms of equal size. One of these is
to be used asa hot-house; the other is to be kept as nearly as pos-
sible at the temperature ofthe outside air. The purpose of this
vivary is to enable the experimenter to keep the insects that he is
studying alive upon growing plants and to conduct experiments
with insecticides, where all of the conditions can be controlled.
Especial apparatus for carrying on this work has been devised and
is being constructed.
One of these devices is an arrangement by means of which insects
living upon roots of plants can be observed continuously without
disturbing them. Another is intended to aid in the study of the
relations that exist between ants and plant-lice. Others are for
experiments in the use of insecticides. Descriptions of some ©
these devices will be published later.—J. H. Comstock.
Aquatic LEPIDOPTEROUS Lary ®.—A number of instances are
on record of Lepidopterous larvee that normally descend beneath the
surface of water in order to feed upon submerged plants. The best-
known of these in this country is the species of Argama that infest
the leaf-stalks of pond-lilies. The habits of this insect were
described by the writer several years ago.’ Although these insects
5 is edite J. J: >k, Cornell Univer-
r department rita set Seno eo Sooke for notice, etC»,
should be sent.
2 Papilio. Vol. I., p. 147.
Entomology. 469
spend a large part of the time in water, they are obliged to come
to the surface at intervals for a supply of fresh air. There are,
however, a few Lepidopterous larve that are truly aquatic. One
was described by Baron de Geer more than one hundred years ago.'
This is the European Paraponyz stratiotalis. Another was described
in 1884 by Wilh. Miiller-Blumenau.? This is a Brazilian insect,
Cataclysta pyropalis, which, like the preceding, belongs to the
family Pyralide.
We have just received an account of a third species, which is
described by J. Wood-Mason in a small pamphlet, entitled Report
on the Paraponyx oryzalis, an Insect-pest of the Rice-Plant in
Burma, This pamphlet was published in Calcutta in 1885. The
insect described in it is supposed to be a congener of the European
species referred to above, although only the larva and pupa have
been described. The caterpillar is about seven millimetres in
length and is abundantly supplied with tracheal gills. These are
in the form of filaments, arranged in little bundles or tufts. There
are four longitudinal rows of these tufts, extending nearly from one
end of the body to the other; that is, two rows on each side of the
ody —one above the spiracles, the other below them.
: THE ORTHOPTERA oF New ENGLAND.—Professor Fernald has
Just published a manual of the Orthoptera of New England, in
which all the species found in that section are carefully described.
Analytical keys are given for the determination of families, sub-
families, and genera, and, wherever necessary, there are tables of
Species. The work is an important addition to the series of hand-
books prepared by this author. It will do much towards popular-
izing a knowledge of this very important order of insects.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHING-
TON.—Among the recently published works on our table is No. 2,
of Vol. I., of the above-named publication. This number includes
eri proceedings of this Society during the years 1886 and 1887.
Tt contains a large number of biological and morphological notes,
pl epmnuites pour servir à l’Hist. des Insectes, 1752, Vol. I., pp. 517-541.
: vii.
_ Arch. f. Naturgeschichte, Band I., pp. 194-211, pl. xiv.
sis From the Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Mass. Agri. College,
470 General Notes.
EMBRYOLOGY.?
EMBRYOLOGY or [Nsects AND ARACHNIDs.’—Under this title,
the friends of the author have issued the results of studies made by
the late Dr. Adam Todd Bruce upon the embryology of Thyridop-
teryx, Chrysopa, Meloe, Mantis, the Grasshopper, Musca, and an
undetermined spider. The most, complete observations were made
upon the development of Thyridopteryx, where Dr. Bruce failed to
find the centrolicithal segmentation described as characteristic of
arthropod embryology, but rather a central segmentation, the blas-
em
from the lateral thickenings. The maxille in the embryo are
triramose.
In the fly, observations were recorded on the development of the
_ egg and its maturation, Dr. Bruce regarding the yolk as arising
from the breaking down of the epithelium of the outer end of the
ovarian tube. :
In the spider, Dr. Bruce found the invagination for the optic
vescicles (vide PI. vi., Figs. lxxx and lxxxi.) ; but he erred in calling
it the amniotic fold, otherwise (as he published a preliminary ere
in which this fold was mentioned) he might have anticipated Locy
in his discovery. Some observations are recorded upon the forma-
tion of the pulmonary organs, but, from reasons not apparent 1n
either figures or text, the author thinks that two appendages are
concerned in the formation of each lung-book. It is, however, to
be noted that his observations, so far as they go, show that the lung-
books are in reality modified appendages, and support the hypo-
1 Edited by Prof. Jno. A. Ryder, University at Penns Philadelph
2 Observations on the Embryology of Insec rachn
dam Todd Bruce. Baltimore, 1887. 4to; 9x31x17 pp.; 7 plates and
Embryology. 471
thesis of Lankester of the homology of the lungs and tracheæ of
spiders with the gills and gill-appendages of Limulus.
Among the conclusions which are drawn, the following are worthy
of note. The yolk-cells of hexapods and spiders are regarded as
the true endoderm, but their purpose is the digestion of the yolk.
The functional endoderm is of later origin, and forms the epithelium
of the digestive tract. Spiders and the Merostomata are allied to
each other, and differ from other arthropods in the absence of
antenne. The tracheæ of hexapods and of spiders are not homolo-
gous ; for in the one they are clearly modified appendages, while in
the other they occur on segments where well-marked appendages
exist.—J. S. K.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CrANGON.—In continuing my studies
of the ontogeny of Crangon, I find the following points worthy of
presentation, apart from my complete paper, soon to be issued. The
blastopore, contrary to my previous statement, never becomes com-
pletely obliterated, but persists, and later an in-pushing takes place
from the same spot and gives rise to the proctodeum.
he anus is at first dorsal in position, and attains its ventral
position later by an outgrowth of the telson.
In front of the anus are a number of large budding-cells, both
ectodermal and mesodermal, and from these are budded off new
cells, which give origin to the segments of the body. They con-
tribute largely to the nervous system and myotomes, and in them
occur the only cases I have seen of karyokinesis in Crangon. They
may be compared with the mesoblasts and neuroblasts of the leech,
as described by Dr. Whitman. |
The alimentary tract proper is wholly of ectodermal origin,
the proctodeal` and stomodeal inpushings, giving rise to
all of it. The endoderm of invagination forms first migratory yolk-
cells, which metabolise the yolk, and, later, arrange themselves
— = epithelium of the so-called “liver” or mid-gut gland of
renzel,
The green gland is of mesodermal origin, as maintained by
Grobben, and not of ectodermal, as described by Reichenbach and
Ishikawa. This allows of its comparison with the segmental organs
of the annelids. These points will be fully illustrated in the
complete paper.—J. S. Kingsley, Bloomington, Ind.
472 General Notes.
PHYSIOLOGY .!
NOTES ON THE PREPARATION OF NUTRIENT GELATINE AND
AGaAr.—The practical worker in Bacteriology deplores the loss of time
usually attendant upon the preparation, and especially upon the
filtration of nutrient gelatine and agar. The method formulated
by Koch and closely followed by most workers, is very satisfactory
in producing good, clear culture media, but a few modifications
render the procedure a much less formidable one, and as the changes
to be suggested are simply those of detail, it may be well to state in
brief the method now in use in this laboratory, which after consid-
erable trial gives uniform and satisfactory results.
One pound (4 kg.) of finely chopped beef, as free as possible
from fat and gristle, is mixed with 1000 c. c. of distilled water and
kept in a cool place for 12 or 18 hours. It is then strained, cold,
through a coarse cloth, into a wide-mouthed “agate ware” or
“enameled iron” vessel of sufficient size, and 5 gm. of C. P. so-
dium chloride, 10 gm. of pepton,! and 100 gm. of gelatine’
(or 10 gm. of Agar) are added. This is then placed in a water
bath’ (to which a large handful of rock salt has been added, if
agar is to be prepared) and the gelatine (or agar) melted as rapidly
as possible. The fluid is then neutralized by the careful addition
of sodium bicarbonate in solution, and the boiling continued for a
few minutes after, in order to precipitate the phosphates.
The fluid is now cooled by running water, to such a temperature
as will not coagulate the white of egg, yet not enough to solidify it,
when the whites of two eggs, thoroughly beaten up are mixed with
it, and the whole boiled for half an hour.
Filtration which has usually been effected by means of filter pa-
per, can be much more rapidly performed by the use of absorbent cot-
ton in large quantity. The pores of the paper become clogged by the
fine precipitates and by the cooling of the medium, and even with
the use of the “hot funnel ” the filtration is sometimes very slow.
Cotton, on the other hand, presents in its meshes a much larger
surface for the entanglement of the fine precipitates, and when used
in large quantity, allows the gelatine (or agar) even when not very
hot, to flow through it rapidly. The preparation of the filter is as
follows: The absorbent cotton is unrolled, and sterilized in bulk in
the hot-air chamber, care being taken not to char it. A six-inch
1 This department is edited by Prof. Wm. T. Sedgwick, of the Mass.
Institute of Technology, Boston, to whom brief communications, books
or review, etc., shou e sent,
2 Comte fils Gelatine premiere qualite, gives excellent results. it
3 Pepton Sice. Extru, from G. A. Hesterberg, Berlin, is used, aS
imparts no color.
‘The form that has been found most convenient is known as AN
agate ware ‘‘ Milk or Rice boiler.”
Physiology. 473
(15 ctm.) glass funnel is packed full with the dry sterilized cotton,
placed in in layers, in such a way as to keep it well out of the neck,
and having no folds nor ridges of cotton next the glass, through
which the precipitates might pass into the receivin k.
The neutralized culture medium, after being boiled with the
white of egg, as above described, is strained through coarse flan-
nel into a flask, and poured slowly upon the centre of the filter until
the cotton is thoroughly soaked, and the fluid begins to run into the
flask below. This moistening causes the cotton to sink consider-
ably, and packs it in the funnel, and when packed, the fluid filters
through it almost as rapidly as it is poured into the funnel. The
funnel is now filled and the fluid filtered as fastas it will run
through. The first filtration seldom produces a clear medium, but
through the same filter the fluid may be poured again and again,
each time becoming clearer, and the moderate cooling which neces-
sarily occurs, does not sensibly retard the rapidity of filtration.
When filtration is completed, a considerable portion of thè medium
entangled in the filter can be saved, by pressing upon the cotton
with a sterilized glass rod, gently at first and near the sides, then
in the centre and with considerable force. The gelatine or agar
pressed from the cotton is sometimes cloudy, for which reason it is
well to catch it in a separate flask.
_ It not infrequently happens that gelatine which filters clear pre-
Cipitates phosphates on boiling; and that agar, on cooling, forms a
occulent precipitate. To insure against filling tubes with such
media, it is safest always to fill one tube with the medium, and by
first cooling, then by boiling and again cooling, to test the perma-
nence of the transparency obtained. Should these precipitates form,
it will be necessary to boil the gelatine in the flask, and to refilter
it through a small plug of dry cotton placed in a funnel; while
agar should be allowed to completely solidify, when it is again
melted and filtered through a small plug of cotton, The media are
now ready for tubing and sterilizing in the usual way.
he large quantity of absorbent cotton used and the considerable
amount of medium lost, by remaining entangled in the meshes o
the cotton (this may amount to 200 c. ¢. for each of the large cotton
filters employed) are unquestionably objections to this method of
filtration, but in its favor it may be stated that one filter when
properly packed, serves to clear a large quantity of medium, and
the great saving of time in filtering, enables one to prepare a large
amount of these nutrients at one operation, which may be stored
or future use. Futhermore, the “ hot funnel ” is dispensed with.
The modifications here described may be best appreciated by —
the fact that they render it possible to prepare within three hours
Several litres of the above-mentioned culture media.—T. M. Chees-
man, Jr., M.D. (From the Bacterial Laboratory of Alumni As-
cn) of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York-
474 General Notes.
PSYCHOLOGY.
THE Monkey AS A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATOR.—In the very
interesting little “ zoo,” which now forms quite an attractive depart-
ment of the National Museum at Washington, there is a fine male
grivet monkey (Cercopithecus erythræa), who shares a large cage
with four opossums. Although he has a bad record as a fighter
and biter of human beings, he takes kindly to his strange compan-
ions, and they have been the best of friends from the first. He
spends many an hour in searching the fur of the opossums, and
always sleeps with them in the family bed of straw. A few days
ago the attention of the attendant was drawn to the monkey cage
by the excited behavior of the crowd in front of it, and on going
to ascertain the cause a strange and ludicrous sight was revealed to
his astonished gaze.
In the middle of the cage sat the monkey, holding one of the
opossums in his lap, with her belly uppermost, and her head under
is arm. She submitted quite passively, far more so than when
the attendants had previously made a similar examination. The
monkey had just discovered the marsupial pouch of the opossum,
and was diligently investigating it. ad he not been a close
observer it certainly would have remained unseen, for it was s0
tightly closed as to be perfectly invisible in its normal condition.
The monkey carefully lifted the outer wall of the pouch, and pee
into the cavity. Then he reached in with his hand, felt about for
a moment, and to the astonishment of everybody took out a tiny
young opossum, about two inches long, hairless, blind, and very
helpless, but alive and kicking. Jock held it up to the light,
where he could get a good view of it, scrutinized it with the air of
a savant, and presently returned it to the pouch, very carefully.
After replacing it he looked into the pouch again, and presently
drew out another for examination, which he looked at with solemn
interest, smelled of it, and then carefully put it back. It was thus
it became known to the attendants that the old female opossum
had the young ones, which had previously been looked for in vaim.
— W. T. Hornaday.
Archeology and Anthropology. 475
ARCHEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.
The Anthropological Society of Washington held its 138th
regular meeting May Ist. Mr. W. H. Holmes, who has divided
his talents about equally between science and art and been success-
ful in both, read a paper entitled “Some Primitive Phases of
4Esthetic Development.” He directed his remarks principally to
art in American prehistoric pottery. He said these earthen vessels
were the outgrowth of natural form, finally acquiring decoration.
This pottery was originally moulded in a basket or wicker-work
(having the appropriate shape), thus giving to the soft clay the
impressions of the woven meshes. When the vessel was burned
these formed the decoration. This method of decoration seems to
have been afterwards replaced by another, in which the cloth or
wicker-work was either wrapped about or its figure cut into a
wooden mould or form which was pressed on the outside of the
vessel. A notched wheel was sometimes us me of the
decorated vessels were shown, as well as some of the paddles used.
These were, however, ull modern Indian work.
Another paper was by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, on “ Pictography
and Shamanistie Rites of the Ojibwa.” This tribe Lage s to
Minnesota. It has three distinct secret societies. The Grand
are four degrees. The rites occur in the spring, and the winter
months are passed in study and preparation for t i
longing life. Those who take but one degree usually manufacture
the fetishes. Dr, Hoffman presented a number of original charts,
hot the sacred ones, from this tribe, showing the use of the charac-
ters, their meaning, and the method of translation. He also
exhibited enlarged copies of charts which he had copied, sometimes
Surreptitiously, while among these Indians.
i Guasro is, according to Dr. A. Ernst, of Carácas, the correct
orm of the name of the Guajiro Indians inhabiting the South
American peninsula called after them. In 1870 that explorer pu
roe his treatise on the Guajiro Indians in the Zeitschrift fir
mologie, and since then their language, customs, and social insti-
tutions have been explored and described by various authors.
rom manuscripts of the United States consul Pliimacher, at
‘This department is edi Wil .. Smithsonian In-
stitution, ashington, Do m o e a
-476 General Notes.
Maracaibo, a sketch of their customs and sociology was published
in 1888.? Before this, Rafael Celedon, director of the seminary at
-Santa Marta, wrote a grammar of the language, which was pub-
lished by E. Uricoechea in Maisonneuve & Co.’s Linguistic Collec-
tion, Paris, 1888. In an appendix to that treatise, Uricoechea
reproduced Ernst’s vocabulary of Guajiro without giving credit to
the author for it. Celedon’s work was regarded as insufficient in
several respects by Don Jorge Isaacs, who published his critical
remarks and strictures in the Estudio del lenguaje Guajiro” Ernst
regards that treatise as a valuable contribution to the knowledge of
these South American dialects. Celedon, however, asserted his
position, and defended himself against Isaacs’s strictures in another
article of the same Anales, entitled Gramatica Guajira, 1887, pp.
491-515. It seems to us that these attacks were victoriously
‘warded off in part, and no student of that language must fail to
read the writings of both antagonists. Both are placing the Guajiro
language among the Carib dialects, to which it undoubtedly belongs.
Ernst himself expresses the opinion “ that this tribe forms a fragment
-of the scattered Arrowak, or Aruak ethnic family, linguistically as
well as anthropologically:” He states that the word Guajiro also
occurs on the island of Cuba, the farmers being called by this name
there from guayu, we (in Arawak wáyu) in the Guajiro language.
It is impossible to make a full extract of Ernst’s valuable article, and
‘we have to refer our readers to the paper itself. Celedon has recen
published materials upon the Kéggaba language, which is distantly
related to Guajiro (Paris: Maisonneuve & Co., 1886), and spoken
in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta.—A. S. Gatschet.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY AND PREHISTORICS OF
Bavarta.—The latest number of this celebrated periodical,’ which
is published by the Munich Society of Anthropology, does not lag
behind its predecessors in elaborateness and scientific importance.
The curious subterranean gangways and corridors, which occur 1n 4
large portion of Wiirtemberg, Bavaria and Austria, were first
explored and described between 1830 and 1840, Among the
rustics many fairy and hobgoblin tales circulate on their account,
these spirits being called Erdleutl, Erdweibl, Schratzeln, Ratzln,
Wichtelen, Alraune, Weiberl, and many other names, and represented
as industrious and very bashful little beings. Some of these corri-
dors take their starting-point from old castles, churches, mansions
and their cellars, even from buildings now used as breweries, an
parson’s dwellings. Dr. Aug. Hartmann’ has published his results
on this part of archeology in the exhaustive article “ Unterrdische
Gänge,” pp. 93-129, stating that many other investigators are DOW
engaged on this subject, and expect to publish their results in due
time. Major C. Popp describes the Roman castellum, which for-
merly stood on a height near Pfünz, on the Altmihl River,
1 Ausland of Stuttgart, January, 1888.
Archeology and Anthropology. 477
Bavaria.! Julius Naue continues his instructive enumeration of
collective tombs or ancient cemeteries discovered between the
Ammer and the Staffelsee, Bavaria. They all belong to the bronze
and iron periods, and many of them are Roman. Some walls found
near Uffing are of the cyclopean type and built of undressed
stones. About thirty stone-graves are represented in the illustra-
tions, many of them showing the body in situ. A physician of
Tölz, Dr. M. Höfler, has composed a statistic memoir on “ Cretinis-
tic Changes observed with the Living Population of the District of
Tölz,” pp. 207-257. All cretinistie dispositions and alterations
are deduced by the author from climatic causes. Among the char-
acteristics of cretinism various authors are enumerating the pug-
nose, prognathism, great distance from one eye to the other, bad
condition of the teeth, small stature, lateness of the puberty period,
weakness of the vocal and auditory organs, imbecility, goitre,
struma and scrofula. The geological formations which show the
largest number of strumous individuals residing upon theth are all
of marine origin, as marine sandstone, eocene, keuper with marine
shells. A map of the district, which lies upon the Isar River, is
added to show the dissemination of the population affected with
strumous diseases and complications.—A. S. Gatschet.
FoLk-LorE—How THE LIZARDS WERE ONCE LitrLe MEN.
Mr. L. L. Frost, of Susanville, Lassen Co., California, tells us how,
when he requested an Indian to gather and bring in all the arrow-
points he could find, the Indian declared them to be “no good,”
that they had been made by the lizards. Whereupon Mr. Frost
drew from him the following lizard story :
There was a time when the lizards were little men, and the
arrow-points which are now found were shot by them at the
grizzly bears. The bears could talk then and would eat the little
men whenever they could catch them. The arrows of the li
men were so small that they would not kill the bears when shot
into them, and only served to enrage them. At last there was a
smart little fellow who lived with his grandmother. One day he
was making a bow and his grandmother asked him what he was
going to do with it. He replied that he was going to kill a bear.
His grandmother told him the bear had killed all his family, and so
she refused her consent for him to go hunting, and kept him
Prisoner in the campooda. But the boy knew of a valley near by
to which the bears came every evening to feed. He had finished
1s bow and gathered up his arrows, and when one day his
mother went for water he stole away to this valley, and, climbi
à tree, waited for events. Pretty soon a number of bears came into
1 . .
dia aane he marie publica, Bogota, 1884, vol. VIII., pp. 178-
ka The nie Pitas la 'evidentie okived from Lat. pons or ad pontem,
at the bridge” though the author is silent om this point.
478 General Notes.
the valley, and the little fellow whistled. At this the big boss
bear which had killed so many of the little-men, and of which all
were id, came under the tree, and sitting himself on his
haunches, looked up and asked the little fellow what he was doing
up there. To which the little fellow replied, that he was going to
kill him, the big boss bear. This reply tickled the bear so that he
began to laugh, and making a great guffaw, opened his mouth so
wide that the little fellow could see far down his throat, when
quick as lightning he drew his bow and shot one of his arrows
with one of these little points on it down the ope:. throat of the
bear and into his vitals, whereupon his laugh turned into a roar as
he fell down, rolled over, and died. All the rest of the bears took to
their heels and scampered up the valley and over the mountains.
The little fellow went home and related what he had done, but his
grandmother refused to believe him. But the next day the whole
settlement gathered to hear the story, and all hands going to the
valley, found the dead bear. This made the little fellow a great
hero. Ever since that time the bears have hid away in the
brush, and are afraid of men. Thus they have lost their power of
speech.
P The Indian could not tell how the little men became transformed
into lizards.
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—Professor Amos H. Worthen, State Geologist of Illinois, and
Curator of the State Museum of Natural History, died on Sunday,
May 6th, 1888, at his home in Warsaw, Illinois, of pneumonia, at
the age of nearly seventy-five years. For over thirty years he
been constantly engaged in the survey of, and in writing and pub-
lishing the reports upon the geology of his adopted State. He was
born at Bradford, Vermont, October 31st, 1813. He was the son
of Thomas Worthen, his mother being an Adams of Revolutionary
and Presidential stock, and he was the youngest, save one, of a
large family of thirteen children. He received his education in the
common schools of his native town, and at Bradford’s then famous
academy. At an early age, before arriving at his majority, he
married, January 14th, 1834, Miss Sarah Kimball, of Warren,
New Hampshire, whose death occurred a little over a twelve-month
ago. He emigrated to Kentucky in August, 1834, and his
June, 1836, removed to Warsaw, Illinois, where he made
permanent home, With his brothers-in-law, the Kimball boys, oF
one of them, he became first a forwarding and commission m ae
and later dealt in dry goods at Warsaw. In 1842, influenced ch
the depression in business caused by the Mormon culties om
Hancock county, he removed with his family to Boston, M
setts, returning in July, 1844, to Warsaw. Before going to Boston.
Scientific News. 479
his attention had been strongly attracted to the geological features
of his new home, and the living forms preserved in the sedimentary
rocks of that region, and especially its geode beds had commanded
his admiration and close investigation. He gathered and took
with him to Boston several barrels of ‘“ geodes,” and there
exchanged them for a cabinet of sea-shells, which he brought
back with him to Warsaw. Similar forms to these shells
illustrate the reports. Professor Worthen was a man highly
Frcemed by all who knew him for many admirable qualities.
e left six sons and twenty-two grandchildren.
Zool, George F, Atkinson, Professor of Entomology and General
ORE in the University of North Carolina, has been appointed
rofessor of Botany and Zoology in the University of South Car-
480 General Notes.
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, May 1 To 4, 1888.— The
Academy held a field meeting at Wyandotte Cave, some thirty-five
members attending. The party gathered at Paoli on the evening
of the first, when papers were read by Mr. James E. Humphrey,
of Indiana University, upon Asa Gray, and by Dr. John M.
Coulter, of Wabash College, upon the Discovery of the Yellow-
stone Park. From Paoli a wagon ride of thirty miles brought the
party to the cave. On the return trip the newly-discovered
Marengo Cave was visited, which all agreed was superior in a
_except extent to Wyandotte ‘Cave. It was the universal opinion of
the Academy that the accommodations and table of the Wyandotte
Cave Hotel cannot be too strongly criticised.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF. hai oroa, PER 7, 1888. —The
following communications were read : — Capt. J. W. Collins, “The
Work of the Schooner Grampus, in Fish Cae: ” Mr. Chas. D.
Walcott, “Cambrian Fossils from Mount Stephens, Northwest
Territory of Canada;” Prof. C. V. Riley, “Some notes from
Emin Pasha’s Travels in Central Africa ;” Dr. Theobald Smith,
“ The Destruction of Pathogenic Bacteria i in the Animal Organism.”
APRIL 21, 1888.—Mr. F. W. True,“ The Affinities of the White
Whale ;’ > Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “A Bat new to the United
States, ‘and New Localities for other North American Mammals ; 5
Prof. C. V. Riley, “ Notes on Platypsyllus.”
May 5, 1888.—Prof. R. E. C. Stearns,“ Instances of Mutations in
Specific Distribution among Shells; ” Mr. C. L. Hopkins, “ Notes
upon Pollenation of the ‘ Navel’ Oranges ;” Dr. C. Hart Mer-
riam, “ Description of a New Meadow Mouse, with remarks on
the Subgenus Pedomys;” Prof. Lester F. "Ward me “ On some
Characteristics of the Flora of “ate Potomac Formatio te
May 19, 1888.—Mr. F. W. True, “ The Hawaiian Bat ”: Mr. Wm.
T. Ho rnaday y, “ Man-Eating Crocodiles ” ; Dr. C. Hart ’ Merriam,
Phe se or the Dipodida”; Mr. F. A. Lucas,“ The Affinities of
Chame
Boston Socrety oF NATURAL History. — April 4, 1888. —
Mr. Samuel Wells read a notice on the Life of the late Roher
C. Greenleaf; Mr. Robert T. Jackson read a pa “ The
the life of the late Spencer F. Baird, and Dr. Charles Sedgwick
Minot exhibited the new automatic microtome which he h
invented and which has now been placed on the market. The
committee on nominations of officers for the Meo 1888-89 was
presented and accept ,
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
Vou. XXII. JUNE, 1888. No. 258
CULTURE AND SCIENCE.
BY THEODORE GILL.
A SHORT time ago, it will be remembered, an English gentle-
man, eminent as a classical scholar, and as a man of refined
and esthetic tastes, otherwise culture, delivered a lament in this city
onthe decadence of literature and the usurpation of science. He
Whom we are wont to call, without titular prenomen, Matthew Ar-
nold, has long enjoyed the esteem of all English-speaking peoples,
and I think that I can safely say that scientific men generally com-
miserate with the eminent littérateur in his evident grief, although
they must equally generally fail either to discover the ground for
his prognostications or to dread the impending dilemma, The Cas-
sandraic laments of the apostle of culture have long been re-echoing
throughout Great and Greater Britain, and his latest utterances
Were essentially the repetition of the wailings poured out into the
Sympathetic ears of the select Cantabrigian scholars and published
broadcast in the Nineteenth Century some eighteen months ago (Aug.
1883, pp. 216-230). What his feelings were then and long before
are thus told by him. |
“< No wisdom, nor counsel, nor understanding, against the Eternal!
says the Wise Man? Against the natural and appointed course of
things there is no contending. Ten years ago I remarked on the
gloomy prospect for letters in this country, inasmuch as while the
aristocratic class, according to a famous dictum of Lord Beaconsfield,
Was totally indifferent to letters, the friends of physical science to
“y other hand, a growing and popular body, were in active revol
against them. To deprive letters of the too great place they had
hitherto filled in men’s estimation, and to substitute other studies
482 Culture and Science.
for them, was now the object, I observed, of a sort of crusade with
the friends of physical science—a busy host important in itself, im-
portant because of the gifted leaders who march at its head, import-
ant from its strong and increasing hold upon public favor.
“T could not help, I then went on to say, I could not help being
moved with a desire to plead with the friends of physical science
on behalf of letters, and in deprecation of the slight which they put
upon them. But from giving effect to this desire I was at that time
drawn off by more pressing matters. Ten years have passed, and
the prospects of any pleader for letters have certainly not mended.
If the friends of physical science were in the morning sunshine of
popular favor even then, they stand now in its meridian radiance.
Sir Josiah Mason founds a college at Birmingham to exclude “ mere
literary instruction and education ;” and at its opening a brilliant
and charming debater, Professor Huxley, is brought down to pro-
nounce their funeral oration. Mr. Bright, in his zeal for the Uni-
ted States, exhorts young people to drink deep of ‘ Hiawatha;’
and the Times, which takes {the gloomiest view possible of the future
of letters, and thinks that a hundred years hence there will only be
_a few eccentrics reading letters and almost every one will be study-
ing the natural sciences—the Times, instead of counselling Mr.
Bright’s young people rather to drink deep of Homer, is for giving
them, above all, ‘the works of Darwin and Lyell and Bell and
Huxley, and for nourishing them upon the voyage of the ‘ Chal-
lenger? Stranger still, a brilliant man of letters in France, M.
Renan, assigns the same date of a hundred years hence, as the date
by which the historical and critical studies, in which his life has
been passed and his reputation made, will have fallen into neglect,
and deservedly so fallen. It is the regret of his life, M. Renan
tells us, that he did not himself originally pursue the natural p7
ences, in which he might have forestalled Darwin in his discoveries.
Are Mr. Arnold’s representations respecting the attitude towards
literature on the part of the advocates of physical science literally
correct? Are they not exaggerated? Most certainly the curricu-
lum of Sir Josiah Mason’s Science School does not exclude literary
instruction, but only such as the sole objective end, and Professor
Huxley happily anticipated the objection made on the occasion Te-
ferred to by Mr. Arnold. As I have elsewhere’ shown, m 4
review of Professor Huxley’s Science and Culture, he fully ro
nizes the urgency of literary culture, and simply deprecates aP
1 The Critic (New York). : i
Culture and Science. 483
undue attention to the neglect of more practical studies. On the
occasion in question he merely reiterates them; and to those who
would urge that want of cultivation of the ancient languages and
literature entails narrowness of thought, he replies that “ the advo-
cates of scientific education might fairly enough retort upon the
modern Humanists that they may be learned specialists, but that
they possess no such sound foundation for a criticism of life as de-
serves the name of culture. And, indeed, if we were disposed to be
eruel, we might urge that the Humanists have brought this reproach
upon themselves, not because they are too full of the spirit of the
ancient Greek, but because they lack it.” Nevertheless, he after-
wards says, he is “the last person to question the importance
of genuine literary education, or to suppose that intellectual cul-
ure can be complete without it. An exclusively scientific training
will bring about a mental twist as surely as an exclusively literary
training.” He thinks that there is no need, however, that such a
catastrophe should happen. Instruction in English, French and
German, such as is provided for in the Mason Scientific School,
renders accessible “the three greatest literatures of the modern
world,” and if an Englishman cannot get his literary culture out of *
his Bible, his Shakespeare, his Milton, neither will the profoundest
study of Homer and Sophocles, Virgil and Horace, give it to him.”
These opinions are valuable as emanating from one who in his own
person combines scientific and literary culturé of no common order.
But what is culture? From the writings of Mr. Arnold, as well.
from the observations of those who are generally conceded to be
men of culture,” I infer that it has, in the opinions of such, a
narrower range than is admitted in the dictionaries of the English
uage. Therein we learn that culture is “the application of
labor or other means to improve good qualities or growth or,
Specifically, any training or discipline by which man’s moral and
Intellectual nature is elevated; or, “the result of such training,
: enlightenment, civilization, refinement.” Further, we learn that
ne word culture has made its way among us from Germany
mainly through the influence of Goethe, and that “ we speak now
9 a9 culture, whether of a nation or individual, as a kind of col-
ive noun for all that refers to the higher life.”
But it appears that such definitions are too latitudinarian and
vague, According to the special culture-worshippers, it seems that
"be things must be done and certain other things left undone to
ive to entry into the fold of culture. For example, above all 3
484 Culture and Science,
things the Latin and Greek languages and literatures must be mas-
tered, for the main object in life must be to make and understand
classical allusions, and there can be no more grievous sin against
culture or more glaring evidence of want thereof than not to under-
stand every inuendo or allusion made in polite converse which
springs from a classical source; not only ancient but modern poetry
must be read, and not only read but enjoyed (this too is essential),
and the principles of metric composition understood ; otherwise will
the failing individual incur the charge of lack of culture. With a
touch of pity Mr. Arnold recalls that “ Mr. Darwin once owned to
a friend that for his part he did not experience the necessity for two
things which most men find so necessary to them—poetry and
religion; science and the domestic affections, he thought, were
enough.”
On the other hand, a very limited knowledge or even ignorance
of things practical or natural is tolerable from one who has the
positive qualifications specified. Even mathematics has entered too
largely into the curriculum of the universities of England, and Mr.
Arnold, for instance, declared on the occasion of his address here
noticed, that “if in the Cambridge Senate House one may say such
a thing without profaneness, I will hazard the opinion that for the
majority of mankind a little of mathematics, also, goes a long way-
Of course this is quite consistent with their being of immense im-
portance as an instrument to something else; but it is the few who
have the aptitude for thus using them,. not the bulk of mankind.”
Many there are and many must there be who will object to the
restriction of the term culture as thus advocated. In fact, the issue,
so far as Mr. Arnold is concerned, is not between culture and sci-
ence, but between a one-sided attention to classical studies and certain
departments of science. The alternatives, as they appear to Mr.
Arnold, are expressed in the following terms :—
“A certain president of the Section for Mechanical Science
in the British Association is, in Scripture phrase, ‘ very bold,’ and
declares that if a man, in his education, ‘has substituted literature
and history for natural science, he has chosen the less useful alter-
native.’ Whether we go to these lengths or not, we must all admit
that in natural science the habit gained of dealing with facts 15 a
most valuable discipline, and that every one should have some
experience of it. i
“ But it is proposed to make the training in natural science the
main part of education, for the great majority of mankind at i K
.
Culture and Science. ' T
rate. And here, I confess, I part company with the friends of
physical science, with whom up to this point I have been agreeing.
In differing from them, however, I wish to proceed with the utmost
caution and diffidence. The smallness of my acquaintance with the
disciplines of natural science is ever before my mind, and I am fear-
ful of doing them injustice. The ability of the partisans of natural
science makes them formidable persons to contradict. The tone of
tentative inquiry, which befits a being of dim faculties and bounded
knowledge, is the tone I would wish to take and not to depart from.
At present it seems to me, that those who are for giving to natural
knowledge, as they call it, the chief place in the education of the
majority of mankind, leave one important thing out of their account
—the constitution of human nature.”
That important element to the constitution of human nature, we
elsewhere learn. A knowledge of all nature (and man is a part)
is the domain of Science, but still, we are told, “it will be knowl-
edge only which they give us; knowledge not put up for us into
relation with our sense for conduct, our sense for beauty, and touched
With emotion by being so put; not thus put for us, and therefore,
to the majority of mankind, after a certain while unsatisfying,
wearying,” ;
I cannot forbear, in this connection, to once more cite Mr. Arnold.
In his Cambridge address he recalled to his auditors a certain
utterance of his of the past.
s Some of you,” he said, “ may have met with a phrase of mine
which has been the object of afgood deal of comment; an observa-
tion to the effect that in our culture, the aim being to know our-
selves and the world, we have, as the means to this end, to know
the best which has been thought and said in the world.”
But to know only the best, however desirable—and it is super-
eminently so—is only to very imperfectly know the world and
human nature. And the experience of many in this audience will
attest to the fact that idiosyncracies are only partially controlled by
poate. Many classical students,—many who have passed with
yee a of our colleges after having pursued the entire curriculum
yi e umanities—have shown a lack of morality and integrity all
e more glaring because of their culture, and I doubt not that
ee as you may recall those whose scholastic training has been
ut yet who have ended their career in a prison cell. Some of _
ose who have thus lapsed have done so in consequence of the inapt-
hess of their furniture for the struggle of life. There are those of
486 Culture and Science.
them too, I know, who have charged their incomplete lives to that
insufficiency of a collegiate course for the practical end of existence.
This insufficiency has become so patent to many that they have
demanded a change in the college curriculum, and this demand
has come less from those interested in scientific pursuits than from
those who have contemplated from outside the triumphs of science
and have desired its advantages to be more feely extended and
opened. The advantages of a scientific training are so evident that
they need not be urged. In the words of Mr. Arnold, “ the great
results of the scientific investigation of nature we are agreed upon
knowing, but how much of our study are we bound to give to the
processes by which those results are reached? The results have
their visible bearing on human life. But all the processes, too, all
the items of fact, by which those results are established, are inter-
esting. All knowledge is interesting to a wise man, and the
knowledge of nature is interesting to all men.”
It is in view of this conceded usefulness of science and its relations
to everyday life that there is an ever-increasing demand on the
part of comparatively disinterested lookers-on to force it into college.
This demand, as before indicated, is not so much fromthe acknowl-
edged representatives of science as from the general community, and
men of science interpose ever to moderate the demand and to recom-
mend the retention of what are called the humanities in the educa-
tional course. They urge that it is not the part of science or true
culture (which amount to almost the same thing) to reject the one
and to devote attention alone to the contemplation of gross matter.
They are satisfied to give room and time, so far as may be possible,
to all knowledge, and they do not find fault even with those who,
like Mr. Arnold, think that “if there is to be separation and option
between humane letters on the one hand and the natural sciences
on the other, the great majority of mankind, all who have not
exceptional and overpowering aptitudes for the study of nature,
would do well to choose to be educated in humane letters rather
than in the natural sciences. Letters will call out their being at
more points, will make them live more.
“ And, indeed,” continues Mr. Arnold, “ to say the truth, I cannot
really think that humane letters arein danger of being thrust out from
their leading-place in education, in spite of the array of authorities
against them at this moment. So long as human nature is what it 15,
their attractions will remain irresistible. They will be studied more
Culture and Science. 487
rationally, but they will not lose their place. What will happen
will rather be crowded into education other matters besides, far too
many; there will be, perhaps, a period of unsettlement and con-
fusion and false tendency ; but letters will not in the end lose their
leading place. If they lose it for a time, they will get it back
again. We shall be brought back to them by our wants and aspir-
ations, And a poor humanist may possess his soul in patience,
neither strive nor cry, admit the energy and brilliancy of the parti-
sans of physical science, and their present favour with the public to
be far greater than his own, and still have a happy faith that the
nature of things works silently on behalf of the studies which he
loves, and that, while we shall all have to acquaint ourselves with
the great results reached by modern science, and to give ourselves
as much training in its disciplines as we can conveniently carry,
yet the majority of men will always require humane letters, and so
much the more as they have the more and the greater results of
science to relate to the need in man for conduct, and to the need in
him for beauty.”
There is much in these utterances of Mr. Arnold which can be
re-echoed by the man of science. Doubtless the exclusive status
of the humanities in the educational curriculum has been lost be-
yond redemption; in some institutions, at least, they no longer
take the lead, and above all, their study has been to some extent
sanctified by scientific methods. But the enlightened chiefs of
Science, far from denying, claim a place for the humanities parallel
with those of their own chosen departments. What they do pro-
pose, in response to popular clamor, is not to exclude classical
Studies, but to leave to those students who have matured sufficiently
to face a near future the option of a course which may be most
useful to them in their after careers. The knowable is only less
measurable than the unknowable, but human capacity and life are
nite, Grecolatry and Latinolatry are sometimes obstructive.
The physician will have less use for a profound knowledge of the
humanities than of humanity ; the chemist or miner will doubtless
find Greek and Latin of use, but much less than German or French —
and still less than an elementary acquaintance with matter. The
future merchant may be glad to bandy classical allusions with his
customers, but a knowledge acquired, in the schools, of the objects
ofhis trade will save much cost and labor in those years when time
and labor are of most account. Let all be allowed to elect those
488 Culture and Science.
studies which may be most useful to them in their chosen walks
in life.
In coming time there must needs be a modification of educational
methods for adaptation to the increasing ramification and develop-
ment of the tree of knowledge ; and if early youth is the best time
for learning languages, so is it—and to even a greater degree—the
best time for the cultivation of the logical and observing faculties.
There must be sacrifice of some branch of learning, and what that
shall be should probably be determined by the position of the indi-
vidual and his tastes and aptitude. A technical education is at least
more likely to be of future use to most persons than a classical one,
and will certainly fit one better for the struggle of life, even if, as
might be contended, it will be less apt to render him “ philosophi-
cal ” under its calamities.
I cannot forbear, even at the risk of being regarded digressive,
to here interject some remarks respecting the place of the classical
languages in general philosophy. We are constantly being told
that the Latin and Greek are the most perfected and the highest
developed of all tongues, and it is implied that others are less so to
the extent by which they deviate from those stocks. I have no
hesitation in utterly denying such a statement, and the claim in
question is the result of that lack of broad culture which is inci-
dent to exclusive or undue attention to what is called a classical
curriculum. The Greek and Latin languages really represent an
immature although nearly adolescent stage of linguistic develop-
ment, the former being nearer the primitive stage, while the latter
is on the whole appreciably more advanced in natural development.
The inflections, which have been claimed as a feature of excellence,
in truth are characteristic of the youth of language and of barbar-
ous peoples. Such nations, for example, as the American aborigines
(Choctaws, Creeks, ete.) and the Eskimo, exhibit a complexity of
inflection which is immeasurably in advance of the classical ones,
and the same reasons which have been urged for the supremacy
of Greek and Latin are applicable in a far higher degree to the
Eskimo and Choctaw. The decay of inflections may almost be said
to be in an inverse ratio to the healthy growth of expression,
and we may justly claim, on scientific grounds, that of all lan-
guages, English is the most advanced in its developmental career, —
so far at least as differentiation of its elements is concerned. These
utterances, although they may appear heterodox to some, I feel
Culture and Science. 489
assured will be challenged by no scientific philologist. It would
be easy to justify them, but time forbids. I close, therefore, with
some ideas as to the relations of Science and Culture.
Science is often personified as an aggressive being and even as a
demon, shoving and pushing all else away and.endeavoring to
throttle and kill all else, that it alone may live and flourish. A
falser conception is scarcely possible. This aggressive demon is
not science, but a man of straw. Yet the disciples of theology and
the apostles of culture seem to be made alike unhappy in their con-
templation of the portentous and horrid offspring of their imagin-
ings, and batter away at the impassive man of straw while com-
plaining of his aggressions, Science is rather a goddess who is rich
in attributes and ready to reward her worshippers, but coy in her
gifts ; she is generous only to those who worship at her shrine in
sincerity and truth, and who supplement their prayers by continual
labor and deeds. To such she distributes her gifts much according
to their deserts. Her worshippers are generally content with their
several portions, and in her temple enjoy such sweet communion
and peace of mind that they envy not the lots of those outside ; if
at all solicitous for any outsiders they are actuated by motives of
philanthropy and benevolence alone to invite such to share with
them. . What other possible motive can there be for proselytism?
They repose in the temple, itself on an eminence above the turbid
billows of popular boisterousness, and can contemplate without
alarm the strife of faction and of sects below. The outcries and
assaults against science are, therefore, without justification, and are
evidently the outcome of jealousy and rivalry among the worship-
pers at other shrines; those interests appear to be imperilled, and
they dread popularity so manifested by the number of votaries
wending their way in ever-increasing throngs to her temple.
Such pilgrims, however, are not unthinking followers of aggressive
and proselytizing apostles, but are attracted by the clear atmos-
phere of the heights on which the temple is perched and by the gifts-
which the goddess half conceals and only imperfectly exhibits to
new disciples.
Near her portals, there are no runners who clamor to all in view
to come in and believe as they do or be killed and damned, The
priests who guard her shrine warn those that would approach to
come not save they are prepared to cast off their garments of preju-
dice and to test all things by trained sense, experience, and reason.
490 Culture and Science.
Her votaries are not forbidden to doubt what is uttered in her tem-
ple; doubt as encouraged as a prelude to faith.
Science is most catholic in her regards, and none are denied
entrance to her temple who submit to her laws. Conditions are
imposed, it is true; but all those who give obedience to the few
conditions are admissible. One of the conditions is that common
sense intensified shall be applied to all questions. If it is the his-
torian, he must learn to doubt and to weigh the statements handed
down from posterity ; if the Greek or Latin scholar, he is refused,
not because of his Greek and Latin as taught in the schools, but
because only so knowing he knows too little and too imperfectly ;
when he has gained increased knowledge and breadth of view so
that he knows his language as a harmonious part of a great whole,
he, too, is eligible. Science takes cognizance of all nature and all
the outcome of nature. How, then, can there be any antagonism
between science and culture when true culture is only an esteemed
and devoted offspring of science? Any antagonism between the
two is as causeless and insensate as the revolt of the members
against the body imagined in the ancient apologue.
Gross Anatomy of Campeloma. 491
ON THE GROSS ANATOMY OF CAMPELOMA.
BY R. ELLSWORTH CALL.
PTa collection of a large number of specimens of Campeloma
subsolidum Anthony, in the Des Moines river, Iowa, in early
August, presented opportunities to somewhat carefully study the
coarser anatomy of the genus as exhibited in this species. The
results of this study are herein given, It may be noted, as intro-
ductory, that an unexpected closeness of structure to that of the
foreign genus Paludina was developed, and, further, that the gen-
eral diagnosis given by Dr. Stimpson! will need some slight emen-
dation, particularly in respect to certain external characters, and in
respect to the lingual teeth and the branchial lamine.
External Characters.—In the living and recently dead animal
the color of the foot-mass is light lead or bluish white. Viewed
from above, the cervical lappets, foot, operculigerous lobe, tentacles
and proboscis are further enlivened by irregularly scattered bright
orange-yellow dots. These dots are, on the tentacles and proboscis,
arranged in somewhat regular transverse rows, giving a barred
appearance to each. These last-named organs are, moreover, marked
by an abundant deposition of black pigment immediately under
the cuticular membrane. The under surface of the foot, the crawl-
Ing disk, shows, in living specimens, the large longitudinal pedal
muscles. When these muscles contract, in the act of withdrawal
into the shell, the anterior margin of the disk is reflected upwards
and backwards over the proboscis and tentacles. This reflected
portion is, as a whole, then bent backwards and downwards to be
finally covered by the posterior portion of the foot, the upper sur-
face of which carries the operculum. The whole mass is then with-
‘drawn into the shell. During the period of reproduction, when
the organs devoted to that function are in a condition of marked
activity and distension , the animal, especially of the female, cannot
soy retracted. In this respect it resembles most of our large
ices,
Sexual Features.—The sexes are readily distinguished, in life, by —
means of the right tentacle, which, in the male, is very much larger
-than its fellow and rather more curved outwards (Plate VIL, Fig. 2% : :
1 Smithsonian Mise. Coll., No. 144, p. 35, 1865.
492 Gross Anatomy of Campeloma.
and VII. of Fig. 1, in the text), Again, as appears below, the shells.
differ in certain particulars of corresponding dimensions.
The male seminal duct is displayed throughout nearly its whole
length by clipping the mantle along the extreme left of the branch-
ial chamber. The vas deferens superior (IV., Fig. 1) arises from
a point on the anterior left third of the testis (II., Fig. 1). This
latter organ is placed immediately under the
right duodenal fold of the intestine (I., Fig.
1). It is about three times longer than wide,
and whitish in color. The vas deferens supe-
rior after passing anteriorly to a point near the
anal extremity of the intestine is suddenly bent
~Y obliquely backwards and traverses the floor of
the branchial chamber for a short distance,
but soon turns forward again at a somewhat
acute angle. At this point (III., Fig. 1) isthe
prostate. The vas deferens inferior (V., Fig.
1) is rather long, narrow, and nearly straight,
_ and is continued along the floor of the right
tentacle to the verge (V I., Fig. 1). The right tentacle thus becomes
an intromittent organ in the process of copulation. This tentacle
is somewhat flattened above, presenting, in cross section, an elon-
gated ellipse. It is somewhat less in length than its left fellow,
and is rather more curved outwards.
In the gravid female the gestatory sac (Plate VII., Fig. 5, ¢) oc-
cupies the greater portion of the body whorl on the right side. It is-
readily distinguished in the living specimen by the greater deposit
of black pigmentary matter in its thin outer walls. Anteriorly the
sac opens into a rather small duct, the mouth of which is prolonged
into the branchial chamber about 2 to 2.5 millimetres (b, Plate VII.,
Fig. 5). This duct is guarded at each extremity by rather power-
ful sphincter muscles. Anteriorly the walls of the gestatory sac
are slightly thicker and are modified into longitudinal folds or
ruge leading towards the duct. These possibly are of use mm
guiding the extrusion of the young.
During the summer and fall months, and often also in hiber-
nating specimens, the gestatory sac is crowded to distension with
young, in various stages of development (Plate VII., Fig. 5, c).
Those most anterior are, in early August, nearly or quite through
their prenatal growth, and are less closely crowded upon one another
acoe ti]
w
Tig. 1.
Gross Anatomy of Campeloma. 493
than are those in the rear portion of the sac. All the young in
the anterior portion possess shells. The shell of the young at
|
|
|
|
EILL
Li
|
ELLELE
BSBA AE ©!
LLI
AT AHIR ATA ae ae.
PELEELEEEEE TITS I
FIG. 2,
this stage is devoid of colored epidermis, is crystalline white, and
possesses from 2 to 2} complete whorls. The apex is very short
and blunt, the first whorl being nearly uniform in diameter
throughout its length, while the body whorl is very large, com-
prising fully nine-tenths the entire bulk of the shell. The darker
tentacles and the black eyes at their outer base are readily seen
through the substance of the shell. The average dimensions of a
dozen or more young examined were, for length 3.5 mm., for —
diameter 2.96 mm, The embryonic whorls never, so far as exper-
lence goes with mature specimens with completely preserved
apices, acquire the characteristic green epidermal coloring. :
494 Gross Anatomy of Campeloma.
The number of young is variable, the large mature specimens
containing, as might be expected, the greater number of young
shells. ‘Twenty specimens were carefully examined with a view to
this feature, with the following result :—
= Young. popan Young. | Sip | Young. bo Sings Young.
| |
1 36 6 wn n 2 16 47
2 42 7 62 |] 12 | 17 42
8 51 8 2 Pe he 18 64
4 35 9 s or u 58 19 63
5 41 10 38 || 16 34 20 50
| pa
These twenty individuals, therefore, present an average of forty-
three young.
Aside from the tentacular differences which exist between the
male and female, both tentacles of the latter being uniformly sub-
ulate, a further sexual difference appears in the greater size and
somewhat more globose character of the female shell. Coördinated
with this difference in dimensions is the more shouldered character of
the whorls in the female specimen, a difference connected with the
position and necessarily large size of the gestatory sac. The males
are more regularly conical, with rather less oblique aperture, and
are of considerably less globose appearance than are the females.
This difference was supposed to be of value in determining the sex
when only the shell was at hand. To test it as a sexual differen-
tial character, thirty-six of the largest males and an equal number
of the largest females were selected from a finding of more than a
gallon of C. subsolidum, taken on August 6, 1887, and were care-
fully measured. The results appear in the following :—
TABLE OF DIMENSIONS. MALES. :
}
No. 1 | II No I. fi. No I II
mm. | mm. mm. mm.
1 25.88 | 12.80 13 24.94 | 12.92 | 25 24.22 | 12.36
2 | 28.00 | 13.00 | 14 | 24.52 | 1238 | 26 | 25.14 | 13.00
3 27:25 |: 18.82 9°15 26.10 | 13.51 f 27 23.90 | 12.70
4 26.06 | 13.31 16 80.76 | 15.00 26.62 eo
5 27.22 | 12.90 17 27.34 14.00 f 29 23.94 2.86
6 26.80 | 13.14 18 24.95 | 18.86 f 30 25.84 | 12.92
7 27.47 | 15.08 19 27.82 | 18.04 f 31 26.16 bg
8 25.50 | 12 20 26.86 | 14.20 E 32 25.16 Be
9 24.48 | 12.54 21 25.76 | 13.62 25.50 | 13.
10 A e 22 25.20 | 18.61 § 34 23.36 oT
11 26.28 | 13.40 23 24.82 | 13.50 f 35 24.95 ret
12 24.14 | 12.50 24 28.82 | 15.22 f 36 24.00
I. = length in mm, II. = diameter in mm.
Gross Anatomy of Campeloma. 495,
TABLE OF DIMENSIONS. FEMALES.
|
No i; II No. | I, H. No. Fi ii,
mm. mm. | mm. mm. mm. mm.
1 36.44 18.40 18 | -85.50 17.72 25 29.20 16.22
2 30.00 15.68 14 30.80 16.29 26 29.10 15.80
3 29.80 5.16 15 82.37 6.40 27 32.88 16.34
4 32.12 6.00 16 30.50 5.56 28 30.24 16.60
5 32.92 16.88 17 28.50 5.68 23.94 12.86
6 30.26 16.21 18 33.14 6.80 30 25.84 12.92
7 30.44 15.50 19 29.49 32 31 26.16 29
8 33.62 8.62 20 80.00 15.50 82 95.16 12.92
9 35.28 | 17.62 21 31.64 17.36 33 25.50 13.60
10 29.88 5.72 22 83.14 16.16 34 23.86 12.24
11 83.50 16.60 23 85.4 17.32 24.95 12.88
12 32.50 7.00 24 30.42 16.56 36 24.00 | 12.64
I. = length in mm. II. = diameter in mm.
A comparison of ratios shows the numerical values of differ-
ences, as follows: Length of male to its diameter, 23 $$$; length
of female to its diameter, 34 37; length of female to length of
male, 3133.; diameter of female to diameter of male, 18 434.
The differences of lengths is 5.561 and of diameters 2.893. It
would appear, then, that this degree of difference may be of diag-
nostic value in the matter of sex. The diagram, Fig. 3, is designed.
to present this sexual peculiarity in a graph- =
ic form. The marginal numbers represent
millimetres. The ordinates represent the
lengths, and the ubscissas, which have the w -~
Same scale, represent diameters. The cir-
cular conventional sign represents the male
and the triangular character the female spec-
imen. The average dimensions of each `~..
group are represented by the open conven-
tional sign with its distinguishing sex mark
conjoined. It will be seen that while the
dots fall into two pretty well-defined groups,
the range of greatest variation follows the ordinates, and that this
range is comparatively greater for the female than for the male form.
In other words, the males are more constant in lengths and vary less
in diameter, while, for the female form, differences in length are
measurably compensated by corresponding increase in diameter.
In connection with this character it may not be altogether amiss.
to call attention to certain so-called species which have been based —
upon the males of C. subsolidum. They are Campeloma milesii Lea,
wa > aaa ay
}
.
-
771
Tig 3
496 Gross Anatomy of Campeloma.
C. coarctatum Lea and C. exilis Anthony. The same unfortunate
cause of synonomy has led, in the genus Unio, to the erection of
more than a hundred spurious species, in certain cases the females
serving as a basis for not less than five specific names. The form
of a shell in so extremely variable a group is certainly a very mis-
leading character.
Digestive Organs.—The buccal cavity opens on the middle side
of the rather short proboscis near its base. Near the cesophagus
(III., Fig. 3) and upon the floor of the buccal mass lies the radula.
This is a small, narrow, chitinous organ, beset with numerous trans-
verse rows of teeth, arranged according to the formula 3.1.3 (Fig.
3, Plate VII., and Fig. 4). The dentition is therefore teenioglossate.
On either side, near the posterior end of the buccal cavity, open
the ducts of the salivary glands (II., Fig. 3). These are small
racemose paired glands, dirty white in color, and lie close upon the
cesophagus. Including their ducts, they are about 1.5 mm. in
length, and nearly or quite .25 mm. in width. The csophagus is
long, irregularly winding, placed upon the floor of the branchial
cavity, and opens, into a somewhat capacious stomach (IV., Fig. 3),
near the middle of the whorl next the body-whorl. The intestine
is of nearly the same size as the cesophagus, and does not enlarge
until the opening of the biliary duct is passed (V. and VII.,
Fig. 3). At this point it is coiled upon itself to the left, forming
what may be called the right duodenal fold, immediately under
which lies the testis, as stated above. Turning again to the right,
it is there directed forward, becomes slightly enlarged, forming the
rectal portion of the intestinal canal (WIII., Fig. 3), which opens
into the branchial cavity near the margin of the mantle on the right
side (IX., Fig. 3). The liver (VI., Fig. 3) is a very large gland-
ular body, completely filling the first two and a half to three whorls
of the shell, Its contents are discharged into the duodenal portion
of the intestine near the position of the heart. In color it is orange-
red, and is somewhat larger and darker in the male than in the
female form. This organ, like all other portions of the animal
which lie next the shell, is inversed by a thin membrane, contain-
ing pigmentary matter, the membrane itself being a continuation
of the mantle.
Respiratory Apparatus.—The branchial cavity is large, extend-
ing backwards throughout nearly the whole length of the body-
whorl. It opens towards the right side, its left margin being just
PLATE VII.
Gross. Anatomy of Campeloma. 497
above the base of the left tentacle. The chamber is somewhat less
in size in the gravid female than in the male, a fact the explanation
of which probably lies in the distension of the gestatory sac and
its consequent encroachment upon the branchial space. The cham-
ber narrows rapidly posteriorly, and hecomes laterally constricted,
From its upper and left side walls is pendant the ctenidium
(Plate ? Fig. 5, Br). This organ consists of a single row, contain-
ing a great number of thin elongately triangular plates, connected
above with the branchial vein. The right edge and lower extrem-
ity of each plate is free, and each is constantly bathed with water.
The plates become smaller as the rear end of the chamber is reached ;
they are yellowish white in color, and are furnished with abundant
cilia. The blood, which is aerated in these plates, is white.
The attention of students with proper appliances at command is
directed to these molluscs in respect to their embryology, nervous
system, minute anatomy of the reproductive organs, myology and
circulatory system. Only the crudest observations on these points
were possible under the conditions which were presented to me, and
such facts as were ascertained are repressed in the hope that some
other one will be able to complete the work here outlined.
Explanation of the Plate.—X 4. All the figures, save Fig. 2,
are drawn from the female. The mantle is clipped along the left
margin of the branchial cavity.
Fig. 1. Female, Fig. 2, male individual.
Fig. 3. A single transverse row of teeth.
Fig. 4. Odontophore, natural size and very greatly enlarged.
Fig. 5. Anatomy of the branchial cavity with related organs.
a. tvectum and anus,
b. The opening of the gestatory sac, c.
br. The ctenidium.
The figures on the plate were drawn by Mr. H. A. Pilsbry
from dissections made by him. Those in the text are drawn, some-
what diagrammatically, by the author, from nature.
498 Wild Cattle of Great Britain.
THE WILD CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN.
BY R. ©. AULD, F.Z.S.
I ke age has always been a great deal of interest manifested in
the lay as well as in the scientific mind as to the wild cattle of
Britain. The British Association appointed a committee to inquire
into the condition of these herds, and at a late meeting this com-
mittee’s report was presented by Canon Tristram. The herds at
present existing were stated to be those at Chartley, Chillingham,
Cadzow, Somerford, Blickling, and Vaynol. The last (near Car-
narvon) does not seem to be mentioned by Storer or Harting.
The committee thought it would be extremely interesting if the
noble owners of the three ancient herds—Chartley, Chillingham,
and Cadzow—would co-operate with some other owner of a large
park, if haply such could be found, willing to undertake the fol-
lowing experiment: All calves which would ordinarily be con-
verted into veal or steers should, instead, be sent to build up a new
herd, which, combining the blood of the only remaining ancient
herds and with no artificial selection exercised, might be expected
to revert more nearly to the aboriginal wild type than could be
achieved in any other way.
The care with which the European bison is preserved in Poland,
under the especial protection of the Czar of Russia, has been noted.
The interest of the Russian and British “quality ” from the earliest
date in taking means to preserve these aboriginal animals is most
praiseworthy and contrasts favorably with the apathy of Americans
in regard to their aboriginal bison. Why should not the American
Association take this matter in hand, and, ere too late (if not, indeed,
too late already), secure from government a regional reservation ant
sufficient enactment that would ensure the preservation of this
interesting species ?
Some of these wild British herds were horned; most wer
polled. Some of them became domesticated ; most of them became
extinct. Their antiquity cannot be limited; they were among "
original cattle of the island—indeed, descendants of the Uri tha
roamed into this corner of Europe before it became an island.
But some do not care to trace the origin of British cattle ppr
than the historical dates of the subjugation of the various parts 0%
Wild Cattle of Great Britain. 499
the island by Roman, Norseman, Dane, and Norman. The student
who has devoted himself unremittingly to this historical aspect of
the question is the Rev. G. Gilbert, of Claxton, Norwich. The
views of this gentleman, who has paid much attention to the history
of the polls, are worthy of study, and it is here appropriate to refer
to them. Ido so by quoting extracts from several communications
I have been favored with from him : “ My own opinion,” he writes
(and he begins by referring to the Aberdeen poll) “is that there
was in Scotland, on the east coast, long before the short-horn strug-
gled into notoriety, even in England, herds of polled cattle which
owed their best qualities of hardiness and combined power of pro-
ducing good beef and milk from the same animal to that very breed
which gave these properties to the short-horn—i.e., to that big
polled white which seems to me to have come to Great Britain above
eight hundred years ago with the Baltic Rovers, and to have existed
in considerable numbers, in places widely apart, down to the
beginning of last century without there having been any recent
connection.
“The polled herds in England, Scotland and Ireland all held,
before there was much intercourse between cattle-men, one common
infusion, and that was the blood of the whites from the far north.
ose white cattle seem to have parted with their color more
readily than they parted with their thick muscle (i.e., lean flesh),
tending to milk, hardiness, and polled heads. (Of course recently,
since 1750, there have been large transmissions of English cattle to
Scotland, and vice versd, and also of English and Scotch cattle to
Ireland. I doubt if ever before this century either England or
Scotland has ever borrowed sires from Treland, though England
has borrowed for quite a century Scotch sires, and Scotland Eng-
lish sires for the same period.) Gradually, at the end of the last
century, distinct types of those county herds which all had some
ingredients common and, each, some distinct element, got more or
less fixed, until they reproduced themselves, as they do now, even
m non-pedigree stock, with tolerable certainty. I fancy the last
half of last century saw the formation of all British breeds now
existing in distinct form. The short-horns and all the polls hold
the largest infusion of the big white, the Midland and Hereford
hold the most of the old South Europe longhorn, whilst the Devon,
Kerry, and small N orth Highlander hold the most of the type —
Known as Bos longifrons, all of which seem to have been the first
domestic cattle in Great Britain and Ireland.
500 Wild Cattle of Great Britain.
“ I think that very likely Bos urus was already in both islands as
a wild beast. But Bos urus and the big white are not the same.
The big white was domesticated from the first, and probably came,
as you yourself suggest, from the polled breeds of India. I am
trying to gather all the evidence I can get to show what the last
thousand years may have done to make British breeds what they
are, and thence to infer what the thousand years before that may
have contributed. The long-horn, as I fancy, came over with the
Romans, and the white polls with the Danes long subsequently.
It was through the working of this Danish introduction that all the
polled breeds took their rise. I fancy during the Wars of the Roses
in England and up to the time of the union with Scotland breeding
cattle was pursued without any aims beyond these :—
“1. Certain districts tried to get big oxen for labor.
“2. Other districts avowedly preferred the smaller cattle, as
better able to live in the huts with their owners.
“Through these influences, up in the mountains, the smaller or
(Bos longifrons) North Highland type kept its ground. In the
plains and near the towns the cattle became larger, partly from
selection, partly because their veins were filled with many inter-
mixtures. Bulls would come from the south as baggage animals
in the track of returning armies and would be crossed’ with
enlarge the native cows. So all through the richer lands on the
south and east side of Scotland there was not any fixed type for a
century or two as there was in the north and the west. But still it
was these cattle of the plains (I believe) which originated the
‘ doddies,’
“ Wherever the Dane (white polled) extended itself it broke the
colors—first conveyed the disposition to throw occasional polled
calves, The disposition to produce polled calves and the mixing
colors are evidences of latent (perhaps very remote) connection with
the Danish introduction. ;
“Tt would be absurd to suppose that the Danish introductions
were all that we now regard as ‘pure bred’—i.e., all alike and
entirely of one descent. Probably there were a few cherished white
herds in the north of Europe kept to one type; but, more likely,
the cattle were early mixed through the predatory habits of the
red-rovers. The Danes may have brought over here a few pute
whites, gifts to their chiefs ; but they brought over far more W
were carried off by their vessels from shores on which they touched
Wild Cattle of Great Britain. 501
after leaving home but before they reached Britain; so that the
Danish additions to Scotch and English breeds were not one but
many. Still, it was among their introductions that their tendency
to polled calves was brought to this island, and it came from the
far north, where, even in the days of Herodotus, its existence was
noticed. Before Herodotus we only find traces of it in rock sculp-
ture in the far Orient. Thousands of years ago the polled form
was developed (as I think) in India, and it worked its way thence
to the shores of the Baltic overland through centuries of slow
advances. From the Baltic it found its way to England and Scot-
land. I do not think from England to Scotland, or vice versd, but
that the same set of sea-rovers introduced cattle with polled tenden-
cies into both countries almost simultaneously.”
It should be stated that the above was written before the publi-
cation of Victor Hehn’s work (already noticed), in which the latter
traces the polled cattle of Western Europe to Scandinavia and the
White Sea. Mr. Gilbert takes the history of these continental polls
a step farther, following them, it will be seen, to the eastern coasts
of Great Britain, landing them with the Baltic invaders, to become
the determining element in forming the polled races now existing
in Great Britain, whether north or south of the Tweed. “These,”
writes Mr. Gilbert, “probably were our latest introductions.”
Hence the polled breeds on the eastern coast would have had prior
origin. The various British and foreign forms Mr. Gilbert thus
indicates must be studied as a whole in connection with the appear-
ance in Europe of the various hordes who reached it by two routes:
First, by the northern route, descending upon Mid-Europe from
the shores of the Baltic. Second, by the southern route, making
their way upward, men and cattle, along the shores of the
Mediterranean.
The question has raged to which species these wild cattle be-
longed? Professor Low says of these animals: “The wild breed,
or, as it may be termed when domesticated, the white Forest breed
—identical with the ancient Urus—is still preserved in a few parks,
where the animals, herding and breeding only with one another,
retain their pristine characters. Numbers, however, existed in the
domesticated state in Wales until late in the last centarys: «<< .s
Scattered individuals are yet to be met with,-as in the County of
Sawa in no respect distinguishable from the wild cattle of the
parks, |
502 Wild Cattle of Great Britain.
J. E. Harting, F.LS., F.Z.S., the latest scientific authority
who has given attention—and that in a most thorough manner—
to the wild white cattle, says, in his British Animals Extinct, page
214: “The weight of scientific opinion, however, seems to favor
the view that these wild cattle were descended from the Urus, either
by direct descent through wild animals from the bull, or, less directly,
through domesticated cattle deriving their blood principally from
him.”
Riitimeyer, Nillsson, Lyell, Darwin, and Boyd-Dawkins believe
that our wild white cattle are descended from the Urus in one or
other of the two ways above indicated; while Owen and Dr. J. A.
Smith (“ Notes on the Ancient Cattle of Scotland,” in Proc. Soc.
Antiq. Scotl., Vol. IX., p. 587) hold a-different view, and consider
that Bos primigenius became extinct throughout the whole island
in prehistoric times. “This may have been the case,” says Hart-
ing, “in southern parts of Britain.” But he indicates conclusively
that this could not have been the case in undisturbed Caledonia.
In Ireland “ no trace of these wild cattle has been discovered,
although remains of the smaller Bos longifrons have been procured
from some localities.”
The late J. Gibson, of the Museum of Science and Art, Edin-
burgh, Scotland, writing on “Cattle” in the Encyclopædia
Britannica (ninth edition), says : “ Bos taurus, var. Scoticus, makes
the nearest approach of living forms to Urus, represented by Cad-
zow, Chillingham, Lyme, and Chartley herds.”
These herds have been preserved since early historic times. The
pictures by famous artists—such as Ward, Landseer, and others—
represent them faithfully.
BRITISH WHITE POLLED CATTLE.
Rev. John Storer’s work! is the most exhaustive we have on the
subject of the wild white cattle of. Britain, while J. E. Harting,
F.LS., F.Z.S., editor of the Zoologist, has published a more
concise account.”
The following is a tabular view of the various herds :—
1 Wild White Cattle of Great Britain.
2 Extinct British Animals.
Wild Cattle of Great Britain. 503
British Wild White Cattle (Bos urus).
I. Horned Variety.
1. Sub-variety, having black ears, but no black tip to tail.
Chartley, Drumlanrig, and Athole! Herds,
2. Sub-variety, having red or brown ears, but no black tip
to tail.
Chillingham and Lyme! Herds.
II. Polled Variety.
English Herds.
(a) Somerford, Cheshire—Black points.
~ Wollaton, Nottinghamshire—Black points.
Burton Constable,? Yorkshire—Black points.
(b) Gisburne,? Yorkshire—Red or brown points.
(Whalley Abbey.’)
(e) Middleton, Lancashire—Black and dark brown
or red points.
Gunton,!* Norfolk—Black*and dark brown or red
points.
Blickling,? Norfolk—Black and dark brown or red
points.
Woodbastwick,? Norfolk—Red and dark brown
points.
Brooke,!? Norfolk—Black and brown or red
points.
Scottish Herds.
(d) Ardrossan,! Ayrshire—Black and brown or red
points.
(e) Hamilton, Lanarkshire—Black and brown or red
points.
The polled herds, it will be seen, have been and are still the
more numerous, and a short description of each is appended.
ENGLISH HERDS.
_ I Tue Somerrorp Park Herp, near Congleton, Cheshire,
1s a domesticated herd, but its cattle are very characteristic, having
all the peculiar features of the White Forest breed. It is certainly
of great, though unknown, antiquity, their owner, Sir Charles
Shakerly, saying: “ We have no history of how they came or how
long they have been here. I am of the third generation which has
! Extinct. 2? Domesticated.
504 Wild Cattle of Great Britain.
known nothing about them. The tradition is that they have been
here two hundred years.” It is probably the best representative
extant of the hornless and tame
variety of the originally wild
white breed. It is of great
importance, as showing what
and of great value the numer-
ous ancient herds of white
polled cattle were. Perfect and
in working order, it gives an
excellent idea of what the Gis-
burne (now extinct) and the
Hamilton (now horned) cattle
Š were originally. This her
Frc. 1.—Head of White Bull, with black seems to be a connecting link
ears and muzzle, of Gunton Herd. (From s :
Storer’s Wild White Cattle of Great Britain.) between the domesticated white
cattle and the wild, and also between those which had horns and
those which were polled. An experienced eye cannot fail to trace a
very close resemblance between them and the wild horned breed at
Chartley. The park is well timbered, the quality of the soil and
grass very good, though in the heart of the ancient forest region-
The milking properties of the cows are good naturally, and have
thus been fully developed. The white color of the cattle is accom-
panied by black points, and sometimes spots on the neck and body.
They are handsome and very uniform as to color. They may
have been derived from some ancient monastery, one of which,
Vale Royal, only twelve miles distant, has a somewhat similar
breed. Storer gives a very full account of them as they existed
at the time of his visit to the herd in 1875.
II. Wo.triatox HALL Herp,! the property of Lords Middle-
ton, situated three miles west from Nottingham, has become extinct
during the last fifty years. It was generally known as “ the Old
. Park Breed,” which indicated them to be an original and very
ancient race. They were polled and had black points. The origi
nally wild nature of the herd interfered with its thorough domestie
cation, in-breeding hastening its extinction, as in many other park
herds. They were of specially large and symmetrical proportions.
Their pasturage, of considerable extent, was fairly good, though not
particularly rich. They are supposed to have become enclosed from
the grand old forest of Sherwood. The Wollaton (Somerford),
Wild Cattle of Great Britain. 505
Chartley, and Lyme (these last two horned) formed the southernmost
group of the ancient white cattle, and all were in tolerably close
proximity.
III. THE GissurnE Park Herp,! the property of Lords
Ribblesdale, situated in the Valley of the Ribble, in the district of
Craven, West Riding of Yorkshire. This herd became extinct in
1859, the cause being in-breeding. They were described by Be-
wick in 1790 as perfectly white, except the insides of the ears,
which were brown. They were thick and deep and as large as any
short-horns, had mellow hides, and were excellent milkers. They
are said to have been brought originally from Whalley Abbey,
being enclosed from the “indigenous wild cattle which occupied the
great forests of Lancashire. Professor Boyd-Dawkins preserves in
the Museum at Owen’s College, Manchester, under his charge, the
skull of “the last bull” of this herd. In a letter to me, referring
to this, he says: “ The Gisburne cattle come nearer to the Chilling-
ham cattle than any other breed, being white in color, with reddish-
brown inside their ears. The only stuffed specimen and skull of
this breed, now extinct, are in the Museum under my charge at
Owen’s College, Manchester. The Gisburne breed represents, like
the Chillingham, the domestic cattle of the Urus type which have
never been confined in fields, and which, therefore, by contrast with
the more domesticated animals, are frequently termed wild. The
stuffed specimen above referred to is a cow, low in stature, with a
prominent protuberance on the forehead, like that found in the
Galloways. The skull, also hornless, and belonging to a bull,
labelled ‘ The last of the ancient breed of wild polled cattle kept at
Gisburne Park, Yorkshire, killed 11th November, 1859, and pre+
sented by the Rt. Hon. Lord Ribblesdale,’ proves that the male
was hornless.”
IV. Mippreron HALL Herp,! the property of the Asshetons,
Baronets of Middleton, near Manchester, Lancashire, was quite an
original one, of very ancient origin. They descended from the _
wild bulls that invested Blakele, close to Middleton Hall. They ;
gave origin to the Gunton herd, in Norfolk. Dr. Leigh mentions
them in 1700 (Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the
Peak of Derbyshire, Book II., p. 8), but the origin he traces for
them—from the Highlands of Scotland—must be regarde
mere surmise, ; MOET
_ V. Guytoy Park Hrrp,! the property of Lords Suffield,
Situated in the northeast portion of Norfolk. The Gunton cattle
506 Wild Cattle of Great Britain.
_ were brought from the Middleton herd and were a continuation of
it. The cattle became thoroughly domesticated. They had black,
or, at any rate, dark brown, points. They were deep milkers.
They gradually disappeared; but in their day they had great
influence on the cattle of the district. The Rev. George Gilbert
confirms this, and also as to their size. They “stood up like dray-
horses,” while they could be made enormously fat.
VI. Burickytrye HALL Herp (Norfolk) is a domesticated herd
still existing. It was derived from Gunton. The cattle had black
points. They were considerably affected by the rinderpest, previous
to which they were very useful in the dairy. Rev. George Gilbert,
who gives a full account of them in Storer’s work, says the cows
are not above the average of the Galloway and are below that of
the Aberdeen. The following is the latest I have seen in refer-
ence to this herd, and shows that it contains good material: “A
remarkable novelty at this Norfolk show was an exhibition of sev-
eral animals from Lady Lothian’s unique herd of white polled
cattle, the beasts having black ears and points. A bull took a first
prize, beating several fine Herefords. This curious herd has been
kept at Blickling since the reign of Charles II., and it represents.
one of the oldest types of cattle in the world.” (London Truth,
July 7, 1887.)
VII. Wooppastwick Herp, the property of Mr. A. Cator,
Norfolk, a domesticated, still existing herd, derived from Gunton.
The cattle had red points. They were large, would fat to great
weight, and had large manes. They were kept pure up to 1840,
when different crosses were had resort to. It is of importance to
note that Mr. G. Gilbert states: “It is impossible not to notice
that the white polled cattle, both at Blickling and Woodbastwick,.
are quite distinct (in appearance) from the Norfolk and Suffolk.
They are as distinct from the local polled variety as possible,’—
and he also ineludes the Galloway and Aberdeen.
Tue Brooke House, or Kerrison Herp! (Norfolk),
were a domesticated herd before they became extinct. They were
_ derived from Gunton, and had black points. Rev. George Gilbert,
by relationship with the owner of this herd (Sir Roger Kerrison),
is very well acquainted with it. He states they stood very high,
and that there are traditions of a similar breed of white polled
cattle in the Downham district occasionally, even now, polled eee
of gigantic size being occasionally found. He saw one in 1877 wht m2
Wild Cattle of Great Britain. 507
certainly stood six feet high. These cattle may have also been
derived from the stock of one of the monasteries of the Premonstra-
tensian Order, which had privileges over certain manors, including
Brooke and Kustead, in both of which parishes Sir Roger Kerri-
son’s ancestors lived. Mr. Storer, speaking of this herd, concludes
his account thus: “It demonstrates by the clearest evidence how
strong has been the influence of the wild forest breed upon our
domestic cattle, how wonderfully persistent is the type, and how it
reproduces itself under the most unlikely circumstances—often,
perhaps, when its very existence is altogether unsuspected.”
IX. BURTON CONSTABLE Herp.'—This herd is situated in the
Holderness or East Riding District of Yorkshire. Storer is not
very definite about this herd as to its character. It appears to have
been a polled herd. Bewick (1790) gives a brief account of it.
He states it was carried off “a few years ago by a distemper.”
These cattle were much larger than the Chillingham horned cattle,
many weighing sixty stones (eight hundred and forty pounds).
SCOTTISH HERDS.
X. Arprossan Herp! (Ayrshire), property of the Lords
Eglinton, was mentioned by Sir John Sinclair in 1814 as one of
the then few remaining examples of Caledonia’s ancient breed. It
survived till about 1820. They had black points. They were
enclosed about 1750. They were traditionally believed to have
been horned when introduced to Ardrossan. They were certainly
all, or very nearly all, polled within the memory of man. The
cause of their becoming hornless was the result of an introduction
from the polled Hamilton herd. In other respects they seemed to
have differed little from the Caledonian wild cattle, except that per-
haps they were smaller. Mr. George Rob- AR
ertson, author of several such works, in
his Description of Cuningham and Ayr-
shire, published 1820, says: “They are
altogether wild ; they have no horns; they
are distinguished by the name Caledo-
` nian,” being an offshoot of the older Ham-
ilton.
XI. Tae Hamrox Herp (Lanark-
shire), known also by the names Cadzow pee mr ee
and Chatelherault. Mr. Brown, chamber- Waras’ Zoology.)
lain to the Duke of Hamilton, in Jesse’s Natural History, describes
508 Wild Cattle of Great Britain.
the Hamilton Urus as having a body dun white, with black points,
and the cows as seldom having horns. Sir John Orde says that they
were anciently “all polled.” Youatt speaks of them as being polled,
beginning his account of The Polled Cattle with a description of
them.. Mr, MacGillivray, in his Essay on the Present State of the
Outer Hebrides, says: “ A whitish dun color is also pretty fre-
quently seen, not unlike that of the original wild cattle of Scot-
Jand, both the horned breeds at Chillingham, and the polled one at
Hamilton, and it is remarked that in all their traditions or fables
of what are called fairy cattle this is the color ascribed to these
animals.” At the sale of the late Dr. Knox’s collections a polled
skull of the Hamilton wild ox was purchased by the late Professor
Goodsir. It was labelled by him Urus scoticus, and added to the
Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh. Some oxen
from this herd were exhibited not many years ago at one of the
shows of the Highland Society, and were similarly described. In
Milne-Edward’s Zoology, 1863, Figure 256, the “Head of young
Scotch bull, Urus scoticus, or wild ox of Caledon, Cadzow,” is
polled. (See Figure 2.) The skull is labelled “ White Ox of
Scotland.” From this testimony it is pretty clear that the Hamil-
ton herd was originally polled. So late as 1852, W. C. L. Martin,
in his book on Cattle, says the Hamilton’s “are larger and more
robust than the Chillingham. . . . The cows, and also the bulls,
are generally polled or hornless.” And in 1862 Charles Steven-
son wrote: “In the herd of wild cattle in Hamilton Park polled
bull and heifer calves frequently appear. Latterly no bulls are
kept which have not the short white horn tipped with black ; but
there are a few cows and heifers polled. It may be mentioned
that this breed was originally both polled and horned and that both
types reappear, notwithstanding the care taken to breed them of a
uniform type as to horns and color.” Thus is shown the gradual
change from polled to horned. The reason given of their having
become horned is stated by Sir John Orde, Kilmory, Argyllshire, "a
have been from a Highland bull having accidentally got within
the park. Some horned calves were produced, and by subsequent
selection the herd had got horns generally, the horned character
being preferred—likely from the fondness for the grandly-horned
Highland cattle, which make such a picturesque feature of the
Highland glens and straths. But their horns are “short,” a
“long.” These celebrated polled cattle, variously known as the —
California Gray Whale. 509
Cadzow, Hamilton, or Chatelherault—the first name being the
name of their forest home, the second being one of the Scotch titles
of the ducal owners, the third being their French title—are thus
generally regarded as being the remains of the ancient breed of
white cattle which was found on the island when the Romans first
visited it, and which they represent as then running wild in the
woods. The universal tradition in Clydesdale, where they were
called “ Caledonian,” is that they have been at Cadzow from the
remotest antiquity, and the probability is that they formed part of
the establishments of the early British and Scottish kings. Sir
Walter Scott’s stirring ballad on the hunting of the wild bull is too
well known to need repetition.
THE CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE.
(Rhacheanectes glaucus Cope.)
BY JOHN DEAN CATON.
FIRST saw this interesting animal eighteen years ago, when
running down the coast on the steamer Orizava. We then
met them in considerable numbers when on their migration north.
We were running but a few miles from shore, and generally ob-
served them on the seaward side, but sometimes on the shore side,
Sometimes they appeared quite close to the ship and did not seem
to be much alarmed by the presence of the steamer. I have since
taken pains to inform myself of the habits and mode of capture of
this great sea mammal and think I may safely say that it is the
most interesting of all the species of whale known to inhabit the
great seas, perhaps because it is the best understood.
It does not inhabit the distant depths of the broad oceans but its
habitat is confined to the coast line of the Pacific from Cape St. —
Lucas at the southern extremity of the peninsula of California to
Behring sea and even into the Arctic ocean, where it sports among
the icebergs of the north with as much apparent pleasure as it rolls
and tumbles among the great breakers in its southern range. |
If other species of whales are as strictly migratory as this we lack
the evidence to prove it. If others wander about into different:
Seas, and even go from ocean to ocean, they do not move with that.
510 California. Gray Whale.
regularity and system which constitutes what we call migration.
With these this habit is as regular as the recurrence of the season,
and is no doubt as universal as is that of most aquatic birds.
Wintering in the south, this migration to the north commences
in the spring, first with the males, who having no domestic duties or
cares to detain them, leisurely proceed northward, and they are soon
followed by the females with their young so soon as the latter are
large enough to undertake the long journey. Not that either sex
move in a body and together, for they are scattered along the coast
for even months, though they generally move in schools of greater
or less numbers, among which both males and females may occur.
Undoubtedly the former were laggards, while the latter were of the
advance of the females.
Of all the families of whales, of this alone has it been possible to
study the breeding habits with satisfactory results.
Along the coast, in the southern part of their range, numerous
lagoons are found indenting the shores, near the mouths or outlets
of which, bars occur on which the surf breaks with great violence
when the sea is rough, while the waters within are placid. These
lagoons are the favorite breeding grounds of these whales, where
they congregate in great numbers to bring forth their young, which
occurs during the winter months, say from November till March.
Although the fiercest fighters of all known whales it has not been
known that they are quarrelsome among themselves. So far as
known, peace and quiet prevails among all the members crowded
together in the upper ends of these water enclosures or lying-in
hospitals. But few males have been observed to intrude themselves
into the privacy of these retreats. The period of gestation is said to
be about twelve months, and from analogy impregnation takes place
within a very few days after the young are brought forth. Eliott’s
exhaustive observations show that such is the case with the fur
seals, whose period of gestation is the same. Indeed, this mast be
so, when the period of gestation nearly corresponds with the year,
else there could be no regularity in the time when the young arè
brought forth, but it would occur irregularly at all seasons of the
year.
Another peculiarity of this whale is its fondness for sport or play :
While this habit is solitary it is distinctly manifest. Its favorite
amusement is to sport in the breakers or the bars at the entrance to
bays, lagoons and rivers, and the greater the breakers, the more do
California Gray Whale. SIL.
they seem to enjoy them, for there they play and gambol about, in-
creasing the foam by the use of their powerful flukes, sometimes fairly
turning somersaults, while at others they will cease apparent exertion,
allowing themselves to be rolled and tossed about, the passive sport of
the angry waters.
Of all the known species of whales, this is the most cunning,
courageous and vicious. So terrible is it, that with the old imple-
ments of harpoon and lance, but few whalemen would court an en-
counter with it, and it early received the name of the Devil Fish.
I have no account that it ever maliciously attacked an unoffending
object, yet when it found itself pursued where escape was difficult,
even before it was struck, it has been known to turn upon pursuers
and dash a boat to fragments with a single blow of its powerful
flukes, and so has many a life been lost.
It was in the whale nurseries, in the retired lagoons, where the
young were brought forth and nursed, for a considerable time after
they were able to accompany their mothers for long distances out to
sea, that the most terrible encounters occurred. The mother has a
remarkable affection for her young, and will do and dare everything
in its defence, hence the whalemen were cautioned not to strike the
calf while the mother was living. If she would not resent a severe
wound to herself, while there was yet hope for escape that she might
live to nurse and take care of her offspring, when once her darling
was injured her rage knew no bounds, and there was no escape from
her but to run the boat into shallow water or upon the beach, It
18 said that when in port the masters of whalers, in convivial mood,
each recounting his adventures and escapes, those among them who
had ever pursued this whale, could silence all others when recount-
ing the terrors of the chase, and would seek to rival each other in
tales illustrating the ferocity and courage of the female when her
young were in danger, and if the last in turn to come did not win
the palm it was his own fault or rather his lack of inventive genius.
This is the way the last one to relate his experience won the drinks.
He said he was once pursuing an old cow whale, with a well-grown
calf, and while he had cautioned the man in the bow not to touch
the calf, the youngster presented so fair a mark that he could not
‘hold himself and so let him have it. Knowing what would follow,
he instantly ordered all hands to pull for the shore, which fortu-
nately was not far off. As they saw the enraged dam bearing down
upon them like a tornado when they reached the shore, they tum-
512 California Gray Whale.
bled out of the boat and thought they were safe. But no, she pur-
sued them on land as well, and never stopped till she had treed
them all!
The danger of the pursuit was much lessened, and the chances
of capture of these dangerous animals was much increased by the
introduction of the harpoon-gun and the bomb-lance. By them the
attack could be made at a safer distance, and the exploded bomb
produced instant death.
The inshore habits of these whales made it possible for the na-
tives to attack and capture them even with their rude implements
but as I have met no account of this south of Washington Terri-
tory, and rarely except in the vicinity of the Strait of Fuca, it is
not improbable that much of the belligerent disposition of the brute
may have left him by the time hé has pursued his migratory jour-
ney so far, and especially may the temper of the female have been
improved when the defence of her offspring was no longer de-
manded. Their mode of capture was simple though ingenious, but
could have only met with disaster in their southern breeding
grounds, Their mode was to attack with a large number of canoes,
each armed with several men and provided with a number of inflated
bladders, or air-tight sacks made of skins; to each of these was at-
tached a light strong cord, at the other end of which was an arrow
When a whale was sighted, the swiftly-paddled fleet pursued and
embraced every opportunity for hours to shoot their arrows into him,
always throwing overboard the proper air sack. Soon these began
to tell by impeding his course through the water and preventing
him from diving to as great a depth as formerly and obstructing —
his progress when fleeing from his pursuers. Thus in a longer oF
shorter time he might be literally covered with arrows, and so ob-
structed and loaded down, so to speak, with the air sacks, that he
became quite helpless and finally succumbed to his swarming ene-
mies, when by their united efforts he was towed to the shore and
utilized in their way. This was only rendered possible by the pe
culiar inshore habits of this species of the whale. :
For many years this whale was hunted from large whaling ships,
which were anchored at convenient places near those locations
where observation had shown the animal was most likely to be
found, and from the ships whale boats were sent out to hunt for the
game, and when captured they were towed to the ship and apa
in the ordinary way. But this was an expensive mode of maintain-
California Gray Whale. 513
ing a whaling station, and as the objects of pursuit became scarce—
notwithstanding the improved mode of capture by the use of the
harpoon-gun and bomb-lance—the pursuit became unprofitable,
when Yankee ingenuity proved equal to the emergency and shore
whaling stations were thought of. These are built upon the shore
in sheltered places, but commanding an extensive seaward view.
Convenient structures are erected and equipped with all necessary
implements and apparatus, with boats and arms for the capture of
the whale, and everything on shore for treating the captive when
brought to the shore. Near the station was a high lookout upon
which a watchman was stationed with a well-understood system of
signals, by means of which he could telegraph the boats when far
out to sea. Here the men built comfortable cabins where they lived
with their families, and later, as the whales became scarcer, they
could pursue other avocations when their time could not be em-
ployed in the pursuit of their prey, which intervals increased as the
whales became less and less abundant, till now many of these shore
stations have been entirely abandoned. Here, in Monterey, the first
whaling station was established on shore in 1851, and later another _
was established, both of which did a successful business for years, but. :
within the last few years they have been entirely abandoned. Some
of the buildings still remain but they are fast going to decay, and
the old whale boats may now be seen leaning up against the sheds
useless and abandoned. So at Carmal mission, a few miles across
the peninsula; the absence of the game has compelled its desertion,
and this is now true of most of the many whaling stations along
this coast which once flourished. The station near the mouth of
the bay of San Diego, I believe, is still kept up; at least when I
passed it three years ago I saw two whales were on the ways.
Altogether we may well fear that this interesting species of this
_ Sreat family may before many years become extinct, as did the sea
ee (unless governmental powers shall interpose to save them),
Which existed in incredible numbers about Bering Island when the
TFS navigator was cast upon it, and where he found his grave in
The California whale may make a bolder and harder struggle for
existence than did the Rhytina, but it is rapidly going to utter ex-
tmction. While other species of the whale family have greatly
diminished in numbers in all waters, still their habits protect them
from final destruction, They have a wider range and cannot be
it Ge California Gray Whale.
slaughtered on any exclusive breeding grounds. Here their nurs-
eries are limited to particularly favored places which are known and
accessible to all who choose to murder them, and it is a little re-
markable that the State of California has not, long since, by strin-
gent laws protected them, at least in the nurseries within her bor-
ders. If their capture were confined to the open waters of the
ocean and to a reasonable distance from the mouth of the lagoons
in which they breed, we might well hope to see them multiply
rather than fade away to final extinction. Certain interests encour-
aged the extinction of the vast herds of buffalo which once roamed
over the plains and even the forests of our country, that the ranch-
men might have better pasturage for their stock, but no interest can
be promoted by the destruction of this whale while great interests
would be subserved by its protection and increase. Other animals
are protected which are of no practical value except as mere spec-
tacles, while their existence involves a positive loss by the destruc-
tion of vast numbers of food fishes.
I might have stated before, that the California whale, though not
the largest of the family, is of a good size, the largest measuring
forty to fifty feet in length, though the average is considerably less
than this. They are fairly robust in form and well covered with
fat. They furnish no whalebone, but they produce from twenty to
seventy barrels of oil, which, though not of the best quality, com-
mands a good price in the market.
Solitary individuals of several other species of whales are fre-
quently taken at the shore stations along this coast.
Editors’ Table. 515
EDITORS’ TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. 8. KINGSLEY.
The bill lately introduced in the Senate by Senator Beck to pro-
vide for a National Zoological Park at Washington, “ for the ad-
vancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the
people,” is certainly a step in the right direction, and one which
might well have been taken long ago. As might be expected, the
plan receives the unqualified endorsement and support of the
Smithsonian Institution and National Museum, as indeed it must
that of all scientists, friends of science, and the general public
throughout the country.
The bill provides for an institution which shall be founded on a
grand and liberal scale, and fully in keeping with the wealth, dig-
nity and intelligence of the nation. The site is to be selected on
Rock creek, just beyond the city limits, which would make the
entrance to the grounds only a trifle over two miles from the Execu-
tive Mansion. The proposed site is one of great beauty, and
even grandeur, for at two points high walls of rocks rise out of the
picturesque valley to a height of over eighty feet.
_ The creek itself is a beautiful stream of very respectable propor-
tions, describing a perfect letter S through the site to be chosen,
and aside from its picturesque features it would afford unrivalled
facilities for the care of aquatic mammals and birds of all kinds.
Nearly the whole tract is covered by a fine growth of forest
trees which, unless afforded immediate protection, is liable to be.
Swept away by reckless real estate vandals.
It is proposed that the Zoological Park shall be established by
three commissioners, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
the Secretary of the Interior and the President of the District
of Commissioners, and when fairly established it shall be
turned over to the perpetual custody and care of the ‘regents of
Smithsonian. With the unrivalled facilities already enjoyed by
the Institution through its multitude of correspondents and col-
lectors, it would be possible to secure an immense number of val-
uable accessions by gift, and it is estimated that fully one-half of
all the collections could be so obtained merely by paying the cost
of transportation.
516 Recent Literature.
It is unnecessary to advance them any reasons why this bill should
be passed, and the park established as proposed. We only.
allude to the great advantages to science and the general
public which would inevitably result from the gathering together
at the capital of the nation of a great collection of quadrupeds,
birds, and reptiles living and breeding under highly favorable con-
ditions. The time is fast approaching when many of our most
noteworthy American quadrupeds will exist only in parks and
menageries. The buffalo is now almost extinct in his wild state,
and the Rocky Mountain goat is also certain to disappear in a very
few years more.
Ours is almost the only great nation which does not maintain a
national zoological garden on a grand scale, and we are glad to see
that the idea of such an institution for us is at last taking tangible
shape. It is eminently proper that it should be located at the
capital city, which is now the scientific centre of the nation, and
the Mecca which is visited annually by tens of thousands of
citizens from every nook and corner of America.
RECENT LITERATURE.
THREE CRUISES OF THE BLAKE.'—In recent years American
work in marine exploration has been overshadowed by the promi-
nence given to the celebrated Voyage of the “Challenger,” while
the magnificent manner in which the scientific results of that voyage
have been published by Her Majesty’s Government is unrivalled.
Still, American science is doing much to unrayel the secrets of the
sea, and the investigations of the Fish Commission and of „the
Coast Survey stand second only to those of the “Challenger” 1m
their importance.
In the two volumes by Mr. Agassiz we have a popular account
of the results of the Cruises of the Coast Survey Steamer “ Blake,
which is entitled to rank with the accounts of Moseley, Spry, =
even of Wyville Thompson, of the Voyage of the “ Challenger,
ree Cruises of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
Steamer “ Blake” in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea and along
the Atlantic Coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. By a oa
der Agassiz. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. xxii., 314 and 220, Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co. 1888. $8,00, Je
PLATE VIII.
Casg
ae
} Ñ
Velella mutica,
Porocidaris sharrei.
PLATE IX.
Spirula,
Redent Literature. 517
while in wealth of illustration, in mechanical execution or in novelty
of facts and theory, it stands second to none of these. Aside from
the numerous maps, the illustrations have been mostly made by some
of the photo-engraving processes, and the perfection to which these
have arrived may be seen from the figures which accompany this
notice, `
Passing by the chapters which give a history of the progress of
eep-sea investigation and that detailing the special equipment of
the “ Blake,” a small three-hundred ton steamers—for the work, we
Goes account of the strange and bizarre creatures inhabiting those
epths. As some of the work has been in type for two years we
Tpnops, for instance, that curious fish without eyes, but with pecu-
acre 4 phosphorescent organs occupying the whole upper
urtace of the head, is figured, but no reference is made to Moseley’s
recent investigation of its structure.
b As a whole, the book is full of interest, not only to the naturalist,
m to those who merely desire to keep posted on the latest dis-
ag and explorations. Typographical and other errors are
Ny few, but one of the features which seems peculiar is the
nuon of the antiquated names Acalephs and Polyps.
518 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Bell, A. G.—Memoir upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the
Human Race. Nat. Acad. Sci. From the author
Vihar deb A, Wiede W zur Kenntniss der Fauna ` von Pikermi ie
Abd. a. “ Beit. z, Paläont. Ost-Ung.’’ Vienna, 1888. Fro
he sen a
A. Quekett Club-Man.—My Telescope and Some Objects which it =e
e. London, 1888. Roper & Drowley. From the publisher
Slade, D. D.—On certain Vacuities or Deficiencies in the Cragin of
Spee Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. entrara, Vol. XIII. No.8,
March, 1888. From Alexander A gass
Bættger, O.—Materialien zur a ac Fauna von China. 1888,
—Aufzihlung der von den Philippinen bekannten Mar pee und
Batrachier. Ext. Proc. Senckenberg Nat. Hist. Soe. 1885-86.
Both from the author.
Taylor, T.—Dr. T. Taylor’s reply to ‘‘ Science” Relating to the Crys-
tals of Butter, Animal Fats and Oleomargarine. From the author.
Cope, E. D.—On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. Nov. 19,
1886. From the author
Nuttall, Zelia SATR note of an Anaya of the Mexican Codices
and graven Inscriptions. Ext. Proc. À. A. A. S. Vol. XXXV.
From the author.
E E E. Aa a of the American Society of Naturalists.
sing O 2 eo iat on the Teeth of a Mound PONAR From the
tal Register,” Feb., 1884. From the au
Underwood, L.—List of the Described Species y Adit Water Crus-
tacea fi o eat oe North of stg Sones Ill. State Lab. Nat.
Hist. Vol. LE, t. V. From the au
Merriam, C. H. ba eure of a new “ih f Wood Rat (vee.
bryanti) from Cerros Island, Low. Ce pea ion of a new Chi ts E
munk from California. From Proc. Biol. Soe. Washi ngton.
86 ten froin the author
Döderlein, L n} Uger eine diluviale ney, oagepere Fauna aus dem Ober-
Schumacher, E. sass. 7 the authors.
Wadsworth, M. E. -Preliminary deseription of the Peridotytes, gany
bros, Diabases and Andes esytes of rine sree Bull. No. 2 Geol.
Nat. Hist. Minn. 1887. From thea
Smith FE A s mon on Rivers’ va ajes reports. on water
Daggett, W. Q. nalyses. From the author:
Prince, M.—Tho ought Transference. Rep. Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal, Feb., Peak: From the author
Hauer, P Rv Annalen des K. K. Naturhistor PAA Hofmanna
Redigirt von i Dr. Franz. Ritter von Hauer. Fro e edit
dekker, R.—The Fauna of the Karnul Ca gey em
7 Ser. X. Vol. IV. Part II. 1886.—Note on e Generic e identity ot
the ee aeneys Cope, with iatyebomops Cees eswort
from the 1587:
Oestlund, O. gis Ba nopsis of rr EET əf Minnesota.
Geol. Nat. Hist. kas gts Bul
e sat
Arthur, J. C., ete.—Report A ches Work in Minnesota for thi ee
year 1886. Geol. Nat. Hist. Sur. Bull. 3. From the authors: Loe
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 519
Dawson, G. M.—Notes and Observations on the Kwakiool People of
Vancouver Island. Ext. Trans. Roy. of Can. Vol. V. Sec.2. 1887.
From the au
Paviow, Marie.—Etudes sur L’Histoire paléontologique des Ongules.
No. II. Le Développment des Equidæ. Moscow, 1888. From the
author
Bollman, ©. H.—Description of new Genera and Species of North
American Myriopoda. Ext. Entomologica Americana, March, 1887.
From the aut
Morel, V.i—New treatment of the affections of the Respiratory Organs,
ando lood Poison by Rectal injections of gases. Translated from
a nak by L. E. Holman. J. W. Queen & Co. From the pub-
Dea S B: W. } The Food-Fishes of Indiana. From the authors.
Hay, O. P.—A preliminary catalogue of the Amphibia and Reptilia x
the State o Indiana. Ext. Cincin. Soc. Nat. Hist. 1887. Fr
the autho
Topinard, P_I Anthropologie de Linnée. Ext. Nat. L’Hist. Prim.
et Nat. de Hom 1884,—P resentation de quatre Boshimans
raat. Ext. Bull de la Soc. nergy ot at 1887.— Buffon
Anthropologiste. 1882. —Les Caractéres Simiens de la Machoire de
la Naulette. Ext. Revue d’ Anthropologie. July, 1886.—Carte de
la répartition de la Couleur des Yeux et des Cheveux en France.
Ext. idem, Oct., 1886, All from the author
Deichmiiller, J. V.—Ueber pie ey in Uebigan bei Dresden. Sep-
abd. “ Isis.” Heft II. 1884 rom the author
Comité Geologiqué: —Bulletins 1, 6, 7. Moscow, 1887.
Woodward, A. S.—On some remains of Siluroid Fishes erie miim
Eocene’ formations. Ext Geol. Mag. Vol. IV. No.7. Jul
From the author,
“y. C. Koi Icerya or Fluted Seale. U.S. dep. Agric. Bull. 15.
1887.—Reports of Observations and Experiments in the practical
teachin of t sft fae U. S. dep. Agric. Bull. 13. 1887. Both from
Bovallius, see me forgotten Genera of Amphipoda. 1885.—Notes on
the Family Asellidæ. 1886.—Systematical list of the Amphipoda
yperiidea. Stockholm, 1887. All from the author.
Beecher, C. E.—A Spiral Bivalve Shell from ae Waverly group of
Penna. Ext. 39th Annual Report N. Y. State Mus. From the
author.
anny de.—Xibalba. From the author alae
Achiardi, A. Bo oçce Ottrelitiche delle ‘Alot A uane, Extr. dag
i a Soc. Tose. di Sci. Nat Pha. Fol. HE Faso. 2.
From the athioe.
ois, C.—Sur la faune de Hont-de-Ver (Haute-Garonne). t. des
Ann. de la Soc. Géol. du Nord., Jan., 1886.—Memoire sur le Tokens
oa poly piers de Cabriéres rs pa a Ext. idem, Dec., 1855.—Sur le
ien Ch onds, (Maine-et-Loire). Ext. idem,
March, 1886. All from the author
Walther, J.—Unters rsuchungen tiber den Bau der Cronoiden,
Riefolan, #.—Die Sepienschale und ihre Beziehungen zu aep Belem-
Hii, o. obèr Dinotherium bavaricum.
—Die Asterien des Weissen Jura von Schaben und Franken.
They four last from Polson beaten nica: Vol. 32. 1886.
520 General Notes.
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.
AMERICA.—THE INTERIOR OF LABRADOR.—Mr. R. F. Holme
recently read to the Royal Geographical Society an interesting
account of a journey to the interior of Labrador. Although the coast
is utterly bare and treeless, a luxurious forest growth commences at
a distance inland of about twelve miles, and clothes the whole of
the country except the barrens or moors, which are the home of the
caribou. Mr. Holme has ascended all the rivers that flow into
Hamilton Inlet as far as navigable in a boat. One of the most
important of these is the Kenamou, used as one of the routes from
‘the south. By far the largest river of this district is the Grand,
which is the name given to the channel connecting Lake Petchika-
pou with Goose Bay, at the head of Hamilton Inlet. Grand River is
really only a portion of a continuous water-way of rivers and lakes con-
necting Goose Bay with Ungava Bay. Lake Wiminikapou is situated
about 150 miles from the mouth of Grand River, and thirty miles
above that long and narrow lake are the Grand Falls, the height of
which is not known, but which may prove to be among the most
stupendous in the world. The elevation of the Labrador table-land
is given by Professor Hind at 2240 feet, and at least 2000 feet of
this are in the thirty miles between the head of these falls and the
lake below.
Lake Petchikapou, one of the largest of the interior lakes of
Eastern Labrador, is connected with the ocean not only by Gran
River, but by Nascopee River and Grand Lake. The Indians of
the interior of Labrador are all of the Cree nation, and are perhaps
the most unadulterated Indians to be found on the continent.
G. Guillemard, in a note to the May number of the Proc. Roy.
g. Soc. suggests that possibly the Grand Falls of Grand River
(Labrador) might be reached more readily by following up the
Moisie River from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and skirting Lake
Aswanipi. He also says: “ The fall from a height at all approach-
ing 2000 feet of a river 500 yards in width a short distance higher
up, would form one of the wonders of the world, and would surely
have been described by Mr. Maclean after returning from his visit
in 1839. Mr. Guillemard mentions among waterfalls combining
reat volume of water and great height, the Garsoppa a
Western Hindostan, 300 yards wide and 830 feet high, and the
Kaieteur Fall of the Potaro River in British Guiana, 123 yards
wide and 741 feet in vertical height.
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
Geography and Travel. 521
RAINFALL WEST OF THE Mississrpp1.—General A. W. Greely
recently gave to the Washington Philosophical Society the partial
results of the charting of recent observations on the rainfall west of
the Mississippi. The number of observing stations has been doubled
during the past ten years, and the result of the observations has
been to greatly reduce the areas of small rainfall. The area in
which less than fifteen inches per annum was supposed to fall has
been diminished one quarter of a million of square miles since the
census map of 1880. In some places where the precipitation was
supposed to be five inches or less the actual rainfall is as much as
sixteen inches and in one spot was found to be thirty-seven inches.
General Greely explained that the small average of rainfall formerly
reported in Southern California, was partly due to the fact that
most of the observing stations were situated on the line of the Pacific
Railroad which, seeking low gradients, had been built through a
section of the country where the precipitation wassmall. General
reely, moreover, thinks that the prevalent opinion that the rain-
fall in the West is increasing, is correct.
ASIA.—THE Provinces or Kars AND SEMIRECHINSK.—
‘corundum is brought to the surface myriads of small rubies glitter
in the sun. Almost all the stones are water worn or of irregular
apes, and it is rarely that a flawless ruby is found. So rare is a
zuby of the finest water that one of three carats is worth ten times
522 General Notes.
_ the value of a diamond the same size. The district of Mogok is
situated between Mandalay and Bhamo and is nearer to the former
place.
THE Brrps’ Nest Isuanps.—The records of the Geological
Survey of India (vol. xxi. pt. 1) have some information concerning
the remarkable group of islands called by the Burman’s Ye-ei-gnet
thaik or Seabirds’ Nests. These islands consist of six marble rocks
to the southeast of Dumel Island at the southern extremity of
Burma. The largest is a thousand feet high, about a mile in
length, and of an oval shape. The great feature of the group are
the birds nests caverns, which as a rule open into the sea. In other
parts of the island are great caverns opening into circular basins,
an mander A. Carpenter, who writes the account, states his
impression that these circular basins were at one time the floors of
huge caverns, and that in past times the islands were far higher,
with cavern over cavern.
Arrica.—TuHEe TRANSVAAL.—The configuration of the Trans-
vaal Republic, according to Dr. A. Schank, is determined by
mountain ranges; the Drakensberg range rises to a height of 7000
feet and traverses the country from North to South, presenting a
steep declivity on the East and a gradually sloping table land on
the West. The Eastern and smaller part of the Transvaal consists
mainly of a series of low granite mountains. A series of parallel
chains extend east and west through the country and divide it into
a southern portion (the Hooge Veld) and a less elevated northern
portion (the Bosch Veld). The former is connected with the
plateau of the Drakensberg and enjoys one of the healthiest climates
in the world.
Van QGÈLE’S ASCENT OF THE Mopanet.—The “ Mouvement
and watch-posts are established in the cotton-trees. As far as 7
in the middle of the cataracts the natives have their heads shay
Geography and Travel. 523.
About twelve miles above this rapid (21° 30’ E. lon.) the Bangasso:
discharges into the right bank of the Mobangi. Up to this point
the natives had invariably been friendly, offering for sale all kinds
of provisions, but here difficulties began. The Mombongo and
Takoma tribes which inhabit both banks were decidedly hostile, so,
as the navigation was obstructed by rocks and sandbanks, Van
reached 22° 55’ on the Welle, and as both points are in 4° 20’ N.
lat., there can be little doubt of the identity of the Welle and
Mobangi.
GEOGRAPHICAL News.—Another voyage made by Dr. Schrader
up the Empress Augusta River (New Guinea) confirms his previous
opinion as to the important character of this waterway, which
probably rises within the Dutch portion of the island, since the
amoa reached a spot distant but a few miles from the boundary
line, and 380 miles from the mouth of the river. Not only the
main river, but several of its affluents, are navigable for long dis-
ces during the rainy season. :
M. Gamak, a Russian traveler, has recently explored the Khin-
gan range, which divides Mongolia from Manchuria. He has
tg the range four times and has explored almost its whole
M. Kostenko gives the ulation of Russian Turkistan at
2,365,648, and tat of o ides Turkistan at 3,042,000. Of —
t
§24 General Notes.
the latter 2,000,000 are in the Khanate of Bokhara, the remainder
in Khiva and Afghan Turkistan.
The Proceedings of the Royal Geog. Soc., May 1888, contains a
map of Mr. F. C. Selong’ explorations in the Matabele and Mashuna
countries, giving the routes of the various rivers and the posi-
tion of the hill ranges with greater accuracy than any other previ-
ous map.
The death is announced of the celebrated Russian, Nicholas von
Miklucho-Maclay, whose name has so long been prominent in
connection with explorations in New Guinea. His residence in that
country impaired his health, and in 1882 he returned to Russia.
After this he resided awhile in Sydney (Australia) where he founded a
biological station, and then again returned to Russia, where he
resided at the time of his death, at the age of forty-two years.
GEOLOGY AND PALAZONTOLOGY.
GEOLOGICAL News.—Siiurian, ETC.—Dr. John Walther, in
his researches into the structure of the crinoids (Paleontographica,
Band 32), traces the entire group to a bilateral ancestral form, rep-
resented by the Pelmatozoa of the Pre-Cambrian, and considers the
Ateleocystites of the Lower Silurian as a reversion to this ancestral
and larval form. This is followed by an “acyclical” holosym-
metrical form, exemplified by Macrocystella, the oldest Cambrian
Pelmatozoan. From this form two series arise—on one hand, the
Cystoids, on the other, the Crinoidea.
Drvontan.—M. Maurice Gordon has discovered in the Valley
of l’Arboust, in the Pyrenees, a schistose deposit with trilobites
which are entirely new to the French fauna and ascend to an epoch
that has recently been studied between the Hartz and the Ural.
These trilobites include two new species of Bronteus and one each
of Dalmanites, Lichas, Cyphaspis, and Harpes. M. Chas. Barrois
states that the fauna is more recent than the Silurian stage of
Bohemia and older than the Coblencian stage of the Devonian. ,
M. Chas. Barrois has identified twenty-eight species of crinoids,
brachiopods, trilobites, etc., occurring in the singular sedimentary
limestone of the quarry of Vallet, near Chaudefonds (France).
Though this thin bed is certainly Devonian, it has not yet been cor-
related with the other Devonian bands of the region, but seems to
form an islet in the midst of red and green schists, which are by
some referred to the Lower Silurian, by others to the Upper
Devonian, or even to the Carboniferous. The trilobites are Seas
but the brachiopods and crinoids are Devonian, and the fossils, a8
Geology and Paleontology. 525
whole, are referred by M. Barrois to the same horizon with the
Eifelian beds of the Rhine.
The coral limestone of Cabrieres (Herault, France) is by M. Bar-
rois ranged between the Eifelian and the Coblencian stages of the
evonian
CARBONIFEROUS.—Spirodomus insignis, is a peculiar, spirally-
twisted lamellibranch, recently described by Chas. E. Beecher, from
the attenuated Waverly series of northwestern Pennsylvania. In
its reflexed and minutely plicated margins and absence of proper
hinge, this shell-suggests some forms of Pholas, and its spiral form
seems to indicate a burrowing habit.
Among the impressions of fishes collected in the shales of the
coal-beds of Commentry are some with a cartilaginous skeleton
ossified at certain points and presenting peculiarities not to be found
in any other living or extinct fish. The study of twenty-three
examples of this fish, some of them in a good state of preservation,
has enabled M. Brongniart to describe it under the name of Pleura-
canthus gaudryi. In form this fish resembles a shark, and in length
it varies from eighteen to forty inches.
Jurassic.—Dr, E. Fraas (Paleontographica, Band 32) treats of
the asteriads of the White Jura of Swabia and Franconia, with re-
searches into the structure of echinoderms and the skeleton of the
Asteroidea. He describes as new Astropecten infirmum and A
ans; also Pentacerus pustuliferus, from the lithographic schists
of Kelheim.
__E. Koken (Paleont. Abhandl., 1887) has contributed additional
information upon the Dinosauria, Crocodilia, and Sauropterygia of
the Wealden of Northern Germany. Among the crocodiles, Gonio-
pholis pugnax and G. minor, and among the Sauropterygia, Plesio-
saurus degenhardti, Pl, limnophilus, and a third unnamed Plesio-
Saurus, are new. The work also contains much information upon
the development of the brain and auditory passages of the genus
Macrorhynchus.
; CRETACEOUs.— Gigantichthys pharao is the name given to a fos-
sil fish of the family Trichiuride, collected by Professor Schwein-
urth in the cretaceous beds of Egypt, within ten kilometres of the
Pyramids of Gizeh.
Cxnozo1c.—Dr. O. Roger concludes (Ueber Dinotherium bavari-
cum, Palwontographica, Band 32) that D. bavaricum is the smaller,
older ancestral form, contemporary with Anchitherium, out of which,
y a series of transitional forms, the gigantic Din. giganteum
Was finally developed in the Hipparion period. :
In 1885 Professor M. Neumayr and Dr. I.. v. Tausch undertook
explorations in the Pliocene beds of Pikermi, near Athens, for the-
526 General Notes.
benefit of the Vienna Museum, and the result of their work has
been to considerably widen our knowledge of that rich fauna. Dr.
A. Weithofer describes as new Mustela paleattica, Machairodus
schlosseri, Camelopardalis parva, Helicoceras rotundicorne, an
Varanus marathonensis, and mentions some avian remains of as yet
undetermined forms, two of which seem to belong to the genus
Gallus. A species of Felis, mentioned but not described by Gaudry
in 1862 as at least equal in size to the largest jaguar, is by Dr.
Weithofer described as F. leiodon. Helicoceras rotundicorne is a
gazelle-like antelope with rather large and spiial horns.
A. S. Woodward (Geol. Mag., July, 1887) describes Arius eger-
toni and A. (?) bartonensis, two forms of siluroids from the Middle
and Upper Eocene beds of Bracklesham and Barton (England).
Van Beneden (Zeitschr. deutsch. geol., Ges. 1887) has described
Cetacean remains from the northern slopes of the Caucasus. These
remains probably belong to the genera Squalodon and Cetotherium.
The age is Upper Miocene.
PLEISTOCENE.—The exploration of the caves in the Karnul dis-
trict of Madras, conducted by Mr. R. B. Foote, has resulted in the
finding of about forty species of Mammalia, of which Mr. R. Ly-
dekker (Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Ser. X., Vol. IV., Pt. 2) describes
as new Viverra karnuliensis, Hystrix crassidens, Atherwra karnuli-
ensis, Rhinoceros karnuliensis, and Sus karnuliensis. The most
important of the Karnul caves are those of Billa Surgam, which
consist of three short and deep cafions joined by natural arches, and
with caves opening into them at various levels. The comparatively
wee number of extinct forms and forms not now to be found in
India that occur in these deposits renders it probable that they are
malian fauna that has been recently found at Voklinshofen, one
Colmar. Twenty-nine forms are listed, most of them ne oes
u
or in the Alps.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 527
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY:.!
PETROGRAPHICAL News.—In a preliminary notice of the rocks
occurring in the neighborhood of Ilchester, Howard county, Md.,
Mr. Hobbs? describes some interesting features of the eruptive
masses of the region. The oldest rock within the area studied is a
hypersthene-gabbro with its associated alteration products.? In the
gabbro diorite, originating by dynamic metamorphism from the
massive hypersthene-gabbro, ilmenite and rutile are found to be so
associated with sphene as to lead the author to regard the rutile as
an intermediate product in the alteration of ilmenite to sphene.
The end product in the alteration of the gabbro is a typical horn-
blende-gneiss, in which peripheral granulation of the original feld-
Spar can be detected. A quartz-mica-diorite, in which the quartz
is in porphyritic crystals, contains about equal proportions of
orthoclase and plagioclase. The most common form of granite,
cutting the gabbros and allied rocks, is a coarse pegmatite in which
microcline crystals a foot in diameter are sometimes observed.
varieties. The former consists of a glassy type, in which certain
dark particles group themselves so as to produce patches of a `
dark color on a background of light-colored glass, without the
production of a true globulitic or spherulitic structure. In the
radiolitic variety devitrification products are divergently arranged
around a centre.—The nodules of the coarse granite at Ghistorrai,
consisting of triclinic soda-feldspar and biotite, in
centric layers. The biotite of the nodule is older than the feld
Bayley, Colby University, Waterville, Me.
s Johns Hopkins Univ. Oire: No, 65, April, 1888, p. 68.
; Ame p. 1049.
Min. u. Pet $
. rog. Mitth., 1887, ix., p. 61.
* Bull. d. 1. Soe. Franç d. Min., X. ` 57.
528 General Notes.
New Mrinerats.—Caracolite from pga Chili, has lately
_ been described by Sandberger' as a new mineral. It is intimately
associated with percylite, and like this latter j is regarded as derived
from galena by alteration. Caracolite occurs in transparent crys-
tals with a hexagonal habit; produced by trillings of rhombic
individuals neat T to the ‘aragonite aw e axial ratio is:
a: 84 4213. Its specific gravity is 5.1. Its
analysis yielded le corresponding to the formula Pb (OH) Cl
+ Na, SO, The associated percylite was also analyzed and found
to janie: to Pb (OH) Cl + Cu (OH) Cl.—Mursinskite? has
en found only in two small yellow translucent crystals at the
topaz locality at Mursinsk, near Alabaschka, in the province of
ee Russia. The c rystals are Heanor ee an axial
ratio, a: c = 1: 0.5664. They are bounded by P; 2P%, P®,
and various ditetragonal pyramids. Their composition is ee
—Bementite is a radially fibrous mineral not unlike pyrophyllite in
appearance, which occurs at Franklin, N. J. Its color is grayish
pata and its Te gravity 2.981. Its composition as descri
rof. König” i
Si O, Mn O Feo Zn O Mg O H; O
39.00 42.12 3.75 2.86 3.83 8.44.
corresponding very nearly to (H, Mn), Si O,—Martinite is a new
. calcium phosphate from the Island Curacoa, i in the West Indies.
Tt occurs, according to Kloos,* only in pseudomorphs after gypsum.
Under the microscope it is seen to consist of an aggregate of little
thombohedra. Its specific gravity is 2.892 to 2.896. Its analysis
yielded :—
P; O; Ca O H,O Org. subs. Insol.
47.77 47.20 4.52 75 -20
—Arseniopleite is a reddish brown substance associated with rhod-
onite and hausmannite in veins in a crystalline limestone at the Sj6
mine, Gryhyttan, Province of Oerebro, Sweden. Its analysis
yielded Igelstrém° :—
As,O; MnO Feo, PbO CaO MgO PS
44.98 28.25 3.68 4.48 8.1) 3.10 5.67
—Barysilite® is a lead silicate (3Pb O. 2Si O,) from the Harstig iron
mine at Pajsberg, Sweden. Its color is white, ee hex-
onal, hardness about 3, and its specific gravity 6.11 to 6.55.—
Caleiothorite, Melanocerite and Rosenbuschite are silicates of the rare
1 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1887, ii., p. 75, and Websky: Sitzb. Ak.
Wissensch Berlin, Nov., 1886. torib
2 Kokscharow: Bull. d. l'Acad. Imp. des Sciences d. St. Peters).
1887, p
„4:
krua. Acad. Nat. Se. Phila. ., Oct., 1887, p
‘Sammlg. d. Geol. Reichsmus, Leiden. Ber ii, Bd. i. Ref. Neues
u C. . i., p. 39
§ Sjögren and Loni. Oefv. Vet. Ak. Förh., 1888, xlv., p. 7-
Mineralogy and Petrography. 529
metals, They are found in the eleolite-syenite veins of Norway.!
—Cliftonite. With reference to certain little cubical crystals of
graphite (?) found in pieces of an iron meteorite from Youndequi,
Australia, Fletcher? states that Haidinger as early as 1846 described
crystals of graphite, which he regarded as pseudomorphs after
pyrite. Since pyrite does not occur in meteorites, and since, more-
over, these little graphite pieces are entirely surrounded by metallic
iron, Fletcher thinks that their shape must be original, and that
this substance is truly regular in crystallization.
CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC News.—It has been known for a long time
past that the natural conclusions to be drawn from the Bravais-
Mallard theory of cleavage planes and erystal structure, based upon
the point system of explaining crystallization, have not been borne
out by the facts. As a consequence of this theory it is demanded
that the planes of easiest cleavage in a mineral should be parallel
to those planes which are most commonly present on it and best
developed. This is known, however, not to be the case. Sohncke?*
explains how these difficulties can be met by modifying the theory
of the point system, as pointed out by him in recent* papers. —The
same subject is further discussed by Wulff,> who takes up the dif-
ferent crystallographic systems in detail, describes in terms of the
eory the inner structure of minerals crystallizing in each, and
orms on the crystals examined, among them the new forms 4 Pœ,
2 P35 P5,-3 P36 P 3 and3 Pj (a: 6: ¢ = 1.2657 : 1 : 6354
pix 89° 51’). The optical angled measured in oil is 74° 21’ for
sodium light, and the first bisectrix is inclined 51’ to the c axis, in
the acute angle 3. An analysis of the mineral gave Si O, = 37.89,
Ca O 3. H Oiee
from Mt. Avala, near Belgrade in Servia, have been carefully meas-
ured by A. Schmidt.” He finds on them: trapezohedral forms so
largely developed as to determine their habit. To the forty-eight
aine already described as occurring on the mineral, Schmidt adds
m new ones, viz.: } P2, 4 P2, 6, P$, 2 P4, 2 P$, 2 P$, ¢ PR
$ P3, 4$ P$ and & P3.—The negative deltoid dodecahedron- >
I régger : Geol Fö REN .
2 ; - Fören. Föhr., 1887, ix., p. 247. a
3 Miner Magazine, J uly, 1887: and Zeits. f. Kryst., xiii., 1887, p. 383.
use. f. Kryst., xiii., 1887, p. 209.
16, p.
. f. Kryst., xiii., 1888, p. 503
6 p . . 3 . int
; Zeita, f. Kryst., xiii., 1887. 4 150.
+f. Kryst., xiii., 1888, p. 433.
530 General Notes.
has been detected by Hintze? on a crystal of sphalerite from
Striegau. ;
MIscELLANEOUS.—As the result of a series of experiments upon
the strongly pleochroic epidote of Sulzbachthal, Ramsay ? finds that
the absorption colors of this mineral are not symmetrically arranged
around the axes of elasticity vi and e lying in the plane of sym-
metry. Moreover, he finds that the absorption axes—the direc-
tions in which the greatest, the least and the mean absorption
takes place—do not correspond with the axes of greatest, least and
mean elasticity, as had already been indicated by earlier observa-
tions. The direction of greatest absorption for the red ray in the
clinopinacoid is inclined 28° to the axis of least elasticity, while
‘concludes (1) that one of the absorption axes in monoclinic erys-
tals coincides with the axis of symmetry b, while the other two
lying in the plane of symmetry do not necessarily coincide with
the axes of elasticity for the same color. In triclinic minerals
there is no accordance between the absorption axes and the axes
of elasticity. (2) The axes of greatest and of least absorption for
any given color in triclinic minerals and the absorption axes lying
in the plane of symmetry of monoclinic minerals are not always
perpendicular to each other, as are the axes of elasticity.—The
same subject is discussed mathematically by Drude,’ who calcu-
lates the positions of absorption maxima in monoclinic and tri-
clinic minerals from data obtained by Ramsay. He finds slight
discordances between the observations of Ramsay and the theo-
retical demands, but concludes that, on the whole, Voight’s* the-
ory of absorption is substantiated—By supplying a blast lamp
with warm air and with oxygen, Specia® has sticceeded in fusing
many of the minerals infusible under ordinary conditions. The
differences in their conduct under these changed conditions may
glass when oxygen is used. Colorless topaz is difficultly fusibl
in the first case, while it fuses readily with intumescence in the sec-
ond case. Colorless zircon is infusible in both cases, but ponpon
cloudy at the high temperature produced by the combustion wit)
oxygen.
1 Zeits. f. Kryst., xiii., 1887, p. 161. ;
2 Zeits. f. Krystallographie, 1887, xiii., p. 98.
3 Zeits. f. ITIN be Bie po ge xiii., p. 567.
* Wiedem. A en., 1884 p- 577. ;
s Atti. d. R. Accad. d. Scienze di Torino, xxii., p. 1887. Ref. N.J- B.
1888, i., p. 177.
Botany. 531
BOTANY.”
AN OVERLOOKED Fuxcriox or Many Frurts.— It is a matter
of common observation that many fruits (carpels) are green in color
for a considerable period after the fertilization of the ovules, but I
am not aware that particular attention has been called to the signifi-
cance of this fact. Different botanical authors mention, incidentally
as it were, the fact that as long as the young fruits are green they,
of course, perform the functions of leaves, by the fixation of carbon
in the process of assimilation. All such statements, however, take
e Box Elder (Negundo aceroides Moench) develops its fruits
tis later, but they take on likewise a rich green color, and in the
atter part of May in some instances add fully fifty per cent. to the
assimilating surface of the tree. Maples, Ashes, and even Poplars
and Willows, the latter to a less degree, present the same phe-
nomena, and in fact, in by far the greater number of instances the
or ae of the fruit for aid in the work of assimilation is the rule.
“tie the Pines and their allies the development of chlorophyll-
ing tissue is confined to the scales of the cone. In the biennial
ee there is but little green tissue the first year, when the ovule
cone mant, but with the beginning of those rapid changes which
tad In the spring of the second year, the scales become enlarged
O great masses of parenchyma richly provided with chloro yll.
het aarked is this that I have often wondered whether the scale was
ol Sad developed as an organ of nutrition. I have thought,
of i mes, that possibly the scale was but a kind of dorsal growt
© ovule, in order to provide itself with an assimilating tissue.
S E. Bessey, ; Poe
* Edited by Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb.
532 General Notes.
A DEPAUPERATE GRass.—The accompanying illustrations (Figs.
1 and 2) show a depauperate individual of Sporobolus vagineeflorus,
found entangled in the roots of a Solidago
which was collected on the high prairie a few
miles southwest of Lincoln. This little grass
had three flowers, two of which had ripened
seeds. The lower one of the three
was still included in the upper leaf
sheath.
The sod from which the speci-
men was taken was formed of
Stipa spartea, Andropogon provin-
cialis, A. scoparius and Boutelowa
| racemosa, and a close observer
would find no trace of the Sporobo-
lus. In fact, S. vaginæflorus does
not appear on the uplands except
where the ground has been broken
by natural or artificial agencies.
The presence of this single speci- Fre, 2-A spike-
men clinging to the roots of alsa ien diam-
high prairie denizen is of great sig- eters.
nificance in explaining its apparently sudden
appearance on gopher mounds and along culti-
ted fields.
od
bein et
Fig. 1.—Plant of Sporo-
bolus vaginæflorus Torr., Va
natural size,
club of the term Anthophyta for the Flowering plants.—The
Proceedings of the Forestry Convention, held in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, January 26 and 27, 1888, has been published in A
pamphlet of sixty pages, and contains along with much indifferen
matter some which has value.—In marked contrast with the ae
going in the treatment of the subject are the “ Lectures on Fores
and Forest Products,’ given by Dr. G. L. Goodale before =
Lowell Institute, in February and March of 1888. The Sylla
of the lectures shows a thoroughly scientific treatment of the su
ject. Perhaps the two methods of handling the subject are neces-
sary, but for our part we greatly prefer that of the Harvard
Zoology. 533
professor.—Dr. N. L. Britton has described and figured the
remains of a supposed plant from the white crystalline limestone
(Archaean) of Sussex Co., New Jersey. He names it Archaophyton
newberryanum, and gives a good plate. The paper appeared in the
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. IV., No. 4.
—The microscopical anatomy of the common cedar apple (Gymnos-
porangiwm macropus) has been investigated by Elmer Sanford (in
the Botanical Laboratory of the University of Michigan), the
results of which appeared as a paper in the February number o
the Annals of Botany—Dr. Farlow has added to his list of works
on North American Fungi by the publication of nearly one hun-
dred additional titles, in No. 30 of the Bulletins of Harvard
University Library—In Professor Trelease’s study of the North
American Geraniacese (Memoirs Boston Society Nat. Hist., Vol.
IV.) the author has brought together descriptions of our species of
the order, with biological notes, references to their pollination,
dissemination, ete. Four good plates aid in giving to the mono-
graph greater value.
ZOOLOGY.
Norrn American Inrusorta.—Dr. A. C. Stokes has done stu-
dents of the Infusoria good service in collecting together in his “ Pre-
liminary Contribution toward a History of the Fresh-water Infusoria
of the United States” (Journal Trenton Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. i., pp.
71-44, pls. xiii., 1888), an extended catalogue of all the known
Species in the United States. Even his own papers appeared in so
many places that it was rapidly becoming impossible to keep track
of them all. In the present catalogue 351 species are enumerated,
distributed as follows :—
Flagellata 153
Monadina...... 27
MARLON ONG, -sss eo eiessirie irot ae ed 46
EP Py tig 2)
es FU tig s : 24
Gboano-flarellatá. >i kaaore err 30
Dino-flagellata 3
Cilio-flagellata 3
Ciliata ...... i 268
Holotricha 58
js Pe pea ar ae 99
Peritricha 122
EEA o 5 cicecscvcced eee oie caiaderne ae
Suctoria. 7ps 30
Sa will be noticed that Dr. Stokes accepts both the Cilio- and the
no-flagellata, contrary to the recent classifications. reaso
534 General Notes.
are that while there is a second flagellum in some of the Peridi-
nidæ, in others of the old group of Cilio-flagellates there are true
cilia in the equatorial grove or scattered over the surface of the
and hence the group must be retained. It is interesting to
note that while Dr. Stokes has given names to nearly 250 new
species of Infusoria in his various papers, he has carefully refrained
from adding to the number in the present contribution.
Two Cases or SymMmBIosIs.—Dr. ©. P. Sluiter notices two
instances of “ mutualismus ” as occurring in the seas of Batavia.
In shallow water there is found a large sea anemone (Actinia)
protection from enemies among the tentacles. In one case, Dr.
Sluiter removed several fish from their protector and placed them
in an aquarium with several larger fishes. The little ones tried
their best to hide among the corals and the spines of the echino-
derms, but soon fell victims to the appetites of their cousins.
hers placed under similar conditions, but in company wii
anemones, survived for over half a year. ey prove very timid,
and rarely venture but a short distance from home. Their food is
mostly the droppings from the Actinians table.
he second case, also noticed by Sluiter, occurs between Bunodes
and Trachichthys clarkii. In this instance but a single fish hi
been found with each anemone, but this, as it is larger than its
relative, ventures farther from home in search of . Incase a
bit of food be dropped near the Bunodes, the fish darts out and,
Eartu-Worms.—N. Kulagin communicates (Zool. Ane a
of note. The cuticle, composed of H, C, O and N, is n
chitin, but might be called a precourser of it. e fect bY
in weak hydrochloric and other acids, and to prevent this €
the humus acids in which the worm lives, the ectoder y
secrete an alkaline fluid. The egg cocoons differ much, as on
withstand strong acids and pepsin. The fluid of the mouth
Zoology. 535
pharynx has an alkaline reaction, and converts starch into sugar
and fibrin into peptone. The cale-glands also alter starch. The
gastric juice is much like pancreatic juice, but is distinguished by
the presence of tripsin, and by the fact that it apparently works
better in the presence of weak acids. The cells of the typhlosole
not only absorb the digestive juices, but they also have a digestive
function much like that of the pancreas of the Vertebrates. „Other
observations relate to the histology of the epidermis, the pigment
material, the œsophageal muscles and the calc glands. Some notes
are made on the distribution of the Russian species, two of which
occur even in the Lena Delta.
Recent Nores on SCAPHIOPUS HOLBROOKII.—The eneral
characteristics of this animal have been long and familiarly known
and its more prominent anatomical features clearly defined ; but its
rather circumscribed distribution and comparative rarety, even
where known to exist, have made somewhat difficult any extensive
study of its peculiar nature and habits. :
summer on Martha’s Vineyard, and the occasion of a sudden.
and tremendous rainfall, afforded an opportunity for certain very
interesting observations. . : a
If the literature of the subject is any indication as to its famili-
arity, the submission of the following notes may not seem a work of
supererrogation ; for, aside from the studies of Dr. Chas. C. Abbott,
published in Vol. XVIII, No. 11, of the Am. NATURALIST, and
those of Colonel Nicolas Pike, published in Vol. I, No. 7, of the
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural mon, I have not
been able to find anything except brief notes, scattered in miscella-
neous works, though I believe notes on its occurrence have been
e by Mr. Nichols and by Mr. Fred. S. Smith. ;
My observations, as will be seen, add but little that is new ; yet
a record of them may contribute somewhat to corroborate and extend
that which does exist. :
One afternoon, about August 10, 1887, while at work in the
laboratory of the Martha’s Vineyard Summer Institute, in com-
hours or more, uring an interval of cessation our attention was
diverted by weird, plaintive sort of cries, which none at first was able
to explain. Darting out through the still-falling rain toward a low
Sort of hollow, from which the cries seemed to come, it was found
to have been converted into quite a pond, though previously quite
dry. In this, and swimming about in a state of the greatest activity
and excitement, were what looked to be scores of toads. Nod
culty was found in securing a few specimens, which were at once
mentified as “ spatlefoots.” ~ Procuring a scoop-net, we took several
dozens of them, leaving many more in the : ee
S was about four o’clock in the afternoon, and they continued
536 General Notes.
their orgies till late at night. But I made carefu) examination the
following morning, withcut finding a single specimen—not even a
sign of one. Inthe water I found plenty of the spawn attached to
rass and floating in strings, loosely attached to weeds—a fact which
clearly indicated the purpose of their presence and peculiar
excitement.
n account of the pressure of other studies, I was not able to
watch the development of the eggs. Indeed, I doubt whether they
ever hatched, as the pond was nearly dry before the close of the fol-
lowing day, and the soil, being of the loose sandy drift peculiar to
that locality, would not certainly retain water for sufficient time
for the growth of the tadpole—if, indeed, for the hatching of the
eggs, though, as to this last, I cannot say, as I left before it could
have occurred.
This characteristic of the spawning habit is certainly peculiar,
and seems somewhat difficult to explain. First, the lateness of the
season is remarkable. It is said that a related European species
breeds twice a year. Can it be possible that such is the case with
_Scaphiopus? There are some facts which seem to indicate that it
might be, though it is hardly probable. Second, the places of
spawning is still more remarkable. From the observations of Dr.
Abbott and Colonel Pike, as well as my own, the choice seems to be
for some temporary sink-hole or surface-pond. If the conditions
for development in these places from speedy drainage, etc., were no
so utterly precarious, it might be thought a shrewd precaution for
evading the natural enemies common in the more permanent ponds
and bogs. Altogether, the case seems to be quite anomalous.
But to refer again to the adults in the pond: There they were by
scores. Whence had they come, and in such numbers? In all
probabilities, from the ground of the bordering hillsides and
environs. But not a single specimen was seen out of the water,
and that, too, notwithstanding we were at the pond almost 1mme-
diately following their first coming. If they had come from any
tolerable distance, it would seem that some late-comers would have
been detected. Again, their retreat must have been almost as sud-
den as their appearance. I passed the pond about ten o’clock at
Such seems the most probable explanation. Yet so carefully
they covered the retreat that not the slightest trace could be found.
Furthermore, their appearance itself seems to be capricious and
vant habits as to
able to find any
account of them. ker
It las been suggested that they are, doubtless, nocturnal ap sin
and that this explains, in a measure, their comparative rarity, br
where known to exist. I have no hesitancy in assenting tO
Zoology. 537
nocturnal habit. It is quite in keeping with the habit of many of
the order; and the vertical pupil of the eye points likewise to the
same fact. This, however, in itself, must be a comparatively small
factor in the case, and, alone, would hardly insure it against frequent
detection any more than does a similar habit in many other noctur-
nal animals. I had gone by this hollow repeatedly, night after
night, both before and after this appearance, and, though constantly
on the alert to notice anything of the sort, had no hint of their
presence.
Doubtless, the solitary burrowing habit goes much further in
explaining its seclusion. But even this would be inadequate, unless
the animal persistently avoided all open and cultivated grounds.
age only, would protect it against frequent exposure by the spade
or plow.
Altogether, they are certainly the most peculiar and erratic of
any of the order; and, under the peculiar difficulties in the way of
continuous study, it will be long ere its life-history can be said to
be thoroughly known. However, the very difficulties add a charm
to the investigation, which we may hope will lead to success. To
me, the brief research herein outlined has been full of the liveliest
interest, and, while but a mite toward the solution of the problem,
I shall hope that it may not be without some value when a final
summary is made.— C. W. Hargitt, Moores Hill, Ind.
Tae RELATIVE WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN TO THE BODY IN
Biros. — In a former number of the AMERICAN NAT-
URALIST,' notice was made of the relative weight of the brain
to the body in Spizella socialis, and Regulus satrapa compared to
that of man. Since that time more extended investigation has been
made, with a view of ascertaining the relative weight of the brain
to the body in different species of birds, the result of which is
appended below.
An interesting fact dey eloped from these figures is that there is
considerable individual variation in the weight of the body an
brain in different individuals of the same species ;” this is no doubt
ependent in some way upon the time of year, the amount of food
supply, and individual idiosyneracy ;° there is no sexual distinction
1m regard to the relative weight of the brain to the body—but, on
the contrary, male and female alike offer marked degrees of fluctu-
ation in this regard. Exception, however, exists in the two speci-
mens of different sexes of _Harporhynchus rufus, which closely coin-
cide in their relative weights.
ost of the specimens considered here were taken at Grand
Crossing, Illinois, the remaining ones in Chicago. Light loads of
Abas xxi., April, 1887, p. 389.
aN’ especially the series of weights of Dendroica wstiva. —
weighed nt specimen of Dendroica estiva, taken June 4th, which
ore in body and brain than any specimens of the ——
cies taken before nar date. ©
538 General Notes.
the so-called “dust” shot was used in shooting the specimens,
which, as soon as they were killed, were placed in a cool place, and
weighed within a few hours afterwards. It takes twelve of these
dust shot, by actual count, to equal a grain weight, and advantage
of this fact was taken into account in estimating the weight of the
shot that passed through the skin of the specimens, and subse-
quently deducting this after the weights of the individual had been
taken. This was obviously of little importance in the ultimate
result; however, every precaution was taken to avoid errors. The
weight of the brain and body are given separately, and the relative
weight of the former to the latter, all the weights being designated
in grains, as a matter of simplicity. In the weighing of the speci-
mens the bird with all its parts intact was laid upon the scale-pan
of a prescription scale similar to those used in apothecary stores,
which weigh accurately to half of a grain. After being weighed
and noted, the brain of the specimen was carefully removed + by
making a circular incision, and the removal of the piece of bone,
thereby cut free, from the posterior part of the cranium by means
of a small scalpel. The opening that remains after the operation
being sufficiently large to admit of the withdrawal of the entire
encephalon after the optic nerves have been severed and the spinal
cord likewise treated below the medulla oblongata. After the brain
was removed in this way it was weighed upon a more delicate sad-
dle-back scale, which weighed accurately as low as the tenth of a
grain. Forty-seven birds were thus weighed, and for purpose 0
comparison with some small mammals four adult specimens of the
common house mouse, Mus musculus, and one specimen of
common gopher, Spermophilus tredecimlineatus, are reckoned.
5 > i Op
Weight | Weight Bee gee
Name of Specimen. of of |Sex. ZEA 4 2g
Body. | Brain. | gos ges
da
Turdus aliciæ 5894 | 12 Q; 1-49 May 20th
Turdus ustulatus swainsonii...... | 445 124 1-36 i115th
Turdus aonalaschkæ pallasii... | 430 | 123 [ee ce Aprill
ae ee as gma 20 133 a aes “
Galeoscoptes carolinensis.......... 546 14; 1-37 |June 4th
Harporhynchus rufus 1158} | 264 1-44 <
be Se aha i 1170 264 -44 is 5th
Regulus calendula 924 54 6 J pe Oct. i
Regulus satrapa 974 GB, taia 1- K
arus atricapillus 1764 104 8 1-17 Feb. 26th
s a 1593 | 9 LA n aa
by the regular method that is employed in the skinning of bird
1 This did not necessitate any injury to the skin, as it was apn
entific study.
Zoology. 539
Dendroica HBtIVa....srses ossos ronas. 151 6} l-24 | May 13th
te 130 : ¢ 1-26 a
2 N 127 è ‘ 1-25 e
a y 130 54 -23 | May 20th
“ n 198i | 6.4 -2) “
sé sc 1373 C y ee 2 t
p 2 167 ç 1-24 , June 4th
Dendroica maculosa..........si:.... 1364 54 1-25 | May 13th
5 Ae perenne jinn 107 5ł 1-20 as
" anemia. lee 5} 1-21 | May 20th.
Dendroica blackburnie............ 134 53 -24 -
Seiurus aurocapillus ..............06 255 10} 1-25 | May 13th
“3 o PE 264 1] 1-24 May 20th
Setophaga ruticilla 594 43 | ¢ 1-13 it
Vireosylvia olivaceus "3554 ) -39
4 SAE ote adage 3043 | |! í -34 şi
8 T ee ere 238 93 | ¢ 1-25 t
Petrochelidon lunifrons 4224 1-53 | May 21st
wor S 754 } -45 ti
"i H on 290 8} -34 5
Carpodacus purpureus............. .| 488 18} | < - May 10th
Spin us tristis 181 1-27 | April 15th
Zonotrichia leucophrys..........+. 366 e es EA 1-26 >
i ogee ge setae ye ‘| 400 a 2a. 1-26 7
Spizella socialis 1733 rs hoa 1-23
Spizella pusilla. 279 Ro less 1-25 | Aprill5th
Junco hyemalis 284 10 Q 1-28 “
Melospiza fasciata .........c.c0s0000. 377 2 o Peat 1-31 A
olichonyx oryzivorus..........-+. 503 | 15} 1-33 | May 20th
Molothrus ater 637 18} 8 1-35 | May 30th
Cyanocitta cristata 1312 46 1-29 e 4th
Trochilus colubris -o 1895 1-24 | Sept. 24th
Nyctala acadica 1153 i l- ov. 2d
ringa minutilla 8& | 6 | 145 | Aug. 16th
Hybrid domestic canary 346} 8} 1-40
P mestica 14 g 1-32
i ao > we She
Weight | Weight a A S3
Name of Mammal. of of Beni = £8 -ag
Brain soa 2 23
ce Body. rain, 3 os a
Mus musculus 318 5 Q 1-58 (June 6t
mn a 256 6 8 | 1-43 |June 10th
a sues 3 248 6 1 June 10th
S Te oa i ` 295} 6 8 1-49 June lith
permophilus tredecimlineatus | 2647 | 35} | 6 | 1-74 (June 4th
ORES a
Aquatic RESPIRATION IN THE Muskrat.—During the win-
a of 1879-80 I spent much of my time trapping the muskrat, and
ad rare opportunities for studying their habits. Ihave frequently
observed an ingenious device, to serve as an apparatus for aquatic
‘esplration, resorted to by the animal when driven from its burrow
eh pond frozen over. In attempting to cross the pond under
the ice, if the pond is too wide for the muskrat to “ hold its breath”
540 General Notes.
until it reaches the opposite shore, it will stop for a few moments
and exhale the air which is held down by the ice. Interchange of
gases takes place between the air and water, when the animal re-
breathes the air and makes another start, repeating the act until the
shore is reached. I do not claim this as an original observation ;
others than myself have noticed it. It is well known by those who
have observed the phenomenon that if the ice is struck immediately
above the air, and the air thus scattered into numerous bubbles, the
muskrat drowns. Having noticed an account by Professor Com-
stock of the use, by the “ water boatman ” of a bubble of air for a
tracheal gill,! I would call attention to this interesting feature in
the physiology of respiration of the muskrat.— W. L. Spoon, Univ.
N. C., May 1, 1888.
ZOOLOGICAL News.—CaLENTERATES.—Dr. G. Hubert Fowler,
in the fourth part of his papers on the anatomy of the Madrepora-
ria (Q. J. Ms., 1888) discusses the structure and systematic positions
of the genera Madracis, Amphihelia, Stephanophyllia, Stephanotro-
chus, Stephanaria, Pocillopora and Seriatopora. e points made
are mostly of minor importance, except that certain cells described
as coral-forming (calycoblastic) cells, occurring in several genera
really function to hold the mesenteries more firmly to the corallum.
ECHINODERMATA. — The number of species of Asteroids col-
lectd by the French scientific expedition to Cape Horn is thirty-
eight, twenty-three of which are new, while thirty-two were not
represented in the museum of the Jardin des Plantes. The num-
ber of species known from the southern point of the American con-
tinent now reaches fifty-seven. M. E. Perrier finds great variabil-
ity in each species, correlated with the varying conditions under
which they exist.
Wor{s.—Beddard describes (Quart. Jour. Micro. Sci., 1888) the
anatomy of the earthworm Allurus tetraedrus, pointing out. the
features in which this genus differs from Lumbricus and Allolobo-
hora.
MorLusca. — M. H. Fol, in a recent note on striated muscular
tissue among the invertebrates, acknowledges that his statement, pe
a previous communication, that true muscular tissue does n
occur in any mollusc is erroneous, since such tissue forms à portion
of the adductor muscle of Pecten. : iad
M. H. de Lacaze-Duthiers, as a result of his extensive analy ei
studies upon the netvous system of the Mollusca, proposes 4 a
classification of the gasteropoda, based upon the differences 10 ©
structure of the nervous centres.
1 Am, Nat., June, 1887.
Zoology. 541
The marine shells of Fernando Noronha, ana indeed most of
the marine fauna and flora, are by H. N. Ridley stated to show
affinities to those of the East Indies. The species Trochus have
a southern distribution.
CrustaceaA.—Another part of Dr. De Man’s Crustacea of the
Mergui Archipelago has appeared, embracing pages 177 to 240,
and plates 13 to 15. It includes the conclusion of the Grapside,
the Leucosoids and the major part of the so-called Anomura. The
series is especially valuable from the fact that the author has had
access to the types of the French carcinologists. So far the species
enumerated number 135.
M. Chevreux and Guerne call attention to the amphipod,
Cyrtophewm chelonophilum, a commensal. of Thalassochelys caretta,
seventy-seven specimens of which have been collected in the scien-
tific voyages of the Prince of Monaco. This species differs from
those previously known by the shortness of the antenne, and is.
probably a native of both hemispheres.
After Rathke, in 1837, noticed the curious fact that the Palæ-
mons infested by Bopyrus belonged exclusively to the female sex,
all succeeding authors have confirmed his observations. Neverthe-
less, guided by previous discoveries concerning the effects of para-
sitie castration among certain decapodous crustaceans infested by
the Rhizocephala, M. Giard last year gave forth the hypothesis.
that the facts noticed by Rathke were true in appearance only, and
that though all the Palzemons fount with Bopyrus seem to be of
he female sex, this was really the result of the atrophy of the male
organ produced by the parasites. M. Giard has recently been able
vee this supposition, both on European and other species of
æmon. ;
„MYRIAroDs.—C. H. Bollman publishes in a small pamphlet
Without indication of place of publication, a preliminary list of the
Myriapods of Arkansas. Forty species are catalogued, of which
nine are regarded as new. +
FisuEs.—Mr. George Brook (Proc. Royal Phys. Socy. of Edin-
burgh, x.) monographs the British species of the genus Zeugopterus,
enumerating three species, Z. punctatus, unimaculatus, and papillo-
sus, the last being a new species found in the Clyde.
Mr. Geo. Brook (Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1887) states that in
the trout the segmental duct arises from the ectoderm. Its first
appearance is in an embryo of twenty-seven days, when it forms a.
well-marked thickening in the middle trunk region. The lumen of
the duct arises as an irregular cavity, and later the whole tube sepa-
cites from the ectoderm and sinks into the intermediate cell mass,
Far observations that he has made on the chick seem to indicate-
^at a similar origin of the duct occurs in birds.
According to the observations upon the food of fresh-water-
542 General Notes.
fishes, made by S. A. Forbes, and forming Article VII. of Vol.
III. of the Bull Ill. State Lab. of Nat. Hist., eighty-three per cent of
the food of the burbot consists of fishes, while Esox lucius takes
ninety-nine per cent. of fishy food. Dorosoma feeds chiefly on
fine mud containing about twenty per cent. of vegetable debris;
the golden shad principally on fish; and the Catostomide, fifteen
species of which occur in Illinois, consume molluscs and insects
almost in equal ratio. The stone roller (Hypentelium), which in
its habits simulates the Etheostomatide, feeds, like the members of
that family, almost solely upon the larve of aquatic insects. The
cat-fishes are nearly omnivorous, and are the only habitual scaven-
gers among the common fishes of Illinois. Amia seems to feed
upon Crustacea, fishes, and molluses, with very little mixture of
insect food ; the gars entirely on fishes; and the singular Polyo-
don chiefly upon minute insects and crustaceans, especially the
former. Professor Forbes thinks it probable that Polyodon employs
its paddle-like snout to stir up the weeds as it advances along
the muddy bottom, thus driving the animal forms within reach
of its branchial strainer, while the mud and vegetation have time
to settle. :
Though in the deep-sea fish-fauna no distinct bathymetrical
zones, characterized by peculiar forms, can, according to the
“Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H. M. §.
Challenger,” be defined, the abundance of fish-life decreases with
the depth, as is shown by the number of species (232) found
between 100 and 300 fathoms, as compared with 142 between 300
and 500 fathoms, 7 between 500 and 700, 56 between 700 anc
1500, 24 between 1500 and 2000, and 23 below 2000 fathoms.
Partially grown examples of several species of freshwater
` fishes have recently been successfully introduced into Chili
from France. The principles followed in arranging the methods
for this long transport, involving five changes previous
accommodation of the water-cylinders on the steamer Sarata, were
as follows: (1) The preservation of the same water. (2) Absence
of alimentation. (8) Refrigeration. (4) Continual circulation of
air. One hundred California salmon, about twelve centimetres long,
forty carp of fifteen cent., twenty tench of twelve cm, sixty eels o
thirty em, twenty barbels, and some burbots, minnows, etc., iepr
the consignment; out of which thirty-nine salmon, toget er with
the tench, carp and eels, arrived safely. Many of the other species
died
ied.
Dr. J. Brock (Zeit. für Wissen, Zool., 1887), describes a ingat
appendage present immediately behind the anus in the Siluro :
genus Plotosus. The apparatus in question consists of a reg”
bunch of small bladders of cavernous, and therefore, proba y a
erectile nature. The fishes of this genus ,are mu ae
account of the terrible and often fatal wounds caused by t |
fin spines.
Zoology. 543
Prionurus maculatus Douglas-Ogilby is a new Australian species
obtained at Port Jackson.
Dr. A. Günther (P. Z. S., 1887) describes. Latilus fronticinctus
Among the fishes collected by Mr. C. Buckley, in Eastern Ecua-
dor, and described by G. A. Boulenger (P. Z. S., 1887), are three
new species of Pimelodus, one of Cheetostomus, and Nannoglanis
fasciatus, a new genus and species of Siluride. Among the Chara-
cinidæ, Parodon buckleyi, Pia ucina elongata, and Leptogoniates
steindacheri, are new, while Sternarchus curvirostris is a new
Sternopy gid.
REPTILES AND Barracuta.—Mr. Garman catalogues (Bulletin
Essex Inst., ix., p. 119) a collection of Reptiles and Batrachia col-
lected by Dr. Edward Palmer in Texas and Mexico. In all fifty-
SIX species, represented by several hundred specimens. The series
of young forms and adults is in some cases very complete. The
only new form described is Crotalus palmeri, from Monclova, Mex-
ico, which the author regards as a variety of C. tigris, though he
has not applied to it the trinomial system he advocated a few
years ago.
Fred A. Lucas discourses the ever-new question, “Do snakes
charm?” in the third number of the Journal Trenton Nat. His.
Soc. He concludes that the whole effect lies in the person, and that
it is no property of the snake.
The warts which appear at certain seasons upon many males of
Rana temporaria, form the subject of a communication to the Zeit-
schrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 1887, by O. Huber.
Among the reptiles of Noronha are a species of Amphisbzna,
a skink (Huprepes punctatus) and a gecko. Batrachians and
fresh-water fish are absent.
, According to G. B. Howes, the low rank assigned the Discoglos-
side, by Cope, receives confirmation in the distribution of the azygos
veins. The same veins led him to the view that their absence in
Pelodytes pointed to the Pelobatoid rather than the Discoglossoid `
relationship of that genus.
of he collection of eleven species of Batrachia, and thirty-two forms
b Reptilia, brought from Greece, Asia Minor and Grecian Islands,
i E. V. Oertzen, is utilized by Dr. Boettger, to throw light upon
1e sources from which the Ægean Islands received their reptilian
una. Three of the Batrachian forms are common to the islands and
to the mainland on both shores of the Ægean, and may therefore be
tiga to be autochthonous, while a fourth is wanting in Candi
only. Seven reptiles are spread throughout, and are thus to be
considered as belonging to the original stock of the islands. Ten
Sy. Hot found in Candia, which has one species of African origin.
e west two species have spread as far as Candia, and three
.
544 General Notes.
others have not yet reached that island. Eight forms occur only
in Asia Minor and its coast islands.
M. Dollo attacks the conclusion of Dr. Baur that the Athece
(Sphargis, ete.,) are descended from the Thecophora. He argues
that if the carapace of the Athecz is formed, as maintained by Dr.
Batır, by delamination into a mosaic of the carapace of a Thecopho-
rous ancestor, fontanelles ought to exist as in the other Chelonians,
which is not the case. Moreover, the oldest genera of
were without dorsal armor. The fact that the plastron of Sphargis
is more reduced than that of the other Chelonians goes indeed to
show that the Thecophora cannot be descended from the Athece,
but it does not indicate the reverse of this. Dr. Trouessart,
from various considerations, inclines to the belief that the two
groups have descended from a common ancestor by diverging paths.
Brrps.—George F. Atkinson gives a preliminary catalogue of
the Birds of North Carolina, consisting of a list with notes of 255
species and sub-species already observed and an appendix enume-
rating eighty-one more which may reasonably be expected to occur.
In the prefatory account of previous work on the avifauna of the
State no mention is made of the labor of Coues and Yarrow at
Fort Macon.
According to Mr. A. C. Smith, the iathor of a recently
issued work upon “The Birds of Wiltshire ” (Eng.), the
Bustard, which in English popular opinion is always more asso-
ciated with the Wiltshire Downs or Salis bury Plain than with
any other part of the country, became extinct there about the
year 182). There seems, in fact, to be no printed account of its
occurrence in Wiltshire after that of Montagu in 1813. The
Bustard was not extirpated i in Suffolk until 1832, nor Norfolk until
1838.
LL-H. Ge saat gives in “The Zoologist” a list of —
reported occurrences of Sterna oon in Great Britain, the last m
1880. Itis readily identified by its red beak.
The land-birds of Fernando Naroni according to H. N. Rid-
ley, comprise a Dove, a Tyrant, and a Vireo, yet the group of
islands is but 194 miles east of Cape San Roque.
MAMMALIA—It seems, from Mr. Harting’s notes in “ The
Zoho that of late years the European mole has extended its
range in Great Britain. Writing in 1874, Bell observes that ne
mole is not found in the northern extremity of Scotland, por in t =
islands of Orkney and Zetland.” Alston, writing in 1880, remar
that it was at that date well known in Sutherland and Caithness
Though absent from the island, it is common in Anglesea an 1
Apar on the opposite coas odaat: Albino moles are not uncommon.
only herds of wild white cattle now existing in
Britain are at the following places: commas Park, near Uttoxeter,
Entomology. 545
Staffordshire (probably enclosed by the middle of the thirteenth
century); Chillingham Park, near Belford, Northumberland (pos-
sibly enclosed before 1220); Cadzow Park, Lanarkshire; and
Somerford Park, near Congleton, Cheshire. Cadzow Park occupies
a portion of the old Caledonian Forest. At Blickling and Wood-
a
Fissipedia, the first of which is arranged under the families Arcto-
cyonidæ, Mesonychide, Hyznodontide, Leptictidee, Oxyænidæ, and
Miacidæ. The Canide are placed with the Arctoidea, which thus
corresponds with the Hypomycteri of Cope.
ENTOMOLOGY:.!
; , Thom-
‘sus aleatorius Hentz, is remarkable for having the two anterior
pairs of legs very long, while the two posterior pairs are very slen-
er and short. The spider is very common on grass. One sum-
Neg day , While reclining in the shade, I watched an individual of
a Species as it passed from one culm to another. Soon it ran up
e stem a short distance and suddenly disappeared from view.
or Some time I was greatly puzzled as to the manner of disap-
rance. Upon close scrutiny I saw the spider clinging with its
peor legs to the stem. Its two anterior legs on each side were
approximated and extended outward, forming an angle with the
r strikingly similar to the angle formed by the spikelets.
d species of Cyrtarachne mimics a snail shell, the
z
on the leaves of pl ° i , 7
plants in this place. In the species of Cyrtarachne
v abdomen partly covers the cephalothorax, is very broađat the
“i c this species broader than the length of the spider, and
1 mcs off at the apex. When it rests upon the under side of a
With its legs retracted it strongly resembles one of these snail
Pag Department is edited by Prof. J. H. Comstock, Cornell Uni-
ete., s
, Ithaca í
ould be s oc Y., to whom communications, books for notice,
546 General Notes.
shells by the color and shape of its abdomen. The two specimens
which I collected deceived me at first, but a few threads of silk led
me to make the examination. The spider seemed so confident of
its protection that it would not move when I jarred the plant, strik-
ing it several hard blows. I pulled the spider forcibly from the
leaf, and it did not exhibit any signs of movement until transferred
to the cyanide bottle. The cocoons which I have found here are
also protected by mimicry. They are essentially like those of Cyr-
tarachne bisaccata Emert.! They are dark brown, about 12 mm. in
diameter, and are provided on two opposite sides with stems made
of the same colored silk, about 5 mm. in diameter. The whole
structure, which is hung in the branches of some weed, strongly
resembles an insect gall made on the stem of some plant. As the
species seems to be new, I append a description.
Cyrtarachne multilineata, n. sp. Middle eyes on a slight eleva-
tion, forming a trapezium, the posterior a little larger and farther
apart than the anterior. Side eyes at a distance, very close to each
other,also on a slight elevation. Cephalothorax brownish, rising grad-
ually from the low head to the abdomen, which partly covers it,
not narrowed behind the eyes, convex on the sides, covered with
minute pointed tubercles, the two dorsal elongated prominences
ending each in two blunt points. Abdomen triangular, sides
slightly convex, angles rounded, ventral surface deeply concave.
Anterior one-third of abdomen hair brown mottled with the ground
color—ecru drab—a pair of large spots of the ground color near
the posterior edge of the brown. On the posterior part of the
abdomen are several transverse bars of hair brown, becoming suc-
cessively narrower and shorter toward the apex. Four of the mus-
cular impressions very deep. Sides and posterior part of the abdo-
men densely marked with hair, brown depressed lines, starting from
near the centre of the ventral surface, and passing up over the dor-
sal surface of the edge, four of those on the posterior part passing
up nearly to the posterior pair of deep muscular impressions. On
the ventral surface there is a rectangular spot extending from the
spinnerets to the anterior edge, the anterior half of this brown,
the posterior white; the depressed lines arise from the sides of this
spot. Legs light colored. Described from two females.
of the larger 13 mm., abdomen 15 mm. broad, 10 mm. long;
length of the smaller 11 mm., abdomen 13 mm. broad, 9 mm. long.
—George F. Atkinson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
N. C.
NOTE ON THE TUBE-INHABITING SPIDER, Lycosa fatifera Heats
—There seems to be a general impression that the tube-building
Lycoside do not use their holes for such a permanent ise ol
place as do the species of trap-door spiders. Good authorities
1 Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., vol. vi., 1884, p. 325+
Embryology. 547
that a majority, and perhaps all, use the tube only as a winter resort,
or for a retreat in the summer during the time of molting, though
the testimony upon this point is by no means universal. There
seems good reason, however, for believing that very nearly all desert
their tubes during the spring and summer, at times, and wander in
search of their prey. Indeed, there are indications that there are
latitudinal, as well as seasonal variations in the habits of the family,
i.e. that in northern latitudes proportionately a greater number
make no tubes than in southern latitudes. The latitudinal variation
might be called generic, in that many species of the genus in north-
ern latitudes hide away under stones, etc., making no tubes at all ;
while in southern latitudes many other species of the same genus
construct tubes, some few using them habitually; many others
temporarily. On the other hand, the seasonal variation might be
called specific, in that most species, in any latitude, which construct
tubes use them only during inclement seasons, or during periods of
weakness. One species I have observed here, Lycosa fatifera
Hentz, habitually uses its tube at all seasons; never, or very rarely,
wandering in search of prey. I have many times watched them
resting at the opening of the tube, waiting for passing insects.
They will dart back into their tubes when alarmed. Hentz
reported this species from Massachusetts and Alabama.
have made special investigations upon the species in North Caro-
lina, with a view to establish, if possible, the identity of Hentz’s
Species fatifera, and the correctness of his statement that it uses the
tube habitually at all seasons. The species can be easily recog-
nized from Hentz’s description. The one I find here is the piceous
variety, which Hentz reported from Alabama, and not the typical
>i from Massachusetts.— Geo. F. Atkinson, University of North
rolina. .
Li
i Y
EMBRYOLOGY.
THE SEVERAL FUNCTIONS OF THE ENAMEL ORGAN IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEETH OF MAMMALS AND ON THE IN-
HERITANCE OF MurILATIoNs.— As long ago as 1880 Dr. A. Von
Brunn? called attention to the fact that the cross crests of the crowns
of the molars of the common grey rat were not completely covered
Mey an enamel coating before eruption. The figures then pub-
ished by Von Brunn showed that the membrana adamantina of
the enamel organ possessed the characteristic columnar structure
, Edited by Prof. Jno. A. Ryder, Univ. of Penna,, Philadelphia. _
nen tiz über un vollkommene. Schmelzentwickelung auf den Mahlzäh-
pi eenatte Mus decumanus. Arch. f. mik. Anat. XVII., pp. 241-243,
548 General Notes.
over those portions of the tooth covered by true enamel, while at
the apices of the cross crests the enamel organ had suffered degen-
eration of its inner columnar layer and apparently also the reticu-
lar portion, as a result of which the organ, just over the crests, had
acquired the character of a stratified squamous epithelium. Here
and there ragged masses of this tissue seemed to project into
the surrounding tissues of the mucous membrane, as if dragged out
of place by the gliding of the crowns of these young molar teeth of
opposite jaws over each other. These results were obtained from a
study of longitudinal sections of recently born rats, with the eye-
lids still closed, but with the incisors just breaking through the
ums.
The great value which the present reviewer attaches to Dr.
Von Brunn’s earlier observations does not lie in the new histologi-
cal relations established, but in the discovery that the enamel 0
the cross-crests of the crowns of the molars fails to develop in the
embryo in a situation corresponding to the point where abrasion in
the adult through use has slowly worn away this enamel covering
-and exposed the dentine underneath. This mutilation (for such it
is, although produced by an exceedingly slow process of wear), has
very clearly been transmitted through heredity. That Dr. Von
Brunn should have failed to draw this conclusion from his facts
is somewhat surprising, and while glad to call attention to his very
important observations, the present writer is of the opinion that
these discoveries are amongst the most important made during the
resent decade as throwing new light upon the method of the evo-
lution of organisms. i
Ina second memoir! Dr. Von Brunn continues his investiga-
tions, and adds greatly to his preceding observations. He finds, 1m
act, that in still earlier stages of the enamel organs of the several
kinds of teeth are not different from those normally observed im
other mammals, as shown by the tooth germs of the incisors of a
uterine embryo of the rat 28 mm. in length. The enamel pea
` in this last instance are simply cap or dome-like bodies, in w ich
there is as yet no differentiation of the anterior wall as the perma-
nent enamel germ of the enamel band on the anterior face of the
incisors of the adult. This is clear proof that profound changes
must be suffered by the enamel organ from its earliest appearance
until its full differentiation, portions of which evidently must later
become either functionless or acquire a new or m ified function.
This is just what Von Brunn’s later researches most conclusively
prove. They show, in fact, that in the rat the enamel osmi Pi
comes functionless across the transverse crests of the molars a
eruption, thus leaving the tooth to erupt with its dentine pe
ered at those points. The remainder of the enamel organ Wat
1 ie Au; shmelzorganes und Seine Bedeutung
fir Ue gakbtidung. Arch, £ mik Annie RETX, HiS Dp Soro
pls. XXI-II, Bonn. 1887. Bae!
Embryology. 549
forms the enamel of the crowns of the molars develop hard enamel,
but the portion which extends down over the root and cervix of the
molars undergoes degeneration, and its cells lose their columnar
form and degenerate into radiating fibres of considerable length,
which send their free ends into the surrounding alveolar perios-
teum. These fibres persist even to adult age, and can be readily
seen extending from the tooth into the wall of the alveolus in sections
of the entire heads of adult white mice (Mus musculus) prepared by
the present writer during the last winter. These fibres evidently serve
to securely anchor the teeth into the alveolus of the adult, so that
the enamel organ is found to have not simply the function usually
ascribed to it, but another equally important, namely, the produc-
tion of these anchorage fibres. Still deeper down in the alveolus
the extreme inferior edge of the cap or dome-like enamel organ
Seems to become quite degenerate and functionless. Such function-
less marginal portions of the enamel organ are found in the young
of man, the ox, and the rat and mouse. The enamel organ is re-
garded by Von Brunn in fact as a sort of mould in which the den-
tine or pulp covered with odontoblasts assumes a definite form.
Von Brunn concludes his second memoir with the observation that
he considers that he has shown that in the Mammalia, wherever
dentine is developed, that the epithelial sheath or cap concerned '
in the formation of enamel must have first existed. This explains
the existence of the enamel organ in the armadillo (Tomes, Q.
Jour. Mic. Sci., 1874).
The enamel-forming portion of the enamel organ, after eruption
of the molars, is, of course, cast off entirely, or at most persis
only as the enticula dentis. The portion giving rise to the an-
chorage fibres of the root persists, as may be seen in longitudinal
sections of the molar teeth of adult animals in place in the jaw.
the incisors of the rat, on the contrary, the enamel organ has a
more complex history. While it does not differ entirely from the
germs of the other teeth in an early stage of development, as all
parts of its wall are alike thick, later the anterior wall of this
primary enamel organ becomes the persistent enamel organ of the
enamel band on the anterior face of the incisors, and thickens,
While over the sides and back of the tooth it degenerates and gives
rise to the anchorage fibres of these teeth, as shown by Von Brunn,
and as confirmed by sections of later stages in my possession
enamel organs of the first and second molars are connect y an
isthmus, and it is probable that the germs of the second and third
molars are also thus joined together. In longitudinal sections of
the heads of young mice it is, however, of great interest to note
that the cross crests of the upper molars have their apices directed
550 General Notes.
backwards and downwards, while the apices of the lower molars
slope forward and upward, just as they do in the adult, yet at this
stage there has been no enamel or dentine formed. This fact shows
that the forms of the crowns are foreshadowed in the germs of the
teeth before calcification, and it now becomes possible to assume,
for the first time with a reasonable show of -probability, that this
forward and rearward deflection of the molars is due to an inherited
impress or modification induced by the characteristic mode in which
the grinding teeth were used in the Rodentia. Because it may be
assumed that the manner in which the teeth are used would slowly
affect pattern of the crowns, as the writer first tried to show in his
essay “ On the mechanical genesis of tooth-forms” (Proc. Acad.
Nat. Sci. Phila., 1878). It follows that if physiologically induced
mutilations may be inherited, as the results of Von Brunn seem to
demonstrate, it is almost equally certain that mechanically induced
changes of form slowly caused by the normal mode in which the
teeth were used could be inherited with probably even greater
readiness.
Dr. W. Xavier Sudduth has shown that the reticulum of the
enamel organ becomes thinner at the apex of the young tooth. In
this way he has also shown that the membrana adamantina or inner
tunic and outer tunic are approximated while the blood vessels
from the adjacent connective tissue are pushed toward the enamel
organ to supply it with nutriment and probably aid very considera-
bly in the rapid deposit of the enamel from above, in just the same
way as‘the vascular pulp would supply the conditions for the rapid
deposition of the dentine from below. That the enamel organ of
the foetus is supplied by a vascular plexus as assumed by Sudduth
is, I think, completely demonstrated by the fact that I find a fine
vascular plexus in immediate external contact with the persistent
enamel organ of the incisor teeth of the adult white mouse.
The great value which is to be attached to the fact that abrasions
of the enamel of the adult, which have reacted upon the funtion
activity of the enamel organ of the embryo rat, so that such
mechanically induced alterations could be inherited, does not con-
so roo a
n appealed to as proving that mutilations could be inherited are
without exception artificial; in the remarkable example of the
already abraded apices of the molars of young mice and peng
ot &
This datum, which has until now been wanting, is therefore at last
ble proof of the soundness of its principles. This datum, in a
P sychology. 551
PSYCHOLOGY.
THE RELATION OF WILL TO THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY.!
—It is generally supposed that the designed movements of animals
exhibit the quality of design by reason of a direct influence exercised
by conscious states. It is supposed that an animal eats and drinks
because it feels hungry and thirsty; that it changes its position
because it feels that position to be uncomfortable, on account of
muscular weariness, unpleasant temperature, or some other reason
which is consciously felt by it. Such acts are termed voluntary.
They are distinguished from the automatic, which are performed
either in the absence of consciousness of them or without that rela-
tion of consciousness to them which is seen in the voluntary acts.
The peculiar influence exercised by conscious states over acts is
termed the will. Ordinary will must be distinguished from “ free
will,” since its action is a necessary outcome of “ motives” or rea-
sons which pre-exist in the mind ; while “free will” is supposed to
Spontaneous in its action. With the latter supposititious faculty
I have nothing to do in the present paper.
The physiological action of will is as follows, so far as it has been _
possible to trace it. An impression or stimulus received by a sen-
sory nerve—generally at the surface of the body—is conveyed by it
to the posterior column of the chorda spinalis, and is thence trans-
mitted through the optic thalamus. to some point in the gray tissue
of the posterior lobe of the cerebral hemisphere. Thence a stimulus
18 conveyed by some of the fibres of the white substance to the
anterior ee of the gray cortex. Thence it returns downwards,
conducted by white fibres, to the corpus striatum, and thence to the
anterior column of the spinal cord. From this the stimulus is con-
ducted along the motor nerve to the appropriate muscle, where it
reteases energy, the muscle contracts, and the act is performed,
Modifications of this general procedure depend on the source of the.
original stimulus, whether from an organ of special sense or from
an internal organ, etc., and the part towards which the outgoing
stimulus is determined.
, The locality at which the outgoing stimulus receives its direction
1s evidently in the cells of the cortex of the lateral and anterior
part of the hemisphere. This iis evidently the seat of the will.
I must here recall the familiar fact that multitudes of acts which-
display distinct design are performed by animals without conscious-
aos aoe any share in the process. There are reasons for ;
believing, owever, that such acts could never have originated ina
State of unconsciousness of the actor. I will not enter this subject
! Abstract of a hilosophical Society of Wash-
ington, May i. before the Phi mop '
552 General Notes,
fully, but state in brief what the two principal reasons for this belief
. The first is that, according to our experience, animals which
meet with conditions injurious to life which do not cause them pain
speedily succumb and perish. It is incredible that animals not
conscious of hunger, thirst, and changes of temperature should not
speedily die. Animals not conscious of fear of more powerful ene-
mies must be destroyed. The second reason for this opinion is, that
all designed acts whose history we can trace are the result of edu-
cation. This means, conscious stimuli strong enough to hold the
attention and the repetition of movements appropriate to the stimu-
they pursue with such unvarying precision. But most—perhaps
all—animals have not, in so doing, abnegated consciousness. They
generally possess enough to enable them to act intelligently in the
resence of new occasions and to acquire new. habits and add to
their stock of automatic capacities. This may be better understood
by reflecting on the long ages of geologic time during which they
have had the opportunity for such education.
I add here that it is highly probable that the movements thus
inaugurated and perpetuated have been made the conditions of the
environment, the active factor in animal evolution, since it is prob-
ably due to such action that the organography of animals has been
determined. This is the probable source of the origin of those vari-
ations on which natural selection acts. And the view that organie
evolution is due to the consciousness at the back of automatism has
been called the doctrine of Archzsthetism.'
From this digression I return to the question of the nature of the
act of will. ag
The animal organism is a machine for the metamorphosis ©
energy ; and the evidence is clear that this process is perform
strict accordance with the law of the conservation of energy.
in
The
te the food.
ced during
work by simpler and more stable ones, which are elimin
the organism ; while the energy which h
up and appears as heat, muscular contractions, thought-force,
1 Origin of the Fittest.
Psychology. 553
The animal machine is the most perfect converter of energy known,
acting with far less waste than any apparatus of human invention.
Every mental act involves conversion or metamorphosis of energy,
whether it be a mere sensation or a memory, an emotion, ratiocina-
tion or a determination of will. Throughout these processes the
law of conservation of energy is necessarily obeyed. But mental
acts possess qualities which require further attention in this connec-
tion. Mind, as such, is not a form of energy. Reducing mind to
its generalized expression,—that one which embraces all its phe-
nomena,—viz., consciousness, it is safe to say that its qualities, and
hence its definition, are totally distinct from those which we ascribe
to, and by which we characterize energy. Energy is motion in one
form or another. Consciousness is self-knowledge, from the sim-
plest sensation upwards. No two subjects of thought can be more
widely diverse. In fact, it is safe to say that all thinkable things are
traceable to three sources ;—matter energy, or the motions of matter,
and consciousness, or the knowledge which some matter has of itself.
But I assumed at the outset of this paper, in common with most
other persons, that designed acts are due to the direction and control
of currents of energy exercised by conscious states. In this propo-
sition there appears to be involved an assumption that in an act of
will the law of the conservation of energy is violated. This, indeed,
appears at first sight to be the state of the case; and it becomes
necessary that we examine most fully into the process. It is not
assumed that energy is created by an act of will, but it is supposed
that energy is directed. The creation of energy is unthinkable.
et us see whether the idea of its direction by some thing which is
hot energy is a fact of experience or not. ieving, as I do, that
consciousness, and hence will, isa phenomenon of a material tri-
dimensional basis, and disclaiming the dualistic idea that conscious-
n
exercising control of the movements of such ia ieee basis. Having
already expressed the belief that it does so, let us look into the
lowing law. The ynamic expenditure of an act of will has no
dynamic relation to the nature of the decision involved in it.
This law may be illustrated as follows, in the case of the lower animals.
An animal which is pursued by another may run into a hole or it
may ascend a tree for safety. In the two cases totally different sets
of muscles are used, The animal, for reasons, elects to use the one
Set rather than the other set. Another animal may throw one ear
forward to catch a sound rather than the other ear. Mechanisms
554 General Notes.
acting from the simplest of motives—not free, of course, but none
the less a remarkable property of protoplasm, conscious and
unconscious. No inorganic machine can do this.
What relations do these decisions bear to the amount of energy
expended in the resulting act? A physical movement costs energy,
nd ental act costs energy. The mental activity inci-
dent to a decision of will costs energy, and the more per-
fectly ratiocination is performed, the more perfectly is the
energy consumed and the less dissipated, as heat. But does the
decision to use the left hand, eye, or ear cost more or less than the
decision to use those of the opposite side? Evidently not. Does
the decision to climb a tree cost more than the decision to enter a
hole? I venture to say that it costs a man no more to decide to
build a house than to decide to stand a brick on end, so far as the
act itself is concerned. is is because the act is the outcome of a
process of ratiocination or feeling, in which the dynamics are not
correlated to the forms of the sensations embraced under those two
terms. The fact of anything being done for reasons indicates that
it takes its direction from other than dynamic sources. The question
of the decision is quite different from that of acquiring motives 0
action. This is a more complex process, for motives are reached
by very various routes. But even in attaining motives there can
be = equivalency between the energy expended and the mental
result,
Of course it may be said that there is no separate act involved in
a decision of will. It may be correctly said that the determination
is simply due to the predominating pressure of the most important
and weighty motives. Let this be accepted as true. It is conscious-
ness, past or present, which knows which are the weighty motives.
Like the prism which bends the course of the rays of light, what-
- ever passes through the psychical connection between incoming an
outgoing stimulus is determined in accordance with what it finds
there, and it is consciousness and its residua which is responsible for
the bending. The physiological labor is performed in acquiring the
motives which, when acquired, perform acts of will which | at
incommensurate with energy, both with regard to their own SS
qualities and with regard to the objects towards which they act.
is this property of mind which enables it to direct the movements
of matter without violation of the law of the conservation of energy.
This fact is of the utmost importance to philosophy and to ya
conceptions of the universe and of the place of consciousness In 1%
These decisions, which we term will, are common to all one
beings, from the bottom of the scale up. Every animal w a
selects an article of food or which rejects one, for reasons, lowly sre
simple though they be, performs an act of will, and as
energy, and in so far appears to be superior to the Sie
of the conservation of energy. With the lapse 0 wie
con
ness, such as we see in the vegetable kingdom, acts of will prop" ay
Archeology and Anthropology. 555
so called—are impossible. Their automatic residua remain to
work blindly forward until such time as the environment changes
to unfavorable conditions, when the organism perishes without
remedy.—E. D. Cope.
ARCHÆOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.!
FRAUDULENT SPEAR OR ARROWHEADS OF Curtous FOoRMS.—
We have just received a series (eight in number) of these curious-
shaped spear or arrowheads which were transmitted to us for our
Ispection. We were not informed whence or from whom they
were purchased, nor who was suspected in connection therewith.
But a slight examination developed the fact that they were spu-
rious. The material used was black and jaspery flint or chert
which takes no patine with age or exposure. The fresh fractures —
been chi
before subjected to the dexterous manipulation, or slight of hand,
cuted for such deceitful practices, as they now can be for passing
base money, 3 |
* This department i i , Wilson ., Smithsonian
Institution, Washington Dc. Pr aaa ee: : 2
?
556 General Notes.
Tue Hemenway EXPEDITION IN Arizona. — Dr. Jacob
L. Wortman, of the United States Army Medical Museum,
has just returned from Arizona, where he has spent the
List, and he confirms the importance as well as the genuineness of
the discoveries of Mr. Cushing. The expedition is thoroughly
equipped and well organized, and its investigations have been con-
ducted in a vigorous and scientific manner, with special reference
to the many details which go to make collections of this character
of value to the scientific student. Not only have the ruins been
carefully surveyed and mapped, but each specimen has been labelled
with great care, in such a manner as to indicate exactly where
found, together with all such other facts in connection with it as
will be of use to the student.
The expedition has for its object the study of the ancient civili-
zation of the southwest, and if the results of the first year’s work
ean be taken as an index of what it will accomplish, we may confi-
dently look for a solution of this perplexing question. Already a
large and valuable collection illustrative of the culture of these
prehistoric people has been secured, and it is a matter of congratu-
lation that it has been so collected that the scientific student can get
all out of it that it can be made to tell. :
Mr. Cushing’s ethnological training has been in such a direction
as to give him a peculiar fitness for the position which he occupies,
having spent six years or more in studying the social institutions,
customs, habits, religion and language of the modern Pueblo Indi-
ans, and this thorough knowledge of these is indispensable to the
proper interpretation of the facts gathered by the expedition. The
anthropological work is in charge of Dr. Herman Ten Kate, a native
of Holland, son of the distinguished artist of that name. Dr. J.
L. Wortman, the Anatomist of the Army Medical Museum of
' Washington, is his assistant. Mr. Adolph Bandelier, whose know-
ledge of the early Spanish and Mexican records is well known, 1S
connected with the expedition as historian. Mr. Chas. A. Garlick
is the civil engineer and topographer. Mr. Fred. Hodge is the
draftsman and secretary, while Mr. Yates is the photographer.
Mrs. Cushing and her sister, Miss Margaret Magill, are also mem-
bers of the party, and have rendered important aid in the classifi-
cation and care of the specimens. Miss Magill’s artistic talents
have been of special service to the expedition by reason of her
clever sketches and drawings of the specimens in situ. .
The locality in which explorations have so far been conducted
comprises the Gila and Salt River Valleys, situated for the most
part. in southwestern Arizona. They are fertile tracts of larg
extent, and there can be little doubt that they were once E
by a thrifty and prosperous people, whose history remains unwri”
ten. The Rio Salado (Salt River) is the principal tributary of te e
PLATE X.
Spurious Arrow Heads, made from genuine bones.
Archeology and Anthropology. 557
Gila, and affords abundant water to irrigate its valley, a tract
including a half a million acres, or more. The land for the most
part is covered with cactus, sage brush, grease wood, and mesquite
trees, but when cleared and brought under irrigation is made to
produce abundantly almost any and all the crops of civilized hus-
bandry. Fruits and cereals grow in profusion, and the land is said
to be well adapted to the growth of cotton and tobacco. The land
rises from the river at a gentle slope, a fact which is of great import-
558 General Notes.
While no accurate computations have been attempted, it is sup-
> posed, taking into consideration the number of towns or cities
known to have existed in the Gila and Salt River valleys, that the
population could not have been less than two hundred thousand.
There is every reason to believe that these places were not succes-
sively, but simultaneously occupied, especially when we remember
that they constructed large irrigating canals for a distance of fifteen
or twenty miles, which with their rude implements must have been
a gigantic undertaking. Their irrigating system was extensive and
complete, and covered almost, if not quite, all the cultivable parts
of the two valleys. The present inhabitants of the soil have taken
advantage of these ancient waterways, constructed at such expendi-
ture of prehistoric labor, and they now run many of their irrigat-
ing canals in these ditches. These ancient canals were constructed
with care. A cross section exhibits a series of terraces widening
towards the top, so that a large or small quantity of water could be
accommodated and a good depth secured. After the canals were
dug they were puddled and then burnt, probably by filling them
with brush and then setting it on fire, so that they almost equall
terra cotta in durability. Mr. Cushing is of opinion that "d
were not used for irrigation alone, but for navigation as wel.
There are indications that they used rafts made of reeds (balsas)
for navigating these canals, and this appears more probable from
the heavy materials that have been brought from a distance. It
seems certain that they floated the pine timber used in their
building operations down the Salt and Gila Rivers from the dis-
tant mountains; it is too much to suppose that they carried this
material upon their backs for a distance of a hundred miles. _
urial customs of these people were peculiar and cons
of two methods, viz., cremation and interment. In the case of
the priestly class the body was wrapped
deposited beneath the floor of the house. Generally the bodies
were laid along the east wall of the building, with head to the
east, although this custom was not invariable. Whe
this clan died, a grave was dug in the floor, a foot and a half or
two feet deep, and the body placed therein; it was then covere
with adobe mud and packed firmly around the corpse. When this
covering dried, and the soft parts and wrappings disappeared, the
skeleton would be found enclosed in a rude sort of sarcophagus.
In numerous instances, two, and more rarely three, skeletons we
found in one grave. In all such cases of double or triple bu i
the skeletons indicate that it was male and female, or one male pi
two females. Buried with each cadaver was a food vessel
water jar, and sometimes several of each, often highly decor: dent
That they were wrapped in cloths, presumably of cotton, 18 eal
from the impressions of the cloth made upon the soft adobe pene
Fragments of this material were found and preserved,
ing.
withstanding its decomposed condition.
Archeology und Anthropology. 559
Connected with each communal structure is what Mr. Cushing
aptly terms a pyral mound, since the bodies of the common class
were burned and their possessions destroyed upon this spot. The
deposited in the grave. This individual Mr. Cushing identified
from his paraphernalia as belonging in all probability to the priest-
hood of some war order, and this seems more probable when we
come to examine the skeleton, for he had sustained a fracture of
the arm, and one knee was stiff from anchylosis, no doubt the scars
of hard-fought battles,
Of the priestly burials something like four or five hundred were
unearthed in the various towns, while many more of the cremated
remains were found in the vicinity of the pyral mounds. The
skeletons, as a rule, were so frail that comparatively few could be
preserved. Of the whole number about one hundred good skulls,
and probably fifty tolerably complete skeletons, were collected.
These were so frail that Dr. Wortman was compelled to use a
goodly supply of shellac varnish to keep them from falling to dust.
Silicate of soda was tried, but it was not found so good as the ordi-
nary shellac dissolved in alcohol.
The objects which go to make up the collection are various, and
consist of those of ornament and utility. - Numerous shell carv-
ings, some of which had been beautifully inlaid with torquoise,
were found, while a very few copper ornaments in the shape of
bells and earrings were also dug up. Their tools consist almost
nary pattern, and are generally well polished ; they are of various
Sizes and shapes, and some of them were no doubt used as picks
were also found in abundance.
The collection of pottery is large, and, according to Mr. Cush-
560 : Gate! Notes.
That they were acquainted with metals there can be but little
doubt, although they do not appear to have made use of it except
in the way of ornament. Some places in the neighboring moun-
tains seem to indicate that they mined for ore, which they smelted
in crude ovens. Whether this was copper or the precious metals
is now difficult to determine, but that they were accustomed to bring
these ovens or furnaces to a very high heat is indicated by the
slag in their immediate vicinity.
It is perhaps premature to attempt to decide who these people
were, to whom they were related, and what became of them, I
think it fairly settled by these discoveries that they were the ancestors
of the modern Pueblos. Whether or not they were in any way
connected with the ancient people of Mexico and Yucatan the
future alone can decide, It seems certain, however, that one part
of them went north to found the later Pueblo civilizations which
are now represented by the Zuñis of to-day.
If historical evidence is worth anything and if we can trust the
ordinary evidences of archeology, then these ruins are beyond
ae pre-Columbian, and may be as much as a thousand years
l
old.
Mr. Cushing’s final report will be awaited with interest by all
who are in any way interested in the subject. The archæological
specimens have been shipped to Salem, and the skeletons will go
to the Army Medical Museum in Washington. ;
Tue Inprans or British COLUMBIA ! are made the subject of
a short article by Dr. Franz Boas, who had the opportunity of
studying during three months of the year 1886 several southern
tribes of this connection. During that short lapse of time Boas
has largely increased our knowledge of their tribes, tribal names,
synonymy, and habitat, and has also gathered so much of their
dialects as to enable us to divide them into linguistic families.
The seven pages of Boas’s article (pp. 422-428) presently before
us are chiefly filled with mythologic information, which for that
special country is almost wholly new to us. Boas believes that the
originated with tribes of Selish lineage (and many of the other
North American Indians, he might have added). Other deitan
appearing in these parts are Tsonokoa, a mythical prm pay .
e 5
among the Tsimpshian and the Indians on the mainland At
1 Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, eo
November, 1887. bis cca
Archeology and Anthropology. 561
and a dance pecnliar to the rite. From the same author! we have
received a few other publications, which refer to the sights seen and
facts gathered by himself among the distant tribes visited by him.
a
between Vancouver Island and the main land. The number
of the Indians at present living in British Columbia is
put down by Boas at 38,500 (p. 635). “A Year among the
Eskimo” in Bulletin of American Geographical Society, New
York, 1887, pp. 383-402, impart to us some ideas how the
Eskimos of the shores of Baffin’s Bay make their living during
the trying winter season of these high latitudes, and also adds myths
and songs of this strange people, especially the Sedna legend. This
same legend of the Central Eskimos, together with other stories and
traditions, are more especially dwelt upon in “The Eskimo” in
Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1887, pp. 35-39.
Curiously enough, the thunder is a prominent feature in the mytho-
logy of these frosty climates (p. 37). Mythologic traits of all the
Northwestern tribes are discussed in some German articles of Boas
in the Globus of Braunschweig, 1888 ; the first of these legends is
contained in No. 8, pp. 121-127 ; the second in No. 10, pp. 153-157.
The Sedna legend, together with a considerable number of other
mythic tales, legends and stories of these parts, is reproduced in
as’ article: “ Die religiösen Vorstellungen and einige Gebrinche
der zentralen Eskimos,” (Petermann’s Mitteil. 1887, pp., 302-316.)
His full enumeration of the villags and settlements of the
Kwakiutl _people will be found in “ Census and Reservatious of
the Kwakiutl Nation,” with map. (Bulletin of the Am. Geograph.
Society,) 1887, No. 3., pp. 225-232.
sete of which the title is mentioned above, and another of
even columns in “ Ausland” of Stuttgart, 188, pp. 281-286,
Die Indianer des britischen Columbia.” his
ery the achievements of Qanikila, or the “ Wanderer,” who is
puted to be the Son of God, and sent by God from the heavens
, Popular Science Monthl ,
| of New York, March, 1888, pp. 628-636.
Ripe Royal Societv, Danada, pp. 75-78, 1887, and an article of
Dic T golumns in “ Ausland” of Stuttgart, 1888, pp. 281-286, entitled,
ndianer des britrschen Columbia.
562 General Notes.
to visit all countries of the earth and perform miracles. This belief
makes these Indians very accessible to a future conversion to Chris-
tianism; but the Catholic missionaries were not successful with
them up to this day, because they neglected to use the main impulse
for civilizing savages: to make them work and earn money.
Tae MorTILONES! are an Indian nation scattered in numerous
bands or tribes through the Eastern Columbian and the Western
Venezuelan States, many living south of the Lake of Maracaibo.
The Motilones living in the forests and swamps between Zulia and
Cesar Rivers, on the border line between the two confederacies, have
been very dangerous neighbors to the white settlements ever since
the conquest. The name is equivalent to “ pelon,” baldheaded, and
also applies to a denomination of monks, who tonsured their hair
so as to appear almost baldheaded. It is, therefore, not a name
belonging necessarily to one tribe or race only, and indeed we find
it repeated in several parts of South America. From 1779 to 1792
the Spanish domination established ten missions among the Moti-
lones on the Zulia, of which even the last trace has disappeared in our
days. Dr. A. Ernst, Director of the Ethnologic Museum in Caracas,
Venezuela, and one of the few men of education who are active
in the furtherance of South American anthropology, obtained from
General B. T. Velasco the skull of a Motilone man, about forty-five
years old, for measurement. He found it to be chameeprosopic a
but a little hypsicpehalic, the index for length and width being
9.9. He describes the skull, adding to his accurate measurements
all what is known about the tribe of the Motilones. i
At the same session a report by A. Ernst was read concerning
the language of the Tucurá Indians in the Columbian States.
Tucurá is a settlement upon the Upper Sinu, at the mouth of Rio
Verde, and these Indians form a population of about seventy. , The
vocabulary obtained from the traveller, F. A. A. Simons, 1s printed
in the Verhandlungen, p. 302, and contains some Carib terms, many
of the terms being oxytonized.
wo weeks later, another communication from Dr. A. Ernst was ~
f the Motilon
as
lungen of May 7, 1887, pp. 376-378.
1 . , ae a Hechatft. April
* Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthropolog Ge batt, “I
28, 1887.
Microscopy. 563
MICROSCOPY.!
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PARAFFIN AND CELLOIDIN METH-
safeguard against brittleness and loss or displacement of loose parts.
But the celloidin method is complicated, and does not admit of very
the serial arrangement of section can be accomplished with the
. Lhe Celloidin-Parafin Method.—1. The object to be sectioned
8 placed in strong alcohol (97 per cent.) until dehydrated or until
fully saturated,
2. It is then placed in a mixture of equal parts of ether and
alcohol until saturated, the time varying with the size of the object.
- It is then transferred to a solution of celloidin, prepared as —
usual in equal parts of alcohol and ether, and in which it is allowed
to remain for twenty-four hours.
ty y object is then placed in oil of origanum until saturated,
uch will be in from one to two or three hours according to the
Size of the object.
aukee by C. O. Whitman, Director of the Lake Fanors Mil-
eitschr. f. wiss. Mi ie, iv., 1, p. 48, 1887.
Mig ` A. Ryder. Celloidin Paraffin’ ethos of Embedding. The
Poscopical Bulletin and Science News, Dec., 1887, p 43
564 General Notes,
5. It is then transferred from the preceding to a mixture of equal
g of oil of origanum and paraffin, which is kept on a water
ath for an hour or more, at a temperature of 40°C.
6. It is then transferred to a bath of hard paraffin, or such as
melts at 55°C., and is kept there until saturation is complete.
I have tried this method with specimens of injected spleen, and
find it to work admirably. The sections can be cut with a dry
knife. The sections form a ribbon more easily than in the case of
ordinary paraffin imbedding.
The sections may be freed from paraffin with chloroform before
mounting if they are required for histological purposes, as they
may be handled with the greatest ease on account of the presence of
the celloidin which holds them together. They can then be stain
in hematoxylin (Kleinenberg’s) or in nigrosin, or double staining
effects may be produced by the use of other dyes in combination
with hematoxylin. i
~ To many persons the oil of origanum has a disagreeable odor,
and is almost as inflammable as turpentine ; besides, it darkens or
oxidizes in a short time, and has, I think, a tendency to shrink the
object slightly, even after treatment with celloidin, and also to
arken it.
These disadvantages I have lately avoided by substituting chlo-
roform for the oil of origanum, used by Dr. Kultschizky. I pro-
ceed in the same manner as he recommends with the imbed E
rocess as regards the first, second, and third steps. The fou
step is to place the object soaked with celloidin in the usual way
in chloroform until saturated, instead of in oil of origanum. 4t 18
then transferred to a mixture of paraffin and chloroform, ual
parts, kept at a temperature of 40°C., and finally, until comp ete
saturation is effected, in molten hard paraffin melting at 55°C. od
o clean the sections for mounting, they may be mount 5
directly from the chloroform, if the operator is quick enough ant
does not let the chloroform evaporate from the section before it 18
covered with balsam. A preferable clearing agent, first pro
by Wiegert, I have found to be a mixture of equal parts of si
and pure white carbolic acid, which has been allowed to deliqu “a
or rendered liquid by heat. This may be applied to the oma T
the slide with a cléan camel’s-hair pencil, and will clean the sec
instantly without in the least attacking the celloidin. italia
Serial Sections with Celloidin.'—The celloidin block, te ce
object imbedded, is cut as regularly as possible, and anit vallel
cork. In sectioning, the knife should be placed nearly Pe
with its direction of motion, and after every five to ego he
wet with 95 per cent. alcohol. The sections are iana yer
knife with a small brush, and placed on the m pai is
oil (in a small glass dish over a white ground). aiae
good the sections will at once unroll and become diel mit
1 erfertigung längerer Senn ;
A in aone Aa thee ke 4 Beapel, vii., 4, p. 742, ue
Microscopy. 565
technique. Origanum oil may be used, but its action is violent
and often causes the colors to fade. Good bergamot oil is clear
and between the first and middle fingers and the thumb a very
ne but strong dissecting needle. Thé section is removed from
the
b
` paper held beneath and guided near the position where it should
Th then drawn with the needle out of the oil on to the paper.
this position the strip is allowed to fall slowly on the object-glass.
T en it is flattened out with a dissecting needle and dried with
‘ting-paper. Now the tracing-paper, through which the whole
e be seen, must be carefully removed, leaving the
sections on the object-glass. If any sections should remain on the
Paper, the latter, after the sections in question have been moistened
With oil, is replaced in its former position on the object-glass,
— alittle, and then removed, or if the sections are quite vib
“y may be taken with pincers and transferred to the object-glass.
566 General Notes.
the paraffin method.
As celloidin, like paraffin, does not readily penetrate chitinous
envelopes, cuticula and cocoons, care should be taken :—
To use at first very thin solutions, which should be gradually
brought to the concentration which the imbedding mass is to have
2. To i twice, the first time merely to cut the object in
pieces, or open a cocoon, or cut etc., with the microtome.
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—The American Association for the Advancement of Science
will hold its thirty-seventh meeting at Cleveland, commencing
August 21st, under the Presidency of the Hon. J. W. Powell, of
Washington, D. C.
—The International Geological Congress will hold its fourth
meeting in London, commencing September 14th. The honorary
president is Professor T. H. Huxley, who is also president of the
a aa committee. The Acting president is Professor J. Prest-
witch.
—The British Association for the Advancement of Science ho
its annual meeting at Bath this year, commencing September
The President is Sir Frederick J. Bramwell.
—The Annual Excursion of the Geological Society of France
will be this year in the neighborhoods of Commentry, Chaba
St. Germain des Fossés, Moulin and St. Armand. A grea
of geological formations will be visited.
— Professor Charles Linden, of the Buffalo High School, died ®
Buffalo, N. Y., February 3d, 1888, aged fifty-six years. a
born in Breslau, Germany, and came to this country at an a
His studies were in the line of ornithology, and he eer
expeditions to Florida, Brazil, the West Indies, and La :
Scientific News. 567
: from
—An obituary notice of the late Professor F. V. Hayden,
the pen of erim J. P. Lesley, occurs in the Proceedings of the
American Philosophical Society, Vol. XXV.
—The first part of the eleventh volume of the Suren =
Cincinnati Society of Natural History contains a general index
the previous ten volumes.
—The annual report of the Essex Institute (Salem, Me tt
that society ina prosperous condition. The additions to -= a
for the year aggregate 20,739 entries, while the income for the year,
exclusive of legacies and special fands, amounted to $4,405.
—A new zoological station is to be started at Ostend. It will be
supported by four Belgian universities.
—The Linnean Society of London celebrated its hundredth anah
versary May 24th, 1888. Among other features of the centennia
were the reading of a eulogium upon Linnzus, prepared by his suc-
cessor, Professor Fries, of Upsala ; one by Sir Joseph Hooker, upon
Robert Browne; one by Professor Flower, upon Charles Darwin,
and one by Professor P. W. T. Thistleton Dyer, upon cee
Bentham. The council has decided to establish a Linnean go
medal, to be awarded to a botanist and- a zoologist in alternate
years, and the first award was made to Richard Owen and Sir
Joseph Hooker.
. : ree f
—The meeting of the British Association for the Advancement 0
grine will be held this year at Bath, beginning September 5th at
P.M,
—J. Jverson has been sent by the University of Christiania to
Sumatra to make zoological collections for the University.
—The first and second parts of the monograph of the weaver-birds
Ploceidæ) and aboral aa terrestrial finches (Fringillidæ), by
ward Bartlett, The Museum, Maidstone, Kent, England, is now
ready for circulation, Price, 10s. 6d. each part.
— Willard A. Stowell, 222 Second st., Trenton, N. J., is preparing
* catalogue of all North American Ferns, embracing in that =
“xico, Central America and the West Indies. He desires notes
and exchanges,
— Professor Harrison E. Webster, of Rochester University, has
recently been elected President of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y.
—The Association of German Naturalists and Physicians holds its
568 General Notes.
annual meeting this year at Cologne, beginning on September 18th
and continuing until the 23d.
—Flower’s Osetology of the Mammalia has been translated into
the German by Dr. Hans Gadow.
—For over fifty years Karl Ernst von Baer’s “ Uber Entwick-
lungsgeschichte der Thiere” has remained incomplete. At last,
Dr. L. Stieder, of Königsberg, has issued the fourth (last) part
from von Baer’s own manuscript.
—Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, curator of the Bergens (Norway) Mu-
seum, goes this summer to Greenland, and expects to cross the
country on sledges and snow-shoes.
—During the absence of Dr. Stuhlmann in Zanzibar, Dr. A.
Schuberg occupies the position of assistant in the Zoological-zo0-
tomical Institute at Wirzburg.
—Dr. P. P. C. Hoek, of Leiden, well known for his many mor-
hological investigations, has been appointed to the scientific direc-
torship of the Dutch Fisheries Commission.
—Dr. Ephraim George’ Squier, the well-known archeologist,
died in Brooklyn, N. Y., April 17, 1888. He was born in Beth-
lehem, N. Y., in 1821, graduated at Princeton in 1848. His first
work of note was the investigation, in company with Dr. E. H
Davis, of the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, the results of
which formed the first volume of the Smithsonian “ Contributions:
to Knowledge.” Other works in the same line were his “ Ancien
Monuments of the West” and his “ Aboriginal Monuments of New
York.” Later he was sent on government service to Central Amer-
ica, which resulted in several works on the ethnology and antiqui-
ties of that region. In 1863 he visited Peru, but his account of s
investigations in that region was cut short in the middle of its pu
lication by a mental disorder, which left him for the last seventeen
years of his life utterly incapacitated for work.
—Henry James Storin Pryer, a well-known entomologist, died
in Yokohama, February 17, 1888. Since 1871 he has resided in
China and Japan, and at his death had in press an extensive work
upon the butterflies of Japan, with English and Japanese text.
—The Pennsylvania Forestry Association appeals to re
against the wide and wanton destruction of the forests. ma ay
two bills now pending in Congress, No. 6045 provides gee stl
for the mischief, and is greatly preferable to No. 7901. e
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 569
mer bill provides for the careful selection of proper lands for per-
mannet forests, to be guarded from spoliation and destruction, and
for the advantageous sale of merchantable timber under Govern-
ment supervision, and with constant regard to the preservation of
new growths. The bill also makes unauthorized cutting and injury
a criminal offence, and establishes a system of guardianship and
enforcement of the laws against individuals and corporations. The
bill No. 7901 is much more loosely drawn as to protection from
hat and injury, and lacks definite and strict methods of enforcing
the law.
—Professor Joshua Lindahl, of Rock Island, has been appointed
by the Governor of Illinois to the position of Curator of the State
a at Springfield, in place of the late Professor A. H.
orthen.
—THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY oF PHILADELPHIA is about to
break ground for extensive additions to the reptile house. They
are gomg to build two wings each thirty-two by twenty-eight feet,
which will be simply conservatories. In one of these the tree-
climbing snakes and lizards will be seen in the natural slate and
among plants and shrubs as under natural conditions.
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
T BioLogicar Socrery or WASHINGTON. — May 19, 1888. —
he following communications were read: Mr. F. W. True,
Wm
Tà HILOSOPHICAL Socrery oF WASHINGTON, Saturday Evening
tH Aloe 1888.—The following communications were read: Mr,
sede T. Edes, “ The Sphygmograph ;” Mr. H. A. Hazen, “ The
ry nt Mount Vernon (111) Tornado ;” Mr. Merwin-Marie Snell,
bservations on Certain Hypnotic Experiments of the Comte de
to a court” Professor E. D. Cope, “ The Relation of Consciousness
0 Animal Motion.”
570 General Notes.
Boston Socrery oF Natura History. — May 16, 1888. —
Professor Alpheus Hyatt read a paper on “'The Evolution of the
Faunas in the Lower Lias.” Professor W. O. Crosby gave an
account of the Geology of Nantasket. ;
PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY NATURAL Scrences.—November
15, 1887.—Prof. J. A. Ryder spoke of an improved method of
preparing sections of animal tissue for microscopic examination.
The object is first hardened as usual, then soaked in a solution of
celloidin twenty-four hours, then in chloroform until the celloidin
is transparent. It is afterward subjected to the action of paraffine
before cutting. The use of celloidin enables the operator to make
continuous thin sections of the most fragile structure without
breaking.
Prof. Heilprin contravened Mr. Boulenger’s criticism of his
(Prof. Heilprin’s) statement regarding the distribution of North
American Lizards. He had defined a line drawn from San Fran-
seen of gold occurring in limestone. :
Descriptions of two new species of fishes from South Ane
o :
which served to distinguish the left side from the right. _
The Rev. Dr. McCook described a spider from Florida. The
ferred to a communication received Mr. C. Townsend, deseribing
the nests of a white ant found in Honduras. Wood pulp seems x
be the material used, and the nests are placed between branches 0
trees. fine
December 6, 1887.—Mr. Binder exhibited, among other Ane
minerals added to the Vaux collection, a specimen of Hiddeotts, &
mineral which from its rarity, is at present more valuable than i
diamond.
Mr. Meehan called attention to the tubers of Dioscorea eburned,
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 571
of China. The yield of tubers seemed to be very large, but they
were intensely bitter.
December 13, 1887.—Dr. Leidy, in speaking of the presence of
parasites in fish, mentioned the fact that the drum fish (Pogonias
chromis) seemed in some cases to owe its flavor to a parasitic worm,
Acanthorhynchus reptans. He also mentioned the occurrence of the
larvæ of bot flies in terrapins.
December 20, 1887.—Prof. Heilprin discussed the rate of for-.
mation of deep sea deposits, and concluded that there were probably
unknown factors that involved deposition in past ages at a greater
rate than at present. Dr. Dolley remarked that in the Bahamas
foraminiferal deposit was comparatively rapid ; some of the smaller
ys are being filled up by such material. He also spoke of what
are called by the natives “ banana holes,” small pits with a deposit
of soil and red earth, which may have been formed by the solution
of the lime by the carbonic acid of vegetable matter.
January 10, 1888.—Dr. Leidy described the cranium of a puma
recently found under about thirty feet of earth in the bed of the
Kaskaskia river, Illinois. It differed from the cranium of recent
animals in having a higher inter-parietal crest, a narrower outline,
and a flatter forehead.
e yoke
ra awed that, contrary to the dictum of Hertwig, it differed from
at of t ;
„January 31, 1888.— Prof. Heilprin communicated the results of
his studies of the geology of Nantucket, in 1886. The beds at
Totty had yielded about fifty-five species of fossil mollusks.
e, and the disposition of the strata indicates a pre-glacial date.
rof. W. J. Brooks gave the life-history of a jelly-fish, the mode
of reproduc
forms hith
emselyes
selyes started.
on tubes h.
Prof. Wilson stated that the so-called sprouts or corky roots of
572 General Notes.
the black mangrove were largely composed of a peculiar tissue
formed of large air cells, and that their function is the aeration of
the plant. 3
Prof. Rothrock spoke of mimicry in plants, and gave as examples
the alga-like outgrowth from the spores of mosses, the external
resemblances of Zygadenus,and Swertia,and between Nepeta glechoma,
Lamium amplexicaule.
Dr. Dolley reported-the occurrence of a large parasitic Ascaris in
Carcharias ceruleus (the sand shark).
February 21, 1888.—Dr. Leidy described specimens of a small
crustacean (Cirolana) found swarming in the bodies of edible crabs.
February 28, 1888.—Prof. H. C. Lewis exhibited a fragment of
a meteorite containing diamonds.
Dr. Sharp described specimens of jelly-fish found in a fresh-water
pond at Nantucket. ; :
March 6, 1888.—Dr. Sharp spoke of the classification of lamelli-
branch molluses and traced them from a central type such as Arca
He considered that the lamellibranchs had degenerated from the
gastropods.
March 20, 1888.—Dr. Leidy called the attention of the Academy
to numerous specimens of a minute parasitic crustacean from the
gills of Roccus lineatus. They live suspended on the outer surface
of the red gills of the bass. The species is the Ergasilus labricis
of Kroyer, but is not mentioned in Rathbun’s published list of
parasitic Crustacea. The same fish frequently bears examples of the
worm Echinorhynchus proteus in its intestines.
April 3, 1888.—Prof. Heilprin called attention to a human foot-
print in a slab of volcanic tufa from Lake Managua, Nicaragua.
This footprint had been overlaid by a deposit of more than twenty
feet in thickness, and the bones of the mastodon were said to have
been found in the same deposits. The evidence to be drawn from
the shells accompanying the footprint was not considered by the
speaker as proving any very great antiquity. sons
April 17, 1888.—Mr. Meehan spoke of Shortia galacifolia, a rare
North American plant, of which several thousand examples have
been found in the mountains of North Carolina. :
Dr. Koenig described a specimen of eleonorite from Sevier county,
Arkansas. It occurs in cavities of dufrenite, and is of a -
color. The only specimens of the mineral heretofore known have
been from the Eleonore mine, near Giessen, Germany.
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
Vou. XXII. JULY, 1888. No. 259
MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS OF BRITTANY.
BY THOMAS WILSON. _
pe term megalithic has been recognized in France as applying
to the unhewn stone monuments erected by man in prehistoric
The ancient province of Brittany consisted of the area comprising
the present five departments in the northwest corner of France:
Finistère, Côtes du Nord, Ille et Vilaine, Morbihan, and Loire
Inférièure. This province is exceedingly rich in megalithic monu-
ments—in some respects it is the richest in the world.
The man of the paleolithic period does not seem to have occupied
this part of France. In only two places have any of his imple-
ments or utensils been found, and these are on the extreme eastern
edge of the province. However, that is of little moment in the
Present discussion, for the prehistoric man of that age having made
no Monuments, left none.
1€ occupation of Brittany by prehistoric man began in the
Neolithic age or age of polished stone called by M. de Mortillet
Rebenhausen, after the station of that name in Lake Pfaffikon, near
oe Switzerland. This was in the present geologic epoch and
e man 18 supposed to be of our day.
Shek 18 Supposed to have come to this country from a more or less
és: 0 ‘le and to have wrought a revolution in the civilization of
ck paleolithic man who had preceded him. He brought with him
oS of agriculture and of grazing. He was not nomadic.
a government or some sort of organized society. He had
574 Megalithie Monuments of Brittany.
not the art of the former epoch, enabling him to represent by
engraving or sculpture the living things he must have seen; his
art was confined to the ornamentation of his dress and the decoration
by lines and dots in geometric patterns of the pottery, and after-
wards the bronze, objects which he used. He was capable of
long-continued plodding labor and performed herculean tasks in
the construction and erection of his monuments. He had a religion:
he buried his dead, depositing some of his choicest valuables in the
grave with them and erecting over them monuments of the grandest
and most expensive character ; these have endured until the present
time, and are now being bought, restored, and preserved by the
state.
The names given to megalithic monuments as adopted in France
are taken principally from the Breton language.
Men means a large stone.
Hir means on end.
Menhir means a large stone standing on end.
Dol means table.
Dolmen means a table of stone.
Lech means a smaller stone.
Cromlech means a circle of stone. It also has a higher signifi-
cation, that of eternity, such as is symbolized by our circlet of gold,
or the snake in that form, swallowing its tail.
Alignment and tumulus are modern French words, and mean,
the first, lines of menhirs; the second, a mound of earth or stones
usually covering a dolmen.
The megalithic monuments of France are under the supervision
of a governmental commission appointed by the minister of fine
arts; of this commission Henri Martin, the historian, was, until his
death, and Gabriel de Mortillet now is, the chief.
he commission has authority to purchase, subject to approval,
such monuments as it may deem worthy of conservation, and when
purchased, they may be restored to their original condition and
properly preserved. A certain sum of money is appropriated for
the use of this commission, The members serve practically with-
out compensation. The action of the French Government 1n this
regard is in the highest degree commendable. The Anthropo-
logists’ Society of the United States might well urge upon the Gov-
` Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. 575
ernment the adoption of similar measures for the protection of
American Indian mounds and other ancient monuments against
the destruction with which they are threatened.
The French commission has published a list of the megalithic
monuments of France. The total number was put down at about
6,300; of these 1,600 (increased by later discoveries to nearly
2,000), are in Brittany.
They are thus classified and distributed :
| d ‘
Z g
n £ S
a > n =
Province. È a € 2 2 20
F = = Bea Å S gi
S S S fz! E = iz D
re a a a E
A = Dee E ay aa ea A
Loire Inféridure... | 50 57 1 D lo 6 10
Morbihan............ 305 295 8 19 1 37 5 14
Finistère 170 | 222 9 E Vo 1 3 5
Cotes du Nord... | 112 | 138 l... 9 13 2
Ille et Vilaine...... 15 32 5 Bae BES Peeks. 1
652 | 739 23 42 1 45 22 32
This table would misrepresent the work of the prehistoric men of
this country unless explained. While a dolmen and a cromlech
Count as separate monuments, each may require from ten to fifty
Immense stones, and each of these may be a monument in itself.
So also with a menhir and an alignment—an alignment consists of
Many menhirs,
I will only attempt to describe the general types of megalithic
Monuments, though it would be necessary to exceed this to convey
an adequate idea of the extent and grandeur of the monuments as
a whole,
The dolmen was made in the form of a chamber or series of
Communicating chambers or alley-ways with sides, floor, and covers,
576 Megalithie Monuments of Brittany.
and was a tomb. Its floor and entrance were at about the level of
the neighboring surface, and the entire monument is believed to
have been covered with earth; thus in ancient times it was a
tumulus.
The menhir is a single stone planted on the earth and standing
erect.
The cromlech is a greater or less number of menhirs arranged in
form of a circle or a square.
The alignment is the same as the cromlech; only the menhirs
are arranged in nearly parallel lines.
All of these monuments consist of large unhewn granite stones.
The smallest of the stones used we estimated to weigh a ton. Some,
indeed many, have been accurately calculated upon the known basis
of 2,700 grams for one decimetre cube, or say two tons avoirdupois
for a cubic yard. ;
The covering stones of a dolmen have been found to weigh five,
ten, twenty, and forty tons. The alignment menhirs weigh from
Fre. 1.—Dolmen of Crucuno,
thirty to sixty tons: two near Plouharnel weigh respectively eighty-
be and the
three and ninety-six tons, the former that of Sainte Bar
latter that of Erdeven.
Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. 577
DOLMENS.
There are in the department of Moribihan about 400 dolmens,
some in ruins, but many well preserved. Used for sepulture they
may be described as houses for the dead. They are perhaps the
earliest form of receptacle for the dead, although the Kistvaen,
made of smaller flat stones with sides, ends, top and bottom shaped
like a box or chest (Kist) and covered with stones like a cairn, may
be older, but they may also have only been the sepultures of a
poorer people,
he dolmen of Crucuno is most frequently shown to the visitor.
It is easy of access, is on the road from Plouharnel Carnac to
Erdeven. It is large, in good condition and presents a fine appear-
ance. It was used as a stable before being purchased by the
government. Its form, size, and condition make it a good repre-
sentative dolmen.
Fic. 2,—Dolmen of Lochmariaker.
The dolmen of Lochmariaker is situated near the village of that
name overlooking the Gulf of Morbihan at its opening into the
z Lochmariaker has many evidences of Roman occupation. It
on this gulf, and probably within sight of this spot, where
Was
578 Megalithic Monuments of Brittany.
took place the great sea fight between Cæsar and the Venites. It
has but a single covering stone bearing the form and worn appear-
ance of a huge boulder. I do not know its exact size, but as I
remember it it is twenty to twenty-five feet in length, nine or ten
feet in breadth, and two or two and one-half feet thick. The
chamber is rectangular, somewhat smaller than the dimensions of
the covering stone above given, and is six or seven feet in depth.
The bottom of the covering stone, plainly to be seen from the
interior by looking upwards, is decorated with the representation of
an immense polished stone hatchet or celt, with a long handle
terminating in a knob. The instrument is represented in outline
by a groove which has been cut, or rather pecked, into the granite
surface.
Fic. 3.—Dolmen of Grand Island. Another form.
The dolmens, usually square but sometimes round, were ma
the form of chambers, sometimes as small as four by six feet,
de in
four
feet long,
single
They
tood on
The
feet high ; sometimes these were sixteen feet wide, thirty
and eight feet high. Most of the dolmens consist of a
chamber, but many have as many as six lateral chambers.
are made of huge flat unhewn granite stones, which ares
end or edge to form the sides and ends of the chambers.
Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. 579
covering stones (which are called tables) are large, anda single one
is sometimes sufficient to cover the entire monument.
F me - : :
bak ie Ground plan of a single chambered dolmen, showing the stones on
“Ci gd the gallery, chamber, and door, The light line around shows the
§ Stone with a group of cup markings on the under side
The dolmens usually have a gallery or corridor leading to the
me mber, made in the same way. This is for approach} to the
chamber, This gallery is about three or four feet wide and as
agg or more high, sufficient for a man to make easy entrance.
be Sometimes blocked with another slab of granite at the inside
a nearest the chamber, sometimes at the outside, and sometimes
k x 1g. 4 will explain this. In this example the door has
Their orientation is irregular. They open in every direction,
i
580 Megalithic Monuments of Brittany.
north and south, east and west; but there are more to the south
than to the north, and more to the east than to the west. The
greater number open towards the southeast. I exhibit for purposes
of comparison the ground plan of several of the important dolmens
(Fig. 5). It will be perceived that though they are all one general
type, yet no particular or precise form has been invariably followed
in their construction. Each one has its own individuality and
differs from every other.
The fine, unshaded lines indicate the covering stones. The
direction of the opening is indicated by letters SSE, etc., ete.
1. Dolmen of Kerlescant—at Carnac.. This opens to the west.
This dolmen is what is usually denominated Allee couverte.
2. Dolmen of Kervilor, at Trinite-sur-Mer. Opening tos. S. e.,
one side square and one side round.
3. Dolmen du Rocher at Plougoumelen. Opening to s. s. e.
4, Dolmen of Crucuno—sameas Fig. 1. Opening s. e., chamber
rectangular.
5. Dolmen of Keroed-Kerzu, at Crach. Opening east, circular
chamber.
6. Dolmen of Ben-er-Groah at Lochmariaker. Opening south,
two successive, circular chambers.
7. Dolmen of Kervihan, Carnac. Two chambers, semi-circular
with alley between. Opening s. s. e.
8. Dolmen of Keriaval, near Plouharnel-Carnac. Three lateral
chambers—opening east.
9. Second dolmen of Mane Kerioned, near Plouharnel. This is
one of three in the same tumulus—side by side—opening south,
and is elaborately sculptured on the face of the supports.
10. Three dolmens of Rondessec at Plouharnel, all under the
same tumulus, opening s.s.e. In one of these was found a pair oF
gold bracelets, one of which is still to be seen at Pere Gaillard’s
Plouharnel.
11. Small type dolmen of Kermario, Carnac. Opening south-
east.
12. Dolmen of Mane Lud, at Lochmariaker. Opening south.
13. Dolmen (with tumulus) of Kercado, Plouharnel. s. 8. ©
14, Tumulus of Pornic, Loire-Inferieure, in the upper right hand
corner. This contains several dolmens opening in different directions.
PLATE XI.
Fic. 5.—Ground plan of Dolmens in Brittany.
Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. 581
A opens to the east.
B and C to the south-west.
D to the north.
E and F in ruins.
It is believed that the interments were made continuously in the
same sepulture (as is done partially in our own vaults), a practice
which prevails to a certain extent in the country to the present day.
When the dolmen (or tomb) became full, the skeletons could have
been taken out and deposited in an ossuary. We found evidence
of this at the dolmen of Port Blanc. It has been contended with
great probability that the bodies were buried elsewhere at first and
then after they had become dessicated or the flesh had been
removed from the skeletons, that the bones were placed within the
dolmen. M. Cartailhac has elaborated this theory with much
ability. A fete day, like All Saint’s, was perhaps selected for the
purpose, and the dolmen may have been opened and all bones
deposited therein with due ceremony. In support of this view it
is argued that the skeletons have been found in unnatural and
impossible positions in the dolmens; that they have been found
colored or painted, which could only have been done after the
denudation of the flesh, and that sometimes the entrance to the
dolmen is by means of a hole cut in the stone door, so small, from
sixteen to twenty inches round or oval, that the entry of a corpse
would be difficult, if not impossible.
Fre. 6.—Cireular hole being the entrance to a dolmen, from the department
Sune-et-Oise, now removed to and exhibited at the Musee St. Germain, Paris,
The round cover being in the foreground,
Excavations and searches were conducted by myself in company
with the local archeologists, M M. Gaillard, Fornier, Cappe, Rialan
and the Abbe Luco. I subjoin a list of some of the larger stones in
the more important dolmens, with sizes and weights.
582 Megalithic Monuments of Brittany.
Dolmen of Crucuno: Property of the government; the covering
stones seventeen feet long, ten and a half feet wide, 30.3 inches
thick; weight forty-one tons of 2240 pounds (Fig. 1.)
Second dolmen of Rondessec: Property of the government;
has two covering stones both about the same size and weight, 11.6
feet long, seven feet wide, twenty-eight inches thick; has eighty
square feet of surface, 198 cubic feet, and weighs fourteen and one-
half tons.
First dolmen of Mane Kerioned: Property of the government ;.
has thirteen supporting and four covering stones, one of which
weighs about ten tons. Its chamber and gallery are twenty-eight
feet long.
Second dolmen of Mane Kerioned: Has twenty-four support-
ing and four covering stones, one of which weighs seventeen tons.
Its chamber and gallery are thirty-four feet in length. This
dolmen has extensive sculpturing on the supporting stones forming
the sides and ends.
Dolmen of Mane Groch: Property of the government; has a
corridor, large central chamber and three side chambers, it has -
twenty-three supports and seven covering stones.
Dolmen of La Madeline: Has five supports and two table or
covering stones.
First dolmen of Mane Bras: Has thirteen supports and two
table or covering stones, and weighs ten tons.
Second dolmen of Mane Bras: Has nineteen supports and two
tables, and weighs ten tons,
Dolmen of Kergaval: Has six supports and one table and
weighs twenty tons. ;
It was once the fashion to speak of these monuments as having
belonged to the Druids. This seems to be a tradition that has
grown up within historic times and long after the Druids had
passed away. The dolmens belonged as well to the age of bronze
as to that of polished stone. Incineration and inhumation were
both customary, but the former method pertains more to the bronze
ST ifal
There are about 3,500 dolmens in France. Phey are plenti 26
in the centre, south, and west, but rarer in the north and east 5. :
plentiful in Great Britain and Ireland, in Spain and Portugal, 1
Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. 583
Denmark and Sweden; some in Belgium and Holland, the Rhine
country, and Western Germany ; none in Norway ; almost none in
Italy; none in Eastern Europe. The city of Dresden marks
about the dividing longitudinal line.
They are found on the coast of Northern Africa, between
Morocco and Tripoli; in Palestine, in Asia, in South and Central
America, but not in North America.
TUMULI.
Many of the dolmens are now covered with earth, and these have
been called tumuli. It is believed by those best qualified to judge,
after the longest experience and closest examination, that all have
at one time been so covered. One reason for this belief is, that it
is universal to find the gallery, corridor or covered way,
made of the same kind of stones in the same way, on the same level
nd leading from the principal chamber, gradually narrowing in
=<
~
SS
FIG. 4.—Section of a pasne In. the dolmen with its corridor or alley-waY
and means of second interm
both width and height to what would appear to have been the
circumference of the tumulus. In this regard the dolmen now
without a tumulus corresponds exactly with those covered by one.
Some of these corridors are forty and fifty feet in length. In this
way, the tomb could be covered, the monument completed and yet
584 Megalithic Monuments of Brittany.
the entrance be easily opened and entered upon the occasion of a
second or subsequent interment.
The covering of these tumuli consists of layers of broken granite
alternated with layers of clay and mud from the seashore and
vegetable earth from the neighboring surface,
The tumulus of Gav’r Inis has a dolmen remarkable for the
sculpturings. It is eight feet by seven, five feet eight inches
high, with a corridor or alley fourteen feet long, four feet six
inches wide ; five feet four inches high, while the tumulus crowning
it is 180 feet in diameter and was thirty feet high.
Tumiac at Arzon is 100 feet in diameter and sixty-five feet high ;
Manerhoeck Lochmariqueris 300 feet in diameter and thirty feet
p = Be g dle Sa. 7
Eo. DE F TTi Tora
aR
TAR oH ee ASAI
TTA Cae ce
Monk jt ieh
—Tumuliin Setani
high; Mane Lud 300 fect} jong,150 wide and thirty feet high ; Mount
Saint Michel 320 feet long, 120 feet wide and eighty high ;
Kercado is about 100 feet in diameter and twenty feet high.
MENHIRS,
The dimensions of some of the menhirs is as follows :
Penmarch, twenty-five feet high; Cadiou, twenty-eight; Mount
. Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. 585
Dol, thirty-one ; Plouarzel, thirty-six and one-half; Plesidy, thirty-
seven ; and Lochmariquer, sixty-seven and one-half. The latter,
fallen and broken, is thirteen and one-half feet wide and seven
Miri beér of Caclo
FIG. 9
and one-half feet thick and weighs 347 tons. There are 739 of
these in Brittany. The menhir stands single and alone. When
arranged in parallel lines as they sometimes are, they are called
alignments,
ALIGNMENTS.
The Province of Brittany has twenty-three alignments—one-half
of those in all France. The department of Morbihan and Finis-
tère have, together, seventeen of these. Carnac has in its imme-
diate neighborhood six out of these seventeen. These six align-
ments represent 3,000 menhirs.
: Menec, near Carnac, has 835 menhirs, arranged in eleven parallel
lines, 3,778 feet in length and 328 feet in breadth at the head,
586 Megalithic Monuments of Brittany.
tapering to 200 feet at the tail. It has at its head a cromlech of
sixty-two menhirs.
Kermario has 678 menhirs, no cromlech, nine parallel lines,
4,037 feet in length—same width as Menec.
Kerlescant has 258 menhirs, a cromlech square of thirty-nine
menhirs, thirteen lines, 1,000 feet in length—393 feet width at
the head and 164 at the tail.
Erdeven has thirteen lines, 1,120 menhirs, 6,886 feet in length,
836 in width at the head and 180 at the tail.
Fia. 10.—Alignment of Menec.,
About one-half of these have been overthrown and are lying On
the ground. About ten per cent. should be added for all the
menhirs known to have been destroyed in modern or historic times.
Without doubt the gaps now existing were once filled. This would
double, at least, the number. These monuments have served as
stone quarries for the neighborhood, and doubtless the great castles
and churches of the early ages were built therefrom. The light
house at Belle Isle was built of the granite menhirs of the align-
ment of Erdeven.
Thus they stand, dotting the country in every direction, enormous,
Megalithic Monuments of Brittany. 587
rough, rude, unhewn granite stones—great in their mightiness,
mysterious in their solitude, belonging to another civilization
mighty in its time, but now dead and buried in the ages of the past.
They have no inscriptions, and no history. We know them to
have been the work of man, and that is about all. In the case
of menhirs, they rear their heads like great giants. In the align-
ments they stand in close array with serried parallel lines, and
stretch across the level country miles away, their bodies gnawed
and their heads scarred and seamed by the tooth of time since the
distant ages when they were erected. It is their size, their sim-
plicity, their number, their repetition, as well as their antiquity,
which render them so imposing and so impressive. No words can
convey to our mind an adequate idea of this impressiveness. They
must be seen to be appreciated.
A word as to the age of these alignments.
The menhirs, whether standing or fallen, are frequently used as
fences, the interstices being filled usually with an earthern embank-
ment. In the headline, at the alignment of Erdeven, many
had fallen and were thus covered with earth. On uncovering
them, one four or five fect thick and ten or twelve feet long was
found, hewn as it lay, for what purpose we knew not, but we could
see the marks of the tool. It had served as a fire-place. There
were the charcoal and stone bed and back wall, all bearing traces
of fire. Pieces of flint, a small celt of fibriolite, débris of pottery,
(some dolmen, but much Romar§, showed that this occupation
belonged to the Roman times ; that is, somewhere between’ 40
B. C. and 405 A. D. -This menhir had been prostrate from fifteen
hundred to nineteen hundred years; yet it had previously stood on
end long enough time for the top to become so weathered as to be
plainly distinguishable from the bottom.
There is on the menhirs quarry no mark of tool or of quarrying,
yet I think they were quarried. They are so much weathered that
all marks are worn away. Look atthe weathering on the top of the
menhir of Penmarch (Fig. 6). No traces of a quarry have been
discovered, though the granite of which the menhirs are formed
18 the local rock, coming always near and many times quite to
the surface. The menhirs have evidently been planted. In most
cases they stood on the surface without any foundation, but founda-
tions had been built where needed. In many cases the smaller end
of the stone was downwards. ee
588 Megalithic Monuments of Brittany.
Flint implements and chips and broken pottery are found about
and among the alignments as elsewhere over the country, especially
around the foot of the menhirs, showing a prehistoric occupation ;
but no trace of the uses or purposes of the menhirs or alignments have
ever been discovered. There have been many theories broached but no
facts adduced sufficient to support them. They may have been called
military camps or religious or other rendezvous for the people.
They may have been tents. No trace has been found of their use
as burial places, and so far as established by ascertained fact, the
popular idea is as near the truth as any other, viz., that they were
the columns of a sacreligious invading army, turned to stone by
the wrath of an offended God.
SCULPTURINGS.
Many of these stones or monuments have marks or sculpturings
on them. The menhirs of the alignments have cup markings only,
and these are rare. In some cases they have been marked
in with crosses, modern times, made sometimes by religious
devotees, sometimes by the priests, done in order to prevent or
break up any chance remaining pagan custom of worshipping, or
revering, or employing these stones. The dolmens are marked
with various signs, none of which have any discovered signification.
They have received much attention and study, but without result.
The sculptured monuments of Brittany are all near the sea-coast.
Yet there is no rule and no unfformity. Many of them near the
coast are without sculptures ; and this is true of an entire section or
neighborhood ; again other dolmens in the interior will be sculp-
tured. Do these different sculpturings represent the dwelling
places of different tribes ?
CON CLUSION,
The story of these monuments has never been aai told.
Their condition and position may be described, and that of the
skeletons and articles or implements found. It is from these
details that the history is to be obtained, of the prehistoric man who
made them. They must be studied with intelligence and care.
Comparisons must be made with other articles found in the same
place and with the same articles in other places. A full treatment
Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology. 589
of the subject would include an account of the beautiful polished
celts of jade found in the tumuli, of the gold and bronze ornaments,
of the pottery, the decoration, the art, of the tools and implements
of this early people which cannot be presented within the limits to
which this paper must be restricted. I omit, for the present, the
cromlechs, the places of incineration, the Roman remains, and many
other subjects of equal interest. Perhaps at some future time I
may refer to them.
DR. N. O. HOLST’S STUDIES IN GLACIAL
GEOLOGY.
RY DR. JOSHUA LINDAHL,
WE have before us two pamphlets by the Swedish geologist, Dr.
Holst, of Stockholm. One of them bears the title, “Om de
glaciala rullstensiisarne ” (“On the Glacial Gravel-Osar ”1); the
other, “ Berättelse om en i geologiskt syfte företagen resa till Grön-
land ” (“ Report on a Voyage to Greenland for Geological Investi-
gations” 3). The subject of these papers has so much bearing on
the geology of our own country, and is so ably treated by their
author, that we have thought it desirable to present the following
condensed translation of them.
In the first-mentioned paper Dr. Holst propounds his new theory
of the origin of glacial osar.
The history of the development of this theory is, briefly, the fol-
lowing : Hisinger (in some cases), Martins, Chambers, A. Erdman,
Torell, and others, explained the said formation as ancient sea-
Shores. Hisinger (in other cases), v. Helmersen, Térnebohm,
Levin, Jernström, and others, assumed that a vast deposit of sand —
and mud covering- the country had been cut through by rivers,
whose beds were gradually filled with stones and gravel. Later
, Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar, 1876. No. 31
Band HI., No. 3), pages 97-112,
n Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning. Afhandlingar och uppsatser.
r. C, No. 81. Stockholm, 1886. Pages 1-68. ;
590 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology.
the sand and mud was washed away, leaving the stone and gravel
deposits of the rivers in the shape of ridges. Hummel was the first
one to recognize the fact that the existence of an inland ice must be
pre-supposed as the indispensable agent in forming such ridges; `
but he regarded them as formed beneath the ice in tunnels exca-
vated by percolating waters. Finally, in 1876, Holst published his
new theory, which in 1878 was also used by Warren Upham in his
report of the geology of New Hampshire. Dr. Holst’s theory
stands now without a rival.
The following short extract of Dr. Holst’s paper may be sufficient
to explain his views. He says :—
“ For a correct interpretation of the origin of gravel-osar it is of
main importance to answer the question how it was possible for
running water to deposit its silt in such shape as that of an ordinary
gravel-ose.” There can be no further dispute that these deposits are
old river-beds. How, then, have they happened to assume the
form of elevated ridges, rising above the adjacent country? ”
The water at the surface of the melting glacier gathers in the val-
leys of the ice-sheet, whence it extends its coastward course in rivers
whose beds are cut down in the ice-sheet. The ice along these rivers _
melts faster than that farther off, and in melting it gradually releases
its contents of moraine matter. This matter will then follow the
water, although at a far slower rate, down to the said valleys, and is
‘finally—at least partially—swept along into the rivers, where the
gravel-grains will be worn and their angles will be more or less
rounded off, according to the swiftness of the current. This same
factor will also regulate the assorting of the material and determine
the place where each individual boulder, pebble, or grain shall be
dropped. Layer upon layer will thus accumulate in the river-
bed, and, when finally the entire glacier has melted away, the accu-
mulated silt of the former river-bed will present itself as a ridge
elevated above the surrounding ground ; it is an ose.
“Tosumup: `
“ Osar are formed in running water.
“ No running water could lift all this matter to the considerable
altitudes where we often find it.
1 Geol. of N. H. Vol. 3., pages 14-176.
1 Swedish äs (pronounced ose), plur. dsar—osar—not “ osars,”’ aS it 18
written by some authors.
-
Holst’s Studies in Glacial Geology. 591
“ The matter must therefore have been elevated by the ice, and
must afterwards have moved down and amassed itself into osar in
the above-stated manner.”
In the second paper Dr. Holst gives an account of his visit to the
west coast of Greenland in the summer of 1880. He went as far
north as Sukkertoppen (lat. 654° N., about), extending his rambles
southward to Kipissako, southeast from Ivigtut! (lat. 61° N., about).
He traveled mostly by water, in a so-called Umiak (boat rowed by
women), but also made excursions by foot over the inland ice, ascend-
ing some of the highest mountain-peaks for the purpose of obtain-
ing bird’s-eye views over the ice and the various pinnacles—s, ec.
nunataks—which rise out of the inland ice.
After having given a general account of his travels, the author
proceeds to discuss his observations under the following headings,
viz.: the ground-rock, the inland ice, the kryokonite, the moraines,
the upper drift deposits, the glacial clay, and the peat. We shall
here reproduce the most important parts under the first five of these
headings,
A. The Ground-rock in the district referred to is predominantly
grey gneiss. A bed of héilleflint-gneiss was observed on the penin-
sula to the north of Tigssaluk. More variation was noticeable east
and south of Ivigtut. A rather coarse-grained, well-developed
syenite extends over the country a little to the east of Grénne Dal;
a white, pretty quartzite, and also what may be called a hédilleflint-
_8chist, were seen near the southern ice-blink at Kornok, and a some-
what similar but very fine-grained schistose hdlleflint-gneiss occurs at
Kipissako,
_ No granite was seen north of Ivigtut ; but a limited area of granitic
rock extends to the north of Kipissako glacier.
In order to get some more definite knowledge of what rocks pre-
vail in one locality, the author collected at random fifty specimens
from the terminal moraine below the Ursuk-f jord glacier. Of
these 50 specimens, 12 were found to be diorite; 9 grey gneiss; 7
granite (or granite-gneiss), some grey, some red ; 6 grey hiilleflinta ;
k Dr. Holst mentions, as a warning to other scientists who may go to
ik pre with the intention of visiting the cryolite mines at Ivigtut,
ission to those mines is absolutely prohibited to all strangers
not presenting a written permit from the head office at Copenhagen, He
might have added, that such a permit is never granted.
592 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology.
4 hiilleflint-schist; 3 red granite, of more than medium-coarse
grain; 2 grey granite—otherwise like the last-named variety; 1
red hälleflint gneiss; 1 quartzite and 1 quartzite-sandstone ; whilst
the remaining 4 specimens were put down as undeterminable. In
the same moraine were also noticed limestone, red fine-grained
sandstone, coarser sandstone, and sandstone conglomerate, sometimes
with nodules of jasper and diabas. The sandstones and quartzites
are very compact, as is generally the case with older sandstones, and
bear a complete resemblance to many Swedish sandstones generally
regarded as Cambrian. C. Pingel (in 1843) expressed his opinion
that they are Permian; and K. J. V. Steenstrup (in 1877) takes
Pingel’s side, and (in 1881) declares that there can be no reason for
a different view as long as no petrifactions have been found in the
sandstone. Yet there is no more reason to regard this rock as
belonging to the Permian formation than to almost any other for-
mation. Numerous dykes of diabase are met with in the southern
portions of the district visited by Dr. Holst, all the way from Kipis-
sako to Fredrikshaab. They are particularly abundant on the
Tassiussak-fjord, and not less than twenty parallel dykes of green-
stone were counted within a space of five hundred feet on the island
Kikertarssuak, at the inlet to this fjord. East-southeast from
Grönne Dal occurs a peculiar diabase breccia, and, close to it, dykes
about a yard wide of a very fine-grained red rock, microscopically
determined by Dr. A. E. Térnebohm! as a fine-grained syenite.
B. The Interior Ice-covering.— Previous explorers of the inland
ice have made the observation that moraines are found on the sur-
face of the ice only near land, while the inner expanse of the ice-
sheet is earthless, except the occurrence of the so-called kryokonite.
What else it carries along is hidden more or less deeply in the mass
of the ice. Knowing this, Dr. Holst thought it more fruitful to
study the ice near its borders than to undertake time-wasting excur-
sions into the interior.
The inland ice expands ina continuous sheet from the mountains
of the coast-lying land eastward beyond the horizon, only interrupted
by the “nunataks” and the moraines. The former occur v
sparingly, only the high peaks of the underlying mountains rising
1 A. E. Törnebohm: Mikroskopisk undersökning af nägra b
prof frän Grönland insamlade af Dr. N. O. Holst. Geol. Fören. Förb.
Bd. 6, p. 692.
Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology. 593
above the ice. Of the moraines may be especially mentioņed the
morain-osar, deposited on the ice parallel to its border, and in undu-
lating or even horseshoe-curved lines, following at some distance the
headlands jutting into the ice-sheet. These moraines Dr. Holst
proposes to call border-moraines (‘ rand-moriiner ”).
The ice within a hundred feet from its borders invariably presents
a slope toward the border, though generally not so steep as to ren-
der the ascent at all difficult. Farther in the slope is much less
marked, though there appears to exist a general rising toward the
east, whilst the surface everywhere presents vast undulations.
The border of the ice appeared to have retreated quite recently in
many places; in others it had evidently advanced. This seems to
be the necessary effect of the varying amount of precipitation of
snow or rain over the glacier-basin, causing the glacier itself to vary
in volume. The snow fallen during the winter seems to remain
much longer on the inland ice than on the land. Thus, at Atarngup,
above the Tassiussak-f jord, on the 25th of June the inland ice was
covered with snow. At the Fredrikshaab glacier, on the 4th of
July, the snow had melted near land and around the “ nunataks,”
but remained over a great part of the ice-sheet, although numerous
bare spots were visible. Still later in the season—by the middle of
September—Dr. Holst made an excursion over the inland ice to
the north of the Kipissako glacier. All the snow from the last
winter had disappeared, but some new snow, blended with rain, had
fallen and frozen to a thin crust over the ice.
On the surface the inland ice either presented the appearance of a
compact mass of coarse crystallinic texture, reminding of the grain
of common rock-candy, or else it is honeycombed by the solar heat
and shows intersecting systems of parallel plates, apparently the
remnants of large ice-crystals, often several inches long, which have
wasted away, only leaving the frame, as it were, on which they were
built. These plates or tablets are highly mirroring, reflecting the
Solar rays in all directions, depending on the position of each indi-
vidual crystal. The ice in the wild, mountainous regions of
Southern Greenland is, as a matter of course, very much broken up
by crevasses, Wherever the ice pushes forward and downward over
an escarpment of the underlying ledge these crevasses, with great
regularity, cross the direction or course of the glacier. Of most
frequent occurrence, however, are the cracks which run at right
Angles to the borders of the inland ice.
594 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology.
Although the ice in the said mountainous district is everywhere
crevasse-torn, it is not necessarily so in other localities. Where the
underlying ground is level or only gently rolling, the moving ice
is, no doubt, entirely free from cracks.
The local direction of motion must, of course, to a great extent
conform to topographical conditions, Thus, in deep valleys glacial
striæ may be found to run in all possible directions, always follow-
ing the course of the valley. In order to find the general direction
of the motion of the inland ice, one must study the striz on the high
plateaus. My observations in such localities indicate a direction
from northeast or east-northeast.
The vastly broken aspect of a Greenland landscape cannot be
explained as solely a product of the erosive force of moving glaciers.
It is true that the material produced by this erosion is only to a
small extent left on the land—where the soil is, indeed, very thin—
whilst by far the greater part is deposited as silt in the sea. But if
we suppose this silt to spread over the bottom of the sea for some
miles from the coast and to have the thickness of several rods, still
this cannot approximately account for the enormous excavations of
the land. These must date farther back than the glacial period.
The glaciers may, however, have plowed up and scooped out the
loose sediments from earlier ages in the vast valleys.
On the inland ice occur moraines and kryokonite (glacial dust),
besides patches of vegetable matter. The moraines are limited to the
borders of the inland ice around the nunataks as well as along the
coast-line. The kryokonite mostly accumulates between the
moraines thus near to land, but is not altogether absent even from
the high interior tracts of the ice-sheet. Vegetable matter occurs
but sparingly on the ice. West of Kangarssuk, half a mile from
land, were noticed some leaves of grasses, Betula, ete. They were
not scattered, but heaped up in a pile—which seems to indicate that
not wind, but water, had transported them to that position.
C. The kryokonite is extensively distributed over by far the
greatest part of the inland ice, as well as over most of the local
glaciers, though it may occasionally be hidden under snow or Ice
formed by the freezing of the thaw-water.! It varies, however,
1 — Swedish smältvatten. The word, although not found in Webster,
may serve to express the water formed at the surface of the ice by
thawing.
Holst’s Studies in Glacial Geology. 595
considerably in quantity. In many places, especially far inland, the
kryokonite spreads only as a light shade over the ice, whilst near to
land it exists in far greater abundance. At Fredrikshaab’s ice-blink
the border-ice was dirty from immixture of kryokonite and separated
from the higher-located, cleaner ice by a sharply-defined line parallel
to the foot of the inland ice, this line having an elevation of six
hundred feet over the foot of the ice.
The kryokonite has a dirty gray color, and upon superficial
inspection appears like clay ; but, on closer examination, it will
ound to consist of very fine sand. Quite often it is formed in little
balls as big as beans, which readily absorb heat from the sun, caus-
ing the underlying ice to melt, so as to produce the so-called “ organ-
pits.” It may occasionally be washed down with the thaw-water
from the higher places and then accumulate in patches. On the
Arsuk glacier some such patches, about one square foot each in
extent, were covered with kryokonite to a depth of three inches.
It is not always easy to tell the difference between moraine-sand an
kryokonite on the ice-rivers, where the moraine matter exists in
every grade of fineness—from coarse gravel and sand to nearly im-
palpable dust, like the kryokonite. On the higher parts of theinland
ice, where no moraines are found, this difference does not exist.
The following table shows the chemical composition of the kryo-
konite. No. 1 was a sample taken by Baron Nordenskiöld on lat.
68° 20’ N. Nos. 2-6 were taken by Dr. Holst. For comparison
is added an analysis (A) of gneiss from Ostergothland, according to
n.
Dr. H. Santesso
ee 1 4 5 6. 2
Silicie acid.......... 62.25] 62.98, 62.74 56.30| 609.67) 60.55|63.72
Sate eee ame eaae. 0.3 easesreee = =—6«| ERNE L a, AA ssererese KEITTESLIPTET
Alumina EO 4.93} 12.24) 14.18 (P| 16.45) 15.63) 14.97/15.
proxide of iron...| 0.74 Cee cc. A Stn cen 2.74
Mo otide m oe ey { 3.90 4.10 6.35 6.28) 4.31
anganous oxide! 0.07 0.32 0.92 0.54 1.10 0.14 1.29
ickelou r AS NONG! issesssrs -of erresa] csrl. aoii poom
Cobaltous « J None) anst O p oats eian nini
ae ATOR OO E EE 3.01 2.44 2.87 2.54) 1.40
A 5.09 5.61 3.02 3.62 3.70 3 78| 3.
GA jeemsrreesss 4.01 7.75 3.47 4,94, 3.79} = 3.70} 1.64
ptah sss sensaren 2.02 2.22 1.26 2.52 2.52 2.99) 3.72
C aprons acid..| O11. None ne | aad] aaa eee ia
Florine. i ce DOO! cal aaae 2 sacha eae dicing
MB s.. 3an 9.98) «4,95 9.69} 4.78] 4.89) 1.00
| | -
100.12! 100.10] 100.60" 109.91! 99.79' 99.28
' Including hygroscopic water, 0.34.
596 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology.
In his “ Account of an Expedition to Greenland, 1870,” Norden-
skidld gives the above analysis No. 1, and, on the strength of it,
pronounces the kryokonite “a trachytic sand of a composition (e. g.,
the amount of sodium), which indicates that it does not derive its
origin from the granite-bearing region of Greenland.” He leaves
the question open whether it is derived from the basalt region or
from volcanoes supposed to exist in the interior of Greenland, or
whether it is of meteoric nature. He regards it as a distinct species,
for which he gives the chemical formula, and even states that its
crystal form is probably monoclinic. By comparison with the
analysis (A) of a Swedish gneiss, it becomes evident that his con-
clusions are invalid, Evidently the analyses point to the primitive
rocks of Greenland as the origin of the kryokonite. Even the high
percentage of soda has no great bearing on this question, as many
wedish gneisses! have a higher percentage of soda than the above
0.1,
Dr. Holst devoted special attention to the kryokonite in Green-
land, and collected samples of it from ten different localities
between lat. 61 N. and 65° 25’ N.?; and he came to the conclusion
that this substance is nothing but the finest till separated by repeated
washing.
The thaw-water from the surface of the inland ice penetrates
through cracks into confluent gutters down in the moraines in the
deeper parts of the ice, and, washing out the finest till, it continues
its course until it connects with similar gutters, carrying water from
higher-located tracts. Hydrostatic pressure will then force back
_ water toward the lower tract. The suspended moraine matter will
follow ; but as"soon as equilibrium is restored it will settle in pores
and cracks of the ice. The water may but rarely reach the surface
immediately. But when the moving glacier encounters an elevation
of the ground,*the lower portions of the glacier will be pressed up
to a higher level. As the ice is melting away from the surface the
enclosed matter will gradually appear at the top. Upon reaching
the borders of the inland ice it will be carried away by the glacier-
rivers and deposited in the sea. These rivers in Greenland are
1 According tojSantesson’s “Kemiska Bergarts analyser.” Sveriges
Geol. Underséknin iit
2 Nordenskiöld’s sarriple were all taken from nearly the same locality,
viz., about 68° N. lat.
Holst’s Studies in Glacial Geology. 597
very turbulent, and the kryokonite, therefore, mingles with the
clays and sands, which are whirled down by them into the sea.
But if such inland ice were advancing over a plain, and the kryo-
konite were washed out from it by quietly-running water, it would,
no doubt, get an independent geological significance.
This theory presupposes the existence of kryokonite, not only on
the surface of the inland ice, but also in its deeper parts. That this
is the actual case is plainly visible near the borders of the ice.
Microscopical analyses of the kryokonite were made in 1881 by
A. von Lasaule, F. Zirkel, and E. Swedmark. All agree in the
main: The kryokonite contains nothing but the ordinary components
of primitive rock.
Professor Zirkel found Dr. Holst’s samples to contain mainly the,
following minerals, viz., quartz, orthoclase, plagioclase, greenish and
brownish mica,—which he supposes to be a magnesia mica,—and
colorless potassium mica (this last mineral occurring but rarely)
He also found some hornblende, garnet, magnetite, and (doubtfully)
traces of titanite and epidote. In all cases the principal constituents
were quartz, magnesia mica, and feldspar. The thinnest scales of
_ Mica pierce through the feldspar fragments, just as they do in the
gneisses, Metallic iron was never identified in the samples. Pro-
fessor Zirkel calls particular attention to the total absence of any
augite, olivin, or glass. Both chemical and microscopical analyses
agreeing, it may be regarded as a settled fact that the kryokonite
has the same origin as the moraines, It is far more difficult to solve
the question regarding the geological significance of the kryokonite.
During his visit to Greenland, Dr. Holst was inclined to suppose
that it nowhere forms independent deposits, but always occurs
commingled with the clays and fine sands of the till, the kryokonite,
as to its grain, being intermediate between the two. It is sand, but
considerably less palpable than any ordinary kind of sand. How-
ever, since he had opportunity of studying the /oess in Saxony, he
came to the conclusion that the loess is nothing but kryokonite.
_ Considering the loess (kryokonite) as a product of repeated wash-
ing processes, in the manner above stated, it is easy to conceive why
ìt has reached such remarkable extent and purity.
The State Geologist, E. Swedmark, having examined microscopi-
cally samples of loess collected at Ebendorff, near Magdeburg, and
598 Description of Meadow Mouse.
at Dresden, found them to consist of fine rock-powder, in which he
identified fragments of quartz as the most prominent constituent,
besides feldspar, plagioclase, green hornblende in considerable
quantity, mica (mostly biotite), a trifling amount of magnetite,
numerous dendritic or, sometimes, kidney-shaped grains of an ochre-
like mineral, and fine particles of clay and limestone. Such a com-
position (says he) indicates certainly that this loess leads its origin
substantially from disintegrated primitive rocks (gneiss or granite)
and diorite. `
The dust on the inland ice of Greenland offers a suitable soil for
quite a number of small algæ. Professor V. B. Wittrock examined
some of the samples of kryokonite, and the results of his investi-
gations are embodied in his paper, “Om snöns och isens flora.” *
(To be concluded.)
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW PRAIRIE MEADOW
MOUSE (ARVICOLA AUSTERUS MINOR)
FROM DAKOTA AND MINNESOTA.
BY DR. C. HART MERRIAM,
LARGE series of meadow mice of the genus Arvicola, col-
lected during the past two years in Minnesota and eastern
Dakota, comprises but two species, which, in the field notes of the
collector, Mr. Vernon Bailey, are designated respectively as “ up-
land” and “lowland” meadow mice. The “upland” form is neve?
found on the marshes, but the “lowland,” which is most abundant
in wet meadow lands and in the neighborhood of streams, some-
times occurs on the dry prairies in company with the other. Exter-
nally, some of these mice resemble one another so closely that sharp
discrimination is necessary for their separation. A glance at their
teeth, however, shows that they belong to different sub-genera
The “lowland” species has two external closed triangles on its last
upper molar, a postero-internal loop or “spur” on its middle upper
1 A. E. Nordenskiöld : Studier och forskningar, föranledda af minas
resor i höga norden. Stockholm, 1883, pages 63-124.
Description of Meadow Mouse. 599
molar, and three internal and at least two external closed triangles
on its front lower molar—and consequently is a Myonomes, closely
related to our common eastern meadow mouse, Arvicola (Myonomes)
riparius. The “upland” species has but one external closed trian-
gle on the back upper molar, lacks the “spur” of the preceding
tooth, and has but two internal and one external closed triangles on
the front lower molar—in other words is a Pedomys, nearly related
to the prairie meadow mouse of the Mississippi Valley, Arvicola
(Pedomys) austerus. For purposes of critical comparison, therefore,
the remaining sub-genera of Arvicola may be summarily dismissed.
The sub-genus Pedomys, according to Coues, the latest monographer
of the group, contains but the single species, austerus. He also
placed in this sub-genus, and in fact as only sub-specifically separa-
ble from austerus, a very different mouse (namely, his Arvicola aus-
terus curtatus) which is not, a Pedomys at all, but, as I have recently
shown, belongs to the sub-genus Chilotus. This leaves austerus as
the only species with which Mr. Bailey’s “upland” mouse may be
compared. The principal difference is in size, the new form being
\ 2
male Arvicola (Pedom J 2 Í
ys) minor Merriam. 1 and 2, skull from about and below
+ Upper molar series, X5; 4, lower molar series, <5.
— that in the case of the mice the ranges of the two are not
— to overlap. In my series of considerably more than a hun-
Specimens of qusterus proper I do not find a single adult indi-
2245
x2; 3
600 Description of Meadow Mouse.
vidual as small as the largest of about thirty specimens of the
northern animal. The average difference in length, without the
tail, is nearly 25 mm. (about an inch). In typical austerus, the
hind foot averages 19 to 20 mm., while in the new form it averages
but 16 to17 mm. In adult skulls of austerus the average basilar-
length falls between 24 and 25 mm.; in the northern form it falls
between 20 and 21 mm. In reference to its diminutive size, I have
named the northern mouse
ARVICOLA AUSTERUS MINOR, sub-sp. nov.
Northern Prairie Meadow Mouse.
Type 392%, male, Merriam Collection. From Bottineau, Turtle
Mt., Dakota, August 27, 1887.
Description of Type.—Similar to Arvicola austerus, but much
smaller; length from end of nose to tip of tail vertebrae (measured
in the flesh), 133 mm.; tail vertebre, 36 mm.; hind foot, 16.5 mm.;
ears rather prominent, slightly overtopping the fur.
Color.—Upper parts uniform grizzled gray; under parts whit-
ish, washed with pale cinnamon. Viewed from behind, looking
away from the light, the entire head, back and sides appear to be
finely and closely lined with silvery. The fur of the belly is
plumbeous basally and nearly white apically. There is no sharp
line of demarkation between the color of the sides and that of the
belly. Tail bicolor, the light color of the under surface reaching
well up on the sides.
Description of other Specimens.—The type, which is from Turtle
Mt., Dakota, is very closely matched by specimens from several
places in the Red River Valley (particularly from Travare, Dakota,
and Ortonville, Minnesota); and by a few of the Elk River speci-
mens. A male from Elk River (No. 3424), collected June 2, 1886,
is almost a duplicate of the type, except that the belly is darker—
it is more sparsely haired, and the plumbeous basal portion of the
fur shows through. Other specimens from Elk River have the
upper parts strongly suffused with brown, and the belly strongly
washed with cinnamon.
In others there is as much whitish on the belly as in the he
while in others still the under parts are of the “muddy rust color
so often seen in true austerus. This is pronounced in No. Hit,
Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 601
male, from Elk River. The variations in color of under parts do
not seem to depend on age, sex, or season, though of course the fur
is everywhere longer and more dense in winter than in summer, as
is the case in all northern Arvicole.
General Remarks.— Arvicola minor is so different from all Amer-
ican Arvicole except austerus that comparison with others is unne-
cessary. Lest, however, there should be any question as to its dis-
tinctness from “A. cinnamonea” of Baird, which is said to have
come from Pembina, I have measured the skull of the type (No,
591, male, U. S. National Museum—the skin has been lost), and
find it to be as large as that of austerus proper. And Baird’s mea-
surements of the animal show that it was larger even than average
austerus. The dental peculiarity pointed out by Baird as one of
the distinctive characters of the supposed species, namely, the fact
that the angular depressions in the crowns of the back upper
molars communicate across the teeth, forming transverse loops
instead of lateral triangles, I incline to agree with Coues in consid-
ering abnormal.
ON ARCTIC CHARACTERS OF THE SURFACE
FAUNA OF THE BAY OF FUNDY, AND THE
CONNECTION WITH A THEORY OF
THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLOAT-
ING MARINE LIFE.
BY J. WALTER FEWKES.
QEVERAL naturalists have shown a similarity between the
fauna of the Bay of Fundy and that of the waters of Labrador
and Greenland. This comparison is of great interest to students of
New England marine zoology.
As the evidence thus far adduced is mainly drawn from studies
of littoral animals, it has seemed in place to test the theory by a
consideration of oceanic genera. It would be pre-eminently fitting
to consider floating marine life with this thought in mind, and as
the young of a large number of marine genera are free-swimming,
.
602 Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy.
it would be well to include them with true oceanic genera in this
connection, I undertake this comparison with more enthusiasm, as
it has been my good fortune to examine and publish notices of
nomadic animals which have been collected in high latitudes by
Lieutenant Greely, and since it has been possible for me to study
the marine life of Grand Menan and the islands off the coast of
New Brunswick.’
A study of the surface life of the Bay of Fundy reveals inter-
esting facts in the theory of the Arctic relationship of the life of
these regions. |
Nomadic animals which live in the high seas, generally upon
the surface of the ocean, are known as pelagic animals, and consti-
tute what is called the pelagic fauna. While this fauna is pre-
eminently the fauna of the ocean and is found best marked at a
great distance from the land, it often happens that winds and cur-
rents sweep its members into our bays and harbors, and we in this
way become familiar with it. Like all large bays with open access
to the ocean, the Bay of Fundy has a pelagic fauna. It is, in fact,
the same or nearly the same as the pelagic fauna of the coast of
Greenland.
Animals which are strictly pelagic are never limited to the
coast, to the littoral fauna, or to the sea bottom. They never become
attached, but crawl about, or rest upon the sea floor, A large number:
of marine animals have young which resemble pelagic organisms
in these nomadic habits. They also wander about and are carried
hither and thither by ocean currents independent during their youth
of the coast or the sea bottom. As they reach maturity, however,
they sink to the sea floor, and there remain, either attached or
limited in their movements toa small area. These young or larve,
as they are called, may also be included in the pelagic fauna as long
as they preserve this free-swimming feature. This larval and
adult pelagic fauna differs in different regions of the ocean, and
that of the Bay of Fundy differs in a marked manner from that of
the bays of southern New England. :
A study of the pelagic fauna of the Bay of Fundy shows that it
has a boreal character. While it is in many respects like that of
1 I have already elsewhere (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. xiii,, No.
6) considered the boreal relationships of the medusan fauna of the Bay
of Fundy.
Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 603
Massachusetts Bay, it is in marked contrast with that of the bays
south of Cape Cod. We may, in fact, say that the fauna of the
Bay of Fundy is more closely allied to that of the coasts of
Greenland, as far as its pelagic life is concerned, than it is to that
of Narragansett or Buzzards Bay. The reason for this diversity
in the inhabitants of bodies of water so near together, and the
resemblances of faunæ of localities so far apart, may easily be found
in the direction and character! of oceanic currents to which the
distribution of marine life is almost wholly due. Moreover, the
surface life is in a measure dependent on the amount of water
brought to the coast by the tides. The greater the volume of
water which sweeps into the bay, the larger the number of animals
which it brings with it, if other conditions remain constant. The
great tides of the Bay of Fundy are admirable for the purpose,
and they bring to the shores of New Brunswick a wealth of surface
life seldom equalled and never excelled elsewhere on the coast.
There is a strict line of demarcation between the surface fauna
found south of Cape Cod and that immediately north of the same
headland. It would seem the most natural thing in the world
that an animal which passes its life floating or swimming on the
surface waters of the ocean should live equally well in Narragansett
Bay or the Bay of Fundy. That is, however, not the fact, for
while stragglers from the true Arctic faune of the waters of
New Brunswick may sometimes be found at Newport, there is as
marked a difference in the facies of the faune of the two regions as
between those of the two sides of the Isthmus of Panama. Why
is there this difference? :
The answer is found in those limitations in the distribution of
animals brought about by the differences in the temperature of the
sea. Everyone who has tried the ocean bathing in these two
localities knows how much warmer the surface water south of Cape
Cod is than that of Grand Menan, and this difference of tem-
perature means life or death to the delicate creatures which live in
it. The animals south of Cape Cod are those of warmer waters,
and some of them have their home in the Gulf Stream, while those
in the Bay of Fundy are pre-eminently of polar origin, and can
endure with impunity a fall in temperature which would kill the
! The boreal life of the Bay of Fundy is thought to be due to the
Labrador current,
604 Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy.
inhabitants of the Gulf of Mexico. As the study of animals which
are not nomadic teaches that those of the Bay of Fundy are most
closely allied to the inhabitants of the colder waters of the Arctic,
soit is with the surface life. Both tell one and the same story, that the
assemblage of life in the sea which constitutes the fauna of the Bay
of Fundy is Arctic in its affinities. To demonstrate the Arctic
character of the free-swimming life of the Bay of Fundy would
seem to necessitate a minute comparison of faunal lists from the two
localities. It is not wholly necessary for our present purposes,
however, to make such an extensive comparison. Some of the
more striking instances of floating boreal life will suffice.
Of all floating animals the jelly fishes are well suited for this
study. Among the Medusze we have marine animals, as well known
as any, from which to test our theory. The following may be
mentioned as some of the Medusæ of the Bay of Fundy which are
markedly Arctic. The large and beautiful Cyanea arctica, one of
the most stately forms of discophorous jelly fishes, is pre-eminently
an Arctic genus. Callinema, first described by Professor Verrill,
another large Medusa of the same group, and has never been
seen south of Cape Cod. Among Hydromeduse the beautiful
Turris episcopalis is boreal in its distribution, and rarely gets south of
the coast of Maine. Staurophora and Halopsis are northern genera.
The beautiful “ sea necklace,” Nanomia cara, one of the most exqui-
site genera of marine animals, has been seen in the icy waters of
Robeson’s Channel by Arctic navigators. It is rarely seen south
of Cape Cod, in Narragansett Bay, but at Grand Menan hundreds
of specimens, some of which were four feet in length, were taken
from the landing places, and at other points on the shore.
If we, in fact, take the faunal lists of the Meduse of the Bay of
Fundy and compare them with those from Greenland and neigh-
boring waters, we find, as far as our knowledge goes, a strong
resemblance between ie medusan life in the two regions. of
course there are genera occurring in the waters of Greenland
which are not to be found in the Bay of Fundy, and vice versa, but
that does not change a belief in a general statement that the marine
animals of the two localities resemble each other in facies. If we
1 The surface animals of the Bay of Fundy, although Arctic, are not
supposed to be of the extreme polar types. For obvious reasons s little
is known of the facies of polar marine life,
Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 605
should carry our comparisons of the surface life of the two locali-
ties among other groups, we should find as marked a similarity
there as among jelly fishes. One or two examples may suffice for
illustration,
There is no pelagic mollusc which is more truly boreal than
the well-known Clione borealis This pteropod rarely ventures
into Narragansett Bay, is more common as we go north, and
was at one time observed in great abundance in the Bay of
Fundy. In the North Atlantic and on the shores of Greenland it
is found at times in countless hosts.
Among the pelagic annelides, one of the most common at Grand
Menan is a species of Sagitta, which bears a strong resemblance to
a Sagitta found in Lady Franklin Bay by Lieutenant Greely.
This Arctic Sagitta is markedly different from the Sagitta of
Narragansett Bay.
The species of Appendicularia found in the Bay of Fundy is
different from that of Newport, and appears to be the same as that
recorded by Murdoch from Point Barrow. This pelagic ascidian,
as is well known, is found in some places enclosed in a gelat-
inous envelop called the “ haus,” which serves ‘as its protection, or
for other purposes. Although I have repeatedly taken Appendicu-
laria in Narragansett Bay, I have never found the “haus” in those
waters. From Murdoch’s description of the Arctic Appendicularia
and from its size, I am inclined to think that the Bay of Fundy
Appendicularia? will also be found with houses. The mere fact
alone that the Arctic Appendicularia has the house, so-called, is not
characteristic, for animals of this or allied genera in warmer waters
have the same structures,
The resemblances between these two marine faunæ suggest inter- -
esting general questions of distribution. Students of the geograph-
teal distribution of terrestrial animals easily recognize the facies of
organic life from different continents. A collection of the land
animals of Australia has an altogether different appearance from
ene from Europe, while those from South America are different
ftom those of North America. While the characters which impart
| I have taken many specimens of the larva at Newport.
* It is undoubtedly true that the Bay of Fundy Appendicularia is a
different species or even genus from that of Narragansett Bay. It
Closely resembles the genus Oikopleura.
606 Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy.
this difference are hard to define, they exist and are recognizable by
a specialist. In the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge
this difference is shown by faunal assemblages of life from different
regions of the globe, each arranged in different rooms, known as
the North American, European, African, ete. The idea is a grand
one, and to a student of physical geography of the greatest
importance.
As in the study of land animals there is a different facies to the
assemblages of life from different quarters of the globe, so in the
ocean there is a different facies in collectious of animals from
different regions of the sea. Place side by side a number of Arctic
species of shells and those of the same genera from the tropics. If
the shells be representative, the conchologist need not hesitate long as
to their homes. The dull,cold, little variegated molluscs of the Arctic
contrast markedly with the brilliant, gaudy shells of the warmer
zones. Passing to the inhabitants of the ocean, the deep-sea animals
have an altogether different facies from the surface animals. The
characteristic facies of great regions of the ocean are as noticeably
different as those which naturalists have long recognized «mong
terrestrial animals. It is not in place here to point out the different
regions into which the oceanic faunz may be divided, but it would be
interesting in considering the causes of the boreal character of the
pelagic life of the Bay of Fundy, as they involve a general con-
sideration of the laws which have led to the diversity of these
faunæ. I consider the temperature of the water as a most import-
ant influence in causing the diversity of life in the ocean. Varia-
tion in temperature is probably more important than pressure in
the bathymetrical distribution of deep-sea life. The difference in
temperature of the surface of the ocean is one of the most importan
factors in determining the character of pelagic organisms. As we
have a variety in surface temperatures, we have a diversity in the
surface fauna. We have, it is held by some, a repetition of Hum-
boldt’s law of the modification of plants in altitude, and the corre-
spondence of latitude with altitude, in a change in character of
animals by depth resulting from several conditions, among which
may be mentioned pressure and temperature. Whenever the tem-
perature of the deep-sea becomes a surface temperature, as in the
Arctic Ocean, then, it is argued, we may look for allies of deep-5e@
animals.
Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 607
The two great tendencies at work in the modification, as in the
geographical distribution, of pelagic animals, are cold currents of
water bringing them into lower and warm currents transporting
them into higher latitudes.! The physical result in both instances
is a change in the temperature of the water and other conditions in
which they live. Where the currents generally set from the south
to the north, as on the eastern coasts of the Northern Hemisphere,
we may expect a relationship to the tropics in higher latitudes than
where the currents are from the pole. The former currents carry
the warm belt into higher, while the latter restrict it to the lower
latitudes. It is known that the distribution of coral reefs on the
western and eastern coasts of the continents has a direct relation-
ship to the direction of the ocean currents, and that where the
current is from the equator to higher latitudes (Eastern coasts)
coral reefs extend farther from the equator than where the general
direction of the oceanic rivers is from colder to warmer latitudes?
This can readily be seen by consulting a map of the earth’s surface
where all the great coral reefs are on the eastern side of the con-
tinents, and where also all the great oceanic currents are setting from
the equator towards the poles,
This law in the distribution of corals, pointed out by Dana, is
believed to hold also in the case of other animals, which, unlike
corals in their mode of life, are not fixed, and have left no hard
secretions to denote their former or present existence.
It will be seen by a consultation of Kriimmel’s maps of the
distribution of surface temperatures in the Atlantic, and by a
reference to the chart of the surface temperatures published in
Science for December, 1887, that the Bay of Fundy does not lie in
the same isothermal zone as do the waters of the coast of Greenland.
Perhaps these zones were only intended as approximations, and the
temperature of the water of the Bay of Fundy may not be higher
than of that of the coast of Newfoundland. In the chart referred
to, the Bay of Fundy is near the southern limit of the zone of low
surface temperature, and the high tides may account for the large
percentage of boreal surface animals in its waters.
aipa — life washed to the coast of England will probably be
pate - from that of Labrador under the same latitude.
i y due also to the food of the coral, minute floating life, which
18 furnished in greater abundance on account of the currents.
608 Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy.
The student of the geographical distribution of pelagic life will,
I believe, find a correlation between the facies of this fauna and the
zones of equal temperatures of the sea. An improvement in the
projection of these zones on the maps of oceans will lead to a
corresponding advance in our knowledge of the distribution of
marine life characteristic of the surface of the sea. If we accept
the proposition that the pelagic fauna of the Bay of Fundy is Arctic
in its facies, it becomes an interesting thing to study carefully this
fauna in its relation to animals found in deep-sea.! Is there a
closer affinity between animals found on the surface of the ocean,
where the water has an Arctic temperature, and those of the deep
water where the temperature is the same, than between those of the
surface of the ocean in the tropics and deep water, where there is a
marked difference in temperature? Although marine zoology has
never been a primary object of polar exploration, it is probably true
that most interesting results are to be looked for if the attention of
Arctic explorers is turned to the importance of this study. Let
me call to mind one interesting aspect of the study of marine ani-
mals from polar regions. Now that the character of the deep-sea
fauna may be said to be known, as far as its general facies is con-
cerned, it may be well to ask whether there are any places on the
globe where conditions found in deep water are repeated in shallow
seas, and where there is a similitude in the environment under
which life exists.
There are two conditions under which deep-sea life is placed
which may be considered. The first of these is pressure, a condition
which we can normally expect to find only in the sea at great
depths ; the second is a low temperature of the water which exists
in certain oceans at the surface? A third condition, viz, the
amount of light, is in a way connected with the second. In my
consideration of the subject it is not discussed.
1 The explanation advanced by physical geographers that cold
waters near land are sometimes due to a replacement of surface waters
by those from great depths may explain many peculiarities in the dis-
tribution of life.
2 Murdoch’s record of pelagic animals taken from the Arctic Ocean
when the temperature was 29.1° F., is among the most valuable which
have been made on the character of pelagic life in water of this low
surface temperature. If they are not the first observations on this sub-
ject, they are certainly the most complete.
Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 609
In many invertebrate animals the difference in pressure at
1000 fathoms and at one fathom is endured with impunity by
the same species. Difference in pressure under which a deep-sea
animal is placed is not believed to be the influence which is most
important in the determination of the limitation of deep-sea faunæ
to certain depths.
Invertebrate animals, however, which can endure equally well
enormous pressures or live near the surface without harm, are
delicately susceptible to a change of temperature of a few degrees.
Temperature has drawn even in littoral zones invisible limits or
lines of demarcation, which are partially known to naturalists.
The laws of the diminution in heat with the depth has also been
shown. It is known that the bottom temperatures of deep-seas are
surface temperatures in some parts of the globe. If temperature.
is an important condition of the environment of deep-sea animals,
it is significant to discover what the character of the marine life is
in latitudes where the temperature is that of the deep sea and where
it is constant.
The polar oceans show on the surface of the water the low
temperatures of the deep seas. Those temperatures, to find which in
tropical oceans the plummet has to go many fathoms below the
surface here come to the surface, and are its ordinary temperature
It is interesting to discover whether in places widely separated in
latitude, but where the temperature of the sea is the same and
constant, we find any uniformity in the ocean fauna. It must be
recognized that we have in the great body of water which com-
poses the ocean a mass of liquid, the temperature of which is
modified by local currents, vicinity to the land, and other conditions.
As a general law, to which there are some exceptions, it may be
said that the temperature of the sea decreases as we sink below its
surface, Of all places in the ocean, where the limits of variations
sB temperature are small, none equals the deep water. A maximum
variation in the tropics may be found on the surface and in the
neighborhood of the coast line. The minimum is far below the
surface in the deep water.
It may readily be imagined that, if there were no distribution of
heat in the ocean by currents as we go north or south from
the equator, we should find the isothermobatric lines, or lines
610 Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy.
of equal deep-sea temperature, gradually approaching the surface of
the sea until we come to the icy waters of the pole. Here we
should find a law of the distribution of heat similar to that which
holds on land, where there is a constant relationship between the
altitude above the level of the sea and the latitude as far as the
diminution in temperature is concerned, unless modified by local
conditions. As we ascend the tropical mountain the heat, as a general
thing, diminishes; the same is true as we go below the ocean. As
we increase our latitude in either case, the temperature follows a
common law in its change, approaching pari passu the level of
the sea.
It was long ago recognized that the distribution of plant life on
a tropical mountain is correlated with the change in temperature,
and that in ascending a tropical mountain-side we pass through the
three climati¢ zones. The author does not know how far this
theory is now accepted by botanists, but it is interesting to see
whether a similar law holds in the ocean where there is a like
change in temperature. We know that there is a peculiar fauna of
those animals which habitually live on the bottom in the deep sea.
We know there is an sequatorial marine life which is confined to the
surface of the ocean, represented by Physalia, Veleila, and others.
Associated with the latter are other genera, as Afolla, which some-
times go down to 1800 fathoms below the surface. Are there any
meduse at 1800 fathoms which rise to the surface without destruc-
tion? I.think there are, although our facts are not decisive
enough to prove it.! I also believe that there are nomadic deep-sea
animals which in the tropics cannot rise through the stratum of
warm water above them without harm, but it by no means follows »
that where these low temperatures of the deep seas become surface
temperatures they may not come to the surface of the sea.
It seems probable that the cold areas of deep seas have pre-
served uniformity of environment for a much longer period of time
than warmer areas of the surface. ‘The water of the ocean in differ-
ent strata is, of course, varying its temperature, but there are
certain positions where an almost uniform temperature has been
kept up for long periods of time. The uniformity of conditions 12
1 Since this was written a large number of observations by Chun
have shown the truth of this belief.
Surface Fauna of the Bay of Fundy. 611
the cold polar seas, as far as temperature of the water goes, is
greater than under the equator at the surface.. Consider the waters
of the polar ocean covered by a paleocrystal ice, and those unpro-
tected under the burning tropical sun. In the one there is certainly
a minimum of variation in temperature, in the other a maximum,
as far as the water is concerned. If environment, if uniformity of
conditions, has anything to do with variation in forms of life or
with the preservation of ancestral features through long periods of
time, should it not appear in the animals which live under these
conditions ?
There is a certain parallelism in the animals of cold and warm
oceans and those of deep seas and littoral zones. It is, of course,
impossible to link together what we know of deep-sea life with
that of the polar region with any hope of a satisfactory answer as
long as our knowledge of either is incomplete. Fortunately the
character of deep-sea life in late years has been investigated. As far
as this problem goes, the least satisfactory part is that which pertains
tothe nomadic deep-sea genera. With regard to the marine life of the
polar regions, where the deep-sea temperatures become surface tem-
peratures, much remains to be done. We know the littoral marine
Invertebrata of the polar sea better than those of many bays con-
tiguous to our own eountry, but the subject of the marine surface
fauna is yet to be more fully investigated. If polar exploration is
to be continued, as there is no doubt that it will be, a more com-
plete study of the marine life would be an important object of such
exploration, and would be of value to our knowledge of the geo-
graphical distribution of marine animals. It would be interesting
to take up again the somewhat threadbare discussion of a relation-
ship between the Arctic and deep-sea faunae. It might verify a
prediction that it is possible to recognize ancestral forms among those
Which people the icy waters of the polar seas. The theory of the
Arctic character of deep-sea faunæ is by no means a new one, and as
long as the zone of deep water from 100 to 300 fathoms was studied
there seemed to bea marked likeness between these two fauna. When,
however, the variegated fauna of the abysses of the ocean came to be
studied, it became more difficult to found resemblances between deep-
Sea animals and those of the poles. Our comparison of deep-sea
floating life with the polar introduces a new phase in the discussion,
612 Cerebrology in Phrenology.
as the animals which we are considering are not attached, but are
nomadic in nature. There is nothing to prevent a comparison between
the nomadic life of deep water and that of the Arctic, even if the
facies of the abyssal zone is different from that of any oceanic fauna of
the globe. While the difficulties in the investigation of the animals
of the polar regions are such that much remains yet unknown in
relation to the surface life of these latitudes, the similarity of that
of the Bay of Fundy to it, if such a likeness really exists, renders
this study comparatively easy. It becomes imperative, then, to
know accurately the facies of this fauna if one would use this
knowledge in comparisons with deep-sea faune.
CEREBROLOGY AND THE POSSIBLE SOMETHING
IN PHRENOLOGY.
BY S. V. CLEVENGER, M.D.
ee years ago, in the American Journal of Nervous and Mental
Disease, I reviewed the history of brain studies, from Erasis-
ratus to Ferrier, and described the conyolutions and fissures with
their equivalent names as used by English, German, French and
Italian investigators. Microscopic details had at that time added
immensely to our knowledge of the structure of this important
organ, but since then pathological and physiological science has cor-
rected many of the errors prevalent and improved our understand-
ing of the localization of function.
When it was established that arm, leg, tongue, ear and eye cen-
tres were distributed about the brain cortex, beneath alleged bumps
of conjugality, appetite for music, theology and onions, phrenology
was discouraged except among its more ignorant devotees. At the
conclusion of a popular lecture on the anatomy and physiology of
the brain I was assailed by an itinerant phrenologist who did not
relish his dollar-a-head prospects being jeopardized by the spread
of my heresies. He offered to stake money on the infallibility of
his “science” in a public demonstration, and when told that phre-
nology had been written up in a form available for criticism and
Cerebrology in Phrenoiogy. 613
found to be defective, he warmed to the conclusion that he could
lick any one who opposed phrenology with such “ ipsy dixys.”
Gall and Spurzheim are always cited by phrenologis.s as the
founders of their system. While this is true, and it is also
undoubted that they were in advance of the early part of this cen-
tury in brain anatomy and philosophical guess work of brain func-
tions, it is forgotten that but few anatomists of note have sustained
the theories that have been piled upon the fairly well done work of
a time when brain study was infantile. The ignorance of those
who practice phrenology as an art, their illogicality, impudence and
. rapacity for fees, the fact that phrenology stands isolated from all
the sciences, having nothing to do with physiology, chemistry,
microscopy or pathology, as cerebrology has; its frequent defiance
of exact knowledge which negatives the pretensions of bumpology,
—all relegate phrenological claims to an equality with those of
spiritualism, Christian science, jugglery and the multitude of penny-
catching devices of an age of never-failing crops of knaves and
fools. There is nothing like a good knowledge of physiology to
destroy charlatanism and the superstition upon which it fattens.
But alchemy gave us some chemical facts, and astrology was
mixed up with a few astronomical truths. Psychical research
societies are trying to examine prestidigitation as one would study
the mechanism of a watch through its key-hole, and it seems to me
that patient study can be applied profitably to an examination of
moribund old phrenology.
The tendency was extreme to locate pin-head points on the cra-
nium that would reveal such things as whether one preferred coffee
to tea; but, starting with the admission that there is a little truth
m phrenology, in a general way, we are also confronted with the
fact that, no matter how it is done, there has been some pretty
shrewd guessing at character by even ignorant phrenologists. Their
physiognomy studies are incomparably inferior to those of Darwin,
or even those of the windy Lavater. Every one is an unconscious
Physiognomist without having analyzed expression ; phrenologists
make use of this common ability in estimating character. But this
does not include their entire method, as they often hit off traits
more happily than mere expression would enable them to do.
First of all let us glance at what is really known about heads
614 Cerebrology in Phrenology.
and their contents, and then see how much of phrenology can be
adjusted thereto.
Prognathism and acuteness of Camper’s angle are well-known
indications of less intelligence. Apes also have less skull capacity
with larger and more numerous ridges for muscle attachment.
The European has a characteristic medium (mesocephalic),
rounder, oval or elliptical head, with no portion too prominent or
flat, presenting.more symmetry of contour, with oval face and full,
expanded, elevated forehead. Want of symmetry, if marked,
attends mental defect, but it has occurred in highly gifted men such
as the French anatomist Bichat. No two heads are exactly alike
any more than are two faces. The proportions existing between
the front, middle and back parts of the head are of some value;
departures from a width of eight and length of ten (mesocepha-
lism), measured from one auricular aperture over the head to the
other, and nose root over the head to the nucha, determine whether
the skull shall be considered long, dolichocephalic, or broad, brachy-
cephalic.
The front expanse is associated with a possible reasoning power,
the back part with animality, but as this is necessary to force of
character, a well-balanced head would be one that had a fair size of
both parts. As the frontal bone is elevated the parietal must be
raised to meet it. The artist Haydon, by cutting off this parietal
raise, showed that the head was reduced from an intellectual to an
animal appearance. Scaphocephalism, or a boat-shaped depression
of the summit, occurs from defective parietal bone formation.
The Kalmucks incline to brachycephalism, while the negro 1$
dolichocephalic, with prognathous jaw, large temporal and auricular
muscles and low foreheads; the Esquimaux are tectocephalic (rafter-
headed), with flat, pyramidal or lozenge-shaped faces, due to exces-
sive zygoma projection, and narrow foreheads.
Carpenter notes that want, squalor and ignorance diminish the
cranial and increase the facial size.
With increase of intelligence there is a larger brain mass in pro-
portion to the muscular size, and also to the size of the spinal cord
and peripheral nerves. I claim priority! in adopting the sulcus of
1 Sulcus of Rolando and Intelligence. Written Feb., 1880. Journal
of Nervous and Mental Disease, April, 1880. :
Cerebrology in Phrenology. 615
Rolando as a means of estimating grades of intelligence in animals
by the relative masses of brain parts it separated. Meynert! had,
unknown to me, nearly simultaneously, stated that the angle at
which the Rolandic departed from the Sylvian fissure was a meas-
ure, but in this he is in error, for that angle is not constant for spe-
cies, while the relative proportions of fore and rear brain divided
by the Rolandic sulcus maintain a just ratio to grades of intelli-
gence, and the left suleus summit should be farther back in the
normal brain than the one upon the right side. I also claimed that
the cerebellum was covered by the cerebrum in proportion as the
frontal lobe developed and crowded the occipital portion backward,
= forehead by this pressure is correspondingly expanded and
ifted
In the scale of higher intelligence the connecting commissures of
the brain are more numerous, and the cortical gray matter is
encroached upon by more cells and fibres. Convolutions are not
necessarily more numerous, except where the cranium is relatively
small and the soft brain tissue by rapid growth folds in to accom-
modate itself to the want of corresponding skull growth.
Á In accord with the results of earlier electrical experiments upon
T brains of anthropoid apes, dogs and other animals, are
e effects of disease limited to special parts of the brain of man,
? Archiv für Psychiatrie, vii.
616 Cerebrology in Phrenology.
more recently and thoroughly studied. We now know that there
are centres in the brain of man for the speech faculty above the
temple, and thence backward and upward to the upper back part of
the head are arm and leg centres; auditory mental impressions
being registered in the brain above the upper ear tip; a centre for
visual function being in the occipital end of the cerebrum. The
frontal brain is known to contribute to intellectual processes, for its
injury degrades the character. This approximately sketches what
has become positively known, and the illustration further assists the
comprehension of these facts. The touch sense centres are distrib-
uted over the brain coincidentally, with motor centres for the same
parts, i.e., arm motor and sensory areas are in the same part of the
brain.
Spaces intervening between the areas may readily be conceived to
be filled with fibrils and cells that interrelate these and other func-
tions complexly, the frontal portion compound complexly.
Sir Charles Bell remarked that “ we ought to define the hand as
belonging exclusively to man.” Upon the increased dexterity in
the use of fingers in the arts and sciences, which dexterity, in turn,
develops brain centres, depends, largely, increased intelligence.
Manipulation and vocal training enlarge the “symbolic field” of
the brain (the speech, arm and leg centres before mentioned), situ-
ated along the sulcus of Rolando. Man is distinctively the sym-
bolic animal, and whether these symbols are written, spoken or ges-
ticulated, they serve purposes of intelligent intercourse, and upon
this fact is based man’s supremacy over other animals, and his
higher faculties are superimposed thereupon.
When the portions of the brain allotted to control of body extrem-
ities are diseased, the dependent loss of function follows, but not
necessarily involving mental loss; for example, if the injury is *
the summit of the sulcus of Rolando, upon one side of the brain,
the body is paralyzed upon the opposite side. The “blank spaces”
between these centre areas afford debatable ground, for often injury
in such parts has been followed by no discovered consequence. My
opinion is that the effects have not been looked for in the proper
direction ; for, while destruction limited to these blank parts does
not occasion loss of observable function (the arms, legs, speech may
be unaffected), there will be found an attendant lowering of the
Cerebrology in Phrenology. 617
mentality in some or several directions, if thorough tests be made.
What has been grouped under change of character should be sifted
to ascertain what constitutes the change. If we grant, as we must,
that all these function areas, ascertained to be such, are related, con-
nected, by multitudes of strands and cells in the most complex man-
ner over and across the blank spaces, then lesion of those spaces
must interfere with the connections, the mental associations possible
before cannot now be made. Occasionally “word deafness” or
“word blindness” occurs, peculiar inability to connect words heard
or read with any memory of their import, and, as could be expected,
this impairment occurs when the lower parietal or “angular gyrus”
region is the seat of the disease. While this consequence of injury
to this part has been long known, I believe this to be the first
announcement of the reason for it, and I will predict that the addi-
tional offices of this “blank area” will be established as noted
below. “ Arcuate ” connecting fibrils enmesh the brain surface,
uniting faculties intricately, in a manner obviously dependent upon
the education and other circumstances of the individual. These
fibrils and their generating cells may pile up in certain parts and be
defective in others ; the musician will have more connections
between the auditory and motor centres, and the painter between
the optic and motor, than others. One whose impulses or springs
of action are well subordinated to what he has learned through
optic, auditory or other senses, will have greater strands of connec-
tions between the sensory and motor brain parts to regulate his
deeds than the impulsive or heedless person.
These blank spaces become what might be styled inhibitory
regions, in that they restrain acts; they can also more properly be
called impulse areas, because they regulate and prompt actions. As.
they correlate the sense and motor centres, they are also memory
areas, as is evident when injury causes words to convey no meaning
to the mind. Now, if what we see, feel and hear govern our
actions, he who profits best by what he has been taught, or upon
whom such teaching makes the best impression, will, à priori, have —
the most abundant supply of arcuate fibrils in this parietal region ;
such restraint or guidance unavoidably causes acts to be less impul-
‘ive, more subordinated to the interests of the individual. If those
needs are considered to be best conserved by subservience to others
618 Cerebrology in Phrenology.
their approval will tend to regulate acts, a form of cautious defer-
ence dominates the person; if a wider, higher and better form of
cautiousness, based upon what one considers his highest interests,
is higher expediency ideals, whether with reference to this or
another world, then the person is said to be conscientious. At this
stage of analysis of what these inhibitory or impulse connections
involved, I was astounded by recalling that phrenologists group
“ conscientiousness, approbativeness and cautiousness” in the iden-
tical place under discussion. The process of arriving at this dis-
covery was by first recognizing inhibition to be but cautious con-
trol, and I have long held the idea that conscientiousness was but a
higher caution.’ Startled by noting that phrenologists place them
next one another, as they assert, empirically, they having found
these eminences to be prominent in persons who were thus scrupu-
lous or guarded, I next observed that “approbativeness”’ is placed
behind, but adjoining “caution and conscientiousness.” This nar-
ration should acquit me of special pleading. Disposed unfavorably,
as I was and am, against phrenology, as in the main a pseudo-sci-
` ence, my aim has been to unsparingly criticize it.
This group of alleged bumps in the position the phrenologists
assign it is a remarkable coincidence, if it prove to be no more.
I prefer the designation Impulse and Memory region until more
scientific men than phrenologists agree upon the separation of the
area into the divisions, “ cautiousness, conscientiousness and appro-
bativeness,” which cannot be done until we ascertain whether phre-
nologists lied, were mistaken, or were right in this particular.
“ Firmness, Self-esteem, and Continuity” are placed by them
over the tonsure or earliest bald spot, beneath which in the brain is
the summit of the Rolandic sulcus, injury to which invariably
causes paralysis of the opposite side. We can concede that an
abundance of arm and leg centres in this region would indicate the
possession of self-reliance, nor would it be far-fetched to interpret
such control as firmness, scoring another for phrenology; an excess
of this might be construed into self-esteem, and if the motor area
(as in fact it does sometimes) extend farther occipitally, then this
brain centre increase of cells and fibrils serving for better innerva-
tion of arms, legs and other parts, might be allowed to constitute
ı Comparative Physiology and Psychology. A. C. McClurg & Co., 1884.
Cerebrology in Phrenology. 619
“continuity ” in enabling more prolonged effort. Coincidences that
may be justified by a real relationship. Quien sabe?
Below and toward the front is “ Hope.” If thought has its main
seat in the frontal region, a prolongation of fibrils thence to control
acts with a definite expectation in view, anticipation based upon
reason, might justify some such bump as this, and in about that
location. “Ideality” seems better placed, farther forward, for a
similar reason, and not open to the objection of being located over
arm and leg centres, as is “ Hope,” although arcuate fibrils having
many destinations may overlie any part of the brain.
“ Benevolence” is placed near or over the anterior fontanelle.
As this trait is the outgrowth of sympathy, an acute feeling for
others depending upon a thoughtful correlation of past experiences
or impressions inherited or acquired, so there may be such a swell-
ing in that vicinity.
“Constructiveness” is over the third frontal convolution root,
which, on the left side, is the demonstrated seat of language, so
the bump is mislocated: A rounding out ef the side head above
and forward of this could indicate the possession of such a faculty,
because it depends upon ingenuity, mechanical ability, etc., a brain
and mental breadth.
“Eventuality, Comparison, Causality, Individuality,” in the
frontal apices, apparently appropriately enough, for cerebral
reasons,
The claim that “Amativeness” resides in the cerebellum has
been sufficiently disproved by the experiments recorded in Car-
penter’s Physiology, where the cerebrum, and not the cerebellum,
decreased in size with sexual loss. Furthermore, the cerebellum
has no relation whatever to the posterior protrusion of the skull.
A large muscular development is an indication of animality, which
may be offset by intellectual balancing. Large trapezius and
sterno-cleido-mastoid muscles would have a correspondingly large
occipital ridge, and it is over this that the phrenologists locate
‘ Amativeness,”
_ The animal propensities, “Combativeness, Secretiveness, Destruc-
tiveness, Alimentiveness and Acquisitiveness ” are suggestively
gathered over the temporal and auricular muscles, as these mus-
cles are large in rapacious animals. Without admitting the spe-
620 Cerebrology in Phrenology.
cial divisions, these animal traits undoubtedly could accompany
extra prominence of these muscles in the place assigned to these
faculties by the phrenologists, while there is not a cerebral or cra-
nial warrant for the location, palpably when beneath this muscu-
lar swelling the skull is often depressed to afford it attachment.
“ Alimentiveness” is appropriately placed over the temporo-max-
illary articulation ; a great eater works this vicinity more, and thus
may increase its size.
The superciliary ridge may be enlarged by serviceable and asso-
ciated habit in shielding the eye, frowning while trying to per-
ceive better, and thus indicate perceptive acuteness, but the sub-
divisions into size, color, etc., require demonstration, as extremely
doubtful. :
“Form” is said to be shown by width between the eyes. I
know good artists who have not this width, and execrable ones
who have it. Language does not produce cedema of the lower
eye-lids; the faculty is remotely and surely situated under the
alleged “ Constructiveness.
It would not be profitable to discuss the other bumps, as they
seem rather absurd.
We thus alight upon three main character indications, due to
brain, skull or muscle prominences, which the phrenologists errone-
ously call cranial, and regard the brain as the cause of the skul
elevations.
Thus, for cerebral reasons, there seems to be a plausibility in the
location of
Firmness, Self: esteem, Continuity. Possibly justified by the
underlying motor centres for the arm and leg, Cerebral control of
the body.
Cautiousness, Conscientiousness, Approbativeness. Inhibitory
faculties situated over spaces between rearward braim centres.
Benevolence, Hope, Ideality, Constructiveness. Inhibitory oF
impulse faculties between motor and intellect centres.
Causality, Comparison, Eventuality, Individuality. Intellectual
faculties of the fore brain, internuncial fibrils relating other brain
parts, correlating impulse areas,
For muscular and cranial reasons there is justification for the
grouping of
Cerebrology in Phrenology. 621
Combativeness, Destructiveness, Secretiveness, Acquisitiveness,
Alimentiveness. Animal traits that can be grouped under Fero-
city, accompanied with large-sized temporal and auricular muscles.
Amativeness. Animality, with large neck muscles, occipital
ridge and mastoid process.
Perceptives. In proportion to size of eye-brow ridge.
The remaining half of the phrenological faculties appear wholly
or nearly wholly, unjustified.
Divested of the less plausible alleged faculties, the remaining
ones, when subjected to the crucial test of Herbert Spencer’s classi-
fications of the feelings and cognitions, stand the scrutiny quite
well, for the presentative feelings can be assigned to the cortical
centres for sight, ete., and the impulse areas will include from
behind forward the presentative-representative or emotions, the
representative as “sublimity,” and re-representative such as acqui-
sitiveness, which might tempt us to take the latter out of the tem-
poral muscle and allow it the position assigned by the phrenologists
as cerebral. The cognitions similarly classified end in the highest
of all, being placed in the apex of the frontal lobe, the re-representa-
tive cognitions, aggregations of representations, the appreciation of
the general relations of things.
There is something beside generalizations in phrenology hidden
beneath a load of trash. In shoveling this away scientific men are
apt to jeer the labor ; they can be as mulish as the most ignorant
In refusing to see what they do not want to know; they are human,
as witness the reluctance with which the majority accepted Dar-
Winism, though emanating from a reputable source.
It should not be forgotten that phrenology was founded by good
anatomists, and that scientists turned against it because charlatans
built error upon it; but quacks have taught us a few things worth
knowing.
622 Observations made in the Central Philippines.
OBSERVATIONS MADE IN THE CENTRAL
PHILIPPINES.
BY J. B. STEERE.
sas islands of Panay, Guimaras, Cebu and Bojol may well be
grouped together and called the Central Philippines. They
are geographically connected ; their people are of allied races and
language, and, as we found, they are closely allied zoologically.
With Mindanao on the south, Palawan on the west, Masbate and
Mindoro on the north, and Leyte and Samar on the east, they are
separated from all these by broad straits, while the channels divid-
ing them among themselves are at their narrowest points nowhere
more than five or six miles of continuous sea, and this usually
shallow and apparently rapidly changing hues, so that the land
areas must have been very different in size and form ata very recent
period. —
We arrived at the end of December, 1887, at Ilo Ilo, the cap-
ital of Panay, and the principal trade centre of the surrounding
islands. Soon after we moved over to a pleasant native house on
the island of Guimaras opposite. The place was on thé beach, at
the foot of some steep! cliffs of coral, a little brook came
tumbling down at one side, while a fine grove of cocoa palms
shaded the house. The woods were near, and beautiful sun birds
and Diceeums were flying about the palm houses, while several of
the most beautiful species of the famed Philippine tree shells were
found in abundance on the barn door and other outhouses near by.
We were near enough the city to get a supply of fresh meat and
bread every morning, and it was the nearest a naturalist’s paradise
we had yet found. The birds as they came in, though of genera
we had already become familiar with in the west and south, were
most of them of different species, showing that we had reached 4
new and distinct area, _
The west side of the island is made up of steep, rugged cliffs of
limestone, which rise up from two to three hundred feet above the
sea. The rock has weathered into crevices and holes, leaving
Observations made in the Central Philippines. 623
sharp points standing up, which makes transit very difficult.
Inland this rock is broken up by narrow, steep valleys, through
which flow the little streams from the centre of the island. The
cliffs are full of caves, which seem in most cases to be water courses
cut through the rock. We had heard of nests of the edible
swallow (swift) in the island, and finally found a wrinkled old
Indian who made a living by gathering the nests and selling
to the Chinese at Ilo Ilo. The nests are not found, as might be
supposed, in those caves opening near the sea, but in those far
inland, where the cavity is covered with forest. We went to the
nest-gatherer’s hut, two or three miles back from the sea, and telling
him our object, he provided himself with a torch of native gum
(dammar) and another made of the ribs of cocoa palm leaves, and
we set out. After half an hour’s rapid tramping through the
steep, rocky valleys, we came to a low ledge of rock, eight or ten
feet high, covered with vines and bushes, and at the foot of this a
black hole three or four feet square, leading down into the earth.
The opening was just large enough to crawl through, but our guide
lighted his torches, and getting down on hands and knees crawled
in, and we followed, down a steep, narrow, rocky passage, the
channel of a stream in the rainy season. It widened and grew
higher as we went down, but was still nothing more than a rift
made in the rocks, perhaps by earthquake, and widened by water
wear. The rocks were muddy and slippery, and we followed our
barefooted guide with difficulty. Still on we went, until all trace
of light except from our torches was gone, and it seemed anything
but a fitting place for birds’ nests. Still we went on, until after
we were perhaps a hundred feet below the surface, and several
hundred from the mouth of the cave, we began to hear the weak,
faint twittering of the little birds as they flew about over our heads,
and finally the Indian raised his torch, and we could see in the roof
of the cave shallow hollows in the rock, and in these, and partly
supported by their sides, the little white, cup-like nests, which the
guide began tearing out with his fingers, and stuffing into a pouch
at his belt. The birds fluttered about almost in our faces, but he
kept on until he had gathered all in sight. None of them had eggs
in them, as he had visited the place but two or three weeks before.
The nests were pure white in color, made of little fibres interwoven
624 Observations made in the Central Philippines.
with each other, and were still soft and damp. How the birds had
ever found this place so far from the light, with a dry face of rock,
and with suitable digression in it was a wonder, and how they
could do this work of nest building in such utter darkness.
Coming to the surface we set out again, and after an hour’s tramp
came to the second cave. This time as we were making our way
down a steep, timbered valley, the path all at once dropped out
before us, and we were at the mouth of a dark well, leading down
almost perpendicularly for twenty or thirty feet at first, when the
descent became more gradual. By clinging to the projecting rocks
we clambered down, and soon found ourselves in a passage twenty
feet high and as many broad. Great masses of rock had fallen
from the roof, which made our progress slow. Curious stalactite
growths, taking the form of flat plates with saw-tooth edges, were
hanging from the roof. After making our way to a still greater
depth and distance than before, we again heard the faint noise of
the birds, not loud enough to be heard except in such perfect quiet
as we were in. It seemed more like the sounds spirits might make
than the notes of anything earthly. Soon after we came to a part
of the cave where the roof was some eight or ten feet high, and
worn into curious and very regular pits, five or six inches deep and
as many wide at the mouth, and as smooth and round as if made
artificially. In these the birds were building their nests, attaching
‘them to the walls of the pits. Again, in spite of the weak protests
of the owners, the nests were torn out and appropriated by our
guide.
As we made our way out we passed a stalactitic column a foot
in diameter, which had connected the roof and floor of the cave,
but had been broken across by earthquake, and the ends separated
by half an inch. The thought of being caught away in there 10
utter darkness by an earthquake, with the rocks grinding and shut-
ting in upon us, was anything but pleasant. Near the mouth of
the cave, just where we could begin to perceive a ray of light
from the surface, were several nests of cruder, rougher make, bemmg
much larger and made chiefly of grass and lichens stuck into the
face of the rocks by large masses of the edible gum. The birds
are, without doubt, of the same species. The guide said they were
sentinels to alarm those within, and that their nests were always
Observations made in the Central Philippines. 625
built in that way. The birds are quite abundant in the island,
and there are probably many caves which the old man has not yet
found. He is said to be the only one who dares enter them, others
being deterred by stories of snakes, which are not all stories, for we
passed, near the mouth of the second cave, the cast-skin of a snake
eight or ten feet in length. There are also stories of a curious
little black, hairy people, the Kama Kama, which are invisible at
most times, and which inhabit these caves and live on the snails
with which the island abounds. The guide pointed out great heaps
of empty shells, far if the caves, as proofs of the existence of the
Kama Kama, but they looked like shells which had been floated in
by high water.
The edible nest (swift) according to the guide, whose account
was proved to be correct by our observations as far as they
went, nests the year round, lays two small, white eggs, is
about a month completing its nest, lays the eggs on the bird
edible material of the nest, nests time after time in the same nest,
adding to it each time. The young build beside the nest in which
they were born, frequently attaching their nest to that of the
parents,
The only forest remaining in Guimaras was in the rough gorges
and upon the rocky cliffs near the sea, the upper level of the interior
of the island being sandy, and much of it in cultivation to sweet
potatoes and Indian corn, and in the lower places to rice. The
hills of Panay, all about Ilo Ilo, and as far up the mountains
as we could see, showed no virgin forest, but only grassy slopes and
bushy ravines, a poor outlook for our work. Whether the same
conditions have worked like results elsewhere or not, there can be
no doubt that the Indian method of cultivation has produced
these grassy plains from an anciently heavily timbered country.
They cultivate by cutting down the timber and burning it during
the dry season, and then planting on the burned and blackened
ground. One or two crops are raised before the wild growth gets
too strong for their large knives, their only implement of cultiva-
Som and then the timber grows again from the roots and sprouts
left in the ground, and the cultivator cuts off another piéce of forest.
After a few years, if the population is thick enough to demand it,
the first piece, now grown up to brushwood twelve or fifteen feet
>
a
626 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
high, is again cut and burned and planted, and so on over and over
again, the tree growth beeoming weaker each time, until the coarse
grass (cogon) gets in, and with it the annual fires, and then there is
an end to Indian cultivation, and where were once tall forests,
grassy plains take their place. This process can be seen on any
island of the Philippines in all its stages. In some places the
people are trying to overcome the cogon with the poor Chinese
plows and the buffalo, but it is a slow way, and most of them
prefer to move on to the fofests again. By this means the central
islands, which are the most thickly peopled, have become for the
most part covered with grass, while the more sparsely settled islands
of the west and south remain in forest.
[TO BE CONCLUDED. ]
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Garman, S.—Proe. U. S. Nat aes The Generic Name of the Pastina-
39.—Abnormal Embryos of Trout and Salmon. Ext. a Seience
Observer,” Vol. V., No. 1. All from the author.
Chapman, H. C.—Notes on the Anatomy of the Indian por mn Rep-
Jour. Comp. Med. and Sur., April, 1887. From the or.
Fischer, J. G.—Beschreibung neuer oder were | bekannter Reptilien.
Verhand d. Natur. Ver. v. Hamburg und Alto:
Hoy, P. R.—How and By Whom Were the Lopper Ptali Made!
Wid Built the Mounds? Racine, Wis., From the author
Cornet, J.—Note sur le prétendu Pro-atlas pal ammiferes et de Hat-
teria punctata. Ext. Bull. Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 1888. Fro
the author.
Lameere, A.—Table générale des Annales de la sige entomologique
de Belgique. Brussels, 1887. From the auth
Klement, A., ) Réactions siete a cinta % kg r appia ae
a l'analyse qualitative. Annales p
Renard, A. Micros., 1887. From the authors.
Cook, G. H.—Annual Report = es State Geologist of New Jersey for
the year 1887. From the au
Winchell, A»—Speculative Consequences of Evolution. Days of Mich.
hilos. Papers, Second Ser., . From the au i
Allen, H.—The Distribution of he Aig oa of Mammalia. aps
Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci., Phil.; Feb. 28, 1888.—Materials for a Memo
ki onal-Lacomorion. 1888. Both from the author.
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 627
Shufeldt, R. W.—On the Skeleton of the Genus oe ela Osteo-
logical Notes upon Other North American Icteridee ndt orvidæ.
From the Jour. Anat. and Pha; Vol. XXII. Pioni tho. author.
Observations on the Laws of Muscular Stimulation
Kemp, G. T. pi ‘
Campbell, J. P. in Striped Muscle. These three in Studies from the
Biol. Lab., Johns Hopkins Univ., Vol. IV., No, 3,
From the University.
Bonney, T. G.—On the Results of Pressure and of the Intrusion or
Granite in Stratified Palæozoic Rocks near Morlaix, ane ny. Ext.
uart. Jour. Geol. Soc., Feb., 1888. From the aut
co
Hockley, T., Sixteenth Annual Report of the nak ef Directors of
an the Zool ia Society of Philadelphia. 1888.
iiaa A: ri the Soc
uerne, a RUR rool ues dans les iles de Fayal et de San
Miguel Capores). Camp sci. du L’Hirondelle, 1887. From the
Judd, J. W.—Address Delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the
Geological Society of London, Feb. 17, 1888. From the author
Gunther, at es on Some Japanese Mammalia. P. Z. S., June, 1880.
poe phon of Ophites japonicus, a New Snake from Japan.
. ec., t
, , 1880.—Seventh Contribution to the Knowledge of the
Fauna of Mada r. P.Z. S. May, ntribution to Our
Knowledge of ee aes a penne of South American Fresh-
water ee ce gale .— Batrachians from
Perak. Z.S. , Oct .—O a Coil ection of Reptiles from China,
hg eek ines! EEY AEP ales ps to the Knowledge of Snakes or
Tropical Africa. P. Z. S., May, 1888. All the above from the
Müller, F. M.—Three Introductory Lectures on the Science of Thought,
nen at the Royal Institution, London, song 1837. Chicago,
Open Court Publishing Co. From the publis sher:
Gil, T.—The Doctrine of Darwin. RAINO iini to the Biol.
Soc. of Washington. From the
kson, S. J.—On the Sexual Cells ad ine Early Stages inthe Develop-
ment of Millepora plicata. Phil. a s. Roy. Soc. of London, Vol.
CLXXIX., 1888. From the aut
Boettger, OC stitericion zur Fauna pa unteren Congo. II. Re eye
und Batrachier. Ber. Senck. naturforsch., Gesell. in Frank
M., 1887. From the author
stage W.—Seventh Annual Report of the State a Califor-
ia State Mining Bureau, for the Year ending October Ist, 1887, with
nira Reports by W. A. Goodyear, A. H. Weber, k 1 Jac.
ana a Ontalogue of Californian Fossils, by J. W. Coope
B Annual Address of the President Natural History
kag L. B., | Society of New Brunswick.—The Echinodermata
W. F, of New Brunswick.—Mollusca of the Oyster-Beds
Winkie, nud H.,) of New Brunswick.—Does Our Indigenous Flora
Show a Recent Change of Climate? All from Bul-
letin No. 7 of the Nat. Hist. Soc., N. B
Marshall, A. M,,) Practical Zoology. orna Smith, Elder & Co.
urst, C. H. 1888. From the authors
628 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Ringueberg, E. N. S.—The Niagara Shales of Western New York: A
tudy of the Origin of their Sub-divisions and their Faun. Ext.
er. Geol., May, 1888. From the author.
Woodward, A. S.—On Two Ganoids from Early Mesozoic Deposits of
range Free State, South Africa.—On Squatina cranei and Belono-
stomus cinctus, from the Chalk of "e Both from the Quart.
Jour. Geol. Soc., May, 1888, and from the
Newberry, J. S.—Geological Notes. Rep. Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol.
VI., 1886-87. From the author.
Prestwich] J.—On the Correlation of the Eocene Strata in a Bel-
gium, and aie rth of France. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., Feb., 1888
thor.
Margerie, Em. de.—Compte-rendu de publications relatives ala géologie
de Hosen et de Amérique. Ext. de l’Annuaire Geologique, 1887.
rom the author.
Becker, G. F.—The oe Rocks. Ext. Bull. Cal. Acad. Sci., 1886.
From the author
Gaudry, A., Medrir pour l’histoire des temps quaternaires. 1888.
et Boule, M. From the authors
Weithofer, A.—Zur Kenntniss e fossilen Cheiropteren der franzö-
sischen } Phosphorite. Aus dem XCVI Bande der Sitzb. der kais.
in der Höhle “ Pytina jama” bei Gabrowitza.—Ueber einen neuen
Dicynodonten aus der Karrooformation Sudafrikas. The last two
from the Ann. des k. k. Naturhist. Hofmuseums, and all from the
au
, J.—Ueber einige peic aag Chimæriden-Reste im Münchener pal-
æontologischen
Holzapfel, E.—Die aa. der Aachener Kreide.
eae zur Kenntniss der fossilen Radiolarien aus Gesteinen
er
Oppenheim, P.—Die Insectenwelt des lithographischen Schiefers in
Bayern. All from Paleontographica, Band NXXIV.
Geography and Travel. 629
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL!
Asta, Erc.—Suanetia.—The first article in the June issue of
i f M
the Proceedings Royal Geographical Society is that o r
ts 0. These glaciers send down to the Ingur or its tributaries
many ice-streams, such as the Adish, which in the Alps would rank
as a first-class glacier. On either flank of the rigid granites lie
beds of friable schists, whose summits present green rounded out-
lines, and exhibit a striking contrast to the snowy precipices of the
great chain. South of Suanetia rises the lofty slate ridge of the
eila, which runs parallel to the main chain, and attains elevations
of 12,000 feet. At its western end this ridge bears some con-
siderable glaciers. The river escapes from the valley at its western
end, tween high spurs of the two chains, and through a narrow
porphyritic gorge not at present passable for horses. To the east
a valley of Suanetia terminates in a low grassy down (8,600
= only 1,600 feet above the highest villages, and beyond this
les a pathless waste of forests and flowers—the wilderness in which
Pui the Skenes Skali, a tributary of the Rion (the ancient
hasis). But this outlet is so circuitous that both Russians and
nea have preferred the higher and steeper Latpari Pass (9,200
eet), which is the usual route into the valley.
e natives of this secluded spot are first mentioned by Strabo
under the name of Soani, and the received text credits them with
Pes ies fighting men. Strabo says that the king had a council of
tk j and that the tribe used poisoned arrows in war. Whatever
et ormer strength of the nation, the Suaneti, as they now call
emselves, did not number more than 12,000 at the last census.
! Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
630 General Notes.
Over one-third of these live on the upper Skenes Skali, and are
more or less merged with the surrounding Mingrelian populations.
The Suanetians are not in the odor of sanctity. At best they
are sheep-stealers and cattle-lifters. They were converted to
Christianity before the tenth century, but may now be fairly
escribed as reverted pagans. Seven hundred years ago Suanetia
formed part of the kingdom of the famous Georgian Queen
Thamara, in whose honor the Suanetians still chant ballads. For
awhile it was connected with Mingrelia, but at some time in the
last century it became entirely unattached, and the upper part of
the Ingur valley still bears the name o Suanetia. The
country is covered with small chapels, dating probably from the
11th and 12th centuries, but these are no longer used as churches,
but as treasure-houses. Long before Suanetia had obtained home
rule, it had disestablished its church, An hereditary caste of local
sisted in sewing together the garments of the bride and bride-
groom, and the ancient funeral ceremonies were revived. There
are traces of tree-worship and also of that of the heavenly bodies.
The natural tendency of the population to increase beyond the
' supporting powers of the territory was effectually checked by placing
a pinch of ashes in the mouth of every superfluous female baby-
Russia assumed suzerainty over this district in 1833, and has
gradually tightened her sway, appointing headmen or starchinas m
every commune, and establishing several schools, as well as placing
its representative at Betsho in a position to command some
respect and obedience. The Suaneti are rather a farming than a
pastoral people, though they keep a few flocks of sheep and herds
of horses. ere does not seem to be a prevalent type among the
The architecture of the Suanetian villages is striking. Towers and
castles abound. Mestia has seventy towers forty to seventy feet high ;
Ushkul about fifty and two castles. The towers, constructed for
defence, are of untrimmed black slate, and are attached to houses
built of the same material.
Geography and Travel. 631
THE Sotomon IsLaAnDs.—The Solomons lie about five hundred
miles east of New Guinea, and extend for six hundred miles north-
west and southeast, between the meridians of 154° and 163° E
longitude, and the parallels of 5° and 11° S. latitude. They were
discovered and named by the Spaniard Mendana, in 1567. There
are seven principal islands (Bougainville, Choiseul, Ysabel, Malayta,
San Christoval, Guadalcanar, New Georgia) and several smaller
ones. The total area of the group is estimated by Mr. ©.
Woodford, who has recently returned from a lengthened residence
among them, at 15,000 square miles, bnt they may still be con-
sidered as to a great extent unknown. Dr. Guppy, who has recently
written a valuable work entitled “The Solomon Islands; their
ology, general Features, and suitability for Colonization ” was.
attached to a man-of-war, but Mr, Woodford resided among the
natives, engaged in collecting birds, mammals, ete., and was thus
exposed to many dangers among a people who are given to head-
hunting and cannibalism. The island of Savo was an active voleand
when discovered in 1567, and at the present time has hot springs,
which also occur upon Simbo and Vella Lavella, while Kulamb-
angara is an extinct volcano. There is an active volcano near the
centre of Bougainville. On this island, which is the largest and
most northerly of the group, the mountains rise to a height of 10,000
eet, on Guadalcanar to 8,000 feet, and on the other large islands
to from three to five thousand feet. The islands are mostly clothed
with dense tropical forest from the coast to the mountain taps.
Records kept by traders at Ugi and Santa Anna show that the
annual rainfall is from 100 to 150 inches per annum. Mr. Wood-
ford stayed awhile upon the islands of Alu, Fauro, New Georgia
and Guadalcanar, on the last of which he lived half a year. Here
he explored the rivers Aola and Kobua, and got a bearing of the
the females are invested in a series of superposed fringes. Many of
7 natives pierce the lobe of the ear, and enlarge the opening
ti l it attains a diameter of two inches or more. he canoes vary
in size from one just large enough to carry a boy of twelve to the
t head-hunting canoes, capable of carrying fifty or sixty men.
é €y are adzed down from the solid tree, sewn together with a
x ugh vegetable fibre, and caulked with a putty scraped from the
an of the nut of Parinarium laurinum. The use of stone im-
Plements seems to have gone out, except perhaps on Bougainville,
632 General Notes.
a plane-iron being now employed to serve as the blade of an
a n Savo the megapode or mound-builder lays its eggs upon
two sandy patches of open ground, and nowhere else on the island.
These laying-grounds are fenced off into small divisions for various
owners. In New Georgia and the adjacent smaller islands the
passion for head-hunting is such that no canoe can be launched
without a head being obtained. The chief hunting grounds are the
large islands of Choiseul and Ysabel, which have been nearly de-
populated by the practice. i
GODWIN-AUSTEN PEAK.—The second highest mountain known
to exist on the earth’s surface is as yet unnamed, unless the letters
K ?, by which it was characterized by the surveyors who discove
and fixed its position nearly thirty years ago, can be called a
name. Attention to this unnamed and unknown condition of the
second mightiest elevation of the world, 28,250 feet above the sea-
level, was called through the reading of Lieutenant Younghusband’s
account of his adventurous passage over the Mustakh Pass on
is way from China to India. General J. T.Walker (late Surveyor-
General of India), has proposed that the peak be named Godwin-
Austen, after the first surveyor of the Mustakh ranges and glaciers,
and the proposition received the assent of the meeting of the Royal
‘Geographical Society.
A route practicable for road or rail has been found from Assam
to Upper Burma, across a belt of dense tree jungle and mounta,
which lies between the last British station in Assam and the summit
of the Patkoi range.
Arrica.—THE CamEroons.—M. Valdau, a Swedish colonist
of the Cameroons, explored the northern slopes of the range in the
early part of 1887, and found that the main chain does not extend
as far as 4°30’ N. Latitude, since the highest point attained by
him, about 4°28’ N. Latitude, only measured 2,850 feet. M. Knut-
son, another Swede, in July last discovered the mouth of the rivet
Memeh, which had previously been supposed either to be a tributary
of the Rio del Rey, or of the Rumbi. Its embouchure is a little to
the south of that of the Rumbi. M. Knutson ascended the rive
which he found to be navigable for about thirty miles, as far as the
Diiben Falls, 100 feet in height. ce
SENEGAMBIA.—French explorers and surveyors have been busy
in Senegambia. The country of Bondu, hitherto known only from
the itineraries of Mungo Park and others, has been thorou hly
surveyed by M. Fortin and Leforte ; and the district of Bambus
which two years ago was the least known part of French Sudan,
Geography and Travel. 633
has been completely surveyed by a large party of officers. This
region occupies the territory between the Faleme, Senegal, Bafing,
and the country of Konkadugu, but its population is only 20,000.
The divide between the Senegal and the Gambia was explored by
the military columns which operated against the Marabout Mah-
madu Lamine. It consists of undulating plains of small elevation,
with stony patches at intervals, and contains five small confederated
states, with a population of about 13,000. South of Bambuk
Captain Oberdorf has explored the Upper Gambia to 12° S. Latitude,
and also the upper courses of the Faleme and the Bafing, two
important tributaries of the Senegal. Existing maps, especially as
regards the Faleme, will have to be considerably altered. This
river does not rise in the plateau of Timbo, but in the Koy Moun-
tains. The Tene, hitherto regarded as the upper course of the
Faleme, is an affluent of the Bafing. The large tributaries of the
Senegal have some fine open reaches, but their navigability is pre-
vented by frequent rapids and falls. Captain Oberdorf concluded
treaties with all the tribes visited, save those of Koy. Lieutenant
Reichemberg visited Konkadugu, Bafe, Solu, and the left bank of
the Bafing. Valuable auriferous bearings are reported from the
first of these districts. Captain Peroz, whose mission was directed
southeast of that of Captain Oberdorf, surveyed the valley of the
Milo as far as Bissandugu, and also the Bure and Upper Bafing,
but the chief result of his efforts was the conclusion of a treaty
with Almany Samory, by means of which the French possessions
are extended to the banks of the N iger and the Tankisso, and the
rench protectorate to the confines of Liberia. Lieutenant Quin-
quandon and Dr, Tautain, who were sent to visit Great Beledugu
and the left bank of the Niger, visited Murdia, Gumba, Segala,
and Sokoto, and report that the soil becomes less and less fertile
oiee the northeast, where the country is analogous to Southern
geria.
Evropr.—Turer Days on THE SUMMIT OF Mont BLANC.—
A party of French meteorologists spent three days of July, 1887, on
the summit of Mont Blanc. They were accompanied in the ascent
y twenty-four bearers, of whom all but two deposited their burdens
upon the summit and immediately departed. In the ascent of
the last hill, M. M. Vallot and Richard were attacked by mountain
sickness and did not recover for several hours. In a small in-
dentation between the dome of the summit and the ridge by which
it Is reached the observers pitched theirtent. During the first night
- Vallot attempted to fix the instruments, but was driven back
by the wind and snow. During the next day he was more
Successful. While on the summit the health of the party was not
het 4 good, yet numerous physiological and meteorological observa-
‘ons were made. On July 30th a terrible thunder storm raged
around them for several hours. ;
634 General Notes.
THE GERMAN PopuLation.—M. Ch. Grad (Revue Scientifique,
April 14th, 1888), gives the number of German-speaking people
within Germany itself at 41,512,000, and the entire German-speak-
ing population of Europe at 60,000,000. To make up this total
we have 8,000,000 in Austro-Hungary, 1,900,000 Swiss, 860,000
Russian Germans (625,000 of whom are Jews), 4,270,000 Hollan-
ders and Luxemburgers, 3,400,000 Flemings (300,000 of whom
are in France), and 30,000 Germans resident in Belgium. The
number of Germans in Europe has doubled since 1820, in spite of
the emigration. The 3,722,000 non-German speaking individuals
enumerated at the last census by no means represents the actual
extent of the Slavic element, since the whole course of the history
in the provinces east of the Elbe has been one of Germanization of
an originally Slavic population.
THORODDSEN’S EXPLORATIONS IN IcELAND.—M. Thoroddsen
has contributed to Petermann’s Mitteilungen an account of his
exploration of the northwestern peninsula of Iceland in 1886. This
part of Iceland forms a table land, averaging rather more than
2,000 feet in height and broken up by fjords the sides of which are
almost perpendicular. Nearly every fjord has distinct terraces
representing ancient coast lines, now high above the sea. nks
of shells identical with those now living in the sea, and skeletons
of wha! and walrus have been discovered in these terraces. The
A Discovery IN THE ARCTIC Ocran,—According to the
organ of the Geographical Society of Stockholm, Captain Johanne-
sen last summer su in reaching an island, situated to the
east of Spitzbergen, in 80°10 N. Latitude, and 32°3’ E. Longitude.
This island is a table-land rising to 2,100 feet, and is su
to be the same as Hvide O, seen by Captain Kjeldsen, and also by
Captain Sorensen on August 28th, 1884. This discovery confirms
the existence of an archipelago extending from Spitzbergen to
Franz Josef Land, preventing the ice from cia into the
ts Sea, and thus having a great influence over the climate
Europe.
Geslogy and Paleontology. 635
GEOLOGY AND PALAZONTOLOGY.
RoMANOVSKY’s MATERIALEN ZUR GEOLOGIE VON TURKES-
TAN.—Scattered notes of the geology of Central Asia have from
time to time been given in these pages, but M. Emm. de Margerie’s
Compte-rendu de publications relatives à la Géologie de l Asie et de
l Amérique now gives us the opportunity to give a fuller account.
MM. Mushketoff and Romanovsky, after having explored with
great thoroughness the possessions of Russia in Central Asia, have
published a part of their results. The first volume of M. Mush-
ketoff’s orographical and geological description of Turkestan
appeared in 1886, while the first number of M. Romanovsky’s
Materialen zur Geologie von Turkestan was issued in 1880. M.
Mushketoff considers the natural limits of Turkestan to be as
follows: the Mougodjar mountains and the plateau of Ust-Urt to
the west; the Tsungarian Ala-tau, the chains of the Tian-shan and
the Pamir to the east; the Kopet-dagh and the mountains of Kho-
rassan to the south ; and the Tarbatagai, Zenghis-tau and the water-
shed between the Aral and the affluents of the Irtish to the north.
The space comprised within these boundaries consists of two
unequal parts, separated by the crest of the Kara-tau: the northern
part, about one-third of the total area, corresponds to the basins of
Lake Balkash and of other smaller lakes, while the larger »uthern
part forms the Turan or basin of the Aral. The latter is divided
by the Nura-tau into two portions: the basins of the Syr-daria and
of the Amu-daria, the latter twice the size of the former. The
reliefs of Turkestan pass from the N. E.—S. W. direction to that
of N. W.—S. E. by insensible gradations, so that they form
bundles of folds having their convexity turned towards the south,
as in the chains of northern India. There are three principal
groups of folds, the Tarbatagai, the summits of which do not pass
2500 metres ; the Tian-shan in the centre, with summits reaching
£ metres, and even 7300; and in the south the Pamir with a
central crest reaching 4500 to 5000 metres, and with some summits
of even 8000. Notwithstanding the diversity of the rocks that
enter into its constitution, the Turanian basin presents a monotonous
and but slightly varied geological structure, since Cretaceous, Tertiary,
and post-tertiary deposits cover ninety-five per cent. of the surface,
the older formations appearing only as masses here and there piere-
ing the uniform mantle of modern sediments. Above the Palæo-
Zoic rocks, with a very noticeable uncomformity, lies a series of
deposits with fossil plants, evidently a prolongation of the plant-
ring series of Afghanistan, and of the Gondwana group of Hin-
dostan, During the Jurassic period the Turan formed a great
island, extending far to the east, where scattered lagoons received
636 General Notes,
sediments of small thickness ; these sediments accumulated along
the southern coast of the emerged land, but, as in Afghanistan,
cover only a comparatively small area. Beds of lignite are abun-
dant in the lower parts of the Trias-jura, as, for example, on the
flanks of the Kara-tau and all around the Fergana basin, and in
the absence of the true coal-measures, may prove of economical
importance. The Jurassic is conformably covered by the Creta-
ceous and Tertiary beds, which reach a thickness of 650 metres in
Fergana, and even 1600 in Hissar. These two series are so inti-
mately linked that it is impossible to fix a precise line of demarca-
tion between them, and both alike have been affected by dislocations
which are well-marked near the mountains, but die out in the
centre. The Cretaceous series comprehends very varied rocks,
those of the plains differing much from those of the Tian-shan,
where they consist chiefly of marls and limestones, the latter often
shelly, but becoming oolitic and compact more to the east; the
marls often enclose gypsum. It is in Fergana that the Cretaceous
‘presents the greatest diversity of faces, but as fossils are rare and
in poor condition, it is difficult to separate the series into stages.
GENERAL.—THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF AFGHANISTAN,
—M. Griesbach, Geologist of the Afghan Boundary Commission,
has at various times published in the Records of the Geological
Survey of India preliminary notes upon the geological structure of
those portions of Afghanistan visited by him. These facts have
been brought together by M. de Margerie in his Compte-rendu de
Publications relatives à la Géologie del Asie et de P Amérique, in such a
manner as to give what appears a tolerably clear picture of the geo-
logical structure of this mountainous country. The principal crest
of Afghanistan is formed by the Hindu-Kush and the Koh-i- Baba,
the latter of which is continued into Persia, by chains running 10
the northwest. Although the greater part of the country 18 a8 yet
geologically unexplored, the researches of M. Griesbach are suffi-
cient to afford a good index to the character of the remainder. It
thus appears that the palæozoic and older mesozoic rocks only come
to the surface on the line of the main axis, the rest of the country
being occupied mainly by cretaceous beds, often unconformable to
the older mesozoic beds upon which they repose. Extensive sur-
faces in the north and west are covered by tertiary deposits. p
region between the main chain of Afghanistan and the next noe
important series of elevations, viz., that which runs llel pa
Indus, is occupied by a number of anticlinal folds, crowded together
in the region of Cabul, but spreading outwards
approach the frontier of Persia. Most of t
Geology and Paleontology. 637
come more accentuated. North of the main axis lie a series of par-
allel folds, narrow and lofty near the centre, but gradually spread-
ing as they recede from it until they become broad and low undu-
lations. ‘The geological structure of Persia seems to be a continu-
ation of that of Afghanistan. The oldest fossiliferous deposits as
yet known belong to the Carboniferous system. Wherever exam-
ined, the Carboniferous outcrops are, like all the great bands ex-
tending from Armenia to the Himalaya, of marine origin. Above
the Carboniferous beds lie a number of conformable deposits com-
posed of marine beds alternating with littoral and fresh-water lay-
ers enclosing lignite and abundant remains of terrestrial plants.
The exact classification of these beds has not yet been attempted,
but they are surmounted conformably by undoubted Neocomian
deposits, and their lower schistose portion is regarded by M. Gries-
ach as representing the Permian and Lower Trias; while Jurassic
fossils have been discovered in the upper part. Great eruptive
rial seems to have characterized the end of this series of litto-
ra x
molluses found in it. The Niagara shales themselves can, upon `
evidence, yet Homalonatus reaches its maximum size after a
Cælosteus feroz is the name given by Prof. Newbe ]
s y Prof. Newberry to a large
oa of fish, apparently allied to Dendrodus and Rhizodus, ot
ch the Jaws, teeth and bones were discovered in the Lower
638 General Notes.
Carboniferous Limestone at Alton, Ill. The lower jaw is about
a foot long, an inch and a half wide in front, and widens to four
inches behind. It is marked on the upper margin by a series of
thin shell of bone, enclosing a large area, whi
occupied by cartilage. The dentary differs from that of Rhizodus
in being entire.
Titanichthys clarkii Newb., discovered by Dr. W. Clark near
rea, O., exceeds in size even the T. agassizii of which drawings
were exhibited at the meeting of the American Association at Mon-
treal, 1882. The broadly triangular cranium measures five feet or
more between the posterior lateral angles. It is concave behind,
and the central part of the arch is marked by a broad depression
as in Dinichthys. The condyle of the. post-temporal bone is hori-
zontal and broad, and is clasped in a furrow at the angle of the
cranium. The post-temporals are a foot and a half wide, and, as
in Dinichthys, are overlapped by the clavicles below and by the
dorso-median plate above. This plate is sub-circular, and has a
long, slender, furrowed process projecting backward and down-
ward. The sub-orbital bones are eighteen inches long, the man-
dibles three feet. The posterior end of the mandible is spatu-
- late, six inches wide, and turned upward ; the anterior end is turn
up like a sled-runner, and is excavated by a deep furrow some
what as in T. agassizii, but the whole jaw is much heavier and
broader. The under side of the body was protected by a triangu-
lar plate three feet long and nearly as broad, having a deep sinus
posteriorly and a rounded projecting angle near the middle of either
side.
Mesozorc.—Mr. A. S. Woodward (Quart. Jour. Geol. Boc., Mar;
1888) describes Semionotus capensis and Cleithrolepis extont, bo
from the Stormberg Beds (Early Mesozoic) of the Orange F pa
State. The only species of Cleithrolepis before described, 18 f
granulatus, from the supposed Triassic Hawkesbury Beds w
New South Wales. The South African specimens afford sufficien
data to prove that the genus must be placed with the Dapediidæ.
A. Weithofer describes in the Annals of the Naturhist pyre
Hofmuseum of Vienna, a new Dicynodont (Dicynodon sunocep is
from the Karroo formation of South Africa. The gran
unfortunately only an imperfect half of the cranium, lacking the
lower jaw, yet it offers characters which distinguish it from hly
species described by Owen. ‘The parietal region 15 Very. ve
developed, rising eleven centimetres, or more, above the lme
Geology and Paleontology. 639
necting the mastoid and the frontal, whereas in D. pardiceps Owen
it only rises 5.5 cm. over the same level. The frontals are less
developed than in D. leonticeps, the orbits are deeply sunk, and
the nasal openings are placed far forward, so that it is one of
the most peculiar representatives of the group. The entire occipi-
tal region and the bones of the under side are wanting.
: i strata belong to six genera, viz.,
Diplurus (1 sp.), Ischypterus (18 sp.), Catopterus (5 sp.), Ptycho-
the English Lias.
All the species are distinct from any known in the Old World,
but a species of Ptycholepsis allied to ours is found in the Lias of
Boll, Wurtemburg, and a species of Dictyopyge has been described
from the Keuper of Germany. Catopterus seems to be distinct
from any genus of fossil fishes found in the Old World, but Ischyp-
terus is very near to Semionotus Ag., which is represented by
Geo. F. Becker (Bull. Cal. Acad. Sei.) replies to Messrs. Hague
and Iddings’ criticisms upon his conclusions respecting the pyrox-
enie rocks of Washoe. The former geologist sees in these rocks
evidences of two separate eruptions, and therefore divides them
nto diabase and andesite, while the latter geologists consider both
640 General Notes.
of these masses as substantially a single Tertiary eruption. Mr.
Becker claims to have found additional reasons for maintaining the
existence of diabase, and also for dividing the pyroxene andesite
into two distinct outflows, separated by a long interval of time.
At Steamboat Springs, about six miles from Virginia City, occurs
an extensive series of sedimentary beds, nearly vertical, with a
strike following the general direction of the Sierra. Andesites and
basalts have broken through and overlie these beds, which are with-
out trace of fossils, and are evidently pre-tertiary. Indeed, they
appear to be as old as the rocks determined as Jura-Trias by the
geologists of the fortieth parallel. These sedimentary beds contain
pebbles of the exact character, both physically and mineralogically,
with the east wall of the Comstock lode, determined by Becker as
porphyritic diabase. The presence of these pebbles in beds of pre-
tertiary age proves that there must be real pre-tertiary diabase
somewhere in the neighborhood of Mt. Davidson. This locality is
substantially in the same district as the Comstock lode, and, accord-
ing to Mr. Becker’s investigation of the faulting action on the Com-
stock, formerly received the drainage from the diabase area at
Virginia.
In the thirty-fourth part of Palewontographica, E. Holzapfel
describes the molluses of the Cretaceous of Aachen, prefacing his
account with descriptions of the strata and lists of the species con-
tained in each.
Dr. Rust (Paleontographica, Band xxxiv.) adds an importi
contribution, illustrated with eight plates, to the knowledge of
Radiolaria of the Cretaceous. Whilst in the Jura the oldest en
bed in Dr.
Rusts monograph, 59 are found in the Neocomian, 109 in the
Gault, and only six in the upper stages of the system.
Cæxozorc.—Prof. J'Prestwich (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soe.) P iog-
table of the accepted classification of the Eocene series 1m nd
land, Belgium, and the Paris basin, and states his Leave)
some adverse conclusions. The sands and marls of Heers
Geology and Paleontology. 641
gium) are usually considered as a separate horizon, but Prof. Prest-
wich points out that there is nothing in their molluscan fauna to
warrant them as older than the Landenian, while the presence of
sixty-two plants, all but one new and peculiar to the locality, may
be simply due to the proximity of land. He objects also to the
correlation of the Sables de Bracheux with the Lower Landenian
and Thanet Sands, pointing that out of the eighty-two species of
mollusea found in the Bracheux Sands only six seem to be common
to the Thanet Sands and five to the Lower Landenian, while ten
are found in the Woolwich beds. A table gives Prof. Prestwich’s
views upon these and other points in the correlation of these impor-
tant beds of the London, Belgian and Parisian basins.
A. Weithofer has recently described several species of bats from
the phosphorites of the central plateau of France, including Pseu-
dorhinolophus, sp., Alastor heliophigas., nov. gen. and sp., Rhino-
lophus dubius, V espertiliavus, sp., Taphozous, sp., Neoremantis adi-
chaster, nov. gen. and sp. Fossil Cheiroptera, like fossil birds, are
rare.
ceros. The cranium of the Elasmotherium is larger than that of
Rhinoceros tichorhinus, the example in the Museum of Paris meas-
uring 98 centimetres in total length. The sinus of the frontal
?
very much reduced. The nostrils are completely separated by a
PR t and the nasals are narrow and smooth, showing that they
cd not bear a horn, as was the case in R.tichorhinus. The extrem-
authors, of a prehensile lip. The twenty molars of Elasmothe-
those have longer crowns, and are much more complexly folded than
i
642 General Notes.
BOTANY.!
THE FLORA or PALESTINE.—A. general opinion seems to
prevail, even among those who have visited the country, that
though flowers are abundant in Palestine, especially during and
immediately succeeding the rainy season, yet the number of species
is remarkably small. This idea as to the paucity of species is
scarcely correct. The multiplicity of species, and the large variety
of peculiar forms are, in fact, in many cases, noticeable features of
the flora.
As an example, I may state that I have collected, in the imme-
diate vicinity of Jerusalem, eleven species of Geranium, including
the G. tuberosum, that very distinct species with tuberous root. In
this group, as in most others, the differentiation of the species is
remarkably pronounced, being displayed not only in the form,
color, number, furnishing and disposition of the blossoms, but also,
being exhibited in the great variation of the leaf, and even some-
times, as in the case of the species mentioned, passing into the
character of the root. i
I have had my attention attracted by the great number of cruci-
ferous plants, as also those of a prickly or thorny nature. Indeed,
genera whose species in other countries are usually smooth and
unarmed, are here represented by species having prickly, spinous,
or thorny appendages. It may be considered significant that im
this land, where the great event (the central thought of Christianity)
occurred, the plants should be found so frequently bearing the cross
and wearing the thorns. .
The number of garden plants which here grow wild has been
commented on. To-day, I found on the rocky hills around Jeru-
salem the Narcissus and the Scarlet Anemone, Cyclamens, and the
little blue-gray Iris, all in blossom. The Narcissus as we
Almond had been in flower for more than two weeks, and the
Crocus and Orange for months ; the fruit of the latter (confined to
gardens) having been ripe since November. The Asphodels were
pushing up their long stalks, heavy with buds, from among their
spear-like leaves; and the purple Bugloss (Echium violaceum) hung
from the cliffs. The very rocks seemed breaking out into blossom
and praise. i
In northern Palestine, in the months of March and April, 0g
the effect of the rainy season has been felt, the bursting of the lan
into flower is a sight never to be forgotten. I have ridden hes
horseback, hour after hour, day after day, through miles of Sear .
Anemones and Ranunculus, Lupine, Scabious and Pheasant arm
Patches of vividly red Poppies, with fine black maculations, The
eyes, edged with white, made matchless streaks of color.
1 Edited by Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb.
Botany. 643
purple Gladiolus sent up its graceful spires in the fields, and along
the roadside trailed with great crimson bells the Convolvulus jalapa,
and the smaller belled white Convolvulus with pale sulphur-colored
rays. To see the Tulips (Tulipa gesneriana) breaking out of the
hard dry soil of the very pathway, was a wonder, recalling the well-
remembered description in Isaiah : ‘ The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and
blossom as the rose.” No artist, not even Turner himself, could do
justice to the glorious colors of the landscape—HENRY GILLMAN,
U. S. Consul, Jerusalem, Palestine, February 10th, 1888.
THE ENTOMOPHTHOREZ OF THE UNITED Srates.—These
l. Empusa muscæ Cohn.—“ Diptera: Musca domestica, Lucilia
cesar, Calliphora vomitoria, and other large flies; also
Syrphide of several genera.”
Empusa culicis A. Braun— Diptera: Imagines of Culex and
numerous genera of minute flies or gnats.”
3. Empusa grylli (Fresenius) Nowakowski.— (Hntomophthora
aulicæ Reich. and Entomophthora calopteni Bessey.) “ Lepi-
doptera: Larva of many genera of Avatians and of Orgyia
nova. Orthoptera: Larvæ, pups, and imagines of many
genera of Acidians. Imago of Ceuthophilus. (?) Diptera:
Larvee and imagos of Tipulide, ete.”
Empusa tenthredinis (Fresenius) Thaxter—‘ Hymenoptera :
Larvæ of Tenthredinidæ.”
6. — conglomerata (Gorokin) [?] Thaxter.— Diptera:
”
a
je
. .
æ and imagines of Tipulæ.
- Empusa apiculata Thaxter.—“ Lepidoptera: Larva of Hyphan-
tria textor, imagines of Fortrix sp., Deltoid sp., Petrophora
sp. (Geometrid), Diptera: Numerous genera of small flies
or gnats. Hemiptera: Imago of a species of leaf-hopper
(Typhlocyba).”
for)
644
tn
{2 90
man
~~
. Empusa americana Thaxter. —“ Diptera: Musca domestica, M.
General Notes.
—— Var. major Thaxter.—“ Coleoptera: Imago of Ptilodac-
tyla serricollis.”
mpusa planchoniana (Cornu) [?] Thaxter.—“ Hemiptera:
Several genera of Aphides.”
Empusa papillata Thaxter.—“ Diptera: Several minute gnats.”
. Empusa caroliniana Thaxter.—* Diptera: Imagines of Tipula
S n
Empusa fresenii Nowakowski.—“ Hemiptera: Aphis mali and
very many other aphides.”
. Empusa lageniformis Thaxter.—* Hemiptera: Usually aphides
?
on Betula populifolia’
. Empusa lampyrideum Thaxter.—“ Coleoptera: Imago of
Chauliognathus pensylvanicus.”
. Empusa geometralis Thaxter.—“ Lepidoptera: Imagines of
geometrid moths (Petrophora, Eupithecia, Thera, etc.).”
. Empusa occidentalis Thaxter.—“ Hemiptera: Aphides on Betula
populifolia.”
a species of Thrips on Solidago.
Empusa aphidis Hoffman.—“ Hemiptera: Aphides of numer-
ous genera.”
. Empusa depterigena Thaxter.— Diptera: Small Tipulæ; other
small flies or gnats, belonging especially to the Mycetophi-
lidee.”
. Empusa virescens Thaxter—“ Lepidoptera. Larvæ of Agnotis
fennica.”
. . s7. i ”
vomitoria, Lucilia cesar, and numerous other large flies.
Empusa montana Thaxter.—* Diptera: A minute gnat, appa
rently Chironomous sp.”
. Empusa echinospora Thaxter.—“ Diptera : Imago of Spromy24
longipennis, and (rarely) other smaller Diplisa.
; en sepulchralis Thaxter—“ Diptera: Imagines of Tipu-
idee.”
Empusa variabilis Thaxter.—* Diptera: Minute gnats of
various genera.”
Botany. 645
24, Empusa rhizospora Thaxter.—“ Neuroptera: Several genera of
Phryganeide (imagines).”
25. Empusa gracilis Thaxter.—* Diptera: On very minute gnats.”
26. Empusa conica Nowakowski.—* Diptera: Imagines of Chiro-
nomus and other small gnats.”
27. Massospora cicadina Peck.—“ Hemiptera: Larvie, pup, and
_ imagines of Cicada septendecem.”
28. Basidiobolus ranarum Eidam.—* On the excrement of frogs.”
Collectors may be able to add to the species given above. As
Mr. Thaxter desires to continue the investigation of the Entomo-
genous plants of North America, he desires correspondence upon
this subject, with specimens in quantity. He should be addressed
at New Haven, Conn. This little group ought now to receive a
considerable attention at the hands of our botanists.—Charles
ey.
A MINIATURE TuMBLE-wEED.—On the great plains of Nebraska,
from the altitude of two thousand five hundred to three thousand
feet above sea-level, to and throughout the Rocky Mountain region
there grows the very pretty little aster-like plant known as Town-
sendia sericea Hook. It blooms in early spring, and its pretty,
almost sessile, heads of numerous flowers nearly cover the plant
itself, so that one sees little more than a compound rosette of yellow
and delicate pink close upon the ground.
After blossoming, the bracts of the involucer remain for a consider-
able time widely opened, but when the achenes are ripe the involucer ”
closes and forces out the mass of achenes, with their abundant long,
white pappus and effete corolla tubes. This expulsion was observed
in
to take place, in one instance, in a plant grown in my laboratory
with such force as to suddenly throw the mass of achenes and pap-
pus out free from the involucer. I suppose that the spreading of
the pappus has also much to do with freeing the achenial mass from
the involucers. Possibly the pappus and involucers act together.
a The achenes are pretty well covered with long twisted and bent
yan ” hairs, asis common in this and many allied genera.’
sshown b ie, in hi ron “ Achenial Hairs
and Fibres of Diaan gy meae ren eeta Vol. XVII., p. 81;
and also “ Achenial Hairs of Townsendia.” Ibid., p. 1102.
General Notes.
The extremities of the hairs are recurved into double hooks, as
shown in the accompanying cut (Fig. 1). The body of the hair
(as shown by Macloskie) is composed of two parallel, greatly-
elongated cells, each of which is recurved, thus forming the double
hook. In some instances I have observed septa in one or other of
the cells, although for the most part they are wanting. The hairs
upon each achene become interwoven with those of neighboring
achenes, and, upon drying and twisting, they firmly bind together
all the achenes of each head. The spreading pappus forces the mass
to take an ellipsoid form as soon as it has escaped from the invo-
lucer (as shown in Fig. 2), Lying
now upon the surface of the plant,
and entirely freed from the embrace
of the involucer, the light mass 1s
ready to begin its career as a min-
iature “ tumble-weed.” After a few
ME NSS os sze TOlls it loses most of the effet ecorolla
Fig 2. tubes and tumbles lightly along upon
the points of its spreading pappus.
The jarring gradually separates the tumbling ball; but even when
it breaks in two, each part rounds up again by the wide spreading
of the pappus and rolls on again before the brisk breeze of the
plains, dropping here and there an achene with its hidden seed, just
as the great tumble-weeds, Amaranthus, Cycloloma, Corispermum,
etc., do in their larger way.— Charles E. Bessey.
Unperwoop’s FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES.'—This little book,
the first and second editions of which were noted in the NATURAL-
IST at the time of their appearance, has been entirely re-written ;
and while the general plan of the former editions has not been
materially modified, the details have undergone very considerable
anges. e present edition contains thirty-four pages more 0
matter than the last, and this increase is divided between the gen-
eral matter (which gains nineteen pages) and the systematic portion,
which is increased fifteen pages.
This increase in the number of pages is due to the new matter
introduced in the general part, consisting mainly of excellent ref-
erences to the literature of the subject, and in the systematic part to
a considerable increase in the number of species. The glossary 15
also much increased in volume and value.
The book is a most useful and handy one, and will enable the
student of the Pteridophytes to obtain an excellent idea of their
structure and classification.
‘ Our Native Ferns and Their Allies, with Synoptical Descriptions =
the American Pteridophyta north of Mexico. By Lucien M. vance
wood, .D., Professor of Biology in Syracuse University. i
sano, revised. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1888. 16mo, pP- PES
Zoology. 647
We regret that the author did not abandon the term frond, which
our present knowledge of the comparative anatomy of plants ought
to soon render obsolete. Frond and stipe ought not to be tolerated
longer ; we should say leaf and petiole ; for a “ frond” is only a leaf
and a“ stipe” is only a petiole.
In the chapter on “The Fern’s Place in Nature,” the author
adopts the term Spermaphyta for the flowering plants, and gives an
excellent list of systematic works for the different classes of the
vegetable kingdom.— Charles E. Bessey.
ZOOLOGY.
G48 General Notes.
the air-bladder of Ageneiosus has a bony base, the membranaceous
portion being restricted toa membrane stretched across the opening
of the bony capsule ; the whole air-bladder is likewise surround
above and behind by the lateral processes of the modified vertebra
and anteriorly partly by the scapula, but the coalesced vertebre are
much longer than in Hypophthalmus, and the lateral processes
and scapular process are widely separate below.
Many changes in the classification of the Nematognathi have
been found necessary. The Bunocephalids (= Aspredinidz) usually
associated with the Loricariide have no skeietal affinities with that
family, being much more nearly related to the Siluridæ. The
genus Cetopsis, as before stated, is more closely related to the species
of Pygidiidee (—Trichomycteridze) than to the species of Doradine,
with which it has usually been associated. The genera Heptapterus
and Nannoglaris, on the contrary, are closely related to some of the
species of Giinther’s Pimelodus, and have no real affinity with the
Pygidiide.
(6) Opercle none ; adipose fin none ; neural spines of the coalesced
vertebre forming a ridge from the occipital to the dorsal fin.
Caudal vertebre greatly compressed; their neural spines expanded,
a o aee eee... Bunocephalide.
(bb) Opercle well developed and movable ; adipose fin normally
present ; occipital process sometimes forming a bony bridge mon
occipital to the dorsal plate. Caudal vertebræ normal ; the neura
GRICE BPO DED a aeaa erens aaa Caaet Urlag.
(aa) Air-bladder rudimentary ; one on either side of the coalesced
vertebræ, and entirely surrounded by a bony capsule.
Zoology. 649
erm naked; mouth inferior; lower lip reverted; teeth
bicuspid, in several series .--.--... Argeidæ
(dd) Derm with bony plates.
(e) Caudal vertebral compressed, the neural and hæmal spines
expanded, forming a continuous ridge above and below. Sides
with several series of plates; mouth inferior ; lower lip reverted ;
teeth turned abruptly back above, a single series erect, the inter-
maxillaries and dentaries box-shaped, filled with numerous de
relay teeth ; intestinal canal coiled. Cavity of air-bladder usually
communicating with the exterior at a notch in the posterior margin
of temporal plate at beginning of lateral line.......... Loricariide.
„ (ee) Caudal vertebræ normal, the neural and hemal spines spine-
li ze and separate. Sides with two series of plates; mouth ter-
minal ; lower lip not reverted ; teeth villiform ; cavity of air-bladder
communicating with the exterior by means of a long narrow slit in
le tipora? plitenas nE e ichthyidæ.
mi eee R. Eigenmann. (Mus. Compar. Zoilogy, Cambridge,
ass.
Description oF a New Rep-BAcKED Mouse (Evoromys
DAWSONI) FROM THE HEADWATERS OF LIARD RIVER, NORTH-
one |
Sources of Liard River, in lat. 61° 30’ N.; long. 129 3 wee, ie
altitude, 3,000 feet.
, So little is known of the small mammals of this remote and
inaccessible region that it is not particularly surprising to find that
the mouse collected by Dr. Dawson proves to be undescribed. In
Some respects it is intermediate between the cireumpolar Hvotomys
rutilus and its more southern congener, Evotomys gapperi. But since
it differs from both and no intermediate forms are wn, it must
650 General Notes.
be regarded as specifically distinct. Hereafter, should intergrades
be discovered, it may be necessary to consider it a sub-species. It
may be characterized as follows :—
EVOTOMYS DAWSONI sp. nov.
Dawson's Red-backed Mouse.
chestnut—not far from ferruginous; the sides are tawny gray, an
the belly is strongly washed with ochraceous buff. The admixture
ro-
with
3
moiar sertes; 2 fet Cranial and Dental Characters. — Unfortu,
: seres nately, the skull was badly smashed and part
it altogether wanting ; hence no cranial characters can be made
out. The teeth, however, remain, and are represented in the ac-
companying cut. Their most marked peculiarity, compared with
Zoology. 651
those of gapperi, consists in the openly-communicating loops.
e upper molar series measures 4.5 mm. on the crowns, 4.8 mm.
on the alveole. The lower molar series measures 4.4 mm. on the
crowns, 4.6 mm. on the alveole,
I take great pleasure in bestowing upon this handsome mouse the
specific name dawsoni, as a slight recognition of the indefatigable
zeal of its discoverer, the distinguished éxplorer and geologist, Dr.
Geo. M. Dawson, who has added so much to the fund of knowledge
relating to Northwestern Canada.— C. Hart Merriam.
ZOOLOGICAL NEws—GENERAL.—F’, Koenike records (Abh. Nat.
Ver. Bremen., X.) the finding of the Myriapod Geophilus sodalis in
a hen’s egg, :
Protozoa.—Dr. A. C. Stokes givesa generic synopsis of the
sedimentary fresh-water peritrichous Infusoria in the American
Monthly Micros. Journal, IX., p. 59.
C@LENTERATES.—Dr. Benjamin Sharp records (Proc. Acad.
Nat. Sci, Phila., 1888, p. 82) the finding of the common
etenophore, Mnemiopsis leidyi in a pond of fresh water in Nantucket.
They appeared perfectly healthy and active and were phosphores-
cent at night. e pond was occasionally opened to the sea to
allow the escape of the perch which bred in it; but at the time of
the observation the water in which the jelly-fish*wer® swimming
was perfectly fresh to the taste.
` Worms.—Dr. Otto Seifert has a paper on the pathological effects of
the human parasite, Ankylostomum duodenale, in the Verhandlungen
of the Phys. Med. Geselischaft, of Würzburg (XXI.). This is the
worm which was first brought into prominence at the time of the
building of the St. Gothard tunnel, when it produced the disease in
the workmen known as Gothard or tunnel disease.
_ Mortuscs.—Dr. W. D. Hartmann communicates to the Proceed-
ings of the Philadelphia Academy (1888, pp. 14-56) catalogues of
distribution of the species. :
Mr. B. H. Wright describes (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1888,
p. 113) seven new species of Unionide from Florida. Each
specific name is dedicated to some friend of the describer.
r. E. von Martens describes (Stzb. Gesellsch. Naturf. Freunde,
Berlin, 1887, p. 106) two new species of Unio (U. percompressus
and U. microdon, from Guatemala.
652 General Notes.
CRUSTACEA.—Dr. A. Walter describes (Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat.,
Moskau, 1887) two new phyllopods (Apus heckelii and Artemia
asiatica) from the Russian Transcaspian province.
The species of the genus Podon are reviewed by Poppe in the
Abhandl. Nat. Verein zu Bremen, Bd. X. new species (P
schmakert) is described from Shanghai, China.
C. F. Lutken has a paper on the whale-lice (Cyamus) in Vidensk.
Selsk. Skr. Kjobenhaven, IV. He points out the identity of certain
species described by Dall with those of previous authors, and
re-describes, with a full-page plate, Dall’s Cyamus scammoni. __
Carl Bovallius, (notes on the family Asellide, communicated
to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, December 9th, 1885,)
makes the family to consist of thirteen genera, three of which,
Iamna, Iathrippa and Iais, are new. The two forms of Iamna
were formerly referred to Iaera; Iathrippa is formed to receive
Janira longicauda, while Iais includes the new species I. hargert
and the Jaera pubescens of Dana.
ARAcHNIDA.—Herr Doenitz describes (Stzb. Gesellsch. Naturf.
Freunde, Berlin, 1887) the habits of two new trap-door spiders of
Japan, belonging to the genera Atypus and Pachylomerus. P. fra-
garia, unlike the rest of the genus, excavates its tubes in the soft
bark of the camphor-trees or of the cypress (Cryptomeria) and
closes it with a door, which it carefully covers with moss like that
covering fhe rest of the tree. Doenitz also describes (l.e.) the
copulatory habits of a Japanese species of Linyphia.
A. Poppe communicates to the Abhandlungen (Band X.) of the
Scientific Union of Bremen a valuable review of the parasitic mites
belonging to the families Sarcoptide and Chelytide. The paper
contains, among other things, a catalogue of all the known species
of bird-mites (Analgesinz), arranged according to hosts.
Jose . Hancock describes (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc’y, XXV.
107) a new species of Datames (D. MEROE POEP Laredo, Tex.
Dr. H. C. McCook, in a recent visit to London, found the origi-
nal drawings by John Abbott which formed the basis of Baron
Walckenaer’s descriptions of the American species of spiders. He
gives the results of his studies of these drawings and the conflicts
of priority of nomenclature between Hentz and Walckenaer 1m the
Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy (1887, p. 74).
Brrps.—Mr. F. A. Lucas oe V.) gives a historical sketch of
Bird Rocks, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and describes a recent
visit to the place.
Dr. Elliott Coues proposes (Auk, V., 207) the term Corydo
morphe for a super-family of birds, embracing the larks (Alaudide),
Zoology. 653
which is distinguished from the other passerine birds by the
non-oscine scutelliplanlation.
Dr. R. W. Shufeldt continues his studies of the pterylosis of birds
by describing the feather-tracts (Auk, V., 212) of certain of the
woodpeckers,
From notes on the fauna of Corea, by H. H. Giglioli
and T. Salvadori, as well as from a list of birds collected by M.
Kalinowski, and described by L. Taczanowski (P. Z. S., Dec.,
1887), it appears that a close affinity exists between the Corean and
Japanese faunas. ae greatest rarity mentioned by the former
authors is Cyngus davidi, of which two specimens were obtained.
According to M. Kalinowski, Corea is very poor in birds, three-
fourths of which are only birds of passage. Only one new species
(Thriponax kalinowskii) is described, and three others were for
the first time found on the Asiatic Continent.
Mr. P. L. Sclater describes (P. Z. S., Jan., 1887) ten new species
of Tyrannida from various parts of South America.
Mr. K. B. Sharpe (P. Z. 8S., 1887) describes Carpophaga
whartoni, a new species of fruit-pigeon from Christmas Island ;
also, from the same island, a thrush, whose nearest ally is a West
African species.
*
MaMMAts.—The officers of H. M. S. Flying-Fish collected at
Christmas Island, a coral island 190 miles from the nearest point
of Java, two species of Mammalia, viz.: a new species of Flying-
Fox (Pteropus natalis), and the large rat Mus macleari.
Although the true zebra is now a rare animal, it appears from
a letter published in the Field, Dec., 1886, by Mr. H. A. Brydon,
that it still inhabits the most remote and rugged ranges of Cape
Colony, such as the Winterhoek Mountains and the Zwartberg.
654 General Notes.
ENTOMOLOGY:
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE MENTAL POWERS OF SPIDERS.—
Under this title an important memoire is published by George W.
and Elizabeth G. Peckham,’ in which these observers detail numer-
ous experiments upon the senses and mental powers of spiders. The
following extracts will serve to indicate the scope of these experi-
ments, and some of the conclusions deduced from them.
“Our experiments on the senses of smell in spiders extended over
two summers. Many of them were performed by each of us sepa-
rately, that we might detect the mistakes of the other. Our usual
plan was to hold a slender glass rod, eight inches in length, in such
a position that one end closely approached the spider, noting what
effect, if any, was produced, and then to dip it into whatever scent
we were using, hold it in the same position, and again note the
effect. We tested them in this way while at rest in the web, while
stalking their prey, while feigning death, and under various other
conditions. ;
“The scents used were essential oils, cologne, and seteral kinds
of perfumes. Acetic acid, vinegar, and like materials were avoided
on account of their irritating action upon the integument.
o sum up our work on the sense of smell, we made, in all,
two hundred and twenty experiments. We found three species
(Argyroepeira hortorum, Dolomedes tenebrosus, and Herpyllus eccle-
siasticus) that did not respond to the tests. In all other cases 1t was
evident that the scent was perceived by the spiders. This they
showed in different ways,—by various movements of the legs, palpi
and abdomen, by shaking their webs, by running away, by seizing
the rod and binding it up with web as they would an insect, and in
case of the Attidæ, by approaching the rod with the first legs and
palpi held erect; but whether in the way of attacking 1t, or, as It
sometimes seemed, because the smell was pleasant to them, 1t 18
impossible to say.” :
e most successful experiments upon the sense of hearing were
conducted with tuning-forks. “These show that certain spiders
indicate that they hear a vibrating tuning-fork by characteristic
movements of the legs. Another set of spiders, however, mani- —
fest their perception of the sound in a different way. With th
! This de } ornell Univer-
Best nem N. Yo ré edited by Prof. J. H. Comstock, © ite,
whom communications, books for notice, ,
should be sen
2 Journal of Morphology, Vol. I., No. 2, pp. 383-419; also published
separately by Ginn & Co., Boston.
Entomology. 655
the approach of a vibrating fork seemed to cause a greater alarm,
making them drop from the web and keep out of sight for a longer
or shorter time. However, after one of these spiders had been
subjected to the experiment several times, it would, instead of drop-
ping, raise its legs in the manner described above.
“A few experiments were made to determine where the organ of
hearing was located, but we can offer nothing positive on this ques-
tion. It seems probable that the auditory apparatus is but little
specialized, Possibly it is spread over a considerable portion of the
epidermis,
. She at once went to the eggs and
touched them with her legs. She then left them, to improve her
“Se
their cocoons for twenty-four hours; yet these spiders, although
they do not carry the egg-sack around with them, remain near it for
from fifteen to twenty days.”
bearing on the sense of sight, they state: “We have fre-
quently, while feeding our captives, seen them stalk their prey at
# distance of five inches; and we have repeatedly held the active
Jumping-spider, Astia vittata, on one finger, and allowed it to jump
on to a finger of the other hand, gradually increasing the distance
vP to eight inches. As the distance increased the spider paused
ar a before springing, gathering its legs together to make a good
“We have twice seen a male of this species chasing a female
"pon a table covered with jars, books and boxes.. The female
a leap rapidly from one object to another, or would dart over
ti edge of a book or a box so as to be out of sight. In this posi-
ae: she would remain quiet for a few minutes, and then, creeping
the edge, would peer over to see if the male were still pursuing
656 General Notes.
her. If he happened not to be hidden she would seem to see him,
even when ten or twelve inches away, and would quickly draw back ;
but in case he was hidden behind some object, she would hurry off,
seeming to think she had a chance to escape.
“ The male, in the meantime, frequently lost sight of the female.
He would then mount to the top of the box or jar upon which he
found himself, and, raising his head, would take a comprehensive
view of the surrounding objects. Here he would remain until he
caught sight of the female,—which he often did at a distance of at
least ten inches,—when he would at once leap rapidly after her.
“The ocelli of some spiders, then, enable them to see objects at
a distance of at least ten inches.”
In order to determine whether spiders have a color sense or not,
experiments were tried upon species that were found during the
ay, running among dead leaves, or hiding under stones or wood.
Cages were constructed, each consisting in part of blue, green, yel-
low and red glass. Spiders were placed in these cages, and the
color of the glass beneath which they retreated and remained was
noted. The relative positions of the colors were varied on the dif-
ferent experiments. It was found that in two hundred and thirty-
seven trials the spiders chose the red one hundred and eighty-one
times, the yellow thirty-two, the blue eleven, and the green thir-
teen. These experiments seem to be conclusive as to the existence
of a color sense in certain spiders.
We have not space to quote the results of experiments pay
feigning death by spiders, nor to repeat the accounts of mistakes 0
spiders.
MEETING OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE A. A. A. ort
The next meeting of this club will occur at 9 A.M., August 15th,
in the High School building at Cleveland, Ohio. :
Owing to the central position of Cleveland, this will be ge
convenient for the entomologists of both Canada and the Unit
States. We may, therefore, expect a large attendance and a very
interesting meeting. : =
Those who expect to furnish papers should send the titles at y
to the Secretary, Professor A. J. Cook, Agricultural College, Mich.,
so that they may be announced in the programme.
THE ENTOMOLOGICAL Reports or Dr. LE Barox.— Profes
S. A. Forbes, Champaign, Ill., writes us as follows: “ I have la AA
received from the family of Dr. Le Baron a supply of doplery
of his four reports as State Entomologist of Illinois, 187 1-74, a
wish to offer, through the AMERICAN NATURALIST, to sen a a
on receipt of postage, to any one who may wish them to comp
their series,”
Embryology. 657
EMBRYOLOGY.’
RESEARCHES UPON THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMATULA. ?—
The important and complete observations of Barrois on the develop-
ment of Comatula were made upon materials found at Toulon and
Villa-Franca, and kept alive in cribs or boxes anchored in the
harbor of Villa-Franca. He records a singular periodicity in the
breeding habits of this animal. They deposit several crops of ova
during a single season (April), and therefore produce several broods
of young which become successively attached to the arms of the
parent animals. The development of Comatula covers a period of
seven days. On the first day oviposition, segmentation, and the
formation of the blastula takes place; on the second day the gas-
trula and blastopore is formed; on the third day the enterocoel,
intestine, water-vascular ring, etc., is formed. On the fourth the
development of the visceral mass is completed ; on the fifth day
there occurs the displacement or rotation of the visceral mass, con-
stituting a sort of metamorphosis ; on the sixth day the skeleton
is formed, and on the seventh hatching occurs.
The following general conclusions are submitted by the author
at the close of the memoir — Fundamental Homologies. The first
and one of the most important results which have been established
by the foregoing studies is the proof of the homology between the
peduncle of the larva of Comatula and the preoral lobe of other
Echinoderms, between the calyx of the larve of Comatula and
the body, properly so-called, of the larve of other Echinoderms.
But, aside from this important homology, the development. of
Comatula differs in two important respects from that of other
Echinoderms. i
First difference. —In the ordinary Echinoderm-larva (Asterias
body,
direct]
“fo the latter is found to be inserted at one edge of the preoral
uncle), it assumes a terminal position. Nevertheless, we a
know that if the regular and normal mode of development presents
, Edited by Prof. Jno. A. Ryder, Univ. of Penna., Philadelphia.
? Recherches sur le davdloppement de la Comatule, I (C. podton,
par Dr. Jules Barrois, Directeur du laboratoire de Villefranche. Recuei
Bale.” {yas Suisse. IV. No. 4, pp. 545-651, pls. XXV-XXX. Genève-
658 General Notes.
this difference, there is an irregular and abnormal mode of devel-
opment which does not present it at all, and which, under the con-
dition of the primitive relations of the calyx and of the peduncle,
presents the same disposition as in all other Echinoderms; that is
to say, that in which the calyx is inserted at one side. We are
therefore led to conclude that the difference here noted is not a
fundamental one, but that it constitutes a simple alteration of the
primitive plan common to all other Echinoderms, resulting from
fixation and which disappeared immediately after that fixation
ceased to occur.
Second difference. — In the ordinary Echinoderm larva (Asterias,
Echinus), the two peritoneal vesicles maintain their primitive situa-
tions, the one at the right and the other at the left, the dorsal face
(aboral) of the future Echinoderm being formed at the expense
of the portion of the larva which answers to the left peritoneal
vesicle. Asa result there is a singular discordance between the
two faces of the adult and the two faces of the larva, which has
been noted by numerous observers, and which consists in this, that
the right side of the larva becomes the dorsal face, and the left side
of the larva the ventral face of the adult, so that the now outline
Echinoderm is found to be placed in a transverse and a symmetri-
cal position in relation to the preoral lobe of the larva. In Coma-
tula, we have seen, on the contrary, that the ventral and dorsal
faces of the larva correspond respectively to the ventral and dorsal
faces of the adult in such a manner that the outlined adult (or
calyx, in other words), instead of being placed transversely to the
peduncle, occupies a symmetrical and regular position in relation
to the latter. ;
e have seen, however, that there is not such a discordance
between the positions of the dorsal and ventral aspects of the larva
and adult Comatula, and that the two peritoneal sacs here, instead
of maintaining their primitive position as in other Echinoderms at
the right and left of the embryo, set out on the fifth day, in Coma-
tula, to change their positions, the right sac becoming dorsal, an
the left one ventral. Now, if we admit that the formation of the
dorsal and ventral faces are subordinated to the position of or
peritoneal sacs, we arrive at the conclusion that the displacement 0
the peritoneal sacs as described above, is a sufficient explanation
of the differences noted at the outset. :
which
Barrois, 25
compared with those of Busch, Thompson, Metschnikoff, Gotte and
sible of
Embryology. 659
published, and on that account may be commended to the attention
of students.
N THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMOM STURGEON. — Hav-
ing been requested by the United States Fish Commissioner,
Marshall MeDonald, to undertake the investigation of the stur-
geon (Acipenser sturio), I repaired to Delaware City, Delaware, with
that object in view. On the 15th of May mature eggs were
found in a large female of that species, which was brought in to
Mr. Anderson’s float. Fortunately a ripe male was encountered at
the same time, also in a living condition, from which sufficient
milt was obtained for the purpose of fertilizing the eggs. The
eggs were quite free in the abdominal cavity, and they ran out
in somewhat the way shot would pour out of a rent in a bag, as
soon as the abdomen was cut open. The germinal disk was already
formed ; in fact investigation disclosed the fact that the germinal
disk, or area, is developed before the ovum leaves the follicle in
- which it is matured. Two sorts of ova were found in different
individuals. In some the eggs were brownish gray or olive, in
other females the eggs were very much darker and contained far
more pigment. In all of them, however, the germinal area was
clearly defined at one side often with a distinct round dark spot
marking its centre, with a paler ring surrounding the central dark
area. External to the pale ring there was a distinct dark ring,
followed on its external margin by anarrow pale band, from whence
the color over the vegetative pole or yolk became uniform. In the
darker variety of eggs some of these rings were not so distinct.
uring the first hours of development but slight external changes
were observed in the form of the germinal area, but by the second
day this area had become distinctly oval; the central dark patch
was oval and the marginal pigmented ring also oval. The eggs
had also changed shape ; instead of remaining globular as they were
at first, they assumed a slightly oval shape, the long axis of the
oval lying parallel to the long axis of the now elongated germinal
area. In the course of the third day the oval germinal area ha
given place to one of somewhat different configuration. Instead of
being oval, the germinal area now became decidedly more elongated
and rounded at either end, and constricted at the middle, somewhat
like the y of a violin. The medullary groove now me
visible, and on the third day was distinctly apparent. On the
fourth day the head, body and tail of the embryo had been differ-
entiated so far as to project distinctly above the level of the oval
yolk sack, the tail was in fact developing as a free, flat lobe. The
heart could be seen pulsating within the thin-walled pericardiac
660 General Notes.
dark, while the pigment gradually faded out along the sides of the
y where the walls of the latter were continued over the yolk
sack, leaving the latter quite light beneath, or of a dirty yellow tint.
The eggs of the common sturgeon are very adhesive and must be
transferred to trays formed of wire gauze or thin cotton cloth tacked
to wooden frames, as soon after fertilization as possible, and spread
out in a single layer. If this is not done the eggs will form large
masses through which fresh oxygenated water cannot penetrate, and,
asa result, those in the centre of the masses will be asphyxiated,
fail ‘to develop and become putrescent. The time occupied in
handling them after fertilization should not be over twenty minutes.
After two or three hours the eggs are firmly adherent to the wire
cloth, thin muslin or cheese cloth, and the trays laden with eggs
may be placed in running water without fear of detaching any of
them, as their mucigen covering has by this time become quite
coagulated and gelatinous, forming a coating over the zona radiata
of irregular thickness. 1e zona proper is quite thin and some-
what elastic, but easily broken, so that the eggs are rather delicate
in character. There is no “breathing chamber” developed such as
is found in the eggs of many Teleosts. The operator must carefully
guard against the appearance of fungus.—John A. Ryder.
ARCH ZOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.
TOPINARD ON THE LATEST STEPS IN THE GENEALOGY OF
Man.'—In this highly interesting lecture M. Topinard examines
the evidence as to the later stages of human phylogeny, including
those embraced in the series of placental Mammalia. He examines
the opinions of previous writers on the subject, referring principally
to Heckel, Vogt, Huxley, and Cope. He commences by a dis-
cussion of the systematic relations of the contents of the order
Quadrumana of modern authors, commencing with the lemurs
He concludes that in spite of certain well-known peculiarities, the
Lemuride must be included in the same order as the monkeys an
man, in opposition to the view of Vogt. He then considers the
question as to whether the Anthropoid apes should be arran
with the Old World monkeys or with man, the former big
opinion of Cuvier, Huxley, and Vogt; the latter that of
! Les derniéres Etages de la Genealogie de Homme. Lecon de
Mars, 1888 ; Ecole d’ Anthropologie, Paris. Extract du Revue d’An
pologie, May 1888.
Archeology and Anthropology. 661
(unpublished) and of the writer of the present review.' He
ecides in favor of the former.
The probability of the origin of man directly from Anthropoid
apes, as asserted by Heckel (monophyletic) and Vogt (polyphy-
letic), or from Lemurs direct (the opinion advanced by Cope) is
then discussed, and M. Topinard concludes that neither hypothesis
can be maintained, in view of the structure of the posterior foot.
He does not think that the ambulatory hind-foot of man could
- have been derived from the prehensile hind-foot of the other
quadrumana, and he therefore traces the origin of Homo to a
common type in which the prehensile character of that foot has not
yet been developed. This is the genus Phenacodus, or some alli
form of the Condylarthra. He combats successfully the opinion
that the monkeys and man have been derived from Ungulates, in
the restricted sense in which that term has been used by some
family Adapide the transition is very slight, provided that the latter
pi the posterior foot in that family is not prehensile. The
character of such importance that it need be much considered in
1 American Naturalist, 1885: ‘‘ Origin of the Fittest,” 1887.
662 General Notes.
this connection. A very slight modification only of an ambulatory
foot would make a prehensile one like that of the Simiide, an
vice versa. In any case, whatever may have been the later stages in
the phylogeny of Homo, we can regard such Lemurs as the
Adapide as in the direct line from the Phenacodontide.
There is a remarkable resemblance between man and the Anthro-
poid apes in some parts of their skeleton in which they differ from
the monkeys (Cercopithecidæ, Cebidee, Hapalide, and Lemuride).
These characters seem to have been neglected by taxonomic writers.
In the first place, the Anthropomorpha (Hominid and Simiide)
agree in wanting anapophyses of the vertebre, while the families
of monkeys and lemurs, above mentioned, agree with the Carniv-
ora in possessing them. ‘This gives a distinctly different char-
acter to the vertebral articulations in the two divisions. In the
a i—
Sub-order I. Hyracoidea: family Hyracide.
“ II. Condylarthra: families; Periptychide, Phenaco-
dontidæ, Meniscotheriidæ. i
“ III. Daubentonioidea : Chiromyde ; Mixodectidæ.
“ IV. Quadrumana: Adapide ;-Anaptomorphide ; Tar
siidæ; Lemuride ; Cebide ; Cercocebidæ
V. Anthropomorpha ; Simiide ; Hominide. Rea
In the Daubentonioidea (Gill) the incisors grow from peer
pulps. In the Chiromyide the crowns of the molars are simp!r
Archeology und Anthropology. 663
and there are no canines; in the Mixodectide the crowns of the
lower molars are quinquetubercular, and canines are probably
present. In the Quadrumana, Schlosser has shown that in the
Lemuride the inferior canine teeth are decurved and similar to the
incisors, the teeth functioning as such, being the first pre-molars.
In the other families of Quadrumana true canines are present in
the lower jaw.
From the foregoing considerations the phylogeny of these fami-
lies will be as follows :—
Hominide. Simiide.
Cercocebidee. Chiromyide.
Tarsiide. Mixodectide.
Anaptomorphide. ;
Lemuridæ. Hyracidæ.
Adapidæ. Meniscotheriidæ.
S
To other Ungulata. Phenacodontidæ.
Periptychidæ
664 General Notes.
MICROSCOPY.
On Frxine SECTIONS TO THE SLIDE.—Schiillibaum’s collodion
fixative is found to be unreliable when used with the more elaborate
micro-chemical reactions to which our advanced technique subjects
the sections on the slide before mounting. Thus, sections fixed in
this manner drop off in absolute alcohol. Mayer’s albumen fixative
is absolutely reliable, and shou e used whenever sections are
loosely coherent in their parts. One cannot obtain neat results
with this, except by means of a very even and thin film, to secure
which proceed as follows: A small drop of fixative is spread on the
slide with the ball of the index finger. Excess of fixative is removed
The stronger alcohols evaporate too rapidly. The sections pla
on this film flatten out beautifully and can’be shoved about if alco-
hol enough be present. When the film has evaporated thin the
sections stick with great pertinacity. Superfluous alcohol a
removed with filter-paper, and the slide must then be evaporat
to dryness. The thermostat at 40° C., for 1 to 2 hours, 1s a
useful in securing this result. The paraffin should never be gre
to melt. It is removed by turpentine, as for other fixatives. Cel-
loidin sections stick well with this method.—J. Nelson, J. H. U.
> or bot-
4, end
1 Edited by C. O. Whitman, Milwaukee.
Microscopy. 665
view of supporting frame, 5; natural size—other figures, ṣẹ natu-
ral size. Explanation of letters: a, inhalent air-tube, 1 in. diame-
ter; a’, exhalent air-tube; B, block supporting Bunsen burner ;
b, b, braces holding interior drum against upward pressure of the
water; c, cover fitting into the end of interior drum or brood-
chamber ; c’ (placed near lower end of handle of cover), cork-stopper
fitting into a thermometer-hole through the cover; F, upright pieces
of supporting frame; F’, F”, side and end base-boards of support-
ing frame; f, fire-plate, portion of f the supporting belt; G, glass
Figl Fig 3
te tk ER
KAY Z 4 © © ©
Fe] (ofan Bs
) ee a
7 mf nee T
FA E © © ©@
L Fig 4
re IN
T er
=
frame covered by sheets of tin; v, space below foot-boards for
ingress of air, tubing, ete. The tube A is not essential, but may be
convenient at times, as seen below.
, +he structure is essentially a water-jacketed bucket, made by fit-
ting a smaller cylinder or drum 16x19 in. inside a larger drum 20
in. In diameter by 24 in depth, thus leaving the space shaded in the
cut for water. The cover has a double wall with air space (dotted
in Fig. 1). It slips into its place like the cover of a tin pail. With
only the tube A, and properly supported in the upright position,
the gas-flame burning at g, the hole c’ open, and a regulator at H,
we have the essentials of a laboratory incubator. The air passing
through the tube—surrounded by warm water for a considerable
tance—is so warmed as not to chill the eggs placed in the brood-
666 General Notes.
chamber. This was the form devised several years ago by Profes-
sor Birge, of Madison, Wisconsin, and because for laboratory
purposes comparatively few eggs are needed, and principally the
earlier stages of development, we secure an efficient incubator and
thermostat ata trifling cost. (Made of sheet-tin, the cost is not
over five dollars.
By modifying this form I have made a more elaborate, but more
convenient, machine, which, having successfully stood the test of
three seasons’ work at the Johns Hopkins Laboratory, I venture to
describe. The “drum” was placed in a horizontal position, the
tube a was added (making A superfluous). Apertures A and R and
tubes a’ and ¢ were also added, as shown in the figures. The
“drum ” was supported by a frame similar to what we get by taking
off the top of a table and turning the rest upside down. The legs
or uprights at each end were joined by a strip of sheet-iron 2 in.
wide, forming a saddle-like belt. The forward end-strip, being cut
six inches wide at its middle point, makes a fire-plate for the flame
to play on. The point s tends to be the coolest; hence the position
of the burner. The thermometer ¢ should mark the upper limit of
the incubation temperature. sheet of tin is hung by wires, 80
that the Bunsen burner projects through a hole punched in it, and
thus prevents reflection and loss’ of heat into the surrounding space.
The whole structure should rest on a plate of zinc if the floor or
table on which it stands is of wood. A coat of paint on the drum
reduces radiation and consequent gas-consumption. The eggs are
placed in pans 2 inches deep by 10 by 16. Each pan is made of
two similar halves that slip one over the other, like the lid of a
cardboard box. Thus either side may be up or down, and there-
fore all the eggs in the pan (forty or more) are turned at once by
turning the pan, and, besides, the marks on the eggs are easily
inspected. For ordinary thermostat purposes, the trays can P
replaced by shelves or drawers. The air circulates in part as indi-
cated by the arrows, with such an arrangement of the pans as shown
in the cut, but most of the air passes through the trays directly,
and, thus, between the eggs.
If a space be left above the water and the hole h be made to con-
nect with an aspirator, on the one hand, and the tube A on the other,
warm, moist air can be forced into the egg-chamber ; but the sponges
8, 8, are practically sufficient. I found by experience that even
though the cyclindrical shape is the one giving greatest strength :
(as well as ease of construction), that zine is not a good material for
this machine to be made from, as it softens under warmth and yields
gradually to the pressure. Therefore, if tin be departed from,
-copper should be chosen ; but, of course, this will raise the priee.—
J. Nelson.
Scientific News. 667
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—Dr. Roland Duer Irving, Professor of Geology and Miner-
alogy at the University of Wisconsin, died at Madison on the 30th
of May last. Professor Irving was in comparatively good health
on the preceding Saturday, having taken a boat ride with his
family on one of the lakes surrounding Madison. On Sunday
morning about eight o’clock he was stricken with paralysis. Durin
the day he was conscious, but could not be made to realize his
serious condition. On Monday he was only half conscious, and from
that time gradually passed into a deep stupor, which faded into
death on Wednesday morning. Dr. Irving was the chief in charge
of the Lake Superior Division of the United States Geological
Survey. His most important work was the establishment of a
great break in the geological continuity between the Laurentian
and the Huronian systems, and (together with President Chamber-
lin) the erection of a new system, the Keweenawan, between the
Huronian and the Cambrian. At the time of his death he was
engaged with Professor C. R. Van Hise in the preparation of a
monograph on the iron-bearing rocks of the Penokee-Gogebic
region. Professor Irving was a native of Staten Island, New
York, and was a nephew of Washington Irving. He leaves a wife
and three children,
of the AMERICAN Naturaist for a time. Professor Lewis was an
fathusiastic student, and a man of most amiable character. His
668 General Notes
—The Boston Biological Laboratory was incorporated in 1888,
and is under immediate charge of Director C.O. Whitman, Ph.D.,
and Instructor B. H. Van Vleck, S.B. It is at Wood’s Holl,
Massachussetts. A convenient site has been secured close to the
shore and to the laboratories of the United States Fish Commission.
The Laboratory building consists of two stories : the lower story for
the use of students receiving instruction, the upper story exclusively
for investigators. he Laboratory has boats, dredges, and
other collecting apparatus; it is also supplied with running
sea-water, with alcohol, and other reagents, glass-ware, microtomes,
aquaria, etc. ; a limited number of microscopes for students’ use an
a small reference library. The Laboratory for Students was
opened on Tuesday, July 17th, at 9 a.m., for a systematic course of
six weeks in zoology. By permission of the Director students may
continue their work until September 20th, without additional pay-
ment. Microscopes, glass-ware, etc., are supplied without extra
charge except for breakage. The fee for this course is twenty-
five dollars ($25), payable in advance. The Laboratory for
Investigators is equipped as fully as the means permit. Micro-
scopes are provided, but it is believed that investigators will
find most of their indispensable wants satisfied. The fee for an
investigator’s table is fifty dollars ($50) for the present season.
Owing to the late day on which the announcements were sent out
there are but about half a dozen students present this year 12
either department.
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
Vo. XXII. AUGUST, 1888. No. 260
OUR FRESH-WATER ALGZ.!
BY EDWARD S. BURGESS.
‘WHat do you mean by the Fresh-water Alge? and what
interest do you find in them? are the questions I find asked
me. Go with me to the coast, if you would learn my answer.
Notice the sea-weed growing along the shore; see the dark olives
and browns shown in the rockweed, left dripping and slippery
by the retiring tide; note the waving tufts of green laver and sheets
of membrane-like sea-lettuce floating near the tide-mark, and watch
the beautiful red mossy cushions of delicate growth washed in by
the breaking wave. Ask of almost any dweller on the coast and he
will say, “ People nowadays call them alge.” The longer you
watch them the more attracted by their beauty you will become ;
Soon you will begin to collect and mount them like other visitors
to the shore. At first the most beautiful only will be collected ;
then others that are less so, “simply for the variety,” ag you may
apologize to yourself; finally you will end by determining to keep
a specimen of every kind, whether beautiful or not. And now you
approach the stand-point of science, for science sees interest in every
representative of a race, whether that race be high or low; and
finds in every plant a right to our regard in the fact of its inheri-
tance of the mystery of life.
But every summer must have its end, and so there will come the
time of packing up the glowing specimens with their endless shades
‘Condensed from a lecture delivered at the United States National
Museum, Washington, D. C., January 7, 1888.
670 Our Fresh- Water Alge.
of reds and greens and olives. With the return to the interior the
desire rises to expression, “ Would that the inland waters contained
such treasures as these mosses of the sea!” It is the old story, the
wish is father to the thought, and the thought will perchance come
to you, that perhaps they do; why should there not be mosses in
the lake and river, brook and clear spring, as well as in the brine?
and you resolve to look for yourself on your return, or you ask
some one who knows to tell you if there are not also alge in the inland
waters. “ Yes, certainly,” he replies, and you then inquire, “ Why
is it then that I have never seen them?” to be reminded in turn
that it is not the first time the eye has been awakened to perception
of the beauties round its home by travels in a foreign land.
Besides, the algæ of fresh-water are smaller and less conspicuous
than those of the sea; many are microscopic, and many others are,
when taken singly, but just visible to the naked eye. They are less
varied in color as well, and so it has happened that many collectors
know the sea mosses first, and if knowledge of the algx of fresh
water comes at all, it comes as a derivative from the other.
To compare the actual organs of the alga and the flowering
plant, we remember that the flowering plant is adapted to land-
conditions, securing nourishment from the air by its leaves an
from the soil by its roots. The alga is adapted instead to water
conditions and has no leaves nor roots for procuring nourishment,
but absorbs through its general surface. The alga may or may not
have root-like bodies (rhizoids), or a root-like base (a dise or hold-
fast), but if present, these are simply to fix the plant in position.
Presence of distinct stem and branches is optional with either. Most
flowering-plants produce leaves ; most alga do not; those leaf-like
bodies which are produced, as by the Sargassum or Gulf-weed, are
called phylloids; these do not occur in the strictly fresh-water
species, As its name indicates, the flowering-plant is to produce -
flowers, and from them seeds containing an embryo of one or more
seed-leaves (cotyledons), Alga produce no flowers and seeds, but
instead, as a usual rule, spores. Their spores resemble seeds a8
appearance and in function, but contain no embryo and differ 12
details of development. ‘The alga is thus the less specialized, sii
more simple, the lower in the scale of creation. Instead of delega
ting the functions of plant-life to separate portions of itself as |
Our Fresh- Water Alge. 671
organs, the alga often combines them all in a single cell or ultimate
constituent. “In cases where the alga is composed of many cells
the same principle often holds good, each cell being sufficient unto
itself, uniting within its own small limits all the multifarious em-
ployments or functions which make up the life-activity of its species,
and therefore able to live equally well if by accident it becomes
detached from its associated cells. Hard-working cells are these,
for they have not yet learned the rudiments of the division of labor;
cells of manifold activities certainly, and correspondingly hardy,
self-dependent, and ever unsubdued. They live and replenish the
earth unseen by man, till by effects or masses of individuals they
move him to wonder, and, as in the middle ages, to ascribe their
sudden-seeming presence to the wrath of heaven or the agencies of
the black art or to the medium of alchemy.
The present needs will not permit my entering into the subject
of the scientific classification of the alge, but it may be of service to
notice some of the principal groups for which common names are
in use, According to habitat we may divide all alge into the
marine and fresh-water divisions, including with the latter the
erial species, surface-dwellers on moist earth, sand, rocks and trees.
Recombining all the alge, they may be again divided according to
coloring matter, contained, generally as a liquid, in their cells,
classing them therefore as fhe red, olive and green alge, and
fourthly as the Phycochroms, the last having as their characteristic
a bluish cast seen in the green, ashen or grayish hue which pervades
them. The red alge, so prized by collectors on the shore, are
scantily represented in our inland waters ; the olive do not appear
at all ; but the two other divisions find in fresh-water their chief
representation. The green alge of the tide-marshes along the coast
are very conspicuous, and of uncounted numbers, but of very few
species comparatively ; those of fresh-water are probably still more
abundant in individuals, certainly in species. The Phycochroms
never reach as great a size as do members of each of the other
sections ; they are, indeed, chiefly microscopic, as individuals, if not
as Masses or colonies, Their cell-contents are also less highly
organized. Their chief abode is in slowly running streams and
quiet waters, They are the Cyanophyces of Goebel and of various
authors since Nägeli, in 1849. They are remarkable for the pres-
672 Our Fresh- Water Alge.
enceof a beautiful blue coloring matter, phycocyan ; and for the fact
that no sexual modes of propagation have been discovered in them;
nor, at least with rare exceptions, is there any evident nucleus, or
central denser protoplasmic body, in their cells, such as is the rule
elsewhere among plants.
Multiplication in the algæ takes place in either of several ways;
the most common is that of fission, as in the multiplication of cells
in a flowering-plant, where each cell divides into two parts, each a
perfect whole like its parent. The two parts gradually increase in
size until they reach their full degree, then themselves divide again, —
and soon. They may or may not remain attached to each other.
Another mode of algal multiplication is by budding (gemmation),
where the bud-like protrusion which grows into a new cell remains
usually attached to its parent. A modification of this, prolification,
consists of numbers of new cells arising from the side or end of the
old, as if intended to become a separate individual, but often long
adhering to the other, as if an attached child unwilling to remove
from its parent. Some alge, as the Caulerpa, rely on this method
for their chief mode of propagation, as do so many of the higher
plants upon “ spreading by the root ” in place of production of seed.
Another curious modification of budding is common in the red
algee, the production of tetraspores, bodies which are formed by
division of a cell into four equal parts, each of which becomes a
spore, able to grow into a new plant, and thus analogous to the
bulblets produced by tiger-lilies and some onions.
Other algæ are reproduced by sexual methods, producing spores
in some part of the process. Among the most remarkable of these
are the zoospores, small seed-like bodies, usually soft and oval,
sometimes spherical, tipped with one, two or more waving t
(cilia), which lash the water and carry the spore onward in the
current thus produced, sometimes with great velocity and sometime
for several hours. The cilia finally fall off and the zoospore comes
to rest ; and if favorable conditions have befallen it, it has effec
a lodgement on some resisting substance, there to begin to lengthen,
divide into cells, and grow into a new plant. During their m e
stage these little spores seem like so many little green animalcu!es
darting about ; so indeed they were long thought to be; and P
names still perpetuates this idea, the word zoospore meanmg
“ animal-spore.”
Our Fresh- Water Alge. 673
Another kind of spore, motionless, unlike the preceding, the
zygospore or “ yokespore,” is produced only as the result of two
cells uniting and fusing their contents, the confined mass becoming
the zygospore. This process of coalescence, known technically as
conjugation, occurs in the beautiful Desmids, algæ so distinct as to
form a group by themselves and therefore not now to be entered
upon. The process also occurs in the Spirogyras and their relatives
common in conspicuous green masses in still waters, each mass
composed of long threads tangled together which shine with silky
lustre when taken out of the water giving them their English name
of silkweeds. These spores are smooth or spiny, often studded
with knobs or branching thorns ; they have a thick, hard case,
resisting the drouth of summer and the cold of winter, enabling
them to await their proper time of growth in safety. The zoospores
are liableto confusion with certain green infusoria ganimalcules,
the zygospores with certain similar unicellular alge as species of
Acanthococcus, now thought to have been often mistaken in this
country for desmid zygospores.
A very curious kind of reproduction is that of the Vaucheria and
its allies, the production of “ oospores,” which resemble zygospores
in their resting-period and in their hard, shell-like case, but differ
in formation, And if with Goebel we include the Charas among
the alge, we are presented by them with still another mode of
reproduction, the formation of “ nucules ” or nutlets, dark or red,
often strikingly handsome to the naked eye when abundant in their
little clusters on the green feathery plant, each nucule surrounded by
its little involucre and itself chased as if by chisel with a spiral
line winding many times round it.
; But perhaps the most complicated of algal systems of reproduc-
tion is that of the red algæ, to be observed in fresh water in the
Batrachosperms, Lemaneas, ete. It may be called the cystocarpic
system, its result being the formation of a fruit or cystocarp, filled
with spores, often reminding one of the grains in a pomegranate
or the seeds in a water-melon, and sometimes still more regular in
arrangement. Remembering the sexual system as developed in
flowering-plants requires, previous to the formation of seed, the
Presence of the stamen and the pistil, respectively the male and
female elements ; we look for their counterpart in these plants, and
674 Our: Fresh-Water Alge.
find it in the presence respectively of antheridia and archegonia.
In the violet batrachosperms of fresh water these organs are pro-
duced on separate individuals. The antheridia contain small motile
bodies, antherozoids, analogous to the pollen contained in the
anthers of flowering-plants, and to the spermatozoids of animal life.
These antherozoids find their way upon the other plant to where a
long hair-like tube (the trichogyne) opens, through which their
fertilizing influence reaches the protoplasm mass in the bulbous
base of the tube (the archegonium or carpogonium). The proto-
plasm on fertilization swells, divides, usually forms new cells around
it, as if walling itself in, and then a series of new cells within,
many of which become spores, the whole fruit so formed becoming
as full of spores as a stramonium pod of seeds, and generally
resembling the latter in their position as well.
There is great variety of form among the alge of fresh water,
even among the unicellular species. It might be thought that these
species, where the whole plant is composed of but a single cell,
would present little variety ; especially when it is considered that
such simple cells commonly float loosely in the water, and in situa-
tions enabling the supposed normal spheroidal cell-form to develop
itself, free from the influences of crowding or lateral stimuli. But
not so simple is the plan of nature, and a great range of shape exists
among the single-celled algæ, from the spherical of the common
protococcus of our trees and walls to the bur-like spiny Polyedrium.
For instance, one Rhaphidium is crescent-shaped, another needle-
shaped, another unicellular alge is shaped somewhat like the letter
S, another like a J, anothera C. The Botrydium is balloon-shaped,
the Chytridium often urn-shaped, others appear as little discs, others
ellipses, others cubical or pentagonal. When associated in masse,
pressure and the exigencies of growth change the shape of those
naturally circular into irregular polygons. Some species of Ophio-
cytium grow into curious coils; some Polyedriums are exact :
triangles, others take the form of a Greek cross. Extend our view
to the desmids and diatoms, which are also of the unicellular alge
of fresh-water, and the number of cut and fantastic forms which a
plant of a single cell may present, becomes indefinitely increased.
The larger number of species of the fresh-water alge are, hows
ever, of more than onecell. Of these multicellular alge some grow
Our Fresh- Water Alga. 675
into discs, as Coleochzete, some expand into a leaf-like membrane, as
Prasiola, or widen from hollow spheres and tubes into broad
undulating sheets like the Tetrasporas, others grow in solid globular
masses, as the Cheetophoras, one species of which occurs in the form
of little green balls like peas, and hangs on dry grasses and other
supports in quiet pools in spring. Others of looser texture, expand
into an indefinite and irregular mass which will crumble at a touch,
or form a gelatinous stratum which slips like oil through fingers
that endeavor in vain to raise it from the water. Many others
» become firmly adherent crests on rocks, especially under falling
water. Most of the more beautiful species become filaments,
usually formed of cells placed end to end, sometimes composed ot
several or many such filaments bound together, either branching or
not, and attaining particularly fine development in the Batracho-
sperms, where the many branched and forking filaments are clad
with radiating whorls of smaller branches, often in the most perfect
regularity.
Very commonly gelatinous in substance, many of the larger
species are too frail to bear lifting out of the water, and yet endure
considerable stress of their native current without harm, swaying
with graceful motion as becomes beings born to the water. As
there are all degrees of consistency in jellies, so there are in alge,
from the tough jelly of a Prasiola, to the fluid jelly of a Tetraspora.
Professor Wood named his genus Pagerogala, “ frozen milk,” from
its seeming to float like white curds of clotted milk in a Pennsylva-
nia spring. Some Draparnaldias may fairly be called succulent,
others approach nearest of any of our alge to the wiry character ;
the Lemanea issometimes almost leathery ; Spirogyras feel under the
fingers like a lock of hair ; some of the largest Confervee are tough
enough to support considerable weight, and have such strength of
fibre that German ingenuity has tested their capability for textile
use, and not only made mattress-stuffing and paper from them, but
actually fabricated them into coarse trowsers, as if to show that the
common phrase “clad in weeds” is not incapable of the most literal of
fulfilments, Stranger still than any Confervæ, are the mailed knights
among the alge, the little diatoms, absolutely unyielding and en-
cased in silex, like so many little glass boxes under the microscope
all curiously chased and set with flashing points and knobs. Some of
676 Our Fresh-Water Alge.
the Charas secrete instead of silica, a sheath of carbonate of lime
about themselves, until the whole plant seems a succession of joints
of stone, or links of white lime, giving it its popular cognomen of
stonewort.
The colors of our fresh-water alge are varied to a degree that
may surprise the student who expects only green. There is consid-
erable variety even in their green, from the usual grass-green of the
Spirogyras to the pea-green of some Palmellas ; the little “ water-
flower,” so to render its name, Anabcena flos-aquee, is a verdigris-
green ; Chlamydomonas hyalina is called by Wolle a milky-green-
Many shades of red are found, vermilion in Chlamydococcus, scarlet
in Thorea, blood-red in Glaocapsa sanguinea, amethystine in Lepto-
thrig tinctoria; Hildenbrandtia is often purple, one of the Chantran-
sias is rose-purple, a Lemanea is violet ; species of Chrodlepus range
through ash, yellow and orange to golden-red ; Tuomeya is said to
be olive-colored, Hydrurus ochre ; some Vaucherias are brown, one
Gleocapsa is black ; a Leptothrix is straw-colored, another fawn, 4
Chantransia steel-blue, a Cylindrocapsa pearly. Many preserve their
color when dried; others change, some simply by fading to 4
lighter shade of their previous color, others to a new tint; one
Batrachosperm is described as at first of a mouse-gray color, then
yellow, and on drying, violet ; Chantransia macrospora and Thorea
are, when living, dark green, but dry a beautiful purple-violet ; the
Sweet Chroolepus is tawny when fresh, changes to an ashen-gray an
finally greenish ; a kindred species is reddish-orange when olive,
light yellow on drying ; Zygnema purpureum changes from yellow-
ish-green to dark purple; Lyngbya tinctoria, says Wolle, from
purple to violet steel; Vaucheria dichotoma may stand as type of
the change so frequent in the higher plants, from green to brown-
Many alge unite several colors at the same time ; almost all do so
when we compare the spores with the vegetative growth ; a remark-
able instance of variegation in vegetable growth alone is seen 1m 3
new Lyngbya found by Wolle in the Lehigh at Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, waving in tufts six inches long, “ the one
bright-blue green, lower parts changing to yellow-brown ; and @
last fading out to a colorless base.”
Few of the odors possessed by the alge have received a name
Out of the 1300 species recorded in this country by the Rev.
Our Fresh-Water Alge. 677
Francis Wolle, there is perhaps but one which has an odor remark-
ably offensive : this, the Hydrurusis, however, so unpleasant that the
Dane Lyngbye remarked of it seventy years ago that “it could be
endured only by an algologist.” Bory called attention early in
this century to “the most peculiar odor” of Lemanea when burned.
Extend the view to the Charas, and to the diatom Schizonema, and
a number of species of imitating or unpleasant odors are met; but
the number of algz which are in themselves possessed of much odor
ofany kind is few. If any persons associate disagreeable odors with
the alge, it is doubtless from confusing the odor of a place with
that of an alga happening to be at the time its resident. Nor are
the alge without examples of exquisite fragrance ; man might not
have thought to look here for the sweetest odor, but Nature has not
forgotten to add that charm to some of these, her lowly children ;
one of them Chrodlepus odoratus, has been known in Denmark for
over seventy years as the “sweet conferva”; it grows also on the
bark of shade trees along highways in Pennsylvania. Perhaps
more interesting still is the fragrance of the violet-moss, Chrodlepus
iolithus, which attracted the attention of Linnzeus almost a century
and a half ago; it grows asa thin glaucous, green or reddish-
orange layer over stones in the Alps and in our own country in the
White Mountains, causing them to “give forth a strong odor of
violets.” The Swiss are said to earry these stones home and by
occasional moistening, to renew the odor from time to time. These
Alpine people call it “Veilchen-moos ” and the“ Veilchen-stein ” ;
and this latter was adopted as its name in science by Linneus, for
the specific name he gave it and which it still bears, is to be trans-
lated Violet-stone.
The size of our fresh-water algæ has been already referred to as
commonly microscopic ; yet there are many of considerable dimen-
sions. About Washington we have Tetrasporas growing a foot long,
beautiful undulating sheets of translucent green floating out on
flowing water; some of our Cladophoras are still longer ; and the
sac-like Water-nets and the string-like Conferve equal or exceed
them, Any locality may yield however, for one specimen of six
Inches, a score of but one inch, and for each of the latter, an
equally increased proportion on or below the border-line of vision.
Many minute algæ become very conspicuous by reason of their
678 Our Fresh-Water Alge.
immense numbers however ; sometimes the whole surface of a lake
is covered with them. For several years a little pond near Wash-
ington attracted my notice by its uniform dingy green ; examination
y the microscope proved regularly that it was due to presence of
myriads of a very minute alga, a Staurastrum, a pretty little desmid
with six radiating points of green. The Bavarian lake, the Schlier-
see, grew turbid under the ice of the winter before the present,
acquiring a general green or blue, due, suggests Dr. Harz, to
enormous quantities of the microscopic alga Palmella uveeformis :
then the color changed under the ice to a yellow-red and at last to
peach-color from the incoming of another alga, Clathrocystis roseo-
persicina, which is said to have attacked and destroyed the other.
This fittest survivor, conqueror in the battle of the algal hosts under
the ice, was found lurking in wide expanses of beautiful peach color
on the mud bottom of Babcock Lake here in Washington, recently
drained to assure the safety of the Washington monument. The
green surfaces of stagnant pools everywhere familiar, are also
examples of minute algæ occurring in vast masses.
The larger species may be mounted on cards or sheets of unglazed
paper as is so common with the marine alge ; or on sheets of mica
for coarser microscopic examination; or preserved for the same
purpose in bottles of carbolized water. My practice is, however, to
preserve specimens forthe microscope, large or small, in cement cells,
using as a medium King’s fresh-water alge fluid; specimens of
three or four years’ standing still remain unchanged. Some species
may be collected throughout the year, even under the ice ; in the
city of Washington many are constantly abundant as green coatings
on trees, walls and stone steps ; others live in the drinking fountains,
species, as Draparnaldia plumosa, which exist only in pure water ;
others are to be sought on the damp wood work of pumps; still
others in the conservatories, on damp bricks and flower-pots and m
the soil. The mud of the Potomac margin contains its own species
and there the Vaucheria waves in profusion ; Oscillarias, Palmellas,
and other unicellular species abound; and outside of the city,
springs, streams and pools are each full of their treasures, wet ban
and even meadows yield their own peculiar species ; and the early
spring pools filled by Potomac overflows are especially the haunt
of the Algee.
Review of North American Paleontology. 679
And now if interest has been awakened in these minutest of the
pet nurslings of nature, the next step is to collect, examine and
preserve them. Do not stop at that point let me beg of you, for it
is but the threshold ; but seek to discover the entire life-history of
the species around you. Uncounted problems of supremest interest
await the verdict of those researches. | Only by such work can the
foundation of a true and permanent classification of the alge be
laid. Questions of far-reading importance follow regarding their
relations to the fungi, and to animal life, and their ultimate part in
the scale of nature. Uses the alge may have, many and as yet
unknown ; but perhaps none more important will ever be discov-
ered than their service which science already knows, that of
furnishing a means by which to learn of the origin and the pro-
cesses of life. The algæ as among the simplest of living things
stand close to the gateway whence life first entered into the world,
and invite the hope that their investigation may yield many im-
portant additions to the world’s knowledge of what life is.
REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF NORTH AMERICAN
PALAONTOLOGY FOR THE YEAR 1887.
BY JOHN BELKNAP MARCOU.
] REGRET that, owing to the delay in the publication of the
Smithsonian report for 1886, my record of North American
palxontology for that year has not yet appeared, and the date of its
publication is still uncertain. For this reason I again publish in
the AMERICAN NATURALIST a brief review of the titles of the new
works on North American paleontology, which I have collected
during the year 1887, in order to give the workers in this branch
of science a brief view of the work of the past year, leaving all
abstracts, notes and comments to another paper, which will be pub-
lished either by the Smithsonian Institution or the U. S. Geological
urvey, y
Truman H. Aldrich, in Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol.
680 Review of North American Paleontology.
X., No. 2, pp. 78-83, has “ Notes on Tertiary Fossils, with Descrip-
tions of New Species.”
Henri M. Ami has an article “On the Occurrence of Scolithus
in Rocks of the Chazy Formation about Ottawa, Ontario” in Canad.
Ree. Sci., Vol. II., p. 304; on p. 429 he has one on “The Mica
Formation in Canada”; in the Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. I., No. 9,
p. 121, he has another, entitled “ Notes on and the Precise Geolo-
gical Horizon of Siphonotreta scotia”; with T. E. W. Sowter on
p- 93, he publishes “ Report on the Geological Branch.”
L. W. Bailey, in Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada for 1886, Section IV.,
p. 35, has an article “On the Silurian System of Northern Maine,
New Brunswick and Quebec.”
G. Baur publishes in Amer. NATURALIST, Vol. XXL, p. 837,
an article “On the Morphology and Origin of the Ichthy-
opterygia.”
Chas. S. Beachler has an article on “ Crinoid Beds at Crawfords-
ville, Indiana,” in Amer. Narurauist, Vol. XXI., p. 1106.
Chas. E. Beecher, in Thirty-ninth Ann. Rep. Trustees N. Y. Sta.
Mus. Nat. Hist. for 1885, p. 161, has an article entitled “A Spiral
Bivalve from the Waverly Group of Pennsylvania.”
Walter R. Billings has “A New Genus and Three New Species
of Crinoids from the Trenton Formation, with Notes on a large
specimen of Dendrocrinus proboscidiatus” in the Ottawa Naturalist,
Vol. I., No. 4, pp. 49-54.
J. P. Bishop, in Nature, Vol. XXXV., p. 237, has an article
“On Certain Fossiliferous Limestones of ‘Columbia County, New
York, and their Relation to the Hudson River Shales and the
Taconic System.”
G. S. Boulger has an article “On the Connection in Time of
Changes in Fossil Floras with those of Faunas” in Proc. Geol.
Ass., Vol. LS., No. 7, p: 482. ;
has “A Noteworthy Specimen of Devonian Lepido-
dendron ” in Science, Vol. IX., No. 225, p. 516.
J. H. Chapin has “An Interesting Find” in Proc. and Trans-
Merid. Sci. Assoc., Vol. II., p. 29.
Chapman, E. J., in Canad. Rec. Sci., Vol. IL, p. 431, has an
article “ On the Classification of Trilobites.” Dae
J. M. Clarke publishes “ Annelid Teeth from the Lower Portion
Review of North American Palwontology. 681
of the Hamilton Group and from the Naples Shales of Ontario
County, N. Y.,” and [Communication concerning Mastodon Bones
found at Utica, Wyoming County, N. Y.], in Sixth Ann. Rep. N. Y.
State Geologist for the year 1886, p. 30 and p. 34.
H. W. Conn has a review of “ Cope’s Origin of the Fittest” in
Amer. NATURALIST, Vol. XXI., p. 465.
J. G. Cooper publishes “ Corrections of Article ‘On Fossil and
Sub-Fossil Land Shells in the United States,’ in Bull. No. 4,” in
Bull. California Acad. Sci., Vol. II., No. 7, p. 376, and “ West
Coast Pulmonata; Fossil and Iiving,” in Bull. California Acad.
Sci., Vol. II., No. 7, p. 355, and No. 8, p. 497.
E. D. Cope has in Amer. Naturauist, Vol. XXI., p. 468,
“American Triassic Rhyncocephalia; on page 1019 of the same
journal he has “ A Sabre-tooth Tiger from the Loup Ford Beds”;
on page 171 of the same journal he has “ Formations of the Belly
River of Canada”; on page 924 of the same journal he has “ Scott
and Osborn on White River Mammalia”; on page 469 of the same
journal he has “Some New Teniodonta of the Puerco”; on page
367 of the same journal he has “The Dinosaurian Genus Ccelurus” ;
on page 566 of the same journal he has “The Marsupial Genus
Chirox” ; on page 445 of the same journal he has “ The Mesozoic
and Cxnozoic Realms of the Interior of North America” ; on pp.
985 and 1060 of the same journal he has “The Perissodactyla ” ;
on page 573 of the same journal he has “ The Sea-Saurians of the
Fox Hills Cretaceous”; in Geol. Mag., New Ser., Sec. IIL, Vol.
IV., p. 572, he has “ Lydekker, Boulanger and Dollo on Fossil
Tortoises” ; in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol. XXIII., p. 234, he
has an article “On the Structure of the Brain and Auditory Appa-
ratus of a Theromorphous Reptile of the Permian Epoch” ; in the
same journal, p. 357, he has “On Two New Species of Three-toed
Horses from the Upper Miocene, with Notes on the Fauna of the
Ticholeptus Beds ” ; on p. 146 of the same journal he has “ Report
on the Coal Deposits near Zacualtipan, in the State of Hidalgo,
Mexico,”
„T. Nelson Dale has an article “On ‘New England Upper Silu-
a in Proc. Canad. Inst., Third Ser., Vol. IV., Fase. No. r,
William H. Dall, in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third Ser., Vol. XXIV.,
publishes “ Notes on the Geology of Florida.”
682 Review of North American Paleontology.
C. H. S. Davis has “ The Catopterus gracilis” in the Proc. and
Trans. Merid. Sci. Assoc., Vol. II., p. 19.
Dawson, George M., in Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada,
p. 1, has “ Notes to accompany a Geological Map of the Dominion
of Canada, East of the Rocky Mountains.”
Dawson, Sir J. Wm., has an article “On Canadian Examples of
Supposed Fossil Alga.” in Rep. British A. A. A. S., 1886, Birming-
ham Meeting, p. 651; in Canad. Ree. Sci., Vol. II., p: 404, he has
an article “On the Correlation of the Geological Structure of the
Maritime Provinces of Canada”; in same, p. 499, he has “ Notes
on Fossil Woods from the Western Territories of Canada”; he
has, in Nature, Vol. XXXVI., p. 574, an article “On New Facts
relating to Eozoon Canadense”; in Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada for
1886, Section IV., p. 1, he has “ Presidential Address: Some Points
in which American Geologic Science is indebted to Canada”; in
same, p. 19, he has an article “ On the Fossil Plants of the Laramie
Formation of Canada.”
Drammond, A. T., in Canad. Ree. Sci., Vol. II., p. 412, has an
article on “The Distribution and Physical and Post-Geological
Relations of British North American Plants.”
P. Martin Duncan has an article “On a New Genus of Madre
poraria—Glyphastreea, with Remarks on the Glyphastrea Forbesi,
Edw. and H., sp. from the Tertiaries of Maryland, U. S.,” in Geol.
Mag., New Ser., Dec. IIT., Vol. IV., p. 43; in Quart. Jour. Geol.
Soc., Vol. XLIII., p. 24, he has an article “On a New Genus of
Madreporaria (Glyphastrea), with Remarks on the Morphology of
Glyphastrea Forbesi, Ed. and H., from the Tertiaries of Maryland,
U. S.”; in Am. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 5, Vol. XIX., p. 260,
he has “A Reply to Dr. J. G, Hinde’s Communication ‘On the
Genus Hindia Dunc., and the Name of its Typical Species.’”
William B. Dwight publishes “Primordial Rocks of the Wap-
pinger Valley Limestones” in Vassar Bros. Inst. Trans., Vol. IV.
p. 130; in same, p. 206, he has “ Primordial Rocks of the Wap-
pinger Valley Limestones and Associate Strata”; in AMER. NAT-
URALIST, Vol. XXI., p. 270, he has “ Palæontological Observations
on the Taconic Limestones of Canaan, Columbia County, N. Ye
and in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third Ser., Vol. XXXIV., p. 27, he g
“ Recent Explorations in the Wappinger Valley Limestone 0
Dutchess County, N. Y.”
Review of North American Palceontology. 683
R. Etheridge and P. H. Carpenter publish “A Catalogue of the
Blastoidea in the Geological Department of the British Museum of
Natural History” in Amer. NATURALIST, Vol. XXXI, p. 68.
A. F. Foerste publishes in Bull. Sci. Laboratories Denison Uni-
versity, p. 71, “Coal-Measure Bryozoa from Flint Ridge”; in same,
p. 89, he has “The Clinton Group of Ohio,” Part II.; in same,
p- 149, he has “The Clinton Group of Ohio,” Part III.; and in
Science, Vol. X., No. 248, p. 225, he has “ Recent Methods in the
Study of Bryozoa.”
A. H. Foord, in Geol. Mag., New Ser., Dec. III., Vol. IV., p.
541, has an article “On the Genus Piloceras Salter, as Elucidated
by Examples lately discovered in North America and in Scotland.”
Persifor Frazer has “ General Notes—Sketch of the Geology of
York County, Pennsylvania,” in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., Vol.
XXIIL., p. 391.
J. S. Gardner, in Geol. Mag., New Ser., Dec. III., Vol. IV., p.
158, has “The Appearance and Development of Dicotyledons in
Time”; in Proc. Geol. Ass., Vol. IX., No. 6, p. 433, he has “ Fos-
sil Grasses,”
Herbert Goss has an article “On Some Recently Discovered
Insecta from Carboniferous and Silurian Rocks” in Proc. Geol.
Ass., Vol. IX., No. 3, p. 131.
L. P. Gratacap, in Proc. Nat. Sci. Ass. of Staten Island, Extra
No. 6, March, 1887, has “Preliminary List of Paleozoic Fossils
found in the Drift of Staten Island”; in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third
Ser., Vol. XXXIII., p. 374, he has “The Eozoonal Rock of Man-
hattan Island.”
James Hall publishes “Appendix A. Catalogue of Translucent
Sections of Rocks and Fossils” in Thirty-seventh Ann. Rep. N.
Y. State Mus. Nat. Hist.” ; in Sixth Ann. Rep. State Geologist for
the Year 1886, p. 41, he has “ Descriptions of Fenestellidæ of the
Hamilton Group of New York”; publishes Fifth Annual Report
of the State Geologist for the Year 1885; accompanied by a Geo-
logical Map of the State. Transmitted to the Legislature February
16, 1886. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, Printers, 1886,
pp. 1-47, Plates XX VIII.; James Hall and George B. Simpson
publish Geological Survey of the State of New York. Palontol-
ogy: Vol. VI. Corals and Bryozoa. Text and Plates. Con-
6834 Review of North American Palæontology.
taining Descriptions and Figures of Species from the Lower Hel-
derberg, Upper Helderberg and Hamilton Groups. Albany, N.
Y.: Charles Van Benthuysen & Sons, 1887, 4to, pp. L-XXVI.
and 1-298. Pls. I-LXVI. Errata 1 lf.; James Hall publishes
Geological Survey of the State of New York. Paleontology:
Vol. V., Part I. Lamellibranchiata II. Text and Plates. Con-
taining Descriptions and Figures of the Dimyaria of the Upper
Helderberg, Hamilton, Portage and Chemung Groups. Albany,
N. Y: Charles Van Benthuysen & Sons, 1885, 4to, pp. I.-LXII.
and 269-561. Pls. XX XIV.-XCVIL.; publishes “Note on Some
Obscure Organisms in the Roofing Slates of Washington County,
' New York” in Thirty-ninth Ann. Rep. Trustees Sta. Mus. Nat.
Hist. for 1885, p. 160; he has “ Note on the Discovery of a Skele-
ton of an Elk ( “Elaphus canadensis” ) in the town of Farmington,
Ontario County” in Sixth Ann. Rep. State Geologist for the Year
1886, p. 39; he has “Note on the Occurrence of the Dictyospon-
gide in the State of New York” in Sixth Ann. Rep. State Geolo-
gist for the Year 1886, p. 36; he has “ Report of the State Geolo-
gist” in Thirty-ninth Ann. Rep. Trustees Sta. Mus. Nat. Hist. for
1885, p. 226.
Angelo Heilprin has “Additions to the Floridian Fauna” in
Trans. Wagner Free Institute of Science, Vol. I., p. 129; he pub-
lishes “Determination of the Age of Rock Deposits” in Proc.
Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Part III., p. 395; in same, p. 314, he pub-
lishes “The Classification of the Post-Cretaceous Deposits”; he
publishes “The Geographical and Geological Distribution of Ani-
mals” in the International Scientific Series, p. 1.
C. L. Herrick publishes “ Additional Fossils from Coal-Measures
at Flint Ridge” in Bull. Sci. Laboratories Denison University,
Vol. IIL., Parts I. and II., p. 144; in same, p. 51, he has “ Appen-
dix I. Notes on Carboniferous Trilobites”; on page 69 he has
“ Appendix II. A Waverly Trilobite. A Sketch of the Geological
History of Licking Co., Ohio, accompanying an Illustrated Cata-
logue of Coal-Measure Fossils from Flint Ridge” ; in same, on p»
5, he has “A Sketch of the Geological History of Licking Co,
Ohio, accompanying an Illustrated Catalogue of Coal-Measure
Fossils from Flint Ridge.”
Henry Hicks, in Geol. Mag., New Ser., Dec. II., Vol. IV., P
155, has “ The Cambrian Rocks of North America.”
Review of North American Paleontology. 685
E. W. Hilgard publishes “The Equivalence in Time of Ameri-
can Marine and Intracontinental Tertiaries” in Science, Vol. IX.
No. 226, p. 535.
Robert T. Hill publishes “The Cross Timbers of Texas” in
Amer. Narurauist, Vol. XXI., p. 172; in Amer. Jour. Sci.,
Third Ser., Vol. XXIV., p. 287, he publishes “The Texas Sec-
tion of the American Cretaceous”; in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third
Ser., Vol. XXXIII., p. 291, he publishes “The Topography and
Geology of the Cross Timbers and Surrounding Regions in North-
ern Texas.”
G. J. Hinde publishes “ Die Versteinerungen des cambrischen
Schichtensystems der Insel Sardinien, nebst vergleichenden ' Unter-
schungen über analoge Varlomnisse aus andern Ländern” in Geol.
Mag., New Ser., Dec, III., Vol. 1V., p. 226; in Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., Ser. 5, Vol. KEX, p 67.
Fanny A. M. Hitchcock, in Amer. NaturAuist, Vol. XXI.,
p. 847, has an article “On the Homologies of Edestus.”
Rey. D. Honeyman has “A Revision of the Geology of Anti-
gonish County, in Nova Scotia” in Proc. and Trans. Nova Scotian
Inst. Nat. Sci., 1883-6, Vol. VI., p. 308.
_O. P. Hubbard has “Skeleton of a Whale found over 130 years
since in the St. Lawrence River Valley near Quebec” in Amer.
Jour. Sci., Third Ser., Vol. XXXIII., p. 242.
Alpheus Hyatt has an article “On Primitive Forms of Cephalo-
pods” in Amer. Narurauist, Vol. XXL, p. 64; and in Proc,
Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXIII., p. 315, he has “ Expedition
[to Newfoundland and Labrador].” |
Joseph F., James publishes in Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist.,
Vol. X., No. 2, p. 70, “Account of a Well Drilled for Oil or Gas
nie Oxford, Ohio, May and June, 1887”; in Science, Vol. X., No.
250, p. 252, he has “ Microscopie Sections of Corals”; in same,
Vol. X., No, 242, p. 156, he has “Chalcedonized Fossils”; in
Jour, Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. IX., No. 4, p. 244, he has
Protozoa of the Cincinnati Group”; in Science, Vol. X., No. 244,
P. 180, he has “Sections of Fossils.”
H. P. James and Joseph F. James publish an article “On the
Monticuliporoid Corals of the Cincinnati Group, with a Critical
Revision of the Species,” in Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol.
X., No. 3, p. 118.
686 Review of North American Paleontology.
U. P. James has “Genus Agelacrinus Vanuxem, Agelacrinus
holbrooki,” in Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. X., No. 1,
p. 25.
George F. Kunz has “Jasperized and Agatized Wood from Ari-
zona” in Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. VI., p. 165.
L’ Abbé J. C. Laflamme has “Note sur le contact des formations
paleozoiques et archéennes de la province de Quebec” (Lu le 28
Mai, 1886) in Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada for 1886, Section IV.
p. 43.
Chas. Lapworth publishes “ Fossils from Kicking Horse Pass,
Manitoba,” in Science, Vol. IX., No. 217, p. 230; also, “ Prelim-
inary Report on Some Graptolites from the Lower Paleozoic Rocks
on the South Side of the St. Lawrence from Cape Rosier to Tar-
tigo River, from the North Shore of the Island of Orleans, one
mile above Cape Rouge, and from the Cave Fields, Quebec,” in
Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada for 1886, Section IV., p. 167.
Joseph Leidy has “ Fossil Bones from Florida” in Proc. Acad.
Nat. Sci. Phila., Part III., p. 309.
A. T. Lilley publishes “A Revision of the Section of Chemung
Rocks exposed in the Gulf Broad Gorge, at Le Roy, in Bradford
Co., Pennsylvania,” in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol. XXII,
p- 291.
A. P. Law has “Preliminary Report on an Exploration of Coun-
try between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay” in Part F. Annual
Report, 1886, Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada,
E
£ Richard Lydekker has an article on “The Order Ungulata, Sub-
order Proboscidea,” in Catalogue of the Fossil Mammalia in the
British Museum (Natural History), p. 1. ;
A. McCharles has “The Footsteps of Time in the Red River
Valley, with Special Reference to the Salt Springs and Flammg
Wells to be Found in it,” in the Hist. and Sci. Soc. of Manitoba
Trans., No. 27, Season, 1886-7, p. 1; in Trans. Geol. Soc. Edin-
burgh, Vol. V., Part II., p. 331, he has “Notes on the Geology of
the Winnipeg District, Manitoba.” ee
R. G. McConnel, in Part D, Annual Report, 1886, Geological
and Natural History Survey of Canada, p. 1, has “ Report on m
Geological Structure of a Portion of the Rocky Mountains, aooo
panied by a Section measured near the 51st Parallel.”
Review of North American Paleontology. 687
W. J. McGee has an article on “ Ovibos cavifrons from the
Loess of Iowa” in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third Ser., Vol. XXXIV.,
p. 217.
J. B. Marcou has “ Review of the Progress of North American
Paleontology for the Year 1886” in AMER. NATURALIST, Vol.
DAL p. 532.
Jules Marcou has an article “On the Use of the Name Taconic”
in Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXIII., p. 343.
O. C. Marsh has “ American Jurassic Mammals” in Amer. Jour.
Sci., Third Ser., Vol. XXXIII., p. 327; in same, Vol. XXXIV.,
Append. p. 324, he has “Notice of New Fossil Mammals”; in
same, page 412, he has “ Principal Characters of American Jurassic
Dinosaurs. Part IX. The Skull and Dermal Armor of Stego-
saurus.”
G. F. Matthew has “ A Preliminary Notice of a New Genus of
Silurian Fishes” in Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc. New Brunswick, No. 6,
p. 69; in Canad. Rec. Sci., Vol. II., p. 323, he has “ Additional
Note on the Pteraspidian Fish found in New Brunswick” ; in same,
P. 357, he has an article “On the Smaller-eyed Trilobites of Divi-
sion I., with a few Remarks on the Species of the Higher Divisions
of the Group”; in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third Ser., Vol. XXXIII.,
p- 388, he has “The Great Acadian Paradoxides”; in same, p. 390,
he has an article “On the Kin of Paradoxides (Olenellus) Kjerulfi” ;
in Canad. Rec. Sci., Vol. II., p. 432, he has “Illustrations of the
Fauna of the St. John Group. No. IV. On the Smaller-eyed
Trilobites of Division I., with a few Remarks on the Higher Divi-
sions of the Group”; in same, p. 434, he has “ Illustrations of the
Fauna of the St. John Group. No. 5. On the Great Acadian
Trilobite, Paradoxides Regina”; in Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada for
1886, Section IV., p. 147, he has an article “On the Cambrian
Faunas of Cape Breton and Newfoundland.” .
F. J. H. Merrill has “Note on the Green Pond Mountain Group
of New Jersey” in Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. VI., p. 59.
Otto Meyer has an article “On Invertebrates from the Eocene of
Mississippi and Alabama” in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Part I.,
r 51; he has “ Beitrag zur Kentniss der Fauna des Altertteriirs von
Mississippi und Alabama” in Bericht über die Senckenbergische
naturfanschende Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main, 1887. Vor-
agert und Abhandlungen, pp. 1-22, pls. I.-II. Farnkfur a. Mt. -
688 Review of North American Paleontology.
L. C. Miall and Alfred Denny have “The Structure and Life
history of the Cockroach (Periplaneta orientalis), an Introduction,
to the Study of Insects” in Ann. and Mag Nat. Hist., Ser. 5, Vol.
XIX., p. 389.
David R. Moore has “ Fossil Corals of Franklin County, Indi-
ana” in Bull. Brookville Soc. Nat. Hist., No. 2, p. 50.
Frank L. Nason, in Am. Jour. Sci., Third Ser., Vol. XXXIV.,
p. 485, has an article “On the Location of Some Vertebrate Fossil
Beds in Honduras, C. A.”
J. S. Newberry has “The Fauna and Flora of the Trias of New
Jersey and the Connecticut Valley” in Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci.
Vol. VI., p. 124; in same, p. 137, he has “ Ccelosteus, a new
Genus of Fishes from the Lower Carboniferous Limestone of Illi-
nois”; in same, p. 164, he has “ Description of a New Species of
Titanichthys.”
H. Alleyne Nicholson has, in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 5,
Vol. XIX., p. 1, an article “On Some New or Imperfectly Known
Species of Stromatoporoids. Part III.”
Henry F. Osborn has “A Pineal Eye in the Mesozoic Mamma-
lia” in Science, Vol. IX., No. 208, p. 92; in same, No. 209, p. 114,
he has “The Pineal Eye in Tritylodon” ; in same, No. 226, p. 538,
he has “ No Parietal Foramen in Tritylodon”; in Proc. Acad. Nat.
Sci. Phila., Part II., p. 282, he has an article “On the Structure
and Classification of the Mesozoic Mammalia”; in AMER. NATU-
RALIST, Vol. XXI., p. 1020, he has “ Note upon the Genus An-
throdon” ; in Science, Vol. X., No. 254, p. 300,
Richard Owen has “American Evidences of Eocene Mammals of
the ‘Plastic Clay’ Period” in Rep. British A. A. A. S, 1886,
Aberdeen Meeting, p. 1033.
A. S. Packard has “Discovery of the Thoracic Feet in a Car-
boniferous Phyllocaridan ” in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol. XXII,
p- 380; in Amer. Naturauist, Vol. XXI., p. 1100, he has “ Fos-
sil Arthropods”; in Nat. Acad. Sci., Vol. III., Fifteenth Mem»
p. 135, he has an article “On the Anthracaridæ, a Family of i
boniferous Macrurous Decapod Crustacea”; in same, Sixteen
Mem., p. 143, he has an article “On the Carboniferous Xiphosurous
Fauna of North America”; in Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 5,
?
Vol. XIX., p. 164, he has an article “On the Class Podostomata,
Review of North American Paleontology. 689
a Group embracing the Marostomata and Tribolites”; in Nat. Acad.
Sci., Vol. III., Fifteenth Mem., p. 129, he has “On the Gampso-
nychide, an Undescribed Family of Schizopod Crustacea” ; in same,
p. 123, he has “On the Syncarida, a hitherto Undescribed Syn-
thetic Group of Extinct Malacostracous Crustacea.”
Marie Pavlow has an article entitled “Etudes sur |’ Histoire
Paléontologique des Ongulés en Amérique et en Europe 1 Groupe
primitif de léoctne inférieur” in Bull. Soc. Imp. des Nats. de
Moscou Année 1887, No. 2, p. 343.
Charles S. Prosser, in Proc. Amer. Ass. Adv. Sci., Vol. XXX VL,
p. 216, has “The Upper Hamilton of Chenango and Otsego Coun-
ties, New York.
Ferd. Roemer has “Ueber H. v. Meyer’s Mastodon Humboldti
Cuv. aus Mexico” in Neu. Jahrb. fiir Min. Geol. & Pal., 1887,
Band I., p. 114.
C. Rominger has “Description of a New Form of Bryozoa” in
Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Part I., p. 11; in same, p. 12, he has
“ Description of Primordial Fossils from Mount Stephens, N. W.
Territory of Canada.”
Scott, W. B., and Osborn, H. F., have “ Preliminary Account of
the Fossil Mammals from the White River Formation contained in
the Museum of Comparative Zoology” in Bull. Mus. Comparative
Zool. Harvard College, Vol. XIII., No. 5, p. 151.
S. H. Scudder has “ Fossil Insects” in Science, Suppl., Vol. IX.,
No. 221, p. 426.
- H. P. Smith has “ Bison latifrons” Leidy, in Journ. Cincinnati
Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. X., No. 1, p. 19.
L. v. Tausch has “ Ueber die Beziehungen der Fauna der nicht
marinen Kreidebildungen von Ajke im Bakony zu jener der Lara-
miebildungen Nord-Amerikas” in k. k. geol. Reich. Verhand,
1886, Nos. 7-18, p. 150-4, Vienna, 1886.
A. S. Tiffany, Rev. Dr. Barris, The Critic, Reviewed.
E. O. Ulrich has “Silurian and Devonian Fossils” in AMER.
NarturaLisr, Vol. XXL, p. 69, January, 1887.
Carl Vogt has an article “On Some Darwinistic Heresies” in
Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist., Series 5, Vol. XIX., p. 57.
C. Wachsmuth and F. Springer, in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.,
Part kp 82, has “The Summit Plates in Blastoids, Crinoids and
Cystids, and their Morphological Relations.”
690 Review of North American Paleontology.
C. D. Walcott has “ Fauna of the ‘Upper Taconic’ of Emmons,
in Washington Co., N. Y., with Plate I.” in Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d
Ser., Vol. XXXIV., p. 187; in same, p. 145, he has “ Note on the
Genus Archeocyathus of Billings”; in same, Vol. XXXII, p.
153, he has “The Taconic System.”
L. F. Ward has “Synopsis of the Flora of the Laramie Group £
in Dept. Int. U. S. Geol. Surv. Ann. Rept. Director, 1884-5, p+
405, pls. XXXI.-LXV.”; in Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 37, p
1, pls. I.—LVTII., he has “ Types of the Laramie Flora.”
C. A. White has an article “On New Generic Forms of Creta-
ceous Mollusca and their Relation to other Forms” in Proc. Acad.
Nat. Sci. Phila., Part I., p. 32, pl. II.; in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third
Ser., Vol. XXXIII., p. 18, he has one “On the Age of the Coal
found in the Region traversed by the Rio Grande”; in Proc. and
Nat. Sci. Phila., Part I., p. 39, he has one “On the Cretaceous
Formations of Texas and their Relations to those of Other Por-
tions of North America”; in Amer. Jour. Sci., Third Ser., Vol.
XXXIII., p. 364, he has one “On the Inter-Relation of Contem-
poraneous Fossil Faunas and Floras.”
J. F. Whiteaves has “ Illustrations of the Fossil Fishes of the
Devonian Rocks of Canada, Part I. (read May 27 and revised J uly
26, 1886),” in Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada for 1886, Section IV.,
p. 101.
R. P. Whitfield has “New New Jersey Cretaceous” in AMER.
Naturaist, Vol. XXI., p. 66.
S. G. Williams has “Note on the Lower Helderberg Rocks of
Cayuga Lake (communicated to the Report of the State Geologist
for 1886)” in Sixth Ann. Rep. State Geologist for the year 1886,
p. 10, Albany, 1887; in same, p. 13, he has “The Tully Lime
stone, its Distribution and its Known Fossils.” i
L. R. Witherell has “Some Facts from the Age of Horns” m
Jour. of Sci. and Art, Vol. I., No. 2, p. 323.
J. H. Wood has “Desiccated Bodies (5) from a cave in the Bad
Lands of Dakota” in Science, Vol. IX., No. 213, p. 213. ae
A. S. Woodward has “The History of Fossil Crocodiles” ™
Proc. Geol. Ass., Vol. IX., February, 1886, No. 5, p- 288; Lon-
don Univ. College, 1887. l
H. Woodward, has an article “On ‘Flightless Birds,’ common'y
Dikes of the Hudson River Highlands. 691
called ‘Wingless Birds,’ Fossil and Recent, and a Few Words on
Birds as a Class,” in Proc. Geol. Ass., Vol. IX., February, 1886,
No. 5, p. 352, pls. I—II., London Univ. College, 1887.
L. Woolman has “Geological Results of the Boring of an Arte-
sian Well at Atlantic City, N. J.,” in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.,
Part III., p. 339.
J. L. Wortman has an article “On the Teeth of the Vertebrata”
in AMER. NATURALIST, Vol. XXI., p. 463.
J. Young has “Note on a New Family of the Polyzoa—Cysto-
dictyonidæ (E. O. Ulrich)—with Notice of Three Carboniferous
Species,” in Trans. Edinburgh Geol. Soc., Vol. V., Part III.,
. 461.
THE DIKES OF THE HUDSON RIVER HIGHLANDS.
BY J. F. KEMP.
ŢEE cuts of the West Shore Railway, on the Hudson river, above
Haverstraw, and below Cornwall, have done much service to
geology in bringing to light the subsurface and unaltered structure
of the Archæan rocks. The Stony Point cut did more than any
other exposure to convince Professor J. D. Dana of the intrusive
character of the now famous Cortlandt series.! It exhibits as well
one of the most interesting examples of the contortion of mica
schists on the contact with intrusive rocks which any known area
affords. Here also Dr. Geo. H. Williams found the types of his
hornblende-peridotite? and was especially aided in his careful
studies of the series. Beyond Stony Point the railway crosses the
belt of blue limestome so extensively quarried at Tomkins’ Cove,
and then in the foot of the Dunderberg meets the main mass of the
Highland Archean. Through this it has made its way by cuts,
excavations and tunneling a distance of seventeen miles to Cornwall,
where it again passes off the Archean.
Am. Jour. Sci., III Series, vol. xxviii., p. 384.
Ibid., vol. xxxi., p. 29.
9 . .
692 Dikes of the Hudson River Highlands.
The reconnaissance survey of Dr. Britton! and Mr. Merrill over
this line, in connection with the New Jersey survey in 1885, brought
to light some, at first sight, rather obscure dike rocks which were
entrusted to the writer for determination. Their interesting char-
acter, however, encouraged further investigation in the field by him
the past summer, and this has led to the following results. In the
October School of Mines Quarterly (Vol. IX., p. 33), Dr. Britton
has outlined the results of his work. In brief he subdivides the
Archean into a basal “ Massive Group,” a middle “ Iron-Bearing
Group,” and an upper “Gneissic and Schistose Group.” These
members, as remarked by Dr. Britton, shade more or less into
one another, nor is it always easy to sharply define the individuals.
In the particular section under consideration we have especially to
deal with the iron-bearing and massive members as containing the
dikes, for the area which is notable for their absence is regarded by
Dr. Britton as belonging to the upper Gneissie and Schistose
series.
Of the dikes between Tomkins’ Cove and Jones’ Point the writer
is prevented by the unfortunate loss of a note-book from speaking
with the same accuracy of location as in regard to those remaining.
There are some present, though in but few instances. One slide
shows a hornblende-porphyrite very similar to one found inland
and about two miles west, to be described and figured in a pape?
forthcoming in the American Journal of Science for September. This
is probably an outlying dike of the Cortlandt series.
From Jones’ Point to Iona Island the railway skirts the Dunder-
berg. The rocks are gneisses, with evident laminations that strike
on the average N. 40 E. Just above Jones’ Point, and at intervals
for two miles to the north, they are seamed with dikes. Eleven
such masses were noted. They vary from six inches to twenty feet
wide, and are in almost all instances very badly altered on the
exposure. In fact they weather much worse than the enclosing
walls, and frequently show a recess from which the specimen has
to be fairly dugout. Under the microscope enough of the structure
remains to show that they were in all cases either diorites or horn-
blende-porphyrites, consisting either of a holocrystalline aggregate
of hornblende, plagioclase and magnetite, or of a ground mass n°
1 See Rept. State Geol. New Jersey, 1886, p. 74.
PLATE XII.
2? a ee T
aR
— a3
—
BN
Co
Section of Dyke-rock from the Highiands.
Dikes of the Hudson River Highlands. 693
merely a structureless alteration product with occasional er; © 's of
hornblende, plagioclase and magnetite. Pyrite is sometimes seen}
the same is true of biotite and small prisms of apatite. The mag-
netite shows indications of titanium. The Dunderberg exposures
are rather conspicuously contorted and broken. The strike of the
laminations of the gneiss, while generally northeast, cannot in all
cases be determined. The dikes seem sometimes parallel with them,
sometimes notably run across them. They may or may not have
experienced some or all of the metamorphic processes through which
the wall rocks have passed (an idea to be more fully developed
later), but the porphyritie structure would indicate the contrary.
Much in the way of contact influences, if anything, cannot be
detected. They are not far from the neighboring Cortlandt series.
They may have been connected with it. This at present cannot be
affirmed or denied.
North of the railway station at Iona Island, a belt of horn-
blendie schist, with great masses of hornblende and epidote, is
encountered, This association is quite typical of certain localities
in the Iron Bearing group, and strongly resembles the same associa-
tion of the two minerals to be seen at the Todd! Mine in Sprout
Brook Valley, northeast from Peekskill. This last is on the line
of strike from Iona Island. It is not surprising, as the writer
was informed by a resident, that explorations have been made in
the southwest, finding, however, nothing but lean ore, too poor to
work. These outcrops possibly form a “range” similar to the
well-known ranges of New Jersey, with the Croft and Stuart or
Sunk mines at the extreme northeast.
‘Between the Poplopen creek drawbridge and Fort Montgomery,
18 to be seen a bed of crystalline limestone or calcite, filled with
rough crystalline inclusions of an undetermined mineral, probably
pyroxene, and much graphite. This is in all respects similar to
those noted by Dr. Horton further to the northwest,” although this
Particular outcrop seems not to have been observed by him.
At the north end of the first cut above Fort Montgomery is a
very curious narrow dike of dense black rock, four inches wide,
traceable twenty feet or more vertically. It runs diagonally across
the laminations of the gneiss, and seems to fill a well-defined crack.
! Cf. Tenth Cen
2 Geol. of N. apk ah a .
694 Dikes of the Hudson River Highlands.
Under the microscope it is seen to consist chiefly of innumerable
small but well-developed hornblende crystals, having sharply de-
fined prismatic and pinacoidal faces. They vary from 0.02 mm.
to 0.05 mm. in width, and are about five times as long. The
accompanying drawing (Fig. 1), from a micro-photograph, illus-
trates the structure. The actual field is one millimetre in diameter.
With the hornblende is some plagioclase not very well developed,
as the rock has more or less of a porphyritic facies. Magnetite is
sparsely scattered throngh it in very small grains. Slides of this rock
are well nigh indistiaguishable from those of the diorite
described by Hawes from Campton,! N. H., and later by Professor
Harrington from Montreal, resembling? less closely the similar diorite
described by the writer from the Forest of Dean mine? Mr. L.
M. Dennis, Instructor in Chemistry in Cornell University, has
made the following analysis, No. 1 in duplicate. No. 2 is of the
Campton dike by Hawes, No. 3 of the Montreal dike by Professor
Harrington, No. 4 of the Forest of Dean by the writer.
I II. III
BES
Si O, 144.85 | 44. 41.94 | 40.95
Al, O; 117.20 | 17.281 36 | 16.45
Fe, 0, | 11.20 |i 3.27 | 13.47
PeO cc aa a ATR VE
Mn O Í trace | trace 25
Ti O, | 6.578 | 6. 4.15 3.3
Ca O Í 7.52 7.54 9.47 | 10.53
Mg O 1 5.02 4.946 5.01 6.
K,O } 2.992 | 2.621 19 1.
Na, O Í 1.390 | 1.611 5.15 | 4.00
P, O, I 383 ber Po o. :
G O, SOn es C478 oa
Loss on ignition | 2.387 | 2.491 3.29 | 3.84
Totals 199.520 | 99.585 | 100.44 § 100.63
The discovery of this rock is interesting as showing the further
occurrence of dikes of this character, On the basis of Hawes’
description, Rosenbusch has made a separate type of dike rocks,
and called them Camptonites. Various outcrops of so-called se
dikes are recorded by the New York Survey in other parts
* Am. Jour. Sei. III., vol. xvii., p. 147.
? Geol. Survey Canada, 1877-78, A 439.
3? Am. Jour. III., vol. xxxv. ; p. 351.
t Rosenbusch, Mikros-Physiographie, 2d Edition, vol. i., p- 333.
Dikes of the Hudson River Highlands. 695
Orange county, which may prove on further examination to be
similar. The writer hopes, as opportunity occurs, to add to our
knowledge of them.
Beyond Fort Montgomery, except in the case just cited, no dike
rocks are to be seen until Cro’ Nest Mountain is reached, north of
West Point. The interval is made up of gneisses, very feldspathic,
and considered by Dr. Britton to belong to the Upper Schistose
Series. They have peculiar feldspathic masses in them which must
be considered in any question of origin or metamorphic action.
Great cleavage faces of feldspar as large as the hand reflect the
sunlight from the sides of the cuts. Cro’ Nest and Storm King
form the northern boundary of the Highlands west of the Hudson.
They consist of rocks which are described by Dr. Britton! as
quartz-syenite,and are considered as typical of the massive group.
The laminations are generally apparent, but in many instances
the rocks present a well-nigh massive appearance. Running
like broad black ribbons in directions generally vertical, across
the exposed faces are numerous dikes varying in width from a
few inches to forty feet. Fifteen were noted in Storm King,
six in Cro’ Nest.
These dikes are very uniformly holocrystalline aggregates of
hornblende, augite and plagioclose as principal minerals, with
subordinate magnetite and apatite, and occasionally a little biotite,
orthoclase and quartz. The hornblende and augite are gener-
ally associated, but there are instances in which each appears
alone with the other minerals mentioned. The augite appears
alone especially in those dikes whose wall rock is most broken and
contorted. The hornblende is of the common brown variety
strongly pleochroic. It is never in well-bounded crystals, but
always in irregular masses, whose external shapes are conditioned
by their neighbors. It frequently contains included the apatite
and magnetite, and the masses vary from 0.5 mm. to 1.0 mm. in
width, but are relatively somewhat longer. In the more altered
specimens the hornblende tends to bleach out to a green variety.
The augite is in the same irregular masses of light green color,
and contains the same inclusions, but on the whole is less prone to
do so. The biotite is far less abundant than the two just men-
* The School of Mines Quarterly, vol. ix., p. 34.
696 Dikes of the Hudson River Highlands.
tioned, contains, however, magnetite inclusions, but in other respects
shows no peculiarities worthy of note. The feldspar is in irregular
masses, well twined, and contains not unfrequently as inclusions
the hornblende and augite, as well as magnetite and apatite. By
powdering the rock and carefully separating the feldspar by means
of the Thoulet’s heavy solution the specific gravity was found to lie
between 2.67 and 2.70, bringing it near Labradorite." The
magnetite is in coarse, irregular masses, showing no indications of
titanium. ‘The apatite prisms are also quite coarse. It follows,
therefore, from the relations above set forth, that, according to the
well-known general law, the magnetite and apatite have been
first to form, and have then been taken up in the mass of the horn-
blende, augite and biotite in their subsequent crystallization, while
the feldspar has been last of all to form, as it includes all the
others. In the accompanying figure (Fig. 2), taken froma micro-
photograph, the structure of a typical specimen is shown. he
actual field is 4.0 mm. in diameter. The different minerals, horn-
blende, augite and plagioclase are well indicated by their characteristic
cleavages.
In the matter of classification these rocks are perhaps most
nearly allied to those called by Rosenbusch Camptonites,” but 1
the matter of structure it should be stated they differ widely from
the typical Camptonites in the writer’s possession, for anything like
a porphyritic structure is entirely lacking. Although differing
from the typical and widely-known kersantites in the small
` amount of biotite contained, they yet, with some described
varieties,“ seem structurally related. A normal kersantite has
been described from this region by Dr. Newberry," which seems to
form a boss in the enclosing gneiss at Croton Point.
1 Rosenbusch. Mikros-Phys. 2d Ed., vol. i., p. 535.
2 Rosenbusch. Neues Jahrbuch f. Min., ete., 1882, II., P- 1-16. a
ralist for March and April, 1888, p. 207, ete. It is much to be regretted
that Professor Bayley did not translate in this connection the German
word “gang” by our English equivalent “dike.” The Engli
“vein”? is now so well understood in all the literature on ore dé
to refer to a mineral body deposited from solution, that an intrusi
igneous vein seems a misnomer. - 1884,
‘Cf. Pohlmanns. 4th Group. Neues Jahrb, Beil. Band., III.,
ye or
p. 67. 5
5 The School of Mines Quarterly, vol. viii., p. 330, July, 1837.
Dikes of the Hudson River Highlands. 697
In some cases these dikes are parallel to the laminations of the
enclosing gneiss or syenite, in other cases cut across them. Many
would seem at first sight to be interbedded masses, and the writer
would confess himself inclined at first to take the view that if
these mountains are to be considered metamorphosed sediments,
then these dikes represent strata of composition different from the
remainder, There are, however, illustrations, as stated above, of
unconformability, and not only that, but of two separated and
unconformable branches joining above while separated below. (Spec.
82 and 33, two dikes each twelve feet wide just south of Cro’
Nest flag station.) They are, therefore, esteemed of undoubted
intrusive origin.
he dikes are not infrequently faulted by feldspathic segrega-
tions. In Storm King, above the paving stone quarry, six, from
four inches to eighteen inches wide, are exposed, four of which are
faulted by such a segregation. The inference from this is that
the dikes are of great geological antiquity. These feldspathic
masses consist chiefly of very coarsely crystalline orthoclase.
Such a mass we know would form only under high pressure and
great heat,’ and indicates the changes through which these rocks
have passed since the dikes were intruded. The geological date of
the metamorphism, if such it were, which gave these syenites or
gneisses their present form, it is not easy to state, but from the
comparatively unchanged condition of the strata lying against them
to the north at Cornwall, it must have been before the Hudson
River Period of the Lower Silurian. In the writer’s opinion the
dikes were intruded in Archæan time, and have experienced the
same influences which have given the gneisses their bedded character.
It cannot be affirmed that the dikes themselves are metamorphosed
from their original structure, but it is interesting to note that they
exhibit even in their narrowest examples a perfect holoerystalline
structure, nor is any amorphous or porphyritic matter to be detected.
e infer from this either that they were intruded between highly
heated walls, and that they cooled slowly and under pressure like
a plutonic rock (Tiefengestein); or else that subsequent metamor-
* Hautefeuille, Comptes Rendus, 1877, t. Ixxxv., p. 952, idem. t. XC.,
aah 830. Friedel et Sarasin, B. Soc. Min., 1879, p. 158, and 1881,.
698 Science in Utopia.
phism has recrystallized any first formed porphyritic matter. The
metamorphism of igneous or intrusive rocks is a subject now attract-
ing much attention, and has important bearing on the origin of the
Archean.' As for explaining the slight bedding or laminations
of the wall rocks by previous sedimentary stratification, while it is
not easy to adduce any positive facts against it, the writer does
not believe in it. It seems most reasonable to regard the
laminations as due to pressure exerted normally to them, and
that the pressure was in almost all cases normal to the dikes as
well.
The origin of these well-nigh massive basal rocks of the Archean
is certainly at present a most uncertain theme. Yet, although it is
readily to be seen from much that has been written how easy it is to
indulge in laboratory speculations which afford little else than contro-
versial material, the writer would nevertheless advance the conclu-
sions drawn from the structure and composition of these dikes as
legitimate if not incontrovertible inferences.
SCIENCE IN UTOPIA.
BY ©. L. HERRICK.
I has doubtless been a matter of regret to many of my r readers
that since the publication of the valuable memoirs of Sir Thomas
Moore upon Utopia no one has succeeded in penetrating the veil of
mystery hanging over those happy islands.
For my own part I have often amused myself by wondering
whether egress is as difficult as access and in imagining a sort of
espionage of modern institutions by that conservative and self-
satisfied community.
Very unexpectedly my vagaries were suddenly proven realities
and I am permitted to record the results of an extended conversation
with a representative and very intelligent member of the
scientific congress of Utopia.
1 This has been strongly advocated by Lehmann. Entstehung E
Altkrystallinen Schiefergesteine. Reviewed by D. Geo. . Wile
in Am. Jour. Sci. III., vol. xxviii., p. 392.
Science in Utopia. 699
My present purpose is simply to repeat a few facts communicated
by this gentleman which seemed to me well worthy of examination
if not imitation by the learned bodies of our own land. For further
details the reader is modestly referred to the illustrated memoir
now in preparation under the joint superintendance of my Utopian
friend and the author.
These remarks must, therefore, be simply regarded in the light
of a preliminary notice (Vorläufige Mittheilung) for which, by the
way, 4 am assured there is no synonym in Utopian language or
praxis.
Mr. Non! Nemo himself is well worthy a passing glance.
Though below the medium stature of Americans he possesses a
perfection of physical development not seen in the intellectual
classes of our own people. Upon my remarking upon this pecu-
liarity so disassociated in our minds with a studious habit, Mr.
Non Nemo explained that in Utopia a high degree of physical per-
fection is demanded of public servants and candidates for admission
into the ranks of the “ Geleherte,” and that such progress has been
made in mastering the laws of heredity that it is rare indeed to find
a case of reversion to inferior types among the children of the upper
classes. Of course I eagerly inquired whether the attempt
consciously to comply with the laws of heredity did not seriously
impair the spontaneity of domestic and social relations. But though
he admitted that there was some temporary disturbance, Mr. Non
Nemo stated that the principles had become so indelibly stamped
upon society and embalmed in social precedents that the compliance
with the necessary regulations had become instinctive and no con-
scious limitation of social liberty was experienced.
The genial foreigner expressed great surprise at the general
neglect of these laws in this country and went into an uncontrollable
fit of laughter when he heard of the system of vicarious physical
training now in vogue in American colleges. Gladly as we
might linger upon these and similar topics the present occasion
Suggests that we must pass to the more directly scientific aspects of
Utopian life,
Some incidental reference to international congresses brought out
! Non in Utopian nearly corresponds to Von in German or De in
French.
700 Science in Utopia.
many inquiries on both sides in the course of which the following
facts were elicited. In Utopia during recent years the prosecution
of science has enormously increased and, as usual, this increase has
mirrored itself in the literature. Under the old system, which
closely resembled our own, there was neither official supervision nor
~ recognized limitation upon publication. The great mass of literature
soon made specialism necessary with constantly narrowing limits,
until the broader purposes of scientific study were rapidly being lost
sight of in the attempt to meet the bibliographic obligations thus
imposed.
Just at this juncture it happened that the continent of South
America was opened to the Utopian explorers (whether this occurred
before or subsequent to 1492, I was unable to ascertain, by reason
of my unfamiliarity with the standards of Utopian chronology).
The result was an alarming increase in purely faunal and systematic
publications. The case soon became so desperate that a congress 0
the sciences was called to meet in the capital city which, after
mature deliberation, proposed a permanent organization with the
following functions and powers. j
The organization was called the parliament of philosophy and is
a strictly representative body, so guarded that personal jealousy
among competitors can not easily exclude worthy applicants, while
the financial burdens are nominal. :
A council elected at the biennial session of this parliament 18
charged with the duties of a bibliographic bureau. In this work
they receive aid from the department of state corresponding to our
patent office and congressional library, here united under onè
management. At each session committees, appointed by the various
sections, report for adoption a scheme of working classification
the department presided over by the section both as relating to the
distribution of subordinate topics and the systematic arrangement
of the categories of natural species.
While conformity to the scheme adopted is not binding upon
authors, it forms a more or less perfect approximation to current
views and is the official standard for reference during the ensuing
term. This being settled, writers cannot secure recognition for
publications until they have been entered in the proper departmen
of the bureau of bibliography, which is also charged with the duty
Science in Utopia. 701
of distributing a monthly official statement of all titles registered
under the proper rubric. The expense of such a record is jointly
provided for by the parliament and the general government.
In case a publication contains proposals of new species or new
modifications of classification the rules further require that a separate
slip bearing the name and a diagnosis in the scientific language of
Utopia of each such species or modification proposed accompany the
paper. These are entered under the proper head if, after examina-
tion by a special committee they are found to conform to the rules
of nomenclature adopted by the parliament. If the name be im-
perfectly formed or duplicated the committee is directed to return
to the author for correction.
The name and systematic position of each species is published in
the monthly bulletin. At the next biennial session the proper
sections of the parliament or committees appointed by them examine
the diagnoses of species proposed during the previous term with a
view to eliminate any possible synonyms. It is always understood
that uncertainty stands to the credit of the proposed species. The
work of this committee, my informant said, was found very delicate
and there was difficulty in inducing those best qualified to serve.
However, its reports are subject to revision in open section meeting
and, on the whole, are most useful.
The result, continued my informant, has been to place wholesome
restraint upon the professional species-maker as well as to make it
possible for all conscientious students to avoid infringement on
the rights of others. The fear of the scrutiny of the committee-
room acts as a check on careless description, while the biennial
reports periodically clears up any ambiguity. Of course there
were many who felt themselves aggrieved by arbitrary decisions,
but not so many as those who under the old lack of system justly
complained of the freaks of fortune and the injustice of powerful
rivals. The general opinion seemed to be that, in the long run,
“very one received a fair measure of justice from this novel parlia-
ment,
; It also appears that this central organization has depositaries
in all the larger cities of Utopia and in the libraries of the various
learned societies and that it is becoming quite the thing for every
author to send a copy of systematic papers to each of these
702 New Species of Field Mouse.
depositaries for convenience of examination. Some return is
made by the government but just what my informant neglected
to state.
I was much interested in Mr. Non Nemo’s account of the ad-
justment of a conflict between local bureaus of research (somewhat
like our state geological surveys but with a wider scope), and
the official scientific commission of Utopia. This subject, however,
we hope to fully elucidate in our contemplated memoir and will
simply remark that the adjustment charged the local bureaus with
the detailed examinations and collection of material, and imposed
the duty of turning over a certain part of the facts and material to
the central organization, which reduced the whole to systematic
form, and ineluded in its report an epitome of the more detailed
publications of the local bureaus.
Several of the provisions described above seem to the writer
adapted to the work of the Association for Advancement of Science
and later to the International Congress of Sciences and, I trust,
we may arrive at a satisfactory system without the long period of
experiment and bitterness passed through by science in Utopia.
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF FIELD-MOUSE
(ARVICOLA PALLIDUS) FROM DAKOTA.
BY DR. C. HART MERRIAM.
I G some small mammals collected during the past season at
Fort Buford, in Northwestern Dakota, by Mr. vo
Bailey, are four well-prepared skins with skulls of a very light-
colored Arvicola, a careful study of which has led to some pute!
tant and unexpected results. Concerning their habits, Mr. Bailey
contributes the following: “ The pallid Arvicolas seem to be ges
mon at Fort Buford. They show a decided preference for a
north side of steep hills. I have not found them on the p i
southeast, or southwest sides. The only reason I can suggest p
this distribution is that the twilight (their favorite hour) is longe
New Species of Field Mouse. 703
on the north side. The hills where I have found them are all
steepest on the north side, which may have some effect, though
there seems to be no difference in the vegetation on different
sides. Like other Arvicole, they have many holes, and prob-
ably live in families or colonies, although I have not caught more
than one at a group of holes; but from the difficulty in catehing
them this does not signify anything (have caught only four).
“Where there is grass or weeds, their holes are connected by
beaten paths in the same manner as those of Arvicola austerus, but
in many places they are in bare clay. Their food seems to consist
largely of the flowers of certain plants, judging from the remains of
flowers scattered around the holes, and from the contents of their
stomachs and excrement. When these plants grow near, there are
usually pieces of stems and blossoms of Liatris graminifolia adn
Artemisia frigida lying about, but many other plants and grasses
seem to be eaten. They feed largely on the seeds of Eurotia lanata.
I found a place near their holes where something had dug down to
a partly-eaten bulb of Liatris graminifolia. Probably these bulbs
form a part of their diet, as is the case with Arvicola austerus. I
placed corn, oats, cactus seeds, and seeds of weeds around their
holes, but they remained untouched. The same was true of bread
and cheese, and fried cake was seldom eaten. They seem suspicious
of traps, and evidently leave their holes when traps are set near
them. I have caught several grasshopper mice (Onychomys leuco-
gaster) and Western white-footed mice (Hesperomys leucopus sonori-
ensis) at their holes, and think these species either drive out the
Arvicolw or else inhabit the old holes.” The exact locality where
these specimens were obtained, writes. Mr. Bailey, “is not actually
in the extreme ‘ bad lands,’ but near the edge, where the land is
about ‘half bad.’ From the fact that they live entirely in the hills
and usually near the tops, where it is very dry, it might be inferred
that their true home is in the ‘bad lands?”
In comparing these mice with the other known North Ameri-
“an species of Arvicola, two. striking external differences are
observed, namely, (1) extreme paleness in coloration ; (2) extreme
shortness of tail. The color is paler even than that of the Muskee-
get d mouse (Arvicola breweri), and the tail is shorter than
that of any other species, not excepting A. pinetorum, in this respect
agreeing closely with Synaptomys cooperi. The ears are unusually
704 New Species of Field Mouse.
prominent, but this peculiarity probably is subgeneric. An exami-
nation of the skulls and teeth at once shows the animal to belong
to tke subgenus Chilotus of Baird, to which but one species
(Arvicola oregonus, from the Pacific coast region) has been hereto-
fore definitely assigned. The range of the subgenus is thus ex-
tended more than a thousand miles to the eastward. The present
species is nearly as large as Arvicola riparius, and consequently
considerable larger than A. oregonus. Of the four specimens at
hand, two are males and two females, all fully adult. The females
bear evidence of recent nursing. The species may be easily dis-
tinquished by the following diagnosis :
ARVICOLA (CHILOTUS) PALLIDUS sp. nov.
Type no. 3852, ọ adult, Merriam Collection. Fort Buford,
Dakota, September 10,1887. Vernon Bailey.
General characters.—Size medium, nearly equalling that of
Arvicola riparius (average total letigth of four specimens 126.25
mm.). Tail very short (average length in four specimens 23.75
kota (Type).
ford, or molar series
ieee. Merriam, From Ft. Bu
1 and 2, 2 skull,double natural size ; 3, upper r molar series, X53 4
male Arvicola (Chilotus
mm. from actual base; apparent length only about 18 a
with a long terminal petoli. Ears medium ; thick; well haired,
superior border inflexed, giving them a prominence not seen in m
ears of the same size; antitragus medium (smaller than
Holst’s Studies in Glacial Geology. 705
A. oregonus), its anterior border becoming continuous with the
anterior base of the auricle, thus forming a low rim in front of the
meatus as in A. oregonus and Synaptomys cooperi. Fur every-
where long, full, and soft.
Color. —U pper parts everywhere uniform pale buffy-gray, slightly
grizzled by the admixture of black-tipped hairs; under parts
white, the plumbeous color of the base showing through in places
on the belly ; tail more or less obscurely bicolor.
Measurements of four specimens from Fort Buford, Dakota, all
adults. Measurementsin Millimetres.
Measured in the flesh.{ Measured from the dry skin.
No. Sex.| Total |Tail to end of| Tail |Hind Height of ear Date.
length: vertebra. j|pencil.| foot.| from crown
HH} 6 | #124 25 6.5 (18.25 5.5 Sept. 8, 1887
471 9 121 20 7.5 6. 410,
Hi â 133 25 8.5 |18.7 5. oe eee
Hlg 127 25 7.5 118 5.5 a eae
DR. N. O. HOLST’S STUDIES IN GLACIAL
GEOLOGY.
BY DR. JOSUA. LINDAHL.
(Continued from July No.)
D. The moraines.—There is a marked difference between the
topographical conditions of Sweden and Greenland. The latter
esi is all mountains. Large flat lands are nowhere to be seen,
mountains rising at once to a great altitude.! As a rule one
hi E. Nordenskiöld : Studier och forskningar, föranledda af mina
r i höga norden, Stockholm, 1883. Pp. 63-124. e
706 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology.
need not go very far from the coast line to reach an altitude of 1,000
feet, and peaks 3,000 to 4,000 feet high are by no means scarce.
As a consequence of this topographic peculiarity the soils are here
very different from those in Sweden, and particularly noticeable
is the exceedingly thin layer that covers the mopentains. This is
true in the same degree as the surface is more or less broken, and
it is only in the narrow mountain passes that soil exists to any
considerable depth. This is worth noticing in comparison with the
well-known fact in Sweden that the outcrops of rock are most
abundant where the land is high and broken, the explanation of
which seems to be that, in a much-broken tract of ice-covered land,
the lower parts of the ice must have but a slight motion, whilst its
upper parts meet with but few points for their attacks.
As for the moraines of Greenland, they are essentially only
ground-moraines, and inner-moraines, and, as a special form of
those, one will also find border-moraines and terminal-moraines.
Where the ice runs out to form ice streams, can be observed lateral
moraines and, in exceptional cases, middle-moraines ; these last two
kinds are of minor importance. ` ‘
The unmixed ground-moraine rarely comes to view, owing to its
position beneath the inland-ice and under the other forms of mo-
raines, It may, however, be observed at the side of a jokel-gate
(ice-arch) or other cut in the edge of the inland ice, its character-
istic features being rounded and scratched boulders imbedded m 4
clayey mass of bluish color due to the presence of iron salts of lower
oxidation. It is far more common to find material from a as
moraine mixed in among inner-moraines. ‘Thus, at Kangarss
and Arsuk, Dr. Holst found boulders undoubtedly belonging tO a
ground-moraine scattered among the more sharp-angled material
* These mountains are quite often conical in shape, which has upari
ted the Danish name “Suckertoppen ” to one of the villages 0t ¥:
Greenland. .The Esquimaux often apply to such mountains the ner
Umanak (from Umat, heart). One island with that name 1s loca i
off the Arsuk fjord. It is only 600 feet in diameter, but reaches & helg
of 1,700 feet. ; t Pus-
*The greatest altitude in Götaland (South Sweden) is found a ee"
taniis in Smaland, only 1,237 feet ; the highest mountain in Sve: ar
(Central Sweden) is Stidjan, 3,961 feet. The highest point in pee the
(North Sweden) is Kebnekaisse, a peak in the extreme north ©
Kingdom, with an altitude of 7,194 feet.
Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology. 707
an inner-moraine. Such occurrences become gradually more rare
as one proceeds further up on the inland-ice and away from land.
How the ground-moraine may occasionally form ridges on the top
of the ice will be mentioned further on under the heading of border-
moraines.
The most important moraine is the inner-moraine. From its
location in the very mass of the ice it will gradually appear on the
top as the ice melts away from its surface. It is thus generally
found wherever the inland-ice borders upon land, whether this be
the nunataks or the coast-lying land. Sometimes it consists of scat-
tered stones and patches of gravel not forming a continuous cover-
ing, and then there are generally no considerable moraine deposits
on the land adjacent to the ice. At other places it occurs in such
abundance as completely to hide the underlying ice, giving the
impression of deposits from a departed glacier rather than of a
moraine still resting on the top of a glacier.
The greatest inner moraine observed by Dr. Holst was one along
the southern edge of Fredrikshaab’s ice-blink. It had its eastern
limit close to the lake Tasek Atdlek and extended along the south-
ern side of the ice-blink for a distance of nearly twelve miles. Its
width, not far from the eastern end, was about half a mile, but the
western half of it was more than a mile wide (in one place 8,300
feet), until near the western end it again became narrower. Its
ickness is always greatest near land, but here it is often quite
difficult to estimate its actual thickness, as it sometimes forms a
compact covering, only in some fissures showing the underlying ice.
This uneven thickness of the moraine-cover offers to the ice a pro-
portionally varying protection against the sun, It thus happens
that the unequal thawing moulds the underlying surface of the ice
into valleys and hills, the latter sometimes rising to a height of fifty
feet above the adjacent valley, and being so densely covered with
moraine material that this completely hides the ice core, which,
however, often forms the main part of the hill.
Farther in on the ice, the moraine gradually thins out. At the
locality just referred to, the moraine-cover, 3,000 feet from land,
measured several inches in depth; still the ice .was seen in some
bare spots, Beyond 4,000 feet from land, the moraine formed no
continuous cover, and at 8,300 feet it ceased entirely, with a per-
708 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology.
ceptible limit against the clear ice. Only some scattered spots of
sand and gravel were met with even a few hundred feet farther in
on the ice. Dr. Holst estimated the average thickness of the mo-
raine taken across its entire width near its eastern end at one to two
feet. The limit between the moraine-cover and the pure ice is
always located at a considerable though varying elevation above the
edge of the inland-ice. In the instance of the above-mentioned
moraine it varied between 200 feet and 500 feet.
The inner-moraine consists of stones, gravel and sand, mixed
together. The largest blocks rarely exceed six feet in diameter,
whilst by far the greatest number of them are much smaller and of
a nearly uniform size. Rounded and scratched stones, derived
from a ground-moraine may, in exceptional cases, be found among
them, otherwise the material of the inner-moraine is characterized
by its angular form, it is equivalent to the s. c. “ surface-grav a
“upper boulder-gravel.”
There can be but one opinion with regard to the origin of the
inner-moraine. When pushing forward over higher ledges the
inland-ice disintegrates the rock and carries the débris along. In
its further course the ice will for some time retain nearly the same
level, and the rock fragments will thus be located in the ice, not
under it. As the ice melts away above on approaching to land
this inner moraine will gradually come to the surface.
t seems proper to apply a special term for those ridge-like mo-
raines which occur on the top of the ice, near land and parallel to
it, and are met with especially in places where the land has pro-
iecting points which indent the ice; the moraines around the
nunataks seem to be partially of the same character. These mo-
raines surround the said points or the nunataks more or less m
curves. Being thus confined to the borders of the inland ice they
may appropriately be called border-moraines. a
e border moraines north of the Arsuk fjord ice-river are visible
far out on the sea off Ivigtut. Dr. Holst examined one that sur-
rounds the southernmost strip of land at a distance from land i
about 2,000 feet. Itis not one continuous ridge but consists of
several disconnected portions arranged in a semi-circle. One i
these portions was about 200 feet wide and thirty-five feet pe j
This moraine was mainly a ground-moraine, probably forced up y
some elevation of the ledge under the ice.
Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology. 709
Another border moraine to the north of Kornok’s northern ice-
river, was of a different character. The stones, at least at the
surface, were greatly in preponderance over the gravel. They were
angular and of varying size. The moraine showed some arcua-
tions, but taken as a whole it was parallel to the land. In some
exceptional instances it approached closely to the land, even so as
to touch one of the projecting points, but generally it was located
some distance away from land. Its width was estimated at 100
feet, and its height at more than fifty feet; it should be remem-
bered, however, that it might have had a core of ice. Its length
was about one and a half mile. South of this moraine, and farther in
on the ice, were seen three more moraines, the greatest one extend-
ing about 1,000 feet in length. Two of them were parallel, one
inside the other.
Every moraine will finally be deposited in front of the glacier,
and may then be called terminal. This term thus applied would
however, be of no value. It is therefore desirable to restrict the
sense of the term to such walls or osar as accumulate in front of
the ice-rivers proper and generally extend across the valleys in
which these rivers find their outlet. Here the moraine material
gathers in such quantity and manner as to assume a character
different from all other moraines. The great accumulation of
material in these places does not depend on the presence of any
greater quantity of such material in the ice-river than there is in
the balance of the inland ice but rather on the more rapid trans-
position of material in these rivers.
Terminal moraines are found in front of every ice-river that —
does not directly run into the sea, e.g., in front of Fredrikshaab’s
ice-blink and of the ice-rivers at Arsuk fjord and Kipissako, and
of the southern ice-river at Kornok. At the last-mentioned place
the terminal moraine reached a height of nearly thirty feet and
Surrounded the edge of the ice like the wall of a fort. At Sarkar-
igsok, in front of Fredrikshaab’s ice-blink, were several walls, one
mside the other, each about twenty feet high. The width of the
total space covered by these walls aggregated about 450 feet.
They extended along the front of the ice-blink, both north and
South, as far as the observer could see. The terminal moraines are
a mixture of material derived from ground moraines and inner
710 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology.
moraines, sometimes mainly from the former, at other places mainly
from the latter, with the addition of material from lateral moraines
where such exist. Furthermore, the terminal moraines are often
traversed by jékel-rivers and numerous springs which agitate and
grind down the contents of the moraine. The merely local occur-
rence of terminal moraines and the mixed character of its contents,
give to it a subordinate importance compared with the ground-
moraine and the inner-moraine. Of still less importance are the
lateral moraines and the middle-moraines. Of the latter kind none
were observed by Dr. Holst. Lateral moraines are met with along
the sides of the ice-rivers and at the foot of the nunataks. In the
moraines are found some rocks not derived from the neighboring
mountains. For this and other reasons, it seems evident that the
lateral moraines are not altogether made up of débris from the
adjacent sides of the mountains, but have received contributions
from inner-moraines, and, in some instances, also from the ground
moraine.
Dr. Holst calls particular attention to the fact that in Greenland
the blue and the yellow clays are formed simultaneously by the
action of the same inland-ice, the former near its bottom where 1t
is protected from the oxidizing influence of the air, the latter nearer
its surface; and he regards the bearing of this observation as an
argument against the theory, according to which the lower blue
clay and the upper yellow clay in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany,
are supposed to owe their formation to two different glacial periods.
E. The upper-drift deposits are invariably found in process of
formation in the larger valleys in front of the ice-rivers, Or, 10
‘other words, along the greater jékel-rivers. Here they form more
or less level plains, through which the river cuts its channel.
Equal deposits are also met with in tracts from which the ice has
departed, and here too their occurrence is confined mainly to the
larger valleys in which once terminated greater or smaller 1ce
rivers with jékel rivers issuing from them. The moraines from
which the upper drift derives its material are partially the inner,
partially the ground moraine, which first combine to form
‘An abundance of Diatoms flourishes in the waters between pang
minal moraine and the inland-ice. In one place, at Sarkarigso®,
vegetation displayed a brilliant yellow color.
e
Hols? s Studies in Glacial Geology. 711
terminal moraine in front of the ice-rivers, and the material is
gradually worked over by the jékel-rivers.
The force of the jékel-rivers is greatest nearest the inland-ice and
diminishes as they approach the sea. In consequence, the greatest
stones are found near the terminal moraine, whilst further on their
size is reduced more and more until all is sand, spreading out to
wide sand-plains, as is the case, for instance, off Fredrikshaab’s ice-
blink. The finest impalpable material is carried out into the fjords
and open sea, where it forms deposits of clay.
The upper drift of Greenland shows a considerable resemblance
to that of Sweden. Both are free from boulders. The gravel is
assorted and stratified. The stones are well ground, although more
rounded in Sweden than in Greenland. These deposits in the latter
country are not unfrequently of a considerable thickness. In the
bottom of the Tasiussak tjord and in a few other places they
measured about 100 feet.
There are, however, no typical osar in the part of Greenland
visited by Dr. Holst, who found only some smaller hills to a faint
degree resembling those formations. There can be no doubt that
the osar are formed near and in close relation to an inland-ice.
Nothing but such ice could have transported these masses to their
present locations, and nothing but the enormous force of the torrents
rushing from the ice could have wrought the material so thoroughly.
Still it may be less certain that the ose form has been caused in
Greenland by the same agencies as those that produced glacial osar
in Sweden. It may be a mere accidental resemblance and the
form may depend on later excavations. Such osar were formed
within the time of the melting of the inland-ice. The coast-land of
Greenland presents the same character as Sweden so far that it has
formerly been covered with inland-ice which has long ago melted
away. Why then is it that typical osar do not exist in the said
district of Greenland ? Dr. Holst finds the answer to this qnestion
in the topographical differences of the two countries. He refers to
his earlier discussion of the formation of the glacial osar in Sweden,
4 summary of which discussion was given at the beginning of this
article. As stated there, such osar are formed as sediment in the
beds of rivers, having cut their channels into the surface of an
inland-ice. The requisite conditions for the formation of large osar
712 Holsť’s Studies in Glacial Geology.
are, among others, first, that the water-divides on the inland-ice
shall be sufficiently far apart so that the water supply may be
sufficiently great to form larger rivers, and, secondly, that the ice
shall be sufficiently free from crevasses, which would otherwise
drain off the water beneath the ice instead of on its surface.
It is then evident that, in Sweden, the broad valleys and low-
lands with gently rising sides must have offered particularly favor-
able conditions for the formation of vast gravel-osar, whilst such
osar can occur only as local formations of smaller dimensions in
the mountain regions of the country. It has long been supposed
that gravel-osar were entirely absent from Norway. This is, how-
ever, not altogether true, but they are of rare occurrence, which
fact fully agrees with the above theory. On the plains of the
extreme south of Sweden, as also of Denmark and Germany, the
absence of large drainage basins has hindered the formation of
greater osar, although they are not altogether absent from Skane,
and equivalent formations have been observed by Dr. Holst at
Neustadt-Eberswalde. It is equally evident, that the topograph-
ical conditions in those parts of southern Greenland above described
(page 705) do not admit of any formation of larger osar. In
a country so broken and mountainous, the inland ice must be full
of cracks, preventing the water from gathering to any great extent
over its surface. Such cracks do not necessarily exist in a moving
inland ice, and Dr. Holst mentions a smaller tract of ice between
Tasek Atdlek and Kangarassuk, which was entirely free from
cracks, and, as a consequence, was covered with water, which gath-
ered into a channel five feet wide and five feet deep, in one place
separating into two branches, enclosing an island of ice, before it
finally rushed into a jékel-well. Also Nordenskiöld and the Dan-
ish explorers of the inland-ice met with water flooding its surface.
If the above-given reasons for the absence of gravel-osar from
the mountainous part of Greenland are correct, there could have
been nothing to prevent such osar from forming in the less broken
tracts, f. i. the district of Holsteinborg. Dr. Holst found no oppo
tunity of visiting that district, but after returning home he learnt
from A. Kornerup’s report of his travels in 1879 (published ™
1881) that he had found in the Arsalik valley, N. E. of Holstein-
borg, a typical gravel-ose about four miles long, parallel to the
Editors’ Table. 713
present direction of the motion of the inland-ice, and having a roof-
shaped top, and even sides, inclined 20° to 25° to the plane of the
valley over which it extended in a meandering course. Mr. Kor-
nerup also states, that the said valley is “an unusually large plain,
bounded by even, gently-sloping foothills.”
This observation thus fully corroborates Dr. Holst’s theory,
EDITORS’ TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY.
For several years past the Peabody Museum of Archeology and
Ethnology, at Cambridge, Mass., has been engaged in the explora-
tion of the remains of the mound builders. More lately, under
the direction of the Curator Professor, F. W. Putnam, it has con-
fined its labors to the mounds of Ohio, and especially to those of
the Little Miami Valley. A most careful and thorough method of
work has been adopted, which has resulted in each mound investi-
gated telling all that it could tell. Some time ago Professor
Putnam informed the Bureau of Ethnology of the nature of his
work, and requested that they leave him his chosen field, the Little
Miami Valley, for his own exploration. This was, of course, an
eminently reasonable request. He was first in that field, and had
devised his methods of research, while there were thousands of
other mounds which were open to other investigators. Besides, in
order that the mounds may reveal as much as possible, it is neces-
sary that all in a certain region be investigated by the same hand.
With a striking disregard of scientific courtesy the Bureau of
Ethnology has this year sent a party into the Little Miami Valley,
thus encroaching upon the very territory which was already being
explored, and explored—if the testimony of unprejudiced witnesses
can be relied upon—in a more thorough manner than is the case
with the rapid work of the party under the charge of Professor
Cyrus Thomas. Government money should be put to a better use
than this,
714 Recent Literature.
RECENT LITERATURE.
THE SEVENTH VOLUME OF THE PAL#ONTOLOGY OF NEW
especially the colossal Mesothyra oceani. Of Phyllopoda, some
interesting forms are described and figured, as well as Cirripedia;
while the remainder of the volume is devoted to the molluscs.—f:
Goopr’s AMERICAN FisueEs.!—This is the most comprehensive
work which has yet appeared in which North American fishes are
described in popular language, “ with especial reference,” as the
title-page informs us, “to habits and methods of capture.” The
opportunities of its author have been unequalled, since as an officer
of the U. S. Fish Commission, and as especially devoted to ichthyo-
logical science, he has been for years familiar with its work. Many
of the important results of this work are set forth in the book mage
consideration. These embrace the determination of the nature 0
the migration, and time and place of breeding of many of the marne
species. This subject is in the nature of the case difficult of explo-
ration and elucidation, but a great deal has been accomplished by
the Fish Commission in that direction, although much remains to
be done. Among the discoveries brought to light by them may et:
cited the habits of that most valuable fish, the Spanish mackere
protection which can be extended to it on its breeding grounds.
The relative importance of the various food fishes is determin 9
not only by their quality and abundance, but by their relation
‘American Fishes. A Popular Treatise upon the Game and 2
Fishes of North America. By G. Brown Goode, Asst. Sec. Smi
nian Instn. New York: Standard Book Co., 1888, pp. 500.
Recent Literature. 715
other fishes, both as food and as enemies. In the former case we
find the menhaden (Brevurtia menhaden), which, says Mr. Goode,
is “ by far the most abundant species of fish on the eastern coast o
the United States.” Millions are captured every year, without any
apparent diminution of their numbers resulting. As a raptorial
fish, the blue-fish may be cited. The destruction it deals in every
direction is thus described by Prof. Baird: “ There is no parallel
in point of destructiveness to the blue-fish among the marine spe-
cies of our coast. The blue-fish has been well likened to an ani-
mated chopping-machine, the business of which is to cut to pieces
and otherwise destroy as many fish as possible in a given length of
time. . . . As already referred to, it must be borne in mind that it
is not merely the small fry that are thus devoured, and which it is
expected will fall a prey to other animals, but that the food of the
blue-fish consists very largely of individuals which have already
passed a large percentage of the chances against their attaining
maturity, many of them, indeed, having arrived at the period of
spawning. . . . An allowance of ten fish per day to each blue-fish
is not excessive, according to the testimony elicited from the fish-
ermen and substantiated by the stomachs of those examined ; this
gives ten thousand millions of fish destroyed per day. And as the
ah gy of the stay of the blue-fish on the New England coast is at
east one hundred and twenty days, we have in round numbers
twelve hundred million millions of fish devoured in the course of a
season, Again, if each blue-fish, averaging five pounds, devours
or destroys even half its own weight of other fish per day (and I
am not sure that the estimate of some witnesses of twice this weight
1s hot more nearly correct), we will have during the same period a
daily loss of twenty-five hundred million pounds, equal to three
hundred thousand millions for the season.”
This book gives some means of judging of the utility of the
U. S. Fish Commission. As a manual for fishermen it is the best
yet published, and with the “Synopsis of Fishes of North Amer-
lea,” by Jordan and Gilbert, furnishes an introduction to ichthy-
ology such as few countries possess.
We notice some omissions from the accounts of fresh-water fishes,
ew, and refer to but one, on p. 15. Dr. Estes writes of the pike-
perch (Stizostedium vitreum Raf.): “In these waters (Lake Pepin)
the wall-eye is seldom found associated with any other fish than the
sand-pike. It is true, however, that in swift-rolling waters, especial]
under falls, we find him in company with the black bass, but
believe th
=
716 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
the wall-eye to remain in his company. In other locations the bass
easily drives the wall-eye from his feeding grounds.” This hardly
does justice to the wall-eye. In the Tennessee river and its tribu-
taries the wall-eye is facile princeps of the waters, not only from his
size and speed, but from his courage. He holds his resting places
clear of other fishes, and feeds on the black bass when he approaches
too near. I have taken two black bass from the stomach of one
wall-eye, of a pound and a half and a pound weight each. The
wall-eye is the best food-fish of the Tennessee and its tributaries.
is work is illustrated throughout by excellent Par of
which we present three on the accompanying plate.— C.
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Ragonot, E. L.—Diagnoses of North American Phycitide and Galleri-
idæ. 1887. From the author
Martin, D. S.—Christian Evolutioniem, and its Influence on Religious
Thoug ht. 1887. From the author.
Burmeister, H.—Noticias sobre las Hydromeduse a ae er Aeng
los
—Ueber Mustela patagonica.—Ueber Conurus hilaris ‘jegman’s
Archiv. 1879.—Neue Beobachtungen an Macrauchenia patagontet:
Acta d. Leop.-Carol. Deutsch. Ak. d. Naturf. Bd. XLV.
No. 5. 1885. All from the author.
ee oS B. D—Bulletin from aoe State Agricultural College, Ames,
1888. From the autho
reaa s G.—Herpetologische Mitteilungen (Kamerun, Angra Peq,
uena, Hayti). 1888. From the author
Bollman, 0. H.—A oe erg oe List of he Myriapoda of Arkansas.
1888. From a au ssor
` m
the Geological Position <of the Alpine Rhaetic. Am.
; 1887. All from the aut i
Butler, A. W.—Some Notes on tnana Amphibians rae Reptiles.
Ext. Jour. Cin. Boe. Nat. Hist. 1887 Da
Sclater, P. L— Report of the e Council dt thie Zoological Society of Le
don for 1887 rom th ety. 5
Bather, B. A.—Prof. ely ae Sgt Seeded ju Cephataponir An
and Ma ag. Nat. Hist., June, 1888. m the author pe
sack i he A.—On the aa ace a the ES Islands. 5.
1888.—First Report on Additions to the Batrachian Coll
ATE XIII
4
PI
Tautoga onitis L.
?
Tautog ; blackfish
. 5
3 a
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$ :
ç
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S $
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> i=)
% E
X nt
> ke]
3
a S
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P> Š
o
= 3
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5 wes 3
5 = ee ee =
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a
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Recent Books and Pamphlets. 717
tion in the Natural george Museum. Z. S., June, 1886.—A a
of Batrachians fro e Province cs Catherina, ‘Brazil. Ann
and Mag. Nat ” Hist., greet 1888. All from the author
oe R.—Note a New Wealden A rejadan iy other Dino-
aurs. Quar Ear Geol. Soc., Feb., 1888.
RPR A, S.—Note on the Praia of a Columella in eh Skull of
Ichthyosaurus. P. Z. S., June 29, 1888. From the author
pecan R. Ape berg on the Pterylosis of Certain Picide.
om the Auk, April, 1888—On an Old Portrait of Audobon,
Painted by Himself. Tiom, Oct., 1886. Both from the author.
Woodward, A.—Supplement I. to the berae St x04 of the Forami-
nifera, Recent and Fossil. XIV. A hes Report ort Geog. and Nat,
Hist. Sur . Minnesota. 1885. From rah
Dames, W.—Die Ganoiden ius aoa he Schell Paleeont.
Abbandiungen IV. Band. From the author
Bravard, A—Monografia de los Terrenos Marinos Terciarios de las
Cercanias del Parana. Anales del Museo Publico de Buenos Aires.
From the author.
Darapsky, L.—Zur Kenntniss chilenischer Zeolithe.—Die Inca-Brucke
in der Cordillera von Mendoza Verhand. d. deuts. wissensch. Ve
eins zu Santiago. 1888. From the author
Marcou, J.—Ame Sga B sop a Classification and Nomenclature.
1888. From the au
Newton, E. T.—On RN i Brain and Auditory Organ of a New Spe-
cies of yhoo from the Napet Lias, near Whitby, Yorkshire.
Proc. Roy. Soe. >. eke
Poulton, E. B.—True ack in the Young of et gpa para-
doxus. Proc. Roy. Soc. Vol. XLIII. From the author
sides See R. H.—Notes on pdb nips Planha Proc. Ra. Phys.
Edinburgh. 1887. From the author
Farlow, W. G.—Ve ae Parasites aa esblision, Address before
the’ Section of iology, A. A. A. B., New York Meeting, 1887.
From the author.
Morse, E. S.—Presidential ee y A, A. S., New York Meet-
ing, 1887, From the author
ee Mrs, L. M.—A Few a in the Life of Prof. J. P.
Espy. 1888. From the auth
Goff, E. Be —The Influence of Atmospheric Pompei upon Percolation,
Agricultural Science, Aug., 1887. From the a
Billings, n S.— First Tapon Sins the Patho-Biotogiea Laboratory
Univ. of Nebraska. 1888, From the author
Ward, L. F—Asa Chis and Darwinism. Sek. pa the author.
Garman, S.—The Rattle of the Senne Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool.
Harvard, 1888. From the author
me A.—Note sur les axes ee Pie du ag (Teneriffe). Bull.
la Soe. Belge de Geologie, ete. 1888. Fro e Society.
Sa H.—The Develo the Canadian
pment of Language. KR GFE e
Institute, April, 1888. From the kutho.
Jackson, R. T.—The Development of the Oyster, with Remarks on
718 General Notes.
Allied Genera. Read before Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., April, 1888,
From the author.
Will, L.—Entwicklungsgeschichte der viviparen Aphiden. Sep-abd.
a. d. Zool. Jahrb. 1887.
Viala, P.—The French Viticultural Mission to the United States.
hone by Justina Robinson Hill, with an Introduction by R.
. Hill. 1888.
Eigenmann, Rosa S.) Preliminary Notes on South American nematog-
nathi. Proc. Cal. Acad., July, 1888. From the
Eigenmann, C. H. authors.
Keyes, C. R.—On Some Fossils from the Lower Coal Measures at Des
Moines, Iowa. From the Amer. Geol., July, 1888. From the
Penna. State College —Agricultural Experiment Station. Bull. No. 4
1888.
Selwyn, A. R. C.,
Dawson, G. M.,
McConnell, R. G
Geological Report for 1886 of the Geological
and Natural History Survey of Canada.
Tyrrell, J. B., et al. Vol. II.
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.’
Arrica.—Tur Cross River.—According to the agreement
entered into between Germany and Great Britain, the boundary
between the sions of the former and latter power 1m me
Cameroons district is stated to be the right bank of the Rio del Rey
from its mouth (about 8° 40’ E. Long.) to its at present undis-
covered source, and thence in a straight line to the rapids upon 1€
- Cross River (9° 10’ E. Long). The estuary of the Cross River 18
well known under the name of the Old Calabar River, and Whe
into the Bight of Biafra in about 8° 20/—8° 30’ E. Long. a"
upper part of this estuary is crowded with islands. Into the h
of this archipelago Cross River enters after a most circuitous course,
the general direction of which is north and south as far as aù, ee
the sixth parallel north, where it trends eastward to the pao
he settlement of old Calabar is upon a peninsula on the eas we
shore of the Old Calabar estuary, between the Old Calabar and Q
rivers, both of which may be considered as tributaries © Rio
River. The Old Calabar estuary is separated from that of the
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
Geography and Travel. 719
del Rey by the Backasey peninsula, the extremity of which is
actually an island, since it is cut off from the mainland by the Little
Qua River. Mr. H. H. Johnstone, H. B. M. Consul at Old
Calabar, has in the early part of this year made a voyage up Cross
River for the purpose of making treaties with the various kings and
chiefs along its banks, as well as to settle various quarrels that had
arisen among the natives themselves, and exercised a prejudicial
effect upon the trade of the river, Mr. Johnstone was successful
in concluding treaties with Umon (the first country above the Efik
or Old Calabar country), Akukuna, and Iko-Morut, and also in
inducing the people of those countries to resume friendly relations
with each other and with Arun. Above Iko-Morut, and near
Atam, the people are inveterate cannibals, and some of them treated
their visitors to some startling, though happily bloodless experi-
ences. Ata place called Ededema, Mr. Johnstone was dragged out
of the canoe by a score of cannibals, mounted on the shoulders of
the biggest, and carried off at a run to the town, where he was put
in a hut with the door open, and had to bear for an hour the gaze
of hundreds of savages. A smoked human ham, hanging from the
smoke-blackened rafters of the house, and about a hundred skulls
forming a ghastly frieze around the upper part of the clay walls of
the hut, served to still further heighten the interest of the situation.
Yet as soon as his interpreters rejoined him a friendly conversation
was commenced, and the palaver was concluded by the return of the
consul to his canoe in the same manner that he had been taken from
it. Incidents similar to the above occurred several times as the
voyagers proceeded, and since, though all ended in friendship, it
was found that at the commencement the savages were undecided
whether to look upon their visitor as a supply of food or not, Mr.
Johnstone deemed it advisable to return.
lateau, to the south by a high range dividing the Kaap from the
foodie goldfields, and to the north by the Crocodile River. Queen’s
combined stream joins the Crocodile in long. 31° 25’ E., and lat.
32’ S. The terminus of the Lourenço Marques railway will
be established upon Transvaal territory at the junction of the Ko-
mati and the Crocodile, on the west side of the Lebombo range.
The southern mountain range isa huge branch of the Drakensberg,
peaks which rise to 7,600 feet, and forms the water-shed between
720 General Notes.
the basins of the Komati and Lomati rivers and that of the Kaa
and Crocodile. The Lebombo range, which forms the boundary
between the Portuguese possessions and the Transvaal, is but a
series of low ranges not rising above 900 to 1,000 feet. From the
terminus of the Portuguese railway an east and west line is projected
across the Transvaal, ascending the Drakensberg, and rising at one
point to 5,884 feet. There is abundant evidence that the Kaap
valley was extensively worked, centuries ago, by a white race.
Quarries, shafts, tunnels, adits, the remains of well-made roads, and
pits of ore lying beside them for shipment, are to be found, and it
would seem that the works were abandoned precipitately. Mr.
Stuart attributes these workings to the Portuguese of the seven-
teenth century. The valley is not considered healthful, but Barber-
ton, the chief settlement, enjoys a salubrious climate. The lowest
strata in the valley are a series of soft gray argillaceous shales,
greatly tilted by volcanic action. ese seem to correspond wit
the Silurian, and in the Drakensberg are overlaid by Devonian
strata.
KUND AND TAPPENBECK’s EXPEDITION TO THE CAMEROONS.
—Among the results of the above expedition are q), the knowledge
that the Beundo and Great Njong rivers have their sources above
the cataract region ; (2), that the water-parting between the rivers
that discharge on the coast, and those that flow into the Congo basin
oes not lie near the Cameroons coast, as was previously supposed ;
(3), that the water-parting between the left tributaries of the Binue
and the rivers which water the German Cameroons region also lies
far into the interior; (4), that the racial parting between the Bantu
and Sudan negroes does not lie in the direction of Adamawa, but
runs in a southerly direction, and is formed by the Aannaga a
Great Njong River, and lies about 145 miles from the coast; an
5), that volcanic formations do not occur in the mountains ee
iately north of the Zannaga, nor in the region between 1t, and the
coast. The Beundo River discharges at Little Batanga, and is known
in the interior as the Njong or Nlong, while the Great Njong dis-
charges at Malimba by the Borea and Bornu mouths, and mto ;
Cameroons River by the Quaqua mouth. A profile accompanymg
the repért shows a coast plain about seventy feet above the pat
succeeded by a sharp slope rising to a height of 3,000 to 4,000
above sea-level (the Crystal Mountains), beyond which the egos
slopes gently to about 2,300 feet. Both rivers have a second pa
aract region in the interior, with a long stretch of navigable wat of
between it and the lower cataracts, The Zannaga no doubt cart
off the water of a great river region.
Geography and Travel. 721
MossAMEDES AND BENGUELA.—The bed of the river Giraul
at Mossamedes has, according to Mr. E. W. Parsone, for many
years been dry, and though pools occur here and there in the in-
terior, and a stream is sometimes formed after heavy rains, no
water ever appears on the surface at its mouth. Yet an anchor
with a heavy wooden stock has been found embedded in the ancient
channel about twenty miles from the mouth. The sandstone cliffs
of the coast table-land sink into the valley at about ten miles north
of the port, which is larger and has a better depth of water than
that of Loanda, from which it is distant 385 miles. The o
Valley is fertile, and has some low-growing trees, but the rest of
the country near the town is barren, and the want of roads and
carriers hampers the trade with the interior. Colonies or inland
Limbigues and Bihe. These highland places are fertile, healthy,
and adapted for cattle-breeding. A superior class of rubber gum
has been recently introduced by the natives, and, as the caravans,
which formerly took nine months to fetch their loads, are now bac
in three months, it is supposed that a new gum-bearing bush or
shrub has been discovered.
geogt
in width. The northeast cape of Rat Island is precipitous, but the
rest slopes to the westward, and is apparently cultivable. The
722 General Notes.
mass of the group is volcanic, consisting of basalt and phonolite,
but Boobie Island and Egg Island are raised masses of reef rock,
which occurs also upon the basalt of Platform Island, and on the
southern beach of Rat Island. Mt. St. Michael is a phonolite peak
385 feet high. The Peak (El Pica), is a huge mass of columnar
phonolite, with a talus or débris around it. Two other phonolitic
masses stand like bastions on the south coast, separated by a ridge
of basalt. As the group is surrounded by deep sea, and nothing
voleanic occurs near it, Mr. Lea is inclined to think that it marks
the site of an isolated vent. The islets of the southern coast are,
with one exception, composed of phonolite. Where the phonolite
and basalt join, both, especially the former, are more or less disor-
ganized in structure. The Sapate, or southwestern heights of the
main island, are basaltic. Three-quarters of the insects taken by
the expedition were new to science, and of the three reptiles an
amphisbzena and a lizard are peculiar, as are two of the three land-
birds. About 200 species of plants were found, some thirty, of
which were peculiar. Invading plants have mastered the plains,
and are gaining the heights and the sea-shore. On the East Hills
were found two scrambling bushes of a strange plant which seemed
to be the last of their race. Few of the native plants have conspi-
cuous flowers, and many are berry-bearing shrubs, Euphorbiaceae,
and grasses. But the flora includes a new dodder, an endemic fig,
and two species of Oxalis, also a new Convolvulus. Out of the
human population of rather over 2,000, about 1,400 are convicts.
GEOGRAPHICAL News.—The census of Paris for 1886 gives 4
population of 2,260,945, out of whom 1,802,53 are foreigners—
nearly eight per cent. As this does not include foreigners peme
decreases with each successive year. In 1887 the total number 0
births was 60,666, and the excess over deaths only 5,820.
The population of Melbourne is now estimated at spiel -
two-fifths of the total population of the colony of Victoria, ana on
seventh of that of the whole of Australia.
The Argentine Republic contained in 1887 a population x
3,935,286. Nearly 4,000 miles of railroads are in operation é ds
the conceded lines extend over nearly one and a half times as m
territory.
ver Hawash
M. Ant. de Abbadie has found the sources of the ri and. 08
at the foot of Mount Ilfata, at the end of the Meca range,
Geology and Paleontology. 723
the summit of Mount Dandi he has found a double lake of consid-
erable extent and depth, shaped like the figure eight. An affluent
of the Gudar issues from this lake. He also discovered a deep lake,
with most beautiful surroundings, at the foot of the immense crater
mountain called Mt. Harro. stream from this Lake Wancit
joins the Walga, which rises on the summit of the mountain.
According to the Consular Report for 1887, the population of
Java and Madura in 1886 was 21,997,259, showing an increase of
1,065,605 since 1884. The exports of cinchona are increasing.
Late measurements of the heights of the Austrian Alps have
reduced the Marmolata, the highest dolomite, from 11,464 feet to
11,016 feet, have shown the Antelao to have 10,874 feet, and place
the Cima di Vezzana at 10,470, and the Cima della Pala at 10,454.
The former of these peaks must therefore be regarded as the loftiest
of the Primiero group, the remaining peaks of which gain or lose
only a few feet by the new survey.
GEOLOGY AND PALZZONTOLOGY.
OSBORN ON THE Mesozoic MamMata.'—In this essay we have
a comprehensive and minute study of the Mesozoic Mammalia,
based on the existing collections of the world. First among the
latter is that of the British Museum; then that of Yale Coll 4
motherium and Microconodon, which Prof. Osborn —_ 2A
places in a new order, the Protodonta. Second, The close parallel-
ism of the American and European genera, and of species of the
latter country and South Africa. Third, The diversity of the
dental types of the genera, and the specialization of some of them.
here are six or seven wholly distinct types of dentition.
iar a Structure and Classification of the Mesozoic Mammalia. By
Philadelphia, born, From the Journal Academy Natural Sciences o
[2] Vol. IX., pp. 186-265. July, 1888.
724 General Notes.
Professor Osborn regards the Multituberculata as a distinct series,
and considers their reference to the Monotremata to be an open
question. the remaining types he refers a part to the Marsupi-
alia, under the name Prodidelphia (Heckel), and the position of the
remainder he leaves in doubt, placing them provisionally in the
Insectivora. The dental characters of the Multituberculata are tole-
rably uniform, but the case is different with the two other divisions.
families proposed appear to be well defined. ;
n analyzing the dental characters, Prof. Osborn follows the lines
rior and posterior cusps “ paracone ” and “ metacone,” respectively.
Among Mesozoic Mammalia we have the first three of the above
types represented, together with a half-prismatic type in Kurtodon
Osb., besides the Multituberculata. f
is memoir was long in press, and has grown by a process d
accretion; hence there appear some unavoidable irregularities 0
classification of its contents. A foot-note we observe is liable to
misconstruction (p. 245), where it states that Dr. Harrison Allen
first demonstrated the modification of the tritubercular into the
quadritubercular molar crown. Dr. Allen demonstrated the possi-
This is the almost universal introduction of specific ohana
into diagnoses of genera. Examples of this are seen on p. 216,
where all the characters in the generic diagnoses except one or two
are only specific. b
This memoir is illustrated by numerous excellent cuts, and by
two plates. Two of the cuts are here reproduced.—E. D. Cope.
LYDEKKER ON THE ICHTHYOSAURIA AND PLESIOSAURM n
In two late numbers of the Geological Magazine of London, ri
Lydekker publishes reviews of the English species of the
PLATE XIV.
—Microconodon tancshgi ed i; outer face of right man-
Fig, A.
dibuinr ramus, four times natural s
G.
second Group. The anterior face of the molars E | is to tiie
left, and the posterior face to.the right. A, Dromotherium, second infe-
e. 13, Achyrodon, fourth lower molar, outer face. 12, 0-
lestes, lower molar, inner face; a, outer face; 6, wearing surface. 15,
Kurtodon, upper molar; a, wearing surface.
Geology and Paleontology. 725
orders above named, which will be of much use to students. He
admits three genera of Ichthyosauria, viz.: Ophthalmosaurus Seeley
(Baptanodon Marsh), Ichthyosaurus Conyb, and Mizxosaurus Baur.
He does not find any reason to subdivide the genus Ichthyosaurus.
Of Plesiosauride he admits the genera Plesiosaurus, Thaumato-
saurus, Pliosaurus, and Elasmosaurus (under the name Cimolia-
saurus), but does not include in the last named the Jurassic species
which have the same structure of the shoulder-girdle, which Seeley
described under the name of Colymbosaurus several years ago.
We find this course inconsistent, and believe the principles adopted
by Seeley in his classification of the Plesiosauride to be well
founded, except as to the genus Murenosaurus, which Mr. Lydek-
ker shows to be a synonym of Colymbosaurus. Mr. Lydekker falls
into the error of supposing that the genus Polycotylus is princi-
pally characterized by the cupping of the vertebre. The fact is,
that the structure of the paddles is as different from that of Plesio-
saurus, as that of Ichthyosaurus is from Mixosaurus, and in much
the same way. 7
with most taxonomists, which we have stated elsewhere. We wi
content ourselves now with observing that we find the method of
Mr. Lydekker a matter of inconvenience rather than of convenience.
We must also once more protest against being misquoted by Mr.
ns
pt. i., pl. ii. In this instance the head has been placed at the
extremity of the tail,” ete., etc. On this I must observe that no
such plate appears in the Transactions of the American Philoso-
phical Society, or in those of any other Society. Of this Mr.
Lydekker can easily satisfy himself. It is true, however, that an
error got into the first descriptions of that species (see Proceed.
Boston Society Nat. History, 1869-70), but it was done in
imitation of the precedent laid down by the describer of the species
named Cimoliasaurus (a name which Mr. Lydekker wishes to ach
several years earlier. Here the cervical vertebre were descri
as caudals. This mistake was corrected by its author after an
inspection of the skeleton of Elasmosaurus. The plates and descrip-
tions published by the American Philosophical Society are
correct, and the genus Elasmosaurus is there for the first time
fully characterized. The supposed genus Cimoliasaurus was never
aracterized by the author of the name.
726 General Notes.
We suspect that if we were to state that Mr. Lydekker had
described the bones of a crocodile as those of an ostrich, and the
teeth of a baboon as those of an ape, without at the same time
stating that he had himself corrected those errors, he would not
consider our method of criticism legitimate. And if we were to
assert that in description he called the inside the outside, when he
had not done so, and stated that a scientific body had published a
plate which it did not publish, he would consider re wanting in a
primary essential of criticism, viz., accuracy.—E. D. Cope.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL Notes ON THE Two Books oF CONRAD ON
Tertiary SHELLS.—Having had occasion to see various copies of
. A. Conrad’s “ Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations” and
“ Fossils of the Tertiary Formations,” I have found that nearly all
of them in some respects are deficient. In fact, I have not seen a
single copy that gives perfectly all that has been published in the
way in which it had been issued, and one finds in the literature
quite a number of assertions which show an erroneous or imper-
fect knowledge of these two works.! For this reason I consider 1t
desirable to give the following notes :— a.
1, “ Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of North ere
The two most complete copies which I have seen are those in the
library of the Academy of Natural Sciences and my own. Neither
7 perfectly complete, but both together furnish the following
ata :—- r
The book has been issued in two editions, the second were
being a supplement to the first one. The first edition has bee
issued in four parts. Yellow
First edition: Part I. Pages 1 to 20, plates 1 to 6. thin
cover, with date October 1, 1832. There 1s not mg
rinted on the back of this cover.
3 Part. II. Pages 21 to 28, plates 7 to 14. Yellow vei
with the date December, 1832; a note by the author on
fourth page.
1 American Naturalist, 1888, p. 165. : dden-
2? We suggest whether Mr. Lydekker has not referred, an hens of
- Tetracerasi We did
: thinking the author
would correct it himself.
Geology and Paleontology. 727
Part III. Pages 29 to 38, plates are mentioned in the
text, but none have been published. Yellow cover, with
the date August, 1833; on the fourth page there is a note
that the plates will be published with No. 4.
Part IV. Pages 39 to 46. No plates. Yellow cover,
with date October, 1833 ; on the fourth page a note signed, -
“T. A. Conrad, Claiborne, Alabama, November 1, 1833.”
Second edition: Pages numbered 29 to 56, plates numbered 15
to 18. One colored geological map of Alabama. Blue
cover, the title-page of which gives the date: “ Republished
with plates, March 1, 1835.”
2. “Fossils of the Tertiary Formations of the United States.”
The book is sometimes quoted as “ Fossils of the Medial Tertiary
of the United States,” on account of the title-page of two of its
parts. The following notes are also based on the copy in thelibrary
of the Academy of Natural Sciences and my own copy, which
supplement each other.
The introduction is numbered V.to XVI.; the rest is numbered
1 to 89. There are forty-nine plates; some of them are without a
number. The book has been issued apparently in three parts The
cover of the second part contains quite a number of descriptions.
Part I. Pages 1 to 32, plates 1to17. The brown cover
is without a date, and gives the title: “ Fossils of the Medial
Tertiary of the United States.” The fourth page contains
the descriptions of four species.
_ Part II. Page 33 to 56, plates 18 to 29. The brown cover
is also without a date, and on the title-page is also printed,
“Fossils of the Medial Tertiary,” ete. The other three
pages contain quite a number of descriptions, among them
the FR four species, which are described on the cover of
art L.
Part III. Contains apparently the rest of the book :
pages 57 to 89, plates 30 to 49. The brown cover is also
without date, but gives the title: “ Fossils of the Miocene
Formation of the United States.”
Regarding the date of issue of the different parts of the “ Fossil
Shells,” and the authorship of Part III. and Part IV., nothing
need be said here. Regarding the date of issue of the “ Tertiary
Fossils,” the following may be stated :— 5
The cover of Part I. of the Academy’s copy bears in
Conrad’s handwriting the date “ January, 1838.” Lee
The cover of Part II. of my copy is marked with ink in
Conrad’s handwriting, “ May 7, 1840.”
The cover of Part III. of my copy is marked in the same
way by Conrad, “ January 1845.” — Otto Meyer, Ph.D.
728 General Notes.
CHALICOTHERIUM AND MacrorHertum.—M. Henri Filhol
has recently made a discovery of remarkable interest in the beds of
Sansan, of the middle Miocene of France. It removes, in the first
this is a well-marked perissodactylic type, closely resembling that
of Palsosyops, in the tarsus, especially. er an examination of
the feet in the collection of the Jardin des Plantes, no doubt re-
mained in my mind of the association of Chalicotherium and
Macrotherium. Without anticipating M. Filhol’s' memoir I may
note a few of the Perissodactyle characters of the tarsus. The
calcaneum has a long neck and broad internal extension, which 1s
lacking in the edentates, for articulation with the astragalus.
The latter bone is much like that of some species of Aphelops with
the neck very short; it has a broad facet for the cuboid. The
cuboid has a postero-internal extension which is also found in
Paleosyops. The cuneiform is very highly modified, being re-
duced anteriorly toathin shell. The third metatarsal abuts against
the cuboid, the second against the external cuneiform. In short,
remove the phalanges, widen the navicular, and lengthen the nie
instead of the second metatarsal and you have a true Perissodacty/¢
tarsus. The carpus is equally so, but is much less characteristic.
Turning to the skull, we find of course the teeth of the Palæosyops
type. I think there is an alisphenoid canal. There are other non-
perissodactyle characters; there is no third trochanter of the fem-
urand, as M. Filhol points out the arrangement of the skull 1s
very different. The tympanic bones are also largely develope a
of a unique shape. The question remains, what is this amıma
Geology and Paleontology. 729
M. Filhol’s restoration showing the long fore limbs and short hind .
limbs, and feet resting partly on the side, demonstrates that it had
the habits of the sloths. He also informs me that the older indi-
viduals retain only one incisor. On the other hand the structure of
the carpus, tarsus, skull and teeth, is in so many features so strik-
ingly Perissodactyl, that there seems to be no alternative except to
leave Chalicotherium in this order and regard it as an aberrant form,
with nearest affinities to Paleosyops and genera of that line.—
Henry F. Osborn, Paris, September Ist.
GEOLOGICAL News.—GENERAL.—Mr. Mellard Reade and Mr.
Davison have recently pointed out that, owing to the cooling and
contraction of the earth, there is at some depth beneath the surface
a zone of no stress, that is to say, where the compressive stress due
to the radial contraction of the sphere, and the tensile stress due
to the circumferential contraction of each zone, are equal. Prof.
C. L. Morgan (Geol, Mag., 1888, p. 296) asks, “Is it not possible
that throughout the zone of maximum tension, due to circumfer-
ential contraction, the rocks may be rendered fluid by relief of
CAMBRIAN AND SILURIAN.—The Paleontological Department
of the Swedish State Museum has published a list of the Cambrian
and Lower Silurian faunas of that country, by Prof. G. Lindstrom,
and another of the Mesozoic fauna, by Prof. B. Lundgren. The
Cambrian is divided into (1) the Eophyton and Fucoid Sandstones,
(2) the Paradoxides beds, (3) the Olenus Schists, and (4) the Dic-
tyonema Slate. One hundred and fourteen species are enumera
om this formation. The Lower Silurian comprises 1, Ceratopyge
Limestone ; 2, Lower Graptolite Schists; 3, Orthoceratite Lime-
stone; 4, Middle Graptolite Schists; 5, Chasmops Limestone;
6, Trinucleus Schists ; 7, Brachiopod Schists ; 8, Upper Graptolite
ists; and 9x9, Leptena Limestona. The species enumerated
from the Lower Silurian number 627.
CaRBONIFEROUS.—It appears that the peculiar rock called chert
Consists mainly of the spicules of sponges. Dr. G. J. Hinde has
found it to be thus composed in the Yoredale series of Yorkshire
(Eng.), in Wales and in Ireland, while in the June issue of the
Geological Magazine he describes the character of the sponges of the
chert and siliceous schists of Spitzbergen. The Permo-Carbonifer-
730 General Notes.
ous series of the west and southwest shores of Spitzbergen is over
200 m. in thickness, and is divided by Dr. Nathorst into the Ursa
Sandstone, regarded as Devonian, the Cyathophyllum Limestone,
the Spirifer Limestone, and the Productus Chert. This series is
not followed by grits, sandstones, and coal-measures, but by shales,
marls, and sandstones containing an exclusively Permian fauna, an
the series itself, though as a whole regarded as stratigraphically
equivalent to the Carboniferous Limestone, contains a certain
mixture of Permian fossils. The Productus-chert consists of beds
of chert composed largely of disintegrated siliceous sponges, but
rich also in Producti and other calcareous fossils, and of intercalate
siliceous beds consisting of minute grains of quartz, but rich in
sponge spicules. The cherty rocks, unlike those of Yorkshire and
North Wales, have yielded entire forms of sponges, which have
been described by Dr. E. von Dunikowski.
Dr. R. H. Traquair (Geol. Mag., 1888, pp. 251-254) describes
three new species of Palzeoniscide from the English Coal-Measures.
The article is the second contribution from Dr. Traquair upon this
subject, the first being contained in the December issue of the same
magazine for the year 1886.
In the July issue of the Geological Magazine Mr. A. C. Seward
comes to the support of Prof. Williamson’s remark that the specific
names and definitions of Calamites are probably worthless, bie
figure and description of a specimen which upon one side shows P e
characters of C. undulatus, while the other side of the same cylinder
has narrow and equal ribs.
Dr. Schweinfurth has discovered Lower Carboniferous a af
the Arabah valley of Upper Egypt, opening out into the Gul ne
Suez. He recognizes the identity of the beds he describes wit
those of the Wadi Nasb in the Sinaitic Peninsula; the genera are In
most cases identical, and the species characteristically Carboniferous.
Mesozo1c.—Of the lower portions of the Mesozoic serios oot
the Rhaetic and Liassic strata are developed in Sweden, p si
more than twenty-four species are enumerated by Prof. meee
from the formet and 129 from the latter group. There = hisha
wide gap in the middle portion of the Mesozoic, until the raii
members of the Cretaceous are reached. These are highly
iferous, the list comprising 456 species.
Jurassic.—Mr. R. Lydekker (Geol. Mag., 1888, p. 309) ger
the genera of Ichthyopterygia to three, viz.: Ophtha n j
chthyosaurus, and Mixosaurus, the last the least specialized.
Geology and Paleontology. 731
tenuirostris and its allies are the forms most nearly allied to Mixo-
saurus Baur, and J. tenuirostris has only four digits. From this
Mr. Lydekker agrees with Dr. Baur that the Ichthyosaurs have
descended from a tetradactylate ancestor. Two additional species,
. cantabrigensis and I. conybeari, are described, the former from the
Greensand of Cambridge (Eng.), the latter from the Lower Lias.
“The Insect-world of the Lithographic Shales of Bavaria” is
the title of an extended article in Volume 34 of Paleontographica,
by P. Oppenheim. Among the fossils described are Cyrtophyllites
rogeri, a new genus and species of Locustide, two new species of
Ephemera, Prolystra lithographica, Eucicada microcephala, Ischy-
opteron suprajurense, n. gen. et sp.; Halometra, a new genus of
Hydrometride, with two species; three species of Carabide, a
Prodytiscus, two forms of Lamellicornia, two of Clavicornia, three
of Sternoxia, one of Rhynchophora, and three of Chrysomelide.
Creracreous.—A. S. Woodward (P. Z. 8., X. Feb. 21, 1888)
shows that the lateral line of Scyllium sahelalme, from the chalk of
t. Lebanon, was supported by a series of half-rings, exactly like
those met with in Squaloraja and the Chimeroids. The canal of
the lateral line was ss presumably an open groove; a condition
which obtains in only two living Selachians, Echinorhinus and
Chlamydoselachus.
Squatina eranei is the name given by Mr. S. Woodward to a
species of “angel-fish” discovered in the chalk of England, and
distinguishable from the species of Squatina already satisfactorily
nown by the great relative size of the spinous dermal tubercles.
No defences of this kind have been found in extinct forms, and the
ne species has them much smaller in proportion to the size of
e fish.
The same geologist also describes certain specimens of mandibles
of the singular Belonostomus cinctus, revealing the precise character
of the dentition, and the relations of the bones. The two rami
occupy only half the entire length of the jaw, the anterior half
being formed by the enormously elongated pre-symphysial bone.
The narrow and deep rami meet at a very acute angle; the sym-
physis is elongate, gradually diminishing to a thin edge below, and
the large pre-symphysial bone, which is a median unpaired element
is articulated to the sloping triangular surface thus formed. On the
latter bone there is a median row of about thirty large conical teeth,
while a great number of smaller similar teeth—the largest little
more than one-sixth the height of the largest of the median series—
are placed irregularly upon the lateral margins of the bone.
732 General Notes.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'
the Archean rocks of Missouri. In a diabase porphyrite, from
Madison county, are areas of quartz, which seem to be the remains
of porphyritic crystals, whose original outlines have been pene
by the corroding action of the diabase magma before its consolida-
tion. Since an analysis of the rock reveals a content of only 53.47
of silica, it would seem that we have another instance illustrating
the possibility of the separation of free silica from a very _—
magma. In another porphyrite the rare rock constituent pieta
tite was detected. A very instructive fact in connection giri a
Missouri rocks is the existence of granites of idiomorphic seers
crystals which have been enlarged by the addition of orthoe e
material. In some cases this enlargement is in the shape ofa E ina
ophyre border, and in others of a solid vein of irregular out 7s
surrounding a well-marked idiomorphic crystal_—In the course
an examination of a minette from Weiler, near Weiselburg, d
Linck’ found the porphyritic crystals of biotite to be surroun
1 Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, Colby University, Waterville, Me.
2 Neues Jahrb. f. Minn., 1888, i., p. 117.
s Amer. Naturalist, 1887, p. 850.
* Johns Hopkins Univ. Circulars, No. 65, April, 1888.
i i , . 72. thringeD,
6 Mitth. d. Comm. f. d. Geol. Landesuntere, von Elsass-Lo
1887, i., p. 69.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 733
by the dark zones so characteristic of the mineral in rocks of this
class; when treated with hydroehloric acid, the dark color of the
external rim was destroyed, leaving an isotropic substance, which
the author supposes to be amorphous silica. He explains the ori-
gin of the zinc by supposing the biotite to have been acted upon
by the remainder of the liquid magma, from which it had sepa-
rated, and thus to have lost a portion of its alkaline and alkaline-
earth constituents, which helped to form the feldspar, forming with
small plates of biotite the entire groundmass of the rock. The
iron left by this decomposition separated out as magnetite in the
dark zine——In a late number of the American Journal of Science
Mr. Kemp’ describes a dyke of camptonite cutting the rocks in the
Forest of Dean magnetite mine in Orange county, N. Y. The
rock differs from the typical? camptonite in containing a larger
proportion of feldspar and smaller crystals of hornblende. The
feldspar is an oligoclase with the composition :—
Si
1810 Te’ IS Ges 1 LU 89 2a
— While engaged in studying a peridotite from Little Deer Isle, in
Maine, Mr. Merrill? noticed the enlargement of its augitic consti-
tuents by the growth around it of a secondary augite with the same
optical orientation, but a different color.
MINERALOGICAL News.—In a very interesting paper on the
chemical constitution of the different colored micas occurring in a
pegmatite at Schüttenhofen, Bohemia, Scharizer* records the analy-
ses of several members of the mica group of minerals, and draws
some general conclusions in regard to them. The pegmatite is sur-
rounded on all sides by limestone. Its constituents are pairs 2 in
three zones, in the first of which lepidomelane and white and brown
muscovite occur. In the second a yellowish white muscovite, and
in the third lithium micas. Analyses of these are given as follows:—
Lepido- Brow Yell.-white Lithium-
Mus. mica. §
melane. Mus.
SiO, 35.31 43.67 44.08 49.26
ae mer 06
Al,O, 22.62 36.69 36.83 25.27
F e0, 5.68 2,10 .48
e 18.04 .55 74 84
a 1.19 tr 25 85
3.69
CaO 1.99
` Amer. Jour. Sci., April, 1888, p. 331.
Woah pir
‘one , 1888, p. 488.
. f. Krystallographie, 1888, xiii., p. 449.
* Cf, Am. Jour, Sci., xxxii., p. 358. dd
734 General Notes.
K,O 61 11.10
(KK. Rb.Cs),0 8.57 13.85
Na,O 62 1.95 21
Li,O '30 tr ‘37 5
H,O 1.21 4.35 4.98 1.76
Aq 2.30 1.15 1.17
Fe <60 135 ‘19 5.68
In the discussion which closes the paper Scharizer concludes that
all lepidolites are isomorphous mixtures of the pure muscovite mol-
ecule with the molecule (HO.F),. R}, Al, Si O,,.—A suite of spe-
cimens representing the rarer copper minerals of the Mammoth
ine region in Utah, having come into the possession of Messrs.
Hillebrand and Washington,! an investigation of their physical and
chemical properties was undertaken to determine their true nature.
Measurements of the interfacial angles of olivenite from the Amer-
ican Eagle mine yielded as the axial ratio for this mineral .9396 :
1: .6726. It was impossible to determine whether the mineral is
orthorhombic or not in consequence of the poor reflections from the
æ Po faces. Olivenite from the Mammoth Mine is well crystal-
lized, with a tabular or prismatic habit. The planes most promi-
i “00 lo ome Pt co "Oo. “Coe ts pleochroism
is olive-green parallel to c, and brownish yellow parallel to 6. On
u, (AsO,). +
H),. Two types of brochautite (hydrous sulphate of copper)
were also examined. Crystals of the first type are dark green, ie
are prismatic in habit. Those of the second type are of a ligh
green color, and have a curved double-wedge shape, prone a
the occurrence of 3 PT2 and , PQ faces. mineral with the
general appearance of tyrolite yielded Mr. Hillebrand :—
CuO ZnO CaO MgO AsO; P,O; HO 89s
46.38 tr 6.69 .04 26.22 tr 17.57 2.27,
ce = . O,
a result indicating a composition corresponding to 5CuO. Asis
74H,0, instead of to the generally accepted formula, 5Cu0. Ase
O.
light color, supposed by Mr. Pearce! to be a new mineral, has
found upon closer examination to have the composition of Mi se
(Cu,, Bi, As H,, Op), but different physical properties. It is
1 Amer. Jour. Sci., xxxv., April, 1888.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 735
axial or orthorhombic, and its specific gravity is 3.79.—According
to Prof. Chester,! the marcelite from Cumberland, R. I., and the
photicite and klipsteinite from Jackson county, N. C., are nothing
more than mixtures of rhodonite and its decomposition products,
a conclusion to which Prof. Bauer? of Marburg, assents.—Native
latinum and cinnabar are reported‘ as occurring in British Colum-
ia. The former has been found in the bed of a branch of the
north fork of Similkameen River. It is in the form of rounded
grains and pellets. It has the composition :—
Pt Pd Rh Ir Cu Fe OsIr Gaugue.
72.07 19 2.57 1.14 8.89 8.59 10.51 1.69
The rare minerals‘ wranite, gummite and wraconite have also been
found in Canada, at the Villeneuve mica mine, Ottawa county,
Province of Quebec.—Xanthitane, from Green river, Henderson
county, N. C., is an alteration product of sphene. It is apparently
a clay with the silica replaced by titanium. The air-dried sub-
stance loses 6.02 per cent. of water at 100°. The composition of
the dried material is :—
nO, SO, (AI MO 00 NO 2
1.76 61.54 17.59 4.46 -90 4.17 9,92
—Bement* mentions the occurrence of fine crystals of wulfenite at
the Red Cloud mine in Arizona, and beautiful azurite and malachite
at Bisbee, in the same State.—Knop § declares the olivine from the
limestone of Schelinger, in the Kaiserstuhl, to be forsterite, with
the composition : —
SiO, MgO FeO MuO Al,O,
41.88 49.83 4.56 1,73 trace
eee Jahrb. f. Min., ete. 1888. I., p. 187.
» p. 21
oe Rep. Geol. and Nat. Hist. Surv. of Canada in 1886. T. p. 5.
Ib. 3
akins. Am. J. Science, May, 1888, p. 418.
í Zeits. f. Kryst., xiii., 1887, p. 16.
s Ib., xiii., 1887, p. 236.
Zeits. f. Kryst., xiii., 1887, p- 278.
736 General Notes.
nitrates of barium, strontium and lead crystallize in the pentagonal-
tetrahedral division of the regular system. Analogous results’
follow from a discussion of the possible kinds of letartohedrism in
the other systems.—Scharizer? describes honey-yellow to greenish
xenomite crystals from a pegmatite vein near Schiittenhofen, Bohe-
mia. The most prominent type is that produced by the combina-
tion of the prisms and pyramid with the ditetragonal pyramid,
though ricinal planes obscure to some extent the tetragonal symme-
try of the mineral. The axial relation is 1 : .62596. In a second
type the prismatic faces are wanting.—Wine-yellow crystals of
barite from the phenolite of Oberschaffhausen, in the Kaiserstuhl,
ave been examined by Beckenkamp.* Three types are recognized.
The first is characterized the large development of the prismatic
and basal planes, while the second type contains in addition the
brachydomes. The third type contains the latter faces developed
to the almost complete exclusion of the prismatic faces. The axial
ratio of the crystals is 8151: 1: 1.3019. They are pleochroic ın
yellow and white tints——Cathrein* has found in the adularia from
Schwarzenstein, Zillerthal the prismatic faces œ P$, œt$ an
æ P7, the orthodomes $P% and —280P œ, and the orthopyramid
21P9, all of which are new to orthoclase.—Crystals of chalcopyrite
from Holzheim, in Nassau, are interesting in that they contain the
scalenohedron modified only by the very small planes and 2P gp.
1 Ib., xiii., 1888, p. 474.
# iD., xiii., 1887, p: 15.
3 Zeitschrift, f. rt xiii., 1887, p. 25 and p. 386.
* Ib., xiii., 1887, p. 332.
5H. Mayer. Ib., xiii., 1887, p. 47.
Botany. 737
BOTANY.:
THE GENUS TAPHRINA OF TULANE.—This genus (Ezoascus of
Fuckel) of curiously simplified Ascomycetes, is an interesting one
for the comparative anatomist, affording as it does such a remark-
able instance of structural degradation through parasitism. 2B
Winter (Krypt-Flora v. Deutschland, Oesterreich u. d. Schweiz. 1*
Band, 2 Abth., pp. 2-11) the genus was made the principal one
of the first order (Gymnoascex) of the class Ascomycetes. | He
divided the Gymnoascew into two families, viz.: (1) Exoasci and
(2) Gymnoasci, the first including the genus under consideration
(under Fuckel’s name, Exoascus), and the second, the related gen-
era, Endomyces, Eremascus, Gymnoascus and Ctenomyces.
e extreme simplicity of these plants, composed as they are of
little more than single parasitic asci, marks to a great extent their
relationship to the larger Ascomycetes. Parasitism has here
brought about an almost complete atrophy of the plant body, as in
the vine rapes (Rafflesiacee), among the parasitic Phanerogams
the plant body is almost entirely suppressed, leaving only the large
flower bud which grows directly from its hort. ‘
The genus has been recently made the object of study by a
Swedish student, C. J. Johanson of MS esa who has distinguished
twenty-one Scandinavian species, as follows :—
Taphrina pruni Tul. (Exoaseus pruni Fkl.).
ia ‘tues Tul. (Ezoascus bullatus Fkl.; Ascomyces bullatus
rk.),
T. insititiæ Johans. ( Exoascus insititie Sadebeck).
T. deformans Tul. (Exoascus deformans Fkl.; Ascomyces defor-
mans Berk.).
T. nana Johans. ;
r Sapientia Johans. (Exoascus deformans Fkl.; var. potentille
arl.
sai alnitorqua Tul. (Ascomyces tosquinetii Westd.).
T. betulina Rostrup (Ezoaseus turgidus Sadebeck).
T. alpina Johans.
T. borealis Johans. pi
T. aurea Fries (Exoascus aureus Sadebeck ; E. populi Thüm.).
T. sadebeckii Johans, (Exoascus flavus Sadebeck).
T. betule Johans. (Ezoascus ‘betule Fkl.; Ascomyces betuloe
nus
T, rhizophora Johans.
! Edited by Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb,
* Kong. Vetenskaps-Akademie. Band 13. Afd. III. No. 4.
738 General Notes.
T. coerulescens Tul. (Exoascus coerulescens Sadebeck ; Ascomyces
caerulescens Demoz and Mont.).
T. carpini Johans. (Exoaseus carpini Rostrup).
T. polyspora Johans. ( Exoascus polysporus Sorokin ?).
T. bacteriosperma Johans.
T. carnea Johans.
T. filicina Rostrup.
T. ulmi Johans. (Exoascus ulmi Fkl.).
In an article in the Annals of Botany for November, 1887, B.
L. Robinson reviews the structure and history of Taphrina, and
compiles an annotated catalogue of the North American species,
so far as known. According to this article there are eight well-
known species, with several others which are less perfectly known,
as follows :—
Taphrina pruni Tul., on the fruit of Prunus domestica L., form-
ing “the so-called ‘plum pockets? ” The Taphrina on Prunus
maritima Wang., P. virginiana L., and P. serotina Eber., is con-
sidered to be “ probably identical.”
T. deformans Tul., causing the “peach curl” of the leaves of
the peach tree. A Taphrina, probably the same as this, has been
found several times in Massachusetts deforming the leaves and
branchlets of Prunus serotina Eber.”
T. purpurascens Robinson ( Ascomyces deformans Berk. var. purpu-
rescens Ellis and Everhart). On leaves of Rhus copallina L., caus-
ing them to become dark purple in color, wrinkled, limp, an
t
ndent.
T. potentillæ Johnson, on leaves of Potentilla canadensis L. h
T. flava Farlow, on leaves of Betula alba, var. populifolia Spach,
and also on Betula papyracea Ait. “This species must be care-
fully distinguished from the more recent and very different Fvoas-
vus of Sadebeck.” ”
T. alnitorqua Tul., “ on bracts of the fertile catkins of the ey
1. aurea Fries. “The only form of this species yet found 1
America, attacks the fertile catkins of poplar trees (Populus gran-
didentata Michx.). : i
| coerulescens Tul., on the leaves of various species of 0288,
producing grayish or bluish spots.—Charles E. Bessey.
THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES OF N. ~
Funer.—In March of the present year these numbers Tii
received by subscribers from the hands of the editors, J: B. ca
and R. M. Everhart. No change has been made in the sty of.
the work, whose uniform excellence reflects great credit on Am
ican botany. pes
Century XX. contains eight species of Agaricus, three 0 aa
tus, four of Cantharellus, five of Hygrophorus, four of Lenzi
Botany. 739
two of Geaster (the new species described by Morgan in Nov. Am.
Narv.), and two of Lycoperdon. The remaining species are for
the most part parasitic microfungi.
Century X XI. contains nine species of Agaricus, six of Clava-
ria, fourteen of Peziza, besides single species of many genera of
the larger fungi. The microfungi are also represented by man
genera, At the close of the volume, Nos. 2085 to 2100 inclusive
are species of Myxomycetes, determined by Dr. Rex and Harold
Wingate. The species are (2085) Physarum cinereum Batsch,
2086) P. contextum Pers., (2087) Tilmadoche columbina Berk.,
2088) Stemonites morgani Pk., (2089) Didymium eximium Pk.,
(2090) D. fuckelianum Rfski., (2091) D. clavus A. and S., (2092)
Siphoptychium casparyi Rfski., (2093) Chondrioderma testaceum
Schrod., (2094) Comatriche gracilis Wingate, (2095) Cribraria
intricata Schrod., (2096) Tubulina cylindrica Bull., (2097) Trichia
fragilis Low., forma simplex ; (2098) T. fragilis Low, forma botry-
tis; (2099) T. varia Pers., (2100) T. scabra Rfski.
Mr. W. C. Stevenson, Jr., of Philadelphia, has agai nearned the
thanks of botanists by making an Index of Habitats for Centuri
I. to XX. of the North American Fungi.— Charles E. Bessey.
_ ALLEN’s CHARACEÆ OF AMERICA.!—As its title indicates, this
is the first part of what it is hoped will eventually be a complete
monograph of the Characes of America. In his introduction the
author says that “the demand for information concerning these
plants is so pressing that it is thought but to issue the first part ot
the work now, to be followed in a year or two by the second part,
which will contain descriptions of the species now known to inhabit
American waters.”
The part before us contains (1) an Introduction, mainly devoted to
collection, preservation, habitat, etc., (2) a chapter principally con-
sisting of structural details, with a brief historical statement. In
this, the term sporophydium is introduced for the spore-fruit or spo-
rocarp. We prefer the term sporocarp, and regret that our author
did not adopt it rather than the other. The term proposed pos-
Sesses, of course, the advantage of being non-committal as to homol-
ogies, but to the present writer it would appear entirely safe to adopt
so fitting a term as sporocarp, in place of the vague one of sporo-
Phydium (spora and phudion, diminutive of phu, a growth; the
term thus signifies a spore growthlet, i.e., a little spore-growth).
Following this is (3) a chapter entitled Classification and Synopsis.
' The Characeœ of America, Part I. Containing the Introduction,
Morphology, and Classification. By Timothy ield Allen, M i
Member of the Buffalo Academy of Natural Baiano: of the Portlan
Y iety of Natural History, ete. With fifty-five illustrations. New
ork, No. 10 East Thirty-sixth street. 1888. 8vo. 64 pp
740 General Notes.
This final chapter includes the technical characters of the fami-
lies and genera represented in America, with synoptical descriptions
of the —_ The system adopted may be summarily shown as
follows :
CHARACEZ Richard.
Family I. Nrreiu# u. Leonhardi.
Genus 1. Nitella Ag., containing 79 species.
Genus 2. Tolypella A. Braun, with 13 species.
Family II. CHARÆ u. Leonhardi.
Genus 3. Lamprothamnus A. Braun, containing a single species,
presenting three varieties.
Genus 4. Lychnothamnus Rupr. u. Leonhardi, with 3 species.
Genus 5. Chara Vaill u. Tsculnedl with 62 species, besides many
varieties,
The order is thus shown to contain 158 species, of which 58 are
given as North American, there being 30 species of Nie 8 of
oly pella, and 20 of Chara so recorded.—Charles E. Bessey
ZOOLOGY.
Direct Nuctear Drviston in EurLores.—Dr. K. Mobius
describes (Stzb. Gesellsch. Naturf. ie Betis, 1887) direct
nuclear division in the fission of Euplotes harpa. The pen
elongates transversely, becomes thinner in the middle, and at ap
divides, the two halves remaining connected by but a thread at y
time when the oral cilia of the second individual are formed. r
ing with osmic acid and staining with saffranin showed that H
chromatin was mostly arranged in thread-like rows of granules an
that karyokinetic figures were never form
Tue Foor IN PROSoBRANCHIATE Monzuscs.—Mr. H. tee
Osborn (Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci, XXXVI.) gives in ep
the results of his researches on the morphology of the foot Fs a
Gasteropods. In Fasciolaria and Fulgur it arises as a paired bas
an elevation of the ectoderm behind the velum and the blast 5
These later coalesce. The conclusions are that this a
Se be iad as ontogenetically, Ren possibly, phylogenetica ay
belonging to the series of paired locomotor organs, like
‘annelids and arthropods. To this view, Tarva, the "author poin
out certain difficulties.
Zoology. 741
Tae ELECTRIC Lieut IN MARINE CoLLEcTING.—Professor W.
A. Herdman communicates to Nature an account of experiments
made with the electric light in marine collecting, from which we
make the following extracts: A sixty-candle power Edison-Swan
submarine light was arranged in the mouth of a tow-net, and the
whole lowered to a depth of three fathoms and allowed to remain
there for half an hour. Another similar net, but without illumi-
nation, was lowered on the opposite side of the ship to the same
depth and for the same length of time. When hauled to the surface
the dark net contained practically nothing, while the other held an
abundant gathering, consisting chiefly of Crustacea. Another test
was made, both nets being lowered to the bottom (six fathoms), and
with similar results. It was noted that the Amphipods taken with
the light in the deep net appeared to be mostly red-eyed species.
If on detailed examination this is confirmed, it may indicate an
interesting relation between the color of the eyes and sensitiveness
to the electric light.
Tue Fauna OF THE SUEZ Canau.—Dr. E. von Martens exhibi-
ted at a meeting of the Berlin Gesellschaft Naturforschender
Freunde (Stzber. 1887) a collection of shells made in the Suez Canal,
and made some remarks upon the origin of the fauna of the Canal.
Collating all known observations, he found that of twenty-seven
species of molluscs found in the Canal, nine came from the Medi-
terranean and eighteen from the Red Sea. An examination of the
fishes showed a similar condition. Of sixteen species reported from
the Canal, six were from the Mediterranean and ten from the Red
Sea side. The distribution of the species in the different parts of
the Canal is shown by tables; and a glance at these clearly indicates
that the admixture of faune is far from complete.
BRAIN or Ceratopus.—In a paper (Proe. Roy. Soc’y., XLIII.)
Mr, Alfred Sanders concludes that the brain of Ceradotus presents
an embryonic condition in three respects, viz.: first, in the extreme
size of the ventricles and in the tenuity of the substance of their
walls ; second, in the alternating origins of the dorsal and ventral
roots ; third, in the fact that the origins of the dorsal roots are close
to the central line. Compared to Protopterus, it differs in the shape
and the imperfection of the cerebral lobes, and in the fact of its
having a well-developed rhinencephalon ; but it agrees in the nar-
rowness of the thalamencephalon and mesencephalon, and in the
breadth of the medulla oblongata, as also in the rudimentary char-
acter of the cerebellum. Ceratodus agrees also with the ganoids in
the comparative narrowness of the mesencephalon and in the pro-
portions of the cerebellum. With the Plagiostomes it agrees in the
structure of the optic lobes, both orders presenting a large ganglion
742 General Notes.
of large cells in the dorsal part. With the Teleostei it agrees in the
multi-axial fibres which, a short distance anterior to its termination,
resemble Mauthner’s fibres, also in the position and fact of their
decussation. With Petromyzon it agrees in the structure of the
tela choroidea, which covers the fourth ventricle.
Deep Sea Fisues.—Not less than 3800 specimens of deep-sea
fishes were dredged in the last voyage of the Talisman. At the
dredging No. CX., as many as 931 were captured, of which 780
were EHymenocephalus italicus Giglioli.
The truly deep-sea fishes, says M. L. Vaillant, belong to the
Gunther and others, raise the known species of this se ee
fifteen. Most of these fishes have the dorsal and anal fins ; ro h
back upon the caudal peduncle, and seem adapted for easy and rap
locomotion.
Zoology. — 743
dred the Macruroid Corypheenoides gigas at a depth of 4255
metres, and Alexiterion parfaiti, nov. gen. and sp. of Ophidiide
The abyssal fish fauna seems to be in great part homogeneous.
Bathysaurus, Halosaurus, Bathypterois, Macrurus, Coryphenoides,
and many other genera are found both in the Atlantic and in the
Pacific, and many species seem to have an extensive distribution.
Thus Dicrolene introniger occurs near the North American coas
and on those of the Soudan; Macrurus holotrachys Gunt., dis-
covered at the mouth of the La Plata, has been dredged on the
Maroccan coast; Stomias boa ‘of the Mediterranean has been taken
in the Arctic Ocean, in the Atlantic, and in the Pacific; and the
Talisman captured at the Azores, off the Soudan, and at the Cape
erde Islands, a Macrurid which seems to be Macrurus juponicus
eg.
VACUITIES IN THE SKULLS oF Mammats.—Dr. D. D. Slade
presents (Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zoology, XIII., 8) a comparative
study of certain vacuities found in the macerated mammalian skull.
, THE TEETH or SHErp.—Miss Florence Mayo has recently
investigated (Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool., xiii.) the question as to
whether at any stage of development there occur germs of the
superior canines and incisors in the sheep, a question upon which
there were conflicting opinions. She finds that at a certain stage in
the development of the embryo sheep the dental lamina exists
throughout the incisor and canine regions and that in the latter an
enamel organ is formed but nowhere is there a dentine germ. No
enamel is ever formed and the organ soon disappears. From the
standpoint of phylogeny Miss Mayo thinks that the disappearance
of the teeth has been a progressive one, beginning with the middle
incisors and gradually extending back. This has already been
shown by palæontology.
744 General Notes.
LocaL VARIATIONS IN THE COLORS OF A FEW NEBRASKA
FLYING SQUIRRELS.—Coues and Allen, pp. 656-661, Monographs
of North America Rodentia, published in 1877, being Vol. XI.
of Hayden’s Report of the United States Geological Survey of the
Territories, state that:
“The American Flying Squirrel, (Sciuropterus volucella), presents
a range of geographical variation in size quite unparalleled in other
members of the Sciuride, and only equaled in some species of the
Canide, and possibly in Cervus virginianus. On the other hand
the coloration is remarkably constant, almost exceptionally 80.
* * Specimens from the same locality sometimes differ in the
color of the dorsal surface as much as do the most diverse examples
from widely separated localities.” :
e local variations in color are well illustrated by five specimens
before the writer, viz:—
hot | eee
No.| When collected.) Collector. [Lengthof} Length! | Age.
body
1 |Oct. 26, '85 Miss S. Thom 7.25 5.35 peme
2 |Winter (?),?’87 |W.B. Harmon| 7.00 5.00 re (2)
3 |Nov. 10, ’85 E. E. Good 6.05 5.00 * Š
4 [Nov., ’85 J.W.Crabtree 5.20 4.25 aaa
5 | Winter (?),’87 |W.B. Harmon} 7.00 5.00
n numbers one and four the dorsal surface was a dusky brown
vous. The color of the furred membrane of numbers one, wes
three and four is of a decidedly blackish cast, deepening pon i
edges ; each specimen being of about the same shade. In pge
ventral surface is whitewashed with yellow or fulvous, there i
but a slight shade in the washings. Pelage on the ventral surfa
white to the base.
of t
numbers one and four the dorsal surface of the body possessed pe
black than the upper surface of the tail, while number hee
proximated number two. The upper surface of the tail of nu japi
two was perceptibly blacker near the distal end. Excepting bi
slight shades of yellow the under surfaces of the tails 0 dee
one, two, three and four, were alike; being of a slightly, h. the
light yellow. Immediately beneath and longitudinally wit ‘aint
vertebrae of the tails of the four specimens mentioned, was ; pw
white line. In all the lower surface of the tail is darker ae s g
fulvous than the lower surface of the body ; also lighter and ™
Zoology. 745
more yellow than the dorsal surface of the body. In numbers one,
two, three and four the eye is encircled by a narrow dusky ring ;
also in front of this organ is a dusky spot, while the white spot
ordinarily found at the base of the ear was almost, if not completely,
obsolete.
Number five was a very unusual specimen, both in color and in
the arrangement of the color. Mr. W. B. Harmon, who collected
this specimen, states that four other squirrels were found in the nest
with this one, number two being one. The other two appeared to
be similar to number two in color. Besides the measurements
and the dusky spot in front of the eye, ordinarily, were obsolete,
he pelage on the upper surface of the body was of the same color
to the base. The only black or dark hairs visible were the mus-
taches, which were black. The hair has the appearance of being
in a healthy condition, and the specimen is rather above the average
size. This specimen is undoubtedly an extreme case of color
variation.
_ Habitat, near Nebraska City, Nebraska, on the Missouri river,
in latitude about 40° 30,
, It might be well to notice that the average measurements given
in this article are about the same given by Coues and Allen for S.
volucella var. hudsonius, which is stated to exist “ mostly north of
the parallel of 49°; average measurements of var. volucella, the
southern variety, being much less.— W. Edgar Taylor, Nebraska
State Normal School, Peru, Nebraska.
ZOOLOGICAL News.—Sponaes.—J. Arthur Thompson describes
(Trans. Roy. Soc., Edin., xxxiii.) the structure of the sponge Sub-
erites somuncula. The study was rendered difficult from the pres-
ence of large numbers of silicious spicules. Theciliated chambers
are small, and are in connection with the canal system, the afferent
and efferent canals lying side by side. The canal system is of what
is known as the fourth degree of complexity. In the same paper
are noti uliar club-shaped prominences on the surface of
Spongelia the function of which is problematical. These knobs
746 General Notes.
have a well-developed ectoderm, the centre being occupied by a
compact and intricate network of fine filaments, the meshes of which
were occupied by cells of varied size. Similar structures, it may
be noted, occur in several American sponges.
Ca:LENTERATA.—G. H. Fowler describes (Proc. Zool. Soc.,
1888), a new Pennatula (P. bellissima) from the Bahamas. In its
systematic position it stands nearest P. naresit.
Prof. A. M. Marshall monographs the Pennatulids collected by
the “ Porcupine” in the Trans Roy. Soc., Edin., xxxiii. Sixteen
species are enumerated. `
Motuuscs.—R. S. Call describes as new (Proc. Nat. Mus., 1887)
Unio ozarkensis and U. breviculus from Missouri.
calcium phosphate could be detected. aa
esearches into the nature of the secretion of the salivary ey
of Sepia officinalis and Patella vulgata, recently carried out by an
A. B. Griffiths, prove that these organs have the same physio ea
function as the salivary glands of the Vertebrata. The “sa r
has two pairs of these glands, the secretion of the anterior smaller
pair passing directly into the buccal cavity, while that of pers
terior larger pair is poured into the esophagus. The two sa way
E of Patella are situated in front of the pharynx and give
our ducts,
CRUSTACEA.—Richard Rathbun (Proc. Nat. Mus., 1887) be
to our knowledge of American parasitic Copepoda by deseri i
several new species belonging to the genera Trebius, Poe
and Lernthropus, from the collection of the U. S. ish
mission. =
_ According to Mr. A. B. Griffiths, the secretion of the pie
liver of Carcinas mænas, when freshly killed, gives an acid mo a
and its functions are more like those of the pancreas of the sie?
brata than like those of a true liver. The organ consists Of ©
Zoology. 747
large glands on each side of the stomach, of a pi color, and
composed of numerous ccecal tubes arranged in tufts.
Fisnes.—Dr. H. H. Giglioli, of the Royal Museum of Florence,
records (Nature, XXXVIII., 103) the receipt of the sixth known
specimen of the rare Lepidosiren paradoxa, which for many years
was only represented by Natterer’s original specimens. The present
individual was taken at Antaz, near the Madeira River, in Septem-
ber, 1887, and when received was in a state of incipient decomposi-
tion. Mr. G. B. Howes communicates a note on the same subject
(Le., p. 126), calling attention to the specimen recorded by Bibron
and Milne-Edwards in 1840.
Professor C. T. Lutken has recently ( Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. Kjob.,
IV.) described the skeleton and some other parts of the deep-sea
toad-fish Himantolophus. Comparisons are made with Ceratias.
According to Prof. D. S. Jordan ‘and B. W. Evermann,
there are about 150 species of fishes known in the waters of
Indiana, and about fifty of these may be regarded as food-fishes.
Of the remaining kinds, some ten are large enough for food, but
for one reason or another are not used. The flesh of the paddle-
fish and shovel-nosed sturgeon is poor and tough, that of the gar-
pikes is not eatable, while the hickory shad and skip-jack are
valueless on account of their dry thin flesh, full of small bones.
he cisco of the deep lakes of Northern Indiana and Wisconsin,
formerly thought by Prof. Jordan to be distinct from the leak
herring, and named by him Argyrosomus sisco, is now held by, the
same authority to be only a local variety of Coregonus artedi modi-
fied by residence in the smaller lakes.
„Dr. A. Gunther (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., June, 1888) describes
nine new species of fishes from the Yangtsze-kiang, collected at or
near Ichang, One of these, Eleotris zanthi, belongs to the spine-
finned section, the others are Cyprinide or Cobitidina.
I. R. Storms has, in an article in the Annals and Magazine of
Nat. Hist, for J uly last, attempted to solve the questions pertaining
to the structure and morphology of the disk of the remora.
e disk is a modified spinous dorsal, and not of dermal origin, he
believes to be proved : (1), by its position; (2), by the slight trans-
formation of the interneural spines; (3), by the presence of the
changed, yet recognizable elements of a normal spinous dorsal fin.
A typical segment of the spinous dorsal of Scomber has three
748 General Notes.
elements: (1), an interneural spine ; (2), an intercalary bone (or
aseost) which has the shape of two wings; and (3), a spinous ray.
A division of the disk of Echeneis has also three elements; the
lower extremities of the interneutrals point backwards instead of
forwards; the intercalary bone is formed of wing-like plates, and
the spinous ray is represented by a pair of pectinated lamelle joined
in the median line and occupying the whole surface of the disk.
The upper expanded portions of the interneural spines each carry a
pair of lamelle. The wing-like plates of the intercalary bone are
connected by a narrow portion which expands in the middle and
rests partly on the interneurals, and the wing-like parts of the.
consecutive intercalary bones overlap one another like the tiles of a
house. The pectinated lamelle are discovered by M. Storms as
transversely enlarged spines, and he believes that the bases of the
spines alone have formed the lamellæ, and that the spine proper
was gradually reduced until it has nearly disappeared. e rows
of small teeth which cover the posterior margins of the lamelle are
by M. Storms thought to be of dermal origin. That they are not
formed by outgrowth of the bone is proved by the facility with
which they fall off by prolonged maceration. ‘The fossil Hehenew
glaronensis, the disk of which extends only on to the posterior part
of the head, instead of covering its whole surface, seems to support
our author’s supposition that the disk was originally formed on the
dorsal region, and has migrated gradually to its present position.
REPTILES AND Barracuta.—Dr. O. P. Hay’s list of Amphibia
and Reptilia at present known to occur in the State of Indiana
includes seventy-seven species, twenty-seven of which are Batra-
chia. ;
Dr. A. Günther (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., May, 1888) describes
seventeen new species of snakes from tropical ‘Africa, including
soidea, Simocephalus, Psammophis, Uriechis, Calamelaps,
Elapomorphus, also Rhinocalamus dimidiatus, new genus an
Following the above paper Dr. Günther contributes a
snakes known from the lake-districts of Central Africa, and shows
what is known of their distribution on the east and west §
The difficulties attending the carriage of natural history gree
in Central Africa is so great, that it is only within the last The
ears that small collections of snakes have reached Europe. ttee,
ist contains forty-six distinct forms obtained at Lado, Man
and Semmio, on the great Central African lakes southward alae
. been
and on the highlands of Ugogo. Of these, twenty-two es
Zoology. 749
* G. A. Boulenger (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., May, 1888) gives
the distinguishing characters of the families Pelomeduside an
Chelydide, and states that the former family (though from its
structure it must be included in the Pleurodera) differs from the
= of that group in having the neck completely retractile within
the shell.
r. Paul Sarasin describes the lateral organs of the larva
of the Ceylonese cecilian as related to auditory organs of the inver-
tebrate type.
According to Nature, a communication from Mr. George
A. Treadwell was read at the meeting of the Zoological Society
of London, May 15, containing an account of a fatal case of
poisoning from the bite of the Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum).
mong a small collection of reptiles and batrachians made
at Iguarasse-Pernambuco, Brazil, Mr. C. A. Boulenger reports the
occurrence of a new species of Spherodactylus, two of Hylodes,
and one of Nototrema (the marsupial tree-frog). The other known
species of the last-named genus are restricted to the Andes, from
Central America to Peru.
The same naturalist also describes Achalinus rufescens, and Cala-
mohydrus (n. g.) andersonii, two new species of snakes from Hong-
ong. specimen of the rare sea-snake Hydrophis viperina,
Schmidt (Disteira prescutata D. and B.) reveals, according to the
same naturalist, a new type of dentition, since, instead of a pair of
grooved fangs, followed after an interval by a series of smaller solid.
teeth, as is normal among the Hydrophide, it has a series of four
equidistant, sub-equal, grooved fangs. Ogmodon vitianus Peters,
r the only snake previously known to possess a series of grooved
angs.
. A. Boulenger (P. Z. S., Feb. 7, 1888) describes two new forms
of Hoplocephalus from the Solomon Islands, and gives a list of the
Reptiles and Batrachia of the group, comprising a crocodile, seven-
teen lizards, ten ophidians, m thirteen batrachians.
Brrps.—Dr. Emin Pasha has recently forwarded to the London
Natural History Museum, two collections of birds, the first, com-
prising 114 forms, from the Wadelai district, between 2° and 5°
N. Lat., and 31° and 33° E. Long., while the other, consisting of
i mns, is from the Tingasi district, westward of 31°
E. Long. In the latter collection there is not a single East-African
form, while in the former thirty-three forms belonging to the fauna
of E. and N Africa occur. It is thus evident that on the
features of the West-African river-system. Mr. Thomas attributes
e abruptness of the change of fauna, exhibited both by mammals
750 General Notes.
and birds, to the sudden ending of the great West-African forest."
Five previous papers, by Drs. von Pelzeln and Hartlaub, have
described former ornithological collections sent to Europe by Emin
Pasha, so that it is not to be wondered at that this, the first consign-
ment received at London, contains only four new species.
Mammats.—In three papers (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc’y, XXV.)
Professor T. B. Stowell describes the glosso-pharyngeal, accessory,
and hypoglossal nerves in the domestic cat. Three plates of
diagrams illustrate the accounts.
At the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, May 7, 1888,
Dr. Alexander Bruce described a case of absence of the corpus cal-
losum in the human brain.
The skeleton of a second specimen of Swedenborg’s whale (Buba-
lena swedenborgii) has been discovered in Norway. It is said that
the original specimen was discovered in the early part of the last
century in Gothland, and that the bones were regarded as those of
Dr. A. Nehring criticises (Stz. Gesell. Naturf. Freunde, Berlin,
1887) Gray’s genera of the Fish-Otters. Lutronectes is based on
two immature specimens of Lutra vulgaris from “Te The genus
Lontra of Gray, characterized by the hairiness of the muzzle, 1$
untenable, because founded on individual variations. Nehring
regards Lontra braziliensis, Lutra enhydris, L. macrodus, L. s
taria, L. paranensis, and L. platensis as nothing but local vana
of one broad-fronted South American species. Pteronura 84
bachii of Gray is regarded by Hensel as identical with
braziliensis of F. Cuvier. Nehring also states (/.¢., p. 66), or
to Gray and Wallace, that Canis hodophylax of Japan is not sc ad
or serge with C. rutilans of Sumatra, but rather is to be associa
with C. pallipes of India,
Mr. A. Ee —
specimens of thirty-nine species. E
ae sex, and exact locality, in his own hand writing.
Entomology. 751
is a chimpanzee, a Colobus guereza, two examples of Galago demi-
dof, the flying squirrel Anomalurus pusillus n. sp., and a new coney
Dendrohyrax emini Thomas. Fourteen of these species have not
before been recorded outside of the West-African region, and Emin
Pasha has therefore extended their known range a thousand or
twelve hundred miles.
ENTOMOLOGY!
A New ENTOMOLOGICAL JouRNAL.—The first number of an
entomological journal bearing the title Insect Life has just been
sent out from the Division of Entomology of the United States
Department of Agriculture. This journal is “devoted to the
economy and life-habits of insects,—especially in their relations to
agriculture,—and is edited by the entomologist and his assistants,
with the sanction of the Commissioner of Agriculture.” We are
glad to welcome this periodical, for we believe it will be an exceed-
ingly useful one. As the writer knows from personal experience,
entomologist, and is buried there simply because the individual
items do not seem of sufficient importance to be published in the
a pages 0 t
Life will form an appropriate receptacle for all data of this kind.
It will, also, enable the entomologist to publish promptly matter
of ephemeral interest which would lose its value if kept for the
annual report.
the initial number. We regret to see in it an article of the nature
of the one entitled New Species of Oncoenemis. This article con-
Sists of the technical description of five species of moths. In four
' This department is edited by Professor J. H. Comstock, Cornell
University Ithaca, N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice,
ete., shouid be sent,
752 General Notes.
cases the description is based upon a single specimen; in the fifth
upon but three. The species are from Utah, Colorado, and Nevada
county, California. Although the descriptions appear to be very
carefully written, and doubtless are excellent ones if it is possible
to prepare good descriptions of species from unique examples,
still, what is the occasion for publishing these descriptions here?
Is it not about time that the serious workers in entomology should
abandon the practice of publishing isolated descriptions except
where there is a necessity for the description ; as, for examples, in
articles describing the life-habits of the species in question? We
can see the reason for the description of Lestophomus iceryed, a
parasite of cottony cushion scale which has been artificially intro-
duced into California from Australia. 3 :
In form Insect Life has the appearance of the bulletins which
have been sent out by the Division of Entomology, the size of the
page and the type being the same. It is to be published on an
average once a month, but will not have the regularity of a regular
monthly.
PREVENTION OF CuRCULIO INJURY TO CHERRIES BY AR-
SENICAL Porsons.—During the last two years we have heard it
repeatedly asserted by fruit growers that curculio injury can be
largely prevented by spraying the trees with Paris green or London
purple. At first we were incredulous ; but the statement has been
made so positively that we have said in reply to inquiries that 1t
might be so but that we could not say in what way the poison
acted, as the eggs of the curculio are laid beneath the surface of the
fruit and out of the way of anything which might be sprayed upon
the tree. We are glad to see that Mr. Clarence M. Weed has
begun his work as Entomologist to the Ohio Agriculture Experi-
ment Station by conducting careful experiments on this subject.
The results are very striking. They seem to show so far as the
results of a single season’s work with a single variety of cherries
can be relied upon: “ That three-fourths of the cherries liable to my
by the plum Curculio can be saved by two or three lo o
London purple in a water spray(in the proportion of one ounce to HV?
gallons of water) made soon after the blossoms fall.”
wo quarts of cherries from each of the lots experimented on wet
chemically examined at the time of ripening by Professor H.
Weber and showed no trace of arsenic. + hia
No explanation is made by Mr. Weed as to the way m W re
the poison acts. Whether the adult beetles are destroyed be ni
they lay their eggs or whether the poison reaches the young larvæ.
Entomology. 753
Report or THE U. S. Enromotocist.—The annual report of
the U. S. Agricultural Department has just come to hand. The
report of the Entomologist, although containing less original material
than some of the preceding ones, is a valuable one to agriculturists.
The principal articles are one upon the Chinch-bug and one upon
the Codlin-moth. These were prepared by Mr. Howard, and con-
sist in each case of a résumé of the natural history of the insect
and of the more important remedial measures. Although these
articles contain little that is new, they will be very useful to agri-
culturists, as they render accessible information not easily obtained
outside of an entomological library. In addition to these two
articles the report consists of reports of special agents. The most
striking of these is the one by Mr. D. W. Coquillett on The Gas
Treatment for Scale Insects. One of the principal discoveries made
by Mr. Coquillett is that hydrocyanie acid gas when passed through
sulphuric acid is rendered harmless to the foliage of trees confined
in it. This will greatly lessen the cost and labor of treating trees
with this gas. The report is illustrated with figures of portable
tents pair are used for enclosing the trees while they are being
treated.
us flabius,
Formica, schonfussii, F. fusca, are not in the least responsible for
their distribution over the fields. Although the protection which
they offer them greatly increases their number and the amount of
mjury done in the corn-fields.”
e do not think that the conclusions of Professor Forbes? can
be set aside in this way. We can think of no more interesting
subject for study than the working out of the relations which exist
tween these two kind of insects. Certainly aphids must receive
nore Important results from the development of the highly special-
Wed nectar-secreting apparatus than has been dreamed of till
recently.
; Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1887, p. 149.
American Naturalist, Vol. xxi., pp. 382-579.
754 General Notes.
EMBRYOLOGY .!
OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CEPHALOPODS.’—
In this memoir Mr. S. Watase deals very fully with the origin of
the cells which give rise to the yolk membrane. With the excep-
tion of Lankester, all authorities agree in describing the “ yolk
membrane” as originating from the segmentation of the original
germinal disk. As to the origin of the digestive tract, Kölliker
and Bruce describe the digestive tract as continuous with the “yolk
membrane.” Balfour and Lankester derive the “ mesenteron” from
the lower layer of the mesoderm; Metschinikoff derives the major
part of it from the ectoderm, while Ussow traces the whole diges-
tive tract to the ectodermic involutions, .
r. Watase’s conclusions are as follows in regard to these points:
(1) The “ yolk membrane” is derived from the original germ disk;
es it makes its appearance underneath the marginal zone of the
germ disk, near to the junction of the intermediate zone; (3) the
cells of the “yolk membrane” are irregular in outline, fusiform 1n
cross-section, ameeboid in movement, each with one or more large
nuclei; (4) with the growing edge of the blastoderm the under-
lying “yolk membrane” keeps pace in growth with the area)
germ disk, but never coming outside of the peripheral zone ; (5
the “yolk membrane” grows at the same time from the margin to
the centre of the disk, and in time it comes to completely separate
0
the epibolic gastrula; (7) hence Mr. Watase believes the “ yolk
membrane” to be necessarily a true endoderm, and its sole repre
ee re i Š an
mic invaginations, that is, by prolongations of the proctodæum at
stomodæum ; (9) at no period of the development does there wee
any connection between the “yolk membrane” and the Bpi
tract, and long before the absorption of the food yolk is comp
the permanent digestive canal is formed ; (10) with = pen
of which
1 Edited by Prof. John A. Ryder, Univ. of Penna., Philadelphia.
_? Studies from the Biological Laboratory of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity. Vol. IV., No. 4, pp. 163-181. June, 1888.
Embryology. 755
is, like that of the periblast or merocytes in fish ova, for the pur-
pose of appropriating the yolk substance. Two admirably drawn
colored plates illustrate Mr. Watase’s memoir.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE Sra-Bass (Serranus atrarius).—During
the early part of the month of July last, in the laboratories of the
U. S. Fish Commission, at Wood’s Holl, Mass., the writer had the
opportunity to study the development of this form. The eggs are
of the floating or pelagic type, and very transparent, measuring
very nearly 1 millimetre in diameter. The buoyancy of the egg is
no doubt increased by the presence of a moderately large oil drop
which is embedded in the yolk, near its periphery, and at the pole
nearly opposite the point where the blastoderm is formed. Hatch-
ing occurs at the end of the third day, and the oil drop is pushed
toward the cephalic end of the yolk, as the latter is nearly
absorbed. :
The embryos when hatched present much the appearance of the
young Tautog or Mackerel, as respects their transparency, but they
soon have their pigment spots arranged in a peculiar way along the
edges of the median fin folds. Later, the arrangement of the pig-
ment cells is somewhat different and more irregular, while a second
kind of pale yellow pigment cells appear, forming three pretty well-
efined transverse bands, at equidistant intervals, across the body
and tail of the young fish.
N THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CALCAREOUS PLATES OF
ASTERIAS,! is the title of a beautifully illustrated memoir by J.
Walter Fewkes on the later history of the young star-fish, which,
together with the memoir by Mr. A. Agassiz, makes our knowledge
of the development of these echinoderms very complete. Five fine
plates illustrate the paper.
VALUES IN CLASSIFICATION OF THE STAGES OF GROWTH AND
Decuin E, WITH PROPOSITIONS FOR A NEw NOMENCLATURE.—
Under this title, Prof. A. Hyatt discusses the values of larval and
growth characters, introducing a number of new terms.’
* Bulletin of the Mus. Comp. Zoology, Harvard College. XVII, No.
1, July, 1888. (Studies from the Newport Marine Laboratory.
Proc. Boston Society of Nat. History. XXIII., 1888, pp. 396-407.
756 General Notes.
PHYSIOLOGY
—Dr. H. P. Bowditch, the President, and Prof. H. N. Martin,
the Secretary, of the American Physiological Society, are in Europe
for the summer. During the absence of Prof. Martin the duties of
the Secretary will be performed by Dr. William H. Welch, of
Baltimore.
Biological laboratory.
—The editor of the Journal of Morphology had occasion not
long since to defend his action in publishing in his periodical bi
article of a decidedly physiological character, and his remarXs,
which we quote from a recent prospectus, of the journal, are 5S
worthy and suggestive for physiologists generally, as well as for the
critics for whom they were written :— hat
“As long as this remains the only journal in our country t ll
offers to publish zoological papers with adequate illustration, it W
be both unnecessary and inexpedient to exclude important asa
because they do not happen to be strictly morphological. iit an
rigid test has ever been applied in a journal of this kind, and a li
1 This department is edited by Prof. W. T. Sedgwick, of the sema
chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, to whom brief notes, comm
nications, books for review, etc., should be sent.
Physiology. 757
a morphological journal. The same holds true in anatomy and
histology ; for example, in the case of the sense-organs. The phys-
iological explanation of these organs is what we are all striving
for, whether we call ourselves morphologists or physiologists.
“So long as morphologists do most of the work, they will com-
mand the field, and their discussions and experimental observations
will not be out of place by the side of their morphological studies.
The time may come when animal physiology can be separated from
animal morphology to the same extent that human physiology is
now separable from human anatomy, but we are yet a long way
from such conditions. For the present we must recognize the
fact, that the relations and bearings of a subject often outweigh
the logic of conventional distinctions, and sanction what might
construed, as a violation of the letter, though not the spirit, of our
terminology,”
The fact is that cellular physiology and what might be called
microscopic physiology has been given up of late to a great extent
by the strict physiologists, who have turned their attention too exclu-
—Some experiments lately made by Mr. C. F. Hodge,' under
the direction of Dr. H. H. Donaldson, at the Johns Hopkins Uni-
1 Am. Journ. of Psychology, Balt., May, 1888.
758 General Notes.
versity, may serve to illustrate the importance and the fruitful-
ness of the methods of microscopic physiology.
Starting from the well-known facts of gland histology and phys-
iology where it has been now for long known that activity and
rest produce corresponding visible changes in their contents, etc.,
the authors sought to ascertain whether some discoverable change
in the active (or worked) nerve cell could not also be distin-
guished.
Hodge reports as a result, that a marked shrinkage of the nucleus
occurs in worked nerve cells over those not worked; a shrinkage
amounting sometimes to 33 per cent. In brief :—
“,, The nucleus and cell body both decrease in size as a result
of stimulation.
“2. The protoplasm of the cell becomes vacuolated as a result
of stimulation.
“3. Differences appear in staining.”
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—Professor A. H. Tuttle, of the Ohio State University, has been
elected to the chair of Biology and Agriculture in the University
of Virginia.
—Professor Herman L. Fairchild, of New York city, has been
elected Professor of Natural History in Rochester University.
—Otto Burbach, known through his investigations of the Fora-
minifera of Lias, died at Gotha, April 22, 1888.
—Dr. Richard Blochmann has been elected ordinary Professor
of Zoology in the University of Königsberg.
—Mr. F. H. Herrick, who has been for several years pursuing
post-graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University, has been
elected Professor of Biology at Adelbert College, Cleveland, Ohio.
—The work of the U. S. Fish Commission at Wood’s Holl this
summer is confined almost exclusively to affording facilities a
students to investigate the life-histories of marine animals. i e
laboratory is under the immediate charge of Dr. John A. Ry m
while among those working there may be mentioned professori
students from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and two Ohio
colleges.
Scientific News. 759
—James Stevenson, of the United States Geological Survey,
died July 25th. Mr. Stevenson was born in Maysville,
was the business manager in the field of the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey under Dr, F. V. Hayden during its existence, and contributed
greatly to the efficiency of its work. He was also a very important
agent in securing from Congress the appropriations necessary to its
success. His large acquaintance in Congress was always most val-
uable to the scientific enterprises of the Government departments.
He is one of the few persons who ascended the great Teton. He
was especially interested in American Ethnology, and made exten-
sive collections in that department. The Report of the Secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution for 1881 contains an important
report by him. He was also a zoologist of considerable attain-
ments,
—Silas Stearns was born in Bath, Maine, May 13, 1859, and died
in Asheville, N. C., August 2, 1888. His early education was
received in the schools of Bath.
n 1878 Mr. Stearns visited the Smithsonian Institution, where,
by his thorough and exact knowledge of the habits of the fishes of
the Gulf, and of their economic value, he attracted the special
attention of Professor Baird, Mr. Goode, Mr. Bean and others
interested in the study of fishes. Mr. Stearns was strongly attracted
towards a naturalist’s life. His ambition, however, met with dis-
couragement in the absurd statement made by some one in Wash-
ington to the effect that no successful work in science would be
possible without a classical education.
_ In 1880 he was made a special agent of the U. S. Fish Commis-
sion and the U. S. Census Bureau, in charge of investigations of
the marine industries of the Gulf of Mexico. Few pieces of work
have been performed with more accuracy and fidelity than his
report to the Census Bureau. ee
An intimate friend says of him: “ To my mind his most striking
characteristic was patient persistence. No trouble was too ;
no time too long, no discomfort too annoying to deter him from the
present accomplishment of any task to which he addressed himself.”
‘Ww men engaged in business pursuits have been of such sub-
stantial aid to science as Silas Stearns, and few have had so many
warm and devoted friends among scientific men.—D. S. Jordan.
one o’clock August 20th, after a long and painful illness. He
born at Rochester, New York, on the 19th of March, 1817.
began fishing as a business when eighteen years of age. He con-
fined himself principally to the waters of Lakes Ontario and Mich-
760 General Notes.
igan, and availed himself of all the devices then known for catch-
ing fish for market. In 1864 he purchased a portion of Cale-
donia Creek, and began his remarkable system of artificial prop-
agation. This event in his life, 30 important to all lovers of
fish, both for sport and table, has an interest which is intensified
by Mr. Green’s own modest account :—
“T first conceived the idea of fish-hatching in 1837 while fish-
I at last hit upon a plan which has proved a great success, and is
now, and will continue to be, the means of replenishing our shad
rivers equal to the best they have ever been known.” i
A Fishery Commission was appointed in New York State 1»
tendent of the Commission, which owns a hatchery at Caledonia
and another at Cold Spring Harbor. The sole ambition of his i
as he himself expressed it, was to make good fish abundant. This
in a certain measure he succeeded in doing, and he was every ae
regarded as a benefactor to the poor, the rich, and especially to the
sportsman,
—Close to the U.S.Fish Commission station at Wood’s Holl, Mass
is the new building of the Marine Biological Laboratory, which w
Scientific News. 761
opened July 10th, as already noticed in these pages. The building
is a large but plain two-story structure, noticeable for the number
and size of the windows. The ground floor is devoted to elementary
zoological instruction. In one corner a small room, partitioned off
from the rest, affords a study for the instructor, Mr. B. H. Van Vleck,
while all of the rest of the space is occupied by students’ tables,
aquaria, ete. The upper floor, the arrangement of which is essen-
tially the same, is devoted to investigators, and is under the charge
of Dr. C. O. Whitman, who is the director of the laboratory.
Various circumstances rendered it impossible to send out the cireu-
lars for the laboratory until so late a date that but few could avail
themselves of its facilities. There are the present season about a
dozen students, equally divided between the two rooms. Notwith-
of rust. The directors hand solved the problem of board by opening
a boarding house in a cottage (the use of which is given the labora-
tory by Mr. Fay) where good table board is furnished for $5.00
per week. The property of the laboratory now amounts to nearl
$10,000, but it needs several thousand dollars more before it can
placed in the position it ought to occupy.
PALANOC, ISLAND OF MASBATE, PHILIPPINES,
April 29th, 1888.
EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN NATURALIST:—I herewith for-
ward you a third instalment of narrative of our trip to the
Philippines, which I shall be glad to have published in the
AMERICAN NATURALIST, if you think best. We have now been
in the islands eight months, and have three remaining; have
visited and made representative collections on eleven of the larger
islands of the group, and have four still remaining to visit. We
ave made large collections in most branches of animal life,
and have much which from the data we have in hand appears to be
new. We shall be able to make a very good comparative study
of the islands from our collection. We are already able to say
that the islands can be divided into at least five very distinct areas
—that of the west including Paraqua and Balabac; that of the
us
that of the west including Samar and Leite, and that of the north
of Luzon and adjacent a e Whether the great island of Min-
762 General Notes.
doro stands by itself we have yet to discover. Each of these
divisions has its own peculiar species of such test families as the
hornbills, woodpeckers, tailor-birds, sun-birds, pittas, and king-
fishers, and in many cases several peculiar species of each.
_ _ Yours truly,
J. B. STEERE.
—Epitors NATURALIST :— Not long since I passed a day at
Ward and Howell’s Natural History establishment at Rochester,
and I was so much interested and surprised, that I have thought
that some of the readers of the NATURALIST would be glad to know
more of this, the most extensive establishment of its kind in the
world, I had bought several thousand dollars worth of specimens
of various kinds from Ward and Howell in fitting up the museum
of the School of Mines and I had found it a great help to be able
to obtain at a fair price authentic, reliable material needed to illus-
trate lectures upon geology and natural history, and not to be
procured through any other channel. But until I stopped at
Rochester and went through the establishment, I had no conception
of the great variety and excellence of the material available for
science teaching that was here accessible with the growing interest
in scientific studies, and the increasing appreciation of the value of
object teaching, that man is a public benefactor who will supply to
us at a reasonable cost, all things necessary to illustrate lessons an
lectures. This, Ward and Howell can do to a greater degree than
any one person, firm or company in the world. This statement
may be regarded as an exaggeration, but after considerable experi-
ence with the dealers in natural history material abroad, I do not
hesitate to repeat it with emphasis. Professor Ward is himself an
educated, scientific man, well up in geology, mineralogy and
zoology ; he also has a passion for adventure and collecting, which
has carried him more nearly “all over the world ” than any one
else of whom I have known or heard, After his stock of the more
common things was large enough, he gave himself up for years to
the search of rarities. For example, some years since an interest
was excited in the structure of Hatteria, and many biologists
desired to study its pineal eye and other matters connected with its
anatomy, but none were to be had; so Professor Ward, as he has
often done, organized an expedition to find and obtain the desidera-
tum. In this case it was necessary to search for long distances
along the coast of New Zealand before the haunt of this peculiar
lizard was reached, and a sufficient number was captured to supply
the wants of the museums of Europe and America. ge
fe and his assistants have scoured India, Borneo, Africa an
South America for rarities and always with a degree of thorough-
ness and intelligence that secured success. Recently, when a g
Scientific News, 763
skeleton and skin of the dugong was needed for the Melbourne
Museum, it was found more convenient to get it from Professor
Ward than to depend upon the efforts of Australian hunters or
naturalists.
Ward and Howell have been now for years occupied in efforts to
secure the best representatives of all departments of zoology, and in
some instances have undertaken to do what no other dealers in
of Mammalia gathered for the Museum of Comparative logy at
variety beyond the paying demand. No museum in this country
as anything like such a display of interesting specimens in
all departments of natural science rd and Howell
ized or stuffed. Fourth, the department of invertebrate zoology
which includes a splendid collection of shells, and a collection of
sponges exceeding in volume and interest any other known to me.
ifth, the botanical department, which includes the herbarium of
the famous Dr. Harvey.
In the preceding paragraphs I have spoken simply of Professor
Ward or of Ward cad Horal it is but just, however, to Mr. E. E.
Howell, to say that he is much more than a mere name in the
establishment, He is a trained geologist and was for a long time
Connected with the United States Geological Survey. Naturally,
he presides over the departments of geology and mineralogy ; his
Special interest which is also shared by Professor Ward is meteor-
a
764 General Notes.
ites, and it has led them to make extraordinary efforts to gather
these interesting objects. Efforts which have resulted in by far the
finest collection in this country.
To those who know little of Ward and Howell they may seem
mere traders, and this letter, a puff of a business house, but they are
much more than traders, they are co-laborers in the work of scientific
education whose assistance many a teacher has recognized with
gratitude ; and this letter is an unsolicited appeal to all those inter-
ested in the natural sciences to visit an establishment where so
much may be learned at so little cost; and to call attention to the
vast amount of indispensable material for the museum, the lecture
room and the laboratory which Ward and Howell have brought
within easy reach and much of which, without their efforts would
have been entirely unattainable.
Yours truly,
J. S. NEWBERRY.
—In the AMERICAN NATURALIST for June, 1888, vol xxi.,
page 537, appeared an article on “ The relative weight of the brain
` to the body in birds,” by Dr. Joseph L. Hancock, which it seems,
by an oversight of the publishers, failed to bear his name, making
it necessary to call attention to the omission.
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. SEPTEMBER, 1888. No. 261,
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS."
BY WM. NORTH RICE.
p word “ schools ” is here used in distinction from the higher
institutions—colleges, universities and technological institutes.
It will be convenient for us further to distinguish the “ high
schools ” from the lower schools. As here used, the phrase “ high
school ” designates a school whose pupils range from thirteen or
fourteen to seventeen or eighteen years of age, and which professes
to prepare students for the colleges and scientific schools.
_ In considering what should be the course of study in the schools,
it is necessary to recognize the distinction in scope and spirit
between general and special education. By general education is
meant such education as is intended to prepare a person for the
duties of manhood or womanhood, irrespective of any particular
trade, profession, or station in life. By special education is meant
such education as is intended to prepare a person for some particular
trade, profession, or station in life. The courses of study in the
schools must be, in this sense, general. We are not to try in the
schools to make biologists, geologists, nor chemists. We are not
to make physicians, nor engineers, nor lawyers, nor clergymen.
Very few of the children in the schools will enter any of these
Professions ; and, of that few, still fewer are aware of their destiny.
But all the children in our schools have the expectation of growing
Up to manhood or womanhood. They will take their places in the
< Address at the meeting of the American Society of Naturalists, in
ew Haven, Conn., December, 1887, by William North Rice.
766 Science-Teaching in the Schools.
ranks of those who earn an honorable livelihood by honest labor,
or among those whom vice or improvidenee renders a burden to
society. Those of one sex, by the possession of the right of suffrage,
and those of both sexes, by their share in that informal and un-
regulated vote which we call public opinion, will in their degree
shape the institutions of the land. Most of them will marry, and,
by the direct effect of heredity, and by manifold influences of
conscious and unconscious education, will mould the character of
future generations. All of them must make individually the
momentous pilgrimage through this mortal life to the solemn
mysteries beyond, The arrangements of the schools must be
adapted to the common needs of humanity, not to the peculiar
tastes and conditions of individuals. There must be one course
for the children of the rich and the poor, the learned and the igno-
rant. Such an average course will not be the best for every cnild,
but it will be the best practicable for the great body of children.
To employ private tutors, and adapt the educational course to the
supposed tastes or needs of each individual child, is impossible for
the poci, and generally undesirable for the rich. The advantage
to the child from being in a class of reasonable size, feeling the
timulus of intellectual competition, and learning the truly demo-
cratic lesson that only personal merit can win, is worth (except 1m
case of children of feeble health or very peculiar constitution) far
more than any advantage which can come from the adaptation ©
the work of a private tutor to the child’s idiosyncracies. In re
to the necessity of a uniform course of study, the high schools fom
a partial exception. In the high schools it becomes practically
necessary to provide two courses of study—one for those who are
preparing for the classical courses in the colleges, the other for
those who are preparing for the scientific courses in the colleges
and technological schools, or whose schooling is to be finished with
the high school. To a limited extent, also, elective studies may
be introduced into the high school course.
In the past, two theories have been maintained in regard to the
proper aim and spirit of a general educational course. The ua
plinary theory is that the object of general education is to se
the mental faculties, it being assumed that a vigorous and gy
disciplined mind is the best preparation for all work that may
Science- Teaching in the Schools. 767
required of aman. The practical theory is that the object of educa-
cation is to furnish the necessary information for the guidance of
one’s conduct in all probable circumstances. Of late it has been
recognized that these views are not mutually exclusive, and that a
true theory of education must combine the two. The shield is both
gold and silver. A right education must be both disciplinary and
practical.
But this harmonizing of the once hostile theories has not
been effected without important modifications of each. On the
one hand, the advocates of the disciplinary theory have come to
recognize the truth that mental discipline can be obtained not merely
from the study of some two or three subjects, but from the study
of almost any subject. It is coming to be admitted that, from the
disciplinary standpoint, the important question is not what we study,
but dow we study. The very same mental faculties may be disci-
plined, and disciplined in ways remarkably similar, in dealing with
the most widely different subjects. The reasoning by which the
comparative philologist traces the evolution of languages is strik-
ingly analogous to that by which the comparative anatomist'traces
the evolution of organic structures. On the other hand, the advo-
cates of the practical theory have been compelled to a broader®
and higher view of utility than the merely bread-and-butter view.
The individual man is at once body and soul; and he comes into
relations with the material universe, with his fellow-men, and with
that unseen Power wherein nature and man alike live and move
and have their being. Whatever may be known or believed with
reasonable probability in regard to the human body, and in regard
to the laws of that material universe with which it is related,—in
regard to the human mind, whether as self-revealed in conscious-
ness, or as indirectly manifested in literature and history—in regard
to the Creator, whether made known by the facts of nature, or by
a historic revelation—all this aggregate of varied knowledge and
belief is in the highest and best sense practical, for it all tends to
guide the conduct of life.
The claim of any particular branch of study to a more or less
prominent position in the curriculum of the schools must accord-
ingly be tried by a twofold criterion—its power to afford an effect-
ive mental discipline, and the practical utility of the information
which it conveys,
768 Seience-Teaching in the Schools.
It would be obviously a waste of time to discuss the practical
utility of the sciences of nature. In this age of steam and elec-
tricity—this age of aniline dyes and anesthetics and antiseptics—
this age when science is multiplying comforts and conveniences
and amenities, stamping out zymotic diseases, and largely increas-
ing the duration of the life which it beatifies and ennobles—no one
is so stupid as to deny the utility of scientific knowledge.
A few words may with propriety be said in regard to the disci-
plinary value of the study of the natural sciences, for in some
minds still lingers the superstition that no studies are disciplinary
except languages and mathematics.
The natural sciences are unique in their power of training the
perceptive faculties. When these sciences are rightly taught, the
student is brought face to face with natural phenomenon, which he
is required to observe and describe. The perceptive faculties are
not, indeed, the highest of human faculties, but they are by no
means to be despised. A student who has learned to observe and
describe correctly so simple a matter as the form of a leaf, has
gained a power which will be of lifelong value, whatever may be
his sphere of professional employment. If the student is required
to write descriptions of observed phenomena, there may be gained
incidentally a discipline in perspicuity and precision of expression,
which will be of no trifling value.
The natural history sciences afford an unrivaled training to the
powers of comparison and classification. Sometimes, indeed, these
sciences have been called distinctively the classificatory sciences:
They have been (at least since the publication of Darwin’s epoch-
making work) vastly more than mere classifications. They are
truly dynamical sciences, revealing the processes whereby organie
nature has attained its present state. But they are nevertheless
a very important sense classificatory sciences. In no other class 5
subjects has classification been so minutely elaborated. No studen
can learn to marshal the array of species into genera, families,
orders, classes, and sub-kingdoms, as men are marshaled ps d
companies, regiments, brigades, and divisions of a well-disciplin
army, without acquiring a more systematic habit of thought on ze
subject which may engage his attention. But the cavont a
natural history classification is not the only feature of value m
Science-Teaching in the Schools. 769
connection. The student is continually taught to distinguish not
only degrees but kinds of resemblance and difference,—to distinguish
those features of structure which are adaptive and superficial from
those which are typical and fundamental,—to distinguish analogies
from homologies. No one can learn to recognize the mammalian
character of a whale under the disguise of its fish-like form, or to
recognize the crustacean character of a barnacle under the disguise
of its oyster-like shell, without becoming in general a sounder
thinker,
The sciences of nature afford a valuable discipline to the reason-
ing faculties. Educators have always endeavored to afford a two-
fold training in reasoning—a passive discipline, by requiring the
student to familiarize himself with examples of reasoning recorded
in the works of great thinkers ; and an active discipline, by submit-
ting to the student problems for solution, which, if not new to the
human intellect in general, are at least new to the intellect of the
particular student. The study of mathematics has always, and
deservedly, been highly esteemed for the facilities which it offers
for both these kinds of training. But the sciences of nature also
have their splendid examples of reasoning. An intelligent study
of Darwin’s “ Origin of Species” is perhaps not inferior as a logical
praxis to the study of elementary geometry. Indeed, in one respect
the former is superior, for the reasoning of natural sciences is more
nearly akin than that of mathematics to the reasoning of practical
life. And the sciences of nature have their problems in which the
reasoning faculties of the student may find an active discipline.
Every laboratory experiment should be an exercise in reasoning as
well as in observation. A logical interpretation should be required
as much as an accurate description of the phenomena. Moreover,
the continual inculcation of the doctrine which is the very key-
note of science—the doctrine that there is no such thing as chance
—that all events are linked together in chains of cause and effect—
1s itself an education in philosophical thinking and in rational
acting,
Not to be ignored is the influence of the natural sciences on the
esthetic nature. There are indeed some scientific men—animated
cases of dissecting tools and locomotive microseopes—who can con-
template nature without admiring her. But, for most of those
770 Science- Teaching in the Schools.
whose attention is attracted to nature, her aspect is multiform, and
her speech many-tongued. And the devotee of nature’s truth is
ever delighted with the rich stores of nature’s beauty. It is no
mere accident that the same generations of mankind that have
developed the sciences of nature have developed two new arts—
landscape-painting, and the poetry of nature. There is inspiration
for the imagination, as well as satisfaction for the understanding,
in.the contemplation of that far-reaching reign of law which is at
once the fundamental postulate and the crowning induction of sci-
ence. The old myth of the music of the spheres is only a parable
of the all-pervading harmony of natural law.
Nor is the study of science without its wholesome influence upon
the moral nature. Science is indeed no patent panacea for human
depravity; but no one can become imbued in any measure with the
spirit of science—the spirit of unselfish, courageous, reverent truth-
seeking—without some degree of moral uplifting. I believe that
a comparative study of biography will show that flagrant immorality
has been exceedingly rare among scientific men—much rarer than
among men of equal intellectual eminence devoted to literature,
art, or almost any other pursuit. Literature and art may express
and incite the basest passions. Science—truth—is never impure.
The claim of natural science to a prominent position m the
educational course is now pretty fairly conceded in the higher
institutions of learning. ‘The most conservative of the colleges are
making liberal provision of instructors and of material facilities for
the teaching of the sciences, and the student is required or rae
to devote a large share of his time to this class of studies, while
numerous scientific schools are open for those students who her
devote a still larger share of their time to scientific study. T ;
case, however, is very different in the lower schools. Bomani
science is usually taught in the high schools, though not, as & ™ us
to those who are preparing for college. But in the lower i
there is usually little or no teaching of science. The result is t! ‘
those whose educational course ends before they reach the =
school (the great majority of the population) receive no ene: :
in science whatever, and those who receive a college education (
destined intellectual leaders of their generation) receive 0 ue
tion in science until a very late period in their educational cou
Science- Teaching in the Schools. 771
This exclusion of science from the early stages of education, and
(for the great majority of the population) the consequent utter
exclusion of science from their educational course is, I believe, the
worst feature of our present system of general education. The
introduction of science into the lower schools is the educational
reform most urgently demanded.
One important reason for this reform is implied in what has
been already said. If any knowledge or appreciation of science is
to be generally diffused in the community, it must be by the intro-
duction of instruction in science in the lower schools. Of the
scholars who enter the primary school, only a small part reach the
grammar school, and a far smaller part reach the high school.
When we consider that the “people are destroyed for lack of know-
ledge”—that the preventable mortality due to simple ignorance of
hygienic laws exceeds the slaughter of the bloodiest campaigns ;—
when we consider that not only is the duration of life lengthened,
but its comforts and means of higher development prodigiously
increased, by scientific knowledge ;—when we consider that each
man’s knowledge or ignorance may not only affect for weal or woe
himself and his own family, but may involve results whose ramifi-
cations in space and time are beyond our ken :—we cannot fail to
recognize the importance of providing for all our population the
means of gaining some acquaintance with those branches of know-
ledge on which the welfare of humanity so largely depends.
Another reason for this reform, though less obvious, is perhaps
even more important. A sound system of education must take
account of the natural order of development of the mental faculties,
Nor need we be in any doubt as to what that order is. The per-
ceptive faculties are the earliest to be developed; later come into
activity the powers of abstract thought; later still does conscious-
ness become reflective, and reveal the world of mind. The atten-
tion of a healthy and normally developing child is given almost
exclusively to the phenomena of the external world. The ques-
tions which he asks his parents and other adult friends (if he has
not been snubbed too many times in such questioning) relate almost
exclusively to objects of sense around him. There are, indeed,
miraculous children who speculate about the nature of the soul
almost before they molt the long dresses of babyhood; but such
a
772 Science-Teaching in the Schools.
children usually die of precocious genius or early piety on the brain,
and may therefore be disregarded in any discussion of general
education. Young children in process of normal development are
what some one has called the Buddhists—“ unconscious material-
ists.” They do not disbelieve in aspiritual world; they ignore it.
The early development of the perceptive faculties produces in
the young child’s mind a natural curiosity in regard to sensible
objects, and therefore a natural aptitude for their study. There
are three ways in which we may deal with this mental tendency.
First, we may leave the child’s curiosity about the external world
to unrestrained and unguided indulgence. We may let the child
run wild through field and forest, chase butterflies, rob birds’ nests,
and fill his pockets with caterpillars. He will grow up a young
savage, with somewhat of a savage’s field-craft and wood-craft, but
with very little of valuable intellectual development. Secondly,
we may repress the child’s natural curiosity. And, in fact, that 1s
about what is usually done. The child is taught to read as early
as possible, and then the idea is sedulously inculcated that reading
is the straight and narrow way that leadeth unto intellectual life.
The story of Sir William Jones’s mother answering all her son’s
questions with the words, “ Read, and you will know,” is told with
express and implied enconiums upon her wisdom and her son’s
consequent vast erudition. Verily, the ghost of that good woman
haunts our schools like a malignant spirit. The climax of success
is reached when the little monk is snugly cloistered with his books,
oblivious of the very existence of a world of light and music around
him. And if he grows up to be one of the favored few who are
permitted to enter the sacred precincts of the college, and there take
up the long-deferred study of nature, he finds too often his powers
of observation well-nigh atrophied by long disuse. I speak strongly ,
because I speak from experience. I feel daily that the efficiency
of my work as a student and teacher of science is impaired by that
vice of early education which repressed, rather than developed, what-
ever powers of observation nature had given. My professional life
has been a perpetual struggle to rid myself of some of the ment
habitudes induced by an unnatural education. I have not yet quite
freed myself from the influence of Sir William Jones’s mother.
And what I have felt in myself I have seen in my students. It 1s
Science-Teaching in the Schools. 773
worse than making bricks without straw, to teach natural science to
college juniors and seniors, in whom disuse has wrought so complete
an atrophy of the powers of observation that they hardly know that
there is an external universe.
Manifestly, the only right course in education is to furnish intelli-
gent and sympathetic guidance to the child’s natural curiosity. The
study of nature should be introduced at the beginning of the educa-
tional course, instead of near its end. It should commence—not in
the primary school, but in the nursery, before the child is old enough
to go to school at all. A vast deal of knowledge may be smuggled
into the child’s mind without paying any duty of conscious toil.
And such smuggling is forbidden by no laws of God or man. No
child is hurt by knowing too much; though many a child is hurt
by learning things in unnatural and unduly laborious ways. What-
ever of useful knowledge a child gets while he thinks he is playing
is clear gain. The sentiment,
“ No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en,’’
may not be strictly true, but there is at least an important truth
in it.
Some years ago I had the pleasure of a somewhat intimate
acquaintance with a boy who, in his third summer, became very
much interested in flowers, or, as he called them, “sowers,” for at
that time his language, besides being very scanty in vocabulary,
presented some marked dialectic peculiarities. Having obtained
Some specimens of the tawny day-lily (Hemorocallis fulva), he
noticed the long slender bodies in the middle of the flower, and he
asked his mother what they were. It seemed almost absurd to be
teaching botany to a baby hardly more than two years old, but his
mother, having large faith in the general principle that the best
way to answer a child’s questions is to tell the truth, told him that
the things he had found were the stamens and pistil. Of course
the baby did not know much about the objects which he examined.
It was not time for his brain to be disturbed with matters of mor-
Phology and physiology. It was not time for him to learn that
stamens and pistils are peculiarly modified leaves, or that they are
respectively the male and female organs of reproduction. But his
eyes were often busy that summer in looking for the stamens and
Pistils in various flowers, and in that simple matter of observation
774 Figuring against Weeds.
he succeeded quite as well as some college juniors I have seen.
And when, in after years, the time came for him to take up the
study of botany more systematically, the objects of his study were
to him not dim and unreal phantoms, but familiar friends.
To be continued.
FIGURING AGAINST WEEDS.
BY BYRON D. HALSTEAD.
fas weeds are among the worst enemies of the farmer. They
cause a loss of many millions of dollars annually to the State
of Iowa. This is not only in the diminution of crops but no small
share of the outgo is in labor in order to prevent an entire loss of
the crop.
Some persons, who as yet have secured no world-wide reputation
for keen common sense, are inclined to look with much favor upon
weeds. To their visionary minds they are simply a proper stimulus
for the profitable tillage of the soil, and therefore may be
considered as the friend instead of the enemy of the progressive
farmer. If it were not for the weeds, which spring up and choke
the neglected crop, there would not be sufficient incentive to good
husbandry. Good and poor farming would be more equally
rewarded. The man who hoes and the one who leaves his corn
field for the shade and game along the wooded stream would stand
a common chance of plenty at the harvest time. In short, weeds
are the appointed means of putting a premium upon farm industry
and furnish one reason why it does not pay to be shiftless.
This is turning the curse into a blessing, and if every one woul
practically make this turn there would need to be but little more
said.
Weeds are a good deal like the sun and the rain in pean
the just and the unjust, with perhaps this variation, that the w
seed abundantly on the neglected land of a shiftless farmer and a
same seeds find their best places for growth in the clean rich fi
of the careful husbandman.
Figuring against Weeds. 775
But all this aside; it is true that the State of Iowa has already
more weeds than she wants for the purpose of premiums. Her
good farmers get enough encouragement for being good without
having their less prosperous neighbors loaded down with a heavy
weight of thieving weeds. I for one would be willing to risk the
quality of Iowa agriculture if every vile weed within our borders
was rooted out and all their seeds burned to smoke and ashes.
The conditions which surround our prairie farming, foster the
growth of weeds. Land has been very cheap and at the same time
very rich. The first fact has encouraged a spirit of carelessness on
the part of the farmer and the second has permitted the rapid
multiplication of rank weeds. Asa result our State is becoming
almost overrun with plant-pests of both the field and the garden.
The time has come when an earnest study must be made of the
weeds which rob our land, already losing much of its virgin
fertility. We must come to the rescue while the enemy is compara-
tively weak. Education is more effective than legislation. It is
not difficult, perhaps, to pass a law against cockle-bur, beggar’s
lice, Canada thistle, ete., as has been done in many States, but an
act of the legislature does little good until there is a keen apprecia-
tion of the importance of clean fields and road sides, already in
the minds of the farmers.
With a view to becoming better acquainted with the weeds and
useless plants of the State, a list has been prepared which embraces :
(1) all the worst weeds, (2) the bad weeds, and (3) the indifferent
weeds. The first class includes fifty-one (51). In the second
group are ninety-four (94) kinds; and among the indifferent sorts
are one hundred and fifty-two (152) species. This gives a total of
two hundred and ninety-seven (297) distinct kinds of plants of no
great usefulness to the farmers of the State, half of these a positive
disadvantage and over half a hundred being pests of the worst sort.
When thus arranged the enemy makes a long and bold front.
If we look at these enemies in the light of their term of life—as
the horseman would say, look in the mouth, it is found that eighty-
four (84) are annuals ; twenty-seven (27) are able to live two years
at the most, while one hundred and eighty-six (186) are perennial,
that is, thrive for an indefinite term of years. ‘These figures can
_ thrown into a tabulated form suitable for the blackboard,
us :—
776 Figuring against Weeds.
Annuals. Biennials. Perennials. Total.
28 6 17
Worst weeds 51
12 48 94
Indifferent weeds........ 22 9 121 152
Totals . 84 27 186 297
If we look up the pedigree of these pests it will be found that
they are divided into eighty-seven (87) foreigners, which have come
from abroad to infest American soil. The large balance of two
hundred and ten (210) are natives and are weeds in their wild state
or have made inroads upon cultivated land. Of the 87 foreigners,
forty-four are annuals, that is, running through their whole life in
a single season, twelve (12) are biennials, and thirty-one (31) are
perennials, Twenty-eight of the eighty-four are in the worst
class, thirty-seven in the bad group, and twenty-two belong to the
indifferent order. A table of the imported species may be con-
structed as follows :—
Worst. Bad. Indifferent. Total.
WGA Bocce 18 9 7 44
Biennials 3 6 3 12
Perennials 7 12 12 31
Totals Bo 87 22 87
Taking up the 210 native species in the same way, the table-
stands as follows :—
Worst. Bad. Indifferent. Total.
Annuals 10 16 14 40
Biennials E 6 6 15
Perennials 10 35 110 155
a a pomenpere 23 57 130 210
From these tables it will be seen that of the worst class—which
of course most interests us, there are twenty-eight foreigners to
twenty-three native species. Itis no comfort to know that more
than half of our most aggressive weeds have come, or been brought,
to us from some other country. If there is any satisfaction 10 the
thought, it may be here stated that some inoffensive sna
plants have gone abroad and became dreadful pests in their new
surrounding. In this way we compensate in part for the additions
made to our list of weeds from European and other lands.
Figuring against Weeds. 777
Beginning with the foreign annuals the leading worst kinds
given in the order of arrangement in Gray’s Botany, are: charlock
or yellow mustard, shepherd’s purse, corn cockle, purslane, abutelon
or velvet leaf, sun-flower, mayweed, Jamestown or jimson-weed,
two species, goose-foot or lamb’s quarters; pig-weed, tumble-weed,
chess and three kinds of fox-tail grass or “ puss-tail.”
The three foreign biennials are the common carrot, parsnip and
the hound’s-tongue. Two of these are closely related and have
escaped from the vegetable garden where they are very important
root crops. The carrot and parsnip are not as bad weeds in Iowa as
they have become in many parts of the East where they cover the
pastures and meadows with useless herbage.
Of foreign perennials the leading worst sorts are Canada thistle,
dandelion, rib-grass or narrow-leayed plantain, butter and eggs,
toad-flax or ramstead weed, curled-dock and sorrel.
Coming now to the native weeds of this most injurious class we
find among the annuals the following: Daisy fleabane, great rag-
weed, Roman rag-weed, cockle-bur or clot-bur, beggar’s ticks, horse
nettle, beaked horse nettle, prostrate pig-weed, knot-grass and bur-
grass. It will be seen at a glance that this is a formidable array of
bad enemies.
The biennials are the evening primrose, a kind of fleabane or
horse-weed, and the viper’s bugloss or sometimes called blue devils.
This makes a strong three-horse team.
Of the native perennia's may be mentioned the callirrhoeä, two
kinds of iron-weed, three sorts of thistles, namely : the ball thistle,
common thistle and pasture thistle, the bracted bind-weed and
quack or quick-grass.
By turning the figures of the tables to further service, it may be
shown that there are nearly twice as many foreign weeds of the
worst sort as of the natives. Twenty-eight out of the fifty-one live
for only a single year. Six only are biennials and seventeen are
perennials, This we should not expect because other things
remaining the same a perennial is a worse weed than an annual.
But other things do not remain the same. The annual is usually
characterized by great capacity for forming seed, and this advances
many of the annuals to the first rank among plant pests. For
example, the common purslane will mature a million seeds in a
_ 178 Figuring against Weeds.
single season or enough to thoroughly stock a country with this
pest. A student made a careful estimate of the seeding capacity
of a single plant of the small veronica, called niclace speedwell, and
found that the number of seeds was 186,292. These figures help
to force home the thought that weeds, and especially these sorts
which are dependent upon seeds for their continuation, are exceed-
ingly prolific, and also the importance of keeping such pests from
maturing their offspring.
When asked to select the most offensive among the worst weeds
the task becomes an exceedingly difficult one. Among the annuals,
especially in gardens, the purslane or “ pusley ” perhaps takes the
lead. In striking contrast with the prostrate purslane is the shrub-
like Jamestown weed or stramoniums, sometimes called jimson weed.
The rank herbage and heavy order of these coarse weeds, as well as
their larger size, make them conspicuous and disagreeable. The
pig-weeds and the closely related tumble-weed are common coarse
intruders into the tilled ground.
Of the biennial the most to be dreaded are the carrot and the
fleabane, both of which, in their own widely different way, can do
much to render the life of the farmer vexatious.
The worst foreign perennial, at least the one with the most
meanness in its make up, is the Canadathistle. At present it is but
little known in many parts of the State ; but it spreads rapidly by
means of its airy floats which bear the light seed for long distances,
and when once established in the soil it holds its place with an
almost undying grip. The long perennial roots strike Iowa deep
into the soil while the prickly herbage defies the attacks of foraging
animals. The curled-leaf dock also takes a firm hold and is eradi-
cated only by being dug up by the roots and hung in the sun Or
burned. Of the native perennials there are various sorts of coarse
thistles and the celebrated quack or quick-grass. This last 15 4
remarkable instance of propagation by undergrown stems. p lowing
and harrowing only aids in the spread of this pest. Each piece of
wiry stem when given any sort of a chance will grow and develop
the weed.
As a rule the weeds of all classes should never be permitted to
mature their seed. With annuals this is a quick and effective
means of eradication. The biennials will perish at the end of the
The Central Philippines. 779
second year. Perennials may live on for several years but if they
are not allowed to develop much herbage and no flowers the old
plants will gradually die of starvation and, being without heirs, they
will leave the land to revert to its rightful owners.
Proper tillage will keep the weeds within safe bounds in the open
fields of hoed crops. By proper tillage is understood that culture
which the crop demands even when no weeds encumber the soil.
The hot-bed for weeds is the neglected corners where the cultivator
and hoe do not naturally go. It is in such places, along road-sides,
barn-yards, open wood lots and fence corners that weeds sneak in
_ and bear their young. It will be difficult to keep the cultivated
field clean when all around is breeding ground for foul seeds.
Rome was not built in a day and neither will our weeds be
destroyed in a generation. It is only hoped that, as all roads lead
to Rome, so may all the inward desires and open acts of every
producer of crops tend toward the destruction of our worst weeds.
THE CENTRAL PHILIPPINES.
BY J. B. STEERE.
(Concluded from page 626.)
AFTER much enquiry for a suitable place to collect in, we heard
of virgin forest in the north part of the island of Panay, and
finding a little steamer running up the coast we took passage to the
village of Concepcion, some twenty miles north of Ilo Ilo, and
nearly in front of the curious conical island called Pau de Assucar.
Woods were in sight, but we found that they were steep and rocky,
and difficult to hunt in, and rather unproductive of forms new to
our collections, most of the birds being identical with those already
procured in Guimaras. The forest had a curious half-dead appear-
ance, which was due in part to most of the leaves having already,
in January, fallen, preparatory to the coming spring, and in part to
much of the timber having been injured by large gashes in the
trunks to collect the gums from them. Before we left the place |
Some of the trees were already showing the purple and bright yel-
780 The Central Philippines.
low tints of the new foliage. Spring does not come all at once, nor
to all plants at the same time, here; but I think that even here in
the tropics every plant has its annual period of rest from growth,
of leaf-shedding, and of spring, though there is no long period
of time, as with us, between the last two processes, the new growth
here usually crowding off the old leaves, though a few species,
like some of the wild figs, are bare for some time before the appear-
ance of the new leaves. These have in some instances led us to
believe them dead from their bare appearance among the univer-
sal green.
The country along the coast at Concepcion was hilly and unpro-
ductive, and uncultivated, and it was a mystery how the people
existed, until we followed the roads leading back into several
large level valleys which had been brought under cultivation,
the lower parts, which could be flooded, to rice, and the higher
to sugar cane. A few Spaniards and Mestizos had settled here,
and were hauling their new sugar in buffalo carts to the coast
for shipment. We passed several great sheds which served as
sugar-mills, the machinery being in some cases upright wooden
rollers turned by buffaloes, in others, small steam engines imported
from England. On the wet rice grounds, now grown up to
and grass, we shot a few rare water fowl, among them the great
blue and purple heron of the Philippines. At a village on one
side of one of these valleys we found a roost of fruit bats. Three
or four acres at one side of the roadway, grown up to scattered
‘clumps of bamboo, and in the bending tops of these the bats were
clustered. The immense masses of small prickly branches, at the
bases of these clumps, curve downward, and make thickets hard
for man or beast to pass over or through to the trunks beyond,
and they appear to be chosen by the bats for this reason. -
We passed at least four distinct species of fruit bats inhabiting
this grove, though each species was found by itself in particular
trees. As we approached them, about noon, they hung, in pin
quiet, head downwards, by both hind feet, the wings being fol a
about the body so that they looked like clusters and strings
great pendant birds’ nests. They were accustomed to the peop’?
of the village passing beneath them, and paid no attention to US
‘until we began to shoot among them, when they rose squealing
The Central Philippines. 781
into the air. After wheeling around like spectres over our heads
for awhile, they would approach a perch, and throwing the hind
feet forward, would grasp it, and fall down into their accustomed
position. After they became alarmed they would take flight at
our approach, and they appear to see fairly well by day. A few
shots were sufficient to fill two large baskets, and made a good
load for a native who carried them back to town. The next day,
while skinning them, we had frequent visits from the villagers,
who carried off the bodies to eat. They have a strong, disagree-
able, bat odor, but are said to be good eating. The larger spe-
_ cies were from fifty-four to sixty inches in spread of wing, the
smaller ones about forty. They fly to great distances in their
search after food, leaving their roosts at dusk and returning just at
daylight in the morning. They become a great pest to the natives,
though they may be benefactors in disguise, by nightly visiting the
bamboo cups in the coco trees in which the sweet juice of the flower
stems is being collected for tuba, the beer of the country, as the
people are fond of calling it. Sometimes the bats take this when it is
too much fermented, and the next morning finds them rolling about
on the ground under the coco trees instead of on their way to their
roosts, and there they are at the mercy of any crow that wishes to
tear holes in their wings with his beak, or of the swine that make
a meal of them. We were brought several which were caught
drunk. From an examination of the stomachs of those collected,
this coco juice seems to be their chief food, and must in time have
its influence over their anatomy.
Having completed our work in Panay and Guimaras, we em-
barked again on the 1st of February, and 1«unning down around
the south end of the great island of Negros, landed at Dumaquete,
a clean little town just opposite the southern point of Cebu, and so
near that island that we could see the trees across the strait. The
south end of Negros had appeared, as we passed around it, a great
stretch of grassy plains and hills, now dry and yellow, and being
burned over in some places. The mountains approached nearer at
Dumaquete, and we could see forests on their heights. They were
volcanic, and what we judged to be ancient lava streams extended
down from a height of two or three thousand feet to near sea level
and with such an even grade that they looked like gigantic rail
embankments.
782 The Central Philippines.
We found at low tide a great number of beach-inhabiting bird-
on the flats north of Dumaquete. There were many species of curs
lews, plovers, stilts, sandpipers, oyster catchers, ete., all in flocks
and most of them probably migrants. After we had procured all
of these we wished the party divided. Three of us took a native
boat and sailed across to the little island of Liquijor, where they -
made a good collection of birds, two or three species of which
appear to be peculiar to the island. They also found sea shells
abundant, and among other rarities procured a living pearly nauti-
lus. The rest of the party went north along the coast of Negros
and the strait of Tañon, and stopped at the village of Sibulau, near ,
the foot of the mountains. Birds were abundant in the wooded
ravines, but though we procured many species we had not seen in
Pauay and Guimaras, they were apparently such as depended upon
a more favorable location, and not upon a real change of habitat,
for the hornbills, woodpeckers, tailor-birds, pittas and sun-birds,
which we had learned to look upon as test species, were identical
with those from the islands named.
Hearing of some unexplored mountain lakes to the west of us,
we made a trip inland in search of them. At a height of fifteen
hundred feet we reached virgin forest, among which were fine oe
ferns in abundance. The whole country was steep, but the natives
were plowing in and cutting off the timber from the steep moun-
tain sides, and planting them to abaca, the so-called Manila hemp.
This is a species of banana, and looks so much like those planted
for their fruit that we had difficulty at first in distinguishing them,
but the abaca thrives best in a cool and moist situation. We found
it afterward growing luxuriantly at a height of three thousand feet,
while those varieties used for food thrive best near sea level and in
the greatest heat. Like the other bananas, the abaca forms a trank
from eight to twenty feet high, made up chiefly of the bases of the
leaves, these wrapped one over the other, and it is these which es
made use of. They are torn apart, and the outer covering of ae
outer or convex side is stripped off. This contains the fibre, th
the rest of the leaf base being made of large watery cells. It 2%
drawn through a wide machine made on the spot by the awe
cultivator. This has wooden jaws, between which the watery -
among the fibre are torn and pressed out while the fibre is drawn
The Central Philippines. 783
through. The hemp comes out white and glistening, and requires
no other preparation but drying to fit it for baling and shipment.
Through the fall in price of sugar, hemp is now the most impor-
tant article of export from the islands.
We reached a height of three thousand five hundred feet, the
path leading for most of the way along the narrow crests of moun-
tain ridges. Oaks were plenty at these heights, and with them
Indian pitcher plants, a beautiful colored leafed begonia, a colens in
in flower, and a great number of ferns, and mosses. Everything
was dripping with moisture, and land leeches were crawling over
the ground or hanging from ‘the plants ready to drop upon us.
The lakes were small—one a half mile, and the other perhaps a
mile in length, and at a height of about three thousand feet. They
were in steep ravines between mountains, so that there were no val-
leys about them in which we could hunt. A step from shore on
any side took us over our heads in water. Deer and wild hogs
were abundant, and our Indian hunters tried to drive them into the
lakes with their dogs, but without success. The only life we saw
in the water of the lakes was leeches, of great size, and crabs and
water-fowl were almost absent. A few great hornbills were flying
from one mountain crest to another, but it was folly to attempt to
follow them. ;
We found a little piece of level ground at the mouth of a moun-
tain brook, where we built us a shelter and camped. We shot a
few species of flycatchers from the trees over our hut, and after
staying two days, and sleeping cold with the themometer 67°, we
descended to the coast. While some of the party went on to Cebu
by steamer, a division crossed the strait of Tafiau to Cebu, and fol-
lowed the west coast of that island to the town of Barili, then
crossing the mountains to the east coast followed this to the north
until we reached the city of Cebu. This is the oldest Spanish town
in the islands, and is the capital of the island and a port open to
foreign trade.
We found the island of Cebu still more thoroughly stripped of its
timber than the islands to the west, but after doing what we could
to get a fair collection of its birds we concluded that it, too, belonged
zoologically with Negros and Panay. A brief visit by two of us
to Bojol convinced us that this, too, must go with the islands to the
784 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
west of it in a division which may well be called the Central Phil-
ippines. Bojol and Cebu have large amounts of limestone rock
thrown up in steep ridges, and this has probably caused their great
richness in land shells, of which each valley seems to possess a spe-
cies. The shallow strait between these islands is rich in sea life,
and a week spent in the little island of Waiming produced a fine
collection of corals, echinoderms and sea shells. Crinoids were
abundant in the shallow water, and of several species; they were
usually partly protected among the branches of living corals, but
sometimes fastened, mouth upward, to stones and coral masses. An
immense spiny star-fish was slowly crawling over the coral stems,
digesting the polyps as he went, and leaving a broad white track
of dead coral behind him. Returning to Cebu, we packed our col-
lections, and left them to be forwarded by sailing ship to New
York, and took passage on the last of March for Saman and Leite,
the most eastern islands of the group.
THE DERIVATION OF THE DOMESTIC POLLED
~ BREEDS.
BY R. C. AULD, F. Z. 8.
(Continued from page 509.)
n lere part had these polled cattle of the parks in the origm of
the existing domestic breeds of Britain, now so numerous!y
represented in this country? Instances have been enumerated x
the existence in widely scattered places of polled cattle of vario
descriptions. Out of all these did any survive and become pn
gated more into certain localities, and thence evolved into pages
and distinct breeds? The connection of the park cattle with “af
breeds of polled cattle in their former and present state will here be
traced. eae
Sir Richard Owen, in advocating his theory as to ha s
British cattle, which is at variance with that of Da ae
Nilson, Riitimeyer, etc., says: “ Had the Bos primgenws yee 5
same we might have expected the Highland and Welsh ca tors
have retained some of the characteristics of their great prose”
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds. 785
and to have been distinguished from other domestic breeds by their
superior size and the length of their horns. The Kyloes and the
runts are, on the contrary, remarkable for their small size, and are
characterised either by short horns, as in the Bos longifrons, or the
entire absence of these weapons.”
With all due respect to Sir Richard, exception must be taken to
his ideas as to the characterisation of the Welsh and Highland
cattle. Has he ever seen either race at the Smithfield Show at
London, or other National Shows, or on their native heath? If he
had he would not have fallen into the error of characterising these
cattle as of small size, or short horned, or wanting in the charac-
teristics of their progenitors, the Uri. If he had seen them as
they may be seen, he must have been convinced that they do possess
the strongest claims to such descent of any existing race, in respect
of size, length of horn, and general characteristics. This is the
common error that many have fallen into, not having seen repre-
sentative or real specimens of the breed. How many animal forms
have not large and small associated varieties or species? This
needs no illustration. Besides, “size” depends not always on
Species, but on environment. That these small and large Scotch
horned correspond respectively with longifrons and urus, we
believe, however, is true.
_ Contrast with Owen’s ideas the practical knowledge of Professor
Low. In his “Domesticated Animals” he says: “ These English
White Forest breeds have merged in the common breeds of the
country.” He believes, however, that the same animals are yet to
be found in that part of the Kingdom where we should naturally
look for the existence of an indigenous race of. cattle, viz., beyond
the Severn, in Wales, and in the West Highlands.
“The mountain breeds of Scotland,” he says, “ are identical with
those which formerly inhabited the woods of that country, which,
we have seen, were the ancient Uri, and which we may term the
White Forest breed.” He has also some excellent remarks on the
Comparative size of the Urus and his modern representative, which
are too long to quote. But he says: “The size of the Pembroke
cattle is that of the larger class of the breed of the West Highlands
of Scotland ”—which corresponds with all practical breeders’ know-
ledge on the subject.
786 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
We may leave Low here with the following quotations: “Thus
we have all the evidence which the question admits of, that no real
distinction exists between the wild oxen of the parks and those
which have for ages been subjected to domestication in the same
country, and that these wild oxen are no other than the Uri of the
ancient forests of Europe.”
“Thus were the Uri of the Scottish forests driven from the woods
which they inhabited, destroyed, or made captive. Part, indeed,
had been preserved in some of the religious houses, their flesh being
more esteemed than that of ‘their ain tame bestial? But with the
destruction of the ancient establishments, the oxen were dispersed,
destroyed, or mingled with the common races. In a few places only
they seem to have been preserved without intermixture—chiefly in
the parks of the Dukes of Queensberry at Drumlanrig, and of the
Dukes of Hamilton, at the Chace of Cadzow. Those at Drumlan-
rig were, many years ago, destroyed by order of the late Duke of
Queensberry. Those at the noble park of Hamilton are yet in
existence, preserved with care.” He describes them as “ indubitably
descendents of the ancient race,” and as to their size says they are
in that respect the same as the cattle of the West Highlands.
For convenience I continue from last chapter the consideration
of the Scottish parks. And it is necessary in this investigation to
examine these somewhat closely, so as to obtain a proper definition.
of their limits, and to exhibit the direct connection they had with
the polled breeds of to-day.
Sir W. Jardine, Bt., (Naturalist? Library, Vol. IV.), makes
these remarks in describing the “ White Urus, or Hamilton Breed
of Wild Cattle”: “The Caledonia Sylva, or Caledonia Forest,
. extended from Stirling through Monteith and Strathorne to Athol
and Lochaber. It is described by old authors as dividing the Picts
from the Scots, and, being well furnished with game, especially
with the fierce white bulls and kine, it was the place of both ther
huntings and of their greatest controversies. The Roman historians
delight much to talk of the furious white bulls which the Forest
of Caledonia brought forth... .. At what period the present
breed was introduced to the royal chase at Cadzow cannot now be
well ascertained. It is well known that the Cummings [Earls of
Buchan] were at one period proprietors of Cadzow and Cumber-
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds. 787
nauld, and it is likely that in their time the white cattle were in
both places. But, be that as it may, they have long been extir-
pated in Cumbernauld, while they have been preserved in great
perfection at Hamilton.”
This description of ancient “ Caledon,” given by Jardine cor-
rectly from the earliest historians, should be remembered. For,
more latterly, authorities, even such as Sir Walter Scott, described
the Caledonian Forest as extending over a territory of which
“Cadzow and Chillingham are but the extremities,’ “which in
ruder times was a continuous forest, the white cattle being the
remnants of those herds of Tauri sylvestres, described by early Scot-
tish writers as abounding in the forests of Caledonia.”
This latter region, as a look at any map showing the boundaries
of the different regions in these early times! will show, was the
ancient Strathclyde—the western portion of southern Scotland and
northern England, the adjacent portions on the eastern side of
England and Scotland being Northumbria, while “Caledonia,”
So says the writer in the Encyclopedia Britannica, “lies to the
north of the Forth,” but must include the region of the Clyde
which flows north. This Caledonia in the west—called Dalriada
——came to be inhabited by the Irish Scot or Gael, while the east
remained Pictish. These Dalriadans were the great Scots about
whom historians have had so much to do. The Galloway, “ Wild
Scots,” were afterwards conquered by the true Scots of Dalriada,
the name Galloway not indicating the composition, but the con-
queror, of the Pictish inhabitants. The Pict, that is, of the east
or northeast, “came from Scythia—that is, North Germany—as
their own legends tell, which was undoubtedly peopled by Celts
before it was peopled by Germans.”
Let us, then, look at the park herds in Scotland—the Hamilton,
the Ardrossan, the Drumlanrig. The first is located in the great
Caledonian region defined by Jardine, Storer, Harting and others,
as above. The two last belonged to ancient Galloway: The
Ardrossan and Drumlanrig (Duke of Buccleugh) were horned ; the
Hamilton was polled. The significance of these facts will appear
when the history, literature and philology of the two regions are
examined,
1 See Skene’s “ Celtic Scotland.”
788 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
The parks became enclosed in ancient times, and with the
enclosing the wild cattle became enclosed also. These cattle
were the Uri of the north, whose originating source was the
ancient. cattle of Cumbernauld, near Stirling. These then becam®
extinct, having been scattered, part being preserved in the polled
cattle of Hamilton.
“The wild bull of the north had, therefore, anciently free access
to the whole of southern Scotland, and to the mountains, wastes
and forests of northern England also.”! The Cumbernauld
extinct herd “thus connects north and south; the wild bull of the
old Caledonian Forest north of Stirling with the Hamilton wild
cattle, and with those which inhabited, as described by Scott, the
continuous mountain ranges and the innumerable forests which
formerly extended from Hamilton to Chillingham.” Hamilton
was thus near the fountain-head. Their representatives at Cadzow,
and over the north, were polled. This territory was the pasture
region of the polled cattle of Fife, Angus, Aberdeen, etc. At
Drumlanrig, in the pasture ground of the Galloway, they were
horned—in that indicating the character of the original Galloway
breed.
Take now the Hamilton cattle possessing as its hunting
ground all northward. These were the famous white bulls of
Caledon, descended, as all authorities agree, from Bos wrus ; and
which were also by all historical accounts polled. This herd
belonged, before the days of the Bruce, to the Cummings—the
great but unfortunate Earls of Buchan.
But further, Hamilton Palace was the seat of the Douglas-
Hamiltons, Dukes of Hamilton and Brandon, who represented
through the male line the great Douglases, Earls of Angus. Here,
therefore, we have the Hamilton (Cadzow) herd connected in the
closest manner with the shires of Aberdeen (Buchan) and Angus:
Hence are traced the roots of the Aberdeen-Angus breed of polled
cattle, firmly spread over the more lowland portions of the Caledo-
nian region. And it is a further historical fact that it was from
royal Kildrummy, in Aberdeenshire, after his spoliation of the
Cummings, that King Robert the Bruce, in the thirteenth century,
1 See “ Wild White Cattle of Great Britain ;” also “ Domesticated Ani-
mals of Britain.”
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds. 789
issued to hunt the wild bulls of the Caledonian forest, which
region extended thus from royal Kildrummy to royal Stirling.
The origin of the name Caledonian is derived from the word
Calder, signifying the hazel brush. In the Transactions of the
Highland Society, Vol. XVII., 1885, it is stated that in Lanark-
shire, in which the Hamilton herd is situated, “fifty years ago
some had cows of the native or Calder breed; others crosses with
these and Ayrshires.” The word Kyloe, also, is derived from the
name of this forest region, the word meaning cows of the woods—
both words having one root in common.
The Drumlanrig and Ardrossan herds are extinct. These herds
were horned [the latter having latterly become polled on the intro-
duction of polled bulls from Hamilton.] And just as the Aber-
deen-Angus had their roots in the Caledonian polled varieties
represented by the Hamiltons, so had the Galloway its foundation
from the same horned cattle that became enclosed at Drumlanrig.
Drumlanrig Castle, in Dumfriesshire, is located in the valley of
the Nith, between Hamilton and the Firth of Solway, but nearer
the latter. The owners of this castle were that branch of the house
of Douglas which enjoyed successively the titles of Earls, Marquises
and Dukes of Queensberry. The Duke of Buccleugh, as heir
general, is Duke of Queensberry, and possesses Drumlanrig.
While, as will be seen, Hamilton was transferred to the Angus-
Douglases on the extinction of the Comyns by Bruce, Cumber-
nauld, likewise owned by the Comyns, became transferred by Bruce
to Sir Robert Fleming, who was the ancestor of the Earls of Wig-
ton, and it was probably during the time of Queen Mary, when
the Flemings were out of favor at court, that the remnants of the
Cumbernauld herd got dispersed, and some might have been trans-
ferred to Dumfriesshire,
Anyhow the Drumlanrig herd also went by the name of the
Wild Caledonian Cattle. They were white with black points. Mr.
Dickinson, in his Essay “On the Farming of Cumberland,” pub-
lished 1852, identifies the Drumlanrig cattle also with the Caledo-
mian Forest Wild Cattle. The herd has been long extinct. Drum-
MNE was located at the foot of these wild hills, which extending
throughout southern Scotland, were the ancient haunts of the
Scottish bull. « Castle Dangerous,” which Scott describes as among
790 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
the mountains which gave shelter to the wild bull, is not far off.
These“horned cattle, mixed with the local Bos longifrons, probably
gave origin to the modern breed of cattle of that region.
It was in the late Duke of Buccleugh’s knowledge that his favor-
ite race of Galloways—of which he was the champion—was, up
to the middle of last century, a horned race; and he, true conserva-
tive, deplored the change. Perhaps the change had been wrought
in a similar manner to that of the Ardrossan herd; or by some
influence of the territorial magnates on their acquirement by
political means of a connection with a country containing among
its wild cattle many of the polled variety.
The climate of Galloway region is described by writers on the
breed, explaining thus the coarse hair that is a characteristic of the
Galloway, as very humid. And we see also the result of this
humidity in the coarse horns of the historical breed.
Darwin quotes Prof. Low as to humidity of climate producing
hair in abundance ; and Youatt has also stated the correlation
between coarse hair and horn. “We can thus see how a humid
climate,” says Darwin, “ might act on the horns—in the first place
directly on the skin and hair, and secondly by correlation on the
horns.” While the Galloway men themselves explain the finer
coat of the Aberdeen from “ the drier” climate. :
And there is an absolute dearth of any collateral evidence, deriv-
able from local literature, philology, sculpture, etc., to indicate the
non-existence of horns in this ancient breed; the tradition, as will
be shown, being that they were anciently universally horned.
ABERDEEN-ANGUS BREED.
As the lowlands of the Caledonian region belong entirely to the
counties associated with this breed, and as the breed from the earli-
est times was the same foundation, the maol Kyloe, the Hartt
polled, the dodded of the Meigle sculptured stones, the homyls °
King Kenneth’s time, and the hornless neat of T. Kirke, etc., must
be accepted as the progenitors of this world-famous race of cattle
Formerly everything connected with the history of the breed was
wrapped in obscurity—they being an unknown breed (to the out-
side world) in a terra incognita. I have in this investigation
brought forward here what is new or of such importance aS the
subject required.
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds. 791
Investigators, in their researches into the history of this breed,
have been chagrined to find in the first or second of the Surveys
of the County of Aberdeen, drawn up for the Board of Agriculture,
that no mention is made of any of the native breeds as being horn-
less, This, now, is regarded as remarkable, and more so for the
reason that the author of the first Survey was a man of consider-
able repute, Dr. James Anderson. The first series of these surveys.
_ Were, however, written chiefly from the strict agricultural point of
View. The live-stock was undesignedly overlooked. So much,
Rowever, did this prove to ‘be tho case: that a second: arriet was
792 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
organized for the purpose of rectifying the mistake. There were
about ten years between the two series.
The first Survey of the Agriculture of Aberdeenshire, by Dr.
James Anderson, of Monkshill, in the Buchan district, was pub-
lished in 1794. The author never mentions horn or hornless in
describing the two breeds that come in for notice. One of these
can, however, be identified with the old long-horned Aberdeenshire
breed, described as being fine and rich milkers; the other, men-
tioned as the cattle of Buchan, which can be identified by the evi-
dence of his own household as the native low-country polled
Buchan. He gives good general testimony to the high character of
the latter.
James Anderson, LL.D., was born near Edinburgh, 1730; died
in London, 1808. He farmed extensively in the Buchan district
of Aberdeenshire. He was a voluminous writer, and is thus
referred to by Darwin (“ Variations of Animals and Plants,” second
edition, Vol. I.): “Another ingenious writer, though not a natur-
alist, with a bold defiance of everything known on geographical
distribution, infers that the sheep of Great Britain alone were the
descendants of eleven endemic British forms!” Yet he was quoted
largely by others. Having resided so long in Buchan, it seemed
incredible that such a man® such a ready observer, even though not
a naturalist, should have escaped noticing, in some way, the special
peculiarity —as hornlessness was apparently to him—of the cattle of
that region, named, indeed, from that peculiarity itself, Buchan Hum-
lies, from time immemorial. So it appeared to the general student.
But, for the reasons mentioned, it appeared to me that he must have
made some such allusion. So I carefully examined all his works
likely to contain anything of the nature sought. In his “ Recrea-
tions in Agriculture and Natural History, etc.” completed in S1%
volumes, I find him descanting thus (p. 67, Vol. I., published
1799, “ On Varieties of Animals: an enquiry into the nature of that
department of Natural History which is called Varieties among
Animals, etc., with some cursory hints upon the same term as
applied to Vegetables”): “If a chance individual be produced
that is of a large size, or particular make of body, the descendants í
that individual, if mated with one having similar peculiarities, will
be of the same kind, The same thing will happen if it have 4
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds. 793
tendency to fatten more kindly, to yield a greater or smaller quan-
tity of milk, to lay fat on a particular part of the body, to produce
more or less tallow, to be more or less hardy, or any other peculi-
arity. Even accidental blemishes may thus be perpetuated. If a
hornless individual be born of a hornless breed of creatures,! this
may give rise to a whole tribe of hornless beasts of that kind,
which will propagate their like with as little deviation as takes
place in the original stock. If a kind of creature that usually
carries two horns chance to produce one with three, four, or six
horns, you may thus obtain a breed having many horns. Thus we
are able to account for those families or breeds of domestic animals
which differ in regard to certain particulars of the kind above spe-
cified, and which, when once introduced [or appearing] into a cer-
tain district, have a tendency to continue themselves in that district
for a great length of time if considerable pains be not taken to alter
it. The means of altering such a breed are, however, from the facts
here stated, clear and obvious; nor can it be effected with certainty
but by a change of blood, or an intermixture of breeds. If the
qualities of the peculiar breed are excellent, the means of improv-
ing it are equally obvious, the selecting of the best individual of
that breed, and which have the wished-for qualities in a higher
degree than the ordinary, to breed from; and, if they be done with
ease and judgment, its effect will be certain and by no means liable
to any kind of doubt.” The reference in the Index to the above
passage is: “ Hornless breeds of cattle, how produced.” The
above affords a good deal. In the first place Dr. Anderson
regarded cattle without horns a blemish. This would prove that he
was unacquainted with any other polled breeds, if such there were,
in Scotland. If he had, he would not have been able to regard
it as a blemish. Secondly, that these polled creatures had continued
in that district for a great length of time, and had occurred indige-
nously previously to his advent in the country at any rate, which
would take us back to the beginning of the century (1700).
‘I would direct attention to the use of this word creatures, which
Sounds so peculiar to an old country man, and to the new comer to this
country, for I found it used pronounced “ critturs’’ to describe cattle.
Thus in America the original usage of the word is maintained, like so
many others. Indeed, as I show, from the Index reference, Dr. Ander-
Son uses the word, also, to describe cattle.
794 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
Thirdly, he was one of a number (it will be seen, from the means
he recommended, at that early date, to eradicate a blemish) who
were doing their best to obliterate the old native polled race of
such a good quality. He was isolated in Buchan, with only the
Buchan Polled breed before his eyes, surprised at the want of the
horns he found there to be indigenous, and thus attempted to ex-
plain an “ isolated” instance, as he thought it; whereas, if he had
had a wider acquaintance with the innumerable polled races that
had existed in all time, he would have attempted some more scien-
tific explanation—one which I may say here, remembering Dar-
win’s allusion to him, has escaped or baffled that prince of natural-
ists himself.
But the “hornless breed of Buchan creatures” survived the
attempt made to obliterate the blemish which had existed for such
a length of time, up till 1799, and which had now been setting the
fashion for all breeds. Dr. Anderson’s overseer, who began to deal
in 1801, has recorded the existence of polled cattle in Buchan
during Dr. Anderson’s time, and since then they have become the
‘most famous of polled races. i
Now I have brought Dr. Anderson into line, and made him
yield testimony to the early existence of the polled cattle of Aber-
deenshire, which is about the most important piece of evidence that
has been produced on this subject, and is most interesting.
THE GALLOWAY BREED.
Up to about the beginning of the last quarter of last century
the Galloway cattle were horned, and during the middle of that
century were “universally” so. The earliest certain account of them
as polled is given by Marshall, who wrote in 1782. He says that
the best were at that date mostly polled. Andrew Wight, in 1746,
mentions them more promiscuously. :
The late Sir B. T. Brandreth Gibbs, Hon. Secretary of the Smith-
field Club, etc., etc., as General Superintendent of the British Agr-
cultural Section of the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, in the
“Short Introductory Notes on Some of the Principal B of
Cattle, Sheep and Pigs,” written by him and prefixed to the Cata-
logue of the British Section, says: “Occasionally some have
“slugs’ or stumps, which are not affixed to the skull.” Dr. Flem-
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds, 795
ing, 1812, wrote similarly about the existence of these “slugs” then,
and is quoted by Boyd-Dawkins as evidence of the last appearances
in this ancient breed of a reminiscence of its former character. But
Youatt twenty years later notices them, and in 1878 Sir B. T. Gibbs
also. The above facts are of scientific interest, showing the trans-
formation of an ancient race from the horned to polled state. Pro-
fessor Boyd-Dawkins has likewise favored me with the following
notes :—
“The only historical account of the origin of the British polied
cattle with which I am acquainted is in the letter of the late Lord
Selkirk to which you allude. Lord Selkirk was a man of remark-
able ability, and one of the best of the Scotch lairds, and is not
likely to have made any important slip. I have no doubt that his
account of the breeding out of the horns is substantially accurate,
so far as relates to the Galloway cattle. Moreover, on referring
to Youatt, p. 155, I find incidental evidence that Lord Selkirk is
right.”
“Oral testimony,” says Mr. David McCrae, author of a history
of Galloway cattle, “handed down to these men from the Galloway
breeders of last century, is valuable and reliable.” So the letter
from the late Earl of Selkirk, F.R.S., written to Prof. Boyd-Dawkins
is of particular value. Boyd-Dawkins in introducing it says: “The
polled or hornless cattle of the present day have undoubtedly been
derived, through careful breeding, of the horned cattle. The Gal-
loway breed has lost its horns principally through the care of the
grandfather of the present Earl of Selkirk, to whom I am indebted
for the account given in full below. Some fifty or sixty years
were consumed in bringing this animal to its present shape ana
form.” The letter is as follows; it is dated March 6, 1867 :—
“T have no distinct written record about the way the horns
of the Galloway cattle were ‘bred out,’ as we cattle-breeders say.
The breed 150 years ago was not generally polled, i.e., without
horns, though there was always a good many polled ones amongst
them. Polled: ones are found in every breed. My informant was
an old man who died about thirty years ago, he being then nearly
ninety. He was the son of the man who tended the cows of my
grandfather, and had been employed among cattle all his life; in
his old age, while still able to work, he tended my cows. His
796 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
name was James McKinnan, and he was a man whose recollections
seemed always remarkably clear. He had been with cattle as far
as Norfolk, to St. Faith’s fair; he told me that in the days of his
childhood, a Norfolk feeder, who bought many of the Galloway
cattle, fancied those without horns, and would give 2s. 6d. or so
more for a polled than a horned beast. This set the fashion, and
the people began first to look for polled bulls, and none other;
then they preferred polled cows, etc., to breed from, and thus the
change was effected in, I believe from fifty to sixty years. The
horns of the Galloway beast were very ugly, drooping, and as thick
at the point as at the root. I have myself seen one or two beasts
with horns like that; but nowadays, when horns appear they are
generally traced to some with a cross with the Irish breed. Those
that are born polled have a lump in the centre of the forehead,
which is very hard, and will break another bull’s skull for him.”
Fria, 2.—“ Galloway Heifer exhibited at Lord Somerville’s cattle show, 1806.”—
From the Complete Grazier, 1816,
The late R. Gibson, Assistant Curator of the Museum of Science
and Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, in the article “Cattle,” in the lm
edition of “Encyclopedia Britannica,” arranges British cattle into —
three classes: “(1) Polled cattle, an artificial variety, which may be
produced by selection; thus, the polled cattle of Galloway
small horns so late as the middle of last century, but by only
breeding from bulls with shortest horns, the grandfather of the
present Earl of Selkirk succeeded in entirely removing these appe?”
dages.” Gibson was arguing from the history of only one instance.
Aiton, in his Survey of Ayrshire, 1813, says: “ According t0
tradition, the Galloway cows were, in ancient times, uniformly pro-
vided with horns.” ;
Derivation of the Domestie Polled Breeds. 797
There were numerous introductions of foreign blood into Gallo-
way; to give an instance: “Admiral Keith Stewart lately intro-
duced [into Galloway] a beautiful Argyllshire bull, which he con-
sidered to have made the greatest improvement of any on the coun-
try breed” (Agr. Rep. of Galloway, p. 22). That does not look as
if the breed was polled. And Aiton says, “Stories were told of
bulls being brought from England—north and west—which ban-
ished their [the Galloways’] horns for them.” Some also think that
it was on the introduction of the Irish moyl that the polled char-
acter dates. As Gilbert shows, there was a continuous interchange
of cattle between the border counties of England and Scotland.
And,as shown by Storer, Low, and the early historians, and our-
selves, the tendency of cattle was continually from the north of
Scotland to the south, and not vice versa. So that it is difficult to
trace a straight line descent for the Galloway, as can be done for
the Aberdeen-Angus, whose country was never so invaded. The
latter were the real ranche cattle of early Britain, and were the first
to open up the highways from the north to the south.
THE NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK Rep POLLED BREED.
This East Anglian breed of polled cattle is an amalgamation
between the “old Norfolk” horned race and the “old Suffolk”
polled. The latter could hardly escape having “acquired its horn-
less character from contact with the white variety maintained at
some of the old establishments in the district,” i.e., the herds of
polled cattle in the parks already described. It was not till 1846
that there had been such an amalgamation between the old Suffolk
with the old Norfolk as to entitle the two varieties to be recognized
a8 one breed. There is in the lobby at Raynham Hall a picture of
Starling, a cow of the old Norfolk breed, in the thirty-sixth year
ive age, which preserves to us the apparent character of this old
Mr. R. E. Lofft gives the following account of the evolution of
this race :—
“The origin of the present breed of Red Polls is perfectly well
known, About a hundred years ago the native cow of Norfolk, a
variety peculiar to the county, of a red color, with a white face, and
horned, was crossed with the Suffolk polled bull, with a view,
798 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds.
mainly, no doubt, to improve the milking qualities of the breed, as
well as to do away with the horns. Since then this old Norfolk
breed seems to have died out. But the old Suffolk breed survives
pure in one peculiar variety—a cow of golden yellow. Of course
there are various shades of this color, but the real golden yellow is,
to my mind, the most beautiful of all colors; it is sometimes seen
in horses, though but very rarely. Indeed, I do not recollect to
have seen more than three or four in the course of my life. How-
ever, this color is not popular in cows of the Red Polled breed, nor,
indeed, I believe, among Short-horns. Perhaps the reason for this -
is that a pale washed-out yellow, which often occurs, gives a feeble
look to an animal. i
“Of the old Suffolk breed, no one pretends to have traced the
origin. Perhaps, in some future day, some of the numerous old
manuscripts that are being reproduced in print may throw some
light on the history of this animal—at present it is purely conjec-
tural. The balance of probability would point to this kind of
cattle being derived from the old white breed with black or red
ears and muzzles. Polled cattle of this description were formerly
to be found in various parts of Suffolk and Norfolk, and some small
remnants remain to this day. The transition from white to yellow
would not appear to be difficult. The pictures of J. Ward, the
eminent cattle and landscape painter, furnish numerous instances of
the prevalence of this breed, both polled and horned varieties,
whether from an artistic preference, or from an actual preponder-
ance of the type, it is hard to say. I have, myself, two oil paintings
by this master, one of which contains a polled and the other a
horned cow of the white breed, with red muzzle and ears. The
breed with black ears and muzzles and more striking in appearance
from the strong contrast in color; indeed, it is hardly possible to
find anything prettier than a young calf of this kind. In the
National Gallery there is a large landscape of a Yorkshire scau!,
with groups of cattle. In the foreground stands a white bull of
very massive proportions, ears and muzzle being of a light red. 2
“The earliest descriptions of Suffolk cattle speak of them as,
various colors, some cream or yellow, some brindled; others, again,
as red; some as mouse-colored, or a kind of blue, but none of ap
as black—in this respect differing from the Scotch Kyloes, onos
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds. 799
the oldest, if not the oldest, breed of cattle in the British Isles. It
is certainly not a little peculiar that none of the writers of that day
mention black Suffolks, more especially as some of the Suffolks had
been crossed with Galloways—a breed in which black certainly pre-
dominates, No doubt, at times, red Galloways have been produced
from pure-bred black parents, and some were said by Youatt to be
of a dun or drab color. However, I am not inclined to accept the
evidence of color as a sign of purity of race.”
Mr. Youatt has given it as his opinion that the Red Polls are
descended from the Galloway breed ; but after a careful and impar-
tial examination of the records bearing on the subject we are
inclined to believe with Mr. Euren, editor of the Herd-book, that
in the several varieties of Red Polled cattle we have the descend-
ants of the ancient breed valued by our ancestors for their large
yield of milk. This explanation of the derivation of the breed is
the more probable when it is remembered that since 1765 there
have been domesticated herds of white polled park cattle in Nor-
folk, they having in that year been taken to Gunton, in Norfolk,
from Middleton Hall, where they were maintained in a wild state
long prior to 1697. These Gunton polled cattle and their offshoots
me domesticated in Norfolk, were multiplied in the county, and
it is almost certain that to them is chiefly due the distribution of a
polled breed over the county. Arthur Young, in his survey of
Suffolk, dated 1792, remarks that the cattle there “were uni-
versally polled—that is, without horns.” Files of the Norfolk
Mercury show that in 1774 there were whole dairies of polled cattle
in the county. It is clear that the Galloway cross was also intro-
duced ; but there is distinct proof that polled cattle existed in con-
siderable numbers both in Norfolk and Suffolk prior to the date
when the Galloways themselves became generally polled.
We read in the Norwich Mercury of 1770 advertisements of
polled cattle, both bulls and cows, to be sold near Cawstown, Peep-
ham and Pullham market. In 1802, advertisements for the Red
Polled cattle were very numerous.
These Galloways are distinctly stated to have been for purposes
of feeding, simply; and that they were not used for creating a horn-
less variety out of already hornless cattle is evident from the total
want of similarity between them, not only in color but general
800 Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds,
resemblance. The two breeds are totally dissimilar. If there is
any resemblance in general contour and appearance between the
Suffolk and Scotch Poll, it is to the Aberdeen-Angus, and not the
Galloway. Photographs or engravings of these two breeds are
strangely similar, and might be taken for either breed, except, in
reality, the color and size; while pictures of Red Polls and Gallo-
ways could be distinguished at a glance. As Mr. R. E. Loftt
points out, in a letter he has favored me with, “black and red are
convertible colors, red Galloways being every now and then pro-
duced from pure-bred black sire and dam.” But whoever heard
of a black Suffolk polled cow ?—which would be bound to appear
once in a while if the breed owed any origin to a black polled
breed. So that “an investigation of even a very limited nature is
sufficient to convince any one that the theory has been properly
exploded,” “that a breed of cattle, themselves hornless from their
earliest origin, needed a cross with another hornless breed in order
to make them polled.” :
I have carefully examined all the earliest authorities on the coun-
ties of Norfolk and Suffolk that could be expected to throw light
on this subject. These authorities are: Norfols—Nathaniel Kent,
“General View of Norfolk,’ 1794; William Marshall, “ Rural
Economy of Norfolk,” 1787; Arthur Young, 1804. Suffolk—
Arthur Young, “General View of Agriculture of Suffolk,” 1794;
and the following: Culley, “On Live Stock”; John Lawrence,
“ Cattle”? 1805; and Richard Parkinson, “Live Stock,” 1810.
The particulars given by these authorities need not be repea
here. Suffice it to say—as these notes are only required to g0
so far as will establish the correct origin of the polled breeds—
in none of these county reports is there any evidence to support
the assertion that the Red Polls owed any origin to the Galloway
Scot; in fact, “no allegation had ever been made in such well-
informed quarters” to such effect. Culley appears to have been
the genius who “ discovered ” this supposititious origin for a breed
already polled, and Lawrence, Parkinson, Henderson, Youatt ane
others have been content to serve up the same old fable without
examination—thus leaving a legacy of error to the Galloway histo-
rian, to his own detriment. ay
As to the claims of the Galloway, therefore, as being the origm
Derivation of the Domestic Polled Breeds. 801
even in part of the Suffolk, or any other polled race which were
polled before they were, the position may be illustrated thus: To
the name given to a certain garden weed, coltsfoot, whose flower
appears before the leaves, hence called “the son before the father.”
To the ideas expressed in the Rig-veda.' Indra is the principal
god of the Veda, who made Heaven and Earth, and the account
of whose origin is that he had “begotten his own father and
mother from his own body.” “Indra begat his parents” is exactly
the parallel of the claims of the Galloway.
The above may be said to be all that is known at present in
the best-informed quarters. I now am able to produce the last
and most conclusive item of testimony to this already well-forged
chain. This is derived from the “paleontology” of language;
by the existence, in the good old times, of a word used in Suffolk
to name the polled cattle pf the locality. That word was mooly,
meaning a polled cow. It was in use, according to old English
philologists, during and previous to 1750, as will be shown in the
chapter on Philology. This will illustrate the value of philology
as a source ofevidence. It occupies a similar and as exact a position
as “the testimony of the rocks.” That the word was of Suffolk
use in England and was a household word in those days is incon-
testible. It is therefore curious to know that it seems extinct
now, or unknown to such a widely informed student as Mr. G.
Gilbert, for in answer to my query he informed me he was totally
unaware of any local or provincial word used in the way indicated.
The very near equivalents of the word, as in the Irish and Gaelic
maol, and north of Scotland mooly, will be commented on again,
and they suggest important reflections.
The fact of the use of this word in these days in Suffolk is
Proof sufficient of the great antiquity of the cattle the word
described —an antiquity much greater than of a breed that never
had any such cognomen —as the Galloway.
But I offer another proof of the worth of this link of evidence
as satisfying our requirements in that respect. Let us jump over
to America, What do we find? That this same word mooly is in
Bio ey of the Rig-veda. By H. W. Wallis. Published by
India, lle Williams and Norgate, London.
nals. at does it Teach us? By Max Miiller. Funk and Wag-
802 History of Garden Vegetables.
universal, living, use to describe the polled cow in all her various
forms.
Mr. Euren, in his history of the breed in the Red Polled Herd
Book, Vol. I., very evidently was perfectly unconscious of the fact
of the claims of the word mooly to being an early Suffolk provin-
cialism. If he had, how more positive would have been the remark-
able'query he makes—showing how close his “ speculation ” came to
real exactitude ;—note he uses marks indicating the “ foreign” use
of the word: “‘Muley’ cattle have been in Virginia for a great
many years, and their descendants have also been uniformly polled.
. . . It would be of value to the students of the history of cattle
were search to be made respecting the introduction of polled stock
into America. It is recorded that many of the earlier settlers were
natives of Norfolk and Suffolk villages. May they not have taken
over polled cattle, which at that day were so numerous in Suffolk
and on the Norfolk borders?”
He does not suggest that these settlers, if they did not—the first
of them—take polled cattle, took the word mooly with them ; and,
finding that the cattle there, of various origins, then or subsequently
introduced, frequently coming polled, applied the word to them they
had been accustomed to.
HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.
BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, M.D.
(Continued from page 433.)
Ice Plant. Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L.
THE ice plant, from the Cape of Good Hope, was introduced
into Europe in 1727.! It is advertised in American $
lists? of 1881 as a desirable vegetable for boiling like spinage, °°
for garnishing. Vilmorin? says the thickness and slightly acid
1 Noisette. Man., 1829, 538.
2 Thorburn’s Cat., 1881.
3 Vilmorin. The Veg. Gard., 1885, 275.
History of Garden Vegetables. 803
flavor of the fleshy parts of the leaves have caused it to be used as
a fresh table vegetable for summer use in warm, dry countries. It
is, however, he adds, not without merit as an ornamental plant.
It is called in France ficoide glaciale, glaciale ; in Germany, sis-
kraut; in Flanders and Holland, ijsplant, ijskruid ; in Italy, erba
diaeciola ; in Spain, escarchosa, escarcha.!
Italian Corn Salad. Valerianella eriocarpa Desv.
This species occurs in gardens in two varieties. It has a lighter
green, somewhat longer leaf than the ordinary corn salad, slightly
hairy and a little dentate on the borders towards the base? It has
the same uses. It is described for American gardens in 1863.
Under its common name grosse mache it is noticed in France in
1829, and also as mache d’ Italie in 1824.4
Called in France mache d’ Italie, regence, grosse mache; in Ger-
many, italienischer ackersalat ; in Holland, italiansche koornsalad.
aleriana coronata Willd. is occasionally grown abroad as a salad
plant under the name of Italian corn salad.
Jerusalem Artichoke. Helianthus tuberosus L.
This plant was cultivated by the Huron Indians,’ and was in use
by the New England Indians at an early period. It reached Eu-
Tope in the early part of the seventeenth century, as it is not men-
tioned in Bauhin’s Phytopinax, 1596, and is mentioned in his
Pinax, 1623, where, among other names, he calls it “ Chrysanthe-
mum e Canada quibusdam, Canada & Artichoki sub terra, aliis.”
It is figured by Columna” in 161 6, and also by Laurembergius‘ in
1632, and Ray, 1686, is the first use I have found of the name
Jerusalem artichoke, but Parkinson uses the word in 1640, accord-
ing to Gray., In 1727 Townsend’ says it “is a Root fit to be eat
1 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 218.
s Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 325.
Burr, Field and Gard. Veg., 340.
* Noisette. Man., 1829; L’ Hort. Fran., 1824.
5 Asa Gray. Am. Agric., 1877, 142.
° Pickering. Ch. Hist., 749.
‘ Columna, Minus cognit. stirp. pars altera, 1616, 13.
Laurembergius. Apparat. Plant., 1632, 131.
* Townsend, seedsman, 1726, 23.
804 History of Garden Vegetables.
about Christmas when it is boil’d”; Mawe,' in 1778, says it is by
many esteemed ; Bryant, in 1783, says, “not much cultivated.”
In 1806 McMahon? speaks of it in American gardens, and calls it
“a wholesome, palatable food.” In 1863 Burr‘ describes varieties
with white, purple, red and yellow-skinned tubers.
The Jerusalem artichoke is called in France, topinambour, arti-
chaut du Canada, A. de Jerusalem, A. de terre, crompire, poire de
terre soleil vivace, tertifle, topinamboux ; in Germany, erdapfel, erd-
birne ; in Flanders, aardpeer ; in Denmark, jordskokken ; in Italy,
girasole del Canada, tartufoli; in Spain, namara pataca ; in Por-
tugal, topinambor, batata carvalha ;* in Bengali, bhramoka, soorjya-
mookhee.®
The history of the Jerusalem artichoke has been well treated by
Gray and Trumbull, in the American Journal of Science, May,
1877, and April, 1883. It was found in culture at the Lew Chew
islands about 1853.’
We offer a synonymy as below :—
Flos Solis Farnesianus sive Aster Peruanus tubercosus. Col., 1616, 13.
Helianthemum indicum tuberosum. Bauh. pin., 1623, 277. i
De Solis “ie tuberoso, seu flore Farnesiano Fabii Columne. Aldinus,
Battatas fei Cait Park. par., 1629, ex Gra
Adenes Canadenses seu flos solis glandulosus. Lauremb., 1682, 132.
Flos Solis pyramidalis, parvo flore, tuberosa radice, Heliotropium indi-
cum. r., 1633.
Peruanus ai flo ex Indiis tuberosus. Col. in Hern., 1651, 878, 881,
Potatoes Dadada. Coles, 1657, ex Phillips.
Canada & Artischokki sub terra. H. R. P., 1665, ex Gray.
Chrysanthemum latifolium Brasilianum. Bauh. prod., 1671, 70.
Chrysanthemum Canadense arumosum. Cat. H. L. B., 1672, ex Gray.
Helenium Canadense. Amman., 1676, ex Gray.
ee perenne majus fol, integris, americanum tuberum-
r., 1630, ex Mill dict.
Foii Artichoke. Ray, 1686, 835.
1 Mawe. Gard., 1778.
3 McMahon. Am. Gard. Cal., 1806.
t Burr. Field and Gard. Veg. of Am., 1863, 39.
5 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 561.
€ Perry’s Jap., ii., 44.
1 Birdwood. Veg. Prod. of Bomb., 165.
History of Garden Vegetables. 805
Corona solis parvo flore, tuberosa radice. Tourn., 1719, 489.
Helianthus radice tuberosa esculenta, Hierusalem Artichoke. Clayton,
739, ex Gronov.
Helianthus foliis ovato cordatis triplinervus. Gronov. virg., 1762, 129.
Helianthus tuberosus. Linn. sp.. 1763, 1277.
Kale. Brassica oleracea acephala D C.
The kales represent an extremely variable class of vegetable, and
have been under cultivation from a most remote period. What the
varieties of cabbage were that were known to the ancient Greeks it .
seems impossible to determine in all cases, but we can hardly ques-
tion but that some of them belonged to the kales. Many varieties
were known to the Romans. Cato,! who lived about B. c. 201,
describes the Brassice as: the levis, large, broad-leaved, large-
stalked ; the crispa or apiacon ; the lenis, small-stalked, tender, but
rather sharp-tasting. Pliny,? in the first century, describes the
Cumana, with sessile leaf and open head; the aricenwm, not excelled
in height, the leaves numerous and thick ; the Pompeianum, tall,
the stalk thin at the base, thickening among the leaves; the Bru-
tiani, with very large leaves, thin stalk, sharp savor; the Sabellica,
admired for its curled leaves, whose thickness exceeds that of the
stalk, of very sweet savor ; the Lacuturres, very large headed,
innumerable leaves, the head round, the leaves fleshy; the Triti-
anon, often a foot in diameter, and late in going to seed. -
I have not sufficient knowledge to give a complete history of the
kales. I can only review those races which I have had an oppor-
: tunity of studying, and this I will make as short as possible,
intending only to bring into form for further study.
I. The form of kale known in France as the Chevalier seems to
have been the longest* known, and we may surmise that its names
of chou caulier and caulet have reference to the period when the
word caulis, a stalk, had a generic meaning applying to the cabbage
Tace in general, and we may hence surmise that this was the com-
mon form in ancient times, in like manner as coles or coleworts in
more modern times imply the cultivation of kales. This word
coles or caulis is used in the generic sense, for illustration, by Cato,
Ie Script. Rei Rust., 1787, vol. i., p. 75.
ie ee Lib. xix., c. 41; Lib. xx., c. .
- P. Decandolle. Mem. on the Brassice, 1821, 7.
806 History of Garden Vegetables.
two hundred years B.c.; by Varro and Æmilius Macer in the first
century B.C.; by Columella the first century A. D.; by Palladius
in the third; by Vegetius in the fourth century A. D.; Albertus
Magnus in the thirteenth, ete. This race of the Chevaliers may
be quite reasonably supposed to be the levis of Cato, sometimes
called caulodem,? of no medicinal use.
- According to Decandolle,’ this race of Chevaliers has five princi-
pal sub-races, of which the following is an incomplete synonymy :—
i
Brassica levis. Cam. ma Sap 248; Matth. op., 1598, 366.
Br. vulgaris sativa. Ger., 1597, 244.
Cavalier branchu. De aa mem., 1821, 9.
Thousand-headed. Burr, 1863, 3, 236.
Chou branchu du Poitou. Viim, 1883, 135.
Chou mille tetes. Vilm. 1]
II. a. viridis.
Kol. Roszlin, 1550, 87.
Brassica., Tragus, 1352, 7
Brassica alba vulgaris. J. Ta 1651, ii., 829.
Chou vert commun. Decand. mem., 1821, 9.
Cow Cabbage. Burr, 1863, 232.
Chou cavalier. Vilm., 1883, 134.
Brassica vulgaris alba. Ohabr., 1677, 290.
II. b. rubra.
Brassica primum genus. Fuch., 1542, 413.
Br. rubra prima species. Lugd., 1587, 523.
Br. rubra, Ger., 1597, 244.
Br. rubra vulgaris. “a Baughin, 1651, ii., 831; Charb., 1877. 270.
Red cavalier. Decand. mem., 1821,
Flanders kale. Burr, 1863, 233.
Caulet de Flander. Vilm., 1883, 134.
III.
Brassica vulgaris sativa. Lob. obs., 1576, 122; ic., 1591, i., 243; Dod
1616, 621.
Br. alba vulgaris. Lugd., 1587, 520.
Brassica. Cast. Dur., 1817, 76.
Chou a fevilles de Chene. Decand. mem., 1821, 10.
Buda kale. Vilm., 1885, 141
IV. 4.
Brassica secundum genus. Fuch., 1542, 414
Br. fimbriata. Lob. obs., 1576, 124; ic., 1591, 247.
History of Garden Vegetables. 807
Br. sativa crispa. Ger., 1597, 244.
Br. crispa. Dod., 1616, 622.
Br. crispa lacinosa. J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 832.
Chou vert frise. Decand. mem., 1821, 10.
Tall Green Curled. Burr, 1863, 236.
Chou frise vert grand. Vil., 1883, 131.
Ve
Brassica crispa, seu apiana. Trag., 1552, 721.
Br. crispa Tragi. Lugd., 1587, 524.
Br, tenuifolia laciniata. Lob. ic., 1591, i., 246.
Br. selenoides. Dod., 1616, 622.
Br. tenuissima laciniata. J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 832.
Br. selenoides. Ger., 1597, 248.
Chou plume or Chou aigrette. Decand. mem., 1821, 11.
Ornamental kales of our gardens,
y:
Brassica tophosa. Ger., 1547, 246; J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 830.
Br. tophosa Tabernemontano. Chabr., 1677, 270.
Chou palmier. Decand. mem., 1821, 11 ; Vilm., 1883, 133.
These forms occur in many varieties, differing in degree only,
and of various colors, even variegated. In addition to the above
we may mention the proliferous kales, which also occur in several
varieties. The following synonyms refer to proliferation only, as
the plants in other respects are not resembling :—
Brassica asparagoides Dalechampii. Lugd., 1587, 522.
Brassica prolifera. Ger., 1597, 245.
Brassica prolifera crispa. Ger., 1597, 245.
Cockscomb kale, Burr, 1863, 232.
Chou frise prolifere. Vilm., 1883, 133.
II. The Dwarf Kales—Decandolle does not bring these into his
classification as offering true types, and in this perhaps he is right.
Yet olericulturally considered they are quite distinct. There are
but few varieties. The best marked is the Dwarf Curled, the
leaves falling over in a graceful curve and reaching the ground. It
can be traced through variations and varieties to our first class, and
hence it has been probably derived in recent times through a pro-
cess of selection, or through the preservation of a natural varia-
tion. We have now an intermediate type between the Dwarf
Curled and the Tall Curled forms in the intermediate Moss Curled.
808 On Certain Factors of Evolution.
III. The Portugal Kales—We have two sorts of kales that have
the extensive rib-system and the general aspect of the Portugal
cabbage. These are the Chou Brocoli and the chou frise de mos-
bach of Vilmorin. I must consider these as bearing the same rela-
tion to the Portugal cabbage that our kales bear to the heading
cabbages. Of their history I have ascertained nothing.
ON CERTAIN FACTORS OF EVOLUTION.'
BY ALPHEUS. S. PACKARD.
S° far as we are aware, Lamarck was the first naturalist to refer
the atrophy of eyes and loss of vision to disuse from a life in
darkness, as may be seen by the following extract from the chapter
in his Philosophie Zoologique, entitled “ De V’influence des circon-
stances sur les actions et les habitudes des animaux, et de celle des
actions et des habitudes de ces corps vivans, comme causes qul
modifient leur organisation et leurs parties.” This work appeared
in 1809, many years before the discovery of blind animals peculiar
to caves. f
“ Des yeux à la tête sont le propre d’un grand nombre d’animaux
divers, et font essentiellement partie du plan d’organisation des
vertébrés. Déjà néanmoins la taupe, qui, par ses habitudes, fait
trés-peu d’usage de la vue, n’a que des yeux trés-petits, et à peine
apparens, parce qu’elle exerce trés-peu cet organe.
“ I’ Aspalax d’Olivier (Voyage en Egypte et en Perse, I, pl.
28, fig. 2), qui vit sous terre comme la taupe, et qui yraisemblable-
ment s’expose encore moins qu’elle A la lumière du jour, a totale-
ment perdu Vusage de la vue ; aussi n’offre-t-il plus que des vestiges
de l’organe qui en est le siège ; et encore ces vestiges sont tout-à-fait
cachés sous la peau et sous quelques autres parties qui les recouvrent,
et ne laissent plus le moindre accès à la lumière.
“Le protée, reptile aquatique, voisin des salamandres par 88
rapports, et qui habite dans des cavités profondes et obscures qu
1 From advance sheets of an essay on Cave Animals of North America.
Mem. Nat. Acad. Sciences,
On Certain Factors of Evolution. 809
sont sous les eaux, n’a plus, comme |’Aspalax, que des vestiges de
Porgane de la vue; vestiges qui sont couverts et cachés de la même
maniére,
“Voici une considération décisive, relativement à la question
que j’agite actuellement.
“ La lumière ne pénètre point partout ; conséquemment, les ani-
maux qui vivent habituellement dans les lieux où elle n’arrive pas,
manquent d'occasion d’exercer l’organe de la vue, si la nature les
en a munis, Or, les animaux qui font partie d’un plan d’organisa-
tion, dans lequel les yeux entrent nécessairement, en ont df avoir
dans leur origine. Cependant puisqui’on en trouve parmi eux qui
sont privés de usage de cet organe, et qui wen ont plus que des
vestiges cachés et recouverts, il devient évident que Vappauvrisse-
ment et la disparition même de l’organe dont il s’agit sont des
résultats, pour cet organe, d’un défaut constant d’exercice (2d edit.,
i, p: 241).”
In his “ Origin of Species” Darwin, after claiming that “natural
selection would constantly aid the effects of disuse” in the case of
moles and the burrowing rodents, then remarks in regard to cave
animals: “ As it is difficult to imagine that eyes, though useless,
could be in any way injurious to animals living in darkness, I
attribute their loss wholly to disuse” (p. 142). On the next page
he writes: “By the time an animal had reached, after numberless
generations, the deepest recesses, disuse will on this view have more
or less perfectly obliterated its eyes, and natural selection will often
have effected other changes, such as an increase in the length of the
antenne or palpi, as a compensation for blindness.”
It may be that the struggle for existence goes on even in the
darkness of caves, and that the “ fittest” of the limited population
survive by reason of their adaptation to their untoward surround-
ings. How adverse to life of any sort caves are may be realized
when we consider that only the lowest plants, and only a very few of
those, live in caves, Without doubt the germs of fungi and the
seeds of the higher plants are carried into the caves by freshets in
subterranean streams and through sink-holes. Why, in spite of
darkness, we should not find more fungi even, and why one or
two of the green alge should not flourish in the pools and brooks
of caves, or why the seeds of the higher plants should not germi-
810 On Certain Factors of Evolution.
nate, even if the plants do not bear fruit, can only be explained by
the absence of light ; and perhaps this is an important cause of the
absence of all plant life in the ocean below a depth of about 300 to
500 fathoms, Certainly there are ample means for the colonization
of caves by vegetables; the temperature, moisture, and inorganic
food are more favorable than the sum total of conditions on alpine
summits or in the high polar regions, or in hot springs.
Animal life can apparently withstand greater physical obstacles
than vegetable. As regards the struggle for existence, it possibly
exists to a limited extent in cave animals. There is probably not
enough vegetable or decayed animal food for all the animals, and
some may die of hunger. The carnivorous beetles and Arachnida
perhaps have a less favorable chance to obtain living food than the
Crustacea, for the blind crayfish have a tolerable abundance of food
in the Cæcidotæa, perhaps the most abundant form found in caves
containing underground waters.
We may, with Darwin, for convenience, use the phrase “ natural
selection ” to express the process by which Whe cave fauna was pro-
duced, but such a term to our mind expresses rather the result of
a series of causes than a vera causa in itself. There is of course
no doubt but that many animals carried by different means into
caves cannot thrive there, and consequently die. It is only those
which have been able, by certain peculiarities of their life in the
upper world allied to cave existence, to adapt themselves to cave
conditions which permanently breed there. Such forms, it is con-
venient to say, have been by nature selected and are successful in
colonizing the darkest and most forbidding and apparently hopeless
corners in the earth’s crust. But such a phrase as “ natural selec-
tion,” we repeat, does not to our mind definitely bring before us
the actual working causes of the evolution of these cave organisms,
and no one cause can apparently account for such a result. There
is rather a complex assemblage of physical causes, all working
together, to secure a harmonious result. The most important and
potent of these causes, when we study them under such appreciable,
because so extraordinary, conditions as the physical features of cave
existence, would seem to be the following : os
1. Change in environment from light, even partial, to twilight
or total darkness, and involving diminution of food, and compensa-
tion for the loss of certain organs by the hypertrophy of others.
On Certain Factors of Evolution. 811
2. Disuse of certain organs.
3. Adaptation, enabling the more plastic forms to survive and
perpetuate their stock.
4. Isolation, preventing intercrossing’ with out-of-door forms,
thus insuring the permanency of the new varieties, species, or
genera.
5. Heredity, operating to secure for the future the permanence
of the newly originated forms as long as the physical conditions
remain the same.
Natural selection perhaps expresses the total result of the working
of these five factors rather than being an efficient cause in itself, or
at least constitutes the last term ina series of causes. Hence
Lamarckism in a modern form, or, as we have termed it, Neo-
lamarckism, seems to us to be nearer the truth than Darwinism
proper or “ natural selection.”
The factors of organic evolution such as we have mentioned are,
of course, theoretical, and the critic or unbeliever in a theory of
descent demands facts in demonstration of the truth of the deriva-
tion of cave animals. Of the facts we have ourselves observed, or
which have been observed by others, we will briefly summarize :—
1. The variations in Pseudotremia cavernarum and Tomocerus
eet found living near the entrance of caves in partial day-
ight.
2. The bleaching of Polydesmus and Machilis found living in
small caves; the blindness of Neotoma, or the wood-rat of Mam-
moth Cave; of fish found in wells and subterranean streams; the
atrophy of the mole’s optic nerves induced in one generation.
3. The larger size of the eyes of the young than in the adult
Troglocaris of Europe, and the blind crayfish of American caves;
Semper’s history of the atrophy of eyes in the parasitic Pinnothe-
res; eyes of Gammarus pulex affected after living in darkness; the
eyes of Gammaride in Lake Baikal becoming smaller the deeper
they live; the instability in the eyes of Cæcidotæa.
Tn a small cave near White’s Cave, and at a point about sixty
feet from the mouth, occurred a salamander (Spelerpes longicauda-
tus Green), which was apparently bleached, being nearly white, with
dark brown blotches. The common Cambarus bartonii occurs some-
what bleached in Mammoth Cave, and this may not be the result
812 On Certain Factors of Evolution.
of inheritance, but occurs in young hatched without the cave, and
afterwards carried in so as not to be exposed to the light, the shell
remaining pale as in the very young. Perfectly white, bleached
specimens of the common Polydesmus granulatus Say, occurred in
Indian Cave. The pale variety of Tomocerus plumbeus is possibly
the product of a single or at least very few generations; the white
and blind Porcellio found by Mr. Hubbard in Little Wyandotte
Cave, though possibly a true cave form, has not yet been found
elsewhere, and may have been the young of a normal, epigean spe-
cies. But the most striking instance is the bleached specimen of
Asellus communis from Lost River, referred to on pp. 15 and 33,
which, though white, had eyes of normal size: there is good reason
to suppose that these specimens were hatched in epigean waters, and
that being carried into Lost River when young, the pigment in its
skin, owing to absence of light, had failed to assume its normal dark
color.
A parallel case is that mentioned by R. Schneider*:—
“The author gives an account of the subterranean variety of
Gammarus pulex which is found at Clausthal. The first point of
interest is its pale color, pigment being so completely absent from
its body that it is milk-white and transparent; even the fat-cells,
which are intensely red or orange-yellow in the ordinary G. pulex,
are quite white. In the second place, the eye is not normally devel-
oped, but is in the first stage of reduction; the crystalline cones
show signs of degeneration, and the whole eye exhibits that ‘ meg-
alophthalmy,’ or proportionately greater size which is often the first
indication of loss. The pigment has also begun to be reduced, and
is of a dirty black, instead of a brownish color. The anterior pair
of antennæ exhibits elongation, owing to the increase in the number
of the joints.
“There is, as compared with the ordinary forms, a considerable
increase in the amount of calcareous deposits; and there is always
a considerable amount of iron-oxide in the contents of the intestin®,
whence the iron makes its way to various parts of the body.
“ Fries? suggests that experiments should be made on the eltec™
1 Unterirdische Gammarus von Clausthal, P. B. Ak. Berlin, 1885, P
1087; also, Abh. z. Programm k. Real-Gymnasiums Berlin, Ostern ;
Abstr. in Journal Roy, Mier. Soe. (2), vi., p. 248.
* Zool. Anzeiger, Aug., 1879, pp. 36, 37.
effects
On Certain Factors of Evolution. 813
of rearing normal, eyed Gammari in darkness, and refers to Hum-
bert’s statement that in the greater depths of Lake Baikal, with
an increase in depth of their habitat, there is an increasing lack
of development of the eyes in some Gammaride. Fries also
states that he himself had previously observed a decrease in the
pigment of the eyes in young examples of Gammarus pulex living
in darkness.”
Here should be cited the observations of Anton Stecker, who
states that Chermes, usually said to be eyeless, has rudimentary eyes,
represented by clear, somewhat transparent spots, the chitin forming
them being devoid of the granulations covering the rest of the
shield,
“ Each cornea is supplied by a large and well-developed optic
nerve, proceeding from an optic ganglion in connection with the
brain. But the layer of crystalline rods was wholly absent. About
30 to 35 per cent. of the specimens of Chermes cimicoides examined
possessed these eye-spots; in the remaining 65 to 70 per cent. they
were absent, as well as the optic nerves; while there was only one,
or even no recognizable rudiment of an optic ganglion. He also
found that the offspring of parents, both of which had eyes, were
themselves provided with them; but that if either the father or
the mother were blind, the young were also blind, having at most
a feeble indication of optic lobes. Dr. Stecker considers this a most
instructive case of the gradual atrophy of an organ by disuse owing
to the influence of changed conditions. There can be little doubt
that the ancestors of Chermes possessed well-developed eyes; the
first steps in the retrogressive process was the loss of the cornea
and cones, the optic nerve and ganglion remaining after the true
percipient apparatus had gone.” !
Here is a fertile field for careful and long-continued observa-
tions on animals reared in different degrees of darkness. Such
experiments will afford a crucial test of the theory of rapid evo-
lution of genera and species due to sudden changes in the environ-
ment,
It is evident that physiological experiments are needed as well
as embryological studies, to throw further light on the origin of
cave animals, The blind-fish, blind crayfish, and Cæcidotæa,
1 Morp. Jahrbuch, iv., 279, 1878; Journ. Roy. Mier. Soc., ii., 146, 1879.
814 On Certain Factors of Evolution.
which might be reared in dark cellars, should be observed for a
series of generations, to ascertain whether by breeding the eyes
cannot be restored, and the species by artificial means be induced
to revert to its ancestral type. The embryology of the cave bee-
tles, with or without rudimentary eyes, of the eyeless spiders and of
Myriapods, of the Cæcidotæa, and of the blind crayfish and blind-
fish should be carefully worked out as regards the presence of
organs of vision in a rudimentary state, though we should hardly
expect to find rudimentary eyes in Anophthalmus when larva and
pupa do not possess them.
Isolation as a Factor in the Origin of Cave Animals.—When any
cave, such as Mammoth or Wyandotte, ete., is once colonized by
emigrants from the upper world, and the colonists becoming adapted
to the new conditions environing them, have lost their eye-sight,
or even all traces of eyes, and the new forms thus established
begin to breed true to their recently acquired characteristics, it 18
obvious that this process of in-and-in breeding will continue as
long as the new forms live in total darkness and are isolated from
the allied forms or their eyed ancestors of the upper world of light.
Though a subordinate factor, isolation is certainly of no little import-
ance in securing the stability of the new species and genera. It is
evident that if no stragglers from the upper world, as species of
Trechus to interbreed with the cave Anophthalmi, species of Cho-
leva to cross with Adelops or Bathyscia, or species of Ceuthophilus
to mix with the true cave Ceuthophili, or species of Myriapods or
Arachnida to intercross with the cave forms, then the latter will
tend to remain as fixed as we now find them to be. In the case
of the crayfish of Mammoth Cave, the normal Cambarus bartoni,
introduced at times of heavy rains or freshets into the cave, ®
not seldom found living in company with Orconectes pell
the blind form, but belonging to a different section of the genus 4
regards the shape of its gonopods or first male abdominal appen-
dages, and being of much larger size, it is probably incapable of
fertilizing the eggs of the blind form, even if the latter, timid
sensitive to the least disturbance of the water, should allow itself
to be approached by the larger-eyed form. It is also probable
that Cæcidotæa stygia is seldom, if ever, brought in contact with
Asellus communis, which abounds in the pools and streams through-
On Certain Factors of Evolution. 815
out the cave region. I have never found a stray Asellus even
partly bleached and with diminished eyes in any caves, nor seen
such specimens in collections made by others, though they may
yet be found. Whether living in caves or wells fed by subter-
ranean streams, the bleached, eyeless, or nearly eyeless, forms breed
true to their type, and show no signs of intercrossing with luco-
philous forms.
Should, however, these cave forms be placed in such circum-
stances as to be able to mix or intercross with their epigæan allies,
which are in all probability the very species to which they owe their
origin, there would with little doubt be a constant tendency to
revert to the ancestral eyed forms, and we should constantly find
certain individuals with visual organs better developed, and with a
darker integument, serving as connecting links, Such links may
have been common enough when the caves were first formed and
colonized, and in some species, as Pseudotremia cavernarum, they
frequently occur at the present time, but, as a rule, owing to lon
isolation or seclusion, and the consequent impossibility of intercross-
ing, they are now rare.
But as circumstances are now, the total darkness, the temperature,
the degree of dryness or the moisture, and other physical conditions
remaining the same, the eave fauna is almost completely isolated
from that of the upper world; indeed, far more so than the deep-
sea fauna of the ocean or of lakes, or the faunas of deserts or of the
polar regions, or the alpine inhabitants of lofty mountain summits.
We thus realize that isolation may be a not unimportant factor in
securing permanence of type, after the typical characters have once
been established through adaptation and heredity.
After reflecting upon the influence of isolation upon cave animals
as securing permanence of varietal, specific, and generic characters,
one is led to realize as never before the importance of geographical
isolation in general as a faetor in preventing variation after the
organisms have once become adapted to their peculiar environment,
whether dependent on temperature, soil, humidity, or dryness, the
absence of light, or any other appreciable characteristic in their
Surroundings. We know also that the existing desert, deep-sea,
and polar faunas are the product of Quaternary times; that they
Were nearly contemporaneous in origin with the cave faune,
816 On Certain Factors of Evolution.
though the deep-sea faunæ may date from the cretaceous period.
Finally, I may quote from Darwin’s “Origin of Species” the
following extract, which applies (though he did not make it appli-
cable to any special case) with peculiar force to cave fauna: “ If,
however, an isolated area be very small, either from being sur-
rounded by barriers, or from having very peculiar physical condi-
tions, the total number of the inhabitants will be small, and this
will retard the production of new species through natural selection,
by decreasing the chances of the appearance of favorable individual
differences ” (Fifth edition, New York, p. 105).
Heredity.—The action of this all-powerful factor in evolution is
as constant in the underground world, and as difficult to compre-
hend in considering cave life, as that of the upper regions. It begins
to act, of course, with the earliest generations, and continues to act
with, so to speak, increasing force and precision as time goes on and
the characteristics induced by a life in total darkness becomes more
and more fixed.
It is evident that heredity has acted longest in those insects, such
as the species of Anophthalmus and Adelops, whose larve are
lacking in all traces of eyes and optic nerves and lobes. Heredity
has here acted with unabated force throughout every stage of the
metamorphosis ; and, it will be a matter of great interest to ascer-
tain whether any traces of the eyes"*may be met with in the embryo
of these forms,
On the other hand, in those Arthropods in which the brain and
optic nerves have persisted, with rudiments of the eyes (eg,
Orconectes), where the eyes are larger in the young, it would seem
as if heredity had been acting through a shorter period, and conse-
quently, so to speak, with less momentum.
In the case of Machærites, in which the females only of certain
species are said to be blind, while the males have well-developed
eyes, we have an apparent exception to the continuous action °
heredity ; an exception paralleled, however, by animals living ”
the upper world, such as Termes, whose workers and soldiers are
eyeless, though the males and females are eyed. They per haps
are twilight species rather than inhabitants of totilly dark localities
in caves, and those living in twilight may intercross with those
On Certain Factors of Evolution. 817
inhabiting the darker regions, and such a case as this, remarkable
as it would appear, does not affect the general rule, that animals
living in total darkness and never living in twilight, nor inter-
crossing with twilight forms, are eyeless, or at least blind.
Nor does the case of Hadencecus, the cave cricket, with well-
developed eyes and brains, affect the argument ; for this is essen-
tially a twilight form, though migrating to regions of total darkness
and abounding there. The same may be said of the cave species of
Ceuthophilus. A parallel case may be that of Chologaster as
compared with Amblyopsis, the former living out of caves in ditches
as well as in wells and caves.
J udging by the following statement, so eminent a naturalist as
Professor Semper denies that heredity acts in the case of the mole.
He says; :
“ This almost total blindness in the mole is the result solely of
complete degeneration of the optic nerve, so that the images which
are probably formed in the eye itself can never be transmitted to
the animal’s consciousness. Occasionally, however, the mole even
can see a little, for it has been found that both optic nerves are not
ways degenerate in the same individual, so that one eye may
remain in communication with the brain while the other has no
connection with it. In the embryo of the mole, however, and
without exception, both eyes are originally connected with the brain
by well-developed optic nerves, and so theoretically efficient. This
may indeed be regarded as a perfectly conclusive proof that the
blind mole is descended from progenitors that could see ; it would
Seem, too, to prove that the blindness of the fully grown animal is
the result not of inheritance, but of the directly injurious effects of
darkness on the optic nerve in each individual.” }
It may be objected, however, that each mole certainly inherits a
tendency to weakness and atrophy of the optic nerves, just as the
children of consumptive or strumous parents inherit a tendency to
those diseases, and that when the conditions are favorable the disease
manifests itself. We know there have been many generations of
blind or partially blind moles, and it would be strange if heredity
did not ata certain age act in such a case, and would not for at
least a few generations even if the moles were kept out of the dark-
1 Animal Life, etc., pp. 79, 80.
é
818 On Certain Factors of Evolution.
ness. We have in the atrophy of the optic nerves of the mole a
parallel case in the blind Myriapod Pseudotremia cavernarum,
where the eyes survive but the optic nerve is wanting, as also in a
less marked degree in some of the individuals of Cæcidotæa stygia.
The study of the conditions of existence in caves is of special
value, because such conditions are so unusual and abnormal and the
results upon certain organs so easily appreciated. It is by a study
of life under unusual conditions that the attention is aroused and
interest is excited, and after acquiring experience in dealing with
the more palpable, because somewhat abnormal, circumstances under
which organisms exist, we can then more easily observe the effects
of changes of ordinary conditions upon the organism.
From a study of cave life, of organisms existing in saline and in
heated waters, of plants and animals. exposed to great cold in alpine
or polar regions, of those living in hot, dry deserts, we can turn to
an examination of the results of adaptation to a parasitic mode of
life. The strange modifications of form, owing to disuse, in internal
as well as external parasites of different orders and classes, the
change of host necessitated, and the intensity of the struggle for
existence in animals living under such exceptional conditions,
embryology proving that they have arisen from animals of normal
organization,—such studies as these are of fundamental importance
in a discussion of the origin of species and higher categories.
Moreover, the study of the results of the incoming and cessation of
the Glacial epoch, the effects on life arising from the elevation and
depression of the land, involving not only change of land surfaces,
but a change of climate,—it is by a study of such marked changes
as these in the conditions of life that we are prepared to examine
the more subtle causes of variation throughout the organic world
in general,
After the foregoing pages were written we read with much
interest Mr. Herbert Spencer’s recent essays entitled “The Factors
of Organic Evolution.”! While that author, it appears to Us, lays
too great stress on Dr. Erasmus Darwin’s views, as compared with
Lamarck’s ; the author of the Philosophie Zoologique having been
a professional botanist and zoologist as well as a naturalist of the
1 New York, 1887, reprinted from the Nineteenth Century for April
and May, 1886,
On Certain Factors of Evolution. 819
first rank, it is noteworthy that he sees clearly that natural selection
is not the sole factor in organic evolution, as will be seen by the
general drift of his essays, by his quoting with approval Huxley’s
significant remark that “Science commits suicide when it adopts a
creed,” and by the following extracts from his own essays :—
“But now, recognizing in full this process brought into clear
view by Mr. Darwin, and traced out by him with so much care
and skill, can we conclude that, taken alone, it accounts for organic
evolution? Has the natural selection of favorable variations been
the sole factor? On critically examining the evidence we shall
find reason to think that it by no means explains all that has to be
explained” (p. 9),
During that earlier period, when he was discovering the multitu-
dinous cases in which his own hypothesis afforded solutions, and
simultaneously observing how utterly futile in these multitudinous
cases was the hypothesis propounded by his grandfather and
Lamarck, Mr. Darwin was, not unnaturally, almost betrayed into
the belief that the one is all-sufficient and the other inoperative.!
But in the mind of one usually so candid and ever open to more
evidence there naturally came a reaction. The inheritance of
functionally produced modifications, which, judging by the passage
quoted above concerning the views of these earlier inquirers, would
seem to have been at one time denied, but which, as we have seen,
was always to some extent recognized, came to be recognized more
and more, and deliberately included as a factor of importance.
In his references to the works and opinions of other naturalists
Mr. Spencer confines himself almost exclusively to those of Mr.
Darwin, who always opposed, and, it must be confessed, with less
than his usual candor and fairness, the views of Lamarck as to the
influence of a change in the environment upon organisms.”
It seems singular that Mr. Spencer should not be acquainted
1 It is surprising to read in Darwin’s Life, by his son, the expressions
showing his lack of appreciation of Lamarck and his work; Darwin seems
m the first to have been strongly prejudiced against Lamarck’s
views, and never to have done them justice.
* In the Origin of Species (p. xiv., note) Darwin writes, as quoted by
Spencer: “It is curious how largely my grandfather, Dr. Erasmus
Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous grounds of opinion of
ago tg in his ‘Zoonomia’ (vol. i., pp. 500-510), published in 1794”
p. Je
820 On Certain Factors of Evolution.
with the work of those who have brought together certain facts
bearing on the physical factors of evolution.! The principal fac-
tors referred to by Mr. Spencer are use and disuse and the influence
of light. In one place he does in concrete language sum up these
agencies as follows :—
“The growth of a thing is effected by the joint operation of
certain forces on certain materials; and when it dwindles there is
either a lack of some materials or the forces co-operate in a way
different from that which produces growth. ... . That is to say,
growth, variation, survival, death, if they are to be reduced to the
forms in which physical science can recognize them, must be
expressed as effects of agencies definitely conceived—mechanical
forces—light, heat, chemical affinity, etc.” (pp. 39, 40).
On page 70 Mr. Spencer remarks :—
“ But nevertheless, as we here see, natural selection could operate
only under subjection. It could do no more than take advantage
of those structural changes which the medium and its contents
initiated.”
Again, on page 73, Spencer suggests that natural selection, 1m
order to act, must have had a limited number of organisms upon
which to operate? As he remarks :— :
“Though natural selection must have become increasingly active
when once it had got a start, yet the differentiating action of the
medium never ceased to be a co-operator in the development of
these first animals and plants.”
: In the writer’s Introduction to the Standard Natural History, 1885,
under the head of Evolution (pp. 1 and Ixii.), he has endeavored to bring
together references to the different authors who have insisted on ee
which are in the line of those first suggested by Lamarck, @ phase :
evolution which we have called Neolamarckianism. The aathors e
Europe, Semper, Kölliker, Wagner, Martins, Plateau, Weismann, and
rn, and in this country Haldeman, Leidy, Wyman, Clark, Cope
Hyatt, Walsh, Allen, W. H. Edwards, Dall, and the writer. ee
2 This point is one which the writer has also made and pon a A
over twelve years ago in a communication to the Nation, holding
it is an important objection to the theory of natural selection, the aed
nature of which involves the existence of a world already stocked W m
life forms. What the theory of evolution should explain is the pcm
these first ordinal and class forms. Given even a scanty fauna, isore ia
members of different orders and classes, and it is comparatively easy
account for the origin of the later more numerous descendants.
Editors’ Table. 821
Finally, Mr. Spencer makes the following important admission :—
“This general conclusion brings with it the thought that the
phrases employed in discussing organic evolution, though conve-
nient and indeed needful, are liable to mislead us by veiling the
actual agencies. That which really goes on in every organism is
the working together of component parts in ways conducing to the
continuance of their combined actions in presence of things and
actions outside, some of which tend to subserve and others to
destroy the combination. The matters and forces in these two
groups are the sole causes properly so called. The words ‘ natural
selection’ do not express a cause in the physical seuse. They
express a mode of co-operation among causes, or rather, to speak
strictly, they express an effect of this mode of co-operation ” (p. 40).
Here we have frankly intimated what the Neolamarckian has for
years insisted on, that the phrase “ natural selection” is not a vera
causa, but rather expresses the results or effects of the co-operation
of a number of factors in organic evolution. In the case of too
many naturalists the dogma or creed of natural selection has, it
Seems to us, tied their hands, obscured their vision, and prevented
their seeking by observation and experiment to discover, so far as
human intelligence can do so, the tangible, genuine, efficient
actors of organic evolution.
EDITORS’ TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY.
The bringing into cultivation of the arid regions of the United
States would increase the agricultural resources of the nation
by one-third. The man who should devise a successful
method of doing this would be one of the benefactors of his
kind and country. The region to be thus reclaimed includes a wide
strip extending north and south, east of the Rocky Mountains; a
large part of the drainage basin of the Rio Grande; the hydro-
graphic basin of the Great Colorado, and the Great Basin of Utah
and Nevada, Small portions of all these regions are at present
822 Editors’ Table.
rendered productive by irrigation, and give an earnest of the great
possibilities which await the entire region. The productiveness of
the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada would be equal to that of the
most favored of temperate regions of the earth were water only
accessible, as the results of irrigation by the Mormons and others
have demonstrated.
The attempt to supply the lack of water by artesian wells has
proven successful only in limited localities, and it has been long
evident that some other source of supply must be looked for. Major
J. W. Powell having given the subject his attention for many years,
has at leached a solution as nearly adequate as the circumstances
permit. He has proposed to Congress that the U. S. Government
dam up the waters of the streams and rivers which issue from the
various Rocky Mountain ranges, and thus accumulate their waters
for a wholesale system of irrigation. an
There appears to be nothing impracticable about this proposition.
The manner in which the rivers issue from the Rocky Mountains
in narrow canyons seems to be well adapted for the execution of
such an enterprise. The artificial closing of the canyons of the
Platte and Arkansas on the east, of the Rio Grande on the south,
and of the Green and Gunnison on the west, would seem to present
no great engineering difficulties, and immense bodies of water would
be thus secured for purposes of irrigation. The benefits to agri
culture resulting would be immense, and regions now almost useless
to mankind, would become well populated. Some large regions
would, however, not be reached by this system, especially a great
part of the Great Basin. ;
Congress has appropriated $100,000 towards this important
project, to be expended under the direction of Major Powell. Pcs
observe with pleasure that Major Powell regards this enterprise ~
entirely distinct from the U. S. Geological Survey. We hope he
will continue to resist the attempt of some members of the ghee
House to saddle the expense of this undertaking on the Geology
Survey ; otherwise we will have another and gigantic illastrase®
of a purely scientific enterprise swamped by the utilitarianism
which is so rampant and all-absorbing in this country.
Geography and Travel. 823
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL!
Asta.—Lieut. Younghusband’s journey through Central Asia
and over the Mustagh Pass.—Subsequent to his sojourn in Man-
churia, in company with Messrs. Fulford and James, Lieut. Young-
husband undertook, and successfully accomplished, an adventurous
Journey across Central Asia and thence into Hindostan by way of
the Mustagh Pass, which had not previously been crossed by any
European. His route from Pekin to Chinese Turkistan was the
steppes. The Great Wall, which isa magnificent affair near Pekin,
has on the Mongolian frontier dwindled to a miserable mud wall
hot twenty feet high, with gaps in it often from a quarter to half a
mile in width,
Che Mongols, though a strong and hearty people, are said to have
entirely lost their old warlike spirit, largely in consequence of the
policy of the Chinese Government, which encourages the males to
me Lamas. Sixty per cent. of the men are said to be now -
enrolled among these non-fighting celibates. Chinese immigrants
are Invading Mongolia as they have done Manchuria, and are taking
to Mongolian habits sufficiently to, in some cases, fatten sheep for
e Pekin market. At Kuei-hua-cheng, an important place of
trade with Mongolia, camels were hired for the transit of the desert
to Hami. After crossing the Galpin Gobi, Mr. Younghusband
passed along the southern part of the Hurku Hills, crossing Pre-
Jevalsky’s route at the Bortson well. For 190 miles the way lay
Over a pan lying between the Hurku range and a similar but
rather lower range to the south of it. Near the end of the Hurku
range, which here attains a height of about 8,000 feet, there is a
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa.
824 General Notes.
curious line of sand-hills attaining a height of 900 feet, and some
forty miles in length, evidently formed by the wind driving the
desert sand up into the hollow between the two rocky ranges.
depression of about eighty miles separates the Hurku range from
the out-lying spurs of the Altai. The Altai range is here perfectly
barren, the upper part formed of bare rock, while the lower is a
continuous slope of débris. The cold winds of winter and the fierce,
sun of summer crumble the rocks, but the lack of rainfall causes
the fragments to lie where they fall. After crossing the desert of
Dzungaria, the Tian-Shan range was traversed at a height of 8,000
feet above the sea. The 1,255 miles between Kuei-hua-cheng and
Hami were accomplished in seventy days. From Hami the ei
passed through Pichan, Turfan, Karashar, Kuchar, Aksu, and Us
Turfan, along the valley of the Aksu river, across the Belowti Pass
(11,000 feet) and over the plain called the Syrt, to Kashgar, and
thence to Yarkand. Here Lieut. Younghusband determined to
attempt the Mustagh Pass, which is the shortest way into Kashmir,
but has latterly fallen into disuse because of the raids of the Kanjut
robbers. The Tupa Dawan Pass, a very easy one, 10,400 feet high,
was crossed, and the valley of the Tisnaf, a tributary of the Yar-
kand, ascended. The next pass was that of Chiragh Saldi, after
which the valley of the Yarkand was reached. This river here
ows due west, but afterwards turns north to Yarkand.
On leaving Yarkand the party ascended the Surukwat stream to
the Aghil Dawan range, which, after passing two more gorges, rose
like a wall in front of them. Fortunately they struck the right
path, and after some winding among the spurs, crossed the ia
through a great gap, over a long gravel slope. From a hill beyon
the summit of this pass, standing at a height several hundred ve
above the top of Mont Blanc, the great Karakoram or Musta
range, forming the water-shed between the rivers that flow into the
Indian Ocean and those of Central Asia, was visible as a succession
of needle peaks like hundreds of Matterhorns, rising several ee
sands of feet higher still. Mr. Younghusband estimates the Ag te
Dawan range at some sixteen to seventeen thousand feet. From 1
he descended to the Shaksgam river, hitherto unknown to An
phers, though nearly equal in volume to the Yarkand, of whic v
is a tributary. Leaving this river, the Sarpo Laggo, 4 strea d
flowing from the glaciers of the Mustagh Pass, was ascended, a
soon a full view was obtained of the second highest mounta 3
the world, then known only by the surveyors’ designation of x
but since named by Gen. J. T. Walker, Peak Godwen-Awet :
At this point serious difficulties commenced. There are two a
tagh Passes, The new one, which had been found after the a
donment of the old pass on account of the accumulation of sige
ound to be impassible for the same reason, so an attempt was
Geography and Travel. 825
to cross by the old pass, leaving the ponies behind. Through deep
soft snow, ata level of 19,000 feet, the travelers labored on till
they reached the summit, whence no way of descent appeared save
by crossing an icy slope to a cliff too precipitous for ice or snow to
lodge upon it, and by descending this cliff to more icy slopes below
it. By making a rope out of every available material, and by
hewing steps, the descent was at last accomplished without serious
accident, only to find themselves on an extensive glacier full of
crevasses. At night they emerged upon a dry spot, but on the next
day they crossed the great Baltoro Glacier, and it took two days
more before they reached the village of Askoli. Supplies were sent
back to the coolies with the ponies, and seven weeks later this part
of the caravan reached Skardo by the Karakoram Pass route.
Arrica.—Brrrish Basuro Lanp.—The August issue of the
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society contains a map and
an account of that part of Basuto Land that was saved to the Basuto
in 1868. It is bounded by the Orange Free State, Natal, and Cape
Colony. From the first of these it is divided for 130 miles by the
Caledon river, and the country between this stream and the Dra-
kensberg has been known to Europeans for some fifty years, while
the larger section of the district, comprising the basin of the head-
waters of the Orange river, has been little explored. The Drakens-
berg, which continues northward from Basuto Land into the Trans-
vaal, appears to have originally been a sandstone plateau eight to
ten thousand feet in height, the upper ‘stratum of coarse friable rock
sloping to the south and west, but falling away in perpendicular
cliffs to the eastward. The range is now everywhere intersected by
streams which have cut courses for themselves two to three thou-
sand feet below the normal level of the mountains, A swamp about
a mile across, at an elevation of 9,560 feet, gives rise to the Sengu,
.
ushman is shown victorious. He is drawing the bow with tiny
hands, or balancing himself on mapay feet, rg ean the assagai.
big hands, fleeing on calfless legs stuck like broom-handles into the
middle of their feet, and in the rear appear Bushwomen and boys.
ving herds of horses and cattle, the spoils of victory.
826 General ‘Notes.
Mr. J. THomson’s TRAVELS IN Morocco.—Mr. Joseph
Thomson is now traveling in Morocco, where by cleverly-planned
excursions he has entered the mountain fastnesses and done more
than any previous traveler. From Demnat he made two interesting
trips into the lower ranges, and visited some remarkable caves and
ruins, as well as one of the most wonderful natural bridge-aqueduets
in the world. He then made a dart across the main axis of the Atlas
to the district of Tiluit in the basin of the Draa. As the tribes
further west were in revolt, he was compelled to return to the
northern plains. He then crossed the mountains by a pass a little
south of Jebel Tizah, and reached the Gindafy safely. After a trip
up a wonderful cafion, and the ascent of a mountain, whence the
party were compelled to return, though by a new route, to their
starting point. Mr. Thomson again crossed the mountains, and
with no small difficulty and danger ascended the highest peak of
the Atlas range north of Amsiviz, to a height of 12,500 feet. He
then returned to Morocco, whence he wrote to the London Times
on July 22. He proposes to make his way up the Urika river,
and to work round to Mogador. .
Tur GERMAN East AFRICAN PossEsstons.—The Mittheilungen
of the Vienna Geographical Society for June has an article by Dr.
Hans Meyer on the German East African Protectorate, which is
said to comprise the East African coastlands, terraces, and plateaus
for a distance north and south of 550 miles, and east and west of
150 miles. The southern boundary is the Rovuma river, and a con-
ventional line run from thence to Lake Nyassa, while to the north
it is conterminous with the British Protectorate, from which it 18
separated by a line passing from Lake Victoria Nyanza in an
oblique direction along the north foot of Kilima-njaro to the ee
at about 5 S. Lat., below Mombasa. It thus includes the head-
waters of streams flowing to the Nile, Congo, and Zambesi.
Sons, Great Russell street, London, have recently published a
which has considerable interest to all who study early Amer!
geography. Johann Schöner, Professor of Mathe:
pages dated 1523, and thus later than the two first of his gen,
which were dated 1515 and 1520. This pamphlet oont Magellan
—discoveries that are not shown on Schöner’s earlier globes. J
1885 Mr. Stevens found a fac-simile of this very globe in os er’s
logue of a Munich bookseller. The reproduction of agati
pamphlet and globe in fac-simile, with a translation and an 1”
Geography and Travel. 827
ductory sketch of the early historical geography of America, together
with a life of Schöner, and fac-similes of his earlier globes, consti-
tute the present volume. In Schéner’s globe of 1523 America is
for the first time shown as a continent, instead of being broken up
into many islands, as is the case in all earlier globes. Florida is
for the first time named in print, the Moluccas have found their
real place, as have many of the real isles of the sea, while all the
Se and bogus elements of American geography have disap-
peared.
Frencu Guiana.—M., Coudreau, who has recently returned to
Cayenne, after a sojourn of eleven months in the western Tumac-
umac range, between the sources of the Itany and the Camopy,
states that the country is a magnificent one, and the climate not bad.
The party, having exhausted their provisions, lived out in the open
air with the Indians, and led the same life with them. M. Coudreau
me so popular with the Rucuyennes that he induced the pamen-
chi of the tribe and four of his men to accompany him to Cayenne,
where their arrival caused a sensation, and where the Governor made
them very weicome.
- Coudreau has discovered the existence in undoubted French
territory of sixteen new tribes of Indians, forming a group of 20,-
ersons. These Indians are sedentary, and have attained a
certain degree of civilization.
GEOGRAPHICAL News.—The Bolletino of the Italian Gaoir
phical Society contains an account of the travels of Leonardo Fea
in Tenasserim, The explorer ascended Mt. Mulai, the culminating
Baron H. von Schwerin recently gave an account to the Swedish
Geographical Society of his mpap to the Congo region, where
he explored the basin of the nkissi, one of the tributaries of the
ngo, and made from Banabna an excursion southward into the
gountry of the Mushirongi, never before visited by a European,
He also made a trip into the lands of Kakondo and Kabinda,
north of the Congo mouth.
828 General Notes.
The population of the Caucasus, which in 1858 was only 4,526,-
000, had in 1880 risen to 5,870,000, the immigration of Cossacks
and Russian peasants more than counterbalancing the emigration,
while all districts have a regular excess of births over deaths. The
Russian element is now in excess of any other, consisting of 1,410,-
000, while the Georgians are but 1,150,000 in number, and the Les-
ghiens and mountaineers have diminished since 1858 from 1,400,-
000 to 1,050,000.
Lukoma, the principal island in Lake Nyassa, though only four
and a half miles long and two and a half wide, contains 2,500
inhabitants. Ula, or witchcraft, of the kind described with much
graphic force by Mr. Rider Haggard in one of his earlier works,
prevails and is a great curse in the island.
Herr Aug. Fitzau (Deutsche Geographische Blatter) gives an
account of the West African seaboard between Morocco and the
Senegal. Though Arabic is the prevalent language, he believes
that the old Hamitic or Berber is still the chief ethnic element.
The writer describes in detail the coast between Agadir and St.
Louis.
Count Teleki has ascended Mt. Kenia to a height of 15,000 feet,
and believes its elevation to be greater than that of Kilima-njaro.
Corrections made by Dr. H. Heyer himself in the barometrical
observations taken during his ascent of Kilima-njaro prove that he
did not reach within 820 feet of the summit of the mountain.
Petermann’s Mitteilungen (Part 5) gives an account of a partial
exploration of the small and little-known group of the era
Islands, seven in number, and situated in 4.35 N. Lat., and 127. d
E. Long. Only three of the islets—Karaton, re 000
the east side of Karaton. Mengampit has a hill, 800 feet high, in
its centre, and is well wooded, but Karaton is flat.
GEOLOGY AND PALAZONTOLOGY.
Tae Exrixcr Scueroperms.—By reason of the deviation from
copy of the note on “Some Extinct Scleroderms” in the AME
NATURALIsT for May, 1888, p. 448, it might be infe h
were more extinct genera of Balistids than are really kama ea
anes (1) Balistomorphus Gill (=Acanthoderma Ag. 18 errs
traine 1835) and (2) Bucklandium Koenig (= @lyptocep
Ag. 1843, fide Pictet, not Gottsche 1835).
Geslogy and Paleontology. 829
The part of Professor Zittel’s valuable “ Handbuch der Palæon-
tologie” (III. Band, 2. Lief.) describing the Teleost fishes, has
recently appeared. The correlation between the morphology and
systematic relations of existing and extinct fishes has been obscured
and sometimes contradicted by the adoption of the very misleading
and unscientific classification of Giinther. The anachronistic idea
that there is near relationship between Plectognath and Ganoid,
fishes is consequently likewise still adhered to.! This idea has been
so thoroughly exploded by several writers and its fundamental error
is so obvious to any one who considers the evidence and compares
the structural characteristics of the various types, that surprise must
be felt that so intelligent a paleontologist as Professor Zittel clings
to it. There can be little, if any, doubt to any competent observer
who compares the skeletons and other parts of Scleroderm fishes
with the Teuthidids and Siganids that the views of Dareste, Cope
and others are correct, that the Scleroderms have originated from
the same stock as the ‘feuthidids, and that consequently they are
removed further than most fishes, and further even than the
related Teuthidoidea, from the Ganoids. The genus Protobalistum
is adopted by Professor Zittel with the expanded limits recently
assigned to it by Baron de Zigno. To those who adopt Dr.
Giinther’s views of the classificatory value of characters, the
demonstration of the erroneous association of the forms embra
formes, A. cotto-scombriformes, and A. blenniiformes. Now, just such
differences as have been used to separate those groups are foun
true Scleroderm.
The diagnostic characters of the several families of Scleroderms
are as follows :— l
ROTOBALISTID£Z.—Scleroderms? with the spinous dorsal very
elongated and composed mostly of long spines separated by consid-
bata seese Fische zeichnen sich besonders durch ihre eigenthümliche,
ld aus harten rhomboidi chen Schuppen, bald aus knöchernen
Tn, Stacheln sesi Platten bestehende Hautbedeckung, sowie
! s. Agassiz rech-
De. sie noch zu den Ganoiden, mit denen sie in der That mancherlei
ebereinstimmung aufweisen.” Zittel, op. cit., p. 257.
bu It is possible that the Protebalistids may prove to be not Scleroderms
t Acanthopterygians.
830 General Notes.
or represented by weak spines.
RIACANTHIDA.—Scleroderms with the spinous dorsal very
short and composed of a stout anterior spine and several approxi-
mated weak ones behind it, the soft dorsal oblong, and with ven-
trals represented by stout spines, and with or without weak axillar
erable intervals, the soft dorsal short, and with ventrals atrophied
L
rays.
ooi Scleroderms with the spinous dorsal very short,
being represented (1) by a stout spine with which a weaker posterior
spine interlocks in erection (and often a third spine exists), or (2)
by only a single slender spine; the soft dorsal- long or oblong,
and the ventrals wanting. :
These characters are supplemented by important osteological ones
for the last two at least. ` :
The family Triacanthide was represented in the eocene seas of
Europe by the genera Acanthoplewrus (Ag.) and Protacanthodes
(Gill). The affinity of the former to Triacanthus was remar ed
as long ago as 1859 by von Rath (Zeitschr. deutsch. Geol. Ges.
V. ii., pp. 130-132).
er genera referred to the sub-order of Scleroderms (e9.
Blochius, Dercetis, Styracodus, Chilodus, Cælorhynchus, Ancistrodon
are quite remote from it.— Theo. Gill.
Seconp Nore upon Romanovsky’s MATERIALEN ZUR
GEOLOGIE von TuRKESTAN.—In the Tertiary, as in the a0
ceous, the absence of fossils renders it almost impossible to gois
off stages, and even precludes the exact determination of post A
of the group. It would appear that the continuity 1s compie™s
and that Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene are all me
sented. The Nummilitic has been met with only upon the bo a
of the Aral Sea, where it is overlaid by the sandstones, clays, an
limestones belonging to the Oligocene, which are surmoun ste
Miocene limestones, and by the argillaceous beds of the Sarm
stage; these last form the upper layer of the plateau des
Conglomerates, which form heavy beds in the mountains, are gra feat
ally replaced by rocks of finer grain as the distance from Lage i
increases. The Cretaceous strata of Turkestan contain anf et
beds of phosphorite (mouth of the Syr-Daria), of gypsum the
shan, Pamir), petroleum (Fergana), and sulphur (basin © úm
ou-Daria) ; and the Tertiary has intercalations of salt and ey ae?
(Sangar, Samarcand), the thickness of which diminishes gra
towards the west. : iods has
The history of Turan during the recent geological P Asia
many features in common with that of the rest of Centra; ental
and especially with that of Afghanistan. After the contin
1 See de Zigno, p. 4; Am. Nat., 1888, p. 447, note.
Geology and Palcontology. 831
phase of the Jurassic, came the marine invasion corresponding to
the deposition of the Cretaceous beds ; sedimentation then continued
quietly and tranquilly during the Tertiary period, at the bottom of
a sea at first open to a large extent and communicating freely with
the ocean, but the area of which was always diminishing, until in
the Sarmatian epoch this Mediterranean became closed, and was
gradually converted by evaporation into distinct sheets of water,
the remnants of which still remain and diminish under our own
observation. During these ages the great mountain border of the
t gained in height and in development. The Pliocene is at its
summit intimately connected with the Aralo-Caspian deposits,
which are chiefly composed of the debris of the Cretaceous and
Tertiary strata, the slight cohesion of the older deposits facilitating
greatly the: disintegration effected by atmospheric agencies. The
Aralo-Caspian fossils belong to species that now inhabit the Caspian
and Aral Seas, and their nature and mode of distribution is such
that, taken in conjunction with what is known of the existing
Caspian fauna, it is possible to ascertain the exact circumstances in
which the sediments were laid down; since all the species except
Cardium edule and Lithoglyphus caspius live near the coast, at
depths never exceeding fifteen metres. The Aralo-Caspian Sea
Caspian deposits. The facts indicate that in the Aralo-Caspian
epoch the Oxus, taking in the Khiva region the course of the
from the north and northeast have transformed into deserts the dry
beds of the ancient lakes, and have formed those long ranges ot
ane called Barkhans that cover such vast spaces throughout
urkestan,
RÜTIMEYER ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMALIA, AND
ON AMERICAN TYPES RECENTLY FOUND IN SWITZERLAND.—
* Ueber einige Beziehungen zwischen den Satigethierstémmen alter
ii neuer Welt. Erster Nachtrag zu der Eocenen Fauna der Eger-
ingen ; von L. Rütimeyer; Zurich, 1888. Abhandl d. Schwiez. Palæon-
tol. Gesselsch. Bd, XV.
832 General Notes.
This important memoir is divided into two portions as indicated in
the above title. I refer to the second part first in order, by record-
ing the discoveries it announces. Prof. Rütimeyer has made the
highly interesting discovery of a species of Phenacodus at Eger-
kingen, which he names P. europæus. He also refers species from
the same locality to the genera Protogonia, (?) Mioclænus, and ©)
Pelycodus, and to the new genus Meniscodon. Unfortunately al
of these species are known from the teeth only, so that the refer-
ences are not yet final. He also gives descriptions of new specimens
of Cenopithecus lemuroides Riitim. and Proviverra typica Ritim.
In the first part of the memoir, Prof. Riitimeyer discusses the
relations of the various members of the Ungulata, with reference
to their classification. This consists chiefly of a criticism of the
system proposed by Cope, and the results he reaches are expressed
as follows: (p. 62).
First.—That the categories of Ungulata, based by Cope on
the nature of the mutual carpal and tarsal articulations, do not
furnish exact definitions for systematic use. Although they furnish
instructive series of modifications of the mechanism of motion, they
do not offer sharp lines of distinction. Especially can the so-called
condylarthrie have a very relative value, and between it and the
diplarthrie is there no sharp line. i
Second.—The plan of structure which characterizes the superior
molars of the Condylarthra consists in a disposition of the tubercles,
to which he applies the name trigonodontie, since there are three
principal tubercles arranged en triangle, two external and one inter-
nal,so that the cross-valley of the crown is closed within. Tt is this
type of dentition which is common among lemurs and Insectivora,
and which prevails among Carnivora. It is thus probable that
trigonodontie is to be regarded as an earlier and more primitive
form of molar than those of the zygodont (quadritubercular) piar
The selenodont type appears to have arisen from trigonodon
ancestors, r t
Third.—The trigonodont structure of superior molars as 18 pre’
in the Condylarthra is by no means confined to American Ungulat,
ut is found in Europe even to generic details; so that 1t 18 ede =
that the foot-structure of the Condylarthra will be also found 0
he ge . ica alone for
Fourth.—It is therefore not necessary to look to America aton
the first known ancestors of the horse. heen
Fifth.— Except the Dinocerata, which, like the Toxodontis, i ped
limited range in America, the types of Mammalia have deve z r
in such complete parallelism that we are Pae ed to look
common and extensive raphical source for them. ‘
Siath—A mong the $ wa a the Cænopithecus of Egerkingen
Geology and Paleontology. 833
appears to be as nearly allied to the North American Mesodonta as
to the European Adapis.
I propose to offer some observations on these propositions, espe-
cially to the first and second. The third, and those following,
relating as they do to the important discoveries of Prof. Riitimeyer
at Egerkingen, constitute valuable additions to the sciences of
paleontology and mammalian phylogeny.
e first proposition, that the characters of the carpus and tarsus on
which I have relied for discrimination of the orders of Ungulata are
insufficient for that purpose, is probably so far true, asa similar asser
tion made with regard to all structural characters whatever would be.
With the discovery of new forms, and the completion of phylo-
genetic lines, the sharp demarcations we now employ as definitions
will vanish. But I claim with regard to the case of the Condy-
larthra, that such discoveries have not been yet made, and that Prof.
Riitimeyer’s views on this point have been reached by reason
of several misconceptions on his part. The supposition that the
tarsus of Phenacodus (p. 14) resembles in any degree that of the
rhinoceros and tapir, isan unaccountable error. Also (1. c.) the
supposition that the carpus of those animals does not represent the
diplarthrous type is an equally extraordinary misconception. So
is (p. 15) the opinion that such small contact of the astragalus with
the cuboid bone as exists in Phenacodus and Hyrax is diplarthrism
comparable to that of Hyracotherium venticolum.
ut supposing Prof. Riitimeyer’s view that the carpus of Phena-
codus is proboscidian, and the tarsus rhinocerotic, to be correct, an
priae distinct from Proboscidia and Perissodactyla would be indi-
cated,
The fact is that Prof. Riitimeyer, probably from want of speci-
mens of Condylarthra, has not fully grasped the meaning of the
taxeopod, and especially the Condylarthrous type of carpus and
tarsus, That type is the unguiculate and carnivorous, accom-
panying hoof-shaped ungues, and as yet no transitions to the usual
ungulate type have been found within the Ungulata, except in the
carpus of the Anthropomorpha (and the result is not typically
ungulate). The Condylarthrous carpus and tarsus are also lemu-
rime, and are well distinguished from other ungulate types. The
structure of the astragalus of Dissacus among the Unguiculates
Shows us what the transition will be like when it is found.'
„The second proposition ascribes what Prof. Riitimeyer calls
trigonodontie as a definitive and general character of the Condy-
larthra. I must here record an objection to the introduction of the
word trigonodont. It is proposed to replace the term tritubercular
> the Ungulata, so that the latter phrase shall apply only to
the Unguiculata. But there is absolutely no difference between
' Transactions Amer. Philosophical Society, 1888, pp. 343-4.
834 General Notes.
As regards the phylo-
genetic significance of the tritubercular molar, I of course
©
ty
ary
=e
et
ped
©
B
©
bac |
of
pr
=
=]
_
S
—
<
—
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o
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never otherwise. Second, that having placed Hyrax ım the
a a on one page, changed my view on a subsequent page.
(Tert. Vert. IIL, p. 382). This is also a misconception; reference
to the page cited shows no such change, nor has any such change
of opinion ever been made by me.
fess my own shortcoming in not having long ago § ë
important memoir. In this study of the structure of pr
molar teeth of the Ungulata Prof. Rütimeyer antep
self in 1873. For the first determination of these homologies
exclusive credit is due to Prof. Riitimeyer. He divides t ió
teeth of Mammalia into three categories, the simply pr
“ Homæodont;” the vertically plicate, “ Elasmodont ; and th
o
\
1 Transac. Amer. Philos. Society, p. 352, fig. 12. roceedi
*American Naturalist, 1883 HIA velly, p- 407, and P e
American Philosophical Society, 1873-4, p. 324.
* Verhand! S. Naturforsch. Gesselsch Basel IT, 1863, p. 558.
Geology and Palcontology. 835
of but one, viz.: a simply quadritubercular, and a specialization of
it where the tubercles are connected together by crests. For the
£ aleontologie, II, Band, Zweites Heft., 1888.
Petermann’s Geographische Mitteilungen, XXXIII., 1887,
Sea, and Guinea coast districts; the Palæozoic, which as colored
includes the Dyas in the Atlas Mountains, but excludes that
formation elsewhere, is prominent only in patches of the Sahara,
and in South Africa; the Karroo-formation, which in the sou
includes Dyas and Trias, covers all South Africa save the portions
occupied by the crystalline and palæozoic rocks, and reappears in
large patches on the eastern and western coasts, as well as in the
iger region; the Cretaceous is most conspicuous in the north,
Where it occupies the greater part of the Barbary States west of
Barea ; and the Tertiary strata cover the entire lower Nile valley,
and stretch along the Mediterranean west to the Gulf of Sydra.
From the head of the eocene to Khartum cretaceous rocks are
Shown bordering the Nile. The principal mass of the younger
836 General Notes.
eruptive rocks is in Abyssinia, where they are of early tertiary
The author gives the following summary. The African continent
` falls into three distinct geological regions: (1) The Atlas, which
comprises a tolerably complete series of formations, that collec-
tively have undergone similar disturbances to those that have taken
place in the Alps; geologically, this region belongs to Europe.
2) The Desert region is distinguished by the horizontality of the
alæozoic strata and by great gaps below the chalk; the latter
formations show a development corresponding to that of Syria and
Arabia. (3) The South African region, which consists of a
of crystalline mountains of enormous extent, covered with innu-
merable layers of horizontal sandstone, the age of which lies
between that of the Carboniferous and that of the Jura. Analo-
gous conditions occur in India. The marginal zone of later
formations is also characteristic. :
I. C. Russell contributes to the August issue of the Geological
Magazine a summary of what is known of the geological history of
the Jordan-Arabah depression, which offers so many points of
resemblance to the Great Basin of North America that he ventures
some suggestions and hypotheses.
Devontan.—Numerous crinoids collected in the Lower Devo-
nian strata of Bundenbach and Gemunden are described by Dr. O-
Follman in the Verh. d. nat. Jahrg., xxxiv. 5 Folge, IV. Bd., pp-
113-138. Seven new species are described and figured.
Creraceous.—Neetling distinguishes three groups of strata in
the cretaceous of Syria and Palestine. The uppermost contains
Grypheas and Cephalopoda, but is without Nerinea and Rudista.
The upper part consists of chalk with flints, the lower of bitumi-
nous shales and lime, and the group corresponds to the Senonian. The
middle group corresponds to the upper Turonian, and contains
numerous Rudista, Cephalopoda, and Nerinea, but no Trigonias or
ereas; it consists of dazzling white thick limestones wi
alternating beds of gray clays, but contains no flints. The lowest
group has many Trigonias, Cythereas, and Nerineas, but e
Cephalopoda and Rudista ; it consists of sandstones, clays, an
arenaceous limestones, and is identified with the lower Tam
The Syrian cretaceous is distinguished from that of Europe by f
absence of Belemnites and Inocerami. The Trigonia sandstone 0
the lowest group -has a European character, while the Senonian
resembles that of Africa.
Cnozo1c.—According to M. Gandry, the following are the
heights of the largest fossil mammals that have yet been discovered *
Mineralogy and Petrography. 837
(1) The Dinotherium giganteum from the upper miocene of Attica,
the tibia of which, brought from Pikermi by M. Gaudry, measures
0.94m. in length, representing a height of 4.43m. at the shoulders,
and 4.96m. at the top of the head. (2) The Elephas antiquus,
found in the quaternary near Paris, height at the withers 3.95,
and to thesummit of the head 4.42m. (3) The Elephas meridionalis
from the pliocene of Durfort, which is the largest entire mammalian
skeleton (fossil) yet known, and is now at the Paleontological
useum in the Jardin des Plantes; its height at the shoulders is
3.77m., and it measures 4.42m. to the top of the head. (4) The
Mastodon americanus from the quaternary of the United States
Measures 3.55m. to the top of the head. (5) The Elephas primi-
genius, or mammoth of the Siberian quaternary, is 3.42m, to the
top of the head.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY:!
PETROGRAPHICAL News.—In a late number of the American
Geologist,? Messrs. Herrick, Clarke and Deming have a short arti-
cle on some American norites and gabbros. Three rocks are
described. The first is from Marshall Co., N. C., and is called
olivine-norite. Its feldspathic constituent is labradorite, and its
pyroxene is regarded as bronzite. The second—a porphyritic dio-
nite, contains garnet and apatite. It is a facies of the norite. The
Duluth gabbros are finally taken up and briefly described. In one
Phase of this rock the authors think they have found feldspar crys-
tals, with a central core of labradorite, surrounded by a zone of ortho-
clase. Very little new is stated in regard to these rocks, except the
view that the orthoclase-gabbros may be derived by the action of
solutions (emanating from acid rocks) upon olivine-gabbro. The
paper contains the statements of many important views, which,
however, will not generally be accepted by petrographers unless
substantiated by many more facts than the authors have been able
to discover.—An instructive paper on some English tachylites is
that by Mr. Cole in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.*
In it he describes a glassy basalt which exhibits all the stages in
e transition from a glassy to the completely spherulitic forms so
familiar among acid lavas. The spherulites are sometimes com-
posed of an intergrowth of gray and brown fibres, which show the
seas tk Dr S. Bayley, Colby University, Waterville, Maine.
? May, 1888, p. 300,
838 General Notes.
to regard variolite as a perlitic tachylite, whose perlitic cracks have
been filled with secondary minerals——Chelius' divides the dyke
rocks cutting the eastern and the western areas of crystalline schists
in Spessart and Odenwald as granite-porphyries and minettes in
the latter area, and kersantites in the former. The kersantites are
panidiomorphie aggregates of plagioclase and augite, together with
hornblende, mica, quartz, apatite and a few rare minerals. The
panidiomorphic structure passes into the holocrystalline porphyritie
toward the edges of the dykes. The minettes of the Odenwald
fall into two groups, the minettes proper, and the vogesites or
minettes poor in mica. The latter embrace both augitic and horn-
blendic varieties. The minettes sometimes contain augite and some-
times biotite as their principal ingredient. The granite porphyries
s no peculiarity of structure or composition to which attention
need be called.—The article on the Archzan Geology of Missouri,
to a preliminary notice of which attention was directed in these
pages a short time ago, has lately made its appearance.” In addi-
tion to the interesting observations already noted, it may be
remarked that Mr. Haworth finds the nature of the plagioclase in
the porphyrites from this region to be in no way connected with the
presence or absence of quartz in the rocks. A more basic feldspar
is sometimes found in a porphyrite containing free quartz, than 1m
one in which no quartz is visible. The ground mass of a certain
class of the porphyries resembles in structure the appearance known
as peecilitic. This is due to the inclusion of small particles of ma
in quartz.—The elæolite-syenite? from the middle Transvaal, Sout
Africa, consists of apatite, sphene, augite, hornblende, me ome
all the
older constituents. The augite occurs in two generations. he
acmite. It contains both alkalies and manganese. The nepheline
is for the most part fresh; but in some cases has undergone alter.
ation into zeolites.—A typical chlorite-schist has been discov ve
by Cathrein‘ at Gerlos, in the Tyrol. In a muscovite-quar
1 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete., 1888, ii., p. 67.
1 Inaug. Disser., Johns Hopkins dalv., 1888, and Amer. Geologist,
Tre June, 1888.
3 E. A. Wülfing. Neues Jahrb. f. Miner., 1888, ii., p. 16.
* Verh. d. k. k. Geol. Reichsanst.
Zoology. 839
in the archean schists of that region. The locality has been
known for some time, and is quite noted as having afford data
is a schist composed of microcline, chlorite, a little garnet and
other accessory components. It is interstratified with gneiss, and
is about fifteen metres in thickness. A part of the organic matter
is in little lumps and irregularly shaped pieces, which are cs
e
by the author to be original. It is sometimes entirely surroun
The experimental
work of’ this chemist substantially re-enforces the theory which
supposes petroleum to be the result of the distillation of the remains
and at a temperature of 320°—400°.
ZOOLOGY.
ZooLocIcaL News.—Porirera.—Vol. XXV. of the Chal-
lenger Reports is entirely devoted to the Tetractinellide, which are
illustrated by forty-four plates, Professor Sollas classifies the
. ( ti , containing the
single sub-class Calcarea; and Class (2) Micromastictora, including
mom Jahrb. f. Min., ete., 1888, ii., p. 1.
er. d. d. Chem. Gesell., 1888, p. 1816.
840 General Notes.
the three sub-classes Myxospongie, Hexactinellide, and Demo-
spongiz. The Demospongis he sub-divides into Tetractinellida and
Monaxonida, the former comprising such Demospongie as have
some or all of the scleres in the form of tetraxons, trisenes, or
esmas.
CasLENTERATA.—The third of the reports composing Vol.
XXIII. of the Challenger series is by Professor G. J. Allman, and
forms the second part of his memoir of the Hydroida. Only three
genera of Gymnoblastic hydroids: Stylactis, Eudendrium, and
Monocaulos are represented in the Challenger collections. M. impe-
rator is a most remarkable hydroid, having a stem seven feet long
though but half an inch thick, and a stretch from tip to tip of
tentacles of nine inches, so that all other hydroids sink into insig-
nificance as regards size when compared with it. It was obtained
at the depth of four miles beneath the surface. The Calyptoblastea
were well represented in the collection. Idia, Lamoureux, prov
on thorough examination to be constructed on a quite unique type,
a new genus, Perisiphonia, represented by two species, was
discovered. In this genus the axial tube which bears the hydro-
thecæ is surrounded by numerous tubes set with tubular sarcothece,
and the hydrothecz projects through interstices in these axial tubes.
The curious genus Synthecium is enriched with two new species,
hecocladium with one.
so traced, may be presumed to have been budded off from fixe
trophosomes, to compose a separate group, but leaves them to 8n
planoblasts, and the planoblasts are almost always Anthomedn&ls
i.e. have the generative elements developed in the walls of
w
(6) Rhabdophora or Graptolites.
Verwes.—Vol. XXIII. of the Challenger series has a sbort
report upon the Entozoa of the collection, by Dr. O. von Lin
Zoology. 841
Only sixteen species are described, ten of which are Nematodes
and six Cestodes. The species obtained were chiefly from the
alimentary tract of birds, and include four new forms of Ascaris,
three of Filaria, one of Prothelmius, four of Tenia, and two o
Tetrabothrium. The appendix mentions a large larval Echi-
norhynchus found in the abdomen of a Euphausia, two Distoma,
and a Gordius found in a crab, so that the other groups of
Helminths are not entirely absent from the collection.
Motiusca.—The report upon the Heteropoda of the Challenger
collection, by E. A. Smith, although short, contains a most complete
synonymic list of all known forms of the group. It is the fifth
report in Vol. XXIII.
The first two memoirs of Vol. XXIII. of the Challenger
Reports are by Dr. Paul Pelseneer, and treat of the Pteropoda
Thecosomata, the Gymnosomata having been previously dealt with
in Vol. XIX. The Thecosomata have a less highly organized
alimentary canal than the Gymnosomata, and content themselves
with humbler prey, feeding chiefly on Radiolaria, Foraminifera,
Infusoria, and even on some of the lower Algw. Specimens of
the group were taken alive at seventy different stations, but no
undescribed species were found. All the generic titles that have
en given may be reduced: to eight, viz. : Limacina, Peraclis,
Clio, Cuvierina, Cavolinia, Cymbulia, Cymbuliopsis, gen. nov.
and Gleba. The third part of the report treats of the anatomy of
the Pteropoda generally. He considers the group, not as a class,
ut as a recent and specialized variation from the Gastropod type.
He places them among the Pectinibranchiate Oplsthobranchs, and
traces the Thecosomata to the Bulloidea, and the Gymnosomata to
the Aplysioidea. |
_Crustacra.—Vol. XXIV. of the Challenger Reports is occu-
pied with the report of C. Spence Bate, F.R.S., on the Crustacea
Macrura. Though styled one volume, it is in wo goodly
tomes, the one containing 1030 pages of text, the other 157 litho-
graphic plates. Not only are generic and specific diagnoses given
with minuteness, but all that is known of the developmental stages
(in which direction there is still much work to be _done) is
reproduced. Bate follows Dana in placing the Penseidea in a sepa-
rate division, which he names Dendrobranc iata, and he considers the
izopoda or Stomapoda as forming an aberrant branch of the
robranchiata, more nearly allied to the degraded forms of the
Penæidea than to those of any other group. He asserts that,
with the exception of the pereiopoda, the several genera do not
possess a single character that is not held in common with some
genus of the poner divides the Macrura into the two principal
*
842 General Notes.
divisions of Trichobranchiata and Phyllobranchiata, with the
Dendrobranchiata (Penæidea and Sergestide), intercalated. Each
of these divisions is divided into two sections, the Normalia and
the Aberrantia. The family Galethewide belongs among the
Trichobranchiata Aberrantia, while the rest of the old group
Anomoura form the Aberrantia of the Phyllobranchiate section.
These groups will form the subject of a report by Professor John
R. Henderson.
Recent works upon lacustrine faunas have shown that copepods,
and especially those of the genus Diaptomus, are bot
numerous in species and more widely distributed than is generally
supposed. Most of the ordinary types have been confounded under
the name of Diaptomus castor, so that until now it has not been
possible to speak with any approach to certainty of the geographical
distribution of any species. M.M. de Guerne and Richard have
now, thanks to the numerous documents they have studied on the
subject, given a map of the distribution of Diaptomus, and proved
that it may be regarded as a cosmopolitan genus.
ENTOMOLOGY.
ENTOMOLOGY FoR BEGINNERS.—The most important Entomo-
logical event of the past month is the appearance of an elementary
text-book by Dr. Packard.2 The following review of this work
ay prepared by a prominent Entomologist at our request.—
C.
comed; and whereyer imperfections may be noticed by the
critical reader, these should not make him forget that Dr. Packard
as, in writing this book, given us really the first treatis
class in the English language. We find after careful reading that
an astonishing amount of information has been crowded into its
three Landed odd pages, and that the plan of the work 18 on the
whole satisfactory. The author has in his preface outlined his
ideas as to the probable usefulness of the work with sufficient
1 This oe ae is edited by Prof. J. H. Comstock, Co nell Uni-
i to
r
versity, Ithaca, om communications, books for notice,
etc., should be sent.
ee for Beginners, by Dr. A. S. Packard, M.D., Ph.D.,
New York. Henry Holt & Co. 1888.
Entomology. 843
modesty, and, placing ourselves in the attitude of the first two
classes of his probable readers, namely the beginners and the
amateurs or dilettante entomologists, we find that we have little of
which to complain. The first class of readers, however, whom he
hopes to reach, the farmer, the fruit-grower, and the gardener, the
book will hardly satisfy as a hand-book. No one, however, can
sig a book on this subject for farmers unless he is a farmer him-
self.
While our first impression was that Dr. Packard had made a
mistake in adopting in this elementary work the division of the
class into sixfeen orders, our maturer opinion coincides with his
own judgment. Brauer’s classification, or some slight modification
of it, is bound to be generally adopted. The sooner this is brought
about the better, and in no way could a ready adoption be more
speedily achieved than by teaching the system to younger entomo-
logists, and to beginners in the study. Dr. Packard’s substitution
of Plectoptera and Mecaptera for Ephemeride and Panorpate is, of
course, done in the interest of uniformity, but we regret his appa-
rent slip in the. etymology of his word Mecaptera. This leads us
naturally to criticise the glossary, in that for less than half of the
words defined is the derivation given. The same incompleteness
18 seen in the acknowledgments of illustrations. Credit for many
18 given, but many others are unacknowledged, leaving the errone-
ous Impression that all the latter are original with the book. _
e are somewhat disappointed with the chapter on collecting,
esl and rearing. Although most of the published notes
ve been brought together, the chapter is too much a clipped one,
and many hy ea points unpublished are omitted. For ex-
ample, Prof. Riley’s description of his breeding-cage, published no
less than fifteen years ago, is reproduced with its accompanying
figure, while no word is said of the later improvements which
P rof. Riley and others are using, and with which the author was
familiar. Similarly, in the matter of inflating larvæ, no mention
18 made of the tin ovens generally used, or of the method recently
described of inflating several larvee simultaneously.
The short family characterizations given in small type will be
Useful in many instances, but it seems to us a mistake, and a certain
discouragement to the student, to insert such definitions as those
given on page 126, under the Diptera, viz. :—
Family Asteidee—Front bristle above.
F amily Phytomyzidæ.—F'ront bristly.
amily Agròmyzidæ.—F'ront with strong bristles. ,
It also seems to us that in a work of this character strict uni-
formity in sub-family terminations should have been followed,
Whether previously adopted by other authors or not.
But we have found enough fault. We anticipate that the book
844 General Notes.
will do a great deal of good. Many teachers, we know, will heave
a sigh of relief upon seeing it, and we have no doubt but that its
sales will be gratifying both to the author and to the clear-sighted
publishers.
AN INTRODUCTION TO EnromoLtogy.—By the time this
number of the NATURALIST reaches its readers, the first half of an
elementary text-book of Entomology, prepared by the editor of
this department, will have been published.! This part includes the
grammar of the science, and half of the systematic part. It con-
tains many original illustrations, drawn and engraved by Mrs.
Comstock. The following extract from the preface of this work
will indicate the author’s plan of treatment of the subject:
“This work has been prepared to meet the demand for a text-
book which shall enable students to acquire a thorough knowledge
of the elementary principles of Entomology, and to classify insects
by means of analytical keys similar to those used in Botany. 4
means of the keys the student can readily determine to what family
any insect of which he has a specimen belongs. In many cases
tables of genera are also given, and the more common or conspicu-
ous species in each family have been described. ;
“ Although much pains has been taken to render easy the classi-
fication of specimens, an effort has been made to give the mere -
determination of the names of insects a very subordinate place.
The groups of insects have been fully characterized, so that their
relative affinities may be learned, and much space has been given
to accounts of the habits and transformations of the forms described.
As the needs of agricultural students have been kept constantly in
view, those species that are of economic importance have been
described as fully as practicable, and particular attention has been
given to descriptions of the methods of destroying those that are
noxious, or of preventing their ravages. Siegen
“The pronunciation of the technical terms has been indicated
by marking the accented vowel, and at the same time indicating
its length when the term is pronounced as an English word.”
Synopsis or Norra AmeERIcAN Drerera.—All North
American students of Entomology will welcome the work just
published by Dr. Williston? This work consists chiefly of analyti
cal keys and characterizations of families. There is an introduc
ited Biates
ornell University, and formerly Uni
by the author, Tihao art I. $2.00.
rth
with on ak and new species, 1878-1888, by Samuel W. Williston.
, pp. 84. ew Haven, J. T. Hataway. $1.00.
Embryology. 845
tion, in which the terminology of Diptera is given; then follows
an analytical table of families, and, except in the case of the Nema-
tocera and Muscide, tables of genera are also given. There is
appended to the work a Bibliography of the species described since
the publication of Osten Sacken’s catalogue. The whole forms a
very convenient manual, and it cannot fail to stimulate the study
of this much neglected order.
EMBRYOLOGY.! *
OTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF HoLoTHuRIA.—The fol-
me eighth day it is longer than the oral tentacles. About this time
à favorite attitude of the larva is to erect itself on the posterior
* Edited by Prof. Jno. A. Ryder, Univ. of Penna., Philadelphia.
846 General Notes.
tentacle, or more properly, I suspect, ambulacral foot, and wave the
oral tentacles about. course this attitude is not held long, the
creeping position, using all the tentacles or feet being most usual.
On the eleventh day a seventh tentacle, and on the fourteenth an
eighth tentacle appears; the former from about the middle of the
ventral surface, and the latter at the base of the oral tentacles on
the ventral side. In the meantime the spines have been getting
longer and their bases branching in various rosette forms.
now have several larve fifteen days old getting along nicely, and
from the four lots of eggs have saved forty-three vials of embryos,
and so will probably get a complete series, as each set were no
doubt fertilized at different times of the day and in any one lot the
individuals do not develop evenly.
“ These embryos seem to be intermediate between Kowalevsky’s,
where the adult state is attained without a metamorphosis, and the
one described by Selenka. Of course I cannot tell what goes on
inside the shell those four or five days after gastrulation and before
the larvæ develops tentacles, as the egg is so very opague. I should
have said also that at first the eggs are brown, in a few days they
show green pigment spots, and these increase until the free larva 1s
quite green.
“Tn two or three weeks I shall probably have an abundance of
material for sectioning and then I want to take in hand the case of
the brown Clypeaster, common about here. I am getting fond of
the study of the Echinoderms and shall work on them as I get
opportunity.
“ We came across the birth of an extraordinary zoological myth
out here a few weeks since. One of the leading citizens, who 1s
also the school-master, had made a discovery. hereas they had
always thought that the sea-stars come from the sand or from the
big stars up above, now they had found the real source ‘ for true
as they put it. They told x- of it and we thought we should be
able to surprise the world with a borrowed discovery ! alas
they took us down to the shoal, broke open the sand-dollars and
pulling out ‘the creature’ showed us the wonder—their young
sea-star! They supposed that this young sea-star stayed in you
old shells until grown and could hardly believe us when we tol
em that it was a live Clypeaster!”—C. L. E.
Archeology and Anthropology. 847
ARCHAOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.
_ The American Association for the Advancement of Science held
its thirty-seventh annual meeting at Cleveland, Ohio, August 15th
to 21st, 1888. The meetings were held in the Central High School,
which, though some distance from the hotels, had good street-car
communications. The building was admirably suited to the needs
of the Association. The rooms were ample both in number and
size, while the auditorium, large enough for all general meetings,
could be darkened for afternoon lectures with lantern views.
The citizens of Cleveland took great interest in the meetings and
the local committee made every arrangement possible for the comfort
and convenience of visitors. The ladies in charge of entertainments,
receptions, etc., devoted themselves to these duties during the entire
week and wer eminently successful in everything they undertook.
Lunch was provided daily in the basement of the building. Thurs-
day afternoon was devoted to receptions given by the citizens at
their homes, and some of the magnificent and luxurious residences
on Euclid Avenue were thrown open and the members of the
Association hospitably received.
SECTION 4.—ANTHROPOLOGY.
Dr. C. C. Abbott, of Trenton, N. J., was president of this section,
with Dr. Frank Baker, of Washington, D. C., secretary. The
meetings were well attended and much interest was shown in the
proceedings. The section was kept busy with the reading of the
thirty-two papers and their consequent discussion, closing only late
im the afternoon of the last day. The session of nesday,
August 15th, opening day, was devoted to the presidential address,
“
Trenton, N. J., by himself; at Little Falls, Minnesota, by Miss
Franc E. Babbitt in 1875 ; and in the Valley of the Little Miami
at Loveland, Ohio, by Dr. C. F. Metz in 1886, and the continuation
thereof down to the present summer by himself and Mr. Wilson. The
finding of the obsidian spear point by Prof. W. J. McGee in the
Dao aiy deposits of Lake Lahontan, Nevada, was also noticed.
e concluded from the evidence, first, that paleolithic man did not
me extinct, and second, that his descendants attained an advanced
In- bis department is edited by Thomas Wilson, Esq., Smithsonian
ustitution, Washington, D. C.
848 General Notes.
degree of culture in the land of their forefathers, “ We might main-
tain that we have his descendants in the Eskimo, and that they
were finally driven north by the Indian, who, as is conceded by all
students, migrated hither at a period, which, archzeologically con-
sidered, was not exceedingly remote.”
of Oberlin, Ohio, thus: “ To say that man was here before the
antiquity. How long he may have been here previous to that,
the glacial period’ is itself an indefinite expression. The glacial
period was a long time in closing, theerosion of the Niagara gorge
began at a time long subsequent to the deposit of gravel at ‘Trenton
and at Madisonville. Between these two events a sufficient time
?
moose, and the man of that period was familiar with them all.’
A general session of the Association was held in the evening tO
hear the retiring president, Prof. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, deliver his address, entitled, “ The History
of a Doctrine.” The “Doctrine” was that of Radiant Heat or Energy-
This address was profound and very learned, and yet by his na
style of writing and dignified delivery, the Professor made it easty
Archeology and Anthropology. 849
understood by a popular audience. It is published in Science for
August 17,
Thursday, August 16th.—“Certain prehistoric ornaments
found in Mississippi,” by Prof. R. B. Fulton, of the University
of the Mississippi. He presented about thirty prehistoric
beads from Lincoln county, Mississippi. The material was
jasper, reddish-brown, mottled witha lighter shade and very
hard. Their forms were cylindrical, and also of the shape of
deer and birds. They were all, or nearly all, polished and drilled.
Prof. Fulton said he had never seen any similar beads except those
in the Smithsonian exhibit now open at the Centennial Exposition
at Cincinnati. Mr. Wilson said he had prepared that display and
had chosen those from the many in the National Museum to show
a series descriptive of the method and work of the drilling of these
hard substances by the prehistoric man.
a learned address on the “ Development of the Civilization of
Northwest America.” He raised a query as to the possibility of
establishing a connection between Asiatic and American tribes, an
noted many indications of relationship, and said the Indian tribes
of the northwest coast of America far excel their neighbors in arts
and industries. The tribes of the northwest coast belonged to man
linguistic stocks. In British Columbia alone were eight distinct
tongues. He spoke of the striking similarity of physique between
certain tribes of the northwest coast with certain Asiatic tribes.
The customs and legends of these tribes were much alike, but in
their myths the speaker found the greatest coincidence. His paper,
ough replete with facts, was but little more than the announce-
ment of his theory, and he closed as follows: “ But before drawing
further conclusions we must analyze the civilization of northwest
America in order that we may know what we have to compare.
Only after this is done can a study of the numerous striking analo-
gles be successful in demonstrating the Asiatic origin of these
northwest tribes,”
is speaker used the term nation as synonymous with people,
and civilization as synonymous with culture, to which Major Powell
ook exception,
5 The Rev. W.H. Beauchamp, of Baldwinsville, N. Y., read a paper,
The Onondagas of To-day.” This was almost a complete history
of this tribe as it exists at present, and has existed during the present
century, They now number about four hundred. They have
: forgotten their own earlier history, and their traditions are uncer-
tain, contradictory, and valueless as history. Illustrations of this
were given by the dozen
-e speaker gave his own recollections of the Onondagas and of
their manners and customs during fifty years past. He described
850 General Notes.
their feasts, their marriages, their wampum, their amusements, and
their modes of life.
r. D. G. Brinton read a paper on “The Alleged Mongolian
Affinities of the American Race,” in which he demonstrated that
no such affinities existed. His conclusion was the opposite of that
of Dr. Boas. An abstract is as follows:
Many recent writers assert that the American or Red race presents
various traits which bring it into close relationship with the Mon-
golian. These alleged resemblances may be classed as either of
language, of culture, or of physical appearance. In language the Es-
kimo has been said to resemble Ural-Altaic tongues of northern Asia;
and the Otomi of Mexico has been asserted to be monosyllabic and
isolating like the Chinese. Both these statements are proved erro-
neous by recent researches. The American languages differ entirely
from any of the Mongolian group.
In culture there are various similarities but not more, and not
other, than can be pointed out between any two groups of early
civilizations, and no one of them is evidence of intercourse.
The physical similarities relied upon begin with the color of the
skin. Butno American tribe shows the peculiar hue of the Mongol.
The hair, though straight in both races, differs in color and to some
extent in shape of cross section. The oblique or “Chinese” eye
is by no means usual in the American race, scarcely more so than
among the whites, and is, moreover, of much less importance than
has been maintained. The shape of the skull is markedly different.
The Mongolian head is round, that of the Eskimo is notably long,
and of other tribes mixed. The nasal index of the American Indian
alleged Mongolian affinities of the American race; and this is of
but slight importance. :
The discussion on this paper was most animated, although it
Prof. E. S. Morse, of Salem, Mass., supported the speaker. aoe
Horatio Hale, of Toronto, made some observations, as did rof.
Mason. Major Powell dilated upon the importance of amp
rather than to divide and extend them.
Archeology and Anthropology. 851
Prof. Morse said this would make a different language for ever
fish-pond around which the prehistoric man assembled, and Pais
the value of language in determining racial affinities in prehistoric
times.
Major Powell answered by declaring his theory of language as a
racial test had no application to man earlier than we had knowledge
of his language.
Dr. Brinton sought to close the discussion by saying that differ-
ent races might employ the same language, and that according to
his theory, Major Powell could prove, what we know from history
and from our senses to be an absurdity, to wit: that because they
spoke the same language, the white and the black man now occu-
pying the United States belonged to the same race.
Major Powell had the final word to say that his opponents had
constructed a man of straw that they might enjoy the pleasure of
thrashing him. His own position was, that in the beginning all
men sprang from the same stock, or if not, they at least found
themselves in the same condition ; that there were then no distinct
or separate races of men, and that the divisions and subdivisions of
race, blood, language, culture or physique had been accomplis
little by little, and they had thus finally developed into the different
races with their different languages and cultures. But that they
still all shaded off into each other and ran together; and, whether
counted sideways through the collateral branches in the present day,
or counted backwards, each through his own ancestors, it was
Impossible to find an exact dividing line between races. all the
world was now, as it ever had been, akin, of one race and one blood;
and that the subdivisions into races was but arbitrary ; the work of
man and not of God.
is discussion was the most impetuous and interesting of any
in the section. The speakers were able, ardent, fluent, and at times,
Major Powell especially, arose to eloquence.
r. Hilborne T. Cresson was down for two papers, but he was
absent and they were read by abstract. They related to his dis-
shown but the implements themselves were not present.
Friday, August 17th.—Colonel Garrick Mallery, of the
Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C., read a pa
entitled “ Recent Discovered Algonkin Pictographs.” Colonel
Mallery has been engaged for ten years in the investigation
of the sign language of the North American Indian, and is the
highest authority on the subject. Colonel Mallery has just
returned from a month’s visit among the Micmacs of Nova
852 General Notes.
Scotia and around the Bay of Fundy. He had discovered many
new pictographs, tracings of which he had taken and presented to
the audience. The lecture-room was decorated with these and other
specimens in a manner highly interesting. Colonel Mallery told
of the investigations and discoveries made by himself and Dr.
J. Hoffman, and of their comparisons of the real objects with the
descriptions made by Schoolcraft in his voluminous publications
issued in 1853, and showed that he (S.) had fairly represented the
substance, but sometimes with exaggeration. The principal part of
Colonel Mallery’s paper was devoted to a description of the signs
and symbols which were on the charts, and to a translation of their
messages,
Remarks were made by several persons commendatory of Colonel
Mallery’s labors. Prof. Mason said: “ We have before us to-day a
record of the beginning of a written language. We are standing
in the presence of the birth of literature.” And he asked a vote of
thanks to Colonel Mallery.
Prof. J. E. Todd, of Tabor, Iowa, presented the next paper,
entitled “Some Ancient Diggings in Nebraska,” which he illus-
trated by a sketch upon the blackboard. These were at Newawka
on the Weeping Water creek. ‘They were supposed to be pits dug
for the extraction of flint. ‘hey bore some resemblance to the
quarry at Flint Ridge, Ohio. f 1
Dr. D. G. Brinton presented “ Early Man in Spain.” He deait
first with the chipped flints discovered by Ribera at Otta, ree”
were believed to come from the miocene. He said the implements ‘i
the neolithic period in Spain have a striking similarity in size an
form with those common to the United States. :
The Basques are the most ancient known inhabitants of Spam
and Portugal. They are believed to have lived there at the _
of the formation of the shell-heaps, which seem older here than 1
Denmark. The Basque language has many peculiarities of o
ical American Indian tongue, such as the Algonkin. F
Brinton exhibited a map on which the six hundred fathom nig
the Atlantic ocean was indicated. An upheaval of the land to er
altitude would join the continent of Europe with that of No r
America by way of England, Scotland, the Faroë Islands, Io
Labrador, and the New England coast. Many things seem oe
confirm this theory, which is an opinion held by many geologis
The existence of this land-bridge across the Atlantic ocean once
established, many ethnologie problems relating to the American
Indian would be at once solved. $
Mr. Wilson complimented Dr. Brinton upon his paper and con
tinued in the same line. Speaking of the endurance of language
_ he said the Basque language was still spoken in France and Spam,
and there were many persons now living there in the retired ru
Archeology und Anthropology. 853
districts who could speak no other. The aged couple who occupied
the house at the entrance of the cavern of Laugerie Basse, excavated
by M. Massanet, speak only the Basque language, and any one
visiting there must take with him an interpreter who speaks French
and Basque.
; On the other hand, the language of the Normans, who came as
invaders and settled permanently in that province in the north of
rance which bears their name, had entirely died out. It never
established itself as a separate language, but joining itself to the
French made a dialect, a bastard language, which was neither the
one nor the other. The Gallic language brought from Wales or
Cornwall into Brittany had survived side by side with the French
and continued as a separate language in spite of all efforts of the
government to root it out. It was now a law of France that none
of these ancient languages, at once foreign and indigenous to France,
shall be taught in the public schools.
Mr. Wilson described the dolmens, menhirs, and other monu-
ments of Spain and France and told something of the efforts made
to rescue and preserve them.
Mrs. Anita Newcomb McGee, wife of Prof. McGee, of Washing-
` ton, D. C., read the paper of the afternoon, entitled “ American
Communities.” This lady had one of the largest audiences of the
entire meeting. She was listened to with close attention and
received many congratulations. She described in detail with the
necessary statistics, the seven principal communistic societies which
had been established during the past century in the United States.
Her arguments were fairly made and her deductions correct. She did
not undervalue a benefit, nor overstate an objection, yet she said she
was forced to the conclusion that communism could not permanently
rival independent competition. She closed with three fundamental
objections to, or causes for failure of communities.
- A community does not admit that wide differentiation of labor
and variety of occupation which is found outside, and is considered
a sign of progress, a
_ + A community is an institution intermediate between the indi-
vidual and the State, and is antagonistic to that other more natural
intermediate institution—the family. This has been felt by com-
family, i.e., making the two one, but it so pronounced a return to
conditions long abandoned in the course of evolution, that later or
monogamie instincts (now normal) refuse to be suppressed, an
finally cause the failure of this attempted solution. C. The reten-
854 General Notes.
tion of the family, which means one community within another.
person has then two interests to serve, and in the often neces-
sary choice between them, he cares for his own family, even though
it be sometimes to the detriment of the higher circle—the com-
munity. ae
3. The essential object and aim of Communist and Socialist alike,
is equally to support and reward the worthy and unworthy, the
practical effect of which is to suppress all stimulus to labor, and to
reduce all men as far as possible to a dead level of mediocrity.
That form of social organization, however, which tends to produce
the ablest men and stimulate them to highest efforts must, other
things equal, make the greatest progress in social evolution. Com-
munism is satisfied with mediocrity, and here is its weakness. - On
the other hand its strength lies in its unity of interests—that is, in
its element of co-operation.
Saturday was devoted to an excursion given by the local com-
mittee to members of the Association. The steamer “ City of
Cleveland ” left her dock at 8 a.m. well filled with passengers.
er first stop was at Kelly Island, where, under the guidance of
Prof. Foote and Mr. Severance, the visitors were conducted to the
great glacial groovings in the solid rock which had been exposed
to view for the purpose of this visit. The steamer then continued
to Put-in-Bay. Everything possible was done by the committee *
make it a day of pleasure. The day was superb and the lake peer
as glass. Concerts were given on board, and amusements, scientilic
and dexterous, were the order in the smoking-room. The steamer
returned at sundown. A
Monday, August 20th.—Mr. A. Wanner, of York, Penna., Prin-
cipal of the High School, exhibited some unfinished banner ager
from the Susquehanna river, and read a description of ` =
methods by which they were made, which is being prepared for
publication in the NATURALIST. |
Horatio Hale, Esq., of Clinton, Ontario, read an elaborate ppn
subject, “ The Aryan Race, Its Origin and Character,” which 1s
being published in eatenso. ;
r. J. W. Smith exhibited some mound-builder relics from Iowa.
Prof. F. W. Putnam described the Serpent Mound of are
county, Ohio, and its surroundings. This lecture was delivered :
the auditorium and was accompanied by hotographs of the mon 2
showing its restorations and the various explorations in its ones
diate neighborhood by means of lantern views projected upon
screen.
Prof. Wm. Libbey, Jr., of Princeton College, described oe
of the Characteristics of the Yakutal Indians of Alaska. -
compared the strength of the men who spent their time in err
and fishing and amusements with that of the women who di
Archeology and Anthropology. 855
the labor. He mentioned their aptness in mechanical arts and their
strict idea of property. They were highly superstitious and did
many things to secure good fortune. A whole tribe would get
baptized by the missionary in order to change their luck, and when
their luck did not change the missionary had to. Their numbers
were diminishing, but this was due principally to changes in diet
and clothing, for in that climate the canned beef and cotton over-
alls of the white proved but poor substitutes for seal-fat on the
inside and sealskin without.
Dr. D. G. Brinton, of Media, Penna., described some “ Traits of
Primitive Speech.” His abstract was as follows:
nguage was not born in a day. Primitive utterance was of
single or double consonants. These consonantal sounds were sixty-
three innumber. The labials expressed the idea of time and space,
the dentals the termination of force, the nasals motion in repetition,
the gutterals motion in curves, the “h” ideas of command. The
Cree language, to quote from the same authority, resembles the
Tinne no more closely than does the French the Chinese. Never-
theless, the same peculiarity of materially significant phonetic
elements is discovered. I find but little, yet some, evidence in the
different groups of American tongues in favor of the theory which
maintains that there is some fixed relation between sound and sense
in the radicals of languages. “N?” expresses the notion of the
€7°, or myselfness in many languages. “ K ” is associated with the
idea of otherness. In many American languages the phonetic
elements are vague and fluctuating. In referring to the Klamath
language Dr. Behrend writes: “The same person pronounces the
same word differently and when his attention is called to it he will
insist that it is the same.” Some of the consonantal sounds are
not true elementary sounds, but in primitive languages had to have
Some other consonant associated with them. Phonetic elements
were often inadequate to express the idea. In the Indian languages,
emphasis, action, and modification of the vocal expressions seem to
856 General Notes.
primitive speech presents a very curious phenomenon. In Tinne
the same word may express good or bad, high or low. In Cree the
union of opposite significations reappear in the ultimate rudiments
of the language and numerous series of opposite ideas are develop-
ments from the same original sounds. The gradual development
of grammar is strikingly illustrated in these languages. Subject,
verb, direct object and remote object were all expressed in one word.
Primitive words expressed being in relation, and hence partake of
the nature of verbs. Primitive man did not connect his sentences.
They followed one another disjointedly. Relative pronoun and
conjunction are absent in American languages. Few American
tongues have adjectives. The question has arisen did primitive
man model his sounds after what he heard or what he saw? The
former opinion has been most popular. His earliest sounds seem
to have been expressive of motion and rest, energy and its absence,
space and direction, color, form, and the like
Tuesday, August 21st—Horatio Hale, Esq., read a paper on
“ An International Language,” for scientific and other purposes.
In this he dissected the Volapiik and showed its many errors.
He advocated a language founded upon a more scientific basis.
His paper is published in The Critic, N. Y., of August 25.
r. Wilson doubted the success of the experiment and expressed
his belief that no new language could be impressed upon the people
y any vote or decree however authoritative. He cited the persis-
tency of the Basque and Gallic languages in France and the many
dialects extending over all Europe; and this in spite of all efforts
to uproot or consolidate them. He thought a common language
might be established between the people of different countries by
the different governments uniting in the choice of a language (one
of the living ones), to be taught in the schools of the country. We
Americans could adduce many arguments why English should be
chosen as the common language. But suppose the governments |
should be unable to agree upon it and German should be chosen.
Then in all English-speaking countries there would be taught 8
the public schools English and German; in France, French m
German ; in Italy, Italian and German; in Spain, Spanish an
German, and soon. Thus every one would be able to speak his
own language and a common language which every other perso?
of whatever nationality would also be able to speak. _ d
Prof. MacFarlane elaborated with approval Mr. Hale’s meth i
and commented upon the defects of Volapük. The discussion was
continued by Prof. Mason and Dr. Brinton.
To be continued.
Microscopy. 857
MICROSCOPY.
Tue Eees or Ampurera.—I have found hypochlorite of sodium
an excellent solvent for the gelatinous envelope of the amphibian
egg. I obtained a ten per cent. solution, and diluted it with five
or six times its volume of water. The eggs are first hardened by
heating, or by immersion in some preservative fluid ; then placed in
the Labarraque solution until the gelatinous envelopes are so far
dissolved that the eggs may be easily shaken free. They are then
washed and preserved in alcohol. This method works perfectly
with the eggs of Necturus, and has given equally good results with
the eggs of the frog. The time required for dissolving the envelope
in the case of Necturus is about five minutes. Care should of course
be taken not to leave the eggs exposed to the solvent longer than is
necessary in order to destroy the envelope.
EXPERIMENTS wrra Currin Sotvents By T. H. Moraan2—
The first experiments were made upon the eggs of the common
cockroach, and the selection turned out to be a most for-
tunate one. A great many eggs are laid at one time, the whole
number being surrounded by a stiff chitinous coat, forming the
so-called raft
The solvents used were the hypochlorites of sodium and potassium,
recommended by Dr. Looss in 1885
The most successful experiments on the cockroach’s eggs were as
follows:
„1. The rafts were placed, in a fresh condition, in a weak solution
of eau de Labarraque (commercial fluid diluted with five or six
times its volume of water), and left until the chitinous envelope
e soft and transparent. The time varies; if slightly warmed
the time is less, for the warm solution perhaps thirty minutes to
one hour; but one must go more by the appearance of the chitin
than by any definite time. If the embryos are far advanced they
may now be removed from the envelope one by one ; if still young,
they had better be hardened and cut altogether. In both cases the
eggs or embryos were next washed for a fow minutes in water, and
then transferred for an hour to picro-sulphuric acid, then as usual
they are passed through the grades of alcohol, 70 per cent., 80 per
cent., 95 per cent.
1 Edited by C. O. Whitman, Director of the Lake Laboratory, Mil-
waukee.
Vo Studies from the Biological Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University,
Ol. iv., No. 4, p. 217, 1888.
858 General Notes.
2. To specimens which have been already hardened and preserved
the solvent may also be applied; but in all cases where fresh mate-
rial is easily obtainable, it should immediately have its chitin soft-
ened and then afterwards be preserved. Here the method is some-
what shorter, since the substance has been previously hardened.
From alcohol—weak solution—they are put into the Labarraque
and softened as above, then passed through water and the alcohols,
ete.
In most cases in which an animal. egg or embryo is encased in
chitin, the best results have been obtained by staining the sections
after they have been cut and fixed to the slide. If the specimen is
small, staining in toto—after having the chitin softened, or if before
this has taken place, after having made an entrance through the
chitin with a point of a needle—is equally good. The greatest
difficulty, and practically the only one which one meets with, is
that the Labarraque solution not only attacks the chitin itself, but
after a time the soft tissues of the animal—apparently the connect-
ive tissue. Where the chitin surrounds the object completely, as
in the case with the roach’s raft, one can remove the object from
the solution as soon as the chitin is softened, and before the under-
lying parts have been attacked. In cases like this the solvent is at
its best
Very often, however, the soft tissues of the animal are ex
in places between the chitin covering. This is well illustrated by
the joints of insects’ legs, etc., and very frequently these expo!
places are attacked before the chitin is completely softened, thus
causing the joints, if much handled, to fall apart.
By judiciously diluting the solution and taking the parts to be
softened from it before the joints are attacked, one will find its
application practicable even here.
The greatest difficulty of all is when the chitin is internal, com-
pletely surrounded by soft tissue. So far as I have made any
experiments here, I find that one gets better results with very
dilute solutions—diluted from eight to ten times, or even more.
It m admitted that in this last case the application of the
solvent is more doubtful, and of not nearly so much service as 10
the first and second supp cases. ‘a
Strong solutions, then, had better be used only when the chitin
completely surrounds the soft animal parts, and dilute solutions
must be used in all cases where these latter substances are expose
The solution not only softens the chitin, but removes all pig!
either in the chitin or in the tissue beneath, and this is at ames
advantageous.
THe Use or CELLOIDIN IN MAKING DEMONSTRATION-PREPA~
Microscopy. 859
Preparation.—1. Alcohol supplies the best means of hardening,
as it well preserves the color and form. If other reagents are
employed, such as zinc chloride, Miiller’s fluid, etc., the prepara-
tion must lie in alcohol awhile before further treatment.
. The hardened preparation is removed from the alcohol, made
dry superficially by careful application of soft linen, and then coated
with a thin layer of celloidin, applied with a fine brush. The cel-
loidin is dissolved in a mixture of equal parts of strong alcohol
and ether, as for imbedding. The furrows are not to be filled with
the celloidin solution, but the walls must be carefully and thor-
oughly painted. In order to keep them open during the process o
hardening, it is well to fill them with cotton or with blotting-paper.
ithin five or ten minutes the celloidin dries to a thin, trans-
parent, tough membrane, which protects the preparation and gives
it greater firmness.
Dry Preparations of THE BRAtN.—The method of impreg-
nating the brain with paraffine was first employed by Fredericq,?
in 1878. Schwalbe* adopts essentially the same method for the
human brain, proceeding as follows :
Hardened in zinc chloride or in alcohol.
_2. After removing the membranes, cut into a number of suitable
pieces, as it is not advisable to impregnate the brain in toto. —
3. After dehydrating in 96 to 97 per cent. alcohol, soak in tur-
Pentine until completely saturated.
Impregnate with soft paraffine, kept at 60°C. (five to eight
5. The paraffinized preparation is placed on a layer of cotton to
cool, care being taken to give it such a position as to avoid defor-
- mation,
' Michael v. Lenhossék. {‘‘Celloidinbehandlung des Gehirns zur
rr oan iia Demoustrations-praiparaten.”’ Anat. Anz. ii., 3, p. 77.
t d .
: Bull. de l’ Acad. roy. de Belg., 2 ser., xl., June, 1876.
Anat. Anz., i., No. 12, p. 322, Nov., 1886.
860 General Notes.
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
rrata.—On page 201, and 10th line of article on Directive
Coloration, substitute Wallace for “ Darwin.”
On the 15th line of the same paper, erase the first five words.
ours truly,
Tabor, Ia., Sept. 10th, 1888, J. E. Topp.
—A summary of the little that is known of John Abbot, the
Natural History artist of Georgia, is given by S. H. Scudder in
the Canadian Entomologist for August, 1888.
—Dr. Douglass H. Campbell has been appointed Associate
Professor of Botany in Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
—Dr. David S. Kellicott has been elected to the chair of Com-
parative Anatomy and Zoology in the Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio.
—Dr. Julius Nelson, of Johns Hopkins University, goes to th
e
experiment station established in connection with Rutger’s Col-
lege, at New Brunswick, N. J.
—Mr. George H. Parker has been appointed instructor in
Zoology at Harvard University,
and anatomical technique. The local hotels at Champaign an
Urbana ‘give rates of $1.50 and $1.00 per day. The headquarters
1 the Association will be at the Caldwell House, Urbana, The
o
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. OCTOBER, 1888. No. 262,
NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF THE ISLANDS OF FER-
NANDO DE NORONHA.
BY JOHN C. BRANNER.
FERNANDO DE NORONHA is a small group of islands in the
south Atlantic, about 230 miles northeast of Cape St. Roque,
and belonging to Brazil. It is only six miles long by about two
wide. There is no important settlement upon it, and though it lies
near the track of vessels plying between European ports and those
lying south of the Cape, it is seldom visited by steamships and
rarely by sailing vessels,
Very little is known of the natural history of this island. A
very brief visit was made to it by Darwin in his famous voyage
around the world, but the time he spent upon it—only a few hours
—did not enable him to do much towards studying its natural
history. In 1878 the Challenge Expedition landed here, but as
the island is used for a penal settlement, the officer in charge of the
colony would not give the party permission to make explorations.
The few notes made by Mr. Darwin, and those of the Challenger
party, furnish almost all the trustworthy information thus far pub-
lished concerning it.
In 1876, when a member of the Imperial Geological Survey of
Brazil, I visited Fernando de N oronha, and spent the months of
July and August there, during which times the following notes were
made upon its fauna:
The island is inhabited by a vast number of birds, most of
862 Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha.
them sea-birds which flock and breed about the inaccessible
crags and the small islands and rocks off the main island, and
being but little disturbed by visitors, they are not timid, and
may often be killed with clubs or caught with the hand.
One of the most interesting and beautiful birds on the island is
the wig-tail, a white bird about the size of a pigeon, having two
long flexible, streamer-like tail feathers! These birds nest and
roost mostly upon the lofty sides and about the summit of the great
peak. At every hour of the day they may be seen hovering about
this majestic rock like great white butterflies, or resting upon the
little niches on its sides—white specks against the dark background.
When seen at any considerable distance from their nests or roosting
places they usually fly in pairs, side by side, each following the
other’s motions so exactly that one is at first inclined to think by
some optical delusion there is but a single bird where two appear.
They seldom fly in a straight line, but rise and fall and zigzag like
butterflies,
Rats and mice exist here in such numbers as, at times, to
constitute a very serious pest and drawback to agriculture. It is
recorded that during the occupancy of northern Brazil by the Dutch,
about 1630, Fernando de Noronha was abandoned “ by reason of
the vast numbers of rats which consumed all the fruits of the
earth.”? As one walks through the fields or along the paths he
constantly hears their rustling on all sides, and sees them darting
here and there through the grass. A certain number of the convicts
are assigned to the work of rat-killing, and each one is required to
kill a specified number of rats every days. The number is incredi-
bly large—somewhere in the hundreds—but I made no note of it,
and dare not speak from memory. Cats and dogs have been
imported in the hope that they might aid in the extermination
of the plague, but though they usually kill them eagerly
during a few days, they soon become so accustomed to their pa
that they cease to pay the least attention to either rats or mice.
I made no notes upon the occurrence of rats and mice upo?
Ilha Raza and Sao José, and do not recall having seen them 0m
' The inhabitants call these birds by the very appropriate name of
rabo de junco—reed tail.
* John Neuhoff in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. xiv., p. 701.
Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha.
868
those islands. Upon Ilha Rapta there are no rats, but mice are
even much more abundant than on the main island. If they con-
stitute a plague upon the main island, what shall be said of them
here? It is simply impossible to realize, without having seen and
experienced them, how mice can exist in such numbers. I spent
a night on this island, the guest of the three convicts occupying
<
FERNANDO de NORONHA.
BY
JOHN C BRANNER
1676,
i
São José
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af
LNA 00 Meio
ELLA GINETE
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EP Da
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the place at the time. My hammock was suspended in the solitary
grass-thatched hut, and at night I tried to sleep there, but with
very poor success. The mice were all over the floor of earth, in
1 This island is usually and erroneously called Rat Island, an error
due probably to the fact that the p in Rapta is silent, and is supposed
mean rat, which it does not. Rapta is from the verb raptar, to steal,
Rapta translated into English would be Robbers’ Island, or
and Ilha
literally, Stolen Island
864 Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha.
the walls of thatch, in the roof, among the pots and pans—every-
where. No sooner did I lie down in my hammock than they made
their way down the cords and into my bed. During the early part.
of the night I amused myself by allowing them to reach the middle
of the taut hammock cords, when, by striking the cords a sharp
blow, the vibrations would shoot them off into space. This ceased
at length to be amusement, and when, late in the night, I occasion-
ally fell asleep, it was only to be awakened in a few moments by
the mice nibbling at my face or hands or feet, or by their falling
upon me from the roof.
The occurrence of rats upon the main island and of mice only
upon Ilha Rapta may possibly be explained by the mice having
been imported to the smaller from the larger island. The geology
of this group of islands, however, suggests another plausible expla-
nation. Fernando de Noronha and the small islands lying about
the main one are of igneous rocks, with the exception of some
limited exposures of comparatively recent calcareous sandstones
formed by the consolidation of sand dunes. These calcareous sand-
stones form all of Ilha Raza and Ilha do Meio, the southwest third
of Ilha Rapta, and overlie a portion of Sao José and the extreme
northeast point of the main island. -It occurs also at the southeast
base of Atalaia Grande, and in the Bahia de Sudoest, where it
forms Ilha de Chapeo and the shore of the bay in places.
In all these localities the sandstone is cut away on its south-
eastern side, and an abrupt or overhanging face is exposed to the
ocean’s surf, while its upper surface stands at an elevation of from
thirty to fifty feet and more above the water. On the landward
side of the exposures on Ilha Rapta, Sao José and the main island,
these sandstone beds thin away to the west. These facts, and others
_which need not be mentioned here, go to show that the south-
eastern coast of these islands formerly extended much farther 1n
that direction, and that the calcareous sands, of which these rocks
are formed, were blown inland from the beach which once existed
in that direction. The ocean, however, has gradually encroached
upon the island, and especially from the east, until what was
formerly one island has been separated into six, namely, Sao José,
Sella Ginete, Ilhas do Meio, Rapta, Raza, and the main island.
The mice which are so abundant upon both islands now may
Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha. 865
have been cut off from the main island and left upon Ilha Rapta
when this separation took place. Whether they would sur-
vive upon the other islands, Ilha do Meio, Ilha Raza, ete., would
depend entirely upon whether the conditions upon them for
survival were favorable or otherwise, and their existence or non-
existence at intermediate points would have but little bearing upon
the question. It may be asked, in case this theory is correct, why
we find no rats upon Ilha Rapta. This is possibly to be attributed
to their having been entirely exterminated by the convicts.
Ilha Rapta is, in-a sense, one of the institutions of the penal
settlement. It has an area of less than a square mile, no wood,
though it is said to have been wooded formerly, but little potable
water, and, compared with the main island, it is very low. e
soil is extremely fertile, and excellent sweet potatoes grow wild
over a large part of it, while the waters about its shores swarm
with edible fish and enormous sharks. When, at the time of my
visit, and prior thereto, a prisoner upon the main island became
particularly unmanageable, he was banished to Ilha Rapta, which
was regarded as a sort of insanctum insanctorwm, where he was left
to his own devices for subsistence.
I learned from the commandant that formerly large numbers of
convicts were banished to Ilha Rapta at the same time. Now it
was generally understood when I was upon Fernando that rats
were not uncommonly eaten by the convicts on the main island,
and as those sent to Ilha Rapta were left to do as they
saw fit, they were often reduced to great straits for food, and it
does not seem improbable that they ate rats, if rats ever existed
there, Then, too, when efforts were made to raise crops here, the
, Tats, had they existed in such numbers as upon the main island,
would simply have rendered such crops impossible. The area of
the island is so small, and the places in which rats could hide so
few, that their extermination would not be an impossible or even
a very difficult matter.
I trust that the novelty of it will be sufficient apology for a short
digression here to describe the method employed by the convicts on
Ilha Rapta to catch fish. A hook attached to a line about 150
feet long, baited with a fresh sardine or the white skin of some
other fish, is thrown out into the water and quickly drawn ashore.
866 Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha.
The method is thus essentially trolling without a boat or spoon.
One end of the line is tied to the fisherman’s body, the line coiled
and held in the left hand, while the baited hook, weighted with a
bit of lead, is whirled rapidly above the head with the right hand,
until the centrifugal force becomes strong enough to carry the line
out to its full length when skilfully thrown. It is then allowed
to escape, and the lead, carrying the line with it, shoots out over
the water and drops. The line is then hauled in as rapidly as
possible, and this rapid hauling in generally produces a whirling
of the bait at which the fish strike. There is “many a slip,”
though, between hooking a fish and landing it; not that they are
particularly game, but because the sharks are usually fishing at the
same time and place. Not more than half the fishes I saw hooked
here were landed entire; sometimes only half a one was hauled in,
at others only a head, and sometimes the hook and part of the line
were also missing.
Standing upon one of the overhanging rocks at the western end
of the island I have looked down into the sea when it was
comparatively smooth and seen hundreds of enormous sharks in
the water, gliding over and about each other in their search for
food.
Perhaps the most interesting vertebrate found on Fernando is a
species of lizard—Mabina punctatas. The cultivation of almost
all the tillable land on the island has had the tendency to drive
these lizards into the rocky corners and uncultivated places, where
they exist in such great numbers as to cause one to wonder how 50
many of them manage to live on so small an island. As they are
but little disturbed, and have no natural enemies here, they are not
very timid. Walking over the open, rocky places where there 1s
no vegetation, one may see the lizards withdrawing down the sides
of the rock fragments, apparently with much reluctance, at a dis-
tance of from three to six feet ahead of him. If he turn and look
behind he will find them rapidly closing up the space yielded him
for a passage. While seated upon the bare rocks I have often
observed these little animals watching me, apparently with as much
curiosity as I watched them, turning their heads from side to side
as if in an effort to be wise. If I kept quiet for a few minutes
they would creep up to me and finally upon me; if I moved, they
Fauna of the Islands of: Fernando de Noronha. 867
ran down the faces of the rocks, and turning, stuck their heads
above the edges to watch me. I caught a great many of them! by
keeping quiet until they came within easy reach and then snatched
them. They bite freely, but their teeth are too short and weak to
inflict a severe wound. Upon one occasion when climbing with
my photographic apparatus up a steep bluff, where great care and
attention had to be given to every step and motion, my movements
were not sufficiently rapid and decided to keep the lizards off my
person, and as neither of my hands was free, they became offen-
sively familiar. Several of them crawled leisurely over me
examining my clothing ‘and my person, and one even got up the
leg of my trousers, and for nearly an hour crept around and around
my waist just below the band of my trousers.
I was told by the inhabitants that there was another kind of a
lizard on the island which had two tails. I found, however, that
the so-called forked-tailed lizard was the same as the above men-
tioned one. The tail of this species is long and slender, and is so
easily broken that it was quite difficult to catch one without break-
ing off a portion of its tail. If the piece broken does not fall off
entirely, the break may heal over sufficiently to hold it securely,
while the growing out of the new tail gives the lizard a forked or
double one. I have seen it stated, I believe in the Challenger
reports, that this species has never been found elsewhere in the
world than upon Fernando de Noronha, and that the species to
which it is most nearly related occurs in Demerara.
I saw no snakes upon the island, and the old residents say there
are none, save what is known in Brazil as the cobra cega (blind
snake) or cobra de duas cabeças (double-headed snake). I found
one specimen of this. It is a species of Amphisbeena.
Several insects are found, the most abundant of which is a spe-
cies of wasp, which does considerable damage to grapes, and by
building nests in the cajú trees renders itself very obnoxious.
Spiders are also very abundant. A few beetles and butterflies were
taken, but the material was turned over to Mr. Herbert H. Smith,
and I am unable to say what they are. All kinds of domestic
* These specimens, like all the other material collected upon this
island, was deposited in the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. As far
as I know, none of it has ever been worked up.
Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha.
animals have been introduced upon the island, but they do not
enter into the biologic question to which I would call attention.
It does not seem improbable that the original flora and fauna of
Fernando were introduced here at the same time and from the
same source. I regret that I made no notes of value upon the
flora of the island, but I may call attention to this peculiarity of it:
its large trees produce light wood, that is, wood that will float in
the water. The flora of the Brazilian mainland is noticeable for
the predominance of very heavy timber, most of which, even when
well seasoned, is of too high specific gravity to float in salt water.
One of the large trees of Fernando is the Ficus noronhae, a species
first described from this island. Another is the burra, a species of
laurel yielding a poisonous juice. I believe I have seen the laurel
in the highlands of the province of Minas Geraes, but I am not
quite positive about the identity.
The question naturally arises: Where did the animals inhabit-
ing this island come from originally, and how did they get to
Fernando de Noronha?
The first answer which suggests itself is that they have been
imported by man’s agency since the place was discovered. Very
fortunately we have valuable documentary evidence upon this sub-
ject. The following is a translation of the oldest document mm
existence referring to the island of Fernando de Noronha :—
“.... In view of the services which Fernam de Noronha,
cavalier of our house, has rendered, and which we shall expect of
him hereafter, and desiring to show him grace and mercy, we are
pleased to bestow upon him henceforth for all the days of his life,
and on his eldest legitimate son surviving at the time of his death,
our island of Sam Joham which he has just. lately discovered fifty
leagues over the sea from our land of the holy cross.” *
This is a portion of the patent issued by the King of Portugal,
January 24th, 1504, at “ Lixboa,” and recorded in the royal archives
of Portugal? Now “Sam Joham,” or in modern Portugues?,
1 The original name given Brazil by Cabral was Vera Cruz.
generally known, however, as the Zerra da Santa Cruz until about
the middle of the sixteenth century when the name Brazil was
generally adopted.
2 Real Archivo, Bk. 37, Chane. D. Joao III., Fol. 152. (Dairio de
Pero Lopes, p. 71-2.)
Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha. 869
Sao Joao, was the original name of the island, and after this
patent it appears to have been known by the name of its owner,
Fernam, or Fernando, de Noronha.
From this document, and others relating to the fleet in which
Fernando de Noronha sailed, it is believed that the island was
discovered on the 24th of June (St. John’s Day), 1503, and that it
was called the island of “Sam Joham,” or St. John, in accordance
with the usage of the times, which was to name places after the
saints upon whose days the discoveries were made.
Americus Vespucius claims to have visited this island on his
fourth voyage, six weeks after its discovery by Fernando de
Noronha. I am aware that historians question whether this voyage
was ever really made by Americus Vespucius, but judging from
the description given by him it must be confessed that if that
navigator did not himself see this island, he obtained his informa-
tion concerning it from some one who did visit it, and for our
purposes this serves the same end. If his informant was a member
of Fernando de Norouha’s party, it is only the more valuable in
the present connection. . The description given by Americus
Vespucius is brief, but it is the earliest one published, and there-
fore the most important for the present discussion. According to
this account he touched here August 10th, 1503, and he writes :—
ger ear es Which island we found inhabited, and it contained
plenty of trees, and so many birds, both marine and land, that
they were without number, and they were so tame that they
allowed themselves to be caught with the hand; and we caught so
many that we loaded a boat with them; and we saw no other
animals except very big rats and lizards with two tails, and some
snakes,”
As the introduction of birds, whether marine or land, upon an
island 230 miles from a large continent, cannot be regarded as
difficult or impossible, the presence of birds upon Fernando may
be passed by as of no particular importance. The interest in this
_ ease centres upon the “big rats and lizards with two tails and
some snakes” mentioned by Americus Vespucius. As the island
was discovered but six weeks prior to the reported visit of this
k Stanislau Canovai’s Viaggi d’Amerigo Vespucci, Ed. 1817, p. 110,
€t seq.
870 Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha.
navigator, it is clearly impossible that these animals, if imported
by the discoverer, could have multiplied in so short a time suffi-
ciently to have attracted attention. Nothing is said of the mice,
and it may therefore be that these are or are not aboriginal inhabit-
ants of the island. But the rats are here, and the lizards with
two tails, the only ones likely to attract the attention are here,
and the Amphisbeena is here, an animal bearing such a resem-
blance to a snake that by most people it is called a snake, even to
this day.
Where did these animals come from? Rats are world-wide in
their distribution ; the species of lizard found here has never been
found elsewhere ; Amphisbzena is abundant in Brazil, and in Africa,
and one genus (Blanus) is found about the Mediterranean. If we
suppose that they migrated from the Brazilian mainland, and that
the Huprepes does occur, but has not yet been found there, a
question as to method arises. Now as the ocean currents do not,
i- ge atc on t
/ Se
i
l > VA
Ii > Witte. 7 4 E
at any time of the year, set eastward, northeastward or southeast-
ward from the eastern part of the South American continent in the
direction of the island of Fernando de Noronha, the chance of
such animals being carried from the Brazilian mainland are ex-
tremely small. The island receives the currents from the south-
western coast of Africa, as is shown in the accompanying cut; indeed
the west flowing south equatorial current divides just about here,
the current striking the island and flowing either to the northwest
or to the southwest along the Brazilian mainland, according to the
time of the year and the direction of the trade winds. The wind
Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha. 871
charts usually represent the prevailing winds in this region as coming
from the southeast. During the months of June, July, August,
and September, they do come from that direction approximately, but
during the remainder of the year they are usually from the northeast.
The ocean currents shift slightly with these prevailing winds, so
that when the winds from the northeast have prevailed for some
time, the main body of the south equatorial current seems to be
carried further south. Such changes throw upon Fernando at one
time the currents from southwest Africa, and at others probably
some of the counter-currents from the North Atlantic or from the
Gulf of Guinea.
Dr. Atfred R. Wallace, with whom the writer has spoken in
regard to this question, suggests that these animals may have been
introduced upon the floating trunks of trees from Africa. If we
admit that such animals could endure so long an ocean voyage, the
explanation satisfies the demands of the case as far as we are
acquainted with them.
The long existence of navigation as a science prior to the dis-
covery of America, suggests that rats might have been carried here
upon a wrecked vessel. But even admitting that the Amphisbena
and the lizard might have come from some part of the Mediterranean,
the chances of such animals finding their way upon board vessels
are so extremely small that this hypothesis seems to have but little
or no value.
Tt has been suggested also that the islands of Fernando may have
been joined to the Brazilian mainland at one time, and that by the
cutting away of the isthmus joining the two, the island was thus
left with the fauna found by its discoverers. The form of the
Ocean’s bottom between the mainland and the island puts this
hypothesis out of question. It was formerly supposed that Fer-
nando had once been the northeastern point of Brazil, but the deep-
Sea soundings by the Challenger expedition show that this is not
true, and that Fernando is separated from the mainland by a trough
More than 12,000 feet deep. In the light of these facts the ques-
tion remains: where did these animals come from, and how did
they get here?
1! During my stay upon this island, in the monthsof July and August,
the wind varied but little from due east, being at times from the E. N.
E., and at others from the E. S. E.
872 Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline.
VALUES IN CLASSIFICATION OF THE STAGES OF
GROWTH AND DECLINE, WITH PROPOSITIONS
FOR A NEW NOMENCLATURE.'
BY ALPHEUS HYATT.
ey accord with views brought to the notice of the society in 1884,
under the title of the “ Larval Theory of the Origin of Tissue,”?
an abstract of which was subsequently printed in Amer. Journ. Set.
May 31, 1886, we divide the animal kingdom into thre¢ compre-
hensive divisions: (1) Prorozoa, unicellular animals, which
propagate by means of asexual (autotemnic) fission and by spores,
and build up colonies, but always remain typically unicellular. (2)
Mesozoa, multicellular colonies, but composed of only one layer of
cells, so closely connected, that they may be called a primitive tissue,
and having more or less spherical forms.* They propagate by
means of ova, spermatozoa, and by autotemnic fission,* and have
an aula or common cavity, but no specialized digestive cavity oF
archenteron. (3) METAZOA, complexes of multicellular colonies, in
which growth by sexual union, and resulting fission of the ovum,
forms three primitive tissue layers and builds up a body in which
an archenteron is always developed. They propagate always by
means of ova and spermatozoa, autotemnic fission occurring only,
at all, during the earliest stages of the ovum. Holoblastic ova may
be regarded as the more primitive or generalized forms to which
1 Abstract of a paper read at’ the meeting of the Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist.,
Nov. 16, 1887. Vol. xxiii.
* Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. xxiii., 1884, p. 45.
3 See Butschli’s remark that the closely appressed hexagonal cells of
the envelope are connected with each other by threads of propaplasm.
Bronn. Thierreichs, vol. i. Protoz., p. 775.
‘The best summary of all observations is in the work just quoted,
where Butschli calls the sexual cells ova and tophora, but alludes
to the cells developing by autotemnice fission as Parthenogonidia. They
are by his own descriptions and those of others, oya, Which differ from
POPE ova only in their ability to develop through autote mui
ion.
Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline. . 873
other forms of ova having more or less specialized and concentrated
_ modes of development may be referred as derivatives. The stages
of holoblastic ova may be in a general way classified as follows, to
accord with that given above for the Animal Kingdom :—
(1) The ovum or Monoplast (Lankester) ; (2) the first stage of
segmentation, which normally results in the production of two cells
in the same place originated by vertical fission, the Monoplacula ;
(3) the second stage of segmentation in which two layers arise, the
Diploplacula. The*first two stages alone seem to have parallel or
representative adult forms among Protozoa. The differentiation
into esoteric, primitive ectoblast, and enteric, primitive endoblast
cells takes place in the Diploplacula, and the morphological equiva-
lent of this stage of the ovum, having an upper layer of differentiated
feeding cells, has not yet been found among the adults of the
Protozoa ; though, if this is correct, such a discovery may be reason-
ably anticipated. We have proposed to classify these stages under
the name of Protembryo.
(4) The Blastula is in aspect and general characteristics the
morphological equivalent of the adults of the genera Volvox and
Eudorina, the types of the Mesozoa or Blastrea, The latter are
animals in which growth remained permanently arrested at the
single-layered, spherical stage in the evolution of tissue-building
orms. We have proposed to classify these stages under the name
of Mesembryo,
(5) The Gastrula can be compared, as has been done by Heckel,
with the lower Porifera (Ascones), but these have three layers like
the lowest Hydrozoa, in which a three-layered gastrula-like stage
has been permanent] y preserved.! The proper name for these stages
would therefore be Metembryo, in allusion to the fact that the ovum
at this stage is probably essentially a Metazoon.
(6) The first and simpler Planula stages, though often character-
to such a position. They have all proved to be either three-layered, or
else to belong to the true Mesozoa or Protozoa. See also for remarks on
bi va prevalence of the three layers even in the gastrula, Metschnikoff,
deoa gastrula einiger Metazoen ” Zeitz, Wissen. Zool., V. 27, 1882,
874 Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline.
istic of the larger divisions of the Animal Kingdom, would not, if
arrested at this period, be recognized as belonging to the same groups
as their existing adults. They do not possess, as a rule, the essen-
tial diagnostic characters of the larger divisions to which they
belong, and we propose to call them Neoembryos. Examples: the
Cinctoplanula is not a sponge, the Planula of the Coelenterata is not a
Ccelenterate, nor the Pluteus an Echinoderm, nor the Trochosphere
a Mollusc, nor the Pilidium a Nemertean worm, nor the earliest
planula-like ciliated stages of Amphioxus a Vertebrate. Neoem-
bryos are, as pointed out by Semper,! Lankester ? and Balfour,’ so
similar, that they may be considered as indicating a common
ancestor for the entire Animal Kingdom.
(7) The latest of the more specialized planula-like stages are
either directly transformed into, or else give rise to other forms in
which the characters of the larger subdivisions or types of the Animal
Kingdom begin to appear, at least so far as essential characters are
concerned. Examples: the Ascula and Ampullinula are true
sponges, the Actinula isa Hydrozoon, the Gulinula is an Actinozoon,
the Veliger is a Molluse, the internal worm-like form arising in
Pilidium is a true Nemertean, the formation of the notochord in
Amphioxus makes the planula-like embryo into a vertebrate animal.
They have the essential characters of the larger subdivisions, though
it is equally true, that embryos in this stage of development are
very remote, in some cases, from the adults of any normal forms.
We do not, therefore, misinterpret these relations by naming the
embryo in these last stages the Typembryo. This term can
applied to the Nauplius of Crustacea, and the Echinula* of Echino-
dermata, as well as to those above noted.
1 Semper, Stammsver, Wirbel. und Wirbello., Arbeit. Zoolog. Zootom
Inst., V. ii., p. 59, and V. iii., p. 384. This distinguished author states
in Volume iii., that his “ Trochosphaera”’ is identical with the “ unge-
gliderte Urnierenthier”’ which in his first table in Volume ii., app
as the common ancestor of the higher animals, i.e., of all animals except
Echinodermata and Coelenterata.
2 Lankester traced the Mollusca, Annelida, Rotifera and Echinoder-
mata to what he calls the Archiiroch, acomimon form taken from some
what earlier stages of the Planula than those selected by Semper for his
rochosphaera. Embryol. and Classif. Journ. Micros. Sci., vol. vile
1877, p. 423.
* Balfour, Comp. Embryol., vol. ii., p. 811.
t Alexander Agassiz, Address, Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., V. 29, 1880, p. 410,
shows that there is a stage of the embryo common to all orders of living
Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline. 875
Typembryos serve to connect the earlier stages of the Neoem-
bryos with the true larval stages which succeeded the former.
Balfour and other embryologists have used the term “larva” for
free neoembryos and typembryos. This term should be confined
to the designation of stages of growth which are immediately con-
tinuous with later stages and parallel, or referable in their origin
to the adults of allied, existing, or fossil forms, which are not so
remote as those from which the embryonic stages were derived.
The application of such principles to the study of the younger
stages of fossil Cephalopoda is productive of what seem to be
satisfactory results, The protoconch of Owen is, according to this
nomenclature, the shell of the univalve veliger of the Cephalous
Mollusca, and a true typembryo which, though eminently charac-
teristic of that group, has no exact morphological equivalent among
adults of normal forms whether recent or fossil:
The protoconch in fossil Nautiloidea is represented by a withered-
looking lump sticking to the apex of the conch in a very few excep-
tionally perfect specimens. The very general absence of this lump
and the presence of a scar left by its removal on the apex of the
conch, and the wrinkled, shrunken aspect of the lump when pre-
served, indicate the protoconch to have had a horny texture in this
order. This typembryo shell must have existed among Nautiloids
with an almost unchanged aspect from the earliest Cambrian (Lower
Silurian) horizon until the present day, and its adult equivalent
probably existed before its appearance in Cephalopoda or in the
equally ancient and allied group of the Pteropoda, which also had
similar protoconchs.
The true larval, or as they are here named, Silphologic’ stages,
began with the formation of what Owen has appropriately called the
apex of the conch or true shell. Among Nautiloids this was a short
living chamber occupied by the body of the animal, but having no
Echinodermata. This stage, however, was not named in the address
above quoted, which was intended as preliminary to an illustrated essay
on the same subject, and Mr. Agassiz has supplied that omission in the
following note, which I quote from a letter to me. “I intended some-
time when revising my ‘ Address on Pal tological and E yological,
Development,’ to call the earliest tag derm embryos
; Echinula’ for convenience in making comparisons.—A. Agassiz.’
Zion, a grub. of
g wW
876 Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline.
siphon or septum. It was completed by the deposition of the
apical plate, which sealed up the aperture of the protoconch thus
closing the opening and cutting off communication between the two
interiors.
This stage can therefore be named the asiphonula or siphonless
larva. The apex of this conch was rounded, being built out in con-
centric circles from the contracted aperture of the protoconch,
probably before this was plugged up by the deposition of the apical
plate. The asiphonula was not a Cephalopod, since it had no
central siphon, nor even a septum. It may have resembled more
or less closely the adults of some of the ancient Pteropoda. Von
Jhering has thought, that the characteristics of the early stages of
Ammonoids justified a comparison between them and forms of
Pteropoda having similar protoconchs. This was our own position
also, but we now see, that the asiphonula was not necessarily a
wholly pteropod-like animal. It may have retained many of the
veliger’s characteristics, and may have more or less resembled a
generalized type to which a Scaphopod is the nearest living approxi-
mation. Prof. W. K. Brooks’ opinion, that the Scaphopods are
such a generalized type and that the veliger has characters which
can be compared with those of the adult of Dentalium ought at any
rate to be considered here. | .
= It is not at all improbable, that the Pteropoda may never have
served as radicals for the Nautiloids or Ammonoids, but the latter
may have sprung directly from the ancient Scaphopoda. ;
The cicatrix naturally suggests comparison with the posterior
opening in the shell of Dentalium, but if our view is the true one,
and it represents the aperture of a protoconch, no such comparison
can be made. The development of the conch in Dentalium is, ac
cording to Lacaze Duthier’s researches, directly continuous with that
of the protoconch, and the posterior opening is the result of the
peculiar mode of growth of a primitive plate of shell which is never
closed up. The shell, in other words, is a periconch growing around
the body in the veliger and finally coalescing to form a tube open
at both ends. : :
The second larval stage in Nautiloidea was composed of a living
chamber closed apically and completed by a single septum, which
had a cecal prolongation reaching across the first air chamber and
1 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Aff. Moll. and Molluscoid., V. 18, 1876:
PLATE XV.
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Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline. 877
resting upon the inner side of the scar. It is proposed to call this
stage the Czecosiphonula, since it is undoubtedly the primitive stage
of that organ. The cecosiphonula may indicate the former exist-
ence of an ancestral form having a central axis composed of similar
closed funnels or cecal pouches.!
The third Silphologic stage in Nautiloids was completed by a
septum (the second in the apical part of the shell) having an open
funnel extending apically and joined to a loose textured siphonal
wall which reached down into and lined the cecum, thus forming
a secondary closed tube. In accordance with the structure this has
been named the Macrosiphonula.
The protoconch was present in Ammonoids and also in Belem-
noids, but in both of these orders it was calcareous. The tendency
to form a calcareous shell, which first appeared in the apex of the
conch of the asiphonula in Nautiloids, became by concentration of
development inherited earlier in the Ammonoids and Belemnoids
in the veliger stage, thus transforming what would otherwise have
been a horny shell into a calcareous one. The protoconch was,
however, not otherwise changed in external aspect and retained the
usual egg-like shape of the univalve veligers of the Cephalophora.
As in the protoconchs of other similar veligers of Gasteropoda,
ete., and as a result of calcification, the protoconch became fused
with the apex of the conch more intimately than in Nautiloids. In
other words the asiphonula, ‘after transmitting a portion of its
characteristics to the typembryos of the Ammonoids and Belem-
noids, disappeared, having been replaced by the Caxcosiphonula.
The septum of the cxcosiphonula was consequently also inherited
earlier, and became a functional substitute of the apical plate serv-
ing to close the aperture of the protoconch, and its cecum extended
into the upper part of the otherwise empty protoconch, in place of
occupying the first air chamber as in Nautilvids. This is a remark-
able example of the law of concentration, but by no means excep-
tional. The fourth larval stage of the Nautiloids was completed
by the building of the third septum. This septum had a long
funnel and attached porous wall, but the wall formed a true siphonal
tube opening apically into the next section, the macrosiphon. This
* See also similar remarks by Whitfield, Bull. Amer. Mus. New York,
No.1, and Em ryol. Ceph. by the author, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., V.
8, No. 5, p. 100
878 Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline.
was the beginning of the small siphon and can be appropriately
termed the Microsiphonula. The microsiphonula was the typical
stage of nearly all the known genera of Nautiloids, beginning with
the Orthoceratites of the Cambrian and found at the present time
in Nautilus, and also in all Ammonoids and Belemnoids without
exception.
Fortunately the genesis of both macrosiphonula and microsi-
phonula can be traced in the adult forms and silphologic stages of
well-known fossils. The Crytocerina had a siphon which was
macrosiphonulate probably even in the adult stage, since it increases
in diameter throughout life. Piloceras had a huge siphon hardly
at all contracted in the adults of some species, but considerably
lessened in diameter during the same stage in others. Endoceras
had also a large siphon always more or less contracted in the
silphologic or later stages. The uncontracted macrosiphonula
occupied in this genus a number of air chambers varying according
to the species, from a few to six or more. This was evidently due
to the earlier inheritance or concentration of the tendency to
decrease the diameter of the siphon first manifested in the adults
of Piloceras. Sannionites was a genus in which the siphon was
smaller than in Endoceras, and probably, though this is not yet
ascertained, inherited the tendency to microsiphonulation at the
` first septum at an earlier age than in Endoceras. None of these
forms, however, attained a true microsiphon, since even Sanni-
onites had the siphon filled by endocones and in the centre an
endosiphon.. These organs entirely disappeared in true microsi-
phonulate forms and, in fact, could have existed only within a large
macrosiphon. j
Nevertheless this tendency to decrease the size of the siphon
resulted in the formation of a definite constriction. This constric-
tion was inherited at earlier and earlier stages after its origin m
the siphon of Piloceras, until it became constant perhaps in Sanni-
onites and certainly in the Orthoceratide. The constriction marked
the line between the larger and smaller siphon in the macrosipho-
nulate forms, and, in becoming constant through concentration, it
became invariably fixed behind the first septum between n
cæcosiphonula and the smaller siphon. This smaller siphon,
though still a macrosiphon in structure, as explained above, even use
Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline. 879
Sannionites, was undoubtedly transitional to the true microsiphons
of the Orthoceratide.
The cæcosiphonula was in all Orthoceratites, which are other-
wise similar to Endoceras, confined by concentration of development
to the first air chamber, and a true microsiphonula appeared at an
early stage as an open narrow tube. This was similar to the siphon
of the vast majority of all succeeding forms of both Nautiloids and
Ammonoids. According to the classification here advocated, the
stages preceding the microsiphonula, viz.: the asiphonula,
cecosiphonula and macrosiphonula, became silphologic stages in
all the groups of Cephalopoda descending from the radical
- Endoceratide. | Microsiphonulation became silphologic in the
Orthoceratide, and the smooth shell which they evolved was
subsequently inherited among Nautiloids, Ammonoids and Belem-
noids during the younger stages in all the species of these orders.
Other forms, with depressed and involved whorls, were introduced
in the main stock of radicals among Goniatitinse, and were modi-
fications of the smooth cylinder of the simpler Orthoceratide with
its microsiphon. These in turn became the proximal radicals of
derivative groups. Thus the Anarcestes'! among Goniatitine
became the radicals of the Ammonoidea, and the smooth silphologie
Stages of all Ammonoids after the expiration of the Devonian
were like the adults of these lowest forms of Goniatitine. This
later acquired silphologic stage has therefore been styled the
Goniatitinula,
It has also been found, that in tracing the descent of forms with-
in smaller groups, sub-orders, families, and genera, it is practicable,
as in the case of the family of Endoceratide, to prove that
characteristics usually appear first in adult stages and are then
inherited at earlier and earlier stages in successive species of the
Same stock, whether they occur on the same horizon, or in different
horizons. The adolescent or Nealogic? stages are of as great import-
ance for tracing the genealogy of small groups as are the silpholo-
gic characters in larger groups. Thus one can speak in definite
terms of the relations of the nealogic stages, and their meaning
and importance in tracing the genealogy of families and genera,
* Gen. Ceph. Proc. Bost. Soc, Nat. Hist., V. 22, 1880, p. 305.
? Neadyc, youthfulness.
880 Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline.
without danger of confusing them with the characters of any of the
silphologic stages.
After the silphologic and nealogic stages have been disposed of
there still remains the adult period, which is equally important in
genealogical investigations, since it enables the observer to study
the origin of many characters, which afterwards become silphologic
and nealogic in descendent forms.
It is not uncommonly assumed, that adaptive characters appear-
ing in embryos and larve are apt to be transient and have but
little effect on the subsequent history of the early stage in the same
group; also, that such characters have appeared just as readily in
the larvee as in adults. Up to the present time this has not been -
found to be true among fossil Cephalopoda, and there exist, so far
as known to the author, but few characteristics probably originating
in the early stages. The constant recurrence of hereditary charac-
teristics in silphologic and nealogic stages which originated in
adults, like those given above for the Endoceratide, makes the
probability of the assumption, that the asiphonula and veliger
represent the adult stages of lost types, so highly probable, that the
burden of proof must rest upon the opponents of this argument.
Each case of the origin of characters in embryo and larve should in
other words be regarded with distrust until proven.
The appearance of the incomplete modes of segmentation in
existing Sepioidea may possibly be a case of origination in embryo.
There are no adult forms known to the author, which store up food
in their tissues in such a manner that they can be used to explain
the origin of the specialized food yolk. Nevertheless special inquiry
might have very unexpected results. The case above given of the
calcareous nature of the protoconch, and all the other characters of
the stage in the Ammonoids and Belemnoids, seemed to have
originated in embryo until it was found that a distinct silphologi¢
stage, the asiphonula, existed in Nautiloids, and that this indicated
the former existence of an asiphonulate ancestor having a calcareous
shell.
Some of the characters of the goniatitinula, such as the deep
ventral saddle of the first septum in the angustisellate young, te
described by Branco, doubtless originated in the younger stages.
These are, however, correlative with the anarcestian form of this
Values of the Stages of Growth and Deeline. 881
stage and with a general tendency to closer involution, which acted
the same way in every series of forms, whether we select series of
adults or of embryos for comparison.
The use of a distinct term for the adult period becomes necessary
not only on this account, and to separate its relations from those of
preceding periods, but also because of the constant recurrence and
importance of representative forms. The term Ephebology * has
accordingly been adopted for the designation of the relations of the
adult stages, and under this term can be classified also the represen-
tation of similar forms in different groups or morphological equiva-
lents. These are often so exact that it becomes very difficult to
Separate them. They have been and will continue to be the most
difficult and misleading obstacles to the student of genealogy and
classification.
In former essays we have described and defined the senile trans-
formations and their correlations with the degraded forms of the
Same groups. The nature of these relations is, as has been explained,
quite distinct from those of the progressive and adult stages, but
the correlations are nevertheless equally important for the classifi-
cation and tracing of genealogies during the declining period of a
group, and in the case of degraded and aberrant forms. We have,
therefore, for some years past designated these relations by the term
Geratology.?
This nomenclature is similar to that adopted by Heckel, but is,
when properly considered, also supplementary and based upon
morphological rather than physiological grounds. This eminent
author regarded the ontogeny of an individual to be divisible into
three periods : first, the stages of Anaplasis or those of progressive
evolution ; second, the stages of fulfilled growth and development,
Metaplasis ; third, those of decline, Cataplasis. He also appreciated
and gave full weight to the general physiological correlations which
are traceable between the history of a group and the life of an
individual, and, in accordance with these ideas, designated the pro-
gressive periods of expansion in the phylogenetic history of a group
as the Epacme, the period of greatest expansion in number and
variety of species and forms as the Acme, and the period of decline
in numbers of species, ete., as the Paracme.
! “Egnfog, the age of puberty.
* Tépas, old age,
882 Values of the Stages of Growth and Decline.
Heckel used also the term Anaplastology for the physiological
relations of the stages of progressive growth and those of the Epacme
of groups, Metaplastology for those of the adult and the Acme of
groups, and Cataplastology for those of the senile stages and the
Paracme of group. These terms seem to cover the same ground,
as those we have employed, but they were in reality chosen for the
purpose of classifying physiological relations. Thus the anaplastic
relations of the Embryologic, Silphologic and Nealogic stages to the
phenomena occurring in the Epacme of groups, and the metaplastic
relations of the Ephebolic stages to the phenomena occurring at the
Acme of groups, and the cataplastic relations of the Geratologic
stages to the phenomena occurring during the Paracme of groups,
are the functional relations of one class of morphological modifi-
cations to those of another class and do not properly include the
morphological phenomena themselves or their morphological
correlations.
The necessity for a double set of terms may possibly not be at first
admitted by many zoologists on account of their too exclusive devo-
tion to the morphological side of their studies, but a very slight —
experience in trying to express the serial correlations of morpholo-
gical and physiological phenomena will very soon show them, the
convenience of such a nomenclature. Geologists have already
arrived at this conclusion with regard to the classification of strata
in the earth’s crust and have begun to use two parallel series of
terms, one giving the nomenclature of the relations in time, Era,
Period, Age, etc., and the other the faunal relations under the
headings of Group, System, Stage, and so on. The time has come
for recognizing a similar parallelism between structural or statical
phenomena of organisms and their dynamical or physiological
relations in time, and it is necessary to separate these clearly by
different series of terms in order to see not only how they are
separable, but also their correlations. Te
We have been more or less constantly observing and publishing
on the Geratologic stages among fossil Cephalopoda for more than
twenty years and have repeatedly described the more or less exact
comparisons, which can be made between the different stages of de-
cline in the individual and the degraded forms occurring in the oaiae
group.
1G. K. Gilbert, Address, Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., 1887.
Values of the Stages of Growtn and Decline. 883
There were two stages in the old age period among Ammonoids :
the first of these can be designated as the Clinologic! stage. This
immediately succeeded the ephebolic period and during its continu-
ance the nealogic and ephebolic characteristics underwent retrogres-
sion, Ornaments, spines, and sutures degenerated and lost their
angularity, the ribs of pile, and often the keel and channels, when
the latter were present, became less prominent, and before this stage
closed the whorl itself sometimes decreased, showing that degenera-
tion in the growth force of the animal had taken place. Similar
phenomena can be easily observed in other departments of the
animal kingdom, notably in man, whose habits tend to preserve life
until he has attained extreme age. During this period there is a
steady loss of the differential characters acquired during the stages
of progressive growth and there is a tendency to resume the propor-
tions and aspect of the earlier nealogic stages. | In man, baldness
of the head, loss of teeth and resorption of the alveoli, loss of the
calves, rotund stomach, and the return of early mental peculiarities,
are phenomena of similar import.
The last changes in the ontology of the animal may be termed
the Nostologic stage,? and during this stage these tendencies reached
their highest expression. Among Ammonoids the ornaments were
all lost by resorption, the whorl became almost,as round and
smooth as it was in the silphologic stage, and in extreme cases
it was separated from the next whorl, leaving a perceptible gap.
This almost complete reversion to the aspect of the silphologic
Stage can of course only occur in animals which attain an extreme
age,
The correlations of Clinology are exact, and indicate the changes
which may be expected to occur in the same group whenever de-
graded or aberrent species can be traced ina more or less continuous
Series of graded modifications starting with any given normal form,
Many such series have been traced, and these are recognized now by
all paleontologists as genetically connected. They began with
normal, close coiled, ornamented, shells, the descendants were
smaller, showing a tendency to be less involved by growth, to lose
their ornaments, and simplify the outlines of the sutures, though
* Kiva, to incline downwards.
* Néozog, a return.
884 The Poison-Apparatus of the Mosquito.
they had coiled young stages similar to those of the normal forms
from which they must have originated.
The correlations of Nostology can only be artificially separated
from those of Clinology, but there existed one class of forms which
can be compared only with the nostologic stage. These are the
degenerate straight Baculites-like shells, which belong to several
distinct genetic series and should often be widely separated on that
account. Their resemblances are undoubtedly close, but they are
due to degeneration and, therefore, simply homoplastic. Naturalists
sooner or later will begin to recognize that degeneration may pro-
duce close representation in forms having distinct origins. The
Baculities is a smooth, straight, cylindrical though slightly com-
pressed shell, which has socompletely reverted that it resembles an
Orthoceras, though it isan unquestionable Ammonoid of the Jura
and Cretaceous.
THE POISON-APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO.
BY PROFESSOR G. MACLOSKIE,
T oral armature or proboscis of the mosquito ( Culex) is
described and figured in Dimmock’s Mouth-parts of Some
Diptera, and consists of a labrum, two mandibles, two maxille,
surrounding a hypopharynx, and all these enclosed in a loose
scale-covered sheath, which is the labium. They are nearly three
millimetres long, about four times as long as the head; and all
except the sheath are smooth, chitinous stylets. The maxille
bear maxillary palps, scaly, four-jointed, about as long as the
head in Culex, and three times as long in the allied genus Ano-
pheles. I have only to add to Dimmock’s description that besides
the somewhat coarse serration of the maxilla (about fifteen teeth
near the top of each), Minot S. Morgan, of Princeton, has shown
very fine serrations on the upper part of the mandibles (about
forty-two minute teeth on each). :
The hypopharynx is in the axis of all these mouth parts, bemg
inserted by a basal enlargement close behind the oral aperture, and
The Poison-Apparatus of the Mosquito. 885
flattened so as to form the floor of a sucking tube whose sides and
roof are formed by the grooved labrum (or labrum-epipharynx
according to Dimmock). This sucking tube extends back in the
head, piercing between the upper and lower brain, and enlarged
in the posterior part of the head into a large pumping organ,
which forces the imbibed fluid backwards into the cesophagus
and stomach.
In the last century Reaumur thought he could detect a drop of
saliva ejected by the proboscis when stinging; he supposed that
this is poisonous, and that its special function is to prevent the
coagulation, and thus to promote the flow of blood by suction
when the insect operates on our skin. We do not believe that
he possessed any instrument that could show the poison; but his
inference as to the presence of poison and its function is almost
certainly correct. It seems to us, however, that the chief food of
this insect is not animal blood, but the proteids of plants; and
probably the fluid ejected may prevent the coagulation of all pro-
teids, and so promote the process of suction.
It has been very often suspected that the poison-duct is con-
tained in the hypopharynx, which has a thickened axis, like a rod,
Supposed by some observers to be tubular. Dimmock made out
the tubular character of the corresponding part of some of the
larger non-poisonous Diptera, but he was not able to demonstrate
its tubular character in Culex. In addition to his observations
that go to prove the existence of poison in its bite, I may add
my own observation, that even when failing to draw blood its bite
will sometimes swell the part, the subcutaneous tissue being irri-
tated by poisonous matter. He concludes from the careful exam-
ination of all the parts that no other channel can conduct this
poison ; and adds, “This, together with the position occupied by
the salivary duct in other Diptera, leads me to believe, without
as yet being able to give anatomical proof of it, that the hypo-
pharynx of Culex contains a duct that pours out its’ poisonous
saliva” ; and he further states that he was unable to determine the
actual presence of the glands.
A year ago I succeeded in making out the duct and also the
glands, and published a preliminary note; I was unable, however,
at that time, to correct errors or to complete the work. This
886 The Poison-Apparatus of the Mosquito.
past summer, however, gave me an opportunity of revising the
subject, so that I have acquired some facility in finding and dis-
secting the parts. I find that it is even easy to see the venomo-
salivary duct from the outside, shining through the skin at the
base of the head and neck in the undissected specimen. Also,
thanks to the supervision of Professor Libbey and the manipula-
tion of Dumas Watkins, of Princeton Histological Laboratory, I
have been supplied with a set of excellent sections, which show
the relations of the parts. One of these sections is here engraved
in part (Fig. 1), exhibiting the insertion of the duct into the base
‘of the hypopharynx, and its course below the nerve. I have
also teased out and stained some of the glands, which have enabled
me to show their structure and relations, as in Fig. 2.
The secret was first discovered by an observation of fine drop-
lets of a yellow, oily-looking fluid escaping from the apex of the
hypopharynx (Fig. 1). I was then able to trace the course of
this fluid down through the axis of the hypopharynx, its being
divided in parts into droplets, and so indicating the tubular struc-
ture of this organ. On examining the base of the hypopharynx I
found it to be enlarged like the mouth of a trumpet, and provided
with a sac-like reservoir, into which the end of a fine duct was
inserted. Working backwards I saw the duct to be of the usual
character of salivary ducts in the Diptera, but much finer than usual,
. ` EE ates oi microms
ing less tha 4 E: atar ipty.
-in the house-fly.!' It is not readily identified by a low microscopl¢
power, and this may explain why it has not been previously detected.
It has the usual chitinous lining, surrounded by the nucleated hype”
dermis which secretes it, transversely'striated as in trachese (Fig. Hi
but it is distinguished from the tracheæ by the comparative smal 7
ness and constancy of its diameter, and by the absence of ramifica-
tions. It runs back in the lower part of the head, beneath the
nervous commissure (n in Fig. 1), for two-fifths of a millimetre
In the throat it bifurcates, its two branches being each as long
the undivided segment, and running on the right and left of t
nerve-cord into the prothorax, where they terminate in glands 0.
characteristic structure,
DOVU
1A microm is one-thousandth part of a millimetre, or one-twenty-
five-thousandths of an inch.
The Poison-Apparatus of the Mosquito. 887
The glands are in two sets, one on each side in the antero-inferior
region of the prothorax. Each set consists of three glands, two of
which are of the usual aspect of salivary glands, resembling in
structure, but not proportionately as long as, the single salivary
gland on each side in the prothorax of the house-fly. The third
gland, that occupying the centre of each set, is different, being
evenly granular, and staining more deeply than the others; its
function being without doubt the secretion of the poison. Each
gland is about one-third of a millimetre long, and one twenty-fifth
of a millimetre broad ; the three are arranged like the leaves of a
trefoil; and each is traversed throughout by a fine ductule, the
three ductules uniting at the base to form a common duct, which is
like a pedicel of the trefoil and is one of the branches of the bifur-
cated venomo-salivary duct. The ductules of the lateral glands of
each set receive a minute branchlet near the base. Thus there are
six glands, three on each side, two of them poisonous and four
EXPLANATION OF FIGURES.—Fig. 1. Median section of head, show.
ing (du) the venomo-salivary duct, with its insertion in (hy) the hypo-
pharynx: cb, cerebrym; below this is the cerebellum, and the pumping
enlargement of (œ) the cesophagus : (Jr. e.), base of labrum-epipharynx;
(m) muscle; (n) nerve-commissure. Other parts removed.
Fig. 2. The venomo-salivary duct, showing its bifurcation, and the
three glands on one of its branches: (pg) poison-gland; (sg) marks
the upper of the two salivary glands.
Fig. 3. The bifurcation of the duct, with its nucleated hypodermis.
888 Something about Crabs.
salivary, their secretion diluting the poison. The two efferent ducts,
one from each set of glands, carry forward and commingle the
venomo-salivary products in the main duct: and the stream is then
carried by the main duct to the reservoir at the base of the hypo-
pharynx. There is no other exit for the contained fluid. I see
muscles apparently inserted on the frame-work of this reservoir
(Fig. 1, m); but Dimmock seems to think that the hypopharynx is
not furnished with muscles. However this may be, the pressure
exerted on it by the surrounding parts, when the mosquito inserts
its piercing apparatus into the flesh or through the epidermis of a
plant, is sufficient to propel the poison through the tubular axis of
the hypopharynx into the wound. The reservoir must be furnished
with a valve to prevent the reflux of the secretion. The distal ori-
fice of the hypopharynx is not exactly terminal, but sub-apical, as
is usually the case with fangs; the very tip is somewhat flattened
and sharp, so as to enter easily into and to enlarge the wound made
by the adjoining organs.
Careful observations are needed as to the behavior of mosquitoes
on plants; as to the condition of the hypopharynx and the glands
in the males and in the larve. The observations here noted were `
made on the adult females of Culex (C. teniorhynchus Desv.), and
on a species of the allied genus Anopheles, which is characterized
by its long maxillary palps.
Princeton College, Sept. 18, 1888.
SOMETHING ABOUT CRABS.
BY J. S. KINGSLEY.
{ SA BEBER, crusty, cancer, canker, are terms which at once recall
to most persons various disagreeable features and more serious
ailments of human beings; to the naturalist they at once suggest
the crabs and the group Crustacea to which these animals belong.
There must be some reason why the crabs have thus acquired this
bad name which goes even farther than indicated above. They
are by common consent regarded as ill-tempered, ready to pinch
Something about Crabs.
upon the slightest provocation, and anything but straightforward
in their actions. When a man begins “to crawfish” (the verb is
sanctioned by usage, if not by lexicographers) he does not inspire
respect. Yet who cannot recall some surly member of the commu-
nity who is universally regarded as crusty and crabbed, but who,
on more intimate acquaintance, reveals another character, quite at
variance with the estimation in which he is popularly held? So
it is with the crabs. Their crustiness is all external, and if one be
willing to run the risk of an occasional nip, he will find that these
much maligned creatures have many attractive aspects, and like
the rest of nature they amply repay the time spent in their study.
Tntellectually the Crustacea are supposed to rank pretty low in
the scale, but it is an open question whether this inferiority be an
actual one, or whether it results from deficient observation. We
can take the ants into our studies and watch their every motion,
but the crabs are not so easily domesticated; captivity does not
agree well with most of them, and even with those which can be
kept, the surroundings are so strange that we have an element
entering the psychological equation the value of which it is not easy
to ascertain.
Of all the Crustacea with which I have had personal
acquaintance, none are more interesting, either in captivity or
on their native beach, than the fiddler crabs, those apparently
misshapen forms which throng every suitable stretch of sand
along our shores from Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico. A pic-
ture is well in its way to illustrate the shape and general appearance
of an animal, but no picture can present to us the animal in action,
nor represent its varying moods and phases. The fiddler, with its
quadrate body, its eyes seated on the tips of the slender erectile
pedicels, those eight slender, sharp-pointed legs, and that enormous
pincer, can readily be drawn, but the changing aspects of the body
are beyond the artist’s power.
When you draw near the beach where these crabs are abundant,
no matter how cautiously you have approached, there is a hurried
rush of myriads of these crabs, each scuttling away as fast as four
pairs of legs will carry it, to a place of safety. At such a time the
appropriateness of the common name is seen. In every direction
are the fiddlers, each plying its small claw across the enormous
fellow in the most amusing manner. No matter how often seen,
890 Something about Crabs.
one cannot help thinking of the musician—usually bald-headed—
away down to the left of the orchestra, who so vigorously saws the
bass notes from the viol. Let the latter scamper away, viol and
all, as rapidly as does the crab, and the simile would be complete.
When, however, you seat yourself and allow the cancrine commu-
nity to regain its wonted quiet, then you can study these forms to
your heart’s desire, and see the various occupations. Some are
engaged in gathering food, others in building houses. None are
idle, but there seems to be no general supervision, each individual
following his own inclinations. The holes in which they live vary
somewhat with the species. Those on Cape Cod excavate a simple
tube leading to a cavity sometimes a foot or two beneath the sur-
face. Further south an allied form appears which arches over the
mouth of its burrow with an oven-like roof, beneath the shade of
which the proprietor sits and watches for any approaching
danger.
These fiddlers are rather remarkable among the crabs in that
they live in pairs. Mr. Fiddler is the one who goes about, builds
‘the house, collects the food, and fights the battles and defends the
family honor. ' His faithful spouse is but rarely seen above ground,
but what her duties are in her cellar home is a problem yet to be
solved. You may at once recognize her by the fact that she lacks
the fiddle of her other half. Both of her pincers—hands one might
almost call them—are of the same size and resemble the smaller
hand of the male, and she uses them indiscriminately in feeding
the principal use to which they are put.
The fiddler crabs are usually said to be vegetarians, and, indeed,
the greater proportion of their food consists of alge. They do
not, however, confine themselves to this diet, but will eat dead
insects or crabs, and, in confinement, they will at times turn can-
nibals, and prey upon the weaker individuals of their own species.
This may be prevented by feeding them often enough and a suffi-
cient amount of vegetable matter. I have had them thrive for
months in confinement upon crackers soaked in water, of which,
though not their natural food, they appear to be very fond. When
thus kept captive they afford very interesting pets, and their
actions cause a good many questions. The care is extremely simple.
First get your crabs and your jar or box of moist sand, put to
Something about Crabs. 891
crabs in with the sand and the vivarium is stocked. All that is
necessary to keep it in running condition is to occasionally moisten
the sand, and to supply new food before the old is exhausted,
Kept in this way fiddlers will readily live in confinement through
the warmer months, and possibly through the winter as well,
though I never tried to keep them so long. I had only male
fiddlers, and these I kept in the ordinary glass fruit jars which were
half filled with sand. This furnished them endless employment,
for they were constantly digging new burrows and filling up those
dug but a few hours before. Why this dissatisfaction I am not
able to say; possibly it was a case of “Ccelebs in search of a
wife.”
A fight between fiddlers is an amusing affair. When one sees
his enemy approaching he immediately puts all his forces on a war-
footing. The long-stalked eyes are erected so as to watch every
motion of his antagonist; the big pincer furnishes not a bad imita-
tion of the shield with which the soldiers of ancient times protected
themselves, while the tension of every nerve is shown in the dainty
way in which the eight walking legs trip over the sand, holding the
body as high as possible in the air. At last the two meet.
There is a clash of arms, each striving to grasp his antagonist and
at the same time to protect himself, but might here takes the
place of right, and the victor is he who loses the least number
of members. There is no surgeon to bind up the wounds, but
the amputation of a limb is not such a serious matter here as
with human warriors. The yellowish blood which flows quickly
coagulates and forms a covering for the wound, and then nature
immediately sets about replacing the missing member. The way
this is accomplished is so interesting and so different from anything
occurring in the lords of creation that it deserves a moment’s atten-
tion,
The crabs are covered with a hard and unyielding armor
which does not admit of growth. So at intervals they shed their
shell, and then form a new and larger one, which in turn will be
cast to accommodate still further increase of size. In the fiddler
crab the first sign one notices of the approaching molt is a splitting
of the integument just where the slender tail (which is kept
folded beneath the body) joins to the larger anterior portion.
892 Something about Crabs.
Through the opening thus afforded the crab now withdraws him-
self, coming forth a soft-shelled, weak, flabby creature. Now he
is a pitiable object. The claws, which before could pinch so
sharply, are now limp asa rag. His meanest enemy would now
find him an easy victim, utterly incapable of the slightest defence.
On account of this unprotected condition immediately after molting,
all of the Crustacea seek some sheltered spot when about to cast
their skin, and hence the operation is not often seen. ‘The process
has its differences in the different species; thus the shell of the
lobster splits down the middle of the back, while that of the horse-
shoe crab splits around the sharp front edge, so as to afford the
opening through which the animal is to emerge.
There are, however, other processes which precede the splitting
of the shell, which need to be mentioned, and which, as they have
been most studied in the lobster, will be described as they occur
there. First a word as to the nature of the shell. It is what is
called a cuticular product. That is, it is not composed of cells like
the rest of the body, or like the skin of man, but of a peculiar
substance secreted by tle cells lying beneath. Its density in
various species differs not only with the thickness of this layer, but
as well with the amount of carbonate and phosphate of lime which
is deposited in it. It is this outer non-cellular layer which is cast
at each molt, while the cells secrete a new shell. If one examines
closely any crustacean they will see (more numerous and larger m
some places) that all over the body there are small hairs, but these
hairs differ from those of man in that they consist of the same
cuticle as the rest.of the body, and have an axis cylinder which
arises from the cell beneath. It may also be said that these same
hairs are organs of sense. One of the first preparations for a molt
is the formation of new hairs and a new cuticle beneath the old
one, and these new hairs have to lift and tear away the shell from
the underlying shell. It is an interesting fact that in certain rep-
tiles which “shed their skin,” there are bristles which lift the old
integument in the same way. Another feature to be noticed is the
way in which the lobster withdraws its big claw, and probably the
same is true of the fiddler, though this is mere surmise. He
examine a lobster we find that the pincer is much larger than the
joints which connect it with the body, and it seems impossible that
PLATE XVI.
Cast Aye brain-case ag Di were
Figs. | and 2. Cast of ial aren natural size. As pa? basicranial
g is lost, ae inferior onthe posteriorly is provisional only.
lg.
Fig. 2) from the ‘left 8 ide. ’
Fig. 3. Skull of Diadectes phaseolinus Cope, from above.
Something about Crabs. 893
he large muscl es which close the pincers can pass through the small
flattened rings of the intermediate joints. However, a change takes
place in these before molting. There is an absorption of the cal-
careous matter on the inner surface of these joints, so that they lose
their former rigidity and allow the passage of the parts beyond
them. In this connection mention may be made of the “ crab-
stones ”—small calcareous bodies occurring on either side of the
stomach in Crustaceans about to molt. Although no definite knowl-
edge exists as to the purpose of these masses of lime, it seems
probable that they are stores which are to be drawn upon in harden-
ing the new shell. Huxley thinks that this cannot be the case,
because these bodies are of inconsiderable size in the crayfish, an
argument of but very little weight.
But we are wandering afar from our subject—the way in which
lost parts are reproduced in the crabs. Until a molt occurs the
wounded veteran has to wander about without the limbs lost in
battle, thin stumps seared over by the film caused by the coagulated
blood. When the molt takes place we see a change. In the place
of the lost leg there rapidly expands a new limb, which is like the
old one in all respects except size. It is much smaller, but at the
next molt it becomes as large as its fellow. A curious feature con-
nected with the molting is that the lining of the stomach is cast at
the same time with the outer shell.
We have explained above the reason why the fiddler crab has
received its popular name, but he is in reality a true fiddler. Like
many other crabs he has a means of making a noise, and the big
claw is his musical instrument. On the inner surface of this
member is a row of small rounded tubercles (their position varies
with the species), and these can be rubbed against the edge of the
shell, producing a note best likened to that caused by rubbing a
quill toothpick over a file.
There are other crabs concerning which the popular literature is
much greater than that relating to the fiddlers. Possibly more has
been written about the hermit crabs than about any others, for
certainly no one ever visited the shore without noticing these
curiosities. They occur in all seas from the tropics to the poles,
but wherever found all exhibit that common characteristic which
has given them their name. We have all heard of that old Greek
894 Something about Crabs.
Diogenes, who made his home in a tub, or, as others will have it,
in a cracked amphora, and is it to be wondered that while natural-
ists were ransacking all ancient history and mythology for names,
that the old philosopher should have to furnish a cognomen for
some of these, his prototypes? A hermit crab needs protection for
the hinder part of his body, for this is covered with a delicate
cuticle and could be easily injured. The desired security is sought
by inserting this “tail” in the cast-off shell of some univalve
mollusc, the curl of the tail and the rudimentary limbs with which
it is provided serving to hold the shell tight, and thus protected
the hermit wanders over the bottom or along the beach safe from
almost anyenemy. The little hermits have small houses; the large
ones have their larger cells into which they can retire for protection,
and, who can say, not for meditation and prayer?
The house-hunting adventures of the hermits have been so fre-
quently described that a repetition is useless. When the body
grows too large for the old home a new shell is sought, its dimen-
sions are carefully measured by claws and antenne, and, if it be
thought suitable, moving takes but an instant of time, and the
hermit is in a new and larger home. All hermits, however, are
not troubled with this frequent recurrence of moving day, for they
have living homes, the growth of which is sufficient to accommodate
their usual increase in size. They start in life with a borrowed
shell, just as do their more familiar cousins of the shore, but a sea
anemone helps them later. This latter animal becomes attached to
the shell, feeds upon the crumbs dropped from the hermit’s table,
and grows as he grows. Soon the shell is covered, and then the
anemone begins to spread and thus builds a tube for the crab. It
goes further, for it absorbs the old shell, and with its own body
gives all the protection which the crab needs. Thus the strange
partnership goes on ; the crab providing food—at least in part—the
anemone furnishing the protection. In this respect the latter is far
more efficient than the first glance at its soft and skeletonless body
would indicate, for it is provided with stinging organs of no mean
order, and many a fish is deterred from swallowing crab and all by
the nettling it receives from this soft-bodied flower of the sea. A
few years ago but a few of these cases of association of hermit crab
and sea anemone were known, but more lately the deep-sea :
ings have furnished numerous examples.
Something about Crabs. 895
This association of forms, which is known as commensalism—a
term, a free translation of which would be fellow-boarders—receives
numerous exemplifications among the crabs. One form, first
described from the Pacific ocean by the late Dr. Stimpson, settles
down upon a piece of growing coral, which then proceeds to build
a protecting nest about it, leaving only openings for the ingress
and egress of the water bringing food and oxygen to the prisoner.
Even more remarkable is the case of the shrimp, which so far has
only been found enclosed within the glassy network of that beau-
tiful sponge, the “ Venus-flower-basket.” So strange was this
association that when it was first noticed it was thought that those
dextrous fingers of the east, which furnish those wondrous ivory
carvings and which fashion those curiosity-exciting mermaids, had
placed the shrimps within the sponge, and then had closed the
opening so skilfully that the detection was impossible. It would
now appear that this is not a counterfeit to be be laid at their
doors.
Another strange case of commensalism is furnished by some small
crabs which are more nearly related to the fiddler with which we
started, and of which the little oyster crab is an example. These
crabs live inside the valves of oysters, clams and other molluscs,
and in olden ‘times quite a pretty myth grew up about them. The
delicate Pinna of the Mediterranean (a bivalve mollusc somewhat
resembling our familiar salt-water mussel) was eyeless, and in order
to escape the jaws of some wandering fish it had to be told when
to close its shell. This position of watchman was filled by the
little crab which was constantly on the alert, and which in return
for its services was protected by the mollusc. This little crab was
called Pinnotheres—guardian of the Pinna—and the same name is
embodied in the scientific nomenclature of to-day. Relatives of the
oyster crab seek other homes. On our Carolina coast is one which
lives in the strong tubes built by one of the worms, while in the
Pacific are found others which take up their residence in the pos-
terior portion of the alimentary tract of certain sea-~cucumbers or
holothurians,
The fiddler-crabs are largely air-breathers. In fact, so long as
they are in a moist location, where they are in no danger of drying
up, they do not need to actually enter the water for weeks or months
atatime. In this respect, however, they are equalled, if not excelled,
896 Something about Crabs.
by several species (some their near relatives) which occur in tropical
countries, the warmer portions of America possibly being their
metropolis. These land crabs are strange creatures, which, like
their marine relatives, are provided with gills, but which, unlike
them, stay away from the water for months at a time, and which
are drowned by submergence almost as quickly as any terrestrial
mammal. There is a considerable diversity in their habits. Some
frequent the lowlands near some stream or shore, while others,
notably in Jamaica and on the Isthmus of Panama, live in the
dense damp forests which clothe the highest mountains. They are
not easily caught, for they can run with an agility which almost
surpasses belief, while their strong pincers have powers of nipping
which are not to be despised. Usually but a few are seen at a
time, for during the day they rest in their burrows or in holes in
the rocks, venturing forth for food only as evening draws near.
Once a year, however, they are compelled to visit the shore to lay
their eggs. They then appear in incredible numbers, year after
year, on almost the same day. They march along in vast armies,
turning to neither side for any obstacle, but devouring everything
green in their line of march to the sea.
In connection with these terrestrial crabs many interesting
physiological experiments are yet to be made. Years ago it was
noted that besides the gills, the gill chamber contained a very thick
and spongy lining membrane, which was of use in respiration, and
several years later Professor Semper made similar observations
upon an East Indian species, in which he recognized not only the
spongy layer, but also ascertained that it was richly supplied with
vessels; in short, that this organ, so far as function was
concerned, is a veritable lung, though of course of a far different
origin from that of the higher vertebrates.
Science-Teaching in the Schools. 897
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN THE SCHOOLS.
BY WM. NORTH RICE,
[Continued from page 774. ]
pe many who concede theoretically the desirableness of the
study of natural science in the lower schools, maintain that
the practical dificulties in the way of its introduction are insuper-
able. It is objected that we have no competent teachers, no ade-
quate material facilities, and no time in the already crowded curric-
ulum. Science-teaching in the lower schools, it is said, belongs to
that far-off millennium
‘“ When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are
furled,—
when a constitutional amendment has abolished alcoholic fermenta-
tion, and made vice forever impossible,—when governments, no
longer compelled to support military, naval, and police forces, can
spend the bulk of their revenues on education,—when eyery pri-
mary school can have a well-equipped laboratory, museum, and
observatory,—when every primary school teacher is a Ph.D. of a
German university,—and when a reformed orthography has added
about three years to school life, by obviating the necessity of spend-
ing that time in learning to spell. I believe, however, that the
reform is thoroughly practicable. My own official duty, as a mem-
ber of a college faculty and of a city school board, has required a
careful study of all parts of the educational curriculum in a thor-
oughly practical spirit. And I should regard the general discus-
sion I have given as of little value, unless I could propose some
definite and practicable measures.
The most serious difficulty i in the introduction of natural science
into the lower schools is undoubtedly the lack of competent teach-
ers. That the mass of our teachers are incompetent for any very
high quality of science-teaching, is a truth as unquestionable as it
is melancholy. That much of their teaching will be merely book-
ish,—that much of it will be so blundering that the scholars will
have a good deal to unlearn,—is very certain. This difficulty has
898 Science-Teaching in the Schools.
been so strongly felt by many scientific men, that they have
despaired of any successful science-teaching in the schools till a new
generation of teachers can be raised up. “ Better no teaching at
all than poor teaching,” is the principle on which they feel them-
selves reluctantly compelled to advocate the postponement of a
reform whose need none can feel more strongly than they. But I
believe the worst teaching we are likely to get is better than none.
Very poor teaching of science will at least serve to keep before the
mind of the child the idea that there is an external world which is
worthy of attention and study. Better that many errors should be
learned, than that the child should grow up without thinking of
nature at all. No habitude of mind that is likely to be generated
by poor teaching can be so bad as the habitude of stolid indiffer-
ence which is the natural result of the present system. If we wait
for teachers well prepared, before we introduce science-teaching, we
shall wait indefinitely. Teachers will prepare themselves after a
fashion to teach whatever they are required to teach. No way of
making a boy swim has ever been found so effective as putting him
into the water.
There are books in abundance (and the number is constantly
increasing), from which a teacher possessed of a fair degree of men-
tal activity can get suggestions which will enable her to doa limited
amount of science-teaching soundly and well. Paul Bert’s “ First
Steps in Scientific Knowledge” is an admirable guide for teachers
of elementary science. Morse’s “First Book of Zoology,” and
Winchell’s “Geological Excursions,” are books in which acknowl-
edged masters of science have shown how science may be taught to-
the young. The series of scientific tracts for teachers now being
published under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural His-
tory are good, as judged from both the scientific and the pedagogi¢
standpoint. Worthington Hooker’s books of science for children,
though now somewhat behind the times, are still attractive and
helpful books. And the teacher who cannot find something to
interest the youngest in Johonnot’s series of natural history readers,
with their delightful blending of fact and fancy, the science and the
poetry of animated nature, is stupid indeed.
The teaching of science in the lower schools can be considerably
helped by the teachers in the high schools. In most high schools
it is practicable to obtain the services of one or more teachers who
Science-Teaching in the Schools. 899
have had some genuine scientific training. Arrangements can be
made whereby these teachers can now and then give a helpful lec-
ture to the teachers of the lower schools, or give to those teachers
the best kind of an object lesson by teaching a lesson in science to
the children in their schools.
The summer schools and seaside laboratories afford the means for
teachers whose early opportunities for scientific study were scanty, to
gain a sound (though necessarily limited) knowledge of scientific
facts and methods. The increasing number and the increasing pat-
ronage of such institutions is a hopeful sign. They are destined
to be of immense service in improving the quality of science-
teaching.
The second objection usually urged against the introduction of
science-teaching in the lower schools is the lack of material facili-
ties. The force of this objection, however, vanishes, when it is
considered that no one proposes for the lower schools complete sys-
tematic courses in science. Such courses wonld indeed demand
extensive laboratories and museums. But for somewhat desultory
lessons on judiciously selected topics in science, whose aim is prima-
rily to cultivate the powers of observation, and secondarily to afford
glimpses of the methods of scientific thought, no extensive mate-
rial facilities are needed. Many of the most important principles
of physics and chemistry can be well illustrated with no apparatus
except what can be extemporized. A class of tolerably active boys
can collect enough material for biological study as they go along.
Many of the most important conceptions of philosophical biology
can be illustrated without any specimens which are not everywhere
accessible. A boy who has found the elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle,
in a cat, a horse,a bat, and a hen, has learned the idea of homology,
though he has never compared the arms of a brachiopod with the
lophophore of a bryozoan, and never heard of the gastrea theory.
The third objection usually made to scientific study in the schools
—the lack of time in the crowded curriculum—hardly deserves an
answer. Let the waste of time and mental energy be stopped,
which is involved in attempting studies at unnatural times and in
unnatural ways, and there will be time enough. Of all economies,
the most important is the most neglected—the economy of mental
effort. I believe the introduction of science-teaching in the schools
will be felt by the pupils as a delightful recreation, rather than as
900 Science- Teaching in the Schools.
an additional task; and that the improvement of morale will actu-
ally enable the schools to accomplish more in other studies.
It remains, then, to outline briefly the work which may be profit-
ably attempted. In the primary schools, and the lower grades o
the intermediate, or grammar, schools, the main objects must be to
keep alive the child’s curiosity in regard to natural objects, to
cultivate the power of accurate observation, and to impress the
mind with the idea that nature is worth studying. The attempt
to teach any systematic body of facts and doctrines, so far as it
is made at all, must be strictly subordinated to these more gen-
eral objects. Hence it is no matter how desultory the lessons may
be, if they tend to keep the mind of the child in loving commu-
nion with nature. The pupils should be encouraged to collect
and bring to school specimens of all sorts of natural objects. So
far as time allows, each specimen should be the subject of a les-
son. Judicious questioning should bring out all the facts and phe-
nomena which the child has observed or can observe in regard to the
specimen. Then the teacher should add something of explanation
or information in regard to the object itself or other related objects.
And let questions be suggested now and then, which the child and
his elders are alike unable to answer. Thus the child will become:
early habituated to the complementary truths of the transparency
and the unfathomableness of nature. He will learn that he can
see into nature a little way for himself, but that beyond his vision
stretches a vast unknown. The specimens brought in will be an
utterly heterogeneous collection—now a bright-winged butterfly,
now a flower, now a plant with insect galls, now a sea-shell brought
home from some summer visit to the sea-side, now a lustrous erys-
tal, now a smoothly rounded pebble. All the better. Jet the
children learn the manifoldness of nature. It will be time enough
later for them to survey the fences of systematic definition which
man has run through nature’s continuous and illimitable fields.
Short excursions in the woods and fields (or in the parks which
afford almost the only glimpses of nature to the unfortunate chil-
dren who are brought up in the great cities), and visits to muse-
ums, zoological gardens, and menageries, will be helpful supple-
ments to the work of the school-room.
Besides the utterly desultory lessons already considered, a begin-
ning may be made in the primary schools in somewhat more sys-
Science-Teaching in the Schools. 901
tematic teaching. The objects most interesting to children are liv-
ing things—plants and animals. Botany and zoology should accord-
ingly be the principal subjects in the science-teaching in the lower
grades. The comparison, drawing, and description of various forms
of leaves, will furnish delightful occupation and valuable discipline
for the youngest children. A little later the more easy and conspic-
uous flowers can be studied, and later still the more obscure and
difficult flowers. In zoology, attention should be given not to crin-
oids and hydroids and infusoria, but to the mammals and birds
and reptiles and fishes and insects which the children can see
alive. In places immediately on the sea-shore, some of the more
conspicuous marine animals may advantageously be included. The
most common and familiar mammals, as cats, dogs, horses, rats,
should be first studied; and rudimentary ideas of homology and
teleology and the principles of classification can be developed in the
study of these most familiar objects. From mammals the study
may proceed in later years to birds, and then to the less familiar
lower classes of vertebrates, and later still to arthropods and mol-
luses. Along with the change of subjects, there will naturally be
somewhat of a change of method. There will be less of simple
observation and description of external characters, more explana-
tion of anatomy and physiology, and more discussion of general
relations,
In several of the States, laws have been passed, requiring in all
the schools instruction in physiology and hygiene, with special ref-
erence to the effects of stimulants and narcotics. There has been
an element of fanatical exaggeration in the philanthropic agitation
which has led to such legislation, and some of the books which
have been prepared, and some of the teaching which has been done,
in obedience to the demand, have not been of great scientific value.
I believe, nevertheless, that simple lessons in physiology and hygi-
ene may with great advantage be commenced in the primary
schools. It is indeed true that physiology can be taught only in a
very unsatisfactory manner to pupils ignorant of chemistry and
physics, for physiology is essentially chemistry and physics applied
to the complex structures and actions of the living body. But
very imperfect knowledge is better than absolute ignorance. And
the immense importance of the subject, in connection with the fact
that only a very small minority of the pupils will ever reach the
902 Science-Teaching in the Schools.
high school, more than justifies the attempt to teach some rudi-
ments of physiology in the lower schools.
Somewhat of physical geography will naturally be taught in the
higher grades of the primary, and the lower grades of the gram-
mar, schools, in connection with the general course in geography.
It is very gratifying to observe the change in the school manuals of
geography within the last few years, in respect of the greater prom-
inence given to physical geography.
In the higher grades of the grammar schools, it may reasonably
be assumed that the reasoning faculties are more fully developed
than in the lower grades, and observation and description of forms
may rightly give place in large degree to studies in which the rela-
tion of cause and effect is emphasized. This will be the most con-
venient period for the introduction of exceedingly elementary
courses in physics and chemistry. The pupils who will never enter
the high school ought to get some rudimentary knowledge of these
sciences; and a like rudimentary knowledge obtained in the gram-
mar school will be of great advantage to the students in the high-
school course. Of course, at this stage it will not be desirable or
possible to penetrate into the mysteries of polarized light, to enu-
merate the scores of rare elements, or to discuss the more intricate
problems of the chemistry of the compounds of carbon. But 1t
will be possible, in the later years of the course in the grammar
school, to learn some of the more important facts and principles in
regard to gravitation, the mechanical powers, the simpler and ‘more
obvious phenomena of sound, light, heat, and electricity, the dis-
tinction between elements and compounds, combustion, the chemis-
try of air and water, and the properties of a very few of the most
important elements and their compounds.
When the student reaches the high school, he will be possessed
of some knowledge of the forms of common animals and plants»
the structure and functions of his own body, and the general prop-
erties of matter. What is more important than any knowledge of
nature which he may possess—he will have kept himself in sy mpa-
thetic communion with nature; he will recognize nature as a WOT-
thy object of study; he will know that he can learn something
himself by the observation of nature, but that he has learned only
an infinitesimal part of what nature has to teach. His conceptions
will be crude, indefinite, inaccurate. His knowledge will require.
Science- Teaching in the Schools. 903
elaboration, systematization, correction. But he will not find the
book of nature written in a language whose alphabet he does not
know. As he comes to the systematic study of the various sciences
he will not feel that utterly bewildering sense of strangeness with
which teachers in our high schools and colleges are now so sadly
familiar. In the high school, he will come under the instruction
of teachers possessed of larger knowledge, and supplied with more
extensive material facilities, Now then the time has come for sys-
tematic teaching of science. Random observation and desultory
stories of nature must now give place in large degree to the presen-
tation of systematized bodies of fact and theory.
With the beginning of the high-school course comes the separa-
tion between those who are preparing for the classical courses in
the colleges, and those who are destined to go from the high school
directly into practical business life. For the former class the sys-
tematic study of science may be mainly deferred until they can
enjoy the larger material facilities afforded by the laboratories,
museums, and observatories of the colleges. I believe, however,
that the complete exclusion of scientific studies from the classical
courses in many of our high schools is greatly to be regretted.
There are three scientific studies which I would have placed early
in the high-school course, and required of both the English and
the classical students.
First in this list I would name phenogamic botany. There is
no study which can conveniently be made to furnish so admirable
a discipline in observation. The material is everywhere accessible
in abundance. The collection and dissection of the specimens
involves no infliction of pain upon sentient creatures. The débris
remaining after a lesson is comparatively clean, inodorous, and
wholesome. In all these respects phenogamic botany is better
adapted for thorough practical study at this stage than any branch
of zoology. The structures which are to be examined in the ana-
lysis of flowering plants are also of about the right size to afford
the most valuable discipline in accurate observation. The work is
neither too easy, nor too difficult. It requires the use of the inex-
pensive simple microscope, but not the use of the costly compound
microscope. A thorough training in plant analysis at this period of
the educational course will afford a mental discipline which can be
supplied in no other way.
904 Science-Teaching in the Schools.
Secondly, I would require of all students at this stage the study
of human physiology. The immense practical importance of this
branch of knowledge is a sufficient reason for this recommenda-
tion. The outlines of physics and chemistry which I suppose to
have been taken in the later years of the grammar-school course,
will enable the teaching to be more thoroughly scientific in method
than can be the case in the lower schools. And, while the study
cannot be made so much of an observational discipline as botany,
there is no lack of material for demonstration. Most of the organs
of the body present the same general character in other mammals
asin man. Hearts, lungs, brains, and eyes can readily be obtained
from the butchers, and a superfluous cat can be occasionally sacri-
ficed. And, with the various convenient guides to mammalian dis-
section which have been published, there is no reason why a high-
school course in physiology may not be illustrated with a fair
amount of demonstration.
Thirdly, a systematic study of physical geography will be inval-
uable in giving the student an appreciation of the world as a whole
—its unity in variety—unity of law amidst endless diversity of
phenomena. No study so opens to the student’s intelligence the
language of nature, teaching him to read the lessons written in the
ever varying landscapes which he may from time to time behold.
It is, in my judgment, greatly to be desired that these studies
should be included in the requirements for admission to the colleges.
As students naturally desire to enter college as early as possible,
there is a strong tendency for the preparatory schools to exclude
from their classical courses everything not required for admission to
college. The requirement of a small amount of natural science by
the colleges would greatly favor the progress of the reform in the
schools. :
For the students in the high school who are not in the classical
course, there should be in addition systematic studies of physi,
chemistry, zoology, geology, and astronomy. For them, natural
science should certainly be a required study during the whole
of the high-school course.
While the study of natural science has been advocated on the
twofold ground of its practical and its disciplinary value, it has
assumed in this discussion that these two objects are by no
means of equal relative importance in the study of different branches
Science- Teaching in the Schools. 905
of science or in different periods of the educational course. The study
of botany has been advocated especially for its disciplinary value,
that of physiology especially for the utility of the knowledge
which is acquired. It has been maintained that in the primary
school the main objects of the science lessons must be to culti-
vate a habit of accurate observation and intelligent appreziation
of nature, while in the high school each science should be taught
as a systematic body of fact and theory. This leads us to notice
the unfortunate truth that the two objects of scientific study are
to a certain degree incompatible with each other—that the best
methods for mental discipline are not the best methods for the
acquisition of information. Undoubtedly the method by which
the characteristic mental discipline of scientific study can be most
effectively secured, is to put ihe student as nearly as possible in
the attitude of the original investigator—to lead him to infer
laws and principles from the observations and experiments which
he has made himself. But the path taken by the original explorer
of a country is often not the most convenient route for subsequent
travelers. And a knowledge of laws and principles in science once
ascertained can often be taught in ways far more expeditious and
convenient than the method of their original discovery. More-
over, many of the most important conclusions rest upon observa-
tions only possible in exceptional conditions of time, place, and
circumstance. Every student should learn the laws of definite
and multiple proportions, which form the foundation of chemical
theory ; but the ordinary student has no time to perform such a
number of experiments in quantitative analysis and synthesis as
would make a sound inductive basis for those laws. Every student
should learn something of the phenomena and laws of earthquakes.
and volcanoes; but it is impossible to get up an earthquake or a
volcanic eruption for a laboratory experiment. It is well for every
student to learn something of the conclusions in regard to the action
of the stomach reached by the classical observations on poor Alexis.
St. Martin; but it is hardly desirable to repeat St. Martin’s acci-
dent and injury for the benefit of every class in physiology. The
right method of scientific education must be a compromise. The
most important facts and principles must be taught by text-books
and lectures, in such way as to secure most effectively their being
understood and remembered. But, so far as the nature of the sub-
906 Science-Teaching in the Schools.
ject and the time and means at the disposal of the teacher may
allow, mental discipline must be secured by having the student
tread for himself the path of observation and experiment, compar-
ison and inference.
This difficulty in science-teaching is somewhat relieved by the
consideration that a single fact learned by actual observation or
experiment, serves to render real the knowledge of allied facts made
known by the second-hand process of description, which would
otherwise be shadowy and unsubstantial. The student who has
made a few quantitative determinations in chemical analysis, under-
stands the meaning of the analyses which he finds in books. The
student who has handled the bones of one animal, can read intelli-
gently the description of other skeletons.
In conclusion, I would most emphatically repeat that a plea for
the study of natural science is not a plea against other studies, All
the studies which have a place in the educational course, have their
place by reason of their capacity to afford sound mental discipline
and useful knowledge. All true education is broadening and liber-
alizing in its tendency. Whatever the special studies which natural
tastes or professional plans may lead the student to pursue in
the later years of his educational course, or whatever the pursuits
in which he may engage after leaving school, he will have learned, -
if rightly taught, an appreciative respect for all the great branches
of study in which the human intellect has engaged. He will not
despise the study of languages, bringing him into communion with
the great minds of other ages and other nations; nor the study of
language, interpreting the structure and development of earth’s
myriad tongues. He will feel the dignity of that pure truth which
is embodied in mathematics, and will appreciate the immense utility
of the applications of mathematics in the arts of a material civili-
zation. He will have learned in due time that he has a soul as well
as a body; and will appreciate the study of the human mind, er
revealed to the direct gaze of consciousness, or as expressing 1
in literature and history. And the double world of sensation and
consciousness will disclose to him its highest meaning, in the reve-
lation of Him :
“ Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.”
Science- Teaching in the Schools, 907
But, whatever sources of light may shed their beams upon his
advancing intellect, the first star which rose above his horizon will
never set. Whatever teachers he may listen to, the one whose gentle
voice first roused him from the slumber of unconsciousness will
never be forgotten. As his first lessons were from nature’s teach-
ing, she will have for his expanding mind lessons continually new,
He will
‘ Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
Note.—It-is proper to say that the address was not written pre-
viously to its delivery before the Society of Naturalists ; and that, in
writing it in its present form, I have incorporated some ideas which
were suggested in the discussion at the meeting, and some which
have been the fruit of further reflection. The article is, however,
in the main a reproduction of the address as given.
In July, 1888, the Board of Education of the City of Middle-
town, Conn., adopted a new Manual for the Schools of that city.
The new course of study provides for instruction in Natural Sci-
ence in all grades from the lowest Primary upward, on a plan sub-
stantially the same as that which I have recommended, As a sort
of practical comment on the views of the address, I append an
extract from the Middletown School Manual, giving the instructions
to the teachers in the Primary and Grammar grades in regard to
instruction in Natural Science. The portion of the Manual here
quoted was written by myself in connection with the Superintendent
of Schools, W. B. Ferguson, M.A.
EXTRACT FROM THE MANUAL OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF
MIDDLETOWN, Conn.
NATURAL SCIENCE.
Introduction —The object of elementary lessons in Natural Sci-
ence is twofold :—to train the observing powers, and to give infor-
“mation. The former should be especially emphasized in the Pri-
mary Grades, and the two made about equally important in the
Grammar Grades.
The teaching should be chiefly objective. Large, well-defined
pictures may be used, whenever it is impossible to obtain the real
objects ; but it shold always be borne in mind that the best pic-
tures are poor substitutes for the objects themselves.
908 Seience-Teaching in the Schools.
In the lowest grades, the teacher should studiously avoid the
use of technical terms, whose meaning is unknown to children.
The chief object here is, not to teach science, but to train to close
and accurate observation, and to stimulate a keen interest in nature.
In no grade should special emphasis be laid upon technical terms
and classifications, though somewhat more attention may properly
be given to them in the Grammar grades. All classifications
should, so far as possible, be the result of observation and compar-
ison on the part of the pupils. Let the teacher stimulate, direct,
and name. Happy the teacher and fortunate the pupils, if, in this
delightful work, the teacher judiciously combines speech and silence.
An occasional talk, however, by the teacher on the subject before
the class is both proper and desirable. Such talks should furnish
information beyond the reach of the pupils’ observation.
Every lesson should be carefully prepared. Aimless and irrele-
vant conversations are profitless. Allow and encourage the freest
expression of what the pupils see. Encourage the pupils to collect
and bring in specimens. Elicit, by judicious questions, a description
of what they have brought. Give them additional information. If
necessary, postpone the subject till the next day, and learn something
about it.
GRADE I.
Physiology.—Regions of the body—head, trunk, limbs. Details
of external parts. Uses of external organs. Hygiene of the skin
—bathing.
Zoology.—Lessons on common mammals—e.g., cat, dog, horse,
cow, rat, squirrel. Let the pupils observe, compare, and describe
these animals, as regards their external aspect and habits. Com-
pare these animals with ourselves. Tell stories illustrative of habits
of these and other mammals. a
Botany.—Lessons on common plants. Teach pupils to distin-
guish root, stem, leaf. Compare leaves of different plants, aS-
regards general form, margin, venation. Require pupils to draw
and describe leaves of many plants.
GRADE II.
Physiology.—The framework of the body. Bones, joints, mus-
cles. Exhibit anatomical diagrams. Teach the pupils to find in
their own bodies some of the bones which can be easily felt through
PLATE XVII.
S (j
x
44°22 CB
—-
23%
Cranium of Belodon buceros Cope, from Southwestern New Mexico.
Seience- Teaching in the Schools. 909
the skin. Emphasize importance of correct attitudes while the
framework of the body is rapidly growing and taking shape. Warn
against stooping shoulders and crooked backs. The teeth—their
forms and uses. Emphasize importance of proper mastication.
Necessity of cleaning teeth.
Zoology.—Lessons on mammals continued. Special study and
comparison of limbs of mammals. Let the pupils find the elbow,
wrist, knee, and ankle, in the cat, dog, horse, cow, rat, squirrel, and
any other mammals of which specimens or pictures may be at hand.
Thus teach the idea of homology, though the word should not be
used. Compare the teeth of common mammals, and lead pupils
to recognize adaptation of different kinds of teeth to different kinds
of food. Teach pupils to recognize degrees of resemblance between
animals, The cat and the dog resemble each other more than
either resembles the horse or the rat. Develop idea of classifica-
tion. Lead pupils to recognize characters of carnivores, ungulates,
rodents. Most of the mammals with which the children are famil-
iar are included in these three orders. But tell them about mon-
keys and kangaroos and other very different forms of mammals,
that they may not suppose that all mammals are so included.
Botany.—Different kinds of stems—woody and herbaceous, exo-
genous and endogenous. By study of numerous examples lead
pupils to recognize that exogenous stems usually bear net-veined
leaves, and endogenous stems usually bear parallel-veined leaves.
Distinguish deciduous and evergreen trees. Let the pupils make
lists of each. |
GRADE III,
Physiology.—Elementary ideas of digestion. Why do we eat?
_ All parts of the body are made of the food which we eat. Food
is made into blood, and blood made into all the materials of the
body. But our food is mostly solid, and must be made liquid
before it can get into the blood. Different substances dissolve
in different liquids—e.g., salt in water, camphor gum in alcohol,
iron filings in dilute sulphuric acid. Show these experiments.
Body itself must make liquids which will dissolve food. Put lump
of sugar in mouth. Mouth fills with saliva, and sugar is dis-
solved. This illustrateś secretion of digestive fluids. But meat
will not dissolve in saliva. What does become of it? Show
910 Science-Teaching in the Schools.
anatomical plate of stomach, and tell about gastric juice. Teach
(with use of anatomical diagrams) outlines of anatomy of digestive
organs. Show by experiment how much more quickly powdered
salt dissolves in water than lumps of rock salt. Teach import-
ance of thorough mastication. Show gizzard of turkey, and
explain its use. But we have no gizzard; and hence must not
swallow our food whole, as the turkey does. Wholesome and
unwholesome foods. Alcohol.
Zoology.—Lessons on common birds—e.g., robin, hawk, hen,
duck. Let pupils compare these with each other and with mam-
mals. Compare feet and bills of different birds, and show adapta-
tion to habits. Continue lessons on homology of limbs. Let the
pupils find elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle, in birds. Is the bat a
bird? Talks on instincts of birds shown in periodical migrations
and nest-building.
Botany.—Lessons on flowers. Select plants with perfect and
somewhat conspicuous flowers. Teach pupils to recognize sepals,
petals, stamens, pistils. Let pupils describe and draw the parts in
a variety of flowers. Study polypetalous flowers first, afterwards —
monopetalous flowers. Cut open the ovary in large flowers, and
show the ovules. Develop the idea that the parts of a flower are
altered leaves.
. GRADE Iv.
Physiology.—Circulation. When food has been made into blood,
blood has to be carried to all parts of the body—function of circu-
lation. Show by anatomical plates the outline of anatomy of cir-
culatory apparatus. Let pupils find some of their own veins, and
feel pulsation of heart and of arteries in wrist and temple. Respi-
ration. Show difference between inspired and expired air by exper-
iment with lime-water. Burn a candle in a jar, and show that the
air in the jar affects lime-water like expired air. Carbonic acid
always formed when carbon burns—i.e., when carbon unites with
oxygen. Carbon in body and in food. Carbon burns—t.e., unites
with oxygen,—all over the body. Body runs, like a steam-engine,
by burning carbon, Object of respiration—introduction of oxyge”
and removal of carbonic acid. Anatomy of respiratory organs.
Hygiene of respiration—dress, ventilation. Respiration in aquatic
animals. Show gills of fish, and respiratory movements in living
Science-Teaching in the Schools. 911
fish. Fish breathes air dissolved in water. Show presence of such
air by warming a beaker of water, and so forming air-bubbles.
Zoology.— Lessons on common reptiles, amphibia, and fishes—e.g.,
turtle, snake, frog, perch, pickerel, eel. Let pupils observe, com-
pare, and describe. Continue studies of homology of limbs. How
many of these animals have two pairs of limbs like those of mam-
mals and birds? Notice external covering of these animals, Their
bodies are cold. Why? Respiration of fishes. Is the whale a
fish? Metamorphosis of amphibia, as shown in changes from tad-
pole to frog. Teach characters of the three classes—reptiles,
amphibia, fishes. Characters possessed in common by mammals,
birds, reptiles, amphibia, fishes. Sub-kingdom vertebrata.
Botany.—The pistil of a flower developes into a fruit. Different
kinds of fruits. Seeds. Show the embryo in beans and other large
seeds. Plant seeds in pots, and show growth of plants from seeds.
Cycle of growth, reproduction, death.
GRADE V.
Physiology.—Nervons system. Analyze the series of actions
when a boy puts his hand on the radiator, and finds it too hot.
Nervous system a telegraphic system in the body. Brain the cen-
tral office. Afferent and efferent nerves. Anatomy of the nervous
system. Hygiene of the nervous system—stimulants and narcotics.
Zoology.—Study the lobster. Lead pupils to recognize jointed
external skeleton, distinct regions of body, jointed limbs. Trace
similarity of structure in feelers, jaws and accessory jaws, nippers,
legs, and other appendages, including the caudal fin. Cut off edge
of carapace on one side, and show gills. Contrast articulate type
of structure, as shown in lobster, with vertebrate type, as shown
in animals previously studied. Compare diagrams of nervous
systems in vertebrates and articulates. Compare with the lobster,
the crab and the sow-bug. Teach pupils to recognize the com-
mon characters which unite these animals in the class crustacea.
Study angle-worm, as illustrating articulate type in much simpler
form—body not differentiated into regions, no jointed appendages.
Talks on useful animals.
Botany.—Study, more obscure and difficult forms of flowers
than those examined in Grade III. Flowers densely aggregated,
as in sun-flower, dandelion, daisy. Imperfect flowers, as in wil-
912 Science- Teaching in the Schools.
low, oak, chestnut. Flowers with open (gymnospermous) pistil,
as in pine, spruce.
GRADE VI.
Physiology.—Briefly review work of previous grades. Special
study of the eye. Anatomy of the eye. Illustrate formation of
image on retina by use of a large lens. Hygiene of the eye.
Injury of eye by use of light too strong, too feeble, unsteady, or
improperly placed. -Cultivation of near-sightedness by bad posi-
tions in reading and writing.
Zoology.—Study common insects, as the bee, butterfly, fly, beetle,
squash-bug, dragon-fly, grasshopper. Compare these animals with
lobster, sow-bug, and angle-worm, and recognize in all these the
common character of articulates. In insects, note the characteristic
division of body into head, thorax, and abdomen. Compare wings
of insects as regards number, form, venation, texture. Show scales
from wings of moth and butterfly under microscope. Examine the
mouth parts of those insects which are not too small. Supplement
observation with pictures. Under lens examine eyes of insects.
Explain their peculiar structure. Metamorphosis of insects. Catch
some caterpillars in the fall, and keep them in boxes in the school-
room. Some of them will probably survive and appear as moths
or butterflies early in the spring. Talks on injurious animals.
Show how some animals are useful by destroying injurious animals
—e.g., insectivorous birds.
Botany.—Distinction between flowering and flowerless plants.
Examples of flowerless plants—ferns, club-mosses, horse-tails,
mosses, lichens, fungi, sea-weeds. Show fructification of ferns.
Show that the distinction of root, stem, and leaf, so obvious in
nearly all flowering plants and in ferns and others of the higher
flowerless plants, vanishes entirely in fungi and sea-weeds.
Mineralogy.—Study crystalline form, cleavage, color, lustre,
hardness, of some of the minerals common in the vicinity of Mid-
dletown—e.g., quartz, feldspar, mica, hornblende, garnet, tourma-
line, beryl.
GRADE VII.
Physiology.—Senses of hearing, smell, taste.
.—Study the river mussel. Direct pupils’ attention to
shell (with its hinge, ligament, mantle-impression, and muscu
impressions), mantle, gills, palpi, mouth, foot, adductor muscles.
Science-Teaching in the Schools. 913
Compare this animal with the oyster and the clam. Note that the
former has only one adductor muscle; while the latter has the
mantle lobes united, forming a sack which is continued posteriorly
in the breathing-tubes, or siphons. Examine some pond-snails.
These will be found to resemble the preceding in their flabby,
unjointed bodies, destitute of internal skeleton; but will be seen to
differ in having a distinct head with feelers, and a spiral univalve
shell. Examine shells of some of the sea-snails. Lead the pupils
to recognize characters of Lamellibranchiata and Gastropoda, as
classes of the sub-kingdom Mollusca. Contrast the Mollusca with
the Vertebrata and Articulata. Give some talks on corals, sponges,
and other animals lower in the scale than mollusks. Do not let the
pupil suppose that the classes he has studied comprise the whole
animal kingdom. Talks on geographical distribution of animals.
Give a little idea of geological succession of animals.
Botany.—Geographical distribution of plants. Uses of plants.
Relation of plants to animals.
Geology.—Gravel, sand, clay. Show that these result from the
disintegration of pre-existent rocks. Erosion, transportation, and
deposition by watér. Study gutters and puddles for illustration of
action of aqueous agencies. Conglomerate, sandstone, shale. Show
that these result from consolidation of gravel, sand, clay. Visit
Portland quarries. Other rocks are sediments not merely consoli-
dated, but crystallized by action of internal heat. Study specimens
of gneiss and mica schist. Contrast their texture with that of
sandstone and other sedimentary rocks. Still other rocks have
come up in molten condition from interior of globe—eg., lava,
trap. Talks on volcanoes.
GRADE VIII.
Physiology. —Review nutritive functions, using elementary text-
k. Illustrate subject with a few dissections.
Physics.—Elementary text-book. Illustrate with experiments,
as much as practicable.
GRADE IX.
Physiology.—Review functions of relation, using elementary
text-book,
Chemistry.—Elementary text-book. Illustrate with experiments,
as much as practicable.
914 Pineal Eye in Extinct Vertebrates.
THE PINEAL EYE IN EXTINCT VERTEBRATES.
BY E. D. COPE.
ie discovery of the pineal eye in lizards is due to Leydig, who
first recognized it as a probable sense organ in 1872. Dr.
Graaf first determined its structural correspondence with the inver-
tebrate eye in 1886. In the same year! Spencer examined a large
series of Lacertilia, and pointed out the very diverse degrees of
development of this organ presented by these reptiles. In 1882
Prof. Rabl!Ruckhard refers to the large parietal foramen of Ichthy-
osaurus and Plesiosaurus as indications of the existence of a pineal
sense organ in those ancient reptiles, perhaps especially sensitive to
temperature. In the NATURALIST for 1885 (p. 1029), the present
writer stated that the Pelycosauria of the Permian epoch possessed
large pineal eyes. Mr. Spencer expresses a similar opinion with
regard to the extinct Stegocephala or labyrinthodonts of the carbon-
iferous system, in his paper above mentioned. He there maintains
also the homology of the median eye of the Tunicata with the
epiphysis of the Vertebrata.
In a paper published in the Naturauist of 1885 (p. 291), the
present writer described the characters of the supposed fish Bothri-
olepis canadensis, and homologized the orifice in the superior wall
of the anterior part of the carapace (supposed to represent the head)
with the orifice or mouth in a corresponding position in the Tuni-
cata, especially referring to Chelyosoma, as having a general resem-
blance to Bothriolepis. I mention (p. 290) that a plate covers the
middle part of this orifice, forming a median valve of the mouth, a
character which is also described by Whiteaves in 1887.2 It was
already described in the allied Pterichthys by Pander and Owen.
This plate covers the median part of the superior orifice, and leaves
the lateral parts open. It has little fixity in the specimens I have
examined, for which reason I called it a valve. See plate XV.
Subsequently I described the genus Mycterops* from the coal
1 Mr. tne paper is dated 1885, although he quotes De Graaf’s
and my own papers published in 1886.
ws Tlustrations of the fossil Fishes of the Devonian Rocks of Canada:
Transac. Royal i p. 102.
a ety of Canada, 1886 (7),
* Arnarion) Naturalist, 1886, p. 10 029.
Pineal Eye in Extinct Vertebrates. 915
measures of Pennsylvania (Plate XV), which is intermediate in the
character of the anterior regions between Cephalaspis and Bothri-
olepis. The median orifice of the latter genus is present, and its
middle portion is roofed by a plate. But this plate differs from
that of Bothriolepis and Pterichthys, in being perforated by two
orifices, which resemble in their position nostrils, while the lateral
orifices have the position of the eyes of the Cephalaspidide.
Under these circumstances the evidence in favor of the orifices in
Bothriolepis being eyes, is stronger than that which points to its
homology with the mouth of Tunicata. The structure of these
primitive vertebrates strongly indicates the origin of lateral or
paired eyes from a single median eye, such as is found in the Tunicata,
and continues to point to the descent of Bothriolepis from those ani-
mals. Mycterops indicates a wider divergence than Bothriolepis ; and
Cephalaspis a still further stage of modification. Dr. Dollo, of
Brussels, has expressed the view that the superior orifice of Pter-
ichthys corresponds with the median eye of the Tunicata and the
pineal eye of the Reptilia.
Of course, if the median eye of the Tunicata became specialized
into the lateral eyes of higher vertebrates, it might seem improbable
that it could be at the same time homologous, as there are no em-
bryological reasons for refusing to believe (Spencer), with the pineal
eye of the same forms, which possess also the lateral eyes. It may
not be impossible, however, that this is really the case, and that the
paired eyes, as well as the pineal eye, have been formed by evagina-
tion of differentiated parts of the Tunicate eye, so that the views of
Lankester and Spencer may be both correct. The formation of the
lens from two parts in the Tunicates, which precludes its corres-
pondence with the pineal lens in Reptilia, probably has a significance
in this connection, expressing the origin of the lateral eyes, while
the retinal portion is homologous with the pineal retina.
In extinct American Batrachia: bate ee foramen is wanting
in Eryo; 1Za trachys, and | ved in Trimerorhachis;
but it is well developeds i in Cricotus, the genus that leads probably
to the Reptilia.
Among North American extinct reptiles I have described the
characters ' of the cast of the brain case in two widely distinct forms.
1 Proceeds. Amer. Philos, Soc., 1886, p. 234.
916 Pineal Eye in Extinct Vertebrates.
These are Diadectes,! a Permian genus of Theromora, and Belodon,
a Parasuchian crocodile. The former has an immense parietal
foramen, while the latter has none. The general characters of the
brain in Diadectes are as follows : The widest part is at the origin of the
trigeminus nerve. Both the cerebellum and nesencephalon are flat,
and simple. The hemispheres are narrower than the segments
posterior to them, and of greater vertical diameter. The epiphysis
is enormous, and its flattened posteriorly extending peduncle is very
distinct. The olfactory lobes were apparently large, and had a
greater transverse diameter than the hemispheres. The reduced
diameter of the hemispheres is a character of fishes and Batrachia
rather than of reptiles, but the thalami are also smaller than is the
case in Batrachia. The small, flat cerebellum is rather batrachian
than reptilian. (Plate X VI.)
There is some reason to suspect that the Diadectes relied exclu-
sively on the pineal eye for the sense of sight. The species of the
family were subterranean in their habits, since their humeri indicate
great fossorial power, resembling those of the existing monotremes,
and even the mole. The vertebre are locked together with the
hyposphen beside the usual articulations, and the arches of the
neural canal form an uninterrupted roof from the skull to the tail, of
extraordinary thickness and strength. That the species are not
aquatic is rendered probable by the fact that the orbits do not
look upwards. Their superior borders are, on the contrary, promi-
nent and straight. Add to this fact the apparent absence of optic
foramina, and the probability that the Diadectide were blind
and subterranean in their habits becomes still stronger.
Belodon is a genus of reptiles which belongs to the sub-order
Parasuchia of Huxley, which has been generally associated with
the Crocodilia. It is characteristic of Triassic formations. Three
species have been found in Europe, three in Eastern North America,
and two in the Rocky Mountain region. One of the latter, Belodon
buceros Cope, is represented in Plate XVII. It was about as large a8
the Gangetic gavial. As in Crocodilia generally there is no parietal
foramen. Differently from crocodiles of later ages, the nostrils are
posterior in position, and near the orbits, so that the nose might be
plunged deeply beneath the surface of mud or water without inter-
1 Loe. cit., 1887, p. 219.
EXPLANATIONS OF PLATES.
PLATE XV.
Fig. 1. Shell of Bothriolepis canadensis Whiteaves, from above.
(From Whiteaves
Fig. 2. Anterior part of same, from below. (From Whiteaves.)
Fig. 3. Skull of Mycterops ordinatus Cope, from below, # natural size,
PLATE XVI.
Cast of brain-case of Diadectes sp.
Figs. 1 and 2, cast of cranial cavity, natural size. As the basicranial
axis is lost, the inferior outline posteriorly is provisional only.
Fig. 1, from above
Fig. 2, from the left side.
Fig. 3, skull of Diadectes phaseolinus, from above
The letters signify as follows: m., medulla; ob. cerebellum ; opl.,
optic lobe; ep., epiphysis; ppe. , posterio r process of epiphysis; U/.,
lateral foramen; h., region of cerebral hemispheres ; v., cast of vesti-
bule.
PLATE XVII.
Cranium of Belodon buceros Cope, from Southwestern New Mexico,
from which the following cast was taken ; one-fourth natural size. Lat-
eral, and one-half inferior and superior views.
PLATE XVIII.
Cast of brain-cases of Belodon buceros and Alligator mississippiensis,
natural size. Figs. 1-3. Belodon buceros. Figs. 4-5. Alligator missis-
sippiensis. Fig. 1. Right side. Fig. 2. Superior surface. Fig. 3. Right
side. RE. Rhinencephalon. PE. Prosencephalon. ME. Mesenceph-
alon. Ep. E. Epencephalon ae MO. Medulla oblongata.
Ep. Epiphysis. Hyp. Hypophysis. ii. Optic nerve; v. Trigeminus;
vi. Abducens; vii. Facialis; viii. EENE Op. Orbitopineal pro-
cess or nerve,
PLATE XVIII.
Cast of brain-cases of Belodon Sgro os and Alligator mississippiensis,
natural size. Figs. 1-3.. Belodon buceros. Figs. 4-5. Alligator nane
spot nsis. Fig. L Right side. "Piet 2. Superior surface. Fig. 3. Rig
Pineal Eye in Extinct Vertebrates. 917
fering with the respiration. The characters of the brain are as
follows:
The first point which arrests the attention in making a compari-
son with Diadectes is the similarly huge size of the epiphysis in the
two types. A foramen on each side of the base of the epiphysis in
the Diadectes gave exit to a process similar to that which enters the
orbitopineal canal in the Belodon, and which I called the lateral
process of the epiphysis in the latter. Plate XVIII, figs. 1-3, 1 f).
_ The processes are probably homologous in the two genera, but in
the Belodon they extend through the posterior wall of the orbit, fill-
ing a large canal. There is little resemblance between the two
brains in other respects, but they agree in the small size of
the prosencephalon, and in the complete enclosure of the rhinen-
cephalon by osseous walls. In the Diadectes there is no optic
foramen, but a huge trigeminus; in Belodon, an optic foramen,
and a very small trigeminus.
The presence of such a huge epiphysis in the Belodon, as com-
pared with its very small size in modern crocodiles, is a point of
much interest, and points to its inheritance from the reptiles of the
Permian. But if, as is probable, it contained the pineal eye, the
latter could not receive light directly from above, since the parietal
foramen is wanting. The presence of a communication with the
orbit becomes interesting in this connection. A minute foramen
passes from the base of the rhinencephalon into the orbit in the
alligator, but the homology with the canalis orbitopinealis of Belo-
don is by no means made out. The nervus orbitopinealis may have
supplied the lack of light due to the closure of the parietal foramen,
but in what way we are left to conjecture.
The equality of size of the brain of the Belodon to that of the
existing alligator is a point of interest.
The Belodons were probably aquatic reptiles, living on the shores
of estuaries like modern crocodiles, and were of carnivorous habits.
@
918 Editors’ Table.
EDITORS’ TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY.
Economy pushed to its extreme becomes niggardliness. The
appropriation for a Governmental Zoological Garden at the Capital
has been defeated in the House of Representatives, not because of
any objection to the proposition, to the location, to the site, nor to
the necessity, but solely because of the money it would cost. It
was simply the wail of a miser. The benefit from, in fact necessity
for, a Governmental Zoological Garden was conceded. The time
and opportunity were apropos. It was not denied that the manage-
ment was in proper hands. No argument was made against the
project save that it would cost money, and this was played ad nau-
seam. The opponents of the project raised their voices and fairly
wept over this great expenditure of money.
We attempt no homily on the duties of a legislator, nor to explain
how it is sometimes as much his duty to spend money as it is at
others to save it. The United States, with a greater territory»
greater riches, and with undoubtedly greater opportunities, is behind
third and fourth-rate kingdoms in the matter of zoological gardens.
The Materiaux pour Vhistorie de P Homme for August has an article
entitled “ Extinction of the Buffalo,’ in which it notices a capture
or massacre, in the Territory of Arizona, of a herd of buffalo (Bos
americanus), and says, “The race is now practically extinct.” It
laments that these are not the only zoologic forms in America which
have become so, and closes, “ The Republic of the United States of
America is less careful of its opportunities, and pays less regard to
its duty to science than does the Russian Empire, where the Euro-
pean bison of pre-historic times lives under the protection of the
Czar.”
If the two or three gentleman who led the opposition, and the
fifty-six members who voted with them, shall continue the defeat
of the project, and thus the buffalo become an extinct animal, with
others now threatened, the descendants of these gentlemen will have
Jittle cause for pride in this act of their ancestors.
There never will be a time when this project can be carried out
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 919
more opportunely than at the present. Each year that it is post-
poned increases the expense. Many people stand ready now to aid
it with contributions of animals, Ifa place were but provided in —
which the animals could be kept and cared for, the Garden would
soon fill up. But with the passage of time these opportunities will
also pass, and the difficulties and expense correspondingly increase.
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Aep, D. Cs C.—British Reptiles sni Batrachians. 1888. From the
au
e 1. gohe J PIRE EIE Depression and the Dead Sea. Ext,
Dolley, C. S.— i Prettiliinary Abstract Report of the Marine pead
stationed in 1887 at Nassau, New Providence. From the
Goode, Q. B.—Re eport upon the Condition and Progress of Pa = Ss.
National Museum during the half-year ending June 30,1785. From
the Departments.
Gegenbaur. C-—Lehrbuch der Anatomie des Menschen. 1888. From
ea
Mi iy teed P.—La Concimazione del terreno Bo aro per Opera di al-
ni Lamellicorni. 1887. From the autho
PREG H.—Beschreibung des Panzers von iia Seguini. Sitz,
d. k. p. Akad. d. Wissen. zu Berlin. 1883.—Nothropus priscus.
ein bisher unbekanntes fossiles Faulthier. Ext. idem. 1882.—
Berichtigung zu ne se Ext. idem. 1885.—Weitere Bemer-
ku ae ueber Co eion em e one ae critico de a
Boulenger, G. 2 —No ee sur Ta Grenouilles d’Asie. Ext. du Bull. de la
Societé Zool. de France. 1886.—Les Es — es du Genre Ophiomore.
1887. Both from the author
ee E. W.—Notes on the Visceral EE of certain Auks. P.
r. Anat. and Physivl., Vol. XXI. Both from the author.
Aatroa" U. P. and J. F—On the Monticuliporoid Corals of the Cincin-
P Group with a ce a of the Species. From the
Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist.
Powell, B. P.—Religion of the ena From the author.
, A.—Russi uisse goologique. Ext. de l’annuaire geologique
universel. 1886. From the author
ggett, F, W.—The Larva of the Chrysopa. Jour. N. Y. Micros. Soe.
1887. From the author *
’
920 Recent Books and Pamphlets.
Deichmueller, J. V.—Die Meteoriten des königlichen Mineralogischen
useums in Dresden. uthor
Brooks, W. K.—Epenthesis. The Life History of Epenthesis Mc-
radyi.
Watase, S.—Observations Sn the Development of Cephalopods : Homol-
ogy of the Germ re
Mall, peat .—Development of ‘oe Ear of the Chick.—The Branchial Clefts
he Do
og.
All in “Studies coo the Biological Laboratory of Johns Hopkins
University.” 1888.
Barrois, C.—Les Loe des Iles du Morbihan.—Modifications et
page een ‘des Granulites du Morbihan. Both from the
Osborn, Š Epa a upon the Insects of the Season in Iowa. 1887.
From the author
Bathor, E A, —Shell-growth in Cephalopods. P. Z. S., April, 1888.
m the auth
Baur, a —Dremochely oe oder Sphargis. Sep-Abd a.
d. Zoo l. Anzeiger. From the author
McCook, H. C.—Prolonged Life of Tuvarisbeaten: Notes on the Age
and Hi nde of the American Tarantula. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.
i
Be a Nor aska.—University Studies. July, oe Sere” du
i Gaalagitue, St. Peter: ue: Nos. i, $ i 4,5 —Mem
cine ae Comité Géologique. Vols. V., VI. a d'VII.
Teronge, S. V.—Traumatic Insanity and other pli. of Head v. r
ries. ea from the Alienist and Neurologist. 1888. From
author
O. ria Êtres infiniment anciens. 1888,—Sur le genre me
adapis, mammifère fossile de l’éocène e Shire des on vidn
eims. Comptes-Rendus Acad. des Sci. Paris. 1887.—Sur q Bes
ues Mammifères carnassiers recueillis dans Wecouas apne nar
environs de Reims. Idem. 8.—Sur ensemble des rechere aaa
paléontologiques ca dans les terrains tertiaires inférieurs oa
environs de Reims. Idem. 1887.—Sur le cerveau du Phylloxera.
Idem. 1888. ‘All: eons thei author
Trouessart, E. L.—Types Nouveaux de Sarcoptides Épidermicoles et
Psoriques. Ext. du Bull. de la Soc. d’Etudes Sci. d’ Angers.
From the author d
Dodge, C. R.—The Life and ee ak ober: of the late Townen
lover. U.S. De pt. of Agric. Bull. E.
U. S. Dept. of Agric.—Insect Life, with sls by Ca a posed y, M: J.
Murtfeldt, R. Matas, Lord Walsi ingham, ete.
olman, Comm. of Agriculture. 5
Riley, C. V.—An So matigoe ek of the Synopses, Lists, an g CWRT
of North American Insects. U. 8. Dept. of Agric. Bull.
Fro a J. Col Orpa
Gaudry, A.—Les ve se fossiles des Environs d’Autun. m PHI-
i re , Mem, ext. des saioei Archives du Museum
toire antarala. Both from the aut thier
Rütimeyer, L.—Ueber einige a ahaa zwischen den Sa po
stimen ‘ne — Beara Welt Erster Nachtrag zu der Boost .
. Fauna von Egerki
*
Geology and Paleontology. 921
Albrecht, P.—Ueber die cetoide Natur der sp marsnemelet Anatomis-
thor
cher Anzeiger. 86. rom the au
Dollo, a ay Seer has et Cai ie. Comptes-Rendus. 1888.
From he author
Branner, J. C. -The Glacial Striæ of the Lackawanna-Wyoming
Re egion. —Glaciation: its Relation to the Lackawanna-Wyoming
Region. Both from the author
TENN F. S.—Swine Plague: its Causes, ew hy and Prevention.
Bull. Agric. Exper. Station of Nebraska. 1888. From the author.
Cook, A. J.—Experiments with i meh Agric. Coll. of Michigan.
Bull. No. 39. From the author
Meyer, O.—On Miocene Sinvvettabietien from Virginia. Amer. Philo.
Soc. 1888. From the author
Riley, C. V.—On the ‘Cases of Variation in Organic Forms. Address
before the A. A. A. S., Cleveland. 1888. From the author.
Armas, J. I. de.—La Zoelogli de oe y de los primeros exploradores
de Amer erica. From the author
McGee, W. J.—Three Formations of serch eet Atlantic Slope. Amer.
Jour. Science. 1888. From the auth
Geikie, A. L.—Report on the Recent We of the Geological Survey in
the eee Highlands of Scotland. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.,
1888.
Hauchecorne.—Compte Rendu de la me. Session = he i Géologique
International, Berlin. 1885. From the Seer
Fritsch, A.—Fauna der Gaskohle und der njoe ve Perm Form
tion Bohmens. Band II. Heft 3. Die Lurchfische, Dipnoit. 1888.
From the author
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY.
AS gs oF GRAVITY IN APPROACHING THE CENTRE OF
ANY Cosmic SPHERE WHATEVER.—First, within a hypothetical
hollow hitar a solid shell of which is, in all parts, of ual
the gravity of Q, and g lr the gravity of q: then wil will mie qr:
G : g, and there results Q X g = G X q, or g = a
922 General Notes.
Now, if, in our hypothetical hollow sphere, we assume any point
whatever, and draw a line through that point to the nearest and
most distant points of the shell, this line will be a straight line, and
the longest that can be drawn in the sphere ; hence it passes through
the centre, and is the diameter. Now, pass a plane through this
assumed point and perpendicular to the diameter, cutting the shell
into two segments, corresponding to the two segments of the
diameter made by the assumed point.
Let R equal one segment of the diameter, and r equal the other;
let Q equal the segment of the shell corresponding to R, and q
equal the segment corresponding tor: then, since, by hypothesis,
the density and thickness are everywhere equal, there results Q : q: :
: 7’, and Q °? = q R’; but gravity varies in proportion to
the duplicate ratios of the reciprocals of distance, R and r. t
represent the gravity of the segment R? X q, and g represent the
gravity of segment r° Q, at the assumed point, then we have G:
1 1
g::——:——-; therefore, G R? q =g r°’ Q. Now, since Qr
Rg Q
= q R? G = g: ie., gravity, at any point whatever, in this hollow
point assumed: then will result G: gy: : R? : 1°; g = R? nM
the centre r equals 0 and g = 0. They vanish together. _
As a matter of fact, however, this proportion and equation =
true for two points only: viz., at the surface, when R = r, h
the centre, when r = 0. y? Because the density varies wi
the pressure, in the first place. Though the weight, i. e., the gravity,
relative to that sphere alone, is greatest at the surface, in the hae
of any given quantity of matter, yet, under the superimcum i
pressure, the density of the inner sphere, composed of the sam
matter, is greater than that of the entire sphere. : ‘
Again, the heavier matter, ie., the matter of the highest —
ravity, during the process of free centralization, naturally 0. ys
the nucleus of the sphere, throwing the lighter ma i
surface, as we see in case of our earth. Thus, for two reasons,
Geology and Paleontology. 923
centres of all cosmic spheres are of higher specific gravity than the
surfaces. On the contrary, after solidification has taken place, by
virtue of thermal radiation into the infinite of space, the high degree
of internal heat tends, very considerably, to diminish the density of
the interior.
The complexity of this problem is not amenable to mathe-
matic resolution. Even the elastic resiliency of the most persistent
gases increases more rapidly than any assumed amount of pressure.
Thus, if the pressure increases as the natural series 1, 2, 3, 4, ete.,
the elastic resilience is such that the resulting volumes are not 4, 4,
, 4, etc., nor anything like it, except in the very lowest of the
series. Still we are warranted in all cases in saying that the greater
the pressure the greater the density for the same kind of matter.
ow,a few words on the formation of a solid crust over a molten
sphere are entirely pertinent. It has been held by some authors
that no crust can form over such a sphere; for, say they, when the
surface cools it is heavier than the molten mass within, and must
necessarily sink ; so that the centre would become solid first. First,
here is a palpable reductio ad abswrdam ; for this would necessarily
result in cooling so as to solidify at the centre first. Can any
rational mind accept this absurdity ?
nd, ejected lavas always cool on the surface first, while yet
the deeper portions are molten even so as to flow long after a solid
crust has been formed. Thus does direct observation show the
gold. Cold silicon can not sink in molten iron, Yet, all the lighter
materials are on and form the outside of earth, and of every other
sphere where they exist. Unless there may exist a cosmic sphere
of pure gold or pure platinum, or something of that kind, their
hypothesis can never be realized. :
Fourth, these lighter materials are highly non-conductive to heat,
and hence husband the internal heat most providentially ; so that
earth will continue to have an internal heated core for raising
mountains, continents, islands, etc., eons to come, as it thus far has
had during eons past.
Fifth, the dream of those other philosophers, that all the waters
of all the oceans will disappear to the centre of earth, cannot be
realized, unless the outer non-conductive materials are in excess of
the heavier central materials, which the higher mean gravity of
earth seems to contradict.
Sixth, this fact of heavier central materials insures the molten
condition of a portion of the centre, in spite of all contrary hypo-
924 General Notes.
theses. Through these heavier materials conduction is rapid, and
the maximum is easily maintained. Mark! I saya portion of the
centre, for the centre is unquestionably solid, as a resultant of
pressure, the temperature being the maximum attained at the point
of liquefaction. As the inner portion consists of the heavier
materials, which are also far better conductors of heat, and ren-
dered still better conductors under the immense pressure of the
superincumbent materials, this solid nucleus will maintain, by con-
duction, this maximum temperature throughout. Finally, it may
not be void of all interest to take a very brief view of earth’s
outer envelop.
The entire outer shell, as all know, consists mainly of two
persistent gases—oxygen and nitrogen ; oxygen, a constantly active,
ever varying, yet constantly nearly the same in proportion; and
nitrogen, a neutral dilutent for the active oxygen. With these
two are mingled a few other substances, most conspicuous of which
is watery vapor.
Next is a shell—a little broken—of water. This is followed,
in the descending order, by a shell of mingled substances, the
common rock materials. These are very poor conductors of heat.
The lighter of these materials do not form a very thick mass.
As the entire mass of earth, including all these, has a much higher
specific gravity than any of these, it follows that heavier materials
soon begin to take the place of these; nevertheless, this outer
envelop must be sufficient to protect the heated nucleus, and volcanic
emissions show that their seat is not below this outer shell, but in it.
—Ira Sayles, Ithaca, N. Y., March 12, 1888.
(To be continued.)
THE ATTACHMENT OF PLATYCERATA TO Foss, CRINOIDS has
been long known, but the hitherto extreme rarity of illustrative
specimens has necessarily occasioned only brief explanatory remarks.
nasmuch as the gasteropod shell was invariably situated on the
crinoidal vault, and covering the ventral opening, which was erro-
neously regarded as the mouth of the crinoid, conclusive evidence
of the carnivorous habits of the crinoideans was thought to be
established. Other explanations were from time to time offered,
but for the most part they were also fallacious, and originated in
wrong conceptions relative to the true functions of certain structures
l the group of echinoderms. Opportunity has recently
offered for the examination of an extensive series of palæocrn-
oids with attached Platycerata, embracing numerous specimens of the
following species: Ollacrinus tuberosus Lyon and C., O. typus Hall,
Physetocrinus ventricosus Hall, Strotocrinus regalis Hall, Doryormus
immaturus Wachsmuth and Springer, Marsupiocrinus cælatus £ hit-
Geology and Paleontology. 925
lips, Eucladocrinus millebranchiatus Wachs. and Sp., Platycrinus
hemisphericus M. and W., Arthroacantha punctobrachiata Wil-
liams, Pterotocrinus acutus Weth., P. bifurcatus Weth., P. spatula-
tus Weth., Cromyocrinus simplex Trauts., Scaphiocrinus sp. und.
and Actinocrinus verrucosus Hall. It will be observed that in all
the above species, with two exceptions, the vault is more or less
depressed or nearly flat, with a simple anal opening, while in the
last species mentioned the anal aperture is at the extremity of a
prolonged anal tube—the so-called “ proboscis ”—but in this single
instance the tube appeared to be injured, and probably has a second
opening at the base. In every example, whether attached to the
vault, as in the majority of the genera, or to the side of the calyx,
as in Platycrinus, the molluscan shell is situated over the anal:
opening.
Summing up the predominant physiological and structural
features suggested by recent investigations, it appears: (1) that the
Platyceras was attached to the crinoid for a considerable length of
time, and very probably for life, as is evidenced by the margin of
the gastropod shell, corresponding exactly to the irregularities of
the crinoidal surface—first suggested by Meek and Worthen ; (2)
that the anterior portion of the shell is always directly over the
anal aperture of the crinoid, and that as growth in the shell con-
tinues the posterior margin is removed farther and farther from the
vault opening, as is shown by the shallow concentric channels made
y the margin of the shell in the vaults of Strotocrinus and Physe-
tocrinus ; (3) that the nourishment of the mollusc must have been
derived chiefly from the excrementitious matter from the crinoid,
though the gasteropod may have subsisted also on animalcules and
microscopic plants, as in the case of the living representatives of
the closely allied genus Capulus ; (4) that the shape of the shell
aperture and its marginal configuration were dependent entirely
upon the surface of attachment, and hence are of small classificatory
' value; and 0) that the entire form of the shell was determined to
a greater or lesser extent by the surface upon which the gasteropod
was stationed.
The species of Platyceras in which the sedentary habits are posi-
tively known from the attachment of the gasteropod shells to crin-
oids are: P., equilaterum Hall, P. infundibulum M. and W., P.
parasiticus Trauts., P. erectum Hall, P. formosum Keyes, P. ches-
terense M. and W., P. dumosum Conrad, and several undetermined
species.— Charles R. Keyes.
GLYPTOCEPHALUS NOT IDENTICAL WITH BucKLANDIUM.—
In the AMERICAN NATURALIST for May and September, 1888 (Vol.
XXII., pp. 448, 828), I have used the name Bucklandium (Keenig)
as a substitute for Glyptocephalus of Agassiz (1843), the latter name
926 General Notes.
having been previously given to a well-marked existing genus of
Pleuronectids by Gottsche (1835). I did this, as indicated in
my communication (p. 828), solely on the authority of Pictet, who
believed that the Bucklandium was the same as Glyptocephalus
Agass.,! the work of Koenig not being accessible to me at the time,
and Prof. Pictet being recognized as a special authority on eocene
fishes. But in the Geological Magazine for Oct., 1888 (p. 471), and
also in The Annals and Magazine of Nat. History for Oct. (6 ser., v.
II, p. 355), Mr. A. Smith Woodward, after an examination of the
type of Bucklandium diluvii, “determined that it is truly the im-
perfect head and pectoral arch of a Siluroid.” | Incredible as such a
malidentification on the part of Pictet must appear, I presume the
determination of Mr. Woodward must be accepted, and, at any rate,
that the name Bucklandium has nothing to do with Glyptocephalus,
Consequently, a new name must be provided for Glyptocephalus
Agass. Glyptocara, having the same meaning, may be employed.
—Theo Gill.
Dr. C. A. White, of the United States Geological Survey,
writes the senior editor as follows :—“ I have just returned from
Texas. I went to Baylor, Archer and Wichita counties, and found
that Mr. Cummins was entirely correct in his reported discovery of
Mesozoic and Paleozoic types of invertebrates commingled in
one and the same layer of the Permian. I went with him to his
localities, and collected with my own hands a good lot of the fossils.
I shall support your published opinion—or rather determination—
as to the Permian age of the formation.”
THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE MAMMALIAN MOLAR CusPs.—
Every fresh discovery among the primitive mammals tends to con-
firm the theory that the evolution of the molar crowns has been, 1n
a succession of stages, beginning with the single reptilian cone, the
homodont type of Riitimeyer (Haplodont Cope). Comparative
anatomy and the paleontological record combine to demonstrate this
Multituberculates and Edentates—the history of the teeth of the
former classes is incomplete. Our knowledge of the edentates
leaves it uncertain whether the molar crowns are in a primitive 2
degenerate condition; we know that they once possessed eg ;
but the analogical degeneration of the molar crowns among the
cetacea from a complex to a primitive type makes any cone >
to the crowns of the primitive edentates very doubtful. Exclu
ing the representatives of the Multituberculata, Cope has shown
1 Je crois que C'est [i.e., “Glyptocephalus radiatus Agass.’’] 1a mon
espèce que celle qu’il a Avie date les Icones sectiles, pl. 8, sous e Lp
de Bucklandium. Voyez [Traité de Paléontologie par Pictet], t. 4+) P-
44, et t. II., p. 66 [et p. 123].
Geology and Paleontology. 927
that the tritubercular stage, in one form or other, is universal
among the known lower Eocence Mammalia. In a recent memoir,
I showed that a large proportion of the Mammalia of the Mesozoic
period, again excluding the Multituberculates, were in the line of
trituberculy, and a renewed examination of the English types
removes every one of the apparent exceptions to this law. Among
the American Jurassic types there are still several apparent excep-
tions. ;
In view of the evidence for the almost universal presence of the
tritubercular stage in the present or past history of the upper and
lower molars, I have already advocated a distinct nomenclature for
the different cusps which compose this molar and its derivatives, up
to the stage of the acquisition of six tubercles in the upper molars
and five in the lower. This is the final stage in which the
tubercles reman distinct. The nomenclature now in general
recog
nized at once that the antero-internal cusp of the lower molar of
Mioclænus is not homologous with the antero-internal cusp of the
upper molar of the same genus, nor is it homologous with the
antero-internal cusp of the lower molar of Hyopsodus.
e nomenclature proposed is based upon the fact that the
cusps composing the main triangles are homologous with each other
. and that some of the cusps superadded to these to form respectively
the six and five tubercled mı slars, have probably originated in a
similar manner. The terms for the three main cusps are selected
to indicate, as far as possible, the primitive position and the order of
evolution. The lower molar cusps are arbitrarily distinguished
rom those of the upper molars by the termination id.
Terms proposed. Terms now in use.
Up. Molars. Low. Molars. Upper Molars. Lower Molars.
Protocone, Protoconid. Antero-internal cusp. Antero external cusp.
Paracone. Paraconid. Antero-external “ Antero-internal “
$ cusp.
Metacone. Metaconid. Postero-external ‘‘ Diahsen iniaa Me
or intermediate ‘
Hypocone. Hypoconid. Postero-internal ‘ Postero-external “
cusp.
Protoconule. Anterior-interme
diate cusp.
Metaconule. Posterior-interme-
diate.
Epiconid Postero-internal cusp.
This note is from an abstract of a paper presented to the British
Association at Bath upon the Evolution of the Mammalian Molar
928 | General Notes.
teeth. The full paper will appear in the next number of the
NATURALIST. In the meantime I will be glad to receive sugges-
tions or criticisms upon the above terms.— Henry F. Osborn.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.!
PETROGRAPHICAL News.—The basaltic rocks of Alsace, accord-
ing to Linck}? embrace feldspathic and non-feldspathic varieties.
Of the latter a limburgite from Reichenweiler contains a glassy
base, which deports itself towards reagents like nepheline, a fact
which would cause the rock strictly to be classed among the nepheline
basalts. Its olivine yields upon analysis :—
SiO, AO; . Fe; 0, FeO MgO Na,O
41.53 2.33 0.58 10.27 43.60 1.69,
indicating a replacement of part of the magnesium of the typical
molecule by aluminium and sodium. Olivine concretions occurring
in this rock consist of olivine, bronzite and a bottle-green augite
containing 2.64 per cent. of K,O and 2.41 per cent. of Na,O.—
rief notes on the rocks of Fernando Noronha, an island in the
Atlantic about two hundred miles north-east of Cape St. Roque,
Brazil, are communicated from the laboratory of the Johns Hop-
kins University by Mr. Gill? The rocks described are phonolites,
from conical hills similar to those in the Hegau in Baden, nephe- `
ine-basanites and basalts, nephelinite, and finally basalt glass. A
extended petrographical study of these in all their different varie-
ties will be published later.— Although the rocks of the Bohemian
Mittelgebirge have been made the subjects of study by several pet-
rographers, Hibsch‘ finds something new to say of them in a late
article in T'schermak’s Mittheilungen. The trachytes of the region
are younger than the phonolites or the basalts and occur in but a
few localities. Their porphyritic sanidines possess a rounded out-
line and are fringed with a rim of newly formed secondary feld-
spathic substance. Many of the phonolites contain a large amount
of plagioclase, and have besides a trachytic habit. In their cavi-
ties is often noticed quite an interesting development of secondary
albite. Little crystals of this mineral extend out from the sides of
the cavity and penetrate into a mass of analcite, which, together
' Edi . W.E. iversi aterville, Me.
EE Paci a er, ee a
P Johns Hopkins Univ. Circulars, No. 65, April, 1888, p. 71.
* Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., 1887, p. 282.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 929
with chabasite, has resulted from the alteration of the plagioclase.
—In Blum’s “ Pseudomorphosen”! mention is made of a grani
at Vordorf in the Fichtelgebirge, in which the flesh-red orthoclase
is partially altered into epidote. Sandberger,’ who has found blocks
of the same rock, states that the epidote is more likely an alteration
product of hornblende or augite, as it is associated with asbestus,
while the red orthoclase is still fresh A grammatite rock occurs,’
interstratified with phyllite, in the Bohemian Fichtelgebirge, between
lein- Wenden and Sichersreuth.—The third paper on the rocks of
the Cortlandt Series, in the Hudson river, embraces‘ the treatment
of the gabbros and diorites associated with the peridotites and
norites which have been described in another place. The gabbros
present no peculiar features other than the granulation of some of
their constituents. Two types of diorite are distinguished. One,
containing brown hornblende, tends to pass into gabbro, norite, or
hornblendite. The other, containing green hornlende, is closely
related to mica-bearing rocks. The mica-diorites (Dana’s soda-
granites) are essentially coarse-grained aggregates of plagioclase and
biotite, with often a little orthoclase and quartz, and sometimes
garnet as a metamorphic mineral. The plagioclase has a specific
gravity between 2.67 and 2.65, and is sometimes twinned, while at
other times it is entirely free from twinning lamelle. The most
noticeable feature in the rock is the occurrence in it of a pale green,
non-pleochroic epidute, which appears to be original. The mineral
is generally without terminations. It is strongly corroded on its
ges as if eaten into by a liquid magma. The paper closes with
a graphic representation of the close relations, which the author,
Dr, Williams, has found to exist between the various eruptive
members of this series.
MINERALOGICAL News.—In Douglas Co., Oregon, is a bed of
nickel silicate, resembling garnierite, whose origin has been deter-
mined with some degree of certainty by Prof. Clarke.’ A pure.
specimen of the mineral was found to have the composition :—
TiO MgO SiO, Al,0,+Fe,0, Loss on ign. Lossat110°
7.57 10.56 44.73 1.18 6.99 8.87
‘ iii., p. 120.
3s Neues. Jahrb. f. Min., ete., 1888, i., p. 208. —
, Sandberger : Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1888, ii., p. 202.
, Amer. Jour. Sci., June, 1888, xxxv., p. 438.
p Amer, N aturalist, June, 1887, p. .
Amer. Jour, Sci., xxxv., 1888, p. 483.
930 General Notes.
occurs,is always associated with these alteration products. It occurs in
the serpentine, which is directly connected with the grains of olivine
from which it has been derived. rere is every reason to believe
that the nickel silicate came from the same source. A study of the
Webster Co., N. C., and the New Caledonia nickel deposits indicate
the same origin for the ores at these places.—A feldspar from
Kilima-njaro, similar to that from the rhombic porphyry of Chris-
tiania, has been analyzed by Fletcher.’ Its composition is :—
SiO, Al,O, CaO Na,O K,O
62.17 23.52 2.90 6.80 4.61,
corresponding to a mixture of the anorthite, microcline and albite
molecules in the proportions An, Or., Al,..,. The extinction on
the clinopinacoid is about 4° 20’. On the basal plane it is parallel
to the clinopinacoid cleavage. In sections cut parallel to the ortho-
inacoid the microcline structure is visible.—Sandberger? calls
attention to the properties of the carbonaceous material in the erys-
talline limestone of Wunsiedel in the Fichtelgebirge, as those of an
amorphous substance corresponding to the graphitoid of Inostran-
zeff and Sauer. The hardness of the mineral is 3 and the specific
gravity 2.207. It yields when burned 1.78 per cent. of ash.—A
new analysis of spodumene from Brazil leads Jannasch® to the
results reached by other analysts, and affirms the correctness of the
formula (Li. Na), Al, (SiO,),.—Brief notes on the six iron sulphates,
coquimbite, copiapite, quenstedtite, biickingite, stypticite and halotri-
chite, from Chili, are communicated by Linck® in a letter to the
Neues Jahrbuch.
MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL MINERALOGY.—Since almost
all of our knowledge of the morphological properties of markasie
depend principally upon the measurements of Hausmann and Sade-
ek, and since these mineralogists disagree in their results, Geh-
macher” has thought it worth while to measure the crystals in his
possession, and from these measurements to recalculate the planes
occurring in them. He finds the axial ratio to be: .7623 : 1 : 1.2167.
The formulas of the different planes are determined, and other obser-
vations are made which indicate a monoclinic symmetry for the
mineral.—Zepharovich’s® measurements of trona crystals from
Lake Lagunillas, Venezuela, show their axial relation to be:
* Min. ea ee July, 1887, and Zeits. f. Kryst. xiii., ’87, p. 384.
. f. Min., i., p. 200.
me bi Se
x
4 i., p. 196.
§ Neues Jahrb., f. Min., ete., 1888, i:, p. 213.
1 Zeits. f. Kryst., xiii., 1887, p. 242.
8 Ib., xiii., 1887, p. 135.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 931
2.8459 : 1 : 2.9696. 8 = 77° 23’. Their composition corresponds
to that of the same mineral from other localities——Very pure idri-
alite (C,,H;,,O,), crystals from Idria in Krain, consist of small plates
bounded on two sides by parallel planes. The extinction against
one of these sides is 5° 33’, and the optical angle of the min-
eral, measured in oil, is 2H = 101° 20’. The interference figure
is that of a biaxial crystal, with the bisectrix perpendicular to the
surfaces of the plate.—A great many observations have been made
by Niedmann! upon barite in order to determine the relations
between the elasticity and the other physical properties of the
mineral. He finds the direction of greatest elasticity to be per-
pendicular to the plane of easiest cleavage. The shape of the
curve representing the relative values of the coefficients of elasti-
city for any given plane, corresponds in all cases to the symme-
try of the orthorhombic system.
MIscELLANEOUS.—In a late paper Dr. Cohen? discusses critically
the arguments in fayor of the chemical theory of deposition for
gold in placers, and also those in favor of its mechanical origin.
He gives the main facts bearing on the subject, and shows that
some of those whlch have always been cited as favoring the chem-
ical theory, are of doubtful existence. It has been stated, for
Instance, that placer gold always contains less silver than vein gold
from the same region, Analyses of specimens from Buttons Creek,
in the South African gold-fields, however, prove that this is not
always the case. Dr. Cohen’s results are :—
Au Ag Cu Insol
Vein gold 94.48 5.16 ged x
Placergold {95:02 1.60 1 o7
He thinks that whereas placer gold, for the most part, is derived
by the breaking down of gold veins, there is occasionally in addi-
tion a deposition of the metal from its solutions. This, however,
he regards as playing but a subordinate rôle in the formation of
placer gold.—A ‘meteoric stone,’ found in the San Emigdio
mountains in California, is composed of chondri of olivine and
anstatite, imbedded in a base composed of the same minerals in a
. fragmental condition. Nickeliferous iron constitutes 6'21 per
cent. of the stone, It occurs in lumps and masses, often surround-
ing the chondri. An analysis of the metallic portion yielded 11.27
per cent. of nickel.
‘ Ib., xiii., 1887, p. 362.
, Mitth. d. naturw. Ver. f. Neuvorpom. u. Rügen, 19 Jahrg., 1887.
Merrill: Am. Jour. Sci., June, 1888, p. 490.
932 General Notes.
ZOOLOGY.
CeLL-Drviston.—The following abstract of recent researches on
cell-division is taken from the Journal of the Royal Microscopical
Society.—Herr T. Boveri believes that the course of karyokinetic
division may be generally described in the following terms :—The
chromatic nuclear material becomes collected together with a
definite number of isolated pieces of a form characteristic of the
kind of cell—the chromatic elements; an achromatic filamentar
figure is formed in the two poles, either from the substance of the
nucleus or from that of the cell. The chromatic elements, so far
as their number, form and size allow it, are deposited in the equa-
torial plane of the achromatic figure ; the chromatic elements divide
into two halves, one of which makes its way toward either pole;
the daughter elements break up in the framework of the new
nuclei.
ments of the next spindle.
n the germinal vesicle of the ovum of Ascaris megalocephala
(Carnoy’s type), two independent portions of chromatin are found
in the earliest known stage. Though nothing is certainly known
of their mode of formation, it may be assumed that they are derived
from a typical nuclear framework. This conversion, however, of
the reticulum into the chromatic elements, which in other cells
and in some ova (A. lumbricoides) directly precedes division, appears,
in most eggs, to take a long time. e important difference in the
eges of the type of Van Beneden is that there is but one chromatic
element ; this seems to be unique.
indication of the achromatic figures of division. The most striking
of these cases has been lately described by Flemming. Similar
phenomena have been observed by the author in the eggs °
Ascaris. n the germinal vesicle of Ascaris lumbricoides the
Zoology. 933
twenty-four rods exhibit the most distinct transverse division long
before the germinal vesicle begins to be converted into the
spindle.
After considering several cases in different forms the author
expresses his belief that they form parts of a series in the degenera-
tion of the process of nuclear and cellular division. In the case of
Corydalis cava, described by Strasburger, the process is least rudi-
former.
Nervous SYSTEM OF THE Srarrisn.—Dr. Carl F. Jickeli
934 General Notes.
STIZOSTEDIUM IN THE BASIN OF THE ConnecricuT.—I had
the pleasure of announcing in the AMERICAN NATURALIST for
October, 1887, the discovery of a specimen of Stizostedium vitreum
at Cromwell, Conn., in a tributary of the Connecticut River. This
is,so far as I am aware, the only recorded instance of the occurrence
of the species in any of the rivers of the Atlantic coast between the
St. Lawrence and the Susquehanna. It may be worth while to
_ twelve inches in length. Both specimens are preserved in the
Museum of Wesleyan University.— William North Rice, Wesleyan
University, Middletown, Conn.
Description oF A New SPECIES oF MEADOW MOUSE FROM
THE BLACK Hints or Daxota.—In the higher parts of the
Black Hills there lives a species of Arvicola resembling our eastern
Meadow Mouse (A. riparius) in size and céloration, but differing
from it strikingly in the possession of a very long tail and very
large ears. Two specimens were collec ted in some brush land bor-
dering a creek in the vicinity of Custer, Dakota, by Mr. Vernon
Bailey, in July last, Examination of their teeth shows them to
belong to the subgenus Myonomes. The species has no nearer
relative than Arvicola townsendi, from which it differs in relative
proportions and in other particulars. It may be known by the
following diagnosis : |
ARVICOLA (MYONOMES) LONGICAUDUS sp. nov.
Long-tailed Arvicola.
Type No. 4529, fem. ad., Merriam Collection. From Custer’
(in the Black Hills), Dakota, July 19,1887. Vernon Bailey.
through. There is no sharp line of demarcation between: the color
of the belly and that of the sides; the tail is slightly paler below
than above, but lacks a distinct line of demarcation. :
easurements (taken in the flesh): total length, 185 mm. ; tail,
65 mm. ; hind foot, 21 mm. Ear (measured from the dry skin):
Zoology. 935
height from anterior base, 14 mm. ; from crown, 8 mm. ; breadth,
1 Another specimen, also a female, taken at the same
locality, July 13, 1888, agrees with the foregoing in size and colora-
tion. It measured in the flesh: length, 184 mm.; tail, 61 mm.:
hind foot, 22 mm.
Shh
wolar Tekh of Avvicola l ouygandus ¢
A. Let uygur sonta? B Leit Lower sents.
Dental characters.—A glance at the accompanying drawing of
the crowns of the molar teeth shows that Arvicola longicaudus has
the back upper molar of Myonomes. e middle upper molar,
however, lacks any trace of the postero-internal loop or spur sup-
posed to be characteristic of this subgenus, and the lower teeth
present several peculiarities not mentioned in any description or
drawing heretofore published.—Dr. C. Hart Merriam
ZOOLOGICAL News.—GENERAL.—The zoological papers in the
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society for 1888 are: “A
List of Fishes in the Museum of the University of North Caro-
lina,” by V.S. Bryant; “List of the Butterflies collected at
Chapel Hill, N. G.,” by A. Braswell; “ Aquatic Respiration
in the Muskrat,” by W. L. Spoon; ‘ New Instances of Pro-
tective Resemblance in Spiders,’ and “Notes on the Tube-
inhabiting Spider, Lycosa fatifera,” by G. F. Atkinson.
_ Protozoa.—The genus Gromia is usually regarded as an
inhabitant of moist earth, but Dr. H. Blane describes a species
which he considers as a member of the genus from the ooze
at the bottom of Lake Geneva. His paper, which occurs in the
l Zool. Suisse (Vol. IV.) is illustrated by a plate.
936 General Notes.
ouard Brandt records two instances of Tania cucumerina in the
human body.
Dr. A. C. Stokes describes two new North American Oligochete
worms (The Microscope, viii., 1888), Ælosoma distichum and Pris- —
tina flavifrons, and Gustav Eisen characterizes a new genus of the
same group (Mem. Cal. Acad., ii., 1888) under the name Sutroa
rostrata.
Criodrilus lacuum is made the subject of an extensive anatomical
monograph by A. Collier in the Zeitsch Wiss. Zoologie, Bd. xlvi.,
1888.
MorLuscs.—The crystalline style is a peculiar structure found
in a pocket developed from the stomach of certain lamellibranch
molluscs. Many theories have been advanced as to its nature and
physiological functions. Möbius maintained that it was a reserve
food supply, and recently (Biol. Centralblatt, 1888) Haseloff has
experimented on Mytilus edulis, in which the structure is almost
constantly present. He starved some individuals for a few days,
and found that the style had disappeared. Others of the same
starved lot were afterward fed with abundant food, and on examina-
tion were found to possess the style. Haseloff regards the style as
a chemical modification of surplus food rather than a secretion.
MaLacopopa—Peripatus comes in for several papers recently.
Adam Sedgwick concludes his account of the development of the
Cape species of the genusinthe Quarterly Journal of Microscopical
Science, Vol. XXVIII., part 3, and in part 4 of the same volume mo-
nographs the thirteen or fourteen known species of the genus.
W. L. Sclater describes the early development of a South American
species of the genus in part 3, and Miss Lilian Sheldon describes
points in the anatomy of P. capensis and P. nove-zelandie in part
4 of the same volume. In Vol. XII. of the Zoologist, S. A. Olliff
has notes on Periaptus in New South Wales, and F. Jeffrey Bell
calls attention to the fact that years ago Schmarda described a
species of the genus (P. quitensis) from South America.
CrusTAcEA.—Bouvier treats of the circulatory apparatus of the
Decapod crabs in the Bulletin de la Societé Philomathique de Pars,
Vol. XII. His observations were made on the genera Maia,
Stenorhynclus, Pagurus, Astacus, Palinurus, Portunus, ete. :
Hoek describes a new parasitic Cirripede (Sylon challengeri) 1n
Spencer Bates’ report on the Macrura of the Challenger.
OEPHALOCHORDA.—Dr. E. Rhode (Zool. Anzeiger, XI.) describes
the histology of the nervous system of Amphioxus. He finds it t
resemble closely that of the Chætopod Sthenelais, in the presence °
Entomology. 937
colossal nerve fibres given off from regularly arranged giant gang-
lion cells. In both the supporting tissue is of ectodermal origin.
FisHeEs.— Messrs. Jenkins and Everman discovered a new species
of the genus Chologaster this summer in the outlet to Lake Drum-
mond, in the dismal swamp of Virginia. The discovery is espe-
cially interesting, as the genus is presumably the representative of
the ancestors of the blind-fishes, Amblyopsis and Typhlichthys.
Only their species of the genus — C. cornutus, C. papilliferus
and C. qgassizii were known before, and these were represented
by but few specimens. Jenkins and Evermann were fortu-
nate in obtaining a considerable amount of material of the new
species,
Mammats.—Dr. Frederick Tuckerman describes the histological
structure of the taste-organs of the bat, Vespertilio subulatus, in Vol.
II. of the Journal of Morphology.
Some years ago the greenish color of certain of the sloths was
attributed to the presence of an alge upon the hair. Recently
adam Weber von Bosse has described two genera and three
species of these parasitic alge. The new genus Trichophilus is
green, the other, Cyanoderma, with its two species is violet. From
oo to 200,000 individuals of these algee may occur on a single
air,
ENTOMOLOGY.
ScuppEr’s BUTTERFLIES oF New Encianp.’2—Thelong-looked-
for work by Mr. Scudder, on the butterflies of New England, is
about to appear. We are in receipt of a prospectus which includes
sample pages and plates. Judging from this the work will su
in fulness of detail and magnificence of illustration anything of the
kind yet published ; and the scope of the work is an unusually
broad one, including accounts of the structure of these insects in all
stages of life, their variation, habits, manners, life-history, and
their enemies ; also frequent discussions of problems suggested by
their study.
1 This department is edited by Professor J. H. Comstock, Cornell
University, Ithaca, N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice,
ete., should be sent. :
The butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada with
Special reference to New England, by Samuel Hubbard Scudder, Cam-
bridge ; ible ee ig by the author, 1888. Twelve monthly parts, $5.00 per
or $50.00 for the whole work if paid for before Jan. 1, 1889.
2%.
938 General Notes.
This work was at first intended to embrace only the butterflies
known to occur in New England or its immediate confines ; but it has
been extended so as to include in its descriptions and histories some
account of all the butterflies of North America, east of the Missis-
sippi, excepting such as are found only in the uasettled parts of
anada, or south of Kentucky and Virginia.
Not only every species, but also every genus, tribe, sub-family,
and family, are described and discussed with a fulness never before
attempted, except in individual cases. The descriptions include in
each instance not merely the perfect form, but when possible, the
eggs, the caterpillar at birth and in the succeeding stages, and
the chrysalis, together with the distribution, life-history, habits, and
environments of the insects. A great accumulation of new facts and
observations are embodied. Analytical tables applicable to every
stage are used wherever possible.
Over seventy distinct execursuses, distributed throughout the
work, discuss separately all the interesting problems which arise in
the study of butterflies (whether of distribution, structure, history,
or relation to the outer world), in themselves forming a complete
treatise on the life of these insects. Judging by the fragment of
the excursus devoted to dimorphism and polymorphism which is
given in the prospectus, this part of the work will be of the highest
interest to those who study entomology in a scholarly way, whatever
their specialty.
very page of this treatise bears evidence of the wonderful
amount of pains-taking labor devoted to its preparation. For
twenty years the author has been at work upon it ; and for the last
eight years it has received his undivided attention. No one else
has brought to the study of this group of insects more scholarly
attainments, nor has achieved such magnificient results. We trust
that the work will receive the recognition that it deserves.
VISION OF CATERPILLARS AND ADULT Insgcrs.—Prof. F.
Plateau continues his researches on the powers of vision by an m-
vestigation of caterpillars and of the frontal ocelli of adult insects.
1) He made a series of experiments and observations on iL
caterpillars of fifteen species of Lepidoptera, and obtained the pe
lowing results: (a) The eyes of caterpillars have a more importan
rôle than that of simply distinguishing between light and darkness.
They really see, though badly. (b) The distance of distinct visio”
is short, and usually about a centimetre. (c) At greater distances
caterpillars can perceive large masses, but do not discern mre
nature. (d) They only perceive the movements of bodies ee
the limits of distinct vision. (e) Tactile hairs present on :
anterior segments of many forms are of much sensory importance.
‘ Bull. Acad, R. Sci. Belg. xv. (1888), pp. 28-91.
Entomology. 939
(f£) The antenne are much used in testing the path and surround-
ing objects. |
(2) In the next chapter Prof. Plateau discusses the function of
the frontal ocelli of adult insects. He gives an historical summary
of past researches, describes the manifold conditions of his own
observations and experiments, submits tabulated results of his
investigations of different forms, and formulates the following con-
clusions: (a) Diurnal winged insects, Hymenoptera, Diptera and
Lepidoptera, when blinded by covering the entire eyes with black
or by cutting all of the optic nerves, rise to a great height in the
air when liberated. (b) When the compound eyes are suppressed,
but the frontal ocelli left, in Hymenoptera, Odonata, and Diptera,
the insects behave exactly as if the ocelli also had been suppressed.
When freed, they rise vertically as before. In a chamber lighted
from one side they behave as if they were totally blind. (c) But
if the frontal ocelli be alone suppressed, the above insects hehave as
if they had lost nothing. (d) In diurnal insects equipped with
compound eyes the ocelli count for almost nothing. They only
afford the animals very feeble perceptions which they do not know
how to. use.
The author concludes his memoir with the following suggestions,
which he describes as “ plausible hypotheses,” supported by a cer-
tain number of observed facts: (1) Diurnal insects, in which all
of the eyes have been suppressed, still enjoy dermotoptic perceptions.
(2) They are almost reduced to the same limitations if the ocelli
are left at their disposal. (3) The dermotoptic perceptions are the
primary cause of the ascending flight of liberated blinded insects.
(4) The frontal ocelli serve neither for the perception of movements
in adjacent objects, nor for the perception of light in relative obscure
media. (5) The simple eyes, which the author has shown to func-
tion in an imperfect fashion in most Myriapods, in many Arachnids,
and caterpillars, have entirely lost their utility in the great majority
of insects equipped with compound eyes. (Jour. Roy. Mier. Soc.,
June, 1888.)
Lire or TOWNEND Guover.—A biographical sketch and an
account of the writings of the late Towend Glover, the first United
States Entomologist, written by Mr. Charles R. Dodge, has just
been published by the Department of Agriculture at Washington.?
Mr. Dodge was for a long time the assistant of Mr. Glover, and
was one of his most intimate friends during the wis, "aes of his
life. He is, therefore, well fitted to ney Pas this office and has
done it in a very satisfactory manner. The work is illustrated by a
portrait of Mr. Glover, copies of two of his earlier plates, and by
several of his humorous caricatures. Numerous anecdotes are given
1 U. S. Dep. of Agri., Div. of Ent., Bull. No. 18.
940 General Notes.
illustrating the peculiarities and eccentricities of this remarkable
man. Following the biographical sketch is a chapter giving the
history of Glover’s great work entiiled Illustrations of North
American Entomology. There is also a short chapter on the Glover
Museum, and a list of Mr. Glover’s entomological writings ; this
includes sixty-four titles.
MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN SPIDERS.—We have re-
ceived during the past month two monographs of North American
Spiders. The larger of the two is of the family attidæ and is by
George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham. It is reprinted from the
Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Art and Letters,
Vol. VII. It comprises 104 pages and is illustrated by six plates.
An analytical key to the genera is given, and the specific descrip-
tions are evidently very carefully prepared.
The smaller monograph is of the family Ciniflonide and is by
J. H. Emerton. It is reprinted from the Transactions of the Con-
necticut Academy, Vol. VII. It comprises sixteen pages and is illus-
trated by three beautiful plates.
Tue Ber-Keerers’ GUIDE.—A new edition of this excellent
manual of the apiary by Prof. A. J. Cook has just appeared.
The work has been wholly re-written and revised, 150 pages and
more than thirty illustrations being added. The greatest additions are
in the chapters pertaining to the natural history of the honey-bee.
We are glad to note also an improvement in the paper and press
work. This is undoubtedly our best manual on the subject and it
should be in the hands of every American bee-keeper.
Supplement of June 2, 1888, an important paper by Prof.
Riley on the scientific relations of Platypsyllus as determined by the
larva. The paper is based upon the study of larve collec
Prof. Riley by Mr. Lawrence Brunner in Nebraska. Three
figures of the larvee are given, and one of the adult. The conclu-
sion drawn by the author is that this insect pertains to the order
Coleoptera.
BIBLIOGRAPHY or Norta AMERICAN Insecrs.—Bulletin =
19, of the Division of Entomology of the United States of RG
of Agriculture, is entitled An Enumeration of the publish
Synopses, Catalogues, and Lists of North American Insects. pe
is : very useful pamphlet, the scope of which is indicated by the
title
Embryology. 941
EMBRYOLOGY.
ON THE PRIMARY SEGMENTATION OF THE GERM-BANDS OF
Ixsrcts.?—Prof. Veit Graber summarizes his important results on
the embryology of insects as follows :—
1. The germ-band of insects is at first either discoidal (Steno-
bothrus, Œcanthus), or is oblong (Hydrophilus, Lina, ete.). The
primitive discoidal germinal area corresponds principally to the
(Urkopf) antennal segment, since the (Urrumpf) primitive body
as at first very limited dimensions.
n most insects with an elongate germ-band, the primitive
head-segment is also the first to be separated. An exception to this
is found in Lina—if Hydrophilus is not taken into account—in
which two transverse furrows appear simultaneously, forming three
principal segments, which appear to correspond to the principal
subdivisions of the insect body (head, thorax and abdomen).
3. The primitive body (Urrumpf) of the germ-bands of Steno-
bothrus and Cicanthus does not segment, as it has been assumed in
the case in all insects hitherto, but before the permanent segments
(metameres or microsomites) are established, the latter definitive
segmentation is preceded by a subdivision into two and then three
large segments (macrosomites). `
_ 4. Of these three primary segments (macrosomites) of the primi-
tive body, the first corresponds to the sum of the jaw-bearing (gna-
thophorous) metameres—gnathal macrosomites—the second, the sam
of the limb-bearing metameres—thoracic macrosomites—and finally
the third to the abdomen—abdominal macrosomites. i
In the process of the primary or macrosomitic segmentation
of the primitive body there is no external segmentation, that is
transverse subdivision of the ectodermal plate, but a total segmen-
tation of the inner (lower) layer, the hypo- (or ento-) blast. ao
6. The secondary or microsomitic segmentation of the primitve
body (segmentation of the microsomites into metameres) does not
proceed in Stenobothrus and Lina (and also in spiders according to
Morin), as is generally assumed, from before backwards, but it first
involves the middle or thoracic (Ursegment) macrosomite.
e may finally inquire as to the morphological significance of
the primary subdivision into four or tetramerism of the germ-
bands of Stenobothrus and Œcanthus.
! Edited by Prof. John A. Ryder, Univ. of Penna., Philadelphia.
* Uber die rimäre Segmentirung des Keimstreifs der Insekten.
aapa. Jahrb xiv. Hft i 1888. Pp. 345-368, pls. xiv.-xv. Von V.
T,
942 General Notes.
Since the two last primary segments (Ursegmente), namely, the
thoracic and abdominal, correspond to the two sections of the body
of the perfect insect, we may regard the primary segmentation as
an anticipation of the later or tertiary segmentation. Against such
a view two important facts are opposed. First, it is not to be for-
gotten that the primary segmentation does not conform to the tre-
tiary, in that the head in the former does not constitute a primitive
segment, but is divided into two sharply distinguished and hetero-
geneous sectious, the primitive head segment (Urkopf ) and the gna-
thophorous macrosomite.
Secondly, against the hypothesis alluded to, the whole progress of
segmentation is opposed. If the macrosomites of the primitive
body were to persist, as such, together with their later subdivisions
(microsomites), as stem-unities of a higher order, the above view
would be to some extent justified. The relation is, however, alto-
gether a different one, in that between the few and unequally seg-
mented stage on the one hand, and the similarly segmented end-
stage on the other, a many and unequally segmented middle stage
is intercalated, which bears scarcely a recognizable trace of the ear-
lier segmentation, and out of which the trimerism of the end-stage
is developed anew by the fusion of certain groups of metameres.
the tetramerism of the segmented primary stage may not be
readily explained by the not very sharply expressed trimerism of
the end-stage, its cause must, without doubt, be sought in certain
definite conditions of segmentation of the ancestors of insects.
But, as I would eSpecially point out, may the tetramerous germ-
band stage here under consideration be compared with other adult
similarly segmented arthropods without taking other matters into
account, since, independently of the fact that our germ-band is not
an independent (completed) living organism, there is wanting all
support toa legitimate comparison of its macrosomites with other
arthropods with few segments, such as the Nauplius, for example.
ARCH ZOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.’
(Continued from page 856.)
Dr. Brinton presented a human vertebra from Tampa’ Bay,
Florida, found in the bog deposits of the quarternary geologic
period. Its peculiarity was that the bony structure had p
and been replaced by a deposit of iron called limonite, so that it was
an iron instead of a bone vertebra.
' This department is edited by Thomas Wilson, Esq., Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D. C.
Archeology and Anthropology. 943
Mr. Wilson said that the National Museum possessed the lower
half of a human skull from the same neighborhood which had been
treated in the same way. It was found associated more or less
intimately with fragments of fossilized bones and teeth of the
mastodon.
Prof. E. S. Morse, of Salem, Mass., read a paper, which he
illustrated to the audience with a bow and arrow; showing a new
system, the third in his series, of “ Arrow Release.”
Rev. W. M. Beauchamp displayed some Indian relics from
central New York.
Prof. Joseph Jastrow, of the University of Wisconsin, read a most
interesting paper on the “ Psychology of Deceptions.” He de-
scribed deceptions practised upon the senses and said the founda-
tion of legerdemain was to distract the attention by an unimportant
operation from the critical moment wherein the vital change is
made. He entered the domain of spiritualism but dealt with arà
that portion which was an evident deception, and had been exposed.
The first general principle in these deceptions is that the medium
performs to spectators in doubt as to the interpretation to be placed
upon the scene which they witness, and are more or less ready to
ascribe it to the supernatural. This mental attitude of the specta-
tors is worth more to the medium than any factor in the perform-
ance. The difference between a spectator in this state of mind
and one convinced of the fraudulent character of the manifestations
and seeking to discover how the fraud is committed is very grea t.-
When the medium recognizes this condition of mind in the spec-
tator the sitting will always bea blank. If the investigator is once
convinced that he has evidence of the supernatural he soon sees it
in every accident and incident of the performance; not only does
he overlook natural physical explanations but the supernatural idea
soon leads him to create marvels with sincerity. Thus, the believer,
seeing a carelessly arranged drapery by a dim light thinks he recog-
nizes in it the spirit of a dear friend or a well-known acquaintance.
he same object is frequently recognized by different members o
the circle as entirely different and wholly dissimilar persons. Little
by little, through the neglect of observation, caution is abandoned,
credulity takes possession of the spectator, and he is able to see
Impossibilities. Finally a fantastic explanation is considered more
probable, the bounds of the normal are passed, and the believer
having eyes sees not, and ears hears not, even the realities which
happen before his face. If this seems impossible, turn back to the
history of witchcraft.
In the afternoon the section met to hear Prof. Otis T. Mason, of
the National Museum, Washington, D. C., deliver his lecture on
Women’s Share in Primitive Industry.” It was illustrated by
Photographs projected upon the screen by the lantern, of woman in
944 General Notes.
her different spheres of industry through savagery, barbarism, civili-
zation, and into the heavens where she is deified and appears as a
god
evening.
Prof T. E. Mendenhall, of Terre Haute, Ind., was chosen Presi-
dent for the next meeting, which is to be held in 1889 at Toronto,
anada.
The Vice-President chosen for section H was Col. Garrick Mal-
lery, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, and for Secretary,
Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, of Baldwinsville, New York.
The committee appointed at last general meeting to secure from
Congress the abolition of the customs duties on scientific books an
apparatus, made a lengthy report in favor thereof.
The committee on the preservation of archæologic monuments on
public lands reported in favor of the following as proper subjects
for preservation: Chaco cañon from the forks of Escavoda cañon
for a distance of eight miles up, also one mile back from the brink
of the cañon walls on each side so as to include many interesting
staff, A. T. Besides these groups of ruins and dwellings there are
isolated remains in the territories of New Mexico, Arizona and
After the usual resolutions and speeches of thanks and ri
edgements to the local committee and to the citizens of Cleveland,
the meeting adjourned sine die.
Microscopy. 945
MICROSCOPY.:
Mrnor’s AUTOMATIC MICROTOME.—The principle of this Micro-
tome is to obtain sections by moving the object to be cut in a ver-
tical plane past the knife which is held in a fixed position. The
knife is clamped by two screws in jaws at the top of two upright
pillars to be seen in the figure. The object to be cut is imbedd
in paraffine and stuck on to a circular brass plate which faces the
knife, when the plate is in position. This plate has the motion in
three directions, and may be revolved around its own centre, so that
the position of the object may be adjusted as desired. The well-
known construction, used on the Schanze Machines, has been
adopted to secure the necessary play of movement for the plate,
carrying the paraffine. This construction was selected on account
of its simplicity and convenience, and the great firmness with which
the plate may be clamped. The object holder rests on a horizontal
plate which may be fed towards the knife by a micrometer screw,
the head of which is a toothed wheel. Hach tooth equals ybg mm.
forward movement. The whole of this complete object-carrier is
fastened to an upright slide. The slide is worked up and down by
a crank, as seen in the cut, and the crank is moved by turning a
heavy iron wheel.
1 Edited by C. O. Whitman, Director of the Lake Laboratory, Mil-
Waukee, Wis.
946 General Notes.
When the wheel is revolved, the crank is turned, and the upright
slide rises and falls in a vertical plane, and of course the object-
carrier, with its micrometer screw, rises and falls with it. As the
carrier rises a lever connected with a pawl strikes against a screw
on a separate pillar ; the pawl catches in the toothed wheel-head of
the micrometer screw and so turns it, and moves the paraffine towards
the knife. As the carrier descends a section is cut off, when it is
near the top of its upward excursion, the micrometer screw is turned
by the pawl, and the next descent produces another section. By
simply turning the screw against which the pawl lever strikes, the
number of teeth caught by the pawl, and therefore the thickness of
the sections may be varied from 1-300 to 1.33 of a millimeter.
This microtome has been devised to avoid the obvious inconve-
niences attaching to the rocking and other automatic microtomes.
Since the first lot of these microtomes were placed in the market,
some important improvements have been made, among which may
be mentioned the strengthening of the upright slide in which the
carrier moves. This improvement secures regularity and precision
in the movement of the object, and renders the microtome one 0
the best for paraffine-cutting now in the market. This microtome,
with one knife in case, is supplied by the Educational Supply Com-
pany, 6 Hamilton Place, Boston.
Tuer Eyss or Scorpions.!—In the median eyes, by careful dis-
section, the soft part may be separated from the lens and cuticula,
and cut without the interference of these hard structures. The
tG. H. Parker, “The Eyes in Scorpions.” Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool.,
vol. xiii., No. 6, pp. 174-177. Dec., 1587.
Microscopy. 947
equal measure of alcohol, never the reverse, and the mixture should
be kept cool, otherwise the acid may attack the alcohol. In such
an event the solution is rendered worthless, and, should the speci-
mens be in it at the time, the heat generated by the reaction gives
the acid such additional dissolving power that the sections are at
once destroyed. A more efficient acid reagent is a mixture of equal
parts hydrochloric and nitric acids. A 35 per cent. solution of this
mixture in strong alcohol gives better results than the pure nitric
acid at 50 per cent., and does not so readily attack the alcohol.
Of the alkalis, weak ammonia, sodic hydrate, and potassic hydrate
are most serviceable. The solids are to be preferred to the ammonia,
since from them solutions of a definite strength can more easily be
made. An aqueous solution of $ or } per cent. potassic hydrate
has given the most satisfactory results.
The method of using the depigmenting fluid is as follows.
Unstained material is cut in paraffine; the ribbons are mounted on
a slide with Schallibaum’s fixative ; when the sections are fixed, the
araffine is removed with turpentine; the slide with the sections is
then successively washed with alcohol of 98 per cent., 90 per cent.,
70 per cent., and so on, till a grade homogeneous with the depig-
menting fluid is reached. Into a shallow white dish filled with the
depigmenting fluid the slide is now gently lowered. Ina few seconds
the pigment, dissolving, will be seen as a reddish cloud. ‘The process
1s usually completed in less than a minute, and the slide is promptly
transferred to a dish of clean water or alcohol and there gently
rinsed, The sections are next stained by exposure to the dye ina
shallow dish. After being sufficiently stained, they may be washed
and mounted in glycerine, or, after the proper steps in dehydrating
-e : clarifying, mounted in benzol-balsam or other mounting
ium.
The dyes which have been found the most serviceable are some
of the carmines and hematoxylin. The aniline dyes have almost
invariably given poor results. For general purposes Grenacher’s
alcoholic borax-carmine is excellent. In both embryonic and adult
material Czoker’s alum-cochineal gave fine nuclear outlines. In
=~ the adult eyes, the rhabdomes and the cell boundaries were most
distinctly shown by Kleinenberg’s hematoxylin. A’ very faint col-
a oration with this dye gave the best results for nerve-fibres.
et For the isolation of the retinal elements two maceration fluids
__Were used. A weak solution of chromic acid, as employed by Pat-
retina, after the removal of the lens and surrounding tissue, was placed
oy this treatment,
948 General Notes.
which slightly hardened the tissues, the first solution was replaced
by a second of =! per cent. In this the retina remained for three or
water, rinsed, and transferred to Grenacher’s alcoholic borax-car-
mine. This reagent performs both the office of a maceration fluid
andadye. In from twelve to twenty-four hours the retinal cells
can be isolated, and present in different regions of the retina three
principal conditions. First, those from the exterior of the retina
are seriously altered by the continued action of the potash ; second,
ose from the centre of the retina remain almost unchanged, still
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 949
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—The President has directed Maj. George M. Sternburg, Sur-
geon U.S. A., to proceed to Decatur, Ala., and to such other points
as he may deem necessary to continue his scientific investigations of
the yellow fever.
—Among the works announced for immediate publication are:
“Essays,” by Prof. Huxley; “Wild Beasts and their Ways,”
by Sir Samuel Baker; “On Truth—a Fundamental Inquiry
touching upon Various Popular and Scientific Beliefs,” by Prof.
St. George Mivart ; “Mental Evolution in Man,” by Dr. George
J. Romanes; “Nature and Man,” by the late W. B. Carpenter;
“A Personal Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition,” by Rev.
W..F. Ainsworth.
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
BIOLOGICAL Socrery or WASHINGTON.— October 20th.—The
following communications were read; Mr. L. O. Howard, “An
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS oF GEOLOGISTS.—This body met in
London on Monday, September 17th, and closed its sessions Satur-
day, September 22d. After its close, five excursions occupied
several days,
š September 17th, Monday evening.—Address by Professor Prest-
_ Wich, followed by reception by Professor and Mrs, Prestwich.
September 18th, Tuesday morning.—Regular opening. Reports
_ of Committee upon Nomenclature. Discussion of Nomenclature
_ of Cambrian and Silurian systems especially, and as to the value
_ of the proposed Orthrocene. (See Prestwich’s Address, page 9.)
, September 19th, Wednesday morning.—Discussion of Crystal-
line Schists, Afternoon, reception by Professor Flower in Natural
‘story Museum. Evening, reception by Director Geikie in
Pelion l of Mines, Jermyn Street.
September Thursday.—Discussion of the Nomenclature o1
950 General Notes.
the Geological Map of Europe. In the afternoon, excursions tu
indsor and to Eton, by invitation of the Professors of Eton
College; to Kew, and to Erith, Crayford, ete.
September 21st, Friday.—In the afternoon, reception at the
rooms of the Geological Society, Burlington House, by the Presi-
ent, Dr. W. T. Blanford.
The results of the congress are thus summed up by the President,
Professor Prestwich :—
e said: We approach the end of the congress, and we can now
congratulate ourselves upon the results obtained. The first sitting
was devoted to the discussion on the divisions of the Cambrian and
Silurian systems, and although no vote has been taken, the opinions
expressed have demonstrated that all are in accord for retaining the
three groups or zones of Barrande and Murchison. But the neces-
sity is not seen of making, as some members proposed, the interme-
diate zone a separate system. Thus the status quo of the Upper
and Lower Silurian for the beds as far as the Tremadoe, and of the
Cambrian for the group below, will not be affected. Two sittings
have been devoted to the discussion on the origin of the crystalline
schists by hydrothermal chemical action or by movements, for each o
which causes powerful arguments have been advanced. The congress
had received and printed in advance memoirs by eminent geologists,
which will be valuable documents in the solution of this important
problem. Another sitting took cognizance of the connection
between the Tertiary and the Quaternary, the result of which 1s
that, although opinions are divided, the majority of members
approve of retaining the term Quaternary. Although in these
cases votes had not been taken, the discussions had a great interest
in the demonstration of the ideas which predominated among the
most distinguished geologists. According to the resolutions adopted
by the Committee on Voting, it will be easier in the future sessions
to arrive at more positive conclusions. The reports which the
Committee of Nomenclature has received from the national wpa
mittees, and which are printed, are of great importance, and wil
serve as bases for a more settled classification. It is to be regretted
also that the great paleontological work of all the known fossils =
about to be abandoned for the present, by reason of the grea
expenses which it involves. One of the most inrportant objects of the
congress has been brought to a conclusion—the unification of colors
and shadings in maps, and the Committee on the Geological er i
of Europe announce to us that the publication of this fine map wW!
not be delayed. ee
Some six hundred members were registered, of whom one hundr
and forty-two were from countries other than- Great Britain. The
Americans present were Messrs. Dall, Fraser, Gilbert, Marsh,
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 951
Newberry, Osborn, Walcott, Williams, of Cornell, and Williams,
of Johns Hopkins.
Invitations to hold the next meeting were received from Phila-
delphia, New York, and Washington. Philadelphia was chosen.
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL Socrery.—January 20, 1888.—
Prof. Cope presented for publication the following papers:
(1) “Synopsis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco
Epoch of North America.”
‘3 “ Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition.”
(3) “The Shoulder-girdle and Limbs of Eryops.”
February 3.—Dr. Horn exhibited seven species of Pleocoma from
California, of which three were new, and supported the views of
the late Dr. Le Conte of the position of this genus, which he in-
sisted was a Laparostict, and not a Pleurostict Lamellicorn.
ebruary 17.—Prof. Cope presented for publication papers upon
“The Dicotylinæ of the John Day Miocene of North America,”
ae upon “The Mechanical Origin of the Dentition of the Ambly-
a 2
March 2.—Prof. T. B. Stowell presented papers on “ The Hypo-
lossal, Accessory and Glosso-pharyngeal Nerves of the Domestic
Cat ;” and Mr. F. Jordan an article on “The Aboriginal Pottery
of the Middle Atlantic States.”
March 16—Dr. Frazer made a communication respecting the
geology of the eastern part of Cuba, reporting the probable occur-
rence of a large part of the Archean rocks which lie between the
Lower Laurentian and the Palæozoic. Miss H. C. de S. Abbott
made some remarks upon the occurrence of a “Series of New
Crystalline Compounds in Higher Plants.”
Mr. H. Phillips, Jr., presented a first contribution to the “ Folk-
lore of Philadelphia and its Vicinity ;” and Dr. O. Meyer a paper
on “The Miocene Invertebrates from Virginia.” Mr. Phillips
also reported on the “ Langue Internationale” of Dr. Samenhof, of
April 6.—Mr. Law presented a paper on “Gildas and Early
English History,” and Prof. E. J. Houston made an oral commu-
nication upon “ Death by the Electric Current,” in which he held
that the fatality largely depended upon the part of the body brought
in contact with the wires. Prof. Houston also reported favorably
upon the Paillard Palladium alloys in watches as a preservative
against the effects of magnetism.
April 20.—Prof. Houston presented a paper upon “ Some Possi-
ble Methods for the Preparation of Gramophone and Telephone
ecords.” Mr. Phillips exhibited a specimen of Physa found from
the pipes of the drinking supply, and this was followed by a dis-
cussion of the water-supply of cities.
May 4.—The Magellanic medal was presented to Prof. L. M.
952 General Notes.
Haupt for his paper upon “ The Physical Phenomena of Harbor
Entrances.”
The following papers were presented : “ On the Classification and
Nomenclature of the Metalline Minerals,” by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt;
“On the Ear-bones of the Permian Batrachia,” by Prof. E. D.
Cope; and on “Two New Species of Ophidia from Mexico,” by
Dr. A. Dugés.
September 7.—The following papers were presented :
“Tbrahim Nukim, ein Guslarenlied der Herzegovina,” by Dr. E.
S. Krauss (Vienna); “ Action of the Gas from As,O and HNO upon
m-Oxybenzoic Acid,” by Prof. E. A. Smith; on the “ Cretaceous
and Tertiary of the Sergipe Alagias Basin of Brazil,” by Prof. J.
C. Branner.
September 21.—Dr. H. A. Hare presented for the Transactions
a paper on the “ Diseases of the Mediastinum.”
October 5.—Dr. D. G. Brinton read a paper on the “ Language
of Paleolithic Man.”
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. NOVEMBER, 1888. No. 268,
CRETACEOUS FLORAS OF THE NORTHWEST
TERRITORIES OF CANADA.
BY WILLIAM DAWSON.:
GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE FLORAS.
N my memoir in the First volume of the Transactions of this
Society, I have given a table of the formations prepared by Dr.
G. M. Dawson, and have fully stated the geological position of the
plants at that time described. The new facts above detailed now
require us to intercalate in our table three distinct plant horizons
not previously recognized in the western territories of Canada.
One of these, the Kootanie series, should probably be placed at the
base of the table as a representative of the Urgonian or Neocomian,
or, at the very least, should be held as not newer than the Shasta
group of the United States Geologists, and the Lower Sandstones
and Shales of the Queen Charlotte Islands. It would seem to cor-
respond in the character of its fossil plants with the oldest Creta-
ceous floras recognized in Europe and Asia, and with that of the
Komé formation in Greenland, as described by Heer. No similar
flora seems yet to have been distinctly recognized in the United
States, except, perhaps, that of the beds in Maryland, holding
cycads, and which were referred many years ago by Tyson to the
Wealden.
! This paper states the general conclusions of a memoir, by Sir William
Dawson, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, which
will appear with descriptions and illustrations of the new species in the
Course of next winter.
954 Cretaceous Floras of Canada.
The second of these plant horizons, separated according to Dr.
G. M. Dawson, by a considerable thickness of strata, is that which
he has called the Mill Creek series, and which corresponds very
closely with that of the Dakota group, as described by Lesquereux,
and that of the Atané and Patoot formations in Greenland, as
described by Heer. This fills a gap indicated only conjecturally
in the section of 1883. Along with the plants from the Dunvegan
group of Peace River, described in 1883, it would seem to represent
the flora of the Cenomanian and Senonian divisions of the Creta-
ceous in Europe.
Above this we have also to intercalate a third sub-flora, that of
the Belly River series at the base of the Fort Pierre group. This,
though separated from the Laramie proper by the marine beds of
the Pierre and Fox Hill groups, more than 1,700 feet in thickness,
introduced the Laramie or Danian flora, which continues to the top
of the Cretaceous, and probably into the Eocene, and includes
several species still surviving on the American continent, or repre-
sented by forms so close that they may be varietal merely.
Lastly : the subdivision of the Laramie group, in the last report
of Dr. G. M. Dawson, into the three members known respectively
as the Lower or St. Mary River series, the Middle or Willow Creek
series, and the Upper or Porcupine Hill series, in connection with
the fact that the fossil plants occur chiefly in the lower and upper
members, enables us now to divide the Laramie flora proper into
two sub-floras, an older, closely allied to the underlying Belly River
series ; and a newer, identical with that of Souris River, described
as Laramie in Dr. G. M. Dawson’s Report on the 48th Parallel,
1876, and in the Report of the Geological Survey of Canada for
1879, and which appears to agree with that known in the United
States as the Fort Union group, and with the so-called Miocene of
Heer from Greenland.
From the animal fossils and the character of the flora, it would
seem probable that the rich flora of the Cretaceous coal fields of
Vancouver Island is nearly synchronous with that of the coal-
bearing Belly River series of the western plains.
It will thus be seen that the explorations already made in Cana-
dian territory have revealed a very complete series of Cretaceous
plants, admitting, no doubt, of large additions to the number of
species by future discoveries, and also of the establishment of con-
Cretaceous Floras of Canada. 955
necting links between the different members, but giving a satisfac-
tory basis for the knowledge of the succession of plants and for the
determination of the ages of formations by their vegetable fossils.
The successive series may be tabulated as follows, with references
for details to the fuller table in my memoir of 1883:—
SUCCESSIVE FLORAS AND SUB-FLORAS OF THE CRETACEOUS IN
CANADA,
(IN DESCENDING ORDER.)
PERIODS. FLORAS AND SUB-FLORAS. REFERENCES.
Upper Laramie and Por- Platanus beds of Souris River and Cal-
: ary. Report Geol. Survey of Can-
cupine Hill Series........... { cae for 1879, and present memoir,
Danten:.. Middle Laramie or Wil-
low Creek Series,
Lemna and Pistia beds of bad lands of
Lower Laramie or St, Ma. 49th Parallel, Red Deer River, etc.
L| ry River Series... eg gane ee 49th Parallel
an s memoir,
f Fox Hill Series Marine.
Fort Pierre Series.............. Marine.
and Br ia beds of S. Sas-
enem a Helly Hiver Series. (See gyen Belly River, ete., with
4 Lignites. This memoir.
Coal „Measures of Nanai-| f{ Memoir of 1883. Many Dicotyledons,
L| mo, B.C., probably here.. Palms, ete.
Dunvegan Series of Peace 1 reat of 1888, Many Dicotyledons,
Obhonianian River, (See note)... Cycads, ete,
: leaves, similar to
Mill Creek Series of Rocky | { Disoty ledomous
- MUN tA seeiis Kapir Group of the U. S. This
Suskwa River and Queen
Charlotte Island marion, aes Sree Pines, a few Dicotyledons.
Neocomian & Intermediate Series of Report Geol. Survey. This memoir.
Urgonian..... Rocky Mountains...........
Kootanie Series of Rocky lE Aenere Pines and Ferns. This
Li MOURtKIAED CU memoir.
A E ot Aas SR Sg TG ety
Norr.—Though the flora of the Belly River Series very closely resem-
bles that of the Lower Laramie, showing that similar plants existed
e
strata, as is now believed on stratigraphical grounds, the flora must have
been remarkably persistent. The Dunvegan series of Peace River prob-
ably corresponds in time with the M Niobrara G farther South
v
956 Cretaceous Floras of Canada.
In connection with the above table it should be understood that
Tertiary floras, probably Miocene in age, are known in the interior
of British Columbia, though they have not yet been recognized in
the territories east of the Rocky Mountains. |
Before leaving this part of the subject I would deprecate the
remark which I see occasionally made, that fossil plants are of little
value in determining geological horizons in the Cretaceous and
Tertiary. I admit in these periods some allowance must be made
for local differences of station, and also that there is a generic same-
ness in the flora of the Northern Hemisphere, from the Cenomanian
to the modern, yet these local differences and general similarity are
not of a nature to invalidate inferences as to age. No doubt palæo-
botanists seem obliged, in deference to authority, and to the results
of investigations limited to a few European localities, to group
together, without distinction, all the floras of the later Cretaceous
and earlier Tertiary, irrespective of stratigraphical considerations,
the subject lost its geological importance. But when a good series
has been obtained in any one region of some extent, the case becomes
different. Though there is still much imperfection in our knowl-
edge of the Cretaceous and Tertiary floras of Canada, I think the
work already done in Canada in connection with that of Lesquereux
and Newberry in the United States, is sufficient to enable any com-
petent observer to distinguish by their fossil plants the Lower,
Middle and Upper Cretaceous, and the latter from the Tertiary-
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND CLIMATE INDICATED BY THE CRE-
TACEOUS FLORAS.
In the Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous periods the prevalence,
over the whole of the Northern Hemisphere and for a long time,
of a monotonous assemblage of gymnospermous and Acrogenous
plants, implies a uniform and mild climate and facility for inter-
communication in the north. Toward the end of the Jurassic and
the beginning of the Cretaceous, the land of the Northern Hemis-
phere was assuming greater dimensions, and the climate probably
becoming a little less uniform. During the close of this period oF
at the beginning of the next, the dicotyledonous flora seems{to have
been introduced, under geographical conditions which permitted @
warm temperate climate to extend as far north as Greenland.
Cretaceous Florus of Canada. 957
In the Cenomanian, we find the Northern Hemisphere tenanted
with dicotyledonous trees closely allied to those of modern times,
though still indicating a climate much warmer than that which at
present prevails. In this age, extensive but gradual submergence
of land is indicated by the prevalence of chalk and marine lime-
stones over the surface of both continents; but a circumpolar belt
of land seems to have been maintained, protecting the Atlantic and
Pacific basins from floating ice, and permitting a temperate flora ot
great richness to prevail far to the north, and especially along the
southern margins and extensions of the circumpolar land. These
seem to have been the physical conditions which terminated the
existence of the old Mesozoic Flora and introduced that of the
Middle Cretaceous.
As time advanced, the quantity of land gradually increased, and
the extension of new plains along the older ridges of land was coinci-
dent with the deposition of the great Laramie series, and with the
origination of its peculiar flora, which indicates a mild climate and
considerable variety of station in mountain, plain and swamp, as
well as in great sheets of shallow and weedy fresh water.
In the Eocene and Miocene periods the continent gradually as-
sumed its present form, and the vegetation became still more
modern in aspect. In that period of the Eocene, however, in
which the great nummulitic limestones were deposited, a submer-
gence of land occurred on the Eastern continent which must have
assimilated the physical conditions to thdse of the Cenomanian.
This great change, affecting materially the flora of Europe, was
not proportionately great in America, which also by the north and
South extension of its mountain chains permitted movements of
migration not possible in the Old World. From the Eocene
downwards, the remains of land animals and plants are found only
In lake basins occupying the existing depressions of the land, though
more extensive than those now existing. It must also be borne
In mind, that the great foldings and fractures of the crust of the
earth which occurred at the close of the Eocene, and to which the
final elevation of such ranges as the Alps and the Rocky Moun-
tains belongs, permanently modified and moulded the forms of the
Continents,
These statements raise, however, questions as to the precise
958 Cretaceous Floras of Canada.
equivalence in time of similar floras found in different latitudes.
However equable the climate, there must have been some appre-
ciable difference in proceeding from north tosouth. If, therefore, as
seems in every way probable, the new species of plants originated
on the Arctic land and spread themselves southward, this latter
process would occur most naturally in times of gradual refrigeration
or of the access of a more extreme climate, than is in times of the
elevation of land in the temperate latitudes, or conversely, of local
depression of land in the Arctic, leading to invasions of northern
ice. Hence the times of the prevalence of particular types of plants
in the far north would precede those of their extension to the south,
and a flora found fossil in Greenland might be supposed to be some-
what older than a similar flora when found farther south. It would
seem, however, that the time required for the extension of a new
flora to its extreme geographical limit, is so small in comparison
with the duration of an entire geological period that practically,
this difference is of little moment, or at least does not amount to
antedating the Arctic flora of a particular type by a whole period,
but only by a fraction of such period,
It does not appear that during the whole of the Cretaceous and
Eocene periods there is any evidence of such refrigeration as seri-
ously to interfere with the flora, but perhaps the times of most
considerable warnith are those of the Dunvegan group in the
Middle Cretaceous and those of the later Laramie and Paleocene.
It would appear, that no cause for the mild temperature of the
Cretaceous needs to be invoked, other than those mutations of land
and water which the geological deposits themselves indicate.
condition for example of the Atlantic basin in which the high land
of Greenland should be reduced in elevation and at the same time
the northern inlets of the Atlantic closed against the invasion of
Arctic ice, would at once restore climatic conditions allowing of ms
growth of a temperate flora in Greenland. Dr. Brown has shown,
and, as I have elsewhere argued, the absence of light in the am
winter is no disadvantage, since, during the winter, the growth 0
deciduous trees is in any case suspended, while the constant con”
tinuance of light in the summer is, on the contrary, a very great
stimulus and advantage.
1 Florula Diseana.
Cretaceous Floras of Canada. 959
It isa remarkable phenomenon in the history of the genera of
plants in the later Mesozoic and Tertiary, that the older genera -
appear at once in a great number of specific types, which become
reduced as well as limited in range down to the modern. This is,
no doubt, connected with the greater differentiation of local condi-
tions in the modern ; but it indicates also a law of rapid multipli-
cation of species in the early life of the genera. The distribution
of the species of Salisburia, Sequoia, Platanus, Sassafras, Lirioden-
dron, Magnolia, and many other genera, affords remarkable proofs
of this.
Gray, Saporta, Heer, Newberry, Lesquereux and Starkie Gard-
ner, have all ably discussed these points ; but the continual increase
of our knowledge of the several floras, and the removal of error as
to the dates of their appearance, must greatly conduce to clearer and
more definite ideas. In particular, the prevailing opinion that the
Miocene was a period of great extension of warmth and of a tem-
perate flora into the Arctic, must be abandoned in favor of the later
Cretaceous and Eocene; and if I mistake not, this will be found to
accord better with the evidence of general geology and of animal
fossils,
960 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON THE
ACTIONS AND HABITS OF ANIMALS, AND
THAT OF THE ACTIONS AND HABITS
OF LIVING BODIES, AS CAUSES
WHICH MODIFY THEIR
ORGANIZATION.
BY J. B. P. A. LAMARCK, !
Pe question here is not one of reasoning, but the examination
of a positive fact, which is more general than is thought, and
to which people have neglected to give the attention which it merits
without doubt because, often, it is very difficult to recognize. This
fact consists in the influence exercised by circumstances on the dif-
ferent living bodies, which find themselves subjected to them. In
fact, the influence of different states of our organism on our char-
acter, our inclinations, our actions, and also our ideas, has been long
remarked ; but it seems to me no one yet has recognized what influ- ,
ence our actions and our habits have upon our organization itself
Now, as these actions and these habits depend entirely upon the
circumstances in which we habitually find ourselves, I will attempt
to point out how great is the influence which circumstances exercise
on the general form, on the condition of parts, and thus upon the
organization of living bodies. It is this very certain fact which is
the question discussed in this chapter.
If we had not had numerous opportunities to recognize clearly
the effect of these influences on certain living bodies which we have
placed in altogether new circumstances, and very different from those
to which they were accustomed, and if we had not seen the effects
and changes which have resulted, exhibiting themselves in many
ways, under our eyes, the important fact in question would always
have remained unknown to us.
The influence of circumstances manifesting itself in bodies pos-
sessing life, is effectual in all time and everywhere; but that which
renders this influence difficult for us to perceive, is that these effects
1 Constituting the Chap. VII., Vol. I., of the Philosophie Zodlogique.
Translated for the American Naturalist by Dr. Eleanor E. Galt, from
the edition of 1809.
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 961
only become sensible or recognizable (especially among animals)
after a long time.
Before showing and examining the proofs of these facts, which
deserve our attention, and which are of great importance to Philo-
sophical Zoology, let us again take up the thread of considerations
which we have already had in hand.
In the preceding chapter we have seen that it is at present an
incontestable fact that in considering the animal scale in an inverse
sense to that of nature, we find that there exists in the bodies which
compose this scale a continual but irregular degradation in the
organization of the animals which compose it; a growing simplifi-
cation of the organization of living bodies, and finally a propor-
tional diminution in the number of faculties of these beings.
This well-known fact throws the greatest light upon the order
which nature has followed in the production of all existing animals ;
but it does not point out to us why the organization of animals in its
growing constitution, from the most imperfect up to the most
perfect, shows only irregular gradation, of which the facies presents
numerous anomalies or digressions, having no appearance of order
in their diversity.
Now, in searching for the reason of this singular irregularity in
the growing constitution of the organization of animals, if we
consider the result of the influence which circumstances, infinitely
diversified in all parts of the globe, exercise on the general form,
the parts, and the organization itself of the animals, all then will
be clearly explained.
It will be, in fact, evident that the state in which we see all
animals, is, on one side, the product of the growing constitution
of the organization which tends to form a regular gradation, and,
on the other side, that it is the influence of a multitude of very
different circumstances which are tending continually to destroy the
regularity in the gradation of the growing constitution of the
organization.
Here it becomes necessary to explain myself as to the meaning
which I attach to these expressions: The eirewmstances influence
orm and organization of animals, that is to say, that in becoming
very different they change in time both their form and their organ-
wation itself, by proportional modifications. Surely, if these
962 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
- expressions were taken literally, an error would be ascribed to me;
for, whatever the circumstances might be, they would not produce
directly any modification whatever in the form and organization
of the animals.
But great changes in circumstances bring among animals great
changes in their. wants, and changes in their wants necessarily
bring parallel modifications into their actions. Now, if the new
wants become constant or very lasting, the animals will adopt new
habits, which are as permanent as the wants which produced them.
This is a fact easy of demonstration, such as requires no explanation
to be appreciated.
It is then evident that a great change in circumstances becom-
ing constant in a race of animals, entails upon these animals new
habits,
Now, if new circumstances becoming permanent with a race of
animals, have given to these animals new habits; that is to say,
have forced them to new actions, which have become habitual,
the consequence will be the employment of some part, in pref-
erence to some other part, and in certain cases the total lack
of employment of a part which has become useless.
Nothing of all this should be considered as an hypothesis, or a8
a private opinion; they are, on the contrary, truths which, in order
to be rendered evident, require only attention and observation of
facts. We shall see directly by the citation of known facts, which
prove, on one side, that new wants, having rendered a certain p
necessary, have really by repeated efforts created this part, and in
consequence of repeated employment have little by little strength-
ened and developed them, and have resulted in a considerable
increase of size. On the other hand, we shall see that in certain
cases new circumstances and new wants having rendered a certain
part entirely useless, the total lack of employment of that part has
caused its growth gradually to cease; that it becomes small and
attenuated little by little, and that finally, when this lack of
employment has been total for a long time, the part in question
disappears. . :
All this is certain, and I now propose to give the most convin-
cing proof. In vegetables, which have no movements, and in conse-
quence no habits, properly speaking, great changes of circumstances
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 963
bring great differences in the development of their parts, so that
these differences create and develop some of them, whilst they
diminish and abolish others.
But here all goes on by changes wrought in nutrition of the
vegetable, in its absorptions and its respirations, in the quantity of
caloric, of light, of air and humidity, which it then habitually
receives; finally in the superiority which certain of the diverse vital
movements may exercise over the others.
Among individuals of the same species, some of which are con-
tinually well nourished, and under circumstances favorable to their
development, while others are subjected to opposite conditions,
there will he produced a difference of development which gradually
becomes very well marked. How many examples could I not cite
in regard to animals and vegetables which would confirm this asser-
tion! Now, if circumstances remaining the same, render the state
of badly nourished, suffering or languishing individuals habitual
and constant, their interior organization is finally modified; and
reproduction among these individuals in question preserves these
acquired modifications, and at last gives origin to a race very distinct
from that whose individuals are found continually in circumstances
favorable to their development. A very dry spring is the reason
why the grasses of a meadow grow very little and are meagre and
mean, although they blossom and fruit. A spring time of warm
and rainy days causes the same grasses to take on much growth,
and the harvest of hay is then excellent. But if any cause perp: t-
uates unfavorable circumstances for these plants, they will vary
proportionally, at first in their appearance or general condition, and
lly in various particulars of their characters. For example, if
Some seed of any one of these grasses of the meadow in question,
be transferred to an elevated locality, dry, arid, stony, and
much exposed to winds, and there germinate, the plant which wil]
live in this locality, though always badly nourished, and the indi-
viduals which it reproduces then continuing to exist under these
adverse circumstances, there will result a species very different from
the species living in the meadow, from which it has originated.
The individuals of this new race would be small, slender in their
parts, and certain of their organs having developed more than
others, would then present peculiar proportions.
964 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
Those who have observed much, and who have consulted great
collections, have been able to convince themselves that, according as
the circumstances of habitat, of exposure, climate, nourishment and
habit of life, etc., change ; the characters of size, form, proportion
of parts, color, consistence, activity and labors, of animals change
in proportion. That which nature does slowly we can do every
day, by changing suddenly, in the case of a living vegetable, the
circumstances by which it and all the individuals of its kind are
surrounded. All botanists know that vegetables which are taken
from their native place into gardens to be cultivated, gradually
undergo changes which render them finally unrecognizable. Many
plants naturally very hairy become smooth, or nearly so; numbers
of those which were creeping and trailing, straighten their stems ;
others lose their spines or their roughness; still others possessing
woody and long-lived (perennial) stems in warm climates which
they inhabited, pass, in our country, into an herbaceous state (many
are only annual plants); finally the dimensions of their parts
undergo very considerable changes. These effects of changes
of circumstances are so well known that botanists do not like
to describe garden plants unless they have been recently culti-
vated. Is not cultivated wheat (Triticum sativum) a vegetable,
brought by man to the state in which we actually see it? Who
can tell me in what country a like plant has its habitat without
being there the result of culture? Where do we find in nature our
cabbages, our lettuces, ete., in the state in which we possess them in
our kitchen gardens? Is it not the same in regard to many animals
which domestication has changed or considerably modified? How
many different races among our poultry and domestic pigeons have
we procured by raising them under diverse circumstances and in
different countries, and how vain would be our search to find such
in nature! Those which are the least changed, without doubt by
less ancient domestication, and because they do not live in a climate
strange to them, present no less, in the condition of certain of their
parts, great differences, produced by habits which we have caused
them to contract. Thus our domestic ducks and geese find their
type in wild ducks and geese; but ours have lost the power to rise
high in the air, and to traverse great distances by flying ; there has
been, in fact, a real change in the state of their parts, com-
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 965
pared with those animals of the race from which they came. Who
does not know that any bird of our climate which we have raised
in a cage, and which has lived there five or six years, continuously,
when liberated is not able to fly as its kind who have always been
free? This trifling change of circumstance acting on this individ-
ual, has in truth only diminished its faculty of flight, and without
doubt has made no change in the form of the parts of the individ-
uals, But if successive generations of individuals of the same
race had been held in captivity during a considerable time, there is
no doubt that even the form of the parts would little by little have
undergone notable changes. A stronger reason yet, if instead of a
simple captivity maintained in regard to them, this citcumstance
has been for some time accompanied by a change of very different
climate, and that these individuals by degrees had been habituated
to other kinds of food, and to other movements to get it, certainly
these circumstances united and become constant would have formed
insensibly a new race altogether peculiar. Where is found now in
nature the multitude of races of dogs which, in consequence of the
domestication to which we have reduced them, have been brought
into the condition in which they are at present? Where are found
the bulldogs, greyhounds, spaniels and lapdogs, etc., races which
show in themselyes greater differences than those which we would
admit as specific among animals of the same genus living at liberty
in nature?
Without doubt a first and unique race, first cousin of the wolf,
if not himself the true type, has been some time tamed and domes-
ticated by man. This race, which showed at that time no differ-
ence among the individuals, has been gradually dispersed with man
into different countries and into different climates, and after having
long submitted to the influence of the places of habitation and the
diverse habits which they have been made to contract in each coun-
try, they have experienced remarkable changes and have formed
peculiar races, Now man, for the sake of commerce or for other
interests, travels great distances; and having transported into well-
peopled places, as a great capital, different races of dogs bred in
countries far apart, and then crossed them, he has by generation
given origin successively to all these which we now know.
The following fact proves, in regard to plants, how the change
966 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
of some important circumstance acts to change the parts of these
living bodies. While Ranunculus aquatilis is immersed in water
its leaves are all finely divided and the divisions are capillary, but
when the stems of this plant reach the surface of the water, the
leaves which develop in air are enlarged, rounded and simply lobed.
If some root of this plant succeeds in pushing itself into a soil
only damp, without being covered by water, the stems are short, and
none of the leaves are parted into capillary lobes; it is called the
Ranunculus hederaceus, which botanists regard as a species when
they encounter it. There is no doubt that, in regard to animals,
important changes in the circumstances in which they are in the
habit of living, produce changes likewise in their parts, but here
the mutations are slower in being brought about than in vegetables,
and in consequence are less evident to us, and their cause less
recognisable. Among the circumstances which have so much power
to modify the organs of living bodies, the most influential are,
without doubt, the diversity of places which they inhabit; but
besides these are many others which have considerable influence in
the production of the results in question. It is known that different
places change nature and quality on account of their position, of
their constitution, and of their climate. This is easily observe
in visiting different places distinguished by these particular qual-
ities. Behold, then, one cause of variation of animals and of vege-
tables which live in these diverse localities; but that which is not
sufficiently known, and even what is generally refused credit, is
that each locality itself changes in time, exposure, climate, nature
and quality, though so slowly in comparison with our lifetimes that
we attribute to it perfect stability. Now, in one and the other case,
these changed localities change correspondingly the relations to
living bodies which inhabit them, bringing to bear new influences
on them, It is known that when there are extremes in these
changes there are gradations which are intermediate, and which fill
the interval. Consequently there are shades of difference, which
distinguish what we call species. It is therefore evident that the
entire surface of the globe shows, in its nature and in the situation
of the materials which occupy different localities, a diversity of
circumstances which is everywhere in relation with that of the
forms and of the parts of animals, independent of peculiar diver-
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 967
sity which necessarily results from the progress of the composition
of the organization in each animal.
In every place where animals have been able to live, the circum-
stances which have established there an order of things which has
continued for a long time the same, and change is there really so
slow that man has not been able to observe it directly. He is
obliged to consult records, and monuments, and to recognize that
in each one of these localities the order of things which he finds
there has not always been the same, and thus to infer that it will
still change. The races of animals which live in any of these
places must preserve their habits for a long time, hence to us the
apparent constancy of races which we call species—constancy which
has given us the idea that these races are therefore as ancient as
nature,
But at different points on the surface of the globe which are hab-
itable, the nature and situation of the localities and the climates
constitute for animals, as for vegetables, different circumstances in
all kinds of degrees. Animals which inhabit these different local-
ities must then necessarily become different from each other, not
only by reason of the state of growth of the organization in each case,
but besides by reason of habits which individuals of each race are
forced to adopt. Therefore, in a measure, in traveling over great
portions of the surface of the earth, the observing naturalist sees
circumstances change in a gradual manner ; he perceives constantly
also that the species change proportionally in their characters.
Now, the true order of things, which is the question to consider
in all this, consists in recognizing,—
Ist. That every change, of any importance, in the circumstances
in which each race of animals exists, continually maintained, effects
a real change in their necessities.
2d. That all change in the wants of animals necessitates for
them new actions, in order to satisfy new wants, and consequently
other habits.
3d. That every new want necessitating new actions to satisfy
it, requires from the animal which experiences it, more frequent.
employment of some of its parts of which it made less use before.
Thereby are developed and enlarged considerably the new parts
Which the wants have insensibly created in it by the efforts of its
968 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
“interior sentiment.” This is the question, as I will presently
prove by known facts. To arrive at a knowledge of the true causes
of so many diverse forms and so many different habits, of which
known animals offer us examples, it is necessary to consider that
the infinitely diversified circumstances, but slowly changing, which
the animals of each race are continually encountering, produce for
each of them new wants and necessarily changes in their habits,
Now this incontestable truth once acknowledged, it will be
easy to perceive how these new wants could be satisfied, and these
new habits assumed, if we give some attention to the two following
laws of nature, which observation has always proved to be
constant :—
First Law.—In every animal which has not passed the time of
its development the frequent and sustained employment of an organ —
gradually strengthens it, developes and enlarges it, and gives it
power proportional to the duration of its use; whilst the constant
disuse of a like organ weakens it, insensibly deteriorates it, pro-
gressively reduces its functions, and finally causes it to disappear.
Second Law.—All that nature acquires or loses in individuals by
the influence of circumstances to which the race has been exposed
for a long time, and in consequence by the influence of the predom-
inate employment of such organ, or by the influence of disuse of
such part, she preserves by generation, among new individuals which
spring from it, providing the acquired changes be common to both
sexes, or to those which have produced new individuals.
These are, then, two constant truths which cannot be miscon-
strued, except by those who have never observed or followed nature
in her operations, or by those who entertain an error which I will
combat. Naturalists having remarked that the forms of the parts
of animals are always perfectly in harmony with the use of those
parts, have thought that the forms and the conditions of the parts
had caused their employment. Now this is an error, for it is easy tO
demonstrate by observation that on the contrary it is the wants and
uses of the parts which have developed these same parts, that they
are made to exist where they did not, and that consequently they
have given place to the condition in which we observe them in
every animal.
For, had this not been so, it would be necessary that nature
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 969
should have created for the parts of the animal as many forms as
the diversity of the circumstances in which they had to live would
have required, and that these forms as these circumstances should
never have varied. This is certainly not the order of things which
exists, and if it were really such we would not have the race-horses
of the form of those in England. We would not have great
draught-horses, so heavy and so different from the former. For
had not nature herself produced the like, we would not have, for
the same reason, lapdogs with slender limbs, greyhounds so agile
in running, water-dogs, ete. We would not have poultry without
tails, peacocks, pigeons, etc.; finally we would not be able to culti-
vate wild plants, as we please, in the rich and fertile soil of our
gardens, without fearing to see them change by long culture. For
along time there has been in this respect a sentiment which has
established the following saying, which has passed into a proverb,
which all the world knows, that “habits form a second nature.”
Surely if the habits and the nature of each animal never varied,
the proverb would have been false, and would not have been used
for the cases to which it had been applied.
If people considered seriously all that I have just shown, they
would know that I was well grounded in reasons when, in my
work entitled “Recherches sur les corps vivans,” p. 50, I estab-
lished the following proposition: “It is not the organ, that is to
say, the nature and form of the parts of the body of an animal
which have given origin to its habits and peculiar functions, but it
is, on the contrary, its habits, its manner of life and the circum-
stances in which individuals from which it came, found themselves,
which have after a time constituted the form of its body, the num-
ber and character of its organs, and finally the functions which it
possesses. Let us weigh well this proposition, and give to it all the
attention which nature and the condition of things continually gives
us opportunity, Then its importance and its truth will become
perfectly clear.
Time and favorable circumstances being, as I have already said,
the two principal means which nature employs in giving existence
to all her productions, it is evident that time has no limit for her,
and in consequence she has it always at her disposal. Concerning
these circumstances, which she requires, and which she still uses
970 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
every day, to change all that which she continues to produce, they
are in many ways inexhaustible to her. The principal proceed
from the influence of climates, from that of diverse temperatures
of atmosphere, and of all the surrounding media; that of the
diversity of places, and of their situation; that of habits, of the
. most ordinary movements, of the most frequent actions; finally, of
that of the means of self-preservation, of manner of life, of defence,
of multiplication, ete. Now, by continuance of these diverse influ-
ences the faculties become expanded and strengthened by use,
become diversified by new habits long maintained, and insensibly
the conformation, consistence, in a word, the nature and condition
of parts, also that of organs, participate in all these influences,
maintaining and propagating themselves by generation.
These truths, which are only the result of the two natural laws
expounded above, are in all-cases strictly confirmed by facts ; they
indicate clearly the progress of nature in the diversity of her pro-
ductions. But in place of contenting ourselves with generalities
which may be considered as hypothetical, let us examine strictly
the facts, and consider, in animals, the result of the use or disuse
of their organs upon these organs themselves. According to the
habits which each race has been forced to contract, I will prove
that the constant lack of exercise, as regards an organ, diminishes
at first its functions, gradually impoverishes it, and in the end
makes it disappear, or annihilates it; so this disuse perpetuates
itself for a long time thereafter in successive generations of animals
of the same race. Afterwards I will show that, on the contrary,
the habitual exercise of an organ in any animal which has not
experienced a diminution of its functions, not only perfects and
increases its functions, but otherwise makes it acquire the develop-
ment and dimensions which insensibly change it, so that after a
time it renders it different from the corresponding organ of another
animal which exercises it much less. :
The disuse of an organ having resulted in the habits which it
has assumed, gradually impoverishes the organ, and finally makes
it disappear, or obliterates it. As such a proposition could
be admitted only on proof, and not on simple declaration, we will
attempt to make it evident by the citation of known facts which
constitutes its basis.
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 971
Vertebrate animals, of which the plan of organization is nearly
the same, although they show much diversity in their parts, have,
usually, their jaws armed with teeth. Nevertheless those among
them which circumstances have given the habit of swallowing their
food without previous mastication have been found to display a
repressed development of these parts—that these teeth have even
remained hidden between the osseous plates of the jaws without
being able to appear, or all traces of them have entirely disap-
peared. Among whales, which people have believed completely
deprived of teeth, M. Geoffroy has found them hidden in the jaws
of the foetus. This professor has also found in birds the groove
where teeth should have been placed, but nothing more has been
seen, In the class Mammalia, which embraces the most perfect
animals, and principally those of which the plan of organization
of the vertebr is most completely executed, not only the whale
has no teeth for its use, but one finds also in the same condition the
ant-eater (Myrmecophaga), in which the habit of not masticating its
food has been introduced and preserved for a long time in its race
Eyes in the head is the rule for a great number of diverse animals,
and are essential to the plan of the organization of vertebrates.
Nevertheless the mole, which by its habits has very little occasion
to see, has only very small eyes, and which scarcely show, because
it exercises this organ very little.
“ The Spalax d’Olivier ” (Voyage en Egypt et en Persia, II., pl.
82, f. 2), which lives under ground like a mole, and which is probably
less exposed to the light of day, and has totally lost the function of
sight, shows scarcely the rudiments of the organ which is its seat,
and these vestiges are entirely hidden under the skin and under
whatever other parts which cover it, which allow no access ot
light. The Proteus, an aquatic reptile, cousin of the salamander, by
all accounts lives in deep and obscure caverns, which are under
ground, has, like the Spalax, only the traces of the organ of sight,
which are covered and hidden in the same manner. Behold
one decisive consideration relative to the question which I now
discuss, Light does not penetrate everywhere, consequently animals
which live habitually in those places where it does not come, lack
occasion to exercise the organ of sight, if nature has provided them
with it, Now, animals which partake in a ‘plan of organization
972 Glacial Drift of the Basin of Iowa.
in which eyes necessarily enter, must have originally had them.
And, since one finds among them species which are deprived of
these organs, and which have only traces, hidden and covered, it
becomes evident that the impoverishment and even the disappear-
ance of the organ in question is the result of constant disuse.
[To be continued. ]
ON THE GLACIAL DRIFT AND LOESS OF A POR-
TION OF THE NORTHERN-CENTRAL
BASIN OF IOWA.
BY CLEMENT L. WEBSTER.
THE region under consideration may include Floyd county, and
portions of Cerro Gordo, Worth, Mitchell, Chickasaw, Bre-
mer, Butler, and Black Hawk counties. The general topography
of this region is that of a gently undulating prairie country, with
often a more or less broken surface along the course of the streams.
Portions of Worth, Chickasaw and Bremer counties are low and
rather wet, while that of other portions of the area are dryer and
more rolling. The western portion of this region is drained
mainly by Flood and Lime creeks and the Shellrock river, while
the eastern portion is drained by the Cedar and Wapsipinecan
rivers and their affluents.
All the streams of the area have a general northwest and
southeast trend; their initial direction having been predeter-
mined by the general dip of the subjacent rock strata. The
Shellrock and Lime creeks have, for the most part, in their
course through this region, eroded their channels through the
drift, and into the underlying Devonian strata to a depth varying
from five to seventy feet. The Cedar has cut through the drift,
and sunk into the underlying rocks to a depth of from ten feet to
overone hundred feet. The Wapsipinecan river and Flood creek flow
through this country mostly upon the drift formation. The valleys
Glacial Drift of the Basin of Iowa. 973
of the streams of this area are usually broad, with one side more
or less well defined, while the opposite side gradually emerges into
the adjoining upland.
By far the greater portion of the surface of the area is
occupied by the drift formation, which varies much in thick-
ness at different localities. The difference seems to be par-
tially due to original deposition, and partially to subsequent erosion.
A line drawn from Waterloo, in Black Hawk county, in a north-
west direction to Mason City, in Cerro Gordo county, and another
line drawn from Waterloo to Osage, in Mitchell county, would
include within their boundary the area of the thinnest drift of the
region, and, indeed, of Iowa. In all parts of this attenuated drift
area, the underlying rock strata is exposed at the surface in very
numerous places.
Present evidence seems to indicate that the superficial geo-
logical formation of this entire region shows two main Glacia
epochs, each of which is characterized by several subdivisions. ,
As belonging to the earlier Glacial epoch, there are recognized
two drift sheets. Between these occur, at numerous points in the
area, and other portions of the State, vegetal accumulations, indi-
cating a non-glacial interval. This horizon is usually referred to
as the “Old Forest Bed.” The material of the lower and upper
drift sheets is (so far as observed) essentially the same, being com-
posed for the most part of a heavy, dark blue clay, containing a
greater or less number of transported deangulated erratics and pe
bles, numbers of them being in a partially decomposed condition.
At some points the clay of these beds is distinctly stratified, and
as readily separated into layers as ordinary limestone.
The vegetal accumulation which occupies a horizon between these
drift sheets is composed of coniferous wood, branches and twigs,
which is very often associated with ancient peat, and more or less
mixed with the drift. In digging wells in this division, natural gas
is often obtained,! this originating from the organic accumulation.
Gathering evidence seems to demonstrate that the vegetal accu-
mulation of this region, as well as that of some other places in
the State, are referable to a single horizon.
t In an article on “The Geology of Johnson county, Iowa,” which
appeared in the May number of this Journal for 1888, mention was
made, by the writer, of wells of this character in Linn county, Iowa.
974 Glacial Drift of the Basin of Iowa.
As belonging to the later Glacial epoch, we recognize three divi-
sions: the Upland, or (for the most part) unstratified drift ; Valley,
or stratified drift; and Loess. The Upland drift constitutes by far
the greater bulk of the superficial covering of the region. Its
material is mainly true till, with local deposits or pockets of coarse
gravel and sand, which is sometimes slightly cemented together by
calcareous cement, and large numbers of transported erratics.
There also occur local deposits of stiff red clay; for example,
near Floyd, Nora Springs, and Rockford, in Floyd county.
These deposits of clay are usually quite free from erratics, gravel
or sand, has a soapy feel, and becomes very hard upon short expo-
sure to the-atmosphere. The gravel deposits of this division are
not restricted to any definite horizon, but are irregularly distributed
through it. The material is usually well rounded pebbles of several
varieties of greenstone, quartz (much of it probably of Cretaceous ori-
gin), granite, Devonian limestone, jasper, etc. There also some-
times occur specimens of coal, native copper and iron,! as well as
* Devonian and Trenton fossils, Juarge numbers of deangulated
granite and greenstone boulders, and more rarely those of quartz,
are seen distributed over the surface and mixed with the till. The
boulders vary in weight from two pounds to ten or twenty tons;
of the latter, fine examples are observed near Portland, Osage,
Nashua, and other places. i
n some parts of the area, angular fragments of Cretaceous
conglomerate are not uncommon in the drift. This material
was probably derived, at least in part, from the southwest por-
tion of Floyd county, where rocks of this age are known to occur
in place.? The material of this division is usually unstratified, but
at times it is observed to be obliquely and discordantly stratified at
high points, distant from waterways.
The region of most numerous erratics is that of the eastern portion
of the area. A strip of country from one-half to four miles in width
is occupied by great numbers of boulders, mostly of granite and green-
1 The occurrence of these ores, ete., in the drift of this region, was
noted by the writer in a paper on “The Glacial Flow in Iowa,” which
appeared in the August number of this Journal for 1887.
? A description of this rock has been given by us in a paper oD “A
Description of the Rockford Shales of Iowa,” which appears in Vol. VI.
of the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Science.
Glacial Drift of the Basin of Iowa. 975
stone, This boulder line has been traced by us from a point about
one mile northeast from Charles City, in Floyd county, to a little
east of Waterloo, a distance of about fifty miles. Below this point
we have not traced it; neither have personal observations of it been
made beyond Charles City. It has been reported to me, however,
that from Charles City the boulder line extends in an easterly direc-
tion to a point near Fort Atkinson, in Winneshiek county, and
there turns and pursues a more northerly course. From Charles
City this boulder line takes a general southeast course, passing about
two miles east of Nashua, in Chickasaw county, where it attains its
greatest observed width, four miles. From this point it assumes a
somewhat more easterly direction, and gradually diminishes in width.
At a point midway between Richland Centre and Frederica, it
again turns and pursues a more southerly course to Waterloo; the
direction corresponding in the main with the general trend of the
Wapsipinecan and Cedar rivers. In some localities, for example,
Richland Centre, Frederica, ete., breaks in this line occur, from
one-fourth to one-half mile in extent, where the erratics are rela-
tively rare, but which soon appear again in strong force, An
interesting and instructive feature of these boulders is, that they are
all (so far as noticed) deangulated, smooth, and very hard, while
large numbers of them are flattened and striated on one side by gla-
cial action. This feature is shared in to no such extent by the
erratics of other portions of the area. The second recognized divi-
sion of the later Glacial epoch is the Valley, or stratified drift.
Of the river valleys of this region, only one is known to
contain true Valley drift; and this the valley of the Shellrock.
Although at different places along the course of some of the
streams, local deposits of more or less distinctly stratified drift occur,
still, as a rule, this feature is no more pronounced than at some
points in the Upland drift. The Shelirock heads near Lake Albert
Lea, Minnesota, and flows into this sheet of water at its upper
extremity, and makes its exit at its lower of southern extremity.
This sheet of water occupies a depression in the Inter-lobular
moraine which enters Iowa. The Shellrock flows upon this
heterogeneous drift accumulation for a distance of ten miles, and
' Owing to the lack of other rock here for building purposes, the
boulders are extensively used for underpinning, well and cellar walls,
bridge piers, etc., for which they answer a most excellent purpose.
976 Glacial Drift of the Basin of Iowa.
in reality does not reach the subjacent rock strata (except at two or
three points) until Plymouth, in Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, isreached.
From this point to its confluence with the Cedar, fifty-seven miles
below, it has eroded its channel down through the drift formation,
and flows upon the underlying Devonian strata.
Stretching away from the morainic border, and partially filling the
valley of the Shellrock, is a train of Valley drift, which extends to
the confluence of this stream with the Cedar, seventy-two miles
below. This morainic border lies upon rolling country, and there
leads away from it, in portions of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties,
valleys or trough-shaped depressions of notable size, which we
should naturally expect would have drawn very considerable
drainage floods from the margin of the ice. The material of
this formation is usually well rounded, coarse and fine gravel
and silicious sand, not essentially differing from the Upland
drift gravel, except that it contains a very much larger percent-
Pre. i:
Ee
yarns Shale: ye at
ARA, se 22 ae mas tts ae age
Dee ty, - et 2
Reon ENTS St te IER Y A gs
era
ryrie
FRS Ea
age of silicious sand, and does not usually contain any percepti-
ble admixture of ey The material (except the very coarse
portion) is everywhere obliquely and E stratified. This
feature is well illustrated in the following sec
Fig. 1 represents a section of Valley drift at Bekied: illustrating
the flow and plunge style of stratification. The material is mostly fine
Glacial Drift of the Basin of Iowa. 977
silicious sand, with a layer of coarse rounded gravel at the bottom,
resting upon Devonian strata. The upper bed isa fine silt-like soil,
mixed with coarse drift gravel, due in part to secondary accumulation
arising from wash from a slight adjoining slope. The talus of
sand at the base conceals several subordinate beds.
Fig. 2,
Fig. 2 represents a section of Valley drift near Nora Springs, illus-
trating oblique stratification. The material is well rounded gravel and
ii PEN R- pP
sand. The upper bed isa black I g - g small
drift pebbles. The second bed is a yellow clayey soil, with some fine
gravel in the lower portion.! The next succeeding bed is partially
stratified gravel and sand. The wave-like parts of Figure 1 cor-
respond to succeeding plunges in the rapidly flowing waters, and
indicates a much more turbulent condition of the water than when
the material of Figure 2 was deposited.
At Clarksville, in Butler county, and other places, the Valley
drift is seen to be obliquely stratified, the same as near Nora Springs.
The gravel of this division at different points has been more or less
solidified by calcareous cement. An interesting feature of this
formation is that very often a large percentage of the finer material
occupies the lowest position. while the coarser material often occu-
pies the higher position.
Fine examples of terraces are observed along the streams of
this region; for example, on the west side of the Cedar, a few
miles above Waverly; on the west side of the Shellrock, two
' These beds well illustrate the condition of the first few feet of the
oe accumulation of nearly all parts of the area under considera-
978 Glacial Drift of the Basin of Iowa.
and one-half miles northwest from Rockford; on the east and
west sides of Linn creek, one and one-half miles west of Rockford,
and other places. These terraces appear to have been formed by
the contracting and deepening of the channels of these streams by
their own waters.
The last recognized division of the later Glacial epoch is the
Loess formation. This formation is represented by only a few
limited outliers at different points along the course of the Cedar river.
On the west side of the Cedar, at Mitchell, in Mitchell county, is
a local deposit of very fine and homogeneous, typical yellow
loess, having a thickness of twelve feet. This rests directly upon
a layer (from four to six inches in thickness) of clean rounded
and angular drift pebbles, and the pebbles in turn rest (in places)
upon a very dark, ferruginous layer of rock, which lays upon
broken-up Devonian limestone below.
In the lower portion of the exposure of loess, one or two large shells
was found, which were, however, in a too imperfect state of
preservation for satisfactory determination. On the east side of the
Cedar, one mile above Floyd, another outlier of this forma-
tion occurs. The loess at this place is like that observed at
Mitchell, except that it contains small quantities of silicious
sand in places, and in places has a very slight blueish-gray shade.
The greatest observed thickness of this exposure was, by estimate,
twenty-one feet. No drift was seen to intervene between the
loess and the coarse-grained calcareo-silicious sandstone below.
The surface of the rock at this place rises to a height of over
one hundred feet above the water in the Cedar.
The locality where this formation is next observed is on the same
stream, at Waverley, about thirty-two miles below Floyd. The
loess here (so far as ascertained) is light yellow, fine-grained
and homogeneous, but contains at one point a very large amount
of dark, grayish-brown silicious sand. No fossils, concretions, OF
ferruginous tubules was noticed in the loess of this place, ;
Probably no department of geological investigation has greater
’ This sandstone attains a thickness of two feet, and rests upon very
hard and fine-grained, grayish-white Devonian limestone. No sand-
stone exactly like this is known to occur at any other point in northern
owa. i ;
History of Garden Vegetables. 979
need of careful criticism than that which deals with the
complex deposits of the Glacial period. | Nowhere, perhaps, is
there need of closer examination, and nowhere, probably, is the
discrimination more difficult than in drawing the line between the
earlier Glacial epoch and the later Glacial epoch of the area which
has been under consideration.
HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.
BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, M.D.
(Continned from page 808.)
Kohl-rabi. Brassica oleracea caulo-rapa, DC.
I FIND no certain identification of this race in the ancient writ-
ings. The bunidia of Pliny! seems rather to be the ruta baga,
as he says it is between a radish and a rape. The goggulis of Theo-
phrastus* and Galen? seems also to be the rutabaga, for Galen says
the root contained within the earth is hard, unless cooked. In 1558
Matthiolus‘ speaks of the kohl-rabi as having lately came into
Germany from Italy. Between 1573 and 1575 Rauwolf® saw it in
the gardens of Tripoli and Aleppo. Lobel® in 1570, Camerarius?
in 1586, Dalechamp ê in 1587, and other of the older botanists, all
figure or describe it as under European culture. This plant, in the
view of some writers, is a cross between the cabbage and the rape,
and many of the names applied to it convey this idea. This view
1s probably a mistaken one, as the plant in its sportings under cul-
ture tends to the form of the marrow cabbage, from which it is
probably a derivation. In 1884, in two plants in pots in the
‘Pliny. Lib. z2. 6 2
* Gronovius. Orient., 81.
Pena and Lobel. Adv., 1570, 92.
; Camerarius. Epit., 1586, 251.
* Hist. Gen. Lugd., 1587, 522.
980 History of Garden Vegetables.
green-house, I had good kohl-rabi bulbs, and one of these extended
itself until it became a marrow cabbage, and when planted out in
the spring attained its growth as a marrow cabbage. This idea of
its origin finds countenance in the figures of the older botanists ;
thus Camerarius, in 1586, figures a plant as a kohl rabi which in
all essential points resembles a marrow cabbage, being tapering
from a small stem into along kohl rabi, with a flat top like the
marrow cabbage. The figures given by Lobel,' in 1591, Dodo-
neus,” in 1616, and Bodsus,’ in 1644, when compared with Came-
rarius’ figure, suggest the marrow cabbage. A long highly improved
form, not now under culture, is figured by Gerarde,‘ in 1597, J.
Bauhin,’ in 1651, and Chabreeus,® in 1677, and the modern form is
given by Gerarde, and by Matthiolus’? in 1598. A very unim-
proved form, out of harmony with the other figures, is given by
Dalechamp,’ in 1587, and Castor Durante,’ in 1617.
This synonymy can be tabulated in order as below :—
1. Caulorapum. Cam. epit., 1586, 251.
Br. caule rapum gerens. Dod. pempt., 1616, 625.
Rapa, Br. peregrina, caule rapum gerens. Lob. ic., 1591, 246.
2 |
Rapa brassica. Bodseus, 1644, 777.
Br. caulorapa. J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 8
{Brea rapum longum. Ger., 1597, 250.
X 30.
Br. caulorapa sive Rapo caulis. Chabr., 1677, 270.
4 herein re rotundum. Ger., 1597, 250.
* (Brassica gongylodes. Matth. op., 1598, 367.
5 Brassica raposa. Lugd., 1587, 522.
* L Bradica raposa. Cast. Dur., 1617, app.
Matthiolus, as we have stated, says the plant came into Germany
from Italy; Pena and Lobel say it came from Greece; Gerarde,
that it groweth in Italy, Spain and Germany, from whence he
1 Lobel. Ic., 1591, 246.
*Dodonseus. Pempt., 1616, 625.
* Bodæus a Stapel. Theophrastus, 1644, 777.
*Gerarde. Herb., 1597, 250.
5J. Bauhin. Hist., 1651, ii., 830.
ê Chabræus. Ic. et Sci. ag. 1677, 270.
7 Matthiolus. Op., 1598, 367.
* Castor Durante. Herb., 1617, app.
° Fessenden. New Am. Gard., 1828, 59.
History of Garden Vegetables. 981
received seeds. These excerpts indicate a southern origin for this
vegetable, and the marrow cabbages are very sensitive to cold. The
more highly improved forms, as figured in our synonymy, are in
authors of northern or central Europe, while the unimproved forms
are given by more southern writers. This indicates that the present
kohl rabi received its development in northern countries.
The varieties now grown are the white and purple, in early and
late forms, the curled leaf, or Neapolitan, and the artichoke-leaved.
One, at least, was in American gardens as early as 1806, and the
rest appear before 1863.
The nomenclature of this plant is deserving of attention, from
the presence of foreign words, for which its history seems to afford
but little justification.
The kohl-rabi, Turnip-rooted cabbage, Arabian, cole rape, cole
turnip, Cape cabbage, or Hungarian turnip, is called in France
choua-raves, chow de Siam, boule de Siam; in Germany, oberkohl-
rabi; in Flanders, raapkool; in Holland, koolraapen boven den
grond; in Denmark, overjordisk kahlrabi, kwndekaal; in Italy,
cavolo rapa, torsi; in Spain, col rabanho ; in Portugal, couve rabano,
couve de Siam ;? in Norway, overjords-kaalrabi ;3 in India, ole kole,
or gool jur ka kuhun.*
Lavender. Lavandula vera DC.
Lavender is sometimes grown for the use of the leaves as a con-
diment, but more often for the flowers, which find use in perfum-
ery; but we have never heard of its being grown on a large scale
in the United States, although it was in garden culture in 1806.
Its present growing is doubtless very insignificant.
There is no satisfactory identification of lavender in the writings
of the ancients, although it seems to have been well known to the
botanists of the sixteenth century, and the use of the perfume was
Indicated as early as the fourteenth century, and as a medicine even
in the twelfth century. Its seed was in English seedsmen’s lists of
1726,’ for garden culture.
' Townsend, seedsman, 1726, 28.
7 Dodonæus. Gard. Dict., 1831, i., 228.
? Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 139.
* Schubeler. Culturp. f. de Norw., 105.
Speede. Ind. Handb. of Gard., 1842, 140.
° See Pharmacographia, 1879, 476.
J Townsend, seedsman, 1726, 37.
982 History of Garden Vegetables.
Lavender is called in France lavande, aspic, lavande femelle ; in
Germany, lavendel, spike; in Flanders, lavendel; in Denmark,
lavendel ; in Italy, lavanda ; in Spain, espliego.?
Lavandula spica L., a more southern species, is confounded with
the above in cultivation, and is also cultivated on a large scale for
purposes of distillation. Mawe, in 1778, named four varieties, the
narrow-leaved with blue flowers, the narrow-leaved with white
flowers, the broad-leaved and the Dwarf.
Leek. Allium porrum L.
This vegetable was the prasun of the ancient Greeks, the porrwm
of the Romans, who distinguished two kinds, the capitatum, or
leek, and the sectilis, or chives, perhaps, although Columella,’
Pliny* and Palladius* indicate these as forms of the same plant
brought about through difference of culture, the chive-like form
being produced by thick planting. They seem to have been very
popular at Rome. In Europe the leek was generally known
throughout the middle ages, and in the earlier botanies some of the
figures of the leek represent the two kinds of planting alluded to
by the Roman writers. In England, in 1726, Townsend? says that
“leeks are mightily used in the kitchen for broths and sauces.”
When they reached America I do not find recorded, but prior to
1775 they were grown at Mobile, Ala., and were cultivated by the
Choctaw Indians.° :
The leek may vary considerably by culture, and often attains
quite a large size; one with the blanched portion a foot long and
nine inches in circumference, and the leaf fifteen inches in breadth
and three feet in length, has been recorded.’ Vilmorin® described
eight varieties in 1883, but some of these are scarcely distinct.
The leek, or porret, is called in France poireau, poiree, poirette,
porreau; in Flanders and Holland, prei; in Germany, lauch, por-
1 Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 318.
2 Columella. Lib. ii., c. 8.
$ Pliny. Lib. xix., ¢. 34.
t Palladius. Lib, iii., €. 24.
6 Townsend, 1728, 37.
t Romans. Nat. Hist. of Fla., i., 115. 84.
1 Gard. Chron., Nov. 6, 1886, 599.
8 Les Pl. Pot., 1883, 416.
° Ray. Hist., 1688, 1126,
History of Garden Vegetables. 983
ree; in Denmark, porre ; in Italy, porro; in Spain, puerro; in
Portugal, alho porro; in Greece, to prasa; in Sweden, puris;} in
Russia, pras ;? in Norway, purre In Arabic, karrat,* or kour-
nas; in Bengali, puroo; in Egypt, korrat;* in India, kundaneh,
zalook or puroo ;* in Persian, gundena.°
This species is supposed by authors to be a cultivated form of
Allium ampeloprasum L.
Lentil. Ervum lens L.
The cultivation of the Lentil is very ancient, as it has been
found in the Egyptian tombs of the twelfth dynasty, or 2,200 to
2,400 B.C.” It has also been found in the lacustrine debris of
Switzerland dating from the age of bronze.* Its culture was well
known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and has been continued
through the middle ages to the present time. Bauhin,’ in 1623,
names a large and a small sort, the seed reddish, pale yellow, white,
` tawny and black, and Vilmorin,” in 1883, describes four varieties
for garden culture. Its seed is used in soups and stews, and the
culture is of more importance in the warmer regions. Lentils are
recorded by Burr," in 1863, for American use; but much of the
seed found exposed for sale in groceries is imported.
The lentil is called in France lentille, arousse, aroufle; in Ger-
many, linse; in Flanders and Holland, linze ; in Denmark, lindse ;
In Italy, lente, lenticchia; in Spain, lenteja; in Portugal, lentitha."
In Arabic, a’ds ;” in Egypt, adz; in India, mussoor ; in Sanscrit,
mussoora ;"° in Latin, lens; in Slav, lesha; in Illyrian, lechja ; in
Lithuanian, lenszic ; the Greeks, fakos or fakai ; the Berbers, ades.*
'Decandolle. Geog. Bot., 848.
*McIntosh. Book of the Gard., ii., 47.
*Schubeler. Cult. Pflanz den N orw., 53.
‘Delile. Fl. Æg. Ill.
5 Birdwood. Veg. Prod. of Bomb., 136.
*Speede. Ind. Handb. of Gard., 158.
"Schweinfurth. Nature, Jan. 31, 1883, 314.
* Decandolle, Orig. des Pl. Cult., 258.
° Bauhin. Pin., 1623, 346.
© Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot., 318.
"Burr, Field and Gard. Veg., 1863.
"2? Delile. Fl. Ægypt. lust.
"° Birdwood. Veg. Prod. of Bomb., 119.
984 History of Garden Vegetables.
Lettuce. Lactuca sativa L.
This, the best of all salad plants, as a culivated plant has a high
antiquity. It is evident, by an anecdote related by Herodotus, that
it appeared at the royal tables of the Persian kings about 550 B.C."
The medicinal properties as a food-plant was noted by Hippocrates,’
430 B.C., praised by Aristotles, 356 B.C., and the species described
by Theophrastus,‘ 322 B.c., Dioscorides,> 60 A.D., and mentioned
by Galen,’ 164 A.D., who gives an idea of a very general use.
Among the Romans it was very popular. Columella,’ A.D. 42,
describes the Cæcilian, Cappadocian, Cyprian and Tartesan. Pliny,’
A.D. 79, enumerates the alba, Cæcilian, Cappadocian, crispa, Greca,
Pasii. nigra, purpurea and rubens. Palladius, 210 A-D.,
implies varieties, and mentions the process of blanching. Martial,”
A.D. 101, gives to the lettuces of Cappadocia the term wiles, Or
cheap, baplyibe abundance. In China its presence can be identi-
fied in the fifth century." In England, Chaucer, about 1340, uses
the word in his prologue, “ well loved he garlic, onions and lettics,”
and it is likewise mentioned by Turner,” in 1538, who spells the
word Jettuse. It is mentioned as viiltivated in Tsabella Island, in
1494, by Peter Martyr," as also in Mexico at a later date; is noted
as abundant in Hayti in 1565, ete.
In the report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station
for 1885, eighty-seven varieties are fully described with 585 names
or synonyms. Vilmorin describes, in. 1883, one hundred and
thirteen kinds as distinct. The number of varieties named by
various writers at various times are as follows: For France, in
'McIntosh. Book of the Gard., ii., 5.
Hippocrates, Cornarius ed., Paris, 1546, 113.
3 Scaliger. De Plant. ; Arist., 1566, 63, etc.
t Theophrastus, Bodæns ed., 1644, 761.
5 Dioscorides, Vergelius ed., 1532, 220; Ruellius ed,, 1529, 130.
€ Galen. De Alim, lib. ii. ; Gregorius ed., 1547, 143.
7 Columella, lib. x., c. 181-193, 369.
® Pliny, lib. xix., c. 38.
° Palladius, lib. ii., c. 14; lib. iii., c. 24; lib. iv., €. 9, ete.
i 79.
" Bretschneider. Bot. Sin., 78.
18 Turner. Libellus, 1538.
1'3 Edens Hist. of Trav., 1577.
“ Benzoni. Hist. of the she World, Smythe ed., 1857.
* Vilmorin. Les Pl. Pot.,
History of Garden Vegetables. 985
1612, six; in 1690, twenty-one; in 1829, forty; in 18838, one
hundred and thirteen. For Holland, in 1720, forty-seven. For
England, in 1597, six; in 1629, nine; in 1726, nine; in 1763,
fifteen; in 1765, eighteen; in 1807, fourteen. In America, in
1806, sixteen ; in 1885, eighty-seven.
The cabbage and cos lettuces are the sorts now principally
grown, but various other kinds, such as the curled, are frequently,
and the sharp-leaved, oak-leaved, etc., occasionally, as novelties.
In this large class, I shall content myself with offering the syn-
onymy of a few of the varieties now known, and which shall indi-
cate the antiquity of our cultivated types.
I. The Lanceolate-leaved Type.
Lactuca longifolia. Bauh. phytopin., 1596, 200.
Lattuga franzese. Cast. Dur., 1617, 244, cum ic.
Lactuca folio oblongo acuto. Bauh. pin., 1623, 125; prod., 1671, 60,
cum ic
Lactuca longo at valde angusto folio. J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 999, cum ie. ;
Chabr., 1677, 313, cum ic.
Deer Tongue. Greg., 1883.
II. The Cos Type.
Pena and Lobel,! in 1570, say that this form is but rarely grown
in France and Germany, although common in the gardens of Italy ;
and Heuze? says it was brought from Rome to France by Rabelais
in 1537.
Lactura florescens, Cam. epit., 1586, 299, cum ic.
Lactuca intybacea, Lombard Lettuce. Ger., 1597, 240, eum ic.
ca foliis endivie. Matth. op., 1598, 399, cum ic.
Lactuca Romana longa dulcis. J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 998, cum ic.; Chabr.,
Romaines. Vil,, 1883, 307.
We can reasonably believe the lettuce of Camerarius to be very
close to the Florence Cos. The Lombard lettuce was grown as a
sport in the garden of the New York Agricultural Experiment
Station, in 1886, and the figures by Bauhin and Chabreeus may well
be the Paris Cos, I would not be understood, however, as imply-
, Pena and Lobel. Adv., 1570, 90.
Heuze. Les Pl. Alim., i., V.
986 History of Garden Vegetables.
ing that these figures represent the improved forms of our present
culture, but as the prototypes from which our plants have appeared,
as shown not only by resemblance of leaf form, but through the
study of variables in the garden. Ray, in 1686, describes the Cos
as having light green and dark green varieties, and these, as well
as the Spotted Cos, are indicated by Bauhin in 1623.
III. The Headed Lettuce.
This is the sort commonly grown, and the figures given in the
sixteenth century indicate that the heading habit was even then
firmly established. We have the following synonyms to offer, pre-
mising that types are referred to, and not exact variety resem-
ance :—
a.
Lactuca crispa. Matth., 1558, 264; Pin., 1561, 195.
Lattuga. Cast. Dur., 1617, 243.
La royale? Le Jard. Solit., 1612; Quintyne, 1690, etc.
Laitve Blonde de Berlin, syn. Laitve royale. Vil., 1883, 295.
rlin.
b.
Lactuca sativa sessilis sive capitata. Lob. ic., 1591, i., 242.
Lactuca capitata. Dod., 1616, 645
Very Early Dwarf Green.
Lactuca. Cam. epit., 1586, 298.
Lactuca capitata. Ger., 1597, 240.
Lactuca crispa. Matth. op., 1598, 399.
Batavians. Vil., 188
di
Lattich. Roszlin, i550, 167.
Green Fringed.
This latter identification is from the appearance of the young
plant. The old plant is remarkably,jdifferent, forming a true
rosette.
IV. Cutting and Miscellaneous.
a.
Lactuca crispa aitera. Ger., 1597, 240.
Lactuca crispa et tenuiter dissecta, J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 1000; Chabr.,
1677, 314.
Curled Cutting.
History of Garden Vegetables. 987
b.
Lactuca foliis querni. Ray, 1686, 219.
Oak-leaved.
C.
Capitatam cum pluribus capitibus. J. Bauh., 1651, ii., 998; Chabr.,
77, 813.
Egyptian Sprouting.
The minor variations which are now separated into varieties did
not receive the same recognition in former times, the same variety
name covering what now would be several varieties; thus Quin-
tyne, in 1693, calls perpignans both a green and a pale form, ete.
Green, light green, dark green, red and spotted lettuces are named
in the old botanies; hence we cannot assert any new types have
appeared in modern aiae
The generic names of the lettuce in the various languages are:
in Greek, thridakine, thridakinos, thridax hemeros; in Latin, Lac-
tuca;' in France, laitue cultivee ; in Germany, lattich; in Flanders
and Holland, latouw ; in Denmark, salat; in Italy, lattuga ; in
Spain, lechuga, ensiam ; in Portugal, T ? in Sweden, “erate
and Russia, laktuk;* in Norway, salat;* in Arabic, khass*
khus ;* in Ceylon, salada;7 in China, ye tsai, kiu,’ sheng-tsai, oak
ku;° in Cochin China, rau, diep tau; in Egypt, chaff; in Hin-
distant kahoo;’ in India, kahoo;™ in Japan, kantats, futsu kusa,
too tsisa,
?Grandsagne Pliny. Notes, xii., 354.
? Vilmorin. Les Pl. Po t., 285.
3 Miller’s Dict., 1807.
“Schubeler. Cult. Pfl, den Norw., 85.
5 Delile. Fl. Æg. Til.
* Wilkinson. Anc. Egypt, ii., 22.
' Birdwood. Veg. Prod. of Bomb., 49, 165.
® Loureiro. Fl. Cochinch.,
° Bretschneider. On the Binay ete., 17.
x Speede. Ind. Handb. of Gard., 166.
Kæmpfer. Amcen., 1712, 831.
988 Western Society of Naturalists.
THE WESTERN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS!
BY S. A. FORBES.
‘yen first presidential address of a new society may well have for
its subject the society itself; and the first duty of those
respunsible for such a society is to show its right to exist. There
is only so much social power available for social purposes; why
should we string a new belt to the already heavily burdened shaft,
and tax the groaning engine with the movement of a new machine?
Shall we interrupt and weaken the action of any existing agencies
by this additional draft on the common stock of energy? or may
we believe, on the contrary, that the final effeet of our organization
will be to increase the energy and activity of the whole apparatus ;
that it will react, in time, to supply power greater than that which
it abstracts? In short, what are the objects and purposed uses of
this Society of Western Naturalists? first, as to its own members ;
and second, as to society at large. These questions I shall endeavor
to answer—not authoritatively—for only the Society can spea
with authority for itself—but by way of interpretation and personal
suggestion, hoping at least to raise questions concerning our scope,
intention, and relations, which you may answer finally according
to the common wish and judgment.
It seems proper, first, to say that in asking these questions, and
in my attempts to answer them, I have in mind the present time,
place, and conditions ; that I shall not treat of the work which this
Society might and should perform if it were established in Europe
or on the Atlantic seaboard, or if it were working in the twentieth
century, but I shall inquire what are the ways in which we can
most and best advance the study of our subjects in the present ume
and the immediate future, taking as our starting point the state of
knowledge, the conditions of progress, and the special problems
presenting themselves now in the northern half of the MississipP!
valley. ;
And first, I remark, in phrase now temporarily classic, that “it
is a condition and not a theory that confronts us.” In the course
1 Presidential address delivered at Champaign, Ill., October 24, 1888.
Western Society of Naturalists. 989
ot the development of science in this region, the easy things have
in great part been done. The glittering sands have been largely
passed through the cradle of the pioneer miner; the easily worked
ores have been more or less thoroughly extracted, and we are fast
approaching, if we have not already reached, the period when
accumulated capital, powerful and complicated machinery, and the
expert skill of the mining. engineer are indispensable to the further
development of our natural wealth, When a morning walk along
the banks of the Wabash would give a Say new objects enough to
keep him happily busy for weeks; when the moderately careful
search of a single orchard or garden would yield to Fitch or Walsh,
or the boyish Riley, material enough for an elaborate report; when
the virgin soil of natural science only needed to be tickled with a
hoe to laugh with a harvest, the question of methods and apparatus
was one of quite subordinate importance. Little method and less
machinery were needed to make a man useful and even eminent.
And as for the educational problems with which we now have to deal,
they gave the least imaginable concern, because they were practically
non-existent. Until the movement for an industrial education based
on science began, like a great ground swell, to heave the quiet sur-
face, and until the tidal wave of popular interest and personal
enthusiasm, set in motion by the elder Agassiz at Cambridge, swept
across the West, the question of methods of instruction in natural
history in school or college stood scarcely higher in the general
estimation than that of the study of the language of the inhabit-
ants of Mars. No one troubled himself about either. But since
then, progress has been positive and really rapid, as those can best
believe who have felt the full lift of the surge—has come with a
speed accelerated, in fact, by the coincidence of three great move-
ments,
First, the onward movement of the natural sciences themselves—
a growth which is the continual astonishment of every intelligent
observer, and the despair of all but the ablest and most active
students,
Second, the movement of growth and development in this
nterior region, relatively new, and newest of all in matters of
Science—this again a movement phenomenal in the history of the
world.
990 Western Society of Naturalists.
And third, the progress resulting from the substitution of a
younger and more highly educated working generation for an older
one largely without special training.
From all this has come a recent change of status and surround-
ings, a modification of standards, a shifting of purposes and
responsibilities, an accession of ideas, and a multiplication of duties,
such as to compel us to consider the situation anew, and to urgently
require a reorganization, along new lines, of whatever strength we
can muster. In brief, the old machinery of scientific organization
and development here in the West is much of it obsolete and in-
active, and, taken as a whole, it is insufficient for the present day.
The field of operation proposed by our Society—that of the improve-
ment of methods of work, study, and instruction, is newly opened
up to us by the rapid multiplication and complication of our sub-
jects. The work we shall do is largely a new work, laid upon us
as a condition of further symmetrical growth ; and its performance
is a duty which the promoters and curators of science and education
in this region can avoid only at their own peril, and to the injury
of the interests for which they have made themselves responsible.
we look now to the benefits which we as individuals may hope
to derive from our meetings, I count as most important some of
those which are perhaps least obvious.
We are distinguished especially as a Society by an attention to
methods rather than to results. That each worker should be deeply
interested in whatever improvements of method are brought to
light in his own field goes without saying, for in scientific research
the method is, next to the man, the most important thing; the
quality of the result depends on the choice of it, and the quantity
upon that ready familiarity with it which makes every stroke tell
to the best advantage ; but if this were all, we should find ourselves
splitting up into little sections of specialists, each indifferent to the
other; or resolving ourselves, as an alternative, into a mut
toleration society, each group bearing patiently with the discussions
of the others, that it might have the floor itself in turn. In fact,
however, the methods of the different sciences are much more closely
related than their results, and I am much mistaken if I, as a zo0l0-
gist, shall not learn at least as much from the contributions to
scientific method made by the botanists and geologists as from those
Western Society of Naturalists. 991
in my own field. I may care little for the classification of the
Ustilagineæ, but the methods by which that classification were
worked out may be of the greatest use to me in entomology. I
had occasion at one time to study minutely a purely biological
problem—that of the food preferences of certain families of beetles,
about which too little was known, but found that I could do nothing
with it except by the methods of the insect anatomist, on the one
hand, and of the microscopist on the other. I need to know about
the contagious diseases of insects, as a matter of practicable and
biological entomology, but find myself powerless to investigate
them until I become expert in the methods of the baceriologist and
the cryptogamist generally, and until I can make the nicest of
histological preparations. I would like to learn the life histories
of some phytophagous insects, but by the time I have worked them
out I shall have made a close practical acquaintance with several
of the methods of botany and horticulture. A new piece of appa-
ratus in the hands of the mineralogist will suggest to the botanist
a device solving a difficulty which has long blocked his way in some
tempting line of investigation. I wish now that some chemist would
tell me how to distinguish spherical pigment granules, by chemical
means, from micrococci. That item of chemical method would
break down a barrier against which I have bumped my head in vain
for a year.
And if this is so with methods of research, much more is it true
of methods of instruction. The geologist has to do primarily with
rocks and fossils, the botanist with plants, and the zoologist with
animals; but teachers of whatever subject all have to do primarily
and chiefly with the human mind and the training of it, and teachers
of whatever natural science have special ends in view with respect
to the training of mind not very widely different. If I shall be
profited by knowing how the geologist does his work, much more
shall I be pleased to learn how he leads his classes; and it is to be
hoped that the discussions of teaching methods to which our meet-
ings should give rise will result finally in the common acknowedg-
ment and established use by all of us of certain principles and
methods, such that our work may have a uniform character, and
its results a definite value, not wholly dependent on the point of
view and the personal idiosyncrasy of the instructor.
.
992 Western Society of Naturalists.
While our community of interests, this overlapping and inter-
mingling of methods, brings us into closer fellowship than if this
were an academy of sciences merely, so the motive that induces us
must give our meetings an air of cordiality, of mutual gratitude,
and good will. He who reads me a paper embodying results of
research—the finished product of his work—may do it for my
benefit, or possibly for his own—it sometimes takes evidence to
determine which; but he who takes me into his shop, and shows
me just how and with what he works, exposes to me the skilled
methods which have yielded the results I admire and emulate, does
that for me, there is no doubt about it.
We may be sure that the contributors to our programmes will
be governed by a generous wish to share with each other the most
precious items of their knowledge, those on which they especially
depend for their own professional success.
‘hen we shall profit greatly, beyond a doubt, by the knowledge
gained of the state and progress of science and education in our
midst, as we hold our successive meetings in the various centres of
education and research throughout our territory ; and thus we shall
learn what is the best thing which we as a Society can do for science
in this region, and in each part of this region, from year to year,
and shall be prepared always to welcome intelligently, and readily
- to assimilate the new energies penetrating to our midst—avoiding,
on the one hand, that attitude of selfish and obstinate conservatism,
which, acting on the unprincipled motto, “After us the deluge,”
would sweep back the future with its burden of progress; and, on
the other hand, rapidly, but genially, toning down the crude and
intolerant egotism of the occasional brand new man, who thinks
to himself, “ Before me chaos.” And so we shall hold, I hope, to —
the golden mean of vigorous and rapid, but continuous and har-
monious, growth.
But the scientist is also a citizen, and all the more a citizen the
more a scientist he is, if he knows his own interest and duty. His
social responsibilities, like those of all other men, increase with hie
capacity, with his possible importance as a factor in the social
scheme; and he has a special social interest due to the fact that the
higher the grade of his work, the more important to him, the mof?
nearly indispensable, indeed, is a high grade of social organization
Western Society of Naturalists. 993
about him—a fine and intelligent spirit; for without these, the
institutions, the enterprises, essential to his success can neither be
established nor maintained. Each scientific society, if it is to live
and thrive, must serve as a centre of upheaval for the community
at large. If we unite and firmly bind ourselves in a society of
restricted numbers, and with somewhat limited conditions of admis-
sion, this is not done with any unworthy purpose of discriminating
in our own favor, or of confining to our membership the benefits
of our association, but to give unity and distinctive character to
our influence, that it may reach farther and go deeper than if the
energy of our organization were to be chiefly spent in keeping our-
selves alive,
And so we may inquire, what is to be our outside influence? I
think that we may reasonably expect, acting within the limits of
our organization, and along the line of our special purposes, to have
a stimulating and directive influence upon the science work of the
educational institutions and associations of this region, upon the
local scientific societies with which we are connected, and, through
our meetings and papers, upon the more intelligent part of the -
general public. While ours is not primarily an association of
teachers, but of original workers in science, it so happens that most
of us teach, and there is certainly no way in which we can advance
science more effectively than by sending out classes of bright and
ambitious pupils prepared for research. Discussions of the methods
of this work must consequently always be in order; and besides
this internal work and influence, I believe that we should lay down,
advocate, and defend a few general principles—bearing, for example,
on the relations of instruction and investigation, on the main ends
_ Of training in science, on the selection, arrangement, and co-ordina-
tion of subjects in each division of the courses in which we are
especially interested; on the amount, kind, and time of introduc-
tion, of primary work in science preparatory to that of our higher
institutions of learning, and the like. Preliminary, however, to
any application of such principles to the actual situation in this
region, we certainly and especially need to examine the situation
itself, with respect to the institutions which we represent, to others
not connected with us by membership of their instructors, and to
the preparatory and high schools generally. I would greatly like
994 Western Society of Naturalists.
to see a committee or committees raised which should report to us
at our next meeting a well-digested exhibit of these matters.
Nothing could be more useful to us, and nothing, I think, would
bring our work more directly and favorably to the notice of our
immediate public. And then, in the papers and discussions of our
school and college associations, in our State and more local scientific
societies and academies, we should bring to bear the ideas and
principles established by discussion here, and so carry the work
outward by concerted action, as by a movement in line.
To our semi-scientific and scientific associates outside this body,
we should, of course, carry whatever new thing of applicable value
our meetings give us possession of, and thus enlarge the circle of
the Society’s influence. In these and other ways I hope that we
might do much to increase the number of intelligent local observers
and earnest independent students—now far too few in this region—
and thus help to create and sustain a scientific sentiment, in which
the present and approaching generation certainly fall far short of
that now going out of action. It is a suicidal blunder to dis-
` courage the amateur, to undervalue the mere collector of speci-
mens and reporter of facts, to create the impression, either wilfully
or unwittingly, that none but the very learned have anything to do
with the promotion of science. We cannot hang the truncated
apex of our pyramid to the stars, not even to those of the German
heaven—and if we could, we should not, for, after all, science 1s
for man, and not man for science. The general public, it might
seem, can scarcely be interested—even the more intelligent part of
it—in a conference of specialists respecting their methods of tech-
nical work, and yet I think that this view is not altogether correct.
Whoever cares for the results of scientific inquiry must usually be
curious, at least, concerning the methods by which those often sur-
prising results are reached—and frequently the method is by far
the more interesting and the more easily understood. While
much of our discussion of details would be tedious, and many
fragmentary contributions incomprehensible, we might, I think,
at least prepare at each meeting one or more evening programmes
for the general public, setting forth fully and systematically several
of the more remarkable and interesting processes of the biological
laboratory and the geological office; the pure culture of bacteria,
Western Society of Naturalists. 995
the methods of minute measurement, and those of microphotography,
the preparation of serial sections and the like—all to be used, per-
haps, as illustrations of the general method of science at large.
For, after all, the method of science, if the general public only
knew it, is of greater importance to them than its matter. The
method of science is simply the swre method, and the simplest and
most economical consistent with certainty. Any other is either
wasteful or unsafe. To know, to appreciate, to command this
method, is to control resources beside which the mere knowledge of
facts has but little significance.
It will be the most important public function of this Society to
extend the knowledge and the use of the method of science, applied
in the spirit of science, among the unscientific. The great mission
of science is two-fold—to reveal the universe, and to rationalize the
human mind. The first of these tasks, vast as it is, is still compara-
tively easy, for it is wrought out directly by the scientist himself
applying the methods and apparatus of research to the facts of
nature; but the second is immeasurably more difficult, because it
can only be accomplished by a sort of a beneficent contagion affect-
ing the spontaneous activities of the individual mind; by the
persuasive influence of example, and a perceived superiority of
results. To improve every occasion to expose, to commend, and to
illustrate the scientific method, to encourage its application, to lead
in its use in the common affairs of life and society —in business, in
politics, in ethics, in whatever affects the welfare of man as a social
being, is a duty to our kind, the importance of whose performance
we shall never perhaps see more eloquently illustrated than by the
occurrences of the present moment, when some of the greatest
Interests of one of the greatest nations of history are hanging on the
decision of a purely scientific question by unscientific minds, worked
upon by methods as little scientific as one can well imagine.
It thus seems certain, finally, that our young Society cannot
languish for want of a field appropriate and peculiar to itself, for
lack of a varied, greatly needed, and highly important work, bene-
ficial to its members and to the general community—a work which
nothing else is now attempting, and which, if we do not do it,
seems likely to remain undone. The quality of our membership,
the number and spirit of those in attendance on this, our first
996 Sketches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.
annual meeting, the valuable character of our programme, are all
an earnest of growth and active labor. Let us all lend the promis-
ing youngster our warmest wishes for a vigorous and useful career,
and join in the cheer, long life, and a busy one, to the Western
Society of Naturalists.
SKETCHES OF THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS OF
OREGON.
BY E. D. COPE.
To Cascade Mountains of Oregon are destined to be the favor-
ite resort of tourists who love all that is most beautiful, im-
pressive and wild in mountain scenery. Lying over one of the
greatest of the fractures of the earth’s crust, they represent the
remains of successive outflows of molten material at its source.
The basis of the range is eruptive, and displays the irregularities
of surface due to such origin within comparatively recent geological
ages, and to the rapid erosion which naturally occurs in a humid
climate. Thus gorges of great depth traverse its masses, and preci-
pices of tremendous height bound many of its elevations. Beautiful
lakes nestle in its depressions, and waterfalls leap from level to
level on their way to the tributaries of the Columbia. All is
clothed in sombre forest of conifers, of larger proportions or more
elegant foliage than can be found in any other region. High above
all these mountains tower at intervals along the range, the great
snow-peaks which give the region its especial beauty. These are
extinct volcanoes which raised themselves round vents which long
remained open, and which poured out lava, scorie, pumice and
ashes, after the great fissure was closed.
The great lava outflow from the Cascade Mountain fissure is one
of the most extensive the world has ever seen, and was one of the
most destructive in its consequences. There were several distinct
periods of outflow, two being especially distinguishable in the strati-
graphy of central Oregon. Between the outflows from this and
from lesser sources to the eastward, a country of eight hundred
Sketches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. 997
miles in east and west extent, and one hundred and fifty miles from
north to south, was covered with lava and other ejectamenta, ren-
dering it uninhabitable by animal life. The volcanic materials are
found for several hundred miles to the north, àt some points con-
tinuously with the great tract I have mentioned. The exact
connection with the latter remains to be ascertained ; but both were
deposited at about the same geological period ; viz.: from some time
in the Eocene to late in the Miocene ages. The area covered is not
less than 1,600,000 square miles in extent, embracing all of central
and southern Oregon and southern Idaho, and large tracts in
Tacoma, Territory. As an offset to this terrible and unexampled
desolation of one of the fairest parts of the earth’s surface, we have
the great snow-peaks standing as silent and imperishable monu-
menis of one of the most tremendous of the wars of the elements
that the later earth has experienced.
The grand tour of Oregon is commenced by crossing the gap in
the Cascade range at Ashland, just north of the California border,
and visiting the Klamath Lake on the eastern side of the water-
shed. Turning northward, the tourist should visit the Crater Lake,
twenty-five miles from Fort Klamath, and return. Then go north-
ward again on the edge of the plateau that overlooks the valley of
the Des Chutes River toward the west, from which the highest of
the ranges of the Cascades rise, and may be seen in all their mag-
nificence. Continuing on this road, now a stage route, the Dalles
of the Columbia river are reached. Thence take the steamer down
the river for Portland. The scenery of the long pass of the Colum-
bia through the Cascade Mountains has been often praised, but
never too highly. From Portland excellent means of transpor-
tation south, up the Willamet valley, will return the traveller to
Ashland again, and the grand tour is completed. A trip from
Portland to the resorts on the coast-range must not be omitted, for
from these can be seen, it is said, twenty of the snow-capped sum-
mits of Oregon and Tacoma (Washington), on the one side, and the
boundless waters of the Pacific Ocean on the other. -
The traveller must make this journey in a private conveyance, if
he can do so, excepting as to the Columbia River. He should
commence at Sisson’s, at Mount Shasta, in northern California,
Then he will see the mountains in all their changing moods at his
998 Shetches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.
leisure. He will become personally acquainted with each of the
great landmarks as he passes them one by one. First, Shasta of
colossal dimensions. Then the perfectly regular Mount Pitt, which
overlooks Lake Klamath. Then the Batchelor with blunt apex ;
next Mount Cope, with its dome and its lower twin summit; and
twenty miles to the north, the two peaks of Mount Condon joined
at their bases, acute and inaccessible. At a longer interval follows
Mount Jefferson, which rears its immense bell-shaped mass from
a widely spreading base, to a height of 13,000 feet. Finally,
near the Columbia, the perfect cone of Mount Hood lifts its head
14,000 feet and more to the skies. The form of all these peaks is
essentially Andean. They are, like Popocatapetl, Cotopaxi,
and Pichincha, of a general conical form, and thus quite different
from the mountains of the Rocky range, or the Alps, which are
mostly culminations of larger masses, or rise from plateaus, so that
the visual effect of their elevation above the sea is largely lost.
The case is quite different with ranges whose base is, like that of
the Cascades, but little elevated above the sea. In the latter nearly
the entire elevation is visible. The Cascades also, gathering the
moisture from the ocean in a northern latitude, receive and display a
greater deposit of snow than ranges of greater elevation in drier or
more southern regions. (Plates XX and XXIT.)!
Although there are many lovely lakes in the Cascade Mountains,
none is so remarkable as Crater Lake. This is a body of water
which occupies an extinct crater of large size. It is of an oval
form and about eight miles by six in diameter. The walls which
surround the water rise to a height varying from 900 to 3,000 feet,
and they are so precipitous that their descent is practicable at very
few points. At the time of my visit (in 1879) but one mode of
access to the water was known to my guides. This I descended to
the water’s edge. It is a very steep washed slope covered with loose
stones and scoriz, among which the descent is much more easy
than the ascent. To the south of the centre of the lake is an island
which consists principally of a volcanic cone, with a distinct erater
in its summit. This represents the latest centre of activity of the
voleano. Its sides were covered with tall firs at the time of MY
visit. The depth of the water is very great. Captain C. E. Dut-
ton, of the present U. S. Geological Survey, informed me that he
1 The plates referred to will appear in the next number of the N aturalist-
Sketches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. 999
obtained 1,900 feet as the greatest depth, and 1,500 as the average,
in 1886. (Plate XXI.)
At the time of my visit Colonel Whipple was in command at
Fort Klamath. He carried out a projected visit to Crater Lake at
this time and kindly gave me the opportunity to accompany him.
As we left the Post we were greeted by the clamor of the beautiful
white-headed woodpeckers (Picus albolarvatus Cassin) which
nested in the tall pines near the officers’ quarters. We soon
seven-mile creek, which abounds in the red-spotted trout of the
Pacific coast, or the “ dolly-varden ” (Salvelinus malma), and com-
menced the ascent. We followed the course of a mountain torrent
which often disclosed in its precipitous banks the friable volcanic
material of which the mountain is composed. Sand and ashes, with
here and there strata of fragments of scoria and lava were princi-
pally visible. The soil was evidently good, for it supported a
luxuriant forest of trees and undergrowth. Prominent among the
former are two beautiful firs, whose foliage is elegant but broadly
contrasted in character and appearance. These are the Abiés nobilis,
and the A. pattoniana. The foliage of the former is rigid, and the
disposition of the terminal branches almost rectangular. The
green is of a rather dark shade. The second species is, on the other
hand, feathery in foliage and gracefully drooping in branches,
and the green is paler. Above both these species towers the
monarch of the north-west, the Douglass fir (Abiés doug/assii), the
largest species of its genus, forming the bulk of the forest. But it
yields in height to the occasional sugar pine, Pinus lambertiana, with
its graceful candelabra-like branches and long cones, the tallest of
pines and a fit mate for the Douglass fir.
On our ascent we passed a herd of blacktail deer, which were
browsing in security on an open slope of the creek banks. By
evening we were encamped on a babbling run under the shade of
towering firs. The whisky-jacks, Perisoreus canadensis, flitted from
branch to branch, and descended to inspect our proceedings with
their usual familiarity. Half jay and half titmouse, this bird
makes a home of every camp, and tends no little to relieve the
Sense of savage wildness by its pretty and confiding ways.
By early morning we were at the summit. This was simply
an open grassy expanse on the eastern edge of the awful chasm,
1000 Sketches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.
surrounded by an irregular border of the forest. The day was
clear, and everything could be seen in perfection. Far down on
the water I descried a moving white speck, probably a trumpeter
swan, as no smaller bird would have been visible at the distance.
Across the gulf rose the two points of the mountain called by the
hunters the “ Rabbit’s Ears;” and further to the north-west the
aiguille, known as “ Cowhorn Peak.” The water of the lake glis-
tened in the sun, oblivious to the awful scenes that had once ren-
dered this place the pandemonium of the continent. I descended
to the water’s edge, and examined carefully for traces of animal life.
I found a very young larva of a salamander. More fully grown
specimens have been since obtained by Lieutenant Carpenter, U.
S. Army, and sent to the National Museum, which are probably the
young of Amblystoma macrodactylum, the only salamander that has
been found adult in that region. Then I found larve of Phrygan-
eide and Ephemeride, and some minute crustacea, as Gammari and
water-fleas. Among the rocks on and beside the slope, the “ little
chief” hare, Lagomys princeps, crept in and out, uttering the while
its peculiar plaintive ery. It is a rather tame animal, and appa-
rently possessed of much curiosity, but it has always a fissure in the
rock at hand into which it retreats if one approaches too near.
The walls of the crater on the eastern side are made up of suc-
cessive layers of lava, scoria, sand, ashes, pumice, ete., all repre-
senting successive eruptions and parts of eruptions. The mass is in
places friable, and is penetrated by the waters of the lake at differ-
ent points, thus giving origin to springs and streams.
At Fort Klamath the soil rests on a deep stratum of pumice.
Some of the exposures show this to be broken up and water worn,
but at other places it forms a continuous spongy mass. Ina stratum
of this kind, just below the soil, were cut the four graves of the
Modoc Indians, who were hung for the assassination of General
Canby, the commissioner sent by the United States to treat with the
tribe. These graves were cut out with right angles and borders
by the simple use of a sharp spade. At the time of my visit all of
them had been rifled, and the bodies taken away. I afterwards
obtained the skeleton of one of them. It is characterized by 4
platycnemic tibia, and tritubercular second and third superior molars.
Soon after this visit I left Fort Klamath for a geological explo-
PLATE XIX.—View from Lake Klamath, looking north towards Crater Lake.
Sketches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. 1001
ration of the Oregon desert. Of this I may have something to say
at another time. I found unexpected assistance in this exploration
through Mr. Charles Whittaker, son of the Governor of the State,
who kindly placed his time and conveyance at my disposal, and
accompanied me to Fossil Lake, and the sandy region beyond.
We returned via Silver Lake, and took the main road for the
Dalles. This road runs north along the western edge of the sage-
brush and the eastern border of the valley of the Des Chutes river.
There is nothing to obstruct the view of the Cascade range from
this road, and as the greatest elevation of the range is at its eastern
border, the view of it from this road is the finest that can be ob-
tained. At a point twenty to twenty-five miles south of Prineville,
nearly half the length of the Oregonian portion of the range is
included in the panorama, at a least distance of seventy-five miles.
From the line of forest-covered mountains rise five magnificent
snow-peaks to heights varying from 10,000 to nearly 15,000 feet
above sea level. To the north is Hood; then succeeds Jefferson ;
then Condon, Cope, and the Batchelor. As these mountains do not
rise from a plateau as do those of Colorado, the effect they produce
is more impressive than that of mountains of greater elevation in
the latter region. The wedge of Hood and the cone of Jefferson
only find their counterparts in the celebrated volcanoes of the Cor-
dilleras, whose praises have been often celebrated ; but nowhere can
five Cotopaxis be seen at one view, but in the Cascades of Oregon.
They are ideal mountains, grandly simple, whose outlines, rising from
base tosummit, are on ly interrupted by vast precipices. They pierce the
blue sky with a vertical mile and more of purest white “as no fuller
can white,” save where the crags are too steep for the snow to cling.
When I first saw Mount Hood, nothing but its cone was visible,
an island of light, floating in a sea of clouds. When I saw it last,
clouds had again separated its summit from the earth, and the rays
of the sun gave it an Alpengliihn which resembled the red glow of
a furnace, rather than the cold sheen of the ice-peak. Mount
Condon is a double mountain, consisting of two peaks with sharp
Summits, connected by a high saddleback. Its outlines are as steep
_as those of the others, and it presents an immense surface of snow.
Mount Cope is twenty miles south. Its summit is an obtuse
cone surrounded by impassible precipices. It is next to Mount
1002 Sketches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.
Jefferson in elevation. These mountains are two of the four some-
times called the “Three Sisters.” They were given distinct
names by the late Dr. Hayden, director of the U. S. Geological
Survey of the Territories, but his ill health and death prevented his
issuing any publication on the subject. Mount Condon was dedi-
cated to Professor Thomas Condon, of the University of Oregon, a
distinguished teacher of geology, and the discoverer of the Miocene
beds of the John Day river, of Oregon, which have produced so
many remarkable vertebrate fossil remains. The Batchelor has an
obtuse apex and resembles somewhat Mount Etna in its outline.
A general view of these mountains is given in the accompanying
sketches, which I took from two of our camps. One of the last
views I gained of the snow-peaks was in the morning as the sun
rose, The valley of the Des Chutes was, as before described, filled
with white clouds, and these rose to such an elevation as to conceal
all but the summits of the volcanic cones. As the sun’s rays rested
on them they all glowed with such intensity that they could be well
compared to masses of red-hot iron suspended in the heavens ; and
by a stretch of imagination be conceived as once more in their hoary
age, ablaze with their internal fires, attempting to revive the terrible
glories of the past.
Our road took us away from these sublime scenes of the upper
world, to equally extraordinary, if not as gigantic exhibitions of the
ancient activity of the volcanoes in the bowels of the earth. We
descended into the canyon of the Des Chutes and followed its cvurse
for many miles. The descent could not have been less than 2,000
feet, and was accomplished by zigzags and stages innumerable.
Prof. Newberry has described this canyon in his report in the series
of the U. S. Pacific R. R. Survey volumes. Its walls display &
remarkable section of the materials which the eruptive forces cast
far and wide, or forced to flow over this afflicted country. High
upon the walls of the canyon isa horizontal layer of columnar basalt,
the columns vertical. Below this, separated by many feet of a
friable deposit, is a stratum of well defined, apparently sedimentary,
rock. A deep bed of ash is followed below by another bed of
columnar basalt, and this again after an intermediate soft stratum,
by a third bed. In the two lower beds the columns are variously
disposed, They are frequently curved, forming concentric arcs,
Editors’ Table. 1003
disposed in various directions according to locality. Sometimes the
columns are horizontal, resembling piled cord-wood, and all are
generally regular and more or less artificial looking.
From this extraordinary gorge we finally issued on a rolling
country well covered with bunch-grass, which continued to our
destination, the Dalles, on the Columbia river.
`
EDITORY TABLE.
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY.
In the annual address of the President of the Biological Society
of Washington, Mr. G. Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution, uses the following language:! “I
think the general tendency of a careful study of the distribution of
scientific men and institutions, is to show that the people of the
United States, except in so far as they sanction by their approval the
work of scientific departments of the Government, and the institu-
tions established by private munificence, have little reason to be
proud of the national attitude towards science.” This indictment is
brought after a careful survey of the ground bya naturalist of
undoubted competency, and of exceptional opportunities for acquir-
ing information. We are compelled to agree with Secretary Goode,
and can, we think, point out some of the conditions of this state of
affairs.
Our complaint is that the average American citizen does not
know what original scientific research is, and that if he acquires
wealth, and wishes to do something for the benefit of his fellow-
men, as he does more frequently than the citizen of any other
country, he does not do anything for the production of knowledge.
He devotes money to schools and to libraries, but towards the
creation of the books to be used in them, and the truths to be taught
in them, he does nothing. Forgetting the lessons of his business
training, he apparently imagines that knowledge is derived from
_ Some mysterious internal process of the mind, and that the producer
1 1887, pp. 92-3.
1004 Editors’ Table.
needs neither material nor apparatus. He supposes that he can
make money and scientific discoveries at the same time, and so does
not need food, clothing, nor shelter. Or if these essentials be pro-
vided, he exacts such an amount of teaching from the unfortunate
recipient, that scientific production is suppressed at its fountain-
head. Yet these good people like to talk about the scientific pro-
gress of the age, and of the benefits that it confers on mankind,
Of course most of this comes from an ignorance of what great fields
of knowledge remain yet unexplored, and an incapacity to under-
stand what a change will be wrought in our thoughts and acts by
the acquisition of that knowledge. The solution of the great mystery
of the relations of mind to matter has no interest for them; or, if
it has, carries with it no impress of utility. Perhaps some people
of little faith fear the results of such knowledge, not reflecting that
it is better to traverse the paths of life and death with one’s eyes
open, rather than with them shut.
The actual state of original research in America justifies the lan-
guage of Secretary Goode. The number of positions available for the
original investigator in the country is small, and many of these are
occupied by incompetent persons who add little or nothing to scien-
tificknowledge. Our so-called “Academies of Science”! have become
lyceums, where little beyond popular display and instruction is
attempted. It is true that most of these societies publish “ Proceed-
ings,” ete., but whence the material to fill these publications with
worthy matter is to come, they do not concern themselves. The
perversion of these societies from their true object is inevitable, so
long as they are compelled to elect members for financial reasons.
After Academies of Science come the Universities. Here the
same spirit presents the same obstacles to research. But little time
is granted the professors in most of them, and in one case the posi-
tion has been distinctly announced, that original research does the
University no good. The philistinism is here fairly expressed,
and the issue is made. Continental Europe is, however, against
this modern barbarism, and progress can still find congenial climes.
Germany still turns out her volumes rich with observation and
thought, on a financial basis so small as to furnish little more than
buttons and kid gloves for a fashionable American family.
1 Except the U. S. National Academy.
Recent Literature. 1005
But Americans are not Germans, replies a gentleman “of the old
school”, If so, what is. the difference? We have the financial
ability, and there is no deficiency of mind in certain classes in the
United States. One answer is, that there is a dissociation of the
mind and the money. Occasionally an attempt is made to effect a
combination. Sometimes the method is grotesque; as when a
wealthy merchant recently offered a University the sum of $200,000,
to put his son through a four years’ course, and make him a professor
afterwards, Sometimes the attempt is successful, as in the case of
the Allis Laboratory of Milwaukee. We can only say may there
be many Allises in the future of our history, and may they be as
judicious in their selection of workmen.
We suspect, however, that this state of affairs will not last. The
Universities are doing their good work of educating the people,
and from these will spring, from time to time, men who understand
the growth of the human mind, and how to aid it.
RECENT LITERATURE.
WINCHELL’s GEOLOGICAL SruDIES.!—[In this work we have an
aid to the study of Geology in its various departments, which will
have a distinct influence in advancing the knowledge of the science.
The student, whether in the school-room or in the field, will find its
med undoubted, whether the clearness of the descriptions or the
excellence of the illustrations be taken into account. The long
experience of the distinguished author, both in original research,
and in teaching, qualify him especially for the production of a work
like the present. The departments of stratigraphic and dynamic
geology may be specified as the best, as they are the most extended
divisions of the book. We cannot speak as highly of the palæon-
tological part. The list of the “ most important types of animals
and plants,” beginning on page 305, is mostly constructed either after
antiquated models, or else after false lights of modern character.
The Vertebrata are especially bad, and the nomenclature adopted is
mostly one which the student will have to forget, if he or she be so
unfortunate as to have remembered it. With this defect remedied
in future editions we can heartily recommend the work for general
! Geological Studies or Elements of Geology for High Schools, Nor-
mal and other Schools; with 367 illustrations. By Alexander Winchell,
LL.D. Second edition: Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 8vo. pp. 513.
-10.06 Recent Literature.
JORDAN’S MANUAL OF THE VERTEBRATES.'—In this, the latest
‘edition of this well-known work, Dr. Jordan has completely revised
the text, turning it end for end, condensing and rewriting almost
every page, as well as increasing its scope by admitting to its pages
the littoral forms of the Atlantic Coast of the United States. The
work is apparently fairly well done both by author and manu-
facturer, though we might criticise the classification adopted
in some cases, or pick out here and there errors of anatomical
statement, for Dr. Jordan is confessedly no anatomist, but takes
his structural knowledge at second hand. Books of this kind
constitute the most popular and useful introductions to the sciences
of which they treat, but it must be remembered that they constitute
introductions only.
e fault lies not in the keys but in the use to which they are
put. They serve the poor teacher, and enable him to do the poor-
est kind of work with the least possible expenditure of brain force.
All he has to do is to give the student a bird or a fish and one of
` these manuals and the work is done. The poor student, imagining
that he is deriving mental discipline by the operation, but not
clearly realising where it comes in, struggles with the inoffensive
fish or fowl down through pages of “keys,” until at last he cap-
tures a Latin name which seems to fit it. As has been wittily said,
“ it is like tracking a woodchuck to a hole, when you get there all
you have isa hole.” ‘Yet this process is daily going on in hun-
dreds of our high-schools and scores of our colleges to-day. In
many an institution which rejoices under the name of University
the biological „students never learn a single anatomical fact, never
hear a single embryological statement; their whole knowledge o
the varied forms of life around them consists in having learned the
names of a few dozen vertebrates and flowering plants. While the
botanical manuals of Wood and Gray are largely responsible for the
wide taste for botany in the United States, they are too often
regarded as the summum bonum of the science by the teacher.
True zoologists must be on the alert or similar works upon the
animal side will be used in the same superficial way. |
-1 Jordan, David Starr. A manual of the Vertebrate Animals of the
Northern United States, including the district north and east of the
‘Ozark Mountains, south of the Laurentian Hills, north of the southern
boundary of Virginia, and east of the Missouri River. Inclusive ©
Marine species. Fifth edition. Chicago, 1888.
Recent Books and Pamphlets. 1007
RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.
Studies from the Morphological Laboratory of the ee of Cam-
Vol. III. Part2. From the Balfour Libra
enod, aa hard J.—Beiträge zur Kenntniss der abek ei des
s opticus ane a Glaskérpers bei Sféiugethieren. Erlangen,
888. FR rom the au
De Man, J. a ene of the Mergui Archipelago, Part III. Ext.
Jour. Lin n Socy. Vol. XXII. 1888, From the author
Heathcote, F. G.—The Post-embry onic sd ret of Julus terrestris. `
Ext. Phil. Trans. 1888. From the aut
Edwards C. L.—Winter Roosting crops of Crows. Am. Jour. Psy-
chology. 1888, From the aut thor
Mitsukuri, K., and Ishikawa, C.—On the Formation of the*Germinal
Layers in the Chelonia. ‘Ext. Q. J.M. S5. XXVII. 1886. From
the authors
Weismann, A. Poe Ishikawa, C.—Ueber Partielle Befriichtung. Ext.
Bericht Naturf. Gesellsch. Freiburg. 1888. From the authors.
Beddard, F. E.—On Certain Points in the Visceral Anatomy of the
Lacertilia, particularly of Monitor. Ext. Proc. Zool. Soc. London
1888.—Visceral Anatomy of Baleniceps rex; The respiratory
organs in certain Troe ae Ext. Proc. Zool. Soc. ondon,
1888. Both from the auth
pial ms, BR. Pah aan on the oe gd of Gallus bankiva.
t. Jour. Comp. Surg. and Med. From the author.
eg G. B.—The Beginnings of American Science in the Third Cen-
tury. Ext. Proc. Biol. Socy. Washington, 1888. From niy author.
rmu
18
ties. Ext. The Maea 1885. Both from the author
ain a W.—Recent Notes on Scaphiopus holbrookii. From the
E : W.—The Osteology of Habia melanocephala, with compar-
ative notes on the piselotoni of oera other Conte birds and
of Tanagers. Ext. Auk. Vol. V. From the author.
1008 General Notes.
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.
GENERAL.—THE VOYAGES AND FATE or La PEROUSE.—
Apropos of the centenary of the death of La Perouse, the Bulletin of
the Geographical Society of France gives a summary of the voyages
of that unfortunate navigator. The Boussole and the Astrolabe,
under his command, left Brest August 1, 1785, doubled Cape Horn
on February 8 of the next year, reached the Sandwich Islands in
May, made the coast of America near Mount St. Elias on June 23,
followed it to Monterey, and thence crossed the Pacific to Macao.
On April 9, 1787, the expedition started again to reconnoitre the
Japanese Isles and the coast of Tartary. The island of Dagelet
was discovered May 27; the strait of La Perouse, between Sagha-
lien and Jesso, soon after ; and on December 9 the vessels anchored
at Mauna, one of the Navigator group. Here M. de Langle, the
commander of the Boussole, together with the naturalist Lamanon
and ten men, were surrounded by the natives and killed. The last
letter that reached France from La Perouse was dated February 7,
1788. The story of the discovery of the remains of the expedition
at Vanikoro, in the Fiji, is told by Vice Admiral Paris, the last
survivor of the expedition sent out in 1826 under the orders of
Dumont d’Urville. The Astrolabe, commanded by this captain,
was only a small transport bearing the name of a corvette. At
Vanikoro information was obtained that five bronze cannon
and some skulls of Europeans were in possession of the natives,
and also that a vessel had been wrecked there and its crew mas-
sacred. The débris of the frigate Astrolabe was finally found
opposite the village of Paiou. A monument to the memory °
La Perouse was raised upon the islet of Manevai.
Asta.—Tuer ErunograpHy or Hrnpustay.—F. v Hellwald
(Ausland, Nos. 31-35) has an article upon the ethnography of Hin-
dustan. The 252,000,000 of inhabitants belong to four races,
black, yellow, Turanian, and Aryan. The primitive popula
consisted of two types, one Malay, still to be found in the south an
on the Malabar coast; the other Semitic, still existing in the Nil-
ghirries and in the north of India. This primitive population was
driven back by Turanians descending the Brahmaputra valley A
and these invasions precede the historical period. The mixture ©
these Turanians with the indigenes gave rise to the Protodravidas,
1 Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa. |
Geography and Travel. 1009
and from the mingling of the latter with the Mongols arose the
Dravidas or Tamals. The defiles of Afghanistan first let in the
Turks, who spread over the Indus valleys, and afterwards the
Aryans, who extended their rule to the Vindya Mountains, and
further south became mingled with the older peoples, forming the
Bheel, Dhang, and other tribes. In the eleventh century the
various Mussulman peoples added to the ethnographical confusion.
THE Amur VALLEY.—M. Venukoff contributes to the Sep-
tember number of the Revue de Géographie an account of the region
of the Amur, which he characterizes as fit for colonization. The
vast country watered by the Amur and its affluents, the Zeya,
Bureya, Tunguska, etc., flowing from the Stanovoy mountains,
consists of fertile plains and rolling or rugged surfaces in about
ual proportions. The fertile part comprises an area equal to a
third of that of France. This plain country consists chiefly of five
separate portions, two of which, that in the basin of Lake Evoron
and that upon the lower Amur, have a fresh and humid climate,
while the other three, higher up the Amur, and reaching to the
base of the Touine, Wanda, and Little Khingan mountains, offer
all that is necessary for the existence of European agriculturists.
The population of these plains does not at present exceed 85,000
Russians, Chinese, Coreans, and Tungusians all told.
Arrica.—Tur FRENCH IN SenEGAMBIA.—The progress of
French rule in the Senegambian region since 1881 has been very
considerable. At that date Colonel Borgnis Desbordes left St.
Louis, imposed contributions on several rebellious chiefs and entered
Kita early in 1882. Though he had only 220 fighting men and
could expect no help from the timid indigenes, he entered into a
campaign against Samory. The latter was defeated, and the town
of Keniéra fell into the hands of the French. Those who doubt
the propriety of European interference in Africa, would do well to
read M. Pietri’s description of the sight which met the conquerors
on entering the town. “In the plains around the village were
corpses and their detached heads; a little farther rose heaps of
cinders yet burning and mingled with the blackened bones of the
prophet’s victims, and the wells of the village were also full of
toe * * * * * * Our soldiers found some unfortunates
still alive, suffering from ugly wounds, the executioners not having
ad time to finish them. Even these horrors were less harrowing
than the sight of the families of the victims, naked, fleshless, living
statues of hunger who stretched out their arms to our soldiers praying
for food.” In 1882 the same Colonel attacked and took Murgala
and Daba, thus breaking the power of the Toucouleurs and also of
the Bambaras, who bravely defended the latter town. Bamaku, on
1010 General Notes.
the Niger, was reached early in 1883, but a league was formed
against the French, and the Spahis, spite of their bravery and the
great loss of the enemy, were compelled to retreat, only again to
advance and gain victory after victory, thus assuring the domi-
nation of the Upper Niger and the rule of a country equal toa
third of France.
The French in Senegambia soon encountered a new enemy in
the person of Mahmadu Lamine, a Mussulman of Kayes, who
resolved to found a new empire in the Sudan by playing the rôle
of prophet. In 1886 the marabout had fifteen to twenty thousand
men grouped around Kayes, yet by the end of the year his power
was broken. A treaty was made with Samory in 1887. He
accepted the Tankisso as the limits of his state and placed his
country under French protection. ;
M. Vigué (Rev. Sci., Oct. 27, 1888) contributes an interesting
article on the tribes of Senegambia. Notwithstanding the chaos of
tribes the author believes that all the indigenous peoples may be
referred to two stocks ; one of them the Guinean proper, the other
comprising the Mandingoes, Fulahs, and tribes formed by the
intermingling of these two. 'The numerous foreign Sudanese,
Walofs, Toucouleurs, etc., are not comprised in either of these
categories. The peoples of the coast of Senegambia, all of them
miserable fetichists, appear to be of the same stock with the more
powerful tribes found farther south, such as the Ashantis and
nations of the Lower Niger. These Guinean tribes have been
pushed back by the invading Mandingos and Fulahs, until only
a narrow strip on the coast was left to them, and would without
doubt have disappeared altogether had it not been for the advent
of Europeans.
America.—M. THovar’s Conciusions.—The last expedition
of M. Thouar in the region of the Chaco led him across a waterless
desert and the sufferings of the party were very great. Seve
men deserted, and out of twenty-one men only three returned alive.
In his report presented to the Bolivian Government, M. thew
came to the following conclusions: (1) That the northern aa
the Chaco is entirely arid and waterless, (2) that the opening O p
wagon road across this region is impracticable, (3) that a mune
from Sucre to Pacheco would not pay, but (4) that the opening 0
the Pilcomayo needs only some simple works of canalization, Wer
would be largely compensated by the profits drawn from the auriter-
ous sands and fertile lands of its coast.
Evroprg.—TuHE Faroiis.—The Faroé Islands are twenty-six
in number, and have a total area of 1,333 square —
Seventeen only are inhabited. Almost all are elongated in a no
Geography and Travel. 1011
west and southeast direction ; this is also the direction of the fjords
that intersect them. Stromé and Osteré, the two largest, have
summits of 800 and 970 metres, and a mean altitude of 300 metres;
they are cut up by deep valleys which are continuations of the
fjords. All the islands are elevated and surrounded by cliffs.
he group is composed of beds of basalt, mingled with carbonifer-
ous strata. The volcanoes which produced the basalt must have
n well to the west of the archipelago. The islands have a very
humid climate; Torshavn receives two metres of rain annually,
spread over 267 days of the year.
The Faroé Islands were colonized in the ninth century. Chris-
topher Columbus visited them in 1467. The inhabitants retain
some traits of the old Vikings; they are tall and strong, with
blonde hair and red beards. The women do not cover the head.
he sheep is to the inhabitants of the Faroés what the reindeer is
to the Laplanders, and its flesh, with the produce of the fisheries
and the eggs of sea birds, constitute the main food of the islanders.
Thorshavn is the political centre, but its harbor is obstructed by ice
in the winter. Another important port is Kirdebée.
THE OSCILLATIONS oF THE SWEDISH Coast.—M. L. Holm-
strom (Revue Scientifique, Sep. 8) brings together the varied obser-
vations of Celsius, Runeberg, Gissler, Nordenanckar, Hällström,
Wikström, Lyell, Erdmann, Bruzelius, Forssman, Bortzell, ant
others, relative to the changes of level in the coast of Sweden. ‘There is
full proof of a lowering of thesea level on the western coast of Sweden
during the last forty years. Marks cut in the rock show the level-
Ings in 1847, 1867, and 1870, and the present level of the seaweed
indicates an annual sinking of 0", 40. M. Holmstrom states that
he knows no fact tending to show that the Norwegian coasts are
now changing level, but those of Finland seem to vary in an analo-
gous manner to those of Sweden. M. Holmstrom does not con-
sider that the lowering of the sea level is by itself a proof of the
Tising of the land, since it is now well known that the ocean service
1S not exactly spheroidal, but is elevated by the attraction of elevated
continental masses.
long as the relative masses of the continents remain the same
no alteration can take place in the mean sea-level, but augmentation
or diminution of the land masses cause a rising or falling of the
-level,
GEOGRAPHIC AL NEws.—EUuRoPE.— The mortality of Madrid
during the last ten months has been forty-five per 1,000 and that
of the last eight years has been 41.7. Epidemics of small-pox and
diphtheria, caused by the defective sanitation of the city, largely
account for this high mortality.
1012 General Notes.
According to statistics brought together by M. Turquan, an
average number of seventy-eight centenarians, twenty-seven men,
and forty-six women, die annually in France. This average is
based on 1,474 observations. The northern slope of the Pyrenees
seems to be a favored region for longevity, since 38.8 per 100,000
in the Hautes Pyrénées and 38.4 in the Basses Pyrénées attain 190
years. The percentage diminishes northwards, but increases some-
what in the basin of the Seine.
The Bulletin of the Alpine Club states that immense caverns
containing a subterranean lake and water-courses which seem to be
connected with the river Yonte, have been discovered by M. Fabié
in the Casse Mejean, an isolated mountain 900 to 1,300 metres In
height.
Asts.—Disguised as a Mussulman, Dr. Hurgronji, of Leyden,
has resided six months at Mecca. The city has not sensibly
changed since it was visited by Burkhardt, in the beginning of
the century. This traveller denies that the black stone of the
Kaaba is a meteorite, since a similar stone occurs in the sacred
mountain of Abu Giibez.
The old State of Harar, once governed by an independent emir,
and afterwards annexed to Egypt, has, since March, 1887, been m
the possession of Menelik, king of Shoa. het
England took possession of the island of Socotra on Novem
30, 1886.
The English have abandoned their claims to the southern 5
of the Bay of Tadjura, in the gulf of Aden, and a sel
portion of the western shore of that gulf is now under the pro
tion of France. : f the
As the Baptist Mission of Victoria was within the bounds ben
Cameron country, which by the Anglo-German convention of edb
belonged to Germany, it has been given up, and is now occup! y
missionaries from Basle. s ii
Great advances have been made in the knowledge of a a
raphy of Madagascar since the treaty concluded between the #re
and the Hovas, in December, 1887. - oa of the
The new republic founded by the Boers, on the frontiers 0 ie
Transvaal and of Natal, in the territory of the Amazulu, 1s
annexed to the Transvaal repuplic.
Geology and Paleontology. 1013
The atlas of Morocco, by M. de Foucauld, is a most valuable
addition to the geography of the north of Africa. The lines of
mountains and rivers shown on previous maps are here considerably
modified. The Atlas range in Morocco is composed of three
parallel chains instead of one, and the course of the Dra is found to
be in its upper part half a degree to the west of its previously
supposed position.
Captain Pleigmeur, who was commissioned to study the levels
across the French African territory, between the Atlantic Ocean
and Stanley Pool, was drowned in the River Niari.
The Northwestern African Trading Company, which succeeded
to the rights of Mr. Mackenzie at Cape Juby, near the frontier of
Morocco and opposite to the Canary Islands, imposes a duty o
from ten to twenty per cent. upon merchandise going into Morocco.
The factory of this company was recently attacked by the natives,
and the director, M. Morris, was assassinated.
In May, 1888, news was received from Cairo respecting Lupton,
Slatin, and the other prisoners of the Mahdi. Their situation is
the most miserable possible, they are condemned to the hardest and
most humiliating tasks. To negotiate for their release wou
trouble lost, to organize an expedition would be to hasten their
death. None the less it is a shame to leave Europeans in this
deplorable condition.
GEOLOGY AND PALZONTOLOGY.
DESCRIPTION or New Species oF FOSSILS FROM THE ROCK-
FORD SHALES oF Iowa.—Professor Newberry, in speaking of the
mingling of the Devonian fauna of Ohio, says: “ The mingling of
the fauna of the Hamilton and Corniferous is apparently somewhat
greater here than in New York, but this is readily explained by the
fact that here, as in other portions of the Western States (Lowa
included), there were no such striking alternations of conditions
outs the successive deposition of strata as are indicated at the
“An open sea prevailed throughout several successive periods at
the west, and during these an unbroken series of limestone strata
was formed, while at the east alternating shore and off-shore con-
ditions interposed sheets of mechanical sediment, and gave more
distinctness to the fauna of each formation.”
1 Geology of Ohio, Vol. I., p. 144.
1014 General Notes.
Now, however applicable these statements may be to the Devon-
ian rocks of other States, they certainly are not, to any such degree,
applicable to the rocks of this age in Iowa. The Devonian rocks
of this State, as observed by Dr. White,! are serially isolated.
The occurrence of extensive beds of very coarse and fine-grained
sandstone, varying from five feet to forty feet in thickness (some-
times obliquely and discordently stratitied throughout), and blue
and buff shales, some of which are extensively sun-cracked, and
others containing abundant remains of land plants, as well as exten-
sive beds of blue clay and hard, fine-grained and compact lime-
stone, and the varying fauna of the several divisions, all attest that
there were nearly equally as striking alternation of conditions during
the successive deposition of strata in Iowa as are indicated “ at the
east;” and that the alternating shore and off-shore conditions which
interposed sheets of chemical and mechanical sediment, have, to a
greater or less degree, given a distinctness to the fauna of the several
divisions equal to that “ of the east.” ;
An interestitfg and instructive feature of the exceedingly rich
fauna of the Rockford Shales of Iowa is the extreme minuteness
of a considerable number of its fossil species. Of these minutissi-
mic, yet adult, forms, more than fifteen are Gastropoda, four
Brachiopoda, three Crustaceans, four or five Foraminifers (suborder
Perforata), and five or six small Bryozoan corals. These forms,
which comprise slightly over one-seventh of all those known to
occur in this formation, are usually well represented both as to
genera, species and individuals. ‘
The organic life of the old Devonian sea in Iowa culminated in
these shales; and at this time was ushered in a period when the
conditions were much more favorable to the existence of life than
at any other epoch of the Devonian age in this State. Immediately
underlying the Rockford Shales is a stratum of dark blue be!
from twenty. feet to twenty-five feet in thickness, and se 7
destitute of organic remains; this attesting conditions, when r
material was laid down, extremely unfavorable to the existence 0
any form of life. Upon the ushering in of conditions under ego
the material of the super-incumbent shales was deposited, t
change from the pre-existing conditions was very abrupt.’
Although the change in the character of deposition here ie
very sudden, yet the change as to congeniality to life seems no |
ve been so rapid, as appears to be attested by the fact that near M
all the depauperate forms above enumerated occur at the base
these shales.
1 r ? 7
2 Sahel gies Bi beds or peated from the blue clay below to "a
id and
shales above, the change having been everywhere very rapid aD
sharply defined.
Geslogy and Paleontology. 1015
But that conditions eminently favorable to the existence of
life finally took place, is demonstrated by the fact that from a
few feet above the base of the formation to the top of it, the strata
irige to repletion with various normal, and often large, forms
of life.
As will be observed by the enumeration, Brachiopods form
but an inconspicuous feature of the fauna at the base of the shales ;
while the fauna of the higher horizons of this formation shows a
preponderance, both as to numbers of species and individuals, of
this class of organic remains.
In general, the different classes of fossil remains, as Brachiopoda,
Gastropoda, Crustaceans, etc., are restricted in their vertical range
to certain definite horizons, and so do not occur in equal force
throughout the entire formation.
This paper, together with others published and in press, are
Shale, to a Monograph on the Devonian formation of
owa.
Rhynchonella subacuminata, n. sp.—Shell somewhat variable;
sub-triangular in marginal outline; greatest width above the centre
of the shell; contracting quite rapidly to the front, where it termi-
nates in three sharp angles, which are produced by the sharply
angular folds on the front of the valves. Dorsal valve strongly
convex in the centre; furnished with three prominent sharply
angular folds at the front, which usually become obsolete before
reaching the centre of the shell; sinus, large, deep, and broadly
rounded; margined in front by from two to three sharp, short
folds ; front and cardinal margins sharply serrate. Surface of shell
smooth ; texture fibrous. In the young specimens of this species,
folds or elevations are not present on any portion of the shell.
Position and locality : Rockford Shales, Hackberry, Cerro Gordo
county, Iowa.
Athyris minutissima, n. sp.—Shell minute; subovate in outline ;
valves strongly and nearly evenly convex ; greatest convexity above
the middle; cardinal margins sloping rapidly to slightly below the
Centre, thence rather broadly curving to the front. Ventral
valve slightly more convex than the dorsal valve; umbo
prominent ; beak sharp, and incurved over the beak of the oppo-
site valve. Dorsal valve slightly less convex than the opposite
valve; umbonal region strongly convex. Surface marked by strong
equi-distant imbricating lines. Neither valve has an elevation or
depression at the front that would correspond to a mesial fold or
sinus,
Dimensions: length, 23 mm.; greatest width, 2 mm.
Position and locality: lower portion of Rockford Shales, Rock-
ford, Floyd county, Iowa.
1016 General Notes.
Paracyclas validalinea, n. sp.—Shell rather large, oblong, sub-
circular in marginal outline; length and breadth usually unequal;
dorsolateral portion of the shell strongly produced. Valves ventri-
cose ; most strongly so at or slightly above the centre ; cardinal line
strongly arcuate; beaks prominent and strongly curving forward,
distant, situated centrally or very nearly so. Muscle impressions
large, and in well preserved specimens distinctly marked; the
posterior one sub-circular ; the anterior one obliquely subreniform,
and considerably smaller than the posterior one. Pallial line
prominent, parallel to which is a prominent row of pustules
arranged side by side. Surface unknown. ;
This shell differs from any form previously described that 1s
known to me. This form is known only by its cast, of which over
one hundred specimens have been secured.
Position and locality: Rockford Shales, Rockford, Hackberry,
and Owens’ Grove, Lowa i :
Platystoma mirus, n. sp.—Shell very minute; suborbicular m
outline; spire nearly ona plane with the y whorl; volutions
about three. Outer volution large, strongly convex, rounded;
suture not very distinct; aperture sub-circular ; outer lip of mode-
rate thickness with entire margin; columella lip not distinctly
produced ; umbilicus closed. Surface smooth.
Dimensions: diameter, 1 mm. ; height, ê mm.
Position and locality: lower portion of Rockford Shales, Hack-
rry, Lowa. :
Platystoma pervetus, n. sp.—Shell semi-circular to subovate 1m
outline; spire eleyated but little above the body whorl; volutions
about three; the body volution very large, rounded, and very
convex ; suture well defined ; aperture sub-circular ; umbilicus deep.
Surface smooth. .
Dimensions: greatest diameter, ? mm. to 1 mm. ; vertical height,
# mm. to 4 mm.
Position and locality : lower part of Rockford Shales, Hackberry,
owa.
Naticopsis rarus, n. sp.—Shell somewhat subovate in general
outline; spire slightly prominent, depressed; volutions three;
convex, rounded ; increasing rather rapidly in size from the ape;
body whorl large, forming by far the greater bulk of the entire
shell; broadly rounded on the sides. Suture distinct ; aperture
subovate ; outer lip thick ; inner lip not defined. Surface smooth.
Dimensions: height, 1} mm. ; greatest breadth, 14 mm.
; Position and locality: base of Rockford Shales, Hackberry, _
owa.
Turbo strigillata, n. sp.—Shell turbiniform, thick; spire de-
pressed, conical; whorls four, increasing ra idly in size from ~~
apex; those of the spire convex, but not distinctly rounded ;
Geology and Paleontology. 1017
one large, strongly inflated ; lower portion rounded ; upper surface
somewhat flattened, and marked by a distinct revolving groove or
depression, which becomes obsolete on the second volution, or
almost before reaching it. Suture from nearly linear at the apex,
to comparatively deeply channeled below; aperture orbicular;
outer lip thick, entire ; columella lip very thick, especially the lower
portion. Surface of body volution ornamented by strong sub-equi-
distant, oblique, sinuous lines.
Dimensions: vertical height, 2 mm. ; greatest width, 2 mm.
Position and locality: base of Rockford Shales, Hackberry,
n
has also a slightly more curved outline than the two upper ones;
suture well defined; aperture imperfect, but apparently discoid.
Surface marked by simple straight lines. :
imensions: vertical height, 2? mm. ; diameter at base, 1? mm.
; Position and locality: base of Rockford Shales, Hackberry,
owa
Holopea tenuicarinata, n. sp.—Shell thick, small, sub-coniform ;
spire rather rapidly tapering; volutions four, convex, flattened
above; the body whorl ventricose, rounded, nearly or quite equal
in height to all of the others; slightly produced in front. Exact
form of the aperture unknown, but judging from the portion which
remains unbroken, it was subovate in outline; the portion of the
outer lip which remains is thick. Suture sublinear above, and
slightly channeled below. Surface ornamented by rather obscure,
oblique, curved lines.
imensions : height, 2 mm. ; greatest width, 1 mm.
i Position and locality: base of Rockford Shales, Hackberry,
owa.
Cyclonema brevilineata, n. sp.—Shell turbonate; rather thin ;
Spire strongly depressed, conical; volutions three, increasing quite
rapidly in size; those of the spire convex, rounded ; last one large,
Somewhat more broadly rounded than the upper ones; upper sur-
face very slightly flattened ; suture well defined below, but not so
distinctly defined above. Aperture ovate to sub-circnlar. Sur-
face of hody whorl marked by strong revolving lines or ridges,
Which become obsolete (except in the case of one specimen) on the
second volution ; interstices about equal to the width of the revoly-
ing ridges ; surface of the upper volutions smooth. The revolving
lines on the first turn show, under a strong magnifier, a more or
less strong crenate character, though not caused by lines of growth.
Dimensions: greatest width, 14 mm. ; vertical height, 1 mm.
1018 General Notes.
We have in our cabinet many specimens of this species, all of
the same form and size, and showing (with the single exception
noted) the same surface marking.
Position and locality: base of Rockford Shales, Rockford and
Hackberry, Iowa.
Cyclonema subcrenulata, n. sp.—Shell small, sub-turbonate ;
spire depressed, sub-conical ; volutions three, increasing rapidly in
size from the apex; those of the spire slightly convex, flattened ;
last one large, equal to two-thirds the bulk of the entire shell,
convex, flattened, or very broadly rounded; rounded at the peri-
phery ; suture well defined; aperture oblong-ovate. Surface orna-
mented by strong, sharply elevated, revolving ridges, which are
distinctly crenated by the strong, slightly oblique lines of growth.
these revolving lines, fifteen may be counted on the body
volution in close proximity to the periphery, three of which are
very minute, and implanted between the main ridges; these are
rather short, as well as one of the main ones which joins the suture.
On the upper portion of the body whorl, between the suture and
the first revolving line, is a flattened or slightly concave space,
which is marked by stronger and more oblique striæ than other .
portions of the surface of the shell; on the whorl next above the
body volution, four revolving lines may be counted. |
This species seems to be somewhat closely related to C. crenulata
of Meek (Geological Survey of Ohio, Paleontology, Vol. I., p. 213,
Plate XIX., Fig. 2, a, d), but differs from it in its more strongly
depressed form, less number of volutions, and slightly different
form of the aperture; it also has a less number of revolving lines
(three of which are minute and implanted), and a more profoun
crenate character, as well as the distinct belt or flattened area
occupying the upper part of the first volution.
Dimensions: height, 114 mm. ; greatest width, 114 mm. i
Position and locality: lower portion of Rockford Shales, Rock-
ford, lowa.—Clement L. Webster.
‘Unter Mitwirkung von Dr. A. Schenk.
` 25 lieferung ; 154 Holzschnitten. Teleostei (finis) et Batrachia.
Geology and Paleontology. 1019
long since showed is the Saurodon of Hays, of much prior date;
and Protosphyrena Leidy, which, if it be used at all, belongs to the
species P. striata, and not to the genus Erisichthe Cope. The name
_Saurodontide Cope should not be replaced by Saurocephalide of
later origin, because Saurodontide Zittel, of later date than either,
has been applied to another family, which should, if well defined,
have another name.
In the Batrachia, Professor Zittel divides the Stegocephali into
three primary groups, the Lepospondyli, Temnospondyli, and
Stereospondyli. In the first the vertebral centra consist of a
simple sheath round the chorda dorsalis; in the second the centra
are segmented ; and in the third they are amphiccelous and “ com-
pletely ossified.” The author does not adopt the divisions Gano-
cephala, Rhachitomi, and Embolomeri. There are serious objections
to the system proposed by Prof. Zittel, which I will state. There
does not seem to be any real difference between the Lepospondyli
and the Stereospondyli, since a tubular vertebral centrum passes
by the most insensible gradations into an amphiccelous one. The
Temnospondyli cannot be regarded as homogeneous, or exactly
defined. In fact, the vertebral centra of the Embolomera are not
segmented, but are as entire as in the other two divisions of Zittel.
€ presence or absence of two occipital condyles is also a character
not to be neglected in this connection. i
The account of the Stegocephali (including Ganocephala, Rhachi-
tomi, and Embolomeri) is the most complete ever placed in the
hands of students ; in fact it is the only synopsis yet published. In
the midst of this important monograph we are compelled to make
two corrections. The lettering of the pelvis of Eryops (p. 364) is
reversed in position. Secondly, the genus Stereorhachis Gaudry
(P. 398) is not a Bratachian, but a reptile of the order Theromora,
and probably of the family. Clepsydropidæ.—E. D. Cope.
SCHLOSSER on CARNIVORA.!—The second part of Dr. Schlos-
ser’s important memoir includes the lower Carnivora, or the Urside,
Canide, and Mustelide. It includes much that is new on the
subject, and by its thoroughness and critical character advances our
knowledge of the European forms much,beyond any previous pub-
lication. A number of new genera are added, as Pachycynodon in
Canidæ; Pseudamphicyon in Ursidæ; and in Mustelidæ, Plesiocyon,
Haplogale, Stenogale, and Pseudictis. He includes in the latter
family Proælurus Filh. and denies that it is allied to the Nim-
navide or Felidæ. He redefines the Urside (under the name
Amphicyonide), so as to include besides Ursus and Hyznarctos,—
' Die i i n, Marsupialia, Creo-
donten a Oaar, hippier, Inora : von Max Schlosser ;
4Tafeln ; 4to. Alfred Hilder, Wien, 1888. II. Abtheilung.
1020 General Notes.
Amphicyon, Dinocyon, Cephalogale, Simocyon, Oligobunis, and
probably Enhydrocyon. In the Canide, Dr. Schlosser appears to
us to admit too many genera; at least we cannot clearly make out
generic differences from his deseriptions. On the other hand the
genera of Mustelide, though numerous, are sharply defined. We
note a couple of errors in the matter of American species. Canis
brachypus Cope is not an Eocene, but an upper Miocene species
(Ticholeptus beds). Aelurodon ferox and Canis saevus cannot be
well referred to different families, as they were established on the
superior and inferior molars of the same species. Four plates
accompany this memoir.—£E. D. Cope.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'
PETROGRAPHICAL News.—There have recently appeared two
interesting papers upon the Cortlandt series of eruptive rocks, and
the changes they produce in the surrounding mica-schists and lime-
stones. The first paper is by Mr. J. EF. Kemp, who reports the
results of his examinations of an extension of the series west 0
Stony Point, N. Y. He finds the eruptives to be of the same
general character as those described by Dr. Williams,’ from near
_ Peekskill. In one of these he notices the alteration of brown
hornblende into green augite. He further finds that limestone
upon the contact with these eruptives has undergone an alteration,
during the course of which tremolite has been developed. Dr.
Williams’s‘ paper deals with the contact phenomena observed in
the rocks surrounding the eruptives in the Stony Point region.
The unaltered mica-schists consist of quartz, biotite, muscovite, 4
little feldspar, tourmaline, and occasionally zircon. Upon approach-
ing the eruptives they lose their foliati d havedeveloped in them:
garnet, sillimanite, staurolite, scapolite, cyanite, margarite, ripidolite
and corundum. The sillimanite is found in radiating bundles of fibres.
The ripidolite (or clinoclor) js derived from the biotite of the schists.
The margarite has the macroscopic appearance of muscovite. Tn
the thin section, it is distinguished from this mineral by its high
refractive index, its extinction of 6°-10°, its numerous twins par-
allel to oP, and its large optical angle (114° in air). Its compo
sition is: —
' Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, Colby University, Waterville, Me.
2 Amer. Jour. Sci., A , p. 247.
; Cf. Amer. Naturalist, 1886, p. 275 ; 1887, p. 569.
Amer. Jour. Sci., Oct., 1888, p. 254.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 1021
SiO, Al,0, FeO CaO MgO H,O
32.73 46.58 5.12 11.04 1.00 4.49
The paper contains many points of interest, and is a final, incon-
trovertible proof of the eruptive character of the massive rocks of
the Cortlandt series.—In a paper in which the origin of quartz in
basalts is discussed, Mr. Iddings! describes the microscopic appear-
ance of quartz-bearing basalts from the Rio Grande cañon in New
Mexico. Most of these are holocrystalline. They contain plagio-
clase, augite, magnetite, olivine and rounded quartzes. The quartz
is usually surrounded by shells composed of little augite crystals,
which extend out into the body of the rock, and are sometimes
partly included within the feldspar. It has the characteristics of
the porphyritic crystals of more acid volcanic rocks, and is regarded
as original, The main portion of the paper is taken up with the
discussion of the conditions under which the production of por-
phyritic quartz crystals might take place in a rock as basic as basalt.
fter a thorough examination into the effects which temperature,
pressure, and the presence of water vapor exert upon the crystalli-
zation of a molten magma, Mr. Iddings concludes that the quartzes
owe their origin to certain physical conditions attending an early
period of the magma’s existence ; and that of these the most impor-
tant is the presence of water vapor under } ressure. In the same
aper the writer describes two new occurrences of quartz basalt.
he first is a red compact rock from the vicinity of Santa Maria
Basin, in Arizona. The second is a dark-colored, fine-grained rock
from the S. E. base of Anita Peak, Colorado.—Kroustchoff? has
recently described an inclusion in the basalt from Wingendorf, in
Silesia, which differs from most basalt inclusions in that it contains
anorthite. This mineral and enstatite make up the larger part of
the inclusion, which contains in addition to these, augite, diallage,
ae and various spinels. The enstatite was separated and ana-
yzed :—
SiO, Al,0, FeO MgO CaO Alkalies Loss
56.96 49 8.11 33.65 4.32 tr. 26
her grained streaks throughout the rock the augite has all been
replaced by hornblende.—In an article on Mount upara, a crater
in the Flagraian Fields, near Naples, Deecke* describes augite-
* Amer, Jour. Sci., Sept., 1888, p. 208.
; Min. u. Petrog. Mitth.. X., 1887, p. 329.
, Klemm: Zeits. d. deutsch. geol. Gesell., x1., 1888, p. 184.
Ib., xl., p. 166.
e
1022 General Notes.
trachyte and augite-trachyte glasses, which present no features
different from those observed in the lavas of other craters in this
region.—Mr. E. O. Hovey! reports the discovery of a cordierite
gneiss at Guilford, sixteen miles east of New Haven, Conn. The
cordierite has a deep blue color in the hand specimen, but under the
microscope is colorless and very fresh. It contains as inclusions
only sillimanite needles.—Lacroix and Baret? mention a pyroxenite
om near Saint Nazaire, Loire-Inférieure, France, that is com-
posed essentially of a granular mixture of augite, scapolite and
sphene.—The microscopical examination and the determination of
some of the physical constants of several sandstones, a marble and
a tufa from California, have been made by Prof. A. W. Jackson, of
the University of California.
New Mrnerats— HouMANNITE AND AMARANTITE.—In a
mass of copiapite from near Caracoles, in Chili, Frenzel* has dis-
covered two new iron sulphates. One has been called hohmannite
after its discoverer. This is an opaque chestnut-brown fibrous
mineral, with a vitreous lustre. Its hardness is 3; specific gravity,
2.24, and its streak a yellow ochre color. Its composition may
represented by Fe (FeO) (SO,), + 7H,O. It is insoluble in water,
readily undergoes alteration, and loses 7.63 per cent. of water when
placed in a dessicator over calcium chloride. The second mineral,
amarantite, is probably identical with the first, although the author
prefers to designate it by a separate name because of its different
physical and chemical properties. Amarantite occurs in orange-
colored microscopic crystals of the triclinic system.’ They have a
citron-yellow streak, and a specific gravity of 2.11, and do not as
readily undergo decomposition as does hohmannite.—Riebeckite.
n a flesh-red granite from the Island of Socotro, in the Indian
n, a hundred and fifty miles from Cape Gardafui, Sauer® has
found a hornblende which corresponds exactly to aegerine among
the augites. Its negative bisectrix (instead of positive as in the
other horublendes) is inclined 5° to the vertical axis, its pleochroism
is vr = dark blue; t = green; pi = blue, and its composition :—
SiO, FeO, FeO MnO MgO CaO Na,O K,O
50.01 2830 9.87 63 84 182 8.79 «7%
Sauer calls attention to the fact, so often overlooked, that the for-
mula of arfvedsonite, which is usually regarded as equivalent to
aegerine, is based upon an analysis which is really that of aegerine
* Amer. Jour. Sci., July, 1888, p. 57.
* Bul. Soc. Franç. d. Min. x., p. : 5
3 Seventh Ann. Rep. State Mineralogist, Sacramento, 1888, p. 205.
* Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., ix., 1888, pp. 397, 42:
5 Wiilfing: ib., p. 401.
° Zeits. d. deutsch. geol. Gesell., 1888, xl., p. 138.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 1023
itself.— Beryllonite. Ina preliminary note Prof. E. S. Dana! sug
a
in Polk county, N. C., and at Pilot Mountain, Burke county, in
the same State. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic system like
brookite, but its axial ratio, as calculated by Des Cloizeaux, is
99275 : 1 : 92337. The color of the mineral is yellow or brown,
art hardness about 6, specific gravity 4.285, and streak yellowish
white.
Rare Minerars.—Bertrandite. Heretofore this mineral has been
found only in small crystals at various localities in Europe, and itserys-
tallographic characteristics have not been thoroughly investigated.
A new find at Mt. Antero, Colorado, affords Mr. Penfield‘ a crys-
tal of sufficient size to admit of exact measurements of the crystal-
lographic constants. According to Mr. Penfield, the mineral is
orthorhombic with a: b : c = .5723: 1: .5953, and 2H = 101° 10’
for yellow light. The hemimorphic development of the basal plane
cannot be explained. The crystals are attached to ques and are
associated with phenacite, orthoclase, muscovite and fluorite. They
have a hardness of 6-7, a specific gravity of 2.598, and consist of :—
SiO, BeO CaO H:O
51.8 39.6 1.0 8.4
Piedmontite. The optical properties of the manganese epidote pied-
montite have recently been very carefully studied by Dr. Kot6,’ of
Japan, who finds it quite wide spread as a constituent of Japanese
rocks, In a piedmontite-schist consisting of quartz, piedmontite,
muscovite, garnet, rutile, feldspar, ete., the piedmontite is well crys-
tallized with oP, œ Pj, 4 Pa, P, and Px predominating. The
mineral has an extinction of 3°, and is pleochrois as follows: vr =
deep reddish violet; t = brownish red; pi = light violet. The
absorption is vr > t > pi, whereas in common epidote it is t > pi
vr. An analysis yielded :—
SiO, AlO, FeO, Mn,O, CaO MgO K,O NaO H,O
16 2252 9.88 643 2206 | 4 3.20
), 169.
* Amer. Jour. Sci., 1888, Oct., p. 272.
* Ib., July, p. 52.
Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., Aug., 1887, p. 474.
to
Q
a
3
®
=
A
kod
ct
=
mg
po
on
n
cas
rx}
®©
o
=
oe
19,2)
ie 2)
SS
—
1024 General Notes.
The same mineral is an accessory constituent of a glaucophane rock
from Japan. It has recently been described, by Haworth,! as occur-
ring in a porphyrite from Missouri, and is also mentioned by
Lacroix? as existing in the mica-schists of the Island of Groix, off
the coast of France-—Emmonsite. Near Brixlegg, in the Unterinne-
thal, is a mineral, occurring in little spherical groups of crystals
implanted on barite. Its analysis gave 86.89 per cent. of SrCO,,
and 13.14 per cent. of CaCO,, thus agreeing very closely with
Thomson’s emmonsite from Massachusetts. Cathrein has measured
the crystals, and found them to consist of rhombic prisms with
a : b : c = .6090: 1: .7236.—Diamonds and Sapphires. A new
discovery of diamonds and sapphires is reported* from Australia.
he location where they have been found is Invere, New South
Wales. They are found in a sand made up of quartz and tourma-
line, and pieces of a rock composed of the same minerals,—Leucite.
Prof. Judd* announces the discovery of leucite by Mr. T. W. E.
David in a leucite-basalt from Byrock, N. S. Wales, Australia,
about 450 miles N. W. from Sydney. Leucite, which until a few
years ago was not known outside of Europe, is now known to occur
in each one of the continents with the exception of Africa.—Cryp-
tolite, the rare cerium phosphate, according to Mallard,° is nothing
but monazite with a habit differing slightly from that which this
mineral usually affects.— Gadolinite has been found, by Lacroix,’ in
a cavity in the granitite of the Mourne Mountains, Ireland, and
allanite has been discovered, by Levy and Lacroix,’ in a granite
from Pont Paul, Finistére.
CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC News.—In the course of an investigation
of minerals from the Tyrol, Cathrein® detected in them several
new planes. On a yellow-brown garnet, from Rothenkopf, 3 O08
was found. This form is especially interesting, because it is not
only new to garaet, but also to the entire regular system. The new
triakistetrahedron— Iny EN occurs on tétrahedrite from Kogel,
near Brixlegg; 32 P[, ,, P2 and 4 Ps on adularia from Schwar-
zenstein; and p a diaspore Bt eia Y an elaborate
paper on the crystallography of dolomite Becke announces the dis-
* Amer. Naturalist, Aug., 1888, p. 732.
` Bull. d. l. Soc. Franç. d. Min., xi., p. 148.
ê Bull. Soc. Franç. d. Min., x., p. 236.
7 Ib, xi., p. 68
e ib: Xi, p 65.
® Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., x., p. 52.
W TD: Xs, D 78.
covery of the new forms + £ goth: og RSL z
r
3
=. eoin si 1 SRS + fa EES + l æ RS As indicated
r 2 Io g t o
by these formulas, Becke finds dolomite to be rhombohedrally tetra-
hedral. In addition to the full lists of forms occurring on the
mineral, there is in the paper a full discussion of its vicinal planes,
—Pyrite crystals from the clay slates near Trofajach in Steiermark,
contain the new plane ea Michel? claims that crystals of the
selenates of barium, strontium, calcium and lead are isomorphous
with the natural sulphates of the corresponding metals.
quartz consisted in a change in the nature of the circular polariza-
tion of the alternate lamelle, and not in such a change as
chemistry for the purpose of determining the nature of the inner
structure of carbonaceous substances.—Becke® proposes a method
' Hoefer: Ib., x., p. 157.
? Bull. d. 1. Soc. Franc. d. Min., xi., p. 182.
1
Miner. Magazine, 1888, p. 1.
; Technology Quarterly, May, 1888, p. 397.
x Amer. Chem. Jour., x., p. 405.
Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., x., p. 89.
1026 General Notes.
BOTANY.!
THE So-CaLuep “ RESURRECTION PLant.”’—M. Leclerc du
Sablon describes (Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxxv.) the curious prop-
erty of revivification possessed by Selaginella lepidophylla. When
the root withers, each branch curls up, and the plant appears more
or less in the form of a ball. In this state it is able to remain for
a long time, and then when the water necessary for its growth is
supplied, the branches unroll, the green color which had almost
disappeared returns, and the branches and roots re-commence to
grow. The structure of the plant is such that when dehydration
occurs, the cells on one side of a branch are thicker than those on
the other, thus they contract unequally and cause the branch to curl
up.—Jour. Roy. Mic. Soc., Vug., 1888.
PEDIASTRUM AND POLYEDRIUM.—Most botanists have had
specimens of various species of both these genera under observa-
tion, and probably few have suspected their real relationship. The
flat discs of the former certainly bear little resemblance to the cal-
trop-shaped groups of pointed cells of the latter. However, it
appears that Askenasy has demonstrated that Polyedrium is but a
stage of Pediastrum, or, to be more accurate, in statement, that
Polyedrium polymorphum is a stage of Pediastrum boryanum.
THE PLANTS or RHODE Isuanp.—James L. Bennett, of Provi-
dence, has prepared, and the Franklin Society has printed, a cata-
logue of the plants of Rhode Island, enumerating 2,928 species,
besides 230 varieties, They are distributed as follows :—
Phanerogams.........+. 475 genera, 1,259 species, 101 varieties.
Cryptogams............. 494 * v 1,669 n 1 =
The Cryptogams are represented as follows, viz. : Equisetaceæ, *
species ; Filices, 33; Lycopodiaceæ, 13; Characeæ, 8; Muscl, 189;
Hepatic, 74; Lichenes, 151; Fungi, 582; Algæ, 619. de
The work of preparation has evidently extended over a cons!
erable period, as in the preface it is stated that the Musci wh
determined by Mr. Lesquereux, and the Hepatice passed throug,
the hands of Austin, who also aided in the determination of Muscl,
1 Edited by Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb.
Botany. 1027
as did, also, Tuckerman for the Lichenes, and M. A. Curtis and
Berkeley for the Fungi. The two groups last named were revised
by Willey (Lichenes), and Peck and Ellis (Fungi).
e arrangement of the Phanerogams follows that of Bentham
and Hooker, but that of the Cryptogams is in confusion, and is
decidedly antiquated, particularly so in the Fungi. However, the
list is a very useful one, and a credit to author.
Watson’s CONTRIBUTIONS To NORTH AMERICAN Botany,
A V.—In this contribution the new cruciferous genus Lesquerella
is described. It includes American species hitherto referred to
CANADIAN Priants.—Part IV. of the Catalogue of Canadian
Plants, by John Macoun, completes the list of flowering plants.
The list includes 2,955 species. Two more parts are still to appear ;
art V. to be devoted to the ferns and their allies, and the mosses
and liverworts; and Part VI. to lichens, fungi and alge.
ENGELMANN’s BoranicaL Works.'—When Dr. George Engel-
mann died, in 1884, his botanical writings were scattered through
the pages of so many publications as to make much of his work
inaccessible to the ordinary student. This has been remedied by
Henry Shaw, the well-known philanthropist of St. Louis, through
Whose liberality the scattered writings have been brought together
* The Botanical Works of the late George Engelmann. Collected fo
brid . Edited by William Trelease and Asa Gray. Cam-
ge, Mass. : John Wilson & Son, University Press, 1887. 4to.
1028 General Notes.
in a handsome quarto volume of 548 pages, and nearly one hun-
dred full-page plates.
e title-page bears the names of William Trelease and Asa
Gray, as editors. In the preface, which bears date of March, 1887,
(two). 6. Papers on Yucca, Agave, etc. (eight). 7. Papers on
Coniferæ (twelve). 8. Papers on American Oaks (four). 9.
cases
printed from the original plates, while in others new plates hie
e made, the originals having long since been destroyed. The
ALG GROWING ON ANIMALS.—Three species of alge, ten
ing to two genera, have been recently described as occurring on thi
hairs of Sloths. The green species is placed in the new genus ge
cophilus in the family Chroolepidee, and the violet ones in t :
genus Cyanoderma, also new, of the family Chamesiphonee. 1s
has been estimated that as many as 150,000 to 200,000 individua
often occur upon a single hair.
THE Use or TANNIN IN THE PLANT.—The suggestion pel
recently been made by Professor Hillhouse that tannin may
developed in plants as a protection against the attacks of fungi.
RAVENEL’S HERBARIUM.—This valuable collection 18 oe
for sale by the widow of the late H. W. Ravenel, at akin a
It should be secured by some college, and given a permanent om
where it may always be accessible to students of the fungi.
Zoology. 1029
ZOOLOGY.
A PROBABLE Case oF Instinct at FAULT IN Bees.—While
staying for a day at a ranch in the valley of South Platte, in
Colorado, a few years ago, I found some excellent honey served
upon the ranchman’s table. He informed me that he had under-
numbers, and while flowers were yet abundant his hives became
well nigh depopulated, and few or no new swarms were ever pro-
uced. Upon opening some of the forsaken hives he found them
filled with comb, nearly or quite every cell of which was filled with
honey. The hives seemed to be in excellent condition, and he
found no trace of the presence of any enemy of the bees. :
_ I examined one of the opened hives, which yet contained a por-
tion of the honey in its comb, and so far as I could see, its condition
entirely agreed with the ranchman’s statements. I also observed
that his hives had been placed in the midst of many acres which
were mostly covered with a natural and luxurious growth of the
plant Clione integrifolia Torrey & Gray, from the flowers of which
the bees had evidently obtained their honey.
Suggestions as probably indicating the cause of the rapid extinction
the bees could obtain the honey with remarkably little labor.
Packard states that the life of working bees of the first brood of
the season is about six weeks. Some apiarists think that durin
the season of most active labor the life of those bees does not ex
1030 General Notes.
amonth. May it not, therefore, have been the case that the workers
to which fell the task of collecting honey brought it in such
quantities and, so quickly, that all the comb-cells were filled before
the queen had an opportunity to deposit her eggs? If this were
the case the swarms necessarily became extinct by the natural
limitation of the life of individual bees, because of the failure to
keep up their numbers by breeding. In short is not this a case in
which the instinctive struggle for existence defeated its object ?
ave no intention of drawing a parallel between this case of
disastrous results to bee-life under apparently normal and unusually
favorable conditions, and a certain phase of human society, but if
the foregoing suggestions are of little value for want of scientific
verification they are believed to be deserving of consideration from
other points of view.—C. A. White.
THE CALCAREOUS PLATES OF THE Srar-FisH.—Dr. J. W.
Fewkes (Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool., XVII., 1888) describes at
length the development of the calcareous plates in Asterias, and
compares the results with those furnished by Amphiura. The
results of the comparison may be tabulated thus :—
Amphiura. Asterias.
Basals. Genitals.
Dorso-central. Dorso-central.
Dorsals. Dorsals.
Lat Inter-ambulacrals.
Terminals. Terminals.
‘* Spoon-shaped plates.’’ Oral Ambulacrals.
Orals. First Inter-brachials.
TEE kki Adam- { No Homologues.
Ventrals. No wra ee k
y Dorso-laterals and con-
No Homologues. l nectors,
The madreporic opening is placed on two homologically different
plates in Amphiura and Asterias,
A New Earraworm.—Under the name Diplocardia commu-
nis, H. Garman describes (Bulletin Ill. State Lab. Nat. Hist.) a
new earthworm from Champaign, Ill. This new genus belongs
to the family Acanthodrilide of Claus, but it differs from the other
members of the family in several important characters. Its nearest
relation is Acanthodrilus of Africa and the Orient. Among -
most noticeable features are the absence of a sub-neural vesset,
the existence of a double dorsal vessel, the two halves being yo
rated throughout their length, except where they pass through =
dissipiments between the somites. Although not mentioned by
Mr. Garman, this character of the central circulatory organ pos-
Zoology. 1031
sesses considerable morphological interest when taken in connection
with the method of formation of the “ heart ” in many Arthropods,
e.g., Branchipus (Claus) and Oecanthus (Ayers). The paper con-
cludes with a valuable catalogue of the known American species
of earthworms, which we summarize here:
amily Lumpricip#.—Genus Tetragonurus Eisen, T. pupa
Eisen. Genus Allolobophora Eisen, A. beckii Eisen, A. riparia
Hoffmann, A. fetida Savigny, A. subrubicunda Eisen, A. mucosa
Eisen, A. turgida Eisen, A. tenuis Eisen, A. tumida Eisen, A.
parva Eisen, A. nordenskioldii Eisen. Genus Lumbricus Linné,
L. herculeus Sav., L. rubellus Hoffmann, L. purpureus Eisen.
Family ACANTHODRILIDZ.—Genus Diplocardia Garman, D.
communis Garman.
b Family PLUTELLIDÆ.—Genus Plutellus Perrier, O. heteroporus
errier,
Family PERICHÆTIDÆ.—Genus Pericheta. Mr. Garman states
that an undetermined species of this oriental genus has been accli-
matized in the green houses at Champaign, Ill.
on either side of the “stomach,” which resembled the “shell-gland”
of the Entomostraca. The opening of the gland occurred at the
of the second maxilla, and its lumen contained concretions of
urates (so shown by Murexide test) ; points which demonstrated its
homology with the shell-gland of the Entomostraca. This is its
rst recognition in the Malacostraca, though the author found it
later in Porcellio, Idotea, Nesæa, Cymothoa, and Jeera.
E Larva or Prorevs.—Dr. Ernst Zeller has been so
fortunate as to have a Proteus anguineus lay seventy-six eggs in
captivity, from which in ninety days two larvee hatched. Accord-
tng to his description in the Zoologischer Anzeiger (Bd. XI., p. 570,
1888), the larvæ when hatched were more developed than is the
case in Amblystoma and the “ Axolotl,” and measured 22 mm. in
length, of which five belonged to the tail. The general appear-
ance was much like that of the adult. The pale red gills are
shorter and less developed than in the adult; the anterior limbs
are well developed and three-toed, but the hinder pair are still
stump-like. The development of the small black eyes is notice-
able, as is also the development of pigment in various regions ©
the A few points are mentioned concerning the embryonic
1032 General Notes.
development, and of the larv for two weeks after development,
when they possessed two toes to the hind feet.
or arny to make two journeys of over twenty-six hundred miles
each.
At the time of my first visit, the first week in April, all eggs
had been laid, and the ovaries of adult female alligators were full
of eggs of all sizes up to 26 mm. in diameter. I returned to
Florida June 4th, and found that I was still somewhat early, as
the nests were then being built. With the aid of five experienced
hunters I at last succeeded in finding, on the 9th of J une, a nest,
evidently just completed, in which there were twenty-nine eggs.
The next day, at a point forty miles further north, a second nest
was found with thirty-one eggs. There were many nests found,
old and new, but only these two contained eggs. :
The nests vary much in size, the largest being about 24 metres 1n
diameter at the base, and 80 cm. high in the central part, the whole
having the shape of a rounded cone. They are located generally
on a slightly elevated place, which is higher by a metre, or slightly
more than the surrounding level, and covered with a thick growth
of palmettos, mangroves, magnolias, etc. These are celled “ hum-
mocks” by the natives. On one side of the hummock at least, ın
some cases on all sides, is a pond from one to two metres in depth,
and in the bank, under water, the female alligator digs a cave,
which in some cases extends three metres under the hummock, an
which is always close to her nest. The nest is made by paige?
together a great pile of dead leaves and twigs and humus whic
forms the surface of the ground, and which is arranged with some
care. The inside is made of the more finely divided—almost Pole.
dery—material of the deeper layers of the top soil, while the outside,
even to the top, is covered with twigs and leaves which are whole
or but little broken, and with many of the long, unbroken arat
or needles of the southern pine. ` The eggs are deposited gr
20 cm. from the top, and in the nests were found lying on top Jl
one another, making rows or layers, with the fine humus filling &
the interstices. The top of the nest is always exposed to the sun.
Dr. Clarke describes the eggs as very difficult to manipulate, aS-
Entomology. 1033
the shell membrane is tough, and the white very sticky. Before
studying his eggs he took them to Williamstown, Mass., but
before arriving there they had undergone a part of their develop-
ment, and the neural folds had nearly completed their coalescence.
ANATOMY oF Brrps.—Mr. F. E. Beddard (P. Z. 8S., London,
1888) gives an account of the alimentary tract and syrinx of
Balæniceps rex, from which, and from the previously known
osteological peculiarities, he regards this bird, “in fact, as a rather
aberrant heron, having no near affinities with the storks, nor to
Scopus.” In the same volume he has some notes on the visceral
anatomy of the penguins and puffns, dealing especially with the
oblique septum of these birds, and the morphological and taxonomic
conclusions to be drawn therefrom. He is inclined to homologize
it in details with a fibrous and even muscular stracture found in
the crocodile. Dr. R. W. Schufeldt (Jour. Comp. Anat. and Sur-
gery, October, 1888) gives a much needed account of the osteology
of the Jungle-fowl, Gallus bankiva. He also treats of several other
important structures in the same bird, which is of especial interest
as being the ancestor of all of our domestic fowl. Some thirty
process figures illustrate the chief points in the article.
ENTOMOLOGY."
CoLOR-RELATIONS BETWEEN PUPÆ AND THEIR SURROUND-
INGS.—Students of Lepidoptera often observe variations in the
color of different pups of the same species, that have apparently
been caused by the color of the object to which the pupa is attached.
Striking instances of these variations came under the observation of
the writer during the past summer, when breeding Papilio asterias.
Pupz attached to green leaves were bright green in color, while
others attached to the sides of a breeding-cage closely resembled in
color the wood upon which they were.
This class of phenomena has been made the subject of careful
study by several English entomologists. The more important ot
the papers published are two in number. The first, by Mr. E. B.
Poulton,? was read before the Royal Society of London last year.
Since that time Mr. George C. Griffiths has carried the matter
farther, and the results of his experiments have just been published
by Mr. William White.’
* This Department is edited by Prof. J. H. Comstock, Cornell Uni-
versity, Ithaca, N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice,
ete., should be sent.
* Philosophical Transactions, Vol. clxxviii., B., 1887, pp. 311-441.
* Trans. Entomol. Sce., London, 1888, pp. 247-267.
1034 General Notes.
Previous to these writings, observers had freely stated that it was
the habit of chrysalides to assume the precise coloration of the sur-
face to which they were attached, and the untested facts of the case
had been considerably exaggerated. In explanation of the phe-
nomena in question, the earlier writers held that these correspond-
ences of color were analogous to those of the Chameleon, or that
they were photographic. Attention was called to the transparent
surface of the freshly formed pupa, which might be sensitive to
ight. Professor Meldola, however, had modified such statements
by declaring! that “the action of light upon the sensitive skin of
a pupa had no analogy with its action on any known photographic
chemieal. No known substance retained permanently the color
reflected on it by adjacent objects.” 4
This represents the state of our knowledge at the time of the publi-
cation of Mr. Poulton’s memoir. In this paper the results of many
experiments are tabulated, Some of them are very striking. Thus,
in the case of pupæ of Vanessa, exposed to gilded surroundings,
many of them appeared as if they had been covered with gol .
This memoir isa difficult one to abstract, owing to the great amount
of details. The following appear to be the more important conclu-
sions :—
1. There is a great difference with regards to the sensitiveness
of different species. Thus he proves that the pups of the following
named butterflies possess an adjustable color-relation to their sur-
roundings: Vanessa io, V. urtice, V. atalanta, Pieris brassice,
and P. rape, while, on the other hand, dimorphic pupe, which are
closely allied to the sensitive forms, may be uninfluenced by r
rounding colors, e.g.: Papilio machaon and P. polydamus. +8
the genus Ephyra (Heterocera) the dimorphic pupæ are quite pe f
influenced by their surroundings, the pupal colors corresponding
to those of the dimorphic larvæ. :
2. The previously accepted theory, which explained the pune!
color-relation as following from the action of light upon the mols
skin of the freshly-formed pupa, is entirely disproved, and "A
shown that the influence works upon the Jarva during the peri
which intervenes between the cessation of feeding and pupation.
_ This intervening period was carefully investigated in V. rag
and it was found that, after ceasing to feed, the larve wander
a variable time, then rest for about fifteen hours upon the su cP
selected for pupation, and finally hang suspended, head PEE
for about eighteen hours, after which time pupation takes pice
By transferring the larve from one color to another, in
that the color influence works for about twenty hours pr g
the last twelve hours of the whole period.
| Proc. Entom. Soc., London, 1874, p. XXIV.
Entomology. 1035
3. Blinding proved that the eyes do not form the organs which
are influenced, and it was also shown that the complex ‘briatles do
not contain a terminal organ with this function. Experiments
with conflicting colors appear to prove that surrounding colors
affect the whole surface of the larval skin, although parti-colored
upæ were not obtained. (There is, however, some evidence of
such a result in Papilio nireus.)
4. In all cases there are certain colors which produce no effects.
In Vanessa the brilliant metallic tints of the pupe can be greatly
influenced by the presence of gilded surfaces in the environment of
the larva before pupation. This fact appears to prove that the
metallic tints are essentially protective, and probably subserve con-
cealment by their resemblance to glittering minerals, such as mica.
his theory is confirmed by observations upon the habits of certain
species with gilded pups. At the same time the gilded appearance
as acquired another and opposite significance im other species,
being of use in rendering the pupæ conspicuous, and thus acting as
a signal of an unpleasant taste or smell.
_ 5. The amount of pigment in the superficial layer of the cuticle
in the pupæ of Pieris brassice and P. rape appears to be influen
by the spectroscopic composition of the light incident upon the larvae
before pupation. :
e experiments of Mr. Griffiths, as summarised 7 Mr.
White, confirms Mr. Poulton’s observations in the following
pupæ produced by black, and of green pupæ produced by yellow.
(4) The special effects of yellow surroundings in arresting the
formation of dark superficial pigment, and in tending towards
the production of green pups, were very striking, and confirm
Poulton’s suggestion that rays from this part of the spectrum,
Serious INJURY TO APPLES BY THE PLUM CurcuLio.—
ng the latter part of the past summer my attention was
1036 General Notes.
attracted to a serious injury done to the fruit in an apple-orchard
through which I passed daily. A large proportion of the apples
in one corner of the orchard had been eaten into by something
which made small pits from one-eighth to one-fourth inch in
diameter, and of about the same depth. On one tree nearly
every apple had been attacked, and in many cases there were
ten or twelve holes in a single apple. The injury was so serious
as to render the fruit in this part of the orchard unmarketable.
The holes in the apples were first observed during the latter
part of August. At that time many of them were partially
grown over, while others were fresh, indicating that the pest
had been at work for a considerable time, and was still active.
As the injury to the apples resemble somewhat that caused by
a climbing cut-worm, that sometimes infests apples in western
New York, I at first searched for caterpillars, and gave little
thought to the plum curculios that I frequently found hiding
in the pits in theapples. But, after finding a considerable number
of these insects in these pits, it occurred to me that they might
the cause of the mischief, Several perfect apples were then
selected and placed in breeding-cages, in each of which were con-
ned several curculios. The question was soon settled. Within
twenty-four hours the beetles had begun to eat into the apples.
They made small holes at first, but these were soon enlarged so as
to form pits of the size indicated above. :
The results of this experiment are of special interest at this
time as confirming the observations referred to in the next note.—
J. H. Comstock
POISONING THE PLUM CURCULIO.— In referring to some expert
ments made by me to prevent curculio injuries, in the August
NATURALIST, the question is raised as to how spraying with poison
may have a preventive effect on this insect. I believe that 4
satisfactory explanation may now be given. Early last June
I confined an adult curculio in a jar with a large green plum, an
was surprised at the avidity with which the fruit was eaten. ie
large portion of the surface was gnawed out for food, and not ‘sult
purposes of oviposition, and the feasibility of p the a
beetles by coating the fruit with poison is clearly shown. 45
But even more satisfactory breeding-cage experiments were ma ee
in Illinois, by Professor Forbes, who informs me that he has ei
that, besides gnawing out the fruit, the adult curculio eats vane
of the substances of the leaves. He adds that the curculios sak
certainly very freely exposed to destruction by poison, ve v”
reference to the habits of oviposition or the first food of the larvæ;
and that he has “also learned experimentally that spray ng. ”
leaves with Paris green would poison the beetles completely:
Embryology. 1037
Professor Forbes discussed at some length the details of his experi-
ments, which confirm the conclusions reached in my experiments,
in an address delivered at a meeting of the Central Illinois Horti-
cultural Society during last August. (Prairie Farmer, August 11,
1888.) Professor A. J. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural Col-
lege, also announces, in Bulletin No. XX ., Similar results.—
Clarence M. Weed, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station.
SMITR’S MONOGRAPH OF THE SPHINGIDE OF TEMPERATE
NORTH America.—Parts II. and III. of the current volume of the
Transactions of the American Entomological Society are devoted to
a “ Monograph of the Sphingide of Temperate North America,” by
Mr. John B. Smith. This paper makes a volume of nearly 200
pages. It appears to be very complete, and very carefully written.
The synonymy of each species is given ; the adult is fully described,
and descriptions of the early stages are also given whenever they are
known. The work abounds in valuable critical notes. Analytical
keys for the separation of genera and of species are furnished.
The paper concludes with a synonymical list. Eighty species are
enumerated in this list. This work should be in the hands of
every student of American Lepidoptera.
EMBRYOLOGY.
DEVELOPMENT OF MELOE.—Josef Nusbaum describes briefly
(Biol. Centraiblat., VIIL., p. 449-452) the development of the oil
tle, Meloe. This form is very convenient for embryological
studies as it breeds well in confinement and lays little piles of eggs,
all the eggs in a single pile developing synchronously. The
Segmentation nucleus is central and the cells resulting from the
entation migrate slowly to the surface, the protoplasm forming
a reticulum in the meshes of which the yolk is embraced. Some
of these cells reach the surface to form the blastoderm while others
remain behind to form “ yolk cells.” On the third day the ventral
Plate and the rudiments of the amnion appear very early the ventral
plate becomes segmented, and paired appendages appear on every
Segment of the body. The primitive groove appears at the same
time as the amnion and develops from behind forward. It soon
closes and forms a tube with a very narrow lumen behind, in front
a solid cellular in-pushing. This is regarded as gastrulation, and
the portion thus invaginated as ento-mesoderm or primary entoderm,
‘ Edited by Prof, John A. Ryder, Univ. of Penna., Philadelphia.
1038 General Notes.
from the hinder portion of this cells, are cut off, which wander in
and join the “ yolk cells.” but have nothing to do with the forma-
tion of the mesenteron. The remainder of the primary entoderm
differentiates into two large lateral and a middle solid longitudinal
and, and in the former there appears in each segment a cavity.
The outer wall of this cavity forms the somatopleure, the inner
the splanchnopleure and epithelium of the digestive tract. This inner
wall soon separates completely from the outer in the middle line,
and there becomes two-layered, thus developing both entoderm and
splanchnopleure. These lateral bands of entoderm now unite with
the middle one and soon enclose the whole yolk and the “ yolk
cells” which latter later degenerate and are absorbed.—J.S. K.
MICROSCOPY."
VITAL INFUSION or Nerves WITH METRYL-BLUE.—Prof.
Ehrlich’s? experiments in staining nerves with methyl-blue, mark the
second great advance in staining living tissues. The discovery ot a
veritable nerve-stain, that acts intra vitam, has already led to the
settlement of many disputed points, and promises to furnish a
means for deciding the problem of nerve-endings. The well-known
color-reaction induced in newly formed bone-substance as the result
of madder-feeding, is outshone by this wonderful reaction between
methyl-blue and the axis-cylinder. l
According to Ehrlich two conditions are necessary in order to e
the methyl-blue reaction : These are (1) saturation with oxygen an
(2) alkaline reaction. The first condition can be secured only be
free exposure of the object to the air. If a cover-slip is used, the
air is thus excluded, and the stain rapidly disappears.
As to the second condition, it is known that nerves at rest have
an alkaline reaction. It is necessary, therefore, to experiment re
resting nerves. The state of rest may be forced by severing ‘
nerves before infusion with methyl-blue, or by poisoning the animals ©
with curare. The nerve-endings of the retina may be studied me
animals that have been kept some time in the dark before infusio ;
The number of nerve terminations that stain under ordinary ae
ditions is, however, so great, that a wide field for histological aie
tigation is open to us without having recourse to the expedients J
mentioned, se
1 Edited by C. O. Whitman, Director of the Lake Laboratory, Mi
waukee. Pres
* P, Ehrlich. Ueber die Methylenblaureaction der lebenden Ner
substanz. Deutsch. med. Wochenschr., 1886, No. 4.
~
Microscopy. 1039
The evanescence of the color-reaction is a serious drawback, but
this difficulty has been met with some success by the use of iodine
and picro-carmine as “ fixing ” reagents.
The method of procedure, according to Prof. ©. Arnstein, '! and
his pupils, Dogiel and Smirnon, is as follows :—
nject the vena cutanea magna of a frog with 1 ce. of a satu-
rated solution of methyl-blue. The tongue and palate are at once
colored, but the coloring substance is confined to the blood-vessels,
and does not at first affect the nerves. After an hour or two the
nerves supplying the taste papille appear blue, and at the same time
the nerve-meshes of the palate are also stained. The motor nerve-
ends show the stain a little later. The color-reaction only lasts a
short time, often not more than five to ten minutes. It should be
fixed at the moment of its greatest intensity. If iodine is used for
this purpose, proceed as follows: —
: lace the frog in a 1 per cent. aqueous solution of potassic
lodide, in which metallic iodine has been dissolved to saturation,
and inject the blood-vessels with the same solution, thus freeing
them from the blood as far as possible.
Next cut out the parts needed and leave them in the iodine
solution from six to twelve hours.
Transfer to water and leave until most of the iodine has
been withdrawn. As the result of this treatment, the nerves will
have a dark brown or grey color, and the surrounding tissue will
nearly colorless,
5. Mount in acidified glycerine.
Picro-carmine as a “ fixing ” agent, is said to give more dura-
na preparations than iodine, Bat the latter gives the more intense
color i
Mammals and birds die soon after injection of methyl-blue, so
that a true intra vitam reaction can not be easily obtained. How-
ever, a very satisfactory reaction may be obtained, with these animals,
after death from chloroform. The injection may be made from the
eart or from any blood-vessel. The appearance of i color in the
nerves can be followed under the microscope, and when its maximum
has been reached, the fixing reagent applied. r
Finally, with a dilute solution of methyl-blue, preparations can
be stained directly on the slide. The retina of fishes, birds, an
mammals, can be more successfully stained this way than by
Injection,
Dr. Max J oseph? has tested Ehrlich’s method on Heteropods and
found that the clear intra vitam stain could not be satisfactorily
fixed. He remarks that the commercial methyl-blue is unfit for use,
, Anat. Anz. ii., 1887, No. 5, p. 125, and No. 17, p. 551.
Anat. Anz., June, 1888, No. 15, p. 420.
1040 General Notes.
and that only the chemically pure article will give the results obtained
by Ehrlich,
Instead of a saturated solution, Dr. Joseph recommends the
strength originally employed by Ehrlich,—one-quarter gram color in
100 grams of the physiological salt solution. ee
The best stain was reached about six hours after injection in
the body-cavity.
Biedermann’ has employed nearly the same method for Crustacea
and insects.
CENTRAL TERMINATION OF THE OPTIC NERVE IN VERTE-
BRATES.’—For tracing the course of nerve-fibres, the following
method has been employed with great success by Prof. Bellonci. —
1. The brain, or a part of it containing the nervus opticus, is
placed in osmic acid (4 to 1 per cent.) for fourteen to twenty
ours,
2. Sections are then made with free hand in aleohol of 70 per
cent. ; the sections are washed in distilled water a few minutes, and
then placed in 80 per cent. alcohol three or four hours.
3. The sections are again placed in distilled water, and then
transferred to the object-slide, and covered with a cover-slip.
4, A few drops of ammonia are then allowed to mix with the
water under the cover-slip. This reagent makes the brain trans-
parent as glass, with exception of the nerve-fibres, which remain
black, and which are brought out with such distinctness that their
course is easily followed. :
The sections are of course thick, but this is an advantage in
tracing the winding course of the fibres. ‘
Sections cut in celloidin with the microtome can be treated in
same manner, but the action of the ammonia is much slower,
requiring several days.
DoUBLE-STAINING OF THE CENTRAL Nervous SysTEM.’—
. Of the various fluids used for hardening, a 3 to 4 per a
solution of bichromate of potassium gives the best results. P
object must be in a fresh condition when placed in the fluid, an
the fluid must be changed often during the process of hanes:
2. The sections are best when made, without imbedding in cet-
loidin, from pieces fastened to cork with gum and then placed in
alcohol long enough to harden the gum.‘
1 Sitzb. d. Kaiz. Akad. d. Wissensch., Vol. xevi., 3 Abth. 1887. bel
* Josef Bel/onci. Weber die centrale Endigung des Nervus opticus
den Vertebraten,
Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zoologie, xlvii., I., p. 4, September, 1888. we
= Hermann Sahli. Ueber eine neue Doppelfärbung des cen
ervensystems. Zeitsch. f. wiss. Mikroskopie, ii., i Spey ‘But the
reparations left several days in alcohol can sti
sections should be laid in the bichromate of potassium for an hour, and
Proceedings of Scientifie Societies. 1041
3. The sections are placed in water for a few minutes (not over
five or ten), and then in a saturated aqueous solution of methyl-blue
until stained deep blue.
are then washed, and placed in a saturated aqueous
solution of acid fuchsin for about five minutes.
e sections are next to be quickly washed, and placed for a
Jew seconds in an alcoholic solution of caustic potash (1 per cent.),
from which they are to be transferred at once to abundant water.
The color differentiation at once appears: The white matter
becomes blue or violet, and the gray matter red. Bundles of fibres
in longitudinal section appear to be made up partly of blue and
partly of red fibres. Cross-sections show that the difference in
color among the fibres is due to the presence in varying amount of
two unlike substances in the medullary sheaths. These substances
may be distinguished as erythrophilous (red) and cyanophilous
(blue). The axis-cylinder is uniformly red, while the medullary
sheaths are variegated. In some fibres the whole sheath is made up
of cyanophilous matter, in others of erythrophilous matter. In the
majority of the fibres, the sheath is composed of concentric layers,
blue alternating with red.
In the gray matter of the spinal chord may be seen Gerlach’s
net-work of fine fibrils. Close examination shows that the fibril is
differentiated into red axis-cylinder and blue medullary sheath.
Preparations after the above method are not permanent, but they
sometimes keep for a year or more.
Such preparations show that the medullary sheath is a structure
of more importance than has generally been supposed by physiolo-
gists and pathologists. The hist brought out by this process
of double-staining appear to indicate a difference in function among
the nerve-fibres. The division into motor and sensory fibres, as
Sahli suggests, may not go to the root of the matter. The central
hervous system may be built up on a much more complicated
principle of division.
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
Kent Screntiric InstirutE oF GRAND Raprps, Micu.—
The following officers were elected to serve for the year 1888 :
President, E. S. Holmes; Vice-President, W. A. Greeson ; Recorder,
C. A. Whittemore ; Corresponding Secretary, E. S. Holmes ; Treas-
ining may be successful with celloidin sections, p
they are very thin. It is better, however, to remove the cello
1042 General Notes.
urer, Samuel L. Fuller; Director of Museum, W. A. Greeson ;
Curator of Museum, C. W. Carman; Librarian, Geo. E. Fitch. Board
of Directors: for one year, Joel C. Parker ; for two years, Wright
. Coffinberry ; for three years, W. A. Greeson ; for four years,
Samuel L. Fuller; for five years, E. S. Holmes; for six years, J.
Jones.
BroLocical SOCIETY or WasHInGToN.—At the meeting held
October 20th, 1888, the following communications were read: Mr.
L. O. Howard, “An Apparatus for the Study of Underground
Insects and Plant-Roots;” Prof. Lester F. Ward, “The King
Devil;” Mr. J. B. Smith, “Some Remarks on Sexual Characters
in Lachnosternum ;” Dr. Theo. Gill, “The Families of Fishes.”
November 3, 1888.—The following communications were read :
Mr. F. H. Knowlton, “ Fossil Wood and Lignites of the Potomac
Formation ;” Mr. W. H. Dall, “ Observations on the Modifications
of the Gill in Univalve Molluscs ;” Dr. Theo. Gill, “ Characteristics
of the Scatophagide ;” Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “ Description of a
New Species of Arvicola from the Black Hills of Dakota.”
November 17, 1888.—Prof. Lester F. Ward, “A Comprehen-
sive Type of Fossil Cryptogamic Life from the Fort Union group,
with Lantern views;” Mr. F. H. Knowlton, “Illustrations of
Fossil Wood and Lignites of the Potomac Formation with Lan-
tern views ;” Dr. Cooper Curtis, “ Some sexual differences 1n Tri-
chocephali ;” Prof. B. F. Fernow, “Geotropism and Heliotropism of
Trees ;” Dr. Theo. Gill, “ On the relations of the Pscychrolutidee ;
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “Description of a new Ground Squirrel
from California.”
U. S. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF Scrences.—Papers read No-
vember, 1888, in New Haven.—I. “The Lunar Eclipse, July 22,
1888,”! by E. S. Holden. II. “The Zone Undertaking of the
Astronomische Gesellschaft,” by Lewis Boss; presented by A Hall.
III. “The Rain-Fall of the North Atlantic Ocean,”? by Elias
Loomis. IV. “A finished Breed of Horses,”! by W. H. Brewer.
V. “A Systematic Study of the Action of Definitely Related
Chemical Compounds upon Animals,” ! by Wolcott Gibbs and Ho-
bart Emory Hare. VI. “The Cretaceous Flora of North rave
ca,” by J. S. Newberry. VII. “On the Zoological Relations 0
some Palæozoic Fishes,’ by J. S. Newberry. VIII. < The
Evolution of the Mammalian Molar Teeth to and from the Tri-
tubercular Type,”? by Henry F. Osborn; presented by E. D
Cope. IX. “Some Scientific Results of the Albatross Expedition
from Washington to San Francisco,” ? by L. A. Lee; presen
1 Read November 13th.
? Read November 14th. The remainder read November 165th.
Proceedings of Scientific Societies, 1043
by A. E. Verrill. X. “Some Measurements of Relative Wave-
lengths,” by A. A. Michelson and E. W. Morley. XI. “A
New Mineral from Maine,” by E. S. Dana. XII. “ Remarks
on the Expression of the Law of Attraction in the Stellar Systems,”
by C. H. F. Peters. XIII. “ Notes on the Satellite of Neptune,”
by A. Hall. XIV. “The Problem of Soaring Birds,” by G.
K. Gilbert. XV. “The Laws of Corrasion,” by J. W. Powell.
THE WEsTERN Society or Naturauists held its first annual
meeting October 24th and 25th, 1888, in the Physical Lecture-
room of the Illinois State University, Champaign, Ill. Twenty-
six members, representing six States, were in attendance. The
meeting was called to order by the President, Dr. S. A. Forbes, and
welcomed to the State and to Champaign by Prof. T. J. Burrill,
Vice-President of the University. The first paper, on the“ Teach-
ing of Botany,” was by Dr. D. H. Campbell, of Indiana University.
He advocated the logical method of beginning with the simple and
leading up to the complex, even with pupils as young as those
in the high-schools, and the constant use of the compound micro-
scope. The discussion which followed showed considerable diver-
sity of opinion as to method, but all were agreed in relegating the
analysis of flowers to the background. The other paper of the
afternoon was by Prof. W. J. Beal, of the Michigan Agricultural
College, who gave an account of a museum of plant products.
In the evening, Dr. S. A. Forbes, of the Illinois State University,
gave the presidential address, detailing the character, scope, an
objects of the Society, and then Pres. T. C. Chamberlain, of the
Wisconsin State University, detailed the methods of investigation
in quaternary geology. 2 ;
hursday morning the following papers were read: “ Collegiate
Instruction in Physiology,” by Prof. O. P. Jenkins, of DePauw
University ; “Collegiate Instruction in Geology,” by Prof. Samuel
Calvin, of Iowa University ; and “ Biology in the High School,”
by Prof. W. H. Hatch, of Rock Island. Prof. J. T. Burrill
exhibited a convenient and compact apparatus for taking photo-
graphs of microscopic objects, and explained its use. Prof. O.
P. Jenkins exhibited a simple microtome invented by Prof. J . P.
Naylor, which would cut ribbons of sections, the thinness of which
is only limited by the pitch of the screw and the edge of the razor,
while the instrument could be manufactured at a profit for ten or
fifteen dollars. The following officers were elected for the ensuing
year: President, Dr. T. C. Chamberlain, of Madison, Wis.; Vice-
Presidents, Prof. J. T. Burrill, of Champaign, Ill., Pres. D. S:
Jordan, of Bloomington, Ind., Prof. Samuel Calvin, of Iowa City,
Iowa; Secretary, Prof. J. S. Kingsley, of Bloomington, Ind. ;
Treasurer, Prof. John M. Coulter, of Crawfordsville, Ind. It was
1044 General Notes.
voted to hold the next annual meeting in Madison, Wis., in Octo-
ber, 1889, the exact date to be set by the Executive Committee.
Friday afternoon, after the transaction of some business, Dr. S.
A. Forbes and Prof. H. Garman presented an account of the
methods of investigating the contagious diseases of insects. Dr.
C. O. Whitman, after giving several hints in matters of micro-
scopical and embryological technique, outlined his plans for an
inland biological laboratory, for which he asked the co-operation
and active support of the colleges and universities of the North-
west. Prof. W. A. Locy, of Lake Forest University, read a paper
on the “Teaching of Zoology in Colleges.” Prof. Josua Lindahl
exhibited a simple instrument he had devised for obtaining the
contours and outline sections of skulls and other objects. After
passing the usual resolutions and also one expressing their interest
and intention to aid in the establishment of the laboratory advo-
cated by Dr. Whitman, the Society adjourned.
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.
— Report of the committee to secure from Congress the abolition of
the duties on scientific books and apparatus imported into this country.
—The committee made the following report :—
Shortly after its appointment Dr. J. S. Billings resigned, sug-
ting that a member from the West be selected to fill his place.
rof. Langley, president of the Association, therefore appointed
Prof. A. H. Worthen, of Springfield, Ill., to the vacancy. Upon
the death of Prof. Worthen, which followed not long after,
Prof. S. A. Forbes of Champaign, Ill., was selected by Prof.
Langley to fill his place.
The eastern members of the committee, Paof. J. R. Eastman
and Prof. E. D. Cope, chairman, have held several meetings with
the following results. The following resolution was adopted and
signed by all the members :—
lish-speaking country. ee ey
Also all apparatus, instruments and material to be used in scientific ex-
periment or original research ; decision as to the intention of the importer
to rest with a committee of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences.
This resolution was placed in the hands of the Committee of
Ways and Means of the House of Representatives of which the
Hon. R. Q. Mills is chairman, through Hon. W. C. P. Breckinridge
of Kentucky, one of its members. The resolutions were received
with consideration and had the attention of the committee while
engaged in framing what is known as the Mills Tariff Bill. The
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 1045
recommendations contained in the resolutions were partially in-
corporated into the bill in the following language (H. R. 9051,
p. 1 and 7).
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, that on and after the first day
of July, 1888, the following articles mentioned in this section, when im-
ported, shall be exempt from duty: :
‘‘ Bibles, books and pamphlets printed in other languages than English,
and books and pamphlets and all publications of Foreign Governments,
and publications of Foreign Societies, historical or scientific, printed for
gratuitous distribution.”
This provision, although not covering the case of scientific pub-
lications produced in England, is a great advance over previous
legislation on the subject.
As it is probable that the Mills bill in its present shape will not
pass the Senate, and as the Senate is preparing a tariff bill as a sub-
stitute for it, the resolutions of your committee have been sub-
mitted to the committee of the Senate engaged in preparing this
bill, of which Senator W. B. Allison is chairman. There is every
reason to believe that the suggestions therein contained will re-
ceive the respectful consideration of that committee.
It has been hoped that some relief from the tax on knowledge
at present imposed by the government of the United States might
_ ‘| Whereas, the cause of education in science is retarded by the restric-
tions placed by Congress on the importa on of scientific books and ap-
gators, and are but rarely duplicated in this country : whereas the value
of scientific apparatus is in nearly all cases dep t
ofthe maker : and whereas colleg di i
permitted to import apparatus duty free, while private investigators, usu-
ally less able to yh ed : f
“ Be it resolved, That ———— hereby requests the Representatives o
thestate of —— in the Congress of the United States to use all pos-
1046 General Notes.
sible efforts to have placed on the free list, books pertaining to the physi-
cal, natural and medical sciences, and apparatus intended for purposes of
scientific research or of education : and further be it
“ Resolved, That a copy of these preambles and resolutions be forwarded
to each member of Congress.”
These resolutions were sent, by resolution of the same society,
to the faculties of the universities and colleges throughout the
United States for their approval and signature. Replies express-
ing this approval and signed by the faculties, or their accredited
officers, were received from the following institutions :—
The American Philosophical Society, Philadel hia; The Franklin
Institute, Philadelphia ; the Academy of Natura Sciences, Philadel-
. . ne
City ; Union College, New York ; Kenyon College, Ohio; N orthwestern
iversi Colles. Ohio ; University of Vir-
ginia, Na ne d e Va. ; Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; Ha
As regards the removal of duty from imported philosophical and
scientific apparatus, your committee cannot report much progress.
Our efforts have been mainly directed to the removal of the duty
on books, under the belief that success in this direction will pre-
> the way for further advance. We have not, however, neg-
ected this important subject. The Mills tariff bill thus refers
to it (pp. 27 and 32):
(p. 82.) “And on and after October first, 1888, in lieu of the duties
heretofore imposed on the articles hereinafter mentioned in this section,
there shall be levied, collected and paid the following rates of duty on
Philosophical apparatus and instruments, twenty-five per centum ad
valorem.
Your committee hope to be able to secure the total abolition
of the duties on foreign books of science, and the great reduction,
if not abolition, of those on apparatus. We base this hope on the
activity in the direction of change in the existing laws on this sub-
ject, at present existing in Congress, and the evident desire of the
representatives of both the great political parties of the country to
legislate for the best interests of their constituents, as they under z
stand them. At the moment of preparing this report it is not
Scientifie News. 1047
possible to announce any final result of the action of your com-
mittee, but it is quite possible that improved legislation may be
attained by the time of the meeting of the Association to which
this report is made.
In conclusion we find that what is needed to effect the result
desired, is a continuation of the effort, already commenced, o
vigorous protest against the laws on the subject as at present ex-
isting ; laws which obstruct knowledge at its fountain-head ; which
impose onerous burdens on a class which works gratuitously for the
public good, and which place our country in a false position among
the enlightened nations of the earth.
Epw. D. Corr, Philadelphia, Chairman.
J. R. Eastman, U. S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D. C.
S. A. Forges, Champaign, III.
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
_—Dr. Paul Langerhans, formerly professor in Freiburg i. B.,
died in Funchal, Madeira, July 20th, 1888, aged forty-one years.
—A heavy earthquake shock was felt in the city of Mexico,
September 6th, 1888. In its violence it exceeded any hitherto
recorded there.
—Prof. Graf zu Solms-Laubach, of Tübingen, succeeds to Prof.
de Bary’s place as editor of the Botanische Zeitung, while Dr.
Kohl, of Marburg, has accepted the position of editor of the
Botanische Centralblatt.
—The Indiana Academy of Science will hold its fourth annual
meeting at Indianapolis, December 25th to 27th. The address of
the retiring President, Dr. J. P. D. John, will be given on the
evening of the 25th. As last year the programme was crowded,
it has been decided to organize four sections this year: A,
Zoology; B, Botany ; C, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics ;
D, Geology and Geography.
_ —The British Association at its Bath ee beset ot ERE
mg grants for Geology, Biology, Geography and Anthropology :
Geological Record, £80; Exretic Blocks, £10; Volcanic Phe-
nomena of Japan, £25; Volcanic Phenomena of Vesuvius, £20;
Fossil Phyllopoda of the Paleozoic Rocks, £20; Eocene Beds of
the Isle of Wight, £15 ; Fossil Secondary and tagr Plants of
the United Kingdom, £15; Zoology and Botany of the West
1048 Scientific News.
Indies, £100; Marine Biological Association, £200; Flora of
China, £25; Physiology of the Lymphatic System, £25; Deep-
sea Tow-net, £10 ; Natural History of the Friendly Islands, £100 ;
Geography and Geology of the Atlas Range £100; Effect of
Occupation on Physical Development, £20; Northwestern Tribes
of Canada, £150; New Edition of Anthropological Notes and
Queries, £50; Calculating the Anthropological Measurements
taken at Bath, £5; Exploration of Roman Baths at Bath, £100;
Characteristics of Nomad Tribes of Asia Minor, £30. Apparently
no grant was made this year for the Zoological Record, a work
which may well be allowed to lapse, since its place is so much
better filled by the Naples “ Jahresbericht.”
—ReEwarps FOR MERITORIOUS DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS.
—The Committee on Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute,
of the State of Pennsylvania, is empowered to award, or to recom-
mend the award of, certain medals for meritorious discoveries and
inventions, which tend to the progress of the arts and manufactures.
These medals are :— i
1.—The Elliott Cresson Medal (gold), to be awarded either for
some discovery in the arts and sciences, or for the invention or 1m-
provement of some useful machine, or for some new process, OF
combination of materials in manufactures, or for ingenuity, skill, or
perfection in workmanship.
2.—The John Scott Legacy Premium and Medal (twenty dol-
lars and a medal of copper) was founded in 1816, by John Scott, a
merchant of Edinburgh, Scotland, who bequeathed to the City of
Philadelphia a considerable sum of money, the interest of which
should be devoted to rewarding ingenious men and women who |
make useful inventions. The premium is not to exceed twenty
dollars, and the medal is to be of copper, and inscribed “ To the most
eser'ving.”
—The following is taken from the New York Herald: The Pea-
body Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, of Cam-
view to a thorough ethnological and archæological study = ae
ruins in that country. The expedition will occupy several er v6
Se ee eet a
K
THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST.
VoL. XXII. DECEMBER, 1888. No. 264,
SURFACE GEOLOGY OF BURLINGTON, IOWA.
BY CHARLES R. KEYES.
HE sedimentary rocks of Burlington have afforded such unri-
valed facilities for the study of an extensive piscine and crin-
oidal fauna that attention has been almost totally diverted not
only from other well represented faunal groups, but also the equally
interesting stratigraphical and cenological features of that vicinity.
While the palzontological researches were being so assiduously car-
ried on, regional stratigraphy necessarily received, at divers times,
more or less consideration, and is comparatively well understood.
Recently a detailed investigation of the superficial deposits of the
region was instituted, and a preliminary notice of the observations
over a limited area is herewith presented.
The general geographical features of the annexed map have been
compiled from Powers’ map of the city of Burlington and a por=
tion of the map of Des Moines county, as given in Andreas’ His-
torical Atlas of Iowa. In a few minor particulars, observation has
necessitated some corrections and additions. The hypsometrical
features are approximately accurate—the contours (twenty feet apart)
_ having been, for the most part, constructed from measured street
and railway elevations, and, especially in the northern third of the
area represented, from measurements personally made with level
and rod. Over certain areas of limited extent estimates from points
of prominence were also made. Along the eastern margins of North
and Prospect hills the contours should in reality form a single line, —
but it has been deemed more advisable, for reasons hereafter stated,
1050 Surface Geology of Burlington.
to deviate slightly from actuality, and project the individual con-
tours distinctly.
The drift over the region cartographically represented in Plate
XXIII, exhibits only the “ Lower Till”—the southern boundary of
the “ Upper Till,” or the till of the second glacial epoch, being con-
siderably to the northwestward. Over this portion of the state the
drift is usually more or less modified superficially, The boulders
contained are for the most part comparatively few and of small size;
they are seldom more than five or six feet in diameter, though a
few miles from Burlington one is to be seen, the diametric measure-
ment of which is more than fifteen feet. The preglacial surface
expression of the region under consideration has manifestly not been
completely obliterated by glaciation and the concomitant depositions,
and the present topographic features are consequently in greater or
less degree dependent upon the subjacent stratigraphic rocks which
make up the greater portion of the altitude of the bluffs on either
side of the Mississippi river at this point. The extreme attenuation
of the till over the more elevated areas, and the deep accumulations
of drift materials over the less elevated places, is evidenced by
numerous exposures. In the valleys of Flint, Hawkeye and other
smaller creeks, the depositions of the till attain a maximum thick-
ness in some places of seventy or eighty feet.
The city of Burlington is built upon four “hills,” all of which
_ rise to a height of nearly two hundred feet above low water ' in the
- Mississippi river at that place. Perhaps five-sixths of the altitude
_ is formed of Burlington limestone and Kinderhook shales, which
along the Mississippi river at Prospect and North hills, and also
some parts bordering Flint creek, rise from the water’s edge in high
mural escarpments.
North of Hawkeye creek is a nearly insulated plateau, all sides
of which are scalloped by steep-sided ravines, very deep toward the
lower extremities, but interiorly becoming quickly lessened in depth,
"1 This is the basis of all elevations given in the accompanying Map,
and is assumed to be 510.77 feet above the sea-level. It was determined
from a line of precise levels recently run by the Mississippi River Com-
mission up the Mississippi river from the Gulf of Mexico, which gives
the elevation of the U. S. P. B. M. 14, on the north end of the east abut-
ment of the C. B. and Q. R. R. bridge over the Mississippi river at Bur-
lington as 171.4352 meters. :
Surface Geology of Burlington. 1051
and the larger ones soon passing into small, broad, shallow drain-
age basins, which impart to the central portion of the plateau a
characteristic, gently undulatory appearance. To the northeastward
is a small subsidiary plain of subdued undulatory topography, evi-
dently in no way dependent upon the underlying stratigraphic
rocks. It rises thirty or more feet above the broad alluvial flood
plain of the Mississippi river, and is divided by the Flint creek.
Southwestward it passes rather abruptly into the comparatively
gentle slopes of the general plateau. It manifestly occupies the
preglacially corroded valley of Flint creek, and laterally rests upon
the irregularly eroded slopes of the ancient water course. A section
of this limited auxilliary plain exhibits the following structure: the
€xposure is continuous for nearly half a mile on Flint creek, and is
practically similar throughout.
SECTION I.'
1. Course, brown, friable loam, with occasional small pebbles,
gradating imperceptibly into No. 2......::cccccssseeeseeeee stress 3 feet.
2. Yellowish-brown clay of a characteristic fisted nature ; con-
taining a few small boulders or large pebbles, in places indietisoly
laminated... isa 15 feet,
3. Commingled “i wå ‘gravel irepabely sitsiilia: pebbles
up to six inches in diameter, mostly rounded, erratic, but with
numerous local angular flint and limestone pieces 10 feet,
4. Drab, homogeneous unctuous clay. -2 feet.
5. Coarse yellow and white sand, with a few small, erratic peb-
bles, everywhere quaquaversally stratified... ERSE BO
6. Very fine homogeneous white sand (this i is noe crete along
Mee eitire sedioni. e a ac E 1 foot.
7. Coarse yellow and white sand, with rounded and, nee
erratic pebbles up to two feet in diameter, and larger local - ‘angular
ss ee of flint and fossiliferous (Burlington) limestone, ex-
a
One mile above on Flint creek the coarse yellow sands form a
conspicuous feature. A short distance further north the lower till,
* The several sections selected are regarded as the most typical of the
See exposures examined, and are marked on the accompany-
ng ma map.
ed wig
POE e og
1052 Surface Geology of Burlington.
with numerous small, rounded erratic boulders up to four feet in
diameter, is well exposed in all its characteristic details. It is over-
laid by six to eight feet of typical loess, containing numerous small
leesskindchen. The deposits here presented have an exposed
thickness of sixty feet, and are seen to lean against the steep sides,
the rather narrow gorge preglacially eroded by the waters of Flint
creek to a depth of more than one hundred and thirty feet. North
of Flint creek, and beyond the area represented in the annexed
map, the topography in its general aspect is similar to that of the
insulated plateau south. On the upper brow of the north slope of
“ North hill,” a road cutting discloses the following arrangement :—
SECTION II.
i Brownish-yellow clay, free from gravel, and for the r pant
homogeneous; gradating into No. 2 t.
2. Typical ashen compact loess *aining numerous small en
kindchen and the following fossils :—
Pupa muscorum Linn. ` Succinea obliqua Say.
Patula striatella Anth. Limnophysa desidiosa Bay.
Patula perspectwa Say. Helicina occulta Say.......8 feet.
3. Till with an abundance of gravel, and pebbles up to three feet
in diameter, exposed 20 feet.
Over the entire central portions of the nokiaa ‘platens the dis-
tribution of quaternary deposits is essentially the same, except the
lower member suffers a considerable attenuation over the more ele-
vated parts, sometimes being reduced to a few feet in thickness.
Upon removal of the drift materials glacial scorings and strie on
the subjacent paleozoic stratum have been disclosed in various
laces,
South of the Hawkeye creek rises a broad elevated plain so level
in many places as to be almost devoid of natural drainage. North-
eastward it is scalloped by short, deep ravines, but eastward it
abruptly terminates with a perpendicular declivity, washed at its
base by the Mississippi river, which has evidently separated the
plateau from the highland of Henderson county, Illinois. To the
southward and westward this level elevated plain gradually becomes
gently undulatory and finally more broken by the small tributaries
of Be ie creek. Northwestward it merges into the general elevated
PLATE XXIII.
Sr
Surface Geology of Burlington. 1053
_ plain occupying the greater portion of the county. Near the sum-
mit of “South Hill” section III. is exposed in a recently opened
quarry :—
SECTION III.
1, Brownish clay, free from pebbles, becoming silty below, and
gradating insensibly into No. 2.......0000sccccs eerstes sue IE 5 feet.
2. Compactashen loess containing lésskindchen............. 9 feet.
3. Red tenacious clay, upper portion containing much gravel, the
pebbles small, rounded, mainly erratic, a few local flint and lime-
stone fragments disseminated throughout..............62.000+6 1 foot.
4. Large angular fragments of limestone and flint, the interstices
ered With Ted aiai eaa a Gaia cts fae 2 feet.
5. Upper Burlington limestone, exposed 20 feet.
One quarter of a mile to the southeast, on the corner of south
Fourth and Maple streets, a similar arrangement is shown, super-
imposing the lower Burlington limestone. The quaternary bedi of
the two places are manifestly continuous, but the elevation of the
latter section is somewhat less than the former, and the deposits are
all intensified; No. 1 of section III. having a thickness of six feet,
No. 2 of 13 feet, and Nos. 3 and 4 together, of 6 feet. Southwest-
ward from this exposure, perhaps one-fourth of a mile, a road cutting
exhibits :—
1. Brownish-clay silty or loess-like below....... n.00.. n0004. 10 feet.
A Typical Tower W O E a 25 feet.
3. Lower Burlington limestone, exposed 5 feet.
Summarizing the observations herein briefly recorded, it is to be
noted: (1) That the loess at Burlington, as in other portions of
Towa, occurs only over the elevated areas, and the fossils contai |
are all depauperate, evidencing, as pointed out by McGee and Call,'
a much lower temperature of the air than at the present time, for it :
is also urged by those writers that the deposits of loess took place
in ice-bound basins ; (2) that the loess over the region under con-
sideration has been hp atmospheric agencies more or less modified
superficially, often to a depth of five or six feet—the upper portion
losing ‘entirely its original character, but downward passing by
insensible gradations into typical loess. This modification of the
1 Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XXIV., Sept., 1882.
1054 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
superior portion of the léss mantle is in many respects very similar
to analogous changes superficially in the aspect of the residuary clays
over certain parts of the driftless area lying in the northeastern por-
tion of the state, and the contiguous parts of Illinois and Wisconsin
—more specifically referred to by Chamberlain and Salisbury ;1 (3)
that the stratigraphic rocks bordering the Mississippi river suffered
considerable abrasion during the sojourn of the glacier, as is attested
by numerous larger fragments of flint and limestone, which are
manifestly not far removed from their origin, and also by the
observed surfaces of striation over the elevated portions of the area
cartographically represented by fig. 1; and (4) that the till which
on the retreat of the glacier nearly, if not entirely, filled preglacially
corraded channels has since been more or less completely removed
from the numerous deep ravines occurring on all sides of the ele-
vated plateaus of the region.
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON THE
ACTIONS AND HABITS OF ANIMALS, AND
THAT OF THE ACTIONS AND HABITS
OF LIVING BODIES, AS CAUSES ©
WHICH MODIFY THEIR
ORGANIZATION.
BY J. B, P. A. LAMARCK.?
(Continued from page 972.)
Ngee which proves it, is that this is not true of the organ of
hearing, which is always found in animals where the
nature of their organization requires it. This is the reason.
The material of sound, that which is moved by the shock or
' vibrations of bodies, transmits to the organ of hearing
impression which it has received from them, and penetrates every-
where, traversing all media, and even the masses of the most solid
1 U. S. Geol. Sur., Sixth Ann. Rep.
* Translated by Dr. E. E. Galt, from the edition of 1809.
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals, 1055
bodies; any animal which possesses a plan of organization in which
hearing is essential, has always occasion to exercise this organ in
whatever place it inhabits. Therefore, among vertebrate animals,
one sees none which are deprived of the organ of hearing; but below
them, when the same organ is wanting, we do not find this sense
in any of the animals of succeeding classes. It is not thus with the
organ of sight, for one sees that organ disappear, reappear, and
disappear again, by reason of the possibility or the impossibility of
the animals exercising it. In the Mollusques acephales, the great
development of the mantle has rendered their eyes and their head
altogether useless, These organs, although taking part in a wider
plan of organization which comprehends them, have neces-
sarily disappeared and become obliterated by constant disuse.
Finally it enters into the plan of organization of reptiles, as of
other vertebrate animals, that they should have four feet belonging
to their skeletons. Serpents should have, consequently, also four feet,
the more so as they do not constitute the last order of reptiles, and
since they are less related to fishes than are batrachians (frogs, sala-
manders, etc.) Now, snakes having adopted the habit of crawling
on the ground, and of hiding themselves under bushes, their bodies,
in consequence of long-repeated efforts to elongate themselves, in
order to pass into narrow places, have acquired a considerable
length, and in no wise proportionate to their thickness. Now, feet
would have been very useless to these animals, and without employ-
ment. Long feet would have been a hindrance to creeping, and
very short feet, even to the number of four, would have been inca-
pable of moving their bodies. Thus, the disuse of these parts
having become constant in the races of these animals, has caused
these same parts to disappear entirely, although they were really in
the plan of organization of animals of their class. Many insects,
Which from the natural character of their order, and also of their
genus, should have wings, lack them more or less completely, from
disuse. Numbers of Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, and
Hemiptera, etc., present examples, their habits never permitting
them to make use of their wings. But it is not enough to give the
explanation of the cause which has brought about the condition of
organs of different animals, conditions which one sees always the —
Same in those of like species. It is necessary besides to show these
1056 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
changes of conditions acting in the organs of some one individual
during its life as the sole result of a great change in the habits
peculiar to the individuals of its species. The following remark-
able fact fully proves the influence of habits on the condition of
organs, and how continued changes in the habits of an individual
bring changes in the state of the organs which enter into action
during the exercise of these habits. M. Tenon, member of the
Institute, has communicated to the Classe des Sciences, that having
examined the intestinal canal of many men who haye been ardent
drinkers during a great part of their life, has constantly found it
shortened to an extraordinary degree compared with the same organ
of all those who had not a like habit. It isknown that great drinkers
or those who are given to drunkenness, take very little solid food;
that they eat almost nothing, and that the drink which they take
in abundance and frequently, suffices for their nourishment. Since
fluid aliment, and, above all, spiritous drinks, do not remain long
either in the stomach or in the intestines, the stomach and the
rest of the intestinal canal loses in drunkards the habit of distention.
So also in persons of sedentary habits, and constantly applied to
mental work, who habituate themselves to take very little nourish-
ment. Gradually, in time, their stomachs contract, and their intes-
tines become shortened. It is not a question here of shrinking
and shortening produced by a contraction of parts which would
permit of ordinary extension, if in place of a maintained vacancy
_ these viscera should become filled ; but it is a question of real shrinks
ing and considerable shortening, so that these organs would rather
burst than yield suddenly to the causes which would produce
ordinary distension. Circumstances of age being entirely equal,
_ compare a man who habitually devotes himself to studies and mental
_ work, who has rendered. his digestion sluggish, has contracted
_ the habit of eating very little, with another who habitually and
often takes much exercise and eats well; the stomach of the first
would have reduced functions, and a very small quantity of
aliment would fill it, whilst that of the second would be preser x
and even increased. See then an organ greatly modified in 1ts
dimensions and functions by the one cause of a change in its habits
during the life of the individual. The frequent employment of
an organ in becoming adapted to its habits, augments the function
‘umoJ ‘NOISuTang ye SUOLI
"§ “OI
ee
gale tie
"g DIA
‘org
SAISY GLVId
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 1057
of that organ, develops it, and makes it acquire dimensions and
force of action which it has not in animals which exercise it less,
One comes to see that the disuse of an organ which has existed,
modifies, impoverishes, and finally obliterates it. I will now
demonstrate that the continual employment of an organ, with
the efforts made in keeping its place in the circumstances under
which it exists, strengthens, extends, and increases that organ, or
creates new ones which are able to exercise the functions which
have become necessary.
The bird that hunger (necessity) attracts to water to find there the
prey on which it lives, separates its toes and its feet when it strikes
the water, and moves on its surface. The skin which unites these
toes at their base, acquire the habit of extending themselves by these
perpetual spreadings; thus, after a time, the large membranes are
formed which we see uniting the toes of ducks, geese, ete. The
same efforts made to swim, that is to say, to push the water in order
to advance and move in that liquid, have developed the same mem-
brane which is between the toes of frogs, sea-turtles, the otter, the
beaver, ete. On the contrary, the bird that its manner of life
habituates to roost in trees, and who proceeds from individuals who
have all contracted that habit, has necessarily the toes more elon-
gated and shaped otherwise than those of aquatic animals which I
have cited. Their nails, after a time, become long, sharp, and
curved in a hook by holding so often the limbs on which the animal
rests. So it is known of river birds who do not swim, and who
only desire to approach the borders of the water to find their prey, are
continually exposed to being forced into the mud. Now this bird,
wishing to act so that its body may not be wet, makes great
efforts to extend and elongate its feet. It follows from the continued
habits which this bird, and all those of its race have contracted
in continually extending and elongating its legs, that the individ-
uals of this race are found elevated on stilts, and have also gradu-
ally obtained long boots. That is to say, they are denuded of
eathers as far as the thighs and often beyond (Systeme des Animaus
sans Vertebres, p. 14). It is known also that the same bird, wishing
to pick without wetting its body, is obliged to make continuous efforts
to elongate its neck, Now, to the continuance of these habitual
efforts in this individual, and those of its race, they owe that, after
1058 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
a time, they acquire the singular elongation of the neck, as is seen
in river birds.
If some swimming birds, as the swan and the goose, and of which
the feet are short, have, nevertheless, a very long neck, it is
because in walking in the water they have the habit of plunging
their heads below as deeply as they are able, to take the aquatic
larve and different animalcules which nourish them, and that they
have no reason for stretching their feet. If an animal, for the
satisfaction of its wants, should make repeated efforts to elongate
its tongue, it would acquire considerable length (e.g., the ant-eater,
the “pic-verd”). If it wants to seize something with the same
member, then its tongue will divide and become forked. That
of humming-birds, who seize with-their tongue, and of lizards
and snakes, who use theirs to feel and investigate bodies which
are before them, are the proofs of that which I advance. Wants,
always occasioned by circumstances, and followed by continued
efforts to satisfy them, are not limited in their results to modify,
that is to say, to augument or diminish, the extent or the functions
of these organs, but they succeed in displacing these same organs —
where certain of these wants make it a necessity.
Fishes which swim habitually in large bodies of water, having
occasion to see laterally, have their eyes placed on the sides of the
head. Their body, more or less flattened according to the species,
has its edges perpendicular to the plane of the water, and their eyes
are placed in such a manner that they have an eye on each flattened
side. But those fishes whose habits involve the necessity of con-
stantly approaching rivers, particularly rivers little inclined or with
gentle descent, have been forced to swim with one side downwards
in order to be able to approach near the edges of the water In
this situation, receiving more light from above than below, and
having particular reason for always being attentive to that which
they find above the water, this want has forced one of their eyes to
undergo a kind of displacement, and to take the very singular situa-
tion which is known in soles, turbots, “ limandes,” ete. (the Pleuro-
nectes and the “Achires”), The situation of these eyes is not
symmetrical, because there has resulted an incomplete mutation’
_ Now this mutation is entirely finished in the rays, where the trans-
_ verse flattening of the body is altogether horizontal; so with the
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals, 1059
head. Thus the eyes of rays, both placed on the superior face, are
rendered symmetrical,
Snakes which crawl on the surface of the earth, having reason
principally to see elevated objects, or those which are above them,
this necessity has influence on the situation of the organ of
sight in these animals, and, in fact, it has placed the eyes in the
lateral and superior part of the head, in position to perceive easily
that which is above them or at their sides, but they cannot see
that which is above them or but little distance in front. Now,
forced to make up for the lack of sight in recognizing objects which
are before them, and which might hurt them in advancing, they
have been able to feel these objects only by aid of their tongue, :
which has obliged them to stretch it out with all their might.
This habit has not only contributed to render this tongue thin,
very long, and very contractile, but further, has forced it to divide
itself, in a great number of species, to feel several objects at a time ;
it has formed an opening at the extremity of their muzzle, to pass
without being obliged to open the jaws.
Nothing is more remarkable than the production of habits in
herbivorous mammals. The quadrupeds to which circumstances and
the wants which they have brought about, have given the habit of
browsing on herbs, walk only on the earth, and find themselves
obliged to rest on their four feet the great part of their life, execu-
ting generally few of the ordinary movements of other Mammalia.
The considerable time which this kind of animal is forced to employ
every day, to replenish itself with the only kind of food which it
uses, requires that it make little movement, that it employ only its
eet to sustain itself on the ground, to walk or run, and that it
never exerts itself to hang to or to grasp the trees. From this
habit of consuming all day, great quantities of alimentative mate-
rials which distend the organs which receive it, and of makiug only
ordinary movements, it has resulted that the bodies of these animals
are considerably thickened, become heavy and massive, and have
acquired a very great volume, as one sees in the elephant, rhinoce-
ros, cattle, buffalo, deer, ete.
e, T A E d +L
The habit of resting upright on thei g the greater part
of the day to browse, has caused a thick hoof to grow, which envelope
their toes ; and as these toes are resting without exercising any move-
1060 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
ment, and are serving no other purpose than to sustain them as well
as the rest of the foot, the greater part of them are shortened, are
obliterated, and so finally disappear. Thus, in the pachyderms;
some have five toes on the feet enveloped in horn, and in conse-
quence their hoof is divided into five parts; others have only four,
and others still only three. But in the ruminants, the most ancient
of mammals, which are confined to sustaining themselves on the
ground, there are only two toes to the feet. It is also found that
there is but one toe in solipedes (the horse, the ass). Now, among
these herbivorous animals, and particularly amoug the ruminants,
it is found that, from the circumstances of the wild country which
they inhabit, they are constantly exposed to become the prey of
carnivorous animals, and to be able to find safety only in precipitate
flight. Necessity has then forced them to exercise themselves in
rapid running; and from the habit which they have acquired, their
bodies have become more slight, and their limbs slenderer : one sees
examples in the antelope, gazelles, etc. The deer, roe-buck;
fallow-deer, etc., are exposed to perish by the chase, or pursuit
by man. This risk has reduced them to the same necessity, has
constrained them to the same habits, and has produced the same
results in them. The ruminant animals, being able to use
their feet only to sustain themselves, and having little strength
in their jaws, which are used only in cropping and browsing the
herbs, they are able to strike blows only with the head, directing
one against the other with the top of that region. In their fits of
rage, which are frequent, especially among the males, their “ senti-
ment interieur,” by these efforts directs more strongly the fluids
toward that part of the head, and causes there a secretion of
horny material in some, and of both osseous and horny material w
others, which gives to them solid protuberances. This is the origin
of horns and bosses, with which the greater number of these ani-
mals have the head armed. It is curious to observe the product of
the habits in the peculiar form and the height of the giraffe (Camelo-
pardalis). It is known that this animal, the tallest of mammals,
inhabits the interior of Africa, and that it lives in places where the
earth is almost always arid and without herbage, so that it is obliged
_ to browse the leaves of the trees, and to force itself continually to
reach them. It results from this long-continued habit, in all indi-
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 1061
viduals of its race, that the front limbs have become longer than
the hind ones, and that its neck is much elongated; that the
giraffe, without rising on its hind feet, elevates its head and attains
to six metres in height (nearly twenty feet).
Among birds, the ostriches, deprived of the faculty of flight, and
elevated on very high limbs, truly owe their singular conformation
to analogous circumstances. The result of habits is also as remark-
able in carnivorous mammals as it is in the herbivorous, but it shows
its effects in another way. In fact, those mammals who are
habituated, as well as their race, to climb, to scratch, in order to
excavate the earth ; to rend, to attack; to put to death other ani-
mals which may be their prey, have had occasion to use their toes.
Now, this habit has favored the separation of their toes, and on
them has formed the claws with which we see them armed.
Among the carnivores it is found that they are obliged to
employ the chase to take their prey. Now, those of these ani-
mals who want, and consequently have the habit of rending with
the claws, are compelled to force them deeply into the body of the
other animal in order to hold it, and afterwards the effort made
to tear the seized part has, by these repeated efforts, procured for
those nails a size and a curve which would then have impeded them
much in walking or running on stony ground. It results in this
case that the animal has been obliged to make efforts to draw back
these too projecting and crooked claws, and it results in, little by ~
little, the formation of these peculiar grooves into which cats
tigers, lions, etc., retract their claws when not in use. ‘Thus,
efforts in. some directions, long-continued or habitually made by
certain parts of a living body to satisfy wants caused by nature or
by circumstances, increase these parts, and they acquire dimensions
and a form which they would never have attained if these efforts
had not become the habitual action of the animals which employ
them. Observations made on all known animals would everywhere
furnish examples of it. What is more striking than what the
kangaroo offers us? This animal, which carries its little ones in the
pouch which it has under its abdomen, has acquired the habit of
holding itself upright, poised only on its hind feet and on its tail,
and of moving only by the aid of a series of leaps, in which it
preserves its upright attitude so as not to hurt its little ones,
1062 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
Behold, then, what is the result? First.—Its front legs, of which it
makes very little use, and upon which it supports itself only an
instant when it leaves its upright attitude, have never acquired a
development proportional to those of other parts, and have remained
slender, very small, and almost without strength. Second.—The hind
limbs, almost continually in action to sustain all the body, when leap-
ing, have, on the contrary, attained a considerable development,
and have become large and strong. Third.—Finally, the tail, which
we'see greatly employed in sustaining the animal, and in executing
its principal movements, has acquired at its base a breadth and a
force extremely remarkable. These well-known facts are assuredly
well calculated to prove that which results from the habitual use by
animals of an organ or of some part. If, when we observe in an
animal an organ particularly developed, and strong and powerful, —
it is claimed that its habitual exercise has done nothing to produce
that result ; that its continued.disuse makes it lose nothing, and that,
finally, this organ has always been such as we find it since the
creation of the species to which this animal belongs, I demand why
our domestic ducks are not able to fly as the wild ducks; in a word,
I will bring a multitude of examples to our notice, which will attest
the differences resulting to us from the exercise or the lack of exer-
cise of some of our organs, although these differences be not maim-
tained in successive generations. In that case their results might
be still more considerable. I observe, in the second place, that
when the will determines an animal to some action, the organs
which should execute this action are immediately excited by the
influence of subtle fiuids (of the nervous fluid), which becomes the
determining cause of the movements which cause the action m
question. A multitude of observations prove this fact. It
results that the multiplied repetitions of these acts of organiza-
tion strengthen, expand, develop, and also create the organs which
are necessary. It is necessary only to observe attentively that which
happens everywhere in this respect, to be convinced of the basis of
_ this cause of the development of organic changes. A
Now, all changes acquired in an organ in consequence of a habit
employed sufficiently to have an effect, is preserved afterward by
~ generation, if it is common to the individuals who in fecundation
_ unite for the reproduction of their species. Finally this change 15
-
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 1063
propagated and passes thus into all the individuals which follow, and
who are placed in the same circumstances, without which they would
be obliged to acquire it in the same manner in which it has already
been created. Moreover, in these reproductive unions, the mix-
ture between individuals which have different qualities and forms,
necessarily opposes the constant propagation of these qualities an
forms. '
I.—It is this which prevents in man, accidental qualities or
defects due to circumstances to which he is exposed from preserving
and propagating themselves by generation.
II.—If two individuals who have acquired peculiarities of
form or defects be united, in this case they will reproduce the
same peculiarities in successive generations. And if they restrict
themselves to like unions, a particular and distinct race will then
be formed. But the perpetual mixture between individuals which
have not the same peculiarities of forms will destroy all the pecu-
liarities acquired by particular circumstances. From this one can
be assured that if distances of habitation had not separated men,
the crossing, by generation, would have destroyed the general
characters which distinguish different nations. If I should
pass in review all the classes, all the orders, all the genera,
and all the species of animals which exist, I would be able to
show that the conformation of individuals and of their parts, that
their organs, their functions, ete., ete., are everywhere only the result
of circumstances in which every species finds itself surrounded by
nature, and of the habits which the individuals which compose it
have been obliged to adopt, and that they are not the result of an
existing primitive form which has forced these animals to adopt
their habits.
It is known that the animal which is called the Ai, or the sloth,
(Bradypus tridactylus), is constantly in a state of so great feebleness
that it executes very slow and limited movements, and that it walks
with great difficulty on the ground. Its movements are so slow
that it is claimed that it is able to take only fifty steps in a day.
It is known also that the organization of this animal is in all
respects harmonious with its condition of feebleness or its inability
to walk, and that if it wished to make other movements than those
Which it is known to execute, it would not be able. If we sup- _
1064 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
pose that this animal has received from nature the organization
which it possesses, we must believe that this organization has
forced it to adopt the habits and miserable state in which it is
found. I hesitate to believe thus, for I am convinced that the
habits which the individuals of the race of the Ai have been forced
to contract originally, have necessarily brought their organization
to its present state. That since continual danger has formerly
made the individuals of this species take refuge in trees, to live
there habitually, and to sustain themselves there on their leaves, it
is evident that they must be deprived of a multitude of movements
which animals who live on the ground are in the habit of making.
All the wants of the Ai have been then reduced to the hanging on
the branches, to creeping, or to crawling to get the leaves, and after-
wards to resting on the tree in a state of inactivity, and always to
avoid falling to the earth. Besides, this kind of inactivity would
be constantly encouraged by the heat of the climate; for, with ani-
mals of warm blood, heat predisposes them more to rest than to
movement. Now, the individuals of the race of the Ai having for
a long time preserved the habit of resting on trees, and of making
only slow and little varied movements which suffice for their wants,
their organization, little by little, would be brought into harmony
with their new habits, and this would be the result: 1st.—That the
arms of these animals making continual efforts to embrace easily
the branches of the trees, will have lengthened ; 2d.—That the nails
of their toes will have acquired much length and a curved form by
sustained efforts to cling; 3d.—That their toes, having only exercise
in particular movements, will have lost all mobility, will have re-
united, and will have preserved only the ability of bending or of
traightening themselves altogether ; 4th. —That their thighs, embra-
cing continually the trunk and the great branches of the trees, will
have contracted an habitual bowing, which will have helped to
enlarge the pelvis, and to direct the cotyloid cavities backward 4
5th.—Finally, that a great number of their bones will have conso
dated, and that thus many parts of their skeleton will have acquired
a tendency and a form appropriate to their habits, and contrary sh
those which they would have had under other habits.
= No one is able to contest this,since nature, ina thousand other :
ways, constantly shows us analogous examples of the power of cir-
Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals. 1065
cumstances on the habits, and in that of habits on the forms, the dis-
position,and the proportion of the parts of animals. A great numder of
citations being unnecessary, the point of discussion reduces itself to
this. The fact is, that diverse animals have each, according to their
genus and their species, particular habits, and always an organiza-
tion which is perfectly in harmony with those habits. From the
consideration of this fact it seems*that one is at liberty to admit
one or the other of the two following hypotheses, neither of which
can be proved.
Conclusions admitted at this time: (1) Nature (or its Author,
in creating animals has foreseen all possible kinds of circumstances
in which they may have to live, and has given to each species a
permanent organization, as well as a pre-determined form invari-
able in its parts; that it forces each species to live in the places
and the climates where one finds them, and to preserve there the
habits which it has. 2. My own conclusion: Nature in producing
successively all species of animals, and commencing by the most
imperfect or simple, to terminate its work by the most perfect, has
gradually complicated their organization, and these animals, spread-
ing themselves gradually into all habitable regions of the globe-
each species has been subjected to the influence of the circumstances
in which it is; and these have produced the habits which we
observe and the modifications of its parts.
The first of these two conclusions is that which has been held to
the present time, that is to say, it supposes in each animal a per-
manent organization and parts which have never varied and which
will never vary; it supposes still thatthe circumstances of the places
Which each species of animal inhabits never vary in these places)
for if they should vary, the same animals would not be able to live
there, and the possibility of recognizing such elsewhere, and of going
or transporting themselves there, would be denied them.
The second conclusion is mine. It supposes that, by the influence
of circumstances on the habits and that which follows these habits
on the organization, that each animal would receive in its parts and
organization, modifications susceptible of becoming very consider
able, and thus to have given origin to the state in which we find all
animals, To prove that this second conclusion is without founda-
Hon, it is necessary to first prove that no point of the surface of the
A
1066 Influence of circumstances on the Actions of Animals.
surface of the globe has ever varied its nature, its exposure, its
elevation, its climate, etc., etc.; and to prove farther that no part of
an animal undergoes, after a length of time, any modifications due
to change of circumstances and from the necessity which constrains
them to a kind of life and of action different from that which has
been habitual with them.
Now, if only one fact proves that an animal, after a long time of
domestication, differs from the wild species from which it came, and
if among the domesticated species there is found a great difference
of conformation among individuals who have been subjected to a
given habit, and those who have been constrained to adopt a differ-
ent habit, then it will be certain that the first conclusion does not
conform to the laws of nature and that, on the contrary, the second
is perfectly in accord with them. All agree then to prove my as-
sertion: that it is neither the form of the body nor of its parts
which gives origin to the habits and the manner of life of the ani-
mals; but it is, on the contrary, the habits, the manner of life and
all the other influential circumstances, which have, with time, con-
structed the form of the body and of the parts of the animals. With
“new forms new faculties have been acquired, and little by little
‘Nature has come to form animals, such as we actually see them.
Can there be in Natural history a more important consideration
and to which one should give more attention than that which I ex-
pound?
i
Evolution of Mammalian Molars. 1067
THE EVOLUTION OF MAMMALIAN MOLARS TO
AND FROM THE TRITUBERCULAR TYPE.
BY HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN.
HE dentition in the recent Mammalia is so diverse that the most
sanguine evolutionist of fifteen years ago could not have anti-
cipated the discovery of a common type of molar, in both jaws, as
universal among the Mmamalia of an early period as the penta-
dactyle foot, and as central in its capacity for development into the
widely specialized recent types.
The tritubercular molar, discovered by Professor Cope in the
Puerco, is exactly such a type, and may be considered with the
pentadactyle foot as playing a somewhat analogous rôle in mamma-
lian history, with this important difference—the unmodified penta-
dactyle foot was probably inherited direct from the reptiles, and its
subsequent evolution, with a few exceptions, has been in the direc-
tion of the greater or less reduction of primitive elements towards
special adaptation, as, to borrow an extreme illustration, in the
transition from Phenacodus with 26 elements in the manus to
Equus with only 12 such elements. On the other hand, the tritu-
bercular tooth was not inherited, but in all probability developed
within the mammalian stock, from a hypothetical form with almost,
- If not quite simple conical molars, implanted by single fangs, in a
` nearly homodont series.? No such primitive type of mammalian
dentition is actually known, although Dromotherium approximates
it; but the apparent reversion to this type among the Cetacea, and
apparent retention of it in the Edentata,’ support all the independent
evidence upon this point derived from the Mesozoic
The principle of growth was the regular addition of new parts to
the simple cone, not at random, but according to a certain definite
' Read in the geological section of the British Association at Bath,
September, 1888, Read in abstract by Prof. Cope, National Academy
is Sciences, at New Haven, Nov., 1888.
* See Author “ Structure and Classification of the Mesozoic Mamma-
lia.” Jour. Phila, Academy, 1888, p. 240.
* See Oldfield Thomas, “ The Homologies and Succession of the Teeth
in the Dasyuridw.” Phil. Trans., 1887, p. 458.
1068 Evolution of Mammalian Molars.
order which apparently progressed independently in different phyla,
through a series of sub-tritubercular stages until trituberculy ' was
attained.
The tritubercular molar consists essentially of three cusps, form-
ing what may be called the primitive triangles, so disposed that
the upper and lower molars alternate. This, when attained, formed
a central stage from which the great majority of recent molar types
have diverged by the addition, modification and reduction of cusps;
we must except the Monotremes, the Edentates, and possibly the
Cetaceans, although there is considerable evidence that the cetacean
molars were once of the triconodont type.? Among extinct orders,
the Multituberculata (Plagiaulax, Tritylodon, etc.) must also be
excepted from this series and discussion.
The almost universal predominance of trituberculy in the early
geological periods, is very significant of the uniformity of molar
origin. Of twenty known Mesozoic genera,’ all except three * show
trituberculy in some of its stages. As to the Lower Eocene, eighty-
two Puerco species, representing twenty-six genera and five orders
(Creodonta, Tillodontia, Lemuroidea, Condylarthra, Amblypoda),
only four species have quadritubercular teeth, all the remainder are
tritubercular.’ Prof. Riitimeyer has recently pointed out the pre-
dominance of this type in the nearly parallel Egerkingen beds
The contemporary Cernaysien fauna in the collection of Dr. Le-
moine at Rheims, recently examined by the writer, shows exclu-
sively tritubercular molars or their derivatives. By the Middle
Eocene the lines of divergence towards the existing types of molars
were well advanced, but trituberculy persisted in the dentition of
several orders, in which it is found to-day (Lemuroidea, Insectivora,
Carnivora, and many Marsupialia). |
1 First employed by Riitimeyer, “Ueber Einige Bezi ehungen
zwischen den Säugethierstämmen Alter und Neuer Welt.” Abh. d.
schweiz. pal. gesellsch., Vol. XV., 1888,"p. 54.
2 See Brandt, “Die Fossilen u. Subfoss. Cetacean Europas.” Taf.
XXXIL,, figs. 4-9.
3 The list given by the writer (op. cit., p. 247) is found to contain sev-
eral synonyms. See ‘ Additional observations upon the Structure an®
Classification of the Mesozoic Mammalia.” Proc, Phila. Acad., Nove
1888, p. 292
Dicrocynodon (Diplocynodon), Doeodon, Enneodon, Marsh. >
5 Cope, ‘‘ Synopsis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco Series,
Am. Phil. Soc., 1888. p. 298.
Evolution of Mammalian Molars. 1069
It follows that it is quite as essential for the comparative anato-
mist to thoroughly grasp the meaning and history of each of the
component cusps of the tritubercular molar and of their derivatives,
as it is to perfectly understand the elements of the manus and pes.
For, the homologies of the cusps can now be determined almost as
certainly as those of the digits. Take a human molar, for example,
every component tubercle has its pedigree, and it can be demon-
strated, almost beyond a doubt, which of these tubercles is homolo-
- gous with the single reptilian cone. The writer recently (op. cit.,
p. 242) proposed the adoption of a distinct nomenclature for the
different cusps of the tritubercular molar, and offered a series of
terms for the primary cusps based as far as possible upon the prim-
itive position and order of development, and in most instances in
accord with their secondary position. This nomenclature can be
extended to the secondary cusps in the sextubercular superior, and
quinquetubercular inferior molars. The terms now in general use
are based, for the most part, upon the secondary or acquired posi-
tion, and in no instance upon the homologies of the cusps in the
upper and lower molars, or even in corresponding molars of differ-
ent genera, thus involving much confusion. For example, the
Antero-internal cusp of the lower molar of Mioclenus is not homol-
ogous with the antero-internal cusp of Hyopsodus, nor with the
antero-internal cusps of the upper molar of either genus.
The present contribution is based principally upon the writer’s
studies among the Mesozoic Mammalia, and, with some additions,
upon Prof. Cope’s numerous essays upon the tritubercular type in
the Tertiary Mammalia.!
Four propositions may be laid down for discussion :—
(1.) That trituberculy was acquired during the Mesozoic period,
in a series of stages beginning with the single cone and attaining
to the primitive sectorial type in the Jurassic period.
_" Professor Cope’s essays abound with discussions and notes upon the
origin and succession of the tritubercular type. (See collection, in ‘ Ori-
gin of the Fittest”). He has outlined the transition from the single
cone to the tritubercular crown ‘(p. 347); the tubercular sectorial (p.
246) ; the quadritubercular type (p. 245 and p. 359) ; the Spalacotherium
molars as a transition to the tritubercular (p. 259). The acquisition of
the superior and inferior quadritubercular molar (p. 361). The predic-
tion of the discovery of Carnivora with triconodont molars (p. 365), and
_ Of the simple tritubercular type in both jaws (p. 362).
1070 Evolution of Mammalian Molars.
(2.) The majority of Mesozoic mammals showed trituberculy in
some of its stages. Present evidence goes to show that the remain-
ing, or aberrant types, if such existed, did not persist. The majority
of the persisting forms of later periods were derived from the forms,
with simple tritubercular molars, of earlier periods. It follows that
_trituberculy was an important factor in survival.
(3.) The definite homologies of the primary and to some degree
of the secondary cusps in the upper and lower molars can be estab-
lished.
(4.) The mode of succession of tooth forms favors the kinetogen-
esis theory advanced by Ryder and Coope.
There are three general observations to be made:—
First—In attempting to complete the history of each of the
cusps, we naturally find that the paleontological record is not suffi-
ciently perfect to admit of our following a certain type alonga single
phylum back to the primitive type. We must at the outset pro-
-ceed upon the principle of similar effects, similar causes. For
example, since the history of the development of the intermediate
tubercles in the superior molars of the Lemuroidea (Pseudolemu-
roidea, Schlosser) is perfectly clear during the Wasatch and Bridger
epochs—it is safe to infer that the intermediate tubercles of the
Ungulate molars, which are fully developed in the underlying
Puerco, had the same history. Second.—There are in each period
Aberrant types which embrace either incomplete or degenerate tri-
tubercular stages, i.e., a high specialization in which the past rec-
ord is obliterated, or, finally, stages in non: tritubercular lines of
development. Third.—In the parallel evolution of trituberculy
in different phyla we find that the progression is by no means uni-
form. In every geological period in which the fauna is well known
_we observe progressive genera which outstrip the others in reaching
a certain stage of molar development, contrasted with persistent typ®
which represent arrested lower stages of development, while between
them are the central types which represent the degree of evolution
attained by the majority of genera. The latter may be said to
constitute the stage which is characteristic of the period. 4
_ The Stages of trituberculy may now be defined as seen in different —
types in their order of succession :—
Evolution of Mammalian Molars. 1071
I. Haplodont Type (Cope)! A simple conical crown. The
fang usually single and not distinguished from the crown. This
type has not as yet been discovered among the primitive Mammalia.
A Protodont Tub. Type.2 The crown with one main cone, and
lateral accessory Cuspules ; the fang grooved. There is some ques-
tion as to the advantage of distinguishing this as a type, for it stands
intermediate between types I. and III. Example, Dromotherium
of the American Triassic.
II. Triconodont Type (Osborn, op. cit., p. 242). The crown
elongate, trifid, with one central cone and two distinct lateral cones
The fang double. Example, Triconodon.
II. Tritubercular (Cope). The crown triangular, surmounted
by three main cusps, the central cone placed internally in the upper
mollars and externally in the lower molars. Example, the lower
molars of Spulacotherium and Asthenodon. This type is rare in its
primitive condition as above defined.
e upper and lower molars are alike in types I. and II.; in
type III. they have a similar pattern but with the arrange-
ment of the homologous cusps reversed. These types are all
primitive. In the following sub types, the primitive trian-
gle forms the main portion of the crown, to which other
“secondary” cusps are added, the homologies of which in the
upper and lower molars are somewhat doubtful. Parallel
and with an intimate relation to the addition of the secondary
cusps, is the division of the tritubercular into a secodont and
bunodont series, according to the assumtion of a purely cut-
ting or crushing function. In departing from the primitive
type, the upper and lower molars diverge in structure, and the
homologies of the secondary cusps in each are somewhat —
doubtful,
LOWER MOLARS,
A. Tubereular Sectorial, sub type (Cope). a. The primitive
'“ The Homologies and Origin of the Types of Molar Teeth in the
Mammalia Edueabilia.” Journ. Phila. Acad., 1874. The term Homo-
dont was previously applied to this type by Riitimeyer, ‘‘Udonto-
graphie der Hufthiere, ete.” Verh. d. Naturforsch, Gesellsch. in Basel,
Band. III., 1863, p. 563. In the writer’s opinion this term has acquired
-a special significance as applied to a whole series of teeth, viz., the re-
verse of ‘‘ heterodont,’’ and may well be retained in this sense.
? Osborn, op. cit., p. 222.
1072 Evolution of Mammalian Molars.
triangle elevated and its cusps connected by cutting crests; a
low posterior heel. b. This type embraces a quinquetubercular
form in which the heel consists of two cusps, an internal and
external.’ c. In the Bunodont series it develops into the quadri-
_ tubercular form , by the loss of one of the primitive cusps.
UPPER MOLARS.
B. Tritubercular. a. The primitive triangle in the secodont series
purely tricupsid. 6. This embraces a quinquetubercular form
_,in which “ intermediate” tubercles are developed, both in the
Secodont and Bunodont series. c. In the Bunodont series
a postero- Npa] cusp is added, forming the sextubercular
molar.
NOMENCLATURE OF THE Cusps—As above stated, there is no doubt
_ about the homologies of the three “ ‘primary ” cusps (proto-
: cone, paracone, metacone) in the upper and lower molars
. They may be given the- same terms, with the arbitrary suffix
id, to distinguish the lower cusps. The first “ secondary ”
cusps (hypucoue-hypoconid), added to the upper and lower
, molars of the primitive triangle, modify the crown from a tri-
angular to a quadrangular. shape, and hence may be, considered
homologous. The three additional secondary cusps (protocon-
ule, metaconule, entoconid) evidently have no homology with
each other.
TERMS NOW IN USE. PROPOSED TERMS.* ABBREV*
Upper Molars.
Antero-internal eS ee Protocone. pr-
Postero- or Bth CUBD. oc seco ces eae. Hypocone. .
Antero-external ‘ Swen eueeesectbaceuee ses ests Paracone.
A he tee eae ee Cre rae ey eee eee Metacone. m.
pararion Intermediate cusp E R Protoconule. pl.
EROF SO e Eei Metaconule. ml.
OT Molars. :
Antero-external ia 0d “etal ares ta dese Protoconid. ` pr
OO eg etd POU e eaa Hypoconid. .
Raterointerial cusp, or 5th cusp........-.---- Parrconid. P.
Fa totagdiste or antero-internal cusp (in quad-
ritube molars) Metaconid m.
Postero-internal RO ee ee arene weer 2 Eutoconid. e.
Evolution of the Cusps. The cusp evolution in the Mesozoic
period has been fully discussed by the writer (op. cit., pp- 240 4)
1 American Naturalist, April, 1883, p. 407.
2 I am much indebted to my colleagues Professors
Winans for tie assistance in the selection of these terms.
PLATE XXV.
Fig. 1—Molar teeth of Mesozoic Mammalia.
Fig. 2.—Molars of opposite jaws in normal mutual relation.
Evolution of Mammalian Molars. 1073
and in the Tertiary period, by Professor Cope, so that only a brief
résumé is necessary here. In Dromotheriwm (fig. 1), from the upper
Triassic, the oldest mammalian type known, with the exception
ane 1.—Diagram of quadritubercular molars of both jaws in normal mutual rela-
on; the superior cusps double lines ; the inferior black.
of Microlestes, the molars have a main protoconid with several
minute lateral cuspules, differing in size in the different teeth, but
in general giving a trifid appearance to the crown. The molars of
the contemporary Microconodon (fig. 2) also have unpaired fangs,
but distinctly trifid crowns, with the anterior and the posterior
cusps, or para and metaconids, upon the slopes of the protoconid.
This Triconodont type reappears, with the addition of a cingulum
and paired fangs, in Amphilestes (fig. 3) and Phascolotherium (fig. 4)
of the lower Jurassic and persists in Tricondon (fig. 5) of the upper
Jurassic. In this succession we observe especially the relative
subsidence of the protoconid and upgrowth of the para- and
metaconids. Contemporary with -Amphilestes is the classical
genus Amphitheriwm (fig. 6). A recent examination of the type
Specimen by the writer revealed the very interesting fact that
the molars of, this genus are probably of the primitive tubercul-
_ ar- sectorial types,—the oldest known example. Only the para-
cone and metaconids and hypoconids have been observed heretofore,
but one can see the tip of the main external cusps between the
former pair. This pattern is repeated, with a considerable elevation
of the heel, in Peramus of the upper Jurassic.’ Neither
of the two foregoing are of the primitive heelless tritubercular type
which is apparently found in Spalacotherium also upper
Jurassic, and in the nearly related if not synonymous Peralestes,
Plate XXV. Contemporary with the above, are numerous
genera of the Stylodon order; among these, Asthenodon is of
' This genus includes also Septocladus dubius Owen, and Spalaco-
therium minus Owen. See pe Phila. Acad., Nov. 1888, p. 292.
1074 Evolution of Mammalian Molars.
the primitive tritubercular type without the hypoconid, all the
remainder present various modifications of the tubercular sectorial-
This covers our knowledge of trituberculy in the Mesozoic
period. No bnunodont forms are known—they were probably
developed during the Cretaceous, for a few are found well
developed in the Puerco. In the Sectorial series many of the
types do not widely depart from those seen in the Jurassic, but
the Bunodont series are universally characterized by the initial
or advanced development of the proto- and metaconules in the
upper molars and the apperance of the Entoconid upon the inner
side of the hypoconid below.
The principles governing cusp development.—It is remarkable to
note in how many particulars the actual succession of molar devel-
opment in the Mesozoic period coincides with the theoretical
scheme of origin of trituberculy proposed by Cope! and supported
by Wortman ? several years ago. At that time Spalacotherium and
-the genera now embraced under the Triconodontide were the only
Mesozoic mammals whose molar structure was fully known, and
the views of these authors were partly speculative and partly
deductive from recent dental anatomy.
Two hypotheses may be advanced to explain the evolution of the
ritubercular type. The first is that the type has been acquired by
the selection of accidental variations in the production of new cusps ”
and modelling of old ones. The second is, that the interaction of
the upper and lower molars in the movements of the jaws has
resulted in local increase of growth at certain points, resulting first
in new cusps, then in a change of position and of form in the
_cusps. Both hypotheses are open to numerous objections and are
by no means mutually exclusive, but the whole subject is so com-
plicated as to require a separate treatment. The balance of evi-
dence in tritubercular evolution seems to favor the second oF _
kinetogenesis theory—as apparently witnessed in two laws of cusp
development.
I. The primary cusps first appear as cuspules, or minute wee:
1“ The Evolution of the Vertebrata Progressive and Retrogressive,’
American Naturalist, April, 1885, p. 350. n 1886
ae The Comparative Anatomy of the Teeth of the Vertebrata,
p. 418,
Evolution of Mammalian Molars. 1075
at the first peints of contact between the upper and lower molars
in the vertical motions of the jaws.
II. The modelling of the cusps into new forms, and the acqui-
sition of secondary position, is a concomitant of interference in the
horizontal motions of the jaws.
The second law applies especially to the evolution of the molars
after the acquisition of the tritubercular stage, and has been ably
proposed and supported by Ryder,! principally in its application to
recent types of teeth. The first, although not heretofore distinctly
formulated, is partly founded upon facts and principles advanced
by Cope, and applies chiefly to the stages which have been discussed
in this essay.
During the Homodont mammalian or sub-mammalian molar
Stage, the jaws were probably isognathous and the simple cones
alternated as in the Delphinide (fig. 1). The first additions to the
protocone appeared upon its anterior and posterior surfaces. The
growth of the para- and metaconids involved anisognathism,” for
we find in the later triconodonts that the lower molars closed inside
of the upper (Zriconodon, fig. 2). There are several transition
forms such as Tinodon and Menacodon between the primitive tri-
conodont type and Spalacotherium, and it has been assumed by Cope
and the writer (op. cit., p. 243) that the para- and metaconids were
first formed upon the anterior and posterior slopes of the protoconid
and then rotated inwards, but it is also possible that they were
originally formed upon the inner slopes. In the complemental
formation of the upper and lower triangles the jaws remained
nearly isognathous (fig. 4). There is no evidence as to the origin of
the hypoconid, which as a rule preceded the hypocone, as it was
developed very early. In the Stylacodontide, Phascolestes, Amblo-
wi On the Mechanical Genesis of Tooth Forms.” Proc. Phila. Acad.,
PE ea by Ryder (op. cit., p. 45). “So as not only to indicate
respectively parity and disparity in transverse diameter of the crowns
of the upper and lower molars, but sad re parity or disparity in width
transversely, from outside to outside,”
It is clear that in the homodont bone oe with the teeth simply
piercing the food, the greatest comminution (of the food) is effected by
isognathism ; in the triconodont stage, the jaws must be anisognathous
to close upon each other, but the tritubercular stage admits a return to
isognathism by the alternation of the triangles.
1076 Evoiution of Mammalian Molars.
therium, ete., the crowns rapidly increased in transverse diameter
(fig. 7) and, in some genera, they (Kurtodon) so far lost the tritu-
bercular aspect that, but for the connecting form Asthenodon (fig.
6), we might hesitate to place them in this series. The key to the
further evolution of the crown is seen in the bunodont series during
the lower Eocene period.
The superposition of the lower and upper molar patterns brings
out many interesting facts. First, even in the complex crowns of
the bunodont molars the primitive triangles retain their primitive
alternating arrangement. Second, the jaws are somewhat anisog-
nathous. Third, in support of the first law of cusp development,
we observe that the protoconule and metaconule are developed at
the points of contact with the ridges which extend from the hypo-
conid, and, secondly, that the hypocone appears at the point where
the paraconid abuts against the protocone. It follows from a com- -
parison of numerous species of Pelycodus and Miocloenus that as the
hypocone develops, the paraconid recedes, as first observed by Cope;
a fact difficult to reconcile with the kinetogenesis theory. In this
manner the inferior primitive triangle is broken, as the upper
molars develop into the sextubercular and the lower into the quad-
ritubercular type. The complemental development of the upper
and lower molars in the known genera of successive horizons 18
approximately displayed in the subjoined table. i
he Eocene list of genera will be greatly reduced, especially m
the Tritub.-tuberc-.sectorial type, when the upper and lower Jaws
are found associated, and it must be clearly understood that the
sub-types a, b,c, in the above table, are very closely related by
transition forms. In fact, in the carnivorous forms, the extreme
secodont and bunodont types are frequently seen side by side, as 0
the first and second inferior molars of Didymictis. The chief dis-
tinction between these two series is the greater development of the
secondary cusps and the almost invariable loss of the paraconid y
the latter ; this is effected by the broader surfaces of contact in the
bunodont crowns. In the secodont series, on the other hand, the
development of the secondary cusps is subordinated, and th
conid is almost invariably suppressed.’
1 See Cope: “ Origin of the specialized Teeth of the Carnivo
Naturalist, March, 1879.
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Evolution of Mammalian Molars.
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€ proto- and metaconules in the Artiodacty
1077
Adapis and Anapto-
morphus are examples
of Sub-types a, c, asso-
ciated ; for it frequently
happens that the para-
conid atrophies without
a complete enlargement
of the hypocone. A
study of tthe diagram
demonstrates, however,
that the association of
Sub-types b and c is im-
possible. The recent
monkeys Tarsius and
Loris afford a good il-
lustration of the asso-
tritubercular
ciation of
quinguetubercular
sextubercular
quadritubercular
molars.
The subsequent evo-
was
the loss of the primary
cusps, e.g., the metaco-
nid in the Carnivora,'
the paraconid in the
Ungulata. Second, by
the loss of some of the
secondary cusps, eg.,
la.! Third, by the met-
- amorphosis in the form of the cusps. This subject has been fully
* Schlosser: “ Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Stammgeschichte der Huf-
thiere,” Morph. Jahrb., 1886, p. 123, has especially drawn attention to
the probability that the Artiodactyla were derived from sexitubercular
1078 Evolution of Mammalian Molars.
treated by Riitimeyer, Kowalevsky, Cope, Schlosser and others.
The Relation of Trituberculy to the Persistence of Mammalian
Phyla.—The above table shows somewhat indefinitely, but none the
less positively, the general progression of the Mammalia, to and
from the primitive tritubercular type. As already stated, even with
our present very limited knowledge, certain stages appear to have
been characteristic of certain periods, as follows: the triconodont
in the lower Jurassic; the primitive tritubercular and tubercular
sectorial in the upper Jurassic; the secodont and bunodont sub-
types of trituberculy, predominated in the Puerco ; in the Bridger,
the Perissodactyl ungulates had mostly passed beyond into the
lophodont and symborodont types, and the Artiodactyls were
approximately in the stage of sub-types c; but the Lemuroidea,
Creodonta, Insectivora, etc., were, almost without exception, tritu-
bercular. |
There can be little doubt that, parallel with the tritubercular
forms, in each period, there were aberrant or degenerate types, but
it is difficult to determine which these are. Many Mesozoic types,
which the writer formerly considered aberrant, have now proven to
be tritubercular The upper Jurassic genera included under the
Dicrocynodontide (see Marsh, Amer. Journ. Se., April, 1887, p.
338) are apparently aberrant. There are several degenerate types
among the Puerco and Wasatch Creodonts, such as Dissacus and
Mesonyx. But there is a striking proof of the superiority of the
tritubercular molar in the fact that, according to our present know-
ledge at least, the Jurassic mammals possessing aberrant or degen-
erate molar types did not persist into the Puerco, nor did such
types in the Puerco persist into the Bridger. There is some doubt
as to the persistence of the sub-tritubercular stage; the writer pre-
viously considered the Thylacinus molars as triconodont ; but Mr.
Lydekker has called attention to the probability that the metaconid
has disappeared and been replaced by a heel as in the sectorial teeth
of the Carnivora. The disappearance of the degenerate types ney
be attributed to the general principle that rapid specialization and
loss of parts leads ultimately to extinction, by depriving the anima
of the means of adaptation to new conditions, or surroundings.
* See ‘‘ Additional Observations upon the Structure and Classification
_ Of the Mesozoic Mammalia.” Proc. Phila. Acad., Nov., 1888. see :
The Artiodactyla. 1079
The mechanical superiority of the tritubercular type, over every
other has been repeatedly demonstrated in its plastic capacity of
adaptation to the most extreme trenchant and crushing functions.
THE ARTIODACTYLA.!
BY E. D. COPE.
p= Artiodactyla is the suborder of the Diplarthrous Ungulata
in which the astragalus articulates with the second row of
tarsal bones by a ginglymus or hinge, and in which the third and
fourth toes are equally or subequally developed.? It includes the
Most highly modified of the Mammalia, whether we regard the
organs of locomotion or of digestion. The antelope and deer illus-
trate the greatest speed to which the mammal has attained. Their
extraordinary apparatus for the digestion of vegetable substances
which contain but a small percentage of nutritious proteids, has
given them an extraordinary advantage, so that they are after the
rodents, the most abundant of their class, in spite of the persistent
persecution of the carnivorous species. They attain in the genera
Giraffa and Bos the largest dimensions in the class, excepting only
the Proboscidia.
The Artiodactyla make their first appearance in the early or
Wasatch Eocene in the genus Pantolestes Cope. A genus exists at
a corresponding horizon in Europe. -No other genus of the sub-
order appears with it. Its representatives steadily increase in
numbers in the succeeding Bridger and Uinta epochs in America,
and in the Calcaire grossier and Gypse of Europe. Some of these,
€g., the Anoplotheriide of Europe, diverge from the line of suc-
cession, while others, e.g., Xiphodontide, are clearly ancestors of
later forms, In America, the Pantolestide appear as ancestors of the
Camels especially. I now give a synopsis of the families of the
suborder and their phylogenetic relations.
I Superior molars tritubercular (Pantolestoïdea).
Molars bunodont; four digits sss... Pantolestidæ.
' Modified for the Naturalist from a paper by the author in the Pro-
ceeds. of Amer. Philos, Society, 1887, p. 377.
See Naturalist, November, 1877.
1080 The Artiodactyla.
II. Superior molars quadritubercular with an intermediate
fifth.
1. Three digits (Anoplotheroidea).
Intermediate tubercle anterior Anoplotheriide.
11. Two or four digits (Anthracotheroidea).
A, The intermediate tubercle posterior.
Four digits; molars bunodont si.s. ossis deseris iisen Dichobunide.
Four digits; molars selenodont ...... Ceenotheriide.
AA, The intermediate tubercle anterior.
Four digits ; one series of V’s below acotheriide.
Two or four digits; two series of V’s below ......... Xiphodontide.
III. Superior molars quadritubercular, without an interme-
diate fifth.
A, Molars bunodont, or cross-crested, (Suoidea). .
Mandibular condyle triangular ; no postglenoid process ...... Suide.
Mandibular condyle subcylindric ; a postglenoid
process ue Hippopotamide.
AA, Molars selenodont (with four crescents above).
a. Inferior molars with one series of crescents (Meryco-
otamoidea).
Premiolare tislike molditts, cei hi aie Merycopotamide.
aa. Inferior molars with two series of crescents.
8. Superior premolars (except first premolar) with one
crest (Cameloidea).
y. “Fourth premolar like molars below, with three
crests above.” :
Two digits only (four? in Agriocheerus)...... esessees Dichodontide.
yr. Fourth premolar entirely different from molars.
ð. Navicular and cuboid bones distinct from each other.
e. Superior incisors present.
A iT
No cannon bone; a vertebrarterial canal ...........--- Oreodontide.
No vertebrarterial canal; no cannon bone .....-.++ Poébrotheriide.
No vertebrarterial canal; a cannon bone; .....+-++++ Pro
es. No superior incisors (except incisor three). —
No vertebrarterial canal; a cannon bone; superior p. m. IV with
external and internal crests ..........sss0+eeeeenenereeee® Camelidæ.
Like Camelidæ, but superior p. m. iv a simple cone ... Eschatiide.
3 66. Navicular and cuboid bones codssified. 3
PLATE XXVII.
eee msn,
Pithecistes
F
1G. 1.—Merychyus arenarum Cope. % 2-3.
felales Goda. ery hy pe
The Artiodactyla. 1081
All-premolars but No. iv without internal crescent ...... Tragulide.
88. Superior premolars 2-3-4 with internal as well as ex-
ternal crest; a naviculocuboid bone; no superior
incisors (Boöidea).
Superior p. m. ii without internal crescent... .............+5 Moschide,
Superior p. m. ii with internal crescent.
Horns permanent, originating distinct from skull......... Girafide.
Horns permanent, processes of the skull ............000..060- Movide.
Sorna periodically. sheds visicissseevcvicousertadessissdenesedebes Cervidee
Of the preceding sixteen families, ten are extinct. The six
families with living representatives are the Suide, the Tragulide,
the Camelidæ, the Moschide, the Cervide, the Giraffidee, and the
Bovide.! Thus none of the primary divisions, I and II, have
recent representatives. But few of them in fact (some Cænotheriidæ
and Anthracotheriid) survived the Eocene epoch. Division III
is, on the other hand, characteristic of Miocene and recent time,
except that some specimens of Gelocus of the Tragulide have been
found in Upper Eocene beds. Several genera of Tragulide, with
Elotherium and Poébrotherium and Oreodon, belong to Oligocene -
beds.
Tubercular or bunodont molars are of prior age to selenodont
molars, phylogenetically speaking. Of the former, the tritubercular
type, it has been already shown, is ancestral to the quadritubercular
type. Pantolestide are then clearly ancestral to all known Artio-
dactyla, and are themselves probably the descendants of the lost
Amblypoda Hyodonta, whose existence I have anticipated on hypo-
thetical grounds. Of the remaining families which are constructed
on the quadritubercular basis, there are two types, as represented
in divisions II and III of the preceding table. The intermediate
or fifth lobe is especially characteristic of Eocene Artiodactyla.
The intermediate tubercles exist in the Pantolestidie, and one of
them is preserved in the families of division II ; but in group 4 it
is the posterior one, and in group AA it is the anterior one. In the
Suide and Hippopotamidz, which are permanently bunodont, the
intermediates are either lost or so divided as to lose their distinctive
' Antilocapra is sometimes separated from the Bovidee as the type of a
family, because it is said to sometimes shed its horny horn-sheath.
This character, were it really normal, has no significance sufficient for
the establishment of a family division,
1082 The Artiodactyla.
character. In Elotherium traces of both the intermediates are
visible, but they are obscure. The genetic relations of the families
with five lobes to those with four are supposed by Schlosser to be
direct and ancestral. This looks probable in the case of the Mery-
copotamidæ of the latter group, which has inferior molars like those
of Hyopotamus of the former group. Whether the remaining
families of division III AA (see table) (four-lobed) came off from
the families of division ITI (five-lobed) is uncertain. It is probable
that the fifth and sixth (or intermediate) tubercles were present in
all primitive Artiodactyla, but they may have been lost, as in the
Suidæ, in the bunodont stage, which gave origin to III AA, so as
to be wanting from the earliest four-lobed selenodont ancestors.
Of the two types of II (Anthracotheroidea) the division Æ is supposed
by Schlosser to have been the ancestor of the true selenodonts
(III 44), but excepting in the case of Merycopotamide, this has
not yet been demonstrated. Scott suspects with reason that the
quinquetubercular Protoreodon is the ancestor of the quadrituber-
cular Oreodon.
Leaving this debatable question, I refer to the family of the
Anoplotheriide. The remarkable structure of the feet discovered
by Gervais, and shown by Schlosser to belong
to this family distinguishes it at once from
all families of this and all other orders. |
ul The second digit is well developed in both
| i feet, and stands inwards at a strong angle to
` the other toes. A rudimental fifth is present
ji in the manus, but not in the pes. The latter
i * is therefore tridactyle. The third and fourth
i digits are equal in the pes, but the third er”
a U ceeds the fourth in the manus, giving an entirely
SG perissodactyle character. Some didactyle forme
» aig de Bight poste- have been placed in this family, but this is m-
ium latipes Ger tnat. admissible on ordinary taxonomic principles.
a ., Calcaneum ; ý A °
SUTTY astragalus; Cub., The divergent Inner toe is sup to have
cuboid ; . cunei 7 io lif AS
szprom the Eo- supported a web, useful in an aquatic tite.
Gaudry, Enab einan $ he origin of the Anop-
du Monde Animar remarked by Schlosser, the orig H
lotheride is entirely obscure as yet, the only ancestor yet kno a
being the Pantolestida. It is probable that some unknow
member of the Anthracotheroidea, which had bunodont teeth, may
The Artiodactyla. 1083
form one of the missing links. Cebochcerus offers the proper type
of dentition, and the number of toes (four, Schlosser) is also appro-
priate, but whether there are any structural obstacles to its being
ancestral to the Anoplotheriidz I do not know.
Anthracotheriidz can be properly supposed to have descended
from a type of Pantolestide with well-developed lateral toes, by
the addition of the fourth tubercle, and the loss of the posterior in-
termediate ; while the Dichobunide have had the same origin, the
posterior intermediate cusp being preserved. The Xiphodontide
may be supposed to have come off from the Anthracotheriide by
the usual process of diminishing the lateral digits and developing
both sets of crescents in both superior and inferior molars. This
family carried the specialization of the five tubercled type farther
than any other.
The Suoidea have come off from the Pantolestoidea by the addi-
tion of the fourth (posterior internal) tubercle to the superior
molars. Some genus with better developed lateral (second and
fifth) digits than Pantolestes must have been the ancestor. Such a
form will be discovered. It has been already anticipated by
Schlosser,}
It is a circumstance confirmatory of the view that the Cameloi-
dea and Bodidea are descendants of the Anthracotheroidea rather
than of the Suoidea, that no genus of the latter superfamily shows
the least tendency to assume a selenodont structure of the molars.
It is therefore not unlikely that the two groups named may have .
had the history of the Merycopotamoidea already referred to. They
did not probably come from the Merycopotamoidea themselves,
since the geological age of the latter is too late. Of course, how-
ever, members of this group may be yet discovered in earlier
formations.
_ The problems of the phylogeny of the remaining groups are less
difficult, and have been largely solved by the investigations of
Kowaleysky and Schlosser. Tragulide have been derived from
Oreodontidæ with simpler premolar teeth than the typical forms,
(¢.9., Dorcatherium and Lophiomeryx). In turn they have given
origin to primitive Bovide (Cosoryx) through Gelocus, which have
then branched off into specialized Bovide on the one hand, and
1 Morphologisches Jahrbuch, 1886, p. 77.
1084 The Artiodactyla.
Cervide on the other. The Poébrotheriide have originated, from
‘some family with diminished lateral digits, perhaps the Dichobuni-
de, various intermediate genera being yet unknown. They are
the direct ancestors of the Protolabidide, the camels, and the
Eschatiid. These relations may be expressed in the following
e :—
Bovidæ. Eschatiidæ.
|
Cervidæ. Camelidæ.
Moschidæ. Protolabididæ.
Tragulidæ. Poëbrotheriidæ.
Oreodontidæ.
? *
Merycopotamide. Ceenotheriide. Suide.
anion | X a i
Anoplotheriidze. Anthracotheriids. Dichobunide. Hippopotamidee.
$ $
Pantolestidæ.
Of PANTOLESTIDÆ but one genus is known. The premolars
are all simple in the upper jaw, exċept the fourth, which has one
external and one internal tubercle. Six species are known from
the Bridger and Wasatch Eoeines of N. America. (Fic. 2.)
The structure of the premolars in Anoplotherium is complex for
so primitive a type, and the third superior has an internal crest as
well developed as in some of the Boöïdæ. To the ANOPLOTHERI-
.DÆ are referred, besides Anoplotherium, Diplobune of Fraas and
Dacrytherium, Mixtotherium and Mixochærus of Filhol. But the
structure of the feet of the latter genera is unknown. In Mixto-
therium the fourth premolar is more, and the others less complex
than in Anoplotherium. (Fres. 1, 3.) f
The known genera of DicHosunip&® are Dichobune of Cuvier,
with Spaniotherium and “Dilotherium of Filhol, in which{the inte
The Artiodactyla. 1085
mediate tubercles are less developed than in Dichobune. They
are related to the twe selenodont genera of CÆNOTHERIIDÆ, Cæno-
therium and Muillactherium., The latter differs from the former
in the absence of the intermediate crescent from the last superior
molars. The species of Cenotherium differ in the absence or pres-
ence of ashort diastema in the dental series, and in its position in
the lower jaw, whether behind the first or secondpremolar. (Fic. 4.)
The Dichobunid bunodont genera are ancestral to the Czenothe-
riid selenodont genera in the following fashion :—
Jeenotherium. Muillactherium.
| Spaniotherium.
Dilotherium.
Diehobuune.
This family terminated with the selenodont genera, which, as
hlosser remarks, left no known descendants.
THE ANTHRACOTHERIID# present but few varations. Four
genera are known, which differ as follows :—
Entirely bunodont ; no diastemata ; canines developed. Cebochcerus
ery.
Cusps of superior molars little flattened ; diastemata ; canine large.
eropotamus Cuv.
Cusps of superior mòlars flattened ; no diastemata ; canines large.
Anthracotherium Cuv.
Cusps of superior molars crescentoid in section ; diastemata ; canines
aree i0 alao aea he ks Hyopotamus Owen.
The three genera last named cannot, as Schlosser remarks, be
related in direct lines, but through common ancestors ; as may be
shown thus :—
Hyopotamus.
j
*1/
/
f
/
Anthracotherium.
Choeropotamus,
Cebocheerus.
1086 The Artiodactyla.
All the known species of this family are Old World excepting
the single Hyopotamus americanus of Leidy. The genera Ceboch-
ærus and Chceropotamus are from the Eocene, while the remaining
two genera are of Miocene age. Some of the Anthracotheriums
equaled the Rhinoceros in size,and were powerful beasts, well
z armed with formidable canine teeth.
The species of Hyopotamus were on
the other hand, of inoffensive char-
acter and had narrow compressed
muzzles like the Jamas, but more gen-
erally elongate.
The ancestral genus is bunodont,
without diastemata, and with well-
developed canines. The hypothetical
genus (1) is selenodont, with short
diastema, and well-developed canines.
The certainly known genera of
the KIPHODONTIDÆ are four, which
differ as follows :—
Molars bunodont; diastemata; ca-
nines large...... Rhagatherium Pict.
` Molars selenodont ; diastemata ; ca-
nines MECiUM. ..........2eeeeee ee eetee?
Xiphodontotherium Filh.
Molars selenodont ; no diastemata ;
mS f canines not distinet in form.......- 3
Fie, 2. — Pantolestes brachystomus ° uv.
. Nat, size. From the Wasatch Xiphodon C
b, mandibula rames wiih teatis e> Molars selenodont; no diastemata ;
Gtstens, and partsof tibia and meta- superior canine developed ; inferior
p. m. 4 functioning as canine. Protoreodon S. and O.
Cryptomeryx Schl. probably belongs here.
The relations of these genera are clearly somewhat like those of
the preceding family. The bunodont condition of the molars of
Rhagatherium is primitive, while its diastemata are the reverse:
The continuous dental series of Xiphodon is primitive, while the
detailed structure of the molars is advanced. These relations may
be thus shown :—
The Artiodactyla. 1087
Xiphodontotherium.
Protoreodon.
Xiphodon.
Rhagatherium.
S
lz
The hypothetical! genus 1 is simply a bunodont without diaste-
mata, and with well-developed canines.
The genera of this family are Old World, except Protoreodon,
which is North American. The Xiphodon gracilis Cuv. is one
of the most abundant species of the Gypse of Paris and its equiva-
lents. The restoration of Cuvier shows it to have been a graceful
animal, with slender legs and neck. In Prootreodon S. and O. we
first see the enlargement of the fourth inferior premolar (first olim)
to function as a canine, which afterwards became such an important
character of the Oreodontidæ. Probably two species are known,
both from the Uinta formation of Utah; the? “type, P. pavous
Scott and Osborn, IEN about the size of a raccoon.
aT EREL EA VA e
The Hippopotamidæ embraces a considerable variety of genera,
which are spmetimes arranged in separate families. They are as
follows :—
I. Digits four.
A, Metapodials distinct, distally keeled behind only; inferior
incisors straight, patagiiidro ane os
Six lower i incisors ; orbit cl rotodon Caut. Fale.
Four lower incisors; orbit closed t Linn.
Two loweri incisors ; orbit not closed . Cheeropsia Leidy.
AA. Meepodials distinct; inferior incisors normal (Hyotheriine).
Canines small, the inferior not received into a notch of the upper
jaw ; premolars 4 ; fourth with two external tubercles;
Hyotherium von. M.
1088 The Artiodactyla.
Canines large, the inferior received into a deep excavation in
front of the superior canine ; premolars 4; fourth with one lubercle ;
Bothrolabis Cope.
Like Bothrolabis, but premolars 3....... .... .... Chanohyus Cope
II. Digits three.
I. Metapodials fused proximally (Dicotylinz).
a. Premolars like molars ; a deep notch in front of superior
canine.
Premolars 2; cusps of molars separate........... .......Dicotyles Cuv.
Premolars 3; cusps of molars united into partial cross-crests
; Platygonus Lec.
III. Digits two (Elotheriinz).
Superior canines decurved ; last inferior molar without heel ;
Elotherium Pom.
t
y
Fria, 4,—Ocenotherium filholi Lydekker, superior and inferior views of
the Eocene of Caylux, France. Natural size. From Lydekker,
` The genera of Hippopotamine are all Old World. While a single
living species represents each of the genera Hippopotamus an
Chceropsis, there are several extinct species of Hippopotamus and
Hexaprotodon. ‘hese are chiefly confined to the Upper Miocen?
skull, from
PLATE XXVIII.
Cyclopidius emydinus Cope.
The Artiodactyla. 1089
of India, but a species has been found in Algerian deposits, and a
large form, Hippopotamus major, is abundant in the Plistocene of
Southern Europe. Ofthe Hyotheriine the most generalized form,
Hyotherium, is represented by several species in Europe and India’
In its characters it is the most primitive of the family excepting in
the weakness of the canine teeth. It is nearer the ancestral genus
of the family than any that is yet known. In Bothrolabis we have
a distinct approach to Dicotyles, of which it is probably the ancestor.
Four species from the John Day or Middle Miocene of Oregon are
known. They were of the sizes of the existing peccaries. The
genus Platygonus embraces extinct species of North America
and Mexico. P. vetus Leidy has left remains in the Pennsylvania
Bone Caves. It was larger than the white-lipped peccary. P.
alemani Dugés has been found in Mexico.
Several extinct species of Dicotyles are known, from the North
American Plistocene and ? Pliocene. One of them, D. nasutus
Leidy, has a more elongate muzzle than any of the recent species.
. The Elotheriinse embrace the oldest known forms of the family,
dating in geological time from the Lower Miocene or Oligocene,
and terminating with the summit of the middle Miocene. But one
genus is certainly referable here, the Elotherium of Pomel; but a
second, Tetraconodon Falconer, may belong in the same group.
As the feet of the latter are unknown, the affinities cannot be yet
determined. It differs in the inferior dentition from Elotheriam
by the huge size of its premolar teeth. Elotherium is represented
by species over the Northern Hemisphere. The E. magnum is the
only one known from Europe. It was larger than the domestic
hog. The Æ. mortoni Leidy of North America was about the size
of that animal. Its remains are common in the beds of White
River age. It was accompanied by a huge species, the E. ramosum
Cope, which has a skull as large as the Indian Rhinoceros. In
all the species of this genus the mandibular ramus has two osseous
projections, one opposite the symphysis, and the other well behind
it. These are represented by wattles in old males of the recent hog.
In the E. ramosum these tuberosities become processes, and the an-
terior ones especially are so long that when the chin was stretched,
hog-like on the mud, it was raised well above the surface, allowing
the passage underneath of water or of small animals.. In the John
1090 The Artiodactyla.
Day beds of Oregon another species of this genus is found, the Æ.
imperator of Leidy, which was little inferior in dimensions to the
E. ramosum. The greater part of its skeleton is known.
The pigs (Surpm) are modified and specialized descendants of
some form allied to Paleocherus. Chronologically speaking they
are of rather modern origin. The genera are as follows: —
(a) Molars and superior incisors not reduced; the former not
covered with cement; superior canines recurved (Suinz).
Molars with cusps united into transverse crests, Listriodon Meyer.
Molars with four much plicate tubercles on each .
A R < teenei a i aa isai a app ohyts Cantl aie
Molars with numerous irregular accessory lobes; premolars $
jasi ivs Sus Linn.
s.....
No accessory lobes; premolars 2 Babirussa Cuv.
(aa) Superior incisors reduced in number; molars reduced in
number, and the valleys filled with cement (Phacocheerinz).
Superior incisors one; premolars none; molars 3, with numerous
tubercles; superior canines recurved.............+. Phacocherus Cuv.
FIG. 5.—Coloreodon ferox Cope, skull from the John Day Miocene of Oregon, one-
half natural size.
Listriodon and Hippohyus are the only genera of Suide which
are extinct; but the extinct species of Sus are more numerous. In
_ Listriodon the molar teeth are so tapir-like as to have led to its
being placed in the Perissodactyla. When the skeleton was ob-
The Artiodactyla. 1091
tained, it was found to be artiodactyle, as suspected by Kowalev-
sky. One species, L. splendens, has been found in the Middle
Miocene of Western Europe. Hippohyus C. and F. is known from
the Indian Siwaliks. A genus of probable affinities to it, founded
on teeth only from Asiatic localities, is the Sanitherium of Schlag-
intweit. Some of the extinct species of Sus were of larger size than
the existing hog, as the S. giganteus of the French Miocene, and the
S. erymanthius of Pikermi, Greece. The S. silvanius Hodgson, a
recent Indian species, is not larger than a small dog.
The phylogeny of these two bunodont families is nearly as follows,
although the absence of intermediate types renders the final deter-
mination as yet impracticable. The main features may be how-
ever foreshadowed. The most generalized form is Paleocheerus,
since its dentition is in all respects the most simple, while it pre-
serves the full number of teeth. An unknown form resembling it,
but with well-developed canine teeth, may have readily given origin
to the Dicotyline line on the one side, and Sus and its immediate
allies on the other. Babirussa is another derivative from the same
centre. Phacochcrus may have come from some ally of Sus, since
it carries to a great extreme the peculiarities of the latter genus.
The ancestry of Hippopotamus is less easily determined. Its im-
perfect distal metapodial keels, which only exist on the posterior
face of the condyle, bespeak for it an ancient ancestor. Its molar
type is merely a complication of the quadritubercular, while the
characters of its canines are an exaggeration of those of the prim-
itive forms already mentioned. Several other genera, as Dicotyles
and Sus, display. the decumbent incisors which prepare the way for
the remarkable straight digging incisors of Hippopotamus. The
genus Hexaprotodon eases the passage backwards. These relations
may be expressed as follows :—
Cheeropsis. Phacocheerus. Platygonus.
Hippo, otamus, Dicotyles, Cheenohyus.
Hexaprotodon. Babirussa. Sus. Bothrolabis.
f
f
\ vs vai eal
\ J e
\ PA P A port ae ;
x \ ff J A
*
Hyotherium,
1092 The Artiodactyla.
AT
The MERYCOPOTAMIDÆ embrace but one genus, Merycopotamus:
C. and F., which is a form of considerable interest. Its superior
molars display the simple quadriselenodont type of the later fam-
ilies, but in the lower jaw
the primitive condition of
but one series of crescents
still remains. Several spe-
cies are known, all from
the upper miocene of India.
The OREODONTIDZ is
the prevalent type of Arti-
odactyla during Miocene
time in North America.
Their characters are as fol-
lows :—
Dentition : superior
incisors present ; molars
selenodont. Cervicals with
brarterial canal. No alis-
phenoid canal, Ulna and
radius, and tibia and fibula
distinct. Metapodial bones
four on each foot, with
incomplete distal troch-
lear keels. Lunar bone
not supported by magnum
Navicular a cuboid
bones distin
The details a the struc-
true express various affin-
ities. The axis is inter-
mediate between that of
the suilline and ruminant
Artiodactyla; the other
oe eg rig ee eee cervicals are suilline, while
size,
rom Kentucky. the remaining vertebre
uilline; while the
are ruminant. The scapula is ruminant, not $
~
*
The Artiodactyla. 1093
humerus is like Anoplotherium. The radiocarpal articulation is
intermediate between that of hogs and ruminants. The unciform
supports the lunar bone. The sacrum is ruminant, the ilium
suilline. The femur and tarsus are much like those of the peccary.
The known genera of this family are the following :—
A. Orbit complete ; premolars four, the fourth with one ex-
ternal crescent. First premolar below functioning as canine.
a. No facial vacuities.
Premaxillaries distinct; otic bullæ not inflated ; five digits
in STU a a ee oa oo os ea oes Oreodon Leidy.
Premaxillaries distinct; otic bulle inflated; four digits in
manus......... hue ‘otaphus Leidy.
Premaxillaries coössified ; otis RR inflated chess vied dances
Merycocherus Leidy.
aa. Facial vacuities present.
Premaxillaries coössified, dentigerous; vacuities prelachry-
mal OMY. eaeoe A a (is a Ca sccnn st Merychyus Leidy.
Incisors six above, persistent; vacuities prelachrymal and
prefrontal; nasal bones much reduced.....Leptauchenia Leidy.
Incisors very few, caducous; vacuities as in Letanc phenia,
very Intgë. aiiai siare aeaa e Bs Cyclopidius Cope.
AA. Inferior premolars three. True inferior canine functional.
Inferior incisors one on each side Pithecistes Cope.
Starting from Oreodon as the ancestral form, Eucrotaphus follows
at a little distance. The presence of the pollex observed by Scott
in Oreodon proves that it must be referred to a five-toed common
ancestor with Dorcatherium. The enlarged bullæ are added in
Eucrotaphus, and the codssified premaxillaries in Merycochcerus
and Merychyus. The latter commences the facial vacuities, which _
reach such huge proportions in Leptauchenia and Cyclopidius.
The loss of the incisor teeth from both jaws, and diminished size,
indicate that decadence is going on in Cyclopidius, but the last term
is reached in Pithecistes. Here not only incisors but a premolar
disappears. This family, once powerful in numbers, size and
strength, disappeared with the Upper Miocene period in North
erica, These relations may be thus displayed. A common
ancestor with Dorcatherium is assumed. This will be a genus like
Protoreodon S. and O., but without the caniniform inferior p. m. i of
1094 The Artiodactyla.
that genus, and probably with the fifth crescent of the superior
molars. Agriochcerus may have been derived from the same.
Pithecistes.
Cyclopidius.
Leptauchenia.
Merychyus.
Merycocheerus.
Eucrotaphus. (Tragulide)
Oreodon, Dorcatherium.
Coloreodon.
Agriocherus.
| Dichodon. = S
er
Ree |
S
y
The genealogical positions of these genera are as follows :
White | John Ticho- |; Lou
Oreodontine. No, of River Day leptus Fork |
Species | Epoch Epoch Epoch Epoch
Oreodon Leid 3
Eucrotap wee 3
Merycochcerus Leidy 8 adic | plese} a + ea
Merychyus Leidy 6 nn e
eptauchenia Leidy 3 PREDAN
Cyclopidius Cope 2 rani
thecistes Cope 3 TREIA
Pith
Er n ae
The numbers of individuals of Oreodontidæ which must have
existed during the Miocene period in North America is so great a5
to astonish the paleontologist. During the White River epoch
droves of Oreodon culbertsoni inhabited the swamps, and the small
O. minor was abundant. Several forms, perhaps species, coe
with these two. During the John Day epoch Oregon and adjacent
regions were overrun by the Eucrotaphus pacificus, and the large
and formidable Meryeochoerus superbus (Plate XX VI). Ata still
later date, in the Ticholeptus epoch, the species of Cyclopidius were
scarcely Jess abundant. All of these forms were the prey of num-
erous Carnivora, mostly false sabre-tooth or half sabre-tooth cats,
The Artiodactyla. 1095
of the family of the Nimravide. The large Merycocheeri possessed
the means of making a formidable defense, but the Merychyi of
later age were of decidedly less vigorous mould (Plate XXVII).
The species of Leptauchenia and Cyclopidius were probably aquatic
in their habits. The species of the last named genus (Plate
XXVIII.) had produced tympanic bones like the hippopotamus for
the insertion of ears that projected above the water, while the eyes
are partly vertical to permit of vision without much exposure of
the head. The nostrils are at the extremity of a sharp muzzle like
the snapping tortoise to premit of breathing without exposure
of the face. The object of the remarkable facial vacuities in
this genus and Leptauchenia is unknown. It may have per-
mitted the attachment of an inflatable integument like the nasal
hood of the hooded seal. In Pithecistes the incisor teeth have
disappeared, and the short deep jaw, the only part which is
known, resembles in its codssified symphysis, that of a monkey.
(To be continued. ):
1096 Reeent Literature.
RECENT LITERATURE.
Davis’s TEXT-BOOK or Biotocy.’—Of this book of 462 pages
a little more than one-third is devoted to plants, and hence prop-
erly to be noticed by the present reviewer. Unlike many works
on biology, this is in fact two independent books printed and bound
together. Each part has its separate bibliography and index-glos-
sary, and there are no references from the one part to the other.
One is puzzled, indeed, to see any good reason for calling the book
one on biology: it is rather a botanical and a zoological book bound
together.
art I. takes up in succession Saccharomyces, Bacteria, Mucor
- and Penicillium as representing the fungi; Protococcus, Spirogyra,
Fucus, Chara and Nitella, representing the Alge; Funaria and
Polytrichum for the Mosses; Pteris and Nephrodium (Aspidium)
for the Ferns; Pinus for Gymnosperms, and a “typical Flowering
plant” for the Angiosperms. Following these are short chapters
on Comparative Vegetable Morphology and Physiology, and the
Classification of Plants. —
The book is not a laboratory manual at all, but rather a text-book to
be read or studied. The author himself, in his preface, after refer-
ring to the several excellent works on practical biology which have
appeared within the last few years, and the want of a comprehen-
sive work on theoretical biology, says that “the object of the pres-
ent text-book is, therefore, to supply such a systematic and simple
exposition of the subject within small compass as, it is hoped, will
be found helpful, both to those who are studying alone and to those
who have the advantage of guidance in their work.” Theoretical
biology is, then, the scope of the work, and in this it stands in sharp
ab with Huxley and Martin’s well-known laboratory hand-
The treatment of Saccharomyces—the Yeast Plant—may
trate the style of the book. First the Morphology 1s concise
discussed, giving the reader a good idea of the shape, size an
structure of the plant, the latter including the cell-wall, protoplasm
and vacuoles, with a doubtful reference to a nucleus. Secon »
the Physiology is taken up, and here nutrition is discussed in su
A Text-book of Biology: comprising Vegetable and Animal Mo
phology and Physiology. Designed more up
ments of the intermediate science and prelim
tions of the London University. By J. R. Ainsworth Day
Trinity College, Cambridge; Lecturer on Biology in the “Gl
College of Wales, Abe stwyth. With numerous illustrations,
sary and Examination Questions.” Philadelphia: P. Blak
& Co., 1012 Walnut street. 1888. [All rights reserved.
Recent Literature. 1097
a manner as to bring out the fact that the plant’s food is a solution
consisting essentially of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sul-
phur and phosphorus. Destructive metabolism, respiration, and
reproduction follow, each including a brief summary of the prin-
cipal facts,
In the main, the book appears to be brought up to our present
knowledge, and, if one must use such a book at all, it may be rec-
ommended as giving in a condensed and systematic form the prin-
cipal facts of Vegetable Morphology and Physiology. It remains
to be said that, while the book bears the name of the American
publisher on its title-page, both printing and binding were done by
a London house, a new title-page alone having been pasted in to |
replace the original one.— Charles E. Bessey.
MIcroscopicAL PHysioGRAPHY OF THE Rock-MAKING MIN-
ERALS. By H. Rosenbusch. Translated by Joseph P. Iddings.
New York: Wiley & Sons, 1888. Illustrated by 121 wood-cuts.
and 26 plates of photomicrographs. xiii. and 333 pp.—With the
excellent translation of Prof. Rosenbusch’s book, presented us by
Mx. Iddings, there can no longer remain an excuse for the continued
neglect of microscopical petrography by our colleges and advanced
schools. . Heretofore the immense mass of facts relating to the
microscopical properties of minerals which have accumulated within
the past ten or fifteen years, have been beyond the reach of those
who are not familiar with the German language. The excellent
compendium of Prof. Rosenbusch has not been available to English-
speaking students on either side of the Atlantic. It is a matter for
congratulation that the first translation of this book should have
been made into English by an American Scientist, and by one who
has proven himself so capable of undertaking the task as has Mr.
The translation is at the same time an abridgement. The six
hundred and sixty-four pages of the original have been reduced by
the translator to three hundred and thirty-three. This has been
accomplished by omitting the bibliography (which occupies eighty-
eight pages in the original), by excluding the purely historical
Portions, and by restricting within narrow limits the discussion of
the anomalous action of certain minerals in polarized light. Since
these matters would be of little value to any but the advanced
student in the subject, and since such a one must of necessity go to
the original sources for his information, Mr. Iddings has done well
in deciding not to confuse the mind of the beginner with too much
of the unessential. So far as a hurried reading of the book allows
One to judge, everything essential to the study of the optical prop-
erties of the rock-forming minerals has been retained, and in many
cases additions have been made to the description of those minerals
1098 General Notes.
which have been found to be much more widespread as constituents
of rocks than was supposed when the German edition was published
three years ago.
A further reduction in the size of the book is effected by a rather
free translation, by which an entire sentence is sometimes reduced
to the position of a short qualifying phrase, and by the omission of
certain tables of refractive indices, but more especially by the
exclusion of the references to the occurrences of the various min-
erals in rocks of foreign localities. To compensate for the latter
loss, notes on American occurrences have been copiously inserted.
The style of the language used is clear; the expressions are
forcible; and, better tnan all else, the reader of the translation may
rest assured that he is getting the exact thought of the author of
the original.
Not only is Mr. Iddings to be commended for his careful trans-
lation, but Messrs. Wiley & Sons are likewise to be congratulated
on producing a work of such a pleasant appearance as the book
ore us.
The only fault that can be found with the volume is its price.
It would seem that in view of the fact that the translation will
- meet with a ready sale in England and America, its price might
have been placed at such a figure as to enable every one taking a
course in geology to indulge in the luxury of a few weeks work
with the beautiful objects in rocks revealed to our eyes when aided
by the polarizing microscope.— W. S. B
GENERAL NOTES.
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.
NANSEN’S GREENLAND EXPEDITION.—The last mail Bs
Norway brings more informajion about the Nansen expedition to
the interior of Greenland. The expedition consisted of the following
named daring men, under the leadership of Dr. Frithjof er
conservator of the Bergen Museum ; Lieut. Olaf Dietrichsen, F
Otto Sverdrup, Christian C. Trana, Ole N. Ravna, and Samuel 7
Batto, all especially selected men, strong and healthy in bocy
mind and good “ski-runners.” “ Ski ”are the snow shoes ext
used in Norway for travelling over the snow fields of that country.
The party left Norway on May 2; travelled by steamer as far as
Iceland, where they arrived in the middle of June. From Ice me
the whaler Jason brought them over to Greenland, and of Hi
Geography and Travel. 1099
17th of July left them on the drifting ice with the land in sight
some few miles distant. From that time until they could reae
the inhabited west coast of Greenland communication with the rest
of,the living world would be an absolute impossibility. A stretch
of 450 miles, never traversed by man, lay before them ; they had
their Norwegian ski, provisions fortwo months, and necessary in-
struments for making observations, and they started for the shore.
They had to make their way across the glaciers in two months or die.
Not before next summer can we haye a complete report of the
journey ; till then we must, with the information we get from two
hurriedly written letters which, by mere accident, came over in
the last vessel from that region this year. The letter from the mate
Sverdrup to his father is given below:
GODTHAAB, Oct. 4, 1888.
“Yesterday, after sixty-four days’ journey from the east coast, we
arrived here all safe. The landing was more difficult than we had
calculated. The drifting ice upon which we stepped when leaving
the whaler was moving very rapidly toward the south and off from
the shore, and it took us twelve days to reach the shore. In that time
we had drifted nearly 100 miles. As soon as we had terra firma
under foot we started northward along the coast, looking for a place
where it would be possible to ascend the solid inlandice, After
another twelve days’ search we finally found such a place, made our_
way up without very great difficulty, and on the 16th of August
we commenced our westward march. We at first laid our course
for Christianshaab (a settlement to the northwest), but when we
had reached an elevation of about 7500 feet a terrible snow storm
met us, and we concluded to take a more southerly direction
found a stretch of about twenty miles wide free from snow,
miles of which was along the edge of a fiord. We brought the tent and
provisions down to the shore and built a camp ; further p
seemed for a time impossible. Then we made a small boat from,
rt of the tent and a canvas When this boat was ready Dr.
ansen and I started for this place, and after’ four days’ rowing
we arrived here, and were very kindly received by the people.
Two boats are now sent to the camp, where we left our companions,
to bring them down here. The post-ship has left long ago, but
some fifty miles farther south there is a steamer, having been acci-
1100 General Notes.
dentally kept back by a breakdown and the storms, now just ready
to sail for Copenhagen, and we send two messengers, hoping they
will reach the steamer, and perhaps make it wait for us and take
us home. We have but very little hope, though, that the steamer
will wait, and we shall be compelled to stay here over winter, as
this is the last chance this year.”
It appears that the steamer did not wait for them, but
took the letters and delivered them at Farsund, the nearest
ort in Norway. The expedition, consequently, must stay in
Greenland through the winter, with the prospect of getting
lenty of leisure time, and next summer we shall have a
full report of this remarkably daring and interesting journey.
GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY.
DESCRIPTION oF NEw AND IMPERFECTLY KNOWN SPECIES
OF BRACHIOPODA, FROM THE Devonian Rocks or IOWA —O
the Brachiopod Fauna of the Devonian rocks of Lowa, no genus 15,
perhaps, so variable as the Genus Atrypa. Many varieties of
Atrypa recticularis, of the Iowa strata, are often restricted in their
range to certain horizons and localities. For example, at lowa
City, Turkey Creek and Roberts’ Ferry, in Johnson county, there
occurs in a bed of argillaceous shale a very large and coarse vari-
ety of this species, which is not known to appear at any other lo-
cality in Iowa, or elsewhere. In some dark bituminous shale at
Independence, occurs another variety of the same species, an which
is analogous to one of the varieties of the Rockford shales; this
form, however, differs from the Rockford shale variety in its very
diminutive size. :
In the limestone at “Big Bend” of the Iowa river in Johri
county, at Independence, Waverly, etc., occurs another well-marke
variety. Many individuals of this variety s very large thin
wings or expansions, the entire shell having a diameter of from five
to eleven centimeters; the body of the shell, however, being often
only one-half or even one-third that diameter. i
At Littleton, in Buchanan county, is found another very pane
variety (a coarse form) whose equivalent is not known to occur &
any other locality in the State; its nearest representative, § K
known to me, occurring in the Devonian strata at Louisville, 4s A
In the Rockford shales occur two varieties, the smaller of per
has the front of the shell so strongly contracted as to produce a %15-
Geology and Paleontology. 1101
tinct false mesial sinus in the ventral valve. Several other varie-
ties of this species also occur in different portions of the State.
Not only do the Iowa varieties of this species vary greatly in
form, size and surface markings, but they also often differ conspic-
uously in their internal structure. Some forms of this species ap-
proach so near to Atrypa impressa of the Schoharie Grit of New
York, that a strict distinction between them is impossible. Atrypa
reticularis of the Iowa strata varies so much in form, size, surface
marking, etc., that it could be separated into several forms suffici-
ently distinct to have specific names, if the forms were found only
distinct groups of rocks. Atrypa hystrix and Atrypa aspera also
vary greatly in form, size and internal structure. An interesting
feature of the Brachiopod and Polyp faunas of the Devonian
strata of Iowa, is the occurrence of quite a number of forms which
imperceptably grade into one another; but which forms are seen,
in the rocks of other States, to constitute well-marked species. This
condition is more particularly noticeable among some forms of the
genera Favosites, Cyathophyllum, Atrypa and a few others.
spirifera substrigosa, n. sp.—Shell a little larger than medium,
somewhat longer than wide, slightly gibbous; cardinal extremities
abruptly produced into short rounded projections. Dorsal valve
moderately convex; greatest convexity slightly above the centre.
Mesial fold angular, strongly produced in front; mar y five
small scarcely elevated rounded plications, only one of which
reaches the beak. Valve, on each side of the mesial fold, marked
by five strong, broadly rounded radiating plications; cardinal ex-
tremities smooth. Ventral valve rather gibbous; greatest convex-
ity about the centre; mesial sinus rounded, of moderate depth, quite
rapidly expanding below, and produced into a moderately road
rounded extension; beak much elevated, sharp and strongly in-
curved ; foramen rather large, triangular; area moderately large, con-
cave.
Surface of the ventral valve, on each side of the mesial sinus,
marked by six or seven strong, rounded, radiating plications; a _
small area on the cardinal extremities smooth. esial sinus orna-
than to any other described species known to me. Position and
locality: Rockford Shales, Hackberry, Iowa. me me
Spirifera hungerfordi Hall. (Compare with original description,
Geo ogy of Iowa, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 501.)—Shell very variable,
adult forms often being three and one-fifth centimeters in width,
1102 General Notes.
and about three and one-half centimeters in height; inequivalve
hinge line sometimes (in both young and old specimens) extremely
produced into wing-like expansions; at other times the hinge line
equalling, or much less than the greatest width of the valves below;
again, some specimens (old and young) are longer than wide; at
other times wider than long, even though the hinge line is not pro-
uced.
Dorsal valve generally regularly convex, but sometimes flattened
on the cardinal extremity; greatest convexity at or a little above
the middle; beak incurved slightly beyond the hinge line; mesial
fold often not defined; at other times slightly defined; and rarely
strongly and sharply defined in front. i
Ventral valve gibbous at or above the middle, having twice as
great an elevation as the opposite valve; beak generally much ex-
tended above the hinge line, but sometimes scarcely ; sharply in-
curved, or not incurved; sinus sometimes wanting, at other times
shallow and scarcely defined above the middle, and producing a
slight sinuosity (at times strongly produced) in front; in some speci-
mens with greatly produced hinge lines, the sinus is quite well de-
fined nearly or quite to the beak; area large and well defined, prin-
cipally confined to the ventral valve, vertically striated; foramen
narrow, triangular, extending quite to the open valve, the margins
or dental lamellæ often a little projecting.. Surface marked by fine
rounded radii; radii about equal to the space between them, “and
both are again finely striated in the same direction by microscopic
lines, and the whole crossed by fine striæ which give a granulat
appearance to the uneven surface”; this feature, however, is not al-
ways well shown even in well-preserved specimens. fees
The “dichotomising of the radii on the mesial sinus and fold is
by no means a constant feature. The internal structure of this
shell varies considerably in different individuals. The dental la-
mella, which is usually very strong, generally extends to the centre
of the valve, and there becomes obsolete; these lamellæ gradually
diverge downward and about the ċentre of the valve, between
them, is a deep heart-shaped muscular impression, marked by toa
to six more or less prominent vertical striæ; the dental lamel æ
sometimes extend to the centre of the shell only as slight elevations
along the margins of the muscular impressions; the muscular 1m-
pressions vary somewhat in size, depth and general form in differ-
ent specimens. -t ae
_ dn some instances, the interior of the ventral valve is distinct y
punctate; cardinal processes of dorsal valve rather large, bifid, an
fitting into notches in area of ventral valve. Internal spires ra ‘se
Position and locality: Throughout the Rockford Shales,
. Spirifera strigosa Meek. Spirifera macra Meek (1860), Pro-
Geology and Paleontology. 1103
ceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., XII, 309. Spirifera strigosa Meek
(1 860), to extra copies of the above cited paper. Spirifera.orestes
Hall and Whitfield (1873), 23d Rept. Board of Regents on N. Y.
State cabinet, P. 237, Spirifera strigosa Meek (1876), in Col.
Simpson’s Report Expl. across the Great Basin of Utah, 347, pl. I,
figs. 5,a,b,c,d. Compare with description of Spirifera orestes, of H. and
W., 23d Report of Board of Regents on New York State cabinet of
Nat. His., p.237; and also with description of Spirifera strigosua
Meek, U. S. Geol. Exploration of Fortieth Parallel, Vol. IV., p. 43.
Shell very variable; semielliptical, subouate, suborbicular, longer
than wide or wider again than long; of medium or under medium
size; often gibbous in young as well as old specimens; frequently
greatly extended on the hinge line, sometimes hinge-line one-third
less than the greatest width of the valves below; at other times the
hinge-line and valves below are equal, valves subequal ; greatest
convexity of the ventral valve at or slightly above the middle;
greatest convexity of the dorsal valve at the centre, or a little above.
eak of ventral valve strong and usually high, sometimes low;
from slightly to very sharply incurved ; the height, strength and
curvature of the beak varies somewhat with the age of the animal;
central area high, concave, vertically striated ; foramen rather large,
triangular, extending to the apex of the valve, the margins or
dental lamellae strongly projecting in well-preserved specimens. —
Valves marked by very large or small, simple, rounded or angu-
lar plications; varying in number from four to thirteen on each
side of the mesial fold and sinus, in young as well as adult forms.
Mesial fold and sinus marked by from one to six bifurcating pli-
cations (in some instances, the plications do not bifurcate, but run
out along the margins of the fold and sinus). Usually the mesial
fold is strongly elevated in front and more or less well defined to
the beak, but in rare instances, even in adult specimens, the fold is
not defined, even in front, although the sinus of the opposite valve
is well defined to the beak, and produced in front.
Mesial sinus more or less well defined to the beak, rather rapidly
expanding below, and produced in front into a sharp or broadly
rounded extension; bottom shallow or deep, angular or rounded.
Surface of specimens, with small or medium-sized plications, marked
y very fine strie parallel to the plications; surface of specimens
with large, eoarse = oraa marked by stronger and more numer-
ous obliquestriz, which unite with each other on thesummit of the pli-
cations and centre of the depressions between the plications, thus
giving the entire surface a very sharply zigzag striation ; the surface
of many specimens are also crossed, in front, by slight lines of
growth,
Surface of the interior of the valves smooth or marked by ridges,
which correspond to the depressions between the plications on the
1104 General Notes.
exterior of the valves; dental lamelle in ventral valve slightly
produced, sloping abruptly backward and downward, becoming
obsolete before reaching the center of the valve; cardinal processes
of dorsal valve small, bifid, fitting into notches in area of ventral
valve.
This is one of the most variable species of Spirifers known to me.
The descriptions of this species, and Spirifera hungerfordi, are
based upon over one hundred and fifty specimens of each species.—
Position and locality: Rockford Shales, Rockford and Hackberry,
and Owens Grove, Iowa.
There seems to be no doubt but that this very variable species
(designated as Spirifera orestes, by H. & W..,) is identical with
Spirifera strigosa Meek, as described in Vol. IV., p. 43, of the
. S. Geol. Exploration of Fortieth Parallel. This being the
case, Meek’s name would, therefore, be considered as having the
priority. :
Atrypa hystrix var. elongata, n. var.—Shell of medium size,
elongate ovate, valves slightly aud nearly equally convex;
greatest convexity of the ventral valve slightly below the
umbo; greatest convexity of the dorsal valve on the umob.
ak of the ventral valve of moderate strength, perforate,
scarcely raised above the opposite valve; area closed, surfaces
marked by from four to five simple rounded ridges upon each valve,
crossed by strong thickened concentric lamine of growth, but
which are nut elevated at intervals into spine-like protections. This
well-marked variety is known to occur at only one locality, the
Rockford Shales, at Hackberry, Iowa. j
Atrypa hystrix var. planosulcata, n. var.— This form differs from
A. hystrix in the general expression and fineness of the shell. The
plications are very much smaller and more numerous, the lamine
of growth usually slight and not generally elevated into spine-like
projections. These features are very constant in both young an
old specimens. i
We were at first inclined to consider this form specifically dis-
tinct from A hystriæ, but after a large number of them had b
secured, it proved that they constituted only a well-marked variety
of this species. ;
This variety is common throughout the Rockford Shales, and se
also the prevailing form which occurs in the limestone which imme-
diately underjliesthe shales. We have also secured a very few x.
imens from some shales at Roberts’ Ferry, Solon and Turkey
Creek, in Johnson county.—Clement L. Webster.
_ Caves anD Cave Lire.—There are a few statements made in Dr-
<. Packard’s article in the September number of the AMERICAN NATU-
o BALIST, which, while they do not affect the argument, seem to
Geology and Paleontology. 1105
correction, First, on pp. 814-815, occurs the statement: “It is
probable that Cacidotea stygia is seldom, if ever, broughtin contact
with Asellus communis, which abounds in the pools and streams
throughout the cave region.” For this I cansee no reason. As I
have lived for sometime in the cave region, I may say that Cæcidotæa
is not confined to “caves and wells fed by underground streams,”
but occurs in Bloomington in springs and in the ordinary streams,
mingling with its near relative Asellus. Again, except for the
single element of darkness, I cannot see how the cave* fauna,
occurring in the numerous caves around this town, and extending
south to Wyandotte and Mammoth, “is almost completely isolated
from that of the upper world.” ‘Too many of the streams in this
carboniferous belt drop out of sight, and can be traced directly
into caves about here to afford much isolation to aquatic animals.
Not having seen the complete article from which his paper “On
Certain Factors of Evolution” is an extract, I do not know on what
Dr. Packard bases his conclusion (p. 815) that the cave faunz are
to be regarded as products of Quaternary times. Of course the
peel facies of that fauna is recent, but it is, on the other hand,
yond question that the caves themselves have been in process of
formation since their rocks were elevated above the carboniferous sea.
I know of no argument which forbids the idea of their being peopled
in Permian times. The fact that we have no cave fossils giving
evidence of a Mesozoic fauna is easily explained by the fact that
there was no locality for such fossils to form. Caves are constantly
being enlarged by a solution of their walls, and with the wearing
away of the rock all cave-animal remains would of necessity be
destroyed.
find a single morainic boulder. It is rather a region of topographic
old he “ Knobs” which skirt the Ohio, from Louisville to
.
the floods caused by the melting ice of the Continental glaciers, but
the river-courses of tc si
which must be invoked to explain the presence of the caves. To
explain the existence of the caverns we must predicate streams whose
1106 General Notes.
beds have now entirely disappeared, except as they are shown inside
the caves. For instance, the Blue river of to-day cannot be con-
nected with Wyandotte Cave. The entrance to the cave occurs on
a side hill, a hundred feet above the present stream, yet
inside the cave there is ample evidence, not only of the long-con-
tinued action of small amounts of water, but, in places, the plainest
signs of a considerable stream. So, too, in Little Wyandotte, a few
rods away. Still, where that water entered the cave, and where it
made its exit, are as yet unsolved problems. In the majority of
caves which I have seen, the entrance seems a secondary formation
produced by a falling in of the roof, or a wearing away of the hill
itself. This last is clearly the case with Wyandotte Cave, which
apparently once had a greater extent than it now has. In other
cases the entrance is through a “sink-hole,” but it requires no little
credulity to believe that that little funnel conducted the water
which wore away such a cavern as “ Coon’s Cave” in this county
(Monroe).
believe that the majority of the caves about here had soquines
_ essentially their present sizes and dimensions long before the
adequate to account for the caves is evident to any one who bier
this region. Recourse must be had to a time when the whole
.
_ GonIOPHOLIs IN THE JuRAssic oF CoLoRADO.—In my essay
on the horizons of vertebrate fossils of Europe and North America,
Geology and Paleontology. 1107
read before the International Congress of Geologists of 1878, I
recorded the probable occurrence of this Jurassic genus of Croco-
dilia in North America. This supposition has become a certainty,
as a result of a more detailed examination of material received from
Mr. O. W. Lucas, of Canyon City, Colorado. This consists of a
nearly entire skull, with numerous portions of the skeleton, derived
from the locality which furnished the typical specimens of Cama-
rasaurus supremus Cope, and other Reptilia. It appears that the
specimen is specifically identical with one which includes vertebre
and a few other bones only, described by me as Amphicotytus lu-
casii,’ from the same locality. The species may be therefore called
Goniopholis lucasii.
e superior surfaces of the skull and dormal scuta are rather
finely and profoundly pitted. The orbits are a little smaller than
the crotaphite foramina, and each one has a strong supraorbital
ne, which is also pitted. The muzzle is of moderate length, and
is proportioned much as in the Nile crocodile. Its extremity is
neither abruptly expanded nor recurved. The anterior teeth are
sculptured with coarse, shallow, parallel grooves. Those of the pos-
terior portion of the maxillary bone have opposite angles at the
extremities of a transverse axis extending inwards and forwards and
outwards and backwards, but the crown is not compressed at the
base, though slightly so at the apex. The posterior nares are nar-
row, and are divided by a median septum. Their anterior border
18 Opposite the middle of the palatomaxillary foramen. The ptery-
goids terminate posteriorly in a wide, free, transverse margin. :
The Goniopholis lucasii was equal to a two-thirds grown Missis-
sippi Alligator in dimensions, and its head was of relatively larger
size. It was smaller than the G. erassidensowrn.
Measurements.
Length of cranium on median line..
Length from end of muzzle to line of orbits . x
Length from end of mnzzle to line of erotaphite foramina .310
ve
Width of cranium between quadrates inclusi 250
= ne of cranium 110
g “ parietal spa .015
i ‘* interorbital space -040
2 “ muzzle at front of orbits 110
: ares .090
Length of fore part of pseudocanine tooth........:...ccceeee cerseeeeeseeeeees 035
Width of fore part at base of crown 013
E. D. Cope.
AMERICAN FOSSIL CRYPTOGAMIA.—At a meeting of the Biological
Society of Washington on Nov. 17th, Prof. L. F. Ward read a paper,
! Comptes Rendus Stenographiques, Paris, p. 146; Vertebrata Tertiary
of the United States, 1885, p. 26.
? Bulletin U. S. Geolog. Survey Trans. F. V. Hayden, 1878, p. 391.
1108 General Notes.
on “ A comprehensive type of fossil cryptogamic life from the Fort
Union group,” illustrating it by lantern views. The fossil in ques-
tion was so peculiar that though collected in 1883, he had done
little with it until the present season. Photographs of it were sent
to various eminent zoologists and botanists, with a view of deter-
mining the affinities of the curious specimen. Zoologists could not
refer it to any animal, and so considered it a plant; while botanists,
knowing no plant like it, thought it possibly an animal. Prof.
Ward’s conclusion so far is that it represents a generalized type of
vascular cryptogam, with relationships to Ophioglossum, Isoetes,
Marsilea, Lycopodium and Selaginella. It is evidently an aquatic,
fresh water, as shown by the remains of aquatics in the same con-
nection. A central, roundish rhizoma or rhizoid, is surrounded by
slender, flexuous bodies, radiating in all directions, each expanding
from a rather narrow base to a broad club-like end. The scales
are arranged in two or three rows; at the base are found numerous
round bodies like spore cases, and the free end has a flattened blade
about twice as wide as the main stem and rounded. In the general
aspect of the rhizoma it is related to Isoetes. In its branches and
_ fructification to Ophioglossum and Marsilea, and in its scales to
Lycopodium and Selaginella. Letters from Prof. Farlow, Dr.
Nathorst and Count Saporta, were read, and these scientists sug-
gested a possible connection with the same forms of cryptogams as
Prof. Ward had himself imagined. In a discussion which ensued,
Prof. Seaman called attention to the similarity the specimens pre-
sented to the structure of the hairs of Drosera rotundifolia. It
would indeed be strange if in this fossil plant of Cretaceous times
we should have foreshadowed and produced on a large scale the
hairs of Drosera, each acting independently instead of working 12
common. It must be said, however, that the chances are greatly 1n
favor of the view of Prof. Ward, that it is a generalized form of
certain groups of the vascular cryptogams.—Jos. F. James.
A Hornep Dinosaurtan REPTILE.—In the December ape
ber of the American Journal of Science and Arts, Prof. O. C. Mars
describes parts of the skeleton of a Dinosaur from the Laramie for-
Mineralogy and Petrography. 1109
of them, including a horn-core and posterior part of the skull
(Plate XXXII., fig. 8). These fragments were also found in the
Laramie bed of Montana, probably at no great distance from those
described by Prof. Marsh. I did not determine the genus to which
this cranium should be referred, since there were already known nine
genera of Dinosauria from the same horizon to one or the other of
which, it was sure to belong. The observations of Prof. Marsh
will determine this point. The affinity to Hypsirhophus referred
to by Prof. Marsh indicates Polyonax (Cope) as the form to which
the species probably belongs, although this is of course a mere sur-
mise. That genus was described from vertebre and limb and
dermal bones (Cretaceous Vertebrata U. S. Geol. Survey Terri.,
IlL., p. 63, Plates II. and IIT.). Some of the latter were probably
identified with doubt as parts of the shafts of limb bones, but they
resemble more nearly some of the spinous dermal bones ascribed to
Hypsirhophus by Marsh.
It would have been well if the final publications of the Hayden
Survey could have been completed by the Director who succeeded
im in charge, instead of new publications taken up. In that
case the continued duplication of the work of the first survey by
its successor could have been avoided.—E. D. Cope.
MINERALOGY AND PETROGRAPHY.'
PrETROGRAPHICAL News.—Liwinson-Lessing? has suggested a
scheme for the classification of elastic rocks. He would divide
these into tuffs, breccias, congl tes, pseudoschists and slaty rocks.
' Tuffs he would confine to rocks made up of crystals, or pieces of
crystals, and separate minerals, and would subdivide into agglom-
erates-tuffs (subaéreal) and tuffogenous sediments (submarine). The
agglomeratic tuffs he would further separate according to structure,
Tuff-like rocks produced from crystalline rocks by orodynamic
forces, or by weathering, he would call tuffoids, and distinguish as
elasto-tuffs and decomposition-tuffs (Verwitterungs tuffen). The
breccias are composed of pieces of rocks cemented by rock material.
They are divided into primary, or voleanic, an dary, or
metasomatic breccias. The volcanic breccias include the lava
together by a molten rock, and tuff-lavas (Spaltung’s breccia),
Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, sy aged Waterville, Me.
? Miner. u. Petrog. Mitth., ix., p. 528.
1110 General Notes.
those produced by the separating from a molten magma of certain
portions, and their consolidation into a rock mass by the cooling of
crystallized; the quartz was corroded and around its edges a
light colored augite was formed. n the h ritic inclusions
remains of quartz and feldspar are still to be found ; in the
ones all traces of the original minerals have disap , the
SiO, Al,O, CaO MgO K,O Na,O H,O
57.50 18.11 4.63 1.20 6.98 2.40 10.48.
—The islands off the coast of Morbihan, France, contain strata of
1 Miner. u. Petrog. Mitth., x., p. 1.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 1111
schistose pyroxene rocks, interbedded with archwan gneisses and
mica-schists. They consist of sphene, garnet, green pyroxene, plagio-
clase, quartz, mica and pale hornblende in large crystals. Vesuvianite
and zircon also occur in them in small quantity. The pyroxene,
comprising the larger part of the rock, is of a light green color,
and possesses the diallagic parting. The plagioclase—labradorite
and anorrhite—is present in large quantity in some varieties of
the rock, and always shows a tendency to alter into wollastonite.
The hornblende and quartz are both secondary. These pyrox-
enites resemble very closely the flaser-gabbros of the Germans,
but are supposed by Barrois! to be metamorposed limestones.
He describes a limestone in contact with granite in the same
region, in which the minerals characteristic of the pyroxenites
have been developed.—Chrustschoff? includes under the name
perthitophyre a series of dyke rocks occurring in the Department
Volhynia, Russia, whose characteristics differ from those of any
rocks heretofore described. They consist of an interstitial micro-
pesthitic substance, in which various amounts of idiomorphic
quartz, labradorite, monoclinic and orthorhombic augite, olivine,
and other minerals are imbedded. In the coarser varieties the
iron-bearing minerals are not abundant, while in the finer grained
kinds they are in as large quantity as the feldspar. In the course
of his article the author describes parallel growths of diallage and
acicular crystals of an orthorhombic pyroxene, and also an appar-
ently triclinic pyroxene. He also mentions the existence of anatase
as an inclusion in the feldspar and quartz, and gives in brief the
properties of a mineral whose nature he is unable to determine.—
Sandberger’ describes inclusions of hypersthenite, olivine-gabbro,
and a rock composed of olivine, arfvedsonite, picotite, eustatite,
sanidine and augite, from the phenolite of Heldburg, in the Thür-
inger Wald.—Posepuy * gives brief descriptions of a few sections
of adniole in the course of an article discussing the structure of the
well-known mining region in the vicinity of Przibram, Bohemia.
AMERICAN Mryerats.—A series of analyses’ of beryl from
Norway, Maine and Willemantic and Litchfield counties, Ct., seems
to show that beryllium and the alkalies mutually replace each other
in this mineral, and that water is a constant constituent. An
analysis of phenacite from Florissant, Col., gave practically no
alkalies, The barium feldspar (cassinite) from Bene Hill, Delaware
- county, Pa., first analyzed by Genth,® has been re-examined by
z s: Ann. d. 1. Soc. Geol. du Nord., xv., p. 69.
* Miner. und Petrog. Mitth., ix., p. 470.
1112 General Notes.
Penfield and Sperry, ! and found to have the composition :—
SiO, Al,O, Fe,O, CaO Na,O BaO K,O _ Ign.
62.95 19.82 Ayi 25 4.01 3.95 8.57 11
tinge, byt
microlites, like the glass that often solidifies in the peny = re ere
pots. It has the usual perfect cleavage of oligoclase, uri dia
striated. According to Messrs. Penfield and Sperry, a pi
properties of the mineral are abnormal. Sections pi le A
show a positive extinction of 39°-40°. Those parallel to æ £%
. pseudomorphs of
pseudomorphs after spodumene from Peru, Me. ; pseu :
tron oxides after aragonite from Puma Co., Ariz., nese
transparent cyanite from Bakersville, N. C.—Crosby an
1 Amer. Jour. Sci., xxxvi., p. 317.
* Miner. u. Petrog. Mitth., x., p. 161.
* Amer. Naturalist, 1888, p. .
* Amer. Jour. Sci., xxxvi., p. 321.
* iD. p. 222.
€ Amer. Jour. Sci., Xxxvi., p. 324.
~ ` Technology Quarterly, May, 1888, p. 407.
Mineralogy and Petrography. 1113
have discovered that the brown massive mineral from Newbury,
ass., and regarded by Dana as garnet, is vesuvianite. It has a
specific gravity of 3.55 and a composition :—
SiO, AlO, FeO CaO MgO K,O Na,O MuO, P,O;
35.93 14.77 8.91 389.46 .18 44 36 tr. tr.
—A hard black mineral occurring at Rome, Mass., in little octa-
hedra, has been examined by Crosby and Brown,! with sufficient
accuracy to lead them to declare it gahnite.
MINERAL SYNTHESES.—Dollter? has effected the synthesis of a
large number of micas by fusing together aluminium-bearing sili-
cates and metallic fluorides. The hornblendes yielded biotite when
fused with sodium and magnesium fluorides. The alumina-free
hornblendes gave olivine or augite. Garnets yielded meroxane.
Micas of different kinds were obtained by fusing K, Al, SiO, with
sodium fluoride alone; or with this salt and potassium fluosilicate
or magnesium silicate, with or without the addition of ferrous
Silicate. All the micas thus produced were decomposed when the
temperature of the mass was raised toa white heat, and olivine,
augite or scapolite were formed. Muscovite was obtained from
andalusite by fusing it with potassium fluosilicate and aluminium
fluoride, and zinnwaldite, when a little lithium carbonate was
added to the mixture. Many other points of interest are found in
the paper, which will undoubtedly prove of value in discussing the
paragenesis of minerals in rock masses.—Among the other minerals
produced artificially within the past few months, attention may be
called to rhodonite and tephronite, which Gorgen? obtained by heat-
ing to a high temperature, in the presence of water vapor, a mix-
ture of manganese chloride and precipitated silica. Wollastonite‘
was produced when calcium chloride was used instead of the man- —
span compound. Barite, celestite and anhydrite were obtained *
y fusing the corresponding amorphous compounds in the chloride
of some metal.—Bourgeois® fused metallic tin with copper oxide
and got crystals of cassiterite.—Dufet ” prepared pharmacolite by
allowing solutions of calcium ê nitrate and di-sodium arsenate to
diffuse slowly into each other.
_ MISCELLANEOUs.—Julien believes that the rate of decompo-
sition in pyrite depends upon the amount of marcasite present in it
'Ib., p. 408.
ia rae und Petrog. Mitth., x., p. 67, and Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete.,
+ B. p. 8.
? Bull. Soc. Franç. d. Min., X., p. 264.
t Ib., x., p. 271. — 6 Ib., X., p. 284.
* Ib., xi., p. 58. 1 Tb., xi., p. 187
e Ann. N. Y. Acad. of Sci., iv., July, 1888.4
+1114 General Notes.
given natural face.
BOTANY.‘
A FEW NOTABLE WEEDS or THE NEBRASKA Pxains.—In
examining the constitution of various flore one is struck by the fact
that with the other changes there is a notable change 1n the weedy
plants as well. Of course a “weed,” from a botanical standpoint,
is as reputable a plant as any other. It is in fact but an eminently
successful organism in the struggle for place, and on this account it
which jog along in a mediocre way, neither advancing nor falling
much behind under our observation. Upon the Nebraska plains,
. the plants which push themselves into place so prominently as to
be called “weeds” by the farmer, are partly artly
introduced species, some of which have come in from the southwest
within a comparatively recent period, while others have come along
with the tide of immigration from the eastern part of the cont-
nent, and from the old world. e
© The plant which, all things considered, is the worst weed, from
the popular point of view, is doubtless the Sand-bur (Cenchrus
tribuloides L.), a peculiar grass of variable habit. As mostly seen,
1 Amer. Jour. Sci., Sept., 1888, p. 175.
2 Ib., Sept., 1888,
3 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., ete., 1888, ii., p. 230.
t Edited by Prof Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb.
- Botany. 1115
growing almost horizontally from their bases, but when grown in a
ense mass it is a tall, erect grass, reaching the height of eighteen to
twenty-four inches, or even more. The heads consist of numerous
it is a small plant of a spreading habit, the short flowering stems often
spiny flower clusters, which become easily deciduous upon the ripen-
ing of the seeds, The spines cause these to adhere tenaciously to
the hair of animals or to the garments of the passer-by, and when
abundant it is almost impossible to remove them until by hard
usage the spines have become worn and broken. The seeds are
thus carried long distances before being dropped. The plants
thrive upon any soil, from the almost barren sands of the rivers to
the rich loam turned up by the railway builders in making their
embankments. I am of the opinion that the Sand-bur originally
grew upon the sandy islands and banks of the Republican, Platte,
Loup, Elkhorn, Niobrara and Missouri rivers, and that from them
it has spread since man has broken the tough sod of the plains. It
could not compete single-handed with the wi , but as soon
as the farmer began his warfare against the latter, the Sand-bur
found and improved its opportunity for extending its habitat. The
armer has unintentionally and unconsciously given it the opportu-
nity of going up and taking possession of the land. ;
Buffalo-bur (Solanum rostratum Dunal) is the only appropriate
name given to a pest which is rapidly increasing all over the plains.
The prickly plant and fruits are almost as troublesome as the Sand-
bur. I have seen fields in south central Nebraska almost com-
pletely filled with Buffalo-burs. What its original habitat was I do
not know, but certain it is that now the plant is accommodating
itself to the new conditions brought about by the cultivation of
e soil.
The sunflower of the plains is the original of the ordinary sun- '
flower of the gardens (Helianthus annuus L.). It is found every-
where, and varies in height from a few inches to fifteen feet or
more. Upon the unbroken prairies in the White River country of
northwest Nebraska I have seen it growing with the prairie grasses,
where it consisted of a single erect stem, not more than ten or
twelve inches in height, and bearing a single small flower head.
Sarir, where the soil had been somewhat broken, m by the wash-
ing of water, the pawing of buffaloes, the of a wagon, or
any other cause, the dasa were taller, aN with a few branches.
Upon the mounds made by the prairie dogs, pocket gophers, and
ground squirrels, the plants were still larger, approaching the vigor
of vegetation shown by them in the eastern parts of the State. In
the settled portions of the State the sunflower grows to a great size,
and produces a multitude of branches and flower heads. I have
often seen plants whose diameter (measured from the tips of the
branches on each side) was fully six feet, and whose height reached
1116 General Notes.
twelve to fifteen feet. It is a curious fact that all over the plains
there is a tradition that the sunflower was introduced by the Mor-
mons, who scattered its seeds by their trails, in order to enable the
faithful who came later to follow their tracks. It is scarcely neces-
sary to say that this is an error. The sunflower doubtless sprang
up in abundance along the Mormon trail, and marked it, but so it
did along every trail where the sod had been broken enough to give
the plants a better opportunity for growth. :
Squirrel-tail grass, as it is called in the books, and in classes in
botany, or “Tickle grass,” as known to the farmers (Hordeum
jubatum L. of the botanists), is one of the most abundant of the
weedy grasses of the plains. It appears to have originally grown
along the sandy margins of rivers, and upon the bare ground about
ponds and salt springs, from whence it has spread rapidly to road
sides and fields since the advent of white men. It is not naturally
one of the prairie grasses proper. In fact, as it is an annual, it
cannot compete successfully with the strong-rooted perennial grasses
until the latter have been partially displaced by the breaking of
the sod; but when once it obtains a foothold it spreads with great
rapidity. he jointed rhachis of the head breaks readily into short
pieces, each of which bears a few flowers with their widely spread-
ing barbed arrows. Each fragment has a most persistent creeping
power, which enables it to work its way through heavy clothing,
and the densest of hair or wool. In this way the grains are carri
by man and animals for long distances, and when finally the arrows
are broken up, and the barbs come out, the seeds are dropped upon .
the ground, ready to start up in early spring.
Tumble-weeds abound everywhere now, but I am confident that
they are likewise dependent for their present abundance upon man's
agency in breaking the original sod. The most common tumble-
weed is Amarantus albus L., well known throughout the prairies
and plains. Wherever a settler has broken up a tract of land these
plants appear in great numbers; in fact it is principally upon such
breakings that they are to be found. In the autumn I have seen
great tracts of from fifty to a hundred acres or more entirely covered
with the hemispherical or almost spherical examples of these ee
ble-weeds. With the advent of the frosts and heavy winds 0
October and November, the stems are broken off at the ground, or
in some cases the root.is pulled up or twisted off, setting free n
round body, which then goes tumbling and bounding over the
plains, scattering its seeds as it goes. Whether these tumb e- weet
occur as depauperate plants upon the plains, intermingled with the
grasses, I do not know, but it is certain that none occur there large
enough to roll and tumble. The plant is not a tumble weed u
se the opportunity of growing freely upon broken and
sou.
Botany. 1117
_ A second tumble-weed is Cycloloma platyphyllum Moq. It grows
in almost exactly the same way as the preceding. I first observed
it along the Platte River, where it covered acre after acre of the
sandy river border. It occurs also on the upper Elkhorn River
and the lower and middle portion of the Niobrara. owever,
upon the upper Niobrara and in the White River country the only
tumble-weed is Amarantus albus. Probably this second plant
(Cycloloma) has for a long time been a tumble-weed upon the plains,
especially on those portions adjacent to the streams mentioned.
Both species will increase in numbers for a few years, during the
time when settlers are breaking up large tracts of the prairie sod,
and then, as better and more continuous culture is practiced, they
will gradually decrease in number and importance.—Charles E.
Bessey.
Asn Rust IN 1888.—The Ash-rust, Zcidium frazini, has been
very abundant on Frawinus viridis in Lincoln, Neb., this year. It
was especially common in the latter part of June and first week of
July. At that time I observed a number of trees of which almost
every leaf (as also in many cases were the petioles) was affected to
such a degree that many of them were curled and distorted. This
some interest from the fact that, although abundant in 1885,
this rust was rare in 1886 and 1887.—N. R. Pound.
orty pages are devoted to a systematic study of the species repre-
sented in the sections. Under each species there is first a specific
description of the tree given in quite popular language; then fol-
low geographical distribution, physical properties, uses, medic
properties, ete. Accompanying this part are three keys to the spe-
cies: the first based mainly upon the flowers, the second upon the
1118 General Notes.
leaves, and the third upon the fruit. The work will be a most
valuable one, and it is to be hoped that it will be continued to com-
pletion. Every botanical department ought to afford this set, as
the price ($5 per volume) is very reasonable. The volumes are put
up in book form, so that they may be placed upon ordinary library
shelves.—Charles E. Bessey.
ZOOLOGY.
THE CONTRACTILE VACUOLE.—The dispute regarding the na-
ture of the contractile vacuole in the protozoa is not atan end. Dr.
De Bruyne records (Bulletin Roy. Acad. Sci. Belg. LVT., 1888), his
belief that it does not communicate with the exterior, and that it is
not ssed of excretury functions. Prolonged study tends to show
that the contained fluid is not expelled from the protozoan, but that
it is forced to other parts, to again return to form the vacuole. He
would rather regard it as of respiratory and circulatory functions
and thinks that the contained fluid may possibly have nutrient pro-
perties.
© An ENDOPARASITE or AMPHIURA.—Dr. Fewkes records (Proce.
Boston Soc’y. Nat. Hist., XXIV ., p. 31, 1888) the existence of a Cope-
pod Crustacean parasitic in the brood cavity of the common Brit-
tle Star, Amphiura squamata, at Newport,R. I. In the specimens af-
fected the ovary had degenerated into an amorphous mass and that
the cavity contained either the adult Copepod or eggs containing the
young in all stages of development. Fewkes also records the exist-
ence of this parasite in another place (Bulletin, M. ©. Z, XIIL., 1887)
but does not give it a description or a name. Comparison should
be made with Cancerilla tubulata which is described by A. Giard
(Comptes Rendus, 1887, p. 1189) as parasitic wpon the same brittle
star at Fécamp. There the young attach themselves to the ends of
the anus and approach the disc as they grow older.
| THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MyrtapopA.—So far as I am
aware, no naturalist has questioned the naturalness and homage-
neity of the group of Myriapoda. To me it seems that this unity is
oe rather than real ; that the Chilopods and Chilognaths are
gg together on account of superficial resemblances, rather than
__ from community of descent, upon which all true classification must ;
~ be:based, and that those features which they have in common are at :
_ the same time possessed by all the other air-breathing arthropods:
Zoology. 1119;
Every zoologist who has essayed the problem of homology present- .
ed by the head and the appendages, has made a more or less con-
spicuous failure, and this, as I am inclined to believe, has resulted
solely from the fact that there is no true homology in these parts.
I will not now discuss these points in detail, but will indicate the
facts and reasons for my views.
perfect definition should include all the objects. intended to be
defined, and at the same time exclude all others. Applying this
we find it all but impossible in few or many words to frame a defi-
nition which will at once characterize all myriapods, and exclude
the hexapods, and at the same time take into account structures
which have any morphological value, The best we can do is some-
what after this fashion :—Myriapods are air-breathing Arthropods,
with elongate bodiesand more than three pairs of walking legs.
Farther than this we cannot go,and even this definition will admit
Scolopendrella which many now regard as a Thysanure.
Omitting for the present all mention of these features which
yriapods have in common, we will take up the points of
difference between Chilopods and Chilognaths.! The Chilognatha
(Millepods, galley worms) have a head which bears, besides anten-
næ, only two pairs of appendages—a pair of jaws or mandibles, and.
an under-lip composed of the coalesced first maxille. To the head
succeeds the more or less elongate equally segmented body of which -
a few anterior segments bear but a single pair of legs, while all the
rest bear two pairs of appendages, thus apparently affording an ex-
ception to Savigny’s law that each segment of an Arthropod can .
bear but a single pair of appendages. The bases of these legs are °
placed close to each other, the sternal surface being reduced to an
extremely narrow plate, or being entirely wanting.
In the Chilopods, on the other hand, the head bears three pairs
of mouth-parts, a pair of mandibles and two pairs of maxille while.
each segment of the body bears but a single pair of walking legs,
and these are widely separated at their base by the broad sternal
element. Numerous attempts, as was said above, have been made
to introduce homology between these two groups in these respects,
Heathcotes researches show , that that the diplopodous segments
? Phila Trans. Vol. clxxix., B. (1888).
of Iulus are in reality double, but they also show that in the head
there are no traces of more than two pairs of post-oral appendages.
In the Chilopods the Stigmata which communicate with the
trachea, are placed at the sides of the body in the thin membrane join-
ag the dorsal and ventral plates, thus being clearly above and out-
side the line of the legs; in Scutiger they aredorsal. In the Chilog-
‘1 Pauropus and the Pauropida are omitted because we know almost
nothing of their internal structure and their development. | ;
-
1120 General Notes.
gnaths the stigmata are placed beneath or even in the coxal joints
of the legs.
In the genital organs the most marked differences occur. In the
Chilognaths both ovary and testis consist of a simple sac-like
organ, communicating by a double oviduct or vas deferens with
the paired genital openings situated one on either side, at or behind
the bases of the second pair of legs. In the Chilopods, on the
other hand, the sexual organs possess but a single efferent duet, and
this opens in the middle line of the posterior end of the body just
below and in front of the anus. In the Chilognaths both ovary
and testis are below the intestine, a position indicating inferiority.
In the Chilopods they have their origin in the same position which
they permanently occupy in the other group, but with development
they come to occupy a place above the alimentary tract. e
spermatozoa, in the Chilognaths, are quiescent; in the Chiolopods
they are active. The position and character of the genital ducts in
the Chilognaths is such as to lead to the supposition that here, as in
many other metameric forms, they may have had their origin in a
pair of segmental organs which have become specialised for carrying
away the generative products. Heathcote’s account of the develop-
ment of the generative glands of Iulus certainly does not oppose this
view. Inthe Chilopods, on the contrary, there is nothing in the
adult structure (we know nothing of the development) which
would even suggest such an origin for the generative ducts.
_ Now these points are all of considerable morphological import-
ance, as we must, for instance, go far back in the ancestry to find a
condition from which we can derive the two types of generative
organs mentioned above, and exactly what structure that ancestor
must have had it is difficult to say. It is, however, clearly impossi-
ble to derive either condition occurring in the Myriapods from the
er. :
_. + If, however, we turn to existing forms to find the nearest relations
of either group, our search is to a certain extent easy, for the next of
kin of the Chilopods are certainly found in the Hexapoda. |
all those points where Chilopods and Chilognaths disagree, the
Chilopods and Hexapods are in harmony. Both have the same
number of mouth-parts; both have the appendages segmentally }
_ arranged ; the spiracles the same, while there is no little similarity _
between genital organs, ducts,and openings. Indeed taking Scolopen-
_ drella into consideration, it seems impossible to frame a definition
which will serve to separate all the Hexapods from the vere 2"
It would seem then that we should unite both Chilopods and Hex-
apods in one class.
_ With regard to the Chilognaths, it seems not so easy to trace —
: relationships. So far as is apparent, they form a group by them- —
= Selves with no nearer affinities than those presented by the Anne-
Zoology. 1121
lids. Peripatus, of which so much was expected in throwing light
upon the origin of the “ Tracheates” seems to fail in this respect,
and must be regarded as nearer to the Annelids than to either
Myriapod or Hexapod stock.—J. S. Kingsley.
Bioop CorpuscLEs OF THE LAMPREY. — S. H. Gage states
(The Microscope, VIII.) that the blood corpuscles of the lamprey are
unlike those of the non mammalian vertebrates and like the mam-
FIBRES oF SHort Muscies. — In order to ascertain whether
the statement made by Kölliker that in the short muscles of the
fish, frog and bat, the fibres are of the same length as the muscle,
and have rounded ends, is applicable to the more minute vertebrates,
. S. P. Gage has studied the muscles of the mouse, shrew, bat
and English sparrow. She concludes (Zhe Microscope, VIII.) that
the muscular fibres may extend from end to end or may terminate
at one or both ends within the muscle, tapering to a point. She
cludes that the difference between the skeletal and cardiac mus-
cles is not so great as has been supposed. |
NOTES on THE AMERICAN TRIONYCHIDa.— According to
Agassiz there are six species of American Trionychide, belonging to
three different genera.
I am indebted to Prof. G. Brown Goode and Mr. F. A. Lucas,
of the Smithsonian Institution ; to Prof. A. Agassiz and Dr. S.
Garman, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge ;*
to Prof. A. Gunther and Mr. G. A. Boulenger, of the British
Museum, to Prof. O. C. Marsh, of the Peabody Museum, to Mr.
T. Gillespie, of Hard Times Landing, La.; for the opportunity
they have given me to examine a great number of American
Trionychide. oo
s a preliminary report I may note the following conclusions :—
1. The type of Testudo ferox Schneider, descri y Garden=
Pennant in the Philosophical Transactions of London for 1771, is
not Piatypeltis of Agassiz; but a species of Axpidonectes. :
. ltis ferox of Agassiz is not Zestudo ferox Schneider,
bnt a new species, which may be called Platypeltis Agassizit.
3. Callinia microcephala Gray, of the British Museum, with the
locality Sarawak, is Amyda mutica Les.
1 To Prof. Angelo Heilprin of the Philadelphia Academy.
1122 General Notes.
According to my researches there are the following American
Tronychide.
Platypeltis Agass.
1. Playpeltis agassizii mihi. = Platypeitis ferox Agass. non
Schneider.
Aspidonectes Wagler.
2. A. ferox Schneider.
. A. asper Ag.
4, A. spinifer, Les.=A. nuchalis Ag.
5. A. emoryi Ag.
6. A. muticus Les.
At the same time I should like to call attention to the enormous
sexual difference in Aspidonectes muticus Les. It is well-known
that the males have very much longer tails than the females on
all the Trionychide. The male of A. muticus has the plastron
more develo than the female: the Hyo-, and Hypoplastra
meet with the callosities nearly in the median line. The callosities
extend very much more in the male than in the female; in an
adult male the callosities cover the plastral-bones entirely A
very peculiar circumstance is, that the adult male is only about
half as large as the adult female and that the males are in consid-
erably smaller number than the females. Among thirty-six
specimens of A. muticus from the Ohio River, there were only
seven males. The fishermen consider the males and females as dif-
ferent kinds of animals, so great is the difference.
Ido not know yet, whether the other Trionychide show the
same considerable sexual difference. It is very interesting, however,
that Podocnemis shows it. —
Toao Martins da Silva Coutinho,! makes the following remarks
about the male of Podocnemis expansa.
“The male, named Capitary, is distinguished from the female,
by its size; it is only about 0, 7 m long (the female 1, 2m and more)
and the tail which is twice as long, reaches a length of 1. 2 m.—
The circumstance that only a smal! number ot Capitary are found
among hundreds of females, proves, in some way, that a single male
_ is sufficient for the fecundation of a greater number of females.” —
iw)
-= Q. Baur, New Haven, Conn.
_ _ McGee on Mrapow Larks anp RILEY on ENGLISH SPAR-
~ ROWS.—Ata meetingof the American Ornithologists’ pers held ”
the hall of the National Museum in Washington, Prof. McGee,
the Geological Survey, read a paper detailing his observations upon
the two forms of North American meadow larks, as found in Iowa.
ma tion, Avril, 1 e : Amazone, Bulletin de la Société Impe |
?
Loology. _ 1128
The two species or geographical varieties, whichever they may be,
are distinguished by certain peculiaritiés in their song. e eastern
species, Sturnella magna, extends about two-thirds way across the
State of Iowa, while the western form, S. neglecta, is found nearly
as far east as the Mississippi River. At their extremes of distribu-
tion both of the forms are easily recognized, and are typical exam-
ples. But in the intervening region, where the two overlaps, as it
were, the birds were not to be positively separated by note alone, a
sight of the bird itself being generally necessary for positive identi-
fication. Whether the variation in song was due to imitation of
one by the other or to an actual intermingling of the two, he did not
attempt to decide. In referring to the reason for the distribution
of the two species, the agency of the glacial period was evoked. At
the time when the ice reached its greatest extension southward, the
waters of the Gulf of Mexico extended northward, forming a junc-
tion with the ice and dividing the continent into an eastern and a
western portion. The suggestion’ was made that if at a period
anterior to the glacial epoch one species was widely distributed over
the continent, the time that elapsed until the normal condition of
the country was again reached was sufficiently long to allow dif-
ferentiation to proceed, and two species or distinct varieties to be
ormed. l
In the discussion which ensued Dr. Cones took the ground that
a very long period of times was not absolutely necessary for
formation of new races, varieties or species: that environment or
food often causes changes with considerable rapidity, and that it
is probable new species, so-called, are being formed under changing
conditions in our own day and in short periods of time. Dr. Mer-
riam mentioned that changes in coloration are often due to change
of food : that a breeder in Holland was so well known for his skill
in “coloring up” Flamingoes, that these birds were sent to him
from all parts of Europe. By some change in food, a secret known
only to himself, he was enabled in a short time to restore them to
full color. Yet in a short time the new color was lost and the
original faded aspect resumed. Prof. C. V. Riley cited numerous
instances of the distribution of insects similar to that of the meaaow
larks. Dr. Gill called attention to similar cases with fishes. a
may be well to note here similar parallel cases in the plant world.
atis viorna is a well-known, widely distributed plant of east-
ern North America, extending, however, only as far west as Kansas,
where it is not common. C. pitcheri, classed by some as a variety
of Viorna, is a western form found nowhere east of the lower
Wabash valley in Indiana, but extending westward through Mis-
souri, Arkansas and Texas. It is extremely probable that the two
forms owe their distribution to the same cause or causes as the two
forms of meadow lark above referred to. Some species of Verno-
1124 General Notes.
nia (Ironweed) seem in similar positions. Four of the species are
exclusively trans-Mississippi. One oversteps the boundary into
west Tennessee. Two others, on the contrary, are eastern and cen-
tral species which overlap the others by extending into Iowa and
Kansas. It is further interesting to find certain hybrids between
the eastern and the western forms, which, if they came from the
debatable ground of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, would furnish
additional interest to the problem.
Another paper read at the same meeting was by Prof. Riley,
upon the English sparrow. Examination of the stomachs of more
than five hundred specimens showed that only from fifteen to
seventeen per cent of the whole number contained any insect remains
atall. The rest contained grains or seeds of various sorts, straw
and gravel. The insects found belonged to all orders, and were
generally such as are either harmless to the agriculturalist or even
actually beneficial. The stomach of a single specimen of a truly
insectivorous bird contained wo hundred and fifty web worms.
Such a bird would do more good in ridding trees of various insects
than all of the eighty-two sparrows in whose stomachs insect re-
mains were found. Investigations of a similar nature carried on
by Mr. Charles Dury, of Cincinnati, lead to a similar conclusion,
that the value of the English sparrow as an insect destroyer 1s
nothing compared to that of a truly insectivorous bird, and that it
is injurious rather than beneficial—Jos. P. James.
Brocas CONVOLUTION IN THE ApES.—Dr. Hervé in the Bul-
letin de la Société d’ Anthrpologie de France (April, 1888), discusses
the disputed question as to the development of the third (Bro-
- eas) frontal convolution in the monkeys. After an examination 0
the homologies of the fissures presented by that region of the brain,
he finds that it is wanting or extremely rudimental in the Quadru- —
mana, while it is present in the Anthropomorpha, though smaller
in the apes (Simiide) than in man. This is interesting, as it con-
firms the evidence from the osteology, that the apes and man form a
natural group, distinct from the monkeys and lemurs. It also
points to the possibility of teaching some of the apes to speak, and
also to the probable gradual acquisition of this important charac-
teristic of man.—E. D. Cope.
ZooLogicaL News: Prorozoa.—-In the Zoologischer Anzeiger
(No. 286), G. Cattaneo called attention to the existence of a para-
sitic ciliate infusorian (Anophrys maggi) in the blood of the crab,
arcinus menas. In the same Journal (No. 292) Géza Entz de-
~ Scribes the occurrence of another Ciliate (Nyctotherus cardiformis)
in the blood of Apus cancriformis. *
Zoology. 1125
Rupert Valentin records the presence (Zool. Anz., 292) often in
comparatively large numbers of psorosperm masses in ' the tissues of
two species of SEENA In each mass the spores were in various
stages of developmen
Franz Leydig ier calls attention to the fact that in 1860 he
described parasites in the blood of Daphnia, Lyncius and Cyclops,
and complains that he also called attention in his Natural History
of the Daphnide to their existence in the blood and other tissues of
sick silkworms, a fact which has been overlooked by all subsequent.
students of the diseases of the silkworm
Dr. Stokes describes a number of North American Flagellata in
Jour., of the Royal Microscopical Society for October. The forms
are Mastigameba flexuosa, Cercomonas truncata, C. heterofilum, C.
ge C. undulans, C. mutabilis, Heteromita granulifera, H. tremula,
stagnalis, H. sphagni, H. nasuta, H. parvifilum, Tetramitus
ee Hexamita truncata, Atractonema pusilla, Hymenomonas
Jlawa, H. fusiformis, Zygoselmis obovata, Stereomonas parvula,
Anisonema obliqua, Hymenona (nov. gen.), sphagni, and Petalo-
monas orbicularis. There is no definite locality assigned to any of
the species,
r. C, D. Sherborn has recently published in London a volume
of 152 pages, devoted exclusively to a bibliography of the Forami-
nifera, recent and fossil.
Sponees.— Wierzijski ( Verhandl. k. k. zool-bot. Gesellsch.,
1888) thinks that all the so-called species of Euspongilla ‘are but
one in reality, the differences being the result of environment. He
also found near Lunberg a sponge which he regarded as closely
allied to Potts Spongilla terrenove, but afterward concluded that
both his form and the Newfoundland species were deformed indi-
viduals of Myenia miilleri.
Ca:LENTERATEs.— Vogt thinks that Arachnactis is not, as the
younger Agassiz thought, the young of the Edwardsia but a dis-
tinct genus allied to Cerianthus and like the latter retaining its
distinctly bilateral character throughout life. Though he does not
expressly say so, Vogt is apparently ready to adopt the view that in
the Hydrozoa as in the Anthozoa the free-swimming form is the
primary and the attached condition secondary and adaptive.
Worms.—O. Zacharias records (Biol. Centralblatt, VIII., p. 542)
the occurrence of a land planarian (Geodesmus terrestris) between
the A met cob the mushroom (Agaricus deliciosus).
oy ago we referred to the account given by Dr.
Walker of f Bufalo, concerning the life history of the tape worm of
1126 General Notes.
fowls. He claimed that the intermediate host of the worm Syn-
mus was to be found in the earthworm. Recently (Nature,
XXXVIII., p. 324) Lord Walsingham gives facts collected from the
experience of sportsmen which tend to corroborate this view. In
dry summers when but few earthworms come to the surface, game
fowl are comparatively free from the disease, but when worms are
abundant, the fowl are more difficult to rear.
G. Brandes, in a preliminary communication embodying his ana-
tomical discoveries, points out that the Trematode Holostomum has
been regarded wrong side up, the “ventral” surface of authors being
really dorsal and that the “larval anus” of the Tetracotyle stage of
the worm is but the beginning of a gland and its duct, the alimen-
tary canal ending blindly in the body parenchyma.
Dr. J. . Fewkes describes and figures (The Microscope,
1888) a new type of marine larva found in the Bay of Fundy, and
in Massachusetts Bay, which is regarded as having brachiopod,
chetopod, and bryozoan features, but which seems to be nearest
Mitraria in its affinities. The adult to which it belongs is unknown.
ewkes, in conclusion, has some remarks upon the characters of the
common ancestor of Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, and Cheetopoda, which
lead him to suggest as a name for this hypothetical form “ that of
Mitraria, which up to the present is applied simply to the larval
form of a single genus of Chetopoda.”
Iijima and Nusata record some new cases of the occurrence of
i i ae liguloides in Vol. IT. of the Journal of Science of
the University of Tokio.
MoLLUsCA.—Some sixty years ago Desmarest and Lesueur pro-
posed to issue a series of illustrations of Polyzoa and Hydrozoa,
and fourteen plates were engraved on copper by the latter. A few
of the plates were distributed, but no accompanying text was ever
prepared. Recently E. Pergens (Proces- Verbal de la Soc. Roy.
Malacol, Belg., Sept., 1887) has examined the original manuscripts
and the types preserved in Havre, and has given identifications of
the Polyzoa there figured.
Protozoa.—The Martini-Chemnitz ‘Conchylien-Cabinet” still
appears at intervals. Numbers 356 to 361 have recently appeared,
containing plates of Cardita, Pecten, Spondylus, Cerithiide,
Chama, Cardita, Solen, and Modiola.
Paul Pelseueer denies (Bull. Scientif. France et Belgique) the
existence of a group of Orthoneurous Gastropoda.
a _, Crusracea.—According to the Journal of the Royal Ipero E
~ deal Society, D. Bergendal has described the occurrence of distinctly
ee male copulatory appendages on female crabs. In many cases there
Zoology. 1127
were no appendages on the first segment of the abdomen; in others
spoon shaped; in a few like those of the male. Only the useless
and normally rudimentary first pair of appendages show this modi-
fication, the second pair which are functional are never modified in
this way.
Tuniara.—Prof. Herdman, in the Proceedings of the Bivlogi-
cal Society of Liverpool (1887, p. 24), thinks that recent investiga-
tions tend to establish that the pineal gland and the pituitary body
of the Vertebrata, are both of them the remains of organs which
reached the surface of the head in the ancestral Chordata, the
pineal in the form of a median dorsal organ of sight; the pituitary
possibly also as a sense organ placed on the front of ‘the head close
to the mouth opening.
Brrpos.—Dr. R. W. Shufeldt contributes to the Auk (Vol. V
Oct., 1888) figures of the skulls of Habia melan Si gt and Pipilo
megalonyc, from which he shows that the grosbea possessed
-of skeletal characters not shared by any other fringilline birds, and
are possibly entitled to family rank.
Mr. N. 8. Goss, of Topeka, Kansas, wishes information concern-
ing the western range of Anas obscura, the black duck. He is
inclined to doubt its occurrence west of the Mississippi, all the
specimens which he has examined proving to be the Florida duck.
Mammats.— At the meeting of the Linnean Society of New
South Wales, Aug. 29th, 1888, Professor Tate exhibited a salted
sc sun-dried mammal from Alice Springs, Central Australia. In
appearance the Gea resembled a Cape Mole (Chrysochlo-
a Its teeth and limbs indicated an insect diet and a burrowing
life. Though no marsupial bones were seen on cursory examina-
tion, the marsupial character was shown by marginal folds border-
-ing the lal iaia area, which also, together with some other points,
indicated affinity to the Monotremes as well. The dentition is
said to resemble that of the purassic ponen A According to the
natives it was the second specimen seen for sixteen years. A full
aie oa will be given later by Mr. Zietz, ‘of the South Austral-
lan Museum.
(1128 General Notes,
ENTOMOLOGY.
On THE METHODS OF EXPERIMENTS IN ECONOMIC . ENTOMO-
LOGY.’ —The establishment by the United States Government of an
agricultural experiment station in connection.with each of the state
-Agricultural Colleges has resulted in a great increase of attention
~to experiments in economic entomology. This increased attention
: has brought clearly to light the inadequacy of the methods com-
‘monly employed in experiments in this field. In fact the state of
-entomological science is such that he who wishes to conduct careful
- experiments, except in a few simple lines, is first forced to develop
the methods of investigation.
Although there are many entomologists engaged in research, and
„although the literature of the subject is a vast one, more than a
‘score of journals being exclusively devoted to this specialty, com-
paratively little is done in the study of the transformations and
: habits of insects, or in making practical applications of entomology.
With the exception of a few government entomologists, the ener-
-gies of the workers in this field are almost entirely devoted to the
description of species. And although a few workers have achieved
: very important results in the study of the habits of insects, and in
- making practical applications of the facts observed, they have done
this with very crude apparatus, and often by methods which cannot
-be relied upon to give exact results. While magnificently equip
laboratories of physiology and histology are springing up at all of
‘the scientific centres, the student of the habits of insects contents
himself with a few breeding cages scarcely better than those used —
< by Réaumur a century and a half ago. aan.
- ‘An illustration of the imperfection of the methods commonly
-employed is the fact that experiments with insecticides are usually
__, conducted only in the field, where the conditions cannot be con-
‘trolled. I have before me a report of an experiment made to test
‘the efficiency of a certain substance as an insecticide. ‘The insects
_ experimented upon were root-feeding larve. A careful examina-
-tion of the field made at the close of the experiment revealed five
_ times as many larve upon the roots of the plants treated with the
supposed insecticide as there were upon an equal number of plants
_ that had not been treated. It is evident that the application had
‘no effect as an insecticide. But would this conclusion have been —
so evident had the Experimenter happened to have treated the —
trang ent is edited by Professor J. H. Comstock, Cornell — |
Meson Ithaca, N. Y., to whom communications, books for notice, —
, Should be sent.
cg dm m the advance sheets of the Report of the Cornell Univer
` +2 Partly fro :
Ca Experiment Station for 1888. pee
“AUVLOUSNI ‘TIANYOO AHL
m mnam sa Ee REPE PE Np RR aT
Entomology. 1129
second lot of plants instead of the first? Would it not have
appeared that four-fifths of the insects had been destroyed ?
hile it is evident that ultimately we must depend upon field
experiments for demonstrating the value of methods of preventing
the ravages of insects, the danger of error in such experiments is so
great that it is unwise to depend upon them in working out princi-
ples upon which such methods are based. Obviously the worker
in applied entomology needs a laboratory and apparatus as much
as does the chemist or physiologist ; and this laboratory should be
different from our ordinary entomological laboratories.
The greater number of subjects which a worker in this field
should investigate fall under two heads: first, studies in the life-
histories of insects: second, experiments in the destruction of
noxious insects or of preventing their ravages. ork in neither
of these lines can be well done in an ordinary entomological labora-
tory. In order to make accurate investigations of this kind it is
necessary that there should be a place where living plants can be
ept with insects upon them, and that all of the conditions of
growth of both plants and insects should be under control.
We have already given an account (Ante, p. 468) of the Labora-
tory of Experimental Entomology at Cornell University. A view
S the exterior of this building is now furnished our readers. Plate
XIX.
Soon after the erection of this laboratory we found that it was
desirable to designate it by a name which should distinguish it from
the entomological laboratory of the University where instruction is
given. As this, so far as we know, is the first building of its kind,
we were forced to coin a word ; and have proposed the name Jnsec-
tary for buildings arranged for keeping or raising living insects.
We hope that the time is near when the need of an Insectary for
entomological work will be as fully appreciated as is the necessity
for a propagating house for the horticulturist or a conservatory for
the botanist. 3
But the building is not all the bo ots required for the ento- -
mological work of the future. e need specially constructed
apparatus for this work. The breeding-cages and the methods of
observation and preservation of specimens which we have inherited
from the last century will not meet all the requirements of the com-
plicated problems we have to solve. There must be more accurate
methods of observing the habits and transformation of insects, more
ect ways of testing insecticides, and better means of preserving |
specimens for study. It is not too much to hope that the m
of entomology of the year 1900 will be as much in advance of those
of to-day, as the present methods of histology are in advance of
those of fifteen years ago.
With the hope of stimulating the study of methods, I present
1130 General Notes.
below descriptions of a few simple devices which I have found of
much use in my entomological work.
The most important of these is a device for observing subterra-
nean insects. This device I have termed a root-cage. It consists
of a frame holding two plates of glass in a vertical position, and
only a short distance apart. The space between the plates of glass
is filled with soil in which seeds are planted or small plants set.
The width of the space between the plates of glass depends on the
width of two strips of wood placed between them, one at each end,
and can be varied according to the necessity of each experiment.
Outside of each glass there is also at each end a strip of wood for
holding the glass in place. The strips are fastened by means of
wedges forced between them and buttons projecting beyond the
edges of the end pieces, as shown in the figure. It is necessary to
haye wedges upon only one face of the cage. By making the three
strips of wood at each end of the cage (one between the glasses and
one outside of each), of different widths and interchangeable, the
width of the space between the glasses can be easily varied. imme
diately outside of each glass there is a piece of blackened zinc which
slips into grooves in the strips at the ends, and which can be easly —
removed. When these zincs are in place they keep the soil dark.
In the first lot of root-cages that I had made holes were bored in
the bottom to provide for drainage. But the danger of the escape
of insects through these holes has led me to depend on the pec
of the water through the cracks between the glass and the wooe
A layer of very coarse sand one inch in depth at the bottom of the
space between the glass facilitates drainage.
Entomology. 1131
If the space between the two plates of glass be very narrow, when
the seeds which have been sown in this cage germinate, a large part
of the roots will ramify in the soil so near the surface of the glass
that they may be easily seen by simply removing the piece of
zine already described. When the plants have become well estab-
lished they may be infected with the insect pest to be studied,
and continuous observations can be made without disturbing them.
Thus at the present time I have corn growing in these cages with
Wire-worms feeding upon its roots. In other cages I have clover
growing, the roots of which form an almost continuous mat on the
inner surface of the cage. Better results can be obtained in this
way than by going into the fields and digging up plants; for in
most cases the moment plants are dug up the insects stop their
work, while in these root-cages continuous observation of the same
insect is possible.
_ I haye had constructed several large root-cages, the frames of which
are of iron, and each side of which consists of eight lights of glass,
each ten inches by twelve inches in size. A pit has been dug for
the reception of each cage; these pits are walled with brick.
When the cage is placed in the pit, the top of it is even with the
surface of the ground ; by excluding the light from this pit it is
hoped that the roots can be kept under nearly normal condition.
These cages have been constructed for larger plants; thus we
a ae to plant apple-trees in some, for the study of the root
orm of the Woolly Aphis of the apple; grape-vines in others in
order to observe the Grape Phylloxera; and hop-vines in still
others for use in proposed experiments upon the Hop Plant-louse.
These cages are lifted from the ground when it is desired to study
them by means of a small portable derrick.
Another form of breeding-cage which I have found very useful
is made by combining an open-top bell-jar and a flower-pot. The
food plant of the insect is either growing in the pot or is stuck into
wet sand in the pot and kept fresh as a gardener would keep a cut-
ing. large saucer is used, and an inch or more of sand is placed
in it. The bell-jar is placed over the plant in the pot and pressed
down into the sand in the saucer. The open top of the bell-jar is
covered with swiss muslin. The plant or cutting can be kept
well watered by pouring water into the saucer without removing
the bell-jar. The layer of sand in the saucer saves from drowning
those insects that crawl down from the plants. The circulation
of air through the muslin at the top prevents the formation of
I have long used jelly-tumblers and fruit-jars for —— small
ir and for storing pups. I have been much annoyed by ina-
bility to preserve the proper degree of moisture in these receptacles
If they are supplied with moistened sand and closed tightly the
1132 General Notes.
specimens soon mould; if covered by muslin the sand in a short
time becomes too dry and the specimens, if they emerge at all, are
apt to do so in a crippled condition. I have obviated these diffi-
culties by boring a hole in the bottom of the jelly-glass or fruit-jar
and setting it in a flower-pot saucer. By pouring a little water
into the saucer from time to time, the sand in the jar can be kept
moistened and the excessive wetting caused by pouring water upon
the sand avoided. The holes in the glass are bored by means of
the end of a broken rat-tail file wet with turpentine.
Other forms of new apparatus are in use, but they are not suffi-
ciently perfected to warrant description at this time.— John Henry
tock.
EMBRYOLOGY.'
EVELOPMENT OF THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM OF
VERTEBRATES.—Dr. Beard? continues his important studies on
this subject, which is just now interesting some of the most distin-
guished of living students of the general ontogeny of the verte-
brates. His results as to the origin of the ganglia of the posterior
sensory roots of the spinal nerves, and of the sympathetic system,
are startling and unexpected. His discoveries may also be rank
as fundamental, and amongst the greatest of recent times, as regard
their consequences. The following résumé of his conclusions 1s
given in his own words :— |
“The spinal ganglia of vertebrates are formed as differentiations
of the inner layers of the epiblast just outside the limits of the
neural plate. As the result of the cutting out from the epiblast of
these ganglionic elements an appearance is presented by the epiblast
which is left, to which. Professor His gave the name of ‘ Zwis-
chenstrang.’ This has no share in the formation of the ganglia.
The ‘ Zwischenrisme’ of His has no existence, but certain portions
of the cranial ganglia, called here neural ganglia, aré develo
from the epiblast before closure of the neural tube, in exactly th
same way as the spinal ganglia. These portions of cranial ganglia
are more or less homologous with spinal ganglia, possibly only with
the sympathetic portion of the spinal ganglia ‘ Anlagen) After
separation from the epiblast, the ve i cranial ganglia and the
Embryology. 1133
spinal ganglia get carried up with the closing in of the neural tube,
nd come to lie between its lips, but are quite distinct from the
central nervous system, and the line of boundary between the two
can always be distinguished. After the closure of the epiblastic
folds the ‘ Anlagen ° grow out of their position between the lips of
the neural tube, and acquire their first and only connection with it
by the probable growth of fibres from the ganglia into the central
nervous system. The neural cranial ganglia also grow towards the
lateral epiblast at the level of the notochord, and fuse with it.
Here are the Anlagen of the lateral or branchial sense organs of
Froriep and myself. From this fusion in all vertebrates form-
elements pass into the cranial ganglia; these form-elements I dis-
tinguish as lateral ganglia. The parapodial ganglia of Annelids
appear to be homologous with the spinal ganglia of vertebrates, as
Kleinenberg suggested, and also more or less with the neural.cranial
ganglia.
“The anterior roots of cranial and spinal nerves arise as out-
growths of ganglia situate in the central nervous system. To form
em, cells leave the nervous system and are distributed in the
nerve. All the anterior roots at first contain many nuclei, which
are of nervous and not parablastic origin. These statements on
the anterior roots are only a confirmation of Balfour’s researches.
“In addition to the four elements of the anterior and renee
roots, two ganglionated and sensory, two motor and unganglionated,
distinguished by Gaskell, Hill, and partially by His, the cranial
nerves contain a fifth element, derived from the lateral or branchial
sense organs. Such are, in very brief form, the main results of the
researches recorded in the preceding paper.”
Dr. Beard shows that the so-called “ neural ridge” of Balfour is
developed from a portion of the epiblast hitherto overlooked by |
embryologists, and extending along either side of the medullary
plate, and that it precedes by a very considerable interval of time
appearance of the “neural ridge” to which it gives rise and
from which the spinal and sympathetic or neural ganglia are subse-
quently developed.
Further observations have been communicated by Dr. Beard to
the Anatomischer Anzeiger, III., No. 29, 1888, pp. 875-884 (to be
continued in No. 30) on this same subject. His completed results will
be published in three parts: Part I., discussing the development of
the peripheral nerves in Elasmobranchs and Birds; Part II., Frog,
Triton and Lacerta; Part III., Mammalia. Of these, only Part
I. has yet appeared in the journal cited below in full. . :
It is stated in the conclusion of the first part of the article in the
Anatomischer Anzeiger (p. 884), “ It can be proved embryologically
_ that of the following cranial ganglia each and every one is made
up of two parts, a neural part and a lateral part, which are devel-
1134 General Notes.
oped respectively from the sources mentioned above, Olfactory
ganglion, mesocephalic, trigeminus, facial, auditory, glossopharyn-
gens, and vagus complex.” In a foot-note it is stated, “I hope
soon to show that the end-organs of taste arise from such thicken-
ings [of the sensory epithelium] which have wandered through
certain gill-clefts into the buccal cavity ” (Anat. Anz., p. 879).
A NEW ATLAS oF EmpryroLocy.—Nothing to compare with the
splendid atlases of Coste on Comparative Embryology, and of His
on the human embryo, has yet been published on the Chick. This
desideratum will be met by the Atlas d’ Embryologie, by Mathias
Duval, just anuounced by G. Masson, Paris. The author has done
wisely in keeping it in quarto form, and with forty plates, embrac-
ing 652 figures, it will cover the history of bird development very
fairly.. The first plate gives views of the egg in the ovary and |
oviduct, and the chick in the egg nearly ready to hatch, in short,
a “vue d’ensemble de sujèt.” The next two plates are devot
to the structure of the egg, segmentation and formation of the
blastoderm. Plates IV. to X. show surface views of the blasto-
derm and embryo at successive stages. Plates XI. to XL. are
devoted to representing sections of the successive stages shown
entire on Plates IV. to X. Facts only are presented, theoretical
considerations being left to the student after he has mastered the
data. The whole is provided with a copious index, and also con-
tains an account of the necessary embryological technique involved
in a study of the developmeut of the chick. The reviewer pre-
dicts that Professor Duval’s work will be welcomed by teachers as
a very useful help in the practical study of the subject in the
laboratory. The book will be useful for reference to supplement
_ other manuals, and, as it seems to the writer, a thorough knowl-
edge of the embryology of the chick will best serve as an intro-
duction to the wider field of comparative embryology. The appear-
ance of this atlas is timely, for it is probable that eventually
embryology will have to be taught in order to enable the begin-
ner in morphology to understand the significance and relative
importance of the data of advanced morphology in general.
In taking a survey of the field of embryology, as covered by the
existing literature, one is struck by the fact that, in spite of the
great activity of the individual workers, but few really exhaustive
monographs provided with adequate atlases are in existence. Such
beautiful embryological monographs as Goette’s on Bombinator, of
Reichenbach on the Cray-fish, are lasting contributions to science ;
the works of Selenka and Whitman, too, and, amongst the produc- as
tions of the older workers, the great monographs of Von Baet,
Rathke and Bischoff, must ever command admiration. Complete
Embryology. 1135
as some of these are, we are still deplorably deficient in monogra-
phies which serve to illustrate the later or post-embryonic changes,
intervening between the last stages with which the embryologist
cares to concern himself, and the point where the organism becomes
adult, when it is supposed that the scalpel of the anatomist is all-
sufficient in prosecuting farther inquiry. This is unfortunate, since
the details of the final metamorphosis of whole systems of organs,
even in animals as thoroughly studied as the chick, is in some
cases scarcely at all known, or so imperfectly as to be nearly the
same as if altogether unknown. The external features of the
development of the skeleton of the chick are pretty well known,
but the internal and histological changes, and the development of
pneumaticity of the bones, quite imperfectly. ;
Now that serial sections may be so easily prepared and photo-
graphed upon an enlarged scale, it is strange that no one has yet
undertaken to prepare sets of uniformly enlarged photographs of
series of sections, arranged in a folio in the order in which they
were cut, of the most important stages of the development of the
chick, and thus supply a more satisfactory iconography of the
embryology of this animal than we yet possess. Series of enlarged
photographs of serial sections, arranged as suggested, if made with
care, would serve almost as well for purposes of reconstruction as
the modelling method of Born, or the method of graphic isolation
proposed by Kastschenko. It would, in fact, make it possible to
inspect series of sections of an organism with as much readiness and
as minutely as one is enabled to inspect the successive pages of a _
book. In fact, the topography or relations of the organs, as well
as some notion of their histological composition, in an embryo, in
Successive planes, could be as readily got at in this way as the text
‘imprinted upon the pages of a book. If thin gelatine positives of
such series were properly prepared, protected, and arranged in their
proper serial order, in the form of a roll, series of sections could be
projected, one section after the other in succession, upon a screen for
purposes of lecture demonstration, in a manner far more effective
than would be possible with the most complete serial sets of dia-
grams.—J, A. R.
1136 General Notes.
ARCHAOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.!
ANTHROPOLOGICAL Socrery oF WasHIneron.—Prof. O. T.
Mason, of the National Museum, read an interesting lecture on the
subject of “the Human Beast of Burden.” He viewed the subject
from an anthropologic standpoint. He began with transportation
and commerce in prehistoric times. Men and women were the first
beasts of burden, and all aboriginal carrying was done on their
heads and backs, Even the improved state of civilized society has
not extinguished all traces of this, for human carriers are still
numerous. Hod-carriers have been but recently, and, indeed, partially,
superseded by elevating machines. The great progress of the
time has been such, continued Prof. Mason, that no one walks
nowadays, unless it is a preferred exercise; horses, steam and elec-
tricity lend their aid to whirl people to their destinations.
He enumerated the various methods by which the human beasts
of burden perform their carrying tasks. First by hand, the right .
hand. He said he had examined a great number of savage imple-
ments designed to be carried in the hand, and that the proportion of
those shaped for use by the left hand was not greater than 1 to 50 ;
in no case did he find a left-hand female implement. Then both
hands are used, after which the fingers come into play. Illustrat-
ing the use of the fingers in carrying he mentioned the summer-
resort waiter, who bears his tray aloft on three fingers. The baldric
_ is next in order, slung over the shoulder by a strap and hanging
on the hip. In this way hunters carry game and travellers carry
small satchels. Then, still progressing, goods to be carried are to
be hung toa belt. Hanging things on the arm may be called the
retail method of carrying, and is used by farm hands, servants, por-
progression is to the back, which is the natural carrying-
1 This department is edited by Thomas Wilson, Esq., Smithsonian ; 7
C.
Institution, Washington, D.
eae
à
Archwology und Anthropology. 1137
process called “ toting.” The negroas a domestic example, and the
dairymaid, are reputed to carry their milk pails on their heads, and
there are many other illustrations of this mode of transportation.
Certain tribes of Indians wear straw rings on their heads to aid in
bearing and balancing these great loads. Pockets, remarked Prof.
Mason, are scarcely worth mentioning as a civilized means of
transportation, although the flowing robes of a Chinaman are capable
of concealing at least half a bushel of playing cards, a capacity that
deserves passing notice. The carrying power given by these vari-
ous modes is augmented by means of combinations of men, in
illustration of which the vast works in Egypt and other eastern
countries were cited. Men also carry goods by traction, that is, by
drawing over the ground. First, the arm alone is used, then a line
is fastened to the object and the person. It is held in the hand
over the shoulder, wound around the waist or over a pole. The
hunter drawing home his game is a primitive example of this means
of carrying. Throwing is sometimes resorted to as a means of
transportation, of which the method of handling bricks by tossin
them from hand to hand isa fair sample. Dirt and excava
material were at first carried in sacks, which have been superseded
by shovels. The great necessities and the differentiating progresses
of civilization for rapid and safe transportation give rise to the
professional carriers.
THE FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
—This Foame for 1883—84 has just appeared. It contains about
600 pages in quarto form, the report of the Director, Major J. W.
: Spe ae filling about 50 pages. The accompanying papers are as
oll
One on Burial Mounds in the northern section of the United
States, by Prof. Thomas. He describes the burial mounds of the
Wisconsin district, of Illinois or upper Mississippi, of Ohio, and of
the Appalachian district, and elaborates the favorite theory of the
Bureau of Ethnology, that the Cherokee Indians were the princi-
pal mound-builders of the United States. He reports the discovery
made by the exploration of the great and small Etowah mounds in
Bartow county, Georgia, and many of the objects found therein are
shown by means of illustrations.
Chas. C. Boyce, Esq., gives the history of the treaties made
between the United States and the Cherokees. He gives the ma-
terial provisions of all treaties made, together with their historical
data, from that of November 28, 1785 to April 27, 1868. His
paper is quite full and seems to have exhausted the subject, It fills
prg es.
_ Dr. Washington Matthews, of the United States Medical Museum,
fornishes the Mountain Chant, a b ceremony belonging to the Nava~
1138 : General Notes.
jos. This is a comparatively new field for anthropological research,
and Dr. Matthews has been the principal husbandman. His paper
is deserving of high encomium. It is beautifully illustrated, and
shows the author to be as equally successful as a poet and historian,
as he has been in anthropology and medicine.
Rey. Clay MacCauley devotes fifty pages to the Seminole Indians
of Florida. He describes their personal characteristics, physique,
costumes, and personal adornment; their society and tri
life, their industries, arts, and religion, and makes a valuable
contribution.
Colonel James R. Stevenson might have been well denominated
the soul ol the Bureau of Ethnology. He was the discoverer of its
protoplasm, and was its Executive officer during the greater part of
its existence, until his death in August, 1888, at the Gilsey House,
New York City. This is no place for panegyric upon his abilities.
Whatever of honor and credit, history shall mete out to him for
his anthropologic researches among the Zunis and other Indians of
the interior and western United States, must be fairly divided with
his wife. She accompanied him in all, or nearly all, his explora-
tions, and her zeal, ability, faithfulness and address in procuring
the more difficult secret information concerning the inner life of
Indians and Indian women, of their mythology, of their religious
societies, of the ceremonies by which they were carried on, can never
be fully portrayed or thoroughly understood. His contribution to
e present volume is the “Religious Life of the Zuñi Child.
Her paper is illustrated by four full-page chromo-lithographi¢
plates, illustrative of the masks, dresses, and other objects used in
the ceremonies which she describes.
SOME SUPERSTITIONS OF THE BAHAMA NEGROES.—Some years
ago, while in the employment of the Bahamas Government, I spent
a month in exploring the island, or rather islands, of Andros, m
the west of the Bahama archipelago. The negroes of the northern
part of Andros are physically the finest in the colony, and are also
superior in other ways, in spite of their bad repute in Nassau. {t
is said that during the Indian wars in Florida numbers of Indians
= made Andros their temporary home, but they appear to have mixed
_ very little with the negroes. One old man, however, who was my
host during my stay in the island, says that his grandfather was an
Indian, and his appearance bears out the statement to some extent,
his color being of a reddish brown, his features Indian in their cast,
and his hair not woolly but in long curls. :
The settlements in Andros are all along the East coast, the inte-
rior being a great swamp, with occasional ponds, and island-lik
prb of coral-rock, covered with pines, scattered throughout it.
I found that many of the negroes curious superstitions
oe respecting the interior, which they rarely visited. One ony :
Archeology and Anthropology. 1139
told me that the pine woods were inhabited by creatures called
“ Yayhoos” (Query, has the name come from Dean Swift?), big,
black, hairy beings who walk about in “schools,” the biggest first,
“and if they catch you, they tear you.” The only way of putting
these creatures to flight was by waving a torch at them. There
were also small, black beings like little men, who were called “ little
people,” who lived in the branches of the pines, and if one pointed
a finger at them, one fell down a cripple. These had been seen by
the father (of course, dead) of my informant. These superstitions
would appear to relate to the gorillas and monkeys of the West
Coast of Africa, and to have been handed down from the original
African slaves to their children. The pine woods were also said to
be inhabited by “ mermaids” of both sexes, the name being used
indiscriminately, who occupied themselves in the traditional way
combing their hair.
An eerie story was told me by my old host. Once, in his father’s
time at one of the southern settlements, a woman left two of her
children at home while she went to the fields. On her return, she
found that the younger, a mere infant, had disappeared, and that
the elder could not say what had become of it. The well was
searched, and parties of men hunted through the bush, but for
some time without result. On the third day, however, some of the
men heard cries, and forming a ring they gradually reached the
spot whence the cries came. There they saw an awful sight; the
missing child was held by a thing without head or arms or legs,
and more like one of the great, brown ants’ nests than iter
else. When it saw the men, the thing appeared to be afraid, anc
threw the child on to a mass of *‘ love-vine,” trailing from a neigh-
boring tree, and then made off into the bush. The men, horribly
frightened, took to their heels, except one, who took up the child
from the ground to which it had fallen, and carried it home. The
child’s body had become like jelly, and it only lived a day or two,
This story appears to be “ made out of whole cloth,” and the con-
ception of an ant’s nest, headless, eyeless, limbless, yet capable of
seeing, moving, throwing, is grotesque even for a negro imagi-
nation
The negroes of the Bahamas show far fewer effects of white influ-
ence than those of the United States, or even of the other West
India Islands. Even in New Providence they have customs which,
I fancy, are not found in the South, such as the fire-dances, the
election with great ceremony of queens of the Congo, Yuruba, and
Ebo tribes, ete. A belief in Obeah is prevalent, and probably also
Voodooism, but it is excessively difficult for a white man to obtain
any information on the matter, in New Providence, at least. In
Andros there might be fewer difficulties in the way, for the con-
fidence of the negroes there is easily won, if they be well treated.
1140 General Notes,
MICROSCOPY .!
THE Process or STAINING Sections SIMPLIFIED BY MIXING
THE STAINING FLUIDS WITH TurPentine.—<According to Dr.
Kikenthal’s experiments, a large number of coloring substances
admit of being mixed with turpentine, 'and serial sections may be
stained in a short time by such a combination. Methyl-green,
methyl-blue, gentian-violet, safranin, Bismarck-brown, eosin, fuch-
sin, tropæolin, and malachite-green may be used in this way.
e dry coloring substance is dissolved in absolute alcohol, and
the solution dropped into turpentine until the mixture has any
intensity of color desired.
Meyer's? Carmine Solution.
A bulut BIGOUI OL oi. cosa ges ssccinesecs atio stirea saverceedrccunsy 100 ce.
Pulverized carmine 3 gr.
Hydrochloric acid (neutralized with ammonia)... 25 drops
Can be united with a mixture of turpentine and absolute alcohol [in
equal parts ?], and in this form used for staining sections. ;
The method of using these stains is very simple. The sections
are fastened to the slide by Schällibaum’s collodion, then left in
the oven of the water-bath until the clove oil has been completely
iven off. e paraffine is next removed by washing in turpen-
tine, and' then the slide is immersed in the staining mixture. As
soon as the desired depth of stain has been received, the sectiọns
may be washed in pure turpentine and mounted in balsam.
_If the stain is too deep, or a sharp nuclear stain is desired, it 18
only necessary to leave the slide a short time in a mixture of tur-
pentine and pure (free from any trace of acid) absolute alcohol, and
the color will be reduced.
The coloring mixture may become cloudy, as the result of the
evaporation of the alcohol ; in such an event, the addition of a dro
or two of alcohol generally suffices to clear the mixture. ie
This method enables one to use easily several stains in succession.
Objects may also be colored, in toto, with the advantage that the
process of staining can be followed and easily controlled.
' Edited by C. O. Whitman, Director of the Lake Laboratory, Mil”
waukee.
_* The carmine is boiled in the alcohol, and then the acid added. The
solution is then filtered, hot, and enough ammonia added to neutralize.
After filtering again the solution is mixed with turpentine and absolute —
ee > ol.
8 Zeitschr. f. wiss. Mikroskopie, iv., 3, p. 345, 1887.
Microscopy. 1141
porate out the requirements to be fulfilled by such reagents, lays
own the principles by which one should be guided in selecting
them, and concludes by giving a method which has proved to be
eminently satisfactory.
Rules.—(a) For fixing tissues it is important to use reagents that
do not form tissue-like precipitates with protoplasm. This require-
ment is met by chromic salts, sulphate of copper, sublimate and some
other salts. Preparations in chromic salts, when transferred to alco-
hol, should be kept in absolute darkness (H. Virchow), until the fix-
ing reagent is removed so far as possible.
(b) All reagents which transform protoplasm into tissue-like
forms, as, e.g., chromic acid, should be avoided, or their application
must be controlled.
(c) Fixing fluids should contain an organic acid, e.g., acetic acid,
which changes nuclein into an insoluble state. The acid must be
used in a diluted form, as nuclein is dissolved in strong acids.
The time of action must be short, as the long-continued action of
even a weak acid dissolves nuclein.
(d) It is desirable that the fixing fluid should contain alcohol in
a small quantity.
- Strong alcohol dehydrates and induces changes in the protoplasm.
Kultschitzky’s Fluid.— Add, ad libitum, pulverized bichromate of
potassium and sulphate of copper to alcohol (50 per cent.). Keep
in absolute darkness twenty-four hours. A transparent greenish-
yellow fluid is thus obtained, which is to be acidulated before use
with acetic acid (5 to 6 drops to 100 ce.).
Method.— Place the object in the fixing fluid for from twelve to
twenty-four hours, according to its size and hardness, and keep in
the dark ; then transfer to strong alcohol. After twelve to twenty-
four hours the preparation is hard enough for cutting.
Conservation. =Kultechiteky thinks that for conservation only
such fluids should be used as produce no further changes in proto-
plasm after it has once been fixed. As alcohol, Miiller’s Fluid and
other fluids in common use do work changes in the tissues,
ee pernliaky recommends keeping preparations in ether, xylol, or
Accessory Nuclei (Nebenkerne, Paranuclei).—Dr. Gustav Platner
has been for some years en with the problem of the origin
and meaning of accessory nuclei in gland-cells. The results of his
work have not yet been published, so far as I am aware; but some —
of his methods of study have been given in the Zeitschrift fiir wis-
ifiliche Mikroskopie, Vol. IV., No. 3, p. 349. Flemming’s
chrom-osmio-acetic acid is the best hardening, or “ fixing” medium.
This mixture may sometimes be modified to advantage by dimin-
ishing the quantity of acetic acid and increasing that of osmice acid.
en the accessory nucleus forms a compact mass, as In reptiles
1142 General Notes.
and many anura, a mixture of picric acid and sublimate gives good
preparations.
led to the introduction of a new stain, for which Platner suggests
medullary sheath uncolored. Used at its full strength it stains
other tissues, but with less intensity.
An over-stain is easily reduced by dilute ammonia (five or six
drops to a watch-glass full of water), or, preferably, by carbonate of
— lithium, diluted ad libitum. A pure and intense nuclear stain may
be thus obtained. Treated in this way, the accessory nuclei are
stained in varying degrees of intensity, according to the stage of
their development.! i
It is a remarkable fact that these accessory nuclei, soon after their
formation, become non-receptive to safranin or Victoria blue 4 R,
while remaining stainable with nucleus-black. It would seem, as
Platner remarks, that chromatin is composed of two substances, one
of which is affected only by certain nuclear stains, while the other
is receptive to a large number of stains, and especially so to nucleus-
black and hematoxylin.
Sections from preparations in Flemming’s fluid may be left
twenty-four hours in a dilute solution of nucleus-black. The time
of exposure to the decoloring fluid will vary according to the inten-
sity of the stain received and the end to be reached. ‘The stain is
permanent and well adapted to photographing.
The Eggs of Ascaris megalocephala.—Platner recommends heat-
ing to 50°C., for twenty to forty seconds, then hardening ia ascend-
ing grades of alcohol. This method has the great advantage of
killing instantly without injurious effects, and leaving the nuclear
figures in a better state of preservation than can be reached by any
other method hitherto used. The egg-sacks are placed in a test-
tube plunged in a dish of hot water. This method will undoubt-
edly be useful in other cases.
1 Accessory nuclei arise from the chromatin of the nucleus, by a pro —
cess of budding, and their development may be induced by starving tne
nimal the sixth or seventh day, in the case of the salamander,
Scientific News. 1143
Bobretzky, Hertwig, Reichenbach, and others who have employed
the method of heating, have subjected the eggs to a heat of 80°C.,,
or more, and for a considerable length of time. Platner is unques-
tionably right in attributing previous failures in the use of this
method to the unnecessarily high temperature employed. Max
Schultze has shown that protoplasm is killed and stiffened at 50°C.,
and the use of a nearly boiling heat is therefore quite as unnecessary
as it is harmful.
PARAFFINE PREPARED FOR RIBBON-CUTTING.—Dr, Spee? finds
that paraffine prepared in the following manner is best adapted to
ribbon-cutting :—
Take paraffine, which melts at about 50°C., and melt it over a
spirit lamp. Keep hot for from one to six hours, until assumes
a brownish yellow color, like that of yellow wax or honey. When
cold the mass is perfectly homogeneous, and without sit ANR
Sections, if not over ;}, mm. thick, stick firmly together in the
form of a ribbon.
* Q. F. Spee. Leichtes Verfahren zur Erhaltung linear geordneter,
Koea Schnittserien mit > lfe von Schnittbändern. Zeitschr.
wiss. Mikroskopie, ii., 1, p. 7, 1
SCIENTIFIC NEWS.
—The well-known traveler and Siberian ey Nikolai Mich-
alowitsch Prjewalsky, died November 1st, in Karakul
—Mr. T. H. Potts, an ornithologist, who has done much for the
exploration of the New Zealand Fauna, has recently di
—Professor Joseph F. James, M.S., formerly of Miami Univer-
sity, Oxford, Ohio, should be addressed after September 10, 1888,
Agricultural College, Prince George’s County, Maryland. i
- —The Lowell Institute free courses of lectures to the teachers of
Boston begin January 5th, with a course by Prof. W. O. Crosby,
of the Boston Society of Natural History, upon the geology of
Boston and its vicinity. The course consists of (1) a general study
of the physical features of the Boston Basin, and of the geological
now in progress; (2) a systematic study of the various
and rocks found in the Boston Basin , together with the
more characteristic kinds of. ae. which ‘they exibit (3) a
1144 Scientific News.
summary of the geological history of the district so far as that is
plainly recorded in the rocks, tracing the gradual evolution of the
present topographic and structural features from the widely differ-
ent conditions which have prevailed in the past. The object of
this course is to enable the teachers of the public schools of Boston
an opportunity to become acquainted with the facilities that they
have at hand for the illustration of many points in geology.
—Tue THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY NATURAL
SeLection.—In the last number of Science (Nov. 16, 1888) Mr.
H. S. Williams, of Cornell University, publishes a letter, in which
he says that Robert Bakewell gave “a remarkably clear conception
of the elements of the theory which Charles Darwin has made
famous, almost thirty years prior to the appearance of ‘The Origin
of Species.’ ”
At first he gives some notes about artificial selection by R. Bake-
well, which contain nothing new; artificial selection having been
use from the oldest historical times.
Then Mr. Williams continues, stating that Mr. Bakewell applied
this principle to explain the appearance of new forms of Mollusca.
But Mr. Bakewell’s remarks have nothing to do with natural
selection whatever. He simply says that forms are changed when
brought into different conditions.
This is Transformism or Lamarckism, but not Darwinism !
Mr. Williams seems to ignore the fundamental difference between
these two theories, in spite of the numerous recent able [discussions
on this subject—G. Baur, Yale University Museum, New Haven
Connecticut.
—The late Prof. Edward Tuckerman made a choice collection of
books and papers relating to Lichens, some four hundred numbers
in all, which has been presented by Mrs. Tuckerman, in accordance
with his own wish, to Amherst College Library. It is proposed to
keep the collection by itself under the name of the “ Tuckerman
Memorial Library,” and to make it worthy of the name, by making
it as complete as possible in its own department. Supposing that
some persons interested in this specialty might like to assist mm
maintaining and completing the collection (with the understanding
that it is always available to public use), I wish to give opportunity
for any who care to do so to contribute, either in money or in ma~
terial (especially rare monographs that may have escaped Prof.
Tuckerman’s notice), to this memorial to a model scholar and scien-
tist. Whatever money may be contributed will be kept as a fund |
~ which only the income will be employed in making paare
=~ the collection, or in repairs and rebinding. Thesum of $100
_ would probably suffice as such a fund.
iG, Wm. I. FLETCHER,
Librarian of Amherst College.
Proceedings of Scientifie Societies: 1145
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES:
Bosron Sociery or Narurar History.—November 7, tik
—Prof. H. W. Conn, of Wesleyan University, read a on
“Insect Larve and their relation to the adults” ; and Mrs 8. F.
Denton exhibited models of animals prepared from a new material
possessing many advantages.
Brontoercat Socrery or Wasuineton.—The gre Opie
meeting, December 1st, 1888. —The following papers
Dr. Th. Gill, “On the relations of the Psychrolutidee” g s Di C.
Hart Merriam, “ Description of a new Ground Squirrel from Cali-
fornia”; Mr. F W. True, “ Remarks on the Deer of Central
America,” with exhibition of specimens; Prof. C. V. Riley, “ Notes
on: the Economy of Thalessa and Tremex ” Prof. B. E. Fernow,
“ Causes of configuration of trees.”
. NATURAL aa ASSOCIATION OF STATEN IsLanp.—Feb-
ruary Ilth, 1888.—On motion of Mt Hollick the following
preamble and resolutions were adopt
hereas, Our attention has been called to the title of a bill
recently introduced in the Assembly, designed to allow the shoot-
ing of ipren on i and Staten Islands during the month of
Pheer. Such “legislation would be a gross injustice to our
Island, and would be a source of needless analy and destruction
to our birds.
Resolved, That the Natural Science Aimocintints of PERIERE
earnestly protests against the passage of this or any similar legisla-
tion, gard tends to convert our Island into a legal shooting ground
for the idle persons of New York and vicinity ; and
Resolved, That copies of this preamble and resolutions be trans-
mitted to the newspapers of the county and to our representatives
in the Legislature, with the request that they use their best efforts
to defeat the bill in question.
se i made the following remarks upon the
a boiling springs” :
During the very yi cold weather which visited us in January,
otilininating on January 27, and lowering the average night tems
perature to within a few degrees of zero, while the thermometer
registered 12°-15° F. as its maximum in the day, the temperature
of a Se tae of springs on the hillside, south of Castleton avenue and’
near Bement, was taken. There were found to range from 44° to
58° F., the colder water being due to a less rapid flow and conse-.
1146. Proceedings of Scientific Societies.
quently longer exposure at the springs’ vent to the’ atmospheric
influence. These springs, known as the “ Boiling Springs,”
doubtless arise from below the impervious beds of clay, which may
be seen outcropping along the sides of the gulches in the neighbor-
kood ‘washed out by freshets. While it seems unlikely that they issue
from such a depth as sixty or eighty feet, which is assigned by
Guyot.as the limits of the zone of invariable temperature at our
latitude, it is quite certain that points of origin are deep seated and
almost, if not entirely, removed from superficial influence. The
observation of Mr. W. T. Davis upon the Summer temperature of the
€love Valley springs corroborates this. He found that to be from
53° to 54°; almost identical with the Winter temperature of these
opines at the coldest period of the season. The water flowing with
is elevated temperature nourished an abundant growth of the
common fresh water alga (Conferva vulgaris Rab.), which in turn
supported in its thick and confused clusters numerous diatoms and
infusoria.. The green stems of a species of Veronica, too immature
for determination, flourished abundantly in the tepid rivulet escap-
ing from the tiny pools, while within a few feet last Summer's
grasses were frozen in a crust of ice. |
> Mr. Wm. T. Davis read a portion of a letter from Mr. Aug. R.
Grote. The extract is as follows: In 1856 I found Clematis
ochroleuca growing on Kellett’s Hill, near Egbertville, on the
Southern slope near the top. My specimens went to the late Hon.
Geo. W. Clinton, botanist, of Albany. I also collected a specimen
of the fork-tailed flycatcher, Milvulus tyrannus, near our farm o
Hill Park, towards the south-west side of the Island.
ı March 10th.—Mr. Arthur Hollick read the following notes,
illustrated by drawings and dried specimens :—
l During the Autumn of 1881 a species of sedge was found in
company with Callitriche verna and Dichelyma capillaceum growing
on.the bottom of one of the springs near the present site of the S.
I. Water Supply Co. It was proliferous, and showed no signs of.
either perfect flower or fruit, but as it was rather late in the season
a more favorable time was awaited in which to collect and study it.
spring was deep, with walled sides and a clean sandy bottom
and was never known to freeze, even in the severest winter. The
ap was entirely aquatic—no part of it ever growing to the sur-
ace of the water. During the succeeding year it was visited from
time to time in the hopes of obtaining either the flower or fruit,
but without success. Specimens were however collected with
aborted proliferous spikes, and it was finally admitted provisionally by
Dr. Britton and myself into the Flora of Richmond county, in the
appendix for 1883-84, under the name Heleocharis prolifera Torr (?).
_ Smee then it has been kept under constant scrutiny, but has never
been found with flowers, and we were forced to conclude that it did-
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. - 1147
not produceany. It was naturally with some trepidation that it
was determined to be this plant, as its habitat is given by Chapman,
in his “ Flora of the Southern States” to be from Florida to N:
Carolina, and from there to Staten Island seemed a very extensive
jump for the plant to take, without any intermediate locality from
which it could have spread. Within the past six weeks, however,
we have received specimens from the neighborhood of Trenton, N:
J., which is a little more encouraging. It is well also to bear in
mind that the place which this southern plant secured from its
home so far north is just such a one as we would expect, namely, a
perennial spring, which never freezes and in fact which maintains a
constant temperature throughout the year of about 53°. So far as
known, it failed to secure a foothold at any other locality on the
Island, and the specimens which are now in our herbaria are pro
ably the only ones which will ever be seen from here, as the spring
as become silted up and all signs of life obliterated. !
I was interested to find the following note in Dr. Torrey’s
monograph on the Cyperaceee of N. America, p. 815-16: “ Among
my undetermined Cyperacez is a species of Eleocharis from the
Southern States, which I have never been able to obtain with
mature fruit. * * * * The spike is ovate. and compressed, but
instead of producing flowers it throws out a tuft of long filiform
peduncles or rather culms, one from the axil of each scale, which
strike root into the mud or float on the surface of the water and
likewise bear proliferous spikes. * * * * I am inclined to consider
this species as distinct from any other described in this monograph.
It may be distinguished by the name of E. prolifera.” ,
Again, in the Columbia College Herbarium, accompanying a
specimen labeled Æ. prolifera, is a note by Dr. Torrey, which reads:
“ This may be a state of my Chetocyperus baldwinnii and the plant
referred to in Baldwin’s notes. * * * *” 2
Careful comparisons have been made between our specimens and
those in the Columbia College Herbarium, under the names Heleo-
charis baldwinii Torr. and H. prolifera Torr., but our material is
too imperfect to definitely determine just where it belongs. e
specimens, while showing the general characteristics of the above-
mentioned species differ in having a stiff jointed woody rachis,
along which the spikes are arranged alternately, and at the summit
of which they are closely appressed into a somewhat. imbricated
el
stolons which bear the proliferous spikes at irregular intervals.
Mr. L. P. Gratacap presented a nest of the Baltimore Oriole,
suspended from the branches of acherry tree. One side of the nest
had 1 been supported by means of strands of worsted attached to a
branch considerably above the main support, acting in the nature of
a guy rope to steady the structure.
1458 Proceedings of Scientific Societies.
May 12th—Mr. Wm. T. Davis read the following ento-
mological notes of local interest. A very small straw-colored
cricket was discovered last August on the borders of the salt meadow
at Great Kill. It was chiefly observed on the stems and leaves of
the “high tide bushes” (Iva frutescens), and was difficult to capture
owing to its shyness. When stridulating the sound produced was
quite metallic in tone and may be likened to that well-known silvery
sound of oxygen escaping bubble by bubble in a water bottle. This
insect has been identified as Anawxipha eaigua Say., and seems to
have never been reported before from north of Maryland.
The “ earwig ” (Anisolabris maritima), common several years a
on the shore of Camp Washington, before the advent of the railroad,
as noted in the proceedings for January, 1887, was discovered the
ast Summer at the other end of the Island, on the shore at Totten-
ville. They live under stones and pieces of wood just at high
water mark. On an open sandy spot near Tottenville a species of
“tiger beetle” (Cicindela modesta), has been observed for the past
several years, and last fall a few specimens were seen at Watchogue.
These insects have been searched for at intervening points, where
the same natural features are present, but have only been discovered
at those mentioned.
A specimen of Erebus odora, the largest species of noctuid moth
to be found on the Island, was presented to the Association. It
was taken during last September while flying about a room, at New
Dorp, by Miss M. Britton, and is in good condition. Two other
specimens have been captured on the Island during the last few
years in the month of July, one at “sugar” and the other in 8a
barn. All of these moths,are females, as indicated by the three
ula.
Mr. Samuel Henshaw reported the discovery of a wild rabbit's
- nest in a small pile of tobacco stems thrown out of a grape house.
Its position was extremely exposed, the ground being perfectly bare
old. The strong odor from the tobacco stems would greatly aid in
protecting the nest from predatory prowlers, and it was sugg
that the situation may have been chosen for this reason.
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 1149
. June 9th.—Mr. Samuel Henshaw submitted the following
notes: The late spring of this year prevented the buds of the
forest trees unfolding at their usual time, but when they did begin,
their growth was astonishingly rapid. The horse chestnuts had
finished their year’s growth in nine days, the beech in about ten
days, and other trees correspondingly rapid, as if nature was trying
to make up for the delay. Indeed, I have noticed that no matter
whether it is an early or late spring, by the first week in June all
seasons are nearly alike.
The blizzard played queer freaks with the hardy trees; some
Japanese maples, that have stood the last twelve years without any
protection, have suffered—one is dead and the others have lost a
Some trees look as if the bark on the windward side had
street, N. Y., and at York, Penn., it had been observed feeding on
potatoes. It has been found in numbers in cellars and cisterns on
Staten Island.
are of considerable interest. Thus, there are 1,264 species and
varieties enumerated, all of which are in our herbarium, with the
exception of about 30, which have not yet been collected, although
reported upon good authority. These species are distributed among
511 genera and 111 families. 1225 are Phanerogams or flowering
plants and thirty-nine are the higher Cryptogams—ferns and
allies. The Angiosperms number 916, of which 377 are Polypetalous,
405 are Gamopetalous and 134 are Apetalous. The Gymnosperms
number six. The Dicotyledones number 916 and the Monocotyle-
dones 303.
- Ifthey are divided roughly into herbs, shrubs and trees, we have
1,094 herbs, eighty-eight shrubs and seventy-two trees. Considering
them as native and introduced the numbers are about 1039 native
and 225 introduced. The largest family is Composite, with its fifty-
1150 ` Proceedings of Scientific Societies.
one genera and 148 species. These latter include twenty-seven
Asters and nineteen Golden-rods. Grasses—forty-three genera and
115 species, including nineteen Panicums. Cyperacee or sedges—
ten genera and eighty-one species, including forty-three Carex.
Leguminose—twenty-one genera and fifty-four species. Labiatæ—
twenty-five genera and forty-eight species. Rosaceee—thirteen
nera and forty-seven species. Caryophyllese—fifteen genera and
thirty-eight species. Scrophularinese—thirteen genera and thirty-
two species. Ericacee—fifteen genera and thirty-one species,
including eleven which are picked under the common name of
“Huckleberry.” Cruciferee—fourteen genera and thirty-one
species. Ranunculaceæ —thirteen genera and thirty-one species.
Polygonacee—three genera and twenty-seven species, including
nineteen Polygonums. Lilacese—sixteen genera and twenty.five
species. Orchidacee—twelve genera and twenty-four species.
Umbelliferse—seventeen genera and twenty-two species. In the
erns we have thirteen genera and twenty-eight species. There
are twelve Violets, twelve Oaks, eleven Willows, five Hickories
and four Pines. Amongst the large number of plants worthy of
particular mention is the Clematis ochroleuca Ait., of which an account
was given in the proceedings for June 11th, 1887. The “ Crane-fly
Orchis,” (Tipularia discolor Nutt.), although accounted a very scarce
plant, is abundant throughout nearly all our deep wet woods.
Almost without exception all the most troublesome weeds have been
introduced, such as the “Pig weeds,” “ Wormseeds,” “ Amaranths,”
“ Crab ” “ Wild Carrot,” “ Ox eye Daisy,” etc. Some of the
worst weeds have spread so rapidly in recent years that although
they are already pests yet no common name has been invented for
m. For instance, I can well remember when the first few plants
of Galinsoga parviflora Cav., made their appearance in this region.
It is now to be found nearly everywhere at this end of the Island
and is spreading with amazing rapidity. “Trailing arbutus” has
almost become a thing of the past, although a few patches still
exist, which have not yet been destroyed by “arbutus parties.”
General memoranda upon our flora will be found in the proceedings
for June 13th, 1885, and an account of our forest growth and the
few large trees yet remaining, in the proceedings for February 12th
and March 12th, 1887. Memoranda have been accumulating since
the fourth appendix to the flora was issued, which will probably
necessitate a fifth appendix at the end of the present season, so
it will be seen that the work of the botanical collector on Staten
_ Island is not by any means completed, especially when it is remem-
_ bered that most of the lower orders of eryptogams have hardly
been touched. The Diatoms are, however, being catalogued by Mr.
E. A. Schultze, and a list of the sea weeds by Mr. Nicholas Pike, |
_ 1s ready for the printer, while a good preliminary list of the mosses
Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 1151
is in preparation ; but the Liverworts, Lichens, Desmids, Fungi
and Protophytes await the future botanist’s attention.
October 13th—Mr. Wm. T. Davis presented natural-sized
drawings of leaf forms and fruit of the hybrid oaks found near
Richmond Valley, with the following further remarks upon the
same :—
Since the September proceedings were printed, the oaks near
Richmond Valley have been visited several times by Mr. Hollick,
Mr. Gratacap and myself, and they have proved of so much interest
that a detailed description of at least some of the trees may be
worthy of record.
Nineteen oaks have so far been discovered, each tree having a
sort of individuality, and their consideration with a view to clear-
ing up the mooted points is no easy matter, but one that will at
least require an extended period of careful observation.
Some leaves represent what has been considered as Quercus
the mid-rib. The character and position of these oaks wou
indicate that Q. phellos with Q. palustris are the parents and this
In heterophylla the average diameter of the empty cups is about
three m. m. more than palustris and the heighth of the nut is also
greater in comparison to its breadth. In phellos the acorns are
still smaller than in palustris, but it is an interesting fact that the
roportions come closer to those of heterophylla. In Chambers,
ncyclopædia it is stated that in hybrids “ valuable results are often |
obtained as to size and abundance of fruit.”
LIN DES.,
Abbott, C.C., Evidences of Antiquity
of Man in Eastern North
America, i
Aboriginal Monuments, Protection
f, 231.
Acanthobatis, 451.
Acanthocystis
\cids on Silicates, Effects of, 1025.
\cid Alcohol, 381.
\cipenser 659.
\cinetan, A New, 18.
cmite, 300.
\coéssus, 449.
view 244.
\ctinophrys, 74.
\ctinopterygia, 1018.
\dapidee, 164.
\delo
\dniole Sec ‘Sections, 1111.
ro
Deresi b> he be > fe fs fb
P
dium ı fraxini, PI.
Ægirine, 300.
Ælosoma ase 936.
lurodon ferox 1020.
Affinities of Miolania, 55.
Afganistan, ee of, 636.
African Birds, 749.
Africa, Geology of, 835.
Geology o South, 167.
tig es of, 748.
eparation of Nutrient, 472.
Cruises of the “Blake,” 516.
b> h>
3 09
S
ee
Ves , 857.
orga T 172.
\
\labandine, 65.
\laudidæ, 652.
\lcohol, Acetic Acid, 381.
k
resh-water, 669.
S bh D h > t
ag <
ictogra
Aliggment, 574, 585.
allen T al 527, 1024.
Allen ; Collection and Study of
aceæ, 455.
=
A, Fossil, 1 166.
Nest and Eggs, 1032.
sie 423, 427.
Allodon, 233.
PEA phic Rock, 208.
Alnöites, 305.
Aki pipra of, 256.
Amalgam, Natural, 169.
PAPERE , 1022.
antus ‘albus, 1116.
Ambjotheria um, 76, 234,
vancement of Science, 566,
1
American Geologist, 165.
American Mammalian Types
witz erland, 831.
mericans, Origin of, 849, 9, 850.
American Physiological Society, 872.
Ameeba, 72.
in
Amorphous k, 208.
Ampelidee, fipa prer di of, 458.
evision ot,
Ampelocissus, +
Amp lopsis 951
Amphibian n Eggs, Preparing, 857.
\ hibole oe 216.
hiboli
hi perar lucasii, 1107.
ilestes, a B
hit erium,
hiuma, ept Habits of, 182,
5.
1009.
6.
B.
O'O T'on
~
. =
Amur eot
Anabæna, 6
65:
Anatomical Preparations, Plaster
ablets for ene 276.
tes, 301
Andropogon, 171.
1154
Anethum, 420.
An
vad of nba 814.
Anoplopomide, 358.
Anorthite, 1021.
Ant-Eater, Gular Gland in the Band-
Antedon, 657.
Antimonide, A New, 169.
Antenna Cleaner in Hymenoptera,
Antheridia, 674.
Anthomedusz, 840.
Aushronologs. eae nal, 184.
pierngsion ai congress of, 183.
or ye emy of, 183.
Anthropological Pr nig of Wash-
em , 182
Anthropometry, 274.
Anther connie, 674.
Ants, Legs of, 196.
Ants and id Aphids, 753.
Apera
Pe R and Ants, 753.
Aphidide, Apterous Males among,
of Minnesota, 178.
70.
Aphis,
Apios s, 428.
Apie Legs of, 194.
Aplite, 214.
Appendicularia, 605.
Apus, 652.
PARA A alana in the Muskrat,
ETR Homologues
178.
\rachnactis , 1125.
nida, Excre tory Organs of, 75.
achnida’ E Embryology of, 470.
\rcella, 73.
\irchæan Rocks i in Missouri, 732,
73.
- FH
vedsonite, 1022.
ma, 467.
\rgeidæ, 647. ;
Eme Republic, Cænozoic of,
New Fossil Mammals from, 346.
Arid Regions, Irrigation of, 821.
Arius, 526, 648.
Arizona, Explorationsi in, 556.
Mr. ing’s Discoveries in,
944444444
a6
-j
©
©
=|
_
p
0
at
cs
Indez.
Argyr te a 654.
Argyrosomus, 747.
Arkansas, Geological Survey of, 56.
iar Vital Infusion of
es with Methyl-blue,
1039.
Arrowheads, Fraudulent, 375, 555.
Arsenopleite,
Artichoke, Jerusalem, 808.
Artiodactyla, 1079.
rvicola, 598,
Asc ir in iumbricoides, 932.
ration of eggs of, 277,
Ascaris megalocephala, 932.
gg-sacks, 1142.
217.
4
Asellus aquaticus, 1031.
Asellus, Polar Globules i in, 176.
cesarean At Relation of Pediastrum
Polyedrium, 1026.
iain
Asthenosoma, 461.
Astia
Astropecten, 524.
Astr et ag andromeda, 933.
Assulin
At taluccy stites, 524.
Atherura, 526.
Athyris minutissima, 1015.
Atkinso n z F., New Instances of
ective Resemblance in
pi rs aia , 545. me
on "the Tube-inhabiting
Spider, Lycosa fatifera, 546.
Atlas Mountains,
Atrypa mpre A, hystrix, A. as-
Sp
Note
hystrix, = planosuleata, 1104.
reticulari
Attachment po Platycerata to to Fos-
rinoids, Keyes
dian ae
amea 166.
At
Taitaire” and *‘ Visuaire,”’ 376.
Augite, 168, 300, 1022.
pe itites, 305
CRC, Polled Cattle, 784.
Wild Cattle of Great Britain,
Auriculella, , 651.
oS Sponges of, 353.
Aeiio 732.
Azuri e, 785.
Bectertobeay. Place of, in Science,
4.
Baffin Land, Indians of, 561.
Index.
Bakewell, R., Origin of Species, 1144.
$ 3 3
Baptanodon
Baptist peden of Victoria, 1012.
Barite, 736, 931, 1113.
Barrois, Metimorphosed Lime-
fl,
On Davorin of Comatula,
Barysilite, 528.
aryto- -Celestite, 350.
Basaltic Rocks of Alsace, Linck, 928,
Basalts, =
Basa 04.
Bassidiobolus, 645.
sane ues, 852.
jE SA pa of, 755.
Batrachia, EJ Epiglottis in, 79.
Ossicula ye T of, 464.
641.
lomon Islands,
a Anthropology iee Prehis-
Bay of Poad Fauna of, ees
Bayley, W. S., Ery n-
busch’s y agla for the
Classification of Massive
Rocks,
Baur, G., American Trionychide,
Morphogeny of the Carpus and
sus of the Vertebrata.
Darwinism vs. Lamarckianism,
Beal, bie Js Rootstocks of Leersia
d Muhlenbergia a, 351.
Bean, T H., Distribution and som
Caa gba of the Salm aca
Beard, , Dry Ner Nervous System of Ver-
, 1182
Beauchamp, W M, Indian Relics,
943.
The oaonanaM at Her vA
Secreta 1889, 944
Beavers in om ope, a
Becke, Crystallography of Dolomite,
Mon bi Distinguishing be-
n Quartz and Feldspar
1155
Beddard, F. E., Anatomy of Birds,
10383.
Bee-Keepers’ Guide-Book, 940.
s of, 194.
ue of
, 1026.
214.
ergendal, D.,
enc dage
Bertrandite, 1023,
Beryl, 1111.
Beryllonite, 1 1023.
Berzellit
Bessey, C E. j + Allen’ s American Cha-
739
Male prient] Ap-
s on Crabs, 1126.
A Mi rerik Tumble-weed, 645.
AnOverlooked Function of Many
Fruits, 531.
Botanical Work in New York,
172.
Effect of Ice upon Trees, 352.
Ellis & Everhart’s N. A. Fungi,
738.
Gray’s “Elements of Botany,”
46.
Planchon’s Revision of the Am-
ide, 251.
Thaxter’ a Entomophthorew of
- the United States, 643.
The Genus Tepara of Tulane,
The Grass Flora of the Nebraska
Plains, 171.
Tumble-weeds Again, 66
Bettongia, 75.
Bie ermann, Methyl-blue Injection,
F. The Germ of the
Southern Cattle Plague, 113.
ee Laboratory, Boston, 668.
Laboratory, tine, 283, 756,
760.
Society of Washington, 949,
1042.
Biology, A Text-Book, Davis, 1096.
Criminal, 185.
Biotite, 65, 537, 732
Bird Rocks,
k, Cretaceous, 55.
Birds ‘of Core , 653.
Muscles of, 77.
Billings,
Bitumin Rocks, 839.
Bene Cruises of f the, 516.
Blanc, a Gromia from the Ooze
Lake ‘Geneva, 935.
Blind Animals, 811
k n Rock Secti ions, 1025.
Blochius, 830,
1156
Blood Corpuscles of Myxine, 78.
Blood, tie id aed Study
Blue-back 308.
Blue Fish, 'Destructiv eness of, 715.
Blue-Stem Grass, 171.
Blum, Pseudomorphose
Boas, F., _ Development of Civiliza-
aa Northwestern Amer-
of,
Boer Republics,
mian Fichtelgebinge Rocks,
Br
Mittelgebirge Rocks, 928.
Bolodon, 2
mbs, (sisinio: 61.
Sanidinite, 732.
Bos longifrons, 499, 785.
primigenius, 784.
taurus, 502
urus, 500.
Bosse, bakes 2 Von, Parasitic Algze
n Sloth, 937.
Boston Society of Nat. Hist., 1145.
Botanical Specimens and Postal
r
Botany, Contributions to North
Ameri V., 1027.
Bothriocephalus liguloides, 1126.
Botrydium
urgeois,
1113
Boutelona, 171.
Bouvier, Circulatory Apparatus of
rabs, 936.
, 674.
Artificial Cassiterite, |
ca
Boveri, Cell ss ge 932.
Boyce, Char ta Treaties between
U, the Cherokees,
1187.
Brachi pote, D gers 1100.
Brachytheriu
Branchial Eyes ly Branchiomma,
Branchiomma, Branchial Eyes of,
Brandt, Edward, Teenia cucumerina,
Brain of Ceratodus s, 41.
Coral, Development of, 355.
Weight of, eae Proportion to
y in Bi
Brains, MANS sapien with Celloidin,
Preparing with Paraffin, =
Branner, gan C., Notes the
na of the hah of Fer-
Mando: de Noronha, 861.
Brassica, 805.
Indez.
Brevurtia menhaden, 715.
Brinton, D. G., Ea rly Man in Spain,
5
Human Vertebra from Tampa
2.
Mongolian Affinities of Amer-
Race, 850.
ic.
Primitive Bhota 855.
Brittany, Megalithic Monuments of,
British Association, 1047.
olun mbia, Indians of, 560, 561.
roca’s Convolu ition, 1124.
Brookite, 1023.
Bruce’s Embryology of Insects and
Arac eae 47
n Inexpensive
ction Smoother, 38:
Lene nL args 647
Bunodon
Bureau a Ethnology, 713.
Burgess, E. Our Fresh-water
Bumpus,
Se
gæ, 669.
Butterflies of New England, Scud-
er,
Cabbage Butterfly, Imported, 70.
Cæ cidotæa, 814.
Cænopithecus, 832.
Czeno see Marsupials and Ungu-
Calamites, 730.
Calam
C slamohy drus, 749.
Calder,
alifornia Gray Whale, 509.
alifornian Shore Fauna,
all, R. E., e Gross Anatomy of
Sapnai 491
allichthyidæ, 649.
C
C
C
C
Callinema,
Calyptoblastea, 840.
Camarasaurus supremus, 1107.
Cambarus, 814.
Cambrian and Silurian of Sweden,
C
C
Cam
C
Ca
C
C
amelopardalis, 526.
ampasc
ek: Gross Anatomy of, 491.
amptonites, 217, 6 733.
anada, ase Dykes of, $48.
fancerilla Savuinte: 1118.
ce Dissimulation, 270.
of Lemurs.
Canis porackypus 1020.
Canis sevus, 1020.
Indez.
Capromys, 1
Caracantkida 357.
Caracolite, 52
races HN Material in Crystal-
e Limestone,
isda’ oat
* Carcinus, 7
Carmine, Schneider’ s Acid, 278.
1019.
ocene, 246.
Carpogonium, 674.
oe at 329.
e, 1111.
mapei y 1113.
astalia, 173.
or,
astoroides
Castration fe Parasites in Crus-
acea,
. Cathrein, Planes in Minerals, 1024.
Caton, J pi y e Ca lifornia Gray
Dares G os Parasitic Infuso-
d
Piplelgl ole.
D 2
in
ct
Cattle, orelon 784.
Plague, Germs of, 113.
Polled; 498.
Wild, of Great Britain, 498.
. 808.
verns, Alpine, 1012.
Caves, rc 1104.
avia,
Celestite 1113.
Cell-Division, 932.
Celloidin a Paraffin in Imbed-
Bee
of Brain ;
ape" n arpensa 273.
pearing PA ss ETI 779.
Cent ee Its Condition, 729.
Ganteopysi 3.
Cephalopoda Development of, 256,
Ceramopora, 166.
Ceratodus, Brain of, Wi
Cerebrology, 612.
Cetacea, Hairs in, 260.
Cetoth i ae
am,
nger ” bollectiona 839.
Chantransia, 676. :
1157
Chara, 676, 740.
Characez, Allen’s American, 139.
io oe Study of, 455.
Charadriide, Seebohm’s Distribu-
tion
Charr, 318
Cheesman, T. M
. Jr., Notes on the
reparation of
utrient
latine and r, 472.
N seee dae Origin of Seg-
tal Duct , 36
Chelytid, i "652
Chenopodium, 426.
gages Eye es of, 813.
Chert, 7
Oisin of, 166.
oea, 830.
Chilotus, 704.
C imærida, Fossil, 640.
Chir
Chirodota i in ‘the Mediterranean, 175.
Chiroptera of the Solomon Islands,
63
hol 14.
Chologaster,
Chologaster cornutus, C. —
*, agassizii, 937.
Chrodlepus, 676.
Chru sticholt, | Sg aia a big 1111.
Chytridium
Ci enkowsky, Prot, Death of, 91.
Cimoliasauru
Ciniflonide, Emerton, 940.
itopsis, 647.
Civi ization, Development of, 849.
C ora, 677.
Prof. . Composition of a
Nickel Silicate from Oregon,
Clarke’s Devonian Crustacea of
Clarke, S. F., Nest and Eggs of the
Alligator
Clathrocystis,
Claus’s Zoolog ie,” 43 t.
Claypole’s ‘‘ Lake Age in Ohio,” ane
Claypole, E. W., Mimic Earthqua
ip near Akro: o, 242.
a nec n, Ohi
eavage Fianes, 0«v.
Cleithrolepis, 638.
1158
eae, 251.
Clematis viorna, 1123.
C. pilikiri, 1128.
Clepsydrops, 466.
Clevelandia, 361.
Clevenger, S. V., Canine Dissimu-
lation, 270.
Cerebrology and the Possible
Something in Phrenology,
612
Cliftonite, 529.
Climate and Evolution, 641.
Clinoclastite, 734.
Clione,
Clubiona, 655.
Clypeaster, 845.
Cochlearia, 1.
Ceecilia, Lateral Line Organs, 749.
Coelenterata, 840.
ew England, 354.
Ceelenterates i = Fresh Water, 651.
she pee meg S,
Coelost et
Behan; sr Theory of Deposition
of Go a = Placers, 981.
n Anim
Color Relaticus vires pirig o and
their Su panandang 033.
Colors e Cash ing oy bso Varia-
PES Ay 675.
Colymbosaurus, 725.
Comatula, Development of, 657.
ommunities, American, 853.
Comstock, J. H., Grass-Eating |
hri rips, 260.
A ge eros of Experimental
468.
mology,
Mothous o xperiments in
Economic Entomology, 1128,
Plum Curculio, 1035.
Probable Increase in Entomo-
ogical per ar 261.
POS Introduction to Ento-
og
Osudviaetaris ys
Condylura i in Indiana, 359.
Conferve, 675.
one Snakes, 315.
Conjugati on in oe yaaa 255.
Connecticut, brani
Index.
Cook, A.J., Morphology of the Legs of
Hymenopterous Insects, 193.
E. D., Baur’s Morphogeny of
the C s anc s of
Cope,
Gly ptodon from Texas, 345.
de’s American Fishes, 714.
Goniopholis lucasii,
Lydekker’s Catalogue of Fossil
Ma ag in the British
Museu V., 164.
Eride. "on Ichthyosauria
nd Plesiosauria,
Mechanient Causes of the Origin
of of entition of the Ro-
dent
Neo eioi Mammalia,
28.
Ossicula Auditus of the Ba-
ia, 465.
Pineal Eye in Extinct Verte-
brates, 914.
Spee - ee of the
Rütimaysdie: Classification of
Ma and American
supials and Unguiculata,
Seebohm on the Charadriide,
6.
meagre of the on Moun-
ns regon (Illus-
par d), 996.
The Artiodactyla, 1079.
The — tuberculata Mono-
tremes, 259.
The Relation of Will to the Con-
Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco
Epoch, 161. ;
Cope-Montgomery Discussion, 264.
opepoda, 842.
Copiapite, 930.
oqul , 980.
Cordierite-gneiss, 1022.
Conrad’s Tertiar were ’ Biblio-
graphical Notes on, 726. Corea, Birds of, 653.
Conservation o ergy and the} Coregonus, 306
Wi ae 547. Coriander, Roman, 422
Constellaria, 166. Corispermum
Contact pie ies in Rocks, 247. Cormorant Fishing i in Japan, 1.
anc ag age Diseases of Insects, Corn 3. :
C Bee-Keepers’ Guide, | Corpus callosum, Absence of in
ra S HP A
940.
Index.
Cortland Series of Eruptive Rocks,
929, 1020.
Corydalis cava, 933.
d
357.
Coulter, John M., Evolution in the
Plant Kingdom , 822
Cow with One idwex., 467.
Crabs, Kingsley,
abits of Hermit, 176.
Crangon, Development of, 471.
. Crawfish, Blind, 814.
Cre vas sil Virginia, 458.
Creodonta, 164.
Gretacecte Bird Track, 55.
Floras of the Northwest Terri-
oa of Canada, 953.
oe Cav
Vv
rigin of .524.
Cristivomer, 311.
Crocodilus, 166.
Cromlec 4.
Crosby and Greely, Composition of
esuvianite-Gahnite, 1113.
Crosby, W. O., f Boston,
oea of Silica in Sandstone,
1025.
hag orea det 841
.» 714.
yptobra
yptodrilus
yptogamia, Fossil, 1107.
s, 824.
rptolite 1024.
creas in
Ia of Lost Parts, 464.
Gultivetion of Arid Regions, 821.
ulture and Science, 481.
Curculio on Cherries, Killing, 752.
um, 1
Cuscuta, e
Cushing, Frank, Discoveries in Ari-
zona, 271.
Pasning a Explorations in Arizona, | D
1159
Cyamus, 652.
Cy
Cyanite 1112.
Cyanoderma, 937, 1028,
Cyanophycee, 6
Cyathophyilum, 1101.
Cyclobatis, 57.
redeem es 1117.
Cyclonema brevilineat a, 1017.
ee 101
Cygnus
Eend sä, 676.
hatin eon us, 75.
Cynonasua,
C aries 545.
Cystocarp, 673.
Cystoids, 524.
acites, i
Dactylopteroidea, 358.
actylopterus, 356.
arwini no vs. Lamarckianism, 80,
11
2.
Davis, J. R. Ainsworth, Biology,
Dawson’s _ Geological History of
Dawson, William, Cretaceous Floras
of the Northwest Terri-
tories of Canada.
De Bruyne, Contractile Vacuole,
Debierre’s ‘‘ L'Homme avant L’His-
toire,”
De
Deep Sea Fishes,
Defeat of the Appropriation for a
Zoological Garden at Wash-
ington n, 918.
Definition of a Physiologist, 373.
Dekayia, 166.
ndrobranchiata, 842.
Dentition of Rodentia, Origin of, 3.
Desce Man, 660.
Description of New Species of Fos-
sils from the Rockford Shales
of Sate g Ol: :
esueur
of Polyzoa a Dere
Development of Common Sturgeon,
Devslopiagt of Comatula, 657.
iabase, , 527.
Dykes of Canada, 348.
1160
Diadomt us, 5.
Dihy dro-thenardite, 169.
Dikes o udson River High-
i.
inosaur, Horned, 1108.
Dinotherium, 525, 837.
Diorite, Analysis “of, 694.
orp yy 215.
pe
cei communis, 1080.
, 166.
Disease, Tunnel or St.
Diseases of Insects, 365.
crayon 171.
Distomu
Distribution and Characteristics of
the
of es Life, 601
Dodder, Germination of, 254.
Dodge, Charles, Life of Townend
over.
mulation
, Dissim a, 270
Dollter. Synthes SOF t Mica, 1113.
Dolly Varden, 312.
Seche, 574, 577.
Dolo asy
Doradin
co,
Dra apernaldia
Drift North of Take Ontario, 344,
Dromatherium, 76, 235, 724
Dryolestes, 234, 4.
Duck-bill, Teeth in Young of, 259,
Dufet, Artificial Pharmacolite, 1113.
Dunnington, Origin of Oxides of
or arent 1114.
Dursite, 218.
Duval, Mathias, A Atlas of Embry-
ology,
Dyke Rocks of t Anglesey, 453.
Dynatobatis, 45
Ear Bones of Batradhin. 4
Earth, Condition 2 its Cen re, 729.
Co ion of the Sateen: of, 17;
Earthquake, A Mimic Near Akron,
Ohio, 242.
Gothard’s,
E
Index.
Earthquake in Mexico, 1047.
Earth-worms, 175, 260, 360, 462, 534,
540.
Eatonia, 172
Eau on tates aque, 857.
Economic Entomology,
ments in, 1128.
Ectonitii 57.
Echineis, 748.
ee eeg rebar izle in, 260,
Pancreas in, 746
Echinodermata from Cape Horn,
540.
Echi master decanus, oe of, 360.
Sie ear Kidney i
Eclogit bong) if
Ectogan
Edible Birdy -nests, 363, 6238.
Edisonite, 1023.
Edwards, C. L., Soape of
olothuria, 845
Effusive Rocks, 295.
ges of Ascaris, Treatment of, 277,
381.
ggs, Wormsin Hens’, 74.
Egypt, Geology of, 730.
Ehrlich, Prof., Vital Infusion of
Nerves with Methyl-blue,
Experi-
igenmann, `C. and R., American
Nem Se peg 647.
Eisen, Gustav, Sutroa ‘rostrata,
Eleolite, 61, 210, 838.
Elzolite Porphyry, 215.
eatin 834.
um, 641.
Elastic Rocks, Classification, 1109.
Elatholite,
Elder, Box, 531.
Electric Light i in Marine Collecting,.
Elm, 531.
Elephas antiquus, 837.
meridionalis, 837.
ghee hase ” 887.
Eloan, Muscovite, 215.
Eleutheroblastea, 840.
vol olot of Cephalopoda, 754.
huria, 845.
o and Vertebrates, 179.
Suievloenn Atlas of, 1134.
Embryoscope, Gerlach’s, 186.
Emerton, J. H., Monograph of the
meu
Emmonsite,
Empusa, 643.
Basene} Organ, Function of, 547.
Index.
M., On Some Interest-
erivations of Mineral
mes, 21, 128.
Potdoinyait 787.
Energy, Conservation of, and the
Botanical
Endlich, F.
ing
Engelmann, George,
Works, 1027.
Enstatite, 1021.
Pr ear ara Laboratory, 468.
ext-books, 842, 844.
Entomology par Experiment Sta-
ns,
in N ss York, 261.
Entomophthorew of U. S., 643.
aia , 844.
osion, Glacial, in Norway, 218.
Eruptive Rocks of France, 848.
Norw
©
Eh
ay,
Essex Tnietetute, 567.
Esthonyx, 3
Euglyphea , 73.
Euplotes, y an bal in, 740.
3
9 Condylura cristata,
Evolution, Factors of, 808.
and Idealism, 81.
er a Plant a eae ok
sects and Myria S,
of Mammæ, 370. e
Theism of, 264
Evotomys, A New, 649.
Excretory Orenta of Spiders, 75.
Exoascus, 787.
perim peer v.36. and Entomol-
Eyes of- Sco orpio s, 946.
Factors of evolutions, 808.
Fario, 311.
Fauna = the Islands of Fernando
ie a, 861.
hir i
eet of Vertes Morphogeny of,
Feldspar, 61, 454, 696.
from Kilima-njaro, 930.
Felis, 526.
1161
‘elsodacites, 302.
Felsoliparite, 300,
Felsonevadite, 300.
] *elsophyre, 2
Fennel, 420.
‘saad flower, 422
Fernando Noronha Rocks, 928,
Taaa Relations of, 76.
apee
, 646.
S F W > Arctic Characters of
the Su rface Fauna of the
Bay of Fundy, aan’ the Con-
nection with a Th of
- Floating
Distribution
Marine Life,
Calcareous Plates 7 the Star-
fish, 1030.
Endoparasite of Amphiura, 1118.
New Type of pa Larva, 1126.
Se cone Study on the Coast of
alifor nia, 3
Field Mouse, New, 702.
Figuring against Weeds, 774.
Finocchio,
Fish Otters, hud fdas of, 750.
Fishes, Deep Sea, i
Food of Illinois, 542.
Labelling,
Phosphorescent Organs of, 257.
Fistulipora, 1
Fixing Microscopic Sections to the
e,
Fletcher, > Composition of Feldspar
ilima-njaro, 930.
Flora of Pelestine
Flying pe PE Stations in Color
esd ena 42 10),
Folk ges How the Lizards were
e Little Men, 477.
Fifama. n on a Devonian Crin-
Food of Tilinois Fishes, 542
Foot in Prosobranch Molluscs, 740.
Foraminifera, 175, 113
he Western Society
of Na ituralists, 988.
Forests, Fossil. of the Yellowstone
Park, 254.
- of Guatemala, 385.
Forsterite, 735
Poia ; "Tern, ere in, 85.
Fossil Chimeeri
Fo rests of the’ Yellowstone Park,
Inse s, 730.
Fox, Red, or Schoo 1, 26
France, Alluvial ii in Dau-
phi
1162
Franklinite, Artificial, 455.
Fraudulent Arronbends 555.
Fraxinus Salapi he
onera, 423.
Fresh- Water Alger, 669.
poda,
Frog-Spittle, 3
shee Function of, 581.
Fulton LEP ehistori ic Ornaments
“from Mississippi, 849.
Fungi, 325.
Fungi, Ellis and Everhart, 738.
Furina S,
Fusion of Mine rals, 530.
Ga 5 aa 211, 348, 527, 837.
Gadolinite,
Gage, 8. ., Blood Corpuscles of the
La amprey, 1121.
Gage, S. P., Fibres of Short Mus-
cles, 1121.
Galeopithecus, 292.
Galls, Cause of, 177.
Gallus bankiva, 1033.
Gammar
Garden Van tables, , History. of, 420.
ide Z ona po
he Dalak Negro
si
Garlic, 423, 427.
Garman, H. A New Earth-worm,
Plaster Tablets for Mounting
Anatomical Preparations,
Garrett, Andrew, Notice of Death of,
Gatschet, A. S., Contributions to| Glov
Anthropology and Prehis-
torics of Bavaria, 475.
Guajiro, 47
Guanajuato,
274,
Reli _— Brotherhoods of Mo-
The ‘Celtic Society of Montreal,
Geckobia,
Gehmacher, Measurements of Mark-
Gelatine. ‘and Agar, Preparation of
Nutrient, gor G
aoe, of Maa,
Genthite, 349.
Geologien Fund, , Hayden Momoriel,
Map of Africa, 835.
ap of Roumania, 165.
akioa Aes
Survey of New York, 714.
Geologist International Congress,
Superstitions |
Index.
Seon of Burlington, Iowa, Keyes,
1049.
of Syria, 836.
Geodesmus terrestris, 1125.
Bands of Insects, 941.
Germ Diseases,
no pes ee of ‘Cassinite, 1111.
tise Lepidopterous Larva in Aus-
tralia, 262.
Gigantichthys, 5:
Gila Monster, Bite « of, 749.
Gill, ar Culture and Science,
Eutheria and Prototheria, 259.
san rogy
Glyto Identical
mate ana ey reii 925.
Notes on = hos of Fernando
Noron
Some Extinct 'Scieroderms, 446.
The Primar Mail-
Che ae oe B56.
Gillman, H., a of Palatino; 642.
Glacial Drift in REN, 414, 972.
Erosion in Norway, 218.
Geology, Studies in, 589.
hier osy, 705.
oo = Ta
daan of 'Norw
Gland, Gular, in Beaded Ant-Eater,
Globe Cucumber, 425.
Gloeocapsa,
er, Town nend, Biography of, 939.
Glyptove halus, 448, 828.
t identi cal with Bucklandium,
Gal arr
ae iae go Tass Texas, 345.
Henry,” 426.
Goode’s ag Fishes, 714.
Goniopholis
in rey E PA of Colorado,
Gordiaceæ, Life History of, 462.
orgen, Artificial Rhòdonite and
Tephronite, 1113.
orilla, 75.
Gourd, "426.
Grain-Eating Reptile, 359,
Gram ma, 171.
Grani 7.
Granites, Soda, 169.
Granitites, 209, 210.
Seadh o Nebraska, 171
Index.
Gray, Pe Death of, 173.
Obituary of, 280.
Gray’s Contributions to American
B
otany,
“Elements of Botany, ” 46,
Greening of Fruit, 581.
Greenland Expedition, 1098.
Glacial Geology of, 589.
Glaciers, 705.
Gr een, Seth, Obituary of, 759.
Griffiths, George C., Color-Relations
between Pupæ and their
Surroundings, 1033.
Gromia, 935.
Ground Nut, 428.
Guajiro Indians, 475.
Guanajuato, 274.
Guatemala Forests, 385.
eea ‘s “Grundzüge
Gum
der Zoolo-
giei, 66.
bia melanocephala, 1127.
H
Hacker, Henrietta E., Germination | S
i
of Dodder, 254.
tidnin us, 817.
Hair Worms, Life History of, 462.
Halopsis,
Halos, Plavochroic, 455.
Halotrici 30.
Ho
Halsted, B. Du Figuring against =
Hancock, I. bs Relative Weight of
n to Body in Birds, 537.
Hanahan rye Palontologie, Zittel,
1018,
Haplodont, 724, 834.
Hapuku, 78.
Harger, 0. Obituary, 282.
Hargitt, C. W., Recent Notes on
caphiopus holbrookii, 535.
Harvey, F. L., Contribution to the
Fre sh. Water Rhizopods, 71.
Sareea
Haseloff, Theo ‘of —— Crys-| Hi
ee tyle, 936
Hay, O. P , Observations on Amphi-
and its Young, 315.
Hayden: Manari Geological Fund,
Helicidæ, entist of European and
Ameri ican, 74..
1163
Heloderma, 749.
Hemenway Expedition, 271,
Hemitripteride , 358.
en’s Egg, Myriapod in, 651.
Herbarium, Ravenel’s, 1028.
Herbivorous Reptiles, 359.
Herdman, as ineal Gland of
rata, 1127
556.
Heredity, 816
Hermit Tabs Habits of, 176.
Herpyllus, 654.
Herrick, C. L., Science in Utopia,
Hertwig’s Human aoe rent rho
mbryology, 1
Hervé, Dr., Brocas ayolu in
Apes 1124.
Heterolepidotidæ, 854.
Hetero 1;
Hexagram amide, 358.
Hibsch, Rocks of the Bohemian
Mittelgebirge, 928.
rena pe ea 676.
Himantolophus, 747.
Hindustan, Ethnography of, 1008.
Hoek, A New Parasitic Cirripede,
hmannite, 1022.
E., The Red-fox at
Holocrystalline Rock, 208.
Holopea tenuicarinata, 1017.
Holostomum, 11
Holothuria, Developm ent of, 845.
Holst, N. O., Stu nia in Glacial Ge-
ology, 587, 7
Homeeodont
Hop 4 Bee, Legs of, 194.
Hoplichthyiam, 357.
et lant Louse
mf A dubai; Ks, 1116.
Horehound, 481.
W. Monke
PERSEE Ti
a Scientific aoe tien
Hornblende, 168, 732, 1022.
orsera , 481. i
Hough, Romeyn, American Woods,
1117.
1164
Hough, W.. Magic Mirrors of China
and Japan,
Hovey, E. a Cordierite Gneiss, 1022.
Howes eoi Md., Petrology of. 527.
Hucho,
Hudson River Highlands, Dikes of,
91.
Humanand Vertebrate Embryology,
Humulus, 430.
Hurgronji, Dr., at Mecca, 1012.
Hyena, 526.
Hyalonevadite, 300.
Hyaloandesites, 302.
ac nt sa alts, 303.
H
H 2.
ya att, “Alpheus, Values in Classifi-
cation of tages of
Growth and Decline, with
Propositions for a New No-
menclature,
Hydrichthys, 35
Hydrochce
H ydrocorallia , 840.
Hydroid Development, New Type of,
355.
Hydroidea, 840.
Hydrophane, 250.
Hydrurus, 67
Hyme noptera, Morphology of Legs
Hypersthene-Andesites, 302.
Hypersthenite, 1111
poepen npa Rock, 208.
mi
Hypopthalmidæ, 647.
Hypophthalmus, 648.
Hypsilophodon, 450.
Hyracotherium, 449.
Hyrax, 834
yssop, 432.
age 526.
Ice, Effect of, on Trees, 352.
a Semi 802.
Icebergs and Erosion, 229.
l chthyosaur us, 780
ddings, Origin of Quartzi in Basalts,
Idealism and Evolution, 81.
Idiomorphic Rock, 208.
n, 166.
Iguanodons not Descended from
Hypsilophodon, 450,
Ilmenite, 527.
Index.
Inconnu, 308.
ncubator and Thermostat, New,
Indiana Academy of Science, 1047.
Fishes 747.
Star-No eae Mole i in, 359.
ndian Caves, Fauna of, 52
Turnip,
Indians, Motilones, 562.
of Baffin Land, 561.
of British Columbia, 560, 561.
Yakutal, 854.
Influence bd Sabin Bo on the
ns and Habits of Ani-
eu and tha tof the Actions
ies, as Causes w
ify their Organization, 960,
1054.
Infusoria, American, 175, 259, 583,
651.
Conjugation in, 2
Inheritance of ar Ara 547.
‘t Insect Life” Koras 751.
Insecticides,
Insects as Food for Man, 262.
yee
ous Diseases of, 365.
Developmen of, 470.
Morp l L
orpho ogy of Legs of, 93.
ee apods, ‘Ancestors of,
North American, 940.
Sede Ste at Fault in Bees, 1029.
Intelligence, Purchase of, 435.
Tatelligent Selection, 145.
International Geological Congress,
5
Intrusive Rocks, 209.
Towa, Bee on Geology of Johnson
Y,
Notes on Rockford Shales in,
Tridalite, 931
ron Oxides, 1112.
igation of Arid han ge 821.
rving, R. D., Dea
Ischyromys, 8.
italian Corn Salad, 803.
Jæra, 652.
an, A New
of Ghologaster, 937.
Jerusalem ye rera 803.
w Spe-
Index.
Jickeli, ani, oaket System of
t
Jordan, David Starr, Manual of
ertebrates, 1 1006.
Sketch of p Stearns, 759.
Jordan, E. O., s the Volume of a
Muscle Change during its
Contraction ? 370.
Joseph, Max, ital Infusion of
Nerv with Methyl-blue,
1039.
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scien-
tific Society, 935
of 8 Bigg’ al Aca ol So-
279. La
J ournals, Be ientific, 151
santa d Fishing in
apan,
` No tes on Forster’ s Tern, 85.
Judd, Prof.. sa oo Structure i in
Quartz,
Junction Mount ‘Uptheust, 405.
e, 805
Dwarf, 807.
sige s _., Europäischen Russ-
Karruntoriastion; 167,
Kemp, ikes
River Highlands,
Courtland Series of Eraniíre
s, 1020.
Kent Scientific Institute, 1041.
Keratophyre, 297.
Kersantite, 217, 696, 838.
Keyes, Charles R., he Attachment} La
Syr ycerata to Fossil Crin-| L
Surface "Geology of Burlington,
Towa, 1049.
Kidney in Hes Urchins, 461.
Kinsgley, J. S. ah Daibryolo y
of Insects and Arachnids.
and Cave Life, 1104.
Classification of Myriopoda,
Development of Crangon, 471.
Something about Crabs, 888.
ee
Klipstenite
Knee-Jerk, ‘sterling of, 85.
Koeleria, 172.
Kroustchoff, An Inclusion in Basalt,
1021
Krykonite, 594.
Kükenthal, Dr., Staining Sections,
11
Kultschitzk. mi akao onp aas Prep-
Kuntz, Olisoctase Quartz Pseudo-
835. 7
of the Hudson
1165
te Tas Iron Oxides, Cyan-
1112.
Kurto don, 7
Kurtodontide, 724,
yio
Caballa Fishes s, 861.
e A Boston TAAS, 668.
e Biological, 756, 7
a ikserinacntal a ian
Lacertilia, Origin of Segmental Duct
Lacroix and Baret, Pyroxenite, 1022
Modify their Organization,
] Lamarckianism, ‘811.
Jager Co
Langerhans, Paul, 1
Langley, S. P., Smithsonian Institu-
ti pala Circular rding
can y peera ie Stòne
on
n, 856.
Language, Com The Tome and} Fate
of,
Largest Fossil Mammals, 836.
Larks,
Larva of Proteus, 1031.
Larvæ, Aquatic Lepidopterous, 468.
| Larynx in n Batrachia, 79.
Lateral Line of Scyllium, 731.
e Organs in Ceecilia, 749.
Lavas, 299.
Lavenite e, 62.
Leadville, Rocks of, 6
Le Baron’s Seon clanieal Reports,
65
Leersia and Eee Root-
Legs of Hymenopterous Insects,
~ Morphology of, 193.
Lemanea, 6
murs, Canine Teeth of, 163.
Lepi idolite, 7
pidome , 788.
PERTON pasg Unpublished Work on,
1
Lepidopterous Larve, Aquatic, 468.
1166
pidosir ren, 7
,e
O
T
e
je
tc 676..
ep
eucites, 301, 308, 804, 1024.
Lew Death of, 667.
Leydig Frantz, Silkwor m Parasites,
BERS
213.
OT Ys
Avant
ont
“L'Hom
Er Homme L’ Histoire,”
7
Libby, Wm., Jr.. Yakutal Indians of c
Alas 54, M
Lichens, New Type of, 458.
Limburgite, 305, 453.
Limnothrips, 261.
Linck, Basal tic Rocks of Alsace,
hens on aoe Iron Sulphates
Lindahl, J., Dr., " Holst's Studies in
lacial Geology, 705.
Linden, ost Death of,
‘Linnean ety of London, 567.
Linsberg, 453,
Linyphia, 652.
Liparites, 299, 3
Lithocolletis, 364.
Litho jeien Slates, Fauna of, 450.
Lithosider `
Liver of rie us, 746.
Lobster, Roproducuen of Lost Parts,
Local American eet we J
Lockington, : ved peil s
“Lake A e in Ohio; 152
Karpinski’s Uebersicht der hy-
sike-geographischen er-
haltnisse des europäischen
sslands,
Lockyer. Meteorites, 1114.
Loess, 597.
in Iowa, 417.
Fossils of, 419.
Logan, R. F.. Death of, 91.
„ogwood Trees, 396.
Í oligo, Germinal Layers in, 256.
7 ntidæ, 449.
Loricariidæ,
Lowell Institute Lectures, 1143.
Léwinson. coreg ni Classification of
ic Rocks, 1109.
` Louse, Whale 652.
Louteridium donnell-smithii, 1027.
Lonopemis, aie Species of
Lutra, es of, 750.
Lychnot
us, 740,
Indez.
Lydekker’s iape Mammalia in the
ir ea Museum, 164, 232.
Lyn
gbya,
Mlactatley, Ola, Seminole Indians,
1138
Macherites, ‘81 6."
Machzrodus, 526.
Mackerel, Spanish, 714.
peeve ae Poison-Apparatus of
fo osquito,
Jobin. Canadian Plants,
t IV., 1027.
Mierochstys 450.
es
Par
Macrotherium, 72
Macrura, 841
Madreporaria, Anatomy of, 540. .
Madrid, Mortality of, 1011.
agic Mirrors of China and Japan,
Ma hogany, 395.
Mail-Cheeked Fishes, Primary
roups of, 356.
Malachite, 735.
ntly Discov-
pris Garrick, Rece
red Algonkin "Pictographs,
S5
Vice-President A. A. A. S., 1889,
Mallophaga, Systematic Position
of, 71.
Mamme, Origin of, 370.
Mammalia, Fossil in the British
64.
’ Arrangement of
c, 282.
Mesozoic, 723.
of the Maragha Beds,
ane en Molars, Evolution to
Tritubercular
Type,
Mammals, American Types i in Swit-
zerla
Classification of, 831,
Largest, 836.
Vacuities in Skulls of, 743.
th, 837.
, 847.
nese Oxides, Origin of, 1114.
anganite,
+ pag "Development of, 355.
s, 526.
Manual of Vertebrates, 1006.
rag! S, Mammalia of, Ti.
Mateaiitte, 185.
aS
Indez.
Marcou, J. B., Review of North
merican Palæontology for
9.
1887, 67
Margarite, 1020.
Marine Biological Laboratory, 56,
760.
283,
Marine Coilecting in DEYN 33.
e Light in, 741.
P roy ot
Marrubium
Mar ema Count, Notice of Death
Marsh, o. Ces ‘A Horned Dinosaur,
Marsupials, Cænozoic, 163.
Martinite, 528.
M
Mason, Otis, beri gs Beast of
Mic
Burden,
Women’ : Pons in Primitive In-
43.
dus
Massive Rocks, Classification of, 207,
Massospora, 645.
Mastodon, 837.
Matthews
Chan t, 1187.
McGee, a K ‘American Commas
53.
McGee, Ww. Meadow Larks, 1122.
eado e, New, 598, 934.
Medal. Elliott Donen, 1
and Premium, John Scott, 1048.
Medusze of a England, 354.
Megachile, 1
Mogg pe of Brittany,
ang 7
Megam
Me hapke sor 528.
Melaphyre , 298, 299.
Melilite, 305.
Teloe, Develo ment of, 1037.
Mendenhall, a Pres ident A. A.
18
Menhaden, 715.
aor Powers a Spiders, 654.
Merri H:, New Prairie
Mea adow Mouse pey Dakota
and See
New Backed Py is
y
ote W., The Mountain
1167
eda 449,
Mesodont
esozoic, in ‘Sweden , 730.
a, Classification of, 232,
Mesquite Grass, 171.
M ne, 72
Metal Wong "ainong the Indians,
Meteoric Stone, 931.
Meteorites, 63, 97, 1114.
Meyer O., Bi Diodak. Notes
on Conrad’s Tertiary Shells,
726.
Micas, 738, 1
rotome, Minot’ s Automatic, 945.
Middlesex Institute, 88.
Milliere, P., h of, 91.
Mimicry in Spider s, 545.
Mindanao, Six Weeks in Southern,
pue Derivation of Names of,
128.
usi one of, 530.
Minette, ate, 732, 838.
Minnesota, Soiano ee in, 66.
Petrography of, 4
Mioclenus
Miolania, Affinities of, 55.
Miolophus, 164.
Mirrors, Magic, of China and Japan,
Mississippi,
from, ?
uri, Archæan Rocks in, 732.
Mitraria, 1 26.
Prehistoric Ornaments
84
Mixi 2, >
pated a 725, 730.
Mnemiopsis,
Moebius, Theory of Molluscan Crys-
tallin ony of tyle, 936.
Mollusca, 841
Molluscan F
Meanie Os 1112,
Monitor, 362,
Monkey as a ’ Scientific Javestignior,
474.
Monocaulos, 840.
Monopsea , 840.
Monotremes and Multituberculata,
f Montgomery-Cope Dis a 264.
Summary
f the st cana between
r p Cope and Myself,
266.
ew
1168
Monticulipora, 166.
ati Celtic Society of, 273.
numents, Megalithic, of iana
3.
Morgan, T. H., Solvents of Chitin, 857.
Morocco, Religious Brotherhoods of,
27
Mo orphology and Physiology, 756.
Morris, ee Intelligent Selec-
N
Morse, E. S., AY row Release, 943.
Pate
Motilone Indians, 562.
272.
Muhlenbergia and Leersia, Root-
Stocks of, 351.
Muliiisherenlate. 12, 75, 282, 727.
lti noe ulata ’Monotremes, 259.
Index.
Naticopsis rarus, 1016.
National Academy of Sciences of
United States, 1042.
oological 1 a 515.
Natural Gas,
History oo ane and Postal
egulations, 253.
Science Assn., Staten Island,
1145.
Selection, 811.
166.
Nebraska, Grasses of, 171.
eeds, en 1114.
Negundo, 531.
Nelson, J A N
cubator
ew Laboratory In-
and Thermostat,
664.
Fixing Sections to the Slide,
664.
Nematognathi, eg 647.
ematus, Galls
Munro 1 Neo- Jan eiria ‘Sil.
Murenosaurus 725. Neotoma,
Mursin , 528. eovoleanic Rocks, 170.
Muscadin mish ; 252. Nepheline, 30
uscle, Does the Volume of — Nephelinite, 301
during Contraction ? 370 Nephridia, Origin of, 46
Muscle Pan 76, 78, 1121. ephridium of Sea Urchins, 461
Muscles of a TT. Nerve Cells an ork, 75
o s, 356.
Muscovite, ‘215, 733.
Muscular Tissue in Invertebrates, |
Muskrat, Aquatic Respiration in,
9,
Mustagh Pass, 823.
Mustela, 526.
Mutilations, rok ge i of, 547.
Myenia mülleri, 1 125.
Mylohyoid Groove in Mesozoic and
ce ammalia, 75.
a and Insects, Ancestors of,
Myriapod in a Hen’s Egg,
Myriapoda, Classification, 1118.
Myrmecobius, 75, 77.
Mytilus edulis, 936.
yxine, Bloo d Corpuscles of, 78.
Namyacush, 312.
Names, Local Am , 44.
erican
of Minerals, Derivation of, 21,
Nanoglanis, 648.
anomia, 604.
Nansen, Frithjof, Greenland Expe-
dition, 1098.
Nerves, Nig Infusion witih Methyl-
Nervous S a, ` Double-Staining,
of Star-Fish, 933.
of Vertebrates, Beard, 1132.
op Ward’s Natural
ory Establishment, 762.
New EWE Orthoptera of, 469.
, 85
New Jersey, Triassic i in, 639.
New Toe Mouse, 5
New Minera
New York £ State Entomologist, Re-
rt of, 261.
Niagara Group, Position of, 637.
Nickel Silicate, 9
Niedmann, Observations on Barite,
931.
Nigella, 422
Nitella, 740.
Nomenclature of Mammalian Molar
usps, Osborn, 926
Norites, 212, 837.
North American Paleontology in
1887, 679.
Index.
Northwestern African Trading Com-
pany, 101
Norway, Plutonic Rocks of, 346.
Nototheriun
Nuclear Division | ïn Euplotes, 740.
Nuphar
Nusbaum, 5 osef,
Meloe, 1037.
Nutting, C. “o. , Description of a
Supposed New Species of
Acinetan, with Pahia
o re Manner of Food Ing
and rah Ree ia 3.
Nyethærus ourdiformis,
Nymphea
Oceania, Development of, 355.
Ocoté, 3i
Ohio Archeology, 713.
Oikopleura, 605.
Ojibway, ‘Shamanism of, 475.
igoclase, 1112.
Oliveni
Olivine-gabbro, 1111.
olliff, S. a- Notes on Peri
w South Wa les
308.
Ophiodyt m, 674.
gora, 725, 730.
Optic Nerve in Vertebrates, 1040.
Orconec 4.
Origin = Quartz in Basalts,
ings, 102
of the Mawar: 370.
Id-
of Petroleum, 839.
Ornithorhynchus. Teeth in, 259, 369.
Ornix geminatella, Synonymy of,
Orotherium, 449.
Orthomys, 347.
Orthoneueeah ae 1126.
Orthophyre,
Or Can Se of Now England, 469.
Osar, 590, 7
Osborn, "Heniy F., EEE A | 4
Ma crotherium
Évolution of Mamm alian o
to and fr
lars
om the Tritubercu-|
lar Type, 1067.
The Mylohyoid Grove in Mesozo-
nt
d Mammalia, 75.
Nomenclature of the sean tre
lian Molar Cusps,
A Review of Mr. Lydekker’s
Arrangement of the Meso-
zoic Mammalia,
Development of
P
tus in| ]
1169
Pon er apes Mammalia (Re-
723.
Oscillations Sof Swedish Coast, 1011.
63.
OS
x
ta t
ag
©
5
>)
E.
=
an
Pachylon
eo age EE 449.
Packard, se Clarke's Devonian
acea of New York, 714.
Cortana: ~~ ssi of Evolution,
Packard’s Entomology for Begin-
ners, 842.
Pagerogala, 675.
Paleolithic Implements, 378.
Man, 847.
Pa
Pa
a
Pa
a
æoniscidæ, 730.
ontological Papers in 1887, 679.
zovoleanic Rocks
æozoic in noS Africa, 167.
áwan, A Mont
estine, Flora of,
meila, ;
ot = Bes Ash of Tillandsia
es
roe 1 E C. Effect on Vegetation
f the Variable Rainfall of
E asra Mexico, 459.
wo
a
a
Pa
alm
Palo ierite, 847.
Pantellerites, 299, 390.
Papilio Asar Pian 1
Paracone, 124.
Paraffin aon Celloidin in Imbedding,
Paraffin in Preparation of Brains,
Paraffine for Ribbon-Cutting, 1143.
Gopepod ogg oa 1118.
phnidze
G. H.,
Paracyclas validaltson, 1016.
Parthenocissus
Partula, 651.
Patella, 746.
Pavlow’s Phylogeny of the Horse,
Peabod Museum of Archzol :
“Wo rk of, 713. hed
Peach Curl, 738.
eee Eyes a pena
1170
Peanut, 428,
Peat in Iowa, 414.
Peckham, George W. and Elizabeth,
Monograph of the Attide,
Pediastrum and Polyedrium, 1026.
Pedomys,
Peet, S. , Effigy Mounds—The
C ng t
in Mississippi Bottoms as
Refuges during High Water,
Pegmatite, 214, 527, 7
Pelycodus, 832.
Penfield poet Sperry,
Analysis of
Cassinit, e1112.
Perimorphite, 349.
Peripatus, sc a of, 78.
Peripatus c E nove-zelan-
P. watt sis, 936.
die.
Perisiphonia,
Peristediidze, 358.
Peristedon,
rmian A; ge of a Texas Formation,
of Bo hem a, sige
Petroleum, Origin 0 f, 839.
TOON e of udson River Dikes,
691
Phanerogams, 333.
harmacolite, 1113.
P et pnts 234, 724.
Phascolomys, 75.
P ApS i ah 76, 724.
Phenacite, 350, 1111, 1112.
Phenacod
Phenacodu us primevus, Cope, 1049.
Phenolite, 1111.
Phonolites, 300, 301, 453.
P sur 2 Islands, A Visit to, 289.
142.
of,
Philippines, C Central, 779.
ollecting in, 761.
Natural History of, 622
Phlogopite, 1112.
Phocitite,
on humuli, 68.
Phosphate Deposits, Origin of, 245.
Hj rj Fj hh
Inder,
Phosphorescent Organs of Fishes,
57.
f Thysanopoda, 468.
iei, 65.
eante, "842.
Phylogeny ve Man, 660,
of Turtles, 5
ees| Physical Conan ts of —
S| Mar
e, and Tufa, 1022..
Physiognomy, 612.
Physiogr aphy of Rock-Making Min-
erals, Rosenbusch, 1097.
Physiologist, "Definition of, 373.
= ale Srey ogy a orphology, 756.
an n Society of, 372, 576.
crie-Acetic Aci i,
cri 3.
crite, 3.
ctographs, pre age 851.
ite, 1023
peed jel peed
>
>
>
>
>
D;
>
ikermi pe, 70 Fauna of, 525.
ilite, 217.
inabe te, 390.
neal Eye in Extinct Vertebrates,
914.
Pipilo megalonyæ, 1127.
Pitchstone, 296, 527.
Pitt-Rivers, Gen., 274,
PI ulax, 232.
Plagioclase, 838.
Planarians, Uterus in, 80.
Planchon’ $ aet vi peria ‘of the Ampeli-
Planes in ‘Minerals, 1024.
lateau, F., Vision of Caterpillars
and Adult Insects, 938.
35.
mer ecoholaitin, 357.
atychoerops, 164.
lecoglossu s, A a.
eigmeur, Captain,
he , 124.
us,
um Pockets, 738.
Plutonic Rocks of Norway, 346.
odon,
Index.
Podophrya, 13.
Poison Apparatus of the Mosquito,
Mac og 884
Fishes,
Polar Globes i in Asellus, 176.
Polianite, 249, 454.
Polled Cattle, 498, 784.
smus, 811.
Porifera, 8
Porphyries, 214.
Porphyrite, Labradorite, 298.
Diabase, 298.
Augite, 298.
Paa 297.
Hornblende, 298.
Porphyry, Qu
Quartzle 297.
Posepuy, Sections of Adinole, 1111.
1171
Protococcus, 324.
Protocone, 724
p
Psittacotherium, 4.
>
s
Psorosperm “Masses, 1125.
Psychology of Deceptions, 943.
Pteraspidians, Morphology of, 243.
1
Ptychodont, 834
Postal Reg patos and Botanical Ptychodt , 57.
ns, Pucciniei, 65.
Potholes in jaws Puerco Epoch, Vertebrate Fauna of,
Pottery, American Prehistoric, 475.
Fotto, T. by I1 Purchase of Intelligence, 435.
Poulton, E. D. Color-Relations be-| Pygidiidæ,
en Pupæ nd their Sur-| Pyrite, 1025.
ee . 33. >vrochroite,
Powell, aa X ual Report of| Pyrolusite, 249.
Bureau k Ethnology, 1137. | Pyrrhite, 732
Prasiola vrrhoarsenite, 455.
Prehistoric Scnaioenta from Missis-| Pyroxene-syenite, 1021.
yroxenic Rocks, 639.
sippi, 849.
Prestwich, Prof., Results of Geolo-
gis se International Con-
ess, , 950.
Primary. “Groups ‘of Mail-Cheeked
Fis
56.
Primordial Fauna i iv France, 243.
Pristina yey Akten 936
Privileged ersons in Science,
Prjewalski, Nikolai, 1143.
Prodidelphia, 724.
Dol crs an i , 448, 830.
Protection of. ” Aboriginal Monu-
ments,
Protective R Spiders,
545.
Protobalistum, 446, 829.
Protobalistidz, 829.
>,
J.
>yroxenite, 1022.
Juartz and Feldspar in Rock Sec-
ions, Method for Distin-
guishing, 1025.
uartz, 250.
Lamellar Structure, 1025.
. Porphyry,
` Pseudomorphs, 1112.
168.
Trachyte,
Quinaria, 458.
spat gral a Se 640.
Rainbow Trout,
Rainfall, Variable and Vegetation,
iene Fossil, 451.
Ran
Red Tish, 808.
Fox at School, 267.
Reibeckite, 1022.
Religion of Evolution, 264.
1172
Religious Brotherhoods of Morocco,
Remora, Disc of, 747.
Renal Organs of Echinoids, 461
Report of Com. on Preservation of
Archeological Monuments,
Reproduction y Lost Parts in the
Lo r, 464.
Reptile, Grain-Eating, 359.
Respiration, Aquatic, in the Musk-»
rat, 539.
sch, Hans, On Meteorites, 97.
14.
Se 357.
Rhizopoda, Fresh- Water Te Sk.
Rhode, E., Nervous System of Am-
936.
pe sage" a
Rhodoc
Rhodonite, 185, 1113.
Rhoic
Riguchoeciia Subacuminata, 1015.
Rice, Nay
Schoo s, 165.
ReieuePaastiny in Schools,
8
Stizostedium vitreum, 934.
Riley, Prof., On Platypsyllus, 940.
Englis Sparrow, 1124,
Rinkite,
Ripidolite, 1020.
Rock, Miles, Guatemala poe 885.
Rocks, Classification of, 207, 295
la ssification of Massive, 295.
mbes sive, 295
canic, 295
Rockford Shales. Notes 0
Rodentia, Origin of Dentition of, 3.
Roman pees s Geologie von Turkes-
Rootstocks of Leersia and Muhlen-
ergia, 351.
Rosenbusch's Classification of Mass-
emg Gesteine, 169, 207, 295.
eie
aar a Microscopical lag
phy o -Ma
Maer als, 1079.
Momniiaat B; , Anatomy of Isopods,
Rothfisch, 311.
Rotifers, Parasitic, 1
174.
Roumania, Geological Map of, 165.
Indez.
Royal Microscopical Society, Journal
of, x 9.
Rubber Trees, 395.
Rutile Petty masta. 168.
Rutile, 527.
Riitimeyer, Classification of Mam-
alia, 831.
Ryder, J. A., A New Atlas of Em-
ryology, 1135.
made Agr of Common Stur-
Hertwig’ s Text-Bo Book of Human
nd Vertebrate Embryology,
179.
Mr. Hay’s Observations on a
of Am
Breeding Habits
phiuma, 182.
The Several Functions of the
el Organ in the Devel-
eins the Teeth of
neem, sae on the Inheri-
nce o ilations, 547.
Ventral Suckete: of the Tadpoles,
263.
Sabanas, 398.
Sablon, sea du,
Plant, 1026.
Snocdhddila. tre
gitt
Resurrection
e-Teaching in| Sa
ahara,
Salivary Goole = sin Heotinecs, 746.
Saln me es
Salm
Salnonitts, Distribution and Char-
acteristics of the, ;
Sandberger, Bpidote i in Granite, 929.
Carbon “ast ous Mann in Crys-
talline Limeston
iy eretiienite, Gv ine pabbro;
Phenolite, 1111.
Sanidine
Sanidinite Bombs, 732.
Sapphires, eo
arcoptide, 65
Sardines, Abundance of in France,
Sardinia, Permian and Triassic in,
Sauer, Hornblende, 1022
urians, Jurassic of Germany, 525.
Saussurite,
Sayles, Ira, An Inquiry into the
_— of the Earth’s Inte-
Variations vot Gravity in Ap-
the gore Me of any
pane phere Whatever,
921.
Index.
Say’s Entomology, 262.
Scalabrinitheri ium, 451.
Scaphiopus 5
Scheider, E. D., Effect of Acids on
Silicates, 1025.
Schizoneura,
Schlosser on Czenozoic Marsupials
and Unguiculates, 163.
On Carnico ra, 10
Schmarda, hao
quite
on Peripatus
sis, 936.
Schmidt, Mas. Notice of! Death of, 283 |
e, 278.
Schneider s Acid Carm
Schufeldt, R. Outaulogy of
rallus bankiva, 1 1033.
Science, Privileged Persons in, 438.
Utopia, 698.
Science- deacha g in the Schools, 765.
7
eget Journals,
rch, aet “Attitude To-
aga te S,
Sciuropterus, 744.
Sclater, ae L., Development of
uth American Species of
Peri atus, 9
Sclerodomus, Extinct, ` 446, 828.
anenee nian maculatus, 714.
Scorpænoidea, 357.
peee ae Butterflies of New
lan
eating Lateral Line of, 731.
S ss, Development of, 155.
Ure a Riduey-t n, 4
Bection mieten An Inexpensive,
Sections, Fastening to the rng 664.
Sedgwick, Development 0
Species of Peripatus, 936
Seebohm on the Charadriidz, 236
Segm ae stage Ectodermal Origin
n Cheloni a and Lacer-
ti lia 369.
Origin n of, in Fishes, 541.
aan Organs, Origin of, 462.
Seison, 1
ataata lap itop hyi 1026.
Selection, Intelligent, 145.
enegambia, Frenc: k) 1009
Sepia, 746.
Serial Sections with Celloidin, 563.
Ser M
Shamanis m of a 475.
1, 861.
Sheep, Teeth of, 743.
Sheldon, Lilian, preses of Peri-
atus i and P.
Pp a
taha sapiens
1173
Sherborn, C. D., Foraminifera, 1125.
himer, = A ‘Cow with One Kid-
Shri re Spo ponge, 2
Shufeldt Groshéak's Skeletal
carta, 112
Sierra Nevada Mountains, Petro-
raphy of, 452.
Silica in Sandstone, 1025.
Sillimanite, 10
ilurian and Cambrian of Sweden,
729.
Siune 647.
Simia,
A AR 70.
Siren, 466.
ee wet,
Sketches of ‘the Cascade Mts. of
on (Illustrated), 996
Ore
Skulls of = Mention als, Vacuities in,
Smith, J., Monograph of the Sphin-
JEA of Temperate North
eroi 10
Smith, z kk; A Depauperate Grass,
532.
Smithsonian Parese rya Circular
ee ning Stone Relics,
Sociology, “Crieninal, 185.
Socot
Soda Granites, 169.
S ubach, Graf zu, 1047.
Solanum rostratum 115.
Solomon Islands, Geology of, 56.
Solvent of Chitin,
Sordavalite,
Southern ( 'attle Plague. Germs of,
113.
Spade-Foot Toad, 535.
Man in, 852.
724
L mn
— Tnokiok in Norway and
n High Latitudes, 218.
Spermaphyta, 647.
Sphene, $ 249, 527, 735.
Sphingidze e of North America, Mono-
raph,
Spiders, Excretory Organs of, 75.
Mental Powers of, 654.
1174
oe: ereot a 546
p-Door, 652.
Spilite, 298.
Spirifer substrigosa, S. hunger-
fordii, 1101.
Spirobolus.
Spirodomus, 5 524.
of Australia, 353.
Spongilla terrce-novee, 1125
Spoon, W. L., quatic Teo
in ‘er "Muskrat, 539.
Sporobolus, 5 2.
Sporoca
rp, 739.
Sporophydium, 739
Spurious Arrowheads, 375.
Squatina, 43 26.
; Death of, 568.
a in, 746.
Caleareous Plates of, 1030.
Star-Nosed Mole in Indiana. 359.
urastrum 678.
Staurophora, 604.
Stearns, Silas, Obituary of, 759.
Steere, J. B., 'A Month i in Palawan,
Six Weeks in Southern Min-
Observations Made in the Cen-
Central .
Co cine tng in Philippines, 761.
i pb Mtge 1019.
Steno 307.
-» Maj., 949.
B, Obi uary, 7.
eligious Life of the Zufi Child,
Stieostedinm vitreum, 934.
Stokes North ‘American Oli-
chæte Worms, mee
ey ren . Flagellata, 11
Stone: Relics, Circular Concerning,
Streptindytes, 1
Sturgeon, Development of, 659.
Sturnella magna, S, egies, 1123.
r ouis, Histo f Gar-
n Vegetables, 490, 802, 979.
Stylodon, : 235.
ied tomers 930.
Indez.
Styracodus, 830.
rites
Suber , 145.
Subterrsasan Waters, 835.
Su ucking Discs of Batrachia, 268.
Suck Fish, Sucker of, 747.
Suez Can al, Fauna of, 741.
Siaperesitions of Bahama Negroes,
1138.
Sus, 526.
Sussexite, 1112.
Sutroa rostrata,
Sweden, Cambrian and Silurian of,
29.
Sweden, Mesozoic i in, 730. `
Swine Plague, Germ of, FIB.
Syenite, 61, 838.
Sylon challengeri, 936.
Symbiosis, 584.
nceidz, 358
423.
Tablets Mounting Anatomical
reparations, 276.
for Anatomical Preparations,
382.
Tachisurus, 648.
Tachytitis, 837.
Ta apo Ventral Suckers of, 263.
Tadjura
Tonia, ‘Large, _
Teen a, 936.
Tale, ‘Nickeliferous) 349.
Tannin in the Plant, 1028.
Taphrina, 787.
Tate, ine Rare Australian Mam-
ai.
Taylor, Ww. $, Y riesig = er of
ts of Calcified, in the
Young of Ornithor hynchus,
of Rodentia, Origin‘of, 3.
ep, 743.
e, 213.
Peatudibate, Tertiary, of Belgium,
Testudo, 362.
Fossil, 246.
Tetractinellidae, 839.
etraspora, 675, 677.
Index.
vetrastigma, 251.
, B47
atra
JHH
Cie, Ser Rar Sa T
=)
©
:
ao
os
©
mM
72
S
ed
Ec
wn
oJ
D
o
J 1011
n of Evolution, 264.
heory of Deposition of Gold in
Placers, 981.
of pepe eck 53.
Theralite, 213
Theridium, 655
hermostat rele Incubator,
New,
664.
The Western Society of Naturalists,
988, 1043.
Tholeiite, 299,
Thomas, es Burial Mounds, 1137.
Thomisu
Bt arnsocenee 8 Ed. H., 1048.
676
Thorea, :
Thouar, pa Report to Bolivian
on 1010.
Thripon
Thrips, Dir decking 260.
ys, 638.
ae Spade-Foot, 5:
Tenia pepe 935.
Tooth Structure, 833.
Topinard on the Genealogy of Man,
Tourmalins, 250.
Townsendia, 645.
et
Triacant 448,
Triassic in Coenectioat and New Jer-
se
in ak Africa, 167.
Trichobranchiata, 842.
Trichogyne, 674.
535.
d, dJ. pe Directive ‘Coloration in
mals, 201. T
rrichomycteride, 647.
riconodon, 235, 724.
'ricophilus, 937, 1028.
Fridacn
Trifolium ‘nowellid, 1027.
rigla,
rrigloidea, "358
rrigonodontie, 832.
'rilobite es, New — 524.
'rimerorhachi
as kar iar iar
"roglocaris, 811.
'roglodytes, 75.
ryon, G. W., Jr., Obituary of, 279.
'scheffkinite, 349.
raoko, gipa Tænia sagi-
HHAH JaA
eo a? a
i m
Packerin F., Ritig Struc-
ture Ta ste-Organs of the Ves-
pertilio subulatus,
Tuckerman Memorial Library, 11
Turbo strigillata, 1016, incerta,
Tumble-Wee ads, 66.
Tumble-Weed, A Miniature, 645.
Tumulus,
Tunnel Diseas
S eal.
joieria Geslony of, 635, 830.
Turr
Turtles, Characters of of, 749.
Phylogeny o
Tectiory of Belgium, 450.
tossen, ‘bs.
Ulmus, 531.
Unguiculata, Czenozoic, 163.
Unio, 651, 746.
Unionide, 651.
Unpublished Work on Lepidoptera,
178.
invanda 785.
U
Science in, 698.
Utopia,
3 of Mammals,
Vacuities in Skulls
Vacuole, Contractile, 1118.
Valentin, a” Psorosperm Mass-
1176
Valerianella, 803.
Values in Classification of the Stages},
d Decline, with
Propositions ler a go 0-
PAS Hyatt,
Vanessa, 10
Varanus, 526.
Variations of Gravity in pe oach-
Centre of a s-
mic Sphere Whetavet,
Sayles, 921.
Variolite, 838.
Vaucheria, 673.
egetab e „Kingdom, Evolution in,
Vapotakion Garden, 802.
istory of,
Vegetation and Variable Rainfall,
9.
Vein Rocks, 214
Veit Graber, Prof., On the Primary
Segmentation of Germ-
Bands of Insects, 941.
a 307.
Vermes, 841.
Terebra Morphogeny of Tarsus
and Carpus of, 435.
Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco
h, 1
Vertebrates, Embryology of, 179.
Vespertilio subulatus, 937
Vesuvianite, 11
Vision of Caterpillars and Adult In-
u, 9
sects,
‘“ Visuaire ” and “ ‘Auditaire,” 376.
458
aba!
Vor dorf, ‘Granite 929.
Vulpes,
Wall Eye, 7
Ward's Natural History Establish-
62.
Ward, rea Fossil Cryptogamia, |
Washington Entomological Society,
Pind dings of, 469.
Wasps, Lous ot , 195.
Water erg G. R., Notice of Death
wW a ed 677.
Waters, Subterranean, 835.
Watson's Contributions to North
ine rican Botany, XV.,
Indez.
Webster, Clement L., On the Gla-
Central gree of Iowa
lustrated), 9
a on the Sins of John-
County, Iowa, 408.
Notes on the Rockford Shales,
al-
Weed, C. M., Occurrence of Apte-
rous Males among the Aphi-
didæ, 7
Poisoning the Plum Curculio,
On the Synonymy of the Apple-
leaf Creaser, Ornix gemina-
Weeds, Figuring ‘against, 774.
Wehler ite, 213
Weight of Brain in Proportion to
Body in es
Weiselbergite, 298, 2
Western Society of Naturalists, 860.
Whale, California Gray, 509.
ic 2
72
White, bai A., Mesozoic, Palzeozoic,
Peruvian Types of In-
iaw k rates in iger 926.
Moulinin Upthrusts, 385.
Whitefish, 306.
Whitman’ C. O., On Amphibian
gs,
Wier zijski Eus ongilla, 1125.
Wild Cattl reat Britain, 498.
Will and ae of Energy,
547.
Williams, Dr., Contact Phenomena,
1020.
Rocks of the Cortland Series, 929.
— 8. Ws; Professor Marsh
r. Harger, 4
Williston’: s abioa of North Ameri-
can PES 8 ;
Willow Galls
Wilson, = “ Mewslithic Monuments
rittany, 573.
Wilson, "Anode Skull from Tampa
Winchell,
Stu
PA T eg “350, 11
o: a
111 8.
mass bi = Primitive Indus-
y, 943.
ao Geological
Wood's Holl Biological Laboratory,
283, 668, 756, 758, 760.
Woods, Am mene Hough, 1117.
Work and Nucl ei, 758,
Worms, Anatomy of, 176.
in Hens’ Eggs, å.
Ç
Index. 1177
rthen, Amos H., Obituary of, 478.
Wo
Wulfenite, 735.
Wilpi BB E 1112.
Zatrachys, 466.
Zebra, 6:
Zeeler, Er nst, Larva of Proteus, 1031.
Xanthitane, 735. | Zeolites, 350
Xanthoxylum, 458. Zepharovich, Measurements of Trona
Xenom 36. bree s
Yakutal Takas 0 cite, Artific
: Zin
Yampa Mountain Upthrust, 403. | Zittel, = ndbuch der Palæontolo-
Yellow Fever, Germ
Toreon Park, Fossil Soroti of, Zoological Park, ` National,at Wash-
ington,
Younghusband’ Journey through ae e, 6
Asia, 823. Zuni i Indians, 271.
Yucatan othe 1048. Teas ma, 67
Zacharias, O., ‘Beodemmus terrestris, AL Sates 834.
Zygophytes, 327.
Zapeti, 393. | Aa dng 678.