peculiar to India and Egypt from the earliest period, while the latter was used among the Greco-Italian nations-a proof that the European culture was not influenced by Africa and Asia until it had itself made considerable prog

ress.

FAUNAL PROVINCES OF THE WEST COAST OF AMERICA.

In the course of a critical comparison of the marine fauna of the east and west coasts of America Professor Verrill takes occasion to mark out what he considers to be the principal zoological provinces of Western America. Taken in the order of his enumeration, he commences with what he calls the Sitchian Province, corresponding with the Syrtensian Province of the Atlantic coast, and extending from the termination of the arctic or circumpolar fauna to the coast of Oregon. The second, or Oregonian Province, includes the Puget Sound coast, and that of Oregon to Cape Mendocino, and represents the Acadian fauna on the east coast of America. The third, or the Californian Province, reaches from Cape Mendocino to Santa Barbara, and perhaps further southward, and apparently corresponds to the Virginian fauna on the Atlantic. The precise southern extension of this fauna is not entirely worked out, there being possibly two other provinces, the Diegoan and Sonoran, as indicated by Professor Dana, filling up the gap reaching to the Panaman Province. This includes the Gulf of California, and extends from Margarita Bay, California, to Cape Blanco, Peru, and has three subdivisions, or districts; the Mexican, covering the Gulf of California, Cape St. Lucas, and the Mexican coast to Acapulco; the Panaman, including the coast of Central America and the Bay of Panama; and the Ecuadoran, extending southward from Panama Bay to Cape Blanco, Peru. The Galapagos Province, according to Professor Verrill, may possibly be a district of the preceding, but additional collections are necessary to establish this point. The Peruvian Province, extending from Cape Blanco to Northern Chili, is apparently well marked; and the Chilian Province, embracing the middle coast of Chili, also has its peculiar fauna. The Araucanian Province extends from Valdivia to the southwestern coast of Patagonia; while the last, or the Fuegian Province, includes Southern Patagonia and the adjacent islands.

SCARCITY OF POISONOUS SERPENTS IN
TROPICAL AMERICA.

We are in the habit of supposing that tropical lands are necessarily infested with poisonous serpents of varied species and in great numbers, and are led to consider this supposed condition as one of the chief drawbacks to residence or travel in those regions. This may be the case as it regards Asia, and also in a few of the West India Islands; but it certainly does not apply to Central America, where, with an immense multiplicity of species, those of a venomous nature are comparatively rare; in fact, much scarcer than in the Southern United States. A naturalist, relating his recent experiences in Guatemala, which is a fair type of the region generally in this respect, remarks that one may be in the country a long time without seeing a snake of any kind, and much less frequently a poisonous

one. The latter indeed are, perhaps, not actually rare on the coast; but they avoid the presence of man, and at any rate move about but little in the daytime. A species of rattlesnake is the most abundant. The writer also remarks that the poison of the rattlesnake appears to be much less deadly than it is farther north, as quite a number of cases of bites came under his notice, but he never heard of one resulting in death.

PEGGING LOBSTERS' CLAWS.

In a paragraph in the January number of our Scientific Record reference is made to the subject of pegging lobsters' claws, so as to prevent them from injuring their captors, and to the belief in England that this practice tends to produce a morbid condition of the system, by which they are rendered unwholesome. In further reference to this subject we are informed that in the city of Boston lobsters are never brought to market alive, but are always boiled on the shore almost immediately after being caught, and in that state offered for sale. The practice, however, is very different in New York, where they are brought in alive with the claws pegged. Careful inquiry has, it it said, revealed the fact that cases of disease from eating lobsters in Boston are extremely rare, and, indeed, are almost unheard of, while the contrary is the case in New York, many instances being known of sickness resulting from the use of lobsters as food.

PETREL OIL

Ornithologists are well aware that certain kinds of sea-fowl belonging to the petrel family are in the habit of disgorging a quantity of oil when captured, and that this furnishes in large part the food with which they supply their young. Many of these species excavate a burrow in the earth, in which their single egg is laid, and the young bird, when hatched, is left for a long time while the parents are abroad occupied in the business of procuring food. The oil in question, according to some, is obtained from dead and floating cetaceans or fish; according to others it is a regular secretion. In either case the amount is so great that the inhabitants of the island of St. Kilda are in the habit of hunting the Fulmar petrel for the purpose of catching it and causing it to disgorge this oil, which is done by dipping the bill of the bird into a small leather bag suspended to the waist. The amount obtained in this way is sufficiently great to furnish an article of export, and it is suggested that it may probably possess virtues corresponding to those of the cod-liver oil. A recent investigation shows that it is soluble in ether, and much less so in alcohol, and has other reactions which place it side by side with the cod-liver oil. TRANSVERSELY STRIATED MUSCULAR FIBRE

IN MOLLUSCA.

Transversely striated fibre is universal in the voluntary muscles of vertebrates, insects, and crustaceans. In the other departments of invertebrates it is very rare, and seems usually associated with muscles performing rapid voluntary motions. Among the mollusks it has been known in a few species of the classes of Tunicata, Brachiopoda, Polyzoa and Conchifera, respectively. Mr. W. H. Dall has recently discovered transversely striated muscle in the genus acmæa,

ca.

FOSSIL WHALE IN CANADA.

At a recent meeting of the Natural History Society of Montreal the discovery was announced, by Mr. Billings, of the nearly complete skeleton of a fossil whale at Cornwall, Ontario County, at about sixty feet above the level of the St. Lawrence. It is believed by Mr. Billings that this fossil is identical with one obtained in Vermont by Professor Thompson, in a railway cutting about twelve miles south of Burlington, and called Beluga vermontana. This is closely allied to the white whale of the St. Lawrence, though differing in some special points.

VALUE OF VARIOUS ANTISEPTICS.

Dr. Crace Calvert, in a recent paper, gives the result of investigations into the antiseptic power of various substances. One series of experiments consisted in placing in uncorked bottles solutions of albumen and of flour-paste, and then adding various portions (from two to five per cent.) of the different antiseptics in question. The result of the experiments proved that the only real antiseptics known at the present time are carbolic and cresylic acids, all other mixtures acquiring an unpleasant odor in from five to sixteen days. The second series of observations consisted in placing a known quantity of the antiseptic in the bottom of a wide-mouthed pint bottle, and suspending over it by a thread a piece of sound meat. In this case, again, the meat became putrid in from four to twenty-five days, excepting in the case of the acids just mentioned, over which the flesh remained untainted, but dried up quite hard. Chloralum, which has been much praised lately as an antiseptic, was found to be below the average as a preservative.

NON-AMALGAMABLE GOLD.

The attention of Mr. Skey, of the Geological Survey of New Zealand, was called to a reported loss of gold during the process of extraction by mercury, and he found, on careful examination, that numerous samples of bright, clean-looking gold of two degrees of fineness refused to amalgamate on any part of their natural surfaces, and he ascertained by experiment that on such surfaces sulphur is always present. He also found that native pure gold will readily absorb sulphur from moist sulphuret of hydrogen or sulphide of ammonium, and that surfaces so treated refuse to amalgamate, although exhibiting no apparent change in their surfaces. He shows, however, that by roasting in an open fire, or by bringing it in contact with cyanide of potassium, chromic and nitric acid, and chloride of lime acidified, gold so affected is rendered amalgamable, unless copper be present to the extent of seven per cent., or perhaps less.

CHLORAL IN SEA-SICKNESS.

The British Medical Journal refers to the use of the hydrate of chloral as a means of producing sleep for a definite number of hours with cer

BED OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC.

Captain Sherrard Osborne, well known as an arctic explorer, has lately presented a communication to the Royal Geographical Society of London in reference to the Atlantic sea bed. In this paper he states that the bottom of the North Atlantic is occupied by two valleys, the eastern extending from ten to thirty degrees west longitude, and traceable as far as the equator, with an extreme depth of less than 13,000 feet. The western valley reaches from the thirtieth to the fiftieth degree of west longitude; and the two are separated by a ridge in thirty degrees west longitude, along which the average depth is only 1600 fathoms, and which can be traced northward to Iceland, and southward to the Azores, so that it is volcanic in character at both extremities. Its extreme breadth is somewhat less than 500 miles, and the depth of the water increases on both sides of it according to the distance from the axis.

From Captain Osborne's researches in regard to deep-sea beds generally he is inclined to believe that there are no rough ridges, abrupt chasms, nor bare rock, and that the sea bottom at great depths is not affected by currents or streams, even by those of the magnitude of the Gulf Stream, and that it rather resembles the American prairies in general appearance, and is every where covered by a kind of mud.

SPAWNING OF HERRING.

According to a writer in Land and Water the female herring discharges her spawn in mid-water simultaneously with the emission of milt by the males, and the fertilized eggs sink immediately to the bottom, where they adhere closely to any object with which they come in contact, in consequence of a mucus which envelopes each globule. Fishermen maintain that when a large school of herring are engaged in this operation the water of the sea becomes whitened by the milt, sometimes recognizable over a large area; and it is said to be necessary to wash the nets thoroughly and with great care to prevent them from becoming heated and rotten in consequence of having been soaked in this animal matter.

LIEBREICH'S PEPSIN.

A recent German writer, in referring to some new chemical preparations, speaks of the formula for preparing pepsin as published by Dr. Liebreich, and remarks that until lately this substance, once so frequently prescribed, has gone almost entirely out of use, in consequence of the readiness with which it undergoes decomposition. He adds, however, that the experience of a year with the article as prepared by the new process has shown that this is perfectly unchangeable, and when compared with pepsin made freshly by the other formula is far superior to it in its efficiency. One somewhat unexpected application of the new pepsin is based upon its tendency to

destroy fungus growths, on which account it has lately been used in diphtheria by painting the inner surface of the mouth with it. Some most extraordinary cures have already resulted from this application, and it is commended earnestly by the writer in question to further experiment. It is also said to exercise a beneficial effect, when mixed with foul drinking water, in destroying those fungus germs which are so productive of mischief in causing diarrhea and cholera. DESTROYING THE TASTE OF COD-LIVER OIL. An Italian physician, referring to the objectionable taste of cod-liver oil, and the many methods adopted to render it less obnoxious to sick persons, states that its peculiar smell and taste can be completely removed by digesting it with roasted coffee and ivory-black. For this purpose one part of good roasted coffee and one and a half parts of ivory-black are to be mixed with twenty parts of cod-liver oil, and the whole placed for a quarter of an hour in a retort heated by steam to a temperature of 120% to 140° Fahr.; after which the liquid is allowed to settle, and is then filtered. The oil, it is said, then tastes and smells precisely like coffee.

As iodine is said to lose not only its taste and odor, but also some of its chemical and physiological properties, after being mixed with an infusion of coffee, it may be necessary to add a certain quantity of free iodine to the mixture thus prepared in order to restore that element to the oil.

MIXTURE OF ALKALINE SALTS WITH
PLASTER OF PARIS.

Persons occupied in making plaster casts have been for a long time aware that unburned gypsum can be made to harden by the use of an alkaline solution, and that if this be employed in connection with the burned gypsum, or the regular calcined plaster, a much firmer mass is produced. Some detailed experiments have lately been made by Mr. Schott, in Brunswick, which may furnish some important hints in regard to the use of sulphate of lime with potash. Thus, if equal parts of powdered crystallized sulphate of lime and of a neutral sulphate of potassa be mixed together, and then reduced to a paste with water, the mass hardens perfectly, and more quickly than gypsum in the ordinary treatment. If equal parts of common calcined plaster of Paris and of sulphate of potassa be mixed together, they will harden in a moment with less than an equivalent weight of water; so much so, indeed, that the mixture can not be poured out of the vessel. If, however, one part of each of the salts and two of water be used, they form a mass which can be poured out, and the surface of which will be found coated with a crust of sulphate of potash. The rapidity of hardening, therefore, can be made to vary with the percentage of water, the mass solidifying even if six parts of water be used.

BRONZING OBJECTS OF WOOD, ETC.

Objects of wood, stone-ware, and porcelain, picture-frames, etc., may, it is stated, be made to receive a beautiful bronze by applying, by means of a brush, a thin layer of a water-glass solution, and then dusting this over with fine bronze powder. The excess of the powder is to be removed by gentle tapping, and the article, if

of porcelain or stone-ware, slightly heated. The bronzing may be polished by means of an agate stone, and thereby made to assume a beautiful effect.

DUST AS A FERMENT.

The lectures during the past year by Professor Tyndall upon atmospheric dust have stimulated much research on that and kindred subjects, and they have been very productive of good in the attention that has been drawn to the relationships of dust to the conditions of health and disease. In a late paper Mr. Tichborne furnishes some suggestions in regard to dust and ferment, and gives the result of numerous experiments with atmospheric dust taken from the bed of the streetway in Dublin, the gallery and upper seats of certain theatres, the top of Nelson's Pillar, at a height of 134 feet, and other localities. He found that from one-third to one-half of such dust consisted of organic matter-this being the case from whatever places it was taken. He details the result of experiments in regard to the power of this dust as a ferment, the process being based upon the reduction of the nitrate of any base to a nitrite, in the presence of substances undergoing fermentation. Due precautions were taken against error in every instance, and it was found that dust possessed the power of an active ferment; and, furthermore, that the dust taken from a great height, as that from Nelson's Pillar, appeared to have as great or greater activity than that from a building quite crowded to suffocation, this being due, probably, to the extreme lightness of the spores, almost approaching to volatility.

DETECTION OF SILK IN FABRICS.

According to Mr. Spiller, silk can always be identified in a mixture with any other animal or vegetable fibre by means of concentrated hydrochloric acid, which dissolves it completely and immediately, without appreciably affecting any woolen or woody fibre with which the silk may have been interwoven. Strong sulphuric acid has also a powerful solvent effect upon silk, and is likewise much more destructive in its action upon cotton than the other acid. Should it be desired to determine the nature of any fibres remaining after the solution of the silk, it is first necessary to wash and collect them, when they will usually be found destitute of color. To decide whether wool is present or absent, a solution of picric acid may be employed, which instantly imparts a full yellow tint to the wool, but does not in the least affect cotton, linen, or China grass; so that it is only necessary to immerse the fabric in the dye, wring it out, and wash well with water. Should any portion remain of a yellow color the presence of wool is indicated. Other methods can be employed similar in principle, but the picric acid is believed to be best. Discrimination between the different kinds of woody fibre can best be prosecuted by means of the microscope.

REMOVAL OF INK BLOTCHES FROM WRITING.

When ink blotches have been formed over writing which it is desired to decipher, we are advised to brush off the spot carefully with a weak solution of oxalic acid by means of a camel's-hair pencil. In this way layer after layer of the superincumbent ink will be re

tion for aid to the European sufferers by the European war was concurred in. On the 4th the Senate passed a joint resolution, afterward concurred in by the House, authorizing the President to station at the port of New York one or more national vessels for the purpose of conveying breadstuffs and supplies, to be contributed by the people, in aid of the destitute and suffering people of France and Germany.

A bill to organize Alaska into a county, with the county seat at Sitka, and with the public laws and the jurisdiction of Washington Territory extended to it, was passed by the House February 4.

In the House, February 8, a bill was reported from the Committee on Naval Affairs for the removal of the Brooklyn Navy-yard. A substitute was offered, providing that the Secretary of the Navy, General William T. Sherman, Admiral D. D. Porter, Brigadier-General A. A. Humphreys, Chief Engineer of the Army, and Captain C. P. Patterson, of the Coast Survey, be constituted a board to inquire whether it is desirable, and for the best interests of the government, to sell the yard; and if in their judgment such sale shall be advisable, the board shall recommend a suitable place in the State, and near the city of New York, to which the works in the Brooklyn Navy-yard shall be transferred, the board to report the results of their investigation to Congress on or before the 15th of December, 1872.

The Senate, February 14, passed by a vote of 24 to 20 a bill for the establishment of a semimonthly mail steamship service between New Orleans, Galveston, and the ports of Mexico. By the terms of the bill the Postmaster-General is authorized to make a contract for the carrying of the mails on that route. The company is to supply within eighteen months three first-class iron steamships of not less than fifteen hundred tons burden, built so as to be easily convertible into ships for war purposes. The contract is to be limited to ten years, and the annual compensation to the company is to be limited to one hundred thousand dollars, besides a reasonable allowance for any pioneer vessels that may be placed on the line during the next eighteen months, or until the contract really commences. In connection with the discussion of the Legislative Appropriation bill in the Senate, February 16, the question was settled relative to judicial salaries, which were fixed as follows: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, $8500; Associate Justices, $8000; Circuit Judges, $6000; District Judges, $5000; Chief Justice of the Court of Claims and of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, $6000; and Associate Justices of those courts, $5500.

A bill to create a Territorial government for the District of Columbia was reported in the House, February 17, by the Conference Committee, and passed. It became a law, receiving the President's signature February 21. Under the new system the District of Columbia will have a Governor and Council, appointed by the President, a House of Delegates, and a delegate in Congress, elected by the people. The legislative power is lodged in the Council and House of Delegates, with the veto power in the Governor. The House Committee on Appropriations agreed, February 20, to insert in the Miscellane

ous Appropriation bill the amount of $1,384,897 to continue work on the Post-office building at New York, and $942,574 for the Boston Postoffice and Custom-house building. The amount inserted for the completion of public buildings in other parts of the country is about $1,750,000.

The House, by a vote of nearly two to one, passed the Southern Pacific Railroad bill, February 21, as reported from the Committee on the Pacific Railroad. As it stands the bill provides for a trunk road from Marshall, Texas, to San Diego, California. All the branch roads are cut off, together with the land grants they conveyed.

The President's message to Congress, Jannary 30, on the confederation of Indian tribes, while approving the scheme, advised against the reception of the new Territory with its present constitution. "So long as a Territorial form of government is preserved Congress should hold the power of approving or disapproving of all legislative action of the Territory; and the Executive should, with the advice and consent of the Senate,' have the power to appoint the Governor and judicial officers, and possibly some others of the Territory."

The statistics of commercial credit for 1870 show an increase of twenty-five per cent. in the number of failures, and of nearly twenty per cent. in the amount of liabilities, compared with 1869. The largest proportionate increase is in California. New York and New England show an improved state of credit as compared with the South and West. The exhibit for Ohio and Pennsylvania is especially unfavorable.

General Schenck's departure for England has been postponed on account of the meeting, soon to be held in Washington, of a Joint High Commission for the adjustment of questions materially affecting the relations between this country and the territories and people of British North America. This commission was suggested to the President by the Queen, the latter agreeing to the proposal of the former that it should also be authorized to resume the consideration of American claims growing out of the circumstances of our civil war. The arrangement thus, by common consent, includes all claims for compensation which have been or may be made by each government, or by its citizens, on the other. The immediate and pressing occasion for the commission is the necessity for an early settlement of the questions concerning the fisheries. The Commissioners appointed by the British government are the Right Honorable Earl De Grey and Ripon, Lord President of her Majesty's Council; Professor Montagu Bernard; Sir Edward Thornton; Sir Stafford Northcote; and Sir John A. Macdonald, the present Premier of Canada. On February 9 President Grant sent a special message to the Senate announcing the arrangement which had been proposed, and nominating as Commissioners for the United States, Mr. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State; General Schenck; Justice Nelson; ex-Attorney-General E. R. Hoar; and Senator Williams, of Oregon. These nominations were confirmed by the Senate in executive session on February 10. In the British House of Commons, February 21, Mr. Gladstone, while refusing to announce the instructions given to the British Commissioners, indicated that they would consider the improvement of maritime law.