in a manuscript recently printed in France, where in Gouberville's diary, under date of December 27, 1555, he speaks of having had brought to him an Indian cock and hen. Probably the bird must have been known for some time, from this casual mention, as the same journal contains notices in detail. of new forms of animal and vegetable life which had attracted his attention.-10 B, June 3, 60.

STONE ARROW IN A HUMAN TIBIA.

Baudrimont gives an account of a human tibia found in Aveyron which had a stone arrow-head inserted in it, and which had remained adherent, and had caused a considerable exostosis of the bone. But what is most remarkable is the fact that the arrow-head was inserted by its haft and not by its point, there being no indication of any perforation. For this reason Baudrimont is of the opinion that the wound had not been produced in actual warfare, but that in all probability this was a case of surgical manipulation with the object of producing some specific effect, either moral or physical, similar in this respect to the system of trepanning on the living subject, of which several very striking instances have been brought to the notice of archæologists.—20 B, 1875.

INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE ON NERVOUS SENSIBILITY,

At a recent meeting of the Russian Scientific Association, at Kasan, some results were given by Troitzky of observations made by himself to determine the velocity of propagation of the excitement produced in the nerves of frogs, by galvanic currents of various degrees of intensity and of various temperatures. He found that for feeble currents the maximum velocity of nervous sensations is between the temperatures +20° and +10° C. The velocity diminishes when the nerves are warmed to 30° or cooled to zero. In stronger electric currents the influence of temperature upon velocity diminishes, the velocity being affected more by the strength of the current than by the temperature. In the case of very strong currents the influence of temperature entirely disappears. The velocity of transmission in the nerves depends upon the strength of the excitement, increasing directly as the latter.-19 C, VII., 204.

ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE TEETH.

At the meeting of the Anthropological Society of Göttingen, July 17, 1875, Dr. Von Jhering, after a brief mention of practices common among people widely separated, especially their barbarous toilet operations, gave a minute description of deformations of the teeth. These practices are of three kinds: 1. Coloring the teeth with red and black dyes (Borneo and Burma). 2. Knocking out one or more incisors of the upper or the under jaw by some tribes of Australia and of Central Africa. 3. Disfiguring the teeth without removing them. Many tribes of Central Africa chip the incisors with the chisel so as to make them pointed, sometimes in the centre, sometimes on one, sometimes on both sides. In the latter case they are bicuspidate. In the islands of the Malayan Archipelago the aborigines practice the filing down of their teeth, already discolored by the chewing of betel, in two typical fashions: 1. Removal of the enamel from the whole front surface of the crown by horizontal strokes of the file, and by smoothing down the edge-a species of mutilation characteristic of the Malays of the East Indian Archipelago. 2. A removal of the enamel in triangular pieces so as to leave the tooth pointed, and the remaining enamel rhomboidal in form. This is practiced in Java, Bali, Madura, and Celebes, and is not known elsewhere, so that Virchow, A. B. Meyer, and others believe it to be an exclusive mark of these islands. Dr. Von Jhering has observed this mark upon crania in various collections, but they have always proved to be from one of these four islands. We must therefore conclude that this species of mutilation had its origin there, although we have not the least suspicion to which people it belonged, or whether it was a mark of noble birth.

COMPARATIVELY SMALL BRAIN IN EXTINCT ANIMALS.

The study of the form of the brain in extinct animals is one of much interest, and has been prosecuted with considerable success lately. Some years ago Professor Lartet, of Paris, pointed out the small size of the brain in Eocene mammalia as compared with those of the present time. Professor Gervais has described the characters presented by the skull-cast in Toxodon-a remarkable and gigantic ani

mal, whose remains have been found in the post-Tertiary beds of Buenos Ayres. His observations led him to coincide with the view of Owen-that Toxodon represents a distinct order of mammals. Professor Cope recently pointed out the small size of the brain in Symborodon, from the Miocene strata of the Plains, showing that the greater part of the skull was occupied by immense air-chambers. Professor Marsh, of Yale College, has since compared the brain cavities of various genera of the American Eocene and Pliocene periods with existing forms, and finds those of the first-named epoch to be exceedingly small, and that there is a steady increase in size in the subsequent periods. Thus the brain in the gigantic Uintatherium, of the Eocene, is little larger than that of some reptiles. In the lines of the rhinoceros, tapir, and horse a regular increase in size from such beginnings can be traced.

DIMORPHISM IN CERTAIN BUTTERFLIES.

Some species of butterflies of the well-known genus Grapta have been found by Mr. W. H. Edwards to be dimorphic forms. By the simple experiment of tying up a Grapta dryas in a bag at the end of a branch of its food-plant, it laid a batch of eggs from which resulted a large number of G. comma and six G. dryas. He now gives in the Canadian Entomologist the results of an experiment made with Grapta comma, the converse of that made in 1873 with dry

as.

On the 10th of May last he took a female, true comma, and tied it up to a branch of hop-vine. She laid in the bag some forty eggs, from which hatched thirty-nine caterpillars. Most of them in due time reached the chrysalis state; and between the 10th and 15th of June there emerged thirty-four butterflies, every one a Dryas.

ANOTHER LINK CONNECTING BIRDS AND REPTILES.

One of the most important papers read at the Hartford Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was presented by Professor E. S. Morse. In it he points out an additional link connecting the birds and reptiles. The astralagus (one of the bones of the ankle) co-ossifies early with the end of the tibia, and this "process," as it has been erroneously called, ascends as a spur from the upper side of the astralagus in front of the tibia. In certain ex

tinct reptiles-like Hypsilophodon, Lalaps, and others--the ascending process of the astralagus shows itself as an avian character. A few years ago Professor Wyman discovered that this process had an independent centre of ossification, and therefore could not be a process of the bone. Mr. Morse had interpreted this bone as the "intermedium" of Gegenbaur. The intermedium is a tarsal bone, occupying a position between the astralagus and the calcaneum. In the saurians, turtles, and other reptiles this bone is well seen. In certain amphibians, as in the salamanders, the bone is long, wedgeshaped, and partially projects between the tibia and fibula. Mr. Morse has expressed his belief that the ascending process of the astralagus represented the intermedium of reptiles. He had published in the "Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History" a theoretic figure of the proper position of this bone in birds, comparing it with the intermedium of certain salamanders. He explained its position in front of the tibia as a supposed process of the astralagus, calling attention to the excessive tendency to anchylosis in birds. The widening of the tibia to include all the tarsals within its width necessarily brings the intermedium in front of the tibia, and, as it early unites with the astralagus, has naturally been mistaken. Mr. Morse has been able to confirm his opinion regarding the nature of this bone in studying the embryos of common tern at the Anderson School of Natural History, at Penikese Island. In the embryo bird the intermedium showed as a long oval bone, the astralagus and calcaneum passing up between the tibia and fibula, as seen in the lower reptiles.

In this connection it is interesting to observe that in the mammalia the intermedium does not occur, and Gegenbaur has expressed the opinion that the astralagus and intermedium united. These investigations might possibly go to confirm that opinion by the fact that in reptiles the intermedium is separate; in birds it is separate in the young bird, but connected with the astralagus in the adult state; while in mammals, if Gegenbaur is right, it is always so connected.

SEX IN THE EMBRYO.

Mr. E. Van Beneden publishes in Gervais's Journal a paper on the original distinction of the testicle and the ovary, in

which he states that among the Hydractinia the eggs are developed exclusively at the expense of the epithelial cells of the endoderm, and remain up to the period of their maturity surrounded by the elements of the endoderm. On the other hand, the testicle and the spermatozoa are developed at the expense of the ectoderm, the organ resulting from a progressive transformation of the cellular fold, and originally formed by invagination.

He finds also that in the female spore-sacs there is the rudiment of a testicle organ, and in the male sacs a rudiment of the ovary. The spore-sacs, therefore, in his opinion are hermaphrodite. The endoderm and ectoderm have therefore opposite significations.-14 B, 1874, 450.

THE PALOLO WORM.

Among the most remarkable zoological phenomena of the Pacific Ocean may be mentioned the periodical annual occurrence at a regular date, in immense numbers, of a marine worm known as the palolo (Palola viridis), which appears in immense numbers in the vicinity of Samoa regularly at the time of the moon's last quarter in October or November. Its occurrence is eagerly looked for by the natives, who collect it in enormous amount and devour it greedily, both in a fresh state and also prepared in such a manner as to keep it for some time. From a paper by Mr. Whitmee, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1875, we learn that the two sexes are of different colors, and thus readily distinguishable, and that both males and females break up into a great number of small fragments, from which the eggs and the milt escape, so as to produce the necessary fertilization. Some idea of the abundance of this worm at the season in question may be gathered from the fact that the sea becomes quite of a milky appearance during this operation.-Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1874.

OCCURRENCE OF MOA IN NEW ZEALAND.

Dr. Hector, at the recent meeting of the British Associa tion, gave a very interesting account of the occurrence of moa bones in New Zealand, under this name including the various species of fossil giant birds, whether of the dinornis, harpagornis, or others. These remains are sometimes found