Abstract
THE last part of the Sitzungsberichte of the Isis Natural History Society of Dresden contains the proceedings of the Society for the months of July, August, and September, 1870. In the section of Prehistoric Archæology, Dr. Mehwald described kitchen-middens on Zealand and Jutland, and on the Andaman Islands, and stated that M. Lorange of Fredrikshald, in Norway, has investigated a grave in that neighbourhood which he believes to have been a family grave, in which the bodies were deposited one above the other, the one first buried being probably at a depth of 600 to 700 feet.—Prof. Geinitz explained Delesse's Geological Map of the Department of the Seine, and remarked upon the occurrence in that district of the bones of extinct animals associated with artificial products and the remains of man. He also glanced at the well-known phenomenaof the same kind at St. Acheul and Schussenried, and gave a list of articles received by the Museum of Dresden from the pile-buildings of Robenhausen, in the Pfaffikon Lake. Prof. Geinitz also noticed the contents of some recent anthropological publications.—M. Klemm exhibited a ring of serpentine, measuring about two inches in diameter, found in the year 1835, in an urn in Lower Lusatia. —In the mineralogical and geological section, M. C. Bley noticed the occurrence of roestone in the neighbourhood of Bemburg, and ascribed the peculiar structure of the stone to the great amount of salt contained in the water from which the carbonate of lime for its formation was precipitated.—Prof. Geinitz referred to the discovery of a well-preserved molar of Elephas primigenius in the bed of the Elbe below Kötschenbroda, and also exhibited a great number of marly concretions and transported blocks from the loam pits between Strehlen and Mockritz. He also noticed some of the localities in which fossils are to be found in the Loess. M. H. Engelhardt communicated notices of some plants from the brown coal of Saxony, namely, Anona cacaoides Zenk. sp., Gardenia pomaria Schl. sp. (= G. Wetzleri Heer), Livistona Geinitzi. n. sp., Glyptostrobus europœus Brongn. sp., and a species of Carpolithes.—Prof. Geinitz communicated a list of some corals from the Lower Pläner of Plauen, which had been determined by Dr. W. Bölsche; eleven species are enumerated of which six are indicated as new, namely, Montlivaltia (?) tourtiensis, Thecosmilia (?) Geinitzi, Latimœandra, Fromenteli, Psammohelia granulata, Thamnastrœa tenuissima, Dimorphastrœa Dunkani, and Astrocœnia tourtiensis.—M. Engelhardt communicated a paper on the Loess in Saxony, in which he described the general nature and mode of occurrence of the deposit, and the special peculiarities presented by it in particular localities. In connection with this paper and the concretions from the Loess exhibited by Prof. Geinitz at a previous meeting, M. Klemm presented a memoir on concretions and on the globular forms occurring in the minerals and rocks.—Dr. O. Schneider noticed the minerals occurring in the granite of the Königshayner mountains, and in the Zechstein of Niederludwigsdorf near Görlitz, and described some crystals of zircon received from Haddam in Connecticut.—Prof. Geinitz reported upon some fossils from a sandy deposit of Cretaceous age at Château de Meauene near Angers. The predominant form is Siphonia pyriformis Goldf. Three species of Palmacites are noticed, and one of them is described as a new species under the name of P. Boxbergœ—In the mathematical, physical, and chemical section, the only paper or which particulars are given is a description by Prof. Klein of an apparatus invented by him to enable the magnetic needle to be employed on board of armour-plated ships. The arrangement consists of a compass placed at the mast-head and connected with an electro-magnetic apparatus, by which an index is moved.—In the Zoological Section Prof. Günther gave a short exposition of the comparative anatomy of the brain in mammalia. —M. Engelhardt exhibited some corals and shells obtained from Guano.—Dr. Ebert remarked upon Huxley's Bathybins.—M. C. F. Seidel described the excrescences and other deformities produced on the stalk of the common cabbage by a small weevil, Baris cuprirostris.—Dr. Ebert referred to the support afforded to the theory of the evolution of organic types by the discovery of the curious lizard, Hatteria punctata, upon the anatomy of which Dr. Günther has given us such interesting information. Dr. Ebert tabulates the characters of the orders of reptiles to show in what a singular manner Hatteria combines their peculiarities.—Dr. Schneider noticed the scorpions collected by him in Egypt.—Dr. Mehwald noticed the occurrence of a snake (Coronella lœvis) and of a lizard (L. agilis?) as far north as 62° and 63° in Norway; and M. Kirsch gave some account of experiments with vipers and the common snake. According to the latter the bite of a new-born viper, five inches long, killed a mouse in a short time; snakes killed by decapitation exhibit irritability by galvanism for a very much longer time than those destroyed by poison; and the common snake (Tropidonotus natrix) is the only snake indigenous to Bavaria that attacks frogs.—The Botanical Section received from M. C. Wilhelmi an account of those Australian plants which may furnish nourishment to man. The abstract of this paper here published enumerates a considerable number of plants, parts of which are used as food chiefly by the natives.—The rest of the communications to this section require no mention, except a report by M. F. A. Weber upon Hildebrand's work on the sexual relations of the Compositse.—At one of the general meetings Prof. Hartig reported upon the applicability of various kinds of wood to the manufacture of paper.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 4, 133–134 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004133a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/004133a0