Scientific Serials

Abstract

American Journal of Science, October.—On a young tortoise with two heads, by E. H. Harbour. An account is given of a two-headed Chrysemys picta recently found near New Haven, Connecticut, and presenting some interesting physiological features. They appear to be two independent organisms inclosed in a common carapace, with separate and even antagonistic instincts and impulses, as shown in their struggles to move in opposite directions, in their independent breathing, sleeping and feeding at different times, and so on. They were still alive and vigorous on September 4, fourteen weeks after capture.—The structure of Florida, by Lawrence C. Johnson. In this paper, which was read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science at New York last year, the peninsula is divided longitudinally into four regions plainly marked by surface indications: (1) the Gulf Hammock in the west; (2) a central plain, or region of sinks; (3) the High Hammocks, or lake region; (4) the eastern slope, draining to the St. John's River.—Analysis of a soil from Washington Territory, with some remarks on the utility of soil analysis, by Edward A. Schneider. The specimens here analyzed are from the Rockland Ridge near “The Dalles” on the Columbia River. From this study the author infers that the action of hydrochloric acid on soils is far from uniform; that plant roots probably derive their nutrition from the finest sediments of the soil; that hydrochloric acid powerfully corrodes both the finest and coarsest sediments; that fertility largely depends not only on the quantity of phosphoric acid, but also on the mode of its occurrence, and that consequently the fertility of a soil cannot be determined by chemical analysis alone.—On the Rosetown extension of the Cortlandt series, by J. F, Kemp. The discovery of this extension of the well-known Cortlandt series is accredited to Dr. N. L. Britton, and the Rosetown area, due west of Stony Point, is here definitely circumscribed.—The contact-metamorphism produced in the adjoining mica-schists and limestones by the massive rocks of the Cortlandt series near Peekskill, New York, by George H. Williams. In previous papers were described the principal types and some intermediate varieties forming the complicated group of this series. Here the author deals with the unusual contact-metamorphism which they have occasioned in the adjoining schists and limestones, concluding with a summary of the evidence in favour of the eruptive origin of the massive members of the series.—The sedentary habits of Platyceras, by C. R. Keyes. The sedentary habits of this group of Palæozoic Gastropods is inferred from the analogous habits of their modern congeners, and from their attachment to various species of Crinoids during life.—On edisonite, a fourth form of titanic acid, by W. E. Hidden. The specimen here described is from the Whistnant gold mine, Polk County, California. Its analysis shows it to be a nearly pure TiO2, like rutile, but differing in its crystallization from the three previously known forms of that mineral.—On two new masses of meteoric iron, by George F. Kunz. The first of these specimens, from Linnville Mountain, North Carolina, closely resembles the Tazewell, Claiborne, and Bear Creek (Colorado) meteorites in composition; the second, from Laramie County, Wyoming, approaches nearer to those of Rowton, Charlotte, and Jewel Hill.—Experiments on the effect of magnetic force on the equipotential lines of an electric current (continued), by E. H. Hall. An account is here given of the author's experiments with cobalt, nickel, and bismuth, together with a summary of results.—W. Spring gives a further account of his views regarding the compression of powdered solids, in reply to Mr. Hallock; and E. S. Dana contributes a short preliminary notice of beryllonite, a new mineral so named by him from the fact that it contains the rare element beryllium.