308 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



the soil fertilized by the sewerage, are not subject to any of 

 the maladies which it is customary to attribute to it, such as 

 typhoid fever, malarial fevers, etc. This immunity doubtless 

 results from the fact that the vegetables cultivated there are 

 themselves powerful agents of purification. But science does 

 not yet show precisely how they bring this about. The fact, 

 however, that cemeteries, bogs, and marshes are made salu- 

 brious by vegetation is indisputable, being purely the re- 

 sult of experience. His own theory is that the roots of grow- 

 ing plants have the power of arresting the putrefaction of all 

 organic matters held in suspension or in solution in the wa- 

 ter; that these roots of living vegetables are sources of oxy- 

 gen, since under their influence the bacteria and monads, as 

 well as putrefying and fermenting matters, disappear, and are 

 replaced by the infusoria which live in relatively wholesome 

 water. Experience, in fact, directly confirms common opin- 

 ion which attributes to vegetables the power of rendering 

 wholesome the soils impregnated with putrefying animal 

 matters. Bulletin Hebdomadaire, XVI., 79. 



COLLECTIONS OF FOSSILS FROM THE COAL-MEASURES OF OHIO. 



Professor Newberry, director of the geological survey of 

 Ohio, has lately made additional collections in the fossil- 

 bearing coal-measures. Land vertebrate remains of that age 

 within the limits of the United States have as yet been only 

 found in Ohio, and the specimens are noted for their singu- 

 larity and beauty. Thirty- three species of batrachia have 

 been found, but no reptiles nor higher vertebrata. One of 

 the novelties is a species of the genus Ceraterpeton the first 

 time a European genus of fossil batrachians has been de- 

 tected in this country. This form is as large as a rat, and 

 has a pair of stout horns on the back of its head, in the 

 position and having much the form of those of the ox. 

 The skull is sculptured by rows of small pits, separated by 

 fine radiating ridges. 



LIVING ANIMALS CORRESPONDING TO THOSE OF PREHISTORIC 



AGES. 



The discovery of a living species of ganoid or dipnoan, fish 

 of the triassic period, recently made in Australia, attracted 

 much attention at the time. It is the Ceratodus forsteri of 



