G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 311 



secretion; second, whether any compound have the power of 

 preventing such action; and, third, what are the nerves which 

 regulate the intestinal secretions during life? In answer to 

 the first, he has ascertained that several neutral salts possess 

 the same power as sulphate of magnesia, but in a less marked 

 degree. In reply to the second, he states that sulphate of 

 atropiahas such power over the secretion of the submaxillary 

 glands, but that it has no effect in restraining the full action 

 of magnesia in increasing the intestinal secretion. As to the 

 nerves regulating the secretion, a negative result was ob- 

 tained, he having ascertained that it was not the splanchnic 

 nerves; what they really are Dr. Brunton hopes to learn in 

 a future inquiry. 15 A, August 29, 1874, 274. 



DISCOVERY OF ANIMAL REMAINS IN THE LIGNITE BEDS OF 

 THE SASKATCHEWAN DISTRICT. 



An important contribution to the question of the age of 

 the so-called "transition" or "lignite" beds, which contain 

 such a large proportion of the Rocky Mountain coal, has been 

 made by George M. Dawson, the geologist of the British 

 North American Boundary Commission. He has discovered 

 a locality, rich in fossils, in beds of this age on the Milk 

 River, in the Saskatchewan district. The remains presented 

 include fishes, turtles, and numerous land saurians, but no 

 mammals. The saurians belong to that strange group, the 

 Dinosauria, which are not known to have existed later than 

 the cretaceous period, and their presence determines the lig- 

 nite beds to be cretaceous in that vicinity, as they have al- 

 ready been proved to be in Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado. 

 Several of the species are common to most or all of these 

 places. There are also found in the Milk River locality re- 

 mains of gar -fishes. These have been found also in the 

 tertiary, and are yet living. Thus, although they are an 

 ancient type, they connect the cretaceous and tertiary for- 

 mations more closely than has been heretofore known. 



THE FUNCTIONS OF CERTAIN CANALS IN THE EAR OF MAN 



AND THE MAMMALIA. 



The most important paper in the department of anatomy 

 and physiology presented at the last meeting of the British 

 Association, in 1874, is said to have been that of Professor 



