Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 399 



ZOOLOGY. 



3. New Fishes from Lake Supenor. — Professor Agassiz gave 

 an account of two new fishes obtained by him at Lake Superior, 

 which he regarded as types of two new genera. The first is an 

 entirely new type in the class of fishes. It is a small fish, five or 

 six inches long, which, in some respects, resembles several families, 

 but is most like the Percoids, though distinct from them. Fossil 

 species with similar characters are found in the cretaceous format 

 tion. This is the second. Professor Agassiz remarked, of the ** old 

 fashioned" fishes, so to speak, corresponding in their structure to a 

 fossil species, which has been observed in this country. The other 

 fish is the only living representative of a large family of fossil species. 

 The existence of these two species has undoubtedly reference to 

 the fact, that America is the oldest extensive continent which has 

 been upheaved above the level of the sea. In New Holland, two 

 genera exist bearing similar relations to older families, a fish and a 

 shell, which have their analogues among the oolitic deposits. — Proe. 

 Boston Nat. Hist. Society. American Annual of Scientific Dis- 

 covery, p. 310. 



1 MISCELLANEOUS. 



4. Resources of Russia. — The metallic produce of the Russian em- 

 pire in 1848 was, according to the official returns, as follows, viz. : — 

 1826 poodsof gold ; \ pood of platinum ; 1,192 poodsof silver; 254,569 

 poods of copper; and 8,513,673 poods of wrought iron. The pood 

 is equivalent to a little more than 36 lbs. avoirdupois. The gold 

 from Russia, therefore, represents a value of £3,944,832, making 

 allowance for the English alloy. 



5. Use of Ancdsthetic Agents during Surgical Operations at an 

 early period^ hy the Chinese. — Stanislas Julien has found, in examin- 

 ing the Chinese books in the National Library at Paris, the proof 

 that the Chinese have been long acquainted with the use of anses- 

 thetic agents during surgical operations. The extract which he gives 

 is from a book published about the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century, in fifty volumes quarto, and entitled, " Kou-Kin-i-tong" — 

 General Account of Ancient and Modern Medicine^ — and refers to 

 the practice of a celebrated physician, Ho-a-tho, who flourished be- 

 tween the years 220 and 230 of our era. It states that, when about 

 to perform certain painful operations, " he gave the patient a pre- 

 paration of hemp" (Hachich), and that at the end of a few moments 

 *' he became as insensible as if he had been drunk or deprived of 

 life." After a certain number of days the patient was cured, with- 

 out having experienced the slightest pain during the operation. In a 

 subsequent notice, he also shews that the same physician used the 

 hydropathic system as a cure for certain diseases ; among others 

 chronic rheumatism. 



6. Analogy between Alpine and Arctic Vegetation. — There is no 

 animal, and no plant, which in its natural state is found in every 

 part of the world, but each has assigned to it a situation correspond- 



