Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 543 



nodon quarry of Kentish rag near Maidstone, belonging to Mr. W. 

 H. Bensted. 



Mr. Bensted having long paid attention to this subject, more 

 than two years ago submitted to Dr. Mantell specimens of fossil 

 shells, the cavities of which were filled with a dark brown substance 

 in every respect identical with the nodular and irregular concretions 

 of coprolitic matter which abound in the surrounding sandstone. 

 Mr. Bensted expressed his belief that the carbonaceous substance 

 was derived from the soft bodies of the Mollusca, and that the con- 

 cretionary and amorphous portions of the same matter dispersed 

 throughout the sandstone of this bed, were masses of the fossilized 

 bodies of the animals which had become disengaged from their shells, 

 and had floated in the sea till enveloped in the sand and mud, which 

 is now concreted to the coarse sandstone called Kentish Rag. In 

 proof of this opinion reference is made to an account published in 

 the • American Journal of Science' for 1837, of the effects of an epi- 

 demic among the shell-fish of the Ohio, which, killing the animals, 

 their decomposed bodies rose to the surface of the water, leaving the 

 shells in the bed of the stream, and floating away covered the banks 

 of the river. Mr. Bensted points out that nearly the whole of the 

 shells in the Kentish rag of his quarry appear to have been dead 

 shells, and infers that their death might have been owing to a similar 

 cause with that which destroyed the Uniones in America ; while their 

 bodies intermingling with the drift wood on a sand-bank furnished 

 the concretions described in this communication. 



The Rev. J. B. Reade submitted some of the substance of these 

 bodies to an analysis by Mr. Rigg, who confirmed Dr. Mantell's 

 suspicion of the presence of animal carbon in it, and states that the 

 darker portion of the substance contains about 35 per cent, of its 

 weight of carbon in an organized state. 



Dr. Mantell adds, that a microscopical examination with a low 

 power detects innumerable portions of the periosteum and nacreous 

 laminae of the shells of extreme thinness intermingled with the car- 

 bonaceous matter, together with numerous siliceous spicula? of 

 sponges, very minute spines of Echinodermata, and fragments of 

 Polyparia, and remarks that these extraneous bodies probably became 

 intermingled among the soft animal mass before the latter had un- 

 dergone decomposition. He proposes to term the substance Mol- 

 luskite, and states that it constitutes the dark spots and markings in 

 the Sussex and Purbeck marbles. 



" On the Geological position of the Mastodon giganteum and as- 

 sociated fossil, remains at Bigbone Lick, Kentucky, and other local- 

 ities in the United States and Canada." By Charles Lvell, Esq., 

 V.P.G.S.* 



M 



LXV. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE GLOW-WORM. 



MATTEUCCI has performed numerous experiments on 

 glow-worms, and has arrived at the following conclusions, 



* We have already given an abstract of this paper, see note, p. 518. 



