508 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



found to have encroached upon the sea, and on one side there was a 

 sand beach half a mile long, — to the ordinary observer not differing 

 from other sea beaches ; but the mineralogist would note intermingled 

 pea-like grains of chrysolite. These seemed more abundant than else- 

 where, owing, perhaps, to greater coarseness under the winnowing ; just 

 such beaches are found encircling Tahiti, where there is no active 

 volcano. 



The great crater sometimes has silent eruptions ; the lava, after 

 accumulating to the required limit, drains off and disappears ; and a 

 vessel arriving will perhaps report having passed through quantities 

 of dead fish floating. The escaping lava continues splitting its way 

 under the sea, and the question arises, Does it eventually manufacture 

 granite or other crystalline rock at the bottom of the, sea ? The ele- 

 ments are all present, as appears from Dr. C. T. Jackson's published 

 analyses of the Hawaiian lavas, — the silica, alumina, sodium, — and in 

 about the proper proportions. 



In considering the intricate limited area of crystalline rock, abutting 

 often on deep-sea fossils in sedimentary rock, and such fossils occurring 

 on the crest and amid the snow of the Andes, we shall have to con- 

 clude that every foot of what is now land was once the bottom of the 

 ocean. On the other hand, a portion of what is now the bottom of the 

 ocean was once land, as appears from coal-beds in Rhode Island and 

 elsewhere extending underneath the sea-margin. 



Professor H. P. Bowditch made a communication on " The 

 Lymph Spaces in Fasciae, with a new Method of Injection." 



The lymph spaces existing between the tendinous fibres of fascise, 

 and the connection of these spaces with lymphatic vessels, have been 

 well described and figured by Ludwig and Schweigger-Seidel in their 

 monograph on this subject.* 



The researches of Dr. Genersich f have shown that the fascia?, in 

 virtue of this structure, play a very important part in keeping up the 

 flow of lymph through the lymphatic vessels. His first experiment was 

 as follows : A piece of fascia was removed from the leg of a dog, and 

 tied over the mouth of a small glass funnel with the inner side (i. e. 

 the side next to the muscles) uppermost. A few drops of a turpentine 



* Die Lymphgefasse der Fascicn und Schuen. Leipzig. 1872. 



t Arbeiten aus der physiologischen Aushalt zu Leipzig. V Jahrgaug, p. 53. 



