ZOOLOGY. 377 







more strictly professional details, the account proceeds to narrate the discus- 

 sion that followed. Dr. Gay thought the absence of cerebral congestion 

 due to the adjustment of the rope, which allowed circulation in the left 

 carotid. He thought death might have been owing to the sudden shock. 

 Dr. Clarke thought the death was by asphyxia. Dr. Ainsworth remarked 

 that " all the appearances usually observed in cases of hanging were here 

 wanting." Dr. Clarke expressed the "opinion that, as there was no lesion 

 of any important organ, resuscitation might probably have been accom- 

 plished by artificial respiration, etc., if efforts to that end had been made 

 immediately upon the lowering of the body from the scaffold, that is, within 

 half an hour after he fell. Strong shocks of electricity or galvanism would, 

 in cases of accidental apparent death, destroy the little remaining vitality; 

 and if these agents are used at all, they should be administered with great 

 care." Dr. Coale alluded to the unfortunate incident in the life of the cele- 

 brated Yesalius, in consequence of which he was banished fr-om his country 

 and died in exile. Not allowing a sufficient time to elapse after the death of 

 his patient before proceeding to the examination, the muscular irritability 

 remaining in the body caused a pulsatory movement in the heart, which led 

 to his arrest and punishment for murder and impiety. 



ON FAUNA OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



In a recent discussion before the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. 

 T. M. Brewster stated that it had been ascertained that there is a greater 

 diversity of species among the birds of the eastern and western North At- 

 lantic coasts than was formerly supposed. Several species, bearing close 

 resemblance, upon the two continents, have been established to be different, 

 for example, the Velvet Duck, the Peregrine Falcon, and the Fish Hawk. 

 It was interesting to observe, that, for no apparent cause in their organiza- 

 tion different from that common to both shores, many birds are found only 

 on one or the other shore; for instance, the Manx Shearwater, the lesser 

 Saddleback Gull, the European Scoter (differing only in size from the Amer- 

 ican) which are found only in Europe. Between the birds of the Atlantic 

 and Pacific coasts there is more diversity, and also there are observable dif- 

 ferences of distribution. Thus Brunnich's Guillemot, found by Dr. Kane in 

 latitude 70 north, and rarely found so far south as Massachusetts Bay, in 

 midwinter breeds in the harbor of San Francisco, in latitude nearly corre- 

 sponding with that of Richmond, Virginia. The Uria Grylle, whose extreme 

 southern breeding point on the Atlantic is the Bay of Fundy, breeds also 

 Hear San Francisco. It may be, however, that the eastern and the western 

 birds will yet be found to be of different species. Dr. Brewer believed that 

 they would be. 



Dr. Bryant stated that the majority of the arctic birds are identical with 

 those of Europe ; and that the arctic ornithology of the western coast of 

 North America differed more from the eastern coast than the latter did from 

 that of Europe. 



Dr. A. A. Gould remarked that the arctic circle has ever been considered 

 one uniform zoological region; he had recently examined shells collected 

 by Mr. Stimpson in Beering's Straits and upon the northwest coast of 

 North America, and had found them to be identical with those found 

 between this place and Labrador. One shell in particular, Nucula thrackje- 

 fonnis, he alluded to; one valve of this shell, brought from Japan, exactly 



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