335 



Dr. J. Mason Warren related the following case which 

 recently came under his care : — 



A man from the country came to him, having, as he said, a 

 cancerous tumor of a peculiar appearance in his arm-pit ; on 

 examination was seen a round, white tumor, hanging from a very 

 inflamed and swelled base. On turning it up, he noticed on each 

 side a regular series of hairs, too regular for any morbid growth; 

 on moving these hairs to one side, they were quickly brought 

 back to their original position ; the tumor was very tender to the 

 touch. He seized the tumor and gently pulled it away ; on 

 placing it on the table, it ran quickly across it. The man was 

 working in a field, when he felt a sudden pain and itching in his 

 axilla; a swelling quickly arose, very tender and inflamed, 

 which was supposed a cancer ; he came to Boston to be operated 

 on, with the above result. This animal was the common wood- 

 tick (Ixodes) ; it was as large as a bean, very round and plump ; 

 in its dried state it was one half an inch long. 



Dr. Gould mentioned a similar case, where a man, who was 

 about to have a tumor on the shoulder removed by ligature, was 

 freed from an Ixodes, three times as large as the one exhibited 

 by Dr. Warren. They are very common in the woods at the 

 South. 



Dr. Kneeland announced the addition to the Cabinet, by 

 purchase, of a very fine and uncommonly large skeleton of 

 the American Black Bear, Ursus Americanus. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson made some observations on the age of 

 the Sandstones of the United States. 



Elie de Beaumont is of the opinion that the Lake Superior 

 Sandstone belongs to the Silurian system, and is not so high in 

 the geological series as the new Red Sandstone. Dr. Jack- 

 son thinks that the age of all our red Sandstones is question- 

 able. Dr. Hitchcock has supposed the Connecticut River Sand- 

 stone to be the new red Sandstone, from comparison of it with 

 specimens from Nova Scotia ; Dr. Jackson thinks both of them 

 to be lower down than the new red Sandstone ; he has found 

 this rock in Maine lying immediately over the Silurian limestone. 

 Dr. Jackson believes that, whatever be the age of this formation. 



