24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Puhlications. — The eighth annual quarto volume of Contributions 

 to Knowledge has b^en printed and distributed. It contains the fol- 

 lowing memoirs : 



Archaeology of the United States, or Sketches, Historical and Biblio- 

 graphical, of the progress of information and opinion respecting 

 vestiges of antiquity in the United States, by Samuel F. Haven, Esq. 



On the recent Secular Period of the Aurora Borealis, by Denison 

 Olmsted, L.L.D. 



The Tangencies of Circles and of Spheres, by Major Benjamin 

 Alvord, U. S. A. 



Researches, Chemical and Physiological, concerning certain North 

 American Vertebrata, by Joseph Jones, M.D. 



Record of Auroral Phenomena, observed in the higher northern 

 latitudes, by Peter Force, Esq. 



List of the transactions of learned societies in the library of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



An account has been given of all the articles published in the 8th 

 volume, with the exception of the paper of Dr. Jones. The investi- 

 gations recorded in this memoir were made by an under graduate of 

 the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and were 

 accepted for publication on the authority of Professors Jackson and 

 Leidy of that institution. The experiments were made on alligators, 

 terrapins, reptiles, fishes, and other animals. They were necessarily 

 attended with much labor and many embarrassments, on account of 

 the peculiar habits of the animals on which they were made, and the 

 difficulty of access to, and the miasmatic condition of, the localities 

 whence the specimens were obtained. The investigations were, for 

 the most part, conducted in Liberty county, Georgia, where the author 

 had an opportunity of obtaining fresh specimens of vertebrate animals 

 seldom enjoyed by previous observers ; and the industry and zeal which 

 he has exhibited in prosecuting his researches are highly commenda- 

 ble, particularly in the case of an under graduate of one of our medical 

 universities. 



The memoir is divided into a series of chapters, the first and second 

 of which relate to the analysis of the blood of animals in the normal 

 condition ; the third and fourth to the physical and chemical changes 

 in the solids and fluids of animals when deprived of food and drink, 

 and also the effects of a change of diet. The remaining chapters pre- 

 sent a series of observations upon the alimentary canal, the compara- 

 tive anatomy and physiology of the pancreas, liver, spleen, the kid- 

 neys, and the urine. The following are among the conclusions arrived 



