[ 66 3 [Jan. 



PHILOSOPHICAL, CHEMICAL, AND SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANIES. 



Many naturalists have felt the inadequacy of the 

 adopted by Linn^us ; to supply which defect M. Bory 

 the following arrangement. 



ihiorgaiiic denial, where each particle repre- 

 sents a complete body, and in which the 

 form, entirely adventitious, can only be an 

 inert agglomeration, subject to mechanical 

 laws, from which nothing resemblinp life, 

 and which could establish an individual, 

 can result. . 



NaturaUa, cor- 

 pora cuncta ci- 

 catoris manu J 

 composita tel- v 

 leneni consti- \ 

 tuentia. Lyn 

 Syst. Nat. 



Ot-gmiized perhh- Vegetating 

 abln, where the 

 base, composed 

 of particles o- 

 beying laws of 

 assimilation, of 

 which motion 

 seems to he the 

 first principle.is 

 subject to speci- 

 fic forms, from 

 the complica- 

 tion of which 

 individuals u- 

 nite, enjoying 

 proportionally 

 the vegetative 

 and vital facul- 

 ties. 



Vegetating 

 and liv 

 ing. 



Successive 



ly. 



Simultane- 

 ously. 



Zoology. — The researches of the Ameri- 

 can naturalists in the animal kingdom have 

 recently been attended with very great suc- 

 cess, and the following description of live 

 new aniiTials is abridged from the more sci- 

 entific account, in the last number of the 

 " Annals of the Lyceum of New York." 



Chlamy]iIiorus truncatus. — This small 

 animal of the first class, denominated, in the 

 Indian language, richiciago, is a native of 

 Mendoza, in Chili. In its habits resembling 

 the mole, it lives for the most part under the 

 ground : its length is five inches and one- 

 fifth, and its back is covered with a shell 

 composed of a series of plates, of a square 

 rhomboidal or cubical form, which is loose 

 throughout, except along the spine of the 

 back and top of the head, and beneath 

 which it is reputed to carry its young ; the 

 whole surface of the body is covered with 

 fine silk-like hair, longer and finer than that 

 of the mole, but not so thick-set ; the hand 

 is so arranged, as to form a sharp-cutting in- 

 strument, somewhat scooped, five powerful 

 nails rising gradually one above the other, 

 the external being shortest and broadest ; 

 the hind legs are weak and short, the feet; 

 long and narrow, the sole lesembling con- 

 siderably the human foot, having a well de- 

 fined heel, which rests flat upon the ground, 

 and being arched in the middle, the toes 

 are separate, and the nails flattened horizon- 

 tally. This animal furnishes us witli an 

 example of organic structiu-e, if not unparal- 

 leled, at least not surpassed in the history 

 pf animnls ; it presents us with a new form , 



triple division of organized bodies 

 ?t. Vincent has recently proposed 



Ethereal kingdom. Particles invisible, even 

 to the highest degrees of magnifying 

 power, of unassignable forms, penettating, 

 displaying themselves to any of our sense* 

 only by certain of their qualities. (The 

 fluids devoid of weight, such as light, fite, 

 the electric, perhaps the magnetic fluid, 

 &c.) 

 Mineral kingdom. Particles of assignable 

 forms, or at least easily perceptible by 

 most of our senses, whether they are 

 found naturally aggregated in homoge- 

 neous or mixed masses, or dispersed and 

 concealed in the seat of nature, and serv- 

 . ing as a base for organized bodies. (Salts, 

 rocks, mineral substances, &c.) 

 Vegetal.le kingdom. Where each individual 

 insensible, always unconscious of its ex- 

 istence, entirely deprived of the locomo- 

 tive faculty, dies in the place where it 

 vegetated. (All that the botanists regard 

 as plants, excepting some of the class 

 Cryptogamia. ) 

 ByehiHliuiria. Where each individual devoid 

 of feeling developes itself, and grows like 

 the vegetables and minerals, up to the 

 instant when animated procreative par- 

 ticles diffuse the species in the place they 

 select. ( The antheodii, sponges, most of 

 thepolipi.) 

 Animril kingdom. Where each individual, 

 sensible, conscious of his existence, en- 

 dowed with the locomotive faculty, 

 chooses for his habitation the place suited 

 for his species. (Asterias, mollusea, the 

 animals with vertebra-, &c.) 



and combines, in its external configuration, 

 a mechanical arrangement of parts, which 

 characterizes respectively the armadillo, the 

 sloth, and the mole. 



Cephalopterus VampjTus (C Giorna of 

 Lesueur ?) — This enormous fish, taken near 

 the entrance of Delaware Bay by the crew of 

 a smack after a long and hazardous encoun- 

 ter, measured from the margin of the head to 

 the root of the tail, which was imarmed, ten 

 feet nine inches ; from the extremity of 

 one pectoral fin to that of the other, the 

 breadth, measuring along the line of the 

 belly, was sixteen feet ; measiu-ing across 

 the convexity of the back, eighteen feet ; 

 the mouth, which from corner to corner 

 was two feet nine inches in breadth, was * 

 nearly terminal, and not situated on the 

 imder side : in it there was no appearance 

 of a tongue ; there were two upper lips, 

 both destitute of teeth, and a single lower 

 lip, beset with small rough processes, re- 

 sembling those of a rasp, instead of teeth. 

 There was a vertical or arteal fin two feet 

 six inches long, twelve inches deep, and 

 two and a half inches thick in the middle, 

 whence it tapered towards the edges, which 

 were fringed before, with a radiated margin, 

 on each side of the mouth, projecting for- 

 wards. The weight of this fish was 

 supposed to be between four and five 

 tons. 



Menobranchus. — This new genus of Ba- 

 tracian reptiles has been established by 

 Professor Harlan. The genera] character 

 of this is, bmnchise pertistent ; four-footed. 



