Scientific Intelligence. — Geology. 367 



ill the midst of water, with all its properties; for wliich he ac- 

 counts by its not being in contact with the air. This difficulty 

 offers nothing remarkable, as it equally occurs with respect to 

 all the sparry fossils, and with respect to certain clays, which 

 contain a sufficient quantity of animal substance to yield ammo- 

 nia by analysis. It would have been desirable to have ascer- 

 tained whether these supposed stalactites are not polyparia, for, 

 in that case, the difficulty would vanish, as it is known that 

 polyparia, as well as all calcareous envelopes, contain animal 

 substance, even after the longest residence in water. The ani- 

 mal pellicle, in these substances, not only is combined with the 

 lime, but is also encrusted and hermetically imprisoned by car- 

 bonate of lime, which lines its walls in a compact manner. 

 From this moment the substance in question is guarded against 

 all the agents of fermentation, in the same manner as an orga- 

 nic substance, cloth for example, becomes incombustible, when 

 all its particles have been invested with phosphoric acid or phos- 

 phate of ammonia. It is for this reason that animal matter 

 (membranes) remains incorruptible, not only in the shells of 

 moUusca or zoophytes, which continue to grow in the waters, 

 but also in the fossil shells, which have lain buried in the moist 

 earth for ages. — Ann. de Chimie ei de Physique. 



17. Bones of' Paleeotheria discovered in a bed of the Calcaire 

 grassier or coarse Liviestone formation, near Paris. — M. Cordier 

 communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris a fact connect- 

 ed with the theory of the geological formations in the vicinity of 

 Paris. This gentleman, on being informed by Mr Robert, that 

 bones of mammifera had just been exposed in some beds belong- 

 ing to the coarse limestone formation, went to the place. It is 

 one of the Nauierre quarries, known by the name of Carriere des 

 Mcndins, the third of those that occur in going to Nauterre by 

 the Paris road. It is worked by M. Nerot, to whom it belongs. 

 The bed which contains the bones is situated at the depth of 

 five and a half metres, and from four to five decimetres thick. 

 Nothing is more easy than to examine it, as it is worked from the 

 surface. The bones are so brittle, and besides so firmly fixed in 

 their matrix, that it is almost impossible to detach them with- 

 out breaking them. Specimens of the rock have been submit- 

 ted to the Inspection of M. G. Cuvier, who has determined the 



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