134 Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 



There is nothing in the habits of hibernating animals to dis- 

 tinguish them, for their habits vary in different countries. Hiber- 

 nation may depend on a difference of temperature. Lizards hibernate 

 in France and do not in the Island of Santa Cruz. 



The immediate causes of torpidity are cold, heat, drought, want 

 of oxygen, and necessity for repose. 



Dr J. C. Warren expressed his gratification at the remarks made 

 by Mr Browne. He said that the use of the omentum, about which 

 there had long been a difference of opinion, was to afford a soft 

 cushion for the sensitive intestines, which are always put in pain by 

 pressure. It may also serve as a reservoir for food when the animal 

 is not in a state to digest it. In fevers and consumption the fat is 

 taken up by the absorbent vessels to supply the want of food. The 

 Doctor's impression was, that hibernation was the result of cold 

 acting on the nervous system, and through this system paralyzing 

 all other parts of the body. 



Professor Agassiz did not agree with jNIr Browne upon the point 

 of the cessation of circulation during hibernation. He asked what 

 experiments had been made to test this point \ Mr Browne replied, 

 that a French naturalist, M. Sacy, who had investigated the subject, 

 had made a thousand experiments. Mr Browne had added upwards 

 of forty upon reptiles. Professor Agassiz was of the opinion, that 

 until the membrane of the wings of bats in a torpid state had been 

 examined by a microscope, to see whether the blood circulates, it was 

 not proper to pronounce decisively that circulation ceases. He was 

 further of the opinion that until it had been shewn that the species 

 of lizards in France and Santa Cruz were identical, it would not do to 

 assert that hibernation depends on the difference of climate. 



Remarks were also made by Mr S. S. Haldeman of Carlisle, Pa,, 

 and Dr Samuel Jackson of Philadelphia. The latter gentleman ex- 

 pressed the opinion that respiration was not entirely suspended. 

 Professor Agassiz stated that a friend was investigating most minutely 

 the subject of the hibernation of the dormouse, at Neuchatel. 



Dr F. Roemer of Berlin, Prussia, made a report on the results of 

 a geological tour recently made in Texas. The fossils of the corre- 

 sponding formation of the Old and New World wore compared, and 

 reference was made to their geographical distribution. He had as- 

 certained that the isothermal lines of the cretaceous epoch (as indi- 

 cated by the fossils^ were the same on the two continents of Europe 

 and America, as at the actual epoch. 



Professor S. S. Haldeman presented an interesting fact in the geo- 

 graphical distribution of animals. He stated that an insect was sent 

 to him from Rio, by Dr J. C. Reinhardt, with information that this 

 or an allied species, had been seen by him on board the United 

 States ship Constitution, in Cochin China, and subsequently in all 

 the ports of the Pacific — the ship touching at the Sandwich Islands 

 and Western Mexico, and passing Cape Horn and Brazil, — a wider 



