Miscellaneous Intelligence. 287 
The distribution of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge has 
already carried the name of the Institution to all parts of the civilized 
world, and conveyed with them such evidence of the intellectual activ- 
ity of America as challenges everywhere admiration: a result which 
could hardly be obtained by applying the resources of the Institution 
to other purposes. 
7. On the So-called ** Fountain of Blood’ of Honduras; by Dr. 
E orTH, (from a note to one of the Editors.)—It would seem that 
my friend, Mr. Ogden Rood, who is now in Germany, neglected to report 
to the Editors of the Journal the explanation obtained through the mi- 
Croscope of the brownish-red liquid from the ‘‘ Fuente de Sangre” or 
Fountain of Blood, noticed in the Number for November last. 
Sively diluted with water, various of the harder and less destructible or 
igestible parts of insects, together with perhaps occasional fragments 
of small crustaceans. No memoranda were made and but few examina- 
ful examination is made by one who knows what the coagulation of 
blood really is. Evaporation and settling will reduce a solution of any 
dung to a semi-solid mass. Be . 
| suggestion is made that the character of the liquid may be due to 
Infusorie. Do even the unquestionably animal Infusorize ever cause by 
their death,—no matter how vast their numbers—a putrefactive and 
offensive fermentation? One of their offices when living being to 
counteract the effects of putrefaction, is it not a fact that they them- 
selves are so organized or constituted, as not materially to corrupt 
the liquid in which they die ? 
