414 Miscellanies. 



m 



thor of the pamphlet, faithful to the most important interests of man- 

 kind, regards their moral and religious interests as superior to all oth- 

 ers, and justly considers all systems as defective which leave them out 

 of view, and of course as erroneous if they tend to pervert the mind 

 of the youthful pupil. 



18. Journal of the Academy of JYatural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia. — The April No. contains communications, 



1. On the electrical properties of Caoutchouc,* by Prof. Johnson. 



2. On two new species of Salamander, by Prof. Jacob Green. 



3. On fifteen new recent and three fossil species of shells, by T. 

 A. Conrad. 



4. On the fossil bones of the Megalonyx, by Dr. R. Harlan. 



5. On a fossil fucus, by the same. 



- 6. On some parasitic worms, by Dr. S. G. Morton. 



7. On new American Hemopterous insects, by Thomas Say — in 

 continuation, &c. he. 



In proportion to its age, no institution in this country has done more 

 for science than the Philadelphia Academy, and its museum — which 

 is extensive and various, and kept in fine order — has received, during 

 the last year, a valuable addition, in a collection of fossils ; being that 

 made by the late Mr. Clifford, of Kentucky, and till recently kept at 

 Cincinnati. It has been purchased by Mr. J. P. Wetherill and gen- 

 erously presented to the Academy. In this collection are some bones 

 of the Megalonyx, from the White Cave in Kentucky. f These bones 

 form the subject of an interesting memoir, by Dr. R. Harlan, who ob- 

 serves, that with teeth constructed after the manner of those of the sloth, 

 the skeleton presents a singular admixture of characters, peculiar to the 

 Ant-eater, the Armadillo and the Orycteropus. Mr. Harlan infers that 

 tlie Megalonyx is about one third less than the Megatherium, which 

 Cuvier estimated to be seven feet and four and a half inches high; and 

 that the individual Megalonyx, whose bones Dr. Harlan examined, 

 was about five feet high and of the size of a common ox, although it 

 did not appear to be more than three fourths grown.' Along with the 



* Of which an abstract is given in the present number of this Journal. 



t In Edmonston Countj', one hundred and twenty miles south west of Lexington, 

 on the bank of Green River. It is one of the saltpetre caves, which are numerous 

 in the hmestone regions of the West, and in which human mummies, dried and im- 

 putrescible, have been often discovered, being the bodies of some of the aborigines. 



