194 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



Major Delafield presented Arragonite from Nevv-Bruus- 

 wick, N. J. ; a locality not hitherto noticed. 



Dr. Torrey made a report on a specimen of what is termed 

 Marie in New-Jersey. No lime whatever is found in it ; and 

 hence its name is obviously improper. ' 



A gigantic specimen of the Date Palm, with its sterile 

 flowers, was presented by Dr. Hosack, and seeds from Ma- 

 tanzas by Mr. R. W. Otis. 



Dr. Mitchill read an abstract of a work entitled " Consid- 

 erations sur I'enievement, &.c. des chevaux mort." 



Mr. Halsey concluded his course of Lectures on Botany. 



April — Dr. Torrey communicated a paper by Dr. Clarke 

 containing an analysis of a substance nearly allied to Jet, 

 very abundant in the Newark meadows. It Is highly inflam- 

 mable. It has been called " extract of peat" by Dr. Mac- 

 culloch, who considers it as a deposit from the watery solu- 

 tion of peat. 



Mr. De Kay read a paper on a singular mal-conformation 

 observed in the teeth of the Arctomys monax. In this indi- 

 vidual there had been a caries of the lower jaw, which had 

 prevented the growth of the incisor on that side. Its antag- 

 onist in the upper jaw having nothing to oppose it, had con- 

 tinued to be developed until it had described more than one 

 complete spiral revolution. 



A new mineral, the Haytorite, from Haytor, Devonshire, 

 and specimens of Retinasphaltum, from Bovey Heathfield. 

 (Eng.) were presented by Mr. Featherstonehaugh. 



Dr. Torrey presented a specimen of Asphaltum, from a 

 marl-pit twenty miles south of Trenton, the first locality no- 

 ticed in the United States. 



3. Drinking Ice-Water. — It has long been known, that'ice- 

 water debilitates the stomach, much more than spring water 

 of nearly the same temperature. In a tour along the Erie 

 canal with a section of students from Rensselaer School, 

 we made some trials with ice-water, and cold spring water, 

 on those two very hot days, the 27th and 28th of last June. 

 We experienced as much diflference in the effect as has usu- 

 ally been represented, when the difference in temperature 

 was scarcely perceptible by the hand or tongue. These tri- 



