246 



SCIENCU. 



[Vol. I., No, 



sliores of this thoroughfare are low, tliat intervening 

 between it and the St. .John being a mere marsh sub- 

 ject to overflow by the spring freshets ; and it is in the 

 soft muds forming the ijankof the stream, and thus 

 annually submerged, that the relics iu question are 

 obtained. 



These are in the form of broken fragments of pot- 

 tery, of which the largest obtained by me was about 

 two by two and a half inches, and, although not suf- 

 ficiently perfect to give any definite idea of the form or 

 size of the vessels of which they once formed a part, 

 reveal very clearly, by their composition, texture, and 

 ornamentation, their true nature. As a rule, they are 

 quite firm, looking as if made up of a granular admix- 

 ture of clay and fine sand, through which, in many 

 specimens, are scattered numerous and rather con- 

 spicuous fragments of a lustrous black mica; the 

 whole being hardened, if not vitrified, by heat. The 

 outer surface is usually covered with a reddish or 

 dark-brown glaze, which is less coarse than the mate- 

 rial beneath ; and upon this surface are stamped or im- 

 pressed numerous indentations variously arranged in 

 series of parallel, forking, or decussating lines. In one 

 instance only could any thing like definite form be rec- 

 ognized; this being a well-rounded rim, or margin, 

 striped on either side, of what appears to have been 

 a shallow hemispherical bowl, or basin, of some six 

 inches in diameter. During the extreme low water 

 of summer, such fragments maybe readily obtained 

 lying on the surface of the hardened mud-beds, but 

 at other times are to be had only by wading. 



With these remains of ancient pottery has been 

 found a great variety of stone implements, some of 

 exceptionally perfect design and workmanship, and in 

 two instances elaborately ornamented ; while at short 

 distances along the shore, and laid bare by the plough- 

 ing action of the ice in spring, are small heaps of flint- 

 chips of all shapes and sizes, with, not unfrequently, 

 broken pebbles or bowlders of quartz from which these 

 have been derived. 



The locality is one eminently fitted by its position 

 for the temporaiy or permanent occupation of the ab- 

 original tribes, giving easy access by water not only to 

 the St. .John River, but to an extensive lake-region, 

 which must have abounded then, as it still does, in 

 game of various descriptions. It has, indeed, been a 

 favorite camping-ground with the natives ever since 

 the time of the first settlement of the country by the 

 Europeans. A curious instance of the contact of the 

 two races has been observed in the finding, during 

 the ploughing of a field, several feet below the surface 

 and not far from the thoroughfare above described, 

 of a large copper caldron, or kettle, evidently of French 

 manufacture, but containing within, besides a quan- 

 tity of moose-hide, a variety of colored glass beads, 

 some arrow-heads, and a single human molar tooth. 



L. W. Baii.et. 

 Fi-cdcricton, N.li., March 4, 1883. 



THE PROPERTIES OF CARDIAC MUS- 

 CLE, AND THE NATURE OF THE AC- 

 TION OF THE VAGUS NERVE UPON 

 THE HEART. 



Wb printed recently (Science, No. 2) an account 

 of the, researches of Engelmann upon the rhythmic 

 properties of cardiac muscular tissue. Almost simul- 

 taneously with the appearance of Engelmann's jjaper, 

 Gaskell read before the Cambridge (Eng. ) philosophi- 

 cal society a communication on the same subject, 

 which has since been published in the proceedings 

 of the society (vol. iv. 277, 1882). Gaskell inde- 



pendently arrives at the same geueral conclusion as 

 Engelraaim in regard to the rhythmical pioperties of 

 cardiac muscle, but adds much that is new on this 

 and other points. Researches on the hearts of frogs 

 and tortoises, previously published, had led him to 

 the following conclusions: 1°, The beats of the heart 

 represent peristaltic contractioiis, which start at 

 the venous sinus, and thence travel over the heart; 

 2°, The peristaltic nature of these contractions is 

 obscured by the fact, that the wave of contraction 

 passes along a tube which is not of the same calibre 

 or of the same properties throughout, consequently 

 the systoles of certain parts (auricles, ventricles) 

 which have bulged out and become prominent, or 

 which by differentiation of structure in the course 

 of development have gained the power of more rapid 

 or forcible contraction, being most conspicuous, give 

 the impression of separate and successive contrac- 

 tions; 3°, Between sinus and auricle, and auricle and 

 ventricle, in these animals, is a connecting baud of 

 muscular tissue of feeble contractility and slow con- 

 ductivity. A systole started in the sinus is thus 

 separated by an apparent interval from the auricular 

 contraction, and this in turn from the ventricular. 

 Gaskell had further proved that one could artificially 

 produce in any region of the heart a zone of slow 

 conductivity, corresponding to the natural sino- 

 auricular or auriculo-ventricular boundaries. If a 

 clamp, for example, be closed not too tightly around 

 the ventricle, then a jiause occurs between the con- 

 traction of the base and of the apex of that division 

 of the heart. In the tortoise, one then gets, added 

 to the usual succeeding phases of the heart-beat, 

 sinus systole, auricle systole, ventricle systole, — an 

 additional one, due to the separation of the ventricu- 

 lar systole into two distinct contractions, — one of its 

 ))ase, followed, after an interval, by that of the apex. 

 If the clamp be still further tightened, only one con- 

 traction of each pair exhibited by the base passes on 

 to the apex of the ventricle; on further tightening, 

 one in three, one in four, and so on, until the block 

 caused by the clamp becomes complete. 



The above experiment serving to show how easily, 

 by differences iu the conductivity of certain zones of 

 the heart, a primitively continuous peristalsis may 

 be turned into ajiparently distinct beats of various 

 regions, each separated by an interval from that of 

 the heart-chamber preceding it, the question arises. 

 What is the source of the-primilivc contraction start- 

 ing from the venous sinus ? Does it lie in nerve-cells, 

 or in the possession by the sinus of muscular fibres, 

 which have a greater tendency than those elsewhere 

 in the heart to exhibit appai-ently spontaneous 

 rhythmic contractions ? Observations on the heart 

 of the tortoise strongly support the latter view, as 

 they show that any section of the heart will, if 

 left to itself, sooner or later con tr.act automatically; 

 the difference in this regard between the venous 

 sinus and the tip of the ventricle is one of degree, 

 .and not of kind. The isolated sinus begins beating 

 at once, the auricle a little later, the ventricle later 

 still, and a strip cut out of the tip of the latter 

 only after about four hour.*. Once the beats in 

 any division commence, they become rapidly more 

 and more regular and powerful, and then ccmtinue 

 uniformly for, in some cases, more than twenty-four 

 hours. These facts seem to show that all p.arts of 

 the tortoise-heart are spontaneously rhythmically 

 contractile, but that the spontaneity is most marked 

 in the sinus, iind less and less prominent as the apex 

 of the ventricle is approached. The latter, however, 

 contains no ganglion-cells ; and, as we can pass back 

 by gradual steps from its properties to those of the 



