1855.] 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



317 



Angust 4th, 1S55. 



Captain Beecher, E.N London, England. 



Hon. Robert Spence Quebec. 



Archibald Cai-ljle OriUia. 



Douatious received siucc May 1st, 1 855, 



From the Hon. W. B. Robis.son, M.P.P. 

 Report of the Select Committee on the Geological Survey. 



Report on the Dredging of Lake St. Peter, and on the Improvement 

 of the River St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Quebec, with Charts, 

 by Thomas Keefer, Engineer. 



Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress, years 1852-53. 



Preliminary Report of the Secretary to the Executive Committee of 

 Canada, in connection with the World's Exhibition, Paris, 1855. 



Second Report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. 



Statements of Sums expended out of £30,000 for aiding the Settling 

 of vacant Ci"own Lands in Lower Canada. 



Report of the Commissioners of Public Works, 1852 and 1853. 



Report on Caughnawaga Canal. 



Report on Trade and Navigation, 1854. 



Railway Map of Canada, 1853. 



The Outlines of Flemish Husbandry. 



Miscellaneous Parliamentary Documents. 



From the Hon. J. H. C.lMEKo^', M.P.P. 



Annual Report of the Normal and Model Schools and Common 

 Schools of Upper Canada. 



Reports of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into a series of 

 Accidents and Detentions on the Great Western Railway, Nov. 3, 1854. 



Report of J. B. Jarvis, Esq., relative to the Survey of the proposed 

 Caughnawaga Canal, and Documents relative to the Survey and Im- 

 provement of the Rapids of the River St. Lav.'rence, by Messrs. Mail- 

 lefort and Radsloif, Civil Engineers. 



From the Societies, through H. Howsell, Esq. 



Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, May, 1854. 

 j» ») jj ' )» )> August ,, 



,, ,, ,, ,, ,, November „ 



,, ,, ,, ,, ,, February, 1855. 



Journal of the Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 

 XVL.PartL 



Descriptive Catalogue of the Historical jMauuscripts in the Ai'abic 

 and Persian Languages preserved in the Library of the Society. 



Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus, by Ram Raz, Native 

 Judge at Bangalore, Corresponding Secretary of the Society ; 48 plates. 



Addi-ess at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety, 22d May, 1854, by the Right Hon. the Earl of EUesmere, K.G., 

 D.C.L. 



From the Boaed of Agriculture. 



Journal and Transactions of the Board of Agriculture of Upper Ca- 

 nada, No. I, Vol. 1, April, 1855 ; No. IL, Vol. L, July, 1855. 



From the Regents of the Uxiveksitt of the St.vte o/New York. 



Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York. Vol. V. 



Sixteenth Annual Report of the Regents of the University of the 

 State of New York, 1855. 



Annual Report of the Trustees of the State Library of the State of 

 New York. 



From the Hon. East India Company. 



Bombay Magnetical and Meteorological Observations for year 1851. 

 From Dr. R. Beck, through C. Jones, Esq. 



Eighth Annual Report of the Regents of tho University of the State 

 of New York, on the Condition of the State Cabinet of Natural History 

 and Historical and Antiquarian Collection annexed thereto. 



Report of the Alms' House Committee on the subject of a Re-organ- 

 ization of that Institution. 



Public Schools in Albany, 1855. 



Sixth Annual Report of the Albany Penitentiary, 1855. 

 From the Society. 



Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Natural History Society of 

 Montreal, 1855. 



Prevention op S.moke in Ste.^m Vessels. — An experiment has 

 •been tried at Portsmouth, on board the royal steam-tender Elfin, with 

 Mr. Prideaux's furnace valves for the protection of smoke. Not only 

 was the smoke efl'ectually got rid of, and with West Hartley coals, 

 but the steam was kept up in the boilers at full pressure after one 

 furnace tire out of four was extinguished, showing that the advantages 

 conferred by these valves in preventing smoke and reducing the tem- 

 perature of the engine-room are obtained without any diminution of 

 the steam-generatLug power of the furnaces. Upon Mr. Prideaux's 

 valve doors being removed and the ordinary doors substituted, the 

 thermometer, which had previously stood at 06 degrees, rose to 90 ; 

 exemplifying what must certaialy be regarded as one of the features 

 of this invention — viz., that during its use the exterior of the tire 

 furnace door always remaius cool no matter to what extent the tiring 

 may be pushed. 



On the Dicynodon Tigrioeps, by Prof. Owen.— In this paper Prof. 

 Owen described a new species of extinct bidental reptile [Dicynodon 

 ligriceps), transmitted by A. G. Bain, Esq., from South Africa. The 

 skull surpasses iu size that of the largest Walrus, and resembles that 

 of the Uon or tiger iu the great development of the occipital and 

 parietal ridges, the strength of the zygom.tic arches, and the expanse 

 of the temporal fossae, — all indicating the possession of temporal 

 (biting) muscles as largely developed as in the most powerful and 

 ferocious of the carnivorous mammalia. This unique modification of a 

 sam-oid skull is associated with the presence of a pah- of long, curved, 

 sharp-pointed, canine tusks, descending as in the machairodas and 

 walrus, outside the lower jaw when the mouth is shut, these tusks 

 being developed to the same degree as in the smaller species of 

 Dicynodon [D. lacerliceps, D. tesiiduceps, &c.,) described by the author 

 in a former memoir ; and, as iu those species, so iu the present more 

 gigantic one, no other trace of teeth was discernible, the lower 

 jaw being edentulous, as in the extinct Rhynchosaurus, and the Che- 

 Ionian reptiles. Jlost of the extinct reptiles exemplify the law of the 

 prevalence of a more general structure, as compared with the more 

 specialized structures of existing species. The Labyrintliodonts com- 

 bined sauriod with Batrachian characters ; Rhyuchosaui-us, sauroid 

 with Chelonian characters. The Ichthyosaurus had modifications 

 borrowed from the class of fishes, and the Pterodactyle others borrowed 

 from the type of birds aud bats, — in both cases engrafted on an 

 essentially sauroid basis. The Dicynodouts — which were like lizards 

 in their more important cranial character, as, for example, the 

 divided nostrils, the dependent tympanic bone, and the pair of svm- 

 metrical suboccipital processes — resembled the crocodiles in the extent 

 of ossification of the occiput, resembles the Tryonyces in the extent of 

 ossification of the palate, and in the form aud position of the pos- 

 terior nostril; and resembled tho Cheloniageuerally in the edentulous 

 trenchant border of the whole of the alveolar part of tho lower jawa 

 and of a great part of that of the upper jaw. But they also superadded 

 to this composite reptilian structure of the skull a pair of long, sharp, 

 descending tusks, aud temporal fosstc and ridges, which seem to have 

 been borrowed from the mammalian class. 



Citric Acid Contamin.\ted with Copper. — Citric acid being now 

 much used in the preparation of lemonade, its purity becomes a matter 

 of some importance. lucideutally copper has been detected iu several 

 samples — au impurity not previously suspected. From a bottle of 

 lemonade 20 centigrammes of metallic ccpper were extracted, being in 

 the proportion of 'J ceutigrammcs to the kilogramme of acid. Samples 

 of citric acid, before bcitig used in tlie preparation of any beverage or 

 article of food, should be tested with the yellow prussiato of potash, 

 and rejected if a red tint or precipitate appears. — Arlizan. 



Erraiu.m. — Pago 304, lino, 47, for "official" read "unofficial." 



