THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 15 



tainty. Dr. Torrey considers it as the type of a distinct order; nearly 

 allied to the empetraceae, or crowberries. 



Both memoirs are illustrated with plates, from beautiful drawings 

 made by Sprague, at the expense of the institution. 



7. The next memoir is a " Synopsis of the Marine Invertebrata of the 

 Grand Manan, or the region about the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick," 

 by William Stimpson. 



The island of Grand Manan, a part of the natural history of which 

 this paper is intended to illustrate, lies at the mouth of the Bay of 

 Fundy, and is surrounded by deep water, the bottom of which abounds 

 in a variety of marine animals. 



The memoir consists of a compend of observations made on the 

 marine fauna of this region during a residence of three months in the 

 summer of 1852, and also of a catalogue of the marine invertebrata 

 found on the shores and in the adjacent waters. 



Minute surveys of the marine animals of a given district are highly 

 interesting; it is only by a comparison of the results of such examina- 

 tions made at a series of points along a coast, that an accurate know- 

 ledge can be obtained of their distribution, and of the effects of exter- 

 nal circumstances on their growth, habits, and economy. By such 

 surveys we can ascertain whether a species may inhabit two distant 

 localities without occurring in the intermediate space, a fact which has 

 an important bearing on several interesting questions relative to geolo- 

 gical changes. The author is a pupil of Professor Agassiz, and has 

 been appointed one of the naturalists in the North Pacific Exploring 

 Expedition, under Captain Ringgold. 



The paper occupies sixty-six pages, and is illustrated by thirty-seven 

 lithographic figures. 



8. A memoir has also been presented, and is now in the press, " On 

 some new American species and localities of Microscopic Organisms," 

 by Prof. J. W. Bailey, of West Point, New York. 



Nearly two centuries have passed away since Leeuwenhoek, an 

 eminent physician of Holland, discovered by means of the microscope 

 a department of organized nature, consisting of bodies imperceptible 

 to the unaided vision, and displaying active forms, so strange and varied 

 in their appearance, that they excited a general curiosity. The dis- 

 covery, in some of them, of organs of motion, convinced him of their 

 animal character, and he gave to them the name of animalcules. They 

 were afterwards called infusoria. Many opinions were entertained 

 with regard to their character. Linnaeus considered them as lifeless, 

 oily particles, and their movements as altogether passive. We owe, 

 however, to Prof. Ehrenberg, of Berlin, an extended series of obser- 

 vations on this subject, the results of which are, that the infusoria are 

 organized bodies ; the greater part, if not all, are animals ; they exist 

 in all quarters of the globe, as well on land as at the bottom of the 

 sea, and their silicious and calcareous remains form, in this country, 

 wide-spread fossil strata. At Andover, Massachusetts, there is a bed 

 of these remains of fifteen feet in thickness, and underlying the city of 

 Richmond, Virginia, one of twenty-eight feet. Professor Bailey has 

 distinguished himself by researches in the same line, and has published 

 on this subject a series of papers in Silliman's Journal, and in two 



