232 Scientific Intelligence. 



Portions of a skeleton of man, including an entire head, were 

 formerly obtained near Sarasota Bay, at a locality known as Mrs. 

 Hanson's, from a partially indurated sandstone, and fragments 

 including a vertebra were found by Mr. Heilprin. No fossils were 

 found in the deposit to indicate its precise age. 



3. The summit-plates in Blastoids, Crinoids and Cystids and 

 their Morphological relations ; by Charles Wachsmuth and 

 Frank Springer. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., March 29th, 

 188V. pp. 33 and one plate. — This paper is chiefly devoted to a 

 criticism of certain views expressed by Etheridge and Carpenter 

 in their recently published catalogue of the Blastoidea in- the 

 Geological Department of the British Museum, with regard to 

 the morphological relations of the summit-plates in the three 

 groups mentioned in the above title. Etheridge and Carpenter 

 argue that the six proximal plates surrounding a central one in 

 the summit of typical Blastoids and Palreocrinoids are the homo- 

 logues of the five oral plates in Neocrinoidea, and that in both 

 cases they may be traced by a series of parallel transitions from 

 a simple form of summit consisting of only five plates. Wachs- 

 muth and Springer undertake to prove by a critical analysis of 

 the forms relied upon bv Etheridge and Carpenter, based on 

 material in an excellent state of preservation, that their assumed 

 simple form does not exist at all in the Blastoids. Further, that 

 the Palffiocrinoids, such for example as Haplocrinus and Allage- 

 crinus, bearing the simple form of five plates on the ventral side, 

 do not present analogous cases. Their theory, Wachsmuth and 

 Springer contend, wholly fails to show any valid homology for 

 the central summit plate inside the proximal ring in Palseocrinoids, 

 (which covers the actinal center, just as the orals do in Neocri- 

 noids) but requires the assumption of an "orocentral" plate; 

 thus introducing an element in Echinoderm morphology which 

 is altogether unrepresented in other echinoderms. They claim 

 that before the homology proposed by Etheridge and Carpenter 

 can be accepted they must show by what developmental pro- 

 cess the five oral plates are transformed into six proximals, 

 especially in cases where they are not modified by anal struct- 

 ures. Also that they must demonstrate the existence of their 

 hypothetical " orocentral." The plate of illustrations consists of 

 diagramatic figures of the forms of summit mentioned in the 

 discussion. c. A. white. 



4. Cliftonite, a cubic form of graphitic carbon. — The meteoric 

 iron found in the district of Youndegin, West Australia, in 1884, 

 has afforded an interesting form of carbon resembling graphite 

 but in cubic form; this is described by Fletcher in a recent 

 number of the Mineralogical Magazine. Four fragments of the 

 iron were found, the largest weighing 25f pounds; in addition 

 there were a number of pieces aggregating 17 pounds, consisting 

 essentially of the magnetic oxide of iron,»doubtless due to the 

 weathering of the original mass. The iron has a specific gravity 

 of 7.85. It is very hard and contains numei'ous enclosures of 



