f 
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 251 
means to go through actions which it would not ordinarily perform volun- 
tarily, so that to a bystander it would almost appear to have undergone a 
n be obtained in this manner. The mutilated frog possesses also the 
power of preserving the equilibrium of its body. If placed on a book, to 
animal in this respect, that they are performed mechanically, and with the 
regularity of a machine. It would also appear, from these experiments, 
at the nerve-centres for the voice and for the power of maintainin 
equilibrium reside, not in the brain, but in the spinal cord. — Academy. 
THE COMPRESSED BuRBOT OR EEL Pour. — In the March (1869) number 
of e NATURALIST is à paper with the above title by Wm. Wood, M.D. 
r giving the history. locality, number of specimens and their de- 
spt he then says: ‘‘ The Lota compressa probably visits the salt 
water, asi it is taken in ascending the Connecticut, or its tributaries, in the 
spring of the year in company with fish from the salt water ascending to 
spawn.” 
My first acquaintance with this rare fish was early in the spring of 1859. 
A specimen was brought me from West River, about a mile north of our 
village, where that stream joins with the Connecticut, and where it was 
* hooked up” while angling for other fish. Afterwards in 1864, another 
the fact, because I knew t that the specimen of Lesueur, who firs 
long. As I had lived many years near these waters, and supposed myself 
to be well acquainted with their different denizens, and, moreover, had 
never seen won sid before, not even their fry, I was led to inquire 
whence the 
t first aa to me that they might have come up from the salt 
once the entertainment of this idea. Be that as it may, an incident has 
recently come to my notice which may shed some light on their early 
history, and certainly on one of their species. 
