NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 55 
organic matter, and were probably broken and spoiled while being used 
for cooking purposes. Fragments of charcoal were frequently found scat- 
tered through the mass 
tery is composed of common clayey earth intermixed with 
while soft in a loose fabric or netting, probably of twisted bark fibres, 
the twist of the thread being easily distinguished 
The examination of this Ie accumulation has been very slight, 
but it is proposed to resume it next s HITE 
RHEUMATISM IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. — At the last Aci: of the Patho- 
logical Society of London, Mr. Bush exhibited some specimens of patho- 
logical fossils. He exhibited a bone of a fossil rhinoceros which had been 
afflicted with rheumatism. He also exhibited a bone of a cave-bear, with 
hibernated; and another bone, of the same species of bear, which had 
been the seat of an osseous tumor. — Cosmos. 
Disease also pcdes among the dno of the de ceri formation 
PER aly of Mosasaurus, which has a bidon Matia nal disloca- 
n of the ramus of the mandible. It has an Mita behind the mid- 
og which has lateral and some vertical motion. 
Disease is more common among the lower animals than is usually sup-: 
posed. Prof. J. Leidy has exhibited to the Philadelphia Academy of Nat- 
ural Sciences, pus globules from an abscess in the muscle of an oyster. 
— EDITORS. 
Fosst PLANTS FROM GREENLAND.— Mr. Whymper has brought from 
the peat: formation in Greenland, 137 species, of which forty-six are 
common the European deposits of the Miocene Tertiary. Among the 
Noe: are the cones of the magnolia, and the flowers and fruit of 
the chestnut. — Cosmos. 
THE EARLIEST PLant.—The discovery of Eozoón in the Touientito 
rocks of Canada was of great interest. One of the most important dis- 
coveries recently made in paleontological science is analogous with it. 
equivalents of our Longmynd rocks. A peculiar interest attaches to this 
discovery, inasmuch as it carries back the appearance or itia vege- 
— upon the earth’s’ through a f time, no land- 
having previously ini known older than the Dose Ludlow beds. 
The psu fossils now discovered appear w s UM stems and long 
parallel-veined leaves of mewhat allied to the 
grasses and rushes of the present day. These plants apparently grew on 
the margin of shallow waters, and were buried in sand and silt, hodie 
it is probable that several species, and even genera, may occur in the 
sandstone blocks which have been examined. They are provisionally in- 


