\ 
178 ZOOLOGY. 
CIRCULATION IN Insects.— Mr. H. N. Moseley finds the circu- 
lation of insects to be observed most advantageously in the wings 
of B'atta orientalis. The details and results of his methods of 
observation are given in the ‘‘ Quarterly Journal of Microscop- 
ical Science.” When B. orientalis casts its skin it emerges quite 
soft and milk-white: at which time light may be thrown through 
the body, and the action of the heart and valves studied to 
advantage. The circulatory system of insects is injected with 
difficulty from the heart: a more certain result is obtained by 
cutting off half of one wing and injecting, through the cut edges, 
either the removed portion of the wing, or the remaining portion 
and through it the heart. Indigo-carmine, or Berlin blue solution, — 
is preferred as the injecting fluid. Mr. Moseley places the fluid 
in a short india-rubber tube closed at one end and furnished with — 
a canula at the other, and forces it into the insect’s veins by pres- 
sure of the finger upon the tube; a procedure which would seem ‘ 
to be applicable to many other cases. —R. H. W. : ! 
GEOLOGY. wee 
Tae Cuantavgua Masropon. —The remains of a skeleton, be 
longing to the extinct species of animal, Mastodon giganto 
were discovered the twenty-fifth of August, 1871, in the r 
of Jamestown, N. Y. These remains were found imbedded four ‘ 
feet below the surface, in soil composed of peat and marl, and 
deposited in the Post-tertiary period; and were located wa 
swamp, two acres in extent, situated upon a farm now owned by : 
about one 
small swamp, fet 2 
mile north of the village of Jamestown. This ‘Anges 
by springs, had been drained five years ago, and last ae 
quantity, and consisting of slightly decayed twigs, of iar to ott 
inches in length, identified as cone-bearing species, SIM oie 
pines and firs, and remarkably preserved. 
At the time of my visit, upon the 16th of Sep 
mains were deposited mainly in the cabinet of the 
tember, the 
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