128 The Winooski or Wakefield Marble of Vermont. |February, 
four circular outlines of muscular tissue, which are also broken 
in their continuity by fatty tissue and degenerating muscular 
fibers. The change, therefore, is effected by the fatty degenera- 
tion of the fleshy fibers of the muscles and the coincident increase 
of the connective tissue elements. It is an instance of a patho- 
logical process bringing about a morphological change. 
The examination of these ligaments in their embryonic condi- 
tion affords some interesting results. It shows that the amount 
of muscular tissue in their midst is proportionately greater than 
in the adult, and further, that so long as the embryo is zx utero 
there is not the slightest tendency to fatty degeneration exhib- 
ited in this fleshy tissue. After birth, however, when the foot is 
called into play, and its requirements show a greater need in the 
suspensory ligament of fibrous than muscular tissue the change * 
begins. The active change is thus confined entirely to the extra 
uterine life of the animal, but a condition is produced in the parent 
which affects the offspring. It is an admirable instance of the 
slow progress made by morphological changes and how processes 
of this nature are thrown back a stage in the embryo. Provided 
that the external circumstances which originally instituted the 
change remain unaltered, we may consider that there are two 
conditions at work, conservative in the embryo, progressive in the 
adult ; but the latter has the advantage, inasmuch as it is aided 
by the influence of heredity. From this, therefore, we may argue 
that in the course of time the transformation of the suspensory 
ligament will become complete, and that ultimately not a trace of 
muscular tissue will appear in its midst. It is very evident, how- 
ever, that the fleshy fibers will be longer of disappearing in the 
foetus than in the adult. ` 
Perea i 
THE WINOOSKI OR WAKEFIELD MARBLE OF 
VERMONT. 
BY PROFESSOR GEO. H. PERKINS. 
EDS of primordial rock known as “the red sandrock ” extend 
through Western Vermont from the northern limit of the 
State south into Shoreham where the formation disappears. Its 
breadth is nowhere very great, and it is chiefly confined to the | 
immediate neighborhood of Lake Champlain. Here and there 
on the lake shore are bold headlands composed of this rock. 
