JUNE 13, 1884.] 
Seudder exhibited specimens of muskrat skeletons, 
showing the number of the lumbar vertebrae to be 
six, and not three, as stated by Professor Flower. He 
also showed that the malar bone formed part of the 
continuity of the zygomatic arch; correcting the state- 
ment of Dr. Coues, in his ‘Monograph of American 
Rodentia,’ p. 253, with regard to the jugal of the 
muskrat, which is there described ‘‘as a mere splint, 
not forming by itself any part of the continuity of 
the arch, for the squamosal and maxillary spurs are 
absolutely in contact. This is a strong point of Fi- 
ber.” Mr. Scudder remarked that muskrats were 
enabled to live from four to six minutes under water; 
owing, probably, to the enlargement of the abdominal 
vena cava, which extended over the abdominal aorta. 
He believed muskrats to be omnivorous, and said 
that the same individual could be taken repeatedly in 
the same trap. 
May 17.— Dr. J. M. Flint gave a brief account of 
the history of medicine among the Chinese accord- 
ing to their own authors, and then discussed their 
theories in regard to the nature and causes of disease, 
and the action of remedies. Their ignorance of anat- 
omy, and the consequent effects upon their theory 
and practice, wereshown. The materia medica of the 
Chinese was then considered in detail, and its peculi- 
arities, as well as its resemblances to our own present 
and past, as illustrated by the collection of Chinese 
drugs now in the possession of the National museum. 
Mr. Wiley Britton sent a paper on the buffalo 
gnat of Tennessee, in which he stated that its habi- 
tat was confined to the Mississippi valley, below 
the mouth of the Ohio River. The flies generally 
make their appearance about the first of April, and 
remain from two to four weeks. They destroy an- 
nually more or less live-stock, particularly mules 
and horses; which, however, could be protected by 
thorough greasing. The bite of this gnat is poison- 
ous, causing a swelling somewhat like a bee-sting. 
Dr. T. H. Bean, in a paper on the white-fishes 
of North America, said there were twelve species 
indigenous to North America, besides the Inconnu, 
which is not properly a white-fish, though related to 
it. He made afew general remarks concerning the 
wide distribution, great abundance, and importance 
of the white-fishes as food, and stated the range of 
each species, its maximum size and weight, and its 
variations through age and conditions of habitat. A 
brief key to the species, intended to facilitate their 
speedy identification, and based upon natural charac- 
ters only, was included in the paper. —— Dr. Thomas 
Taylor exhibited a new instrument, a micrometer, of 
his own invention, for measuring accurately and in- 
stantly to the zy, inch the thickness of any object. 
He also explained that pseudo-bacteria were produced 
by the heating of blood at a comparatively low tem- 
perature, and proposed to make experiments for the 
purpose of deciding whether a continuous fever of 
four or five days, with the blood at 104°, would pro- 
duce the same results as blood artificially heated 
to 110°. If so, it would account for mistakes that 
have been made by persons inexperienced in examin- 
ing the blood of fever patients, who report the pres- 
SCIENCE. 
139 
ence of bacteria when it was simply pseudo-bacteria, 
or broken blood-corpuscles, as shown by Beal and 
others. He further explained a method of throwing 
upon a screen the circulation of blood in a frog’s 
foot, the magnification depending upon the distance 
of the reflecting object, using the high powers of the 
microscope on the principle of double sight. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
ALONG the eastern verge of the Bahamas, some- 
where in that skirmish-line of islands consisting of 
Cat, Watling’s, Samana, Mariguana, and Turk’s, Co- 
lumbus made his landfall. Each has had its advo- 
cates; and the late Gustavus V. Fox, in 1880, in a 
report of the coast-survey, maintained the claim of 
Samana, which at that time was the only one possi- 
ble, that had failed of an advocate. His arguments 
are now reviewed, and the whole question examined 
afresh, by Lieut. Murdoch of the navy, in a paper 
just printed in the proceedings of the U. S. naval in- 
stitute. Heclaims for Watling’s, which has had some 
strong supporters since it was first named by Mufioz 
in 1793. It is believed to be the landfall by Capt. 
Becher of the royal navy, who has printed the most 
considerable monograph on the subject; and such 
leading students of our earliest history as Major 
among the English, and Peschel among the Germans, 
have also been its advocates. The question is never 
likely, however, to be set at rest, unless contempora- 
ry documentary evidence, not now known, comes to 
light. We have nothing but Columbus’s own jour- 
nal to guide us, and a part of that only in abstract 
as Las Casas made it. No theory can satisfy all the 
conditions which it prescribes; and those which can 
be satisfied do not seem to pertain exclusively to any 
one point, as the variety of views clearly shows. 
Watling’s may be said to receive the support of the 
greatest number of authoritative critics; and nothing 
more conclusive can be held to have been attained. 
— In an article in the June Century, entitled ‘ What 
is a liberal education?’ (noticed in an earlier part of 
this number), President Eliot of Harvard thus speaks 
of the place of natural science in a liberal scheme of 
study: — 
The last subject for which I claim admission to the 
magic circle of the liberal arts is natural science. All 
the subjects which the sixteenth century decided 
were liberal, and all the subjects which I have here- 
tofore discussed, are studied in books; but natural 
science is to be studied, not in books, but in things. 
The student of languages, letters, philosophy, mathe- 
matics, history, or political economy, reads books, 
or listens to the words of his teacher. The student 
of natural science scrutinizes, touches, weighs, meas- 
ures, analyzes, dissects, and watches things: by these 
exercises his powers of observation and judgment 
are trained, and he acquires the precious habit of 
observing the appearances, transformations, and pro- 
cesses of nature; like the hunter and the artist, 
he has open eyes and an educated judgment in see- 
ing; he is at home in some large tract of nature’s 
