The Catalonian forge is still used in the Pyrenees, where it yields tolerable results, but it consumes a large quantity of charcoal, requires much wind, and is only to be applied to pure ore, containing but a very small proportion of earthy matter producing scoriæ; for the process consists in a mere reduction with a soldering and welding together of the reduced particles, without the metal properly melting. According to the manner in which the operation is conducted, bar-iron or steel are obtained at will. This direct method dispenses with the intermediate production of cast iron, which was unknown to the ancients, and which is now the only means of producing iron on a great scale. Silver accompanies the introduction of iron into Europe, at least in the northern parts, while gold was already known during the bronze-age. This is natural, for gold is generally found as a pure metal, while silver has usually to be extracted from different kinds of ore by more or less complicated metallurgical operations-for example, by cupellation. With iron appear also for the first time in Europe, glass, coined money, that powerful agent of commerce, and finally the alphabet, which, as the money of intelligence, vastly increases the activity and circulation of thought,* and is sufficient of itself to characterize a new and wonderful era of progress. From thence can we date the dawn of history and of science, in particular of astronomy. The fine arts also reveal, with the introduction of iron in Europe, a new and important element, indicating a striking advance. Already in the stone-age, but more in the bronze-age, the natural taste for art reveals itself in the ornaments bestowed upon pottery and metallic objects. These ornaments consist in dots, circles, and zigzag, spiral, and S-shaped lines, the style bearing a geometrical character, but showing pure taste and real beauty of its kind, although devoid of all delineations of animated objects, either in the shape of plants or animals. It is only with the iron-age that art, taking a higher range, rose to the representation of plants, animals, and even of the human frame. No wonder, then, if idols of the bronze-age, as well as of the stone-age, are wanting in Europe. It is to be presumed that the worship of fire, of the sun and of the moon, was prevalent in remote antiquity, at least during the bronze-age, perhaps also during the stone-age. The preceding pages constitute a sketch, certainly very rough and imperfect, of the development of civilization. They establish however in a striking manner the fact of a progress, slow, "The circulation of ideas is for the mind what the circulation of specie is for commerce, a true source of wealth." C. V. de Bonstetten: L'homme du Midi et l'homme du Nord. Genève, 1826, p. 175. but interrupted and immense, when the starting point is considered. The physical constitution of man has naturally benefitted by it. The details contained in the treatise, of which the present paper forms the introduction, prove that the human race has been gradually gaining in vigor and strength since the remotest antiquity. The domestic races also, the dog first, then the horse, the ox, the sheep, have shared in this physical development. Even the vegetable soil has been gradually improving since the stone-age, at least in Denmark. And yet there are persons who deny all general progress, seeing everywhere nothing but decay and ruin, like that worthy specimen of a northern pessimist, who exclaimed, "see how man is degenerated, he has even lost his likeness to the monkey!" ART. III.—On a new genus of Patelliform shells from the Cretace ous rocks of Nebraska;† by F. B. MEEK and F. V. HAYDEN. (With a plate.) Genus ANISOMYON, M. & H. Etym. vioos, unequal; uvór, muscle; in allusion to the unsymmetrical muscular scar. PLATE I. Generic characters.-Shell very thin, patelliform, or.obliquely conical, with an ovate, oval, or circular base; margins entire; surface nearly smooth, or only marked by obscure lines of growth, crossed on some species by fine radiating striæ; summit more or less elevated, located between the middle and the anterior end, sometimes nearly central,-immediate apex very small, and ab ruptly curved backwards, but not spiral; interior without a projecting lamina or other appendage. Muscular scar irregularly horse-shoe shaped, enlarged at the extremities, with the open part directed towards the shorter end of the shell; becoming abruptly attenuate, or broken into a row of minute oval or cir cular spots on the right posterior side;-anterior extremities. connected by a slender line, which usually passes across just in front of the summit. This agrees perfectly with the testimony of statistics. See Quetelet, Sur Thomme et le developpement de ses facultés. Paris, 1835, ii, 271. This work of first-rate merit is very near akin to archæology. Mr. Quetelet has just published a new work which will certainly be even more remarkable than the first, and which the author of the present paper regrets not having had within his reach. The specimens belong chiefly to the collections brought from Nebraska by Lient. G. K. Warren, U. S. Top. Eng. Full illustrations and descriptions of the species will appear in his report. SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXIX, No. 85.—JAN., 1860. On the left side of the shell, the anterior extremity of the muscular impression (a, fig. 2 and 3, of Plate I.) is generally not so much enlarged as on the right, but sometimes extends slightly farther forward; posteriorly it passes around in the form of a a band to the middle of the slope behind (b, fig. 2 and 3), where it is abruptly enlarged and curves upwards. From this point to the larger anterior termination on the right side, there is usually only a slender line (c, fig. 2), which is not always quite connected with the enlarged extremity of the band-like part coming around from the left side. Generally this slender line is nearly or quite entire, while in other specimens, even of the same species, it is broken into a series of minute scars as seen at c, fig. 3, and in some instances it seems to be entirely obsolete, so as to leave the enlarged anterior extremity on the right, quite isolated. In most instances, the specimens are found with the small apex (d, of fig. 1) broken or worn away, in which condition its former existence would scarcely be suspected. In at least one species (A. borealis) this small apex seems to be perforated in the end, the minute aperture being circular, and about large enough to fairly receive the point of a pin. This may be due to accident, but the thickened and smooth margin of this little opening, as seen under a magnifier, has very much the appearance of a natural orifice. We are not sure that this exists in the other species, but suspect it does. In two of the species A. borealis, and an undescribed form, there are six equidistant impressed hair lines radiating from the summit down the sides, nearly or quite to the margins, but as there are no traces . of such lines on some of the others, presenting the same internal characters, we infer they can scarcely be regarded as a ge neric character. From the foregoing description it will be seen that the group of shells we propose to include in this genus, although having the form of Patella, present striking differences in the unsymmetrical character of the muscular scar, indicating fundamental peculiarities in the structure of the animal; while they are all much thinner and smoother shells than we usually see in that genus. In some specimens, where there appears to be a complete break in the muscular scar on the right posterior side, there would seem to be some analogy to the genus Siphonaria, but as we observe no traces of a siphonal groove passing through this gap, nor any fold in the margin opposite it, and the slender portion of the muscular impression usually passes nearly or quite across, it is scarcely possible any organ such as exists in Siphonaria, could have been extruded there. The more convex species, such as A. borealis, are somewhat similar externally to some species of Hipponyx, but to say noth ing of other differences, the fact that the open extremity of the horse-shoe shaped muscular scar in our shells is always turned towards the shorter end, or in other words, that the apex is placed in front of the middle instead of behind it, shows they have no affinities to that or any allied genus. They would then seem to be perhaps more nearly related to Acmea and Gadinia than to any other of our existing mollusca, since in both these genera the animal is more or less unsymmetrical, the former having the branchial plume exserted from the right side of the neck, and the latter a siphon occupying a groove on the right just in front of the anterior extremity of the mus cular scar, which is shorter on that side than on the other. Our. shells, however, differ from these genera in the peculiar attenu ate or interrupted character of the muscular impression on the right posterior side, and the folding back of the apex.* In the thinness of the shell and the nature of the surface, they are most like Acmaa, with which we at first thought them probably identical, but adopting the opinion of M. d'Orbigny that this genus is synonymous with Helcium of Montfort, we referred them provisionally to the latter as the older name. Not long afterwards we observed the peculiar character of the muscular impression on an internal cast of one of the species, but at first supposed it merely due to some accident; subsequently however, we ascertained that it exists in five clearly distinct species, and cannot be regarded as an accidental or specific character. It is probable many of the Cretaceous and Jurassic species that have been referred by different authors to the genera Patella, Acmaa, Helcium, &c., will be found to possess the internal characters of this genus. Judging from the figures of the Cretaceous and Jurassic species of patelliform shells we have seen in published works, specimens showing the muscular scar, have rarely been found. We have observed the characters of this genus in the following Nebraska species: ANISOMYON BOREALIS, (= Hipponyx borealis, Morton, 1842= A. SEXSULCATUS, (=Helcium sexsulcatum, M. & H.). Washington, D. C., Nov. 20, 1859. * Dr. A. A. Gould, the well known conchologist of Boston, to whom we sent sketches of these shells, writes that he concurs with us in regarding them as being clearly distinct from all the recent genera to which such fossil forms are usually referred. ART. IV.-General account of the results of the discussion of the Declinometer observations made at Girard College, Philadelphia, between the years 1810 to 1845, with special reference to the eleven year period; by A. D. BACHE, Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey. [Communicated to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, by authority from the Treasury Department.] It is proposed to give here in outline the results of an investigation of the magnetic observations made with the declinome.ter, between the years 1840 to 1845, at the Girard College observatory, with special reference to the eleven year period in the amplitude of the solar-diurnal variation and the disturbances of the magnetic declination. Prof. Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, has kindly offered to publish the memoir in full in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. It is my intention to pursue the discussion by taking up the investigation. of the lunar influence on the same magnetic element. In coöperation with the scheme adopted at the British Colonial Observatories, a series of magnetic and meteorological observations were made at the Girard College observatory with instruments purchased under the direction of the trustees of the College, the observations being made under the patronage of the American Philosophical Society, and finally completed for the use of the Topographical Bureau of the War Department. These observations were made under my direction and superintendence. The series commenced in May, 1840, and with short interruptions terminated in June, 1845, thus furnishing a five years series of magnetic observations taken bi-hourly up to Oct. 1843, and after that date hourly. The readings of each magnetic element were united into means, and were also presented graphically (in the fourth volume of the record). This was done under my direction by J. Ruth, Esq., but owing to other laborious duties the record could not be submitted to a more complete reduction. I have now resumed the subject by the assistance of Charles A. Schott, Esq., Assistant in the Coast Survey, by whom, under my immediate direction, and as my assist ant in this special matter, the present paper has been prepared.* Although other magnetic observatories furnish by their judicious geographical location, a basis for the generalization of their results, it is nevertheless desirable to obtain results from intermediate observatories as confirmations or as corrections. In the investigation of the disturbance-law at Point Barrow, when compared with the same at Toronto, a very remarkable mutual * It may be proper to state that this work has been performed out of Office hours, and at my own expense. |