in hammocks in the tops of trees. Dr. Crevaux, in the course of his travels, met with geophagous, or earth-eating tribes. The clay, which often serves for their food whole months, seems to be a mixture of oxide of iron and some organic substances. They have recourse to it more especially in times of scarcity; but, strange to say, there are eager gourmands for the substance, individuals in whom the depraved taste becomes so pronounced, that they may be seen tearing pieces of ferruginous clay from huts made of it, and putting them in their mouths.

-Wasps are such an obstacle in the way of English fruit growers that one of them, Mr. William Taylor, thinks it worth while to pay three pence each for queens. And this season he bought and destroyed no less than 1192; about 230 nests have been annihilated within a mile of his premises, and still there is enough left for seed. He declares that the price named is not too high, "since it takes considerable skill to catch them," and because of their enormous fecundity, of which he says in the Cottage Gardener: "Understand that every wasp seen before the middle of June is a queen, and liable to have a nest of 10,000 at least. I lately estimated the number of cells in a rather large nest, and made out 9000 of them. A great many of the young had flown, and fresh eggs were laid in their places, and I have reason to believe that there is often more than one succession of young insects from the same cells, therefore 10,000 is a comparatively small family."

It has been found by M. de Lacerda that permanganate of potash is very efficacious as an antidote to the poison of snakes. He experimented on dogs, injecting a one per cent. solution of the substance into the cellular tissue or into the veins, after the poison, and the usual effects of the latter were strikingly obviated. In one series of experiments the poison was allowed time to take some effect before the permanganate solution was injected, the dogs showing dilatation of the pupil, respiratory and cardiac derangements, muscular contractions, &c. Two or three minutes after the antidote was given these troubles disappeared, and after 15 to 25 minutes of some measure of prostration, the animal would be able to walk and even run about, and recover its normal aspect. The same dose of poison, not counteracted, caused death, more or less rapidly.

-Mr. J. M. Swanks' Statistics of the Iron and Steel Productions of the United States, 1881, is issued by the Census Bureau, and bears the marks of careful preparation. The historical sketch is interesting reading. The statement is made that "we are to-day the second iron-making and steel-making country in the world. In a little while we shall surpass even Great Britain in the production of steel of all kinds, as we have already surpassed her in the production of Bessemer steel and in the consumption of all iron and steel products. The year 1882 will probably witness this con

summation. We are destined also to pass Great Britain in the production of pig iron.

-Under the title of "Zoology in the University of Tokio,” Professor C. O. Whitman, late professor of zoology in the University of Tokio, discourses in a pamphlet of forty-four pages on the needs of a more complete endowment of a zoological department, and the natural advantages enjoyed by the Japanese zoölogist for the study of this science. It contains interesting facts regarding the land leech, the land planarian, the jumping fish, and other animals. Professor Whitman is at present in Naples, studying at the Zoological Laboratory, founded by Dr. Dohrn.

-In the Iowa Legislature, on the 20th of January last, a petition from the citizens of Pottawatomie county, and another by Messrs. Henderson and Calkins, were presented, asking for a thorough geological survey of the State. Both petitions were referred to the Committee of Ways and Means, which reported favorably on the project. Another move has been made looking toward the establishment of a Bureau of Agriculture, which shall sustain an entomologist, an office which is sadly needed.

-Queen, one of the group of elephants connected with Barnum's circus, at Bridgeport, Conn., gave birth to a baby elephant last night (February 3) at eight o'clock; weight, forty-five pounds. The other baby elephant weighed one hundred and twenty-six pounds at birth. At last reports mother and daughter were doing

well.

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M. Pasteur has resolved to continue his researches into the means of preventing diseases by destroying or nullifying the virulence of the germs, and is about to visit the Bordeaux lazaretto, with a view of studying yellow fever, which he hopes to conquer by means of inoculation.

-A new and most valuable feature of the Census Reports for 1880 are the Forestry Bulletins, prepared by Mr. C. S. Sargent. Each number is accompanied by a map of some State, showing the distribution of forests, with special reference to the lumber industry.

-Humboldt is the title of a new monthly illustrated magazine of science in all departments, published at Stuttgart and edited by Dr. G. Krebs.

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PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY, Jan. 18, 1882.-Mr. Wm. M. Davis discussed the classification of Lake Basins, and Mr. F. W. Putnam spoke of the use of copper and bronze by the early races of America.

Feb. 1.-Professor Henry W. Haynes gave some indications of an early race of men in New England, and Mr. F. W. Putnam showed some interesting stone implements from Marshfield, Mass.

Mr. S. W. Garman spoke of a case of bird reasoning (?), and remarked on certain features of interest in the formation of cabinets.

NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, Jan. 9.--Dr. L. Johnson described the parallel drift hills of Western New York, and Professor J. S. Newberry remarked on hypothetical high tides as agents of geological change.

Jan. 30.--The following papers were read: The discovery of emeralds in North Carolina, illustrated with remarkable specimens, by Mr. Wm. Earl Hidden. Mr. George F. Kunz exhibited a series of ancient obsidian knives found near the city of Guatemala, C. A.

Feb. 6.-Professor J. S. Newberry remarked on the origin and relations of the carbon minerals.

SELECTED ARTICLES IN SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, February.-The flood of the Connecticut river valley from the melting of the Quaternary glacier, by J. D. Dana. Geology of the diamond, by O. A. Derby. A Cercaria with caudal setæ, by J. W. Fewkes. Notice of a remarkable marine fauna occupying the outer banks off the southern coast of New England, by A. E. Verrill.

QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE, January.— On the morphology of Hemileia vastatrix (the fungus of the coffee disease of Ceylon), by H. M. Ward. On the nature of the organ in adult Teleosteans and Ganoids, which is usually regarded as the head-kidney or pronephros, by F. M. Balfour. Observations on the resting stage of Chlamydomyxa labyrinthuloides, by P. Geddes. Review of recent researches in karyokinesis and cell division, by J. T. Cunningham. The micro-organisms which occur in septicæmia, by G. F. Dowdesnell. Pringsheim's researches on chlorophyll, translated and condensed by B. Balfour.

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WISSENCHAFTLICHE ZOOLOGIE, December 30On the structure of the bird-inhabiting Sarcoptidæ, by G. Haller. On Scoloplos armiger, by W. Man. Comparative-embryological studies, by E. Metschnikoff. Dimorpla nutans, a connective form between the Flagellata and Helliosa, by A. Gruber. Contributions to a knowledge of Amoebæ, by A. Gruber. Contributions to a knowledge of Radiolarian shells, by O. Bütschli.

ZOOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, January.—Traces of a great post-glacial flood, by H. H. Haworth.

ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, December-.On certain points in the morphology of the Blastoidea, by P. H. Carpenter.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VOL. XVI. APRIL, 1882. - No. 4.

MOUND PIPES.

BY EDWIN A. BARBER.

T is impossible to determine what was the earliest form of the tobacco-pipe. The oldest examples of which we possess any knowledge, have been exhumed from some of the mounds of the Mississippi valley. These are usually made of stone of great hardness, but we have no reason to believe that this material was always employed in their manufacture. It is not to be supposed that the symmetrical and highly-finished specimens which the mounds have produced were the results of the first savage conception of the narcotic utensil. Indeed, it is more than probable that the most ancient pipes were rudely fashioned from wood or other perishable substances, all traces of which have long since disappeared.

The earliest stone pipes from the mounds were "always carved from a single piece, and consist of a flat curved base, of variable length and width, with the bowl rising from the center of the convex side. From one of the ends, and communicating with the hollow of the bowl, is drilled a small hole, which answers the purpose of a tube; the corresponding opposite division being left for the manifest purpose of holding the implement to the mouth." It would be difficult to conceive of any other form so admirably adapted to the purpose for which it was designed. Such pipes are not only models of compactness, but are, in many instances, highly ornamental, and in all probability totemic. In the majority of these "platform" pipes, the stem perforation, which is always straight, is so minute as to preclude the possibility of the insertion of an additional stem. The 'Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi valley, p. 228.

implement was complete in one piece, so that all parts were equally durable. The facts that such pipes had expended upon them all of the ingenuity and skill at the command of the sculptor, and that they were usually placed in association with human. remains, go far to prove that they were invested, to a considerable degree, with a religious, or at least a mortuary, significance. "The remarkable characteristics of their elaborately sculptured pipes, and their obvious connection with services accompanying some of the rites of sacrifice or cremation, tend," as Dr. Wilson observes, "to suggest very different associations with the pipe of those ancient centuries from such as now pertain to its familiar descendant. Embodying, as these highly-finished implements did, the result of so much labor, as well as of artistic skill, there are not wanting highly suggestive reasons for the opinion, that the elaborate employment of the imitative arts on the pipe-heads found deposited in the mounds, may indicate their having played an important part in the religious solemnities of the ancient race."

The typical mound pipe is of the "monitor" form, as it may be termed, possessing a short, cylindrical, urn, or spool-shaped bowl, rising from the center of a flat and slightly curved base. Fig. 1 is an illustration of an example from a mound in Ross county, Ohio, which is now deposited in the National Museum at Washington. Pipes of this form average three or four inches in length, but an extraordinary specimen formerly in the collection of Mr. O. A. Jenison, of Lansing, Mich., measures six and fiveeighths inches.

The most important and interesting discovery of mound pipes was made by Messrs. Squier and Davis, during their explorations in the valley of the Mississippi, about a third of a century ago. From a small sacrificial tumulus in the vicinity of "Mound City," Ohio, they obtained nearly two hundred stone pipes. Many of these, according to the report of the discoverers, "were much broken up, some of them calcined by the heat, which had been sufficiently strong to melt copper, masses of which were found fused together in the center of the basin. A large number have nevertheless been restored, at the expense of much labor and no small amount of patience. They are mostly composed of a red porphyritic stone, somewhat resembling the pipe stone of the Coteau des Prairies excepting that it is of great hardness and interspersed with small variously colored granules.

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