the alkaloid, the difference being in the case of the alkaloid 1° C.=-562° and in the case of the sulphate 1° C.=-650°.

(c.) In both the sulphate aqueous solution and the alcoholic alkaloid solution, there is the same diminished rotation under dilution, and this occurs chiefly in the first dilution as is shown. in the following table:

1st dilution [a]j=-137 50° at 35° C. [a]j=-250-70° at 314° C. 2d dilution [a]j=-118·64° at 36° C. [a]j=-235 45° at 32° C. 3d dilution [aj=-115-45° at 36° C. [a]j=-234-54° at 31° C.

In closing, I would direct attention to the results indicated in conclusion (a), wherein we find that the presence of sulphuric acid has changed the rotation power of a given weight of the alkaloid from -154:30° to -255° 48°; and I ask, is it not possible, nay, even probable, that the physiological action of the drug may undergo a similar or perhaps even greater increase? In past times it was the custom to administer quinine in the form of a sulphuric acid solution, and the results were certain and prompt even with minute doses. In recent times, on In recent times, on the contrary, the fancy of patients demands that quinine should be given in pill or some allied form; and though greatly increased doses are used, the practitioner finds it is less certain in its effect. The cause of the difference is doubtless the change in molecular arrangement that produces the marked difference in the action of the alkaloid and sulphate solutions on polarized light; and since the action of the sulphate solution is so much greater than that of the alkaloid solution it is evidently the proper form for the administration of Quinine as a Medicine.

College of the City of New York, Oct. 29, 1875.

ART. V.-Description of some remains of an Extinct Species of Wolf and an Extinct Species of Deer from the Lead Region of the Upper Mississippi; by J. A. ALLEN.

THE remains described in the present paper form part of the collection of mammalian fossils made many years since by Professor J. D. Whitney, from the lead-crevices and superficial strata of the lead region of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, being a part of those enumerated by the late Professor Jeffries Wyman in Whitney's Geological Report of the Lead Region of the Upper Mississippi (pp. 421-423), published in 1862.

The collection originally contained, besides those now described, other remains belonging to the genera Mastodon, Megalonyx and Platygonus, and an extinct species of Bison.

In

addition to these I find an imperfect radius that seems not to differ at all from that of a young male Cervus Canadensis, and a part of another radius that does not differ appreciably from the corresponding part of a radius of Antilocapra Americana.

The remains of the fossil deer now described are those mentioned by Professor Wyman, namely a left metatarsus, a humerus and a radius, all more or less imperfect.* Professor Wyman described the humerus as "closely resembling that of the red deer, and of intermediate size between this and the humerus of the caribou." As these cervine remains evidently belonged to a species different from any hitherto described, either extinct or living, I propose for it the name Cervus Whitneyi, in honor of their discoverer, Professor J. D. Whitney.

The remains of Canis consist of a femur, two tibiæ and a humerus (the latter and one of the tibia in perfect condition), and may not have been those mentioned by Professor Wyman, although he enumerates parts corresponding to these; since it seems impossible that he could have described them as not differing in size from corresponding parts of the "gray wolf (Canis occidentalis Dekay,-C. griseus Sabine)," and as being not distinguishable from them; they in reality indicating a species of nearly twice the size of that animal. The rami and fragment of a right upper jaw" mentioned by Professor Wyman as belonging to the same species are not now in the collection. This species seems to correspond in size quite nearly with the Canis dirus which Leidy described (first under the preoccupied name of primavus, and still later under the name of Indianensis) from a portion of an upper jaw found with the remains of Megalonyx, Tapirus, Equus and Cervus Virginianus in the banks of the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana, and also with the Canis Haydeni Leidy, described later from the Pliocene sands of the Niobrara River from a fragment of a right ramus. Since of the present species we have only a few of the bones of the limbs, it may be better to give it a provisional name than to refer it to either of the species already described, and await the reception of additional material to show their relationship. I accordingly propose for this species the name Canis Mississippiensis. As previously noticed, the remains associated with those now described nearly all belonged to extinct species, and to the fauna immediately preceding the

* Another specimen referred to under the head of Cervus by Professor Wyman as "an imperfect humerus of a much smaller animal than the preceding" belongs to the extinct peccary, (Platygonus compressus).

+ Canis primavus LEIDY, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vii, 200, 1854. Journ., Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., iii, 167, pl. xvii, figs. 11, 12, 1856. (Name preoccupied).

Canis dirus LEIDY, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1858, 21. (Same specimen.) Canis Indianensis LEIDY, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vii, 368, 1867. (Same specimen.)

present. The bones, though light and somewhat soft, are still white and in an excellent state of preservation, and, though some are broken, have not suffered much abrasion. The humerus of the wolf shows the marks of the teeth of some small rodent.

CANIS MISSISSIPPIENSIS, sp. nov.

The remains of this species, consisting of a perfect right humerus, the distal two-thirds of a right femur, an entire left tibia and the greater portion of a right tibia, indicate a species of nearly if not quite twice the bulk of the existing large wolf of the northern hemisphere (Canis lupus), and which had a stature fully one-fifth greater, the difference between them being nearly as great as that between Canis lupus and Canis latrans. The bones do not differ appreciably in respect to form from those of Canis lupus. Their measurements (given in millimeters), in comparison with those of the corresponding bones of a specimen of Canis lupus (number 268 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology) from Kansas are as follows:Comparative Measurements of Bones of Canis Mississippiensis and Canis lupus.

Humerus.-Total length,

Greatest diameter of proximal end,.

Antero-posterior diameter of head,

Greatest transverse diameter of distal

end,

C. Mississippiensis. C. lupus.

Greatest antero-posterior diameter of in-
ner condyle,..

Least circumference of shaft,..

Femur.-Total length,.

Transverse diameter of axis and great
trochanter,

Transverse diameter of condyles, .

Antero-posterior diameter of condyles (in-
ner side),

Least circumference,.

Length of corresponding parts (distal two-
thirds),

Tibia.-Total length,

Transverse diameter of head,..

Antero-posterior diameter at most ele-
vated point of the tuberosity,.

Transverse diameter of distal end,.

Least circumference of shaft,

ལྷ་ཚོ་འགྲོག་ ག

43

53

56

155

123

244

200

47

38

43

35

CERVUS WHITNEYI, sp. nov.

The remains of this species, consisting of a left humerus, entire except lacking the proximal epiphysis, a left radius, also

AM. JOUR. SCI.-THIRD SERIES, VOL. XI, No. 61.-JAN., 1876.

lacking the distal end, and a right metatarsal, which has also lost the distal termination, indicate a species of about the same proportions as Cervus Virginianus, but much larger, considerably exceeding in size Cervus macrotis. The measurements given below indicate the fossil species to have been at least one-seventh larger than C. macrotis, and apparently more than one-fifth larger than C. Virginianus. A comparison of the bones themselves give a stronger impression of the greatly larger size of the fossil species than do the tabulated measurements. In respect to form, the humeri of the three species do not materially differ, although the condyles in C. macrotis have a rather greater relative breadth than in either of the other species. The radius also differs but little in form in the three, but in the fossil species the ulna (it has now been broken away and is lost) was solidly anchylosed with the radius nearly throughout its length, being free only near its distal extremity, whereas in C. macrotis it is anchylosed for only its middle portion, being not only free proximally as well as distally, but for quite a space near the proximal end does not even touch the radius, there being an interval of fully two millimeters between. them. In C. Virginianus the radius and ulna are nearly as fully anchylosed as in the fossil species. The metatarsal bone is similar in form to that of C. macrotis, except that it is relatively more compressed laterally in its distal portion, and seems to have been (the distal end is lacking) relatively narrower at its lower articulation. In this respect it corresponds more nearly with the distal portion of the metatarsus of C. Virginianus, which is much rounder and relatively more slender than that of C. macrotis. The metatarsal of the fossil species differs from that of C. Virginianus, however, in having the groove of the posterior surface continued much further distally than in that species. In the following table of comparative measurements the specimens taken are middle-aged males, the Cervus macrotis (No. 1781 of the Mus. Comp. Zool.), being from the Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming Territory, and the C. Virginianus (No. 1733 of the Mus. Comp. Zool.) from Maine.

Comparative Measurements of Bones of Cervus Whitneyi, Cervus macrotis, and Cervus Virginianus.

1. Action of Nitric Acid on Silver and Copper, alone and in presence of Nitrates.-ACWORTH has examined at length, in the laboratory of Dr. Frankland, the gases which are evolved by the action of nitric acid on metals, both with and without the presence of nitrates in the solution. The following are his conclusions: (1) cold dilute nitric acid acting on copper evolves nearly pure nitrogen dioxide; (2) in presence of a strong solution of cupric nitrate, this same action gives rise to nearly pure nitrogen monoxide; (3) potassium nitrate has no effect; (4) ammonium nitrate causes the evolution of nitrogen and nitrogen monoxide, mixed with some dioxide; (5) nitric acid, acting on zine or iron in presence of ammonium nitrate, evolves nearly pure nitrogen; (6) mercury under the same circumstances acts similarly; (7) on silver, the gaseous products are nitrogen and nitrogen dioxide, with scarcely a trace of the monoxide; (8) in presence of ammonium nitrate, silver produces nitrogen chiefly, mixed with a little nitrogen dioxide.-J. Chem. Soc., II, xiii, 828, September, 1875. G. F. B.

2. On the Condensability of the Gaseous Products of the vistillation of Carbonaceous Shales.-Distillation of carbonaceous shales at a low temperature, is extensively resorted to, as is wellknown, for the production of liquid hydro-carbons for illuminating purposes. The large amount of gas simultaneously produced, and its high illuminating power, suggested to COLEMAN a ries of experiments upon the condensability of these gaseous products. For this purpose a compression-pump was provided, by which the gas was condensed into an iron tube. This tube was

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