Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/791

Rh Report on the State Lunatic Asylum. Pp. 72. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co. print.

American Shakespeare Bibliography. By K. Knortz. Pp. 16. Boston: Schoenhof & Moeller.

The State and Primary Education. By R. D. Allen. Pp. 7. St. Louis: Ware & Co.

Animal Resources of the United States. By G. B. Goode, M. A. Pp. 126. Washington: Government Printing-Office.

Human Rights and the Natural Laws of Marriage. By G. J. Ziegler, M. D. Pp. 263. Philadelphia: The Author.

The Russian System of Shop-work Instruction. Pp. 24. Boston: Kingman, print.

Development of Anterior Brain-Mass in Sharks and Skates. By B. G. Wilder. Pp. 3. From American Journal of Science and Arts.

The Teeth of Wheels. By S. W. Robinson. Pp. 130. New York: Van Nostrand. Price, 50 cents.

Imports and Exports of the United States. Pp. 100. Washington: Government Printing-Office.

Congressional Directory. Pp. 152. Washington: Government Printing-Office.

Catalogue of Red Double Stars. By S. W. Burnham. Pp. 8. Chicago.

Geological Survey of Minnesota. By N. H. Winchell. Pp. 162. With Maps. St. Paul: Pioneer Press print.

Insects and Plants. By T. Meehan. Pp. 9. Salem (Mass.): Press print.

A Village of Cottage Hospitals. Pp. 47. Printed for the Governors of the New York Hospital.

The Textile Colorist. Monthly. New York: For sale by Wiley & Son. Price, $1 per number.



A Preliminary Note on Menopoma Alleghaniense of Harlan.—At the Buffalo meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Prof. A. R. Grote read a paper with the above title on the Menopoma, an aquatic salamander, with soft, leathery, scaleless skin, inhabiting the tributaries of the Mississippi River. After the examination of a large number of specimens, the characters separating the species Menopoma Alleghaniense and fuscum, as recently accepted by Cope, were found inconstant, and Grote comes to the conclusion that "there is only one and not two species inhabiting the water-shed of the Mississippi." After watching the habits of the animals in the aquarium, Grote succeeded in ascertaining the fact that the outer layer of the skin is shed as in snakes and toads, and is, in some cases at least, swallowed by the animal, since it was in one instance taken out of the mouth of the specimen. Grote succeeded in obtaining eggs laid on August 30th, and draws attention to the fact that the Menopoma puts on a "marriage-dress" during this period of its life, the tail broadening, and a plaited extension of the skin appearing along the sides of the body. The habits of the Menopoma seem, to be nocturnal, and its eggs are laid along the muddy banks of the streams it frequents. The egg contains a yolk about the size of a pea floating in a glairy white fluid, surrounded by a membrane like that enveloping the albumen in a bird's-egg, and taking in a certain amount of water by endosmosis.

Insect Parasites in Muddy Trout-Ponds.—In the fall of 1873 the owner of a pond near Amsterdam, in this State, put into the pond some yearling trout. About the middle of last July a few dead fish were seen floating upon the water. On the tail of one of these dead fish was found "a very curious green bug, about the size of a pumpkin-seed; long legs, red eyes, and a long stinger." Hereupon the owner of the pond consulted Mr. Seth Green, and the latter expressed his belief that the insects were destroying the trout. "The cause is," he writes, "that you have no quick-running water, like a creek, with gravel bottom, running in your pond. By having such a place, when any insect is fastened on a trout, he will go to the quick-running water, and will soon rub it off. Putting trout in a pond with mud and weedy bottom that contains water-insects, and no stream flowing into it, is like tying a man's hands and placing him 