afterward prepare a soil and usher in the domain of beasts and human kind. These little workers have, moreover, as it now appears, changed the outlines of continents and the economy of the civilized world! ture evidently prepared, and Lieutenant Maury has luckily found, expressly for the resting-place of the Trans-Atlantic telegraph wire?] Now the grand consequence following from this certainly plausible theory is, that as the Floridian Peninsula has thus been for ages extending in length, it must encroach more and more on the width of the passage between itself and Cuba, by which the Gulf Stream must make its exit; that, as this passage grows narrower, the rapidity of the stream must proportionally increase; and that, as its velocity is augmented it must, of course, retain its heat to a greater distance, or to any given distance in a greater amount. Now, it is known that the Gulf Stream mainly leaves the American coast in about the latitude of New York-in fact, where it is thrown off by the jut of Long Island and the passing to the east of Newfoundland, finally visits the shores of the British Isles and Norway. Here it parts with the remainder of its heat, and gives to the former, though in the latitude of Labrador, the genial climate of Virginia, while, although nearly spent when it reaches Norway, it here makes a country in the latitude of Southern Greenland a passable abode for civilized men-quite as much so as the frozen regions of Canada East. Thus the poor Yankee shivers for the want of heat which his continent contributes to mitigate the "cockney's" Winter, and to cover the land of shillalehs with its perpetual robe of emerald hue! But still more, while the Gulf Stream has been narrowed at its point of exit by at least one hundred Among the most logical, interesting and novel papers presented before the late meeting, was one by Professor Joseph Leconte, of Athens, Georgia, on the "Agency of the Gulf Stream in the Formation of the Peninsula and Keys of Florida." Professor Leconte set out with the facts that the reef-building corals of this region do not live and grow in water of greater depth than sixty or seventy feet; that across the lower part of the peninsula of Florida there are at least three parallel lines of separation, which bear evidence of being the positions of previous coral reefs; that outside the present coast is another parallel line, known to be of coral ori-eastern projection of Massachusetts, and thence gin, that range of low islands termed the "Keys," and beyond this still the "Florida Reef”—a living coral ledge and also parallel with the lines already mentioned; and that the southern part of the present peninsula, consisting of marshes very little raised above the sea-level, and hence covered with that luxuriant vegetation which has given to this portion the name of Everglades, would naturally result from the filling up from behind, with drift and soil, one after another, of the intervals between each new line of "keys" and the main land. This theory was, then, that the Gulf Stream, on its way from the coast of South America, and bearing portions of the sediment of the Amazon and the Oronoco, and still more of the Mississippi, (or rather of the Missouri,) would deposit this sedi-miles, its quickened speed has been thus progresment along its course out of the Mexican Gulf, especially at points where, as while doubling the southern point of Florida, its speed must be more or less retarded; that thus the sea-bottom, particularly on the Florida side, would be gradually raised, forming a plateau on which, when within seventy feet of the surface, the polypi At the close of Professor Leconte's paper, could commence their work, and build the reef, Professor Swallow, of Missouri, indulged in a which the contributions of the waves would in vein of humor upon the prospect that the mud time make the keys, and in further time unite stolen by the Missouri---that river of the “Borwith the main land, to be further elevated in der Ruffians"-from the lands of Kansas and some parts by igneous or subterranean agencies. Nebraska, was building a bridge to Cuba; and Beyond its exit from the Gulf, the Professor thought the teachings of geology here afforded thought a still further retardation of the Gulf a striking confirmation of the doctrine of " Mancurrent by the Bahamas would give rise to the ifest destiny" and the principles of the “Ostend "Bahama Banks." [Query. What part has the Conference!" But, as Professor Rogers, of same agency played in the formation of Long Boston, very properly replied, the increasing Island, which is itself little more than an exag- force given to the Gulf current by its progresgerated sand bank; of the Banks of Newfound- sive narrowing, must finally cause it to remove land, and of that sandy plateau lying between rather than deposit sediment, and thus as it the latter and the coast of Ireland, which Na-eventually must go to dredging its own chan sively warming more and more the west of Europe, and fitting those countries to become in a higher degree the homes of civilization and refinement; and to be the cradle of a new literature, science and freedom, yet to take root in all lands and regenerate the world! nels, Cuba will be safe, at least from annexa- fession that, for once at least, we find the Protion by the "laws of nature!" Want of space prohibits our doing justice to many other valuable ideas advanced in connection with the subject of geology. Among these more than a brief mention should be made of the thoughts offered by Dr. C. F. Winslow, of Troy, who believed he had found evidence of the existence of permanent canals or conduits leading in various directions from the central fires of the earth upward to volcanoes, and some times running for a long distance horizontally beneath countries which are hence subject to earthquakes; since the attraction of the sun and moon, producing tides in the molten interior mass, would at some time cause volcanic eruptions by forcing this matter up through the whole length of such conduits to their mouth or crater; and, at other times, earthquakes, from stoppage in the conduits, or other coincident causes; or even from the pressure of the fiery sea within on the whole crust of the earth, which latter may be considered as floating thereon, even as vast ice cakes float in Winter on the bosom of our seas and lakes. It would give us pleasure also, had we the space so to do, to recall a trifle of the interest with which Professor Arnold Guyot's able paper on the Black Mountains of North Carolina was listened to; and to take our readers by the button, and with them follow the enthusiastic savant "on all fours "_ providing our readers do not object to this style of locomotion--by bear tracks beneath the black fir balsams, and through the thickly tangled under-groves of rhododendrons, and kalmias and azaleas, forming gardens of beauty, such as princes might covet, but whose inmates here, where the foot of man has hardly ever trodden, are so strangely "Born to blush unseen, And waste their sweetness on the desert air." Now that we are in the midst of this floral luxuriance, we will take advantage of the occasion to pass from the grim world of rocks and rock fragments to the more inviting world of life, with its marvelous ever-new creations; and we therefore turn our attention, next in order, to PHYSIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. Yet such was the extreme of technical abstruseness in which many of the papers relating to these subjects were clothed, that-greatly to the reader's relief, perhaps our gleanings here will necessarily be brief. Professor Agassiz's views touching animal development created not a small ripple of interest at the time of their delivery; but when we re-read the abstracts of them given by the press, it must be with a con fessor giving us a luxuriance of words that serves rather to apologize for than to be burdened with ideas; and we wonder why the few propositions really made could not have been compassed with less prelude and effort. Indeed, there is a prurient curiosity about this whole subject of the genesis of animals, including human beings, that wonderfully helps along the interest whenever a speaker is found bold enough to address himself to these topics; but while we acquit Professor Agassiz of any intention to appeal to this sort of furtherance, we must even take a step beyond, and commend the evidently sensible and straightforward manner in which he goes about these, as about other subjects, showing that, however it may be with the multitude, with him the interest pertaining to theories on these topics is purely one of scientific study and research. The last thirty years have witnessed the first promulgation and general acceptance of an idea that has revolutioned the science of life. This is the discovery, which we owe to Schwaun, a German physiologist, of the part played by cells (or organized vesicles) in the phenomena of the development and growth of all living bodies. The cell in its typical form is little more than a very small sac--so small as usually to be seen only through the microscope--containing a fluid or semi-fluid mass within it, in which again often float yet smaller granules, together with, usually, an aggregation of these in some part, which is termed a nucleus. By the multiplication and transformations of these apparently insignificant bodies all the healthy structures of the most perfect human body are formed. Cells, bead-shaped and spindle-shaped, form the muscles, and perform for us all the wonderful feats of agility and labor; cells, sac-shaped, lay the foundation of bones, teeth and adipose tissue; cells, pavementshaped and pyramid-shaped, cover and protect the external and internal surfaces of the body; true untransformed cells secrete all the fluids of the body--the gastric juice, the tears, sweat, and so on; cells, disc-shaped and globular, form the seat and vehicles of vitality in the blood; and cells of all forms, from globular to star-shaped and ragged, form the "cups" in the wonderful battery of the brain, and by their action evolve the physical link in the magnetism of human emotion, and the lightning play of human thought. But still more, all the cells making up the most complex living body may be distinctly traced back until, in all cases, they are found to have originated from one-and that one, the germ of the future being, is but one of the cella since that when light was thrown on the bottom of a quantity of mold holding a germinating seed, and debarred from the top, the plumule would still follow the light and grow downward, the roots starting upward. Scientific men since prepared in the midst of the multitude of cellreproductions and cell-transformations of the parent the single but prolific bud among the million buds put forth by a parent tree. So all men, and beasts, and plants-various as they are in their endowments and powers, when grown-his day have accepted this conclusion. But the originate alike in the single cell, the little sac revealed only by the microscope, but whose mysterious endowments neither sight nor reason have ever penetrated. How wondrous the lifeessence residing in each of these germs, that builds from one the oak, from another the lion, and from a third the man, each "after his kind," and with unerring exactness! But these thoughts are not new. They have been growing upon the world for the last quarter of a century; and who shall set limits to the revolutions in human faith, and thought, and relationships, which they are destined to work! essayist had repeated and varied the experiments until he had satisfied himself that whether light be present or absent, the plumule always grows upward, and the radicle as invariably downward. Professor Agassiz had tried similar experiments, and had arrived at the same results. He found that the radicle would extend down into empty space if there were nothing else in the course which it took. Whichever way the truth may be, here is a fact wanting a principle. If light be the directing agency, and the delicate plumule seeks its way from the obscurity of its birth-place into the cherishing beam, then what is there in light to deter plant always shoots upward, and sends its root downward, still we know that there is no absolute up or down in Nature; and, therefore, to say the plant seeks these directions, which have no real existence, would be nonsense. Is it not true, then, allow us to ask, that gravitation itself is one of the forces that enters, along with heat, light, and electricity, into the building up of the future plant; that thus the universal law which holds the planets in their orbits may also be the master-builder of every growing plant, pointing the direction of its infant aspirings, and insuring its growth ever afterward in such a line above its base that it shall be strengthened rather than weakened by the tug of the earth's attraction? If such be not the case, how can the fact be accounted for that trees invariably, when not forcibly prevented from so doing, carry up their center of gravity within the base, as rigidly as does the architect that of the edifice to which he constantly applies the guiding plummet? To the views now roughly glanced at those of Professor Agassiz at the late scientific meet-mine this action? But if, as it now seems, the ing would seem to be supplementary. Styling the germ under all circumstances an egg, he stated the latest result of science to be that all animals, without exception, originate from eggs (i. e. cells); that the cell from which the future being is evolved does not differ essentially (did he not mean visibly ?) from the cells of which parts of the adult body is subsequently made up; that the only essential part of any egg, and indeed the only part possessed by eggs of many species, is the yolk-which, when of the size with which we are familiar in the eggs of birds and so on, is really no longer a single cell, but a multitude of them already developed from the primitive germ, and so far on the way to the production of the young animal; that, therefore, the egg, as we are acquainted with it, is the animal itself, and merely in one stage of its development from the original germ to the full-fledged biped; that the embryo is not something put in the egg or superadded to it, but is the egg itself, just as the caterpillar is but the forming butterfly; that the growing chick does not digest the yolk, as physiologists have in the past supposed, and so receive nutriment from it, but rather merely absorbs or transposes the prepared substance of the yolk into the new form which its body is taking at the time; and that thus all animals are one-celled animals in the earliest part of their course, and may in fact be considered to remain so in one sense, until birth or escape from the shell, as the case may be, takes place. It has long been known that human bodies, upon being exhumed months or years subsequent to interment, show in many instances no marks of decay; the flesh is apparently solid, and the countenance, perhaps, fresh and natural. The substance of the muscles and other organs is found, however, to have been converted into a spermaceti-like, fatty material; and to this the name of adipocire has been given. It is now ascertained that this condition can be imitated by placing animal flesh in a position where it Mr. James Dascomb had experimented upon will be kept moistened by water, at a low temthe directions taken by the plumule (incipient perature, and preferably in the dark; and there stem) and radicle (incipient root) of plants. is no doubt that human bodies are usually adiSchultz, of Berlin, had declared some years pocired in consequence of the coffin being for VOL. IV-12. some time filled with water. In Mr. Traill hind, inscribed with no very doubtful characGreen's paper on this subject, it was argued ters. But the monuments are incessantly crum that, since the specific gravity of adipocire is but about four-fifths that of water, the body in this state would float in the water surrounding it; and, should this be afterward, from any cause, removed, the body would be very likely to take a position different from that originally given to it. It would thus seem to have "turned in the coffin ;" and so might give rise among surviving friends to needless regrets or recriminations, growing out of the supposition of a too hasty burial. But while all this may be true, we cannot help believing that a thoughtless and indecent haste on the part of survivors to "bury their dead out of their sight," is but too common; and that, terrible as the idea is, there can be little doubt that in the abnormal states of syncope, trance, catalepsy, and so on, many'a luckless creature has been unintentionally buried alive! It is not many years since Professor Owen, of England-we think he was the first-claimed to have carried comparative anatomy to such perfection that, having given to him but a single bone of some extinct or living race of animals, he could reason out from that the appearance of the whole skeleton, and in fact reconstruct, or as it was called, restore on paper the exact similitude of the animal, and even give a history of its habits and mode of life. With all practicable deference and faith for science and the astuteness with which she clothes modern scientific men, we can still confess to no surprise at hearing doubts thrown upon the possibility of accomplishing all that in this bold claim has so astonished and interested the world. Professor Wyman, of Cambridge, (U. S.,) has found it extremely difficult to distinguish in the case of certain bones, whether they had been the property of frog or reptile; and of the skeleton of the gar-pike, an extant species, he says one part would lead the observer to predict that it belonged to a reptile, another that it was part of a fish. Professor Agassiz agreed, and concluded that scientific men would have to perform the labor of reconsidering some of their restored species-in fact of tearing down again some of their ideally built skeletons of extinct races. It is singular how, to the historic mind, everything has written its history; and, if material forms were but endowed in a little higher degree with the quality of imperishability than in fact they are, how fully all such histories would be found written out at the present day. Every era, every species of animal or plant, every adult human being leaves his monument be bling. Certain sorts only are found to have outstood the ravages of time; and now, if we would find the story of the men of any nation twenty centuries back, we go very doubtfully about the search. It is even well for the living that it is so; for were natural objects so imperishable as perfectly to embalm the records of ancient times, they would be too intractable to submit to be molded into the ever new forms of beauty and utility so essential to the progress of the present. So it is a law of Nature; the past must disappear that the present may be accomplished, and the future hopeful. But some monuments remain. Professor Wilson, of Canada, has opened many ancient graves for the sake of arriving at data relative to periods preceding the written histories of the extant European nations. The relics he had found were readily classified, by the age of the graves and the accompanying differences in their contents, into three epochs. These he would name the stone, the bronze and the iron ages the first being a period when the north of Europe was occupied by a people entirely ignorant of metallurgic art, and the utensils and implements of war were consequently of stone; the second, one in which copper or bronze was found in the native state and hammered into various instruments, but probably with no idea of its being anything more than a new kind of stone, soft and easily worked; and the third, that in which the conception of ores to be mined and metals to be melted and forged dawned on the mind, when, therefore, the relics were of wrought iron, proving the possession of skill, research, and some dawning of scientific knowledge, and pointing the way-pardon, reader, the trite allusion-to the age of steam, newspapers, and of telegraphs! Professor Wilson had found in Ireland and Scotland, that the men of the stone age were characterized by lack of brains-their skulls being small, low and narrow, but well endowed with cerebellum, so as to have the general shape of an upturned boat. Those of the bronze age had larger skulls, and very wide from ear to ear; and their hands and feet were singularly small. A mournful interest arises in the mind as we thus contemplate the momentoes of races which long since learned the struggles of time, and rounded to completeness their narrow scope of experience; and curiously we ever ask the question, now asked to so little purpose, "How lived, how loved, how died they?" How vastly unlike the polished, genteel, shrewd, educated, commercial people of this day, were the narrow, ignorant, rude, crafty and savage boat-heads and cat-heads of those far-off ages of stone and bronze. Yet they were our ancestors-we are their lineal descendants. And this is a thought we commend to the especial attention of Professor Agassiz. The Professor does not believe that all men are of one blood. He finds differences of appearance, and even of structure, between different nations and tribes of men at the present day, so great that he can only reconcile them with the supposition that different races of men sprung at the first from essentially different individuals. Has he stopped to reflect that the differences observable at the present day between Englishmen or Americans, on the one hand, and Tartars, Bushmen, or Australians, on the other, are not one whit more marked than the differences, in appearance, in contour of face, in size and shape of cranium, in facial angle, and in the conformation of the jaws and teeth, that exist between our nineteenth century citizen and his Celt, Briton, Scandinavian and Hunnish ancestors of and before the age of Julius Cæsar. But surely there has been no new creation here. We are not a new species introduced in place of those barbarians; we are the barbarians themselves, plus the benefits of time, intermarriage, activity and culture. All Professor Agassiz's reasonings respecting men and monkeys, and respecting the wider distinctions apparently existing between the former than between the latter, are but examples of gratuitous self-annoyance. Let him once fathom the worldwide difference that exists between his own physique and that of his lineal forefathers in the days of Alaric and Attilla, and he may sever the gordian knot of doubt and accept the unity of the race. For, as Professor Dawson, of Canada, well remarked, man of every race is very variable, while monkeys are very invariable. And again, there are animals known to have sprung from the same stock which have undergone very wide transformations; as an instance of which, the Professor cited the difference now existing between the Sable Island and the "Mustang" horse-animals which no one supposes to be of unlike origin or species. Everything, said Professor Anderson, of Rochester, touches ethnology; but the question is too broad and complicated to be settled in our day. We have not yet arrived at the elements of the argument; and the fashionable dogmatism of the present time, respecting the plurality of human species, is little better than impertinence in itself, while it is direct and purposed inhumanity in its conse quences. Even if the species of men were a score or a hundred, what would each still be but MAN? And does not this grant the whole question and overthrow all the dogmatic inhumanity that has been attempted to be founded on it? But when we consider the extreme susceptibility of man, as a race, to climatic and other physical influences, as well as his proclivity to social and moral transformations, which in their turn modify the physical nature, we shall see more and more reason for returning to the unsophisticated and common-sense judgment, that man is originally and essentially one, not merely in family, and in general characteristics, but in specific unity and identity. We cannot close this detail of some of the valuable scientific results presented at the Albany meeting, without adding our regrets that American savans are in the main such unsocial workers. Why have we not in our broad, enterprising and progressive country a few such working bodies of scientific men as are known to honor all the large cities of the Old World? Why cannot this great Metropolis, with its various activities, nurse into life more than a single philosophical society, and that one without funds, without published papers, without the support or care of a tithe of the cultivators of science within her borders? THE BATTLE OF OKEE CHOBEE. THE battle of Okee Chobee, Florida, was fought on the 25th of December, 1837, between a force of about nine hundred men, under Colonel Z. Taylor, and three hundred and eighty warriors, under Alligator, Sam Jones, and Coacooche. Colonel Taylor had been ordered by General Jessup, then commanding in Florida, to advance against any body of Indians which he might hear to be within striking distance, and capture or destroy them. In accordance with these instructions, he set out from Fort Gardiner on the 19th of December, and moved down the west side of the Kissimmee toward Lake Istopoga. On the morning of the second day's march he came upon a camp, where he found an old man and two young ones, with their families, who had expressed their willingness and desire to give themselves up. The old man informed Taylor that Alligator had determined to come in, and had gone to the camp of the Mickasukies, about twenty miles the other side of the Kissimmee, to bring in his relatives and friends; and that the Mickasukies were determined to fight. He was sent with a message to Alligator, informing him of Taylor's advance, and appointing a place of meeting. He failed to meet at |