56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Feb. $th. 



Dr. Hays in the Chair. 



Twenty-nine members present. 



Dr. Rand announced the death at sea, on his return from China, of 

 Captain McMichael, late a member elect of the Academy. 



Feb. 15th. 

 Vice President Bridges in the Chair. 



Thirty-eight members present. 



Papers were presented for publication of the Proceedings, entitled, 

 Observations on the Species of Nicotiana, by John Le Conte. 



Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Fort Tejon, California, by John L. Le 

 Conte, M. D. 



And were referred to Committees. 



Mr. Powel read extracts from a letter, giving information in relation 

 to certain fossil bones in the neighborhood of Eufield, North Carolina. 



Feb. 22c?. 



Vice President Bridges in the Chair. 



Forty members present. 



On report of Committees on the Biological Department, the follow- 

 ing named papers were recommended for publication in a medical journal. 



Observations on the exposed hearts of Animals, by S. Weir Mitchell, 

 M. D. 



Observations on the colorless blood-corpuscle, by Wm. A. Ham- 

 mond, M. D. 



The following papers were, on report of the respective Committees, 

 ordered to be printed in the Proceedings : 



ICHTHYOLOGICAL NOTICES. 

 BY CHARLES GIRARD, M. D. 



V. We have often had an opportunity to speak of curious traits of organi- 

 zation amongst the fishes of California and Oregon, but we think that the 

 species which is the subject of this paragraph, yields nothing in that respect 

 to those alluded to elsewhere. 



Let it be stated at once that it belongs to the blennioid family, as now un- 

 derstood by us, and will enter into the genus Neoclinus, as characterised in 

 the "Report upon the Fishes of the U. S. P. R. R. Expl. and Surveys," with- 

 out any material modification of its diagnosis. And yet when we first beheld 

 this singular creature prior to any examination of its organic structure we 

 were far from suspecting its natural affinities to the family to which it belongs 

 in reality. The fish is from eight to nine inches in total length ; its body is 

 very much compressed and tapering ; the head being about two inches long and 

 deeper than broad, superiorly convex, anteriorly rounded off ; the branchial 

 apertures are widely open, continuous under the throat ; the mouth is deeply 



[Feb. 



