'.: 



PROCEEDINGS. 



THIRTY-SECOND MEETING, October 13, 1882. 



The President occupied the chair. Thirty-two members were 

 present. Both secretaries being absent, Dr. Tarleton H. Bean was 

 designated Secretary pro tempore. 



General William Birney, Chairman of the Committee on the 

 Admission of Women to Membership in the Society, submitted a 

 report in the form of the following resolution : 



"Resolved, In view of the fact that this Society has not prescribed scientific 

 attainments as a qualification for membership, it is inexpedient at present to de 

 clare women eligible; but, if it should hereafter prescribe such qualifications, 

 there is no sufficient reason for their exclusion." 



On motion of Prof. Riley, the report was adopted and the Com 

 mittee discharged. 



Mr. Frederick W. True read a paper ON THE BITE OF THE 

 CORAL SNAKE,* describing the effects of the attack of one of the 

 specimens in the National Museum upon Mr. A. Z. Shindler, one 

 of the artists in the Museum, and citing the testimony of several 

 correspondents in the southwestern United States. Remarks were 

 made by Professors Ward and Gill. Prof. Theodore Gill read a 

 paper entitled THE RELATIONS OF THE ECHENEIDIDS,! demonstrating 

 the claims of this group of fishes to isolation, not only as a family, 

 but as a suborder, related rather more closely to the Gobioidea and 

 Blennioidea than to the Scombroidea. He characterized the sub 

 order Discocephali, and the family Echeneidida and sub-family Echi- 

 neidina, and gave a detailed history of the views of ichthyological 

 writers from Artedi to Cope. 



* 1883. TRUE, FREDERICK W. On the Bite of the North American Coral 

 Snakes (Genus Elaps). < American Naturalist, 1883, pp. 26-31. 



f 1883. GILL, THEODORE. Note on the Relationships of the Echeneidids, 

 <Proceedings U. S. National Museum, V, pp. 561-6, Plate XII, 1883. 



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