OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



183 



arrangements of the apartment remain precisely as they were 

 in his day. His chair and table occupy their usual posi- 

 tion, his bust is placed on the wall as near as possible to the 

 place where he used to sit, and all the papers on his desk re- 

 main just as he left them. Many incidents respecting his 

 early life and his subsequent habits, and especially his scien- 

 tific labors, were related, and several memorials were shown, 

 — such as medals; a bust of Laplace, presented by his wid- 

 ow ; the manuscript of an Almanac, constructed by him at 

 the age of fifteen ; his abstract of the mathematical papers 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Society ; his portfolios, 

 on the covers of which were numerous mottoes in various 

 languages, characteristic of the philosopher ; apd, lastly, the 

 fragment of his translation of the fifth volume of the Me- 

 canique Celeste, as far as he had proceeded. 



Letters were read from Samuel B. P. Morse, Esq., and 

 Professor Wolcott Gibbs, of New York, accepting the fellow- 

 ship of the Academy. 



Dr. H. I. Bowditch gave the result of the microscopic ex- 

 amination of the accumulations on the teeth of healthy per- 

 sons, near the gums, in forty-nine individuals, most of whom 

 were very particular in their care of the teeth. Animalcules 

 and vegetable products were found in every instance except 

 two. In those cases the brush was used three times a day, 

 and a thread was passed between the teeth daily. Windsor 

 soap was also used by one of these two persons, with the 

 brush. Dr. Bowditch had tried the effects of various sub- 

 stances in destroying the animalcules, and especially of tobac- 

 co, by which they seemed to be in no wise incommoded. 

 Soap-suds and the Chlorine Tooth-wash invariably destroyed 

 them. 



Professor Agassiz made some remarks on the egg in verte- 

 brate animals, as a means of classification. What is their struc- 

 ture, and is there any thing specific in the eggs of the different 

 classes of Vertebrata ? In the eggs of them all is found a 

 generation of cells in the germinative dot, as may be readily 



