OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



253 



Dr. A. A. Gould made some statements concerning the sup- 

 posed ejection of living animals from the human stomach, 

 where they had been believed to have resided for some time, 

 but which, from their structure and habits, could not have lived 

 under such conditions. He mentioned several instances, — 

 one that of a snake, supposed to have existed for months in a 

 man's stomach, which on being opened was found to contain 

 in its stomach another snake, of a different species, which it 

 had swallowed ; all tending to confirm the probability that all 

 such stories are palpable fictions, or the offspring of honest 

 delusion. 



Four liiHidred. ai»d tweiity-seveiitli meeting. 



May 13, 1856. — Monthly Meeting. 



The Academy met at the house of the Hon. Nathan Ap- 

 pleton. The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read letters from Rear-Admiral 

 W. H. Smyth, acknowledging the donation of the Academy's 

 Memoirs, and from Die Koniglich Siichsische Geselschaft der 

 Wissenschaften, and the Lyceum of Natural History, New 

 York, acknowledging the donation of the Proceedings of the 

 Academy. 



Referrino; to the statements concerning the Cochituate wa- 

 ter at the preceding meeting, Dr. A. A. Hayes said, that, in 

 a paper read by him last year, he had demonstrated that the 

 impurity existing at that time was due to an animal origin, 

 and he had seen no reason to change his view since. 



Dr. John Bacon remarked, that he had noticed the oil-con- 

 taining Crustacea during the past year, especially in the very 

 cold months, when there was very little vegetable matter in 

 the water. He had seen no reason to change his former opin- 

 ion concerning them. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson said, that, shortly after the Cochituate 

 water was introduced into Boston, he had collected great num- 

 bers of the Crustacea, at a time when the water was very pure. 



