334 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



" There can be no doubt of the identity of this fish with that whose 

 habits are described by Aristotle, under the name rXtiws-. The an- 

 cient names of birds, fishes, and quadrupeds, in numei'ous instances, 

 are preserved among the common people, under forms modified in the 

 same way as other classes of words are by the uneducated. The 

 oblique cases are often used, as is common in other languages among 

 the ignorant, for the nominative ; in other instances, diminutives are 

 formed from the roots, as exhibited in the oblique cases, and used in 

 the sense of the original word. The name in Aristotle is written 

 TXdvii ; the local name still preserved among the fishermen, in the 

 same region, in the North of Greece, is rXai/i'Si, formed, according to 

 numerous analogies, from the genitive rXawSoy; and the plural of 

 TXavidi (vXavidiov) is Vkavidia, the word employed in the catalogue ac- 

 companying the specimens. Thus the fish sent from Acarnania to 

 Athens, and from Athens to Cambridge, to find a place in Professor 

 Agassiz's collection, though dumb, has spoken a noble eulogy upon 

 the greatest philosopher of the ancient world. 



" There is a close connection, as Cicero long ago observed, a com- 

 mune vinculum^ between all departments of learning. This instructive 

 fish has not only corrected Cuvier, but the Greek lexicographers, who 

 must take a lesson of him, and change their definition. Pape, who 

 is generally very accurate, defines rXdi/ty as ' eine Art Wels,' a kind 

 of cat-fish^ which is tolerably near the truth ; and Liddell and Scott, 

 the translators of Passow, call it a kind of shad. Hereafter the shad 

 must give place to horn-pout, a substitution less displeasing to the 

 lexicographer than to the epicure." 



Dr. B. A. Gould acknowledged, in the name of Argelander, 

 his election as Honorary Member, and offered as an apology 

 in his behalf, for not directly addressing the Academy, his in- 

 ability to write English with facility. 



Dr. O. W. Holmes exhibited a section of a Hemlock which 

 had recently fallen on his estate at Pittsfield. The section 

 was made at the height of twelve feet, and by its rings 

 showed its age to be at least three hundred and forty-six years, 

 dating back to 1510. The section exhibited the usual in- 

 equality of growth at different periods in the varying width 

 of its rings. Dr. Holmes made the specimen interesting, by 

 indicating at different points the epoch of the birth and death 



