769 proceedings of the academy of [dcc, 



December 1. 



The President, Samuel G. Dixon, M.D., in the Chair. 



Twenty-four persons present. 



The deaths of the following members were announced : Enoch I>ewis, 

 November 15, 1902; Charles W. Trotter, August 5, 1903; Mrs. J. Edgar 

 Thomson, November 24, 1903, and Charles Schacffcr, M.D., Novem- 

 ber 23, 1903. 



On the announcement of the death of Dr. Charles Schaeffer, 

 the following minute was unanimously adopted : 



Conscious of the loss it has sustained in the death of Dr. Charles 

 Schaeffer, the Academy desires to place on record a minute to that 

 effect. Since his election to membership in 1861, Dr. Schaeffer had 

 been loj^ally interested in the well-being and growth of the society. 

 He served acceptably as a member of the Council and of the Library 

 Committee. His efficiency as Secretary of the Botanical, the Miner- 

 al ogical, and the Biological and Microscopical Sections is proof of the 

 wide sphere of his nature-studies, while his skill in photography 

 enabled him to permanently place the results of his work in the cabinet 

 and in the field at the service of his fellow-students. He thus alike 

 recorded with loving care and exquisite fidelity the floral beauties of 

 the fields and dells he had known from childhood and the glories of 

 the distant snow-clad peaks of the western mountains, where for many 

 years he periodically drew store of health and inspiration. 



He made the needs of the Academy at large matters of personal 

 concern, and was ever ready with wise counsel and practical encour- 

 agement, while in his intercourse with his fellow-members he was 

 notably gentle, courteous and sympathetic. His memory will be held 

 in affectionate regard. 



Dr. Benjamin Sharp made a communication on the fishes of Nan- 

 tucket. It will be incorporated in a paper to be published in the next 

 volume of the Proceedings. 



Ganglia of Odonata. — Dr. Philip P. Calvert spoke of the abdominal 

 and thoracic ganglia of dragonflies (Odonata), stating that the eight 

 pairs constituting the abdominal portion of the ventral nerve cord of 

 young larvse are reduced to seven, in later larval life, by the fusion of 

 the first pair wuth the third thoracic {Mschna, Anax). The second ab- 

 dominal pair move forward to lie in the first abdominal segment, leav- 

 ing the second segment (alone of the first eight) without ganglia. 

 This later condition is likewise that of the adults of the suborder Ani- 

 soptera, as far as known. Adults of at least some species of the sub- 

 order Zygoptera show some differences (Calvert, Proc. Calif. Acad. 

 Sci., 3d series, I, p. 410, 1899). 



The following were accepted for publication : 



