4<l8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP [1885. 



December 22. 



The President, Dr. Leidy, in the chair. 



Twenty-nine persons present. 



A paper, entitled " Inclusions in the Granite of Craftsbury, 

 Vermont," by Calvin McCormick, was presented for publication. 



Worms in Ice Prof. Leidy referred to a former communica- 

 tion on the occurrence of organisms in ice (see Proc. 1884, 260), 

 and stated that Dr. S. C. Thornton, of Moorestown, N. J., a couple 

 of weeks since, had submitted to him for examination a bottle of 

 water from melted ice, such as was habitually used in his family, 

 and in which he said he had observed living worms. A number 

 of these proved to be present in the specimen, but were all dead. 

 Having expressed a desire to confirm the statement that the 

 worms were observed alive in the fresh ice-water, Dr. Thornton 

 last week had obligingly sent him a basket of the ice. This was 

 part of the provision made nearly a year ago from the vicinity of 

 Moorestown. The ice was full of air bubbles and water drops. 

 On being melted^ number of the worms were liberated and proved 

 to be in a living and quite active condition. It is probable that 

 while imprisoned in the ice they may not have been frozen, but 

 perhaps remained alive in a torpid condition in water drops. It 

 is a remarkable fact that these animals should remain so long 

 alive in the ice, and yet die so readily in the melted water subse- 

 quently. The worms are of the same species noticed in the ice- 

 water of the first communication, and which was derived from 

 similar ice procured from a mill-pond in Delaware Co., Pa. These 

 facts would indicate that it is desirable to avoid the spongy ice 

 from stagnant waters, as being liable to retain organisms which 

 would be detrimental to us. In the clear ice, such as is served in 

 Philadelphia, no living organisms are detected. The little worms 

 of the ice appear to be an undescribed species, and may there- 

 fore be eharacterized as follows : — 



Lumbricus QLACIALIS. Worm from four to six lines long, trans- 

 lucent white, cylindrical, anteriorly acute, tapering most behind 

 and obtuse, of from 35 to 50 segments ; oral segment with a blunt 

 conical upper lip, unarmed and eyeless ; succeeding segments with 

 four rows of podal-spines, in fascicles of .three ; spines pointed 

 at the free end and hooked at the attached end, nearly straight 

 or slightly sigmoid ; generative organs occupying the interval of 

 the third and seventh spine bearing segments. 



Thickness of worm 0'15 to 0*25 mm.; podal spines 0*3 to 0*375 

 mm. long:. 



