460 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1881. 



November 29. 



Dr. R. S. Kenderdine in the chair. 



Thirty-one persons present. 



The special business of the meeting being the nomination of 

 officers, councillors and members of the Finance Committee, a 

 letter from Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger was read, declining to 

 be a candidate for re-election to the office of President, whereupon 

 a committee, consisting of Messrs. Isaac C. Martindale, S. R. 

 Roberts and J. H. Redfield, was appointed to prepare a suitable 

 expression of the Academy's appreciation of Dr. Ruschenberger's 

 services to the society. 



December 6. 

 Mr. Thos. Meehan, Yiee-President, in the chair. 

 Thirty-six persons present. 



The genus Carterella vs. Spongiophaga Pottsi. — Mr. Edward 

 PoTTS referred to a paper (On Spongiophaga Pottsi n. sp., Ann. 

 and Mag. of Nat. Hist., Nov., 1881) by H. J. Carter, F. R. S., etc., 

 in which that eminent scientist gives an interpretation, differing 

 from his own, of the statosphere tendrils which form the char- 

 acteristic feature of the new genus of fresh-water sponges to 

 which Mr. Carter's name had been attached in recognition of his 

 very distinguished services. He wished to consider the subject 

 entirely apart from its personal relation to themselves; and only 

 as it concerned the stability of a genus, in which, as he claimed, 

 for the first time in the history of fresh-water sponges, these 

 tendrils had been noticed as distinctive features. 



He then, at some length, gave his reasons why we should not 

 accept Mr. Carter's theory of the parasitic nature of these tendrils 

 or filaments ; saying, that of the two points in the paper most 

 likely to impress a student who had not seen specimens of the 

 genus referred to, or one unfamiliar with the general subject, the 

 first was founded upon certain appearances represented in figure 

 2 of Mr. Carter's plate. This figure shows an " axial canal " 

 tlu'ough the centre of the filament, widening into the " tubular 

 prolongation from the process of the chitinous coat " of the stato- 

 sphere and representing the supposable digestive tract of the 

 animal parasite. 



As after repeated and very careful examination of numerous 

 specimens, both in a fresh condition and after being subjected to 



