1S89.] 



529 



R, Academia de Ciencias, etc., Madrid ; University Librarj^ 

 Cambridge, Eng. ; Editors of " Nature," London ; Mr. W. E. A. 

 Axon, Manchester, Eng. ; Citizens' Committee of tlie Constitu- 

 tional Centennial Celebration, Editors of the " Medical News," 

 Commissioners for the Erection of the Public BuildingvS, Messrs. 

 Clarence H. Clark, Henry Phillips, Jr., MacCalla & Co., Phil- 

 adelphia ; Commissioner of Labor, Washington, D. C. ; State 

 nistorical Society, Madison, Wis. ; Lick Observatory, Sacra- 

 mento, Cal. 



The Special Committee on the paper by Charles R. Keyes 

 reported progress and was continued. 



The stated business of the meeting was then taken up, and 

 pending nominations Nos. 118-i, 1188, 1189, 1190, 1191, 1192, 

 and 1193 were read, spoken to and balloted upon. 



Prof. Daniel G. Brinton read a paper on " The Ethnologic 

 Affinities of the Ancient Etruscans." 



Prof. John A. Ryder read a paper on the " Proofs of the 

 Effects of Habitual Use in the Modification of an Animal Or- 

 ganization," upon which some remarks were made by Prof. 

 Cope, Dr. Allen and Dr. Horn. 



Dr. Horn made the following remarks : 



The mention of Scarahceus (Ateuclius) sacer by Prof. Ryder brings for- 

 ward several species in our own fauna. DeltocTdlum gibhosum has no 

 anterior tarsi in either sex, and, like the sneer, might be used as an evidence 

 of the persistence of a character gradually acquired through repeated 

 mutilation, that is, a loss of the tarsus by the digging which these insects 

 perform. On the other hand, the numerous species of Phanreus do quite 

 as much digging and the anterior tarsi of the male only are wanting. It 

 is true that many females are seen which have lost their anterior tarsi by 

 digging; have, in fact, worn them off; but in recently developed speci- 

 mens the front tarsi are always absent in the males and present in the fe- 

 males. If repeated mutilation has resulted in the entire disappearance of 

 the tarsi in one fossorial insect, it is reasonable to infer that the same re- 

 sults should follow in a related insect in both sexes, if at all, and not in 

 the male only. It is evident that some other cause than inherited mutila- 

 tion must be sought for to explain the loss of the tarsi in these insects. 



Prof. Edwin J. Houston made the following oral communi- 

 cation upon " Crystal-Studded Hail Stones :" 



The hail storm which occurred at Philadelphia, near sunset, on October 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXVI. 130, 30. PRINTED DEC. 11, 1889. 



