1867.] 287 [Morse. 



were to show that the same principle is likewise embodied in a class 

 of animals of lower rank, viz., the class of Ecliinoderms, which are 

 without true heads. His rema,rks were especially directed ta the 

 demonstration that this principle is exhibited in the fossilized re- 

 mains of the lowest beings of the class, which existed in the early 

 geological epochs, and that, in .a natural classification, they must be 

 arranged according to this principle. 



IVii*. Edward S. Morse also spoke of the success he had met with 

 in applying the principles of cephalization to the classification of the 

 MoUusca. He drew diagrams of the six leading groujjs of the Mul- 

 lusca in their normal position, head downward. He observed that 

 in the cuttle-fish we have cephalization most prominent. The head 

 is always protruded from the sac-like body, the foot is divided 

 into numerous arms, and the jaws are perfect. In the Gastero- 

 pods, or snails, the head retracts within the sac, and the foot is a 

 broad disk, by which they slowly crawl about. In the bivalves, the 

 mouth is always enclosed by the mantle, and is devoid of jaws or 

 hard parts, and the food is received trom the posterior end of the body, 

 through the currents of water passing in at the posterior part of the 

 body. In the Ascidians, the anterior portion 'of the sac is closed, and 

 the animal is fixed by that end to the rock; the mouth now turns 

 toward the jiosteiuor portion of the sac. In the Brachiopods, we have 

 the same conditions, namely: the anterior end of the sac closed and 

 fixed, the mouth still nearer the posterior end, and in the lowest 

 groujj of all, the Polyzoa, the mouth is at the extreme posterior por- 

 tion of the body. Thus a line drawn through the mouth of these 

 Tai'ious diagrams shows the progress of that part toward the anterior 

 end of the body. The position assigned to the classes by these 

 principles is also in harmony with other principles of classification. 



Dr. J. "Wynian stated that he had recently witnessed the 

 destruction of male spiders by the female of the same species 

 (in this case an Epeira), after the union of the sexes. This 

 habit was long since described by Lyonet, (Mem. du Mus. 

 d'llist. Nat., T. XVIII.) In tlie instance observed by Dr. 

 Wyman, two dead males, w^ound with thread, were found 

 beneath the web, and a third in the web on which the female 

 was still feeding. On the following day a fourth male was 

 found in the clutches of the same female, who was still in 

 the act of sucking the fluids of her victim. Since the above 

 was communicated, a fifth dead male was found in the same 

 web. 



