Atwood.] 364 [January 15, 



January 15, 1868. 



The Pi'esident in the chair. Forty-eight members present. 



Capt. Nathaniel E. Atwood exhibited a cod fish, which 

 presented a curious appearance. A number of sand-eels were 

 seen in the Avails of the abdominal cavity ; they were so hard 

 as to resist the knife, not at all decomposed, and in many 

 places with a sort of earthy crust or membrane of their own. 

 Capt. Atwood said the occurrence was not an unusual one, 

 and the cod, being in good condition, had apparently not 

 siiffered at all by this phenomenon. 



The President remarked that there were three noticeable 

 features in this fish ; the eels were all outside of the cavity 

 of the stomach ; they were enveloped m a membrane of 

 their own, and, although they must have remained a long 

 time in their present position, there Avere no signs of putre- 

 faction. It has been held that the vital forces maintained life 

 in antagonism to physical forces, and that Avhen the vital force 

 was gone, the physical force wi-ought immediate disintegra- 

 tion and decomposition of the organic tissues. Pasteur, 

 however, by his experiments on animal tissues, had proved 

 that decomposition does not depend on the abstraction of 

 the vital principle, but on the presence of some disturbing 

 agency. 



Mr. Lucas Baker exhibited some earthy kernels as large as 

 mustard seeds, foreign substances, Avhich he had found in 

 the body of the perch ; according to his statement they ren- 

 dered the fish unfit for food. 



The Custodian announced the purchase of a collection of 

 alcoholic specimens, principally fishes, obtained by Mr. J. A. 

 Allen in Central Iowa ; they were especially interesting from 

 having been collected in small streams flowing down either 

 side of the water-shed between the Mississippi and Missouri 

 rivers ; the exact localities were carefully specified. 



