15 



March I, 1848. 

 The President in the Chair. 



Present eighteen members. 



Dr. Bacon, on behalf of Dr. Kneeland, read a paper on 

 the Anatomy of the internal organs of the Thresher Shark, 

 comparing them with those of the Shark from Provincetown, 

 described by him at the last meeting. 



Mr. Desor continued his account of his experiments with 

 chloroform on animals. 



Two small fishes, a Minnow and a Stickleback, were placed 

 in a jar of water. Twelve drops of chloroform being added, in 

 from four to five minutes they became stupefied. On being re- 

 moved from the jar, they revived in from twelve to fifteen min- 

 utes. On one specimen the experiment was tried five times, with 

 a manifestation of increased susceptibility with each repetition. 

 The circulation under the microscope was seen to be retarded ; 

 and in one experiment, where the fish was kept in the jar forty 

 minutes, it was brought to a complete stop. The fish was how- 

 ever not dead. The eye was clear, the color of the body un- 

 changed, and it continued poised as in life, with the back upper- 

 most. The circulation appears to cease first in the minute 

 capillaries of the tail. The hind part of the body is generally 

 bent. Motion in the pectoral fins ceases long after it does in the 

 others. 



Dr. Cabot read a paper on the Dodo, which Cuvier ar- 

 ranged with the Gallinaceous birds, and Mr. Owen has since 

 classified with the Raptorial. Dr. Cabot classes it with the 

 Columbidge. His paper was referred to the Publishing 

 Committee. 



Dr. Storer stated that the Shark recently received from 

 Provincetown, proved to be the same species as that taken 

 on the coast of Maine two years since, and which was de- 

 scribed and the description communicated to him at the 



