discovered, at the Cambridge Laboratory, Iodine in the 

 ammoniacal liquor from the Boston Gas Works. It was 

 the first time that it had been detected in America, and the 

 observation was interesting, as showing the probable exis- 

 tence of this substance in the waters which had supplied 

 the plants which made up the coal formation. 



Mr. Alger exhibited a number of specimens of native 

 copper and its associated minerals from Lake Superior, 

 intended for exhibition at the World's Fair, in London. 

 They were specimens unsurpassed for the magnitude and 

 splendor of the crystallization. Some of them presented 

 both native copper and silver, mechanically united, but, 

 according to Dr. Jackson, jiever united as an alloy. 



A Snowy Owl {Nyctea nivea) was presented in the name 

 of Mr. Edwin Adams, and a young King Duck (Somateria 

 spectahUis) in the name of Mr. A. H. Ogden. The thanks 

 of the Society were voted for these donations. 



Dr. Joseph P. York and Mr. Thomas P. Gushing were 

 elected members of the Society. 



January 15, 185L 



Dr. D. H. Storer, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. W. O. Ayres commenced a series of observations upon 

 the Holothuridce of our coast. He remarked that very few 

 researches had been made in regard to this family, and that 

 consequently most of t'e species, unless identical with 

 Euro[)ean forms, must prove to be new. Le Sueur pub- 

 lished in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Science, a 

 description of a species from New Jersey, under the name 

 HoL Briareus, From that time till the date of Dr. Gould's 



