175 



Dr. White also presented, from Dr. Bowditch, a speci- 

 men of a hair worm ( Gordiiis) said to have passed from 

 the human body after the use of aloes, though it proba- 

 bly never was so passed. It does not answer to either 

 of the two described by Dr. Leidy ; he proposed for it 

 the name of G. trifurcatus. The description is as fol- 

 lows : — 



Male. Length 5 inches ; diameter -^ line ; shape uniformly 

 cylindrical ; head obtusely conical ; posterior end divided into 

 two long and narrow lobes, and one shorter and broader lobe, in- 

 curved and fringed with short thick hairs. At base of larger 

 lobe is the genital opening, from which the spermatozoa are seen 

 escaping with extremely long tails. Color uniformly light brown. 



The President remarked that the children of Mendoza, at the 

 foot of the Andes, not unfrequently have the nostrils infested by 

 the larv« of a fly ; the affection is accompanied by a discharge 

 at first mucous and afterward bloody, and sometimes proves fatal ; 

 the perfect insect resembles our blue-bottle fly, but is smaller. 

 Similar instances have been observed on the Pacific coast of 

 South America, and in Cayenne. 



Prof. Wyman inquired if any of the members had seen any 

 accounts of recent elephants having been swamped in large num- 

 bers. Rev. Mr. Walker, of the Gaboon Mission, informed him 

 that such an instance had occurred in that vicinity, where many 

 elephants had thus perished together in a mud hole. The fact is 

 interesting, as showing at the present epoch causes of death simi- 

 lar to those which probably existed in the time of the masto- 

 don, several of which were found together in New Jersey, sup- 

 posed to have been mired in the same locality. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson read some letters from Dr. Evans, 

 concerning the meteorite discovered by him in Oregon 

 Territory ; the mass, about three feet of which was above 

 ground, was in the mountains, about forty miles from 

 Port Orford, on the Pacific, and easily accessible by 

 mules. He hoped the Society, as a body or individually, 



