13 [Stodder. 



propose a change in Section III., Article 2, of the By-Lawj: 

 in the substitution of the words " one hundred " for " fifty." 



Mr. Charles Stodder exliibited under the microscope speci- 

 mens of the deep sea soundings referred to him at the meet- 

 ing of September 16th, 1863. 



He stated that the mud was brought up by the Brooks sounding 

 apparatus from a depth of 2280 fathoms, by Capt. Jose Polo de Ber- 

 nalee, of the Spanish corvette Villa de Bllboa, April 28th, 1857, Lat. 

 0°, 21', 0" K, Long. 23°, 28', 52" W. (Greenwich). The dry mud is 

 of an ash brown color, of slight firmness,as it readily crumbles to pow- 

 der in the fingers. Treated with hydrochloric acid it dissolves en- 

 tirely with the exception of a very fcAv fragments of the siliceous 

 shells of Polycystinae, and equally few diatoms — Coscinodiscus jJro- 

 fundus, Ehr. It is an almost pure organic deposit, consisting, with the 

 exceptions mentioned, of calcareous shells of Foraminifera, perfect, 

 with fragments and amorphous powder of the same. An attempt to 

 determine the genera and species of the forms found was unsatisfac- 

 tory, not having time or disposition to make a thorough study of them. 

 The largest forms which may be readily picked out with a hand lens, 

 are, or approximate to, Rosalina and Rotalia. The smaller forms either 

 are, or resemble Glohlgerina. The largest forms constitute about 

 twenty-five per centum of the bulk, the powder about the same, the 

 balance being the smaller perfect forms. 



This material is identical, in chemical constitution, with the chalk 

 of England, and nearly so in organic contents. Under pressure, to- 

 gether with the lapse of time, it will undoubtedly have the same 

 physical character. Thus it is a reasonable inference that we have in 

 our time, in the profound depths of the ocean, a chalk deposit in the 

 process of formation, and also we may infer that the chalk formation 

 of England and France was deposited under similar conditions. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder exhibited a book of bound pamphlets 

 from the library of the Boston Athenaeum, which showed the 

 ravages of a small coleopterous insect ; the volume was one 

 of a long series, some two hundred in number, of similar vol- 

 umes, which had always been kept together ; about a dozen 

 volumes which, from their similaiity, were undoubtedly bound 

 at the same time in sheep treated with potash, so as to 

 have the efi*ect which "tree-marbling" gives to calf, were 

 the only ones which bore any traces whatsoever of the de- 

 struction caused by the beetle ; the only injury was to the 

 leather binding, the paper being attacked only so far as it 



