414 



November 3, 1858. 



The President in the Chair. 



Dr. C. F. Winslow read a paper on certain facts bear- 

 ing upon the coincident origin of the inhabitants of the 

 Society and Sandwich islands ; it related principally to 

 the custom of burying the placenta deep in the ground 

 as near as possible to the spot where a child is born, 

 with the idea of securing for the child a perpetual inheri- 

 tance in the earth, an indisputable right to the soil, and 

 an equality with other men. He had traced this custom 

 in both the above groups of islands, far removed from 

 each other, and thought it would be interesting to trace 

 it, if possible, among the Malays, from whom the Poly- 

 nesians are generally supposed to have originated. 



Mr. T. T. Bouve exhibited a thin, white, paper-like 

 substance, found stretched over a quantity of meal con- 

 tained in a box, in which a large number of grubs were 

 concealed. 



Prof. Agassiz made some remarks on a catalogue of 

 the fishes of Jamaica, by the Hon. Richard Hill, of 

 Kingston. 



He regarded it as interesting for purposes of comparison with 

 the species of North America and Europe. It is well known 

 that the fishes of the two sides of the Atlantic are specifically dis- 

 tinct, except a few northern ones, which are identical, not from 

 crossing from one continent to another, but from migrating south- 

 ward on both shores from the same arctic centre. As maps are 

 usually drawn, the average temperature of the water for the year 

 is taken as regulating the geographical distribution of fishes ; but, 

 as Prof. Dana has shown in his report on the Crustacea of the 

 U. S. Exploring Expedition, the average of the greatest cold has 

 a more important influence in this distribution. From the Arctic, 



