148 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



was particularly interested in the Opliiocoma found at so great 

 a depth. The Professor is now engaged in preparing a work upon 

 the natural history of that class of Echinoderms, which ho has 

 studied for many years, and claims to have the finest collection 

 of these animals in existence, made on the coasts from Greenland 

 and Labrador to Mexico, and round Cape Horn to California. 

 Since the publication, in 1848, of ' The Principles of Zoology,' b\' 

 Agassiz and Gould (a copy of which is presented to the section), 

 the Professor has ascertained that the system of tubes or water- 

 pores, described at page 123, exists in all animals, which much vary 

 their depths of water in the sea ; and in the herring, they may be seen 

 with the naked eye along the side of the neck. With reference to the 

 removal of tallow from soundings, Dr. Hayes, the assayist for the 

 State of Massachusets, stated to Capt. Anderson that heated tur- 

 pentine poured amongst the soundings will remove all the tallow 

 with it through filteiing-paper ; the operation should be twice 

 repeated, and the residue finally washed with sulphuric ether. 



The Boston Society of Natural History presented to the section, 

 through Capt. Anderson, a copy of its proceedings for 1860, and 

 expressed great willingness to interchange information and speci- 

 mens. 



Dr. J. Bacon presented a copy of his report upon the chemical 

 composition and microscopical characters of the Pearl said to have 

 been formed in the interior of a cocoa-nut at Singapore, in the 

 possession of Frederick J. Bush, Esq., and exhibited by Dr. 

 "VVinslow.* 



Capt. Anderson, in a very able manner, gives the outline of a 

 plan which has occurred to him for rendering available to science 

 the services of commanders of merchant vessels and seamen 

 generally, in collecting scientific information and specimens of 

 natural histor}"^, for which they have such facilities in all parts of 

 the world, for the use of those scientific institutions which may 

 desire to join ; and also with a view to elevate the mercantile marine 

 of England in the social scale, by stimulating a taste for know- 

 ledge amongst seafaring men. The consent and co-operation of 

 shipowners will, of course, be necessar}^ ; and Capt. Andersen 

 seeks to obtain also the additional influence of merchants and 

 scientific bodies. The subject met with the unanimous approval of 

 the members present; and it was resolved that the portion of 

 Capt. Andersen's letter relating to it should be pubhshed at the 

 expense of the section, and circulated, for the purpose of eliciting 

 opinions upon the feasibility of the scheme, and upon the best 

 practical method of carrying it into execution. 



Commander M. F. Maury, of the U. S. Navy, forwarded a copy 

 of a letter from Lieut. John M. Brooke, the inventor of the de- 

 taching deep-sea-sounding apparatus, enclosing a number of sound- 

 ings for the section, which were obtained with small twine and 



* Page 290, vol. vii, 'Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History.' 



