MINUTES OF MP:KTINGS. 



Fkbruarv 4, 1909. — Regular monthly meelino-, with the 

 President, T. Chalkley Palmer, in the chair. Reports of 

 Committees, Curators and Officers. The following additions 

 to the Library were announced : " The Reptile Book ; '" " Bul- 

 letin 34, U. S. Geological Survey;" "Bulletin 339, U. S. 

 Geological Survey;" "Annual Report of the Smithsonian 

 Institution for 1907 ; " " Annual Report of the Bureau of 

 Kthnology, 1904- 1905 ; " " Bulletin 34, Bureau of iVnierican 

 Ethnology." Under the head of scientific business, Albert 

 S. Barker exhibited under the microscope a specimen of Chel- 

 ifer cancroides, one of the False Scorpions of the class Pedi- 

 palpi, a class including also the true scorpions and placed by 

 Packard and others among the spiders. According to Packard 

 the Chelifer inhabits dusty places and books, living on mites, 

 etc., but it has recently been reported as a parasite on poultry. 

 Mr. Barker also exhibited a microscopic preparation of the 

 prothallium of a fern, showing the development of the first 

 root and first frond from the germ cell on the lower surface of 

 the prothallium. C. M. Broomall presented a collection of 

 pearls from the common oyster. vSanford Omensetter exhib- 

 ited a dead specimen of the Star-nosed Mole {Condyluni cris- 

 tata), captured at Rose Valley and submitted for identification. 

 President T. Chalkley Palmer spoke of the venerable theory 

 that extremely old seeds could be made to germinate. He 

 said that recent experiments had demonstrated the contrary as 

 to this, which would preclude the possibility of germination 

 in such seeds as the so-called " mummy seeds." Dr. Horace 

 H. Furness, of Wallingford, Pa., presented to the Institute a 

 collection of thirty specimens of Phanerogams from the 

 Island of St. Croix. Meeting adjourned. 



Fkbruarv m, 1909. — .\djourned meeting. Lecture, "The 

 Physical Basis of Music," by Harold C. Barker, A. M., Ph. 

 D., instructor in physics, University of Pennsylvania. The 

 sul)ject was illustrated by apjiaralns and lantern slides. 



