MINUTES OK SECTION A. 171 



formed on the surfaces <^f ice sheets and could be swept off. 

 T. Chalklev Palmer had noticed similar crj-stals in an old ice 

 house, the temperature at that time being — 25° or — 30°. In 

 the case observed in the Alps he supposed it was frozen dew. 

 Dr. Starbuck descril)cd a battle between ants which he had 

 observed in his yard, and which lasted several days. He sep- 

 arated one pair of combatants, and they remained clinched 

 for five hours. Albert S. Barker exhibited snail eggs collected 

 from a pool in the University of Pennsylvania Botanic Garden. 

 Under the microscope snails in various stages of development 

 were seen. Some, with their proper shells fully formed, were 

 moving about almost as freely as if already- hatched. Refer- 

 ring to Hyd?'a vidgaris, exhibited June 17th, he stated that a 

 bud which had appeared early that evening, matured and left 

 the parent stem at the end of about fift}^ hours. 



July 29, 1909. — ^Carolus M. Broomall submitted samples 

 of water taken from Media reservoir, containing organisms 

 which were identified by T. Chalkley Palmer and others, and 

 included Spirogyra and Pcridhiiian. Dr. B. M. Underbill 

 exhibited fossil crinoids from Burlington, Iowa, and explained 

 their relationship to existing forms, their place in zoological 

 classification, etc. Carolus M. Broomall presented a fungus 

 having a powerful and unpleasant odor. He had experi- 

 mented on it with Millon's reagent, and it appears that the 

 odorous portion takes on a more pronounced color than the 

 other parts. William B. Broomall, Jr., exhibited a petrified 

 mussel : also an Indian implement (?). Albert S. Barker 

 exhibited hairs of the elk and the moose, the former being 

 highly elastic. These had been obtained from Charles A. 

 Voelker, of Aldan, who had called attention to their elasticity. 



