A PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
Mr. W. H. Datu read a paper on 
RECENT ADVANCES IN OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE LIMPETS, 
summarizing the researches of Spengel on the sensory organs or 
osphradia; Cunningham on the renal organ and renopericardial 
pore in Patella and Patina; Fraissé on the eye in Patina, Fissurella 
and Haliotis, and the speaker on the presence of an intromittent. 
male organ in Cocculina. He stated that among the Acmeide and 
Patellide the type of eye differs, and while in Patina it is of a very 
rudimentary character, in other genera it might be well developed, 
as, for instance, in Ancistromesus, which has as well developed eyes 
as Fissurella. He also alluded to the gradual progress in classifi- 
cation afforded by anatomical investigation during the past few 
years, and observed that nearly all the known forms except Propili- 
dium and Scutellina were amenable to classification; our ignorance 
of the branchize in the former, and the dentition in the latter, 
operating to prevent a final classification in these two cases, until 
more is known. Those authors who study the embryology and 
histology usually from a single species, generally ignore the wide 
differences of adult anatomy between the genera of Limpets, and 
sow their generalizations on a basis of classification which is little 
in advance of that of Lamarck and his immediate successors. 
Professor C. H. Hircucock being present was invited by the 
Chair to address the Society, and responded briefly. 
The President of the Society then pronounced a brief eulogy on 
General Humphreys, characterizing him as a man who had left 
behind him an honorable name as well for his distinguished 
achievements in science and in war as for the virtues and graces 
which adorned his private life. Mingling among his fellow-men 
with the utmost unobtrusiveness, and as gentle in spirit as he was 
brave in conduct, he brought the highest intelligence as well as the 
highest conscientiousness to the discharge of all the duties—scien- 
tific, military, and administrative—with which he filled his long 
and useful life: a life fitly closed by the serenity and peace of his 
beautiful death, Ki 
