.Scientific Proceedings^ »^c. 379 



MISCELLANIES. 



DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



1. Scientific Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History in 

 the months of June, July, and August, 1838 ; drawn upfront the Records 

 of the Society, by Augustus A. Gould, M. D., Recording Secretary. 



He who makes a valuable discovery and refuses or neglects to impart 

 it, robs mankind of a blessing, and himself of the honor that is his due. 

 So it is with scientific bodies. The toilsome and ingenious labors of 

 many an original discoverer, though gratifying to him in their pursuit, gain 

 him no lasting credit; and he will be supplanted by some succeeding as- 

 pirant, because he fails to promulgate his discoveries. 



None are so likely to have the fruits of their labors usurped as scientific 

 men in America, where the means of disseminating researches are so 

 limited. In view of this, and from the consideration that our members 

 are entitled to the credit of the description of many objects previously un- 

 known to science, the following abstract of its proceedings, in the manner 

 of the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London" has been 

 drawn up by the direction of the Society. It is offered for publication, 

 with the intention that, should it receive a place in the American Journal 

 of Science, it should be continued from time to time. 



It may be proper, by way of explanation, to say, that it is the custom 

 to commit the objects presented at the semi-monthly meetings to members, 

 who are to report on them at a subsequent meeting. It may be further 

 added, that most of the new species mentioned in this paper, in which 

 only short, specific descriptions are given, are described at length and 

 illustrated by figures in the "Boston Journal of Natural History, Vol. II, 

 No. 2," recently published. 



May 16, 1838. — Geo. B. Emerson, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Dr. Charles T. Jackson, reported upon some specimens of limestone 

 from the Welland Canal, presented by Stephen White, Esq. He 

 showed it to be a carboniferous limestone filled with fossil shells, identical 

 with those in the limestone found on the Aroostic River, Maine ; and of- 

 fered reasons for supposing that there was a continuous bed from duebeo 

 to the Aroostic. 



Dr. J. announced that three cases of minerals, collected by him on the 

 public domain in the State of Maine, had been ordered by his Excellency, 

 Gov. Everett, to be deposited in our Hall, with the State collection of the 

 minerals of Massachusetts. 



Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood and Dr. A. A. Gould, reported upon a pa- 

 per read at the last meeting by Jos. P. Couthouy, Esq., on a species of 



