70 



ter from Mr. E. D. Cope, one of the first Herpetologists in the coun- 

 try, in which he stated that he considered the two so-called species as 

 one, and that he had given the name of Tkamnophis ordinatus to it. 

 Mr. Putnam was still of the opinion that the species under considera- 

 tion is generally identical with the European Coluber natrix, Linn. 



Professor Agassiz said that in Europe, as in America, there is a 

 spotted snake, which becomes striped, and is closely allied to our 

 own. In the former country the striped variety is southern, the spot- 

 ted northern ; with us, the reverse is true. The European striped 

 snake was first described by naturalists, and the generic name ap- 

 plied to that long ago must govern that of its representative ordina- 

 tus in this country. The nomenclature of American serpents, as 

 given by Holbrook, had been much changed by some recent writers, 

 but he thought we should yet return to the old system. 



Mr. Gaffield exhibited beautiful specimens of crystalliza- 

 tion occurring in masses of glass cooling slowly from a state 

 of intense heat. The materials used in its manufacture 

 were the Berkshire sand, soda ash, and lime. He had re- 

 cently visited Germantown, where a bottle-glass factory was 

 burned about a century since, and picked up upon its site a 

 piece of an old cruciblCj which was found to contain these 

 acicular crystals. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson stated that he had analyzed the crystals, 

 and had found them to be true crystallized glass. 



Dr. J. H. Slack, of . Philadelphia, and Mr. E. A. Board- 

 man, of Milltown, Maine, were elected Corresponding Mem- 

 bers of the Society. 



Messrs. Henry Sayles, Henry U. Jeffries, R. S. Fay, Jr., 

 and Dr. David Roberts, of Boston ; Franklin Nickerson, and 

 A. P. Cragin, of Cambridge, were elected Resident Mem- 

 bers. 



May 2,1, 1862. 



The President in the chair. 



Mr. C. A. Shurtleff was chosen Secretary joro tempore. 

 Dr. C. T. Jackson read the following notice of the death 

 of Mr. Thoreau : — 



Henry D. Thoreau, of Concord, Mass., died, at the age of 44 years, 

 of pulmonary consumption. 



