59 



Donations to the Museum and Library were announced. 



The Superintendent read the following communication, by title: 

 "List of Birds observed at Hamilton, Canada West, by Thomas ITcllwraith." 

 Referred to the Publication Committee. 



The chair, after a few general remarks on the history and objects 

 of the Institute, invited Vice President S. P. Fowler to report upon his 

 observations in the woods of the vicinity. 



Mr. Fowler gave a general account of the trees he had noticed in 

 the woods, mentioning in particular several kinds of Oaks, Birches, 

 Maples, American Mountain Ash, the celebrated Magnolia, and a Sas- 

 safras tree that was seven and a half feet in circumference, and which 

 he thought was the largest tree of this species in the state. 



Mr. G. D. -Phippen followed with an account of the plants on the 

 table, calling special attention to the very beautiful Pond Lilies which 

 had been collected in the pond at Kettle Cove, and which were remarka- 

 ble for their rose tint. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam gave a short account of the Dog-flsh, large 

 numbers of dead ones from which the livers had been taken having 

 been found washed up on the beach. The Dog-flsh has now become 

 important with the fishermen ou account of the oil which is obtained 

 from their livere. At Cape Cod this fish is also used for fuel, after hav- 

 ing been dried, and burns with great freedom, the whole fish being very 

 oily. This species brings forth living young, one of which, taken from 

 the mother, was exhibited at the meeting. 



Mr. Alpheus Hyatt, of the Boston Society of Natural History, ex- 

 hibited a number of fresh-water sponges which he had collected in 

 Kettle Cove Pond, and described their compound structure, showing 

 that they were composed of numei'ous minute single-celled animals or 

 Monads. These Monads having, for such minute creatures, a remarka- 

 bly complicated organization ; being possessed of a pulsating vesicle, 

 the analogue of the heart in man, and a portion of the body, which 

 might be defined as a mouth. These facts had recently been discovered 

 by Prof. H. J. Clark, of Cambridge, one of the most distinguished mi- 

 croscopists in the country, who had by his recent researches thus 

 proved beyond a doubt that the sponges are not plants but true animals, 

 and that though among the lowest forms of the Animal Kingdom, they 

 exhibit the tendency, which is observed in all animals, to develop a 

 cephalic portion, or a head. 



Mr. Hyatt also spoke of another discovery made by Prof. Clark, 

 who had shown that the amoeba, a mere drop of sentient animal jelly, 

 also possessed one portion of its jelly-like body which was peculiarly 

 marked, and always preceded the rest of the body, — thus showing a 

 tendency to Cephalization. 



