187 



Monday, November 25, 1867. Regular Meeting. 



Vice Pi'esident Goodell in the chair. 



Letters were anuouuced from, — Sinithsouian Institution, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. (Oct. 23) ; Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences ; 

 Trustees of the Phillips Academy, Andover (.Nov. 19) ; Rev. James 

 Hubbert, Montreal, Canada ; C. C. Hitchcock, Ware (Nov. 21) ; A. P. 

 Garber, Columbia, Pa. ; Henry Davis, Decorah, Iowa (Nov. 22) ; How- 

 ard Challen, Philadelphia, Pa. ; Massachusetts Historical Society, Bos- 

 ton (Nov. 23) ; W. W. Richards, Salem; Peabody Institute, Baltimore 

 (Nov. 25). 



Charles W. Felt presented several specimens of typography of beau- 

 tiful execution, and made a few remarks tliereon. 



Alpheus Hyatt spoke upon the affinities of the Beatricea, a strange 

 fossil from the island of Anticosti, which had a very close resemblance 

 to a tree. But he showed, that although previously described as such 

 by Mr. Billings, Paleontologist of the Canada Geological Survey, it 

 was not a plant, but a nioUuscan shell belonging to the class Cephalo- 

 poda. It possessed the composite character of many of the most an- 

 cient fossils, and combined in. its organization features which were 

 common to several other types* Although fossil, the cast of the ani- 

 mal, which inhabited one end of the gigantic conical shell, often 

 twenty-five or thirtj^ feet long, and thirteen inches diameter, was well 

 preserved, and the form of the arms might be traced on the core. 



E. S. Morse then traced the gradual development of a head among 

 the mollusks, and showed how it was first formed among snails, but 

 capable of being withdrawn within the shell, then fully formed among 

 Cephalopods, but incapable of being withdrawn, except among these 

 lowest fossil forms, where it was probably permanently held within 

 the shell. 



A. S. Packard, jr., exhibited drawings made by Mr. J. H. Emerton 

 of a new and very interesting Chironomus, the larva of which live upon 

 the floating fragments of eel-grass in the harbor. But very few of 

 the larv83 of Diptera are known to inhabit salt water. This larva, 

 although so situated and exposed to frequent submergence, is pro- 

 vided with air-vessels, which show that it must breathe in the air and 

 not in the water. It is very active in its habits, feeding on refuse 

 matter, and probably on the worms which also construct their cases 

 on the surface of the grass. The larva ti^ansforms in autumn, and ap- 

 pears during the month of November. 



Donations to the Library and Museum were announced. 



Theodore Brown, of Salem, was elected a Resident Member. 



