Fewkes.1 
208 
[March 20, 
it serve, as is possibly the case with the rattle of the rattlesnake, 
to warn away its enemies? May it not even bewilder its prey and 
thus be rather a means of capturing its food than of self-protec- 
tion? Has it possibly a poisonous nature fatal to its prey or foes? 
Our knowledge of its nature is all too small to give us an answer 
to these questions. Its bright color would indicate that even if it is 
poisonous that this is not its only property, or that its sole func- 
tion is that of killing its enemies or prey. The ability to change 
the color mentioned in Ceratocymba by Dr. Chun might come in 
the same category as a similar power in fishes and Cephalopoda. 
In that instance we might have a kind of cutaneous pigment circu- 
lation. The discharge of pigment, however, is something different 
and possibly capable of a very different interpretation. 
Is the discharge normal or abnormal? Is it a result of extraor- 
dinary conditions under which the animal is placed in confinement 
in our aquaria, or is it an habitual mode of protection? It seems to 
me that the latter interpretation will best satisfy our limited knowl- 
edge, and although when the bracts are broken the discharge is 
more voluminous, since the glands are wholly emptied of their con- 
tents, the method of its discharge shows it to be a function which 
is perfectly normal. 
It seems to me that we have in these “ glands” the homologues 
of nematocysts, the thread of which is wanting and the cells of the 
interior of which have degenerated or rather specialized into pig- 
ment bodies, instead of functioning as an urticating thread. These 
modified nematocysts throw off a colored fluid which, while it serves 
in a similar way in protection or in killing its prey, bears little 
morphological likeness to the well known lasso-cell. 
General Meeting, March 20 , 1889 . 
The Vice President, Prof. Geo. L. Good ale, in the chair. 
Dr. R. R. Andrews made a communication, illustrated by the 
stereopticon, on “ The Germ Theory of Dental Decay.” 
Mr. R. T. Jackson gave the results of his recent “ Studies of 
Ostrea, Pecten and certain other Pelecypoda.” 
Mrs. Sarah S. Fuller, Miss Harriet E. Richards and Mr. John 
C. Sharp, jr. were elected Associate Members. 
