J. Lothrop Motley, Esq., in Class III., Section 3. Four hundred and thirty-sixth meeting. February 10th, 1857. MONTHLY MEETING. The Academy met at the house of the Hon. Nathan Appleton. The President in the chair. The Corresponding Secretary read letters from J. Lothrop Motley and Charles Francis Adams, accepting Fellowship, and also one from J. Stuart Mill, in acknowledgment of his election as Foreign Honorary Member. Professor Agassiz exhibited a cast of a fossil shell, recently obtained at Santa Fé de Bogotá, which he had just received from Paris. The specimen was remarkably perfect, and belonged to the genus Chryoceras, which has been referred to the family of Ammonites. It is an interesting question, bearing upon the law of correspondence of geological succession and order of position in living races, To what order of the Cephalopoda do the Ammonites belong? Professor Agassiz proceeded to point out the characters of the two great divisions of the class, the Acetabulifera and the Tentaculifera, showing that there are characters in certain species of each which resemble those of species in the other class. He did not regard the position of the Syphea in the chambered shells, whether dorsal or central, as of much consequence as a distinctive feature, but rather its relative position. The fact of its being central or dorsal depended merely upon the animals being coiled one way or the other. Among the Gasteropoda, examples of reversed shells are well known. In conclusion, therefore, Professor Agassiz was inclined to refer the Ammonites to the class of Acetabulifera, separating them from the Nautiloids among the Tentaculifera, with which they have been hitherto associated. All Nautili are smooth, whereas all Ammonites are ornamented on the surface. The ornamented shell of the Argonaut among the Acetabulifera closely resembles in its waving lines and projections the shell of the Ammonites. The want of a division into distinct chambers in the Argonaut shell presents no obstacle to the association, as there are other genera of this class with chambered shells. The Ammonites are geologically later than the Nautiloids, and thus the specimen exhibited is only another illustration of the law of correspondence between geological succession and order of position among living species. Professor Bowen read a sketch of a Memoir, entitled "Some Remarks on the Meaning and Proper Application in Science of the Terms, A General Fact, A General Law, A Cause." Professor Lovering and Dr. B. A. Gould, Jr. criticised Mr. Bowen's use, in illustration of his views, of the term attraction, as understood in astronomical science. Professor Lovering announced that the first part of the sixth volume of the Memoirs was ready for distribution to the Fellows. Francis C. Gray. DONATIONS TO THE LIBRARY, FROM APRIL 7, 1856, TO APRIL 25, 1857. Reports of the Prison Discipline Society. Boston. 1826-54. 3 vols. 8vo. Boston. 1856. John C. Gray. Essays Agricultural and Literary. 1 vol. 12mo. Boston. 1856. B. A. Gould, Jr., P. D. Astronomical Journal. Vol. IV. Nos. 19-24, Vol. V. Nos. 1–4. 4to. Cambridge and Albany. 1856-57. L. A. Huguet Latour. Rapport du Superintendant de l'Education, pour le Bas Canada, pour 1854. 1 vol. 8vo. Quebec. 1855. A Retrospective Glance at the Progressive State of the Natural History Society of Montreal. By Major R. Lachlan. 8vo pamph. Montreal. 1855. Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Annual Reports of the Nat ural History Society of Montreal. 18th May, 1855, and 19th May, 1856. 2 pamph. 8vo. Montreal. 1855-56. Le Canada, et l'Exposition Universelle de 1855. (Imprimé par Ordre de l'Assemblée Legislative.) 1 vol. 8vo. Toronto. 1856. 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Ueber Dr. Wichmann's Bestimmung der Parallaxe des Argelanderschen Sterns von W. Döllen, Astronomen der Pulkowaer Stern 4to pamph. St. Petersburg. 1854. Nachricht von der Vollendung der Gradmessung zwischen der Donan und dem Eismeere. Veröffentlicht der Kais. Akad. der Wissen. 8vo pamph. 8vo pamph. St. Petersburg. 1853. Sur la Jonction des Opérations Géodésiques Russes et Autrichiennes, exécutée par Ordre des Deux Gouvernements par W. Struve, Directeur de l'Observ. Cent. de Russie. 8vo pamph. St. Petersburg. 1853. Rapport fait à M. le Directeur de l'Observatoire Central sur les Travaux de l'Expédition de Bessarabie, Enterprise en 1852, pour terminer les Operations de la Mesure de l'Arc du Méridien. Par M. Prazmooski, Astronome de l'Observatoire de Varsovie. 8vo pamph. St. Petersburg. 1853. Alma Universitati Dorpatensi. Diem XII. Decembris, Anni 1852. Quo Quinquaginta Annos inde ab Origine feliciter perfectos celebrat, pie gratulantur Speculæ in Rossia Primaria Director et Astronomi. Adjecta est Othonis Struvii Narratio de Parallaxi Stellæa Lyræ. 4to pamph. Petropoli. 1852. Observatory of Prague. Magnetische und Meteorologische Beobachtungen zu Prag. XIII., XIV., und XV. Jahrgang. 3 vols. 4to. Prag. 1855–56. Zoologisch-Botanischer Verein zu Wien. Verhandlungen. Bande I., III., IV., und V. 8vo. Wien. 1852-55. Bericht über die Oesterreichische Literatur der Zoologie, Botanik, und Paläontologie aus den Jahren 1850-53. Herausg. von dem Zool.-botan. Verein. in Wien. 1 vol. 8vo. Wien. 1855. Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vienna. Sitzungsberichte. Math.-Natur. Classe. Band XV. Heft 3. |