66 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



well deserves the name bestowed on it by its 

 inventor, namely, " Compacta," for it is the most 

 compact slide-box that we have seen, and is so simple 

 that it cannot easily get out of order. We heartily 

 recommend it to those in want of a good microscopic 

 slide-box. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Shells from the North West London 

 District. — The shells of Planorbis cornetcs from 

 the Leg of Mutton Pond, Hampstead, are of a rusty 

 red color, not " ruby" red, as appears on page 259, 

 line 22, through a printer's error. — C. C. Fyer. 



Mimicry and Protective Colouring among 

 Land and Fresh-water Shells. — I should be 

 glad if some of your numerous correspondents would 

 kindly furnish any information, or refer me to 

 published papers on the above subject. — C. Clare 

 Fyer, 139 Fellows Road, South Hampstead, jV. IV. 



Land Mollusca," a paper which might be regarded as 

 a continuation and amplification of the views which 

 the same author had expressed in a former paper, 

 published in the Society's Journal last year. 



The Rudimentary Intelligence of 

 Infusoria. — I do not think that I, even by implica- 

 tion, stated the present infusorial instinct to be the 

 outcome of reasoning on the part of some ancestor. 

 Nothing could have been further from my intention, 

 since my suggestion v/as essentially to the opposite 

 effect, i.e. that reasoning (intelligence) is the develop- 

 ment of instinct. Is it too much to suppose that the 

 progenitors were less active than their descendants ? 

 The, if I may so term it, accidental possession of a 

 roving impulse would then have been of benefit to an 

 individual. There would not appear to be any 

 necessity for such an impulse to have been the result 

 of a reasoning that it would lead to the acquisition of 

 food. At the same time, without having been in any 

 way a cause of the impulse, food may nevertheless 



Fig. 40. — Mr. Mosely's New Box for Slides. 



The Lixnean Society. — At the last meeting of 

 this society, Mr. W. H. Jackson exhibited and gave an 

 account of an electric centipede (Geophilus elcctricus), 

 detailing the circumstances under which he had found 

 it at Oxford, and the result of experiments which he 

 had made with a view of determining the nature and 

 properties of a luminous fluid secreted by it. This he 

 found could be separated from the insect, and could 

 be communicated by it to every portion of its integu- 

 ment. Mr. J. E. Harting pointed out that the 

 observations made by Mr. W. H Jackson on this 

 centipede had been long ago anticipated by Dr. 

 Macartney in an elaborate paper on luminous insects, 

 published in "Philosophical Transactions" for 1810 

 (vol. c. p. 277). — A paper was read by Mr. T. Johnson 

 on Dictyopteris, in which he gave an elaborate ac- 

 count of the life-history of this brown seaweed, with 

 remarks on the systematic position of the Dictyotaca\ 

 — Mr. W. P. Sladen detailed the more important 

 portions of a paper by the Rev. J. Gulick " On 

 Intensive Segregation and Divergent Evolution in 



have been more easily acquired as its result. Such 

 an impulse, being beneficial, would be likely to be 

 transmitted, as would also any advantageous modifi- 

 cation in succeeding generations. — H. 



Entomological Society of London. — At the 

 annual meeting, the Right Honourable Lord 

 Walsingham, F.R.S., President, delivered an 

 address. After pointing out that many people we 

 meet in everyday life regard the study of insects 

 as waste of time, he illustrated its usefulness by 

 reference to Economic Entomology, notably the 

 destruction of the scale-insect (Icerya purchasi), so 

 injurious to orange-groves in California, by means 

 of imported larvae of its Australian enemies and 

 parasites. He mentioned the facilities afforded in 

 entomology for studying questions of protective 

 resemblance and hereditary transmission, as shown 

 by Weissman, Poulton, and others, and hoped that 

 some light might yet be thrown upon organic 

 chemistry in relation to colour changes. He said 



