PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 315 



MEETING 



Held on the 19th May, 1915, at 20 Hanover Square, W., 

 Mr. John Hopkinson, F.L.S. F.G.S., etc., Vice-President, in 

 the Chair. 



The Minutes of the Meeting of April 21, 1915, were read and 

 confirmed, and signed by the Chairman. 



The Secretary announced that he had received a telegram from the 

 President, Professor G. Sims Woodhead, M.A. M.D., saying he hoped 

 to get away in time for the Meeting, but was kept at the last moment 

 making arrangements for a number of wounded soldiers. 



Dr. Malcolm Burr, D.Sc. F.E.S., contributed a paper " On the Male 

 Genital Armature of the Dermaptera," which, on account of its technical 

 character, was taken as read. 



The Chairman remarked that as Dr. Malcolm Burr's memoir was 

 not read, even in abstract, it could not be commented upon, but the 

 Members present might be interested in hearing something about the 

 author. An engineer by profession, Dr. Burr had devoted all his spare 

 time for some years to the study of entomology, especially the earwigs. 

 He had visited nearly all the Natural History Museums of Europe, and 

 others beyond our continent, to study their collections, and he had been 

 greatly helped in doing so by being an accomplished linguist, speaking 

 many European languages, including that of Russia — which is the most 

 difficult of all — where he is now residing. He had nearly completed an 

 extensive monograph on the " Earwigs of the World," which has been 

 accepted for publication by the Ray Society, and had it not been for the 

 present war the first part would probably have appeared this year, but 

 it was thought to be an inauspicious time to commence the publica- 

 tiin of such a work, costing, as it would do, several thousand pounds to 

 produce. As Dr. Burr is generally acknowledged to be our chief 

 authority on these interesting if not very attractive insects, it may be 

 anticipated that the present memoir will be indispensable to all students 

 of the group. 



The Chairman added that he had another memoir of Dr. Burr to 

 find a congenial home for, but as it was the result of a critical examina- 

 tion of the Dermaptera in the Berlin Royal Zoological Museum, written 

 in German, he felt assured that it was hopeless to expect it to be pub- 

 lished either in England or in Germany (if it could be got there) under 

 the present circumstances. 



A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the author for his valuable 

 contribution to the Society's Transactions. 



