340 



Earland and F. P. Smith took part, a very cordial vote of 

 thanks was accorded to Mr. Smith for his lecture. 



At the meeting of the Club held on December 15th, 1905, 

 Dr. B. J. Spitta, F.RA.S., P.P.M.S., etc., President, in the 

 Chair, the minutes of the meeting held on November 17th were 

 read and confirmed. 



Messrs. E. L. Gardner, A. J. Pullin, and T. Holgate were 

 balloted for and duly elected members of the Club. 



Mr. Bryce read a description, by Mr. James Murray, of a new 

 Bdelloid rotifer (Ccdlidina vesicularis), which had been discovered 

 in moss gathered in August, 1904, from a wall at Upper Shering- 

 ham, Norfolk. 



The Chair was then taken by Mr. J. J. Vezey, F.R.M.S., and 

 the President read a paper entitled " Some Experiments relating 

 to the Compound Eyes of Insects." In this paper, which is printed 

 in full in the Journal, the author endeavoured to prove that the 

 effects usually attributed to lenses in the insect's eye could be 

 produei <1 quite independently of the presence of such lenses. 



Mr. Wesche remarked that, according to the usually accepted 

 theory, a fly could see detail at 1 ft. distance equivalent to that 

 which a man could make out at 50 ft., and to see the detail 

 appreciated by a fly at ~ in. a man would require the services 

 of a high-power objective. He thought that the theory fell in 

 with all the observed phenomena. 



M r. Lewis said that he objected to the use of the term " facet," 

 which meant ajlat surface. He had observed that in some small 

 flies the number of lenses in the cornea were very few, and were 

 widely separated — only a comparatively small number of the 

 hexagons being supplied with lenses. But some other insects — 

 e.g. dragon-flies — he thought had very many lenses ; and suggested 

 that very rapidly flying insects, and in particular those which 

 prey upon smaller ones, often of equally rapid flight, must have 

 very keen sight. He thought that when simple and compound 

 eyes were both present, the simple eyes were mainly of use when 

 the insect was crawling, and the compound eyes only while flying. 

 As • parallel case, he would suggest that if we were travelling, 

 say, in a train moving at ten miles per hour, we could see and 

 • flowers on the banks, but at sixty miles an hour it 

 would be quite impossible. He understood that the actual angle 



