372 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



tion, circulation, and digestion. The state of the pulse during all the different 

 stages of the larva until its metamorphosis into the pupa, is examined with great 

 minuteness, and the results are given in a tabular form. The author traces the 

 rate of pulsation during different conditions of repose and activity, and the cor- 

 responding frequency of respirations, and finds that although there is a general 

 accordance between the activity of these two functions, yet that the activity of 

 respiration and the quantity of heat evolved, do not depend primarily on the 

 velocity of the circulation, but that under all circumstances the quantity of heat 

 developed is exactly proportioned to the quantity of respiration. While the 

 insect is feeding, and digestion is going on, the evolution of heat increases, and 

 while it is fasting it diminishes ; but this diminution has a limit, whereas in- 

 creased respiration is invariably attended by increased heat. Gaseous matter is 

 exhaled in great abundance from the surface of the body of an insect, and con- 

 tributes to regulate and equalize its temperature ; but the quantity diminishes 

 in proportion to the length of time during which it has been deprived of food. 

 The author maintains that animal heat is not an effect of mere nervous influence, 

 either general or ganglionic — an opinion which he derives from the following 

 considerations: — first, that in many insects in which considerable degrees of 

 heat are evolved, and the respiration is energetic, the nervous system is small 

 compared with that of others in which the respiration is less vigorous ; and 

 secondly, that if the evolution of animal heat were dependent on the existence 

 of ganglia, the Leech ought to generate more heat than the larva of the Lepi- 

 doptera, since it has a much greater number of ganglia. Hence he is disposed to 

 draw the general conclusion that animal heat results directly from the changes 

 which take place during respiration ; and that the reason why so large a quan- 

 tity passes off so rapidly from the body of an insect is because it does not become 

 latent, since the circulating fluid, unlike what takes place in the higher animals, 

 is neither completely venous nor completely arterial, but a character intermediate 

 between both. 



Twenty-one tables are annexed, exhibiting the records of the experiments 

 referred to in the paper on the respiration, temperature, and circulation of insects. 



A paper has likewise been read before the members of the Royal Society " on 

 the upas poison used by the Jacoons and other aboriginal tribes of the Malayan. 

 Peninsula, by Lieut. T. S. Newbold." The author gives an account of the pro- 

 cess by which the Jacoons, an aboriginal tribe inhabiting the mountains and 

 forests of the Malayan Peninsula, prepare the poison applied to the points of the 

 slender arrows which are propelled from the blow-pipe. Three preparations are 

 employed for this purpose, distinguished by the names of Krohi, Tennik or Ken- 

 nik, and Malaye ; the last of these is more powerful than the other two, and is 

 obtained from the root3 of the Tuba., the Parachi, the Kopah, and the Chey, and 



