IRcports of Societies. 



[ JFe shall be glad if Secretaries 7a ill send 7is notices of Meetings 

 of their Societies. Short abstracts of papers read, and priiicipal 

 objects exhibited, will always be acceptable.^ 



COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX NATURAL HISTORY 

 AND SCIENCE SOCIETY. 



AT a Meeting of the " County of Middlesex Natural History 

 and Science Society " held at the Townhall, Kilburn, on 

 December 2TSt, 1886, about 60 members being present, 

 Mr. W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S., was elected to the 

 chair, and after the business of the Society had been transacted, 

 the following papers were read : — • 



" Some Curious Facts connected with the Evolution of the Eye," 

 by Mrs. Eodington ; and " Notes on Flora met with on the occasion 

 of the Excursion of the Society to Hampstead, with Special 

 Reference to that of Caen Wood," by Dr. H. J. Wharton, M.A. 



In the discussion which followed, Mr. Lant Carpenter spoke 

 upon the depths to which light penetrated in the ocean, and 

 referred to the size of the eyes in deep-sea fishes. 



Mr. Sydney T. Klein gave some interesting notes on the 

 " eyeless " fish of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, which he had 

 visited, and called attention to the Ocelli of Hymenoptera, some 

 fine- examples being shown by him under the microscope. 



The Chairman, Mr. W. Mattieu Williams, made an ingenious 

 and interesting suggestion that the Ocelli were for the appreciation 

 of neither light nor sound waves, but for those vibrations which 

 lie between these extremes, pointing out the enormous distance 

 which lay between the highest sound and the lowest visible ray. 



Mr. James Smith exhibited a curious example of a compound 

 eye of a fly, in which the facets in the lower half were of different 

 size to those of the upper part. 



Mr. E. M. Nelson, a section of eye of rat and the eyes of a 

 spider. The former was a marvellous example of successful 

 injection, the finest ramification of veins remaining quite perfect. 



Mr. Charles Rousselet, a larva of Hydrocampa nymphcealis. 



Mr. Charles D. Sherborne, a large and very perfect trilobite ; 

 also section of coal showing sporangia. 



Dr. F. A. Walker, a case of Neuroptera, etc. 



A vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated a very successful 

 and pleasant evening. 



Some Fine Slides. — Mr. Anderson, of Ilkeston, has sent us 



six exceedingly well-mounted slides, viz. — Karwig, Garden Spider, Dung Fly, 

 Mole Flea (Alale and Female on same Slide), Ground Beetle, and Larva of 

 Drinker Moth, ^^'e are not sure that we have met with better specimens of 

 whole-insect mounts. 



