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The President thought that there was yet a good deal to be 

 done in the observation of the structure of the pulvilli of insects. 

 Since he had read Mr. Merlin's interesting communication in the 

 " English Mechanic " of March 8th, he had examined the pulvilli 

 of many insects, and he could strongly recommend this fascinat- 

 ing subject to anyone in search of something to take up. The 

 figure in " Carpenter on the Microscope," referred to by Mr. 

 Merlin, was copied from Fig. 11, PI. V., in Vol. ii. of the 

 "Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science" (1854), X 225 

 diameters, illustrating a paper by Mr. Hepworth, " On the Foot of 

 the Fly." That figure was the origin of the knobbed or trumpet- 

 shaped terminations of the hairs on the pulvillus, and the view put 

 forward by the author that the sticky fluid which the insect 

 secretes exudes through these trumpet-shaped hairs has been held 

 up to the present time. Mr. Merlin has now, by first-rate micro- 

 scopical observations, shown that the knobbed or trumpet-shaped 

 appearance is an optical ghost, and that the terminations of the 

 hairs are in reality filamentous. Out of a number of insects he 

 had examined, the only one that had trumpet-shaped terminations 

 to the hairs on its pulvillus was a male nettle fly, Platystoma 

 seminationis S . The Nycteribia Hopei (parasite of the Indian 

 flying fox) had large trumpet-shaped hairs which seemed more 

 numerous on the male than on the female. This insect, however, 

 could hardly be called a fly. The question then was, where did 

 the sticky fluid exude? Minute tubules could be traced from the 

 last joint of the tarsus to the teruiinal hairs of the pulvillus, but 

 although he had examined these hairs with the highest powers he 

 was unable to discover the orifice at which the fluid escaped, 

 although their roots and shafts appeared, as Mr. Merlin had said, 

 hollow or tubular. He was sure they would give Mr. Merlin a 

 hearty vote of thanks for his very interesting communication. 



The President said they bad a number of photographs sent 

 by Mr. Keevil, of Bath, who it would be remembered sent a 

 curious specimen of flint section which was illustrated by Mr. 

 Karop in No. 34 of the present series of the Journal. There was 

 also another series by Mr. Marryat, of Salisbury, illustrating 

 karyokinesis in the lily ; these were remarkable because they were 

 all taken with a cheap lens. 



Mr. Karop said these were some of the finest of the kind he 

 had ever seen ; all the usual features were well shown. The diaster, 



