PHYSICS AND NATUR.VI. HISTORY, OF GENEVA. 205 



found. Professor Pictet also presented a memoir, {Bib. Univers., Archiccs, &c., 

 vol. xxii,) by AIM. d'Espine and E. Favre, in which these two young savants, 

 who had just finished their studies at the academy of Geneva, record their re- 

 searches made in certain localities in the region of the Alps, where the faunas 

 of the lower and the upper gault are found intermingled. The localities studied 

 by them are la Goudiniere, near the Grand-Bornand, the mountain of Criou, 

 above Samoens, and the Wanncn-Alp, in the canton of Schwytz. To this mC' 

 moir, presented for the annual competition founded as a parallel to the Davy 

 prize, the premium was awarded. 



M. de Loriol read a memoir {Memoir es de la Societe de Thys. et d'Hist. Nat. 

 de Geneve, vol. xviii,) on the iufracretaceous fresh-water strata of Villers-le-Lac, 

 (Doubs,) in which lie arrives at the following conclusions : the Portlaudian dolo- 

 mites of the Jura arc the equivalent of the Plattenkalk of Hanover and of the 

 limestones a i)laquettes of the Charente ; they do not pertain to the Portlaudian, 

 and they form the base of the Purbeckian group. The fresh-water limestones 

 and marls of Villers are the equivalent of the Mundener Mergel and serpulite of 

 Hanover, as well as of the gypsiferious clays of the Charente. Again, this iu- 

 fracretaceous group of Villers and the Jura is the equivalent of the Purbeck 

 beds of England, of which they represent the middle and the lower part. 

 •. M. Humbert presented a memoir {Memoires de la Soc. de Pkys. et d'Hist. Nat, 

 de Geneve, vol. xviii) on the myriapods of Ceylon, of which he had an opportu- 

 nity of collecting a great number of individuals during his sojourn in that island. 

 The author draws the attention of naturalists to certain organs, heretofore 

 little studied, and wbich furnish important characters for the establishment of 

 genera and species. M. de Saussure presented to the society a new number of 

 his work on the orthoptera of Mexico. This number is devoted to the family 

 of Blattse, several specimens of which the author exhibited, and respecting 

 which his researches have led him to veriiy some interesting facts. He points 

 out, among others, a very singular peculiarity in the structure of the wing of a 

 tribe of this fomily, to which he has given the name of diplopterians. In these 

 insects the wing is folded into four duplicates which are exactly superposed by 

 means of a longitudinal and a transversal crease; it ia by gradual modifications 

 that the structure of the wing deviates more and more, in the three genera 

 established in this tribe by M. de Saussure, from the normal type of duplicature 

 which occurs in the orthoptera. 



M. Fatio exhibited to the society an apparatus, {Bulletin de la Soc. Ormtlio- 

 logique Suisse, vol. i,) to whicli he has given the name of oometre, constructed 

 with a view of determining the dimensions of the eggs of birds measured in all 

 directions, and consequently their exact form. It might serve as Avell for the 

 analogous measurement of shells. The same member gave information of a 

 colony of ash-colored herons which he has discovered on the shore of the lake 

 of Lucerne, at the foot of Mount Pilate; during an excursion made in that 

 locality he ascertained the existence of from 200 to 300 nests of these birds. 



Professor Claparede made a report {Bib. Univers., Archives, &c., vol. xxii) on 

 certain interesting results at which Dr. Fritz Miiller has arrived in his studies 

 of the Crustacea of the island of St. Catharina, on the coast of Brazil. On com- 

 paring the respiratory apparatus in the families of the land crabs which are de- 

 rived from those of the marine crabs, M I^Iiiller found that the adaptation of 

 this apparatus to aerial life is not accomplished by the same process in each 

 family, whence the author draws a conclusion favorable to the theory of Dar- 

 win. Professor Claparede likewise presented us an analysis of the researches 

 of Professor Wagner, at Casan, respecting certain larvae, of flies, in the interior 

 of which small larva? are developed, which issue forth by piercing the skin, and 

 become like their mother ; thus a series of generations of larvaj is pix'sented, 

 without the perfect insect having been obtained. Our colleague noticed also 



