60 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Mr. Westwood decided that it was not a true Pulex, but 

 required to be erected into a new genus, of which it was 

 probably the type. 



The Secretary, after explaining that the Entomological 

 Society of France had mainly directed their labours to the 

 discovery and description of new species, while the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London had aimed at more practical objects 

 and results, read a portion of a letter from M. Victor Audouin, 

 foreign honorary member, president of the Entomological So- 

 ciety of France, to show that they were now imitating the 

 Entomological Society of London in this respect. M. Audouin, 

 in this letter, detailed the plan of a course of lectures he had 

 just engaged in, on the economy of insects in relation to the 

 use or injury of man, in the three departments of agriculture, 

 manufactures, and medicine. 



A paper by Mr. Main, on the Capes or Roupe, a familiar 

 disease among chickens, occasioned by the nidus of a species 

 of vermes in the throat, and frequently fatal to two-thirds of a 

 brood, was communicated by Mr. Ingpen. 



A paper by Mr. Asiiton was read, describing the singular 

 construction of the cornea of some insects. In the dragon-fly, 

 {Libellula Vulgata,) for instance, the numerous facets or lenses 

 constituting the eye, are not of equal size, but are much larger 

 towards the upper part than in the lower part of the eye. In 

 some insects the variations in the size of the mesh are gradual, 

 in others distinct ; in some vertical, in others central, and in 

 others lobed or tongue-shaped ; but in all the instances of this 

 remarkable construction that had fallen under Mr. Ashton's 

 observation, he thought he could trace a relation or correspon- 

 dence between the large facets, and that part of the eye most 

 exposed by the habit of the insect to the strongest blaze of 

 light, which he therefore supposed to be a provision of nature 

 for moderating and equalizing its effects. All this was illus- 

 trated by descriptive drawings. Mr. Shuckard stated, that 

 Mr. Ashton had just anticipated him, having been for some 

 time engaged in an extensive series of similar observations; but 

 he thought this singular variation in the structure of the eye 

 would be found to be sexual. 



The Rev. F. W. Hope presented a monograph of Mr. 

 Darwin's new Carabi, from Southern America ; — and also a 

 paper on the emblematical signification of the sacred Scara- 



