OBSERVATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Geological Society of London and Equity. 

 While I am much obliged for the notice taken in the current No. of Natural 

 Science (p. 654) of my last paper at the Geological Society, I must ask to be allowed 

 to say a few words from my point of view. All that is quoted from Professor Judd's 

 Address of 1888 most reasonable people would be prepared to endorse ; but it is 

 altogether wide of the point. If the Council of the Society applied such a principle 

 fairly and consistently, no one would have any just cause of complaint It is, how- 

 f ver, because they have, while suppressing a mass of new evidential facts during 

 the last two years on one side of the controversy, given space, to the extent of 

 eleven pages of the Society's Joninal, to "A paper [which] is a controversial one, 

 and deals with a number of minor points connected with the stratigraphy of the 

 Bagshot Area," and deals, moreover, in part with a number of minor points 

 belonging to that part of the area which I had specially reserved for further investi- 

 gation, while it ignores many facts now well-established, and goes out of its way to 

 criticise some things in my earlier papers which have been superseded in my later 

 papers, that I feel they have treated me unfairly. 



I make allowance for the human nature to be found in any average body of some 

 two dozen fairly educated men, which accounts, perhaps, for their unwillingness to 

 publish my last paper, and I make full allowance for that intellectual colour- 

 blindness in a referee which may result from what has been called " unconscious 

 cerebration " ; and so my quarrel resolves itself into a raid upon the system rather 

 than upon individuals. A great deal may be said — as I know very well — for the 

 referee system, buc the responsibility for their own action must abide with the 

 Council; and if the affairs of the Society had not got rather into a groove detri- 

 mental in every way to true science, it would not be necessary for me to suggest that 

 the occasional appointment at least of a " standing committee" would be a useful 

 innovation upon traditional procedure. A. Irving. 



Wellington College, Berks. 



The Parasites of Cut Corks. 

 In answer to the query proposed under the above title, I would refer Mr. J. 

 Lawrence Hamilton to a short note on " Insect Damage to the Corks of Wine 

 Bottles " (in Insect Life, vol. i., no. 3, p. 91, 1888), which may be of some use to him. 

 It is the summary of a paper by M. Preudhomme de Borre, read at the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Belgium on May 7, 1887. Two species of insects, Oenophila v. 

 Jlavum and Rhizophagus bipiistulatus are described as eating holes through the corks. 

 The eggs are often deposited in the cork while on the tree, so that it is likely every 

 form of cork may be infested. Some other insects are mentioned as being similarly 

 troublesome. 



Paris. Henry de Varigny. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

 All communications foy the Editor to be addressed to the Editorial 

 Offices, 67-69 Chanceiy Lane, London, W.C. 



ERRATA. 

 P. 555, line i?>.—Foy Firth of Forth read Firth of Clyde. 

 P. 688, lines 16, 17. — For " they get their " read " the ash gets its." 

 P. 703, line 23. — The price of Ward's "Horn Measurements" is £1 is. (not 

 £1 los., as stated). 



