JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
XX111 
In a discussion upon the germinating power of seeds, Mr. Hope 
stated a practice common in some parts of Spain, of baking corn to 
a certain extent, by exposing it to a temperature of 150°, or up- 
wards, for the purpose of destroying an insect by which it is liable 
to be attacked. 
Mr. Curtis exhibited some terminal shoots of a Pinus attacked 
by Hylurgus piniperda, and made some observations on the habits 
of that insect. 
Mr. Hope exhibited the hermaphrodite specimen of Lucanus 
cnmelus, Fabr. (exhibited at the meeting of this Society on the 2nd 
May preceding by Mr. Raddon,) which led to a discussion, in 
which Mr. Curtis, Dr. Riley, and Mr. Yarrell took part, concern- 
ing those principles of developement by which monstrosities of the 
above description are reducible to the operation of general laws. 
Mr. Yarrell particularly noticed the occurrence of both male and 
female organs on opposite sides of various hermaphrodites, in lob- 
sters and birds, which he had dissected, and stated that he had met 
with a fish which had a hard roe on one side and a soft one on the 
other. Fie had met with a very extraordinary example of double 
sex in a fowl which he had not yet made public, but of which he 
now gave some details. 
Mr. Hope read a communication expressive of the jirobability 
that some of the early notions of antiquity were derived from the 
observations of insects. In attempting to account for the appa- 
rently spontaneous generation of those insects which rise in my- 
riads from the mud left by the waters of the Nile, the philosophers 
of antiquity turned their earliest attention to the operation of the 
external influence of the elements; and Mr. Hope, supporting his 
opinion by numerous quotations, showed that they considered the 
sun as the chief and efficacious power in producing this effect. 
The origin of the doctrine of Metempsychosis he considered might 
be deduced from their actual observation of the metamorphoses of 
certain insects. 
Mr. Hope exhibited a large collection of North American insects 
obtained from raw turpentine by Mr. Raddon. 
Mr. Yates exhibited specimens of the vegetating wasp of Ja- 
maica, an insect infested by a fungus allied to a Sphceria, which 
attached itself to its body, even as was asserted, during life. Mr. 
Flope considered the wasp as belonging to the genus Polistes , and 
stated that several Curculionidce were liable to be similarly infested. 
Mr. Sells, referring to Mr. Benson’s papers, noticed the common 
occurrence of the Gymnopleuri in Jamaica, where he had observed 
