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their own funds, whereas the Entomological Society, of which 1 have long 

 been a Member, has never been in a position to do so, and I had hoped to 

 make this small contribution to their means of usefulness." His lordship 

 added that if it should be decided by the Society that he was mistaken in 

 supposing that it was of any advantage to them to be able to offer the said 

 prizes, he would be quite willing to give his consent to their being transferred 

 to some other body considered to be more conversant with the proposed 

 subjects. In his second letter, his lordship also stated : — " It would not 

 greatly surprise me if it should be ultimately discovered that insects have 

 something to do with the life-history of Sclerostoma. I have found Entozoic 

 parasites other than insects in the larvae of Lepidoptera, and it is at least a 

 puzzle how the egg of Sclerostoma of last September is to produce a living 

 worm in the trachea of a Partridge next August without the good offices of 

 some ready ' medium.' " Mr. Stainton then expressed the high opinion he 

 entertained of the entomological abilities of Lord Walsingham, and stated 

 that he had no doubt whatever that in making this offer to the Society his 

 lordship had been actuated by feelings of pure benevolence. He was still of 

 opinion, however, that Lord Walsingham had been misled by an error of 

 judgment. In further support of the views expressed at the last meeting, 

 Mr. Stainton asked the Members to imagine a parallel case in which a 

 benevolent individual, wishing to further science, had placed at the disposal 

 of the President and Council of the Royal Astronomical Society a certain 

 sum to be awarded for the best essay on the constituent elements of chlorine. 

 According to Mr. Stainton's views, the Council of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society would not be the proper body to undertake the adjudication of such 

 a prize, but the assistance of some Fellow of the Chemical Society would 

 have to be invoked, and the prize would fall to the lot of some Fellow of 

 this latter Society. 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir thought there was a much closer connection between 

 Insects and Entozoa than Mr. Stainton imagined, and instanced the case of 

 Filaria sangidnis-hominis, an Entozoon which had been proved to infest 

 the mosquito as an intermediate host. A paper on insect parasites would 

 be certainly one which was strictly within the province of the Society, and 

 many of such parasites are not even Arthropoda. 



Mr. M'Lachlan said he was quite prepared to hear Lord Walsingham's 

 suggestion that the Entozoa forming the subjects for the proposed Prize 

 Essays might possibly live in an intermediate condition as parasites on the 

 larvse of insects ; but he did not see that if even this were the case the 

 subjects would any the more come within the special province of the 

 Society. 



After some remarks by Professor Westwood and Mr. P. Wormald, the 

 Chairman stated that the decision at which the Council had arrived might 

 be considered as final. 



