128 



The full reports, with the experiments and subjects operated upon, 

 will be found in the form of an admirable article in the nth annual 

 report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, 

 from the pens of Drs. Lewis and Cunningham, of which he had made 

 considerable use in the brief exposition of the so-called "Fungus Foot" 

 of India. 



Various engraved plates were used to illustrate the subject ; and 

 Mr. Wonfor made considerable quotation from the official report to 

 which he called attention in his paper. Mr. C. P.M. Smith, Mr. H. E. 

 Haselwood, the President (Mr. J. Dennant), and others, took part 

 in a short discussion which followed the reading. The point specially 

 (Jiscussed was which of these theories was correct — that germs in the 

 atmosphere attacked highly vitalised organisms, or only organisms in 

 a low state of vitality or debilitated by disease. At the close, speci- 

 mens of fungi, supposed to be the cause of disease in plants and 

 animals, were exhibited under the microscope. 



Mr, Wonfor also submitted for examination the hard, earthy 

 cocoon of a beetle. It had been dug up by Mr. Brown, of Trafalgar- 

 street, in his garden on the Round Hill Estate, and it had been brought 

 under the notice of the Society through Mr. Haselwood. The cocoon 

 contained a larva ; and, as at one end it was partly broken, the insect 

 could be seen at work. It was placed on a table with the opening to 

 the light, when the grub was seen to be moving its head about, and 

 apparently endeavouring to close the opening by taking from the out- 

 side small particles of earth. This went on for a day and on the 

 following morning the aperture was found completely closed \vith a 

 small piece of flint, obtained from the exterior of the cocoon. The 

 question whether or not the extra expenditure of energy and fatty 

 matter in repairing the cocoon would prevent the full development of 

 the insect, — as was often the case where caterpillars had been com- 

 pelled from accident to make a second cocoon, — awaited solution in 

 regard to this particular case. The President said the point was so 

 interesting that he would suggest its reconsideration at another meet- 

 ing of the Society. 



