30 



In the far superior Crustacea, five rings only support a massive- 

 head, and the remaining rings only become a mere tail. In the 

 Arachnida the rings carrying legs are diminished to four, and in 

 the insects to three, each time with an increase of vitality, and 

 a higher organization. The next step would take us to a far 

 superior animal, having only two rings, or four limbs, the 

 remaining rings being diminished to a tail — to the vertebrates in 

 short. 



The higher prime numbers are not altogether unrepresented 

 in Nature. Thirteen is the type number of dorsal vertebrae in the 

 Mammalia. Twenty-two gives its name to a lady-bird having 

 that number of spots ; but these are mere curiosities. The facts 

 I have mentioned are not so. The constancy of fives and threes 

 in flowering plants, of the former number in Hydrozoa, of fours 

 in the vertebrate animals, and of twos throughout, point to laws 

 of which we know nothing. So long as Nature indicates and 

 emphasises these laws, and so long as we are ignorant of them, 

 such a paper as mine is not, I submit, out of place in a Society 

 devoted to the study of Nature in all her phases. 



On the conclusion of the paper, the Chairman briefly 

 thanked Mr. Lomax, and a conversation ensued, in which several 

 of the Members took part. 



The Death of Me. T. B. Horne. 



Mr T. W. WoNFOR (the Secretary) said he had an an- 

 nouncement to make of a rather painful character, death, 

 which had been busy in their ranks, having removed one 

 of their four fathers. He used the expression, four fathers, 

 because the four gentlemen whose photographs appeared in 

 the Society's album were really the founders of the Society, 

 Dr. King, Dr. Turrell, Mr. Arthur Wallis, and Mr. T. B. 

 Horne, were returning to Brighton in a fly, in 18.53, from a 

 conversazione at Lewes, when the idea of this Society was mooted. 

 The conversation which took place on the subject resulted in the 



