( lx ) 



judged expedient, breeding from unusual varieties or types 

 of either species, or examples from Ireland, Wales, Northern 

 regions such as Scotland and Scandinavia, where both 

 species appear to be single-brooded, or from Central or 

 Southern Europe. S. lunaria would be an interesting 

 subject ; and he should like to know whether in the resting 

 position it approximated to illunaria, which folds its wings 

 closely together like a butterfly, or to iUmtraria, which 

 holds them at an angle of 50° or 60°. He exhibited two 

 diagrams, one showing the measurements of the successive 

 broods, and the other the duration of the larval and other 

 stages in each ; also a number of specimens of each brood of 

 illunaria, and several of Ulustraria. 



Mr. Francis Galton alluded to the close attention Mr. 

 Merrifield had given to the subject, and complimented him 

 on the neatness, ingenuity, and skill with which he had con- 

 ducted his experiments, which he considered were of a very 

 high order. He hoped that other members of the Society 

 would assist Mr. Merrifield by making similar experiments. 

 Mr. Galton said his own part of the work had not yet com- 

 menced, but he hoped to begin it next March. He made some 

 observations on acquired faculties, and on the possibility of 

 mutilations being inherited. He believed that mutilations 

 in the legs of larvae affected the legs of the moth. 



Prof. Meldola expressed his admiration of the manner in 

 which Mr. Merrifield had conducted these experiments, and 

 hoped that they would be successfully continued. He 

 suggested that the opportunity afforded by such wholesale 

 experiments should be utilised for the purpose of getting 

 accurate measurements of the relative variability of certain 

 selected characters in the moth, in addition to the size, 

 which character only was required for Mr. Galton's purpose. 

 Thus, by carefully measuring the length of the antenna, 

 the distance between certain definite markings on the wings, 

 &c, in all the individuals of several distinct broods, data 

 would be obtained for expressing numerically the relative 

 amount of variability of the parts stated in terms of the 

 mean or average measurement. Observations of this kind 

 had been conducted on birds by Mr. Allen in North America, 



