260 PBOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



which furnished good specimens as late as the beginning of April. 

 The other gathering was slightly frozen in February, shortly after 

 which Statospores were found in most of the conditions described by 

 Dr. J. Braxton Hicks, in the ' Quart. Journ. Mic. Science,' vol. i., N.S., 

 p. 281. 



The President announced the excursions and meetings for the en- 

 suing month, and the meeting closed with the usual conversazione. 



Sept. 25.— Ordinary Meeting. Dr. Matthews, F.E.M.S., President, 

 in the chair. 



The President brought to the meeting for distribution a quantity 

 of infusorial earth from several localities in Barbados, which promised 

 to be rich in Polycystina. 



Mr. T. Charters White read a paper " On the Salivary Glands of the 

 Cockroach," illustrating the subject by coloured diagrams and beauti- 

 fully prepared specimens. He first spoke of the structure and functions 

 of glands in general, and then showed the method of dissecting the 

 salivary glands from the cockroach, which he very minutely described, 

 and added the reasons which confirmed him in his ojiinion as to their pos- 

 sessing the nature and functions of true salivary glands. Mr. T. Curties 

 read a letter which he had received from Mr. J. G, Tatem, accompany- 

 ing a slide of the same object for ijresentation to the club. In this 

 letter Mr. Tatem adopted the opinion advanced by Mr. HoUis in a 

 recent number of ' Nature ' that the sacs are not reservoirs for saliva, 

 but air-sacs only, and probably capable of inflation as an aid to flight. 

 He could not exactly comprehend in what way the sacs could be filled 

 with air from without, but thought that they might possibly be inflated 

 from time to time with " secreted air," as in the case of the bladders, 

 having no ducts, of some fishes. 



In the discussion which followed, Mr. Lowne suj)ported Mr. "White's 

 view, and suggested staining the preparations with chloride of gold, 

 for the better demonstration of the network of nerves. He spoke at 

 length on the different kinds of salivary glands in vertebrate and 

 invertebrate animals, and stated that there was no evidence of the 

 sacs being tracheal tubes, or of their ever being filled with air. The 

 President read Dr. HoUis's letter in ' Nature,' and said that he did not 

 regard the presence of trachea as conclusive of the argument, and 

 thought that on the whole the reasoning was inconclusive. 



Mr. Loy felt quite sure that the tubes were not tracheal, and 

 thought that the sacs were reservoirs in which the saliva was stored 

 until j)umped by the tube into the stomach. He had never found any 

 evidence of air in any insect's salivary glands. In answer to a question 

 from the President, Mr. Loy made some remarks upon the irritating 

 nature of the saliva of some insects, and afterwards suggested different 

 ways of killing the cockroaches, which Mr. White proposed to dissect 

 at the next conversational meeting for the instruction of the members. 

 After the meeting, several beautiful prej)arations of the disputed organ 

 were shown, as well as other objects of interest, by various members. 



