172 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



Bubscription to them is extremely moderate, one guinea per annum ; and, 

 as they are purely publishing societies, and do not hold periodical 

 meetings for the reading of papers and discussion, the subscriber in the 

 country has the full benefit of their operations. Generally one or more 

 elaborately illustrated monogi-aphs are issued by each Society every year, 

 exceeding in cost the amount of the subscriptions, as these have 

 frequently been supplemented by considerable pecuuiai-y assistance from 

 the learned authors, who also devote their time and knowledge to the 

 preparation of the woi'ks gratuitously. 



It appears to me that the indi^-idual naembers, or associations of 

 them, of an organisation like this, who are scattered over a wide area, 

 varying in its flora, fauna, and geological conditions, might turn to 

 profitable account the pecuhar opportunities afforded by their several 

 districts in determining many unsettled problems in Natural Histoiy. 

 What these problems are I must leave to the decision of such of you as 

 are skilled in the various branches of science ; but I will venture to 

 suggest one as an illustration of the kind to which I refer : What is that 

 which determines the sexes of Bees ? Is the sex an inhex'ent quahty of 

 the egg, or is it modified in the development of the larva by circum- 

 stances ? Bees, always excepting their stings, afford very favourable 

 opportunities of studying this question ; and the knowledge we ah'eady 

 possess of some of the peculiarities of the development of the one sex 

 may help us in that of the other. Schirach, and afterwards Huber, 

 taught us that the wox-king bee is an imperfectly developed female, and to 

 make the perfect female from the egg, which, deposited in a worker's 

 cell, would have produced a working bee, nothing more is necessary 

 than sufficient room for its development, and special food during its 

 growth from a certain stage. It appears a natural question to ask, if a 

 modification of this kind will change a neuter into a perfect female bee, 

 will a modification of another land, that is, the peculiar size of the drone 

 cell, and some unsolved treatment in nutrition, cause the egg to become 

 a dx'one, which, deposited elsewhere, and treated otherwise, would have 

 become a worker or a queen ? It does not seem unreasonable to suppose 

 that the determination of sex is only a question of room and nutriment, 

 when we not only find these influences have such an effect in the 

 ari*ested and perfected development of the female in bees, but we know 

 that in mammals there is a period in the foetal growth when the sex is 

 not determined, and the foetus may be called bisexual ; and it is only at 

 a further stage that the growth of the organ of the one sex is ax-rested, 

 and that of the other developed. 



Possibly this px-oblem has been solved, but in my limited x'eading on 

 the sixbject I have not met with its solution ; however, solved or not, it 

 will serv6 my purpose of suggesting a class of problems upon which the 

 united power of the organisation may be usefully employed. As 

 difficulties occur in the course of the investigations of individual members, 

 they should be by them brought under the notice of the members of the 

 Union generally, by publication in the " Midland Naturalist," when the 

 investigations can be taken up by such as have the special opportunities 

 of observation requisite, with the probable result of a satisfactoi'y solution 

 in many cases. 



