March 2, 1876] 



NATURE 



359 



described as very satisfactory, although owing to various extra- 

 ordinary expenses, the expenditure of the year was considerably 

 in excess of its income. The Society was stated to be in a pros- 

 perous state, and the increase in the number of Fellows to be 

 greater than in any previous year. The report also referred to 

 the bequest by the late Sir Charles Lyell of the die of a medal 

 and of the sum of 2,000/., a bronze copy of the former and the 

 interest of the latter to be given annually or from time to time by 

 the Council as a mark of honorary distinction to some person or 

 persons who shall be regarded as having aided the progress of 

 Geological Science. It was also announced that Dr. Bigsby, 

 F.R.S., has offered to found a bronze medal to be given in alter- 

 nate years as an incentive to the study of Geology. The Presi- 

 dent then presented the Wollaston Gold Medal to Professor 

 Huxley, F.R.S. ; the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston 

 Donation Fund to Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, for transmission to 

 Professor Giuseppe Seguenza, of Messina, F.C.G.S, ; the Mur- 

 chison Medal to Professor Ramsay for transmission to Mr. 

 A. R. C. Selwyn, F.R.S, ; the balance of the Murchison Geo- 

 logical Fund to Professor Ramsay for transmission to Mr. James 

 Croll I and the first Lyell Medal and the entire proceeds of the 

 Fund to Professor Morris, F.G.S. The President then pro- 

 ceeded to read his anniversary address, an abstract of which we 

 give on another page. The ballot for the Council and Officers 

 was taken, and the following were duly elected for the ensuing 

 year: -President: Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S. Vice- 

 Presidents : Sir P. deM. Grey Egerton, Bart. F.R.S. ; R. A. C. 

 Godwin- Austen, F.R.S. ; J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. ; Prof. A. C. 

 Ramsay, F.R.S. Secretaries : David Forbes, F.R.S. ; Rev. T. 

 Wiltshire. Foreign Secretary : Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S. 

 Treasurer: J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S. Council: H. Bauerman ; 



' Rev. T. G. Bonney ; W. Carruthers, F.R.S. ; Frederick Drew; 

 Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S, ; Sir P. de M. Grey Egerton, 

 Bart, FR.S. ; R. Etheridge, F.R.S. : John Evans, F.R.S. ; 

 David Forbes, F.R.S.; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S.; 

 Henry Hicks ; J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. ; J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S.; 



\ Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S. ; J. W. Judd ; Prof. J. Morris ; 



■ Prof. A, C. Ramsay, F.R.S. ; Samuel Sharp, F.S. A. ; Waring- 

 ton W. Smyth, F.R.S. ; Admiral T. A. B. Spratt, F.R.S. ; 

 W. Whitaker; Rev. T. Wiltshire, F.L.S.; Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S. 



Linnean Society, Feb. I7-— J- Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair.— Dr. D, D. Cunningham, Mr. W. 

 C. Tuely, Mr. C. M. Wakefield, and Mr. C. F. White were 

 elected Fellows of the Society.— "Additional observations on 

 Ants," by Sir John Lubbock, Bart. In this paper Sir John com- 

 municated some further experiments in continuation of those 

 contained in his last memoir. As regards the cases in which 

 when an ant has found a store of food, other ants make their 

 way to it, he commenced by referring to some of his 

 recent observations. To the edge of a board conamuni- 

 cating with the nest he fastened three parallel strips of 

 paper about a foot long (g, h, and i). One of these (g) led 

 to a shallow glass tray containing a number of larvae. The 

 object of this was to ascertain how many ants would find the 

 larvae for themselves under such circumstances, and as a matter 

 of fact none did so. On the middle strip (h), near the centre, 

 and at right angles with it he placed two strips of paper 2 inches 

 long, one (k) leading to another shallow tray containing larvse 

 (F), while the other (l) rested on the third strip of paper (i). 

 He then took an ant \^F. nigra), marked her, and put her on the 

 tray F. She immediately took a larva, and went away to the 

 nest along the strip of paper H. Now it is obvious that by 

 always causing the marked ant to cross from the strip of paper, 

 H, to the larvae over a particular bridge of paper, K, and if 

 whenever a stranger came, the paper bridges, K and L, were 

 reversed, it would be shown whether the other ants who came 

 to the larvse had had ths direction and position explained to 

 them. In such a case they would go right notwithstanding the 

 interchange of the paper bridges : but if they found their way by 

 tracking the footsteps of the first a»t, they would pass over the 

 paper bridge K, and thus be led away from the larvse to the strip 

 of paper i. The result was that out of 79 strange ants which 

 came up to the point at which the paper bridges diverged, 24 

 went straight along the strip of paper, 1 1 took the right bridge 

 to the larvae, while 44 were misled and went over the paper 

 bridge K away from the larvae to the strip of paper i. He then 

 slightly altered the arrangement, transfixing one end of the two 

 paper bridges by a pin, and so fastening them by one end to the 

 strip of paper H, the other ends free, that each of them could 



be turned either to the larvae or to an empty glass tray. When 

 the marked ant came he turned one jaaper bridge, K, to the larvae, 

 the other, L, to the empty tray ; while whenever any other ant 

 came he turned the bridges, so that K led to the empty tray and 

 L to the larvae. Under these circumstances, seventeen ants which 

 came along the strip of paper h, Avithout a single exception, 

 went over the bridge K to the empty tray. He then varied 

 the experiment by leaving the paper bridge K loose as at 

 first ; but instead of having a separate bridge l, he cut the 

 strip of paper H into two pieces, h' and h". Then when 

 a strange ant was coming, he rubbed his finger two or three 

 times over the bridge K, so as to remove or at least confuse the 

 scent. As soon as the ant had passed over the first part, h', of 

 the strip of paper H, and had arrived on the part h", he took up 

 the piece h' and placed it where the paper bridge L had been in 

 the previous experiments, i.e. so as to connect the end of H with 

 the empty glass tray. By this arrangement the bridge K was 

 left in its place, and, on the other hand, there was a bridge 

 which the marked ant had crossed and recrossed as often as K, 

 but which led away from the larvae. Under these circumstances, 

 out of forty-one ants which found their way to the end of the 

 strip H, and within two inches of the larvae, fourteen only 

 passed over the bridge K to the larvae, while twenty-seven went 

 over h' to the empty tray. Taking these observations altogether, 

 out of 1 50 ants which came to the end of the strip of paper h, 

 and thus within two inches of the larvae, only twenty-one took 

 then the right turn and arrived at their destination. These experi- 

 ments therefore certainly seem to show that when ants flock to a 

 treasure of food which one of them has discovered, they either 

 accompany one another or else track it out by scent. The fact, 

 therefore, is by no means an evidence of any high intelligence, 

 or any complex system of communication, but is merely an in- 

 stance of instinct, little higher than that which is found in other 

 social animals. On the other hand, that some higher power of com- 

 munication does exist, seems, however, to be obvious from some 

 of the facts recorded in Sir John's previous paper. In the latter part 

 of his present paper the author narrated a variety of experiments 

 on the senses of ants, and on their power of recognising friends. 

 A lively discussion followed the reading of the paper, in which 

 Messrs. Lowne, Romanes, Mivart, and McLachlan, &c., took 

 part. — Dr. Cobbold gave a notice of and exhibited several speci- 

 mens of the new human fluke discovered by Prof. J. F. P. 

 McConnell, of Calcutta. This parasite was first described by 

 Dr. McConnell in the Lancet, Aug. 21, 1875. Prof. Leuckart, 

 of Leipsic, unaware that the species had been already named, 

 Distotna sinense, proposed the name D. spatulatum foT it, which 

 thus sinks into a synonym. Dr. Cobbold pointed out how the 

 transparency of the specimens permitted all the internal organs 

 to be well seen, and thus their structure could not readily be 

 confounded with any other known species. The Entozoa foimd 

 by Dr. Kerr, of Canton, and described by Prof. Leidy, did not 

 belong to the above species, but to the great human iliike (Dis- 

 toma crassum) discovered by Prof, Busk. Details of this last- 

 named parasite have just been published in the Society's Journal. 

 — A paper was read by Dr. John Anderson " On the cloacal 

 bladders, and on the peritoneal canals in Chelonia." The former 

 seem first to have been described by Bojanus in Emys europcea, 

 but since have received sparse attention. Dr. Anderson has 

 ascertained their presence in a number of Asiatic genera and 

 species, though they do not occur in others, Testudo, Trionyx, 

 &.C., to wit. He suggests these organs may be related to 

 the habits of life, as it appears they are confined to those 

 animals semi-terrestrial and semi-aquatic in habit, the true 

 land and essentially water-living Chelonians being unpro- 

 vided with them. Although known that some Chelonia draw 

 in and eject water from the cloaca, the precise functions of the 

 pouches in question have not been clearly determined. — The peri- 

 toneal canak have received elucidation fron Cuvier, Is. Geoffroy, 

 and Martin, but as to their relations, functions, and homology, 

 Dr. Anderson is at variance with these savans. Basing his 

 views on experimental injection and otherwise, he regards them 

 as not connected with the generative functions, but rather agrees 

 with Dumeril and Bibron as to their being accessory and subor- 

 dinate to transpiration. He believes they have a distinct origin 

 from the Mullerian ducts, and are homologous with the abdo- 

 minal pore of Selachians and Ganoids. — The chairman called 

 attention to a letter from the Director of the South Kensington 

 Museum, in which the Committee of Council of Education desire 

 the co-operation of the President and Fellows of the Linnean 

 Society toward furnishing objects on loan for the forthcoming 

 Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus. 



