SCIENCE AND POLITICS 151 



to the necessity of its introduction were not a 

 little curious. A clerk of Stuckey's Bank had 

 overpaid his account, and had deceived the 

 auditors by falsifying the books, so that his 

 frauds remained for a considerable time unde- 

 tected. To every one's surprise it appeared 

 that this was no offence in the eye of the law. 

 This Bill for the first time made it a legal offence, 

 and it has proved very useful, as many clerks 

 who robbed their employers by means of false 

 entries had previously escaped scot-free. 



He also contributed two articles to Nature, on 

 the relation between insects and flowers, of which 

 Mr. Darwin writes as follows : 



Down, Beckenham, Kent, 

 September 26th, 1874. 



My dear Sir John — I have read your two articles 

 in Nature and they seem excellently done ; but my 

 object in writing is to caution you, unless you have 

 good evidence, about C. K. Sprengel's notion of Bees 

 being deceived by a nectar-lip nectary. As far as my 

 memory goes, Orchids are his best case, and I think I 

 have shown that he is here mistaken, and my conclusion 

 has been supported by subsequent observations. 



I suppose you do not want more cases of coloured 

 calyx, but our common Polygala is a remarkable case, 

 as the calyx during flowering season is bright-coloured, 

 and then turns green whilst it protects the seed-vessel 

 after the flowering season is over. — Yours very sincerely, 



Ch. Darwin. 



In the autumn he attended the meeting at 

 Belfast of the British Association, and gave one 

 of the lectures. The subject was related to that 

 of the articles in Nature. Professor Tyndall was 

 President for the year, and the following extract 

 from a letter of his indicates his estimate of the 

 lecture : 



