June ii, 1891] 



NATURE 



143 



laparede mentioned its having been found at Berlin ; but 

 itherto it had only seemed to have been found in sea- water. — 

 I'rof. Bell said they had received a communication from Mr. 

 I. B. Rosseter describing the development of Ticnia lanceolata 

 irom the duck, the cysticercoid form of which had not been 

 .reviously known. He (Mr. Rosseter) had fed the ducks with 

 ime of the Cypris known to be infested with the parasite, and 

 I Iter some weeks opened the ducks and found the tapeworm 

 mentioned. It was interesting to get the life-history of another 

 tapeworm worked out. — Mr. E. M. Nelson read a note on the 

 subject of lateral development in photography, and a paper 

 on the use of monochromatic light in microscopy, and ex- 

 hibited the model of a new and simple apparatus for obtaining 

 the same by means of a glass prism. Mr. Nelson also described 

 a new projection microscope fitted with a special condenser 

 made of three flint lenses so as to embrace the whole cone of 82°. 

 The novelty about it was the system of collecting the light, by 

 which a beam of 4^ inches was brought down to i^ inches, and 

 by passing through two lenses placed in the water-trough, a 

 beam of parallel rays of great intensity was obtained for use in 

 projecting the image upon the screen. Afterwards Mr. Nelson 

 gave an exhibition on the screen. 



Geological Society, May 27.— Dr.. A. Geikie, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 read : — On the lower jaws of Procoptodon, by R. Lydekker. 

 After reviewing Sir R. Owen's writings upon the large extinct 

 Kangaroos for which he established the genus Procoptodon in 

 1874, the author describes two mandibular rami from the clay 

 beds of Miall Creek in the neighbourhood of Bingera, N.S.W., 

 which belong to this genus, and from their characters and a 

 comparison of them with the lower jaws in the British Museum, 

 he maintains that this part of the skull indicates two very dis- 

 tinct species of the genus, for which he retains the names P. 

 rapha, Ow., and P. goliah, Ow., though it is possible that the 

 types of those two species are really specifically identical, in 

 which case the name P pitsio, Ow., might have to be adopted 

 for one of the species described. — On some recently exposed 

 sections in the Glacial deposits at Hendon, by Henry Hicks, 

 F. R. S. In this paper the author brings forward evidence ob- 

 tained from sections exposed in gravel-pits and deep cuttings 

 made for the purpose of laying down the main sewers, to show 

 that Glacial deposits had been spread out to a much wider extent 

 over the Hendon plateau than had hitherto been supposed, and 

 that they had reached down the slopes to below the Ordnance- 

 datum line of 200 feet. . He further mentions that there is 

 evidence to show that these deposits have extended in a south 

 and south-west direction across the Brent and Silk Valleys, and 

 now occur on most of the heights in the parishes of Kingsbury 

 and Willesden. As the sands, gravels, and Boulder-clay which 

 rover the Hendon plateau and the neighbouring heights are 

 found to rest on an undulating floor of London Clay, and to 

 follow the contours of the hills and valleys, the author considers 

 that it is clear that the main physical features of this portion of 

 North-west Middlesex were moulded at a very early stage in the 

 Glacial period, and before the so-called Middle sands and 

 gravels and overlying Upper Boulder-clay with Northern 

 erratics were deposited. He believes that at this time there 

 could have been no barrier of any importance to prevent these 

 deposits from extending into the Thames Valley, and that the 

 evidence clearly points to the conclusion that the implement- 

 bearing deposits on the higher horizons in the Thames Valley 

 should be classed as of contemporaneous age with the undoubted 

 Glacial deposits at Hendon, Finchley, and on the slopes of the 

 Brent Valley, which they so closely resemble. The author is 

 therefore satisfied that man lived in the neighbourhood of the 

 Thames Valley in the early part of the Glacial period ; probably, 

 he thinks, in pre-Glacial times. This paper led to a discussit)n, 

 in which Mr. H. B. Woodward, Mr. J. A. Brown, Dr. Hinde, 

 Mr. Monckton, and the author took part. 



Entomological Society, June 3. — Mr. Frederick Du Cane- 

 Godman, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Mr. E. B. Poulton, 

 F. R. S., exhibited living larvae of Endromis versi-olora, and 

 commented on their habits. — Mr. W. F. H. Blandford called 

 attention to the fact that the larvae o{ Liparis vwnairAa remained 

 in small groups on the bark of the tree for about a week after 

 emerging from the eggs, and that this fact was taken advantage 

 of by the German f)resters to destroy them. Also that he had 

 himself verified the statement that uric acid can be detected in 

 the Malpighian tubes of insects. Mr. McLachlan, F. R. S., 

 agreed that the demonstration that the Malpighian tubes were of 



the nature of renal organs was now satisfactory. — Mr. C. J. 

 Gahan exhibited two species of Coleoptera that he considered to 

 possess a mimetic resemblance.— Mr. Tutt exhibited a hybrid 

 between Amphidasis prodromaria and A. belularia, obtained by 

 Dr. Chapman. Mr. Stainton, F. R. S. , commented on the fact that 

 the two insects appeared at different times ; and Mr. Tutt stated 

 that the A. belularia had been subjected to forcing, so as to 

 cause it to emerge at the same time as A. prodromaria. — Mr. 

 Tutt also exhibited forms of Caradrina, some of which he said 

 were considered distinct on the Continent, though they were not 

 recognized as such in this country, viz. Caradrina taraxaci 

 (blanda), C. superstes, Tr., from Sligo, and C. xuperstcs , H. S., 

 considered as synonymous with superstes, Tr., but apparently 

 more closely allied to C. ambigtia. — Mr. Bristowe exhibited 

 varieties of Arctia menthastri, some of which had been fed on 

 mulberry and others on walnut ; no difference was observed in 

 the variation. — Mr. G. Elisha exhibited larvae in their cases of 

 Coleophora vibicigerella and C. viaritivtella. — Mr. A. G. Butler 

 communicated a paper entitled " Additional Notes on the 

 Synonymy of the Genera of Noctuid Moths." 



Zoological Society, June 2.— Prof. W. H. Flower, C.B., 

 F. R.S., President, in the chair.— The Secretary read a 

 report on the additions that had been made to the Society's 

 Menagerie during the month of May 1891, calling special atten- 

 tion to a female Water-buck Antelope {Gobies ellipsiprymnus) 

 from British East Africa, presented by Mr. George S. Mac- 

 kenzie, and to three Blanford's Rats {Mus blatifordi) from 

 Kadapa, Madras, received in exchange, new to the collection. 

 — Mr. Sclater made some remarks on the animals which he had 

 noticed during a recent visit to the Zoological Gardens of Paris, 

 Ghent, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and the Hague. — 

 Prof. Newton, F.R.S., exhibited (on behalf of Prof. Stirling, 

 of the University of Adelaide), a drawing, being the 

 first received in Europe, representing the remarkable new 

 Australian Mammal lately described by Prof. Stirling as No- 

 toryctes typhlops, which was stated to be the Mole-type of the 

 order Marsupialia. — The Secretary exhibited (on behalf of Mr. 

 F. E. Blaauw) specimens of the Long-tailed Tit, shot in Hol- 

 land, and sent to this country for the purpose of ascertaining 

 whether they belonged to the British form {Acredula rosea) or 

 the white-headed Continental form {A. cauduta).— Mr. F. Finn 

 exhibited a hybrid Duck bred in the Society's Gardens, believed 

 to be bred between a male Chilian Pintail {Dafila spinicauda) 

 and a female Summer-Duck {ALx sponsa). — A communication 

 was read from Dr. O. F. von Moellendorff containing a revised 

 list of the Land and Freshwater Shells of Perak, with descrip- 

 tions of some new species. — A communication was read from 

 Dr. G. E. Dobson, F. R.S., containing a sketch of the deriva- 

 tion and distribution of the Mammals of the order Insectivora 

 found in the New World. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger read a report 

 on Reptiles, Batrachians, and Fishes of which specimens had 

 been collected for the West Indian Exploration Committee in 

 some of the Lesser Antilles, and deposited in the British 

 Museum. — A communication was read from Mr. Hamilton H. 

 Druce containing an account of the Butterflies of the family 

 Lycaenidae obtained by Mr. C. M. Woodford in the Solomon 

 Islands. 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, May i8.— Prof. Liveing, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. —The following communications were 

 made : — On parasitic Mollusca, by Mr. A. H. Cooke. — Mr. W. 

 Bateson exhibited and explained models of double supernumerary 

 appendages in insects ; and also a mechanical method of demon- 

 strating the system upon which, the symmetry of such appendages 

 is usually arranged. — On the nature of the excretory processes 

 in marine Polyzoa, by Mr. S. F. Harmer. This communication 

 was the result of an occupation of a University table at the 

 Zoological Station at Naples during the Easter Vacation of 1891. 

 Observations were made on the manner in which various arti- 

 ficial pigments were excreted in Bugula and in P^lusira, on 

 the lines adopted by Kowalevsky {Biolog. Centralblatt, ix., 

 1889-1890, pp. I},, &c.) for other invertebrates. The general 

 result of the experiments was to show that excretion is not per- 

 formed by organs comparable with nephridia, but that this process 

 is carried on by free mesoderm cells, and to some extent by the 

 connective tissue and by the walls of the alimentary canal. 

 Evidence was obtained to show that the periodic loss of the 

 alimentary canals leading to the formation of the "brown 

 bodies" may be regarded as, to some extent, an excretory 

 process. 



NO. I 128, VOL. 44] 



