298 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 16, 1883. 



instance it is the suffering bumble-bees in person who have 

 been the selecting agents to their own ultimate and per- 

 manent disadvantage. At first, we must suppose, some ad- 

 venturous and original-mind Hies of the family of Syrphidie, 

 the greater part of which in their larval condition live upon 

 aphides or plant-lice and other small insects, must have 

 taken tentatively to laying their eggs in the midst of the 

 grubs of bumble-bees or similar hymenopterous species. 

 But the bee would naturally object to this process, if he 

 recognised the intruder as such, and would promptly 

 proceed to sting him to death without further ceremony. 

 Indeed, there is at the present day one parasitic enemy of 

 bees, the little gold-wasp or ruby-tail, which similarly lays 

 its eggs among the Inirrows of bumble-bees, and rears 

 its larva on the fat young grubs of the rightful occu- 

 pant ; but this little miscreant generally pays its visits 

 to the nest during the absence of the mother bee. 

 If, however, the real owner returns while the gold-wasp 

 is busy laying its eggs, she expels the intruder bodily, 

 tumbling it out by main force, and would no doubt sting 

 it to death, were it not that the gold-wasp is effectually 

 protected by its hard and horny armour-plated suit. Pro- 

 bably the early ancestors of our Volucella did not possess 

 any such e.xternal protection as the gold-wasp does, and so 

 most of the flies which ventured into the bees' nests 

 would be promptly detected, and immediately killed. But 

 if there happened to be any which slightly resembled the 

 bumble-bees themselves in form and colour, they 

 might possibly be mistaken at a casual glance by 

 the members of the colony for fellow-workers of the 

 same nest, and so might lay their eggs in peace, leaving an 

 ample progeny to batten on the larva- of their unsuspecting 

 hosts. The oftener the bees found this trick was played 

 upon them, the warier and wilier would they grow as 

 to the sort of strangers they admitted into the sacred 

 precincts of the nest ; and so, after a certain number of 

 generations, they would gradually sting to death all the 

 nascent Volucellas that did not quite come up to their 

 preconceived notions of what a correct and thorough- 

 going bumble-bee ought properly to look like. But 

 in the very act of doing so, they would leave 

 alive those only which approached so nearly to them- 

 selves in shape and hue as to be indistinguishable to 

 their simple vision. From generation to generation this 

 weeding-out process would continue unchecked, all the 

 worst imitations being from time to time detected and 

 destroyed, while only the very best and closest mimics were 

 left to propagate the kind, and produce broods exactly like 

 themselves. Thus, at last, quite unconsciously- to the 

 insect itself, the Volucella has grown into the precise 

 counterfeit presentment of the bumble-bees, upon whose 

 young its larva prays ; and, strange to say, it has grown so 

 by dint of the hostile efforts of the injured and outraged 

 bumble-bees themselves. The fly they could discover and 

 kill has passed away, leaving no descendants ; but it is the 

 progeny of the flies whose disguise they have never been 

 able to penetrate that preys upon them with perfect im- 

 punity to-day. 



Speed of Working on- Submarine Cables. — Accord- 

 ing to recent trials of the speed of working on the Jay 

 Gould cables laid across the Atlantic from Penzance to 

 Canso, in Kora Scotia, 1,000 code words were sent from 

 Penzance and received at the Canso station in 81 minutes, 

 including all repetitions and corrections. The 1,000 

 words consisted of 7,288 letters, which Is about equivalent 

 to 1,4.58 words of five letters each, the average number 

 for the English language. 



STRANGE COINCIDENCES. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



MANY imagine that because of the singular nature of 

 some series of coincidences, there must have been 

 special significance in them. It is well therefore to notice 

 that odd coincidences, in which it would be absurd to 

 imagine any particular meaning, very frequently occur, 

 nay probably are all the time occurring, only most of them 

 remain unrecorded. A case was cited recently in the 

 Times. A person whom we may call Brown No. 1, only 

 the real name was not so common, found in his pass-book 

 the sum ,£22. Os. ?d. entered on the credit side, and not 

 knowing how it came to be recorded there, asked for par- 

 ticulars. Inquiry being made, it appeared that the sum of 

 .£22. Os. 7d. had been paid in for another customer of the 

 same name (surname and Christian name both) on the 

 same day that the entry of £22. Os. 7d. had been made on 

 account of Brown No. 1. It was naturally supposed that 

 there was some mistake. But on further inquiry it appeared 

 that both entries were correct, — the odd amount being 

 made up in the case of Brown No. 2 by a number of 

 small items, while in the case of Brown No. 1 the odd 

 sum was a dividend on some Indian stock. If the case 

 were not so obviously insignificant, how clearly it would 

 seem that there was a special meaning in the series of 

 coincidences. That among the customers of a bank two 

 should have, the same (not very common) surname and 

 Christian name, is not very wonderful. That to two 

 customers the same sum should be paid in on the same day 

 would not seem very wonderful, unless, as in this case, the 

 amount were rather an odd one, — and even then, if the 

 amount arose in the same way, as a dividend for instance 

 on a round sum like £1,000, it would not be very re- 

 markable. But the actual combination was exceedingly 

 remarkable, and if one could only imagine any conceivable 

 warning or token conveyed by facts so unimpressive in 

 themselves, one would say here certainly was a sign or 

 portent meant to be most carefully attended to. 



I was reminded of this Times story by two or three odd 

 little coincidences which happened to me lately — all within 

 a week. 



First, I received when at Plymouth a letter from the 

 neighbourhood of Birmingham, in which an old college ac- 

 quaintance, a "stroke" behind whom I had rowed in several 

 races, invited me to stay at his house during my visit to 

 the Midland metropolis. Within a few hours, I receive a 

 letter from 'another old college friend, a stroke behind 

 whom I had rowed in several races, inviting me to .stay 

 at his house in Tavistock during my lecture tour in the 

 west. I had not seen or heard from (or even heard of) 

 either of these Johnians for more than 2-5 years. More- 

 over they were the only strokes behind whom I ever rowed 

 in college races, having myself been stroke in all the other 

 races in which I rowed. It was surely an odd thing that 

 when in a city far from the abode of either, I should 

 within a few hours receive letters from both to the same 

 general purport. Yet as surely I could find no sign or 

 portent in the matter. 



Four days later I learned at Malvern that a letter duly 

 placed in the delivery box of the Queen's Hotel, Birming- 

 ham, had been delayed in transmission. I presumed it 

 had been put in when the box was empty. The envelope 

 was a large light-brown one (almost half as large as a page 

 of Knowledge), the contents not enough to take away 

 from the flatness of the letter, and I fancied it must have 

 Iain unnoticed when the small letters above it were taken 

 out. Hearing of its non-arrival in London, I telegraphed 



