Nov. 23, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



317 



uninjured, in its struggles to escape, it would be almost 

 certain to destroy the egg. The wasp has, however, the 

 instinct of stinging its prey in the centre of the nervous 

 system, thus depriving it of motion, and, let us hope, of 

 suflering, but not of life ; consequently, when the young 

 larva leaves the egg, it finds ready a sufficient store of 

 wholeaome food."* 



Fig. 1. — Sting of bee ; a, Tip of lancet, more enlarged. Mr. 

 Gosse exhibits a rounded projection, neually overlooked, which 

 serves to giiide the sting in the broader part of the sheath. 



Fig. 2. — Outer saw of saw-lly ; a, a portion more enlarged. 



The drawing. Fig. 1, is copied from Gosse's admirabk^ 

 " Evenings at the Microscope," by far the best book of its 

 kind. It repr(>sents the various parts of the bee-sting, 

 together with the poison-bag. The tip of the sting is 

 much like a saw, and this form, on a m\ich larger 

 scale, appears in the saw-fiy, as shown in Fig. 2, also 

 taken from Oosse. Besides an outer pair of these tools, 



• Sir J. Lubbock's " Origin of Insects." 



the insect has an inner and finer pair, and each tooth is 

 itself serrated. It would require a volume to explain the 

 variations in the abdominal tools of the Hymenoptera. All 

 require what in man would be called skill to work, and it 

 is perfectly wonderful to find these creatures in posoession 

 of such apparatus, and of the central organisation which 

 guides it to its proper use. 



Agno.sticism is of the essence of science, whether ancient 

 or modern. It simply means that a man shall not say he 

 knows or believes that which he has no scientific ground 

 for professing to know or believe. Consequently (Dr. 

 Huxley goes on). Agnosticism puts aside not only the 

 greater part of popular theology, but also the greater part 

 of popular anti-theology. On the whole the " bosh " of 

 heterodo.xy is more offensive to me than that of orthodoxy, 

 because heterodoxy professes to be guided by reason and 

 science, and orthodoxy does not. — Professor Huxley. 



" Heath's Fern Portfolio " is the general title of a 

 series of life-size reproductions of ferns, in which the 

 author of " The Fern World " will give what has never 

 before been attempted, namely, absolute facsimiles in form, 

 colour, and variation, of those beautiful plants, together 

 with letterpress descriptions on the same plates. Mr. 

 Heath's new serial will be published monthly by Messrs. 

 Sampson Low, Marston, & Co. 



Scientific Hallucinations and Emotional Truths. — 

 Do the strictest reasoners form a body of men hitherto 

 free from false conclusions and illusory speculations 1 

 The driest argument has its hallucinations, too hastily 

 concluding that its net will now at last be large enough 

 to hold the universe. Men may dream in demonstra- 

 tions, and cut out an illusory world in the shape of 

 axioms, definitions, and propositions, with a final exclusion 

 of fact signed Q. E. D. No formulas for thinking wiU 

 save us mortals from mistake in our imperfect apprehension 

 of the matter to be thought aliout, and since the unemo- 

 tional intellect may carry us into a mathematical dreamland 

 where nothing is but what is not, perhaps an emotional 

 intellect may have absorbed into its passionate vision of 

 possibilities some truth of what will be — the more compre- 

 hensive massive life-feeding theory with new material, as 

 the sensibility of the artist seizes combinations which 

 science explains and justifies. — George Eliot. 



Bedford College, London. — This College has again 

 this year sent up a very large proportion of the succe.ssful 

 women candidates to the examinations of the London Uni- 

 versity for B.A. and B.Sc, the results of which have just 

 been published. Of the twenty women who liave taken 

 the B.A. degree this year, nineteen have been placed in the 

 first division, and of these nineteen as many as eight are 

 from Bedford College, London, while the remaining eleven 

 come from University College, London, Cheltenham College, 

 Bowdon, Edinburgh, and some are prepared by private 

 tuition. Nine candidates went up from Bedford College, 

 London, therefore all have passed except one, and all are 

 in the First Class, the College course having been found 

 sufficient to prei)are them for the examination. Only four 

 women have been placed in the class-list of the B.Sc. 

 degree — one from University College in the First Division 

 and three others in the Second Division. Of tliese three, 

 one is from Bedford College, London, and the other two 

 have prepared by private study. Thus out of the twenty- 

 four successful women in these examinations, Bedfonl 

 College, London, can claim to Jiave prepared more than 

 one-third of the whole number. 



