134 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



between the veined structure in glacier ice and rock cleavage. 1 

 The results, in their opinion, threw considerable light on 

 the theory of glacier motion. 



At the 8gth meeting (Dec. nth) Professor Huxley invited 

 attention to Professor Von Siebold's recently published 

 work, Parthenogenesis bei Schmetterlingen und Bienen, in 

 which he brought forward strong evidence to show that 

 the females of certain Pychidae and of Bombyx mori produce 

 fertile ova without previous fecundation, and with the 

 former the process may be repeated for several generations. 

 With the bees, not only can the unimpregnated Queen-bee 

 lay fertile eggs, but she also appears to fertilize, after impreg- 

 nation, only those ova which are laid in neuter or female 

 cells, those laid in drone cells remaining unfertilized. 



Professor Tyndall drew attention to the fact that the 

 green colour of many of the Swiss rivers and lakes had not 

 yet been explained. 2 



1857. At the goth meeting (Jan. i8th) Sir C. Lyell 

 reported that, at his suggestion, Mr. Beckles 3 had opened 

 a quarry in the Purbeck Beds in search of fossil mammals 

 and had already discovered about thirteen species. 4 



On Feb. 5th, the gist meeting, Professor Tyndall described 

 some more observations on the physical structure of ice. 

 Agassiz, he said, had noticed that bubbles made a peculiar 

 noise when escaping from the surface of thawing glacier ice, 



1 Professor Tyndall did not yet feel satisfied that he could demonstrate 

 this veined structure to be, like cleavage in rocks, the effect of pressure 

 as the ice was forced through a narrow part of a valley. That 

 happened in 1858. See Glaciers of the Alps, part ii. sect. 27 (1860). 



* In his Glaciers of the Alps, part ii. sect. 7 (1860), he suggests that the 

 greenness and the blueness may be due to the presence of mud of increasing 

 fineness in the water. He afterwards worked out this idea, which is 

 now generally accepted. 



8 Samuel H. Beckles wrote some papers on footprints and fossils from t lie 

 Wealden, became F.G.S. in 1854 and F.R.S. in 1859. He died in August, 

 1890. 



* Sir C. Lyell gives a full account of these and subsequent discoveries in 

 his Elements of Geology, pages 379-384 (6th ed.). In Mesozoic Mammalia 

 (Palaeontographical Society, vol. xxiv.) Professor Owen describes and figures 

 (with others) Mr. Beckles' specimens, which he assigns to eleven genera 

 and about twice as many species. 



