SOCIETIES. 217 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. — By the kind 

 invitation of Major Ronald Ross, C.B., F.R.S., Professor of Tropical 

 Medicine, University of Liverpool, Hon. Member of the Society, a 

 meeting was held in the Johnstone Laboratory, Liverpool University, 

 on Monday, May 16th. The following were elected members of the 

 Society : — Corresponding members : Professors J. Hudson Beare, 

 B.Sc, F.R.S.E., F.E.S., and Edward B. Poulton, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., F.E.S. ; Drs. C. R. Biilnps and Geo. E. J. Crallan, M.A., 

 L.S.A. ; and Messrs. Geo. T. Bethuue-Baker, F.L.S., F.Z.S. ; Chas. 

 Capper ; A. J. Chitty, M.A., F.E.S. ; H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe, F.Z.S., 

 F.E.S. ; W. H. Harwood; J, H. Keys; W.J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S.; 

 B. G. Nevinson, M.A., F.E.S. ; E. G. B. Nevinson, F.Z.S., F.E.S. ; 

 E. A. Newbery; and Edward Saunders, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.E.S. 

 Ordinary members : Messrs. W. P. Blackburne-Maze, and H. Berkley 

 Score, F.R.G.S., F.R.Hist.S. The following donation to the Library 

 was made by Major Ross, " The Hybernation of English Mosquitoes," 

 by H. E. Annett, M.D., and J. Everett Button, M.B. Light refresh- 

 ments, kindly provided by Major Ross, having been partaken of, a tour 

 of the extensive laboratory, with its attendant menagerie, was made, 

 after which Professor Ross, Dr. Stevens, and the staff of the Liver- 

 pool School of Tropical Medicine, gave demonstrations " On Mos- 

 quitoes and other Flies in connection with Tropical Diseases." 

 Amongst the many interesting exhibits described were preparations of 

 serum for protection from diseases ; tubes of various bacteria ; models 

 of an Indian village, and a larger district to show the natural distri- 

 bution of the typical breeding-grounds of malarial mosquitoes ; a 

 microscopic exhibition of malaria germs in various stages of growth ; 

 live Trypanosomata of the sleeping sickness and tsetse-fly diseases ; 

 specimens of the tsetse-fly (Glusainia iiiorsitans), &c. ; a series of micro- 

 scopic preparations, showing the characteristic differences in appear- 

 ance and structure existing between the malarial and harmless gnats, 

 &c. At 9.30 an adjournment was made to the lecture-theatre, where 

 Major Ross gave a most instructive and interesting lecture on the con- 

 nection between malaria and mosquitoes, copiously illustrated by 

 lantern slides. He began with a series of maps, showing the relative 

 prevalence of malaria in various parts of the world, and then gave 

 statistics from India, from which it appears that forty per cent, of the 

 native children are infected with malaria at one year old, and sixty 

 per cent, at two years ; after that the percentage gradually decreases, 

 until complete immunity ensues, and the parasite is rarely found in 

 adult natives. This parasite is a minute jelly-like speck resembling an 

 Amoeba, and lives inside the corpuscles of the blood. Bursting, it 

 throws out spores — usually nine in number — into the blood at regular 

 intervals, together with a minute speck of poison ; this causes a rise 

 in temperature, and the profuse perspiration which follows carries the 

 poison off. The regular recurrence of this process causes the regu- 

 larity of the periods at which malarial fever comes on, the different 

 varieties of fever — quartan, tertian, blackwater, &c. — being due to 

 different species of parasites. It is, however, necessary that the para- 

 site should be transmitted from one human being to another by an 

 insect, a female gnat or mosquito, for it is only the female that bites. 

 A day or two after the insect has sucked the blood of an infected 



