98 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



BY THE WAY. 



Bequest to the National Trust. — Mr. George Henry Ver- 

 rall, of Sussex Lodge, Exning, Newmarket, formerly Conservative 

 M.P. for East Cambridgeshire, one of the leading racing officials, 

 and a partner in the firm of Messrs. Pratt and Co., a former 

 President of the Eoyal Entomological Society, who died on Sep- 

 tember 16th, aged sixty-three, left estate of the gross value of 

 £58,268, of which the net personalty has been sworn at £40,778. 

 He left his collection of British Diptera and the cabinets in 

 which it is contained to his nephew, James Edward Collin, con- 

 ditional upon his offering to the Natural History Museum, South 

 Kensington, three pairs of each species of which he possessed a 

 full series (six pairs constitute a full series), and at least one 

 pair of each species of which he possessed more than one pair ; 

 and all his real and personal estate in the parish of Wicken, 

 Cambs., to the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or 

 Natural Beauty.—' The Times,' February 14th, 1912. 



The second meeting of the General Malaria Committee, held 

 in Bombay last November, gives one a capital idea of the vigorous 

 steps being taken by the Indian Government to combat the 

 mosquito scourge. The presidential address of Sir C. P. Lukis, 

 the Director General and Acting Sanitary Commissioner, among 

 a mass of practical information (ably summarized in the 'British 

 Medical Journal' of January 6th last), expresses the hope that, 

 with the aid of the new Indian Eesearch fund, malariometric in- 

 vestigations would now be possible, and the bionomics oi Anopheles 

 further elucidated. It refers to Dr. Bentley's report on the recent 

 malarial outbreak in Bombay, which confirms earlier observations 

 upon Neocellia stephensi as the local culprit. It recounts Major 

 Christopher's discovery that another gnat, A. ludlowi, causes 

 havoc in the Andaman Islands, but only within half-a-mile of 

 the coast, no case of malaiia at all being found inland, since 

 this species breeds only in salt and brackish swamps. A. ludloivi 

 is hardly to be distinguished from A. rossi, " yet the existence 

 of two distinct species is the explanation why the proximity of 

 rice lands and swamps is innocuous, provided that these are at a 

 distance from the sea." A bright season is anticipated, owing 

 to the deficient rainfall of the last year ; no epidemic of malaria 

 is imminent, and the investigators should now have ample leisure 

 to prepare for a future campaign. 



That Mecca of general Nature lovers, the thriving Selborne 

 Society, held its annual Conversazione on February 16th last, in 

 the rooms of the Civil Service Commission, with Lord Montagu 

 of Beaulieu, one of the Vice-Presidents, in the chair. A good 



