268 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan remarked that as a believer in the doctrine of Evolution, 
he thought that much harm was done to it by its friends, of which this was, 
in his opinion, an example. 
The Chairman asked whether any Members had observed the date of 
appearance of insects this season. 
The Secretary stated that a copy of a work, edited by Miss Ormerod, 
had just been presented to the Library by its Editor, in which an immense 
number of meteorological observations had been tabulated, in such a manner 
as to lead to the hope that some light might be thrown by this and future 
work conducted on a similar plan on the connection between meteorological 
phenomena and the appearance of insects, &e. 
Miss EK, A. Ormerod remarked that the records from which the 
‘Cobham Journals’ had been reduced were taken by Miss Caroline Moles- 
worth at Cobham, Surrey, and extended, with more or less completeness, 
over a period of about forty-four years. ‘The coincident observations of 
weather and the state of animal and plant life in a continuous form extended 
over only about twenty-six years,—from 1825 to 1850 inclusive,—and the 
present volume contained the reduction of these observations as far as they 
bear on these points of coincidence. One object in view had been to give 
by abstracts and summaries such a statement of the successive states of 
temperature, amount of rainfall, and direction of the wind, as would enable 
the reader to see, by a glance at the parallel columns of each month's eutries, 
what periods of marked variation or non-variation occurred in what is 
commonly known as “the weather.” The tables given in the work had 
been directly reduced from Miss Molesworth’s careful records preserved in 
the library of the Meteorological Society, and Miss Ormerod, the Editor of 
the ‘Journals,’ had added an introduction giving the necessary working 
details, together with a chapter of “ Results of Observations,” working out 
the coincidences that appeared between meteorological and phenological 
conditions-—i. e., between states of weather and subsequent dates of plant- 
life, the appearance of spring birds, &c. Miss Ormerod added that, from an 
entomological point of view, it was much to be regretted that Miss Moles- 
worth, who was remarkable for the extreme accuracy of her observations, 
did not give more records regarding insects. There were, however, a few, 
and one of special economic interest, in which the larve of the “ ‘Turnip 
Sawtly” are noticed as causing damage in August; at the beginning of 
September there occurs an entry of “ myriads of Haltica nemorum,” and 
after a fall of rain which cleared them away, the ‘ ‘l'urnip Sawfly” appeared 
in the imago state on the same ground, showing that the rainfall had no 
beneficial effect in preventing their development. Miss Ormerod stated, in 
conclusion, that from one series of records spreading over such varied and 
important branches of observation, no certain conclusions could be at 
present drawn, but the work in question might offer valuable suggestions 
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