4 ionings occur amongst those tribes on account of the entry 
_ of parasitic insects who devour everything. So that an additional 
instinctive act which could produce any alteration in the shape or 
arrangement of the tunnel and chamber-making, which would 
_ benefit and tend to preserve the future larva, would assuredly be 
perpetuated by descending to subsequent generations. The ante- 
_ chamber of Odynerus meets every difficulty and want. Its 
- fragile nature will not permit the intruder to pass along without 
_ breaking it down and covering the hole in the tunnel, and when 
_it is broken down by the dying insect it effectually closes up the 
scene of its labour and hides the offspring from harm. The only 
satisfactory hint which can be gleaned respecting the origin of the 
_ provisioning of chambers in which an egg is left, is obtained by 
_ Fabre’s study of the habits of Bembix vidua. This mining wasp 
lays an egg which hatches very shortly, and the little mother 
visits its living offspring every day and brings it small larve, 
stung to keep them quiet at first, and then larger larve as the 
little cannibal increases in size. All this time the Bembix isa 
vegetarian, but she is known to sip the honey which may be on 
some of her victims. 
_ The instinct of a Bembix may have been altered by its eggs 
_ not hatching, anda series of victims may have been placed in the 
_ chamber automatically, instinctively, and without what is called 
_ reason. There is of course the possibility of memory existing 
during the quiescent stage. Does the butterfly remember its 
existence as a gormandising caterpillar, and therefore retain some 
_ notion of the propriety of laying eggs over cabbages? Does 
the Odynerus fly remember its underground life, and obey some 
impulse to provide the unseen offspring with food different to 
_ that which she loves? It is possible ; and as nothing is too won- 
derful for psychologists, there may be something in the suggestion. 
It is evident that the influence of external conditions which 
are antagonistic to the comfort and well-being of many insects is 
often neutralised by a happy and protective contemporaneous 
change of form and habit. On the contrary, as in the instance 
of larvze which hybernate and do not turn into pupz before 
severe weather sets in, or in the case of hybernating butterflies, 
all connection between existing external conditions and the time 
and nature of the metamorphosis is often indistinguishable. 
_ But this apparent anomaly may be explained when it is remem- 
bered how long-lived many species and genera of insects are, 
how persistent some forms have been through considerable geo- 
_ logical periods, and to what numerous changes of climate they 
_ may have been exposed during forced emigration, or even whilst 
ing on the same area, The commingling of several insect 
faunas which must have occurred over and over again during the 
later geological period of the world’s history, will quite account 
for closely allied forms presenting modifications of the general 
kind of change of structure and habit. 
All the relations of the metamorphoses to changes in the inor- 
ganic kingdom of nature, z.2., to alterations in the external 
physical conditions surrounding insect forms, is doubtless within 
the scope of law. The insect host is innumerable, and the variations 
in external physical conditions must have been repeated during 
vast ages ; yet the kinds of metamorphoses and their modifica- 
tions are few in number and are singularly pronounced. 
= 
y 
NOTES 
_ A very large number of noblemen and gentlemen, members 
_ of the Society of Arts, have signed a memorial to Her Majesty’s 
Government, in which, after referring to the great benefit 
conferred by the opening of the Bethnal Green Museum, and the 
immense number of people (upwards of 700,000) who have visited 
it in three months, they ‘‘ submit that this museum could never 
have come into useful existence, and have been instrumental in 
conferring these benefits on the people, without the aid of Parlia- 
ment; and they desire to press this fact upon the consideration 
_ of Her Majesty’s Government, with the hope that they will sub- 
_ mit to Parliament the policy so essentially national of voting 
increased means to facilitate the establishment of museums, 
_ libraries, and galleries of Science and Art in large centres of 
_ population, wherever such localities are willing to bear their share 
in the cost.” 
THE list of candidates for the Mathematical School at the 
University of Oxford numbers 132, against 206 in the Classical. 
SS eee 
Of these, 14 are candidates in honours. In the Natural Science 
School there are eight candidates for the Final Examination, all 
in honours. 
At a meeting of the Arts School at Cambridge this week, a 
discussion arose on the report of the Museums and Lecture 
Rooms Syndicate, recommending the erection of additional 
accommodation for students in physiology and comparative 
anatomy. Mr. J. W. Clark and Prof. Humphry warmly ad- 
vocated the adoption of the report, the latter remarking that the 
sum was small, compared with that expended at Leipsic, Am- 
sterdam, and other parts of Europe. No decision appears to _ 
have been arrived at. 
AN anonymous friend has just given to the Council of the 
Midland Institute the large ‘sum of 2,500/., to be expended in 
scholarships for encouragement of the study of practical physio- 
logy, more especially that branch of it which is concerned in the 
amelioration of the sanitary condition of the poor. This noble 
gift is prompted by remarks which were made by Canon Kingsley 
in his opening address to the Midland Institute. 
THE Academy announces the recent death, at Gittingen, of 
the great mathematician Klebsch, at the age of forty. 
A LARGE number of eminent physicians, chemists, and others 
belonging to various countries in Europe, have formed themselves 
into a union for the laudable purpose of constructing a general 
European Pharmacopceia. At the meeting of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, on November 6, Dr. Thudichum gave an interesting 
address on the subject, in which he showed that during the last 
200 years many men had tried to realise the idea of a general 
pharmacopceia ; but as these attempts were mostly made by 
single individuals, each of whom endeavoured to carry out his 
own idea in his own way, failure was necessarily the result. It 
is likely that the present co-operative attempt will be more 
successful. 
M. BaBineEt, of the French Academy, whose death we recently 
chronicled, was born at Lusignan in 1794, educated at Metz, and 
entered the Artillery, which he quitted in 1815. After having 
been Professor of Physics in the College of Fontenay-le-Comte, 
and afterwards at Poictiers, he went to Paris in 1820, to occupy 
a chair of Physics in the College St. Louis. Until 1864 he was 
also Examiner to l’Ecole Polytechnique in Physics, Descriptive 
Geometry, Applied Analysis, and Geodesy. His lectures at the 
Athenzeum on Meteorology did much to foster a taste for the 
study of atmospheric phenomena. He was elected to the Academy 
in 1840 in the section of Physics. Previous to this he had dis- 
tinguished himself in various ways, having done much to perfect 
the pneumatic machine, for which the Academy awarded him a 
prize. Besides this, he invented a goniometer, which bears his 
name, and in many memoirs recorded his optical experiments and 
researches, besides doing much to popularise scientific studies. 
The best of what he has written is collected in his “‘ Etudes et 
Lectures sur les Sciences d’Observation.” 
Two very interesting letters on Arctic Exploration appear in 
the Zimes of Tuesday last. Capt. J. C. Wells writes that he met 
Prof. Nordenskiéld’s expedition when returning in Mr. Smith’s 
schooner yacht Samson from a cruise to the north of Spitzbergen. 
The arrangements appeared very perfect, but the vessels were in 
no way fitted to contend with the ice. Captain Wells is of 
opinion that the North Pole may be reached during the summer 
months. The vessel should leave England in April, to enable 
her to arrive at the edge of the pack beyond Spitzbergen early 
enough to take advantage of the breaking of the ice from the edge 
of the main pack. Her return might be looked for in October 
of the same year. ‘‘ At the present time,” he adds, ‘‘ Austria, 
Germany, Sweden, France, Russia, and even Italy, are in the 
field, striving, {either by actual exploration or by tentative efforts, 
to form expeditions to reach the North Pole, simply for the ad- 
