374 
lected by Mr. George Lewis.—Mr, Miiller read a list of entomo- 
logical works and papers, no notice of which was to be found in 
Dr. Hagen’s “Bibliotheca Entomologica.”—Mr, F. Smith read 
some remarks by Prof. Siebold, on the salivary organs of the 
honey-bee. ‘ ‘ ; 
March 3.—Prof. Westwood, president, in the chair. Mr. 
Vaughan exhibited a box containing about 200 specimens of Japa- 
nese Lepidoptera collected by Mr. Henry Pryer, near Yokohama. 
__Mr. T. Smith exhibited insects bearing a remarkableresemblance 
to each other, although belonging to different orders. Zuglossa 
dimudiata, a bee, had a striking resemblance to a species of the 
Dipterous Genus Asi/ws from South America. Also Abispa 
splendida, one of the Vespide, resembled an insect of the Dip- 
terous genus Laf/rvia ; both from N, Holland. Also a bee of 
the genus Megachile resembled an Asilus, The two last- 
mentioned resembled each other, not only in general appearance, 
but the Asus was also furnished on the under side with a pollen 
brush, in the same manner as in Megachile, although it was not 
apparent for what purpose the insect required it. The president 
remarked that when he was at Ancona he observed several 
insects of the genus Osmiaand Megachile extracting pollen from 
black poppies, and on the sandy shore he noticed the same 
insects collecting the sand. He therefore concluded that the 
pollen brushes were used, not only for collecting the pollen, but 
also for carrying the grains of sand to their nests. It was 
probable, therefore, that the Asilide that were furnished with 
brushes might use them for a similar purpose. Mr. Champion 
exhibited Lagous brevis, taken in this country for the first time 
by Dr. Power.—Mr. Miiller directed attention to an article in 
the Petites Nouvelles explaining a method of obtaining silk 
from cocoons which had been eaten through by the insects—and 
that the silk so obtained from the damaged cocoons was equal 
in quality to that obtained from the perfect cocoons. 
Royal Horticultural Society, March 5.—Scientific Com- 
mittee.—J. D. Hooker, M_D., C.B., F.R.S., in the chair, A 
note was read from Dr. Boswell Syme on the intra-palear fertilisa- 
tion of wheat. He found that the anthers are empty when they 
are extended, and that the stigmas are never extended beyond 
the pales at all—Mr. A. W. Bennett read an abstract of a paper 
by Hildebrand, on the same subject.—The Rev. M. T. Berkeley 
exhibited specimens of a fungus, Cladosporium herbarum, from 
the inner surface of the shell of a boiled egg.—General Meeting. 
__W. Wilson Saunders, F.R.S., in the chair. Prof. Thiselton 
Dyer made some remarks on a cone of Araucaria Bidwilli from 
the tree in the temperate house at Kew, on specimens of Dendro- 
bium Hillii and Clematis indivisa, a fine species from New Zea- 
land, and also. on Amorphophallus Rivieri, a remarkable Aroid 
with inflorescence, shown by Mr. Bull. It had been introduced 
by the French into the Jardin d’Essai at Algiers, from Cochin 
China. 
Royal Microscopical Society, March 5.—Chas. Brooke, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair. Mr. E. J. Gayer contributed 
some further notes on the micro-spectroscope and microscope, in 
continuation of his paper upon the same subject, read at the 
December meeting of the Society —A paper by Dr. Maddox, on 
a minute plant found in an incrustation of carbonate of lime, 
was also read to the meeting, and was illustrated by drawings 
and prepared specimens exhibited under the microscope, by Mr. 
Reeves.—The secretary stated, with reference to some crystals 
shown at the previous meeting, obtained from the condensed 
vapour of coke, that they had been examined by Mr. Bell, and 
found to consist chiefly of protosulphate of iron.—A new metal- 
lic chimney for microscope lamps was introduced by Mr, Wen- 
ham, its merits being explained by the secretary, and discussed 
by the meeting. 
‘ CAMBRIDGE 
Philosophical Society, Feb. 3.—Professor Humphry, 
president, in the chair. It was decided to admit as associates 
residents in Cambridge and the neighbourhood, not being 
graduates. Associates to be elected for a period of three 
years, and if not then graduates to be eligible for re-election. 
The president in an eloquent address dwelt upon the loss which 
the Society had sustained by the death of Prof. Sedgwick, its 
founder and ever-ardent supporter. The following communica- 
tions were made by Prof. Clerk Maxwell: ‘On the proof of 
the equations of motion of a connected system,” and ‘‘On-a 
problem in the calculus of variations in which the solution is dis- 
continuous.” 
Feb, 17.—The following communications were made by Mr. 
NATURE 
SS. eee) ee = 
Se Ee eee st ee fa ees 
[Mar. 13, 1873 
Paley ‘* On the name Odusseus signifying ‘setting sun,’ and the 
Odyssey as a solar myth.” This showed that the name was 
most probably connected with dvéuevos jAtos (setting sun) and 
that the details of the Odyssey were easily interpreted as a solar 
myth, describing the journey of the sun to the west and his 
retum after many struggles and atlventures to his ever-young 
bride in the east, Penelope the spinstress, 7.e. the cloud-weaver.— 
“* On the identity of the modern Hindu with the ancient Greek 
ship.” A model of the former (Bengalee) was exhibited and the 
close coincidence in build, rig, and tackling was pointed out ; 
and several difficulties in the allusions of classic authors to the 
parts of a ship were thus explained. 
MANCHESTER 
Literary and Philosophical Society, Feb. 18.—E. W 
Binney, F’.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. Dr, Joule, F.R.S., — 
gave some further account of the improvements he had made in 
his air-exhausting apparatus (See NATURE, vol. vii. p. 296). 
‘‘Notes on a supposed Glacial Action in the Deposition of 
Hematite Iron Ores inthe Furness District,” by William Brock- 
bank, F.G.S. The hematite iron ore deposits in the Furness dis- 
trict are of two very different varieties—(1) Thos e filling hollows 
in the limestone, covered only by the post tertiary gravels 
and clays, and (2) Those occurring in the carboniferous lime- 
stone in veins, and large irregular cavities or ‘* pockets.” — 
The superficial deposits (1) are more especially the subject of | 
the present communication, as they afford, in the writer’s 
opinion, undoubted evidence of glacial action, and of the mode 
in which the iron ore has been transported by its agency. 
‘*The Results of the Settle Cave Exploration,” by W. B 
Dawkins, F.R.S. Since the results of the exploration of 
the Settle Caves were brought before the British Association at 
Liverpool, in 1870, considerable progress has been made in the © 
further investigation of the remarkable contents of the Victoria 
Cavern. Up to that time our researches had revealed, perhaps, — 
the most remarkable collection of enamelled jewellery which had — 
ever been discovered in one spot, along with broken bones of 
animals and the implements of everyday life, which afforded a 
pointed contrast to the culture implied by the workmanship of 
the articles of luxury. The Roman coins, and the style of work- 
manship of the implements, pointed out that the cave was occu- 
pied during the troublous times when the Roman Empire was 
being dismembered by the invading barbarians, and when — 
Britain, stripped of the Roman legions, was falling a prey either 
to the Picts and Scots on the one hand, or to the Jutes, Angles, 
and Saxons on the other. If we stretch the limits of the occupa- 
tion to the latest, they cannot be held to extend nearer to our 
own times than the Northumbrian conquest of Elmet (or king- 
dom of Leeds and Bradford) by Eadwine, in the year A.D, 
616, that was preceded in 607 by the march of Aithelfrith on 
Chester, and the great battle near that Roman fort, celebrated in 
song for the defeat of the British and the slaying of the monks of 
Bangor. At that time the Northumbrian arms were first seen 
on the shores of the Irish Channel, and the fragment of Roman 
Britain—which had extended on the western part of our island, 
from the estuary of the Severn uninterruptedly, through Derby- 
shire and Lancashire into Cumb erland—was divided, never again 
to be united. The Roman civilisation, which had up to that 
time been maintained in that district, disappeared, and was re- — 
placed by the civilisation which we know as English. The 
traces, therefore, of Romano-Celtic ornaments and implements 
from the Victoria Cave must be assigned to the period before the 
English conquest, before the Northumbrians conquered West 
Yorkshire and Mid-Lancashire. Underneath the stratum 
containing the Romano-Celtic or Brit-Welsh articles, at 
the entrance of the cave, there was a thickness of about 
six feet of angular stones, and at the bottom of this 
a bone harpoon or fish-spear, a bone bead, and a few 
broken bones of bear, red deer, and a small short-horned ox 
prove that in still earlier times the cave had been inhabited by 
man. A few flint flakes probably imply that these remains are 
to be referred rather to the Neolithic age than to that of Bronze. 
Below this was a layer of stiff clay, into which the committee 
sank two shafts, respectively of twelve and twenty-five feet deep, 
without arriving at the bottom. They have, however, at last 
penetrated it, and have broken into an ossiferous bed, full of the 
remains of extinct animals, similar to those which have been 
discovered at Kirkdale and elsewhere; consisting of the cave- 
bear, cave hyzena, woolly rhinoceros,’mammoth, bison, reindeer, 
and horse, The bottom has not been reached, and the area ex- 
posed is so small that it is impossible to say whether man was — 
es 
