Oct. 24, 1872] 



NATURE 



523 



The first meeting for the season of the Victoria Institute took 

 place on Friday last, when a number of new members were 

 elected, the Society being stated to be greatly on the increase. 

 The first paper to be read during the coming session will be by 

 Mr. Charles Brooke, F.R.S., on Force and Energy. 



The Geologists' Association will hold its first meeting for the 

 season on Friday evening, Nov. i, when Dr. Hyde Clarke will 

 read a paper on the Influence of Geological Reasoning on other 

 Branches of Knowledge. 



Among the courses of University Lectures and other means of 

 scientific instruction announced to be given at Harvard University, 

 Cambridge, U.S.A., during the present session, are the follow- 

 ing : — On General Entomology, by Prof Hagen — Mondays, Wed- 

 nesdays, and FVidays, at the Museum of Zoology. Geological Ex- 

 cursions, by Prof Shaler, on Saturdays — about eighteen during the 

 year. On the Structure and Affinities of the Brachiopoda, by 

 Prof. E. S.Morse — Mondays and Wednesdays, inRoylston Hall. 

 On General Ornithology, by Mr. J. A. Allen— Wednesdays, at 

 the Museum of Zoology. 



The following is the programme of papers to be read at the 

 Winter Session, 1872-73, of the Glasgow Society of Field Natu- 

 ralists : — On the present tendencies of Science, by J. Allan, 

 Oct. 15. — On the Distribution of Plants, by D. Gregorson, 

 Oct. 29. — A Life History of Ncmatus saliceii, together with 

 some account of its Parasites, by P. Cameron, jun., Nov. 12. — 

 On Spiders, by S. M'Donald, Nov. 26. — On Zoophytes, by W. 

 D. Benson, Dec. 10. — On the E.xotic Plants of Clydesdale, by 

 R. M'Kay, Dec. 24. — On the Definition of Species, by Alex. 

 Watt, Jan. 7, 1S73. — Notes of Observations on Marine Zoology, 

 by John Ilarvie, Jan. 21. — Notes of Observations with the 

 Microscope, by G. Barlas, Feb. 4. — Botanical Gleanings from 

 the Rubbish Heaps of the City, by G. Home, Feb. 18.— On 

 the Cynipidce of the Glasgow District, by P. Cameron, jun., 

 March 4. 



A SERIES of short lectures is about to be delivered at the 

 Ipswich Museum by the Curator, Mr. J. E. Taylor, and other 

 gentlemen, illustrative of the objects in the museum. They will 

 be held on Friday evenings throughout the winter, and admission 

 will be free. 



The first of Abbe Moigno's long-contemplated Sallcs liu Pro- 

 gris was inaugurated on Tuesday evening, Oct. 15, at 30, Rue du 

 Faubourg Saint Honore, by a distinguished assembly, including 

 M. Otto Struve, the Russian Astronomer. The praiseworthy 

 object of the Abbe in establishing these assemblies is to popular- 

 ise Science by means of lectures, exhibitions, conversaziones, &c., 

 in which the instructive is combined with the entertaining. On 

 Tuesday he detailed the programme which he intended carrying 

 out at future meetings, and those present were entertained by the 

 performance of some pieces of music. This last rather novel 

 feature in scientific assemblies forms a regular part of the Abbe's 

 programme. One or more pieces from the works of great masters 

 of music will be performed at each meeting. 



The British Association Meeting at Brighton has already 

 begun to bear fruit in that town. A desire has been aroused 

 among several of the inhabitants to know more of Natural Science, 

 and a course of science lectures in the Dome, chiefly to working 

 men, has been projected. But the ladies have taken the initi- 

 ative, and the germ of a Ladies' Educational Association has 

 already been planted. Prof. W. F. Barrett has been invited to 

 give the first course of lectures on Experimental Physics. The 

 introductory lecture on the " Study of Natural Knowledge," was 

 given last Friday afternoon, when, in spite of the wet, upwards of 

 50 ladies assembled. Miss Goulty, of 2, Sussex .Square, Brighton, 

 to whom it is right to add the effort is mainly due, has permitted 

 the use of her spacious schoolrooms for these lectures. The 

 second lecture on "Magnetism" will be given to-morrow 

 (Friday) afternoon. 



s 



S IE B OLD'S NEW RESEARCHES IN 



PARTHENOGENESIS * 



II. 



lEBOLD'S experiments extended over four years, and although 

 some hundreds of nests were more or less observed, only 

 thirty-seven — but these amply sufficient — gave the answer to his 

 questions, passing successfully through all the stages above 

 noted. Firstly, they furnished a virgin colony in a nest absolutely 

 free from eggs and larva? — except a few advanced larva.' purposely 

 left in some nests and noted down — which colony laid eggs ; 

 secondly, these eggs produced without exception {some few eggs 

 not developing) males. 



The method of recording which was used must be mentioned 

 to give a notion of the accuracy of the observations. A series 

 of plans of each nest was kept, each cell being represented and 

 its contents at different dates. Successive plans were used for 

 recording the successive changes in the number of cells of the 

 nest, and in their contents at different periods of the observa- 

 tions. Signs jotted down in the plan cells indicate such facts as 

 these — e.g., the cell contains a " parthenogenetic egg," or "a 

 second parthenogenetic egg which was laid after a first one had 

 disappeared," or "a larva sprung from the queen," or "a 

 parthenogenetic male larva," &C. , iS;c. A second record was 

 kept, and is given for twenty-two cases, in which the following 

 facts were noted: — Number of the nest, date it was made 

 moveable, number of cells at that time, day of emergence of 

 first worker-female, date of destruction of queen, eggs, and grubs, 

 number of larva; and pupx left undestroyed at this date, 

 date of firsT: laying of parthenogenetic eggs, date of first emergence 

 of parthenogenetic larva:, date of first emergence of drones born 

 from queens' eggs (these were null in most cases, and were always 

 so^ate as not to affect the experiments by possibly impregnating 

 the worker-female), number of the same, number of cells observed 

 when the experimental conditions were established, date and 

 duration of the experiment, maximum number of female workers 

 employed in the affairs of the nest, number of larva;, puprc, and 

 wasps of the parthenogenetic brood found at the conclusion of 

 the experiment. After the account of the artificially obtained 

 results, two cases are recorded in which Siebold found a par- 

 thenogenetic colony naturally established by the same accident 

 which had destroyed their queen and comb. 



Before concluding this chapter of his book, Siebold makes 

 the very important observation that the facts observed in the 

 parthenogenesis of Polistes are in opposition to the view main- 

 tained by Leydig, viz., that the sexual differentiation of the egg 

 is independent of its fertilisation, and that the evolution of the 

 male sex is due to diminution of nutrition and warmth. Bessels 

 has already, in opposition to Landois, shown tliat this is not the 

 case in the bee. If it were true for Polistes, the eggs laid in the 

 early year, when it is cold, and when there is only the queen to 

 attend to the larva.', should produce drones. On the contrary, 

 they produce females, and the drones appear precisely at the 

 time when warmth and nourishment are most abundant. 



Siebold concludes, therefore, that (i) the eggs bring with them 

 from the ovary the capacity of differentiating themselves as 

 males, and (2) of developing themselves, independently of male 

 influence into male individuals ; (3) but the same eggs can be 

 changed in these properties by the influence of the male sperm 

 elements, and proceed to develop as female individuals. 



The second chapter, very short, is on Parthenogenesis in 

 Vespa holsatSLa, which was inferred to occur from the observation 

 of a naturally-produced queenless colony, the larva; in the cells 

 of which were all male. 



The third chapter is on Parthenogenesis in Ncniafus ventri- 

 cosus, the larva of which is known as the Gooseberry-caterpillar. 

 Since three or more generations of these leaf-wasps occur in the 

 season, they furnished abundant material, and the old supposition 

 of parthenogenesis first put out as regards them by Robert Thorn, 

 in the Gardiner's Magazine, 1S20, ^is showii by Siebold to be 

 justified by carefully conditioned experiment. Some valuable 

 observations on the anatomy of the generative organs, and on the 

 curious increase in the size of the egg after it is laid, are given. 

 The parthenogenetically produced progeny are in this case also 

 male. The results of the Neiiiatns experiments were not ready 

 for publication until after the issue of the present work, and we 



* " Beitragc zur Parthenogenesis der Arthropodeu." VonC, Th. E. vou 

 Siebold, Professor der Zoologie und Vergleichenden Anatomie in Miinchen. 

 (Leipzig ; Engelmann, 1871.) 



