} 
398 
member, and Mr. G. C. Champion a subsériber. Mr. Jenner 
Weir exhibited a small collection of butterflies from Madagascar, 
Mr. F. Smith exhibited two small branches of ash, from which 
a hornet had been observed in the act of removing the bark. 
He said that Réaumur had recorded a similar observation, and 
was of opinion that the insect was trying to reach the sap for 
food, and was not obtaining building materials. Mr. Smith 
further made some remarks on the disputed luminosity of 
Fulgora, and expressed himself in favour of the opinion that these 
insects are occasionally luminous.—Mr. Miiller read notes on a 
gall-making Cecidomyia upon Campanula rotundifolia.—Mr. 
Lewis called attention to cases of antennal malformation in 
Lepidoptera.—Mr. Butler exhibited forms of Canonympha 
Satyrion from the opposite sides of the Gemmis, showing marked 
variation.—Dr. Sharp communicated notes on some British 
species of Oxypoda.—Mr. Lowne read a paper on ‘* Immature 
sexuality in insects.” The author thought that species sometimes 
originated from the maturity of the sexual organisation before 
the acquirement of adult characters; a conclusion he had 
arrived at in consequence of the early development of the organs 
in the embryo and larva. He further stated that, in his opinion, 
the larval and pupal conditions were probably acquired, and not 
direct, stages of development.—Mr. Briggs detailed experiments 
upon Lepidoptera, undertaken with a view of testing if the 
numerical proportion of the sexes, or sex itself, were dependent 
upon the food of the larva; the results negatived such supposi- 
tions. 
Zoological Society, March 7.—Prof. Flower, F.R.S., in the 
chair. Mr. P. L. Sclater read the first part of a series of ‘‘ Notes 
on rare or little-known animals now or lately living in the Society’s 
Gardens.””—These he had drawn up while engaged in preparing 
a new edition of the List of Vertebrated Animals in the Society’s 
collection. —Dr. A. Giinther read a List of the known Lizards 
belonging to the family Seszdz, to which were aaded notes on 
some of the species. —A communication was read from Mr, F, 
Moore on some new species of Insects collected by Dr. John 
Anderson, during the recent expedition to Yunan.—A communi- 
cation was read from Mr, A. G. Butler, containing descriptions 
of some new species and of a new genus of Diurnal Lepidoptera 
of the family Pieriz@, with a monographic list of the species of 
the genus /xias.—Mr. A. D. Bartlett, Superintendent of the 
Society’s Gardens, read notes on the birth of the Hippopotamus 
which had lately taken place in the Society’s Gardens. 
Hackney Scientific Association, February 28.—‘‘ The 
Fossil remains of the Mammalia found in the Lea Valley,” by Mr. 
R. E. Olliver. Some extensive excavations in this district have 
recently exposed to view numerous beds of shell-marl, peat, 
loam, sand, and gravel, and, what is more interesting, have 
brought to light the remains of an ancient mammalian fauna. 
These remains chiefly belong to living species, as may be inferred 
by the deposit being assigned to the Post-Tertiary epoch. The 
mammalian remains which have up to the present time been 
determined are—Human remains, wild horse, red, fallow, and 
reindeer, elk, beaver, fox, wolf, goat, great fossil ox, Celtic short- 
horn or small fossil ox, domestic ox, wild hog, gigantic round- 
antlered deer, mammoth, great cave bear, and the remains of an ox 
closely resembling Bos dongi/rons, which the writer strongly sus- 
pects to belongtoa disputed series named Bosfrontosus. The fossil 
bones attesting the existence of these mammalia are found princi- 
pally in the shell-marls and peat mosses, with the exception of 
the mammoth, cave bear, and great round-antlered deer, which are 
found in the grey sub-angular gravels, and rarely at a less depth 
than ten feet from the surface. The human remains, consisting 
of several skulls, possibly belong to that class named by Prof. 
Huxley the river-bed-skull. These skulls certainly belong to that 
period when the great fossil ox and elk were living, and not to 
that of the mammoth and cave bear. If, however, the evidence 
of the workmen is reliable, several skulls were found at a depth 
of thirty feet—‘‘A Catalogue of Variable Stars, with remarks 
upon their physical constitution.” 
CAMBRIDGE 
Philosophical Society, February 27. — Communications 
made to the Society :—By Mr. W. H. H. Hudson, St. John’s 
College, ‘‘On Observations made at San Antonio on the Solar 
Eclipse of Dec. 22, 1870.” By Mr. Clifford, Trinity College, 
and Mr. Moulton, Christ’s College, ‘On the Solar Eclipse of 
1870.” Mr. Hudson described the observations made at San 
Antonio during the eclipse, and with regard to his own with the 
polariscope came to the following conclusion ; that observations 
NATURE 




(March 16, 1871 

of polarisation made with telescopes not specially prepared for 
the process are worthless, and that such polarisation of the corona 
as he was able to detect was due to the intervening atmosphere ; 
appearances of polarisation being produced when light shines 
through a thin cloud. Prof. W. G. Adams exhibited with the 
lime light some photographs of the corona, and commented upon 
them. Mr. Clifford, who had been with the Sicilian party, 
described his experiences, and differed to some extent from Mr. 
Hudson as to the instrumental defects and the absence of polari- 
sation: while Mr. Moulton corroborated Mr. Hudson’s conclu- 
sions, and read a very interesting communication from Father 
Perry, summing up the results of the spectroscopic observations 
at the various stations. 
WINCHESTER AND HAMPSHIRE 
Scientific ‘and Literary Society, February 22.—The 
Rev. G. A. Seymour, M.A., and Beresford N. Earle, 
M.A., M.B., Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 
were elected members. There was a good show of objects of 
interest in natural history, amongst which, exhibited by the 
president, was a collection of British land and fresh water shells, 
and a specimen of recent chalk dredged by Dr. Carpenter from 
a depth of 2,435 fathoms in the Atlantic. Microscopic slides of 
the same were exhibited by Mr, F. I. Warner, showing the un- 
bounded amount of animal life at that enormous depth. Dr. 
Heale showed, under the microscope, the curious movement of 
the spiral vessels of the Collomia seed.— The Rey. W. Awdry, 
M.A., read a learned and interesting paper entitled ‘‘ Some Ideas 
worked out in Gothic Architecture.” 
GLAscow 
Geological Society, February 2.—Mr. John Young, V.P., 
in the chair. ‘‘On the Boulders found in Cuttings on the Beith 
Branch Railway, considered in Relation to their Parent Rock ; 
with observations on the local character of the Boulder Clay,” 
by Mr. Robert Craig. The lines of railway referred to, now 
in course of formation, run nearly south-east from Beith, 
changing as it reaches Waterland to direct east. The striations 
upon the glaciated rock-surfaces in the district have a general 
bearing, per compass, of nearly N.E. to S.W. ; the line accord- 
ingly, at its western terminus, crosses them almost at right angles. 
The cuttings run nearly parallel to the southern termination of 
that range of trap hills which extends from Gleniffer to Beith, 
and at the distance of little more than a mile from it. The car- 
boniferous strata crop out along the southern boundary of this 
trap range, and consequently about a mile to the north of the 
railway. In the trap range four well-marked varieties of por- 
phyrite occur, which, with the easily distinguished beds of the 
Carboniferous limestone, gave the geologist an opportunity of 
classifying the boulders and tracing them to their source with an 
exactitude not always attainable. Mr. Craig then referred to the 
boulders from a distance, consisting of Old Red sandstone, clay 
slate, mica and chlorite schists, quartz, gneiss, granite, found 
associated and intermixed with the local boulders, Of these the 
Old Red sandstone figures highest, and consists of two varieties— 
one of a highly red colour, the other of a dark grey. Both of 
these are found 2 stu along the shores of the Firth of Clyde, and 
in other parts of Scotland, flanking the Highland mountains. 
He considered these erratics might be accounted for without either 
drift-ice or submergence, simply by the operation of land-ice, or 
glaciers, bearing these fragments in passing from the Highland 
mountains, whose tops, many of them, would be 1,000 feet above 
the ice, even allowing the sheet to be 2,000 feet thick. It was 
well-known that ice, in moving over uneven ground, became 
rent into fissures and crevasses, down through which the stones 
it was carrying on its surface found their way to the bottom, and 
thus became mixed up with the “‘ foot-board moraine.” In further 
proof of this, he gave the highest points above the cuttings whence 
the local boulders could have been derived, showing that these 
boulders could not have fallen upon the surface of an ice sheet 
thicker than 200 feet ; and, besides, that many of them came 
from beds scarcely higher than the position in which they are 
now found. The perfectly local character of the boulder-clay, 
with the exception of the erratics, he thought was demonstrated ; 
and from some sections in which he had followed the course of 
the ice-stream, he found that there was a change in the boulders 
every three to five miles, less or more, according to the rough- 
ness or evenness of the ground.—A collection of phosphates 
from Charleston, U.S., was exhibited by Mr. Potts and Mr, 
Naismith, together with some large fossil teeth, vertebrze, &c., 
from the same locality. Mr. Potts stated that large quantities 
