TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D, 607 
sections, in three different planes, are made. To complete the collection for the 
eighteen types about 400 more series are needed. 
The author gave details as to the methods employed in forming the collection, 
its present extent, the manner in which it has been utilised for scientific 
researches, and stated his reason for considering the establishment of such 
collections important as a means of promoting investigations. 
@ 
5. The Precipitin Test in the Study of Animal Relationships. 
By Dr. Grorce H. F. Norra, L&R. 
Referring to a work recently published,' in which matters relating to the 
precipitin test have been very fully considered, the author briefly described the 
methods of testing by means of precipitating antisera. ‘Two practical applications 
of the test possess considerable importance. In the first case the test may be 
applied in legal medicine for the identification of blood-stains in cases of murder, 
the value of the method having been fully demonstrated in courts of law in 
Germany, Austria, and other countries, England excepted. In the second case 
the test has been applied in the study of animal relationships, and in this con- 
nection has yielded results of zoological interest. An investigation of the bloods 
of Primates by means of precipitating antisera for. man, chimpanzee, ourang, and 
monkey have demonstrated a close relationship between Hominid and Simiide, 
a more distant one between these and Cercopithecide, a slight bond connecting 
all uf these with the New World monkeys. The lemurs do not appear to be 
connected to the Primates any more than do other mammalia. The gradations in 
the amount of reaction obtained with different bloods of Primates, as demon- 
strated by the author, have been recently confirmed by Uhlenhuth on bloods 
sent him by Dr. Nuttall, with the difference that he obtained results indicating 
a connection between the lemurs and the other Primates. In view of the fact, 
however, that Uhlenhuth does not state the strength of his antisera, and makes 
no mention of his having used other mammalian bloods to exclude the possibility 
of the reaction he observed being a ‘mammalian reaction’ (Nuttall), the author 
held that no connection between the lemurs and other Primates, other than a 
general mammalian one, hasas yet been demonstrated. Preliminary work, under- 
taken with a view to testing if racial differences can be demonstrated between 
human bloods by means of the test has given indications which are suggestive. 
The results of thousands of tests on the bloods of Insectivora, Carnivora, Rodentia, 
Ungulata, Cetacea, Marsupialia, Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia, Arthropoda, &c., all 
agree in demonstrating that closely related forms in the sense of descriptive 
zoology show similarities in blood constitution, and apparently that the degree of 
reaction is a fair index of the degree of relationship. The test appears to connect 
the Cetacea with the Ungulata, and, what is sufficiently remarkable, the Reptilia 
and Aves. The author appealed to zoologists to turn their attention to what 
appears to be a most promising field of research, wishing his own investigations 
to be regarded as purely preliminary in character, although they unquestionably 
establish a new and broad biological principle. 
* 
6. The Mimetic Resemblance of Diptera for Hymenoptera.? 
By Professor E. B. Poutton, F.R.S. 
7. The Evolution of the Horse. By Professor HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN. 
There is a remarkable coincidence of the three entirely independent researches 
by Messrs. Ewart, Ridgeway, and myself, with the assistance of Mr. Gidley. 
' Nuttall, Blood Immunity and Blood Relationship. Cambridge (University 
Press), 1904. 
* Will appear in the Transactions of the Entomological Society. 
