REVIEWS. 217 



passes, despite the tremendous world-events which are happening. 

 Perhaps it is because of these that the clock and almanack seem thus to 

 race along. But so another year has passed, and once more the 

 Proceedings of the South London come before us for review. 



As last year, perhaps even more so this, the success of the Society 

 gives cause for the greatest satisfaction. In spite of all difficulties, 

 losses, absences, and preoccupations, the effect upon the membership 

 has been but little, only 163 against 172 of last year. As five have 

 been removed by death, and three have resigned, the adverse balance is 

 but small. Owing to the restrictions upon paper, and the extra cost of 

 production and labour, the pages and plates are reasonably fewer in 

 number, but both paper and execution leave nothing to be desired. 

 The statement of the Honorary Librarian, that the sales of Proceedings 

 " show a large increase on previous years," goes to suggest that there 

 is an increasing interest in the publication outside the membership. 



The President's address has rather staggered the Eeviewer, than 

 whom, probably, no more unpoetic person exists. It speaks well for Mr. 

 Turner's erudition, and painstaking investigations, and we quite agree 

 that it is in place in a Natural History Society's Proceedings. We rise 

 from the perusal comforted and encouraged, for if the " Immortal 

 Bard" so studied entomology, and to such good purpose, we may surely 

 take courage, and subdue our false shame when the untutored hind 

 giggles and guffaws, as our hoary head emerges from our once bright 

 green net. Perhaps, even, it is well to remember sometimes, that we 

 are not the earliest observers of Nature. 



Mr, E. Adkin's paper on " Ocneria dispar in Britain " is very 

 welcome. The question and the doubt about the species are not by any 

 means new, and it is as well to have so clear a statement as to how the 

 case stands. How many of our cabinets have no space at all allowed 

 to it ? How many still proudly exhibit the wretched little, generally 

 deformed, offspring of the imported egg ? The point of interest ap- 

 pears to be the peculiar, and as yet unexplained, power which this 

 insect sometimes seems to possess of adapting itself to certain condi- 

 tions, and thriving therein, possibly for a time only. Its appearance in 

 quantity in the Fen district, many years ago, and its wonderful and 

 destructive hold upon districts in North America, to which it was 

 introduced by accident, are to be set against its virtual disappearance 

 from its old haunts in Britain. For, the scanty and widely separated 

 records of iis capture here of late years, make it very difficult to believe 

 that it has any real footing at the present time. To the writer, who 

 50 years ago bred large numbers of the imported race, and turned out 

 hundreds in all sorts of places within a few miles of Wanstead, it has 

 become a matter of sincere thankfulness that he was spared, owing to 

 the peculiar character of the insect, bringing untold trouble and expense 

 upon his country. 



That 0. dispar will not, as a matter of course, repopulate even a 

 locality in which it once prospered, is indicated by the rumour, believed 

 to be well founded, that many years ago a deliberate attempt was made 

 to replace it in the Norfolk Fens, and that, although it managed to 

 linger on for a few years, it has long since disappeared. At any rate 

 it is quite evident that it has not spread. One would like to know, 

 while on this subject, the true origin of some large specimens which 

 were rather sparingly circulated in exchange, a few years since by 



