SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



an ants' hill, he had never been able to make out. 

 He chose to understand "Nature" as including 

 the whole of the impressions received by man from 

 sources outside himself. He thought primitive 

 man was greatly mistaken in his impressions about 

 nature, but with the gradual development of his 

 brain and the consequent growth of knowledge, 

 theories had to be altered and brought up to his 

 altered intelligence. Pagan mythology he looked 

 upon as man's early theory of nature. As man's 

 outlook continued to widen and clear his theory 

 was altered or thrown aside for a new one, the 

 old surviving as a mere legend. He objected to 

 poetical descriptions of nature, which, if excusable 

 in poetry, should be dropped out of prose. He 

 objected to dealing with aught of which we had 

 no knowledge. So-called "laws of nature" are 

 scientific theories which, if with the lapse of ages 

 they fail to explain all the phenomena they 

 treat of to man's satisfaction, must be altered 

 in detail or thrown aside. Euclid's axioms, 

 Newton's law of gravitation and the Darwinian 

 theory of the survival of the fittest seem now to be 

 beyond the pale of doubt ; but a time may come 

 when they shall be cast aside with the other 

 wreckage of the past. As to conscious " design 

 in nature," and, therefore, a conscious author, in 

 the same way that a conscious author may be 

 predicated on looking at a machine or work of art, 

 he thought there might possibly be a good deal of 

 truth in the argument, but " granting that people 

 are correct in arguing ifrom a like effect to a like 

 cause, where does it lead them to but back to 

 man's brain, from which there is no escape ?" 

 " Man's brain is the designer," and the argument 

 a paradox. Time and space are only modes of 

 our perceptions. Atoms and molecules of the 

 physicist, and the biophors and determinants of 

 the biologist, are names for abstractions only, as 

 purely ideal as lines of latitude and longitude, but 

 useful to science. He did not want to deprecate our 

 present knowledge, but to show it is subjective to 

 man and that it must consequently alter with the 

 alteration and development of his brain. Mr. Tutt 

 thought that while some would agree others would 

 disagree with many points brought forward by 

 Mr. Bacot. A short discussion ensued. — Meeting, 

 November ist, 1898. — Exhibits : Mr. Tutt, on 

 behalf of Mr. R. Gordon, insects from Wigtown- 

 shire, four female Saturnia pavonia, very variable in 

 size, one with much red on hind-wing ; two Smer- 

 inthus populi, one pale-fawn, the other pale-grey ; 

 three Phalera bucephala, one with right fore-wing 

 dark ; Nemeophila vussula, hind-wings much suffused : 

 five Dasychira fascelina, very variable as to the 

 transverse lines just external to the discoidal spot ; 

 Pharetra rumicis, ab. salicis ; Craniophora ligustri; 

 Taeniocampa incerta (instabilis), including forms ab. 

 trigutta Esp., instabilis Hb., and virgata-brunnea, Tutt ; 

 Coenonympha typhon, chiefly var. rothliebi, one with 

 ocellated spots reduced ; Gnophos obscuvaria, small ; 

 Chora lichenaria, well marked ; Pelurga comitata, 

 strongly banded. The interest in this exhibit is 

 because, though many Perthshire and North Scot- 

 land insects are seen in London, it is more un- 

 common to see South Scotland forms. Dr. J. S. 

 Sequeira : fine series of Peronea christana, with 

 many of its numerous vars. ; Sericoris littorana ; 

 several Miselia oxyacanthae, but not one of the dark 

 vax.capucina; Xylina orniothopus (rhizolitha); Agriopis 

 aprilina, very green specimens ; one Sphinx convolvuli, 

 caught at bloom of tobacco plant. These were all 

 taken on a recent visit to the New Forest. Mr. J. 

 A. Clark : two beetles in amber from North Africa, 



and a dipteron in gum animi from Zanzibar. Also 

 four interesting male Bupahis piniaria from Aber- 

 deen. It is usually claimed that Scotch males are 

 white, while South English are yellow in the 

 central areas of the wings, this species affording 

 an instance of dimorphism, the same occurring 

 on the Continent, if Scandinavian insects be 

 compared with South European. Of the four 

 exhibited, one was yellow, one pale yellow, while 

 the two others were remarkable for the smallness 

 of the white patches, these being in one of the two, 

 reduced to mere dashes. Mr. A. Bacot : a box of 

 Zygaena trifolii, in broods of a series of years. 

 They were variable in size, but did not show 

 any decided distinctive difference in the broods. 

 One was bred with a clear circular piece out 

 of the right fore-wing. Mr. E. H. Taylor: a 

 long series of Leucania impudens, taken near 

 Putney. The species is generally considered a 

 purely fen insect. These were paler than Wicken 

 forms. The locality where they were captured 

 is rather marshy, but a great part is fairly 

 dry. Mr. Tutt said the insect was known to 

 have occurred at Eltham. Mr. H. St. J. Donis- 

 thorpe : Chyronomon vesparum, a hymenopteron 

 parasitic on wasps. It emerged from the abdomen 

 of a wasp, which had a jelly-like appearance, the 

 head and thorax being untouched. He also showed 

 an ichneumon fly, at present unidentified, which 

 has been parasitic on the parasite. Also Ephialtes 

 carbonavius, an ichneumon parasitic on the longicorn 

 beetle Callidium violaceum, and which was known to 

 attack Cerambyx heros, Oberea oculata and Saperda 

 popnlnea. In examining the borings of the beetle 

 C. violaceum, he found a bee, Chelostoina florisomne, 

 which had discovered and availed itself of them. 

 Mr. Riches : blooms and seed-pods of the Cape- 

 primrose, a species of Streptocaipus (nat. order, 

 Gesneraceae) and native of Africa and Madagascar. 

 The capsule is spirally twisted. Mr. F. B. Jennings : 

 a box of Coleoptera, including Zabrusgibbus, Carcinops 

 x\-striata, Abraeus globosus, Otiorrhynchus ramus, 

 Bagous argillaceus and B. limosus, Thryogenes nereis 

 and T. scirrhosus, Phytobius notata from Chatham; 

 Amara infima and Sitones griseus from Woking; 

 Chilocorus similis from Wicken ; Trachodes hispidus 

 from the Blean Woods, near Whitstable ; and 

 Donacia thalassina from Deal, the majority being 

 this year's captures. Mr. Tutt read a paper on 

 the "Metamorphosis of Insects." His first point 

 was that metamorphosis took place after and not 

 simultaneously with the first appearance of 

 insects. He then spoke of the theory of metamor- 

 phosis. It was originally supposed that the 

 caterpillar had within it " the germ of the future 

 butterfly," throwing off a certain number of larval 

 skins till it disclosed the pupa, and the pupal skin 

 liberated the imago. Although certain facts 

 appeared to lead to this view, riper and fuller 

 knowledge led to Weismann's theory of histolysis, 

 i.e. the complete destruction of the larval organs 

 by a gradual process of degeneration, and the 

 rebuilding, by a process of histogenesis, of the new 

 material thus produced into the new organs, the 

 germs of which he showed to exist within the 

 organism. There appear to be imaginal discs or 

 buds for each part of the body, and the process of 

 histolysis and histogenesis is continuous throughout 

 the life of the caterpillar, there being no sudden 

 or sharp break from larva to pupa, or pupa to 

 imago, which are external conditions only. As to 

 the initial cause of metamorphosis, if there exist a 

 period during which the insect can retire from its 

 ordinary environment, already provided with an 



