SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 109 



attack recurred after an interval of nineteen weeks, and in several con- 

 tinental cases this recurrence of the attack had been found to take place, 

 and in some cases permanent injury to the eye had followed. Mr. Bland- 

 ford discussed the various kinds of hairs on several caterpillars, certain 

 species having hairs of two kinds, one kind being barbed, and thus having 

 the power to work into the skin. He said that the urticating property of 

 the hairs appeared to be mechanical : there was no evidence of any 

 poison-glands. Mr. Lawford said he had had some difficulty in discovering 

 hairs in the lid, and he thought that the symptoms in the case in question 

 were not to be explained by mechanical irritation alone due to the presence 

 of hairs in the tissues. The subject was a new one to him, and he had 

 looked up all the medical literature bearing on it. 



Dr. F. A. Dixey read a paper entitled " On the Relation of Mimetic 

 Patterns to the Original Form." The paper was illustrated by a number 

 of coloured diagrams. Prof. Poulton expressed his gratification that the 

 Hope Collection under his charge had afforded material for the work. He 

 thought the result of the paper was to give support to the theories of Fritz 

 Muller rather than to those of Bates. 



Dr. Sharp contributed a paper on " The Rhynchophorous Coleoptera 

 of Japan. Part IV." — H. Goss & W. W. Fowler, Hon. Secretaries. 



Feb. l§th. — Prof. Raphael Meldola, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 



Messrs. T. Hudson Beare, William J. Kaye, and Charles H. Dolby- 

 Tyler, were elected Fellows of the Society. 



Dr. D. Sharp exhibited preparations of Dytiscus latissimus and Cybister 

 roeselii, to show the so-called secondary wing, noticed by Meinert. He 

 stated that this structure is only a part of the elytron, to which it is 

 extensively attached, and he considered that it corresponded with the angle 

 at the base of the wing seen in so many insects that fold their front wing 

 against the body. This structure afforded no support to the view that the 

 elytra of beetles correspond with the tegulae of Hymenoptera rather than 

 with the front wings. He also exhibited specimens of Neuroptera, and 

 pointed out that this secondary wing agreed in position and structure with 

 a small lobe on the front wing of Raphidia. 



Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited, for Dr. H. G. Knaggs, cells of Retinia 

 resinana formed of resin but lined with wax. A portion of the cell had 

 been removed and the resin dissolved away with spirit, leaving a slight film 

 of wax (<?/. Ent. Mo. Mag. 1895, pp. 251, 252). Mr. Tutt stated that 

 a secretion of wax had been detected by Dr. Chapman in Pamassius apollo. 

 Prof. Meldola suggested that, as Dr. Knaggs had shown how to separate the 

 resin from the wax, it would be of interest to make a chemical investigation 

 of the latter, since a sufficient supply of this material could be easily 

 obtained. No insect-wax, with the exception of that of the bee, had been 

 submitted to investigation by chemists. 



