Linnean Society. 5079 



botanical works we constantly find such expressions as these, " Escaped from cultiva- 

 tion," " Probably imported," &c, which remind one forcibly of Defoe's description of 

 the true-born Englishman: all importations up to a certain date claiming a proud su- 

 periority over all those which happened to be a few years later, the date itself being 

 no fixture, but moveable at the discretion or indiscretion of the author. In Entomo- 

 logy, in addition to the above, a new difficulty besets us, owing^o the magic power of 

 the word indigenous in raising the money-value of an insect: a large number of spe- 

 cimens, having no pretensions to the title, have been sold as natives to those who were 

 soft enough to buy them, till at last a degree of suspicion has arisen on the subject 

 which quite overruns all reasonable bounds. Thus it is not sufficient that an insect 

 be caught on English ground, or even that the larva be found and the perfect insect 

 bred ; but this perfect insect must come into the hands of one of the magnates of the 

 entomological world, and even then its title is precarious, and often exposes its owner 

 to ill-will and backbiting. That some degree of doubt necessarily attends the adop- 

 tion of a novelty, — that the observations of those accustomed to observe are far more 

 trustworthy than those of other men, and that men feel more confidence in the evidence 

 of one they know than of a stranger, no one will deny, — but this is surely going too 

 far ; and while collectors are so eager to fill up their collections, and to that end are 

 willing to give such fabulous prices for rarities, there seems to be no chance of any 

 abatement of the evil. — Thomas Boyd ; 17, Clapton Square, April 3, 1856. 



Proceedings of Societies. 

 Linnean Society. 

 March 4, 1856. — Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Dipterous Larva voided by Human Beings. 



Mr. Newman read some observations on larvae of Diptera voided by human beings. 

 Through the kindness of Dr. Gull he was enabled to exhibit specimens lately obtained 

 from a female child under the care of Mr. Henry Ewens, a medical practitioner 

 residing at Long Sutton : the child had suffered for two or three weeks from 

 epileptic fits, which became worse and more frequent; her countenance became vacant, 

 and her memory much impaired: previously she had been sharp and intelligent. 

 Both Mr. Ewens and Dr. England, of Wisbeach, who was subsequently called in, 

 prescribed purgatives and the sulphate of zinc. The child got worse, and became 

 almost idiotic, losing entirely the faculty of speech. Finally she voided a great num- 

 ber of the larva? exhibited ; Mr. Ewens administered turpentine ; still larger quantities 

 were passed, the child recovered, and is now perfectly well. Mr. Newman exhibited 

 two specimens mounted in fluid for the microscope, and, for the sake of comparison, 

 two others similarly mounted, which Mr. Norman had obtained from a decayed pine- 

 apple. He then cited thirty-nine previously-recorded instances which had been no- 

 ticed by medical men, particularly alluding to a case described by the Rev. Leonard 

 Jenyns, in which the discharge had been enormous and had continued for months, and 

 another which had continued for years: he thought the larva? found by Mr. Norman 



