5080 Linnean Society. 



showed the probability of the ova or recently-hatched larva? having been swallowed 

 with fruit, but he could not account for the long period which they appeared to pass in 

 the human body otherwise than by imagining a series of generations, which, as in the 

 case of Aphides, never attained the imago state. He concluded by expressing his 

 total distrust of those recorded instances of similar larvae having been passed with 

 urine, for, although tke passage of such creatures from the mouth to the intestines was 

 perfectly intelligible, there was clearly no similar mode by which they could reach the 

 bladder. 



Mr. Curtis expressed an opinion that the subject was one of the highest interest, 

 and one which he had investigated. 



Dr. Vinen admitted the interest and importance of the enquiry, but thought it 

 possible that in many of the instances, perhaps in all of them, there had been a want 

 of that excessive care, that rigid exclusion of all sources of error, which was necessary 

 before the scientific man could receive facts that appeared so anomalous: he then went 

 on to describe a case which had occurred within his own knowledge, in which similar 

 larvae had occurred not only once, but repeatedly, and this phenomenon he clearly 

 traced to a cause that removed from it all that was abnormal or anomalous. 



Sepia biserialis in Cornwall. 



The Secretary read a note from Mr. Couch, recording the occurrence of Sepia bi- 

 serialis in Cornwall. 



March 18, 1856. — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair. 



Influence of Sexual Organs on External Characters. 



Mr. Yarrell read a paper "On the Influence of the Sexual Organs in modifying 

 External Characters." 



This paper referred principally to the three species of British deer, noticing the 

 effect produced on the horns by the occurrence of disease, or by the various modes of 

 mutilation practised on males and the appearance of a horn on females occasionally, 

 as the operation of a known physiological law. The effects observed on both sexes of 

 our common fowls, whether from original malformation, subsequent disease or artificial 

 obliteration of the sexual organs, were described : also the changes observed in the 

 plumage of both sexes of our ducks, the males of most of the species quitting the fe- 

 males as soon as incubation commences ; and the cause of the summer seasonal altera- 

 tion which then takes place in their plumage, to be afterwards entirely obliterated by 

 the regular autumnal moult. Insects and Crustacea were also referred to, and in- 

 stances pointed out where the sexual organs being double, and one of both sorts 

 sometimes occurring in the same individual, each longitudinal half of that individual 

 was developed under the exclusive influence of the sexual organ on its own side. 

 Various drawings were exhibited in illustration. 



Election of a Fellow. 

 Henry Adams, -Esq., was balloted for and elected a Fellow of the Society. 



