TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



The Fifth Annual Soiree of the vSociety was held in 

 the Guille-Alles Lecture Hall on the 11th February, 1908. 

 As on previous occasions the audience was large and appre- 

 ciative, and evidently enjoyed the various items of a well- 

 arranged, diversified programme. The short lectures were 

 illustrated by means of slides thrown on the screen, and a 

 delightful series of musical selections, admirably rendered 

 by Miss Hirchfeld, Miss Edmonds, Mr. J. Marquand, and 

 the members of the Elizabeth College Choir, were received 

 with well-merited applause. 



Mr. F. L. Tanner, the organising director of the Soiree, 

 expressed regret at the absence of the President who had 

 left the island for the benefit of his health. The preparation 

 of an entertainment of this kind was not quite so easy a 

 matter as it might seem, but he wished to thank the ladies 

 and gentlemen who had responded to his appeal, particularly 

 to those who had so kindly undertaken the musical portion 

 of the programme. As this was one of the meetings of 

 the Society it was his pleasing duty to ask them to elect 

 a new member. Dr. R. L. Woollcombe, of Dublin, who had 

 been duly proposed and seconded at the last meeting. 

 Dr. Woollcombe was unanimously elected a member of the 

 Society. 



The first Lecture, by Mr. E. D. Marquand, A.L.S., 

 was entitled " Bees and Wasps." After referring to the 

 curious ideas entertained by the ancients with regard to 

 the reproduction of bees, the life history of the common 

 hive-bee was briefly sketched, with its unexplained mysteries, 

 such as the production of three very distinct classes or 

 so-called sexes of bees from eggs laid by the same parent, 

 and the power of the workers to transform a common worker 

 grub into a queen, even when three days old. The structural 

 differences between bees and wasps were clearly pointed out, 

 and the adaptation of the month organs in various species 

 to suit the requirements of the flowers from which they 

 obtained their food. 



