174 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



J. Martin, F.R.G.S. ; Council : Revs. J. Bates and J. Campbell, Prof. 

 A. P. Thomas, F.L.S., Messrs. W. Berry, C. Cooper, T. Humphries, 

 E. A. Mackechnie, T. Peacock, J. A. Pond, F.C.S., A. G. Purchas, 

 M.R.C.S., and E. Withy ; Secretary and Treasurer : T. F. Cheeseman, 

 Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S. The membership of the Institute shows a slight 

 decrease, 205 names being on the roll. The income of the Society for 

 the past year, exclusive of a balance in hand at the commencement of 

 the year of £204 14s. 6d., was £861 14s. 3d., and the expenditure 

 amounted to £987 8s. 9d. This excess of expenditure reduced the 

 balance in the Bank of New Zealand to £79. The Museum has 

 received several important additions during the year, including a col- 

 lection of animals from Borneo and a number of Maori ethnological 

 specimens. Captain Gilbert Mair has also deposited in the Museum 

 his Maori collection, which is one of the most complete in the colony. 

 The attendance of the public on each Sunday has averaged 173, on 

 week days it is estimated at about 70. Of the 22 papers read before 

 the Institute during last Session, a number contain valuable additions 

 to the scientific knowledge of the colony. 



Theory of the Structure of the Placenta. — In the " Ana- 

 tomischer Anzeiger" of 11th March, Prof. Minot of Harvard Medical 

 School has an article under the above heading, in which he sum- 

 marises the results of his own researches and those of others as 

 follows (p. 130) : — According to the views explained in the preceding 

 pages, I hold the placenta to be an organ of the chorion ; that 

 primitively the chorion had its own circulation, and formed the 

 discoidal placenta by developing villi which grew down into the 

 degenerating uterine mucosa ; by the degeneration of the maternal 

 tissues the maternal blood is brought closer to the villi, and the 

 degeneration may go so far that all the tissue of the uterus between 

 the villi disappears ; a layer of the mucosa is preserved between the 

 ends of the villi and the niuscularis uteri to form the so called 

 decidua ; the placenta receives its foetal blood by the means of large 

 vessels running in the mesoderm of the allantois. From this discoidal 

 chorionic placenta the zonary placenta of carnivora, the diffuse 

 placenta of the lower primates, and the metadiscoidal placenta of 

 man have been evolved. 



" A second type of placenta, perhaps evolved from the first is 

 found in ungulates, and is characterised by a vascular allantoic vesicle 

 uniting with a non vascular chorion to form the foetal placenta, and 

 by the absence of degeneration in the maternal tissue. This type is 

 the allantoic placenta, which offers many interesting modifications." 



Humble-bees in the North Island. — In his letter of May 25th, 

 the Waikato correspondent of the Auckland Star says : " The humble- 

 bees that I send you down were caught on Richmond Downs estate, 

 at Walton, Thames Valley. I could have caught a good many more, 

 but thought it best to send three only, as I am not sure that they 

 will stand the journey well, I having no proper boxes to put them in. 

 Judging by the numbers I have seen lately, I am convinced that they 

 are now thoroughly established, and that this district could supply 



