360 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society 



it can be decided how many, and what, are the species of 

 moths whose larvse can feed and thrive on the poison-bean 

 of Old Calabar. 



Since this communication was read to the Society the 

 Kev. Alexander Eobb has returned to this country, and in- 

 forms Dr Smith that — sitting one evening in his room, at 

 Old Calabar, a pretty specimen of a gaily spotted moth — a 

 common species there — flew to the table and was captured 

 by him ; one of the phials containing the insects collected 

 from the Esere, and filled with spirits, was beside him, and 

 into it he popped his recent capture. He gave this parti- 

 cular phial to the Rev. John Baillie, who was just leaving 

 for home, and informed him that, with the single exception 

 of this insect, all the others were feeders on the poison- 

 bean. Mr Baillie was in delicate health, which probably 

 caused him to forget all about the matter ; and it is rather 

 a curious result, that the only insect which had nothing to 

 do with the Esere, being the most recent capture, and 

 therefore in the best state of preservation, should naturally 

 be the only one examined and named, the well-known 

 Beiopeia pulchella, and in this way come to be described 

 and published in the "Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History," vol. viii. third series, 1864, as the newly discovered 

 feeder on the poison-bean of Old Calabar. 



I1T. Note on a Communication by Br J. A. Smith, entitled " Notes on 

 the Discovery by the Rev. Alexander Eobb, in 1863, of an Insect 

 feeding on the Ordeal or Poison Bean of Calabar.'" By Thomas R. 

 Fraser, M.D. Communicated by William Turner, MB., Presi- 

 dent Royal Physical Society. 



In the note read by Dr Smith at last meeting of the 

 Society, the author s name is introduced in such a manner 

 as to suggest the idea that he had asserted a priority in the 

 discovery of the Esere Moth. This communication is in- 

 tended to explain Dr Eraser's connection with the matter. 

 The Kev. John Baillie brought from Calabar a parcel con- 

 taining a number of ordeal-beans apparently injured by an 

 insect, and presented them to Dr Eraser, who published a 



