360 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society 
it can be decided how many, and what, are the species of 
moths whose larvae 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 Eev. 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 
Deiopeia 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. 
IIT. Note on a Communication by Dr J. A. Smith, entitled "Notes on 
the Discovery hy the Rev. Alexander Robb, in 1863, of an Insect 
feeding on the Ordeal or Poison Bean of Calabar.'" By Thomas R, 
Fraser, M.D. Communicated by William Turner, M.B., 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 Fraser, who published a 
