SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
433 
sessing functional teetli. Professor Flower attributed the great variations 
in the pelvic bones and the sternum of the whale to their rudimentary- 
character. 
Sir John Lubbock's Tame Wasp. — Sir J. Lubbock exhibited a tame wasp 
which he had brought with him from the Pyrenees, and which had been in 
his possession for about three months. The wasp was of a social kind, and he 
took it in its nest formed of twenty-seven cells, in which there were fifteen 
eggs ; and, had the wasp been allowed to remain there, by this time there 
would have been quite a little colony of wasps. None of the eggs, how- 
ever, came to maturity, and the wasp had laid no eggs since it had been in 
his possession. The wasp was now quite tame, though at first it was rather 
too ready with its sting. It now ate sugar from his hand and allowed him 
to stroke it. The wasp had every appearance of health and happiness; 
and, although it enjoyed an outing occasionally, it readily returned to its 
bottles, which it seemed to regard as a home. This was the first tame wasp 
kept by itself he had ever heard of. 
Normal and Abnormal Growth of Lymnoeus. — Professor Carl Semper 
rea4 a paper at the British Association, in which he stated that numerous 
experiments made during the last few years have shown that, by separating 
individuals of the same generation, and by rearing them under the same 
conditions, the separated individuals grow more rapidly than those remain- 
ing and reared in company together. Through these experiments it became 
possible to draw certain curves of growth which show that, under the most 
favourable conditions, the growth may be divided into three distinct phases 
— the first being of slow growth, the second of very rapid, and the third of 
a very slow one again. The fact, that isolated individuals brought up under 
the same conditions — namely, the same quantities of water, the same surplus 
of food in the same temperature and isolation — acquire a greater length in the 
same time than those brought up in numbers together under the same con- 
ditions, is not a new one. But the explanation given, for instance in the 
case of fresh-water fishes, that this difference of growth depended entirely 
on the influence of the greater or lesser quantity of food, may be correct for 
the fishes, but is entirely wrong for the lymnoeus. It is neither the quantity 
or quality of food, nor temperature, carbonate of lime, or other known influ- 
ences, which determine the growth of the animal. From known experi- 
ments, it may be inferred that there will be found, in pursuing these 
investigations, that there may exist in the water a substance, the presence 
of which, at a certain low percentage, will determine the growth of the 
animal. This substance, which probably will be choloride of calcium, will 
act in the organism like the oil does in the steam-engine, viz. without its 
being there the animal wfill be unable to digest its food, while, being there 
in an almost imperceptible quantity, it renders growth possible. Thereby it 
is shown that the forces of molecular activity play an important part in the 
growth and formation of animals and animal tissues. The important part 
of physical science called molecular science must now always be taken into 
consideiation in studying the development and growth of animals in 
general. 
The White Coffee-Leaf Miner. — An American naturalist has given an inter- 
esting paper on this subject in the “ American Naturalist ” (June). The 
YOL. XI. — NO. XLY. F F 
