x 38o.] Edmund Halley. 9 1 
are being eaten. The mode of partaking of this strange 
dessert is to pick up an ant, nip the honey-bag with the 
teeth, forcing its sweet contents into the mouth, while the 
remainder is thrown away. We are told that this is not so 
disagreeable a habit as it might at first sight seem,^ the skin 
surrounding the honey being reduced to a thin trans- 
parent membrane, with nothing necessarily unpleasant in 
its character. Nevertheless, most of us will prefer to con- 
tinue indebted to the bee for our supply of honey, leaving 
the ants to enjoy the fruits of their own labours. 
IV. EDMUND HALLEY : HIS LIFE AND 
WORK. 
t N Tune 12th, 1874, Prof. Adams, President of the Royal 
Astronomical Society called the attention of the 
members at the meeting to the original labours of 
Teremiah Horrocks in connexion with the then forthcoming 
transit of Venus ; the result being the ereftion of a memorial 
to Horrocks in Westminster Abbey. Several of those who 
took then such a keen interest in the noblest of astronomical 
problems (one of whose keys was about to be unlocked by 
the keen observers of various nationalities) have passed 
away • but the veterans who survive, together with an ever- 
increasing crowd of junior recruits, are now looking forward 
to the next recurrence of the infrequent transit, and on this 
occasion we may well devote a page to an outline of the life 
of the famous Dr. Halley, whose name is so well known, 
but whose history has yet to be written. For beyond more 
or less unsatisfactory and inauthentic sketches of his career, 
no adtual scientific biography of our grand countryman 
exists. The want of such a work will, we believe, be ere 
long supplied by the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at 
Oxford in whose hands the mass of material collected by 
the late Prof. Rigaud rests; so that the result of the editorial 
labours of the Reverend Professor Pritchard may be looked 
H 2 
