Chrysalis Mimicry.-A species of butterfly in Venezuela observed by Gollmer (Aidos amanda) makes a cocoon which it fastens to a twig, and which has the appearance of round holes. It is composed of two layers, of which the outer one is perforated, and the inner one so bent in as to leave a hollow space between the two. The chrysalis is protected by the strong inner layer which is not seen from outside, and the outer layer appears bored right through, and looks like the hole left by a species of wasp when it emerges from the pupa state.*

Diatom Desiccation and Revival.-The Journal de Micrographie' for December, 1877, gives a paper on this subject by Paul Petit, who states that after vainly searching amongst dried mud containing diatoms for spores or zygospores, he made the following experiments :He collected at various times of the year diatoms with their substratum of mud, and allowed them to dry in the sun, sheltered from dust; some for six, some for eight months. Last September he examined fragments from these deposits, and found the frustules transparent and seeming empty; but a careful investigation showed that in the interior of a considerable number there were some large brown granules, which he took for desiccated endochrome. The vessels containing them were then filled with distilled water that had been well aerated, and exposed to direct light and heat of the sun. For the first three days little change was noticed, but from the fourth day the brown granules augmented in volume and assumed the yellowish tint characteristic of diatom endochrome. Watching from day to day the increase of the plasma in volume, he noticed that at the end of five days it filled half the frustule, and on the eighth day assumed its characteristic form. The Naviculæ then began their curious motions, and some days later commenced to multiply by division. Some of the frustules did not recover, and this he thought was because they had been dried too rapidly.

Searching for Trichina.-M. Tikhomiroff, in making a microscopic examination of pork supposed to contain this parasite, digests small pieces for half an hour with their weight of chlorate of potash, to which he adds four times as much nitric acid. The muscular tissue thus treated is agitated with distilled water till the fibrils separate. If the trichina is present, a hand lens shows the fibrils with fusiform swellings, and the microscope recognizes the creatures.†

A Fossil Spider.- La Nature,' January 26, 1878, gives a magnified drawing of a fossil spider, Attoides eresiformis, discovered by M. Ch. Brongniart in the tertiary marls of Aix, in Provence. It is about 3.5 mm. long, and allied to the recent Salticus (Attus) and Eresus.

The French Academy has awarded 600 francs to M. Bagnis for a monograph of Puccinia, and the Commission to which his work was referred, observe that authors admit more than 370 species of this genus, generally characterized and named according to the plant they infest. This implies that one plant only nourishes one Puccinia, and that each Puccinia is only parasitic on a particular plant. M. Bagnis * Der Naturforscher,' 1, 1878. La Nature,' February 2, 1878.

now shows the contrary to be the case, and that one plant may nourish many distinct forms of Puccinia, and that one Puccinia may be found on very different plants. He also shows that the grouping of the spots formed by the fructification of these fungi depends more upon the plant that nourishes it than upon the fungus, and that these characters cannot be regarded as specific.

On the Bed-bug and its Allies. By Professor Leidy.-In the western part of our country, observed Professor Leidy, I frequently heard that bed-bugs were to be found at any time beneath the bark of the cottonwood and the pine. In these positions I never found one, nor have I ever found the insect except in the too-familiar proximity of man. Recently, when in the west, while watching some cliff swallows passing in and out of their retort-shaped nests, built under the eaves of a house, I was told that these nests swarmed with bedbugs, and that usually people would not allow the birds to build in such places, because they introduced bed-bugs into the houses. Having collected a number of the bugs, as well as others from the interior of the house, specimens of both of which are submitted for examination by members, I found that while the latter are true bedbugs, Cimex lectularius, the former are of a different species, the Cimex hirundinis.

The bugs infesting the bat and pigeon have likewise been recognized as a peculiar species, with the name of C. pipistrelli and C. columbarius. Professor Leidy further noticed that the habit of the C. hirundinis was similar to that of C. lectularius in the circumstance that the bugs during the daytime would secrete themselves in crevices of the boards away from the nests. After sunset he had observed the bugs leave their hiding-places, and make their way to the nests. From these observations it would appear as if the peculiar bugs of the animals mentioned did not reciprocally infest their hosts.*

OBITUARY.

We very much regret that we are unable to give any adequate biographical notice of our late friend, Dr. LAWSON. We have done our best to procure some details of his life previous to his residence in London, but have not yet received the promised assistance of our friends in Birmingham, where he was Professor of Physiology at Queen's College.

On coming up to London he was first lecturer on Histology at St. Mary's Medical School, and afterwards lecturer on Physiology and the paid physician. At that time he did some good original work in the anatomy of snails, and denied the existence of an ovotestis. He also, before Günther, proved that whitebait are young herrings. He also wrote a paper on the lungs, heart, and blood-corpuscles of the slug, and others on the anatomy and physiology of gasteropods.

Proc. Nat. Sci.,' Philadelphia.

Latterly we have all known him well as a member of our Council and Editor of our Journal. He was elected a Fellow in 1868, and became Editor of the Monthly Microscopical Journal' when it was first established in 1869.

He continued to perform the editorial duties until his death, on the 4th of October, 1877, in his thirty-seventh year, and his removal from us has led to the entire discontinuance of that Journal, and to the resolution of the Council to publish our own 'Transactions.'

JAMES SCOTT BOWERBANK, LL.D., F.R.S., &c., was born in Sun Street, Bishopsgate, London, on the 14th July, 1797, and received his early education from the then celebrated Dr. Kelly, of Finsbury Square, London.

About the age of fifteen he entered his father's distillery, where in subsequent years, and in conjunction with his late brother Edward, the business was carried on under the name of Bowerbank and Sons.

At this early period his scientific tastes began to develop, leading him to the study of astronomy, chemistry, botany, geology, anatomy, and physiology, which occupied every available moment of his time not devoted to business, which he pursued with ardour, but made it available whenever possible for his scientific studies.

About the year 1820 he joined the old Mathematical Society meeting in Crispin Street, Spitalfields, where he attended the lectures of a Mr. Wilson, a name famous at that time. In this Society he was subsequently appreciated as a lecturer on geology, botany, anatomy, and physiology, and his diagrams and botanical models were used at one of the metropolitan hospitals for some years in their lectures.

As a member of the London Clay Club he investigated the fossil fruits and seeds from the Isle of Sheppey, and in 1840 began their history; but this publication was not continued. 180,000 fruits and seeds are now in the British Museum as a result of his industry in collecting. Out of this gathering of earnest workers came the "Paleontographical Society" in 1847-a Society which has done so much to make known the richness of the fossils of our own country, having figured 22,754 specimens, and described 4444 species in 30 volumes.

For many years Dr. Bowerbank was its Hon. Sec.; for ten years, and at the time of his death, its President.

Entomology was a favourite study of his in early days. He wrote a valuable paper in the Entomological Magazine, 1833, on "the Structure of Scales on the Wings of Lepidopterous Insects." He had also observed the circulation of the blood in the larvæ of Ephemera marginata, and many other matters too numerous to mention here.

The microscope was his especial delight and study, and by its use his investigations into the structure and habit of sponges, both recent and fossil, have been greatly facilitated, and brought to a state of comparative completeness.

Bowerbank was one of the originators of the Royal Microscopical Society, and had filled the office of President. He was also a contributor to its Transactions,' and in the Journal for June 1st, 1870, may be

found his account of the early improvements made in the microscope in 1828 by Tully, and afterwards by Ross, Powell and Lealand, Smith, and Beck; also on the methods of mounting objects by the use of Canada balsam.

Indeed, so many eminent men came at this time to his house in order to examine their specimens by his instrument, that he was compelled to fix one night in the week for their reception, and thus originated the celebrated" Monday Night Meetings," where so many eminent men used to assemble, and always received a kindly greeting and welcome, whether in the New North Road, Park Street, Islington, or in his capacious museum at Highbury Grove.

6

A Fellow of the Geological Society as early as 1838, he wrote a paper in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History' on "Organic Remains in the Flint of Chalk," and in 'Trans. Geol. Soc.' vol. vi. 1841, on "Siliceous Bodies of the Chalk, Greensand, and Oolites."

He also formed a large collection of fossils, very many of which now enrich the national and other collections.

Dr. Bowerbank was one of the originators of the Zoological Society, and for many years a member of its Council.

In his museum at Highbury Grove the first idea of an aquarium was started. A small glass jar was used to keep Chara translucens for microscopical purposes, to which were afterwards added some fish and animalcules, until at length the idea was worked out by Mr. N. Ward, Mr. Warrington, Mr. M. Marshall, and others, and brought to its present state of development.

As a Fellow of the Royal Society he in 1857 contributed several papers on the "Anatomy and Physiology of the Spongiada;" but as a member of the Ray Society, which, with the late Dr. Johnston, he assisted in founding, and of which he was for many years Treasurer, he will be best known and remembered for his "Monograph of the British Spongiada."

It was in the year 1841 when occurred a fortunate opportunity which gave a "bias to his future studies of the sponge, and then first began his really great work.

At Brighton a storm had thrown upon the beach vast quantities of seaweed and sponge as far as the eye could reach. Although dead, they were filled with the soft matter of the sponge. He selected the most promising specimens, placing them in glass jars filled up with strong spirit, and had them immediately conveyed to London for systematic examination, and from these he derived more information than from many times their number of dry specimens.

Having agents on many parts of the coast collecting fossils, he now also employed them in collecting sponges.

Friends in different parts of the world made consignments which were of the utmost value to him in his investigations. His general instructions were, Only remove as much of the watery matter as will prevent the sponges from rotting on the voyage; but do not send me clean specimens, as if intended for the bath."

The accumulations of years, numbering very many hundreds, are now in the British Museum.

Dr. Bowerbank was a Fellow of the Royal and nearly all the other scientific societies of London. He died at St. Leonards-on-Sea, the 8th of March, 1877, in his eightieth year, after an illness of a little more than a month's duration, and was buried in the family vault at Hollington Church, near Hastings.

CHARLES TYLER.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY.

KING'S COLLEGE, December 5, 1877.

H. C. Sorby, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the chair.

The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed, donations announced, and the thanks of the Fellows were unanimously voted to the donors.

The President said it would perhaps be desirable that he should make an announcement as to what had taken place that evening at the meeting of the Council, with reference to the Journal. On account of the death of Dr. Lawson some difficulties had arisen, and Mr. Bogue proposed terms which it was out of the power of the Society to entertain. The matter had been thoroughly discussed by the Council that evening, they having met at six o'clock specially for the purpose; and after going into the question in all its bearings, it had been decided that the Society should publish its own Transactions' from January next. They thought that this plan would offer some advantages to the Fellows, and would be altogether more in accordance with the dignity of a Society like theirs. A committee had therefore been formed to carry out the new scheme.

Mr. J. E. Ingpen then read a paper by Herr Zeiss, "On Abbe's Apertometer," which was illustrated by the exhibition of the apparatus and by drawings made upon the black-board. (The paper will be found printed at p. 19.)

The President, in moving a vote of thanks to Herr Zeiss, said he had been obliged to pay some attention to this subject of angular apertures, and he felt much dissatisfied so far as his experience went, from the want of similarity in the results obtained by different methods. He thought it would be exceedingly interesting to know how far the new method agreed with the others. He suggested that it would be well to stop off the front lens of the objective by diaphragms of different sizes, so as to ascertain whether by so reducing the front they would obtain results which were consistent with those obtained in other ways. He would impress upon those who were interested in the subject, the desirability of commencing with low powers, and gradually working up through the series to the high ones. He might just add that the question was one which had been forced upon his notice by certain calculations of Professor Stokes, which caused him to try and see if the apertures as measured in different