distributed in the transactions of various societies and institutions, and seven papers on various subjects compiled by Mr. Fairbairn himself. The first two lectures contain a short and concise history of the advancements made in science and art; the results arising from which have been to quadruple the productive powers of the country, and to diffuse a spirit of intelligence amongst all classes of the community. The third chapter is on "Labour: its Influences and Achievements." After pointing out the necessity of labour, on which all are dependent for their subsistence, the author divides his subject into two heads-viz., mental and physical labour, which is further subdivided into skilled and unskilled labour. The points sought to be established in this lecture are, first, that labour is inherent in man and in animals; secondly, that its use is important, and ought to be cultivated; thirdly, that its influence is powerful and effective; and lastly, that its achievements are great. The fourth lecture on "Literary and Scientific Societies" is a reprint of an address delivered at the inauguration of the Southport Athenæum. In this the advantages of literary and scientific institutions are pointed out, as well as the necessity of careful study and untiring industry, for the attainment of distinction and success. The two other lectures are on "The Thickness of the Earth's Crust," and "Iron and its Appliances." In the latter of these, iron is followed through the different stages of its utility, and it is treated in its appliance to the steam-engine, to millwork, and to machinery; the varied forms and conditions being noticed in which it is employed for security, on the one hand, and its economical distribution for the purposes of construction, on the other.

on

The other papers relate to the machinery of the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and of the London Exhibition of 1862, to which are added a treatise on Iron Roofs, Researches on the Insulation of Submarine Cables (undertaken at the request of the Atlantic Telegraph Company), and Experiments to determine the effect of impact, vibratory action, and long-continued changes of loads on wrought-iron girders.

At the present time, when every one is expected to possess some knowledge on scientific subjects, papers such as those above referred to cannot become too generally known; for whilst they contain much "useful information for engineers," the absence of all unnecessary technicalities renders them suitable also for the general reader.

7. ENTOMOLOGY.

(Including the Proceedings of the Entomological Society.) FROM investigations made by M. Felix Plateau on the muscular force of insects, he deduces the following law :-" In the same group of insects, the force varies inversely to the weight, that is to say, that of two insects belonging to the same group, the smaller presents the greatest strength.' The Phytophagous families, Donaciida and Crioceridæ, appear to exceed all others in traction-force. The supremacy of these insects he attributes solely to their great muscular force, which is explained partly by the large size of the posterior femora, and partly by their small weight. With regard to the leaping powers of the Orthoptera, he found that Edipoda grossa, which weighs 0.646 gr., raised a mean weight of 1064 gr., and Edipoda parallela, 0·194 gr., raised a mean weight of 0.638 gr. The proportions of their relative force are, therefore, 1647, and 3-288; another example of the above law, according to which, in the same group of insects, the lightest are comparatively the strongest. As regards flight, M. Plateau finds, also, that the mean forces of insects are still in inverse proportion to the weights; but he obtained no such high results as in the case of traction or pushing.

An

Allusion has already been made (ante, p. 111) to the discovery, by Sir John Lubbock, of a new type of centipede. elaborate paper on the subject has since been read before the Linnean Society. The animal is only th of an inch in length; has a body composed of ten segments, with only nine pairs of legs, and five-jointed antennæ bifid at the extremity and quite unlike those of other Myriapods. It was proposed to be called Pauropus Huxleyi. The author, who has found it in great numbers in his kitchen-garden at High Elms, was at first disposed, from its minute size, to regard it as a larva; but, having examined several hundred specimens, he had come to the conclusion that it was a mature form. In its earliest state it has three pairs of legs, and the number increases at each moult; two pairs at the first, but at each of the subsequent moults a single pair only is added. Its systematic position among the Myriapoda is a matter of doubt. Sir John went very minutely into the reasons which induced him to consider that it could not be placed in either of the two great orders of the class, and that it is not only intermediate between the Chilopods and Diplopods, but that it forms a connecting link between the Myriapoda and the other classes of the annulosa. From the view of its being the type of

* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,' Feb., 1867.

a distinct order, however, Professor Huxley expressed his dissent. A second species of the genus was found with the first, differing in the form of the antennæ.

M. de Marseul has recently published a new edition of his Catalogus Coleopterorum Europæ et confinium.' The number of species is now above 16,000; but it must be recollected that to the European area is added the shores around the Mediterranean, or, in other words, North Africa and Western Asia. By this arrangement, however, comparatively few extra European genera are introduced, almost the only ones from the tropics. being Monomma, Callirhipis, Stenochia, Piazomias, Myllocerus, and Arrhenodes. Articerus and Himatismus, Australian and South African genera respectively, are also represented. The work has been got up in a very careless manner; wrong authorities are often given, and the spelling is by far too frequently faulty.

The little work by Miss Stavely, on 'British Spiders, an Introduction to the Study of the British Araneida,' it is admitted "lays no claim to originality; the work of Mr. Blackwall on the same subject having been most freely used." It is one of the series of books on British Natural History now in course of publication by Lovell Reeve and Co., by whom we are informed they were to be "entirely the result of original research, carried to its most advanced point." This is a little too bad. As a useful abridgement of Mr. Blackwall's History,' Miss Stavely's volume may be recommended; but we think it would have been improved if she had given some notices of the habitats. Many species have only been taken once, or in one locality, and this it is very important. should be known to the collector, for whom the work is more especially adapted.

The last part of the Linnæa Entomologica,' containing upwards of 480 pages, is entirely confined to, and completes Dr. Suffrian's descriptions of, the South American Cryptocephali. The plan of devoting as large a space as possible to a paper, instead of breaking it up into fragments, as is now too often the case, is much to be commended. In the enormously increasing mass of zoological literature, could not some plan be devised by which any paper may be taken out of the volume in which it appears, in order that it may be kept or classified with others of the same character? Many small, but important, papers are now often overlooked or forgotten.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

December 3.-A collection of Coleoptera from Rio Janeiro was exhibited by Mr. Janson. Stenus major, Muls., an insect lately found at Southend and new to Britain, was exhibited by Dr. Sharp. In

reference to the explanation of the cause of mimicry in butterflies, an instance was given by Mr. Bolt, of Maranham, who, having an opportunity of watching the nest of an insectivorous bird, found that the Heliconidæ, the family imitated, were invariably rejected. In reply to an observation of Dr. Sharp's, that the fact of a bird not catching an imitating butterfly like Leptalis, implied a want of perception on its part, Mr. Wallace said that birds sought their prey by sight and not by smell, and that it was not to be expected that a bird would catch a thousand distasteful Heliconias on the chance of obtaining one Leptalis, such being the proportion of numbers of the two insects. A paper was read by Mr. M'Lachlan on a new genus of Hemerobiidae (Rapisma), and another of Perlida (Stenoperla).

December 7.-Captain Hutton, in a communication respecting the Japan silkworm (Bombyx Yamamai), expressed an opinion that it was nothing more than a hybrid between Bombyx mori and Bombyx Sinensis. Prof. Westwood, in exhibiting a selection of the butterflies collected many years ago in Brazil by the late Dr. Burchell, observed that an examination of this collection, which was made over a long line of country, the locality of each specimem being carefully recorded, had almost induced him to abandon his belief in the immutability of species; but he reserved the subject for fuller details at a future meeting. The following papers were read:-By Professor Zeller, communicated by Mr. Stainton, "On the Crambida and other Families of Moths," collected by the Rev. O. P. Cambridge in Egypt and the Holy Land; by Mr. Butler, "On the genus Hestia, with remarks on the natural affinities of the Danaida."

January 21.-Annual Meeting.-The President delivered an address, after which the following officers were elected for 1867:President, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., &c.; Treasurer, S. Stevens, F.L.S.; Secretaries, J. W. Dunning, M.A., &c., and D. Sharp, M.B.; Librarian, E. W. Janson. It was announced that one of the prizes offered by the council for essays on Economic Entomology had been awarded to Dr. Wallace, of Colchester, for an essay on the oak-feeding silkworm of Japan.

February 4.-Mr. Wormald exhibited a collection of insects from Shanghai, made by Mr. W. Pryer, among which was a new Bombyx, allied to B. Huttoni. Mr. Janson exhibited a collection of insects from Vancouver's Island, including a specimen of the curious genus Plectrura. Mr. C. A. Wilson, of Adelaide, communicated some notes on Cerapterus Macleayi and Calosoma Curtisii-the latter was now found under the dried droppings of cattle, a habitat it has chosen since the introduction of those animals. Dr. Wallace read a paper "On some Variations observed in Bombyx Cynthia in 1866."

February 18.-Mr. Moore gave an account of the ravages of Tomicus monographus in India. This destructive little beetle has caused the loss of vast quantities of ale, in some cases amounting to 50 per cent. of the stock in store, by eating its way in all directions in the wood of the casks, until at some point, at last becoming perfectly porous, the contained liquid escapes. The insect has not been found in this country, although common on the continent; but it is stated that the oak staves of which the barrels are made are imported from Sweden. The inference is, therefore, that the eggs were in the wood at the time they were being made into casks; how they escape destruction during the preliminary process of steaming seems unaccountable. The insects were known in Burmah previous to 1862, but are now found in most parts of India. No case seems to have occurred in which the ale escaped while in transitu. Mr. Newman exhibited an ant taken at Kinloch Rannoch, and new to Britain. It was doubtful whether it was to be referred to Formica herculeana or F. pubescens; it was stated to form single cells in the stumps of old pines. Mr. Wallace read a paper "On the Geographical Distribution and Affinities of the Eastern Pieridæ." The subject, in all its aspects, was treated in the most comprehensive manner, but the views of the author, in reference to the extent of the Indian Islands as a Zoological Region, were combated at some length by Mr. Pascoe. A paper "On the Distribution of the Lepidoptera in Great Britain and Ireland" was communicated by Mr. Herbert Jenner Fust. This was a long and most elaborate essay, in which the distribution of 945 species were classified according to their geographic types and the areas to which they were limited in the United Kingdom; the Tineinæ and one or two other groups were excluded. A paper "On the Buprestidae of the island of Penang was communicated by Mr. E. W. Saunders.

8. GEOGRAPHY.

(Including the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society.) THE place of Admiral Fitzroy, as Corresponding Member of the Paris Academy of Science, is to be filled by Captain Richards. Mr. R. H. Major, Hon. Sec. of the Royal Geographical Society, has been appointed Keeper of the Map Department in the British Museum; a new post, for which Mr. Major has well qualified himself by his researches in Ancient Geography.

This subject of Ancient Geography has received much attention of late on the other side of the Channel. A new translation of the amended text of Strabo is being produced by MM. Amédée