1899] THE ROYAL SOCIETY'S CONVERSAZIONE 427 



circular in section, and is usually thicker than curly hair, which is 

 ribbon-like and line. In order that the muscle may act as an erector 

 of the hair it is requisite that the shaft of the hair embedded in the 

 skin should be sufficiently strong to resist any tendency to bend ; 

 unless this be so the lever-like action necessary to produce its erection 

 is destroyed. When the hair is fine and ribbon-like, the shaft is not 

 sufficiently stout to resist the strain of the muscle and naturally 

 assumes a curve, the degree of curvature depending on the develop- 

 ment of the muscle, the resistance of the hair, and the size of the 

 sebaceous gland. The curve thus produced becomes permanent and 

 affects the follicle in which the hair is developed ; the softer cells at 

 the root of the hair accommodate themselves to this curve, and, 

 becoming more horny as they advance towards the surface, retain the 

 form of the follicle ; the cells on the concave side of the hair are more 

 compressed than those on the convex side. In this way the hair 

 retains the form of the follicle after it has escaped from it. Professor 

 Thomson illustrated his views by a working model, but did not imagine 

 that his ingenious mechanism could be applied to the human scalp. 



Essex and East Anglia. 



We have received Volume X. of the Essex Naturalist, and find that in 

 it the praiseworthy traditions of the Essex Field Club are continued. 

 The volume contains the contributions for the years 1897 and 1898. 

 Since we cannot allude to all of them, we may select as among the 

 more important the various papers on recent and Post-pliocene mollusca 

 by W. M. Webb, A. S. Kennard, and B. B. Woodward, and " The 

 Entomostraca of Epping Forest," by D. J. Scourfield. As these and 

 other papers witness, this club wisely restricts its energy to its own 

 field, the natural history of the county of Essex, thus eliciting from its 

 members work of real value and cultivating that healthy local spirit 

 which is the best preparation for national and international co- 

 operation. 



Such co-operation is already proposed. At a largely attended 

 meeting at Witham, on July 23, 1898, the question of federation of 

 the East Anglian Natural History Societies, previously ventilated by 

 Sir Francis Boileau, Mr. Gr. S. Boulger, and others, was definitely put 

 forward by Mr. W. Cole, the secretary of the Essex Field Club. It 

 was unanimously resolved that there should be an annual conference 

 of the East Anglian Societies, on the lines of that of the South Eastern 

 Union to which we have so often referred. The first conference is to 

 be held this year. The opinion was strongly expressed that one of the 

 most valuable results to be looked for from such co-operation would be 

 the establishment of a single natural history journal for the whole of 



