NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 167 



versicolor), which had been shot about a fortnight ago by Mr 

 Gibson, in Dumbartonsliire, and kindly lent by that gentleman. 

 This beautiful pheasant has of late years been introduced into 

 various Scottish counties, — Argyllshire, Ayrshire, Stirlingshire, 

 amongst others — and there is reason to believe that its numbers 

 are increasing. 



Dr Young made some remarks on a miscellaneous collection of 

 objects from Australia, which had been placed on the table by 

 Mr John Kirsop. It included the jaws of a large shark, in fine 

 condition ; the tail of a species of ray, several spiders, centipedes, 

 etc., that had belonged to the late Mr David Eussell of Sydney. 



The President, Professor Young, proceeded to give his annual 

 address, in the first part of wliich he drew attention to the geogra- 

 phical distribution of the perennibranchiate amphibians of the 

 present day, of which one genus is European, and five are North 

 American ; while of these five one species is also found in Japan, 

 a distribution which suggested comparison and contrast with that 

 of the ganoid fishes. He enumerated the points of relationship 

 to the palaeozoic labyrinthodonts; and, after stating the order of 

 appearance in the geological series of the amphibian and reptilian 

 orders, pointed out the parallelism of the two series, of perenni- 

 branchs with cylindrical bodies. Siren, Amphiwna, Proteus; and 

 with depressed bodies, Menolranchus, Axolotl, Cryptohranchus, 

 After pointing out a possible explanation of these facts by succes- 

 sive divergence from common ancestral forms, Dr Young proceeded 

 to the second part of his address, which was mainly an urgent 

 appeal to the Society to agitate as a Society for the improvement 

 and extension of science teaching in the country. While it is 

 evident that a large number find scientific pursuits interesting, few 

 of those who are not naturalists by profession can realise the value 

 of these sciences as educational instruments. After repeating 

 what he had stated on previous occasions — namely, that an 

 attempt to establish, two years ago, physiological demonstrations 

 for teachers and their advanced pupils in the Hunterian Museum 

 had failed, because a large number were too much hampered and 

 exhausted by Government restrictions, Dr Young went on to say, 

 that if these restraints were removed to-morrow, a serious diffi- 

 culty would still remain, which would prevent the rapid spread of 

 physiological instruction, namely, the deficiency of capable teachers. 

 It is true that in some schools, as the Normal Institutions, the 



