Proceedings of Irish Societies. 1 79 



the division of the spoils would not be amicable, was put forth by several ; 

 and a medium for advertising duplicates available for exchange was 

 strongly advocated. 



In the early part of the afternoon visits were paid to the National 

 Gallery, and the museums of the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal 

 College of Science, the officers and professors of each institution conduct- 

 ing the members through the rooms, and explaining the exhibits. Later, 

 the party gathered at Leinster House, where they were received by Dr. 

 Ball, who conducted them round the Science and Art Museum. In the 

 evening the Association dinner was held at Jury's Hotel. 



June 28th. — This day was devoted to an excursion into County Wicklow. 

 The part}- took train to Bray, and drove to the Dargle, through which 

 they walked. Mounting the cars again, they were driven to Powerscourt, 

 where, by kind permission of the Viscount, the house and grounds were 

 viewed and much admired. Lunch was then provided at Enniskerry, 

 alter which the party drove to the Waterfall, returning in the evening by 

 the Rocky Valley to Bray. Most of the members then returned to town, 

 but several remained for tea, and a walk round the Head, where the 

 Cambrian and Drift beds were examined and some specimens of Oldhamia 

 obtained. 



June 29th. — The reading and discussion of papers were resumed. 

 Mr. W. E. HoYLE, M.A., of the Manchester Museum, read a paper " On 

 Desk-cases illustrating the Foraminifera, and the classification of Bivalve 

 Mollusca," in that institution, showing by means of lantern slides 

 the arrangement of the cases and their contents. The case of 

 Foraminifera contains specimens and magnified models and drawings of 

 those minute and interesting creatures. Descriptive labels are largely 

 used, and explain the general structure of the animals and their classifi- 

 cation. At the end of the series, a selection of specimens and maps 

 shows the importance of the shells of these animals in forming sub- 

 marine deposits. 



The case of Bivalve Mollusca described is arranged so as to contrast 

 the classification of Pelsener (founded on the gills), with that of Grobben 

 (founded on the hinge-teeth). Shells are arranged in series so as to show 

 the supposed genetic relationships, and the difference between the two 

 systems of classification is shown by different dividing lines. 



A paper by Mr. B. H. MuuEN, M.A., of Peel Park Museum, Salford, 

 on Museums and Ratepayers, was read by Mr. Platnauer. This contribu- 

 tion advocated the liberal support of museums by town authorities, 

 specially urging that curators should be relieved, as far as possible, of 

 merely routine and mechanical work. 



Mr. Hoyle, and his assistant at Manchester, Mr. T. H. Bolton, gave a 

 paper entitled " Classified Cataloguing as applied to Palaeozoic Fossils." 

 The system, applicable to all natural history specimens, indicates each 

 species by a symbol made up of a combination of letters from four 

 alphabets (aaaa to zzzz). By this means a far larger number of species 

 can be registered than by the means of numerals, unless an inconveniently 

 long series of digits be used. The system will be recognized as a modifi- 

 cation of the well known decimal system of numerals now used in many 

 library catalogues. 



Mr. T. H. Bolton contributed a " Supplementary List of Type Fossils 

 in the Manchester Museum." 



Mr. H. O. Forbes, of Liverpool, read a paper on "The Centralisation 

 ofTypes." Commenting on the inconvenience of naturalists having to 

 travel about the country to see the various type specimens of any 

 group at which they might be working, he urged that all type specimens 

 in the British Isles should be collected at London, Edinburgh, and 

 Dublin, and expressed his opinion that .specimens of general interest 

 might readily be got in exchange from the National Museums in those 

 cities, which would compensate the local museums for parting with 

 their types. This paper led to a very interesting discussion. Professor 



