296 . NATURAL SCIENCE. November, 1896. 



have often alluded (Natural Science, vol. vi., p. 148, March, 1895, 

 and vol, viii., p. 371, June, 1896), the modern inhabitants of the caves 

 of England are receiving the attention of Professor Denny, of Firth 

 College, Sheffield, who is engaged with the exploration of the caves of 

 Derbyshire. Although Mr. Denny has not yet published anything on 

 his researches, we understand that the famous Peak Cavern at 

 Castleton has already yielded a varied fauna, comprising representa- 

 tives of the following groups of Invertebrata : — Chaetopoda, Crustacea, 

 Myriopoda (Diplopoda), Insecta (Diptera, Coleoptera, Collembola), 

 Arachnoidea (Araneidae and Acarina). Among these Professor Denny 

 has found several blind types, but only one appears to be a 

 true troglodyte, and that, strange to say, is none other than the 

 Collembolan — Lipura Wrightii (of Carpenter) — which was, we believe, 

 the first true cave animal discovered in the Mitchelstown Cave, of 

 which we have heard so much of late. Mr. Martel (President of the 

 Societe Speleologique of Paris) was therefore not quite accurate, in 

 his recently published account of Mitchelstown Cave, in stating that 

 " It is the only grotto in England, Scotland, or Ireland where, up 

 to the present time, there have been found animals peculiar only to 

 caverns." 



The delegates from local societies corresponding with the British 

 Association unanimously resolved at the Liverpool meeting that Mr. 

 G. Abbott's paper on District Unions of Natural History Societies, 

 published in Natural Science for October, under the title of " The 

 Organisation of Local Science," " be distributed by the Committee of 

 Delegates amongst all the natural history societies in the United 

 Kingdom," with the object of obtaining their opinions on the feasibility 

 of the plan. Clearly, the delegates are more in favour of federation 

 than they were when the proposal was first introduced at their meeting 

 in Montreal, in 1884. It will be curious if Toronto proves the scene 

 of its ultimate adoption. 



Pressure on our space obliges us to hold over till December 

 further notes with which our correspondents at the Liverpool meeting 

 of the Association have favoured us. In our next number, too, we 

 shall pubhsh Mr. MacBride's paper on the position of Morphology, 

 which gave rise to some discussion. 



An error, as annoying as it was obvious, crept into the Note, 

 " Natural Science at Cambridge," in our October number. We said 

 that " over three hundred unnamed specimens of Bryozoa " had been 

 given by Miss E. C. Jelly to the University Museum of Zoology. It 

 should, of course, have been " named specimens." Mr. S. F. Harmer, 

 whom we thus misquoted, kindly informs us that some of the speci- 

 mens have, in fact, " almost the value of type-specimens, since they 

 belong to the same lots as those from which the original descriptions 

 of the species were drawn up." We offer sincere apologies to Miss 

 Jelly and Mr. Harmer. 



