Xl' NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 231 



The Royal Scottish Geographical Society has established a London branch at 

 No. 20 Hanover Square, W. At the inaugural meeting last month, the Marquis of 

 Lothian presided, and Professor James Bryce delivered an address on " The 

 Migrations of the Races of Men considered historically." The three primary 

 disturbing causes were described as food, war, and labour, which had in their turn 

 led to the transference, diffusion, and permanence of types. There had been a 

 constant tendency towards reduction of the number of varieties of men. Assimila- 

 tion had been going on in every part of the world, so that to-day along the shores of 

 the Mediterranean there were but nine different languages spoken, whereas in the 

 time of Herodotus there were probably over thirty-seven distinct tongues. At its 

 London meetings the Scottish Society proposes to deal chiefly with commercial 

 geography. 



The Manchester Geographical Society has arranged a course of lectures at the 

 Owens College on " The Habitable World : its discovery, partition, and commerce." 

 The lecturer is Mr. H. Yule Oldham, and the opening meeting was held on April 4, 

 under the presidency of Professor Boyd Dawkins. 



The combination of the Irish Natural History Societies inaugurating the Irish 

 Naturalist has been joined by the newly instituted Cork Naturalists' Field Club, 

 of which Professor M. M. Hartog is President. The first number of the Naturalist 

 appeared in April, and the journal promises to be a useful record of progress in 

 Ireland. There are contributions by A. G. More, on recent additions to the list of 

 Irish birds ; by Professor T. Johnson, on the sea-weeds of the west coast ; by 

 R. J. Ussher, on the crossbill in Ireland ; by Professor Grenville Cole, on the 

 Geology of County Dublin ; and by Rev. W. F. Johnson, on the Coleoptera of 

 Armagh. A few short notes and valuable reports of recent meetings of the Irish 

 Societies conclude the number. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, held at Scarborough, 

 the retiring President, Professor A. H. Green, F.R.S., read an address " On Some 

 Moot Points in Geological Speculation." Mr. Charles P. Hobkirk, F.L.S., was 

 elected President, and Committees of Research were appointed to consider the 

 matter of local Boulders, Marine Zoology, Fossil Flora, Coast Erosion, Micro- 

 Zoology and Micro-Botany, Disappearance of Native Plants, Geological Photographs, 

 and Protection of Wild Birds' Eggs. Sectional officers were also appointed : in 

 Vertebrate Zoology, Wm. Eagle Clarke, F.L.S. ; Conchology, John W. Taylor, 

 F.L.S. ; Entomology, Geo. T. Porritt, F.L.S. ; Botany, William West, F.L.S. ; and 

 Geology, J. W. Davis, F.G.S. 



The twenty-third Annual Meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 

 Society was held at the Norwich Museum on March 29. At the conclusion of his 

 Presidential Address, Dr. Wheeler treated of the gradual extinction of many of the 

 species of Lepidoptera known to have once inhabited the fenland. The species 

 actually extinct he considered to be four in number — the Great Copper butterfly 

 {Polyomiimtus dispar), the Gipsy moth {Liparis dispar), 3.ni. two others little known 

 save to entomologists, Noctua subrosea and Phibalapteryx polygrammata. After a few 

 notes on the history and habits of these- insects, he gave some account of his own 

 experience of the Whittlesea Ermine [Orgyia cacnosa), the Fen Leopard (Macrogaster 

 arundinis), and other fen insects, which still linger in Wicken fen, but whose 

 extinction may be looked upon as not far distant. Considering the causes of the 



