200 



an identification merely from the channel which had been dug 

 out. He did not think it was necessary to suppose that the- 

 same organism always made the same sort of channel, and he 

 did not know that a return to this mode of identification of 

 species would be altogether an advantage. 



Mr. Waller said that he had named his own species from actual 

 living specimens. He had a number of slides of these, and would 

 show them at one of their gossip nights. 



Mr. E. T. Newton said he should not be prepared to go so far 

 as Mr. Michael in saying that they ought not to give names to 

 things unless they were sure as to what they were, and he hardly 

 saw that any great disadvantage arose from giving names to 

 things for the purpose of future identification. For instance, a 

 person might find a piece of a fossil tooth, and this being the 

 only one found, so far as he knew, he might call it species A. 

 Another person would find one which seemed to difter, and he 

 would call it species B ; whilst a third person might find a more 

 complete specimen which combined both A and B, and in this 

 case the second name would have to go. It seemed to him a 

 necessity to give separate names in this way to apparently 

 different species, until a time came when they could put the two 

 together; and until they could estabhsh their identity he did 

 not see what other course they could take. The difficulty in the 

 cases before them seemed to be that of deciding what had really 

 made these markings. Were they made by Fungi? Was it 

 probable that they were caused by Algae ? Or was it not possible 

 that some of them were the result of chemical decomposition ? 

 And again : Was it not possible that some other organism might 

 have made the holes, and the one found there had only come to 

 live in them ? He congratulated the Club upon having had this 

 paper brought before them. 



Mr. Michael did not think Mr. Newton had quite caught his 

 point. In the case of a tooth, however small a piece it might be 

 that was found, it was a portion of a creature ; whereas in the 

 case before them they had no portion of a creature, but only 

 the burrow, which it was supposed some creature had dug out, 

 and this seemed to him of very little value as a means of 



classification. 



On the motion of the President, the cordial thanks of the Club 

 were voted to Mr. Harris for his paper, to Mr. Waller for reading 



