Journal of Pniree<lm(/s. lix 



the cabinet. Also a box containing " life-histories " of several species of 

 moths, showing caterpillar, chrysalis, cocoon, imago, parasites, A'c, in 

 one view, which he had prepared as a kind of ensample of the biological 

 collections he would like to see in the Club's Museum. 



Mr. Crouch said that he was much interested in Mr. Cole's specimens, 

 inasmuch as they illustrated a principle he had long maintained as the 

 right one to be followed in a collection intended to be of educational 

 value, viz., the demonstration of the structure of an animal in all its 

 stages, and not merely of one phase of its development. He had 

 endeavoured to carry out the plan in his own special study, conchology, 

 which v/as too often looked upon as a kind of artificial classification of 

 an important group of animals by means of one very superficial feature 

 in their organisation, the shell or protective envelope of the body. He 

 hoped soon to be able to submit to the Club some specimens which would 

 illustrate in a measure his views on the subject. 



A paper " On the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the district around 

 Colchester," by Mr. Henry Laver, F.L.S., was read by the Secretary. 

 [Transactions, ii. 88.] 



The President observed that Mr. Laver's paper appeared to be of 

 considerable value as embodying the result of close personal observa- 

 tion in a limited area, and as giving so much precise information as 

 to the environment of each species. He took it that the paper was 

 typical of the kind of communications they desired to have in the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Society, and he had only one suggestion to make, 

 viz., that authors could add much to the interest and value of theh 

 communications by exhibiting the specimens described, and, if possible, 

 placing an authenticated series in the Museum of the Club, so as to be 

 available for future reference. 



Mr. Walter Crouch said he had listened to Mr. Laver's paper with 

 much pleasure, and could but echo the wish of the President that the 

 author had sent specimens of the various shells. It was curious to note 

 that some of the genera and species which were very common in the 

 Beacontree Hundred had not, so far, been found by Mr. Laver in his 

 district. Mr. Crouch instanced the genus Vertigo, species of which are 

 extremely difficult to find on account of their minute size, and of wliich he 

 had obtained some thirty specimens that season, embracing certainly tlu-ee 

 or four of the species ; and Physa hy2mo mm, which, though rare with the 

 author, was one of the commonest shells in the meadow grips in his 

 own district. He had seen this shell and that of Limncea 'peregra in 

 scores, left high and dry after a flood in the Eoding Valley. On the 

 other hand, the pretty little land snails, Helix aculeata and Achatina 

 acicula he had never had the good fortune to find ; and though the 

 river snail, Paludina vivipara, was extremely common in the Koding, it 

 was not mentioned by Mr. Laver, while the other species, P. contecta, 

 which Mr. Crouch had never found in Essex, was stated to be found 

 in the Stour, and of very large size. Balia pei-versa was rare in both 



