THE ESSKX FIELD CLUB. 4I 



Prof. Meldola, after commenting upon the implements exhibited hy the 

 author, said that he quite accepted their authenticity as true paIa;oHths, and 

 congratulated Mr. Johnson on having been able to supply the first evidence 

 from that district of the existence of man as a contemporary of the extinct 

 animals whose remains had in former years been so frequently discovered in 

 the Uphall pits. 



Mr. Edward Lovett gave a demonstration of the employment of fish- 

 hooks of wood in France, similar to the hooks from the Essex coast, 

 described in volume x. of the Essex Naturalist. Mr. Lovett exhibited 

 specimens in illustration of his remarks, and also presented specimens to the 

 Museum (see Mr. Lovett's paper in the present part, ante, pp. 28-31). 



Prof. Meldola, said that the spirit of conservatism which had led to the 

 retention of such ancient customs was either a blessing or the reverse, accord- 

 ing to the point of view from which it was considered. Although, from an 

 industrial standpoint, the persistence of a custom because our fathers did so 

 before us was a disaster so far as concerns national progress, yet from an 

 anthropological point of view such survivals were often of great value, and 

 the use of wooden fish-hooks at the present day, as made known by Mr. 

 Lovett's ob.iervations, was a most interesting case linking a modern imple- 

 ment with a very remote antiquity. The author seemed to him to have been 

 fortunate enough to have secured the evidence just at the vanishing stage in 

 this country, and in view of the rapid disappearance of all such ancient 

 methods and traditions it was a bounden duty of observers to record similar 

 facts whenever they came across them in the interests of anthropological 

 science. 



Mr. E. J. Lewis gave a summary of an extensive paper on the " Oak- 

 Galls and Gall Insects of Epping Forest " which he had prepared for the 

 Essex Naturalist. Mr. Lewis exhibited a long series of coloured drawings 

 from his own pencil, in illustration of the subject. 



[Mr. Lewis's paper will be published in a succeeding part of our journal.] 



Prof. Meldola said that he was particularly interested in Mr. Lewis's 

 paper, and was much struck by the modest way in which the author had 

 brought forward a very valuable contribution to the county natural history. 

 He thought that the list drawn up would form a natural and fitting sequel to 

 Mr. E. A. Fitch's paper on the "Galls of Essex" published in the early 

 years of the Club (" Transactions of E.F.C.," vol. ii., pp. 98-156). He remem- 

 bered well the sensation caused in this country on the announcement by Dr. 

 Adler that certain Gall Insects which had been placed by systematists in 

 different genera were cyclical forms of the same species, and he fully con- 

 curred with Mr. Lewis that in such cases both forms in the alternating 

 generations should be referred in nomenclature to one genus only. With 

 regard to the origin of the two forms from the point of view of the evolutionist 

 he thought that in the light of the analogy with the Daphnias it was more 

 probable that the bisexual form was the parent form and that the asexual 

 form had been evolved from this. The researches of Weismann on the 

 Daphnias where a somewhat similar alternation was observed had led that 

 author to the conclusion that the sexual form was the parent form. 



