146 



The advantages obtained by the use of Napthaline over 

 wax and other bodies recommended for this purpose are, 

 a low fusing point, absence of contraction in the cutter, very 

 little injury to the edge of the knife, and very ready solu- 

 bility after cutting in Benzol or spirit, so that the substance 

 is removed at once from the section without injury. 



Napthaline is a body iiot very generally known outside 

 the works of the tar distiller or colour maker, so that possibly 

 some of the members may not be able to obtain samples 

 readily, but I shall have pleasure in supplying it to any of 

 our own members. 



Professor Williamson recommended an admixture of wax 

 and oil with the Napthaline, and stated that the knife cuts 

 better with this addition ; he also exhibited some extremely 

 beautiful longitudinal and cross sections made in this way. 



" Note on a Fossil Spider in Ironstone of the Coal Mea- 

 sures," by Mr. John Plant, F.G.S. 



More than forty years ago Mr. William Anstice found a 

 fossil insect in a nodule of ironstone from the coal formation 

 of Coal brook Dale. It was figured in Dr. Buckland's Bridge- 

 water Treatise, plate 4G, and described by Mr. Samouelle 

 the entomologist as a beetle allied to a type of tropical Cur- 

 culios, and provisionally named as CurcuUoides Pvestvicii. 

 Since that time many insects have been discovered in the 

 coal measures both in England and America, and wings of 

 Neuropterous insects have been found as low down in 

 palaeozoic rocks as the Devonian — below which no true 

 insects have been yet observed. The specimen figured by 

 Dr. Buckland remained unique for a long time — until 187D 

 when another was discovered by Mr. Elliott Hollier of 

 Dudley, so well known for his cabinet of rare Silurian ti'ilo- 

 bites, in an ironstone nodule from the Dudley coal field. 

 This discovery has thrown considerable light upon the real 

 character of the one first mentioned, which turns out not 



