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JOINT MEETING OF NATURALISTS AT WORCESTER. 



The date of this meeting was probably on Tuesday, October loth. The report 

 below is taken from the Hereford Timex, of October aist, 1854. 



A joint meeting of the members of the Worcestershire Natural History 

 Society, and the Woolhope, Cotteswold, and Malvern Field Clubs, was held at 

 Worcester, on Tuesday sennight. The Lord Bishop of Worcester presided, and 

 there were present of the Woolhope Club — Rev. W. S. Symonds, President ; 

 Mr. J. A. Suter, Hon 'Secretary, Rev. J. F. Crouch, Dr. Gilliland, Mr. A. Thompson, 

 and other members. 



Professor Phillips, of Oxford, delivered an interesting and instructive lecture. 

 He observed (we quote the report of the WoreeMer Herald) that the Malvern Hills 

 formed one of the most beautiful and singular ranges of mountains in the world, 

 owing to the antique character of their strata, which were situated in the midst 

 of a magnificent modern garden, both westward and eastward. Looking from 

 the summit of that range, they might behold two of the oldest creations in the 

 world, and were between two totally distinct systems of life. And, still more 

 wonderful, there was not one species of organic beings in either of those two 

 systems, the counterpart of which was at the present time existing on the globe. 

 Looking westward would be found the tombs of an immense group of vanished 

 life. Eastward, in the direction of Gloucestershire and the Cotteswold Hills, 

 the Saurian and other reptilian remains, shells, &c., proclaimed another ancient 

 system of life, every species of which, on being compared with living types, was 

 found to be extinct. These two ancient forms, therefore, were not only totally 

 distinct from each other, but from all species now existing. This was a marvellous 

 thing in so narrow a range ; and surely such a fact would prevent people from 

 beating the Malvern Hills to pieces, without at least recording what they saw 

 during the operation. When it was found that a difference in temperature, 

 food, and other physical circumstances, occasioned the forms of life to be widely 

 varied — as, for instance, in the phenomena of Australia compared with Europe — 

 those variations were not so startling when the countries put into comparision 

 were as wide apart as one-half the circumference of the globe ; but that was not 

 the case with the Malvern district. Looking on natiure with philosophical eyes, 

 it must be perceived that the whole was a manifestation of infinitely wise and 

 predetermined plans, where everything had been calculated for, and where every 

 existing thing had been placed amid circumstances which had been prepared for 

 its existence. Then these forms of life differed in proportion as the physical 

 circumstances of life varied. Well, then, on one side of the Malvern Hills were 

 the evidences of one set of physical circumstances, and on the other side a totally 

 distinct set. There were two distinct periods of time, marked by two distinct 

 strata of rocks. On inquiring further into this subject it would be found that the 

 jurface of the earth, for the most part, had once formed the bed of a primeval 

 ocean, and that it had been at successive periods covered over by strata con- 



