EXAMINATION OF THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS. 245 



Then in each midland connty if some half-dozen workers will but band 

 themseh^es together for the prosecution of this study, I see no reason 

 why valuable results should not be attained at an early date, and the 

 exhibition of specimens, illustrative of the glacial deposits of the Midlands, 

 might be made a special feature of the Annual Meeting of the Union at 

 Leicester, in 1879. 



If any Bcheme of the kind hinted at above can be set on foot, I 

 would suggest that the various record keepers meet at given centres, say 

 at first monthly. They should appoint one of their number as a general 

 secretary or reporter, and notices of the woi'k done should appear from 

 time to time in the pages of the " Midland Naturalist." 



Finally the three questions upon which it seems necessary to fix our 

 attention are : — 



(1) Is it a right and useful thing that the scientific societies of 



the Midlands, having entered into a union with each other 

 " for the promotion of the study of Natural History, and to 

 provide opportunities for personal intercourse among their 

 members," should place before them definite objects of scientific 

 study for combined work ? 



(2) If so, is the study of the Glacial Diift a suitable object? 



(3) And is the plan of work proposed in this paper calculated to 



yield satisfactory results? 



NOTES ON ilELICEETA EINGENS. 



BY F. A. BEDWELL, M.A., F.K.il.S. 



There is, perhaps, no animal that has been more observed and less 

 studied than Melicerta ringeng. To sit looking for hours at her beautiful 

 tower in the hope of seeing her lobes appear is tantalising work ; but it 

 is really on our capacity for this patient waiting that our success in the 

 study depends. Unless you examine Mehcerta with at least a one-fourth, 

 I know of no method of illumination which will bring out her details, 

 while any power above two-thirds necessitates your confining her in a 

 space so small that the lobes feel the glass sides of j-our minute tank 

 the moment they come out, and then they shrink at once fi-om the 

 contact. Dr. Hudson, of Manilla Hall, Clifton, showed me, as long ago 

 as 1860, how to manage such objects, and I have followed his plan ever 

 since, and know no better. The specimen is laid in an anniihn of thin 

 microscopic glass, (the thinner the better because you can always double 

 them.) the diameter of the outer circle is about iths of an inch, that of 

 the inner circle about ^ths. You glue this ring to the ordinary glass 

 slide, and when a piece of thin glass is laid over it you have a minute 

 tank, which you can fill with water at pleasure by a dipping tube as the 

 water evaporates. 



