TKANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 107 



it was the author's object to sho-w that the generally received opinion on the 

 subject is a mistake, audf that the plate in question is in reality a true dorsal plate, 

 fitting on immediately behind the cranial buckler or head-plates, and that those 

 naturalists who had previously supposed that this would ultimately prove to be its 

 right position, from Pander down to Peach, were found to have been quite correct 

 in their opinion. The author exhibited a sketch of his best specimen, in which was 

 seen the upper surface of the cranial buckler, described by Hugh Miller, with the 

 dorsal plate, in its true position, and attached to the cranial buckler by two " massive 

 bones of very peculiar shape," alluded to in the quotation above. 



Conservation of Boulders. By D. Milne-Home, F.B.S.E. 



Professor Geikie having stated that the next subject to be brought under the 

 notice of the Section was the conservation of remarkable boulders, begged to men- 

 tion that the Sectional Committee had passed a resolution, intimating their sense 

 of the importance of the subject, and recommending that the British Association 

 should appoint a Committee, with a grant of money at its disposal, to endeavour to 

 discover the position of remarkable boulders in anj part of the United Kingdom, 

 and also to have them preserved. The Royal Society of Edinburgh had already 

 taken steps for these objects as regards Scotland ; and it would be weU to have the 

 movement extended so as to embrace England and Ireland; and the two Committees 

 would no doubt cooperate, as far as Scotland was concerned. He then called 

 on Mr. Milne-Home, the Chairman of the Committee of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, to explain more particularly the objects contemplated, and the measures 

 which might be taken to carry them out. 



Mr. Slilne-Honie said that his attention to the subject had fir.st been awakened 

 by an article in ' Nature,' from the pen of their President, Professor Geikie, giving 

 an account of proceedings which had been commenced in Switzerland for the pre- 

 servation of remarkable boulders. Being acquainted with Professor Favre, of 

 Geneva, he had learned from him that the movement embraced Dauphiny and 

 other provinces in the South of France, and that the effect had been to create a 

 strong popular sjTupathy in the object. Following this precedent, he had induced 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh to appoint a Committee, whose duty it was to send 

 circulars to all the parishes in Scotland, with the view of ascertaining the existence 

 in them of any boulders remarkable for size or for other features. Many questions 

 of much geological interest could be solved by ascertaining the nature of the rocks 

 composing boulders, and studying their shapes, in order to deduce conclusions as to 

 the transporting agent. These boulders, however, were fast disappearing, some- 

 times owmg to agricultural improvements, and sometimes affording, when broken 

 up, materials for building or for road-metal. It was therefore important to 

 discover the localities where any remarkable boulders existed, in order that they 

 might be examined by those who took an interest in such speculations, and in 

 order also to liave them preserved. He had reason to believe that the proprietors 

 and tenants of the lands on which such boulders might be situated would willingly 

 accede to any application which might be made to them by scientific societies to 

 preserve them. He was sure that, were this Section to express views favourable 

 to that object, great good would result. 



Further Bemarlcs on tlie Denudation of the Bath Oolite. 

 Bij "W. S. Mitchell. 



071 Geological Si/stems and Endemic Disease. By Dr. Moffat. 

 The author remarked that the district in which he lived consisted geologically 

 of the Carboniferous and of the New Red or Cheshire sandstone systems" that 

 the inhabitants of the former were engaged in mining and agricultm-e, and those 

 of the latter in agriculture _ chiefly. Ansemia, with goitre, was very prevalent 

 among those on the Carboniferous system, while it was almost unknown among 

 those of the Cheshire sandstone, and phthisis was also more prevalent among the 



