Northern News. 171 
elongation, he believed, it would transmit to its offspring, 
which would continue to make efforts to reach higher and 
higher, so that in each generation some progress would be 
made towards the immensely elongated neck of the modern 
giraffe. We know, of course, of many instances in which habit 
and use profoundly modify an organ during the life of the 
individual : the size and strength of the blacksmith’s arm would 
be a case in point. But Lamarck demands more than this, for 
such modifications as a giraffe’s neck could never be produced 
if each generation had to start afresh from the beginning. 
Lamarck’s theory stipulates that characters acquired during 
the lifetime of an organism shall be transmitted to the next 
generation, and it is here that the main difficulty comes in. 
For no one has at present been able to offer indisputable proof 
that such transmission takes place. 
(To be continued). 
—__32e—_—__ 
At the recent annual meeting of the Craven Naturalists’ Society Mr. 
J. T. Davison was elected President. 
At the annual meeting of the Hull Geological Society, held on April rith, 
Mr. T. Sheppard was elected President. 
We are pleased to notice that Miss Mary Johnstone, B.Sc., LL.A., the 
head mistress of the Grange Road Secondary School, Bradford, has recently 
been elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society. 
Mr. S. B. Steelman points out that on the Lincolnshire Wolds the var. 
doubledayaria of Amphidasys betularia appears to be the dominent form 
there, as in the South-west Riding of Yorkshire (April ‘Entomologist ’). 
The ‘ Journal of Conchology’ caters well for its Lancashire readers; the 
April issue contains two lenghty contributions, viz., ‘The Land and Fresh- 
water Shells of Morecambe, Lancaster and district,’ by J. Davy Dean; 
and ‘ Bibliography of the Non-Marine Mollusca of Lancashire,’ by J. W. 
Jackson. 
On a plate illustrating an article on ‘A permanent record of British 
Moths in their natural attitudes of rest,’ by Mr. A. H. Hamm (Trans. Ent. 
Soc., issued Jan. 23rd, 1907), are some of the best examples of ‘ protective 
colouration’ that we have seen for some time. 
Since our last impression was published, ‘ Hull Museum Publications,’ 
Nos. 41 and 42, have appeared. The first is an admirably illustrated guide 
to the new Wilberforce House Museum, and the second is the twentieth 
Quarterly Record of Additions. The latter has illustrated accounts of 
Querns, Mantraps, Coins, etc., etc. The same institution has recently 
acquired the fine collection of British and Roman Querns formed by the late 
Dr. H. B. Hewetson, at Easington. 
Part IV. of ‘The Birds of the British Islands,’ by Charles Stonham 
(E. Grant Richards, 7/6), has appeared, and completes the first volume of 
this work, upon which no expense appears to have been spared to make ita 
really attractive publication. With the present instalment are two excellent 
coloured maps—the first being an orographical map of the British Islands, 
and the second ‘ The Zoological Regions of the World.’ 
1907 May 1. 
