iS3 

 THE ECONOMIC USE OF SOME BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



(The Presidential Address delivered at the Annual Meeting, Oct. 22nd, 18 



By J. R. B. MASEFIELD, M.A. 



Before proceeding to the main subject of my address this evening, 

 I desire to place on record my own regret at the losses which the 

 Society has sustained during the year in the deaths of three of its 

 members. One of these was an honorary member, Mons. H. Crosse, 

 the eminent French conchologist, a sketch of whose life and work will 

 be given elsewhere. 



Another was Dr. E. B. Landis, who only became a member of our 

 Society in February last, and died shortly afterwards at Chemulpo, 

 Corea, of typhoid fever. From him we were expecting important com- 

 munications as to the mollusca of that distant country. The Rev. 

 J. W. Horsley, in writing to send us the sad news, says: — "A colleague 

 writes, his loss is not only one which we as a mission or as individuals 

 will feel, but a real loss to Corea, with which he had thoroughly identi- 

 fied himself. As a doctor he will be missed very much by the resi- 

 dents, native and foreign. As a student he was amongst those who 

 knew most of Corea, her history, and her people ; and as a scientist 

 he was always trying to learn more of Corean animal and vegetable 

 life. It is only a year ago that we were out together hunting for snail 

 shells in the Paddy Fields, and killing the snakes that infest them." 



The third member whose death we have to deplore is Mr. Thos. F. 

 Burrows, formerly of Cheadle in this county, to whom I owe a 

 deep debt of gratitude for his unfailing kindness and for the valuable 

 assistance he gave to me in preparing a list of our North Staffordshire 

 mollusca a few years ago. Although during the last two years illness 

 had prevented his doing much field work in conchological science, we 

 must all feel that we have lost in him one of our hardest workers and 

 most useful members. 



Our Society was represented at the International Congress of 

 Zoology, held at Cambridge, in August last. At that meeting it was 

 announced that favourable arrangements had been made with the 

 international postal authorities for the transmission of zoological speci- 

 mens, which will I am sure be welcome news to our members. The 

 question of zoological nomenclature, which many of us were anxious 

 to hear discussed, was unavoidably postponed. Several papers relat- 

 ing to conchology were read, and amongst others, one by Mr. F. W. 

 Harmer on " The Distribution of Fusus antiquus and its Allies," and 

 another by Dr. Plate on "The comparative anatomy of Chitons"; 

 whilst the Cambridge Museums, with their conchological collections, 



