66 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The Annual Meeting will be held at the Manchester Museum on the third 

 Saturday in October. Members will receive the usual notice and ballot papers 

 in a month or two's time, and it is to be hoped that the 1919 Meeting will 

 be a record one in numbers and in enthusiasm as befits this annus niirabih's. The 

 President will give an address on his experiences as a collector. 



Mr. C. P. Hurst has an interesting paper in the Wiltshire Archceological and 

 Natural History Magazine, vol. 40, p. 231, on East Wilts. Mollusca, mostly col- 

 lected in the Great Bedwyn district. He makes the particularly interesting obser- 

 vation that the land shells, lepidoptera, and flowering plants of this district all 

 exhibit "a well-marked tendency to albinism, possibly an attempt to adapt them 

 selves to their white environments in this chalky country." Amongst the species 

 found and commented on are Ena montana, Clausilia rolphii, Limnaa glabra^ 

 Limax cinet-eoniger, and Azeca tridens. 



Dr. J. C. Melvill sends the following: — "It may interest some to know that 

 the transference of my collection of shells, now numbering, roundly speaking, some 

 23,000 species, into the hands of Mr. J. R. le Brockton Tomlin, has been mutually 

 arranged between us, and will shortly be a "fait accompli." It is proposed that 

 it be known in future as the Melvill-Tomlin Collection, and the latter's extensive 

 series of mollusca be added to it, when it is moved from Shrewsbury to Reading. 



The chief reasons for my decision to part with what has been the suliject of an 

 ever-increasing labour of love with me during the past sixty years, and even more 

 — for I began the collection when only eight years old — are, firstly, "Anno 

 Domini." One feels growing gradually older, and I surmised that if activities 

 ceased, reaction must follow, to the detriment of the collection, now completely 

 arranged. Secondly, as to its ultimate fate, I much wished, it possible, to avoid 

 any ultimate break-up, or scattering abroad of its component parts, now so har- 

 moniously grouped together ; and, accordingly, when Mr. Tomlin unexpectedly, 

 and without any previous suggestion on my part, made certain proposals to me, I 

 agreed, for not only would I rather see it in the hands of so fast a friend and ally, 

 than deposited elsewhere, but especially as he voluntarily assured me of his ulti- 

 mate intention to leave it to some important institution — I hope in ihis country — 

 where it would be well-housed, kept in order, and rendered useful to the com- 

 munity for educational purposes in every possible way for all time. Before long, 

 it is hoped to give a brief resume of some of its more important contents, either in 

 the pages of this Journal or elsewhere. 



It will be noticed elsewhere in this number that the de Burgh Collection is 

 offered for sale. This collection was formed in the middle of last century, and was 

 famous alike for the rarity and the fineness of its specimens. Probably the greatest 

 gems are Plenrotomaria qnoyana. Conns gloria-inaris and Thatcheria inirubilis, 

 though the last-named has frequently been considered to be a monstrosity oi Fustis. 

 In Co7ins it can also boast of cei'vus, otnaiciis and stainforthii ; in Cypuva of 

 bicallosa and nivosa ; in Pelecypods of Cardiiim belcheri and Pho'.adoniya Candida. 



The total number of species is about 9,00. 



