PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 205 
opinion, if a great many of the ‘authorized’ varietal names were sub- 
mitted to wider scrutiny. It is strange, for example, that voseolabiate 
forms should rank as varieties, now that the term variety has practic- 
ally come to mean ‘sub-species’; strange, too, that there should be 
instances (as in L. peregra) of two or three ‘varieties,’ which are 
transitional forms only, and together make up but one sub-species. 
“It is obviously a very good thing to have an ‘authorized list,’ 
as this Society has; but to set up the very best catalogue as an in- 
fallible guide to those who have and those who have not been 
concerned in its publication, appears to me slightly unreasonable, 
not to add unscientific. I am bound to make this slight protest, 
because I am convinced that the method of treating ‘species and 
varieties > now in vogue is an entirely misleading one, and has merely 
grown up by custom, without reference to any philosophical con- 
siderations. The French system is only a little more absurd. 
“* Yours faithfully, 
S85 NG Nig. WtoNitaaieit, 
Paper read: 
“© A Snail Farm in Switzerland,” by Mr. R. D. Darbishire. 
Exhibits : 
Mr. Moss exhibited several specimens of different sizes of the extremely 
rare Paryphanta Hochstetterz, also specimen of Rhytida Greenwocdi, all 
recently received by him from New Zealand. 
Mr. R. Wigglesworth sent for exhibit subscalariform Lzmnca polentee 
from Cricket Pit, Accrington, and Valvata piscinalds from Clayton-le- Moors. 
On behalf of the Manchester Museum was exhibited a fine set of 
Bartlettia stephanenszs, collected by Mr. Bartlett on the Upper Amazon and 
river Ucayali, Eastern Peru, and AZit//erza lobata, from the river Magdalena, 
Bogota, New Granada, recently presented to the Museum. 
Mr. J. Ray Hardy exhibited specimens of 77id¢na nilotica. 
Mr. J. E. Cooper, of London, sent for exhibit Cavdzam edule, Tellina 
balthica, and Scrobicularia tenuzs all in brackish ditches at Southwold, 
Scrobicularia puperata from river Blyth at Walberwisk, Helix hortensis, a 
clouded var. and Planorbzs spzrorbis from Blythsburgh, Hyalnia nitidwla, 
H, alliaria, and Helix hispida from Southwold—all the above are from 
Suffolk East. 
252nd MEETING, AUGUST 12th, 1896. 
Held in the Manchester Museum, Owens College. 
Mr. J. C. Melvill, President, in the chair. 
Donations to the Library announced and thanks voted : 
Science Gossip, vol. 3, No. 27, Aug., 1896; The Naturalist, No. 253, 
Aug., 1896; The Irish Naturalist, vol. 5, No. 8, Aug., 1896; La Feuille 
des Jeunes Naturalistes, No. 310, Aug., 1896; ‘‘ New British Mollusca,” 
by H. K. Jordan; ‘‘ Label List of British Five-Banded Land Shells,” by 
