PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 265 



opinion, if a great many of the 'authorized' varietal names were 

 •submitted to a wider scrutiny. It is strange, for example, that 

 Toseolabiate forms should rank as varieties, now that the term variety 

 has practically 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, 



"K. W. W. BOWELL." 



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 Paiyphanta Hochstctteri, also specimen of Rhytida Greenwoodi, all 

 recently received by him from New Zealand. 



Mr. R. Wigglesworth sent for exhibit subscalariform Li/imaa palustris 

 from Cricket Pit, Accrington, and Valvata pisciiialis from Clayton-le-Moors. 



On behalf of the Manchester Museum was exhibited a fine set of 

 Bartlettia stephanensis, collected by Mr. Bartlett on the Upper Amazon and 

 river Ucayali, Eastern Peru, and Miillerm lobata, from the river Magdalena, 

 Bogota, New Granada, recently presented to the Museum. 



Mr. T- Ray Hardy exhibited specimens of Iridina nilotica. 



Mr. J. E. Cooper, of London, sent for exhibit Cardiu/n edule, Tellinci. 

 ialthica, and Sci-obiciilaria tenuis all from brackish ditches at Southwold, 

 Scrobicitlaria piperata from river Blyth at Walberwisk, Helix ho7-tensis, a 

 clouded var. and Planorbis spirorbis from Blythsburgh, Hyalinia nitidiila, 

 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 



