1888-89.] 123 



the published results of these voyages, white in other directions 

 much attention has been given to the determination of the ages 

 of our eruptive rocks, and the phenomena of metamorphism. 

 In the elucidation of the latter, microscopic examination has 

 proved a valuable aid, while synthetical chemistry has shown 

 that some of our minerals may be artificially formed. We may 

 anticipate that further investigations in that direction will enable 

 us to determine the means by which they have been formed in 

 the conditions under which we find them. While micro- 

 geology and lithology have progressed, palaeontology in its 

 various branches has similarly advanced. 



The establishment of the Biological Laboratories at Naples 

 and Plymouth, and I think at St. Andrew's also, have already 

 produced good results, and as such facilities for study are in- 

 creased we may look forward to valuable information being 

 gained with regard to the life history of our food fishes, and the 

 harvest of the sea may be made more productive. 



Naturalists' investigations have proved that birds are in many 

 instances not the enemies, but the friends of the farmer, and 

 while they may take toll from him occasionally, they render 

 good service for it. Our legislators have been led to look upon 

 the matter in this light, hence we have the Wild Birds' Preser- 

 vation Act, a thing also undreamt of when our Club first met. 

 Birds are an important factor in keeping down the ravages of 

 insects, which in certain seasons inflict an amount of damage 

 which cannot be estimated. The appointment of Miss Ormerod 

 as consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England shows that this subject of injurious insects is being 

 taken up thoroughly, and if her warnings and directions to 

 farmers regarding the stamping out of these pests were attended 

 to, considerable gain would result. One somewhat peculiar 

 instance of injury being done is by the carrion beetle develop- 

 ing vegetarian habits. Naturally a gross flesh-eater, it has 

 acquired a taste for mangold, and has during the past summer 

 wrought considerable havoc in that crop in Somersetshire. 



The Hessian Fly, about which such alarm was created in 



