19UB-1909.J ,gc 



At the conclusion of Mr. Skillen's paper, Mr. Fennell gave 

 a description of the Round Church in Carrickfergus Castle, 

 illustrating his remarks with a number of lantern slides. He 

 also referred to the recent discovery of a portion of an Anglo- 

 Norman inscribed tombstone, and to the bringing back to light 

 the great Norman columns of the nave in St. Nicholas' Church. 

 A general discussion followed, in which most of those present 

 joined. 



" METHOD IN BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 



At a meeting of the Zoological Section on the evening of 

 Wednesday, ioth February, the Vice-President, Mr. W. H. Gallway, 

 in the chair— Mr. F. Balfour-Browne, M.A., F.R.S.E., F.Z.S., 

 delivered a short lecture on " Method in Biological Research." 

 He pointed out that the present curriculum in biology at the 

 Universities gave one a grounding in the general subject, taught 

 the use of the microscope and other instruments, and also 

 taught various laboratory methods, all useful indirectly to the 

 naturalist, but that the special methods of such an individual had 

 to be developed as required, and he suggested that the great 

 advantage of any form of training was that it developed the power 

 of being methodical. Mr. Balfour-Browne described himself as a 

 hydro-biologist, and said that he was chiefly interested in the 

 water-beetles, on the British species of which he hoped some day 

 to write a monograph. He described his work as consisting of 

 four sections, collecting, systematic work, life-history work, and 

 distribution, and he described in detail the methods he employed 

 so as to make use of the information on these points which he 

 collected from every possible source. The most troublesome, yet 

 none the less interesting, work on distribution necessitated the 

 employment of very elaborate methods. First, a filing of every 

 published record on the distribution of every British species ; 

 secondly, the formation of a chart which shows at a glance the 



