10 W. M. HAMLET. 



organisms may be borne, carried about, and transmitted by 

 sewer gas; this of course offers a ready explanation of the 

 propagation of many infectious diseases. 



Turning to contemporary work in natural history, I note 

 that the new wing of the Australian Museum is on the 

 point of completion, this will provide two magnificent 

 galleries, a lecture theatre and additional work rooms. 

 The Linnean Society of New South Wales continues its 

 successful career. The magnificent bequests of Sir William 

 Macleay enabled it to appoint another research fellow in 

 the person of Mr. Leo Cotton, late of the Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition. Three fellows and a bacteriologist are now 

 maintained in constant and continuous research. In 

 zoology our member Mr. Chas. Hedley, has completed and 

 published a memoir on the deep sea mollusca of Tasmania, 

 in conjunction with the local naturalist Mr. W. L. May. 

 No deep dredging had previously been attempted in these 

 waters, and the work of these gentlemen has considerably 

 enlarged the known fauna. The mollusca of the Great 

 Barrier Reef have been the subject of Mr. Hedley 's con- 

 tinued study and another memoir on these tropical shells 

 approaches completion. 



During the year several important papers on certain 

 archaic forms of freshwater Crustacea from Tasmania have 

 appeared from the pen of Mr. Geoffrey Smith, an Oxford 

 biologist, who visited Tasmania to procure his material. 

 At the present time when public attention is concentrated 

 on Antarctic problems, it is interesting to remark that Mr. 

 Smith finds in these ancient shrimps new and convincing 

 arguments for a former extension of Antarctica to Tas- 

 mania. In this he is supported by Mr. E. J. Goddard, a 

 brilliant pupil of Professor Haswell, who during the past 

 year has published a series of articles on freshwater worms 

 discovered by him on the mountains of Tasmania. An 



