34 



age, is not because sustenance fails, but by reason of poisons which 

 are gradually stored up in the system, and by means of the action 

 of micro-organisms, forms of phagocytes, which eat away the 

 tissues, as the Psalmist says, " like a moth fretting a garment." 



The "auto-intoxication of the bodies of plants and animals is 

 also due to such microbes as the ' bacillus coli.' " 



This remarkable hypothesis is defended by Dr. MetschnikofF, 

 with great ability in his recent work, " On the Prolongation of 

 Life," but I must not now do more than refer to it. 



I have now, perhaps, given a sufficient number of instances of 

 provision for the future, to prove not only that this principle is 

 carried out as a result of intelligence, but that it is inherent in the 

 materials of which organisms are made. I will leave my hearers to 

 draw the obvious moral. 



fKejJurf of (general lectures fcelttterelr 

 birring ffK HHnie.r Sessitm, 1908-9. 



This lecture was given on Nov. 28th, 1908, by C. 

 Some vanishing J. Hankinson, Esq., J. P., and illustrated by a 

 European series of coloured lantern slides, from photographs 



Costumes. by the lecturer. The chair was taken by J. 



Liddiard, Esq., F.R.G.S., Mr, Hankinson dwelt 

 upon the fact that every year witnessed the disappearance of some 

 relic of distinctive costume, and upon the importance of preserving 

 records of such when possible. Differences in costume are princi- 

 pally due to climate, materials available, and to individual taste or 

 special requirements. In England the old distinctive costumes are 

 practically extinct, though traces of them remain in outlying parts 

 of the British Isles. A number of slides were shown illustrating the 

 costumes of Brittany, particularly the coif, or white linen headdress, 

 which has a distinctive form in different districts. Then followed 

 pictures of Swiss, Swedish and Norwegian costumes, their peculiar- 

 ities being described. In Norway a mantilla-like head shawl is 

 worn, supposed to have originated with the survivors of a Spanish 

 galleon wrecked on the coast. Passing on to costumes of the 

 Austrian Empire, Balkan States and Turks, Mr. Hankinson em- 

 phasized the fitness and picturesqueness of the old native costumes 

 over the productions of the modern milliner, and concluded with a 

 few pictures of Oriental costumes, which had remained unaltered 

 for centuries. 



