YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION AT BEVERLEY. 157 



natural history work which they have accomplished of late years, and which is in 

 no small degree due to the stimulus given by the regular periodical visits of the 

 Union to all parts of the great county which constitutes the area of their investiga- 

 tions. The Report and Balance-sheet having been adopted by an unanimous vote, 

 the excursion programme for 1886 was arranged as follows: — -Askern, Thursday, 

 20th May; Flamborough, Whit-Monday, 14th June; Pateley Bridge for Upper 

 Nidderdale, Saturday, 10th July; Pickering, Bank-holiday Monday, 2nd August; 

 and a Fungus Foray to finish the season, with the meetings and a Fungus Show 

 at Leeds, the date being left for after-arrangement. For the Annual Meeting of 

 1887 invitations were presented by deputations from Dewsbury and Driffield, and 

 for 1888 from Malton. Dewsbury was selected for the meeting in March 1887, 

 after which the election of Officers was proceeded with. The retiring Secretaries 

 — Messrs. W. Denison Roebuck, F.L.S., and W. Eagle Clarke, F.L.S., of Leeds, 

 were re-elected. For the Executive Council the Revs. W. Fowler, M.A. 

 (Liversedge), and W. C. Hey, M.A. (York), and Messrs. J. W. Davis, F.S.A. 

 (Halifax), G. C. Dennis (York), John Emmet, F.L.S. (Boston Spa), C. P. Hobkirk, 



F. L.S. (Dewsbury), B. Holgate, F.G.S. (Leeds), Geo. T. Porritt, F.L.S. (Hud- 

 dersfield), H. T. Soppitt (Bradford), and J. J. Stead (Liversedge), were chosen. 

 Messrs. Adamson and Bedford were re-appointed auditors. The next business 

 was a recommendation from the Executive that a new section be instituted, whose 

 field should be Micro-zoology and Micro-botany. The adoption of this recommen- 

 dation was unanimously voted, on the proposition of Dr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., 

 and the President pointed out that it was not to be a ' microscopical ' section, 

 inasmuch as it was not in any way concerned with the microscope as an instrument, 

 but simply with the investigation of the microscopical fauna and flora of the county, 

 and that it would be a section for which much valuable work could be done. The 

 section was next constituted by a resolution electing Dr. Sorby as its first President, 

 and Messrs. J. M. Kirk, of Doncaster, and W. Barwell Turner, F.C.S., F.R.M.S., 

 of Leeds, as Secretaries. It was resolved that the Union subscribe for the 

 Zoological Record, after which the General Committee adjourned. The various 

 sections then met to elect their officers, the results being as follows: — Section B— 

 Vertebrate Zoology, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bt., M.B.O.U., Thirkleby Park, 

 president, and Mr. James Backhouse, jun , M.B.O.U., York, secretary (re-elected) ; 

 C — -Conchology, Rev. W. C. Hey, M.A., York, president, and Messrs. J. Darker 

 Butterell, Beverley, and John Emmet, F.L.S., Boston Spa, secretaries (all three 

 re-elected) ; D — Entomology, Mr. N. F. Dobree, Beverley, president, and Messrs. 



G. C. Dennis, York, and E. B. Wrigglesworth, Wakefield (the latter re-elected) ; 

 E — Botany, Rev. W. Fowler, M.A., Liversedge, president, and Messrs. P. 

 F. Lee, Dewsbury (re-elected), and M. B. Slater, Malton, secretaries; F — Geology, 

 Rev. E. Maule Cole, M.A., Wetwang, president (re-elected), and Messrs. S. A. 

 Adamson, F.G.S., Leeds (re-elected), and S. Chadwick, Malton, secretaries. 



The annual public meeting was held in the evening, in the Assembly Rooms, 

 the Rev. W. H. Dallinger, LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair. Time did 

 not permit of the customary re-reading of the annual report and the announcement 

 of the excursion programme, and the chair was taken by the Mayor of Beverley 

 (Mr. Tom Turner, J. P.), and the president then delivered the address which 

 forms the prominent feature of the annual gathering. The subject of the address 

 (which will be printed in extenso in the Transactions of the Union) was "The 

 Infusoria and Allied Organisations on a Field for Research ?' It was illustrated by 

 lantern diagrams — and in the course of his discourse Dr. Dallinger described his 

 important experiments upon change of environment. Although space permits not 

 of any reproduction of the address itself, the concluding remarks, in which it 

 was stated that much information is wanting as to distribution, are of great 

 importance. The geographical distribution so far as England is concerned of 

 many leading forms is in a very unsatisfactory state. Locality and habitat are 

 most important factors in our knowledge of the true habits of an organism, and 

 there are few things that would quietly aid some branches of true scientific enquiry 

 so much as an exhaustive study with this end in view of the ponds, ditches, and 

 minor streams of Yorkshire. 



After votes of thanks — to the President for his address, and to the Beverley 

 Society for their kind and hospitable reception, and the Mayor for occupying the 

 chair — the remainder of the evening was occupied with the conversazione inaugu- 

 rative of the exhibition, upon which the local Society are heartily to be congratulated. 

 May 1886. 



