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194 
in the upper part of the coal measures near to permian beds, 
and generally makes a good hydraulic lime. In addition, it 
was associated with purple and greenish-coloured shales 
and fire clays as well as green earth, and what has some- 
times the appearance of volcanic ash. Altogether the 
general character of these strata, independently of the 
occurrence of the Bpirorhis in the limestone, give evidence 
of coal measures ver^^ different in appearance to those found 
in the mi4dle and thick beds of the English and Scotch 
fields. 
Many years since the late Sir Charles Lyell showed him 
a specimen of the limestone and asked what was its age, as 
none of his geological friends knew it. He (the President) 
explained that it was the so-called Freshwater limestone of 
the upper coal measures. Certainly Spirorbis is a much 
better specific name for the limestone than Freshwater. A 
good many geologists and mining men even now on being 
shown a specimen of the limestone would be puzzled to 
know where it came from. 
“Losses and Gains in the Death-toll of England and 
Wales during the last 30 years,” by Arthur Eansome, 
M.A., M.D. 
In a paper recently read before this Society, Mr. Baxen- 
delF endeavours, with much research and ability, to reckon 
up the gains and losses in the mortality of England and 
Wales from different diseases. If the records upon which 
he bases his conclusions had been entirely trustworthy, the 
results which he has obtained would doubtless have been 
valuable — and might, perhaps, have indicated the presence of 
certain influences bearing upon the public health — but even 
so, I venture to think that the figures he adduces would 
not bear out the inferences which he attempts to draw from 
them. Unfortunately, the returns of the Begistrar-General 
“ On Changes in the Rates of Mortality from Different Diseases during the Twenty 
Years 1854-1873.” 
