94 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
Apr., 1890 . 
I think I have said enough to show that family histories of 
disease need much more careful analysis than Dr. Collier has 
attempted before they can have any bearing in favour of or 
against Weismann’s tlieorv. 
Finally, Dr. Collier admits that the bulk of the profession 
no longer believe that scars, mutilations, and so forth, are 
transmitted. But it is surely illogical in the extreme to hold 
that while the obvious structural changes of a scar are not 
transmitted, the subtler or minuter changes produced in the 
lung by'the consumptive organism, or in the liver in the case 
of gout, are inherited. 
P. Chalmers Mitchell. 
Anatomical Department, 
Museum, Oxford. 
Itports of Sonctus. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY. —Biological Section. —March 11th. Mr. W. B. Grove, 
M.A., in the chair. Mr. J. Edmonds exhibited Torrubia Bobertsii, 
“ The Bulrush Caterpillar,” from New Zealand (native name Awhetu), 
brought over by Mr. S. A. Daniell, of Moseley. Mr. J. E. Bagnall, 
Serratula tinctoria and Littorella lacustris , both new to Sutton Park; 
for Mr. J. B. Stone, Arctostaphylos alpina, A. ursi, Phyllodoce taxifolia, 
and other plains from Norway; also for Miss Gingell, Peltiyera 
rufescens, P. canina, Solorina saccata , Cetraria aculeata and other 
lichens from Dursley, Gloucestershire; and Mr. A. H. Martineau, 
nest of Vespa sylvestris. — Geological Section. March 18th. Mr. T. 
H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., in the chair. A paper on “Norway and the 
North Cape” was read by Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E., and illustrated 
by the oxy-hyarogen lantern by Mr. Charles Pumphrey. There was a 
very large attendance, the accommodation of the Examination Hall, 
Mason College, being taxed to the uttermost. A hearty vote of thanks 
was given to Messrs. Marshall and Pumphrey. 
BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ 
UNION.—February 24th. Mr. H. Hawkes exhibited peristome of 
Polytrichuvi undulatuvi; Mr. G. H. Corbett, pebbles from the Bunter 
bed, containing worm tracks, tails of trilobites, &c. A paper was 
then read by Mr. J. W. Dunn, on “Volcanoes.” The writer referred 
to the ancient traditions and superstitions concerning volcanoes, and 
said they were generally regarded from a destructive point of view 7 , 
but they had also a beneficent side. The phenomena of volcanic action 
were described, and the theory of absorption by the incandescent rock 
masses enlarged upon. The fact of volcanoes nearly always occupying 
rising areas proved their use as elevating forces. A discussion on the 
subject closed the meeting.—March 3rd. Professor Hillhouse, M.A., 
F.L.S., in the chair. Mr. J. Collins exhibited a collection of dried 
plants belonging to the orders Leguminosse and Rosaceae; Mr. J. 
Rodgers, slab of shale from Hamstead, with impression of Lepido- 
strobus,&c.; Mr. Round, scales of ganoid fish from the coal measures.— 
March 10th. Mr. H. Haw r kes showed an abnormal growth of daffodil, 
