Dec., 1890. 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
285 
The writer said, among the many honours conferred on him in Bir¬ 
mingham, one was receiving an invitation to become a fellow-worker 
with this association, and it now became his duty to lay his offering 
of peace on their altar. Some proverbs were here mentioned, the 
writer remarking that proverbial philosophy will sometimes lead us 
astray. Some sayings were too rigidly true ; others were really false. 
Superficial knowledge was smattering. This was an age of special¬ 
isation—of the division of labour—an evil for which we shall some 
time have to pay a heavy price for the loss of our skilled handicrafts¬ 
men. Specialise if you will, but overcome the evil by smatterings. 
Fill the mind with knowledge, for it will be active ; it may be active 
in trivialities or realities. The writer spoke of the exacting nature 
of mental work compared with muscle work, but the first could be 
partly overcome by walking exercise, to which a great additional 
interest would be attached by a little knowledge of geology, botany, 
or archaeology. If all knowledge cannot be our property, let us have 
common rights. Become searchers after knowledge, take her to your 
hearts and minds, for hers is the beauty of the universe.—November 
10th. Mr. H. Hawkes showed a small collection of Alpine plants 
from Switzerland, including specimens of Gentiana bavarica , Hodisa- 
rium obscurum, Soldanella alpina, and Viola calcarata ; Mr. J. Madison, 
sketches of land shells (Achatmae) from Central Africa ; Mr. G. H. 
Corbett, ganoid scales of fish from Purbeck beds, Swanage. Mr. J. W. 
Neville then read a paper on “ Some Peculiar Modifications of Insects’ 
Mouths.” The writer took as a type the mouth organs of Blatta 
orientalis , which he described as a good specimen of a normal type, 
all the parts being well developed and none of them highly specialised. 
The insects spoken of were the mosquito and gadfly. The different 
parts of the mouth organs were described in detail and compared 
with the type specimen, showing in both instances very marked 
specialisation. The sexes differed to a considerable degree, the 
females in both insects only having the full complement of organs. 
The paper was illustrated by a series of drawings. 
DERBYSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HIS¬ 
TORY SOCIETY.—October 14th. A well-attended meeting of the 
Natural History section took place at Smith’s Rooms, Mr. H. Arnold- 
Bemrose, M.A., president of the section, in the chair, when Mr. 
F. J. R. Carulla, who was for many years connected with the iron 
and steel industries in various capacities, gave a paper on “ The 
Development of the Age of Steel.” The discovery of iron implements 
more than 1,500 years old, made at the Roman city of Silchester by 
Mr. St. John Hope, afforded the lecturer an apt illustration of 
the interest that the subject of the evening should have for the 
archaeologist, who must take cognisance of the development that is 
going on around him in order thoroughly to understand the problems 
that engage his special attention. In this respect he is like the 
palaeontologist, who cannot ignore the investigation of the biologist on 
the subject of existing species, studies that throw the clearest light 
on the nature of the animals and plants of past ages. The develop¬ 
ment of the steel manufacture from the time of Huntsman and the 
older processes to the more modern ones of Bessemer and Siemens 
was traced, Robert Mushet coming in for a due share of notice. It 
may be news to many that the first rail of Bessemer-Mushet steel 
(commonly called Bessemer steel) ever laid down was at the Midland 
Station, Derby. This rail did good service from early in 1857 to the 
middle of 1878 in a part of the line where iron rails had to be renewed 
every six months and occasionally within three months. The paper 
