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MEETING- OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
NINTH ANNUAL MEETING, SHREWSBURY, 1886. 
The Ninth Annual Meeting was held in the Music Hall, Shrews¬ 
bury, on Tuesday, June 22, 1886. The Rev. J. D. La Touche 
(President of the Union) occupied the chair, and among those 
present were—Rev. O. M. Feilden and the Rev. T. Auden (local 
secretaries), the Rev. Canon Butler, Rev. C. H. Drinkwater, Rev. 
N. Cooper, Rev. W. Houghton, Rev. W. H. Fletcher, Colonel Barnes, 
and Messrs. W. Phillips, R. W. Ralph, W. Beacall, W. Soutliam, H. 
Wilson (Malvern), Egbert de Hamel (Tamworth), F. W. Richards 
(Birmingham), E. Wheeler (Peterborough), Rev. D. P. Lewis, Ac. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting held at Birmingham were read by 
the Rev. T. Auden, who apologised for the unavoidable absence of Mr. 
T. IT. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., Birmingham (Union Secretary). 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
The President said before reading the address he wished to say a 
few words of welcome to the delegates of the various towns repre¬ 
sented. He was pleased to say that among naturalists there existed a 
sort of Freemasonry, and they were always glad to meet one another ; 
therefore it did not require many words from him to express the 
feeling of pleasure entertained by the members of the Shropshire 
Society towards the visitors belonging to the Union. He wished very 
much that it had fallen to the lot of some gentleman more able and 
more eloquent than himself to welcome the delegates. It was a source 
of great regret to all concerned that some of those gentlemen more 
intimately acquainted with the town of Shrewsbury, and especially 
the Mayor of the borough, were not able to be present. He had 
received a letter from Mr. Soutliam, who said he was exceedingly 
sorry that he was unable to attend the gathering, to which 
he had looked forward as one of the principal events 
occurring during his term of office ; but having been invited 
to London by the Lord Mayor to attend, in his official 
capacity, the laying of memorial stones and other ceremonials, he 
thought it only right that an ancient borough like Shrewsbury should 
be represented. In welcoming the Union, he (the President) would 
say that the county of Shropshire was rich in many respects, and 
especially to geologists, for it was by the geology of Shropshire 
that the geology of many other parts of the world was deciphered. 
It was also a country full of interest to the botanist, and therefore 
those gentlemen who had come from a distance would have ample 
opportunities for prosecuting their studies ; but he was afraid the 
