MEETING OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
193 
the Union, 16 out of about 30 which have at one time or another 
belonged to it, should definitely consider whether there is any feasible 
scheme by which the bond of connection now existing in the Union 
may be strengthened and still further utilised. 
“ Midland Naturalist.” 
The monthly issue of the “Midland Naturalist” has continued, 
and the character of the papers contributed has, we believe, been as high 
as in any former year. We have again to thank the editors, Messrs. 
W. J. Harrison and E. W. Badger, for their valuable services and the 
labour and energy they have given to the work; and the Birmingham 
Natural History Society for the illustrations which have added so much 
to the interest of several of the articles. 
Since the last meeting, the conclusion of the list of the Flora of 
Warwickshire, by Mr. J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S., has appeared. We feel 
that the Union is to be congratulated on the completion of this very 
excellent piece of work, the outcome of the unwearied personal obser¬ 
vations of many years, supplemented by diligent research into 
previous records. Among the principal articles published we may 
mention:— 
Pennatulida and the Mode of Automatic Section Cutting and 
Mounting, by W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E.; Leicestershire Forms of 
Capsella Bursa Pastoris, by F. T. Mott; Geological Structure of the 
Titterstone Clee Hill, by the Rev. J. I). La Touche ; The Ear and 
Hearing, by W. B. Abel, B.A., F.R.M.S.; The Middle Lias of Northamp¬ 
tonshire, by B. Thompson, F.G.S., F.C.S.; Some Recent Observations 
on the Structure of Rowley Rag, by Tlios. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc.; On 
Starch, by Edward Francis, F.C.S.; Niagara and its Physical and 
Geological Conditions, by W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E. ; Notes on the 
Flora of America, by W. H. Wilkiuson; Anthropology, by Joseph 
Smith, jun., SI.A.I.; Some Inaccuracies upon the Geological Survey 
Slaps and Section of the Leicestershire Coalfield, by W. S. Gresley, 
F.G.S.; The Occurrence of Fossiliferous Hrematite Nodules in the 
Permian Breccias in Leicestershire, by W. S. Gresley, F.G.S. ; The 
Slonuinental Brasses of Warwickshire, by E. W. Badger, SI. A.; Notes 
on the Anker Valley and its Flora, by J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S.; Notes on 
the River Rea and the Flora of the Rea Valley, by the Rev. H. 
Boy den, B.A.; The Precarboniferous Floor of the Midlands, by W. J. 
Harrison, F.G.S. 
Darwin Medal. 
The subject of the present year is Zoology, and the following 
gentlemen kindly undertook the office of Adjudicators, viz.:—Professor 
T. W. Bridge, Professor A. M. Marshall, Sir Hereward Wake, Bart., 
and Rev. W. Houghton. 
The Council regrets that the Adjudicators have unanimously 
expressed the judgment that none of the papers or sets of papers were 
deserving of the distinction of the medal. The Council, therefore, in 
accordance with the rule, has made no award of the medal for this year. 
The Council, at the last meeting, referred the regulations for the 
medal to the Executive Committee for their consideration, with the 
view of removing some ambiguities which appeared in the existing 
rules. The result of the Committee’s consideration was the adoption 
of the modified rules published in the “Midland Naturalist” in 
December, 1885, by which the whole set of papers, by one author, is 
to be considered as the competing matter, and not any one individual 
paper ; together with an instruction to the Council to withhold the 
