president's address. 
201 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
ANNUAL MEETING AT SHREWSBURY, 
JUNE 22nd and 23rd, 1886. 
address by the rev. j. d. la touche, president of the union. 
Ladies and Gentlemen,—I propose in the address which 
I have the honour to deliver on this occasion, first, to reca¬ 
pitulate briefly the subjects which have occupied the atten¬ 
tion of the Naturalist Societies of this Union during the past 
year; secondly, to enumerate the various points of interest 
which this county and neighbourhood afford ; and lastly, to 
allude to the labours of Charles Darwin, that illustrious man, 
of whose connection with the town of Shrewsbury by birth 
and family its inhabitants may feel justly proud. 
I.—In reference to the first subject, the difficulty lies in 
selection. A glance through the pages of the modest but 
useful monthly periodical which is devoted to the record of 
the operations of these societies reveals a quite embarrassing 
number of papers on a multiplicity of subjects connected 
with science in its varied branches, as well as abundant 
evidence, from the vast number of specimens and objects of 
natural history exhibited from time to time at the meetings 
of the microscopical and literary societies, especially in Bir¬ 
mingham, Leicester, Peterborough, and the occasional notes 
of field club meetings, that there is no decline in the interest 
with which natural science is pursued. 
Among the most important of the papers which have 
appeared in the “Midland Naturalist,” I notice a series by Mr. 
Harrison, on the “ Pre-carboniferous Floor of the Midlands.” 
That the geological interest of this area is far from being ex¬ 
hausted or fully explored has been proved by the recent and 
unexpected discovery of rocks of pre-Cambrian age near Atlier- 
stone, at Hart’s Hill. These had previously been mapped by 
the Survey as carboniferous; again, the altered rocks 
near Rowington, in Warwickshire, supposed to be millstone 
grits, are now decided to be Cambrian ; and near Nuneaton 
sundry purple and other shales, classed as carboniferous, are 
shown by Professor Lapworth to be Cambrian, and yield 
Cambrian fossils, such as Olenus , Lingula , &c. Mr. Thompson 
has also contributed some valuable papers on “ The Lias of 
Northamptonshire,” with some carefully prepared lists of 
fossils found there. Those interested in physiology will 
appreciate the papers on “ The Ear and Hearing,” by Mr. 
