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llEPOKTS OP SOCIETIES. 
and forests for his wood, and when neither in Devonshire or elsewhere would be 
left a bit of tangled and straggling (useless, but beautiful) wild hedgerow, or a 
bit of virgin forest the world ovei. Mr. Newman then glanced at a few of the 
many changes which man’s work and movements were bringing about in our 
day—an influence which has been at work ever since the unknown day when 
Adam, in the garden, was instructed “ to dress and to keep it.” Since then more 
and more had every living thing been compelled to bend to man’s will until 
now, save in the untouched regions, strange changes in the distribution of 
species were going on in all the world. A series of illusti’ations of plants which 
have spread to various parts, especially in the New World and the Colonies, 
was given, and it was shown how these also introduced strange variations in 
the fauna. It would take too long to enumerate a tithe of the insects which had 
increased with the increased cultivation of their food-plants. In many other 
ways, too, their numbers had been affected. The clothes-moths were so exclu¬ 
sively attached to our woollen materials that we might wonder whether or how 
they existed before we provided them with house and food. And how did the mite, 
at present peculiar to cheese and flour, exist before cheese was made or flour 
ground ? Again, how did the liver-fluke perform its strange chatiges before the 
sheep was brought by men into localities frequented by LimncBUs triincatulus ? 
We might suppose the sheep brought with them the fluke, and the embryos re¬ 
sulting from them found the LimncBtis truncatulus the most suitable 
residence for their intermediate stage. Perhaps the fact that the fluke 
was often found in a species of snail not favourable to its proper de¬ 
velopment was a proof that it had not been here long enough to be quite 
settled in its habits. Thus we had the introduction of sheep affecting a 
certain snail, and no doubt in many another unlooked-for and strange 
way the agency of man had affected species, for ^ 11 forms of life were 
closely connected. Mr. Newman went on to describe some unlooked-for and 
unfortunate results due to mistakes in acclimatisation effoids, and also to the 
more direct war of extermination, giving details of the rapid decrease of many 
species of animals, birds, etc. In conclusion, he said these notes might serve to 
call attention to the way in which florae and faunae were rapidly losing their 
distinctive features, and how largely man is, and had been responsible for the 
existence, continuance, and proper balance of all life upon the earth. What 
would be the final result of all the changes they could not see, but there appeared 
to be looming a time when the diversified beauties of Nature would be irretriev¬ 
ably lost, and the earth would be mapped out into districts most suited for the 
growth of such foods as were most beneficial to man (w’hen upon this point the 
doctors agreed), rapid communication giving quicker interchange of produce. 
Strange theories had been whispered that the maze of canal-like markings and 
lines seen in Mars, and the land apparently massed round the more temperate 
zones, indicate some such advanced stage of civilisation. Mankind was yearly 
subduing our earth more and more to his will, and, if left to himself, man’s 
works would sooner or later affect for good or evil all life upon our earth.—The 
Rev. S. J. W. Sanders proposed a vote of thanks to the author of the paper, 
which was seconded by Mr. J. Eunson, and carried unanimously. 
NOTTINGHAM NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY.—At a recent meeting of this 
Society Mr. C. T. Musson read some “Notes on the Future Work of the Society,” 
in the course of which he pointed out that he thought the Society had not kept 
up to the standard of scientific work that it might have done. They ought to be 
able to draw up a pretty accurate list of the fauna and flora of this district of the 
county. He proposed to do this by means of half-day excursions. They ought 
to go out with some definite object in view; this had not always been the case 
hitherto.—Mr. Thos. Cave, M.R C.V.S., then read an interesting paper on “ Foot 
and Mouth Disease,” variously known as “murrain,” “Eczema epizootica,’ 
“foot and mouth disease,” and “smack.” April 17th.—Mr. Charles L. Rothera 
B.A., read a paper entitled “ Some Physiological Relationships between Animals 
and Plants.” 
