THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
85
much injured. He would not, therefore, plead for the preservation of the viper,
however much, as naturalists, they might regret its disappearance from our fauna.
With reference to the decline of ague, he really could add nothing to what he had
said in his paper. Taking Foulness Island as an example, so far as he knew there
had been no alteration in the physical conditions of human life there in any way
—there never had been any special drainage or other sanitary expedients; there
never had been trees ; the labourers lived now as they always had lived, and took
plenty of meat and beer, which drink would contain much sugar. Notwith-
standing this absence of changed condition of life, ague in Foulness Island is now
a very rare if not an extinct disease, and it had also certainly disappeared from
many other places in Essex where it was formerly a common and recurring evil.
A note on "The Origin of 'Sugaring': to whom does the credit rightly
belong?" by Mr. Miller Christy, was read by the Secretary (see page 69).
Mr. Cole said that in all probability the error pointed out by Mr. Christy was
simply one of date (see note attached to Mr. Christy's remarks).
Mr. Fitch quoted the following extract from the "Entomologist," vol. I (October,
1842) :—"Polia occulta.—I captured a pair of this rare species here this week ;
a female on the 1st and a male on the 4th ; they were both sucking sugar which
I had placed on the trunks of some trees to attract moths.—H. Doubleday,
Epping, August 6th, 1842."
Prof. Meldola pointed out the natural attraction for moths furnished by the
"honey-dew" on plants, and referred to his note on the subject in the "Ento-
mologist" for 1868-69 (vol. iv., page 303), which corroborated the Rev. J.
Green's observations in the "Insect Hunters' Companion." Mr. Meldola also
mentioned his own capture of two specimens of Aplecta occulta in "Gilbert's
Slade" (in the Forest near Snaresbrook) on August 26th, 1869 (see "Ento-
mologist," iv., 325), and said so many of his early "takes" of Lepidoptera had been
made in Leyton and parts adjacent, now invaded by the speculative builder, that
he thought it would be worth while to place them on record. He therefore pro-
posed to draw up a list of these captures for publication in the Essex
Naturalist.
A paper, treating of "Some Essex Boulders," by the Rev. A.W. Rowe, M.A.,
F.G.S., was, in Mr. Rowe's absence, also read by the Secretary. It will appear
in full in the Essex Naturalist.
Mr. W. Greatheed referred to the immense boulder found in making a sewer
in the Oxford Road, Manchester, and which had been with great labour and
difficulty recently transported to the quadrangle of Owen's College. It had been
estimated by Mr. Kendall to weigh from twenty to thirty tons, and when found,
an examination of the surrounding and underlying deposits showed that the
Boulder Clay immediately beneath the block had been driven by its weight some
feet down into the older gravel bed on which the clay had been originally
deposited.
Prof. Boyd Dawkins has recently described this remarkable stone in the
''Manchester Guardian,'' and some passages from his article may be worth
quoting, as giving a short summary of the history of such erratic blocks. The
Manchester boulder "is composed of a rock of Lower Silurian age and of volcanic
origin, out of which some of the most beautiful scenery of the Lake District has
been carved, and from which it has been transported to the Oxford Road by the
agency of ice." Prof. Dawkins then speaks of the complicated series of events
which are included under the name "Glacial," and gives the following short