22
ANNUAL REPORT OF
would be of the greatest benefit to the Club, and would much facilitate the con-
duct of the business, while enhancing the pleasure and instruction to be
derived from membership. The proposals for amalgamation coming from the
managers of the existing Essex and Chelmsford Museum, and the interest shown
in the scheme by many friends in Essex, place the Club in a position to attempt
the formation of the Museum with a reasonable chance of success, and the Council
is of opinion that even should the attempt fail the Club will not therefore suffer
any injury. We shall at least have done our best to bring about a most desirable
result. The value of purely local Museums has been of late years insisted upon
by some of the most eminent scientific men in the country as being capable of
conferring very considerable educational and intellectual benefits upon the inhab-
itants of the districts in which they are formed, and as giving excellent data for
future scientific surveys and statistics relating to the several counties in detail, and
Great Britain generally.
Turning now to a review of the work of the Club during the past year, the
Council may be permitted to congratulate the members upon the success which
has attended the Meetings. Including the Meeting held on January nth, 1890,
which properly belonged to last year, 15 Ordinary and Field Meetings have been
held. Two of the former, held at Chelmsford and Colchester respectively, may be
termed "Winter Field Meetings," the nature of which was explained in the last
Annual Report. These were most successful, owing mainly to the exertions of
local friends, among whom may be named Mr. Durrant, Mr. Chancellor, Dr.
Laver, Mr. Shenstone, Rev. C. L. Acland and Mr. Joslin. The interest of our
purely Ordinary Meetings has been fully sustained, and the following papers have
been "read." or communicated direct to the Editor, those marked with an asterisk
having already been printed in the Essex Naturalist :—
* " The Presidential Address." E. A. Fitch, F.L.S., F.E.S.
* " Old Chelmsford." Frederick Chancellor, F.R.I.B.A., &c.
* " On Bacteria (Lecture). A. H. Downes, M.D., &c.
* " Notes on the Geology of the District around Chelmsford, with a
List of the Mollusca from the Alluvium of Roxwell, Essex." Reginald W.
Christy.
" Bees and Bee-keeping" (Lecture). Edmund Durrant.
* " A List of the Works on the Geology, &c. of Essex." W. Whitaker,
F.R.S., F.G.S., and W. H. Dalton, F.G.S.
" The Fishes of Essex." Henry Laver, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., F.S.A.
" Notes on some of the rarer Coleoptera found in the Colchester District."
W. H. Harwood.
" Notes on Results of an Examination of a Red-hill near Burnham, Essex."
E. A. Fitch, F.L.S., and W. Cole.
* " Some Essex Well-Sections, Part II." W. Whitaker, F.R.S., F.G.S.
"On some Abnormal forms of Vegetation" (Lecture). Charles Browne,
M.A., F.S.A.
* " Of Hawks and Hounds in Essex in the Olden Time." J. E. Harting,
F.L.S., F.Z.S.
" The Bartlow Hills." Joseph Clarke, F.S.A.
" Human Skins nailed to Church doors" G. N. Maynard.
" On Mazes, with special reference to the Maze at Saffron Walden." G.
N. Maynard.
* " Historical notices of the Short-tailed Field Vole, and Short-eared Owl
in Essex." E. A. Fitch, F.L.S.