THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
155
He remembered that when the sewers were being dug at Chingford and
Walthamstow some years back, many fine crystals were obtained by the work-
men. They used to call them "frozen" or "congealed" water.
Mr. Scourfield, Mr. Elliott, and Dr. Audeu confirmed these statements.
Mr. F. H. Varley, F.R.A.S., having, as a member of the Council, taken
the chair.
Prof. Meldola delivered a most interesting lecture upon "Mimetic
Insects." The subjects treated were, the production of colour in the living
organism—Adaptation in colour and pattern to the environment—Protective
and aggressive resemblance—Wallace's theory of "warning colours"—The
parallelism between protective resemblance and mimetic resemblance—The
Batesian theory of mimicry and its limitations—Extension of the theory by
Fritz Muller—Later researches on the subject of "Common warning colours."
The lecture was beautifully illustrated by natural-colour photographs
taken by the Sanger-Shepherd process, the specimens being chiefly from the
collections in the Hope Museum, and arranged for the present lecture by
Professor E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., Hope Professor of Invertebrate Zoology,
University of Oxford. These unique photographs were shown by means of
the electric lantern.
The lecture was listened to with marked attention by the large audience,
and was frequently applauded.
The Chairman in moving a cordial vote of thanks to the lecturer, con-
gratulated him on having delivered an admirable exposition of one of the
most striking theories of modern biology, and also on his re-appearance in
the Presidential Chair after an interval of 18 years. Mr. Varley also alluded
to the excellent examples of the new art of producing natural-colour photo-
graphs which had been made by Mr. Sanger-Shepherd, which proved the
value of the process as a means of illustrating lectures such as that to which
they had all listened with so much profit and pleasure.
The vote of thanks was seconded by Mr. T. Spiller, F.C.S., and carried
amid applause.
Prof. Meldola, in responding, expressed his indebtedness to Prof. Poulton
for the beautiful examples selected from the Hope Museum. That Museum
under Prof. Poulton's enthusiastic curatorship, had gradually acquired what
was probably the finest collection illustrating "mimicry" and "protective
resemblance" in Europe. He was also much obliged to Mr. Sanger-Shepherd
for the care and skill shown in making the lantern slides.
THE 207TH ORDINARY MEETING.
Saturday, December 14TH, 1901.
The 207th Ordinary Meeting was held in the Physical Lecture Theatre
of the West Ham Technical Institute, at 6 30 p.m., the President, Prof. R
Meldola, F.R.S., in the chair.
Mr. Frank P. Smith was elected a member of the Club.