Journal of Proceedings. lix
the cabinet. Also a box containing "life-histories" of several species of
moths, showing caterpillar, chrysalis, cocoon, imago, parasites, &c, in
one view, which he had prepared as a kind of ensample of the biological
collections he would like to see in the Club's Museum.
Mr. Crouch said that he was much interested in Mr. Cole's specimens,
inasmuch as they illustrated a principle he had long maintained as the
right one to be followed in a collection intended to be of educational
value, viz., the demonstration of the structure of an animal in all its
stages, and not merely of one phase of its development. He had
endeavoured to carry out the plan in his own special study, Conchology,
which was too often looked upon as a kind of artificial classification of
an important group of animals by means of one very superficial feature
in their organisation, the shell or protective envelope of the body. He
hoped soon to be able to submit to the Club some specimens which would
illustrate in a measure his views on the subject.
A paper "On the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the district around
Colchester," by Mr. Henry Laver, F.L.S., was read by the Secretary.
[Transactions, ii. 88.]
The President observed that Mr. Laver's paper appeared to be of
considerable value as embodying the result of close personal observa-
tion in a limited area, and as giving so much precise information as
to the environment of each species. He took it that the paper was
typical of the kind of communications they desired to have in the
' Transactions ' of the Society, and he had only one suggestion to make,
viz., that authors could add much to the interest and value of their
communications by exhibiting the specimens described, and, if possible,
placing an authenticated series in the Museum of the Club, so as to be
available for future reference.
Mr. Walter Crouch said he had listened to Mr. Laver's paper with
much pleasure, and could but echo the wish of the President that the
author had sent specimens of the various shells. It was curious to note
that some of the genera and species which were very common in the
Beacontree Hundred had not, so far, been found by Mr. Laver in his
district. Mr. Crouch instanced the genus Vertigo, species of which are
extremely difficult to find on account of their minute size, and of which he
had obtained some thirty specimens that season, embracing certainly three
or four of the species ; and Physa hypnorum, which, though rare with the
author, was one of the commonest shells in the meadow grips in his
own district. He had seen this shell and that of Limuaea peregra in
scores, left high and dry after a flood in the Boding Valley. On the
other hand, the pretty little land snails, Helix aculeata and Achatina
acicula he had never had the good fortune to find ; and though the
river snail, Paludina vivipara, was extremely common in the Boding, it
was not mentioned by Mr. Laver, while the other species, P. contecta,
which Mr. Crouch had never found in Essex, was stated to be found
in the Stour, and of very large size. Balia perversa was rare in both