Then in each midland county if some half-dozen workers will but band themselves together for the prosecution of this study, I see no reason why valuable results should not be attained at an early date, and the exhibition of specimens. illustrative of the glacial deposits of the Midlands, might be made a special feature of the Annual Meeting of the Union at Leicester, in 1879.
If any scheme of the kind hinted at above can be set on foot, I would suggest that the various record keepers meet at given centres, say at first monthly. They should appoint one of their number as a general secretary or reporter, and notices of the work done should appear from time to time in the pages of the "Midland Naturalist."
Finally the three questions upon which it seems necessary to fix our attention are:—
Notes On Melicerta Ringens.
By F. A. Bedwell, M.A., F.R.M.S.
There is, perhaps, no animal that has been more observed and less studied than Melicerta ringens. To sit looking for hours at her beautiful tower in the hope cf seeing her lobes appear is tantalising work; but it is really on our capacity for this patient waiting that our success in the study depends. Unless you examine Melicerta with at least a one-fourth, I know of no method of animation which will bring out her details, while any power above two-thirds necessitates your confining her in a space so small that the lobes feel the glass sides of your minute tank the moment they come out, and then they shrink at once from the contact. Dr. Hudson, of Manilla Hall, Clifton, showed me, as long ago as 1850, how to manage such objects, and I have followed his plan ever since, and know no better. The specimen is laid in an annulus of thin microscopic glass, (the thinner the better because you can always double them.) the diameter of the outer circle is about (illegible text) of an inch, that of the inner circle about (illegible text). You glue this ring to the ordinary glass slide, and when a piece of thin glass is laid over it you have a minute tank, which you can fill with water at pleasure by a dipping tube as the water evaporates.
