One of the markers of the Late Pleistocene is highly fluctuating climatic conditions, with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5–19 ka cal before present (BP)) known to be one of the coldest periods. This work explores how the environment of north-eastern Iberia changed in relation to global climatic changes experienced during the Late Pleistocene, specifically around the LGM. Small mammal assemblages from Cudó cave (Tarragona, Spain) were used considering their well-known reliability for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Based on the taxonomic identification and the taphonomic analysis, several methodologies covering both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to obtain the palaeoenvironmental information corresponding to level 107 and level 105 of Cudó cave (31.2–24.4 and 15.5–10.2 ka cal BP, respectively). The taphonomic results obtained point out owls (category 3) as the main accumulator of the small mammals. The palaeoenvironmental reconstruction shows that both levels experienced colder (−7.2oC/–4.4 °C) and wetter (+848 mm/ + 586 mm) climatic conditions than nowadays. However, in level 107 the environment was dominated by mid-European species and rocky landscape, while in level 105 it was dominated by Mediterranean species and woodland habitat. These conditions are consistent with the trend in north-eastern Iberia following several climatic events before and after the LGM coinciding with the period of Cudó cave assemblages.

The early stages in ontogenetic development are described in the co-occurring Sphaerophthalmus alatus (Boeck, 1838) and Ctenopyge (Mesoctenopyge) tumida Westergård, 1922, using fragmentary but otherwise well-preserved material from Bornholm, Denmark. The former species is a senior synonym of Ctenopyge (Eoctenopyge) angusta Westergård, 1922, as has been recently proposed, but the early stages of S. alatus from Bornholm are appreciably more spiny than those found of the same species in other places in Scandinavia, and spinosity is retained until later in development. Increasing convexity with development and other morphological changes are noted. Pygidia were previously unknown in C. (M.) tumida. Here, they are represented by early pygidia. These are shield-shaped, with a very spiny margin and a strong axial spine. The distinction between Sphaerophthalmus and Ctenopyge is discussed.

The following experiments and observations have been undertaken with a view to discovering the means by which Tarsonemus is transmitted from one bee to another. It is obvious that a stage of the parasite exists outside the bee, and that there are also several possibilities (which may occur). One is the passage from bee to bee within the hive either directly or through the medium of frames or combs. Another, also within the hive, where the mites may in wandering upon the frames enter the cells and invade the body of the developing larvæ or pupæ, and in this way be present in the bee when it hatches. A third possibility is that whereby foraging infected bees may leave the mite upon flowers, vegetation generally, drinking grounds, or other situations, to be picked up later by other bees chancing to visit these. Crawling or dead bees may in a similar manner prove to be a source of infection through the contamination of the ground about the hive or of the actual hive itself.

My main purpose in the following short paper is to publish figures illustrating some of the more important facts of the early development of myotomes and motor nerves in Lepidosiren. The bearing of some of the observations of nerve development upon current theories renders it particularly desirable that they should be illustrated by untouched photographs of the sections. A few photographs illustrating the more important stages in the development of the motor nerve trunks are given on Plate I. For the preparation of the photographs here published, as well as several others, I am indebted to the skill of my friend Dr T. H. Bryce, and of Mr Fingland, our University photographer.

Of all known examples in physical science, of simplifying, and at the same time “precisionising” some of its fundamental data, which might otherwise fall to be entangled in high numbers, none has been happier than Fraunhofer's application of the letters of the alphabet to certain chief lines in the solar spectrum. Happy both in its conception by the inventor, and its universal acceptance since then by the world. Whence it comes to pass now, that in every country, whoever observes the solar spectrum at all, with whatever instrument, large or small, diffracting or refracting, and whether he holds to the undulatory, or any other theory of light, and catalogues spectral lines either in Wave-lengths or Wave-numbers, or merely in terms of the brass scale screwed to his instrument by a maker,—yet whenever he speaks of the line A, or B, or C, or any other so named by Fraunhofer, he singles out thereby from among thousands, exactly the same identical line which any and every other spectroscopist alludes to under the same simple letter.

The Jurassic to Cretaceous strata exposed in the Rollrock Section, Sverdrup Basin, Arctic Canada, represent one of the northernmost continuous outcrops spanning this poorly understood transition. The Oxfordian–Valanginian mudstones of the Rollrock Section were deposited in a shallow marine environment and, as such, provide the ideal lithology to investigate the response of high latitude dinoflagellate cyst populations to the frequent environmental perturbations of this time. Using a multivariate statistical approach, distinct palaeoecologically significant groups are identified and directly linked to time and palaeoenvironments, allowing for the reconstruction of underlying long term palaeoenvironmental trends. These palaeoenvironmental trends are identified to be driven by sequence stratigraphic cycles. For the first time, fourth order sequences are recorded from this pivotal period in the Sverdrup Basin and reveal an additional level of short term climatic events that complicate the identification of long term trends. The relationship existing between marine phytoplankton and climate is utilised to decipher the interplay of long-term and short-term climate fluctuations, distinguishing them from evolutionary trends. Two groups of dinoflagellate cysts, identified by process morphology, are recorded to act as environmental proxies. High percentages of proximochorate dinoflagellate cysts, such as Trichodinium erinaceoides, indicate more proximal, high energy, nutrient rich conditions and are dominant in fourth order transgressive systems tracts. High percentages of chorate dinoflagellate cysts, such as Oligosphaeridium complex, signify distal, low energy, nutrient depleted conditions and are dominant in fourth order highstand systems tracts.

The investigation of which I am now about to give an account, was undertaken with the view of determining whether the structure of the Torbanehill mineral was similar to or unlike that of coal. I was aware that the subject would be brought before a court of law, and that many scientific persons of great eminence had already spent much time in the inquiry. With the understanding, therefore, that my evidence, should it be required, was to be limited to the structure of coal and of the mineral in question, I gave directions to Mr Bryson, the optician, of this city, to make thin sections of attested specimens of various coals and of the mineral, conceiving that a careful examination of them would easily determine the point. It was soon apparent, however, that a far more extended series of researches was necessary than I at first anticipated; but as it was also evident, from the marked structural differences which were observed in the sections, that the investigation would not be destitute of positive results, I determined on pursuing it to a conclusion.

The following experiments, in continuation of our research on the discharge of electricity, were made in Professor Tait's Laboratory during the College Session 1878–79, and papers briefly describing the results were read before the Society on 6th January 1879 and 19th July 1880.

Muscovite is so easily recognised by its optical properties that the only cases which seemed to me to call for analysis were those which, from being possessed of characteristic colour, were of special interest. Of these the most singular is a variety found rarely in the great vein of Ben Capval, Harris; it occurs in crystals of a peculiar green tint, the crystals are small and have somewhat of a pearly lustre.

Notwithstanding the intimate connexion which has long been known to exist between magnetism and electricity, we may safely say, that, only fifteen years ago, the announcement of the excitation of a luminous spark from a natural magnet would have been received with astonishment and even with incredulity.

After the great discovery of electro-magnetism, in 1819, by Professor Oersted, the extreme improbability of such a discovery was indeed removed; but, even after that period, until the recent researches of our distinguished countryman Mr Faraday, every attempt having failed to procure the feeblest trace of electricity from the obdurate magnetic mass, so striking a result, which comes home to the comprehension of those least accustomed to interest themselves in the less palpable results of scientific enquiry, could scarcely have been looked for with any degree of confidence.

The general proposition in the theory of commensurables is to determine the conditions under which lines, surfaces, or solidities, connected with prescribed figures or forms, may have their ratios expressible by integer numbers.

The attention of geometers must have been drawn to this subject by the contemplation of incommensurable lines: the altitude of an equilateral trigon is incommensurable with the base; the diagonal of a square incommensurable with the side, and so on. And, when the two sides of a right angle are expressed by two numbers, the hypotenuse is, in the great multitude of cases, incommensurable with the sides: thus, if the sides be 5 and 7 inches respectively, the length of the subtense cannot be accurately expressed either in integers or fractions. However, when the sides are 3 and 4 units, the hypotenuse is exactly 5 of the same units.

It is my intention in this, the second part of my memoir on the Craniology of the Races of India, to give the results of my examination of skulls obtained from the districts occupied by the aboriginal tribes in Chúta Nágpúr, the Central Provinces, the people in the province of Orissa, and to compare them with the skulls of some other aboriginal people.

The majority of the specimens described belong to the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and through the courtesy of the Trustees I was permitted to have them on loan for purposes of study. Many of these crania had been those of persons who had died in jail. The names, tribes, and castes, and not unfrequently the age, stature, and other physical characters, had been recorded in the prison books, and were embodied in the lists which were sent to me along with the skulls by the authorities of the museum. Several of these skulls were especially interesting, as having been presented to the museum by Colonel Dalton, the author of the valuable treatise on the Ethnology of Bengal, Other specimens in the museum had been obtained from the Medical College, Calcutta, and several were presented by Professor D. B. Smith; in all probability they were from bodies which had been used for anatomical purposes. Mr W. H. P. Driver also had presented a series of crania from Ranchi.

The prostates or spermiducal glands form a prominent feature in the anatomy of the large family of the Megascolecidæ. Occurring in the neighbourhood of the termination of the sperm-ducts, they assume one of two forms, the tubular or the lobular. In the first, the gland typically takes the form of a bent, undulating, or coiled tube, cylindrical, with a single central lumen; in the second, it consists of a loosely or tightly packed aggregate of lobules, each with its ductule. The prostatic duct is in the first case a continuation of the glandular tube; in the second, the duct is formed by the union of the ductules; in both cases it is as a rule firm and muscular.

Multiplices Solariorum species, genus testaceorum constituentes, ad Turbinacea Lamarck, ad Gasteropoda Cuvier, pertinens, quæ in geologicis Italiæ stratis reperiuntur, monographico modo investigare fortasse præstat. Ratio nec ambigua; variæ enim dubitandi rationes vigebant, tum circa numerum et nomina specierum, tum circa earundem citationes, et auctorum dissensiones, nec non potissimum circa relationes specierum quæ in Italicis divisionibus supracretaceæ formationis adsunt, sive in se spectatis, sive prout cum viventibus conveniunt aut discrepant.