The rocks which form the Maltese islands have been at various times referred to very different parts of the Cainozoic group. At first they were all assigned to the Eocene, but a further knowledge of their fossils led to the transference of the whole series to the Miocene, in which system they have been included by most English writers. Herr Th. Fuchs, However, who first attempted any precise determination of the horizons of the subdivisions, correlated the Upper Limestone with the Leithakalk and the Blue Clay with the Schlier, and included the two lowest beds in the Oligocene. Dr Murray, however, in the course of his recent Memoir, has explained the striking palæontological differences between the faunas of the different deposits as due to altered conditions of formation rather than to lapse of time, and seems to follow earlier authors in including the whole series in the Miocene.

The Echinoidea of these deposits were originally described by Dr Wright in 1855,§ with additions and corrections in 1864; but since that time much work has been done on the allied faunas.

Before submitting the results of my examination of the silicates, it is incumbent upon me to give an outline of the processes adopted for their analysis, seeing that the amount of confidence which is to be placed in the results must rest very immediately thereupon.

1. Determination of the Water. — In all silicates which were found, after thorough drying, to give out moisture when heated in the closed tube, the amount of loss upon ignition was calculated as water. About 2 grammes, crushed in the diamond mortar, were first merely heated throughout in the air-chamber of a water-bath, the contact temperature of which was 212° Fahr., the temperature of the air-space being never below 199°. The weight after this heating was taken; and, except in the case of a mineral functioning in any peculiar way, the loss in weight was estimated as hygroscopic moisture. The mineral was now continuously heated in the bath until the weight was found to be constant. It was then exposed for the space of one hour to a full red heat, in the flame of a Bunsen burner, after which it was re-weighed. Finally, it was exposed for ten minutes to a heat approaching whiteness, in a three-jet Griffin blast-furnace, again re-weighed, and again heated in this furnace, until the weight was constant.

The Galway Granite Complex is unique among the British and Irish Caledonian granitoid terranes, as it records punctuated phases of magmatism from ∼425–380 Ma throughout the latest phase of the Caledonian Orogeny. Remapping of the Omey Pluton, the oldest member of this suite, has constrained the spatial distribution and contact relationships of the pluton's three main facies relative to the nature of the host rock structure. The external contacts of the pluton are mostly concordant to the limbs and hinge of the Connemara Antiform. New AMS data show that a subtle concentric outward dipping foliation is present, and this is interpreted to reflect pluton inflation during continued magma ingress. Combined field, petrographic and AMS data show that two sets of shear zones (NNW–SSE and ENE–WSW) cross-cut the concentric foliation, and that these structures were active during the construction of the pluton. We show that regional sinistral transpression at ∼420 Ma would have caused dilation along the intersection of these two fault sets, and suggest that this facilitated centralised magma ascent. Lateral emplacement was controlled by the symmetry of the Connemara Antiform to ultimately produce a discordant phacolith. We propose that regional sinistral transpression at ∼420 Ma influenced the siting of smaller intrusions over NNW–SSE faults, and that the later onset of regional transtension caused larger volumes of magma to intrude along the E–W Skird Rocks Fault at ∼400 Ma.

The aquatic diplocaulid nectridean Keraterpeton galvani is the commonest taxon represented in the Jarrow Coal assemblage from Kilkenny, Ireland. The Jarrow locality has yielded the earliest known Carboniferous coal-swamp fauna in the fossil record and is, therefore, of importance in understanding the history and diversity of the diplocaulid clade. The morphology of Keraterpeton is described in detail with emphasis on newly observed anatomical features. A reconstruction of the palate includes the presence of interpterygoid vacuities and new morphological details of the pterygoid, parasphenoid and basicranial region. The hyoid apparatus comprising an ossified basibranchial element has not been reported previously in nectrideans. The structure of the scapulocoracoid and primitive nature of the humerus is described and the presence of a five-digit manus confirmed. Previously unrecognised accessory dermal ossifications are present in the pectoral girdle. Keraterpeton longtoni from the Bolsovian in Staffordshire, England, is also described and newly figured. The primitive condition in diplocaulids is defined on the basis of the earliest occurrence at Jarrow and discussed in relation to functional morphology and mode of life. The evolution of the diplocaulid clade is assessed in relation to the revised diagnoses that define the primitive condition in Keraterpeton.

Karyograms prepared from ovarian and blastoderm cells of the parthenogenetic Australian Brown Vegetable Weevil demonstrate a consistent triploid condition with 30 chromosomes which can be grouped into 10 sets of homologues. Meiosis is replaced by a single mitotic-like division in which 30 univalent chromosomes, each composed of two chromatids, divide equationally between an ootid nucleus and a single polar nucleus. Prior to the differentiation of the oocytes a peculiar bouquet stage occurs in the cells of the end chamber of each ovariole, but the significance of this phase is not known. Arrested development in eggs from individuals of low fertility is investigated and the relationship of body size and chromosome number is discussed.

When compared with sea water, most marine invertebrates are isosmotic but show varying degrees of ionic regulation, from accumulation of potassium and calcium to reductions of magnesium and sulphate. A reduction of sulphate in pelagic animals such as jellyfish and salps, and an accumulation of ammonium ions in arrow-worms (Sagitta) contribute to their near-neutral buoyancy. Marked reductions in salinity exclude mahy marine invertebrates. In the Baltic, polychaetes, bivalve molluscs and decapod crustaceans are reduced from 193, ninety-two and sixty-four species in the Belt Sea (salinity S 10-30‰) to three, four and two in the Gulf of Finland (salinity S 5-9‰). The chelicerate Limulus can stand a wide range in salinity, a few insect larvae can tolerate concentrations of 200% sea water, while the branchiopod shrimp Artemia can stand crystallising brine (36-37% NaCl). Very few species can tolerate temperatures of 40°C. One such species is the polychaete Alvinella pompejana, a hydrothermal vent animal at East Pacific Ridge (to the W of S America). The harpacticid copepod Tigriopus living in evaporating rockpools has a lethal temperature of 42°C at a salinity of S 90‰, but at S 8‰ that temperature is 34°C. Lack of oxygen and presence of hydrogen sulphide limit the distribution of animals in certain areas. Most active animals have respiratory pigments in their principal body fluid. Burrowing invertebrates such as Arenicola and Lingula have respectively haemoglobin in the blood and haemerythrin in the coelomic fluid, with mean oxygen capacities of 6 ml O2 per 100 ml in each case, compared to 0·6 and 0·5 ml in sea water at 10° and 20°C.

The Kidston Collection of fossil plant slides includes sections of two very interesting specimens of Sigillaria elegans Brongniart, which were not in Kidston's possession when he wrote his two papers on Sigillarian anatomy (1905, 1907). The first of these specimens was found by W. Hemingway in 1908 at Laneshaw Bridge, Colne, Lancashire, in the Halifax Hard Bed (Lanarkian Series), and is represented in the Kidston Collection by two transverse sections (Nos. 1533, 1534). No notes of Kidston's relevant to the identification of this specimen have been found. Mr Hemingway, however, has been good enough to tell me that before he cut the specimen he recognised the leaf-scars, which were exposed on one side, as those of Sigillaria elegans; he submitted the specimen in this condition to Kidston, who confirmed the identification before sections were taken. The second specimen is from the Halifax Hard Bed of Fieldhouse Colliery, Deighton, Yorkshire, and was collected by G. H. Knott. A brief note saying that the specimen was identified from the exposed leaf-cushions as Sigillaria elegans has been found amongst manuscript notes of Kidston's relevant to the slides in his collection. This specimen is represented by sixteen sections (Nos. 1845-1860), cut by Hemingway, two of which are transverse and the remainder longitudinal. Both these specimens show certain structural features not observed in the anatomical type specimen of Sigillaria elegans described by Kidston (1905), and the present note may be regarded as supplementary to his original description.

In forming designs of marine works, the engineer has always a difficulty in estimating the force of the waves with which he has to contend. The information on such a matter, which is derived from local informants, who, although intelligent in the departments of trade which they follow, are, nevertheless, more or less prejudiced from being constantly on the spot, is not satisfactory; and it has, therefore, often occurred to me that it would be most desirable if the engineer could be enabled, to some extent at least, to disregard the prejudiced statements of others, and the vague impressions left by them on his own mind, and really to ascertain, by direct experiment, what force, expressed in pounds per square foot, the sea actually exerts upon the shores where his buildings are proposed to be erected.

Field associations (voluminous ash flow deposits, rhyolitic stocks and dykes, ring complexes), evidence of repeated influxes of mafic magma, and thermal constraints indicate that many high-level silicic plutons (magma chambers) acted as open systems for considerable parts of their history. The long thermal lifetime, as well as other evidence from the volcanic record, suggests that some such systems reached a quasi-steady state in which magma input was balanced by magma output for times longer than those required for crystallisation. Reconstruction of the evolution of large, long-lived caldera-forming systems, such as that of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, indicates that many chambers have lost a highly fractionated silicic cap, in some cases cyclically. Crystallised plutons may contain no obvious record of this evolutionary phase.

Geochemical data from silicic ash flow deposits can be used to reconstruct the volcanic stage of pluton development. Many silicic systems, especially of alkaline affinity, apparently pass from a stage in which melt evolution is dominated by crystal-liquid processes to one in which other processes may also contribute to differentiation. Apparently, the transition is most readily achieved in volatile-rich, alkaline silicic systems emplaced in complex, ancient sialic crust of the cratons. Once established, the preservation of highly fractionated caps on magma chambers requires a balance between thermal input and cooling-induced crystallisation. If heat enters the system too quickly, the cap may get stirred into the dominant magma volume by convection. If heat input is too slow, the magma body will crystallise inward from the margins, and the plutonic-consolidation stage will begin.

In the determination of the effects of stress upon different materials, the investigator has several methods of attack open to him, each of which has its own particular advantages. In the great majority of cases the material under investigation obeys the generalised Hooke's law, and the effects of a stress are therefore most easily followed and measured by observations of the strains produced. The strains being usually exceedingly minute, it is necessary to magnify them sufficiently to allow of accurate measurement. To this end many instruments have been devised for measuring the strains obtained by the action of different stresses, and in fact the great majority of our experimental knowledge has been obtained in this way. The application of polarised light to the determination of stress was first suggested by Brewster, and he applied it to many problems, particularly the determination of the neutral axis of a glass beam. Neumann, with a full knowledge of the work of Brewster, developed a theory of the analysis of strain by polarised light, and Maxwell also independently developed a theory. A third method, which has assumed great prominence in recent years, is the microscopic examination of metals under stress, as developed by Ewing, and Rosenhain, and others.

The following paper contains the results of an inquiry which has occupied me at intervals for somewhere about ten years. It was carried out in part at the expense of the British Association, and I have already reported results to that body in 1869 and 1871. But these provisional reports referred to very short ranges of temperature only, and the experiments were made with faulty thermometers, for which I had not the corrections which had been carefully determined by Welsh at Kew.

The inquiry arose from my desire to extend to other metals the very beautiful and original method which Principal Forbes devised, and which the state of his health prevented him from applying to any substance but iron. Forbes' experiments gave a result so very remarkable, and (as it seemed to me) so theoretically suggestive, that I wished to extend them to other pure metals, and also, in one or two cases at least, to alloys.

I believe that Principal Forbes had at least two reasons for undertaking his investigations:—(1.) When he commenced his inquiry, there was no really accurate or trustworthy determination of the absolute conductivity of any body whatever for heat. (2.) FORBES had himself, in 1833 and subsequent years, pointed out a very remarkable analogy between the conducting powers of metals for electricity and for heat, and had shown that these were almost precisely proportional to one another—that is to say, that the list of the average relative conductivities of different metals for electricity differed, from that of their relative conductivities with regard to heat, certainly not more than did the several electric lists furnished by different experimenters, and certainly less than the corresponding thermal lists. Hence it was natural to suppose that temperature might have a marked effect on thermal conductivity, as it was known to have such an effect on electric conductivity.

The material to be described here was taken from individuals of a school of Pseudorca crassidens, forty-one of which were stranded at Buddon Ness in the estuary of the Tay in November 1935. There is very little published work on this species beyond reports on the occurrence of stranded individuals. Beebe (1924) refers to six skeletons found on the shores of the Galapagos Archipelago, and West (1935) gave a preliminary account of a male fœtus taken from a female stranded in Wales. More recently, Peacock, Comrie, and Greenshields (1936) gave an account of the Tay specimens, while Fraser (1936) published a review of various strandings around our British coasts, and Gill (1935) has dealt with those stranded in South Africa (see abstract in Nature, September 1936). With regard to the reproductive system valuable assistance has been obtained from recent researches on other species by MacIntosh and Wheeler (1929), Wheeler (1930), Ommanney (1932), and Laurie (1937), published in Discovery Reports, while earlier papers, also on other species, by Schulte (1916) and Meek (1918) have also been consulted.

Les Mousses rapportées par l'Expédition nationale antarctique écossaise ne sont pas très nombreuses, mais elles présentent cependant de l'intérêt, parce que la plupart proviennent de localités qui étaient restées jusque là totalement inexplorées. Le plus grand nombre des espèces a été récolté à lîle Gough ou Diego Alvarez, dont la florule bryologique était tout à fait inconnue; les récoltes de M. le Dr R. N. Rudmose Brown nous ont fourni 21 espèces pour cette petite île. Dix espèces ont été recueillies à l'île Laurie, l'une des Orcades méridionales, dans la région antarctique proprement dite; enfin, 6 espèces proviennent de l'Ascension.

The Rosroe Formation comprises a series of Lower Ordovician (Llanvirn) conglomerates and sandstones, that lies on the southern limb of the South Mayo Trough, within the Iapetus Suture Zone of western Ireland. Trace element chemistry of granite boulders within the formation indicates a continental, rather than a volcanic arc character that can be correlated to latest Precambrian granites within the Dalradian Metamorphic Block, part of the deformed Laurentian margin. A minority of the clasts may correlate with syn-collisional granites, similar to, but older than, the Oughterard Granite of Connemara. Pb isotope compositions of K-feldspar grains within the sandstones, measured by both ion microprobe and conventional mass spectrometry, show a clear Laurentian affinity, albeit with greater source variability in the sand grains compared to a limited range in the proximal boulders. Palaeo-current indicators demonstrate dominant derivation from the NE, with a significant axial E–W flow. We propose that the Rosroe Formation records unroofing of a rapidly exhuming Dalradian metamorphic belt in North Mayo, following extensional collapse of the Grampian Orogen starting at ˜468 Ma, with minor input from a southerly arc source. The lack of metamorphic input from the S until deposition of the Derryeeny Conglomerate argues that the Connemara terrane was not positioned S of South Mayo Trough through strike-slip faulting until after the end of Rosroe sedimentation (460–443 Ma).

In a former memoir published in these Transactions (20) the developmental study of floral characters has been reopened. It has there been shown that by this study, which for long has received little attention, the investigator, aided by modern technical methods, may gain a fuller understanding of the value of the characters by which his judgment in systematic matters is guided. The subject then dealt with was the initiation of staminal zygomorphy in certain dicotyledonous plants. It was there shown that in the history of a stamen from its initiation as a primordium until its anther is dehisced and its pollen shed there are three more or less distinct consecutive phases. In the first, or phase of initiation, the stamen-primordium is defined. From this primordium an undifferentiated multicellular body arises by rapid cell-division. In the second phase this body undergoes differentiation into the component parts of a stamen ; an anther and frequently a filament and connective are defined, and their cellular construction is completed. In the third and final phase the stamen is extended and functionates forthwith as a disseminator of pollen-grains. In this phase the extensible and elastic walls of the cells of the filament are distended by internal hydraulic pressure, and the anther-walls are dried and finally rupture by inequalities in their rate of shrinkage and by the agency of fibrous devices. These steps form the prelude to the actual functionating of the stamen, and since the final enlargement of the stamen-filament is due to water-pressure, this phase is known as the phase of extension.

In September 1903 I received a bottle containing twelve specimens of a large parasite presented to me by Mr Chr. Castberg, the manager of a Norwegian whaling company which has established a fishing station at Ronasvoe in the north of Shetland. In his letters Mr Castberg stated that the parasites were attached to a Finner whale, which, from its size, the mottled character of the whalebone and the pointed head, was obviously a Razorback—Balænoptera musculus. The parasites were numerous, and were fixed to the back of the whale, and the attached end penetrated through the skin into the blubber. Although Mr Castberg had seen many hundred whales, this is the first occasion on which he had met with this form of parasite.

The interpretation of pedicle soft tissue preservation in a unique brachiopod specimen of Wenlock (Silurian) age from Herefordshire, western England, is re-assessed. Bethia serraticulma, assigned originally to the Orthida, is more probably a member of the Strophomenida (Plectambonitoidea). The supposed pedicle structure is more plausibly a weakly mineralised pedicle sheath, which is a common morphological and functional development in the early ontogeny of a number of Palaeozoic brachiopod lineages.

Recent investigations have profoundly modified our conception of the value of the histological elements of the nervous system. Conflicting opinions are still held on many points of primary importance, perhaps the chief of which is the relation of the nerve fibre to the nerve cell. The origin of the nerve fibre is a problem of vital interest not only to the embryologist, but also to the physiologist and the pathologist. It has long been the subject of controversy, and, in spite of numerous valuable researches, we are still far from knowing the relation of the nerve fibre to the central neuroblast, a relation of essential importance in the understanding of all neuro-pathological questions.

Thirteen specimens of type and/or figured Hexapoda from the Rhynie chert are housed at The Natural History Museum, London, UK. They are listed along with a complete bibliography of where they have been cited and figured. Two taxa are present: Rhyniella praecursor Hirst & Maulik 1926 (Collembola); and Rhyniognatha hirsti Tillyard 1928 (Insecta)

The distinguished person who is the subject of this memoir, was born at Boghall, in the parish of Baldernock, near Glasgow, in the year 1739. His father, John Robison, had been early engaged in commerce in Glasgow, where, with a character of great probity and worth, he had acquired considerable wealth, and, before the birth of his son, had retired to the country, and lived at his estate of Boghall.