The study of a normal process in an organ so especially prone to disease as is the human uterus, is beset with many difficulties; so many foreign conditions are apt to be present, giving a false impression as to what this process really is. That this is the case to no small degree, when the character of the changes which occur in the normal involution of the uterus after child-birth is the subject of observation, is shown by the variety of opinions held and stated by doubtlessly competent observers; for while one holds that the muscle undergoes a fatty degeneration, another holds that no such fatty change occurs; while one asserts that only a certain number of the fibres degenerate and disappear, another states that so complete is the destruction, that not one single fibre present in the uterus before birth survives the process; while another goes to the extent of saying, that the puerperal uterus can in no way be distinguished from a uterus that has undergone an inflammatory process.

I. The Parallel Roads of Lochaber have presented to geologists a problem, which is still unsolved. Dr Macculloch, about sixty years ago, when President of the Geological Society of London, first called attention to these peculiar markings on the Lochaber Hills, by an elaborate Memoir afterwards published in that Society's Transactions. He was followed by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, who in the year 1824, read a paper in our own Society, illustrated by excellent sketches. His paper is in our Transactions. The next author who attempted a solution was the present Mr Charles Darwin. He maintained that these Roads were sea-beaches, formed, when this part of Europe was rising from beneath the Ocean. He was followed by Professor Agassiz, Dr Buckland, Charles Babbage, Sir John Lubbock, Robert Chambers, Professor Rogers, Sir George M'Kenzie, Mr Jamieson of Ellon, Professor Nicol, Mr Bryce of Glasgow, Mr Watson, and Mr Jolly of Inverness. Sir Charles Lyell, though he wrote no special memoir, treated the subject pretty fully in his works, giving an opinion in support of the views of Agassiz.

Although we have many writers on geological subjects, whose works are distinguished by ingenuity of doctrine, and novelty of opinion, and, among them, some who have made advances towards arrangement; it was reserved to the celebrated Werner, to introduce means, by which rocks might be described with some degree of precision. Many ingenious theories were invented, to account for their formation; but little or no attention was paid, to the acquirement of an accurate knowledge, either of their composition, or their relative position in nature; although these certainly appear to be the bases, on which such speculative opinions ought to be founded.

By the discovery of the different refrangibility of light, Sir Isaac Newton laid open the true cause of the principal imperfection of refracting telescopes; and having inferred from the experiments which he made, that the refraction of the different rays composing the prismatic spectrum, was always in a given ratio to the refraction of the mean refrangible ray, this great philosopher was led to conclude, that the imperfection which he had discovered in dioptrical instruments was without remedy.

In an age like the present, when few things in nature feem to have eluded the researches of philosophy, when the communications of learning are as well established as those of commerce, it may appear somewhat surprising, that one of the most important productions of milk should still remain, in a great measure, unknown to the most enlightened parts of Europe.

Though the labours of M. De Luc, and of the excellent observers who followed him, have brought the barometrical measurement of heights to very great exactness, they have not yet given to it the utmost perfection it can attain. Some causes of inaccuracy are still involved in it; of which we ought, at least, to estimate the effects, if we cannot correct them altogether. The allowance made on account of the temperature of the air, implies in it a hypothesis that has not been examined, nor even expressed, and many other circumstances that affect the denfity of the atmosphere, have either been wholly omitted, or improperly introduced. The object of the present paper is to correct, the errors that arise from these causes, or, where that cannot be done, to assign the limits within which those errors are contained.

(1) The interpretation of Dash et al. (1987) that the quartz–sillimanite–garnet (khondalite) assemblage of Orissa represents a metamorphosed deeply weathered soil profile(s) is based on a considerable body of new geochemical data: 59 new major and trace element rock analyses and 9 new major element rock analyses(ca. 1800 determinations) compared with the previous basis of 2 rock analyses for major elements only from Orissa supported by 3 for major elements only from other parts of India and 4 from Sri Lanka (ca 90 determinations—table 4).

Very little is known of the petrography of the Portuguese West African colony of Angola, and of its three provinces that of Benguella is probably least well known in this respect. Granites, gneisses, schists, limestones, and red sandstones have been recognised by the earlier observers of the geology of the region, and detailed descriptions of rocks from Angola, and especially of its northern province, Loanda, have been given by Berg and Holmes. From Benguella itself J. P. Gomes has described the collection of R. P. Leconte, wich contained granites, amphibolite, adinole with epidote veins, various schists, quartzites, diabase-porphyrite, and basic eruptives. Senhor J. P. De Nasciamento in 1912 recorded granite, diorite, basalt, and quartzite on the Benguella plateau.

The series propossed for solution in the follwing paper is—

The law of this series is manifest. Each term is the product of two factorials, the first consisting of p, and the latter of q factors. And in each successive term, the factors of the first factorial are each diminished by one, and those of the latter increased by one.

In the year 1819 the University of Edinburgh acquired by purchase a large zoological collection from M. Dufresne, of Paris, including a cabinet containing upwards of 12,000 specimens of insects. Some years later (in 1855), when the whole of the University collections were formally transferred to the Science and Art Department, the Dufresne cabinet became public property.

While consulting lately the volume by Godart devoted to the article “Papilio” in the famous Encyclopédie Méthodique, I was surprised to see a reference to the “Dufresne cabinet” in one of the descriptions of new species, and it immediately occurred to me that the specimen in our possession must be the actual “type” of the species, which discovery led me to search carefully through the whole of the volumes devoted to insects in this well-known work, with a view to finding as many types as possible. At the same time, I thought it possible that Olivier, who wrote his great Histoire Naturelle des Insectes—Coléoptères about the same time, might also mention some of Dufresne's specimens, and this I found to be as I had anticipated.

Radiolarian chert and associated siliceous claystone in the Southern Uplands of Scotland are examined, in order to study the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event of benthic animals on the pelagic ocean bottom. Trace fossils which are uncommon, but convincing, are found in the grey chert and siliceous claystone of Gripps Cleuch. These observations constitute firm evidence that large benthic animals which could leave visible trace fossils had colonised the Iapetan Ocean by the late Middle Ordovician, confirming previous studies from Australia for Panthalassa, the other huge ocean. Red chert is, however, a poor recorder of trace fossils, probably because the highly oxidising environment breaks down organic matter, both inhibiting high-density activity of large benthic animals and removing clear traces of benthic animal life.

The characters of the sporangium have been widely used in the phyletic treatment of Ferns, and one of the most important features has proved to be the nature and position of the annulus. As Professor Bower has pointed out, the position of the annulus has long been regarded as an important character in the systematic treatment of Ferns. In the more advanced groups the annulus forms a very precise dehiscence mechanism consisting of a single layer of indurated cells passing round the sporangium in different positions in the various groups. With very few exceptions, notably found in the Gymnogrammoid circle of affinity, the structure and position of the annulus is constant in any one species. In the more primitive groups of Ferns, however, the dehiscence mechanism is much less precise, and a re-examination of the sporangia of the Osmundaceæ has shown that these are by no means constant in structure and that, in particular, they show considerable variation in the characters of their annulus. These latter variations have proved to be of interest in relation to two questions:

1. The systematic placing of certain fossil sporangia.

2. The evolution of the more definite annulus of the higher Leptosporangiate Ferns.

Other points of interest emerged, such as the occurrence of abortive sporangia in this group, and certain facts relating to the position of the sporangia with relation to the margin of the frond.

A description of the sporangia of a number of species of Osmunda and Todea will first be given. The bearing of these facts on the problems above mentioned will then be discussed.

I am not aware of any account having been published of the Coal-fields in East and Mid Lothian, or of any attempt to institute a geological survey of the country in which they are situated. Sinclair, the author of a well known work intituled “Satan's Invisible World,” published also in 1672 a treatise on Hydrostatics, in which he takes notice of the Prestongrange coals, and of the whinstone-dike that intersects them. Williams, in his “Mineral Kingdom” (published) in 1810, gives some information regarding the direction of the Gilmerton and Loanhead coal-seams. But the information contained in both these works, even respecting the coal-strata,—which alone they professed to treat of, is extremely vague, and generally very erroneous. Dr Hibbert was the first geologist who with a scientific eye entered on the district, in order to describe with fulness and accuracy any of its rocks. His discovery of the Saurian remains in the limestone-quarries of Burdiehouse, led him to a minute inspection of the strata in which they were imbedded, and to a consideration of the relative position of these particular strata in the Mid-Lothian coal-field.

1. Dr Matthews Duncan having requested me to point out to him some simple method of comparing the fertility of different races, I endeavoured, as a preliminary step, to represent by formulæ some of the chief results which he has obtained in his very lucid and elaborate papers recently read to this Society, and printed in their Transactions for 1863–4 and for the present session. Some of the formulæ which I have obtained are so simple, and accord so well with the tables, that I have thought them worth bringing before the Society.

Dear Sir,

As the following paper refers in a great measure to the general theorems published by your father, I now commit it to your care, and that of my friend Mr Playfair, Professor of Natural Philosophy. I wish it to be communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and, if approved of, to be inserted in their Transactions as soon as possible. Indeed, I trust, that even simple as it is, it will not be altogether unacceptable to that learned body.

I am,

Dear Sir,

Most sincerely your, &c.

Jas Glenie.

In 1889 the Scottish Meteorological Society decided on making observations on the dust in the atmosphere at their Observatory on Ben Nevis. Having prepared the plans for the apparatus to be used for counting the dust particles, I visited the Observatory on the 1st of August of that year, and, after consulting with Mr Omond, decided that the tower of the Observatory was the best place for fitting up the instrument. The apparatus was afterwards made by White of Glasgow, and fitted up in the Observatory on 5th June 1890.

Although science has only within these few years acknowledged the importance of Geology, the eagerness with which it has been cultivated, affords sufficient proof of the interest it is capable of creating. Of this we have a recent example in the laborious undertaking of Sir George Mackenzie and his friends, who, not with standing all the dangers presented by a voyage through the most tempestuous ocean, and the deprivations to which they were exposed, in a journey through a country destitute of the slightest trace to guide the route of the traveller, were not deterred from exploring the inhospitable shores of Iceland. These, and other travellers, have extended our knowledge of various districts on the surface of the globe; but we have still to lament the extreme imperfection of the science, which, as yet, has assumed no decided character or form.

Micromalthidae is a small relictual family of archostematan beetles that is well known for its unusual asexual reproductive system characterised by parthenogenetic, viviparous, larviform females and sterile adults. Here we describe the first micromalthid beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (ca.100Ma). Protomalthus burmaticus gen. et sp. nov. differs from all presently known micromalthid beetles by the presence of distinct frontoclypeal, labroclypeal, and medicranial sutures. The finding represents the first Mesozoic record of an adult micromalthid beetle and confirms a Gondwanan distribution of the family during the Cretaceous. A list of micromalthid beetles is provided, together with a key to extant and fossil species.

An Ordovician subvolcanic intrusive complex hosted by Neoproterozoic metasediments crops out at Souter Head about 6km S of Aberdeen, Scotland. The complex is composed mainly of two-mica red granite and breccia with minor dykes of pegmatite, quartz porphyry, felsite and dolerite, and widespread quartz veining, hydrothermal alteration and minor molybdenite mineralisation. Anomalous levels of bismuth (Bi), arsenic (As) and gold (Au) occur in quartz–pyrite veins. The complex has been mapped and the major- and minor-element geochemistry, including rare-earth elements of intrusives and mineralisation, has been determined. These data reveal a complex tectonic, intrusive and hydrothermal history. The intrusives are peraluminous and magnetite-, muscovite- and garnet-bearing. The youngest member, a quartz porphyry, is highly fractionated. There are two stages of hydrothermal activity: the first is linked to the explosive release of volatiles from a granite cupola and breccia formation; and the second, widespread quartz veining. Mo is associated with both stages, and Bi–As–Au anomalies are found in late quartz–pyrite veins. The mineralisation is classified as a granite-related vein-type Mo system. The unique preservation, in the Grampian terrane, of an Ordovician subvolcanic complex may be attributed to pre-Devonian movements on the nearby Dee fault and possibly also the collapse of the magma chamber following the explosive release of volatiles. The combination of large size, poor exposure and abundant multi-stage hydrothermal activity suggests that there is potential for further Mo and possibly Au mineralisation in this complex. Further mineralisation of this style may be present in the NE Grampian terrane.

In a recent paper published in these Transactions I gave an account of certain experiments upon the change of electric resistance of nickel due to magnetization at different temperature up to 100·C.