In the specimen under consideration there were fifteen pairs of ribs, of which nine pairs were vertebro-sternal. The costal cartilage associated with each of these was long and very flexible. The articulation of the first pair of costal cartilages with the sternum was effected by means of a short but strong band of fibrous tissue, which permitted considerable freedom of movement and did not form a junction of the more or less rigid character seen in man.

From the thirteenth to the seventeenth century a successful whale fishery was prosecuted in the Bay of Biscay and in the North Atlantic by seamen from the Basque ports of France and the north of Spain. So daring was their enterprise that they pursued their avocation northward to Iceland and even westward to Newfoundland and the adjoining shores of the American continent. The reputation of the Basque sailors as skilful whaling fishermen was so widely recognised that, when the whaling companies in England and Holland were started in the early years of the seventeenth century, Biscayan seamen were employed as the harpooners to strike the whales, and as coopers to construct the casks to contain the blubber. Up to that time the knowledge of the specific differences amongst the large whalebone whales was most imperfect, and it is not unlikely that both Right Whales and Fin Whales were captured as opportunity offered, though the former, from the greater length of whalebone and the thickness of blubber, were more prized. In 1611 an English whaling company sent for the first time an expedition to Spitzbergen, and from the instructions given to its commander, Thomas Edge, it would seem that two kinds of Right Whales had even then been noticed, the one larger and more valuable from the oil which it yielded and the length of the baleen, now known as the Greenland Right Whale, Balæna mysticetus, and the other a smaller whale, called the “Sarda.” A whale captured off the coast of Iceland by the French and Spanish seamen, locally named “Sletbag,” was probably the same as the Right Whale the “Sarda.” With the development of the whale fishery in the Arctic Ocean, it became more evident that the Greenland Right Whale was distinct from the smaller animal which had previously been the object of pursuit. In 1671 F. Martens gave the name “Nordcaper” to Baleen Whales captured near the North Cape ; they differed from those which frequented the Spitzbergen seas in being smaller, with less blubber, shorter whalebone, more active and more dangerous to kill. The name Nordcaper continued to be employed as equivalent to the Baleine de Sarde of the French naturalists, and Bonnaterre and Lacépède, adopting nordcaper as a specific name, distinguished it from Balæna mysticetus, La Baleine tranche, or the Greenland Right Whale.

The first step made in this investigation was the recognition of increased specific electrical conductivity as a general characteristic of photochemical action. It was argued that if there be any common characteristic in photochemical changes it must be found in the simplest as well as in the more familiar and more complex reactions which are characteristic of the metabolism of plants.

No chemically simpler case suggested itself than the increase in electric conductivity of crystalline selenium under the influence of light. This change might indeed be held almost to lie outside the range of chemistry proper, and to belong to the class of change often spoken of as merely physical change. But no sharp line can be drawn between physical and chemical changes, and the clue proved most useful.

Since we had the pleasure of working out the Mollusca obtained by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, Dr W. S. Bruce has kindly transmitted to our care some additional material, overlooked in the first instance, and taken (a) from deposits from jars in which Sponges were placed; (b) from Algæ and other growths, principally coming from Scotia Bay; and (c) from a new species of Cephalodiscus.

In 1804, Lieutenant-Colonel Imrie communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh a paper entitled “A Description of the Strata which occur in ascending order from the Plains of Kincardineshire to the Summit of Mount Battoc, one of the most elevated points in the Eastern District of the Grampian Mountains.” He pointed out that, in a short stretch of six miles in the North Esk section, “we pass from the secondary horizontal strata of the newest formation to the vertical, contorted primary strata of the oldest date, and terminate with granite, the primitive rock in the conception of many geologists.”

The recent important work of Farmer and Digby (1910) on the cytology of certain varietal and hybrid ferns has raised again the interesting and absorbing question of the mechanism of mitosis. This paper constitutes a valuable addition to the literature which has bulked so largely during the last few years, and which has been instrumental in establishing many interesting and important facts regarding the greatest of all cytological problems—namely, nuclear division. The interest of this later contribution lies, not so much in the actual observations which these writers have jointly recorded—although the facts revealed are important in that they confirm the work of other writers and extend the range of observation,—but rather in the theory which they have deduced from their results and which they have put forward to account for the factors at work in the living cell,—factors which they believe to be concerned in the formation of the achromatic spindle.

While collecting specimens of Diplolabis römeri (Solms) at Pettycur about three years ago, I discovered several blocks of stone containing numerous petrified fragments of another Zygopterid fern—Metaclepsydropsis duplex (Williamson). Two of the blocks were found to be parts of one large mass, and the petrifactions could be traced from the one block into the other. In size the complete mass must have been about 3 feet × 2 feet × 2 feet. The larger portion had to be broken into two before it was possible to remove it. Another block containing similar specimens was obtained later, but the preservation was so poor that the whole of the material was discarded.

The Brachiopoda of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of the S.Y. Scotia (1902–1904), though in some cases somewhat scanty in number of individuals, are of particular interest, mainly on account of increasing very materially our knowledge in regard to the geographical range of certain forms, as well as of adding other species to those already known from the Antarctic coast-line.

In my former contribution I gave a general summary of the animal under consideration, and discussed in detail the peritoneal arrangements of its abdominal cavity and the naked-eye anatomy of its alimentary organs. In the present paper I shall give an account of the genito-urinary system.

The kidneys were situated on each side of the dorsal mesial mesentery. Each was covered on its ventral aspect by the peritoneum forming the dorsal wall of the greater peritoneal sac. The right kidney was quite free from contact with the liver and the duodenum, while the left kidney was equally free from contact with the spleen. Both kidneys were therefore situated well back towards the pelvic end of the abdominal cavity. Each kidney measured 5 inches in the longitudinal diameter and 2 inches in the transverse diameter. The hinder or caudal end of each reached a point two inches from the pelvic inlet, which, as formerly described, was narrow and well defined by the course of the hypogastric (umbilical) arteries.

A girder built in to supports at one or at both ends and forming an arc of a circle in plan, is subjected, at each section, to both bending and twisting moments. At the supports, fixing moments of both kinds are called into play, and until these are known the resultant moment tending to cause rupture at any section is indeterminate. The following investigation is devoted to a consideration of the general state of elastic equilibrium of such a girder under various systems of loading.

The object of this investigation was not to obtain fresh data on the average strength of timber when subjected to destructive stresses. This has been done in great detail by Bauschinger, Lanza, Johnson, and others, and is still being carried on, in America, on a large scale under the Bureau of Forestry. The intention was rather (a) to find the effect of the medullary rays when timber was stressed in compression, tension, shear, or by cross-bending; and (b) to endeavour to connect up in a satisfactory way the maximum stresses induced in cross-breaking with those obtained by direct compression, tension, or shear. For this purpose, then, it was not necessary that the number of experiments should be excessive, but it was essential that the results obtained should be comparable one with another. To obtain this, a single tree of each variety of wood to be tested was procured, the test pieces were sawn out of the best part of the trunk, carefully stacked, and allowed to season for at least twelve months.

In a large class of engineering structures it is essential that the materials employed should be both strong and ductile, so that not only shall the structure be able to resist heavy loads, but that if by any chance it is overloaded it shall not collapse suddenly. In order to ascertain whether a metal is suitable for a particular structure, its strength and ductility are determined experimentally. The test most commonly in use consists in applying a gradually increasing pull to a bar of the metal until fracture takes place. The maximum load supported per unit of the original cross-sectional area of the bar is called the tensile strength or tenacity of the metal, and the elongation of an initial measured length, expressed as a proportion of that length, is called the extension, and is used as an index of the ductility of the metal.

The Cestode material obtained by the Scotia Expedition consisted of eight adult and three larvæ or immature forms. Of these, one (Anchistrocephalus microcephalus, Rud.) is not Antarctic, having been obtained from the Sunfish (Orthagoriscus mola), at Station 107, in 39° 12′ S., 53° 44′ W., on January 1, 1903.

The first three parts of this work, on the skeleton and muscles, were published in the Transactions of the Society in 1905, 1907, and 1909.

In 1905 I briefly drew attention to the existence of vascular papillæ on the afferent branchial arteries of Myxine, which had up to that time escaped notice, and which I then described in the following words: “In addition to the definite bloodvessels, Myxine possesses a system of large lacunar spaces, such as the extensive subdermal cavity, the spongy tissue of the head, the peribranchial sinuses, etc., which have been generally regarded as belonging to the lymphatic system. I have, however, long been convinced that these spaces were in communication with the blood vascular stream.

Shortly after my arrival in Britain in December 1911 I was honoured by a request from Dr W. S. Bruce, leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, that I would prepare a report on the Amphipoda collected during the voyage of the Scotia. Dr E. J. Allen, Director of the Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, very kindly offered me accommodation in the laboratory for the work, and free access to the library of the laboratory, which, fortunately, is very well supplied with works on the Crustacea. I was assured also of assistance from Mr T. V. Hodgson, the Curator of the Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth, from Mrs E. W. Sexton, and from other friends; and accordingly I undertook the work. I received the main portion of the collection, contained in sixty-three bottles, on the 8th January 1912, and a few days later I received from Dr W. M. Tattersall of the Manchester Museum eighteen tubes containing additional Amphipoda found among the Schizopoda of the Scottish National Expedition which had been submitted to him for determination; these additional specimens contained three or four species not represented in the collection first received.