In a paper on the Chemistry and Pharmacology of Strophanthus hispidus, it was pointed out by one of us that when strophanthin, the glucosidal active principle present in the seeds and several other parts of this plant, is subjected to the action of dilute acids, it yields, among other products, a crystalline body—strophanthidin. A brief description was also given of processes by which this body may be prepared, and of several of its characters and chemical properties.

The chemistry of strophanthidin will be more fully described in the present paper.

Though the genus Lepidophloios, in regard to species, is a comparatively small one, yet it derives considerable importance from its occurring throughout the whole of the Carboniferous Formation, as well as in the peculiar characteristics of the plants comprised in it.

The fragmentary condition in which the specimens are usually found has given rise to the creation of several genera, which can all be shown to merely represent different conditions of growth and preservation of one generic type. There are, also, other points in the structure of Lepidophloios which require further investigation, and the object of the present paper is to attempt to clear up some of these, about which much confusion still exists.

Some time ago, at the request of Professor Ewart, I undertook an examination of the skull and visceral skeleton of the Greenland shark, Læmargus microcephalus. This I readily consented to do, not only because no attempt had yet been made to describe these structures in this shark, but because they claim careful consideration in view of the recent work by Professor Ewart on the cranial nerves of Elasmobranchs.

In this paper I shall endeavour, without entering into too much detail, to point out some of the more salient features of the skull and visceral skeleton of Læmargus, and to compare them with those of other Elasmobranchs where that seems necessary.

I have made preparations of the above-named structures from the heads of several specimens of Læmargus. The sharks from which the heads were taken were of various sizes, the smallest being about six feet in length, and the largest twelve. As might have been expected, the skeletal parts of these heads are very similar to each other, but I have noticed among the few specimens I have examined points of difference, which make me wish I had a larger number of preparations at my disposal, to enable me to decide the more usual conditions.

These fossils are especially interesting on account of their having been obtained from a more southerly point than any hitherto recorded. The number of specimens is nine; five of these are referable to the genus Cucullœa, one to Cytherea, one probably to Natica, and two are fragments of Coniferous Wood. With the Cytherea are other small shells which may indicate the presence of Crassatella (?) and Donax (?). Two of the pieces of Cucullœa are entirely free from matrix, while three show in their interiors a fine sandy rock which effervesces when treated with hydrochloric acid. The shells themselves have a calcedonic appearance, but, like the matrix, they effervesce strongly with acid; they are much denuded, having apparently been long exposed to the weather. The matrix within the Cytherea is coarser than that in the Cucullœa, containing, besides fragments of quartz and of a black rock, numerous fragments of shells. The Natica (?) is almost free from matrix, and is much denuded, but in some of the crevices sandy material may be seen very like the matrix of the other shells. All these genera have a wide distribution in time, and are now living, consequently they give but little clue to the age of the rocks in which they were found. Cucullœa is rare at the present day, and the few known species occur in the Mauritius, Nicobar, and China; but as a fossil it is very common and widely distributed.

The experiments now to be described have for their object the investigation of the magnetic induction in an iron conductor under the influence of a current passing through it. The method of experiment was briefly in this wise. An iron tube was magnetised circularly by a current passed from end to end along its entire length; and the induction so produced in the iron was measured in terms of the current induced in a coil of wire wound longitudinally round the walls of the tube.

In the experiments four tubes were used, all of the same length and nearly the same external diameter. The internal diameters of one pair were approximately double those of the other. The various dimensions are given accurately in the following table, the tubes being distinguished as A, B, a, b. Each diameter measurement is the mean of eight measurements taken across different diameters.

The Coal Measures of the South Wales Coal Field fall into three well-marked divisions:—

I. The Upper Pennant or Upper Penllergare Series.

II. The Lower Pennant Series.

III. The White Ash Series.

In 1885 I paid a visit to this Coal Field, with the object of studying its Fossil Flora, hoping by this means to ascertain the relative position of the Welsh Coal Measures to those of the other Coal Fields of Britain.

The tract of land embraced in the area from which the fossils have been derived, that form the subject of the present Memoir, extends in an easterly direction from Saltcoats to Newmilns, a distance of about 19 miles. At both extremities, the Coal Measures narrow down to under half a mile wide at Saltcoats, and about a mile broad at Newmilns. The greatest width is found towards the centre of the field, where in a northeast and south-west direction it is over 12 miles broad.

It will be convenient first to fix a form of notation for the corners of the cube. With the origin within the cube and rectangular co-ordinates parallel to three edges meeting in a corner, the eight corners lie each in one of the eight octants, and may conveniently and symmetrically be represented thus:—

Or, calling any corner A, the corners distant √2 from A (the length of the edge being 1) and taken positively, i.e., contrary to the watch-hand way, as seen from A, are B, C, D (see figures).

So that, passing from corner to corner along an edge, we change both letter and sign, along a face diagonal we change letter but not sign, along a body diagonal we change sign but not letter.

In a new investigation of this kind it is always desirable to repeat the observations under as many conditions as possible. The variables are so many that with a limited experience it cannot be expected that the subject will be exhausted, or that the conclusions arrived at from early observations will be in all cases confirmed. As an opportunity offered in the beginning of 1890 for repeating the tests made the previous year on the amount of atmospheric dust at different places on the Continent, it seemed desirable that the old ground should be gone over again rather than that the investigation should be extended to new areas. The observations made in this country have also been confined to the same stations as in 1889; and in this paper I intend giving the results of a series of tests repeated at the same stations, at about the same dates, but under the conditions existing in 1890, as has already been given for 1889 in Part I. of this subject.

In our former paper we described the results obtained by electrolysing concentrated aqueous solutions of the ethyl-potassium salts of normal saturated dibasic acids. The chief products were shown to be diethyl compound ethers of the same homologous series, and the formation of these compound ethers was shown to occur in accordance with the equation: 2C2H5·O·ĊO·R˝·CO·O- = C2H5·O·CO·R˝R˝CO·O·C2H5 + 2CO2. We now find that precisely similar results are obtained by electrolysing the corresponding compounds derived from saturated dibasic acids with side chains. We have thus been able to effect the synthesis of acids of the succinic acid series, in which hydrogen is symmetrically replaced by alcohol radicals of the form CnH2n+1.

During the “Challenger” Deep-Sea Exploring Expedition a great many peculiar-looking manganese nodules or concretions were dredged from the floor of the ocean at great depths, chiefly in the Red Clay areas of the Pacific, but also in less abundance in the Red Clays of the Atlantic. In the other varieties of Deep-Sea deposits these nodules were much less abundant than in the Red Clays.

In still more recent soundings, both American and British ships have discovered in many regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans a dark-brown coloured deposit containing a large amount of manganese dioxide, similar in character to the Red Clays from which the “Challenger” procured the largest hauls of manganese nodules. There is then every reason for supposing that manganese deposits and nodules are very widely distributed over the ocean's bed, especially in deep water at great distances from land. It was only occasionally that manganese nodules were present in any abundance in a Globigerina Ooze, and in these exceptional instances there was always much volcanic debris associated with the deposit. In the Blue Muds surrounding continental shores manganese nodules were rarely observed; still, on some rocks and boulders dredged from terrigenous deposits, a coating of manganese dioxide was observed on that portion of the stone which had projected above the surface of the mud.

In all languages where there exists a certain amount of intellectual culture, manifesting itself in the oral or written form of what is called Literature, there must always coexist with it an inferior stratum or platform of speech; the platform of common colloquial intercourse of the mass of the people, and specially of the peasantry and lower classes. The necessity of this bistratification arises from the diverse class of ideas, and the diverse style of intercourse, pervading the two platforms. Language is a growth that flows from the intercommunion of associated persons working out, within a certain bounded circle, the vocal expression which their ideas, their energies, and their circumstances demand for the purpose of common action.

[Since this second instalment of my paper was read to the Society my attention has been called to a remarkable investigation by Hertz; in which the circumstances of collision of two elastic spheres are fully worked out, under the special limitations that both are smooth, and that their deformations are exceedingly small. This forms a mere episode in the paper, which is devoted mainly to the statical form of the problem of deformation; as, for instance, the case of the ordinary apparatus for the production of Newton's rings. But it contains a definite numerical result; giving for the duration of impact between two iron spheres of 50mm diameter, which encounter one another directly with a relative speed of 10mm per second, the value 0s·00038. This seems to be the earliest reckoning of the time of collision. The experimental verification of Hertz' formulæ was undertaken with success by Schneebeli, who obtained results in close accordance with them. His mode of measuring the duration of impact was defective, though ingenious.

In the two papers previously communicated to this Society under the above title, Parts I. and II., I have given the results of my observations on the dust in the atmosphere for the years 1889 and 1890. In this paper will be given the results of similar observations I have been able to make during the years 1891, 1892 and 1893. The observations made during these last three years are similar to those made in the two previous ones; and were mostly made at the same places and at about the same dates as those already given. These five sets of observations are therefore comparable with each other, and give a fair statement of the number of dust particles in the atmosphere at the different places at the particular dates.

An easy and yet accurate method of determining carbon and nitrogen in organic substances has long been a desideratum, especially among those engaged in the application of chemistry to biological, hygienic, and agricultural questions. For the determination of nitrogen the method of Dumas, with its numerous modifications, is still the only one applicable in all cases, but the time required for it, and the manipulative dexterity necessary, has prevented its wide application for the above-named purposes. The method of Will and Varrentrap, though less generally applicable, is easier, and, until the publication of Kjeldahl's method, was most frequently used in applied chemistry. Kjeldahl claims for his method the same applicability and as great accuracy as the Will and Varrentrap method, with the added advantage of greater ease in working.

The discoverer of Nova Aurigæ is the Rev Thomas D. Anderson of Edinburgh, D.Sc. in Classical Philology. Dr Anderson is “almost certain” that he saw the star at 2 a.m. on January 24 of this year; it was then slightly brighter than χ Aurigæ. Unfortunately, he mistook it for 26 Aurigæ, which it precedes by about 6m 39s, merely remarking to himself that the star was brighter than he had previously thought it to be. Twice in the following week he made the same observation at about the same hour of the night. At last, on the morning of January 31, it flashed upon him that, after all, the star was not 26 Aurigæ, and that 26 Aurigæ had a much greater right ascension. He consulted a small star-map, and the discovety was made. Regretting that he had not earlier compared the map with the heavens, and thinking that the star might be well known to astronomers, Dr Anderson wrote an anonymous postcard to me on the same morning bearing the words:—“Nova in Auriga. In Milky Way, about two degrees south of χ Aurigæ, preceding 26 Aurigæ. Fifth magnitude, slightly brighter than χ.” I may add that Dr Anderson's plant consists of a small hand spyglass adapted to astronomical purposes by removing the front pair of lenses from the eyepiece. In this state it magnifies about ten times, and, of course, gives inverted images. Dr Anderson hopes that amateurs, although provided with only the most modest appliances, may, by his unexpected success, be induced to persevere in their observations.

In the course of investigations that I have lately been making into the transformation of permutations, I have found it convenient to employ several new symbols of operation, which combine with each other according to laws that differ materially from the ordinary algebraical laws; and it is my object in this paper to explain those laws, and give a few examples of the manner in which various propositions relating to permutations may be demonstrated by means of my symbols.

The chemical examination of ground-air, i.e., the air which is contained in the pores of the soil, was first made by Boussingault and Levy in 1853. Their results, however, attracted little attention till Pettenkofer, in 1857, pointed out that the determination of the amount of carbonic acid in the air of a given soil might be used as a means of estimating the organic decomposition going on there. In 1871 he first published his results, and since that time the subject has been worked at by many investigators both from the agricultural and hygienic point of view, including in the latter class Fleck at Dresden, Eodor at Buda-Pesth, Hesse in Saxony, and Nicholls in America. As researches of this nature have not attracted much attention in this country, a short account of the modus operandi may be interesting as a preliminary.

Some years ago, when studying the electrical organs of the torpedo, I was forced to the conclusion that the nerves supplying the batteries had not been accurately described, and that notwithstanding the statements in the most recent works, the first electric nerve is not derived from the trigeminus. Finding some difficulty in making out the arrangement of the cranial nerves in the greatly specialised torpedo, I directed my attention, first to the skate, and later to certain sharks, more especially to the Greenland shark (Læmargus). I had not proceeded far before I was convinced that we had still much to learn as to the anatomy of the cranial nerves of both the higher and lower vertebrates.