The chert of the Muir of Rhynie, containing plant-remains, was discovered by Dr W. MACKIE of Elgin while investigating the sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Craigbeg and Ord Hill which occur in that area. The original discovery was made on loose specimens, built into the dykes or scattered over the fields, especially those lying to the north of the road which runs from Rhynie to Cabrach, and east and west of the right-of-way that here connects Windyfield Farm with the public road.

Protocatechyl-tropeine is one of a series of new tropeines investigated primarily with the object of determining the difference in pharmacological action between a lactone and the corresponding hydroxy-acid. Its constitution is shown in the following formula :—

Like most other tropeines, it paralyses the vagal nerve endings in the heart. It also diminishes the irritability of voluntary muscle and its myo-neural junctions, and paralyses the respiratory centre.

In a former communication to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, I gave an account of an unusual fall of rain in the Lake District in the month of January last year. That occurrence was followed by its opposite in May, June, and July; not for a long period, not since 1826, has the district suffered more from want of water than in those months.

This drought is best shown by the following table, in which will be found the rain-fall for the several months of the year at five different places, only a few miles remote from each other. The table will also show the remarkable contrast as to excess and deficiency of rain during the period. It may be premised, that at Ambleside, where the drought appears to have been felt as much as anywhere, the ordinary fall of rain for the months in question is about three times as great; thus for May (our driest month of the twelve), taking the average of the preceding eleven years, it is 2·37 inches, for June 4·22 inches, for July 5·27 inches, making a total of 12·36 inches, against 4·54 inches of the months of drought.

The Family Orthophlebiidae ranges from the Middle Triassic to the Early Cretaceous. The Wealden Mecoptera have added to our knowledge of the Mecoptera from the Early Cretaceous of southern England, but have been comparatively little studied. Here we present the description of the first orthophlebiid from the Wealden of England. Mesopanorpa brooksorum sp. nov. from England is the earliest Cretaceous representative of this genus.

The trichopteran assemblage of the Late Eocene Bembridge Marls is revised. six species in five genera and four families are identified, with four species and two genera described as new: (Beraeidae: Beraeodes vectensis Cockerell, 1921 and B. anglicus Cockerell, 1921; Phryganeidae: Bembridgea insularia gen. sp. nov.; Polycentropodidae: ?Plectrocnemia incompleta Sukatsheva, sp. nov.; Philopotamidae: Wormaldia longaeva Sukatsheva, sp. nov.; incertae familiae: Paleodicella anomala Sukatsheva, gen. sp. nov.). The assemblage is unique in being absolutely dominated by the generally uncommon family Beraeidae, and particularly by the single species Beraeodes vectensis. Except for a representative of ubiquitous Phryganaeidae, all the caddis-flies recorded apparently had oxy- and psychrophilous larvae confined to springs and cold streams (or else mosses near water), thus indicating the absence of fresh lakes or slow running waters near the depositional water body.

In this paper, on page 375, we published an Arenig palaeogeography in Figure 6 which showed the subduction zone off Laurentia as dipping northwards. This was a drafting error. The subduction zone should have dipped southward away from Laurentia. We apologise for this error and publish here a revised Figure 6 for the Arenig.

Little has hitherto been known about the animal remains of the Old Red Sandstone of Shetland. In 1858 Sir Roderick Murchison mentioned the occurrence, in flaggy beds in the environs of Lerwick, of “the same little Crustacean (the Estheria) which occurs at Thurso and Kirkwall.” Heddle in 1878 refers to the occurrence of fish-remains in the rocks of the same region in the following terms:—“Specimens of small fishes, apparently acanthoides, were shown the writer; these were imbedded in a brown fine-grained muddy sandstone; they were stated to occur in a quarry north of Gardie in Bressay.” Again, in the same year, Sir A. Geikie, in his well-known paper on the “Old Red Sandstone of Western Europe,” states that Dr HEDDLE “informs me that he was shown some ichthyolites (Coccosteus, etc.) in Bressay, which he was assured had been found among the flagstones of that island.” Unfortunately it does not appear that any description of these specimens has ever been published, nor, so far as I am aware, is their present whereabouts known.

This is a report upon the Medusæ collected by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition during the voyage of the Scotia in the years 1902, 1903, and 1904, under the leadership of Dr W. S. Bruce, to whom I am indebted for the opportunity of examining the specimens.

The collection is a small one containing twelve species, but five more species would have probably been added if only the specimens had been in a recognisable condition. Some of the specimens are in excellent condition, and these were mostly taken at the surface, but others are very much damaged. Unfortunately, the damaged specimens are just the ones wanted in good condition, as they mostly come from the Antarctic region and from the stations where the nets were sent down to a great depth. The damage is done in the nets, and other collections which have passed through my hands tell the same tale. It is the rubbing together of the sides of the net that tears the medusæ to pieces. All deep-sea nets should be so constructed that the sides of the nets cannot come together, and also provided with a large can at the end.

The pleasure which honourable and enlightened minds must feel in acknowledging their obligation to the individuals who have advanced useful knowledge in any department of science,—who have contributed to the means of promoting human happiness, or of alleviating human suffering, has, in all times, led men to seek an opportunity of recording their sentiments of admiration and of gratitude towards the distinguished instructors of mankind. They have felt, too, that the time when one of these guiding lights has been quenched, when a contributor to the treasury of knowledge has just terminated his labours, is peculiarly fitted for the discharge of this duty. The whole amount of his contributions is then presumed to be before them, and they are restrained by no fear of offending his delicacy by their praise, or of having their own feelings hurt by a misconstruction of their motives.

At a time when nobody has yet landed on the Antarctic continent (1879), this presentation and accompanying paper predicts the morphology, dynamics and thermal regime of the Antarctic ice sheet. Mathematical modelling of the ice sheet is based on the assumptions that the thickness of tabular icebergs reflects the average thickness of the ice at the margin and that the surface gradients are comparable to those of reconstructed former ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere. The modelling shows that (a) ice is thickest near the centre at the South Pole and thins towards the margin; (b) the thickness at the pole is independent of the amount of snowfall at that place; and (c) the mean velocity at the margin, assuming a mean annual snowfall of two inches per year, is 400–500 feet per year. The thermal regime of the ice sheet is influenced by three heat sources – namely, the bed, the internal friction of ice flow and the atmosphere. The latter is the most significant and, since ice has a downwards as well as horizontal motion, this carries cold ice down into the ice sheet. Since the temperature at which ice melts is lowered by pressure at a rate of 0.0137 °F for every atmosphere of pressure (something known since 1784), much of the ice sheet and its base must be below the freezing point. Estimates of the thickness of ice at the centre depend closely on the surface gradients assumed and range between 3 and 24 miles. Such uncertainty is of concern since both the volume and gravitational attraction of the ice mass have an effect on global sea level. In order to improve our estimate of the volume of ice, we will have to wait 76 years for John Glen to develop a realistic flow law for ice.

Although some of the phenomena of Muscæ volitantes may be seen by persons of all ages, and with the best eyes; and though those which are more peculiarly entitled to the name are exceedingly common beyond the middle period of life; yet no account has been given of them that has even the slightest pretension to accuracy. M. De La Hire, in his Differens accidens de la Vue, describes these Muscæ as of two kinds; some permanent and fixed, which he ascribes to small drops of extravasated blood upon the retina; and others, as flying about, and changing their place, even though the eye be fixed. The first kind, he describes as like a dark spot upon a white ground; and the second, as like the knots of a deal board. Some parts of them, he says, are very clear, and surrounded with dark threads, and are accompanied with long fillets of irregular shapes, which are bright in the middle, and terminated on each side by parallel black threads.

The family Austropanorpidae (Mecoptera) was described by Willmann in 1977 from the Eocene of Australia, based on one genus and species, Austropanorpa australis Riek, 1952. During a restudy of the collection of the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, a second and much older representative of this family was found. This specimen, described as Orthophlebia martynovae Sukatsheva, 1985 from Siberia (Russia), was considered until now to be a member of family Orthophlebiidae. We transfer this species to the Austropanorpidae, extending the age of this family back to the Early Jurassic. An updated diagnoses of the family Austropanorpidae and genus Austropanorpa are presented here.

The Society has had its attention of late so much directed to the subject of coal, that some apology, perhaps, is necessary for bringing this substance again under notice. I may premise, however, that in doing so, it is not my intention to revive the disputed question as to Boghead gas-coal, nor to take up the time of the Society with what may be considered as unprofitable discussion. I purpose to bring forward a few facts relative to a coal, concerning which there is no dispute, and which presents some vegetable organisms and products calculated, in my opinion, to throw light on the history of carboniferous deposits. Much of the recent difference of opinion on the question of coal has arisen from the mode in which some histologists have chosen to define it. I trust that the result of all our discussions will be to lead to a fuller examination of coal in all its forms,—to a comparison of specimens, both mineralogically and microscopically, from different localities,—and, finally, to an extended report on the subject in which geologists, chemists, and histologists will combine.

Present-day organisms have colonised two distinct high pressure environments: the deep sea and oil well and other crustal fluids. In the former, pressures attain 100 MPa and temperatures are generally less than 4°C. In the latter, the temperatures are high, up to 150°C, and occur in combination with pressures of up to 50 MPa. The high temperature is close to the limit of thermal stability of the macromolecules essential for life. The adaptation of present-day marine organisms to high pressure is known to involve modifications to their cell membrane lipids and subtle changes in both structural proteins and enzymes. There is no reason to suppose that they are close to the maximum pressure to which they could adapt and higher pressures could have been colonised in the geological past. The existence of “marker” compounds, characteristic of high pressure organisms, is discussed, and the possibility that isotope ratios are distorted by metabolic processes at high pressure is raised.

We welcome the views of A. D. Stewart (1990) on our interpretation of the unusual lithology and contact relations of the Stac Fada Member at Stoer. Stewart contends that our lower breccia body is a down-faulted outlier of the main breccia body and is therefore not a feeder. He thus rejects our notion that the Member is a peperitic extrusion: he also rejects the previously published view that the Member is a volcanic mudflow. Instead he suggests that the Stac Fada Member is one of several muddy volcanic horizons in the Stoer Group, all of which underwent post-depositional disturbance.

The Stor Fjord is the great bight which is situated on the eastern side of the mainland of Spitsbergen, and separates it from the large Barents and Edge Islands which lie farther east (see map, fig. 1). It is widest towards the south, the distance between the South Cape of Spitsbergen and Negro Point on Edge Island being 107 miles. At its northern end the Stor Fjord narrows considerably and terminates in Heley (or Helis) Sound, which connects it with the Barents Sea by way of Olga Strait.

Nitroglycerine is commonly described as the tri-nitric ether of glyceryl, and the formula C3H5(O.NO2)3 is accorded to it. This theory of its composition is based (1) upon its mode of formation; (2) upon the statement, made by Railton, Williamson, and others, that it is decomposed by potash into potassium nitrate and glycerine; (3) upon several estimations of the nitrogen which it contains, and one comparative estimation of its carbon. The second argument cannot be accepted, as it has been shown by one of us that the decomposition does not take place in the way stated; and the analytical results which have been obtained by the various investigators are so incomplete and mostly so imperfect, and differ so greatly among themselves, that they cannot be taken as affording any proof of the composition of the substance. It seemed to us, therefore, desirable that some accurate estimations should be obtained, not only of the nitrogen but of the carbon and hydrogen. A brief résume of previous analytical results will show that this is the case.