In the second volume of the Asiatic Researches, an extract is given from the Surya Siddhanta, the ancient book which has been long, though obscurely, pointed out as the source of the astronomical knowledge of the Brahmins. The Surya Siddhanta is in the Sanscrit language: It is one of the Sastras, or inspired writings of the Hindoos, and is called the Jyotish, or Astronomical, Sastra. It professes, as we learn from Mr Davis, the ingenious translator, to be a revelation from heaven, communicated to Meya, a man of great fanctity, about four millions of years ago, toward the close of the Satya Jug, or of the Golden Age of the Indian mythologists; a period at which man is said to have been incomparably better than he is at present; when his stature exceeded twenty-one cubits, and his life extended to ten thousand years.

The following observations may serve to illustrate and confirm the opinion now very generally adopted by Anatomists and Physicians, That an affection of one hemisphere of the brain, whether from internal disease or external accident, produces its morbid symptoms on the opposite side of the body.

The celebrated Bouguer was the first who discovered the important fact, that the eye can detect a very small difference between two similar illuminated surfaces, when viewed at the same moment,—the only principle which has yet been applied with any degree of success, in determining the relative illuminating powers of artificial flames. The following is perhaps the most commodious application of this principle, to determine the relative illuminating powers of different artificial lights, particularly of coal and oil gas. The instrument, or photometer, which I employ for this purpose, is extremely simple. It consists of a rectangular box, about an inch and a half, or two inches square, open at both ends, and blackened within for the purpose of absorbing the stray-light.

The history of the habits and development of the salmon has been for ages a subject of dispute, even among men of science and experience. The general theory which prevailed regarding its earlier stage of existence was, that the spawn deposited in the autumn or beginning of winter, produced by development the smolts which were seen descending to the sea in the course of the next ensuing spring.

In regard to its after state, some supposed that the smolts which descended the rivers in spring or early summer returned as grilses that same season. Many doubted this theory, and maintained that it was impossible, or very improbable, that they should return so speedily in that greatly enlarged condition; their only argument, however, being founded on the unlikelihood of such a rapid growth.

The usual methods of obtaining pure phosphoric acid by the oxidation, with nitric acid, or by combustion, of pure phosphorus, are well known; but, although they yield a pure product, yet, as the phosphorus must be prepared from phosphoric acid, it is obvious that we shall derive a great advantage from any method of purifying easily and cheaply the phosphoric acid from bones, instead of first reducing it to phosphorus, and then re-oxidizing it. In practice, phosphorus is made from the superphosphate of lime, and it is from the same salt that phosphoric acid may be most economically prepared.

Although a few papers have been published a number of years ago on the genus Ephedra, the authors have treated the subject mainly from a systematic standpoint. Thus, while the characters of the floral organs have been carefully examined and described, the structure and character of the vegetative organs have only received passing reference. It is proposed in the following notes to undertake the study of the histology of the vegetative organs, and thereafter to ascertain how far this knowledge applies to the determination of species. The following notes deal with the histology of the primary stem.

When any one of the following tables has been given in the past to an extent useful at the present time, it will be found by the computer that the necessary volume is only with difficulty accessible and hardly ever to be purchased. That these tables are obviously useful is perhaps all that need be said in justification of their more extended computation.

That the stelar problem considered in this paper may be more clearly visualised, it will be well to divest of purely theoretical considerations the facts of stelar structure already known for Platyzoma, and to summarise such structural features as bear on the subject in hand.

In the first account of Platyzoma given by Robert Brown in 1810 (l), the habit of the stem and heterophyllic leaves, and the general form and position of the sporangia, were alone described. But in 1832 (2) a rough analysis of the structure of the stem was added, and the tubular nature of its stele was recognised. No material contribution to the knowledge of the stelar structure was made until 1893 (3), when Dr Poirault described the histology of the stele as shown by a small fragment of stem. In this material there was a sclerotic pith completely surrounded by an endodermis, outside which lay a zone of parenchyma surrounded by a broad ring of parenchymatous xylem. At the periphery of the xylem there was a narrow zone of phloëm surrounded by a large-celled pericycle and an outer endodermis. Neither leaf-gaps nor perforations were found in the stele, and accordingly the complete isolation of the pith from the cortex was recognised.

In the following Paper, it is proposed to illustrate more fully the hint explanatory of certain atmospheric colours, given in a notice of the remarkable red hue of condensing steam, communicated on the 21st January. Since that time, I have examined with care the principal authors who have adverted to the subject of the colour of the sky generally, and of the redness of sunset in particular; and since, in the course of that research, I have found much to confirm, and little to modify, the view which I have already taken of the subject, I hope that the present Paper may be considered as a fit appendix to my former experimental notice. It will be recollected that in it I stated the singular fact, that steam does not pass at once from the state of invisible pellucid vapour to that of a misty white cloud, such as issues from the spout of a tea-kettle; but that an intermediate stage occurs, in which it is coloured, even very highly, giving to transmitted light a hue varying from tawny yellow up to intense smoke-red. I then observed, that, since this phenomenon does not require steam of high tension for its production, it is very probable that the tints of sunset and of artificial lights seen through certain fogs, may be owing to the absorptive action of watery vapour in this critical condition.

Although there are reports of permineralised woods in Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata in Mexico, there are few palaeobotanical studies based on coniferous stems. Four taxa of fossil wood from three localities in Mexico are described at the anatomical level and identified taxonomically based on detailed comparisons with woods of extant and fossil taxa. Agathoxylon gilii sp. nov. and A. jericonse sp. nov. are determined from the Todos Santos Formation (Upper Jurassic), in Chiapas; A. parrensis sp. nov. is described from the Las Encinas Formation (Palaeocene) in Coahuila; and Taxodioxylon cabullensis sp. nov. corresponds with material from the Packard Shale Formation in Sonora. Dominance of Araucariaceae and Cupressaceae in this region during the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic is further supported by leaf records, but these materials may also represent other taxa, like Cheirolepidaceae, which may have araucarioid secondary xylem. Records of Brachyphyllum and/or Pagiophyllum, which may represent araucarioid or cheirolepidaceous taxa, and different cupressaceous leaves, have been collected in rocks of the same period in nearby formations. At present, the amalgamation of isolated organs to form one plant is uncertain and, thus, there is an open challenge to reconstruct the plants and better understand these extinct communities. The new fossil taxa will add to the diversity of extinct plants and conifer communities during the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic in low-latitude North America.

The non-archosauriform archosauromorph Dinocephalosaurus orientalis was first described from the Upper Member of the Guanling Formation (late Anisian, Middle Triassic) of Guizhou Province by Li in 2003 on the basis of a complete articulated skull and the first three cervical vertebrae exposed in dorsal to right lateral view. Since then, additional specimens have been discovered in southwestern China. Here, five newly discovered specimens are described for the first time, and redescriptions of the holotype IVPP V13767 and another referred specimen, IVPP V13898, are provided. Together, these permit the description of the complete skeleton of this remarkable long-necked marine reptile. The postcranial skeleton is as much as 6 metres long, and characterised by its long tail and even longer neck. The appendicular skeleton exhibits a high degree of skeletal paedomorphosis recalling that of many sauropterygians, but the skull and neck are completely inconsistent with sauropterygian affinities. The palate does not extend back over the basisphenoid region and lacks any development of the closed condition typical of sauropterygians. The arrangement of cranial elements, including the presence of narial fossae, is very similar to that seen in another long-necked archosauromorph, Tanystropheus hydroides, which at least in part represents a convergence related to an aquatic piscivorous lifestyle. The long and low cervical vertebrae support exceptionally elongate cervical ribs that extend across multiple intervertebral joints and contribute to a ‘stiffening bundle of ribs’ extending along the entire ventral side of the neck, as in many other non-crocopodan archosauromorphs. The functional significance of the extraordinarily elongate neck is hard to discern but it presumably played a key role in feeding, and it is probably analogous to the elongate necks seen in pelagic, long-necked plesiosaurs. Dinocephalosaurus orientalis was almost certainly a fully marine reptile and even gave birth at sea.

A new rhynchonellide brachiopod has been collected from the Kahuitara Tuff (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of Pitt Island, Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Brachiopods are extremely rare in Cretaceous rocks from New Zealand, and this new genus and species is unlike any other rhynchonellide known from Australasia or elsewhere. Chathamirhynchia kahuitara is distinguished by its small size, strong ribbing, and well-developed sulciplicate folding, and internally by a large, robust cardinal process and raduliform crura. The shell structure of C. kahuitara is shown to be of typical fine fibrous ‘rhynchonellidine’ type. This brachiopod was probably strongly attached to volcanic rock or shells in a shallow-water, high-energy environment. Implications for the biogeography of brachiopods during the Late Cretaceous are briefly discussed.

In a preliminary note read before the Society on July 4, 1904, I drew attention to the fact that a number of line-series, forming a group which includes the first series of Hydrogen, can be represented by an equation of the form

where v denotes the wave-frequency of any line of the series, v∞ that of the so-called “tail” of the series (m = ∞), and a1, b1 constants depending on the nature of the emitting substance; the frequencies of successive lines being obtained by substituting successive integers for m. We see at once that this equation is a generalisation of Balmek's formula, into which it is transformed by equating b1 to zero. In the same note I also pointed out the existence of another group represented by an equation of the same form, if (m + ½) is substituted for m. As a special case (b1 = 0) this group contains the second Hydrogen series discovered by Professor Pickering in the spectrum of ζ Puppis. Subsequent investigations convinced me, however, that, although a considerable number of line-series may be classified into these two groups, there are numerous instances where the more general formula

must be employed, in which μ represents various fractional numbers.

Details of the anatomy of the heart and the great vessels are recorded in the following genera of prosimian Primates, Loris, Arctocebus, Perodicticus, Galago, Galagoides, Hapalemur, Lemur, Lepilemur and Propithecus, and comparison made with previously published data on Nycticebus. Special attention is drawn to the proportions, shape and mode of branching of the systemic aorta, which is of typical lemurine pattern in all but Loris and Propithecus. In the heart, attention is paid particularly to the valvular arrangements in the right atrium, where much variation has been found; to the number of pulmonary veins entering the left atrium, also a variable feature; to the internal and external morphology of the ventricles and the valvular arrangements therein. The presence of an os cordis is recorded for the first time in any Primate (viz. in Loris), and the occurrence is mentioned of “brown” (glandular) fat sub-epicardially in Loris. The significance is discussed of the principal anatomical features.

A glance at the expression

is sufficient to verify the fact that it is symmetric with respect to a, b, c, d, and also with respect to α, β, γ, δ. It is likewise, although not quite so evidently, an alternating function with respect to the interchange

that is to say, if a and α be interchanged, and at the same time b and β, c and γ, d and δ, the function is not altered in magnitude, but merely changes sign. With a little trouble, indeed, the expression can be transformed into

or say