The power of pronouncing articulate sounds is one of the most obvious marks which distinguish man from the other animals. No philosophical investigation is necessary for pointing it out, and therefore it has not escaped the notice of the poets, the most ancient of all authors. In the works of Homer and Hesiod, we often meet with the expression μέϱοπες ἄνθϱωποι, men having an articulate voice; the word μέϱοψ being evidently compounded of μείϱω, to divide, and ὄψ, the voice.

In 1897, a description was given of a silicified specimen from the Old Red Sandstone of Reswallie near Forfar which was named Cryptoxylon Forfarense. In this note evidence is brought forward for placing the plant in the genus Nematophyton.

For an account of the specimen and of its structure reference may be made to the original description and the figures, which are based on photographs. The stem was shown to consist of an apparently parenchymatous tissue, in which groups of smaller cells occurred. These isolated groups form dark spots, which are arranged concentrically in the transverse section and are slightly elongated in the longitudinal direction. In discussing the affinities of the plant it was noted that it appeared to be essentially distinct from Nematophyton, since in that plant the tissue is entirely composed of long tubes.

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

On a moonless night, whenever clouds of an ordinary elevation in the atmosphere appear upon, or pass across, the star-spangled sky behind them, they exhibit themselves, as a rule, dark, sometimes even black, in comparison therewith. And no wonder, when every part of the open sky from visible star to visible star therein must be lit up to some, though doubtless a very small, extent by the faintest general and cumulative radiance of those myriads and myriads of lesser stars, which only a large telescope can show to be individually existent as actual stellar points of light, but in their aggregate more nearly eternal, and still more constant from age to age, than our gigantic Sun itself.

The Ipecacuan plant, Cephaëlis Ipecacuanha of Achille Richard, has been cultivated in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden for upwards of forty years, but it was not propagated to any extent until 1870, when a proposal was made to attempt the cultivation of the plant in India. This suggestion was made on account of the continued destruction of the plant by the collectors in Brazil, and the risk of scarcity in the supply of this most valuable remedy for dysentery. The Secretary of State for India (His Grace the Duke of Argyll), under the recommendation of several medical officers in Bengal, authorised an attempt to propagate the plant in our Indian possessions, and with that view application was made to me and others to aid in this important undertaking. Accordingly, I at once set about the propagation of the plant in the Edinburgh Garden, with the assistance of Mr M'Nab the curator. He found that the plant could be multiplied very rapidly by dividing the annulated root, cuttings of which, though very small, give off young shoots when placed in favourable circumstances. By this means, numerous plants were produced very rapidly, and the method was also followed by the Messrs Lawson, Nurserymen, Edinburgh, who supplied a large stock of vigorous plants. Mr M'Nab drew up a report of his mode of propagation, which was printed, and distributed extensively to district officers in India and elsewhere. The paper also appeared in the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. x. p. 318.

1. The first series of these researches, in the exact form in which they are printed, were laid before the Royal Society on the 19th January 1835. The whole of the experiments there described were made, and the paper written and printed, within a space of time little exceeding two months. This haste, unfavourable to composition, I considered as a less evil than postponing for a period of time, which must have been considerable, the publication of a class of facts which might be said almost to embrace a new science. The professional duties which pressed upon me during the whole continuance of those experiments, then called imperatively on my attention, and during the remainder of the Session my time was devoted to them. The summer I devoted to a foreign excursion, some of the results of which I afterwards digested; and it was not till the commencement of the winter session which has just closed, that I prepared, with a fresh stock of health and spirits, to reinvestigate the whole subject of the Polarization of Heat, and to assign numerical values to the effects, whose existence I had before been contented to prove.

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.

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.

Interesting as theoptical properties of the eye have been to philosophers in every age, there are conditions of this organ which are no less curious, and which have not had their share of attention.

In the year 1823, I introduced the subject to the Royal Society of London, nearly in the terms I am now using, but there is much more in the subject than I then conceived, although I see no reason to change the mode of contemplating it.

The eight muscles of the eye, and the five nerves, exclusive of the optic nerve, which pass to them, imply the complex nature of the apparatus exterior to the globe, and I fear it is too plain that the subject has not been satisfactorily treated.

It is chiefly with respect to the protecting motions of the eye that the difficulty occurs, for I hope the dependence of the proper organ of vision on the voluntary muscles of the eye, has been proved and acknowledged.

Permit me to draw the attention of the Society to what appears a very simple piece of anatomy, the circular muscle which closes the eyelids, orbicularis palpebrarum.

Old Red Sandstone sediments from Arran in western Scotland yield an array of Pb isotope compositions whose slope corresponds to an age of 1830 ± 400 Ma. These compositions are not consistent with a significant contribution of material from the Southern Highlands, Midland Valley, or Southern Uplands, but are similar to the Torridonian sandstones of NW Scotland. Bearing in mind the probable Laxfordian provenance of the Torridonian assemblage, this points to a source for the Old Red Sandstone in a crustal block of early Proterozoic age corresponding to the age of the Laxfordian episode. Since such a source is not presently in a position to yield the Old Red Sandstone, strike-slip movement along the Highland Boundary fault is a strong possibility.

The object of this investigation was to obtain information as to the change of specific resistance produced in wires of various metals by different amounts of elongation. The present paper refers to experiments on copper, iron, and German silver wires.

In 1836, I communicated to this Society the results of an extensive series of observations on Terrestrial Magnetic Intensity, made with the Hansteen Apparatus, which is the property of the Society. Some results with a small Dipping Needle, belonging to myself, were also given, but without great confidence in their accuracy.

I held then, however, the opinion which I still do, and to which the remarkable geometrical researches of Professor Gauss of Göttingen on Terrestrial Magnetism have given additional weight, that the element of horizontal intensity ought to be determined, and its laws of variation, in the first place, ascertained, independent of any other. Even should the deduction of total intensity be the sole ultimate object, I hold that an observer with only portable, and consequently imperfect instruments at his command, would do well to separate completely his investigations as to horizontal intensity from those upon dip, and then, by the skilful grouping of each set, having obtained a law of variation of each element according to the co-ordinates of Latitude and Longitude, the two partial results may be combined into the general one of total intensity , whilst either series may be used to check future observations, or be combined with any single future series in which one of the elements should be better determined.

The following remarks, being the result of a careful examination of a small district of country characteristic of the relations of the trap formations, are perhaps worthy of being recorded; although the general features of the county of Roxburgh have been very clearly stated in a paper by Mr Milne, published in the 15th volume of the Edinburgh Transactions.

The outburst of porphyritic trap forming the conspicuous small group of the Eildon Hills, may be stated to be surrounded by the characteristic greywacke of the south of Scotland. It forms an elongated patch on the map, extending from the west end of Bowden Muir in the direction of the town of Selkirk, and running from west-south-west to east-north-east (true) towards Bemerside Hill, on the north bank of the Tweed. The breadth is variable, probably less than is generally supposed; but it cannot be accurately ascertained, owing to the accumulated diluvium which covers the whole south-eastern slope of this elevated ridge. On this account, my observations on the contact of rocks have been almost entirely confined to the northern and western boundaries of the trap, although the other side was examined with equal care.

The solid compounds of carbon and hydrogen form a class of substances to which chemists have scarcely, as yet, paid that attention which their importance and interest appear to merit. With the exception of naphthaline, very little is known regarding them, and it is remarkable that the numerous and varied products of decomposition obtained from that singular substance should not have induced a more minute examination of the kindred compounds, whose existence has been indicated by different chemists. The interest attaching to these compounds is all the greater because, according to their discoverers, several of them are isomeric, or at least polymeric, with naphthaline; and a more careful examination of them might be expected to throw some light on their intimate constitution, and relations to that body.

The following additional observations on the comparative structure of the eye-ball, are intended chiefly to illustrate the philosophical anatomy and physiology of the capsules forming the Canal of Petit, and of the Marsupium Nigrum; yet as I have here taken notice of several other points in the comparative anatomy of the eye, the memoir may be considered as supplementary to those formerly read to this learned Society, and which it did me the honour to insert in its Transactions. I have stated in the first of those essays, that I had been led to inquire into the structure of the Eye, partly as connected with researches into the comparative anatomy of all the organs of sense, but more particularly with a view to elucidate the nature and distribution of the nervous system. I did not presume to think that any remarkable peculiarities in the structure of this most interesting organ, had escaped preceding anatomists; but though I found this to be true, in so far as regards the structure of the eye in most of the mammalia, it yet appeared that the same organ in other vertebral animals had by no means been investigated, or at least describedj with the same care.