Atropia is a nitrile base, obtained from Atropa Belladonna. All we know of its constitution is, that by the action of strong acids and bases it is decomposed, in accordance with the equation—

So that atropia may be considered as tropia, in which one atom of hydrogen has been replaced by tropyl, the radical of tropic acid.

Atropia has a somewhat complicated physiological action, for it directly influences the functions of the cerebro-spinal and sympathetic nervous systems. The principal effects produced by it on the former system are paralysis of the sensory and motor nerves, and excitation of the spinal cord. By its action on the sympathetic nerves, it influences the contraction of the unstriped muscles; but as the mechanism of this action is by no means exactly defined, we shall merely allude to it in our comparison of the actions of the methyl and ethyl derivatives, with those of the alkaloid itself. In addition to these general actions, atropia influences, in a special manner, the functions of the vagi nerves and of the iris, suspending the cardiac inhibitory power of the former, and producing contraction of the latter.

The Kirkland Conglomerate and the Benan Conglomerate and associated sediments of the Barr Group (Ordovician—Llanvirn-Llandeilo) of the Girvan district, SW Scotland record the development of two fan-delta systems situated on the northern margin of Iapetus. The intervening Stinchar Limestone represents a shallow marine fan-delta abandonment facies. Subaerial fan-delta deposits are seen at the lowest exposed horizons within the Kirkland Conglomerate. Transgression and eventual abandonment of the fan-delta system is recorded by (1) matrix-rich gravels forming the topmost horizons of the unit. (2) subaqueous distributary channel sands of the overlying transitional sandstone and associated shallow-marine carbonates of the Auchensoul Limestone and (3) shallow-marine sandstones of the Confinis Flags. Following a period of shallow-water sedimentation (Stinchar Limestone), a phase of rapid subsidence occurred during the upper Llandeilo, broadly synchronous with the Nemagraptus gracilis Zone transgression. Lowermost horizons of the succeeding Benan Conglomerate comprise re-sedimented gravels and laterally equivalent ‘outer shelf’ deposits (Superstes Mudstone). Renewal of coarse clastic sedimentation resulted from source area uplift related to granite plutonism, responsible also for the rapid subsidence of basinal areas. Fan-delta progradation is recorded by the occurrence of braided-fluvial deposits and shallow-marine carbonates at higher stratigraphical levels within the unit. Progradation of the fan-delta complex resulted from a gradual reduction in subsidence rates along basin-margin faults.

Fan-deltas of the Barr Group prograded southwards, from a SW—NE-trending faultdelineated basin margin, across a narrow shelf area. To the S of the shelf area defined by Barr Group outcrop, sediments of the Tappins complex accumulated in outer shelf, ?slope and base of slope settings.

The thickness of individual conglomerate units (>150 m—Kirkland Conglomerate, and up to 700 m—Benan Conglomerate), the associated high sedimentation rates, narrowness of the shelf area, and distribution and style of basin-margin faults indicate that oblique-slip motion along the northern margin of Iapetus may have provided a major control over Middle Ordovician sedimentation in the Girvan district.

Ore element ratios in intrusion-related mineralisation are in part a function of the relative oxidation state and degree of fractionation of the associated granite suite. A continuum from Cu-Au through W to Mo dominated mineralisation related to progressively more fractionated, oxidised I-type magmas can be traced within single suites and supersuites. Such systematic relationships provide strong evidence for the magmatic source of ore elements in granite-related mineral deposits and for the production of the observed ore element ratios dominantly through magmatic processes. The distribution of mineralised intrusive suites can be used to define a series of igneous metallogenic provinces in eastern Australia. In general, there is a correlated evolution in the observed metallogeny (as modelled based on the compatibility of ore elements during fractionation) with increasing degree of chemical evolution of the associated magmatic suite. This is from Cu-Au associated with chemically relatively unevolved magmas, through to Sn and Mo-rich mineralisation associated with highly evolved magmas that had undergone fractional crystallisation. Provinces recognised in that way do not necessarily correlate with the tectonostratigraphic boundaries defined by the near-surface geology, indicating that the areal distribution of some granite source regions in the deep crust is unrelated to upper crustal geology.

The Tombstone, Mayo and Tungsten plutonic suites of granitic intrusions, collectively termed the Tombstone-Tungsten Belt, form three geographically, mineralogically, geochemically and metallogenically distinct plutonic suites. The granites (sensu lato) intruded the ancient North American continental margin of the northern Canadian Cordillera as part of a single magmatic episode in the mid-Cretaceous (96–90 Ma). The Tombstone Suite is alkalic, variably fractionated, slightly oxidised, contains magnetite and titanite, and has primary, but no xenocrystic, zircon. The Mayo Suite is sub-alkalic, metaluminous to weakly peraluminous, fractionated, but with early felsic and late mafic phases, moderately reduced with titanite dominant, and has xenocrystic zircon. The Tungsten Suite is peraluminous, entirely felsic, more highly fractionated, reduced with ilmenite dominant, and has abundant xenocrystic zircon. Each suite has a distinctive petrogenesis. The Tombstone Suite was derived from an enriched, previously depleted lithospheric mantle, the Tungsten Suite is from the continental crust including, but not dominated by, carbonaceous pelitic rocks, and the Mayo Suite is from a similar sedimentary crustal source, but is mixed with a distinct mafic component from an enriched mantle source.

Each suite has a distinctive metallogeny that is related to the source and redox characteristics of the magma. The Tombstone Suite has a Au-Cu-Bi association that is characteristic of most oxidised and alkalic magmas, but also has associated, and enigmatic, U-Th-F mineralisation. The reduced Tungsten Suite intrusions are characterised by world-class tungsten skarn deposits with less significant Cu, Zn, Sn and Mo anomalies. The Mayo Suite intrusions are characteristically gold-enriched, with associated As, Bi, Te and W associations. All suites also have associated, but distal and lower temperature Ag-Pb- and Sb-rich mineral occurrences. Although processes such as fractionation, volatile enrichment and phase separation are ultimately required to produce economic concentrations of ore elements from crystallising magmas, the nature of the source materials and their redox state play an important role in determining which elements are effectively concentrated by magmatic processes

Palaeocene volcanic activity is represented in west-central Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland, by a laterally extensive and thick pile of sub-aerial lavas mainly belonging to the alkali olivine basalt—hawaiite—mugearite—benmoreite—trachyte suite. The lavas are typical of many continental flood basalt suites and were principally fed from fissure eruptions similar to those of present day Iceland. Intercalated with the lavas are rare beds of heterogeneous volcaniclastic material, including breccias, conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones. The sequence forms a major portion of a larger volcanic field preserved within the NNE-SSW-elongated ‘Sea of the Hebrides’ sedimentary basin.

Significant hiatuses in the volcanic activity are marked by deep-weathering profiles and thin sedimentary sequences comprising mudstones, ironstones, coals, sandstones and conglomerates. Palaeocurrent indicators and clast lithologies within the clastic sedimentary rocks indicate that erosion of a massif dominated by the Palaeocene Rum Igneous Complex and its roof rocks, c. 20 km to the S, provided abundant detritus to a river system which drained towards the N. Such sedimentary intercalations aid the stratigraphical subdivision of the lava field. Eight lava groups, each most likely with a different focus of fissure eruption, and divisible into mappable formations, together with two sedimentary formations, are recognised.

The alkali olivine basalts are typically thin, with a tendency to form compound flows with limited lateral extents, whilst the hawaiites and mugearites are considerably thicker and cover large areas. Only very rarely are flow terminations observed. The original extents of the single benmoreite and rare trachytes cannot be determined from their limited erosional remnants. The more evolved flows tended to occur after brief hiatuses in the volcanic activity, indicated by well-developed lateritic tops to the underlying flows.

The youngest preserved lava is a columnar-jointed olivine tholeiite with a MORB-like composition. The flow is at least 120 m thick and apparently ponded in a steep-sided palaeo-valley within the lava field.

Three fault trends are recognised: parallel, normal and marginally oblique to the main NW-SEtrending regional dyke swarm, and dissect the lava field into a number of discrete blocks. The more significant of these faults may have been active during the development of the lava field, and in some instances instrumental in controlling the distribution of the flows.

Later Tertiary erosion has removed an unknown thickness of material from the upper part of the lava field, the preserved thickness of which is estimated to be about 1·5 km.

A formal lithostratigraphy is erected for all the Ordovician rocks in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. At the base of the succession, the Crawford Group (Arenig–Llanvirn) encompasses the chert and lava sequences usually associated with the tract-bounding faults, and includes the only proven Arenig rocks in the Southern Uplands. The overlying Moffat Shale Group (Caradoc–Llandovery) is now restricted to the black and grey graptolitic shales which succeed the grey and red chert successions. The Leadhills Supergroup (Caradoc–Ashgill) forms the overwhelming bulk of the sedimentary succession and includes the thick Ordovician turbidite successions of the Northern Belt. Existing stratigraphical terminology is reviewed, revised or extended as appropriate to maintain maximum continuity with current usage. Type sections for each unit are either proposed, where newly defined or revised, or cited in the case of existing definitions.

There are few organs which have engaged the attention of the topographical anatomist more than the stomach, and few which have yielded him so small a reward as the result of his labours. The changes which so rapidly set in after death through relaxation of its muscular wall, combined with the many different forms which the organ may assume during life, make the investigation one of great difficulty. Improved methods, and more especially the introduction of formalin as a hardening and preserving agent, have, however, placed the modern anatomist in a much more favourable position than his predecessor for attacking problems of this nature, and have enabled him to do justice to many views which have been more or less tentatively put forward by the earlier observers in this branch of study.

The numerous analyses of sea-water by Forchhammer previous to 1865, and the later analyses by Dittmar, from samples collected during the “Challenger” Expedition, show that while the salinity—i.e., the amount of dissolved salts contained in 100 parts of seawater—varies greatly in different regions of the ocean, still the composition of these dissolved salts—i.e., the ratio of the constituents of sea-salts—remains practically the same in all the superficial waters of the ocean. Consequently, it is only necessary to determine the chlorine in a definite weight of water to ascertain at once the respective quantities of the other salts present in the sample. Dittmar's examination of the “Challenger” waters has, however, shown that lime is slightly, although distinctly, more abundant in samples of sea-water collected in greater depths than in those samples collected nearer the surface of the ocean, and Dittmar's tables showing the difference between the chlorine calculated from the specific gravity and the chlorine found by analysis point to differences in the composition of the sea-salts, but the observations are relatively so few, these differences so slight, so mixed up with observational errors, and so irregular in their geographical and bathymetrical distribution, that they cannot be said to indicate any general law other than a greater quantity of lime in deep water.

A diverse, but sparsely distributed silicified fauna of over 30 taxa has been recovered from 7·5 tonnes of acid-etched Lower Ordovician Dounans Limestone from the Highland Border Complex, near Aberfoyle. The 13 trilobite taxa obtained include 3 new formally named species: Distazeris adoceta, Punka aetholiciocorus and Ischyrotoma stubblefieldi. Other elements, representing Carolinites, Illaenus, Goniotelina, Sycophantia, Kawina, Heliomeroides, Strotactinus, Ectenonotus, Ceratocephala and an indeterminate bathyurelline are described under open nomenclature although at least 4 are also probably new and 2 more may be conspecific with previously described species. The brachiopods include representatives of Archaeorthis, Nothorthis, Orthidium, ?Camerella, Idiostrophia, Orthambonites and 4 other indeterminate stocks. Gastropods tentatively assigned to Murchisonia, Subulites, Straparollina, Maclurites and Cyrtodiscus are described, as are bryozoans, an orthocone, crinoids, and Incertae sedis.

This profoundly North American fauna is Late Canadian ( = mid Arenig) in age and equates with the Cassinian Stage: it is key evidence in showing that the Highland Border rocks are not part of the Dalradian Supergroup whose earliest deformations and metamorphism predate the Ordovician. The field relationships of the limestone, together with evidence from derived clasts in Middle Ordovician and Devonian sequences near Girvan in SW Scotland and at Stonehaven in eastern Scotland suggest that it forms part of a widespread sub-Old Red Sandstone carbonate sequence of Early Ordovician age beneath the northern Midland Valley.

On the western and eastern sides of the North Atlantic craton, rocks between about 1·7 b.y. and 1·2 b.y. old are represented by thick basinal assemblages. Thin platformal successions cover the intervening region. The clastic component of these rocks was largely derived from the southeast where the Elsonian orogen might have been an important source terrane. Widespread mafic igneous activity (about 1·2 b.y. ago) in the central platformal region preceded orogenic movements in the basinal areas (Racklan-Carolinidian-Grenville orogeny). The Grenville orogen may have contributed significant amounts of clastic debris for a second cycle of sedimentary accumulation(∼ 1·2 b.y.–∼ 0·8 b.y.). The upper part of this cycle typically contains red beds and evaporites and, in the North American Cordillera, shows evidence of contemporaneous block faulting and extensional tectonism. These movements culminated in the East Kootenay and Hayhook orogenies and ushered in a third period of deposition about 850 m.y. ago. The third sequence includes glaciogenic rocks in the Cordilleran and East Greenland geosynclines. The basic geotectonic elements (platforms and geosynclines) of the North Atlantic craton were established as much as 1·7 b.y. ago, but continental fragmentation on the borders of the craton may not have taken place until early Phanerozoic times.

The development of an atypical Hirnantia Fauna in the late Ordovician of Gondwana was coeval with a slow eustatic fall induced by the abstraction of water into a growing ice sheet. This event is dated as early Hirnantian in age and occurred in tandem with the start of a major mass extinction. A tectonic episode in the Caradoc-Ashgill of North Africa differentiated the continental shelf into highs and lows and may have formed the land required for the accumulation of a permanent snow cover. Depositional lows were filled by regressive shallow-marine deposits in the early Hirnantian. During the mid-Hirnantian, advance and retreat of an ice sheet on the continental shelf resulted in the deposition of glaciomarine sediments above these regressive deposits. The demise of an atypical Hirnantia Fauna is attributed to deglaciation and the associated flooding of the continental shelf by a stratified anoxic water column. This glacioeustatic sea-level rise occurred in the late Hirnantian.

In 1892 I communicated to this Society an account of a collection of Eurypterids from the Upper Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills, in which I described new species and a new genus. Since that time I have had the opportunity of examining two other collections from the same locality. One of these was formed with the aid of a grant from the British Association. The fossiliferous bed—for these remains occur in a single thin bed of rock—was laid bare, and a considerable amount of it removed and split up. In this latter work I was fortunate to get the assistance of Mr John Henderson, the original discoverer of the locality, and I am glad to have this opportunity of recording my indebtedness to him. A fair number of specimens was thus procured, which not only threw considerable light on the structure of some of the already described forms, but gave evidence of some species as yet undescribed. More important than this collection, however, was the one formed by the late Mr Hardie of Bavelaw Castle, who had for many years collected among the Pentland Silurians. His collection was, on his death, acquired by the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, and Dr Traquair kindly put the collection in my hands for examination. From the size of the collection I expected some new and interesting results, and have been far from being disappointed. Seven new species of Eurypterids have come to light and one Scorpion.

The origin of the name “Uist” or “Vist” is uncertain. It is probably either of Pictish or Scandinavian derivation. It is said to be found amongst the names of the early Pictish kings. Some authorities give “Ivist” as the earliest known name, and this may mean “Ey-vist,” the Island of Vist (the Pictish king), or may be rendered literally from the Norse as “dwelling-place.” Others believe that the name is derived from “vest” (Danish) signifying “the west island.” Originally Uist comprised what we now know as North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, and possibly Barra as well.

Cindarella eucalla Chen et al. from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna is the closest relative of Xandarella spectaculum Hou et al. Cindarella and Xandarella are united as Xandarellida, a further component of Cambrian arachnate diversity. Diagnostic of Xandarellida are ventral eyes, a posterior extension of the head shield that covers anterior trunk segments, and multiple somites per tergite in the rear part of the trunk. Somites and tergites are decoupled throughout the trunk in Cindarella. The bilobate structure of the exopod in xandarellids is widespread throughout the Arachnata.

Isle of Wight Bee Disease has been known in this country certainly since 1904, when it was first recognised in the island from which it derives its popular name. According to Imms it was probably present in Derbyshire in 1902, and was also known in Cornwall and other districts in 1904. Prior to these dates periodic losses of bees of a serious character are on record, dating as far back as the middle of the eighteenth century. Bullamore and Malden (1912) have summarised fully these outbreaks in historical series in their report in Journal of Board of Agriculture, Supplement 8, xix. From a study of the records which they have brought together and from personal inquiries which we have made at various bee-keepers of wide experience, it would appear that none of these earlier outbreaks attained the general distribution throughout the country which we know in Isle of Wight Disease at the present date, nor did any of them remain established over such an extensive period of years as that which has continued without interruption from 1902 until the present time.

Middle and Lower Deeside lie within the belt of injection and high-temperature metamorphism made famous by the pioneer researches of Mr George Barrow. In this paper are recorded the results obtained from a study of Cromar, an area small enough to admit of detailed petrographical treatment and yet large enough to exhibit a considerable variety of igneous and metamorphic phenomena. Of the three great phases of igneous activity there displayed, one is older than the epoch of maximum crustal movements, the second is closely connected with these, and the third is later; the rocks of each period have their own quite definite chemical, petrographical, and geological characteristics. Whilst here most attention will be directed towards the second group, that associated with the movements, an account of the other two groups will be given adequate for a discussion of the full igneous history of the area.

Mires are terrestrial ecosystems which conserve organic production in the form of peat because their soils are waterlogged. Scotland's damp climate makes it rich in mires, with fens, raised mires and blanket mires occurring widely. Intact examples are mostly treeless due to wind exposure. They have two functional layers of soil: a shallow acrotelm overlying the catotelm or peat deposit proper. The acrotelm is the main region of diagenesis and contains the water table, which lies close to the surface for most of the time. Evapotranspiration depends on water table depth and surface vegetation. In the catotelm, water transmission is described by Darcy's law with sufficient exactness to allow prediction of the water table profile. An analysis of seepage using Dupuit–Forchheimer theory predicts a hemi-elliptical profile whose curvature is governed by the water balance in dry years and which, in its turn, closely controls the overall shape of the mire. Water flow is more rapid in the acrotelm, where it creates a regular series of different soil physical regimes which are linked with distinct combinations of surface topography and vegetation arranged sequentially from the centre of a mire to its edge. Such regular arrangements are most clearly seen in the Flowe Country of E Sutherland and Caithness. Acrotelm structure also permits variation in flow rate with depth, so that the amplitude of water table oscillations is narrowly confined and the mire thus protected against both desiccation and sheet flow.

Oxygen isotope data are very useful in determining the source rocks of granitic magmas, particularly when used in combination with Sr, Pb, and Nd isotope studies. For example, unusually high δ18O values in magmas (δ18O> +8) require the involvement of some precursor parent material that at some time in the past resided on or near the Earth's surface, either as sedimentary rocks or as weathered or hydrothermally altered rocks. The isotopic systematics which are preserved in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic batholiths of western North America can be explained by grand-scale mixing of three broadly defined end-members: (1) oceanic island-arc magmas derived from a “depleted” (MORB-type?) source in the upper mantle (δ18O c. +6 and 87Sr/86Sr c. 0·703); (2) a high-18O (c. +13 to +17) source with a very uniform 87Sr/86Sr (c. 0·708 to 0·712), derived mainly from eugeosynclinal volcanogenic sediments and (or) hydrothermally altered basalts; and (3) a much more heterogeneous source (87Sr/86Sr c. 0·706 to 0·750, or higher) with a high δ18O (c. +9 to +15) where derived from supracrustal metasedimentary rocks and a much lower δ18O (c. +7 to +9) where derived from the lower continental crust of the craton. These end-members were successively dominant from W to E, respectively, within three elongate N–S geographic zones that can be mapped from Mexico all the way N to Idaho.

18O/16O studies (together with D/H analyses) can, however, play a more important and certainly a unique role in determining the origins of the aqueous fluids involved in the formation of granitic and rhyolitic magmas. Fluid-rock interaction effects are most clear-cut when low-18O, low-D meteoric waters are involved in the isotopic exchange and melting processes, but the effects of other waters such as seawater (with a relatively high δD c. 0) can also be recognised. Because of these hydrothermal processes, rocks that ultimately undergo partial melting may exhibit isotopic signatures considerably different from those that they started with. We discuss three broad classes of potential source materials of such “hydrothermal-anatectic” granitic magmas, based mainly on water/rock (w/r), temperature (T), and the length of time (t) that fluid-rock interaction proceeds: (Type 1) epizonal systems with a wide variation in whole-rock δ18O and extreme 18O/16O disequilibrium among coexisting minerals (e.g. quartz and feldspar); (Type 2) deeper-seated and (or) longer-lived systems, also with a wide spectrum of whole-rock δ18O, but with equilibrated 18O/16O ratios among coexisting minerals; (Type 3) thoroughly homogenised and equilibrated systems with relatively uniform δ18O in all lithologies. Low-18O magmas formed by melting of rocks altered in a Type 2 or a Type 3 meteoric-hydrothermal system are the only kinds of “hydrothermal-anatectic” granitic magmas that are readily recognisable in the geological record. Analogous effects produced by other kinds of aqueous fluids may, however, be quite common, particularly in areas of extensional tectonics and large-scale rifting. The greatly enhanced permeabilities in such fractured terranes make possible the deep convective circulation of ground waters and sedimentary pore fluids. The nature and origin of low-18O magmas in the Yellowstone volcanic field and the Seychelles Islands are briefly reviewed in light of these concepts, as is the development of high-D, peraluminous magmas in the Hercynian of the Pyrenees.

In a new synopsis of the family Limapontiidæ the differences between Limapontia capitata and L. depressa, which may sometimes be mistaken for one another, are specially noted. These two species and Acteonia cocksi, the remaining member of the family, are sap-suckers that feed on the cell contents of green filamentous algæ. The cells are slit open one at a time by the leading tooth of the radula and their contents drained. The host plants of A. cocksi and L. capitata are marine Cladophora spp.; L. depressa feeds on Vaucheria. The size of the buccal mass varies according to the host plants. The subterminal position of the anus in L. depressa is an adaptive feature. The reproductive system of A. cocksi is described and compared with those of the other two species. During copulation both A. cocksi and L. capitata transfer sperm by hypodermic impregnation: sperm are injected by means of a penial style into a closed bursa copulatrix. The bursa of L. depressa opens to the exterior by a short duct and the penial style functions as a conducting pipe. Reasons are given for suppressing the genus Acteonia, Quatrefages, and including A. cocksi in the genus Limapontia, Johnston.