The debt which Scotland, and the world with it, owes to the genius of James Hutton cannot easily be measured. His Theory of the Earth, published in two octavo volumes in 1795, has long been universally recognised as one of the great classics of science. Not only did it open up new worlds to research and speculation, but the principles it established revolutionised in course of time the whole trend of scientific thought. When we think, however, of Hutton's amazing achievement—amazing in its originality and its grandeur of conception—it is well to remember not only the profound and far-reaching influence which he exerted, but also the long years of patient observation and sustained reflection which went to the building of his immortal Theory. We should remember not only the Hutton of established and enduring fame, but also the alert and questing spirit who sought so long and so courageously for a key to the mysteries of the earth on which he lived, who dared to look backward into an illimitable past and forward into an incalculable future, and who, on the evidence wrested from the solid rocks, reached the startling and heretical conclusion—as, indeed, in his day it was—that in the operations of nature we find “no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end”.

The experiments described in the present paper were undertaken as the outcome of an investigation into the possibility of securing nodule formation on leguminous roots cultured separately from the shoots. During that investigation it soon became clear that experiments on whole plants were necessary, in order to test the effect, on the nodulation of the normal whole plant, of certain conditions under which nodulation of root cultures was being attempted. It is thought that these observations on whole plants, though ancillary to the main investigation (which is still in progress), are of sufficient interest to be published separately. The observations are concerned with the effect of the following conditions or treatments on nodule development in a particular variety of pea:—

(a) Depriving the plant of light;

(b) the presence of sucrose in the rooting medium;

(c) the presence of nitrate in the rooting medium; and

(d) the presence of certain accessory growth substances, viz. aneurin and nicotinic acid, in the rooting medium.

In 1942 an experiment was started in order to test the possibility of increasing the fertility of a small sea-loch by the addition of nitrate and phosphate fertilizers, with the view of improving the growth rate and yield of fish. It was based on the well-established fact that the phytoplankton organisms are the main producers of organic matter and therefore represent the main source of food supply in the sea, and that nitrogen and phosphorus compounds are among the important factors controlling and limiting plankton production. It was thought that the addition of readily available plant nutrients would result in an increase of plankton production and thus of the food supply of the bottom-living animals which are fed upon by fish. An increase of the bottom fauna might then result in an improved growth rate of the fish population. Normally most marine fish require about four years to reach marketable size, and the object of our experiment was to find out whether the addition of fertilizers would lead to a shortening of that period and to an improvement of the yield in fish per unit area.

During the course of Mr J. M. Wordie's Arctic Expedition in 1937 the first-named writer (H. I. D.) visited three localities in the Tertiary Igneous Province of West Greenland. Small collections were made at each locality.

Only very little geological work could be undertaken on this Expedition owing to the very heavy programme of work in other scientific fields, one of its main objects being cosmic-ray research. The collections on which this paper is based were the result of very rapid, very superficial field-work.

During the late war Mr Bruce Taplin received for mineralogical investigation a low-grade cassiterite concentrate from a small plant operated by the Non-Ferrous Mineral Development Control (Ministry of Supply) for the recovery of wolfram from the eluvial and alluvial gravels of the valley east of Buttern Hill, near the northern margin of the Bodmin Moor granite (fig. 1). As received, the sample contained 4·1 per cent, of tin.

Increasing attention has been paid to dying-out of heather in Scotland over the last fifteen years. The question is of considerable economic importance, owing to the huge areas of grazing involved. Cameron (1937), Morison (1938) and Cameron, McHardy and Bennett (1944) have dealt with the entomological side of the problem. Braid and Tervet (1937) have stressed the necessity of a fuller study of fungi on heather and, particularly, of the heather rhizomorph fungus.

The present work, begun in 1939, was undertaken to determine the identity, parasitism, distribution and characters of the heather rhizomorph fungus and of any other fungi capable of attacking heather in Scotland. The heather rhizomorph fungus proved to be the only one isolated from heather which acted as a parasite. Accordingly, the others were not investigated further.

The dependence of plant production in the sea on the presence of nutrient salts, especially nitrate and phosphate, and on illumination has been repeatedly demonstrated. The object of the present work was to find primarily whether, and to what degree, plant and animal production could be increased by adding fertilizers to an enclosed body of sea water under otherwise natural conditions.

One hundred and fifty years ago Edinburgh lost one of her most distinguished citizens of all time, James Hutton, who is universally acclaimed as chief among the founders of modern geology. To-day, Lord Provost Sir John Falconer, to whom the city owes so much in this triumphant Festival year, has fittingly unveiled a tablet in Greyfriars Churchyard to mark the last resting-place of our great scientist. It must not be imagined that the absence of a tombstone during all these years illustrates the proverbial lack of appreciation which a prophet must expect in his own country. During his lifetime Hutton's brilliant associates recognised him at his true worth; and shortly after his death one of them, John Playfair, distinguished mathematician and physicist, erected to his friend a noble monument in the world of letters, entitled Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, 1802. He also provided the Royal Society of Edinburgh with a Biographical Account of 61 pp. 4to, 1803, which includes many personal details coupled with a comprehensive scientific appreciation.

The work of Auerbach and Robson (1946, 1947 a and b) on mustard gas and related substances has first shown conclusively that chemical substances may be as effective as high-energy radiation in the production of mutations. Subsequently, mutagenic abilities have been reported for a number of other substances (Hadorn and Niggli, 1946; Demerec, 1947 a and b; Vogt, 1948; Rapoport, 1946; Kaplan, 1948). This discovery, however, does not obviate the necessity to search for further mutagenic substances. On the contrary, it raises the hope that more such substances may be found. Only through a comparative study of many chemical mutagens may it eventually become possible to connect mutagenic activity with specific chemical groups or configurations and thus to throw some light on the chemical basis of mutation. Moreover, the indiscriminacy of mutagenic action which mustard gas shares with radiation may not be common to all mutagens: the discovery of a chemical substance with specific action on one or several genes would mean a large step forward in the analysis of the nature of the gene.

In 1899 Sir Archibald Geikie edited and published the third volume of Hutton's Theory of the Earth. The two earlier volumes had been published as far back as 1795. In his preface Sir A. Geikie gives the history of the MS. from which the present volume was printed; and he provides at the end of the work not only an index of Vol. III, but also, and separately, a most valuable index of the two earlier volumes, in which we note three references to Arran. In Vol. Ill, however, the last and longest chapter is devoted to “An Examination of the Mineral History of the Island of Arran” (pp. 191–267).

Studies in the variation of the Anthracosiidæ (= Carbonicolidæ) in the South Wales Coalfield by Davies and Trueman (1927) and in the Scottish Coalfields by Leitch (1936, 1940, 1941) have suggested that environmental influence on shell form is confined to changes in thickness of shell and in obesity. Davies and Trueman quoted H. R. Wakefield, who remarked that to-day among the Unionidæ these characters appear to vary according to the station of the shells in a single lake. Leitch referred to the work of Ortmann (1920) on the relation between obesity and distribution of river mussels in a large drainage basin in the U.S.A. The writer, in the course of very detailed work on the most highly variable faunas of the Anthracosiidæ known in the British Coal Measures, found evidence suggesting that certain other changes in shell shape and dimensions may also accompany environmental changes, as far as past environments may be reflected in the lithology of the rocks containing the shells.

The plankton in Loch Craiglin was sampled at Station I, the deepest part of the loch. Samples were taken at intervals of two or three weeks, and since, as is mentioned below, the sampling of zooplankton was unreliable for part of 1942, the results for that year are referred to only briefly and the more complete results of 1943 given in detail.

The density of the animal population in any area of the sea bottom must be closely related to the food supply available. An increase in food may be expected to lead to more rapid growth and to more prolific breeding, and a consequent increase in the number of animals sustained on a given area of the bottom.

The amount of food available to the “basic” bottom fauna, consisting of plankton, detritus and bottom microflora (cf. Hunt, 1925), depends upon the amounts of plant nutrients in the water, which limit photosynthetic activity in the presence of sufficient light. The addition of fertilizers to an enclosed area like Loch Craiglin (Orr, 1947) might be expected to lead to a greater food supply, and thus to a greater density of the bottom fauna.

It is common knowledge that during the period 1875–1939 a very drastic fall in fertility occurred in most of the civilised countries throughout the world. This fall was particularly marked in Germany and some of the countries of North-western Europe, such as Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland, etc. The causes which have produced such important changes in the rates of reproduction in these communities are doubtless complex, and are difficult to investigate directly. It is therefore all the more important that our knowledge of the actual course of events should be as complete as possible. A major social change, such as this fall in fertility over large and important regions of the earth, can be fruitfully studied from many points of view. The present communication concentrates on one particular aspect, namely the influence of different types of geographical regions with their various social environments, and confines itself to the experiences of Scotland.

Drosophila mutants are usually defined by structural characteristics exhibited by the adult fly. In certain cases (homozygous lethal mutants and female-sterile mutants) the mutant may or may not be defined structurally, but does exhibit the physiological characteristic of death at some stage.

The females of homozygous lethals are sterile, for the F1; represented by the germinal cells, dies with the mother. The term female-sterile, however, is applied to the well-known cases in which the mother but not her F1 achieve imaginal life.

Description of a little known anonymous pamphlet, an “Abstract” of the paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in 1785, in which James Hutton first announced publicly his famous Theory of the Earth. Reasons are advanced for concluding that Hutton himself was the author of the “Abstract”, and that it was published in 1785, some three years before the Royal Society paper was issued in the Society's Transactions. The writer concludes that the “Abstract”, and not, as has hitherto been supposed, the Transactions paper, constitutes the first form in which The Theory was published. The “Abstract” is reprinted in small type on p. 380.

The apparatus which one selects for the study of gaseous exchange by living tissue is largely determined by the nature of the problem with which one is confronted. Choice usually lies between those methods where a continuous stream of air is passed over the respiring material and alteration in its carbon dioxide content measured, or those in which the oxygen or carbon dioxide content of the air surrounding the respiring material in a closed system is periodically determined. The former system is frequently used when one is only concerned with relatively large quantities of carbon dioxide. The gas, which is usually absorbed by passing the air through solutions of sodium or barium hydroxide contained in Pettenkoffer tubes or Reiset towers, may be subsequently determined by titration of the alkali with standard acid. This arrangement is much used owing to the readiness with which it may be set up employing normal laboratory equipment. The labour involved can, however, be considerably curtailed by adopting the electrical conductivity method for determining carbon dioxide. This has been described by Newton (1935). It may be made more accurate and more sensitive than the titration methods and, moreover, enable determinations to be made quickly and at short intervals of time. Leach (1944) has made the method automatically recording.

As a river in its seaward course gathers volume and momentum from its tributaries, so does a science, from its inception to its attainment of maturity and beyond, increase its strength, scope and depth by incorporating into itself its historical past, built up by the contributions of those scientists and philosophers whose work marks stages in its progress. A history of science, to fulfil its purpose, must unravel the intricate strands of ideas and facts which form the fabric of modern science and trace them back to their inspiration and source. Such a history would be almost beyond the bounds of human endeavour, and its only practicable substitute tends to degenerate into a mere collection of names of scientists, combined with a review of their individual contributions to the development of science. Science, however, is neither an assemblage of facts nor of ideas. It is a co-ordinated system of facts linked by theories—with the emphasis, generally speaking, on the ideas—and within our limited capacity it can best be interpreted by reconstructing the lives and reliving the thoughts of those men who have done most to fashion it. Such a man was Isaac Newton and such also was James Hutton. It is of little profit to argue as to which was the greater mind. What Newton achieved in the field of astronomy and mathematics Hutton achieved in the field of geology. It was he who provided geology with a theory: and here we must take theory, not as something remote and opposed to fact, but in its original meaning in Greek, namely, comprehension.

Of the genera of rock-boring lamellibranchs which occur in British waters, Hiatella (= Saxicava) is the commonest. But the method of boring remains obscure, and for this reason the present research was suggested by Professor C. M. Yonge, under whose direction it was conducted. Observations were made during 1945 and 1946 in the Clyde Sea Area and at the Millport Laboratory, while other work on living and preserved material from both the Clyde and Plymouth areas was carried out at the Department of Zoology, University of Glasgow. Acknowledgments are due for assistance in technical problems to Dr H. F. Steedman of the University of Glasgow, for help with the nomenclature of the genus to Mr R. Winckworth, and for much kindness and help to the late Mr R. Elmhirst, Director of the Millport Laboratory.