Fossil feathers have greatly improved our understanding of the evolutionary transition from non-avian dinosaurs to birds and the evolution of feathers, and may be the only evidence for their source animals in the fossil record. Hot spring environments have been demonstrated to be conducive to the preservation of fossils, but internal silicification of feathers was not observed in the only avian carcass so far discovered in ancient hot spring deposits. To determine whether feathers can be internally silicified, here we analyse feathers sampled from a modern hot spring vent pool – Champagne Pool – in New Zealand. Our results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry elemental mapping show that the sampled feathers are silicified to different degrees, and one of them is pervasively silicified. SEM observations show that feathers can be silicified at the cellular level. Degradation is involved in the silicification of feathers, as indicated by the reduction of the abundance of carbon and the loss of keratin fibrils. Our findings suggest that ancient deposits of hot spring vent pools are promising targets in search for fossil feathers.

One of the markers of the Late Pleistocene is highly fluctuating climatic conditions, with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5–19 ka cal before present (BP)) known to be one of the coldest periods. This work explores how the environment of north-eastern Iberia changed in relation to global climatic changes experienced during the Late Pleistocene, specifically around the LGM. Small mammal assemblages from Cudó cave (Tarragona, Spain) were used considering their well-known reliability for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Based on the taxonomic identification and the taphonomic analysis, several methodologies covering both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to obtain the palaeoenvironmental information corresponding to level 107 and level 105 of Cudó cave (31.2–24.4 and 15.5–10.2 ka cal BP, respectively). The taphonomic results obtained point out owls (category 3) as the main accumulator of the small mammals. The palaeoenvironmental reconstruction shows that both levels experienced colder (−7.2oC/–4.4 °C) and wetter (+848 mm/ + 586 mm) climatic conditions than nowadays. However, in level 107 the environment was dominated by mid-European species and rocky landscape, while in level 105 it was dominated by Mediterranean species and woodland habitat. These conditions are consistent with the trend in north-eastern Iberia following several climatic events before and after the LGM coinciding with the period of Cudó cave assemblages.

A brief account of the weather of this period as regards temperature was read before the Royal Society last year. It was drawn up at the request of Professor Balfour, to accompany his paper “On the Remarkable State of Vegetation in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden in December 1863.”

From the 26th of October to the end of December the weather was in every way remarkable. Though frost occurred in the end of October and beginning of November it was not severe, and the temperature continued on the whole seasonable till the 12th of November. From this date till the end of the month it ranged unprecedently high, being 9° above the average temperature of the season. It then fell for the next ten days, but on no occasion below the average; and again rose considerably above the average during the week ending with the 18th of December. Under this genial weather vegetation in the open air advanced rapidly to a state of forwardness not usually seen till the month of March. In December 245 plants were in flower in the Gardens in the open air, and of these 35 were spring flowers. The frost which had occurred was insufficient to damage, to any material extent, 210 autumn-flowering plants; and the high temperature of November, which was as high as what ordinarily occurs in the beginning of May, brought the spring flowers prematurely into bloom, so that there was to be seen the rare spectacle of sweet peas and hepaticas flowering together.

The prostates or spermiducal glands form a prominent feature in the anatomy of the large family of the Megascolecidæ. Occurring in the neighbourhood of the termination of the sperm-ducts, they assume one of two forms, the tubular or the lobular. In the first, the gland typically takes the form of a bent, undulating, or coiled tube, cylindrical, with a single central lumen; in the second, it consists of a loosely or tightly packed aggregate of lobules, each with its ductule. The prostatic duct is in the first case a continuation of the glandular tube; in the second, the duct is formed by the union of the ductules; in both cases it is as a rule firm and muscular.

1. The active ingredient of the poison of the Abor and Mishmi poisoned arrows is, in some of them, aconite, and, in others, croton oil. The former, apparently, is generally used by the Mishmis, and the latter by the Abors.

2. Although sufficient botanical materials have not been obtained to identify the species of aconite, the nature of the pharmacological action suggests that the species is one containing relatively more pseudo-aconitine than aconitine and, therefore, more resembling Aconitum ferox and A. heterophylloides than A. Napellus.

3. The arrow-poisons containing aconite were found to be much more lethal in warm-blooded animals than those containing croton; but the aconite-poisoned arrows that were examined carried usually too little aconite for a single arrow to produce death in man, even if the whole of the poison should be quickly absorbed.

4. The arrow-poisons containing croton, on the other hand, were found to be incapable of producing death in warm-blooded animals by the absorption of the poison into the circulation, and could do so only tardily by rendering the animal more susceptible to septicæmia, following inflammatory and even necrotic changes in the tissues into which the poison had been inserted.

5. While thus relatively inert in warm-blooded animals, and presumably, therefore, in man, the croton arrow-poison is extremely toxic in cold-blooded animals, being for them one of the most lethal of poisons, readily absorbable into the circulation and producing irritation and hæmorrhages in parts remote from the locality of insertion, and the latter, especially, in the alimentary canal. Remote effects may be produced even without any obvious evidence of local irritation in the place into which the poison has been inserted. These remarkable peculiarities in the action of the Government of India arrow-poison are reproduced by its ether extract and by the oil of Croton Tiglium.

6. Excepting failure to cause general action in warm-blooded animals, it is interesting to note that in many of their important effects, croton arrow-poisons as well as croton oil reproduce the effects of viperine venoms.

It is well known that although the overwhelming majority of specimens of fircones exhibit one or other of the simple spiral arrangements represented by the terms of the ordinary series ½, ⅓, ⅖, ⅜, , &c., whose generating and successive secondary spirals are indicated by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, &c., yet exceptional cases occur now and again, where we find either conjugate spirals of the ordinary system, or arrangements (usually simple, but sometimes conjugate) belonging to other systems of spirals. Of these exceptional arrangements, perhaps the most common are bijugates of the ordinary system, giving the numbers 2, 4, 6, 10, 16, 26, &c., and simple spirals belonging to the system ⅓, , &c., giving the numbers 1, 3, 4,7,11, 18, &c. More rarely, trijugates of the ordinary system occur, giving the numbers 3, 6, 9, 15, 24, 39, &c.; or spirals of the system , ⅕, , &c., giving the numbers 1, 4, 5, 9, 14, 23, 37, &c.; not to speak of various other arrangements, some of which will fall to be considered in the special cases which form the subject of the present communication.

The following experiments and observations have been undertaken with a view to discovering the means by which Tarsonemus is transmitted from one bee to another. It is obvious that a stage of the parasite exists outside the bee, and that there are also several possibilities (which may occur). One is the passage from bee to bee within the hive either directly or through the medium of frames or combs. Another, also within the hive, where the mites may in wandering upon the frames enter the cells and invade the body of the developing larvæ or pupæ, and in this way be present in the bee when it hatches. A third possibility is that whereby foraging infected bees may leave the mite upon flowers, vegetation generally, drinking grounds, or other situations, to be picked up later by other bees chancing to visit these. Crawling or dead bees may in a similar manner prove to be a source of infection through the contamination of the ground about the hive or of the actual hive itself.

Notwithstanding the intimate connexion which has long been known to exist between magnetism and electricity, we may safely say, that, only fifteen years ago, the announcement of the excitation of a luminous spark from a natural magnet would have been received with astonishment and even with incredulity.

After the great discovery of electro-magnetism, in 1819, by Professor Oersted, the extreme improbability of such a discovery was indeed removed; but, even after that period, until the recent researches of our distinguished countryman Mr Faraday, every attempt having failed to procure the feeblest trace of electricity from the obdurate magnetic mass, so striking a result, which comes home to the comprehension of those least accustomed to interest themselves in the less palpable results of scientific enquiry, could scarcely have been looked for with any degree of confidence.

This paper draws on epistemology, theory, published data, hypothesis testing and synthesis to explore the predictive and explanatory power of a far-from-equilibrium interpretation of the history of human settlement on Rapa Nui. Our interpretation of the last 1500 years of human settlement on Rapa Nui provides an important competing hypothesis by which to test the explanatory power of earlier equilibrium interpretations of this history. Our evaluation of this competing hypothesis suggests that it provides, overall, a more satisfactory theory that has interesting implications for the goal of sustaining human civilisation.

It is my intention in this, the second part of my memoir on the Craniology of the Races of India, to give the results of my examination of skulls obtained from the districts occupied by the aboriginal tribes in Chúta Nágpúr, the Central Provinces, the people in the province of Orissa, and to compare them with the skulls of some other aboriginal people.

The majority of the specimens described belong to the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and through the courtesy of the Trustees I was permitted to have them on loan for purposes of study. Many of these crania had been those of persons who had died in jail. The names, tribes, and castes, and not unfrequently the age, stature, and other physical characters, had been recorded in the prison books, and were embodied in the lists which were sent to me along with the skulls by the authorities of the museum. Several of these skulls were especially interesting, as having been presented to the museum by Colonel Dalton, the author of the valuable treatise on the Ethnology of Bengal, Other specimens in the museum had been obtained from the Medical College, Calcutta, and several were presented by Professor D. B. Smith; in all probability they were from bodies which had been used for anatomical purposes. Mr W. H. P. Driver also had presented a series of crania from Ranchi.

One of the writers' main aims has been to help to prepare the way for a new approach to problems in which the natural occurrence of forsteritic olivines is a vital factor. Variation in their shapes and textural relations in minor intrusions, lavas and melts is examined and the historical development of concepts of their growth and resorption, particularly in magmas, is traced. Particular attention is focused on the olivines of picritic, minor intrusions. It is concluded that in the interpretation of olivine shapes there has been discrimination in favour of magmatic resorption rather than skeletal crystallization. From a wide and detailed survey of forsteritic olivines it is established that they tend to grow rapidly and that their phenomenal variation in habit and shape is probably due to a specific growth sensitivity to slight environmental differences. Concepts of the physical conditions leading to skeletal crystallization are briefly reviewed and discussed.

In March 1869 I communicated to the Society a paper entitled “Motion of a Palladium Plate during the Formation of Graham's Hydrogenium,” which appears in the Proceedings for Session 1868-69. When engaged with this subject many points of interest regarding the behaviour of palladium containing occluded hydrogen, suggested themselves for investigation, and in concluding the paper I remarked “ that careful determinations must be made of the electromotive force, latent heat, &c., of hydrogenium ” before we could arrive at any conclusion regarding the condition of the absorbed hydrogen. Subsequently Professor Tait made a series of determinations on the “ Electrolytic Polarisation of Palladium Electrodes,” devising a new and ingenious method for the purpose. Although at different times subsequent to my first communication, the problem of determining the physical constants of hydrogenium recurred, as my attention was in the meantime directed to the specific heat of carbon at high temperatures, no progress was made with the investigation until September 1872, when the results of my preliminary experiments were communicated to the “ Philosophical Magazine,” under the title, “ Note on the Specific Heat of Hydrogenium.” In that note it is stated that by means of a specially constructed calorimeter the specific heat of hydrogen in palladium is found to be 3.1 per atomic weight, nearly identical with that of gaseous hydrogen. The present paper deals with some of the physical constants of hydrogenium, more especially with the specific gravity, specific heat, and co-efficient of expansion.

It is not a little remarkable, that in an age which assumes to itself the character of devotion to science, in anatomy, a science which embraces the best interests of humanity, this question should remain unanswered; What is the meaning of the nerves of the spinal marrow being in regular order and perfectly symmetrical: whilst the ten nerves arising from the brain present no similarity one to another, and agree neither in origin, size, nor distribution?

It is plain that we must be in the dark, not only with respect to the knowledge of the nervous system, but of the animal frame generally, whilst such a question is open and courts inquiry, and yet remains without an effort being made towards its solution. We must, I fear, attribute this neglect in part only to the difficulty of the inquiry, and much to the indifference to all that does not tend directly to profit; on which account it has the better demand on the attention of a learned and philosophical Society.

In a former paper I described the variation of the fecundity of women according to age, and arrived at the conclusion that the climax of fecundity in women was at or near the age of 25 years. Researches, completed since that paper was read, regarding the variations of length and weight of children according to the mother's age, and regarding the mortality of childbed as influenced by the mother's age, have been published in the “Edinburgh Medical Journal.” The results of these investigations seem to illustrate and confirm the statement made as to the age of the climax of fecundity, for I have found that, about that age, women produce the bulkiest children, as measured by length and weight; and about the same age of the mother there is the smallest mortality in childbed. As still further adorning the age of 25, I may add, that several sets of observations, including some made in St George's-in-the-East, London, and published in the eleventh volume of the “Journal of the Statistical Society,” show a greater amount of survival and rearing among children born of women about that age than at any other; and recently Dr Arthur Mitchell has published a collection of cases of idiocy, with the respective ages of the mothers at the time of the idiots' births, and these also show a smaller proportion born of women about the age of 25 years than at greater and lesser ages.

The problem which bears the name of the Italian geometer Malfatti, by whom it was first proposed and solved, has long attracted the attention and exercised the ingenuity of mathematicians, and has been made the subject of many careful and elaborate researches.

The great attention which has been bestowed upon this problem has arisen partly from its intrinsic difficulty, but chiefly on account of the extreme simplicity of the solution finally obtained by Malfatti, which seemed to open new views of geometrical research, and gave reason to hope that simple solutions might in like manner be found of many other geometrical problems usually accounted very difficult or insoluble.

Some time since I published in the Transactions of this Society a paper upon Phreoryctes; the present paper is the second of what I hope will be a series of memoirs upon the structure of the Oligochæta Limicolæ; this will be a parallel series to that upon the Oligochæta Terricolæ, which is being published by me in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. As I took pains in my paper upon Phreoryctes to point out, in accordance with views previously expressed by myself and by others, that it is impossible to draw a hard and fast line between those two groups of Claparède, it may seem rather illogical to retain this classification—if only in the title of a paper; I do so simply as a matter of convenience, and without in the least desiring to revive these old divisions of the Oligochæta; indeed the genus Moniligaster, which is treated of in the present communication, is by most naturalists regarded as an earthworm; in many points it does undoubtedly agree with certain terricolous genera; but as its affinities, into the discussion of which I shall enter later, seem to me to be more with the Lumbriculidæ, I put it into the Limicoline series; it is useful to have a name corresponding to “earthworm” for those Oligochæta which are not earthworms, and are for the most part aquatic, and I therefore use that term.

Having heard at Port-of-Spain of an appearance that went by the name of the Mud Volcanoes, we took the opportunity when surveying the southern quarter of Trinidad, to examine them. They are situated near Point Icaque, the southern extremity of the island, on an alluvial tongue of land, that has been appended to the primitive rocks, where no doubt the land originally terminated. This appendage is several miles in length, and points directly into one of the mouths of the Oronoko, on the mainland, about twelve or fifteen miles off.

We landed nearly opposite to where we were told we should find the mud volcanoes, and after making our way about five miles through the woods, across the sandy isthmus, we came upon two plantations very pleasantly situated, amidst a group of remarkable round little hills, each from eighty to a hundred feet in height.