At least two species of Tubifex are abundant in Scotland, one of which is, perhaps, more prevalent in streams, the other in lakes. The former is common at the margin of the river Tay, when the water is low, in sandy tubes of little tenacity, and often in tunnels formed amongst the wet sand under stones, just as many of the marine annelids occur. Its length varies from three-fourths of an inch to an inch and a-half when stretched, and the segments range from fifty to seventy, the average number probably being sixty. The body is of various shades of dull fawn or pale madder-brown, somewhat interrupted by the pale bands at the junctions of the segments, and streaked by the reddish dorsal vessel; or, in summer, marked anteriorly by the whitish mass of the reproductive organs. It is easily recognised amongst its fellows by its faintly purplish or lilac hue, as well as by its peculiar mode of progression; and not a few are observed with reproducing heads and tails. This form, perhaps, has most claim to be called Tubifex rivulorum.

On the subject of accent and quantity as elements of human speech, there has been such an immense amount of confusion, arising from vague phraseology, that in renewing the discussion nothing seems more necessary than to start with a careful and accurate definition of terms; and that a definition not taken from books, and the dumb bearers of a dead tradition, but from the living facts of nature, and the permanent qualities belonging to articulated breath. Now, if we observe accurately the natural and necessary affections of words in human discourse, considered merely as a succession of compact little wholes of articulated breath, without regard to their signification, we shall find that all the affections of which they are capable amount to four. Either (1), the mass of articulated breath which we call a word, is sent forth in a comparatively small volume, as in the case of a common gun, or it is sent forth in large volume, as in the case of a Lancaster gun; this is a mere affair of bulk, in virtue of which alone it is manifest that any word rolled forth from the lungs of a Stentor must be a different thing from the same mass of sound emitted from a less capacious bellows. In common language this difference is marked by the words loud and low.

In the year 1827, I communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh some meteorological journals, kept at Carlisle by the late Mr Pitt, extending over a period of twenty-four years, viz., from 1801 to 1824 inclusive. An abstract of these journals, with explanatory remarks and tabular results, were drawn up by me, and read before the Society, and were afterwards published in their Transactions. I now beg to offer some remarks to the Society on journals kept by Dr Carlyle, in the city of Carlisle, from 1757 to 1783 inclusive, by the Rev. Jos. Golding at Aikbank, near Wigton, Cumberland, fourteen miles west of Carlisle, from 1792 to 1810 inclusive, and by myself at Bunkers Hill, two and a half miles west of Carlisle, which is situate 184 feet above the sea level, according to the late Ordnance Survey, from 1852 to 1870 inclusive. I shall confine my remarks to the quantity of rain that fell during the several periods of our journals. The accompanying tables show the quantity of each month and year included in these periods. I regret much that I am not able to give a description of the instruments used by Dr Carlyle and Mr Golding; but as they both were gentlemen of considerable ability and of liberal education, and devoted much time and attention to meteorology, there is no reason to doubt either the quality of their instruments or the correctness of their observations. Dr Carlyle's rain-gauge was placed in his garden, near the head of Abbey Street, and is about the same height as the ground on which the Cathedral stands, eighty-two feet above the level of the sea. My own rain-gauge consists of a copper funnel, twelve inches in diameter at the top, and is inserted into a strong tinned iron vessel, placed in a box on my garden wall, the height of the funnel being six feet above ground. It is examined from time to time, and particularly after a fall of rain. The water is measured by means of a glass tube of half an inch diameter, with an attached scale of inches and tenths.

In order to determine with exactitude the movements made by the wings in flight, and the part which the air plays in modifying them, I was induced several years ago to collect a large number of facts, and to undertake an extensive series of experiments with natural and artificial wings. My observations and experiments, I may remark, were not wholly confined to flight. On the contrary, I traced the analogy between flying, swimming, and walking; a circumstance which compelled me to pay particular attention to the size, shape, and movements, not only of wings, but also of the travelling surfaces of quadrupeds, amphibia, and fishes. By adopting this method, I obtained suggestions which have proved of the utmost importance to me in my attempts at elucidating the very intricate problem of flight.

In the twenty-fourth volume of the Society's Transactions, a very convenient formula is given for computing the time of oscillation in a circular arc; and the investigation of that formula is conducted by an appeal to the actual phenomena. It is defective in so far that it contemplates chiefly the time of oscillation over the whole arc, and does not enable us conveniently to compute the time in which a part of that arc is described.

The object of the present note is to supply that defect, and to present the whole subject in a new aspect remarkable alike for its generality and for its simplicity.

Independently of the general agreement which necessitates the association of the Hydra, Actinia, and other Cœlenterate animals into one primary group of the animal kingdom, we must also expect a special morphological correspondence between the various forms of animals thus associated. In other words, a homological agreement ought to be determinable between the parts of animals included in any one subordinate section of the Cœlenterata with the parts of animals included in any other.

A comparison of the two primary sections of the Cœlenterata (Actinozoa and Hydrozoa), and of the various orders of these with one another, will show that such an agreement really exists, and that it is possible, by easily understood and thoroughly consistent modifications, to convert each special type into any of the others.

The distinguished French naturalist, Professor H. Milne Edwards, in the ninth volume of his valuable Lectures on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, published only last year, when referring to the fœtal membranes in the Cetacea, states, that much information is still required to complete our knowledge of that subject.

It may perhaps be advisable, before I commence to describe the results arrived at by my recent dissections, to give a brief account of the observations made by previous inquirers into this department of anatomy, so that we may more clearly recognise wherein our deficiencies lie, and the direction in which our researches ought to be conducted, in order to render our information as complete as possible.

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.