In May 1908 an adult female Sowerby's whale, Mesoplodon bidens, was stranded in St Andrews Bay, about a mile from the clubhouse. Its capture and external characters were recorded by Professor W. C. M‘Intosh in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, December 1908. The skeleton was obtained by him for the Gatty Marine Laboratory, and at his request I have examined and prepared this report on its characters.

Twenty-two years have passed since the atomic weight of platinum was studied by Dittmar and M'Arthur. This is the last investigation recorded which has been concerned with the value of this constant.

During the intervening period, as the result of many investigations carried on by Professor T. W. Richards and his students, the accuracy with which many of the’ manipulations incident to atomic weight investigations can be executed has been greatly increased. Perhaps of still greater importance, methods for the preparation of many compounds of undoubted purity have been devised, and the principles underlying the preparation of pure substances have been clearly set forth.

An investigation was undertaken in order to ascertain to what extent and in what manner the individual species and varieties of lower fungi and bacteria present in liquid and solid media affect the simultaneous developmentof other similar organisms. The preliminary experiments were carried out with a culture of streptococcus lactis acidi, which was added in varying proportions to cow's milk immediately after milking, and gelatine plates were made at once, partly from the milk to which the cultures had been added and partly from the natural milk. The gelatine employed contained either glucose and peptone (Witte), or in addition an excess of calcium carbonate. The proportion in which the culture was added to the milk varied from 1 c.c. in 500 c.cs. of milk to one drop of the culture in half a gallon of milk. The results were in all cases practically the same, namely, thatthe plates infected with the normal milk gave an abundant development of bacteria and were in all cases rapidly liquefied, whereas the plates made from the infected milk showed a far less varied bacterial contents and a total suppression of the liquefying species.