664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



system paleontological lectures were unavoidably associated with 

 the controversy initiated by that philosopher, every lecture directly 

 or indirectly bearing on the theory of development commanded a 

 numerous and fashionable audience. Attentive listeners sought, in 

 the discourses of Prof. Owen, for facts and deductions more or less 

 damaging to the bold theory advanced in the now famous " Origin of 

 Species by Natural Selection." But the uproar occasioned by the 

 " Essays and Reviews," and Mr. Frederick Harrison's review of the 

 reviewers in the Westminster, has nearly subsided, and the polemi- 

 cal element has faded out of geological discussion. Denuded of its 

 controversial spice, paleontology no longer possesses its whilom at- 

 tractiveness, and the audience of to-day is apparently composed of 

 those who care for the subject for its own sake alone. Prof. Duncan 

 is discoursing on that friend of my youth, the ichthyosaurus, and in a 

 few neat and graphic sentences describes the manners, customs, and 

 peculiar structure of the great fish-lizard, with whale-like body, croco- 

 dile head, and monstrous saucer-eyes. The plesiosaur with the outline 

 described by the late Prof. Buckland as that of a " turtle with a 

 serpent pulled through it " next engages attention, and is described 

 very graphically as a " 'longshore-man " of the diluvial period, a 

 prowler on the edges of the great deep, and a snapper-up of un- 

 considered trifles. Plesiosaurus disposed of, the inevitable ptero- 

 dactyle turns up, the flying lizard of predatory habits, the possible 

 progenitor of birds, and the certain original of the heraldic dragon 

 and griffin. The shape of the head and the gradual adoption by this 

 grewsome creature of a breastbone, give still more coherence to the 

 theory that pterodactyle is a lizard which is rapidly making up his 

 mind to become a bird. These particulars, and a dissertation on coral 

 islands, make up the body of an interesting lecture, which fails, how- 

 ever, to warm the audience into enthusiasm. Perhaps people don't 

 care for coral islands, or mayhap, to parody a line of Mr. Bret Harte 

 " the pterodactyl^ s played out." 



On another raw afternoon, about 3 p.m., I betake myself to 

 Albemarle Street, and become the spectator of a widely-different 

 scene. The theatre is already full of eager visitors and thirsters after 

 science, when elucidated by those brilliant experiments which excite 

 the admiration and envy of Prof. Tyndall's imitators I had almost 

 written rivals, forgetting that in this country, and in his own par- 

 ticular line of physical demonstration, Dr. John Tyndall, F. R. S., 

 philosopher and cragsman, has no rival. At a three-o'clock lecture 

 many ladies are, of course, present, in all the variety of gorgeous 

 array at present in fashion, for, however severe may be the mental 

 attributes of these fair students of physical science, no sternness is ever 

 visible in their outward appearance. Pending the arrival of the Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Philosophy, these young ladies are chatting pleasantly 

 among themselves. Are they talking science, I wonder, or discussing 



