The Scottish Naturalist. 149 



were taken out of the stomach of a grampus caught at Sands- 

 field, in the mouth of the Eden. 



Mr. W. M. Williams, in a contribution to the cerebral 

 physiology of the porpoise in Nature for June last, after 

 quoting Professor Huxley as to the brain of the porpoise, 

 says that many years ago, in a voyage he made from 

 Constantinople to London, they were often becalmed, with 

 porpoises playing about the ship. He frequently plunged 

 overboard and swam towards the porpoises, who direct- 

 ed towards their unusual visitor an amount of attention 

 which " I may venture to dignify with the title of curiosity," 

 and that his recollection of the expression of the eyes of his 

 swimming companions is very different from what he had since 

 seen on the large vacant orbs of acquarium cod-fishes. Mr W. 

 Saville Kent, in Nature of July last, notices Mr William's paper, 

 and amongst other interesting facts given relative to the intelli- 

 gence displayed by the two porpoises at present in the Brighton 

 acquarium, states that the intellect of the porpoise, as fore- 

 shadowed by its convoluted brain, exceeds beyond comparison 

 that of the cod-fish or any other representatives of the piscine 

 race. He at the same time considers that the representatives 

 of the Gadidce are by no means the least intelligent of fish. 

 That the investigation of the relation existing between the 

 large brain of the porpoise, as well as some of the other toothed 

 whales, in proportion to the intelligence manifested by these 

 animals, is "a subject of primary interest to the student of 

 cerebral physiology" few will doubt. And now that the matte 1 " 

 is receiving attention it is perhaps not too much to expect that 

 it will be found that the large brain of the porpoise, &c, is of 

 the utmost use to the possessors. 



St. Andrews, 1st August, 1873. 



POLARITY IN THE GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF GENERA, 



AND ITS CAUSE. 



(Concluded from p. io\.) 

 By the Rev. J. WARDROP. 



I 



N testing natural selection for the cause of Polarity, the 

 question is, are there grounds for holding that natural 



