WHALES, PAST AND PRESENT. 195 



be in the abstract, is impracticable under existing social conditions, 

 which are in many cases such that men get what they have neither 

 earned nor otherwise equitably received, and in many cases such that 

 they are prevented from earning anything ; then my reply is, by all 

 means, where this condition of things is due to unjust arrangements, 

 let us rectify these arrangements as fast as we can. But let us not 

 adopt the disastrous policy of establishing new injustices for the pur- 

 pose of mitigating the mischiefs produced by old injustices. Contem- 

 porary JReview. 



~+*+~ 



WHALES, PAST AND PKESENT.* 



By Pbofessob W. H. FLOWER, F. R. S. 



FEW natural groups present so many remarkable illustrations of 

 several of the most important general laws which appear to have 

 determined the structure of animal bodies as that of the whales. We 

 find the effects of the two opposing forces that of heredity or con- 

 formation to ancestral characters, and that of adaptation to changed 

 environment, whether brought about by the method of natural selec- 

 tion or otherwise distinctly written in almost every part of their 

 structure. Scarcely anywhere in the animal kingdom do we see so 

 many cases of the persistence of rudimentary and apparently useless 

 organs, those marvelous and suggestive phenomena which at one time 

 seemed hopeless enigmas, causing despair to those who tried to unravel 

 their meaning, but now eagerly welcomed as beacons of true light, 

 casting illuminating beams upon the dark paths through which the 

 organism has traveled on its way to reach the goal of its present con- 

 dition of existence. 



It is chiefly to these rudimentary organs of the Cetacea and to 

 what we may learn from them that I propose to call your attention. 

 In each case the question may well be asked, Are they survivals, rem- 

 nants of a past condition, become useless owing to change of circum- 

 stances and environment ; or are they incipient structures, beginnings 

 of what may in future become functional and important parts of the 

 economy ? 



The term " whale " is commonly but vaguely applied to all the larger 

 and middle-sized Cetacea, and, though such smaller species as the dol- 

 phins and porpoises are not usually spoken of as whales, they may to 

 all intents and purposes of zoological science be included in the term. 

 Taken all together the Cetacea constitute a distinct and natural order of 

 mammals, characterized by their aquatic mode of life and external fish- 

 like form. The body is fusiform, passing anteriorly into the head with- 

 out any distinct constriction or neck, and posteriorly tapering off grad- 

 * Abridged from a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, London, May 25, 1883. 



