182 Mr Whewell's Address to the 



only remaining doubt with regard to the possible existence of double 

 fangs in the teeth of a saurian was removed by the arrival in London of 

 Dr Harlan with his ' Basilosaurus.' That gentleman^ with great liberality 

 and candour, allowed sections of the fossil to be made in such a manner 

 as to expose the structure of the teeth. And these being examined by 

 Mr Owen, and compared with the general laws of dental structure which 

 he has lately discovered, it appeared that Dr Harlan's fossil was by no 

 means a saurian, but an animal nearly allied to the Dugong, to which Mr 

 Owen proposes to apply the generic name of Zeuglodon, expressing the 

 conjoined form of its teeth. 



" I have not hesitated to lay before you the view of this subject to which 

 I have been led by the discussions in which we have been engaged, not- 

 withstanding the very great authorities which incline to the other side 

 of the balance. Among these I hardly know whether I am to reckon 

 Mr Ogilby, who laid before us a very instructive communication, in 

 which, without deciding the point, he pointed out the difficulties which 

 appear to him to embarrass both views, and especially to contradict the 

 opinion of the marsupial nature of the animal. 



" I have dwelt the longer on this controversj', since it involves con- 

 siderations of the most comprehensive interest to geologists, and, we 

 may add, of the most vital importance. For — de stimma reipublicce agi- 

 tur, — the battle was concerning the foundations of our philosoi^hical 

 constitution ; concerning the validity of the great Cuvierian maxim, — that 

 from the fragment of a bone we can reconstruct the skeleton of the ani- 

 mal. This doctrine of final causes in animal structures, as it is the guid- 

 ing principal of the zoologist's reasonings, is the basis of the geologist's 

 views of the organic history of the world ; and, that destroj'ed, one-half 

 of his edifice crumbles into dust. If wc cannot reason from the analo- 

 gies of the existing, to the events of the past world, we have no founda- 

 tion for our science ; and you, gentlemen, have all along been applying 

 your vigorous talents, your persevering toil, your ardent aspirations, idly 

 and in vain. 



" Besides the important investigations thus referred to, we owe to Mr 

 Owen other paljeontological contributions. The genus Chceropotanms, es- 

 stablished by Cuvier from an imperfect fragment of the bone of a skull, 

 was asserted by him to be a Pachyderm most nearly allied to the Pee- 

 cari. A fragment of a lower jaw of the same genus, found by Mr Dar- 

 win Fox in the Isle of Wight, confirms this view, but indicates in 'some 

 points an approach to the carnivorous tj'pe. And it was remarked as in- 

 teresting, that the living genus of the hog tribe which most resembles 

 the ChseropotamuE, the Peccari, exists in South America, where the Ta- 

 pir, the nearest living analogue of the Anoplothere and Palreothere, the 

 associates of the Chseropotamus, also occur. Another jaw, found by Mr 

 Pratt in the Binstead quarries in 1830, and resembling that of the Musk 

 Deer, Mr Owen refers to a new species of Cuvier's genus Dicobune, un- 

 der the name Dichobune cervinum. Mr Owen has also given us a de- 



