On Motion in vertebrated Animals. 389 
at the previous part of the day. The Thermometer during the 
time of the gale was in general about 74 degrees: and at the 
same place in the month of May 1520, the mercury fell eight- 
tenths of an inch below the height which usually indicated a 
gale of wind, and was accompanied by a very heavy gale and 
an unusual fall of rain. 
Off the Cape of Good Hope, the mercury in the Barometer 
falling down to 29.60 inches is almost invariably the prognostic 
of a storm—the usual average height is that of about 30 inches, 
and to which height it again gradually rises as the gale abates, 
and continues at that elevation while the weather is serene and 
fair. A good Marine Barometer is there of absolute and essen- 
tial service, as these gales often come on suddenly without any 
remarkable change in the appearance of the heavens or atmo- 
sphere, but are invartably foretold by the Barometer. It is how- 
ever to be observed, that the steady strong breezes almost ap- 
proaching to a gale, and which blow there from the! south-east in 
the summer season, havea tendency to raise instead of sinking the 
mercury. In that latitude it is not ascertained if the periodical 
changes already alluded to take place the same as at Ceylon, 
though probably not, as that very extraordinary and unaccount- 
able circumstance appears to be confined to the tropies and 
equatorial region. The mercury there has been observed during 
the month of May to rise to the height of 30.4 inches nearly, 
but the average height may he considered, as above stated, 30 
inches in general. 
“LXXIX. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 
ON THE FUNCTIONS OF PROGRESSIVE MOTION IN VERTEBRATED 
ANIMALS. 
Is one of the lectures on Comparative Physiology delivered 
this season at the Royal Institution by Dr. Roget, he gave an 
account of the functions of progressive motion in vertebrated 
animals, a division that includes the classes of fish, reptiles, 
birds, and quadrupeds ; all of which, he observed, however dif- 
ferent their external form, or the nature of the element they in- 
habit, exhibit nevertheless a remarkable analogy in their internal 
conformation. He took a general view of their mechanical struc. 
ture, more especially wich reference to the osseous frame work, 
or skeleton, which characterizes this division of the animal king- 
dom, . That part of the skeleton which exists in all these ani- 
mals, and appears to be essential to it, is the spine, or that con- 
nected series of bones called vertebra, extending from the head 
along 
. 
