FAMILY 2. SIPHONOIDEA. 299 
that was thus afforded the continental professor of examining the soft 
parts of the Nautilus, was highly satisfactory to Mr. Owen, for he arrived 
at precisely the same conclusion as himself in regard to their relation 
with the shell. ‘‘ En confirmant,” says Valenciennes, “la maniére de voir 
de M. Owen, si juste et si conforme a la nature, jai établi animal dans la 
vraie place occupée par lui dans sa coquille, je ne laisse plus aucune discus- 
sion raisonnable possible sur ce point.” Here, however, was no direct 
proof, the testimony of both the learned professors was alike circumstan- 
tial ; indeed, the very necessity for the introduction of the word raison- 
nable in this statement proclaimed it to be an hypothesis. Mr. Owen was 
himself singularly destined to prove the truth of his conjecture, for only 
two days since a magnificent specimen of the Nautilus, with its shell 
entire, was presented to him by Capt. Belcher, R.N. ‘The individual in 
question was captured by that gentleman at Amboyna, not long since ; 
it was secured alive, and has been preserved, together with its shell, in 
spirits without the slightest injury. When put into Mr. Owen’s hands, 
he was extremely gratified to behold that the animal held exactly the 
position in its shell that he had ventured to assign to it; and we doubt 
not but that M. Valenciennes will be as highly pleased to find that his 
expectations have been so soon realized*. 
Having detailed the history of the Nautilus from the time of Aristotle 
to the present day, it now remains for us to speak of its structure and 
general habits. The soft parts of this animal form a kind of oblong mass, 
such as may be supposed capable of fitting into the porch or aperture of 
its well-known shell, and, like the rest of the Cephalopods, consist of two 
parts. The anterior or outer part incloses a well-developed head, with a 
* We shall not readily forget the glorious delight of the Hunterian Professor, as he hur- 
ried past our door only yesterday on his way to the Zoological Society ; his treasure proudly 
suspended in an anatomical jar; himself loaded with the controversial theories of his con- 
temporaries, that he was about to level at a breath. Nor can we fail to remember his ani- 
mated enthusiasm at the Meeting, when, holding up the precious truant, fresh as it were from 
its native element, without a fracture, and apparently dozing under its capacious hood, he 
proved, beyond the possibility of contradiction, the generalizations he had so admirably worked 
out as a student ten years before by an ingenious complication of analogies. 
