292 Britain's Heritage of Science 



animals from great depths, and showed that they utilize 

 in many ways organisms which fall down from the surface 

 of the water; he noted that the conditions are such that, 

 whilst dead animals sink from the surface to the bottom, 

 they do not rise from the bottom to the surface; and he 

 brought evidence forward in support of the view that the 

 deep-sea fauna is directly derived from shallow-water forms. 

 In the same year in which Wallich traversed the Atlantic, 

 the telegraph cable between Sardinia and Bona, on the 

 African coast, snapped. Under the superintendence of 

 Fleeming Jenkin, some forty miles of the cable, part of it 

 from a depth of 1,200 fathoms, were recovered. Numerous 

 animals, sponges, corals, polyzoa, molluscs, and worms were 

 brought to the surface, adhering to the cable. These were 

 examined and reported upon by Professor Allman, and 

 subsequently by Professor A. Milne Edwards; and, as the 

 former reports, we " must therefore regard this observa- 

 tion of Mr. Fleeming Jenkin as having afforded the first 

 absolute proof of the existence of highly organized animals 

 living at a depth of upwards of 1,000 fathoms." The 

 investigation of the animals thus brought to the surface 

 revealed another fact of great interest, namely, that some 

 of the specimens were identical with forms hitherto known 

 only as fossils. It was thus demonstrated that species 

 hitherto regarded as extinct are still living at great depths 

 of the ocean. 



Throughout the century repeated attempts had been 

 made to classify the members of the animal kingdom on 

 a natural basis, but, until their anatomy and, indeed, their 

 embryology had been sufficiently explored, these attempts 

 proved somewhat vain. As late as 1869 Huxley classified 

 sponges with Protozoa, Echinoderms with Scolecida and 

 Tunicates with Polyzoa and Brachiopoda. By the middle 

 of the century, much work had been done in sorting out 

 the animal kingdom on a natural basis, and Vaughan 

 Thompson had already shown that Flustra was not a hydroid, 

 but a member of a new group which he named Polyzoa. 

 He, although hardly remembered now, demonstrated that 

 Cirrepedia are not molluscs by tracing their development, 

 he established the fact that they began life as free-swimming 



