;46 



NATURE 



{Feb. 13, 1879 



selected one of an interesting animal which has been a 

 great puzzle to the systematic zoologist (Fig. i). 



" The Binturong {Arciictts binUiro7ig) is a curious little 

 animal of a black colour, with a white border to its ears ; 

 it has a large head and a turned-up nose; its tail is 

 immensely long, thick, and tapering, and which is very 

 remarkable, it is prehensile, like that of a new world 

 monkey. It is from twenty-eight to thirty inches in 

 length from the snout to the root of its tail, and the tail 

 itself is nearly the same length. It is quite nocturnal, 

 ■solitary, and arboreal in its habits. In creeping along 

 the larger branches, it is aided by its prehensile tail. It 

 is omnivorous, eating small animals, birds, insects, and 

 fruits. Its howl is loud. It walks entirely on the soles 



5S^-^"^"~^^^ 



Fig. 2. — The Seal asleep. 



of its feet, and its claws are not retractile. While it is 

 ■wild and retiring in its manner, it is said to be easily 

 tamed. It is placed by Mr. Parker among the group of 

 the civets." 



In his description of the fur and hair seals, Dr. Murie, 

 as was to be expected, is quite at home, and we have, 

 among other accounts of these wonderful creatures, a long 

 one of that sea lion which lived so long in the London Gar- 

 dens. This animal seemed to pass its time between sleep- 

 ing and eating, and we give two out of a series of illustra- 

 tions which depict its habits — one of it when fast asleep 

 <Fig. 2), the other when it is in "a watchful attitude," 

 waiting to be fed (Fig. 3); it was well known to all visitors 

 to the gardens. It was in the habit of devouring upwards 

 of twenty-five pounds' weight of fish every day, and not 

 thinking this too mu:h. It was originally captured in 



Fig. 3.— VValticg to b 



the neighbourhood of Cape Horn ; and Frangois Le- 

 •comte, the French sailor into whose possession it fell, 

 •exhibited the animal for a short time at Buenos Ayres 

 before bringing it to London, where for a short time he 

 •earned a living by showing it off. By kindness and dint 

 •of trainmg he taught it to become quite a performer in 

 its way. It mounted a ladder with perfect ease, and it 

 could descend either head or tail foremost, so that it 

 seemed a marvel of docility, and its appearance in Lon- 

 -don seems to have created quite a general interest in the 

 group hitherto so little studied of the eared seals. 



The volume concludes with an account of the non- 

 .ruminating members of the even-toed sub-order of the 

 iJngulates, embracing the pigs of the Old World, the 



peccaries of the New World, and the hippopotami. The 

 next volume will contain a description of the Ruminants, 

 a large and very interesting group. E. P. W. 



THE KEITH MEDAL OF THE RO YAL SOCIETY 

 OF EDINBURGH. 



ON the 3rd inst., at a meeting of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, the President, Professor Kelland, in 

 presenting the Keith Medal which had been awarded by 

 the Council to Professor Heddle, of St. Andrews, de- 

 livered the following address : — " Professor Heddle — I 

 am here to-night to exemplify a remark which is often 

 made, that to insure success in an address, such as I am 

 about to deliver, the best way is to commit the charge of 

 it to one absolutely ignorant of the subject. No false 

 pride will then stand in the way of the best sources of 

 information, nor will any undue admixture of hailf know- 

 ledge clog and darken the truth. For every particular 

 contained in these remarks, then, I at once unhesitatingly 

 acknowledge myself indebted to Professor Geikie. When 

 I first became acquainted with this Society, forty years 

 ago, there used to frequent our meetings men who had 

 the reputation of being mineralogists rather than geolo- 

 gists — Lord Greenock, Allan, and perhaps Jameson him- 

 self. That race has now died out, and with them 

 mineralogy, as a distinct science, has all but lain dormant 

 amongst us. During the preceding quarter of a century 

 that science had flourished nowhere more vigorously 

 than in Edinburgh. Professor Jameson introduced the 

 definiteness of system of the Freyberg School, and 

 infused into his pupils such a love of minerals that 

 numerous private cabinets were formed ; while under 

 his fostering care the University Museum grew into a 

 large and admirable series. One of my first acts as 

 Professor in the University was to vote out of the Reid 

 Fund, which had just come into our hands, a large sum 

 (some thousands) to pay back moneys expended on 

 minerals throughout a series of years preceding. During 

 these years. Geology, as the science is now understood, 

 hardly existed. For, as the nature and importance of 

 the organic remains embedded in rocks became recognised, 

 their enormous value in the elucidation of geological 

 problems gradually drew observers away from the study 

 of minerals. Consequently, as Paleontology increased, 

 Mineralogy waned among us. To such an extent was 

 the study of minerals neglected, that geologists, even of 

 high reputation, could not distinguish many ordinary 

 varieties. But, as a knowledge of rocks presupposes an 

 acquaintance more or less extensive with minerals, the 

 neglect of mineralogy reacted most disadrantageously on 

 that domain of geology which deals with the composition 

 and structure of rocks. The nomenclature of the rocks 

 of Britain sank into a state of confusion, from which it 

 is now only beginning to recover. To you. Professor 

 Heddle, belongs the merit of having almost alone upheld 

 the mineralogical reputation of your native country during 

 these long years of depression. You have devoted your 

 life to the study, and have made more analyses of mine- 

 rals than any other observer in Britain. You have not 

 contented yourself with determining their composition and 

 their names ; you have gone into almost every parish in 

 the more mountainous regions, have searched them out 

 in their native localities, and, by this means, have studied 

 their geological relations, treasuring up evidences from 

 which to reason regarding their origin and history. After 

 thirty years of continuous work, you have communicated 

 the results of your labours to this Society. For the first 

 two of these papers on the Rhombohedral Carbonates 

 and on the Feldspars, in which you have greatly extended 

 our knowledge of pseudomorphic change among minerals, 

 enunciating a law of the shrinkage so frequently resulting 

 therefrom, the Society proposes now to express its grati- 

 tude to you. The value of your papers is undoubted. 



