January 17, 1901] 



NA TURE 



287 



impetus from the work of Johannes Miiller. His text-book of 

 physiology was a book which focussed the work of preceding 

 generations for the purpose of pointing out the direction which 

 the work of succeeding generations should take. This, and the 

 subsequent discoveries of Laennec, formed the first scientific 

 basis of medicine. The next step forward was the founding 

 and development of morbid anatomy, going hand in hand with 

 clinical medicine; in fact, any further progress of the latter 

 without the former was impossible. In this respect the Vienna 

 School, as exemplified by the clinician Skoda, working in con- 

 nection with the pathologist Rokitansky, did giant service. 

 Subsequently the researches of Pasteur, upon fermentation, and 

 the antiseptic work of Lister form striking monuments in the 

 century's progress. The latter was of value, according to the 

 author, in a somewhat unanticipated direction, in that it rendered 

 explorative operations possible, and thus enabled clinicians to 

 observe disease in a stage short of that which it presented at 

 the post-mortem examination. Last, but not least. Prof Naunyn 

 refers to the rise and the progress made by pharmacology, and 

 points out the brilliant therapeutical results which have issued 

 from pharmacological research. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF VERTEBRATE 

 ANIMALS IN INDIA, CEYLON AND BURMA} 



'X'HE completion of the seven volumes containing descriptions 

 of all the vertebrata, in the " Fauna of British India," 

 affords an opportunity of reviewing generally the distribution of 

 terrestrial vertebrate animals throughout the British possessior;S 

 in India, Ceylon and Burma, 



For the study of zoological distribution there are few, if any, 

 regions on the earth's surface that exceed British India and its 

 dependencies in interest. The area is about 1,800,000 square 

 miles, and although the vertebrate fauna is by no means 

 thoroughly explored, it is well known throughout the greater 

 part of the area and fairly known throughout the whole, better, 

 probably, than in any other tropical and sub -tropical tract of 

 approximately equal extent. The variety of climate is remark- 

 able ; within the area are included the almost rainless deserts of 

 Sind and the locality on the Khasi Hills, distinguished by the 

 heaviest rainfall known, the cold, arid plateau of the Upper Indus 

 drainage, and the damp tropical forests of Malabar and Tenas- 

 serim. The country is bounded on the north by the highest 

 mountain range in the world and on the south by an ocean ex- 

 tending to the Antarctic regions. Another element of interest 

 lies in the fact that the peninsula of India is a land of great geo- 

 logical antiquity, there being no evidence that it has ever been 

 submerged, although the greater part of the Himalayas and 

 Burma have at times been beneath the sea. 



The plan adopted for the study has been to divide the whole 

 country into nineteen tracts, distinguished by physical characters 

 — such as rainfall, temperature, presence or absence of forests, 

 and prevalence of hilly ground, and to construct tables showing 

 the distribution of each genus of land or fresh-water vertebrate 

 in the tracts. Genera have been selected for consideration 

 because families and sub-families are too few in number and too 

 wide in range, whilst species are too numerous and too unequal 

 in importance. In the demarcation of regions and sub-regions, 

 terrestrial mammalia are regarded as of primary importance. 

 The tracts are the following : — 



A. Indo-Gangelic Plain. 



1. Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan and Western Rajputana. 



2. Gangetic Plain from Delhi to Rajmahal. 



3. Bengal from Rajmahal to the Assam Hills. 



B. Indian Peninsula. 



4. Rajputana and Central India as far south as the Nerbudda. 



5. Deccan from the Nerbudda to about 16° N. lat. and from 



the Western Ghats to long. 80° E. 



6. Behar, Orissa, &c., from the Gangetic Plain to the Kistna. 



7. Carnatic and Madras, south of 5 and 6, and east of the 

 Western Ghats. 



8. Malabar Coast, Concan and Western Ghats or Sahyadri 

 range from the Tapti River to Cape Comorin. 



1 Abridged from a paper read at the Royal Society, on December i^, 1000, 

 by Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. J. y^' 



C. Ceylon. 



9. Northern and Eastern Ceylon. 



10. Hill Ceylon, the Central, Western and Southern 

 Provinces. 



D. Himalayas. 



11. Western Tibet and the Himalayas above forest. 



12. Western Himalayas from Hazara to the western frontier 

 of Nepal. 



13. Eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Sikhim, Bhutan, &c. 



E. Assam and Burma. 



14. Assam and the hill ranges to the south with Manipur and 

 Arrakan. 



15. Upper Burma, north of about 19° N. lat. 



16. Pegu from the Arrakan Yoma to the hill ranges east of 

 the Sittang. 



17. TenasseriiTi as far south as the neighbourhood of Mergui. 



18. South Tenasserim, south of about 13° N. lat. 



19. Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 



A review of the fauna of these tracts leads to the following 

 conclusions : — 



(i) The Punjab tract differs greatly in its fauna from the 

 Indian Peninsula and from all countries to the eastward, so 

 greatly that it cannot be regarded as part of the Indo-Malay or 

 Oriental region. Of terrestrial mammals, bats excluded, 30 

 genera are met with, of which 8 or 26^ per cent, are not Indian, 

 whilst of reptiles (omitting crocodiles and chelonians) 46 genera 

 occur, and of these 20 or 43J per cent, are unknown further 

 east. Of the corresponding orders of mammalia 46, and of 

 reptiles 80 genera occur in the Peninsula, and 24 or 52 per cent, 

 of the former and 57 or 64 per cent, of the latter are not found 

 in the Punjab tract. All the genera met with in the Punjab 

 tract and wanting further east are either Holarctic forms or 

 peculiar, but with Holarctic affinities. 



The Punjab, Sind and Western Rajputana are in fact the 

 eastern extremity of the area known as the Eremian or 

 Tyrrhenian or Mediterranean sub-region, generally regarded as 

 part of the Holarctic region, but by some classed as a region by 

 itsflf corresponding to the Sonoran in North America. 



(2) The Himalayas above the forests and such portions of 

 Tibet as come within Indian political limits (Gilgit, Ladak, 

 Zanskar, &c. ) belong to the Tibetan sub-region of the Holarctic 

 region. Of twenty-five mammalian genera hitherto recorded 

 from No. 11 (the Tibetan) tract, 11 or 44 per cent, are not 

 found in the Indo-Malay region. That Tibet forms a dis- 

 tinct mammalian sub-region has already been shown in other 

 papers. 



(3) India proper from the base of the Himalayas to Cape 

 Comorin, and from the Arabian Sea and the eastern boundary 

 of the Punjab tract to the Bay of Bengal and the hills forming 

 the eastern limit of the Gangetic alluvium, should, with the 

 addition of the island of Ceylon, be regarded as a single sub- 

 region, and may be conveniently entitled the Cisgangetic sub- 

 region. The forests of the Sahyadri range and of the western, 

 or Concan and Malabar, coast and the hill area of Southern 

 Ceylon have a far richer fauna than the remaining area, but are 

 not sufficiently distinct to require sub-regional separation. 



The Cisgangetic sub-region is distinguished from the Trans- 

 gangetic by the presence amongst mammals of Hysenidse, 

 Erinaceinje, Gerbillinse, of three peculiar genera of antelopes 

 and of some other types ; amongst birds by the occurrence of 

 Pterocletes (sand grouse), Phoenicopteri (flamingoes), Otididae 

 (bustards) and Cursoriinse ; amongst reptiles by the possession 

 of the families Eublepharidae, Chamaeleontidoe and Uropeltidse, 

 together with many peculiar Geckonidse, Agamid?e, Lacertidse 

 and Scincidse, and amongst batrachians by about one-half of the 

 genera found in each sub-region being absent in the other. The 

 difference between the reptiles and batrachians by itself would 

 justify the classification of the two areas as distinct regions, a 

 view adopted by several writers. 



The difference between the Cisgangetic vertebrate fauna and 

 that inhabiting the rest of the Indo-Malay or Oriental region is 

 partly due to the absence in the former of numerous Eastern 

 types, and partly to the presence of two constituents besides 

 the Oriental genera, which, especially in forest, form a majority 

 of the animals present. One of these two constituents consists 

 of mammals, birds and reptiles having a distinct relationship 

 with Ethiopian and Holarctic genera, and with the Pliocene 



NO. 1629, VOL. 63] 



