LITTLE KNOWN FACTS A150UT WELL KNOWN ANLMALS. 



Lecture delivered in the National Musenni, Washington, I>. C, April 8, 1SS2, 

 l.vProf. C. V. RILEY. 



Lakiks and ( Jknti.kmkx : 



It lias ali-ca<ly bcfii fxplaiiicil tlial those locliin.'s are iii- 

 triidt'd to i»oi»ularize .science. Major Powell, in opening the 

 course, very well remarked that to treat scientific subjects in 

 such manner that an ordinary audience may clearly under- 

 stand is no ea.sy task. Every trade, every art, every pro- 

 lessinn, has its peculiar vernacular, without which it cannot 

 well V)e understood or communicated. Condensed techni- 

 cality that most directly ajjpeals to tjie intelligence of the 

 s[iecialist is hut a mist to becloud the average understand- 

 ing. Tyndall. in pliN^sical science, Agassiz and lluxley in 

 natural lii>t<iry. Troctor in asti'onomy. and several of our 

 younger American scienti.sts, in various de]iartments, have, 

 it is true, of late years demonstrated that science may be 

 clearly expounded to popular audiences, and that she rather 

 gains in attractiveness by being disroljcd of as much as possi- 

 ble of the technicality with which she is generally enveloped ; 

 but their success was proportionate to their substitution of 

 object lessons, experiments, or illustrations, for the oidinarv 

 tochnical tools of the under.standinir. 



Without further preface I .shall, in order to be intelligible, 

 choose as subjects for my remarks a few animals with which 

 all of you must be more or less familiar and which have com- 

 mon names, and I will endeavor to convey to you Ijy illus- 

 tration the meaning of such uiiconniiou terms as cannot 

 well be avoided. 



To begin, let us go to the ocean, that vasty deep which 

 seems so desolate and yet which teems with curious life 

 maintained only by fierce incessant warfare that makes its 

 bed an o.ssuary, recording, however feebly, the life it had 

 contained. 



Most of you have probably been on the ocean, or have 



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