Ja.n. 6, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



195 



ill a better material of stone than elsewhere, and yet 

 witli so little desire to call general attention to it, that 

 they made the joints fine and close to that degree that they 

 escaped the attention of all men until 1865 a.d. V "The 

 answer came from the diagonal joints themselves, in dis- 

 covering that the stone between them was opposite to the 

 butt end of the portcullis of the fii-st ascending passage, or 

 to the hole whence the prismatic stone of concealment 

 through .'5,000 years, had dropped out almost before Al 

 Manoun's eyes. Here, therefore, was a secret sign in the 

 pavement of the entrance passage, appreciable only to a 

 careful <ye and a measurement by angle, but made in such 

 hard mat<Tial that it was evidently intended to last to the 

 end of human time with the Great Pyramid, and has done 

 so thus far." In other words, the stones were thus care- 

 fully fitted that thoy might be a sign to Prof. Piazzi Smyth 

 and the pyramidalists in 18G.5, just as the descending and 

 ascending passages were all to be signs. It may show great 

 want of tiiste to say that all these features indicate the 

 builder's plan, and were in no sort intended for the benefit 

 of remote generations of men belonging to an alien race ; 

 but it seems a long way more natural. 



At any rate, it is certain that men having no knowledge 

 of the telescope, and no means of securing accuracy of 

 direction as our astronomers do by matjuifying, would have 

 adopted precisely such plans as thus far seem most clearly 

 intlicated in the Pyramid structure, making long passages 

 in solid materials, and where necessaiy, changing the Lines 

 of sight by simple refiection. When we consider that this 

 would be their natural course, and that even minute de- 

 tails of structure (some hitherto unexplained) correspond 

 with the theory that they adopted this course, the conclu- 

 sion seems fair that the theory is a sound one. Of course, 

 it cannot be acceptable to pyramidalists, who prefer to be- 

 lieve that tlie labours of tlie Pyramid builders were directed 

 by architects knowing all that is now known in science, and 

 more ; b\it we are, at least, sa^•ed fi'oni the incongruity of 

 assuming that these wonderously-gifted architects were 

 idiotic enough to adopt the blundering plan assigned to 

 them — hiding away for preservation their sacred sym- 

 bolisms and prophetic teacliings, in a building so con- 

 structed that its interior could only be reached by beuig 

 forcibly broken into, and would as a matter of fact be never 

 properly measured until it had lost in great part the per- 

 fection of form on which its value for the supposed pur- 

 pose depended. 



This will appear still more clearly when we consider the 

 great gallery, wliich to the astronomer is the most obviously 

 astronomical part of the building, but to the pyramidalist 

 is a sort of " Zadkiel's Almanac " in stone. 



FOUND LINKS. 



By Dr, Andrew Wilsox, F.L.S., ic. 

 P.\KT 1. 



AS the question of " ^lissing Links " appears to be 

 exciting a considerable amount of attention amongst 

 the readers of Knowledge, I liave thought that a paper or 

 two on the general aspects of the beings that link together 

 distinct groups of animals, may prove interesting and in- 

 structive to i-eliective minds. It is very necessary that in 

 the first place we should remember the special form which 

 the rational demand for such "links" should take. I have 

 already shown, for example, that there exists no necessity or 

 demand whatever for any theoretical link, either l)etween 

 man and any existing ape, or between man and any extinct 

 ape. Such a demand is simply the outcome of an igno- 



rance both of natural history at large, and of e\olution 

 also ; and, as often iis not, such ignorance is of the most 

 prejudiced type. That whicli the evolutionist aii.l natu- 

 ralist desire to know, is the nature of the forms wliich, on 

 the theory of "development," must havo lonnected the 

 human root -stock with the prehuman root. The 

 connection, or "link," cannot be sought in the ex- 

 isting world. It must be obtained, if ever it comes to 

 light at all, from the world of fossil life, and from the 

 stores of life relics which the geologist is year by year 

 adding to our stores of knowledge. It is true that Nature 

 IS not bound to furnish us with " links " because we see a 

 logical necessity for their existence. But all analogy leads 

 us to expect that sucii " links " once existed ; and I wish 

 now to describe certain iutt-resting examples of such inter- 

 mediate forms, as they are called, culled from \aried groups 

 of the animal world. In a word, if I am able to" show- 

 that we possess at present in the world around us certain 

 animals which undoubtedly connect distinct groups, I may 

 claim the strong support of such examples in favour of the 

 idea tliat " links " that are now " missing " wJiero we desire 

 their presence, once did exist 



Lepidosiren annectens, or Mud-lish, Khowing the limb-like fins. 



One of the most curious groups of fishes is that named 

 by zoologists the Dipnoi. This name means "double- 

 breathers," and the significance of the name will become 

 apparent later on. Of this order of fishes, there are two 

 chief examples. Tlie Lcpiilosimis, or " mud fisiies,'' fouinl 

 in the rivers Amazon and Gambia, form the first of these 

 examples ; whilst a curious fish, occurring in Australian 

 waters, and known as the Ccralodus, or " Barraraunda," 

 represents the second type. This latter fish is the 

 " Jeevine " or " Teebine " of tlie Australian natives. Now, 

 in looking at eitliei- of those fishes, the observer would 

 never for a moment suppose tliat they presented any 

 features out of the common. Yet a very sliglit ac- 

 quaintance with natural liistory lore proves the sin- 

 gular natun^ of their position in the fish - class. 

 Everyone knows that fishes breathe by gills; that 

 they are cold-blooded ; that their " limbs " are repre- 

 sented by certain of their fins (the " paired " fins) ; and 

 that their bodies are covered with scales. If we add to 

 these facts the declaration that fishes pos.sess a heart con- 

 sisting of only two chambers, we shall have nearly com- 

 pleted our definition of the fish-type ; and we might add, 

 lastly, tliat the nostrils in fishes are typically closed pockets, 

 and do not, as in higher animals, open backwards into 

 the mouth. It is necessary for oui- present purpose to 

 point out that most fishes possess a singular sac or liag, 

 lying just beneath the spine, and called the swimvdng- 

 bladder, air-bladder, or sound. From the "sound " of the 

 sturgeon we obtain isinglass ; and in a herring, for ex- 

 ample, the "sound" may be seen as a silvery, glistening 

 bag, which is removable along with the other organs of 

 the fish when it is "gutted." This bag contains gas, and 

 its use is that of serving to alter the specific gravity of the 

 fish — that is, to render (by compression or expansion of the 

 gas) the body of the fish heavier or lighter than the 

 surrounding water. It thus enables its possessor to readily 

 rise or sink in the medium in which it lives. The air- 

 l bladders of all fishes, as Dr. Giinther tells us, at first open 



