June 28, 1883] 



NA TURE 



199 



Geology of Cephalonia 



In answer to the inquiry of your correspondent in the last 

 number of Nature (p. 173) I beg to inform him that the shells 

 of the Pliocene formation in the Morea have been long since 

 investigated, as is shown by the great and well-known work of 

 Homes. And Dr. Fischer has published a list of the fossil 

 shells from the same formation at Rhodes. These subapennine 

 beds extend over the whole of the south of Europe. For many 

 of those species which are still living I have given the locali- 

 ties of the Morea and Rhodes as fossil in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society. J. Gwyn Jeffreys 



June 25 



On the Chemical Characters of the Venom of Serpents 



Dr. Weir Mitchell calls my attention to an error in the 

 brief notice which I wrote in Nature recently (vol. xxviii. p. 

 114), on the researches into the chemical characters of snake 

 poison conducted by him and Dr. Rekhart. It is that instead 

 of " They are unable to confirm the statement of Gautier of 

 Paris that an alkaloid resembling a ptomaine exists in cobra 

 poison ; or that of Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, that the poison of Crotalus 

 yields an alkaloid," it should be, "Prof. Wolcott Gibbs was 

 unable to find an alkaloid." J. Fayrer 



53, Wimpole Street, W., June 26 



Earthquake in South-West England 



I have just felt and heard the shock of an earthquake. The 

 trembling <»f the tarth was very great and the accompanying 

 noise very loud, comparing it with one or two other slight shocks 

 which I have before experienced in this district. I found the 

 time to be 1.38 p.m. The time it lasted was several seconds. 

 It was longer and louder than an ordinary clap of thunder when 

 the lightning is not far off. A man reports that the slates of 

 the cow-house were made to rattle. 



As I now write (2.7 p.m.) a second shock has been felt, a little 

 less severe. The w eather is very calm, sky cloudy. This place 

 is close to Dartmoor, on the westward side, about 500 feet above 

 the sea-level. W. F. Collier 



Wocdtown, Horrabridge, S. Devon, June 25 



I beg to inform you of the occurrence of two slight earthquake 

 shocks here to-day, one shortly before 2p.m., the ether near 

 half an hour later. The direction of progress seemed to be from 

 north-west to south-east — that is along the line of the deep and 

 narrow valley. The tremor was sufficient to cause jangling of 

 glass and earthenware, and of the slates covering the house. 

 The usual rumbling noise accompanied the shocks. 



Samuel Drew 



Penalla Terrace, Bo- castle, Cornwall, June 25 



ON WHALES, PAST AND PRESENT, AND 

 THEIR PROBABLE ORIGIN 1 



UEW natural groups present so many remarkable, very 

 -*- obvious, and easily appreciated illustrations of 

 several of the most important general laws which appear 

 to have determined the structure of animal bodies, as 

 those selected for my lecture this evening. We shall find 

 the effects of the two opposing fi rces — that of heredity or 

 conformation to ancestral characters, and that of adapta- 

 tion to changed environment, whether brought about by 

 the method of natural selection or otherwise — distinctly 

 written in almost every part of their structure. Scarcely 

 anywhere in the animal kingdom do we see so many cases 

 of the persistence of rudimentary and apparently useless 

 organs, those marvellous and suggestive phenomena 

 which at one time seemed hopeless enigmas, causing de- 

 spair to those who tried to unravel their meaning, looked 

 upon as mere will-of-the-wisps, but now eagerly welcomed 

 as beacons of true light, casting illuminating beams upon 

 the dark and otherwise impenetrable paths through which 

 the organism has travelled on its way to reach the goal of 

 its present condition of existence. 



Lecture delivered at the Royal Insiitution on the evening of Friday, 

 May 25, 1S83, by Prof. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., P.ZS, &c. 



It is chiefly to these rudimentary organs of the Cetacea 

 and to what we may learn from them that I propose to call 

 your attention. In each case the question may well be 

 asked, granted that they are, as they appear to be, useless, 

 or nearly so, to their present possessors, insignificant, im- 

 perfect, in fact rudimentary, as compared with the corre- 

 sponding or homologous parts of other animals, are they 

 survivals, remnants of a past condition, become useless 

 owing to change of circumstances and environment, and 

 undergoing the process of gradual degeneration, prepara- 

 tory to their final removal from an organism to which 

 they are only, in however small a degree, an incum- 

 brance, or are they incipient structures, beginnings of 

 what may in future become functional and important parts 

 of the economy ? These questions will call for an attempt 

 at least at solution in each case as we proceed. 



Before entering upon details, it will be necessary to 

 give some general idea of the position, limits, and princi- 

 pal modifications of the group of animals from which the 

 special illustrations will be drawn. The term "whale" 

 is commonly but vaguely applied to all the larger and 

 middle-sized Cetacea, and though such smaller species as 

 the dolphins and porpoises are not usually spoken of as 

 whales, they may to all intents and purposes of zoological 

 science be included in the term, and will come within the 

 range of the present subject. Taken all together the 

 Cetacea constitute a perfectly distinct and natural order 

 of mammals, characterised by their purely aquatic mode 

 of life and external fishlike form. The body is fusiform, 

 passing anteriorly into the head without any distinct con- 

 striction or neck, and posteriorly tapering off gradually 

 towards the extremity of the tail, which is provided with 

 a pair of lateral pointed expansions of skin supported by 

 dense fibrous tissue, called "flukes," forming together a 

 horizontally-placed, triangular propelling organ. The 

 forelimbs are reduced to the condition of flattened ovoid 

 paddles, incased in a continuous integument, showing no 

 external sign of division into arm, forearm, and hand, or 

 of separate digits, and without any trace of nails. There 

 are no vestiges of hind-limbs visible externally. The 

 general surface of the body is smooth and glistening, and 

 devoid of hair. In nearly all species a compressed 

 median dorsal fin is present. The nostrils open sepa- 

 rately or by a single crescentic valvular aperture, not at 

 the extremity of the snout, but near the vertex. 



Animals of the order Cetacea abound in all known seas, 

 and some species are inhabitants of the larger rivers of 

 South America and Asia. Their organisation necessi- 

 tates their life being passed entirely in the water, as on 

 the land they are absolutely helpless ; but they have to 

 rise very frequently to the surface for the purpose of 

 respiration. They are all predaceous, subsisting on living 

 animal food of some kind. One genus alone {Orcd) eats 

 other warm-blooded animals, as seals and even members 

 of its own order, both large and small. Some feed on 

 fish, others on small floating Crustacea, pteropods, and 

 medusae, while the staple food of many is constituted of 

 the various species of Cephalopods, chiefly Loligo and 

 other Teuthidee, which must abound in some seas in vast 

 numbers, as they form almost the entire support of some of 

 the largest members of the order. With some exceptions 

 the Cetacea generally are timid, inoffensive animals, active 

 in their movements, sociable and gregarious in their 

 habits. 



Among the existing members of the order there are two 

 very distinct types — the Toothed Whales, or Odontoccti, 

 and the Baleen Whales, or Mystacoceti, which present 

 throughout their organisation most markedly distinct 

 structural characters, and have in the existing state of 

 nature no transitional forms. The extinct Zeuglodon, so 

 far as its characters are known, does not fall into either 

 of these groups as now constituted, but is in some respects 

 intermediate, and in others more resembles the gene- 

 ralised mammalian type. 



