PROFESSOR OWEN ON INDIAN CETACEA. 45 
with the idea suggested by the observed steps in a gradation of such deviational 
developments. 
So far the species thereby characterized may be held as evidences of orderly succession 
and progression due to inherent organic force, operating according to a natural law or 
“ secondary cause,” of the precise nature of which we are yet in ignorance. But we 
may feel assured that the Power which called into being the first cetacean type fore- 
knew and planned, by predetermined degrees and kinds of departure from that type, 
all its subsequent modifications'. 
But much knowledge of the facts of organization is still needed for successfully 
grappling with these transcendent questions ; and the progress of zoology has been 
slower in regard to the Cetaceans than to most other orders of animals. 
This is due to their medium of existence, to the extreme latitudes at which some of 
the species have to be sought for, and to the vast bulk which certain species attain’. 
The latter characteristic precludes the preservation and exposition of the requisite spe- 
cimens in private collections or even in those of associations of the cultivators of 
natural history willing to carry on the work of advancement of the science at their 
own cost and to the extent of their means and usually limited incomes. 
The diversities of structure exemplifying specific characters in Balena, Balenoptera, 
Physeter, Hyperoodon, &c., and those which have suggested as many subgeneric divisions 
and names of the Cuvierian genera of those gigantic animals, are best exemplified in their 
skeletons, both by modifications of particular bones, and by proportions of the several 
regions of the skeleton; but the framework of these animals, put together to exemplify 
their articulations and proportions, require for their exhibition the resources of a 
National Museum. There, and there only, can an intelligent public and the student of 
this branch of Mammalogy expect to find the means of contemplating and comparing 
the characters and structures of the strangest as well as hugest of animals—the most 
seldom seen, by reason of their ocean haunts—air-breathers, yet living in water—hot- 
blooded, though ever surrounded by a rapidly refrigerating medium—of man’s own class 
by every essential of organization, but fishes in shape—a recent development of life- 
form on our planet, and the superseders of the great sea-lizards in their office in the 
ocean police. 
Hitherto the expectations of both student and sightseer have been disappointed. 
Space (the first essential towards fulfilling this exigency) has been found too costly ; 
at all events the guardians of the public purse have thought it not desirable, as yet, to 
vote the sums requisite for the galleries, however simple in structure, which are needed 
for the Cetaceous Department of a Zoological Museum’. 
1 Owen, ‘ On the Nature of Limbs,’ 1849, p. 86. 
2 T may also add, from aggravating experience, the conflicting claims to the legal ownership of such monsters 
of the deep when they happen to be cast upon any part of the shores of Great Britain. 
3 See Hansard, ‘ Debate on Museum of Natural History,’ May 19th, 1862, p. 1928. 
