Dec. ii, i»79j 



NATURE 



135 



which are applicable to the subject hare been kept well in 

 view. And from our standpoint this must be the test 

 of the efficiency of any scheme for the disposal of sewage. 

 We fear that hitherto those with whom the decision rests 

 as to what scheme shall be adopted for the disposal of 

 the sewage of London have looked upon the question too 

 much as one between rival " schemes," and considered 

 far too much the supposed interests of rival " bodies," 

 and too little the clear teachings of science and the wel- 

 fare of the public. It is evident that for London, at least, 

 the whole subject of the disposal of sewage will have 

 very soon to be reconsidered, and we trust that the 

 authorities concerned will take into their council 

 reputable chemists and physicists, who we are sure, can 

 have no interests more at heart than to see the un- 

 mistakeable teachings of science practically applied to the 

 salvation of society. 



A 1 



THE NEW WEALDEN DINOSAUR 



T the last meeting of the Geological Society, Mr. 

 J. Whitaker Hulke, F.R.S., brought forward some 

 new facts concerning the remarkable Dinosaur Orni- 

 thopsis, which cannot fail to interest both geologists and 

 naturalists. 



In the original collection of Wealden fossils made by 

 Dr. Mantell, and acquired for the British Museum, were 

 two fragmentary bones, the nature of which was somewhat 

 doubtful. Dr. Mantell regarded and figured one of these 

 as a tympanic bone of Fguanodon, at the same time 

 pointing out that it presented some resemblance to a 

 vertebra. Prof. R. Owen adopted Mantell' s views, and 

 figured it as the tympanic bone of Igitanodon, or, perhaps, 

 of Cetiosaurus or Streptospondylus. 



In 1S69 Prof. H. G. Seeley pointed out that the fossil 

 in question was undoubtedly a portion of a vertebra, and 

 one of a new and very remarkable type. It exhibited 

 points of comparison with the vertebras of birds, in the 

 lightness of its construction, and in the existence of great 

 cavities penetrating into the centrum. Hence Prof. 

 Seeley suggested for it the generic name of Ornithopsis. 



In 1870 Mr. Hulke, who was at that time unaware of 

 Prof. Seeley's determination of the vertebral character of 

 the British Museum specimens, gave a description of the 

 neural arch of a vertebra which he had discovered in the 

 Wealden of the Isle of Wight. From the beautiful 

 character of the groined entrance to the neural canal, Mr. 

 Hulke was led to suggest the name of Eucamerotus as a 

 provisional one for the new Dinosaurian genus which the 

 specimen evidently represents. 



He especially pointed out as of great interest the 

 enormous size of these vertebra;, and the fact that they 

 are built up of thin plates of very compact osseous tissue, 

 with immense spaces of cancellous tissue between them. 

 At a later date Mr. Hulke recognised the identity of his 

 Eucamerotus with the Ornithopsis of Prof. Seeley. 



In 1876 Prof. Owen again took up the study of the 

 for.ns in the British Museum. He adopted Prof. 

 Seeley's and Mr. Hulke's views as to the vertebral 

 racter of the fossils — but he rejected Prof. Seeley* s 

 generic name on the ground that the resemblance 

 between these vertebrae and those of birds is merelv 

 superficial, and that the name of Ornithopsis is therefore 

 misleading. Prof. Owen described two new forms pre- 

 senting this peculiar structure in the vertebral column, 

 and to these he gave the names of Bothriospondylus and 

 Cliondrostosaurus ; he insisted that the large cavities 

 seen in the fossil vertebrae were probably originally rilled 

 with cartilaginous substance, as is the case in the sharks 

 and rays, and argued, therefore, that any comparison 

 with the vertebra; of birds was a misleading one. Mr. 

 Hulke and Prof. Seeley, however, while admitting that the 

 structure does not necessarily imply the powers of flight 

 in the forms possessing it, yet insist that in all probability 



the cavities in the vertebrae were true air-cells, and there- 

 fore that the structure is " bird-like ; " on these grounds 

 they maintain that the name of Ornithopsis ought not to 

 be superseded. 



In 1877 Prof. Marsh recognised among the numerous 

 Dinosaurian remains obtained from Colorado a number 

 of gigantic forms with vertebrae presenting the same 

 peculiarities as are found in Ornithopsis ; to these forms 

 he gave the names Atlantosaurus, Morosaurus, Apato- 

 saurus, Allosaurus, and Diplocus. Prof. Cope had 

 simultaneously described three other forms — Catnara- 

 saurus, Amphicalias, and Epanterias, all presenting the 

 same peculiarities as are found in the English form Orni- 

 thopsis. One of the American forms, Atlantosaurus had 

 a femur seven feet in length. When the two distinguished 

 American palaeontologists visited this country in 1878, 

 they both recognised the specimens of Ornithopsis in 

 Mr. Hulke's collection as presenting numerous points 

 of resemblance with the new forms which they had 

 described. 



Now in the communication which he has recently made 

 to the Geological Society, Mr. Hulke has described ver- 

 tebrae from several parts of the spine of Ornithopsis. 

 This he is enabled to do by the courtesy of the Rev. W. 

 Fox, of Brixton in the Isle of Wight, who has long been 

 such an indefatigable collector of the vertebrate fossils of 

 the Wealden, and has permitted Mr. Hulke to make use 

 of his materials. Mr. Hulke shows that while the dorsal 

 vertebrae were closely bound together by processes, so 

 that this part of the spine must have possessed great 

 rigidity, as is the case with birds, the cervical vertebrae 

 indicate the existence of the greatest mobility. But the 

 point on which Mr. Hulke principally insists, from its 

 bearing on the discussion which has taken place between 

 himself and Prof. Seeley, on the one hand, and Prof. 

 Owen on the other, is that the cavities and cancellous 

 tissue are confined to the dorsal vertebrae, and do not 

 occur in the other portions of the spinal column ; this he 

 insists is inexplicable, if, as Pro f . Owen insists, the cavi- 

 ties in question had no functional character, but were 

 filled up with cartilaginous tissue, while it finds a ready 

 explanation in the supposition of Prof. Seeley and himself 

 that they are truly pneumatic cavities. Mr. Hulke also 

 points out that there are reasons for believing that some 

 at least of the vertebrae referred to the genus Cetiosaurus 

 belong to the new group of forms to which so much atten- 

 tion has been directed during the last few years. 



There can be no doubt that there existed during 

 mesozoic times, both in this country and on the American 

 continent, a group of reptiles of gigantic dimensions, 

 which presented such peculiarities of structure, especially 

 in their vertebral column, that they must be placed in a 

 distant sub-order of the Dinosauria. For this, perhaps 

 the name of Sauropoda, suggested by Prof. Marsh, may 

 be adopted. 



The existence of this bird-like character of pneumatic 

 bones in reptiles of such gigantic dimensions as these 

 peculiar Dinosaurs undoubtedly were is certainly very 

 startling and unexpected. At the same time we believe 

 that neither Prof. Seeley nor Mr. Hulke favours the idea 

 that the forms in question were capable of flight. Mr. 

 Hulke promises shortly to add another to his valuable 

 contributions to our knowledge of these forms by describ- 

 ing the limb-bones of Ornithopsis and its allies, and dis- 

 cussing the habits which a study of their structure seems 

 to indicate. All geologists and naturalists will look forward 

 eagerly for the promised memoir. 



CASSELL'S NATURAL HISTORY* 



THE third volume of this well-illustrated and popular 

 account of the animal kingdom contains descriptions 

 of the Ruminantia bv the late lamented A. H. Garrod, 



. Edited by P. Martin Duncan. M.B. (Lend.), F.R.S., F.G.S. VU. hi. 

 London: Cassell, Perter, and Galpin, 1879.) 



