PROFESSOR OWEN ON INDIAN CETACEA. 45 



with the idea suggested by the obsei-ved steps in a gradation of such deviational 

 developments. 



So far the species thereby cliaracterized may be held as evidences of orderly succession 

 and progression due to inherent organic force, operating according to a natural law (h- 

 " 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 

 gi'appling 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 Balcena, Balijenoptera, 

 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, tliough 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 desii-able, 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^. 



' Owen, ' On the Nature of Limbs,' 1849, p. 86. 



' I 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. 

 ^ See Hansard, ' Debate on Museum of Natural History,' May 19th, 1862, p. 1928. 



