FOEETGK INTELLIGENCE. 



105 



ther ; the bones of the head had been placed topsy-turry ; of dorsal and 

 lumbar vertebrag a disproportionately long neck had been formed, and sa- 

 vants of high reputation were completely led into error, Finally, on in- 

 vestigation it was found that the bones had been brought together from 

 different localities, and that with the remains of several skeletons the col- 

 lectors had tried to fabricate a single animal. 



"Jean ^Miiller boldly attacked the question, and was one of the first to 

 show the grave anatomical errors which had been committed. He had 

 commenced his observations whilst the skeleton was publicl}^ exposed at 

 Berlin ; but he soon had the opportunity of studying it at his ease in his 

 cabinet, the King of Prussia having purchased it for the Museum of the 

 University of Berlin. 



A curious circumstance was related to me by jMliller, in -his laboratory 

 at Berlin, when showing me the temporal bone of the Zeuglodon. Being 

 asked whether the Basilosaurus, or Ilydrarclios as it had also been called, 

 was a reptile or a m^inimifer, Miiller was going through the galleries 

 of comparative anatomy, accompanied by some friends ; he held the tem- 

 poral bone in his hand to exhibit his views of the structure of the ear, and 

 in talking the bone shpped from him, and was broken on the floor. All 

 were in consternation ! What a loss ! A unique piece of such importance 

 destroyed ! They picked up directly the pieces with the greatest care, but 

 what was the astonishment of the professor and those who surrounded him, 

 when it was seen that the cochlea of the internal ear was exposed, showing 

 its twist and spiral turns. An accident had transformed the bone of the 

 ear into a fine anatomical preparation, and the demonstration of the nature 

 of the animal was thus made. The Hydrarclws could only be a mammifer, 



" In Europe, a short time after, a paleontological discovery not less im- 

 portant was made. Don Grateloup . . . discovered, in 1840, at Leognan, 

 near Bordeaux, a fragment of the cranium, 'o hich he thought should be 

 assigned to an animal belonging both to the fish and the reptiles, to which 

 he gave the name of Squalodon 



" Since then, the remains of similar or allied animals have been disco- 

 vered at Lintz,t in Upper Austria, by M. Ehrlich ; in the environs of 

 Montpelier ; at St. Jean de Vegas,;]; by Paul Gervais ; and in Holland, in 

 the province of Gueldres,§ by M. Staring. 



* Grateloup, ' Description d'un fi-agment de machoire fossile d'lm genre nouveau de 

 Eeptile (Sanrien) voisin de I'lguanodon,' Bordeaux, 1 Mai, 1840; Actes de I'Acad. des 

 Sc. de Bordeaux, 2e annee, 2e trimestre ; De Blainville, ' Osteographie,' t. vii. p. 44, 

 1840. Passing accidentally through Bordeaux that same year in company with the 

 Viscount Felix de Spoelberch, on returning from a tour in the Pyrenees, I remarked to 

 Dr. Grateloup tliat the SquaJodon, instead of bemg a reptile or a lish, presented all the 

 characters of a Mammifer allied to the dolphins, and I wrote on this point a letter from 

 Bordeaux to M. de Blainville which the illustrious professor has reproduced in his 

 ' Osteographie.' 



t Ehrlich, 'Eilfter Bericht iiber das IMuseum Francisco-Carolinnm,' s. 13 ; Troschel's 

 ArchiY, Jahreshericht, f. 1850, p. 32, Berlin, 1851 ; Carl Ehrlich, ' Ueber die nordostiichea 

 Alpen,' Linz, 1850, p. 12; ' Geognostiche Wanderungen . . . Linz/ 1856, p. 81; 'Die 

 geognostische Abtheilung des Museums,' p. 10 ; ' Beitriige zur Palaoutologie,' Linz, 1855, 

 p. 9. 



% Gervais, ' Paleontologie Er?tncaise,' 



§ Staring, ' Yerstcningen nit den tertiairen leem van Eibergen en Winterswyk in Gel- 

 derland,' Bodem^ van iS^ederland, ii. p. 216. M. Staring has recently made a re-survey 

 of the localities where hones of the quaternary age have been discovered : Aper9u des 

 Ossements fossiles de I'epoque diluvienne, trouves dans la Neerlande et les contrees 

 voisines ; extrait des ' Bulletins et Coraptes Rendus de I'Academie Royale des Sciences,' 

 vol. xii., Amsterdam, 1861, 



YOL. Y, P 



