rOREIG:S^ INTELLIGENCE. 
105 
tlier ; the bones of the head had been placed topsy-turvy ; of dorsal and 
lumbar vertebrae 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 publicly 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 Miiller, in his laboratory 
at Berlin, when showing me the temporal bone of the Zeuglodon. Being 
asked whether the Basilosam^us, or Hydrarchos as it had also been called, 
was a reptile or a mammifer, Miiller was going through the galleries 
of comparative anatomy, accompanied by some friends ; he held the tem- 
poral bone in his hand to e:^hibit his views of the structure of the ear, and 
in talking the bone slipped 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 Hydrarchos 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 Lcognan, 
near Bordeaux, a fragment of the cranium, which he thought should be 
assigned to an animal belonging both to the fish and the reptiles, to which 
he gave the name of Squalodun J* 
" 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'uii fragment de ma(;hoire fossile d'un genre nouveau de 
Reptile iSanrien) voisin dt- I'lfinauodon,' Bordeanx, 1 Mai, 1840; Actes de I'Acad. des 
Sc. de Bordeaux, 2e anuee, 2e triniestre ; De Blainville, ' Osteographie,' t. vii. p. 44, 
1840. Passing accidentally throuiih 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 that the Squahdoii, instead of being a reptile or a fish, 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 reprodiiced in his 
' Osteographie.' 
t Ehilich, 'Eilfter Bericht iiber das Museum Francisco-Carolinum,' s. 13 ; Troschcl's 
Archiv, Jahreshericlit, f. 1850, p. 32, Berlin, 1851 ; Carl Ehrhch, ' Ueber die nordostlichen 
Alpen,' Linz, 1850, p. 12; ' Geognostiche Wanderungen . . . Linz,' 1856, p. 81; 'Die 
geognostische Abtheilung des Museums,' p. 10 ; ' Beitriige znr Palaontologie,' Linz, 1855, 
p. 9. 
X Gervais, ' Paleontologie rran9aise.' 
§ Staring, ' A'ersteningen uit den tertiairen leem van J^ibergcn en Winterswyk in Geh 
derland,' Bodem, van Nederland, ii. p. 216. M. Staring has recently made a re-survey 
of the localities where bones of the quaternary age have been discovered : Aperfu des 
Ossements fossiles de I'epoque diluvienne, trouves dans la Neerlande et les contrees 
voisiues ; extrait des ' Bulletins et Comptes Eeudus de I'Academie Royale des Sciences,' 
vol. xii., Amsterdam, 1861. 
TOL. V. P 
