The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-09 00:00:00

in the mud of the oldest tertiary period the remains of
animals which flocked about its shores. In these
mioceece rocks Professor Marsh found within the last
six years remains of the antehippus, and the oldest
miocene the nuzzo-hippus in which he found the rudi-
ment of a fourth toe. Then in the eocene was found a
creature called the aura-Menus, not much larger than
a fox, but having equine peculiarities, with four com-
plete toes. So far as thus shown, the history of the
horse was exactly in accordance with the doctrine
ef evolution. In the lacustrine deposits, which pre-
ceded the eocene, it was certain that there would be
found equine remains of the mammalian form with 6ve
toes on each foot, and then the history of the horse
would be as complete as any such history could be.
The reason was such to his mind that he did not care
to discuss longer the theory of evolution. What was
true of the horse was true of other animals, because it
would be preposterous to suppose that nature had not
built others on the ;mine plan, and carried out the
same fundamental idea.
The lecture was much applauded by a large and
appreciative audience. ,

THE TERRIBLE CYCLONE IN
BENGAL.
(From the Bombay Gazette, Nov. 11.)
The brief details of the cyclone in Bengal, furnished
to us by telegraph, show the visitation to have been ter-
ribly severe in the destruction of life and property. In the
district of Backergunge, to which it appears to have
been confined, upwards of five thousand lives are sup-
posed to have been lost. At Barisal upwards of 3,500
native houses were swept away, besides a number of
boats; and the town of Dowlutkan, the headquarters ^
of the sub-division, was completely destroyed by a storm-
wave. In this, as in similar cases, the disaster is, of
course, not to be measured by the loss of life, nor by the
value of the property destroyed. The dead are beyond
relief; the loss in property may be repaired. The sad-
dest incidents are connected with the survivors who
have lost their homes, their crops or other means of
subsistence, and who find themselves reduced simply to
starvation. The local Government in the present case
appear to have done well by administering prompt
relief to the sufferers; but under the most favour-
able conditions a district so OR cted cannot be re-
stored to its former state for a long period of time,
even though some natural features of the country be
not entirely obliterated. Thus traces, after twelve
years, are still left of the great cyclone of 1864 in
the Calcutta district, and the evil that a cyclone can
do will probably live long after its occurrence in the
v:cinity of Backergunge. And still more sad is the
fact that there is no guarding against the ravages
of these periodical stereos. Fires may be provided for
by sound building and the proper provision anti dis-
tribution of the counteracting element. The enemy
of fire, when it becomes an enemy itself, may be re-
sisted by efficient embankments. and inundations at
least mitigated in their effects. Famines may be fore-
seen, and if taken in time, by a Government which is
not afraid of having it said that the distress is of their
own invention, may be deprived of most of their
horrors. But against a cyclone man is impotent and
at the mercy of the scourge. Setae places are more
sheltered than others, but none within the range of a
cyclone can be safe. The forces of Nature are inexorable.
Man can do nothing to prevent—he can only repair.
And to the task of tending the living must be added
the sad duty of disposing of the dead. Of the five
thousand-or more who are said to have perished in
Backergunge, the bodies of a large proportion must lie
under conditions which need not be specified, for days
before the last provision could be made for them; and
the consequences may be easily imagined. In the
official report upon the Cyclone of 1864 in Lower
Bengal, we are told that the chief loss of life was that
caused by the storm wave. The deaths by the storm
were not very numerous, with the exceptien, perhaps,
of boatmen and others in the river, but even these
last bore no proportion to the numbers that were
swept away and drowned by the rush of the flood.
But in some districts, notably in Midnapore, the
immediate losses were equalled if not outnumbered
by the deaths caused by the famine and pestilence
(cholera, dysentery, and small-pox) which were
in a great measure the consequence of the inundation.
The prompt measures taken by the Calcutta public,
by Government and its local offieere, and by many
private persons, to send supplies of food and cl }thing
to the districts that had suffered most severely,
alleviated the pressure of famine after a few days.
But the putrid vegetation and unburied bodies which
for many weeks lay strewn over the country, the
consumption of bad food and impure water, were
evils lees readily to be dealt with; and these fertile
causes of disease, acting upon a people already under
severe mental prostration from the loss of their
families and property, proved more fatal than even
the deluee which had primarily overwhelmed them.
Thus., in Pergunnah Gomai 23 persons were recorded
as drowned, while not less than 526 perished by subse-
quent sickness. In Teraparah 132 were drowned, and
the deaths by sickness were reported at 515. In
Mysandal the loss by the storm wave was 3,740, bat
that by sickness amounted to not less than 4,243.
Taking these proportions as representative of the con-
ditions in most of the efilicted districts in 1864, we may
well conceive that the 5,000 and upwards reported to
have perished in Backergunge are but a portion of the
loss which must be anticipated from the present visi-
tation.