The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-27 00:00:00

ROYAL INSTITUTION.

Professor Owen, having been elected Fullerian
Professor of the Royal Institution, commenced his
new duties on Tuesday by delivering the first of a
course of 12 lectures, the subject he has chosen
being " The physiology and affinities of fossil mam-
mals." The introductory lecture was on the phy-
siological characters and grounds of subdivision of
the class mammalia, for the purpose of making his
audience acquainted with the living types before
proceeding to consider the fossil remains of the same
class which existed before the world was moulded
into its present condition. Professor Owen first
alluded to the division of the animals that are born
alive and are suckled by their mothers, which was
made by Aristotle, who had the sagacity to in-
clude among them whales and porpoises, which
are strictly mammals, though partaking in their
forms and habits of life of the character of fishes.
He next alluded to the divisions of the class which
had been proposed by Linnaeus and Cuvier, founded.
on the different forms of the limbs and feet, which
were not, however, satisfactory ; and about three
years ago Professor Owen decided, after a minute
examination of the cerebral structure of different
mammals, on making the classification accord-
ing to the development of the brain. The
greatest part of the lecture was devoted to the ex-
planation of this mode of classification, according
to which mammals are divided into four orders. In
the lowest order are animals whose brain exhibits
the simplest form of cerebral matter, the white
medullary substance prevailing, almost to the ex-
clusion of the grey matter of the brain, the quan-
tity of which indicates generally a superior order
of intelligence. Among the lowest of the mammals,
according to this classification, are ranged the
ornithorincus and kangaroo, which are peculiar to
Australia and New Zealand, and the opossum,
which is peculiar to the equatorial regions of Ame-
rica. In the second order the brain is larger and
more developed, but there is scarcely any ap-
pearance of convolutions, the outer surface being
smooth. In this class are placed ant-eaters and
bats. Ascending higher in the scale, the grey
matter of the brain becomes more abundant, and
the cerebral structure is convoluted. Among

these animals are placed the elephant, the
dog, the horse, the monkey, the lion, and the •
whale. The brain of the cetacea, indeed, more
closely approximates in its complex convolutions to
the brain of man than that of any other animal. The
reason why the whale sheuld have so slightly de-
veloped a brain is perplexing to physiologists.
Professor Owen said he is inclined to think that
this greater development might be required to
enable the whale to accommodate itself to the un-
favourable circumstances in which it is placed for
retaining its heat in water and in Arctic seas. The
temperature of the whale's body is nearly 100 deg.
Fahrenheit, which it maintains in the northern seas
at all times ; whilst the bodies of fishes is 9f the
same temperature as the water. In the development
of the brain of man there is a sudden jump, as it
were, from those of the inferior animals. The grey
matter in every part abounds and overlaps, and the
hertehnetborradienrsaffoorrmdsamthmealsm,ain
convolutions of the cerebral structure are most
rudiffgOwen's
complex.
accord-
ingdis-
tinctionto r.
roof f teThshse:
arrangementthe form of
the limbs and of the extremities. serve to make sub-
divisions of species, and • m some respects indicate a
higher degree of 't capaci y. In man there is exhi-
bited the marked
peculiarity
of the possesSion of a
pair of limbs not subservient to locomotion, free to
act as his will directs, altogether independent of his
legs, and in his hands he is provided with a perfect
piece of mechanism that far surpasses in its capa-
bilities of action the digits of any other creature.
Not only in the higher development of his brain,
therefore, but in the construction of his form, man
is eminently placed above all other created beings.