The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-09-04 00:00:00

MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

LECTURES ON THE STRUCTURE ✓!ND HISTORY OF THE
ARTICULJTED MOLLUSCOUSCLASSESOF ANIMALS.

On Saturday evening se'nuigitt Dr. Grant delivered the
eighth and concluding lecture of kris course.
We now come to a consideration of a tribe of the menus-
cuous animals called cephalopods, from the circumstance of
their feet being arranged about their heads, on which they
may be said to walk. Those of them, as well as the ptero-
pods, which swim on the surface of the ocean, have either
naked bodies or light pellucid shelly coverings, so as to
enable them to move about with freedom, and at the same
time protect them from the evils. to which they are exposed.
Indeed, in some instances, this shell is merely disposed
around the more delicate of their internal organs. Unlike
the gastropods, which, with all their convolutions, are only
singlechambered, the shells of cephalopods have a number
of chambers, whence the name concatnerate or multilocular;
but neither the cephalopods, pteropods, nor the pulmonated
gastropods, have any operculum. The cephalopods are
highly organised, and form a connecting link between the
articulated and .vertebrated animals. The internal "bone"
of the cattle fish is, however, not true bone, being composed
of carbonate, without any phosphate, of lime, and is hardly
at all analaguus to a vertebral bony column. The nautilus
is a good example of multilocular shells. The chambers all
communicate by means of orifices. When these orifices are
small the shells are calledforantiniferous, but when large and
funnel-shaped, ripleonflerous. A number of the former kind
are now to be met with, and both abound in a fossil state,
some of them so flattened as to be called nummulites, from
the resemblance they bear to small coins. The latter form
whole rocks, indeed the pyramids rest upon nummulitie lime-
stone, which was once mistaken for granite or syenite. The
little "lentils" were also at one time supposed to be the real
vegetable lentils—the food of the workmen—petrified ! There
are 500 species of fossil ammonites known to zoologists, of
which 250 are British. The Whitby seas contains the
greatest number. So far as iv at present know the amino-
nite is an extinct animal. Cyclostomous fishes have a
central softish mass, which afterwards is divided into the
intervertebral substance of higher classes. The finlike pro-
cesses of loligo, &c. must be considered as arms, and not
legs, in the same manner as we find in the flying fish,
gurnards, &c., some of the cephalopods, and even turtle, an
excess of the anterior extremity. the octupods swim back-
wards, striking with All their tentacula at once. Others are
fixed, and others again have no tentacula. The argonauta,
which is an octopod, is said to quit its shell, like the hermit
crab, as if it were not its own, but some say that it mends the
shell when fractured. Two of its legs are membraneous, and
it raises them up to serve as sails. The broad loligo, besides
its ordinary prehensile extremities, has two long slender
tentacula, furnished with suckers, by which it anchors itself
and wheels round in a circle with this cable as a radius. The
cephalopods mostly live at the bottom of the sea, are crafty
and carniverous, and the great enemies of the crustaceous
animals, which, as the contents of their stomach show, they
rapidly dismember. The loligo has been known to leap on
the decks of a ship. Its beak is horny like a parrots,
inverted, and entirely composed of carbonate of lime. It is
notched, showing the rudiments of teeth.

The learned lecturer then entered into a full anatomical
detail of the structure of the various creatures belonging to
the order of cephalopods, which would require a much
greater knowledge of the subject than possessed by the re-
porter to do justice to. In conclusion, Dr. Grant pointed
out the great advantage which the study of the creatures
brought under review during his lectures would be to his
audience, especially the younger part, for they would not fail
to perceive the most exquisite order in the arrangements of
the Creator through all his works, from the simplest to the
most complicated, and would learn to appreciate in the most
humble animal in the scale of creation, those beautiful
organs and instincts whereby it is enabled not only to con-
tinue its own existence but that of its tribe.

In taking our leave of Dr. Grant we must again repeat
our regret that our anatomical and zoological knowledge has
not enabled us to present to our readers moie perfect reports
of his lectures. If the audiences have not been so large as
those which have attended his predecessors, it has not been
owing td the apathy with which his lectures have been re-
garded, but to the difficulty which was felt, and we can say
from experience, painfully so at times, to catch the words of
the lecturer, for unfortunately the physical powers of Dr.
Grant are by no means commensurate with his mental. The
medical gentlemen of our town, however, continued to attend
him to the last, and we have never heard higher encomiums
upon the merits of a lecturer than we have heard from
the members of this honoured profession with respect to Dr.
Grant.

A few days since a cow which was grazing on the west
common, Lincoln, was attacked by a large bull-dog of the
Spanish breed. The cow caught her infuriated opponent on
- her horns and tossed him into the air twice. Eventually the
dog fastened on her neck, and the poor animal having no
further chance of defending herself, was bit and lacerated in
a dreadful manner. We are given to understand that she is
lingering in a very hopeless state.—Hull Times.,
ANTIQUE RING.—We have been favoured with the inspec-
tion of a very ancient and massive gold ring, which is in the
possession of Mr. Robert Thompson, jeweller, in the Groves,
in the suburbs of this city, and which was found a few days
ago near the ruins of Coningsborough Castle, in the vicinity
of Doncaster. Its weight is six dwts. and its diameter three-
quarters of an inch. The workmanship, which is quite per-
fect, is an elegant chasing of foliage, variegated green and.
e
gold. The venerable remains abov 'mentioned lay claiin to
high antiquity, and near them is a tumulus. said to have been
raised over the body of Hengist, the Saxon general, who was
slain in a battle near this place' by Aurelius Ambrosius, a
British Prince, about the year 488. Of course it is impossible
to say, whether the ring in question is a relic of these early
times, or it is of more recent deposit; but that centuries him:ye
passed since it formed an ornament to some one of distinc-
tion may be safely premised, from the nature of the workman-
ship and its antique form.—York Courant.
AN ALLIGATOR TEAM.—The captain of a steam-boat
engaged in the Red River trade, has informed us, although
we are inclined to think he was joking, that a wealthy indi-
vidual up that way has tamed and trained a couple of alliga-
tors so that they will swim in harness, and haw and gee
about as regular as oxen. So well, indeed, have they been
broken that their owner frequently tackles them up, hitches
them to a "dug out," and cruises about the bayous and •
ponds when the waters are too high to admit of his going on
horseback. On a late occasion, whkas sailing along quietly
under the banks of a bayou with his. "critters" harnessed
abreast, he was seen by a hunter, who sung out, "I say,
there! hallo ! drap your dug out astern and giveme a chance
to plug one of the varmints?' "Don't shoot this way—take
care—don't you see I'm after them?" said the owner, as the
backwoodsman levelled his -rifle. "I see you're cuter 'ern,
and you'll see a bell •follerit)'-oir in the same-trail- in-tess th-an-
two minits. Look out for yourself stranger; here goes for a
crack at the varmint this way.-' "Stop! hold upymir rifle.
That's my team that .you are aiming at.. Look at the harness,
there, just on the top of the water.. . They are hitched to the
canoe, and I am on a little jaunt out back to look at and
enter some lands." "Well, I declar; !" - said the old hunter,
"if that don't beat. all the doins I've heer'd on way in the
thick settlements. I reckon you understand animal-mag,
netism, as they call it, a few.". understand training Oils
gators." " Well, you can Pass—hope you'll have a pleasant
excarsion?' The man now stirred up his teani, and was soon
under way at a rate which would-leave a common high pres-
sure steam-boat out of sight in no time.—New Orleans
Picayune.
EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT.—On Thursday evening last,
a gentleman named Godard arrived at the Bedford Hotel,
attended by a man servant, and about midnight the latter
retired to rest. About three o'clock in the morning, as the
policeman on the beat was going his round, he heard a con-
tinuance of loud groaning, as if issuing front some one in the
greatest suffering. Having searched round the whole of the
building without being able to discover the person from whom
they proceeded, though his groans were still as audible as
ever, he alarmed the • inmates of the hotel by ringing the
night bell, which being answered by Mr. Lewis. and others,
they proceeded in search of the unfortunate man spoken of,
when they discovered him lying on the lower balcony in a
most dreadful state, his hip sock6t being completely shat-
tered, and his head -cut in a most shocking manner. Mr.
Furner, the surgeon, was called in immediately, and every
assistance afforded to the sufferer, who was on Saturday
conveyed to the County Hospital, where he lies without hope
of recovery. The account the poor fellow gives of the acci-
dent is this:—Having gone up to his bed-room, which was
at the very- top of the Bedford Hotel, he thought he would
take a little fresh air, by walking round the inside of the ,
parapet; _accordiugly he got out- at the •bed-room window,
when it closed, and thinking he could not open it again, and
not liking to disturb the inmates, he thought he would en-
deavour to get down on the outside, as he saw a broad cor-
nice, as he considered, only a few feet below him; upon this
he dropped from the western parapet, and descended 15 feet,
alighting, on a shelving cornice only 18 inches wide, where
he made good a footing, a circumstance which surprises every
one who has inspected the spot, and thence walked round to
the front of the building, a distance of at least 70 feet. He '
then thought he could drop to the projection he saw below—
the haleiany. Having lowered hitnself from the cornice with
his harms, and not being able to touch the wall, he endea-
voured
to regain his footing on the cornice, when he fell a
distance of at least 60 feet on the balcony below, where he
was found as above described.—Brighten Patriot.
MUTINY AND MURDER AT Sea.—The brig Hebden, of
Scarborough, Captain W. B. Fowler, which arrived at Green-
ock on Saturday evening, brought two ladies and a gentle-
man,-passengers, and two of the crew of the American brig
Bragauza, who were picked up at sea, and taken on board
the Hehden, along with their boat, on Sunday the 12th ult.,
about 350 miles off the coast of Portugal, after having been
at sea in a small open boat for twenty-five hours. The per-
sons thus providentially saved are, George N. Diehl, Esq.
of Philadelphia, owner of the Braganza, and his lady; the
lady of Captain A. F. Turley, late master of the brig; Mr.
Moir, the'second mate ; and the cook of the Braganza. The
Braganza, of Philadelphia, which sailed from St. John's,
Porto Rico, with a cargo of sugar consigned to Messrs. Grant
Balfour & Co. of Genoa, put into Philadelphia in distress,
and having got repaired, sailed from that city on the Bth of.
July last, with the following crew on board : Capt. A.. F.
Turley ; Mr. Vanderslice, first mate; Mr. Moir, second
mate, and six men before the mast, including the cook. She
had also as passengers, Mr. and Mrs. Diehl, and Mrs. 'Pur-
ley above-mentioned. The brig proceeded on her voyage
without any remarkable circumstance until the sth of August,
when in let. between 37. and 38. N., and long. between 13.
and 14. W., at two o'clock, A.M., an alarm was given by the
first mate, (whose watch it was on deck,) of a mutiny by the
crew. The captain and second mate immediately rushed on
deck to his assistance ; the captain had a cutlass, the second
mate had nothing whatever to defend himself with. They
found the first mate lying at the cabin companion-way wel-
tering in his blood; he afterwards succeeded in gaining the
cabin. On the captain and second mate's reaching the deck
they were immediately attacked by all the crew. who, being
five in number, soon overpowered them ; they threw the se-
cond mate oiler the side, but he fortunately caught a rope
and regained the deck again, and retreated to the cabin com-
pletely disabled. In the meantime the crew succeeded in
overpowering the captain and threw him overboard. During
this period, which was but of short duration, the two ladies
and .Mr. Diehl were in the most anxious suspense, anticipat-
ing that it was their intention to murder them all, having no
means whatever of defence. But immediately on throwing
nailing and placing canvas and heavy chains
the captain overboard, they closed the cabin companion-way
and sky-light by
on them. The persons thus confined in the cabin were Mts.
Turley, the first and secoud mates, and Mr. Diehl and wife;
the first mate had his face dreadfully cut and his skull frac-
turedgn h
to'clockcrew, thhye n a
ha
by two strokes on the head and two on the shoulder, all
apparently done with a hatchet; the second mate was coin-
sright
in htatrhme blowsmbyernie, the g
inflicted
in complete possession of the vessel, made preparations to
close the cabin dead lights by slinging a plank over the stern,
tlentdeleypike. disabledAteii the
at which the people in the cabin remonstrated, stating that
they should smoother; they replied that unless they gave up
whatever was wanted they would certaitnly do it. They then
demanded the chronometer, sextant, and charts, together
with all the gold and jewellery, which was passed up to them
through the cabin windows by means of a bucket. They
also required that they should throw overboard all the fire-
arms. For several days nothing further occurred except oc-
casional suggestions by the crew that the prisoners should.;
leave in the jolly:.boat ; but stated neither time nor phee.•
On Saturday afternoon, the 11th of August, however, they
obliged Mr. and Mrs. Diehl, Mr. Moir, the second mate,
Mrs. Turley, and the cook, to take to the long-boat and trust
to Providence. In the afternoon of the following day they
were picked up by the Hcbden, as above stated. How
the wretches should have given the survivors even a chance
for their lives seems quite nnaccountable, knowing as they
well did, that should they be preserved, no exertions would
be spared to bring them to the condign punishment they
have so richly merited. They said that they intended to run
for the English Channel, which, should they have done, there
is every probability that they will be brought to justice.