The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-05
POPULAR SCIENCE.
-s
THE sMOLLUS g A.
A Lecture delivered last Friday Evening
before the Young Mems Christian
Association, by the Rev. E.
II, BeadIe, ID. ID.

AH6OC1AhhOms DE ehe AeoNs NE
II. BeadIe, ID. ID.
tspro,A1, REPORT FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
On Friday evening last the Rev. L. r. Beadle,
N n delivered an exceedingly interesting and
eloauent lecture before the Young Mems Chris
Non Association. His subject embraced that
division of the animal kngdOm known as the
MolIlscd Our report of the lecture was un-
ayoidably crowded out OF Saturdays EVENING
TELEGRAPH by the pressure OF other matter;
but our readers can rest assured that 1t has lost
nothing by this short delay. Dr. beadle ad-
dressed his audience as follOWs;- -
Ladies and Gentlemen: History is
now science. II is no longer the harmless
enthusiasm who wanders through iOresJ ana
field or drills into rocky BEDS OF SINKS ms
dredre into the sea- The most gifted minds,
and the best trained lnteliects, are earnesS
workers in these fields. Nor can the pursuit OF
Natural History be regarded any longer as
mere amusement or pleasant recreatlOn, OF Oe
used 10 fill up the wastes of time, ana give dlg,
nifty to leisure and idleness; 1t must De regarded
as a study when demands earnest thought and
persistent purpose.
The study of Nature.
We are surrounded by facts. by creations, by
regions unexplored, by wonders unexplained.
A pebble or plant, an insect or an atom,
drop of water or the animalcul@ when hnd
home and q grave in 1t, may arrest our atUen-
tion and challenge our thought IL we hold
Tighttully our place in the scale Of being, we
must be careful observers. We are In this
world to see, and to see Alright. We must have
an earnest fellowship with nature in all her
works; we must be in accord with the creations
around us, and make them our COM
panions and friends. We are searchers
for knowledge and truth, and need have
no fear to grapple with fact No shrinking
timidity should characterize our investigations.
We may walk with brow erect and eye elate
where nature opens her fields and swings wide
her gates. We are to guard only against pre-
sumption and self-concelt. The profoundest
philosopher will find many places where he
must walk softly with unsandalled foot and un.
covered head. All true research is but an effort
10 bring us into closer alliance with the true,
the beautiful, and the good. We study nature,
because nature is the utterance of the Creator,
The universe itself is but an expression OF God;
these material confguratiOns otthe heavens are
but the forms in which God has clothed His
thought. His speech is creation, and we are to
hear and to interpret its voice.
Life at the Bottom of the Sea.
Possessed oflife, we are surrounded with life.
Earth, air. and sea TEEN with being. These
lives are our contemporaries. They share with
u.s. they are objects of the Creators care, and
should partake Of our thought and sympathy.
There is life in the sea- life everywhere. If you
take up fragment Of the Gulf.weed, SdrgOSSltnl
0utgare, floating in mid-ocean, 1t sWarms with
life. Minute moluscs cluster in its cells and
cling to its branches The floating fragment o
broken ship, or OF a seamen's chest, or of
some cabin.boy's toy thrown overheard
is seized upon and made the home of
life. If you sink your dredge three
hundred fathoms deep, you bring to the surface
manifold and beautiful forms of life. II you
send down the deep-sea lead fourteen hundred
fathoms, an approximation to two miles, you
still find life; and the sea bottom at these
amazing depths richly abounds with animated
creatures, who gambol and sport as if living in
the sunlight of upper day. If you wander
along the shore, you will ind sheltered in coral.
lines and sponges, in tuci and cOnferUR, myriads
OF bivalve shells whose diameters will not eX-
ceed that of mustard seed; and if you will
take a 0rOD of water from lake
pond, or stagnant pool or wayside ditch, and
apply your highest magnifying power, you shall
be met with the astounding fact that SOC, 600, 0OO
Tondds may dwell IN it safely and not joste
each other.
Ocean This great and wide sea Emblem
of Inhntude! with its acres OF barrenness on
which no cities can be built, no roadways per-
fected, no foot of traveller press-wth its gar
neled wealth, its unmeasured depths, its tomb
its multitudinous life-hoW shall we Compre-
hend it By careful observations, made at
various points and by different individuals, we
have accumulated vast array OF facts, aud are
now enabled, by more extended and more re-
liable data, to build where others projected,
and to demonstrate where the wlsest only
guessed. Experiments extending through years
of time and over wide ranges of latitude may be
expressed in a single sentence; soundngs occu-
pying many months, and involving vast labor
and expense, may be summed up in TWO or three
paTagraphs-but these paragraphs reveal whole
realms OF truth, and settle questions tn at have
remained unanswered since the beginning of
the world. We now know much of the sea.
We have explored many of its depths, and
can locate, with some degree of certainty
much OF its fauna. Much yet remains to be
discovered, and the time will doubtless come
when, with improved instruments for dredging
and sounding, and with the application OF
steam to machinery invented for these purposes,
we shall be able TO explore the deep-sea bottom
and map out its boundaries with as much accu-
racy as we now survey and map out the land
above the waters.
Two facts hearing uDon our nresent suhiact
are fully established First that the most deli.
cate and fragile animal can live and thrive and
manifest the greatest activity, at great depths
under the sea. From depth of three hundred
fathoms, or eighteen hundred feet, where the
pressure of the water is more than eight thou
sand pounds to the square inch, more than fifty
distinct species of animal life have been-dredgeC
up. And secondly, 1t has been settled that the
abAence of light at great sea depths has M
effect IN diminishing the color ofmarine fauna
The animal disturbed in his muddy bed thre,
hundred fathoms down, and brought Il
the surface, reveals as deep a red al
the animal of the same species captured
in the shallow waters near the shore
Then If the most delicate structures are so fur
1lished, or so adjusted to their place that the
can survive under the enormous pressure of the
water at three hundred fathoms, and if the ligh
is not essential to perfect or preserve thei
color at this great depth, what shall hinder u
frOm declaring that animal life may extend Il
Tho nv, rfoundeest depths of the ocean, and tina
every acre nay, every rood OF the deep SCI
hott6m swarns with its appropriate life2
The Kin gdOm of MOlluslSs.
My theme tonight may be announced in
single word-Mollusca. These constitute
sub.kngdom in the animal world, and stan
second in the four great sub. b.divisions-VertC
brata, MollusCa ArtiCulata, and Radlata.
this sub-kingdom are classes differing one froT
another, perhaps in equal degree with Tn
class of the Vertebrate the highest and mobiles
Cfo II, har NJ gnp