The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-30

anchored at Spithead. The results of this
cruise revolutonized previous ideas as to
the nature of the ocean bed and the fauna
of its abyssmal depths, while vast store
of information was acquired with regard TO
pelagic creatures of all kinds. During the
voyage the art of deep-sea dredging and
sounding was brought nearly to its present
perfection. This ard other cruises made
during the reign have brought to our
knowledge the luminous fishes inhabiting
the dark ocean abysses, and they have also
revealed the fact that creatures like the
sea lilies, long supposed to be practically
extinct, are still abundant at suitable
depths in the ocean. Ihe publication of
the scientific results of the Challenger
cruise commenced in 1880, and has only re-
Gently been completed. Deep-sea dredging
is closely connected with the establishment
of marine biological stations and the preser-
walton and breeding of food fishes and
oyster beds. These two are exclusively a
product of the reign, and their Importance
from both a biological and an economical
point of view can scarcely be overrated.
Frank auckland in the first place and Hulk
ley in the second have in this department
well shown how men of the highest scien-
tific attachments can combine the pursuit
of their own particular studies with others
yielding untold advantage to our fisheries.
An equally close connection exists be-
tween deep-sea dredging and the study of
the growth of coral islands and coral reefs,
a subject entering upon the domain of
both zoology and geology. This, too, is a
subject whose development has taken place
during the Victorian era, Darwin's we'll
known volume having appeared in 1851,
while Dana's "Corals and Coral Islands
was published in 1875. That the last word
has not been said in regard to the growth
Of coral islands is proved by the recent
partially unsuccessful boring expedition to
the Barrier reef of Australia under the SUI
perintendence of Professor Sollas. To the
older biologists it would doubtless come as
a severe shock to learn that our massive
paleozoic and mesozoic limestones are to
a great extent merely ancient coral reefs,
yet this is only one of the minor recent
discoveries connected with the biology of
the reign.
OTHER DISCOVERIES.
Although Cuvier had long previously de-
scribed the fossil mammals of the gypsum
quarries of Montmartre while consider
able amount of work has already been done
on the remains of those from the French
and German tertiaries most other extinct
tertiary land faunas have been made
known since 1887. And what an important
part the discovery and description of these
faunas and f1oras have played in regard to
our ideas of the evolution of human beings,
and also in respect to geographical dis
tribution, needs no telling here. Falconer
and Cautiey's Fauna Antigua Sivalensis,'
in which are depicted the extinct mamma
liam remains from the Siwalik hills of
nc rthern India, seems to most of us a work
of very ancient time. Nevertheless, the
first part did not appear till 1885, while the
last was published in 1S49. Gaudry's de-
scription Of the fossil animals of Attica
only dates from 1862, while the discoveries
of the extinct mammalian faunas of Hun
gary Persia, China and Samos are still
more modern events. Within the last twen-
ty years the working Of the phosphorites of
central France for economical purposes
has revealed the existence of numerous
oligocene land fauna, with which we were
previously only very imperfectly acquaint-
ed More important than all are the pa
Neurological discoveries which have taken
place late in the reign in the mesozoic and
tertiary deposits of the United States.
These have revolutionized many precon-
ceived ideas, and have shown that for the
future the most important advances in the
structure and history of the higher verte-
brates of past epochs must come from the
other side of the Atlantic. Not only have
entirely new groups of mammals, such as
the horned dinoceras and titanotherium.
been discovered there but the remains of
dinosaurian reptiles are met with in state
of perfection to which there is no COM
parison in other parts of the globe. These
complete skeletons have not only fully
borne out the speculations of Huxley and
Hulke as to the close structural resem-
blance between these reptiles and birds,
but have also shown how nearly the resto-
rations attempted by the English anato-
mists approached the reality. Equally inn
portant have bees enc archaeological dis
coveries in South acknowledgements
which Indicate without doubt, former
tertiary land connection between that con-
tinent and distant Australia. To even al
lude to some Of the archaeological discov-
cries among the lower groups of animals
is obviously impossible in the space at our
disposal.
Systematic zoology and botany have
passed through several stages under re-
view AS already said at the commence
ment of the reign the former was laboring
under the thrall OF the circular hallucina-
ton, from which, however, it at length
cast itself free. Since that time steady
progress has on the whole, been made in
most branches, as any one may satisfy
himself who contrasts the Linnean system
(Which was chiefly in vogue in 1885 with
that to be found in any better class of mod
ern textbooks. And here it may be men
toned how vastly superior are these to
their predecessors of half century ago.
Whether the progress has been equally sat-
isfactory on the species question may well
be doubted. Even early in the reign gibes
and taunts were freely leveled at the
species monger," and it was thought by
many that the publication of the Origin
of Species" would be the death knel of
abstraction from which it took its name.
For time indeed. there was lull, and
naturalists seemed inclined to take broad
er and more philosophic estimate of the
amount of differences which ought to be re-
garded as of specific Importance. But of
late years, and especially in America, spe-
cies making has once more taken a new
lease of life, and every little more
or less constant difference is now regarded
as of specific or "sutspecihc" value. In
deed we have even heard 1t whispered that
a species" Of snail has been restricted TO
the individuals inhabiting a particular tree
trunk AS in stamps, refinement in making
distinctions is almost an inseparable Sc
auence Of ardent collecting; but 1t is per-
Missile to doubt whether the hair splitting
in this respect characteristic OF the pres
ent decade will eventually be included in