Plate XX Research Articles

Descriptions of Fossil Sponges from the Inferior Oolite, with a Notice of some from the Great Oolite

Since up to this time the lists of palæontologists afford no instance of a fossil sponge from the Inferior Oolite of this country, we are the more indebted to my friend Mr. Whidborne for the rich representative collection of these forms amassed by his researches. A preliminary account of this collection is published in the Report of the British Association for 1882, p. 534. I now proceed to offer a more detailed description of its contents. HEXACTINELLIDÆ. DICTYONINA . Euretid æ Emploca , gen. nov. A cylindrical or ovate sponge, with thick walls surrounding the main excurrent canal, which, as a cylindrical tube, extends axially almost to the base of the sponge, and opens unconstrictedly at the summit in a circular oscule. The sponge walls are traversed by two sets of smaller canals, one incurrent, which, commencing in small round ostia evenly dispersed on the external surface, continue inwards obliquely downwards towards the axis; the other excurrent, which, crossing the incurrent canals, run more or less parallel to the curved upper margin of the sponge and finally open into the main excurrent canal. Skeleton Euretid, i.e. a simple Dicytonine network with imperforate nodes ; dermal skeleton not preserved. The genus agrees in general form and in the characters of the canal system with the Hexactinellid Porocypdlia, the Lithistid Siphonia , and an undescribed Renierid sponge. It differs from Porocypellia in the imperforate character of its nodes and in the absence of a staurodormal covering. Emploca ovata , Sp. nov. (Plate XX. figs. 1-6.) The species

Grotesque Animals

MR. E. W. COOKE possesses so high a reputation, not only as one of the leading artists of the day, but also as a man eminently devoted to science, as evidenced by the fact of his having attained the double distinction of Royal Academician and Fellow of the Royal Society, that anything proceeding from his pencil cannot fail to be worthy of notice, and we have accordingly looked through this quaint collection of facsimile drawings with very great interest. Mr. Cooke states, in his preface, that he commenced this series of “grotesque combinations,” to which he also assigns the euphonious title of “Ent-wickelungsgeschicte”(history of development), while seeking rest and relief on the Somersetshire Coast after the dissipation attendant upon the meeting of the British Association at Manchester, in 1864, and that the idea of publication was forced upon him by friends who wished to have copies of the drawings. We are not surprised at his numerous friends and admirers desiring that these results of his holiday recreations should be given to the world; for, apart from the merits of the drawings in an artistic point of view, containing, as they do, powerful delineations of animal forms, they exhibit a singular and amusing fertility of imagination, the disjecta membra of birds, beasts, and fishes, being worked up together in a variety of fantastic forms which it would puzzle Mr. Darwin or Professor Owen to classify. The plates are accompanied by short descriptions, also by Mr. Cooke, and intended, he says, “as a key to aid the unintiated in animal lore.” We give our readers the following-descriptions as a sample:—“Plate v. No. I. An odd fish—Platax—with dress of a bivalve shell, Pecten Gibbosus. The feet of a sprat-loon, Colymbus Stel-latus, and tail of Beroe. No. 2. Encrinus entrocha, a Lily-encrinite, wears the head-dress of a porpita, one of the Acalephæ. Her dress being of Flustra, her right arm is a Pentelasmis, her left a species of Serpula. No. 3. This pig-faced lady, whose body is ‘ Parasmilia centralist,’ has wings of Avicnla cygnipes (both species from the chalk), and limbs of a bird (species unknown).. . Plate x. No. I. This scaly creature, capped by Cepha-laspis, has the feet of a Brazilian porcupine, the hetero-cercal tail of a Palæozoic fish, and the lower jaw and tusks of Dinotherium wherewith to scratch himself. Plate xiii. No. 3. This ancient spinster, truly Palæozoic, has the triturating teeth of a fish, Cestracion Philipi; her cap is an Argonauta, her body that of the Port Jackson shark, her fan (Spanish, of course) a Renilla. Isis hippuris furnishes her arms. .. Plate xviii. No. I. This hollow character, formed of the lower jaw of the hippopotamus, has very diverse arms, the right being an Ancyloceras. the left Hamites attenuatus. His head-gear is well got up with hide, horns, and the beak of a spoonbill! ... Plate xx. No. i, thanks to Monte Bolca and its elevated strata of dried fish, we have Semiophorus vellifer (a fish of the Eocene.) With Scutes on his neck, and the claws of a lion, he walks his chalks; an upper cretaceous shell, Plagiostoma spinosum, defends his body.” Many of the plates remind us of the gambols of the crustaceæ and other marine animals in Babil and Bijou, and we have no doubt that Mr. Boucicault, in his next attempt to “impiove the British Drama,” will find in this volume an endless variety of suggestions for humorous stage effects. We must not omit to mention the admirable manner in which the drawings have been reproduced by Mr. Sawyer of the Autotype Fine Art Company, the plates being exact facsimiles of the drawings. We anticipate an extensive circulation for this beautifully-executed and entertaining work. Grotesque Animals. Invented, Drawn, and Described by E. W. Cooke., &c. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1872.)

I.—Banded and Brecciated Concretions

When we find at the sides of veins, the veinstone rent into laminæ, as I tried to represent in Plate XX. of Vol. IV. it is easy to think of the fracture as violent, and of the disruption of the vein as sudden.

VI — On the Geology of Southern Africa.

Plates XX.–XXVIII. Introduction. [Abridged.] [Before entering upon the special subject of his Memoir, Mr. Bain gives a sketch of the progress of his geological researches in South Africa, and refers to his former communication, laid before the Society in 1844*, descriptive of the Geology of the Eastern Provinces of the Cape Colony, which was accompanied by Professor Owen’s description of the fossil remains of that peculiar reptile the Dicynodon. Desirous of working out the history of this extraordinary creature and its habitat,—and further stimulated and encouraged by the grant of the Wollaston Donation Fund on the part of the Geological Society, and by a grant from the Royal Bounty Fund, through the hands of the late lamented Sir Robert Peel,—the author extended his researches, and sedulously applied himself to work out the geological phenomena of the Colonial territories through which he has now for some time been engaged in carrying out an extensive system of Military Roads. As the basis for his operations, Mr. Bain has used the excellent Ordnance Map, compiled by Mr. Henry Hall of the Royal Engineer Department, and for a copy of which he was indebted to the kindness of the (late) Honourable Mr. Montagu, Secre­tary to Government, and of Charles Bell, Esq., Surveyor-General of Cape Colony. Before explaining the details of the Geological Map now laid before the Society, Mr. Bain ventures to claim the indulgence of geologists for such imperfections as may be found to exist in the work he now

XXXVI. Description of the Refectory of the Priory of Great Malvern. In a Letter from Edward Blore, Esq., D.C.L., F.S.A., to Albert Way, Esq., Director

I have great pleasure in complying with your wish to have copies of my sketches of the Refectory of the Priory at Great Malvern for publication in the Archaeologia of the Society of Antiquaries. (Plates XX. XXI.) It may add something to the interest of the subject, and at the present moment may furnish an useful illustration of the danger to which the valuable remains of the olden times are exposed for want of proper and effectual protection, were I to describe the circumstances under which I found this interesting specimen of the domestic architecture of the 14th century, and its subsequent fate. The story is told in few words. In the year 1837, I discovered it in the state represented in the sketches; two years subsequently it had ceased to exist. Owing, I believe, to the exterior having been very much disguised by recent repairs, it had remained unnoticed until the period above named, when curiosity led me to Malvern, to examine the beautiful Priory Church at that place. After gratifying this feeling, I devoted the little time I had to spare to an examination of the surrounding buildings, when my attention was attracted by a large barn, at a short distance to the south, in which I fancied I could discern some indications of old work in traceried windows. Having obtained an entrance to the interior, I found it nearly filled with the produce of the farm to which it was attached; but the extraordinary and beautiful roof stood clear and free above the accumulated produce with which the lower part was incumbered. Not anticipating such a discovery, the little time I had to spare only allowed me to make one hurried sketch of the exterior and one of the interior, with a few memoranda of mouldings; delighted with the opportunity of securing so much, and hoping at some future time to revisit the place for the purpose of making more careful notes of its proportions, construction, and peculiarity of form and ornament. Before, however, this opportunity occurred, the utilitarian spirit of its possessor had occasioned its entire demolition; and I regret very much to add, that, notwithstanding I had mentioned my discovery to several antiquaries who take an interest in the ancient domestic architecture of the country, I believe it was seen by few and drawn by none. My own sketches may, therefore, as far as I am aware, be considered as the only records of a specimen of domestic work which belongs to an early period, is interesting as connected with an important monastic establishment, and more so for the peculiarities of its decorations, which, as far as I know, are unique in their application to such a purpose.

XIX.— A Description of some of the Soft Parts, with the Integument, of the Hind-fin of the Ichthyosaurus , indicating the Shape of the Fin when recent.

Plate XX. Hitherto the exact shape and the nature of the soft parts of the paddles of the Ichthyosaurus have been matters of conjecture; the bony framework of these locomotive organs has alone been the subject of direct observation. But this part of the skeleton presents a striking deviation from the Reptilian and Mammalian types, inasmuch as in all existing air-breathing Vertebrates the number of digits of a locomotive member never exceeds five; while in the fore-fins of the Ichthyosaurus communis they are at least seven, of which some are bifurcated, and all consist of an extraordinary number of phalanges*. And, therefore, notwithstanding that the shape of these digital ossicles, their breadth and flatness and their large size, as compared with the joints of the fin-rays of Fishes, clearly indicate that the paddles of the Ichthyosaurus were enveloped in a smooth integument, the inference that the integument, as in the paddles of the Turtle and Porpoise, had no other support than was afforded by the bones and ligaments within, is less conclusive; and any direct evidence of the nature of the more perishable parts of the fin of the Ichthyosaur becomes peculiarly acceptable, when we attach due weight to the approximation to the Ichthyic structure made by the more enduring parts. Sir Philip Grey Egerton, while examining a collection of Ichthyosaurian remains in the possession of Mr. Lee, of Barrow-on-Soar, with the same happy penetration which has already brought to light some of the most obscure and interesting points in

XXXII. On the progressive compression of water by high degrees of force, with some trials of its effects on other fluids

The apparatus suggested by me in a paper read before the Royal Society the 22nd of June, 1820, on the compressibility of water, having now been completed, I will first describe its construction, and then give an account of the experiments already made with it. Fig. 1. In the accompanying drawing, Plate XX. is a view of the compressing machine, and fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same, of which the following is a description. A, is a cylinder of gun metal, the length of which is 34 inches, and its external diameter 13½ inches; B, is the receiver of the compressor, being 1½ inch in diameter, and 29 inches long ; C, is the barrel of a steel pump, 8½ inches long and 1¼ inches diameter, on the outside of which a screw is cut 7 inches in length, by which it is finally united to the compressor ; D, is the chamber or caliber of the pump, 5/16 of an inch in diameter, and continuing of the same size throughout the whole length, excepting a conical enlargement at the bottom and top of the pump; the bottom cone receives the valve B when opening inwards ; F, the piston or plunger of steel, most accurately fitted to the bore of the pump, having its lower extremity hollowed out to a semi-elliptical cup, with a very thin edge, the expansion of which during the descent of the piston occasions it to be water-tight, without need of any. stuffing. The lever G, which in this view passes behind the pump, is part of the apparatus for indicating the force of compression. Fig 3, represents a section of the indicator. A, is a cylindrical tube, communicating with the receiver of the compressor, and of such dimensions that its area is equal to 1/14 of a square inch. Hence the number of pounds pressing on its piston by means of the lever G, indicates directly the number of atmospheres used for compression; since the arms of the lever are in proportion of 10 to 1, and its weight counterpoised by means of the hook O and weight, fig. 2, every pound in the scale represents 10 atmospheres of compressing force.

XXI. On the declinations of some of the principal fixed stars: with a description of an astronomical circle, and some remarks on the construction of circular instruments

The observations which accompany this Paper were made at Westbury in Somersetshire, in the years 1800 and 1801, with an Astronomical Circle of two feet and a half diameter, constructed by Mr. Troughton, and considered by him as one of the best divided instruments he had ever made; a drawing of it, with a short description, is annexed to the ob­servations. (Plate XX.) When this instrument came into my possession, I thought I could not employ it in a more advantageous manner, than in endeavouring to determine the declinations of some of the principal fixed stars. The various catalogues differed so much from each other, and such doubt existed as to the accuracy of those which were thought most perfect; that the declinations of few stars could be considered as sufficiently well ascertained for the more accurate purposes of astronomy.