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admit of the charge of fresh coal being placed on daily call a great many things by their names, without them. By this means the fresh coal was intro- even inquiring into their nature and properties, so that in duced under the incandescent fuel. All the air reality it is only their names, and not the things themselves, with which we are acquainted." If this remark required to support combustion had to pass was and is still applicable to our superficial knowledge of through the fire-bars from the ash-pit. On every-day objects, how much more literal it becomes the walls were exhibited a collection of sixty when applied to that branch of science and truth (for Photographic Views, by Mr. P. H. De la Motte, Palace Company have so boldly undertaken to lay before science is only a synonyme for truth) which the Crystal of the Crystal Palace, showing the progress of the multitude; there we shall reverse that order of the building itself; of the different Architectural teaching which is described as the names and not the Courts; of the Natural History Department; things with which we become acquainted; it will be the of the Ancient and Modern Sculpture, &c. people; and not only the people in the restricted sense of things with their names that we shall present to the These views had been most liberally presented to the word, but to the million, including the well-informed the Society by the Directors of the Company. and those above the average in education and acTwenty-two Photographic Views in Glouces-quirements; to the majority of these the geological quaintance, for, with reference to the true form and size restorations will present all the novelty of a first ac

tershire, presented by Mr. Joseph Cundall, were

also shown.

The Paper read was

ON VISUAL EDUCATION AS APPLIED TO
GEOLOGY,
ILLUSTRATED BY DIAGRAMS AND MODELS OF THE GEOLO-
GICAL RESTORATIONS AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

BY B. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS, F.G.S., F.L.S.
It has been truly said, that the highest function of the
Society of Arts must be its endeavour to promote the
general advancement of education; and in the belief
that such are the practical views of this Society, I presume,
that its members cannot view with indifference any part
of that great undertaking at the Crystal Palace, which
may be so justly called a grand-child of the Society of
Arts. It was here that the Great Exhibition of 1851 first
saw the light, and, under the happy auspices of our Royal
President, was brought to maturity-a giant born of peace
and good-will to men; of such parentage how much is to
be hoped for!

of the extinct animals, little more than the name was known to many who had an earnest desire to acquire some knowledge of geology, but whose scanty leisure would not allow of their pursuing their inquiries sufficiently far to realize that life-like interest which becomes almost essential for the successful continuance of any pursuit. Our natural sympathies are with life. That which does or has lived, will always be found to interest far beyond any inorganic object, however brilliant or beautiful.

Of course it is not my intention to offer you on the present occasion a lecture on Geology, or Paleontology, but only simply to describe in a few words the foundation upon which I have constructed and restored these great animals, and how I have obtained that truth and accuracy which may entitle my restorations of the extinct animals to be viewed as useful and trustworthy lessons to all classes, and which we hope will render the appearance and names of the ancient inhabitants of our globe as familiar as household words.

Geology and Palæontology, though deeply interesting to all who have had the opportunity for study, has hitherto In this the 100th year of our existence as a Society, it been restricted to the professed anatomist, or to those whose is most happily conceived to lay before the whole world great resources enabled them to make collections and to an exhibition of all the materials of education collected bring around them the costly requisites of their enthusifrom all nations; therefore, in the hope that you will con-astically followed pursuits. Sir Philip Egerton, Lord sider my attempt at least seasonable, I shall endeavour, very briefly, to lay before you this evening a slight sketch of part of one of those great efforts in an educational direction which the Crystal Palace Company are making for the benefit of their fellow-men of all classes; and no less is it a benefit (to, their fellow men because it is being done commercially, which, if properly analysed, will be found to be the most truly independent system and most congenial to the feeling of every right-minded English-parison, offers little more than objects of wonder, lite

man.

The whole of the great scheme now working to completion, known as the Crystal Palace, might be properly described as one vast and combined experiment of visual education; and I think it would be easy to show that its educational powers and design constitute its legitimate claims to the support of all civilized Europe; but like its great parent, the Exhibition of 1851, it is too extensive to allow of even a short catalogue in the brief space of one hour; I therefore confine myself to a hasty sketch of part of the attempt to apply the active principle of teaching directly through the eye that branch of the truths of creation upon which I have been engaged for the last year and half.

Enniskillen, Sir Roderick Murchison, Mr. Bowerbank, and other distinguished names illustrate the limited number to whom the study of Geology and Palæontology was practically within reach. We have public museums it is true, but even our national collection at the British Museum, though containing some of the finest fossils that have been collected throughout the world, from their detached state, there being only two or three skeletons for com

rally only dry bones or oddly shaped stones to the majority who see them. The inevitably fragmentary state of such specimens of course left much to the imagination, even to those who looked at them with some little knowledge of comparative anatomy, and as that amount of knowledge is not found among the average acquirements of the public at large, it was a fallow field, which nothing less than the great enterprise and resources of the Crystal Palace Company could have attempted for the first time to illustrate and realise-the revivifying of the ancient world-to call up from the abyss of time and from the depths of the earth, those vast forms and gigantic beasts which the Almighty Creator designed with fitness to inhabit and precede us in possession of this part of the

This direct teaching through the eye has been recog-earth called Great Britain. nised as a principle and a facility of education for some years past, even in the limited sphere of schools; and I believe the name of Pestalozzi deserves the most honourable mention in connection with its first enunciation as a recognised facility upon principle. His, and his followers', lessons on objects were urged upon the public some twenty years ago, and a writer who was quoted at the time, in support of the principle, shrewdly observed, that "we

Geology has been aptly called the science of nature's antiquities, for, however fresh, renewed, and vigorous in all her operations, yet even nature has had her olden time; her early days must have seen fierce struggles, contentious storms, fire and water, like the modern theories, struggling for the mastery; then her epoch of calmer subsidence and gentler rule, each state leaving its indestructable monuments, with their carvings and inscriptions, for man

to decypher. Nature's pyramids are mountains of granite, periods and formations, which, though often found to have slate, and limestone;;her aqueducts majestic rivers, leaving been disturbed by some vast convulsive force, can yet be regigantic boulders for land-marks; but more to our im-traced to its natural order of succession and super-position. mediate purpose, the geologist, like the morden antiquarian, finds his richest stores of information, in nature's cemeteries, where the bones of byegone generations lie embalmed with proof of how they lived and where they died.

The science of Paleontology (or, as the literal translation of the name indicates), the study of ancient beings, treats of the history of fossils; and its principal end is to make known the forms and the zoological relations of the beings which have inhabited the globe at divers epochs anterior to our own. It has also to fill one of the most remarkable pages in the history of the earth, by retracing the successive phases of the organization of the animals that have peopled it. It has two principal applications:1st to Zoology, by making known those new or rather unknown forms and conditions of existence which are often wanting in living nature. It may, sometimes, by offering new transitions, demonstrate natural relations of which we were ignorant; it reacts also upon the general laws of comparative anatomy, and has contributed much to its researches and discoveries, and it is connected with all the questions relative to the origin and development of organised beings. 2ndly to Geology-Paleontology again applies to geology, by furnishing the only certain basis for the determination of the stratified earths, and by clearing up several essential points relative to the ancient limits of Seas and Continents. The study of fossils is destined to throw a great light upon the determination of the order of succession of the beds or strata, and of their relative age. The study of fossils may also enlighten questions of detail. Certain sorts of fish and of mollusca are known to be essentially belonging to rivers, and others to inhabit the seas. If the fossils of an earth belong to the fresh-water species, we may legitimately conclude that such earth has been deposited by rivers or by lakes of fresh water. If, on the contrary, the beings that have there left their remains belong to the marine species, it may be presumed that such deposit owes its origin to the waters of the sea.

In latter years fossils have revealed remarkable facts concerning the state of the globe at various epochs. Some authors have sought to make use of them to define the shotes and the configuration of the ancient seas; at least, we know that in the deep sea we find fewer molluscs than near the coasts; the depth and absence of vegetation cause the greatest part of the species to avoid the centre of the seas; the shores, on the contrary, which furnish a more abundant nourishment, and the rocks near the surface, serve as shelter to a much larger number of individuals. The presence of numerous fossils, and above all that of species which belong to the kinds essentially fluviatile, may then serve to indicate the shore of ancient seas, whilst rare fossils of species from the deep sea prove, on the contrary, that the earths where they are deposited have been formed far from the coasts of seas at divers epochs. Thus it will be seen that geology would be but a barren study without some knowledge of the fossil remains of those beings who apparently first peopled the waters of the earth.

An inspection of the various strata in which fossil re mains have been deposited serves to prove that, in general, a constant order has existed in their formation. The sea, by which the entire earth appears to have been covered, having rested in certain situations a sufficient length of time to collect particular substances, and to sustain the life of certain genera and species of animals, has been afterwards replaced by another sea, which has collected other substances, and nourished other animals, whose remains are found in each stratum, and are generally limited to one formation, or, if reappearing in a successive stratum, much modified in size or structure. I have prepared here a diagram (page 446) which will give you an idea of the successions of epochs; each epoch containing a succession of

The diagram (page 446) shews those formations which constitute the secondary epoch, or, if described in ascending order, the commencement of that vertebrate existence which left unequivocal evidence of its inhabiting the earth, by leaving the imprint of its footmarks, which, at one time, was all we knew of the extraordinary inhabitants of the New Red Sandstone, when it was called Chirotherium, from the hand-like shape of the foot-marks, until the mighty genius of Professor Owen placed the teeth and head before us, with such indisputable characters as united them to the footmarks, and thus, by induction, the whole animal was presented to us.

Next, in ascending succession, we have the Tethyosaurus, Platyodon, Tenuirostris, and Communis, the Plesiosaurus Dolichodirus, as restored by Dean Conybeare, the Plesiosaurus Macrocephalus and Hawkinsii, the latter named by Professor Owen after Mr. Thomas Hawkins, who with great enthusiasm cleared it from its matrix of lias, and made the first great collection of fossils of the lias which were purchased by the trustees of the British Museum, where they are now, and form the most striking features of the national collection of fossils.

It next illustrates the upper portion of the lias, sometimes known as the alum shale, so well developed at Whitby, in which remains of the Teleosaurus have been so frequently found. This animal will be recognised by its near resemblance to the crocodile of the Ganges called Gavial, or Garrial, as it should be called: to the casual observer the principal difference consists in its greater size. The next formation above the lias is the oolite, of which at present that singular reptile, the Pterodactyle, represents the inhabitants, while the intermediate formation, called the Stonesfield slate, bears the great discovery of Buckland, the Megalosaurus, or the great lizard. This, the upward strata of the great oolite, brings us to the formation called the Wealden, which Professor Owen, in one of his elaborate descriptions of the British fossil reptiles, calls the metropolis of the Dinosaurian order, which I have here represented by the best known and most typical species, the Hylæsaurus or lizard of the mud, with its extraordinary dermal covering and long range of dorsal scutes, of which the bones were found by the late Dr. Mantell, whose persevering researches in Wealden formations first gave the idea to science of the former existence of the Iguanodon.

These restorations of the Iguanodon I made from the measurements of the great Horsham specimen, as the largest is called, from its having been found and carefully preserved by Mr. Holmes, surgeon, at Horsham, who has bestowed much care and attention on the development of the great fossils found in his neighbourhood, among which are the largest known specimens of the bones of Iguanodon, having also the greater value of being found altogether, evidently belonging to one individual. These he kindly placed at my service for comparison with the better known Maidstone specimen now in the British Museum, which was so admirably extricated from its matrix and preserved by Mr. Beusted.

This Iguanodon was the animal the mould of which I converted into a salle a manger, and in which I had the honour of receiving Professor Owen, Professor E. Forbes, and twenty of my scientific friends to dinner on the last day of the year 1853. This circumstance will best illus trate the great size of these animals, the restoration of which has involved some of the greatest mechanical difficulties that can come within the sculptor's experience: and, if it will not be considered out of place, I will briefly state the process by which I have constructed these large models.

In the first week of September, 1852, I entered upon my engagement to make mastodon, or any other models of the extinct animals that I might find most practicable; such was the tenour of my undertaking, and being deeply im

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

DIAGRAM OF THE GEOLOGICAL RESTORATIONS AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

Wealden.

Iguanodons.

Hylæosaurus.

Oolite. (Stonesfield Slate.) Megalosaurus.

Lias.

Lias.

New Red Sandstone.

Taleosaurus.

Plesiosaurus.

Icthyosaurus.

Labyrinthodon.

pressed with its important and perfectly novel character, without precedent of any kind, I found it necessary earnestly and carefully to study the elaborate descriptions of Baron Cuvier, but more particularly the learned writings of our British Cuvier, Professor Owen. Here I found abundant material collected together, stores of knowledge, from years of labour, impressing me still more with the grave importance of attempting to present to the eye of the world at large a representation of the complete and living forms of those beings, the minutest portion of whose bones had occupied the study and research of our most profound philosophers; by the careful study of their works, I quali✪ fied myself to make preliminary drawings, with careful measurements of the fossil bones in our Museum of the College of Surgeons, British Museum, and Geological Society; thus prepared I made my sketch-models to scale, either a 6th or 12th of the natural size, designing such attitudes as my long acquaintance with the recent and living forms of the animal kingdom enabled me to adapt to the extinct species I was endeavouring to restore. These sketch models I submitted in all instances to the criticism of Professor Owen, who with his great knowledge and profound learning most liberally aided me in every diffi- | culty. As in the first instance it was by the light of his writings that I was enabled to interpret the fossils that I examined and compared, so it was by his criticism that I found myself guided and improved, by his profound learning being brought to bear upon my exertions to realise the truth. His sanction and approbation obtained, I caused the clay model to be built of the natural size by measurement from the sketch-model, and when it approximated to the form, I with my own hand in all instances secured the anatomatical details and the characteristics of its nature. Some of these models contained 30 tons of clay, which had to be supported on four legs, as their natural history characteristics would not allow of my having recourse to any of the expedients for support allowed to sculptors in an ordinary case. I could have no trees, nor rocks, nor foliage to support these great bodies, which, to be natural, must be built fairly on their four legs. In the instance of the Iguanodon is not less than building a house upon four columns, as the quantities of material of which the standing Iguanodon is composed, consist of 4 iron columns 9 feet long by 7 inches diameter,

600 bricks,

650 5-inch half-round drain tiles,

900 plain tiles,

38 casks of cement,

90 casks of broken stone,

making a total of 640 bushels of artificial stone. These, with 100 feet of iron hooping and 20 feet of cube inch bar, constitute the bones, sinews, and muscles of this large model, the largest of which there is any record of a casting being made.

I have only to add that my earnest anxiety to render my restorations truthful and trustworthy lessons has made me seek diligently for the truth and the reward of Professor Owen's sanction and approval, which I have been so fortunate as to obtain, and my next sincere wish is that, thus sanctioned, they may, in conjunction with the visual lessons in every department of art, so establish the efficiency and facilities of visual education as to prove one of many sources of profit to the shareholders of the Crystal Palace Company.

DISCUSSION.

The Dean of HEREFORD said he had listened, as he was sure every one present must have done, with great interest to the admirable paper of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, who had brought before them many animals to most of them probably unknown, and so perhaps they would have remained, had they not been represented in this way. He should be glad to see those models multiplied at a price which would enable them to be introduced into village and ordinary schools, as every one could not visit

the Crystal Palace, and he therefore hoped that specimens like those before them might be rendered attainable by those in remote and secluded districts, who would not have the advantage of witnessing the splendid and gigantic illustration of the extinct creation of the early ages of the world which would be there exhibited. He would also express a hope that specimens like those might be introduced in connection with the approaching Educational Exhibition of the Society, as it would be of great importance in an educational point of view, and schoolmasters and teachers of the young might thereby have an opportunity of seeing what had been done, and what they might do for themselves, if they could purchase those models at a moderate price. It would be doing for the extinct world what they had not done for the existing one, because, in many of the rural districts the young were taught the nature and habits of elephants, lions, and tigers, and yet had never seen either a living specimen or even an accurate model of those animals. He should now be glad to hear the observations of any gentleman upon the subject of the paper which had been brought before them that evening, and as he saw Professor Tennant present, perhaps he would favour the meeting with a few remarks upon a matter with which he was so intimately acquainted.

Professor TENNANT observed, that he had but little to say after what had been stated in the paper, because to go through the various models exhibited in detail would occupy several hours. Having had on more than one occasion an opportunity of witnessing the process of building up the models of these monster animals, it was astonishing to see the skill with which Mr. Hawkins built up, piece by piece, those gigantic and extraordinary representations. When they looked at the bones on the table, and compared them with the thigh-bones of the largest animals with which they were now acquainted, they were taken by surprise, and it required the learning and erudition of a Conybeare or an Owen to re-create these extinct animals from detached fossil remains. Most persons present had, no doubt, seen the fossil Ichthyosaurus in the British Museum, which was 22 feet in length; but these beautiful models carried the mind back in time to the periods when these creatures were living in the seas which washed our own coasts. They were now standing upon an ancient sea-bottom, and the race of animals which then existed had been brought to light, for the most part, only in a fragmentary state, like the specimens upon the table. They reminded him of a circumstance which occurred a few years since, when a sailor brought Nome a small fragment of the bone of a gigantic bird from New Zealand. This was shown to Professor Owen, who, from the great anatomical skill which he possessed, was enabled to say that the bird a portion of whose bone that small frag. ment was, was so gigantic in its proportions that even the largest ostrich he had ever seen was as a mere chicken to it. There were persons present who might, perhaps, be inclined to criticise the statements laid before them that evening, as to the ability to reproduce accurate models of the entire structure and correct proportions of extinct animals from the discovery of a single bone; but they had the fact that Professor Owen was enabled to say, from the internal construction of the fragment of bone of only a few inches in length, that it was the bone of a gigantic bird. "Where did it come from?" asked the Professor. "From New Zealand." "Could more be obtained?" "No doubt of it." A request was made that as many of the bones as possible should be collected, and in the course of a few years the late Dr. Mantell received a quantity of them, and Professor Owen some more, and the result was, that they had now in the Museum of the College of Surgeons a restored bird, which measured about 14 feet in height. Happily for the researches of science, the bones of extinct animals, such as the gigantic Ichthyosaurus, were not found isolated. In some places the bones were found by hundreds. He had himself been to the quar

ries in Wells, where the existence of the fossils in lias was first discovered by Mr. Thomas Hawkins, and he Professor Tennant) was astonished to see the great number of bones in that mass of limestone. In this respect, again, he looked upon those models as most interesting. Owing to the facilities which now existed of visiting all parts of the country, and collecting fossils on the spot, and afterwards going to the Crystal Palace, and seeing the restoration of the animals, a more accurate knowledge of those wonders of creation was obtained than could be communicated by lengthened scientific details. They were not looking at the anatomical structure only, but they saw them clothed as it were in their original armour, many of them with gigantic scales, which scales had been found in the different strata. They found the fragment of a tooth, and they were enabled to state at what age that animal existed. A case occurred a few years ago, when he attended (accompanied by a Spanish gentleman), a meeting of the Microscopic Society. He was introduced to Professor Owen, who told the gentleman that if he could give him the section of a tooth he would give him the history of the animal. The gentleman looked incredulous, and remarked that he hoped that because he was a foreigner they were not imposing upon him, but he (Professor Tennant) assured his friend that the learned professor was entirely to be credited in his assertion. Standing a few yards off was Professor Loddage, the celebrated botanist. "If" said he "you will give me the tip of the feather of a bird, I will give you the history of the bird itself." The gentleman was still more perplexed, and replied, "Well, if this is the case, we will say no more about it." Well, therefore, might they say, upon a contemplation of this subject, "O Lord, how marvellous are thy works; in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches;" instances of which they had that evening exhibited before them.

He was

cessfully accomplished, as far as he was competent to judge, by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins. He would confine his observations to what he conceived to be the more immediate object of his communication, in regard to these animals-restricted in the vast field of Paleontology, but, as Mr. Hawkins had said in his paper, interesting as being British. He had thought a great deal of the recommendation which had come from the chairman, and he hoped in his position in connection with this Society, he (the chairman) might be the means of inducing it-probably in connection with the Crystal Palace Company-to construct models of those remarkable creations, reduced to a reasonable, though not, perhaps, in the first instance, to an actual scale, that a moderato amount of models of all those animals that have been rendered so familiar to the people of London, and would be still more so when the Crystal Palace opened, might be made available for imparting instruction to the inhabitants of less favoured localities. He would suggest that some lighter and less brittle material should be used-papier-maché, or some such material and the Iguanodon might, for instance, be reduced to the proportions of something like two or three feet in length, and other animals in like proportion. He was now speaking of his own locale; he wished his country neighbours to see the forms and models of the elephant, the tiger, the hippopotamus, and the giraffe, in something like their relative proportions. At the present day, in the better class of toy-shops, pretty correct models of these animals might be obtained, which gave a very fair idea of their forms, and would serve to convey instruction in natural history in a school. He was sure he expressed the unanimous feeling of the meeting when he stated that they owed a debt of gratitude for the interesting information that had been conveyed by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, and that all would concur in the suggestion of the very reverend chairman-that specimens of those models should be attainable for a moderate expenditure.

Mr. EVAN HOPKINS (responding to the invitation of the chairman) said the only part to which he wished to draw attention, was that of the division of the zones. Suppos- Mr. HARRY CHESTER said he felt he had no right to ading, for instance, they could cut a large section of strata dress the Society upon this subject, and indeed all that of some 3000 or 4000 feet in England, they would find all had occurred to him had been anticipated by the very the animals in their particular order, from the Silurian up reverend chairman in opening the discussion, and by to the tertiary formation. They knew the series from the what had fallen from the learned professor who had just organic remains; but when they went to other parts of sat down, namely, that a great service would be rendered the world things were not the same. For instance, take to education by multiplying the casts and illustrations beAustralia, from which country he had just returned, that fore them. But there was one form of illustration which did not present any tropical remains. All the organic re- he hoped this subject would not receive, but which he mains belonged to the south temperate zone. feared would be the case, that was, that these monsters also well acquainted with South America; there they would find their way into their carpets and paper hanghad a series of organic remains, but all belonging to ings. He would ask what would be the consequence, if a the south temperate zone-none corresponding to the gentleman of not very strong nerves, on plunging into his north. They had the different shells and organic re- bath found the bottom of it ornamented with some of mains belonging to Patagonia and Brazil, but not the these horrid-looking animals. But supposing that they rich exhibition which was found in England. In Cey-kept them off their paper hangings, and out of their carlon, also, there were a variety of organic deposits, pets, and did not stumble over them at their fire-sides, no but the richest were found in the northern hemisphere, doubt much important service might be rendered if and as they proceeded to the south they dwindled away. these models were put into a form in which they He would not now enter into the question of place, be- would be easily attainable by those engaged in education. cause it was one so much of detail, but he wished to see There was not a normal school but might have them. this great science treated with regard to education in He thought it would be highly desirable that a geology, and with that view he would suggest that in stall should be occupied by these casts at the approaching carrying out their splendid designs in this department, Educational Exhibition of the Society, and it would be the Crystal Palace Company should exhibit a division of of great service if Mr. Hawkins would at a convenient the zones: for instance, here the organic remains found period, deliver a lecture or read a paper upon them, for in the south temperate zone, there those of the tropical, the benefit of the large number of schoolmasters and and there those of the north temperate zone. If that were schoolmistresses who, he hoped, would be attracted to that done it would enlighten the mind upon the science of exhibition from all parts of the country. The very regeology more than anything that had yet been accom- verend the chairman had expressed the want in the plished in that way. country of proper ideas of the forms of elephants, lions, Professor MACDONALD said he had listened with tigers, and giraffes. Now, in a town like that of Hereford, pleasure to the paper, and to the views which had been he (Mr. Chester) was sure that upon such an intimation brought forward by the gentlemen who had taken part in being made known, they would be inundated with the discussion, and he fully concurred in the advantages travelling menageries, containing living specimens of to be derived in an educational point of view, from a sub- those animals. He would mention a curious fact, which stantial as well as a visual representation of the remains would illustrate the extent of information on these matters of animals of past existence, which had been most suc-in some parts of the country. A schoolmaster came to

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