A Monograph Of The Eocene Cephalopoda And Univalves Of England By Fe Edwards Continued By Sv Wood With 64 Plates

Author : Frederic E. Edwards
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332304387
Total Pages : 518 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (43 download)

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Download or read book A Monograph of the Eocene Cephalopoda and Univalves of England, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint) written by Frederic E. Edwards and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Monograph of the Eocene Cephalopoda and Univalves of England, Vol. 1 Shortly after the publication of the first part of the Monograph of the Eocene Mollusca, I received a note from Professor Owen, from which the following is an extract: - "In reference to the theory of the siphon of the Nautilus, which you attribute to Mr. Wood, I know you will excuse my referring you to a passage (p. 331) of my Lectures on Invertebrata, in which that theory or function of the siphon is plainly though briefly laid down, and I am sure that our excellent Treasurer would be the last person to claim the exclusive credit of the idea, unless his right to it was based on a publication of it prior to 1843. The scrupulous care which characterises your reference to authorities, assures me that if you have overlooked the passage in my Lectures you will be glad to be referred to it." Although I had derived much pleasure and instruction from Professor Owen's admirable Lectures, I must confess that the passage referred to had escaped my recollection; and I greatly regret that this should have been the case, for I should have been glad to have availed myself of the powerful support it affords to the theory I advocated. For the convenience of those Subscribers to whom, the Lectures are not immediately accessible, I shall extract the passage to which Professor Owen refers. After noticing Dr. Buckland's theory of the hydrostatic action of the siphuncle, and the objections against it, the Professor advances the opinions to which I have referred in the 'Monograph, ' as to the function of the air-chambers being that of a balloon, and as to the mode in which the animal alters the specific gravity of its shell; and he concludes with the following paragraph, - the one referred to in his letter to me: "Whatever additional advantage the existing Nautilus might derive by the continuation of a vascular, organised, membranous siphon through the air-chambers, in relation to the maintenance of vital harmony between the soft and testaceous parts, such, likewise, must have been enjoyed by the numerous extinct species of the tetrabranchiate Cephalopods, which, like the Nautilus, were lodged in chambered and siphoniferous shells." It is due to Professor Owen that I should, to the best of my power, repair my omission to refer to this eminently suggestive passage; and now, having brought it distinctly before the Subscribers, I leave it to them to decide as to whom the credit of the siphuncular theory in question is due. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.