Part 20
On that side of the body opposite to the eyes, and which therefore may be termed the belly-part, there appears a transverse slit or opening in the skin, not in a strait line, but a little semicircular; from the anterior part whereof a tube or pipe proceeds, about one third of an inch in length, smaller at the extremity, where it opens with a round orifice, than at the base, and reaching to within a small distance of the arms. As both the Cuttle-fish and Calamary have a pipe nearly in the same situation, though somewhat different in figure, through which they occasionally discharge an inky liquor, and some writers say the fæces also, it is probable the pipe in this animal may serve to a like purpose; and as the body of the Calamary is included in a case, the slit across the body of this animal shews its belly part to have also a sort of case, though on its back there is no separation as in the Calamary.
Out of the aforesaid slit or opening a bag issues with a very slender neck, extending towards the tail, and enlarging gradually to its end. This bag is above half the length of the body, and appears like another body appendant thereto. I should be intirely at a loss concerning this bag, did not some passages in Mr. Turberville Needham’s curious observations on the milt vessels of the Calamary enable me to form some conjectures about its use.
Having dissected several Calamaries on the coast of Portugal, without the least indication of milt or roe, and consequently without knowing which were male or female, he was much surprised (about the middle of the month of December) to find a new vessel forming itself in an obvious part, and replete with a milky juice. This was an oval bag, in which the milt vessels formed themselves gradually, the bag unfolding as these framed and disposed themselves in bundles. Before that time he had observed two collateral tubes, which are alike in both sexes; but a regular progress in the expansion of the milt-bag and formation of the milt-vessels had not presented itself before. Those tubes till then appeared open at one extremity, much resembling the female parts of generation in a snail, but did not terminate in a long oval bag extending in a parallel with the stomach more than half the length of the fish, as he found them afterwards when the milt vessels that filled the whole cavity were ripe for ejection. The same ducts without the bag are found in the female also, perhaps for the deposition of the spawn. Vid. _Needham’s Microscopical Discoveries, cap._ v.
It appears from this account that the male Calamary (at a certain time of the year only) has a bag wherein the milt-vessels are contained, and that the female has no such bag. Since therefore the bag of our Polypus is found in the same situation as that of the Calamary, (which is also a kind of Polypus) we may suppose it to be the milt bag, and that our Polypus is a male, taken at a time when the milt was ready for ejection. In the dried specimen at the British Museum, and also in the other specimens, there is the same opening, with the pipe that rises above it towards the arms, but not the least appearance of the bag in question: they are therefore probably females, or if males, were caught before such bag was formed.
_Fig. 3._ presents another view of this Polypus, its arms extended circularly with their under-sides next the eye, and the body so disposed as to shew the transverse opening _a_, the oval bag issuing therefrom _b_, and the pipe rising upwards towards the arms _c_.
_Fig. 4._ shews the Polypus with its transverse opening and the pipe rising therefrom, but without the oval bag; it is figured thus by Rondeletius and Gesner, and the specimen at the British Museum has also this appearance. It is here shewn with the arms extended forwards. K is a magnified figure of one of the _acetabula_, or suckers; of which there are two rows on each arm of this Polypus, as before described.
Mr. Needham, in his description of the suckers of the Calamary, (which he had many opportunities of examining whilst alive, and whose mechanism is probably the same as in those of our Polypus) informs us, “that the action of the suckers depends partly on their shape, which, when they are extended resembles nearly that of an acorn-cup, and partly upon a deep circular cartilaginous ring, armed with small hooks, which is secured in a thin membrane something transparent, by the projection of a ledge investing the whole circumference about the middle of its depth, and not to be extracted without some force. That each sucker is fastened by a tendinous stem to the arm of the animal: which stem, together with part of the membrane that is below the circumference of the cartilaginous ring, rises into and fills the whole cavity when the animal contracts the sucker for action. In this state whatever touches it is first held by the minute hooks, and then drawn up to a closer adhesion by the retraction of the stem and inferior part of the membrane, much in the same manner as a sucker of wet leather sustains the weight of a small stone.” Vid. _Microscopical Discoveries_, p. 22.
M shews one of the cartilaginous rings armed with small hooks, of its real size. The ring this is drawn from was taken out of a large sucker of a larger Polypus, and is presented herewith.
By these suckers the Polypus can fix itself to rocks, and prevent its being tossed about in storms and tempests; but their principal use must undoubtedly be to seize and hold its prey: and to this purpose they are most admirably adapted; for when they are all applied and act together, unless the Polypus pleases to withdraw them, nothing can get from it whose strength is insufficient to tear off its arms. Something like these suckers is found by the microscope in the minute fresh water Polype, whereby it is able to bind down and manage a worm much larger and seemingly stronger than itself[161]. In like manner the _stella arborescens_ (which may also be called a Polypus), though it has not suckers, yet by the hooks along its arms, and the multiplicity of their branchings, which have been counted as far as 80,000, it can, by spreading its arms abroad like a net, so fetter and entangle the prey they inclose when they are drawn together, as to render it incapable of exerting its strength: for however feeble these branches or arms may singly be, their power united becomes surprising. And we are assured nature is so kind to all these animals, that if in their struggles any of their arms are broken off, after some time they will grow again; of which a specimen at the British Museum is an undoubted proof; for a little new arm is there seen sprouting forth in the room of a large one that had been lost.
It is evident from what has been said, that the Sea Polypus must be terrible to the inhabitants of the waters, in proportion to its size (and Pliny mentions one whose arms were thirty feet in length); for the close embraces of its arms and the adhesion of its suckers must render the efforts of its prey ineffectual either for resistance or escape, unless it be endued with an extraordinary degree of strength.
Sea Polypi are frequent in the Mediterranean: but Mr. Haviland of Bath, to whom we are obliged for this, which is of a different species, thinks it came from the West Indies, where it is called a Cat-fish. That like it in the British Museum also came from thence.
As the Polypus I have endeavoured to describe is much contracted by lying long in spirits, and dissection would destroy a specimen well worth preserving, I hope to be excused if this account should be found deficient in several particulars, or chargeable with some mistakes.
Permit me the honour to be,
My LORD, Your Lordship’s Most humble and obedient Servant, H. Baker.
Strand, Nov. 23d, 1758.
CVIII. _A Description of the fossil Skeleton of an Animal found in the Alum Rock near_ Whitby. _By Mr._ Wooller. _Communicated by_ Charles Morton, _M. D. F.R.S._
[Read Nov. 23, 1758.]
IT is in this rock, that the Ammonitæ, or Snake-stones, as they are commonly called, are found, which have undoubtedly been formed in the _exuviæ_ of fishes of that shape; and though none of that species are now to be met with in the seas thereabouts, yet they in many particulars resemble the Nautilus, which is well known. The internal substance of those stones, upon a section thereof, appears to be a stony concretion, or muddy sparr. Stones of the same matter or substance, in the shape of muscles, cockles, &c. of various sizes, are also found therein, and now and then pieces of wood hardened and crusted over with a stony substance are likewise found in it.
Many naturalists have already observed, that among the vast variety of extraneous substances found at several depths in the earth, where it is impossible they should have been bred, there are not so many productions of the earth as of the sea; and it appears by the accounts of authors both ancient and modern, that bones, teeth, and sometimes entire skeletons of men and animals, have been dug up or discovered in all ages, and the most remarkable for size commonly the most taken notice of. In the first particular this skeleton will most probably appear to have belonged to an animal of the lizard kind, quadruped and amphibious; and as to its size, much larger than any thing of that kind ever met with or found in this part of the world; though, from the accounts of travellers, something similar is still to be met with in many of the rivers, lakes, &c. of the other three.
When the annexed drawing thereof was taken January 5, 1758. [_See_ TAB. XXX.] there remained no more of the _vertebræ_ than is therein expressed; that is, 10 between D and F, and 12 between G and H: but when it was first discovered, about 10 years ago, they were compleat; and there was besides the appearance of what was then thought to have been fins, near the back part of the head at A, the same as appeared further backward at E, when this design was made. The _vertebræ_, &c. now wanting having been either dug up by curious persons, or washed away by the violence of the waves at high water, and the accidental beating about of stones, sand, &c. during that time; the water covering this skeleton several feet at high water in spring tides; the cavities in the rock still remaining as in the design.
The substance of the bones, with their _periostium_, on the covered or under side, in most parts remains intire, and their native colour in some places in a good measure preserved, and the teeth with their smooth polish plainly to be discovered. Part of the mandible near the extremity was covered with a shelf of the rock about three inches thick; which being cut away and removed, both the mandibles appeared under it compleat, with the teeth of the upper and under one, plainly locking or passing by each other. These appeared to be of the _dentes exerti_ or fang kind, as well as all the others in the narrow part of the mandible, and further backwards they were not observed. From this ledge or shelf the mandible towards B is single, and appears to be the upper one of the living animal; and from the head not being exactly in the line of the body, that part has been inverted, or quite turned over, and the body itself, as appears from the transverse processes of the _vertebræ_, lies on the right side. There appears one row of teeth only on each side of the mandible, and they are about ¾ of an inch asunder.
The mandible B A, the _cranium g h_, and the _vertebræ_ from D to F, were attempted to be taken up whole; but the bones being rendered extremely brittle, and the rock in which they were fixed being a brittle blackish slate, with joints or fissures running in every direction, would not hold together: the whole therefore fell in many pieces, the _vertebræ_ in the joints only, which makes them easy to join together again, and besides shows very plainly the transverse and spinal processes thereof, with the foramen in the latter for the spinal marrow. It was now that a piece of the _os femoris_, about four inches long, shewed itself in the sparry concreted substance at E, together with a piece of the _os innominatum_, to which it had been articulated or joined. This, with what has been before remarked, will sufficiently prove this to have been an animal of the quadruped, and probably, from the shape of the cranium peculiar to fishes, of the amphibious kind. At the same time many pieces of the _costæ_ or ribs, as broke and crushed up against the _vertebræ_, were plainly visible. The cavities of all the bones were filled with a substance, which appeared the same as the rock itself; and the substance on each side the _vertebræ_, as they laid, was a mixture of sparry concreted matter with that of the rock itself, which is a blackish slate. The animal, when living, must have been at least 12 or 14 feet long. And the dimensions of the whole, or particular parts of the skeleton, may be measured from the scale annexed thereto.
This skeleton lay about six yards from the foot of the cliff, which is about sixty yards in perpendicular height, and must have been covered by it probably not much more than a century ago. The cliff there is composed of various _strata_, beginning from the top, of earth, clay, marle, stones both hard and soft, of various thicknesses, and intermixed with each other, till it comes down to the black slate or alum rock, and about 10 or 12 feet deep in this rock, this skeleton laid horizontally, and exactly as designed. The probability, that this cliff has formerly covered this animal, and extended much more into the sea, is not in the least doubted of by those that know it. The various _strata_, of which it is composed, are daily mouldering and falling down; and the bottom, being the slaty alum rock, is also daily beat, washed, and wore away, and the upper parts undermined, whence many thousand tuns often tumble down together. Many antient persons now living, whose testimony can be no way doubted of, remember this very cliff extending in some places twenty yards further out than it does at present. In short there is sufficient evidence, that at the beginning it must have extended near a mile further down to the sea than it does at present; and so much the sea has there gained of the land.
These are the principal facts and circumstances attending the situation and discovery of this skeleton; which from the condition it is in, and from the particular disposition of the _strata_ above the place where it is found, seem clearly to establish the opinion, and almost to a demonstration, that the animal itself must have been antediluvian, and that it could not have been buried or brought there any otherwise than by the force of the waters of the universal deluge. The different _strata_ above this skeleton never could have been broken through at any time, in order to bury it, to so great a depth as upwards of 180 feet; and consequently it must have been lodged there, if not before, at least at the time when those _strata_ were formed, which will not admit of a later date than that above-mentioned.
_P. S._ In the xlixth vol. page 639, of the _Philosophical Transactions_, an animal is described by Mr. Edwards, which was brought from the Ganges, and resembles this in every respect. He calls it _Lacerta (crocodilus) ventre marsupio donato, faucibus Merganseris rostrum æmulantibus_.
CIX. _A Dissertation upon the_ Phœnician _Numeral Characters antiently used at_ Sidon. _In a Letter to the Rev._ Thomas Birch, _D. D. Secret. R. S. from the Rev._ John Swinton, _M. A. of_ Christ-Church, Oxon. _F.R.S._
[Read Dec. 7, 1758.]
Reverend Sir,
HAVING, by the assistance of the Palmyrene numeral characters, lately made a discovery, which may perhaps hereafter be of considerable service to chronology; I could not longer defer, though now deeply engaged in other matters, communicating it to the Royal Society. Nor will the memoir containing this, I flatter myself, be deemed altogether unworthy the attention of that learned and illustrious body. For, unless I am greatly deceived, it will bid fair to ascertain, with a sufficient degree of precision, the Phœnician dates of several antient Sidonian coins, one of which was struck above a century before the birth of CHRIST, hitherto utterly unknown; and evince the notation of the Phœnicians, at least those of Sidon, when they first appeared, to have been extremely similar to, if not nearly the same with, that of the Palmyrenes.
I.
A small brass coin of Sidon[162], now in my possession, exhibits on the reverse three Phœnician letters, that form the word SIDON, over the prow of a ship, the usual symbol of the city wherein it was struck. This coin, which is in good conservation, I formerly[163] published and explained. The characters however in the exergue, which I could then make nothing of, were not with sufficient accuracy described. This has induced me to transmit you another draught of the same medal, wherein proper care has been taken to remedy that defect. The two first of those characters, though somewhat imperfect, appear manifestly enough to be _Schin_ and _Tzade_; as the former occurs on the Palmyrene[164] marbles, and the latter on several very valuable[165] Phœnician coins. The others so nearly resemble the numeral characters of the Palmyrenes, that they may undoubtedly be considered as pointing out to us a date. Which if we admit, the _Schin_ and _Tzade_ will seem to be the initial letters of the words צה שנת, THE YEAR OF SIDON, or IN THE YEAR OF SIDON; as the elements _Pe_ and _Schin_ apparently denote שנת פסח, THE PASCHA OF THE YEAR, or IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR, on the reverse of the famous Samaritan coin of Bologna, published by Sig. Bianconi[166] not many years since. Nor can the phrase, THE YEAR OF SIDON, or IN THE YEAR OF SIDON, intimating the year of the proper æra of that city, be looked upon as repugnant either to the Jewish or Phœnician genius; a similar expression having been used, both in their writings[167] and on their coins[168], about the time that the Phœnician medal before me was struck, by the Jews. That the first of the numeral characters here stands for TWENTY, we may infer from the correspondent one of the Palmyrenes, to the form of which it is by no means unlike. This will likewise be confirmed by the dates preserved on other Phœnician coins, which will be immediately produced. The next, denoting a lesser number, and not representing FIVE, which we find always expressed by minute right lines on the Sidonian medals, must indubitably occupy the place of TEN. The six following strokes, after what has been just observed, will be acknowleged to add SIX to the foregoing numbers; so that the inscription in the exergue will no longer remain a mystery, the whole only importing, IN THE YEAR OF SIDON XXXVI.
II.
I have three other coins of Sidon[169], of almost intirely the same type; only one of them exhibits a date in Greek numerals, and two bear Phœnician dates. The Greek numerals are EOT, CCCLXXV; and the Phœnician correspond with the numbers CXX, CXXVII, to both of which are prefixed the above-mentioned initial letters. We meet with draughts of two similar medals in[170] Arigoni, adorned with characters, expressing the numbers CXXVIII, CXXX. All these coins present to our view a turrited head and a branch of palm, pointing out to us the country to which they belong, and on the reverse the usual symbol of Sidon. The year handed down to us by the Greek date EOT, is the 375th of the æra of Seleucus; and those denoted by the Phœnician numerals answer to the 120th, 127th, 128th, and 130th, of the proper æra of Sidon, as will be hereafter more fully evinced. Hence we may certainly collect, that these pieces were struck at Sidon in the years of CHRIST 11, 18, 19, 21, and 64.
III.
Three coins of Sidon, different from the former, occur in[171] Sig. Haym, and seven[172] more in my little cabinet, whose type is altogether the same, with Phœnician dates, preceded by the two aforesaid initial letters, upon them. To which we may add five, preserved in the noble[173] cabinet bequeathed to Christ-Church, Oxon. by Archbishop Wake, and another in the valuable collection of the Rev. Dr. Barton[174], Canon of the said collegiate church, and a worthy member of this Society. On one side these medals all exhibit the head of Jupiter, and on the reverse the prow of a ship, the common symbol of Sidon. Most of them had various Phœnician letters at first imprest on the upper part of the reverse, and one of them (which is pretty remarkable) nearly the same characters there that appear in the exergue. The first of the coins mentioned here was struck in the year of Sidon 5. This has been perfectly well preserved, and is more curious than any of the rest; which were emitted from the mint at Sidon in various years of the proper æra of that city, _viz._ the 107th, 108th, 110th, 111th, 112th, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, and 119th. We meet on none of these medals with the figure denoting TWENTY, used by the Sidonians, during the period I am now upon. It not a little resembles that which prevailed at Tadmor[175] in the reign of the emperor Claudius, about forty-nine years after the birth of CHRIST. The most antient of the Phœnician coins I am now considering preceded the commencement of the Christian æra 104 years, and is consequently 153 years older than the earliest Palmyrene inscription that has hitherto come to our hands[176].
IV.
Some years since I published a small brass medal of Sidon[177], with the heads of Jupiter and Juno on one side, and the prow of a ship on the reverse; but did not accurately enough describe the numeral characters, and two initial letters, in the exergue. I therefore take the liberty to send[178] you a new draught, perfectly well done, of that inscription. Two more coins of the same type I have since acquired, and another may be seen in[179] Sig. Haym. These four pieces only exhibit the years of Sidon 125 and 132.
V.
My small collection likewise affords two[180] other Phœnician medals of Sidon,[181] and Archbishop Wake’s noble cabinet one, of the same type, with different Phœnician dates in the exergue. To these may be added five, with the publication of which the learned world has been obliged by Sig. Arigoni[182]. The anterior faces of these coins are adorned with a veiled head, representing the genius of the city wherein they were struck; and the reverses with a human figure leaning upon a pillar, and holding a branch of palm in its right hand. Several Phœnician letters also there appear, which may perhaps at first sight seem to render it somewhat doubtful, whether the medals belong to Sidon or not. But every suspicion arising from hence must immediately vanish, when we cast our eyes upon the two initial elements, and the numeral characters, in the exergue; which clearly enough indicate the pieces to have been struck at Sidon, in the 83d, 87th, 95th, 105th, 106th, 108th, 114th, and 116th years of the æra peculiar to that city. A Phœnician coin of Sidon likewise occurs in one[183] of Sig. Arigoni’s plates, and another[184] in my collection, with the turrited head and branch of palm visible on three of the[185] medals above described, which indisputably appertain to that city, together with the very Phœnician letters and symbol imprest on the Sidonian coins now before me. This, exclusive of other considerations, that might be offered, must set the point I am here insisting upon beyond dispute.
VI.