the thigh bone, afterwards other bones and vertebræ, and finally the entire cranium. Professor Owen next described the remains of an extinct wombat, Phaseolomys gigas, which had attained the size of a small ox. Such have been the enormous dimensions of the marsupial order of old times in Australia. The bones and limbs of this animal, the Diprotodon, unlike the kangaroo, show that the fore and hind limbs were of equal size; they were short and thick, and of massive proportions, reminding us of the Megatherium. This seems to have been the most gigantic of the extinct marsupial quadrupeds of Australia.

We might anticipate that there would be evidences of correspondingly large and powerful carnivorous animals, to prevent the undue increase of these vege table feeders, and very interesting it was, of course, to imagine the affinities of these carniverous animals. Amongst the fossil remains discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell there were remains of a Thylacyne, or marsupial Hyena, exceeding in size the largest living species of that genus. It is far too well known to all the settlers in Australia by reason of its predatory and plundering hablts, and the great difficulty that there is in killing it; for such is the structure of the head and the small size of the brain in this animal that when it appears to have been beaten to death, and the bones have been heard to crack, instead of finding the dead carcase, the settlers have often been astonished to see the brute get upon its legs and trot off. I have remains of their crania showing wounds such as no quadruped in the old world could survive. The largest living species of carnivorous marsuipal, the so-called "hyena," is limited to Tasmania; fortunately for Australia it has become quite extinct there.

About seven years ago a portion of a skull was transmitted to me from Australia, in which the existence of a large carnatial or fiesh-cutting tooth impressed me with the pre-existence of a marsupial lion. To prove this, I was led to institute a series of comparisons

which have occupied me from time to time from that period until the autumn of last year. It was a series of comparisons that compelled the contrast of every known skull of a carnivorous quadruped from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with every cranium of the known marsupial carnivora of Australia. The upshot of that comparison has been such a conviction of the marsupial nature of this most formidable Australian carnivorous quadruped as emboldened me to communicate my results last winter to our Royal Society, and in the "Philosophical Transactions" which will appear about Christmas, will be the details of these comparisons and the deductions from them. The sum of which is that there formerly existed in Australia a marsupial carnivora as big as a tiger or lion. I have called it "Thylacoleo."

What has been the cause of the extinction of so many of these large species of animals? Is it a case of degeneration, and that they are now represented by small species? I answer decidedly in the negative, because with all these large extinct forms we find a great many small species. I conclude that in the slow changes of land and sea affecting climate and the quantity of food, the large quadruped succumbs and disappears sooner than the small; the latter are also more prolific than the large quadrupeds, which are uniperous. With any deficiency of food or water the large species is the most likely to perish first. It is an illustration of the fable of the oak and the reed; smaller species accommodate themselves better to these changes.

In the survey taken in the present brief course on the character and geographical distribution of recent and fossil mammalian quadrupeds, if I have succeeded in demonstrating the adaptation of each varying form to the exigences and habits and well-being of the species, I have fulfilled one object I had in view, viz. to set forth the intelligence and beneficence of the Creative Power.

So far as I may have shown the uniformity of plan pervading the astelogical structure of so many diversified animated forms, I must have enforced, were that necessary, as strong a conviction of the unity of the Creative cause; if, in all the striking changes of form and proportion which have passed under review, we could discern the results of minor modifications of the same few osseous elements, we must have been the more strikingly impressed with the wisdom and power of the Cause which could produce so much variety and at the same time such perfect adaptations and endowments out of means so simple.

For in what have those mechanical implements, the hands of the ape, the hoofs of the horse, the wings of the bat, the trowels of the mole, the uprooting paws of the Megatherium-so variously fashioned to obey the behests of volition in denizens of different elements-in what, I say, have they differed from the artificial instruments which we ourselves plan with foresight and calculation for analogous uses, save in their grerter perfection, and in the unity and simplicity which are modified to constitute those several locomotive or prehensile organs ?

Everywhere, in organic nature, we see the means not only subservient to an end, but that end accomplished by the simplest means. Hence we are compelled to regard the Great Cause of all, not like certain philosophic ancients, as a uniform and quiescent mind as an all-pervading anima mundi-but as an active and anticipative intelligence.

By applying the laws of comparative anatomy to the relics of extinct races of animals found in different strata of the earth's crust and corresponding with as many epochs in the earth's history, we make an important step in advance of all preceding philosophers, and we are able to demonstrate that the same active and beneficent intelligence which manifests His power in our times, has also manifested His power in times long anterior to the records of our existence. But we

likewise, by these investigations gain a still more important truth, viz.: that the phenomena of the world do not succeed each other with the mechanical sameness attributed to them in the cycles of the Epicurean philosophy; for, we are able to demonstrate that the epochs of the earth were attended with corresponding changes of organic structure; and that in all these instances of change, the organs so far as we could comprehend their use, were exactly those best adapted to the functions of the being. Hence we not only show intelligence evoking means suited to the end, but at successive times and periods producing a change of mechanism adapted to a change of external condition. Thus the highest generalisations in the science of organic bodies, like the Newtonian laws of universal matter, unequivocally demonstrate a Great First Cause which is certainly not mechanical.

DOMESTIC GOTHIC.-I have endeavoured briefly to point out to you the propriety and naturalness of the two great Gothic forms, the pointed arch and gable roof. I wish now to tell you in what way they ought to be introduced into modern domestic architecture. You will all admit that there is neither romance nor comfort in waiting at your own or any one else's door on a windy and rainy day, till the servant comes from the end of the house to open it. You all know the critical nature of that opening-the drift of wind into the passage, the impossibility of putting down the umbrella at the proper moment without getting a cupfull of water dropped down the back of your neck from the top of the doorway; and you know how little these inconveniences are abated by the common Greek portico at the top of the steps. You know how the east winds blow through those unlucky couples of pillars, which are all that you architects find consistent with due observance of the Doric order. Then away with these absurdities; and the next house you build, insist upon having the pure old Gothic porch, walled in on both sides, with its pointed arch entrance and gable roof above.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.

BY

MR. C. N. THWAITE,

ARCHITECTURAL MODELLER

[The following suggestive paper on Cottage Homes in their relation to the social and moral condition of the people, was read before the Milton Society, Manchester, January 18, 1860.]

THE consideration of any subject that embodies principles which are calculated to operate powerfully in elevating the moral tone and social condition of the people, is worthy of our most serious thought and consideration. The subject which it is my pleasure to introduce to your notice this evening, is one of the many mediums by which the social and moral condition of the people may be operated upon, and improved; for, if we desire to elevate, by every possible means, the condition of the lower classes, and relieve them from influences which operate against their health, comfort and general well-being, we must improve their homes, and make them attractive and comfortable. Temperance Societies and Ragged Schools may labour and be multiplied, but, without a great improvement in our domestic architecture, as applying to the taste, comfort, and convenience of the masses, success cannot be realised.

The influence of architecture on taste and morals cannot be doubted. There is a kind of symmetry in the thoughts and efforts of the human mind. Its taste, intelligence, affections, and conduct, are so intimately related, that nothing can prevent them from being mutually causes and effects. Taste is exercised, and becomes operative, in the perception of beauty and deformity, of refinement and grossness, and is the first thing which influences a man to escape from a