NATURAL SCIENCE 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress 



>fo. 73_VoL. XII— MARCH 1898 



NOTES AND COMMENTS 



Governments and Fisheries 



The American Society of Naturalists has presented to President 

 McKinley a strongly worded resolution, intended as a protest against 

 the dreaded appointment to the Gommissionership of Fish and 

 Fisheries of a politician without scientific attainments. The matter 

 has been warmly taken up by the scientific press of America, and 

 scientific men all the world over will sympathise strongly with this 

 protest. There is hardly a country nowadays that does not re- 

 cognise to the full the importance of a truly scientific study of the 

 sea and its inhabitants. If anything is to be done to improve the 

 condition of the fisheries, all laws and practical suggestions are 

 bound to have a scientific basis. But while we see every country 

 of Europe investigating the conditions of its seas, or its lakes 

 and rivers if it has no seas — while this course is being pur- 

 sued by our colonies, and by the rising nation of Japan, and 

 while America has hitherto been, and doubtless will continue to 

 be, one of the leaders in this work, it is surprising as well as dis- 

 appointing to learn that the Government of Egypt, in which our 

 own country at present takes so large a share, should quite recently 

 have thought it advisable to dispense with scientific control of their 

 fisheries and to hand them over to an utterly inexperienced coast- 

 guard department. We are in no way concerned with indi- 

 viduals, but we do not imagine that even the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment will deny that iu Dr J. C. Mitchell they had one who was, by 

 his scientific training and practical experience, thoroughly qualified 

 for the post of scientific and technical adviser to the fishery adminis- 

 tration ; and we are glad to be able to publish in this number a 

 sketch of the fisheries of Egypt from the pen of that gentleman. 

 But totally apart from the hardship to Dr Mitchell, in being 

 deprived of an important post at five weeks' notice, seeing all 

 his plans for the improvement of the Egyptian fisheries suddenly 



L 



