ZOOLOGY. 



I>\' PioiVssor Theodore Gill. 



INTRODUCTION. 



lin(\sti<i;iti()iis into the st'ciets of tlie nuiinal world have been con- 

 ducted by most of the investigators ijroniiuent for the past few years, 

 and by the usna] number of recruits to the ranks of zoologists. The 

 addition to our knowledge of the various types of the animal kingdom 

 has been substantial and important, but as usual chiefly confined to 

 matters of detail and refinement, which can be oidy appreciated by the 

 skilled biologist. Some noteworthy discoveries that can beset forth in 

 a few words, and whose importance can readily be api)reciated by all 

 have likewise been made. Among them are the find of a Silurian scor- 

 pion which takes the class of Arachnids much farther back in time, a 

 like extension backwards of tlje fishes by the exhumation of reumius 

 near the base of the ui)per Silurian beds of Pennsylvania, by Mr. Clay- 

 pole, and the confirmation of the oviparity of the Monotremes, of the 

 only two known family types ( Jruithorhynchids and Tachyglossids), 

 by Messrs. W. D. Caldwell and W. Haacke, as well as some insight into 

 their embryonic stages. 



There are also two features of special interest as signs of the time, 

 in the accessions to the ranks of true investigators from sources from 

 which in times past none looked for work of an exact or highly original 

 nature; such are the female sex and people formerly called barbarous. 



A most pleasant feature is the number of recent female contributors, 

 and there is a most laudable absence of ignorant wonder and congratu- 

 lation in all of tbem. America and England have been especially for- 

 tunate in the number of able female investigators. We maybe i)ardoned 

 for recalling the names of a few. In the United States, Miss Eosa 

 Smith, of San Diego, Cal,, has described new species and a gvnus of 

 fishes; Miss Katherine J. Bush has i)ublished a useful catalogue of 

 mollusca and echinodermata of Labrador; Miss Mary H. Hinckley has 

 made known the habits and transfornmtions of a tree-fiog {HyJu Piclccr- 

 ingii) in a special monograph; Miss Sara Gwendolen Foulke has made 

 known the structure and habits of many of the lower forms of animal 

 life; Miss Mary Esther Murtfeldt has given several communications ou 



583 



