XXII. 
which as the result of man’s wholesale disturbance of nature’s arrangements have 
begun, as they were bound to do sooner or later, to call for attention. And for the 
sake of simplicity we may confine our attention briefly to the zoological branch of the 
subject. 
The existing knowledge of the Zoology of Australia is the result of about one 
hundred and twenty years’ work contributed to by many hands and many minds. 
The rather meagre first-fruits in the way of material were obtained during Captain 
Cook’s first voyage ; but beyond specimens of the kangaroo and of Cook’s Phalanger, 
and the Banksian collections of fishes and insects, which were handed over to 
Broussonet and Fabricius respectively, the direct zoological results were not of very 
great moment. The work really began upon the important and more representative 
collections obtained and sent to England by Surgeon White and his colleagues, who 
came out with Captain Phillip’s expedition on the founding of the colony in 1788. 
From that time steady progress has been made, resulting in the present substantial 
accumulation of knowledge. It is not, however, our present purpose to dwell upon 
the history of the parent division of the subject, associated as it is with the names of 
such a galaxy of eminent European zoologists and comparative anatomists, past and 
present ; nor, since the time of Commodore Wilkes’ expedition (1838-42), have 
American naturalists been altogether unrepresented. 
Our concern is rather with a collateral branch—the contribution to the sum 
total of recorded knowledge made by Australian workers ; a factor in the general 
progress of knowledge which, unpretentious enough in its beginnings and long 
retarded in its growth by unfavourable conditions in its childhood, has only of late 
years attained to lusty youth, showing hopeful and definite signs of promise in the 
future. Early in the century, residents, in addition to collecting, began to make 
observations on the habits and economy of some of the more striking members of the 
fauna, such as the Ornzthorhynchus particularly, or upon some of the more conspicuous 
forms belonging to groups in which the particular bent of their natural history tastes 
especially interested them ; and the results of their investigations were contributed 
to European scientific journals, or they were incorporated in books of travel ; some- 
times, indeed, extracts from letters to scientific friends at home touching upon some 
particular phase of the natural history of the newly colonised country did duty for 
more formal contributions.* 
By degrees as settlement progressed the numbers of those interested in intellec- 
tual pursuits generally began to increase, and Scientific Societies were formed in the 
three older colonies—in New South Wales the Philosophical Society of Australasia, 
* Among these early contributors may be mentioned Mr. G. P. Harris, Sir John Jamison, Dr. P. Hill, Rev. J. 
McGarvie, T. Axford, Dr. G. Bennett, Lieutenants Maule and Breton, Mr. R. H. Lewis, Mr. A. H. Davis, Mr. T. Winter, 
and Mr. R. Gunn. 
