172 NOTES AND COMMENTS [sEPT. 1899 
in University College. Our point, however, was that to realise 
Ichthyosaurus, to see it disporting itself with its flukes, to verify its 
dorsal fins, to inquire into the contents of its stomach, to peer even 
into its oviduct, one must go to Stuttgart and sit at the feet of Fraas. 
A Note on Zoos. 
AGAIN and again it has been remarked that zoological gardens flourish 
on the continent in towns whose population is less than that of British 
centres in which the institution of a “Zoo” would be regarded as fore- 
doomed to failure. The reasons for this are doubtless manifold :—the 
treacherous British climate is largely to blame; we are given to take 
our pleasure sadly; there is the little item of delectable uninjurious 
beer with which British brewers still leave us unprovided, and so on. 
The pros and cons have been often discussed, and we have had 
some opportunity of considering them. Our verdict is that a “Zoo” 
would flourish and pay in Edinburgh, for instance (where the project 
has been recently discussed with more or less vague enthusiasm), just 
as well as in Stuttgart, if only a company would select a scientific 
person with brains to run it. 
After visiting the garden in Frankfurt, which is in some ways 
almost luxurious in its wealth of exhibits, we were glad for our 
country’s sake to see the little Nil-Garten at Stuttgart. For Edin- 
burgh all at once to start a zoological garden on the scale of the 
Frankfurt one is as unlikely as that there should be an independent 
Edinburgh Antarctic Expedition; but that a company of enthusiastic 
Edinburgh naturalists and business men should not be able to run 
as good a garden as there is in Stuttgart is absurd. 
So far as we could gather, it seems to be “run” by one man, and 
there were few irrelevant attractions. Yet the garden was an interest- 
ing one, with its Hehidna, a very fine Myrmecophaga jubata, a sloth, an 
orang, a chimpanzee, the usual galaxy of monkeys, a fair sample of 
carnivores and ungulates, a lot of quite happy birds, a great somnolent 
giant salamander and silurus, and so on. 
There was not perhaps anything new to the expert naturalist, but 
there was enough for even his observation for an hour or two. 
The collection seems to have started with monkeys, but it has 
broadened out, and it is at once a credit to the town and an example 
to others who might go farther for suggestion and fare worse! One 
thing, however, a visitor to the Stuttgart garden must feel, that 
without a good water-supply a thoroughly successful and beautiful Zoo 
is impossible. 
