326 



COCOS 



CODE 



cocoons are those of many moths, a familiar ex- 

 ample being that of the silkworm. The delicacy, 

 neatness, and labour exhibited by these last silken 

 robes make them as marvellous as they are useful. 

 See CATERPILLAR, CHRYSALIS, INSECTS, ami espe- 

 cially SILKWORM (under the article SlLK). 



Cocos. See KEELING ISLANDS. 



Cocy'tUS, a river of Epirus, a tributary of the 

 Acheron, supposed to be connected with the lower 

 world. Homer makes it a branch of the Styx ; 

 Virgil makes the Acheron flow into the Cocytus. 



Cod ( Gad us], a genus of bony fishes in the soft- 

 rayed order ( Anacanthini), and type of a family 

 (Gadidre) which includes some valuable food-fishes, 

 such as Ling (Molva), Hake or 'Stockfish' (Mer- 

 lucius), Burbot (Lota), &c. The genus Gadus 

 itself is undoubtedly the most valuable. A moder- 

 ately elongated body with small smooth scales, the 

 three dorsal and two anal fins, the distinctness of 

 the tail from the fins, the position of the pelvic 

 limbs on the throat, the toothed vomer and tooth- 

 less palatine, are among the more important distinc- 

 tive features. The genus includes about a score of 

 species, distributed in the cold and temperate seas 

 of the northern part of the globe, and well known 

 to be very abundant off Newfoundland, at the 

 Lofoden Islands, and on the Dogger Bank. They 

 seem to follow the herring shoals. As part of our 

 food -supply, and as sources of cod -liver oil, the 

 species of Gadus are of great economic importance. 



Besides the cod proper ( G. morrhua ), trie follow- 

 ing species are well known : the Haddock (q.v., 

 G. ceqlefinus], the Whiting (q.v., G. merlangus), 

 the Bib or Whiting-pout (G. iuscus), the Power- 

 cod ( G. minutus], the Pollack (G. pollachius), the 

 Coal-fish (G. virens). 



The cod itself is too familiar an animal to demand 

 description. It attains a length of 2 to 4 feet, 

 and may weigh as much as 100 Ib. The sensitive 

 barbule on the chin is tolerably long. The colour 

 varies considerably. A smaller variety (dorse) is 

 sometimes distinguished e.g. in the Baltic. The 

 cod occurs between 50 and 75 N. lat. in great pro- 

 fusion, to a depth of 120 fathoms, but is not found 

 nearer the equator than 40 lat. It spawns from 

 January to May, according to the climate, and it 

 is only at this season that numbers crowd together. 

 The cod is very voracious, and feeds at the bottom 

 on crustaceans, molluscs, worms, and even on small 

 fishes. They are very prolific, and it has been 

 calculated that the roe of a large female may con- 

 tain towards 9 million eggs. The productiveness 

 of the great banks of Newfoundland excels that of 

 all others, but the cod-fisheries near the coasts of 

 Sweden, Iceland, and the north of Scotland are 

 also important. The Dutch were engaged in the 

 cod-fishery as early as the middle of the 14th cen- 

 tury, and the English resorted for this purpose to 

 the coasts of Iceland about the same period. The 

 French have also engaged largely in the cod-fishery. 

 The fishery is always carried on by means of lines 

 and hooks, partly by long-lines and partly by hand- 

 lines. Whelks and the like are used for bait. 

 One man lias been known to catch from 400 to 550 

 fish, on the banks of Newfoundland, in ten or 

 eleven hours ; and eight men to take eighty score 

 in a day on the Dogger Bank. Great quantities of 

 dried cod are carried from Newfoundland to the 

 West Indies, and are consumed also in the Roman 

 Catholic countries of the south of Europe. The 

 principal seat of the cod-liver oil industry, in which 

 other species are also utilised, is on the Norwegian 

 coast. The preserved ' sound ' or swim-bladder of 

 the cod is esteemed a delicacy. It is also used in 

 (i dried state as isinglass. See Day's British 

 Fishes, and Giinther's Introduction to the Study of 

 Fishes. 



Coda ( Ital. , ' a tail ' ), a passage at the end of a 

 musical composition, intended to round it off and 

 give a sense of completeness in form. In early 

 music it consisted often of a few simple chords ; 

 but it was enlarged, by Beethoven more especially, 

 into a feature of the greatest importance and 

 dimensions, it being one of the most characteristic 

 features in the form of his symphonies ; and other 

 composers have with rare exceptions followed his 

 lead. See SYMPHONY. 



Code (Lat. codex and caudex). The primary 

 meaning of the Latin word was the trunk or stem 

 of a tree ; afterwards it came to signify more 

 especially wooden tablets bound together, and 

 covered with a coating of wax, which were used 

 for writing on. After parchment and paper were 

 substituted for wood, the name code was still re- 

 tained. Cicero applies it to a bill ; but it was not 

 till still later, in the times of the emperors, that 

 it was used to express a collection of laws. 



In its modern sense the word code may be 

 defined as a systematic statement of the laws of 

 a country (either the whole law, or any special 

 department of it) having the authority of an act 

 of the legislature. In other words, it is the ex- 

 pression of the law of a country in a systematic 

 and authoritative form. This definition distin- 

 guishes it, on the one hand, from a digest, which 

 properly signifies a collection of the decisions and 

 rules of the common law arranged on a methodical 

 plan, and, on the other hand, from a consolidated 

 statute, which is nothing more than the incorpora- 

 tion of all the statutes relating to a particular 

 branch of the law into one general enactment. 

 W'hile the digest differs from a code in so far as it 

 wants the authority of a legislative enactment, 

 the consolidated statute differs from it in that it 

 does not deal with the unwritten or common law. 



Whether it is for the advantage of a community 

 that its laws should be expressed in the form of a 

 code, is a question which has been much discussed 

 both in Great Britain and abroad. On the Continent 

 it has been practically settled in the affirmative, 

 while in Great Britain and in some of the states of 

 America (particularly the state of New York) 

 the controversy is still keenly maintained. Two 

 principal objections urged by the opponents of 

 codification may be thus summarised : ( 1 ) That 

 it checks the natural growth of the law and 

 hinders its free development; and (2) that, as 

 law is progressive, there would be no finality 

 that it would be necessary to be constantly alter- 

 ing the code in order to adapt it to the new 

 conditions of society. The answer usually made 

 to the first of these objections is, that although 

 law is a flexible and progressive science, it is 

 nevertheless capable of tjeing known as it exists 

 at any given time, and if so it must be capable 

 of being expressed in language. ' The law of a 

 country,' observes Mr Dudley Field, the distin- 

 guished American jurist, ' may be likened to its 

 language, and to make a code of the one is like 

 making a dictionary of the other.' If the law is 

 not expressed in language, it must almost neces- 

 sarily be left to the fluctuating opinions of judges 

 to say whether a particular set of facts is in any 

 given case of legal effect or not. To the second of 

 the above objections the answer is : Granted that a 

 code cannot be made for all time, there is never- 

 theless no reason why any changes required by 

 altered conditions of society should not be ade- 

 quately met by periodical revision. A commission 

 of lawyers might be appointed for that purpose, 

 and revision might take place, say, every ten 

 years. On the other hand, the arguments speci- 

 ally urged in favour of codification are : ( 1 ) That 

 it will simplify the law, thereby getting rid of a 

 vast mass of statutes and judicial decisions, whose 



