June 1, 1889.] 



♦ KNO^A^LEDGE ♦ 



159 



and note how rapidly the curve rises in the four or 

 five years at the beginning of the period, when there was 

 a striking revival of trade. The great bulk of what the 



Prop. & Inc. Tax. 

 Stamps. 



Land Tax, &c. 

 Tel. Service. 



1S7U '2 '4 'C '8 '80 '2 '4 '6 '8 '90 



1. Chief Items op Revenue, 



Oust. V.I.R. 

 Civil List, &c. 



Chief Items op Expenditure. 



excise yields eacli year is, of course, from spirits and beer. 

 Then there are the various licences not only of publicans, 

 ifec, but fur carriages, dogs, ganin, male servants, and so on. 



Of the customs, tobacco yields about one-half; spirits and 

 wine come next, giving about a fourth; then come tea, 

 coffee, various fruits, &c. 



Note the wide variations of the property and income tax 

 (dotted curve) and the rise fi om 18V6 ; also the steady rise 

 of income from the post-office and telegraph service, from 

 stamps, and from land tax and house duty. 



Looking now at the second diagram (expenditure), we 

 have tii-st the huge charge of the National Debt, consisting 

 of interest on the " funded " and " unfunded " debt and 

 "terminable annuities." The army and navy curves rise 

 to 181 and 12'3 millions respectively. These curves do not 

 show the cost of special military preparations, of which the 

 mo.st notable is represented by the 9 millions voted in 1886 ; 

 then there was the Egyptian expedition, 3-8 millions, in 

 1883, the war in South Africa, 3-2 millions, in 18^0, itc. 

 The miscellaneous Civil Service curve rises rapidly, the 

 annual amount being about doubled since 1870. The prin- 

 cipal objects are here " Law and Justice," and " Education, 

 Science, and Art." The lowest curve relates to charges on 

 the consolidated fund, viz., the civil list, annuities and pen- 

 sions, salaries, allowances, courts of justice, itc. 



This rnultuin in jmrvo graphic method of representation 

 might with advantage, we think, be applied to a variety of 

 the undertakings which involve finance. Thus, it might be 

 interesting to see how the late Metropolitan Board of 

 Works received and spent ; and many a harassed ratepayer 

 might welcome a brief and clear vision of how the moneys of 

 school boards, local boards, poor law guardians, and other public 

 bodies, come and go. Once more, one would like to have the 

 finances of certain modern charities thus set forth — enabling 

 one especially to see how much money which should have 

 gone to persons needing to be helped is wasted in quite 

 unnecessary expenses of management. 



AN INVERTEBRATE EYE IN THE 

 VERTEBRATE SKULL. 



By W. Mawer, F.G.S., Editor of Life Lore. 



OW wonderful everything is ! the student of 

 nature ever and anon exclaims with a feel- 

 ing akin to worship. But if men spoke 

 admiringly and awe- fully of the wonders of 

 •• creation " in pre-Darwinian times, when 

 all was comparative chaos, with what feel- 

 ings should they view nature now that the 

 light of evolution streams down upon the universe? 

 There is little doubt that many have been allured to the 

 study of living things since the theory of evolution reduced 

 chaos to order, and that the number of devout inquirers 

 into the mysteries of nature has been enormously increased. 

 Stolid scientists may deem it right to import no feeling 

 into their studies, but the world at large will not avoid 

 varying degrees of emotion — whether standing in front of 

 the ocean, or observing the adaptation of a small organism 

 to its environment. Our present task, however, is not to 

 preach a sermon, but to attempt a description of one 

 amongst a multitude of wonderful phenomena in living 

 things. 



If the skull of a young child were examined, it would be 

 seen that upon its summit is a little place, about as large as 

 a threepenny piece, where the bone has not formed, and 

 where only a thin cartilaginous membrane covers what 

 would otherwise bo an opening into the skull. This is the 

 ))laco where the pulsation of blood vessels can be seen in 

 the heads of young babies. It is one of the fontauelles — 

 opcninga in the braiu-case — which are not closed up by the 



