July 2, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



19 



of the most apparent influence of the jural upon 

 the mdustrial system, because, in the series to 

 which this article belongs, it will find special 

 treatment from another point of view. I refer to 

 the effect of the law of property on general dis- 

 tribution, and the effect of distribution — through 

 consumption — iipon the entire economy of pro- 

 duction. What has been said is suggestive rather 

 than conclusive. It leads' to the conceijtion that 

 political economy is a constructive as well as a 

 formal study ; that it is a subordinate and not an 

 independent study ; and that, so far as jurispru- 

 dence is concerned, not only does the jural system 

 assist in explaining many facts of industrial life, 

 but it may be advantageously used by society in 

 the realization of industrial ends. 



Henry Carter Adams. 



ZOOLOGY AT THE COLONIAL AND INDIAN 

 EXHIBITION.' 



Zoological knowledge is of such fundamental 

 importance for the advancement of material 

 prosperity, that the thoughtful visitor to a great 

 exhibition may profitably inquire how high the 

 various colonies now represented at the exhibition 

 estimate a scientific acquaintance with natural 

 objects. It is a matter for congratulation that 

 some of the persons responsible are not of the 

 school of Professor Huxley, so far as that dis- 

 tinguished naturalist believes that men of science 

 are incompetent administrators : the Indian em- 

 pire has as a commissioner Dr. Watt, a well-known 

 botanist ; the Canadian dominion is represented 

 by the distinguished geologist, Dr. Selwyn ; and 

 the New Zealand court is directed by the emintait 

 zoologist. Dr. Julius von Haast. 



On the whole, the zoologist will, we fear, be 

 disappointed with the show provided for him. In 

 some of the courts the specimens might have 

 been turned to better account ; in others mere 

 show-cases of brilliant birds, or, still worse, poor 

 collections of common shells and corals, are the 

 only objective signs of an interest in zoology. 

 The idea of having a representation of the fauna 

 of a particular district is excellent, and, had it 

 been always well carried out, the present exhibi- 

 tion would, from the naturalist's point of view, 

 have been really admirable. The best illustration 

 of this kind is afforded by South Australia, the 

 worst by the Indian empire. The latter exhibits 

 so much technical skill in detail, that it is really 

 irritating to find the general result so confused 

 and ridiculous ; a rock-snake on a tree, a croco- 

 dile on dry ground, are too trying to our patience. 

 South Australia is very good as far as it goes, but 

 » From The Athenaeum, June 19. 1886. 



it is not free from the objection to which West 

 Australia and Queensland are still more obnoxious 

 — the fauna of none of these places consists only 

 of birds and mammals. 



A most excellent and instructive show is made 

 by New Zealand, the land of the recently extinct 

 Dinornis, the wingless Apteryx, and the curious, 

 low, lizard-like form Hatteria. The Otago uni- 

 versity museum is an important contributor, and 

 visitors and experts alike will admire the very 

 beautiful specimens of cartilaginous skeletons 

 which have been prepared under the direction of 

 Prof. T. Jeffery Parker — worthy son of a worthy 

 father. Among the shark -like forms here seen, 

 should be noted especially Notidanus, which is 

 remarkable for having its lower jaw, not merely 

 connected with the skull by the upper half of its 

 mandibular arch (as is the case m all pentadactyle 

 vertebrates), but also by the hyoid (as is the case 

 in the great majority of fishes), or for, in other 

 words, exhibiting what Professor Huxley has 

 called the ' amphistylic ' mode ; Callorhynchus, 

 which is the southern representative of the north- 

 ern ' holocephalous ' Chimaera ; and the bony 

 Regalecus argenteus, one of the longest of the 

 ribbon fishes, a memoir on which by Prof. T. J. 

 Parker has been lately published by the Zoological 

 society of London. Among the birds there stands 

 in a prominent position an excellent skeleton of 

 the gigantic moa (Dinornis maximus) ; there is an 

 interesting group of Apteryx, as well as some 

 weU-stuffed specimens of the avifauna ; the visitor 

 may chance to hear a sheep-farmer dilating on the 

 enormities of the kea parrot. There is a good 

 collection of dried fish, and among the spirit 

 specimens there are a number of species which, 

 having been insufficiently described, will be glad- 

 ly examined by stay-at-home naturalists. Of the 

 teaching collections of the museum, it need only 

 be said that they show quite as high a standard 

 of preparation as the best to be found in our own 

 country. This is quite the best zoological exhibit 

 in the whole show, and the excellent preparation 

 of the octopus is not the only one which may be 

 profitably studied by curators of EngUsh museums. 



Perhaps the exhibit which comes next in im- 

 portance is that of Canada, where there is a really 

 fine collection of fish and marine invertebrates, 

 all well and carefully catalogued ; the govern- 

 ment of the dominion is to be congratulated on 

 this proof of its interest in natural history. The 

 authorities at home may, perhaps, be inchned to 

 deduce the moral which presses itself on ourselves ; 

 the Canadian government has a department of 

 fisheries, to which, in the year ending June, 1884, 

 $116,531 were allotted. There are some very fine 

 heads of mammals in other parts of the Canadian 



