Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/626

592 herds of swine ; and the heath districts give excellent op portunity for the keeping of bees.

Manufactures and .—With the exception of a few establishments for silk-spinning, two or three glass works, and the distilleries which are scattered throughout the country, the only manufactories are at the seaport towns of Fiume, BuCcari, and Porto Re. Iron-ore is worked at Rude, Ruyevac, and Brod, sulphur at Radoboy, and coal at Pregrada ; but none of the mines are of great importance. The traffic of the country is furthered not only by its 580 miles of navigable river, but by upwards of 2000 miles of regular road and several lines of railway meeting at Agram. Among the roads the most famous are the Maria Louisa, which connects Carlstadt with Fiume, and the Josephina, which passes inland from Zengg.

Divisions.—The territory of Croatia and Slavonia is divided into eight comitats named after their respective administrative centres, Agram, Fiume, Kreutz, Warasdin, Bellovar, Esseg, Pozsega, and Bukovar. The city of Agram or Zagrab is the capital of the crown-land, and is rapidly rising in importance. Of the other towns it is sufficient to mention, in Croatia, Sissek, with its grain-trade, Karlstadt, the seat of a Greek Church bishop, Kopreinitz, Buccari, with its free port, St Georgen, and Zengg ; and in Slavonia, Diakovar, the seat of the famous bishop Stross- mayer, and Semlin, one of the most valuable military and commercial ports on the Danube. Sluin, Glina, and Petrinyx were respectively the centres of the 1st, 2d, and 3d banal regiments; and Brod, Gradiska, Likka, Ogulin, Ottocsan, and Peter svardein give their names to the other military districts.

.—The united kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia is represented by a separate minister, without a portfolio, and in the Hungarian diet by thirty-four members on the table of deputies, and two envoys from the national diet on the table of magnates. The national diet is composed of the Roman Catholic bishop, the Greek Catholic bishop, the prior of Aurana, the magnates, counts, and barons, and seventy-seven deputies of towns, districts, &c. The kingdom is autonomous in domestic affairs, public worship, education, and justice ; and by the law of November 1874 the administrative and the judicial depart ments are to be kept completely distinct. At the head of the Government is the Ban or Banus, who also ranks as a privy councillor. The highest court is the so-called septemviral table at Agram; and next in order is the banal table. According to a law of 1873, 55 per cent, &quot;of the taxes of the kingdom fall to the Hungarian treasury, and the remainder is assigned to domestic expenses. The Croats proper form about 74 per cent, of the total population, Serbs about 23 per cent., and the small remaining portion is composed of Germans, Magyars, Jews, Italians, and Albanians. The Croats are Catholics, and employ the Latin alphabet for their Slavonic language, which is closely connected with the Serbian, and breaks up into two main dialects the Sloveno-Croatian and the Serbo-Croatian. The Serbs are members of the Greek Church, and employ the Cyrillic alphabet. The principal educational institution in the country is the university established in 1874 at Agram, where there is also the South Slavonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, founded in 1866, as well as a Society of Agriculture, Literature, and History. Diocesan seminaries for Catholic theologians are maintained at Agram, Diakovar, and Zengg ; and the priests of the Greek Church have institutions at Carlowitz, Pakrac, and Plaski. General education is still much neglected, and about six-sevenths of the population can neither read nor write.

1em 1em  CROCODILE (Crocodilia), an order of Reptiles which, in the possession of a four-chambered heart, and of distinct sockets for the teeth, and in the traces of a diaphragm, differs from the other reptilian orders, and shows an approach in organization to warm-blooded animals. The presence of a four-chambered heart does not prevent that commingling of venous and arterial blood previous to its entrance into the system, which is common to all reptiles, as this is effected in the present order by means of a communication between the main arterial and venous tubes, immediately outside the heart. Crocodiles are further characterized by the presence of a partial dermal skeleton, developed in the leathery integument, consisting of numerous square bony plates, keeled in the centre, and forming a complete dorsal shield. The vertebra of the neck bear upon each other by means of rib-like processes, the neck being thus deprived to a great extent of its mobility ; hence the difficulty experienced by crocodiles in turning. The limbs are short and insufficient to support its entire weight ; it consequently drags its body somewhat along the ground. The toes, of which there are five on each of the posterior limbs, and four on the anterior pair, are more or less webbed, while the three inner ones only are provided with claws. The nostrils, eyes, and ears have lids or valves by which they can be closed at will, and the nostrils do not open into the cavity of the mouth, but are carried back to the pharynx, which can also be shut off from the outside by means of a valvular apparatus—an arrangement of the greatest possible service to those reptiles in preventing suffocation while seizing and holding their prey beneath the surface of the water. The tongue is attached all round to the bottom of the mouth, and for this reason the croco dile was formerly supposed to be destitute of that organ. The teeth, which are numerous, sharp, and conical, are arranged in a single row in both jaws, each tooth having its own socket, and the hollow at its base containing the germ of a larger one, which by its growth gradually dis- 