Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/285

Rh The sixth exception mentioned above was held to extend to sheaves of corn; but by 2 Will. and Mary la.5, corn, when reaped, as well as hay, was made subject to distress. Excessive or disproportionate distress exposes the distrainer to an action, and any irregularity formerly made the proceedings void ab initio, so that the remedy was attended with considerable risk. The statute 11 Geo.II. la.19, before alluded to, in the interests of landlords, protected distresses for rent from the consequences of irregularity. In all cases of distress for rent, if the owner do not within five days replevy the same with sufficient security, the thing distrained may be sold towards satisfaction of the rent and charges, and the surplus, if any, must be returned to the owner. To “replevy” is when the person distrained upon applies to the proper authority (the registrar of the county court) to have the thing returned to his own possession, on giving security to try the right of taking it in an action of replevin. Duties and penalties imposed by Act of Parliament are sometimes enforced by distress.    

   HE subject specially discussed under this heading is the Distribution of Life, Animal and Vegetable, in Space and Time. So long as each species of organism was supposed to have had an independent origin, the place it occupied on the earth s surface or the epoch where it first appeared had little significance. It was, indeed, perceived that the organization and constitution of each animal or plant must be adapted to the physical conditions in which it was placed; but this consideration only accounted for a few of the broader features of distribution, while the great body of the facts, their countless anomalies and curious details, remained wholly inexplicable. But the theory of evolution and gradual development of organic forms by descent and variation (some form of which is now universally accepted by men of science) completely changes the aspect of the question and invests the facts of distribu tion with special importance. The time when a group or a species first appeared, the place of its origin, and the area it now occupies upon the earth, become essential portions of the history of the universe. The course of study initiated and so largely developed by Mr Darwin lias now shown us the marvellous interdependence of every part of nature. Not only is each organism necessarily related to and affected by all things, living and dead, that surround it, but every detail of form and structure, of colour, food, and habits, must—it is now held—have been developed in harmony with, and to a great extent as a result of, the organic and inorganic environments. Distribution becomes, therefore, as essential a part of the science of life as anatomy or physiology. It shows us, as it were, the form and structure of the life of the world considered as one vast organism, and it enables us to comprehend, however imperfectly, the processes of development and variation during past ages which have resulted in the actual state of things. It thus affords one of the best tests of the truth of our theories of development; because, the count less facts presented by the distribution of living things in present and past time must be explicable in accordance with any true theory, or at least must never directly contradict it. From these indications of the scope and bearing of the subject, it will be seen that its full and adequate treatment would require volumes, and would necessarily involve an amount of details only suited to specialists in the various branches of natural history. All that can be attempted here is to give such a general sketch of the whole sub ject as to place the reader in possession of the main re sults arrived at, and enable him to comprehend the bear ing of the more detailed information he may meet with elsewhere.

Arrangement of the Subject.—The three great heads under which the various matters connected with distribution may be classed are—1st, the geographical distribution of living organisms; 2d, the geographical distribution of extinct organisms; and 3d, the geological succession of the chief forms of Life. Owing, however, to the fact that the study of animals and of plants form very distinct sciences, ani that there are special peculiarities in the phenomena pre sented by each which require to be carefully discriminated, it is found to be necessary to make a primary division of the subject into the distribution of animals and of plants respectively.

DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS.

The distribution of living animals in space naturally forms the first division of our subject, both because the phenomena are simpler and better known, and because it puts before us the main problems and difficulties to the solution of which the other divisions furnish the key. Animals may be roughly divided into two great series, broadly distinguished as regards their mode of life—the terrestrial and the aquatic; and for the purpose of our present study these divisions are of primary importance, because that element which limits the range of the one class offers a free passage to the migrations of the other, and vice versa. The first series is by far the most important. It is the best known, and includes almost all the higher animals; while the variety and interest of the various land divisions of the globe are far greater than in the case of that portion of its surface covered by water. We shall therefore consider first, and with a greater amount of detail, the distribution of land animals, including among them the fresh-water forms whose range is limited by the same general conditions.

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As soon as we begin to examine into the distribu tion of animals over the land surface of the globe, we meet with two very distinct and sometimes con flicting classes of facts, which may be conveniently grouped as climatal and geographical distribution. The first is the most obvious, and was long considered to be the most essential, since we find that not only many species, as the polar bear and musk sheep, are strictly limited to cold countries, and others, as the tapir, to warm, but that entire groups, as the sheep on the one hand and the trogons on the other, seem almost equally dependent on temperature. But when we come to compare the produc tions of the several continents, we find a set of differences in which climate appears to play no part. Thus, almost the whole of the warblers (Sylviidæ} of Europe and North Asda are absent in similar climates in North America, their place being taken by a totally distinct family, the wood-warblers (Mniotiltidæ); the ant-eaters, sloths, and tapirs of tropical America are replaced in tropical Africa by aardvarks (Orycteropus), lemurs, and hippopotami; while islands like Borneo and New Guinea, situated in the same ocean not very far apart, and whose climates and physical conditions are, as nearly as possible, identical, are yet as radically different in their chief forms of animal life as are remote countries situated respectively in the cold and tropi- 