Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/28

2 Some changes will take place in our pages. The official reports of the meetings of Natural History Societies will be discontinued. These are fully published in other journals both weekly and monthly, and much of the space now devoted to the same will be utilized for more original matter. The Editor, however, will always be glad to receive and insert notes recording facts and subjects of special interest which have been brought forward at the meetings of our Natural History Societies, and these may prove of a more readable, explanatory, and less technical character than must perforce be the nature of a bald abstract of the whole proceedings of a Society's meeting. Not only is it hoped to fill any lacuna that may thus occur with more general zoological information, but with the support of contributors to even increase the size of the publication.

A Zoology which excludes Homo is like 'Hamlet' without the Prince of Denmark. "Early Man in Britain" proclaims his identity to the out-door naturalist who comes across the ancient Barrow as well as the more recent Mound. His flint implements still remain in evidence, and often in conjunction with the débris of an extinct fauna which no Zoology can disregard. The fauna of the present cannot altogether be studied without reference to that of the past; and just as the palæontologist must have some zoological training, so the zoologist cannot dismiss and consign to a purely geological standpoint the animals—especially the British animals— of a past era. Prehistoric Man is now at least a reality, and not a theory; he existed with, and was part of, a phase of animal life which is only separated from that of to-day in degree and not in kind. It is therefore hoped that in our pages may be found contributions—so far as these islands are concerned—as to his past history, his physical peculiarities, and his connection with our old British fauna. General treatises on Anthropology are not desiderated, but it is desired to secure records of where his presence can be maintained.

Living in the age—nay, the atmosphere—of Darwin and Wallace, it is impossible to disregard those generalizations which add philosophy to the science and charm to the subject. Not only do we care to know how animals are as we see them, but also to trace the modifications which have so largely influenced their present appearance. Evolution is not only a