side of the body, are the pectoral and anal, corresponding to the anterior and posterior limbs respectively of higher vertebrates. Along the median dorsal line we may have one or more unpaired fins—the dorsal fins. The caudal fin terminates the body posteriorly. The anal fin (usually one, but sometimes several) is the unpaired fin in the median ventral line of the body, posterior to the anus. In flounder and in certain fish embryos there is a continuous dorsal and ventral fold of skin supported by fin-rays. In most adult fishes only isolated patches of the continuous fin remain—two dorsal, one ventral, and one caudal. See illustrations under Fish.
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| FIN STRUCTURE. |
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Diagram showing the relation of the fin-bones (rays) of the dorsal fin of a teleost fish to the underlying flesh and spinal column. |
Fins may be variously modified. The pectorals may be greatly broadened and lengthened, and act as flying organs, as in the flying fishes. The ventral fins may be entirely absent, as in the Apodes. They may be united in a manner to produce a sucking disk, as in the lumpsucker, or the dorsal fin may be transformed into a sucking disk, as in the remora. The anals may be entirely wanting, as in certain sharks. The modifications of the caudal fin (tail) fall into two forms, proposed by Agassiz, which are characteristic of groups and much used in the classification of fishes. These forms are:
Homocercal. A condition where the caudal fin is symmetrical as to the axis of the body; i.e. the lobes are equal, and the spine (then said to be ‘isocercal’) ends at the middle of the base of the fin. The perch and salmon have such tails.
Heterocercal. A condition when the upward bending of the spine and its extension into the upper lobe cause an evident inequality in the lobes, as in sharks. In this case the spine is said to be ‘diphycercal.’
FINAL CAUSE. See Causality.
FINALE, fē̇-nä′lā̇ (It., end). The name given to that part of a musical composition which finishes the act of an opera; also to the last movement of a cyclical instrumental composition, as in the symphony, quartet, quintet, sonata, etc. The character of the finale in purely instrumental works is generally lively. In the opera it depends on the subject, sometimes being an aria alone, instead of the usual full concerted music for soli and chorus.
FINALE NELL'EMILIA, nĕl′lā̇-mē′lya. A city in North Italy, on the Panaro, 27 miles northeast of Modena (Map: Italy, F 3). It has a trade in cattle, and manufactures silk. Population, 13,000.
FINAL′ITY JOHN. A nickname applied to Lord John Russell, who advocated the Reform Bill of 1831 and spoke of it as a ‘finality.’
FINANCE′ (Lat. finantia, payment, derivative of finare, to pay a fine, from Lat. finis, end, settlement). A term which is popularly applied to the management of transactions involving large sums of money, such as the floating of great corporate enterprises and the stock-exchange transactions incident thereto; or, on the other hand, the administration of the receipts and expenditures of nations, States, or cities. The operations first named are frequently designated ‘private finance,’ while the latter is spoken of as ‘public finance,’ or simply finance. The rules of private finance, it such there be, have not yet been formulated, and it is indeed only in recent years that economic writers have sought to coördinate the rules and principles of public finance into a science of finance. Scientific usage restricts the term public finance to questions affecting the expenditure, revenue, and debt of governments, although in a popular sense it is applied to questions of monetary and banking policy.
The science of finance is much younger than the art of finance, and this dates only from the rise of the modern State. In the latter, public needs are met by an expenditure of money drawn from the people by taxation and other methods, while in the mediæval State such needs were largely met by direct personal services. These have been almost entirely superseded by the obligation to pay taxes, and by the payment in money from the public treasury for such services as are required; but there are reminders of the older system at the present time. Of these the most conspicuous is the obligation to bear arms; but a homely illustration is found in the road taxes of rural communities, which are so often satisfied by actual labor upon the roads.
While questions of public policy respecting the fiscal operations of the Government form a large part of the literature of economics, it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that the general use of the term finance became common among English writers to designate this group of phenomena. The importance of this development lies in the fact that before it took place all these questions were regarded from the standpoint of the individual, instead of that of the State. The former is apt to be one of hostility, the latter at least of sympathy. While earlier writers emphasize the dangers of taxation, the oppression which it causes, the disturbances in the economic life of the community which it involves, later writers recognize certain normal activities for the Government, the satisfaction of its needs by taxation as appropriate, and look upon the payments of the citizens, not as sums wrung from them by extortion, but as assessments for the maintenance of a system essential to the general well-being. This attitude has led to a fuller investigation of the facts concerned, and furnishes a central point about which they can be coördinated.
The development of a science of finance as here indicated has pointed out the contrasts as well as likenesses between the management of the money affairs of States and individuals. To both the rule of economy and caution applies equally, however great the temptation in public affairs to neglect it. By its sovereign power over the citizens, the State seems to be in a position to take all it wants. This has led to the hypothesis laid down by certain writers that in private economy expenditure is measured by income, but in the economy of the State income is measured by expenditure. The epigrammatic statement is wholly true, since among individuals expenditures are made by inroads upon capital when income does not suffice, while in the State expenditures are sometimes curtailed and more frequently postponed for lack of sufficient in-
