FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



281 



Thus a cast-iron code, imposing for each year 

 of age a definite standard of acquirement, 

 heedless of the varying capacities of chil- 

 dren, could not fail to produce it. A dis- 

 regard of physical conditions underlying 

 mental evolution, and of critical epochs of 

 development (especially in the female sex), 

 affecting capacity for exertion, is another 

 efficient cause, and the undue excitation of 

 the unstable nerve cells of a child of neu- 

 rotic heredity, to such a pitch of activity as 

 might be harmless in a normal child, will, in 

 the case of the former, be apt to constitute 

 overstraiu. Overpressure, indeed, is not an 

 absolute quantity, but has to be estimated in 

 relation to the personal factor in each case. 

 It may, therefore, be defined in terms of 

 educational work as that amount which in a 

 given case is likely to produce excessive 

 strain of the physical or mental system, or 

 both. ... It has been well remarked that 

 puberty with girls is a period of profound 

 nervous and neuro-psychological import. . . . 

 Many a weak woman could, if she only knew, 

 trace back her weakness to an overstrain at 

 this period of life. There is too often a 

 tendency to subject to serious and exhaust- 

 ing study girls of from twelve to fifteen years 

 of age just at the epoch when they should 

 have the minimum of schoolroom work and 

 the maximum of outdoor exercise and recre- 

 ation. ... In these three points, then (1) 

 excessive hours of study, especially during 

 spurts of growth and development, (2) de- 

 ficiency of systematic outdoor exercise and 

 recreation, and (3) disregard of physiological 

 fimctions differentiating the capacity for 

 work at certain times of girls as compared 

 with boys I think the high-school system 

 needs amendment." 



Effects of Labor Legislation. The sig- 

 nificance and tendencies of labor legislation 

 are well summed up by Mr. S. N. D. North in 

 his essay on Factory Legislation in New 

 England, when he says that the whole sub- 

 ject has, in recent years, "shown the un- 

 happy signs of a degeneration into a mere 

 trial of strength between the employing 

 classes and the organized trades-unionism of 

 the operative classes. It has become the 

 popular method of exploiting the assumed 

 antagonism between capital and labor " ; and 

 the one certain result of the system as now 



pursued must necessarily be a constant in- 

 crease in the intensity of that antagonism. 

 There are also other dangers in such legis- 

 lation, which the author only refers to. 

 " The public at large has no apprehension 

 of the present tendencies of this legislation. 

 The lawmakers who pass these laws seem to 

 have no well formed conception of their 

 true scope, function, effects, and limitations. 

 There is apparent no realization anywhere 

 of the fact that they have profoundly modi- 

 fied not only the conditions of manufactur- 

 ing, but the whole relationship between the 

 State and the citizen engaged in business 

 under its laws. There is underlying them a 

 new doctrine of paternalism more extreme 

 and more excessive than has shown itself in 

 any other phase of democratic government ; 

 and the ultimate consequences of its indefi- 

 nite development are beyond the reach of 

 human ken." A. West Virginia court has 

 described them as laws which " assume that 

 every employer is a knave and every em- 

 ployed man an imbecile. . . . There has never 

 been any intelligent and comprehensive 

 study by or in behalf of the State into the 

 practical and economic effects of these laws ; 

 and there exists no exact knowledge on the 

 part of those who make them whether they 

 have not already been carried so far as to 

 defeat the objects they are intended to pro- 

 mote." 



The Plagne of the Mongoose. The mon- 

 goose {fferpestes ichneumon) was introduced 

 into the West Indies several years ago as a 

 remedy against the gray rats. It made way 

 with the rats, partly, but not entirely, and 

 still keeps them from multiplying, but has 

 itself become a greater pest. It has nearly 

 exterminated poultry and birds from the 

 islands, is very destructive of turtles' eggs, 

 and is a terror to young pigs, lambs, and 

 kids; it devours all sorts of fruits, sugar 

 cane, fish, wild game, lizards, snakes, crabs, 

 and even extends its depredations to the pro- 

 visions in the house. One or two species 

 which the farmers valued as vermin-killers 

 have been exterminated by them; conse- 

 quently ticks are flourishing and increasing 

 fast. The mongooses are exceedingly pro- 

 lific, bringing forth five or six young at a 

 litter sometimes ten or twelve and six or 

 eight litters a year. They live in the hoi- 



