LITERARY NOTICES. 



241 



the proceedings of winding-up defunct 

 banks have been dilatory and extrava- 

 gant conducted with a disregard of 

 tbe interests of the depositors that 

 differs from common swindling only 

 in having the sanction of tbe courts. 

 If the State had performed the duties 

 which manifestly belong to it, there 

 would be less clamor now for it to step 

 out of its proper sphere to manage 

 financial corporations. 



It is true that the public has been 

 marvelously credulous. Any advent- 

 urer who could raise money enough to 

 put up a sign and make large promises 

 would find some trusting fools to leave 

 their money with him, and it almost 

 seems that they should be protected 

 against themselves; but efforts which 

 aim to protect people from the conse- 

 quences of their own folly, however 

 amiable tbey may be, are rarely suc- 

 cessful ; it is best in the end to let 

 people reap the reward of their stu- 

 pidity. 



Unfortunately, the average deposi- 

 tor in savings-banks labors under disad- 

 vantages in being without facilities for 

 getting information or training which 

 would help him to form an intelligent 

 judgment on it when obtained ; but 

 this is one of the unpleasant concomi- 

 tants of ignorance from which there is 

 no way of escape except through the 

 acquirement of knowledge. The pub- 

 lic does not seem very apt in gaining 

 this sort of knowledge ; but only as 

 it is mastered will a better condition 

 of things be reached. The teachings 

 of the last few years have been very 

 thorough, and it is to be hoped that 

 confidence will be more intelligently 

 placed in the future than it has been in 

 the recent past ; that new candidates 

 for it will find that more strenuous and 

 legitimate measures are needed. 



A good deal is said about the philan- 

 thropy of this class of institutions; but 

 analysis would doubtless show that the 

 altruistic element in them is the merest 

 trace. They are formed by men who 



VOL. XII. 16 



are selfish enough to desire to make 

 them as large and prosperous as may 

 be ; it will not need a great prolonga- 

 tion of the present state of feeling to 

 teach them that the way to success is 

 to offer the highest guarantees of good 

 management and security, and see to it 

 that these guarantees be real. 



As to the best methods of convinc- 

 ing the public of their trustworthiness, 

 that may safely be left to the managers 

 themselves; the utmost publicity and 

 fullness in the statements of condition, 

 and the greatest freedom for the in- 

 spection of accounts and securities by 

 depositors, or those in their interest, 

 would contribute much to that end. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Question of Rest for Women dur- 

 ing Menstruation. By Mary Putnam- 

 Jacobi, M. D. The Boylston Prize Es- 

 sav of Harvard University for 1816. 

 Pp. 232. New York : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons, 187*7. Price, $3.50. 



It is fortunate for that group of physi- 

 ological and social conditions involved in 

 what is termed the " Woman Question " 

 that it has been investigated in one of itr> 

 most important aspects by an author net 

 only specially prepared by education and 

 training to do it justice, but one, so to 

 speak, " to the manner born." The motive 

 of Dr. Putnam-Jacobi's book seems to be to 

 close the discussion opened by Dr. Clarke in 

 his " Sex in Education," rather than to make 

 a direct answer to his argument That it 

 does not close this discussion, and furnish 

 an authoritative canon to measure the value 

 of the "question of rest for women," is the 

 fault partly of the material gathered, and 

 partly of the method of handling the facts. 

 There is no difficulty in the way of doctors, 

 male or female, collecting facts relating to 

 women sick ; but, when facts are needed 

 concerning women well, the innate delicacy 

 of the sex is in arms against the statistician. 

 This is evident when we state that, of 1,000 

 circulars calling for information regarding 

 the sexual history of women in different oc- 

 cupations, but 268 were answered. 



