432 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



ministration of digitalis or aconite sometimes pro- 

 duce wonderfully beneficial effects. After each 

 attack of excitement such patients are seen to 

 lose more and more the use of their limbs. They 

 become more and more demented, and have recur- 

 rent attacks of excitement which close observa- 

 tion ascribes to groundless suspicions and half- 

 expressed hallucinations. They are rarely con- 

 vulsed, and in this respect, as well as in the na- 

 ture of their delusions and hallucinations, and in 

 the rapidity of the course of the disorder, they 

 show a decided divergence from the typical course 

 pursued by general paralytics. After death they 

 ■ may be found to have brains presenting no menin- 

 geal adhesions, and little frontal wasting, but, on 

 the other hand, showing greater evidences of in- 

 flammatory action than those which are found in 

 general paralytic brains. The white matter is 

 often firm and glossy, and tinged with all colors, 

 from a delicate pink to a faint cardinal hue. The 

 cortex is, as a rule, fairly thick and deep in color. 

 The small vessels are generally tough and coarse, 

 and the large vessels atheromatous. 



My object in this paper has been to speak of 



the features of several well-known and other less- 

 known forms of alcoholic brain-disease. I have 

 not referred to alcoholic excess as a cause of 

 general paralysis, except in so far as my last class 

 of cases sometimes contain instances which merge 

 into that disease. I consider that the relation 

 which alcoholism bears to general paralysis is ca- 

 pable of a much more scientific explanation than 

 any which has yet been offered. That explana- 

 tion will, I believe, come from those who combine 

 a knowledge of microscopy with an appreciation 

 of the most recent views regarding cerebral phys- 

 iology. I have confined myself to a statement 

 of the symptoms of such cases of alcoholic brain- 

 disease as special privileges have afforded me the 

 opportunity of studying, and it seems to me that 

 experience points to the fact that excessive or in- 

 judicious indulgence in alcoholic drinks causes 

 cerebral irritation, mal-nutrition, and probably in- 

 flammation, which, according to certain special 

 conditions, lead to delirium, delusional mania, 

 chronic excitement with exacerbations, and even 

 to loss of memory, muscular prostration, exhaus- 

 tion, and death. — Brain. 



PEIMITIVE PKOPEETY AND MODEKIST SOCIALISM. 



MDE LAVELEYE has, in his " Primitive 

 • Property," used a collection of some of 

 the most interesting historical facts ever placed 

 before the public as a basis for a series of con- 

 clusions and suggestions happily as unsound as 

 they are alarming. Starting from the hypothesis 

 that community in land is the primitive type of 

 property, and to a certain extent proving his the- 

 ory by a comparison of historical data, he leaps 

 to the assumption that we had better revert to 

 something very like the ancient system, or ex- 

 pect a breaking up of the depths and a reign of 

 anarchy. We shall endeavor to indicate pres- 

 ently the abyss which separates M. de Laveleye's 



1. " Primitive Property." Translated from the 

 French of Emile de Laveleye by G. R. L. Marriott. 

 With an Introduction by T. E. Cliffe Leslie. Lon- 

 don: 1878. 



2. Protokollen des Socialisten-Conaresses zu Gotha, 

 19.-23. August 1876 ; 27.-29. Mai 1877. Berlin, Ham- 

 burg : 1876, 1877. 



3. Social- Demokratie. Von Richard Schuster. Sec- 

 ond Edition. Stuttgart : 1876. 



4. Deutsche liundschau, February-March, 1878. 

 Deutschland und der Socialismus. Von Ludwig Bam- 

 berger. 



premises from his inferences ; but it is always 

 more pleasant to agree with so conscientious and 

 able an investigator; we shall therefore first 

 point out some of the very important contribu- 

 tions he has made in this volume to the science 

 of comparative sociology. 



The first form of property in land is not rec- 

 ognized by M. de Laveleye. It is that by which 

 a tribe of hunters claims in joint ownership and 

 enjoyment the right of chase over a more or less 

 defined domain. M. de Laveleye assumes that, 

 "while man lives by the chase, he never thinks 

 of appropriating the soil." He forgets that the 

 red Indian has as keen a sense of property as the 

 Duke of Athol. The second stage of property 

 is that which M. de Laveleye places first. In the 

 pastoral stage the soil is owned by the tribe, but 

 not by the individual, any more than among a 

 band of hunters. In either case the domain, the 

 mark, belongs to the community alone. But, as 

 soon as any part of this domain is put under 

 cultivation, the individuals who give their labor 

 claim to enjoy the proceeds. At first, however, 

 they have no more than a temporary right of 

 occupation, the soil itself continuing to be the 



