44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



A. No doubt to some extent, but the plates are not of that expen- 

 sive character that would deter a pirate. My chief safeguards are 

 that the Messrs. Appleton are very powerful publishers, and could af- 

 ford to undersell a rival, and that there is a kind of tacit understanding 

 among the larger publishers in America that the books published by 

 one should not be pirated by another. 



Q. If Messrs. Appleton were not high-minded people they would 

 still have a difficulty in pirating your book, because they would find a 

 difficulty in getting the plates, you having the whole of the plates ? 



A. Yes ; but that would apply equally to other publishers. The 

 plates have to be produced in England and paid for in England, and a 

 book that pays for plates in England would pay for thein in America. 

 They could not perhaps produce the books so cheaply as they now do 

 if they had to produce the plates. 



Q. Is your circulation larger in America than in England ? 



A. I could not say so. I have been assured over and over again 

 that it is very large. 



Q. I fancy your books are not books much read in circulating libra- 

 ries ; they are more books which people would study, are they not ? 



A.. My first book that related to the Alps and glaciers might have 

 got into the circulating libraries ; but I do not remember to have seen 

 any of my more strictly scientific works in them. 



Q. {Dr. Smith.) We are right then in supposing that you object 

 entirely to the legislature interfering by any enactment with your 

 books, and that you prefer to make your own bargain with your own 

 publisher ? 



A. I should like to be able to express to you the strength of my 

 objection to any such interference. I hold my right to my own intel- 

 lectual work to be at least as sacred as is the right of my excellent 

 friend, whose propositions have been discussed here, to Abinger Hall. 



-♦-•-»- 



DKINKING-WATEE EEOM AGRICULTUKAL LANDS. 



By J. A. JUDSON, C. E., 



MEMBEE OF THE AITEEICAN SOCIETY OF OIVIL EXGIJTEERS, FELLOW CF THE AMERICAN GEO- 



GEAPHICAL SOCIETY, ETC. 



LITTLE as it appears to be appreciated, there is to-day no question 

 of sanitary science of greater vital importance than that of the 

 quality of the water-supply entering into the daily domestic economy. 

 The requirements and refinements of modern civilization demand not 

 only a plentiful but a profuse supply of water, and at a moderate cost — 

 facts long ago recognized and acted upon. While enormous capital and 

 the best engineering talent have been very generally called upon, both 



