842 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE ORIGIN OP CRIMINAL LAW. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



IN the very able article under the above 

 heading, by Mr. W. W. Billson, published 

 in your February number, I notice the fol- 

 lowing : " The law of the Allemaus, which, 

 while undertaking to enforce coropositions 

 for stale offenses, conceded to injured par- 

 ties the privilege of righting themselves on 

 the spot, and in the first transport of pas- 

 sion, finds a counterpart in the .... dis- 

 tinction made in the Twelve Tables between 

 manifest and non-manifest theft. Persons 

 detected in the act of stealing, or with the 

 booty in their possession, were liable to 

 the punishment of death .... while, if de- 

 tected under other circumstances, they were 

 only obligated to refund double the value 

 of the stolen property." 



Then, after some comments, the author 

 quotes from Sir Henry Maine : " It is curi- 

 ous to observe how completely the men of 

 primitive times were persuaded that the im- 

 pulses of the injured person were the proper 

 measure of the vengeance he was entitled 

 to exact, and how literally they imitated the 

 probable rise and fall of his passions in 

 fixing the scale of punishment" (pp. 442, 

 443). 



It may not be inappropriate to point out 

 that a survival of the same feeling that 

 gave rise to the practices quoted above 

 seems still to be in force. There appears 

 to be something of this sort in the custom 

 that will hold a man blameless if he shoot 

 and kill the midnight robber who is merely 

 trying to effect an entrance into his house, 

 but will not hold him guiltless if he take 

 the same sort of vengeance on the robber 

 after he has once entered the house, stolen 

 the goods, and escaped with them. Surely 

 the " impulses " of the injured person are 



allowed to have an influence here ; for he . 

 may inflict much more severe punishment, 

 by his own hand, in the first heat of his 

 anger, upon him who is only attempting a 

 crime, than he may inflict through the 

 courts, after his anger has cooled, upon the 

 successful perpetrator of crime. 



Charles J. Btjell. 

 KosENDALE, New Toek, January 19, 1880. 



FEOST PHENOMENA. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



Reading the article in the March num- 

 ber of " The Popular Science Monthly," on 

 the effects of frost in southern Russia in the 

 winter of 1876-77, reminds me of an unu- 

 sual phenomenon at Vienna during the same 

 winter. There were eleven days of perfectly 

 uniform weather, the thermometer standing 

 just above freezing in the daytime, with a 

 fog, and a very faint southerly wind. At 

 night it fell to just below, with bright star- 

 light. 



The result was that everything — ^houses, 

 trees, lamp-posts, fences, statues — was cov- 

 ered with a stiff white hoar-frost on the 

 windward side, and on this side only, the 

 fine acicular crystals growing to a length of 

 Jive inches on the trees, and of three or four 

 on the iron and stone work. 



The mass of crystals was always thicker 

 at the end farthest from its support. A 

 twig half the diameter of a pencil carj-ied 

 a fringe an inch thick at the edge. The 

 crystals were horizontal, and so light that 

 the twigs did not bend perceptibly beneath 

 the weight. On the first warm day they 

 were gone. 



Very truly yours, 



W. S. BiGELOW. 



Boston, February 22, 1880. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



SOME FEA TTFREH OF THE INTEROCE- 

 ANIC CANAL QUESTION. 



THE presence of M, Ferdinand de 

 Lesseps in this country has pre- 

 cipitated the important question of a 

 change in our national policy regarding 

 an interoceanic canal across the Ameri- 

 can Isthmus. Let us briefly glance at 



the history of the subject, that we may 

 understand the import of the new de- 

 parture. 



It is customary to rail at trade as a 

 selfish and sordid occupation ; but, as 

 the laws of human development are 

 better understood, it is found that the 

 exchange and distribution of the prod- 



