5 2o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wonder of anthropoid apes or troglodytes that could be called by no 

 other name than fetichism. 



It may, at least, be said in conclusion, that the absence of extant 

 evidence of such a stage of thought no more proves that it never ex- 

 isted than the absence of the bones of the missing link proves that 

 men are not descended from non-human ancestors. All the negative 

 evidence, then, that Mr. Spencer has so laboriously collected for the 

 annihilation of Mr. Frederic Harrison, has no conclusive bearing on 

 this question. 



Note. — The conclusions of this article are confirmed by a variety of arguments and 

 instances collected by Dr. Fritz Schultze, in "Fetichism: a Contribution to Anthropology 

 and the History of Religion." Chapter III, on "The Relation between the Savage Mind 

 and its Object," is of special value in this connection. 



It may be further noticed that the evidences of fetichistic habits of thought among 

 children are daily accumulating. In " Mind," vol. xli, page 150, for instance, Mr. E. 

 M. Stevens relates the following anecdote of his son : 



" He personifies the sun in an amusing way. One day, when he was about two years 

 and two months old, he was sitting on the floor in a great temper over some trifle. He 

 looked up and saw the sun through the window. He suddenly stopped crying, and said 

 angrily, 4 Sun not look at Hennie ! ' He said this two or three times, and then, finding the 

 sun persistently looked at him, he changed his tone to one pathetically imploring, and 

 said, ' Please, Sun, not look at poor Hennie ! " I have noticed this adjuration of the sun, 

 when he has been crying, two or three times since." Is it to be supposed that this little 

 two-year-old boy believed in a ghost or spirit, apart from and different from the bright sun 

 that was dazzling his eyes ? — G. P. 



MISGOYEENMEJSTT OF GREAT CITIES. 



By FRANK P. CRANDON. 



[Concluded.] 



SERIOUS as are the evils under which municipal governments are 

 laboring, great as are the embarrassments growing out of our con- 

 servatism, the opposition of vested rights, and the clamor of charlatans 

 and demagogues, to whom the establishment of a thoroughly honest 

 and efficient government would be the loss of their entire stock in 

 trade, and difficult of application as are the principles on which we 

 must rest our plans, still I do not believe that the present situation is 

 hopeless or remediless. I found my opinion on the conviction that a 

 large majority of the people desire good government, and that, when 

 the matter can be presented to them in an intelligible manner, they 

 will give a cordial support to the measures by which it can be secured. 



The first work, then, of those who are interested in the question of 

 municipal reform is, after a thorough study of the subject, to formu- 

 late a system of city government which will secure all the legitimate 

 results for which municipal governments are organized, while it re- 

 duces to the minimum the opportunities for official malfeasance. 



I am informed that in Boston there is an association of gentlemen 



