NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 339 



on account of the terms in wliicli the nnnibering of Israel is 

 spoken of in the Ohl Testament. Religious scruples on similar 

 grounds have also been avowed against so beneficial a thing as 

 life insurance. 



Apparently unimportant as these manifestations are, they in- 

 dicate a wide-spread tendency in the application of scriptural 

 declarations to matters of social economy which has not yet ceased, 

 though it is fast fading away.* 



Worthy of especial study, too, would be the evolution of the 

 better modern methods of raising and bettering the condition of 

 the poor; the evolution, especially, of the idea that men are to 

 be helped to help themselves, in opposition to the old theories of 

 indiscriminate giving, which, taking root in some of the most 

 beautiful utterances of our sacred books, grew in the warm atmos- 

 phere of mediaeval devotion into great systems for the pauperiz- 

 ing of the laboring classes. Here, too, scientific modes of thought 

 in social science have given a new and nobler fruitage to the 

 whole growth of Christian benevolence, f 



Prof. Riley's paper in the American Association, on the Use of Micro-organ- 

 isms as Insecticides, has a tone of warning. While much may be anticipated 

 from the new form of application, it is important to avoid exaggerated statements. 

 There is a tendency in the public mind to take as proved what has not yet passed 

 beyond the stage of possibility. In theory, the idea of doing battle against inju- 

 rious insects by means of invisible germs is very tempting; but it has unfor- 

 tunately been most dwelt upon by those who were essentially closet workers, and 

 had but a faint realization of the practical necessities of the case. 



* For various interdicts laid on comraerce by the Church, see Heyd, Histoirc du Com- 

 merce du Levant au Moyen-Age, Leipsic, 1886, vol. ii,^asMm. For the injurv done to 

 commerce by prohibition of intercourse with the infidel, see Lindsav Historv of Merchant 

 Shipping, London, 1874, vol. ii. For superstitions regarding the iptroduction of the potato, 

 and the name "devil's root" given it, see Hellwald, Culturgeschrchte, vol. ii, p. 4*76; also 

 Haxthausen, La Russie. For opposition to winnowing machines, see Burton, History of 

 Scotland, vol. viii, p. 511 ; also Lecky, Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 83; also Mause Head- 

 rigg's views in Scott's Old Mortality, chap. vii. For the case of a person debarred from 

 the communion for "raising the devil's wind" with a winnowing machine, see Works of 

 Sir J. Y. Simpson, vol. ii. Those doubting the authority or motives of Simpson may be 

 reminded that he was to the day of his death one of the strictest adherents to Scotch ortho- 

 doxy. As to the curate of Rotherhithe, see Journal of Sir L Brunei for May 20, 1827, in 

 Life of L K. Brunei, p. -SO. As to the conclusions drawn from the numbering of Israel, see 

 Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laws of :\Ioses, 1874, vol. ii, p. 3. The author of this 

 work himself witnessed the reluctance of a very conscientious man to answer the questions 

 of a census marshal, Mr. Lewis Hawley, of Syracuse, N. Y. ; and this reluctance was based 

 upon the reasons assigned in 2 Samuel, xxiv, 1, and 1 Chronicles, xxi, 1, for the numbering 

 of the children of IsraeL 



f Among the vast number of authorities regarding the evolution of better methods in 

 dealing with pauperism, I would call attention to a recent work which is especially suggest- 

 ive — Behrends, Christianity and Socialism, New York, 1886. 



