458 



NA TURE 



[March iq, 1896 



of .Shakespeare's tinker listening to the play of The 

 Tiiming of the Shrew : 



" 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady, 

 Would 't were done ! " 



We also venture to criticise the position which has been 

 assigned by the author to the electromotive phenomena 

 of plants. As a concise account of the present state of 

 knowledge on the subject, this chapter is excellent ; but we 

 doubt if it is wise to place this apparently simple but 

 really difficult branch of Electrophysiologie at the com- 

 mencement of the volume. It is calculated to raise false 

 hopes, and give the reader the impression that the 

 phenomena in question form an easy prelude to those of 

 nerve, which form the staple material of the work ; and 

 this, it need hardly be said, is by no means the case. 

 The section on the electrical organ fitly follows that on 

 the electromotive changes in nerve, and is an admirable 

 one. If we are not mistaken, this portion occupies a 

 unique position, since it is the first attempt to give a com- 

 plete scientific account of the special functions of all 

 known electrical organs. The excellence of the treatment 

 is undoubtedly due to the evident necessity felt by the 

 author to treat the subject ab initio from many points of 

 view, yet to always tend towards one goal — that of ex- 

 plaining the nature of the specific electrical activity 

 involved. To secure this, the section is far more amply 

 illustrated than the others, and the illustrations themselves 

 are extremely well chosen, whilst the hold upon the reader 

 is strengthened by the description of the structure of the 

 organ and of its nervous connections in the different 

 fishes, and by the excellent woodcuts which portray the 

 chief histological features. 



It may be confidently asserted that no book has yet 

 appeared, dealing with the fundamental phenomena of the 

 excitable tissues, which can be compared with the volumes 

 of Prof Biedermann. The wealth of experimental data 

 alone must stamp the work as one which for many years 

 will be not merely read by advanced students, but 

 consulted as a reference book, and it thus worthily takes 

 its place in this highest rank of scientific treatises. It is 

 with pleasure, therefore, that we anticipate its translation, 

 in the belief that its appearance in an English dress will, 

 by making it more accessible, confer a boon on all those 

 in this country who take a special interest in physiology. 



F. GOTCH. 



TAXATION. 

 Essays in Taxation. By E. R. A. Seligman, Columbia 

 College, New York. Pp. 424. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co., 1895.) 

 pROFESSOR SELIGMAN is one of the few 

 -L economists that have influenced the politicians. 

 The Tax Commission of Ohio made use of his book on 

 "Shifting and Incidence of Taxation" (1892), and con- 

 fessed they were not able to make full acknowledgment 

 of the debt lest they should give their report too academic 

 an appearance ! (" Essays," p. 415.) Every one who reads 

 Mr. Seligman's books will feel the reason of their in- 

 fluence ; there is a firm grasp of principles ; there is a 

 close contact with facts ; there is a constant testing of 

 the one by the other. 



NO. 1377, VOL. 53] 



The " Essays " were written in the first instance for 

 Americans, and the illustrations are largely drawn from 

 America. But the reasonings are of general application, 

 and are more or less fully so applied. We need not 

 dwell on the earlier part of Mr. Seligman's historical 

 survey. Logic and experience, he thinks, conspire to 

 show that not property, or even expenditure, but " income 

 or revenue " is the best measure of ability to bear taxes 

 (p. 18, cf. 21), and the world at large is slowly coming 

 round to this conclusion. 



" To arrange a system of taxation which shall, on 

 the whole, correspond as closely as possible to the net 

 revenues of individuals and social classes, and which shall 

 take into account the variations in tax-paying ability, has 

 thus become the demand of modern civilisation " (pp. 

 21,22). 



It has taken a long time to sift out and reject the wrong 

 systems, and, as we might expect, there is a singular 

 correspondence between one nation and another in the 

 progress through blunders. For example, the General 

 Property Tax, condemned by theorists and confessedly 

 unsuccessful on the other side of the Atlantic, is by no 

 means peculiar to the United States. It was not a blunder 

 at first, and only becomes so when perpetuated. It is that 

 form of taxation which is suited to a society 



" where the only property is the collective indivisible 

 property, where the landowner and capitalist are one. 

 There is one kind of property, and therefore only one 

 kind of property tax. But, as soon as property is split up 

 into different parts, as soon as there are various kinds of 

 property, just so soon does the single property tax 

 become antiquated and useless. It is not only useless, 

 but it is now absolutely iniquitous. For the attempt to 

 include under one head the gains flowing from widely 

 different pursuits . . . can end only in the virtual 

 exemption of the new forms, and a consequent over- 

 burdening of the old " (p. 38). 



In the Middle Ages it was for some time the prevail- 

 ing tax, and was then quite fair because there was little 

 differentiation of property (p. 46). 



" History everywhere teaches the same lesson. As 

 soon as the idea of direct taxation has forced itself into 

 recognition, it assumes the practical shape of the land 

 tax. This soon develops into the general property tax 

 which long remains the index of ability to pay. But, as 

 soon as the mass of property splits up, the property tax 

 becomes an anachronism " (p. 53), 



and the property tax reverts to real estate. The 

 property tax in the United States is therefore "not 

 an American invention, but a relic of mediaevalism." 

 In our times all kinds of property are not equally pro- 

 ductive ; property is not a sure criterion of individual 

 gains ; and there remains the consideration of the 

 individual's indebtedness, suggesting the need of taxing 

 him not on his property, but on his clear assets (p. 60). 

 The General Property Tax can be evaded by every one 

 except a bank shareholder (pp. 147, 148). Practically^ 

 as now levied in the States, " it is one of the worst taxes 

 known in the civilised world" (p. 61). Mr. Seligman 

 has an English frankness in dealing with the faults of 

 his native country. 



The Single Tax (chap, iii.) on the land escapes no better. 

 Our author rejects it both on theoretical and practical 

 grounds ; and he says all that needs to be said on the 



