760 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



autobiography of a convict, founded on authentic papers com- 

 mitted to his hands by the eminent psychiatrist Silvio Venturi, 

 director of the lunatic asylum at Catanzaro, a book which was 

 translated immediately on its appearance into German, but which 

 no English publisher has had the courage to issue, though it states 

 at once in its preface that its scope is purely scientific, and that 

 the word " Romance " is employed in a subjective sense. This piece 

 of pathological literature throws a lurid light upon the inner nature 

 of the criminal. Bianchi has written a long and careful preface, in 

 which he points out just how and why this human document has sci- 

 entific value. As yet, Bianchi has not had time to write many books, 

 but his careful, studious articles are all of value, and denote his 

 knowledge, intuition, and observation. 



Limits of space, which we have already exceeded, oblige us to 

 leave unmentioned yet other valiant followers of criminal anthro- 

 pology in Italy, but we hope we have said enough to prove that this 

 science has in the peninsula both numerous and able adherents, and 

 that Italy is justified in considering herself at the head and front of 

 studies of this nature a position which, indeed, few dispute to 

 her. Seeing how useful is this science as an auxiliary to the right 

 study of history, literature, and political economy, it would be well if 

 its propagation were more encouraged at universities, in place of 

 philosophy and metaphysics, which, when untouched by this new 

 breath, have become fossilized and are as arid as they are sterile. 



THE QUESTION OF WHEAT. 



By WORTHINGTON C. FORD, 



CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, I). C. 



A YEAH of abnormal conditions in trade and industry brings 

 out a plentiful crop of predictions of great approaching 

 changes. If the prophets of economic revolution, who base their 

 prophecies upon half-digested statistics, were to be gathered, and 

 their confident prognostications exhibited in the light of ascertained 

 results, or even of rationally tested tendencies, the asylum of Laputa, 

 as described by Swift, would be of secondary interest. We have 

 been treated in recent years to many a sensational diagnosis of social 

 trouble, fraught with dangers to the body politic. No one will 

 deny that such dangers exist and are even threatening to break upon 

 us or to carry on their operation until only an explosion can clear 

 the atmosphere and permit a renovation on new lines of activity. 



