556 



NA TURIi 



[April 13, 1899 



his goods, and receive an income equal to that of the best 

 workmen, but that rent and interest are only forced ab- 

 stractions sanctioned by law. Here, says Dr. Menger, we 

 find the train of thought which reappears in the writings of 

 the well-known socialists Mar.\ and Rodbertus. Gray, the 

 author of "A Lecture on Human Happiness" (1S25), 

 gives an analysis of Colquhoun's table of national wealth 

 (1814), and finds that there was produced "nearly fifty- 

 four pounds a year for each man, woman, and child in 

 the productive classes : of which they received about 

 eleven pounds, being but a small trifle more than one- 

 fifth part of the produce of their own labour I" It may 

 be mentioned for comparison that modern statistics show- 

 that now about four-ninths of the national income is 

 received by wage-earners. Finally he holds that the 

 unproductive classes, as he calls them, should in his 

 reformed community be reduced to the few necessary for 

 superintending labour, and should devote their talents to 

 the general good. Hodgskin, a thoroughly educated 

 man, a friend of Francis Place, the radical, and of 

 James Mill, was more a politician than his socialist fore- 

 runners ; in his " Labour Defended " he holds that by 

 combination the labourer may " destroy altogether the 

 profit of the idle capitalist " in the " war of honest in- 

 dustry against . . . idle profligacy," and "augment the 

 wages and rewards of industry," giving "to genius and 

 skill their due share of the national produce." Bray, in 

 " Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy" (1839), traces 

 social anomalies to " the institution of property as it at 

 present e,\ists," and works out m detail a transitional 

 project for passing to a communistic state. 



Dr. Menger proves that neither Karl Marx nor Rod- 

 bertus were original in their analysis of the cause of the 

 "rent" "surplus value " or "unearned income," which 

 they held must accrue to the non-workers in an indi- 

 vidualistic regime, when the workers had, owing to the 

 " iron law " of wages, received " bare subsistence," but 

 that all their ideas came from this group of English 

 socialists. He does not criticise the truth of their hypo- 

 theses, except by showing that the " right to the whole 

 produce of labour" has never been recognised in any 

 permanent legal system ; but he reduces the claims of 

 socialists to three— this "right to the produce of labour," 

 the "right to subsistence," and the "right to labour" ; 

 he shows that these rights are not consistent with each 

 other, e.xamines the French attempts to give eftect to one 

 or other of these claims, showing how failure always fol- 

 owed, and finds that socialists have never put forward 

 any unanimous, consistent and practical scheme for the 

 reorganisation of society, while they have only been suc- 

 cessful in uniting their followers on negations, or criti- 

 cisms of existing ills. He is clearly not entirely out of 

 sympathy with these criticisms, for one of his chief con- 

 clusions is that " it should be recognised as a guiding 

 principle of legislation that all measures are to be 

 avoided which create or increase unearned income." 



The importance of the book consists to a great extent 

 in the bibliography, which must prove invaluable to any 

 student of the growth of socialistic ideas ; though it is 

 clear that Prof. Foxwell's industry has unearthed very 

 many rare publications, of which copies will hardly be 

 found except in his own celebrated library. For the 

 ranslation we have nothing but praise. A. L. B. 



NO. 1537, VOL. 59] 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 L Audition ct ses Organes. Par Dr. M. E. Gelid. Pp. 326 



(BibliotheciueScientifique Internationale.) (Paris: Fdli.x 



Alcan, 1899.) 



In a volume belonging to this series, one expects three 

 primary virtues — a clear logical arrangement, a lucid 

 method of statement, and accuracy with regard to matters 

 of fact. The book before us attains to a fairly high 

 standard in all these respects ; it is divided into three 

 chapters, in which the sonorous vibrations are traced in 

 logical sequence from their origin to their final trans- 

 formation into sensations of sound in the brain. A 

 judicious use of headings in larger type is a great help to 

 clearness ; but, in a book of this kind, a little more space 

 might with advantage have been given to the more ele- 

 mentary parts of the subject, especially in the physical 

 and anatomical chapters. Misprints appear rather too 

 frequently [e.g. five in 2A lines of English quotation, p. 46), 

 and the illustrations are often not so good as could be 

 wished. 



In the first chapter, which deals with various physical 

 properties of sonorous vibrations, a series of phonograph 

 tracings are given, that amongst other things show in an 

 exceptionally clear and beautiful manner, the changes due 

 to variations in intensity and the action of the explosive 

 consonants on the various vowel sounds. Several of 

 these diagrams would be improved by a fuller and more 

 definite explanatory description. The paragraphs in this 

 chapter on the quality of musical sounds and the form- 

 ation of articulate speech strike us as especially good. 



The early part of the second chapter, describing the 

 evolution of the auditory organ within the animal series, 

 is a weak point in the book. The subject is treated too 

 briefly to escape ambiguity — e.g. from the description on 

 pp. 1 40-141, no one would suppose that an external 

 opening to the ductus endolymphaticus was a general 

 feature among Elasmobranchs ; and a little lower down 

 the page it is far from easy, without previous knowledge, 

 to distinguish the statements that refer to the shad from 

 those referring to the carp. We may further mention 

 that the auditory sac is open in the lobster, and although 

 monotremes and many marsupials have a columellifonn 

 stapes, their ossicles cannot be said to be reduced to a 

 columella. The remainder of the chapter — dealing with 

 the anatomy and physiology of the human ear — is excel- 

 lent. We notice that in the discussion on the external 

 auditory meatus no mention is made of its apparent 

 importance in the realisation of the external origin or 

 outwardness of sounds. In the question of the mode of 

 transmission of the sonorous vibrations through the 

 ossicles and in the labyrinthine tluids, the author i> 

 strongly in favour of its being mainly molecular, although 

 he allows a certain amount of movement of the ossicles 

 en bloc. The pages that deal with the internal ear fom» 

 certainly one of the best parts of the book. 



The subject of the last chapter — the relation thai 

 exists between the brain and the auditory impulses— is 

 one of great obscurity, and is here largely treated by the 

 citation of cases, that bring out in various ways how 

 entirely the perception of sound depends upon the state 

 of the brain and nervous system. In short, this may be 

 called a good book on a highly interesting subject. 



Early Choptt-rs in Science. By Mrs. W. Awdry. Edited 

 by Prof. W. F. Barrett. Pp. xviii 4- 34S. (London ; 

 John Murray, 1899.) 

 A VOLUMK which gives instruction in the chief biological 

 and physical sciences in 348 pages cannot very well be 

 satisfactory in all its parts. The aim of the present 

 volume is to provide "a first book of knowledge of 

 natural history, botany, physiology, physics and chemistry 

 for young (jcoplc " ; and, so far as it goes, it represents 

 a praiseworthy attempt to create and promote an interest 

 in natural things and phenomena. The animal and vege- 

 table kingdoms are described in two hundred pages, and 



