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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1204 



nent failure shows what their system really 

 was, an attempt by frail human beings, 

 with very little to guide them, to devise the 

 most difficult of all human institutions, 

 the government of a country. The cor- 

 ruption of our municipal governments is 

 another clear proof of the fallibility of 

 our forefathers, for all these faults result 

 from the environment which they created, 

 and mean that it misfits human nature in 

 these respects. 



Naturally erring in the direction of over- 

 guarding against the governmental fault 

 from which they were smarting, irresponsi- 

 bility and consequent tyranny, they de- 

 vised a government which, as we now see, 

 is so weak as to be terribly helpless, indeed 

 in danger of an impotence which may pre- 

 vent it from defending itself efficiently 

 against aggressors. 



It is this weakness that has put us in 

 our present peril. When Germany began 

 her attempt to conquer the world, her pur- 

 pose was evident to every broadminded 

 man, and must have been foreseen clearly 

 by many of our political leaders. It was 

 indeed pointed out repeatedly by contrib- 

 utors to the newspapers, and was neither 

 denied nor questioned, but only ignored, 

 with the result, which was clearly inevi- 

 taible and as clearly predicted, that she has 

 been able to fight her enemies in detail. 

 A government made strong by the funda- 

 mental law of the land would have ex- 

 posed this peril to the voters, and we should 

 not have had for allies an impotent Russia, 

 a crushed Belgium, Servia and Rumania, 

 and a sorely pressed France and Italy. 

 Indeed, it was the known weakness of our 

 system that made the war possible. 



A curious contradiction is that the weak- 

 ness of the government is matched by a 

 tying of the peoples' hands. Not only are 

 we debarred from selecting our rulers and 

 confined to choosing between candidates 



administered to us by irresponsible or- 

 ganizations, but once we have chosen both 

 we and our representatives are impotent 

 to remedy an error in choice, by compel- 

 ling a change in administration, as is done 

 with great profit in Britain, France, and 

 elsewhere. Frankly, we should face squarely 

 the fact that our governmental system, as 

 the first of the great experimental democ- 

 racies, was the work of apprentices, and we 

 should strive earnestly to mend it as soon 

 as we have passed our present frightful 

 peril. 



The system and checks and balances, in 

 weakening the people, their representatives, 

 and the administration alike, has put the 

 power taken from them into the hands of 

 irresponsible organizations, the political 

 machines. 



I criticize none. The errors of individual 

 officers, from the constable to the President, 

 flow from our system itself. It is the sys- 

 tem that needs betterment. 



Henry M. Howe 



FOOD-BORNE INFECTIONSi 



GASTRO-iNTESTiNAii disturbance traceable 

 to some food eaten shortly before is a com- 

 mon occurrence and is indeed part of the 

 experience of many persons. Not long 

 since, the majority of such attacks were 

 declared due to "ptomain poisoning" and 

 were deemed to be sufficiently explained by 

 this designation. It was believed, though 

 never, it must he confessed, on very good 

 evidence, that the foods responsible for the 

 trouble had been kept too long or under 

 improper conditions and had undergone 

 bacterial decomposition or spoiling. This 

 decomposition was supposed to have re- 

 si;lted in the formation of ptomains, a 



1 Address of the Vice-president and Chairman of 

 Section K, Physiology and Experimental Medicine, 

 American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, Pittsburgh, December, 1917. 



