Apkil 20, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



615 



no less injurious to society. Instead of 

 using the knife of the assassin or the bomb 

 of the dynamiter, they use the pen and 

 pencil. 



Some sociologists, as Gumplowiez and Le 

 Bon, have taken up the idea of degeneracy 

 and declare that modern civilizations are 

 destined to an inevitable decay and death. 



Are there any reliable facts which would 

 support the argument in favor of race de- 

 generacy? Examining into the statistics 

 of the insane, blind, deaf and criminal, the 

 data are so imperfect that it is impossible 

 to say whether conditions are becoming 

 better or worse. The signs of family de- 

 generacy are more serious than those of 

 physical degeneracy or crime. There is no 

 doubt about the increase of divorces and 

 in many countries there is an increase of 

 illegitimate children. Adultery seems to 

 be less offensive now to public sentiment. 

 The New York committee of fifteen recom- 

 mended its erasure from the category of 

 crimes. Abandonment of children to in- 

 stitutions suggests Plato's state control of 

 child-rearing. In France 80 per cent, of 

 the juvenile male criminals are illegitimate. 



In spite of all the facts bearing upon 

 degeneracy there are as yet no positive 

 evidences of degeneracy and no occasion for 

 alarm, but the present conditions and tend- 

 encies are far from satisfactory. 



Economic Aspects of Accounting and 



Auditing: F. "W. Lapeentz, President 



American Audit Company, New York. 



Many states of the imion have passed 



appropriate laws under which accountants 



may qualify and obtain certificates from 



proper governing boards. 



Accountancy is not only applied mathe- 

 matics, but also applied economics. The 

 accountant must know the theory of values 

 in order to properly understand his pro- 

 fession ; and here is where he must consult 

 the economist. He should guard against 



becoming a theorist pure and simple, how- 

 ever. It is necessary for him to be prac- 

 tical in the application of theory. He 

 must know, for instance, when to stop in 

 his analytical work, so as not to burden a 

 business with detail that it is unable to 

 carry. In other words, he must learn to 

 adapt system to business and not business 

 to system. 



The docimients in which the accountant 

 sums up (epitomizes) the transactions re- 

 corded for any given undertaking are the 

 balance sheet and the profit-and-loss ac- 

 count. The balance sheet shows, on the 

 one hand, the goods that are owned by the 

 business, and commonly described as assets. 

 Now, the setting up of the assets in the 

 balance sheet means merely the making of 

 an inventory of the things owned; but in 

 order to do that the accountant must set 

 a value upon them. Here is where the 

 knowledge of the accountant is put to the 

 severest test. Not only must he know the 

 valuation of all marketable staples, but he 

 must know how to deal with the difficult 

 problems of used machinery, dilapidated 

 buildings, and that most elusive of all as- 

 sets—good-will. 



On the credit side of the balance sheet 

 he will set up the debts for which the goods 

 owned are a lien, so to speak, and which in 

 ease of liquidation must be deducted from 

 the results gained in the disposition of the 

 goods. If the goods are more than suffi- 

 cient to meet these liens, the residue will 

 be the net worth of the proprietor, the 

 capital of the proprietor. The balance 

 sheet, therefore, states the condition of 

 wealth. 



The net worth of the proprietor at a 

 given time, when compared with his net 

 worth at a different date, will show the 

 increase or decrease in his wealth — or his 

 profit or loss during the interim — and the 

 reasons for such change will be found in 



