104 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 681 



It should not be forgotten that economic 

 science differs in essential respects from the 

 physical sciences. In those sciences we 

 find forces which work according to fixed 

 laws. Even in them we find the effect of 

 those laws mitigated or offset by friction 

 and opposing forces. In the world of 

 economic science we do not deal with con- 

 ditions so unvarying. The so-called laws 

 of economic science are simply the in- 

 terpretation of what is likely to be the 

 action of men under the stimulus of self- 

 interest in the field of free competition for 

 the acquisition of goods and the accumula- 

 tion of capital. But while two streams of 

 water act in exactly the same way under 

 similar physical laws, no two men act in 

 precisely the same way under the opera- 

 tion of mental laws. At least, if laws exist 

 which compel such uniformity of mental 

 action, they are too abstruse to have yet 

 been discovered and formulated. 



From the standpoint of existing condi- 

 tions, therefore the psychological element 

 is an important factor in mitigating the 

 operation of so-called economic law. To 

 acquire commodities and save capital is 

 not man's sole impulse. On the contrary, 

 in the midst of the most highly developed 

 civilized society to-day, a large percentage 

 of men are influenced by other motives 

 than the desire to achieve the greatest re- 

 sult by the utmost exertion of their labor. 

 Some prefer idleness to labor; others 

 prefer spending to saving; others pursue 

 ambitions which have their roots only re- 

 motely in the acquisition of money. And 

 if this is so in civilized communities, how 

 much more is it so in those where com- 

 merce is feebly developed, where the 

 church or the state, or immemorial cus- 

 tom prescribe the roiitine of each man's 

 life, and where competition in our modern 

 American sense is almost a thing unborn. 



Economic law does not operate in a 

 vacuum or in anything approaching a 



vacuum even in the most advanced modem 

 society. It gropes blindly in a mist of dis- 

 turbing forces, and with many digressions 

 from its true objective, even where its 

 operation is most nearly unhampered. The 

 political economist, therefore, can afford to 

 admit that the man of practical affairs sees 

 in some respects as clearly as himself re- 

 garding existing requirements, even though 

 his eyes are fastened upon the ground 

 while his own are uplifted to the stars. 

 Charles A. Conant 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Ice Formation, with Special Reference to 



Anchor-Ice and Frazil. By Howard T. 



Barnes, M.A., D.Sc, F.E.S.C. New York, 



John Wiley and Sons. 1906. Pp. 260. 



To persons living in moderate climates, the 

 statement of Dr. Barnes, in his introduction, 

 is very striking that where surface ice is pre- 

 vented from being formed " as in a rapidly 

 flowing river we meet with the worst effects 

 from the presence of ice " ; notwithstanding 

 the fact that the temperature of the water 

 never varies more than a few thousandths of a 

 degree from its freezing point, even when the 

 air is 30° or 40° lower. The account which 

 Mr. Barnes gives of the difficulties which the 

 ice causes in the St. Lawrence Eiver at 

 Montreal entirely substantiates the statement. 

 There are three kinds of ice which are met 

 with; the surface ice, the anchor-ice, which is 

 formed in the bed of the river and the frazil, 

 which is formed as small individual crystals at 

 the surface of the swiftly flowing water. The 

 frazil is formed in the rapids and is carried 

 Tinder the surface ice in the quiet water below 

 and adheres to its under surface. Thus the 

 ice becomes thick enough to choke up the 

 channel of the river and cause a serious flood. 

 Frazil also interferes with the water power 

 used at Montreal by choking up the ma- 

 chinery, and a commission has existed for 

 some time for the purpose of studying the con- 

 dition leading to the formation of frazil and 

 the best methods of preventing the damage 

 done by it. This commission had made many 

 determinations of the temperature of the 



