902 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. ! 



used at the siege of Calais, which immediately 

 followed Crecy, there is no doubt whatever. 



By the end of the fourteenth century huge bom- 

 bards, throwing stone balls of two hundred pound 

 weight, were common; later, stone balls weighing 

 a thousand pounds, requiring a gun caliber of over 

 thirty inches, were in use. 



The quicK-firing, breech-loading guns of the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when they were 

 provided with at least four chambers, which cham- 

 bers looked much like a beer mug and contained 

 the powder charge, could be fired about once in 

 two minutes. These were most effective at sea; 

 fired from the tops, just as our quicker firing guns 

 are, they were used for clearing the deck; loaded 

 with bullets, rusty nails and a general assortment 

 of scraps they were worthy of their name— 

 ' ' murtherers. ' ' 



The great bombards, and many of the smaller 

 guns in the fourteenth century, were built of 

 longitudinal wrought-iron bars, over which heavy 

 iron rings or bands were driven. The breech, con- 

 taining the powder-charge, was usually forged, the 

 caliber being about a third that of the chase. The 

 powder-charge was about one eighth to one ninth 

 the weight of the stone projectile. In spite of 

 the smallness of this the bombard had a bad habit 

 of bursting, spreading death in all directions 

 except where it was intended to. 



The field-guns at the end of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury would not have looked very strange in, say, 

 1800. For it must not be forgotten that the guns 

 used by Nelson at Trafalgar (1805) differed but 

 little from those used by Howard and Drake 

 against the Spanish Armada, over two hundred 

 years earlier. 



The Cost of Living in the Twelfth Century and 



its Effects: Dana C. Muneo, University of 



Wisconsin. 



The rise in the cost of living in the twelfth 

 century was due to a change in the standard of 

 living. Acquaintance with the east, through the 

 crusades, led to a desire for more costly clothing, 

 and fashion began its despotic sway. More lux- 

 urious dwellings, oriental spices and other prod- 

 ucts became common. The amoimt of money 

 available was greatly increased by the coining of 

 the gold and silver which had been hoarded, by 

 the more rapid circulation of the money, and espe- 

 cially by the use of instruments of credit which 

 became common in the twelfth century. 



An era of extravagance ensued which is well 

 depicted in the literature of the age. The average 

 noble was unable to increase his income, which 



was derived from fixed customary payments. Con- 

 sequently, to meet his new needs he was compelled 

 to borrow at ruinous rates of interest. The lender 

 was frequently a Jew and much of the ill-wQl 

 toward the Jews is to be traced to the hostility of 

 the borrowers who were hopelessly in debt. 



The peasants profited by the opening of more 

 markets for their agricultural products and were 

 sometimes able to gain their freedom by the pay- 

 ment of a small lump sum when the lord of the 

 manor was hard pressed for money. The mer- 

 chants profited most by the increase of trade and 

 became factors in the political life of the day. 

 Sumptuary laws were frequent but ineffective. 



As yet too little attention has been paid to this 

 change in the standard of living and its effects. 

 There is a great mass of material in the shape of 

 documents, such as the Pipe EoUs, e. g., and there 

 are many references in the contemporary litera- 

 ture. There is an opportunity and need for a 

 number of students to investigate various phases 

 of the subject. This is one of my reasons for 

 presenting this subject here. 

 Elizabethan Physicians: Felix E. Schelling, 



University of Pennsylvania. 



The delations of the United States to Interna- 

 tional Arbitration: Hon. Charlemagne Tower, 

 Philadelphia. 



The Early German Immigration and the Immi- 

 gration Question of To-day: M. D. Learned, 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



On the Solution of Linear Differential Equations 

 by Successive Approximations: Preston A. 

 Lambert, Lehigh University. 



Generalizations of the Problem of Several Bodies, 

 its Inversion, and an Introductory Account of 

 Becent Progress in its Solution: E. O. Lovett, 

 Eice Institute. 



On the Totality of the Substitutions on n Letters 

 which are Commutative with Every Substitution 

 of a Given Group on the Same Letters: G. A. 

 Miller, University of Illinois. (Introduced by 

 Professor C. L. Doolittle.) 



Beport on the Second Conference of the Interna- 

 tional Catalogue of Scientific Literature: L. C. 

 GUNNELL, Smithsonian Institution. (Introduced 

 by Dr. Cyrus Adler.) 



Moreau de Saint Mery and the other Prench 

 Exiles: Some of our Forgotten Members. 

 One of the results of the French Eevolutiou 



was that many of the exiles from France and its 



West India colonies found a harbor of refuge in 



