28 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 



the older settled portions of the state have a greater popu- 

 lation of insanity than the newer portions. I cannot find 

 that the proportion of native or foreign-born persons seems 

 to affect the proportion of insanity, or that any other of the 

 causes so frequently alleged to be the chief factor in pro- 

 ducing insanity, has any considerable influence upon the 

 geographical distribution of insanity in the state. 



Note: The delay in the publication of the proceedings gives me oppor- 

 tunity to give the numbers of the insane under public care on September 

 80, 1883. The three years show as follows: 



Number of insane under j)ublic care in 1881 1, 773 



Number of insane under public care in 1882 1, 913 



Number of insane under public care in 1883 2, 075 



Net increase from 1881 to 1882 140 



Net increase from 1882 to 1883 162 



As was predicted above, the increased accommodations for the insane 

 provided by the new county asylums, opened in the year 1883, have caused 

 an apparent increase of insanity in addition to the real increase. The real 

 increase, however, has been large. 



THE PRIMITIVE DEMOCRACY OF THE GERMANS. * 



By W. F. Allen, Professor of Latin and History, University of Wisconsin. 



The political institutions of the ancient Germans, as de- 

 scribed by Tacitus, are of an essentially democratic charac- 

 ter. Some of their nations have kings, but royalty is not a 

 necessary part of their constitution, for many nations have 

 no king, and where there is one, he is not invested with any 

 very positive or absolute powers, f Nobles are frequently 

 mentioned, but special privileges or powers are never as- 

 cribed to the nobility, and, so far as appears from the in- 



*This paper is composed of two papers; one, upon the village commun- 

 ity system, read at the meeting of the Academy in 1881; the other at the 

 meeting in 1883. Being properly supplementary to one another, they 

 have been united, and the discussion of both papers brought down to the 

 date of publication. 



t Nee regibus libera aut infinita potestas Tac. Germ. 7. 



