SCIENCE. 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 



V^rite sans peur. 



NEW YORK : THE SCIENCE COMPANY. 



FEIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1887. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 Students of the problems of taxation are 

 directing attention to a law imposing progressive 

 taxation, lately passed in canton Vaud, Switzer- 

 land, and which will come into operation with the 

 beginning of the new year. The practical work- 

 ing and effects of the law will be closely studied. 

 The project is undoubtedly popular ; for when put 

 before the people, as is necessary for the enact- 

 ment of a law in Switzerland, it was passed by very 

 large majorities. This new Vaudois law divides 

 real property into three classes, according as it 

 falls below $5,000, between $5,000 and $30,000, or 

 over $30,000 in value. The proportion of tax is 

 to be 1 per 1,000 for the first class, 1^ per 1,000 for 

 the second class, and 3 per 1,000 for the third class. 

 Personal property falls into seven classes, the 

 lowest class being less than $5,000 in value, and 

 the highest over $160,000. The rates of taxation 

 on these classes are to be in the proportion of 1, 

 li, 3, 2i, 3, di, and 4, respectively, per 1,000. 

 Incomes from earnings are similarly put in seven 

 classes ; but, in estimating the amount to be taxed, 

 a deduction is made amounting to $80 for each 

 person legally dependent on the head of the 

 family for his support. A great many theories as 

 to taxation will be put to test by the operation of 

 this law, and its outcome will be watched with 

 interest. 



The system which Fechner deduced from the 

 simple experiments of Weber has had the honor 

 of exciting the criticism of nearly every eminent 

 physiologist and physicist in Germany at one 

 time or another during its brief career. Weber 

 found, that, if you could just distinguish four 

 ounces from five ounces, you could change the 

 ounces to pounds without causing any change in 

 the recognizability of the difference between the 

 two weights. From this, with the aid of some 

 hypotheses, Mr. Fechner deduced the psychophys- 



No. 205. — 1887. 



ical law that the sensation is proportional to the 

 logarithm of the excitation. The system has 

 been attacked on every side, and Fechner"s last 

 hope is that it will stand, because the attackers 

 cannot agree upon the mode of destroying it. 

 But a consensus is now forming on the mode of 

 attack. Dr. Adolf Elsas, in a recent pamphlet, 

 boldly upholds that the system is unscientific from 

 the root ; that it does not follow from Weber's 

 experiments except upon an unjustifiable assump- 

 tion ; and that no system of psychoi^hysics, in 

 Fechner's sense, is physically, mathematically, or 

 philosophically possible. It is possible to state 

 briefly where the confusion came in, viz., in mis- 

 taking the sensation of being different for a dif- 

 ference of sensation : but it is not possible to show 

 in a few words how far-reaching the results of 

 this misconception are. If a prediction is allow- 

 able, the statement may be hazarded that the out- 

 come of the discussion will be a recognition of a 

 valuable means of gauging the discriminative 

 sensibility of the senses, the avoidance of many 

 current errors in experimentation, and the con- 

 viction that it is as impossible to bridge the chasm 

 between thought and nerve by psychophysics a^y 

 any other of the numerous methods that have 

 been proposed. 



As WE stated some time ago, the Kongo Free 

 State has received a severe blow in the loss of the 

 station at Stanley Pool. The official accounts of 

 the affair have just reached us. It appears that the 

 quarrel between Mr, Deane, an Englishman, who, 

 with M. Dubois, commanded at the post, and the 

 Arabs, was about a slave-girl who had sought 

 refuge in the station. Notwithstanding the Arabs' 

 threats, the young Englishman refused to give up 

 the girl. A peace was patched up for the time 

 being ; but it was only a ruse on the part of the 

 Arabs. Later they made an unexpected attack, 

 and were repulsed. But soon ammunition ran 

 short. The negro troops at the post took to their 

 boats, and floated down stream to the next station 

 of the association. This was commanded by Lieu- 

 tenant Coquilhat. He ran up stream to the sta- 



