ii6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 266 



employees of these classes who compete for employment by 

 cheapening labor, for it results in overwork which is brutalizing", 

 and in want which is brutalizing ; and the abolition of this form of 

 competition is one of the great questions of the day. To avoid the 

 evil, these people organize labor unions, but, while these destroy 

 antagonistic competition, they also result in the destruction of 

 emulative competition. The great problem in indtstrial society 

 to-day is to preserve competition, and destroy antagonistic com- 

 petition. The professional classes have already solved the problem 

 for themselves, and they stand aloof and deplore the struggle ; but 

 they should learn this lesson from history : that, when wrongs 

 arise in any class of society, those wrongs must ultimately be 

 righted ; and, so long as they remain, the conflict must remain ; 

 and when the solution comes not by methods of peace, it comes by 

 war. 



" Injustice is a strange monster. Let any body of people come 

 to see that injustice is done them in some particular, though it may 

 be one which affects their welfare but to a limited degree : they 

 dwell upon it, and discuss it, and paint its hideous form one to an- 

 other, until the spectre of that injustice covers the heavens, and 

 gradually to that injustice the people will attribute all their evils. 

 If a body of laborers receive unjust reward for their toil, they will 

 dwell upon this evil so long, so often, and kindle their passions to 

 such a height, that they will at last attribute to the failure of 

 receiving a modicum of reward for their toil all the evils of their 

 own improvidence, all the evils of their own intemperance, all the 

 evils of their own lust ; and if fire and flood come, the very evils of 

 unavoidable misfortune will be attributed to the injustice of unre- 

 quited toil. Injustice is of such a nature that it must be destroyed 

 by society, or it will destroy society. We dare not contemplate its 

 existence with equanimity, for 'behold, what a great fire a little 

 matter kindleth ! ' " 



One of the most interesting illustrations of antagonistic com- 

 petition given was that which exists in advertising. " The honest 

 system of advertising should be but a small announcement of the 

 offer of goods for the information of those who desire to purchase, 

 in such a manner that those who desire to purchase, may, by 

 seeking, find. But in advertising as it now exists, exaggeration is 

 piled on exaggeration, and falsehood is added to falsehood. The 

 world is filled with monstrous lies, and they are thrust upon atten- 

 tion by every possible means. The mails are filled with them. 

 When a man opens his mail in the morning, the letter of his friend 

 is buried among these advertising monstrosities. They are thrust 

 under street-doors, and they are offered you as you walk the streets. 

 When you read the morning and evening papers, they are spread 

 before you with typographic display, they are placed amang the 

 items you desire to read, and they are given false headings, and 

 they begin with decoy headings. They are posted upon walls, and 

 on the fences, and on the sidewalks, and on bulletin boards, and 

 the barns and housetops and the fences of all the land are covered 

 with them, and they are nailed to the tree and painted on rocks. 

 Thus it is that the whole civilized world is placarded with lies, and 

 the moral atmosphere of the world wreaks with the foul breath of 

 this monster of antagonistic competition." 



In closing. Major Powell briefly reviewed the history of the land 

 question in Great Britain, the conversion of the commons in Eng- 

 land into the estates of nobles, until people learned that wanton ex- 

 travagance of life is cured by elevating the poor to a higher condi- 

 tion, where they speedily learn the principles of prudential repro- 

 duction ; and to-day, in that land, statesmen and scholars are de- 

 vising the means by which those great estates may still be distrib- 

 uted among the poor. He also referred to the movements of 

 wages among the laborers in Great Britain, their reduction to the 

 lowest pittance on the plea in justification of the sanction of the im- 

 mutable law of competition. Then there arose a philosophy which 

 sought to ameliorate the condition of the poor people by charity. 

 Still later a new philosophy arose, which taught that the wage- 

 fund was limited, and was sufficient to supply only a limited num- 

 ber of workers ; and so wages were reduced still lower, to be fol- 

 lowed by strikes and riots, which threatened the beautiful isle with 

 anarchy. " And now," said Major Powell, " another philosopher 

 has arisen in the world, the great Herbert Spencer ; and he has dis- 

 covered another fundamental principle, a major premise, — that 



human progress is by ' the survival of the fittest in the struggle for 

 existence.' That the fittest may survive, the unfit must die. Then 

 let the poor fall into deeper degradation, then let the hungry starve, 

 then let the unfortunate perish, then let the rich and the wise and 

 the good and the strong live and flourish and propagate the race, 

 then let the ignorant remain in his ignorance. He who does not 

 seek for knowledge himself is not worthy to possess knowledge ; 

 and the very children of the ignorant should remain untaught, that 

 the sins of the fathers may be visited upon the children. Let your 

 government cease to regulate industries, and, instead of carrying the 

 mails, let them erect prisons; let governments discharge their state- 

 employed teachers, and enlist more policemen. Such is the philoso- 

 phy of Spencer and his adherents. And they establish journals to 

 advocate these principles, and edit papers to advocate these i)rinci- 

 ples, and they have become the most active propagandists of the 

 day ; and the millions are shouting, ' Great is philosophy, and great 

 are the prophets of philosophy.' 



" Thus it is that fundamental principles, major propositions, are 

 discovered to justify injustice, and yet forever man is endeavoring 

 to establish justice. How this shall be done I know not ; but I 

 have such faith in my fellow-man, such towering faith in human 

 endeavor, such boundless faith in the genius for invention among 

 mankind, such illimitable faith in the love of justice that forever 

 wells up in the human heart, that I swear by the eternal truth the 

 problem shall be solved." 



Density of the Earth. 



The following is an abstract of a paper read by Mr. G. W. Hill 

 at the last meeting of the Mathematical Section of the Philosophi- 

 cal Society : — 



The relation which, according to Boyle's law, holds between the 

 pressure and the density of the atmosphere or a gas under a 

 uniform temperature, is so simple, that we are naturally curious 

 to see the results of its application to the mass of the earth. The 

 greater difficulty of the problem over that in which Laplace's law 

 of density is employed may recommend it to us as a mathemat- 

 ical exercise. 



The differential equation, which is satisfied by the density, is 

 readily obtained by uniting the general equation of hydrostatics 

 with the partial differential equation which the potential function 

 at interior points satisfies. By certain substitutions the question is 

 reduced to the integration of a differential equation of the first order 

 and the subsequent quadrature. Unfortunately the first operation 

 cannot be executed in finite terms, but the application of mechani- 

 cal quadratures to the equation is quite easy. The differential 

 equation defines a system of plane curves readily constructed by 

 drawing their tangents at points suitably distributed. These curves 

 fall into three groups, of which one takes up the space to the right 

 of the vertical axis of co-ordinates, and is the only one applicable 

 to the physical question under consideration. 



A first illustration of the general theory is afforded by treating 

 the density of the atmosphere considered as surrounding a spheri- 

 cal earth, in which one does not neglect, as usual, the attraction of 

 the atmosphere on itself. 



Passing to the problem afforded by the mass of the earth, the 

 construction of a single one of the formerly mentioned group of 

 planes, and the summing of a definite integral along its line, is seen 

 to contain the solution of the whole matter. 



A general table is then formed, from which we can obtain all 

 the data needed for applying the general theory to any particular 

 case. 



Assuming the surface density as 2.7, and the mean density as 

 5.67, the density at the centre comes out 21.7, and at half the sur- 

 face radius 9.4. 



If the mean density is more than fifteen-fourths the surface densi- 

 ty, there is no solution. 



If the mean density is exactly three times that at the surface, the 

 number of solutions is infinite. 



For the case of the earth considered above, there is only one solu- 

 tion. 



Submarine Oil-Springs. 



The Hydrographic Office publishes upon the Pilot Chart for 

 March some late information concerning submarine oil-springs on 



