366 



8GIJENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 142. 



prices of 1884 are given as 92.2 per cent of those 

 of 1883 ; yet side by side other figures are given 

 which make the ratio 91 per cent. 



Nevertheless, it would be going too far to say 

 that the results are quite without value. A very 

 large number of articles are included in the com- 

 parison, which gives a probability that the mistakes 

 wlQ balance each other, or will not appreciably 

 affect the general results. It is not unreasonable 

 to believe that the figures which are finally given 

 as indicating the rise and fall of general prices for 

 the successive years, although they cannot be ac- 

 cepted as an accurate gauge of the ascertainable 

 change from any one year to the next year, yet 

 represent fairly enough the general fluctuations of 

 the series of years. They are at all events proba- 

 bly as good an index of the actual changes as the 

 tables of the London economist, which have been 

 much quoted and used. We reproduce the mint 

 figures in the accompanying chart for the years 

 since 1873, and for comparison give also the Econo- 

 mist figures, which indicate the course of prices in 

 England. It should be said that, for both countries, 

 the standard (indicated by the number 100) is the 

 average range of prices of the years 1845-50. 

 Those were the years just before the Australian 

 and Californian gold discoveries, and the average 

 for them has always been used by the Economist 

 as the basis of comparison in its table of prices. 



We have arranged the mint figures on the same 

 basis, using for tliat purpose the figures for 1845-50 

 given in the earlier mint report. Tliis method of 

 comparison is of course open to objections, but 

 seems on the whole to be the best : 



134 to 116 ; and hi England there was in 1879 a 

 still further faU to 100. That is, in 1879 prices in 

 England had gone down to the level of the years 

 1845-50. In this country, the fall from 1873 to 

 1878 was from 124 to 102. The revival began here 

 earlier than in England, and from 1878 to 1879 

 there was already a rise from 102 to 109. After 1879 

 the tendencies in both countries for a few years was 

 to a rise. A temporary fall, it is true, is indicated 

 in the United States from 1879 to 1880 ; but one 

 cannot but look at this fall with suspicion, and 

 ascribe it, at least in part, to some of the mistakes 

 made in calculating the mint figures. In Eng- 

 land the highest point since 1 878, according to the 

 Economist, was reached in 1880. But there are 

 reasons, which there is not space to explain, for 

 ascribing the high figure for that year to the pecu- 

 liar methods of the Economist, and for believing 

 that there was in reality but little faU in 1882 as 

 compared with 1880. In the Uuited States there 

 was a fairly steady rise from 1878 to 1882. Since 

 1882 there has been a steady fall in both countries. 

 Last year (1884) prices were at 101 in England, 

 and at 106 in tliis country ; in other words, not- 

 withstanding the severe depression, they had not 

 gone so low as the lowest points reached during 

 the last period of depression in England in 1879, 

 and in this country in 1878. F. W. Taussig. 



THE NEW PHILOLOGY. 



The new school of philology in Germany, of 

 which Professor Brugmann is one of the ablest 

 representatives, claims to be a legitimate advance 



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Prices in England 



Prices in United States 



The figures begin with 1873, a year of specula- 

 tion and of inflated prices all over the world ; and 

 it wiU be seen that in both countries prices fell 

 continuously during the long years of depression 

 from 1873 to 1878. The fall m England was from 



on its predecessors in the direction of scientific 

 sobriety and precision. The older scholars from 

 Bopp down to a few years ago, says Sievers (in his 

 article on Indo-Germanic philology, in the Ency- 

 clopaedia Britannica), had naturally occupied 



