SCIENCE -Supplement. 



FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1885. 



A NEED FOR A CAREFUL STUDY OF THE 

 HISTORY OF CHINA. 



When it is remembered that the Chinese writ- 

 ers have hardly any conception of history in our 

 sense of the term, that their most renowned histo- 

 rians give us httle more than annals or chronicles, 

 the dead and fleshless bones of history, we cannot 

 complain that Fries's history of China, which is a 

 condensed translation of Chinese writers, is not a 

 rich and flowing narrative. It is simply a bald 

 outline of the succession of sovereigns and dynas- 

 ties, of the tricks and vices by which the throne 

 was often won, of the military achievements of 

 the rulers, and of the divisions and reunions 

 which the territory of the empire has undergone. 

 Of the condition of the people tln-ough the long 

 period of then- national existence, of their progress 

 in arts and learning, of the philosophy of their 

 institutions, of the solution of the problem of 

 their survival of all the destructive influences 

 which, have wrecked every other nation, we hear 

 nothing in this book, because the Chinese chroni- 

 cler has said nothing of all these to the trans- 

 later and compiler. 



It is greatly to be desired that some competent 

 scholar should make a careful study of Chinese 

 pohtical history and institutions, in the spirit in 

 which Sir Henry Maine has studied the institu- 

 tions and laws of ancient and mediaeval Europe 

 and of India. There is reason to hope that not a 

 httle light could be thrown by such study on 

 certain European institutions and traditions. Why 

 should not the careful investigation of Chinese 

 feudalism, which had run its course, and perished 

 centuries before feudahsm sprang up in Europe, 

 yield results most interesting to the student of 

 European feudalism ? Why should not the care- 

 ful study of the village organization in China, 

 which probably has scarcely changed for three 

 thousand years, add to the light which Mr. Maine's 

 study of the viUage communities in India has 

 thrown upon the primitive life of Europe ? Who 

 that has observed the common responsibility of 

 the dwellers in a Chinese street, for the preserva- 

 tion of order in that street, has not been reminded 

 of the old Saxon frank-pledge ? Is the resemblance 



Ahriss der geschichte Chirm's seit seiner entstehung. 

 Nach cbinesischen quellen iibersetzt und bearbeitet von 

 Sigmund Ritter von fries. Wien, Frick, 1884. 



accidental, or is there an historical basis for it? 

 The day cannot be far distant when western 

 scholars will be giving to such subjects the atten- 

 tion they deserve. A profound knowledge of the 

 Chinese language, exhaustless patience in ransack- 

 ing the voluminous literature of China, and a 

 thorough investigation of existing usages and laws 

 in towns and villages of China, will be necessary 

 for the successful prosecution of such work. But 

 the facilities for mastering the language are now 

 so great, and the opportunities for coming into 

 close contact with Chinese life and thought are so 

 rapidly increasing, that the younger scholars need 

 not despair of accompUshing what has hitherto been 

 impossible, but what may prove a most valuable 

 contribution to the history of institutions. 



James B. Angell. 



PROD UCTIVENESS. 



There are many problems of a biological nature 

 which, when applied to man in particular, assume 

 an economic aspect. The statistics of the birth 

 and death rates, of the growth of populations, 

 of the number of children per marriage, and so 

 on, belong to the biologist as well as to the i)ohti- 

 cal economist. The interest of the former is a 

 little broader, because similar statistics for other 

 animal species would have considerable value for 

 him, while the economist would hardly care to 

 spend time on this side of the question. Owing to 

 this close relation of these biological and economic 

 questions, it sometimes happens that the latter tries 

 to answer the question about which the biologist 

 is the judge, or vice versa. The last French census 

 has given the economists a chance to reproach 

 France with the charge of sterility, implying as it 

 does that the sterility is the result of volimtaiy 

 determination. M. Gaetau Delaunay^ denies the 

 justness of this reproach, and holds that the 

 decrease in productiveness observed in the 

 French people is a biological fact which must be 

 explained by an examination of the natural con- 

 ditions which control the production of offspring. 



The lower species of plants and animals are 

 more fertile than the higher. The female of the 

 white ant lays 60 eggs per minute ; a queen bee 

 deposits 5,000 to 6,000 eggs amiuaUy. In verte- 

 brates, fecundity diminishes as we rise from fishes 

 to reptiles, from reptiles to bnds, from bnds to 



1 Revue scientifique, Oct. 3, 10, 1885. The editor of the 

 Revue scientifique records in a footnote the death of M. 

 Delaunay just as these papers went to press. 



