144 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 15S 



What is that ? There are differing schools or codes of 

 ethics both in theory and practice, and the only 

 sense that the term ' practical ' can be used in rela- 

 tion to ethics is that it may designate the kind of 

 ethics in practice in the time and place in question. 

 This in our country and time, and special field 

 involved, is the ruling order of political economy. 

 This is the practised one as opposed to the professed 

 one, which is Christian, and most decidedly different 

 from the former. 



He defends this questionable position with equally 

 questionable figures. There are no ' official ' figures 

 compiled by any such men as our practical politicians 

 (especially in matters where they may be assumed to 

 be interested) which any scientific man would accept 

 as evidence to controvert the constancy of the order 

 of nature. The assumption that contractors would 

 hire convicts in trades which are plentifully manned 

 by free laborers, except for the one reason, greater 

 cheapness, involves just such an infraction in the 

 order of nature as is expressed in the commonplace 

 reference to water running up hill. 



But even so, says Mr. Butler, the total proportion 

 of convict labor to free is only 1.1 per cent. " And 

 it is this minute percentage of competition that has 

 caused all the hue and cry against convict labor." 



This is a peculiarly misleading way of ' treating ' 

 the figures. The pressure of convict competition 

 has been felt in certain trades of certain localities, 

 such as shoe and hat making of the state of New York. 

 There the percentage has been large enough to 

 injure both employers and employed, and, if Mr. 

 Butler wishes to show the causelessness of the ' hue 

 and cry,' he ought to show the percentage in special 

 trades and localities. A shoemaker does not compete 

 with a tinsmith, nor does the purely local trade of 

 one locality interfere with that of another. 



It is true, however, that even the unaffected trades 

 have taken up the ' hue and cry ; ' and that is 

 because their ethics differ from the ' ruling school,' 

 where the principle, ' every one for himself,' is 

 held, and instead of that their ethical doctrine is, 

 ' an injury to one is the concern of all.' 



E. Langerfeld. 



Amongst a number of inferences, the above com- 

 munication contains one statement, and that not 

 bearing on the question of the general merits of the 

 contract system, but on its application to the hat and 

 shoe trades in the state of New York. Whether any 

 modification of the system in this point of its applica- 

 tion isadvisable, experience must determine ; perhaps 

 a restriction as to the number of convicts to be em- 

 ployed in any one industry would be desirable. 



The official figures as far as these two industries 

 are concerned are as follows. In 1879, 320 convicts 

 were employed in making hats in the state of New 

 York, while 5,267 free workmen were engaged in 

 the same industry ; thus the competitive force of 

 the convict labor was about 4 per cent. In 1879, 

 1 ,927 convicts — 1,885 males and 42 females — were 

 employed in New York prisons (at Sing Sing, Auburn, 

 and Clinton prisons, at the penitentiaries at Albany, 

 Brooklyn, Rochester, and Blackwell's Island, and at 

 the western house of refuge at Rochester) in the 

 manufacture of boots and shoes. According to the 

 census of 1880, 28,261 is the number of free laborers 

 at boot and shoe making in New York state. This 

 shows the competitive force of the convicts' labor in 

 this instance to be something over 4 per cent. This 

 amount is still small, though considerably greater 



than the figure (1.1) which we found to represent 

 the competitive force of all the convict labor in the 

 United States, without regard to particular industries. 



Your correspondent has selected that example in 

 •which competition is greatest, but even then 4 per 

 cent is the highest figure reached, and surely it is not 

 so very formidable. I have had some hesitation in 

 adducing fresh figures, for fear that they may be 

 summarily rejected as useless, because they do not fit 

 in with some person's ideas as to how the 4 course of 

 nature ' ought to go. 



Nicholas Murray Butler. 



The festoon cloud. 



I have been much interested in the recent articles 

 in Science on festoon clouds. In August, 1884, I 

 witnessed a remarkable exhibition of this description 

 over Vine} ard Sound, between the shoulder of Cape 

 Cod and Martha's Vineyard. It was in the morn- 

 ing, about nine or ten o'clock. The sky was over- 

 cast with clouds betokening a shower. A thunder- 

 cloud was in the north-west, from which occasional 

 mutterings were heard. High over the water was a 

 dark cloud, from which depended portious of the 

 cloud like great curtains. These depending portions 

 grew lighter in color, and thinner in texture, until, 

 when within about one hundred feet from the water, 

 they frayed out into a fringe-like appearance. 

 Between these curtains the atmosphere was com- 

 paratively clear, up to the dark cloud above ; but, as 

 the depending portions approached the dark cloud, 

 they grew in dimension and density, forming arches 

 from one to the other. The dark cloud extended 

 south-west and north-east in the direction of the 

 axis of Vineyard Sound, but the depending clouds 

 were at right angles to this direction. I secured a 

 sailboat, and sailed underneath these clouds, and the 

 display was truly wonderful. The fringing of the 

 lower portion of the depending clouds was very 

 beautiful, and the high arches between were impres- 

 sive. This exhibition was followed by a severe thun- 

 der-storm, as I remember. There seemed to be 

 currents of air of different temperatures, but, in the 

 absence of instruments, I was unable to make any 

 record of this. I recall that the wind was unsteady 

 and shifting at the surface, which required careful 

 management of the boat. J. M. Allen. 



Hartford, Conn., Feb. 6. 



Correction of thermometers for pressure. 



Imperfect instruments, faulty methods, and per- 

 sonal errors have caused the introduction of a great 

 many inaccuracies in scientific literature, and entailed 

 great labor in their correction and the repetition of 

 experiments. This is especially true in the case of 

 physical constants. It is manifest that in this work 

 of "redetermination the most painstaking accuracy 

 should be aimed at, and every possible source of error 

 avoided. Otherwise the work must be repeated at 

 some future day, and our theories based upon un- 

 certain constants will have but little force. 



It occurred to one of us (Dr.Venable) that a source 

 of error in thermometric readings, not generally cor- 

 rected for, might lie in the effect of pressure upon 

 the glass bulb containing the mercury. No reference 

 to any such corrections could be found in the books 

 at our command, and we resorted to experiment to 

 test the amount of the possible error. 



A few experiments, carried out with some fine 



