1GS 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII. , No. 159 



ward, and in rolling react upon the waves, each a 

 little ; but the aggregate is enough. 



Geo. F. Waters. 



The competition of convict-labor. 



In my criticisms of Mr. Butler's articles on this 

 competition, I have shown that his method of stating 

 the figures in totals, regardless whether these totals 

 are in that relation which is the question at issue, 

 namely in competition, is irrelevant. 



Now, in his last rejoinder (Science, vii. No. 158), he 

 brings some figures which are relevant in showing 

 this relation in two trades in New York, — hat and 

 shoe making. In the former, for the year 1879, the 

 ratio was 320 convicts to 5,267 free workers in the 

 first trade, and 1,927 convicts to 26,261 in the second. 

 The first ratio, he says, is ' about 4 per cent.' and 

 the second ' something over 4 per cent.' In addition 

 to questionable ethics and statistics already dis- 

 played, he now introduces very questionable arith- 

 metic : for in reality the first ratio is 6 45 per cent, 

 and the second 7.88. One who thus figures may well 

 have, as he says, ' some hesitation in adducing fresh 

 figures ' (' fresh ' in the sense of new, of course), ' for 

 fear they may be summarily rejected as useless.' 

 True, Mr. Butler, but not for the reason you give, — 

 " because they do not fit in some person's idea of how 

 the 'course of nature' ought to go." No 'person' 

 has said or implied any thing about ' ought ' in 

 relation to the ' course of nature ' or any other 

 relation. 



Those who are organizing the working-classes into 

 a political party, to obtain what they deem justice, 

 are in earnest. Only one who has not felt the dread- 

 ful sensation of being unable to sell his labor, when 

 that is necessary to sustain life, can realize the bitter- 

 ness and pain of such a situation. For every convict 

 whose labor-product is sold in the market, a free la- 

 borer becomes superfluous, and therefore fewer work, 

 or all are laid off temporarily, in that branch into 

 which the convict is introduced. Here the ' political 

 economist' of the prevailing order says, ' Find some- 

 thing else to do.' In most cases it is impossible. 



There is another evil effect on free labor, resulting 

 from prison-labor competition under any form ; and 

 that is, the effect it has to lower the rate of wages 

 in any branch it enters. It must gain its market by 

 underselling free-labor products ; and however small 

 the percentage, both as to its amount and of the 

 decrease of its price, it lowers the standard of prices, 

 including wages, in that entire branch. 



To the workingman, a market for his labor is neces- 

 sary to life : to the state, a profit from the prison is 

 not essential. 



Shylock, surely not an insane humanitarian, truly 

 says, "He takes my life who from me takes the 

 means whereby I live." E. Langerfeld. 



Is the dodo an extinct bird ? 



Have the recent excursions in theosophy, of my 

 young friend Dr. Shufeldt (see Mind in nature, 

 January and February), spoilt a very promising 

 ornithologist to the extent of making him mistake a 

 live Samoan tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigi- 

 rostris) for the astral body or the projection of the 

 double of a perfunct dodo (Didus ineptus) I 



Elliott Coues. 



Smithsonian inst., Feb. 14. 



Corrections of thermometers for pressure. 



The letter of Messrs. Venable and Gore in the last 

 number of Science, on the effect of pressure on ther- 

 mometers, contains a reference to the signal service, 

 of such a character as to deserve a brief notice. It 

 comes near leaving the impression that the service 

 has just begun to consider a phenomenon which has 

 been well known to most meteorologists, and to all 

 engaged in accurate thermometric research, for more 

 than fifty years. The letter, to which reply was sent 

 from the office of the chief signal officer, made 

 inquiry as to whether the service had ever published 

 any thing on the subject, how thermometers used on 

 Mt. Washington and Pike's Peak were compared with 

 standards, and requesting information on the sub- 

 ject. The particular phase of the question which 

 the service has 4 had under consideration' was, 

 whether the effect on the thermometers used in the 

 service was sufficient to justify the application of a 

 correction. To this end, some experiments had been 

 made, the results of which were communicated to 

 the writer of the letter. The correction necessary 

 for Pike's Peak, which is the most elevaced station 

 from which the service receives reports, amounts to 

 a few hundredths of a degree ; and the propriety of 

 its use is doubtful. The references quoted by the 

 writers of the letter in Science were furnished them 

 by the chief signal officer in his reply ; the paper 

 of Loewy and the memoir of Marck being quoted as 

 among the latest and most complete. The phenome- 

 non has by no means escaped the attention of 

 writers. Among works likely to be easy of access, 

 it will be found noticed in the 'American cyclopedia,' 

 ' Johnson's cyclopedia,' Deschanel's ' Natural philos- 

 ophy,' Balfour Stewart's ' Heat,' and doubtless many 

 others of that class. It is noticed in numerous 

 reports of the British association, especially in the 

 reports of the committee on underground tempera- 

 tures. One of the earliest investigations of the sub- 

 ject was by Egen (Pogg. ann. 1827). Sir William 

 Thomson considered it, and provided against it, in 

 1850, in his verification of Prof. James Thomson's 

 prediction of the lowering of the freezing point by 

 pressure. Professor Rowland considered it, and 

 allowed for it, in his research on the mechanical 

 equivalent of heat. In Nature (1873-74) it was 

 much discussed ; and of course it has been a matter 

 of vital importance in all modern deep-sea tempera- 

 ture-work, in the reports of wmich it receives full dis- 

 cussion. Sig. 

 Washington, D.C., Feb. 15. 



Tadpoles in winter. 



I have frequently observed tadpoles during winter, 

 in ponds that were entirely frozen over, swimming 

 about underneath the ice. Most of them were of 

 large size : I remember none being less than three 

 or four centimetres in length. 



Although, in this latitude, most of the frog-spawn 

 is deposited during the first warm weather of spring, 

 and the hatchings of these spawns develop into frogs 

 before the following winter, yet spawns occasionally 

 occur in late summer or early fall ; and the hatch- 

 ings of these late deposits fail to mature within the 

 same season, and consequently, in favored localities, 

 live until the following spring, when they transform 

 into frogs. C. C. Green. 



Mdidleport, O., Feb. in. 



