446 



SCIENCE. 



|Vol. VII., No. 171 



the individual aptitude, and the proportions of 

 carbohydrates and albuminoid matters must bear 

 mutual relations dependent more or less upon 

 physiological processes. Too strong or too feeble, 

 as regards the digestive power of the individual 

 considered, the proportion of the carbohydrates 

 exerts an influence either upon its own digesti- 

 bility or upon that of the albuminoids which ac- 

 company it ; and in either case it has a depressing 

 effect upon digestion. But, as regards a regimen 

 preventive or remedial of obesity, the case is dif- 

 ferent. It is evident, that, if the formation of 

 fat is dependent upon carbohydrates, a diet com- 

 posed largely of them, so often practised, can only 

 be an error so far as obesity is concerned. 



A DARING ECONOMIST. 



This is a day of free lances in political economy. 

 Its doctrines, its premises, its methods, are being 

 subjected to every conceivable kind of criticism ; 

 but, of all the kinds, that represented by Mr. 

 Patten's book is perhaps the rarest. He adopts 

 the deductive method of English political econ- 

 omy, and in the main adopts also its premises ; 

 but by throwing special emphasis on such of 

 these premises as he conceives have been insuf- 

 ficiently borne in mind, as well as by insisting on 

 some others which he himself introduces, he 

 arrives at most important conclusions very much 

 at variance with those commonly accepted. But 

 it is not so much this position which we have 

 just outlined that makes the book somewhat ex- 

 ceptional, as the fact that Mr. Patten unquestion- 

 ably understands the doctrines which he criticises. 

 Not only does he understand them, but he gives 

 ample evidence of such logical acumen and. 

 I>ractical insight as might fit him to contribute 

 to the improvement and extension of economic 

 knowledge. Yet we are compelled to say that 

 his book, on the whole, is most unsatisfactory ; 

 that while a reader who is well versed in econom- 

 ic theory, and who keeps himself constantly on 

 fche guard against the author's calm confidence 

 in the completeness of his own argument, may 

 find in it some suggestions which would repay 

 attentive study, to the general reader it is full of 

 snares and pitfalls. 



We have touched upon the secret of the au- 

 thor's failure to produce a sound contribution to 

 economic criticism. He seizes upon a feature 

 which seems to him to have been slighted by 

 previous writers ; he drags it to the light, and 

 wishes to compel a recognition of its importance 



The premises of political economy ; being a re-exami- 

 nation of certain fundamental principles in economic 

 science. By Simon N. Pattkn. Philadelphia, Zdppincott, 

 1885. 12°. 



in order to give the theory a completeness which 

 it did not before possess ; in his eagerness to do 

 this, he comes to look upon his own supplement 

 as the complete doctrine ; and what in due sub- 

 ordination to the old teachings might have been 

 a useful idea, becomes in this way a source of 

 confusion and paradox. The author, moreover, 

 exhibits a large share of that quality which has 

 so frequently destroyed the utility of economic 

 writing, — a disposition to exaggerate the differ- 

 ences between his own views and those of previous 

 writers, — and, in his ardent pursuit of the conse- 

 quences of a pet notion or discovery, loses sight 

 of the principles which he elsewhere shows he 

 has understood. The only safeguard against de- 

 fects of this sort is a profound sense of one's own 

 liability to err in matters of so subtle and com- 

 plicated a nature as those with which our author 

 deals, and such a feeling of respect for the great 

 thinkers of the past as would compel one to ex- 

 amine a question most carefully from every point 

 of view before deciding that they were in the 

 wrong. This is not the spirit that animates Mr. 

 Patten : his book is full of bold statements of fact 

 and theory, for which the author seems to think 

 that no further justification is necessary than that 

 they fit in easily with the general considerations 

 which, from his point of view, are most promi- 

 nent. The result is, that, in addition to a sketchi- 

 ness and incompleteness quite inconsistent with 

 the weighty character of the subjects discussed, 

 the book is marked by logical oversights of the 

 gravest nature, which almost or quite neutralize 

 the effect of the author's ability. 



To justify this estimate of his book by an ex- 

 amination of the several arguments advanced by 

 Mr. Patten would require an amount of space 

 not much less than that occupied by the book 

 itself. We must confine ourselves to one or two 

 illustrations. The first chapter is devoted to a 

 criticism of the Ricardian doctrine of rent. The 

 principal objection here advanced against the 

 theory rests on the fact that the extension of the 

 field of cultivation requires an initial expenditure 

 for clearing the land and fitting it for agriculture. 

 This expenditure will not be incurred unless the 

 owner can expect to receive as rent the ordinary 

 profit on his initial expenditure of capital ; but, 

 the expense once incurred, the land will not be 

 withdrawn from cultivation as long as it can 

 merely yield the usual return for the labor and 

 capital annually expended upon it. "It is clear, 

 therefore," says Mr. Patten, ' 4 that the laws which 

 regulate the bringing of new lands into cultiva- 

 tion, and those according to which land will be 

 withdrawn from cultivation, are very different, 

 and that there is a large margin within which the 



