revolutions in Europe, the months of June and July have the largest share; November and January, the smallest. So, too, heat is a factor. Southern countries (Italy, Spain, Greece) have the largest number of revolutions: northern countries (Russia, Sweden, Norway) have the least. Geographical position and other physical causes could be added. As social causes, Dr. Lombroso regards the struggle for supremacy among the various social castes or classes, a disharmony between the existing civilization and the prevalent economic conditions, an opposition between the political forms and the national feeling and needs. Such are the more constant occasions of revolutionary outbreaks, as shown in history. Mere accidental circumstances, such as the appearance of a great leader or writer, must also be considered.

Finally, the following are the prominent anthropological causes: the co-existence of races not readily assimilated, with, perphaps, a tendency to political changes; hereditary anomalies of character, such as criminality and moral insanity; or acquired anomalies, as alcoholism and insanity. All these go to form three classes of political defectives, - criminals by heredity, by habit, and by mental disease. These have furnished the subject-matter to the new science of criminal anthropology.

One must not suppose, that, because these criminals are classed under the insane, they will not be active in political crimes; for though they may be men of small intellect, yet the absence of the restraining power of a well-developed moral sense makes the bridge between thought and action shorter and smoother. A mere fanciful conception of possible crimes will take so strong a hold on their minds that the act itself will follow. More sensible and reflecting criminals would be repelled by the consequences and dangers of the act. In addition to this class of criminals, who become breakers of the peace simply because that happens to be the most accessible method of venting their perverse instincts, there is another class, who are led on by a wild passion for the destruction of the old, and the creation of something new. They need restless activity: their present condition seems the worst possible. As a rule, too, they are very fond of notoriety. They are in love with crime. The pain of others is a keen satisfaction to them: its horror attracts them. The French revolution shows such types. jeune made a little guillotine, and used it on the chickens destined for his table. Jean d'Heron wore a human ear as a cockade on his hat, and had others in his pockets. Carrier confessed that the writhings of the priests whom he condemned to torture gave him exquisite pleasure.

Le

The modern socialists, anarchists, and dynamiters no doubt contain an element of these hereditary criminals, who use the political object as a mask for their instinctive tendencies to lawless outbreaks. The socialistic and the criminal types of face present strong resemblances. In some cases the introduction of such a criminal element transforms a purely political organization into a band of outlaws: the Molly-Maguires are an example of this.

All these facts urge the study of these defective classes. Society has a right to defend itself against these enemies of all peace and progress. But the punishment must be directed to the removal of the evil. The born criminal can readily be detected: his craniological peculiarities, the absence of a moral sense, the reckless cruelty of his deeds, point him out. The treatment for these must aim at removing all opportunities of indulging their passions, for meeting others of their kind (for the epidemic contagion of this disease is one of its worst characteristics), for bringing into the world others fated to follow in their footsteps. For their children, houses of correction and careful discipline should be at hand.

The relation between insanity and crime is one both of cause and of effect. Esquirol has shown an increase of insanity and suicides at each outbreak of the French revolution. Lumier declares that the excitements of 1870 and 1871 were the more or less indirect causes of seventeen hundred cases of insanity. This simply means that the same morbid element, tending to pronounced insanity in one direction and to pronounced criminality in another, is brought to the front by a common cause. Very frequently, too, both tendencies can be seen in the same individuals. Marat, for example, had attacks of maniacal exaltation, and a passion for continually scribbling. He had a sloping forehead, was prognathous, had a prominent jaw and high cheek bones, and a haggard eye, all of which correspond closely with the insane type of face. Later his delusion of ambition changed into one of persecution and homicidal monomania. Dr. Lombroso cites case after case, all telling the same story. He includes Guiteau in this list, and agrees with the opinion of an Italian alienist, that his trial was simply 'scandalous.' The real place for such beings is in a much needed institution, - an asylum for insane criminals.

A few words as to criminals who have acquired their sinful traits. Alcohol is the most common This always plays a prominent role in political outbreaks: the French revolution is no exception. Here is another great practical problem needing solution.

So very hasty a sketch of an important theory is necessarily unsatisfactory. It may serve, however, to call attention to the fact that a change in our view of crime and criminals seems about to take place.

The several interests involved in this change of view are many and important. When a chemist is called to court to give expert testimony, the law accepts the results of science as final; but when the doctor testifies, it is at once evident that the medical and legal points of view are essentially different, and in conflict with one another. The law is interested only in the question of responsibility, and demands a 'yes' or 'no' when a truly scientific answer cannot be given in that form. A medico-legal case almost always presents strange inconsistencies. The law should certainly be as ready to accept the testimony of science from the doctor as from the chemist, and should remember that they may both be equally valuable though not equally definite. If such views as these urged by Dr. Lombroso ever become the guiding principles of the law courts, a great and beneficial change in the treatment of alleged insane criminals is sure to follow. Our knowledge of these marked classes is becoming sufficiently accurate and scientific to warrant a practical application of these views in the legal trials, and a theoretical appreciation of them in our theories of ethics. J. JASTROW.

ANNALS OF THE CAKCHIQUELS.

THE above forms the sixth volume of the editor's 'Library of aboriginal literature,' and contains a portion of a manuscript termed by Brasseur de Bourbourg, its former proprietor, Mémorial de Tecpan Atitlan.' Its language is the Cakchiquel dialect of the wide-spread Maya family: it was composed by various members of the Xahila (a clan or family once ruling among that tribe) during the sixteenth century, and brought into its present form, as Dr. Brinton assumes, between 1620 and 1650. Only that half of the manuscript was published by him, with translation, which refers directly to the legendary and documentary history of the tribe.

There are three ways open for the publication of linguistic manuscripts of this sort. The first is to print the text, tel quel, with all its faults and inconsistencies; the second, to emend the faulty text according to the grammatic laws observable in the language, and to place the readings of the original, where they differ from the corrected forms, on the lower margin. A third mode of

The annals of the Cakchiquels. By DANIEL G. BRINTON. Philadelphia, Brinton, 1885. 8°.

proceeding, and the most scientific of all, would be to embark for Guatemala, and there to compare the old text with the pronunciation and wording which the actual Cakchiquels would give to it. This would enable the editor not only to present the text in a scientific alphabet, but also to add a correct translation to it.

But none of these three courses was followed by our editor. The inconsistent orthography of the original prompted him to adopt the first two courses simultaneously and eclectically, and thus he succeeded in producing confusion in the text. His excuse (p. 63) is, “I have felt myself free to exercise in the printed page nearly the same freedom which I find in the manuscript. At first, this will prove somewhat puzzling to the student of the original. In the punctuation I have also been lax in reducing the text to the requirements of modern standards."

Not less unfortunate than this method is the incorrectness of his proof-reading; for on p. 107 we find the proper name Vookaok correctly written, but on p. 110 he prints it ahauh voo kaok; the adverb mahaniok (p. 66) appears in the vocabulary as mahanick; the Greco-English term allophylic (p. 196) as allophyllic; and in two French quotations from Brasseur's translation he finds himself prodigiously at variance with French accentuation (pp. 197, 206). The appended 'Notes' convey very little information on grammatic or other subjects which we have to know before we can understand the text, and the condition of the vocabulary is very unsatisfactory. We look in vain for the terms petebal, navipe, onohel, granel (the name of a month); and even some of the frequently occurring numerals, as vuo-o, voo ('five'), are not entered. The translation is a mere paraphrase full of gaps, and the text as printed does not by any means render justice to its highly interesting contents, which, in their historic importance, are second only to those of the Popol Vuh.

PROFESSORS AYRTON AND PERRY, the English electricians, have accidentally observed that on amalgamation, or coating with quicksilver, brass expands; so that, if one side only is amalgamated, a plate of brass becomes curved. They imagine that this may be the primary cause of the phenomena of the Japanese 'magic mirror,' which has cast on its back a pattern that is quite invisible on the polished face, yet is mysteriously distinct in the patch of light reflected by the mirror upon a screen. Amalgamation would affect the thinner parts made by the pattern more than the rest of the plate, giving the mirror the imperceptible unevenness that becomes plainly apparent in the reflected image.

FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1886.

COMMENT AND CRITICISM.

NOT INFREQUENTLY STATEMENTS APPEAR of the death of some individual who has passed his hundredth year. The evidence in these instances of great longevity is, as a rule, exceedingly unreliable, and oftentimes there is not so much as an entry in a family Bible upon which to rest the claim. Professor Humphrey of England has determined to investigate, so far as he can, these reported cases, and is now collecting the information from every available source. While there can be no doubt that there have been many true claimants to the title of centenarians, yet it will probably be found, as a result of Professor Humphrey's labors, that a not inconsiderable number have falsely or ignorantly laid claim to an honor which they did not deserve.

THE EXAMINATION OF THE BRAIN of the late King of Bavaria by six of the medical profession of Germany has resulted in confirming the opinion of his physicians given during his lifetime, that he was insane. Marked changes of the brain substance and its membranes, and also of the bones of the skull, were found; some of them showing evidences of having existed for a considerable time, and others of more recent formation. These signs of degeneration, coupled with the idiosyncrasies which marked the later years of his reign, leave but little room for doubt as to the insanity of King Louis.

FROM TIME TO TIME epidemics of scarlet-fever more or less extensive have been traced to the dairy. The usual history has been that of some attendant, while convalescing from the disease, and before the skin had thoroughly desquamated, being found in the act of milking. Portions of skin containing the infectious material have thus found their way into the milk, and the disease has appeared among the consumers. Another method by which this disease may be propagated has just been brought to light by Professor Cameron of London. He finds that the cows them

No. 179.-1886.

selves may have scarlet-fever; and in an epidemic recently investigated by him, this was, in his opinion, the source of infection in a family attacked with the disease. Dr. Cameron regards it as occurring usually in the first instance in newlycalved cows, and communicated to healthy cows by the hands of those who do the milking. The symptoms in the cow are very similar to those observed in the human species, including fever, sore throat, discharges from the nostrils, and an eruption upon the skin.

THE SEARCH FOR THE GERM of hydrophobia, or rabies as it should more properly be termed, has up to very recent date been unsuccessful. The London Lancet announces that Dr. Dowdeswell claims to have found it in the central canal of the spinal cord and in the medulla oblongata. He has also found it in other parts of the brain and cord, but not in such abundance. He describes it as a micrococcus, and accounts for the failure of others to find it, by the fact that the hitherto known methods of staining will not affect it. He will shortly describe his own method, and an opportunity will then be given to experts to examine the evidence on which he bases his claim: until then the matter remains sub judice.

THE FIELD-WORK of the coast and geodetic survey is almost at a standstill, owing to the lack of money to conduct it. Only those parties are at work which had been sent out prior to the close of the fiscal year. The parties on the transcontinental are will be put in the field as soon as the appropriation passes. All the parties from the south are now in, except those of Assistant Hodgkins, who has been detained at Cape Lookout by bad weather, which has prevented his making a survey to show the changes in that locality, which, from casual observations and a partial report by Mr. Fairman Rodgers, are very great. This form of delay in work is common to all the government departments, first to one and then the other, when the proper committees fail to do their work promptly. Some delay may be justifiable under the conditions; but it is none the less injurious.

THE PLANTING AND EXHUMING OF A PRAYER.

IT may not be known to all the readers of Science that Mrs. Colonel Stevenson brought with her from New Mexico last autumn, Wa-Wah, a Zuñi woman, the most expert weaver and potter in her pueblo, and one of the five priestesses of the order of Ko-Ko.

For six months this woman has taught her patroness the language, myths, and arts of the Zuñis, - now explaining some intricate ceremony, at another time weaving belt or blanket under the eye of the camera, or with wonderful dignity and self-possession moving among the most enlightened society of the metropolis.

As the season of the summer solstice, or, more correctly, the summer moon, approached, WaWah expressed the greatest anxiety to join with her distant people in the semi-annual plumeplanting, the other festival occurring at the time of the winter moon. Letters were written to New Mexico, and the very day ascertained upon which the ceremony would take place in Zuñi (see accompanying plate, fig. 1).

Wa-Wah was all excitement to make her preparation of meal, sticks, paint, and feathers. All of these were abundant enough in the stores, but nothing of that kind would suffice. Various diplomatic schemes were tried, but her heart was fixed. The prayer must be right to infinitesimal particulars, or she would have nought to do with it.

Meal must be mixed with powdered shells and turquoise; the treasures of the national museum had to be opened; and the very pieces of yellow, blue, and black pigment collected in former years by the Bureau of ethnology must be laid under contribution for the stems of the sacred prayersticks. Mr. Ridgway's department of ornithology was invoked to supply feathers of the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), the wild turkey (Meleagris mexicana), the mallard (Anas boschas), and the bluebird (Scialia arctica).

Fresh twigs from the cottonwood-trees were gathered for stems to the plumes. In the national museum are many boxes, said by the collectors to have been Zuñi plume-boxes (fig. 2), in which such treasures are kept. The plumes, which form the material instrument or accompaniment of the prayer we are describing, are made as follows: Take a straight piece of wood about the size of a lead-pencil and as long as the distance from the crease in the palm of the hand to the end of the middle finger. Make a slight incision around the : stick near one end. Take a short stiff feather of the eagle, the turkey, the duck, and the bluebird, and one or two downy feathers of the eagle.

Lay them together so that all the under sides will be toward the stick, and wrap their quill ends and the stick securely together with a cord made of native cotton, sufficiently long to leave free ends five or six inches in length after the tying. To these free ends tie another bunch of smaller feathers from the four kinds of birds (fig. 3). The upright feathers indicate the prayer as addressed to the sun, moon, and Ko-Ko; the trailing feathers, that the suppliant asks for help to walk in the straight path of Zuñi morality.

Ten plumes were thus finished on Friday, June 18, and dedicated to the several spiritual powers by painting the stems as follows:

1. Sun-plume. - Blue stem; feathers of eagle, duck, and bluebird on stem and streamer; 2. Moon-plume. Yellow stem; feathers of eagle, duck, and bluebird on stem and streamer; 3-6. Ko-Ko plumes. Black stems; feathers of eagle, turkey, duck, and bluebird on stem or streamer ; 7-10. Ancestral plumes. Black stems; feathers of eagle, turkey, duck, and bluebird on stem or streamer.

On Saturday, June 19, at two o'clock in the afternoon, in a retired garden in Washington, Wa-Wah performed the ceremony of planting the plumes. Her time was arranged so as to act simultaneously with her people at Zuñi.

A hole was dug six inches square and fourteen inches deep, three inches of loose earth being left in the bottom. Around the top for a foot or more the surface dirt was smoothed like a gardenbed. Meal mixed with powdered shells and turquoise was sprinkled freely about and in the hole. Wa-Wah, arranged in her best attire, holding all of her plumes in her left hand, kneeled by the excavation (fig. 4). Taking the sun-plume in her right hand, she prayed for the good influences of the sun upon herself, her people, the crops, and her friends, and then forced the blue stem into the loose dirt of the cavity on the extreme west side, the inner sides of the feathers toward the east. The prayer continuing, the moon-plume, then the four Ko-Ko plumes, and lastly the four ancestral plumes, were planted in order, all with feathers inclining eastward.

Wa-Wah then arose, drew forth her little bag of sacred meal, poured a small quantity into her own hand and that of each of her two friends, who were watching with the deepest interest. Each, in turn, sprinkled the meal over the shrine, blowing gently with the breath (fig 5).

The utmost sincerity manifested itself in every portion of this ceremony. It seemed to those who gazed in rapt silence at this simple devotion, that they were witnesses to the surviving worship of the primeval world.

It was necessary that the sunlight should look upon this prayer during the rest of the day; therefore every precaution was taken to protect the place from intrusion.

On Monday morning, with the consent of WaWah, the prayer-plumes, and the earth containing them, were carefully dug up, without disturbing a feather (fig. 6), and deposited in the national museum, perhaps the most unique object ever placed among its precious collections.

This ceremony has been carefully studied among the Zuñis by Mr. Frank Cushing and Mrs. Stevenson, and among the Navajos by Dr. Washington Matthews, all of whom will give more detailed descriptions, with translations of the prayers, in the future reports of the Bureau of ethnology.

C. S. national museum.

O. T. MASON.

CAN ECONOMISTS AGREE UPON THE
BASIS OF THEIR TEACHINGS?

ONE of the first and most obvious tests by which to determine whether men possess exact and reliable knowledge of a subject should be afforded by the agreement or disagreement of its recognized cultivators. I propose to show in the present paper that there is no sound reason why political economy should not favorably pass such a test. It is true that its cultivators differ both in the methods and objects of their studies. But such differences do not imply difference of views respecting either fundamental principles or conclusions.

Let us illustrate this by the case of physics. We have some writers and teachers of physics who prefer the experimental method. They teach principles by experiments, and lay little stress on mathematical deduction. Others teach the lead ing branches of the subject by mathematical reasoning, clothing their results in formulae and theorems.

But these two classes of teachers do not stand in any antagonism to each other, nor accuse each other of ignorance. Each class recognizes the fact that there can be no diversity between correct theory and experimental results, and gives the other credit for aiming at truth in his own way. It is very clear to them that they are viewing and approaching the same subject from different points.

So, also, there are some economists who lay most stress upon the general principles of the science and the conclusions to be deductively obtained from them. Others prefer to lay stress upon the observed facts of society and business, showing the student how to work out such the ories as may be founded on the facts he observes.

But it is an unpleasant fact that these two classes of teachers do not, like their brethren the physicists, mutually recognize each other as seeking and reaching valuable truths by different ways. Their attitude toward each other resembles that of the mediaeval philosophers more than that of the modern scientists. They divide themselves into 'schools,' each of which seems very unwilling to admit any truth in the system of the other. I hold that this state of things is a great drawback to the character and usefulness of economic science, and propose to inquire whether there is any necessity for its existence.

Since we must agree upon a common end, I shall assume such end to be the improvement of society, either by promoting such public measures and social movements as tend in that direction, or by discouraging and repressing those which tend to injure society. It is true that this is viewing the subject as an art and a policy rather than a science, and, in fact, taking a stand-point which detracts from its scientific dignity. But I am careful to say that this practical end is not the immediate subject which concerns us, but only the ultimate object which we may have in view.

Admitting, then, that a student desires to know what measures will benefit society, and what measures will injure it, how shall he proceed in acquiring that knowledge? I reply, he must be able to trace beneficial and injurious causes to their effects upon the social organism. If the knights of labor tell him that they want him to favor an eight-hour law, he wants to foresee what effect such a law will have on the interest of all concerned, - wage-workers, mechanics, men out of employment, and capitalists. So, also, when two opposing parties want him to vote for or against the coinage of silver, he cannot reach any intelligent conclusion unless he can foresee what effect free coinage or a cessation of coinage will have upon industry, commerce, and wealth. In a word, society being an extremely complicated and delicate organism, he must know what effects different causes may have upon it.

How shall he prepare himself for this great problem? I answer, that he must prepare himself as he would in the case of any other organism or machine: he must begin by understanding the anatomy and physiology of the social organism in its minutest details. Especially must he understand to what forces it is subjected, and what influence these forces have upon its workings.

Possibly we may here be met with the assertion that this is not a subject on which any exact knowledge can be acquired. There are respectable people, even teachers of economics, who seem to deny that they are dealing with a science. All