One of the most successful portions of the work is that which deals with statistical method, the graphical representation of populations, and the classification of races; and this second volume offers a convenient résumé of these subjects. But it is a book for the expert statistician and geographer, contrasting in some respects with the work of Professor Oscar Peschel. Some results obtained by the latter might be used with profit to supplement portions of Professor Ratzel's work. For example, the effect of coast lines upon the development of the art of navigation would materially broaden the scope of the chapter upon coasts and rivers. There are admirable chapters upon the effect of climate, mountains, rivers and seas upon social evolution, although we should hesitate to credit too close a connection between the ruling rate of wages and climatic conditions. It savors of the conclusions in the History of Civilization in England. The chapter upon the growth, localization and constitution of cities, forms one of the best parts of the second volume.

It should finally be noted that for the sociologist these volumes contain an immense mass of material which has never before been put together. They should serve as the groundwork on the one hand for a broader social science, and on the other for a keener appreciation by geographers of the true place of their science in its relations to man. WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE

OF TECHNOLOGY.

La Population, les Causes de ses Progrès et les Obstacles qui en Arrêtent l'Essor. Par ÉDOUARD VAN DER SMISSEN. Paris, Guillaumin, and Bruxelles, Société Belge de Librairie, 1893. 8vo, 564 pp.

Histoire de la Population Française. Par Lucien Schöne. Paris, Arthur Rousseau, 1893.

The somewhat startling returns of birth rates in France disclosed by the census of 1890 led the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences to choose "Population" as the subject of competition for the Rossi prize in 1891. Two of the works presented appeared so nearly equal in merit that both were crowned, and both have since been published under the titles above.

M. Van der Smissen's bulky volume is composed of an introduction and three parts, entitled respectively "An Historical Sketch of the Movement of Population," "The Laws of Malthus" and "The Population Question in the Nineteenth Century."

In his "Introduction" the author points out the importance of the general subject and the attention it excites among scholars and statesmen. Exaggerated views find expression in the writings of two types of alarmists, those who fear over-population and those who expect depopulation. M. Van der Smissen is by no means a Malthusian, but he vicariously assumes the defense of Malthus from his friends, showing that he never supposed that the tendency to over-population would not cease. The error of Malthus consisted in not recognizing, as did Bastiat, the essential harmony of natural with economic laws, and in failing to understand that the increase of population, in its development of economic activities, solves the problem of subsistence. Historically speaking, human fertility has not been responsible for famines or for the foundation of colonies in ancient, mediaval or modern times. Imperfect transportation facilities, on the one hand, and political or commercial motives, on the other, furnish the explanation. Neither should the tremendous increase of population during the present century inspire disquietude. Never has the lot of the humblest been so favorable as now; nor is the subsistence question likely to present difficulties while the United States has but two and one-half inhabitants per square mile, South America, one and one-quarter, Australia, an inhabitant to every one and nine-tenths square miles, and Africa is left out of the account. Commercial intercourse has not yet been developed to the farthest point, nor has final utility in connection with drainage, fertilizing and irrigation been reached.

In dealing with the exponents of the depopulation theory, the author is particularly severe. He calls them a disgrace to demographic science, and exhorts them earnestly in many pages to give up their doctrinal heresies.

The historical sketch begins with the family institution in antiquity, and closes with the eighteenth century. Only salient facts are treated, and the moral seems to be the utter futility of legislation to accomplish directly an acceleration in the movement of population. It was as impotent in the reign of the early Roman emperors, as in the days when the soft-hearted Prussian monarch reduced by royal decree the period of mourning for widowers to three and of widows to nine months, and England's precocious minister offered his celebrated premium on large families, which Herbert Spencer avers to have been the prime factor in quadrupling the poor-tax during the succeeding half-century. In the movements of population economic motives are fundamental, though

as societies advance to a higher plane, social and social-economic considerations have increasing weight. Legislation influences indirectly by inducing changes in the institutions, habits and, above all, in the economic opportunities of the people.

The second book is devoted to Malthus and his theories. It is pointed out that he was influenced largely by the thought of his time. In economic circles the population question was much discussed during the second half of the last century, and it was against the extreme optimism of the period that Malthus raised his voice. His theory of population must be regarded as an aggressive protest against what for more than half a century had been regarded as dogmatic truth. Our author does not share the views of Malthus to any considerable extent, and his lack of faith is contained in an elaborate, though not especially novel, criticism.

In Book III the author discusses a great variety of topics relating to the development and the movement of population in this century, classifying the phenomena into economic, social and legislative. The second category seems to embrace everything not specifically included in the other two. Fecundity of marriage, in comparison with economic circumstances, is a prominent theme, and it is to be regretted that the author has confined himself, in discussing it, almost wholly to France, whose position, as every economist knows, is quite exceptional. The data treated do not certainly furnish a broad enough basis for generalization. The writer has hazarded an opinion which at first blush would seem the height of folly in a candidate for favor before a body of French economists. He asserts that sometimes there is as much virtue in a numerous family as in a savings-bank account, considered as a measure of prudential economy. What gave him courage to write this does not appear from the text.

Under the head of economic influences he discusses emigration and colonization, progress in agriculture and industry and the condition of wage-workers. Opportunities for economic activity, the author concludes, are the mainsprings of development.

The chapters on legislative influences are specially conceived for the existing situation in France. The great end to accomplish is to induce married couples to have children, and this can best be done, Mr. Van der Smissen thinks, in the first place by a thorough revision of prevailing fiscal laws, some incongruous effects of which he has aptly illustrated. Another important reform is to institute a tax on inheritances at the following rates:

In cases of a bequest of $1,000,000, the scheme would operate thus :

Family of one child, heritable portion, $900,000, state tax, $100,000.

The third leading suggestion the writer makes is that France should do all in her power to attract and assimilate immigration. As regards the effect of the laws of succession in France, the author does not share the opinion of the Le Play school, that they are the principal cause of the small families among the bourgeoisie. He thinks, however, that the quota over which the right of free disposition is retained should be enlarged.

To estimate the scientific value of books upon which the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has set its seal would seem to be superfluous, if not rank presumption. Nevertheless, I venture to remark upon their character, if not their quality. Both follow closely the historical method, and have greater value as expositions than as philosophical treatises. Perhaps it is not the authors' fault that so much matter stands between quotation marks; for the academy expressly requested that the opinions of leading economists and writers should be made known. But we cannot so readily pardon the limited use of statistics, which in the treatment of a subject of this kind are indispensable.

Taken all in all, Mr. Van der Smissen's work justifies the distinction that has been accorded him, as the academic successor, partially at least, of his former instructor, the late Professor Émile de Laveleye.

M. Schöne's work has come so recently into the hands of the reviewer that no exhaustive notice of it can now be given. It contains a suggestive preface by Professor E. Levasseur, whom so many Americans delight to remember. Professor Levasseur quotes approvingly the sentence which is the key to M. Schöne's position: "The quota of influence upon population from laws and regulations is unimportant; that from science increases with each generation." E. R. L. GOULD.

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.

International Statistical Institute: Papers presented at the session in Chicago, September, 1893. Publications of the American Statistical Association, No. 24. Boston, 1894.-8vo, 186 pp.

The International Statistical Institute holds a meeting once in two years. In previous years it has visited London, Rome, Paris and Vienna. The session at Chicago, although not largely attended by the foreign members, was a noteworthy gathering for the United States, and maintained, in the papers submitted and the discussion. which followed, a high scientific character. The American Statistical Association took charge of the preliminary printing of papers for the use of the members, and has now gathered these papers together into a volume. This will not supersede the regular printed "Transactions" of the institute, but will anticipate it, and present the most important papers in a form more accessible to the American reader.

Naturally, the papers by Americans are most numerous in the list, on account of the holding of the session here. Among the foreigners, Levasseur is represented by an admirable report on the "Statistics of Primary Education," and Körösi, of Budapest, by a valuable proposition for an "International Mortality Standard or MortalityIndex," a subject which has been engaging the attention of vital statisticians in Europe for some time. Mr. A. E. Bateman, of the British Board of Trade, reported on the "Comparability of Trade Statistics" of various countries, and Dr. Mandello explained the "Currency Reform in Austria-Hungary."

Among the American papers the most generally interesting, perhaps, would be the five on anthropometric statistics, brought together under the direction of Dr. Edward M. Hartwell of Boston. They show the growth of the science in America, and some of the results already attained. Professor Henry C. Adams gave a valuable paper on "Railway Statistics in the United States," which was supplemented by two or three papers on practical railroad statistics by men engaged in the business. Other papers were on "The Course of Wages in the United States since 1840," by Carroll D. Wright; "Prices," by F. W. Taussig; "Geographical Distribution of Population in the United States," by Henry Gannett. There are twenty papers in all. Most of them have particular reference to the United States. It may be doubted whether any more important collection of essays, from the statistical point of view, has ever been issued in this country. RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH.