Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/341

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 327

in German factories, exclusive of widows and divorced women; at present there are 170,000 married, widowed, and divorced women employed. They cannot be excluded except by state action. Even in England, the unions are not strong enough to secure their exclusion. Where the factory unions are strongest, married women are members, and resist excluding laws. The obstacles in the way of such legislation are the facts that numberless families would be rendered destitute where the husband is thrown out of work ; that means of accumulating savings would be removed ; and that, where women earn more than men, families would be deprived of more than half of their income. In countries where wages are higher this change would bring less immediate disaster ; and the increase of real wages about 100 per cent, in the last fifty years in Ger- many, gives hope that steps can be taken even there before long. Much could be done now, if compulsory insurance for loss of work prevailed, and if insurance for widows and orphans could likewise be made obligatory. Until such systems of insur- ance are perfected, German legislation in this direction will be impossible. RUDOLF MARTIN, " Die Ausschliessung der verheirateten Frauen aus der Fabrik," Zeitschrift fur die gesamtt Staatsu Drittes Heft.

Epidemics of Hysteria. There is a widespread opinion that nervous diseases, .illy hysteria, and the social movements growing out of these, are phenomena of recent occurrence. This is supposed to characterize every class of society, but espe- cially the educated, higher class. Max Nordeau is the protagonist of this widespread opinion. Hysteria has from the earliest times attacked the masses in the form of epi- demics, and so become of the highest significance and importance for the life of soci- ety as a whole. Religious enthusiasm and proneness to the mystic and the occult formed an important factor in ancient religions. But hysteria never found a more fer- tile soil than in the middle ages <>f northern Europe. The devil-delusion, the great hysteria in convents, and various other delusions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centu- ries are examples. These hysteria exercised a wonderful influence upon the whole met- aphysics, or view of the universe of that times The principal causes of the spread of epidemics of insanity are suggestibility, emotionalism, the impulse to mimicry, and the tendency to mysticism. DR. WILLIAM HIKSCH in Popular Science Monthly for August 1896.

Human Welfare and the Social Question (Third article). V. The Idea of Labor. Labor is a movement whose object lies outside of the self. Labor as labor is undesirable. Only desire is the ultimate end of human endeavor. An effort which it not itself a final end, as walking is, cannot be desired ; desire arises only through the expected results. Labor must be regulated by a useful product. Useful is only what has value in use; and only a product whose consumption produces immediate or medi- ate pleasure has value. The reward of labor is found not alone in material goods. It is to the interest of ethics and political economy to create more and more immaterial rewards for labor ; for a society in which the chief motive to labor is in material goods on sink to an animal existence. VI. The Idea of Capital. Capital is usually defined as the product of former work for future production. A product is consumed either in immediate use or further production. Hut the'enjoyment of eating or theater- may make new power for work. The definition il usually reckon it as < nlvthat which is stored for new production, and exclude the spiritual products which are of greater use in the new production. Enjoyment which m.. rk which follows it more intensive is capital. Both the material products which are consumed and the n power for work belong to capital. The concept depends on either subjective or al consideration.-. 'I lu- foiinrrare tin- individual elements, while the social are determined by the historical means of the development of socirtv. The mass of knowl- edge is necessary in order to transform the product in hand to another form. State control of production and consumption destroys the stimulus to activity. VII. The Idea of Value. It is often held that value v comparison; but a good may be determined as valuable without detenu mini: in every case a definite measure of its value. Every value stands against " unvalue," as love against hate. Every value rests upon pleasure, and everv unvnlue upon pain. We determine in one moment the