Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/891

 REVIEWS 875

There is a measured sanity and balance in the descriptions which are in sharp contrast with the lurid, sensational articles which misrepre- sent the industrial situation and really defame the poor. The dark and discouraging facts are not hidden or toned down. The author is entirely faithful in dealing with the obstacles to progress, both in character and environment. But constant friendly relations with the struggling poor have revealed to her those remedial forces which give hope of success in all educational enterprises on behalf of the working people. C. R. HENDERSON.

La Population et le Systtme Social. Par FR. S. NITTI. Avec une preface de Rene Worms. Paris, V. Giard et E. Bricre, 1897. Pp. 276.

IN the preface M. Worms discusses the question of the relation of demography to sociology. The problem of population was first dis- cussed by economists as a chapter in political economy. Recently it has been taken up by the statisticians as a part of their science. But statistics is not a science ; it is a method of counting applied to social phenomena. There are two conditions for the existence of a state territory and population. The study of the former is social geography ; that of population is demography, one of the parts of social anatomy, and this includes social histology and even ethnography. But demography must deal with functions and growth as well as with parts and organs, and so it has intimate relations with social physiology.

The work of Nitti was published in Turin in 1894. The French translation has some important additions from the pen of the author. The dedication is addressed to Loria. The work is divided into two books, the first of which is historical, the second gives an exposition of the author's doctrine of population.

In the historical part (pp. 9-112) there is a treatment of the histor- ical causes of the principal economic doctrines of population. The author gives a brief summary of the positions taken by various writers from the ancients down to our own day. The economic doctrines arc regarded as reflections of the economical conditions of each period and of the optimistic and pessimistic Weltanschauung of each writer.

The second book is the argument of the author. A table is g; to show the " progressive abandonment" of the teaching of Malthus, and a survey presents the central ideas of Bodin, Suessmilch, Malthus,