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 408 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

facts of daily business life and seeks to account for them. A good example of clear statement is the presentation of Bohm-Bawerk's theory of interest.

The definition of the scope of economics is worth considering : "Political Economy treats of men in their commercial and industrial activities from the standpoint of markets and values." The object of consideration is not things, goods, wealth, but human beings in a certain aspect, that is, as engaged in the pursuit or use of goods and services which have a market value. This is surely wide enough field for one discipline and there is distinct advantage in sharply distinguishing it from other fields. Of course room is left, after the science of wealth has marked out its plough land, for a "science of welfare." This is clearly expressed (p. 25) : "The commendable character of the desire in question or the good sense of its satisfaction is not suggested in the economic use of the word utility .... As long as men are influenced by evil purposes, or by ignorance, to buy and sell foolishness and evil, so long the student must recognize these desires as economic facts, and the commodities as of market standing. Whether we like it or not, utility, as an economic term, means merely adaptability to human desires." This frankly recognizes the urgent and pressing need for an objective, systematic investigation of social utility in the deepest sense, of the conditions essential to a welfare which is not deceptive, of desires which are not based on foolishness and evil. The "budding science" of sociology is an honest effort to supply this demand of rational and practical interest. It is to the praise of economists that in delimiting their own vast territory they reveal the need of a new method of regarding human life and even suggest its problems.

C. R. HENDERSON.

L Evolution regressive en Biologie et en Sociologie. Par MM. JEAN DEMOOR, JEAN MASSART et SMILE VANDERVELDE. Paris : Felix Alcan, 1897. J vol. in-8, de la Bibliotheque scien- tifique Internationale ', avec 84 gravures dans la texte, cart, a 1'anglaise. Pp. 324. Fr. 6.

THE biological analogy has here borne fruit in a volume by three Belgian professors, in which regression and atrophy of organs in plants and animals are compared in detail with the decay of social institutions and usages. The authors insist that the word evolution