Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/723

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 707

Criminal procedure is dominated by the institution of the jury. But if the defend- ant has sufficient means, a trial can be long drawn out and a verdict had on the ground of formal errors. Criminal justice is thus often felt to be inadequate, and cases of lynching are not rare, especially in the southern states and in the cases of the negroes.

In regard to form as well as matter, statutory legislation leaves much to be desired; the lack of uniformity between laws of different states is sometimes striking; and as long as the methods of legislation are not greatly improved, it is to be hoped that legislatures will deal with private law as little as possible. — Dr. Ernst Frf-Und, " Government and Law in .\merica," in American Law Revieiu. January-February, 1900 (translated from Deutsche JuristenZeitung, Berlin).

The Genius of Invention among Women. — Nietzsche savs that woman has only to aspire to attain the same degree of mental superiority that her male contem- porary enjoys. Kn inspection of the products of the inventive powers of the female mind throws an interesting light upon this statement of Nietzsche. Among the articles and processes for which patents have been granted to American women we find a cor- set (in 1815 and again in 1841), an ice-cream freezer, building bricks to be used with- out mortar, various electric and extractive appliances, a washing machine, sub-marine telescope, shirt for men, rocking-chair, fountain-pen, locomotive wheel, operating table for use in surgery, various cosmetics, button-hole machine, and processes for the fixation of colors and the desulphurization of minerals. Among the most interesting is a hammock for two, a mud-guard for men's pantaloons, and a mustache protector. Previous to i860 the United States had granted to women less than a dozen patents, but in the last two decades the number of patents granted to women has risen above several hundreds. The greater part of the patents have been granted for articles of furniture, machines for cloth and fabric working, toys, musical instruments, pharma- ceutical preparations, household conveniences, and agricultural machines. The finan- cial returns from these patents is often considerable ; one woman realized five thousand dollars from her royalty on a glove buttoner ; another was not less successful with a corset support. The most remunerative articles have been games and children's toys. The commercial world is ever on the lookout for new productions in these fields and is willing to pay well for an invention which strikes the fancy of the buying public. Many women in the United .States have patented several articles and enjov comfort- able incomes from the sale of the same.

The French woman has certain natural gifts which would seem to fit her pecul- iarly to be the rival of her .\merican sister in the inventive field ; she is quick of eye and deft of hand ; she has a bright and flexible mind; but nevertheless she seems to lack something — mayhap the patience, mayhap the incentive — necessary to her suc- cess in the sphere of inventive genius. There is danger of overestimating her shortcoming in this respect, however. Very recently the French woman has shown great activity in perfecting inventions ; she seems about to dispute the field with her sisters of the far West, at least in point of number of inventions. The nature of the inventions must be confessed to be somewhat fanciful in many instances. Thus we find among the articles recently patented by French women a comb by means of which liquids can be more readily brought into contact with the scalp, a cigar wrapper made from compressed rose leaves, miie en seine fitted for the parodying of the serpentine dance by various animals, an aromatic antiseptic toothpick, a galvanic belt, an appliance for preventing the mispairing of overshoes, a vehicle for aerial and maritime navigation, a portfleur: in the shape of a butterfly, an appliance for writing in the pocket, a skirt for female bicyclists, and a surgical bandage. From this list it cannot be said that the inventive genius of the French woman has shown itself of an ultra-practical nature. The French woman shows herself particularly apt in the invention of articles of adornment and wearing apparel, and in the field of toys and games she is perhaps unexcelled. — Dr. A. DE Nei;ville, "De g^nie de I'invention chez les femmes," in Revue des revues, January, 1900.

Exact Methods in Sociology. — Exact method in social research is statis- tical. The development and application of this method to social problems has been one of the most striking scientific achievements of the present century. The whole