Excerpt from Science, Vol. 9
Vdriti sans feur. New York: The Science Company. Friday, January 7, 1887.Comment And Criticism. Students of the problems of taxation arer directing attention to a law imposing progressive taxation, lately passed in canton Vaud, Switzerland, and which will come into operation with the beginning of the new year. The practical working and effects of the law will be closely studied. The project is undoubtedly popular; for when put before the people, as is necessary for the enactment of a law in Switzerland, it was passed by very large majorities. This new Yaudois law divides real property into three classes, according as it falls below$5, 000, between$6, 000 and$20, 000, or over$20, 000 in value. The proportion of tax is to be 1 per 1, 000for the first class, Hper 1, 000for the second class, and 2 per 1, 000for the third class. Personal property falls into seven classes, the lowest class Being less than$5, 000 in value, and the highest over$180, 000. The rates of taxation on these classes are to be in the proportion of 1, H 2, 2 i, 8, 3, and 4, respectively, per 1, 000.Incomes from earnings are similarly put in seven classes; but, in estimating the amount to be taxed, a deduction is made amounting to$80 for each person legally dependent on the head of the family for his support. A great many theories as to taxation will be put to test by the operation of this law, and its outcome will be watched with interest. The system which Fechner deduced from the simple experiments of Weber has had the honor of exciting the criticism of nearly every eminent physiologist and physicist in Germany at one time or another during its brief career. Weber found, that, if you could just distinguish four ounces from five ounces, you could change the ounces to pounds without causing any change in the recognizabitity of the difference between the two weights. From this, with the aid of some hypotheses, Mr. Fechner deduced the psychophysNo. 90 S.1687. ical law that the sensation is proportional to the logarithm of the excitation. The system has been attacked on every side, and Fechner slast hope is that it will stand, because the attackers cannot agree upon the mode of destroying it. But a consensus is now forming on the mode of attack. Dr. Adolf Elsas, in a recent pamphlet, boldly upholds that the system is unscientific from the root; that it does jiot follow from Webers experiments except upon an unjustifiable assumption; and that no system of psychophysics, in Fechner ssense, is physically, mathematically, or philosophically possible. It is possible to state briefly where the confusion came in, viz., in mistaking the sensation of being different for a difference of sensation; but it is not possible to show in a few words how far-reaching the results of this misconception are. If a prediction is allowable, the statement may be hazarded that the outcome of the discussion will be a recognition of a valuable means of gauging the discriminative sensibility of the senses, the avoidance of many current errors in experimentation, and the conviction that it is as impossible to bridge the chasm between thought and nerve by psychophysics as by any other of the numerous methods that have been proposed. As we stated some time ago, the Kongo Free State has received a severe blow in the loss of the station at Stanley Pool. The official accounts of the affair have just reached us. It appears that the quarrel between Mr. Deane, an Englishman, who, with M.Dubois, commanded at the post, and the Arabs, was about a slave-girl who had sought refuge in the station. Notwithstanding the Arabs threats, the young Englishman refused to give up the girl. A peace was patched up for the time being; but it was only a ruse on the part of the Arabs. Later they made an unexpected attack, and were repulsed. But soon ammunition ran short The negro troops at the post took to their boats, and floated down stream to the next station of the association. Th. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Science, Vol. 9 (Classic Reprint) (John Michels)