Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/320

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

strated by Marcellus Malpighius, who was born the very year that Harvey's work was published, 1628.

I will conclude my long story by merely mentioning the discoveries of the lacteals, the receptacle of the chyle, and the lymphatics.

Harvey discovered the circulation in 1619, and published it in 1628. Aselli discovered the lacteals in 1622; Pecquet the receptacle of the chyle in 1648; Rudbeck and Thomas Bartholin the lymphatics between 1650 and 1652. This was a glorious period indeed!

Thus it came to pass that the united labors of all these worthy men—and labors they were, and worthy men were they—resulted in giving the world a simple, clear, and satisfactory solution of the manner of the circulation of the nutrient fluids of the body.

Next all-fools-day will be the tercentenary of Harvey, when all Christendom ought to be interested in the justice of his claims to the glory of consummating a discovery of so much consequence to mankind. No mere national pride should bias the minds of men whereby memorials may be placed at Rome, Pisa, and Bologna, in rivalry with that which is to be erected at Folkestone, in England, to commemorate the time and place of Harvey's birth.

OVER-CONSUMPTION OR OVER-PRODUCTION?

By O. B. BUNCE.

WHY does the prevailing business depression continue? Why are the times so "hard?" Why is the long-hoped-for revival of trade so backward? What is it that has put the times so disastrously out of joint?

Every one is asking these questions, and nearly every one is ready with an answer. Some will declare that the trouble is all of the green-backs; others will go so far as to affirm that the lack of greenbacks is the cause. Almost every one will assert that over-speculation has something to do with it: some will attribute the whole mischief to the intense railway "craze" of a few years ago, and the consequent losses. Not a few are confident that extravagance and over-trading are the explanation. There seems to be no general agreement of opinion; even men of equal business knowledge and experience differ essentially in their views as to the genesis and remedy of the evil, and the professors of political science are scarcely nearer of accord.

There has recently come from an eminent English authority in political economy an authoritative declaration in the matter. No one will deny that Prof. Bonamy Price's essay denominated "One per