WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC PLAGIARISM P

613 with (as in Professor Lombroso’s case) the penalty of a considerable fine. True, in the vast majority of cases the "chivalry of science" accepts the general acknowledgment of indebtedness as covering all special obligations, and only where there are "strained relations " subsisting between individuals or schools (as the Italians say subsist between Continental practitioners are no doubt free to settle in this their countrymen and the French) is that’ acknowledgcountry, and though their names are not in the Medical ment deemed insufficient. The fact remains that it Register may attend all and sundry who seek their advice ; is in the power of a susceptible author to avail but this affords few opportunities for retaliation, as wealthy himself of such a plea as that which found favour invalids from abroad do not seek our shores in any consider- with the Rouen tribunal. Moreover, it is often very able numbers. The French and Swiss medical men will difficult to decide between two authors pursuing the same probably not be much the gainers by the fostering care of line of inquiry as to who has priority in observation or their respective Governments, for it is hopeless to expect discovery. Indeed, as research multiplies and workers that the average British tourist or valetudinarian can become more numerous in identical fields, the chances of be coerced into accepting more than an unavoidable coincidence in their findings are more and more apt to occur. minimum of attendance from an alien and unwelcome Are these coincidences to provoke collisions between rival adviser, and, on the other hand, when it has become evident claimants to priority ? The Cremieux-Jamin v. Lombroso that a lucrative practice awaits the man who possesses the case would seem to favour the possibility. Meanwhile the necessary personal and social qualifications, some ad- corollary to be deduced from it is nothing more or less than venturous Briton will succeed in obtaining formal recogni- a reinforcement of Professor Michael Foster’s demand for tion of his professional knowledge, and then with the law an international organisation of science to register at frequent on his side will have a practical monopoly of the coveted intervals the results of contemporary investigation, and so by harvest. placing the worker and his output en évidence to minimise the risk of retracing ground already trodden, and to make clear to the world of science what has already become common WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC PLAGIARISM P property and what still remains the possession of the original OuR Rome Correspondent writes:-This is an author. question, accentuated rather than solved by the legal answer THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE RUSSIAN just given to it by the Court of Appeal at Rouen. The ARMY. case before that tribunal was as follows : Professor Cesare Lombroso of Turin, the well-known anthropologist, was ALTHOUGH medical and sanitary statistics have long been invited by a publishing house in Milan to compile ain existence in the Russian army it is only of late years that manual on"Graphology," the science, truly or falsely sc- they have assumed a definite form, thanks chiefly to the called, which professes to read a man’s character in his hand-untiring efforts of Dr. Schmoulevitch, Privy Councillor, who, writing. Professor Lombroso had already been among thefor upwards of twenty years, has devoted himself with great first to make this an object of study-his special investiga-zeal and discretion to the improvement of this branch of tions having been made with a view to find anothermilitary and demographic science. In 1893 the effective aid to diagnosis in cases of lunatics and delinquents. In thestrength of the Russian Army amounted to nearly 1,000,000 manual compiled for the Milanese house he confined himselfof all ranks, the exact figures being 38,079 officers and to what had already been published by contemporaries (he937,471 men. The territory over which this large force is had no predecessors) on the same subject, and among othersdistributed is enormous, embracing well-nigh half the he made copious citations from the book of M. Cremieux- circumference of the globe from Poland to Behring’s Strait. Jamin, a dentist practising in Rouen. So little intention hadThe recruits are drawn from several distinct races he of plagiarising from this author that he acknowledgedspeaking different languages, and the entire force is to him in the preface, warmly eulogisingdivided into nineteen army corps which are quartered his M. Cremieux-Jamin’s talents and industry, and styling himin fifteen districts, ten being in Europe and five The number of troops in these districts the "first graphologist living." Unfortunately, in the chapterin Asia. dedicated to invalids and their handwriting, Professorvaries from 150,000 to a few thousands accerding to situaLombroso, in the midst of his own matter, interpolated three tion, the small garrisons occupying the more remote parts of pages from M. Cremieux-Jamin’s book, accompanied by three Siberia. Every year from 900, 000 to 1, 000, 000 recruits are small clichés, omitting at the same time to cite that author’s summoned for examination, but only about a quarter of the name, apparently a piece of sheer forgetfulness occasionednumber are chosen. It might, therefore, be supposed that by Professor Lombroso’s unsystematic mode of working, great strictness in selection was exercised, but apparently certainly not designed to injure M. Cremieux-Jamin’s claims, this is not the case. The Recruiting Commissions, each which had already been amply acknowledged under headings assisted by three medical men who may be either civil or of greater importance. This plea, however, was disallowed military, admit so many reasons for exemption in addition to by the Rouen tribunal, which found in those three physical defects, that fully 20 per cent. of the men who pages-and in those three only-a flagrant act of eventually join are said to be unfit for service. From 1890 plagiarism, while at the same time admitting that every to 1893, inclusive, the admissions to hospital varied from 468 other use made of the book by Professor Lombroso was to 397 per 1000 of strength, but if the cases treated " ù la within the limits of the law. The verdict seems to the Italian chambre"are included the total disability mounts up to 1914 public a somewhat ungenerous one, the offence of Professor per 1000 on the average of the four years. The principal Lombroso having been due to an obvious oversight, which an causes of non-effectiveness were as follows :-Paludal affeeapology tendered in open court ought surely to have condoned. tions 100, venereal diseases 40, gastro-intestinal catarrh 29, But the significance of the verdict does not stop there. bronchitis 24, eye affections 22, furuncles 15, pneumonia 10, Instances constantly occur in which after a general pleurisy 8, scabies 8, typhoid fever 7 to 12, scurvy 4-5, acknowledgment of indebtedness one scientific writer per 1000 of strength. Fifty years ago the mortality was makes free use of another’s work without suspecting that his said to be upwards of 37 per 1000, but the data are failure to give name, chapter, and verse on each individual open to question. By 1889-90 it had fallen to 7’83 and citation renders him liable to prosecution for plagiarism 7-73 respectively, and the following year there was a

easily beset the British practitioner ; and at home, as correspondent pointedly observes, medical men who be cone temporary residents at health resorts in the hope of benefiting by the climate or the waters do not, while living at an hotel, systematically engage in practice and compete with their local brethren. would

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