bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
H. J. Davenport's Loan Fund Theory of Capital
Authors: Gunning J. Patrick
Published: June 2009

The loan fund theory of capital was developed by the unheralded American economist, Herbert J. Davenport (1861-1931). Davenport's name has virtually disappeared from writings on the history of economic thought. Today, he seems best known as a teacher of Frank Knight at Cornell around 1915. Davenport wrote three major books during an 18-year period between 1896 and 1914. The first (1896) was a treatise based on what he called the “principle of sacrifice,” or subjective opportunity cost. His second book, Value and Distribution (1908), covered much of the same ground but also presented some original contributions. It marked his emergence as a professional economist, since he presented his ideas within the context of an appraisal of classical and neoclassical economic doctrine. Among other things, the book contained a penetrating, subjectivist critique of four ideas in the history of subjectivist economics: marginal utility, Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk's theory of capital, Friedrich Wieser's theory of cost, and Frank Fetter's theory of market interest. It also introduced the loan fund theory of capital, which is the topic of this paper.
David Ricardo on Public Policy: The Question of Motive
Authors: Churchman Nancy
Published: June 2009

Among the most controversial of David Ricardo's contributions to policy debate was his scheme for the redemption of the public debt by means of a “capital levy,” a one-time tax on the property of the nation. Public debt policy had been the subject of sporadic debate throughout the eighteenth century, but faced increased scrutiny by the time Ricardo came to address the subject. While government revenues were suffering from the repeal of the temporary income tax which had been imposed during the Napoleonic Wars, revenue requirements remained high, as the savings in terms of military expenditures were being offset by the need to make interest payments on a debt which had grown during the latter years of the war. Ricardo's analysis of public debt was not novel; nor was the proposal for a capital levy to achieve its redemption.
Oskar Morgenstern and the Heterodox Potentialities of the Application of Game Theory to Economics
Authors: Innocenti Alessandro
Published: June 2009

In its brief history, the relation between game theory and economics has been characterized by phases of feverish elaboration of new contributions followed by periods in which an open skepticism concerning its usefulness prevailed. Moreover, this vaguely cyclical pattern of evolution has affected various research areas. After an initial period in which game theorists focused their attention on competitive market models, in the 1970s and 1980s they turned to the problems of oligopolistic markets and bargaining. Today the latter research areas are going through a phase of sedimentation and selection while other fields of study receive a strong impulse from the application of game theory.
John Neville Keynes: The Social Philosophy of a Late Victorian Economist
Authors: Tilman Rick , Porter-Tilman Ruth
Published: June 2009

John Neville Keynes (1852–1949) is best known for fathering one of the most influential economists of our time, John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946). Yet in his own day he was a formidable logician1 and economist himself. Although overshadowed by his colleague Alfred Marshall, his Scope and Method of Political Economy (1891) is still considered a minor classic and read by specialists in the history of economic thought. Maynard Keynes's biographers have portrayed Neville as having a powerful influence on him, even if they have failed to detail the impact of the father's logic and economics on his famous son.
The Rate of Profit and Crises in a Socialist Economy
Authors: Lianos Theodore P.
Published: June 2009

In a recent paper (1994) in this journal, Elias L. Khalil makes two claims. First, he contends, the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall is not unique to the capitalist mode of production but it is equally valid in a socialist economy. Second, a decline in the rate of profit in a socialist economy would engender crises as would be the case in a capitalist economy. Even more, he argues that crises would be necessary in any social form if there is a secular tendency of the organic composition of capital to rise.
The Genesis of the Only Diagram in the General Theory: A Comment
Authors: Ahiakpor James C. W.
Published: June 2009

Roy Harrod (1951, p. 453) explicitly states that he “supplied a diagram purporting to reconcile the classical theory [of interest] with [Keynes's] theory, and he incorporated it in the [General Theory]-the only diagram in it!” (italics added). John M. Keynes (1936, p. 180n) himself writes: “This diagram was suggested to me by Mr. R.F. Harrod.” Furthermore, Harrod, in a letter to Ralph Hawtrey (19 June 1951) also says: “I was myself responsible for the diagram on page 180 which was an attempt to demonstrate to Maynard that his theories were not quite so out of line with the classical position as he supposed” (quoted in Warren Young 1987, p. 136). Now Rod O'Donnell (1999) claims that Harrod never supplied a diagram but only suggested how one could be drawn. Thus both Harrod and Keynes have misled us about the genesis of the only diagram in the General Theory. O'Donnell advances arguments in support of his claim which do not appear convincing.
My Work as a Historian of Economic Thought
Authors: Samuels Warren J.
Published: June 2009

My work as a historian of economic thought and methodologist has had several dimensions. One comprises a heavy research program. Another involves some major editing projects, several long term. Still another involves a synergistic relationship between my work on the history of economic thought and methodology and on the economic role of government. Another involves my participation in the founding and operation of bothHistory of Political Economyand the History of Economics Society. If all this sounds like a lot of activity, it must be understood that my research and professional activities have been both my vocation and principal avocation. I use the word “work” in the title reluctantly and where others might say “career.” I have never thought of my professional activities as either toil or a career; indeed, I have both engaged in and seen them as a joyful adventure—so much for the theory of the marginal disutility of labor! Especially important has been the continued support of my wife, Sylvia. She has not only understood and supported, albeit sometimes with difficulty, my time-consuming involvement with intellectual work, she has nurtured a wonderful family life.
Of Pangloss, Pigouvians and Pragmatism: Ronald Coase and Social Cost Analysis
Authors: Medema Steven G.
Published: June 2009

The laissez-faire welfare theory of classical economics was very much concerned with demonstrating the optimality of the competitive market system, or, more generally, the harmony between individual and social interests. Under the influence of J. S. Mill and Henry Sidgwick, however, this view gradually began to erode. Sidgwick (1901), for example, pointed to a number of factors, including what we now call externalities, that can cause individually-optimal behavior to diverge from the social optimum, and suggested that these potentially call for governmental corrective measures. Alfred Marshall carried this discussion a bit further, but it was through A. C. Pigou's analysis—particularly in The Economics of Welfare (1932)—that the theory of market failure, and the need for government correction of these failures, reached full flower. His work formed the foundation for “modern” welfare economics. The contrast between the “old” and the “modern” welfare economics was pointed out by James Buchanan:
Memoirs of an Economist Watcher
Authors: Coats A. W. Bob
Published: June 2009

Oddly enough, my first clear recollection of an encounter with an economic proposition dates from the age of six or seven, when my father (who died suddenly from the pneumonia when I was eight) casually remarked that the Colman Mustard Company derived most of its profits from the residue people left on their plates. Unfortunately at the time I did not appreciate the analytical subtlety of this observation. Nor, I suspect, did my father, who probably only wanted to particularize the familiar maxim: waste not, want not. Nevertheless, the point evidently stayed in my mind, though I cannot claim it as the origin of my subsequent fascination with economics. The evolution of my attitudes to economics will tie considered later. First, however, let me briefly sketch some relevant features of my personal and socio-economic background, which may shed some light on my subsequent intellectual activities.
From Utilitarianism to Hedonism: Gossen, Jevons And Walras
Authors: Daal Jan Van
Published: June 2009

Utilitarianism as conceived of in the present article is the philosophical movement that is roughly characterized by three main features: (1) during his lifetime a person maximizes his utility, which depends on his pleasure and his pain; (2) an individual's behavior should be based on a good education and guided by effective legislation; (3) society's ultimate purpose is the maximization of the aggregate happiness of all people.
Comment on Horwitz's Article
Authors: Cottrell Allin
Published: June 2009

Austrian economics is arousing increasing interest, not to say enthusiasm, these days. No doubt this is in part due to the collapse of the planned economies of the Soviet type, which has lent credibility to the claims of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek regarding the impossibility of rational economic calculation under socialism-claims which were disputed by the mainstream neoclassical economists of a generation ago. The phenomenon also reflects a relatively long-standing dissatisfaction with neoclassical economics. For many years it was the radical critics of capitalism who felt most keenly the attractions of alternative approaches in economics. Now, increasingly, champions of the market are coming to believe that neoclassical theory does not offer a deep and firm enough basis for asserting the virtues of the market system, and the counterproductive effects of government intervention therein.
The Decay of Trade: The Politics of Economic Theory In Eighteenth-Century Britain
Authors: Kleer Richard A.
Published: June 2009

In the last decade or so, intellectual historians have tried to alter and enhance our understanding of the Scottish Enlightenment by situating the classic writings in the context of contemporary political debates and intellectual traditions. Two main approaches have emerged to date, tied to the themes of natural jurisprudence and civic humanism respectively. While both have much to offer to historians of economic thought, the present paper seeks to evaluate only the latter. It focuses in particular on civic humanist interpretations of the economic theories of David Hume and Adam Smith.
The School of Mathematical Formalism and the Viennese Circle of Mathematical Economists
Authors: Punzo Lionello F.
Published: June 2009

The term revolution is normally used to indicate a sharp change in the direction of evolution of a given phenomenon, a catastrophe, in the jargon of modern dynamic theory. In this sense we often talk of the Newtonian revolution in physics or of a Neoclassical revolution in economics.
Ricardo's Work as Viewed by Later Economists
Authors: Arrow Kenneth J.
Published: June 2009

David Ricardo was a peaceful man, well liked and admired for both his intellectual and his personal traits by his colleagues and rivals whether on the Stock Exchange, in the nascent field of political economy, or among the members of Parliament. He could maintain personal friendship and wellbehaved exchange of ideas with someone as far removed from him in both religion and economic doctrine as Thomas Malthus. The intellectual strength of his written work could dominate the thought of such a great mind as that of John Stuart Mill and rouse the writer Thomas de Quincey from his opiumriddled state to renewed mental vigor.
Henry George and the Environment
Authors: Backhaus Jürgen G.
Published: June 2009

Henry George has many admirers, but only a few scholarly economists would regard him as one of their own. In this paper, I wish to argue not only that Henry George made a sound contribution to political economy; I also claim that his analysis is eminently significant for environmental economics today.
On the Endogeneity of the Margin and Related Issues in Ricardian Economics
Authors: Hollander Samuel
Published: June 2009

As Kenneth Arrow has pointed out in a recent paper, “David Ricardo was a peaceful man” (Arrow 1991, p. 70). Indeed he was—during his lifetime. I am not so sure he is resting peacefully given the further assertion that his system was “a bold attempt to determine values independent of demand considerations” (ibid., p. 75). Arrow adds, byway of qualification, that he does “not think, as some neo-Ricardians seem to, that there was in any sense an intended repudiation of the demand schedule”; rather Ricardo did not conceive of such a schedule even though “some of [his] analysis can only be made sensible on the basis of such a concept.”
On the Role of Demand in Ricardo and Marshall
Authors: Caravale Giovanni A.
Published: June 2009

The present note is a development of a paper I presented some four years ago at the 1987 meeting of the History of Economics Society (Caravale 1987), and that was later published in Rivista di Politico Economica in an expanded version (Caravale 1988). The aim of these two writings was to emphasize that—contrary to what is often maintained—demand conditions play a fundamental role in classical and classical-type theories. This role is different from that played by demand in neoclassical theories (where equilibrium prices are determined by demand and supply functions), and is so to speak “internal” to the theory of natural equilibrium since it is connected with the definition, for each situation, of the Smithian “point of effectual demand.” Before turning to the specific object of this note, let me recall very briefly the main points of the general thesis developed in the above-mentioned papers.
A Biographical Puzzle: Why Did Jevons Write The Coal Question?
Authors: White Michael V.
Published: June 2009

“…a remarkably clever book, the result of close thought, much observation, and some research. Yet, after having read the book with attention, we are disposed to ask, why has it been written?” (The Athenaeum, May 1865).
Women Economists in the 1890s: Journals, Books and the Old Palgrave
Authors: Dimand Robert W.
Published: June 2009

Just over a century ago two noteworthy books in economics were published by women, contrary to the widespread modern impression that women's participation in economics is a recent phenomenon. Charlotte Perkins Gilman publishedWomen and Economics(1898a, cf. Gilman 1898b), a landmark work of feminist and institutionalist economics (see M. A. Dimand 1995b). Rosa Luxemburg publishedThe Industrial Development of Poland(1898) based on her 1897 Zurich doctoral dissertation. This distinguished contribution showed promise of the great abilities displayed in hermagnum opus, The Accumulation of Capital(1913), a study that deserves recognition for its importance in macrodynamics and the theory of economic growth as well as in Marxian economics (see Joan Robinson's introduction to the 1951 translation). These two authors stand as giants in the history of economics–or would do so, if historians of economics were paying attention–but they were very far from being the only women contributing to economics in the 1890s.
Jevons's Complex Cases in the Theory of Exchange
Authors: Creedy John
Published: June 2009

When William Stanley Jevons first presented his theory of exchange, he used the example of two trading bodies (A and B) holding stocks of corn and beef (goods X and Y), but he was eager to show how the basic results could be applied to a variety of situations. After considering the relatively simple introduction of transport costs, Jevons added three subsections (Jevons 1957, pp. 111–19) which demonstrated his confident handling of his approach. There have been many critical comments on Jevons's handling of mathematics, including those of Alfred Marshall in his review of the Theory of Political Economy (Jevons 1872; see Black 1981). However, these examples show that Jevons produced a clear and succinct statement of the mathematical structure of the theory of exchange.
Marx, Jones, Rodbertus and the Theory of Absolute Rent
Authors: Howard M. C. , King J. E.
Published: June 2009

As is well-known, Karl Marx distinguished three types of rent. In addition to two categories of differential rent, closely related to the Ricardian extensive and intensive margins, he argued (against David Ricardo) that rent was paid on the least fertile land. For Marx this so-called “absolute rent” resulted from the barrier posed by landed property to the free movement of capital into agricultural production. Since the organic composition of capital was relatively low in agriculture, the prices of production of farm products were lower than their labor values. The existence of private property in land prevented the reduction of agricultural prices to these prices of production, and allowed the payment of rent even on what could be described, in Ricardian terms, as marginal land. There exists a sizeable literature on Marx's theory of absolute rent,1but there is no systematic account of its gestation and development. In this paper we explain how Marx's critique of Ricardian rent theory evolved between his first doubts early in 1851 and the articulation of a distinctive alternative analysis in the manuscripts of 1862–63. We also assess the influence exerted on Marx by Richard Jones and Johann Karl Rodbertus, and briefly discuss the significance of Marx's theory of absolute rent for his political economy as a whole.
Foxwell's Aims and Pigou's Military Service: A Malicious Episode?
Authors: Aslanbeigui Nahid
Published: June 2009

The appointment of Arthur Cecil Pigou as Alfred Marshall's successor has generated some interest among historians of economic thought (Coase 1972; Coats 1971; and Jones 1978). All agree that the 1908 election was highly political, affected by Marshall's intense efforts to manipulate the process in favor of Pigou and against Herbert S. Foxwell. T. W. Jones sheds light on “the lengths to which Marshall felt able to go in his support of Pigou and, in particular, the manner in which this impinged on one of the electors in 1908, J. N. Keynes” (Jones 1978, p. 235). This is interesting in the wake of John Neville Keynes's many conflicting roles: he was an elector, a friend of Foxwell, and father of John Maynard Keynes, who had failed to secure a Fellowship at King's College earlier that year. Regardless of the motives behind Marshall's maneuvers or the manner in which he accomplished his objective, the outcome of the election left Foxwell extremely, but understandably, disappointed and embittered. Some of this disappointment and bitterness must have been felt toward Marshall's successor, Pigou, of whom Foxwell did not think very highly to begin with. On different occasions, Foxwell had thought Pigou to be “an extreme agitator on a side not popular either here [Cambridge] or among influential people in the country”; “the last Economist I wish to see in any position where he could influence economic study. He has ruined it at Cambridge where complaints are incessant”; and “worse than useless”.
An Early Attempt At Some Mathematical Economics: William Petty's 1687 Algebra Letter, Together With a Previously Undisclosed Fragment
Authors: Aspromourgos Tony
Published: June 2009

William Petty (1623–87)—medical doctor, Oxford professor of anatomy, Gresham College professor, surveyor of Ireland for the Cromwellian Protectorate, Fellow of the College of Physicians, founding member of The Royal Society, and inventor of political arithmetic—is now most particularly remembered for his contributions to the formation of political economy. When Petty left Ireland for the last time in 1685 and returned to London, he took with him a very large collection of unpublished papers and correspondence. These largely remained in the property of his descendants—together with some important later additions—until 1993, when they were sold to The British Library. Petty's collected, published economic writings were edited and republished a century ago, together with some other materials (Hull 1899). In the 1920s Petty's descendant, the sixth Marquis of Lansdowne (H.E.W. Petty-Fitzmaurice), published two collections of manuscripts from what by then had become known as “The Petty Papers” archive (Lansdowne 1927, 1928). All these volumes have subsequently been republished in facsimile a number of times.
Some Comments on Léon Walras's Health and Productivity
Authors: Walker Donald A.
Published: June 2009

When Walras's Market Models was published, a friend wrote to me that he hoped that it would stimulate research on Walras's work. I am very pleased that his wish is coming true. A number of writers have reexamined it from new perspectives. It is, perhaps, inevitable that the quality and tone of the texts is uneven, and it is to be hoped that in the future all Walrasian research can be done carefully, in good taste, in a dispassionate fashion, and without rhetorical devices and patronizing remarks. In any event, I have presented in my book the results of 30 years of study of Walras's work, and I invite the reader to contrast what I have written with differing expositions. I have nothing to add to those results at this time, except the data which follow.
Adam Smith on the Virtues: A Partial Resolution of the Adam Smith Problem
Authors: Pack Spencer J.
Published: June 2009

It is now easy to see, in the light of Adam Smith's Lectures on Jurisprudence, that The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations were parts of a grand system. Nonetheless, TMS and WN are not tightly linked. This paper pursues the following strategy: knowing that Smith wrote both works, one can go back to westigate Smith's handling of the virtues, and see how that work implicitly defended the acquisitive, commercial society analyzed so thoroughly in WN. In doing so, it will be shown that Smith has a distinctive, key, narrow handling of the virtue justice which is based upon the passion resentment. Smith's treatment of justice explains why there can be no concept of just price in Smith's work. It serves to support market, flexible, or negotiated prices as ethically legitimate because it effectively removes market prices from the domain of government control or responsibility, at least insofar as government is enforcing justice.
The Folklore of H. L. Moore on the Demand for Pig Iron
Authors: Wulwick Nancy J.
Published: June 2009

According to the folklore of economics, H. L. Moore (1869–1958) inEconomic Cycles: Their Law and Cause(1914) mistakenly called his estimates of the supply of pig iron the demand for pig iron. The reviews ofEconomic Cyclesby R. A. Lehfeldt (1915) and P. G. Wright (1915) initiated the folklore, which G. J. Stigler (1962) repeated in his obituary of Moore. Recently the folklore reappeared in histories of economics by M. Blaug (1986), K. Kim (1988), R. J. Epstein (1989), and M. S. Morgan (1990). Morgan, who was particularly critical of Moore, wrote that his empirical work “produced a relationship which he interpreted as a positive demand curve for pig-iron. This, of course, contradicted the negative relationship between the price and quantity stipulated by standard economic theory…. Moore's approach was a mixture. At its worst, it involved both the unthinking application of theory to data and the adoption of empirically derived relationships without reference to theory” (Morgan 1990, pp. 28, 141).
Maurice Dobb, Joan Robinson and Gerald Shove on Accumulation and the Rate of Profits
Authors: Araujo J. A. T. R. , Harcourt G. C.
Published: June 2009

One of Joan Robinson's favorite sayings was: “As I never learnt mathematics, I have had to think.” A by-product of this characteristic is that her writings abound with striking intuitive propositions, often tossed off as asides from the flow of the main argument. We mention this aspect of Robinson's personality as the introduction to the history of one such aside.
Berkeley's Querist and its Influence
Authors: Rashid Salim
Published: June 2009

George Berkeley is unusual among economists for his practical dedication. While a great many pamphleteers write about acting for the “public good” it is rare to find someone involved in such acts on an everyday basis.

Our spinning-school is in a thriving way. The children begin to find a pleasure in being paid in hard money; which I understand they will not give to their parents, but keep to buy clothes for themselves. Indeed I found it difficult and tedious to bring them to this; but I believe it will now do. I am building a workhouse for sturdy vagrants, and design to raise about two acres of hemp for employing them. Can you put me in a way of getting hempseed; or does your Society distribute any? It is hoped your flax-seed will come in time (Fraser 1871, p. 248).
Equilibrium Methodology as Seen from a Hayekian Perspective
Authors: Klausinger Hansjoerg
Published: June 2009

The ninetieth birthday of Friedrich August von Hayek provides a timely opportunity to reflect upon his contributions to economic thought, not just as a part of the history of ideas but rather as a challenge to today's modes of theorizing.
THE PLAY WITH A PAST: ARTHUR WING PINERO'S NEW DRAMA
Authors: Wozniak Heather Anne
Published: June 2009

In the late Victorian period, when writers, critics, and actors of the English theatre became obsessed with defining a decidedly New Drama – with establishing its history, directing its progress forward, and creating a literary drama – the majority of the plays produced focused upon forms of femininity. Strangely, these innovative dramas engaged not with the future, but with an all-too-familiar stock character: the woman with a past. This well-known type was “a lady whose previous conduct, rightly or wrongly, disqualified her from any position of rank or respect” (Rowell 108–09). Familiar examples of such plays include George Bernard Shaw'sMrs. Warren's Profession(1893) and Oscar Wilde'sLady Windermere's Fan(1892); lesser-known ones include Henry Arthur Jones'sCase of Rebellious Susan(1894) and two plays that form the focus of this essay, Arthur Wing Pinero'sThe Second Mrs. Tanqueray(1893) andThe Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith(1895). Several English theatre historians (including Richard Dietrich and Jean Chothia) present these plays as the basis of modern intellectual drama, yet none explains the paradox that the theatre of modernity is founded upon the woman with a past, a figure whose future in these plays is foreclosed or ambivalently conceptualized at best.
VAMPIRIC SEDUCTION AND VICISSITUDES OF MASCULINE IDENTITY IN BRAM STOKER'SDRACULA
Authors: Kuzmanovic Dejan
Published: June 2009

Most critics who discuss vampirismin Bram Stoker'sDracula(1897) as a type of seduction focus on the symbolic corruption of English womanhood as the central theme in the novel and emphasize the significance of “the seduction of Lucy and Mina, to which the experience of Harker at Castle Dracula,” according to Phyllis Roth, “provides a preface.” Roth believes that Harker's role as “a hero, one whose narrative encloses the others and with whom, therefore, one might readily identify . . . is a defense against the central identification of the novel with Dracula and his attacks on the women” (61–62). Other critics have observed that, in addition to preserving the symbolic purity of Englishwomen, Stoker's novel is also about the symbolic education of Englishmen, through which members of different professions and classes that carry the bourgeois order learn to work together and, pooling their various backgrounds and knowledge and combining tradition with progress in order to save the women, confirm the strength of their own manhood, and destroy the symbolic threat of the vampire. Both groups of critics, however, tend to overlook the unique position that the young solicitor Jonathan Harker occupies in the narrative: he is the only character who is both an object of the vampire's seduction and an agent of his destruction. While some critics pay due attention to Harker's sensational seduction by Dracula and the three vampiric women in the first part of the novel, they either simplify the meaning of that seduction or underestimate Harker's continuing significance in the rest of the novel because he gradually blends into the group of several valiant vampire hunters. At the same time, his membership in that group has been too easily taken for granted by most critics. What has remained insufficiently explored is the significance of the twofold nature of Harker's experiences: he yields to Dracula's seduction and then recuperates from its consequences by participating in vampire hunting. It is through Harker's experiences throughout the narrative that the paradox of the novel's simultaneously conservative and subversive tendencies becomes most conspicuous.
“AWFUL UNKNOWN QUANTITIES”: ADDRESSING THE READERS INHARD TIMES
Authors: Berman Carolyn Vellenga
Published: June 2009

Charles Dickens was lionized in the early1850s for his political powers as a novelist, journalist, and reformer. A December 1850 review ofDavid CopperfieldinFraser's Magazineaffirmed that the so-called “Boz”

has done more, we verily believe, for the promotion of peace and goodwill between man and man, class and class, nation and nation, than all the congresses under the sun . . . . Boz, and men like Boz, are the true humanizers, and therefore the true pacificators, of the world. They sweep away the prejusdices of class and caste, and disclose the common ground of humanity which lies beneath factitious social and national systems.

Such tributes to his political powers must have been gratifying to a writer who had begun his career as a parliamentary reporter. They proclaimed the power of the writer in an age of print, bearing out Thomas Carlyle's sense that “Printing . . . is equivalent to Democracy . . . . Whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch of government, with inalienable weight in law-making.”Fraser'selaborated on this idea by linking Dickens's uncanny ability to “introduce” characters to one another to his ability to “introduce” such characters to readers of different ranks. “Men like Boz,” the reviewer explained, “introduce the peasantry to the peerage” and “the grinder at the mill to the millionaire who owns the grist” (700).
THE SAVAGE GENIUS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
Authors: Neill Anna
Published: June 2009

When Dr. Watson first meetsSherlock Holmes inA Study in Scarlet, the former is an itinerant medical veteran of the Second Afghan War who, sick and rootless, without “kith or kin” in England, is naturally drawn to London, “that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the empire are irreversibly drained” (6; ch. 1). Lacking emotional ties, physical strength, and purpose of any real kind, Watson seems to demonstrate the “feverish restlessness” and “blunted discouragement” that Max Nordau described as degenerative symptoms of the age. Watson's identification with urban refuse of the empire, together with his metaphor of the metropolitan landscape as cultural sewer, suggests Nordau's degenerative “feeling[s] of immanent perdition and extinction” (2) and emphasizes both the pervasiveness of modern social decay and the destructive potential of insalubrious influences that lurk within the civilized world as much as they do on its remote peripheries.
Bacteria in amber coal and clay in relation to lithopanspermia
Authors: Wainwright Milton , Laswd Amar , Alshammari Fawaz
Published: June 2009

A study was undertaken to determine if amber, coal and clay samples contain bacteria, in relation to the possibility that rocks ejected from Earth might contain microorganisms capable of colonizing other planets. A technique for isolating bacteria from rocks was developed which excluded the possibility that any of the rock isolates resulted from contamination. Two species ofBacilluswere found in the amber sample, and a species of the same genus was found in coal; bacilli were also commonly found in clay. It is concluded that species of the spore-forming genusBacilluscould therefore be ejected from Earth in these geological substrates and possibly be transferred elsewhere.
Frictional melting of peridotite and seismic slip
Authors: Del Gaudio P. , Di Toro G. , Han R. , Hirose T. , Nielsen S. , Shimamoto T. , Cavallo A.
Published: June 2009

The evolution of the frictional strength along a fault at seismic slip rates (about 1 m/s) is a key factor controlling earthquake mechanics. At mantle depths, friction‐induced melting and melt lubrication may influence earthquake slip and seismological data. We report on laboratory experiments designed to investigate dynamic fault strength and frictional melting processes in mantle rocks. We performed 20 experiments with Balmuccia peridotite in a high‐velocity rotary shear apparatus and cylindrical samples (21.8 mm in diameter) over a wide range of normal stresses (5.4–16.1 MPa), slip rates (0.23–1.14 m/s), and displacements (1.5–71 m). During the experiments, shear stress evolved with cumulative displacement in five main stages (stages 1–5). In stage 1 (first strengthening), the coefficient of friction μ increased up to 0.4–0.7 (first peak in friction). In stage 2 (abrupt first weakening), μ decreased to about 0.25–0.40. In stage 3 (gradual second strengthening), shear stress increased toward a second peak in friction (μ = 0.30–0.40). In stage 4 (gradual second weakening), the shear stress decreased toward a steady state value (stage 5) with μ = 0.15. Stages 1 and 2 are of too short duration to be investigated in detail with the current experimental configuration. By interrupting the experiments during stages 3, 4, and 5, microstructural (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope) and geochemical (Electron Probe Micro‐Analyzer and Energy Dispersive X‐Ray Spectroscopy) analysis of the slipping zone suggest that second strengthening (stage 3) is associated with the production of a grain‐supported melt‐poor layer, while second weakening (stage 4) and steady state (stage 5) are associated with the formation of a continuous melt‐rich layer with an estimated temperature up to 1780°C. Microstructures formed during the experiments were very similar to those found in natural ultramafic pseudotachylytes. By performing experiments at different normal stresses and slip rates, (1) the “thermal” (as it includes the thermally activated first and second weakening) slip distance to achieve steady state from the first peak in strength decreased with increasing normal stress and slip rate and (2) the steady state shear stress slightly increased with increasing normal stress and, for a given normal stress, decreased with increasing slip rate. The ratio of shear stress versus normal stress was about 0.15, well below the typical friction coefficient of rocks (0.6–0.8). The dependence of steady state shear stress with normal stress was described by means of a constitutive equation for melt lubrication. The presence of microstructures similar to those found in natural pseudotachylytes and the determination of a constitutive equation that describes the experimental data allows extrapolation of the experimental observations to natural conditions and to the study of rupture dynamics in mantle rocks.
Identification of remagnetization processes in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the northeast Rhenish Massif in Germany by K‐Ar dating and REE tracing of authigenic illite and Fe oxides
Authors: Zwing A. , Clauer N. , Liewig N. , Bachtadse V.
Published: June 2009

This study combines mineralogical, chemical (rare earth elemental (REE)) and isotopic (K‐Ar) data of clay minerals as well as chemical compositions (major and REE) of Fe oxide leachates from remagnetized Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks from NE Rhenish Massif in Germany, for which the causes of remagnetization are not yet clear. The dominant carrier of the syntectonic, pervasive Carboniferous magnetization is magnetite. The Middle Devonian clastic rocks record an illitization event at 348 ± 7 Ma probably connected to a major magmatic event in the Mid‐German Crystalline Rise, whereas a second illitization episode at 324 ± 3 Ma is coeval to the northward migrating deformation through the Rhenish Massif, being only detected in Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks. The age of that younger illitization is not significantly different from that of the remagnetization, which, however, is not restricted to the upper part of the orogenic belt, but affects also the Middle Devonian strata. The REE patterns of the Fe‐enriched leachates support two mineralization episodes with varied oxidation‐reduction conditions outlined by varied Eu and Ce anomalies. This is not compatible with a unique, pervasive migration of orogenic fluids on a regional scale to explain the remagnetization in the studied region. While clay diagenesis and remagnetization are time‐equivalent in Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks, they are not so in Middle Devonian rocks. Transformation of smectite into illite cannot, therefore, account for the growth of associated authigenic magnetite, which must have been triggered by a different process. Since remagnetization and deformation ages are similar, the mechanism could relate to local physical conditions such as pressure solution and changing pore fluid pressure due to tectonic stress as well as to chemical conditions such as changing composition of the pore fluids.
Trends in aerosol radiative effects over China and Japan inferred from observed cloud cover, solar “dimming,” and solar “brightening”
Authors: Norris Joel R. , Wild Martin
Published: June 2009

This study examines multidecadal changes in surface downward shortwave (SW) radiation flux, total cloud cover, SW cloud effect, and related parameters over China and Japan during 1960–2004 using monthly gridded data from the Global Energy Balance Archive, synoptic cloud reports, and the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. We use the concept of cloud cover radiative effect, defined as the change in downward SW flux produced by a change in cloud cover, to quantify and remove the impact of cloud cover anomalies on surface solar flux. This will allow radiative effects of long‐term changes in anthropogenic aerosol to be more clearly distinguished from natural weather and climate variability. As fit by a linear trend between 1971 and 1989, surface solar flux decreased by a statistically significant 11 W m−2 per decade over China and decreased by a nonsignificant 1 W m−2 per decade over Japan. The small decline over Japan can be entirely explained by an increase in cloud cover, but changes in cloud cover made negligible contribution to the 1971–1989 solar flux trend over China. Between 1990 and 2002, surface solar flux increased by a statistically significant 8 W m−2 per decade over Japan and increased by a nonsignificant 4 W m−2 per decade over China. Half of the 1990–2002 solar flux trend over China and one third of the trend over Japan can be attributed to a reduction in cloud cover. The 1971–1989 decrease in surface solar flux over China and the 1990–2002 increase in surface solar flux over Japan are both spatially widespread and exhibit consistent sign across seasons.
Accuracy assessment and correction of Vaisala RS92 radiosonde water vapor measurements
Authors: Miloshevich Larry M. , Vömel Holger , Whiteman David N. , Leblanc Thierry
Published: June 2009

Relative humidity (RH) measurements from Vaisala RS92 radiosondes are widely used in research and operational applications, but their accuracy is not well characterized as a function of height, RH, and time of day (or solar altitude angle). This study compares RS92 RH measurements to simultaneous water vapor measurements from three reference instruments of known accuracy. Cryogenic frost point hygrometer measurements are used to characterize the RS92 accuracy above the 700‐mbar level, microwave radiometer measurements characterize the RS92 accuracy averaged over essentially the lower troposphere, and the RS92 accuracy at the surface is characterized by a system of 6 RH probes with National Institute of Standards and Technology–traceable calibrations. The three RS92 accuracy assessments are combined to yield a detailed estimate of RS92 accuracy for all RH conditions from the surface to the lowermost stratosphere. An empirical correction is derived to remove the mean bias error, yielding corrected RS92 measurements whose bias uncertainty is independent of height or RH and is estimated to be ±4% of the measured RH value for nighttime soundings and ±5% for daytime soundings, plus an RH offset uncertainty of ±0.5% RH that is significant for dry conditions. The accuracy of an individual RS92 sounding is further characterized by the 1‐σ “random production variability,” estimated to be ±1.5% of the measured RH value. The daytime bias correction must be used with caution, as it is only accurate for clear‐sky or near‐clear conditions owing to the complicated effect of clouds on the solar radiation error.
Interaction between migrating bars and bifurcations in gravel bed rivers
Authors: Bertoldi W. , Zanoni L. , Miori S. , Repetto R. , Tubino M.
Published: June 2009

In the present work we investigate the interaction between migrating alternate bars and the dynamics of river bifurcations. Laboratory experiments are carried out to study a Y‐shaped bifurcation with fixed banks and erodible bed composed of well‐sorted sand. The problem is also analyzed by developing a theoretical, one‐dimensional model. Results show the occurrence of regular fluctuations in the discharge distribution at the bifurcation node, which are strictly related to bar migration. The effectiveness of bars in conditioning the bifurcation behavior increases with bar amplitude and decreases with bar migration speed. Four qualitatively different behaviors of the system are observed as the controlling parameters of the flow are varied within a range significant for gravel bed rivers. The theoretical predictions are in good qualitative agreement with the experimental observations.
Nature of flow and turbulence structure around an in‐stream vertical plate in a shallow channel and the implications for sediment erosion
Authors: Kirkil Gokhan , Constantinescu George
Published: June 2009

Detailed knowledge of the dynamics of large‐scale turbulence structures is needed to understand the geomorphodynamic processes around in‐stream obstacles present in rivers. Detached Eddy Simulation is used to study the flow past a high‐aspect‐ratio rectangular cylinder (plate) mounted on a flat‐bed relatively shallow channel at a channel Reynolds number of 2.4 × 105. Similar to other flows past surface‐mounted bluff bodies, the large amplification of the turbulence inside the horseshoe vortex system is because the core of the main necklace vortex is subject to large‐scale bimodal oscillations. The presence of a sharp edge at the flanks of the obstruction fixes the position of the flow separation at all depths and induces the formation and shedding of very strong wake rollers over the whole channel depth. Compared with the case of a circular cylinder where the intensity of the rollers decays significantly in the near‐bed region because the incoming flow velocity is not sufficient to force the wake to transition from subcritical to supercritical regime, in the case of a high‐aspect‐ratio rectangular cylinder the passage of the rollers was found to induce high bed‐shear stresses at large distances (6–8 D) behind the obstruction. Also, the nondimensional values of the pressure root‐mean‐square fluctuations at the bed were found to be about 1 order of magnitude higher than the ones predicted for circular cylinders. Overall, this shows that the shape of the in‐stream obstruction can greatly modify the dynamics of the large‐scale coherent structures, the nature of their interactions, and ultimately, their capability to entrain and transport sediment particles and the speed at which the scour process evolves during its initial stages.
Elucidation of the relationship between geographic and time sources of stream water using a tracer approach in a headwater catchment
Authors: Katsuyama Masanori , Kabeya Naoki , Ohte Nobuhito
Published: June 2009

Tracer approaches have been used worldwide to clarify time and geographic sources of stream water in catchments, although the relationship between these two sources is poorly discussed. We considered the mean residence time (MRT) and its spatial distribution to determine the relationship between geographic source components and time source components. There were clear differences in solute concentrations and MRT among shallow, middle, and bottom layers along the vertical profile of the riparian groundwater body. Those in the stream water were intermediate compared to those in the shallow and middle layers; thus, the consistent geographic sources were groundwater in these layers. In the context of end‐members mixing analysis (EMMA), however, the end‐members were rainfall, hillslope groundwater, and riparian groundwater in the bottom layer. The other riparian groundwaters were a mixture of end‐members. The discrepancy between the geographic sources and the end‐members was resolved by considering the MRT, the time required to move the end‐member or geographic source within the catchment. Our approach clarified the relationships among the geographic sources, time sources, and hydrological pathways, which are the essential factors of runoff generation processes and hydrochemical processes. Therefore, to go beyond previous applications of EMMA on the basis of systematic learning from observed data, it is insightful to combine the common approaches to analyze landscape heterogeneity and process complexity and to reconsider the framework of the hydrobiogeochemical models in various regions and at multiple spatial scales.
Double‐diffusive deep water circulation in an iron‐meromictic lake
Authors: Boehrer Bertram , Dietz Severine , von Rohden Christoph , Kiwel Uwe , Jöhnk Klaus D. , Naujoks Sandra , Ilmberger Johann , Lessmann Dieter
Published: June 2009

From a small meromictic lake, we present observations of a circulation pattern that has not been documented in the limnological literature before. While surface cooling drives a vertical circulation of the upper water layer (mixolimnion), the deeper water layer (monimolimnion) is not included because of its higher salt concentration. However, double diffusion (higher diffusivity of heat than of dissolved substances) facilitates the faster escape of heat from the monimolimnion compared to dissolved substances during cold periods. As a consequence, interfacial cooling drives a vertical circulation within the monimolimnion without breaking the stratification toward the mixolimnion. In the presented case, the geochemical setting does not permit dissolved substances to accumulate in the mixolimnion. As a consequence, the system approaches the case of two immiscible layers in thermal contact. Below the interface, a convection layer is formed that exceeds the staircase layer thickness of double diffusion when conservative salts are involved. Finally, the entire lake circulates as two separate convection layers. This has a decisive impact on the formation of gradients and the redistribution of dissolved substances in lakes.