Personal Appeal Research Articles

How Income Ought To Be Distributed: Paradox Regained

THICAL controversy is perhaps endless; in any case, the issues that divide people cannot necessarily be resolved by logic or evidence. For example, the acceptability of the ten ethical postulates in my paper on How Income Ought To Be Distributed' is a matter of personal appeal, and it would be vain to hope that all readers would find them unexceptionable. Fisher and Rothenberg did not, and in their article in the previous issue of this Journal they neatly dispose of my paradox in distributive ethics by dumping several axioms along with the conclusion.2 Since a major motivation of my article was to induce the reader to struggle with the paradox, I am dismayed only that Fisher and Rothenberg found the struggle so simple. To regain the paradox, I shall get off the fence and argue in support of the rejected axioms and the conclusion. I do so because I think they ought not to be disposed of so lightly. But my defense can possess or lack merit only in terms of its persuasiveness; and all protagonists need not ultimately agree. It was my privilege to comment on an earlier draft of the Fisher-Rothenberg paper, and a number of my objections were met in the final version by qualifications in their text or in footnotes. Yet some of these passing qualifications are precisely the things to be stressed.

Chattopadhyay v. Secretary-General of the United Nations.

723International Organization — Officials — Dismissal of — Competence of Officials — Periodic Reports — Review by Personal Selection Committee or Appeals Board — Necessity for.

'It' Once More: A Supplementary Note

THE NEUTER pronoun of the third person it has developed and still develops interesting extensions of usage. In this slight note I wish to comment on a use initially recorded in England in the 1930s and again at the half-century turn and given recent brief mention in the United States. These entries term it of American origin, but it has been defined and illustrated only partially as yet, and somewhat better in England than in the United States. Supplementation is needed, I think, in the lexicography of both countries. I refer to what might be called the it of 'finality,' its scope and uses. A preliminary backward glance at some of the familiar extensions of meaning of the pronoun may be in place. The first nonstandard usage to find lexicographical recognition in recent times was the well-known it for the central person or protagonist in children's games such as tag or drop the handkerchief. The historical OED did not enter this it (Vol. V, 1901), but it has place in the Supplement of 1933. Its initial appearance was in Wright's EDD (Vol. II, 1902). The latter work also records a second use, that for stupid 'persons of either sex, especially infants, or as a term of contempt.' This meaning, like the preceding, is current in America, e.g., 'The big it pushed me off the sidewalk'; 'The big it didn't know enough to speak up.' Neither of these usages, that in games and that of disparagement, is noted in the Craigie-Hulbert DAE, which is not primarily interested in the colloquial or dialectal or in slang and mostly ends its survey with 1900. A third colloquial usage in America is a pejorative one for a pretentious person who overrates him or herself: 'He thinks he's the high mogul; he thinks he's it'; 'She thinks she's Madame Ittsky.' Primarily, however, deference to someone of final authority rather than disparagement is implied. There are examples of this emphatic predicate use from early in the century. Unquestionably American in origin is a fourth use, that for personal magnetism or sex appeal. This followed the popularity of the actress Clara Bow as the 'It Girl' in Elinor Glyn's film of that name in 1925. It found immediate currency, though not recognition in our standard dictionaries. Its early progeny, the adjectives itty, ittish, itful and the noun itfulness, had only brief existence, principally in moving picture magazines.2

Prof. T. S. Patterson

THOMAS STEWART P ATTERSON was born in Greenock in 1872. After his early education at Merchiston Castle school of which in later years he became a governor, he studied chemistry at the Andersonian College Glasgow, under Dittmar, and then proceeded to Heidekverg, where he graduated as Ph.D. in 1896 with a thesis on iodoso- and iodo-benzaldehyde. In this romantic city by the Neckar he fell under the spell of that man of genius, Victor Meyer, who was then at the height of his transcendent powers. After a year in Birmingham as the first Priestley scholar, he became a member of the staff of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, before he returned to Glasgow in 1904 as senior assistant to the professor of chemistry in the University, being afterwards promoted to Waltonian lecturer and lecturer in organic chemistry. He graduated as D.Sc. both in London and Glasgow, and in 1919 he became the first holder of the Gardiner chair of organic chemistry at Glasgow, which he occupied with distinction until his retirement in 1942. His services to the University were honoured by the conferment upon him of the degree of LL.D. in 1943. During his tenure of the chair he played his full share in administration, since he served for some years as dean of the Faculty of Science, and as a member of the University Court. The welfare of his students, with whom he was very popular, made at all times a great personal appeal to him, and he was one of the founders of the Alchemists' Club, which served so much to broaden their outlook.

Mass propaganda in the war against bigotry.

There is need to evaluate the methods of mass protolerance propaganda. Crucial problems concern (1) the necessity of communications control, (2) methods of gaining attention, (3) optimal saturation of propaganda, (4) the value of propaganda in structured vs. unstructured issues, (5) appeals to conformity vs. personal appeals, (6) the prejudical role of sponsorship. A variety of criteria must be used to determine the effectiveness of both experimental and commercial propaganda, and the reasons for resistance to it. 18 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Surgery of the Eye.

The book is dedicated to Dr. Charles E. Michel, whose picture appears as a frontispiece, entitled A Master Eye Surgeon. The authors have aimed to write a short and practical guide on operations on the eyes for the practicing ophthalmologist and student of ophthalmology; they definitely state that the book is not to be exhaustive but only to contain the methods which in the authors' judgment and experience have served to the best purpose. This immediately focuses the reader's interest and attention and gives the book a personal appeal. Moreover, to correct the error that books on operative surgery are generally insufficiently illustrated, the feature of diagrams is stressed, and 396 illustrations are introduced as a result. The reviewer would like to draw attention to the following features : In the beginning a method of threading and transfixing needles is fully described. In speaking of the advantages of operating in the

Problems of the Borderland of Archaeology and Geology in Britain: Presidential Address for 1936

To be the President of the Prehistoric Society is an honour that has a particular personal appeal to me. When the Society was founded in 1908, with a title that identified it with East Anglia, I was resident in Ipswich, the very place that was to become the Mecca of students of the Old Stone Age. My pride in being an early adherent of the Society is tinged with regret that I was not one of the small group of founder-members. Only one circumstance prevented me from so participating, and that was my impression that my close attachment to geology was not an appropriate qualification for membership. This is in itself a significant sidelight on the gap that then lay between the study of later geological history—the Pliocene and Pleistocene (in which I was especially interested)—and investigations relating to the traces of Early Man.In the quarter of a century that has elapsed since the founding of the Society, the gap between the two lines of approach has closed in a remarkable manner: geologists and archæologists now work side by side, and the effects of even the warmest arguments are merely transitory. The story of this interweaving of the sciences is now familiar to us all, and reference to some of the earlier phases of the rapprochement need only be incidental.

Stand Up and Slim Down

-multitude of questions through the Health and Happiness Club of Good Housekeeping, Dr. Kenyon has acquired a facility of presenting subject matter which is a delight to read. She confesses modestly in the preface that it took courage to write another book on child care while she faced three long shelves of similar publications treating every phase of the subject. She has justified her temerity, however, by producing a compact handbook, conveniently arranged for reference, which answer the questions of mothers, and prospective mothers, in clear, concise, homey language. The book has a direct, personal appeal which every intelligent mother will appreciate. The material is arranged in chapters which consider chronologically the important features of each stage in the growth and development of the child, beginning with the prenatal period and extending through the third year. Two helpful chapters on the common communicable diseases of childhood and on emergencies are added to the general plan. The appendix contains a clarification of the usual foods given to children up to 3 years of age, a vitamin table, and foods for different months up to one year of age. RICHARD A. BOLT

And Few Are Chosen

OMMENCEMENTS are a memory. Training school days with their joys and woes are a thing of the past. And now hundreds -even thousands-of eager young graduates are trying to make a place for themselves in a field which is already overcrowded. The old saying, There's always room at the top, is still true-depression and overproduction notwithstanding, if the individual has ability. But the problem of the recent graduate is to get a chance to prove that she has the desired qualifications for advancement. Many young graduates are immediately absorbed by the home school, where they gain the much desired experience which all employers prefer that their applicants have. Others, however, will for various reasons go out into strange fields. It is to these that the following suggestions are offered. It will not be expected that a young graduate will have had any experience other than that acquired while in training, so the question of hiring her will depend upon the school of nursing from which she comes and the personal appeal which she makes. As to the school, applicants from schools of first-class rating will be given preference, all things being equal. But every school of nursing office recognizes that there are also excellent and very desirable graduates from smaller schools, and will give these nurses a chance, if, as individuals, they make a favorable impression. Most of yo will gasp with surprise at the first important considerationcleanliness. But more than one nurse has lost her chance through soiled collar and cuffs, a spotted frock, a dingy hat, unpolished shoes with rundown heels, or a bit of far-from-fresh l ngerie slipping its mooring and making its appearance at an inconvenient moment. And their name is legion whose finger nails, hands, or neck are in mourning, or from whose pur e falls the once powder puff. Little, unimportant trifles? Perhaps. But experience has proved that these very little things are not accidents, but are almost invariably indicative of the type of work which this nurse will do if we are indiscreet enough or hard pressed enough to hire her. No matter how old, how faded, how out of date your clothing, let it be as immaculately clean as its

News and Views

THE very personal appeal of the problems of the internal secretions is sufficient guarantee that the valuable résumé by the master in this subject which appears as a Supplement to this week's issue of NATURE will be widely read. Both author and subject came into being at about the same time and both have grown and developed side by side. During the eighty odd years of a fruitful scientific life, Sir E. Sharpey-Schafer has not only witnessed the change of view regarding the basis of animal behaviour but also he has played a prominent part in bringing about this broader basis. It is being realised more and more that racial and individual characteristics aro not solely the expressions of an inherited nervous system but are also dependent, though to a lesser degree, on the development and efficiency of the organs of internal secretion. Many unwarrantable assertions appear from time to time regarding the part played by these special glands in the determination of personality, and until further information concerning their variations with age, climate, and habitat are available, such statements must continue to remain of a highly speculative nature. As in all subjects, during the constructive period, some confusion creeps into the nomenclature, but up to the present no better term has been introduced to connote an internal secretion than the word ‘autacoid’ proposed by Schafer to express the drug-like action of such a chemical regulator it is more accurate though less euphonic than the term ‘hormone’ introduced by Starling, which was originally intended to suggest excitation only and would thus exclude depressing autacoids.

The Gospels and Contemporary Biographies: Concluded

The New Testament Gospels, viewed as literature and as records of historical facts about Jesus, find their closest ancient parallel in those writings of Plato and Xenophon which describe the personality, the teaching, and the career of Socrates. Dating the Dialogues of Plato and the Memorabilia of Xenophon at about 380-350 B.C., and the Gospels at about 70-1oo A.D., a time interval of four hundred and fifty years separates the two groups of writings. For the present purpose, however, this interval is without significance, waiving the superficial and attending to the essential aspects of the comparison. The work that Socrates did for Greek thought and life in the fifth century B.c. was strikingly parallel to the work that Jesus did for Jewish thought and life in the first century A.D. Each was representative of the highest conscientiousness, intelligence, aspiration, and purpose of his nation, each regarded himself as appointed by God to a special mission for the uplift of his people and as continually guided by God to its performance. There was not a little difference of form and manner between the two ministries, but they had a common function-to inaugurate a new standard of conduct, to replace the current morality with a superior type of moral thought and practice. Both Socrates and Jesus were lofty, strenuous, ethical idealists, bent upon converting and driving their nations to a higher ethics. Both pointed out the defects of the commonly accepted standard and the unideal conduct of the national teachers and leaders. Both held aloof from the institutions and classes of the social order, working in an unattached and single-handed way, reaching the public through a direct personal relationship and appeal. Their ministry was without charge. Each attached

On the Formation of Character: An Address to the Nursing Staff at the Retreat, York, delivered November 1st, 1906

When a few months since I was asked by Dr. Bedford Pierce to address the nursing staff of this time-honoured institution it was a moot point in my mind whether I should take as my thesis some general subject connected with the history and profession of nursing or direct my remarks to you in a more personal appeal than so general a theme would permit.