Political Science Quarterly . the Economic Ages

IN those delightful writings which Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace bas brought together in the volumes entitled Studies Scien#ji& lind Sodal and which include, with discussions geological, biological and anthropological, other discussions that are economic, political and educational, the reader finds a chapter described by the headline, "The Problem of Utility." Naturally, if he is familiar with modem developments of economic theory, he will assume that the great English evolutionist, who shares with Darwin the honor of having discovered the process of organic evolution by natural selection, has found time to give his attention to the abstruse problems associated with the names of Coumot, Menger, Jevons, Walras and Von Wieser. Upon turning, however, from the table of contents to Chapter XVIII itself, one discovers that it is further described by the question, "Are Specific Characters always or generally Useful?" and by the following quotation from an article which Mr. Wallace published as early as 1867 :