Br Med J: first published as 10.1136/bmj.1.2107.1216 on 18 May 1901. Downloaded from 1216 2Mu0 R LITERARY NOTES. [MAY 18, 1901.

Counties with an Increase of Population 1891-1901.

Over 40 per cent. 20 to 40 per oent. I5 to 20 per cent. io to 25 per cent. !5 to xo per cent. I to 5 per cent. Under x per cent.

Middlesex Glamorgan Derbyshire Staffordshire London Dorset Anglesey Essex Surrey Nottinghamshire Hertfordshire Radnor Oarmarthen Cambridgeshire) Northumberland Lancaster Monmouthshire Carna,rvon Wiltshire Suffolk Worcestershire Kent West Riding Bedfordshire East Riding North Riding Durham Chester Flint Berkshire Cornwall t Warwickshire Sussex Brecknock Gloucestershire Cumberland f Leicestershire Buckinghamshire Lincolnshire Southampton Somerset Northamptonshire Slropshire Denbigh

The statement of counties showing an increase of popula- LITERARY NOTES. tion almost carries its own explanation. The increase has clearly been due to two causes, which in some instances are WE learn that Dr. C. H. Hall, of Watford, has collected, intermingled. These are (i) the formation of residential grouped, and illustrated all Chaucer's allusions to the medi- urban communities around the great centres of population; cine and surgery of his day, and intends to put his essay, and (2) the industrial increase of population in non-county when complete, into type. boroughs. Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey are the most Professor Joseph Jastrow, of the University of Wisconsin, characteristic illustrations of the first fact, while Glamorgan deals with modern belief in the occult in a volume which and Northumberland illusbrate the second fact. The greater has just been published by Messrs. Macmillan, under the title increase in the West Riding of Yorkshire than in the East of Fact and Fable in Psychology. In it are summarised the lead- and North Ridings illustrates the industrial growth of the ing forms which that belief takes to-day, such as theosophy, country in non-county boroughs, and to a large extent also spiritualisim, and Christian science. The author throws the the outgrowth of residential populations belonging to these light of psychology first on the power of deceiving others, and county boroughs. The populations showing the least increase then on the power of self-deception, illustrating both by are those in which agriculture is the main industry. experiences of juggling related to mediumistic displays. In Table I the relative increase in the preceding decennium The use of the term " Mugwump " in an article recently of the counties showing increase in I89I-I900 can be studied. published in the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL seems to have. The counties showing the greatest increases may be thus somewhat needlessly, exercised the minds of certain of our classified: readers. One esteemed correspondent characterised it as "vulgar; " another, an unattached member, appears to con- i. Those showing a decreased rate of increase in 1891-1901 as sider himself " insulted" and " abused" by its application to. compared with 1881-91: those who stand aloof from the public work of the Association. Chester ...... 13.8 becomes 12.2 per cent. increase. Vulgarity is to some extent a question of taste, and de Southampton ... 15.8 ,, 1.3 ,, gustibus, etc.-the proverb is somewhat musty. But we sub- Leicestershire I6... ,, 12.0 ,, mit that "Mugwump" is no more vulgar than " Whig" or Durham ...... 7.0 ,, 15.6 ,, " Tory." Like those time-honoured designations it is a Monmouth ...1.7.575 I355 political nickname, and as such, even to the most thin- Middlesex . 50.9 ,, 45.9 ,. skinned, there should be no offence in it. Dr. Johnson http://www.bmj.com/ wondered how it could possibly hurt a man to call him 2. Those showing an increased rate ofincrease: "Holofernes," but though the Sage had a soft heart he had a Hertfordshire ... 6.3 becomes 13.8 per cent. increase. toughhide. We admit that in certaincircumstancesamanmight Staffordshire ... 9.6 ,, 14.0I., justly regard the name " Holofernes " applied to himself as a Warwickshire ... 9 8 15.4 ,, personal affront. But " Mugwump" is not an insulting epithet, Worcestershire 10.3 ,, 20.5 ,, nor does it fall within the same category as the word which Derby. .I .9 ,, i8.6 the "Great Lexicographer" defined as "a term of endear- Lancaster ..1.3.5 ,, I6.9 ,, ment used among sailors." It is the harmless badge of a Kent . ... I3.7 ,, i6.o highly respectable tribe, and if our correspondent will look

Nottinghamshire I5.2 I8.5 , again at the article in which the word to which he takes ex- on 28 September 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. Northumberland ... i6.7 ,, 21.3 ception occurs, he will see that all " apathetics," whether of Essex .. ... 37.8 ,, 41.2 the attached or the unattached variety, are impartially called "Mugwumps." What, then, is the true meaning of "Mug- 3. Those showing afairly stationary rate of increase: wump"? Like a good many other political terms in ordinary Of these, Surrey...... about 24 per cent. use such as caucus, closure, gerrymander, etc., the word Susse...,, I2.2 comes from that land of many verbal inventions, the United and West Riding of York ,, 12-13 , States. In Mr. John S. Farmer's Americanisms, Old and New, are the most important. it is stated that it first came into use in I884, when it was We may next turn to the counties showing a decrease of applied to those members of the Republican party who, for population in I9OI. The largest decreases (Table II) are in reasons very honourable to them, refused to support the Montgomery, 5.4 per cent.; in Oxfordshire and Rutlandshire, candidature of Mr. James G. Blaine. According to Dr. J. 4.6 per cent.; and in Cardigan, 3.8 per cent.: the decrease in Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford, the word is of Algonquin the remaining 7 counties in Table II being on a smaller origin, and occurs in Elliotte's Indian Bible, being used to. scale. Four of the ii counties in this table in the preceding translate such titles as lord, high captain, chief, great man, decennium had shown an increasing population. Reference leader, or duke. In Matthew vi, 2I, it occurs as Mukquomp; to Table I will show that 6 of the counties in that table, and again in Genesis xxxvi, 40-43, and several times in which deals with counties having increased their population II Samuel xxiii. The word aroused widespread philological between I89I and i9oi, had in the preceding decennium discussion, which oontinued long after the campaign had decreased in ended. Apart from philology, it may be stated that, as the population. These are Cornwall, Shropshire, term "Mugwump" is used in American politics, it denotes a Anglesey, Brecknock, Flint, aud Radnor. class of citizens which includes many of the most enlight- ERRATum. ened, upright, and honourable men in the United States. So. IN the article on the census returns of the county and metropolitan far from being insulting, the term would be accepted as a boroughs published last week there is an error in Table IV; the differ- ence between the enumerated and the estimated population of ]Black- compliment by many of those who know exactly the meaning burn was given as 2I,562; this should have been II,562, and the which it is intended to convey. percentage difference from the estimated population is-8.3X. At the New York Academy of Medicine on April 5th Dr.