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In 1899 the medical practitioners of Dublin were confronted with an outbreak of a peculiar and obscure illness, characterised by symptoms which were very unusual. For want of a better explanation, the disorder, which seemed to be epidemic, was explained by the simple expedient of finding a name for it. It was labelled as “beri‐beri,” a tropical disease with very much the same clinical and pathological features as those observed at Dublin. Papers were read before certain societies, and then as the cases gradually diminished in number, the subject lost interest and was dropped.

IN order to be able to discriminate with certainty between butter and such margarine as is sold in England, it is necessary to carry out two or three elaborate and delicate chemical processes. But there has always been a craving by the public for some simple method of determining the genuineness of butter by means of which the necessary trouble could be dispensed with. It has been suggested that such easy detection would be possible if all margarine bought and sold in England were to be manufactured with some distinctive colouring added—light‐blue, for instance—or were to contain a small amount of phenolphthalein, so that the addition of a drop of a solution of caustic potash to a suspected sample would cause it to become pink if it were margarine, while nothing would occur if it were genuine butter. These methods, which have been put forward seriously, will be found on consideration to be unnecessary, and, indeed, absurd.

The final report of the Butter Regulations Committee has now been published and it is earnestly to be hoped that Regulations based on the Committee's Recommendations will at once be framed and issued by the Board of Agriculture. It will be remembered that in an Interim Report the Committee recommended the adoption of a limit of 16 per cent. for the proportion of water in butter, and that, acting on this recommendation, the Board of Agriculture drew up and issued the “Sale of Butter Regulations, 1902,” under the powers conferred on the Board by Section 4 of the Food Act of 1899. In the present Report the Committee deal with the other matters referred to them, namely, as to what Regulations, if any, might with advantage be made for determining what deficiency in any of the normal constituents of butter, or what addition of extraneous matter other than water, should raise a presumption until the contrary is proved that the butter is not “genuine.” The Committee are to be congratulated on the result of their labours—labours which have obviously been both arduous and lengthy. The questions which have had to be dealt with are intricate and difficult, and they are, moreover, of a highly technical nature. The Committee have evidently worked with the earnest desire to arrive at conclusions which, when applied, would afford as great a measure of protection—as it is possible to give by means of legislative enactments—to the consumer and to the honest producer. The thorough investigation which has been made could result only in the conclusions at which the Committee have arrived, namely, that, in regard to the administration of the Food Acts, (1) an analytical limit should be imposed which limit should determine what degree of deficiency in those constituents which specially characterise butter should raise a presumption that the butter is not “genuine”; (2) that the use of 10 per cent. of a chemically‐recognisable oil in the manufacture of margarine be made compulsory; (3) that steps should be taken to obtain international co‐operation; and finally, that the System of Control, as explained by various witnesses, commends itself to the Committee.

Building on the enactment perspective and past work on the self‐fulfilling prophecy, this paper explores how organizational decline can be enacted through self‐fulfilling prophecies of decline. We present two self‐fulfilling prophecy‐based models of organizational decline, one in which decline is enacted unintentionally through the predictions of an organization's managers, and a second in which decline is enacted unintentionally through the predictions of external constituencies. We articulate propositions that capture the dynamics of each model and that are intended as a platform for future empirical research. We also discuss the implications of our theoretical framework for future theory development on the causes of organizational decline, and offer suggestions for managers who wish to avoid organizational decline.

Assuming that the relations between the Local Authority and their Public Analyst are, as regards fixity of tenure, established on a satisfactory basis, there remain some very important points to be discussed, namely, the duties of that officer, the conditions under which he works, and his relations to his colleagues on the staff. These are matters which, so far as we know, have never previously been dealt with in print, are only partially regulated by law, and are not settled by any uniformity of practice on the part of Local Authorities.

In the continuation of the work previously described, experiments were conducted, according to the general plan already described, to determine the effects of benzoic acid and benzoates upon health and digestion. This investigation is of special importance because of the opinion held by many manufacturers, food officials, and consumers that benzoic acid and benzoates are probably the least harmful of the preservative substances employed. It is believed that for this reason there has been a very large increase in the use of these preservatives in the United States in the last few years, with a corresponding decrease in the amount of other preservative substances employed. It has also been claimed that there can be no reasonable objection to the use of benzoic acid by reason of its natural occurrence in many food products, either in traces or in considerable quantities. Among the products cited the cranberry occupies the most prominent position because of the notable amount of benzoic acid it contains. These considerations, however, had no determining influence on the choice of this substance for the experimental work, inasmuch as it was included in the original scheme which was prepared before the experimental work on preservatives previously reported was begun.

MUCH has already been said and written upon the subject of the indicator: but in view of the general trend of advanced Public Library administration a little space may with advantage be devoted again to the consideration of its value as a modern library appliance. Passing over (a) the decision of that curiously constituted committee formed in 1879 to consider and report on indicators, and (b) the support which it received in 1880 from the Library Association, it may be said that for the next fourteen or fifteen years the indicator system was the popular, almost the universal, system in vogue throughout the country. Of late years professional opinion as to its value has undergone a remarkable change. The reaction which has set in was brought about chiefly by the introduction of Open Access in 1894, with the many reforms that accompanied it, though much, doubtless, was due to the prevalence of a more exact and systematic knowledge of librarianship, and to the natural evolution of ideas. It is not, however, intended in this paper to compare the indicator with the open access system, but with others suitable to the requirements of a closed library.

Analysis of organizational decline has become central to the study of economy and society. Further advances in this area may fail however, because two major literatures on the topic remain disintegrated and because both lack a sophisticated account of how social structure and interdependencies among organizations affect decline. This paper develops a perspective which tries to overcome these problems. The perspective explains decline through an understanding of how social ties and resource dependencies among firms affect market structure and the resulting behavior of firms within it. Evidence is furnished that supports the assumptions of the perspective and provides a basis for specifying propositions about the effect of network structure on organizational survival. I conclude by discussing the perspective’s implications for organizational theory and economic sociology.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

In his recent speech at the Bakers' and Confectioners' Exhibition at the Royal Agricultural Half Mr. Noel Buxton, the Minister of Agriculture, referred to the regulations for the application of the National Mark to all‐English flour, which will shortly come into force. For some years past competitions held in connection with the Exhibition have shown beyond question that bread and confectionery of the finest quality can be made of the flour produced from English wheat. The excellence of the home‐grown article has, in fact, been proved to the satisfaction of the best judges; and the Ministry of Agriculture consider that bakers and consumers, as well as the farmers who produce it, will stand to benefit by its more general use. It is, therefore, in the interests of all three parties that they propose to extend to English wheat the system of grading and standardization which has already been applied with marked success to other articles of diet, such as eggs, tomatoes, apples and pears, and cucumbers. So far as the farmers are concerned, everything that helps them to carry on the fight with their foreign competitors is advantageous to the nation as a whole, because it encourages them to produce more food, to maintain, and possibly to increase, the arable area of the country, and—a factor of real importance in dealing with the problem of unemployment—to keep more workers on the land. The more of his produce the farmer is able to sell, and—within limits—the better the prices he can obtain for it, the better will these ends be served. It is not, of course, to be expected that the public will invariably buy British in preference to foreign goods, simply because they are British. On the other hand, if they can be assured that they are of better quality than the same class of goods imported from abroad, then—as has been shown by the improved trade in British eggs since poultry farmers have been able, if they wish, to take advantage of the National Mark scheme—they are ready not only to make a practice of buying home‐grown rather than foreign produce, but also to pay higher prices for it. There are therefore good grounds for the expectation that the demand for English wheat flour will be improved by the definition of national standards of quality and the marketing of supplies of standard qualities under distinctive marks. The scheme for the voluntary grading and marking of this flour was introduced on October 1. A Trade Committee has been appointed to consider applications for permission to use the mark—a silhouette map of England and Wales—and all the flour bearing this mark will be sold under three standard grades and guaranteed as to type, flavour, and keeping quality. The designations of the three grades are All‐English (Plain), All‐English (Self‐Raising), and All‐English (Yeoman). All three are defined as being sound, free from taint or objectionable flavour, of good keeping quality, and unbleached by artificial means. The first and third are further guaranteed to be free from all added chemical substances, though the second may contain such ingredients, or mixture of ingredients, as may be required (under certain definite regulations) to make the flour self‐raising. The scheme is open to millers and other packers of English wheat flour, and every registered packer must allow his premises and all equipment and records to be inspected at any reasonable time by any officer of the Ministry of Agriculture authorized for that purpose, besides complying with other regulations the general effect of which is to make it impossible for any flour bearing the National Mark to fall below the certified standard of its particular grade. Mr. Buxton was able to say that the scheme is already receiving excellent support from the millers, and all that is needed to give it the success which it deserves is that the public should co‐operate by letting the bakers know that graded all‐English flour is what they want and expect them to use. It is in their power to create a demand which will provide them with a pure food of the highest quality, and will at the same time do the British farmers a much‐needed good turn.