OF AETB AND SCIENCES. 855 



early showed itself; and, graduating at the University of Ghent, he 

 received an appointment there as Professor of Mathematics, at the age 

 of eighteen. Five years later he received the degree of Doctor of 

 Science, and the following year was called to the chair of Mathematics 

 at the Royal Athenaeum of Brussels. In 1824 he was sent by King 

 "William to complete his studies in Paris, where he prepared plans of 

 the Brussels Observatory, which was afterwards built under his own 

 supervision, and of which he was director until his death. In 1827-29 

 he devoted himself to travel, visiting the observatories of England, 

 Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In 1841 a Central Com- 

 mittee of Statistics was established by order of the king, and Quetelet 

 elected president, a position he held during the remainder of his life. 

 He was the earliest to propose an International Congress of Statistics, 

 of which the first was held at Brussels in 1853. 



In looking over the long list of his published papers, over two hun- 

 dred in number, we see that his attention was first directed to geometry, 

 several articles being devoted to caustics. Soon, however, he became 

 interested in statistics, and was one of the first to establish this subject 

 on a firm scientific basis. This tendency towards statistics shows itself 

 in almost all his work. In astronomy, his most important paper was 

 a catalogue of stars having proper motion. He also began, nearly 

 forty years ago, to observe and record meteors and shooting stars, with 

 results which later proved of the utmost value. Meteorology, which is 

 essentially a science of statistics, occupied much of his time ; and the 

 observations made under his direction were so complete, that it is said 

 that the climate of Belgium is better known than that of any other 

 point of the globe. Among other curious statistics which he collected, 

 are those on the size and weight of man, of various nations and ages, 

 of which the results are given in his Anthropometrie, published but a 

 few years before his death. In fact, in statistics he appears as a great 

 discoverer, and adding an untiring industry to the mathematical skill 

 with which he discussed his results. He was generally called by his 

 countrymen the Belgian Arago ; and his position is well expressed by 

 the Academy of Berlin, in a congratulatory letter on the occasion of 

 the centenary of the Academy of Brussels, as " the founder of a new 

 science, which proceeds from the firm basis of observation and calcula- 

 tion to discover and unfold those immutable laws which govern the 

 phenomena, apparently the most accidental, of the life of man, down 

 even to his most trivial actions." 



