150 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



penditiire of money the data could be obtained. Lombroso and 

 Laschi, in their work, Le Crime polUique et les Revolutions, liave 

 made a beginning toward the collection of statistics of insurrec- 

 tions and revolutions. More exact, at present, are our statistics 

 of the rational working of the minds of large numbers of men in 

 communication and co-operation. These we have in the familiar 

 form of election returns, which show ns the decisions that com- 

 munities make on questions of public policy and administration. 

 This information could be increased by the application of statis- 

 tical analyses to the vast body of statute law and judicial decisions. 

 A beginning of such work has been made in the valuable Bulletin 

 of State Legislation, published by the New York State Library. 



In the third division of descriptive sociology — that, namely, 

 which treats of social organization — the application of statistical 

 method is proceeding with great rapidity. We have not only sta- 

 tistics (yearly improving in quality) of marriage and divorce, of 

 the organization of all governmental departments, military and 

 civil, of chartered corporations, of religious and educational socie- 

 ties, but also of the thousands of associations formed for the pro- 

 motion of special interests, recreation, scientific research, art and 

 literature, and philanthropy. Every year the statistical informa- 

 tion on these matters, included in such compilations as The World 

 Almanac, becomes not only more extensive but more precise. 



Yet more abundant are the statistical accumulations pertain- 

 ing to that fourth and last division of descriptive sociology which 

 treats of the social welfare — of the functioning of society, of the 

 ends for which it exists. We have statistics of prosperity, of the 

 accumulation and distribution of wealth, of the expansion and con- 

 traction of credit, and of business failures. We have statistics of 

 longevity. We ascertain improving sanitary conditions by changes 

 in the death rate. We learn by statistical methods of the increase 

 or decrease of accident and death due to public disorder or mal- 

 administration. We ascertain through educational statistics the 

 decrease of illiteracy and superstition. And by the same means 

 we ascertain the dimensions of pauperism and of crime. ISTot only 

 so, but, by a certain refinement of statistical method, applied by 

 competent men like Sir Francis Galton, we ascertain the increase 

 or decrease and the distribution of the higher manifestations of 

 intellectual ability and moral character. 



Thus the whole field of descriptive sociology is being more and 

 more exhaustively studied by statistical methods that are yearly 

 improving in precision. So far, then, as may be judged from the 

 development of its methods, no science at the present time is mak- 

 ing surer and better progress than sociology, and none is offering 



