152 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



perism. Remove from social statistics tliis postulate tliat blood 

 kinship or mental resemblance between one social unit and an- 

 other is the basis of social phenomena, and the statistics them- 

 selves would cease to exist. 



Statistics reveal also the consciousness which men have of their 

 resemblances and their differences. It is statistically known that 

 the geographical distribution of nationalities is not accidental or 

 capricious. Immigrant Italians, Germans, and Scandinavians find 

 their way to those parts of the country where men of their own 

 blood and speech are already established. Intermarriages of men 

 and women of different nationalities are statistically known to 

 be frequent where no differences of religion exist, and infrequent 

 where different nationalities profess different faiths. The statis- 

 tics of political elections are quite as much statistics of the con- 

 sciousness of kind as of differences of mental type itself. 



The most significant fact of all, however, has still to be named. 

 It is this: From the first known beginnings of statistical research 

 to the present time every extension of statistical inquiry has been 

 in a large measure due to the consciousness of kind. The first 

 statistical surveys of communities of which we have any record 

 were such tribal enumerations as those recorded in the book of 

 ISTumbers, the avowed object of which was to ascertain the strength 

 and resources of the various tribes by clans, lesser gentile groups, 

 and households, not more for utilitarian reasons than for the grati- 

 fication of gentile and tribal pride. The census taken in Greece 

 in 594 B. c. was for the purpose of dividing the people into four 

 classes and levying taxes according to wealth. The constitution 

 of Servius Tullius, 550 b. c, distinguished six property classes, and 

 the attempt to determine these statistically was one of the earliest 

 experiments in census-making at Rome. The Domesday Book of 

 William I (1086) is the first great statistical document in Eng- 

 lish history, and its origin was due to a desire to know not only 

 the military and fiscal strength of the nation, but also its class dis- 

 tinctions and feudal relationships. The great stimulus given to 

 statistical investigation by the Trench Revolution was an obvious 

 product of class feeling. Most of the refinements of statistical 

 inquiry in later years have had a like origin. Such, for example, 

 was the cause of the discrimination in our own census of the for- 

 eign born from the native born, and of the native born of foreign 

 parents from both native and foreign born. Such has been the 

 cause of the attempt to get more exact statistics of religious de- 

 nominations, of labor organizations, and of the distribution of 

 wealth. Had there been no reason for including these costly in- 

 quiries in statistical investigations, except that of their general 



