154 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



or a negative quantity? Is its sign plus or minus? That is usu- 

 ally tlie important question for the sociological student. 



Now it happens that a great many investigations in descriptive 

 sociology do not as yet admit of the introduction of exact statis- 

 tical — that is, arithmetical — inquiries V7hich, nevertheless, do ad- 

 mit the use of algebraically quantitative methods. In the mono- 

 graphic description of a community many questions arise which 

 can not be answered by the entry of figures in a column, but which 

 could be answered by entering in a column a symbol indicat- 

 ing that a certain trait, habit, or choice could be predicated of a 

 large majority, or of a small majority, or of only a large minority, 

 or of only a small minority of the entire population. That is to 

 say, it often happens that an observer who can not take a perfect 

 census (getting answers to all his questions from every individual 

 in the community), and who therefore can not fill out his columns 

 with arithmetical values, can, by such interviewing as is possible 

 to him and by such an examination of the objective products of 

 social activity as are open to the inspection of any one who chooses 

 to observe them critically, determine with absolute certainty 

 whether certain things are true of majorities or only of minorities. 



Suppose, for example, that a traveler is studying an out-of-the- 

 way settlement, or a tribe, which presents many points of interest 

 that are comparatively novel. All who are familiar with the nar- 

 ratives of travel and exploration which Mr. Spencer has used as 

 data for his Descriptive Sociology are aware that they are almost 

 totally devoid of system. The reader is told that such marriage 

 customs, such clan relationships, such political institutions, such 

 industrial operations, have been observed. The all-important co- 

 efficient is left out. What the student of sociology would most 

 of all like to know is how many individuals in the community mani- 

 fest such or such a trait; how many have such or such a habit; 

 how many profess such or such a belief; how many adhere to this 

 organization, how many to that. But since this exact arithmet- 

 ical knowledge usually can not be obtained within the limited time 

 and under the circumstances of a traveler's researches, he should 

 try to get at least partially quantitative results by noting in every 

 instance whether the phenomenon observed is true of a majority 

 or only of a minority of the people under investigation. 



This simple method admits of a high degree of refinement by 

 the obvious device of subdividing the total human mass under ob- 

 servation into enumeration units. If, for example, we are study- 

 ing the social character and activities of the people of the United 

 States, we may take the fifty Commonwealths and Territories as 

 enumeration units. Making out a tabular form, we may enter 



