.MATIIICNfATICAL AIlOTIIODs ApPLIKD TO .STATISTICS. lOl 



hii^li and low miiustors and lower orticials, nobody excoptcd, assisted by 

 their conno7-ts, the burgher councillors and other substantial citizens 

 and people of distinction with their wives and children, entering with 

 special ardour, willingness and zeal into the digging of the moat and 

 carrying up the earth . . . ; 12 baskets were filled and carried up by 

 his Lordship and six by his Lordship the Governor's lady and other 

 high ministers' consorts." From that time everybod}', either in service 

 of the Company or a burgher, passing by the Castle, either foi- busi- 

 ness or for pleasure, had to carry up twelve baskets, if a male, or six 

 if a fem9,le. A sort of garden part}' closed the performance, and the 

 Governor promised to stand treat at the earliest opportunity. 



People living under such a genial government were not to be 

 pitied. The period of reasonable complaints is not during the seven- 

 teenth century. 



6.— MATHEMATICAL IMETHOD.S APPLIED TO STATISTICS. 

 By J. McGowAN, B.A., F.I. A. 



The application of mathematical methods to statistics may be said 

 to have commenced with Quetelet, the famous astronomer royal of 

 Belgium, over sixty years ago. Quetelet was amongst the small 

 number of distinguished men, including Babbage, Whewell, Malthus, 

 Drinkwater, etc., who at the third meeting of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, at Cambridge in 18.33, succeeded in 

 establishing the special section F on Economic Science and Statistics, 

 and which afterwards led to the formation of the Royal Statistical 

 Society of London. 



In a work entitled Anthropomefrie, ou mesiire des differentea 

 facultes de Vhomme, published in 1870, Quetelet gives the results of 

 many years of observations, tracing the law of growth in every portion 

 of the human body at all periods of life. By strict induction he 

 ari'ived at the conclusion that the growth of man is expressed by 

 the binomial theorem of Newton, whicli, simple and general as it is, 

 applies equally to man's stature, his weight and his physical and other 

 powers. 



Bowley, like most writers on statistics, is unable to escape from 

 Quetelet's influence, and in his Elements of Statistics he refers to 

 Quetelet's "average man." This "average man" is of average height, 

 weight, strength, girth and lung capacity, with eyes of normal range 



2a 



