178 EULOGY ON QUETELET. 



of science. His first memoir upon this snbject, The laws of hlrth and 

 mortality in Brussels, was read before tlie academy ou the 4:tli of June, 

 1825. "The establishment of life-insurance companies in our prov- 

 inces," says the author, " and the desire to see these laudable and, if 

 well conducted, benevolent institutions continued among us has induced 

 me to make some researches into the laws of birth and of mortality." 



After showing that during the preceding year the births and the 

 deaths had followed almost exactly in the same proportion the varia- 

 tions of the thermometer, only in contrary directions, he gives some 

 tables of mortality and population, with distinction of sex, and shows 

 how they might be made of use in the speculations of the life-insurance 

 companies. Two important remarks appear in the memoir. One, that 

 the annual number of births and of deaths corresponds to a sinusoid, of 

 which the abscissas represent the different times of the year, and the 

 ordinates the number of births or of deaths at these seasons. The 

 other verifies the observation of iMalthus, that the number of births 

 increases when through any accidental cause an unusual loss of life has 

 been sustained by a population. Another memoir, in 1827, upon the 

 births, deaths, prisons, and poor-houses of the Pays-Bas, was intended 

 to complete and develop the preceding. It contained another table of 

 mortality for the lower provinces, but without distinction of sex. 

 Researches upon population nest appeared, and in 1828 Statistical re- 

 searches in the Idngdom of the Netherlands. In the importance of the facts 

 given, in breadth of view and novelty of deduction, this memoir is 

 superior to the two preceding. A short introduction gives the origin, 

 aim, resources, and use of statistics, the degree of probability which 

 may be obtained in deductions from them, the uncertainty, which can 

 never be entirely overcome, and the objections of ignorance and false 

 knowledge. The author divides the subject as follows : Extent of the 

 kingdom of the Xetherlands; population; imposts and commerce; 

 libraries and daily papers; educational and benevolent institutions; 

 crimes and delinquencies; comparative examination of the different 

 parts of the kingdom. Some of the results obtained are very striking. 

 Thus, in comparing the fecundity of marriage with us and with the 

 English, he says: " Great Britain produces less than our country, but 

 her fruit is more durable. She gives birth to fewer citizens, but she pre- 

 serves them better. If her fecundity is less, her useful men are more 

 numerous, and generations are not as often renewed to the detriment of 

 the nation. Man during his early years lives at the expense of society. 

 He contracts a debt which he ought some time to pay, and if he fails to do 

 so, his existence has been a loss instead of a gain to his i'ellow-citizens." 



Speaking of criminals and delinquents, he says : " The proportion 

 condemned to the number accnsed in the criminal and police courts is 

 the same in Belgium and in France ; but in the courts of assize the 

 l)roportion of the condemned to the accused in Belgium is 84 to 100, 

 while in France and England it is only G5 ; a fiict due to the want of 

 the jury in Belgium at the time the observations were made. When that 



