SOCIOLOGY. 25 



Donations since last meeting : 



From Messrs. Maisonneuve Freres, Paris : 



"Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, par E. Petitot.'' 



From H. S. Howell, Gait : 



" Kennett's Antiquities of Rome." 



Exchanges since last meeting, 22. 



The following were elected members : — J. H. McKinnon, 

 Charles A. Walton, W. T. Jennings, C.E. 



VV. Houston, M. A., read a paper on "The Scientific and 

 Pedagogic claims of Sociology," of which the following is an 

 abstract : 



After defining the terms " Science " and " Scientific," he went on 

 to describe the scope of the term "Sociology," including under it all 

 that relates to the association of living beings together for mutual 

 aid. The general principle of Sociology in this sense is cooperation, 

 as that of Biology is the struggle for existence, and that of Cos- 

 mology is conservation of energy. This definition of Sociology would 

 include cooperative associations of the lower animals, but it is con" 

 venient to limit the term to human society, and so limited it may be 

 divided into (1) the Science of Civilization, (2) the Science of Gov- 

 ernment, (3) the Science of Law, (4) the Science of International 

 Comity, (5) the Science of Material Prosperity, and (6) the Science 

 of Language, or, in other words, into History, Politics, Jurispru- 

 ence. International Law, Political Economy and Philology. The 

 claim of Sociology to scientific recognition rests partly on the nature 

 of its subject-matter, its phenomena being amenable to scientific 

 treatment ; partly on the nature of the method to be employed — 

 the inductive one ; par^tly on the fact that its leading principles, like 

 those of Cosmology and Biology, have been already ascertained and 

 formulated ; and partly on the further fact that it is pi'Ogressive, 

 new discoveries being made as I'apidly in this as in any other field of 

 knowledge. The i*esearches in one branch alone, that of compara- 

 tive politics, by such men as Maine, Morgan, Maclennan, Hearn 

 and others have almost revolutionized, within the past quarter of 

 a century, our views as to the origin and development of political 

 institutions. The claim of Sociology to a prominent place in the 

 curriculums of teaching institutions rests, in the first place, on its 



