PKE.SIDENt's address. — SECTIOX Gl. 507 



Nations'* in 1724, Otto's " Primas linese notitise Europae rerum publi- 

 caruni " in 1726, are works showing incidentally how marked must 

 have been the appreciation of statistical information. 



5. MatJiematical Development. — Turning to recent times, it may 

 be noted that the mathematical side of statistics has been advanced in 

 a remarkable Avay, the proper domain and value of exact treatment 

 being more clearly perceived. Through this, it is possible at the 

 present time to set out in a more precise form the general results of 

 all statistical investigations, whether these apply to the realm of 

 physics or to those of biology, to so-called dead matter or to living 

 matter and material forms. Such papers as appear in journals like 

 ■■ Biometrika," or in the "' Archiv fur Rassen-und Gesellschafts-Bio- 

 logie," and many of the papei's of various statistical societies testify to 

 the fact that, on its analytic side, statistical science has in the last 

 few years made extraordinaiy advances. 



II.— EVOLUTION OF STATISTICAL SCIENCE. 

 1. Origin of Official Statistics. — Naturally enough, the presenta- 

 tion of statistical matter did not immediately take on perfect form. 

 In fact, it was not till Gottfried Achenwall (1719-1772) began his 

 lectures at Marburg in 1746, and produced his thesis, "' Vorbereitung 

 zur Staatswissenschaft der europaischen Reiche,"' that the science of 

 statistics was cast into scient'ific form. The economists appear, long 

 before this, to have used the word '"' statistics " as an account of those 

 matters which profoundly concern the well-being of a State as such. 

 Achenwall made a sevenfold division of these, viz. — 

 (i.) Literature and sources of information, 

 (ii.) The State, its territoiy and territorial changes, 

 (iii.) The land; climate; rivers; topography; divisions; abund- 

 ance or scarcity of production, 

 (iv.) The population, its number and character, 

 (v.) The rights of rulers; the estates; the nobility and other 



classes of the population, 

 (vi.) Constitution of the Court and Government; the laws; 

 ecclesiastical, school, and judicial administration ; in- 

 dustry ; interior and foreign commerce ; currency, finance, 

 and debts ; the army and navy, 

 (vii.) The interests of national life and politics, and the outlook 



for the future. 

 The direct value of information of this kind was obvious, and led. 

 ultimately to the widespread establishment of official statistics. ' The 

 foundations had, of course, been laid long before Achenwall's day. In 

 his chief work — viz., ■' Six livi^es de la Republique," Jean Bodin, one of 

 the ablest of France's political thinkers, had urged the re-establish- 

 ment of the Roman Census as an adjunct of police powers. Georg 

 Obrecht, in 1617, proposed continuous statistics of population, based 

 Tipon rights of inquiry through the various Government organs. Lists 

 of all bii-ths, mamages, and deaths, of guardianship, of the age of the 

 people in three-year groups, and of its moral development, &c., were 

 indicated as fundamental. Obrecht's proposals and explanations reveal 

 a critical appreciation of what was essential in practical statistics, 

 while his estimates of probable cost show that his insight as to means 



