THE SECTIONS 87 



those of Economics and Education are at any rate 

 not open to the charge of restricting public interest ; 

 moreover, in more senses than one, such sections have 

 a definite function as safety-valves. The earliest re- 

 corded case of opposition by an upholder of the claims 

 of ' pure ' science is that of Whewell (always a candid 

 friend of the Association) to the formation of Sec- 

 tion F (Statistics, or, as it was afterwards termed, 

 Economic Science and Statistics). The establish- 

 ment of the section followed upon the presence of 

 Quetelet, the Belgian astronomer and economist, 

 at the Oxford meeting in 1832, and it evoked 

 WhewelPs wrath by entering upon a discussion of 

 the Poor Laws. ' It was impossible,' he wrote, 

 ' to listen to the proceedings of the Statistical 

 Section without perceiving that they involved exactly 

 what it was most necessary and most desired to 

 exclude from the proceedings ' ; and again, ' Who 

 would propose ... an ambulatory body, composed 

 partly of men of reputation and partly of a miscel- 

 laneous crowd, to go round year by year from town 

 to town and at each place to discuss the most inflam- 

 matory and agitating questions of the day ? ' It 

 is arguable that a discussion in a sectional meeting 

 loses no more in value than in interest if it generates 

 a high temperature ; but, on the contrary, the 

 inflammation for which Whewell was concerned may 

 sometimes be salved by the measure of academic 

 calm imported into the proceedings of an impartial 

 body like the Association when it deals with a con- 

 troversial topic. No better illustration of this can 

 be found than an incident in the proceedings of the 

 very section whose establishment Whewell so strongly 

 opposed. 



