580 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



was astronomer-royal of Belgium and the founder of 

 the Observatory at Brussels. Having opened his career 

 by some memoirs on geometrical subjects, he directed 

 his attention to questions of meteorology and statis- 

 tics, which he was probably the first to extend 

 into the region not only of the physical but also 

 of the moral attributes of man, studying the phe- 

 nomena of crime, suicide, and disease as revealed by 

 the criminal courts in France, the Netherlands, and 

 other countries. 



Subsequently it was mainly through his influence that 

 a series of international statistical congresses was held 

 in the principal cities of Europe, and a greater uniformity 

 in the methods of research and registration attempted 

 and partially attained. 

 21. Quetelet's statistical inquiries centre in the conception 



The " mean 



man." of the average or mean man who, in a very geometrical 

 fashion, is looked upon as an analogue of the centre of 

 gravity 1 of a body, being the mean around which the 

 social elements oscillate. " If one tries," he says, " to 



1 Quetelet defines the object of 

 his work as follows (' Sur 1'Homme,' 

 vol. i. p. 21) : " L'objet de cet 

 ouvrage est detudier, dans leurs 

 effets, les causes, soit naturelles, 

 soit perturbatrices qui agissent sur 

 le ddveloppetnent de 1'homme ; de 

 chercher a mesurer 1'influence de 

 ces causes, et le mode d'apres lequel 

 elles se modifient mutuellement. 

 Je n'ai point en vue de faire une 

 the"orie de 1'homme, mais seulement 

 de constater les faits et les phenom- 



enes qui le concernent, et d'essayer 

 I.. , IT* 



dans la socie'te', 1'analogue du centre 

 de gravite" dans les corps ; il est la 

 moyenne autour de laquelle oscillent 

 les e"le"inens sociaux : ce sera, si 1'on 

 veut, un 6tre fictif pour qui toutes 

 les choses se passeront conforme'- 

 ment aux resultats moyens obtenus 

 pour la societe". Si 1'on cherche a 

 e"tablir, en quelque sorte, les bases 

 d'une physique sociale, c'est lui 

 qu'on doit considerer, sans s'arreter 

 aux cas particuliers ni aux anom- 

 alies, et sans rechercher si tel in- 

 dividu peut prendre un deVeloppe- 



de saisir, par 1'observation, les lois I ment plus ou moins grand dans 

 qui lient ces phenomenes ensemble. 1'une de ses faculte"s." 

 L'homme que je considere ici est, 



