580 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



21. 



The "mean 

 man.' 



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. 



Quetelet's statistical inquiries centre in the conception 

 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 d'e"tudier, dans leurs 

 effets, les causes, soit naturelles, 

 soit perturbatrices qui agissent sur 

 le deVeloppement de 1'homme ; de 

 chercher & mesurer 1'influence de 

 ces causes, et le mode d'apres lequel 

 elles se niodifient mutuellement. 

 Je n'ai point en vue de faire une 

 the"orie de 1'homme, mais seulement 

 de constater les faits et les phe"noni- 

 enes qui le concernent, et d'essayer 

 de saisir, par 1'observation, les lois 

 qui lient ces phe"nomenes ensemble. 

 L'homine que je considere ici est, 



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

 de gravitd dans les corps ; il est la 

 moyenne autour de laquelle oscillent 

 les ele"mens sociaux : ce sera, si 1'on 

 veut, un etre fictif pour qui toutes 

 les choses se passeront confer me - 

 ment aux resultats moyens obteuus 

 pour la socie'te'. 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- 

 ment plus ou moins grand dans 

 1'une de ses faculty's." 



