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 cruninal courts in France, the Netherlands, and 

 other covmtries. 



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^ of a body, being the mean around which the 

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



^ Quetelet defines the object of 

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

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

 ouvrage est d'etudier, dans leurs 

 efifets, les causes, soit naturelles, 

 soit perturbatrices qui agissent sur 

 le developpement de I'liomme ; de 

 chercher ii mesurer I'influence de 

 ces causes, et le mode d'apres lequel 

 elles se modifient mutuellement. 

 Je n'ai point en vue de faire une 

 theorie de I'homme, mais seulement 

 de constater les faits et les ph^nom- 

 enes qui le concernent, et d'essayer 

 de saisir, par I'observation, les lois 

 qui Kent ces phenomenes ensemble. 

 L'homme que je considere ici est, 



dans la soci^td, I'analogue du centre 

 de gi'avite dans les corps ; il est la 

 moyenne autour de laquelle oscillent 

 les elemens sociaux : ce sera, si Ton 

 veut, un etre fictif pour qui toutes 

 les choses se passeront conforme- 

 ment aux resultats moyens obtenus 

 pour la societe. Si I'on cherche ii 

 etablir, en quelque sorte, les bases 

 d'une physique sociale, c'est lui 

 qu'on doit eonsiderer, sans s'arreter 

 aux cas particuliers ni aux anom- 

 alies, et sans rechercher si tel in- 

 dividu peat prendre un developpe- 

 ment plus ou moins grand daus 

 I'une de ses facultes." 



