524 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 29, 1881 



' ' it would be of great importance if tuch uniformity could be 

 secured in the future." 



A survey of the statistical records of various countries, 

 whether under the same or different political rule, shows the 

 most extreme discord, while a detailed examination of the 

 schemes w hich have been as yet proposed by statisticians results 

 in their rejection as unscientific — the very latest of such schemes 

 being curiously analogous to the very earliest of classificatory 

 attempts in biology. A criticism of the innumerable definitions 

 of statistics, some of which claim st.atistics as a science, others 

 as a method, others as both or neither, leads to the acceptance 

 of the view recently sustained by Hooper (J.S.S. iSSi), that 

 statistics is simply a quantitative record of the observed facts or 

 relations in any branch of science, — a definition which may con- 

 veniently be extended diau;rammatically as follows : — 



Record of Facts at Given Time. 



Qualitative 



Quantitative 



Numerical Linear Plane Solid 



Graphic 



By combining such successive records we obtain history, and 

 statistics and history are thus seen to be, within certain limits, the 

 common property of the sciences — all save logic, where there 

 are no ideas of quantity, being statistical, and all save logic, 

 mathematics, physics, and chemistry, whce conditions and pro- 

 perties are constant, being historical ; the current notions of 

 statistics and history as distinct sciences, or as distinct scientific 

 methods, being therefore entirely erroneous. 



The application of the above diagrammatic definition of sta- 

 tistics to all the sciences clearly illustrates the continual progress 

 from qualitative to quantitative knowledge which goes on in each, 

 and the increase of definiteness which quantitative kno^iledge 

 constantly tends to assume. Thus while the common name of 

 a chemical compound, say sulphate of iron, expre>ses only a 

 qualitative relation, its ordinary chemical formula, FeSOj, 

 reaches the numerical state, and its graphic and glyptic formula; 

 are respectively the plane and solid representations of the same 

 relation of quantity. So, too, the astronomer has his star maps 

 and orrery, the biologist his figures and diagrams, while the 

 sociologist so often requires similar aid that the French Govern- 

 ment has recently established a Bureau de Statistique Graphique. 

 So by piling up successive graphical representations of statistical 

 observations, a solid historical model might often be constructed. 

 A geologist, for instance, by piling map upon map of a given 

 island at successive times (the margin being, of course, cut a«ay) 

 would thus construct a solid model which would graphic.il'ly 

 exhibit the changes of increase and decrease, local and general, 

 throughout the entire period. 



But what are the desiderata of a system of classification ? It 

 must be natural, not artificial, — capable of complete generalisa- 

 tion and specialisation, imiversal in application, simple of 

 understanding, and convenient in use. Immeasurably the 

 highest example of such a classification is presented by botany 

 and zoology, and it is therefore the biologist, not the logician 

 or the mathematician, and still less the metaphysician or the 

 political economist, whose training prepares him to undertake 

 the still vaster task of classifying the infinitely numerous and 

 varied phenomena of society. 



Taking an actual compendium of miscellaneous statistics, we 

 have first then to separate out in order the actual statistics of the 

 preUminary sciences, mathematical, phy.-ical, chemical, astro- 

 nomical, geological, &c., and leave these to their special culti- 

 vators. Social statistics now alone remain, and to classify these 

 naturally we must ascertain the fundamental scientific truths 

 respecting society. Just as the biologist is accu4omed to classify 

 man along with inferior organisms, and to trace the fundamental 

 resemblances in structure and function which his organisation 

 presents to theirs, so he mu-t inquire wherein human society 

 resembles the societies formed by the lower animals, the more so 

 as no one disputes that these fall strictly within his province (see 

 Huxley, " Anat. Invert." p. i). As the term indeed assumes, 

 some general truths must be common to societies of Formica, 



Apis, Castor, and Homo alike, and this must therefore underlie 

 our classification of social facts. 



First, then, a society obviously exists within certain limits oT 

 space and time. It consi-ts of living organisms. Again, the.-e 

 modify surrounding nature, primarily by seizing part of its 

 matter and energy. Again, they apply this matter and energy to 

 the maintenance of their life ; i.e. the support of their physio- 

 logical functions. Finally, these organisms are modified by their 

 environment. 



These sociological axioms, as -we may henceforth term them, 

 at once enable us to classify out the facts relating to each and 

 every society as follows : (A) those relating to the h i)its of time 

 and space occupied by the society; (B) those relating to the 

 matter and energy utilised by the society ; (C) those relating to 

 the organisms composing the society ; (D) those relating to the 

 application of the utilised matter and energy by the given 

 society ; (E) those relating to the results of the preceding con- 

 ditions upon the organisms These considerations were 

 developed in a series of tables exhibited as diagrams upon 

 the wall ; and an extremely condensed summary is given on the 

 following page. 



These tables, which may be read either separately, in hori- 

 zontal, or in vertical series (the left-hand vertical series being 

 viewed as entries on the creditor side of a balance sheet), were 

 developed into detail, and shown to be applicable to all societies 

 alike, whether animal or human, civilised or savage, and to 

 include the facts (A) of political geography; (B) of economic 

 physics, geology, botany, and zoo! gy, of technology and the fine 

 arts, transport and commerce, in short, of the economics of 

 production ; (C) of anthropology, together with the Registrar- 

 General's reports and the census ; (Li) of distribution and con- 

 sumption ; (E) of a large body of observations made by physicians, 

 biologist-, educationists, and philanthropists dealing with the 

 modifications of the organisms by their environment. These 

 tables, therefore, while endeavouring to classify all known sta- 

 tistics, attempt nothing short of an organisation of the social 

 sciences into a more definite and coherent body of knowledge 

 than they have formed heretofore. 



It was then shown that while the above outlined considerations 

 are in entire harmony with the economic labours of the geo- 

 grapher, the physicist, the biologist, the anthropologist, and the 

 demographer, they furnish grounds for a destructive criticism of the 

 existent systems of political economy, in so far as these pretend to 

 intellectual completeness ; the best proof of this being their 

 applicability to utilise and reconcile the labours of each and all 

 the contendmg schools, statistical and economical alike.' 



The application of the conceptions of physics and biology to 

 the interpretation of social facts was then alluded to, interest 

 on money being taken as an example. This was shown to 

 depend neither npon compensation for risk of loss, reward for 

 abstinence, nor wages of .superintendence, as asserted by econo- 

 mists (Fawcett, "Pol. Econ."), nor yet to be simply ,in abstrac- 

 tion from the wealth of other members of the community as 

 supposed by its opponents, but usually to arise, in modern 

 times at least, from the appropriation of the matter and energy 

 of nature, and generally speaking, from the exploitation of the 

 sun. 



But the severest test which can be imagined is to apply the 

 idea^ of the present paper to the study and classification of all 

 the other papers read during the meeting of the section, since no 

 preparation within such short limits of time has been possible. 

 The first, "On Societies of Commercial Geography," relates to 

 the study of territoiy (Tallies A) ; the second, " Corn or Cattle," 

 in the language of Table B, I., inquires whether the exploitation 

 of plants or animals be more profitable in the given society ; 

 the third, "Report of Committee on Teaching," &c., relates to 

 the state and treatment of cerebral functions of certain organisms 

 in the given society ; the fourth, " On Agricultural Statistics and 

 Prospects," is at once classified with the second ; the fifth, " A 

 General Banking Law," &c., relates to the co-ordination of 

 commerce (Table B, II., Movement), and so on. 



.So, too, with the anthropological papers ; — the first, "Report 

 on Caves and Kitchen-Middens," is a statement of facts respect- 

 ing production, partition, and consumption in some ancient com- 

 munity, while the next, "On the Stature of the Inhabitants of 

 Hungary," supplies facts to be classified under Hungary, organ- 

 isms, structure. Nor are the other sections behind in furnishing 



^ The preceding propositions and tables are abridged from the author's 

 paper "On the Classification of Statistics and its Results" (" Proc. Roy. 

 Soc. Edin." 1S81). 



