TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 155 
at the last Congress, and is an admirable réswmé of hundreds of scattered official 
volumes. It is to be followed by other compilations in different branches of statis- 
tics, showing that these meetings have not ended in idle discussions, but will assist 
the philosopher in his studies, as well as the practical man in his efforts to pro- 
mote the social improvement of the people. 
On the suggestion of M. Quetelet, a Section will be formed in the next Con- 
gress, especially to examine statistical subjects in their direct relation with the 
theory of probabilities. The laws of the recurrence of events will thus be elimi- 
nated, and many questions which are now obscure may, by due value being given 
to the weight of observations, be reduced to correct or approximate theory. 
Such Congresses and meetings like the present enable all those who are engaged 
in a common pursuit, to benefit by the labour and skill, by the depth of thought, 
or wide experience of their fellow-workers in the same field. They bring the 
kindly feelings of friendship to the aid of scientific investigations; they allow no 
man to feel that he can repose, as if he had done enough for society; for he finds 
in the brief interval since we last met, what new questions have agitated the 
world, and how he must bestir himself to keep pace with the intellectual progress 
of the age; they point the way to unexplored tracts of knowledge; they utilize 
the smallest contributions of thought whilst filling the mind with suggestions of 
the extent and variety of the problems which still remain to be solved in the 
social condition of man. The domain of statistics is so vast, that we should wel- 
come any new labourers who will cultivate the new fields of research constantly 
opening up. If not strictly a science, it is at least a method of investigation which 
requires to be conducted in a scientific manner, and in an earnest spirit of search 
for truth. yen undeniable facts may be so collected as to serve the cause of pre- 
judice, to perpetuate error, or to conceal the laws which they should reveal. In 
social science and political economy, statistics may be considered the collection of 
experiments, by the results of which we observe the hidden workings of the laws 
which regulate the social condition of man, and his progvess in civilization, The 
growth and decay of population, the freedom of capital, and the rights of labour, 
the duty of voluntary or enforced education, the extent of Government inter- 
ference in labour or manufactures, the competition of prices, the true principles of 
commerce, the most effectual means of suppression or prevention of crime, the 
theory of taxation and national Joans, and multitudes of similar questions are all 
governed by subtle laws affecting the free will of man, checked and kept in place 
by similar action in others, of which we catch a glimpse sometimes by their 
irregular action in enforced or abnormal conditions, and sometimes by our having 
discovered and acted in harmony with the natural law which governs them. But 
as society is perpetually changing, what we have discovered and thought to be 
truth seems frequently inadequate to account for the new phenomena presented. 
It is only by extending our observations from the narrow sphere of a single 
country or a single class to all countries and all classes, by such a uniform collection 
of statistics as is now being made by all the Governments of Europe, by noting 
differences as well as analogies, and confessing and correcting errors, and compa- 
ring the operations of the same causes under various conditions of interference, that 
we shall throw light on the many unsolved problems of social and political eco- 
nomy which modern civilization presents. 
On some supposed Differences in the Minds of Men and Women with regard to 
Educational Necessities. By Lypta HK. Becker. 
When subjects are debated respecting politics, literature, or science, as they 
affect the interests of humanity, there is usually no reference to the feminine por- 
tion of the race. In questions relating to the supply of food, or to sanitary 
arrangements, there is no need to refer to women, because every one admits that 
they are equally liable with men to suffer from hunger and disease, and that they 
have an equal right to be guarded, as far as possible, from the effects of these evils, 
Were the same principle of common wants recognized in other questions than 
those affecting mere physical existence, there would be no occasion to remark on the 
