152 report — 1877. 



science and practice ; but I am sure that we shall all try as much as possible to avoid 

 matters which involve party or personal questions, and to maintain a calm and 

 scientific attitude in our treatment of the many subjects which come within the 

 range of this Section." 



Sir G. Campbell speaks of " the range of this Section." But I must observe that 

 the further man advances in scientific research the more apparent becomes what, to 

 use a word borrowed from the French, may be caUed the general solidarity of 

 science, and the consequently ever-increasing difficulty of drawing hard and fast 

 lines between its different departments. 



For instance, Chemistry has of late thrown great and unexpected light upon Astro- 

 nomy, after having been extensively brought to bear upon the investigations carried' 

 on respecting the nutrition of animal and vegetable life and the causes and effects 

 of disease in both ; while the animal and vegetable kingdoms have been discovered 

 to approach each other so closely in their lower forms that their exact boimdaries 

 can hardly be determined. 



And so I may be allowed to remark, even with regard to this Section, whose 

 double title faithfully represents the inseparable connexion between Economic Science 

 and Statistics, that it has more connexion in several ways with some of the other 

 scientific departments of the Association than might in the first instance be supposed. 

 For example, facilities and cost of transit to persons, goods, and information have 

 a very practical bearing on scientific investigation generally, and especially on 

 investigations carried on in concert by a number of different persons in different 

 places, which it is one great object of this Association to promote ; and therefore 

 this Association collectively and departmentally has an appreciable interest in the 

 productiveness, as to direct pecuniary returns, of means of transit, and in the ques- 

 tion whether profit or public convenience ought to be made the chief object in the 

 regulation of railways, roads, canals, postal arrangements, and electric telegraphs. 

 And so, f urther, this Association is interested in the economic laws governing the 

 service for extending, improving, and working these means of transport; and 

 further yet I must add, after what happened last month in the United States, it is 

 interested in the liability of that service to disturbance by the action of the servants 

 employed iu it, when misguided by the delusion that because they can affect the 

 cost of production they can control also the demand for what is supplied, and there- 

 fore its marketable value. 



But to return to the connexion between Economic Science and Statistics. The 

 mere numerical record or collection of bare facts not marshalled on any system 

 remains an unfruitful heap until the facts reduced to order can be brought to bear 

 upon the elucidation of some general principle. I was therefore rejoiced when the 

 London Statistical Society, to which I have had the honour of belonging more than 

 thirty years, recognized this truth, and from its device of a sheaf with "Aliis 

 exterendum" under it, omitted the words implying the Society's repudiation of 

 the duty of thrashing out the corn and winnowing away the chaff. Notwithstand- 

 ing its modest disavowal, however, I venture to confidently assert that from the very 

 beginning the records of that Society show a vast amount of pure and valuable 

 grain — not merely collected, but well threshed and winnowed out by its members, 

 and stored away in the condition most available for use. 



My predecessor well observes, in language better than I should have been able 

 to find for myself, " At first sight Statistics expressed in figures might seem to 

 constitute the most exact of sciences ; but in practice it is far otherwise. In 

 nothing is so great caution necessary ; there is too great temptation to reduce to 

 figures facts which are themselves not sufficiently ascertained ; too often an exact- 

 ness is claimed for these figured results which is altogether fallacious and mislead- 

 ing It is especially necessary to distinguish between figures which are really 



ascertained, and those which are merely drawn by deductions from rough and 



conjectural facts There is very often fear that Statistics are sought out 



and adapted to suit a preconceived theory. Another misuse of Statistics is this, 

 that when they are used to test certain capacities and qualifications work is directed 

 and shaped to meet the statistical test, and the results thus obtained become mis- 

 leading. In such a case it is necessaiy very frequently to change the form in 

 which the statistical test is applied." 



