704 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 777 



to the philosophy of history itself, it seems 

 necessary to have some special name to desig- 

 nate this class of work. The word " biometry," 

 already in general use, does not meet the re- 

 quirements. It fails to express the primary 

 value of this class of research, namely, elucida- 

 tion of the philosophy of history for its own 

 sake, and also fails to suggest that the work 

 should be carried forward by the historians 

 themselves. I propose the word " historiom- 

 etry," derived from the Greek Itrropla, history, 

 and ixiTpnv, measure. Historionietry bears the 

 same relation to history that biometry does to 

 biology. It may be noticed that these investi- 

 gations treat only of groups of individuals. 

 I am already convinced from the indications 

 of several researches which I have now under 

 way, that the quantitative method may be suc- 

 cessfully applied to historical events of a more 

 .general character. 



BIBMOGRAPHY OF HISTORIOMETKY 



■•de Candolle (Alphonse). " Histoire des sciences 

 et des savants depuis deux sifeoles." Gen6ve, 

 etc. (H. Georg), 1873. Contains lists of scien- 

 tific names objectively (impersonally) compiled. 



Cattell (J. McKeen). "A Statistical Study of 

 Eminent Men." Popular Science Monthly, Feb- 

 ruary, 1903, pp. 359-377. [Abstract in Psycho- 

 logical Review, March, 1895.] The names of a 

 thousand eminent men of all time are here ar- 

 ranged in the order of their eminence by the 

 strictly objective, and valuable " space method." 

 Attempt should be made to test the limits of the 

 accuracy of this method by comparing these 

 names with those selected by other methods. 



Cattell (J. McKeen). "A Statistical Study of 

 American Men of Science." Science, November 

 23, November 30, December 7, 1906. Although 

 the facts are not drawn from history, they are 

 useful as a check to compare with historical 

 statistics. The names were selected by the 

 " method of voting." 



Ellis (Havelock). "A Study of British Genius." 

 London (Hurst & Blackett), 1904. [First ap- 

 peared in Popular Science Monthly, February- 

 September, 1901.] A valuable study based upon 

 the " Dictionary of National Biography." Con- 

 tains lists of British men of genius and talent, 

 objectively derived and useful for further study. 



Galton (Francis). "Hereditary Genius. An In- 

 quiry into Its Laws and Consequences." 2d 

 edition. London (Macmillan), 1892. The 



earliest of biographical statistical studies, first 

 published in 1869. Many of the lists of names 

 are not compiled by any strictly objective 

 method. 



Galton ( Francis } . " English Men of Science, 

 Their Nature and Nurture." London (Mac- 

 millan), 1874. Fellows of the Royal Society. 



Galton (Francis) and Schuster (E. ). "Note- 

 worthy Families." London (Murry), 1906. 

 Families of scientific men objectively studied. 



Jacoby ( Paul ) . " Etudes sur la selection chez 

 I'homme." Avant propos par Gabriel Tarde. 

 2d edition. Paris (Alcan), 1904. The last 

 quarter of this work dealing with the origin 

 of French men of talent has decided scientific 

 value. The first portion of the book deals with 

 royalty, le pouvoir, contains no statistical treat- 

 ment, and is entirely misleading. 



Lorenz (Ottokar). " Lehrbuch der gesammten 

 wissenschaftlichen Genealogie." Stammbaum 

 und Ahnentafel in ihrer gesohiehtliehen, sociolo- 

 gischeu und naturwissenschaftlichen Bedeutung. 

 Berlin (Hertz), 1898. Suggestive at the time 

 it was written, but contains scarcely any statis- 

 tical treatment. 



Odin (A.). " Genfese des grands hommes gens de 

 lettres frangais modernes." 2 vols. Paris (H. 

 Welter), 1895. A study of 6,382 French men 

 of letters. Valuable for its facts. The conclu- 

 sions are often unwarranted. 



Woods ( Frederick Adams ) . "' Mental and Moral 

 Heredity in Royalty: a Statistical Study in 

 History and Psychology, with 104 Portraits." 

 New York (H. Holt), 1906. [Abstract in Pop- 

 ular Science Monthly, August, 1902-April, 1903. 

 Brief abstract in Psychological Review, March, 

 1902.] The individuals are included in the 

 study by a strictly objective plan. Attempt is 

 made to reduce the subjective element to a 

 minimum while grading them to a scale of ten, 

 by averaging opinions of historians. Conclu- 

 sion that heredity outweighs environment is 

 arrived at by several statistical methods. The 

 general method of " averaging opinions " is 

 shown to be practical and to give orderly re- 

 sults, harmonious with other researches in 

 heredity. Human heredity shown to be " alter- 

 native " ( non-blending ) . 



"The Great Men of France (XlXth Century)." 

 From London Times in Science, January II, 

 1907. Names were obtained by popular vote. 



Frederick Adams Woods 

 Massachusetts Institute 

 or Technology 



