May 27, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



507 



INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL INSTI- 

 TUTE. 



The International statistical institute held its 

 first meeting at RoQie from April 12 to April 17. 

 Among the distinguished scientists present were 

 Sir Rawson W. Rawson of England, president of 

 the institute ; Signor Bodio, director-general of 

 statistics in Italy ; Professor Neumann- Spallart 

 of Vienna ; Professor Levasseur of Paris : Pro- 

 fessor Wagner of Berlin ; Dr. Engel, formerly 

 director of the Prussian statistical bureau ; Dr. 

 Broch of Norway ; and M. Leon Say of Paris. 

 It was resolved that the working members of the 

 institute should be limited to a hundred and fifty, 

 and they are to be chosen exclusively from those 

 who make a special study of statistics, and take 

 a real interest in them. 



One of the mof^t important papers presented was 

 that of Dr. Engel, on "Consumption as the meas- 

 ure of the prosperity of individuals, families, and 

 nations." The paper is described as elaborate 

 and ingenious, and gave a valuation of the mini- 

 mum cost of maintenance from birth to the age 

 of twenty-five. Dr. Engel calculates that an in- 

 fant cannot be nourished from birth to the end of 

 the first year at a less cost than five pounds, and 

 that by the age of twenty-five each individual 

 has cost, in the way of maintenance, not less than 

 nearly three hundred pounds. 



He also gave a statement of the estimated share 

 of the earnings of a family, contributed by each 

 member of it. The estimate is based on the cost 

 of maintenance of a family consisting of a father 

 and mother, and six children under eleven years 

 of age. Taking the total as 16.1, Dr. Engel's 

 figures, representing the consumption of the dif- 

 ferent members, are these : — 



Thefather 3.5 



The mottier 3.0 



One child eleven years old 2.1 



One nine years old 1.9 



One seven years old ; 1.7 



One five years old 1.5 



One three years old 1.3 



One a year old 1.1 



Total.. 16.1 



Dr. Kekti of Hungary had a paper vvhich con- 

 firmed Dr. Engel's conclusions, though it was 

 written from a different point of view. Professor 

 Ferraris of Italy read a paper on the movement of 

 the precious metals between Italy and other coun- 

 tries, — a subject of peculiar interest to bis coun- 

 trymen, in view of their recent successful return 

 to specie payments. Mr. Robert Giffen argued in 

 favor of establishing a common measure of prices 

 in different countries. Mr. Bateman, of the Eng- 

 lish board of trade, touched another important 



point vvhen he presented the question of how to 

 establish a better basis than now exists for the 

 comparison of the trade statistics of various 

 countries. 



THE MEETING OF THE ECONOMIC AND 

 HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 



The fourth annual meeting of the American 

 historical association, and the second annual meet- 

 ing of the American economic association, opened 

 at eight o'clock on Saturday evening. May -il, 

 in Huntington hall, of the Institute of technology, 

 Boston. Among the members of the associations 

 present were Francis A. Walker, Justin Winsor, 

 Alfred Emerton. Dr. F. W. Taussig, Prof. C. F. 

 Dunbar, and Prof. W. W. Goodwin, of Harvard ; 

 Prof. A. T. Hadley of Yale ; Profs. R. M. Smith, 

 F. J. Gcodnow, E. M. Smith, N. M. Butler, and 

 E. R. A. Seligman, of Columbia ; Prof. Alexander 

 Johnston of Princeton : H. C. Adams and ex- 

 President A. D. White of Cornell ; Profs. E. J. 

 James and C. J. Stille of Philadelphia ; Profs. H. 

 B. Adams and R. T. Ely of Baltimore ; Dr. Philip 

 Schaff, Judge C. A. Peabody, Hon. John Jay, and 

 General Cullum, of New York City. 



President Walker's opening address was a brief 

 analysis of the present industrial status. He 

 followed the development of thought with refer- 

 ence to the manual-laboring class, and pointed out 

 the sources of our pre3ent industrial troubles. He 

 was most outspoken in condemnation of the boy- 

 cott and of the methods of the demagogues among 

 the Knights of labor. His appeal for a re-asser- 

 tion of the spirit of American men and American 

 institutions as against the methods of our immi- 

 grant population was forcibly stated, and was 

 greeted with enthusiastic expressions of approval. 



President Winsor of the Historical society fol- 

 lowed with a scholarly address on the ' Docu- 

 mentary sources of American history.' He told 

 what had been done by Jared Sparks, Peter Force, 

 and George Bancroft for the collection and pub- 

 lication of state documents. He instanced the 

 history of the Trumbull papers as evidence of what 

 vicissitutes important documents might be called 

 upon to pass through. He closed with the prac- 

 tical suggestion, that, before it is too late, the 

 U. S government should establish some body, like 

 the Histoi'ical manuscripts commission of Eng- 

 land, charged with the task of collating and pre- 

 serving papers of value for the history of the de- 

 velopment of the political life and thought of the 

 country. 



After the addresses a reception was tendered 

 the members of both associations by the trustees 

 of the Museum of fine arts, in that building. 



