578 



sciujsrcu. 



[Vol. IX., No. 228 



ties, purely statistical, which must be surmounted 

 before the tables are completed. Colonel Wright 

 drew from his own experience excellent illustra- 

 tions of these. " The question may be asked," he 

 said, " what elements of capital are involved in 

 the census question of ' capital invested ' ? Is it 

 simply the cash capital invested by the concern 

 under consideration, or is it all the money which 

 is used to produce a given quantity of goods ? If 

 the members of a firm contribute the sum of 

 $10,000, and they have a line of discounts of 

 >0,OOO, the avails of which are used in producing 

 ),000 worth of completed goods, what is the 

 capital invested ? What is the capital invested 

 which should be returned in the census? If a 

 man has $5,000 invested in his business as a 

 manufacturer, and he buys his goods on ninety 

 days, or four months, and sells for cash, or thirty 

 days, what is his capital invested ? This ques- 

 tion is one among many of the practical problems 

 that arise in a statistical bureau, but which has 

 not yet been treated scientifically. What has 

 been the result of the reported statistics relating 

 to capital invested? Simply that calculations, 

 deductions, and arguments based on such statistics 

 have been and are vicioiis, and will be until all 

 the elements involved in the term are scientifical- 

 ly classified. Another illustration in point arises 

 in connection with the presentation of divorce 

 statistics, especially when it is desired to compare 

 such statistics with marriages, or to make com- 

 parisons to show the progress, or the movement 

 of divorces. Shall the number of divorces be 

 compared with the number of marriages cele- 

 brated in the year in which the divorces are 

 granted, or with the population, or with the 

 number of married couples living at the time ? 

 I need not multiply illustrations. The lies of sta- 

 tistics are unscientific lies." In speaking of the 

 U. S. census. Colonel Wright said, that although 

 we take a census in the United States every ten 

 years, yet, as a rule, the men that are brought into 

 the work know nothing of statistics. They should 

 be trained in the very elementary work of census- 

 taking and of statistical science. It would be 

 much more economical for the government to 

 keep its experienced statisticians busily employed 

 in the interim of census-taking, even if they do 

 no more than study forms, methods, and analyses 

 connected with the presentation of the facts of 

 the preceding census. Money would be saved, 

 results would be more thoroughly appreciated, 

 and problems would be solved. The next congress 



must make the preliminary arrangements for 

 the elcA^enth census, and it would be a national 

 gain were Colonel Wright himself put in charge 

 of the work. 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOB CRIMINALS. 



In Science for May 13 appeared a favorable 

 notice of an experimental class in physical cul- 

 ture, conducted during the summer of 1886 at the 

 New York state reformatory, and described at 

 length in the last annual report of the board of 

 managers. The class consisted of twelve men, 

 dull and stupid, but not idiots or imbeciles, who 

 seemed incapable of any prolonged mental effort, 

 and who had failed to make any appreciable 

 progress in school-work. The object in view in 

 the formation of the class was to determine if 

 physical culture, with all that the term implies, 

 would not result in at least a partial awakening of 

 dormant mental power in twelve men mentally 

 and morally obtuse. 



With physical culture and improvement, there 

 came a mental awakening ; and at the end of five 

 months, when the class was discontinued, the men 

 were able to perform operations in simple arith- 

 metic, as division and cancellation, — a thing they 

 had never done before, as the average criminal is 

 remarkably dull in all that pertains to mathe- 

 matics. 



It is now more than six months since the class 

 was given up, and the men assigned to various 

 shops and employments and the primary classes 

 of the reformatory, — a period sufficiently long to 

 determine, in part at least, the value of physical 

 culture as an educational factor. 



One man, a southern negro, died during the 

 winter from pulmonary disease, leaving eleven 

 men under observation at the present time. At 

 the time the class was formed nine of these eleven 

 men were in the third grade, and two in the sec- 

 ond or intermediate. Five months later, or when 

 the class was discontinued, these nine men had 

 attained the second grade, and the two there 

 originally had maintained their standing. At the 

 present time of writing, six have reached the first 

 grade, leaving five in the second ; and of these 

 latter, two have every prospect of reaching the 

 first by the beginning of May. 



The average marking of these eleven men for 

 the six months preceding their course of training, 

 and while engaged in shop-work, was as follows : 

 demeanor, — 2^ ; labor, 3i§ ; school, 1^, or 46 per 

 cent ; 3 representing the highest attainable mark 

 in each, or an aggregate of 9 for the time named. * 

 During the continuance of the class, and in re- 

 sponse to the efforts made to arouse these men 



