44 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
tures this method was taught by Courning in the University of 
Helmstadt in 1660, and that a course in statistics was offered at 
Jena in the early part of the eighteenth century.!. Although asa 
science it is of recent date, enumerations of population and cal- 
culations concerning other social phenomena antedate the birth of 
Christ more than 2000 years.2. The word law was first used in 
statistics by Sussmilch in 1775 to express regularity in the recur- 
rence of social phenomena;? but some statisticians have confused 
this with naturallaw. M. Block distinguishes the two as follows: 
“One indicates certainty, the other, probability. . .. In 
natural laws we are able to follow the relation of cause and 
effect. We see (as far as our knowledge or experience permits) 
all the factors in action, we know in advance that the cause will 
produce the effect. . . . In statistics the relations of cause and 
effect are less visible, often we can determine only correlations 
(coincidences) from the post hoc rather than from the propter hoc, 
for now the cause remains unknown.” 
Quételet is generally recognized as the first name in the his- 
tory’and development of modern statistical science. His con- 
tribution is stated by Hankins to be four-fold: (1) perfection of 
plans for census taking; (2) criticism of sources; (3) arrangement 
of materials; and (4) progress toward uniformity and compar- 
ability of data.5 He was the leading spirit in the formation of the 
Bureau of Statistics in Belgium and in the organization of the 
Royal Statistical Society of London. Through his influence 
various nations were led to co-operate in using a standard 
system of enumeration. 
Quételet was a contemporary of A. Comte and seems to have 
influenced him to some extent though Comte finally repudiated 
the statistical method. His influence on Buckle, however, was 
profound and the statistical method, made popular among 
scientists by his writings, has been found of great value by 
modern sociologists. 
Guided by the scientific thought of his day as represented by 
Lyell, Agassiz, Gray and Hooker, Quételet considered each species 
1 Op. cit., p. 5. 3 [bid., p. 115. 5 Tbid., p. 41. 
2 Ibid., p. 1. 4 Hankins, p. 36. 
