SOCIOLOGY. 
201 
The highly suggestive and valuable letter with which Mr. Herbert 
Spencer has favoured us makes it almost presumption in me to offer 
any suggestion as to the work of the Section, but reverting for a 
moment to that passage in his letter in which he says:—“As you 
indicate Education as one of the first objects to be dealt with, you 
might in connection with it take up the alleged relations between 
ignorance and crime, and education and morality ”—I would venture 
to suggest in connection with this subject that it would be most 
interesting and valuable to compare the classified results of Criminal 
Statistics for a given period of years before the working of the School 
Board in Birmingham and in other towns with the corresponding 
period since the School Board has been in existence. And with it I 
would also suggest the taking note of the recent labours of the Health 
Committee of our town, resulting in a diminished death-rate, as com¬ 
pared with that of other large towns, and concurrently with it a 
possibly higher standard of general health. The labours of the Baths 
and Parks Committee in opening additional baths, parks, and recrea¬ 
tion grounds would also tell as factors. In one of his works (I forget 
which, at this time) Mr. Herbert Spencer suggests that it would be most 
interesting to ascertain among the criminals in a gaol how many of 
them had been in the habit of taking a bath! The opening of a public 
park or recreation ground in a district would not only have remote 
influence in diminishing crime in that district, but immediate 
influence in adding to the health of that district. Morally and 
intellectually the opening of a Free Library in a district would be a 
most important factor of progress. The labours of the Improvement 
Committee of our town having charge of the Artizans’ Dwellings 
Scheme in removing unfit and unsanitary dwellings, and opening up 
spaces for oxygenation and freedom of transit, are all interesting 
factors. Probably, also, the closing of unnecessary houses for the sale 
of intoxicating drinks, and the opening of coffee houses in a district, 
act as Sociological factors of progress. 
We all remember the famous illustration in the “ Origin of 
Species ” (showing the complex relations of all animals and plants to 
each other in the struggle for existence), of the large and extremely 
barren heath, part of an estate of a relative of the author, in Stafford¬ 
shire, of which several hundred acres, of exactly the same nature, had 
been enclosed twenty-five years previously, and planted with Scotch 
fir. “ The change in the native vegetation of the planted part of the 
heath was most remarkable, more than is generally seen in passing 
from one quite different soil to another, not only the proportional 
numbers of the heath-plants were wholly changed, but twelve species 
of plants (not counting grasses and carices) flourished in the planta¬ 
tions, which could not be found on the heath. The effect on the 
insects must have been still greater, for six insectivorous birds were 
very common in the plantations, which were not to be seen on the 
heath ; and the heath was frequented by two or three distinct 
insectivorous birds. Here we see how potent has been the effect of 
