On the application of the Binomial Law to Statistical Enquiries, illustrated by the Law of the growth of Man at different ages

Abstract

In recent years, the writer who has done the most good service in bringing scientific methods to bear on the collection and comparison of statistics, is M. Quetelet, the Director of the Royal Observatory in Bruxelles, President of the Central Commission of Statistics, and the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. Nearly all the learned Academies of Europe claim the credit of enrolling him as a member. He was amongst the small number of illustrious men, including Professor Babbage, Whewell, Malthus, Drinkwater, Jones, Col. Sykes, &c., who at the third meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Science, at Cambridge in 1833, succeeded in establishing the special Section F on Economic Science and Statistics, and which afterwards led to the formation of the Statistical Society of London and various provincial Societies. He was also the originator of the International Statistical Congresses, which have been so useful in improving the methods of collection and publication of facts in all branches of statistical enquiry by every Government in Europe.