The classification of statistics and its results

Geddes, (Sir) Patrick

The classification of
statistics and its results

29

THE

OSSIFICATION OF STATISTICS

AM) ITS RESULTS.

PATRICK QEDDES, F.RS

B OM ZOOLOGY

THE

CLASSIFICATION OF STATISTICS

AND ITS RESULTS.

BI

PATRICK GEDDES, F.R.S.E.,

LECTURER Olf ZOOLOGY IN THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, EDINBURGH,
AND DEMONSTRATOR OF BOTANY IN Till. IMVI i:slTT.

(From tlic Proceedings of Ou Royal Society of Edinlntrgh, vol. xi.
Read March 21, April 4, and May 3, 1SS1).

KM XI5UIIG II : A. & C. BLACK.
1881.

ffft

&4

NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH,
GOVERNMENT BOOK AND LAW PRINTERS FOR SCOTLAND

THE CLASSIFICATION OF STATISTICS
VXD ITS RESULTS.

Every one may readily notice that the collection of statistical
information goes on around us to a vast and constantly increasing
extrnt j not simply in the periodic census, but in the daily labours
of the Kegistrar-General's Department, of the Board of Trade, and
the like. Such functions are carried on in every civilised country
by many special statistical bureaux ; a statistical society exists in
almost every great intellectual centre, and an International Statis-
tical Congress, which has proposed t<> itself the vast object of
accumulating, co-ordinating, and comparing the whole body of
national statistics, has met periodically since 1853.

Though no one will probably question the desirability and useful-
ness of such a task, it may be well to point out that in the words of
a veteran statistician* — " By this means light will be thrown on
every branch of statistical science. All social phenomena of every
kind may In- inv.stigated by comparisons of tin- dill'erent causes
from which they arise, under different conditions, and in countries
presenting wide spheres of observation and opposing iniluences at
w<>rk. Knowledge will thus be increased, laws of social life
eliminated, true scientific inquiries promoted, the work of govern-
ment amplified, and the progress and prosperity of nations fixed
upon sure bases of observation and reason, instead of dan
I -xperiments or doubtful theories. "

in, regarding the importance of uniformity (/>., of orderly
classification) in all statistical publications, the same authority f lias
insisted that "WJi.it WM wanted, above all things, was uniformity.

I m, !*.&&, "BtfOri en the Kighth International Statistical Cm-

grew, St Petersburg, 1872"; faun. Statist 8oc. Lornl, vol xxxv., Dec.

1872, p. 457.

t Quoted by Ifeott, " Prelim. Report of Ninth International Statistical

hs, held at DadtvB itfe, 1876" ; Jonrn. Statist Soc Lond., vol. xxxix.,

Dec. 1876, p. 645.

Hundreds, W6 might say thousands, of volumes — collected and
printed at great expense by the different Governments, by societies,

or by individuals, were rendered almost useless, in an international
point of view, for want of some uniform method of classifying and
showing the results. It was impossible to make comparisons, and
so to eduee the laws of probability of occurrence of large classes of
events in social or political economy. Yet, without the discovery
of these laws, the social, moral, and intellectual condition of a
people cannot with any certainty be traced."

§ 2. It thus becomes necessary to examine and compare the modes
of classification of statistics actually in use in the statistical annuals
of different countries. This has been done by M. Deloche,* chief
of the Statistical Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Commerce, and also by Dr Mouat, Foreign Secretary of the Statis-
tical Society of London f ; and it will be useful to borrow a few
examples, placing the condensed headings in parallel columns.
(See opposite page.)

§ 3. After pointing out the utter discord which exists among
these systems, and the necessity of some fundamental scientific
idea to introduce uniformity, Deloche goes on to propose a
classification, based upon the idea of the human organisation. Of
this classification a detailed account is given by Mouat, from whom
the following summary also is borrowed: —

I. Double Synthesis of the Territory and its Population.

1 . Territory (topography, geology, hydrography, meteorology).

2. Census and movement of population.

IL Facts relating to the Exercise of the Moral Faculties.

1. Religion.

2. Civil and criminal justice.

3. Prisons and penitentiary establishments.

4. Public aid.

5. Benefit societies.

(Continued ok page 6.)

* Quoted by Mouat, "Report on the Fourth Session of the Permanent
Commission of the International Statistical Congress, held in Paris, 1878 " ;
Journ. Statist. Soc. LontL, xlii., p. 12.

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II I. FaeU relating to Vie /.'. rctoe of the Intellectual Facu

1. The three degrees of public instruction,

2. Literary and scientific productions, printing, books, lib-

raries, museums ; newspapers and reviews.

3. The fine arts.

IV / thuj to the Application of the Physical Faculties

dii'l of the Intellectual Faculties to Natural Objects.

1. Agriculture.

2. Lands built upon and land without buildings.

3. Extractive and manufacturing industry. Fisheries.
I. Professions and salaries.

5. Means of communication.

6. Commerce and navigation.

7. Public works, public health, and the food supply of

towns.
<S. The circulation of men, of things, of valuables, and of

thought. Post offices and telegraphs.
9. Credit institutions (except State banks).
10. Accidents and assurances.

A'. Facts common to the three above-meutt<»to<l orders of faculties.

1. Political rule, its organs and assemblies.

2. General administration.

3. Administration and assemblies of provinces, departments,

districts, communes, and minor subdivisions.

4. Army.

5. Xavy.

VI.

1. The finances of the State.

2. The finances of provinces or departments.

3. Finances of communes or inferior districts. Town dues

and articles consumed.

4. State banks — lee calsses de depots — mints.

VII. Colonies or Extra Continental Pom 8*i

ons.

Dr Mouat, while admitting this scheme to be " undoubtedly the
best attempt yet made to reduce to order and precision that which

is at present deficient in both these qualifications," yet holds it to
be impracticable, since it is doubtful whether there could be any
approach to general consent, either as to the divisions themselves
or to the subdivisions placed in each. 1£ Deloche's fifth division
seems to him to be fatal to the plan, and the reader will readily
notice many other objections.

§ 4. He then goes on to suggest a temporary and provisional
classification, which is summarised as follows: —

" I. Territory and Population.

II geographical and demographics] statistics, including areas,
soils, climates, possessions, and territorial arrangements, movements
and divisions of the population, and the purely social arrangements,
such as trades, professions, &c, everything contained in the registrar-
general's returns, and what is beginning to be known as sociology
generally.

M 1 L R> MfMis and Commerce.

"All the sources of the collection, production, and distribution of
wealth, the statistics of the precious and other metals, all facts
relating to the use and abuse of money, exchange operations, all
manufactures and industries, and commerce in its widest
including means of transport, navigation, &&, &c

"III. L

"All relating to legislation and policy of nations, which would
include the making and breaking of laws, the constitution of
imperial and local governing bodies, armies, navies, police |
and the like; education and religion, and all facts tending to show
the state of civilisation of each nation as distinguished from othci
nations.

" IV. M ed alphabetically).

Such an arrangement is, of course, as Dr Mouat indeed admits,
the despairing abandonment of all pretence of scientific arrange-
ment ; and it is curious to notico that this — tho latest development
of statistical eJ Hon, — is closely analogous, save for the

hn frith which it oonclndaa, to that earliest elasaiti
with which I otanists commenced theii lahotut, that of the

8

ible world into herbs, shrubs, ami tires. Under these circum-
stances the interference of the naturalist may he less impertinent
than might at first sight seem probable

. Before attempting classification, it is necessary to come to some
definite agreement as t<> the nature of statistics; and after laying
aside the popular belief that it is an inexpressibly dreary accumula-
tion of numbers by which anything whatever may be proved, we
tind that at least two hundred non-coincident definitions have been
given by statisticians. Many of these assert statistics to be a

<. many again regard it as a method ; while some, including
the most recent foreign authorities, claim that it is at once both.
But the sciences (using even the widest classification, that of Herbert
Spencer) are logic, mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy,
geology, biology, psychology, sociology, and ethics ; the methods
of science (according to Bain) are simply observation and definition
(classification), induction and deduction. We do not find statistics
in either category. Some statisticians, however, hold the sound
view that statistics is simply a quantitative record of the observed
facts or relations in any branch of science,* and I have ventured to
condense and define this view into a diagram, as follows : —

Record of Facts (at given time).

Qualitative

Quantitative

Verbal Numerical

Linear

Plane

Solid

Statements.

Graphic

Statistics.

£ G. If this definition be correct, we obtain history by superposing
or combining successive records, and this view is identical with that

• For ;i valuable discussion of recent opinion as to the nature of statistics, in
which this Litter view is substantially maintained, see Hooper, "On the
Method of Statistical Analysis"; .lourn. Statist. Soc. Loml., vol. xliv.,
March 1881.

g

Historical \

fxpri and in the famous aphorism of Schlozer, one of the earliest
writers on the subject — " Statistics is history in repose, history is
statistics in movement." Applied to sociology, it practically agrees
too, with the division of the subject into social statics and social
dynamics established by Comte.

§ 7. The field of history might at first sight seem co-extensive with
that of statistics, and both might seem to extend to all the sciences ;
but since logic involves no idea of quantity, and since mathematical,
physical, and chemical conditions and properties are constant, the
scope of statistics and history becomes restrained, as shown in the
following diagram : —

Ethics.
Sociology.
Psychology.
Biology.

i Statistical «| Geology.

Astronomy.

Chemistry.

Physics.

Mathematics.

Logic.

It is thus clear that statistics and history are, within the above

limits, the common property of the sciences, and that the current use

of these words, which restricts them to social phenomena, is simply

one of colloquial convenience, while their use in the sense of distinct

i ices or of distinct scientific methods is entirely erroneous.*

§ 8. Statistics being thus defined, the need for collection ami ( las. i-

• The preceding general conceptions may be traced into interesting detail.
The IppMcetton of the above diagrammatic definition of statistics to all the
M clearly illustrates the continual progress which goos on in each from
mere qualitative to quantitative knowledge, and the increase of detiniteneas
which (juiilitativt- knowledge is always tending to assume. For instance, tin-
name of a chemical compound, say sulphate of iron, expresses only a <[uali-
ii, its ordinary ehemical formula FeSOj roMDM tlic numerical
itl giephk nd glyptic formuhu are respectively the plan,
representation <>f the same statistic^ as we may conveniently term any such
of .pi ant it y. So, too, the astronomer has his star-maps and orrery,
the geologist his maps and models, the biologist his figures and diagrams,
while tli • lociologi : n often requires similar ui«l that the French GoftBUMBt
has recently established a Bureau de StatiUiqu* graphiqut. So by piling up
successive graphic representations of statistical observations, a solid historical

10

lication being granted, and the nnaafciafactoiineM of existing and

proposed schemes of classification being shown, we must now pro-
ceed to consider the desiderata of a system of classification. Our
classification must he natural, not artificial ; must be capable of
complete specialisation, so as to include the minutest details, and
capable, too, of the widest generalisation; it must be universal in
application, and it must be, as far as possible, simple of under-
standing, and convenient in use. But how shall we obtain such a
classification ? What phenomena in the whole field of human
knowledge have as yet been classified in this way 1 A moment's
consideration will show that it is biological science which alone
answers the question satisfactorily. Xone of the preliminary
sciences is wanting in order or definiteness, but to biology above all is
presented the problem of an innumerable multitude of actual pheno-
mena demanding arrangement. Take an instance from zoology. Birds
and reptiles, fishes and worms, are groups which the common sense
of probably every rational human being enables him to form with
considerable approach to correctness ; yet at this point the task of
the zoologist is only beginning. He has to work in two directions,
to specialise until every member of these groups is known in the
greatest detail, and also to generalise these groups into larger and
larger ones. The two lines of research may be represented thus : —

letting the dots represent the details of the various groups, and
the large rectangles the successive generalisations which combine

model might often be constructed. A geologist, for instance, by piling map
upon map of a given island at successive times (the margin being of course
removed) would thus construct a solid model which would clearly exhibit the
changes throughout the whole period. Where the area was increasing per unit
time, the solid would widen upwards and overhang its base ; where decreasing
it would narrow, and thus even the minutest local increase or decrease would
be represented with extreme vividness.

11

these into larger and larger alliances. Such a method of classifica-
tion is obviously, therefore, that of which we are in search. It
accepts our ordinary conceptions as far as possible, and systematises
them ; it is in real accordance with the order of nature, it pushes
specialisation and generalisation to the uttermost limits of possi-
bility, it is universal in application, and, as far as possible, simple of
understanding and convenient in use.

S 9. Using, therefore, the ordinary method of the classificatory
sciences, let us take a concrete case — let us examine some actual
statistics. For this purpose nothing is better than the useful little
Ani'ua'n-r, published by the B \e$ Longitudes.* Some of its

principal contents are as follows : — Calendar, times of eclipses,
sunrise and sunset, tides, &c.; tables of weights, measures, and money ;
heights of mountains, depths of rivers ; superficies and populatim
of European and other countries, special statistics of France, her
colonies and Paris, laws of mortality, eve. Then come " Tables
at number, of which the few following instances
will suffice : — Magnetic inclination, chemical elements, specific
gravities of elements, rocks, gems, thermo-chemistry. velocity of
sound, indices of refraction.

At first there is no difficulty. AVe simply separate out in order
the statistics of each of the preliminary sciences, physical, chemical,
astronomical, geological (including geographical, meteorological, &c),
and leave these to their special cultivators. It will be noticed thai
even this simple step disposes of a not inconsiderable part of the

statistics of various countries (<:{/., see Austria, ColotW .
p. •">). Social statistics now alone remain: how are they to be
classified in accordance with our canons ?

§ 10. Let us first inquire what is the fundamental scientific id
a society. Some statists and economists answer exchange, others divi-
sion of labour, others find it in history, others in the rights of man
or the like. This diversity of ..pinion makes it unnecessary to criti-
cise each in detail, and we are thrown back upon our own resources —
our knowledge of the preliminary sciences. Just as the biologist is
accustomed to classify man along with inferior organisms, and to
trace the fundamental resemblances in structure and function which
i presents to theirs, so he may reasonably impure
rft: Cauthier-Villars.

12

wherein human society resembles the societies formed by the lower
animals, the more so as no one disputes that these fall strictly
within his province.* As the term society indeed assumes, some
general truths must be common to societies of tbrmiea, Apt*,
r, and Homo alike — to ant-hill, bee-hive, beaver-dam, and city,
and this must therefore underlie our classification of social facts.

§11. First, then, a society obviously exists within certain limits
of time and space. Secondly, it consists of a number of living
organisms. Thirdly, these modify surrounding nature, primarily by
seizing part of its matter and energy. Fourthly, they apply this
matter and energy to the maintenance of their life, i.e., the support
of their physiological functions.

It is here clearly to be understood that no attempt is made com-
pletely to define a society. A society may be much more than all
this, in which case more general truths are discoverable, but in any
case these four generalisations are obviously true, neither hypothesis
nor metaphysical principle being involved. These will therefore
henceforth be termed sociological axioms. What aid can they
afford us ?

§ 12. They enable us to classify out the facts relating to each and
every society as follows :t —

(A.) Those relating to the limits of (1) time and (2) space occu-
pied by the given society.

(B.) Those relating to the matter and energy utilised by the
society from surrounding nature.

(C.) Those relating to the organisms composing the society.

(D.) Those relating to the application of the utilised matter and
energy by the given organisms.

* " The Biological sciences are those which deal with the phenomena mani-
tested by living matter ; and though it is customary and convenient to group
apart such of these phenomena as are termed mental, and such of them as are
exhibited by men in society under the heads of Psychology and Sociology, yet
it must be allowed that no natural boundary separates the subject matter of
the latter sciences from that of Biology. ' Psychology is inseparably linked with
Physiology ; and the phases of social life exhibited by animals other than man,
which sometimes curiously foreshadow human policy, fall strictly within the
province of the biologist." — Huxley, "Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals,"
London, 1877, p. 1, Introduction.

t For better agreement with the order of the sciences (see p. 9), it is con-
venient to transpose the classes of facts derived from the second and third axioms.

13

§13. "We may now proceed briefly to discuss these in order, not
tracing them into more detail than is essential for clearness.

A. (1.) Of the extreme limits of time either or both may or may
not be known, but the time at which our record of facts is taken can
be, and usually is, stated definitely at the outset as a date.

(2.) Limits of space. Leaving all purely physiographical ques-
tions to the preliminary science of geology, the essentially social
space relations may be arranged as follows : —

A. Ten society.

I. Quantity at given time.

1. Persistent since last unit time.
_. Added since last unit time.

(a) 13y geologic agency (upheaval, deposition, <fcc).

(6) By social agency (discovery, conquest, reclamation,
purchase, Sec).

II. Quality at given time.

1. Unused.

2. Used.

(a) Unspecialised (for such and such functions).
(h) Specialised (for such and such functions).

I I I. Decrease since last unit time.

1. By geologic agency.

2. By social agency.

§ 14. Let us now pass to the body of facts which our third
axiom enables us to co-ordinate — those (B) relating to the matter
and energy utilised by the given society.

Xhfl primary sources of energy in nature, so far as we at pre-
sent know, lie four — first, the primitive chemical aihnityof tin- un-
conibiiu'd nlgimmti \ secondly, the internal heat of the earth;
thirdly, the rotation of tin- earth ; fourthly, the sun. Of these
the last is, of course, by far the nod important ; and its energy
■exists either active in sunshine, moving air, or water, or latent in
irth's crust, or in the oiganiHM surrounding or composing
Tip eneigj <»f the earth's rotation has been used to some
small extent in tide mills ; that of the earth's internal heat, as mani
fested in hot spring*, vol m urse still less ; while the

14

sonrce, that <>f primitive chemical Affinity, is Boarcely used at all,
since the elements (with the partial exception of sulphur) are desired
fur the sake of other properties than their capacity of yielding energy.

The next portion of the same table, that intended for the arrange-
ment of our knowledge of the substances used, not for the produc-
tion of energy, but for the sake of their physical, chemical,
physiological, or other properties, may most simply be divided
according as the substances are animal, vegetable, or mineral. The
mineral sources may conveniently be grouped as non-metallic,
metallic, rocks, and soils; the vegetable and animal by natural
groups. But the matter and energy seized from nature are mere
raw materials, as yet unfitted for application to the maintenance of
the society. From this state, in which they may be termed poten-
tial products, they must be developed into that of ultimate products.
And a little consideration will show that this process of develop-
ment has generally three stages, — the first, of exploitation, including
agriculture, mining, engineering, &c. ; the second, of manufacture ;
the third, of movement by the agencies of transport and exchange
to the place of ultimate application to the wants of the society — pro-
tection, alimentation, nervous stimulus, &c. These propositions are
exhibited and somewhat extended in Table BL*

§ 15. In complex societies, however, a large proportion of raw
materials has to be converted into apparatus for service in exploita-
tion, manufacture, and transport; these may be termed mediate
products. We have now the main principles of an exhaustive classi-
fication of all products whatsoever ; thus —

a. Potential Products.

See Table B I.
p. Mediate Product*, used in —

1. Exploitation.

2. Manufacture.

3. Movement.

(a) Transport.
(6) Trade,
y. Ultimate Products.^

* This table is essentially borrowed from Tait and Balfour Stewart. See
Balfour Stewart, "Elementary Treatise on Heat."
t The details of the above classification would involve the printing of a con-

15

§ 1G. A farther large proportion of energy and matter is prema-
turely dissipated and disintegrated by various agencies, and at various
stages of development, and thus never becomes used at all Such
premature dissipation is termed loss, and of course needs to be
balanced against the gain recorded in the two preceding tables. The
details arrange themselves as follows : —

1. Of raw materials

2. In exploitation

3. In manufacture
Loss "4 4. In transport

5. In exchange

6. Of ultimate products

7. In remedial effort

by

/ 1. Physical agencies, e.g.,
Avalanche.
Earthquake.
Volcano.
Flood.
Storm, &c.

2. Biological agencies, e.g.,

Insects.
Fungi, &c.

3. Social agencies, e.g..,

Crime.
War.
Folly, &c.

| 17. The second axiom — that a society consists of living organ-
pleads us to the classification of their statistics. These
arrange themselves in a way very analogous to that used for
the statistics of territory (see p. 13, and Tables A I., II., III.)
as follows : —

C. Organ ism •/,•///.

I. Number at given t;;

1. Surviving since last unit time.
•J. Added since last unit time.

(a) V,y birth.

(b) V»y immigration.

•iderahlc muni" r of minor tables, and are therefore omitted, as loading to
exceed the limits and divert attention from thr matt! pwpoM of the present
pap-r.

16

II. Quality at given time,

1. Di <>h "J trul.

(a) Structural.

a. Ethnological.

(Race, aspect, &c).
{3. Anthropometric.

(Size, weight, &c).
(h) Functional.

a. Efficiency of non-cerebral functions.
/?. Efficiency of cerebral functions (Psyclwlog!<''il).
(c) Distributional.

2 Social

(a) Mutual relations.

III. Decrease since last unit time.

1. By death.

2. By emigration, &c.

§ 18. Since the organisms composing the society have by our
first axiom certain time-relations, since by our third axiom they
seize upon the matter and energy of nature, a new idea comes in,
that of their occupations. In a complex society like the human,
more time-relations or occupations are to be observed than those
which concern the direct utilisation of nature. By the aid of
these considerations and of the preceding tables, the occupations
arrange themselves as follows : —

I. Operations on matter and energy, ?>., concerned in

1. Exploitation.

2. Manufacture.

3. Movement.

(a) Transport.

(b) Trade.

II. Operations on organisms composing given society.

1 . Service of non-cerebral functions.

(a) Menial, domestic.

2. Service of cerebral functions.

(</) yEsthetic, intellectual, moral.

3. Service of co-ordination.

17

III. (For this third class no completely satisfactory term exists.
Its scope and limits are, however, as will afterwards be teen, none
the less definite.)

1. Unemployed.

(By reason of youth, misadventure, refusal, &c.).

2. Disabled.

(By disease, defect, age, &c).

3. Destructive.

(War, crime, Sec).

4. Remedial.

(Of disaster, disablement, destruction, &c.)

§ 19. Knowing now the number and quality of the members of
the society, and their respective occupations, and considering
that they apply the resources of nature to the satisfaction of
their wants, the manner in which these are divided — in other
words the partition of products, comes next to be classified. This
partition, it must be observed, may be either of territory of services
of potential, mediate, or ultimate products, or of tokens or claims
for these.

These facts may be thus tabulated : —

I. Mediate partition to classes A, B, C (and to members of

various occupations contained in these).

1. Of claims (currency, &c).

2. Of potential products.

3. Of mediate products.

II. Ultimate partition to A, B, C.

1. Of territory.

2. Of ultimate products.

5. Of ME vices.

In some cases the partition is nil ; that is to say, the products,
territory, &c, are held in common.

§ 20. The partition of products to th< members of the ■
being now disposed of, there next comes to be considered the mode
of tin ir eenanemtiou Ol use, for which a separate but similar sot of
tables is then' fore provided.

' Finally, nil..- t: i rs of society are modified (1) in

18

accordance with their modes of life or occupations, and (2) by their
food and other material circumstances, since, in biological language,
the organism is modified by its environment,* it is now necessary to
inquire as to the results of the given occupations, and the given
partition and use to the members following these. The biologist
lias accumulated a considerable body of knowledge respecting these
results among animals, but comparatively little is known of human
society in this respect. The foundation of an exhaustive knowledge
of these results has, however, long ago been laid by the labours of
the physician, the hygienist, and in a less degree by those of the
educationist and philanthropist.

§ 22. These, then, are the primary tables, and we are now in a
position to inquire how far our task of classifying the whole body
of social statistics has been successful.

The scheme is scientific throughout — in accordance with the
known truths of physical and biological science — is capable on the
one hand of complete specialisation by the aid of minor tables, into
the most trivial details of common life, and on the other, of
generalisation into a colossal balance-sheet. Its systematic and
generalised character appears clearly from a survey of the whole
sheet of tables. It will be observed in the first place that the
successive sets of tables, three each, may be read in horizontal rows,
thus — Territory, Production, Organisms, Occupations, Partition,
Use, Result. Secondly, that these sets of tables are related to each
other : Organisms being treated on the same plan as Territory ; the
tables of Occupations being derived largely from those of Pro-
duction, and the tables of Partition, Use, and Result, being in such
close relation to those of Occupations that the ruling of each of the
latter is exactly copied in all the four lower series \ while the third,
and by far the most important general view is obtained by looking
at the left hand and middle vertical series (at least as far down as
Occupations inclusive, and in some respects all the way), as entries
on the debtor side of the balance-sheet, and similarly at the right
hand vertical series as entries on the creditor side. Again, the
scheme is universal in application — the tables will serve equally
well for arranging our knowledge concerning any society — animal or

* This might, perh;i]>s, more conveniently have been stated as a separate
axiom.

19

human, civilised or savage : — for savage and animal societies, some
columns here and there of course simply remaining blank. It is
extremely simple, too, of understanding, and may, therefore, on all
these grounds, satisfying as it does all the desiderata of a classifica-
tion, legitimately claim a trial of convenience in 086. In so far as the
author's own studies have extended, it has proved eminently service
able and suggestive ; and, moreover, if it be admitted to be a better
classification than its predecessors, it is entitled provisionally to super-
sede them for working purposes, according to the universal practice
of the preliminary sciences, even although itself open to criticism.

§ 23. Such, then, being the classification in its most general and
M t form, its completion — a task even more than that of any of
the preliminary sciences — needing innumerable lifetimes broad and
long, would require subclassification into the minutest details of
social life and the rilling up all the major and minor tables for each
given society, with the facts of which so many are already gathered
into economic and statistical libraries, and so many are being
periodically collected, but of which perhaps even more await inves-
tigators, and the notation of all these by all the resources of
graphic statistics. Thus, with the comparison, too, of each record
with those of other communities and of antecedent times — in other
words the comparison of statistics with statistics, and history with
history, it is hard to speculate how vast would be the outcome of
elucidated laws.*

But while this complete application is not within our reach, it
must not be mppoted that no application is or can he made to
practice, nor that the present is a mere untested scheme. On the con-
trary, a very con>id. table number of volumes of actual statistics,
journals of societn •>, census returns, and works on special subjects,
have been gone through, without the discovery of any facts relating
to any given society which could not be immediately referred to their
places on the tables, vhile the facts relating to relations between
dill. -rent societies ■Banged themselves conveniently as links between
tin ir respective sets of tables. +

is intereatii | »rc these with tin in many respects similar tables

employed bj Mr Spen I Sociology."

t The nedei neyeoai iu«utiy verify rtile etetemsat i»y running tfirngh

any such book, say a nur ;cr of the Journal of thu Statistical Society, or a

20

§ 24. Again, these tables, as the reader must already have noticed,
embody much more than a mere classification for statistics in the
narrower sense, and attempt nothing short of an organisation of the
whole facts presented by the social sciences into a more definite and
coherent body of knowledge than they have formed heretofore. The
first series of tables, those of Territory, is intended to include the
facts of political geography, while the second series is still more
comprehensive. Its first table, that of Energy and Matter, in-
cludes the subjects commonly termed economic physics, economic
geology, economic botany, and zoology, of which there is a large,
but inco-ordinated literature. *

The table (B II.) entitled Development of Products, generalises
a classification of the facts and processes of technology in the widest
sense, including all the arts, coarse and fine, together with the pro-
cesses of transport and exchange which the products undergo ; the
developmental history of any given product (which is in many
respects analogous to that of an organism), being written across the
table from left to right. The minor tables, as yet unpublished, of
which the most important is outlined at page 14, contain a classi-
fication of all material products, potential, mediate, and ultimate.
And it must not be supposed that these are mere cb priori construc-
tions, inapplicable to practice, the table of Development having
really been worked out with a constant reference to the contents of
technological encyclopaedias (of which the present arrangement is
usually merely alphabetic), while the minor tables are the result of
many weeks' continuous attempt to classify the multitudinous con-
tents of the last Paris Exposition, and of various smaller previous
and subsequent museums of production.

In like manner the three tables devoted to the organisms corn-
copy of the Proceedings of Section F of the British Association. At most he
will only occasionally have a temporary difficulty in finding where to assign
any subject, and this merely for want of the minor tables.

* The names of these subjects are unsatisfactory, since scientific physics,
geology, and biology have no economic aspects at all. The biologist, for
instance, divides his subject into morphology, physiology, distribution, and
aetiology, and finds no place for economic considerations. These subjects are
really sociological ones, and should therefore be termed respectively physical
economics, geological economics, botanical and zoological economics. The
change is no mere verbal one, but involves a radical alteration of the point of
view and mode of treatment, and indeed demands the handing over of these
subjects to other cultivators.

21

posing society generalise the results of the daily labours of the
Registrar of births, deaths, and marriages, with those of the
periodic census, and these again with anthropological and educational
statistics, while the three tables immediately following oiler 1
solution of two long outstanding and highly important problems, —
iirst, that of the classification of occupations;* and second, that
of the nature of productive and unproductive labour.

Lastly, the tables of Production, Partition, and Use aim respec-
tively at including the facts of the usual divisions of political
economy — the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth ;
while the last — those of Result — cover, as before stated, a large but
incomplete and unsystematised body of knowledge accumulated by
biologists, physicians, educationists, and philanthropists, and re-
lating to the reaction of the environment upon the organisms
composing the society.

§ 25. If, therefore, it has been admitted that the series of tables are
placed in order and organised into a whole, it becomes evident that
the subjects just enumerated, viz., the facts of political geography,
of physical, geological, botanical, and zoological economics, of
technology and the fine arts, of anthropology, of demography, and
of political economy have similarly been placed in order and
organised into a whole. This whole body of facts treated
statistically and historically, and the generalisations obtained
from them, together with an account of intersocial relations,
would constitute a complete account of the society, or group of
societies.

§ 26. While it is evident that in our ascending progress Iran
the preliminary sciences no shock has been felt, and no difficulty
found, in the successive assimilation of the facts of political
geography, physical and biological economics, technology and
demography, a vast hiatus becomes evident on our approach to
political economy. For hero we find not a definite record of
observed phenomena liming at exhaustiveness, together with the
generalisations obtained therefrom, but a multitude of contending

• See the very interesting alphabetic list of i in tin- London

Directory, and the discussions as to classification in tin- Report of On- l
States Census, 1870, and Report of Census of Scotland, 1871, VftON detailed
classifications are also |

22

us, bearing sometimes geographical names, as British school,
Italian school, sometimes named after their founders, or sometimes
designated by some prominent aspect of their doctrine, as Socialism,
Communism, &c, each claiming orthodoxy and opposing its con-
temporaries obliquely or diametrically. This state of things,
fortunately unique in science, makes desirable an exhaustive
study and classification of all these rival systems ; but within
our present limits it is only possible to attempt a brief glance
at their main points of difference and of agreement.

First, then, they differ as to whether the subject be a science at
all, some authors regarding it as an art, others as something
distinct from both. Restricting ourselves henceforth to the great
majority of schools which hold the first-mentioned opinion, we find
them agree in the extensive adulteration of their scientific matter
with irrelevant discussions, which are occasionally of a theological
nature, but much oftener metaphysical, and most frequently practical
— a peculiarity which helps to explain the low esteem into which the
subject has been steadily falling during the last generation, among
theologians and metaphysicians, practical and scientific men alike.
Such digressions are, however, common to the infancy of every
department of knowledge, and must not, therefore, be too hardly
dwelt upon. A more serious difficulty lies in the want of unanimity
among the various schools as to the position of their subject with
respect to other sciences, some spending no little labour in an
endeavour to isolate it from other branches of knowledge altogether,
while others claim it to be a logical science, others a mathematical,
others a physical, others a biological, others a psychological,
others a sociological, others an ethical science, while some
hold it to belong partly to one and partly to another. In
other words, the subject has been referred to every possible
position in the classification of the sciences with the ex-
ceptions of astronomy, chemistry, and geology. And while it
must be admitted that the teachers of these various systems are
usually admirable as logicians, and that many also freely use
mathematical reasonings and illustrations, they do not apply their
knowledge to any great extent in the quantitative study of pheno-
mena nor to the analysis of the facts recorded by statisticians. And
again, although political economy is said to deal largely with material

23

things, and largely with organised beings, there is probably no
department of modern literature, not even poetry or romance, so
little leavened by the recent advances of our knowledge of the laws
of matter and of life. To judge from their writings the economists
would seem to be unconscious of the very existence of such doctrines
as those of the conservation and dissipation of energy, of evolution,
and the like, and of the evident fact that the students of the
physical and biological sciences can hardly much longer delay a
combined invasion of their territory.* Moreover, although archaic
psychological conceptions — frequently, of course, of fundamental
importance — are tenaciously retained, the economist usually holds
aloof from considering the important constructive sociological efforts
already made from the side of the preliminary sciences, while
the only ethical allusion to be found in many a lengthy economic
m is a contemptuous dismissal of "sentiment."
Passing lightly over the disputes as to whether the subject is to
be treated purely by deduction, or by induction, or by both, and
ending the interminable discussions about the definition of terms,
since they compel the abandonment of most of these altogether,
we are arrested by the most serious discrepancy of all — that relating
to the very scope and nature of political economy. We find that
some schools narrow the subject to industry alone, others to govern-
ment, others to value, others to exchange, so that it has actually
been proposed within recent years to confine the title to the study
of the commercial phenomena <>f the present industrial period in
England, that ia to say in the language of our tables, to little more
than certain of the phenomena of movement at a given time in one
society ; while era many of thosr wfcieh take a wider vi.w

Late production, partition, and use arc often
justly reproached with ignoring the organisms composing the
society alt the very least with too scanty attention to

the all-im: ults of production, occupation, partition, and use

upon these organisms, while they to state then

tions of the local and the temporary as absolute laws. And, finally,
ad that many <>f tie concern themselves

little with actual periodic detailed and quantitative observation of

• See PresM- nti-il Addm ttab aaeool

York. 1881.

u

current phenomena, and still less with historical studies, that is to
with what wo saw at tho outset to be the two real aspects of
the subject; while even the schools which pay most attention to
statistics and to history are still far from basing their labours on
the foundation of the preliminary sciences.

7. I hit is not the preceding criticism altogether too completely
destructive] In no wise, for it is only levelled against the economic
system! as systems, each with pretensions to intellectual completeness.
Lut when the claim to system and completeness is withdrawn all at
< »noe become entitled to a respectf id examination. Valuable materials
have been collected, constructive of scientific economics. Statistical
and lristorical inquiry have long been in active progress ; wider and
wider conceptions of the range and place of social science are daily
gaining ground, while those very schools which we have just been
criticising for their narrowness of observation have in some respects
all the more clearly focussed the subjects within their range, and
have traced for us many of the most important phenomena of
industry or commerce, of finance or government. And if our
present limits had admitted of any detailed criticism, it would have
been easy to show a certain degree of real progress on the part of
many recent political economists towards the acceptance of scientific
methods and ideas.*

And the real claim of the system outlined in the preceding pages
lies not in its newness, for it indeed contains probably no new ideas
at all, but in its serving as far as consistent with truth to represent
the doctrine of each, and to harmonise the labours of all the schools.
Thus, for instance, it is one of the most marked advantages of the
tables that it would be easy to monograph on this principle a city
or a village, a single household or even an individual, as well as a
nation, to compare these facts of personal and domestic economy
among each other, and to generalise bodies of these; yet this is simply
a return to the conception from which political economy arose and
departed, that of the study of household management and law.f
Again, the postulation of the preliminary sciences, the idea of terri-
tory yielding matter and energy which manufactures and commerce

* Ex. gr. Marshall, " Economics of Industry," London, 1880. Guyot,4"La
Science Economique," Paris, 1881.

t noAiTCJO, OlKOS, v6fJ.os.

25

can only develop into ultimate products ; these, with the classifica-
tion of occupations, arc the ideas of the leader of the economic
IhlliSilSJSIKin the physician and physiologist De Quesnav, although
the more advanced science of our day enables us to avoid the errors
into which he fell : so, too, the larger view of industry and commerce*
the detailed examination of products and processes, of mediate and
ultimate partition and the like, the statistical, historical, and com-
parative inquiries, and, above all, khfl treatment of economic ques-
tions as forming not a totally isolated department of knowledge, hut
an integral part of the general study of man and of society, form tie-
essence of the "Wealth of Nations."
It would he easy to multiply examples, to show how complete
and detailed a harmony of the matter and spirit of the various
schools, statistical as well as economical, the scheme affords us, and
how it solves so many apparently difficult and long-disputed pro-
blems; how, for instance, the fundamental conception of organisms
utilising the matter and energy of nature clears up such time-
honoured disputes as those concerning the nature of internet and
of intrinsic value, or how light id thrown upon such phenom<
those of competition and co-operation by the biological conceptions
for existence, of physiological differentiation, of poly-
morphism, and of functional change. I'.ut space does not permit
any further development of the scientific aspects of the subject, ami
it is necessary at once to proceed to the investigation of practical
economics.

•e the organisms composing society in largely occupied
in utilising matter and energy; since, moreov< D and

every movement involves some disintegration and dissipation of

. -produces, that is to say, •m economic result — it is evident

a exhaustive study of practical economics would involve ;t
quantitative record and classification of ion going on in the

society. PliKih ailumtimiuiai is, of course, impossible; hut with-
out going to any such SXtaeme it is desiraUe and intciestin- to

some attempt. Much can, of course, be done by observing

see going on around us ; hi:
convenient periodic record in which most of the more impoitant

s going on in t unity find at least occasional mention

is furnished by the daily newspaper, it will suilice for ti

26

to take it as an example, and refer each item of news to its place in
our classification. Thus, taking a few at random : * —

Subjret.

Society.

Subject of Table.

Minor Table.

1. Irish Land Hill.
•-'. Owning of Leith >
Dock. >"
t> Funeral of

4. Amount of Kevenue.

5. Wreck of Shetland )

Fishing Pled

6. American Wheat

Crop.

7. I >aring Murder.

8. Opening of New )
Hospital. )"

Ireland.

Scotland.

England.
Britain.

Scotland.

United States. )
Canada. f

England.

England.

I'ltimate Partition.
Mediate Products.

Organisms. Loss.

Mediate Partition.
((a) Products. Loss.

((/») Organisms. Loss.

Energy.

((a) Occupations. C.
((b) Organisms. Loss.
Ultimate Partition of
Lit. Prod. and

Services.

Territory.

Movement (Trans-
port).

Death.

Nil, Co-ordination, Ac.

Exploitation, by
Storm.

Death.

Exploitation. Veg.
Pood.

Destructive Crime.
Death.

Occupations C. Dis-
abled.

I tat such an arrangement of the actual passing economic actions,
though instructive, is quite insufficient. As from our system of
astronomical knowledge it is necessary to deduce the art of naviga-
tion, so from our system of sociological knowledge we must derive
the art of conduct. Tbis want has been thoroughly felt by all the
different economic schools — so thoroughly indeed, as to lead, as was
before remarked, to the frequent obscuring of the scientific object
altogether. A classification and criticism of the practical projects
of the various schools should here find place, if space permitted.
This, however, may for the time being be dispensed with, since we
find complete absence of unanimity, individualism being opposed
by socialism, free-trade by protectionism, and so on. Thus, as we
have as yet no criterion of morals or expediency, but simply our
knowledge of the preliminary sciences, and since it is not the
practice of the preliminary sciences to accept mere authority, such
opposing schools must for the time being be considered as neutralis-
ing each other.

What, then, is to guide us in the construction of rules of prac-
tical economics ? Shall we rest contented with such a survey of
practical action as our classified newspaper affords us, and do as
others do ? This is an important principle of action, as custom and
fashion bear witness, yet hardly needs detailed exposure of its

* With the limitation stated at page 19, note 2, the reader may continue
this with any journal. See also author's paper, Brit. Ass. 1881, and " Nature,"
29 Sept. 1881, for similar classification of anthropological and economic papers.

•J 7

unscientific character or of the consequences into which it might
lead. Shall we do, then, as others advise? Much advice certainly
is current from newspapers, economic schools, and other quarters ;
but such authority, however often good, has already been dis-
missed. We are thus thrown back upon our scientific knowledge.
Why should we not act upon that? Since nature yields matter
and energy, let us utilise nature. Since organisms struggle for
existence, let us compete ; since, too, they join in united action, let
us co-operate. Tins seems more hopeful, and might be largely
developed to furnish practical axioms, tolerably coincident on the
whole with the majority of existing customs and precepts. Prac-
tical rules of conduct may be made corresponding, for instance, to
the table of energy (B I.), counselling us to utilise tides, coal, timber,
plants, and animals. Yet if these preceding scientific grounds be
accepted as sufficient for these practical actions, consistency demands
the similar utilisation of the organisms composing society — that is
to say, of our fellow-men, as machines, food, &c. ; courses, more-
over, for which there exist in many societies abundant precedents,
both of custom and of counsel. Competition, too, as might easily
be shown, would lead us to similar courses of action, and so on
with the rest In short, then, the development of scientific know-
into practical action is in many cases serviceable, yet hero
and there without warning leads us into a course where we find
ourselves confronted by a difficulty of a new order — the moral.

§ 29. How is it that every proposed course of action has thus led
us into difficulties 1 Because we are set-king rules of action without
defined any aim of action. As we required axioms for
scientific economics, 80 now we require postulates for action, and
the latter are readily derivable from the former ; thus from our iir>t
axiom that the society exists within limits of space and time, the
corresponding postulate is evident — let the society exist within
limits of spue and time, while from the seeond, third, end fourth
axioms the respective postulates arise — (2) let the society consist oi
living organisms, (3) let them seize tl f sur-

rounding nature, (4) let them apply this to the purposes of their
life, and so on ; for, as it was pointed out, that as our knowledge of
iture of | ial and in particular progresses, new

axioms would necessarily l>e . • | the most general ones with

28
which we ntarted, bo corresponding postulates for action would be

derived from these, for in every art our code of action 18 the
implement of our scientific knowledge. This principle
of practical conduct must not "be mistaken foi the principle last
criticised, and which was seen to lead us into difficulties, that of
acting upon any portion of scientific knowledge irrespective of its
importance to society; this proposes the adaptation of our action to
our whole knowledge of society, and the consequent infringement
of no axiom, and recognises the necessary imperfection of such
action in proportion as our knowledge is incomplete. This most
highly abstract form of practical economics is capable of develop-
ment into detail.

$ 30. But a higher order of considerations than the sociological
came lately into view — the ethical. Reversing our usual order and
beginning with the practical considerations, we recognise here as
before a vast multiplicity of actions in course of actual performance
in each society, termed good or bad, right or wrong, the application
and definition of these terms differing somewhat in different
societies and schools, custom and counsel too differing as before.
An examination of these actions to which moral importance has
been assigned, shows that at least many, for instance crime,
remedial effort, &c, have already been included in our survey of
practical economics, while a reconsideration of our economic pheno-
mena shows that moral significance is constantly attached to
common acts, say of commerce or husbandry. The interesting
detailed examination of the economic aspects of actions commonly
termed moral, and of the moral aspects of actions commonly termed
economic, which must be left to the reader, leads to the conclusion
that at least the majority of the actions going on in the society
(probably indeed all) possess both aspects. Without going so far,
if it be granted that certain practical actions have both economic
and ethical aspects, it follows that in these given respects both
moral and economic action must coincide. For if the action based
upon economic science do not coincide with the action based upon
ethical science (assuming such science to exist), it follows that
the two sciences of sociology and ethics are not in unity ; and
inversely, if this denial of the unity of science be not made,
economic action must harmonise and coincide with moral action.

This coincidence of practical economics with practical ethics, of
economy with morality, being implied in such common conceptions as
those of conduct, duty, and the like, and indeed in almost every
application of these terms, and having been often pointed out by
philosophers and moralists should need little illustration, w
not that the introduction into practice of ethical conceptions,
for various reasons of greater or less cogency, has been proclaimed
ant by not a few political economists, of whom some would
1 almost seem to have believed in a veritable antagonism of
these two aspects of conduct. Such views of ethics and economics are
harmonious with that want of relation to the preliminary sciences
referred to id § 26 as characteristic of such economists.

h ■ comparison of the two aspects of proposed actions instead
of 1 »cing avoided should indeed invariably be adopted. Since we saw
that economic action should be based upon scientific knowledge
and that not fragmentary but complete, and since our sociological
knowledge is dangerously incomplete, while action is inevitable,
the utility of the moral check already referred to in § 28 becomes
apparent When the counsel of economics and of morals coincide
the action may be regarded as ratified and its grounds as verified,
while a discord between the two must similarly be regarded M
hiditmting that the proposed course of action whether ethical or
economic must be in error. Though the course of action proposed
OB ethical grounds may sometimes be even more liable to error than
that proposed on those of our as yet so imperfect economic know-
ledge, yet cases frequently occur more or less analogous to those
taken for example in § 28 in which the former course is to be
edopted, its aecoinpanving emotional state then serving as a help
not M a hindr.i

§31. Bating thus reached the ethical platform we find a new
series of ethical systems inviting study and criticism, but I angle
instance chosen almost at hazard must suffice. If practical economic
: coincides with ethical action, our most general principle of
economic action, which Wl have seen to be "act upon potto]
is also a general principle of ethical action. Hut this principle is
essentially similar to the most ihltnd law of the Intellectualisl
system of ethics, — the Categorical Imperative of Kant, — especially
When developed ii.to its indi vidualiM ic and concrete forms.

30

But such comparisons of the various ethical systems, however
interesting, would lead into ground for unnecessary controversy.
The object of the present paper, probably the first which has
attempted to organise the whole body of our recorded social know-
ledge into a form presentable to the cultivators of the preliminary
sciences, will have been sufficiently gained if the unity and continuity
of these, with the social and moral sciences, has been made in some
respects clearer than heretofore, and if the mode of treatment and
arrangement of the facts of social science therein proposed bo ad-
mitted as satisfactory and serviceable.

NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH,
GOVERNMENT BOOK AND LAW PRINTERS FOR 8COTLAND.

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

HA
29

G4

Geddes, (Sir) Patrick

«♦ ^etflasBif ication of
statistics and its results