Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/87

LEFT STATES-GENERAL 61 STATISTICS was composed of representatives of the three estates, nobles, clergy, and tiers- etat or bourgeoisie. It assembled at pretty frequent intervals during the 14th century and not so regularly in the 15th and 16th centuries, being princi- pally occupied with financial matters, though its functions in the imposition of taxation, etc., were very undefined, and its powers were encroached on from time to time by the royal authority. It had no legislative power whatever. The last States-General before the famous one which heralded the Revolution was that held under Louis XIII. in 1614. From that date till May 5, 1789, the crown absorbed the whole functions of taxation as well as of government. The States-General of 1789, almost imme- diately on its constitution, was resolved by the secession of the representatives of the tiers-etat into the Assemblee Na- tionale. The name States-General is also ap- plied to the legislative body of Holland, lineally descended from the Estates- General of the United Province, which took such a prominent and honorable part in the revolt of the Netherlands. STATESVILLE, a city of North Caro- lina, the county seat of Iredell co. It is on the Southern railway. Its indus- tries include furniture factories, cotton mills, flour mills, tanneries, foundries, tobacco factories, and ironworks. It is the seat of the Statesville Female Col- lege and Long's Sanitarium. Pop. (1910) 4,599; (1920) 7,895. STATICE, in botany, sea-laven- der; the typical genus of Staticese. Perennial herbs, with radical leaves, and unilateral spikes on a panicled scape; calyx funnel-shaped, plaited, dry, and membranous; petals united at the base, bearing the stamens. Known species 50 or 60, from the sea shores in Western Asia and other parts of the North Tem- perate zone. S. caroli7iia7ia, the marsh rosemary of this country, has narrow, obovate leaves on long petioles, and bluish-purple flowers. It is one of the most powerful astringents derived from the vegetable kingdom. It has been given with much success in Cynanche maligna, aphthae of the jaws, etc. STATICS, briefly, the dynamics of equilibrium, as kinetics is the dynamics of motion. In modern phraseology they are said to make up together the science of dynamics, since both deal with the effects of forces. According to New- ton's first and second laws of motion, change of motion in a given mass indi- cates the existence of a force which is E in the direction in which the change of motion occurs, and is measured by the product of the mass into the rate of this change, or what is called the accel- eration. Thus, a falling stone of mass M suffers a constant acceleration g per second; hence the force pulling it down, i. e., its weight, is measured by the product Mg. While the stone is descending, the problem is one of kin- etics; but when it reaches the surface of the earth its motion relatively to the earth ceases, there is no acceleration, and the problem becomes statical. Every kinetical problem may be reduced to a statical problem by introducing into the material system forces whose effects will balance the various accelerations to which the different parts of the system are subject. STATIONERS' HALL, the hall of the "Master and Keepers or Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery or Art of the Stationers of the City of Lon- don." The Company was incorporated in 1557, and had till the passing of the Copyright Act in 1842 an absolute mo- nopoly, as all printers were obliged to serve an apprenticeship to a member of the Company, and every publication, from a Bible to a ballad, was required to be "Entered at Stationers' Hall." This registration is no longer compul- sory, but the practice of registering is still useful in making good claims of copyright. The series of registers of books entered for publication, commenc- ing in 1554, is of enormous value in the history of English literature. A tran- script of these from 1554 to 1640 was published by Professor Arber in five vol- umes. See Copyright. STATISTICS, a collection of facts, ar- ranged and classified, respecting the con- dition of a people in a state or com- munity, or of a class of people, their health, longevity, domestic economy, their social, moral, intellectual, physical and economical condition, resources, etc., especially those facts which can be stated in numbers or tables of numbers, or in any tabular and classified ar- rangement. Also, that department of political science which classifies, ar- ranges, and discusses statistical facts. The Italians were the first to recognize the importance of statistics. The ear- liest English work on the subject was Graunt's "Observations on the Bills of Mortality," published in 1661. The first International Statistical Congress was held at Brussels in 1853. In every civ- ilized country the science of statistics now forms the basis of most inquiries regarding the condition of the people, Cyc — Vol. IX