Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/58

48 metaphysical prepossessions, looks at society as a system amenable to direct cause and effect. To a great extent his accurate reckonings serve to give more force and point to the conclusions of rough experience; to a great extent, also, they correct old ideas and introduce new aspects of social law. What gives to the statistical method its greatest scope and power is, that its evidence and proof of law applies indiscriminately to what we call physical, biological, and ethical products of society, these various effects acting and reacting on one another. A few instances may be given to show the existence of the relations in question, without attempting to show their precise nature, or to trace the operation of other determining causes.

Thus, for instance, the mode of life affects its length. Statistics show that the mortality of the very poor is about half as much again as the mortality of the very rich; while, as to the influence of professions, it appears that, in Germany, only 24 doctors reach the age of 70 as against 32 military men and 42 theologians. The propensity to theft bears a distinct relation to age; thus the French criminal statistics estimate the propensity to theft between the ages of 21 and 25 as being five thirds as much as between the ages of 35 and 40. The amount of criminality in a country bears a relation, indirect and as yet obscure, but unmistakable, to its education, or rather to its want of education. In France, in 1828-'31, the constant percentage of accused persons was about as follows: could not read or write, 61; imperfectly, 27; well, 12. The comparison of this group of numbers with those taken lately in England shows a great change of proportion, evidently resulting from the wider diffusion of education; but the limitation of crime to the less educated classes is even more striking: cannot read or write, 36; imperfectly, 61; well, 3. Again, for an example of connection of physical conditions with moral actions, we may notice a table showing how the hours of the day influence people who hang themselves ("Phys. Soc," ii., 240). The maximum of such cases, 135, occurred between six and eight in the morning; the number decreased slightly till noon, and then suddenly dropped to the minimum; there being 123 cases between ten and twelve o'clock, against only 32 between twelve and two o'clock. The number rose in the afternoon to 104 cases between four and six, dropping to an average of about 70 through the night, the second minimum, 45, being between two and four o'clock in the morning. Here it is impossible to mistake the influences of the periods of the day. We can fancy we see the poor wretches rising in the morning to a life of which the misery is beyond bearing, or can only be borne till evening closes in; while the temporary relief of the midnight sleep and the mid-day meal are marked in holding back the longing to self destruction. Madness varies with the season of the year: the maximum being in summer, and the minimum in winter (p. 187); a state of things which seems intelligible enough. Again, it is well known in