OCR Rendition - approximate

1877.] Economic Science and the British Association. 473 the discussions in the former are in consequence more likely to be instructive and useful. " Under these circumstances the question of the discontinuance of Section F appears to deserve the serious consideration of the Council. "FRANCIS GALTON. " June, 1877. " (b). Considerations, in the form of a Draft Report, submitted to Committee, favourable to the maintenance of Section F. By Dr. W. Farr. The Committee has further inquired into the action of Section F, which has been for so many years an integral part of the British Association. " They have before them a complete list of the Presidents of the Section and of every paper read. " They find among the names of the Presidents-Babbage, Sandon (Earl of Harrowby), Sykes, Hallam, Wood (Lord Halifax), Earl Fitzwilliam, G. R. Porter, Lyttleton, Boileau, Whately, Heywood, Tooke, Houghton, Lord Stanley, Nassau Senior, Newmarch, Chadwick, Farr, Professor Rogers, Brown, Sir Stafford Northcote, Stanley Jevons, Lord Neaves, Professor Fawcett, W. E. Forster, M.P., and Sir George Campbell, many of whom delivered addresses of great interest and ability. Among the contributors of papers were, besides the presidents, many well-known statists and economists. " The papers may be classed under the head of Vital Statistics (so named first by Laplace) and of Economic Science, the first including papers on population, the laws of population, the laws of mortality, of disease, of crime, under different conditions-the laws of birth and of marriage; admitting of many direct practical applications to the public health and to the public weal. The facts with which this section deals are of so much importance that they are observed and registered at great cost by every civilised Government in :the world ; and the relations of the different orders of facts admitting of admeasurement have been discussed by Halley, Simpson, Price, Morgan, Milne, Bailey, Gompertz, Deparcieux, Brown, Duvillard, Laplace, Fourier, Quetelet, Poisson and other men of science. In the year 1856 it was designated the Section of Economic Science and Statistics ; and this brought within it the whole range of political economy as it was taught from the days of Adam Smith to Mill and Fawcett, Macleod and Rogers ; but it is understood that the section deals especially with the facts of property, produce, and values, admitting of scientific determination and numerical expression. " The section is popular and well attended, as Mr. Babbage foresaw. " It no doubt attracts many who would not otherwise become members of the Association. The Association, in advance of some other scientific bodies, admits members of both sexes, and the number of ladies has latterly ranged from 6oo to 1,058. Among