the proficiency of the scholars, and on the position of the schools as regards instruction and discipline. The examination is to be conducted by a person wholly unconnected with the Institutions. The first examination was conducted by Professor W. B. Hodgson, who reports thus regarding the upper girls' Institution:-"Probably there is nowhere to be found so large a school for girls so admirably organized and so efficiently conducted. The large number of pupils, far from causing an excessive number in any one class, actually facilitates the work of classification, and by the multiplication of classes, meets the difficulty of unequal progress in pupils about the same age. Where all deserve commendation, it is hard and perhaps invidious to select. But I may truly say that, while the usual branches of a girl's instruction are vigorously attended to, while English, and what it implies, and French and German, and Music and Drawing, hold each its proper place under zealous and efficient teachers, Arithmetic is taught with unusual care, and there are special classes for senior pupils in Latin, Geometry, and Algebra; and the progress and manifest interest in these subjects fully refute the notion that they are unfit for the study of girls. On the whole the state of this school reflects very high credit on its Principal, Lady Superintendent, and Teachers; and it must do much to raise the standard of women's education throughout the whole country." Regarding the schools generally, Professor Hodgson states:-"It is altogether an astounding organization, and one is quite overwhelmed by the attempt to estimate its results in even the near future. It is something to have lived to see this sight: it is more to have done aught to bring it about." Professor Oakeley inspected the Music-classes of the upper girls' schools, but nc report from him has yet been received. The author then described the arrangements made for affording increased accommodation, and which include the opening of another girls' school. For next session the number of pupils already enrolled in the different schools is somewhat as follows, viz. : James Gillespie's Schools for boys and girls (full) Total 1200 1100 1000 500 300 4100 or already 700 more pupils than attended the schools last session, while new applications for admission are constantly being received. From what has been said, it will be seen that the annual income of these four foundations is about £20,800. Before the changes which came into operation last year, they maintained and educated about 230 children, maintained 40 old persons, aided a Primary School containing 150 boys, and employed 23 teachers, who received about £1736 a year. In the beginning of next session they will be maintaining 175 children, and educating probably about 4500, while they will be paying teachers and governesses not less than £18,000 a year. It has been estimated that the annual saving to the public, by the reduced cost of education given in these schools, will be about £30,000. Further, the number of the aged foundationers attached to Gillespie's Trust has already been increased, and it is anticipated that in twelve months its funds will admit of a still greater number being placed on the roll. There will also be funds for the payment of the annual endowment of £450 a year for the new Chair in the University. In a short time the Governors will be in a position to decide whether or not the Scotch Educational Bill of the Government will take up the whole field of Industrial Schools in the city. In conclusion the author expressed the hope that what the Merchant Company have done in using the funds at their disposal to extend the blessings of education, may be the means of inducing the Governors of similar foundations to endeavour to increase the usefulness and extend the public benefits thereof, and in such a manner as may be supposed would have been commended by the generous founders themselves, had they lived in these our days of progress and reform. 1871. 14 On the Measurement of Man and his Faculties. By SAMUEL BROWN, F.S.S. The science of probability, which in the course of 200 years has been perfected by the great mathematicians of England, Germany, and especially of France, and has rendered such service in astronomical researches, is still in its infancy as regards its application to the problems of political and social economy, which directly concern the growth of civilization, and the physical, moral, and intellectual progress of man. James Bernoulli by its aid proposed to investigate questions of interest in morals and in economic science; but his work was not published till 1713, eight years after his death, and in the meantime his nephew, Nicholas Bernoulli, in an essay in 1709, had treated of such questions as the number of persons living after a certain number of years out of a given number born, of the period of time at the end of which an absent man of whom no tidings have been heard may be considered to be dead, of the value of an annuity on human life, of marine insurance, the probability of testimony, and of the innocence of an accused person. Not to mention the extension of the science in the writings of Condorcet, Laplace, and Poisson to the questions of decisions of legal tribunals, of elections, of the relative force of opinions in the minority of voters, the credibility of history; the Census, tables of mortality, marriage, and insurances, to illusions and mental phenomena, we find in recent years the greatest impulse given to scientific methods of collecting and comparing statistics has been by M. Quetelet, the Director of the Royal Observatory at Bruxelles, President of the Central Statistical Commission of Belgium, and the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. He was one of the early founders of this Section at the Meeting at Cambridge in 1833, and was the originator of the International Statistical Congresses which have been the means of effecting such vast improvements in the collection, publication, and comparison of Government Statistics in every country in Europe. In the application of scientific methods of observation to study the physical and moral qualities of man, an essential part of the inquiry is as to his growth, and the relative proportion of the various parts of the body at different ages until his complete maturity. The last work of M. Quetelet, entitled "Anthropométrie, ou mesures des différentes facultés de l'homme," recently published, comprises the results of many years of observations, in which, by the assistance of scientific friends, artists and medical men, he has succeeded in collecting sufficient and trustworthy facts to trace the law of growth in every portion of the human body at all periods of life. The methods formerly employed to ascertain the true proportions which constitute the typical man were not satisfactory. Naturalists did not sufficiently study the averages to discover the laws of their agreement or divergence on certain points; artists selected such types of beauty or strength as suited their special purpose. But if some model of the human race existed the proportions of which were so fixed that any deviations from it in excess or defect could only arise from accidental causes, the observations recorded may be divided into groups at equal intervals, and according to the theory of probability the specific number which ought to be found in each group may be predicted beforehand, with a very near approach to accuracy. The greater the number of observations the more certainly will the observed number in each group agree with the number calculated by the theory. The group which approaches nearest to the mean will be the most numerous, and the other groups will be found to contain numbers, as they differ from the mean in excess or defect, in exact proportion to the coefficients of the terms of the binomial theorem. In accordance with this law dwarfs and giants cease to be casual monstrosities. If out of a sufficient number of observations, taken in any country, of the number of people measured at regular gradations of height, the dwarfs and giants had been purposely excluded, we ought by means of this law to be able to predict nearly not only the numbers which had been omitted, but their relative statures as compared with the rest of the people. A remarkable confirmation of this law was given by Mr. E. B. Elliott in the measurement of the height of 25,878 volunteers to the United States Army during the Civil War. The intervals of height were taken at every 25 millimetres. the mean height, 1.75 metre, the number found by measurement was 4054, or 157 At in every 1000, whilst the number calculated by the theory would be 153 in every 1000. At all the other intervals the calculated and estimated numbers in eighteen different groups were almost equally near. Comparisons are given by M. Quetelet of the measurements of the statues of ancient art, and of those in the rules laid down by the greatest artists or writers on the proportions of man. All the measures tend to establish the fact that the proportions of the human form of the present day are almost identical with those deduced by observation from the most regular statues of Grecian art. The application of the law is also shown by the close approximation in the observed and calculated numbers of conscripts for France, Belgium for 20 years of observation, and in Italy for those at 21 years of age, as well as by two sets of observations in the United States. In the three former countries the mean height observed was nearly the same; but in the United States it was higher by 6 or 8 centimetres, though this was partly accounted for by the Volunteers there being of a more mature age. A further example is given in a comparison of the measurements of the circumference of the chests of Scottish and American soldiers, the mean of the former being 40 inches, at which the observed numbers were 188, and the calculated number would be 199 in every 1000; and the mean of the latter was 35 inches, at which the observed number was 204, and the calculated number by theory would be 190 in every 1000. The law applies equally to the weight, strength, and other physical qualities of man. The extension of this method of observation to the actions of man, which are dependent on the exercise of his free will, indicate in the clearest manner that, however imperceptibly to the casual observer, they follow certain laws which are as regular in their operation as the law of mortality. Thus, in five consecutive quinquennial periods, from 1840 to 1865, the marriages of men at certain groups of ages throughout life, with women at the same or other groups of ages, very slightly differed from the mean of the same groups for the whole period of twenty-five years. The same results may be seen in a still more marked manner in England, by comparing the marriages of men at every group of successive five years of age from under 20 to 85, with women at those groups of ages in the three years 1846, 1847, and 1848 with the three years 1851, 1852, and 1853. The near approximation of the numbers at every age in the two periods is most remarkable, especially if they are subdivided into marriages of bachelors with spinsters or widows, and of widowers with spinsters or widows. Other statistics illustrating the regularity of action in the free will of man, are those showing the tendency to crime at particular ages, and even the nature of crimes which seem to vary against person, or against property according to the age of the criminal. The object of this paper is to point out the true scientific method of collecting and comparing statistics, to draw attention to the remarkable Tables of M. Quetelet, showing the law of the growth of man, and of the proportions of the various parts of his body at every age of life, and further to urge that the same method of investigation should be extended to the many questions affecting his moral and intellectual faculties which at present are not considered to be within the compass of statistical research. On the Wellington Reformatory. By Sheriff CLEGHORN. On a proposed Doomsday Book, giving the Value of the Governmental Property as a basis for a sound system of National Finance and Accounts. By F. P. FELLOWS, F.S.S. The author described the present method of voting and accounting for the national expenditure, amounting to about £70,000,000 yearly, and maintained that there was a great incompleteness in the accounts, which could not be rectified till a Doomsday Book, giving the value of the National Governmental property, was compiled. This must necessarily be the basis of any sound system of national finance and accounts, as, without it, expenditure for capital and for the current pur poses of the year must be unavoidably confused, so that a Government may ask for £70,000,000 in any year, and yet spend for the year in question £80,000,000, or only £60,000,000 without the House of Commons or the public being able to detect it. The paper recommended, as a conclusion to this Doomsday Book, the compilation of accounts for each Government department similar to those worked out by the author and Mr. Seely (recommended by Mr. Seely's Committee for adoption), and now being introduced into the Admiralty. It pointed out the great control these accounts gave the Admiralty over its expenditure, and attributed a considerable part of the yearly saving of about £1,500,000 that had been effected in the Navy to the information thus afforded. The author said that with certain exceptions, such as the army and the navy, the only accounts compiled and presented to Parliament were the Estimates and Finance Accounts; and that these finance accounts, i. e. "the Estimates," "the Appropriation Accounts," and "Statements of the Savings and Deficiencies on the Grants," as given in the Estimates, were, strictly speaking, merely the banking accounts of the nation, and gave little control over the expenditure, and afforded to the House of Commons no information as to the economical results thereof. For instance, the estimates gave the sums the House of Commons authorized the various departments to expend or draw from the public purse or bank. And the Appropriation Accounts and the "Statement of the Savings and Deficiencies on the grants" gave the actual money expended or drawn from the public purse or bank. He maintained that the public national accounts ought to go much further than this, and to show the application and the results of the money thus withdrawn from the "Bank," and urged, from the illustrations given as to the Admiralty accounts and expenditure, the great results that might be expected therefrom. What, it was asked, would be thought of a great railway or other company whose only account presented to its shareholders was its bankers' book-which had no capital account, no account of the value of its plant, buildings, machinery, rolling stock, stores, &c.—which mixed together its current and capital account (as it must necessarily do under such circumstances), and what would be the result of such a system of management, or, rather, want of management? Any man of business would at once say that there must necessarily be very great waste, if not eventual ruin to the company. Yet, was the Government in a different position in this matter, and could we expect that these evils did not exist? The answer surely could scarcely be the affirmative. The paper concluded by recommending the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into and carry out this stock-taking and valuation on one uniform principle for all departments, so that a Doomsday Book might be compiled as the starting-point for a system of finance and accounts similar to that introduced, into the Admiralty, by which the Government and the House of Commons would be enabled to have the most effective control over our great annual expenditure. The author also incidentally referred to the ancient Doomsday Book of England, as being the greatest achievement of the Conqueror, and saw no reason why it should not be recompiled on an extended basis. Political Economy, Pauperism, the Labour Question, and the Liquor Traffic. By WILLIAM HOYLE. On the present state of Education in India, and its bearings on the question of Social Science. By A. JYRAM-Row. On Naval Efficiency and Dockyard Economy. By CHARLES LAMPORT. On the Edinburgh Industrial Home for Fallen Women, Alnwick-Hill, near Liberton. By W. M'BEAN. This Institution was established in 1856 for the restoration of young women willing to return to the paths of virtue. It was formed on the principle of provid ing for them a small home, whose arrangements might be more of the nature of a family than larger institutions can possibly be. It is situated about two miles from Edinburgh, in an airy and healthy locality, as a proof of which sickness of any kind has scarcely, if ever, been experienced amongst its inmates; the usual number of them is about 30, although two or three more could be accommodated. The superintendents are a matron, assistant-matron, sewing-mistress, and two laundresses, and the chief employment of the women is washing and laundry work, with a little needlework, instruction in needlework being regularly given by the sewing-mistress. Regular instruction is also given in reading, writing, and arithmetic, with household work and religious knowledge. The Home is always open for the reception of inmates; and it is chiefly through the missionaries, whose work it is to endeavour to reclaim the fallen, that inmates are received. After being a year in the Home, situations are provided for the girls, and an outfit given to them; and, as far as possible, an oversight is kept of them after they leave the Home. The Committee endeavour as much as possible to send the girls to situations at a distance from their former haunts, and have on different occasions procured situations and sent several of them to Canada, &c. The management of the Home is vested in two Committees of Ladies and Gentlemen appointed by the subscribers, but the general management is vested in the Gentlemen's Committee, who have the control of the funds. The property of the Home was purchased by the Committee four years ago, at the price of £630; and they have since expended, in making repairs, alterations, and additions to it, so as to fit it more completely for the purposes of a Home, close upon £900, the whole of which money the Committee have been enabled to pay through extra subscriptions, &c., so that now there is no debt remaining upon it. The annual cost of maintenance of the Home in 1870, as per detailed accounts published in the Annual Report for that year, was (which included £185 4s. 4d., the expenditure connected with being provided by public subscriptions, &c. £941 11 5 601 13 4 The balance of £339 18 1 In connexion with this, it is right to state that all the water required for washing, except the rain-water from the roofs, has to be carted from a burn about a quarter of a mile distant from the Home. In the eleven years from 1860 to 1870, both inclusive, on an average thirty-two young women have annually left the Home for situations, received back by friends, &c. On the Mode for Assessing for the Poor-Rates. By JAMES MEIKLE, F.S.S. On the Administration of the Poor Law. By W. A. PETERKIN, General Superintendent of Poor (Scotland). It was the wish of the entire community that no one should die of actual starvation, and therefore all plans for the distribution of funds raised for the relief of the poor were based on the minimum recessary to maintain life. This was the absolute requirement. The Poor Law of Scotland required "needful sustentation." The interpretation of that term was left to the judgment of local administrations, and there were 885 separate bodies, each acting on its own responsibility. Their decisions were subject, on complaint, to the review of a central authority, instituted by Parliament. Uniformity, under such circumstances, was hopeless, and if practicable, would not be desirable. There was no point to which attention required more to be given than to the necessity of each case combining in itself destitution and disability. The question of disability was practically more easily |