biology, Mr. Fisher makes an attempt to extend this principle to sociology.

"Viewed from the standpoint of the principle of 'balancement organique,' any attribute typifying strength and virility will be correlated with attributes of weaker strains or tendencies towards some form of relaxation. The need of alcoholic stimulants for the person of a strong and virile constitution is to my mind a plausible explanation of such correlation of opposite attributes, as actually shown by mathematical computations."

"Imagine for a moment that we made a sort of experimental raid on 50 soda stands and 50 public taverns (saloons) chosen at random in various districts of New York City and gathered in all male customers at the soda fountains, sipping their sundaes with long silvery spoons, as well as the patrons of the thirst parlors who had a high ball or a glass of lager in front of them. Imagine furthermore all those persons were taken to a sort of statistical police laboratory and subjugated to a series of purely quantitative measurements as to height, weight, arm pull and other antropometric measurements as well as measurements of mental qualities. What would be the outcome of those measurements taken collectively for each of the two groups, the soda sippers and the beer drinkers? Or stated in a more trenchant form: How would the various frequency curves compare with each other in respect to similar attributes among the two groups?

"For more than two years while working as a clerk in a down-town New York business office I made it a rule to go to various soda stands in the down-town district for a soft drink during lunch hours, while after the close of business I generally went to thirst parlors serving stronger ingredients. While lingering at the fountains and the bars I made it a point to try to estimate, as far as it was possible, the heights, weights and general physique of the patrons, recording my observations in the manner described by Sir Francis Galton in his 'Inquiries into Human Faculty.' Without attaching undue importance to my numerous, but necessarily crude, observations collected in this manner, I might, however, state that if some one asked me the

question: 'Where would you pick collectively groups of men to do pioneer work of all sorts in a newly opened country?' I should not hesitate to answer: 'The bar.' I am firmly convinced that, taken man for man, good and bad alike, the population patronizing the bars in the above observations would collectively come out ahead of the patrons of the soda fountains both as to physique and to mental qualities.

"I take another example from my own country. The heaviest drinkers among us Danes are found among the agricultural population of Western Jutland. From a personal experience covering several years I should say that the majority of those people drink far in excess of the proverbial glass of whiskey and two glasses of beer a day as given by Mr. Hunter. One should indeed here expect to find a hot bed for the alleged ravages of alcohol: High mortality, degeneracy, illiteracy, poor economic conditions, etc. But what do we find? A sturdy, strong race of powerful physique and with low mortality. A people who undauntedly have taken up the fight against a barren and poor soil, a fight against sand and a hard, raw climate and who have conquered in the fight. A people where knowledge ranks high and illiteracy is unknown, the scattered country schools could stand as a fine model for any nation. It was among those people that the cooperative idea was given birth in Denmark and which became the lever by means of which Danish agriculture was lifted high and placed in the front van of progress so that to-day the little kingdom according to so eminent an authority as the United States commissioner of immigration, Mr. F. Howe, stands as a model to the rest of the world in social progress. Another remarkable fact is that in Denmark, which has compulsory military training, the rate of alcoholism among army recruits is the lowest in the world, as stated by the American army surgeon, Munson. And yet those people are what Mr. Hunter and Dr. Fisk would call heavy drinkers. I am far too careful to place cause and effect and to assert in line with the Hunterian style of logic that alcohol is the cause of this progress. In fact, I should rather say that the heavy consumption of alcohol is the effect of longevity and vitality rather than the cause of high

mortality. We meet here again the correlated forces of 'balancement organique.' The strong, virile race craving a stimulant. Take it away from the population and what will happen? Local option, a highly commendable principle, has indeed made progress in Denmark of late years, although not to the drastic extent of forbidding the sale of slightly alcoholic beers, which in fact are sold to and consumed in increasing quantities by total abstainers all over Scandinavia. Malt beverages in some form or other are still the remedy for thirst in Denmark instead of the insidious ice water. Not even the most rabid prohibitionist in Denmark would for a moment consider the thought of prohibiting the manufacture and sale of slightly alcoholic beers.

"If prohibitionist politicians should succeed in barring alcohol they can by no means hope to curb nature or to change even in the slightest degree the biological forces underlying the principle of 'balancement organique.' In the fight between nurture and nature, nature always comes out the victor. Strong people will crave and will get stimulants, mostly for psychological effects, and the question is whether they may not turn to stimulants or narcotics having a more insidious effect than that of alcohol if the sale of this latter article is prohibited. This side of the question has completely been left out by the narrow attitude taken by actuaries who as a rule have little or no real knowledge of biometry."

In regard to the alleged hereditary effects on children of alcoholic parents, Mr. Fisher has this to say: "I think that the fallacy of the alleged hereditary influences of alcohol on the offspring have been so thoroughly exposed and ridiculed by Pearson that in looking for an indicator of virility among nations it seems to my mind to be an advantage rather than a drawback or curse if a particular country has a high rate of consumption of alcoholic beverages."

From these quotations it is not to be inferred that Mr. Fisher is hostile towards a true temperance movement. A passage as follows will show his true stand:

"The fight against alcohol ought not to be carried on in a spirit of subjugation. Taken in moderate quantities alcohol has

to all appearances a beneficial psychological effect in making people light-hearted and optimistic. Taken to excess it admittedly causes ravages just as well as religious fanaticism causes much harm. It is against the excesses that the fight should be directed, against the low-class saloons and gin mills."

"The breweries in America have in many cases pursued a poor policy in supporting low-class saloons to the detriment of the better class of public taverns and their own interests. Much could be gained if brewers actually would refuse to sell their products to the low class of taverns where alleged democratic fellowship is a cover for filth and debauchery. The great Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. of St. Louis is on the right track of reform in its attempt to limit the number of saloons and place them on a status more nearly equal to that of the Continental beer garden or café."

Perhaps one of the most thoughtful passages on the question is found in the Danish mathematician's remarks on "belief in authority."

"One of the most woeful defects in the mental attitude of the American college student," is to Mr. Fisher's mind, "his lack of training in independent thinking. He falls back on authority. This, of course, is sometimes unavoidable, but if it becomes a habit, as is often the case in many American institutions of learning, the unsuspecting and trusting student reader becomes the easy prey of many a guileful self-styled authority. It is not authority, not other people's belief, but self-study and independent research that brings the truth to light. In this period of so-called 'sociological science' I should like to see Galileo's beautiful words: In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual, chosen as the motto of every serious-minded student of statistics."

SOME STATISTICAL CURIOSITIES

Some curious examples of the misuse of statistics are to be found in the current issue (1916) of the Anti-Saloon League Year Book, of which Mr. Ernest H. Cherrington is the compiler and editor.

"Writing," says Bacon, "maketh an exact man," by which, doubtless, the great philosopher meant to convey the thought that a person who intended to put himself on record in black and white, would display a tendency at least to regard the truth. Not so, however, the compiler of these tables for the Anti-Saloon League Year Book. While they might impress the casual reader, and while, undoubtedly, they are being used to delude those who listen to prohibition oratory throughout the country, they are distinguished by almost all the faults which the conscientious statistician seeks to avoid in his work. That is to say, they are inaccurate in part, they are insufficient in scope, they are inequitable in arrangement, and they are deceptive as a whole. It were sheer euphemism to ascribe such a performance to inexperience or ignorance.

For purposes of illustration it is necessary to insert bodily one of the series of tables which Mr. Cherrington has constructed, the captions as well as arrangement being all his own: