Proceedings of the Quarterly Meeting of the American Statistical Association, Washington, D.C., Sept. 24, 1909 604 REVIEWS AND MISCELLANY. Area, The Need of Statistics of in the United States. C. E. Gehlke, 565 356 Causes of Death, Second Decennial Revision of the International 562 357 Employment Bureau in the City of New York, Report on the 519 Health of the City of Minneapolis, for the Year ending Dec. 31, 1907, Annual Report of the Department of. F. S. Crum Health of Pennsylvania, The First Annual Report of the Com- missioner of. C.-E. A. Winslow Intercensal Estimates of Population, A Shortening of the Method Method of Making Intercensal Estimates of Population, A Short- Minneapolis, Annual Report of the Department of Health of the Population of China, Note on. C. W. D. 357 Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents in Institutions, 1904. F. S. C., 227 91 229 222 School Reports and School Efficiency. F. Spencer Baldwin AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION. NEW SERIES, No. 81 MARCH, 1908. ADDRESS OF CARROLL D. WRIGHT, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION, AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING IN BOSTON, JAN. 17, 1908. At the meeting of this Association in April last it was decided that at this meeting, and perhaps at successive annual meetings, there should be a presidential address, and the present one is the first of that character. It is appropriate, therefore, that I should indulge in a brief historical statement concerning the origin and work of the Association. The Royal Statistical Society of London was founded March 15, 1834, but was not incorporated until Jan. 31, 1887. Whether the founding of the Royal Society inspired the organization of this Association I cannot say, but it is safe to assume that this was the case, for it was only a brief period after the organization of the British institution that a meeting was held at the rooms of the American Education Society, 15 Cornhill, Boston, Nov. 27, 1839, for the purpose of considering the expediency of forming a statistical society. The following persons were present: Hon. Richard Fletcher, Rev. William Coggswell, D.D., Oliver W. B. Peabody, Esq., Register of Probate, John D. Fisher, M.D., and Lemuel Shattuck, Esq. They organized with the Hon. Richard Fletcher as chairman and Lemuel Shattuck, Esq., as secretary. After discussing the objects for which the meeting was called, on motion of Rev. Dr. Coggswell it was resolved that it was expedient to form a society to be called the American Statistical Society. A committee was appointed to prepare a constitution for the government of the society, to be submitted at an adjourned meeting, and all the gentlemen present were made members of that committee. Dec. 11, 1839, all the gentlemen previously named being present except Mr. Fletcher, a constitution of the American Statistical Society was adopted. The object of the society was stated to be to collect, preserve, and diffuse statistical information in the different departments of human knowledge. After deliberation and discussion it was voted to adopt the constitution, and an adjournment was made until Dec. 18, 1839, when all the gentlemen named were present, together with Hon. Horace Mann, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, and Dr. Jesse Chickering. At this meeting the organization was perfected by the choice of officers, consisting of Hon. Richard Fletcher, President; Henry Lee, Esq., and Bradford Sumner, Esq., Vice-Presidents; Rev. Joseph B. Felt, Recording Secretary; Lemuel Shattuck, Esq., Home Secretary; Joseph E. Worcester, Foreign Secretary; Rev. William Coggswell, D.D., Ebenezer Alden, M.D., Oliver W. B. Peabody, Esq., John P. Bigelow, Esq., Hon. Horace Mann, John D. Fisher, M.D., Professor Bela B. Edwards, Samuel G. Howe, M.D., and Jesse Chickering, M.D., as Counsellors. At the next meeting, Jan. 8, 1840, there appeared the name of Dr. Webb. It was voted that an application be made to the legislature for an act of incorporation. Feb. 5, 1840, the occasion of the annual meeting of the Association, the formation, progress, and purpose of the society and the public good it might do, if suitably conducted, was discussed by the President. At this meeting it was voted on motion of the Directorsand I think we can discover the humor underlying this votethat the name of the society be altered from that of the American Statistical Society to that of the American Statistical Association. |