REVIEWS AND MISCELLANY. Area, The Need of Statistics of in the United States. C. E. Gehlke, 565 Causes of Death, Second Decennial Revision of the International 356 562 357 Employment Bureau in the City of New York, Report on the 519 229 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- 444 Intercensal Estimates of Population, A Shortening of the Method 652 International Classification of Causes of Death, Second Decennial 562 Method of Making Intercensal Estimates of Population, A Short- 652 Minneapolis, Annual Report of the Department of Health of the 286 Mortality Statistics, 1906. F. S. Crum 225 Municipal Statistics. F. S. Crum. 92 Pennsylvania, The First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Health of. C.-E. A. Winslow 444 Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents in Institutions, 1904. F. S. C., 227 Proposed Rules of Statistical Practice. Cressy L. Wilbur Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Annuario Estatistica Demographo-Sanitaria. School Reports and School Efficiency. F. Spencer Baldwin Statistical Practice, Note on Proposed Rules of. Cressy L. Wilbur, Statistics of Area in the United States, The Need of. C. E. Gehlke, Statistics, The Limitations of. Kate Holladay Claghorn Statistics, Improvement of Vital. D. R. D. 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 vote— that the name of the society be altered from that of the American Statistical Society to that of the American Statistical Association. The officers were elected at this annual meeting, and the individual members were proposed as Fellows, Honorary, Corresponding, and Foreign Members. By an act approved Feb. 5, 1841, the American Statistical Association was incorporated by the legislature of Massachusetts. Thus the new Association, full-fledged and authorized by law, was ready for its work of preserving and diffusing statistical information. It has always adhered to this provision of the act incorporating it. It has not gone into economic or social questions, philosophical or ethical science, but has adhered most rigidly to its statistical objects. Up to date it has had a continued existence, there never having been a year since its organization that it has not held meetings and had papers of a statistical character, although its proceedings have not been regularly printed. It has had during the whole period of its existence of sixty-nine years but five Presidents: Hon. Richard Fletcher, 1839-45; George C. Shattuck, M.D., 1846-51; Dr. Edward Jarvis, 1852-82; Dr. Francis A. Walker, 1883-96; and the present incumbent, 1897 to date. Dr. Jarvis served the Association thirty years as its President, and on the election of his successor, Dr. Walker, he was made President Emeritus. With two exceptions three quarterly meetings, besides the annual meeting, each year were held from 1840 to 1879. Some of the meetings were omitted in some of the years, especially the July meeting, which, beginning in 1881, was omitted regularly. From 1894 on no quarterly meetings were held, with the exception of a special quarterly meeting on April 16, 1897, in memory of President Walker. Since 1899 until the present year no quarterly meetings have been held, but there has been no year in which meetings have been entirely omitted. The proceedings of the society have not been published regularly. In 1847 the collections of the Association were brought together and printed, entitled Volume I., in three parts. In the first part there appears quite a valuable paper by Professor B. B. Edwards, of the Andover Theological Seminary. |