‎THEUX DE MEYLANDT BARTHELEMY? comte (1794 - 1894) (préface ) - [ ] Adolphe QUETELET :‎
‎Documens Statistiques , recueillis et publiés par le ministre de l'intérieur du Royaume de Belgique. 3e Publication Officielle.‎

‎" Bruxelles, Imprimerie de C.-J. De Mat, 1836, format in-4°, (29,5 cm), (6) nn pp + x pp + 136 pp + (4) nn pp (errata, 3 blank). Bound in contemporary brown half leather, smooth spine with gilt decoration, blue silky endpapers, spine discoloured but a very fine copy, printed on extra strong paper. This statistical study presents all data in table form. It consists of 3 parts: [1] ''État physique '' (agriculture, population, vaccination). [2] État politique: military service, election results, local finance. [3] État moral (schools and education; beggars;charity;hospitals; prisons; infanticites; capital punishment... Many of the statistics date from the period before 1830, when Belgium did not existed yet and was part of the Netherlands (1815 - 1830). We know from biographical data (Biographie Nationale vol. XVIII col. 479 & 480) that Quetelet was involved in statistical studies on the above subjets during the Dutch period. We therefore conclude that this study was composed by Quetelet; allthough his name is not mentionned (only that of the minister de Theux is). The publication is an important forerunner in the field of social statistics and a very good example of the newly developped scientific methods by Quetelet in this subject. It is the 3rd official publication of the kingdom of Belgium (proudly announced on the title page), and very rare. We could not find a copy in any Belgian library. Only 1 copy in OCLC (in a Berlin library)."‎

Reference : 57385

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