A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties.
Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1842. First English language edition. Hardcover book. Most important for the 1st English edition of "A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties", Quetelet's foundational work of social statistics, first published in French, "Sur l'homme et le développement de ses facultés". This edition contains a new preface by the author to defend his work from objections brought against it subsequent to the publication of the Paris edition of 1835. Quetelet's goal was to understand the statistical laws underlying crime rates, marriage rates or suicide rates, correlating them with other social factors. "With Quetelet's work . . . a new era in statistics began. It presented a new technique of statistics or, rather, the first technique at all. The material was thoughtfully elaborated, arranged according to certain preestablished principles, and made comparable . . . Quetelet's average man became a slogan in ninetheenth-century discussions on social science . . . Quetelet's impact on nineteenth century thinking can in a certain sense be compared with Descartes's in the seventeenth century" (DSB XI, p.237).
8vo, x, (5)-126 pp, text in two columns, 7 lithographed plates at the end. OCLC: 8333229.
Publishers leather binding of Quetelet bound with other authors:
The Constitution of Man Considered in Relation to External Objects by George Combe, viii, 110pp; The Conduct of the Understanding also Some Thoughts Concerning Education by John Locke, 6, 28pp; History and Political Philosophy of the Middle and Working Classes by John Wade, 4, 174pp; General History of Civilisation in Europe, from the Fall of the Roman Empire till the French Revolution by M. Guizot, 4, 80pp; Modern French Literature by L. Raymond de Véricour, 124pp.
Half brown calf with black linen boards, raised bands on spine with title label and authors label, all edges marbled. Lightly rubbed at edges, spine is rubbed with some chips to extremeties, some marks, boards dusty. Otherwise vgc. Good + overall. Item #28836
Price: $750.00