An introduction to the study of the dependent, defective and delinquent classes / by Charles Richmond Henderson.

  • Henderson, Charles Richmond, 1848-1915.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of the dependent, defective and delinquent classes / by Charles Richmond Henderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    24/300 (page 8)
    4. Statistics. These impressions of special forms of de- pendency require the aid of statistics. The chief uses of statistics are,—to secure accurate and mathematical measure- ment of the extent of the evil of pauperism and kindred social diseases; to map out the geographical situation of the worst plague spots; to disclose the causes of the phenom- ena at their spring; to reveal the tendencies of the current of poverty and distress, the fluctuations, eddies, changes in the turbid stream. Models of such investigation are found in Mr. Dugdale's The Jukes, McCulloch's Tribe of Ish- mael, and Booth's Life and Labor. 5. The Special Sciences contribute facts, laws, reasonings. One great reason for past failures to deal successfully with pauperism is that it has been attacked at a single point and regarded from a single standpoint. The conviction is growing upon all competent workers in this field that such fragmentary and partial methods are doomed to failure. He who would study Dependency with the best results must first master the principles of biological science. He may not be an expert in physical science, but he must know the laws of heredity in the animal world, the imperative commands of sanitary science and art, the laws of food and habitation. Psychology must contribute a special study of the general laws of thinking and feeling, and those special modes of thinking and feeling which are peculiar to depend- ents and defectives. The Political Economist must be asked to tell us what industrial conditions are most sure to produce or increase a tendency to dependency, and what economic principles must be observed by philanthropists if they wish to do good and not harm. Ethical science must tell us the fundamental obligations of society to the broken members and the grounds of vol-