AN ACCOUNT OF THE COLLECTIONS OF THE AMERI- 
CAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
By the Hon. Samuel A. Green, M.D. 
Librarian Massachusetts Historical Society. 
The first volume of the Collections of the American Statistical 
Association (Boston, pp. x, 596) was published in the year 1847, 
and consisted of three parts, which had appeared at different 
times ; the first part in 1843, the second in 1845, and the last in 1847. 
Each part had a separate index, though paged continuously from one 
to another. They were written severally by the Reverend Joseph 
B. Felt, LL.D., the Recording* Secretary of the Association, and 
they form a book of considerable interest and value. They give a 
large amount of original statistical matter, and on every page show 
signs of patient research and thorough work. 
This statement is prefatory to a bibliographical analysis of the 
second volume of the Collections of the same Association, so far as it 
was printed, but never published. 
The Massachusetts Historical Society has a copy of the first 136 
pages of the second volume, which once belonged to the Recording 
Secretary of the Association. It consists of three papers,— and two 
pages of a fourth paper in order to fill out the form,— which were 
presented at different times to the Association ; and, apparently, it 
was a file copy of the editor. The papers are paged consecutively 2 
and stitched together, or “ stabbed,” without any cover. They com- 
prise a “ Memoir of the Life and Character of George Cheyne Shat- 
tuck, M.D., late President of the American Statistical Association. 
Read before the Association, April 12, 1854. By Edward Jarvis, 
M.D.” (pp. 7); “ Statistics of Comb-making in Leominster, 1852 ” 
(pp. 8-16), by Caleb Clesson Field, M.D.; and a “Memoir of 
American Discoveries, Colonization, Commerce and Fishery, from 
Newfoundland to Florida, both inclusive, down to 1630. By Joseph 
B. Felt, LL.D.” (pp. 17-134), besides the first leaf (pp. 135, 136) of 
“ The Financial Revulsion of 1857. An Address delivered before 
the American Statistical Association, February 10, 1858, by Hon. 
Samuel H. Walley.” 
This set of papers was given to the Historical Society by Dr. Felt, 
on October 20, 1858 ; and on the same day he gave another set to 
the Boston Athenasum, which contains forty more pages, comprising 
the following titles : Mr. Walley’s Address, as given above (pp. 
135-160); “Letters on the Money Crisis of 1857” (pp. 161-175), 
by Nathan Appleton; and a single page (176), on the Connection of 
Occupation with Longevity, by Edward Jarvis, M.D., President of 
the Statistical Association, which is complete in itself. The Athe- 
naeum copy, which has now been put in binding, once had a paper 
cover, of which the front part is still preserved, and on it is written 
“Collections of the American Statistical Association. [First Portion 
of Yol. II.] ” 
The Historical Society has another pamphlet, given by the Statis- 
tical Association, which exactly fits on the Athenaeum set mentioned 
in the preceding paragraph. It is entitled : “ The Increase of Human 
Life. Read before the American Statistical Association. By Pklward 
Jarvis, M.D. President of the Association” (pp. 177-231). This 
copy, in connection with the one at the Athenaeum, makes a continu- 
ous series of 231 pages of the second volume of the Collections. It 
is not probable that the same papers, taken together in this form, are 
to be found elsewhere. 
The question now comes up, What became of those signatures 
that had been already printed; and, fortunately, there is an answer. 
It is known that they were kept in sheets for many years, much 
to the annoyance of the printers, who were desirous that they 3 
should be folded and stitched, and with a title-page issued as the first 
Part of Volume II. In fact, at a meeting held on January 15, 1869, 
the Publishing Committee were authorized to do this, but owing to 
various circumstances it was never done. At that time Dr. Jarvis 
was intending to prepare another paper, which was to appear in the 
same Part, but he did not carry out the plan; and this delay 
caused, indirectly, the destruction of the sheets. At the time of the 
Great Fire in Boston, which broke out on the evening of November 9, 
1872, they were stored in the printing office of T. R. Marvin & Son, 
when their establishment and all the contents were burned. Thus 
disappeared, probably, the last trace of the first Part of Volume 
II of the Collections of the American Statistical Association, with 
the exception of the two tile copies, more or less complete, which 
were given by the Recording Secretary to the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society and to the Boston Athenaeum; and with the further 
exception of the first 16 pages,— containing the Memoir of Dr. 
Shattuck, and the Statistics of Comb-making in Leominster,— which 
were given to the Boston Public Library by Dr. Jarvis, on November 
24, 1865, and of the last 54 pages on “ The Increase of Human 
Life,” distributed by the author. 
Some of these papers were also printed separately from the same 
forms, but with a new paging. Dr. Jarvis’s Memoir of Dr. Shattuck 
(pp. 1-7) and Mr. Walley’s Address (pp. 1-28) were of this number. 
Mr. Appleton’s Letters had been previously printed in a pamphlet, 
entitled “ Remarks on Currency and Banking” (Boston, 1857), and 
in a communication to the “ Boston Daily Advertiser,” March 4, 1858. 
Dr. Jarvis’s page on the “ Connection of Occupation with Longevity,” 
was circulated as a leaflet; and his paper on the “ Increase of Human 
Life ” appeared originally in “ The Atlantic Monthly ” for October, 
November, and December, 1869. This article was soon afterward 
republished by the Statistical Association, in form and type to match 
the Collections, and the paging was adapted to its place in the new 
volume. Copies of this pamphlet, with a paper cover, were dis- 
tributed by the author among his friends. There was also an edition 
of 1000 copies printed for the New England Mutual Life Insurance 
Company, with the same type and from the same forms, though 
paged separately, and with a title-page and cover. 
Some of these papers that make up Part I of the missing volume 4 
are too valuable to be lost, and they should be reprinted and brought 
out anew, in connection with the other publications of the Asso- 
ciation. Dr. Felt’s “ Memoir of American Discoveries, Colonization, 
Commerce, and Fishery,” etc., is one of great research, and contains 
much not easily accessible elsewhere. The copious foot-notes on 
nearly every page abound with the authorities which he consulted in 
the preparation of the article, and they show the thoroughness of 
the work. 
(Reprinted from the “Publications of the American Statistical Association,” Boston, Mass., 
September, 1889.)