Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Statistics, Agriculture, Race, Class, Utility

    Astonished by the number of subjects discussed by members of the Statistical Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Subjects include, 'how many meals had been given to Irish beggars in the last twenty years' supported by a table 'showing the number of teeth, subtracting the molars and taking out the canine, employed in the mastication of these twenty years' returns of meals'. Punch ironically notes that 'the great utility of this kind of research and calculation is so very obvious' and that 'the labours of our scientific friends' have been 'ill-naturedly' said to be unprofitable.