A. Quetelet as a statistician (Q1084086)

In 1824 (not 1822!) when Quetelet returned from Paris he was a ''staunch partisan of statistical research''. French mathematicians, esp. J. B. J. Fourier directed Quetelet's attention towards statistics which was in fashion there at that time. Social and official criminal statistics had been published since 1820. Quetelet became a pioneer in anthropometry, he applied statistics to meteorology and sociology, and even after 1859, he worked on mortality tables. He did not introduce any special quantitative rules, but his thoughts contained e.g. a hint at correlation theory. G. U. Yule highly praised Quetelet's reasoning as a forerunner in studying the significance of causes and took the initial letter ''Q'' for his coefficient of association; also F. Galton was strongly influenced, and Karl Pearson praised Quetelet's achievements in organizing official statistics in Belgium and in unifying international statistics. Other different opinions of mathematical minded commentators are cited which reach from ''patriarch of statistics'', ''good mathematical instinct'' to ''rather confused'', ''unable to develop his ideas adequately'', ''gedankenreich aber unmethodisch und daher unphilosophisch'', ''literarisches Machwerk oberflächlicher Art''. The main objections arouse against his ''Average man'' and his hope to study the laws of reproduction and those of the whole world.