Stations of the Cross

STATIONS OF THE CROSS, a series of 14 pictures or images representing the closing scenes in the Passion of Christ, viz., (I) the condemnation by Pilate, (2) the reception of the cross, (3) Christ's first fall, (4) the meeting with His mother, (5) Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross, (6) Veronica wiping the face of Jesus, (7) the second fall, (8) the exhortation to the women of Jerusalem, (9) the third fall, (Io) the stripping of the clothes, (I I) the crucifixion, (12) the death, (13) the descent from the cross, (14) the burial. Sometimes a 5th—the finding of the cross by Helena—is added ; on the other hand in the diocese of Vienna, the stations were at the end of the 18th century re duced to eleven. The representations are usually ranged round the church ; sometimes they are found in the open air, especially on the ascent to some elevated church or shrine. The normal form of the devotion, which began among the Franciscans, is to visit the stations of the cross wherever represented, and exercise a devout meditation on passing from station to station.

See article "Stations of the Cross" in the Catholic Encyclopaedia. STATISTICS. The name statistics was first applied to col lections of data relating to matters important to the State, such as the numbers of the population, the yield of taxation, the value of trade carried on within the territory of the State or between that territory and other parts of the world, the mortality from particular diseases and from all causes together, etc., and to the study and interpretation of such data. The data were not at first numerical and later not exclusively numerical, but the precision and convenience of data expressed in numbers, as compared with other forms of statement, have led to the more general cultivation of arithmetical data and to the common use of the term "statis tics" as if it related exclusively to data expressed in numerical form. At the same time, the numerical data to which the name "statistics" is generally applied are not limited to such as have some connection with the organization or administration of the State, the methods appropriate to the study of statistics being, broadly speaking, the same whether the data under consideration relate to human communities or are concerned with any other branch of knowledge or investigation.

Statistical Tables.

The simplest way of arranging numerical records is to set them out in tabular form. We may, for example, ascertain the amount of sugar consumed in a given country in each year of a given period. A table may be drawn up in which each line contains the figures for the year the date of which is shown at the beginning of the line. If each line relates to the year next following that dealt with in the preceding line, the sequence of figures of consumption will enable us to determine whether, and at what rate, the yearly consumption of sugar in creased in successive intervals of years. The increase of popula tion from year to year observed in most countries is an obvious influence tending to increased use of any popular article of con sumption, and it will be advantageous to add, to the figures show ing the total consumption of sugar in the country, another series of figures showing the number of persons living in that country in each of the years covered by the table. To the columns con taining (I) the dates of the years to which the information re lates, and (2) the total amounts of sugar consumed in the re spective years, there will thus be added (3) a column showing the numbers of persons concerned in the consumption of these quantities of sugar. The significance of this last column in re lation to the preceding may be made clearer by the addition of a fourth column (4) deduced from the two preceding by dividing the quantity of sugar shown in any line of the table by the num ber of the population shown in the same line, thus obtaining the average amount of sugar consumed per head of the specified population. The form of the table is sufficiently indicated by means of the lines relating to the United Kingdom in ten years, 1903 and 1913, given below : If to this table further columns are added or a new table is drawn up, in which data relating to the consumption of tea in the same country and in the same years is set out, we obtain two sets of facts the comparison of which may prove of interest and importance. We can ascertain whether the variations in the consumption of sugar and of tea were related.