SPENCER, Herbert Descriptive Sociology; or, Groups of Sociological Facts …. Compiled and abstracted by David Duncan …, Richard Scheppig … and James Collier. London/Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate. 1874/1875/1880.

SPENCER, Herbert Descriptive Sociology; or, Groups of Sociological Facts …. Compiled and abstracted by David Duncan …, Richard Scheppig … and James Collier. London/Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate. 1874/1875/1880.

Nos. 3, 4 and 7 only - Types of Lowest Races, Negritto Races, and Malayo-Polynesian Races / African Races / Hebrews and Phoenicians; large folio: ii, 9 double-page tables, 63 pp; ii, 8 double-page tables, 47[1] pp; ii, 3 double-page tables, 122 pp., some library stamps to no. 7; scattered foxing. Original boards with linen backstrips, worn and stained, covers of no. 7 detached. First editions.

In his autobiography, Spencer wrote that for his sociological work he would need an immense accumulation of facts so classified and arranged as to facilitate generalization (vol. II, p.171). In 1867 he began to hire researchers who were to extract cultural data from ethnographic and historical sources and organise them according to a system of headings and sub-headings he had devised. The results of this project were published as separate volumes under the title 'Descriptive Sociology', a work that marks Spencer as the founder of systematic, inductive, comparative sociology. Eight volumes were published in Spencer's lifetime, it was discontinued in 1881 because of lack of funds. However, Spencer left money in his will for the compilation and publication of the remainder of the projected volumes, and nine were produced after his death, the last appearing as late as 1934.