By 1830 innumerable regularities about crime and suicide seemed visible to the naked eye. There were ‘invariable’ laws about their relative frequency by month, by method, by sex, by region, by nation. No one would have imagined such statistical stabilities had it not been for an avalanche of printed and public tables.

The model was set by the annual Recherches statistiques sur la ville de Paris et le département de la Seine. I say ‘annual’ — it took a while for the administration to work smoothly, and the early volumes were usually late. In due course the national ministries extended and made redundant most of the statistical work of the capital. National volumes appeared regularly and efficiently from justice, education and the like. Paris and Seine served as their model.