QUETELET, Lambert Adolphe Jacques (1796-1874), astronomer, meteorologist, and statistician, was born at Ghent, February 22, 1796, and educated at the lyceum of that town. In 1819 he was appointed professor of mathematics at the athenaeum of Brussels; in 1828 he became lecturer at the newly created museum of science and literature, and he continued to hold that post until the museum was absorbed in the free university in 1834. In 1828 he was appointed director of the new royal observatory which it had been decided to found, chiefly at his instigation. The building was finished in 1832, and the instruments were ready for work in 1835, from which date the observations were published in 4to volumes {Annales de l ’ Observatoire Royal de Bruxelles), but Quetelet chiefly devoted himself to meteorology and statistics. From 1834 he was perpetual secretary of the Brussels Academy, and published a vast number of articles in its Bulletin, as also in his journal Correspondance Mathématique et Physique (11 vols., 1825-39). He died on February 17, 1874. Quetelet’s astronomical papers refer chiefly to shooting stars and similar phenomena. He organized extensive magnetical and meteorological observations, and in 1839 he started regular observations of the periodical phenomena of vegetation, especially the flowering of plants. The results are given in various memoirs published by the Brussels Academy and in his works Sur le Climat de la Belgique and Sur la Physique du Globe (the latter forms vol. xiii. of the Annales, 1861). He is, however, chiefly known by the statistical investigations which occupied him from 1823 onward. In 1835 he published his principal work, Sur Γ Homme et le Développement de ses Facultés, ou Essai de Physique Sociale (2d ed. 1869), containing a résumé of ...

QUETTA, a valley in Baluchistan, and the most northern district in the province. It embraces an area of about 90 square miles, and is situated near the Afghan frontier between 30° 2' and 30° 14' N. lat. and between 66 α 55' and 67° E. long. The general aspect of the country is hilly, rocky, and sterile, particularly towards the north; but in many parts the soil is rich and good, yielding wheat, rice, madder, tobacco, and lucerne, besides numerous grasses. The district has abundant orchards, furnishing grapes, apples, pears, pomegranates, figs, <fcc.; melons and all kinds of English vegetables are also largely cultivated. The valley is watered by the Lora stream. Wild sheep, goats, and hogs abound in the hills of the district. The climate appears to be healthy and the temperature moderate, ranging from 30° Fahr, in the winter to about 80° in the summer. Since 1876 Quetta has been the seat of a British political officer. Its occupation secures the Pishin valley, holds in check border tribes, and keeps open the roads of the Kojak and Gwaja passes over the Khwaja Amran range leading to Kandahar. During the Afghan compaigns of 1878-80 Quetta formed the base of operations of the southern column. In 1879 a railway was commenced to Quetta, with a view to its being pushed on to Kandahar. The line starts from the Sind railway system at Sukkur and runs via Jacobabad to Sibi, and is now in course of construction to Quetta; it is to be termed the Sind-Pishin railway. Quetta (or Shal, meaning “the fort” or “kot ”), the capital, is situated at the northern extremity of the valley, near the head of the Bolan Pass and close to the Pishin valley, at an elevation of 5900 feet above the level of the sea. The town is surrounded by a mud wall; in its centre, on an artificial ...