[2] A brief and clear account of some of the more important works is given by BERNHÖFT, "Zur Geschichte des europäischen Familienrechts," _ZVR._, VIII, 4 ff., 384 ff. Compare the criticisms of Spencer, Starcke, and Westermarck contained throughout their respective treatises.
[3] For a proof of the efficiency with which the "statistical method" may be applied to anthropological and sociological questions, see the paper of DR. TYLOR, "On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions, Applied to Laws of Marriage and Descent," _Journal of the Anthropolog. Institute_, Feb., 1889, 245-69. _Cf._ WESTERMARCK, _Human Marriage_, 1-7; STARCKE, _Primitive Family_, 1-16; BERNHÖFT, _op. cit._, 1-4.
[4] See the suggestive paper of WINSOR, "The Perils of Historical Narrative," _Atlantic Monthly_ (Sept., 1890), LXVI, 289-97.
[5] BERNHÖFT, _op. cit._, 1-4, has noted the danger of inference, especially from written laws, where there has been a mixture of races and institutions: "Denn die Rechtsinstitute sind eben nicht aus einem einheitlichen Prinzip erwachsen, sondern aus einem Kompromiss verschiedener Prinzipien entstanden, welche sich gegenseitig einschränken und durchbrechen."
[6] It is a merit of Westermarck's book that he has "put particular stress upon psychological causes which have often been deplorably overlooked."--_Op. cit._, 5. _Cf._ also STARCKE, _op. cit._, 4.
[7] "Yet nothing has been more fatal to the Science of Society than the habit of inferring, without sufficient reasons, from the prevalence of a custom or institution among some savage peoples, that this custom, this institution, is a relic of a stage of development that the whole human race once went through."--WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 2. _Cf._ POST, _Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Familienrechts_, 1-3, 58.
