ABSTRACT
In these days, when the desire for exact statistical measurement has taken so strong a hold on men because of its positive achievements in the realms of natural science, it is not to be wondered at that some sociologists have set out hopefully to measure the magnitude of the middle classes. As the groups whose inclusion in the ranks of the middle classes is most doubtful are also, in many societies, the most numerous, the precise points at which the lines are drawn make a vast difference to the result. The advancing middle-class group speedily produced its effects on other parts of the social structure. Apothecaries, attorneys, and the top layers of the teaching profession turned into a sort of middle-class gentlemen, and came much nearer in social status to barristers, clergymen, and army officers—the old trilogy of gentlemanly professions.
