In a restricted sense the word is applied to those who form one household, whether connected by ties of relationship or not; in a more extended sense it includes the descendants from a common progenitor. Among the Romans the word familia (from familia, a slave or servant) was applied to the household establishment of servants. It was also applied to a collective body of freemen, or to a particular branch of a Roman gens. Thus, the gens Aemilia had such subdivisions as the families of Mamerci, Scauri, Lepidi, &c. Of all the institutions that have been established among men, that of the family is the most primitive and the most humanizing. The Creator seems to have placed it as the corner-stone of the social edifice—as the foundation of every organization, political, civil, or religious. We have in it the most manifest proof that man was created to live in society, to go on perfecting his faculties through the multiplied connections which bind him to his kind, and to purify his soul by the affections of his heart. In the family sanctuary we have a clear evidence, that the pretended state of nature, which has been represented as the primitive condition of man, is but a barbarous fancy totally opposed to the benevolent designs of the Author of nature.

From the investigation of statistics we learn, that on an average the number of children in one family where polygamy does not exist is—

| Years | Number of Families | Average of Persons in each Family | Average of Persons in each House | Number of Families | Average of Persons in each Family | Average of Persons in each House | |-------|-------------------|----------------------------------|---------------------------------|-------------------|----------------------------------|---------------------------------| | 1801 | 1,896,723 | 4,688 | 5,643 | 354,079 | 4,418 | 5,461 | | 1811 | 2,142,147 | 4,745 | 5,655 | 402,083 | 4,491 | 5,439 | | 1821 | 2,493,423 | 4,813 | 5,747 | 447,980 | 4,569 | 6,125 | | 1831 | 2,911,874 | 4,772 | 5,606 | 502,234 | 4,707 | 6,401 | | 1841 | 3,712,290 | 4,827 | 5,469 | 600,098 | 4,814 | 7,661 |

Family, is used popularly among naturalists to denote an order, class, or genus of animals, or other natural productions having certain characters in common by which they are distinguished from others.