KAREL KORISTKA AND THE PROVINCIAL STATISTICAL SERVICE IN THE CZECH LANDS

Karel Koristka, since the death of whom 110 years have already passed, was a prominent Czech mathematician, surveyor, geographer, reformer of the technical universities in the Habsburg monarchy and, last but not least-the statistician who acquired his technical education at the Academy of Mining and Forestry in Banska Stiavnica (1843-1847), where he also shortly worked as an assistant of mathematics and physics to professor Christian Doppler. The aim of our paper is to deal with Koristka's statistical activities in the period of 1864 1905. These activities were mainly the long-term management of the Statistical office of the Central Committee for statistics of agriculture and forestry economy. Together with the reorganization of this institution was in 1897 established the Provincial Statistical Office (the direct predecessor of the Czechoslovak State Statistical Office), which was led by Koristka until his 80 years. Ko. ristka is also an author of numerous publications. He divided the whole territory of the Bohemia to 11 "natural landscapes" and also attended at many meetings of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), where he gave a series of proposals, especially on the issue of statistical graphs and other topics.