  We describe a new statistic for measuring the small-scale velocity dispersion
of galaxies directly from redshift surveys. This statistic is based on the
object-weighted statistic proposed by Davis, Miller, & White (1997). Compared
with the traditional pair-weighted velocity dispersion, our statistic is less
sensitive to the presence or absence of rare, rich clusters of galaxies. This
measure of the thermal energy of the galaxy distribution is ideally suited for
use with a filtered version of the cosmic energy equation. We discuss the
application of the statistic to the Las Campanas Redshift Survey. The low
observed dispersion strongly favors cosmological models with low matter
density, Omega_m ~ 0.2.
