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RefNoRR/16/415
LevelItem
TitleReferee's report by Karl Pearson, on two papers 'On a property which holds good for all groupings of a normal distribution of frequency for two variables, with applications to the study of contingency-tables for the inheritance of unmeasured qualities' and 'On the influence of bias and of personal equation in statistics of ill-defined qualities: An experimental study' by George Udny Yule
Date10 December 1905
DescriptionSectional Committee: not stated.

Would like to know what opportunity there will to reply to Yule's papers, which he supposes will be published by the Royal Society. He of course knows nothing of the full papers and has only seen the printed abstracts, but these contain statements which as he endeavoured to show on Thursday, are total misrepresentations of the methods Pearson uses. Provides an example of this. Other statements are equally fallacious, such as when it is assumed that pigmentation must follow a normal or gaussian surface, which it most certainly does not. Thinks it a great pity that persons like Bateson and Yule cannot go on with their own work and leave them to 'quietly' get on with their own. Pearson himself is never out of controversy and has never once begun this by attacking somebody elses work. Controversy ought to be kept out of the Royal Society's Proceedings. As the case now stands a man has only to attack ianother man's work under the guise of doing 'original work' and no reply can be given to him because it could start controversy. Would be glad to know if he may reply to Yule's paper or at least put a caveat into the Proceedings. Notes Hursts' paper is exactly of the same kind but he supposes Weldon will be allowed a reply in this case.

[Both papers published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 1906].

Endorsed on recto as received 11 December 1905.
Extent2p
FormatManuscript
PhysicalDescriptionLetter on paper
Digital imagesView item on Science in the Making
AccessStatusOpen
RelatedMaterialDOI: 10.1098/rspa.1906.0030
DOI: 10.1098/rspa.1906.0029
RelatedRecordRR/16/409
RR/16/410
RR/16/411
RR/16/412
RR/16/413
RR/16/415
RR/16/416
RR/16/417
RR/16/418
AP/77/1
Fellows associated with this archive
CodePersonNameDates
NA8002Pearson; Karl (1857 - 1936); statistician and eugenicist1857 - 1936
NA1151Yule; George Udny (1871 - 1951)1871 - 1951
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