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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Referee'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

Reference number: RR/16/415

Date: 10 December 1905

Description

Sectional 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.

Reference number
RR/16/415
Earliest possible date
10 December 1905
Physical description
Letter on paper
Page extent
2 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Karl Pearson

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Karl Pearson, Referee'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, 10 December 1905, RR/16/415, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_16_415/referees-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, accessed on 24 January 2025

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  • Referee Reports

    Date: 1832-1954

    This collection contains reports on scientific papers submitted for publication to the Royal Society. Started in 1832 when the system was formalised, it is a record of the origins of peer review publishing in practice.

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