Skip to content

Please be aware that some material may contain words, descriptions or illustrations which will not reflect current scientific understanding and may be considered in today's context inaccurate, unethical, offensive or distressing.

The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Referee's report by Alexander Craig Aitken, on a paper 'On the relation between direct and inverse methods in statistics' by Harold Jeffreys

Reference number: RR/64/68

Date: 03 March 1937

Description

Sectional Committee: Mathematics

Declines to comment regarding publication in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'. After much deliberation, finds he is not the right person to give an opinion, as despite trying to reamin open to conviction, feels he is 'incapacitated from believing in prior probability distributions of parameters'. 'The author may be within the circle of light, and I on the periphery of darkness, but his postulates defeat me, and if I do not resign responsibility now it will be mere unprogressive delay for all concerned'.

[Published in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society of London']

Endorsed on verso as received 5 March 1937.

Reference number
RR/64/68
Earliest possible date
03 March 1937
Physical description
Standardised form (type D) and letter on paper
Page extent
3 pages
Format
Typescript

Creator name

Alexander Craig Aitken

View page for Alexander Craig Aitken

Use this record

IIIF manifest

View​ IIIF ​ manifest Opens in new tab

Open in Mirador viewer Opens in new tab

Export this record

Download PDF Opens in new tab

Citation

Alexander Craig Aitken, Referee's report by Alexander Craig Aitken, on a paper 'On the relation between direct and inverse methods in statistics' by Harold Jeffreys, 03 March 1937, RR/64/68, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_64_68/referees-report-by-alexander-craig-aitken-on-a-paper-on-the-relation-between-direct-and-inverse-methods-in-statistics-by-harold-jeffreys, accessed on 22 April 2026

Link to this record

https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_64_68/referees-report-by-alexander-craig-aitken-on-a-paper-on-the-relation-between-direct-and-inverse-methods-in-statistics-by-harold-jeffreys

Embed this record

<iframe src="https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/embed/items/rr_64_68/referees-report-by-alexander-craig-aitken-on-a-paper-on-the-relation-between-direct-and-inverse-methods-in-statistics-by-harold-jeffreys" title="Referee's report by Alexander Craig Aitken, on a paper 'On the relation between direct and inverse methods in statistics' by Harold Jeffreys" allow="fullscreen" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>

Related Publications

Related Records

Hierarchy

This item is part of:

Related Fellows

Explore the collection

  • Referee Reports

    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.

    Dates: 1832 - 1954

    View collection