CURRENT LITERATURE
STATISTICAL METHODS FOR RESEARCH WORKERS. (R. A. Fisher. Oliver and Boyd. 15s.) IT is an inevitable, if regrettable, necessity of present-day specialization that the expert is very much of an amateur outside of his own particularity, and this is often an especial handicap in that the tools of other departments of knowledge are not readily available to help him. For example, the new science of statistical mathematics is now so specialized that the expert statistician has rarely the time or opportunity to be any- thing else, and the biologist or economist is seldom able to delve far into this subject, which can be of so much use to him. The importance of the statistical treatment of all sorts of data is rightly being insisted on more and more by all branches of workers in science and sociology, and its aid has even been invoked in certain metaphysical conceptions of Universal Laws._ Mr. R. A. Fisher has attempted the difficult task of building a bridge to save the biologist from floundering in the very deep waters of statistical methods, and he has succeeded in no small degree. The obvious dilemma of such a labour has presented itself to him, and he has solved it by adhering to the practical applications without attempting a full mathematical justification, since that would involve the reader unnecessarily. This certainly lays the book open to criticism from. the mathematicians, but the purpose is well served, and the examples over a wide field are clear and carefully chosen. Though the volume is primarily intended for the biologist, there are many others to whom it will be of great assistance, for the applications of the statistical method are innumerable, but the purely mathematical aspects are such as to quail the stoutest heart. Mr. Fisher, however, has filled a considerable lacuna in making the results of specialized mathematics avail- able to a general public.
Previous page
