Helen M. Walker

The Contributions of Karl Pearson

* A paper read in Atlantic City, September 11, 1957, at a joint meeting of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. The chief source of biographical information was the 170 page memoir by Egon S. Pearson, Karl Pearson, An Appreciation of Some Aspects of His Life and Works, Cambridge University Press, 1938. Quotation has also been made from a paper by S. S. Wilks, “Karl Pearson: Founder of the Science of Statistics,” The Scientific Monthly, 53 (1941), 249–53 and from a Centenary Lecture by J. B. S. Haldane delivered at University College, London, on May 13, 1957 entitled “Karl Pearson, 1857–1957,” the text of which will be published in Biometrika in the near future.

The Role of the American Statistical Association

Three years have passed since the members of the American Statistical Association last came together in a national gather ing. The Annual Meetings of 1942 and 1943 were relinquished chiefly because of the demands upon wartime transportation fa cilities, relinquished willingly in recognition of the compelling immediacy of the demands of war, but relinquished with full awareness that the Association and any influence the Associa tion may have would not be strengthened by such action. The justification for holding a national meeting this year, while trans portation is still over-taxed, resides in an earnest conviction of the Board of Directors as to the contribution of statistics to the public weal and the responsibility which rests upon the Ameri can Statistical Association for furthering that contribution. Even the most casual reading of the program for this Annual Meeting will indicate that it mirrors a concern for the increased efficiency and unity of the entire statistical profession and for its more ef fective service to the welfare of society. Early in 1944 the Board of Directors decided that every pos sible effort should be made to hold a national meeting this year, and that it should be so planned as to focus attention upon the relation of statistics to the formation of policy and on the contri bution of a professional association of statisticians in promoting that relation. It is a matter of gratification to every member of the American Statistical Association that the Vice President of the United States is a man who thinks statistically and who un derstands the contribution of statistical investigation as basis for rational decision. That we were able to prevail upon him to speak at this dinner is an honor of which all of us are deeply sensible. At a time like the present when almost everyone is trying to foresee the nature of the world which lies ahead and to dedicate

Book Reviews : Basic Statistical Concepts, by Joe Kennedy Adams. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., I955. xi + 304 pp.

In connection with nonparametric tests (page 294) it would have been well to cite the Kruskal-Wallis paper (_7ournal of f~merican Statistical 4ssociation, XLVII, 1952, 583-621). The 4~-page index is briefer than desirable, especially in that it omits the names of authors of references listed at the end of chapters and in footnotes. Despite defects in treating the analysis of variance and several other flaws this is a commendable attempt to introduce more rigor into educational statistics. Very likely, many educationists will want to evaluate the teachability of Cornell’s book in their classrooms. JULIAN C. STANLEY University of Wisconsin