Statistics in Biological Research

Abstract

IN the review of Dr. R. A. Fisher's “Statistical Methods for Research Workers” in NATURE of June 8, the point is made that a careless reader may get the impression that the various methods outlined therein will give exact results when applied to the ordinary small “sample’, although we have, in general, no proof, or even expectation, that the sample is drawn from a ‘normal’ population, to which alone the tables can be exactly applied. That this is so is clear from the fact that an American writer has stated that the English school of statisticians claims to have produced tables which may be used for samples, however small, drawn from any conceivable population; but of course Dr. Fisher would be the first to cry out against the foolishness of making any such claim.