ID# 1999:
Biometrika abstracts (vol. 6:4), including Karl Pearson's note on Jamaica race mixing based on observations provided by Isaac Costa
Date:
1909
Pages: 1 of 1
Source:
University College London, KP, 348

Biometrika abstracts (vol. 6:4), including Karl Pearson's note on Jamaica race mixing based on observations provided by Isaac Costa

Abstract of Papers in Biometrika, Vol. VI, Part IV. March, 1909. I. It is well known that no sensible difference between the variability of the sexes in man and woman can be found, if accurate measures be taken to determine that variability. It is a point of considerable interest to ascertain whether there is a differentiated variability in the castes of the social insects. In a memoir published in [italics]Biometrika[end italics], Vol. v, it was shown that the worker wasp was more variable than the drone and the drone more variable than the queen. Ernest Warren in this issue of [italics]Biometrika[end italics] investigates the variability of the several castes - 6 in number - of South African Termites. He deals with a relatively large number of individuals in upwards of 40 nests, the material being due to the late G. D. Haviland. Warren finds that the sexual castes are much less variable than the asexual castes. He considers that the difference of variability between nest and nest cannot be accounted for by heredity but must be due to post-embryonic environmental influences. Further he holds that the relative variability of the whole population as compared with that of a single nest cannot be attributed to heredity but must be due to the moulding influence of environment on an exceedingly plastic organism. It perhaps deserves notice that the actual reduction in variability when the offspring are for an indefinite period the result of brother-sister unions has not yet been worked out, and would form an interesting theoretical investigation. Warren finds a high correlation between the mean sizes of the different castes in the same nest, but little correlation between the variability of different castes in the same nest, thus indicating that a similar environment does not affect in the same way the different castes. Wide biometric studies on other social insects would be of much interest and serve to throw light on the significance of some of the results of the present paper. II. K. Pearson contributes a note on the skin-colour of negro and white crosses from information received from the West Indies. The older view that skin-colour in the main blends has been recently called into question, but the general experience of men who have lived for years among a mixed black and white population, appears to be that there is no reversion to either black or white skins when mulatto crosses with mulatto, or to black skins when mulatto crosses with negro. The "Sambo" produced in the latter cross is stated to be a perfectly definite type distinct from either mulatto or negro. No better piece of work could be undertaken at the present time than the formation of mulatto and Eurasian pedigrees by medical men working in Africa or India, photographs being accompanied by observations with von Luschan's scale. III. A. Heyer deals with the length variation in the needles of conifers, and provides a large amount of material to support his view that a "unit-length" (about 7 mm.) plays a large part in determining the variation of length in these needles. While readers may by inclined to suspend final judgment - as Heyer himself does - the inquiry, especially if supplemented by a mathematical consideration of the significance of the individual modes, presents a number of points of interest. IV. G. D. Maynard of Pretoria discusses statistically the results of antityphoid inoculation in the army. He believes that the irregularity of the results is due to the larger or smaller frequency of paratyphoid among the typhoid returns, and that until the two are separated it will not be possible to determine the real value of antityphoid inoculation. V. M. Greenwood and J. D. C. White discuss biometrically the problem of the opsonic index as represented in the statistics of Sir Almroth Wright's laboratory and of others due to Dr. Strangeways. They show in upwards of 15 long counts that the distributions of bacilli per cell are markedly skew, and in view of this they emphasize the difficulties that arise in determining the "probable error" of an opsonic index. The distributions will be of interest to biometricians as providing "good fits" with the usual variation-curve types, and indicating how practically important it has become to develop and complete the theory of the "probable errors" of small samples. The bearing of the paper on controversial questions must be left to the medical profession to adjudicate on. [stamp University College London Pearson Papers] [end]

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