52 MODES OF RESEARCH IN GENETICS 



Even the simpler of current biometric methods are 

 not fully understood by the majority of biologists, 

 nor can they except through special study of their 

 mathematical origin and development. But is 

 there any reason why the biologist should expect to 

 have intuitive comprehension of these methods? 

 No one would expect to apply successfully the 

 complicated and delicate surgical technique of 

 Pawlow or Carrel to the solution of biological 

 problems without careful preliminary study and 

 practice of these methods, continued till they 

 were really mastered. The case is not different 

 with any other higher development of scientific 

 technique. 



Because of the lack of a full comprehension of 

 the meaning and significance of the mathematico- 

 statistical methods used in biometry, these 

 methods have been subjected to a great deal of 

 unreasonable and futile criticism. It is argued 

 that these methods are in large part worthless 

 because they are too refined. Biological data 

 are held to be of so coarse and inaccurate a 

 character as to make any but the roughest kind 

 of treatment of them of no significance. Such a 

 view misses entirely the purpose and meaning 

 of the biometrical calculus. It is just because 

 biological data necessarily are often rough that we 

 need refined mathematical methods in their treat- 

 ment in order to test and check the conclusions 

 to be drawn from them, and in order to show their 



