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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1325 



Dr. Raymond Pearl, professor of biometry and 

 vital statistics, Sciool of Hygiene and Public 

 Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 

 Maryland (United States). 



The general editorial program may be set 

 forth as follows: 



One of the great difficulties in connection 

 with modern statistics is that of becoming 

 acquainted with the relevant literature; this 

 is in fact derived from the work of very 

 different schools and published in a variety 

 of journals and transactions. It is necessary 

 to consult mathematical, astronomical, tech- 

 nical, physical, chemical, actuarial, economic 

 and financial, psychological, historical, legal, 

 physiological and pathological, hygienic and 

 medical, biological, genetic and eugenic and 

 even purely zoological, botanical and agriculr 

 tural publications. 



It is true that generally such papers are 

 merely applications of interest to specialists 

 in the particular branch of knowledge. But 

 this is not always the case and sometimes 

 methods of general interest to all statisticians 

 are to be found, or, again, we find in par- 

 ticular connections methodological problems 

 enunciated and solved, the scope of hyiwtheses 

 contained in certain analyses brought to light, 

 the approximation of theoretical conclusions 

 verified and advances made by different 

 routes; progress of interest in all branches 

 of statistics. Still more frequently the results 

 of particular statistical investigations, even 

 when they do not interest all statisticians, are 

 of imjKirtance to those engaged in similar in- 

 quiries: thus results obtained in the field of 

 anthropology, zoology, genetics or eugenics, 

 hygiene, medicine, pathology, life insurance, 

 political economy or history may be of great 

 interest to the student of demography. 



Whoever, desiring to enlarge the boundaries 

 of statistical science as far as possible, is 

 forced to consult the heterogeneous literature 

 containing statistical papers must be aware 

 of the inconvenience resulting from lack of 

 coordination. 



Valuable statistical data, carefully collected, 

 scrupulously criticized, remain of no scientific 

 value owing to their presentation and analysis 



by those unskilled in modern methods. Typo- 

 graphical difficulties offer obstacles to the 

 publication of the original data in their 

 integrity so that competent statisticians are 

 unable to harvest the grain which the original 

 author had not the skill to reap. Sometimes 

 we meet with tedious, inconclusive, or even 

 fallacious arguments where quite an ele- 

 mentary knowledge of statistical methods 

 would have led to a simple and exact con- 

 clusion. Sometimes indeed we merely en- 

 counter — and this is the smallest evil — the 

 rediscovery of an established truth or the 

 reinvention of a familiar method, but how 

 often do we not feel in reading the work of 

 a writer, sagacious and profound in his own 

 subject, that he would have greatly profited 

 by a knowledge of other statistics published 

 in journals quite disconnected from his 

 specialty ! 



"Within the limits appropriate to a review, 

 Metron will endeavor to take the first step 

 towards remedying these defects. It is ad- 

 dressed to those who, cultivating different soils 

 with various implements, nevertheless are 

 busied with statistics; that the results of 

 their labors may become of general utility 

 to science. It is hoped that Meiron may be 

 a bond of union between statistical workers 

 in different branches, perhaps at length an 

 organ of scientific coordination. 



With this object, Metron wiU be catholic; 

 its pages will be open to those who employ no 

 methods beyond the scope of ordinary culti- 

 vated men as well as to those who delight in 

 the most refined and subtle developments of 

 mathematical science. There is indeed scope 

 for both schools. Some problems can be 

 solved by the older methods now part of the 

 intellectual stock of all educated persons, 

 others must be investigated with the help of 

 more recondite procedures. Between these 

 extremes are insensible gradations and both 

 orders of inquiry interest science in general 

 and statistical science in particular. It is 

 hoped that both wiU find in Metron an appro- 

 priate treatment. 



It can not of course be denied that, the 

 simpler the methods employed, the easier is 



