434 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



or that it furnishes a body of evidence against his (Weismann's) 

 cardinal rule that acquired characters are never inherited." 



Biometrika : a Journal for the Statistical Study of Biological 

 Problems. Part I. Cambridge : at the University Press. 



This is a proposed quarterly publication, and is edited, in 

 consultation with Francis Galton, by W. F. R. Weldon, Karl 

 Pearson, and C. B. Davenport. It is an expression of the 

 advanced study of evolution, and a recognition of the mathe- 

 matical argument that may be employed in its exposition. " It 

 is intended that ' Biometrika ' shall serve as a means not only of 

 collecting under one title biological data of a kind not systemati- 

 cally collected or published in any other periodical, but also of 

 spreading a knowledge of such statistical theory as may be 

 requisite for their scientific treatment." On these grounds 

 alone this new publication will be welcomed ; but it possesses a 

 still higher credential, as expressed in its editorial preface, which 

 we must quote in full : — " Evolution must depend upon sub- 

 stantial changes in considerable numbers, and its theory there- 

 fore belongs to that class of phenomena which statisticians have 

 grown accustomed to refer to as mass-phenomena. A single in- 

 dividual may have a variation which fits it to survive, but unless 

 that variation appears in many individuals, or unless that in- 

 dividual increases and multiplies without loss of the useful 

 variation up to comparatively great numbers — shortly, until the 

 fit type of life becomes a mass-phenomena — it cannot be an 

 effective factor in evolution." Hence the cogency and value of 

 the study by mathematics of large numbers. The value of this 

 method applied to the many guesses, theories, and suggestions 

 which the term evolution has inspired, but for which real evo- 

 lutionary study is not answerable, cannot be ignored. It can be 

 expressed in the words of Darwin : '* I have no faith in anything 

 short of actual measurement and the Rule of Three." 



To many like ourselves, to whom abstruse figures are re- 

 pellant, and ail machinery abhorrent — and there is a fear that we 

 are a large number — we shall scarcely follow the process, though 

 we cannot neglect the conclusions. It will be well for all to 



