Walter Frank Raphael Weldon. 1860—1906. 
35 
honiotyposis paper was the immediate cause of the proposal to found this Journal. 
A little later a detailed criticism of the paper by one of the referees was actually 
printed by the Secretaries and issued to Fellows at a meeting, before the fate of the 
criticised paper itself had been notified, and before the paper itself was in the 
hands of those present. This confirmed the biometric school in their determination 
to start and run a journal of their own. 
On November 16 Weldon wrote : 
" The contention ' that numbers mean nothing and do not exist in Nature ' is a very serious 
thing, which will have to be fought. Most other people have got beyond it, but most biologists 
have not. 
Do you think it would be too hopelessly expensive to start a journal of some kind ? 
If one printed five hundred copies of a royal 8vo. once a quarter, sternly repressing anything 
by way of illustration except process drawings and curves, what would the annual loss be, taking 
any practical price per number If no English publisher would undertake it at a cheap rate, 
the cost of going to Fischer of Jena, or even Engelmann, would not be very great." 
This was the first definite suggestion of the establishment of Biometrika. On 
November 29, the draft circular, corresponding fairly closely to the first editorial of 
the first number (25), reached me from Oxford with the words: "Get a better title 
for this would-be journal than I can think of! " The circular went back to Oxford 
with the suggestion that the science in future should be called Biometry and its 
official organ be Biometrika. And on December 2nd, 1900, Weldon wrote : 
" I did not see your letter yesterday until it was too late for you to have an answer last night. 
I like Biometrika and the subtitle. Certainly we ought to state that articles will be printed in 
German, French, or Italian. One may hope for stuff from anthropologers, and for instance, 
ought to be allowed to use his own tongue." 
Thus was this Journal born and christened. The reply to circulars issued 
during December was sufficiently favourable to warrant our pi'oceeding further. A 
guarantee fund sufficing to carry on the Journal for a number of years was raised 
at once ; good friends of Biometry coming forward to aid the editors. By June of 
1901 its publication through the Cambridge University Press had been arranged 
for, and the sympathetic help of the Syndics and the care given by the University 
Printers enabled us to start well and surmount many difficulties peculiar to a new 
branch of science*. Those of us who believe that Biometrika came to stay and to 
fulfil a definite function in the world of science hope that the name of the man 
who first formulated a definite proposal for a biometric organ may always continue 
to be associated with our title-page. During the years in which Weldon was 
editor he contributed much, directly and indirectly, to its pages. He was referee 
for all essentially biological papers; and his judgment in this matter was of the 
utmost value. He revised and almost rewrote special articles. He was ever ready 
with encouragement and aid when real difficulties arose. For the mechanical labour 
* A special feature has been of course the masses of tabulated numbers. It deserves to be put 
on record that on more than one occasion 15 or 20 pages of figures have been set up without a single 
printer's error. 
5—2 
