Volume I 
OCTOBER, 1901 
No. 1 
BIOMETEIKA. 
EDITOKIAL. 
(i.) 2'he Scojje of Biometriha. 
• It is intended that Biometriha sliall serve as a means not only of collecting 
under one title biological data of a kind not systematically 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. 
A very few years ago, all those problems which depend for their solution on a 
study of the differences between individual members of a race or species, were 
neglected by most biologists. The complexity of organic structure is so great, 
and the number of distinguishable forms so enormous, that morphologists were 
obliged to simplify their conceptions by constructing for every species an ideal 
type, to which the individuals composing it conform with more or less exactness, 
and to neglect those deviations from the type which actually occur. Such simpli- 
fication was not only justifiable, but absolutely necessary for many purposes ; it 
has rendered enormous service to biology in the past, it does so still, and will 
continue to do so ; nevertheless, there are many problems which cannot be dealt 
with by its aid. 
The starting point of Darwin's theory of evolution is precisely the existence of 
those differences between individual members of a race or species which morpho- 
logists for the most part rightly neglect. The first condition necessary, in order 
that any process of Natural Selection may begin among a race, or species, is the 
existence of differences among its members; and the first step in an enquiry into 
the possible effect of a selective process upon any character of a race must be an 
estimate of the frequency with which individuals, exhibiting any given degree of 
abnormality with respect to that character, occur. The unit, with which such an 
Biometrika i 1 
