45-1 
PROFE.SSOR K. PEARSON ON MATHEMATICAL 
ages 15 to 17. The fit is, however, not a very good one, and although it is 
indefinitely better than a normal curve, and we see why in the absence of these 
types the statistics could not be fitted with any of the first series of skew curves, 
yet we are compelled to consider that there are causes other than chance at work 
very definitely afiecting the frequency of the recorded ages. Thus the bridegrooms 
being 24 to 25, the desire of the bride to be recorded as younger than her husband 
prol)ably fully accounts for the bulk of the preponderance of observation over theory 
Table of Observed and Calculated Frequencies. 
Age. 
Observed 
frequency. 
Calculated frequency. 
Age. 
Observed 
frequency. 
Calculated frequency. 
Type V. 
Type VI. 
Type V. 
TjqDe VI. 
15-16 
367 
70 
49 
30-31 
256 
281 
282 
16-17 
717 
514 
489 
31-32 
164 
201 
198 
17-18 
1294 
1538 
1560 
32-33 
134 
148 
146 
18-19 
2121 
2751 
2800 
33-34 
94 
104 
105 
19-20 
3156 
3591 
3622 
34-35 
77 
75 
76 
20-21 
4009 
3830 
3831 
35-36 
68 
55 
55 
21-22 
3593 
3577 
3560 
36-37 
59 
40 
40 
22-23 
3604 
3055 
3034 
37-38 
33 
29 
29 
23-24 
3060 
2456 
2439 
38-39 
40 
21 
oo 
24-25 
1774 
1894 
1884 
39-40 
27 
16 
16 
25-26 
1353 
1419 
1415 
40-41 
18 
12 
12 
26-27 
936 
1044 
1043 
41-42 
21 
9 
9 
27-28 
663 
758 
760 
42-43 
11 
7 
7 
28-29 
468 
546 
549 
43-44 
14 
5 
5 
29-30 
319 
392 
395 
44-45 
4 
4 
4 
in the frequency of the brides of 22 to 24. The defect of brides between 17 and 
20 may be again due to the tendency to state the age as over 21, and so free 
the woman from the need for parental sanction.These causes, giving a false 
disjDlacement of age frequency, are probably in themselves sufiicient to account for 
the theoretical defect in brides of 15 to 17. 
(7.) (B.) On the Variation in the Number of Lips of the Medusa P. Pentata. 
My data are the follovdng, taken from a paper by xIlfeei) Goldsborough Mayer : 
“The Variations of a Newly Arisen Species of Medusa,” ‘Science Bulletin of the 
Museum of the Brooklyn Institute,’ vol. 1, p. 1, 1901. 
* I have found in England the statement of the Indde’s age in the marriage licence is for the same 
reason occasionally not in accordance with the year of birth as shown by the parish register. 
