Dear David,
Another good source on the early history of statistics:
Hald, Anders (1990). A History of Probability and Statistics and Their
Applications
before 1750. Wiley, New York.
and its sequel,
Hald, Anders (1998). A History of Mathematical Statistics from 1750 to
1930. Wiley, New York.
Malcolm
At 03:02 PM 10/10/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>Everyone.
>
>I think those folk interested probably ought to read Stigler's 'History of
>Statistics The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900' - available from
>amazon.com. Certainly the work of Bernoulli on probability, and others using
>statistics to aid astronomy, appear to pre-date "the social and biological
>sciences."
>
>
>Some reviews of Stigler below
>
>An exceptionally searching, almost loving, study of the relevant
>inspirations and aberrations of its principal characters James Bernoulli, de
>Moivre, Bayes, Laplace, Gauss, Quetelet, Lexis, Galton, Edgeworth, and
>Pearson, not neglecting a grand supporting cast...The definitive record of
>an intellectual Golden Age, an overoptimistic climb to a height not to be
>maintained.
> --M. Stone, Science
>
>The book is a pleasure to read: the prose sparkles; the protagonists are
>vividly drawn; the illustrations are handsome and illuminating; the insights
>plentiful and sharp. This will remain the definitive work on the early
>development of mathematical statistics for some time to come.
> --Lorraine J. Daston, Journal of Modern History
>
>One is tempted to say that the history of statistics in the nineteenth
>century will be associated with the name Stigler.
> --Morris Kline, New York Times Book Review
>
>In this tour de force of careful scholarship, Stephen Stigler has laid bare
>the people, ideas, and events underlying the development of statistics...He
>has written an important and wonderful book...Sometimes Stigler's prose is
>so evocative it is almost poetic.
> --Howard Wainer, Contemporary Psychology
>
>enjoy
>
>
>
>David
>[writing in a purely personal capacity]
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Allan Reese [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: 10 October 2003 14:38
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Comment: statistics on BBC radio
>
>
>In a discussion on the Today programme this morning, between a "professor
>of physics" and a "profession of social science", the latter claimed that
>statistical methods had been applied in the first instance in the social
>and biological sciences. Clearly he had not heard of Gauss.
>
>R. Allan Reese Email: [log in to unmask]
>
>PLEASE NOTE: THE ABOVE MESSAGE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE INTERNET.
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