Economic Laws, Statistics, and the Distribution of Physicians

It is not many years since all statistical investigations were to be distrusted because biometry was as yet no science at all. It was customary to present a few figures and to draw from them extensive and unusual interpretations without taking into account numerous conditions that bore on possible interpretations. The modern biometrician realizes that allowances must be made for all sorts of factors and possible errors in the accumulation of medical statistical material, and is inclined to present his results exactly for what they are. In all the fundamental books on vital statistics, students are warned to beware of interpretations from general death rates.