This book provides a selection of pioneering papers or extracts ranging from Pascal (1654) to R.A. Fisher (1930). The editors'annotations put the articles in perspective for the modern reader. A special feature of the book is the large number of translations, nearly all made by the authors. There are several reasons for studying the history of statistics: intrinsic interest in how the field of statistics developed, learning from often brilliant ideas and not reinventing the wheel, and livening up general courses in statistics by reference to important contributors.

In 1901 William Bateson, Professor of Biology at Cambridge, published a renewed version of a lecture which he had delivered the year before to the Royal Horticultural Society in London (reprinted in the book as an appendix). In this lecture he recognized the importance of the work completed by Gregor Mendel in 1865, and brought it to the notice of the scientific world. Upon reading Bateson's paper, Archibald Garrod realized the relevance of Mendel's laws to human disease and in 1902 introduced Mendelism to medical genetics. The first part of A Century of Mendelism in Human Genetics takes a historical perspective of the first 50 years of Mendelism, including the bitter argument between the Mendelians and the biometricians. The second part discusses human genetics since 1950, ending with a final chapter examining genetics and the future of medicine. The book considers the genetics of both single-gene and complex diseases, human cancer genetics, genetic linkage, and natural selection in human populations. Besides being of general medical significance, this book will be of particular interest to departments of genetics and of medical genetics, as well as to historians of science and medicine.

Used today in spheres of life as diverse as business strategy, creative writing, medicine, computer science, and theoretical physics, Venn diagrams possess fascinating properties. The basic Venn diagram is both elegantly simple--three overlapping circles that intersect to create eight distinct areas--and conceptually innovative. Devised by English logician John Venn (1834-1923) to visually represent complex logical propositions and algebraic statements, the diagrams drew the excited interest of both scholars and the general public.

In "Cogwheels of the Mind," statistician and geneticist A. W. F. Edwards provides an accessible and engaging history of the Venn diagram, its reception and evolution, and its presence in such objects and images as Christian iconography, tennis balls, and flags which provide a rich source of Venn diagrams for Edwards, including those of Switzerland, Poland, and Japan (all one-set Venn diagrams), Greenland (a two-set Venn diagram), and Maryland (a three-set device).

Edwards begins with a sketch of Venn's life, his discovery of the three-circle design while developing a series of lectures on symbolic logic at Cambridge University, and the publication of his find in an 1880 paper, and, more influentially, his 1881 book, "Symbolic Logic." Edwards discusses the rival diagrammatic scheme invented by Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, who also developed a board game based on his design. The author also recreates famous Venn diagrams from history, including Winston Churchill's of 1948 depicting the mutual interests of the British Empire, a united Europe, and the English-speaking world, with the United Kingdom located at the intersection.

Edwards goes on to show how different shapes can be linked together to form artistically beautiful and mathematically important, multi-set Venn diagrams, including the author's own influential Adelaide variation. And he delineates the possibilities for expanding the analytic power of these diagrams far beyond those first appreciated by Venn. Edwards even tells readers how to draw complex Venn diagrams on a spherical surface to create "Vennis balls." For anyone interested in mathematics or its history, "Cogwheels of the Mind" is invaluable and compelling reading.

In 1865, Gregor Mendel presented \u201cExperiments in Plant-Hybridization,\u201d the results of his eight-year study of the principles of inheritance through experimentation with pea plants. Overlooked in its day, Mendel's work would later become the foundation of modern genetics. Did his pioneering research follow the rigors of real scientific inquiry, or was Mendel's data too good to be true-the product of doctored statistics? In Ending the Mendel-Fisher Controversy, leading experts present their conclusions on the legendary controversy surrounding the challenge to Mendel's findings by British statistician and biologist R. A. Fisher. In his 1936 paper \u201cHas Mendel's Work Been Rediscovered?\u201d Fisher suggested that Mendel's data could have been falsified in order to support his expectations. Fisher attributed the falsification to an unknown assistant of Mendel's. At the time, Fisher's criticism did not receive wide attention. Yet beginning in 1964, about the time of the centenary of Mendel's paper, scholars began to publicly discuss whether Fisher had successfully proven that Mendel's data was falsified. Since that time, numerous articles, letters, and comments have been published on the controversy. This self-contained volume includes everything the reader will need to know about the subject: an overview of the controversy; the original papers of Mendel and Fisher; four of the most important papers on the debate; and new updates, by the authors, of the latter four papers. Taken together, the authors contend, these voices argue for an end to the controversy-making this book the definitive last word on the subject.

"The book is indeed a classic. Virtually every philosopher of science now writing about probabilistic inference has been influenced by Edwards' book, and his ideas are now as alive and relevant as they were when the book first appeared. Edwards is an absolutely seminal thinker in the foundations of statistics and scientific inference." -- Elliott Sober, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Full of appropriate examples (especially from genetics) and historical commentary, this monograph offers a rare simultaneous treatment of both mathematical and philosophical foundations." -- American Mathematical Monthly.

This new and expanded edition of A. W. F. Edwards' classic volume on scientific inference presents his most important published articles on the subject. Edwards argues that the appropriate axiomatic basis for inductive inference is not that of probability, with its addition axiom, but that of likelihood, the concept introduced by Fisher as a measure of relative support among different hypotheses. Starting from the simplest considerations and assuming no more than a basic acquaintancewith probability theory, the author sets out to reconstruct a consistent theory of statistical inference in science. Using the likelihood approach, he explores estimation, tests of significance, randomization, experimental design, and other statistical topics. Likelihood is important reading for students and professionals in biology, mathematical sciences, and philosophy.

"This book is commended to all philosophers of science who are interested in the problems of scientific inference." -- Search.

"This book, by a well-known geneticist, will do much to publicize the generality of the likelihoodmethod as a foundation for statistical procedure. It is both smoothly written and persuasive." -- Operations Research.

"Likelihood is an important text and, in addition, is a joy to read, being a paragon of lucid and witty exposition." -- Mathematical Gazette

In 1901 William Bateson, Professor of Biology at Cambridge, published a renewed version of a lecture which he had delivered the year before to the Royal Horticultural Society in London (reprinted in the book as an appendix). In this lecture he recognized the importance of the work completed by Gregor Mendel in 1865, and brought it to the notice of the scientific world. Upon reading Bateson's paper, Archibald Garrod realized the relevance of Mendel's laws to human disease and in 1902 introduced Mendelism to medical genetics.

The first part of A Century of Mendelism in Human Genetics takes a historical perspective of the first 50 years of Mendelism, including the bitter argument between the Mendelians and the biometricians. The second part discusses human genetics since 1950, ending with a final chapter examining genetics and the future of medicine. The book considers the genetics of both single-gene and complex diseases, human cancer genetics, genetic linkage, and natural selection in humanpopulations.

Besides being of general medical significance, this book will be of particular interest to departments of genetics and of medical genetics, as well as to historians of science and medicine.