Professor F. Y. Edgeworth of Oxford University delivered the sixth of his series of lectures last night, on the special subject of "The Higher Theory of Statistics."
The fundamental axiom of statistical science is that if the numbers of a class, that is, persons born, are indefinitely increased under constant conditions, the proportion of instances distinguished by some specific attribute called an average, converges to a fixed limit. The limit is often given not so much by exact numeration as by a presumption based on general experience. The premises of "inverse probability" rest mostly on this sort of evidence; which seems also to underlie some economic theorems. Of a similar character is the evidence that many kinds of events are practically independent of each other. From this presumption it is deducible that magnitudes depending on a great variety of causes will vary according to a law of frequency called the law of error.
Read more in News
Observatory Watch for Leonids.
