K. Pearson to F. Galton, 17th Nov. 1899.- External URL
- Correspondence Details
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Sent From (Definite): Karl PearsonSent To (Definite): Sir Francis GaltonDate: 17 Nov 1899
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Holder (Definite): University College London: Special Collections
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Sent fromKarl Pearson
17 Nov 1899
Description:
‘...
I am very distressed about these heredity results. I hardly see my way further now than a simple statement of observed values – the theory seems [to be] slipping away from me. I shall have to modify much of what I have said in the last two proofs of the Grammar of Science. Further I have found a possible arithmetical blunder in my paper on the law of Ancestral Heredity. In fact the constant Y must be increased, not reduced to get values above .3, .15 etc., as I want them.
I have worked out as far as I could the correlation between sire’s sire and sire’s dam and again between dam’s sire & dam’s dam for the Basset Hounds. They come just like the others – practically all of them insignificant! But terrible to narrate my assistant blindly working at my numbers correlated dam’s dam & sire and found a high correlation! I have been through it all again myself and unless Table I has got the sire’s & dam’s sire & dam somehow interchanged there must be a custom among breeders to very generally get a double strain, of the same blood, on the sire’s side & on the dam’s side, so that the sire is correlated closely with his mother-in-law!! – you see I am very deep in the mire & see no daylight. What between the Boers & the Bassett Hounds I don’t get much sleep o’nights!
Yes, I should much like the original documents as to the Hounds, if you can spare them for a time. They shall be safely returned. With the best wishes for your voyage. I am,
Always yours sincerely,
Karl Pearson.’
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Sent toSir Francis Galton
17 Nov 1899
Description:
‘...
I am very distressed about these heredity results. I hardly see my way further now than a simple statement of observed values – the theory seems [to be] slipping away from me. I shall have to modify much of what I have said in the last two proofs of the Grammar of Science. Further I have found a possible arithmetical blunder in my paper on the law of Ancestral Heredity. In fact the constant Y must be increased, not reduced to get values above .3, .15 etc., as I want them.
I have worked out as far as I could the correlation between sire’s sire and sire’s dam and again between dam’s sire & dam’s dam for the Basset Hounds. They come just like the others – practically all of them insignificant! But terrible to narrate my assistant blindly working at my numbers correlated dam’s dam & sire and found a high correlation! I have been through it all again myself and unless Table I has got the sire’s & dam’s sire & dam somehow interchanged there must be a custom among breeders to very generally get a double strain, of the same blood, on the sire’s side & on the dam’s side, so that the sire is correlated closely with his mother-in-law!! – you see I am very deep in the mire & see no daylight. What between the Boers & the Bassett Hounds I don’t get much sleep o’nights!
Yes, I should much like the original documents as to the Hounds, if you can spare them for a time. They shall be safely returned. With the best wishes for your voyage. I am,
Always yours sincerely,
Karl Pearson.’
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