PEARSON, KARL. - FORMULATING A STATISTICAL LAW OF HEREDITY.

Mathematical Contributions to the Theory of Evolution. On the Law of Ancestral Heredity. (A New Year's Greeting to Francis Galton, January 1, 1898).

London, Harrison and Sons, 1898. 8vo. Later full blue buckram. Spine with gilt lettering. In: "Proceedings of the Royal Society of London", Vol. LXII. VIII,458 pp. a. 6 plates. Pearson's paper: pp. 386-417.

First appearance of this importent paper in which Pearson, expressed what he christened "Galton’s Law of Ancestral Heredity" in the form of a multiple regression equation of offspring on midparental ancestry. It is a statistical formulation of Galton’s law in the form of a multiple regression of offspring on "midparental" ancestry, with deductions therefrom of theoretical values for various regression and correlation coefficients between kin, and comparisons of such theoretical values with values derived from observational material. (DSB).

The title "Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Evolution" or "Mathematical Contributions. . ." was used as the general title of 17 memoirs, numbered II through XIX, published in the Philosophical Transactions or as Drapers’ Company Research Memoirs, and of 8 unnumbered papers published in the Proceedings of he Royal Society "Mathematical" became and remained the initial word from III(1896)on.

Order-nr.: 48323