Page:Logic of Chance (1888).djvu/60

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30
Arrangement and Formation of the Series.
[CHAP. II.

central values, for those that is which are situated most nearly about the mean. With regard to the extreme values there is, on the other hand, some difficulty. For instance in the arrangements of the heights of a number of men, these extremes are rather a stumbling-block; indeed it has been proposed to reject them from both ends of the scale on the plea that they are monstrosities, the fact being that their relative numbers do not seem to be by any means those which theory would assign[1]. Such a plan of rejection is however quite unauthorized, for these dwarfs and giants are born into the world like their more normally sized brethren, and have precisely as much right as any others to be included in the formulæ we draw up.

Besides the instance of the heights of men, other classes

  1. As by Quetelet: noted, amongst others, by Herschel, Essays, page 409.