Abstract
PROF. RAYMOND PEARL and his students con-A tinue to make important contributions to the biology of man and other organisms on a statistical basis. In a recent paper (Pearl and Bacon, Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports, vol. xxi. Fasc. iii.) an analysis is made of the relation of the relative size of heart, liver, spleen, and kidneys to tuberculosis. The data were derived from 1341 autopsies in which there were tubercular lesions. Six indices for the relative weights of the above organs were used as the basis of statistical investigation in relation to age, sex, race, and cause of death. It is shown that the relative weights of liver and heart, and heart and spleen change progressively during life; also that in cases of fatal tuberculosis the absolute weight of the heart is less and of the spleen greater than normal, probably because these changes are brought about by the disease. Curves of age show that when tuberculosis alone is fatal it kills at comparatively early ages. Many other interesting facts are brought out in this statistical study.
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Biometry and Genetics. Nature 111, 513–514 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111513a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111513a0