Measurements of Medieval English Femora

Abstract

PROF. KARL PEARSON'S criticisms are always welcome and stimulating to those strong enough to bear them though, since they are usually of the destructive variety, the fear of them undoubtedly prevents a good deal of work which would add to our knowledge being published. Let me deal, for instance, with the following criticism. “Looking at Dr. Parsons's results I can but conclude that his sexing is based on a fallacy, and the dip he has created in the Rothwell femora between those with 45 and 47 mm. heads—the range of Dwight's doubtful sex—is due to conscious or unconscious selection of his material; out of the great masses of bones available at Rothwell (which should have occupied in measurement of many characters and in their adequate reduction the whole time of a man for four or five years)”.