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Elementary Medical Statistics
BOOK REVIEWS
330
I feel this instrument has merit for the more cautious and occasional operator. (Signed) Ernest H. Dengler, Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
profit by those who simply like to understand the latest "tobacco statistics." David Shoch. Edited by Monroe J. Hirsh, O.D., Ph.D., and Ralph E. Wick, O.D. Philadelphia, Chilton Books, 1963. 434 pages, illustrated, bibliography, index. Price: $17.50. This second of the Optometric Symposia series resembles in format the first sympo sium, Vision of the Aging Patient ( reviewed in T H E JOURNAL, 50: 515 [Sept.] 1960). Because of limitations intrinsic to optometry in the refraction and examination of chil dren, this volume of much higher cost (434 pp. $17.50 vs. 328 pp. $7.50) is a less val uable contribution than its precursor. Em ploying semantic nuances, the editors call the present book, which emphasizes basic knowledge, a contribution to "total optome try" in contrast to purely clinical optometry. The best articles are by the visual scientists: S. Howard Bartley, Ph.D., on the psychol ogy of the child (20 pp.), Gordon L. Walls, Sc.D., on basic genetics (63 pp.) and Frank W. Weymouth, Ph.D., on the visual acuity of children (26 pp.). The recent decease of the last two scholars is a grievous loss to visual science. The statistical studies cited by Hofstetter show that classroom perform ance and I.Q. scores fail to indentify the children who fail visual tests. VISION OF CHILDREN.
BOOK REVIEWS ELEMENTARY MEDICAL STATISTICS. By
D.
Mainland. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Company, edition 2, 1963. 381 pages, ap pendix and index. Price: $9.00. About a generation ago medical research workers became aware that, if they reduced their findings to some sort of numbers, they could substitute these numbers for letters in rather mysterious equations and come up with Greek letter quantities such as sigma or chi square which then lent a magic va lidity to their findings and duly impressed their readers. This led to the introduction of courses in biostatistics in medical schools so that all might have the benefit of new and powerful words such as median, mode, stand ard deviation, t-test and so forth. Unfor tunately, the mathematical approach of most courses quickly frightened off the student and he was left only with the terms and without an understanding of the rationale behind them. Mainland attempts to woo back these strayed or misinformed clinicians and re search workers by using a narrative form devoid of all mathematics except a little simple arithmetic. He does this by posing a series of questions in each of 10 chapters and answering them with style and good humor. Thus, for example, one quickly learns the difference between an experiment and a survey and why retrospective and prospective surveys are rarely useful. Only at Chapter XI does the author introduce the standard statistical techniques, and even here emphasis is on understanding rather than mechanical application. A most useful book that should certainly be read by all who prepare scientific papers for publication and may even be read with
Regarding the refraction of children, Hirsh states: "The patient's accommodation should be relaxed during skiametry measure ment. This may be accomplished either by instilling a cycloplegic in the eye (pharmaco logie method) or by having the patient fixate a distant object through plus lenses (physiologic method)." He claims to obtain results with the latter method similar to those obtained with cycloplegia. The performances of conscientious optometrists are evidently less expert as attested by the continual re ferral of such cases for cycloplegic exam ination. Wicks, after offering the consoling
330
I feel this instrument has merit for the more cautious and occasional operator. (Signed) Ernest H. Dengler, Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
profit by those who simply like to understand the latest "tobacco statistics." David Shoch. Edited by Monroe J. Hirsh, O.D., Ph.D., and Ralph E. Wick, O.D. Philadelphia, Chilton Books, 1963. 434 pages, illustrated, bibliography, index. Price: $17.50. This second of the Optometric Symposia series resembles in format the first sympo sium, Vision of the Aging Patient ( reviewed in T H E JOURNAL, 50: 515 [Sept.] 1960). Because of limitations intrinsic to optometry in the refraction and examination of chil dren, this volume of much higher cost (434 pp. $17.50 vs. 328 pp. $7.50) is a less val uable contribution than its precursor. Em ploying semantic nuances, the editors call the present book, which emphasizes basic knowledge, a contribution to "total optome try" in contrast to purely clinical optometry. The best articles are by the visual scientists: S. Howard Bartley, Ph.D., on the psychol ogy of the child (20 pp.), Gordon L. Walls, Sc.D., on basic genetics (63 pp.) and Frank W. Weymouth, Ph.D., on the visual acuity of children (26 pp.). The recent decease of the last two scholars is a grievous loss to visual science. The statistical studies cited by Hofstetter show that classroom perform ance and I.Q. scores fail to indentify the children who fail visual tests. VISION OF CHILDREN.
BOOK REVIEWS ELEMENTARY MEDICAL STATISTICS. By
D.
Mainland. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Company, edition 2, 1963. 381 pages, ap pendix and index. Price: $9.00. About a generation ago medical research workers became aware that, if they reduced their findings to some sort of numbers, they could substitute these numbers for letters in rather mysterious equations and come up with Greek letter quantities such as sigma or chi square which then lent a magic va lidity to their findings and duly impressed their readers. This led to the introduction of courses in biostatistics in medical schools so that all might have the benefit of new and powerful words such as median, mode, stand ard deviation, t-test and so forth. Unfor tunately, the mathematical approach of most courses quickly frightened off the student and he was left only with the terms and without an understanding of the rationale behind them. Mainland attempts to woo back these strayed or misinformed clinicians and re search workers by using a narrative form devoid of all mathematics except a little simple arithmetic. He does this by posing a series of questions in each of 10 chapters and answering them with style and good humor. Thus, for example, one quickly learns the difference between an experiment and a survey and why retrospective and prospective surveys are rarely useful. Only at Chapter XI does the author introduce the standard statistical techniques, and even here emphasis is on understanding rather than mechanical application. A most useful book that should certainly be read by all who prepare scientific papers for publication and may even be read with
Regarding the refraction of children, Hirsh states: "The patient's accommodation should be relaxed during skiametry measure ment. This may be accomplished either by instilling a cycloplegic in the eye (pharmaco logie method) or by having the patient fixate a distant object through plus lenses (physiologic method)." He claims to obtain results with the latter method similar to those obtained with cycloplegia. The performances of conscientious optometrists are evidently less expert as attested by the continual re ferral of such cases for cycloplegic exam ination. Wicks, after offering the consoling