QUETELET, L A J. Anthropométrie Ou Mesure Des Différentes Facultés De L'Homme.

Quetelet, Lambert Adolphe Jacques. 479 pp., (2) folded plates. Sunned spine. Front edges uncut. Beginning and end somewhat foxed. Some underlining with pencil occurs. Physique sociale ou essai sur le developpement des facultés de l'homme (1869)]

"Quetelet established the basis for mathematical study of anthropological data. 'Quetelet showed that if a series of anthropological measurements of either physical or intellectual qualities were plotted on squared paper, allowing x to be the measurements and y to be their frequency, they formed a curve like that representing the expansion of the binomial, or like that formed by plotting the errors of a great number of observers' (Penniman, p. 105). By applying the mathematics of the Gaussian curve to anthropological data, it became possible to plot the average or 'standard' deviation from the statistical average, and thus to interpret anthropological data with greater exactness" (Norman 1771)".