Page:Logic of Chance (1888).djvu/53



§ 1. the course of the last chapter the nature of a particular kind of series, that namely, which must be considered to constitute the basis of the science of Probability, has received a sufficiently general explanation for the preliminary purpose of introduction. One might indeed say more than this; for the characteristics which were there pointed out are really sufficient in themselves to give a fair general idea of the nature of Probability, and of the sort of problems with which it deals. But in the concluding paragraphs an indication was given that the series of this kind, as they actually occur in nature or as the results of more or less artificial production, are seldom or never found to occur in such a simple form as might possibly be expected from what had previously been said; but that they are almost always seen to be associated together in groups after a somewhat complicated fashion. A fuller discussion of this topic must now be undertaken.

We will take for examination an instance of a kind with which the investigations of Quetelet will have served to familiarize some readers. Suppose that we measure the heights of a great many adult men in any town or country. These heights will of course lie between certain extremes in