The results of an anthropological investigation of the external ear / by Arthur Keith.

  • Keith, Arthur, Sir, 1866-1955.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The results of an anthropological investigation of the external ear / by Arthur Keith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the result, as far as the end I had in view, would have been more valuable. The chief gain I derived from it was this : it brought me face to face, in a more extensive manner than happens to most in- quirers, with the method of statistical inquiry and showed me how far that manner of inquiry is likely to help us in settling racial affini- ties. It brought home to me the fact that the statistical method is one which raises rather than answers questions ; it produces data but it cannot explain them. The second lesson my inquiry taught me, and one which I mean to apply to every piece of work of this kind I may undertake, is that any statistical inquiry to be of value must be made on structures whose function and significance are completely understood, and the measure of whose function can be accurately represented by the data recorded. That is to say, my inquiry ended at the point where it should have commenced, namely, in a complete investigation by physiological and comparative methods, into the meaning and use of each part of the outer ear. It would have been a matter of the greatest satisfaction could I have brought before you a piece of work which was more worthy of our University, and a better acknowledgment of the debt which I, in common with thousands of men of the North of Scotland, owe her. These 400 years she has provided her graduates with the means of joining the ranks of those who, all the world over, seek to keep natural knowledge not only living but also growing.