Kendall and Stuart have a footnote attributing the term to Galton
however there is no reference
Rich Ulrich wrote:
>
> On 13 Apr 2000 20:34:14 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Herman
> Rubin) wrote, concerning the name of the "normal distribution" :
>
> >
> > I believe that the term was at least popularized, if not
> > originated, by Quetelet, who called it the distribution of
> > the "normal person".
>
> Stephen Stigler, in his fine history, gives many pages to Quetelet and
> his fascination with the "average man" and those descriptive curves.
> However, in a footnote on page 201 (1986 edition) Stigler says that Q.
> did not use the term "normal".
>
> A footnote on page 143, concerning the name of the normal, refers the
> reader to Stigler article of 1980, which happens to discuss the normal
> distribution as a particular example, in an light-hearted piece on
> eponyms. (That article, which I just read, proclaims Stigler's Law of
> Eponyms, which is -- No law is ever named after the person who first
> discovered or discussed it. Stigler goes on to observe that, more
> often than not, the famous person had very little to do with that
> particular observation.)
>
> Until someone has another reference, I think the question is still
> open....
>
> --
> Rich Ulrich, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html
>
> ===========================================================================
> This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, less thoughtful
> people send inappropriate messages. Please DO NOT COMPLAIN TO
> THE POSTMASTER about these messages because the postmaster has no
> way of controlling them, and excessive complaints will result in
> termination of the list.
>
> For information about this list, including information about the
> problem of inappropriate messages and information about how to
> unsubscribe, please see the web page at
> http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
> ===========================================================================
===========================================================================
This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, less thoughtful
people send inappropriate messages. Please DO NOT COMPLAIN TO
THE POSTMASTER about these messages because the postmaster has no
way of controlling them, and excessive complaints will result in
termination of the list.
For information about this list, including information about the
problem of inappropriate messages and information about how to
unsubscribe, please see the web page at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
===========================================================================
