Say it with Figures. by Hans ZeiselReview by: Gregor SebbaJournal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 44, No. 246 (Jun., 1949), pp. 332-333Published by: American Statistical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2280617 .

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332 AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL, JUNE 1949

items of each column are included. Tests for local randomness based upon sums, sums of squares, ranges, and sign runs, were applied to each page (500 items), to blocks of 5,000 items, and to the entire set. The results were in accord with the hypothesis of normality. Subsets yielding unusual test results are listed for the benefit of users of small sets from the table. For clarity, in line 2, page vii, substitute ".0100 and .9900" for "O and 1,,.

Textual material accompanying the tables is clearly and concisely written. The author presents illustrated techniques for the construction of univariate, bivariate, and multivariate normal distributions, with specified underlying parameters. The material presented on the construction of a multivariate normal distribution is of particular value as a reference. This booklet will be a useful addition to the libraries of statisticians and statistical organizations requiring sizeable quantities of random normal deviates for research or edu- cational purposes.

Say It With Figures. Hans Zeisel (McCann-Erickson, New York City). New York 16: Harper & Brothers (383 Madison Ave.), 1947. Pp. xix, 250. $3.00.

REVIEW BY GREGOR SEBBA Professor of Economics, The University of Georgia

Athens, Georgia T HE CALAMITY that recently befell the public opinion polls points up the

fact that the development of statistical methodology and techniques has by far outpaced the analysis of what Professor Paul F. Lazarsfeld, in his introduction to Hans Zeisel's book Say It With Figures aptly terms "the conceptional meaning of statistical procedures." Since Albert B. Blankenship reviewed the book in this JOURNAL (42: 666-7 D '47) from the point of view of commercial research only, it seems appropriate to discuss briefly its con- tribution to conceptual analysis and its usefulness to teachers of statistics.

Zeisel's book deals with three broad subjects: "Problems of Classification" (Part I), "Means of Numerical Presentation" (Part II) and "Tools of Causal Analysis" (Part III). Part I is primarily meant for users of the ques- tionnaire and interview methods; Zeisel's discussion of "Don't know" answers (which can easily be adapted to "Undecided" answers) is partic- ularly illuminating when applied to political opinion polls. But it is Parts II and III upon which the importance of the book rests. Among the "Means of Numerical Presentation," Dr. Zeisel singles out percentages and simple indices for a penetrating analysis of their logic. The use of per cent figures is not generally advisable but needs "specific justification" and can be decided upon "only with a complete background of concrete data and specific circum- stances" (p. 72). Their use for comparing increase or decrease in two or more populations, in particular, is logically justified only if the change is (or is treated as being) "in exact proportion to the factors chosen as a base for per cent computation" (p. 80). It thus turns out that per cent comparisons

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BOOK REVIEWS 333 "offer only approximate solutions" since they merely discount "a priori the effects of concomitant variates" (R. A. Fisher); hence their use for compari- son "will be justified [only] to the extent to which this a priori reasoning proves correct" (p. 81). In a two-dimensional table, per cents should be run in the direction of the variable to be studied for its effect, provided the sample is representative in this direction; if it is not, proper weighting be- comes necessary (pp. 105-6). Of particular interest is Zeisel's subsequent study of the problem of reducing three- and more-dimensional tables (chap. 6), a problem arising because "only tables containing two variables can be presented in their entirety and still be clearly readable" (p. 127). There fol- lows an illuminating discussion of simple indices of the type developed in sociometrics, leading up to the warning that "there is a certain danger that somewhere along the way from a clearly defined object to its mathematical symbols, the clarity of thought is lost; indices sometimes pretend to measure a concept which . .. turns out to be ambiguous and, therefore, not measur- able. Neither a descriptive label nor an impressive mathematical formula are a safeguard against . . . indices which do not tneasure what they purport to measure" (p. 166).

Part III, "Tools of Causal Analysis," contains a superior treatment of cross-tabulation as a tool of research. Cross-tabulation "refines" and "ex- plains"-though the explanation may turn out to be spurious; the distinction between "true" and "spurious" inter-variable correlation depending on whether or not the correlation reflects a direct causal connection, i.e., whether the explaining factor is asymmetrically or symmetrically connected with the two variables (p. 202). Answering the question when to cross- tabulate, the author sets down the rule that if a result is analyzed succes- sively by various breakdowns and it is known or suspected that some of them are interrelated, then these interrelated breakdowns should be tabulated, not successively, but simultaneously (p. 203). A critical discussion of the panel technique of interviewing concludes the book.

Dr. Zeisel's study represents a step forward on the road indicated by such classical earlier treatises as Zizek's study of averages (1913), Winkler's monograph on relatives (1923) and Haberler's analysis of index numbers (1927). The book might be termed an essay in the logic of statistics pro- cedures. The teacher of elementary and applied statistics will find in it use- ful numerical examples and charts of great forcefulness; and while much of the author's discussion is too refined for beginners, there remains enough to enable the teacher to go through the initial chapters of an elementary text without putting the students (and himself) to sleep.

Although Professor Lazarsfeld claims that "some of the inevitable errata" have been corrected in the 1948 printing, others seem to have passed un- noticed; among them an ugly blemish: in Table X-19 (pp. 240-2), there occur three questions and answers of the form: "If Hitler offered peace now .. ., would you favor or oppose such a peace?" Answer: "Yes."

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