On the history of medical statistics (Q1168958)

After some remarks on the first stage of statistical and numerical methods, the applications of statistical methods to public hygiene, surgery, epidemiology, and to meteorology and medicine are discussed, obstetrics are not mentioned. Two papers of the astronomer and mathematician \textit{P. L. Seidel} (1821--1896) [Z. Biol. 1, 221--236 (1865), 2, 145--177 (1866)] are discussed, where he estimates quantitatively the correlative relation between two and three variables (the level of subsoil water, the precipitation and the number of fever cases). They also contain a straightforward example of rank correlation. Both papers are not mentioned in bibliographic sources. 151 lit.