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Study of the natural immunity reactions of animal sera with reference to nutritional variation, including a statistical survey of the results

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AndersonEJM_1932redux.pdf (24.34Mb)
Date
1932
Author
Anderson, Eleanor J. M.
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Abstract
 
 
In the foregoing parts of this thesis the results of the work done have been considered from two different standpoints, first as they appeared to the observer without statistical analysis and secondly after critical statistical methods has been applied to them. Some of the differences which appeared on first inspection to be significant were not confirmed by the later statistical analysis. It has been shown that among sheep there are individual variations of considerable magnitude as well as day -to -day variations depending on unknown factors beyond experimental control. In fact, many of the difference; which at first sight appeared to be correlated with diet or season were found to be explicable as due to the random operation of these individual and day -today variations. The aim of the statistical analysis has, therefore, been to allow for these two factors and to discover the differences due to other causes. The discussion is, therefore, limited to those results which have been found to be "statistically significant".
 
"Statistically significant" has been defined to dean that a result equally or more discrepant would be expected to occur less than once in twenty times as the result of chance. It is, therefore, to be expected that a result of this type would appear occasionally in the course of a large series of observa:tions even although there was no real heterogeneity. In consequence it is desirable not to lay too much stress on borderline cases especially if they seem to be merely isolated occurrences. On the other hand, where a number of observations each of which is statistically significant, appear to converge to a general conclusion, such a conclusion way be put forward with more confidence. It may be added that,. of course, even an isolated result with a P as low as, say, 0.001, would be given considerable weight but it will be found that values of P as low as this have been encountered only occasionally in the present investigation.
 
In conclusion,it must be clearly recognised that, while evidence has been elicited that dietary deficiencies affect the natural immunity mechanism, at the present stage no statement can be made regarding the relative importance of individual dietary factors. The work done, however, constitutes a step towards further study of this important question.
 
These experiments in sheep, however, require to be followed up now by observations in small animals in which susceptibility to infection can be tested by direct methods.
 
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26097
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