Day 45

The problem of evolution is a problem in statistics ... we must turn to the mathematics of large numbers, to the theory of mass phenomena, to interpret safely our observations ... The characteristic bent of C. Darwin’s mind led him to establish the theory of descent without mathematical conceptions; even so Faraday’s mind worked in the case of electromagnetism. But as every idea of Faraday allows of mathematical definition, and demands mathematical analysis ..., so every idea of Darwin—variation, natural selection... —seems at once to fit itself to mathematical definition and to demand statistical analysis.
Editorial in Biometrika (1901). Quoted by John D. Barrow in ‘Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation’ (Vintage Books, London, 1992) p. 121.