Tabular Procedure: Theory and History. Part III. Development and Initiation of Tabular Procedure

Abstract

The paper deals with historical aspects of initialization and development of tabular procedure on the basis of literature review. The article consists of three parts, each being devoted to a certain period of development and application of tabular procedure in statistics science.

It is mentioned that the idea of tabular procedure as an essential method of generalization and analysis is belonged to English philosopher Francis Bacon. He was the first to assume in his work The Novum Organum (published in 1620) that tables provided the opportunity for mind to reveal the essence of phenomenon and subjects, discover causal links between phenomena.

The paper emphasizes that the background of tabular procedure in statistics, from the perspective of modern understanding, was given in the works of founders of political arithmetic and their followers. They were the first to establish drawing up tables for systematizing of statistical data and setting them in the most suitable and clear form, and to use applied tables for calculating general statistical characteristics, namely, relative and average indexes.

A detailed review is given of the contributions of Russian academic statistics (Yu. E. Yanson, O. I. Chuprov, L. V. Fedorovich, L. V. Hodskiy) and Zemstvo (elected body of local self-governance) statistics in development and application of tabular procedure. It is mentioned that Zemstvo statistics discovered combinational statistical tables, devised the methodology for making up group and combinational tables and their application in statistics studies. The attention is paid to the scientific contribution of O. A. Kaufman, a famous Russian statistician, who was the first to propose a scientific definition of statistic table and to lay the background classification of statistical tables, which nowadays is used widely in statistic science.

Following the analysis of advantages and disadvantages of the classification of statistical tables, found in the literature, a new classification is provided by the author.