Variation in the Rate of Infant Mortality in the United States Birth Registration Area
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The Movements and Reactions of Fresh-Water Planarians: A Study in Animal Behaviour
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Diseases of Poultry; Their Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
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The Nation's Food; A Statistical Study of a Physiological and Social Problem
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Raymond Pearl was an American biologist and statistician.
Background
Raymond Pearl was born on June 3, 1879 in Farmington, Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. He was the only child of Frank and Ida May (McDuffee) Pearl. He was quietly proud of his long American heritage, dating from the seventeenth century, and on occasion would refer to himself as a member of "the codfish aristocracy" and "a north of Boston man. " His father kept a grocery store, worked as a foreman in local shoe factories, and in his spare time directed choirs in the town churches.
Education
After grammar and high school (in Farmington and nearby Rochester, New Hampshire) young Raymond Pearl entered Dartmouth College at the age of sixteen, intent on studying the classics. A required course in biology, however, changed his plans. Almost immediately upon exposure to this science he decided to devote his life to it and began his studies with an enthusiasm which never left him. Upon graduation from Dartmouth (A. B. , 1899) Pearl enrolled at the University of Michigan for advanced study in zoology. In 1902 he was awarded the doctorate for an investigation of the behavior of a small flatworm (Planaria). He received an honorary degrees from the University of Maine, Dartmouth, and St. John's College.
Career
Raymond Pearl remained at Michigan as instructor in zoology until 1905. Pearl early sensed the need for statistical methods in biology ("biometry"). To further his own training he arranged, quite characteristically, for a year's study (1905 - 1906) with Karl Pearson, the celebrated English statistician of University College, London. This experience had a momentous impact on Pearl and molded his scientific outlook in a way which persisted throughout his career, an outlook emphasizing the genetic and environmental attributes of groups in contradistinction to individuals. Although Pearl was never really creative in statistics per se, he played the part of pioneer and played it well, demonstrating through writing, teaching, and frank propaganda the power of this method for biology and medicine.
Returning to America in 1906, Raymond Pearl spent one year at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1907 he was called to the University of Maine as head of biology in the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. He remained at Maine for eleven years, working largely on problems dealing with genetics and variation of domestic animals. In 1918 he went to the Johns Hopkins University, where he remained for the rest of his life. At Hopkins he held a variety of appointments; for example, he was for a time both professor of biometry in the newly organized School of Hygiene and Public Health and statistician of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. At the time of his death he was professor of biology. As a classroom lecturer Pearl left much to be desired. But in the best sense of the word he was a great teacher, capable of finding a spark in a young person, receptive to diverse ideas if seriously proposed, critical yet helpful. He left an indelible mark on those who were fortunate enough to work with him for a sufficient period of time. Pearl's prodigious record of publication merits special comment.
Between 1900 and 1941 there appeared in print over 700 titles, of which at least fifteen were books. The material was not limited to scholarly and technical journals; he contributed on occasion to literary magazines, to popular magazines, to encyclopedias, and to New York and Baltimore newspapers. With his remarkable vocabulary, he wrote a delightful prose. Many of his ideas (and sometimes his facts) were challenged, and not infrequently he came out second best. But his publications were invariably provocative and never dull or pedestrian. He could be a severe and fearless critic both in print and in debate, frequently characterizing himself, rather proudly, as "a hard-boiled realist. " Such attitudes endeared him to some but antagonized others.
Raymond Pearl was much interested also in the general problems of scientific publication, and in addition to serving on the editorial boards of numerous journals he founded two excellent periodicals, the Quarterly Review of Biology in 1926 and Human Biology in 1929. Pearl died of a coronary thrombosis while on a trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania on November 17, 1940. There were no services, and his body was cremated.
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Membership
Raymond Pearl was a member of National Academy of Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Personality
Raymond Pearl's mind was inquisitive and aggressive, a mind that explored, always imaginatively if not always prudently, virtually every domain of biology. He was a voracious and catholic reader with an incredible capacity to remember what he had read.
Interests
Raymond Pearl was fascinated by music, both structurally and emotionally, and regularly found relaxation in playing the French horn in an amateur group composed of a few close friends. He was widely, and sensitively, traveled. Raymond Pearle was an appreciative connoisseur of food and vintage wines; and, perhaps above all, he was devoted to good conversation, in which he usually played the dominant role.
Connections
Raymond Pearl married Maud Mary DeWitt on June 29, 1903, while both were at the University of Michigan. They had two daughters, Ruth DeWitt and Penelope Mackey. For many years Mrs. Pearl actively assisted her husband in his laboratory, especially with editorial problems, and at frequent social occasions in their modest Baltimore frame house she quietly acted as hostess while he regaled his guests with good talk and good provender.