THE EXACT VALUE OF THE MOMENTS OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF x2 USED AS A TEST OF GOODNESS OF FIT, WHEN EXPECTATIONS ARE SMALL

Abstract

IN genetical practice we are constantly presented with large numbers of small samples from populations consisting of several well-defined classes. For example in the mouse we can readily obtain hundreds of litters containing anything from one up to about twelve members. Their totals may agree satisfactorily with expectation on a Mendelian basis, for example J coloured, i white, or 9 grey, H black, i white. But we desire to know whether the individual litters can be regarded as random samples from such a population. In addition the problem of homogeneity may arise. That is to say the population as a whole may not conform to any particular expectation. But we may desire to know whether the litters can be regarded as random samples of the population given by the totals. It has long been known that when the numbers expected in any observation are small, the distribution of x2 departs from that given by Pearson (1900). The mean appears sometimes, but not always, to be equal to the number of degrees of freedom. But the variance is no longer exactly equal to twice that number. Exact expressions for it in certain cases have been given by Pearson (1932) and Cochran (1936). These are based on an ingenious application of the theory of multiple contingency by Pearson. It will be shown in this paper that the first few moments can often be calculated by entirely elementary methods involving nothing more advanced than the multinomial theorem. In an accompanying paper (Griineberg and Haldane, 1937) they will be applied to actual data on mice. We first study the distribution of x2 in a n-fold table with n 1 degrees of freedom, then in a (m x n)-fold table with m (n-i) degrees of freedom. For genetical work we are particularly interested in the (n x 2)-fold table with n degrees of freedom. As a limiting case of the 2-fold table with 1 degree of freedom we derive the moments of the variance of samples from a Poisson series, and thence the distribution of x2 in a n-fold table with n degrees of freedom. The important case of the (m x n)-fold table with (m 1) (n 1) degrees of freedom remains to be investigated. Consider a sample of 8 individuals falling into n classes. Let the expected and observed numbers in these classes be: