To qualify a consultation as ideal is to deny its empirical meaning. The ‘Ideal Consultation’ is not a consultation. It is a working-together, a voluntary meeting of minds and union of energies whose prime aim is to seek a ‘truth’. In such meetings both parties are familiar with each other's basic language. The biologist has had a few courses in basic statistics and thus recognises statistics as a unique and valuable discipline. The statistician has also done his homework and has familiarised himself with the names and the relationships of the fauna in the experimenter's jungle. Since knowledge and understanding breed sympathy and respect, the researcher esteems the statistician as an expert representative of this most important science. His appreciation for the statistician's unique contributions grows by leaps and bounds with the experience of his individual talents. Needless to say, the feeling is mutual. Meetings are stimulating; they are productive in thought and in product. The work forms a gestalt (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts). The research poses challenging statistical problems that are fun to work at: the sort of thing that keeps one busy at a scratch pad during supper while the wife silently suffers (or throws a fit). […]