It is scarcely necessary in a Society such as this to prepare any defence of the practice of collecting statistics although we know that among those whose profession does not involve the use of figures, statistical tables are regarded with a certain amount of suspicion.

If I were in need of any apology for upholding the need for systematic collection and analysis of data I should refer my questioner to page 83 of the Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance where he would find a strongly expressed opinion in favour thereof.

I wish to make it quite clear that in the remarks which follow there is no mention of modern statistical methods of the Karl Pearson type. It occurred to me, however, that a short description of some of the processes employed in dealing with the masses of figures involved in the operations of large Approved Societies might be of interest.