ABSTRACT
Any assessment of the impact of Fisher's arrival on the statistical battlefield has to recognize that his forces did not really seek to destroy totally Pearson's work or its raison d’être. The controversy between Yule and Pearson, discussed earlier, had a philosophical, not to say ideological, basis. If, at the height of the conflict, one or other side had “won,” then it is likely that the techniques advocated by the vanquished would have been discarded and forgotten. Fisher's war was more territorial. The empire of observation and correlation had to be taken over by the manipulations of experimenters. Although he would never have openly admitted it – indeed, he continued to attack Pearson and his works to the very end of his life (which came 26 years after the end of Pearson's) – the paradigms and procedures he developed did indeed incorporate and improve on the techniques developed at Gower Street. The chi-square controversy was not a dispute about the utility of the test or its essential rationale, but a bitter disagreement over the efficiency and method of its application. For a number of reasons, which have been discussed, Fisher's views prevailed. He was right.
