The problematic history of randomised controlled trials Part 2: Hill’s ‘pragmatic’ view of randomisation and its origins

Schoolman HM. The clinician and the statistician. Stat Med 1982; 1: 311–316.

Medical Research Council. Streptomycin treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. BMJ 1948; 2: 769–782. See https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/medical-research-council-1948b/ (accessed 17 December 2025).

Booth CC . Clinical research. In: Bynum WF Porter R (editors) Companion Encyclopaedia of the History of Medicine. Vol 1. London: Routledge, 1993: 223.

Matthews JR. Quantification and the quest for medical certainty. Princeton: University Press, 1995.

Fisher RA. Statistical Methods for Research Workers Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1925.

Fisher RA. The design of experiments Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1935.

Chalmers I . Statistical theory was not the reason that randomization was used in the British Medical Research Council’s Clinical Trial of streptomycin for pulmonary tuberculosis. In: Jorland G Weisz G Opinel A (eds), Body Counts: Medical Quantification in Historical and Sociological Perspective. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2005: 309–334.

Neuhauser D Provost SM Provost LP. It is time to reconsider factorial designs: how Bradford Hill and RA Fisher shaped the standard of clinical evidence. Qual Manag Health Care 2020; 29: 109–122.

Hill AB. Principles of Medical Statistics. 1st ed. London: Lancet. See https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/hill-ab-1937b/ (1937) (accessed 17 December 2025).

Hill AB. Principles of Medical Statistics. 6th ed. London: Lancet, 1955.

Hill AB. Suspended judgment. Memories of the British Streptomycin Trial in Tuberculosis. Controll Clin Trials 1990; 11: 77–79.

Armitage P. Fisher, Bradford Hill, and randomization. Int J Epidemiol 2003; 32: 925–928.

Doll R . The role of data monitoring committees. In: Duley L Farrell B (eds) Clinical trials. London: BMJ Books, 2001: 97.

Doll R. Sir Austin Bradford Hill and the progress of medical science. BMJ 1992; 305: 1521–1526.

Wilkinson L. Sir Austin Bradford Hill: medical statistics and the quantitative approach to prevention of disease. Addiction 1997; 92: 657–666.

Hill AB . Some memories of ABH. Handwritten MS in Archive of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1988: 1–33.

Bodmer W. RA Fisher, statistician and geneticist extraordinary: a personal view. Int J Epidemiol 2003; 32: 938–942.

Armitage P. Obituary: Sir Austin Bradford Hill, 1897–1991. J R Stat Soc Ser A 1991; 154: 482–484.

Chalmers I. Fisher and Bradford Hill: theory and pragmatism? Int J Epidemiol 2003; 32: 922–924.

Yule GU. An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics. London: Charles Griffin. https://archive.org/details/yule-intro-stats/page/n9/mode/2up (1927, accessed 17 December 2025).

Sverdlov O Rosenberger WF. Randomization in clinical trials: can we eliminate bias? Clin Investig 2013; 3: 37–47.

Rosenberger WF Lachin JM. Randomization in Clinical Trials: Theory and Practice. Hoboken: John Wiley, 2015.

Lachin JM. Statistical properties of randomization in clinical trials. Controll Clin Trials 1988; 9: 289–311.

Vandenbroucke JP. A short note on the history of the randomised controlled trial. J Chron Dis 1987; 40: 985–987.

Senn S. Fisher’s game with the devil. Stat Med 1994; 13: 217–230.