Abstract
The data in this study were obtained from 171 24-hour specimens of urine furnished by 57 university students, each of whom gave three such samples at intervals of about one week, and who did not control either their diet or their muscular activity. Every specimen of urine was analyzed for its content of phosphorus (inorganic and easily hydrolysable) and creatinine and its total titratable acidity (including the formol titration).
When any pair of the above determinations is plotted graphically, there is a marked tendency for the 2 to vary concomitantly from specimen to specimen, so that the values cluster about a straight line save for a few divergences. This tendency is best expressed in the statistical coefficient of correlation used in biometric and psychometric work. The coefficients of correlation between each of the three pairs of chemical determinations are given in the accompanying table under the head of “Total Correlation.” The size of the coefficients, together with the fact they are obtained upon as many as 171 samples, is such as to make them statistically significant and beyond any reasonable probability that they occurred by chance.
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