Re: classic milk experiment

J E H Shaw (strgh@csv.warwick.ac.uk)
Fri, 22 Jul 94 09:25:37 EDT

In article <9407210117.AA10479@cc-server4.massey.ac.nz>,
B.McDonald@massey.ac.nz writes:
>Hi!
>Could somebody please give me a reference for the following story.
>
>I remember hearing of a classic experiment on the efficacy of giving milk
>to school pupils, in order to improve their general health. My recall of
>the facts is sketchy, but I believe a number of schools (in England??)
Scotland, laddie!!
>participated in a trial where half the pupils in a class were allocated
>milk to drink and half were not.
>
I'm posting rather than e-mailing, since it is a classic example.

Quoting from
"Student" (1931), "The Lanarkshire milk experiment", Biometrika 23:398-406

[via D.G.Altman (1980), "Statistics and Ethics in medical research:
collecting and screening data", British Medical Journal 281:1399-1401]

"In the Spring of 1930 a nutritional experiment on a very
large scale was carried out in the schools of Lanarkshire.
For four months 10 000 schoolchildren received three-quarters
of a pint of milk per day; 5000 of these got raw milk
and 5000 pasteurised milk; another 10 000 children were
selected as controls, and the whole 20 000 children were
weighed and their height was measured at the beginning
and end of the experiment."

Altman points out two (interconnected) problems
(1) teachers having "juggled the randomisation",
(2) "poorer children wearing relatively fewer clothes in winter".

-- Ewart Shaw

--
J.E.H.Shaw,  Department of Statistics,  |  JANET:  strgh@uk.ac.warwick
             University of Warwick,     |  BITNET: strgh%uk.ac.warwick@UKACRL
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An ex-algebraist who lost his ideals, his associates, and finally his identity