Arthur Black (1851–1893) was an English mathematician. He killed himself and his wife and son. His daughter survived.
He was the eldest son of David Black of Brighton, a solicitor and coroner, and brother to Clementina Black, the social reformer and author Constance Garnett and Grace Human. [1] He became a student of William Clifford at University College London. [2] He was in a business partnership with the lawyer Robert Singleton Garnett, elder brother to Edward Garnett. [3] [4] In 1893 he killed his wife, son and himself. [5] His daughter Gertrude Speedwell Black (1887–1963) survived, and married H. J. Massingham. [6] [7]
Black's work remained unpublished at the time of his suicide. Micaiah John Muller Hill saw to the publication of a paper on a general Gaussian integral. [8] Notebooks survive, including attempts to formulate a quantitative theory of evolution; they also contain a derivation of the chi-squared distribution. [2] [9] A long manuscript, Algebra of Animal Evolution, was sent to Karl Pearson, who then transmitted it to Francis Galton; it is now lost. [9] Pearson and Walter Frank Raphael Weldon thought highly of the work, but Galton had reservations. [10]
Arthur Black (1851–1893) was an English mathematician. He killed himself and his wife and son. His daughter survived.
He was the eldest son of David Black of Brighton, a solicitor and coroner, and brother to Clementina Black, the social reformer and author Constance Garnett and Grace Human. [1] He became a student of William Clifford at University College London. [2] He was in a business partnership with the lawyer Robert Singleton Garnett, elder brother to Edward Garnett. [3] [4] In 1893 he killed his wife, son and himself. [5] His daughter Gertrude Speedwell Black (1887–1963) survived, and married H. J. Massingham. [6] [7]
Black's work remained unpublished at the time of his suicide. Micaiah John Muller Hill saw to the publication of a paper on a general Gaussian integral. [8] Notebooks survive, including attempts to formulate a quantitative theory of evolution; they also contain a derivation of the chi-squared distribution. [2] [9] A long manuscript, Algebra of Animal Evolution, was sent to Karl Pearson, who then transmitted it to Francis Galton; it is now lost. [9] Pearson and Walter Frank Raphael Weldon thought highly of the work, but Galton had reservations. [10]