HISTORY OF FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF BIOSTATISTICS
HISTORY OF FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF BIOSTATISTICS

Summary/Abstract: The term “statistics” comes from the Latin word status, which first denoted a situation, a state of things. From this came the Italian word stato, which was first understood as a governed area or state, and later on as a practical policy, which consisted in the knowledge of Euro-European states. Those who possessed such knowledge were called statista, which meant a statesman, an expert on the state. In the XVII century, statista, goes into German and Latin with the same name. Later, in the second half of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century, the adjective statisticus comes from this word, which was included in the name of the new discipline. For the first time this word was introduced as a scientific term by Hermann Conring in his lectures on “Notitia rerum publica publicarum”. As the term was first used by G. Achenvall in 1743 in the work "Notitia politica vulgo statistica". Statistics at that time was understood as the totality of knowledge about the state structure necessary for a government official . Thus, the term “statistics”, formed for the first time at German universities, gradually found its practical application, became commonly used and gained universal recognition and distribution.

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