[R] crimtab related question

[Jean lobry]

Dear all,

the dataset documented under ?crimtab was also used in:

@article{TreloarAE1934,
     title = {The adequacy of "{S}tudent's" criterion of
              deviations in small sample means},
     author = {Treloar, A.E. and Wilder, M.A.},
     journal = {The Annals of Mathematical Statistics},
     volume = {5},
     pages = {324-341},
     year = {1934}
}

The following is from page 335 of the above paper:

"From the table provided by MacDonell (1902) on
the associated variation of stature (to the nearest inch)
and length of the left middle finger (to the nearest
millimeter) in 3000 British criminals, the measusurements
were transferred to 3000 numbered Denison metal-rim
tags from which the cords has been removed. After
thorough checking and mixing of these circular disks,
samples of 5 tags each were drawn at random until the
supply was exhausted. Unfortunately, three of these
samples were erroneously returned to a receiving box
before being copied, and the records of 597 samples only
are available."

Could someone give me a clue about the kind of device
that was used here? Is it a kind of lottery machine?
I don't understand why three samples were lost. What
is this "receiving box"?

Thanks for any hint,

Best,
-- 
Jean R. Lobry            (lobry at biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr)
Laboratoire BBE-CNRS-UMR-5558, Univ. C. Bernard - LYON I,
43 Bd 11/11/1918, F-69622 VILLEURBANNE CEDEX, FRANCE
allo  : +33 472 43 27 56     fax    : +33 472 43 13 88
http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/members/lobry/