A major source of “mercury poisoning” comes from the ingestion of methylmercury (CH²⁰³₃), which is found in contaminated fish. Among the questions pursued by medical investigators trying to understand the nature of this particular health problem is whether methylmercury is equally hazardous to men and women. The following (114) are the half-lives of ethylmercury in the systems of six women and nine men who volunteered for a study where each subject was given an oral administration of CH²⁰³₃. Is there evidence here that women metabolize methylmercury at a different rate than men do? Do an appropriate two-sample t test at the α= 0.01 level of significance. The two sample standard deviations for these data are s_X=15.1 and s_Y=8.1.

Methyl mercury CH²⁰³ Females, x_i Half-Lives (in Days) Males, yⁱ