512 POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTHLY. 



THE MAKING OF BIOLOGISTS. 



By Professor T. D. a. COCKERELL, 



EAST LAS VEGAS, N. MEX. 



TT is doubtless true that biologists are 'born' rather than 'made/ 

 *- but it is probably no less true that the)- may be and are nipped in 

 the bud in many instances by the frost of adverse circumstances. I 

 speak of the making of biologists by the same right and in the same 

 sense that the farmer speaks of raising crops, although as a matter of 

 fact the crops raise themselves by their own inherent vitality. Encour- 

 aged by a lively conviction that the infant mortality of biological talent 

 is much greater than is commonly supposed, I have sought to ascertain 

 the conditions which permitted the survival of so much as we actually 

 have, thinking that ways might be found to increase the crop. While 

 neither expecting nor desiring that every one should become a specialist 

 in biology, one may be pardoned for ardently wishing that the existing 

 native talent should be more fully utilized, in view of the innumerable 

 biological investigations lacking investigators. 



In the United States to-day there are about four hundred publishing 

 zoologists, exclusive of those whose writings are of little or no impor- 

 tance as contributing to the advancement of the science. The botanists 

 are probably about as numerous, but I have not yet attempted to cata- 

 logue them. Of the zoologists about 140 are enumerated in 'Who's 

 Who,' and these include most of those who have done any considerable 

 amount of work, although there are some surprising omissions, and a 

 few nearly as surprising inclusions. It would be a useful thing to pub- 

 lish at some future time a biographical index of all American biologists, 

 living or dead, who have really contributed to the subject. In the mean- 

 while I have extracted a good deal of interesting information from 

 'Who's Who,' and a few other sources. 



Starting with the idea that 'nature' counts for at least as much as 

 'nurture,' I looked for racial distinctions. Unfortunately it is impos- 

 sible to ascertain the exact influence of race upon the development of 

 talent, because those of different races are not subject to the same envi- 

 ronment. It is well understood that the Germans, as a people, are in- 

 clined to be scientific, and considering the enormous influx of Germans 

 into America, one would look for a large body of German-born biologists. 

 There are, indeed, many German amateurs ; but in our list of prominent 

 American biologists the German-born are less than half-a-dozen, the 

 best-known being Loeb, Ortmann and Eigenmann. Similarly, the Eng- 



