THE MAKING OF BIOLOGISTS. 513, 



lish-born are scarcely worth mentioning ; while Norway, Hungary, Switz- 

 erland and Canada have single representatives in Stejneger, Heilprin, 

 A. Agassiz and McMurrich. On the whole, the foreign-born element in 

 American biology is insignificant, and as it were accidental. 



Such facts as these make us doubt the validity of the opinion that 

 talent will always come to the front, whatever the conditions. Among 

 those who have immigrated from Germany and the British Islands there 

 must have been a larger number capable of biological research than the 

 figures show; but as a matter of fact the conditions surrounding these 

 people were not commonly favorable to scientific work. The same must 

 be true of the French immigrants who settled long ago in the south; 

 they have never yet shown anything like the scientific talent which their 

 origin would lead us to expect. 



Dr. G-. B. Halsted told me last year that he believed that about one 

 in two hundred persons in this country possessed some sort of mathemat- 

 ical genius. Being afterwards uncertain whether he meant university 

 students or the general population, I wrote to him and received the fol- 

 lowing interesting reply: 



One in two hundred university students has marked mathematical ability. 

 Of those who do not get to any university the percentage may be just as high, 

 since only race, and not caste, is necessary for this gift. A Hindoo has just 

 been senior wrangler at Cambridge, England; and Gauss was a bricklayer's 

 son. No one with a drop of African blood has ever given us a theorem in 

 mathematics. Shaler accounts for the stupidity of the Romans in mathematics 

 by supposing that the primitive basal race in Italy was from Africa. There 

 is a marked difference between ability in geometry and ability in arithmetic 

 and algebra. The Jews give us more great mathematicians than any other 

 race, but never a geometer. Geometry is hindered by a necessity for visualiza- 

 tion. Todhunter said with penetrating wisdom that the person who had to see 

 the relations definitely on a figure could not go on in the higher mathematics. 

 Non-Euclidean geometry, my subject, cannot be visualized. Calculating prodi- 

 gies are usually idiots, absolutely lacking in power of visualization. I enclose 

 you a long account of one such [Jacques Inaudi] which is very definite on this 

 point [i. e., the absence of visualization]. Most eminent mathematicians are 

 deficient as calculators, some do not know their multiplication table. ... I 

 have never in my life had to extract a root of a number. The thing which seems 

 most to foster mathematical ability is use in very early youth, strong stimula- 

 tion in early youth. (Litt., December 24, 1901.) 



With respect to the negro race unfavorable conditions may have had 

 more to do with unproductiveness than is supposed. The Tuskegee 

 Institute under Professor Booker T. Washington has lately obtained 

 the means of carrying on original research in science, and it will be ex- 

 tremely interesting to watch the results. I ventured to ask Professor 

 Washington whether he had observed any scientific talent among his 

 people, and he referred me to Dr. Eoscoe Conkling Bruce, who wrote 

 as follows on the subject of talented negroes : 



VOL. LXII. 33. 



