DE CANDOLLE ON MEN OF SCIENCE. 37 



sedentary clergy, whose ecclesiastical duties were light. The number 

 of clergy of this class has been greatly reduced since the French Revo- 

 lution ; and the bishops and parish priests of to-day have no time for 

 science. The increasing specialization of scientific work is also seen 

 in the separation, in natural history, between collectors and describers, 

 and between those who make applications of science and those who 

 work at original research ; and a separation is growing up between 

 teaching and purely scientific work. Dividing society into three 

 classes the aristocratic, the middle class, and the workers the for- 

 mer appears to be most fruitful in proportion to its numbers in the 

 development of scientific excellence ; but the list of Frenchmen in the 

 present century appears to show an inclination in favor of the middle 

 and working classes. By the force of circumstances a life of research 

 is one of abnegation, which can hardly be recommended to those who 

 have no worldly goods ; and the conferring of scholarships and fellow- 

 ships upon poor students can hardly change the conditions to any great 

 extent. It may result in making well-informed men and teachers, but 

 many other circumstances and influences than a university education 

 must concur to induce a young man to devote himself to investigation, 

 to the discovery of truths, and the publication of his results. These 

 come next under review. 



The appearance on the Academy lists in several instances of the 

 names of father and son or of members of the same family, and in nu- 

 merous instances of persons whose fathers had made a good record in 

 professional or scholastic life, suggests heredity ; but it is not safe to 

 build too much on the suggestion at least not in its application to 

 the specific talent. There are other factors than heredity in the fam- 

 ily life of professional and scientific men to direct the attention of 

 the children toward kindred pursuits to those of the father. Heredity 

 has a considerable effect, but it consists chiefly in the transmission of 

 tastes and faculties that are useful in such pursuits, rather than of su- 

 perior aptitudes for particular branches. Further than this, it does not 

 operate directly, except perhaps in the case of the mathematical sci- 

 ences. The power of family influences under the direction of scholarly 

 fathers to cultivate such tastes in youth is shown in the large propor- 

 tion of the names of sons of Protestant pastors on the scientific rolls. 

 The occupations of physicians and pharmacists are more directly scien- 

 tific than that of the pastor, but the number of sons of members of 

 those professions on the lists is much inferior to that of sons of pastors. 

 The difference is ascribed to the more quiet and intimate life of the 

 pastoral home, and to the direct and constant supervision which is ex- 

 ercised by the pastor over the training of his sons. Switzerland fur- 

 nishes more instances than any other country of members of the same 

 family on the academical lists. This is because Swiss youth, particu- 

 larly the sons of pastors, pursue their studies at home, living in their 

 own families, while in France and Italy they are taken away from 



