88 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and said that thei'e is some danger lest 

 too great cooperation might lead to 

 subordination. Professor Miinsterberg, 

 of Harvard University, argued that the 

 equipment for research in America is 

 ample, the difficulty is in the lack of 

 the right men. Americans are par- 

 ticularly well suited to research work, 

 but the ablest students tend to follow 

 law or business, where the rewards 

 are greater. Endowments can accom- 

 plish the most by creating great pre- 

 miums, as by establishing an ' over- 

 university,' where the masters of re- 

 search chosen by their peers would be 

 brought together for work transcend- 

 ing the possibilities under existing con- 

 ditions. The giving of subsidies to in- 

 dividual men of science and to existing 

 institutions is a system of charity that 

 will in the end weaken research. 



The address of the president. Pro- 

 fessor Cattell, of Columbia University, 

 was on the natural history of men of 

 science. He gave the following table, 

 showing the number of American men 

 of science and their distribution among 

 the sciences by different agencies : 



RACE SENESCENCE. 

 The article on * The Decrease in the 

 Size of American Families,' contributed 

 by Professor Thorndike to the ])r('seiit 

 number of the ^Monthly, is one of the 

 first attempts to solve by scientific 

 methods a scientific problem of tiie 



! first magnitude. Incidental remarks by 

 persons high in authority have led to 

 numerous newspaper comments, serious 

 and otherwise, on the failure of col- 

 lege graduates to reproduce themselves, 

 and ' race suicide ' has become a cur- 

 ] rent term. The question of the de- 

 I creasing birth rate has, however, for 

 some years been a subject of discussion 

 by French economists, and it has been 

 recognized that the conditions in New 

 England are similar. Indeed, nearly 

 every countrv shows a decreasing birth 

 rate, though only France and New 

 England have a native population that 

 is actually decreasing, destined, if 

 present conditions continue, to be ex- 

 terminated. 



Attention has been attracted to the 

 subject in France by economic condi- 

 tions — the failure to maintain a popu- 

 lation equal to that of Germany and 

 Great Britain, the lack of young men 

 for the army and the like — and eco- 

 nomic and social causes have been as- 

 signed for the small families. The chief 

 cause is said to be the method of divi- 

 ding property among the children. The 

 French peasant is a landowner, and if 

 his property is to be maintained in- 

 tact, he must have but one son, and 

 can not aflFord to give the necessary 



Other 

 the increase of 

 luxury, high taxation, the crowding 

 into cities, immorality, alcoholism, etc. 

 It is nearly always assumed that the 

 families are small because the parents 

 wish to have tliem small, and tlie 

 remedies proposed, such as exemption 

 from taxation or the payment of boun- 

 ties in the case of larger families, are 

 based on this supposition. But facts 

 are lacking. For example, if volun- 

 tary restraint due to the economic con- 

 ditions usually alleged is the cause, and 

 the French family wishes to have one 

 son and not more, then Avhen there is 

 but i\ single child (as is the case in 

 one fourth of all families), it would be 

 more often a boy than a girl; the most 

 (•oiiiiiKiii familv of two would be a 



dot to more than one daughter 

 causes are also alleged 



