A STUDY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY SUCCESS. 251 



abroad in connection with the home training, though this fact is not 

 shown in the figure, nor is another fact of interest, namely, that they 

 have made the most rapid improvements in their intellectual equip- 

 ment as shown by a study by decades for the last sixty years. We have, 

 however, no data upon which to base a comparison of the 'rank' with 

 the 'file.' 



For the physicians we can only rely once more upon the Commis- 

 sioner of Education. He states that 7.5 per cent, of the medical 

 students of the country have taken the academic degree. Yet we find — 

 mirabile dictu — that 42 per cent, of the 'Who's Who' physicians have 

 been recipients of that degree. Nearly six times as many of the 'rank' 

 as of the 'file' (see Fig. 6). It seems hardly probable that the college 

 training can be at such a premium in the actual practice of the medical 

 man, so it seems to me we must conclude that it is as a scientist and 

 a producer that such a training counts for most. The scientific societies 

 of the physician undoubtedly stimulate more of their members to 

 original research and investigation, and consequently to a greater 

 productiveness, than do similar organizations among clergymen and 

 lawyers, and it is here that the broader training would count for most. 

 We must, in any event, from the facts disclosed by our study, conclude 

 that of the three generally recognized learned professions, the medical 

 leads in the breadth and perfection of its educational preparation. 



A study of the education of women, based upon Fig. 5, is dis- 

 appointing, and from it we are forced to one of two conclusions : either 

 (1) that women can attain an eminence equal to that of men, with less 

 dependence upon educational machinery, or (2) that the compilers of 

 the book upon which our study is based have made use of a different and 

 lower criterion in judging them. In the case of no one of the vocations 

 shown upon the figure was her training so complete as was that of her 

 male competitor for honors, and the same w r as true for the limited 

 number of doctors, lawyers and ministers mentioned for the sex. In 

 no one of the vocations, except that of the stage, was the difference so 

 slight as to leave any doubt on the question. The most discouraging 

 thing about it too, as disclosed by a study by decades but not shown 

 upon any of the figures, is that for recent years, when institutions of 

 nearly all classes have been as freely open to woman as to man, there 

 seems to be no change for the better. Her educational inertia, due very 

 naturally to centuries lacking in opportunity, is not easily thrown off, 

 and, until it is — a time which seems not yet to have arrived — she can 

 not take her place with man in the professional world, even should she 

 consider it as properly her sphere. 



