6i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



fact that in the course of four years 

 the states of Illinois and Wisconsin 

 have increased their scientific men of 

 standing by 27, while New York, New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania have lost 23, 

 is significant not only of what has 

 happened but also of what is likely to 

 happen in the course of the next two 

 or three decades. As civilization moves 

 westward, these great north central 

 states may be for a time the chief 

 scientific center of the country; and 

 not only this, for it is quite possible 

 that they may become the chief intel- 

 lectual and artistic center of the world. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF AMER- 

 ICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



The articles referred to contain a 

 large mass of statistics in regard to 

 the origin and distribution of our sci- 

 entific men. The 238 men who have 

 attained scientific standing within re- 

 cent years fill the places left vacant by 

 those who have died and of those who 

 have failed to maintain their position 

 among the thousand. Only one foreign 

 man of science has come to this coun- 

 try of such distinction that he would 

 surely have deserved a place on the 

 previous list, whereas ten have re- 

 turned to their native countries. Six 

 women have been added, and the total 

 number of women on the list is 18, two 

 of whom are among the second hun- 

 dred. Those who have obtained places 

 on the list are nearly all between 30 

 and 45 years of age. There are none 

 over 55; but one over 45 reaches a 

 place as high as the fifth hundred. 

 Only six are under 30, and this fact 

 seems to indicate a lack of men of 

 genius, who as a rule demonstrate 

 their ability at an early age. 



Harvard has a dominant position in 

 the education of these men and in re- 

 taining them as instructors. It has 

 given its bachelor's degree to 20 and 

 its doctor's degree to 27, and 22 are 

 on its teaching staff. Chicago stands 

 next to Harvard, having an equal num- 

 ber of doctors and having 13 of the 

 men among its instructors. Yale fol- 



lows Harvard and Chicago both in re- 

 gard to the men it has educated and 

 the men it has retained. These three 

 institutions are followed by the Johns 

 Hopkins and Cornell in the number of 

 degrees conferred and by Wisconsin 

 and the Johns Hopkins in the number 

 of instructors. The colleges of the 

 eastern states have been less produc- 

 tive of scientific men than the technical 

 schools or the colleges of the state 

 universities. 



There are 201 men still living who 

 have failed to maintain their places 

 among the thousand. Of these 49 re- 

 side in the state of New York. There, 

 as in the other Atlantic states south of 

 New England, the immense wealth ap- 

 pears to be unfavorable to scientific 

 research. 



The gain or loss of position of each 

 man is known. Those under forty are 

 likely to gain and those over this age 

 are likely to lose. The average age of 

 the 1,000 scientific men is 48 years; 

 the average age of the first hundred is 

 54.8 years. The average age for the 

 bachelor degree is 22.2 years and for 

 the doctorate of philosophy, 28.4 years. 



Three fourths of all our scientific 

 men earn their living by teaching, 

 about one tenth in the government 

 service and about one twentieth by ap- 

 plied science. There are only eleven 

 scientific men of standing who may be 

 classed as amateurs, whereas in Great 

 Britain this class is responsible for a 

 considerable part of the research work 

 which is accomplished. 



Of our thousand leading scientific 

 men 80 are at Harvard, 48 at Columbia 

 and the same number at Chicago, 38 at 

 Yale, 35 at Cornell, 34 at the Johns 

 Hopkins and 30 at Wisconsin. One 

 half of all the instructors at Clark are 

 among our leading men of science, 

 whereas in certain institutions there is 

 but one in fifty. The institutions 

 which stand the highest are Clark, the 

 Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Stanford, 

 Bryn Mawr, Harvard, Wesleyan, Case 

 and Princeton. These institutions 

 have at least one scientific man of 



