54o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



table, together with the number in each group, the median age of the 

 group and the percentage of persons under the age of forty years.* 



N ■ Median Age Percentage 



Profession. PrAnn of Group Below Forty. 



(jroup. in Yearg years of Age 



Actor 54 48 20.3 



Artist 260 44 14.5 



Author 523 54 19.4 



Business man 200 63 2.5 



Clergyman 655 59 5.5 



College professor 1,090 47 22.0 



Congressman 446 53 14.6 



Editor 509 47 20.0 



Educator 188 54 21.8 



Engineer 284 55 9.8 



Financier 215 64 5.5 



Inventor 26 62 



Lawyer 857 57 5.6 



Librarian 362 50 22.6 



Physician 540 56 11 



Musician Ill 44 33.3 



Sailor 103 59 5.0 



Scientist 146 44 31.3 



Soldier 205 63 6.8 



Statesman 202 55 8^0 



6^983 Av. 54 Av. 16 



Although this table has a bearing upon the minimum age at which 

 a certain sort of public recognition is given to achievement, in its con- 

 sideration two things must be borne in mind ; first, that many of those 

 who were at the issue of the book over forty years of age performed the 

 service which gave them prominence before they had reached that age ; 

 and, second, that there must always be something of a lag in public 

 recognition, and in all probability many who had already performed 

 service of importance had not yet been promoted to the ranks of l Who's 

 Who/ Yet, even with these qualifications, the figures are not without 

 their bearing upon the question of the minimum age at which important 

 public service is rendered, for without doubt achievement of the first 

 rank is not slow of recognition. And the thing which must strike one 

 most forcibly in any inspection of the table is the comparatively few 

 men under forty years of age. Of the 6,983 men, the median age is 

 fifty- four years, while but 1,118, or less than one in six, were below the 

 age of forty years. Stated in other words, this means that in the year 

 1900 out of a group of nearly 7,000 eminent men but 16 per cent, were 

 within Dr. Osier's age period of most ' effective, moving, vitalizing 

 work.' Although this fact can not be taken as disproving his conten- 



* The persons mentioned in the volume but not included in the group 

 studied either formed a nondescript class so far as vocation is concerned or 

 failed to give the date of birth, or were women and were tabulated separately. 



