FAMILIES OF AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



In a series of articles entitled "A Sta- 

 tistical Study of American Men of Sci- 

 ence," printed in Science in 1906 and 

 1910 and as an appendix to the second 

 edition of "The Biographical Directory of 

 American Men of Science," methods were 

 explained by which the thousand leading 

 scientific men of the United States had 

 been selected and arranged in the order of 

 the merit of their work. Studies were 

 made of the measurement of scientific 

 performance, of the origin and distribu- 

 tion of scientific men, and of the changes 

 which occurred during an interval of sev- 

 eral years. Data have now been gathered 

 in regard to the families of the men of 

 science previously selected. In our pres- 

 ent state of ignorance a statistical study 

 of any homogeneous and objectively chosen 

 group should be of value, both as a contri- 

 bution to psychological and vital statistics 

 in general and for comparison with other 

 groups which may be similarly studied. 

 Scientific men form a desirable group for 

 such study as, on the one hand, they may 

 be assumed to be willing and competent 

 to supply the information and, on the 

 other hand, knowledge concerning the con- 

 ditions favorable to scientific performance 

 may ha.ve important practical applications. 



Of one thousand one hundred and fifty- 

 four scientific men from whom informa- 

 tion in regard to their families was re- 

 quested 1,036 replied and 118 did not. 

 Of the replies 16 were blank, sometimes 

 accompanied b}' the explanation that the 

 information was not readily attainable or 

 the like, 7 were to tlie effect that the in- 

 formation would be sent later or the like, 

 13 were received too late, 25 were very im- 



1 Eeprinted from The Popular Science Monthly, 

 May, 1915, and from The Scientific Monthli/, 

 March and October, 1917. 



perfect, 975 were usable and in most cases 

 complete. This is an unusually full reply 

 to a questionnaire. For example, in an- 

 swer to an inquiry in regard to note- 

 worthy relatives addressed to 467 fellows 

 of the Royal Society, Sir Francis Gal- 

 ton received 207 useful replies, and the 

 completely available returns "scarcely ex- 

 ceeded 100." In such ca-ses it is desirable 

 that returns should be complete in order 

 to avoid the selection of a special clas-s. 

 Thus, when people are a.sked whether they 

 have noteworthy relatives, those having 

 them are more likely to reply than others, 

 and the percentage of positive replies may 

 give no definite information in regard to 

 the frequency. In the present case it 

 appears, from examination of the names 

 of the ten per cent, who failed to reply, 

 that there was no group that would affect 

 appreciably the result of the inquiry. 



I. Origin-, Heredity and Performance 



In the previous articles .statistics were 

 given in regard to the birthplace of the 

 scientific men, and data are now at hand 



Table I. Nation-ality of the Parents or -\mer- 

 CAX Men of Sciexce 



781 



