784 



AMERICAX MEN OP SCIENCE 



superiority of the Germans is due to 

 several men who have come to this country 

 to fill scientific positions, half of whom are 

 of Jewish descent. 



The occupations of the fathers of 885 

 scientific men are given in Table III. 

 Forty-three per cent, belong to the pro- 

 fessional classes; 21,2" per cent, to the 

 agricultural classes and 35.7 per cent, to 

 the manufacturing and business classes. 

 In the United States in 1850, 3.1 per cent, 

 of white men having occupations were in 

 the professions; 44.1 were engaged in agri- 

 culture, and 34.1 in trade, transportation, 

 manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 

 The professional classes have thus con- 

 tributed in proportion to their numbers 

 about fourteen times as many scientific 

 men as the othere, the agricultural classes 

 only half as many as the manufacturing 

 and trading classes. The farm not only 

 produces relatively fewer scientific men, 

 but a smaller proportion of them are of 

 high distinction and a larger proportion 

 are in the lowest group. This traverses a 

 common belief, as voi<?ed, for example, by 

 Dr. Charles W. Eliot, when he writes: 



The country breeding gives a vigor and an en- 

 durance which in the long run outweigh all city 

 advantages, and enable the well-endowed country 

 boys to outstrip their city-bred competitors. 2 



The writer showed, however, in the 

 previous paper that in proportion to their 

 population cities have produced twice as 

 many scientific men as the country. 



The four professions of divinity, medi- 

 cine, law and teaching, with a fifth group 

 composed of the remaining professions 

 engineering, fine arts, journalism, the gov- 

 ernment service, etc. contribute numbers 

 of scientific men not far from equal. 

 According to the census of 1850, tlie 

 numbers of the four leanied professions 

 were : Clergymen, 26,842 ; lawyers, 23,939 ; 

 physicians, 40,765; men teachers, 30,530. 



2 "Family Stocks in a Democracy," American 

 Contributions to Civilization, 1898. 



For each thousand of their members, thev 



contributed scientific men as follows: 



Clergymen 3.3 



Lawyers 2.5 



Teachers 2.4 



Physicians 1.6 



Clergymen, therefore, have the best 

 record, and physicians the worst. Yet at 

 that period there was supposed to be a 

 conflict between science and theology, and 

 the work of the physician is, or should 

 be, allied to, if not identical with, that of 

 the man of science. But in the middle of 

 the last century the clergymen were likely 

 to be better educated and more closely 

 identified with the colleges than the phys- 

 icians. The lawyers and the teachers were 

 equally productive, but college professors 

 of whom there were only 943 in 1850 

 are far before any other class. The group 

 of ''other professions" is too ill defined 

 to permit statistical treatment. In the 

 census of 1850, mechanics who ran engines 

 were called engineers and included among 

 the professions. It will be noted from the 

 table that lawyers and tea.chers have con- 

 tributed the largest percentage of scien- 

 tific men of high distinction, but the 

 differences are not so large as to be sig- 

 nificant. 



As it is much easier to determine 

 nationality than race, so occupation can 

 be stated more readily than social position. 

 It would be desirable to know the social 

 connections and incomes of the fathers of 

 scientific men at the period when their 

 sons were educated, but such information 

 is not at hand. Men in the same pro- 

 fession have very different social environ- 

 ments; in manufacturing and trade a man 

 may be an artisan or a multi-millionaire. 

 It is, however, clear that a majority of 

 scientific men come from the so-called 

 middle and upper classes. Not very far 

 from half of tliem are supplied by the 

 professional classes, forming about one 

 thirtieth of the population, and undoubt- 

 edly tliey tend to be sons of the more 



