786 



AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



is conceivable that the original constitu- 

 tion of son and father might be exactly 

 the same and yet the individual be so 

 plastic to environment that under differ- 

 ent conditions there would be but slight 

 similarity between their performances. It 

 is also conceivable that there might be no 

 similarity between the original constitu- 

 tions of son and father, and yet the per- 

 formance of each be determined by his 

 original constitution almost without in- 

 fluence from environment. Under which 

 of these extreme hypotheses would the 

 current sociologist call heredity strong or 

 weak? The word heredity should be re- 

 sented for resemblance due to a common 

 germ plasm and some other word found 

 for the constitution of the fertilized ovum 

 or zygote; perhaps the best that can be 

 done is to use this uncouth word. We 

 can then discriminate between the two dis- 

 tinct questions: What is the resemblance 

 between the zygotes of two brothers? 

 How far does the zygote of an individual 

 determine his performance as an adult? 

 The distinctions are of vast importance 

 for the organization of society. If men 

 of performance could only come from 

 superior family lines, this would be a 

 conclusive argument for a privileged class 

 and for a hereditary aristocracy. If the 

 congenital equipment of an individual 

 should prescribe completely what he will 

 accomplish in life, equality of opportu- 

 nity, education and social reform would 

 be of no significance. Such an extreme 

 position, though it is approached by men 

 with so much authority as Sir Francis 

 Galton, Professor Karl Pearson, Dr. F. A. 

 Woods, Dr. C. B. Davenport and Pro- 

 fessor E. L. Thomdike, is* untenable. 

 Equally extreme in the opposite direction 

 is M. Odin's aphorism "Genius is in 

 things not in men," or the not uncommon 

 opinion that almost anj-thing can be done 

 with a child by training and education. 

 It is a problem of degree and of circum- 

 stance, a scientific question that could 



probably be solved within a reasonable 

 time if as much intelligence and money 

 were devoted to it as to one of the bureaus 

 of the Department of Agriculture. 



In the meanwhile we must do the best 

 we can with the material at hand, even 

 though the interpretation is in nearly all 

 cases ambiguous. It is here slio"\^ai that 43 

 per cent, of our leading scientific men 

 have come from the professional classes. 

 We may conclude that more than one half 

 of our men of science come from the one 

 per cent, of the population most favorably 

 situated to produce them. The son of a 

 successful professional man is fifty times 

 as likely to become a leading scientific 

 man as a boy taken at random from the 

 community. My data also show that a 

 boy born in Massachusetts or Connecticut 

 has been fifty times as likely to become 

 a scientific man as a boy born along the 

 southeastern seaboard from Georgia to 

 Ijouisiana. They further show that a boy 

 is fifty times as likelj^ to do scientific work 

 as a girl. No negro in this country has 

 hitherto accomplished scientific work en- 

 titling him to be included among our lead- 

 ing thousand scientific men. A boy from 

 the professional classes in New England 

 lias a million chances to become a scientific 

 leader as compared with one chance for a 

 negro girl from the cotton fields. 



These great differences may properly 

 be attributed in part to natural capacity 

 and in part to opportunity. Wlien it is 

 asked how far the result is due to each of 

 these factors, the question is in a sense 

 ambiguous. It is like asking \vhether the 

 extension of a spiral spring is due to the 

 spring or to the force applied. Some 

 springs can not be extended a foot by any 

 force; no spring can be extended without 

 force. The result depends on the relation 

 between the constitution of the spring and 

 the force applied. If the 174 babies born 

 in Massachusetts and Connecticut who be- 

 came leading scientific men had been ex- 

 changed with babies born in the south, it 



