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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



works. Here he lias attempted to analyze 

 the " Natural History of the English Men 

 of Science of the Present Day," and to de- 

 termine, if possible, the effect of the circum- 

 stances in wliich they have lived, including 

 the consideration of their antecedents, their 

 hereditary qualities, their education, and of 

 the influences which have made them what 

 they are. 



His definit.on of a man of science, for 

 the purpose of his inquiry, is characteristi- 

 cally English, although it may bo, on the 

 whole, the best attainable one for the spe- 

 cial questions of which he treats ; he selects, 

 then, only members of the Eoyal Society 

 of England, and among these he still further 

 separates those who have received a medal 

 for scientific work ; those who have presided 

 over a section of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science ; those who 

 are members of a certain literary and scien- 

 tific club of London, etc., etc. On these 

 grounds 180 men have been selected, who 

 are presumably representative English scien- 

 tific men. 



The author estimates that at least 300 

 men could have been selected, and that this 

 gives (having regard to age) about one sci- 

 entific man to every 10,000 in England. 



His question then is, " What are the 

 conditions of nature and the various circum- 

 stances and conditions of life which I in- 

 clude under the general name of nurture 

 which have selected that one and left the 

 remainder ? " The data available for the 

 solution of this question are " the autobio- 

 graphical replies to a very long series of 

 pointed questions addressed severally to the 

 180 men " previously described. Of course, 

 these replies were given in confidence, and 

 it is not possible for the reader to connect 

 the various replies, which are often given in 

 detail, with any one person interrogated. 



The first inquiry is into the " Race and 

 Birthplace " of the subjects of the inquiry. 

 Out of ten scientific men, five are pure Eng- 

 lish, one pure Scotch, etc. ; their birthplaces 

 are usually in towns away from the sea- 

 coast. " The branch of science pursued is 

 often in curious disaccord with the surround- 

 ing influence of the birthplace. Mechani- 

 cians are usually hardy lads, born in the 

 country ; biologists are frequently pure 

 townsfolk." 



The occupation and position in life of the 

 parents are next considered, and the chief 

 point of interest here developed is that, out 

 of every 100 scientific men, only three or four 

 have had clergymen for their fathers. Al- 

 though so many of the graduates of the Eng- 

 lish universities take holy orders as a means 

 of securing fellowships, yet it is noteworthy 

 that, in a fairly-selected list of G60 separate 

 appointments on scientific councils, only six- 

 teen have been divines, and these have 

 chiefly been proficients in the astronomical 

 and mathematical sciences, and not a single 

 biologist is to be found among them. The 

 inquiry proceeds to physical peculiarities of 

 parents, and the conclusion is reached that 

 out of 165 cases examined these peculiari- 

 ties were in harmony seventy-eight times, in 

 contrast thirty-one times ; from examination 

 of special conditions, such as the height, 

 color of hair, corpulency of the parents, the 

 genei'al result is that the parents of scien- 

 tific men are decidedly more in harmony as 

 to their physical characteristics than in con- 

 trast. 



In some of these discussions we confess 

 to a slight feeling of doubt as to the trust- 

 worthiness of the conclusions. Although 

 " figures will not lie," there may be an 

 accidental accumulation of coincidences in 

 a small number of cases which will quite 

 mask the real law, and statisticians need 

 excessive care in drawing such conclusions. 



In general, this caution is evident 

 throughout the volume. We have given 

 enough to elucidate the author's method ; 

 and we will only note those conclusions 

 which seem most interesting, referring the 

 reader to the book itself for details. 



The average number of living children 

 of scientific men seems to be, on the whole, 

 decidedly smaller than that of the parents 

 of these men ; their health relatively to their 

 parents is not so good ; in one out of every 

 three cases their marriages are sterile. In 

 contrast to this, it may be said that their 

 health, relatively to that of the average man, 

 is better and their energy greater. Still the 

 conclusions above noted do not promise 

 well for the continuation of the race as pure 

 blood. 



Chapter II. deals with the qualities of 

 the men themselves, as derived from their 

 answers to the questions proposed to them. 



