CAUSES WHICH CREATE SCIENTIFIC MEN, 6 7 



four epochs 1750, 1789, 1829, and 1869. The list of names upon which 

 he depends is that of the foreign members of the three great scientific 

 societies of Europe namely, the French Academy, the Royal Society, 

 and the Academy of Berlin in each case about fifty in number. 

 There is a yet stricter selection on the part of the foreign associates 

 of the French Academy, who number only eight at a time, and of 

 whom there have been only ninety-two 1 in the last two hundred years. 

 It is remarkable that we find in this very select list four cases of father 

 and son namely, a Bernoulli and two of his sons, the two Eulers, and 

 the two Herschels. 



From an examination of these lists the author draws a large vari- 

 ety of interesting deductions. He traces the nationalities and the 

 geographical distribution of the distinguished men of science, and com- 

 pares the social conditions under which they lived. He finds them to 

 be confined to a triangular slice of Europe, of which middle Italy 

 forms the blunt apex, and a line connecting Sweden and Scotland 

 forms the base : and then he shows that, out of a list of eighteen differ- 

 ent influences favorable to science, such as liberty of publication, 

 tolerant church, and temperate climate, a large majority were found in 

 the triangular space in question, and there alone. The different 

 nations vary at the different epochs in their scientific productiveness ;. 2 

 and he elaborately shows how closely the variation depends on some 



1 List of the ninety-two foreign associates of the French Academy (three names of no 

 scientific importance having been omitted, who were elected in early days these are : 

 Lord Pembroke, 1710 ; Due d'Escalone, 1715 ; and Prince Lcewenstein-Wertheim, 1766). 

 The names are arranged in the order of their election, and a dash ( ) divides those 

 elected before and after the year 1800 : 



Denmark: None. CErsted. 



England: Newton, Sloane (Sir Hans), Halley, Folkes, Bradley, Ilales, Macclesfield 

 (Earl), Morton (Earl), Pringle, Hunter, Priestlpy, Banks, Black. Maskelyne, 

 Cavendish, Jenner, Watt, Davy, Wollaston, Young, Dalton, Brown (Robert), 

 Faraday, Brewster, Herschel (Sir John), Owen, Murchison. 



Germany (Ancient Confederation) : Rcemer, Leibnitz, Tchirnhausen (de), Wolff, 

 Margraff, Herschel (Sir William). Pallas, Klaproth, Humboldt (de), Werner, 

 Gauss, Olbers, Blumenbach, Buch (de), Bessel, Jacobi, Tiedemann, Mitscherlik, 

 Lcjeunc-Dirichlet, Ehrenberg, Liebig, Wohler, Kummer. 



Holland: Huyghens, Hartsoeker, Ruysch, Boerhaave, Van Swieten, Camper. None. 



Italy : Guglielmini, Cassini (Dom), Viviani, Poli, Bianchini, Marsigli, Manfredi, Mor- 

 gagni, Cervi, Poleni, La Grange (de). Volta, Scarpa, Piazzi, Plana. 



Poland: Jablonowski. None. 



Russia : Euler (the son). None. 



Sireden : Linnaeus, Bergmann, Wargentin. Berzelius. 



Switzerland : Bernoulli (Jacques), Bernoulli (Jean), De Crousaz, Bernoulli (Daniel), 

 Haller (de), Euler (Leonard), Tronchin, Bernoulli (Jean II.), Bonnet (Charles), 

 Saussure (Hor. Ben. de). Candolle (Aug. Pyr. de), Rive (de la). 



United States : Franklin. Rumford. 



2 The author's tables of the scientific productiveness per million, of different nations 

 at different times, are affected by a serious statistical error. He should have reckoned 

 per million of men above fifty, iustead of the population generally In a rapidly-increas- 



