Social Environment and Eugenics 115 



genius as the stock of the adjoining smaller 

 places and rural districts. There is no reason 

 to suppose that the latter localities have prof- 

 ited by a selection process; rather, it is very 

 likely that they have lost by continued migra- 

 tion to the city. And still more conclusive, as 

 affecting the present study, is the fact that most 

 of the migration from country to city takes 

 place within the limits of the same state, or 

 neighboring states.^ Since the unit here taken 

 is the state, and since, in general, adjoining 

 states do not differ widely in density, such se- 

 lective movements of population could scarcely 

 at all affect our correlations. That is, the se- 

 lective process which, according to the biologi- 

 cal theory, accounts for the superiority of 

 densely populated regions occurs mainly within 

 the limits of the units here adopted, causing 

 for each unit about as much loss as gain, and 

 therefore not affecting materially its genetic 

 standing. 



The data at hand can be made to show 

 \vhether or not the city draws from other states 

 the men of ability who attain fame. It is evi- 

 dent that if men who attain distinction have 

 been merely keeping pace with the general 



^Abstract of Thirteenth Census, p. 169. 



