AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



555 



of 500. Some states have produced men of 

 higher average standing than others, but the 

 differences are within the range of possible 

 chance variations. Thus Maine has produced 

 19 men of the first rank and 10 of the second. 

 But if 29 pennies are tossed up, there is one 

 chance in 14 or 15 (P .068) that there will 

 be 19 or more heads. It is, however, true, as 

 a matter of fact, that Maine, Connecticut, 

 Ohio, Indiana and Illinois have produced men 

 of decidedly higher average standing than 

 New Jersey, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri. 

 Those born in Germany are considerably above 

 and those born in Canada are below the av- 

 erage, and the figures may here represent a 

 real difference in the classes drawn to this 

 country. 



The fact that there is not a significant dif- 

 ference in the average standing of scientific 

 men born in different regions of the country 

 tends to support the conclusion that scientific 

 performance is mainly due to environment 

 rather than to innate aptitude. If the fact 

 that Massachusetts has produced relatively to 

 its population four times as many scientific 

 men as Pennsylvania and fifty times as many 

 as the southern states were due to a superior 

 stock, then we should expect that the average 



standing of its scientific men would be higher 

 than elsewhere; but this is not the case. Like 

 most arguments intended to disentangle the 

 complex factors of " nature and nurture," this, 

 however, is not conclusive. If scientific abil- 

 ity were innate, each tending to reach his level 

 in spite of environment, then a potentially 

 great man of science would become such 

 wherever born, and we might expect a favor- 

 able environment to produce mediocre men, 

 but not great men. But this argument is 

 answered by the small number of scientific 

 men from certain regions of the country. 

 Differences in stock can scarcely be great 

 enough to account for this; it seems to be due 

 to circumstance. A further analysis of the 

 curves of distribution might throw light on 

 the problem. Thus it might be that the men 

 of greatest genius were independent of the 

 environment, while men of fair average per- 

 formance were produced by it. Examples 

 might be given in favor of this view, but I 

 can not see that it is supported by the forms 

 of the curves of distribution. I hope at some 

 time to take up the question from a study of 

 individual cases, but I have not as yet the 

 data at hand. My general impression is that 

 certain aptitudes, as for mathematics and 



