AMERICAN MEN OP SCIENCE 



563 



It would be desirable to compare the scien- 

 tifi men and the scientific work of the United 

 States with those of other nations, and I hope 

 to collect data on this subject. It is my im- 

 pression from such information as is on hand 

 that we produce from one seventh to one tenth 

 of the world's scientific research, but that we 

 have not produced one tenth of its recent 

 great discoveries or of its contemporary great 

 men. With our vast population and unlimited 

 resources, it would be shameful and intolerable 

 to let the future be no better than the present. 

 It is obvious that we should collect without 

 delay the information that would tell us whe*e 

 we stand among the nations. 



It is not altogether without interest to find 



that it is possible to reduce to order facts which 

 might be supposed to be outside the range of 

 the natural and exact sciences. The present 

 articles are, however, only a beginning of a 

 study of scientific men as a group and of the 

 conditions on which scientific performance de- 

 pends. We have in a large measure explored 

 the material world and subdued it to our uses ; 

 it is now our business to secure an equal in- 

 crease in our knowledge of human nature and 

 to apply it for our welfare. If he is a bene- 

 factor to mankind who makes two blades of 

 grass grow where one grew before, his services 

 would be immeasurably greater who could 

 enable two men of science to flourish where 

 there had been but one. 



