574 



AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



its resources and exemption from inherited 

 survivals, it does not compare favorably with 

 some universities. The Bureau of Standards, 

 the Philippine Islands Bureau of Science and 

 the Kockefeller Institute have done well. The 

 Department of Agriculture has lost about 

 twice as many men as it has gained and the 

 Smithsonian Institution with its dependent 

 bureaus about four times as many. 



Table III. gives the institutions at which 

 three or more of the 238 scientific men who 

 obtained a place on the list of 1910 received 

 their degrees. The table also gives data for 

 the 201 men who were dropped from the list. 

 Of 232 " of the new men whose education is 

 known, all but 19 have the bachelor's degree 

 and all but 57 the doctorate of philosophy or 

 science. Some of those who did not receive 

 the bachelor's degree were educated abroad 

 and have its equivalent, and many of those 

 not holding the doctorate of philosophy are 

 doctors of medicine or have pursued univer- 

 sity studies. Among the 1,000 on the list of 

 1903, 758 are known to have received the 

 bachelor's degree and 544 the doctor's degree. 

 The percentage of those holding the bachelor's 

 degree has increased from 76 to 92, and of 

 those holding the doctor's degree from 54 to 

 75. Our educational methods are thus be- 

 coming more completely standardized or con- 

 ventionalized. The two men who stood first 

 on the list of 1903, Simon Newcomb ' and 

 William James, had neither the regular col- 

 lege nor the regular university education. 

 Whether this was favorable or harmful to 

 their genius is unknown; but it is probable 

 that our present educational methods do not 

 favor individuality and its early expression. 



Harvard stands very clearly in the lead in 

 its influence. Of the 232 men, 20 have re- 

 ceived from it their first degree and 27 the 

 doctorate of philosophy or science. Yale is 

 the only university in the same class with 

 Harvard as regards the bachelor's degree, and 

 Chicago and the Johns Hopkins are the only 

 ones as regards the doctor's degree. It is a 

 curious fact that while Columbia and Yale 

 have conferred in the past thirteen years about 



the same number of doctorates in the natural 

 and exact sciences (189 and 179, respectively) 

 as have Chicago, the Johns Hopkins and Har- 

 vard (245, 220 and 178, respectively), each 

 can claim only about half as many of the new 

 men who have obtained places among the 

 thousand. Pennsylvania has the worst record 

 in this respect, having conferred 133 doctor- 

 ates and having only two doctors among the 

 men added to the list. The 13 men who re- 

 ceived the doctorate of philosophy from uni- 

 versities not given on the table received it 

 from 11 different institutions, and the 81 

 bachelors not accounted for on the table re- 

 ceived their degrees from no fewer than 70 

 colleges. 



The colleges of the state universities have 

 done better than those of the Atlantic sea- 

 board. Thus Michigan and Wisconsin have 

 each produced eight of the bachelors, while 

 Princeton and Amherst have produced three, 

 Dartmouth two and Williams one. In the 

 list of 1903, Princeton and Amherst each had 

 23 bachelors among 758. The technical 

 schools of the east have been more productive 

 than the colleges; thus the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute has seven and Lehigh four of the new 

 men. Harvard, Yale and Cornell owe their 

 good record to their scientific and technical 

 courses. It is to be feared that the eastern 

 college with " its frivolous amateurism and 

 futile scholasticism " exerts influences actu- 

 ally prejudicial to the scientific career. 



Leipzig, Berlin, Gb'ttingen and Heidelberg 

 are the four German universities which this 

 time as last have conferred the largest number 

 of degrees. Among 175 of the newer men 21 

 have received the doctorate of philosophy from 

 these four universities, whereas among 544 in 

 the list of 1903, 112 received it from the same 

 institutions. In about ten years the percent- 

 age of foreign degrees has decreased to nearly 

 one half, and it is in course of further reduc- 

 tion. The number of foreign men of science 

 educated abroad and coming to this country 

 has, as shown above, also decreased. In so 

 far as these changes are due to the improve- 

 ment of our universities and to the increase in 



