686 



AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



may be unsafe to draw sweeping conclusions 

 from such figures, but they certainly indicate 

 that residence in these states is unfavorable 

 to scientific productivity. It may perhaps be 

 the case that the salaries are below the ex- 

 pensive standards of living and that oppor- 

 tunities for commercial and hack work are 

 tempting, so that men are drawn away from 

 research. The District of Columbia has lost 

 nine men. Eleven have been removed by 

 death, and this loss has not been made good 

 by men improving their positions or going to 

 reside in Washington. In view of the in- 

 creasing appropriations made by the govern- 

 ment for scientific work and the endowment 

 of the Carnegie Institution this is not a favor- 

 able record. 



Illinois and Wisconsin show the gains due 

 to men who have improved their positions, 

 there being no significant changes due to re- 

 movals. The same is generally true in regard 

 to the gains or losses in the other north cen- 

 tral states and in the west and south. The 

 numbers are too small to be as a rule signifi- 

 cant. Missouri and Louisiana have each 

 gained three men, Arizona two and Colorado 

 one. Ohio and Minnesota are exactly station- 

 ary. Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Texas and 

 California have in each case lost from one to 

 three men. The southern states (except 

 Louisiana) have been losing even the few sci- 

 entific men whom they had. 



Table IX. shows also the distribution of the 

 thousand scientific men standing below the 

 first thousand. The men are not as well 

 known and they can not be arranged as accu- 

 rately in the order of merit. They were not 

 independently selected from a larger group by 

 the judges, but were those not assigned a place 

 in the first thousand. The first five hundred 

 were selected from the thousand with a tol- 

 erable degree of validity, but the second five 

 hundred can only be regarded as representa- 

 tive of the scientific men who have done re- 

 search work, but are not of the rank of the 

 first fifteen hundred. The men are, however, 

 arranged in the order of merit, and probable 

 errors can be assigned to the positions as in 



the case of the first thousand. The number 

 from each science is the same as in the case of 

 the first thousand. 



It is an honor to belong to this second 

 group of a thousand men; they deserve well 

 who have accomplished research work and 

 have obtained recognition as scientific men. 

 But those who are young have far greater 

 promise than those who are older. All young 

 men of ability must pass through the second 

 thousand before they reach the first, though 

 they are likely to escape notice in a period 

 which may be short. The group is thus heter- 

 ogenous, including those who may become our 

 leading men of science and those who have 

 attained a mediocre though creditable position 

 beyond which they will not advance. The 

 same conditions hold for the lower hundreds 

 of the first thousand. In the preceding paper 

 the scientific men were divided into two groups 

 of 500 each, and no considerable differences 

 were found in their origin or distribution. 

 This appears to have been in part due to heter- 

 ogeneous character of the second group. Thus 

 Massachusetts had 74 men in the first five 

 hundred and 70 in the second, while New 

 York had in the two groups 93 and 99, re- 

 spectively. But in the intervening period 

 more men in Massachusetts than in New York 

 have retained or improved their positions. It 

 thus appears that Dr. F. A. Woods* is cor- 

 rect in holding that Massachusetts has not 

 only produced more scientific men, but also 

 men of higher standing. 



The second thousand includes those who 

 have dropped down from the first thousand 

 (201), to whom consideration has already been 

 given. The others have been divided into 

 those above and those below the median age 

 (42 years), but the conditions are almost too 

 complicated to admit of analysis, and it seems 

 to be scarcely worthwhile to give the figures. 

 In New York 43 are below and 68 above the 

 median age ; in Illinois 37 below and 28 above, 

 and in California 9 below and 18 above. The 

 excess of older men in New York may be 

 '"American Men of Science and the Question 

 of Heredity," SCIENCE, N. S., 31: 205-209, 1910. 



