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H. R. HUNT 



dangers of camp and battlefield, while nearly five times that number, about 

 83 per cent, were sent home, in many cases no doubt to propagate their kind. 

 It is the old story of the best being sent forth to risk death while the lame, 

 the halt, and the blind were carefully protected. 



We have made comparative studies of the enlistment rates among men 

 from the continental United States and for holders of the following degrees 

 from Harvard University: master's degree, doctor of philosophy or science, 

 doctor in medicine or public health, bachelor of law, doctor of juridical 

 science, and bachelors degrees with and without academic distinction. 

 Harvard University grants the baccalaureate degree in arts or science with 

 four grades of merit: namely, without distinction, with cum laude, magna 

 cum laude, and summa cum laude. By means which I need not describe 

 here, I have demonstrated to my own satisfaction that on the average the 



TABLE 1 



higher the grade of distinction at graduation the greater the mental capacity 

 and energy of the person receiving the degree. Thus the difference in enlist- 

 ment rates between graduates with distinction and those who did not earn 

 distinction is of biological consequence. Table 1 summarizes the enlist- 

 ment rate in the seven different groups studied. The ages of all the men 

 included ranged from twenty-five to forty-four years. 



There were, for example, about 15,639,178 males whose ages were between 

 twenty-five and forty-four years, inclusive, in the continental United States 

 in 1917, and of these 11.67 per cent enlisted in the United States Army. If 

 each of the percentages in table 1 is compared with the next larger one, the 

 difference in all but one case is found to exceed three times the size of its 

 probable error and is, therefore, statistically significant. The one exception 

 is the difference between the holders of the doctors and of masters degrees. 

 Thus, the highest enlistment rate was for the doctors of medicine and of 

 public health. Next came the mediocre college graduates, then the lawyers, 



