JANUARY 12, 1912] 
upon that fuller knowledge of fact and of 
the historic sequence of cultures in the re- 
spective areas, and on the practise of the 
general principles of evidence some of 
which I have here attempted to set forth 
and illustrate. 
. Anthropologists are at present, as was 
recently pointed out by Dr. Rivers in his 
address as vice-president of the section in 
the British Association, in the unfortunate 
condition of not agreeing on fundamental 
questions of method. We have, it is hoped, 
left behind us the period of vague and 
futile theorizing without facts or with too 
few facts, but there are still many who be- 
lieve that evolution is the master-key 
which will unlock all doors, and that by 
the amassing of more or less heterogeneous 
and unrelated facts from all over the 
world a continuous development through 
definite stages of culture may everywhere 
be shown. The partizans of independent 
development based on the theory of the 
psychological unity of the human mind, 
are set over against those who believe in 
the complexity of cultures, and the possi- 
bility that by analysis and comparison 
their historic relationships may be de- 
termined, and who-would explain similari- 
ties in culture between widely separated 
peoples on this basis or on that of conver- 
gent evolution. Here in America we have 
come to feel, I think, more perhaps than 
elsewhere, that no one of these theories is 
a panacea. As a result of the experience 
of the last decade or so in attempting to 
outline and define the several culture 
areas in this continent, we are beginning 
to realize that these several points of view 
may all and at the same time be true, and 
to admit that in a given culture, whereas 
some elements are undoubtedly the out- 
come of contact or transmission, others 
may be the result of evolutionary develop- 
ment, and dependent on the general uni- 
SCIENCE 55 
formity of reaction to similar stimuli 
among mankind as a whole; and we are 
prepared, I trust, to agree that if fact and 
theory do not conform, it is the latter 
for which the Procrustean bed should be 
reserved. 
It is in this spirit, then, of insistence on 
abundant fact and its careful interpreta- 
tion, without prejudice and wuneneum- 
bered with rigid theories which will admit 
of no compromise, that I believe we should 
approach the question of the independence 
of American culture; a question which has 
its greatest interest quite naturally for us 
in America, but which for anthropology as 
a whole is also of great and far-reaching 
importance. 
Rouanp B. Drxon 
THE PERCENTACE OF WOMEN TEACHERS 
IN STATE COLLEGES AND 
UNIVERSITIES 1 
THE average per cent. of women teachers 
for all the state colleges and universities is 
9-+-. The average for the schools west of the 
Mississippi is 18+ per cent., while for the 
schools east of the Mississippi it is 6-+ per 
cent. 
Eleven schools,’ which were selected at ran- 
dom, have 149 women teachers. Of these 149, 
10-++ per cent. are full professors, 5-+ per 
cent. are associate professors, 10+ per cent. 
are assistant professors and 73+ per cent. 
instructors. 
As to the subjects these 149 women teach, 
the distribution is: professors, home econom- 
*These figures base upon ‘‘Statistics of State 
Universities and other Institutions of Higher Edu- 
cation Partially Supported by the State,’’ for the 
year ended June, 1910 (Washington, Government 
Printing Office), and catalogues of eleven institu- 
tions for the year 1910. 
* The eleven schools are: University of Arizona, 
Iowa State College, Miami University, University 
of Montana, University of New Mexico, North 
Dakota Agricultural College, Ohio University, 
University of Oklahoma, University of South Da- 
kota, University of Utah, University of Wyoming. 
