June 16, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



649 



THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL 

 SOCIETY 



The general meeting of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society was held in Philadelphia on 

 April 20, 21 and 22. The following papers 

 were presented: 



Our contradictory economic policy: E. M. Pat- 

 terson. 



The distribution of human ability in Europe: 

 Ellsworth Huntington. The ability of a coun- 

 try depends not only on training and social en- 

 vironment, as has long been recognized, but also on 

 inheritance, as is now rapidly becoming apparent, 

 and on health or energj', a factor which has been 

 much neglected. Europe affords one of the best 

 fields in which to differentiate the influence of 

 these three factors. Four lines of evidence are 

 here used for this purpose: (1) the kind of con- 

 tribution to human progress made by about 8,600 

 eminent Europeans who were born since 1600 and 

 who are mentioned in the Encyclopedia Britan- 

 nica; (2) the distribution of progress and of 

 civilization according to the opinion of fifty ex- 

 perts in North America, Europe and Asia; (3) 

 the distribution of health and energy as measured 

 by the death rate; and (4) the distribution of 

 climatic conditions that are favorable or unfavor- 

 able to health. 



The eminent men mentioned in Britannica have 

 been classified as follows: (1) religion and phil- 

 anthropy; (2) philosophy and education; (3) 

 natural sciences; (4) mathematical and chemical 

 sciences and inventions; (5) history and eco- 

 nomies; (6) literature; (7) art; (8) politics, 

 and (9) war and adventure. This classification 

 shows striking differences from country to coun- 

 try. For example : in proportion to the number 

 of its people Switzerland, with its 107 represen- 

 tatives in Britannica, is very strong in religion, 

 philosophy and the two branches of science, but 

 falls low in all other lines ; Scotland and Ger- 

 many resemble Switzerland, except that the con- 

 trast between the extent to which their great men 

 have devoted themselves to religion, philosophy 

 and science on tlie one hand and to other lines of 

 effort on the other is relatively not quite so great 

 as in Switzerland ; France, on the contrary, tends 

 in the opposite direction, for religion and philoso- 

 phy are comparatively neglected, while literature, 

 art, politics and war are the lines toward which 

 the French type of mind turns most strongly; 

 Ireland follows the French type except that reli- 

 gion also receives emphasis, while the relative im- 



portance of war and especially politics rises very 

 high. 



Such contrasts and many others are presumably 

 due in part to social environment but probably 

 they also depend partly on racial inheritance. 

 There seems to be no sociological reason why 

 among the 1,737 eminent Frenclimen and - 1,185 

 eminent Germans who appear in the encyclopedia 

 the adjusted index numbers showing the extent to 

 which the two countries have excelled in the vari- 

 ous lines of human effort should be as follows: 

 war, France 125, Germany 70; polities, France 

 105, Germany 49; history, 101 and 171; and phil- 

 osophy, S3 and 214. Or take the following con- 

 trasts between the relative numbers for the 604 

 Scotch and 292 Irish: politics, Scotland 83, Ire- 

 land 164; mathematical sciences, 139 against 72, 

 and natural sciences, 140 against 65. It seems as 

 if these figures might be a rough index of cer- 

 tain deep-seated racial tendencies which manifest 

 themselves in the whole social organization and 

 history of the various countries. 



When an attempt is made to slioiv the geograph- 

 ical distribution of mental tendencies among the 

 eminent men of Europe, the result is a series of 

 erratically spotted maps which in many cases 

 indicate little or no connection with environmental 

 factors. Nor do they correspond at all closely to 

 the fairly gradual and progressive character of 

 the changes in social and sociological conditions 

 from one part of Europe to another. 



A map of the progressiveness or civilization of 

 the countries of Europe as judged by fifty ex- 

 perts before the war, shows an aspect wholly 

 different from that of the maps of special types 

 of achievement. It displays an almost perfect 

 gradation from higher to lower levels as one pro- 

 ceeds away from the regions bordering the North 

 Sea. There are no sudden breaks from country 

 to country. The distribution seems to be gov- 

 erned by factors which vary gradually and regu- 

 larly from region to region instead of spasmod- 

 ically and irregularly as in the previous cases. 



A map of health based on the death rate before 

 the war is almost identical with the map of civili- 

 zation. The figures for all countries have been 

 reduced to a standard population. Children under 

 one year of age and old people of seventy-five or 

 more have been omitted because an analysis of 

 the statistics shows that in many countries the 

 records of deaths at these two extremes of age 

 are peculiarly unreliable. The v.-ay in which the 

 map of health shov;s a decline in human strength 

 and ability as one proceeds away from the North 



