902 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1016 



It is announced that the Carnegie Founda- 

 tion for the Advancement of Teaching has 

 undertaken to grant pension allowances to the 

 director and faculty of the Carnegie Institute 

 of Technology and also to the directors of the 

 Carnegie Museum and the Carnegie Depart- 

 ment of Fine Arts, and such of their curators 

 as do teaching work, under the rules and regu- 

 lations of the foundation. 



The School of Physiology, presented to the 

 University of Camhridge by the Drapers' Com- 

 pany was opened by Prince Arthur of Con- 

 naught on June 9. The cost of the building, 

 with the contribution m.ade by the company 

 towards its equipment, has amounted to £23,- 

 500. 



On June 3 the University of Missouri cele- 

 brated the seventy-fifth anniversary of its 

 founding. Addresses were delivered on this 

 occasion by former Governor David Rowland 

 Francis, president of the board of curators, 

 Albert Ross Hill, president of the university, 

 the Hon. William Rock Painter, lieutenant 

 governor of Missouri, the Hon. William Pren- 

 tiss Evans, state superintendent of public 

 schools, Frederick Aldin Hall, acting chan- 

 cellor of Washington University, David Fran- 

 cis Houston, secretary of agriculture, Harry 

 Burns Hutchins, president of the University 

 of Michigan, and Cassius Jackson Keyser, pro- 

 fessor of mathematics in Columbia University. 

 On the following day. President Lowell, of Har- 

 vard University, delivered the commencement 

 address, and the degree of doctor of laws was 

 conferred on President Lowell, Secretary 

 Houston, Professor Keyser and Mr. William 

 Mack. 



Dr. Arthur Kenyon Rogers, professor of 

 philosophy at the University of Missouri, has 

 been called to Tale University to succeed Pro- 

 fessor William E. Hocking, who goes to Har- 

 vard University. 



Assistant Professor William D. Harkins, 

 of the department of chemistry at the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago, has been promoted to an as- 

 sociate professorship in chemistry. 



Dr. C. H. Shattuck, head of the department 

 of forestry at the University of Idaho, was re- 



cently elected dean of the college of letters and 

 sciences of that institution. 



Miss Jessie Y. Oaun, Ph.D. (Columbia), 

 head of the department of chemistry, Rockford 

 College, Rockford, Ul., has accepted an in- 

 structorship in chemistry at the University of 

 Illinois. 



DISCUSSION AND COREESPONDENCE 



SOVEREIGNS AND THE SUPPOSED INFLUENCE OF 

 OPPORTUNITY 



A SERIOUS criticism has been made of my 

 theory that the high intellectual qualities 

 found in royal families are the results of 

 natural and sexual selection and inherent in 

 differences in the germ-plasm. My belief is 

 that differences of opportunity may have 

 played some role, but my contention is that all 

 the evidence we possess points in the opposite 

 direction, and the conclusion is that differ- 

 ences in opportunity have been on the whole 

 of comparatively trivial importance. 



One of the eight reasons in support of this 

 theory, which I have given in " The Influence 

 of Monarehs" (New York, 1913), page 258, 

 is that " younger sons of kings are not less 

 eminent than heirs to the throne." By emi- 

 nent I mean of high intellectual grade. For 

 this statement I drew upon statistics pub- 

 lished in " Heredity in Royalty " (New York, 

 1906), page 285, and again here presented in 

 Table I. below. 



Grades 



Total number in 

 each grade 



Succession inher- 

 itors 



Per cent 



(3) (4) (5) (6) 



3149 38 



23,12 

 54|67 



247 

 62.5 



These 395 persons were the 395 adult males 

 25 years or over who were graded for intellect 

 in " Heredity in Royalty," pages 20-26. 

 About three fourths of these individuals be- 

 long as descendants in the direct male lines of 

 families studied. The other quarter enter the 

 lists as ancestors, usually direct ancestors, in 

 the various maternal lines. As far as one 



