664 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 621. 



We tend to overestimate the positions of 

 our immediate colleagues, though the de- 

 parture from the average judgment is not 

 considerable. Here again there are decided 

 individual differences ; thus one man assigned 

 positions to six of his colleagues, all of which 

 were above the average, and another assigned 

 positions to five of his colleagues, all of which 

 were below the average. Most of us also 

 overestimate those whose lines of research are 

 similar to our own. 



These factors affect the order of the names 

 in the list but slightly, though they increase 

 the probable errors. A more considerable vari- 

 ation is due to the fact that the names were 

 divided among twelve sciences, whereas the 

 lines between the sciences are artificial. A 

 man's work may not fall naturally in one of 

 these conventional sciences, or it may fall in 

 two or more of them. In such cases he is 

 likely to receive a lower position than he de- 

 serves. It is not clear how this difficulty 

 could have been avoided, for if more depart- 

 ments of science had been used, the over- 

 lapping would have been greater. 



TABLE V. THE NUMBERS OF THOSE WHO WERE AS- 

 SIGNED A POSITION IN MORE THAN ONE SCIENCE. 



Mathematics... 



Physics 



Chemistry 



Astronomy 



Geology 



Botany 



Zoology 



Physiology 



Anatomy 



Pathology 



Anthropology.. 

 Psychology 



6 



17 



9 



9 



6 



4 



23 



9 



9 



6 



6 



_2 



106 



Table V. gives the cases in which the thou- 

 sand scientific men were given places in the 

 lists of two or more sciences, even though in 

 the science in which they were given the lower 

 position they did not come within the thou- 

 sand, but only in the 1,443 who made up the 



total list. The horizontal lines of the table 

 give those who were assigned the higher posi- 

 tion in the science named, and the vertical 

 lines those who were assigned the lower posi- 

 tion. Thus there was one man whose higher 

 position was in mathematics, but who was 

 also given a position in physics, and there 

 were eleven men who are primarily physicists 

 and secondarily mathematicians. There are 

 93 men who have a position in two sciences, 

 five who have a position in three sciences and 

 one who has a position in four sciences. It 

 thus appears that about one tenth of our sci- 

 entific men do work of some importance in 

 more than one of the twelve sciences here 

 defined. 



The chief interest of the table is that it 

 gives a certain measure of the relationships 

 of the sciences. Thus mathematics, physics 

 and astronomy, on the one hand, and zoology, 

 anatomy and physiology, on the other, are the 

 most closely interrelated groups. This might 

 have been foreseen, but the table gives the 

 definite relations. There are but few who are 

 anatomists only, whereas botany is the science 

 which is the least likely to be combined with 

 any other. One of the most serious obstacles 

 to the advancement of science is the lack of 

 men who are expert both in an exact and in a 

 natural or biological science. 



There are in all the leading countries acad- 

 emies of science, whose m.embership is sup- 

 posed to consist of their most eminent scien- 

 tific men, and one of the principal functions 

 of such academies appears to be the election 

 of members as an honor. The methods of 

 selection used in this research are more ac- 

 curate than those of any academy of sciences, 

 and it might seem that the publication of the 

 list would be as legitimate as that of a list 

 of our most eminent men selected by less ade- 

 quate methods. But perhaps its very accuracy 

 would give it a certain brutality. 



Of the first hundred scientific men on the 

 list who are eligible, 61 are included among 

 the 97 members of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, and of the first 30 men on the list 28 

 are members of the academy. The elections 

 to the academy tend to follow the list pretty 

 closely in the order in which men are arranged 



