NOVEMBEB 11, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



675 



expected, as we have to do with a youthful 

 and increasing scientific population. Some 

 part of the increase in age is probably caused 

 by the long period of education now likely to 

 precede productive scientific work, but it is 

 not easy to analyze the factors. In so far as 

 the increased age is due to higher standards 

 through increasing competition, it is gratify- 

 ing; in so far as it is due to the postponement 

 of scientific productivity, it is unfortunate. 



For the list of 1903 data have been compiled 

 in regard to the ages at which academic de- 

 grees were received. The average age at 

 which 758 men received the bachelor's degree 

 was 22.2 years, and the average age at which 

 544 men received the doctorate of philosophy 

 or science was 28.4 years. The corresponding 

 median ages were 21.8 and 26.9 years. Table 

 VU. shows the details in reference to the dif- 

 ferent sciences and the ten groups of a hun- 

 dred composing the thousand. The age differ- 

 ences are small, but men have received the 

 bachelor's degree at an earlier age who have 

 become pathologists than those who have be- 

 come anatomists or botanists. The chemists 

 have received the doctor's degree at the earli- 

 est age and the anatomists and botanists at 

 the latest. The mathematicians have received 

 the doctorate at exactly the average age, not 

 earlier, as the writer would have anticipated. 



In the different sciences there are decided 

 differences in the proportion of those who 

 have received academic degrees. Only half 

 the pathologists have the bachelor's degree and 

 one twelfth the doctorate of philosophy, their 

 education having been in the medical school. 

 Of 50 psychologists 46 hold the bachelor's and 

 37 the doctor's degree. The doctor's degree is 

 held by nearly two thirds of the zoologists, 

 while it is held by less than half the geologists 

 and less than a third of the astronomers. 



There is a small but definite correlation be- 

 tween standing and the age at which the men 

 received their degrees — the more eminent the 

 men the earlier the age. Those in the first 

 hundred have received both the bachelor's and 

 the doctor's degree at the earliest age, the 

 former 0.6 and the latter 1.5 years below the 

 average. The second hvmdred are the next 



youngest, the ages for the two degrees being 

 0.3 and 1.1 below the average. Those in the 

 lower two hundred were 0.6 year older than 

 the average in receiving the first degree and 

 0.8 year older in the case of the second de- 

 gree. There is no correlation between stand- 

 ing and the possession of one or the other of 

 the degrees. 



Our thousand leading men of science are 

 occupied as shown in Table VIII. 738.5' are 

 engaged in teaching, or have been so engaged, 

 and now fill administrative educational posi- 

 tions or have retired from active service. 

 Nearly three quarters of our scientific men 

 earn their livings by teaching, and a large 

 proportion of the others have done so. In this 

 country, as in Germany, the advancement of 

 science depends mainly on those who hold 

 chairs in our colleges and universities. Some 

 ten per cent, of our scientific men are engaged 

 in work for the government, among whom the 

 geologists predominate. Only six per cent, 

 earn their livings by direct applications of 

 science. Apart from one actuary, this work is 

 in applied chemistry, engineering and mining. 

 There is no one who earns his living by appli- 

 cations of the natural sciences. Research in- 

 stitutions, nearly all of recent foundation, 

 employ 35 men. There are 24 connected with 

 museums, academies and libraries and 12 with 

 botanical gardens. Only eleven among the 

 thousand may be classed as amateurs, and 

 these include several married women who 

 should perhaps be given a separate place. 

 This contrasts with Great Britain, where Dar- 

 win, Huggins, Rayleigh and many other great 

 scientific men, not needing to earn their liv- 

 ings, have devoted their lives to scientific re- 

 search. Only three physicians not connected 

 with medical schools have done scientific work 

 of consequence. One architect, one artist, one 

 editor and one missionary appear on the list, 

 but no lawyer or man of business. It seems 

 that in this country the time has gone by 

 when science can be advanced by any except 

 by those engaged in certain definite profes- 



' The decimal here and elsewhere refers to a 

 man who gives part of his time to teaching or to 

 the institution to which he is credited. 



