678 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 828 



made in regard to science. As a matter of 

 fact Boston has 126, New York 120 and Wash- 

 ington 110 of our leading scientific men. In 

 comparison with population and with wealth, 

 Boston is far in advance of New York, though 

 it is Cambridge and Harvard University which 

 give Boston its preeminent position. 



New York and Pennsylvania have in part 

 retrieved the loss due to men dropping out of 

 the first thousand by calling men of this rank 

 from other states. Though they have lost, 

 respectively, 22 and 12 through the failure of 

 their men to maintain their positions, they 

 have drawn an excess of 13 and 7 from other 

 states, so that their total losses are 9 and 5. 

 It appears that the immense wealth of these 

 states has been but sparingly used to bring 

 new men to them, whereas the conditions are 

 such that those residing there are more likely 

 to lose than to gain in scientific position. It 

 may be unsafe to draw sweeping conclusions 

 from such figures, but they certainly indicate 

 that residence in these states is unfavorable 

 to scientific productivity. It may perhaps be 

 the case that the salaries are below the ex- 

 pensive standards of living and that oppor- 

 tunities for commercial and hack work are 

 tempting, so that men are drawn away from 

 research. The District of Columbia has lost 

 nine men. Eleven have been removed by 

 death, and this loss has not been made good 

 by men improving their positions or going to 

 reside in Washington. In view of the in- 

 creasing appropriations made by the govern- 

 ment for scientific work and the endowment 

 of the Carnegie Institution this is not a favor- 

 able record. 



Illinois and Wisconsin show the gains due 

 to men who have improved their positions, 

 there being no significant changes due to re- 

 movals. The same is generally true in regard 

 to the gains or losses in the other north cen- 

 tral states and in the west and south. The 

 numbers are too small to be as a rule signifi- 

 cant. Missouri and Louisiana have each 

 gained three men, Arizona two and Colorado 

 one. Ohio and Minnesota are exactly station- 

 ary. Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Texas and 

 California have in each ease lost from one to 



three men. The southern states (except 

 Louisiana) have been losing even the few sci- 

 entific men whom they had. 



Table IX. shows also the distribution of the 

 thousand scientific men standing below the 

 first thousand. The men are not as well 

 known and they can not be arranged as accu- 

 rately in the order of merit. They were not 

 independently selected from a larger group by 

 the judges, but were those not assigned a place 

 in the first thousand. The first five hundred 

 were selected from the thousand with a tol- 

 erable degree of validity, but the second five 

 hundred can only be regarded as representa- 

 tive of the scientific men who have done re- 

 search work, but are not of the rank of the 

 first fifteen hundred. The men are, however, 

 arranged in the order of merit, and probable 

 errors can be assigned to the positions as in 

 the ease of the first thousand. The number 

 from each science is the same as in the case of 

 the first thousand. 



It is an honor to belong to this second 

 group of a thousand men; they deserve well 

 who have accomplished research work and 

 have obtained recognition as scientific men. 

 But those who are young have far greater 

 promise than those who are older. All young 

 men of ability must pass through the second 

 thousand before they reach the first, though 

 they are likely to escape notice in a period 

 which may be short. The group is thus heter- 

 ogenous, including those who may become our 

 leading men of science and those who have 

 attained a mediocre though creditable position 

 beyond which they will not advance. The 

 same conditions hold for the lower hundreds 

 of the first thousand. In the preceding paper 

 the scientific men were divided into two groups 

 of 500 each, and no considerable differences 

 were found in their origin or distribution. 

 This appears to have been in part due to heter- 

 ogeneous character of the second group. Thus 

 Massachusetts had 74 men in the first five 

 hundred and 70 in the second, while New 

 York had in the two groups 93 and 99, re- 

 spectively. But in the intervening period 

 more men in Massachusetts than in New York 

 have retained or improved their positions. It 



