704 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 829 



be included in the successful group. The 

 independent selections of these three judges 

 furnished a list of twenty-three men each 

 of whom was marked successful by at least 

 two of the judges. The exact and complete 

 college records of each of these twenty- 

 three men were then copied from the col- 

 lege books, together with the records of 

 twenty-three men chosen at random, being 

 every fifth name in an alphabetical list of 

 living members of the class of 1894. 



The number of individuals in each group 

 who took at least six courses in a single 



Number of Elections by Each Student of Each 

 Group in Eis Major Subject 



Group A 

 'Successful" Men 



Group B 

 Random Selection 



11. 



12. 



13. 



14. 



15. 



English I 



History f 



Subject 



Geology 6 



English 6 



English 4 



English 12 



Histoiy 6 



German T 



French L each . 4 



English J 



Latin 7 



English 8 



Latin 6 



Music 6 



History "| 

 English L each 5 

 Economics J 



English 7 



English 5 



Geology 6 



No. of 

 Elections Subject 

 . . 6 History 



Greek 7 



Fine Arts 6 



18. English 7 



19. 

 20. 

 2L 

 22. 

 23. 



Latin 8 



English 7 



Semitic 9 



History 5 



English 5 



No. of 

 Elections 



... 5 



English 6 



French 5 



French 5 



History 8 



English 5 



English 8 



Economies 6 



English 7 



Latin 10 



Mathematics .... 6 



History 5 



English 5 



History 6 



English 4 



English 4 



English "I 

 History J 

 English "I 



French L each . 4 

 History J 



Chemistry 5 



French 1 

 Economics J 



English 6 



English 6 



History 5 



each . 3 



each 5 



subject is shown in Table I. The average 

 number of courses taken by the successful 

 men in their major subject is 6.4; the aver- 

 age number for the whole class, as shown 

 by the random group, is 5. This is a really 

 notable difference. Only seven of the suc- 

 cessful men failed to elect six courses in 

 one subject; thirteen of the other group 



Distribution of the Above Table 



No. of Courses 



Average, 

 Mode, 



Group A 

 

 2 

 5 

 7 

 5 

 2 

 1 

 

 

 1 

 liA 



Group ] 

 1 

 3 







1 











5^ 



5 



failed to do so. Or, if we recognize his- 

 tory and economics as a field for distinc- 

 tion and concentration (as any wise com- 

 mittee instructed to interpret the rules 

 freely would do) we find that 56 per cent, 

 of the random group, as opposed to only 17 

 per cent, of the successful group, failed, 

 under the elective system of 1890-94, to 

 concentrate as much as the Harvard rules 

 of 1910 require. This single study of a 

 single class, therefore, tends to support the 

 conclusions of all the previous studies on 

 this one point, namely, that the better 

 scholars in college and the better men 

 after graduation, by whatever standards 

 we have thus far measured them, do spe- 

 cialize to a significantly greater degree 

 than other students. 



Quite the contrary is true with respect 

 to scattering. As shown in Table II., the 

 average number of subjects elected by the 

 individuals of the successful group was 

 10.2, as opposed to 11.9 for the other group. 

 Only one man in the random selection 



