774 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 855 



relative importance of heredity. Dr. Woods 

 himself, judging from his article in The Pop- 

 ular Science Monthly, April, 1910, has taken 

 an extreme view of the dominance of heredity 

 over environment, and apparently he expects 

 the present investigation to support that view. 

 The further publication of his results will 

 therefore be awaited with special interest. 



The first series of quantities expressing en- 

 vironment in youth which is suggested for 

 correlation with the percentage of eminence 

 in maturity is educational. The simplest 

 measure of educational opportunity in each 

 state is its expenditure per capita for school 

 purposes. We do not know the average per 

 annum, but we do know, accurately for most 

 of the states, the public expenditure forty 

 years ago for the education of the present gen- 

 eration. These data are given in Table 14 of 

 the Report of the Commissioner of Education 

 for the year 1910. Eor a first approximation 

 we can assume that the ratio of per capita ex- 

 pense in the difPerent states has been constant, 

 and it is only with the ratio that we are 

 concerned. 



Massachusetts stands highest with $3.73 per 

 capita, which was more than twice the average 

 of the whole country, and also more than twice 

 the average of the thirteen states Dr. Woods 

 has tabulated. Connecticut is second with 

 $2.74. New Hampshire stands near the av- 

 erage. But it is well known that private edu- 

 cational institutions are relatively more im- 

 portant in New England than in any other 

 part of the country; while Harvard and Tale 

 colleges would substantially raise the pre- 

 eminence of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 

 the whole group, in the total per capita ex- 

 pense table, and so give them the places they 

 have in Dr. Woods's table. 



Virginia, which Dr. Woods found to be 

 generally below the average in the table of 

 eminence, is credited with only 47 cents in the 

 expense table. But including West Virginia, 

 which was not separated until 1863, the av- 

 erage was 86 cents. 



South Carolina, which Dr. Woods found to 

 be slightly above the average for the white 

 population, is credited with only 38 cents per 



capita of the whole population. But that 

 state had the highest percentage of colored 

 population (60 per cent, in 1870), while forty 

 years ago most of the school money was spent 

 on the white schools, and in ante-bellum days 

 of course it was all for the white population. 

 This would raise the per capita expense to 95 

 cents, and give it good rank among the south- 

 ern states, but still below the average of the 

 thirteen states. Why this state should stand 

 above the average in Dr. Woods's table re- 

 mains to be explained. It shows, as we should 

 expect, that schools do not supply all of a 

 child's environment, and other correlations 

 must be sought — the ratio of whose coefiicients 

 ought to be significant of their relative impor- 

 tance in making eminent persons. 



North Carolina, which Dr. Woods found 

 " has always had the worst record " for the 

 production of eminence, the percentage being 

 about one-fourth the average, is credited with 

 only 16 cents per capita for education — ^this 

 being the lowest for the thirteen states, and 

 also for the whole country — being in fact 

 about one tenth the average. But applying 

 the same total expenditure to the white popu- 

 lation the per capita expense would be 25 cents 

 — about one sixth the average. 



The average number of days of public 

 schooling given to each inhabitant between 

 the ages of five and eighteen years, in the 

 school year 1870-71, in the New England and 

 middle states was 70.2 days, and in the south- 

 ern Atlantic states only 18.1 days. The per 

 capita expense therefor was $2.38 and 63 

 cents, respectively. 



We seem to be near the time when the cost 

 of encyclopedic eminence can be stated in 

 dollars without making any reflection on the 

 compilers of those works. 



Further, if we can approximate the expense 

 of higher as well as elementary education in 

 each state, we can easily, by the method of 

 least squares, determine the ratio between 

 them which is most favorable for the produc- 

 tion of eminent persons. 



It appears that Dr. Woods has directly 

 opened the way to the mathematical deter- 

 mination of the relative importance of hered- 



