APRir 10, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



563 



the scientific men of the United States. I 

 am selecting a thousand of them for sub- 

 jects, and have at the same time chosen for 

 similar study the thousand most eminent 

 men in history and a thousand students of 

 Columbia College. Bach of these three 

 groups seems to me favorable for such 

 work. The students of Columbia College 

 are measured, tested and observed in my 

 laboratory; we are able to follow their 

 academic courses and their careers in after 

 life. The lives of the most eminent men 

 of history are to a certain extent public 

 property, open to statistical investigation 

 and psychological analysis. A thousand 

 scientific men- in the United States would 

 doubtless be willing to assist in furnishing 

 the material needed, which is in any case 

 accessible from other sources. It was at 

 one time my intention to. base this address 

 on an inductive study of these scientific 

 men. My reasons for not doing so are 

 similar to those of a friend who was asked 

 why he did not bring his wife to this din- 

 ner. He replied that he did not suppose 

 that women were welcome, and besides he 

 was not married. I fear that statistics 

 would be rather out of place and unpresent- 

 able on such an occasion, and besides I 

 have not the statistics. I am, however, 

 trying to get them, and not being able to 

 find a more satisfactory subject for my re- 

 marks, I must ask your permission to say 

 something in regard to ways and means 

 and such preliminary results as are at 

 hand. 



I have been aided in collecting data for 

 my work by the preparation of a biograph- 

 ical catalogue of the living scientific men 

 of the United States, for which the Car- 

 negie Institution has defrayed part of the 

 clerical expense. This additional task has, 

 however, delayed the completion of my 

 work, owing to the increased mass of ma- 

 terial that has accumulated. There were 



on my preliminary list more than 8,000 

 names, and after those who have not done 

 research work in the natural and exact sci- 

 ences have been eliminated, there still re- 

 main some 4,000 scientific men in place of 

 the one thousand with whom I had intended 

 to deal. It was to me surprising, as well 

 as gratifying, to find that our men of sci- 

 ence are so numerous. Brown Goode esti- 

 mated in 1886 that the number of scientific 

 men in the United States numbered about 

 500, and Dr. Galton estimated in 1874 that 

 those in the British Islands 'would amount 

 to 300, but not to more. ' If these estimates 

 were correct, there has been a noteworthy 

 increase in the number of scientific men, 

 and it appears that the Gauss-Quetellet 

 curve of distribution does not hold for sci- 

 entific eminence, as we certainly have not 

 ten times as many eminent scientific men 

 as there were in Great Britain twenty- 

 nine years ago. Perhaps we are on the 

 average as competent, and only less emi- 

 nent because there are so many of us among 

 whom this quality must be divided. 



As I have already indicated, our first 

 step in the study of scientific men must be 

 to classify them. Logical classifications of 

 the sciences have been attempted, but with 

 only tolerable success, at least beyond a 

 threefold division into the physical, biolog- 

 ical and mental sciences. These divisions 

 are fairly valid— the physical sciences be- 

 ing primarily quantitative and independent 

 of the others; the biological sciences being 

 primarily genetic, but dependent on the 

 physical sciences; and the mental sciences 

 being largely analytic and speculative, but, 

 when properly developed, being both quan- 

 titative and genetic, and depending on the 

 physical and biological sciences. Even this 

 broad division, however, must break down 

 —the physical sciences must become 

 genetic and the biological sciences must 

 become quantitative; and the divisions are 



