SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 10. 1893. 



THE WASHINGTON ANTHROPOLOGISTS ASK FOR 

 A DEFINITION— THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND 

 THE VICE PRESIDENT WILL DETER- 

 MINE ITS QUALITY. 



There is a product of our country that far exceeds iu 

 value all its cotton, its corn and its useful minerals. We bave 

 no lines of figures in our census returns to set forth this 

 value; the product is so nearly inestimable that we have 

 not as yet discovered a method of tabulating and express- 

 ing its worth. Thousands of millions of dollars would cer- 

 tainly fail to cover its cash cost to the commonwealth. 

 Oiir schools, our colleges, our churches, and our domestic 

 hearths are established and maintained to form and 

 fashion this precious product, and a large part of the 

 time and energy and the best and longest thoughts of our 

 noblest men and women are dedicated to the same im- 

 portant end. 



This infinitely valuable, this inestimable product is — 

 the useful citizen. 



It is manifest that among the hundreds of thousands of 

 useful citizens nurtured and sent forth into the bat- 

 tle of life there exists the widest difference in character 

 and capacity, and, consequently, the widest difference in 

 their individual value to the state. 



When we rehearse their services and sum uj) in our 

 minds how much our country has been bettered and 

 aggrandized by Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, 

 Peter Cooper, C. P. Huntington, Robert Fulton, Thomas 

 Edisoa, and James Russell Lowell, and imagine our 

 national existence deprived of their work and influence, 

 we comprehend the enormous relative value of such 

 men to the commonwealth. Indeed, is it too much 

 to say that the nation could better afford to lose, by emi- 

 gration to some pleasant foreign clime, the entire popula- 

 tion of one or more of our forty-four states, rather than 

 have blotted from our history the work and influence of 

 the seven fellow citizens we have named? 



These men performed their great services for us, for 

 our nation, and for humanity because they were xjossessed 

 of certain qualities, faculties and characteristics that gave 

 them power to perceive, grasp, mould and control the ele- 

 ments around them, and such desirable attributes are 

 possessed, in a greater or less degree, by every useful 

 citizen. But in the vioat useful citizen will be grouped the 

 most desirable and most useful characteristics in the 

 greatest number and of the highest quality. 



That they are sometimes so grouised that in one man 

 may exist the potentiality of becoming the most useful 

 citizen in whatever occupation or environment he may 

 thereafter attain to in the community, is shown by a con- 

 sideration of the best-known of the persons mentioned — 

 Benjamin Franklin. 



We find this individual, in the most widely difirering 

 relations in life, performing his part with admirable per- 

 fection. He was a good journeyman printer and a skilful 

 manufacturer and jDublisher. His part as a shopkeeper 

 he played well. He excelled as an inventor of the most 

 diverse contrivances, such as stoves, musical instru- 

 ments and electrical apparatus. He was a philosopher 

 of high rank, and for his accomplishments iu statescraft 

 his countrymen will always honor his memory. His 

 faculty and foresight in founding and fostering public 



institutions of benevolence and literary and scientific 

 culture is patent to us after the lapse of a century and a 

 half. His eminence as a diplomat is conceded, and as a 

 mau of the world, of tact, of brilliant social attainment, 

 his experience at the French court bears ample testimony. 

 Every one acknowledges his singular ability as an editor, 

 as a polemic, and as a humorist. Of his aptitude as a 

 linguist, a financier, a military leader, an orator, a post- 

 master general, a physical geographer and as a public- 

 spirited citizen, history gives sulficient j)roof. 



Now all the elements that jiroduced this high degree of 

 usefulness in so many forms of desirable human activity, 

 existed potentially in the citizen Franklin when aged 

 seventeen he landed in Philadelphia, and strode up 

 Market street with his loaf of bread under his arm. 

 He then possessed his vigorous muscular system, his fine 

 digestion, his well-balanced jshysique, his strong social 

 instincts, his active brain, with its scores of functions 

 working harmoniously, his quick, responsive nerves, his 

 optimism, his enterprise, his undaunted will, his abiding 

 patience, his ingenuity, his economy, his sound judgment, 

 his self-reliance, and a score of additional qualities which 

 modern science, armed with every device that invention 

 can conceive, is striving to weigh, measure and define. 



It is a description of a bases of character such as is here 

 outlined, given in terms as accurate as the most advanced 

 knowledge -will permit, that, we assume, the Anthropolog- 

 ical Society of Washington seeks when it asks, in the fol- 

 lowing announcement, for a definition, in 3U00 words, of 

 "The most useful citizen of the United States, regardless 

 of occupation:" 



"A member of the Anthropological Society of Washington 

 "has placed in the hands of the Treasurer of the Society a 

 "sum of money to be awarded in prizes for the clearest 

 "statements of the elements that go to make up the most 

 "useful citizen of the United States, regardless of occupa- 

 "tion. The donation has been accepted, and the Society 

 "has provided for the award of the following prizes during 

 "the present year (1893) under the following conditions: 



'■Two prizes will be awarded for the best essays on the 

 "subject specified above, viz: A first prize of 8150 for the 

 "best essay, aud a second prize of $75 for the second best 

 "essay among those found worthy by the commissioners of 

 "award. 



"These prizes are open to competitors in all countries. 



"Essays offered in competition for the prizes shall not 

 "exceed 3,000 words in length, and all essays offered shall 

 "be the j^ropevty of the Anthro23ological Society of 

 "Washington, the design being to publish them at the 

 "discretion of the Board of Managers, in the official organ 

 "of the Society, the Americ-an Anthropologist, giving due 

 "credit to the several authors. 



"Each essay should bear a pseudonym or number, and 

 "should be accomfianied by a sealed envelojje bearing the 

 "same pseudonym or number, and containing the name and 

 "address of the competitor; and the identity of competitors 

 "shall not in any way be made known to' the Commission- 

 "ers of Award. 



"Essays must be type-written or printed, and must be 

 "sabmitted not later than November 1, 1893. [Since 

 "changed to March 1,1891.] 



"While it is not proposed by the Society to limit the 

 "scope of the discussion, and while each essay will be con- 

 "sidered on its merits by the Commissioners of Award, it is 

 "suggested, in view of the character of the Society and the 

 "wishes of the doner of the prize fund, that the treatment 

 "be scientific, aud that the potential citizen be considered 



